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

[thendcomes]

Welp, it happened. After 3 weeks, a ballpark 650-700 kills, and 145 Ultros cards, Terra dropped for me tonight.


(Only 134 shown since I didn't start keeping my cards until after my first farm session.)

I made many friends, and even some enemies along the way. I mostly stayed patient but sometimes lost my cool. I questioned my sanity, my faith, my life choices, and at one point I even submitted a bug report.

This wasn't a totally new phenomenon. It took me something like 25 windows to catch a Bombardfish of all fishes. I lost 34 Neptos before I finally caught one. Bahamut took me 18 hours of Elmer and one zodiac item took me 42 runs of Stone Vigil.

I know I don't need the card, I just wanted it. But to see a hundred Terras drop in the very same fights I was in, to see person after person join my party to get Terra within a couple kills, it ate away at me. Most people just laughed or cried with me, but some teased and taunted. And what was I getting through all of this? Feeble light and 15 soldiery per kill.

The thing is, I don't believe this should happen. Is this what Yoshi P wants? For some people to suffer while achieving their in-game goals? Nobody should have to play for hundreds of hours to accomplish the very same thing that was accomplished by thousands of others after only a few minutes. This game needs a safety net for their RNG. I wouldn't be mad if I knew Terra had an abysmal drop rate, but she doesn't. I was just abysmally unlucky.

FWIW, in my experience, Terra seemed to be roughly a 5-10% drop rate and Ultros is about 20-25%. The actual chance of not getting her in my first 650 kills at 5% drop rate was 3.3x10^-15, or .0000000000033%.

In conclusion, the horror stories are true, and you don't want to wish them on your worst enemy. If you don't believe it, then it simply hasn't happened to you... yet.

[ZellosWilder]

Took me 48 Ultros cards before i got Terra was over 300 runs I was doing my nexus lights on ninja though so wasn't so bad in the end but 134+...

If the card exchange MGP was worth more then it would of been alot better but 10 MGP per Ultros is a little low you can't even buy a gold pack with all those Ultros.

Terra felt more like 1-2% though I only ever saw 1 other person say they got it in all the runs I did.

[juniglee]

I totally feel your pain, after all my pony farming. I haven't gotten round to farming Bartz' and Terra's cards yet, but congratulations.

[Tsukino]

Holy crap.

I saw you several times during my first 30 or so runs. I have largely given up on the drops from trials myself, but this alone should stand to show that this needs to be fixed.

[Zanarken]

Is this what Yoshi P wants? For some people to suffer while achieving their in-game goals? Nobody should have to play for hundreds of hours to accomplish the very same thing that was accomplished by thousands of others after only a few minutes.

I 100% agree with you. With that said, where do you draw the line? This experience is apart of almost every faucet of the game. I've spent 23 hours farming atma right now & have only had 2 drop. Took me 64 wins against Elmer to get Bahamut card & nearly 1500 for Gaius. I still have yet to win a 3,600 or 10,000 MGP mini-cacpot simply because the cards I receive do not allot me the opportunity. I do believe there should be a safety net, but the 1% will be vehemently opposed to it & thus it will not happen.

[PotatoTree]

I saw you a few times in there lol, had to cheese it a several times because the other dps couldn't do the imp thing. I was a bit luckier with mine but honestly after the 10th run through I was already hating it and would watch a movies while barely paying attention. I already posted in your reddit thread, but just to voice myself here too, I also agree that the RNG in this game is ridiculous. It's supposed to be a game, and it's supposed to be fun. Running 1k runs while someone gets the drop on their first run is not fun, it's extremely frustrating. All this does is make people hate the content they are running, hate the new people they are running with, and hate the game in general.

And people who say that it's just RNG or optional content need to get it through their heads that it's supposed to be a game and it's supposed to be fun. Some people have fun collecting cards, especially ones that are needed in tourneys. The one and done vs 1k runs thing needs to stop. They need to clamp the standard deviation (like drops only happen in runs 25-50, and 50+ it's guaranteed), or use a token system or something.

I loved the game, but that's past tense. I'm a pretty loyal player, but when I was farming Gaius after probably 15+h of game time and seeing people get their cards in under an hour, I seriously started to think about quitting for a few months.

[thendcomes]

I 100% agree with you. With that said, where do you draw the line? This experience is apart of almost every faucet of the game. I've spent 23 hours farming atma right now & have only had 2 drop. Took me 64 wins against Elmer to get Bahamut card & nearly 1500 for Gaius. I still have yet to win a 3,600 or 10,000 MGP mini-cacpot simply because the cards I receive do not allot me the opportunity. I do believe there should be a safety net, but the 1% will be vehemently opposed to it & thus it will not happen.

That's a really good question, and not one I have an answer to. Square on occasion has said that when they planned the RNG steps of the relic, they had in mind a certain amount of time that they felt was sufficient for players to spend on each step. Individual steps may take longer than others, but overall the length of time would approach a mean that they were comfortable with.

So if they know what the mean will be for the overall experience, maybe just chop it off based on standard deviations. If the process is involved over many steps (dungeon atmas, relic atmas, card atmas), maybe once your total farm time or your total win/kills/victories reaches a critical mass, make everything after that 100%. Maybe just cutting off individual steps after one standard deviation is the answer. I don't know if that's a viable solution for this game, and it could even present more problems than it solves.

[Synestr]

I agree, I was one of the lucky ones I suppose. I didn't even know about this Terra card. I went into the fight looking for the Typhoon/Ultros card. First win I hear the click and it was Terra. I was like da fuq...I got some grats and some FU's. The RNG or drop rate on it is stupid on all cards. It took me another 40ish runs to get the duo card, in which time I received a few more Terras.

Drop rates on some of these need to be fixed for sure. Gaius, Imperial has funded me well and gotten my MGP up there, but he has never given me the card. I run two Praetoriums, get card on second run....after hours of farming imperial.

/confused

[AlternativeOne]

Got it on first run, its popped up in the roulettes 3times i got both cards and minion

[thendcomes]

I loved the game, but that's past tense. I'm a pretty loyal player, but when I was farming Gaius after probably 15+h of game time and seeing people get their cards in under an hour, I seriously started to think about quitting for a few months.

Momoko, I know you've been playing since the beginning, so this is especially meaningful. I really wonder about the lengths to which they will test our passion for, and our loyalty to, the game. This recent trial combined with how the RNG has ramped up over the patches, I've put serious thought into quitting as well, but I've bitched out every time. Maybe we're just suckers and SE knows we'll always come crawling back in the end.