Section IDs: Dispel the myths, confirm the truths

[Maverick]

Anyone have a definitive list of what each section ID's merits are? I'm not talking speculation, but rather facts (from Sonic Team or the official guide).

The reason I ask is because I keep reading conflicting statements about what each section ID can/cannot find. For example, some claim YELLOWBOZE cannot find any rares, because they get more money. But I'm YELLOWBOZE and I've found an Agito, Flowen's Shield, S-Beat, etc.

We really need more info in the FAQ on this topic because it's constantly coming up in this forum.

[SuperSubZero]

From the guide:

"You'll find higher amounts of meseta in Yellowboze. All of the weapons and items appear with normal frequency and timing."

Let's break this down sentence by sentence. DISCLAIMER: All numbers are hypothetical, fictional, unreal, and for sample purposes only.

1. "You'll find higher amounts of meseta in Yellowboze"

The pessimist: Only reads this sentence. Says: "Yellowboze IDs find no items, just money. What a useless ID."

The truth: Of 100 random chances (boxes and monsters), Yellowboze may get meseta 30 times. Another ID may get meseta 27 times. Yellowboze may find 210 meseta per find, while another ID finds 195. Boxes that otherwise would have been empty may have some meseta in them. You're not going to be the Bill Gates of PSO. You'll just have a little more headroom in your budget.

2. "All of the weapons and items appear with normal frequency and timing."

Optimist: "Wow I have a good chance of finding a double saber! A Chaos Bringer's rifle! Delsaber's arm! Holy Ray! WOOHOO!"

The Truth: Every item, from plain handgun to 12-star super weapon, has different "odds" assigned to it for each level. For example, a handgun might pop up in 1/4 of all chances on Forest 1 Normal, and 1/0 (unfindable) on Ruins 3 V-Hard (do you want to find a plain handgun on that level? NO!). A Visk*235 may be unfindable on Forest 1 Normal, but be 1/1000 on Ruins 3 V-Hard. Section ID's manipulate these chances slightly. The 1/1000 Visk may become a 1/900 Visk for Greenill ID's (who favor rifles). The "unfindable" odds may turn into 1/5000 for finding rifles on an earlier stage. Of course now I ALSO have better chances of finding plain "rifle" rifles, beams, lasers, and other non-special rifles. ALL of the chances are modified for ALL rifles. Of course my ID has a "less percent chance" of finding Swords, which I can't wield anyway, so who cares. But now instead of a neutral ID (like Yellowboze) who may have a 1/1000 chance of finding a rare sword, I may have a 1/1500 chance. It can still happen, the chance is just less, just like to find a regular "Sword+0" my chances are also less, but now instead of being say, 1/50, it's 1/75. I'll still find 1000 regular swords before I find a Chaos Bringer's Rifle.

Rares are rare. They wouldn't be called "rare" otherwise. If the odds of one section ID finding a particular rare is 1/50000 and another is 1/60000, does it really matter? Are the odds THAT different?

The problem now is with massive duping and cloned characters running about, rares are being artificially reproduced at an amazing rate. I'm afraid to trade because if someone is offering some super-rare item that they say they have "more than 1 of," I get cynical because in theory many of these items are rigged to have insane odds and you're really only supposed to find them one time if at all. Honest people who find multiple super-rares shouldn't be in PSO, they should be in Las Vegas. But alas many players have cloned items, either intentionally or unintentionally through trading. Rigging the odds this way has all kinds of people wandering around with super-rare weapons and thus the people who don't have them immediately blame their section ID or their teammates or the weather in Montreal or anything else, when in reality, not having any of these things is actually pretty normal.

I forgot to mention again for the 9 millionth time, that playing online, the item chances are determined by your host. If your host's ID favors swords, it will affect you also. Playing online gives better chances of finding a good collection of items, rare and otherwise. Note again the chances are *better*, not *absolute*. Again, a sword-friendly ID is not a "Dragon Slayer+9 in every box" ID, it's a "you have a better chance of finding any type of sword" ID.

[addsig]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: SuperSubZero on 2001-03-01 05:48 ]</font>

[PowerSlave]

Excellent post, especially the last paragraph.

[Nick814625]

Very nice post SSZ... You are absolutely right. Do you know what a Whitill I.D. will have better chances of finding?

[SuperSubZero]

Whitill finds Slicer series weapons more frequently.

Get the strategy guide. I ain't posting the whole thing. It's a good read, even if it's not the most thorough.

-SSZ

[Lord_Ariakas]

I have a question for u SSZ. Does guide state if difficulty affects the chances of a rare dropping? I know that difficulty dictates the class of weapon drop(such as sabers on normal and gladius on v.hard), but does it make a difference for rares? Because i've started a new character and have found 2 double sabers in the ruins on normal difficulty already. With my higher level character i found all my great rares(S-Beats, Surpressed Gun, Delsabers,etc) on hard difficulty. Seems like difficulty has nothing to do with the chance of rare drops. I'm just wondering if the guide confirms this.

PS. Both characters are yellowboze.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Lord_Ariakas on 2001-03-01 06:40 ]</font>

[SuperSubZero]

The guide doesn't list stats for rares and actually doesn't talk about them much. It does list "common" items found on each level in each difficulty. It does not mention ?SPECIAL WEAPONS appearing on Ruins in Normal on any level. If you found double sabers.. well... In the words of any envious person.. "F'n good for you."

-SSZ