Planned Adjustments -- EQs, Special Blocks, and Solo XQ

[Vatallus]

And people wonder why we want the restricted blocks.

pso20160829_134613_001.jpg

You know exactly what those units are.

[Zysets]

And people wonder why we want the restricted blocks.

pso20160829_134613_001.jpg

You know exactly what those units are.

I like the check people's equipment as I'm waiting for things to start, and honestly I have never run into someone with this bad of a set up.

I see the complaints so I know it's a problem, but maybe i'm just really, really, really lucky with the random people I play with.

I haven't played FFXIV since the expansion came out, but I really liked FFXIV's item levels, before you can even play certain content, you need your items to be a certain level average, making sure you at least have decent gear for the difficulty of the content. Make blocks with "Item level" restrictions, keep regular XH blocks, but have blocks with restrictions on rarity and grind so you can also play with people with proper equipment. It's not the perfect solution everyone wants, but I feel like just having everyone with decent equipment will do wonders for matching up with random people.

[Starryeyedbunny]

Make blocks with "Item level" restrictions, keep regular XH blocks, but have blocks with restrictions on rarity and grind so you can also play with people with proper equipment. It's not the perfect solution everyone wants, but I feel like just having everyone with decent equipment will do wonders for matching up with random people.

Sadly I feel like at this point we're running around in circles on this subject. Everyone wants those gear restricted blocks and every time something else comes up, it goes back to this.

Either way, we do play games to test our skill. It's just that, at a certain point, too little gear makes it too darn hard to do anything, if not impossible. And that's the biggest problem.

I also think having all the "well geared players" on those blocks would increase pressure for more to grind and acquire decent weapons. The expectations are right there in people's faces and they can't exactly have some one carry them through a gear limit like they can through EQs.

[Vatallus]

This is how I feel about it. I don't mind playing with people that have worse gear than me. But at least fully grind your stuff. If you are in XH I except to see units +10 and weapons +10 (old) or +30(NT).

If I see things below 10*s I expect to see them extended. I mean we are playing "Extra Hard" to be exact. I feel like having these blocks would convince some of these players to finally grind their stuff fully. To finally craft their 7/8/9 star gear. Maybe even their 10/11*s if they see fit. I just want to see improvements, I want to be able to look at someone's gear and think they are actually trying. I don't want to go into a MPA and see a bunch of lucky rise units. A bunch of +5 weapons and +7 units. I want to feel like people actually care about their gear, and that is all I need to be willing to help them.

I'm all for helping people improve, if they can at least show initiative. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to help new players on my team, or players I've came across looking for others to play with. To only hear things like grinding is too hard. affixing is too hard. I actually had someone tell me getting 13*s even after the introduction of collection sheets was too much work.

If affixing is too hard I can sit down and tell you exactly what to do to make a simple 4 affix that will do what you need it to do. Only to be told buying a bunch of 5k - 40k fodders is too complicated. There is a reason I give up hope when it comes to people. Why I refuse to help people anymore.

Hell, if you even have premium I have a team room with about 10,000 grinders in its storage. You just need premium to access them. Crafting devices are also in there because I never craft besides making PA/Techs.


Edit:

I also want to add a different example.
ScreenShot0033.jpg

This is a different game of course, but it has the same concept. People working together to win. To explain, in this match I killed 7 enemies and did over 5,000 damage. It was only a 8 vs 8 match. Way beyond what is expected of a player at this tier. The game was having an event that rewarded higher tier players for playing lower tiers to help show newer players the ropes.

But is that really the best thing? I want to quote what someone said on the forums when people like myself were posting these kinds of screenshots.

So we carried a match, did way beyond what is expected and on top of it we won. Did we really teach them anything? Some of these players will probably look at the scoreboard and realize they need to improve when they see how bad their performance was. Others will think their performance was perfectly acceptable because... they won. They will think what they did was right, because they won, even though they did not win by their own efforts, but someone elses.

What I am saying is, it goes both ways. There is a chance some of these players are not improving because they think what they are doing is right, because they are still winning, even though it might be some other player putting in the effort of 3 or 4 players combined to make that win happen.

[Zysets]

I find that players who never grind their gear or try affixing are the ones that also don't put any effort in their actual play.

My last PD run went badly, because it felt like some people didn't even bother to dodge Double's flying move. Ran out of Moons before we even got to PD, and that took a good 20 minutes to finish, because no one would go after it's little balls when they'd spawn.

[red1228]

I find that players who never grind their gear or try affixing are the ones that also don't put any effort in their actual play.

My last PD run went badly, because it felt like some people didn't even bother to dodge Double's flying move. Ran out of Moons before we even got to PD, and that took a good 20 minutes to finish, because no one would go after it's little balls when they'd spawn.

This.Every.Fucking.Run.

[Altiea]

Am I the only one hoping they chain the entry requirement to the new Solo XQ instead of Heaven and Hell?

[Starryeyedbunny]

This is how I feel about it. I don't mind playing with people that have worse gear than me. But at least fully grind your stuff. If you are in XH I except to see units +10 and weapons +10 (old) or +30(NT).

Honestly, I enjoy "leading the pack"...just not...trying to pull a cart full of them as they kind of day dream of being some ultra awesome anime character.

I want to be able to look at someone's gear and think they are actually trying. I don't want to go into a MPA and see a bunch of lucky rise units. A bunch of +5 weapons and +7 units. I want to feel like people actually care about their gear, and that is all I need to be willing to help them.

the sad truth is that unless they're putting in the effort to grind their gear and such, they're not putting in the effort to play well via execution either. Gurren for days isn't as effective as actually planning out moves and a bit of Shunka/Sakura to do effective DPSing. And yes, ragrants custom is effective, but you really need to get used to talis and put that rod aside till compounds. The gear I see on people tells me a story about what they would do. I picked up some invader using braver for PD, and they actually did super well, even if the invader katana was still dark element. I judged well of them because they put some effort into their units and rings.

Today I avoided a fighter with an invader... I just looked at their 2 affix units with most of them being only HP and PP... I think they only put 3 PP on each unit ._.; Staying alive is fine but... there's no way you're doing a ton of damage with that low of a PP bar as Fighter.

They also dressed bad but that's really a case by case showing of bad XD;; Not often a good enough sign a player will be awful, but...if you have your superstitions already, probably worth heeding them at that point.

If affixing is too hard I can sit down and tell you exactly what to do to make a simple 4 affix that will do what you need it to do. Only to be told buying a bunch of 5k - 40k fodders is too complicated. There is a reason I give up hope when it comes to people. Why I refuse to help people anymore.

what kills me here is that we really never ask for them to do anything insane. 3-4 affixes is not hard work, it's just "I just want things now for nothing", if anything. It doesn't take that long and I've seen games with FAR worse systems.

Others will think their performance was perfectly acceptable because... they won. They will think what they did was right, because they won, even though they did not win by their own efforts, but someone elses.

AAAAAH. This is exactly the issue here. You have people saying things like this without realizing the insane irony of what is actually going on. Unless they're trolling...then they're probably slamming the point on the head. A TD4 without Br/Hus and Fo/Tes might as well give up, and Bo/Hu dominates PD like no on else.
But there's seriously too many melee users who think they're absolutely nuking the boss despite the boss slamming a giant blade or fist a mile away from them at some one else. And it really isn't just them tbh, but usually any ranged type will be loud, stupid, and use /a on all their autowords, so they're even easier to point out, but honestly kind of rare in comparison. Tech and ranged are often the first to revive me, if not the Br or Bo leading in damage.

It's really annoying. And Sega trying to HIDE it by focusing so much attention on the parser just makes it clear they're well aware of the issue and trying to sweep it under the rug.

This.Every.Fucking.Run.

Meanwhile because all the orbs are taking forever to get destroyed I get back attacked because I'm carrying all the hate and I'm bound to slip up once with an off camera attack. That...feeling.

This is why I really hate to do PD without my friend. It doesn't help I haven't exactly focused on getting any astral souls on my armor yet...

[Keilyn]

This game has poor class balance, and even poorer subclass balance. The meta is about doing all possible as a group to make the largest DPS combo ever while disregarding almost everything else. Rather than being a game of exploration into the different ways of playing each class, the game moves away from playing as one desires towards one where one has to play directly to a global meta. This results in the game feeling like the same thing regardless of which DPS class is being played..

The creation of private blocks is not going to change the fact that an extremely few amount of people play together outside of Teams or EQs. Have fun playing alone in blocks.. I mean think about it.. How many players in this game actually use the "Premium Set" Block outside of hardcore team recruitment?

Interestingly enough, I don't mind the affix system...
But I knew people who played this game because they didn't want to spend time as a melee class affixing rainbow sets of three weapons including units. All they wanted to do is just-play. Lets say I want to play Braver without having to "affix units or weapons" and i wanted far more realistic combat, but practically all major katana braver moves + a fair level of invulnerability done right.... and an entire world to explore... then why even bother 10 hours with a Braver in PSO-2 when I can just raise the equivalent in Black Desert Online to Level 50 in four - five hours and have balanced damage between Katana and Bow....

Right now, of all the games I've played... to grind/affix a 2 - 3 full rainbow set of weapons to 6s along with Units to 5s - 6s, it takes longer to do this than any weapon set I own in any other game I have. This isn't an exaggeration, or making up some lie. I literally have every major MMORPG I consider decent to my own eyes to have been released in the last 6 years installed in my comp and PSO-2 is the game where I spend entire gaming sessions doing nothing but buying/finding/storing fodder and using an Affix Calculator to work on my affixes...

Not everyone wants to deal with that.
Some people want to JUST PLAY the game...

[FOnewearl-Lina]

Form a static, problem solved. Easy.