Episode 1/4 Drop Rework

Do you agree with the rework?

  • Yes

    Votes: 249 86.2%

  • No

    Votes: 40 13.8%
  • Total voters
    289
  • Poll closed .
Frankly I already feel like Ep 1 gets too much playtime and I would always prefer to keep things as original as possible. I am very much opposed to most of this rework but it certainly seems I'm outvoted. That said it's not as if it would make me quit the game, and the one thing I do like is spreading out Heavenly/units more.
 
I think it's important to note here that Forest, Caves, and Ruins are already perfectly fine for many IDs and don't need to be touched. Other than shuffling units around, this doesn't have to be a huge disruption. Only Mines needs a good deal of work. If the second weakest area in the game is VR Spaceship at a C-minus, Mines is a F-. It's not just a slight gradation worse. It's abysmal.
 
I'm not really sure I'd argue Forest, Caves and Ruins are fine for many IDs. Episode 1 doesn't really have many things to hunt for a long time (outside of ubers, which I personally don't count):

- Frozen Shooter
- Spread Needle
- Guardianna
- Diska of BRaveman

??? Probably some more but not much off the top of my head

There's some nice things such as Red Sword, Bringer's Arms, S-Red's Arms, etc, but those aren't really that coveted and are also one-time things and don't have much value. And then Spaceship itself on its own has Swordsman Lore, Diska of Braveman, Guren, Daylight Scar... which is better than any Episode 1 area currently.
 
Each ID has its own "theme" of EP1/2 drops. However, the relative actual utility of each weapon does not correlate with the difficulty. This means that playing EP1/2 Ultimate is much more unrewarding than it perhaps could be, with many of the best drops holding considerably more slots in Hard and Very Hard. This is a huge opportunity to create incentives in EP1/2, while barely changing the feel of the IDs or the episodes.

Let's use Purplenum as an example.
There are three tiers of rare Mechguns:

M&A60 Vise (Drops most in Hard)
H&S25 Justice (Drops most in Very Hard)
L&K14 Combat (Drops most in Ultimate)

M&A60 Vise, although by far the most useful of these, is considerably rarer in Ultimate than L&K14 Combat, which drops from just about everything. Rearranging these drops so that the most useful weapons drop on the higher modes, would greatly incentivise EP1/2 play.

Let's check out another example on Bluefull.
There are three tiers of rare Partisans:

Brionac (Drops most in Hard)
Vjaya (Drops most in Very Hard)
Gae Bolg (Drops most in Ultimate

Again, Vjaya, by far the most useful, doesn't drop anywhere near as often as Gae Bolg (Which is a terrible weapon).

There are many more examples like this. Obviously these tiers have been inherited from the original game, and ST had a very poor understanding of the balance and what was actually effective to play, which is why we have such flawed designs as the Photon Launcher and Claw weapons etc. But this is something which could be easily addressed without upsetting the feel or balance of the game.
 
Eistee said:
Not a bad post!

What's wrong with Photon Launcher, though?
Click to expand...

They have high power, but due to how Shot targeting works their niche isn't quite as important. Their raw power does somewhat make up for being a little clumsier to use, especially in the right situations. The infinite vertical range on the projectile is very nice, too. However, outside of the S-Rank, they have diminishing damage each time the shot penetrates and the shot isn't very wide. On top of that, there are other weapon types with variants that act like Launchers (with very high power as well). The real killer is how the projectile behaves, especially up close. It'll shoot into the sky, the floor, or to the side, completely ruining what would have otherwise been a fantastic shot.

That, and there just aren't any strong Launchers outside of the S-Rank with a sacrificial, and that can't even get hit. Meanwhile, you can get sacrifical Arms with hit, or even the Baranz Launcher with hit.

I honestly love them but they aren't great overall.
 
i just had a idea, maybe give v502 to one id in episode 1 as new "iconic drop". i would really like to see 502 dropping outside the tower/cca;)
 
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Yuffie said:
The drop table change is going to be permanent? What is for a limited time?
When I was reading about all the God units, I had to think of god/technique, that one deserves more enemies which drop it^^
Click to expand...
You might have already gotten the answer but the poll is for a limited time. The event is for a limited time but the drop charts are not ;) .
 
I voted yes.

I think that the God units should simply be replaced by the equivalent Heavenly units on drop tables. It's already clear that God units are too easily replaced for something exclusive to ultimate. On top of this, I think it's good to be spreading around the loot out of Episode 4, which I find to be extremely cheesy even on Normal difficulty.
 
I prefer to keep things as close to vanilla as possible but.... Since it is already kind of mucky already I think it would not be the worst change. Spreading the best drops out through all the episodes does make sense, as well as moving odd drops to more appropriate difficulties like suggested by others here. So maybe not this exact change but a well thought out and planned change gets a yes.
 
Any idea when this would be implemented?
Poll ends Sept 3rd, I know.

Just didn't know if it would be 2-3 weeks, or closer to 2-3 months.
 
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