Let's discuss the current state of chests and drop rates

[Sibelios]

@Kafka

I don’t have the exact drop rates, but I did confirm that the drop rates haven’t reverted back to pre 0.38 (which I believe was the update we made the Dungeon chests drop more Gear and Skirmish drop more Shards). In other words, “less Gear in Dungeon chests” is still more Gear than the drop rates in 0.38’s update. Of course I can’t find the spot in the patch notes I’m thinking of right now but I’m sure it was between 0.36 and 0.38.

More gear dropped in dungeons because less Shards, it’s in the very patch notes I quoted to you. Here it is again for reference:

@Cyrup

Changes to Dungeons, Skirmishes, and Challenges

To continue our quest to help differentiate game modes we’ve improved the rewards for Dungeons and Skirmishes and split their rewards. This distinguishes Dungeons from Skirmishes so that there is a clearer purpose to return to both.

• Custom Skirmishes and Dungeons have been moved from the Daily Challenges menu to the Battles tab and updated to suit the new UI
• Skirmish Chests give extra Shards and more Ore
  • Food Drop-rates have been decreased to balance this out
  • We found lots of Food was being given and not much Ore and it was difficult to upgrade items across the economy
• Dungeon Chests no longer give Shards
  • To balance this, they now have a higher chance to give Relics - Especially Higher rarities
  • More Armor and Accessories will be available

So “more Gear, less shards” were a part of this update to differentiate the game modes. That fact has been discussed quite a lot in game due to this change so why you would be expecting differently, I’m not sure. The recent QoL change which was described this way:

@OminousGMan

Hey adventurers,

Today we’ve deployed a few changes and fixes to Puzzle Quest 3.

• Dungeon chests (for all dungeons, including main story and seasonal) have had some changes made to their drop rates. They will contain slightly less gear, runes, and scrolls, and slightly more relics and shards.

So Shards are added back and it expressly states that less gear is now provided. To requote you again:

@Kafka

I don’t have the exact drop rates, but I did confirm that the drop rates haven’t reverted back to pre 0.38 (which I believe was the update we made the Dungeon chests drop more Gear and Skirmish drop more Shards). In other words, “less Gear in Dungeon chests” is still more Gear than the drop rates in 0.38’s update.

So to reiterate, the reason that Dungeons now dropped more Gear (before the recent “QoL Fix”, was because Shards were removed in 0.38. Shards have been put back in so how can you say that the amount of Gear that drops is still better than either pre- or post-0.38. It can’t possibly be! Also, I’ve provided plenty of evidence in the other thread that Seasons chests are behaving differently and in fact the amount of Food/Ore seems to have increased so the combination of this + Shards reintroduced means that Gear is less present in these dungeons chests than ever before.

Please explain how its possible that Gear is somehow “still more Gear than the drop rate in 0.38’s update”. It’s not possible.

@Kafka

if we introduce a change that seems incomplete or less than you want, it’s usually because of 2 reasons:

1. We undershot so we could buff it later if we missed the mark (buffs are always better than nerfing it if we overshoot the mark on the balance)
2. We have more changes around the corner to add more of the things/balance the current thing out more and something is just the start of what’s to come.

So again, you introduced a change to the behavior of something in the game and qualified it as a “Fix” and an “Improvement”. Please explain what you actually needed to fix? Clearly the ability to reroll Masteries or Attributes is not part of the thinking because you said it was something that was still being offered as feedback to the developers. Therefore the fix/improvement was supposedly driven by something else.

@Kafka

We were getting feedback that players wanted more Shards and Relics and the data we had from the game itself was definitely showing most players needed more Shards and less Gear.

I believe it that players have been begging for Relics. But where are they begging for more shards? You all have made numerous changes to bump shard availability the last 6 months. Clearly Shards have now been increased yet again. I remember you telling me when I was doing the new player run through back in 0.36 and 0.37 that there were plenty of resources like Shards for players to improve their gear but they were just misunderstanding what to do and not improving their Gear Score fast enough. What’s changed? AND where’s the Relic increase? You say it exists but I’ve pointed to numerous times where it was said “Relics have been increased” but it’s never true. You are telling me that “the data you had from the game itself” was showing that most players needed more Shards, but the same data is not showing you that player after player is hitting a hard cap of epic gear with no ability to find the sufficient items to evolve them?

If there really are future changes that are affecting these half measures, why not mention them? Why is everything so obliquely referred to rather than being clear-throated about the changes?

Anyways, In my opinion nothing that players have brought up here was addressed in this response. Hopefully you will get more specific information that will actually be useful in understanding what is happening both in behavior of Seasons chests and the chest drop rates issue as a whole.

EDIT: Just to add, if players really do need more shards why not come into the game and talk about all the ways that shards are available? Why was it an information issue before (as I detailed above), but after several increases to Shards availability both in EA and in launch, it’s now an issue that necessitates even further shard intro- and even reintroduction? Feels very inconsistent.