Support NeoGAF

[StarCreator]

Vita Closed Beta registration is live. The registration item is called "ファンタシースターオンライン２ クローズドβテスト" and it's listed under the Whats New section in the JP PS3/PSV store. Downloading the item will add it to your services list and register your PSN account for the beta. Registration will be open from Dec 4th till January 7th with the actual beta starting sometime in January.

Downloaded, but not sure what you mean by services list. I don't see it in a bubble or anything.

 

[Killthee]

Downloaded, but not sure what you mean by services list. I don't see it in a bubble or anything.

Some items on the store don't actually download anything, they just flag your account by attaching themselves as a service on your services list (the list that keeps record of your subscriptions on the PS3, might be different on the Vita). I just wanted to express that there wasn't any actual download attached with the registration process.

Vita CBT Promo site is live btw.

 

[Hasemo]

Same as with the previous betas, reaching level 10 will net you some neat stuff:

Aライザー/ナハト A Riser /Nacht (Gunslash)
フォトンスフィア 1x Photon Sphere
FUN500獲得チケット 1x FUN 500 Ticket

The gunslash in question:

 

[Hasemo]

New post for new news - opening from the Vita version from today's stream.

Edit:
Dark Falz Arms fight from todays stream uploaded by PSO-W user Quote - link.

 

[Killthee]

New X-Mas Promo

A new emergency quest, "Icy Merry Christmas," will be available after maintenance! If you clear this quest on any difficulty between Dec. 5 and before maintenance begins on Dec. 12, you will receive the following items after Dec. 19's maintenance.

* Grinder x99
* Christmas Gift x1 (room decoration)
* Photon Sphere x1

While this quest will occur at random like all other emergency quests, it is scheduled to happen at 20:00 JST on Dec. 7, 8 and 9, giving you an opportunity to plan ahead for it.

20:00 JST is 6 AM EST/ 3 AM PST.

 

[Cmagus]

what is going on with the Christmas outfits? Is there anything said on obtaining them?

 

[Killthee]

what is going on with the Christmas outfits? Is there anything said on obtaining them?

AFAIK, they're all AC Scratch items.

 

[Cmagus]

AFAIK, they're all AC Scratch items.

Well I better start meseta earning lol. Hopefully alot of extra Santa outfits hit the auction.

 

[Killthee]

Well I better start meseta earning lol. Hopefully alot of extra Santa outfits hit the auction.

There's ~5 colors I think. Red and Black will probably be super expensive, but the other ones, i.e. the ugly colors, shouldn't be too expensive.

 

[Zyrusticae]

I love and hate the new intro at the same time.

Love it because golly it looks so good and is chock-full of style

Hate it because I know we won't get graphics like that until PSO3/PSU2 -_-

 

[Hasemo]

Today's PSO2 maintenance was extended and will end in 2,5 hours from now.

Edit:
Can't say I ain't happy, since I'll I've downloaded only 1/4 of the last patch (it took 40 minutes) and I'll probably be able to finish translating the patch notes for bumped before the server goes online.

Edit2:
Interesting tidbits about PSO2 playerbase from this week's Famitsu interview with Producer Sakai and Director Kimura. Thanks as usual, g-heaven.
- Currently PSO2 has around 1150000 registered users with 300000 active (monthly) users. Guess it means those who login at least once a month
- Age of the most PSO2 players is between 26 and 35
- 70-80% of the users said that they have previous experience with the series

Edit3:
A summary of the interview has been posted on Polygon.

 

[Hasemo]

New post for new news:
Japanese patch notes are up.
Expect the translation in about 2 hours. :x

Edit:
Patch notes translation is up on bumped, sorry for the long wait.

 

[Killthee]

Huge interview over at 4Gamer. The Vita beta is gonna be City, Forest, & Caves while the final version is roughly ~4GBs. I might be wrong, but it also seems like the Vita blocks have gameplay tweaks so the Vita version can keep a steady frame rate in MPA's (smaller maps, lower number of enemies on screen, longer PSE Burst to compensate for the number of enemies).

He also explains that the mobile version was delayed cause they felt it wasn't up to par. Will require an iPhone4+ or Android 2.3+ to run. Will come out sometime after the Vita release.

The big news is that he goes on to explain the brand new way of playing he's been teasing us with the last couple of months, Quest Escape! Google translate spits out garbage so I'm probably wrong on the details, but from what I could make out of it it seems to be a new emergency quest that has you trying to escape from ARCS clones. I would love it if somebody who can actually read the moon runes translates that section of the interview.

 

[StarCreator]

Huge interview over at 4Gamer. The Vita beta is gonna be City, Forest, & Caves while the final version is roughly ~4GBs. I might be wrong, but it also seems like the Vita blocks have gameplay tweaks so the Vita version can keep a steady frame rate in MPA's (smaller maps, lower number of enemies on screen, longer PSE Burst to compensate for the number of enemies).

He also explains that the mobile version was delayed cause they felt it wasn't up to par. Will require an iPhone4+ or Android 2.3+ to run. Will come out sometime after the Vita release.

The big news is that he goes on to explain the brand new way of playing he's been teasing us with the last couple of months, Quest Escape! Google translate spits out garbage so I'm probably wrong on the details, but from what I could make out of it it seems to be a new emergency quest that has you trying to escape from ARCS clones. I would love it if somebody who can actually read the moon runes translates that section of the interview.

To be more clear, he says the game will probably occupy more than the available 4GB on a physical card, so even physical card users will have to download game content patches to a memory card.

Also, story chapter 9 will be available to Vita users first, before PC users.

 

[Stubo]

So this preloading that I did twice...what did that even do?

Currently downloading some big lump which is taking a while

 

[StarCreator]

So this preloading that I did twice...what did that even do?

Currently downloading some big lump which is taking a while

The total patch size this week is over 5 GB. In theory, if you did the two predownloads, you shouldn't need to download all of it, but presumably there's a third part the predownloads didn't cover.

 

[Hasemo]

The total patch size this week is over 5 GB. In theory, if you did the two predownloads, you shouldn't need to download all of it, but presumably there's a third part the predownloads didn't cover.

Indeed, there was a 2.2 GB download for all those who predownloaded the previous 2 parts. Still, better than downloading the whole thing at once.

 

[Zyrusticae]

lol, this patch introduced a crapload of issues. I'm getting character models that are partially faded and transparent, and my head refuses to load in the preview window. There are also reports of the 'infinite loading' bug.

Weird how all of this went through QA...

 

[Cmagus]

Gonna work on getting one of those christmas outfits. The Christmas music in the lobbies is really nice as well.

 

[Hasemo]

lol, this patch introduced a crapload of issues. I'm getting character models that are partially faded and transparent, and my head refuses to load in the preview window. There are also reports of the 'infinite loading' bug.

Weird how all of this went through QA...

Well, that's true, this patch is all over the place. Broken textures, low detail models etc. And it all goes to hell when you switch blocks, meh. Tried doing a File Check, because similar issues arose with one of the previous patches for Killthee and me and FC fixed them...

Edit:
New article has been posted on the players site containing various bug reports (this is a really "quick and dirty" translation):

Problem: Screen is shaking while using certain PAs and techs.
Answer: We know about it, will be fixed, sorry!

P: Some techs don't hit enemies through obstacles.
A: It's a problem with "Ra Foie", "Grantz" etc. because of which the those techs don't hit enemies if the line of sight is obstructed. We're working on it, sorry!

P: In specific conditions, power of techniques becomes weaker.
A: Sorry, we're working on it!

P: In certain conditions skin of characters becomes red.
A: Sorry, we're working on it!

P: In certain conditions skin of NPCs has a weird color.
A: Sorry, we're working on it!

No word on the low poly models, broken textures, codes not displaying, teleports blocking characters and (I assume) other bugs which I haven't heard about.

 

[ezodagrom]

Well, that's true, this patch is all over the place. Broken textures, low detail models etc. And it all goes to hell when you switch blocks, meh. Tried doing a File Check, because similar issues arose with one of the previous patches for Killthee and me and FC fixed them...

Edit:
New article has been posted on the players site containing various bug reports (this is a really "quick and dirty" translation):

No word on the low poly models, broken textures, codes not displaying, teleports blocking characters and (I assume) other bugs which I haven't heard about.

About the infinite loading there's this:
http://pso2.jp/players/support/measures/?id=686

 

[Hasemo]

Huge interview over at 4Gamer. The Vita beta is gonna be City, Forest, & Caves while the final version is roughly ~4GBs. I might be wrong, but it also seems like the Vita blocks have gameplay tweaks so the Vita version can keep a steady frame rate in MPA's (smaller maps, lower number of enemies on screen, longer PSE Burst to compensate for the number of enemies).

He also explains that the mobile version was delayed cause they felt it wasn't up to par. Will require an iPhone4+ or Android 2.3+ to run. Will come out sometime after the Vita release.

The big news is that he goes on to explain the brand new way of playing he's been teasing us with the last couple of months, Quest Escape! Google translate spits out garbage so I'm probably wrong on the details, but from what I could make out of it it seems to be a new emergency quest that has you trying to escape from ARCS clones. I would love it if somebody who can actually read the moon runes translates that section of the interview.

I've just finished reading the whole interview and the last part was definitely was the most interesting.
Quick rundown on the Escape Quest (planned for 01/09/2013 release):
Darkers want to create clones of superior Arks and for that reason they capture them. The mission doesn't use the camp ship, so player will be moved back to the Arks Lobby upon retiring.
The most interesting part - Darkers will record player if he/she manages to clear the quest and that clone will appear later as an enemy in a special Emergency Code. It will be a random code with low pop rate and Photon Spheres are the prize for completing it. Of course, the Cloned Player who appears will also be random. Player who already has a clone will have a higher chance of encountering "himself" and will receive more spheres as a reward for "Defeating oneself", as Sakai called it.
They want people to talk about "how they fought the guy X yesterday". Also, the clones will use player's autowords! It's important to note, that darkers want "superior" Arks clones, so the escape quest results will have an effect on the NPC appearing priority or something.

Details of the Dark Falz fight and the Attack of the Clones system from the 4gamer interview now on bumped - http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-star-online-2-jp-attack-of-the-clones/

 

[Hasemo]

Emergency maintenance incoming tomorrow to fixed all the stuff broken by the Wednesday's patch. Details on bumped.

Friday December 7th @ 08:00 ~ 14:00 JST
Thursday December 6th @ 6:00 PM ~ 12:00 AM EST
Converted Time Zones

Also, the item listing of the Recycle shop - link.

 

[Cmagus]

I really like the new snow level it's alot of fun with some good challenging monsters. Granted I am only level 11 it is a really good challenge too bad it is timed though.

Also I checked the guides but have a few questions I couldn't find info on I think mostly because I don't know what somethings are actually called.

1. During stages these blue or black tabs pop up floating.When you trigger these you get a conversation with a character. do they trigger codes within a run?

2.When killing certain enemies they shoot out a giant light beam and then soon after a glow comes over the character again what exactly is happening with those?

 

[Hasemo]

I really like the new snow level it's alot of fun with some good challenging monsters. Granted I am only level 11 it is a really good challenge too bad it is timed though.

Also I checked the guides but have a few questions I couldn't find info on I think mostly because I don't know what somethings are actually called.

1. During stages these blue or black tabs pop up floating.When you trigger these you get a conversation with a character. do they trigger codes within a run?

2.When killing certain enemies they shoot out a giant light beam and then soon after a glow comes over the character again what exactly is happening with those?

1. They're just story bits with no real significance. Greyed ones are the ones you've already seen, blue are new and yellow ones are for the Matter Board.
2. Those are signs of various PSE boosts which trigger a PSE Burst when they reach level 7.

 

[StarCreator]

I really like the new snow level it's alot of fun with some good challenging monsters. Granted I am only level 11 it is a really good challenge too bad it is timed though.

Also I checked the guides but have a few questions I couldn't find info on I think mostly because I don't know what somethings are actually called.

1. During stages these blue or black tabs pop up floating.When you trigger these you get a conversation with a character. do they trigger codes within a run?

2.When killing certain enemies they shoot out a giant light beam and then soon after a glow comes over the character again what exactly is happening with those?

1. Nah, those just tell part of the game's story. Blue ones are ones you haven't seen yet. Yellow sparkly ones mean it's an event needed for your matterboard.

2. That's a PSE effect. The game tells you which effect it was (when you're glowing) and what level it is. Bring a specific PSE effect to level 8 then trigger one more will cause PSE Burst.

 

[Cmagus]

Awesome thanks

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Damn I really should have pre-loaded the recent patch. I took a break to get the most out of my free MechWarrior Online premium time so I already spent a day playing catch up on patches.

I left the second patch going this morning when I left for work so hopefully that is all....
Can't believe how ridiculously big these patches seem to be.

Hopefully I can play a little bit tonight. I think I will focus on leveling my lvl 30 Force some more even though creating a Gunner is really tempting.

 

[Cmagus]

Servers are up seems like everything is fixed but maybe it is just me but the lock on feature doesn't seem to work on my end.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

God dammit i want to play this... but am trying to wait for the NA version.

Really can't wait to play this on Vita, too.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Nice I got a White Rappy Fan yesterday while running the Christmas quest.
Stats on it weren't amazing or anything but I went ahead and grinded it to +10.

 

[djplaeskool]

Yup, all those weird texture glitches haven't come back up since the update for me.

 

[Hasemo]

Yup, all those weird texture glitches haven't come back up since the update for me.

Too bad the character models are still messed up after changing blocks. I've tried doing File Check and it didn't help, so I'm guessing that's one of the things that's going to get fixed next week.

As I'm finally back home, I'll need to put that 40 CO limit to good use and finally make my character a 50/50 FI/HU. Only 500k left on the Hunter so I think I'll be able to do it before the Dark Falz emergency with no problems.
Also, the first Quartz Dragon node! Finally! Dropped from the second one I've killed. Thank you all who have helped me with the last 50+ ones!

 

[Cmagus]

I got some weird weapon from a Christmas Rappy tonight it is all ?????

Any idea what this is it was from a rare red drop.

 

[Killthee]

I got some weird weapon from a Christmas Rappy tonight it is all ?????

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/cmagus/pso20121210_015458_000.jpg

Any idea what this is it was from a rare red drop.

It's an untekked weapon, you have to visit the tekker (the woman next to Doo Doo in the purple shop) to identify it. Going by what you said and the force weapon symbol on the weapon, my guess is it turns out to be the St Rappy talis.

 

[Cmagus]

Yeah you were right it was a Rappy Tail thanks for the help.

 

[Hasemo]

Yeah you were right it was a Rappy Tail thanks for the help.

Are you already in the Team GAF btw.?

 

[Cmagus]

Are you already in the Team GAF btw.?

Yeah I am on it. This character though is new I restarted so I don't know if that changes anything.

 

[Hasemo]

Yeah I am on it. This character though is new I restarted so I don't know if that changes anything.

If you are able to see the team under the team menu, you're in. I don't know if you're removed from the team after deleting and remaking a character though.

Got the second Quartz MB item today. Fingers crossed for a Varda emergency quest soon so I can 100% the 6th and 7th MB.
In other news - finally got both my main and subclass to 50 (FI/HU). So happy I can use double sabers, twin daggers and knuckles again. It took me much longer than it should because I didn't want to run Ruins multiparties all the time...

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Is there a good description of how the Subclasses work somewhere? I should finally unlock it tonight.
In Japanese or English is fine.

I know that you can't use the weapons of your subclass but how are techs handled. Like if you played a Hunter with Force subclass can you still cast techs? Or is that also locked?

I want my classic HUnewearl back damnit!!

 

[Hasemo]

Is there a good description of how the Subclasses work somewhere? I should finally unlock it tonight.
In Japanese or English is fine.

I know that you can't use the weapons of your subclass but how are techs handled. Like if you played a Hunter with Force subclass can you still cast techs? Or is that also locked?

I want my classic HUnewearl back damnit!!

- You get 20% (?) of the stat points of the subclass
- You can use the photon arts only if you're using an all-class weapons
- You can freely use techs without the weapon if you put it on your subpalette
- You get all the passive skills
- The sub class doesn't get any XP

That's all, I think.

 

[Hasemo]

Summary of the differences between the PC and Vita versions from the latest 4gamer episode is up on bumped.

 

[StarCreator]

Summary of the differences between the PC and Vita versions from the latest 4gamer episode is up on bumped.

Someone posted something similar, citing Siliconera, in the Vita thread. People who have never played the game are reacting badly there.

Even if, for instance if you like to boss rush, the changes are for the better.

 

[Hasemo]

Someone posted something similar, citing Siliconera, in the Vita thread. People who have never played the game are reacting badly there.

Even if, for instance if you like to boss rush, the changes are for the better.

Yeah, this was the source for that article. Time to tell those people that it only affects the Vita+PC blocks...

Edit:
Ah, I see you've already did that.

 

[thetrin]

I haven't played at all since the beta, and I've been meaning to start playing again. I figure now would be a decent time to jump in?

(also registering for the Vita beta)

 

[Hasemo]

I haven't played at all since the beta, and I've been meaning to start playing again. I figure now would be a decent time to jump in?

Definitely! The Dark Falz ship-wide boss fight is going live tomorrow and you can join even if you're level 1.

 

[Zyrusticae]

I'm going to be very sad when the gimegid bug gets fixed.

The other casters in the team know what I'm talking about!

 

[StarCreator]

I downloaded the latest version of the launcher. And then restart.

 

[VariantX]

God its finals week, at least I can get a few hours in tomorrow. Its about time I returned to this game. Been gone since the new classes came in really

 

[astronautcowboy]

Man, I can't wait to find out if I'm in the Vita beta. I'll probably need to do some major memory card housekeeping if I do get in, but for PSO I'd do anything.

Speaking of which, is there a soundtrack available yet? I'm filling in the holes in my PSO (the first) collection from iTunes right now. Man I love this music.