Seasons Feedback

Length of Season: Definitely longer than I would like to see in the future.

Meta Strategies: I wouldn't want to see anything too onerous in terms curbing the game itself. Take away TTF, and people just ended up spamming max attack, etc. Players will naturally take the course of action they feel optimizes their time investment. If you restrict things too much people just won't play.

This didn't bother me as that is the essence of PSO. I mean this is a game where people once upon a time literally telepiped up and down repeatedly, rather than actually play the game, as it was considered optimal for rare enemies. The original game was 4 areas with a handful of quests and map variations you just repeatedly spammed. Not sure why seasons should be any different.

I really like the idea of not being able to trade though. Seasons economy died very quickly anyway as many people weren't willing to part with resources once they met certain goals and there was only a minimal period of time left in the season.

Shop Weapons: I played a force in seasons so any input I would give on this subject should be taken with a grain of salt. If seasons is a microcosm of the game however it seems reasonable that people should be able to acquire these items as they allow players to compete in Ultimate without the ability to kit their character with numerous Sranks or other weapons that greatly help in completing certain quests.

Achievements: I'll be the first to admit that I didn't really chase these. I liked the quest clear ones, so I completed those, but outside of that mostly attempted to complete my own goals such as getting to level 200 and completing my character as best I could. I couldn't be bothered to hunt items I already had in normal mode just for the sake of points. However some people really seemed to enjoy or were masochistic enough to pursue all of these so maybe it makes sense to keep them. I would like to see achievements really encourage the players to cooperate with one another or whatever the goal of the season happens to be.


Things I would like to see:
1) A way to see the games available in both normal mode and seasons mode. I didn't play seasons at first and was planning on not playing at all but eventually did as normal mode basically died. Towards the end of seasons I basically stopped playing as its sort of a pain to switch characters just to see what games are going on.
2) Seasons be like a once a year type thing. Basically like an annual event.
3) Achievement store details available at the beginning of the next season in advance to help players chart out their strategy beforehand. I very much imagine this would be the plan for next season regardless.

I ended up really happy with Seasons. I think it was a great experience, especially considering it was the first time it was run! I got to play a character I never really played before in Fonl and really was surprised how much I fell in love with her! Also this was the most fun I had chasing level 200 since dreamcast, so I think that speaks for itself =)

Thanks!!! ^_^
 
Length of Season:
Definitely too long. Maybe a month and a half at most? Then give like.. 2 weeks for people to get on get rewards and such before starting the next

Meta Strategies:
I don't think you should lock ma4. That was super fun for me personally. Getting rid of the box quest would be fine though.

Shop Weapons: i didnt shop hunt them myself but I understand the situation so limiting to 30% from shops or removing multi buying

Achievements: I like the achievements, I do think there could be more... Difficult ones with higher reward for the people who want to go hard on them, and Maybe more and easier ones with a lower reward tier (like more that give 1-5 points) for people like me Who like it but don't push super hard...
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I really like the level reward idea. The mag devices are great. I think something like that but with other different ones would be cool. Maybe a no pb elly mag or something rare/normally unobtainable.

I'm on the fence about taking trading away... I can see good and bad Coming from it. I do think if you took trading away it would be optimal to alter drop rates and give Boosts for rare drops to seasons(possibly more so than normal Mode) to balance it out....sonce there were many times I was trying to get something and of it wasn't for someone else getting multiple drops while we were farming i Probably wouldn't have gotten them.
 
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Some more random thoughts...

Not sure if taking item trades away is such a good idea, because I think it's part of the reason people were so active in the beginning.
I also think that making future seasons shorter and finding a better balance for achievements in lower levels (see my previous post) can resolve a lot of problems. Like people will think twice on spending too many PDs, if the season doesn't last too long/ends soon. No time to play multiple characters, no need for item transfers. No need to rush to ult if there's a good amount of achievements in lower difficulties.

Why were people FOing in ep4 and trying to gain levels fast?
The reward shop wasn't announced and people thought there will be PS for reaching level 150 and that's it. So some day one FOs just wanted to get it done and return to normal. This will/might not be an issue anymore in future seasons.

Sure, FOs can level fast in ep4, but try to complete MA2C with a FO team. Impossible. If quest achievements stay balanced (ep1,2,4), the amount of character classes will automatically stay balanced. FOs help people finish ep4 quests, the others help finish ep1&2 quests. Maybe remove former multi quests from solo again, at least for seasons, so FOs won't solo ep4 and multi ep1&2, and then HU RA have a hard time finishing their ep4 quests, because FOs don't want to play them again.
 
By only reading the OP and not the replies, here's my feedback. (will read replies after posting)

Length of Season
Starting off, I'd like to see the next season last for around 8 weeks. Such a time would slot in nicely between events I imagine.

Season length of 3 months was just long enough so that players who wanted to reach level 200 could do so with enough time/dedication. Players who joined in the middle of the season (like me) could have enough time to catch up to a decent level and play for a decent length of time.

Unfortunately, for anyone with the time and dedication to reach level 200, it was far more profitable to make alternate accounts and grind FOnewms to 150 rather than focus on a single character. 150 was way too early for a free Photon Sphere in my opinion. In the next season, I would suggest that the free sphere be changed to level 170~180, and that any additional spheres were earned through the player's achievements.

Achievements
Speaking of achievements, the Achievement Point system was super fun, at least for me. It felt like I was playing PSO with goals, which was both awesome and it eased the VH-ULT grind for me by letting me kill two birds with one stone. I would be very sad to see achievements go, or to not be replaced by other goals we could achieve.

Quest availability
PW3 and MA4 allowed me to use Charge as much as I did lol. For an actual argument, if these quests were not present next season, people would simply farm the next best thing; another meta will still develop. That said I'm indifferent to quest availability.

Closing
The last time I accumulated this much wealth in this sort of time span was during the 2nd Anniversary event (I couldn't play during Christmas but I heard Things about that too). (Redacted). This is super nice, but is this too much? I literally have no idea because I don't play this game often enough outside of short bursts. So, I don't really care whether my time playing the season was "worth it," in the end, I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next one. Cheers!
 
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no trading + unlimited section ID changes?

that aside, I agree with most of what's been posted. it would be nice if mags were sped up or just locked somehow, that way the first 72 hours isn't just a feeding/boxfest server-wide.

maybe you get a level 50 mag once you've hit level X, but you can't ever feed? probably have to be careful with balancing that but yeah, seasons was great
 
Why is there talk of balance at all? There isn't a competition for rewards. If someone else is doing box runs in PW3 or getting experience in episode 4 I don't see how that effects everyone else. If someone is going to solo to 150 to get a sphere they would do that either way.
 
Dongra said:
Why is there talk of balance at all? There isn't a competition for rewards. If someone else is doing box runs in PW3 or getting experience in episode 4 I don't see how that effects everyone else. If someone is going to solo to 150 to get a sphere they would do that either way.
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The issue is that it defeats the point of a Season if it's going to be grinding the same two quests over and over. The latest season was basically a free way to do experience content you hadn't before and make your own strategies, but it turned into endless PW3 box runs to make money and MA4 spam to get XP. If that was the case, you might've well renamed the Season "Grind PW3 and MA4 to get a free Photon Sphere!". Sure, a meta will always develop, but the current one was so cheap and easy it defeated most of the point of the intended purpose and turned what should've been a fresh start and experiencing content you never have before into humping the same two quests like horny teens in a hotel room after prom.
 
DoctorShanks said:
150 was way too early for a free Photon Sphere in my opinion. In the next season, I would suggest that the free sphere be changed to level 170~180, and that any additional spheres were earned through the player's achievements.
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I'd rather not have to grind to 180 for that level of reward. It means you have no time to worry about other things and are stuck in exp grinding mode forever. I didn't get lv 150 until last week. I was able to take my time and do things like run cmode when others wanted/needed it. I wasn't stuck tied to PSO if I wanted to do something else. A level milestone like that is too high for those who don't have time anyways.
 
I think everything besides time and achievement were fine.

Time was too long.

Imo achievements should have fewer rewards for leveling and more for some other mechanics like number of traps used, to avoid the FOs who just solo nuke in ep4 and promote variety of classes.
 
Yuffie said:
seasons shop should be up now and not at an unknown date! im very disappointed! distribution of the level rewards 21.4? season already ended delayded (ends at 12.4?) and now we cant do what we want with the rewards we worked so hard for, and some people even like this maintenance post? cant understand this, really, plz put it up as fast possible(this is a nightmare the way like this)!:((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
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You should appreciate that this game is free, active and understand that the staff has lives other than pso. They do it at there pace. Take a chill pill and show the staff some love instead of hate. Rushing greatness is not a thing.
 
Dman said:
You should appreciate that this game is free, active and understand that the staff has lives other than pso. They do it at there pace. Take a chill pill and show the staff some love instead of hate. Rushing greatness is not a thing.
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Pretty sure Yuffie was just goofing off. Should have been able to tell by the excessive sad lips and other parts of the post.
 
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention in my first post: the rewards list should come out either before or along with the beginning of the season. Not knowing what you were working toward for over half of the 3-month season was pretty demotivating, IMO.

Also, like others have said, the season overlapping with Easter is a bad idea. Valentine's would've been fine, though, since it's more of a mini-event.
 
I think trying to modify the meta to restrict it further would be a bad idea. The established meta is what people use to play efficiently in the regular game (PW3 box runs, shop farming, specific quests, etc.). Although Seasons is great for a new player, it's very demotivating to have all the "tricks of the trade" removed for someone who uses those very tricks to alleviate the boredom of say, Lv. 80 to 120.

My suggestion for the next Season is to have 100% of the content available and allow the weekly boosts to apply. Increase EXP gained by 2x from Lv. 1 to 120 as a motivator. Don't tie a PS reward to level.

Another totally different idea for a season to alleviate the systematic boredom - completely separate from the one above: Allow an already-established character to participate in a Season but REQUIRE that they empty their bank and inventory into the common bank FIRST. Make the achievement points based on clearing quests and finding certain items. Make it so that the /joinseason command has to be typed in twice (similar to a mat reset), and have it issue a warning that any Character Bank / Inventory items or Meseta left behind will be deleted with no refunds. Once the /joinseason is typed the second time, the character is equipped with a Saber / HG / Wand, a 0-slot frame, and a Mag, just like a Lv. 1 character. Access to the common bank is lost. I would LOVE to have a Season where I start with a high level with zero gear and see what I can do. So basically, you have your character level and whatever your mat usage was. Nothing more.

Why, you ask? Diablo 3's Season structure is way different because you can hit the base level cap (and then start gaining Paragon levels) in a matter of hours. PSO's EXP curve is not conducive to this. I think starting at a high level would alleviate this. Plus, this would be something that "shows love" to established players. I think getting excited over a regular Calibur or Arms would be wonderful, instead of having to go all the way back to Sword / Shot, xD

Edit: Rewards could be based on total EXP earned during this type of Season (rather than a level).
 
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I still say remove quest restrictions, there is no reason to limit what most players can do just because a few vocal players want others to play the way they want. If you really want to structure seasons so more people will explore different quests, try adding a seasons weekly HBR where people have to compete a list of quests X times and reward them with achievement points (assuming it is even possible to implement this.)
 
I agree with @Dongra

Players will naturally move toward what is most efficient when it comes to completing and/or accelerating past the more mundane parts of the game. If you remove something because you find it "too exploitative" or "objectionable," then they'll just find the next most efficient thing. The cycle will continue until nothing but EN1 and the free field areas are available. But even regular Mines, Ruins, and Desert have pretty decent enemy counts, so lock those too, maybe :p j/k
 
I had a blast playing seasons! This event was the furthest I've ever pushed a PSO character (195 couldn't make it to 200 :() and the most wealth I've ever accumulated. Thanks for all the hard work!

My long winded comments are below.

  • Sense of purpose - Having goals really changed the game for me. Knowing you want to accomplish certain things when you log on helps prevent the game from getting stale. This is by far the biggest improvement vs the normal game for me. My highest level there is only 168 or so from a longer period of time played, but only playing casual TTFs RTs and POD. In contrast during seasons I was able to do more varied quests/hunts and have more fun even though it was crammed into a 3 month period.
  • Starting new - While its nice to be able to steamroll the game at level 1 with a level 200 Mag and H/Units , I feel there's a lot of fun to be had at low levels only using what you can find. Some of my memorable finds were a life steal rifle to save on mates, and a King's mechgun with hit and spamming XP steal for fun.
  • Quest Achievements - I would have never played most of the quests the PSO had it not been for the achievements related to them. Not that they are bad necessarily (OK maybe the writing is bad), but I just never had a reason to and some require good groups to finish.
  • Community working together - I played with many people helping them and them helping me get the achievements done. Even when there was unfortunate RNG most people are happy to grind until you get your goals done.
  • Rewards - Getting a nice payoff for grinding achievement points feels good! I've never had a PS before. The item skin idea sounds amazing and I'm looking forward to seeing more things like this.

  • RNG Achievements - I don't think that these are bad necessarily and shouldn't be removed for next season, it's just that its can get very discouraging if everyone in multiple parties that you play with gets the rupika/v502/hs/red weapon but not you. Also killing 1000+ Hildelts and only seeing one Torr felt awful. This is an grindy RNG game though so I shouldn't complain.
  • Rewards not announced - This really should have been determined before the event started. It feels bad to now know what you're grinding towards.
  • Burnout / Seasons hate - Not really any fault of the devs, the event by its nature was a split to an already small community. I can understand why people would not want to join or continue playing seasons, but low player base is not fun when you're looking for a group or need a section ID for an achievement.
  • Balance changes mid season - While I did enjoy the solo mode and XP share changes, I feel like these things should be implemented at the start of the season. It feels like right after the solo mode change happened, it was much harder to find a party. This could have just been burnout, however.
  • Events Overlapping with season - All these eggs and nothing to spend it on, what a tease!
  • Only one PS for level 150 per account - Not really sure why this limitation exists when you can easily just make a new account and level that to 150.
  • Seasons Hardcore Color is Ugly

  • Length of Season - While I personally didn't have any problem with the length (I actually wish it was longer as I work full time and can't play as much as I want to) I understand most people burned out quickly and returned to normal. Two months may be better, achievements would either need to be scaled for a smaller time frame or force players to choose between achievements to work towards.
  • Meta Strategies - I really don't see the problem with this. If PW3 and MA ep4 are removed, some new "most efficient" quest will just take it's place. Then next season people will complain that only those new efficient quests are OP, and need to be banned. Eventually we will just be playing free roam only season. In an event where the objective is to grind as efficiently as possible, of course people would want to go for the best strategies.
  • Shop Weapons - I agree that it may be too powerful, a possible alternative to nerfing the percentages is to have it so every weapon is a one time buy and disappears from the shop (not sure if this is possible to code). This way people can still feel good finding a 50 hit weapon in the shop, but the market won't be flooded day 1.
  • Achievements - While some things may not be popular, I don't think they should be remove. Maybe remove achievements like "The Ascendant - Complete all achievements" adjust their value of ones like level 200 as a reach achievement.

  • Do another Season! - This was the most fun I've had playing PSO ever. I'd love an excuse to make a new character and push as much as I can
  • Announce rewards at the start
  • Seasons only drop item(s) - Besides PSO, the other grindy games I've played are Diablo 2 and Path of Exile. We can take a look at how these games handle seasonal modes and experiment with things for PSO. Diablo 2 has ladder resets have exclusive ladder only rune words, an exclusive season only item drop or item ticket drop (like Easter eggs) might be a good idea. This alone would combat some of the fatigue by giving an incentive to keep grinding even though you're finished with achievements.
  • Experiment with new game mechanics - Path of Exile has leagues which introduce a new mechanic to the game, such as Onslaught making all enemies 20% faster or Nemesis giving rare monsters added abilities. They also typically introduce some new crafting and unique items. I know this is supposed a vanilla server, but seasons is the perfect spot to test new game mechanics. If people like them and they're not game breaking, they can get added to normal mode. The new mechanic would also give incentive to play seasons, as the mechanic might not make it to normal mode. I'm not sure what is possible as I never did any PSO programming, but here are some ideas to make future seasons more fun: Faster Monsters (Normal has Hard speed, etc), swap/add monster abilities, Rare monster fights are more threatening (faster, added abilities, damage, boss level hp etc), new rare monster types (rare Booma, rare Grass Assassin etc), Double boss fights (double Olga Flow anyone?), New challenging quests. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
 
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