RNG, Why it exist, why it sucks, and how we can fix it.

[Edellis]

That said, I'd rather go with the PSO system of it all being RNG, but everything having a chance to drop a different, useful, and (for the most part) desirable item.

PSO sort of worked this way, but in truth it was really quite the same. The main reason Rare drops in PSO felt so plentiful is because 1) Special Abilities were the main draw of the weapon, and 2) A majority of the weapons (And honestly units as well) available in the game were usable across more than one class. So there was actually a very good chance you could find use for the item thats dropping for you.

But in later levels, once you became equipped with a decent set of weapons, finding that endgame "relic" type (or allagan in this game i believe) item was the same old praying to the RNG god. Eventually your bank fills up with dozens of copies of the same weapon you long since stopped caring about. But the most significant reason PSO got away with this (especially involving Alts) is because the only requirements based on level were armors, and MAGs let you significantly boost the strength of low characters.

So in PSO, finding weapons that you could never equip was always a good incentive to level alts, because the game rewarded the commitment of your Main and greatly encouraged the leveling of alts.



tl;dr

Nobody would [really] care about the issue of random drops if gearing/leveling alts was more a matter of what you own instead of what your level is. The armory bonus is neat, it speeds up your leveling process but still forces you to feel as if you're a newbie, regardless of what awesome equipment you have in your inventory.


IMO the armoury should not only provide the EXP bonus, but shave a scaling amount of levels off the equipment you can equip on alts. Say with a Bard at level 50, you have a -15~20 level requirement off all armor of Disciples of War. Maybe less for Disciples of Magic.