Farming in general does more people farming an area cause less drops?

With the addition of the traveler an assumption I have made years ago seems clearer. Basically what I assumed back then and still do today is that farming of locations are zone specific and affected by the number of people farming it. This special code reduces drops. Now elite areas I believe are exempt from this rule but basic areas are affected. Proof you ask is nothing more than going out after the traveler moves. For lucky ones that are online when the traveler moves you have an increased chance to get the collectibles he searches for. As time passes and more and more people farm the area the drops rate lessens.

Example- this week rot wallow tusks. Hot farming areas are Pongmei Valley and Mount Qinkai. You can tell by the amount of people exiting to the zone that these are the hot spots for farming. There are a lot of rot wallows on both areas. Well I tried these areas for an hour 30 min each zone with solo Ritulalist spirit poop build. And I yielded 1 rot wallow tusk. Only one tusk for an hour worth of farming. Well then I tired a less known spot and I yielded 5-8 per run I had twenty-five in less then 30 minutes. Call it luck if you wish I don’t. I have seen it before on other farms like stone carvings etc...

So here I ask (If someone can add a poll that would be great)

What are your thoughts on this?

A. I believe a reduced drop rate code exists and it is zone/number of people farming the area specific.

B. I think it is all luck

C. I think it is something else (please explain)

Maishang Hills, exit Eredon Terrace and head West, perchance? It was the only place that dropped tusks for me after a few fruitless runs through the other places you mentioned.

As for whether farming (or over-farming) affects the drops of other players, I'm not sure. You would have to consider differences between loot-scaled and non-loot-scaled items, but from my experience I haven't had any difficulty farming the items for Nicholas, regardless of whether it was at the time of his new location, during the week or the hours leading to his relocation, even in heavily-farmed areas. Therefore, it's more likely to be luck.

Painbringer, I'm not sure what causes it, but I have noticed this too. Look where farming has everyone hitting the door and then go somewhere else to find the drops. Maybe we're both hallucinating, and without statistics we can not prove that we are not. But it sure seems like that to me.

A. I have had these same suspicions.

I also think the amount of people in a zone affects drops one way or the other, but it's quite hard to prove it. Your example is probably something alot more people have had, but there are probably just as many opposite examples.

A. for me too. I always seem to have better luck with drops (such as greens) when farming them out of peak play hours.
I have been MQSC'ing for the last 4 days - did seem to be a reduction in the number of tusks dropped after Nick started asking for them and as more people farmed them.

Perhaps I'm a newbie...

But, if we're farming in different instances, why would one farmer's farming influence another farmer's drops?

I mean, it's all instanced, isn't it?

I don't think the number of instances affects any of the drops in an instance. There is no proof, and ANet has responded that there is no special code of this nature. What has happened in the past is that people have found somewhat better drops in some areas, like White Mantle in Riverside mission and the Ettins, and then drops in those areas were adjusted.

I received 4 in Pongmei Valley one run, 5 the next. Based on these results, I conclude that I'm stealing your drops.

edit: B. Luck

what i want to know is why can't ANET just TELL US what their farming code is? it would save us a lot of speculation and hassle. i guess it depends on what it is exactly, but it's not something that would be terribly easy to abuse right?

Because then we'd be able to optimize our farming runs and the guru QQ would be epic.

Its all luck and chance, do you think your getting robbed cuz you arnt getting kills? or will you do what anet told us to do along time ago which is....switch areas...do 3 runs, then go to the next farming area and repeat. even tho they "got rid of the farming code" i feel its still there and have been using this method since i started playing.

I often suspect the same thing. By "anti-farming code" they meant they just got rid of the popup telling you you triggered the anti-farming code

A. I've always had the same suspiction.

I think it works this way: More people going into the zone = fewer drops across the board and lesser quality. This means that any farming hotspot yields fewer and less valuable drops as the rate of people farming it increases. Most collectibles are only available in a handfull of places while others are available just about everywhere in a campaign. Location specific drops become harder to farm as the traveler week progresses. I think this pretty much confirms this suspiction.

Anyone with statistical data on drops for a zone should probably repeat tests when the traveller lands in that zone, just to see if there's a difference or not.

Galie had posted and SPECIFICALLY REFUTED that this urban legend existed years ago. And yet, people still believe it.

B. I think it is all luck

3 Runs, 7, 5 and 6 tusks in Pongmei Valley.

Might be possible they added something for Nick, but in general I doubt trophy drops are based on number farming zone.

I base this on personal experience farming raptors to R10 Asura on 4 characters, and always getting tons of saurian bones, especially when events items are dropping (zone even MORE heavily farmed). Raptors are farmed literally 24/7, so there should be almost no trophy drops, particularly during events.

However, I was a bit peeved when I farmed MQ for 2 accounts, and saw my trophy drops as follows, per run:
6, 4, 0, 1, 2, 4, 4*(last run I quit when I hit 20 tusks, and hadn't even killed 1/3 of the buggers). I then received another 3 tusks from each account on the short run to Nick...

It would be interesting if ANet implemented code to reduce drop rates in areas where more people are farming to encourage them to farm elsewhere.

I thought the only farm gold that existed was the one that gave you only 1/8 the gold (money) drops but at the same time 8/8 of the item drops when you are alone so prices for items would decrease rather then increase (I remember when sup vigor was 100K) with farmers.

A. for me too. I simply cannot believ anything else. The results speak for themselves.

B. it's all luck

i'm one of the early ones in my allaince to get on the nich band wagon early. but unless its a super easy item(charr hides) it takes me hours to get a item. where a friend who is later to party can get them in under 3 hours. >>