Noob questions about PSU.

[Furiden]

Allright guys, well I've really been thinking about picking this game up lately. I loved playing the PSO games when I was younger, and I actually just found out PSU was out for the PC a couple days ago, when I stumbled across it in EB. I'm currently playing a MMO, (WoW) and that takes up a lot of time, but since this game has a monthly fee as well, I'll probably be putting a lot of time towards it if I decide to get it. But first, I have some questions I need answered to see if I really want to play this game or not.

1. What's the level cap at for PSU?

2. Are there quests / missions available that will supply me with things to do all the way up to the cap, or at least through the majority of the levels?

3. Is there still a pretty steady influx of new players to this game? Or will I be one of the only few noobs, out on my own?

4. Do a lot of people play this game, to where it'll be easy for me to find groups for all my quests? I'd probably be more than capable of solo'ing the soloable quests, but it's always funner to group with people for me, and if this game is already dead, and it's hard to find groups, then I probably shouldn't get it.

5. Is there a way to turn off that "cut-in-chat" or whatever it's called, to where your player's portrait pops up and takes up half the screen with an emotion when you say something, or something like that? I was reading up on that, and it'd be kind of cool sometimes I guess, but in the middle of fights, that would get super annoying...

6. The $9.00 or whatever it is monthly fee is all I'll ever need to pay to have full access to everything in the game right? This game doesn't have you spend money to get the best gear or anything like that I hope, just double checking that the 9 dollars ever month will get me through.

7. Do you get a free month free trial thing when first trying the game? That would be perfect to let me try it out to see if PSU is going to be as good as I think it will be.

8. I've heard there's a lot of hackers with this game...I hope all the servers aren't crawling with hackers, to ruin the fun of actually playing this game. Is that the case?


That's it! Lol, hopefully I can get some answers, and then be able to decide if I should go out and get the game or not. Thanks a lot to all who answer my questions in advance, and maybe see you all ingame soon.

[Nayla]

1. Well, currently the lv cap is 70. It will go up to 80 on March 2. No one really knows the max lv yet... But I have a feeling it's gonna be 100.

2. All missions come in C, B, A, S, and soon to be S2 ranks. So it seems u'll have enough occupy urself ^.^

3. There hasn't been a ton of new players lately (some EU players, but not much).. But also, people are making alts.

4. Like alotta topics say, people are quitting. It's prolly a good idea to know some people before u go on. Most popular missions have enough random games tho.

5. U don't have to use cut-in-chat; u can talk in normal bubbles like PSO. Most people don't use cut-ins too much.

6. Yup. The monthly fee covers everything~

7. Not so sure bout this one...

8. Yes, there are hackers, duped meseta is everywhere and the economy is inflated.. But, since u'll just be starting out, u'll prolly be able to get items for ur lv at a god price.

Hope that helps, and hope u decide to get PSU ^.^ Despite its flaws (every game has em, right?) I absolutely love this game~

[Sychosis]

1) 100 offline, 70 online.
2) If you want to reach the cap you have to do some repetitious grinding. If you don't mind going a tiny bit slower you can cycle through the missions to add some variety.
3) No, not really. Not with all the cheating that as been going on in the PC version.
4) No. But there are enough people to get groups going at popular spots.
5) You can blacklist someone to not see anything they say at all, but cut in chat only appears if the speaker wants to use it.
6) The monthly fee will get you access to all available content.
7) Only after you pay for your first month, or your first 6 months.
They aren't crawling all over the place, but they have made a significant impact.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sychosis on 2007-02-14 07:23 ]</font>

[Bobkitty]

Doesn't surprise me you didn't hear about PSU until recently, they didn't exactly advertise it very well. If at all..

1. Cap atm is 70 and 80 on JP servers.

2. Yes, each mission has 4 difficulties, C rank to S rank, with the addition of SS ranks coming. There are many hard missions for a player at the current cap.

3. I see alot of new players on the 360 version, though I can't exactly speak for the PC version.. I hear things aren't the best there, but their doing OK.(?)

4. Well I mostly soloed and played with people I knew at first, but going back with my alt's I've found it very easy to meet new people and join parties.. It seems you can find lvl 1- 70 players all over the place and with ease.. I find universe 2 on the 360 to be great for lower leveled players.

5. It seems that novelty has worn off for many people. I still see it being used but not very often, and pretty rarely in mission. To answer the question, I don't believe there is an option to turn it off.

6. Yes the monthly fee covers what's available in the game to everyone.. There isn't any premium charges for expert classes or s rank weapons(keep in mind only a couple are actually released on US/EU servers). For the best gear you just need to farm and play the economy game.. unless your on PS2/PC, then you can sell photons at ungodly prices.

7. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I hear you don't get your first days freee, but some days after you cancel or something ridiculous like that. Not sure though. If you DO own an Xbox360 you can download the free demo on the marketplace, it has a lvl cap of 30 and character wipes monthly.

8. I'm not from the PS2/PC servers so I can't tell you exactly how it is.. I do know meseta is hacked, S rank weapons, among other things have all been hacked, and it was getting pretty outrageous.. Though from what i've been reading, it's been getting better and new plans should make things improve drastically. aparantly many hackers are being banned and S-rank weapons being wiped, slowly but surely. (?)

I hope this was informative.

[PMB960]

I would hold off for at least a week or so on siging up. On the JP servers ST did a mass banning of all players who were found to be hacking and deleted all unreleased weapons. Within the next week or so or maybe even starting right after the Valentines event ST will probably do the same for the US servers. There are enough people on right now to find a game easily but after this it could easily bring more people back.

[Furiden]

Thanks for the responses!

What everybody says about hackers and prices on items / gear is what's really holding me back. I'm also still pretty worried about getting in there, and going in to my level 1 zone, and being like the only guy there. O_o

One more question though, I've read a couple post, and people saying how this is a console game made only for consoles and such... (/sigh) how are the controls on the PC version? Does everything flow together well. I'm guessing moving with WASD and moving camera around with mouse, attacking with... mouse buttons? Oh well, doesn't really matter, as long as everything flows together properly it'll be fine.

[Sychosis]

Keyboard controls suck big time. Grab a gamepad asap.

[Rashiid]

only ppl that quit are those that are too hasty w/ updates, they want sumthing new EVERY 2 SECONDS, when they cant learn to appreciate what they have infront of them.

[soolayah]

i never bothered buying a gamepad, and i don't have any problems with the keyboard controls; moving is wasd, and the arrows are for camera/strafing/attacking etc. you get used to it quickly.

[SuperRygar]

i would have to say get this game. the thing that sets it apart from FFXI and WoW is that you can dodge enemy attacks. i hate people who just straight-out attack, damn berserkers. and as far as hacking goes, the only thing that affects everyone is the people who can create meseta out of nothing. you can setup a shop and sell your items. these people come along and buy your stuff. then people starting selling stuff for 1,000,000. and the hackers buy it up like it was selling for 1 meseta. then everybody has tons of money and its your standard inflation overload. the only way it really affects me is if i search player shops for something and i cant afford because that person is selling for too high of a price. but, you sell something for a crazy high price you can afford it, so there are ways to balance it out. another hack is people getting items from the game by means of cheating. am i right in saying that? that doesnt affect anybody else. there is something else but its not a hack, its a glitch. someone will try to go to their room but instead get transfered to your room and can take your items out of storage. its never happened to me before tho. its just unfortunate that it happens at all. also your character and items are stored on the server and not your memory card, so you cant lose your inventory or get nuked and lose your experience and items cause you didnt save. that's the very best part! there is always a party you can join, always. sometimes the majority of people are in one area, but you find people who will party with you and help you level up and even give you some items to start out with. if you cant find anybody like that message me dont listen to peoples negative opinions about this game until you play it for yourself. if you liked PSO, you'l love PSU. the battling has gotten way way way more advanced. its no longer, weak-strong-strong, pause, weak-strong-strong, pause.....you have special abilities for each weapon. the guns no longer follow the 3-step rule, you can shoot non-stop! and even go first person mode and shoot. and being a force is different and kind of harder. i have been playing for several months, im at level 42 and still enjoying this game alot. i cant forget to mention that you can change your clothes and characters appearance! this game has everything PSO didnt. getting rare weapons is hard tho....