[S2G/CP1.6/EE2.1/SS,C] ESP: Enhanced Perception and Loot Progression

[Charon117 50]

The glorious days of full servers and massive multiplayers are over. And with it gone are the stronger mobs, the better loot and the bigger experience.

With this in mind I would like to get a polished SP experience. The first thing I would like to discuss is the loot progression in the game.

 

Creating different characters and raising them up you will soon realise there is a big gap between characters who can skill Enhanced Perception, and the ones who cant. 4 out of 7 characters can skill Enhanced Perception as a first skill, the others are not so lucky and might even have to waste another skill slot on an unwanted skill to get access to Enhanced Perception. Even when you get access to Enhanced Perception you will soon find it a static value. Keep it as high as possible and forget it. From my experience a Seraphim with 20% SB and a 1 + 42 = 43 level Enhanced Perception has a whole tier of loot advantage over an Inquisitor with 80% SB and no Enhanced Perception. The loot gap is massive.

Some people say its simple. Change ZRareExpectation in the balance.txt and you will get better loot. But thats a bad choice.

What is Sacred 2 about ? Think about this: I will give you the save file with level 200 char and all the loot in the game. Would you feel satisfied ? I think not. Sacred 2 is not about the goal. Sacred 2 is about the progression towards the goal. Its not about having a level 200 char, its what experience you made to get there. This means that changing the ZRareExpectation bends and destroys the progression of the game. You have no clue on what you are bending and what values you should put in there. Get legendaries at level 10. Hurray. Not. I have a better idea.

 

First of all we need to close the gap between characters having easy access to to Enhanced Perception and those who dont. Dont get me wrong. I dont want to eliminate the differences between characters. If a char has problems to get Enhanced Perception these problems should still exist. But I want to do is to decrease the importance of Enhanced Perception. The question we have to ask is this. How many talisman ( yellow find valuables modifier ) we want the Enhanced Perception skill to embody ? A level 110 Enhanced Perception is worth 264,2% chance to find valuables ( says the wiki ). At the same level you will find roughly 10% talisman for the same thing. That means at level 110 Enhanced Perception has the worth of 26 talisman unsocketed. Thats insane. We need to get this number down. I want Enhanced Perception to be the equivalent of socketing 5 talisman of equal level. Thats still an incredible significant boost to the MF rate. Think about like getting access to 6 additional ring slots. So lets say it should float around 60% increase. How do we get there ? 264,2 / 60 = 4.40´3´. Keep this multiplier in your head. It might get important later. With this we fixed the Enhanced Perception skill, and brought it closer to the base value.

Alright you will say, but all we did was to decrease the MF. Less loot. Hurray. Not.

Right.

There is a code line in the balance.txt which is called SkillMagicFindFactor, and it governs how valuable MF is. The higher the MF, the lower the zrareexpecation lower bins will become, and more space for the rarer item tiers will be made. The best about this is that the intended progression of the game doesnt get hindered in any way. It naturally evolves along the lines of your character. I suggest a magnifying of x10 for the SkillMagicFindFactor. The CP value is SkillMagicFindFactor = 200, and I play with a SkillMagicFindFactor = 2000. My chance to find valuables is around 25% without Enhanced Perception and I get uniques and sets every now and then. Im not really getting spammed with them, and I would find sets faster if I would do quests with a QUEST_UNIQUE = 1000 but it feels a lot better than being 5/6 of the loot uniques and legendaries.

Following this "chance to find valuables" on items becomes a REAL choice. Do you use your talisman/ring/socket for defense, offense, or to boost loot  chances ? Do you take Enhanced Perception as a skill to further improve your drops, or do you need that skill slot for another defensive art ? How many sockets can you use up to boost your MF on a HC character and still survive ? How much dps can you sacrifice to maybe get another 5% ontop ? Meaningful choices, natural equipment progression and a satisfied gameplay experience are what this is about. A level 1 character with no chance to find valuables wont gain anymore from SkillMagicFindFactor = 200 than it would from 2000. But on the journey he will maybe get a +4,6% item. And he can use this to get better items. Maybe another +4.6% talisman. SkillMagicFindFactor doesnt throw rare items at you. It just raises the cap of items you can get, and it rewards your gameplay, not your editplay.

I play on EE with SuperSpawn and the Challenge mode. And I have to fight for every slot to be useful to me. Sacrificing 2 slots is a decision between 2 or 3 hitting mobs, getting enough armour to survive longer, or having 16% more MF to *maybe* find better items. You can ADAPT your equipment to your playstyle. And maybe you will find that very nice sweet spot to farm fast and the best items at the same time. Gameplay skill translates into better items, instead of *only* faster farming.

 

Phew.

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Charon117