Easiest Possible Fixes to Smeeta Looting (and modding) Meta(s)

[Grav_Starstrider]

Make looting (and weapon modding) stack additively rather than multiplicatively. Additionally, make Smeeta's Charm useful for farming the listed resources for a given planet by increasing the gain/yield/frequency of Charm, but prevent Charm from affecting rare/exclusive/mission-unique resources (such as Kuva, Steel Essence, Arbitration Essence, etc). Bump up these now-unaffected-by-Charm resource's base drop rates/quantities up by as much as +100% to compensate for the loss of doubling (and in ridiculously lucky/arranged circumstances that honestly shouldn't exist, octuple) individual drops of rares.
 

Further thoughts/explanation:

Spoiler

DE, you removed Wukong's ability to force a double-loot on Kuva, to prevent it from being a dominant strategy. You stripped Blink from Itzal and made it a universal passive for all Archwings. I really believe you should reduce the sensation of being obligated to take advantage of a purchased resource booster with a narrow chance of RNG giving you another doubling on top, by removing the Smeeta's exclusive ability to do said RNG double (or quadruple, or octuple). At least other Loot-Frames exist, but no other loot-pet exists, and the loot-pet's bonuses stack on top of the lootframe's resource-doubling abilities.

If DE implemented additive looting, they could actually make resource boosters more attractive for purchase (keeping them in business more lucratively, continuing to provide us a fun game) by simply making them additive by a much more absurd amount than Warframe's abilities allow for, independently of how much the Warframe (and companion) increases the loot. If each loot-source was separately added, you wouldn't feel the pressure of missing out on half, 3/4, or 7/8ths of the loot just by forgoing one or two sources of extra looting (This is the same problem I have with how multiplicatively effective weapon modding is, rather than additive). You'd feel like buying a resource booster whenever you wanted to gain more resources, rather than just when you're willing to go all in with resource drop chance boosters, resource boosters, loot frames, and playing with Smeeta.

It'd be far better to see loot (L) and Meta (M) dps mods and loot boosters affect the player's outcomes in an L*M equation, rather than an L*(2^M). Instead of DE having to decide where to balance looting/grinding and damage/durability on an exponential scale, they could do so far more accurately and with less stark differences between meta and non-meta approaches, by using a more simple additive system. Instead of DE having to balance against the far extremes of 2^8 times the amount of damage and loot, they'd be able to balance against 1*8. Instead of only feeling like your weapons or looting is effective if you choose every single loot/dps-increasing option, you only lose out on 1/8th of the damage or loot by dropping one of the optimal meta choices.

(sorry for the clickbait-y title)

[Voltage]

This is the fair approach and the right answer to this problem.

I'm going to give you a +1 for being on top of the root problem and having suggestions to fixing it, but DE has had every chance in the last 5 years of Charm's existence to address this. For example, this problem with Charm specifically was acknowledged and outlined shortly after the update that introduced the Smeeta Kavat. This loot multiplication issue was showing itself when Charm was multiplying resources like Argon Crystals and Neural Sensors by a massive factor due to their bundle size range as per:

Quote

• Changed Smeeta's Charm ability, specifically the Resource related Charm, to give a single Resource pickup rather than a random stack of resources that may not be the appropriate size for the chosen Resource type. 

Source: The Silver Grove: U1.2 + U1.3 (September 2nd, 2016)

DE just does not see root problems and Band-Aids their way through the years on top of a shaky foundation and little consistency. Modifiers like Charm and Berserker existing unchecked for years before being addressed (if at all) is unnecessary for the game's health and player investments, and we are seeing this same problem again with things like Credits True Masters Font double dipping which has now been in-game since October 27th, 2020.

There is just an incredible backlog of unchecked math, untested mechanics, and broken multiplication through major systems in Warframe no matter if it's resource gains or damage output as you mentioned. It would be really nice if this was all addressed, but DE fixing the root problems of Warframe seems more and more like an impossible dream each day that passes.

[(PSN)Boomstickman98]

2 hours ago, Grav_Starstrider said:

Make looting (and weapon modding) stack additively rather than multiplicatively. Additionally, make Smeeta's Charm useful for farming the listed resources for a given planet by increasing the gain/yield/frequency of Charm, but prevent Charm from affecting rare/exclusive/mission-unique resources (such as Kuva, Steel Essence, Arbitration Essence, etc). Bump up these now-unaffected-by-Charm resource's base drop rates/quantities up by as much as +100% to compensate for the loss of doubling (and in ridiculously lucky/arranged circumstances that honestly shouldn't exist, octuple) individual drops of rares.
 

Further thoughts/explanation:

  Reveal hidden contents

DE, you removed Wukong's ability to force a double-loot on Kuva, to prevent it from being a dominant strategy. You stripped Blink from Itzal and made it a universal passive for all Archwings. I really believe you should reduce the sensation of being obligated to take advantage of a purchased resource booster with a narrow chance of RNG giving you another doubling on top, by removing the Smeeta's exclusive ability to do said RNG double (or quadruple, or octuple). At least other Loot-Frames exist, but no other loot-pet exists, and the loot-pet's bonuses stack on top of the lootframe's resource-doubling abilities.

If DE implemented additive looting, they could actually make resource boosters more attractive for purchase (keeping them in business more lucratively, continuing to provide us a fun game) by simply making them additive by a much more absurd amount than Warframe's abilities allow for, independently of how much the Warframe (and companion) increases the loot. If each loot-source was separately added, you wouldn't feel the pressure of missing out on half, 3/4, or 7/8ths of the loot just by forgoing one or two sources of extra looting (This is the same problem I have with how multiplicatively effective weapon modding is, rather than additive). You'd feel like buying a resource booster whenever you wanted to gain more resources, rather than just when you're willing to go all in with resource drop chance boosters, resource boosters, loot frames, and playing with Smeeta.

It'd be far better to see loot (L) and Meta (M) dps mods and loot boosters affect the player's outcomes in an L*M equation, rather than an L*(2^M). Instead of DE having to decide where to balance looting/grinding and damage/durability on an exponential scale, they could do so far more accurately and with less stark differences between meta and non-meta approaches, by using a more simple additive system. Instead of DE having to balance against the far extremes of 2^8 times the amount of damage and loot, they'd be able to balance against 1*8. Instead of only feeling like your weapons or looting is effective if you choose every single loot/dps-increasing option, you only lose out on 1/8th of the damage or loot by dropping one of the optimal meta choices.

(sorry for the clickbait-y title)

So your solution is to have them nerf this too? Take away the only valid reason to run a kavat? If people get lucky, let them be lucky. All this seems like to me is that you are complaining that people are more efficient/lucky than you, and should not be allowed according to this logic. that is a very backwards way of thinking.

[Voltage]

11 minutes ago, (PSN)Boomstickman98 said:

So your solution is to have them nerf this too? Take away the only valid reason to run a kavat? If people get lucky, let them be lucky. All this seems like to me is that you are complaining that people are more efficient/lucky than you, and should not be allowed according to this logic. that is a very backwards way of thinking.

Smeeta's been bad for the game since the day it was added in Specters of the Rail. Your resource efficiency should not boil down to how high you can raise the power of 2 through complete randomization. This exact structure also encourages people to hold missions until they can hit 2^3 or higher on their Charm hence these "disappearance timers" being added to Steel and Vitus Essence. It also creates large disparities between gains within squads and compared to other loadouts.

You need to see past your personal player gains and take the game's overall health into account. Your take is quite short-sighted to be honest.

[(PSN)Boomstickman98]

10 hours ago, Voltage said:

You need to see past your personal player gains and take the game's overall health into account. Your take is quite short-sighted to be honest.

Except it doesn't hurt the game in the slightest, but nerfing smeetas of their only good ability would hurt the game to a degree.

[Grav_Starstrider]

On 2021-07-25 at 9:06 AM, (PSN)Boomstickman98 said:

Except it doesn't hurt the game in the slightest, but nerfing smeetas of their only good ability would hurt the game to a degree.

Your phrasing strongly suggests that you're arguing that the loot ability from Charm is the only reason people run Smeeta.

If DE's manufactured discontent (monetization of people's desire to skip grind/time with plat purchases from market or from players) is so severe that people experience a significant FoMO on chances of bonus loot that they feel they constantly have to run Smeeta for the Charm to stay ahead of the game's resource requirements, then the loot/reward balance is just screwy.

If removing Charm's boost to rare resources would negatively impact the game, you're indicating that it's a meta. I'd prefer to reduce FoMO and increase the value of player's personal choices and preferences, and their impact on their playstyles. I don't want DE balancing future resources costs, or asinine features like loot decay (such as the despawn timers on Steel and Vitus Essences), based on people exponentially stacking every possible resource booster that exists. THAT would be (and is currently) adversely affecting the game.

[NecroPed]

1 minute ago, Grav_Starstrider said:

Your phrasing strongly suggests that you're arguing that the loot ability from Charm is the only reason people run Smeeta.

If DE's manufactured discontent (monetization of people's desire to skip grind/time with plat purchases from market or from players) is so severe that people experience a significant FoMO on chances of bonus loot that they feel they constantly have to run Smeeta for the Charm to stay ahead of the game's resource requirements, then the loot/reward balance is just screwy.

If removing Charm's boost to rare resources would negatively impact the game, you're indicating that it's a meta. I'd prefer to reduce FoMO and increase the value of player's personal choices and preferences, and their impact on their playstyles. I don't want DE balancing future resources costs, or asinine features like loot decay (such as the despawn timers on Steel and Vitus Essences), based on people exponentially stacking every possible resource booster that exists. THAT would be (and is currently) adversely affecting the game.

I totally get where you're coming from but I just want to say I almost exclusively use Smeeta but only because my dojo needs millions of resources for decorations. It's a hell of a slog to grind the resources for. I've already dumped millions and still need to dump millions into it. If smeeta charm was nerfed it would make that task absolute hell for me (mainly because I refuse to set a requirement to donate for my clan). If it weren't for me needing so much resources for my dojo I would probably be using smeeta for very particular content, like fishing/SE etc. and very rarely for anything else.

But, in saying that the rare resources are what I need the least of and removing the buff (or limiting it) for them wouldn't have much impact on my dojo (though I've stocked up lots of rare resources because of smeeta I can't say I'd easily earn enough without it). 

And while all the buffs from smeeta can be helpful the resource one is all I care about and is what I use it for. I do want to use other companions more and have loadout ideas I want to put in practice but smeetas resource boost is just helping reduce my grind so much i don't see myself picking anything else often until I finish my dojo. 

I don't want to say smeeta should or shouldn't be changed because I'm gonna have some bias due to having such hefty requirements for my dojo. But, I would understand if DE felt the need to change it. It's an easy situation to piss off a lot of people though.

[sunderthefirmament]

10 minutes ago, Grav_Starstrider said:

Your phrasing strongly suggests that you're arguing that the loot ability from Charm is the only reason people run Smeeta.

If DE's manufactured discontent (monetization of people's desire to skip grind/time with plat purchases from market or from players) is so severe that people experience a significant FoMO on chances of bonus loot that they feel they constantly have to run Smeeta for the Charm to stay ahead of the game's resource requirements, then the loot/reward balance is just screwy.

If removing Charm's boost to rare resources would negatively impact the game, you're indicating that it's a meta. I'd prefer to reduce FoMO and increase the value of player's personal choices and preferences, and their impact on their playstyles. I don't want DE balancing future resources costs, or asinine features like loot decay (such as the despawn timers on Steel and Vitus Essences), based on people exponentially stacking every possible resource booster that exists. THAT would be (and is currently) adversely affecting the game.

I can't speak for everyone, but Charm is the only reason I use Smeeta over any other pet.  Mischief is a decent ability, as pet abilities go, but I don't even bother with it due to how it might reduce the chances of my Smeeta activating Charm.  

 

I'm not saying Smeeta is in a place right now that's healthy for the game.  I would be open to changes, not that my opinion means much.  But I'd be okay with not feeling like I need to bring Smeeta to every mission where resources matter (Kuva, Steel Essence, Vitus Essence).

[Grav_Starstrider]

On 2021-07-24 at 10:25 PM, Voltage said:

DE just does not see root problems and Band-Aids their way through the years on top of a shaky foundation and little consistency. 

There is just an incredible backlog of unchecked math, untested mechanics, and broken multiplication through major systems in Warframe 

Busted math and inconsistency is 100% why I think DE needs to disentangle themselves from a bunch of these silly multiplicative interactions. It only exacerbates a "double down on every DPS/Loot meta at once" mentality, for those that experience a FoMO on contribution to the DPS and the gains from looting in this looter shooter, and player "abuse" of that leads them to "balancing" with bandaids like the essence timers you brought up.

The timer is so dumb honestly though, it just reduces the window of time available to perform the same abuse. 

I want to only miss out on 1/8th of the potential loot or DPS when I drop one of the meta components/mods, not 1/2.

And I'd like resource/currency costs and enemy EHP to be based on meta weapons and modding and looting setups that are only (less than)  10x as effective as the non-meta setups.

The sheer *slimness* of enemy level ranges at which a given (non-cheesing/mechanics-abusing) loadout feels challenging without being unfair is ridiculous, as is the degree to which it's trivial with cheese or prior to that level. And the fact that you're losing out on 1/2 or 3/4 or 7/8ths or more of your potential Kuva reward on Kuva-awarding missions by not taking a Smeeta just removes player choice. Just like Itzal took away choice in regards to mobility among archwings, before they bestowed Blink to all. Just like Archwings still make K Drive an inefficient/inferior choice under most circumstances. 

DE needs to be willing to make more controversial baseline rework-type decisions that make the game better. Blink was better for the game. Melee rework was better. The recent updates to physical and elemental damage makes the game better (although that's a bit incomplete and needs more). Gotta keep looking at both the broad picture, and the immediately adjacent/related picture, to keep things from swinging wildly between meta and useless, and forcing players to choose between being meta/ efficient or useless/inefficient.

Bit of a soapbox but oh well. Think it'd be good for the game to take it to heart.

[(PSN)Boomstickman98]

27 minutes ago, Grav_Starstrider said:

 

If DE's manufactured discontent (monetization of people's desire to skip grind/time with plat purchases from market or from players) is so severe that people experience a significant FoMO on chances of bonus loot that they feel they constantly have to run Smeeta for the Charm to stay ahead of the game's resource requirements, then the loot/reward balance is just screwy.

Yet, Hema says Hello. are Mutagen samples farmable? Yeah. Is it efficient with anything other than a Smeeta? HECK NO. 

 

19 minutes ago, NecroPed said:

I totally get where you're coming from but I just want to say I almost exclusively use Smeeta but only because my dojo needs millions of resources for decorations. It's a hell of a slog to grind the resources for. I've already dumped millions and still need to dump millions into it. If smeeta charm was nerfed it would make that task absolute hell for me (mainly because I refuse to set a requirement to donate for my clan). If it weren't for me needing so much resources for my dojo I would probably be using smeeta for very particular content, like fishing/SE etc. and very rarely for anything else.

Honestly, this.

[Grav_Starstrider]

19 minutes ago, NecroPed said:

I totally get where you're coming from but I just want to say I almost exclusively use Smeeta but only because my dojo needs millions of resources for decorations. It's a hell of a slog to grind the resources for. I've already dumped millions and still need to dump millions into it. If smeeta charm was nerfed it would make that task absolute hell for me (mainly because I refuse to set a requirement to donate for my clan). If it weren't for me needing so much resources for my dojo I would probably be using smeeta for very particular content, like fishing/SE etc. and very rarely for anything else.

But, in saying that the rare resources are what I need the least of and removing the buff (or limiting it) for them wouldn't have much impact on my dojo (though I've stocked up lots of rare resources because of smeeta I can't say I'd easily earn enough without it). 

And while all the buffs from smeeta can be helpful the resource one is all I care about and is what I use it for. I do want to use other companions more and have loadout ideas I want to put in practice but smeetas resource boost is just helping reduce my grind so much i don't see myself picking anything else often until I finish my dojo. 

I don't want to say smeeta should or shouldn't be changed because I'm gonna have some bias due to having such hefty requirements for my dojo. But, I would understand if DE felt the need to change it. It's an easy situation to piss off a lot of people though.

 

18 minutes ago, sunderthefirmament said:

I can't speak for everyone, but Charm is the only reason I use Smeeta over any other pet.  Mischief is a decent ability, as pet abilities go, but I don't even bother with it due to how it might reduce the chances of my Smeeta activating Charm.  

 

I'm not saying Smeeta is in a place right now that's healthy for the game.  I would be open to changes, not that my opinion means much.  But I'd be okay with not feeling like I need to bring Smeeta to every mission where resources matter (Kuva, Steel Essence, Vitus Essence).

These would be why I'd wish for them to make "resource sinks" (recreational stuff like micromanaging a perfect Riven roll, making Dojos, experimenting with Helminth, etc) be composed mostly of either common resources with a high cost that could be more affected by Charm, or far lower quantities of rarer resources that can't be Charmed. And have both hypothetical costs set around the assumption of only having looting be capable of being additively increased instead of the assumption that it can be multiplied several times to an exponentially greater amount.

Having Charm affect both Rare and Common resources that one both actively and/or passively farms for, just means that anyone aiming to get anything will always want to run Smeeta at all times. I'm personally okay with the most effective looting option being a resource booster if all costs were lowered or drop rates/quantities increased and that I wouldn't make more or less loot on or off the booster by equipping a Smeeta or looting Hydroid/Nekros, etc.

I just want each individual looting option to have value without pushing players to double, quadruple, and octuple down on resource gathering, and have drops/costs set accordingly.

[DarkSkysz]

Companions are just... extras for me. I only care if they will bring some QoL in my gameplay.

Like using Helios on new content, or Huras for spys, or smeeta for anything else.

When I finish a spider hunt and see 4x cores there I will be happy, but I won't blame DE and call their game trash if I only saw 2 there.

Remember? Only an extra... not mandatory.

[Deminisis]

If smeeta stopped doubling kuva and SE, honestly I wouldn't use it anymore except for brand new resources added in future updates.

I wouldn't be happy to lose this bonus, but I would return to sentinels at least.

[FrostDragoon]

17 hours ago, Grav_Starstrider said:

Your phrasing strongly suggests that you're arguing that the loot ability from Charm is the only reason people run Smeeta.

If DE's manufactured discontent (monetization of people's desire to skip grind/time with plat purchases from market or from players) is so severe that people experience a significant FoMO on chances of bonus loot that they feel they constantly have to run Smeeta for the Charm to stay ahead of the game's resource requirements, then the loot/reward balance is just screwy.

If removing Charm's boost to rare resources would negatively impact the game, you're indicating that it's a meta. I'd prefer to reduce FoMO and increase the value of player's personal choices and preferences, and their impact on their playstyles. I don't want DE balancing future resources costs, or asinine features like loot decay (such as the despawn timers on Steel and Vitus Essences), based on people exponentially stacking every possible resource booster that exists. THAT would be (and is currently) adversely affecting the game.

I'm not sure I disagree with your premises, but I'm quite sure I disagree with your conclusion. DE flips a coin on each new feature to decide if they want to account for people's resource gains or not, then throws the coin away by making you farm brand new resources that didn't exist before. Charm isn't balanced around as far as anyone can tell (or prove). However, removing/nerfing Charm would remove an element of player choice with no guarantee that DE will do anything to make up for it or design around its absence. They simply aren't that consistent about anything in the game, so we should (wisely) assume they will consistently be inconsistent.

Best thing is to leave Charm alone. Use it if you like it, and don't if you don't. I never felt pressured to. Almost never do. I'm not behind any resource curve. I do like having the option to use it when I want to farm certain things a bit faster, though.

[FrostDragoon]

11 hours ago, Deminisis said:

If smeeta stopped doubling kuva and SE, honestly I wouldn't use it anymore except for brand new resources added in future updates.

I wouldn't be happy to lose this bonus, but I would return to sentinels at least.

Personally I've favored Crescent Vulpaphyla simply because he constantly auto-revives so I don't lose my Vacuum or Animal Instinct that often or for very long and don't have to kill myself to get them back.

[Deminisis]

1 hour ago, FrostDragoon said:

 and don't have to kill myself to get them back.

They did add a parazon mod to revive sentinels. Haven't tested how practical it is to actually pull off 3 finishers in a minute.

[FrostDragoon]

12 minutes ago, Deminisis said:

They did add a parazon mod to revive sentinels. Haven't tested how practical it is to actually pull off 3 finishers in a minute.

I have it equipped, but have yet to actually use it this way. Stuff just dies too fast for it to be feasible. Also, there aren't enough eligible enemies to make viable. They should just make it happen any time you do a parazon finisher.

[Bakaguya-sama]

Cap smeeta at 2x.  

If the buff proc again, refresh or add to the duration. Don't let it grow exponentially.  EZPZ.  

On 2021-07-25 at 8:06 AM, (PSN)Boomstickman98 said:

Except it doesn't hurt the game in the slightest,

Except it does hurt the game by severely reducing the variety of pet choice down to 1.  Now, yes many of the pets mechanics are outdated, and should be changed and buffed, but as long as Smeeta stays the way it is, it will remain the only choice for any players farming any kind of resource (so basically everyone except for the veterans MR30/L1s who have been playing for years and sit on huge stockpiles of everything).  

Case in point: Panzer Vulpaphyla. AoE viral status. Doesn't need to be revived. Can make you effectively immortal with Matyr Symbiosis and Hunter Recovery as long as it is alive. Basically the perfect pet that every other pet wishes to be. Except... if you are farming something, you still need Smeeta loot/exp buff, because loot buff is better than all of the above. 

So even if DE buff all the other pets up the wazoo, people will still use Smeeta 90% of the time.  Loot buff as a stat that competes with other stat ruins every game it touches.  

[FrostDragoon]

19 minutes ago, Bakaguya-sama said:

Except it does hurt the game by severely reducing the variety of pet choice down to 1. 

Outright false. Try again.

I frequently take Carrier, Helios, Oxylus, and Adarza over Smeeta because the resource farm aspect of Charm isn't actually that important unless I'm desperate for a particular resource--which I'm not.

19 minutes ago, Bakaguya-sama said:

people will still use Smeeta 90% of the time

I doubt I even use it 9% of the time. If your entire argument hinges on this assumption, you're going to have to do a lot better, especially since we don't actually have the usage statistics for all the pets.

 

Edit:

Just checked. 2.3% usage rate, fwiw.

[(PSN)Boomstickman98]

1 minute ago, FrostDragoon said:

Outright false. Try again.

I doubt I even use it 9% of the time. If your entire argument hinges on this assumption, you're going to have to do a lot better, especially since we don't actually have the usage statistics for all the pets.

thank you

[FrostDragoon]

I asked region to PM me their usage, just out of curiosity. I cut off their names to avoid privacy issues for those players. I realize this sample size is quite small, but it was randomly pooled.

I also randomly checked some users to see theirs.
 

 

Let's not exaggerate the importance of Charm here. It's completely fine. It should be strong so it's enticing, but it's far from the "only" or "meta" option people in this thread are making it out to be.

 

Also, inb4 "cherry-picking results."

You can freely do this exercise yourself. Just join Region or Trade and check random profiles to see for yourself. That's all I did.

[(PSN)Boomstickman98]

4 minutes ago, FrostDragoon said:

I asked region to PM me their usage, just out of curiosity. I cut off their names to avoid privacy issues for those players. I realize this sample size is quite small, but it was randomly pooled.

I also randomly checked some users to see theirs.
 

 

Let's not exaggerate the importance of Charm here. It's completely fine. It should be strong so it's enticing, but it's far from the "only" or "meta" option people in this thread are making it out to be.

24.9% here, but I was one of two people to farm for Hema in my current clan, from scratch no less! My Panzer is actually my 3rd most used, surpassed by Smeeta in first and Vasca in Second. It isn't that bad honestly. I barely use my companions anymore anyway.

[Grav_Starstrider]

1 minute ago, FrostDragoon said:

Outright false. Try again.

I doubt I even use it 9% of the time. If your entire argument hinges on this assumption, you're going to have to do a lot better, especially since we don't actually have the usage statistics for all the pets.

 

Just now, (PSN)Boomstickman98 said:

thank you

It's totally fine if you insist we're not able to speak to your opinions and preferences.

But we're expressing ours, and the behavior we see in certain mission types.

Overwhelmingly, I see Smeetas in Arbitration (EVEN THOUGH THEY CAN'T BE REVIVED [at least not normally] when they go down), Steel Path, and Kuva-farming missions, because the chance at doubling, quadrupling, octupling, etc, the loot from these missions is too good for these players to pass up.

Just now, FrostDragoon said:

I asked region to PM me their usage, just out of curiosity. I cut off their names to avoid privacy issues for those players. I realize this sample size is quite small, but it was randomly pooled.

-snip-

Let's not exaggerate the importance of Charm here. It's completely fine. It should be strong so it's enticing, but it's far from the "only" or "meta" option people in this thread are making it out to be.

It's not outright false. I'm viewing the stats on my 125+ strong friends list (half of them randomly friended after silly/enjoyable conversations or random missions), and the only people I'm seeing without Smeeta as their first or second-most used companion, are the ones that only have 2 or 3 companions mastered total and haven't happened to have gotten any Kavats yet. When Carrier was the only option for Vacuum for ages, and then only Sentinels were, and only recently were pets graced with Fetch, you can't judge just by their percentages, as veteran players have played thousands of hours with Carrier for it's vacuum alone. The only reasonable basis for comparison is within the pet-companion category itself, and then the trend becomes overwhelmingly clear. I stopped looking after seeing 40 that have a Smeeta use it the most out of all of their pet-companions, and they're the only non-sentinel companion that I ever see as their top-used sentinel/companion on their profile highlights.

The same way that players overwhelmingly used Itzal for its reliable mobility, and the ability had to get nerfed/shared-around for players to feel like there wasn't only 1 reasonable choice to use for mobility, I believe Smeeta needs to see some of the same nerfs.

34 minutes ago, Bakaguya-sama said:

Cap smeeta at 2x.  

If the buff proc again, refresh or add to the duration. Don't let it grow exponentially.  EZPZ.  

Except it does hurt the game by severely reducing the variety of pet choice down to 1.  Now, yes many of the pets mechanics are outdated, and should be changed and buffed, but as long as Smeeta stays the way it is, it will remain the only choice for any players farming any kind of resource (so basically everyone except for the veterans MR30/L1s who have been playing for years and sit on huge stockpiles of everything).  

Case in point: Panzer Vulpaphyla. AoE viral status. Doesn't need to be revived. Can make you effectively immortal with Matyr Symbiosis and Hunter Recovery as long as it is alive. Basically the perfect pet that every other pet wishes to be. Except... if you are farming something, you still need Smeeta loot/exp buff, because loot buff is better than all of the above. 

So even if DE buff all the other pets up the wazoo, people will still use Smeeta 90% of the time.  Loot buff as a stat that competes with other stat ruins every game it touches.  

I love everything you said but the hyperbolic assertion that Smeeta's used 90% of the time. Some people have self-control, and stats will likely very quickly prove "90%" wrong unless looking at extremely specific demographics, like MR20+ and the last year or two's stats in isolation, not account-lifespan-long usage.

Amazingly simple suggestion for the buff proc though. how have any of us missed this??? That's a good solution to compress the outcome of loot-meta-abuser's maximum output, so that DE doesn't have to plan around their maximum being so high.

 

I still believe that all of the looters should be additive rather than multiplicative/exponential though. The ideal/thorough implementation would not be that your speed in power-farming for resources would result in a net nerf, but rather that people not opting to party up with a Nekros, Hydroid/Khora, Ivara, and both booster-types and a Smeeta, would only see themselves looting at 1/4th or 1/8th your looting speed at worst, rather than 1/16th or 1/32 or worse.

[Grav_Starstrider]

If I've counted correctly, there's 37 different distinct sentinel/pet companions. Anything above 3% could theoretically be construed to indicate a clear bias for the given pets over others. Sub-10% bias doesn't actually prove a lack of bias, you need to look at it in the context of the missions, or the pet category. Especially in light of my previous point about Carrier and then all Sentinels having Vacuum before pets did. And again, just do arbitrations, steel path, or kuva missions. If it's not an immortal companion type, it's going to be the Smeeta, by an absurd frequency.

[(PSN)Boomstickman98]

So from what I understand, OP refuses to understand any opposing viewpoints, only the viewpoints that match their own. In other words, not worth our time.