Omi

Responding to the OP as it is the only post that I have read. PSU was never made or meant to be difficult gameplay wise. Sure Sega might have thrown in a few missions that were supposed to be more challenging than just running normal runs due to certain parameters in the run itself, but the base gameplay "non-difficulty" always was apparent even through those parameters. It just might have taken you a few runs to learn that run, but then after that even that run was easy. When enough "loud" players get together and are heard by devs and/or other players regarding this topic you end up getting both posts like this one (not saying it's bad), and the Illuminous Collusion event (not saying it was bad either). IC as a whole was the happiest I have been with this server, but also the most frustrated. Happy mostly because they made their own event run, something that I never thought that I would see, which is great for the server in the long run. Frustrated because an event run is not supposed to be made around difficulty (likely influenced by those "loud" players), weather the run was difficult or not it just didn't work well as an event run IMO. (I know it's their server and they can do what they want with it, etc. That is my opinion though. Events are supposed to be beacons of hope for EXP grinding and rares not attempted punishment while having to earn an EXP boost at the beginning of it. OK sorry mini-rant over.) The "difficulty" in PSU always came in the form of an EXP grind for typical gameplay. First is was getting to lvl 180, then if you thought that was bad then GAS would absolutely kick your ass worse than Bruce trying to solo his own dungeon (OK not that bad). For others they found difficulty in RNG (grinding or running a run ad nauseum for an item) which I never understood, and still don't understand. Either way though RNG is RNG (and Sega's Paywall) and the EXP Grind you are still killing the same things over and over while gathering it which loops back to the gameplay not being difficult on purpose. For me on Clem the most difficult thing currently is finding the motivation to log in. Which is unfortunate, but I am mostly waiting for an event (with an event run) or possibly some of those changes mentioned in Marm's post (whichever comes first). The addicting part for me on the official server that kept me playing and coming back was TAing (or speed running) mostly. It was also a way of getting a run that you might have seen hundreds of times and adding a layer of difficulty to it, as you are always fighting time, along with stuff that you and your party can't control like server ping. And before I start remembering any more of my repressed Bruce's Dungeon memories... another thing that kept me coming back was breaking Masterforce with GAS. It took a lot of grinding, but it was fun and engaging with each new thing unlocked. Also endgame gear was good enough to keep me coming back for. Clem is on its way, and from Marm's post looks to be going in the right direction. Just sort of a waiting game for me now.

@Lupophobia: You are right the balancing of certain weapons would be an issue, and could get broken (even more so than certain weapons already will be in the future). This is just a rough idea and things can (and should) be changed to help keep some sort of balance. You bring up some other good positive points as well, that I am sure some players would use this for. I am glad that you like it. @Zeta: Yes 100% - this idea would take a long time to properly implement (with everything involved) and I also would much rather Clem work on delivering new content than this. From what you said this idea of mine could fit in pretty well as an end game grinding system, once Clem hits its lvl cap, and the upgrades could even be tweaked more to help represent certain GAS upgrades (provided Clem doesn't get GAS). Also, identifying certain weapons that got these upgrades (and which upgrades they got) would be a challenge and it is something that would need to be done even though they are account bound. Currently I also would use it to beef up some of my A Rank weapons and save for future S Rank weapons that I know I want (and I hope come out). ----------------------------------------------- Thank you guys for some input, it is appreciated. The template is already transforming a bit, which is a good thing.

I'm bored. Not much new is going on in PSU currently, so I figured I would see if I could get something going on the forums since I am not on Discord (plus this topic is better for the forums anyway). Are you ready for another forum topic about grinding?... How about a forum topic that embraces the current state of grinding in Clementine, but wants to add a new layer to it? ------------------------------------------------------------ As mentioned I really like the current grinding system that Clementine has adopted. This is a new server, with new ways and approaches of doing things that don't include things like monetization, while also keeping the core gameplay of PSU the same. With that being said, I do not want to change anything about how you grind weapons (minor tweeks to percentages of certain grinders or grinds might happen, but that is not my concern). My idea instead revolves around after you grind a weapon to 10/10 and 1 or 2 of those 4 unused very lonely looking NPCs on the 3rd floor of Clyez (and might remain unused if GAS doesn't end up coming to Clem). For my ill-conceived idea lets take an example weapon... one that is popular now... the Caduceus. We will call this particular Caduceus "NotRusta" because I don't like typing Caduceus over and over again. Now my "luck" at grinding has, and always will be, absolute garbage. However, for the sake of this idea lets say by some "miracle" (millions and millions of meseta) I get NotRusta to 10/10 and other than obviously and immediately basking in it's 2554 PP and 1377 TP glory wouldn't it be interesting if something else could be done with it? What if (here is where the part about ill-conceived comes in) the old GAS NPC got turned into an NPC that only accepted any Manufacturer brand (GRM, Yohmei, Tenora, Kubara) of 10/10 weapons for particular upgrades with a few (but not permanent (except for one)) setbacks. Now this list of upgrades could be pretty extensive and the idea is to be somewhat of a meseta sink as well, but it is to be used with weapons that you would want to keep only... allow me to elaborate. The idea is this NPC will charge different amounts depending on the weapon type, if the weapon is one handed or two handed, and what rank the weapon is. Cheaper for the lower rank one handed stuff is generally a good rule to follow. Now some ideas I had for upgrade options were of course Att/TP power increase, Acc increase, PP increase, PP per tick increase, Att/Acc/TP Requirement decrease, Variance decrease (but not to 0), Range increase, and SE Proc increase (for applicable weapons) to list several and I am sure more can be thought of as well. Right bout now some people might be screaming at me (their monitor) "PA BOOST!!!" which you are not wrong, and I took that into consideration, but I ultimately think that it shouldn't be something so easily added onto a weapon (even if extremely expensive too add on) and should be saved for those particular few weapons to have natively that have yet to be released on Clem. Back to NotRusta... so I take 10/10 NotRusta and hand it over to this NotGAS NPC and obviously tell it to add on the TP Requirement Decrease Power Increase (which I am thinking should be an undetermined percentage of the 0/10 Att/TP value of the weapon. This would prevent any set value like 200 being added onto a Shotgun for example, and would make players consider the weapon before just adding a Power Increase.) This is where things change and where this idea gets more interesting... NotGAS NPC hands me back NotRusta and NotRusta is now 0/10 again, however it's base TP value is higher than 1080. (So for this idea lets say that it is +10% of a particular weapons 0/10 power is added onto a S rank, two handed, technic weapon for 5 million meseta. These values can obviously change and this is just an example.) So my now 0/10 NotRusta now has 1080 + 108 = 1188 TP, and a if NotRusta were to hit 10/10 again it would have 1377 + 108 = 1485 TP. However, the permanent setback would be if I take 0/10 1188 TP NotRusta and tab over to it's description that shows its 14 stars, it now shows a small circle with a line through it on the bottom right of the weapon. That is correct... NotRusta is now bound to my account permanently, I cannot sell it or trade it. Which is why you want to make sure that any 10/10 weapon that you bring to NotGAS NPC is one that you want to keep as it will be bound to your account. -------------------------------------------------------------- NotRusta helped me explain the base of my idea, but their still is more to it. If I you get a weapon to 10/10 again that already has an upgrade from this NPC you can upgrade that weapon again, however, you cannot pick the same upgrade that you picked before. So if I somehow managed to 10/10 NotRusta again and took it back to NotGAS NPC I couldn't pick the TP Power Increase, but I could give it a SE Proc Increase for example. Doing this again will reset the weapon back to 0/10 again and will not remove the account bound aspect (and no, Account Bound Removal should not be an option for this NPC to have). I am thinking that you can only visit this NPC twice per weapon, so both pick your weapons carefully and pick your upgrades carefully as there is no going back. Additionally weapons that already have certain effects on them like the Komazli Rod, for example, has a SE Proc increase natively on it. That weapon if 10/10d and brought to this NPC would be ineligible for the SE Proc increase, but would be eligible for anything else. Additional Melee Weapon options could include things like Burn, Virus, Stun, or Incapacitate SEs at certain levels (Burn and Virus at least lvl 3), etc. If the Melee Weapon already has a SE added to it then it cannot get an additional one added to it nor can the lvl of it increase so it would be ineligible for the SEs. If it is a Prototype Weapon with either No Variance, Status Effect Amplification, or Increased Attack Range then it would ineligible for any of those upgrades, but would still retain its Prototype upgrade regardless. With this method in place once you get a weapon that you want to keep it will need to be grinded to 10/10 three times for its maximum potential to be brought out. Which might (<- key word) appease some of those people that got upset about weapons no longer breaking and going down a grind, but also it is completely optional and the grinding system as it is would still stay intact. It can also be done with any weapons no matter the rank C, B, A, or S with prices being the most expensive for Two Handed Ranged or Technic S rank weapons (not Melee due to them being a particular element only). So if you wanted to pimp out your Rappy Noel Madog, for example, you could do so relatively cheaply (but adding more power to it would probably be a waste of meseta, but you could if you wanted to). Now before you anyone starts giving me an itemized list of why I need to be brought into an asylum (it better be itemized), think about it... think about it with certain Weapons which should make an appearance in the future. Would you pay an extra 5+ mil and go through grinding a Rustalarod (using this as it seems to be on a lot of players minds for obvious reasons) to 10/10 a second time for an extra 128 (according to Re-PSUPedia, if +10% of 0/10) TP? I would... I'd hate myself, but I would as Rustalarod is a keeper as many Techers would agree. In closing, this is a random idea that I thought up one night just to add a new interesting layer to the grinding aspect of Clementine. One that also would need to be approached very carefully as it can get quite expensive very quickly. I have not thought of any specific pricing ideas, but they would differ as no one in their right (or wrong) mind would pay the same price for a ATA Increase as a Power Increase. The ill-conceived part is why I put this in the Discussion instead of in the Suggestions. I think that I have a decent template though. Congrats for reading all of that (if you did)! If not, you might want to before replying. TLDR - Nope!

Yeah I figured from the current lack of server population that there isn't any active boosts currently, just the Sonic Birthday Celebration thing (sorry I refuse to call that an event, but at least its something and got my nostalgia glands frothing with the Puyoment Aura). To me it seemed like something that has been lacking for a while and would provide some good information without having to log into anything. Also, as you mentioned, it would be a manual process and it could be forgotten but I figure these boosts usually last at least 1 week long so if it gets forgotten for a day or two then hopefully it will be remembered before its over. Thank you for the consideration, and of course for all your work on the wiki it is very helpful and appreciated.

To start off I will preface this by saying that I do not consider myself an active member of Discord. Although I technically do have a Discord account, I hardly ever use it, and generally like to ignore it and forget that it exists. This is more than likely a problem that many people will not have as Discord is a very popular platform. However, myself not being a member of the Clementine Discord community I feel like I am missing out on some important information that (at least currently) might only appear on Discord. Additionally if is information is not Discord then I am not sure where to find it. I posting this now as it became an issue during the Illuminus Collusion Event. During the course of Illuminus Collusion I was trading Megi Spheres for PA Frags and got the message that we received an EXP Boost and 7 Casino Coins per day, which was great and I was very happy that I happened to be online when that message was very briefly displayed across the top of the screen. For the remainder of the event I saw no more messages and I had no idea if there were any more boosts added at all. However, considering all the players that I saw at the Kubara grinding area, and that the Casino eventually started handing out 10 Coins per day I am willing to bet that more boosts were added that I had no idea when they were added. This was different from the first event, Subzero Outbreak, where whenever you logged into the game before you got to the character selection screen there is this display that lists the Event and then below that it listed the currently active boosts. I am not sure what happened to that part of the display (which it still showed the Event, but lacked that other information) during the last event, but I really relied on that. My suggestion would be if the wiki could be updated on the right hand side under the "Clementine Updates" category with two more small areas. One being "Server Status" that would just show both the Official Clem and Test servers (although I have never tried to get on he Test Server before, not sure if its open to everyone or not) and just a simple green Online or a red Offline if it's under maintenance. The second being "Active Boosts" which would just display the Official Clem servers current active boosts and if there happens to be any. This would greatly help me out and I bet a bunch more people also even if they don't think it will currently. I don't think that anyone should have to get on Discord (or even the game) to see something like the server status or active boosts and this seems like a logical approach to the situation. Lastly a huge thank you to Marm and the rest of the Clementine team for making PSU a reality again, and having all these platforms to discuss PSU (even if I don't use them all) available to the community. It is wonderful to be back to PSU (even if I was technically back in Oct/Nov of last year).

This is an interesting proposal, and with some ideas (which you are currently getting) and proper implementation it could be a good new thing for Clem to add. I still remember JP PSU and those NPCs treating my weapons similar to how a baby treats a diaper, and as a result me treating my bank account in a similar manner to unbreak them. So from previous emotional, simulated, and monetary scarring anything that doesn't make the weapon "break" is very welcomed by me. I know on Clem we don't have to worry about the monetary aspect (which is great), but this is also a way of getting around that without potentially getting overly complex with "unbreaking items" in the future. (I don't play on the Test Server, and they might have already tried to implement them.) I do have a few suggestions: I am thinking have the weapon with three distinct "lock" points where grinds cannot go below that point. They are of course 0/10, 10/10, but also 5/10. Going along the OPs recommended proposal for grinding having a grind now "fail" say going from 8->9 would bring that weapon back to 8/10, but it has very low chance of success. If instead the lock is at 5/10 the success chances could be a bit higher (along with boosting the % a bit more with better quality grinders instead of just a 1% increase per), but if you "fail" that 8->9 grind it goes back 5/10. Nothing outrageously higher, and make it a bit more punishing after that 5/10 "lock" barrier as well but nothing as dismal as 5% success from 9->10. I can see the middle fingers from the NPCs now... I also do like the idea of utilizing the grinders in the way suggested. A 0/10 weapon gets +1 - +10 to pick from, and a 6/10 can only pick between X+7 - X+10 to grind with. As far as the rest of the balance is concerned with weapons like Agito Repca that get massive when you grind them, it really depends on if Clem will eventually be implementing the PA Boosted weapons (which are more powerful anyway) and the "Full Custom Power" Limit Break. Ultimately it'll come down to a lot of testing to find proper balance, but in the case of PA Boosted weapons on the JP server... they seemed to be unbalanced on purpose due to their rarity.

Necro Bump. Just wanted to bump this as almost 1 1/2 years later it is still an issue to be looked into. It only appears to be a problem with very few people (myself included) and changing from 32 to 16 bit (or 16 to 32 bit) doesn't help. Also it seems to be a Laptop only issue as the three reported problems (that I have seen) with this have all come from Laptop users. Not sure if the options can be easily adjusted to let you save them without entering in a screen size, but it would be helpful if so. Either that or some other way of fixing it. I'll try any suggestions (other than buying a desktop). Even though I am having this issue I am still very much enjoying my time back in PSU, and thank you to all involved for making this private server.

Not sure if this should go here or with Bugs, but the options under the Clementine Launcher refuse to acknowledge my screen size (or any screen size for that matter). When I go to change anything Graphics, Windowed, Controls, etc. and try to press Enter it gives me the "Screen Size has not been Selected" error message and refuses to update anything. I tried everything I can think of to make this appear (like adjusting all the other options) and it refuses to recognize that I have a screen size. It is very difficult to play with the default controls on a Controller with its native inverted L and R Trigger camera panning (and I tried joy2key and it refused to work also... probably an overwriting issue). Any help would be very much appreciated. PS: I am on a laptop, maybe this is a laptop only issue?