Duplicate Drop Trial

[Matt]

Hi all,

We will be running a trial for the duplicate server drop system for 1-2 weeks to gauge what people think about it.

As you already know, EU/Ragol offers individual drops (more widely known as "PSO2 drops") by default on all versions of the game, meaning that every player in a game will roll their own drops, instead of only 1 drop for the entire party. However, newserv also offers "duplicate drops", which is a system similar to the above, but instead of each player rolling their own drops, every player will receive the same drops.

Instead of a drop rolling up to 4 separate times from an enemy, it will roll once similar to shared drops, but then give a copy of the item to each player in the game. If you have ever played the game Warframe, this is the exact same drop system they use, if this makes it easier to understand.

We believe that this system may be better than the individual drop system, as the duplicate drop system lets groups share in the good finds together, and doesn't leave any players out when they see other people getting fun items and they don't.

If you are not interested in this drop system, you may change it back to individual drops by typing $dropmode private. Please see the commands page for more information on this command.

Please be sure to leave your feedback about this, as we want to know if we should make this the default in the long term or not.

We hope you enjoy PSO!

[Luka]

I have been playing with duplicate drops instead of individual drops for a few days before this trial and here are some of my initial thoughts regarding the matter of individual vs duplicate. What I like about individual is that you are not taking drops away from other players and get two rolls at an item if you are with a friend, though I feel this is detrimental sometimes as well.. in my own experience, I found myself feeling disheartened at a few factors about this.

• I cannot see what is dropping for the other players, so the "wow" factor of seeing a drop is lost, limited to yourself, or delayed until announced.

• You will lose opportunities to get the item you want. When I was playing v2 with blst, I felt seriously disheartened when they got the Enos drop, since it had been the entire reason I even made the ID. It stung pretty bad that they got a second one ten minutes later, because I did not even have the opportunity to see it drop, be the player closer to it to pick it up first, or the courage to ask if I could have one since I was looking for it.

• It is harder to call for items and share with others. It may sound as simple as just "play with a friend" or "ask for the item you want", but when it drops for only one person and they have to pick it up, a player may be inclined (as many of us have and will do) to hold onto it for themselves, as they may need it for the future even if someone else in that party may need or want it more.

For these reasons I found myself wanting to try duplicate drops instead, and immediately I felt an improvement when playing with others. I feel like it encouraged more communication and felt more like a team effort than it does just using someone else's ID and getting their drops. I stopped feeling that way where I had missed an opportunity or was really unlucky. With duplicate drops, I feel like there are more advantages.

• Being able to see what other people are recieving encouraged teamplay. I could see if my team was getting fluid drops, telepipes, grinders, etc that may be more useful to me than it was for them, and was able to ask for their copy so we could get through a stage with less P2 trips. I noticed this was very helpful on a fresh character in particular in v3.

• Being able to see bad, unusual, or frequent rares together makes for a good time and builds a shared feeling between teammates. Back to v2, it was very entertaining for Blst and I to play through mines and see so many Summit Moon drops. We definitely laughed and felt that urge to take the extra second to type something out or react with a symbol chat.

• Good drops feel really good. One disadvantage of duplicate drops is feeling like you are missing out on those extra rolls if you are hunting a specific item or hunting for an item that only person is to make use of, however rare drops that everyone can benefit from feel particularly good. As an example, in v3 playing with my dear Gugg and her brother Anti, we got a real flowens drop with 20h. Not spectacular, but it would be a lie to pretend the prospect of all of us being able to pick it up and keep it in our banks or inventory was not very exciting. Personally, I have a HUney, so even if I wasn't the one looking for it not only do they get the drop but I get to make use of it too. Now I have more motivation to diverisfy my gameplay by playing different classes.

Personally, I see little if no downsides to having duplicate be the default and I am really interested in the reasons someone may have for disliking duplicate over individual.