PSO2 JP Additional Changes to Economy on October 10th, Detailed on Official Blog

In a lengthy post on the official PSO2 JP blog, Phantasy Star Online 2 producer Satoshi Sakai has detailed some additional changes that will be made during the October 10th content update. Here is a brief summary of the changes, courtesy of Mike in the PSO2 forum:

Rooms that have existed for over four hours will no longer spawn enemies nor will rooms nearing four hours (at 3 hours & 30 minutes) be accepting new parties. Vendor prices for weapons and units will be falling to "combat inflation." Vendor prices for single star weapons and items will be raised. 10 star and greater items will not be tradeable in any way. Level 11 disks will not be tradeable in any way. 7 Star or greater weapons will now drop with elements in the 20~45 range while tekked items will range 25~50. Bosses will drop more meseta when they drop meseta (this doesn't mean they'll drop more meseta but the value of the meseta they drop will increase). Eventually, the amount of meseta needed to grind weapons will be decreased

According to a full translation of the blog entry, posted by PSOW member Kion, these changes are a result of three major problems that have been brought to the development team's attention during their observation of player activity:

1. Players were farming random fields endlessly, as they yielded the best return. This was negatively impacting the chances of meeting new players.

2. Rare items could be obtained from player shops much easier than actually hunting for the items, ruining the experience of actually finding the items. As a result, most players were just farming meseta rather than hunting for the items they wanted.

3. Higher ranking items could be sold to NPCs for too high of a value, leading to an environment where the value of money decreases and people are forced to farm more and more to buy items from player shops.

Sakai-san noted that these issues would only breed continued inflation and did not feel that would have a positive impact on those who play the game. Some possible solutions that were rejected in favor of the above changes included spawn caps on enemies once a certain number have been defeated, reduced drop rates, and limits on how much items could be sold for.

The changes are being met with mixed reactions so far, but we won't know the actual impact on the economy or how the game is played until sometime after October 10th, when the update goes live. Thanks to everyone who reported this news and helped provide translations!