As Requested by a Dev: A Thread about Devs' Actions/Inactions

[AMT]

We were told this:

@Saltypatra

• If a Gnome drops a Vault Key it will be either a Vault Key or Epic Vault Key, they cannot drop both.
• Epic Vault Keys are rarer drops compared to the normal ones. (about 10%).

We observe this:

@cyberkiwi

Last Vault Weekend (2020-08-16):

   9.8  [A] battles to encounter 1 gnome (14241/1446)
  12.0  [B] gnomes to drop 1 key (5013/418)
  0.70% [C] of vault key drops are epic (7/997)
16,941  [D] battles to receive 1 epic vault key

So we asked Wheres the Epic vault keys ? And we were told this:

@Saltypatra

As far as we can see, from checking the code and the tests we have already run, they are dropping as intended. As many people have mentioned earlier, there is also a strong bias towards RNG, and the evidence in this thread is purely anecdotal.

So further ‘anecdotal’ data was collected:

@cyberkiwi

Current Vault Weekend (2020-09-11):

  10.8  [A] battles to encounter 1 gnome (6329/587)
  11.3  [B] gnomes to drop 1 key (1176/104)
  1.92% [C] of vault key drops are epic (2/104)
 6,340  [D] battles to receive 1 epic vault key

And an interesting relevant comment was made:

@Grundulum

For what it’s worth, the devs did look into the epic key drop rates, like Kafka said they would. Supposedly they also increased the rate of epic vault keys compared to the first vault weekend. (The beta testers mentioned the issue in the beta discord and got a response.)

I can absolutely understand if this is difficult to believe, given the numbers posted so far. But it is what was conveyed to the beta testers when we asked about it.

@covertmuffin123

Big if true. Strange that this wasn’t announced

@Grundulum

This came up also. The forums can be, ah, somewhat adversarial to the devs. Especially over controversial things like this. If the early numbers didn’t suggest that the drop rate really was increased, the response would be somewhat emotional.

let’s put aside the question of why would they increase the rate of epic vault keys compared to the first vault weekend, if they were truly ‘dropping as intended’

In addition to the well-documented track record by the developer ref. ability to control its code and willingness to acknowledge & correct QA shortcomings, we now may be facing a scenario where a small, hand-picked segment of the playerbase (those currently in the beta programme) are given access to information that should arguably be equally accessible to all players (e.g. alleged increased rate of epic vault keys compared to the first vault weekend), even though customers in the Official Forums continuously asked for further clarifications on the observed inaccuracy of the ‘10%’ ratio of Epic Vault Keys.

Noteworthy potential favoritism, should the trend persist.