Feb. 17 Official Blog

[Mike]

The official blog (http://ameblo.jp/sega-psblog/entry-11167290015.html) was updated tonight with a slight bit of information from the questionaire and two design pics. First, a few bits of stuff from the questionaire.
The first alpha testers made up 30% of the total testers for the second alpha.
Cast creation rates were up thanks to the human faces.
There were more females than males.
Male newmen were rarer than the rarest rappy still the least common race/sex combination.
A little less than half of all total players of the second alpha submitted answers.
1.2% of those were unable to play the game at all.
65% of them used a game pad, the rest were keyboard + mouse, which was up from the alpha.
The second alpha ranked better than in the ranking questions than the first alpha did.

The design pictures for the RAcast and HUcaseal were also posted:

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1789&pictureid=25381


http://www.pso-world.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1789&pictureid=25382


And finally, it looks like there will be new PSO2 announcements almost every week in March. So keep your eyes peeled. Hopefully it'll a closed beta announcement will be in there somewhere.

[youcantcatchtheblue]

And finally, it looks like there will be new PSO2 announcements almost every week in March. So keep your eyes peeled.

Awesome, I'm really itching for more and more PSO2 info. This past week without anything at all has left me very dry and I NEED MY PSO2 FIX

Gimme more more!!

[moorebounce]

I never really liked the RAcast because it's too big and bulky looking for my taste. I'm feeling that HUcaseal though.

[ClothoBuer]

65% of them used a game pad, the rest were keyboard + mouse, which was up from the alpha.



This single fact staggers me. I know lots of people are keen on using gamepads for the experience, but man, passing up that precision of a keyboard and mouse is just... wow. I expected a lot closer margin than 65/35.

[Angelo]

This single fact staggers me. I know lots of people are keen on using gamepads for the experience, but man, passing up that precision of a keyboard and mouse is just... wow. I expected a lot closer margin than 65/35.

The gamepad works better for Hunters, and melee in general. It also felt more natural for charging up Tech spells as opposed to spamming. Honestly, the precision of analog movement and twitch movement outweighs the pinpoint accuracy of a mouse that is really only advantageous for TPS mode.

65% honestly sounds about right.

[ClothoBuer]

The gamepad works better for Hunters, and melee in general. It also felt more natural for charging up Tech spells as opposed to spamming. Honestly, the precision of analog movement and twitch movement outweighs the pinpoint accuracy of a mouse that is really only advantageous for TPS mode.

65% honestly sounds about right.

I'll have to take your word for it. I guess this is something I'd have to literally get my hands on before I can decide which one will work better for me, but it's just a bit surprising to see that much disparity.

[Omega-z]

I think Newman male needs more power in some area's then there Female's counterparts and that making Female's into LoLi's :| reason why they are low in POP., But the last time for me was because of the problem that they didn't have the same options for the fleshie's as the Cast's did was the main reason I didn't make a Newman Male.

Yeah, Gamepad or Gamepad + Mouse (for more TPS'ing) was then best for a Force type(Wii type of formation ie. Gamepad = Nun-chuck and Mouse = Wand) , since Keyboard felt weird and out of place it was slower and pin point wasn't needed as much. That too it was easier to put all your spell's off the key board and on the Gamepad for faster re-action. The only time (after try out the keyboard) was hit the "M" key for the stupid Map which was better in the large scale(which I could add it in to the Gamepad too but was lazy to re-config. it).

But I would say best results:

Hunter - Gamepad

Force - Gampad + Mouse (Mouse when needed)

Ranger - Keyboard + Mouse

Now this is what I've seen, And I know there are those who like Keyboard better then Gamepad. But at the End this is most likely going to happen.

[SELENNA]

That HUcaseal is perfect. Makes me want to roll another one after PSO BB

[Dinosaur]

Hate to say there is a weaker class than the other, but newm's stats feel underwhelming. The only differences between newm and newearl are that newm has a tiny little more HP and ranged defense while newearl gets higher magic attack and magic defense. If one were go to for the strongest caster statistically speaking, it is clearly newearl. With that said, I do hope that Forces get their own unique racial benefits so that not every Force that wants to bang hard is running FOnewearl.

Mid-late game Force(or sub-force) will highly benefit on playing with a mouse with more than 5 buttons. Charging techs on the hotkey bar is not efficient at all and I'm sure any decent Force player is going to need more than 3-4 charge spells available to them.

[Kazzi]

I have to admit, I'm surprised at the gamepad stats. Especially considering so many people had difficulty even getting one to work on the first day alone.

[Randomness]

I never really liked the RAcast because it's too big and bulky looking for my taste. I'm feeling that HUcaseal though.

I dunno, the concept art makes the RAcast look pretty good imo. It manages a nice military look.

But yeah, HUcaseal is lovely.

[Omega-z]

I agree Dinosaur that Newm need more in there stat's. But I would say to make it like this HP, Str Pow, Str Def, and Tech Pow higher for male and PP, Rang Pow, Rang Def (like the other Females don't know why they didn't ?), Tech Def for Female and have ability equal. It would help the Males out more for the most part except the RA-version but open up more option for the Female RA type. Let's face it, Even if they buff male's with better stat's ppl will still go with the Loli type of newman just because and will still put the males to non-existence state; Ppl fell in love with the young "Female Only Mutant Amazon Slut" race or the "F.O.M.A.S" race.

[moorebounce]

I dunno, the concept art makes the RAcast look pretty good imo. It manages a nice military look.

But yeah, HUcaseal is lovely.

I'm not saying the RAcast doesn't look nice because all the characters look nice but it's not my taste. I like everything I've seen so far. All the characters are updated but still have that old PSO style to them.

[Crystal_Shard]

For those of you surprised that the results are skewed in favour of the gamepad, don't forget that the majority are still Japanese players using gamepads that are sold in Japan. Sega has likely targeted those, and the few of us with problems are outside of Japan using all kinds of different models. I'm not that surprised personally - I don't think Japanese players play many FPS, and as such are less likely to rely on the mouse + keyboard combo.

Anyway, we're still missing the Hunewm, Ramarl, Ranewearl and Fomar. Hope that after those are out, Sega will toss out a few random purchaseable/findable outfits to further whet our appetites.

I think the only one that we've not seen the design for yet is the Ranewearl. Looking forward to it.

[Dhylec]

Hucaseal design is nice, but Racast looks a bit clunky & too bulky. I hope there are alternate designs/models too.


Male newmen were still the least common race/sex combination.
If Sega saw that this race/combo is so unpopular, they should do something about making it more appealing. Doesn't hurt to boost stats or giving an exclusive skill. ;3

[Masterflower]

Man, Gamepad all the way for me. Way easier on my hands and wrists and way easier for me to input commands.

[Dre_o]

Hucaseal design is nice, but Racast looks a bit clunky & too bulky. I hope there are alternate designs/models too.


If Sega saw that this race/combo is so unpopular, they should do something about making it more appealing. Doesn't hurt to boost stats or giving an exclusive skill. ;3

SHHHHHH!!!! DON'T LET THEM HEAR YOU DYL! PLEASE!
/capslock-antiBeastrant

I like the designs. RAcasts are supposed to be clubic gundam clunky and HUcaseals are supposed to be...ninja-y.

[Serephim]

This single fact staggers me. I know lots of people are keen on using gamepads for the experience, but man, passing up that precision of a keyboard and mouse is just... wow. I expected a lot closer margin than 65/35.


This gets me too.


Probably because i just KNEW i was set with my Dualshock 3 and Motioninjoy before i got my face cracked



Yeah, my biggest complaint for PSO2 at the moment is the diversity. My choice for making new characters were ENTIRELY cosmetic. I didn't make a Newman Male because i already had a Human Male. I didn't make a cast because there was no reason to -- they are basically identical to humans outside of stats, which i didn't care about. The only reason i had a newman female is because i ALWAYS have at least one newman female force. The only reason i made a Human Female is because i wanted a technical Ramarl, out of nostalgia from the original PSO where they were...you know, actually unique and stuff.



Racial abilities. Unique Animations.


Do it now. You'll have yourselves a winner. I don't want another PSU where all my characters are copies of eachother with different sets of ears, i seriously dont.

[Staryu]

More news.... must... feed..... Pso addiction... honestly i would consider learning Japanese just to play this game sooner. Cant wait!

[moorebounce]

One thing I haven't seen anybody do is translate the writing on all these character designs. Outside of translating the menus I would be interested in knowing what all the descriptions around the characters are.

[Aiex]

One thing I haven't seen anybody do is translate the writing on all these character designs. Outside of translating the menus I would be interested in knowing what all the descriptions around the characters are.

The resolution is so low it's difficult to make out most of the characters. :/

[ShadowDragon28]

Lol the game is barely 30-45% complete and people are complaining about every little thing that's missing in the game.
Anyways, I think the Hucaseal looks damn awesome, I do hope they add in the old classic leg parts at some point from PSO ep I&II though.(like via a content update patch)

I am totally going to be playing using my logitech game pad, since it was awesome playing a Hunter using my gamepad.

[Serephim]

Lol the game is barely 30-45% complete and people are complaining about every little thing that's missing in the game.
Anyways, I think the Hucaseal looks damn awesome, I do hope they add in the old classic leg parts at some point from PSO ep I&II though.(like via a content update patch)

I am totally going to be playing using my logitech game pad, since it was awesome playing a Hunter using my gamepad.


It is not very far fetched at all to assume they would skip out on providing sex/racial specific animations. The most unique of the classes in PSO wern't added until Episode 1&2, but PSO2 is going to start with every combination available.





Well i enjoyed every bit of the PSO2 2nd Alpha, but i have very, very little faith that they'll add specific animations similar to the way the original PSO did it. It not only had unique animations for attacks, but also unique animations for technique casting for most weapon types. Something tells me if we didn't see it now, we probably wont be seeing it.

[ShadowDragon28]

I just don't see the point to complaining about minor things unless that person is going to be proactive, and have them and all their like-minded friends use google translate and Sega's feedback page to send a message in japanese to the developers asking for gender or race specific animations or what not.

Sakai's team might put those in, they might not. Such a thing is trivial IMO, and while such would look neat visually, it doesn't matter much to actual gameplay mechanics in my view.
For example a female newman Force walking "funky" or "sexy", wouldn't really make Techniques do more damage or cast faster. People are just looking for any little personal whim to be granted, and nitpicking about every damn little thing, and it's really silly I think.

[Serephim]

Sakai's team might put those in, they might not. Such a thing is trivial IMO, and while such would look neat visually, it doesn't matter much to actual gameplay mechanics in my view.
For example a female newman Force walking "funky" or "sexy", wouldn't really make Techniques do more damage or cast faster. People are just looking for any little personal whim to be granted, and nitpicking about every damn little thing, and it's really silly I think.

.....it has everything to do with gameplay? The animations are the meat of the game, how could they NOT be extremely important? That's like saying "Rare weapons having different models look neat visually but do nothing for gameplay mechanics." How would you feel if every rare weapon you acquired in PSO had a default model?




It gives the characters identity, and adds a sense of diversity to the game. My saber combo having a spinning move in it instead of a thrusting move may not do anything for gameplay, but it definitely makes me feel different from you, doesn't it? If you decided to make two hunters, lets say a Humar and a Hucast, wouldn't you want the two to actually FEEL different outside of one looking like a child and the other looking like a deep freezer?



Not only that, but it does have pretty obvious gameplay purposes. If the animations are different, that means they can also change the way attack combos work. Like in PSO, how Hucaseal's dagger animation made them easier to attack with. I personally thought Hunewearl had a much better Doublesaber animation as well, while Humar had a more effective Twin Saber animation.



Stuff like that is far from useless. It's basically the difference between a good video game and a great one. People may not complain about it as much as something like gameplay imbalances, but it's just as important nonetheless.

[ShadowDragon28]

IMO those are still surface aesthetics, and not as important as attack damage, effectiveness of attacks/techniques, their speed of use, etc.
Yes specialized movement animations look pretty and help diversvy characters of different races or genders, would be great to have,sure.

I just choose to not bitch about it until the finished game is out. If you want those gender and race specific animations, use google translate and make a message and then send it to the dev team via their feedback page.

But I see little point in complaining about it when I highly doubt anyone from Sakai's development staff are here reading people's posts.

[kyuuketsuki]

I just choose to not bitch about it until the finished game is out. If you want those gender and race specific animations, use google translate and make a message and then send it to the dev team via their feedback page.
That is a terrible idea. Nothing will get someone to hit the delete button on your message faster than it being google translated.

But I see little point in complaining about it when I highly doubt anyone from Sakai's development staff are here reading people's posts.
Because this is a discussion board and so people like to discuss things...?

[moorebounce]

The resolution is so low it's difficult to make out most of the characters. :/

Man that's too bad but it explains why nobdy has done it. I guess if I could read Japanese I would've known that already. Good looking out Aiex

[ShadowDragon28]

That is a terrible idea. Nothing will get someone to hit the delete button on your message faster than it being google translated.

Because this is a discussion board and so people like to discuss things...?

1) Can you show me proof that whomever reads feedback messages at Sega of Japan does this? Your speculation does not mean it actually happens.
With simple phrases google translate can translate "I request the inclusion of special character animation for female,male Newman and Cast characters" pretty well IMO. A person could politely find a person fluent in Japanese and translate the sentence as well. My point is that it's better to be proactive.

2) Whining repeatedly about a (IMO) superfluous missing feature in PSO2 alpa 2, is not a discussion, it's just whining. It's not going to change anything when the same people mention it/whine about it over and over again.

[Serephim]

I personally don't see what all the Google Translate hate is about. All you need is a little context and common sense to make sense of the message.



Google Translate got me the jist of pretty much all of the PSO2 updates before i found out about Bumped.org.

[NoiseHERO]

Whining about tiny details in the game, seems to have gotten them changed for the better so far.

Maybe not HERE!

But yeah the current development phase of this game is "Change this, Add this, tweak this." Even if most of us are unable to send that feed back, it's still the general thing to talk about.

Before all we could do was speculate and talk about things we wanted. Now we can do that AND "WHINE" about thing that could be changed. If you're gonna blow up every "tiny" dislike someone has with this game, I'd suggest not reading most of the threads/posts in this forum.

Being stubborn about it will make you just as bad as anyone you deem a "whiner" anyway.

[ShadowDragon28]

Whatever, go ahead and "discuss" the lack of specialized animations or whatever ad-infinitum to all of your hearts content.
My point is that after topic or complaint has already been stated and/or discussed. What exactly is the point with mentioning it or having the same discussion or arguement again for a second time, a third time, a fourth time? Really what's the point now?

[BlackRaiden]

Outside of some aesthetic nitpicks, like the large shoulders and upper leg area and the unnecessary tail piece and spikes on her feet, I do love the ninja concept and overall she looks good. I just hope she can be altered enough and that hopefully they add more Cast parts.

Gameplay comes first though. I'd rather they take their time working out the kinks and make it run smooth than rush it and be highly disappointed afterwards.

Also, does anyone else find it funny how they don't have any problem whatsoever showing off the HUnewearl's backside but the HUcaseal has to be covered? I guess they don't want the Hunewearl to have any competition in that department.

[NoiseHERO]

And unchanged opinion will naturally be stated if something reminds you of it.

If some challenges or questions that opinion then it continues from there. OR if the argument never had a... 'winning" side (most common example.) The only time most people won't want to bring a topic up again? Is if it's a stupid argument that got no where to begin with. (Like newman's SPINES not looking right.)

Saying it's "whining" just because someone mentions not liking something more than once... Sounds more like you could care less whether the game had X, Y or Z and you're just trying to put that person's opinion down with your only argument being "It's not that important and that you're just whining.

Which isn't a legitimate argument at all! That's just being a dick when it has nothing to do with you because you never even cared! Which you should further NOT CARE and let serephim go on about how he wants unique animations, even if he's brought it up before!

[gundam0079]

Need mah info. Can't wait for the next set of images

[ShadowDragon28]

I'm not putting anyone's opinion down. I'm just making a general observation and statement about what I think of the action of repeating the same complaint/opinion/statement in every thread and how I I feel it is, in general, a pointless and non-productive action. These are only observational suppositions, nothing more.

My supposition based commentary wasn't directed at any particular person.

[Komali]

The resolution is so low it's difficult to make out most of the characters. :/

Does anyone actually have a screenshot of the descriptions?
I could give it a shot; PSU still has a resolution that makes complicated kanji unreadable.

::EDIT::
Oh, you guys mean the concept art; I'll try it.

[NoiseHERO]

I'm just making a general observation and statement about what I think of the action of repeating the same complaint/opinion/statement in every thread and how I feel it is, in general, a pointless and non-productive action.

Someone can be allowed to talk about whatever topic as many times as they want.

When the opinion/statement/complaint/topic hasn't had a proper conclusion. New opinions could be added on the topic, by new people or someone whose had a change of heart. Or there could just be a lot of controversy behind the idea in general.

There's plenty of reasons to bring up a previously stated complaint or opinion. Especially for the sake of conversation or debate. Even beating a dead horse can be productive in some ways... Whatever the discussion may be, talked about before or not. The whole point of an online forum is to enjoy discussing it.

Hell if you wanna talk about being productive, this whole sub forum has pretty much gone way over the line terms of pointless arguments, you'd may as well be complaining that this whole section is screwed up, so yeah there's still something not right about pulling the "stop whining" card out of nowhere in a discussion. You've done it before too! D<

[ShadowDragon28]

I wasn't saying a person should not repeat their complaints or comments ad infinitum. I'm just expressing my feeling about the action of doing so and that I think it's a action with little to no point to it. Please refrain from reading more into my observations or statements things I wasn't implying or saying.

But yes the repeative topic discussions or arguements are rather apparent here. FYI, I wasn't saying people shouldn't be discussiong whatever topic people want to discuss or argue either.

[Komali]

[SPOILER-BOX]http://www.pso-world.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1789&pictureid=25382[/SPOILER-BOX]


That HUcaseal actually looks like my a2 character now that I think about it.