Mission Spotlight for September 30th to October 9th

RubyEclipse has posted that mission spotlight is back and is currently running at the new mission Bladed Legacy.

Apparently they are giving out some in game prizes this time according to the mission spotlight page:

The Mission Spotlight has returned! Back with all new instant-win prizes like Casino Voloyal Coins, rare items and more, all PSU players can automatically get a chance to win by simply playing the spotlight mission during the designated dates!

Sounds a little better then the old prizes that they were giving out but then this last bit got me at the end of the page:

We are also opening the spotlight up to sponsorships, so if your team or community would like to donate items to give out as prizes, contact us on the PSU forums!

Wait what. Let me guess you guys can't even give out in game prizes without the approval of Sega of Japan.

I guess this will have to do while we wait for the next update. Not that it's really an incentive to play...

Update Impressions & Oddities

After just over a month of no updates, PSU was finally given a fresh new content update early this morning. I had a chance to play through the new content (it didn't take long, trust me) and noticed some interesting additions.

Though some people were excited about the two new missions (well, technically one, I guess), the majority of players seemed to be looking forward to the MAG rewards earned in part two of the three-month-long event. And I can see why!

After logging in, I began with some grinder synthesis. Of the 50 S grinders I made, 35 of them turned into S+7, S+8, or S+9. Not bad -- that's a considerable improvement from my usual luck (S+1 and S+2 grinders are common for me). Still no S+10 grinders -- but hopefully that will change.

Weapon grinding is much less frustrating. With 1* luck, I took a few of my S rank weapons to grind. I was pleasantly surprised when my S+2 grinders yielded a "No chance of failure" response on the first grind! It's too bad they can't make this change permanent.

The new free mission, Bladed Legacy, is interesting. It's the first free mission to have a non-boss cutscene (that I know of, even if it is ridiculously short) and the only regular free mission whose blocks aren't all exclusively labeled Block 1, Block 2, etc. (again, that I know of, not counting missions with bosses). Plus it has huge oversized beasts to kill!



(Ok, so maybe they're not gigantic... my CAST is a midget.)

This content update was not without some quirks, though. Some people who did not receive MAG 1 rewards in the prior delivery finally saw them today, though without the MAG 2 rewards they were promised. Some people were rewarded with some MAG 1 prizes for a second time, in addition to the new prizes (I happened to fall into this category). And apparently some unlucky bastards got no rewards from either MAG event. I can't begin to explain how something like that could have happened, but here's hoping Sega gets it together and gives those players the stuff they earned.

Announcement Editorializing

The official Phantasy Star Universe Web site has been updated with information detailing this Friday's content update.

News about the update was also posted on Sega's official PSU forum. According to GM RubyEclipse:

GBR will soon be at an end, and there's much more than just MAG2 prizes showing up this Friday - check out the quest release page for full details!

"Much more"? The update page lists one free mission (the other mission being added is for item exchange). Talk about overexaggerating a mediocre update (at best).

When I see "much more", I expect an update like this -- MAG rewards and two missions is hardly anything to write home about. This update is too underwhelming to be "much more" than boring.

Sega Clarifies Update Schedule... Maybe

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Sega of America reps announced that not only would there be an update next week, now Sega will try to update the game every 2 weeks until December. But there's a caveat, according to PSU GM ChillAura:

The next update is on track for September 26. We actually have updates scheduled 2 weeks apart for the rest of the year, although we do not yet assume that we can rely on this.

-Chill

I actually found this quote to be rather amusing. The community already knows better than to trust Sega of Japan's update promises. But is it a good thing if not even the Sega of America people trust their Japanese overlords?

Update next week

Chillaura has said that next week we will be getting an update next week on the 26th and that updates would be scheduled two weeks apart for the rest of the year.
There are not many details other then a small comment left by GM RubyEclipse:

As far as updates, there are two things we can comment on - the first is that Master Classes are scheduled for after the carnival, and the second is that the next update will be before the second, and will include some new stuff to look forward to, besides the arrival of the MAG2 rewards.

Unless these updates are huge this won't make up for the two month delay we had. And at this rate we probably won't see the master classes for a few months...

Saving our severs?

Some PC/PS2 players have formed a group to try and save what's left of the servers and to promote the game to get new players.

As much as I would like it too work I really don't think players alone can do it now. The PC/PS2 servers have been in a death spiral for a while now and has already passed the point of no return. We are lucky to even get 2 stars on universe 2 now when a few months ago we were around 3 to 3 and a half. To illustrate this point I have created a crude image!

I really do think the end is coming if Sega doesn't do something. But it seems they have pretty much given up on the servers. Might as well enjoy the ride before ends.

50% or GTFO

I admit there were always issues with this game's community but I really find things like this annoying.

Four days into the second week of GBR I notice this topic. I don't know about you guys but I find it ridiculous that some people actually expect everyone to have a 50% drop boost so soon. Sorry but not everyone plays the game 24/7. Getting 155 points in all five missions in that short amount of time makes the game incredibly boring even if you run the missions on S2 difficulty. What ever happened to playing for fun?
And to top it all off supposedly the drop boost does not affect boss boxes, which have the rares people want. Enjoy your useless Vish Fearas and Okarods!

It seems this type of event just brings out the worst in the community (and delays content); I can't wait for it to end.

Sega and online games: Huge potential that ends in failure

Now I'd like to rant a bit on the translated Famitsu article that was posted over at PSO world. It's nice how Sega still hasn't learned anything from PSO. It seems they just enjoy watching thier games die off. I don't know maybe it's time to go back to the basics or something and you know maybe advertise the games outside of Japan?

I think it would help to go back to that "The game should allow players all over the world to interact" idea. This multi-sever set up Sega has going is just stupid. You have the Japanese PC/PS2 sever separated from the rest of the world and then you have an Xbox 360 server that is by itself. What's the hell is with this? Did someone at Sega think it was a good idea to have the game compete against itself along with other online RPG's? The two server thing Sega had going with PSO Ep1&2 sucked so I don't understand why they would do this crap again. If (more like when) there is a new online Phantasy Star game if Sega goes this route again I'd seriously considering avoiding the game.

The next part would be the "giving regular content updates" thing; but I think I've been complaining enough about that though. You know the two month update delay from MAG, no updates because of the Neudiaz GBR, etc.

The final thing I want to touch on is about how people are surprised about the Xbox 360 server's stable population. I for one don't find it surprising at all. After all they are using Microsoft's shitty billing system that uses the philosophy of "easy to sign up; pain in the ass to cancel" since you have to call their horrible support line. I really wouldn't be surprised if a large number accounts were from people that stopped play but had their accounts active because they didn't know how to cancel or thought it was canceled when it really wasn't. Just throwing the word "cancel" into a search of the 360's technical support forum brings up a number of topics, like this one here, asking about it.

I really want Sega to allow PSU to reach its full potential but I fear it is to late now.

Server Shutdown Rumors Abound

Yesterday, a popular PSU fansite posted a translation of an article from Famitsu.com in which Sonic Team discusses the successes and failures of Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Online.

At the end of the article is a very interesting piece of information. Sonic Team compiled a graph showing the server population trends for the JP PC/PS2, NA PC/PS2, and XBox 360 game servers. What it shows is that while the JP PC/PS2 and XBox 360 server populations have stabilized over the last few months, the NA PC/PS2 servers have posted a slow 9-month decline.

Apparently, this information has been translated into some sort of nasty rumor that Sega is planning to pull the plug on the NA/EU PC/PS2 servers sometime in the future. I'm not sure how that happened, but it certainly seems baseless right now. Sega of America reps have stated on at least one occasion that they would not shut down the PC/PS2 servers if the game remained profitable overall in the United States and Europe. I interpret that to mean that if both the PC/PS2 and XBox 360 servers are pulling in enough combined money to keep things afloat, then everything will be fine.

However, if the PC/PS2 servers were to shut down, I think a lot of people would quit for good. Getting started in this game can be difficult, and many people might not want to put in the effort again. Plus, the XBox 360 version of PSU is still plagued with various performance problems that might make some PC players go crazy.

The bottom line, though, is that there's no reason to panic yet. Sega of America has not provided any indications that they plan to shut down the servers now or in the future. The PSU community seems to eat these kinds of rumors up, and I still can't understand why that is. Just keep on playing, and deal with the problems when (and if) they arise.

Fixing the Economy, the Stupid Way

I haven't had time to comment on stupid threads lately, but I felt I could make time for a very special suggestions thread.

In case you're like me and don't want to subject yourself to such stupidity: we all know that Sega doesn't want to increase the maximum amount of meseta that a player can carry. Many people have suggested that the amount be increased by a factor of 10, to just under 1 billion meseta, but Sonic Team argues that doing that would require a lot of additional coding.

The brilliant idea presented in this topic was to essentially have GMs mass produce items and place them in special shops for players to purchase. Proceeds from the special shops would be deleted periodically by the GMs, helping to bring down inflation.

Does anybody else see how ridiculous this is? This could certainly take meseta out of the economy, but players would instead be left with rare items that are completely worthless -- a drawback many would argue to be far worse. Meseta may be rampant right now, but the really rare items are not. Mass production of items for the sole purpose of lowering inflation would give the vast majority of players inexpensive access to items that are not readily available right now. Prices would drop across the board, and the economy could actually crash. Not good.

Personally, I think that NPC shops are the best tool Sega has to fix the economy, since meseta spent there is gone forever. Since nothing has actually been done, though, I take it that Sega is content letting things play out the way they have thus far.

That's all I have to say about this stupid thread. I'll cut the guy a little slack, though. There are still even more stupid people roaming the internets this evening...



That's what happens when you mess with a hurricane, I suppose. Pay more attention next time!

A Glimpse into PSU 360's Economy

I was browsing a PSU fansite's discussion forums this evening and came across this interesting post about the economy on XBox 360 PSU:

Everyone I know is aware of the S+10 glitch that was fixed awile back, but allowed good number of cheaters to stock up on stacks of 99 S+10 grinders for 1 meseta apeice.

A friend of a friend is one of these cheaters. He was banned for two weeks for producing illegit grinders. Then he emailed SEGA saying that he bought those grinders legally and they gave him back his account. He now has a full common box of S+10 stacks, and sells one stack at a time overnight for something like 33 mil profit everday.

Three thoughts come to mind.

First, all of the XBox 360 players who laugh (still!) at the PC/PS2 servers for having "haxeta" need to shut the fuck up, forever.

Second, why did Sega ban the producers of the illegitimate items, then allow them to come back to the game with those items left intact? We're all aware of players that made up stories like, the only reason I cheated was to show Sega how to do the glitch so they could fix it! Bullshit. Players that cheat should be banned permanently, regardless of why they chose to do it. I don't understand why Sega chooses to selectively enforce their Terms of Service like this, and there's a good chance that neither I nor anybody else will ever know for sure.

Finally, why couldn't Sega just remove all of the S+10 grinders from the servers? I can think of only one reason: Sega didn't want to incur the wrath of the players who had legitimate S+10 grinders. Fine, but this is just one more reason why PSU needs to implement some sort of item tracking system to make it easier to locate and remove illegitimate items without having to trace them through dozens of player transactions.

In any case, there's not much that can be done about the problem now. The damage has been dealt, and we're going to have to live with it.

Sega to Laggers: We Hear You

Good news for players who have been suspecting a server lag problem: Sega of America has more or less acknowledged that a network latency issue might have cropped up since the server move way back in July.

Players that are experiencing lag problems are being encouraged to submit a help ticket at Sega's support website.

It's possible that Sega may just be responding to recent forum threads complaining about lag. I still haven't had any lag issues (as noted in this previous post) but whether or not the problem is real remains to be seen.