1.1 Content Update (73230)

[asommers]

3 new legendary pistols can now be found as rare drops from the boss of Shipyards.
3 new legendary shields are available for purchase from the store.
Adding one of the new pistols to a new shield will grant a set bonus.
New robo cat pets are available in the store.
New 100% Luck elixir
Item loot is now rewarded based on the receiver's level, rather than the AI level, so that content which scales based on level (such as holiday content) does not prevent players from getting their level-appropriate loot when higher level players are also present.
Bandits Double Strike should now be shooting its bolts correctly out of both guns.
Shipyard: When a Commando blows up the door on the Reactor Core level, it should no longer explode in the wrong direction (towards the players)
The Rocketeer Helm no longer makes skin transparent for females.
The following items are now classified as Vanity Shields: Blast Shield, BBQ Brush, BBQ Fork, BBQ Tongs.

[octavos]

3 new legendary pistols can now be found as rare drops from the boss of Shipyards.
3 new legendary shields are available for purchase from the store.
Adding one of the new pistols to a new shield will grant a set bonus.
New robo cat pets are available in the store.
New 100% Luck elixir
Item loot is now rewarded based on the receiver's level, rather than the AI level, so that content which scales based on level (such as holiday content) does not prevent players from getting their level-appropriate loot when higher level players are also present.
Bandits Double Strike should now be shooting its bolts correctly out of both guns.
Shipyard: When a Commando blows up the door on the Reactor Core level, it should no longer explode in the wrong direction (towards the players)
The Rocketeer Helm no longer makes skin transparent for females.
The following items are now classified as Vanity Shields: Blast Shield, BBQ Brush, BBQ Fork, BBQ Tongs.



wow nice, thanks nice update

[Tvis]

Nice!

[Yurimaru]

Wow, thanks! I can't wait to get my hands on one of those pistols :)

[SUPAPRODIGY]

Very cool :)

[Lillypink]

Woot woot! Xd

[SpaceCowGirl]

i love my kitty >_<
ish soooooooooooooo cute!!!
omg omg *dies* Ish soooo NOT fluffy!
*huggles* clinkclankclonk..
Owies!!! x(
Good thing i have 700+armour --_--'
eHeheehehehe
I loves it, i loves it, i loves it. oh oh oh! xD YeEeHaw!!!!

That is all. Good day all! -space

[xXDamonDXx]

Love the new pets. Hope PL get some more to ;)

And... lol @ the 100% elixer XD

[Gluttony]

Adding one of the new pistols to a new shield will grant a set bonus.
Item loot is now rewarded based on the receiver's level, rather than the AI level, so that content which scales based on level (such as holiday content) does not prevent players from getting their level-appropriate loot when higher level players are also present.


My issues with the two updates I've highlighted are:

So there are sets being added to the game that require plat only items?
Scaled items are based on the level of the character rather than the level of the enemy so leeches can get gear that is character specific, this will drop the value of the scaled items substantially since they are going to be much easier to acquire.

The other updates are pretty good, but these are a bit much. The scaled item issue did seem to become a problem in PL when players were complaining that the higher leveled players were ruining the drop, so overall that seems ok. I'm not a plat purchasing kind of player so a set only being available for actual money doesn’t sit too well with me. Sure there is the counterargument that I don't have to get the set, but I'd like a shot at the set without the plat purchase, are these shields ever going to be offered as a drop?

[NYCFanMan]

Awesome

[Vladrac]

Sweet!!! Thank you for giving us 36s something worthy to do :)

[Housepenguin]

I'm glad that you've put a 100% luck elixir in there because some of us can't even begin to get a purple drop from the boss let alone a pink. Ran the end boss 15 times so far with all oranges. His drop rate stinks. Too bad I'll have to waste money to get anything from him. Law of averages isn't working for me here. :-(

[octavos]

Sweet!!! Thank you for giving us 36s something worthy to do :)

your right, well....errr...im not 36 on an alt....like pokemon (trying to catch them all lol)

[bronislav84]

Wow so SL will have scaled loot drops now, and not every two levels but any level in between? Interesting update.

[drewcapu]

My issues with the two updates I've highlighted are:

So there are sets being added to the game that require plat only items?
Scaled items are based on the level of the character rather than the level of the enemy so leeches can get gear that is character specific, this will drop the value of the scaled items substantially since they are going to be much easier to acquire.

The other updates are pretty good, but these are a bit much. The scaled item issue did seem to become a problem in PL when players were complaining that the higher leveled players were ruining the drop, so overall that seems ok. I'm not a plat purchasing kind of player so a set only being available for actual money doesn’t sit too well with me. Sure there is the counterargument that I don't have to get the set, but I'd like a shot at the set without the plat purchase, are these shields ever going to be offered as a drop?

Agree completely re: drops.

The only reason why the drop thing was annoying was because people couldn't lock their games in PL's Halloween event. That's not nearly enough reason to change level drop mechanics. It wasn't even as big a problem as people seem to make of it. When people found friends of appropriate levels, they were able to make full groups just fine. I was watching quite a bit from my anchor. Besides, it's something they can "fix" next year by making those maps available from the join screen and lockable.

If WF for PL is 100% identical to last year, this isn't even an issue since maps can be locked.

I don't think anybody is gonna scream that "Cinco is ruining the economy" on this, but it is something that, even though it might not seem like a big deal to SL at the moment, I would not want to see transferred over to PL and would hope the devs re-think how "useful" it actually is for SL.

As for the plat "sets", there's a little bit of precedent via the Mystery sets in PL. CoP also needed a minimal plat purchase.

[drewcapu]

Wow so SL will have scaled loot drops now, and not every two levels but any level in between? Interesting update.

SL has always had scaled drops. Just not everything scales. The update doesn't make it so that items which scale every two levels scales every level. It just makes it so that it doesn't matter that higher leveled players are in a run with you. You'll still get a low level drop if you are a low level.

[KingFu]

My issues with the two updates I've highlighted are:

So there are sets being added to the game that require plat only items?
Scaled items are based on the level of the character rather than the level of the enemy so leeches can get gear that is character specific, this will drop the value of the scaled items substantially since they are going to be much easier to acquire.

The other updates are pretty good, but these are a bit much. The scaled item issue did seem to become a problem in PL when players were complaining that the higher leveled players were ruining the drop, so overall that seems ok. I'm not a plat purchasing kind of player so a set only being available for actual money doesn’t sit too well with me. Sure there is the counterargument that I don't have to get the set, but I'd like a shot at the set without the plat purchase, are these shields ever going to be offered as a drop?

Completely agree, I hate the sound of the scaled items change. They'll all plummet quickly...21/23 sand stone cave items, 30 swamp items. Worst of all, Lv 10 pink armors...

[Gluttony]

As for the plat "sets", there's a little bit of precedent via the Mystery sets in PL. CoP also needed a minimal plat purchase.

I forgot about the Mystery Set, so yes maybe PL did get the ball rolling with that one and for quests that were only completable by using plat. As for the CoP, that set bonus was implemented later so not sure if I see that one as being done on purpose.

Those SL shields are 15 plat a pop too so that's 45 plat spent for all three sets; both PL instances were only 5 plat each. Not to mention there is no way to know which set goes with which gun so one may have to purchase all of them to find the right set combo.

[Handsofmyvodka]

So does this mean that drops will correspond to your level ( toon is at lvl-20=lvl 20 drop) instead of dropping depending on the AIs level (AI lvl-17=lvl 17 drop)

[MightyMicah]

I'm actually gonna be the first to say, I like the new scaled drops, ALOT. This shows that SL is not heading in the same direction as PL with the overinflated market. I like the way that there's a 100% luck elixar as well, making pinks even less rare. You see, with the new vanitiy deal they've done, theres no worries about not being unique. Pinks are simply top quality armor, not a "unique" armor. I don't like the way that platinum is needed, however I have reason to believe this will change in the future. Overall, great update STS, keep em comin'.

[drewcapu]

I'm actually gonna be the first to say, I like the new scaled drops, ALOT. This shows that SL is not heading in the same direction as PL with the overinflated market. I like the way that there's a 100% luck elixar as well, making pinks even less rare. You see, with the new vanitiy deal they've done, theres no worries about not being unique. Pinks are simply top quality armor, not a "unique" armor. I don't like the way that platinum is needed, however I have reason to believe this will change in the future. Overall, great update STS, keep em comin'.

The main drawbacks is that there won't be as good a value in those scaled drops anymore and that it can promote a type of quasi-leeching for the sake of scaled drops.

Also, it further destroys that value of *true* twinking since you won't need a full group of twinks anymore.

[javier995]

Why was the gun sound changed? Just wondering.

[bronislav84]

SL has always had scaled drops. Just not everything scales. The update doesn't make it so that items which scale every two levels scales every level. It just makes it so that it doesn't matter that higher leveled players are in a run with you. You'll still get a low level drop if you are a low level.Well we have never had scaled purples or "set" greens though. They always have been a certain level regardless of player level. If I'm level 30 and in a place that drops level 35 epics that used to be only level 35 will it scale down to 30 though? Like say, are people getting lower level versions of everything now?

Haven't played the new update yet.

[Fyrce]

The thing w/ scaled drops might be that now you can get, say, a level 5 drop even with a level 35 player in your group. It might encourage low level players to join high level groups. Good thing? Bad thing? I have no idea at this time.

[Slant]

great I picked up a level 26 shield for 18000 hoping I would be able to sell it for about the same price haha but still like the update, pretty timely and made everyone do a lot more boss runs so all good... plus I had twinks for sloucho delta and numa, now all useless

[nazgulking]

Even though STS is giving us some good updates, I would prefer to wait for new content and rather give the devs the time necessary to implement new game mechanics.

- Quests should be more and give more XP(Grinding beign less tedious)
- Something new regarding spells instead of just lift up the maximum level of the spells (Specialization...)
- Improving the PvP (Give us more than just deathmatch and CTF and get it to SL)

These are just ideas... anyway good job devs for this update

[Skeletonlord]

I like this update

[ninjaduck]

really great update! i believe i have seen one of the pistols in cs for about 30 seconds then it was removed or sold.

cant waiiit!!

[Redbridge]

I don't think i fully understand the issue with the 'new' scaled drops? Glut, Myst and the others are people I hugely respect so rather than disagree and not know why could someone explain what the issue is.

My understanding (although im not sure which drop are scaled or not) is a group of a 30, a 29, a 28, a 27 and a 26 could kill a boss that drops 25-30 gear and they would get a drop that is closer to their level, rather than everyone getting a 30. Is this correct? And why is this not a good idea?

Is it because lower level players are going to be viewed in a slightly different way? IE a totally innocent lvl26 player wanting to level may regularly get booted? As many views as possible please as just woken up and clearly just not getting this one, thanks in advance for explaining.... d=('-')=b

[Gluttony]

I don't think i fully understand the issue with the 'new' scaled drops? Glut, Myst and the others are people I hugely respect so rather than disagree and not know why could someone explain what the issue is.

Your understanding of how scaled item drops works is correct, and the issue isn't huge in SL yet since the maps are only spread out between 4/5 levels. I am just viewing ahead to where this change will get carted over to PL since it was a PL issue that spawned this change in the first place due to the Halloween campaign.

So I will use the example of December's Winter Festival where every character has access no matter the level. A level 10 could join a level 60's game and even though the level 10 cannot do an ounce of damage to the boss they will receive a level 10 drop with this change. As the system is currently the level 10 would gain a level 60 item since the boss (AI) level is that of the highest player in the instance. All this change does is promote leeching; lower level players joining higher leveled player’s games and now they will get drops scaled for their level. This change basically removes the only real reason that players of the same level clump together which kills a bit of the game's dynamic. The new strategy will be to join/intive high level players and just follow them and receive useable drops in the process, as I said before it removes the only downfall to having a high level toon do all the work for you so it'll be what everyone is doing now.

*I am using extremes in my examples, "everyone" may not do this at all, but it is quite tempting to get rewarded for just following the most upgraded character.

[Slant]

Ok ill try and explain the issue with the new drops, im assuming that there are some level 26-29 greens and level 30-35 greens (not so much) that are a lot rarer than the level 30 and level 34-35 greens (nobody cares about these). The level 26 shield, level 28 dents and shocks (mando and engie gear) sell for anywhere between 400-2800 credits in the auction house. The level 30 and 35ish greens, you will be lucky if you get like 60 credits. The new update means that all the lower level greens will have a price drop prolly, level 26 shields wont go for insane prices, and it also means that all the gear will even out the prices so farming pays of more in the long run. Edit: Nope, just farmed, still higher level greens only at level 36, so the lower level greens are still relatively rarer. That is higher levels wont get lower level drops... need confirmation on this matter. My twinks are now useful lol :)

not remotely sure if I got any of that right, its just a guess I may be horribly wrong lol. Wanna see how much the level 26 shield drops, thing is there are fewer people playing sloucho anyway, and not all of these are alts catching up, who rush through quickly with a handful of drops. Its started dropping, but not much yet.

What was happening now was that lower level players were getting booted from the SY core runs and higher level players were getting requested to leave from guardian runs or from the venom-scorcher runs. Some players who were too polite to ask higher level players to leave, would boot themselves from the games. Also, during the droid event, which was a great opportunity for the whole game to play across all the levels lol, those at the lower levels ended up with packs full of high level whites, stuff they cudnt even get credits for.

funny thing is , really didnt think all this mattered, was enjoying the rarity of the lower level drops, and the need to use level locked alts for getting the level 22 scavenger for example, or the level 26 shield... The update does improve some aspects of the game, but removes other aspects from it at the same time.

[Redbridge]

I fully agree, the Halloween and Festival events could be greatly changed by this update. The large range of 20-60 of even 10-60 could cause issues, but is the small level range in normal maps an issue also? IE 25-30 or 30-35.

I'll keep an eye on this thread for more info, not sure I've got my head fully round the pro's and con's of the update re: scaled drops. Cheers for the info so far.

[Petrichor]

bahahaha.
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l500/chlovainctout/My%20life/tumblr_lmm5tdgBHJ1qazkdco1_500.gif

[wvhills]

I fully agree, the Halloween and Festival events could be greatly changed by this update. The large range of 20-60 of even 10-60 could cause issues, but is the small level range in normal maps an issue also? IE 25-30 or 30-35.

I'll keep an eye on this thread for more info, not sure I've got my head fully round the pro's and con's of the update re: scaled drops. Cheers for the info so far.

I don't know about SL but here's an example of what could happen if this is introduced into PL. Level 21 sandstone cave items are VASTLY more expensive than level 25 ones. This is because everyone in the party has to be level 21 or less in order for the drop to be 21. If this change is made in PL then you can have 2 level 60s and 3 level 20s in the map and the 60's will receive level 25 drops and the 20's will receive level 21 drops. This will cause the value of the 21's to plummet because they become a lot easier to obtain. The same for level 30 swamp items, level 51 sewer items, the level 45 fortune items, 56 nuri's items, etc. Scale farming will become extinct.

[Phoenixking]

bahahaha.
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l500/chlovainctout/My%20life/tumblr_lmm5tdgBHJ1qazkdco1_500.gif
Well i hope....you can hug all of the :P

[Slant]

uh even I thought at first scale farming will become extinct, but this is not the case because many people spend most of the time at the cap or working towards it, at least in SL even some of the more hardcore farmers abandoned core for a few quick xp runs in biosphere... and theres fewer people running about in slouch, the level 30 prices are slowly increasing, you still need to have a level locked alt to farm level 26 shields or level 22 scavengers or level 28 gear... so its not like higher levels with get drops across all levels, which would also have made a little more sense as then the prices for all the gear would even out across the levels, but it also means that twink farming will become extinct, and those who have taken the effort already will no longer need level locked alts

[drewcapu]

Well we have never had scaled purples or "set" greens though. They always have been a certain level regardless of player level. If I'm level 30 and in a place that drops level 35 epics that used to be only level 35 will it scale down to 30 though? Like say, are people getting lower level versions of everything now?

Haven't played the new update yet.

If the item isn't available at the lower levels, it just drops at the level it is available.

[drewcapu]

Completely agree, I hate the sound of the scaled items change. They'll all plummet quickly...21/23 sand stone cave items, 30 swamp items. Worst of all, Lv 10 pink armors...

The only silver lining would be that they'd still have to farm DF1 since the L10 pink armors do not drop in the other maps.

Unless they mess up the drop mechanics even more.

[timespace]

I was wondering if the cat lady pack will be a Dotd and when that would be.

[dcichoracki]

I know the theme of this thread seems to be complaints/compliments for the drop rate change, but there's a flaw in the pricing for the 100% elixir.

If bought from the plat store, it costs 18 plat. If bought from the terminal in the tier 3 guild hall, it costs 20 plat.

[Fyrce]

How can one be a crazy cat lady when one can only equip ONE cat a time? If I'm gonna have to have 100 cats, shouldn't I be able to walk around with 100 cats? *PEER*

As for the drop thing, it's gets more interesting when it's end gear or there's sets involved at certain levels. For example, in PL, some of the best sets are at L55 and L60, but their components also drop at a scaled level. Now currently, if you're level say 51 but run with level 55+ people, you'll also receive a level 55 item and can begin to build up your L55 set. The drops were this way so while L55 sets items can be valuable, lots of them were dropped by whole groups. This makes the lower level scaled items valuable.

Imagine, now the release of a new campaign based upon this drop system: say an L36-40 campaign in SL, Slime City. In Slime City, there's a set at L40 and it's mega amazing -- you get to slime your opponents, thus freezing them and giving you 100xp. So everyone wants their slime set. However, the slime helm also drops at L36 and L38. When Slime City opens, there are no slime items in the game. Well, except the one on Flip.

So players enter and probably for the 1st few hours, everyone drops level 36 items. Some players level to L38, they start dropping L38 items. Everyone below L37 or L36 still drop L36 slime items. Eventually someone gets to L40 and can start to farm L40 slime items and farm for their set. Everyone who is below level 40 cannot farm L40 items. There are many more players at levels below 40, thus NOT farming end gear items.

Slime set items are mega-expensive and stay that way... until the mass of people begin their grind due to the announcement of a new campaign 3 months later.

I'm not sure it changes prices that much, other than you'll get much more high level farming, both high levels farming lower level equips and high levels farming end game equips, than you might get now. High levels will spread out. Good? Bad?

OTOH (:p), it's possible STS is moving away from that and to multiple level sets, re:the hardcore gear stuff in PL. So there's the possibility of scaled sets, which actually would be pretty neat.