Armada of Demise Expert Mode Requirements

[Kondibon]

Not everyone has the same type of "skill". It is very common to have great expertise in one department and consider it to be easy and wonder why everyone else cannot perform the same, and have low expertise in something that others can perform without effort.

As someone with shit reflexes, bad gear, and poor optimization of DPS, there's a bunch of ways to cheese the requirements, and a bunch of resources available to learn the things your bad at. I get that there are straight up disabilities preventing some people from doing better, but if someone has something so bad that they're physically unable to overcome it then I'm not really sure what they would be expecting to do in expert matching anyway. It's like complaining that you can't legally drive because you need glasses to pass the eye exam, while other people don't.

Yes! That is what I am saying from the beginning! My complaint is not with the expert matching, it is with the EQ design!

We are in accord. \o/

[Dark Mits]

In all, I think Sega should do away with:
1) Timed boosts (as suggested by other posters, Xbros I think?). Having charge-based boosts would counter the issue of people complaining about "low quality pugs" when they spend 5mins 30sec on a Persona run instead of just 5mins.
2) Multiple runs of EQs. Being better should just allow you to do more stuff else where, in or out of the game. Having rewards and CF progression tied to successfully time attacking the challenge causes this issue of people complaining about "low quality pugs" when they get 4 runs instead of 5

[ArcaneTechs]

I dont understand how people who play this game everyday, get handed the best 15☆ weapons in game with another hand out already here along with multiple rare drop boosts to end game content with Bode tier and above units cant clear 1yr old+ XQ and a 3month solo trigger despite all the power creep we've gotten. Just learn your class, whats so hard about this?

[Dark Priest]

I'm well aware of the concept, thanks. And I wasn't carried to get the previous Expert Match requirements, thank you. Yes, I did it in a party, but I was the only member of that party who never died in that entire run. As a Fighter. And yes, I was using LB every time it was up. Contrary to what you may think, I do not suck at this game. I just struggle with Phaleg snd her damned damage floor. Just that one fight.

But it's OK. I honestly wouldn't mind not having expert match if this EQ had a design that made it possible to get decent rewards without it. All I'm saying is that the EQ design gives the shaft to players who don't have expert match. That is all I am saying!

For crying out loud, if you disagree with me that's fine but I'm getting really sick of people responding like I am claiming I'm entitled to being in expert, because that is not what I am saying.

That said, it really kind of sucks that those of us who aren't "expert" players get shouldered with the burden of carrying that small minority who can't be bothered to grind their freakin' gear.

so you say you're aware of the concept, yet you "don't understand" why NON experts players have to play with other non experts...

Alright then.

[Stormwalker]

Oh I see, if experts complain they're being matched with people worse than them, they're elitists. But if non-experts complain you're being matched with people worse than you it's fine, because it's those people that are the leechers. It's all so clear now.

You're missing out on a drop rate boost, well so what. The rares can still drop, they can still be exchanged with medals. You're getting less because you put in less. If you don't like it then go take a half hour and clear the reqs.

And really, the reqs are a poor judge of how you play the game? Don't die, clear it within x time. What's this EM want for your Sector 3 drop boosts? Clear it fast! You know what helps for that? Clearing fast. Not dying.

I'm never going to complain about being matched with someone who doesn't play at a high level of skill.

I will complain about being matched with people who don't try. Which is to say, those who show up with vastly inferior gear, gear not ground, hell, I don't even care if it's not affixed, but at least grind it!

Also those who literally follow the MPA around and don't actually fight anything, I will complain about.

I just want people to make an effort, that's all. I recognize not everyone is going to be skilled. I don't think that's elitist.

Back on topic: so you disagree about the boost, that's fine. We disagree. If you'd just said that at the start we could have avoided a lot of unnecessary going on.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with the boost if non-expert players had at least a decent chance of getting it, even if the expert players could get more of it. If the quest was scaled such that non-expert players could get in two runs of each sector while experts got 3 or even more, it would bother me a lot less. But as it stands, multiple runs are out of reach for non-expert, which means they get no benefit from it at all.

[vantpers]

I actually might've misread into it a bit, but it's still funny to blame everyone but not yourself for not being fast enough. Sega's way of handling EQs was always a gigantic mistake. Multishipping resulted in paying customers having a massive advantage over not paying, on top of already well geared player acquiring better gear faster resulting in more imbalanced playerbase that gets its top players buffed by a small around while making casual players fall behind with gear until the new welfare wave. There was never a need to have some many reward bonuses for running quest faster. The boost system, fitting more EQs into timeframe, rare boost carry-over for number of runs now, or multishipping. Snowballs off better geared players having easier time getting even better gear were always present without systems designed to propagate it.

[Dark Mits]

I'm never going to complain about being matched with someone who doesn't play at a high level of skill.

I will complain about being matched with people who don't try. Which is to say, those who show up with vastly inferior gear, gear not ground, hell, I don't even care if it's not affixed, but at least grind it!

I don't think that's elitist.

As is the common answer in virtually all online games, if you do not like the quality of people you get auto-matched with, then form your own premade groups with your own requirements. People like to ignore this suggestion because they have to invest effort and time in doing so, and they are not willing to do so; they expect others to do this job for them, even if it is an automated tool. Expert Matching from Sega is exactly one such tool, a reaction from the developer to sate the QQ of higher-performers who did not want in the absolute minimum to do any form of socializing in a de-facto multiplayer game.

[Kondibon]

As is the common answer in virtually all online games, if you do not like the quality of people you get auto-matched with, then form your own premade groups with your own requirements. People like to ignore this suggestion because they have to invest effort and time in doing so, and they are not willing to do so; they expect others to do this job for them, even if it is an automated tool. Expert Matching from Sega is exactly one such tool, a reaction from the developer to sate the QQ of higher-performers who did not want in the absolute minimum to do any form of socializing in a de-facto multiplayer game.

This is bullshit for most of the content people complain about in PSO2, mainly EQs. You can't do them on your own time so, yes, organizing your own groups IS more difficult than it should be, because you have a limited time frame, and even if you know when the EQ is coming up, not everyone you want to do it with might be available. Especially since content is balanced around 12 players a lot of the time. Getting 12 players in most games is a "once a week raid time" thing, not something you do multiple times a day at preset times you have no control over, often with large gaps in-between them. It's completely unreasonable to tell people to "just" make their own groups with the way EQs work; They'd basically have to schedule their lives around it, instead of the other way around.

That said, the most recent EQ is 8 man, and I'm pretty sure 4 really good players could probably do it faster than a full pug, and getting a single party together is a lot more reasonable than 2 or possibly 3 full parties.

For reference, when have you ever seen someone complain about pugs for Endless? Heck, I barely even see people complain about pugs in guruguru quests, usually just making fun people dying a lot in UH.

TL;DR: The EQ system isn't conductive of organizing your own groups on your own time.

[Stormwalker]

I actually might've misread into it a bit, but it's still funny to blame everyone but not yourself for not being fast enough. Sega's way of handling EQs was always a gigantic mistake. Multishipping resulted in paying customers having a massive advantage over not paying, on top of already well geared player acquiring better gear faster resulting in more imbalanced playerbase that gets its top players buffed by a small around while making casual players fall behind with gear until the new welfare wave. There was never a need to have some many reward bonuses for running quest faster. The boost system, fitting more EQs into timeframe, rare boost carry-over for number of runs now, or multishipping. Snowballs off better geared players having easier time getting even better gear were always present without systems designed to propagate it.

I fully agree that the whole EQ system is a problem in this regard. I just think this particular EQ exacerbates it.

[Dark Mits]

Getting 12 players in most games is a "once a week raid time" thing, not something you do multiple times a day at preset times you have no control over, often with large gaps in-between them. It's completely unreasonable to tell people to "just" make their own groups with the way EQs work; They'd basically have to schedule their lives around it, instead of the other way around.

But see, this is where we disagree. If you have many real life obligations, like work, family etc then yes, it is impossible to reliably arrange 12man runs. However, I can clearly remember that we didn't have trouble back in WoW days to gather 30+ people for a whole 3 hours, 3 days per week, and many of us were actually working and/or having families.

The difference with PSO2 is that the content does not require that much teamwork and "out-of-combat" preparation to get things done; 12 people are still pretty much needed for a smooth run for an average group, however you can still do it with 10, 8, 6, or even entirely solo if the remaining people just stay determined; the only negative being that it will take longer. Fully premade groups do not grant such great benefit compared to pugging that it would become "meta" to go premade, and that's why forming full or even large premade groups isn't really widespread.

But still, we do hear complaints from both camps (current experts and current non-experts) about the quality of pugs. Which is why the old "go make your own group" is and should really be the only viable answer. Expecting an automated system to find 3/7/11 other like-minded, and similarly performing individuals is something which I doubt that it can be accomplished even with the most advanced AI systems currently in existence, let alone for a simple online video game.

For reference, when have you ever seen someone complain about pugs for Endless? Heck, I barely even see people complain about pugs in guruguru quests, usually just making fun people dying a lot in UH.

But we did have a thread where we were discussing that some pugs in guruguru (like current UH) are not playing according to "meta" which is to follow a specific circular path, and instead they go and create spawns out of the path of maximum reward per minute.