XP and Loot bug?

1. Title: XP and Loot bug
2. Reproduction Rate: Too early to tell. Could not reproduce issue after an hour passed and I was not logged in
3. Blocker? No
4. Details: please see below
5. Steps to Reproduce: play the game and note the XP rate and amount of gold that mobs give

I was playing, just going around and killing very mid-level things. Tier 4 and 5 undead mostly. Easy stuff even at low levels like 60's and 70's, because I wanted the chill sort of "watch YouTube and gain some XP and loot" sort of evening. For part of it, I was in Sequanna Colossus killing zombies and imps, because XP is decent, and you literally don't even have to be very engaged with the combat in some areas there.

I killed a bunch of crap, and noticed the things were dropping the (relatively new) better amounts of loot (sometimes 55gp, and the normal items) and the usual amounts of XP (like what we used to call "double XP"). Then a patch hit and it was one of those that kicks you from the scene and then says you must get to the up-to-date patch to re-join. OK... No problem. I have seen that a million times before. I log out completely and patch up. Tiny patch, and ready to get back in.

I go back into the game and I start killing the same easy T5 mobs like zombies, imps, hardened skeles (Sequanna Colossus and Southern Grunvald Barrens)...

1. I noticed that the imp stole the 50 gp as usual, and then it drops TWO GOLD PIECES when it dies. I kill a second imp and it also steals 50 from me (expected), and then I get another ONE GOLD when I loot the imp! WHAT? We can now lose 95% of the 50gp they steal?

2. I go and kill some T5 zombies and notice that I get 1/4 the normal XP, and VERY VERY poor loot. in many cases, I literally get nothing when they die, and about 450 or so XP.

I leave the scene, and go do a bunch of other things like sell basic loot, go to 2 other scenes, and kill a few more things and notice that it seems very similar, no matter what I do. I'm so confused. Is there some sort of power hour thing where you get normal loot and XP, and then it drops off to unplayable levels? Did this patch just wreck things and no one knows yet?

UPDATE: I just went back in after about an hour or so, and things seem normal now. I have NO idea what happened there. if it was intended, it was a HORRIBLE idea.

I'll play a bit more tomorrow and see if the issue comes back in any way. I'll try to update if I see this again. I just really hope this was unintended and indeed some sort of very odd bug. It may be very difficult to reproduce, but I'll try to think of all of the variables that come into play if I ever see this again.

 

I have same issue with crafting experience.

 

The issue just returned. It may have something to do with time spent in a zone. I am often very passive when fighting. Sometimes, if I am not playing with any friends, I'll just go to a scene that is slightly too easy, and fight mobs while watching TV or YouTube. I'll sit and let this happen for well over an hour, and then I'll eventually log off, or let my character log out from being idle. Then I might go sell some items later on in the day and come back for some more (if I have time).

I just checked what my crafting XP is doing (mines three nodes), and I find that I am still getting the full 1k per node mined. For me, at least right now, it seems to only be impacting adventurer XP and loot.

Is this to discourage people from sitting around in scenes that are too easy for them grinding away?

 

It keeps on happening. Weird things. I just got back home, and I was back to the normal 1600XP from killing a single zombie.

Then I killed a few, and now I am seeing 2560 for one kill. Why is the amount per kill going up and down? I haven't changed anything.

 

I no longer think this is a bug. It appears to be some sort of goofy idle player penalty. It seems to be triggered when a player is idle for a while and in combat. If you concur, this could be ignored.