3/28 blog on cash shop & beta

[Setsuna00G]

Oh wow, so are you telling me doing the simple hugely lenient 1 - 2 - 3 button combo for everything made it "Hardcore" compared to PSU?

You know PSU reintroduced that in AOTI a way that was still easy, but compared to PSO's it was harder.

No, I was just using that as an example and please do not mention PSU's free bonus damage system. Lol, that was below casual.

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

Common sense says that outfits will be permanent and exp/drop rate boots will be timed.

The stuff about rooms and shops I would think would be timed by one month periods and work suspiciously like a monthly fee. Hopefully, they're just a one time fee though.

If the outfits are modestly priced... Sounds good to me.

That latter part sounds like it could be a pain if it requires multiple payments to maintain. I liked my room in PSU... and my shop. I miss my storm force wind-blowing fan already.

[Zorafim]

Free to play? Free to download? I can get my friends to all play this game with me and not have to worry about convincing them to shell out the cash? This sounds like a win to me. Having a time limit to items is kind of annoying, but that just means I'll avoid buying those items. But buying the permanent items are alright by me. After all, the way I see it, I've got $50 to spend when I first get the game, and $10 a month after that. Considering how much of a minimalist I am, I think I can keep that budget.

There is one thing I need to mention, though. In my life, I've only ever bought one cash shop item. It was basically free, and it was a really neat looking item. But once I got it, I didn't enjoy having it. It felt cheap. Knowing this, even if awesome items are available for purchase, I'll probably just stick with hunting items instead of buying them, even if the bought ones look better. It feels much better to get an item honestly than to buy it. That being said, on to the main post!

I'm loving the fact that consumable items which destroyed PSU are coming back as purchasable items. I hated how I could just absorb damage in PSU, and shrug it off with a trimate as I was spamming my current OP PA. And if I get hit by a 1hit kill attack, I just shrug off 5k meseta and keep going. No matter, I have 9,995,000 left anyway.
This way, I have to keep on my A game through missions, since I don't have as many crutches to lean on. And people who need that crutch can still get them. I just get to make fun of them for needing them.

I like the ability to buy new skill trees with cash. For those who are confused and think this means this adds additional power to your character, it doesn't. It adds convenience. This is like WoW's dual spec, where you can quickly change from say, your tank spec to your healing spec. This sounds like it's going to be temporary, and that makes me sad if true. Being able to say "I feel like going dagger crazy today" and switch to a DpS spec seems like it'd be enjoyable. Or saying "This party already has a healing force. I'll go nuking" would also be nice.
At least, I'm 85% sure this is what it is. It could be something else. But considering several other games have this exact feature, I'd be surprised if it was.

I don't like the fact that we have to pay out of our pockets to open our room and shop, but if it's permanent, I can deal with it. If it's not, well... That'd be a shame. I love customizing my room in PSU, and having a shop was a nice way to get rid of those icky ranger rares. But after a while, I stopped using my shop anyway, so I probably won't miss it. The room though... I'd probably even shell out monthly if it came to it. I love organizing my room. god, I need to get my priorities strait. I haven't cleaned my room in months...

As for buying outfits and hairstyles, well, I expected that. In fact, that's the #1 thing I had in mind. I'm sure they'll have sillier stuff in this option than the general public would want. Stuff like rappy suits and bathing suits, vocaloid hair, all that silly stuff that PSU loved. I doubt we'll see neat upgrades to our current outfits in there.

Efficiency items... I don't like them. I don't like that they're in, and buyable. But I can deal with them. If I really need to stress out about how quickly I'm leveling, or how long an item is taking to drop, then I'm playing the game wrong. I'm basically paying to make the game shorter. I should enjoy playing a certain map, or setting my nose to the grindstone for a weekend grind.
So I won't buy them, but I'll respect people who do. I know you can get a rush out of leveling quickly, or want to grind out a weapon quickly. That's fine with me. And, I'm glad Sega is getting additional money to fund more features to the game. Just so long as they're being ethical about making that money.

Storage expansion sounds interesting. I always struggled with bag space in PSU. Having a feature to make that part of my life easier might be nice. Though I'd prefer if they just gave you a large amount of space and be done with it, I understand from a programming perspective that it's not feasible to give each person 1000 inventory slots.
If it's a permanent improvement, I'd buy it. If it's a stacking permanent improvement, I'll probably see exactly how much space I need. If it's temporary, I'll probably just try to practice my juggling act again.

Let's see, did I go over everything I wanted to? Um... Oh, right! What's an item trade? You mean those guys that trade photons and such for weapons? You gotta pay to pay for items? That's just silly. I'll stick with hunting mine.

Well. This post came out my longer than I hoped. And more self centered, too. It's a big reveal though. I guess it makes sense I'd go on an egocentric rant. I do need a tl;dr though. So, um...
tr;dr: I have a greater chance of getting my friends to play with me. I have the option for more convenience, as well as motivation to not use this convenience. Though there are many items I'll probably buy, I have a good budget for getting them. And if there are any items in the cash shop that look really neat, I'll probably avoid buying them just because it doesn't feel as good to use those when I can hunt items myself.
General reaction: Positive.

[Randomness]

Common sense says that outfits will be permanent and exp/drop rate boots will be timed.

The stuff about rooms and shops I would think would be timed by one month periods and work suspiciously like a monthly fee. Hopefully, they're just a one time fee though.

If they stick to more or less this, it's not a huge problem... but it would be annoying to have outfits not available through other means.

[Dinosaur]

I have to say that the level 20 cap for the CBT is really lame...

[Reia]

Considering Zorafim mentioned. I think my other 3 mules will also be HUmarls with the same look and name, in case of update that buff/nerf a hunter skill, I can always pass gear to the alt and start all over, being better geared can help me level up faster.

I have to say that the level 20 cap for the CBT is really lame...

Why so? Because we're testing the game early phase and giving away complaints about game function and balance and reporting bugs? rather than suffer from this abrupt changes when the game goes live and you already have a preset stuff and then suddenly? NERF! I hope you can still reset the skill tree with Meseta, WoW had it for gold for the very good reason skills constantly get Buffed/Nerfed (And this happenned a lot with Hunters in PSU!) all the time forcing people to re-stat. This is a nice complain that if there's a skilled in Japanese could write off to SEGA if can.

[NoiseHERO]

No, I was just using that as an example and please do not mention PSU's free bonus damage system. Lol, that was below casual.

Whats this?

Time to beat the PSU vs PSO dead horse again?!

OKAY!

NEITHER OF THE GAMES WERE HARDCORE /end that off topic discussion D<

[Caerik]

As a player of Nexon America games, this news...disturbs me.

I'll be fine if it will be reasonable prices for certain privileges. If you add all the time-restricted things up that you would buy, and break them down over the time period it would be an essential subscription fee. I planned on dishing out at least $10 a month at this game, so I don't see much deviation from the plan in the long run. The free to play option may keep this game alive longer too.

[Primobol]

We are paying to win in a game that virtually has no PvP. Seems logical to me!

In all seriousness, how does one player's method in progressing a game effect YOU? I believe it is up to the player to decide how they wish to enjoy the game. Not all gamers are the same.

Well, once I played this pretty dumb game for a while. It was before I get this desktop and the option to play real PC games. The name is Grand Chase.
Yes, the game has PvP, but that's beside the point (I still could beat those noob cashers). The PvE of the game was screwed (and getting worse with every passing day) because of the OP items. The problem is that ocasionally you will party up with random people. I personally like that. But if you have a big part of the community with screwed up (OP) characters because of the cash shop, you have no option but playing alone.

Also most asian games tend to sell you your beloved scape dolls. Give you one free resurrection a day, even for their "monster hunter" like game.

I was expecting someone to touch this point when I posted about the scape dolls.
So IF we assume the game is balanced without the use of Scape Dolls, I'm completely fine with it. It will be an item for those who like the "God Mode" cheats and I hope SEGA can make a LOT of money with them. BUT back in the PSO days, it was pretty hard to survive in some parts without that "second wind". I think that's because the evasion options were pretty limited (run and... run). But also there were several 1shot situations. Falz was a pure 1shot attacks boss.

[Vashyron]

No, I was just using that as an example and please do not mention PSU's free bonus damage system. Lol, that was below casual.

Then that's a nice argument you got going there.

You've clearly convinced everyone PSO's 1 - 2 - 3 system was then clearly very Hardcore. All Hail it.