Poll: Health Orb Drop Frequency 90% or 100%?

[x4000]

Judging by recent mantis reports, it looks like people were quite used to monsters dropping health orbs 100% of the time: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=6788

But, as I explained in the first one:

There was always a 90% chance -- the "random drag bag" bug that Keith fixed was making it erroneously a 100% chance.

So, the same bug that was causing you never to get ocean buoys was also making this a 100% chance instead of 90%.

People were clearly used to the buggy behavior that always gave them health orbs, rather than it being a 90% thing like we'd always intended it to be.  Which do you prefer?

[Terraziel]

What was the thinking behind the 90% in the first place?

But as a general point I don't have an opinion, rather I can't make an informed opinion, health drops do sufficiently little on The Chosen One that they might as well not exist anyway.

my gut says that 90% is sufficiently high that you might as well make it 100%, the difference made to gameplay or balance will probably be minimal.

[Penumbra]

What about just varying the quantity? If monsters only dropped a single orb even 33% of the time, the player won't feel like it's broken. Then, the full amount could drop another 33% of the time, and that would be rewarding.

[Bluddy]

Agreed. The quantity should vary. Players have expectations of getting health when killing mobs, but not necessarily how much health they should get.

[Greywolf22]

Honestly, at first I was going to agree that 90% of the time is better then 100% of the time.  Because it does add a bit more challenge (and chance) to the game.

That being said, after reading the comments from other folks, I tend to agree that instead of the frequency of drops (90% vs 100%), that maybe
varying the amount of health obtained from the orbs that are dropped might be a better option.

That way you are still rewarded for slaying the monster (you get something all the time, instead of occasionally getting nothing), BUT the reward varies. 

Just my 2 cents, either way I don't have a problem with it.

[Volatar]

From a game design standpoint 100% is the way to go. If it is 90% then 10% of the time the player just feels like they were cheated. You don't really want your players to feel that way.

[x4000]

Sold.

* Made it so that trash mobs drop health orbs 100% of the time again, rather than 90% of the time.  In the past it was always supposed to be 90%, but it was working as 100% because of a bug.  It turns out players preferred that behavior in the main, so we're making it now work like it did before that bug was fixed.
** Rather than always getting exactly 10 health orbs, however, the player now gets between 6-14 health orbs at random.

[KDR_11k]

How about making bigger/tougher mobs drop more orbs than smaller ones? Those Urban Crawlers and Crashed Landspeeders come close to miniboss level.

[x4000]

How about making bigger/tougher mobs drop more orbs than smaller ones? Those Urban Crawlers and Crashed Landspeeders come close to miniboss level.

That's a good idea, added it to my list.

[DeBunny]

Aw...now I'm going to actually have incentive to kill the landspeeders instead of cursing their existence and lightning dashing past them.

Semi-sarcastic.
I'll actually be glad that killing them will have more of a point now.

Now, back to lurking...

[BobTheJanitor]

I like the idea of the number of health drops being connected to the length of the enemy's HP bar (and maybe also to their potential damage output). Even if this means that bats and skele-dwarfs and such stop being worth much HP, it would make killing crashed speeders and crawlers and %$#*@! clockwork probes more rewarding.