JP PC/PS2 update July 2nd: Pay monies to pimp your weapons...

[FOnewearl-Lina]

http://phantasystaruniverse.jp/news/wis/?mode=view&id=926

Introduction of the OPTIONAL billing service's 'Item Strengthening':
By utilising GC, you can now boost the parameters of your Weapons and Shield Lines!
ST desperately needs your money!

New Mission: Supervisor's Office Incredible Machine:
More details here: http://phantasystaruniverse.jp/news/update/option/upgrade/ and http://phantasystaruniverse.jp/news/update/option/list/
Spend your Money on GC and then waste your GC boosing your weapons in this new mission!
[spoiler-box]GC Weapon Strengthening (up to +8):
The following grinds requiring the following amounts of GC:
0>1 10
1>2 20
2>3 30
3>4 50
4>5 80
5>6 120
6>7 160
7>8 250

The following to repair your broken weapons:
0/0>0/1 10
1/1>1/2 20
2/2>2/3 30
3/3>3/4 40
4/4>4/5 50
5/5>5/6 100
6/6>6/7 150
7/7>7/8 200
8/8>8/9 300
9/9>9/10 600

And for Elemental Modification:
Remove Element 100
Change Element 750 (Element remains the same)
Add Element 800 (Element becomes 10%)

Element Strengthening (up to 40%):
For each 1% within the following brackets, you are required to pay the following GC.
01～10% 5
10～20% 10
20～30% 20
30～40% 40

Also a bunch of nitpicky notes about what you can and can't do; such as not being able to grind more than twice per session, or changing the element on Two Headed Snaaaaake![/spoiler-box]

Festival of Light:
Ohtoku City will be holding the Festival of Light from the 2nd of July until the 30th of July.

System Related:
The four Sonichi RCSMs will have their descriptive text changed to better reflect their abilities, rather than all having the same text.

Item Related:
Casino exchange items will be rotated.
The Room Good Light Festival Decor will be available for the duration of this event.

[WHlTEKNIGHT]

Bet you all cant wait. :D

[FOnewearl-Lina]

It's a stupid idea that isn't gonna win them any points, especially 3 years into the game's life and already almost dead. Would have been great for them if they had it from the very start.
From the original 50x2 Universes down to 16 Universes... The shame.

[Yunfa]

How much GC = $1 again?

[Ezodagrom]

$1 is somewhere between 95 and 100 GC, I think.

[darkante]

Really, that´s a dumb idea.
What´s the point of having shops or trade if you can manipulate the weapon in any way you like?

It´s like you put cheats on, only that it cost more money.

[Arika]

Also a bunch of nitpicky notes about what you can and can't do; such as not being able to grind more than twice per session, or changing the element on Two Headed Snaaaaake!
how long is one session?

[hunterseifer]

I lol'd when I saw that you could pay to remove the element :lol:

[Yunfa]

Really, that´s a dumb idea.
What´s the point of having shops or trade if you can manipulate the weapon in any way you like?

It´s like you put cheats on, only that it cost more money.

My 42-46% Agito Repcas are safe from this, hur hur huuuuuuuuuuuur.

[FOnewearl-Lina]

Not a huge difference between 40% and 42%...

http://www.psuxxx.info/uploader/src/up2098.jpg
Grind to 10 flowchart!

[RemiusTA]

It's a stupid idea that isn't gonna win them any points, especially 3 years into the game's life and already almost dead. Would have been great for them if they had it from the very start.
From the original 50x2 Universes down to 16 Universes... The shame.

Thats the thing. Its actually a quite flawless idea that will win them PLENTY money.

As pissed as EVERYONE is about this bullshit, only so many of us will truely quit. The money they'll make from individuals who dont care will offset quickly the cost of those who dont -- seeing as GC payers will be shelling out anywhere from 0.5x to 10x a normal subscription cost. It'll lose them points in everyone's respect book...but does SEGA really resemble a company who cares about that kind of bullshit?

Prepare to see SEGA be hated like they've never been hated before...all the while getting most likely paid more than they've ever been paid before, too. With the updates far and inbetween....i didn't think i'd ever see them fathom to give an update that NEVER has the ability to appeal to me. Ever.

Thats FUCKED up, sega. Fucked up for real.

[Dhylec]

Heh, Sega really needs money. ;3
They are squeezing everything from every aspect of the game for GC. Good thing it's optional.

[RemiusTA]

Well, anything they add would be "optional".

[trust_kill]

Sup bitches, yeah thats right. Gonna be rockin dat 10/10 SAIKOWONDO x6. LOL

Dun be hatin' da pplaya, hat e da gaem.

peace

[TekkamanCrazy]

This is what breaks the game. Oh well, Sega needs to be dug out of the massive hole there in.

[ashley50]

I like this Idea :)

[Ceresa]

No Event is total bullshit, only one new non GC-mission for the last month. So much for the JP servers getting so many updates eh...

Well anyways with 15% grind boost you needed 5 weapons to get a reasonable shot at 10/10.

Now you just need 3 and 20$ and you can do it all year round instead of waiting for twice a year and hoping you're still interested in the game. That's not so bad, waiting sucks. And for those 400m items like Spread Needle, well set of 2-3 10/10 just became possible maybe, if the 0/10 price doesn't skyrocket with this announcement...and oh fuck we can get our Edels to 10/10 now. Awesome.

Hope this works on armor too, 40% armas hoooooo!

[FOnewearl-Lina]

As pissed as EVERYONE is about this bullshit, only so many of us will truely quit.
That's because there isn't anyone left to quit...

[Ellipsis563]

40% 10/10 Buti's look very, very, painful.

and it would only cost about $7 to get a 40% armas line.

That's actually very cheap considering it would take awhile to get a 38% armas and in that time, you could've worked at McDonalds and bought a full rainbow set of 40% armas.

[Neith]

Wow, this could get expensive if you try for 10/10. That flowchart really emphasised that.

Just think:
- Grind to 8/10 (720GC)
- Try for 9/10 normally
- If it breaks going to 9, spend another 720GC to reach 8/9, and try for 9/9. f it fails again, repeat this.
- It it reaches 9/10, go for 10/10 normally, repeat 720GC payment if it fails
- If it reaches 8/8, spend 300GC to repair it to 8/9.
- If it reaches 9/9, spend 600GC to repair it to 9/10.
- Try for 10/10 and hope it doesn't blow up again.

That's a lot of GC in a short period of time if you have bad luck (and we all know how annoying 8->9 and 9->10 are).

[garjian]

tbh... this doesnt seem at all worth it... or even OP lol... 40% isnt great... and this ginding process seems VERY expensive... considering 9 and 10 fail a lot >.>

[Dragwind]

No thank you. I'd rather not spend a few bucks to gain a questionable amount of stat that will make a weapon 0.2% stronger (exaggeration) than it was.

[Ezodagrom]

I'm against the idea of Guardian Cash, but, in my opinion, this should have been the only things available on it. Grinding, changing elements, increasing element %s, and such.
Exclusive missions and exclusive items was just an horrible idea...>_>;

[RemiusTA]

agreed. We deserve a compromise.

[Ceresa]

Btw for those of you unaware of the latest AP ability from last update...

Full Custom Power lvl 2 increases the weapon atp of a 10/10 weapon by 15%. It does nothing for the 9/9 and below stuff.

Effectively this means, a Pwand at 9 has 1137 tp, and at 10 it has 1168 normally...or 1343 with Full Custom 2. 206 tp for the single last grind now.

Agito is a fun example too, 1333 at 9, 1531 at 10, 1760 with Full custom, over 400 atp increase from that last grind.

Oh well, I'm sure the timing was just coincidental.

[Yunfa]

Agito is a fun example too, 1333 at 9, 1531 at 10, 1760 with Full custom, over 400 atp increase from that last grind.


I'm sold

[The_Pew]

Thanks Lina! I wouldn't of seen this with out you posting this.

[Anduril]

So I guess this means that my dream of an Ice Halp Serafi still won't be a reality. That really would have been the only reason I used the GC. :-?

[Mikura]

Yeeah, I don't see myself going for 10/10s any time soon. I'm not sure I'll even bother spending cash on the grinds to be honest...but if I do, I'd just take my crap to 8 and stop. >_>

[Macras]

really the only reason i would want to use this is to get my twin DB collection up to 30-40% and maybe my chainsawds if i had any points left over >_>

[Inazuma]

I would quit PSU again if I could but I quit the first day GC started. My boycott of Sega has been strengthened. Thanks for helping create PSO, however. It's very fun to play PSO on the not private servers. I have given you guys a lot of money throughout my lifetime but never again. If you release a new game that interests me, I will do what's needed to make sure you never get any money for it. Used game sales will serve me well until everything goes digital download only, at least.

さらば
そして
くたばれ

[GeekRuler]

This is the only implication I want to see of Guardians Cash on the US/EU servers, the new fancy weapons would be nice, but the price for each grind/repair is rather cheap.

inb4my2/2repca has a chance to shine :D

[Hiero_Glyph]

I would quit PSU again if I could but I quit the first day GC started. My boycott of Sega has been strengthened. Thanks for helping create PSO, however. It's very fun to play PSO on the not private servers. I have given you guys a lot of money throughout my lifetime but never again. If you release a new game that interests me, I will do what's needed to make sure you never get any money for it. Used game sales will serve me well until everything goes digital download only, at least.

さらば
そして
くたばれ

I couldn't agree more. If we ever get this on the regional servers, myself and a bunch of my friends will all quit as well. Sadly, SEGA is a mere shadow of its former glory and this only shows their true colors even more.

One thing that I did find interesting though was that using the GC to augment an item does not restrict said item's sale or trade. So much for the economy of any weapon below 8 grinds and 40%.

[hyperacute]

One thing that I did find interesting though was that using the GC to augment an item does not restrict said item's sale or trade. So much for the economy of any weapon below 8 grinds and 40%.

People might actually want to buy 2/2 10% weapons now that there's a way to fix the grinds and improve the percentages. If anything, it has the potential to have the opposite effect than the one you infer.

[Hiero_Glyph]

People might actually want to buy 2/2 10% weapons now that there's a way to fix the grinds and improve the percentages. If anything, it has the potential to have the opposite effect than the one you infer.

No it won't. Players want to immitate the best in the game. The best only use 42%+ striking weapons or 10/10 ranged/techers weapons. Who is going to want to spend money on a weapon and know that it can never be better than 40%?

What will happen is that the 42% and above market will increase even more than it is now and the 38% and below will get even worse. This will mean that the elite players will no longer be able to mass synth items and break even as the lower % ones will become NPC fodder.

Think about it, the 42%+ weapon can be regrinded time and time again without having to spend a single GC point into the element aspect, while that 10% 2/2 weapon will require tons of money and the best it will ever become is a 40% 10/10. If the 42% is still better, then why bother spending all that money on the 10% one?

EDIT: If they added a feature that binds an item to the player's account (cannot be sold in player stores or traded) once they modifiy the weapon using GC the problem would be solved. That way the market stays free and anyone using GC will be stuck with their weapons and forced to either buy more GC points or try again with a new weapon from the free market.

[Yunfa]

I would quit PSU again--- blah blah blah im a weeaboo


I like my 42% Fighmaster weapons oh noes noobs/newbs can pay their way to have a shinier pallete.

Hey guys guess what?..........................BE A MAN & SUCK IT UP Hur hur huuuuuuuuur

100 GC = $1, if you're stingy to the point where you can't afford a few dollars to keep your ego afloat, find another way to enjoy the game, if that's not possible then just quietly leave instead of complaining "OHHHH im upset, I worked hard for my items, this isnt fair! ima quit."

My advice: Life isn't fair, nor is PSU. Either live with your weakness as to the elitists out there think regarding to this GC feature, or cough up the dough to stay with the competition, no not the game, the ego war of having better equipment.

[hyperacute]

No it won't. Players want to immitate the best in the game. The best only use 42%+ striking weapons or 10/10 ranged/techers weapons. Who is going to want to spend money on a weapon and know that it can never be better than 40%?

What, as supposed to the current state of play where if you buy a 30% weapon the best it can get is, errm, 30%? Hell, why do people buy anything less than 42% using your logic?

Since when is owning 42%+ weapons a signifier of the "best" in the game anyway? That would put me firmly in the "best" group which I strongly doubt. :wacko: Sure, 42% is aspirational for many but it's hardly a measure of anything other than having a palette full of nice shiny toys.

[Inazuma]

What, as supposed to the current state of play where if you buy a 30% weapon the best it can get is, errm, 30%? Hell, why do people buy anything less than 42% using your logic?

Since when is owning 42%+ weapons a signifier of the "best" in the game anyway? That would put me firmly in the "best" group which I strongly doubt. :wacko: Sure, 42% is aspirational for many but it's hardly a measure of anything other than having a palette full of nice shiny toys.

They buy 30% because it's better than their current weapon. You are forgetting that after this update, everyone will have 40% or better items. In other words, 40% will become the new 10%. Also, +10 will become the new 0/0, lol.

I just thought of something else that really sucks about this. Rich players can easily create tons of 40% +10 items and sell them in player shops, and then use that meseta to buy the 42% items. The game is completely ruined, yep. The only thing that matters is how rich you are in real life.

[FOnewearl-Lina]

Rich players can easily create tons of 40% +10 items and sell them in player shops, and then use that meseta to buy the 42% items. The game is completely ruined, yep. The only thing that matters is how rich you are in real life.
People already been doing stuff like this with RMT forever. Why does this suddenly change things?

But as far as synthing goes, you might as well NPC anything under 38%, the economy is so saturated that it didn't even need GC to change this.

[Inazuma]

People already been doing stuff like this with RMT forever. Why does this suddenly change things?

But as far as synthing goes, you might as well NPC anything under 38%, the economy is so saturated that it didn't even need GC to change this.

RMT is perfectly fine. Just think about how it works.

A Chinese guy plays the game and earns meseta. He then sells that meseta to another player for real money. As far the game itself is concerned, all that happened is meseta moving from one player to another. This doesn't ruin the game at all. Just because real money is involved, doesn't make any difference to the game itself.

RMT would be bad if the Chinese player was cheating to obtain the meseta. The game would be negatively affected because of the cheating going on inside it, and also the players who take advantage of the cheating would have an unfair advantage.

The reason these MMO companies hate RMT is because they want a piece of the action too. This is pretty damn obvious in Sonichi's case. And Sonichi doesn't even care about ruining the game. Only money matters to them.

Now with GC, not only can every single player instantly create powered up items, but since it's built into the game itself, it's widespread. Money aside, it would be the same if there was mass duping/cheating in the game.

[Zorafim]

Chinese guy works abysmal hours to get less than minimum wage, grinding money in whatever ways he can. He sells earned currency to a major company, who sells said currency for more than they paid for it. Player who doesn't know the value of money buys the currency, and spends more than the worth of a piece of equipment. Seller of piece of equipment now knows that he can sell an item for that much, and so does so again. This item is bought again by another person with mom's credit card. Price of item goes up, and people who don't buy currency have to spend longer hours in order to buy the item.

Mom is losing precious money so her son can further enjoy a game, a company is expending no effort to gain a large profit, large numbers of chinese men and women are being extorted, and a company is watching as somebody else is getting money for their work.

This is perfectly fine?

[biggabertha]

Business is business.

No one plays fair anymore anyway.

There's lots of ups and downs to this idea but most of the downs are extremely unethical for the players with less luck in both real life and within the game.

It's very unfortunate that this is happening but no amount of petitioning or quitting will stop this - a handful of people can keep the servers alive at this rate.

[Inazuma]

Chinese guy works abysmal hours to get less than minimum wage, grinding money in whatever ways he can. He sells earned currency to a major company, who sells said currency for more than they paid for it. Player who doesn't know the value of money buys the currency, and spends more than the worth of a piece of equipment. Seller of piece of equipment now knows that he can sell an item for that much, and so does so again. This item is bought again by another person with mom's credit card. Price of item goes up, and people who don't buy currency have to spend longer hours in order to buy the item.

Mom is losing precious money so her son can further enjoy a game, a company is expending no effort to gain a large profit, large numbers of chinese men and women are being extorted, and a company is watching as somebody else is getting money for their work.

This is perfectly fine?

It's no worse than any other business. If you are telling me that underpaid Chinese workers are the problem, then how come the government didn't ban every single job in China? My point is that the gold or meseta is earned legitimately to start with, so what's the problem with it exchanging hands later? If that's a problem, they wouldn't allow any trading in the game to begin with.

[FOnewearl-Lina]

Why would you ever want to remove the element from your weapon?
Because a non-elemental RCSM (Shag Hodogg, oh yes) paired with an enchant works wonders!

[Kamioko]

So..i have a 9/9 SNG right now. How much would it cost to fix it to 9/10?

[Phaesphora]

Does this mean that players may start to view the year-long gap between servers as a boon?

As with the Doomsday Clock, we can do naught but watch as nihil approaches...

:eek:

[NDW]

So..i have a 9/9 SNG right now. How much would it cost to fix it to 9/10?

http://psujp.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/the-upgrade-device/

[Dragon_Knight]

The only thing I see that would bother me aside from the whole idea of the GC for a game we already pay 2 play, is the the idea they may ramp up the price for the US/EU market.

Perfect World did that when it was brought over to the US/EU areas, the diffrence between the Asian cash shop and the US cash shop is astounding. English speakers pay approximatly 3x the Asian rate for CS items. When questioned, the devlopers basicaly said it was because American's have a higher income, therefore naturaly should pay more for the same items.

If Sega pulls that off it probably won't be a shot to the foot, even though we'd end up grumbling about it even more then we are now.

[neilp4453]

I guess the day this update hits local servers is the day I quit.

It isn't the fact that I can't afford it......I think it just ruins the point of playing this game.

I understand there are plenty of MMOs that function like this....but there is a reason I don't play those.

[Kerberos]

I guess the time will come when the 1.8 mil S+10 grinders might drop in price since you would only need 2 to try to get a 10/10 after you pay the way to 8/10. It might be a good time for some of the people sitting on stacks and stacks of S+10 grinders to start flooding the market with the wealth of their glorious duped grinders.

[KaF]

Once this update comes to the us/eu servers im going to deinstall the game, take the CD and slamdunk it into the next gargabe can.

[Alecc]

You don't HAVE to pay to grind you know... There's still like a whole year to grind the original way, and even when the pay-to-grind system hits our servers we can just keep grinding the old way... ;) :D

Now, the 'pay-to-play missions' is a different story. That suuuucks big time :( :(

[Legendria]

It kinda is bullshit, but hey, I'm not some 15 year old kid floating my dreams on my parent's credit card (unlike many, many people bitching about it).

If I feel like I want something, I'll buy it. The possessions of others doesn't bother me, especially in a game where other people can't interact with you or your game experience at all (Can't be PKed, etc).

Sure, the market value of many things will flip-flop, but AotI did a very good job of that anyway.

This is just another adjustment, and 90% of you guys doing all the bitching will be here months after it hits our shores, I guarantee that.

Weren't many of you supposed to be quitting over the PA exp boost anyway? And the MAG leaderboard fiasco? lol

[padiwac]

40% 10/10 Buti's look very, very, painful.

and it would only cost about $7 to get a 40% armas line.

That's actually very cheap considering it would take awhile to get a 38% armas and in that time, you could've worked at McDonalds and bought a full rainbow set of 40% armas.

And with Elemental Weapon and Elemental Field LV1 you can get your Buti and Armas to 45%. If LV2 is 10% we could all end up with 50%s.

[Hiero_Glyph]

Once this update comes to the us/eu servers im going to deinstall the game, take the CD and slamdunk it into the next gargabe can.

With all that extra time you will have, you may want to learn to use actual words. I think you meant to say uninstall.

[zandra117]

On the US/EU servers I support the idea that Guardians Cash should not be sold but instead obtained in-game from the Casino Voloyal. 1 silver Vol Coin = 10 Guardians Cash.
Quote this message if you agree.

[darkante]

On the US/EU servers I support the idea that Guardians Cash should not be sold but instead obtained in-game from the Casino Voloyal. 1 silver Vol Coin = 10 Guardians Cash.
Quote this message if you agree.

That makes more sense.
I rather they don´t implent GC at all, though.

Grinding to a high number and getting high % should be a pain to get.
If everyone get max gear without effort, the game wouldn´t have much purpose.

[Kylie]

Umm, wow. I really wasn't that displeased at the initial news of GC missions because a lot of games do it, but I could not be more turned off by this idea. Before it was kind of unfair because it was like people could pay for advantages, and now it becomes even more unfair. I mean, they might as well start selling meseta on eBay.

[Tetsaru]

Shit like this was another reason I decided to quit PSU - I simply don't want to be around when/if it hits our servers. As if spamming the same mission over and over was bad enough... God damn you, Segac. -_-X

[NDW]

I mean, they might as well start selling meseta on eBay.

They would have to go against the competition of people who sell meseta cheap on eBay.

[Namine]

They would have to go against competition like this person. :o

That name looks familiar...

[WHlTEKNIGHT]

On the US/EU servers I support the idea that Guardians Cash should not be sold but instead obtained in-game from the Casino Voloyal. 1 silver Vol Coin = 10 Guardians Cash.
Quote this message if you agree.Defeats the object of it all though doesnt it. Sega obviously wants more of our cash and IF we get the update( which I bet they will charge us for aswell) there is no way they wont add this.

[MadDogg]

I'm not that shocked about a cash shop type system, I'm more surprised of a cash shop system existing in a game you already pay-to-play in the first place. Usually of a game has cash shop, its a free game to play like maple story, gun bound, or latale. I never in my life seen a game where you have to pay to play it AND is has a cash shop, that's just straight up greedy.

[JimmyMagic]

Can you also increase the element % of a line sheild?

[Namine]

Yes, you can.

[Alecc]

And can you imagine what a mess it's gonna be if we have that feature added to our servers? i mean, seriously, they can barely handle pc/ps2 subscriptions/monthly fee... :D :D

[goldbrease]

why do i sudenly feel like sonic team are sitting in a small cubicle room for 7 hours a day getting high on drugs then spending the rest of the day programing in their wacked out state?!
for crying out loud, I thought the price to play the missions was bad. this is just stupid!, the only thing i would consider using this for would be to fix a broken weapon. or if they add this, more slots on armor.


I'm not that shocked about a cash shop type system, I'm more surprised of a cash shop system existing in a game you already pay-to-play in the first place. Usually of a game has cash shop, its a free game to play like maple story, gun bound, or latale. I never in my life seen a game where you have to pay to play it AND is has a cash shop, that's just straight up greedy.
eq2 has quest lines you have to pay to be able to play them, and tcg cards with codes that can give you in game bonuses... the ones a buddy showed me only lasted a short time, like a half hour or so.
WoW's card game had code cards that could give you a mount or an illussion to change appearance.
ff11 you can buy character slots.

[FOnewearl-Lina]

There's been quite a few people running around with 40% armor and weapons lately, complain all you like but one can only assume that ST are rolling in the cash now :)

[Volcompat321]

At first I hated this idea. I kinda still do, cause it's new and I haven't witnessed it yet.
My question is, why did it take so long to come up with this?
I think if SEGA made this when the game first came out, perhaps even started with it, people would enjoy it more.
Let's not carry on about what they should have done though :/
I kinda cant wait, but I can. I don't like the prices, and I probably wont pay, but it would be interesting to have.

[Legendria]

It's really interesting to see how this interferes with the update schedule and distance between JP/US.

If this is a very successful thing in JP, there is absolutely NO way Segac is going to make themselves wait nearly an entire year to make more money off of us.

I mean, they can surely drop the supplemental+GC early and continue with teh backlogged events, right? We would be stronger than intended for them, but so what? Segac's pockets would be full, because Americans sure have no problems putting money where their recreational interests lie.

Like i said earlier in the topic, i'll be one of those guys with GC. I'm sure as time goes on, many of you will be too.

[Powder Keg]

I honestly can't see a lot of US players using this feature....I know some definitely will, but I just can't see it being a lot...I'm kind of curious...maybe a poll should be made.

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

This seemed surprising at first, but then it became less surprising, especially since there's an entire Trope (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BribingYourWayToVictory) dedicated to this practice. The page has a few examples of crazy Game Breakers sold for cash. Oh, and Maplestory has actually indirectly SOLD MESOS (their currency.)

Besides, even if one had a 42%+ 10/10 weapon, they could still get pwned via their own incompetence, so it's not like everyone's a god now. Oh, and having a better weapon so means you have a bigger Saber.

[Cooper]

i think its sega trying to get out of debt, this sucks cause now its not the people who dedicate the most time who are the best, but the richest little spoiled kids. theyll be running around trying to use tornado dance on their 10/10 50% repcas