Anybody else missing the Alpha Lobby?

[Mysterious-G]

A common answer I get when I say that I am missing the lobby we had in the alpha stage of the game is "It was too small."

I agree the quest counter area was; however, the shopping district had so much more charm, looked so much more thought-out than what we have right now. Was any reason for changing it given back then? Was that decision also related to size?

Either way, for all that have never seen said lobby before, check this out:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7AJBKRMzOg

Beautiful, isn't it?
So, anybody else wishing we had this back? .-.

[Arada]

After seeing this video, I don't miss it.

[SakoHaruo]

uhh.. what is there to miss? that shit has terrible design written all over it.

[Ce'Nedra]

As one that never played Alpha I must say I kinda like the shopping area design. It's to small yes but the design itself feels more "warm" to me then what we have now (unless seasonal lobby).

[Resanoca]

Alpha lobbies felt more PSO-ish to me. That aside, the new ones are just too fucking big. Why do we need all this space anyway? Everyone just jams in the same spot, so what's different?

[Zenobia]

When I look at from time to time and this video it did look more futuristic than it does now with the release. Yeah it was small and maybe if we did have this lobby back I guess they could extend it it some places I dunno.

Either both look alright to me and it wouldn't matter which one we got back least to me.

[Hitoshura]

Looks similar to Portable 2's lobby. Looks cozy, but I kinda like how large the current lobby is since it's got hidden rooms and such to hang out in.

[Lostbob117]

Nope.

[Meji]

Alpha lobbies felt more PSO-ish to me. That aside, the new ones are just too fucking big. Why do we need all this space anyway? Everyone just jams in the same spot, so what's different?I feel the exact way.

I think there's a reason behind the bigger lobbies though. Just imagine how extremely crowded it would be with all the NPC's and other CO dudes hanging around all in one spot.

But, yeah, really miss how the game looked back during Closed Alpha 2.

[Ce'Nedra]

Maybe Sega thought that it would reduce loadtime or something with bigger lobbies because people would spread out more instead of clustering to 1 spot...which still kinda happens during Falz EQ announcements and such.

[gigawuts]

Alpha lobbies felt more PSO-ish to me. That aside, the new ones are just too fucking big. Why do we need all this space anyway? Everyone just jams in the same spot, so what's different?

Took the words right out of my mouth. I prefer the style of the old ones, but then again they were a little bit too cramped.

That doesn't mean I want five football stadiums of space for every block like we have now, I just would have wanted the alpha lobby's skill counter to be a bit less choked.

[Resanoca]

Wasn't there mention of custom lobbies or something? Like the soccer/football field? Who knows? Maybe they'll include the alpha lobby.

[Terrence]

Both look great... Even though I prefer the Alpha one BY FAR ! =/

[GradationAir]

I think the main thing about the old shopping district is that it looks like well... actually a shopping district. They could have added/divided some more shops imo, it looks too... scarce.

[Shirai]

I personally liked the Alpha lobby more. As Resa said, the current one is way too big.

But bring back PSO1 lobbies, gib aquarium lobby.

[Kietsu]

Our current shopping area is way too big, although the old one wouldn't be able to hold all the shops and CO NPCs we have now.

I actually like the design of the alpha gate area, but it definitely wouldn't be able to hold a full block.

[Ezodagrom]

I like the current lobby more than the alpha one, I think the alpha one is just too small (especially in the quest counter part), though it woud be nice if different blocks had different lobbies, including the alpha lobby...

[Enforcer MKV]

I think if they'd kept the design archetype of the Alpha 2 lobby while increasing it's size it would have been better. I dunno, I just like the look of that lobby more. I don't really care for the design of the shopping district. The Gate area is better, though I'd still prefer something a little more...Mm...I guess PSO-like is the right word, I suppose?

I liked the look of Pioneer 2 when I was playing BB on the private server. Why couldn't we have something like THAT?

[Jaqlou Swig KING]

I think a happy medium between the current and alpha lobbies would have been preferable, current one is too much empty/useless space that doesn't even look nice. Alpha one would have been a clusterfuck.

[Zyrusticae]

The main problem with the current lobby, IMO, is that the lighting is AWFUL. Seriously, it's so horribly flat, ESPECIALLY the mission counter area which has no lighting at all (aside from the one that gets shadowed because it's going through windows). Revamp the lighting in the lobby and it'd easily look a thousand times better than it does now.

Aside from that, it probably doesn't need to be quite so large as it is. There really is a lot of empty, unused space...

[gigawuts]

I just don't see why we can only have one lobby. I'd like it if every lobby had a subtly different background city design and view of space, with a few variations of the lobby's layout too. I guess that would get confusing for some people though. What we need is a third area, not just the shopping district and the disembarkation gate room.

Give us a third area so we can visit the city, and have that be what's different. Maybe it goes indoors, maybe it goes to a road, have them use the random level generation system to design a different city for each block. More blocks are added? More random layouts are generated. Just clean up the darker invaded city parts, add some parts so we can go inside buildings, and then we're all done.

[Mysterious-G]

I just feel that the Alpha Lobby was much more coherent than the current one. Every part of the old one flew so naturally into the next, whereas it looks like stuff has just been stacked onto another here and there wherever it fits to somehow create this huge-ass lobby. Just take a look at the stores. They used to boast their respective item-type's color scheme and were neatly inserted into their surroundings; the new ones, however, just are giant boxes with a little sign on top that tell you just what they are selling exactly. It just seems like so much less love has been poured into the new lobby to just somehow make things look bigger.

As for variety, I often think that there should be different counter and shop NPCs for every lobby, to at least mix things up here and there. Or at least a few variations.

[Emmie]

I don't dislike the Alpha lobby, but I do prefer our current one over the Alpha lobby.


it woud be nice if different blocks had different lobbies, including the alpha lobby...

Totally agree.

[Ezodagrom]

They used to boast their respective item-type's color scheme
The current shops do that too though...

[ArcaneTechs]

Combine the 2 lobbies along with a 3rd one

What ever happened to the premium only lobby they were thinking of doing

[BIG OLAF]

I never played in the Alpha lobby, but it looked really cool. I'd rather have a smaller, more streamlined lobby than the gigantic one we have now. There's a lot of wasted space.

[Gama]

i think the lobby from the alpha is better, the current one is just filled with unecessary crap.

guess they needed space for the npc's to walk around.

[MetalDude]

Alpha one looks a lot more personal. Having it as an optional choice of lobby to visit would be really cool for teams who like to play on dedicated blocks.

[Dhylec]

Alpha lobby looks interesting - feels like a mix of various lobbies from PSO, PSU & PSO2.

[yoshiblue]

Would make for a good Team Ship lobby.

[Sparzyle]

Those green teleporters looks exactly the same like the ones from the Team Rooms. I support the idea of different looks for lobbies among different blocks.

[Coatl]

The current lobbies make me wish I could fist dash/triple dash in the lobbies. Run to this npc, run to that npc, collect that CO and this CO. It is clear that they tried to make the shops be relatively close to each other, but that can't be said at all for the npcs!

[Kietsu]

The current lobbies make me wish I could fist dash/triple dash in the lobbies. Run to this npc, run to that npc, collect that CO and this CO. It is clear that they tried to make the shops be relatively close to each other, but that can't be said at all for the npcs!

> Franka
> Basically the biggest repeat CO list in the entire game.
> As far away from the gate area as possible.

[Shinureal]

First time I see it, but I kinda find it similar to the first one, in the original PSO, especially the shops.

[Limbo_lag]

Just wish they'd move the storage/visiphone much closer to Dudu.....

[Inazuma]

Just wish they'd move the storage/visiphone much closer to Dudu.....

This! If anyone from Sega actually played the game, they would quickly realize that there needs to be storage/visiphone consoles closer to Dudu.

You know there are about 5 Scratch consoles closer to Dudu than any of the storage/visiphone consoles? How fucked up is that?

[gigawuts]

Or, you need to be able to draw grinders and other items directly from your storage.

[The Walrus]

yes plz

[jooozek]

aren't they bringing that up along with the spellstone/excube/photon shops being able to use storage for trades?

[Railkune]

I never experienced that lobby, but honestly it does 'look' more comfortable than the current one. Granted, the current is nicely sized to fit all of these NPC's and such, but I can honestly admit that I do like the Alpha Lobby.