Requesting a review of RBR on behalf of many community members.

Ade

;3
Hi everyone,

I want to stress the fact that I am not suggesting a new mechanic or system in PSO. The purpose of this post is to encourage the staff to review the current Ragol Boost Road (RBR) quest lineup / boost strength in light of recent drop chart changes, the fact that RBR quests change each week (and cannot be exploited for a full month at a time), and that the overall boosts provided by RBR are nowhere near what was possible with Hunter's Boost Road (HBR). I am making this post with the encouragement of several community members who have experienced both the positives and negatives of RBR, and would like to see it reviewed. I don't want to be contentious, but I want to get a discussion going about this. RBR has been in place for 19 months and hasn't received any major changes or updates since its inception (except that max boost can now be attained with 3 players), so hopefully it is within our purview as players to encourage the staff to review existing systems.

Items that would be helpful to review:

A. Although RBR has encouraged players to log in more often, the boosts were nerfed too much compared to what was attainable in HBR. This is yet another nerf for players who are hunting for endgame gear, where opportunities for progression are few and far between. The boosts provided by RBR should be increased by a decent amount. They don't need to be anywhere near what was possible with HBR, but they are too low right now. With the nerfs to Untekked Weapon rate, Weapon Special Tier appearance rate, and the overall nerfing of Events (which more or less leveled off around late 2022), it has become much more difficult to hunt endgame gear than 5+ years ago. Unfortunately, many of the changes of the last few years have made it so that the current boosts aren't strong enough to carry the weaker quests.

B. East Tower and West Tower should be removed from the RBR list. These quests are extremely weak and are basically what "Free Field Tower" would have been if it was an actual thing. The spawn densities of these quests are so low that they don't even deserve to be called quests. Furthermore, these quests still have important mechanics attached to them (adding Specials to S-Ranks and adding Attribute Percents to weapons), so they will still get played / seen. That aside, ET and WT are mostly ignored when they come up on RBR.

C. The following quests should be considered for addition into the RBR lineup:

1. Lost Soul Blade: Now that Lame d'Argent has been moved to Sinow Red, there's no reason to continue excluding this from RBR.

2. Road to Nowhere (potential conflict of interest since I helped develop this quest): This is a full-length Ruins 1 to Ruins 3 + Dark Falz quest. It is challenging and takes a long time to reach the end. It cannot be exploited for any one single enemy any more effectively than anything else.

3. Phantasmal World 2: The Pinkal Lame rate for Ul Gibbons was nerfed to over 1 in 4,000 BECAUSE of this quest. Disallowing it from existing in RBR is a double-penalty for the same thing.

4. Phantasmal World 4: If people want to reset the first two floors of this all day to hunt SJS and melt their brains, that is on them. Even with RBR boosts, it would still take well over 1,600 PW4 resets on average to get a SJS. For everyone else, it's a great quest that barely gets played anymore.

5. Lost Berserk Baton: This quest isn't any more powerful or dense than any of the other "Lost" quests and takes a long time to clear. There's no reason it shouldn't be in RBR.

6. Lost Spirit Striker: Same justification as LBB but even beyond that: This quest has random spawns, so it can't be exploited for anything significant (except maybe Girtablulus).

7. New Mop-Up Operation 3: Due to its shortness in length, NMU4 is easier to farm for HS than NMU3, so there's no reason NMU3 should be excluded. (This was not apparent when RBR was launched, but it is now.)

8. The non-event Maximum Attack E series (MAE1, MAE VR, MAE GDV, and MAE4): These are powerful quests, but there's only four of them. It would be a nice, rare treat to get these once in awhile.

9. The REV series (not the older XRD series). These quests are strong, but they have random routes which cannot be exploited. And there's only three of them, so they won't come up very often.

There are possible MANY more, and hopefully some of my friends and fellow players will add their own ideas.

Conclusion:

I posted in 2023 about concerns on HBR that were addressed enthusiastically by the Staff, and the overall health of the server has increased tremendously since RBR was released. In that regard, it was a massive success, and I continue to be grateful. However, it's been almost two years since any of this was reviewed. This doesn't mean that anyone did a bad job; but that we learned through long-term observation.

I want to stress the fact that RBR has been overall very positive and it keeps players from melting their brains for an entire month straight. You guys are awesome, so I hope we can get a good discussion going about this.
 
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I think one thing that I have really noticed over the past year or so is most players want to hunt the most optimal way, making use of boosts and high density quests.
The RBR system as a whole is important in my opinion because it basically introduces a new "set" of quests every week. I spent some time playing on other PSO servers fairly recently and I can say that servers with no rotation are all just 3-4 quests being spammed 24/7.
When RBR was introduced, replacing HBR, part of the reasoning for the updated quest list was to shine light on some of the lesser-played quests. However I find we are in that same loop again where only the RBR quests are being played. (excluding TTF/RT of course).
I think adding some new quests would breathe some fresh air into the game and peoples hunts. Playing quests you haven't played before is very refreshing.
On a quick count (excluding solo, shop, event, and government quests) there are around 60-70 quests not in rotation, a really large portion of these go untouched.

There is also the argument of some quests being too strong to be boosted. Yes some quests are stronger than others, however if we had a bigger quest list, what really are the odds of those quests lining up perfectly with DAR or RDR rates? (not that great). And as for some quests being "too strong of a reset", I kind of think its been proven with the last Anniversary Event that people are just going to play how/what they want.

I personally think the RBR system is a better fit for everyone, hardcore gamer or casual. I just wish it promoted more of the quests available.
 
RBR was an excellent solution to the monthly HBR monotony. Many people agree though that while HBR rates were insane in hindsight, lowering the boosts to their current rates was a significant blow to some of the "weaker" quests on the list. It would be very nice to see some kind of rework that gives RBR some higher boosts to help these weaker quests. If there was concern that some of the better quests would be too powerful maybe there could be a system set in place where quests can be assigned a negative value, so that when those quests roll they would not get the full RBR boosts. In theory if this could be done it also opens up the possibility of adding some of the better quests in the game back to RBR. We have an amazing library of quests here on Ephinea but unfortunately due to the "fomo" from RBR boosts or lack of knowledge of some of the better quests it seems that the only thing that people run now is RBR. It seems that where HBR was introduced to boost up lesser played quests and make them relevant for more variety, we now find ourselves in a situation where the only thing that is run is these lesser played quests.

EDIT- It doesn't really matter how to balance it, I'm sure there's many other good ways to handle it. It would just be nice to see most, if not all quests added to rbr. Even if some quests had reduced rbr rates. But this way, every quest would finally see play because it's in rotation.
 
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I was originally an advocate of RBR due to (at the time) finding the grind required for HBR to be "unfair" to players who can't devote much time to the game. Now, with the current iteration of RBR, I'm left wondering-- does it really matter if people who can spend more time on the game get more benefits? Casual players could still build up HBR boosts to a lesser extent, and easily attain rates higher than what you can with RBR. For those who enjoy playing the market, it absolutely feels like the market has suffered over time. With the significantly lower DAR rates in RBR compared to HBR, there are less PDs in flowing and newer players inevitably see the grind to become a veteran with lots of gear far more daunting than before. HBR offered a steady progression path for serious new players to gear up and build wealth. Building points also rewarded players for the camaraderie of making friends to play/grind with.

I'm not saying 'get rid of RBR', but rather, 'isn't there a middle ground between the two?' It feels like we swung from one extreme to another.

Beyond the perks of HBR, the philosophy behind removing powerful quests from the RBR rotation makes very little sense to me for a variety of reasons.

1) I've heard the argument that if powerful quests are in the rotation, no one will do the weaker ones. People will ALWAYS gravitate toward the most efficient hunt regardless of which quests are in the rotation. There will always be quests in every RBR that people ignore because one of the quests is simply a superior use of our time relative to the other quests in the rotation. If the quests are MU1, East Tower, and Sweep-Up 12, people are probably going to do Sweep-Up 12.

2) With a large number of quests in rotation, it's not like these 'OP' quests are going to be popping up every week. Most weeks won't have PW4 or LSB, so why not let us have a treat once in a while with a powerful and fun RBR quest? How does having these quests pop up once in a while somehow damage the server or make all these other quests irrelevant?

3) Some quests are so bad that no one will ever play them even if they're in RBR-- they legitimately just waste a slot, like East/West Tower. If we can have bottom-barrel gutter tier quests clogging the line-up, why can't we also have some OP quests to balance it out?

4) I've heard the argument that some of these OP quests are 'too hard,' and aren't new player-friendly... I'll be honest-- who cares? If PW4 is too hard for a new player, they can play something else or do something else during the week it's in the rotation. Why punish skilled players for some imagined slight against newer players? There are plenty of kind veterans who would be happy to teach these players more advanced tech as well.
 
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As a kinda new-ish player compared to other veterans Im actually kinda frustrated with the state of the game. I missed out many years of HBR glory only to realize over the last 12 months, that its basically impossible to "catch up" on the wealth many veterans from back then are hoarding. In addition to the common droprate adjustments it almost feels like "never went through the grind during the golden age? Enjoy your stay in poverty".
Dont get me wrong, i would never want the old hbr system back from what ive heard. You experience powerful quest fatigue redardless of how powerful the quest may be (looking at you christmas fiasco). The introduction of RBR was healthy and almost necessary for the consistency of the playercount but i can only agree with previous posts and i will always disagree with the argument "quest too hard, not good for rbr" since we have event quests, that go far beyond that difficulty. The difficulty argument only applies to Episode 2 cca and seabed anyway in my opinion.
 
My two cents is I don't see many people use the Anguish system all too often. It's a great way to make really easy quests challenging again, for an increase in droprate. Most end game players I've played with would easily take on A1 and possibly A2, with a benefit in droprate and an upped challenge. I remember back when I was hunting Pwand with a party we used a lot of Halloween Cookies on A4-6 back then. Makes a very easy quest a true challenge.

While this could be applied to any and all quests people feel aren't worth their time due to being too easy, it works for RBR imo.

Do note, I was never a fan of the HBR in particular, because of "Quest fatigue". Playing the same few quests for an entire month sure sucked the fun out of it for me. And seeing I'm working and have a family I don't have all the time in the world to spend on here, that's saying something. Sure, you want to get somewhere gear or wealth wise, you need to grind and that's more than okay. But I'd rather enjoy the time I play than it feeling like a chore. Cutty Mink might be onto something here, we've swung from one extreme to the other. Though I prefer this extreme a lot more. Maybe a revision isn't a bad thing, but I hope it stays closer to RBR than HBR, if just for "Quest fatigue" alone.
 
Agreed with what Lan, Ade and Mink are saying here. I'd like to add that I think every quest that has been restricted from RBR should be added back in. I believe in addition to the quests ade mentioned, there is also a couple of sweep ups that aren't in RBR. Bringing back those SU's would also give a little more love to Tower, in which there is only like 3 quests currently in rbr.

In terms of quests being "too strong" for boosts, why is it such a big deal if there is a couple of powerful quests that may or most likely won't appear on a week that could be considered strong? Even with HBR boosts and damn near 18 hours a day every day for a month, I still didn't get the hunt I was looking for, and rbr is like a third of the boosts. This would also be assuming that a good quest would land on dar or rdr week.

There has been a lot of nerfs to boosts and drop rates since hbr. And with lack of significant DAR, pd's are more scarce and the economy has suffered for it. Also, people getting big, cool drops is fun to see on screenshots/forum and outside of events, there's a lot less of that happening.

This is also more of a personal thing, I miss the grind of hbr. Having to earn points to get boosts gave a sense of progression, and having the leader board gave it some competition in racing to the top for max boosts. RBR kind of caters to people who aren't playing as much or every now and then, but the grinders kind of get the shaft.

I like rbr, but I do wish when rbr was introduced that hbr wasn't taken out of the game completely. Having both would appease the grinders and the more casual audience.
 
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I have a response directly to Ade's post I'll put in a spoiler
A. Although RBR has encouraged players to log in more often, the boosts were nerfed too much compared to what was attainable in HBR. This is yet another nerf for players who are hunting for endgame gear, where opportunities for progression are few and far between. The boosts provided by RBR should be increased by a decent amount. They don't need to be anywhere near what was possible with HBR, but they are too low right now. With the nerfs to Untekked Weapon rate, Weapon Special Tier appearance rate, and the overall nerfing of Events (which more or less leveled off around late 2022), it has become much more difficult to hunt endgame gear than 5+ years ago. Unfortunately, many of the changes of the last few years have made it so that the current boosts aren't strong enough to carry the weaker quests.

1. I didn't play 5 years ago so I have zero idea what the landscape for drops looked like. It's fairly obvious that the staff desire the server to be fairly grindy, which increases playtime considerably. At what cost, no idea. I don't agree with buffing RBR, I think that's just a symptom of a much larger issue. It seems like every time they do some significant change people have a tidal wave of feedback for why its bad but only provide band-aid answers. *In my opinion* it would be better to remove RBR altogether and focus more on the core experience rather than allowing specific quests every week to fill the gap. It's a cool feature but it just dictates where you have to play to get the best benefit in a more constrictive way. Perhaps creating a RBR like system where instead of three quests it provides a much smaller benefit to three specific areas in the game. For example instead of a Forest Quest it provides you with a 10% boost to RDR in the Forest area specifically, which allows you, the player, to choose which quests are best optimally for hunting. Perhaps this is a bit close to the last HBR method, but without the grinding. Perhaps we'll see.

B. East Tower and West Tower should be removed from the RBR list. These quests are extremely weak and are basically what "Free Field Tower" would have been if it was an actual thing. The spawn densities of these quests are so low that they don't even deserve to be called quests. Furthermore, these quests still have important mechanics attached to them (adding Specials to S-Ranks and adding Attribute Percents to weapons), so they will still get played / seen. That aside, ET and WT are mostly ignored when they come up on RBR.

2. This is just an opinion piece, nothing to really argue here. I don't have anything to say.

C. The following quests should be considered for addition into the RBR lineup:

3. For the vast majority of the quests you stated I wouldn't have an issue with nearly as much. Road to Nowhere is definitely conflict of interest, just seems like a self plug. Although its intriguing to me that you would state that RTN is not abuse-able but in the same paragraph of suggestions, you suggest that PW4 should be added, which is undoubtedly one of the most abused reset quests ever made. Not sure what the logic is behind that.
To my specific opinionated response:

I've heard a couple of sentiments in the past comments about some quests being weaker than others. I would personally just make each quest have their own (quest specific) boost that fits the kind of quest it is. If you play a weaker quest you will see a better boost compared to a quest that's way better. This obviously takes so much more time to implement. It's also way harder to fix.
I've also seen a lot of takes based around casual players which seems odd, because in a lot of these takes it includes putting really hard quests in the mix and then people say "oh well casuals cant clear it whatever". This kind of sentiment to me seems more of an attempt to get the staff to buff things that are easier "for the casuals" when in actuality its just for them. I don't think Ephinea staff should be buffing or nerfing ANYTHING based on a singular group of players based on hours or commitment, they should only be changing things based on the merit of the change. Casual player, hardcore player, intermediate, whatever it is.

My general sentiment as a newish player to Ephinea is that RBR is a fine system but it has the innate issue of limitations. There have been several weeks where I just dont play and participate in them because either the quests aren't that great or just not in an area I want to hunt in. It's much more the former though. I think Anguish should just be scrapped and then those bonuses should be considered in a revised variant of RBR that focuses more on the area of hunt rather than the quest specifically. I'd like it way more if the RBR rotated around three specific areas every week and then every quest in that area was boosted. You absolutely could lower the boosts to compensate, maybe even including some Meseta boosts or Untekked weapon boosts to specific areas or quests if you wanted. I'm not an expert at game design, they have a lot more knowledge than I do about all of this, but I think I find myself ignoring RBR much more than I find myself playing it. That's not really an issue with the system though.
 
Ragol Boost Road should be renamed to RikaPSO Boost Road and should give +200 RDR to a random RikaPSO quest each week.

In seriousness:

Here is what I miss about HBR:
1) it encouraged 4player parties with randoms - you could always host a pub and get joiners because HBR was always the most efficient way to hunt. Established players such as myself have slowly realized that playing solo or in pre-mades with other established players is more efficient, which has made the community more cliquey and there is less mingling between experienced and unexperienced players. Some RBR quests, even when they roll, are so inefficient that no one will even join your pubs.
2) it encouraged full clears - you needed to clear the whole quest in order to get b00st power
3) it actually encouraged lesser played quests - you had to play them in order to get the b00st power
4) was always really hype when something like pw2 rolled
5) it had better boosts
- Since I've been on this server, A1 patterns have been nerfed, the DAR boost from HBR has been nerfed, and finding top tier weapon specials has been nerfed. Before my time, the 82% untekked chance in Ruins 1 was also nerfed. Why keep making it harder to find good items when they take hundreds, if not thousands of hours on average to find anyways?

Here is what I didn't like about HBR:
1) people only played hbr quests and never mae or other quests that etc
2) solo was never worthwhile
3) it went on for too long
4) sometimes all the quests were bad and it felt underwhelming for a month


RBR did a good job of addressing some of these issues, and I've been a big fan of seeing a quest in each episode in the new format. I appreciate having the quests change weekly to avoid burnout, and if I have to contradict myself a bit here, in some ways it's nice that the boosts aren't so powerful that I can't convince friends to play quests with me that aren't featured.

Here is my proposed solution:
1) add every quest into RBR - when was the last time you saw someone run SU9, LFC, LSS, MA4A, or MA2B?
2) give stronger boosts to weaker quests, everyone knows what they are

I'm glad the staff care about making this server a positive experience for players, and I want to acknowledge that it's incredibly hard to balance this game and I am thankful for the effort that the staff put in to making that work. These are just my thoughts.
 
Curious how well an instanced split would be with a mixture of RBR's and HBR's mechanics. Surely it can be done as the daily luck boost does not affect the party. It only affects players to who's characters for the criterion/criteria.

If RBR remained as is (function wise, and not what quests are in it), and then a completion record was added to it tied to an account. Players could grind RBR quests like they did back in the HBR days...Albeit, not nearly to the same extent. When done enough times, the record on your RBR score can build up to add an additional 25% or so to the already present boost 3P+ RBR generate. So if a 4P RBR runs and 2 players did the grind while the other 2 didn't, the two that grinded would see more DAR to their info than the players that didn't. Maybe this could (at least for a team each week) show incentive to play the other contents each week VS the one titan quest. Of course the one "Titan Quest" would be the target focus at the end of either route players take, but it could add a bit of pizzazz.

Then comes the other issue in that the qualified quests for RBR isn't too extensive compared to the total quest count available on the server. Being more lenient with what is added VS what isn't may be openly appreciated and appealing. I definitely will point out that if much stronger content is added to the lists, a lot of wimpy biscuits need to also be there (Maybe even throw ship quests in there to completely kill an episode's RBR week for a cycle, lol). Another answer is community driven. If more people actively stepped up and took quest development seriously, more content can be added and this can grow quest listing over time.

Quick side note as well. I really don't think people appreciate Quick Burst enough. Back in the earlier "Golden HBR days" we had loading screens for making rooms, for each player joining the room, for quest loading, for warping to each area, to leaving back to lobby, and then repeat it all again (And this is not even taking into account resets, which were absolutely wild with Viridia CF4).

Anyway, just to end off, this is a game. It's meant to play and have a good time with. Having frustrations, issues, or other problems with something you're meant to enjoy is just sad to see (At least to me). Unfortunately, many players today just missed that train, but plenty of efforts to make a balanced and fair experience have been made since then...and it's not really like all hope is just washed from the old days. Sure, less huge drops have popped up (At least as far as we know), but they still do happen.

Anyone that is continually ungrateful about the efforts made around here, and only harping about wanting extreme boosts quite frankly don't even belong here.
 
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I'll add to what Esther just said about quest development (this is a quest creation take).
If people who are so passionate about the game to the extent that they can play entire days without stopping want to contribute towards adding more variety and diversity to the system they should do quest development. Qedit is not a new player friendly system, but there are PLENTY of guides created by some of the most seasoned users and I've never personally met some one who was versed in Qedit that did not answer my questions whenever I asked no matter how silly or simple.

There's a Qedit wiki too for a lot of simpler, more general, answers to your questions. If anybody wanted to get involved in quest development but ever thought that they couldn't because they're not good enough, let me assure you, that you can absolutely do it. Qedit is not so difficult that nobody can do it. Even a simpleton like me has released 6 quests on Schtserv that get played daily. It's not too hard. Time consuming? Yes.

People stepping up and starting their Qedit journey and releasing something to the system would definitely assist in alleviating some of that gap people feel in the roster. Part of the reason the roster is the way it is right now is due to that lack of variety, which is strictly a quest development issue.
 
I'll add to what Esther just said about quest development (this is a quest creation take).
If people who are so passionate about the game to the extent that they can play entire days without stopping want to contribute towards adding more variety and diversity to the system they should do quest development. Qedit is not a new player friendly system, but there are PLENTY of guides created by some of the most seasoned users and I've never personally met some one who was versed in Qedit that did not answer my questions whenever I asked no matter how silly or simple.

There's a Qedit wiki too for a lot of simpler, more general, answers to your questions. If anybody wanted to get involved in quest development but ever thought that they couldn't because they're not good enough, let me assure you, that you can absolutely do it. Qedit is not so difficult that nobody can do it. Even a simpleton like me has released 6 quests on Schtserv that get played daily. It's not too hard. Time consuming? Yes.

People stepping up and starting their Qedit journey and releasing something to the system would definitely assist in alleviating some of that gap people feel in the roster. Part of the reason the roster is the way it is right now is due to that lack of variety, which is strictly a quest development issue.

Not sure if players making more quests is the answer here... The point is that a massive variety of quests already exist on Ephinea and that they're not being utilized in the RBR rotation.

What "variety" do you feel doesn't currently exist within the overall quest pool on Ephinea and why would creating these diverse quests to add to RBR be a preferable solution over just utilizing the myriad of interesting and fun quests that already exist and are left out of RBR?
 
Part of the reason the roster is the way it is right now is due to that lack of variety, which is strictly a quest development issue.

If people who are so passionate about the game to the extent that they can play entire days without stopping want to contribute towards adding more variety and diversity to the system they should do quest development.

While I agree that quest development would help with variety, a more glaring issue is that we're not fully using what we have available already. If we exclude gov, shop, solo and event quests there is 153 quests in the other categories. RBR currently only has 58 quests on it. It doesn't seem right to put it on the players to make more quests when we're using less than half of what's already available.
 
One thing I do want to add, Kinda going off of Esther and Varista;
The Qedit learning curve is a little steep but like Varista stated, its not impossible. As someone fresh to Qedit and actively working on their first handfull of quests, YEAH you're gonna have to take notes, you're going to forget things, you're going to get confused. But isn't that kinda how we all PLAYED pso at first? Remember the first time you saw someone trap shoot, or lock Vol Opt? I bet none of us were masters at it the first time! It just takes practice and I think that anyone willing to put in some time could be an amazing help for content creation on the server.

Also, Just really want to shout out Ender, they do not receive enough praise for all of the UNPAID development work they do for the server. When was the last time you played on another server? The QoL updates, Extra customization, and even things like Damage Cancel, and Not being able to accidentally sell your good commons to the shop, are HUGE updates. Most if not all of these are missing on other PSO servers. We have it really really good as is.
PSO development is hard outside of Qedit. And Ender is a fucking GOD at what they do.
 
Not sure if players making more quests is the answer here... The point is that a massive variety of quests already exist on Ephinea and that they're not being utilized in the RBR rotation.

What "variety" do you feel doesn't currently exist within the overall quest pool on Ephinea and why would creating these diverse quests to add to RBR be a preferable solution over just utilizing the myriad of interesting and fun quests that already exist and are left out of RBR?
I was not directly referring to how I feel personally about the variety or diversity, only how others may contribute if they feel it is not good enough.
The reason I would assess why only 58 quests are in the RBR despite there being 150+ quests on server is because the staff know that not every quest is good for the system. It's not just done at random, there is a reason for it being done.

I don't personally have any issue with RBR outside of what I stated I'd like to see done, I like RBR as it is but I think its primary "problem" is the constrictive nature of it.
One thing I do want to add, Kinda going off of Esther and Varista;
The Qedit learning curve is a little steep but like Varista stated, its not impossible. As someone fresh to Qedit and actively working on their first handfull of quests, YEAH you're gonna have to take notes, you're going to forget things, you're going to get confused. But isn't that kinda how we all PLAYED pso at first?
Bro I still to this day need to get on Qedit every single day and remake basic scripts for the episodes just to remember how things work. I promise anybody who thought about getting into Qedit that it's worth your time.
 
Okay there's a lot being discussed here so I'll chime in too cause everyone knows I got opinions.

Right off the hop:
1. Qedit is great and all and sure more people should in general be interested in quest creation, but between what it takes to learn the tools, create a quest, create a quest that isn't shit, then get that quest accepted onto Ephinea, I think bringing that up in this discussion is completely missing the point. Highly recommend either dropping or tabling all discussion of it in this thread as it's not a meaningful solution to any problem currently being discussed.
2. Anguish suco and we've all known and been over this a hundred times, so I'm going to be ignoring any mention of that too. I have long since understood that Anguish as a game mode is strictly for the novelty of the additional challenge, and its ability to be worthwhile for hunts will always be held in check by its identity, and that's fine.

Moving on to RBR:
1. I think Lantana, Grizzly, and Mink all make excellent points without asking for too much. The heart of the complaint here (at least to me) isn't necessarily that RBR is bad, more just that it's... gotten a bit stale. And when we're at a state where, as mentioned, lots of people are kind of glued to "omg boosted quest," playing the same quests from the limited list is getting increasingly noticeable as time goes on.

To illustrate the point, consider this--for eligible RBR quests per episode, we have:
- Episode 1: 23
- Episode 2: 21
- Episode 4: 14
For a total of 58 quests.

If we're nice and average it out to 19 quests per episode, then in the last year and a half (approx. 78 weeks), we're looking at all of the RBR quests having been chosen four(~) times each, and this is including the ones that are unpopular (Anomalous Ordeals--bad for target hunting; East/West Tower--aforementioned complaints; the like, six Episode 4 quests that are just walking simulators).

2. I just went back and reread Toujours's post, too, actually, and Rika's boost road is based as fuck let's just do that actually fuck this whole thread his points and suggestions look the best to me. Adding more quests to the RBR selection, then assessing how strong or weak the RBR boosts are for each quest is probably the most appropriate answer if boosts are of concern. This does lend itself to other issues, though, like how does the staff evaluate what boosts are "appropriate" for each quest, or how can boosts be adjusted dynamically on a per-quest basis within the same RBR (I guess RBR existing on its own is proof that something can be done, but it's still extra work).

3. Personally, I don't really think the boosts need to be adjusted in any way. Not to make this whole section a shot at Ade or anything but Expecting to get so-called "endgame" gear (what even is PSO "endgame"?) is going to be a monumental undertaking, regardless of how much you tick up the percentage numbers. It's PSO, and everyone in this thread should know well enough what they're in for by now. And even beside that, those same boosted rates from ye olde HBR that would help with getting that level of gear would:
a. apply to everyone, not just people in the "endgame;"
b. result in even more people who join later feeling like they're "playing catch-up."
RBR rates are fine enough as-is, and asking for "better boosts" has always felt like the lowest-hanging fruit of a "fix" from the player side of things. Better rates aren't really going to make me get un-bored of War of Limits 4, it'll just feel overpowered, and then it's a game of "how much can you grind that overpowered thing before it's (rightfully, I'll stress) nerfed."

4. I do, however, basically like all the suggestions Ade's made for quests that should be included. I even think we've been told outright that Lost Spirit Striker was intended to be added at some point, but never was for whatever reason. A big reason I like that quest when I don't like the Anomalous Ordeal series is for its guaranteed Girtablulu spawns and its free field feel (say that ten times fast). It's long and (otherwise) random, but I'd happily play that quest over the course of a week if I wanted something from Girtas or Saint-Milion.

5. I'd like to particularly stress Mink's point about quests being omitted for being "too hard." Personally, I feel like excluding difficult quests for the sake of players who might not be able to benefit from them is coddling and/or catering to the lowest common denominators. I'd much more appreciate being rewarded for the ability to improve at the game than be told I can only benefit from boosted rates on quests that the most Yamato +60 of HUmars can mash through too.

I think I'm reaching the end of my ability to not just turn this entire post into one tangent after another here, though, so here's a bit of a roundup with some other suggestions I've thought of:
1. pls add more quests to RBR :)))) fun :)))))))))
2. if "good quests" and "bad quests" are too divisive, how about considering... bringing back HBRdontkillmehearmeoutok but only for the shittier quests? I've always wondered if maybe a drastically toned-down version of HBR could coexist alongside RBR, with quests that start out worse being grinded out by determined players that appreciated the cooperative system until they surpass the static-boosted RBR quests, which could receive the same current (or adjusted) boosts for stronger, longer, more difficult, etc., whatever quests
2a. as an example, three "shitty" quests are rolled at the start of the month, start at 100/100/100 (DAR/RDR/EXP), and improve by +1/+1/+2 per clear (and those boosts are calculated for you alone--no party mechanics to repeat old problems), up to maximums of, say, 150/150/200? Meanwhile, three other quests are chosen randomly, from a larger (or more powerful (or not!)) pool, and they just get the regular flat 125/125/150 rates, but can't go higher? Something for the grinders, and something for the not-so-grinders
3. Even if the above doesn't happen, with a higher quest selection in RBR, consider having two quests chosen per episode, instead of just one? It might require some serious grasping at straws for Episode 4, or maybe just more freedom in the same old standbys, but it's something to think about.
 
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