Hunters Boost Road (HBR) has become too polarizing and should be changed.

[Loug]

but I wasn't a huge fan of this month's--just played other quests instead.

That's what I like about the idea of it becoming a weekly thing instead of monthly, skipping an entire HBR won't feel as I'm missing out and it might help to prevent burnout, also the "main drop" of each HBR shouldn't lose as much value, although it isn't a big deal in this game since it doesn't really affect high hit weapons and everything else tend to go back up after a while.

 

[Ade]

I personally like HBR as it is currently. Even if there's only one "good" quest in the set, it gives you something to work on and build up throughout the month. January and February's HBR were particularly fun imo, but I wasn't a huge fan of this month's--just played other quests instead.

If HBR were to change, would that also potentially effect the seasonal events which use the current HBR system?

A fair point. Perhaps the old method would still be used for Events since everyone plays those. (Events are usually what re-unify the community before everyone goes their own separate ways.)

 

[Zero2k15]

I personally like HBR as it is currently. Even if there's only one "good" quest in the set, it gives you something to work on and build up throughout the month. January and February's HBR were particularly fun imo, but I wasn't a huge fan of this month's--just played other quests instead.

If HBR were to change, would that also potentially effect the seasonal events which use the current HBR system?

Why not keep both? Keep HBR as it is (and events) and offer weekly rotating quests with weaker boosts that are pulled from quest that normally DON'T appear in HBR. They could also be used to slightly boost HBR when completed (up to a limit) as to give folks that aren't there week one an alternative. IMO tho

 

[Ade]

Why not keep both? Keep HBR as it is (and events) and offer weekly rotating quests with weaker boosts that are pulled from quest that normally DON'T appear in HBR. They could also be used to slightly boost HBR when completed (up to a limit) as to give folks that aren't there week one an alternative. IMO tho

I think we're running the risk of making things too complicated if we do stuff like this. I don't think we should do both. (It won't solve the main issue in that the month-long HBR quests will continue to be the "only played" quests if they have a larger potential for boosts.)

 

[Dman]

Is it time to start bashing @Ade for this thread.....joking. I appreciate the community. As I normally play solo outside of events an boss rush due to time restraints an other life events/honeydues. Normally skip hbr because I don't have time to make it to ss rank to be worth while, even though I enjoy the grind. Appreciate everything the staff does for this community. A weekly change would be awesome....but all remember somebody or some people using there free time for our passion....thanks to all the staff needs to be said more often.

 

[gachipon]

Trying to find some workable solution would be nice, but also let's to try and keep it realistic because adding a whole new type of HBR system or something like that would be a lot of work for the Ephinea team!! Code for changing from 1 month to 2 weeks or 1 week is probably easier than implementing a separate weekly thing!

 

[Harborer of Hope]

Massively in favor of a handful of quests getting rotated out per week.

Nothing says "not playing PSO this month" best than a bad HBR. (I acknowledge that is a selfish issue as other players may enjoy the current rotation). On a weekly basis there is a good shot there will be something that everyone likes throughout the month.

Only thing I can add that I may have missed being suggested above is to have 3 quests per week. One from each episode to further broaden the net and improve the chances that there will be at least one quest that a majority of the player base can choose from.

I appreciate that HBR is being open to change and suggestions from the community.

Nothing says "not playing PSO this month" best than a bad HBR. ... SAVAGE~! XD!

 

[Harborer of Hope]

Is it time to start bashing @Ade for this thread.....joking. I appreciate the community. As I normally play solo outside of events an boss rush due to time restraints an other life events/honeydues. Normally skip hbr because I don't have time to make it to ss rank to be worth while, even though I enjoy the grind. Appreciate everything the staff does for this community. A weekly change would be awesome....but all remember somebody or some people using there free time for our passion....thanks to all the staff needs to be said more often.

*Attempts Shielding Ade'-kun, only to end up looking like a Scowling tenacious Baby Bib you would get at some fancy Crabhouse restaurant~!* Thank you Dman-kuun~! We Staffies' has a hard enuff time shaking off the Stereotypical veiw as PAID Tyrants associated wiff 'other servers!' Nya~!!

 

[Zero2k15]

I think we're running the risk of making things too complicated if we do stuff like this. I don't think we should do both. (It won't solve the main issue in that the month-long HBR quests will continue to be the "only played" quests if they have a larger potential for boosts.)

I don't think it's that complicated and since the quests normally not on HBR tend to be 'strong' it's very likely that players would play them even if the buffs where a bit weaker than regular HBR, that's IMO of course But ultimately whatever the admins pick (if they do change something) I just hope it doesn't involve any reduction in bonuses since, as a new player, I don't think many of us would look forward to it, unlike the older more established players.

IMO of course, regardless happy Easter hunting and all that!

 

[Ade]

I don't think it's that complicated and since the quests normally not on HBR tend to be 'strong' it's very likely that players would play them even if the buffs where a bit weaker than regular HBR, that's IMO of course But ultimately whatever the admins pick (if they do change something) I just hope it doesn't involve any reduction in bonuses since, as a new player, I don't think many of us would look forward to it, unlike the older more established players.

IMO of course, regardless happy Easter hunting and all that!

HBR in its current state requires an unhealthy amount of playing to get max bonus. It probably needs to be looked at, anyway. I suffered a decline in health and physical fitness during the most recent Anniversary event, for example. (I'm already out of shape, but somehow it got even worse.)

I'm not blaming PSO, I'm just saying this is a human weakness, and design choices within video games should be made with this in mind.

And yes, I love our staff and they do amazing work. I'm friends with several of them. This is not a problem unique to PSO and the staff is responsible for neither MMOs tending toward "grindy" nor the human condition. But knowing those things can help with design choices.

And I'm having a blast with Easter so far :3 I need to remember to exercise and drink enough water, though.

 

[Zero2k15]

HBR in its current state requires an unhealthy amount of playing to get max bonus. It probably needs to be looked at, anyway. I suffered a decline in health and physical fitness during the most recent Anniversary event, for example. (I'm already out of shape, but somehow it got even worse.)

That's IF you want max HBR, with just 58 you get like 80% of the benefits. You can make an argument for how grindy the last 5% DAR and 6% RDR are (and I agree, SPECIALLY the RDR) but I don't think the entire system is "bad". IMO, I feel the bigger problem is the lack of alternatives for folks that can't grind (for whatever reason) on week one (since most people move on to the ONE quest everyone is doing) and the fact that a lot of great quests never get played because of how "OP" they are.

Ultimately that's the hard part since most folks aren't gonna agree on what is good or bad about the whole system but I think it has more positives than negatives and it's always good to have these discussions within reason

 

[alex!]

On one hand, I agree that the community is so small that it can be very difficult to fill a room for an unpopular quest while tons of HBR games are going on. However I do like the grind of HBR as it currently stands and disagree with the notion that it's not worth doing if you don't reach max benefits, something I've never accomplished. Even getting just 12 points on each gives a 10% boost to the drop anything rate, which takes very little time yet is significantly beneficial.

Replacing or supplementing HBR with a weekly, rotating quest with a fixed, weak boost would help diversify which quests get played, but in a way that minimizes the issue rather than addressing the root cause. If someone wants to do a quest different from what's in the weekly rotation, there's still little incentive for others to join, just as we see now. Sure, you'd only have to wait a week instead of a month, but how many people are going to join @gachipon's Tyrell's Ego game? The clearest way to incentivize people to join any ol' quest is to weaken then benefits of HBR, yet doing so diminishes the fundamental merit of HBR.

One idea that could encourage people to play other quests is to apply a portion of earned HBR boosts to all or most gameplay. This would allow people to join @gachipon's Tyrell's Ego game without feeling like they're missing out on all the drops from HBR quests, especially if they are no longer able to increase their drop rates. Meanwhile, people are still highly incentivized to grind HBR to increase their rewards. I have no desire to dive into the numbers and details, but at face value it seems like this would diversify the quests being played. There's clearly a risk that this could be abused if it's too powerful, so it'd certainly need some fine tuning. What do you think? I can see that people are being polite in this thread, but please trash this idea with all of the things I haven't considered.

 

[Ade]

@alex! I concede that you can get a decent boost with minimal effort on HBR.

If the developers insist on not removing HBR, I suggest the following:

1. Do away with the RNG of the three to five quests per month. Stick with three. That way, it doesn't take an unhealthy amount of time to complete a rotation.

2. Max out boost at 200 rather than 300 HBR points. (Keep the total possible boost the same, but cut the points needed down to 200 and tighten up the DAR / RDR boosts.)

3. Allow players to vote off quests they don't want to see on HBR. (Ie. extremely weak quests like East Tower.) Maybe limit this to once per calendar quarter and only if there's significant player pushback against a quest. Quests that are voted off will not return to the HBR pool for two years OR MORE. After they have "done their time" players can vote if they want the quest to return.

4. Add more quests to the eligible pool. Too many quests are not eligible because their "enemy counts are too high," but their length is never taken into account. For example, if we look at the sheer number of "enemies killed per minute" and nothing more, then Tyrell's Ego is no more egregious than New Mop Up Operation # 3, so why can't TE be included in HBR?

5. Allow HBR points to be reallocated but with a transfer penalty. So, let's say my HBR score was:

Quest 1: 60 points
Quest 2: 0 points
Quest 3: 60 points

And let's say this is because I really hate Quest 2 and am dreading playing it. This system would allow me to transfer points from my other Quests at a STEEP PENALTY. We're talking like, three points taken from one quest can be reallocated as ONE point to another quest. So, if I decided to give up 30 of my points from Quest 1, then it would look like this afterward:

Quest 1: 30 points
Quest 2: 10 points
Quest 3: 60 points

Players will not be allowed to boost quests beyond 36 points using this method so that it can't be abused. But this way, I could still PARTICIPATE in HBR, at a SIGNIFICANT COST, without having to suffer through a quest I hate.

Parting thought: Too many of the HBR-eligible quests have wimpy spawns (ie. East Tower), filler hallways that intentionally waste the player's time (ie. WOL4), and lack of challenge (ie. EN1). This needs to change.

(Most of the offenders are Sega-made, at least, which is a compliment to Ephinea's staff.)

 

[alex!]

I think there are two problems here. One is that when people don't like some of the HBR quests, they more or less feel isolated from the community. I think the ideas you proposed would help with that. The other issue is that people hardly play anything other than HBR. I think these improvements to make HBR more accessible actually exacerbate the second concern.

 

[Ade]

I think there are two problems here. One is that when people don't like some of the HBR quests, they more or less feel isolated from the community. I think the ideas you proposed would help with that. The other issue is that people hardly play anything other than HBR. I think these improvements to make HBR more accessible actually exacerbate the second concern.

I agree 100%. This is why I think HBR in its current form should be done away with.

However, if the devs insist on keeping it, THEN the changes I suggested should be considered.

I cannot stress enough: I maintain my stance that HBR has become too polarizing and should be changed.

 

[Sodaboy]

Just so it's no surprise.

Hunters Boost Road will be disappearing forever after this month to be replaced by a new system.

Stay tuned.