Yoshi P, is this what you wanted? (Terra Branford Blues)

[Kiara]

I completely feel the OP's pain. Pure RNG is just awful. We need a change to the Drop System:

A Weighted Random Number Generator System. A bunch of people brought this up a while ago, when Atma were first introduced (and the % was even lower than today). Specifically:

1. RNG Drop Rate + Increase Percentage(%) Chance for [Item] drop for Every Successful Clear (FATE, Dungeon, etc.), Until it Finally Drops.

For example, let's say the starting Drop Rate is 1% for an Atma. If you do a FATE and nothing drops, Square should add, say, +2% to your chance, so the NEXT FATE you do now has 3% (Base 1%+2%) chance. So at the most, you'd have to do 50 FATEs in the zone (+2% x 50 tries) to finally get your Atma Stone (if you had the worst luck).

This allows Yoshi P to keep that "Random Number Generator" / "Lottery" feel and grind (ugh), while providing a safety (and sanity) net for Players. So if you have bad luck, at least eventually you'll get the Item to drop within a reasonable amount of time. The Actual Bonus Percentage per Win/Clear can be balanced to whatever feels fair (+2%, +5%, etc.).

This Hybrid approach is the best of both worlds. It's frustrating that Yoshi P and the Dev Team refuse to consider something like this; and just stick with a simple, archaic "Pure RNG Only" system (just keep banging your head against the wall, "rolling the dice" and hope one day it drops). It's awful.

Examples like yours of repeating the Ultros fight HUNDREDS of times before you finally got the Terra Triple Triad Card to drop is absurd. Seriously SE?!

This needs to change in 3.0.

[RobinRethiel]

[B]H
As such, you have individuals like yourself who get completely screwed in the process. I'm in a similar predicament. Meanwhile, there are those who are blessed by the RNG gods, who have everything imaginable showered down upon them. It has become so commonplace they believe they are entitled to it & that everything is working as intended. The mere mention of a safety net, or any mechanism that might curb this disparity is quickly struck down by these individuals.

There are many ways for workarounds. You could even make it an active one. Some kind of personal "Luck Limit Break", slowly building up or just a safety net inside the code (like the one above this post), to smoothen this brutal differences a bit.

[Rufalus]

People gotta make their own safety nets by telling themselves "I don't need this optional item in my life." If I get lucky, great, but if I don't, just move on to something else and accept that it's meant to be rare.

[RobinRethiel]

People gotta make their own safety nets by telling themselves "I don't need this optional item in my life." If I get lucky, great, but if I don't, just move on to something else and accept that it's meant to be rare.

Or by telling themselves "I don't need this ***** RNG/grind game.", maybe? Because any single computer game is as optional as every item in it. People try to help here, by telling, what they dislike, giving Square a chance to fix it. To just tell them, that they should accept it means to tell them, that they should just leave this game. Pretty sure not the dream solution of Square.

[RedAntares]

Darn, and I thought that I was having bad luck, but you guys really have it bad. I did my fair share of farming for the Terra card too, but I didn't came close to more than 20 fights for it, and the Onion Knight dropped in less than 10 runs, so I guess I got really lucky.

I'm glad that you where able to obtain your card OP and wish the best of luck to anyone out there still trying to get theirs.

[Nyalia]

For those in this situation, I'd recommend against trading in your stack of cards for MGP until after 2.55. MGP rewards are being "adjusted" in 2.55, and cards may yield more after the changes. They certainly won't yield less!

[Rufalus]

People try to help here, by telling, what they dislike, giving Square a chance to fix it. To just tell them, that they should accept it means to tell them, that they should just leave this game.

I don't mean to dissuade people from giving constructive feedback. Some feedback is not realistic, and people hurt themselves by unnecessarily going to extremes in a futile effort to beat RNG.

It's unrealistic to expect that all players should be entitled to all items. Some things are deliberately made to be rare. If you go in with a mentality that because one person won a lottery, I have a right to win too, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

Now if main scenario progress was gated by the Terra card, it would be a problem, but since that is not the case, it should be seen as a rare bonus that is not intended to be handed out to 100% of players, and nobody should make themselves ill by spending too long trying to get it.

[Welsper59]

The problem isn't getting gaius card or terra's card, it's the way you are supposed to get them. Potentially 1000 Ultros & Typhoon battles? Thank you, but I think I'm gonna have to pass. It's the same damn old thing, they release new content with ridiculous rate drops (not even 1%, probably 0.5% etc. we are getting to sick levels), and then, they trash it out a few months later. Wanna bet something that Terra's Branford card will be almost given for free in a few months once it goes onto the "outdated content shelf"?
I'm honestly starting to get tired of the same thing over and over again, they have millions of ways to keep people busy without forcing them to get through these brutally horrendous drop rates which involve spamming a boss hundreds of times. As much as I like this game, and as much as I think Yoshi is such a cool person, I'm at the verge of cancelling my sub, I strongly feel they are making a brutal abuse of the RNG.

What's wrong with the harsh beginning payout then flood of goods later method? I'd also like to know what the millions of ways to keep people busy (in an MMORPG) is without utilizing RNG and keeping the playerbase from being bored with nothing to do. I'm serious on the inquiry, because I agree about the ridiculous RNG bit being over the top (given how poor the majority base is at pacing themselves lol), but I don't agree that you think there are so many options available realistically doable for their 1-3 month content windows lol.

[siverstorm]

That's really unfortunate :/

I gave up on triad simply because I just found chocobo racing way more fun (it has its own fair bit of annoying rng, but nothing like this).

Just hearing about all the farming some people need to do to get their cards then thinking back on all the rng drop rate crap I dealt with during my relic and I just nope'd out of triad.

[thendcomes]

It's unrealistic to expect that all players should be entitled to all items. Some things are deliberately made to be rare. If you go in with a mentality that because one person won a lottery, I have a right to win too, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

Nobody expects that, and nobody has that mentality. I hate to be the "straw man guy" (really I do), but... straw man!

The thing about Terra is that it's not very rare. Like my OP said, if it was very rare, I wouldn't have cared. I'd have known what I'm getting into, and if it took 1000 runs to get a 0.1% drop, then that would be satisfying. It's because it's not rare that I got all worked up and put myself through all of that. More than anything, I just wanted to get my story out for visibility of a broken (IMO) system and support for others who are going or have gone through the same stuff.