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[Biolab00]

[quote]From Kuma, Irongron & Sincra:

Chests, Parties & Search [Live as of a reset]

• Parties no longer take only the highest search into account for a bonus.
  Instead they will check all party members search score.

A max of six successful bonus chest items[/quote]

Changes
Will now search based on least to most skill, to give everyone a fair shot.
Will no longer say who helped, to obfuscate and help alleviate concerns about meta-parties.

So...usually in a party, we allocate the person with the highest search score to do the looting because they are better at it.
With this change, does it mean that it no longer matters who is doing the looting because the person with 100 search score might be as good at searching as the person with 0 search score since it checks all party member search score, possibly for an average?

I might have interpret the mechanic wrongly and welcome any others who had experienced the change to provide their feedback.

Because this once again feels like punishing party play.

[Biolab00]

I've posted twice because this feels like a trap.

The reason is because /Party/ belongs to mechanic and if players want to circumvent the penalty, most of them will likely choose to leave party when they are going to open valuable chests, to not be pulled down by the mechanics due to Search changes.

Then again, this seems to be breaking the rules of generating loots.

That's why i say that it feels like a trap because it's very much, enticing player to leave party, just to have the highest search score for opening very valuable chests and ended up, breaking the rules and getting punished for it by the DM team.

[Xerah]

It never mattered who was doing the looting. It says so in the wiki and the feedback in the game.

I’m actually surprised you were always able to figure out who had the highest search but no one knew that.

As for the mechanic, it rolls an extra time each time a party member succeeds for more loot.

The initial person is selected at random. It’s hard to say what is better or worse because maybe you want the lower search person rolling first or maybe you want the highest going first etc etc.

It’s not the intent to penalize party play.

[Biolab00]

I'll be frank because the search function is more prevalent on sailing crew.
Granted, i'll soon be retiring from the sailing and does not actually matter much to me anymore but i decide to bite the bullet and question anyway.

Usually with the crew on the ship, we need to allocate the roles that each party / crewmates are good at.
Those good at searching will ICly describe how good their eyes are and handle on the role.
Those good at fighting will be going after the PVE mobs etc etc

It's not about always figuring out who has the highest search score but the crewmates are usually the same party and therefore, it is punishing.

Whereas before the change, the person with the highest search score are often the looter so that we can maximize our looting potential and ensure that the entire party gets paid well for the effort invested.
But this change seems to be killing it because Search has became more 'random' and 'harder'

[DM Monkey]

This change rewards grouping up. You are not at all worse off by going through content alone, it's just that groups now have chances for more loot. You can allocate your party member roles in exactly the same way, ask someone to be the one looting. It rolls from lowest search score to most search score, but this is hidden from players. It means you have the highest possible chance of getting more loot. What's the downside here?

[Xerah]

Whereas before the change, the person with the highest search score are often the looter so that we can maximize our looting potential

It didn’t matter who was doing the looking before.

[Biolab00]

I am simply concerned but it could be that i have misinterpret the changes.

Usually we allocate the person with the highest search score to do the looting and not just -anyone- but the person with only the highest search score. With this change in effect, the person with the highest search score for example, 100 search score which guarantees extra search loot each time, will no longer be so.

Am i interpreting the information / changes here wrongly?

It didn’t matter who was doing the looking before.

It does matter because the person who has the highest search score, doing the looting prior to this change, will always generate more loot based on his/her own individual search score which the party allocates, as the person best at finding.

[DM Monkey]

It rolls search vs a DC for each player in the party.
Each success vs that DC increases the next persons DC to beat and adds 1 to the loot it'll generate in a chest
It now orders least skill to most to make sure that the people with least skill will still contribute fairly

tldr, you get more loot

[Xerah]

I don’t know how many different ways to tell you that it didn’t matter who was doing the looting before and it still doesn’t.

[In Sorrow We Trust]

I am simply concerned but it could be that i have misinterpret the changes.

Usually we allocate the person with the highest search score to do the looting and not just -anyone- but the person with only the highest search score. With this change in effect, the person with the highest search score for example, 100 search score which guarantees extra search loot each time, will no longer be so.

Am i interpreting the information / changes here wrongly?

It didn’t matter who was doing the looking before.

It does matter because the person who has the highest search score, doing the looting prior to this change, will always generate more loot based on his/her own individual search score which the party allocates, as the person best at finding.

yes. having people with 100 search will still in theory guarantee extra loot, but you'll get more loot with more people in your party.

[Biolab00]

I am simply concerned but it could be that i have misinterpret the changes.

Usually we allocate the person with the highest search score to do the looting and not just -anyone- but the person with only the highest search score. With this change in effect, the person with the highest search score for example, 100 search score which guarantees extra search loot each time, will no longer be so.

Am i interpreting the information / changes here wrongly?

It didn’t matter who was doing the looking before.

It does matter because the person who has the highest search score, doing the looting prior to this change, will always generate more loot based on his/her own individual search score which the party allocates, as the person best at finding.

yes. having people with 100 search will still in theory guarantee extra loot, but you'll get more loot with more people in your party.

Ok thanks.

This is what i'm looking for because i believed that i am not the only player who is confused about the wording on the update.
I'm just trying to make it much simplier to understand and more transparent as well.

Edit :

Will now search based on least to most skill, to give everyone a fair shot.

The reason for this topic post is because my initial worry was whether the proc for the search from least to the most skilled actually meant to be as following example -
Party of Five, PC#1 with the least search score proc the search roll for the 1st chest hence, the chest is a terrible chest.
Following after, PC#3 with the highest search score proc the search roll for the 2nd chest hence, the chest is a bountiful chest.
And so forth.

But the above post has explained that the mechanic works as searching from the 'Least' to the 'Highest' Search score before the search proc on the chest, to generate the best loot.

Edit again # 2 :
Thanks Sincra for the precise explanation below.
It has certainly erase and answered all my doubts and this change is perfectly aligned with boosting party play.

[Sincra]

As the person that made the change, I'll write it out in full:
ON CHEST OPEN:

• Each person in the party in the same area has their search score added to an array
• Sort the array least to most skill.
• This is then iterated through, during each iteration it checks vs a DC.
• If you beat that DC it adds a value to the DC for the next check and 1 more to the loot payout.
• If the amount of loot payout >= 6 it stops iterating.
• Moves on to spawn loot.

Let me give an example:
3 poeple in a party.
Person 1 : 50 search
Person 2 : 80 search
Person 3 : 10 search

Array: 10,50,80

10 vs X. Success.
+1 loot

50 vs X+Y, Fail.
No change in Y or Loot payout.

80 vs X+Y. Success.
+1 loot.

End of array, move to loot payout.

2 more loot than default.

[In Sorrow We Trust]

As the person that made the change, I'll write it out in full:
ON CHEST OPEN:

• Each person in the party in the same area has their search score added to an array
• Sort the array least to most skill.
• This is then iterated through, during each iteration it checks vs a DC.
• If you beat that DC it adds a value to the DC for the next check and 1 more to the loot payout.
• If the amount of loot payout >= 6 it stops iterating.
• Moves on to spawn loot.

Let me give an example:
3 poeple in a party.
Person 1 : 50 search
Person 2 : 80 search
Person 3 : 10 search

Array: 10,50,80

10 vs X. Success.
+1 loot

50 vs X+Y, Fail.
No change in Y or Loot payout.

80 vs X+Y. Success.
+1 loot.

End of array, move to loot payout.

2 more loot than default.

does the DC still cap at 100 like before or has the search function been changed completely?

[Sincra]

As the person that made the change, I'll write it out in full:
ON CHEST OPEN:

• Each person in the party in the same area has their search score added to an array
• Sort the array least to most skill.
• This is then iterated through, during each iteration it checks vs a DC.
• If you beat that DC it adds a value to the DC for the next check and 1 more to the loot payout.
• If the amount of loot payout >= 6 it stops iterating.
• Moves on to spawn loot.

Let me give an example:
3 poeple in a party.
Person 1 : 50 search
Person 2 : 80 search
Person 3 : 10 search

Array: 10,50,80

10 vs X. Success.
+1 loot

50 vs X+Y, Fail.
No change in Y or Loot payout.

80 vs X+Y. Success.
+1 loot.

End of array, move to loot payout.

2 more loot than default.

does the DC still cap at 100 like before or has the search function been changed completely?

Works differently now.

[AstralUniverse]

do different chests in different dungeons, harder/easier to reach etc, have different X value here? as in base DC or do all chests in the game have the same base DC in regards to the Search skill?

[DM Monkey]

do different chests in different dungeons, harder/easier to reach etc, have different X value here? as in base DC or do all chests in the game have the same base DC in regards to the Search skill?

This won't be disclosed.

[AstralUniverse]

do different chests in different dungeons, harder/easier to reach etc, have different X value here? as in base DC or do all chests in the game have the same base DC in regards to the Search skill?

This won't be disclosed.

Eh... really?
okay, I just hope it's the former, because if it's fixed it'll be figured out and gamed, which is what I was hoping to flag here if that's the case.

[Gerhazo]

Some mechanical questions that relate to sailing:

Do treasure map pirate chests operate under this new system, or do they have their own, old mechanics?

In a similar fashion, certain high tier and edgewater NPC vessels have a special kind of chest that spawns a guaranteed map piece, potentially 2 if the search roll succeeds. Does that chest operate under its own mechanics, or is there a probability for several map pieces to be gained from it under this new system?

[Tabby]

Ok thanks.

This is what i'm looking for because i believed that i am not the only player who is confused about the wording on the update.
I'm just trying to make it much simplier to understand and more transparent as well.

Yeah, not the only one, i was super confused as well. This post helped me understand aswell. Announcement should be updated with this better example

[Subtext]

Some mechanical questions that relate to sailing:

Do treasure map pirate chests operate under this new system, or do they have their own, old mechanics?

In a similar fashion, certain high tier and edgewater NPC vessels have a special kind of chest that spawns a guaranteed map piece, potentially 2 if the search roll succeeds. Does that chest operate under its own mechanics, or is there a probability for several map pieces to be gained from it under this new system?

Those chests seem to operate under the old system