Some concerns about Ephinea

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ScoobyDew said:
Population decline? Come on as if my animations haven't brought in butt loads of new players to this server.
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In fact, "fighting" to make Ephinea even more active is part of the fun for me. Wether is making animations, leaving comments and links under videos about PSO like nostalgic reviews on YT, post news about the server in gaming communities... Heck, I even made a group on FB to try to get some attention in my region. Seeing new players almost everyday after doing all that is as satisfying as getting a rare drop. :D
 
I think another problem is with the apparent elitism with some of the current active players.
It's causing the new guys to quit.

This has always been a problem in the PSO community unfortunately.
Most of these so called "elitists" are not even good at the game.
It's really sad tbh.
 
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A person who is generally skilled at PSO is not necessarily worse than someone who focuses on a small number of quests and repeats them over and over. (I'm assuming that's the sort of jab Reason is attempting to make here.)

I think a good indicator of skill is how well someone does the first time through a brand new quest. It shows their overall skill as a player. Rote memorization is a type of skill, but it can compensate for a lot of poor habits, and is not a good indicator of true skill.

I've recently made a bit of a re-commitment to help newer players. I feel sorta bad for my previous sentiments. It's tiring and unfulfilling to help others, but necessary. You literally get nothing in return (except Normal to VH mode EXP) and they usually just quit right away, but some stay. For those who have the potential to stay, it's important we don't drive them out. (So yeah, I guess I do agree with Reason on that part.)

It just sucks because it's a never-ending task.
 
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it's important to help new players!
Help, we are getting far too elite
 
anime said:
it's important to help new players!
Help, we are getting far too elite
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This is really important. Without the newbies coming in, it would just be 18 ppl idling in the lobby and 6 passworded games.
 
What's most important is that you just play the game and have fun. ;)

Don't feel like you have any sort of commitment to "help new players", you really don't.
 
reason said:
I think another problem is with the apparent elitism with some of the current active players.
It's causing the new guys to quit.

This has always been a problem in the PSO community unfortunately.
Most of these so called "elitists" are not even good at the game.
It's really sad tbh.
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+1

Ade said:
You literally get nothing in return (except Normal to VH mode EXP) and they usually just quit right away

It just sucks because it's a never-ending task.
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Why are you expecting something in return when helping new players? Just play.
 
You don't necessarily need to rush new players to ult. The issues with people quitting is probably nobody to play with. I love logging on and seeing 3 people in lobby, ask if they want to quest, promptly get ignored and then I log out. Im not playing PSO to play by myself. Just my opinion.

I am aware people afk for extended periods of time in lobby.
 
I'm new to the server, but I brought my three younger brothers as well for some fun on hardcore mode. Much fun has been had so far. (Also much laughs at early Drag landing crit killing off characters.)

One of the biggest problems with PSO in my memory is the quest TTF. You get new players playing for a couple days/weeks, but as soon as they find that mode, the game becomes some kind of sick grind for Ultimate mode in that quest, you get it a few days later, usually grind a lil more to 12x-ish, realized all the content you skipped, items never used, and try to go back to it realizing you're now immortal to "Ultimate" mode. Now what shoulda-coulda been months of content and full banks, comes down to one power leveled character, no fun loot, and god mode.

TL DR: Don't show new players TTF.
 
Great that this thread has been revitalized as you guys do seem to care. New players come and go... and yes. Sometimes helping new players is a bit unthankworthy. I can only agree. However, if someone does decide to stay because (maybe just a part of the reason) you helped them is even more the satisfying. If I come across ppl I like, I am more than willing to grind them to ultimate (as long as I think they have some staying presence in them and my gut is pretty much telling the truth most of the times). To think though that at lvl 12x something you are at 'god mode' on ulti than you couldn't even be more wrong. Try ep2 or 4 for that matter and think again. Do some HBR mode for quests that haven't had a lot of attention (and increased drop rates as well for that matter). And even if you are OP at lvl 12x, then hunt them items you want (zanba with hit, excal, HS, Psycho wand, Sealed J-Sword and even more). Those should be your goals :). You can always make a new character that can use it well.
 
Ceri0n said:
To think though that at lvl 12x something you are at 'god mode' on ulti than you couldn't even be more wrong. Try ep2 or 4 for that matter and think again. Do some HBR mode for quests that haven't had a lot of attention (and increased drop rates as well for that matter). And even if you are OP at lvl 12x, then hunt them items you want (zanba with hit, excal, HS, Psycho wand, Sealed J-Sword and even more). Those should be your goals :). You can always make a new character that can use it well.
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  • 12x isn't god mode, but I guess we'll have to dial back on the hyperbole. My point still stands. You rushed the content, you -are- OP for at least 90% of the balanced content, if not more. Unless you look for a challenge in the deepest modes, you won't find it anymore.
  • EP 2/4 are a little more difficult, yeah. That's usually the last thing after somebody grinds TTF to 12x on a private server, they do ultimate runs on EP 2/4 since there isn't a TTF EP 2/4. That's not saying too much though, it's known EP 1/2 are harder, try doing it at Char Lvl 1/Lvl 5 Mag. Oh lordy. So the TTF grinder might get "some" game-play outta level 12x on Ep 2, but that's only if they didn't known about the content before hand. Which they probably don't, haha.
  • HBR for items you probably don't feel any attachment to, skipped the use for most items and I'm sure it's quicker to just ask a long-term player here for the item right away. Next.
  • Hunt items with the use of simply make the game easier/better times. It's a goal, but that's not gonna keep most people playing. Look guis at my +999 Sword, and I kill TLB in 30 seconds. Much fun, much wow~
  • New character that can use it well. BACK TO TTF GUIS!!!

TL DR: Every MMO is ruined by rushing content. Get dropped level 200 in any mmo and you're gonna have a boring time. Usually.
 
I'd argue that you aren't skipping content by rushing to Ultimate mode, as all quests can be played at all difficulties. The only thing you really miss out on is the lower difficulties/drop tables, which aren't a whole lot of fun imo.

Ultimate is plenty challenging at 120 m8 (solo mode is pretty ez tho)

I agree that TTF is an unbalanced quest but it holds memories for a lot of people, so it's pretty important.
 
Content? Absolutely, though if you're raised on BB you wouldn't see that. More than mid-low game content though you're missing gameplay experience by grinding your way through, and missing learning lots of mechanics in your struggle to understand this clunky game. Much in the way of other RPG's of its time, there is a learning curve, ignoring it just makes the experienced players ignore you.

This is where the disparity we're at right now has come from. You have a lot of returning or in some cases new players who are rushed through, don't learn anything and just wanna swing sabers around, but in general are a burden to themselves and others because PSO isn't as simply accessible as the modern handholding RPG. Having a easy leveling curve thanks to x2 exp (recently) and TTF really gives a rather large difference in a progression to player experience ratio.

These players hit a grind=\=personal skill wall and just give up because the best stuff is just outside of grasp. It's like giving a noob grank gear in Monhun, and telling em to go smash stuff and watch as they get rolled over by great jaggi. You dont learn anything and just get frustrated as you dont understand what you did wrong. The unfortunate thing is, being that our community is small and interest is smaller you have to give these players a way to get with the more experience players, it leaves us with a frustrating balance conundrum.
 
Ade said:
A person who is generally skilled at PSO is not necessarily worse than someone who focuses on a small number of quests and repeats them over and over. (I'm assuming that's the sort of jab Reason is attempting to make here.)
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Hope those "Skilled" players feel they are good enough to prove themselves, I wouldn't mind seeing more faces in the TA scene.

Most of these "Elitist" players I'm talking about degrade the new players, and don't even play B-mode, or TA.
They have nothing to prove other than having bad manners, and making competitive PsoBB players look toxic.

These players ruin the game for new players, and veterans alike.
 
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Let's not let this thread become an argument on the legitimacy of TA skill.
Or who the REAL professionals are in 16 year old videogame with 100 players.
The elitism you speak of stems from players expecting others to do certain things, that's where the insults/jokes come in.
If you expect new players to do these things, you shouldn't be afraid of going out of your way to teach them.
D O N T B E R U D E

Also personally I just find TA really boring ;-;
 
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Helping new players can be fun AND be worth it if you use your imagination a bit. For exemple, I did a LOT of TTFs to help either new players or vets starting on a new character while carrying a Limiter. They got xp, I got kills to unseal it. Everyone wins.

Pwr-lvling to Ult can be a good thing, it all depends on the players. I played a LOT on GC and only in offline mode. Seen pretty much all I wanted out of all the difficulty modes except Ult and its drops. When I started here, we had that OP 3X xp going on so guess what I did... I grinded 7 characters ASAP to Ult to be able to play with the more advanced players and finally see the content I never got into when playing on GC.

I agree it can be frustrating when we help new players just to see them quit after a few weeks but that's the way it is saddly. That's why I now try to make it worth when I'm doing it just like I said above, unsealing Limiters and stuff like that. The one thing I WONT do anymore tho is to lend items. I still have a v101 and a few mags out there (a 100+ Sato, a 200 Rati etc...) that I'll probably never see again because people either can't be thrusted or have the memory spawn of a wood log. :D

I still don't mind helping players for xp grinds sometimes, after all the more players we have, the easiest it can be to find groups. If some of us don't care about helping tho it's their choice and it's ok too. We just need to be respectful and that's it.
 
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I don't actually play PSO BB or play here, but so far i see no issues whatsoever, haven't received any complaints aswell.

If i ever talked about ephinea, the 1st comment about it would likely be something along the lines "the server is great"
If i mention certain other servers (for comparisson) the comments would differ......alot
 
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