White Beast Anit-Spamming

[xBladeM6x]

Now, i have noticed that for the past months, since this mission has come out. ALL other counters around the game are completely empty. Now Low levels being there is cool and all. But when i see level 130's there and have nothing to gain from it but the Never-Dropping Serafi-Senba, It pisses me off and I'm sure it does other people. Now i know this is just another Bawww Topic about White Beast, But I'm trying to say that if SEGA did want to fix the mission, so that other missions were played, they should either lower the level of the monster, thus lowering experience, or drop the experience that Alterazgoug gives you.

Any suggestions on how else you think it could be fixed?

[darkante]

Yes they could a put in the mission description this..

"Hey peps! Why don´t you try a other mission
for once? Or is your life just a one sided attraction?
Cmon live a little! CHALLENGE YOURSELF!
Thou has been enlighted."

Well i wish at least lol.
But seriously. Variety is good for you. >.<

[TQS]

Even if you Nerf one mission people will still find another mission to spam. Its just how this game has been since day one. People will always go where cash, exp, drops and mission points are best. Every so often me and my online friends will do every mission available which is fun as hell but it would be very difficult to get a random party to do that since everyone has there own personal objectives when joining a random party.

[amtalx]

If there wasn't such a huge disparity in experience and item drops from mission to mission, this wouldn't be an issue to begin with. People run WB because it shits EXP and money. People don't run semi-fun missions like Forrest Infiltration because it drops garbage and the payout is barely enough to cover my Killer Shot usage.

[SLY_J]

A lot of people (myself included) share your sentiments about certain missions being too popular. If only there was some sort of event that encouraged players to play a wide assortment of missions equally instead of playing the same mission over and over again. Maybe you could earn points for each mission you complete that would count toward some incentive to keep at it. This incentive could be anything from, oh I don’t know, an increased rare drop rate to a Photon Art experience multiplier. Hey, this is actually starting to sound pretty good! I better write this all this down! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

In all seriousness though, the Guardians Boost Road was designed specifically to stop the kind of mission spamming that you’re talking about. I just wish that new GBR missions would come out more frequently.




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SLY_J on 2008-04-23 04:59 ]</font>

[xBladeM6x]

Honestly, if they are not willing to drop EXP on White Beast, and the money. Why not just make the other missions have more experience? (Than they previously do, but don't make it like another white beast >.>)

[Azuma]

I've not played the game yet, so i'm not really in a position to offer suggestions or complain, but I think they should reduce the EXP gained if you play a mission in repeated succession.

For example: the more you play one mission that day, the lower the EXP you gain becomes, until you play other missions which slowly raises the exp that you gain from other missions back to its normal level. So if you play White Beast three times, you only recieve 80% experience (and lower if you continued to play it). To get it back to the 100% point, you would perhaps have to play six other missions except White Beast? Similarly, the exp for other areas would decrease as you played them, but would go up when you played any other mission.

Once again, i've not got the game yet, so my balancing of exp and the number of plays is probably off my a large margin. Just ignore it, i'm using this as an example. =D

My suggestion would probably be a coding nightmare though. xD

[chaoskila]

one word to fix this problem...
MAG!

[Sidney]

I totally agree with this! I don't know how those people run it all day, everyday. You know, at least for me, I like things called FUN and VARIETY~~ I'm on the game to have fun, not to gain invisible e-money. People should really do something else. No wonder the community is dead - all of the 'normal' players are sick of White Beast. I know I get tired of WB after 2 runs. Hence, I never run it, and PSU isn't as boring or dull to me. A plethora of missions available and they only run one - then complain PSU is boring? xD

Leetists are so very, very dumb.

[Diabloverde]

I think there's just to many missions out there for people to find other people. That's why I go to WB, because I know that there will be people there.

If they made it easier to find people, then the system would be better. Like they could have a place for the whole planet where it shows all the missions being run, then if you want, you can teleport to that mission.

[Kietrinia]

Name another mission that drops a Serafi-senba board, and I'll head there. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Kinako78]

On 2008-04-23 05:56, soubrette wrote:
I totally agree with this! I don't know how those people run it all day, everyday. You know, at least for me, I like things called FUN and VARIETY~~ I'm on the game to have fun, not to gain invisible e-money. People should really do something else. No wonder the community is dead - all of the 'normal' players are sick of White Beast. I know I get tired of WB after 2 runs. Hence, I never run it, and PSU isn't as boring or dull to me. A plethora of missions available and they only run one - then complain PSU is boring? xD

Leetists are so very, very dumb.



Tell me about it. I ran WB 3 times last night cause my friend wanted to and I was ready to do something else after the 2nd run. I'm just too nice. XD

Also, Azuma's idea is brilliant. But, like he said, it'd probably be murder to program it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kinako78 on 2008-04-23 06:40 ]</font>

[desturel]

On 2008-04-23 05:04, xBladeM6x wrote:
Why not just make the other missions have more experience?

Electric Brain and Seed Awakening have more experience and meseta than White Beast. I'm pretty sure Dark Satellite does as well. It's just that people don't like megid. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

I think I've run white beast thee times in the past month. Two times solo and one time with a group. I got booted from the group for picking up Ortaresin and Vulcaline. LOL, I'm sorry. I didn't know that everything below 10*s was useless. I should join more white beast groups and pick up Kerseline and Vestaline just for the heck of it. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[CelestialBlade]

Make every enemy in White Beast kill you in one hit.

[ApolloAltair]

I think that if this game is to ever have balanced play in its levels, SEGA needs to make the mission points awarded at the end of a mission... make sense... here is a good example... why would anyone want to play Plains Overlord A, which gives a whopping 14 mission points... or White beast A, which gives a 164! ...

If Sega were to increase The old missions mission point values then I would be alot harder to justify only playing new missions like white beast.

As far as Regular EXP is concerned.. There is no doubt that most people just want to grind... no matter how overplayed a level is or how boreing it can be to do the same level over and over... So as long as there is a misson in this game that is garanteed to give the most EXP gain per run.... and its relitively easy, It will be the most played mission in the game... thats just the sad truth.

[Kinako78]

On 2008-04-23 06:58, desturel wrote:

On 2008-04-23 05:04, xBladeM6x wrote:
Why not just make the other missions have more experience?

Electric Brain and Seed Awakening have more experience and meseta than White Beast. I'm pretty sure Dark Satellite does as well. It's just that people don't like megid. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

I think I've run white beast thee times in the past month. Two times solo and one time with a group. I got booted from the group for picking up Ortaresin and Vulcaline. LOL, I'm sorry. I didn't know that everything below 10*s was useless. I should join more white beast groups and pick up Kerseline and Vestaline just for the heck of it. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif



Heh, I'm the same way. I pick up the crap no one else wants. I never got booted for it, though. And I pick up stuff that would be considered a lot more useless then the things you picked up. (I could use more Ortaresin, personally.)

[Rust]

On 2008-04-23 05:29, Azuma wrote:
For example: the more you play one mission that day, the lower the EXP you gain becomes, until you play other missions which slowly raises the exp that you gain from other missions back to its normal level. So if you play White Beast three times, you only recieve 80% experience (and lower if you continued to play it). To get it back to the 100% point, you would perhaps have to play six other missions except White Beast? Similarly, the exp for other areas would decrease as you played them, but would go up when you played any other mission.

They do that on DDO, another online game i'm playing. Each quest goes with three difficulties, and you take an XP penalty when repeating the same quest in same difficulty more than two or three times (not sure, didn't have to do that until now), like -20% after three times, -40 % after four, until it gives you nothing at all (be on higher level than the recommended one and you get a penalty too, so it can drop dramatically the XP reward) ; same for the treasure chests, if you're spamming the same chests too much, the amount of treasure you get is temporarily decreased, or even disabled if you got too far. This one is temporary, the XP penalty on repeating quests is permanent, but well DDO got more quests per level than you actually need to level up, each with at least three difficulties (some have a solo one too), so it would have to be temporary for PSU and its 49 lonely missions, and not taking difficulty in count ("ok guys, let's spam 3 White Beast S then three White Beast A, then let's get back to S ! o/"). May i mention you get on DDO a 25 % XP bonus on quest completion the first time you do it (50 % on elite, the highest difficulty even), which encourages to try out various quests if you want to level up pretty fast.

On a more on-topic hand, i'm not sure reducing the XP given on WB would change anything. People doesn't spam it only because of XP and meseta, but because it is easy and everybody's already there. Party missions like HSM S give better reward for a not so longer playtime, but it needs to build a party (no one is gonna sit in Neudaiz GUARDIANS counter like they did in the Moatoob one when Bruce came out back in the days), it's slightly more challenging, and above all, you need to turn your brain on, which people don't seem willing to do right now.
And still have this whole rebalancing issue, White Beast or not, there still are plenty of missions people don't want to give a shot just because of the crap rewards (who will bother doing Endrum Remnants S when it only gives you as much MP as a WB B do, for way much more work ; and i'm not even talking about the "to next lobby" missions like Forested Islands, Mizuraki Defense, System Defense or Mad Creatures, which has let's say... yeah, no interest in being played by anyone besides freaks like me).
And, being totally selfish, i'm quite convenient with the current situation. I'm playing with the same friends i know i can trust, never on UNI 02, because of all the 'tards running around there. And i really wouldn't like to see all those brainless starting running around Gurhal and plaguing randomly other missions and lobbies than WB. At least, i know where i have to not go if i don't want to be bothered, right now.

[LLSmoothJ]

I still think the decision to nerf the pre-expansion mission payouts was a bad decision.

I have no problems with people running White Beast all day long. They can play whatever mission they want to play. It's their money they're paying. Me, I rarely play White Beast unless it's to level low-levels (I would rather play Awoken Serpent S2 with my higher ones for EXP) or with a friend whether if it's to help them get a Serafi-Semba or something else (I wouldn't mind having it too, but for now I would rather have a Grand Gross finally).

From sneak peaking the White Beast S2 drops, I'm interested in getting some (Nasuyoteri) of them but I am a bit disappointed (No Asura Hiken), but I'll live. Hopefully Scarred Planet, Lightning Beast, and Electronic Brain will get S2s soon.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: LLSmoothJ on 2008-04-23 08:09 ]</font>

[Kinako78]

Nasuyoteri?! Now I'm interested! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[desturel]

On 2008-04-23 07:00, ApolloAltair wrote:
I think that if this game is to ever have balanced play in its levels, SEGA needs to make the mission points awarded at the end of a mission... make sense... here is a good example... why would anyone want to play Plains Overlord A, which gives a whopping 14 mission points... or White beast A, which gives a 164! ...


Plains Overload isn't a good example. You can sit in a safe spot for the entire run and never die. It's an extremely easy mission with an extremely easy boss and safe spots to make the only potentially dangerous enemies irrelevant. That and A rank on plains overlord has level 35 creatures while White Beast has over twice as many level 70 creatures.

So twice as many creatures with twice the level. No safe spots, traps, and status effects (there are no status effects on Plains overlord white beast has freeze and sleep) should mean that that white Beast should have more MP. A better comparison would be White Beast A and Tunnel Recapture S or Dark Satellite S. Those should have around the same MP rate.

[jerrelle]

On 2008-04-23 06:58, desturel wrote:
Electric Brain and Seed Awakening have more experience and meseta than White Beast. I'm pretty sure Dark Satellite does as well. It's just that people don't like megid. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

I think I've run white beast thee times in the past month. Two times solo and one time with a group. I got booted from the group for picking up Ortaresin and Vulcaline. LOL, I'm sorry. I didn't know that everything below 10*s was useless. I should join more white beast groups and pick up Kerseline and Vestaline just for the heck of it. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif



I feel you on the booted part. I got booted sunday because I had a rank weapons. I run with A ranks with 40%+ dark because they kick ass. The crappy part is I had just joined and I heard them say "OMG he better have S ranks!" Next thing I know, I'm removed. Elitist (they don't get the honor of using leet speak to describe them) suck and are a waist of time IMO. They are so obsessive to the point where they think of only their stats and no fun. It's a game, games are suppose to be fun.

[Raven5_1]

the problem with psu is there is too many mission options, and the rewards are too varied.

because the missions are essentially non linear people can pick and choose where to go to level, and when they find the area with the greatest rewards they have no reason to go elsewhere.

[ljkkjlcm9]

Every mission could be balanced, and every mission could drop every item, and people would still flock to one mission. Want to know why? Because it's the easiest way to find people. You can do whatever you want, and everything could be perfectly even.... but at some point everyone will flock to one location just to make it easier to find people.

Fact is, most people there don't want to be there, but that's where people are. Why don't you try making parties and ask where people want to go?

THE JACKEL

[Kinako78]

On 2008-04-23 07:13, jerrelle wrote:
It's a game, games are suppose to be fun.



Thank you! That's what I've been saying the last few days! At least someone gets it.

[desturel]

On 2008-04-23 07:13, jerrelle wrote:
I feel you on the booted part. I got booted sunday because I had a rank weapons.


Ouch, I've never been booted for having A rank weapons, but I rarely join random groups. I guess I should completely explain the situation.

The party I got booted from was one my friend asked me to join because they didn't have a techer. His sister was running the party and she's one of those people who sets the game to give finder and boots people she doesn't know if something she wants drops. I knew this before going into the game and had no intention of stealing any of her precious rarz.

What I didn't know is that she was running set in order for once (Holy crap, set in order?). When I picked up the Vulcaline, she accused me of picking up the crap so that she couldn't get the good rares, called me a n00b, and booted me.

My friend tried to apologize, but I didn't really care. I just said that she shouldn't have had stuff set in order when she knows I'll pick up everything they don't want. (since it's normally set in order, I rarely get any meseta and have to make due by selling Kerseline, Vestaline, and room decorations to the NPC to cover recharge costs).

I wouldn't have to worry about the A rank thing when I'm on my techer since I mainly use Psycho Wand, Gaozoran, and Kazarod. On my fortefighter I would be in deep trouble since I use 40+ percent 9* weapons for the most part.

[darkante]

On 2008-04-23 07:13, jerrelle wrote:

On 2008-04-23 06:58, desturel wrote:
Electric Brain and Seed Awakening have more experience and meseta than White Beast. I'm pretty sure Dark Satellite does as well. It's just that people don't like megid. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

I think I've run white beast thee times in the past month. Two times solo and one time with a group. I got booted from the group for picking up Ortaresin and Vulcaline. LOL, I'm sorry. I didn't know that everything below 10*s was useless. I should join more white beast groups and pick up Kerseline and Vestaline just for the heck of it. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif



I feel you on the booted part. I got booted sunday because I had a rank weapons. I run with A ranks with 40%+ dark because they kick ass. The crappy part is I had just joined and I heard them say "OMG he better have S ranks!" Next thing I know, I'm removed. Elitist (they don't get the honor of using leet speak to describe them) suck and are a waist of time IMO. They are so obsessive to the point where they think of only their stats and no fun. It's a game, games are suppose to be fun.


Man those people gotta be freaking idiots.
A well grinded S-rank weapon could save what like 15-30 sek?
Big freaking deal. It´s the P.A and element % that determines most of the damage and time spent on mission.
They should return whatever brain they have on their head cause it sure ain´t working.

>.O

[jobber]

Yeah...everyone running WB is annoying. I had to learn how to solo missions when people were spamming Seabed AND you had no lobby warp.

That's also why prices for some weapons are still 99999999999. Drops increased but no one does the missions while all the WB S ranks are selling for 200k.

Can you imagine if everyone spammed GoF? Needle Cannons for 100k!

[darkante]

On 2008-04-23 08:22, jobber wrote:
Yeah...everyone running WB is annoying. I had to learn how to solo missions when people were spamming Seabed AND you had no lobby warp.

That's also why prices for some weapons are still 99999999999. Drops increased but no one does the missions while all the WB S ranks are selling for 200k.

Can you imagine if everyone spammed GoF? Needle Cannons for 100k!


They should spam DG so i can buy a cheap Shigga Baret.
http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Powder Keg]

First, the boss needs to be buffed, big time.

Second, any place is easy right now when you have full parties. Maybe not as easy as white beast, but it's definitely won't be a challenge until newer difficulties are released. People do it because it's fast....maybe it should be made....not so fast.

[Kerry157]

I go to white beast because when i log on and only have a short time to play, i dont want to spend a half hour looking for a party. I imagine other people go there for the same reason. There's always people there, so thats why people go there. It's somewhat of a cycle?

[Cathbar]

Perhaps they could create a new "hotspot" each week, or even everyday, by shuffleing around all of the MP and EXP from each level. The stats for every level would switch randomly with another, so that in effect, there would never be any 1 place that poeple would flock to for any more than 1 week, or whtever, at a time. Like a level rendomizer, but for EXP, MP, and maybe even item drops.

Just a thought.

[ThePendragon]

They need to make it so EVERY mission in the game gives more XP. Money, and Fat L00TZ than White Beast.

[Zato-2TWO]

I really think the issue between White Beast and other missions is that it really doesn't give the best meseta or MP, because there ARE other missions that do; White Beast just happens to be the EASIEST one to farm between that and the 'final boss' missions.

The solution then would to either make White Beast harder or Dark Satellite/Electronic Brain easier. I know I've always wanted to run Electronic Brain, but it's just so friggin' long and Mother Brain is even more of a nightmare.

The other thing, of course, would be simply to release more items. As soon as the new 'xuber awesome lootz' gets released in a different area, the sheep will flock over to the new farm. Of course, if you release a whole smörgåsbord of new items all at one in different zones, you'll see people spreading out a bit more =P

I know SEGA's usually been about giving out instead of taking away (except for the Chikki nerf, but c'mon guys; you KNEW that was coming), so really the best option is just that; give more.

[SonicTMP]

It's nice to know PSU joins in the universal complaint of people doing the same thing over and over. Nothing stops you from doing other missions. If you speak up the lobby you might actually find someone who wants to do something else with you. But for the most part harassing people about doing the popular mission is just as bad.

And yes after MAG i'm sure anyone who isn't at level cap will be right back at white beast. Blame sega's crappy mission system.

[MSAksion]

IF I WERE SEGA... I would post a GM in the White Beast 02 lobby. I would have him ask publically "hey all why are you here?"

"For SERAFI SENBA"
"For Easy $$$"
"For Easy MP"
"For easy quick runs"
"For easy PA Leveling"

that GM should then reports back home and realize that White Beast S is the new Sealabs S2. Or Crimson beast S2. Or De Ragon S2.

THEN they make the SERAFI senba available in another Mission to EVEN the game out.
THEN they make the MP not so good since ppl can spam this in only 15 mins.
THEN they make it not so rewarding in $$$ so that it takes multiple runs to make good $$$ or go somewhere else.
Then they make it so enemies are tougher to make it more challenging and thus better PA Leveling.

Why not have GMs monitor the game like they are supposed to and then balance it out. I know people dont do White Beast for the Sanzu Hiken that things so common and only one job uses it. Nor is it Yamata-Misaki - apparently its not a hot item anymore.

The Thing i HATE the most about PSU is the fact that only ONE monster ONE boss ONE mission can drop the thing that all of us are looking for. If there were multiple places it would drop more often and more people would be able to Trade for it without having to shell out Millions for the next hot thing.

[SonicTMP]

On 2008-04-23 12:18, MSAksion wrote:

THEN they make the MP not so good since ppl can spam this in only 15 mins.
THEN they make it not so rewarding in $$$ so that it takes multiple runs to make good $$$ or go somewhere else.


I always love these suggestions. Let's punish the community as a whole because I don't like where they go level.

[mvffin]

It seems like the longer people stay there, the less things drop. When the mission first came out, boards were dropping every run, or at least every 3 runs. Now I can spend all day there and not see a damn thing. GL running 4 days to see a serafi board drop. (and watch it go to someone else)

The anti-robot 360 has something to do with it too. DG, Sacred Stream, and Grove are pretty much pointless to try and run more than twice.

[steely]

i just go there to have random conversations with random peaples .some time i even scare spammers way by endlessly talkin to them http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[jobber]

On 2008-04-23 08:26, darkante wrote:

On 2008-04-23 08:22, jobber wrote:
Yeah...everyone running WB is annoying. I had to learn how to solo missions when people were spamming Seabed AND you had no lobby warp.

That's also why prices for some weapons are still 99999999999. Drops increased but no one does the missions while all the WB S ranks are selling for 200k.

Can you imagine if everyone spammed GoF? Needle Cannons for 100k!


They should spam DG so i can buy a cheap Shigga Baret.
http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif




I've been doing that for months.

[jobber]

On 2008-04-23 13:07, mvffin wrote:
It seems like the longer people stay there, the less things drop. When the mission first came out, boards were dropping every run, or at least every 3 runs. Now I can spend all day there and not see a damn thing. GL running 4 days to see a serafi board drop. (and watch it go to someone else)

The anti-robot 360 has something to do with it too. DG, Sacred Stream, and Grove are pretty much pointless to try and run more than twice.



The only slow down i've had is fighting the WB boss. bots are fine for my main..but when I was trying to run SS, my 360 locked up 3 times!

[Noblewine]

Sega won't do anything about people spamming White Beast. The only thing to do is wait till they get bored or till Mag or if the GBR on Neudaiz happens. However when I was sitting around Pavillion Airtop around 12ish the lobby was pretty empty on 2.

[Ajora]

There is honestly no point in complaining. Let them spam white beast, they aren't forcing you to do it along with them.

So you say you want a party? Well grab your PM and/or one/two of the other NPC characters and make yourself a party, of course you don't have a chance at striking up a friendly conversation with the AI nor the intellect of a human mind knowing when to heal amongst other things, but at least you aren't wasting time complaining about how other people enjoy the game.

Just in case: No, I am not for White Beast, I prefer Duel in the Ruins and Awoken Serpent.

[Hiroko]

Well, if I didn't need a bunch of Diads, I'd definately be somewhere else <.< GoF isn't bad for diads, but nothing beats WB...

[ApolloAltair]

On 2008-04-23 07:09, desturel wrote:

On 2008-04-23 07:00, ApolloAltair wrote:
I think that if this game is to ever have balanced play in its levels, SEGA needs to make the mission points awarded at the end of a mission... make sense... here is a good example... why would anyone want to play Plains Overlord A, which gives a whopping 14 mission points... or White beast A, which gives a 164! ...


Plains Overload isn't a good example. You can sit in a safe spot for the entire run and never die. It's an extremely easy mission with an extremely easy boss and safe spots to make the only potentially dangerous enemies irrelevant. That and A rank on plains overlord has level 35 creatures while White Beast has over twice as many level 70 creatures.

So twice as many creatures with twice the level. No safe spots, traps, and status effects (there are no status effects on Plains overlord white beast has freeze and sleep) should mean that that white Beast should have more MP. A better comparison would be White Beast A and Tunnel Recapture S or Dark Satellite S. Those should have around the same MP rate.



Point taken, But you understand what im getting at.

[ashley50]

Get your own party and DO what mission YOU want to do?

[SStrikerR]

On 2008-04-23 07:00, Typheros wrote:
Make every enemy in White Beast kill you in one hit.

Enemies there are slow, but the lag might actually make people get hit lol. This is a good idea.

[chaoskila]

amen
[ http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/takeout.gif ]

[fayt6]

it just makes it easyer for us to get a group of ppl that we know an spam a diff lvl tell we find a rare or w/e that we need...sure i wish ppl would break from the pack but...what can i say ppl are stupid..lol

[-Tidus_415-]

We need more White Beast parties!!!

[Randomness]

Well, the problem is that people who are trying to level tend to go where the parties are, and this feeds back into itself. I have no idea why level 130s are there unless they're going for MP.

[KiteWolfwood]

GBR needs to seriously just be a weekly event. Every Thursday just change where the GBR is that way we might have at least a few people doing something else besides the flavor of the month hotspot mission.

Then again though with the last GBR I rarely could find parties going through it. But that could also be the fault of whoever designed this stupid system of each stage having its own lobby. I mean seriously I don't want to be forced to check each and every single lobby on a planet just to find a group.

It would help so much if we could have a central hub to join groups where ever they could be in the universe.

[RemiusTA]

If you ask me, the main, number ONE main problem with PSU is not imbalance or anything else, its weak progression.

The game has plenty of missions to make anyone happy, except for the fact that they are useless.

Sonic Team needs to implement a sort of permanate GBR that boosts EXP when you travel paths through missions. Missions that take shorter paths should give good exp, but not enough to the point where taking a 4 stage path is slower leveling than taking a 2 stage path.

The final stages should give far more meseta and EXP boosts. Free mission choosing is retarded, becuase the community is going to flock to the most efficient one ALWAYS.

The missions are USELESS. The only reason to play a mission other than white beast is for either A) Fun or B) Rares.

[Sinue_v2]

If there wasn't such a huge disparity in experience and item drops from mission to mission, this wouldn't be an issue to begin with.

The problem is structure, or rather the lack of it. You always find this in online RPGs, as players tend to camp areas that have very valuable drops, lots of EXP, or money payouts. What determined what area/mission you did depended largely on what level you were. For example, look at FFXI (at least when I was playing) the hotspots had a progression. You start at your main city, then move to the areas adjacent to it as you gain lvls. Then off to Valkrum Dunes to spam. Then to the Battallia Downs (or whatever that snowy field you killed crabs at was called), then the Jungle outside of Khazam gate, then the Crawler's Nest, etc... etc... etc. The only determining factor of where you went, was your level. Then you sat, and you camped whatever enemies were most optimal for effort vs. reward.

In PSU, you don't have that. You have missions with varying amounts of XP, rares, and Meseta, and only four/five real level barriers. C, B, A, S, S2. Usually these rewards are balanced out steadily to prevent S or S2 capable players from spamming lower difficulties for faster/easier MP/XP over time. (This is a problem in AMF Metro where time & effort vs reward actually favors those who do B rank missions).

Further, since some missions are far easier than others, the effort vs. reward is skewed - so even if a mission rewards killer MP/XP - if it's more difficult or time consuming to do than a mission that's far easier and comperably rewarding - people are going to do the easier mission for the XP/MPoT.

White Beast is a behemoth, in these regards. It's very short, gives excellent MP and XP, and dishes out quite a lot of meseta. Further, it's easy as hell because all of the enemies are of a single element - meaning you can load up on Dark weapons and Light Armor - and not have to worry about tactics or weapon switching much. Especially if you have a FO or PT in the group.

So I'd say that there's really no way to combat the "hotspot" scenario, aside from dangling easier rares in front of people's faces (or other comperable reward), simply because it's pretty much impossible to change the structure of the game at this point or to convince people not to take the optimal path to raising their characters.

Personally, I don't mind White Beast. Yeah, it gets boring after awhile, but that's PSU in general. Same shit, different background.


Every Thursday just change where the GBR is that way we might have at least a few people doing something else besides the flavor of the month hotspot mission.

You can't have GBR that often, because that simply kills any real reward aspect. Might as well just apply the rewards otherwise gained in GBR across the board. In that regard, people would still just be spamming hotspots with the best combination of EXP/Rares/MP/Meseta vs Effort. You might get a few more people dispersed, but not enough to really make a difference. GBR only works because it's an uncommon event.

They could host a GBR one week out of three (or one week of the month), rotating the planets, and that would provide enough of a "downtime" between events to instill a sense of urgency in the players to play it before it's gone. Also, reset boost %'s at the start of each, so that the progress you made last month won't apply two months from now.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sinue_v2 on 2008-04-23 22:20 ]</font>

[jobber]

I've been doing GoF runs all night

It's wayyyyyyy easier than WB yet no one runs it.

That mob mentality is just for the lazy. Seems like people would rather shell out 10 Mil for a weapon they could find on their own and Sonic Team keeps conforming to it.

Although I was suprised to see a few Rainbow S2 parties running. This was on Uni 2.
It seems like all the other mission runs are happening on Uni 2. From the Guild missions to even a couple of parties running Holy Ground on Neudaiz.

Over in Uni 1, every lobby was a ghost town except for WB.

[KiteWolfwood]

On 2008-04-23 22:08, Sinue_v2 wrote:

You can't have GBR that often, because that simply kills any real reward aspect. Might as well just apply the rewards otherwise gained in GBR across the board. In that regard, people would still just be spamming hotspots with the best combination of EXP/Rares/MP/Meseta vs Effort. You might get a few more people dispersed, but not enough to really make a difference. GBR only works because it's an uncommon event.

They could host a GBR one week out of three (or one week of the month), rotating the planets, and that would provide enough of a "downtime" between events to instill a sense of urgency in the players to play it before it's gone. Also, reset boost %'s at the start of each, so that the progress you made last month won't apply two months from now.

[ This Message was edited by: Sinue_v2 on 2008-04-23 22:20 ]


You say it would kill any real reward aspect but I don't see how it possibly could. All it does is give a reasonable alternative to the mass "Hot spot" spam. You even said it yourself that people will just be spamming the hotspot for the best EXP/Rares/MP/Mesesta or w/e so why not implement a weekly rotational hot spot. Because of the way GBR works every week it would be random increase in a different place so then its not like you are forced to go to GBR.

One week it could include Whitebeast with a drop rate increase. So there would be a urgency as you said it to go there before it disappears. Because we all know Whitebeast has horrid drop rates on everything, or at least for me it does.

Another week it could be a exp increase so then you would actually be rewarded for spamming the "hot spot" to grind massive levels. Because of the exp increase even if the road isn't so great by itself it could become an actual great place to level because of the GBR.

Other weeks it could include a not so good road with a boost that really doesn't help so then GBR might be skipped as the hot spot that week and people would just go back to where ever it is they go.

[Sinue_v2]

You say it would kill any real reward aspect

I say it would kill the reward aspect, because having a GBR each week would make the frequency of rewards so high that it becomes the norm in the game. It's not longer a limited event, but a perpetual modification of the game which you can count on and which appears frequently enough that it's not a problem if you don't leave WhiteBeast, or whatever hotspot, because it'll either always be there in rotation or in a very short time span. I.E. Fuck it, I'll do GBR next week. It's not like it's going anywhere.

And even so, when the Moatoob GBR - even at the extraordinary intervals inbetween which as they currently are - had very few people running it past... oh, the second week or so. Most people had migrated back to White Beast by then. At least on the PS2/PC server, as that may just be a phenomenon of going where the players go. In which case, GBR would be a bit of a hinderance simply because it spreads an already very small population out over multiple lobbies. I didn't play GBR on the 360 version, so if anyone noticed a contradictory trend - please let me know. But regardless, that's just an aside.

A secondary reason why they cannot have GBR every week is because to make it worth people's while, they will have to give it rewards substantially higher or easier/faster to achieve than current missions. This means that while it's in effect, people are getting MORE exp, MORE rares, MORE mp, and MORE meseta than what Sonic Team intends to be in the economy. Now, I'm not defending their idea of a "balanced" economy - but frequent and highly rewarding strings of missions will produce a constant injection of artifically (or outside of the norm at least) obtained exp, items, meseta, etc. And it WILL have an effect on what little is left of the economy - because lets say it does get people out of WB. And people DO spam GBR missions constantly. Then the economy will consist largely of items that are only obained in GBR - in essense, it's nerfing the game. More.

I still contend that the only way to real get people to play differing missions and spread the population out is to give the game more structure. GBR is, at best, a temporary bandaid solution.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sinue_v2 on 2008-04-24 04:33 ]</font>

[WHlTEKNIGHT]

On 2008-04-23 21:27, RemiusTA wrote:
If you ask me, the main, number ONE main problem with PSU is not imbalance or anything else, its weak progression.

The game has plenty of missions to make anyone happy, except for the fact that they are useless.

Sonic Team needs to implement a sort of permanate GBR that boosts EXP when you travel paths through missions. Missions that take shorter paths should give good exp, but not enough to the point where taking a 4 stage path is slower leveling than taking a 2 stage path.

The final stages should give far more meseta and EXP boosts. Free mission choosing is retarded, becuase the community is going to flock to the most efficient one ALWAYS.

The missions are USELESS. The only reason to play a mission other than white beast is for either A) Fun or B) Rares.


isnt that the point of playing the game lol, fun and rares!!!!!!

[Akaimizu]

The Grove will not become popular (at least on the 360) until they fix the bug problems. I know some who love Grove of Fanatics enough to run it anyway, and reset their machines after a few runs each time. Then again, they also have a lot more time to play the game and thus doing the resetting thing doesn't take a significant amount of time out of their play. Oddly enough, it still seems to keep other folks with just as much time or more from playing it.

For me, the time needed to endure the slowdown to finish a mission + resets easily takes out the time I could probably do more runs with. Especially in solo, where most missions take my GT 30-40+ minutes to do.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-04-24 07:10 ]</font>

[enoch]

there were some cool pso missions they could use, like the rappy mingame mission,
or that one mission that forced you to cooperate to win. you know, one person would be on camera and another would be playing!

or that one at the night beach were you had certian keywords that would affect the area if you typed them


ahhh good times


cmon psu, give us some cool missions

[jobber]

On 2008-04-24 07:09, Akaimizu wrote:
The Grove will not become popular (at least on the 360) until they fix the bug problems. I know some who love Grove of Fanatics enough to run it anyway, and reset their machines after a few runs each time. Then again, they also have a lot more time to play the game and thus doing the resetting thing doesn't take a significant amount of time out of their play. Oddly enough, it still seems to keep other folks with just as much time or more from playing it.

For me, the time needed to endure the slowdown to finish a mission + resets easily takes out the time I could probably do more runs with. Especially in solo, where most missions take my GT 30-40+ minutes to do.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-04-24 07:10 ]</font>


Yeah I got the slowdown last night for the first time after 5 runs. After I finished that run, I went to dump all the crap in my room then rebooted. I never got slow down on DG before so that was weird.
I thought it was me using killer shot taking out 5 bots in 3 seconds.

[Darius_Drake]

Personally I haven't been on White Beast since my futile search for the Love Inferno board, but I know some level 130 characters that go there just because they want to play in a party. If you don't go to WB you will have trouble finding a party period. I would go if I could be certain to find a party that would be willing to leave WB and do some other runs together. At this point there are just other missions that I would rather play.

[Cracka_J]

I think that the general structure of joining games/finding parties is a bit silly and contributes quite a bit to these "hotspot" trends, instead of people just doing what they enjoy.

In pso you had ships which are basically your universes in psu. However, the difference was that in pso once you hop onto the ship/universe, you're pretty much at a central hub, and can see all the different games going on at the time. PSU takes an extra step in segregating the players, and instead forces them to go to specific lobbies in specific universes to even have a chance at finding a group. So ya, people are lazy by nature, and will flock to the easiest place they can find people to play with, I don't blame them.

If PSU actually made use of the Guardians Branch on Cylez as a general meeting place like pso where you could view/join ANY game going on in ANY lobby, you'd see a lot more varied parties. Unfortunately, it don't work that way...and it's actually sad 'cause a lot of the v1 missions are some of my favorites haha.

[Sekani]

On 2008-04-24 08:02, Cracka_J wrote:
I think that the general structure of joining games/finding parties is a bit silly and contributes quite a bit to these "hotspot" trends, instead of people just doing what they enjoy.

In pso you had ships which are basically your universes in psu. However, the difference was that in pso once you hop onto the ship/universe, you're pretty much at a central hub, and can see all the different games going on at the time. PSU takes an extra step in segregating the players, and instead forces them to go to specific lobbies in specific universes to even have a chance at finding a group. So ya, people are lazy by nature, and will flock to the easiest place they can find people to play with, I don't blame them.

If PSU actually made use of the Guardians Branch on Cylez as a general meeting place like pso where you could view/join ANY game going on in ANY lobby, you'd see a lot more varied parties. Unfortunately, it don't work that way...and it's actually sad 'cause a lot of the v1 missions are some of my favorites haha.


This. The effort/reward ratio of White Beast grabs a lot of players; the inability to find enough people anywhere else grabs the rest of them.

[Darius_Drake]

On 2008-04-24 08:59, Sekani wrote:

On 2008-04-24 08:02, Cracka_J wrote:
I think that the general structure of joining games/finding parties is a bit silly and contributes quite a bit to these "hotspot" trends, instead of people just doing what they enjoy.

In pso you had ships which are basically your universes in psu. However, the difference was that in pso once you hop onto the ship/universe, you're pretty much at a central hub, and can see all the different games going on at the time. PSU takes an extra step in segregating the players, and instead forces them to go to specific lobbies in specific universes to even have a chance at finding a group. So ya, people are lazy by nature, and will flock to the easiest place they can find people to play with, I don't blame them.

If PSU actually made use of the Guardians Branch on Cylez as a general meeting place like pso where you could view/join ANY game going on in ANY lobby, you'd see a lot more varied parties. Unfortunately, it don't work that way...and it's actually sad 'cause a lot of the v1 missions are some of my favorites haha.


This. The effort/reward ratio of White Beast grabs a lot of players; the inability to find enough people anywhere else grabs the rest of them.



Very well put.

[Feign]

On 2008-04-23 07:00, Typheros wrote:
Make every enemy in White Beast kill you in one hit.



They already do...

SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP Hooray I'm awaSLEEP SLEEP SLEEP Dead.

Well, it's not ONE hit, but it's effectively the same...

Also; don't talk to us about unbalanced EXP/meseta until they fix Serafi-senba's drop rate. You'll see A LOT of people go elsewhere if that stupid board actually dropped.

THE BOARD IS A LIE ;_;

[darkante]

On 2008-04-24 09:41, Feign wrote:

On 2008-04-23 07:00, Typheros wrote:
Make every enemy in White Beast kill you in one hit.



They already do...

SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP Hooray I'm awaSLEEP SLEEP SLEEP Dead.

Well, it's not ONE hit, but it's effectively the same...

Also; don't talk to us about unbalanced EXP/meseta until they fix Serafi-senba's drop rate. You'll see A LOT of people go elsewhere if that stupid board actually dropped.

THE BOARD IS A LIE ;_;


Well Sleep status is easely fixed with sleep/resist?
Sigh..>.>

[Kinako78]

On 2008-04-24 09:45, darkante wrote:
Well Sleep status is easely fixed with sleep/resist?
Sigh..>.>



Yeah, which, I believe, is dropped from a boss box in White Beast. Irony's a b****.

Edit: My bad, it's not. But it's still ironic that no one has one because they won't do missions other then White Beast.

Or maybe it's just karma.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kinako78 on 2008-04-24 11:08 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kinako78 on 2008-04-24 11:09 ]</font>

[Cracka_J]

?
I see plenty of people running it with resists on, they're the people without the sleep status effect http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

I used to run dg a bunch, so I've got one for all my chars http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[Kinako78]

Well, seemed like everyone I played with didn't have one. Then again, we were only doing B, so that could be why.

[Miyuki]

Sleep / resists drop often enough on GoF... go hunt it - good money

[Darius_Drake]

Yeah, I got Sleep/Resist as well. I just don't do WB anymore. Now that is irony.

[Kylie]

On 2008-04-23 04:43, TQS wrote:
Even if you Nerf one mission people will still find another mission to spam. Its just how this game has been since day one.

Yes, some people just like grinding. Personally, I prefer to play missions all over, but I will follow the crowd if I have something to get done with no one but randoms to help.

[Kinako78]

On 2008-04-24 11:23, Miyuki wrote:
Sleep / resists drop often enough on GoF... go hunt it - good money



I'll go do that. Though, after today, I may not need it for awhile.

[desturel]

On 2008-04-24 12:25, Kinako78 wrote:

On 2008-04-24 11:23, Miyuki wrote:
Sleep / resists drop often enough on GoF... go hunt it - good money



I'll go do that. Though, after today, I may not need it for awhile.


You can also do Forest Infiltration. It's a quicker run for fighters if you aren't a techer or a gunner.

Sleep/Resist drops from:
Grove of Fanatics
Forest Infiltration
Desert Goliath
Stolen Weapon

All ranks. For those on the 360 worried about slowdown, do Stolen Weapon. No robots on that one.

[ljkkjlcm9]

I said it once earlier in this thread, and I'll say it again. No matter what you do, even if all missions gave exact same EXP, MP, Meseta and drops... people would still flock to one mission. All for the simple fact that it'd be much easier to find people that way. Changing the mission won't do anything.

THE JACKEL

[Kinako78]

On 2008-04-24 12:41, desturel wrote:

On 2008-04-24 12:25, Kinako78 wrote:

On 2008-04-24 11:23, Miyuki wrote:
Sleep / resists drop often enough on GoF... go hunt it - good money



I'll go do that. Though, after today, I may not need it for awhile.


You can also do Forest Infiltration. It's a quicker run for fighters if you aren't a techer or a gunner.

Sleep/Resist drops from:
Grove of Fanatics
Forest Infiltration
Desert Goliath
Stolen Weapon

All ranks. For those on the 360 worried about slowdown, do Stolen Weapon. No robots on that one.



Ok, thanks http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[Mystil]

There isn't a 'fix'. You cant MAKE people run something different!

[Magician4]

This mission sounds like it's having the same effect TTF had on PSO. I remember everyone would play that all day mainly for the exp.

[-Tidus_415-]

White Beast Universe : Ambition of the Alterazgohg

Run White Beast with us or die!

[GlowSticks]

When I started white beast S I was lvl 130 dono who much experiance that map gives you, always just did it for leveling Pa's and decent money drops. Just did a bunch of party missions there recently finding nothing good, then I head to my room & deposited items, came back solo'd it with mah NPC's & Serafi droped -_-