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dark-falz · 1 year

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PSO1: Tips on starting out

I’ve seen a lot of new people who try out PSO1 ask a lot of questions about stuff and how to get the ball rolling in game. It warms my heart that people are going and trying out this old revolutionary title, but I myself forget this isn’t an easy game to start off in.

This is going to be a nice long post pertaining to the basics with starting off for this game. I’m going to go over, races, classes, mags, quests, and a few random things between them. I play on Ephinea, the most populated server, so a bit of my information may be specific to their server.

*Note - I have never achieved max level in this game. There are other veterans who have like 6 level 200 characters across multiple platforms/servers. I am not a pro-veteran, but I have a consistent 23 years of familiarity with the game, never putting it down for over a year since owning it. It is and has been my hands down favorite game. There are much more knowledgeable people to talk to about this game, I am just providing what basic information I can in hopes of creating an ease of access for new people trying to get more familiar with the game.

Races:

Humans: Nothing special honestly except in classes. Stats: Balanced/Sturdy

Newmans: Regenerate TP standing still. Stats: Squishy & blind but strongest magic

Casts: Regenerate health standing still, cannot use techniques, have access to traps. Stats: High accuracy, high health, high power.

Classes: (in game order)

HUmar - Cannot learn buffs Shifta or Deband. Can learn debuffs Jellen and Zalure. HUnewearl - Worst accuracy, attack, and health among hunters. Highest evade, defense, mind. Can learn all techniques except force-specific. Best jack of all trades class. HUcast - Achieves highest attack among hunters HUcaseal - Best accuracy among hunters, as well as best evade late game

RAmar - Can learn buffs Shifta and Deband, cannot learn debuffs Jellen and Zalure. Highest accuracy among rangers, worst mind. RAmarl - Can learn all techniques except force-specific. Worst health & attack among rangers, highest evade. RAcast - Highest health & attack among rangers, worst evade & accuracy. RAcaseal - Most defense of Rangers

FOmar - Highest attack, worst defense late game. FOmarl - Most health & defense among forces, worst mind & TP. FOnewm - Most TP, mind, & evade at start. Worst defense early. FOnewearl - Lowest attack & defense, strongest mind and most TP.

Mags:

Your mag is your other half. PSO2 kept this concept relatively similar thankfully. Mags evolve at levels 10, 35, and 50. From here you can achieve a 4th evolution mag (also a rare item) meeting specific requirements. Mags are just as in depth in terms of late-game but its important to have knowledge on them. This part is lengthy and I apologize. At the start of Mag feeding, it works like this; when a mag is evolved by a hunter at level 10, it will learn an AOE Photon Blast. by a ranger at level 10, it will learn a linear Photon Blast by a force at level 10, it will learn a healing Photon Blast.................... up to level 35; feeding fluids will grant mostly mind, mates will grant mostly power, antis will grant mostly dex. Atomizers will boost 2 stats at a time.

When a mag is evolved at level 35; if its highest stat is power it will learn a linear Photon Blast If its highest stat is dex it will learn an aoe Photon Blast If its highest stat is mind it will learn a Shifta Deband Photon Blast....................

And the headache part with mag feeding (apart from being fucked if you’re a force lmao) is...the 4th evolution requirements. I only mention this because I do think its important to keep in mind as you’re feeding;

In order to get a 4th evolution mag, you need to have all your stats balanced.

4th evolution mags can also only be achived by certain classes holding certain section IDs. I’d get into more specifics, but its a post on its own and Ephinea’s mag tables can be found here along with this information. You can also find feeding tables for each mag as after level 35 their diets will change drastically and no-longer easy to generalize.

Quests:

If you aren’t playing with a friend, I recommend starting off on the Side Story quests in One Person mode. You select this upon creating a game, just before difficulty selection. Several of the early quests include a buddy that familiarizes you with the game. Monsters on One person mode are also easier to kill and don’t hit as hard.

If you’re starting off with a friend, you just gotta buckle down. Try to pick your classes strategically and just grit your teeth through it, it’ll get better.

If you have a friend that can carry you even in the slightest, I recommend Towards the Future under VR at the Hunters Guild. This is a boss rush quest and starting at level 1 you can end anywhere form levels 8-12. It is common to see an open game titled TTF to join if you’re social. Once TTF starts slowing down I recommend Episodes 2 and 4 if you’re still able to be carried and I mean carried. Episodes 2 and 4 I usually recommend after you’re past the next difficulty requirements, and especially if you’re freshly 80. (I do not recommend Episode 1 Ultimate mode until around level 95 but I, too, am a glutton for punishment) Quests I recommend for grinding in Episode II: Maximum Attack E: (VR/Gal De Val) & in Episode IV: Maximum Attack E: Episode 4

Extra bullshit

Section IDs are how your drops are determined. Example: only certain ID’s get the Red Ring, others would get Rico’s Glasses, and others would get her Earrings instead, all from Falz on Ultimate.

Ephinea has their own wiki, personally I try to keep a drop chart and mag chart on a second screen at all times when I’m playing. I strongly recommend referring to them often.

Consoles all have their own Section ID assigning system, along with their own specific drops. Servers vary between each other in some ways like this too. For a general reference tool, I recommend the ancient site that has everything, PSO-World.

Playing PSO

I find it necessary to say PSO is not similar to PSO2 in the way that PSU is. PSO does not have an in-depth combat system, it can be clunky and still makes me angry sometimes. Even I have to remind myself this game is over 20 years old. PSO2 is much more similar to PSU, despite its name. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of Universe’s story, but the Portable series absolutely shines and it takes place in the same Universe as...Universe. Characters from Universe are even in it. PSO2 has a lot of Portable 2 Infinitiy’s inspiration in it, but Infinity had PSO characters in it. As far as similarities go between PSO and PSO2 all I can compare is just the mag system, but the combat in PSU/Portable is what PSO2 evolved from.

Playing Phantasy Star

Emulators and private servers are your cheapest option. I have links to all servers on my custom theme, and I can provide roms if needed. Alternatively;

For Dreamcast: Dreamcasts can literally read burned games, assuming you no longer need the key provided that came with the game to play on the original server. (Would assume the current servers would provide those if you still need them). I haven’t played Dreamcast Online since it was alive, I was also 6 at this time. I don’t know shit about burning the games, but the real version of this game retails used for $30-50. You can still use private servers with your Dreamcast! Recommended Emulator: Redream

For Gamecube: I assume most PSO Gamecube online players kept their games. The GC copy price of this game is all over the place with the regular and plus editions, and it seems the regular editions are running higher online for some reason at the moment, however there are very seldom listings for both. Both copies retail used for over $100 You can still use private servers with your Gamecube! (I believe this can be done with wii too) Recommended Emulator: Dolphin

For Xbox: This is the cheapest copy of the game, retails $15-$30 used. You can now play online with Insignia.Live however you need a modded Xbox, which a kit to do so will run the same price. If you mod your own Xbox and it has PSO data on it, you will lose it forever. This happened to me and I’m still dead inside from it. (but u can use voice chat which is huge friends)

There are also 6 servers to play Blue Burst on which are Ephinea, Ultima, Schthack, Destiny, and Sylverant. Consoles can be connected to several of these servers. You can also connect to Blue Burst servers via steam deck, however this requires your own programming and I cannot help you besides providing links of how to do it.

Ambitions of the Illuminus is playable online through the Clementine server. You can alternatively download a Playstation 2 emulator and I can provide a ROM for this, but I don’t use a Playstation 2 emulator for anything so I don’t have a recommendation. Both the 360 and PS2 copy of PSU retail used for $10-15. I do recommend PPSSPP for emulation of the Portable series. I can provide these ROMs as well. All copies of Portable 1, 2 and Infinity retail used for around $25. There is also finally an English translation of PSP2I. If you need help finding the rom just send an ask :)

Hot take

This biggest thing I have to stress with this game is; if you start off as a Force, you are going to have a very hard time. You constantly need to use money in order to use your techniques, unless you play newman and strategically stand around and feed your mag while your TP comes back. And most importantly, you need a mind mag. Thing is, with feeding your mag fluids, a force gets a healing photon blast to start out. And with mind being the primary stat at level 35, you get the Shifta and Deband photon blasts. You’re stuck with the most useless photon blasts possible for your character. Forces are completely badass, but they’re tricky to learn and start off, especially as a beginner. Example: FOmar was the first class my s/o picked. He is level 35. He has not touched that character in over a year but has a HUmar nearly level 100 and a RAmar over level 50.

Also, standing around in game and feeding your mag for a day is also a PERFECTLY acceptable way of playing the game.

Also my ask box is always open, and I’m happy to help with what I can if you have any questions :)

#pso #phantasy star online #refrence #if you wanna play force the best option is to make a not force first #make your force #get your mag to the character that isn't a force #get the mag to level 200 then give it back to your force lmao #also if anyone sees any info i fucked up on please lmk

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isocrime · 1 year

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Isozyme, your hrpf is so tight and snippy, you pace it all so well. Yoy have the plot so well tied to each scene. My question for you is, how do you do it,? Is it a matter of planning the end to end story before starting to writing? Thank you for your ficts!

Thank you!! This is a good question and very gratifying because one of the things I aim for with my fics is to always be compulsively readable no matter where in the story you’re at.

I don’t actually know the story from end-to-end at a high level of detail when I start out. Usually I know about how long the story will take to tell, the setup, and then the next couple things after that. As I write I sort of build the track ahead of me, so I’ll often have a detailed outline for the next scene, a couple bullet points for a handful of scenes after that, and then a sort of general vibe for anything farther away. (With a few exceptions, like I knew Matthew was going to get a supportive phone call from Sid in LMLAY for ages and ages before I finally got to write it.)

Basically my pacing philosophy is that every scene should have a job to do, and ideally also have some side hustles, and I sort of build it up layer by layer as I come up with each upcoming scene.

Let’s spitball a scene as an example. Hypothetically let’s give me a mcmattdrai wip where they’re all training with Scary Gary and in the scene in question Matthew is trying to figure out if Leon is sleeping with Connor. Maybe they’re waiting for the elevator together after a workout, that’s a good setting for two people who sort of know each other to have a stilted conversation. Matthew can joke that his legs are too tired to take the stairs and Leon can complain that he doesn’t know where the stairs are yet (this establishes their different levels of comfort in the setting in addition to giving some character notes). Leon probably also looks hot and sweaty, Matthew can notice that several times during the scene to amp up the sexual tension while he asks Leon awkward questions. A nice thing about elevators is that they have a timer, so I get to control when the elevator arrives and cuts off their conversation; probably right around when Leon reveals that he’s not sleeping with Connor (one mystery tied up, that’s the big job done by the scene) but now Matthew wants to know why Leon’s not sleeping with Connor (another mystery opened). They could keep talking about that inside the elevator but I don’t like that because I think that mystery should stretch out into the next couple of scenes, so to fix that (and add comedy) just as the elevator door is starting to close Connor can obliviously run up and join them. Now Matthew can’t ask Leon any more questions about Connor but he can observe the two of them together and start making some theories. However now that I have Connor in the scene, I should give him something to do from his plotline as well. Maybe I can make him talk about his struggles with a fundraiser for sick kids he’s trying to organize. Naturally Matthew volunteers Leon to help, which leads to Leon volunteering Matthew to also help as revenge, and that leads me neatly into the next scene (3 idiots struggling at event planning together in between their workouts).

I don’t know anything else about this fake story or where it’s going, but the scene is still dense and feels connected to a plot because all the elements are doing some kind of work on behalf of the story. And that’s pretty much how I do it when I’m actually writing something with a lot of plot — come up with what the main goal of a scene is, and then while achieving that goal try to have the stuff happening in the background work to move along side plots and set up the next thing.

Pacing is like a tricky little puzzle and it’s hard but I think it’s worth it when the work pays off; very glad you’re enjoying my hockey fics!

#isozyme answers #i learned how to write trying to sell original scifi/fantasy short stories to online magazines and the pacing there has to be super tight #so that definitely informs my fic #the pro mags pay by the word and their budgets are small #they want a full story with worldbuilding and characters and deep themes in 5k or less #so you're really packing for a 2 week trip in one carry on bag and a purse #every pair of socks better be justifying the space it takes up #no paragraphs just wandering around vaguely adding to the atmosphere #do a job or get cut for wordcount!#i'm such a hardass control freak about writing don't take this as advice on the only way to do things #you could also be normal and not freak out about adverbs

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