Events from 2018 and events from here on out

[Mille Marteaux]

Hello there. I'm awful at small talk, so let's cut to the chase; how do you all feel about events in general right now?

The simple fact is that there's not many of us on the dark council of event planning that actively play this game as much as you guys do, so we can be a little out of the loop on how powerful or even satisfying an event actually ends up being until we see how it works out in practice. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, and while I'd like to believe we're getting better at this over time, I'd still like to get some general feedback from you guys so I can figure out where we really stand.

Regarding Christmas, I think that our rates of 1/1,500 are a little too common for how often you can actually get useful items out of them. While variable hit was a good starting point, we still produce a lot of Frozen Shooters and the like during this timeframe. Would you guys prefer finding presents more often with a higher chance of just having "dud" items like Materials, or would you rather have Presents be rarer and only have weapon prizes and the like?

How did you guys feel about stacking Photon Drops and the like in Presents this year?

What's the general opinion on the new TypeM weapons introduced this year? (Spirit SW/J-Sword and Berserk KN/Claw)

How's the economy fare during events? We give out a lot of Photon Drops and Crystals during those; does the supply outweigh the demand? What about directly afterwards? Do you think we should lighten up on the supply of these items?

How about the Photon Sphere rewards? Should we be a little more sparing with them?

Are there any items you guys would like to see more of? What about items you'd rather see less of?

... I'm probably forgetting something, I'm basically just throwing this thread together on a whim. I may not play often anymore but I would like to make sure that our active users at least feel rewarded during events without feeling like events are the only time to play. If you have anything else you want to say for feedback, feel free to share it.

I'll be watching all replies to the thread; I may not reply to everything but I promise I'll read everything.

Thanks for putting up with our bullshit in 2018! Here's hoping 2019 is a little less chaotic.

*I say us a lot when realistically you can probably just pin your blame on me half the time.

 

[FuryBull]

This is my first event on the server, I just started in November.

For me, id say have presents be a common drop, but keep the good stuff rare. ATM, they are rare enough that it feels pretty bad getting "dud" items from them.

I'd also keep the items to useful/unique items. Maybe bad items, but with good enough stats they can be alternatives to commonly used stuff.

 

[Zen]

As an "old" Ephinea player, I've seen the server's economy deteriorate slowly during the past years. Here's why I believe it happened :

The main issue is the introduction of more and more useful hit items/ubers through each event, killing hunts and demand. A lot of Xmas 2018 items shouldn't have been obtainable from presents, such as those 75H Charge Vulcans and 75H Vjayas. It ruined what a "legit" drop's value would be and it's encouraging people to avoid playing between events, which is against the server's sake.
Inject more Photon Drops/Photon Spheres to reconcile supply and demand. Create some inflation so most items find a decent value again.
Events shouldn't replace hunts, I think it should be more about giving players liquidity to participate in the economy/a possibility to upgrade %s on their gear. Why not keep the joke items, some Gallon's Shop stuff and materials, but the more serious weapons/ubers need to stay away from these.

I also kinda missed milestones that would add exp/dar/rdr boosts, and guarantee various items if you did a certain amount of kills during the event. Good incentive for the community to play imo.

That being said, events are fun.

 

[cameron-]

I'm relatively new to ephinea as well, but having sunk a lot of time into both the anniversary event and christmas I think i strongly prefer the style of the anniversary event.

1. progression was static and (broadly) linked to playtime. playing MAE produced silver tickets which will eventually produce spheres or however you prefer to spend golds. Anyone who wanted to no life the summer event was guaranteed to see dividends. I think there is a lot of FOMO with the christmas event for anyone who didn't get the game-changing 75h vulcs or vjaya they wanted.

2. The summer event party boosts meant that a lot of ubers and crazy items entered the economy but they were true rng drops produced by the game so they meshed with instead of destabilizing extant economies.


--


it's been well hashed out at this point but IMO the large influx of 50h "best in class" force items in the christmas event was the most critical misstep in the event. It's unsettling that 75h vjayas and cvulcs are out there but they were rolled in amounts small enough to not completely destroy the market, but now there are so many holy rays/rm's/guards/belts out there. Right now you can find people in the trade forums trying to sell a 35h holy ray for 25pds and selling 50h for 40-50. That's bonkers if you consider the number of 45h+ rays extant beforehand was prob like .. 5. rambling may is particularly egregious since it's a bread and butter tool instead of niche/util, and a 45h may with the right areas would've previously been a once in a lifetime uber.

I wasn't around for xmas '17 and people have obviously spent a lot of time discussing their ire about how it influenced the sub30h markets for FS, sof, etc-- but in its defense I think there's some value in injecting the market with boilerplate gear that gets newer players to a basic competitive level earlier but can still be realistically improved upon. I can reliably expect to find a 35+h FS in this lifetime but you can't say the same for the 50h items discussed above. The new hit roll system for these items has also already impacted this market in a meaningful way (sub 30h sofs and frozens, for instance, are actually selling right now) so way to nail the mark there.


--


I don't like the kill gates as implemented in anniversary event. I don't have a solution or better alternative to requiring players to tag enemies for kill counts, but I don't love that you are discouraged from playing characters in order to maximize profit.



Eternal gratitude for the time spent by the event team, gm team, and server owners.

 

[Ryan]

I agree with the entirety of Zen's post and most of Cameron's, with the exception of thinking putting a shitload of 30h gear into the market is a good idea (???) and disliking kill gates. I think kill gates go well with the sense of progression that anniversary events have provided, just as well as that sense of progression goes with PSO's own sense of progression - if you can't find good shit on your own, you grind out PDs until you can buy it, just like the anniversary badges. Christmas's system is more chaotic, and it would give the sense of "fairness" that some people want if the items given out weren't so damn valuable. No disrespect to anyone who got a 50h RM, obviously, but someone getting one from their first or second present drop (or, god forbid, getting like 15 good 30h items in a week) isn't really comparable to, say, grinding out 140 Gold Badges for 2 Spheres. PSO's a grinding game at heart, and people obviously like that, or they wouldn't be here right now.

All that said, I'd love to see more "bad" items (with hit?) given out at Christmas. Low-hit Daisy Chain was a great start!

TL;DR: Stop replacing hit hunts with event items.

 

[hooty]

Hm.

Considering I was one of the many unfortunate ones who didn’t recieve these high value items or even moderately valuable items, watching others recieve them and get a sudden major boost to be able to participate in the economy is slighty disheartening.

Although I’ve only been here several months, I agree with Zen. I like the St.Rappy Drops personally, they award aesthetics and minimal value at a more common rate (if you get the spawn.) Making items that have that endgame meta value drop from events gives everyone tunnelvision set on grinding out Fiasco over and over.

I think it would be nicer to see drops that are not meta have little or no market value (like Dragon Slayer for example), except to collectors, and have excellent percents. If going with boosted percentages. Mag cells are always great gifts! ^ ^
It would also be nice to see items of that same value carryover into very hard as well to encourage more veterans to run with the people trying to make it to ult and teach them fundamentals.

All in all TL;DR I believe that the events should be a trickle of more PD’s and items that have more of a strengthening of the middle class.

Edit: I believe it would healthier for the server events to pander more to those who are coming up rather than the endgame players.

 

[Ryan]

“Reaganomics”

Enough.

 

[Rune]

For me, if say have presents be a common drip, but keep the good stuff rare. ATM, they are rare enough that it feels pretty bad getting "dud" items from them.

Got about 20+ tp mat gift boxes this event. My record was tp mat 5x in a row.

Sure I built a foney and humar to ultimate from normal mode, but I got them to a respectable level in ultimate. Played a few other characters up to ok levels in ultimate as well. In general I built a character from 140 to close to 180 before the exp 2x boosts were applied.

So I feel I can comment on this to a point. The dud items were common enough and I overall only got 1 good gift (a ps). I feel the rates were good enough for me. But I know people had better luck than I did, and I know people had worse luck than I did as well.

Personally I think making coal drop would be better than gifts. That would just be the easter and year event. But really, what is wrong with that?

-Spirit SW/J-Sword and Berserk KN/Claw
The sword is worse than a 40 hit flowen's sword but an upgrade to spirit swords. Never got the claw so no comment.

Fomar doesn't have enough ata to really abuse it (and base atp wise it has the same range as astro belt), Fonewn doesn't have enough atp to use it but it is an upgrade for him, don't think it matters much. Its more of an upgrade for Ramar, but considering how he hasn't been given much of a buff in this vanila server compared to Huney (clio), Fomar/Newn (hit girasole), and Fomarl (hit rm) I don't think it is that big of a deal.

Can Humar learn level 20 of his techs though? 15 J/Z sucks!

Overall I don't think any detail whatsoever should be changed. Things are rare enough, and they're rare in a way that I don't think is hurting the economy. I auctioned my 60h cvulcans in a post 75h cvulcan world and it did just fine in the marketplace.

Yes u did

If anything though I feel 30 hit hs, excal was a bit too much. Those should have been 20 IMO. The guardianna should have had variable hit as well as the RM

 

[Darth Butt]

Agree with the general sentiments here. More stuff, less uber. I'd rather see a bunch of mid level stuff that boosts new players or convinces old players to try new classes than uber hit stuff that kills the incentive to hunt for old players.

More photon crystals is great. There is never enough of these.

More or less photon drops doesnt really matter that much. While the analogy to real world currencies definitely isnt 1:1, the basic principles of inflation still hold. If there are twice as many PDs in the market, prices for rares will generally tend to double.

The only issue is that if inflation is too high, then people can come back after an event and find that their PD stack is worth half as much, so you do want to avoid going overboard in that respect. That said, my guess is that a lot of the excess photons get hoovered up by whales and sent off to power pagininis satanic research.

Edit: actually the CRAZY stuff like vjaya and charge were at good rates, and kept the bitter vets running the whole time. I think it was the slightly less uber stuff like 50h rays and rm that were a bit too common.

 

[StevieWonderDownUnder]

First, the great injection of currency into the economy during the events of 2018 have been awesome. Trading is much more active than it was prior to this summer, the amount of PDs active on the market has an incredibly large influence on the economy.

I think it is pretty obvious that things weren't rare enough. Lots of people getting multiples of rares and very rares. I would argue that the amount of time that a player has to put in to get some OP gear during an event should not be drastically lower than playing out of events. Look at how high the boosts were in addition to the presents, even without presents it's still the easiest time to hunt gear. Obtaining a 30 hit HS by hunting it is really hard, it should be. They shouldn't just be handed out in presents this easily.

Giving out prizes like these only benefit the players that only log on during events. Most of the people who play this game year round enjoy hunting their gear, which is why they still play this game after 2000 hours. When you suddenly quadruple the amount of 50 hit Rambling May on the server. We are left asking, "What is the point of hunting Rambling May that might never drop? I can just grind PDs for a month or two and buy it." The hunts are endgame content, I'd like them to stay intact.

This server is so awesome, thanks for allowing it to exist.

Edit: @Darth Butt The amount of PDs in the economy at a given moment has a huge impact on prices and ability to trade. I am not sure if you've played actively long enough to remember the great Photon Drought of 2018. You will never have to worry about PD prices crashing like you mention. (Unless people start cheating.) PD and PS inflation works itself out because they end up getting sunk at the end of the line. Seasons and Anniversary just printed Photon Spheres and people were buying them for 99 PDs.

 

[Mille Marteaux]

Thanks to all of you for your input so far. I can't really reply to everything since I'm a ball of anxiety and also very tired, but I will say this:

I will agree in retrospect that stuff like Ray and RM were less bad ideas and more just too common; I simply couldn't fathom the sheer amount of presents that flooded in and how many of them were generated in the first two weeks were mostly on me for not making them rare enough (and this is part of why I was mulling about 1/1,500 being too common for our current drop rates on presents). Next year I might just make a gimmick alt and ask what all the good little boys and girls of Pioneer 2 want for Christmas and then build a list from there (as well as sprinkling in the type weapons and goofball items).

Maybe bad items, but with good enough stats they can be alternatives to commonly used stuff.

I will defend the 60 hit Laconium Axe to my grave.

... How many 75 hit Charge Scepters are out there now, anyway?

This server is so awesome, thanks for allowing it to exist.

Thank Sodaboy for the server! I'm just an ideas guy lackey that likes overextending my presence and feeling more important than I actually am.

 

[hooty]

... How many 75 hit Charge Scepters are out there now, anyway?

This was the only hit weapon i recieved. @85h

 

[Darth Butt]

Ya, I think keeping the crazy stuff as odd tools, like vjaya, is the best idea. Problem with RM or HS is that they are essential tools to 1 or more classes, so theyre the kind of things that will drive hunts for older players.

I know, I know, we've all seen that guy vjaya charge his way through runs, but its incredibly rare compared to people using RM and HS for example.

 

[Rune]

I should point out that while I think Guardianna, Rambling May, Astro Belt, and Holy Ray should have been varied %s like Spread Needle, Frozen Shooter, SoF, and so on I do think:
-15 hit unless it is something like FS is rather meh to get (and even then FS is sad cause there are 30 hit ones out there now), 20% and on in general is where I feel weapons are starting to get better to have hit over just a lot of enemy %s. I mean would you rather have a 90 native guardianna or one that just has 15 hit on it? For the record at least with a 90 native one you can rip up certain low evp dragon bosses even as a no rr Fomar.
-that hit range produces different values depending on the weapon.
-Rambling Mays were selling at 200+ cause they only really need normal and hard attacks to work with along with the fact that they really haven't been in events yet. It dropping at 50 hit did destroy the hunt some cause you have the fact that you can only really hunt it in 1 area as well.
-Guardianna is found in 2 areas, and even though those areas have better hunting IDs I don't really wanna stop hunting for it cause I want more than 50hit on mine. It also didn't really tank in value that much cause: A. it doesn't really get good til high %s, a 50 hit one is only equal to a 35 hit HS in ata and it still uses its special unlike rambling may, so it never really had value til high %s in general except in special cases (I mean the H is useable even with 0 hit on normal foes but you want some insane %s on it to make that damage worth it and sometimes they have to be frozen). B. the characters that use it need all the hit they can get to abuse it with.

 

[Ketchupgeek]

I really liked this event, and there have been some good suggestions in this thread so far. Things I think would be cool next time:

More PCs in presents
Coal dropping
Cvulcs and other desirable non rares with variable hit (50h being most common and then decreasing rates like scav weps, but with a higher potential cap)
Adding some of the Gallon's Shop items as rare rewards
More neat Type/weapon combinations, the ones this year were cool to see
Idk if item skins are going to be used again as a potential future season reward, but they're a cool idea for events since they don't effect gameplay as much and are mostly just visual swag.

 

[jajaswipo]

Fix the seasons rewards or I will sue all your asses

 

[Mr. Com]

There's been alot mentioned here so there's really not much to add to the topic.

I like a good amount of people on this server have been playing on Ephinea since 2015. I have participated in alot of events over the years and did enjoy them a great deal. In the the three years I've been playing I have never found a very rare present until this year in which I got the 75h charge vulcans while hunting for pwand with my fonewm. But I feel like if the rates haven't have been boosted at that time I yet again probably never would have got that game changing item so easily. That's kind of my point though, although I was super excited to get the item, I think that excitement would have been even greater if I would have found it without the boost. Finding something like that in a normal game is extremely rare too so I agree with those who felt like maybe it should have been left out.

I know it's been mentioned but rare's that are hard to find hit on like in my case hs, shouldn't be a present drop, finding something like that should be something the player wants to hunt and not wait around til another even comes to see if they get that lucky present drop.

I did like pds and spheres dropping in presents especially when you had the chance to get upto three of one kind. I think stuff like this not only helps out the economy by having more pds in the economy, but newer players who haven't been around that long also benefited from that.

I may be the one of the few that would like to see this, but for people like me who use charge weapons alot during the fiasco rounds, you run out of meseta alot. Meseta of course isn't hard to come by generally, but if you use charge weapons alot, you end up burning though your meseta stash and there's only certain people carry tons of it in their banks. Maybe a higher meseta reward for completing the quest, I guess finding a meseta horde in a present would probably be weird, but helping to replenish what was lost during those rounds I think would be a great idea.

Just wanna say that I love the events we have here and I'm really proud that we have someone on the event staff who is willing to hear what the players have to say about it.

 

[Ade]

I think the balance of this event was excellent. Just shuffle the items around each year and keep doing the same thing. I LOVED the HBR choice since it covered all areas.

 

[meridian]

First event for me, I thought it was decent. Seems people like particular types of events more than this one, but I think you should keep variety in mind rather than making them all work the same. Certainly some people were tired of fiasco after the first week or two, and saw next to zero play fiasco2, so maybe ways to alleviate that could help if possible.

"I think that our rates of 1/1,500 are a little too common"
I don't know, once Matt changed the rates, I didn't find anything but duds. If the goal was to lower the influx of high tier items entering the game, it worked on my end. Probably the only reason I'm not upset about it is because I found some good natural drops during the event.

"How did you guys feel about stacking Photon Drops and the like in Presents this year?"
Would certainly love to actually be able to sphere things in my lifetime, so I'm all for that and spheres in general.

"What's the general opinion on the new TypeM weapons introduced this year?"
Love the Sword. Misses a bit but I'm yet to be high enough level to use with RR. Love the whole idea of TypeM weapons being made to fill certain niches, hold you over until you get a better version, or just giving people an alternative as far as aesthetics go.

"How's the economy fare during events?"
As a new player, I don't really see any major changes in the economy from my perspective. All the staple items seem to still be selling at the same prices or slightly more, likely to do with the influx of new players rather than overabundance of pds.

"How about the Photon Sphere rewards? Should we be a little more sparing with them?"
Seen tons of people trying to buy them and finding no sellers, so I'd say the availability was fine if not low, if the goal is to keep those pds in circulation rather than throw them into the void. Also would love to see Photon Boosters in these type of events.

"Are there any items you guys would like to see more of?"
Hard question since obviously I'll want all my favorite items with better stats.
I think stuff like the 40hit sbeats is on the right track. Niche weapons that are useful if you have them but people wouldn't want to "waste" their pds on, to boost average player effectiveness overall. Same with what I mentioned above about the TypeM weaps.

"What about items you'd rather see less of?"
So many Charge Type/GU Hand and Charge TypeGU/Mech QQ. Just bad/joke items with bad stats in general, I don't know about bothering with all these things that even new players wouldn't want to use. Honestly, at the end of the event, me and other friends were thanking the heavens we were getting hp mats over stuff like Lac Axe. I think coal, mats, cookies, tickets and a joke item here and there are more than enough for "duds."

I don't know, I'm of the mentality that things in a video game should be realistically attainable for anyone putting in the work, and RNG can completely screw people over on that for years and years, so I don't agree with the "uber presents killing the game" sentiment. Especially in a game like this where you use dozens of weapons on a single character and the drop rates are insane. I mean, even if you gave EVERY player a single perfect item, they'd still have 90%+ of their loadout to collect, let alone the pds to sphere their stuff. And I also don't want PSO to be the only game I play the rest of my life just for the POSSIBILITY of getting a better shiny one day. Of course, finding the right balance is worth of a topic on its own, but those are my views!

 

[psycho_beast]

I am, and will forever be an advocate of no Ubers in events, (variable hit mid-tier weapons are great) but no Ubers. Also, increase the number of pds, I feel like, I am always behind because I can't afford gear because pds just never drop for me for whatever reason.