Trading card drop rate extremely low all of a sudden for me

[CatraGirl]

I've been trying to get some trading cards for games I'm not gonna play anymore and it's taking forever. Took me over 13 hours of idling to get all cards for Legion TD, over 8 hours for 5 cards from Banners of Ruin. That's 1.5-2 hours per card, weren't they supposed to drop every 15-30 min normally? Can somebody explain why it's so slow for me suddenly and how I can get them faster again?

[🧻 Snowrunnerd]

I have no idea the game you're even talking about. This is Steam discussions. Try posting on the game's discussions where people will know about it.

[CatraGirl]

Originally posted by Wreez:

I have no idea the game you're even talking about. This is Steam discussions. Try posting on the game's discussions where people will know about it.

This is a Steam issue, not a game issue, since it's affecting all my games, I just gave 2 examples.

[ShelLuser]

Maybe the key is idling here? Don't forget that some games keep really close ties with Steam. This is an assumption on my part but... I wouldn't be surprised if it held true.

[WhatZit]

Yes, Legion TD 2 also took me 13.3 hours of idling to get the final drop. I think "GRRRRRRRR" adequately covers my reaction to that.

However, since then, most of the others in my collection have been dropping cards at a much more "polite" rate.

I believe that the developer of the game, not Steam, scripts how many cards each title has, AND what their drop rate is.

So, who's to blame: the developer for being a mongrel, or Steam for presenting them with an API that allows them to be a mongrel?

I still haven't figured out the answer to that one myself.

[CatraGirl]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Maybe the key is idling here? Don't forget that some games keep really close ties with Steam. This is an assumption on my part but... I wouldn't be surprised if it held true.

Oh, when I mean say idle, I mean I'm still running the game normally in the background, not using a third-party program or anything, I'm just not playing it anymore.

Originally posted by WhatZit:

Yes, Legion TD 2 also took me 13.3 hours of idling to get the final drop. I think "GRRRRRRRR" adequately covers my reaction to that.

However, since then, most of the others in my collection have been dropping cards at a much more "polite" rate.

I believe that the developer of the game, not Steam, scripts how many cards each title has, AND what their drop rate is.

So, who's to blame: the developer for being a mongrel, or Steam for presenting them with an API that allows them to be a mongrel?

I still haven't figured out the answer to that one myself.

I dunno, it's weird. Currently trying to get all the cards for Legend of Keepers and I'm at 5/8 after over 13 hours, it's infuriating at this point. That's more than 2 hours per drop.
I did notice in the past that drop rate became slower after refunding a game and I refunded one during the Summer Sale, but it never got this bad, usually it just meant you don't get drops before the 2 hour mark, but after that it was always normal rate...

[wuddih]

how the playtime is generated is completely irrelevant.

the droptime per card can be set by the dev, default is 30 minutes. some games really have it set to 2+ hours. the value can be altered at any given time.

Legion TD, 2+ hours
Banners of Ruin, 15 minutes.
Legend of Keepers, >30minutes<1hour

refunds can invoke a restriction but it will be a general one. that restriction is 3 hours of playtime = no drop, after that normal drop timer. that is an abuse measurement. it was 2 hours for a short time, since years it is 3.

other than this the only other thing that could cause longer drop timers is inconsistent playtime reporting to Steam. that can be caused by internet connection outages and running multiple games at the same time.

[CatraGirl]

Originally posted by wuddih:

how the playtime is generated is completely irrelevant.

the droptime per card can be set by the dev, default is 30 minutes. some games really have it set to 2+ hours. the value can be altered at any given time.

Legion TD, 2+ hours
Banners of Ruin, 15 minutes.
Legend of Keepers, >30minutes<1hour

How do you find these numbers, are they listed somewhere?

Originally posted by wuddih:

other than this the only other thing that could cause longer drop timers is inconsistent playtime reporting to Steam. that can be caused by internet connection outages and running multiple games at the same time.

I guess that's the issue then, I did idle a bit while running another game, but even after stopping the drop rate hasn't really caught up for hours now unfortunately (any way to fix that? Even after subtracting the playtime I did "waste" playing another game, it's still too slow)... guess there's no point in idling in the background while playing something else then... :(

[blunus]

Originally posted by Jill Sandwich:

I've been trying to get some trading cards for games I'm not gonna play anymore and it's taking forever. Took me over 13 hours of idling to get all cards for Legion TD, over 8 hours for 5 cards from Banners of Ruin. That's 1.5-2 hours per card, weren't they supposed to drop every 15-30 min normally?

Both game devs can set the drop time they want, to 2+ hours per card. 30 minutes are just default if devs don't set the drop time.

For example, I got all 3 cards from Slender: The Arrival I bought recently because that dev didn't set, so it focus on default drop time.

Originally posted by Jill Sandwich:

Can somebody explain why it's so slow for me suddenly

Blame the devs for setting the time to some ridiculous like 10+ hours before you get a card. Yes, that's it.

Originally posted by Jill Sandwich:

and how I can get them faster again?

You can't get them faster. Unless you really risk your account to get suspended using 3rd party program such as ASF and switching games repeatedly per 1-5 mins, I don't recommend.

[wuddih]

Originally posted by Jill Sandwich:

How do you find these numbers, are they listed somewhere?

my own drop log from the inventory history and a mix of playtime statistics from several 3rd party sites like steamspy

you may have to quit all playing games before things become normal.

for Keepers my drops were weird af, all drops took 7 hours, but 4 of time happened in 10 minutes, i have no explanation for that, this is rare but i just shove it on "they changed something in the matrix", makes no sense for me to break a head about it.

[CycLoNeShadow]

It is because u refund the games. I also experienced this kind of situation before. Avoid refunding games, then the drop will be normal again.

And, u won't get ban if u're using any 3rd party software to idle the games. Cause u can also do it without installing the game u want to idle (example: god of war) by changing the app id number in "steam_appid.txt" file on any game u have already installed (example: dota2). Then, just run the .exe & there will be error pop-up, no need to close it. Steam will detect it as god of war.

[crunchyfrog]

Yup, on eof two things to bear in mind.

First off is the devs set the rates thing. You can test this easily by firing up any games you havem't earned cards in yet or still have drops for. Go and play and test the time. DO a few more and test the same. You'll see if you play a few they'll vary.

I've been heavily playing a few newer games in recent weeks, and have sen no changes to this. Some were quick, others not.

But the second issue is have you refunded anything recently? As it's not long ago since the sales, this is possible. And if you have, then that does inded slow down rates.

[Scaly_Pride]

I got a great example that Ive been playing Cities:Skylines for like a year as my Playtime is like heckin,182.9hrs and not even a single card has ever dropped on it even, other games are affected and yes it’s steam client issue that never drop a card for us one single bit.


Plus Been having this only One ass Card for years since? I played it and it dropped me one but now Steam client is just been laaazy………?

[Bill]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.