Solomode Quests and Photon Drop Increase

[VENOM]

We say the PD is more valuable now, but wouldn't that be reflected across all items? When you look at the prices for custom mags, red ring, custom sranks, S-Parts, red barrier, units such as limiters, v502s, v501s, v101s etc.. the prices have remained pretty much the same for more than half a year.. some have even went up.

The price of custom mags dropped only a few days ago from the biggest seller in the market (and are p damn cheap considering the time needed and low margin for error they are needed to make, premade mags are a steal). Red ring and v502 drops were nerfed so naturally prices will go up as the reserve stock is sold off. V101 is still the cheapest i've seen on this server, 11pd i'm seeing them consistently go for (I'm holding on to mine now for that reason). The prices of sranks literally crashed to the floor and some people give them out free. Limiters were being sold dirt cheap only a couple of months ago.

Respect your point of view JBang but this part simply isn't true. As for Sparts and red barrier, these do not drop in ult (or have much easier drops in other difficulties) so they are off the track hunts; naturally there will be less of them. You also need multiple red barriers and Sparts v.201 is the single best shield for hucast and hucl until lvl 180 so there will always be consistent demand for a p hard drop.

Ultimately its looking like (judging from the poll) Srank specials will be expensive, and Custom Sranks will be very hard to sell at a good price (as pds are scarce so people will only be willing to pay a certain amount of pds or would rather run cmode themselves, they also need pds for the specials). Photon Spheres will be extremely taxing to obtain naturally, and everything else will be dirt cheap- the reason I don't have a tradeslist even though I play this game as much as anyone; its just not worth my time to sell items for 1pd when the items I want to buy (PS/Srank specials) have set prices.

People claim Xmas event killed the economy but the truth is pds are too scarce and always have been, ever since I started on this server. The xmas event shook an already flawed economy, and simply blaming the event is wrong. If all these "experts" want a better economy, buff the pd rate, its p darn simple. The only arguments I see are people not wanting to shorten the length of this game, people who don't even trade for the most part, or people sitting on pd stacks who don't want their value halved. Everyone has different end goals when it comes to pso and people leaving a 18 y/o game earlier than they would have done with a 1x pd drop rate doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I am hoping that if the pd rate remains the same, then the GMs will put more photon spheres and pds into events, and less weapons that ultimately fill up our banks because we don't need 10 of them. (I also like the idea of randomised hit on event weapons, with higher hit being harder to obtain).

 

[anime]

Just stop fucking with the server imo.
If you want to fix economy, then /item some PDs, and buy up broken event items at a set rate. Make future events give spheres, PCs, new? cosmetic items.
If you want to have easier progression, play on Ultima or SCHThack.

 

[Eistee]

11 PDs for V101 is super fine IMO. The drop is not that hard, especially with the way PSO2 drops work now.

 

[VENOM]

11 PDs for V101 is super fine IMO. The drop is not that hard, especially with the way PSO2 drops work now.

Sure, but it is arguably the best unit in the game, people like to have multiple, and was selling for 11pd before the pso2 100% dar change x)

 

[Chono]

Back in my day v101 was 20, v502 was like 10 max if you were lucky.

 

[Eistee]

Sure, but it is arguably the best unit in the game, people like to have multiple, and was selling for 11pd before the pso2 100% dar change x)

As I said, especially now. V101 was never that hard to find. It's a 1/1280 drop. It doesn't even need good %s. It just needs to drop. 10+ PDs is still really good.

I'd personally give SMARTLINK the edge. Remove V101, we're using Heavenly/Battle. Remove SMARTLINK, and all of a sudden 2/3 of the characters are nerfed. But this might not be the place to discuss that. ^-^

 

[Jbangalanga]

@VENOM Sranks dropped in price early summer, but that wasn't due to recent events. Even last month, I believe that the one group that sells custom Sranks actually increased their price. Same with unsealing.. finding someone to unseal your lame is pretty tough considering that a PD is said to be worth so much. V101 didn't drop 4 PDs because of the PD value.. it dropped because of the viridia cookie runs, same as the Lame.

Markets fluctuate, I bought my first limiter last February for 17. I havn't seen too many for sale cheaper than that since then.

Anyways, i don't feel like the value of a PD has changed much. The items that have dropped in price the most over the past year are the items that have been the easiest to get. Items that are limited to a few section IDs, in episode 2 (least played ep), or difficulty: such as ignition cloak, heavenly arm, daylight scar, dress plate, sparts, red barrier, PGF, V502 etc. remain the same because they are a pain to farm. If the value of the PD was the problem, wouldn't there be a drop across the board? If you want an interesting market, change drop tables each year and allow for limited section ID changes. Make people re-evaluate which quests are profitable. If you see a Viridia player in 2018, what do you think they will be farming?

 

[TaoChaos]

If all the quests are added to solo mode, people can farm their own stuff at their own pace and the economy will become irrelevant. Why not encourage their conversion into team points and incentivize competition amongst teams for PCs and other such items?

 

[Matt]

Uhh, economy is not irrelevant because you can still farm everything alone if you really want to. Economy is all about being able to get what you want without having to get it yourself by using items you have already found.

 

[TaoChaos]

sorry, not irrelevant, but less mandatory

 

[Chono]

Uhh, economy is not irrelevant because you can still farm everything alone if you really want to. Economy is all about being able to get what you want without having to get it yourself by using items you have already found.

^^ An economy is important because of Section IDs. At least I think so, but then again I'm not that smart.

 

[Bonesy]

Just stop fucking with the server imo.
If you want to fix economy, then /item some PDs, and buy up broken event items at a set rate. Make future events give spheres, PCs, new? cosmetic items.
If you want to have easier progression, play on Ultima or SCHThack.

except maybe someone doesn't WANT to go to another server for one reason or another

try harder next time son

 

[anime]

except maybe someone doesn't WANT to go to another server for one reason or another

try harder next time son

I'd just rather leave base mechanics of the game alone. That's always been the way ephinea has been advertised, but now everyone is shilling their own idea of "vanilla." I'm still one of the cringe "MUH VANILLA" users who just want to play vanilla pso with small changes, and I consider these (and the 400% DAR WAO) to be very big changes. I'd rather fix the immediate problem instead of shoehorning PSOBALANCE into a situation caused by the event team.

You're right, Ephinea is much higher quality than those other servers, but it also fills a niche for people who enjoy the base game, and I don't like seeing that line blur at times that, I feel, it doesn't need to.

 

[Retty]

reeeee

 

[GuardianGirth]

Excube shop to get rid of all the excess items? Something similar to chef?
9 stars/10 star shields/11 star units and certain 10 star weapons for mats/grinders/mag cells/meseta
Certain 10 stars/11 star units for tp mats/luck mats/PDs/PCs/slightly rare mag cells/badges. Items like Zanba/SoF/SN but not 3084 for example.

Just find a way to flush out excess items maybe?

Raising the PD drop wouldn't be a terrible idea given the small size of the community. I imagine it could've been increased without saying anything and i'm not sure it would've been possible to notice until after a very long time.

 

[Arsuru]

While I generally don't feel that an increase in PDs is necessary, I'm not convinced it would be as harmful as some think it either. I get that some people have obligations outside of the game, and there is HC with a small market.

As someone who has regularly played HBR to high rank, with an effective more-than-double DAR, I would usually get about a stack of PDs just as drops in a given month if I grinded reasonably hard. Unless I am missing something this should be similar to a doubling in just PD rate. In seasons already I have nearly a stack as drops. The PDs are there; Phantasmal World coins, MA3 and, MA4 tickets. That is a lot of time to commit though, and I am not trying to downplay that.

One reality though is that the population is likely forever going to be small. In the time since I have joined, several basic and useful items like hitless Spread Needles and Frozen Shooters, or Glide Divine have lost considerable value to the point they are worth less than I personally feel their usefulness deserves. I have speculated for some time that HBR and lotteries are going to be the only steady source of larger amounts of PDs because aside from occasional new and on/off players, one just can't sell much.

So in a sense we have already a lot more PDs available just for ES specials and sphereing because common things are simply worth less. Most of all I would think more PDs is helping to sphere things people would not otherwise sphere, like something that does not have as much hit as desired but they are not likely to find better easily. Spheres from events help, and I imagine most people will not make use of more than the most staple ES weapons either.

In the end I still really don't know what to think as to what would be better to the long-term health of the server. I'd really just rather watch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe more PDs can help some people move on.

I don't really see much of a problem with more One Person quests though, but I solo a lot regardless, even in Normal mode.

It's strange that as a community, we don't talk about this huge 85 PD wall (25 for V502, 50 for the spec, 10 for the weapon) that, in essence, locks players out of 1/3rd of the game. I really don't want to hear arguments about how "they're not necessary for Episode 2" because you're missing the point. Anything that quarters or halves the time spent killing >50% of monsters in certain areas would be a must-have in any game. I really don't want to turn this into some sort of elitism/gear debate. It's 2018. We already know that Hell weapons are the best things for mobbing in Episode 2.

The grind to getting a V502 and a Hell S-Rank in normal mode fucking sucks. The cost of V502 may change a little bit every now and then, but the Hell special will always cost the same.

I'll say it here again for everyone to see, but Hell ES are a luxury. A Hell Raygun or Laser on a Ranger is really effective and can take out a few mobs rapidly, and Hunters can usually combo-kill the easily-hellable grunts easily with the proper stats and support, and Rangers should not be far behind. ES weapons make it faster and easier, and accessible perhaps at a lower character and skill level, as well as solo, but that is all. V502 on top of that is just the cherry on top. V501 should perhaps be more common relative to V502, since currently the drops are not really competitive enough for something that is still very useful, but that is another debate. The price of an ES weapon can be taken out of the equation if people just learn some Challenge Mode.

I have seen that a lot of people hate Episode II without these conveniences and that they find it too hard. But to turn your words around, I don't want to hear "they are necessary for Episode II". Hell should certainly be a priority ES because of the time saved, but a month or so of play to get one of the most powerful items in the game is not unreasonable to me.

 

[astallasalion]

I'd just rather leave base mechanics of the game alone. That's always been the way ephinea has been advertised, but now everyone is shilling their own idea of "vanilla." I'm still one of the cringe "MUH VANILLA" users who just want to play vanilla pso with small changes, and I consider these (and the 400% DAR WAO) to be very big changes. I'd rather fix the immediate problem instead of shoehorning PSOBALANCE into a situation caused by the event team.

You're right, Ephinea is much higher quality than those other servers, but it also fills a niche for people who enjoy the base game, and I don't like seeing that line blur at times that, I feel, it doesn't need to.

Thankfully the base mechanics of the game are and will be left alone. Please don't tell me we suddenly need to have a debate on the subjectivity of "base mechanics." Once we go there, we're truly being pedantic for the sake of being pedantic. I think it's ridiculous that players are letting drop rates define what's "vanilla" and what isn't, going so far as to say "Play on Ultima/Scht if you want an easier time!!" as if the drop rates are the only things that have changed there. Yeah, I cringe at people like you saying "muh vanilla" as if you have put ultimate faith in Sega's extremely arbitrary progression rates. Again, their numbers are more in line with a player base of multiple thousands, not a core group of <100 daily players.

If you wanted to trust in Sega's balancing then you'll have bandaids like BPD1/2 to address their terrible drop rate numbers, and you'll have rewards like GC's MA1&2 spheres to address their terrible rate of progression. Seriously, can we please recognize that Sega had no fucking clue what they were doing, with regards to their progression rates? Or, think about their progression rates as a way for their subscription-based game to guarantee a consistent revenue stream? Take off your rose-tinted glasses and stop putting Sega's vision on a pedestal.

I'll say it here again for everyone to see, but Hell ES are a luxury. A Hell Raygun or Laser on a Ranger is really effective and can take out a few mobs rapidly, and Hunters can usually combo-kill the easily-hellable grunts easily with the proper stats and support, and Rangers should not be far behind. ES weapons make it faster and easier, and accessible perhaps at a lower character and skill level, as well as solo, but that is all. V502 on top of that is just the cherry on top. V501 should perhaps be more common relative to V502, since currently the drops are not really competitive enough for something that is still very useful, but that is another debate. The price of an ES weapon can be taken out of the equation if people just learn some Challenge Mode.

I have seen that a lot of people hate Episode II without these conveniences and that they find it too hard. But to turn your words around, I don't want to hear "they are necessary for Episode II". Hell should certainly be a priority ES because of the time saved, but a month or so of play to get one of the most powerful items in the game is not unreasonable to me.

I think people are missing the context behind my statements. I was comparing PSO's metagame to the metagame of other loot-based ARPGs. PSO's metagame revolves around killing things to farm for weapons/currency which will in turn allow you to kill things faster to farm for more weapons/currency, just like every other loot-based ARPG. If we think about the fact that this game is eighteen years old, I don't think my use of "necessary" is semantically out of place here.

 

[anime]

might me a tuffy

the server in my dreams would be like PSO2 drops with 25% DAR, vanilla without HBR and op events

 

[Matt]

To be fair the initial grindy feeling is very important for vanilla, there's more than just the item and class statistics and arguing otherwise is a little short sighted.

 

[Arsuru]

@astallasalion I will not deny that, even compared to other Japanese games of this sort that are already pretty grind-heavy, PSO feels "long". But I do not think a lack of Hell in E2 is necessarily a deal-breaker. What I mainly wanted to illustrate, is that I do not feel the perceived necessity of all this expensive Hell gear as any sort of gateway into Episode II is a good argument for increasing PD rate.

We managed without V50* in V3. Hell still works well without it.