Xbox?

[Meaky]

I couldn't help but notice the lack of people talking about the xbox version, is there something wrong with it or something? Sorry if this has been brought up before, I searched and didn't find anything. =

Also another question about xbox, I read in another thread that ST didn't like the xbox anymore and was wondering if anyone had any more info on that.. I mean they could make a patch for the game on xbox and get rid of half the hackers and cheaters..Ugh, I suppose I'm ranting now, sorry. Also, I might be posting this in the wrong forum, if it is tell me/move it. :|

[tunghook]

I've noticed a lack of Xbox gamers as well.

That's where I play.

[Ryna]

On 2005-03-12 06:26, Meaky wrote:
I couldn't help but notice the lack of people talking about the xbox version, is there something wrong with it or something? Sorry if this has been brought up before, I searched and didn't find anything. =


The fact of the matter is that the XBox PSO population has always been fairly small due to a couple of reasons. First, Episode 1&2 was released first for the Gamecube. Almost everyone that was waiting for it opted to buy instead of waiting several months for the XBox version to come out. Second, the XBox servers are not linked to any other international servers. Unlike the GC version of the game, you can only play with US players on the XBox version. Also, you have to consider that Episode1&2 is getting to be a fairly old game and not many new people are joining. This small population base has resulted in the game not getting much attention from Sonic Team. As a consequence, the XBox version is often to last to receive new quests.

[tunghook]

Xbox still has up to 500 people on it at any given time. Last night was my best experience online since I've re-joined.

[Meaky]

On 2005-03-12 08:10, Ryna wrote:
As a consequence, the XBox version is often to last to receive new quests.



New..quests..wait wait, there are new ones? http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[Arnot]

Oh hey, I've seen you around Meaky. I have played with Kit before; welcome to PSOworld!

Yeah check out The Principals Quest and The White Day quest, both are under EVENTS when selecting the quest. And if you guys are serious about PSO don't go to Apatite. Its packed full of hacks, beggars, dupes, and noobs. The serious players reside on Davburite:10. You guys that are on Xbox should look me up. Check my profile to see what characters I use. Hope to see you soon.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Arnot on 2005-03-12 13:05 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Arnot on 2005-03-12 13:05 ]</font>

[Meaky]

I was thinking more along the lines of download quests, but I suppose those work too..

And yeah, I always play on D10 mainly because people on A1 and A2 scare me. >.>

[Fefnir]

Bleh, everyone I know that used to play PSO on the XBox traded in a few games so they could buy Halo2. I'm just hoping BB will come out soon so I can meet up with my old friends.

[Ancient]

well true Gamecube has international servers, and it came out first, but really Xbox had the potential to be the diffinitive version of PSO (at least before BB was announced) Sonic Team just dropped the ball. Here's a sum up of the good and bad of PSOX

Bad: The Live network is completly broadband, but the lag on PSOX is absolutly the same as it was with my dial-up connection back on Dreamcast, thats just sloppy coding on ST's part, and cheap servers.
Good: Live has voice chat!! I cant fully describe how cool this really is when you're just kicking back with a few friends. I've laughed till I cryed on many occasions with my friends, something I would'nt have time to do if I had type everything I want to say.

Bad: Once ST caught wind that PSOX wasnt instantly gonna be as popular as PSOGC they totally wanted nothing to do with us. They waited forever to give any new quests, they took forever to fix server errors (a whole block was missing for months), and they flat forgot to give us a couple of quests and holidays, and now they arnt gonna give us ANY new content Phantasmal World 4 was it (and they skipped PW3...WTF), all we get now is the same ol' holiday quests and stuff. Thats inexcusable treatment of paying customers in my book, and its the main reason that PSOX hemmoraged players as much as it has.

Good: Security...sure there are hacks and dupes and idiots on PSOX, but Live keeps any modded boxs from comming online with their mod chips active. That means that however much the little hacker dinks claim, they cant do squat to you. All they can do is passive hacks, like make weapons and bring them in, or mess with their apperence or other stupid things. But they cant hack you directly, nor can they FSOD you. Frankly I can ignore all the passive stuff.

ST could have used the xbox's hard drive to keep hackers at bay, with a relative degree of ease. Most hacks are audacious enough to be easily spotted. Plus they would have had the extra muscle of M$ in their corner for laying the smack down. But they flubbed it and did nothing, and shame really. PSOX could've been the prodigal child, but instead it became the whipping boy.
Sorry that was a bit long winded, but it needed to be said. I still play PSOX, and I have been since day 2 of its release. That makes my characters the oldest I know of...anybody from day 1 still going?

[Drayma]

I got PSOX deal at Best Buy for $10 US. I'm glad I did. The colors look richer but the GC player models in my opinion look better and you enter your code for your gamer tag at the beginning. You have to have a gamertag to play offline PSOx.

The players online are using high powered weapons and playing mostly TTF and the last game I played it was 4 players and it was on the first ship Albonite or whatever, (big surprise open games) and everthing was kewl but nobody used their mics. I think they are old GCers switching over and rather use keyboard.

[Meaky]

I never play in that ship, mainly because it's full of little kids who think they are cool because they can dupe..I agree with Ancient ST had a huge chance to make PSO way better for the xbox, and blew it to hell. >.<



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Meaky on 2005-03-12 17:27 ]</font>

[jspacemunkey]

On 2005-03-12 16:38, Ancient wrote:
...now they arnt gonna give us ANY new content Phantasmal World 4 was it (and they skipped PW3...WTF), all we get now is the same ol' holiday quests and stuff.


Ancient -- where did you hear this? Forgive me for being a little skeptical, but I've heard many doomsday testimonials since PSOX was released. Time and time again, we'd get stiffed on content for a few months and everyone would swear Sonic Team would never update our servers again. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif Unless you heard this from a reputable source I'm inclined to disagree. PSOX has been getting updates regularly now. Yes, we are behind GC, but I would be surprised if we ever stop getting updates entirely. On the other hand, if you're making this statement based on information from a reputable source, I think I'm going to lose it. I will be forced to kill if we do not get the updated MA1 and MA2 with the ability to get those 5 photon spheres and the black ring. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_evil.gif

On topic -- there is nothing wrong with PSOX. Ryna makes what is probably the strongest argument as to why you do not see much talk about PSOX on this site: the community is much smaller than on GC. However, there are some of us here who check the forums regularly and play PSOX (myself) so don't worry if you have a question particular to the Xbox or whatever.

[Sarek_Ellis]

Yeah not many people play on xbox anymore but i love it. If any of you still play online i would love to play, but i think people over look how good it is for xbox. Honestly i like it better than gamecube.

[Meaky]

Voice chat alone is worth it, IMHO..

[Ryna]

On 2005-03-12 18:57, jspacemunkey wrote:


On 2005-03-12 16:38, Ancient wrote:
...now they arnt gonna give us ANY new content Phantasmal World 4 was it (and they skipped PW3...WTF), all we get now is the same ol' holiday quests and stuff.


Ancient -- where did you hear this?


I would suggest looking here for Ancient's response:

http://www.pso-world.com/viewtopic.php?topic=96103&forum=1&start=15&19
(2nd post down)

[jspacemunkey]

thanks, ryna.

well, that's about as reputable as you can get. kinda makes me want to just stop playing entirely.

[Drayma]

I just got FSOD on psox on D10, don't know if its because I have streaming audio on my pc but the game was called "feeding mags", I lost all my unequipped items.

[Ancient]

FSOD still happens on PSOX, but its not caused by hackers, its just a natural occurance, just like it was on dreamcast and Gamecube. Only some people forget that it happens naturally on DC and GC because it happens so frequently because of hackers.

[Fefnir]

Oh, there are still a few hackers who like to do the FSOD thing.

I miss when the XBox servers were flooded with people, almost 1500+. (Well, 'cept all the people begging for items and advertising pr0n) Now it's fallen to a measly 400-550... Bleh...

[HyperShot-X-]

Get ready all, this one's long...

my view on psox population since i started playing 10 months ago is that its been fairly steady at 550 peak except when Halo2 was launched last thxgiving but even then almost every1 got tired of playin it so soon n started coming back to psox now its getting even more populated at some peak hrs,..hell, not to exaggerate but even the mighty Master Chief culdnt kill off this great game so easily, yeah !!..i mean this game won't go away any soon as long as XBLive is up and running u know... and also taking into acct XBL closed server in N.A. compared to world wide open server on GC, populatn wise, i mean its good to play w/ foreign players as was used to back in dc days but there is limit to degree of fun n lvl of team work u culd achieve due to language barrier in comparison to voice chat & kb combo plus* 16 pre-assigned shortcuts customizable on xbox controller for those who arnt aware,..
also i noticed many r not happy w/ lack of new quests n delayed updates compared to GC pso, personally i only managed to get a couple of Bu-Ei's epI s-ranks myself on cmode n havnt even started on epII cmodes 1-5 which im highly motivated myself to try it after lookin at some of those Sitka's posts, & i culd be careless on few seasonal quests and couple o quests i never have time or patience to even try at all, and oh, i just remembered, HOW COME THIS SITE NEVER UPDATES THE LITTLE GREEN X DOTS ON THE HOME PAGE UNDER 'ACTIVE ONLINE QUESTS'??? Can we get some attention here pls, any mods here reading this helps welcome, its like emergency, my gosh !!! http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif
All u psox players out there reading this, take some break fm chatting on Live playing pso all day/nite n make urselves heard on pso community, starting myself, *ahem, but i work full time also...my reasonable excuse that is...

Its really heart breaking to see this pso community tends to just abandon existing platform for the next new big thing so soon jumpin to conclsn blinded by flash eye candies, sure it looks clear and pretty n new stuffs exciting b4 objectivly looking at the whole picture of system requiremts n new periferals necessary n stuffs, well, its still a same goddam game using the same old formula isn't it? i mean how many of psox players fully utilize and mention about the hardware advantages xbox presents like in-game Dolby-digital-surround sound capability n built-in hard drive to save so many chars u cant even keep track of ur own creatns...givin the ridiculous mem card business run for its money permanently? some might be disappointed that u dont see much xbox gallery pics on this site as GC verison does, so if its less popular than does it become a less game? ...some complain about monthly fees on psox n not getting anything in return..well, was there any mention of security and no online hacking treats n never have to worried about that horrible char corruption n fear of PKing/FSoding to lose all ur valuables n so forth *Excluding occasional network error n fsoding when hacked item player joins legit open game that culd be prevented by playing safe online, meaning banking all valuables when online only equip ones using,..who knows ST might afterall decide to make it free even b4 u know it? i wish i culd go on n on to cover all issues but i'll stop for now...

Truly, IMHO, psox has been totally underrated n neglected by media, fans & Sega themselves, theres no point in blaming all failure on 1 factor,...
i only wish my input brings to pso community some different perspective on how u see things in making each of ur own decisions in near future not to make the same mistake again as in the past, and hopefully might change current situation of pso as a whole in the long run, peace out.

[Sitka]

Hypershot, Ancient:

Nice posts. I wouldn't mind playing with you - don't know if I have.

My perspective:

I stopped playing in Apatite after my first few days online - this was a couple of years ago. I met some pretty decent folks on Dav 10, joined a clan and enjoyed many nights leveling up, chasing down rares and experiencing online play for the first time in my adult life (and I've had a long one).

My clan broke apart and the folks I was playing with just weren't showing up much at all - this was when my character had hit 197 and I was looking forward to hitting the mighty 200. Gave up the game for a bit and got back on a few months ago.

I had played a bit of c-mode before, but really got the bug when I got back on and fell in with some vets who were really playing the hell out of challenge, particularly Episode II.

When I got back on, I noticed that Dav 10 was full of kids doing the same kinds of antics that I saw in Apatite and I started looking for a new home. These days we bounce around to different ships/lobbies and most of the guys I play with play closed games to avoid the hackers/cheats that constantly drop in asking for spells/weapons/units.

Challenge mode had gone from being simply awesome to incredibly frustrating. Trying to get four good players to make a serious run has become very difficult. Trying to teach new players becomes an effort in futility as they either 1) just want the s-rank, 2) insist on dragging a bad challenge player through or 3) lack the patience to learn how to really play the stages well.

The dream would be four good players meeting regularly with an opportunity to play enough to really master every stage then gradually bring in newer players with the skills and patience to augment the c-mode opportunities for everyone. We've come close to this with the CL group, but we're not quite there yet.

To me, the fees are not as important as the overall experience. As I look forward to playing with some of the GC vets, I am curious as to how I will do. Will the lack of live chat and the need to coordinate a keyboard/controller diminish my ability to play? I should find out this week.

With all the positive notes mentioned above including the fact that I have 24 playable characters, I've achieved my goal of getting all 10 ids into ultimate, I've met a great group of friends/players and the live chat, there are some negatives as well.

Almost every player I know is having or has had problems with their xbox. My own takes as many as 40 attempts to load the game and I've lost many rares, s-ranks, and c-mode stages/times to my system locking up. Those 24 chars don't look so good when you're facing a system that needs to be replaced and you are going to lose 3000+ hours of your gaming life. Add to that the posting that no new updates will be made and the diminishing community and the xbox PSO starts to lose some of its appeal.

For myself and many of the folks that I play with, we are at a crossroads. If in fact ST has abandoned xbox, do we play out the string (ala DC), do we switch to GC and start all over again, do we try JP/CH blueburst with its pros/cons, do we hold out for the American BB version and hope we can handle PC/no chat play or do we hold our collective breaths and wait for some type of Phantasy Star Universe to materialize and possibly end up on our platform?

For those of you who have never experienced live chat, even with the lag, the ability to vocally communicate with your friends, particularly on c-mode, is very tough to give up.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out.

[Mitri3]

i am willing to play with anyone as long as they're legit. i play the xbox version and love it. and i don't know why people are having problems with their xbox's. i have had mines since laucnch and have had not one problem. i say if your having problems with your current xbox get a new one and replace the hd with your old ones but then that would void the warranty.

[Ancient]

I feel your pain, truly and many of my friends do too. A good friend of mine, Riese, also known as the C-mode queen (she's got one character with a total C-mode time of like under 4 hours or something crazy like that) recently had to start over due to her system finally crapping out. And most of my friends have suffered a similar fate to the dreaded Thompson drive. Like I mentioned before that gives me the oldest characters I know of. But, my Thompson drive is finally starting to catch up with me, Halo2 doesnt work past a certain point anymore, and a few other games dont work at all. Its only a matter of time before my characters die too. Its an odd sense of mortality for a game. Still I have fun while I can. If you're ever curious to find me, I spend most of my online time in Celestite 13-10, with the remains of my guild. They're all good people http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[Sitka]

Hey Ancient,

I've played a lot and am currently playing with Haruna (aka Riese) trying to help out a bit with both leveling and c-mode action. If we start naming names we'll probably find many circling connections, funny we haven't met up.

I like your perspective on the hard drive thing. I'm tempted to follow Haruna's example: we had just finished a particularly good E2C4 which gave Haruna an s-rank for Ep II and she froze coming out of the game - lost her s-rank and her time. That's when she left our lobby and returned about an hour later with her new level 1 char.

As for the previous poster, this is my second xbox I've gone through - maybe because I've played the hell out of it. Almost to a person, everyone I play with has replaced either their box or their drive. I played with Sky Dragon two weeks ago: four times we got to Flow on E2C4 and four times his system locked up. He hasn't played c-mode since he was so frustrated.

Someone suggested getting a new drive from Llama.something and my EB sales guy said he'd replace the system - and all my chars - for free. But that is precisely where I left my last post at: starting lvl 1 on xbox or a different platform because it is inevitable.

Anyway, I love your sig Ancient and I'll try to swing by 13-10 and look you up - that is if I can get back on.

[gream-green]

Hey yea Sitka what is up with your x-box dude, I see you on all the time, sometimes I even get invites from you but I never end up beaing able to actually find you..the other day I could hear you talking in the room I was in but I could not see you it was super weird...If you are having trouble with your x-box just have it cleaned, very easy, very cheap, just tell them not to touch the hard drive for any reason etc...Let me know if you wanna hook up Sitka I will be on...not playing C-mode though, later.

By the by I have had my x-box 3+ years well over 5,000 hours gamed, two cleanings no issues at all. And I am still on my first PSOX disc as well.

[Sitka]

Well there is a voice from the past.

Hi Gream-green. I saw you as Redd++ the other day - I thought you couldn't hear me.

You have got to drag your Fonewm through a PW4 with us man, what a gas!

I thought of you this morning: in the same room got a frozen shooter off a Torr and a red handgun off a rappy - "just like Gream-green used to talk about" I thought.

I'll take my box to jiffy clean and see if that improves it's temper.

[gream-green]

On 2005-03-14 10:39, Sitka wrote:
Well there is a voice from the past.

Hi Gream-green. I saw you as Redd++ the other day - I thought you couldn't hear me.

You have got to drag your Fonewm through a PW4 with us man, what a gas!

I thought of you this morning: in the same room got a frozen shooter off a Torr and a red handgun off a rappy - "just like Gream-green used to talk about" I thought.

I'll take my box to jiffy clean and see if that improves it's temper.



Funny I just found a red-handgun (Tollaw), them is like candy to Gream. Dude I just took my x-box to Wal-Mart it took em' like 5 minutes literally, and it worked great for like another full year and a half...Yea I have been on PSO, a lot lately but under my other XBL tag Pork Roll, I believe you declined his friend request though...anyhow I will be on as eMeL33 from here on out, as 2 HL's is too much for me...Gotta get me 4 characters to 200 still though. late.