[GC] The Twisted Towers

Discuss various gameplay related topics (rare hunts, time-attack records, etc) here. Anything PSO-related goes here, even if it isn't directly related to Sylverant.

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Aleron Ives
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[GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Aleron Ives »

Secure the
Control Towers
in the wake of
an underwater
earthquake.

Client: Natasha Milarose
Quest:
An underwater earthquake
has cut off our access
to the Control Towers.
Retake them so we can
continue our research.
Reward: ??? Meseta

I've completed my first brand new GC quest, and it pits you against nothing less than Gal Da Val's Control Towers. :twisted: This quest is intended to serve as a sequel to The East Tower and The West Tower, and as a sequel, it is in between the difficulty of ET/WT and the difficulty of PW4. Do you have what it takes to fulfill the Lab's latest request?

I am also pleased to announce that this quest marks the introduction of a new side quest for GC: if you want, you can play the quest on a bonus difficulty setting (code name: Super Hard :lol:). This difficulty setting plays differently from Ultimate, in that the enemies have more ATP, DFP, and HP than normal, but they also have less ATA, EVP, and resistance. As a result, Techniques are more important here than they are in Ultimate, so having access to Shifta and Zalure is mandatory for most classes and equipment, while using Deband and Jellen is also highly advisable if you want to stay alive. ;) If you're a Hunter or Ranger, you'll find that attacks which used to never work are now possible, and if you're a Force, you'll find that nuking is far more viable than it is in online Ultimate.

Your reward for tackling this bonus feature is that you will receive the same 30% experience bonus that Episode II enemies receive in BB. A secondary reward is also in the works, but until it's ready, you get extra Meseta for beating the side quest. Some of the enemies are more difficult than they are in Ultimate, while other enemies are probably easier, so the point of Super Hard isn't so much to increase or decrease the game's difficulty as it is to provide you with a different kind of difficulty than usual. You'll find that different weapons and tactics are useful in the bonus mode than are useful in Ultimate, so it gives you a chance to play differently than you normally would. I've found that bonus difficulty settings are an excellent way to extend a quest's replay value in Ver.2, so I wanted to try the same thing on GC.

As you might expect, since this is a bonus mode, it is entirely optional: you can of course play the quest in standard Ultimate mode, too. If you play in Ultimate, the only difference you may notice is that Mericarol now gives the correct amount of experience (348 -> 552).

If you want to tackle the side quest, first load the quest in Ultimate, then proceed from the Lab to Pioneer 2 and talk to the NPC in the room across from the Lab warp. Note that you must have the consent of all of your teammates before you can accept the side quest. Your teammates give consent to start the side quest by standing next to the NPC. If you do not want to play the side quest, simply do not enter the NPC's room, and your teammates will not be able to force you to play the new difficulty setting. Additionally, you can only enable the bonus difficulty at the beginning of the quest. If any player teleports down to Ragol before you have enabled Super Hard, the entire team is disqualified from accepting the side quest, and you will not be able to activate it (until you load the quest again).

If you find any bugs with the quest, please report them in this thread.

In the words of Natasha Milarose,
Spoiler!
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You'll need it? :lol:
"Fear the HUnewearl."
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Kayak »

Looking forward to trying this. Gonna log back on in a few.
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Sir Rappington »

Sounds great. Any mitigation to the trainwreck that is GC's ATA system (its only major design flaw, IMO) is more than welcome.

Now just make a LHS equivalent for Temple and SS and that would cover every base I can personally think of. :lol:
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by doctor_oran »

So far after a few runs, enjoying the quest layout. 2p and 3p runs have been fun so far, and solo'ing this is more reasonable than PW4 (which is too demanding at 10F in both sections imo).

I'm a fan of the 'super hard' changes too. Now FOs can actually deal good damage alongside me shooting demon guns on everything that moves. Gonna run it some more this week, and actually FO a 'super hard' run myself (Kayak was FO-ing our 2p/3p run tuesday)
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Aleron Ives »

Thank you. I am pleased that the quest and the bonus mode have been well received. :)
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Otto Baus »

Dude! This quest is awesome. I love being able to contribute more than s/d/z with a FOnl. The nerfed enemy res is a great counter-balance to bonus mode.
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Aleron Ives »

Since I'm a big fan of having things to do offline, and Sega released ET/WT offline in PSO+, I have created a downloadable version of this quest. 8-) You will need 7 free blocks on your memory card in order to save the offline version. You must also have defeated Gal Gryphon offline in order to play it; if you haven't, the quest will kick you out until you do. (If you can access Seabed immediately after starting an offline Episode II game, then you're definitely good to go.)

The "Super Hard" side quest is still available in the offline version, but the enemies have been slightly weakened to compensate for the fact that you can't rely on teammates for help when you're offline, and the 30% experience boost is based on the offline experience values, rather than the online ones. The reward for the side quest remains Meseta in the offline version; Photon Crystals are only available online. If you play the quest in Ultimate mode, you may notice that Gibbles now gives the correct amount of experience (51 -> 510).

In addition, the offline version of the quest contains a hidden bonus feature that is not present in the online version. I won't spoil what it is, but I will give you two hints: firstly, if you meet the requiement to access the bonus feature, you will probably be able to guess what it does as soon as you find it, and secondly, it is something that GC users have wanted pretty much since the game was released. ;)
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Otto Baus »

Aleron Ives wrote:... contains a hidden bonus feature that is not present in the online version. I won't spoil what it is...
Fine! GAWD!
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Otto Baus »

First double post!

Anyway, I've been trying to solo this quest with both HUct and RAct (both level 140-ish), and both hit a serious wall with WT 4F. No cover, two Meri's, medium-sized open area. With my FOnl (and any fleshie, I would imagine), I can stun with techs and continue. With casts... Holy shit the hijinks that ensue require me to burn scapes and tps like no tomorrow just to perform endless Chinese fire drills.

I'm fine closing the gap as long as both Meri's are the same type and thus share similar timing/patterns from the start. But if they come in any combination other than an identical pair, I'm dead as soon as I stop playing happy feet dodging spit from a distance and try to attack. And even once I whittle two identical Meri's down to a certain HP, they always break formation and change things up. This plays out several different ways, but always ends similarly with a dead cast and no progress.

I guess I'm supposed to juggle them, but I'm honestly the most casual God damned player out there. It doesn't happen without a slip up at some point, which resets me back in P2 having to pipe back to 3F and try all over again. Juggling with RAct using FS almost got me there, but Meri's can spit the instant they defrost. And this is actually harder for me to dodge than if one wasn't frozen prior due to the lack of warning animation.

Really, I'm just annoyed at how many stars it take to rebuild MAG sync after trying this over and over (without success). I'm already regretting posting this because I feel like I'm missing something obvious...
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by doctor_oran »

I'm not 100% sure when the mericarols come in (I know that they are the first wave) but I think on 4F there's enough time to position yourself between them and use a freeze trap, on regular or super hard. Shoot the trap early with a gun of some kind. With HUct you'll need to do something like this, where with RAct, a frozen shooter/ snow queen is another choice. However, in both situations, you'll need to know how long the freeze effect lasts so it's easier to chain it if they don't get killed in time.
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Aleron Ives »

Well, I'm glad people are still trying different strategies. :grin: I can tell you my strategy for clearing it if you want, or I can let you continue to enjoy the process of figuring out your own tactics. :wink:
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Otto Baus »

I managed to get past this point with RAct using FS, as per Doc's suggestion, but it wasn't pretty. I only lost one scape in the process, when the left Meri rushed upon defrost and boxed me into the doorway. The whole order felt more like luck than strategy. I can definitely snipe while dancing around spit, but have to be faster at stopping them from rushing once their HP dwindles. I've done it, and it only takes a quick normal shot. But the timing is tougher for me than stopping a Bald Bull rushdown despite being a much larger window.

With a HUct, yes there is just enough time to close the gap and trap-shoot an FT. I just don't do enough dmg @ level 143 to make it quick and easy. So it gets ugly fast with multiple FTs necessary, but it is doable.

This is definitely the make or break point of soloing the quest though. Knowing the spawns for each floor allows me to play through virtually untouched otherwise, much like any ET/WT run. Although I occasionally forget which floors have an immediate double biter spawn. These two(?) floors make me immediate despise Ives and need a handful of anti-acids.

Please share your strats.
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Aleron Ives »

Otto Baus wrote:I feel like I'm missing something obvious...
I would say so, as my strategy is...
Spoiler!
Use the Warp to run away. :lol:

To be more specific, warp up to the upper half of the floor the moment you enter the room, so the Mericarols can't get you. Stand next to one of the Del Lilies so that it coughs and can't use Megid, then shoot the other Del Lily. Once it's dead, turn around and kill the Del Lily behind you. Now you're free to shoot the Mericarols on the other side of the room. Their spit can't cross the gap, so you can just completely ignore them until you've dispatched the Del Lilies. No fancy juggling or Freeze Trap/Frozen Shooter antics are required. As I've said before, I tried to design this quest so that even a HUmar could solo it, assuming he used all the safe spots I included and chose his positioning well. ;)
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Otto Baus »

Dude! Seriously? I swear I tried that before but got blocked out by the Meri's. I guess I wasn't fast enough. Herp derp.

But anyway, that makes a lot of sense considering I've used the same strat elsewhere in this very quest, choosing to deal with a lone Merikle instead of a biter or a couple Gi Gues instead of three Gills (GAH! those traps).

Edit: Gave this another go this morning. Holy crap, you're both wonderful people for not just outright telling me that I'm straight-up retarded. I totally missed the forest for the trees here, like the high functioning autist I am. So embarrassing.
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by kevlarAK »

I wish this was possible on Xbox. I think I could only try something like this with my Xbox HUcast (level 170+) since my GCN HUcast is only around level 105. Thanks for this. Now you have given me a reason to get back to grinding.
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Re: [GC] The Twisted Towers

Post by Aleron Ives »

I decided to make an update to adjust the overzealously bomb-happy Gi Gues and to tweak one floor that wasn't playing out as I had originally intended, so both the online and offline versions have been updated with those changes.
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