two things -
online is always more difficult than offline with equal settings. thus though I fully support an argument suggesting offline veryhard forest will kick online normal forests arse for loot, it's also be worthy of note that online veryhard forest would undoubtably surpass offline veryhard loot.
Mean? Not really.. just makes sense. If you want to solo for best loot/xp, go online. Then IMO you're missing some of the best part of the game (playing with others) but whatever floats your boat..
If you still have a problem with that setup, note the ONLINE in the title
Personally I'm glad for that, makes people work together. Lets see..
Number of console rpgs offline: All to date minus one
Number of console rpgs online: one
And supposedly section ID can play with some randomizations (I'm not sure this was the hottest idea but it can promote trade.. for better or worse since there is no secure trading in PSO..) in the store. For loot though.. generate on kill shot? That seems unlikely but possible I suppose. Offline I guess it'd have more freedom to drive your loot.. I wouldn't start blaming your section id on loot woes though unless you find a lot of people your level finding a bunch of stuff you've never seen and want.
edit - just mentioning no flame intended, it does lessen the PSO experience a bit to be stuck offline, but it is still a fun game. I'm sure veryhard offline still will be both an incredible challenge and grand loot (and arguably tougher as it is solo). That said, although we can guess maybe you can access all the best items at that point, one might also guess you'd have less of a chance.. again mulitplayer is always more difficult and better loot at the same difficulty.
cheers,
DCKaz
<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: DCKaz on 2001-02-13 18:30 ]</font>