Is Rare Stuff Too Rare?

I'd love to hear from someone who has done some data mining, but it seems to be like everything valuable in this game is exceptionally rare. Like in the order of winning the lottery. I'm pretty sure I saw someone say 0.0005% somewhere in another thread. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I've only ever found uncommon weapons, and only melee ones at that. I got one rare weapon, but it was underwhelming to begin with, even on the same level, and then quickly was replaced by new stuff of a higher level. Legendary weapons are completely unknown to me.

IDK about anyone else, but for me one of the selling points of the game was the variety of weapons. Not just visually, but functionally. Bouncing bullets, sticking to walls, special projectiles, unusual trajectory paths, shockwaves along the ground, health draining, and so much more. And I'm not seeing it. All I see are billions of cookie-cutter armaments that aren't any fun.

My suggestion would be to have these augments (flame, poison, lightning balls, etc...) modified the tier of the weapon so that they become more common on higher tiers. For example, while these effects are uncommon on tier 1 weapons, they might become common on tier 2 weapons. Likewise, what used to be rare or legendary would shift down to be one step more common on the next tier. This ensures that as you progress through the game you will continue to find more and more interesting content instead of seeing generic crappypoop buttslappers for the entire game. (yes, I know they have cooler names and appearance at higher tiers but that's not enough! Call the waaahmbulance because I'm whining!)

This might not be possible until they've fleshed out the game and added a lot more content, and it's possible that the quest system might make the rare content more accessible through rewards, but I still feel like it would be nice.

Also, I made a thread a while back regarding how Low Drop Rates Suck. Any new opinions regarding the issue now that people have played the game? What are your experiences? Please share especially if you've actually data mined the game, or if you find Skinner box grinds to be tedious and annoying. It's isn't difficult! It's just time-consuming! I have a social life, and I do speed runs! Down with the RNG! Skill-based FTW!

 

Our group just literally found our first rare weapon from a chest. A mushroom sword. We were already in Gamma by the time it happened so it was useless besides just being a trophy. I can completely agree with you.

 

Hmm, I have found countless purples, greens, and other things, I throw them away I'm so full on space.

 

Rare and worthless. Hopefully the new system for weapons gives reason to use them. I have found about 10 rares but six of them were crappy varients the others were low pent junk that was outclassed by my other stock and crappy weapons.

 

That's another issue. It seems common weapons are TOO common. Like Borderlands, you end up filling your inventory with TONS of weapons that don't do anything special, and then you have to get rid of them somehow (trash, sell, whatever). Maybe they just need to make the gaps smaller.

 

While I agree with you on wanting versatility in weapons, it's important to remember this game is still in beta. As such, many amazing features aren't implemented yet.

I have to agree with you. Found a Typhoon Horror and got depressed when it failed horribly against tier two monsters.

 

I wouldn't even be giving feedback if it wasn't in beta.

I don't understand why people say this so often. It's like if someone said "it would be nice to have a ham sandwich right now" and someone else replied "yeah, but food costs money and you're poor". You don't think I realize that? It doesn't change my sentiment. How does pointing it out add anything to the conversation at all? Sorry if it feels like I'm going off on you, it just really confuses me.

 

Well, you were complaining about the lack of variety in weapons, right? I was merely stating that, while I feel the same sentiment as you, I find solace in the fact that this is beta. Those things will come in due time while the tiers are being implemented. The second part of what I said (in my earlier post) explains the first part, thus rendering everything I've said so far redundant. I do understand though your feelings to people using the 'in beta' phrase as a go to term. I never meant for it to be the final answer.

Anyways, your main post made many points that I feel too. This wasn't meant to be an argument, and I'm sorry if it was taken in that manner.

 

Maybe I've gotten lucky but, the first two mini-bosses I fought dropped legendary weapons. I think by 6 hours in I had given away 3 or 4 more Legendaries to other people on my server, I was using the big bone mace that vomits bones out for awhile. Right now I'm using a giant green hammer (Uncommon so it's double green! ) that can one-shot T3 and down, and has a poison effect (Though that only really stands out against T3 minibosses, or T4 stuff.)

I wouldn't say that "Rare stuff is too rare" I'd more say it doesn't feel like it's worthwhile though. I am a bit disappointed that weapons are so useless except the best one you've found, they have no purpose after you outgrow their damage. You can't sell them, break them down nothing. They just take up inventory. I recently purged my chests/storage area and threw out 2 chests worth of whites, and 3 chests worth of greens. Because they were all completely friggin useless, it was disappointing to say the least.

While the statment" It's a beta" applies to this alot, I'm still hoping they change it somehow, because right now I'm really disappointed in the random gen weapons etc, only a few have good enough stats to actually function properly, then again that's what this update is for. As for nifty and cool stuff? I've seen a few awesome weapons, but again, most of them are near useless, right now it goes Armor Pen-DPS-ASPD to get a good damage out of oyur weapon, which is strange. Guns are by and far useless unless you're hunting things one Tier lower then you, we've found a rocket launcher and a grenade launcher, both are lack luster, because by the time you find them they do minimal damage to mobs. So you're better off finding a melee weapon and one-shotting everything.

 

What I meant was that it seems like you are implying that I don't remember that it is beta. I didn't think you were arguing with me, I just got a little confused, and it might seem like a rant because it isn't the first time someone has said that. I mean, heck, I think it's hard for anyone who knows about Starbound to not know it's in beta. The developers have been extremely good at warning us at every step. It's even stated in the launcher for the game.

But I can definitely relate to how glad you are that they are going to be doing a lot of balance tweaks.

EDIT: Does anyone know how many tiers of rarity there are? Is it just common/uncommon/rare/legendary?

 

All that i know about are White, Green, Blue and Purple. No idea is there is an Orange.... if they were to use that color as the next level of rarity.

 

I can't say for 100% sure, as I haven't dug through game files yet. I've only ever found White/Green/Blue and Purple though. With purple being "legendary" that said. I've found purple weapons, but I haven't found a single blue one yet.

 

The only Legendary item I have is the Matter Manipulator, and I consider it to be the least useful item in the game after you've made a stone pick and axe. And it still disappears shortly after dropping it on the ground. Did I mention that? Rarity doesn't even effect how long it takes for dropped items to despawn.

 

I've played for quite a while as well (15~ hours), and haven't found a single rare, only green items.

So if anything, I'd be interested in a bit more consistency in how you find rares. Dungeons and "events" (abadoned huts, villages) could have a better chance at giving these..

 

It's not rare if you can find it all the time. There's infinity planets (Maybe not, but there's a LOT). If everyone one had something on it, would it truly be rare? I find interesting things often, and I'm bummed when I don't, but that's the point of exploration, isn't it? To sift through the planets and find cool things.

That's why I don't give out my coords!

 

Yeah honestly whatever I'm in the mood for, sometimes I'm mining for ores, other times I'm just popping down on a planet and surface hopping, it's how I found one tech.

Another tech though I found crawling down a chasm.

But my best weapons I've found surface hoping and interacting with hostile npcs and minibosses.

Hope that helps.

 

I fully agree with the OP. It wasn't until lvl 30+ that I found my first ranged weapons: a crappy uncommon quality grenade launcher with bouncy firebombs that hardly ever hit their target due extremely short range and a much better rocket launcher. One that was just as likely to blow my own limbs apart by accident in a single hit, as it was to take a quarter of a health bar off of my target of same level. Many hours and a couple dozen planets later I actually found a blue (rare) machine pistol with a special effect of bullets "ricocheting" as they hit the ground. Anything sold by vendors seems to be invariably common and have but the very basic musket ball type rounds and other ordinary shots.

I suppose they'll be more common as they implement quests, or at least I sure hope so. Chests seem like a lottery, where some planets only have a couple chests and others are littered with them, usually too fast or too slow melee weapons with comparatively poor overall damage. Never any armor or clothes, anyone found any?

Also, as it stands, most shotguns seem totally useless for some strange reason. It seems that damage from bullets from the same source don't stack, but instead of hitting multiple monsters, they all seem to hit whichever is the topmost, even if multiple rounds seem to hit. Two pistol rounds, however, hitting at the same time leads to stacked damage. Energy use is comparatively too high as well, as far as 60+ energy per shot for 11 damage per individual buckshot, versus 4 energy per shot on a sniper rifle with 60 damage per shot. Higher tier armors with more energy regeneration somewhat alleviate this, sure, but the question remains; why use a shotgun.

 

One of the main things I can suggest to find rare items is to planet hop, and quickly skim the surface. I've found 5+ rare items using that method in under four hours (rainbow cape, mushroom spear, some tech,etc,), but even then it's not much worth it. Many rare items are lackluster as others have said. The only 'good' rare item I know of is the hermit cape found in eyeball tree groves that allows further view range with ctrl.

 

I love vanity items so when i found my first cape i flipped out. WEAR ALL THE THINGS!

Also, found my first legendary gun tonight. Was in a glitch chest in the glitch castle. Not the gold chest though, just the plain old wooden one.

 

I found quite a few legendary weapon's before I even took on the first boss, most were ap 5-9 so was pretty useless against the boss, but fun none the less, my favourite so far was the bone hammer (which I have 3 of) just due to the fact you can go around smashing (weak block's, dirt etc) with it