I’m not sure how difficult it would be to implement this but if sweeper mules got a nerf to their looting cycle such as only having 1 minute to loot instead of 3 the efficiency of the strat is severely reduced. You can still do multimage by looting every minute but it would just make it less comfortable to perform. This should be only applied for other party members looting for you so it doesn’t affect solo client players looting patterns.
Absolutely not unless non-Ulu/Ice Valley maps get severe drop rate buffs to make the single mage viable. Part of the reason why these two maps are popular is how easy it is to loot simultaneously on them while farming with multiple mages with multiple screens, so you are just punishing the farmers who are more creative with farming spots. And your suggestion will just be a mild annoyance to the multiscreen multimage multichannel farmers who are already looting continuously: you mainly mess with the multimage farmers who operate on just one computer. I've heard of octomage with a friend looting and splitting drops, and if that really exists your suggestion won't curb it either. Not to mention you could push players to Ulu2 (easy mode looting) which is already one of the most saturated maps in the entire game.
I'm not sure why there are people looting constantly rather than timing it with how long it takes to loot the map before items expire in 3 minutes because it's easier. Multiple screens only help you control your mages so they stay in 1 spot but it doesn't affect looting pattern so they'll be affected by this the most since they'll need to loot both channels every minute. If people still octomage after that I honestly think they deserve it and quadmage farm isn't that much better than petri leech.
They do that because they have that many mages and channels. Or at least near-continuous looting. At most you'll just make them pause when npcing equips. The looter is much easier to control with multiscreen. It is not about the mages who just press one button and teleport if necessary. I reiterate: you are mainly punishing the farmers who are using maps less traveled, because these maps are much harder to loot on. Or questers trying to get things like 1k toy drums without spending hours. You might think you are helping single mage mains with this but since they can hardly boss outside of niche things like making 3 I/Ls to down Nibergen in 30mins with CL skill macro, their best way to make money without drama and turning the game into a job (leech) is... multimage. Any nerfs to mage farming should not be implemented. Instead, bring other meso-making avenues up to standard and give single mages content they can participate in without being a charity case. Was recently brought to CWKPQ (on my bishop mule... they were desperate!) and what an ice-cold mess that is for an arch mage. Latest example is the bizarre invisible snow nerf last Christmas.... for what exactly?
The whole essence of mutlimage farming is the flexibility of when you want to do it, you don't need to waste time recruiting/finding a buyer. For example, with Vday APQ rates most people average somewhere around 14 apples, thats around 115-120m. A good APQ party should be around 45min-50min, 115m per hour is not a bad deal. Ulu/Pepe farming is somewhere between 150-200m per hr, but you also need invested 4-6 4th job mages. The main issue with trying to APQ is the amount of downtime of players themselves: Recruiting the party Someone fell into the toilet on their bathroom break Guy went to go pick up his ubereats Level 47 Assassin needs to collect keys when all 5 other members are inside etc. Also most people who multimage farm are pretty devoted players, and are willing to grind it out. I honestly think if you do as much active content as people do farm, the rate of meso difference isn't too bad. People cannot be comparing their rates doing a HT, 1 set of APQ, and the ellin/pap nx runs (approx. 3hrs of content) to someone doing 6 hours of ulu farming. If you apqed for 6 hours straight I honestly think your meso rate is pretty good and reliable. The main issue with both APQ and content like HT/CWK is the downtimes though, but that's human error. While you get less apples off vday event, apple prices are usually 9.5-11m off of Vday event and I would say most people average around 10 apples, 100m an hour is not bad, especially if you account for the cost of creating an APQ character: Marry a level 40+ character
