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Check out the v.264 - Every Little Thing Every Precious Thing patch notes
here!
Star Force Improvement (All Worlds)
It feels really bad to lose progression so this suggestion is to fix that and make the Star Force experience feel a lot less bad, so it feels better as a result. While also not changing the current balance of the Star Force system.
You know, we all experienced the pain of the 15-17 stars bouncing back and forth during 5/10/15 events...
Change is every star above 15 stars:
~ 15 -> 16 star, unchanged to how it is now.
~ 16 -> 20 stars the success rate is reduced to roughly one-eighth of what it is now, the reduced success rate is just added to the failure chance.
Important new change: on failed attempt, the star rank no longer drops to the previous star rank, and instead remains at its current star rank!
~ 20 -> 21 star, unchanged to how it is now.
~ 21 -> 22 star the success rate is reduced to roughly one-eighth of what it is now, the reduced success rate is just added to the failure chance.
Important new change: on failed attempt, the star rank no longer drops to the previous star rank, and instead remains at its current star rank!
~ 22 -> 25 stars, the star rank no longer drops to the previous star rank on failed attempts, and instead remains at its current star rank... if the item survived the very high destruction chance that is...
Note: Item Destruction Chance would be exactly identical to what it is now.
The current star force values are very deceptive and preys upon people not understanding math whatsoever.
Now, people still would not know or understand how math works out even with this change, but the feel of star forcing would be improved significantly since once a star successfully ranks up, it stays there unless the item becomes destroyed - plus it is more clear of the real success rate to star rank up. Having a lot less losing of progress will make things feel better for players to interact with.
Comments
Other systems allow you to go with the cheap but RNG system or the guaranteed but expensive option.
Black flames avoid RNG drops, Black (Bright) cubes avoid RNG drops, Miracle Circs avoid RNG drops.
Even nodestones now have the option to just create your own Trinode instead of dealing with the RNG element.
Most systems have a cheap but random option with the option of paying more for a secure way to attempt to enhance your gear/stats.
This is still the same level of RNG, you just don't drop on failure. Literally would be a feel less bad aspect to exactly what we have now, chance to star rank up and mesos cost would be identical.
The problem with the pink cube of starforcing is that it either is:
A: the best thing to do and just feels mandatory if priced the same way as black flames / pink cubes.
B: never used because it would be 8x the mesos cost per attempt if priced according to its game impact. Though it would 1/8th the boom chance too... which then still makes it feel mandatory and have over 1 bill mesos per star attempt for arcanes, let alone eternals mesos costs, would make it feel even worse than it is somehow...
Now it could work if they ever decide to expand the system to 30 stars then they can make 15-22 star range much easier to obtain and have 22-27 stars be like 15-22 is now, 28/29/30 just be the new 23/24/25 stars.
This would result in insane power creep to the game however, which might eventually happen depending on how much more difficult they want bosses to be.
They improved 5th job and made it way easier only because of 6th job.
Arcane River is way faster because of Grandis and Sacred Orbs existing, especially all 6 of them being released already.
This isn't the same level of RNG, if you cannot boom an item then you cannot lose the item.
It completely eliminates the RNG chance of not having the item anymore.
A is not true because things that are replaceable would be cheaper to just randomly SF because you're not limited on how many you can have.
B Is not true because people would be willing to pay 8x the meso cost to have their pitched items not boom or drop for power gains.
Unless you remove the chance for the boom and the drop, SF is still a broken, bad system.
Nexon could increase the safe guard option to 20* and add a new option that prevents dropping up to 20* as well.
Costs of using these two options could be multiplied together and this makes SF a much less frustrating system optionally, the same way that other power gain systems in the game have the option of removing the RNG chance of losing power.
That is just safeguarding to 22 stars, and that would just double the cost like what safeguarding does now - remove boom and pay double the mesos.
Introduce two ways to repair for Heroic, either pay mesos or replace with the same equipment be fine, but honestly completely removing boom will lose a lot to the game. As much as it sucks to see an item boom, it kind of is an important part to the gameplay, you cannot get that relieve feeling without that risk factor.
And no drop and no boom would be 16x the cost at the same success rate, imagine over 2 billion mesos per starforce ATTEMPT on arcanes. Even being the same mesos cost as it is now, that mental aspect of seeing the insane cost per attempt would be way too much for players and actually greatly sour the players mood when that one attempt did not succeed.
But what I am talking about is only and specifically removing drop on failure completely and by doing so makes the success rate to star rank up actually accurate to what it is now.
Even though nothing technically changes for mesos cost and chance to star rank up vs chance to boom, it will make the system feel a whole lot better only going up rather than bouncing back and forth. Plus most importantly it removes the deception factor that no one can see right in front of their eyes since people are insanely bad with numbers, and exponentially worse when it comes to %s.
This is meant to be a feels better change and not a practical one that makes the system easier or stronger. Sometimes things like this is a whole lot better than actually buffing a system.
You also want to limit the amount of options you give the player.
Repair system improvement to mesos fee or same equipment sacrifice would be good as it retains the risk factor to booms, while kind of having that safeguard aspect, while being able to keep the risk aspect of "what if it booms".
If we going to remove the risk entirely, then there is no point for it to be a chance system in the first place. Might as well just change it to pay mesos and it ranks up guaranteed and remove the variance entirely.
Variance and risk are very good for the game when done well and adds to the gameplay, this essentially game-a-fining gambling and would be true gambling if there was financial lost with potential financial gain involved (very important stuff like this is 100% free to play).
I would love for the ability to pay 2b meso for a completely safe tap on a pitched item.
End game players would much rather lose all their meso knowing that they won't lose the item than wait eons for the chance to tap it only to get nothing out of it, or worse, actually go backwards in progression.
You don't understand late game at all if you don't think everyone would jump all over this system and consider it a great improvement over what we have now.
This is fine. However it is still a bad system because it does not address the fact that every other system in the game allows you to mitigate the risk factor.
This is a fair way of mitigating the risk factor, if you remove drop and also add in a repair with meso option, then it's fine.
However this is still sub optimal as pitched items shouldn't be so stupidly rare that you can sometimes wait over a year if not years to see one.
Pitched items should have a similar drop rate to the slime ring from CSlime so that players can actually progress at a decent speed and on multiple characters easily.
You don't remove risk entirely. You add in a way for players to mitigate it.
There is still risk in the form of losing meso for nothing, at a faster rate than if you had just risked the item instead of the larger sum of meso.
This is actually a decent argument on why all RNG upgrade systems should be removed entirely, this is not 100% free to play.
(Which I don't believe they should, we just shouldn't be paying real world money for them)
Players can use real world money to buy cubes or meso only to get absolutely nothing out of it.
It isn't "game-a-fining gambling", it's just actual gambling. The world at large just accepts it as something that they have to put up with now.
There is a reason why it is illegal for Nexon to operate the cash shop in full capacity in certain countries.
You're too used to getting raked over the coals by predatory game companies to see exactly how evil they actually are.
Nexon, Digital goods should not expire. COSMETIC, Digital goods, that offer ZERO benefit gameplay wise, that expire is completely unacceptable, predatory and just show contempt for your own players.
Insane grindy and very long wait is necessary for end game.
Cubing does not have a risk aspect to it, you cannot nuke your item from cubes. Random aspects is not gambling, it is just random aspects.
You did give me an idea for a starforce rework concept.
The current 23/24/25 stars specifically was meant for an endless chase aspect. The problem with how it currently works is that this is a near-impossible aspect to achieve so players won't bother pursuing it, outside of an absolute extreme minourity trying to 23 star since that is somewhat kind of realistic to eventually go for.
So change it to a system where players feel like they are progressing and eventually would achieve 25 stars, but would take an insane amount of time to achieve would actually be better with almost zero RNG involved too.
This would also involve making it easier for players to get to 20 stars by only needing to pay mesos and guarantee a rank up starting from star 1, this part would just be a straight buff to how it is now.
Destruction, drop on failure, and chance to succeed are all removed with this concept.
The cash shop equipment should be increased to permanent from 90-days, but also there is nothing actually wrong with pay to rent. There is nothing predatory about this either, I just think it would benefit them as a business to make them permanent for these old cash shop items.
Could even introduce a type of subscription plan for 30 days at a time that let's you freely use all of these items as much as you want as long as the system is not expired. Then players can choose between a rental service or buying the item directly and always having the item (as long as the game is in service).
People like me want to play a lot of characters. By making the grind at the end needlessly long all you do is prevent players like me from playing the game the way we want to play.
There is still a requirement to fund these characters and grind beyond 290 can stay just as grindy as it is.
You say you want the game more accessible to newer players, this would allow that as well.
Yes it does. If you do not use the black (bright) cubes you can lose whatever potential you had, this makes you lose meso for nothing.
If you use black cubes you minimize the risk but you still lose meso. It's still a gamble.
You can pay real world money for those cubes and/or the meso for those cubes.
Losing money and getting nothing out of it is a risk of gambling, it is the literal definition. This is also a game that children play and have access to. Getting kids hooked on gambling is evil.
What happened to risk and variance being very good for the game? Stay consistent in your beliefs and don't flip flop.
I am talking about the $100 packages as well as other packages. The 90 day items are fine except for being overpriced.
The hero and cygnus bundles? Those are just bundles, you can buy them individually for the ones you want.
They messed up on it because they did everything at once instead of breaking the cygnus and heroes up separately, overwhelming the customer with choice which results in less purchases.
Pokemon Yellow has a literal slot machine you can play, kids are not going to get hooked on gambling. There is probably no actual rhyme or reason why people do and do not get hooked on something outside of personality, maybe life circumstances too, but gamers are probably the least likely to get hooked on gambling. They might get hooked on other things however.
End game grind and not reaching an end is needed.
Getting new players into the game and improving the experience before that point is not end game. I use my characters progression to indicate what should be improved because I already done it for everyone, while ensuring it is still progression without really getting very far past that point.
The big thing players need is something to always do for a game like this. If they want a game to complete then they should go play a single player game like Mario or Kirby or Zelda or Pokemon.
I did up a concept to make getting to 20 stars a lot better, even getting to 22 stars, but past 20 stars is when the grind really begins. Pre-15 stars being a lot less punishing for new players was a big focus to get them into the door a lot easier and catch up to roughly where everyone else is a lot faster than the slog we had to endure.
This is dangerously ignorant. You have ZERO clue what you are talking about.
There have been studies, documentaries, and testimony from children about them getting hooked onto gambling via gachapon games.
Please educate yourself or do not speak about this subject as this is a very serious and dangerous topic to be so uneducated on.
There will always be something to do. We have 49 characters. You aren't even reading what I'm saying at this point.
I am not saying you need to be able to hit 300, I am saying you should be able to reach end game on multiple characters without throwing your entire life at this game.
You are too used to being raked over the coals by Nexon, I don't know how many times I have to say this before you actually understand how horrible this game design is.
Since I've derailed this thread enough as is I'll end on this post.
You are always going to find something that goes along your point, this is a stupid way to go about things and removes any and all critical thinking skills.
I did up star force rework, this post was just adjusting the system to be accurate to the actual star rank up rates and remove the deception. At this point, getting to 20 stars should be eased as we are already 22 stars, people are even pushing for 23 stars (which is insane).
I am always pushing for a better new player experience, that is the biggest reason why i hated the monster change since the original reboot monsters made the pre-200 experience way better and more enjoyable and post-200 gave a reason to progress your character's equipment in order to kill the monsters.
Pre-200 would have the old character to monster level final damage formula, post-200 would keep the current one.
Guild Castle improvements would be the biggest thing for multi-character support. Every character can have weekly reward, every character can have Cache EXP, and castle shop updated and improved.
This stuff be great, but this community is so selfish, has too much of an ego, and is super short sighted in their non-existent vision for the future where they only care about stuff that immediately affects them and everyone else has to suffer like they suffered. And people not understanding what a catch-up mechanic actually is, which is improving the experience to be better and/or faster, without simply just giving them a bunch of stuff, levels, and walls of text - players need experience to actually learn the game and not be too fast so they can actually gain that experience.
Like for Heroic returning the monsters to how they were and giving an EXP curve reduction for 1-210 so that all world benefit with a faster time leveling characters to 200 and building out their links and legion. But players do need to actually play the class to discover if they actually like it or not, and have enough time with it in that pre-200 / pre-210 experience to get a feel for it, stronger monsters (that also give way more EXP) helps players gain a better feel with the class rather than have these weak monsters that get one shot.
Reducing mesos costs for pre-15 stars and 90% reduction for pre-10 stars really helps new players experience the star force system while not being punished almost at all for starforcing what is considered as useless equipment. This helps players learn from real experience rather than being told what to do and then never learning how to actually play the game as a result.
I went over this in the starforce rework post, but starforce does need a rework since a flaw to the design is that there is no real gradual progression to the system now - for the most part you go to 17 stars, sit on that for a long time, and then jump all the way to 21/22 stars and are done forever because of how poorly implemented the 23/24/25 stars grind is (25 stars being mathematically near-impossible to achieve as zero equipment has achieved it).
~ Basically, players be able to star 1 at a time if they wanted and backups are removed entirely as a requirement all the way to 20 stars. Post 20 stars backups become mandatory in order to star further all the way to 25 stars, this makes it where it is easier to acquire 22 stars without being super lucky (minus pitch items for Heroic, but that is a separate issue) and players get more out of boss drops since even at 22 stars they can still use the equipment drops to eventually hit 23, 24, and 25 stars given enough time without losing progression (I don't think a game like Maple ever needs lost progression, this is just a waste of time for what is already a super grindy game, and honestly I feel it risks burning players out and causing them to quit than provide any kind of benefit to the game - cubing is different since players can choose between Blue or Pink Cubes).