Why did they scrap planets/cities?

[Poubelle]

Did anyone play PSU here?

It had different cities for the planets. Why did they get rid of that?

The current ship/lobby is so bland.

Neudaiz Parum and Moatobe looked pretty good. I think they all had unique shopping/grinding/etc. areas, as well.

Will we ever be able to leave this hideous PSO2 ship? I'm claustrophobic.

[Sayara]

Something with the idea its like pso1 i guess.

[Blackheart521]

Because it made the community of each universe even more divided in PSU and the missions were all at separate locations... this makes it so every mission is easily accessible from one point

[Zorafim]

The biggest thing is that now there's a central desk. It's easier to find parties, while still having the parties diverse.
The second thing is resources. It takes a large amount of time to create new areas, and that's time that could be spent on levels or other neat features.

I do admit, I miss having different cities. It made the story modes more interesting, to be sure. And it made having fun with friends more fun, too. But there weren't many things that you could do in them that you can't in the central lobby.

[Gardios]

I doubt we'll see cities unless they throw the block system out of the window. Furthermore, most cities would just be settlements (which wouldn't be a bad thing imo) anyway considering that the current planets are all uninhabited.

[Poubelle]

I can't remember, but I think there was unique lobbies for clearing quests too... I think there was some kind of casino and other stuff?

PSO2 we just have... yeah.

[Shadowth117]

The thing is, 99% of those lobbies had NOTHING in them. There was no special reason to be in most of them and they separated players. Its a cool concept, but there were also far too many I believe which didn't help with the execution to me.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

It fits with the story too seeing as the planets in PSU were developed and populated with intelligent life and these planets haven't even been terraformed yet.

[yoshiblue]

Would be nice to have the lobbys of various parts of the ship though. Maybe a remake of Crossing 3084/The hub for all your shopping and adventuring needs.

[NoiseHERO]

goal lobbies and cities weren't perfect, but I loved hanging out in them since at this point phantasy star may as well be 60% social game.

I think they could use a fair replacement for all those nice lobbies...

Maybe team room options will get there...

[SociableTyrannosaur]

well at least team rooms can be customized.

edit: ninja'd...ish

[yoshiblue]

Team room version of Crossing 3084. Make it so #1!

[Ezodagrom]

I think it would be nice if blocks had different visuals, but probably not going to happen, I guess. :\

[May0]

The thing is, 99% of those lobbies had NOTHING in them. There was no special reason to be in most of them and they separated players. Its a cool concept, but there were also far too many I believe which didn't help with the execution to me.


Well they were going for an instanced action rpg dungeon crawler. There's no "world" to explore so the lobby is more or less an excuse to show everyone your avatar's cloths. I don't know how many lobbies are empty but its always good to have some places to catch overflow for when there's events and such going on.


Personally, the more diverse the scenery the better in my opinion, but I can understand from a design aspect why they didn't decide to implement multiple locales. If you want more story/atmosphere you need a more traditional MMO. The closest thing to a hybrid of this would be vindictus/dragonnest. They lack the polish of PSO2, but they seem capable of making their world appear a bit bigger than it actually is.

There's a couple others that have dabbled with the instanced hybrid style of world exploration but Dragonnest and vindictus have done the best from what I've seen so far.

[Shadowth117]

Well they were going for an instanced action rpg dungeon crawler. There's no "world" to explore so the lobby is more or less an excuse to show everyone your avatar's cloths. I don't know how many lobbies are empty but its always good to have some places to catch overflow for when there's events and such going on.


Personally, the more diverse the scenery the better in my opinion, but I can understand from a design aspect why they didn't decide to implement multiple locales. If you want more story/atmosphere you need a more traditional MMO. The closest thing to a hybrid of this would be vindictus/dragonnest. They lack the polish of PSO2, but they seem capable of making their world appear a bit bigger than it actually is.

There's a couple others that have dabbled with the instanced hybrid style of world exploration but Dragonnest and vindictus have done the best from what I've seen so far.

No offense, but have you played PSU? The thing is, it was cool to do that but they were all very, very spread. If you simply went from random run to run on PSU even in a populated universe, it would be easy to go a whole day without running into someone. A lot of people liked the idea of a central meeting spot though, at least as far as English speaking players went, and so you'd notice that quite a few players hung out on the 4th floor of the Guardians Colony since it was a pretty central area or possibly an event area if there was one going on.

Like I said, there was nothing special about almost any of the field lobbies. There was a shopkeeper, a few exits from said lobby and that was really it. There were some places that were pretty nice looking and iconic such as say the waterfall in parum and the vio tonga (don't remember exactly what it was called. It was snowy) area in moatoob that were interesting. But they were so sparce and separated by missions that it was quite rare to see anyone else even in the more scenic places.

[Gen2000]

One the main reasons was most likely because it separated the community quite a bit. I loved some of the areas like the Hotsprings in Neudiaz, anything in Moatoob the further you went mission wise, the Parum waterfall, whatever that beach area was that lead to Seed Express, and other such screenshot worthy areas. Without a global party search it just killed community activity though. One of the reasons why players just horded around specific "hotspots" at times.

When the PC/PS2 NA/EU servers final minutes went down everyone hung out in the Falz Memorial like area before SoA pulled the plug. Wouldn't had been the same in a generic lobby.

[gigawuts]

Themed lobbies or themed sections in each lobby would resolve this completely, honestly. I like the idea of different looking lobbies, just not if they require separating everybody's mission lists and requiring either travel time or some silly "cheap" fee that winds up actually being expensive for new players.

[yoshiblue]

Just make some sort of base of operation themed lobbies. With the base located somewhere on a different planet to help people know that fellow players are there for missions on that planet.

[gigawuts]

Having blocks for different planets stationed over those planets would be pretty kickass.

It'd be neat looking outside in the shops area and seeing a faint planet through the sky over the city, or just plain as day outside the gate area.

[_Nue]

I just want a place like Outoku City.

[Lumpen Thingy]

The lobby system was crap so why bring that to a game Sega actually wants to make good.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

There might be a happy medium?

[Shadowth117]

A happy medium would be something like someone previously suggested where perhaps they are themed towards certain things. A per planet lobby type thing may not be bad and it wouldn't split the player base like PSU did with over 9000 lobbies. Than you could maybe have the ARKS ship as another lobby where other, different types of missions might take place such as maybe story, emergency and possibly time attack missions for example.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

You can't do a per planet theme when you're not changing planets.

Right now I think the team rooms is a nice start.

[Shadowth117]

As its set up now, no you really can't. It seems kind of established that missions are done from those counters. I didn't say it was something that could be implemented at this point. That said, new mssion types could totaly be done from another area. "Hidden" red and blue rooms anyone?

I do like the team room thing for sure although I feel like other people from other teams should have some way to visit. Maybe some kind of guild alliance system with accompanying chat channels would help because as it is, its not really possible to have a cross area chat without being in the same team or in the same party which is an issue that tends to isolate us I feel.

[gigawuts]

You can't do a per planet theme when you're not changing planets.

Right now I think the team rooms is a nice start.

Well...the purpose of getting rid of the lobby setup in PSU was to keep people from being split up.

Team rooms...split people up.

:[

Let's just go back to PSO1's setup and give blocks subblocks /o/

edit: Also, if you make the lobby theme purely cosmetic, or based on the assigned lobby name, that doesn't mean people couldn't still go and do whatever they damn well please.

[yoshiblue]

Yeah, its only suppose to give a visual representation to help those who don't or can't read the lobby names. So if you suddenly beam into a Lillipa lobby, you most likely went into a Lillipa easy - VH mode lobby. Its not suppose to restrict you in any way.

[supersonix9]

Even if it's not entire cities, I can see SEGA adding some more recreational features to the lobby in the future.

[Tenlade]

They could also redesign the lobby like they did the alpha in a major update a long time from now. A better designed lobby could help in making it less boring, since you'd have to spend less time having to walk around in it, and actually doing stuff/socializing.

The current lobby is full of wasted space and terrible design,like having the stone trading and recycle shops on opposite ends of the map, and the blue and red rooms being completely hidden from view.

Psu lobbies had the same issues, and team rooms/myrooms arent really a good substitute since you cant accept missions or client orders, or access the shops from them.

[ThePendragon]

1. Add more ship lobbies with varying themes with themes on each block.
2. Put a centralized quest counter in each area, that show all missions/groups across said block.
3. ???
4. Profit.

[yoshiblue]

A Shenmue theme lobby would be pretty awesome. Spend unwanted meseta on little figures and play in the arcades. Have an empty lot for makeshift 1v1 PvPs.

[Zipzo]

I honestly think even though all the blocks we're identical (save for 14-15, which, why the HELL do we not a soccer block in PSO2?!), there was still a feeling of each block maybe being a different place on the ship because of the different themes. I don't know...maybe nostalgia...but upgraded PSO2 mechanics soccer lobbies would fix every single issue I have with the game out-of-missions.

[NoiseHERO]

A Shenmue theme lobby would be pretty awesome. Spend unwanted meseta on little figures and play in the arcades. Have an empty lot for makeshift 1v1 PvPs.

oh god...


most of my time playing shenmue was collecting sonic and virtual fighter capsule toys and playing space harrier.

[Poubelle]

I don't see how multiple lobbies/cities makes it harder for people to come together.

You say that, but then you clearly mention that players who wanted a public chat gathered together on floor 4 of the ship in PSU.

just like in every online game. there will be popular areas where people gather to chat, etc.

more lobbies/"towns" make the game more interesting, make the in-game world feel alive, add immersion to the game.

PSO2's setting feels dead, I have no connection to it. from the lack of towns/lobbies, to the randomized maps, to the dull lobby, etc. I just can't get lost in pso2.

[Dragon_Knight]

I'll freely admit I loved PSUs lobbies and midpoints. But while they looked nice and were awesome places to hang out in they did make the game feel dead. Nearly everyone stood around in the temple lobby when white beast came out, everywhere else you were lucky to even run into a low level newbie.

I would love to see multiple lobbies again, but only have the quest counter in the ship. A stupid idea I know but there really is nothing better then being able to look around at something new or "relax" in a casino or hot spring.

[Tcrusader51]

Why can't they just add cities on planets to live or hang out but keep the missions the same on all areas? I believe the problem for the spread was that mission lead you through other areas where you often stayed due to wanting rare items or grinding but PSO2 doesn't work that way.

Simply add a HQ, shop, and something unique for each colony/planet/city. Unique as in maybe mini games or perks for room and team room. Yes, there were flaws but the choice of areas to live and hang out was one of the great things about PSU. I believe Sega should be improving upon these cons instead of throwing away the whole concept.

[~Aya~]

EQ's could target specific planets and people have to get to them in time to defend them against the threat. I love the idea of certain npc's being kidnapped by the enemy if they aren't pushed back and defeated in time. Then having an change over EQ to go to a specific area to save them depending on which planet you are protecting.


This adds a sense of urgency and feels like you have something to fight for and protect as an ARK.

[Punisher106]

A Shenmue theme lobby would be pretty awesome. Spend unwanted meseta on little figures and play in the arcades. Have an empty lot for makeshift 1v1 PvPs.


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