Force: Scape Dolls..

[Hatecrime69]

What the heck's the secret?!

Well I have a level 50 fortetecher (just under job 3 atm) and i constantly see people saying that you must have scape dolls on at all times...but with combinations of trying to raise my pm, and trying to save for better equipment I have no cash as it is..so how do people have max level pm's, uber equipment, and seem to have 20 scape dolls on them at all times?? It's getting rather annoying getting yelled at when i get insta-killed by 3 worms popping up around me at once (because they naturally chase me down all day even if i'm pegging them with my handgun for ~20 damage per hit)

It's really discouraging to have people yell at me to buy scapes (or worse just saying: ...) when i'm trying to save up money for better armor so i won't need scapes as badly at my 652hp-suckness while only minutes before they are carelessly getting hit until nearly death in the middle of a mob and i'm the one keeping them alive, when i get slammed by 3 worms at once and die uncontrollably (with not even enough time to react with a mate, let alone resta)

I wouldn't be as annoyed if i could figure out how to even do one of the things they can do on my own, but when i see them being able to have everything and carry a ton of scapes (sometimes enough to throw a few my way for their benefit) where i can't afford to do any of it on a consistent basis..so, what's the secret that i'm missing here?

[Umi_Ryu]

Lv 26, have 7 scape dolls, consumed at least 5 for now, so it makes ... at least 12 scape dolls possessed, within which I crafted 3 ... I play since a week.

Only thing I can say you is, "Sorry, you are even more unlucky than me"

Ending by serious words, don't buy scape dolls, drop them, it is rather easy to find scape dolls in crates, or their board and mats, just do some fast mission soloing and it would drop eventually.
Good luck.

[Merumeru]

XD im a bit curious myself; Omega Acid is rare, Player Shops never have any in-stock...i'm guessing people just plop down 50k on a 10 scape supply >P im always carrying one or two because im too cheap to buy that much 'insurance'

[Kinako78]

Is 10 the max you can carry?

[Umi_Ryu]

It is maybe just an impression, but I dropped most of my Omega Acids on the Train's mission (Parum West, the train attacked by Rogues) on rank C.
And I always dropped at least 1 scape doll each day I had photon fortune at least Lv 1 wherever I went.

Maybe it drop less at higher levels ?

Because, when you can't do more than Rank C 5k is a lot, hence, if we don't drop Scape Dolls the missions with Jarbas (or whatever their name is, the Megid launchers) would be impossible.
At higher levels, Scape dolls should be more affrodable, so maybe it is why you don't drop much of them ...

Also someone found a way, on 360 but it will work just as fine on PS2/PC, to drop scape dolls and/or ash. Starting an S rank quest with crates at the start, blow them, loot and abort mission, loop.
Time consuming, boring but effective ...

[Edit : Kinako78, yes, Scape dolls are limited to 10.]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Umi_Ryu on 2007-01-08 06:48 ]</font>

[Merumeru]

XD the way I see it, at lower levels, the cost to benefits ratio on scapes isn't worth it; I mean, its like do you really need them so you can S-Rank a mission that gives you maybe 10MP? >P i guess though, if you're in the high 50's and carrying around wads of meseta and want to find a Uni1 party for Linear Line S or Lab S, you're going to want to at least pony up 5k or 10k in life insurance :3

[Hatecrime69]

I have yet to have 'wads of mesta' myself even though i'm only 10 levels away from max, granted 10k isn't hard to get, though that only gives 2 scapes at the npc...and while i have quite a few scape boards, I don't have the forge items for it (and i will admitt i haven't gotten around to seeing if i can find the forge items http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif)

[Silmeria]

im a force, going fortetecher. I have 10 scape dolls, the best armor i can wear for the moment, 4 rods, 2 wands and handguns, all my spells. I just dont see why people complain about not having money, money just seems to fall into my hands.

[Itchee]

Soloing Unsafe Passage/Fight For Food C-A will almost certainly net you a scape doll or two within an hour, id imagine. Honestly, Id be suprised if it took that long.....

[Reiichi]

I'd say something like die less but I haven't played a job with a huge hit in my HP yet.

If you're running MD S then you are bringing in roughly 4k a trip not including rares which are typically worth 4k or so on average. It shouldn't be too hard to make money if you aren't dying every other level. If you are well... try finding cheap elemental armor or synth some yourself. Doesn't have to be fancy B class and you likely don't need the extra slot anyways if you want to go cheap. You'd likely need a fire and ice armor and have to swap frequently if you do go that path though.

Nothing disrupts a party more than someone dying without a scape on an S mission. That cuts out what, about 1275 mes from each player present in the drop from S to A rank on MD S? 7650 mes lost across 6 people, 6 PA frags, and 72 mission points. There's a good chance that people will leave after the mission is over because people without scapes are a liability.

I've never had to pay 5k for scapes yet, let alone more than 2k or so from shops. When shopping around if I ever see cheap scapes or omega acids I pick them up, but that doesn't happen very often. Hopefully you'll be able to find some cheap ones or some cheap elemental armor so that you die less.

Worry about yourself first and then your party when working with healing duty. Everyone carries mates anyways and should know how to use them in emergencies.

[Hatecrime69]

so when i ask how people get so many scapes, then yell at me for not having one and dieing beyond my control, the answer is to carry scapes? And where I can't afford to upgrade equipment at all, other people are commenting about how they have excess of cash with 10 scapes? This doesn't make sense to me as I can't find any scapes at all, am i just a crappy gamer or something because I seem to be the only person that the system fails for and i still can't afford to get any items better than i've had even before the advanced classes existed (other than ones i've found, being only 2 wands and buying 1 b-rank handgun) If the player-standard is perfection or nothing then maybe i should quit the game all together...

[Gen2000]

Do you have your own player shop? That would probably answer alot of your problems.

[AzureBlaze]

I used to always synth my scapes.
5K is a ton of money for it, especially at early levels. Fortunatly, when I was lower lvl, Omega Acid was still cheap. Unfortunatly for some reason, player shops now have it for 10k and 4k a piece. That is EXTORTION. Who is going to pay double the cost of a whole scape doll for just 1 stupid ingredient. No one can figure that omega acid is used in anything else that would bring up its value that high. It makes no sense!

The best thing I can say to do is run linear line fight for food/ unsafe passage on C a bunch of times till one comes out of a crate.

Doll boards drop like garbage and most people don't even want theirs, making the problem be the omega acid. Searching for "scape doll" in player shops also fails constantly because the engine is too dumb to tell a board from the real thing, and everyone's always only got the boards. You have to be mega lucky and stumble onto one...which is growing harder thanks to the price gouging on omega acid--no one can synth up any cheap spares for a bit of dough.

[Eliash]

See: http://pso-world.com/viewtopic.php?topic=132079&forum=20&9

Overview:
- Decide what kind of Ebon you want (mostly to sell for some extra cash or craft with). [Parum = Par, Neudaiz = Neu, Moatoob = Mot]
- Enter "S" rank mission solo.
- Put password (so people won't bother you).
- Learn where item boxes are in maps.
- Break boxes and loot items.
- Abandon mission and restart.

Takes about 1-2 hours to get around 5-8 Scape Dolls and maybe the same amount of Ebon which usually sells for 2k-3k or so each.

EDIT: Both in-game and out-game luck plays into this. I've gotten roughly 3-4 scapes in 10 minutes to have 1 hour go by with not so much as a rare.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Eliash on 2007-01-08 11:24 ]</font>

[Hatecrime69]

I have a player shop, and no, it doesn't seem to help

[Thrash777]

I synth and pick up mine. When I don't have any, I'm just careful and carry lots of mates

[Ogni-XR21]

I never carry any scapes, I have 9 in the bank, but I don't take them with me. I usually make games with the comment "no scape required" or something alike.

People that get mad if you die are not worth being healed by us forces imo. As a fo you can die so fast it's just not worth burning away scapes just to make an S rank. Of course you can go and solo Linear Line for scapes, but I've had runs (leveling my techs there) where I did 15 LL in a row and did not get 1 scape... (but you find a bunch of photons which you can sell overpriced in your player shop).

[Reiichi]

A player shop works if you diversify your stuff. Don't just stick a few monomates in it and a 3* armor and call it a day. Stock it with popular items even if in small quantities and try not to be lame about it like 9999999999 stelnium. Most anything you find in MD S you can sell. Kerseline and Neu Ebon would sell at 3.5k easily. Vestaline at 5.5k or whatever if you want to be more generous. Kubara wood at whatever sick price it goes for now. Hell look at the value of a single ray-photon =/ Half of running a shop is getting customers in the door. The other half is selling the stuff. Moon atomizers? Star atomizers? Soldonium? Wood/ash/ebon? Even Im-photons and other stuff can all be sold, and are sometimes even searched on. Fill your shop up with different items and you will get a lot of customers.

How to level to 50 and still be dirt poor? Exactly how much are you dumping into your PM and what kind is it. I hope it's not a pure tech, as that will cost you TONS.

Dying is not usually beyond your control. People don't expect perfection, and that is why scapes are in the game. Scapes are insurance against mistakes you make, be it getting mobbed, frozen, stunned, lightning by Onma, Megid, etc.

That is why if you are concerned about the cost of armor, consider cheaper variants. A decent elemental 2* or 3* armor works wonders and is 1. cheap to make, and 2. can be done at a decent rate without an armor pm. Too many people value slots and desire sori-senbas, but for especially melee the damage (and flinch) can be reduced with proper elemental armor and improve combat efficiency.

Worms are tricky bastards, but learn to get around them better. Let the melee do what they do and hold aggro on the worms while you stand further away and nuke. A level 11+ and moreso 21+ resta/reverser has massive range so you shouldn't need to get too close to combat. If you see a worm heading straight towards you (radar), be prepared to step back a step or two and smack them when they poke their head up. But yeah, fire armor, or just try to be more careful.

[Itchee]

On 2007-01-08 11:10, Hatecrime69 wrote:
so when i ask how people get so many scapes, then yell at me for not having one and dieing beyond my control, the answer is to carry scapes? And where I can't afford to upgrade equipment at all, other people are commenting about how they have excess of cash with 10 scapes? This doesn't make sense to me as I can't find any scapes at all, am i just a crappy gamer or something because I seem to be the only person that the system fails for and i still can't afford to get any items better than i've had even before the advanced classes existed (other than ones i've found, being only 2 wands and buying 1 b-rank handgun) If the player-standard is perfection or nothing then maybe i should quit the game all together...



Ease up some. All you have to do is spend one evening farming a few of the easier ranked missions, and youre bound to find some. If you dont have said Scape Doll after an hour or so, then youll have enough money to buy one outright. Scape Dolls, Scape Doll boards, and the materials to synth them are incredibly easy to come by in Unsafe Passage/Fight For Food. What lvl are you? If youre lvl 10 or above you can blow through Unsafe Passage C in 5-7 min tops...

[EphekZ]

I have about 2, since I usually give mine to peope who need it more. i've never had to craft a doll, or buy one as i've rarely died. you just gotta learn how to stay alive. I see that you're a fortetecher, don't forget mates are still there to help there will be times when resta is too damn slow to heal you in time. NEVER hessitate to use a mate.

[Kinako78]

Yeah, I still use mates on Kinako if I need a fast healing.

[Mattardo]

I played a game today where the force died twice, second time without a scape doll. This was an S mission. This was no problem for me. It happens, and I understand. One of the other players started shooting off her mouth about "not having a scape doll" and I said "she used one already, how many do YOU have?" It turns out that the loudmouthed accuser had no scapes and was "flabbergasted" to find out she had left them at her room. So I gave them each a scape doll, AND to another person who claimed they didn't have one. Nobody died the rest of the missions, but I sure didn't get my scape dolls back. Oh well, chock it up to charity, I suppose. But never again am I handing out scape dolls. It's not THAT big of a deal if a mission is lessened by an A and I don't really play it to ONLY get S ranks. I don't need that kind of pressure. If you're a competent force, why not make a deal with the other players. Tell them you'll resta, reverser, etc. them no matter what in exchange for a doll. It makes good sense. At the end of the mission, give it back to them (if you still have it). If they let you keep it, then so be it.

[foamcup]

Heals in exchange for dolls? I used to do that back on PSO. Told people to give me trifluid for heals. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[Jae]

OP -

Have you ever farmed Unsafe Passage and Fight for Food for tech levels? Scapes used to practically fall in my lap when I did A Rank Linear Line.

On an embarassing note, I actually did die last night without a Scape. I apologized profusely to the group and felt like a total heel. I normally carry at least 5 around, but I forgot I had banked them earlier in the day while soloing Unsafe Passage S. At 50/4 Fortetecher with 22% dark armor, Mega/Rainbow and Gi/Magic, I still take the occasional 1-4 damage from Megid. I didn't want to blow a Scape by accident, but instead blew an S Rank for my group later on. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[Tengoku]

On 2007-01-08 11:20, Hatecrime69 wrote:
I have a player shop, and no, it doesn't seem to help

Time to farm cash. Go do my favorite for sheer ease; "Valley of Carnage - C", followed by "Mine Defense - C". If you die, you're not paying attention and you spend maybe around 100 Mesetas for recharge. The missions net you 650 mesetas per and I forget the amount of Mission Points (16 total I think). Run these over and over. Spend around an hour or two doing this a day and you'll get decent, but not great, cash. Also, sell all elemental photons and price them at just below market price.

No, my method will not net you loads of cash, but it will keep you well supplied for the basics for running missions. You'll get scape dolls and all the items you need to exist without being booted. Get in on the big missions and you'll have the opportunity to get the big money.

The more work you put in making sure you have the basics, the easier your time will be running the big missions. Having the proper materials means you get invited back.

[Hatecrime69]

As an update, after taking some time cooling down (from the negative mission expirence that started this post) I took the suggesting of selling my extra stuff at a little less than npc price (price to sell to npc x 2 - a little) and what seemed to be about instant i made a ton of cash..after buying top of the line b-rank neudais armor (I would have saved for the a rank..but considering it took what seems to be 4-5 base levels and 3 job levels to get to 42 base def, i didn't want to wait to meet the 47 def requirement) a mega/rainbow, and a me/restore, with still 53k left on hand..I could buy a new weapon or something but i'll be saving it for now..just in case

Knowing my luck i'll end up needing the stuff i sold and pay 3x the price for it, but ah well...i usually don't check other players stores anyway

[Mattardo]

You could kill people and then take their scape... oh wait, even if that were possible, the logistics of that wouldn't quite work would it? You'd have to killt hem 10 times (in many cases) only to find no more dolls. Hee hee. I kid, I kid!

[KILLBILL]

buy your scapes from player shops, i find them all the time for around 2500 meseta. if i get lucking i find them for 2000 and i buy them out. i don't really use too many since i'm a level 50 beast my hp is like 1400

[Yuicihi]

Well, all classes should have Scape Dolls. It's so your party doesn't have to use Moon Atomizers unless they have to do so.

Forces, and those classes that have lower HP should carry Scape Goats, or just avoid getting hit as much as possible.

They're expensive, yes, but they're a lifesaver, obviously.

[Fran]

Sounds to me like the OP rolled the wrong class. Forces are expensive, their PM type is expensive, getting the proper weapons, armor, and TECHNICS is expensive. And most importantly, Forces have to be prepared to alot. I carry 10 scapes around with me at all times. My player shop provides me with all of the money I need. I don't sell shit in there, I shop and save wisely and play around with the economy (not hard to do, if you're on the PC/PS2). Roll a beast Fortefighter if you don't want to have to worry about scapes so much. Or just don't do S rank missions. You need to be very careful as a Force while in S rank missions. Almost every enemy can one or two shot you. It isn't play time anymore like in De Ragan C-A runs. You need to stay on the sidelines and use your precious ranged moves wisely. Figure out strategies, like hiding behind tree roots to block the Barta the Vahra-like enemies on Mizuraki Defense S shoot out at you. Look at your radar to predict the movements of the worms. When you do lab runs, you'll be dieing wether you like it or not, since Megid cares not for your skill or class. This game required very little time and investment to paly difficult missions. I remember playing WoW and having to farm for a week for repair bills and materials to farm Blackwing Lair or Ahn'Qiraji.

Do a little research, put a little effort into learning your class's Pros/Cons (like how Forces 1-shot but give up survivability), and be prepared for what your chose.

[Logicdustbin]

first thing I do when I log on, is do a couple Grove of Fanatics C runs, I can solo this in under 13min (if that end boss would stop teleporting http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif )

I always end up with at least 2 scapes a run, not to mention photon drops, and other nifty items.

I always end up with too many scapes, I sell them in my shop for 750 (as all my stuff is slightly more expensive then what I can sell to the NPC's).

I've been doing this for a while, now I'm level 59 fortetecher with a 100 striking PM, with a alt PM, pure TECH, at level 75 (sofar, its just too damn expensive http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif)

[SpellBreaker]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SpellBreaker on 2007-01-11 05:04 ]</font>