Life Support Module pickups suffer a *massive* drop rate reduction when playing stealthy

[Hexerin]

Been holding this one close to the chest for a while to gather enough of a sample size to make this claim with certainty. Well, the time has come to make a post about it, because there is zero possibility that this is wrong with the sample size I've collected.

When playing stealthy (for example, Ivara with a build that allows you to stay in Prowl permanently), enemies have a massively reduced drop rate for Life Support Module pickups. I'm talking on the order of at least 90% reduction. Sometimes there are so few pickups, that even with activating every Life Support Tower, there's barely enough life support to extract as soon as it becomes available. I haven't encountered a "no win scenario" at least, but it's come close a few times so I doubt it's impossible.

Compare this to running the mission "loud" (just brute forcing through the enemy with a strong build), where life support is perpetually at 99-100% with Life Support Module pickups littering the map, and never touching a Life Support Tower (because there's never a need to). Consistently.

There's a very real, and very obvious, issue here.

[Tiltskillet]

It sounds like you're saying it's definitely a drop chance issue rather than a KPM issue.  Is that correct?

[Hexerin]

8 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

It sounds like you're saying it's definitely a drop chance issue rather than a KPM issue.  Is that correct?

Yea, definitely a drop rate issue. The only differing factor that I can think of offhand is alertness state. When running my Ivara, they never (or at least only rarely) leave the "suspicious" state (partially filled arrow). Whereas when running loud, they are all obviously fully alerted (filled arrows).

Edited November 15, 2023 by Hexerin

[VibingCat]

On 2023-11-15 at 7:56 AM, Hexerin said:

Yea, definitely a drop rate issue. The only differing factor that I can think of offhand is alertness state. When running my Ivara, they never (or at least only rarely) leave the "suspicious" state (partially filled arrow). Whereas when running loud, they are all obviously fully alerted (filled arrows).

What if I had an invisible Octavia with Resonator? Do you think that would reduce the drop chance too?