PSO Questions & Answers

Sylverant is a homebrew open source server for Phantasy Star Online. Dreamcast users still play PSO online with this server even today! This is the official forum for both the online game server as well as the open source project itself. Feel free to post and get a gathering started online! We can also show you how to get connected!

Moderators: BlueCrab, Aleron Ives

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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

That's unfortunate.

I have another question. I saw someone on YouTube very recently play the quest "Sunset at the Secret Base," which I believe is a downloadable offline quest (also possibly known as AOL CUP). They obtained it by connecting to Sylverant through the DC version of PSO Ver.2. Is this playable for those of us on the PC Ver.2? I ask because it apparently allows you to obtain several rare items (like Chu Chu Fever!) and I really want to play it on the PC.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Aleron Ives »

No, it's Dreamcast only. You can get those items from Garon's Scheme, instead.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

Okay, thanks for the info!
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

I don't see a Garon's Scheme, do you mean Gallon's (Garon's) Treachery?

Also, is it possible to use either a USB-based game controller or to use keys like WASD for character movement/other stuff? I currently use my laptop's trackpad to move my character around and it's not the most comfortable method of control.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Aleron Ives »

It's a downloadable quest, not an online quest. Using a USB controller with PSO PC is strongly advised, since you cannot change the keyboard controls at all. You generally have to play left handed in order to use the keyboard (numpad for movement, arrow keys to attack).
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

I have another question. I got a Japanese Dreamcast and Japanese PSO Ver.2. If the DC were to basically die, would I be able to plug my VMU into another DC and continue playing with the same character? I’ve heard about the DC’s flash memory and PSO’s serial/access info being tied to it?
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Aleron Ives »

You would need to erase the flash memory of the new DC and put in the serials used for your old character, and then it would work.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

Okay.

I want to connect to Sylverant; my JP DC has a regular modem (I don’t know the speed). I have broadband for my network provider. How would I go about connecting? By taking an ordinary phone cable and connecting the DC to my broadband setup?

I saw on both Sylverant.net and PSO Palace instructions concerning a Codebreaker disc, but what about actually connecting the old modem itself?
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by BlueCrab »

The easiest way to get up and running with a modem on the Dreamcast version is to use a DreamPi setup. Basically, you can rig your modem up to a Raspberry Pi computer with a specific (modified) USB modem and use that to connect to online games. Basically, google for "DreamPi", and you should find more information on that setup. There is a guy that does sell pre-made kits on the Dreamcast-Live website, although I'm not sure if he has any available right now.

If you are using a Japanese version 1 or 2 (or US version 2) of the game, you will need to use some sort of patch for the game to get it to connect to the server. The recommended way to do so is to use the Sylverant PSO Patcher disc. You will need to burn it to a CD-R and boot your Dreamcast with it every time you want to play PSO (and swap in your PSO disc when it asks). Unfortunately, this is required for either Japanese release of the game (version 1 or version 2). The other option is to use a CodeBreaker to patch the game every time you boot it as well, but this has a bunch of downsides to it (like the game detecting your cheats file and stopping any rare items from appearing) and isn't generally recommended.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

Aleron Ives wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:57 pm You would need to erase the flash memory of the new DC and put in the serials used for your old character, and then it would work.
How would I erase the flash memory? Does this also need to be done on my current DC, not just the new one? The DC I’m playing PSO Ver.2 on isn’t working well at all (it will load the game enough for me to play through some of the Ruins area, for example, but when I go to quit and save fail to do so, making playing the game pointless). The person who sold me the damn thing said it was in excellent condition, but the thing (possibly the laser) sounds like it’s dying.

I’ve made it to level 50 in around as many hours, but I can’t keep playing like this knowing the save function works like half the time.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by BlueCrab »

Here's a tool that can erase your flash rom from your Dreamcast: https://dreamcast.wiki/Flash_Memory_Eraser . This will erase everything in the writable portion of the flash memory, so you will need a way to re-set your network information to connect to the game again (a web browser disc or something like that).
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Nico0020 »

Something I've always been curious about. Is it possible for the server to offer double XP or increased drops rates for event? Ive always assumed XP was handled by the game itself, but with server drop command being a thing... Is either possible?

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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by BlueCrab »

Outside of doing some hackery inside a quest (which would only apply to that quest) or with the server-side patching functionality, there's no way to modify experience on any version of PSO other than Blue Burst (at least that I'm aware of).

Server side drops only work because of the way that Sega structured drop requests. Basically, whoever causes a drop to be requested sends a message to the server that the server normally forwards to the leader to ask what the drop should be (yes, even if the leader breaks a box or kills an enemy, they still send a message to the server asking it to ask the leader). With server-side drops on, the leader just doesn't forward that packet on to the leader, and answers itself instead.

Experience is handled completely client-side and clients only send a message to the server when they level up, so there's no way for the server to intervene in the amount of experience given.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Nico0020 »

If i understand correctly, the game client still controls the drop rates themselves, the sever just tells everyone what the drop will be? So drops themselves can be changed, but not the rates of the drops?
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by BlueCrab »

No. The server never asks the leader for the drop when server drops are on, thus everything is under the server's control in the case of server drops being on.

Here's the whole process, normally:
  1. You kill a Booma
  2. Your client sends a packet to say you killed the Booma
  3. Your client sends a packet to the server to ask the team leader for a drop
  4. The server sends that packet to the team leader
  5. The team leader figures out what to drop
  6. If the team leader decides to drop anything, their client sends a packet to the server saying what the drop is
  7. If the server receives a drop packet from the team leader, it sends it to everyone in the team (other than the leader -- the leader sees the drop sooner than anyone else, as they actually see it on their screen in the previous step)
Note that this process is the same even if the team leader is the one that kills the Booma. Steps 2-5 always happen for every enemy killed or box opened (with appropriate substitution of the thing killed/opened, of course).

With server drops on, the process is as follows:
  1. You kill a Booma
  2. Your client sends a packet to say you killed the booma
  3. Your client sends a packet to the server to ask the team leader for a drop
  4. The server DOES NOT send that packet to the team leader
  5. The server figures out what to drop
  6. If the server decides to drop anything, it sends it a packet to everyone in the team (including the leader)
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Nico0020 »

Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.
So going back to the original question, since the server can control drops is there a possibility of events or event rewards involving increased drop rates?
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by BlueCrab »

Nico0020 wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 12:53 am Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.
So going back to the original question, since the server can control drops is there a possibility of events or event rewards involving increased drop rates?
In theory, yes. But, such increased drops would only affect users who use /sdrops, as I will not force anyone to use it that would rather not use it. I'm not rehashing arguments that were had long ago, when I proposed doing increased drops and was met with a vocal group of players opposed to it.

Also, I wouldn't do that until /sdrops is fully working on the Gamecube version of the game, which is not currently the case.
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by Nico0020 »

I'm surprised there were people opposed to it, especially as many people use Ives "enhanced" version of PSO that does just that for ULT mode. I am guessing most people just don't know that PSO drops are essentially broken and mathematically impossible in many cases.

Besides working on /sdrops for GC, are there any other features currently in development on the server?
I'm back on a PSO kick again for the first time in a long time, and I'm curious about the state of the server and dev for it.
I saw that GC has server message for when there is a rare drop, is that something possible for v2/PC?

I think I read that the xbox live 1.0 Insignia project was reaching out to some of PSO servers in regards to the future of that project. Is Sylverant capable of accepting an xbox connection of PSOX if that project is revive xbox 1.0?
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by BlueCrab »

Nico0020 wrote: Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:26 am I'm surprised there were people opposed to it, especially as many people use Ives "enhanced" version of PSO that does just that for ULT mode. I am guessing most people just don't know that PSO drops are essentially broken and mathematically impossible in many cases.
There have been a lot of people who are very vanilla in their gameplay and want a strictly vanilla experience.
Besides working on /sdrops for GC, are there any other features currently in development on the server?
I'm back on a PSO kick again for the first time in a long time, and I'm curious about the state of the server and dev for it.
Of course I'm working on things as time allows. Mostly, lately I'm working on things related to the server-side scripting of events.
I saw that GC has server message for when there is a rare drop, is that something possible for v2/PC?
Sylverant certainly doesn't send out any sort of special message when there's a rare drop. It'd be possible to do so, but honestly I think it's more annoying than anything... If people really wanted that kind of thing, I could implement it as some sort of opt-in flag.
I think I read that the xbox live 1.0 Insignia project was reaching out to some of PSO servers in regards to the future of that project. Is Sylverant capable of accepting an xbox connection of PSOX if that project is revive xbox 1.0?
I'm in contact with one of the guys behind Insignia. At this point, we're all in a holding pattern waiting for stuff to be ready from their end (which is quite complex, so it may well take a while).
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Re: PSO Questions & Answers

Post by stellaloveslunafreya »

BlueCrab wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:43 pm The easiest way to get up and running with a modem on the Dreamcast version is to use a DreamPi setup. Basically, you can rig your modem up to a Raspberry Pi computer with a specific (modified) USB modem and use that to connect to online games. Basically, google for "DreamPi", and you should find more information on that setup. There is a guy that does sell pre-made kits on the Dreamcast-Live website, although I'm not sure if he has any available right now.

If you are using a Japanese version 1 or 2 (or US version 2) of the game, you will need to use some sort of patch for the game to get it to connect to the server. The recommended way to do so is to use the Sylverant PSO Patcher disc. You will need to burn it to a CD-R and boot your Dreamcast with it every time you want to play PSO (and swap in your PSO disc when it asks). Unfortunately, this is required for either Japanese release of the game (version 1 or version 2). The other option is to use a CodeBreaker to patch the game every time you boot it as well, but this has a bunch of downsides to it (like the game detecting your cheats file and stopping any rare items from appearing) and isn't generally recommended.
So, it isn't possible for me to connect to the Sylverant server simply through the DC's modem itself? It NEEDS to be through this DreamPi setup? So, in other words, if I want to play online and access all the online-exclusive stuff (which is a considerable portion of the game), I'd need to pay around $100 for the DreamPi stuff to be able to do so?
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