Sundark

Ultimate, Episode 1, Whitill, Dark Gunner - Boomerang

Alright I've got some time and put a little more thought into things. Quality of Life stuff: - If it's possible, add a sound effect to the mag timer. It's one of the most useful commands for newer players/players feeding mags while trying to be efficient about feeding them during quests, but if you afk feed (as tons of people do), it would be nice to have something you can hear from another room. - Stock the damn tool shop. Just, always. I know Lemon's shop exists, but having to go into an episode-specific quest (useless when you might just be playing normally), use a menu that isn't intuitive, that only allows for purchases in multiples of 10 (I'm assuming based on presentation) when that isn't divisible by 3 (the amount of items you feed one mag at a time), all while being overcharged is dumb. Please. Please just stock the damn shop. Gameplay stuff: - The buff to Ultimate is great, and with the stat boosts to classes, it really adds a comfortable level of challenge even to endgame content (right up until you've got perfectly optimized gear, at which point you just start TAing anyway). But it's kind of brutal for newer players and characters getting into the game, and when the meat and bones of the game is the Ultimate difficulty (which has always been the sharpest difficulty spike in the game) it's making a hurdle that was already large even larger. I'm not entirely sure how to combat the above, but it's at least food for thought. I think a nice bridge would be allowing One Player mode to somehow have access to more (if not all) of the quests in multiplayer. Often I would think "I want to hunt this item, but I can't handle multi Ultimate alone, and the quest I want isn't available on One Person mode." This can create a reliance on other players helping you. Other people helping you is nice, but it shouldn't come down to being the only way to make some progress. - I've taught several new people about Black Paper's Deal(s) in the past week! It seems like it's a much lesser-known quest these days, and I think effort should be put into rectifying that a bit, albeit I'm not sure how. Photon Crystals are easy farms on Normal with MA4DMD (Which has 6 Dorphons and 6 Zus within the first five-six spawns, and one of those is a guaranteed Dorphon Eclair), and you can get lots and lots of good stuff from those quests. An idea I just had would be to play around with the drop charts of those quests, or even make a third, Ultima-specific version! Cut out some of the real chaff from the rewards to make them quicker and more worthwhile. Normal Rappy route can get you a Tripolic Shield or a Rappy's Beak, but you could also get... Resist/Burning and the like? The normal Zu route is a haven for getting great Double Sabers, but there's some redundancy there, too. Partisan of Lightning and Meteor Cudgel could stand to be axed, but the MKB/BKB split is good if you want an MKB for your male Ranger, and Twin Blaze always has utility. Is a 0-stat 0-slot Electro Frame really helping anyone? You get where I'm going with this. I can honestly say that I've never done a single Dorphon route BPD1 either, except maybe way back to get a 0'd Shouren/Guren for Jizai or something, but those are also both available in BPD2. Normal and Hard Dorphon routes could definitely have an entire overhauled drop table. I could go into an entire dissertation about what kind of items could be cut or added to either of these quests, but I'll spare everyone here a brisk thousand+ words. Point is, these quests are great for the newcomers, and I think that should be capitalized on more, especially when Ultimate has become a hurdle. Events: The current Triforce event is my first Ultima event despite my account being a few years old, because it just happened to coincide with me randomly wanting to dive nose-first into the good ol' pile of crack cocaine that is PSO for the first time in several years, and I have to say it's a wonderful, wonderful concept. The idea of re-figuring out the drop charts for a game that's old enough to drink, enlist, vote, and sign up for an account on its own forum is fantastic, and it was really exciting until I was on CCA #178 with no Hylian. But the greatest flaw of events, and event-based items, is once they're gone, they're gone. And that's the woooooorst. You are just locked out of some of the best endgame gear until an entire year (presumably) later. Why the hell would anyone play outside of events in that case? I just don't think it's a great model for player retention or satisfaction. I'm very apprehensive about the possibility of the event ending before I get some of the most valuable and effective pieces of gear that's been introduced to the game by this server, and that's just... bitter. My idea was to somehow allow access to the event drop tables, potentially through quests, but I'm not sure how feasible that is. If the chance to get an item was still present, it would be great for peace of mind once the event is gone knowing that you could wait for the next Happy Hour to roll around and start chugging away at a quest for the next little while to see if you could land something nice. Random Stuff: - Sometimes Shiida (maybe others) does a thing where, for example, "If I can see 5 different section ID chairs in Lobby 5 I'll activate HH." This kicks ass and is great community engagement. So much more of that would be great. - Make the Discord link more visible. Clearly the forum has tons of people asking this question, and that just means it's not catching people's eyes. It'd be a good way to get people a little more active, because holy god Ultima still uses a forum in 2021? I love the forum, and there's tons of useful information and guides here, and that's not going to change, but the Discord could use a lot more activity. But we might need to quarantine Wilson to the time attack channel first. Throw the link up next to the banner at the top of the forums, or in any of the little dropdown menus with information. - Wiki improvement. There are still a couple things that aren't listed in the wiki, from what I've found (I think a lot of units? I don't remember exactly), and that's always a pain. Additionally, the drop table is really functional and cool, but if you look up an item on the wiki, its page should tell you where it drops from (or what quest it's a reward for, if applicable). It's a small (albeit large-scale) improvement that makes the ever-present research process smoother, especially for the numerous Ultima-specific items. I think that's just about everything for now. Feel free to quote and talk about anything. And I just want to close out for realsies (for now) by saying that I've really, really been enjoying my experience back recently. This server has some wonderful players that I'm very happy to have met, and I'm having a lot of fun with what feels like a fresh, new PSO experience that's still the core game I love.

Got a Star Amp, but I'd like that Kroe's Sweater now!

Oh lol I have other actual ideas stewing in my head but they're not quite ready to post yet

Hey please combo unlock Glide Divine because it has a cool sound effect and I want to hear it more when I swing it for memes thanks

Noooouuuuuuudleeeeeee. I'd like to buy a Trap Search from ya.

Hey, I'd like to buy a Star Amp from you!

Yo Sharky, I'd like to buy the 3-slot Godric's Cloak you have, and I'll grab the Sorcerer's Cane too cause wynaut.