Less than 20% of players play in parties?

[chill out]

I mean, it makes sense if you aren't SEGA, because PSO2 and NGS are both designed to discourage bespoke multiplayer and encourage cluster missions for content gating, but isn't that a pretty awful statistic for a multiplayer online-only game?

[76561198969621264]

This is just me but I've pretty much given up on the party drop boost thing. They slashed the rate significantly so even going in parties hasn't yielded me much of a pleasing result. Add that and the fact that the rate up is just an additional slot and not increasing the chance to get rares soo... yeah. I don't see much need to form parties. I'll join when invited but I won't go out of my way to form parties myself.

[Gilver Redgrave]

No reason to play in a PT.
The only times i am in a PT is when i run Triggers/Laberinth/UQ/Ancients with Alliance members or if some random guy invites me in UQs so i get the invitations outta my face.

True the PT increases your rates but as already said the drop rates are so low those extra percentages mean nothing. if an item has a 1% drop chance and you gain a 10% boost its 1,1% now. If an item has a 5% chance with a PT its 5.5%. So as you can see the PT boost in reality does nothing for you.

HOWEVER leveling is a completely different case because 10% more exp are indeed something youre gonna feel. But most people are max lv for a while now and only people playing multiple classes are still leveling or returning players.


So in short there is no PT content let alone something affected strong enough by the boosts it provides to bother with it.

[chill out]

Basically, what this <20% statistic actually means, though, is people who play PSO2/NGS don't even want to play a multiplayer game.

[Crystal Sharrd]

The only parties I play in are ones of Partners and Friend Avatars.

Originally posted by Gebp:

Basically, what this <20% statistic actually means, though, is people who play PSO2/NGS don't even want to play a multiplayer game.

Yes, that is accurate about me.

[Terrence M. Delawgan]

Originally posted by Gebp:

Basically, what this <20% statistic actually means, though, is people who play PSO2/NGS don't even want to play a multiplayer game.

Except PSO2NGS isn't a multiplayer game (at least not anymore). It's a Waifu Simulator.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Originally posted by Terrence M. Delawgan:

Originally posted by Gebp:

Basically, what this <20% statistic actually means, though, is people who play PSO2/NGS don't even want to play a multiplayer game.

Except PSO2NGS isn't a multiplayer game (at least not anymore). It's a Waifu Simulator.

Nah, it forces multiplayer more than base does.

[Squishy]

RDR in NGS doesn't actually work the way Rare Drop Rate implies and that is the sole reason why anybody plays in parties. For the RDR. Then eventually give up on them because RDR doesn't matter. There are a few google doc write ups about how RDR works but the tldr of it from my understanding after pouring hours and hours into studying these write ups is: RDR is a lie and you should ignore it because it's a poorly implemented drop mechanic that Sega needs to overhaul in it's entirety. It doesn't matter. And I'm even convinced that you're more likely to get drops without any RDR than having it because RDR is broken and doesn't actually work.

The more RDR you have, the more slots you have in the drop table itself that is increased in that drop table of that specific kill has gradually lower odds of giving you something period. A lot of the time, you'll notice you don't even get loot when you kill something. No caps. No gear. Just currency. That's because the game checks the probability of each slot in the drop table and compares it to your RDR. For instance: Slot 1 has a probability of say 70% and slot 2 has a probability of 40-50% and slot 3. You're still facing the chance of not getting anything at all.

If you throw a 30% RDR boost (I think, it wasn't too clear because the write ups I read took both additive and multiplicative as a factor for percentages similar to how Potency is multiplicative), that's 100% for an item in a slot. Now, this doesn't mean you're going to get x2 or x3 of the same item like you would normally see when you're gathering and mining. That 100% in the first slot is for the first drop. Any additional items in the same slot isn't guaranteed. You'll sometimes see when Captan farming that you receive a Mastery I x3 in your first slot and you'll see that same mastery I in a second slot that is either Master I or Mastery x2. That means you got not only the 100% from your RDR, but you got additional copies in that same slot. I'm not 100% positive if RDR increases the slots from the drop table of enemies, but the drops in the slots that already exist in enemies.

But for anything that is a 1% or lower drop rate (the stuff that actually matters and that everybody wants or needs), you might as well not even bother. RDR is an absolute joke in that regard.

You'll still be guaranteed 1 drop at 100% with the first slot. Any slots after will still be up to RNG. So an enemy could have say, 3 drop slots, but you could only get 1 slot to drop something that kill.

That's the best way I can explain it from my understanding. These write ups might as well be novel length filled with complex information that not even the data miners and testers and people deep diving the mechanics can truly convey. Sega is just garbage at making RDR work in NGS. Especially when damn near everything in the game has such low drop rates that RDR doesn't even do anything for them. I remember during one of the Ultra PSO2Days, I had almost 200% RDR consistently and was vet farming for DK3s to use for my gear for 15-18 hours a day because I'm an idiot and I didn't get a single DK3 that entire Ultra Pso2day event. But after Ultra PSO2day and I went back to farming without any RDR at all, I would get DK3s more often. Because DK3s have such a low drop rate that not even RDR makes a significant impant. I've gone weeks at a time not getting a single DK3. I used to be well known as a no lifing vet farmer who never slept and never got a single DK3 for days on end. Because I didn't have the meseta to shell out for DK3s. I put in countless hours into farms to make nmeseta and work on my gear and RDR fails me every time.

[Gilver Redgrave]

Originally posted by Crystal Sharrd:

Nah, it forces multiplayer more than base does.

What ?
Mind giving some examples for that statement ? I never felt forced to do multiplayer in NGS ever. Hell i need to search for reasons to play in pt with others.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Gebp:

Basically, what this <20% statistic actually means, though, is people who play PSO2/NGS don't even want to play a multiplayer game.

Not true. Just because people don't form parties, it doesn't mean they don't want to play a multiplayer game.

Very few people play combat zones by themselves, the majority prefer a room to be full.
UQ's are played with 7 other people most of the time.
Purple Triggers are played with 3 other players.
Trinitas is played with 3 other players.
Veteran killing usually has multiple rooms of 32 players working together.
Players prefer to fight Giga's with as many other players as possible.

Not being in parties doesn't equal players not wanting to play a multiplayer game, it just means that they see little value in being in a party.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Originally posted by Yggranya:

Originally posted by Gilver Redgrave:

What ?
Mind giving some examples for that statement ? I never felt forced to do multiplayer in NGS ever. Hell i need to search for reasons to play in pt with others.

I imagine they mean the fact everything takes longer to do solo with spongy enemies since everything you might farm for is a lot faster when you throw more bodies at it.

Regardless, as we can see here, when the first thing people say in response to the OPs question are about the buffs you get for being in a party, rather than any actual reason for them to not liking or wanting to be in a party (say, their friends aren't playing or something), we can see that the "multiplayer" is just as much of a lie and a joke as it is in all "multiplayer" games.

This, and the whole open world thing.

[Aeden]

Base game had much more party oriented content, but that version's population has dwindled to the point I doubt it even registers.

NGS on the other hand has very little content to encourage or even facilitate party play. No party beacons, no function to search for open parties, and only like 3 missions where parties would even be required. When someone does eventually send out party invites during a UQ, it's a 50/50 change you'll even be able to join. Either due to the UI blocking the interface, or the other player leaving a window open which some how prevents joining.

Heck, half of the community functions are locked behind gigantic "grind" walls, like needing to buy/sell X amount of individual items on the market.

[Rogue]

Join an alliance and ask around... Random got to random. Also once you hit the level cap, there's hardly any point to party unless you want rdr boost to the max. E.g premium, pso2 day, concert, triboost, party, etc

I sometimes party up with randoms in UQ, that's about it. Combat zones like lost central, only party when I'm leveling, aka less than level 60. That's the problem with people who are LTTP... I'm level 60 for all classes and even on my 2 alt accounts , so hardly party anymore except alliance requests.

[chill out]

Originally posted by HermitST:

Originally posted by Gebp:

Basically, what this <20% statistic actually means, though, is people who play PSO2/NGS don't even want to play a multiplayer game.

Not true. Just because people don't form parties, it doesn't mean they don't want to play a multiplayer game.

Very few people play combat zones by themselves, the majority prefer a room to be full.
UQ's are played with 7 other people most of the time.
Purple Triggers are played with 3 other players.
Trinitas is played with 3 other players.
Veteran killing usually has multiple rooms of 32 players working together.
Players prefer to fight Giga's with as many other players as possible.

Not being in parties doesn't equal players not wanting to play a multiplayer game, it just means that they see little value in being in a party.

There's a big problem here, though. Playing in combat zones solo is categorically slower than playing in a group, because combat zones are balanced for 6~8 player, not 1 players.
This also applies to everything else you mentioned.

If the enemy HP scaled linearly with the number of players, nobody would play combat zones with a group at all, because suddenly it's just as efficient, if not moreso, to play solo.
Even if you only scale enemy HP by 50% per additional player, I'd wager people would increasingly prefer solo play, because the fact of the matter is, people don't want to play a multiplayer game. They just don't want to deal with the stacked stats pushing people towards grouping up to offset enemy beefgate.

If players wanted to actually play a multiplayer game, ie interact with other players in the game, they would form parties to better optimize that interaction.
More evidence of this is how often players (don't) talk in group areas, because they don't favor any kind of social interaction.

Like someone else said, online in this game is just a form of DRM.

[Miles Bluefalls]

Never notice any real boost to drop rate when joining with randos.
Thus it really doesn't benefit me to do so. Especially when it turns out the randos you join didn't bother to turn off their CONSTANT AUTO CHAT that covers the screen.

[chill out]

Originally posted by Miles Bluefalls:

Never notice any real boost to drop rate when joining with randos.
Thus it really doesn't benefit me to do so. Especially when it turns out the randos you join didn't bother to turn off their CONSTANT AUTO CHAT that covers the screen.

It seems like most people have this set to spam the entire multi anyway. Wasn't there an option to reject all forms of autochat somewhere in the settings?