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  1. #1
    The Lone Gamer of the Apockalypse Zorak000's Avatar
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    Default Ship 11: Theseus

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

    I love PSO2 to death but they seriously need to do an overhaul of older content; they keep piling newer systems on without really addressing older content at all. I always said that SEGA loves their duct tape and paperclip fixes, but we are pretty much at a point where the game is a giant writhing mass of sticky plastic and aluminum.

    example 1: Pre Kuron Free Fields vs. Kuron and Tokyo
    the older free fields seem to have been setup with Advanced Quests in mind; which became even more evident when they updated Super Hard AQs to go into Extra Hard enemy levels. the whole thing seems really awkward; but now AQs have this niche of having double EXP forever, making them better for leveling from 40 to 70.

    possible solution? they really should figure out a way to just remove AQs altogether, make the area-stones drop/rewarded from the free fields/hanz; make the area stone tradin items worthwhile

    Bonus: rework ARKS Quests to tell a bit of a story like Train Ghidoan Suppression does

    ex. 2: Crafting Vs. New-Type Weapons and the Collection File
    Crafting was introduced as a way to keep older weapons statistically relevant and useable into the endgame, until Mission Decision came out and gave Red weapons their booster potential; making nearly every other weapon pointless to even craft (exceptions being Zero Range Advance tmgs, elemental crystal tech weapons, maybe some others). Now we got the New-Type weapons that cannot be crafted at all, with the Collection File system to guarantee a useable 13* weapon when you complete a card. they can't let you craft new-types because crafting normalizes the base stats of a weapon, and new-types only reach 135% weapon stats; meaning they would be terrible since even 1* weapons get +150% stats at max grind. they only added new-types to some weapons, and I think it could be somehow related to the fact that old-world and new-types of the same weapon aren't compatible for element grinding for some reason

    possible solution? commit to new-type grinding and replace all weapons (and units) with new-types. do the dang work of making old-world and new-types compatible for element grinding already. either remove equipment crafting or make it compatible to new types without making them suffer statistically

    Bonus: flat-out replacing all old-world weapons would be ideal, but could be a very messy business. I don't know how weapons with multiple potentials would be handled (Dragon Slayer-NT only has a single potential I hear...) but it should be possible to interpret a weapon's potential level and incorporate that into it's new-type grind level. as for that issue with potentials; just let us spend some photon spheres to change out at any point past +10.

    ex. 3: Emergency Quests vs. Emergency Quests
    There are too dang many EQs, and making Big Ones by-announcement-only does not help the issue. The problem here stems from the issue in the previous games where people only ran stuff like TTF and White Beast because they were the best groupings of EXP, boss drops, and effort. I get that they want to have special missions to take down a greater foe without that being the only thing people do; but that's also just it, with the EQ system people only wait around for EQs without really doing anything else anyway; so it manages to not solve the problem and fills all the higher-difficulty blocks with people AFKing for EQs.

    Possible Solutions: they are really trying to emulate actual MMOs instead of their Diablo roots, so why not just make EQs always up, but you can only run it a set number of times a week; possibly resetting every Wednesday/maintenance to keep everyone on the same page. yeah you will get the people that log in after maint is over, do their allotted Profound Darkness runs, then log off until next maint; but at least we wouldn't be slaves to the EQ schedule anymore! There could also possibly be some other incentives so loners don't get left out in the dust; like allowing you to run these EQs as many times as you want, but you only get EXP and Drops for the first few times, after that you might just only get the clear reward (like, say if PD gave out an extra caligula or two for the mission clear)

    Bonus: the ticket system from featured quests could also be useful for this; drop all the junk items and make it only tickets, but add in stuff like Urban Recovery, Chaotic tranquility, Volcanic Guerrillas, and maybe even Cradle of Darkness/Beckoning Darkness. people could join a quest once someone with a ticket hosts it, so it would probably benefit from having a dedicated block for it. on that subject...

    ex. 4: The Block System vs. uh.. this is more just a rant about the block system really
    The block system is really just a dated relic of a bygone era; it's been really showing it's faults with people AFKing ever since, well; Phantasy Star Universe. the desire for the lobby system is great and all, but I think there is a better way to go about it

    possible solution: split missions and lobbies into separate servers. bam. done. lobbies can be on their own servers for people to fight over blocks to afk on, while all active parties on that ship can be queried and joined from any lobby block. this is something

    Bonus: people could actually hang out in team rooms now; wow!

    Conclusion
    There are probably a lot more things I could go on about (like maybe gathering idk); but I feel like these are the most glaring issues facing the game to date. a LOT of it is also probably related to how the game engine has been is still based out of the PSU engine, which I think was also based out of the PSO1 engine. which really stresses that whole Ship of Theseus Paradox; there is probably a lot of problems so deep rooted, that they would need to completely recode the game from scratch just to fix.

    and if there is one thing we know about SEGA, its that they hate putting effort into anything anymore.

    I know my voice will never reach the developers, I mean i'm posting this on this website and directly into the rants subform; and even if it did I know it wouldn't change a dang thing. I'll keep playing this game probably until the day the servers shut down one way or another, mainly because the combat is just really satisfying. but that won't stop me from dreaming of a better player expierence

  2. #2
    The supposive Gaijin Hero EvilMag's Avatar
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    I wish they would rehaul older EQs. Its kinda dumb that We have quests like Magatsu that vomit cubes like no ones business on SH and yet running XH Elder with max boosts and you'll be lucky to get 1 10*. Maybe have older EQs drop badges or Lambda Grinders. We don't need to have the reward just be excubes and 13*s.
    Quote Originally Posted by CelestialBlade View Post
    Bit off-topic, but I'm just sick and tired of "difficulty" meaning "stat boosts". It's lazy and boring.

  3. #3

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    The issue is that PSO2 is trying to be a game that's always "opening" and adding new things to keep players interested and hooked, and given how frequent the updates are, they just don't have time to keep rebalancing old things, and new things need some sort of incentive to make people want to play them, causing power creep in pretty much every aspect of the game.

    It's an issue that plagues all MMOs, but unlike PSO2, other MMOs actually have somewhat proper progression and power creep is more an extension, rather than a replacement.

    Because of this though, I can't help but feel like PSO2 was actually better in the past than now. It's not really nostalgia goggles doing it either, but back then you did more than just sit around waiting for the EQ that's so powerful since SEGA wanted people to play it, and you actually hunted your items instead of getting them through shitty time-gating systems designed to keep people playing for as long as possible.
    Last edited by Z-0; Apr 25, 2016 at 06:38 PM.

  4. #4
    The Lone Gamer of the Apockalypse Zorak000's Avatar
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    I was going to say that I like the time-gating junk because if I have killed about 500 elders and got nothing to show for it, I would have liked some way for me to still get something for my time spent; but then I started to think:

    Why do we need these systems to help gear up undergeared players? Why do we need content that evens out the playing field by putting everyone in giant robots independent of their gear? Why give us a buff that makes us neigh invincible the longer we take killing the Profound Darkness?

    Well I think it goes back to the early days of Mining Base release months, the first monthish of Dark Falz Loser, and the whole time Magatsu was a random EQ without the 2nd phase. Failing these missions until people figured them out better was neat, but the biggest problem with that is we dont have time for failure, since these quests are only available for half an hour at a time.

    The first day of Ultimate Quests was a blast; we were getting our butts handed to us by suped up versions of the most basic enemies we were dealing with at the very beginning, but eventually we would overcome. There was no need to be totally geared to the teeth since this mission was permanently up, so we could take our time.

    So yeah it all comes back to Emergency Quests. You can't always control who is around so most of us have to go PUGing it up, so you are risking the Pubbie Roulette. you NEED everyone to be on-point in order to get the maximum number of clears in that short half hour. you can't have That Guy who just hit level 70 on his main class, with level 40 subclass, just strolling into your Magatsu MPA trying to wave his 10* Dalvada blade at magatsu's toes; because he is jeopardizing your ability to get all four clears in before the time limit.

    so yeah I might be alright with nothing but raw drop rates, if we weren't shackled to SEGAs schedule. I would be fine with the 70/40 Hu/Fi if I knew even if the quest failed, I could pick up the pieces and try again without jeopardizing the drops from subsequent runs due to wasted time.

    as for the Adding New Things stuff; its starting to get overwhelming even for me. I would totally consider an update that was solely focused on reworking old content to match the new content as new content. but judging from how recent the SHAQ changes were, as well as the "early game streamlining" they just did with things like koffee's client orders for the PS4 launch; I am afraid we are stuck with things as they are now for quite some time.

    I got really down during the pre-proxy DDOS period because without the ability to simply connect to the game without setting up a convoluted VPS solution, I could not recommend this game to anyone new; now with all of the new and different systems in place, with things like new-types and equipment extension directly opposing each other, on top of the now exceedingly large client install, I am getting just as hesitant about promoting this game as I was back then.

    EDIT: wow yeah actually my gripe with the block system is also primarily Emergency Quest based
    Last edited by Zorak000; Apr 26, 2016 at 10:54 AM.

  5. #5

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    By "time-gating", I specifically mean the Emergency Quest system and run-limits to prevent people from getting their item either by luck in their own time (as they spam to hunt for an item), or to make sure people can only get something after 8 weeks (through stones).

    I'm personally a big fan of the stone system in a game that's constantly updating and replacing gear. You work towards your new goals and you're guaranteed to get your shiny new toy after a while of playing, but when that progress is on SEGA's schedule, there's an issue and it just makes the game very unfun. I want to play this game on my own time, not when SEGA decides I should (assuming I want to get certain items, of course).

    Personally:

    I wish they'd stop rolling "updates" out so much. With the bi-weekly updates and their (presumably) strict schedule for fixing things, things just don't work out well because it's a tiny fix here, a tiny fix there, and new thing here, and these fixes don't look at things in the big picture, and just seem like kneejerk reactions to problems that arise.

    PSO2 would be A LOT better if they'd do something like an update every 3 months, but it had some meat to it and they were able to properly balance things regarding the big picture and took the time to look at everything, instead of just what people are complaining about.

  6. #6
    The Lone Gamer of the Apockalypse Zorak000's Avatar
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    ah ok; I misunderstood your first comment then.

    anyway, I think the "Small Scale" updates are fine, but they really need to re-prioritize what should go in a "small update" vs. what should be pushed back into a Larger update. when I say "small scale", I basically mean these updates should only have AC scratch, non-chapter storyboard events, and at most a seasonal EQ rotating back in with a bingo card. a large scale update would have stuff like Yamato, that new time attack, and all the balance and system updates we just got all at once. They really should lay off of making the "medium scale" updates.

    So yeah I agree with you, but I still think a couple smaller things could still be peppered about in those three months between major updates

  7. #7
    EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Nitro Vordex's Avatar
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    b+ for proper memo format, work on your attention grabber and organize conclusions together.

    In all seriousness, yes, older content in general needs to be updated and not being just like, completely ignored or made irrelevant. (e.g. NT weapons pretty much overriding weapon crafting)

  8. #8
    Wielder of the Neiclaws Ce'Nedra's Avatar
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    I get super annoyed by scheduled only EQs. Being In europe and having a full time job means I can barely play quests like TD4 and PD. Result? I still don't even got a single Orbit or Invade despite running every time I can. I can only run those quests in the weekends and even then they often appear at like 4-6 am my time. I'm at like what, 120 PD stones and 90 TD4 stones (thank god for bingo and 9 chars) and not even 30 of the other TD stones. Meanwhile everyone arround me swings arround multiple 60 ele Orbits and Austeres.

    On top of that the last few TD's I been in were so terrible we even failed runs and the stones just so happen to be quest clear rewards to boot. It seriously pisses me off that I want to upgrade my gear but get stopped by this bullshit sega puts up. Yamato is going to be the same, like everyone can play it day 1 and I need to wait untill the weekend and hope to get lucky they schedule it in the noon or evening for me.

    So yeah, I really wish they would stop with that scheduled only crap and limited runs. Also where the fuck is our XH Free Fields and Arks Quests? XH is out for a year or longer even.

    Celestial Manager~
    Quote Originally Posted by isCasted View Post
    Welcome to PSO2, a game which tells you to fuck off on regular basis. Have fun!
    Quote Originally Posted by Rupikachu View Post
    He just copypasted the log, which is mostly SOHO talking, and then for the remaining pages he just went to psow and copied the ep4 thread salt.

  9. #9

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    There can only be one true fix for this, and that is to ditch that ship altogether...

    ... so we may sail on another made from nothing but new and shiny parts!


    I think it would be less time and effort consuming work to make a new one than to reconstruct the current one bit by bit in a desperate attempt to both add and polish as they try and stay not too far behind (I can't even dare say the current system can allow to be or stay ahead).

    What I'm trying to say is, maybe our hopes and dreams will only be truly fulfilled in a PSO3.

  10. #10

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    Ah, an excellent post with valid points, but because it's not putting a positive spin on PSO2, it's stuck into the "rants" forum. How typical...

    The first day of Ultimate Quests was a blast; we were getting our butts handed to us by suped up versions of the most basic enemies we were dealing with at the very beginning, but eventually we would overcome. There was no need to be totally geared to the teeth since this mission was permanently up, so we could take our time.
    Yes. Yes. YES. A beautiful quote from a beautiful person! I could not have said this better.

    The day Ult Quests released on PSO2 goes down as one of those super memorable gaming days, right up there with the first time I stepped on to Tallon Overworld in Metroid Prime, or the first time I exited Helgen Cave in Skyrim and was able to explore freely. It was one of those moments that I forever chase after as a gamer...
    Last edited by MidCap; Apr 29, 2016 at 06:55 PM.

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