When I do fractals I come out with dozens of blue and green items that get instantly salvaged. My question is: why do these items exist? Why doesn’t the game directly drop the salvaged items? I never used one of those items, personally.
It’s to address an awkward issue with human nature: we don’t value things that are too easily acquired. Games drop a variety of loot so that the ‘good’ drops stand out, so that we feel we are always getting ‘something’ (even if it’s not much), and so that we choose what we want and what we don’t (rather than the game choosing for us).
That has the side effect that all of us will encounter a bunch of stuff we don’t need and must dispose of accordingly. Fortunately, the game largely makes that easy, with instant-sell for junk, salvage-all for gear, and quick-to-sell to the highest buy offer (on the TP).
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
[Personal opinions incoming. Speculation based on off hand comments from Devs from a long time ago.]
I’m going to take a guess and say the Devs miscalculated on what people would use to gear up, back when they designed the game.
I think vanilla Tyria was designed for a top level of rare gear with exotics being a long term goal. That they weren’t expecting the average player to be in exotics (there were no ascended back then). That they thought the highest level players would mostly be in rares with the masses being in greens. All that would mean that greens would be sold and used by the average players. It didn’t work out that way. Which means that greens, which would have been the baseline gear worn by all level 80s until they get rares, are now only salvage fodder. Since the Devs would need to rewrite the level 80 masterwork gear to come as mats and luck instead, I doubt this will happen. Time, effort and the need for salvage kits, including gemstore kits, to have a use all count against it.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
I think vanilla Tyria was designed for a top level of rare gear with exotics being a long term goal. That they weren’t expecting the average player to be in exotics (there were no ascended back then).
for a personal opinion, i will reject that claim. Exotics had a very reasonable acquire time. Majority of the playerbase can easily acquire exotics within a few weeks to a few months.
Anet already planned to release Ascended before they even released the game.
I think vanilla Tyria was designed for a top level of rare gear with exotics being a long term goal. That they weren’t expecting the average player to be in exotics (there were no ascended back then).
for a personal opinion, i will reject that claim. Exotics had a very reasonable acquire time. Majority of the playerbase can easily acquire exotics within a few weeks to a few months.
Anet already planned to release Ascended before they even released the game.
Back then they said that people got exotics far faster than they expected. Also, if you’ve ever noticed, you can play vanilla Tyria in greens with no problems.
So, if players got exotics faster than they expected then they expected most players to be in rares and below. If players can play in greens in open PvE without issues, then greens are what the maps are designed for.
Anet already planned to release Ascended before they even released the game.
Yes, they said that. But the game did not have ascended at launch (and therefore was not designed for that gear level).
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
[Personal opinions incoming. Speculation based on off hand comments from Devs from a long time ago.]
I’m going to take a guess and say the Devs miscalculated on what people would use to gear up, back when they designed the game.
I think vanilla Tyria was designed for a top level of rare gear with exotics being a long term goal. That they weren’t expecting the average player to be in exotics (there were no ascended back then). That they thought the highest level players would mostly be in rares with the masses being in greens. All that would mean that greens would be sold and used by the average players. It didn’t work out that way. Which means that greens, which would have been the baseline gear worn by all level 80s until they get rares, are now only salvage fodder. Since the Devs would need to rewrite the level 80 masterwork gear to come as mats and luck instead, I doubt this will happen. Time, effort and the need for salvage kits, including gemstore kits, to have a use all count against it.
During the first year of GW2, gold was much harder to get. So my first few characters were leveled in greens even in the higher levels. They used the occasional rare that they might get as a drop, but none of my characters were in full rares until they were already in level 80. I hardly ever got Exotic drops so my first full set was when I finally did a Temple run and bought them with Karma.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
[Personal opinions incoming. Speculation based on off hand comments from Devs from a long time ago.]
I’m going to take a guess and say the Devs miscalculated on what people would use to gear up, back when they designed the game.
I think vanilla Tyria was designed for a top level of rare gear with exotics being a long term goal. That they weren’t expecting the average player to be in exotics (there were no ascended back then). That they thought the highest level players would mostly be in rares with the masses being in greens. All that would mean that greens would be sold and used by the average players. It didn’t work out that way. Which means that greens, which would have been the baseline gear worn by all level 80s until they get rares, are now only salvage fodder. Since the Devs would need to rewrite the level 80 masterwork gear to come as mats and luck instead, I doubt this will happen. Time, effort and the need for salvage kits, including gemstore kits, to have a use all count against it.
During the first year of GW2, gold was much harder to get. So my first few characters were leveled in greens even in the higher levels. They used the occasional rare that they might get as a drop, but none of my characters were in full rares until they were already in level 80. I hardly ever got Exotic drops so my first full set was when I finally did a Temple run and bought them with Karma.
Yeah. My chars back then wore crafted rares at level 80. I also crafted rares for friends who had level 80s in greens. It was not until later that I moved on to exotics. They were way to expensive for me back then so I had to scrape up the gold by doing events (at a couple silver each) and selling mats for a few silver here and there to afford my first set.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
It’s a well documented technique used by video games to appeal to the inner gambler. Some games like GW2 and the Diablo series overload you with garbage so you’re constantly getting that “oh I got a reward but I want a bigger reward” feeling. Slot machines do the same thing.
If you only ever got a drop when it was a precursor, you would very quickly log off and not farm cursed shore for 8 hours or etc.
The real problem is the reward mentality, ie I wont do anything unless I get a reward for doing it.
Means that lots of useless stuff has to be provided as rewards , as the alternative is to give you nothing or give you some upmarket item, which then simply inflates the market for the better items and then they become worthless.
Automatic salvaging instantly destroys the market for all the various types of salvagers that you can buy.
It would be far better if players simply junked the reward mentality and actually played the game for fun of it , rather than the rewards.
It’s all personal opinion of whether it is junk or not. Personally I can sell quite a bit on the TP for way more than I can to a merchant and get lots of gold that way. If they don’t sell for much (or nothing) on the TP then I will either throw them into the mystic toilet or salvage, all depends on where I am and my mood. Haven’t got a precursor from the MT yet but I have gotten some exotics that were very expensive, lol. Thou I have had a precursor drop from a generic monster.
Again it is all personal opinion as to what it junk, I don’t find any of it junk because I use it in some way.
I think vanilla Tyria was designed for a top level of rare gear with exotics being a long term goal. That they weren’t expecting the average player to be in exotics (there were no ascended back then).
for a personal opinion, i will reject that claim. Exotics had a very reasonable acquire time. Majority of the playerbase can easily acquire exotics within a few weeks to a few months.
Anet already planned to release Ascended before they even released the game.
Back then they said that people got exotics far faster than they expected. Also, if you’ve ever noticed, you can play vanilla Tyria in greens with no problems.
So, if players got exotics faster than they expected then they expected most players to be in rares and below. If players can play in greens in open PvE without issues, then greens are what the maps are designed for.
Anet already planned to release Ascended before they even released the game.
Yes, they said that. But the game did not have ascended at launch (and therefore was not designed for that gear level).
On your first character, the gear drop don’t seem like junk. But once you know what gear is “good” and that rares are relatively cheap only then that gear is just stuff you have to salvage. But that’s okay.
they’re not junk. the crafting of their names, their artwork, their color scheme and unmentionable intricate details appeal to esotericists playing the game masonically.
In order for a “Play How You Want” system to work, you have to provide players with lots of “meh” loot that they can sell (or salvage and sell or craft with) so that they can work towards the good loot by doing whatever.
At least, those “instant salvage items” make for tons of AP
How so? I assume you mean the 250 you can get from Agent of Entropy. The achievement repeats endlessly, but you stop getting AP once maxed. Or are you referring to something else?
But they are all useful. Some I can salvage into crafting materials to sell to other players and others I can sell directly to npc merchants.
I use the drops to increase my wealth. Once you reach max gearing, including different sets for unique builds, and have unlocked the skins you like, wealth gain is all that drops can do for you.
