Episode 4 Drop Table Update

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We had no plan to balance anything else, only the drop tables.
 
All I'm really getting from this is that the older players got tired of doing PoD to farm Kondriu so instead of doing normal desert runs or 9-8 to change things up the charts were changed so that they'll do more MA4C instead.
 
MA4C is not the definitive Episode 4 hunt. It's good, but there's plenty of variety with Ep4. Even Max Attack 3 has some good hunts (if anyone ever gave it a shot). I think these changes, combined with HBR, are encouraging a more diverse set of quests to be played.

Any chance of an Ep. 4 themed HBR next month to celebrate the new charts? It might be very interesting!

Edit: Did anyone actually enjoy farming Kondrieu? There's barely any enemies on the way to him (unless you do the side routes, which are actually really good) and there's a ton of empty space to run through. I can't see how that stays fun after 100+ runs.
 
Honestly, if this was done to encourage more quest variety I feel like more emphasis should have been put on HBR in the first place. As it stands now I feel the boost from HBR isn't enough to push enough people into exploring more quests. If the boost were more significant, or maybe had a boost to rare monster appearance and exp to a degree that would probably have been a decent start.
 
I'd say the boost is more than enough. People are just too lazy to actually fully acquire it and thus, can never enjoy it.
 
If this is supposed to be the solution to quest stagnation then might as well change the Red Ring and PGF drops while you're at it so less people do TTF and RT.
 
KidaRad said:
I'd say the boost is more than enough. People are just too lazy to actually fully acquire it and thus, can never enjoy it.
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This. The HBR boosts are amazing if you try. You just have to utilize it by actually 'playing' it more than one run. 'Work for your items' is something people don't wan't to do it seems with hbr and the new drop charts but isn't that better than getting everything in 2 mins, being bored and giving up? It certainly is. Besides it doesn't take that much effort to get anything.

Also as the for the drop table changes, MA4C/B are not the only played quests. From what I gather there will be alot of LMB, LHS, WOL1/4 also. Besides it's nor purely just for quest variety it's also to balance out the section ID's. I mean before it was clearly 'everyone is yellowboze' 'who the fuck is a greenill'. Now every ID is just about as equal as each other and requires actually hunting items rather than just killing rappies or doing a ten min POD to get everything endgame wise.

EP1 and EP2 admittedly are not 'perfect' but they are far from unbalancing whilst EP4 was simply just destroying everyones appetite to play PSO. Thus a balance was made in order to settle this destructiveness to create a better future for the server and it's players.
 
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I'd consider changing my Viridia to Skyly, but I won't as long as no one plans on changing the Lame D'argent drop....
 
I'm having A LOT OF TROUBLE figuring out what ID's I want my classes to be so I think Matt did a good job.
each one has cool hunts wow I'm so excited lksdfjlskf
 
Just make sure to have at least one character of each section ID then get ready to get equips for all of them.

Dongra said:
If this is supposed to be the solution to quest stagnation then might as well change the Red Ring and PGF drops while you're at it so less people do TTF and RT.
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TTF will always be done due to the experience factor. The drops are an icing on the cake. And regards to RT the only change would be forcing people to use specific section IDs to play it.

 
Oran seems kind of lackluster (maybe give it something like v502 from one of the bosses?), but for the most part I think it looks pretty good.
 
I see what you mean about Oran, will think about it.

Also for a controversial change:
  • Dragon Scale from H Kondrieu has been nerfed to 1/16. (from 1/2)
  • Dragon Scale from VH Kondrieu has been nerfed to 1/10. (from 1/4)
  • Dragon Scale from VH Shambertin has been nerfed to 1/100. (from 1/64)
The reason for the above is that Tellusis is a very good mag (performance-wise, everyone knows Sato is really the best) and it doesn't really make sense that you can farm the "best" mag from H/VH easier than Ultimate. This should put the mag at more DPC tier and not quite so cheap for an easy mag.
 
I think the dragon scale drop nerf is a bit overboard. Dropping rates too much just creates a larger gap between those who already have and those who don't. "Oh, hunting Tellusis is too hard? You should've just gotten it back when it was easy like I did". That sort of thing (artificially raising rarity) will just hurt people starting out. Good and rare aren't always synonymous anyways (hello charge vulcan).

Other than that, for the most part I'm liking the drop changes. Seeing some variety in ID's will only make the community better.
 
Tellusis is not the kind of item that is staple nor necessary, such as items like Battle units or Charge Vulcans. To make something that is, most of all, an aesthetic rare does not cause any serious gaps.

Yes, it is the "best" mag because of a 5% bonus to its trigger rate, but that is negligible in the long run. Above all else, the Tellusis mag is a "perfectionist" item, and it only makes sense that players must work harder for it.
 
I agree with Matt. You can get Sato for 1/100th of the effort and it's literally 90.9% as good (take 50 divided by 55).
 
I do have to agree with Xcross a bit. In the short term, it certainly widens the gap between those that were able to obtain items when they were easier to get (from PoD) and those that have to spend more time to hunt them on specific IDs from quests. This is especially going to be true when unlimited ID changes end. People already have complaints about the economy now, and veteran players will likely have an even larger advantage since they have obtained items that are going to be worth even more after the change due to an increased rarity. Hopefully I'll be wrong about that though. The drop rates aren't horrendous. I don't think the D-Scale is that big of a deal specifically though, especially since those rates are still pretty high + considering the difficulty.

In the long term though, I think it was a necessary change and the IDs are certainly much more balanced, which is definitely a good thing. Overall I agree with the changes, I just think there is a price to pay that unfortunately will have to be paid by newer players.
 
Some things got harder to find and other things got easier to find. Because there are more varied ways to hunt things besides PoD farming and MA4B now, logic would dictate that Ep4 finds will increase overall due to heightened interest in the game, so the economy should IMPROVE.

This isn't like back on Schtserv when Lee simply added an extra "0" to every drop, making everything 10x harder to get. (He literally did this because he is a douche.) If you were already rich, good for you, but good luck if you were just starting...

(For example: On pre-nerf Schtserv Ep4, I found probably 15 v502s, and after the nerf, over the course of THREE Lv. 200 characters, I found one.)

The changes here on Ephinea are not even in the same ballpark (or zip code). A few items might get more valuable (ie. I could see v101 increase from 15 PDs to 20 PDs), but nothing is going to get stupid hard. Overall, we'll see more Lames, more HSes, more Limiters, more Heaven Punishers (to name a few), and more enjoyment of the game.
 
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I hope that's the case. We will see how it unfolds.
I'm not quite sure if I believe the Lame drops will increase, since Yellow PoD was pretty OP, but I definitely agree that Lee was a douche. I think some items got easier and some got harder, I'm more worried about those that got harder, because some of them are big endgame items for a lot of classes and will be in high demand.
It is certainly more enjoyable to be able to run a series of different quests instead of just repetitively spamming a single boss rush quest though.
 
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