Platform, device version and operating system:
Windows 10 x64
Screenshot or image:
Not available
What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened:
Unlike all other gnomes, Cursed Gnome is extremely rare. I am playing 30-40 L3 explore battles per day, and in three-four days I meet practically every type of gnome, but not Cursed. This one appears maybe once per two weeks, maybe even rarer. Is it expected?
But there is one exclusion: Gnome-a-Palooza. Every time I activate it, I see one-two Cursed Gnomes. Yesterday I got three. It feels much more frequent than everyday encounters, but I can be wrong, because I activate Palooza only at Gnome Vault event, so maybe Cursed Gnomes are affected by this too.
But then there is another catch: every time when I get Cursed Gnome “normally”, it’s 10-15 Cursed Runes. In Gnome-a-Palooza it’s like 3. Is it intended nerf?
How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?
Always, since I can pay in diamonds. I suspect, it was nerfed just for that, making impossible to level up Forge naturally (I got gnomes during update event enough to level up to L14. Since then I levelled up to L15, and have 21/35 cursed runes. See the difference). But maybe it’s overlooked, and I am wrong.
Steps to make it happen again
Umm…
Adventure anywhere long enough.
See zero to one Cursed Gnomes.
Adventure during Gnome-A-Palooza.
See 2-3 Cursed Gnomes that gives practically nothing.
The runes were nerfed like all the other prizes during gap, you do get the full rewards from the battle that ends after gap time is over, that’s why I usually wait for the time to run out if I see a cursed gnome in the last 5 minutes of gap. That got me to crafting Drenza yesterday.
Cursed Gnome rate is set very low to begin with (was temporarily buffed right after release, but reverted back to intended later), so it is expected to see them no more often than once in a blue moon.
Gnome rewards are scaled down during 15 minutes of a Palooza and Cursed Gnome is a gnome, therefore it is only normal that its drops get chopped accordingly.
So, none of what you said, unfortunately, belongs in bug report section. We might not like it and it might frustrate us (hence grab pitchforks in feature requests or game feedback), but it’s all working as intended for now.
Gnome rewards are scaled down during 15 minutes of a Palooza and Cursed Gnome is a gnome, therefore it is only normal that its drops get chopped accordingly.
Oh, others are scaled down too? Hm. Honestly, I looks for keys (same) and note sheets (same), as all other rewards are usually not worth it at all. Gems? Keys? Gold? I never seen it much outside of treasure heaps anyway.
Yes CGs are super rare making the soulforge update pretty redundant. I think one of the problems is that there are a small number of extreme playere who can play enough to gain rewards and resources at a rate that makes the devs uncomfortable. This prompts ninja nerfing to decelerate hardcore progress. Unfortunately this negatively impacts the vast majority of players who arent super hardcore to the point where the rarest resources practically disappear. I am glad I’ve not spent gems on soulforge upgrade (its at 18 now purely from runes) because everything i want or need is simply unavailable on account of resource starvation.
I’ve got a fair amount of cursed runes and have crunched numbers.
Originally in Gaps when cursed gnomes were released, you could get more runes. When the first boost occurred it was possible to get more runes on lesser level Gaps.
We then got a second boost to the drop rate for the two week period and in the meantime we got a vault key taken away from a cursed tune drop. At the same time the volume of runes per gap level were altered it seems.
When the increased rate dropped we went from 1:70 cursed gnomes per battle, to about 1:400, whilst keeping the lesser volume of runes per explore level in Gap.
It looks like it’s set at -1 or +1 per explore level in Gap. So in E1 it’s either 1 or 2 cursed runes. In E12 in Gap it seems to be 11 or 13 (at best by time stalling) but that’s more anecdotal in E12 than E1 farming my end.
I got one total during the 3 day vault. For me thats precisely the stimulus to ignore vault events like i always have. Soulforge “new recipes” can collect dust along with Taurawfulus and other tat.