Non-vanilla items

[Matt]

This is a quick question:

On GameCube, it is now standardised that items such as hit% Wok of Akiko's Shop, hit% Soul Eater, hit% Baranz Launcher and so on... are just items that everyone has and are "legitimate", even though these items were never legitimate back in the day and only offered by private servers.

Currently Ragol doesn't offer any of these, but it does offer Red Ring and Parasitic Gene "Flow" under the logic that people will just hop to other servers to get them since most people do want them, even if they're technically illegal items.

The question is: Should we just embrace this? There is always going to be a divide between old and new players here if not giving out these items, and while I would rather not do this, this just seems to be what PSO GC is and I'm always quizzed about it when people come over here.

[Luka]

I am of the belief it is better to embrace these are they are seen as advancements by most people and not a detriment to game balance or philosophy. However.. I don't think you have to adopt these changes as you've never really moderated against people having them to begin with, nor has it been a problem with anyone. If you do this, what will you do when it comes to lv. 0 mags? Ultimately, people want these, and if you do choose to embrace it I just hope you make it interesting.

Surprisingly most people probably won't choose the path of least resistance here. On Scht, you have to acquire a photon cube and 2 enemy parts for a chance to roll 10%-50% hit on the enemy weapons. On sylverant, you just do Super Hard (not hard at all) a few times and you can add ,15% hit, yet most scht players chose to do it the way scht implemented it. So whatever you do, I'm sure people who are playing fresh here or wish to obtain new items would be glad to do it the way you feel is best.

[flakylayers]

I will echo that I think embracing things like %s on joke weapons, monster part weapons, and the like is the preferred course of action. Most of all them serve to be more interesting options, and just like including red ring, oftentimes help bump up classes like FOnewearl to be ever so slightly closer balance-wise to the much more gifted classes (looking at you, HUcast). And though hit % baranz launcher is a very significant addition to vanilla balance, I feel like it’s healthy to have something to hunt for as an alternative to just grabbing 50H charge arms from the shop and sphering them.
From my experience, most players really like having a few more options and gear to hunt for in ep1&2, even if it’s not vanilla, as long as it feels in spirit of the original - just as most players welcome more custom quests to add variety. it’s exciting! and not really transformative enough that it “becomes a different game” or loses any nostalgia factor.

[Matt]

So if it's not obvious, I've changed my stance on this and are now offering these sorts of things.

The main thing so far is:

• Chao, RoboChao, ELENOR, and Mark 3 will now drop on the drop tables with Blasts. They are not 0/0/0/0 however, but will come with some set stats. I don't believe that dropped mags should ever be superior to the ones that you get from making a new character.
• All the offline challenge items and event items that are now on the drop table can drop with attributes.

I plan to make some systems for the following:

• Hit% enemy weapons and quest items - these will be fulfilled by spending Photon Drops to gamble up to 50% hit (just like Blue Burst), or you give in the same amount of enemy parts and get the next step without gambling.
• Safety Heart and Love Heart with stats beyond Invisible Guard and Spirit Garment will be available in a quest. The way this will work is that you give your current one to some NPC and they will buff it depending on the stats it currently has. Having a max stat invisible guard and then making a safety heart will then allow it to be further buffed to max Safety Heart stats. Love Hearts and Safety Hearts which have stats above that of Spirit Garment / Invisible Guard will not be eligible for stat increases, you must hunt them yourself rather than get them from another source.
• Virus Armor: Lafuteria will have a trade-in where you give in the Stink Frame and 4 Cells to an NPC and you get a statted Lafuteria. The Stink Frame's DFP/EVP will be transferred over, but not if the range is above, e.g. you need a 50/20 Stink Frame to get a max stat Lafuteria. You will also be able to submit a minimum stat Lafuteria to be merged with a Stink Frame, but ONLY if it is min stat, as one that is not min stat has not been obtained the regular way.
• There will be a trade-in where you can spend 1 Photon Drop to copy a common weapon to any other tier. For example, your 70H Charge Vulcan can be made into 70H Charge Mechgun for aesthetic.