EVERYONE Sign this Petition to change the servers back!!

[Ambrai]

As of today the 6th of March, Sega changed the servers to check the time on your VMU. By doing this they can tell if you have logged on with a file older than your previous save. What happens at this point is you will get a dialoge box stating that you are using a corrupt save and an item initilization will occur. It drops you offline and resaves your game. When you log on again you have newbie gear and nothing else like you just restarted.

I tested this myself and due to this I will be unable to play online at all until this is changed or I will lose my own gear.

I have called Sega of America and they have no knowledge about this. The lady who identified herself as Anna told me all I could do is write a letter to the following address.

Sega of America
dreamcast inc
650 townsend st
ste 650
Sanfransico CA. 94103-4908

Please visit the following thread which will be a petition in which I will send to Sega for them to change the servers back to their origional state.

Please post here to show your support to change the servers back to their previous status.


<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-06 18:49 ]</font>

[katastrophy]

Sorry Ambrai but i'd rather prevent duping and backup saves because if your character got erased then God must have wanted it that way.

[Xria]

NO! DOWN WITH DUPING! I'D RATHER LOSE MY CHARACTER THEN SEE EVERY RARE ITEM TURN WORTHLESS!

DOWN WITH DUPERS!

DOWN WITH DUPERS!

DOWN WITH DUPERS!

DOWN WITH DUPERS!

DOWN WITH DUPERS!


AMBRAI YOU ARE A DUPER LOVER! DOWN WITH YOU TOO!

DOWN WITH AMBRAI!

DOWN WITH AMBRAI!

DOWN WITH AMBRAI!

[TheHangedMan]

On 2001-03-06 18:43, Xria wrote:
NO! DOWN WITH DUPING! I'D RATHER LOSE MY CHARACTER THEN SEE EVERY RARE ITEM TURN WORTHLESS!


I fail to see the logic in this. If you lose your character and have to start over, why should you care whether or not rare items are still rare? You can't do anything with a rare weapon when you have no character to use it. Isn't something that you spent hours & hours on and have memories of worth more than just another weapon?

If Sega is going to institute anti-cheat measures, they shouldn't be doing so in a manner that punishes innocent players.

[Dirus]

On 2001-03-06 18:42, katastrophy wrote:
Sorry Ambrai but i'd rather prevent duping and backup saves...


What you are missing here is that this doesn't prevent ALL dup'ing, just the most common method. People are still able to dupe.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Dirus on 2001-03-06 19:20 ]</font>

[Loden]

OMG

Why did you bother to test it Ambri?

It sounds like bad code all together. I wouldn't have tested it with my main. Rather maded a noob to test it on.

SEGA has to do something about their anti-cheat methods all together.


Loden

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Loden on 2001-03-06 18:57 ]</font>

[segagameplay]

Bows to pso world and says thank you very much!

[bishop2049]

got my support!

DOWN WITH DUPING<---jack ass lol

[Mun-KEE]

Here is the problem I see with this... this wont stop duping that much. If the game deletes your items if you log on w/ a lower time, all a duper has to do is just play offline for like 5 to 10 min and it is a workaround, right? So they will continue duping. It may have caught some of them off the initial start, but people will figger out how to get around it. What does this really hurt? The people that backup their characters. Why? Cuz these are the people that have like HOURS of time difference. The people that lose their characters in a crash. I lost my character 1 time... I had a backup and was saved. I have yet to have a problem again...

I dont think losing your items is a huge difference... I dont have many SUPER rares or anything, but still, the thought of losing my high level mag and my soul eater (which unfortunately is a must for my char, a force... no other good weapons to use for large groups) really sucks. I dont like the fact that sega did this, but whats done is done. I guess what happens now, is that when I eventually lose my char to a power outage (and yes I live in CA, so I guess I am screwed, neh?) I guess it will be time to say goodbye to an otherwise fine game. Too bad... I hope sega really puts in some effort to fix this problem for the 2nd one...

Oh, and I think that attacking Ambrai like that was stupid, immature and childish Xria... just my opinion.

[Ambrai]

UPDATE:

Tested it further to find some way around it and I did http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_cool.gif.

Any file OLDER (meaning more time played) than the last file you went online with will work with no problems. So if you lose all your gear just play offline with your char til the time is over the previous char's time.

Consider it a good time to finish those quests you have been meaning to do.

And to Xria,

I do not support duping in any way shape and form. I am actually investigating an accusation that a certian person is trading duped items through our trading forum. If I find proof of this his ass will be banned quicker than you can ask your mom for lunch money.

Ambrai X`Vie
PSO World Staff

[watashiwa]

Yeah, I think the servers should be changed back. Legit people who backup their character for BSOD prevention (using a method that Sega themselves recommended, mind you,) get screwed over by the server change. Who really cares if people dupe items? It doesn't ruin the game any. If you hate running around seeing everyone and their mom with a Spread Needle, go play a private game with your Saber+1 or whatever. For those who wish the servers to remain in the state their in, just remember this: When you're sitting down playing PSO having the most awesome time of your life with your cool weapons and your power goes out, or the servers go down and you get a BSOD and you cannot save your game even though you unplugged your cable. You log back into PSO online to check your inventory and see that ALL YOUR ITEMS are gone. ALL the stuff in the bank is gone. Thanks to you not signing the petition, you can't restore from a backup, and thus you're screwed. Have fun beating things up with your fists and no armor. You're gunna have to rack up some meseta to even buy anything. Fun! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[segagameplay]

Whine whine whine...
First you want know duppers... We do that...
now you bitch becuse we did...
Theres no making some people happy!
By all means call 1800 usa sega and complain.

[sinistrx]

Heh, easy come easy go. (:

[--God--]

On 2001-03-06 18:42, katastrophy wrote:
Sorry Ambrai but i'd rather prevent duping and backup saves because if your character got erased then God must have wanted it that way.[addsig]


My son, speaking for me is a sin and I suggest you refrain from doing it in the future.

Aside from that. All Sega staff will be going to hell!

[Phantasy]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:18 ]</font>

[segagameplay]

right on phantasy! Listen to her shes a goddess!

[Tkc613]

If this prevents duping at the least from one person, I think it's worth it. If it doesn't have any effect on it, I'd rather have it the way it was before.

I have 280 hours logged on my character and I never have and don't plan on using a backup. I've had my VMU pop out, my dreamcast shut down, reset itself, line get dropped, and black screened. I have never faced a corrupt file, only the loss of unequipped items a while back.

If Sega doesn't want you to use backups, that's their perogative. If you don't support it, don't play.

[Ambrai]

Ok some added notes for you all.

1) Due to new game shark (whatever its called) codes that were released, players can now INSTANTLY

-Dupe items online or offline
-Change their save time
-Change their char name
-Modify each stat on char and mag individually

That alone makes this a useless change towards the war on duping.

After I found the work around, it lessened the severity of the issue but something still remains.

Sega just stated that they are willing to screw the players they are trying to protect to stop cheaters.

[Spy]

Why don't we just make a private server? I believe I read an article a while back on how you can do it for PSO. If we could pull it off that would kick soo much ass.

Hehe BTW nice work Ambrai, playing your char till you have more time on the backup is ingenius, and it shows how little thought sega put into their little plan

[segagameplay]

game shark has not released codes for pso. Hate to disapoint you.

[Asdrubael]

All I can say on this issue is this... Yes, I use backups... Mainly because I have had to deal with the BSoD 2 times so far, and both times have lost a rare I had just found in that game (Photon claw {2 seperate photon claws, mind you, neither traded or backed up})... It is *VERY* upsetting when you lose one of your weapons that a short time before you were nearly extatic for finding... Now that this code is in place, I can't use that backup, and it is rather annoying....

The issue of Sega promoting/not promoting the issue of using character backups means nothing to me. The fact that the BSoD does exist in the game, and that it can kill your items that you worked hard to find, or even kill you character that some of us have spent in excess of 10+ hours to build up, shows that there might have been a slight loophole in Sega's beta testing of this game. I have seen many video games in my lifetime that have had issues apon release. The one problem here is the fact that this is a *CONSOLE* game, and making updates for this is not as easy as, say, making a patch for a PC game. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not trying to bash Sega, or Sonic Team, for this issue, I am simply stating the fact that the bug *IS* there, and that, I feel, that if there is a feasable way for us (the end users) to prepare for the onset of this bug, then it should be used.

The argument on rares not being rare anymore really doesn't hold any validity if you don't trade with others... Just because some <BEEP> is out there duping items doesn't mean that there are more of them to find in the game... If you don't want to deal with dupers, don't trade with em... Only trade within your circle of friends/questing buddies/clan mates/whatever.

I am in agreement with Ambrai on this issue, that the code should be turned back. This will end up upsetting a lot of users if it is not (If I lose one more Photon claw because of BSoD, I am debateing putting the game down)

--
Asdrubael De'Vek

Asdrubael - HUmar - 60 - Pinkal

[Edited for spellchecking - I'm a tech as well.. spelling is not a strong point]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Asdrubael on 2001-03-06 21:19 ]</font>

[GhostinmyShell]

I could give a flying fuck about backing up my character. I lost 2 characters and started over, if my current lvl 100 w/ 160 hrs went in the toilet, I would start over anyway.

However...

I rather see any and all gameshark/cdx/whatever cheaters perm banned.

[mac55429]

Come on SEGA!If youre going to change the servers then make sure you try to cover all loop-holes.I applaud you for trying to rid the game of dupers, but it obviously didnt work if people are still able to do this.Think like the fuckheads that dupe items to stop them.As for thieves.I personally think they add a bit of spice to a very skeletal story(NO i am not a thief and YES i have had items stolen from me in the past).Since most of the game is a cakewalk(stupid enemy a.i.,dupers ruining the rarity of items,powerful one shot kills all weapons)the thief(slimy little bastard he is)adds a bit of suspense.I too would like to see all cheaters banned permanently.What you do with your game offline is fine(cheat all you want if thats your thing)but keep the cheats out of the online game.Oh well,life goes on.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: mac55429 on 2001-03-06 21:25 ]</font>

[Glider]

Even if some dupers get around it. At least sega got them. Im sure a few will stop because they don't want it to happen again.

[Madcow4091]

Well Phantasy heres a newsflash, I called Sega when my character got deleted and they told me to back up my character and how. Now their gonna go change this...I believe it should be put back! Everyone sign the petition!

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:19 ]</font>

[scott311]

segagameplay, Game Shark has not released codes for PSO but there are codes for the Xploder that work on the Game Shark.

[Vic_Viper]

Actually , this doesn?t prevent you from doing backup of your saves. This just means that if you use a older save, it will became the character save and the newer one will never be accepted online again ... this happened to me and I?m using the backup now as main save.
Only use the backup if you really lost your main save. The server will remeber if you get regression on your level/playtime info.

[horr0rstory]

Jumpin Jeepers Creepers

some simple answers that some ppl seem to not be able to uderstand:

1) Correct! this method does not stop dupers altogether. Theres a very easy method to bypass it, but it takes time, and is annoying. How? take your backup, play OFFLINE and save. your time is now more current than the servers last record. BUT you've also just made the MASTER COPY of your character fuct. So, to dupe, you will have to jump offline/save/online EACH TIME YOU COME IN. Is it worth it? To prolly 70-80% of dupers it isn't, which is good.
2) YES idgets, dupin IS ruining the game. PSO only has a few levels, and the online quests are rather thrown together rather poorly. a few hours after beating it once and it gets rather stale. The redeaming factor is the ultra-secret ultra-rare weapons/items. Be the envy of your buds with these spiffy toys! -Wait tho - if everyone just dupes them and sells/trades/gives them away, I guess they stop being rare eh? Its a simple train of logic; how some of you dont get it, is beyond me.
3) Insted of going thru all this effort with a mind-boggling brain dead idea of a petition, that will NEVER WORK, why not devote your time elsewhere. Or if you really have a hard-on to write to sega/sonic team, how bout something useful? Like a "get-off-ur-ass-and-add-to-the-game" letter? We need downloadable missions, need level tweaks, new levels if possible, new options, player battles, just all around new stuff.
4) The gameshark codes do/dont exist. No GAMESHARK hasnt made ANY CODES for pso. However, other comapnies have. But theyre all mundain stupid ones, like sending ur player to lv 100 right away or lots of money. Yippie. If your pathetic enuff to use em, screw you.

In essence what Im trying to say, is anyone bitching about the new server is obviously a duper, and you should go fuk up some other game. Real ppl that have backups for bsod will work around the server trick in dire cases only, such as a lost character.

END OF STORY


<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: horr0rstory on 2001-03-06 21:58 ]</font>

[JJ]

Im glad Sega is doing this... If u people dont want to lose your items due to BSOD or whatever else just take 1 weapon with u. The one u have equipped, so that you dont lose anything other then your health items etc. If u want to show off and take 20 Special Weapons with you then go ahead. PSO servers are getting better tho i havent seen them crash in awhile. I myself have never lost any of my special weapons cause i carry only one weapon with me.

[JaMaWu]

I honestly feel unaffected by sega's move for the most part. I never back up my character, am lv. 73+ and have only lost a few things due to disconnection. So what? It's a game.

I'm also a strong believer in the saying, if there's a will there's a way. Simply put, cheaters will be cheaters. There really is no way to stop it, and I believe sega's efforts are pretty much futile. My only hope is that they realize this and move on to making the some more player friendly changes. I.E. update disc, or even a handful of more quests. Maybe throw in some weapons..whatever. Decorate the place again, that was a nice touch.

Either way, I've been content playing amongst cheaters. It's easy, I don't play with them. Peace.

[GeneStarwind]

I'm disgusted to see anyone in here bashing Ambrai, or calling Watashiwa a dope. Funny how the people "waging war" on dupers are nearly as fanatical as the menace they're "fighting." I can understand--even appreciate--Sega's initiative in fighting the holy plague of cheaters, but there has to be a better way.

No offense to anyone at Sega, but they're bloody idiots if they don't provide customers with a method of backing up their characters. Sega doesn't care, as they get paid the second you drop $50 at the store; doesn't matter to them if you play one character forever or have to start from scratch 15 times.

Phantasy, you're calling a lot of people "dopes" for wanting to protect their precious investment. 180 hours of gameplay is massive, in my case. The only thing I, or anyone who relies on backups for legitimate purposes, is guilty of is caring about their attachment to their characters.

Sega should be applauded for taking action, but this isn't the answer. No action should be encouraged that targets the innocent as well as the guilty.

That's all.

[segagameplay]

There has never been any intention for you to be able to back up in the first place. It was something that could be done by pure chance. Where in the game specs does sega even suggest you back up? LOL Accept it we fixed a game bug. Sorry if it stops you from "backing up" your charecter but life moves on. Exactly what is this petiton supposed to even do? Or be sent to? lol what a joke!

[Ambrai]

Segagameplay,

I am sorry to have to tell a representive of Sega this but the codes I mentioned were for the xploder and are widely known.

Sega is aware of them last time I checked.

[Ambrai]

Segagameplay,

I am sorry to have to say this, but due to your recent discrediting until you can PM me or any Admin of PSO World proof that you work for Sega I am going to have to disreguard anything you say as a rep of sega.

The codes are for the Xploder and do exist. Moreso than your Sonic mag.

[addsig]"http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/932/19/29321953.jpg
">

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-06 22:08 ]</font>

[Vanse]

LOL segagameplay you are so full of shit

sorry, but it has been bothering me http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_biggrin.gif

[addsig]"http://members.home.net/stevedav/Vanse2">

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:21 ]</font>

[beastie308]

AHHHHHH!!!! I have a problem and i think it may be related to the time check. I was playing online at about 9pm (est) when a call came in and i got booted off. When i tried to reconnect another call came through and the line was dissconected. (both while in the lobby selecting a game) Then after the game tried to save an error message came up that said something to the effect of, please insert the VMU with the save file on it, blah blah blah... After checking all the connections, i tried to save again and the same message came up. So i sellected the option to not save and continue thinking that i would just loose all my items which i have delt with before. Alas, now when i try to load my charecter it says "this file cannot be used to play the game" If anyone has ANY ideas as to why this is happening or knows how i can fix PLEASE email me at beastie308@aol.com!!! and thaks for listening to me rant!!!
-mike

[Ambrai]

You could of used the backup Sega is trying to prevent to prevent that =(.

This is a valid point to the people who are saying 'Well I never lost anything so I dont care'

Your system can lock and you can lose items.

Happened to me.
Happened to the lady I spoke with when I called Sega.
Happened to others.

Just because it doesnt affect you doesnt mean others dont suffer. Its like the attitude that because people die from AIDS that it cant happen nor does it affect you.

[Marlboro]

Well I can understand Sega trying to stop duping but they apparently never heard the saying you don't close the barn door after the horse got out.

My suggestion would be a backup site ran by Sega so you can backup your character and they monitor when or if you use the save.

And if Sega was dumb enough to think that we wouldn't want a character backup then I want some of that crack there smoking.

[Xria]

Ambrai, if you are going after dupers on your trade forum it's a pointless quest. 95% of them dupe. Hell, some of them even confessed it on some posts. Everyone I have traded with on that forum turned out to be a duper, and yes I know this for a fact. And bleh bleh bleh I want a sandwich.

And sega boy there doesn't work for sega.

[ShatteredDreams]

Wahhh wahhh wahhh. Whine whine whine. If you guys spent half the time playing the game that you did bitching about it, the world would be a lot better place. Personally I can see it both ways. But, the only problem is that Sega sees it one way. And that's against duping. So dupe all ya like, Sega will screw it up for you, find another way, they will screw that too. That's the way the game was meant to be by it's creators. Don't like it? Tough. Don't play it. To all the people making petitions and phone calls and whatever else: you are wasting your time, as well as Sega's time. Simply put, you do not matter. If Sega brings back duping, it will be of their own accord.

[Ambrai]

If noone ever said or did anything, nothing would ever get changed....

[ShatteredDreams]

I forgot something. segagameplay does work for Sega. Believe it or don't. Like I said, you don't matter.

[Hunter]

To bad there isn't a listing for the 'age/age bracket' of some of these comments.
I'm assuming a majority of the people that "RAGE" against the Backup deal, are
those that don't have a job, and just got to worry about there home work, or
on how to copy of there friend in class. (MY PRESUMPTION) and for those of
you who have the God like patience to put 80+hrs into a charecter, have it
whiped clean just when u traded a 'rare' item that you either earned/traded, and
have one of the 'glitches' occur, that has a fulltime job, and this being a means
of recreation, I tip my hat to you. For those who never had any item or charecter loses. your comments are moot, since u never been on the recieving
end. I myself have only had the game for almost 2 weeks.. and logged in more time as if it where a fulltime job. So yes i backup before i go online. And for those of you who drive without insurance, just don't complain to another driver...
all of us that backup told you so. i've got 90+ hours in right now.. starting to
chill off the game a little... Fiancee is starting to get annoyed hehe. As far as
duping goes? i'm not for it, and you can make your own decisions wether you wish to trade with them or not... it's your perogative. of course unless your playing from a country where you don't have any rights... sorry, we do http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif
**this is just my 2 cents** this isn't directed to anybody specific... just to
the population as a whole, you can make your own decision.... let the 'flames' begin hehe

[Phantasy]

First of all, excuse me if I offended anyone by calling someone a 'dope' in a jovial manner. Madcow, what # did you call to talk to Sega and what was the name of the representative who told you how to back up your character? I really don't believe that anyone did since this is not supported by Sega. If Sega wanted you to have a backup, it would have been an easy feature to implement into the game itself, and wouldn't involve all the trouble that it takes to "back it up." Also, if this was a supported idea, why would the act of backing up your character cause some of the original files to be corrupted? The answer is, it would not, which explains exactly why it is not supported nor recommended by Sega.

GeneStarwind, the act of backing up your character is completely frivoulous and unneccessary, which is why Sega took away the software that allowed this and the act of duping. If you are so worried about losing your stuff due to the BSOD, either learn how to get around it (make it save as a line disconnect) or leave your valuables in the bank. Better yet, if you are extremely worried about it, there is an offline mode.

Beastie308, sorry to say it dude, but it looks like you were at a crucial save point when you got disconnected and now your file is corrupted. I would suggest that you call your local phone company to get the call waiting prefix in your area. Put this in your browser disc so that you will no longer be disconnected while you are playing online.

All in all, if Sega decided to do this, more power to them. At least it will stop some dupers. Sorry to those of you who are no longer able to back up your character when you were not suppossed to be able to in the first place. Remember, without risk, PSO would not be as fun. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[ShatteredDreams]

Ah, Ambrai, I agree with you completely. Complaining is often the first step towards change. However, this is not the case with Sega. Sega is going through some down and dirty times now, and cannot afford to bow to every whim of every customer. Though by no means is Sega trying to make you angry, it is inevitable that someone will become angry. People love Sega, yet they destroy it by pirating and badmouthing it. They love the games, but they take one aspect of it and overinflate it. Bah.

[Phantasy]

Oh, and by the way, I have lost all my items several times, been BSOD'd, and stolen from. However, I have never once backed up my character and have always recovered quickly.

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:24 ]</font>

[HiroShojin]

Okay...okay.There seems to be alot of talk about duping and backups and whatnot.Hell...I agree that Sega is being retarded with the whole"We're gonna check your back-up to screw you in the rectum" thing.I didn't make a back-up myself,nor did I lose a char due to BSOD(but I did lose items...http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_frown.gif ).I agree with Ambrai though.Even if I don't back-up,dupe,cheat,or have lost a character...I still care about what's happening to those who do(cept for dupers and cheaters...I hope you guys rot in the hell you've created...).Cuz if everyone gets screwed...who am I gonna make friends with now?
PS:I don't know if segagameplay is from Sega..but he sounds convincing enough to be a 42-y/o man with no life.

[Azriel]

I am totally behind Ambrai. I don't think that a petition will work, but it's worth a shot at least. Assholes that whine and complain about how crappy things are and don't do anything to fix it are why Bill Clinton was elected as President twice in a row. Jesus!

[segagameplay]

damn i wish i hadnt posted it! OK look if you dont buy my sonic mag info call 1900 200 sega. They will confirm it. Second why am i aoutmaticly wrong becuse its hard to do! jesus!

[Phantasy]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:26 ]</font>

[Defend]

Sounds pretty stupid to me.. all it does is make life harder for the honest people who don't really want to know about duping and all that, while real cheaters can simply step around it. It doesn't solve any problem at all, and just makes things a little bit harder for everyone.

Way to go Sega.

I'm still reading through actually, but gotta go, I'll comment more later

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:26 ]</font>

[ShatteredDreams]

A petition will NOT work. Unless you want to humor a sega tech. And I just got here, buy I have not seen Phantasy do any real flaming until that retaliation of your post. Like I said, it DOESN'T MATTER what we think. Sonic team will do what it wants to. Accept it or Reject it. But stop whining. Geez!

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:26 ]</font>

[segagameplay]

damn i wish i hadnt posted it! OK look if you dont buy my sonic mag info call 1900 200 sega. They will confirm it. Second why am i aoutmaticly wrong becuse its hard to do! jesus!

[Azriel]

Hey, i am just saying that if Ambrai believes in this petition, he should do something about it. I personally have never duped or used a backup. I just think people should do what they believe in, not be bashed by people who sit around with their thumb permenantly stuck in their ass.

[Phantasy]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:27 ]</font>

[ShatteredDreams]

Hey. No arguments there. Phantasy and segagameplay are both very cool friends of mine, and are just giving it to you as they see it. All this talk is not going to change a damn thing. See now, instead of duping stuff, people have to actually take time to FIND and TRADE the items. So it actually becomes a game instead of a cheat-fest. Again, I have duped plenty, and see both sides, but what I think is not really going to change anything. So I will go with the flow instead of becoming an obstacle and getting snapped.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:28 ]</font>

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:28 ]</font>

[ShatteredDreams]

Ah geez. Mindless flaming. It always turns to this. *goes to play some PSO*

[Defend]

Ambrai.. firstly, OLDER means a file you have played LESS. That means it was saved a longer time ago, so has lived on the memory card for a longer time, hence older. A game you have played more, and saved, creates a new, YOUNGER file.


Now, what about just adjusting your DC internal clock, powering up PSO offline, saving with the new time, fixing the internal clock again, then log on?

I think this change is just stupid. I mean, people were PAID to think this through, and they obviously didn't.

[Phantasy]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:28 ]</font>

[Athian]

STFU already thanks.

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:29 ]</font>

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:29 ]</font>

[Phantasy]

Defend, unfortunally, if you adjust the internal clock on your DC, it will throw off the timestamp that the server recognizes on your individual console. This has to do with your Serial Number and Access Key. If you do this, you will not be able to get online again with your character ... ever. Sorry.

[Phantasy]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:29 ]</font>

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:30 ]</font>

[horr0rstory]

this is ridiculous.

all this bitching will change NOTHING. did you make the game? NO so you have NO SAY. they thought about it, changed the server, and thats that, so deal with it.

and damn ambrai, this is a GAME. stop acting like ur trying to free south africa er some shit, jeez

[Grizlock]

OK PEOPLE,
There are a few things that need to be pointed out... PLEASE READ...

- Altough I bet each and every one of you THINKS you are the proper authority on "online game networks" and the complicated process involved in streamlining them, that is why they are working for Sega and not you. We saw this exact same thing happen with blizzard, and the same BS is happening with PSO. Like it or not, sega knows what they are doing... yes even though it conflicts with your busy playing schedual.

-Second of all if you would like to make a petition, the only people who should sign are those who agree with it, not a whole wackload of people with conflicting ideas flaming the $#!T out of each other. Whats that gonna tell SEGA?... absolutely nothing, sure argue about it... but not on a petition.

-On flaming... now that i've gotten started, I think, PSO in all its glory (and it truly does kickass) does not need to be the topic that everyone goes to war over. I know more than anybody how much it sucks to loose a character (especially with many hours on 'em) but it is just a game after all. The PSO world website has struck me as a site for friendly PSO players, something that can seem as a rare thing on sega net. Instead of bickering about it, help make PSO world the tight online community that meats every sunday, to kick some ass on ragol. I might not post alot, but i sure as hell read them, and i surely recognize what PSO world has that other sites dont.

[Azriel]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:31 ]</font>

[Asdrubael]

It's me again.. the lurker...

<delurk>

I'll be picking this post apart

and see the fotnotes for the coresponding numbers...


On 2001-03-06 21:59, segagameplay wrote:
There has never been any intention for you to be able to back up in the first place. It was something that could be done by pure chance. Where in the game specs does sega even suggest you back up?

yes, it does not say in the game specs that there is a way to back up save files, but, on the other hand, it does not say anywhere in the game specs that you have a danger of losing your inventory or character due to a game bug [1].


LOL Accept it we fixed a game bug. Sorry if it stops you from "backing up" your charecter but life moves on.

I, personally, think Sega (I still refuse to believe you work for Sega[2]) should have fix a major bug before addressing a minor one. In my prior post I said that this seems like poor beta testing, and I still hold true to that. The BSoD bug (the whole reason backing up was found) has the potential to turn away a lot of potential customers from Sega's products, and that is the last thing they want. I don't know about you, Mr. gameplay, but, I know I have spent quite some time playing on my current character, and have been through 3 BSoD type circumstances, the last one seems like a true save, and did not show any signs that something was wrong untill the next time I loaded the game[3]. The old saying "Necessity is the mother of invention" holds true to this. Untill the BSoD bug is addressed and fixed by Sega, then there will be a need for character backups. I refuse to believe Sega would sit blindly by as something like this happened, seeing as how down their luck is in the corperate world. Mabey Sega can come up with some sanctioned way to allow us to back up our save files. Who knows... that is prolly something I will contact Sega on myself[4].

Exactly what is this petiton supposed to even do? Or be sent to? lol what a joke![addsig]


Personally, I think a petition is a good thing at this time... And honestly, I wonder what your "superiors at Sega[5]" would say if you saw you bashing the very people that pay your paycheck


That's all I have to say for now, and to the Moderators, Specifically Ambrai, I agree with you 110% on this issue.. and if this should be send as a personal message and not posted, tell me, and I remember it for next time.

</delurk>

Asdrubael De'Vek
HUmar - 60 - Pinkal

[1] A game bug that I have been hit by 3 times since I started my first character, all during normal disconnects, and all erasing my entire inventory list.

[2] I personally work for a Corperation that at this time shall remain nameless. This also gives me the knoledge that most any publicly traded company will my certianly have a Non-Disclosure Agreement that each employee must sign. I'm sure that telling people you work for Sega on a public message board would be against company policy if you truely even worked there.

[3] see [1]

[4] And no, Mr. gameplay, do not offer to tell them for me, for the answer to that, see [2]

[5] see [2] again

[Athian]

LMAO horr0rstory you own man! Once again S...T...F...U already thanks. This thread is gay.

[MyrciVoid]

I'm all about the server changing back, too. Duping may be stupid, but if you don't like it, don't trade.

[Kamotz]

I just don't understand why people get so wound up and pissed off at people duplicating items. I just don't get it. I don't dupe items. I *do* have friends who do. What do I do? I just don't take the items they offer me. I get a feeling of satisfaction for the things I work for. I don't care one way or another how another person got his weapon. If someone doesn't want to work for their weapon, why should you care?
Even if duplicating items was impossible, the end result would still be the same. Items would continually become more common. You can't prevent it, even if there is no cheating. As more and more people play the game and log more hours, and as the number of users increases, people will find more items.

Oh, and consider me signing this petition. I have lost my save in the past to glitches worse than BSOD and restored my backup in the past.

I was curious about one thing, couldn't you use a GS to edit your time so it was past what it was before your crash?

[Phantasy]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:31 ]</font>

[Kamotz]

Phantasy, you have proven some good points, so have you Azriel, but both of you make your own statements look less credible because your bickering. Neither one of you make the other look worse. YOU make you look bad. You guys sound like two 6th graders arguing. Just stop already and focus on the topic.

[ShatteredDreams]

I come back to this and you are still arguing about it. If you say there is another way to dupe, try to find and exploit it. The servers are not getting changed back. Period. You can bet money on that. One road has become blocked, so find another.



[addsig]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:32 ]</font>

[Phantasy]

the issue is is that Sega changed something, which they had every right to do. Some of you are unhappy about it. I am indifferent because I don't think that complaining about it will change anything. However, I am sorry to all of you honest people who feel inconvenienced by the change. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_frown.gif

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-07 08:32 ]</font>

[EKLynx]

I Cant stand duping, but what i cant stand even more is having my hard work disappear becuase sega decided to whipe your items if your DC crashes or you get a loss of power. If you're worried about duping, dont trade with anyone and play with people who you trust. i was pissed when i finally found my 1st double sabre (back when those were actually RARE!) and had it stolen from me 30 min later when i died fighting DF and someone else picked it up and refused to give it back. dropping equiped items is a PvP thing.. there is no PvP in PSO.. make it like diablo where only YOU can get your items when you die.. as for crashes, i've had my DC lock up too hard for the pull the network, and i've lost items too. they need SERVER SIDE anti cheat. Give the items each a unique ID number, you see double? DELETE THEM BOTH! that'll put a damper on duping.

-EKLynx-

[ShatteredDreams]

As am I. Under normal use there is no reason you should lose your character or items. I agree that you should be angry if you do. How about instead of complaining about something that cannot be changed we discuss alternate ways to dupe now, eh?

[Hunter]

Unfortunatly, *May differ from one's perspective to another*. If you have a one of the memory editors that you would normally use to modify your stats etc: you can dupe items, but having the item in your inventory, then droping the desired item in offline mode.. "suggested" item will be dropped, but it will also remain in your inventory. So the workaround has already come to pass for duping... the backup duping can still be done as mentioned... either way, the dupers cheat themselves... yes there is a code for editing your time stamp also... some of my friends this may be a key to getting certain items, or possibly
certain opportunites to mags. Last, there's also another code that will allow you
to save to another memory card without mailing yourself. I heard this is one of
the reasons why the JP server get segragated from the other regions. along with
somebody able to modify the 'fields' so you can start your save charecter on
another PSO CD, on another DC system. this is in reference to some of the posts i've seen. All the above workarounds require the necessary adapters...

Moving right along, hey Ambrai. isn't there restrictions to swearing in the forum?
just curoius if this is to be moderated? not sure if all parents would be happy if
they saw there kid reading & posting to this. wouldn't reflect to good on the PSO community... for those that don't have the self restraint of course. aside
from that Keep up the good work! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[Kamotz]

Yes, under normal circumstances you *can* lose items. It's happened to me twice. I have probably 5 BSODs that were mearly an inconvencience. It's not the BSOD that damages your save, it's the panic of ripping out the VMU or turning off the system. If you leave it, it will usually take 15 or 30 min, depending on your browser settings for auto-disconnect. If you leave it alone for a while, it will eventually get to the save screen.

What cost me my file were completely different glitches. First did the least damage. I was happilly playing in Mines as I normally do, when all of a sudden I'm seeing the Dreamcast logo. I lost everything not equipped.

The next glitch is by far the most bizarre I've seen. Playing in caves, when suddenly my character it running sideways and it passing though walls. I have no control over my character as he is zooming through the level. When it finally stops the screen turns completely orange for a few seconds. When the orange goes away, I am on the opposite side of the area in a small locked room with a switch that didn't do anything. I could chat just fine. Then I get the previous glitch and it reset. Lost my character completely, had to reinitialize my VMU.

No harm done, I just email myself my save again and I'm back on track. Whelp, looks like I can't protect myself anymore.

[addsig]



<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Kamotz on 2001-03-07 01:20 ]</font>

[ShatteredDreams]

You can still copy the save from the email and use your character. You will only lose the items. And if you don't like "swearing", too bad. Some people use it to express themselves or emphasize their point. It's not that hard to understand. It's nothing a three-year old hasn't heard before. I personally think monitoring "swearing" or anything else on the internet is ludicrous. Keep your censorship far away from my free speech.

Anyhow, you can still back up your character as usual. Just not the items. Also, how would you suggest you alter the timestamp? I really do not see how you could do this as it is saved on the server. You can change the time on your Dreamcast, sure, but the stamp is saved to the SECOND. Good luck matching it to the server.

[Hunter]

Hey Kamots, Any idea of there's any part of Sega, that's taking feedback on
these resets? if they could fix those problems.... there wouldn't be a need
for backups. That's weird, passing through walls? have'nt heard that one till
now. where you able to bring up the window to quit? to bad we don't have a Sega intern on here hehe...

[ShatteredDreams]

Sonic Team can fix bugs on their own. You can call Sega or you can email and the best you'll get is a "Thanks for the suggestions!". You see, they don't care. It's very rare to randomly have a file corrupted. If it happens, well, sorry, but this stuff happens. Keep in mind the servers are FREE. Stop whining about something you are not paying for. Any online pc game requires a monthly fee, yet Sega provides this service FREE OF CHARGE and people still whine like spanked babies. Go figure.

[Tomeeboy]

Hi guys... just thought I'd drop my thoughts onto the pile here...

The first thing I'd like to say is that the flaming needs to stop. Obviously, a topic like this is going to cause people to have conflicting opinions. That doesn't mean we need a thread filled with a bunch of crap, composed primarily of pointless flames. It's ridiculous how everyone is trying to out-wit each other and get the last word. If you don't have something to say that relates to the topic, please take it somewhere else (perhaps the off topic forums?). Thanks.

As for those of you saying, "Sega never intended for people to be able to back up their saves". I'm sure they didn't... but they probably did not intend on having bugs in the game that would cause players to lose their items, or even their whole character. If you invest a lot of time into something, you'll naturally want to protect your investment, which is why some people back up their characters. Of course, this goes for Sega as well. They've invested a lot of time into this game, so they're wanting to prevent it from being ruined by cheaters.

I don't think the new method will stop duping, as there are other ways to do it. I think it's a good sign, though, that they are at least making an effort to combat the plague of cheaters that have turned this game into another Diablo. Personally, I felt more comfortable playing online knowing that if something happened to my character, I had a backup to replace it with (even if it was days old). I like the idea of Sega running an official backup site, although I don't know if it would be possible or even help the situation any.

I think that players SHOULD be able to back up their characters if there is ANY chance of the saves being lost due to events that the players have no control over, especially since ths is a game that people may put hundreds of hours into. If I spent 40 hours at work, I'd expect to get paid for it. I wouldn't want to come in to work one day and have my employer say, "Sorry Tom, we lost your time card, so you won't be getting paid for last week. You'll have to just start over this week and hope it doesn't happen again."

Just my two cents http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_wink.gif

-Tom

[Kamotz]

The likelihood of ANY of these glitches being fixed is practically ZERO. The only way to be able to fix them is if they are caused by the servers entirely. PSO isn't like othe PC online games where you can just download a patch. All updates to PSO are limited to what can be stored on your VMU. The only way to fix problems that are client-side would be to sell an updated version.

However that will only help new players, 'cuz your old character is stuck with your old Access and Serial numbers.

[addsig]

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Kamotz on 2001-03-07 01:17 ]</font>

[ShatteredDreams]

Again, I stress that you can still back up your character. You cannot back up items anymore. If something as horrid as being tossed through walls were to happen to me, I would be happy just to keep my level 60 character. Besides, building a new mag is fun. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[PlayaPlaya-PSO]

Well, I wasn't going to say anything but since you jerks felt it was okay to go off on this kind person for speaking their opinion I guess I will.

Here is the cold hard fact... THIS PREVENTS NOTING!!!!

The most common method of duping (that I know of) is via cheating devices eg. Gameshark or Xploder. With this code enabled you simply drop the item you want to dupe and viola, you've duped it. One copy stayes in your inventory, and one copy is dropped on the floor. Your time doesn't change, nothing changes.

How do I know this? Well here is how. I own a Gameshark, however (and this is one BIG HOWEVER) I only purchased the damn thing to ALLOW me to backup my character since Sega in their ultimate wisdom thought that it would be best NOT TO ALLOW me to use the VMU file browser to copy my save game. After hearing about the horror stories of people loosing their characters because of cheap 3rd party VMUs (I own a Performance VMU) I wanted to transfer my (at that time) lv70 160hour old FOnewm char to my new Sega VMU.

No I don't use it to cheat, but my point is, if I wanted to I STILL COULD, Sega hasn't done anything but punish me for wanting to protect my time investment.

[ShatteredDreams]

Am I invisible or something?

YOU CAN STILL BACK UP YOUR CHARACTER VIA EMAIL. NOT YOUR ITEMS!

[GeneStarwind]

ShatteredDreams, could you elaborate a little more on this timecheck? Loading an "old" save will work but will only invalidate the "newer" save, but you're probably only loading the older save because the newer one is corrupted. Or have I understood this wrong? Your last post made it sound like the only danger is losing items, not levels. Does this mean all items in your inventory, or everything in the bank as well?

Sounds like I could create a back-up, then use a GameShark to edit the time so that the backup has more time clocked than the original save. Anybody tested this approach yet?

I'm not trying to side with the "bad" ppl (cheaters, dupers, etc.), but Sega should focus their energies elsewhere if they truly want to enrich the PSO experience. They're not stopping anyone...maybe for a short time, but that's the admirable thing about the "hacker mentality": people will find a way around ANYTHING, if they want to badly enough.

Sorry, been reading way too many posts...should quit while I'm ahead...

[Stoned_Cat]

Stopping duping is a noble goal... Having said that I think SEGA shouldn't have done it at the expence of the legit gamer. Also, Shattered... It is true that we are getting the servers free of charge, however we paid for the game (which was meant for online play)... and other similar games (Diablo 2) provide free servers with few bugs and little possibility to dupe. I wonder how they do that?

Finally I'd like to say that the timestamp system would be OK as long as there was no BSOD, fake trades, item stealing, glitches, and other unforseen circumstances....

(could all this be prevented by better planning??? I think so...)

NE ways... my PSO experience has been all downhill since I got the game a week ago, and this is just another link in a long unfortunate chain of negative epiphanies 'bout PSO.

[Phantasy]

I think ShatteredDreams' point was that the people that play in Japan actually have to pay to even be on the servers. Not to mention paying for their ISP. Therefore, his point is that these services are free to you, and some of you are taking them for granted and doing nothing but complaining about them.

[Stoned_Cat]

I see what you/he are getting at.. still its a shame that legit players have to feel the loss of a character because of hax0rs.

As for the hackers themselves... THEY HAVE NO LIFE/SKILLZ... many great games have been somewhat-ruined by these (pardon the expression) F A G S. Counter-Strike, Diablo, Starcraft, and almost any other game that can be played online... (they prolly hack offline too, it just doesnt affect the rest of us).

If this keeps up ill have to start playing Diablo 2 again... or Tribes, or TFC, or single-player PSO, or whatever else comes along... (but NOT before I get a sonic MAG)

[Naylor007]

Setting this up to stop dupers is fine with me even though I am a strong believer in the e-mail backup system. I lost my main character to the BSOD and was elated to be able to save him and 160 hours of hard work. Since I only use the backup in the event of a meltdown and have never duped items with it, I think it is fine. If my character does get wiped out (please NO NO NO) all I have to do is do some offline work to correct it and to be able to salvage a bad situation. Amen SEGA!!

[meleth]

Ok, it's good that sega finally decides todo something about the duping. Unfourtunally they choosed the easy/lazy way to do this that also affect people who haven't duped nor had any intentions to dupe.

The right way to fix duping would be to implent Unique identifiers to all items do a crc checking each time on every item someone has when they go online. If they detect two or more items with the same serial, mark it as banned. And all items having that serial will automaticlly get nuked as soon as they come online. If they would also add the game serial of the first person who finds the item, they would after awhile be able to identify which users have/are duping items and would be able to ban them from going online. The way they do it now is just lame and lazy.

I've played various muds for 8+ years. Duping has always been a problem on muds, so i've seen quite many diffrent ways how to deal with it. The way i stated above is by far the best and most accurate one.

[Hunter]

Good idea... now soons SEGA get's one of those new CRAY systems... they
won't have to worry about lag. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_frown.gif that would be the most optimum way though.
though.. that may work on the initial logon... it would just extend the connection
to the Servers... hmm at 56k? probably 2-5 minutes... if u got DSL or Cable?...
how ever fast the server is... may be a good implementation for PSO/2 ....
but! that would only limit 1 item per a 'CD-keyed' user of that particular item...
ok say you put in additional code to quantify it? that could multiply the lag 2-5 fold... if done on initial logon.. may just double the time depending on the database per user. in short. won't work. the biggest catch 22.. is u can build
your charecter offline.. then bring it online.. which is kewl... but that is the biggest double edged sword of the features. If was strictly online.. it could be eaaasily moderated.

[TheMAN]

I've been lurking here for a while, and in this thread, all I see is immature bickering, name calling and bashing. I only saw a few constructive posts. This is a discussion forum, we should discuss on this instead of arguing. Anyway...


I agree with Meleth about how Sega is being lazy and taking the easy way out to prevent duping. This ghetto form of item duping may have been done before by many other people, but the people who truely cheat don't even mess with this crap! They use some form of cheating device such as (god forbid) Game Shark to dupe items, get 999999 Meseta, and level 100 in just minutes. Changing the server to be like this only solves the problem at the tip of the iceberg. For Sega to truely take care of the cheating and duping problem out there, they need to quit half-assing the job and actually change some code to fix this.

Sega's reluctance to fix the BSOD problems (which they admit, if you check segadojo.com) only forces me to backup my character and protect my investment. I lost my character once at level 25 from a BSOD (DC locked up, wait a while, restarted, corrupted save!), and I WILL <U>NEVER</U> give in to "well if you lost it, too bad, just start over". No. I don't have the time to start over and get my character back to where it is. I do not sit home all day in front of the TV playing PSO. I actually have a job and I also go to school. I have actually experienced many glitches. First time is the one mentioned above, total character loss. Second time was just lockup, and then a proper save. Third time, the Dreamcast was restarted (no I didn't hit all the buttons) while playing online in Forest. Oddly enough, I just learned the Megid level 1 disk at that time, and so I thought I lost it when I loaded up the game after that restart, I had that technique! Fourth time was another common BSOD problem, loosing my unequiped items. Everything I have equiped and in the bank was fine, no real biggie there, I recovered quickly. What I am afraid of, and will utterly piss me off is when I totally loose my character. When I lost my character that time, I wanted so much to throw the DC out the window (if you lost your character and didn't feel that way, please see a doctor).

I will still be able to use my backup, but Sega just made me more damn work. First I had to mail myself the gamesave already to do that. Now I have to record the time I played, and then when I loose my stuff, I have to play offline (usually hours) to recover! This is not as bad as wasting weeks to get my character back up to level 60, but why do we have to put up with this shit and run around in circles for Sega? This action doesn't truely stop duping any, but at the same time slowing down the honest people who try to recover their losses from their backups. This action only further infuriorates(sp!) me to Sega's lack of willingness to deal with both the problems of cheaters, and random weird shit such as console resets, BSODs, walking thru walls, etc.

For those of you who think duped items will make the items less rare in the game, its a gray area really. Those who have the duped items, you can simply just not trade with them at all. At the same time, those duped items won't randomly appear more out of those crates or dead monsters in the game. In terms of making the items less rare, I feel its not a big of a deal really. They can have their dupe items all they want, and Sonic team can find them, and nail them to the wall. But that doesn't mean you will find those "rare" items more; that is as long as you don't even get items from them!

And last of all, I will have to agree with you, Ambrai wholeheartedly and will back you up all the way. Consider me added to the petition. For those of you who think the petition won't work, well I must disagree. It's this thought of "I'm not gonna make a difference" is what allowed pathetic politicians to be elected in this country. Voter turnout rates these days are pitiful. So anyhow, its the thought of the petition counts. If we just sit idly by twiddling our thumbs and bitching among ourselves, nothing is going to change. The only simple way Sega is going to know that there are people not liking what was done recently is with this petition. As long as they hear our voices, that's fine. After that, its up to them to make the decision to stay with this change, or change it back. At that point, it's up to them, as long as they have heard my voice. But until Sega fixes the problems truely, I will continue to backup, and sadly must play offline to have the play time greater than the time recorded on the server to recover from a glitch. Also to lessen the chance of having a corrupted save, or loss of character/items, I got a cheap $50 UPS (Uninterruptable power supply) from Wal-Mart and plugged in my little TV, PS2 and DC to it. Now I don't have to worry about power failure in the middle of a game or saving. These things were meant for computers, but that doesn't mean you can't use it with other things. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_biggrin.gif

AND NO, I DO NOT DUPE ITEMS, NOR CHEAT. I don't have a GS, and I don't plan on getting one.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: TheMAN on 2001-03-07 04:44 ]</font>

[Mr_White]

I think what SEGA did today was some real bs. They say that these new measures were instituted to stem the ability of dupers to manipulate the system, but all they have done is to leave the legitimate players with no protection against the BSOD. I back up my characters, I learned that lesson after my first encounter with the BSOD, but I have never duped at item, nor will I ever. I only used the e-mail backup method to insure that my character would survive a BSOD. Now if I get BSODed, I can say goodbye to 100+ hours of work. I think that this is just bootstrapping by SEGA, a completely ineffectual countermeasure which has more to do with easing the minds of the extreme anti-duping/cheating fanatics than preventing actual cheating.

On duping/cheating in general I try to adopt a live and let live policy. I don't dupe or cheat, but I'm not gonna lose sleep at night because other players are. One must understand that if people wish to work outside the system, they will. They will no matter what you, or I, or anyone else on this board says. Instead of focusing on everyone else's business, just focus on your own, remember this is, after all, just a game.

Make love, not war.

[Ukyou]

Actually I remember seeing this on the cheaters forum. Code Master released gameshark codes for "Time Played", "Save to another VMU", and "Item Duping" a couple days back.

It sucks, but I checked the site to see if it was true, and they are there...

[meleth]

Hunter: You missunderstood some things in my post.

1. If they would store all the items and ids in a database matching serials wouldn't take long if they're created in a good way. To be honest i'm quite sure that 1 Virtual PSO server is physically more than just one.

2. What makes you think it would take you any longer connecting to the server? A save file isn't big. The biggest it can get is 200k even on a modem it shouldn't take more than 30sec to send it to the server. After it's there the server can let you do whatever you want while it evaluates every item. It don't have to do it in realtime. They could actually do it once a day and then just have them serial flagged for delete the next time the user connects. However since this is just normal pattern matching it could most likely be done in realtime aswell.

3. Whatever gave you the impression that it would mark with only your gameserial? Your gameserial should be a part of it to help keep the serial unique and to help track down dupers. The serial should also contain a random number so you can have more than just one instance of 1 item.

If you had just stopped and thought about it a minute before you replied, and perhaps reread it to make sure you understood it before you post next time we can avoid unneccesary confusion/argument.

[Faewyn]

<h1>ARGH!!</h1>

Ambrai,
I tried what you recommended and it doesn't work. How much more time did you find needed to be added to the new save file?

2 Saturdays ago, the server started crashing and I lost 100 hours of time invested in a character. I was disconnected, and the save file was corrupt. So my level 47 character with a level 166 mag was erased from existance. That's when I researched how to backup. I wasn't going to play the game without being able to backup my data. I just couldn't afford to waste my time building up another character only to loose it again.

So I couldn't play further once I read your posting until I had tested it. My tests so far show that adding time to a saved file does not circumvent the new log on routine. Maybe there is a certain amount of time?

My first question for you is how do you know that the server is checking for time on the VMU? When I logged on, since I knew how people dupe, I left some small items for myself in a game that was running. When I exited, the game saved on my backup file AND my master file in controller one.

Logging on with the master file didn't work then, even with time added to the saved data. The game saved and I booted to find low stat items equiped.

I reloaded a backup and logged some more time offline. 10 minutes more time wasn't enough for the server. It gave me the same error message. I discovered that by shutting off the DC, I could retain all my items and such. But. That save file can only work OFFLINE.

Whatever Sega changed, I believe it is solely to punish dupers who log on and off the server, hammering the system. Incidently, the change to the log on now makes my Performance mega memory card compatible with online PSO saves (something that it wasn't before...)

I disagree with duping (waste of time anyway), but I fully support backups. I hope you can give me more details. This is disheartening...

[GaMMa]

I'm Glad to see that someone has god caught for cheating http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_biggrin.gif Go SEGA! Erase those files!

[Ambrai]

I will be unlocking this thread once I get to work and can edit out the 3 pages of useless flames.

[Ambrai]

Updates:

1) The obvious the thread has been unlocked and all garbage has been removed.

2) The ONLY material that was removed was any personal attacks against another individual. All other material is unchanged.

3) Quick reminder that there are NO flames allowed on the General forum. Duke it out in Cheaters if you wish.

4) I got some PM's when I woke up this morning stating the trick about playing offline longer than the time of your last safe didnt work. I logged on and tried it with my main save and that is correct.

Once I get home today I will look into it further. There must be a loophole and this is why...

When I heard Sega nerfed the servers I logged onto my main save, played for 10 minutes, killed some stuff and looted some items. Then I saved and dropped out of the game.

At this point I grabbed a VMU with my last backup (lv 64 char I am 74 now). Log on with it and it says the Save is corrupt and an item initilazion will occur. When I logged back on with the char I lost all my items.

Later I had an idea for a work around and made a backup of my current char. Logged on to play and had no problems getting onto the server. So I think, ok situation resolved.

Guess not.

I have some ideas and I will look into this in detail once I get home at 4:30cst.

5) I am very dissapointed in anyone who has not brought intelligent converstation to this thread. I don't care what your side is because everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I have no respect for anyone who attacks another over their beliefs.

[meleth]

What i think they do is that they take a 'snapshot' of all stats of your char when you log on, and then compare it to a previous snapshot. This snapshot probably contain more info than just time online. If they're a little bit smart they'll take a snapshot of ALL your stats that cannot get lowered. Like time, level, natural (without eq) atp etc. Atleast that's what i would have done had i implentet something like this.

[SON-Reace]

I think Ambrai is overreacting. I lohed in with a backup file, and all that happened was I lost all items I did not have equiped. I think this is Sega's way of dealing with Dupers and I'm glad they did it. I did not lose my charcater only the items I did not have equiped. Way to go Sega! Way to foil those cheaters!

[PsychoKick]

"Guilty until proven innocent." That's what this recent anti-duping "solution" (sarcasm) basically amounts to.

[KarnaJ]

Well, it really doesn't stop people who wanna dupe anyway, as from my understanding, they can still dupe offline with the gameshark code to their little hearts content, then come online clean and with a nice assortment of items. Now I wanna know what the story is with a backup, I'm not gonna get my dc fixed if I'm gonna have to start over anyway, I wanna be able to jump in from my thursday night backup before my dreamcast died, and I dunno if that's gonna happen or not. I could always use the money I've saved up for part of importing a gameboy advance though, lol.

[DCKaz]

Wow can you say explosive thread.. lol..

Personally I wouldn't sign the petition. Yes, I've lost a character as well. And it hurt.

Why? I personally think the item strip out is reasonable. I want the character I've developed, the chats I've customized, the guildcards.. noone is 'duping' that. What character couldn't re-build up basic equipment in a heartbeat?

This *still allows character retrivial*! Losing the mag hurts, maybe it would be better if all equipped items made it (still the dupe loophole though).. but I really have no objections to it as is. If you haven't made friends along the way (which would be odd) you'd have a little tougher time with a restart, but honestly unless you've solo'd and been a loot whore throughout it'd hardly make you skip a beat.

Hell with friends you can powerlevel insanely quick anyways. Even without backup this game is a far cry from 'unplayable'. As it is your character revival *is fully supported*. If you've made friends they'd likely jump at the chance to toss you some items from their overstocked bank/targetting for their own future twinks anyways.

So I'd be lying if I said I agree with the petition idea, though I think the character attacks are unwarranted.. it's also pretty clear to see points on both sides. But I'd rather see people have a tougher time of duping the materials and rares etc etc.. xploder might do it, but who the heck has one? And even if gameshark did have codes (I've never picked one up for any system, I'm not big on cheats in general.. if I couldn't do it I wasn't meant to do it lol) does that mean you leave other holes open you *can* control?

I hope for PSO2 something like this goes through actually if duping holes will always exist (probably, without constant server side saving).. ok your character can be restored but the items are stripped. Nothing will please everyone, but it blends the best of both worlds - save me from rebuilding a character I've developed, while stopping easy mindless duping.

Cheers,
DCKaz
Terra Prime 50 FOmarl

[Ambrai]

Ok Kats, not to sound like the lv 60 player telling the lv 10 in EQ but it changes at 100. At that point its ALL about the items. If you lost everything you might as well lose your char too because you will have spent more time chasing items than char lvs.

Whenever I backup is when I get a cool item or every 15 lvs. You can tell which is more important.

Also it has been proven that legit players have had their inventory wiped for unknown reasons.

[Drake]

[Edit: Deleted several off-topic paragraphs. Never mind that the thread is hopelessly off-topic already... ^^;]

__Give the items each a unique ID number, you see double? DELETE THEM BOTH! that'll put a damper on duping.__

There is a chance (however small) that two legitimate items could be marked with the same number, and they'd be deleted for no reason. Myself, I'd be willing to take that risk... but, regardless, there's no way for Sega to implement such a feature now that the game has already been released.

Banning backups is probably the worst anti-cheating measure they could have taken, but at least they're doing *something*.


<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Drake on 2001-03-07 15:23 ]</font>

[Defend]

Okay, so a few things have to be cleared up. Firstly I gotta say this thread really went feral for something that could be explained fairly quickly I thought.

Anyway.

1. Does this new rule delete all items, or only those unequppied?

2. How is it possible that playing a backupfile offline longer than the server save knows DOESN'T work? Is this true or what? Ambrei said he dodged it, now people say they can't. Someone's saying something wrong.

3. Is it not possible to just change the DC's internal clock, save offline, fix the clock, then login?

4. What if someone rips out their memory card before it begins theprocess, then logs on again. Perhaps that moment right there is where the new serverside save is made, and ripping out the card in time will keep the items, while keeping the server happy, so yo're free to re-login.

That's just a guess, I'm still waiting for the Aussie release. (30t March). No actually, I'm getting it from simplygames.com

MY OPINION
I was against it at first, simply because it made life a bit harder for backers and hackers, yet it didn't prevent either party from backing up or cheating.

But then I thought, just with SOME cheaters getting caughtm, and all their items being wiped, overall that would provide a statistically significant decrease in duped rares, increasing their rarity and value again. So it s good.

Now that people are saying that longer offline time DOESN'T get around the security, I'm even more for it. Duping will still be possible, but drastically reduced, while honest backers will just havet learn to handle the BSODs, as it is sounding a bit safer to dodg now that we know it.

[Ambrai]

I stated above how I got around it. Of course I need to reproduce it now.

When you see the screen saying it will delete all your items (yes equipped as well), you have to push start. Just shut down the DC at that tiem and you wont lose anything.

Also after it removes your items you dont go online, you get kicked back to the title screen.

[Spasm]

*useless opnion deleted by poster*

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Spasm on 2001-03-07 11:30 ]</font>

[swartt-cm-]

i dont paricularly like the idea....... i'd like to be able to back up my char

[raven4960]

Ok folks, let's take a minute and look this over...So, what we have is people applauding (or complaining) about the recent server change that prevents the common duper as well as the average Joe that backs up his/her character.

Now what we have on the other end is Sega. Sega, in my unproffesional opinion, is merely trying to protect their investment (which for those of you who don't know, is kinda difficult for them right now). An example of that statement is this: Joe meets John in room 204 and gives him a Gladiator Spike and a Glass Sword. John leaves...When John comes back he has 10 of each. This action takes a large chunck out of the replay value of the game (which was one of Sega's biggest points with PSO) and ruins the rarity of many, very rare, items. Now let's say the cycle continues until everyone and their Mom has a Glass Sword...even Lvl 2 Lionel has one...so what's the point of playing your Lvl 100 character that you just found (insert rare item here)???

Ok, I think that takes care of the dupers, now for those of you who use back-ups. Backing up your character is an ingeneous idea considering the presence of the BSoD. Now let's take a moment and look at this in retrospect. Did any of you ever stop to think that maybe Sega, in implementing these server changes, also reduced, if not destroyed, the presence of the BSoD...Thus preventing any need of character back-up?? An interesting thought, is it not?

I've faced the BSoD, and believe me I was sweating, but you know what I did instead of risk my 200+ hour character by pulling the plug, or turning the DC off? I (shaking, lol) put down my controller, layed down on the couch and closed my eyes. I waited out my fate. One half hour later, the title screen pops up, so I get up load my character and (rejoyce) continue where I had left off with no loss.

I've never used a backup and I'd suggest with these new changes to the servers, that those of you who do need to learn to have some patience and accept what will happen, does happen.

And to Ambrai, I applaude your efforts at a petition, however circumstances as they are, it seems to have turned into a debate, sorry Ambrai.
Riko Lvl100 Humar

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: raven4960 on 2001-03-07 12:01 ]</font>

[GEBB]

DUPIN SUX its for losers sorry to put it like that but its true

[GreatMUTA]

OK, here is my 2 cents................................
First off people SEGA does not care about you,
as a gamer or a customer. Why do I say this?
Let's look at the fact here. Dreamcast is dead, just like the Saturn, 32X and Sega CD the DC had a very low shelf life. Now to be honest I knew this would happen when I bought my DC on the day it came out. Why? Because it's in Sega's ridculously sad history. Fact: Sega makes some of the best games ever. Fact: Sega hasn't really supported any of their own hardware since the Genesis. Fact: Sega does not care about the opinions of any of their customers. The proof is in the pathetic e-mails u get back when u mail tech support about anything. All I have ever gotten is a form letter apology and a plug for sega brand DC products..........pathetic. And for all those waiting for PSO2 you better go buy a PS2 http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif
Bottom line, Sega=great game developer
SEGA=bad everything else. DC gamers, a warning DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH for most of the games Sega has announced for the DC. The Bottom LIne is SEGA CANNOT BE TRUSTED. It's no surprise that they did this with the PSO servers and alienated me and most of the other honest PSO players that have spent hours lvlng up and acutally FINDING rare items. Hell, you probably wont be able to log on at all in a week they'll just abandon PSO like they do everything else.................................

BTW: consider this a signature for your petition. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: GreatMUTA on 2001-03-07 14:18 ]</font>

[Athian]

All I gotta say is WTF? Whatever happened to the Freedom of Speech???? Flame or no flame people should be able to speak their minds freely. Nice work Ambrai deleteing the flames I happened to think they were funny. Oh well guess I should stfu now wouldn't want to upset anyone.

[Xria]

Look, this is GREAT simply because it shows that sega DOES care, DOES pay attention and IS trying to do something about it. No one likes a company that makes a game and lets to go to hell (ahem, westwood). Sega is really impressive in this. They maintain their servers and they are trying their best to stop cheating in the game. Even if you don't like the way they handled it, don't get that mad because at least they are trying.

And take note that unless you are duping this will not affect you in any significant way. Very few people actually lose a character, very few. If this happens, it's just your unlucky day, and life sucks but you have to tough it out. Losing a character is no big shit, it is not hard at all to get a character to level 100. 130 hours of play and you can easily have yourself a new level 100 character, that is not long at all. If you really enjoy the game then playing it that much won't bother you.

What I could understand is someone losing a "perfected character" and cussing a blue streak. What I mean by this is a level 100 character that they have probably played around 280-300 hours on, collecting materials, creating new custom mags, and trading for the best possible equipment just to get this character to reach his absolute best potential, with the highest possible stats and the most damaging arsenal of weapons. Buttt....I really doubt that out of the few people who lost a character, that any of their characters were something to mourn over.

Let sega try their anti-cheating, maybe with enough experimentation they'll get it right one day.

[xeku]

I have mixed feelings about all of this..
I applaud Sega's attempt to thwart cheaters, but losing all of you equipment when using a backup save, due to a server problem that ate your original character file, is not a good thing..
I suppose as long as I don't lose the entire character, I'm OK with it - just another excuse to log in more hours to replenish your inventory.

Xeku

[SON-Reace]

[quote]
"On 2001-03-07 11:01, raven4960 wrote:
Ok folks, let's take a minute and look this over...So, what we have is people applauding (or complaining) about the recent server change that prevents the common duper as well as the average Joe that backs up his/her character."

Why do people keep saying you can't play from a backup file. You can. You will loose all your unequiped items, but that's the price to pay for playing a backup. I suggest putting all your unequipped items in the bank, then playing your backup character. Yes, it is a pain, and yes it sucks, but thats what must be done to prevent the de-mistification of rare items. I for one agree whole-heartedly with this soloution. I don't know about the Gameshark duping cheat (don't own a Gameshark and don't plan on getting one) but this will atleast prevent an easy, out of the box cheat for gamers. In the meantime, keep backing up your character (minus unneeded,unequiped items) , don't jolt your controller while saving, and you will be fine. I don't understand why this is such a problem for so many people.

[GeneStarwind]

This one's directed to ShatteredDreams, in response to his post on page 6 about "am I invisible or something?" No, I'm fully aware of the email method, but some of us connect via broadband. To my knowledge, there's no way to use the BBP 3.0 CD to successfully email VMU files to yourself...at least, I'VE never gotten it to work.

And before someone suggests, no, I'm not changing the way I connect to PSO just to get around this needless hurdle. Take out the broadband adapter, replace the modem, then reconfigure my DC to use a dial-up ISP...just to backup my character? Sorry, that's not lazy, that's DUMB. Dumb that anyone should have to go to such insane lengths to protect their investment.

And a huge round of applause for TheMAN. Amen, brother, not to diss anyone in this forum, but some of us have lives and can't afford the time to re-build our lost characters. Ambrai should be saluted as well. Call his efforts naive or foolish if you will, but the day we sit idly by and allow an injustice to be visited upon us...well, I'm not throwing in the towel.

[Ambrai]

You lose ALL items total. That includes what is banked as well. So you log on and play a game on V hard ruins and start getting yelled at for gamesharking because you have the n00bie sabre and mag.


Sounds just great...

Again, its ALL About the items.

[theunsurpassed]

I called SEGA themselves and they told me that they did NOT change the servers to do that, but (of course), as if they would actually say yes. They wouldn't say yes if it were true. But I also don't think that signing this petition will do anything on SEGA. But just to see what happens, u got my name.

[FireStarter]

What the heck is wrong with you guys! Are your characters only lvl 20 or what! I lost my lvl 78 character lastnight, which I poured my heart and soul into, and will never play again. I can't even enjoy Speical items for more than a week before I lose my characters. Gaining lvls in RPG's are very important and time consuming. I lost 180 hours of game play last night because Sega decided to go annal! Screw special items! They come and go on a whim. New special items continue to pop up everytime I get on and most of those I have yet to see people using. If duping items is that big of a problem then I must be playing on the wrong servers because I've seen very few people walking around with them. Sega has not mastered online gaming yet, so they need to get their heads out of their asses and realize that they might be stopping a handful of duper/cheaters, but they're running the replay value of PSO for the rest of us. What's even worse is that they can't even aid the victims who lose their characters. The Sega rep said that they have no way of introducing backup characters into the servers. Why? It's not like I'm going to be calling everyday to get my character reinstated, which is what would need to happen if I was to "dup" items! I just want my character put back. I don't care if she has her items or not! I don't want to lose all the exp! Not only that, but thieft is going to skyrocket now! Have you ever had your items stolen? I have and I'll tell you I nearly went on a witch hunt over it! Now that the few duppers can't dup items anymore how do you think they'll continue they're business....theivery that right! Now instead of everyone enjoying the game they'll have to keep a paranoid eye to every player that joins they're team. I'm sorry but you can only take so much of starting over before you just get tired of the game. RPG's and no backups just don't mix and if Sega can't get this through their heads, then buying PSO 2 is just going to be another headache. Those stuck on SP items being the most important thing need to learn to love your characters! You guys are just too materialistic.

I'll be glad to sign this Petition.

-Fire


<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: FireStarter on 2001-03-07 17:41 ]</font>

[Chernabog]

Normally I would support efforts by Sega to thwart cheating and duping (more duping, actually), but I think that they went too far with this one. I already know that many honest gamers have been hurt by this, and I don't believe that it's worth sacrificing even one honest gamer to stop a hundred dupers. If their solution really stopped duping once and for all, maybe. It doesn't, though. Gamesharks are widely available and are probably the prefered method for cheaters anyway. Sega's solution does nothing to stop that.

I'm with Ambrai on this one. I haven't lost anything myself, but I have friends who have that have done nothing wrong. Not only did they lose their items, they can't get online anymore either! Items can be easily replaced, but a month of experience building cannot. If Sega wanted this kind of security, why didn't they enact it from the beginning instead of having THEIR OWN TECH SUPPORT PEOPLE recommend a back up scheme that would later sabotage people's characters. I think that shows very little compassion on Sega's part. If they wanted to do something like this, they should have just waited for PSO2.

I'm happy to add my name to this petition, for whatever good it will do.

-=Chernabog.

[TheMAN]

Good god, loosing ALL items? If you're at level 100, and you loose ALL your items, its quite over. Might as well start over at this point because you got puny shitty items. Worse thing is you're now called a Game Shark cheater. I find this quite ironic. Sega trying to stem dupers and cheaters, yet they treat the honest backuper like this? At this point, either way you're called a cheater/duper. So might as well change the servers back to where things was! And again, to those people who are saying if you loose your character to just "tough it out" and get over it, you don't have the concept of time or life. Leveling back up to level 100 is fast? Give me a break! I have a life (a JOB, and SCHOOL), and it took me 3 weeks (from starting over from a total loss at level 25) to get to level 60! If you're one of those little kids sitting in front of the TV all day playing PSO, I congratulate you for having all the time in the world to play the game or recovering from a dead character. But in reality, I don't have this time. Backups is the way to go to prevent any emotional distress (freaking throw the DC out the window!) and waste of time/inconvience.

[K2]

Hell Yeah!!! i think it really sucks too that they had to change servers!! I've encountered the so called 'BSOD' about 3 freekin' times already and my friends encountered it too! I never ever backup or done any duping in my entire pso experience. If i am to be unlucky enough to encounter the BSOD for the 4th f*cking time, i'm going to be totally screwed!!
I think Sega should fix their stupid BSOD problem before they change their freekin servers!!!

PS. DOWN WITH DUPERS!!!

[Kaedryl]

All this is a moot point. Give us a week or two and there will be a work around. It's nice SEGA is trying, but all they are doing is giving the hacking community a challenge, one that will easily be overcome.

[Stoned_Cat]

OK...
Ive read the latest posts and im just a little confused.
First, how is it that taking your backup file past the save time doesnt allow you to get a full restoration of your character (as I understood)? Wouldn't playing offline change ur time/stats making any kind of definitive snapshot difficult? Or am I missing something?

Second, Ive thought about it and a good compromise for sega would be to delete all unequiped items. This would save your mag and precious armour/weapons while deleteing any crap u may/or may not have duped. Only problem may be the duping of material, and the possibility to dupe a few items... however it would be a LOT less damaging to legit lvl100s.

[DynStatic]

I find all this really funny.

Lemme get this straight first. I don't DUPE items, but I have friends who do. They find other rares by trading with other DUPErs, not legit people. And I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject... Well anyways...

The method described on IGN for duping is really really time consuming, and this is not how most items are duped. It's the poor man's dupe if you will... The way most people dupe deals with turning off the power after droping items. This is the quickest way (with out using GS).

A few other things that have been implemeted in the servers are : Max number of items in city (and other places). And a time limit on how long those items last. Drop something and go thruugh 2 levels and it will be gone. I was playing with a trusted friends and one of them droped 100k by the bank before we fought the last boss. Well when we got back it was gone. He then accused us of taking it... we all forked in some sash and he soon had more then he started with.


Another thing..... what happens if the time on your game and back up are both 999 hours 99 minutes and 99 seconds? how can it tell which is the back up and which is the save? I mean if you want to get around that by leaving your DC offline for 42 days we can find out. (Or use lameshark). You cant have a game any older then the max time alowed for the game.


I have other ideas how to get around this anti-back up more then duping problem.

[Maverick]

Ambrai, would you mind clearing some things up for me?

Is it just those who've done an e-mail backup who are affected, or does this extend beyond that? When did Sega implement this (do you have a specific time of day)? And the question we're all wondering, what if you unknowingly traded for a duped item, are you going down, too?

[Thanos]

Sega can't go to Hell. Where would PSO 2 be then. You should think before you speak, there, oh Omnipotent One.

Sega did not drop any of the gaming consoles. The GAMERS did. Who bought those nasty Playstations anyway? Yes it does suck for lyal Sega fans, but if Sega makes games for other consoles (Gamecube, Xbox, GBA) then you will have MORE access to excellent games. No more being tied down to one great system. You will have three great systems to play with. Why are all Sega gamers so dern pessimistic about everything?

I love my Dreamcast. I love PSO. I love online play without a keyboard. So Sega changed something. Now my weapons aren't that accessible. Good for me! What if the server crashes? Well then, the 190 hours of my life that are already WASTED will be for nothing. If you didn't catch that, my meaningless 190 hours will still be just as meaningless.

10 to one odds, if you call Sega, they will say they are working on it. It's not that they don't care. It's that Tech Support people DON'T KNOW! Especially if you call in under "Other Hardware." Just so everyone on this forum knows, Other Hardware means Genesis, Saturn, PICO, Game Gear, Nomad, and Master System. If you mention Phantasy Star Online, they will either be really pissed off, or they will pretend you said Phantasy Star, the Master System game. These people couldn't care less about your lost files or your crying. They will tell you that you call the wrong line and direct you to Net Support or Dreamcast Support. Then they will go smoke for 5 minutes before the end of their shift.

If you do decide to send a petition to Sega, do not send it through their e-mail Support system. All you will do is make one of their e-mail techs laugh histerically for about five minutes, and they will close the e-mail. They might make fun of you as well. Sega as a company cares about you. The individuals who work Tech Support secretly despise each and every whiny one of you. This is all FWI by the way.

[AlphaUltima]

ANyone figure out how to crack this stupid patch yet?
some dorks on gamefaqs say they do, but they have made an "oath" and "swore" never to tell anyone.
i give it another weekend before someone spills the beans.

[GLHeX]

Hey hey, Im all for it!

Duping gives the game something to do after level 100 http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

As for people "Cracking" the patch, yeah right, people say if you stay off line with a backed up file and wait untill it catches up with your last log off internet time, it will work.... i tried no luck, oh well, i still have all my shyt http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

Sega wont do anything about this, its up to people to find a way around it... thats all.

[Defend]

So the offline trick really doesn't work? Then why did Ambrai say it did?

If true, I'm glad.. that will really hit alot of dupers, and really reduce the amount of duped rares online. Great!

As for backing up.. well, you lose items, but not your character! Great. You don't lose all those hours, just your rares. Why is that good? Because honest players will only require it when a BSOD kills their character completely. Not very often at all now that we can handle it. And if it happens, people will think "Darn, lost my sawd, but still got my character!"

So it seems it really is good all over. Rares can be re-found.. makes them more valuable.
Honest players don't get hurt unless a rare BSOD hits hard, and dupers get stuck.

[Ambrai]

Ok I posted this earlier but I will restate this here.

After testing last night Sega is NOT (NOT) tracking the time.

I want to look into the file itself to see what is changed but my email server was down last night.

As soon as I know something I will post it.

[DW]

I had one Idea Ambria, but i dont think sega would use it since they would get alot of POed players if they implement it. This is what I was thinking if sega wanted this done.

Before a person logs off sega takes a quick snapshot of that persons character. Recording all items that was saved and when the character was saved and how much time he spent on the character when he played online and offline.

Then when the player comes back online sega server would compare the data to that users character. If everything checks out the player can continue on into the ship, BUT if the data is not similar to the data that was saved when the user logged off sega would consider that character as a corrupt file and restrict him access to the online games.

That would be a great idea but there is one flaw. if that person decides to play offline and find a very powerful weapon and wanted to show his friends what he got. I think you all get the picture. )

[PsychoKick]

Cheating will never be eliminated from PSO, simply because the game is designed to trust the client program. Characters are stored in user VMUs, not on the server. Special items can be legitimately created/found/destroyed in offline play (Which makes "scarcity" of items little more than a clever illusion, actually. Even without duping, there isn't any limited supply of items, because every Dreamcast is capable of generating them). Etc etc etc.

This design model is fundamentally insecure and open to cheaters, and no amount of patching will change it without screwing over honest players too, simply because in the end, the design makes it is virtually impossible to distinguish between someone who is cheating and someone who is honestly playing. Any multiplayer game design that at any point trusts the client is inherently vulnerable to cheats, no matter what clever security schemes are implemented. That is why MMORPGs (EQ, AC, UO) are generally designed using a "paranoid server, dumb client" model. The server controls everything, and stores all the crucial data on its end. It's more of a headache to run, but it's much more secure.

PSO, as excellent a game as it is, had awful security from the very beginning. Sega/Sonic Team should just let it be and learn from its mistakes, in the interests of better designing PSO2.

[AKUMAKORO]

I think what SEGA has done is implemented a code in the servers that somehow identifies which memory card you load your save from. Therefore, if you load the same character from another memory card, your screwed basically.

[horr0rstory]

blah blah blah

real simple way to get all this shit sorted out:

if you really have a problem with the new servers, don't play the game. period the end. get some sun for christs sake, go for a walk, or play another dc game, fire pro wrestling D came out, so go to it.

if you can live with the server changes, then play.

wow, wasnt that reallllly simple.

[Ambrai]

I hope you are right AKUMAKORO, if so the situation wouldn't be so bad since we save over corrupt files anyway

[Ambrai]

Let me transilate that.

If you dont like the fact that you PAID money for a game to be able to play it WITHOUT bugs. And it not only has bugs but the only way around it was nerfed by the company.....

Then you should just quit and lose the 200+ hours of your life you have spent playing the game.....

Thats right, walk away, mark this up as 50 bucks you just got ripped off of....

Sound about right Horrorstory?

[addsig]"http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/932/19/29321953.jpg">

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Ambrai on 2001-03-08 14:32 ]</font>

[theunsurpassed]

Ambrai, do u actually think that we are gonna do jack-shit to change the servers? of course not? ytf would sega listen to a stupid petition of a bunch of people who have already bought their game? well, if u wanna go to all that trouble for nothing, fine with me. Just take my name off that petition.

[DW]

*ignore Horror*

Anyways I'll check on the mem card thing and report back what happens. I have over 4 VMUs so its no prob if I risk it but I really dont think its the case. I say this because after Sega implemented this I had a character on e-mail that I haven't played for a week. downloaded it to a mem card, went on pso ONLINE and it excepeted my character. Thought that was very odd.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: DW on 2001-03-08 15:49 ]</font>

[Xaken]

DW: the current problems (accept in a few weird cases) are only caused by going back to older versions of a character.

From what you've sad, it sounds like you backed-up your character and then just let him SIT there for a week. Since you didn't continue to play your character and THEN go back to the e-mailed save, the server saw no differance in your restored file and the last version of the file it noted you as having.

My theory is that Sega is doing more than simply checking the number of hours played. I believe that they are lookinbg at other things instead, or at least as well.

It might be that the server stamps your file with a time code each time you log on. This would be something that the player would never even see. If this is ture then all the servers need to do is compair your recorded last log on time to what they have on their servers. If they don't match, they claim you are (i mean the file is) corrupt.

If I understand what Ambrai originally pulled off, I might still be right. It might also be that I just don't have the details clear. From what I've read it sounds like after the back-up failed he was still able to return to his up-to-data save file (he was only running a test. he was not trying to restore data because it had been lost).

[Chernabog]

The VMU that you save it on makes no difference. Even if you overwrite the character on the same VMU you last played online with it will still show up as corrupt. There's a possibility that it could be based on exp points plus timestamp or a hidden timestamp that already existed within the save file.

[Ambrai]

On 2001-03-08 15:38, theunsurpassed wrote:
Ambrai, do u actually think that we are gonna do jack-shit to change the servers? of course not? ytf would sega listen to a stupid petition of a bunch of people who have already bought their game? well, if u wanna go to all that trouble for nothing, fine with me. Just take my name off that petition.


unsurpassed, Unfortunatly I think you missunderstand me. I was putting Horrorstory's last post in my own words as a transilation hoping he understands how I feel.

[Omege12]

GGRRRRAARRRR!!!
I haven't been able to play PSO all week!

Anyways...I belive that this is major BS. Why would sega do this? It is their fault some of the people do it. Though most who make duplicates are cheaters, who use the dupes to trade their good stuff for other good stuff..ya know ya know...but some people make dupes to back up their character, because they fear loosing their character. In my opinion stuff happens and I would just start over, it would be fun. But that's another story. N E ways...sign me up for this petition thingy!

Tommorow I can play PSO again!! Whoo-hoo..BTW, I was grounded, so that's why I couldn't play..

[Vanse]

so anyway, I don't feel like digging through all the flames, I just have a question for Ambrai. You said you tried to duplicate the problem and that you did and were in danger of losing all of your stuff (why wouldn't your main still have it's stuff) , then you said you let the hours go and got all your shit back, then you said letting the hours go doesn't even work..... so my question to you is *drumroll* Are you full of sh!t or am I missing something? http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[Spunky]

Ambrai,
What you have to understand about software development, it's not exact. Some things you change have unforeseeable repercussions all over the place. Sega is trying to fix a problem that people have complained about. Do you know how lucky you are that they're even making the effort? What you should be doing is sending them bug reports detailing the problem, not bitching about going back to a previous version (unlikely) and threatening them with a petition(laughable).

I'm constantly amazed at how ready people are to believe the worst. Even from companies that bring you cool games. One wrong move, and the fanboys turn on you like a pack of wild dogs. This is how fans get the reputation of being whiny bitches who are never satisfied.

Do you really think that Sega is out to screw you out of your items? Please.

-Spunky

[Stoned_Cat]

Well I did a little experimenting and it isn't any snapshot... It has to be something a little more complicated... This is because a snapshot would become unreliable if the person plays offline. And even if it takes into accould exp, etc. Duping would be possible because the exp wouldnt change only the time would. It comes down to 1 of 2 possibilities:
1. Something is being sent to the save file that gives an ID of the save.
2. Some unique piece of information, that we are not aware of, is being sent to the server.

So, it seems SEGA wasn't lazy after all and they actually fixed the problem properly.

...good

[Defend]

Hmm.. so not just a timestamp as any offline play would overwrite it.

And not just a recording on the server of last serverside save, otherwise offline play to catch up the time would work.

Hmm.. what if when you save, it records not only the time of save, but also time since last save. Perhaps they put that in when writing the game. That way, the offline catch up trick wouldn't work.. as the server would see:
time of save - time since last save < time of serverside save
and would therefore think it is corrupt.

Unplayed backed up files would still work fine, as there'd be no change.


Hmm.. if my guess was correct though, then you could just play a backed up file offline to pass the serverside time of last save, then save, exit, play offline again, save straight away, and play online.

Someone try that.

[Neojin]

Huh??? LMAO

Oh boy, ive totaly stayed out of this debate. I think you all are confusing yourselves for crying out loud. People have repeated theirselves dozens of times and said the same things over and over.

Unfortuanatly this isnt EQ, there arent server side patches and PSO isnt on a hard drive to be patched. So what do I think? PSO 2 isnt too far away maybe Sega will think long and hard about it this time. Quite simply they shouldnt be changing anything.

Memory card dupes arnt nothing, its been said over and over they are only the easiest way. Look at Diablo for those of you who know the game. Did it change??? NO of course not.

This is a very hard call. I never have backed up my character. So this doesnt effect me. But lets consider this one point. ITS TOO LATE. Nice try Sega but you droped the ball, theres already enought duped items to go around, the battle is lost sorry to say.

Just play with friends, and uphold your morals. Tonight for instance, came across a hack...I left, it was that simple.

Peace to all my non hack non dupe PSO World pals. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

On a side note...anyone not trust even your friends when it comes to trades anymore? http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_frown.gif

[Vanse]

avoiding this topic like the plague now huh?

[Davlin]

There's been an unofficial announcement I just read from a claim-to-be Sonic Team Member on GameFaqs PSO:
(Paraphrase)
Sonic Team is trying to target the GS users and still looking for a way to stop duper while not disabling the back-up technique for BSOD prevention. Until then, the anti-backup/GS time stamp patch will stay on indefinitely.

I have not been online lately. I'd never cheated. I've traded a lot. But there is about 200 hrs riding on this.... so I won't be on until any furthur notice...

Oh and, I support Ambrai's petition on removing the patch immediately.

[VampireLR]

Maybe the server not only check time of last save but also checks what items you have on, how much money you possess on last save. Remember they're trying to prevent dupers, it's only logical to test for those criterias. I'm a programmer and one thing I've learned is when you're doing code it always beneficial to be thorough. Press "a" is not the same as pressing "A" so write code to check for all aspects.

It's just a thought. But I hope Sega helps you out Ms Ambrai.

[Ninja_R12]

sign me up to Ambrai!!
I lost all my items to bsod then i went back on with my backup save and i lost everything again!!! argh im so mad!! and on top of bsod i got robbed then got bsod and that sucks the most!! Theres goes my glass sword!!http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_frown.gif

[Faewyn]

Ambrai,

Since I last posted my results trying to restore from a back-up, I've discovered new problems. I'd really like your feedback.

I, too, have been in contact with sega techs. Generally, you need to ask to talk to a supervisor before you get any real information. The phone monkeys who you first deal with are only reading their responses off of the monitor or parroting what they've heard. Most of the phone monkeys don't really understand what the nature of the problem is. I hear wrong information 9 times out of 10...until I get them to patch me thru to a tech lead.

I am having Sega looking into resetting my online pref file on the server, but I don't expect much to come of it. It's an unusual request and one they may not be able to grant.

Basically, as I was experimenting with getting around the new system (so that I could use backups and play the game secure in the knowledge that I had protected my investment), I had another server glitch destroy my save file. I've been thru BSoD's before. I just unplug the phone cord in the back and let the game reset itself... But this is different, and why I started backing up characters in the first place.

After being disconnected while selecting a ship, the game reported to me that it was not able to save my file. I had two choices: save again, or exit without saving. Since saving did not work repeatedly, I selected the latter. And lost my entire file (basically, it becomes "corrupt"). This happened to me 2 weeks ago. I lost a level 47 character and 100 hours with that glitch. This time, I lost a level 56 character and 78 hours. Obviously, the backup file did not work, no matter how long I tried to age the character over the original files time...

After a call to Sega, I finally got somebody who used backups himself and somebody who truly sympathized with my plight. A coworker of his had just had this happen the other day. Sega employees who are PSO fans aren't happy about the changes either. That's good news. They stand a better chance of changing things than we do. This tech lead suggested I allow the game to reinitialize my items. Doing this destroyed my mag collection and all my nifty items that I'd found or traded for. It took away all my meseta as well. Many inconsiderate posters on this thread don't understand this. Everything is reset. My level 200 mag (which I raised) was reduced to a level one. My spread needle was changed to a handgun. If that wasn't bad enough, the reset save file STILL wouldn't let me log online. So basically my backup character was punished as if it was a duper's save file, and that character is blocked from playing online. I can play offline fine, but that can be fun for only so long.

Most phone monkeys at Sega told me I needed to start all over. They really couldn't help me. They didn't really know anything. The 2 different tech leads were more understanding.

The server is saving information serverside. My backup is from before the server change which might explain why the backup won't work... Also, whatever the server saved on my master file, it also wrote or accessed information on my other VMU which was plugged in (the light blinked). My guess: The server is using the serverside data to synch with the VMU saved data. What I don't understand is why the server data is not being reinitialized when it initializes my character data...

Have you had anybody else not be able to play after their backup file was reinitialized? The sega tech lead I complained to about this wasn't able to help me. No information. He promised to escallate my case to his superiors, but I haven't heard back from them. Frankly, I've been sick with pneumonia and too miserable to worry about it. Still, I would like to know if others have had this problem..

[dev1nsan]

Huh, well you can sign me up on this petition,
I've put in about 172 hours into my ranger and just barely started to get some good stuff to trade for things that not everyone has alredy, when I was hit by the usual BSOD where you lose stuff not equiped. So I tried to use my back up and well you know the rest.
I think this could've worked if they would have done it like a month ago when they first heard about duping in PSO, but now it's just too. late. Now there just pissin people off.

[Ambrai]

Faewyn,

I did ALOT of testing last night. I actually believe after reading the files for about 4 hours straight and comparing it with a file that is identical - cant play online.... I think a small line of code is introduced into the save file. Similar to a software key. Your save and the server have it. When you logon it checks for that key. If it doesnt have the key you are fuxord.

I belive I found the key in the file and successfully mended it into the other save. The only problem that I am coming across is when I email it to myself the browser ONLY reads it as text. If you can find a fix to that I can continue working on this. otw I just hit a brick wall =(.

[GreatMUTA]

[quote]
On 2001-03-08 01:11, Thanos wrote:
Sega can't go to Hell. Where would PSO 2 be then. You should think before you speak, there, oh Omnipotent One.

Sega did not drop any of the gaming consoles. The GAMERS did. Who bought those nasty Playstations anyway? Yes it does suck for lyal Sega fans, but if Sega makes games for other consoles (Gamecube, Xbox, GBA) then you will have MORE access to excellent games. No more being tied down to one great system. You will have three great systems to play with. Why are all Sega gamers so dern pessimistic about everything?


OK Thanos you had SOME valid points but I disagree with the above statement the demise of all of sega's recent consoles was THEIR fault, not the gaming public. Let's really look at this for a sec. exactly how many Saturn ads did you see on TV? I can count one, Sega did the lamest job of advertising the Saturn I have ever seen for any system. Hell, the 32X got better TV ad treatment and it was a piece of crap! Also Sega tried to launch 2 systems without EA...... BAD MOVE. When Sega refused to give EA their props for putting the Genesis over the top in the mainstream consumer's eyes they dropped the ball for any future hardware ventures, let's face it people, You need EA to survive in the American gaming market. And I actually like NBA2K1 better than Live 2001. I personally don't care about EA but, I'm not the casual mainstream gamer so IT DOSEN'T MATTER what I think! (heh) Also I had worked at an Electronics Boutique for 4 years around the time the Saturn and PS came out and people still had trust in Sega at the time. Our saturn games sold better than the PS stuff for a little while, until people started getting mad that Sega was releasing a game EVERY 3 months! And what about all the great import Saturn games Sega refused to release regardless of all the online petitions that were out there. So no my friend Sega made their own bed as far as failed consoles go. Don't get me wrong I will continue to buy sega software, but I will NEVER EVER buy a Sega brand console again, I'm tired of getting ripped off. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif



<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: GreatMUTA on 2001-03-09 15:16 ]</font>

[Athian]

Funny how people avoid the obvious. Am I the only one that thinks Vanse had a point? I think not. Its been said before, and it was bound to be said again STFU and play thanks.

[DCKaz]

Ah so much love.. and exaggerated feelings on both sides. All IMO, but c'mon.

Equipment is everything? Hardly. Unless loot is truly your only enjoyment in the game. If you're high level and don't have friends who can suit you up almost instantly, you're not getting what you should out of PSO. It's the lost hours getting all those levels, the customizations, the bond to character IMO. If it's not, and you're all about loot, yeah it'll really hurt. But the only one it *really* cruches are the androids. Hybrids already have it easy, and forces won't care as much.

I just don't get all the tears. I understand some on the 'look' side of the argument, but f it's just because you find a weapon/item making it mind numbingly easy to play the game, are you crippled without it?

If you love to solo and don't have friends to help you rebuild, the answer may well be yes, and for that I am sorry. But if you play the Phantasy Star ONLINE part, there isn't much problem here. Let me repeat that this game is basically *Mind Numbingly Easy*. Unlike EQ. Even on vhard (yes, a 50 Force talking).

I'm sorry Ambrai but I laughed my butt off at the level 60 - level 10 in EQ reference. Yeah I hit 50+s but I didn't have the patience for 60. And yes their some gear is critical for tanks, and could hit a character terribly hard in EQ. That said, losing the character would be of equal if not more magnitude, and in a casters case much more so really than most/any equipment. And again with friends, certainly a bit can be alleviated. But yeah you need that equipment to survive.

But unlike EQ you can buy a lot at the store, trade for a lot instantly, and have a *helluva* lot less slots to worry about, and factors to balance. But playing it as designed again this game is sooo easy, it's not like the mobs requiring multiple groups of 6 in EQ. And each heal is area effect and often max health. I know some of you crying bloody murder won't admit it, but you likely even have dupes of mags and items on some of your mules already. And yes at the highest of levels that would be a sad state. But by then you've probably already twinked other characters with gained equipment if not retired the 100 outright no?

All I'm saying is, why such feeling? I've put 80+ hours into knocking out quests, growing Terra [Prime], and rising ranks. I wouldn't want to start from scratch again. As a force, sure my view is skewed some, what item would cripple me? Nothing really.. I'd feel the mag.. but that'd be about it. I agree the hit is more severe the more melee/gun based to be sure. But is it *everything*? Hell no.

I want to be saved re-running all the quests to unlock them, playing normal, even playing hard, and starting at zones I want too. I know the stories, I've done the lowbie drill. Yes one can twink exceedingly fast. But the beauty is people aren't duping characters - noone wants that. Yes equipment loss can be devestating, some classes/races may well argue moreso then the level loss.

But ask yourself this - what kind of 100 level player has no friends who can't get them back on their feet as a good contributor pronto? On the flipside.. twinking to 100 will take awhile even with good friends and a lot of time to burn.

I just think some thoughts have to grow a little bit here. THIS GAME IS EASY FOLKS. No comparison should be drawn to highlevel EQ. There is none. The hardest boss in the game doesn't even necessarily take a group of 4, there are no experience penalties, everyone has portable 'gates', and you by default run quicker than any monster in the game. Oh and outside the boss, just exit the room and get your breath. And for him grab some scape dolls if you're worried about it.

Yes, if you love slaughtering everything, being the biggest show off with your rare gear, less worried about others experience and enjoyment and focused on your almighty powers, you will hurt with this modification. Maybe that's where some people aren't sharing info per Spy's thread, which I only find sad in the midst of all of us sharing info.

Even rares friends will help you with no doubt. If the really rare look drove you.. I agree, it is a pain, a loss. Maybe enough to drive you away. But please, no more jokes about being bereft without items or hardship comparisons.. this game is a piece of cake. Only if you're a online solo player with no help would that really mean much. And if so there's a good chance you have a gameshark anways, eh?

I guess I wouldn't lose sight of what fun PSO has been just because of this. Damning Sega, writing petitions.. for what might or might not happen.. meanwhile you can still back up your *character*.. yes it wouldn't stop total cheating anways, and it'll likely change again.

But I mean we're supposedly a community anyways right? Does anyone truly believe they'd be so bereft? Outside guys like Cree? http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_wink.gif

Well that's my pocket change, have a good weekend and a good meet up.

DCKaz
Terra Prime 50 FOmarl.

(edit - had gaemboy above instead of gameshark lol)


<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: DCKaz on 2001-03-09 18:35 ]</font>

[dev1nsan]

DCkaz, All I'm getting from your comment is your opinion on what makes the game fun for you. Well than this is my opinion. Sure the game is hella easy, but I don't play the game for the challenge anymore. I'm a lvl 73 Ramar and their really isn't any challenge left in the game. So whats left for me. Hunting for rares. So, yes equipment is everything to me now. I use to care about leveling up, But that gets old and tiring once you're high enough level where you don't have to worry about dieing at the hands of Dark Falz on V-hard. I don't go through the ruins just so I can go on a killing spree, I go through it over and over in hope of finding a rare to add to my collection.

[dev1nsan]

Oh and you say that you can still back up your character, how , I mean yea you can still send yourself an email but what good is that if you can't go online with it and not lose everything you have, in bank and all. Pleeze if you really know how, share the knowledge.

[Vanse]

YOU have become better at evading questions! (147)

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Vanse on 2001-03-10 10:52 ]</font>

[kagetsu]

WTF IS EVERYONE THINKING? I've been BSOD three times week already. Everyone Still dupes its not that hard. Pretty soon there will e codes to get the items automatically. So there won't be a need to dupe. I JUST WANT THE ITEMS I FOUND BACK!!!! Bad thing is I didnt' even back up when it did happen.... Whatevers.

[CJ]

I don't understand what the ruckus is all about. I personally don't mind the dupers and the cheaters out there. It really won't affect my personal enjoyment of the game (maybe that's just me).

Ever since the dawn of gaming, there has always been walkthrus/codes and cheats to help you thru a game. It wasn't an issue back then, so why is it now? What's the difference between offline cheating and online cheating? Just because every Tom, Dick and Harry have this "rare item," so what? People who are pissed off about this are probably those who like to be the only ones to have that rare item to themselves - and then shows it off to satisfy their ego. Reminds me of a kid in 3rd grade showing off his hard-to-get GI Joe.

OK, so maybe some are really pissed because of the fact that they spent hundred of hours earning that rare item... only to find that "Tom lv01" has that rare item too. But really... who cares? Does it really affect you that much? I know it wouldn't bother me. Atleast I acquired the experience and the skill to get that item. As the saying goes, cheaters will only cheat themselves out of a great gaming experience. Like cheaters who cheat on exams are really cheating themselves out of their future... they won't learn a thing or two.

I admit that I did look up codes/cheats for a game I find difficult to beat. Who hasn't?? I bet 99% of gamers out there had one time or another look up for a cheat code to get thru a tough game.

It may sound like I am contradicting myself when I say cheaters are only cheating themselves... (then saying I myself had cheated) however, it is one's prerogative to do so whether or not one wants to take the easy way out or that there is absolutely no way in hell that one can be able to finish a game without some form of a cheat code (*cough*MDK2). But then again, it may be different online. However, I fail to see how a person cheating in PSO affects another person's level of enjoyment playing the game.

Don't get me wrong, I don't condone nor do I advocate dupers or cheaters... I just really don't mind them. Just my opinion.

Oh and so not to stay OT, I do 100% back you up in this petition. I personally think losing a character or any items acquired is far worse than cheaters and/or dupers.

[blink]

I belive I found the key in the file and successfully mended it into the other save. The only problem that I am coming across is when I email it to myself the browser ONLY reads it as text. If you can find a fix to that I can continue working on this. otw I just hit a brick wall =(.[addsig]


I've been working for hours the past two days to get my character back up. The only file I had was on my PC, so I had to ask around to find out how to get it back to the DC in a recognizable file type...here's how its done. It has to do with the MIME file type when you send the file back to the dreamcast, which the PC doesn't recognize by default.

The file name is "PSO______SYS.dat"


Make sure you have Windows show extentions..


Win2k and WinME dont have a place to change MIME type
where it lets you do it in Win95/98....

To change the MIME type, first, register the file type (give it a .dat extension if it doesn't have one) with
something like Notepad.....


Now, open up RegEdit.exe


go to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
(first thing on top)


hit the + sign to expand it... see all the file extensions it shows?
go down to the ".dat" entry and click it..


Now, on the right panel, if you dont see "Content Type" , right click and
select
New -> String Value


put in the name "Content Type" (without quotes), and then for its data put
in the MIME type "application/x-dreamcast-vms" (without quotes again)..


With that set, now use Outlook Express (or whatever) to email the file to
your Dreamcast. if it sets the MIME type right, your DC will be able to save
the file to VMU again.

Now, this will only let me play offline...when I try to go online, I'm fuXored with the "corrupt file" routine.

Hope you get this working...

[CrazyEddie]

sign me up
You should also go to petitiononline.com and start one there

[lugus]

Ambrai if Blink's technique does'nt work or you have Win 2k or ME send me the file to killthee@sega.net and i'll try to post it on a website that allows files to be downloaded through the Dreamcast and send you the link.

[Lucidservant]

How do you propose we change the servers to allow cheating? Why were the servers changed to stop cheating? Weren't you all complaining often about cheating? Am I in the same forum?