Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 10/10/2015)

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

We don't even have proper players to even begin hunting this stuff, and not even efficiently for a long ass time.

Nothing really mattress.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

I'm ultimately worried/bothered by 14% Heaven Striker/Daylight Scar/BOVN from a rare boss when you want to hunt these with percents. imo should match the more reasonable Lame D Argent, which is also an important item. (well nobody would probably care about BOVN tho)

pls dont disown me

I agree with you here, so I up'd Kondrieu's drops across the board.

 

[Ryan]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

BB's Ep 1 & 2 drop rates are completely unchanged from GC's aside from Falz and Flow's drops, aren't they?

Are the new ult boss drops in 1 & 2 things that were added just here, or were they on Sega, too?

 

[Matt]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

Unfortunately the only character worth TAing with here is RAcast.

* off-topic

This is not true, HUcast is still very good and cannot be overlooked. He is not completely overshadowed by RAcast by all, because of his immense ATP and access to particular weaponry.

1. ATP -- higher single target damage with a few things such as Mechguns. C. Raygun also works perfectly fine on Vanilla enemy statistics on most things (I believe Heaven Striker is stronger though on a RAcast, although you can argue this is an issue also due to its auto-target properties).
2. Vjaya -- Do I need to explain this one?
3. Excalibur -- Same thing.
4. TJS -- Iron Faust is combo locked on Vanilla, meaning that TJS is the only viable tool to attack enemies from a central point. This is especially important for certain spawns in TA. Berdysh does do the same thing but uses normal attack damage unfortunately...
5. Dark Flow -- It might be combo locked, but that doesn't make it unusable (kind of needs a lot of hit though, and doesn't work on everything if it has decent EVP).

Dark Flow actually skews the entire balance away from RAcast and makes the game imbalanced overall. While it doesn't make him ultimately useless, RA's involvement in the TA metagame is very minimal because of it on other servers (except Ultima, because of their EVP boost which makes C. Raygun on HUcast useless and they don't get Raven or LK38, so you need RA to deal with a few things that Dark Flow cannot since HU doesn't have the tools for it there).

---

Also about the drop rates, I'm not sure what I think. I don't really like everything averaging around 1/2,000, but some drop rates are really extreme, such as 1/1,800~ from like Girtablulus... the maximum you can get in one quest is like 6 (if I remember correctly) and that specific quest takes 15-20 minutes with 4 people, meaning the item isn't really "huntable" so to speak. I don't think things should be easy, but they definitely shouldn't be necessarily so discouraging in a way that people feel like they can't hunt an item. Even SJS isn't quite so bad as you can do the 5 Gi-Gue on PW4 in like a minute.

 

[Lestat]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

I'm ultimately worried/bothered by 14% Heaven Striker/Daylight Scar/BOVN from a rare boss when you want to hunt these with percents. imo should match the more reasonable Lame D Argent, which is also an important item. (well nobody would probably care about BOVN tho)

pls dont disown me

I agree with you here, so I up'd Kondrieu's drops across the board.

Thanks.

 

[Ulevo]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

Unfortunately the only character worth TAing with here is RAcast.

* off-topic

This is not true, HUcast is still very good and cannot be overlooked. He is not completely overshadowed by RAcast by all, because of his immense ATP and access to particular weaponry.

1. ATP -- higher single target damage with a few things such as Mechguns. C. Raygun also works perfectly fine on Vanilla enemy statistics on most things (I believe Heaven Striker is stronger though on a RAcast, although you can argue this is an issue also due to its auto-target properties).
2. Vjaya -- Do I need to explain this one?
3. Excalibur -- Same thing.
4. TJS -- Iron Faust is combo locked on Vanilla, meaning that TJS is the only viable tool to attack enemies from a central point. This is especially important for certain spawns in TA. Berdysh does do the same thing but uses normal attack damage unfortunately...
5. Dark Flow -- It might be combo locked, but that doesn't make it unusable (kind of needs a lot of hit though, and doesn't work on everything if it has decent EVP).

Dark Flow actually skews the entire balance away from RAcast and makes the game imbalanced overall. While it doesn't make him ultimately useless, RA's involvement in the TA metagame is very minimal because of it on other servers (except Ultima, because of their EVP boost which makes C. Raygun on HUcast useless and they don't get Raven or LK38, so you need RA to deal with a few things that Dark Flow cannot since HU doesn't have the tools for it there).

---

Also about the drop rates, I'm not sure what I think. I don't really like everything averaging around 1/2,000, but some drop rates are really extreme, such as 1/1,800~ from like Girtablulus... the maximum you can get in one quest is like 6 (if I remember correctly) and that specific quest takes 15-20 minutes with 4 people, meaning the item isn't really "huntable" so to speak. I don't think things should be easy, but they definitely shouldn't be necessarily so discouraging in a way that people feel like they can't hunt an item. Even SJS isn't quite so bad as you can do the 5 Gi-Gue on PW4 in like a minute.

RA became outclassed with the introduction to Rainbow while having access to strong RA like weapons with unlocked Master Raven and L&K, not Dark Flow. Dark Flow as a weapon was the only change that gave HU's purpose over their RA counterparts. I am not saying it was a perfectly balanced item (special was too strong) but you cannot expect a HUcast to have a meaningful place in a TA party with a Chain Sawd. You're not going to find a 50 Hit SJS. Even if you do, you can only sphere it in one place, which means you need more. So where exactly are do you find your mob clear from?

Unless of course you think the class can survive with a weapon that costs 10,000 meseta per swing. Not to mention that Heaven Striker is amazing, and RAcast has access to Excalibur too. TJS special is a very situationally placed special in a quest with limited use, and by itself would not warrant using over RAcast which will be faster in the other 98% of the time.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/4/2015)

Also about the drop rates, I'm not sure what I think. I don't really like everything averaging around 1/2,000, but some drop rates are really extreme, such as 1/1,800~ from like Girtablulus...

I agree with you, so I adjusted Girtablulu rates.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/5/2015)

Not like *I* really like to bring up this topic again, but I adjusted the rates one final time for Episode 4 only...

Yeah, yeah, I know last time I said they wouldn't change for a month or months, but for reals this time.

Most of the stuff dropped by common enemies *and* rare enemies all got a slight boost. I WON'T CHANGE IT NOW.

I think these should be acceptable. Yes, V101 and some other things are still hard to get.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/5/2015)

The rates may have changed a lot, but I wouldn't be surprised if they change here and there every now and then. I think an update is due for the server's infamous disclaimer topic. It's a good read in case you lose all you shit, including your mind, too. :lol:

True that. That's why the disclaimer is there!

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/5/2015)

After browsing through the reward logs from the most recent changes, I see that the rates I put up were far too generous.

As an example, but there is a lot more in the log:

[09-08-2015, 01:52:48] User 42000*** (-------) found a Star Cuirass (01013500,00030000,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 01:54:56] User 42000*** (-------) found a Star Cuirass (01013500,00000400,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 02:00:32] User 42000*** (-------) found a Star Cuirass (01013500,00000A00,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 13:06:57] User 42000*** (-------) found a Star Cuirass (01013500,00000000,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 13:08:17] User 42000*** (-------) found a Clio (00C30000,8000030A,020A0000)


[09-08-2015, 00:14:04] User 42000*** (-----) found a Heavenly/Power (01035400,00000000,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 00:37:07] User 42000*** (-----) found a Heavenly/Power (01035400,00000000,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 00:42:05] User 42000*** (-----) found a Rianov 303SNR-5 (00070D00,8000031E,040F0000)


[09-08-2015, 16:55:54] User 42000*** (-----) found a Heavenly/Battle (01035300,00000000,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 17:17:09] User 42000*** (-----) found a Heavenly/Power (01035400,00000000,00000000)
[09-08-2015, 17:24:37] User 42000*** (-----) found a Heavenly/Power (01035400,00000000,00000000)

We're getting people who are getting multiple Star Cuirasses, Heavenly/Powers, Heavenly/Battles, Lieutenant Mantles, and so on, in the same hour. Keeping the chart as it was would only serve to make some of the better items worthless if it continued.

That said, the chart was adjusted again to make sure the game still has an economy.

I think it's funny that people are always quick to complain when there are adjustments to rates in the drop chart that make things lower, but never bother to let me know if something is higher than it should be. I guess most people are focused solely on how they can benefit themselves and not what benefits the community.

That said, I don't want to make finding items too hard, but I don't want items to be too easy to come by either. At the same time, I'd like for there to be an economy on the server.

You know, if you're level 120 with the best slot items, best weapons, best armor, barrier and so on, what else is there to do on your trek to level 200? When the exp required to level increases exponentially? Time attack with your ubers? When you've got the best time you can get, then what? You will be bored of the game fast.

As I've always said, a big part of the draw of PSO is the hunt, without it, there isn't much to do outside of Challenge mode... oh and Battle Mode for people like conenubi...

That said, I'm going to continue to monitor the drop log and make changes to rates if necessary.

If you don't like it, read the disclaimer (updated today, just FYI): viewtopic.php?f=18&t=270

 

[conenubi701]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

That log, looks like Galatines / Harms part two lol.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

I accept responsibility, though, because I am the one who set the rates in the first place. But with the first rates I got moaning, then adjusted a bit, but I should have probably held the initial stance of see what happens with the first ones. I have to be mindful of certain quests as well even with what appear to be lower rates, people will still be getting 4-5+ things in an hour.

SEGA probably knew that too, which is why they had a lot lower Episode 4 rates. They factored in quests and what not. Would be nice if I had someone on hand who was experienced about quests and what not and could help me balance Episode 4 properly.

 

[Matt]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

I honestly don't think the issue is necessarily the rates here, but rather the MA4 rappy spam which gives you 12 rappies every 30-45 seconds, which is especially amplified by the /lobby command. Looking at those drops, you have Pinkal rappies (top), Greenill rappies (middle) and Viridia rappies (bottom).

Episode 1/2 rates always felt very fair to me, with the majority ranging from 1/300-1/1000 (even for a lot of the "best" items), with a few items having really rare status with 1/21 rates from rares, or 1/10,000+ rates for the uber items. However, you could never really hunt things at the rate you can hunt Sand Rappies in Episode 4 because of the MA4 quests, so stuff still had proper rarity but didn't drop like candy, either.

I feel like dropping rates further across the board isn't going to make stuff very realistic, though. Right now Zu displays as 1/12,000 for V101 and I'm not sure how anyone is going to hunt that realistically... while MA4B gives you around 25 in the crater area alone, that takes like 10 minutes on average for the normal party that's grinded it's way into Ultimate a decent amount. You aren't going to hunt 2,500 of them alone in a week or two, most likely.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

Well, Matt, if you'd like to help balance out Episode 4 for the server, I'd love to have your input. Maybe you can take my drop file and make adjustments for me.

Edit: Increased some stuff again, but left the Rappies nerfed.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

Whoa, I feel bad for the suckahs hunting Galatine now, but I don't think the V101 rate is as bad as 1/12000.

As Mr. Falkenjeff said, it's no longer like that. Was only like that briefly, it's 1/1279 now.

 

[Aleron Ives]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

Edit: Increased some stuff again, but left the Rappies nerfed.

In the interest of keeping things vanilla, you should leave the quest alone and remove the /lobby command. It only encourages the people who are so obsessed with hunting over everything else to spam the early rooms of quests and then instantly quit so they can start again. It doesn't make much sense to add a non-vanilla command and then alter canon quests because people use the non-vanilla command to abuse the quests. :?

 

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

I thought the rates were fine how they were. With that logic sodaboy, any quest that has a shit of monsters should just get their rates nerfed because x is too fast. MA4c is pretty soul crushing as i've had shit luck finding any dels.

I honestly think you should fix the stupid rates and stop nerfing stuff cause "people find it" too much. Case in point, once people get geared pinkal kon is a much better rate to find mother garb+ than del rappy, even when including the ma4c.

Above all, there is more to pso then just looking at log files and seeing how much something drops. One has to play the game a lot to see how grindy some of these drops truly are.The economy will balance itself, nerfing stuff just gives an unfair advantage to those who did not grind for them. I guess three days is a long term to think about changes, but i digress.

 

[Sodaboy]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

I don't think I said anything about altering quests.

 

[Matt]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

Personally I'm more astounded that people would actually do the MA4 rappy scare hunt over and over and over...

That's some dedication to playing the first 10 seconds of a quest for rare items. I could never do that, haha.

@ Villain

The drop charts displayed a rate of around 1/12K for a bit, which is where that number comes from. (something like 0.0079%)

 

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Re: Ephinea Drop Chart (Updated: 9/8/2015)

Personally I'm more astounded that people would actually do the MA4 rappy scare hunt over and over and over...

That's some dedication to playing the first 10 seconds of a quest for rare items. I could never do that, haha.