I had the idea the other day when seeing Central Loot Economy in action that this system can be used to help mitigate server hopping for loot. This idea may already be on the drawing board or already implemented, I have no idea.

The basic idea works like this: "High risk, high reward. Low risk, low reward."

If the amount of "new loot" spawning, or "maximum loot amount" on a server was tied to the server population and variably scaled as people joined or left the server, it is possible to see a scenario where servers that have low population and are generally empty over time will have loot but not in the quantities seen on higher population servers. The loot economy will follow the players.

There are several ways this idea can be taken:

• Immediate server population reflects immediate "maximum loot count"
• Server population over time reflects average "maximum loot count"
• Items could spawn or decay at various ratios if there are too many players or too much loot (Example: 1 decay = 1 spawn if matched, 2 decay = 1 spawn if too much loot, 1 decay = 2 spawn if too many players)

As with anything, the devil is in the details to figure out. But I believe the idea is solid and can help keep players from hopping across low population servers just to loot up faster. It would be easier due to the lack of players, but it should take just as long to loot up to the player's "ideal" setup.

The amount of time to get geared and healthy should be balanced equally whether you are on a low or high population server. By having the loot economy follow the player population, we can have a sort of balance of items across the board with a similar amount of time to get basic or advanced gear regardless of whether the player chooses to loot on high or low population servers.