Well, we’ve already had a thread complaining about the RNG system for the box, and another one with an alternative solution. However, those got ignored by Funcom, so I guess we’re stuck with what we have now, and any sort of help is only going to come from the players themselves. I’d like this to be more than just another venting thread. I don’t mind if you feel the need to add your voice to the group of dissatisfied, just please try to bring something constructive to the discussion as well.
Now, there seems to be a group of players who just can’t get the peculiar box to drop, while others have seen 5+ since April 1st. I’m personally in the former group, and I’m just looking for some answers.
Does anyone have any idea what the drop rate for the peculiar box is supposed to be? Is it the same drop rate from green mission bags as it is for blue chests? What types of mission bags does the box tend to drop from more often? I know it would be a ridiculous amount of work for anyone to try to work out the drop rates on their own. I’m just curious if anyone has looked into it seriously, or if anyone with a connection to the people in the know has heard anything official.
For those who can’t get it to drop, I’m interested in seeing if there’s something preventing the drop. One of the reasons I hate the RNG system is that it makes troubleshooting so much harder. I guess we’re left with throwing out random things and seeing if there’s some unifying issue that we all have.
First off, I’m not a patron. Is there any evidence to suggest that the peculiar box drops more often for patrons?
Secondly, I’ve got a few mission items permanently in my inventory. I’ve got the radio from the Halloween quest, and the pumpkin memento from the scavenger hunt event. Has anyone with those two things seen the peculiar box, and does anyone who hasn’t seen the box also have those? Maybe not those two mission items specifically, but can anyone provide insight into getting the peculiar box to drop while already having other mission items in your inventory? I’ve also got the mission items bag pinned open, maybe that’s a thing.
Thirdly, anything else anyone can come up with. Think of this as an investigation mission with very little clues and likely no answer. Should be fun.
I’m up to about 750 green bags with no drops, I don’t have all the missions done yet. Given there’s a thing to tell you you can’t open it it obviously doesn’t require that but there could be a prerequisite mission since it’s called “into the tower again”. (I’ve finished the Kaidan story but not done every Kaidan mission)
The green bags I’ve opened are
faction rank missions ~400
Kaidan side missions, once through ~70
SC, BM, SD, CotSG, BF missions ~250
lairs/dungeons ~30
So if it’s just not those types of bags (or only the ones I’ve hardly got any of) I might just not be likely to get it
I have gotten it several times from Reward bags from Kaidan and several times from Lair Loot chests.
Even my Alt have gotten it from Kaidan Reward bags, before she had finished the Zone. she have not entered Orochi tower yet.
which really Baffles me to be Honest, why did she get one… while others don’t <.<;
Does anyone have any idea what the drop rate for the peculiar box is supposed to be?
Well…that is a spicy question. While it is possible that some of the community knows the numbers such information would be admitting to datamine which is relatively sure something you get into conflict with funcom.
An issue that also existed with agentdrops: Some might know the exact numbers still it was needed to do dropresearch because it was on the safe side of datagathering.
@Onevia 750 isn’t that many, compared to others. But then again, if the drop rate is supposed to be around 1 in 100, that would make you way overdue. I’ve personally stopped counting, but it’s easily over 2000 bags. I’ve also done a lot of dungeons, and regionals, but not that many lairs. One of my cabal members was over 3500 bags last time he mentioned it, but that was actually a few weeks ago.
@Meliza Thanks for all that info. I figured it was a stretch to think the problem was associated with already having mission items, but it’s just about the only thing I could think of off the top of my head. How many have you gotten from mission bags and about how many mission bags do you think you’ve opened since April 1st? I’ll admit to slacking on lairs lately, so I guess I’ll try doing them more often.
@TheAscendingOne Ok, that’s some more evidence against other mission items interfering. Have you only had the one box drop so far? Or have you just not used it yet? It would be interesting to know if it drops more often from main missions than side missions. When I do my Kaidan farming runs I only do 1 main and a bunch of sides. I tend to get my daily main mission requirements done through dungeons and scenarios.
I guess I should have put out a disclaimer that I don’t condone datamining. It would be nice to know that stuff, but I definitely don’t want anyone doing anything against the rules to get that info. So no sending suggestive photos to devs in exchange for information, either.
I guess the best we can do here is gather anecdotal evidence, but it’s better than just guessing and hoping that eventually the RNG gods will stop being so stingy.
Have you had the peculiar box drop for you yet? If so, how many times and about how many bags/chests have you opened?
I don’t know about the amount of bags I opened but many…like before april the 1st I had 9.6mil shards…now I have 12.6mil…
I had 3 boxes drop early april…since than nothing and I doubt I find the motivation to grind much more missions than needed for the daily dose of dark agartha.
I think it is the repeat of an issue why had during the release of the agent system…where people have like crazy amounts of missions between successful drops do to rng always making the amoount of missions needed sometimes higher sometimes lower.
I think it would be better to break the one box into boxpieces…having a boxpiece drop every 100-200 bags is nicer than have a box drop every maybe 1k or so bags.
Yeah I’m sticking to my “as if it didn’t exist” daily routine because playing just to get something with no confirmed drop locations is not my idea of fun. If my daily routine’s not enough gaming to get it, that’s just how it is and the game should change, not me. I mean, I’m playing a solid 45-60 minutes a day, I’m not a casual player. It’s just not my only freetime hobby.
I think 4 or 5 from about 3.500+ Talisman Reward bags (7.100+ if we count any reward bag)
Plus 3 from Lair/Regionals
and 2-3 for my Alt, no idea of the amount of bags she have gone trough. but it’s alteast a third…
Although I might have missed some “you can only carry 1” messages while unloading the dalie Kaidan haul…
Let’s see… i do 5 Mains, 1 Story repeats, 1 investigation, rest is a mix of side missions and bounty
and a haul of 20 stacks of reward bags per run.
So what to say more then what I already told you ingame … since April 1st I opened something like 50-100 bags or chests /day, most of them being green bags from KD sides and dungeon/OD/faction chests, no drop at all.
I am a patron, so no, it does not drop more often for patrons.
I have both the radio and the pumpkin items plus a bunch of others from various missions I cant remember.
An alt of mine got one after 7 days of doing the exact same missions that I do on my main every day, but can’t do the mission due to missing champion kills.
Seen two drop, one for a friend, in E1 dungeons from blue chests. Not from the last boss, but other bosses along the way. Friend was their first E1 after just hitting 50. They haven’t left SD yet.
As for missions, i didnt count for the longest time, but based on the day i did count, and estimating from that. I’ve opened about 2000-3000 bags. Tokyo, orochi tower, ND… A little from other SD+ zones. No box from any of that
@Leogrim Well, at least you had 3 boxes before you lost the motivation to grind extra. I like your idea of breaking the box into pieces with a better drop rate. I liked my idea of just selling the box in Agartha. I’d probably like a lot of ideas out there that are better than the current system, but at this point it doesn’t look like Funcom cares what we want.
@Onevia That’s probably the healthiest way to look at it. Pretend it doesn’t exist and just get on with your life. My problem is that the museum is one of the last things I have left to accomplish in the game and I’m at the point where I need the two museum items to finish it. And yeah, it seems this drop system is a way for Funcom to push back against people who don’t grind for hours every day.
@Meliza So judging based off those numbers alone, I’d say the drop rate is close to 1 in 1000 from bags. And then I’d guess 1 in 100 from lair/dungeon chests.
Ok, here’s another question for people based on something Onevia said: about how far into your playtime do you tend to get the peculiar box to drop? Do drop rates increase based on a gaming session’s playtime, or even a day’s playtime? It’s another crazy theory, but might as well explore it. I tend to get my grind out of the way early each time I log in, so after an hour or so I’m not really opening that many bags each day.
@paololov Ok, it’s good to see that patrons also have this problem. Though I’d also like to see how many non-patrons are getting the box to drop regularly just to get evidence from the other side. What you’re doing is close to my own daily farming.
@Aeryl Now, that’s interesting. So the issue, if there really is one, doesn’t seem to be account-based but rather character based. Is your alt at a much lower IP? Someone once told me in-game that your RNG gets worse as your IP increases, but I just brushed it off as a crazy conspiracy theory.
@SinOfTheWolfs Yeah, I’ve heard it can drop from any blue chest in dungeons or lairs.
Here’s yet another question: has anyone got their first box to drop after 2000+ bags, or the equivalent in chests? From what I’m seeing here and what I’ve heard in-game, it seems that people either got a box to drop fairly early on and then saw more, or haven’t seen one at all.
It’s possible that there’s something happening with the first drop that’s bugging out. So the game acts like the person already has a box, but they physically don’t. It’s unlikely, as I think they’d probably still be getting the message about not being able to carry more than one, but it’s at least somewhat plausible.
@Nytha my main is in the 1500s while the alt is only E8, so there’s a bit of a gap. I have other alts anywhere from level 25 to E7 who also haven’t seen any boxes, but most of those haven’t done nearly as many missions in the past six weeks.
@Nytha Remember that the box is a unique drop, so once you have it you won’t get a new one until you finish the mission. Which makes your bug theory sound a little more plausible.
Boxes are indeed unique, but people have reported getting a message saying the can only hold one when a second box dropped. So you could still get a new one even if the system thought you already have one, you just wouldn’t be able to pick it up.
I guess it depends on how the code is written. If the box physically being in your inventory and the message about not being able to hold a second one are actually triggered by different variables, it could theoretically work. I think it’s a stretch, though, as it would only explain possible missed boxes from mission bags, not from blue chests. As Meliza’s screenshot shows, the box icon shows up on the loot screen. I don’t think it would be the case that having a box already, bugged or not, would prevent the icon from showing up. And if anyone saw that icon but didn’t get the box to show in their inventory it would be an obvious bug that would have been addressed by now.
That’s why I really want to know how many people have actually got their first box to drop after 2000 bags or so. It would be evidence that not getting a box yet is really just horrible RNG luck and all we can do is keep grinding. If it’s just bad RNG and Funcom doesn’t want to change the system, so be it. I would just like to know.
