PSU.COM Update: Sept. 30: Partner Machinery

[_Tek_]

Today's update, Partner Machinery!

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/874/psuupdate4yw.png

Looks like my wish will come true! I always wanted a littly minion to fight with me in PSO. Hopefull I've get to have some kind of Dog or Cat, or other ferocious beasts! They're better than MAGs!

So it is true that your Partner Machine will be able to fight with you in battle, but they are so tiny! Also the PM will be able to talk, as shown in the character section. Good or bad, that will depend on what it says. "Press start now!", "Kill monsters to gain EXP". "Press X to attack." lol

I wonder if you'll be able to get multiple colors to match your costume.

And its pretty obvious you'll be able to use the machine to edit your appearance, even with Ethan in offline mode.(The image looks just like a cutscene).

http://phantasystaruniverse.com/

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: _Tek_ on 2005-09-30 00:11 ]</font>

[EJ]

Whoah it looks like in that last set of picture your machinery partners can actually fight with you in battle. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

Unless they get annoying like Navi did in OoT. >_>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ForceEJ on 2005-09-30 00:18 ]</font>

[RoninJoku]

Huh? There's a bite sized android girl http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif !

Also notice, the character page was updated with a partner machinery character named "Pete" Awww... how adorable?


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RurouniJoku on 2005-09-30 00:24 ]</font>

[_Tek_]

I hope we get to name them, I'd name mine Spheric!

Also I noticed the portrait of Ethan and his Sister, on the wall, hopefully you can make one with your characters in it. Probably possible, since in the credits to PSO it would render your character in various pictures.

Just a reminder the game isn't out yet.
<I've probably hurt alot of people by saying that>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: _Tek_ on 2005-09-30 00:39 ]</font>

[therealAERO]

Noooooooooooooooooo!! Its not out yet! I have a feeling I'm going to die from malnurishment ^_^ This game is going to be way to addicting, and any hacker who decides to try and ruin it will their IP, country, state/providence, address found out and will be shot!

[Rion772]

On 2005-09-30 00:19, RurouniJoku wrote:
Huh? There's a bite sized android girl http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif !

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RurouniJoku on 2005-09-30 00:24 ]</font>

Indeed. She is a bite sized girl with a nice sized sword though.

PM look amazing, but it would be cool if they helped with fighting and carried some extra items for you if you run out of space, so you can just pick up an item and it goes right to your pm without you making a decision in the middle of battle and getting your dome stomped in my a dragon foot.

[_Tek_]

That's a kick ass idea, 30 slots weren't enough before. But as described before, the machine is only used in battle if you have extra slots left right? You probably also have to level it up hih enough.

[Mixfortune]

I'm liking the dragon one.
Though I bet there'll be alternate color schemes, I'd like it even with that color scheme shown.

[Quo]

It fights with you? Great, another liability. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

I'd prefer if they just stayed at home.

[Nash]

Really glad they are with you in battle, and that other people can see them. PSU wouldn't be the same without a mag on your shoulder!

I'm guessing the majority of them won't have very sophisticated attacks, and will just float there occasionally shooting things. In the TGS videos the android girl was the last one shown, so I think a PM like that who can use weapons will be rare or the last evolution.

Wonder if this means they can die though? Death of a PM could be horrible http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[OdinTyler]

Fight in battle & lvl them up? Sounds like a mag. LOL Id like the option to work on them at home AND out in the field. That would be pretty cool. Maybe depending on WHERE you work on them, certain functions would be enabled. Such functions as: altering yours or your room appearance (home) or a partner in battle (battle, obviously). It hasnt been established if we may have more than 1 PM. Maybe we can have 1 at home, like an attendant & 1 for battle? Could be a pretty interesting idea.
I do love the forms we're seeing & knowing Sega, there will be other colors around. Seeing the small Elenor reminds me of the Elenor mag that used to be around in PSO but never got to actually see. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif If everyone starts having PMs as small versions of themselves, how many ppl do you think are gonna start calling theirs Mini-Me?

[Deus-Irae]

kinda wierd. not sure if i like the idea.

i dont care for any of the designs so far either.

hopefully they'll grow on me...

[Reenee]

On 2005-09-30 06:25, Quo wrote:
It fights with you? Great, another liability. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

I'd prefer if they just stayed at home.



Lazyass.

I want a kitty.

[Dhylec]

Quo wrote:
It fights with you? Great, another liability. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

I'd prefer if they just stayed at home.

Heh, why the negative approach?
Aren't mags some kind of liability also? Yet everyone has 'em. So what's the hurting? ;|

[DarK-SuN]

Looks pretty cool, I'm liking this. ^_^

And I was right, everyone started calling them PMs. XD
Natural evolution of things anyway, wasn't that much of a hard guess.

Like it was said, I really do hope we can name them, it'd make them much more "personal".

[PhruitBaskit]

Oh my god, they're even better than mags ! ::starts crying:: I really like the one that looks like a dragon. I just hope when they fight they don't get annoying like bodyguards in Dynasty Warriors.

[Tomeeboy]

On 2005-09-30 10:36, PhruitBaskit wrote:
Oh my god, they're even better than mags ! ::starts crying:: I really like the one that looks like a dragon. I just hope when they fight they don't get annoying like bodyguards in Dynasty Warriors.



Annoying as in, they just stand there getting beat on and occassionally take a swing at enemies, doing little to no damage? http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

I think the partner machinery looks like it will be a neat feature. Mags were such a big part of PSO, and I imagine they would not replace mags unless they had something that was somehow an improvement.

[PrinceBrightstar]

AHH! *puts partner machinery in soundproof glass*

Become the new Navi will you!?

[Dre_o]

It all looks so.........beautiful

Having a pm a gun might get a little annoying, BUT!!!! It will be an advantage if you can tell it WHAT to shoot at, like a boss for instance while you move around it and try to get a better attack position?

[adamgnome104]

I'm guessing if you raised the stats right they won't turn out crap in battle!

This is so awesome!! I guess this is what you use to change your characters apperance and room apperance!! It's nice to know that you can do that as Ethan offline. (I hope.)

They're so cute too, a very nice mascot!! I hope they have some PSO designs too, but they have enough mix of PS, PSO and new stuff to make it so awesome!!!

They're so cute!! ^_^

[Sizzors]

Nice.

That's definitly going to be fun.

But that screen where it say's "level up" I wonder if it's for the machine thing, or the character. And if it transforms into the little android, or if the android is a type of machine.

[Rion772]

i'm positive that was the PM leveling up because they level up and i'm pretty sure you can only level up by gaining exp from battle and that doesn't look like a battlefield if you ask me. I really hope you can customize the PM completely, like color, proportion, different heads for different PM's, stuff like that and I hope you have complete control over how it evolves as in, you don't feed it item's and it changes, I hope you can see what each evolution is before you choose what you want it's next form to look like, so you can basically select what you want it to turn out like then customize it so it's more unique.

[FOAtHeart]

I guess I am the first to point out how seksi Ethan looks in the first two shots http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

I haven't really been following PSU stuffs, but this looks really interesting! http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

[Maridia]

On 2005-09-30 17:30, FOAtHeart wrote:
I guess I am the first to point out how seksi Ethan looks in the first two shots http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

I haven't really been following PSU stuffs, but this looks really interesting! http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif



FO, I just got here, so you beat me to it. <_<

Man, those little guys look awesome. I can't wait.

[Tact]

On 2005-09-29 23:22, _Tek_ wrote:

So it is true that your Partner Machine will be able to fight with you in battle, but they are so tiny! Also the PM will be able to talk, as shown in the character section. Good or bad, that will depend on what it says. "Press start now!", "Kill monsters to gain EXP". "Press X to attack." "DO A BARREL ROLL!" lol



Partner Machines look like the wave of the future. I want a little RAcaseal at my side. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif I hope these machines are actually as good as they look.

[Sizzors]

On 2005-09-30 15:34, Rion772 wrote:
i'm positive that was the PM leveling up because they level up and i'm pretty sure you can only level up by gaining exp from battle and that doesn't look like a battlefield if you ask me. I really hope you can customize the PM completely, like color, proportion, different heads for different PM's, stuff like that and I hope you have complete control over how it evolves as in, you don't feed it item's and it changes, I hope you can see what each evolution is before you choose what you want it's next form to look like, so you can basically select what you want it to turn out like then customize it so it's more unique.



I think it was the player, becuase mags in PSO can influence your stats, what if PM's can influence your stats and maybe levels. If it grows a level maybe you gain experience.

[atomisk]

doubt it, but am I the only one who remembered reading that PMs would be able to fight with us a while ago?

[kazuma56]

Annoying as in, they just stand there getting beat on and occassionally take a swing at enemies, doing little to no damage? http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif


Actually, they became tolerable once you found one of those bodyguard manuals, they actually were aggressive like other enemies/generals were, which leads me to my next point, Maybe PSU will make PM's come with "synchonization" or some other stat which improves their battle A.I. It seems the most plausible because even ST would have to admit that having a partner that is worthless on the battle field is a pretty worthless addition.

Would be interesting if ST made a designated little mini-game for PMs that evolve into (or if they have 2 for house and battle) battle PMs where you can go into a VR room and fight various enemies sing your playstyle, and then that machine will try and mimic you once battle/training is over (like VF4 with the A.I training).

[ColonD]

Well, the androids girl does seem like a very advanced evolution. And the portrait things sounds so very neat, whoever mentioned that.

I also hope that the little girl runs away from monsters when they get close when she has a gun equipped.

[_Tek_]

Most likely the partner machine will follow your character around in battle, just like Kireek in the first PSO quests.

[Dre_o]

Well, the androids girl does seem like a very advanced evolution. And the portrait things sounds so very neat, whoever mentioned that.


I noticed that the pink PM inside the room looked relatively like the Elenor type with the Saber.

Anyone else notice this?

[SubstanceD]

On 2005-09-30 00:19, RurouniJoku wrote:
Huh? There's a bite sized android girl http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif !


Yeah. I was wondering about her.

As far as the Partner machinery is concerned, I'm not to keen on the smily face guys but that blue dragon PM looked cool. I wouldn't mind having one of those follow me into battle ( provided that he is actually usefull ).

I have mixed feeling to the news that Partner Machinery fights with you. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. I will have to wait and see for myself.

My main concern with PSU now is that I will occasionaly want to play Offline solo all by myself but by the looks of things I won't have that luxury at all. All of the news we have recived so far states that Ethan is always going to be accompanied into battle with NPC's, now I find out that he is also going to have a PM fighting for/with him. I don't mind playing PSU with others ( it is one of the best parts of PSO ) but when I am Offline I rather not have artificial AI fighting with/for me, I want to go it alone, it takes something away from the game.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SubstanceD on 2005-10-02 06:48 ]</font>

[omegabuild]

or maybe it will add something to it, depending how they implement AI controls. My guess though is that the offline game is an rpg thats its focus, that being said. there will probably be an ability to backtrack or go solo at times, probably once you beat the game or get far in it. Its also possible your solo more than it seems

[Dre_o]

My thought about going solo is that you will probably be able to do something like choose wether you want the PM go come along or not.

But hey, what do I know?..........not a whole lot.

[therealAERO]

hmmm it does say we can use PMs(dammit) in online mode right? Or all we all just assuming this? Anyway seems to me PSU is turning out to be like Mobile Suit Gundam and Outlaw Star. Little Robots look like Gilliam, and Haru(I think thats the little guys name not sure) Anyway its cool to have a little robot companion and your own room. Its really going to feel like we are apart of the game now. ^_^

[Rubesahl]

I'm looking forward to it... It'd be nice if you can decide to have it attack or heal you http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[echo-2003]

On 2005-10-02 06:37, SubstanceD wrote:


On 2005-09-30 00:19, RurouniJoku wrote:
Huh? There's a bite sized android girl http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif !


Yeah. I was wondering about her.

As far as the Partner machinery is concerned, I'm not to keen on the smily face guys but that blue dragon PM looked cool. I wouldn't mind having one of those follow me into battle ( provided that he is actually usefull ).

I have mixed feeling to the news that Partner Machinery fights with you. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. I will have to wait and see for myself.

My main concern with PSU now is that I will occasionaly want to play Offline solo all by myself but by the looks of things I won't have that luxury at all. All of the news we have recived so far states that Ethan is always going to be accompanied into battle with NPC's, now I find out that he is also going to have a PM fighting for/with him. I don't mind playing PSU with others ( it is one of the best parts of PSO ) but when I am Offline I rather not have artificial AI fighting with/for me, I want to go it alone, it takes something away from the game.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SubstanceD on 2005-10-02 06:48 ]</font>


I couldn't disagree more, if anything that is the one thing I missed from PSO was having AI controlled characters come with you.

My vision was wouldn't it be cool if you could have all 4 characters that YOU created on a team offline with you? I sure do. You could ofcourse switch to any character as you wish.

The AI doesn't have to be utterly brilliant but we would be allowed to choose what combat style said character would perform. Setup a grid like a radar graph and at each point a type of attack, depending on how you set that graph will determine how that character engages (or retreats) in battle.

[_Tek_]

That's an excellent Idea, hacing all 4 of your characters at once, 3 AI controlled. That would make exp gathering so much better.

[Quo]

Yeah, but PSO's AI system sucked.

If PM's AI is anywhere near as crappy as that, they'll hinder more than help.

[Rion772]

Hopefully all NPC's and your PM's can actually make combo's for once...I don't think I ever saw Kireek or any other NPC in pso make a full combo.

Or maybe I need to pay more attention to these things?

[DarK-SuN]

They very very randomly did it.
I saw Kireek do a two hit combo once and Ash (when he has a Stag Cutlery in the Ruin missions) did a three hit combo once.
Although, yes, it's VERY very rare, since I've only seen that once for those two characters as I said.

[Spider]

OH and could that small robot be like, what PM's turn into in hostile situations? Like the grow big and use swords and stuff?

[ANIMEniac]

just to throw in my 2 cents, what about the possibility of PM's in battle mode. to have them take hits for you or revive you when your down. BTW my blasted mag never brought me back from beyong on PSO -_-. but anyway, do u think it would be like that or the PM's stay behind while in battle and challenge(if there is one)?

[Spider]

My mags reverser only ever seemed to work on v1....

[Rion772]

My mag brought me back all the time (Version 2) but I havn't been feeding it so the Synchro is 0, I think that's why it hasn't been casting reverser and now that we're done being off topic I think it would be pretty sweet if your PM could cast a Resta or whatever the new tech will be called on you, as well as Deband, Shifta, and Reverser on you and Jellen and Zalure on enemy targets but it just can't use attacks that damage foes.

That's all I hope for from the PM's.

[ColonD]

Actually, this talk of mags has me curious to features of the PMachine.

Apparently, you do things with it, and it levels up.

And they fight with you in battle.

So...
does it have stats and something similar to feeding?
Happy/Syncro stat?
IQ stat?

Also, what if they could cast magic?
Atp/Accuracy/Defence/Mind stats?

[_Tek_]

Nothing has been said about if they raise stats or give extra abilites, but its possible.

[azjazo]

It wold be nice if you can "program" some kind of behavior on them, dependin on its abilities, like healing, carring you far from enemies, alerting you on a back attack, something like a "scape doll" functionallity siy the take the big blow instead of you, giving you weapons in storage (to put some more challenge so you can't take weapons from you invetory that fast in battle), aiding you by running to some spot to turn on a swith (or a "steady" command so it will stay in a swith and you go to the other one) and such, some functionalities, maybe I'm asking too much, but programming wise, it isnt (maybe interface wise it is)


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: azjazo on 2005-10-06 08:29 ]</font>

[Sir_Laguna]

I felt that raising mags was a chore. I didn't have a lot of fun doing it. I'd plan out what stats I wanted my mag to have, raise it over the course of many hours, and upon raising it to Lv. 200, breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Well, thank god that's over." And then there was the task of keeping your mag's IQ and Sync up. Most of the time you'd end up feeding your mag every few minutes in the middle of a dungeon, sometimes having people feed their mags in the other room while the other guys are busy fighting. I always thought of it as a (usually) unwelcome break in the action. Granted, your mag could do some cool stuff every so often, and the photon blasts were semi-useful, but I don't think they made PSO more fun.

With the new Partner Machinery system PSU employs, I'm optimistic and yet skeptical as to how well it will actually work. Perhaps there will be parts that allow your PM to make new items, and a seperate group of parts that will change its battle abilities (and behavior) accordingly? It would certainly be nice to have the option of filling an open spot in your online party, provided PMs have AI that makes them more useful than monster bait.

[Rion772]

As long as my PM doesn't become a liability in anyway i'm fine with it. I just really hope that they can make good items as well as give me some really cool extra abilities like someone said earlier. Hopefully they can atleast take 10 items that I pick up when my inventories fully or something too, because I tend to only pick up Armor because quite a bit of it is worth $4000+ meseta and my inventory seems to get full quick-ish.

[SubstanceD]

On 2005-10-11 20:54, Sir_Laguna wrote:
I felt that raising mags was a chore. I didn't have a lot of fun doing it. I'd plan out what stats I wanted my mag to have, raise it over the course of many hours, and upon raising it to Lv. 200, breathe a sigh of relief and say, "Well, thank god that's over." And then there was the task of keeping your mag's IQ and Sync up. Most of the time you'd end up feeding your mag every few minutes in the middle of a dungeon, sometimes having people feed their mags in the other room while the other guys are busy fighting. I always thought of it as a (usually) unwelcome break in the action. Granted, your mag could do some cool stuff every so often, and the photon blasts were semi-useful, but I don't think they made PSO more fun.

With the new Partner Machinery system PSU employs, I'm optimistic and yet skeptical as to how well it will actually work. Perhaps there will be parts that allow your PM to make new items, and a seperate group of parts that will change its battle abilities (and behavior) accordingly? It would certainly be nice to have the option of filling an open spot in your online party, provided PMs have AI that makes them more useful than monster bait.



I know how you feel. I also feel that raising a Mag up to Lv. 200 was a chore. It usually means that while I am playing PSO I have several sheets of paper in front of me ( my charcter's max stats, what stats do I need to raise on the Mag to get that character as close as possible to maxing out, what to feed my mag and then there is a sheet of paper where I calculate my Mags's current stats [ I only breed Rati's and Sato's so I need to get the balance of Pow, Def, Dex and Mtc just right before I hit Lv.100 ] ). It's also bloody time consuming and very expensive early on in the game ( I always make it a point to get a Lv.200 Mag before I beat Episode 1 on Normal ).

Having said that, I do get a certain amount of satisfaction from having raised the perfect Mag for my character. You do feel as if all the hardwork had been worth it.

Hopefully we won't have to do soo much pre-planning when raising these PM's.

[OdinTyler]

Granted we dont know all the functions that a PM can do. Is it known if we only get one PM that helps us in our room AND in battle or can we get more than one? An attendant in room & a separate one in battle would be more helpful. Space consuming but helpful. We could use the home one to make items or redecorate or w/e we need it to do when not in battle. Meanwhile, the battle one would be specifically that. If we have numerous PMs that we can assign to various tasks, that only increases our customizations & could open up so many more ideas.

[Rion772]

On 2005-10-12 13:32, OdinTyler wrote:
Granted we dont know all the functions that a PM can do. Is it known if we only get one PM that helps us in our room AND in battle or can we get more than one? An attendant in room & a separate one in battle would be more helpful. Space consuming but helpful. We could use the home one to make items or redecorate or w/e we need it to do when not in battle. Meanwhile, the battle one would be specifically that. If we have numerous PMs that we can assign to various tasks, that only increases our customizations & could open up so many more ideas.


I agree, maybe on the top of the page where the pictures are the Smiley faced PM was a Home PM and the Dragony sharky thing was a Battle PM<---Just a guess.

[OdinTyler]

Yes, I personally think the smiley face one is cute & nice for home. Though having a smiley one in battle would throw ppl off thinking you wont do much dmg then suddenly a huge Rafoie fills the area. It would be good for a laugh, I think. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif Since info keeps trickling to us every other week, we spend so much time theorizing about smiley faces & dragons. Cmon Sega, enough theorizing, we need to know! Put a smiley face on my face. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[Rion772]

On 2005-10-12 19:17, OdinTyler wrote:
Yes, I personally think the smiley face one is cute & nice for home. Though having a smiley one in battle would throw ppl off thinking you wont do much dmg then suddenly a huge Rafoie fills the area. It would be good for a laugh, I think. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif Since info keeps trickling to us every other week, we spend so much time theorizing about smiley faces & dragons. Cmon Sega, enough theorizing, we need to know! Put a smiley face on my face. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif


Haha I agree, I wish we knew stuff for sure. Also I hope I can have a Mini-Me sword wielding male Cast by my side instead of a smiley face (even though supposedly the last stage of a PM is a little Cast).

[OdinTyler]

I was thinking what if we had a PM that looked JUST like us? It would float over our shoulder (like a mag) & it would be a small version of our char. Sort of like a conscience? http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif We'd need 2 then. 1 for the conscience & 1 for the 'naughty one.' As for the functions of the PMs, I like some of the suggestions also said: attacking in battle, holding a switch down for us, etc. I hope such things have been taken into consideration because if its not truly a partner, Im gonna go back to calling it a mag. LOL