The Ill-Conceived Ideas of a Madman

[Omi]

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?

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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.

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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!

Edited June 30, 2021 by Omi

[Lupophobia]

It would give weapons that drop normally, a chance to be similar to that of a proto-type weapon,  and would add more variety/ customization to those weapons, while balancing this could be broken, but not out of question,
this idea is something interesting in terms of a gold sink as well. Especially for weapons that people would prefer to use for its cosmetic value over just raw power. Kind of like the weapon extension system in PSP2/I  and Weapon Craft in PSO2. I really like this idea.

[Zeta]

I think my main objection to this is that it would probably take a lot of development time and effort to get going, and I'd rather see the Clem team work on delivering new content (level cap/missions) instead. It might even require significant asm work on the client to provide a proper interface, display the bonus afterwards, etc. If you have to balance costs and bonuses for each weapon separately, that's a lot of effort ontop of the technical work that would be required, too.

I don't dislike the idea itself, granted - I'd probably use this system to juice up my favorite 9* weapons during grind boost events. S rank weapons are far too costly for me to go for 10/10 even once, let alone multiple times.

[Omi]

@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).

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Thank you guys for some input, it is appreciated.  The template is already transforming a bit, which is a good thing.

[Lupophobia]

I think something like this could be balanced if implemented in proper moderation though, it might even make existing weapons have more utility, besides just raw power, and if it does there should only be cap on how much power it could get. otherwise weapons like Konsaikon? with MORE PP? and FURTHER IMRPOVED Regen? it would make this weapon seem alot more appealing considering how much raw power it has on its own. Like even implementing something that has reduced pp usage would be amazing esp. for certain PAs that would normally eat through your PP. Or damage variation reduction by like maybe 80% would be great for weapons like bringer rifle or the joke pico hammer. Though I'd really like to see more melee weapons with status effects imbued onto them, with something like stun. Maybe you have a weapon that you wanted to have that EE status effect like a prototype weapons do but its only 47%,  it could add an additional 5% to your base weapon that doesnt already have that, bringing it to something like 52%. I would say it would be better if it was more of an expansion on the already existing prototype weapons. that players had more control over besides just additional rng.

[packor]

had a different idea, where you can transform a grinded item to the next rarity of item, EX: hyper viper > twin tornado, that way we can desaturate a little without NPC-ing, but this is fine too.