My vision on 'Rare' Ammo, or why Explosive Shots are abundant: (in General)

This is a part of my last reply in a thread regarding the complaint that explosive shots wouldn't be abundant enough:

• For auctions I examined the past auctions of November 12th 8:30 AM until today 8:30 AM server time.
• For store buys I examined the store purchase log of the past 24 hours and recorded all Explosive Shots buys.

Slayer Arrows:
A total of 8 stacks with total amount of 4831 arrows spawned.

Seeker Arrows:
A total of 6 stacks with total amount of 2504 arrows spawned.

Slayer Bolts:
A total of 2 stacks with total amount of 1134 bolts spawned.

Seeker Bolts:
A total of 4 stacks with total amount of 2186 bolts spawned.

Explosive Shots:
A total of 14, yes you see it right, 14 stacks with a total amount of 13696 shots were bought from store.

When I then calculate the total amount of 'Rare' Ammo being put into the game this comes to 24351 pieces of rare ammo.

Calculating percentages then this comes to:
Slayer Arrows spawned take up 19.8% of the total amount of 'Rare' Ammo,
Seeker Arrows spawned take up 10.3% of the total amount of 'Rare' Ammo,
Slayer Bolts spawned take up 4.7% of the total amount of 'Rare' Ammo,
Seeker Bolts spawned take up 9.0% of the total amount of 'Rare' Ammo,
Explosive spawned take up 56.2% of the total amount of 'Rare' Ammo.

Now please, 56% of total spawned 'Rare' Ammo isn't to be considered 'not enough' or at least not in my opinion.

I got dibs on the seeker bolts :)

No wonder I'm finding it difficult as of late to win many slayer bolts at what I deem a fair price. Only 4.7%, that's way too low i n my opinion >.<

Shade of course knows that explosive shot is not rare ammo, but standard ammo, like arrows and bolts.

So you can't really compare them with seekers or slayers.
Compare explosive shots with iron shot or arrows/bolts and you would see that explosive shot really has a good spawn rate.
Maybe just to low for some peoples taste.

All of your numbers are incorrect. I'm watching all auctions for seeker and all auctions for bolts so I get an email each time one goes up. Between 10:48 pm central time on 11/12 and 9:17 am central time this morning here are the numbers I was notified for:

Seeker Bolts: 8 Bundles for a total of 4407 bolts
Slayer Bolts: 7 Bundles for a total of 4372 bolts
Seeker Arrows: 18 Bundles for a total of 8874
I don't get the number for slayer arrows but you can see how much different just those numbers are. Also, this is only for >12 hours. The total amount of rare ammo spawned is actually much higher than people notice because most of it goes without bids.

Shooto, I don't agree with your estimation in the slightest, yes you bid on the bolts I do also but that was merely a one off and most are actually not spawned ones.
Shade's is a little low yes but even on an extremely good day I see a max of between 2,000-3,000 spawned slayers on average. Most days it comes to 1,500-2,000.

How do you watch auctions?

So you're saying my emails notifications are wrong??? It notifies me for each auction, I don't see where the error is coming from. I can forward you each of the emails if you'd like.

I spend an average of 16-18 hours a day on here an regularly keep an eye on auctions.
You may get that many in your e-mail but I'm sure at least 20% of those on most days come from auctions from other players, which are bolts from revious days auctions.
We are talking about spawns solely from the auctioneer here, not total ammo put into auctions.

Nope, absolutely not. People don't buy rare ammo just to sell it at net worth prices. Also, if you look through the past auctions for seeker bolts, you'll see hardly any auctions. I keep a stock of 5000+ seekers and hardly ever drop below 2000. They show very few of the auctions I win for them.

well cheers for taking the time to try and persuade me that exp shots arent rare ... maybe its just the fact that they only spawn three times per day and are usually brought by one person as soon as they do (or very soon after)
since the sod came out ive seen about 8-10 stacks in the weapons store ... thats two spawns/drops or what ever its called. Every other bit of explosive ammo ive brought has been brought from another player

13000 shots is enough for how many to use?
if you said i used 4 shots in ranged each time i fight and fight 1000 battles per day thats enough for just over three people to use in a day if there not overly active

you said this in reply to my thread 'So when you say that Explosive Shots aren't spawning enough you are simply eating them instead of using them the way they should.' ... how am i supposed to use them?? pumping them up for defence is useless now as they get used up if they get you wins when you shouldnt ... so how should i be using them? ... i feel like a thin person being told to diet

Shooto, I don't include auctions from other people, DUH!!! I have seen 2 auctions for human player sales also, I don't include them.

Also that's what you get wrong again, I recorded from between 8:30 AM and 8:30 AM...

TDC: this isn't a thread about how people use them, if every player would use seeker and slayer ammo for their bows and crossbows then those types of ammo would really be considered rare...

Explosive Shots is the icing on your cake, not something you should use 24/7 on offense imo. If you do so however, that's your choice and you'll have to bid more money for it because they are simply 'rare' and expensive.

All my point was, that all the complaints about them were unruled for imo because they spawn quite more than other specialty ammo.

well that comment about eating was in the thread i started in which you took the time to post what you posted above and a bit more .. i just thought rather than bumping two thread id just post in the one.

i got this message from another person who uses a sod
Sent: 4:22 PM EST Delivered: 4:41 PM EST
I agree with you on the exp shots. I have not seen barly any in the store ever. I still have some I bought way back though, I just do not want to use them at this moment.

and id still like to know how you think thay spawn enough when they only spawn 3 times per day(by the looks of earlier/yesterday twice) - seekers and such maybe rare but atleast there is usually an auction going on where you can bid on them. If your not on when the exp shots spawn you have to wait 6-14 hours to get some unless you spend 2000 making a thread or speak to the campers.
For players who arent to chatty that makes getting them even harder.
and please dont think im saying this because im using my SoD as its nearly tie for my nbc .. the reason im posting is because it is a problem

Im not even going to go into what happens during the times when there are no iron shots in the store either

I agree with DC, there's no way lots of people can fight regularly using explosive shots at the current spawn rate. On the other hand, i've found that i can beat a lot of my opponents using iron shots, and at times even the rounded pebbles, so discretion in using explo shots seems to be the dictum.

Just wondering though, how many people have hoarded explosive shots on their characters? I've 12k, but I own an SoD so I will be using them up :)

TDC: simply Explosive Shots are considered more rare because they are used far more, not because they don't get into play less ;)

(thats my entire point btw)

so does that mean you dont think three lots (and thats all it is as they are all usually grabbed by one person) is not to overly rare/to rare??

atm there are 3 stacks of slayer arrows and 2 stacks of seekers in the ending soon (not including the two big bundles)... if you wanted some for defence you could actually get half a chance ( 2 stacks have 3 bids 3 stacks have 1 bid) and getting some

they are meant to be rare yet nobody wants them ... maybe if there drop rate was lowered we would get people with bows saying the same as ive said

maybe jon has got the drop rate right for those but not for the exp shots?

honestly most of the stacks of seeker and slayer ammo also are bought by a single player of at the most 2 at a time, nothing different than your explosive shots. :)

yeah but you can atleast get hold of some if you want quite easily ... and saying most of the time doesnt eaqual gone within a v short period of time to 1 person everytime (the only time one person doesnt get them all is when they have no room in there inventory)

anyone can bid on slayers/seekers from the auctioneer usually its first person gets the exp shots and they are all gone ... and if they are being used thats enough spawned in 24 hours for 3 people to fight with ... doesnt that make them more rarer than intended (esp with the way they are dropped) which means something needs to be changed

maybe its not the drop rate that they appear in the shop but the way they are dropped or that only three people can fight with them (and there is i think more than 3) or that only one person buys them but something else that needs changing

maybe im wrong (i give up now as i need food) but something ought to be changed imo (and a few others who actually use slings)

My calculations were taken with only auctioneer auctions. I'm sorry if you misunderstood that. There is something wrong with the way that the auctions show previous auctions. I've purchased probably 1/3 of all the seeker bolts that ever go up for auction. I hardly ever see an auction for them that are by someone else. 95% of the bolts I purchase are from the auctioneer. Don't believe me, I don't really care. I'll just keep picking up all the bolts I can get while you claim there are none.

Also, I think you're missing my point that it doesn't keep track of the ammo that goes into auction and no one bids on.

Are you saying that there are more auctions than are listed in the auction history? That's easy enough to prove if you have the auction id numbers (you can get them from your transfer history).

And just because I feel like it, I've included a link to all the auctions for Seeker bolts that I received within 24hours. They all came into my email inbox on November 12th. http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74960. http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74830. http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74843 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74875 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74876 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74881 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74900 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74902 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74907 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74908 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74910 http://cb2.carnageblender.com/gc/view-one.tcl?classified_ad_id=74935. Knock yourself out. I can do the same with seeker arrows and slayer bolts if you still don't understand. And because the spell checker sucks sometimes, here are some extra words to negate my links to auctions. For some reason they are saying that a word in the website is spelled wrong when its part of a web address. Funny isn't it. I've also added those numbers up to be I believe 5071 bolts which is more than double your estimated amount.

Some of those don't appear in a basic search on expired auctions: 74960, 74875, 74902, 74935, 74910, 74900, 74876. Similarly, you are missing some: 74822, 74820, 74819. We can probably chalk those up to a timezone, though.

Why does a search on "Seeker Bolts" not return the above results?

Ask Jon, I'm just the one proving that the ammo isn't as rare as people think it is.

The auctions that end with nobody bidding on them don't bring anything into the game, so they are left out of this 'investigation'...

And that you win all the bids for specialty bolts doesn't interest me in the least, do you want a medal or something for your victory?

Last remark: learn some basic html so we can click your links please... >.<

A blank auction should still show up in the auction history....... How do you explain those missing auctions?

For me, here is the major problem.

Rare items were removed from play to stop camping. They spawn stright into auction.

Ex Shots were made common enough to spawn in the store, but are wanted so much that demand outwieghts the supply.

Unless I 'camp' them, there aren't any in the store when I go there. Ever.

There are not common.

But there aren't Rare enough to spawn in the AH.

What are they classed as?

And are we fine with camping back?

I just wanted to add a ranged wepaon to my Melee only team. I went to the store to get ammo.

There are 13 stacks of Bolts. 24 stacks of arrows. 8 stacks of Rounded Pebbles.

There are no Iron shots, nor Ex shots.

Why isn't there any stacks of these types of ammo?

Agreed, Ex shot would be much easier to get if they spawned like the other unique ammos. Usually I see iron shot in the store, that must just be bad timing.

NS: haven't actually checked missing auctions, I indeed think they should be shown in the calculations I made because they did have a base price and they were in auctions.

I really meant that they weren't included IF they wouldn't show up, in case of that misconception.


Perhaps you (being the Exp Shots users) should all sign a petition for Jonathan to put them back in auctions instead?

Nah, having them spawn in the AH would lead to them being used like Seekers/Slayers. Mostly defensive. :)

What I would like is to have thier spawn rate upped to that of Arrows/Bolts, to satisfy the current demand (which would decrease).

Ex Shots provide a mechanic that *only* they can supply though. So maybe, for balance they sohuld be AH only spawns. :(

Iron Shots should be in the store like Arrows or Bolts though.

Actually, why are there three types of shop spawned stones? Do we really need rounded pebbles alongside Iron shots? If so, why don't we have things like flight or leaf (I tihnk thoses are the names...) arrows?

True I don't really care about them but Iron Shots could be spawning more to provide for a decent service, but then pebbles would really never be used ;)

I had no problem acquiring Explosive Shots for both myself AND T.D.C. whenever I was boosting my NCB. You can ask him, anytime he fell short I had plenty more to send. If you're spending a lot of time online (as is the case for anyone fighting hard), then you have time to spend going into the Weapons store and watching. It's just two clicks guys, just go every once in a while and check.

I was thinking about the ammo for slings and something struck me. Why isn't there a seeker type ammo for slings? There are seekers for both the crossbow and bow but none for slings.

Personally i think there should be seeker everything.

Seeker MH, Seeker VB, Seeker Bth, etc...

Lets just make this game unplayable for mages.

yep with out BBQ and a couple of others id have never seen any exp shots bar the two lots i managed to snag

and seeker and slayer shots arent really needed as we are meant to have exp shots

Why don't mages have an item that allows thme to seek out tanks?

Because Wasp, this is tank blender.

Mages really have no place anymore. All a smart tank has to do is get 1 bundle of seeker, equip them for defense and be immune to most mages around his MPR possibly up to 2x his MPR.

Just look at the items mages have to help them: AG, COI, and ?????

Corn is bad for mages in that it lowers their evasion 10%, McM can be used but it is also for enchanters. DB's can be used by anyone.

And that's why I went Tank!

40% Protection reductions? Many Str/Dex boosting items. DD damage reduction items! Multiple hits!

WooTage!