Phantasy Star Online 2 - Official Pre-Release Topic

[ezodagrom]

Closed Beta and FUN points:

Closed Beta Schedule

Today it was announced that the Closed Beta test will start April 19th, 2012 through April 28th, 2012.

- This date is subject to change due to any unexpected problems.
- The Closed Beta data is deleted after it is finished.

Even though they are still accepting applications for the beta, they have already started sending Beta winner emails. These emails are not sent all in one go, so just wait until yours arrives. They have 100,000 emails to send out and they don’t want all of you downloading the client at the same time so the emails will be sent out in bursts.

Those who are invited to the Closed Beta will receive a link for the Closed Beta Players website in the invitation email.

FUN Points

The third form of currency in the game is FUN points, whether you are a paying user or not, all players can gain FUN points through the following methods.

All Players Can Acquire Fun Points by:
- Logging into the game (If you log in each consecutive day, you could get bonus points. For example, you can log in Wed, Thur, Fri to get bonus points, instead of Wed, then Friday.)
- Sending and Receiving Good Jobs (The amount of FUN you can get in a day is limited)
- When you summon a “Friend Partner” and clear the quest, or someone summons your character.
- Game Ranking rewards

You also get a small percentage of FUN points when you spend Arks Cash. Isn’t it fun?

Good Job is like Facebook’s “like” button. You can say “Good Job” to  any player for any situation. When you say Good Job, you also get FUN points.

In the Character Menu for other players click on “Good Job“
http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Good-Job.jpg

You can also attach a comment, like saying “Thank you very much.” You can also send Good Jobs to players in your “Communication History” like those you partied with before. You could also send it to players who used your character as a Friend Partner.
http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Good-job-you.jpg

When you use FUN Points you can spend them on a FREE Gacha called FUN Scratch.
http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Arks-Scratch.jpg

FUN Scratch includes
- Room Items
- Music Disks ( for use in My Room’s  Jukebox to change the BGM)
- Tickets for Accessories and hairstyles
- Special Devices for Mags
- Tickets for additional lobby actions
- My Room 3 day usage
- Limited Time Effect Items (These are not as powerful as AC versions)
- Boost Items (These are not as powerful as AC versions)
- Grinder and Synthesizer

Items you obtained in Fun Scratch can be given to other players, (he didn’t specifically state, but I’m assuming trading/player shops).

http://bumped.org/psublog/phantasy-star-online-2-closed-beta-test-starts-april-19-2012/

[ezodagrom]

If anyone here gets into the beta and didn't participate in the Alpha 2, note that the ships/servers are separate in PSO2, that means if you make a character in a certain ship, you can't use that character in other ships and can't play with players from other ships.

To be able to play with other english speaking players, it's better to reach a consensus before the beta about the ship where the majority will play.
There's apparently a screenshot that shows a list of 10 ships, it's possible that in the Beta there could be 10 ships (I kinda doubt there will be so many, since the Alpha 2 test only had 2).
There's a poll in the PSO-World forums for them to choose the ship where most of them will play. At the time of this post, Ship 2 is the most voted so far.
http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194041

[Radrappy]

so who from segabits made it into the closed beta?  Got my acceptance last night. 

[ezodagrom]

I got in, but since I was in the alpha 2 and reached over level 10 there, I was already guaranteed to get into the beta.

[CrazyT]

*goes checking his e-mail

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!

[ezodagrom]

The closed beta is starting tomorrow, it's been confirmed that in the beta there are going to be 5 Ships (servers), and, for those who got invited to the beta, alot of english speaking players seem to be choosing Ship 2.
Here's the latest news about the closed beta:

The official blog was updated today with some more info about the beta starting tomorrow.  A huge list of what is actually going on in the closed beta was posted and is more or less as follows:


Arks Cash

• All Arks Cash (AC) items are set at 10 AC for the closed beta
• Each tester will recieve 1000 AC to use.
• You can't purchase more AC during the testing period
• The items in the store and scratches (gatcha) will be limited during the beta and will change for the official launch

FUN

• FUN can be gained by logging in, using AC, using certain aspects of the game (Good Job!), and as a reward for being in the top three for the weeks ranking
• FUN can be used in a FUN scratch
• The contents of the FUN scratch will change for the official launch

Races

• Human, casts, and newmen will be available, just like the official launch

Character Creation

• Only a limited amount of costume items will be available in the closed beta
• Players will only have one character to begin with.
• New character slots can be purchased with AC
• New costumes, accessories, and character voices
• The "Cat Ears" accessory will now match your hair color
• Characters can be saved and loaded as files on your computer
• New facial variations for male and female characters
• The Beauty Shop will allow you to change your character in game
• You can now get parts and clothing in game (you couldn't do this in the alphas.)
• Parts and clothing can be equipped from the equipment menu

Classes

• The max level for the closed beta is 20
• Classes can be changed at the class counter
• Raising a character to level 10 in any class will mean that account will recieve a "Weapon Hologram" room decoration in the open beta

Skill Trees

• Skill trees for all classes have been completely changed
• New skill trees can be added by spending AC allowing you to take you character in a different direction

Play Records

• Titles are now available from the title counter
• Item collections and player records are visible from a visi-phone

Player Related Battle

• Partisans, launchers, and talis weapons are now usable
• On death, you can choose to return to the camp ship or use a scape doll if you have one
• You can now switch between different subpalletes like you could with your main pallete

Enemy Related Battle

• Several new enemies including the new boss Dark Ragne
• Boxes appear after defeating bosses instead of bosses dropping items
• Destroying parts of boss enemies increases the number of boss boxes
• Boost enemies will appear
• Starting enemies are weaker because they were found to be too strong
• Some enemies have been tweaked graphically to better fit the PSO2 world
• Some dragon-type enemies now have voices

Mags

• By rasing any class level to 10 and completing a specific client order allows you to obtain a mag license.  This lets you own and use a mag
• Mags evolve in to their second stage at level 50
• Mag levels are capped at 99 in the closed beta

Lobby

• New lobbies have been implemented in the closed beta

Quests

• 2 new quest types: Story and Emergency
• You can invite NPCs and friend characters from the new Partner Terminal in the camp ship
• It is now easier to join other parties in an MPA than it was in the second alpha
• You can see more information about quests at the quest counter, including 7 days worth of data on drops, special effects, and enemies
• The Medical Center will sell temporary (1 mission) stat boosting drinks
• Certain missions now feature smaller maps than before

Interupt Events

• There are new and different types of Emergency Trials
• A bug where enemies spawned indefinetly has been fixed

PSE

• New PSE variations exist
• The various PSEs have been renamed
• An "omen" system has been added to predict PSEs
• PSE effects, chances, and PSE bursts have been rebalanced

Story

• The prolouge and first chapter of the story will be available
• Starting a new game starts a tutorial story quest
• The matter board will be available
• Story events can happen anywhere

Client Orders

• The client order system will be available.
• Rewards for completing client orders include things like items, exp, and expansions to your palletes
• Accessed by completing parts of the matter board

User Interface

• The main menu has been made easier to navigate
• PAs now say what weapon they are used for on the first line of the item description
• Disks for PAs and techs already learned will appear greyed out in your inventory and storage
• Units can now be customized while equipped
• Chat shortcuts will now show the first line of their settings when displayed with the quick menu
• An icon in the middle of the main pallete will show what mode weapons like gunslashes are in
• The "message recieved" icon was made larger
• A tab for system messages has been added to the message system
• A message will appear in the chat box when after a screenshot has been taken to assure you it actually happened

Controls

• More compatible game pads
• You can now switch between normal and direct chat with the scroll-lock key
• Holding control and pressing a number key will let you use your sub-pallete while in direct chat mode
• Camera speed can be changed in the options menu
• Sped up the switch to character front function
• Added the option to change zoom setting for the mouse wheel
• Removed auto-run as a default for game pads
• Added a "switch targets" option for game pads
• No more virtual full screen
• Increased the number of player models that can be displayed on-screen to 160
• Added several formats for screenshots
• Added the option to not use auto-words or show auto-words in the log

Communication

• Arcs Cards
• Ability to create teams added
• Can send "Good Jobs" to players with comments
• Symbol Art system
• Whispering added
• Friend Partners, the ability to take friend's characters on missions
• Item trading is now possible for those who spend purchase a Premium Set with AC
• Items that you equip are bound to your character and can not be traded or sold in player stores
• The ability to immitate another player's lobby actions has been added
• New emoticons have been added
• Added new rule variations for auto-words
• New lobby animations
• When word bubble combine, they now use the last person's word bubble
• A party history function has been added to let you see who you played with before
• You can now recieve notifications when specific friends log on

My Shop

• Must rent the ability to open a shop with AC
• You don't need a room to open a shop
• The lowest price you can set on an item is 1000 meseta
• You can search by special ability when searching player shops

My Room

• My Rooms need to be rented with AC
• 3 Day room tickets are available in the FUN scratch
• Player rooms now have locks where groups of players can be prevented from entering
• New Scenery Passes allow you to change the view from your appartment
• Weapon Hologram items allow you to display a weapon you have as a decoration in your room
• A juke box room decoration will allow you to change the background music in your room
• Some decorations now have special actions when you use them
• You can now place small decorations on tables or desks
• The Shop Counter decoration allow players to access the shop of the owner of the room it is placed in

Item Lab

• The option to use an item to reduce the failure penalty when grinding items has been added
• An item to change the element of a weapon to whatever you'd like when strengthening elements has been added
• An item to add an additional special effect has been when moving special effects has been added

Tekkers

• Weapons that drop during a mission have a chance to show up as "SPECIAL WEAPON"s
• Tekking these weapons allows you to pick the element and a special effect for it.  An additional special effect will also be added to the weapon at random

Rankings

• Only a portion of the ranking system will be available in the closed beta
• Players are ranked against other members of the ship they play on
• Two rating types exist: "Interupt Ranking" and "Weekly Ranking"
• Interupt Rankings are rankings announced randomly several times a day.  In the beta, these will be who can defeat the most of a certain enemy in an hour.
• Weekly Rankings include things like number of room visits and numberof rare containers destroyed
• The top three players in any ranking recieve FUN as a reward

Specs

• The game has been optimized to run better on PCs that meet PSO2's minimum specs

Balance

• The balance in the closed beta represents what will likely be the balance for the launch version of PSO2 but this is subject to change

Character Data

• Character data from the closed beta will not be carried over in to any upcoming version.

Other Info

• There will only be 5 ships (servers) in the closed beta.  Ships 6 - 10 will also show up but these ships are not online so you won't be able to log in to them.
• A "premium set" will be available in 30 day periods.  This includes the use of your room, the ability to open a shop, expanded storage, and the ability to trade.
• Buying items via a player owned shop is free (as in you don't need to buy access to it)
• Players who purchase the premium set can join a block especially for those members and get bonus FUN from activites that provide it (kinda sounds like PSU)
• The game has bee tuned so you don't gain levels as quickly as you did in the second alpha.
• A menu option has been added for cash shop and FUN related purchases.
• Scratch terminals have also been placed around the lobby
• Since the AC cost of cash shop items has been set to 10 AC, the amount of AC given to testers has been reduced from 10,000 to 1000.

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194162

[George]

Didn't get anything. Lame.

[CrazyT]

Too bad man. I was just gonna ask everyone to gather later on and play together. Well untill now i've only seen radrappy and ezo confirm they're part of the beta test. Any others that got an e-mail?

Well anyway to radrappy and ezo. Would like to see you guys eventually. So ship 2 it is. I may have to check how things work first so I hope to meet you guys when I get the hang of the mechanics and the japanese menus....

[ezodagrom]

Too bad man. I was just gonna ask everyone to gather later on and play together. Well untill now i've only seen radrappy and ezo confirm they're part of the beta test. Any others that got an e-mail?

Well anyway to radrappy and ezo. Would like to see you guys eventually. So ship 2 it is. I may have to check how things work first so I hope to meet you guys when I get the hang of the mechanics and the japanese menus....

Yeah, whenever you're ready to play, just tell me on Steam (I wonder if the Steam Overlay works with PSO2, I've heard that the overlay doesn't work well with games that use Gameguard). I won't be able to login for a couple of hours or so though.

Anyway, here's a miniguide from the phantasy star fan blog:
http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-closed-beta-and-mini-guide/

[Happy Cat]

yaaaay!

looks like i got an email lastnight right as i went to sleep, went to sleep early cause i was tired

[CrazyT]

Congrats shadi!

Ehh well, so far so good. Glad you can finally alt+tab while in the game. Visuals arent really blowing me away, but man that music. I'm just standing still figuring stuff out now at the forest and that calm non battle music has alot more to it than i thought. 

Anyway ezo i had a question. I'm planning to play this with my keyboard and mouse, but i dont know how to change the mouse sensitivity. Can I find a tutorial on the menus for this?

[Happy Cat]

getting an error..

if anyone here knows what it means, that would be great ;D

[ezodagrom]

getting an error..

if anyone here knows what it means, that would be great ;D

Don't know what that error is, but the servers are quite laggy now, might be related to that. I guess you should try again.

[ezodagrom]

There's going to be an emergency maintenance to fix what is causing the lag. There's no specified time, but it should be sometime during April 20 on Japan.
http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194199

[Happy Cat]

i got that error figured out.. but this keeps happening now, and its really ticking me off, happens while I'm in the middle of a good time, haven't even got past the tutorial level yet because of it xP

http://i.imgur.com/gSOZ8.png


i know its a graphics card problem obviously.. i tried installing some older nvidia drivers but it didn't do shit ;.; lol