Evolution of Aquapolis Etiquette

[Eifahlwyn]

Thanks everyone for sharing your opinions on this topic. I'm actually surprised to see there is still such a divergence of views when it comes to what is fair considering the trend I've seen on my server. Still as many have pointed out, and which I fully agree with and currently do, is that you really need to limit doing maps with people you trust and share the some outlook as you about what is fair.

Outside, big drops go to the map owner
Inside everyone lots. Lets face it, everyone takes part in killing the monsters, why should 1 person get all of the chest loot? They can't kill all the mobs, Argos the cyclops or Dave the treasure Goblin by themselves.

That is absolutely how I feel as well and I do like the suggestions I've seen about overworld drops going to the map owner and inside is a ffa. I think I'll start using that as my standard rule for when I organize map groups.

[Alberel]

I've had a few discussions about this with people and ultimately come to the conclusion that anything other than a FFA on loot inside the aquapolis is unfair due to the group nature of the content coupled with random chance of getting entry.

If you have a group of 4 players, each with one dragonskin map, and only one of them gets an aquapolis portal then the other three players are being forced to endure 20 minutes of a dungeon to purely benefit only one of those players. Conversely that player could not even do the aquapolis without those other players so to expect them to help them clear it for no reward is extremely selfish.

I've also noticed that the players demanding all the loot only do so when they actually get the portal themselves. If they don't get a portal from their maps they instead demand a FFA on loot from other players' portals. They're selfish hypocrites.

The fairest way to handle aquapolis loot is to give everyone in the party that brought a map a FFA on that loot. Without the whole group NO ONE would get any loot at all.

[Reinha]

I've had a few discussions about this with people and ultimately come to the conclusion that anything other than a FFA on loot inside the aquapolis is unfair due to the group nature of the content coupled with random chance of getting entry.

If you have a group of 4 players, each with one dragonskin map, and only one of them gets an aquapolis portal then the other three players are being forced to endure 20 minutes of a dungeon to purely benefit only one of those players. Conversely that player could not even do the aquapolis without those other players so to expect them to help them clear it for no reward is extremely selfish.

I've also noticed that the players demanding all the loot only do so when they actually get the portal themselves. If they don't get a portal from their maps they instead demand a FFA on loot from other players' portals. They're selfish hypocrites.

The fairest way to handle aquapolis loot is to give everyone in the party that brought a map a FFA on that loot. Without the whole group NO ONE would get any loot at all.

This so much. Everyone brings the same amount of maps and everyone gets to loot. There is a 50% chance a map doesn't open a portal which means half the map owners would end the runs with barely any loot instead of a more even distribution. It's fairer to give everyone a chance as long as they contributed equally towards getting the maps.

[FoxyAreku]

Never seen anything but 'map owner gets everything' even on first week.

I let people roll on things myself because I just don't care but it kinda makes sense that if it's your map the good stuff should be your loot.

Also the argument that the other players are getting no reward for coming in with the map owner is kinda silly, since there is plenty of gil and randomly distributed loot that is worth a pretty penny in there as well.

[Eifahlwyn]

If you have a group of 4 players, each with one dragonskin map, and only one of them gets an aquapolis portal then the other three players are being forced to endure 20 minutes of a dungeon to purely benefit only one of those players. Conversely that player could not even do the aquapolis without those other players so to expect them to help them clear it for no reward is extremely selfish.

I've also noticed that the players demanding all the loot only do so when they actually get the portal themselves. If they don't get a portal from their maps they instead demand a FFA on loot from other players' portals. They're selfish hypocrites.

Very well put and I completely agree. Of course there are plenty of players who firmly believe in the "my map my loot" philosophy and disregard or downplay the group effort involved with doing these maps. While we can endlessly debate the value of the gil, items, and tomestones a player gets for simply participating in a Aquapolis run the simple fact is it is not fun carrying a player through that dungeon and passing on every item that drops. A lot of the excitement of doing the Aquapolis is clearing each floor to see what is inside the next chest because you actually have a shot at winning it.

[NaesakiAshwell]

I don't think I'll ever run into this issue just due to the nature that I only do maps with my friends/fc and as I said earlier we decided together that the map owner gets the loot.

[Waterdeep]

I don't think I'll ever run into this issue just due to the nature that I only do maps with my friends/fc and as I said earlier we decided together that the map owner gets the loot.

Same here. Sometimes people get salty that they get booted out of the dungeon in the first room and someone else goes seven levels deep, but most of the time the random drops everyone gets make up for it.

[Beckett]

When my friends and I go, we only have two rules: If a minion drops that you don't have and are intending to use, roll Need. If you only want it to sell it, roll Greed. Roll Greed on everything else.

[DroFrehter]

The "Map owner gets the loot" has been something my fc/party members have been doing right out of the gate. The primary reason for this is simply due to Dragonskin maps being restricted to one farmed map every 18 hours, somewhat pricey maps on the market board aside. It's just too costly to invest in a very heavily time consuming event, only to receive nothing in the end. It'd feel empty, knowing you've waited 18 hours for someone else to get something interesting. Something that requires personal involvement shouldn't feel as disconnecting as the lottery.

I support this statement so hard. This is what my FC has done and it works well for us. I wouldn't expect this to go over well with randoms since a lot of people are just out for themselves so just be wary of who you run with.

[Nezerius]

Very well put and I completely agree. Of course there are plenty of players who firmly believe in the "my map my loot" philosophy and disregard or downplay the group effort involved with doing these maps. While we can endlessly debate the value of the gil, items, and tomestones a player gets for simply participating in a Aquapolis run the simple fact is it is not fun carrying a player through that dungeon and passing on every item that drops. A lot of the excitement of doing the Aquapolis is clearing each floor to see what is inside the next chest because you actually have a shot at winning it.

I'm probably biased in the sense that I run dragonskin maps with friends, but I don't run it simply for the loot, I run it because I find it's fun content to run with friends. The group I run with goes with the rule "Greed on everything, Map owner can decide whether to roll need, greed or pass".

The last time I ran maps, my own maps only got me to room 6 once, with someone else's map getting to room 7 once, and the rest was mostly room 1-4 runs. After a few hours of maps, I ended with around 550k in gil drops, and a bunch of materials to sell. It's not like the entire group goes unrewarded.