THE iDOLM@STER 2 Gameplay Thread

[hotsoup]

Is there any use of producer rank other than unlocking achievements?

[hamuzou961]

Is there any use of producer rank other than unlocking achievements?

unlock items.
speaking of which, is there a list of unlockables yet? i know you get 961 outfits at rank 2.

[BT2]

i know you get 961 outfits at rank 2.

Not true, you didn't perhaps produce dem fairies  when you got said rank now did you?

Pearls of Dragon and Ritsuko are obtained by picking the correct choices during story mode.
Smoky Thrill is obtained by clearing the game once.

[Edit]
And the 3 RK members

Those and that 50k charm are the only things I qualify as unlockables, the rest of the items in game are bought in the 2 stores and at the charm shops in every prefecture.

[Shijou]

I need some help, everybody. I'm on my first playthrough. My unit has just released their second CD (i) and for some reason, even though I have way more fans and maximum popularity in all areas, the sales have been much less than for my first release. Am I missing something? How can I increase sales? Thanks in advance

[Cael K.]

I need some help, everybody. I'm on my first playthrough. My unit has just released their second CD (i) and for some reason, even though I have way more fans and maximum popularity in all areas, the sales have been much less than for my first release. Am I missing something? How can I increase sales? Thanks in advance

What's your High Score look like?

I'd go for regular Lives to hit up Keeps. To summarize real quick...

Keep - Sales don't decrease that week. Do a Live with the song you want to do this with.
Break - Your latest release starts selling again. Do a Festa with your latest song, must be 10+ weeks since release.
Revival - Like a Break, except for older releases. Do an Audition with said song, must be 10+ weeks since release.
Super Break - Reports say doing a Quintet Live during the initial promotion period of a song will get you this. Your sales will increase dramatically.

Each time your CDs start selling, they'll decrease linearly for four weeks, then stop selling on the fifth. (Could be off by a week, though.)

[Shijou]

It's 16764. Should I keep going to Auditions/Lives/Fes-es for the next few weeks or should I go back to doing lessons/Promotions? (I'm currently at Image Level 6) And how long should I wait before trying for a Keep?

[Cael K.]

It's 16764. Should I keep going to Auditions/Lives/Fes-es for the next few weeks or should I go back to doing lessons/Promotions? (I'm currently at Image Level 6) And how long should I wait before trying for a Keep?

If you wanna increase sales, then don't wait.

Your first week, sales will be their normal value. Next week, they'll be 75% of their initial sales. If you manage a keep this second week, the next week sales will be at 75% again, otherwise they'll drop like normal to 50%. I think you can see that Keeps have less and less effect the lower your sales are.

Also note think that you're not even guaranteed that one of these takes place on a successful Live/Fest/Audition - there's a random chance it'll happen, which gets better as you Perfect Appeal.

In general, nothing increases if you leave it alone in this game - you must prevent them from decreasing. The sooner you do it, the less you'll feel any cumulative effects.

KirbySim posted the formula earlier...
(The sum of: (fans x awareness / 2) + (4 x high score)) x (1st/2nd/etc. song bonus) x (sales decrease over weeks)

[Katsuyuki-P]

By the wya, I'm wondering what the criteria are for the awards at the end? Since this is a gameplay related sort of thing after all...

[BT2]

By the wya, I'm wondering what the criteria are for the awards at the end? Since this is a gameplay related sort of thing after all...

Err, get 100k fans in a region and beat the special FES x5
Total CD's sold >3 kk
That's all

[KIRBYSIM]

Err, get 100k fans in a region and beat the special FES x5
Total CD's sold >3 kk
That's all

Yeah that's what you have to do for the special awards, 100k and beat special Fes x5.

But for the IA grand prix award what I heard was you need to rank in within top 10, and have total fans of over 300,000.

[Cael K.]

Yeah that's what you have to do for the special awards, 100k and beat special Fes x5.

But for the IA grand prix award what I heard was you need to rank in within top 10, and have total fans of over 300,000.

Is this a rank in once, and you're good, or do you have to rank in Top 10 at the end of the game?

Special Fests... beh.

[KIRBYSIM]

Is this a rank in once, and you're good, or do you have to rank in Top 10 at the end of the game?

Think it's probably the latter but can't be sure.

[Elixir]

I don't think it matters. The １０万 festivals will vanish if the fans go below that amount, but it doesn't matter if you've already obtained them.

I'm pretty sure the grand prize is based on the amount of １０万 festivals you win, I managed to get 3/5 on my last run, along with the IA grand prize.

Edit: What I mean to say is, by achieving 3 IA awards, you will most likely obtain the IA grand prize (because if it's fan based, it'll be corresponding with the fans obtained during the process of obtaining the IA awards)

[Cael K.]

Some observations...

... Are Super Lessons really just as effective as regular ones? I swear it seems like I get a little more from the super lesson than I do for the regular, and that's when both are maxed out. The biggest offender of this phenomena happened when I went from Lv. 2 -> Lv. 3 on the first lesson (regular), then from Lv. 3 -> Lv. 5 on the second right after it (super lesson). I suppose the numbers could've just lined up right, but I haven't yet shook off that feeling...

About how many communications does it take to fill one Heart for a Memory Appeal? I can't remember how many it took for me to get the first, and there are the Secret Communications that don't tell you how well you did but still sometimes give you heart... Maybe five or six Perfects to a heart? Comparatively... ten Normals?

Is it just me looking up at my Voltage at the right time, but does it seem like your Voltage increases more when you switch appeals? Maybe it's affected by the multiplier? And about how many Perfects to a full meter? Around 40? How many Memory Appeals to a full meter? Around 4?

Is there scaling in place for songs without too many beats? (my song vs. Idolmaster 2nd mix) It looks like there could be, but...

Ranking in auditions and Hako-Yure for Lives... seem to be just based on your score? At first it looked like Hako-Yure was just Perfect Attack, but I noticed going for a high score with smarter Bursting increased what seemed to be the amount of Hako-Yure I could throw out in a single song.

Multipliers seem to increase at +3.25% (times current) or so, and decrease at -5% (times current) or so?

[KIRBYSIM]

Is there scaling in place for songs without too many beats? (my song vs. Idolmaster 2nd mix) It looks like there could be, but...

... Are Super Lessons really just as effective as regular ones? I swear it seems like I get a little more from the super lesson than I do for the regular, and that's when both are maxed out. The biggest offender of this phenomena happened when I went from Lv. 2 -> Lv. 3 on the first lesson (regular), then from Lv. 3 -> Lv. 5 on the second right after it (super lesson). I suppose the numbers could've just lined up right, but I haven't yet shook off that feeling...

This is the only thing I know for sure: Yes, there is scaling for different songs.

However, I've also found that your unit's mood affects the voltage increase rate too. Case in point: after losing to RK if you do an audition and don't use any memory appeals, you'll find that you won't be able to get to your second burst appeal (normally you would be able to).

Mood also affects genre interest increase rate, and the amount of bonus points that's added to normal appeals.

Super Dance Lesson and Normal Dance Lesson gave me more or less the same rate of increase with Perfect+Bonus gauge, the reporter, AND the Dancing mood thing. So I'm not sure in your case if it's just the numbers lining up or what. Which week were the lessons done on?

The rest of your queries I have absolutely no idea. To be frank, Lives are so easy there's no way you could fail with or without Burst Appeals. Although if you really need the extra Hako Yure the JP wiki recommended saving your second appeal for the end of the song (which will let you do 10 more appeals) - which you should really be doing in normal Auditions anyway to get the highest score possible.

I don't even use Memory Appeals anymore as I find that I can get a better score just by using normal appeals most of the time. I'll fire one off only if the Audition's initial interest rates are disadvantageous to me (i.e. 0.90 for Vocals and Dance if I plan on doing Vocals and Dance appeals).

Only obstacles in the game I'm not confident about clearing are the special Fes. Which I usually skip by picking アイドルにお任せ and 全力で to clear. As long as my high score for a song is over 45,000, they'll automatically clear.

Anyone found any good strategies for high score? My max so far on 3.5 playthroughs is about 55,000. You need 65,000 to have a chance at clearing VESPERIA with お任せ.