Why am I getting the feeling I can't afford anything anymore?

[Natsuma]

I don't mind the update, I've been saving mesetas for like the past 2 months, the only expansive thing I bought was a Tarnada that I boosted to +10.

I sold all the rares I found no matter what the market price, and little by little I gathered a valuable amount of money, thinking I could easily buy the new 10 star weapons.
Unfortunately they're untradable so I guess I'm f..... up.

The only requirement to make your own path through this new economy is to play enough time to find valuable items, rares or souls, and sell them at the market price, no matter how much it is.

[Stormwalker]

I just wanna make money, fact is I no longer want to buy a shop pass because of this and I'm pretty sure that's the opposite effect this patch was supposed to have. :'(

I'm not having any trouble making money on my player shop since the change. The shop pass is WELL worth the price.

Yeah, I'm making less than before, but prices are dropping across the board, so the "less" money I am making is buying more these days. Even some costume prices are starting to drop now (example: black nurse outfit for 700k instead of the 1.2mil I paid for mine! green bikini now under 1mil, too, and blue just over 1mil when it used to be 2.)

I'm not having any problems keeping up at all, and that's mostly from selling cheap weapons with Souls, level 10 tech discs (I don't bother selling anything lower), and 4-5-6* weapons (many of which sell for 1-2k these days, but they sell by the truckload).

In fact, if it weren't for a costume purchase I made two days ago, I'd be well in the black since the patch. And if the one really good sellable V.Hard drop I got DOES sell (it hasn't, yet)... well, I won't be hurting for cash for a while.

As for the person saying that the people who are happy are the ones who have seen 8*/9* drops? I saw more 8*/9*/10* drops during one V.Hard MPA last night than I had seen the entire time I have spent playing this game up to that point (all units, though, most of them not selling well at all this point. Except for that one...). I don't make my money on 8*'s and 9*'s. I make it on selling LOTS of mundane stuff.

And wasn't dropping the prices of rares the whole point of Sega doing this? Except for the really new stuff, that is happening. And really new stuff is *always* expensive. Even those prices will come down in time.

I'll admit, I was extremely skeptical, even pessimistic, when I first heard of these measures, but from what I can see, they are working as intended.

[Macman]

As for the person saying that the people who are happy are the ones who have seen 8*/9* drops? I saw more 8*/9*/10* drops during one V.Hard MPA last night than I had seen the entire time I have spent playing this game up to that point

You're one of the rare chosen ones then.
I spent the last 3 days spamming Free Forest Vhard and all I had to show for it was 2 Dagan Neros, a Ray Duplex and a Gudda Skella.

[Z-0]

The problem is that without a shop, you're pretty much going to make nothing. The TACOs will make you like 1.6mil/week if you do them daily (minus one day because of the hour offset; they should make these have a 20 hour cooldown like TOs), but what you get from looting is nothing.

And yes, 8* and 9* from Hard are much easier to find in VH. However, most of them are now pretty much worthless.

[cheapgunner]

The problem is that without a shop, you're pretty much going to make nothing. The TACOs will make you like 1.6mil/week if you do them daily (minus one day because of the hour offset; they should make these have a 20 hour cooldown like TOs), but what you get from looting is nothing.

And yes, 8* and 9* from Hard are much easier to find in VH. However, most of them are now pretty much worthless.

Agreed. I wanna buy a Yukata but those costumes cost way too much for me to get atm and I need to make some dough somehow. It seems as if SEGA is gearing us toward MyShop and other AC-related items.

[Natsuma]

What makes me laugh is that a part of complaining people whine because they can't afford new and powerful weapons, units AND costumes.
I mean, what the hell? Unless you're really rich, you gotta choose: costumes (which are freakin useless if you ask me) or your gear.

Just set your priorities well.

[cheapgunner]

What makes me laugh is that a part of complaining people whine because they can't afford new and powerful weapons, units AND costumes.
I mean, what the hell? Unless you're really rich, you gotta choose: costumes (which are freakin useless if you ask me) or your gear.

Just set your priorities well.

I usually don't choose powerful units and weapons most of the time. I rather play the market and get something reasonable and spend some dough on costumes. Getting a certain wep/unit to drop really isn't an issue for me.

[Stormwalker]

And yes, 8* and 9* from Hard are much easier to find in VH. However, most of them are now pretty much worthless.

This was exactly the point I was trying to make, actually, when I observed the rares I had gotten last night. Sure, I got a bunch of drops... and only one of them has hit my player shop (and it hasn't sold yet, or at least hadn't as of an hour or so ago) because the rest of them were simply not worth enough to bother selling them. I'm not going to sell a 9* twin mechgun for 50k, sorry. I'll just keep it until I get around to levelling gunner. Likewise, I'm not parting with my Vol wing unit for the price it's selling for these days, I'll just keep it for cosmetic uses.

I don't make my money in my shop off rares, for the most part. Oh, occasionally I'll get something good I can sell, but lately I've been selling a lot more 3*-6* stuff.

That said, you can make money without a shop, it's just slower. But this is by design. Sega wants you to pay for a shop, because Sega wants to make money on the game.

Sega created this game so that they can make money on it. This means they expect their players to pay. The free-to-play part of the game is the lure. It lets you get a taste of the game experience risk-free, so that you can decide if it is the kind of game you are willing to invest money in so that you can be truly successful at it. Free-to-play games are not designed so that you can enjoy the full experience without putting in at least some cash. Sometimes this can be overcome by massive grinding, of course, but that's not the way the developers *intend* for you to play. After all, free players contribute almost nothing to the game's revenue (SEGA will still make a little money on in-game advertising, but on a per-user basis that is not much).

The only real questions when playing a free-to-play game are:
1). Does it entice you enough to spend the money?
2). If so, which features do you think are worth paying for?

In my case, I decided I enjoyed the game enough that I was willing to spend money on it. I also realized early on that if I wanted to fully experience the game--which is to say, if I wanted to have all the luxury items that are not necessary to play the game but may enhance the experience (costumes, rare weapons, etc.), I would need to open a player shop. I then decided that expanded storage was also a necessity, and that I wanted to play multiple characters. So I bought premium, and a few extra character slots. I also bought a few extra skill trees and mags because I am nearly compulsive about character builds. And now, SEGA continues to make money off of me as I renew my Premium every month, continuing to support the game's growth and development.

I'm not looking to make the game "easier", because I enjoy the process of working my way up, so I have not purchased things like exp boosters or meseta boosters (though I've gotten a few through the FUN scratch), and I don't like the gambling system of the AC scratch, so I haven't bought any of that, either. If I want costumes, I'll use my player shop to make meseta and buy them from other player shops.

Also, Macman, rares don't drop because Sakai reaches down from his high cloud and says, "You! You are chosen! You shall receive this gift!" They drop because you grind until they do.

There are lots of players out there who have had far more rare drops than I have... and the reason is because those players spend more time in MPA, where they kill more enemies, and therefore get more overall drops. I typically solo or run in small groups, which reduces my opportunities for rare drops substantially, but that is a price I am aware of and am willing to pay because I enjoy that kind of gameplay.

Oh, sure, some people will be lucky at times, but in the end, the Law of Large Numbers still wins. Over a large enough sample size, drop rates will regress to the mean value, and everyone will receive roughly the same number of rares.

(And a lot of those rares, as stated above, are worthless anyway! Don't pin your hopes on rare drops, it's not a reliable way to progress.)

What makes me laugh is that a part of complaining people whine because they can't afford new and powerful weapons, units AND costumes.
I mean, what the hell? Unless you're really rich, you gotta choose: costumes (which are freakin useless if you ask me) or your gear.

Just set your priorities well.

This, also. Decide what's important to you, and pursue it. Don't settle for anything less, and don't let anyone else tell you what you "must" have. There are no musts in this game.

Everything else can slide. You don't need the very best gear to succeed in this game. You don't need costumes to succeed in this game. Those are things you WANT. So decide which thing you want most, and put the bulk of your effort (and meseta) into that. If you want costumes? Forget about rare weapons, use 6*'s which are very nearly as good and available for cheap. Want rare weapons? Don't waste meseta on costumes. Likewise units; the new 4* and 5* sets are quite good; unless you're planning on playing a tank character, you don't need the very best units. Of course, if you want those Dark Wings more than anything else, then save up the meseta and get them, and skimp on everything else until you get there.

But if you want it all? You're going to have to pay. That is the way the game is designed... because that is how the free-to-play model works.

[Eternal255]

You're one of the rare chosen ones then.
I spent the last 3 days spamming Free Forest Vhard and all I had to show for it was 2 Dagan Neros, a Ray Duplex and a Gudda Skella.

i spent half the weekend spamming desert MPA's in hopes of a blade dance drop...

Last run i had rare droprate drink bonus, hit the crystals e.code with a 4x cross burst 8min or so and not a single rare (good or trash)... then it wore off and hit another cross burst and found the stupid talis off the mob that drops blade dance...

grrr

i need a few +100% rare drop rate items -.-

[CelestialBlade]

The only real questions when playing a free-to-play game are:
1). Does it entice you enough to spend the money?
2). If so, which features do you think are worth paying for?

This part stood out to me and it highlights the big problem I have with this game right now. This is something every F2P game company needs to ask themselves and if the answer to either of these is "no" or "nothing", something is wrong.

1 is a no for me. I can't justify throwing money into a gambling system. That's only one aspect of the game, and I have no issues with the idea of paying for shops or skill trees or whatever, but the existence of the gacha system and how actively they're trying to make the game unbearable for free players and new players, even premium players to an extent...I can't justify financially supporting those actions.

My answer to 2 is simple: I have no problem with the idea of any of the current AC items being exclusive to AC. That's fair; it's F2P. I just want a choice in what I buy. Even the most godawful F2P MMOs give you a choice in what you want to buy. I'd buy a whole lot more outfits if they let me pick what I wanted, even if they charge more for that (justified). Oh, and that gacha shit ain't gonna fly in the US. They'll have to do something different.

F2P games can be great if they're managed right. It's just very clear to me that Sega has no idea how to properly run it yet.