Backpack Experiment - Denies Item Drop?

[Nathan Quake]

A few days ago, I conducted an experiment to determine if looking at the backpack every time I die denies me my item drop. (Just so you know, I did this before realising it was an experiment.)

For 5 days, every time I died, I looked at my backpack and scrolled through a few pages before resuming the game again. Throughout these 5 days, I did not find a single item.

However, the day after the 5th day, I have found about 5-6 items in 3-4 hours.

Coincidence? Anyone else had the same problem? If you haven't been finding as many items as you like, stop looking at your backpack.

Maybe this a ploy by Valve to keep people interested in the game? If no-one looks at their backpack, they might assume that you don't care, therefore giving you items so you do care.

Discuss.

 

[lana]

I believe it's just a coincidence.

 

[Nitram]

The item drop limit resets at Thursdays, I usually find all my items thursday, friday, and maybe a few on saturday. So if you started your project on sunday, you have 5 days until thursday when the drop limit resets, and you find quite a few in the first couple of hours.

 

[PL-7764]

I didn't get any item drops this week somehow, except for a Chargin' Targe that showed up when I started the game yesterday. Even after the drop system reset, I didn't get any item drops in over 90 minutes of gameplay (usually I get 1 item every ~30 minutes). I think the system is screwy this week, hope they fix it.

EDIT: Finally got a drop a little bit ago (KGBs + crate), so maybe things are working again. Time will tell...

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Many times have I gotten a drop after looking through my backpack or switching my loadout.

I feel it is more of a coincidence.

 

[Nathan Quake]

Well, I've decided that the drop system is just totally mucked up and there's no way of telling what it will do. This Saturday, after my 5 day experiment, I had found 5-6 items, and now, on the Sunday, I have found nothing but I have played it more than Saturday. Totally confused.

My friend however finds more the 20 items per week without stopping. It makes no sense. HALP

 

[Scotland Tom]

From the official Wiki:

The maximum amount of items you can get [per week] is not known, however it can't exceed 56 because the day drop limit is 8. On average a player gets ~6 items a week. [2] The system resets each player's item drop count around each Wednesday, Pacific standard time where Valve is located.

That little [2] Link is an incredibly in-depth look at the specifics of the item drop system. If the above quote alone doesn't help you go check that reference link and that'll either explain it really well or confuse the heck out of you.

 

[Prestige]

hey lets fix idling by making it really hard to get items for everyone so the idlers amass more drops anyways!

 

[PL-7764]

I think the drop system went down again today, as I played for quite a while and found nothing, and I see/know I'm not the only one. I really do think the system is going in and out of functionality right now. D:

 

[Terr]

You aren't playing on instaspawn servers, are you? They are perhaps the #1 reason you see people get a 3/4 drops at once: IIRC Instaspawn doesn't kill you as much as assigns some points and then warps you back to spawn with full health.

So from the drop-system's perspective, you've got items piling up since you never "die" and receive them.

 

[PL-7764]

Played for over an hour today, still got no drops. As I've only gotten 2 drops since last Thursday, I know I'm not over the drop limit for the week. I've just been playing on my own listen servers, so no insta-spawn stuff. Additionally, I like to get tf2items.com up in the in-game browser to watch for that "The following items have been found but not yet placed in the backpack" bit that shows ... well, exactly what it says. That seems to be a good indicator for when you've found something but haven't acquired it yet for whatever reason. Nothing appears, so I know it's not just the game "forgetting" to tell me when I get stuff.

Did Valve secretly revert to the old, idling-favoring "game decides IF you get a drop, not WHEN" system? D: I may leave TF2 running/idling overnight just as an experiment to see if anything happens...