Are you satisfied? (will Ep2 save us?)

[Zyrusticae]

I'm not going to comment on this statement, although I don't think it's true or the point, because I can't really be fucked with looking up figures.

But I will say the difference between a decade's worth of sustaining endgame content, and zero endgame content, is not a small one and they could very easily generate a great amount of sustainable, fun content.

One thought off the top of my head? Take a page out of Monster Hunter's book, and give enemies varying sizes, strengths, and varying tendencies to use different attacks under different conditions. Take a page out of PS' own books and make items more common, but unique so you focus on finding 10 functionally different weapons instead of a single weapon that's 10 times harder to get - and by "functionally different" I dont' mean 12% bonus damage against natives instead of darkers.

All of that is good for endgame, and will retain players. For forever? Of course not. But is that even the point? No.

Oh sure, absolutely. I can think of dozens of ways to extend the lifetime of the game (add a true survival mode, increase the frequency of multiple simultaneous emergency codes, fix the fucked balance to encourage more experimentation with PAs, etc.), but I'm just saying you should really expect to get burned out pretty quickly if you're a hardcore player regardless of whether or not they have these features. That's just the nature of being a hardcore gamer messing with a PvE game.

I've seen waaaaaaay too many people just burn through all the PvE content a game has to offer within a month to believe that it's really that easy to produce a game that can hold those players' attention for an extended period of time.

[Rosel]

I can't give it as much credit as you Zyrusticae.

If you sat me down for an hour or two I could come up with some fun and challenging activities to add to the game which would keep people playing for a long time, and not feel like they were being drip fed.

If you sat me down for an hour or two with the damage formulas for the Photon Arts I could probably improve balance by twentyfold.

The new areas are the parts of the game which clearly get the most work spent on them, and even they are looking increasingly sloppy with each new release. The latest 'foggy' area (which isn't really new anymore) being a copy paste job and a total displeasure to play in.

It seems like the developers work for about 2 weeks to a month (mostly on cash shop cosmetics) and then take 4 months off.

[Rosel]

Also, if Episode II has a ton of balancing, I will be happy, but...

Either way, I think it's still pretty lackluster for Episode II, isn't it? I mean, does it compare to PSO's Episode II?

It looks, you know, pretty large for an update, but 'Episode II' comes off as an expansion, and what I see in the information on it is a lot of corner cutting (Dewmans look like a shoehorned in, half assed race).

I heard a rumor that the new areas are also going to be dripfed over 6 months. So, how is this an Episode II?

[thematesV2]

I can't give it as much credit as you Zyrusticae.

If you sat me down for an hour or two I could come up with some fun and challenging activities to add to the game which would keep people playing for a long time, and not feel like they were being drip fed.

If you sat me down for an hour or two with the damage formulas for the Photon Arts I could probably improve balance by twentyfold.

The new areas are the parts of the game which clearly get the most work spent on them, and even they are looking increasingly sloppy with each new release. The latest 'foggy' area (which isn't really new anymore) being a copy paste job and a total displeasure to play in.

It seems like the developers work for about 2 weeks to a month (mostly on cash shop cosmetics) and then take 4 months off.

I find this funny.

it's like you think you have experience working on AAA titles or multi-national software releases.

I'm not saying you don't, I don't know.

work takes time. good work takes longer, great work takes much longer. sure, PSO isn't all great work, but it's good enough that most of us keep playing it.

I think everyone could come up with fun activities that would keep some people entertained, but implementing those without adding bugs or misbalancing another section of the game takes a ton of effort and time.

(not that PSO's balanced isn't shifting all the time anyways... haha)

[Rosel]

I think everyone could come up with fun activities that would keep some people entertained, but implementing those without adding bugs or misbalancing another section of the game takes a ton of effort and time.

Don't worry, they get paid. A lot of people pay for this game.

Adding new things takes time and effort, and this game DESERVES some time and effort put into it.

Right now, PSO2 appears to be being used like a whore. SEGA is testing how little time and money they can invest into the game while producing as much profits as possible.

We have received no significant balancing. We have received no challenging content. No content for powerful or skilled players. Basically anything this game needs that requires some thought and time, they haven't done.

[thematesV2]

I agree, they haven't put in a whole lot for capped players. Or even just players at the 80% and up level.

and I know they get paid. but what's paying their bills? i would assume it's the AC scratch thats paying the majority of their bills, so of course thats where they're going to invest their money. and it's a smart move for the team, IMO. they develop content players want, and through RNG/casino logic, they have the servers do the work, and they bring in the money.

I don't mind this structure, but thats because I'm not a hard core player. I play 4-8 times a month, logging anywhere from 150-200 hours in the last year, so I'm still finding new stuff.

I do think that if they are going to continue with the gatcha scratch, they should have more events and one of a time items. or develop some way to cash in on old weaps, beyond just mag feeding and affix transfer fodder.

and with all the pseudo-science that pso relies on, they could come up with some really nice formats for tradeoffs and special repeating events.

[Skye-Fox713]

I haven't even finished the ep.1 story yet.

[NoiseHERO]

I haven't even finished the ep.1 story yet.

That would require the story mode to be both interesting AND rewarding, If you ask me...

Which it's neither.

[blace]

That would require the story mode to be both interesting AND rewarding, If you ask me...

Which it's neither.

It's too much effort to get the story going when the requirements are already high.

[gigawuts]

would you rather...
play pso2 story
watch naruto

i would rather watch naruto

or wait, what's the new old anime, I don't keep up