Post by Kitsunenotsume on Jan 20, 2018 0:40:56 GMT -5
So, this has been one of my more private observations for a time, as I honestly have no factual evidence regarding the quantity of various gear other people carry.
However, recent discontent regarding the weight of ammunition instills me to put my thoughts to text.
As they are currently written, a Reduction Belt (of any variety, hereafter termed "Belt(s)") reduce the weight of a given type of consumable by a flat 20%, up to a given maximum.
As a result, the best reduction weight is garnered when carrying 5 times as much of the consumable as the listed weight.
However, a rank 1 belt at $50 has a 20.2 lb maximum weight reduction, meaning that you need to be carrying over 101 lbs of consumable to consider taking any belt of higher rank.
Given that characters can only net up to 250 maximum running carry-weight, having over two fifths (or one fifth of walking carry-weight)is generally both impractical and uncommon.
In terms of comparison, that would be over:
1010 Low Caliber Rounds
505 Pistol or High Caliber Rounds
1010 Fuel (any type)
202 Frag Grenades
144 Bombs/Smoke Grenades
While these limits are occasionally breached, what I consider "Healthily over-equipped" for an above-standard dungeon includes 40 Tesla Bombs (28 lbs), 20 Smoke Grenades (14 lbs), 10 Cryobombs (7 lbs), 50 Frags (25 lbs), for a total of 74 lbs (the greatest of any of my consumable categories), and thus a maximum reduction of 14.8, well inferior to the maximum 31.6 lbs my rank 58 explosives belt can optimally permit at 158 lbs and over 3k bucks. Additionally, while said limits are occasionally breached, it is unlikely that the individual dumped everything else they were carrying, so are inevitably over-encumbered regardless of if they had the belt or not.
These factors basically make higher rank belts inefficient as an investment, as everything you typically need is provided in the lowest $50 option.
The only reason to have a reduction-belt higher than rank 1, usually, is because you found it in a dungeon loot pile, and might as well use it in the outlying chance you grab over half your carry-weight worth of something.
To actually make higher tier belts generally superior to low tier belts, some sort of scaling incentive would be needed outside an impractical corner-case.
There are a few solutions I can see:
1: [Nerf] Reduce the initial max weight to 50 lbs (10 lb reduction). This would lead to a bracket from 51-150, instead of 101-200. Effective at making higher tier belts suddenly useful, at cost of making everyone's current weight balance screwy and forcing thousands of bucks of investment to adjust to the new paradigm. (While I personally could probably reap benefits, I would also foresee many unhappy customers with this route - particularly since I suggested it)
2: [Buff] Introduce a scaling reduction, perhaps +1% per 4/5 ranks. This would result in higher tier belts being more effective on exactly the same quantity of stuff by improving the reduction to a maximum of 40/45% without requiring an excessive quantity. Cost would be that maximum effective carry starts to increase significantly as you go from being able to carry 20 extra lbs at 100 lbs, to 80-90 extra lbs at 200.
3: [Nerf/Buff] As #2, but keep the maximum reduction fixed. This would mean the extra weight remains flat, but you can leverage it with smaller quantities of goods: 20 extra lbs at 100 -> 20 extra lbs at 55/60 lbs. Result is that an individual with a fixed combat load as they level up will see improved benefits, but an individual with an initially large or increasing combat load as they level will not or will level off faster. However, the individual with the larger load will be able to benefit from a cheaper belt at the cost of having a greater encumbrance. With this route, a higher rate of scaling reduction could be reasonable, so long as total reduction doesn't go beyond 20 extra lbs at 20 lbs..
However, recent discontent regarding the weight of ammunition instills me to put my thoughts to text.
As they are currently written, a Reduction Belt (of any variety, hereafter termed "Belt(s)") reduce the weight of a given type of consumable by a flat 20%, up to a given maximum.
As a result, the best reduction weight is garnered when carrying 5 times as much of the consumable as the listed weight.
However, a rank 1 belt at $50 has a 20.2 lb maximum weight reduction, meaning that you need to be carrying over 101 lbs of consumable to consider taking any belt of higher rank.
Given that characters can only net up to 250 maximum running carry-weight, having over two fifths (or one fifth of walking carry-weight)is generally both impractical and uncommon.
In terms of comparison, that would be over:
1010 Low Caliber Rounds
505 Pistol or High Caliber Rounds
1010 Fuel (any type)
202 Frag Grenades
144 Bombs/Smoke Grenades
While these limits are occasionally breached, what I consider "Healthily over-equipped" for an above-standard dungeon includes 40 Tesla Bombs (28 lbs), 20 Smoke Grenades (14 lbs), 10 Cryobombs (7 lbs), 50 Frags (25 lbs), for a total of 74 lbs (the greatest of any of my consumable categories), and thus a maximum reduction of 14.8, well inferior to the maximum 31.6 lbs my rank 58 explosives belt can optimally permit at 158 lbs and over 3k bucks. Additionally, while said limits are occasionally breached, it is unlikely that the individual dumped everything else they were carrying, so are inevitably over-encumbered regardless of if they had the belt or not.
These factors basically make higher rank belts inefficient as an investment, as everything you typically need is provided in the lowest $50 option.
The only reason to have a reduction-belt higher than rank 1, usually, is because you found it in a dungeon loot pile, and might as well use it in the outlying chance you grab over half your carry-weight worth of something.
To actually make higher tier belts generally superior to low tier belts, some sort of scaling incentive would be needed outside an impractical corner-case.
There are a few solutions I can see:
1: [Nerf] Reduce the initial max weight to 50 lbs (10 lb reduction). This would lead to a bracket from 51-150, instead of 101-200. Effective at making higher tier belts suddenly useful, at cost of making everyone's current weight balance screwy and forcing thousands of bucks of investment to adjust to the new paradigm. (While I personally could probably reap benefits, I would also foresee many unhappy customers with this route - particularly since I suggested it)
2: [Buff] Introduce a scaling reduction, perhaps +1% per 4/5 ranks. This would result in higher tier belts being more effective on exactly the same quantity of stuff by improving the reduction to a maximum of 40/45% without requiring an excessive quantity. Cost would be that maximum effective carry starts to increase significantly as you go from being able to carry 20 extra lbs at 100 lbs, to 80-90 extra lbs at 200.
3: [Nerf/Buff] As #2, but keep the maximum reduction fixed. This would mean the extra weight remains flat, but you can leverage it with smaller quantities of goods: 20 extra lbs at 100 -> 20 extra lbs at 55/60 lbs. Result is that an individual with a fixed combat load as they level up will see improved benefits, but an individual with an initially large or increasing combat load as they level will not or will level off faster. However, the individual with the larger load will be able to benefit from a cheaper belt at the cost of having a greater encumbrance. With this route, a higher rate of scaling reduction could be reasonable, so long as total reduction doesn't go beyond 20 extra lbs at 20 lbs..
