Inside the Belly Adjustment

[Ixander]

Maybe I'm just posting this because I'm on my way to my own Ebisu horror story, but I'd like to know what the community thinks about this.

I'd like to see the reward system for Inside the Belly be less random.
It's always more motivating and satisfying for people to know that they are making progress towards something, than to feel like they just wasted the last n hours with nothing to show for it.

This kind of system has worked very successfully for Emp weapons, and it's pretty easy to see why. Imagine if you only needed 1 item for each stage of an emp upgrade. I'm pretty sure that someone fighting Chloris for the 20th time with no drop will be much more annoyed and frustrated than a player who under the current system has fought Chloris 40 times and knows that at worse, he has 10 kills to go.
A similar system could be implemented for the inside the belly quest.

Say for example an item has a 1/100 "drop" rate from a fish. If, after a player turns in 200 fish, they're guaranteed to get the item (assuming they haven't gotten it alredy), the number of items entering the game should on average remain the same, but players will be a lot happier. (I think the math works out right, it's late...)
I would argue that they could actually lower the drop rate AND guarantee the item after a number as high as maybe 400 fish and people would preffer that over the current random system.

This allows people to feel that no matter what, they are progressing towards a goal, and it makes a lucky break feel like an actual unexpected fortuitous chance rather than the object of the effort.

Now that fishing is finally getting some well deserved attention, and Inside the Belly is getting some nice rewards, I think it's a good time to revisit how the mechanics of the quest work... Or it might just be that after years of fishing, I still don't have an Ebisu :p

What say you fishermen?

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Except the randomness is actually well done for Inside the Belly.

[Kristal]

Say for example an item has a 1/100 "drop" rate from a fish. If, after a player turns in 200 fish, they're guaranteed to get the item (assuming they haven't gotten it alredy), the number of items entering the game should on average remain the same, but players will be a lot happier. (I think the math works out right, it's late...)
I would argue that they could actually lower the drop rate AND guarantee the item after a number as high as maybe 400 fish and people would preffer that over the current random system.


Trading 40 fish for a 1% chance on an item gives 33.1% chance of obtaining it at least once.
Trading 400 fish for a 1% chance on an item gives 98.2% chance of obtaining it at least once.

You are very likely to have the item before hitting 400 fish...

Personally I think it's more exciting to get the item when you least expect it, especially when it happens long before you expect it to happen.

[Shadax]

If the items are so bad to get, why do I see a screenshot on FFXIAH every other day of someone getting both the silk and shoot within like 10 trades?

[Kristal]

If the items are so bad to get, why do I see a screenshot on FFXIAH every other day of someone getting both the silk and shoot within like 10 trades?

I know of at least one case of someone winning millions in a zipcode lotery... if they hadn't quit the month before. And another of someone winning the jackpot on a 1/5th ticket (as unique as a 1/1 ticket, you just pay 20% and win 20%), then getting upset for only winning 1/5th of the jackpot.

In short, losers are not interesting, winners are :D Unless the loss is particularly dramatic.