Underworld Syndicate Plans no longer drop post 7.4 Update

[Caffeine]

After attempting to farm Underworld Syndicate Plans for about 80 minutes and not having a single one drop, I have to think that they simply forgot to mention that they were removing them in the Patch Notes. (yes I had Fen Zeil equipped) I was farming in the same location in the Black Sun area of Coruscant that I had been using to finish off the last remaining tier of the reputation line last week and was getting plenty of drops; now 0 plans drop.

[FlatoutEarth]

I too killed about 100 mobs in my ususal place, and no one dropped

[Caffeine]

It's very sad really, up until this 7.4 (I'll call it a "thing" to be charitable) we were able to continue collecting items to finish reputation lines that we had started but were unable to complete. Now with this new policy of "no we're not going to support or allow that," the game has lost some of its appeal.

[Nain]

i did an hour of chamber of speech on tython as usual for some quick "notes of reflection" for amity, missing ~7k rep to finish that. also not having any drop since 7.4.
did several other weeklies with amity out and not a single drop.
so its not just the underworld syndicate plans it seems.

[Caffeine]

They broke reputation farming entirely it seems.

[Nain]

theres a forum post [forums.swtor.com] with the issue, and the first response mentions that they still get drops, but only at a much more reduced rate...

[FlatoutEarth]

another test run at the same spot (this was my usual spot farming these Underworld Plans), but with a different char with a thirty-something influence level Fen Zeil (the other run was with a Lv 1) and still no drop

[Caffeine]

Indeed, I ran a 300 mob kill spree with Fen Zeil equipped in my usual farming zone (Black Sun area of Coruscant) with 0 drops. A response to my "ticket" for this problem flatly states that Underworld Syndicate Plans will no longer drop - period. The game operator has decided that we cannot complete this Reputation line.

It seems counter-intuitive to me for a game that is going through a major transition from one operating company to another operating company for the new game operator to deliberately make changes that antagonize or drive away players when they SHOULD be making every effort to RETAIN playerbase.

[Nain]

heres my testing from yesterday, when i took some hours to go on a rampage among different things:
companion: Amity
reputation status: missing the last ~7k for legend status

i tested on 2 different chars, my main that has amity influence 41, and another char with amity influence 2. main is max level obviously, the other was 31 when i started the rampage.

with my main i did: heroics on couruscant, nar shaddaa, belsavis. and weeklies on ossus, onderon. on each planet i made sure to kill everything in my path, red and yellow mobs, all the same.
on my second char i did heroics on dromund kaas, alderaan and hoth, with the obligatory "kill everything along the way"
i also did one story flashpoint with amity, but i was pretty sure that one wont net anything as i had never a single drop of those reputation tradeins before while doing that. dark spores dropped at the end, as expected.

not a single "note of reflections" on either char. i already have syndicate and game both on legend, so thats out of my testing range.

i know that this is anectdotal and limited testing (im not including the days before where i just did the "normal" stuff and did not went out of my way), but before 7.4 the notes dropped quite reliably wherever i went...

[Caffeine]

i've now killed thousands of mobs with Fen Zeil equipped (since 7.4) and 0 Underworld Syndicate Plans have dropped.. It is true that there is NO mention of this change in the 7.4 or 7.4a patch notes and it is also true that this change will have an adverse impact on the game going forward. Players that are not at the requisite level or play at the speed required by future seasons will now know that attempting complete future reputation content will be pointless - unless this very short-sighted decision is reversed.

[ModerNertum]

So its not just me experiencing the issue as well, even with Fen out no Underworld Syndicate Plans drop anymore from mob kills v.v

[FlatoutEarth]

Update from devs:

BryantWood:


Hey Community!

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We’ve investigated and the drop rates are in fact lower than intended. We made an internal change to how these drops are distributed and it unintentionally reduced the drop rate of the Galactic Season Reputation items. We will be fixing this in an upcoming patch, and the drop rates will return to what you remember!

https://forums.swtor.com/topic/932527-impossible-to-get-notes-of-reflection-after-season-end/?do=findComment&comment=9792769

[FlatoutEarth]

Dark Spores:
in my usual spot in Anchorhead i was killing womp rats for 1 hour with the buff on my char and without a companion: 44 Dark Spores

Underworld Syndicate Plans:
- in Anchorhead, after killing almost 200 womprats with Fen Zeil out, 0 (zero) drop
- on Coruscant, IIRC 7 dropped, Fen Zeil out (Lv1), after killing about 100 (maybe more) Black Sun and other mobs (while doing the Gree planetary story arc + exploration missions)

[Berserkr]

I've had about 3 Underworld Syndicate Plans drop for my level 20 Scoundrel so far and I stealth past most things so take that with a grain of salt

[Thander]

Originally posted by FlatoutEarth:

Dark Spores:
in my usual spot in Anchorhead i was killing womp rats for 1 hour with the buff on my char and without a companion: 44 Dark Spores

Underworld Syndicate Plans:
- in Anchorhead, after killing almost 200 womprats with Fen Zeil out, 0 (zero) drop
- on Coruscant, IIRC 7 dropped, Fen Zeil out (Lv1), after killing about 100 (maybe more) Black Sun and other mobs (while doing the Gree planetary story arc + exploration missions)

For the Underworld Syndicate Plans they have to be underworld criminal mobs like Black Sun, Exchange, Hutt Cartel, etc. That's why you got 0 killing womprats.

[FlatoutEarth]

Originally posted by Thander:

For the Underworld Syndicate Plans they have to be underworld criminal mobs like Black Sun, Exchange, Hutt Cartel, etc. That's why you got 0 killing womprats.

well, it wasn't the case though before they broke this system, because I farmed right these womp rats while waiting for a pop in PvP queue for a long time