From my experience (and things I've read) it seems that things a monster can drop WILL drop more often if it is white to you, compared to when it's light blue to you.
First off, is this true? Please confirm.
Follow up question: Is there an established 'formula' for what % of the time a monster will drop items, based on the color it is to you? Like, for example, if the Maille Lizardman Guard is white is there an X% chance it will drop Item Z and X-Y% if it is green, etc.?
Or is this, overall, basically just a principal: the higher something rates compared to you, the more likely it will drop something, and that's that?
Final question: Every once in a while (when not seeding) a monster will drop something 'juicy' like a decent weapon or piece of armor, whatever. Is the chance of this also dependent on its level compared to your level?
All mobs green and above have no drop penalty or bonus.
(In fact there are NO drop bonuses in the game at all.)
For mobs that are light blue and lower, there is a cumulative drop penalty for each level you are above the mob. The first level of light blue is hardly noticable. Second light blue is quite noticable, and when the mobs go dark blue the penalty is so high it's not worth doing them.
Also, not only are drops penalized, but XP and SP is also reduced for mobs that are lower than green.
The same penalty applies to seeds (Sowing and harvesting) as well as Spoils. (AKA Spoil will land, but the chance to sweep an item is penalized.)
Way back in Prelude, light blues had no penalty. For Chronicle 1 this was changed so that anything below white had the penalty. This was later lessened so that the penalty didn't apply to greens in a following chronicle. (Which is where we are currently.)
PainAmp, as always: thank-you for your kind and detailed help. You rock.
What you wrote basically confirms my observations, but its nice to have my assumptions confirmed.
So, basically, if playing for drops/xp then greens are the way to go (unless whites and/or yellows are dropping so fast/easy there's no need to hunt greens).
Regarding seeding: I used to seed a lot in my previous stint with L2, its how I made a good chunk of my adena. However, since returning its been literally impossible for me tp turn in my fruits before getting locked out by someone spamming software to auto-turn-in. I've been in Oren Manor (DEV), with 600 fruit, at a few minutes before turn in time through a few minutes after turn in time, with the window open and sell overlapping the previous choice. Spamming the sell button until I see the 0 turn to 8000. But then it goes right back to 0 and none of my fruits sell. I eventually just vendored the fruits in disgust.
In the days since I've noticed how much more I get by not seeding, in terms of drops, with the down-side (of course) being no huge stacks of mats from fruit turn ins. However, if the other manors are like Oren I think I'm locked out (on Lionna) from the manor system. I literally tried for 5 straight nights to turn in, and couldn't sell a single red fruit (for varnish). I remember last year I'd sometimes have a night or two like that, but never 5 in a row. Seems like 'the cartel' controls the Manor System now, so I'm back to grinding for xp/mats/drops.
painamp; thats not entirely true. 4x mobs give 4x exp and 4x adena and 4-5x fruits. the only difficulty is, they give about 1/4 drops in 4x stacks. confusing? no; 4k exp/ 1k adena/4a.skin but 1/4 the chance to get full drops.
on more XHP mobs the curve is skewed again. one doesnt really notice the curve tho because not many solo on 4x mobs in catacombs other than 2box polers and summoners.
I made no statements about how much greater or lesser a mobs drops/spoils or harvests are, all I stated was that if Mobs were lower than green, the chances of getting a drop/spoil or harvest are reduced. (Actual #of Fruits harvested is unchanged, only the chance sow or to fail the harvest does.) Your reading a bit to far into what I said and didn't even imply.
I leave the discussion to how much better (or worse!) drops and spoils are on multi-HP mobs (green or better) for another thread...
Pixiduzt: Yes, Greens are the best way to maximise income per level. You level *slower* and thus get more drops. This is because most (adena) drops value goes up fairly slowly as mob level rises. Plus the weaker the mobs, the easier they are (usually) to kill and the less downtime or expenses you have.
If I am in an area and the kill rate is good I will usually stay there until the lowest mob in the area turns light blue, then stick around one more level at the most. (2nd level of blue reduces drops more than it's worth to stay.) I then move on to the next white/green area and repeat.
RE: Seeding. You can still get fruit in through the 'auto-sellers' but you won't do it by spamming the sell button. You have to find out what the exact time the manor refreshes and turn in within 1-2 seconds. Sometime lag is in your favor, sometimes it's not...and for some seeds, it doesn't even need to be a 'non-person'. Having a few manor-savvy people working a particular seed and they can lock out a good fruit just as much as the soulless can.
If your having trouble getting a fruit in, just hold onto it and wait for the next update. If the competition truly is 'cheating' then after the next major or unannounced update, ban spree or internet disruption you can turn them in during the confusion. =O
I had some Chilly coda and I sat on those for a few months before I was able to turn them in. (Too lazy to time the turn in at the time.) Then a big ban wagon showed up and now the Manor on my server (Gustin) is still pretty wide open as the cheaters haven't rushed back in quite yet.
As for drops versus seeding, about the only thing your really missing out on are key materials. Getting 10 of stem, Iron ore and Varnish per a few hundred mobs is piddle compared to the fruit/mats you could pull in. But missing out on a weapon blade or recipe could be worse than seeding if that's what you need more than the base materials or adena from selling them is.
For Most things sub-50 it's a usually an easy choice as the mats are worth more than the key parts. Above that, into B grade and it isn't quite so clear. Lots of B grade items/recipes are so hard to get and most people have outleveled them, that missing one (out of a couple thousand chance!) could actually be worse if you don't need the manor mats that badly. In those cases it's better to just farm what you need (at a lower level with an alt if possible) and then just grind w/out seeds after.