Index:
I. Signing up for the beta
I.01. What do you need to sign up for the beta?
I.02. How do I switch my account to the ISAO system?
I.03. How do I download the client?
I.04. I'm having trouble using the client downloader or I can't find my manual, can you help me?
I.05. How big is the client, and what are the system reqs?
I.06. How long does the beta last?
I.07. Will you need the original version of the game?
II. System Changes
II.01. Overview of new features.
II.02. Will I be able to use my characters from the original game?
II.03. What are some of the class changes? (4/20 Added mechguns for forces, and stats charts)
II.04. What are the 2 new classes? (4/20 Added descriptions)
II.05. How do you autorun?
II.06. How do looking for party flags work?
II.07. How do My Room away messages work?
II.08. How do the new weapons work? (4/20 Completely revamped and better descriptions)
II.09. How does the Casino work?
II.10. How was the death penalty changed? (4/20 Clarified)
II.11. How was the grinding system changed?
II.12. Do PAs over level 30 get new additions?
III. Content Changes
III.01. How about new items in shops?
III.02. New clothes? ( I still need to add PSO clothes )
III.03. New Hairstyles? ( I still need to add male )
III.04. Do class levels go over 10? (4/20 Clarified)
III.05. What new monsters are online? (4/20 Made more descriptive)
III.06. How is the My Room system changed? (4/20 Added information on item limit and interactive decos)
III.07. Why are you obsessed with green green farm boxes?
IV. Graphics changes
IV.01. Hows Shadow Mapping work?
IV.02. Is the text still distorted / hard to read?
IV.03. How do the new facial expressions work? (4/20 Clarified)
IV.04. How are rarity stars handled now?
IV.05. How are new items to shops handled?
IV.06. How can you tell what is illumines stuff?
IV.07. How does Skill color coding work? (4/20 NEW!!)
1. What do you need to sign up for the beta?
The only thing you truly need is a japanese copy of the game for PS2 or PC. But in order to qualify, you need to have your account switched to the ISAO system. But your account does not need to be paid for.
2. How do I switch my account to the ISAO system?
First, go to the Isao login page, here:
https://ipas.isao.net/signup_psu/psu/login.htm
You will need your segalink id and password, which is what you used when you first signed up for PSU. After entering, you will be asked to accept the EULA and other agreements. And asked to input your personal information. Name needs to be in kanji (or atleast kana). And the address needs to be in the form of a japanese address (like the example *wink wink nudge nudge*)
3. How do I download the client?
http://illuminus-trial.phantasystaru.../download.html
Big blue button in the middle of the page. You then use the first 12 numbers in your cd-key (back of your manual) without hyphens as your username, and last 4 as your password.
4. I'm having trouble using the client downloader or I can't find my manual, can you help me?
Step 1: Log into the Isao system:
https://ipas.isao.net/signup_psu/psu/login.htm
Step 2: Find your cd-key
On the isao website, after loging in, the page it brings you to (if you have correctly switched to the isao system), displays your name, whether your account is active, your cd-key, and the date you signed up.
The cd-key will be in the form:
1234-5678-9012-3456-7890
The information you will use is:
Username: 123456789012
Pass: 7890
Step 3: Download the client
If the downloader isn't working for you, you can follow a direct link, using your username and password from above:
http://dl.segaonline.jp/illuminus_setup.exe
5. How big is the client, and what are the system reqs?
The initial client download is 833MB. You will need atleast an additional 1GB (1.5GB to be safe), on top of your PSU install if you have PSU installed.
System reqs are the same as PSUs. If you can run PSU, you can run Illumines. The system reqs can be found here:
http://illuminus-trial.phantasystaru...tart/spec.html
Or you can use PSU's system reqs, found in english here:
http://phantasystaruniverse.com/support_sysreq.php
6. How long does the beta last?
It will start after the April 5th scheduled maintenance. This is from JST (GMT+9) 9:00am - 6:00pm. Thats from EST (GMT-5) (+1 for DST) April 4th, 8:00pm - April 5th 5:00am. And will end after the maintenance on April 26th.
7. Will you need the original version of the game?
A lot of the content appears to be from the original version of the game, I would suspect you would. For the beta, you do not need the original version installed (though you need to own it).
1. What are some of the new features?
System:
- Autorun
- Looking for Party Flags
- Class level visible above head
- My room Away Messages
- Trap prices lowered
- My room system complete revamp
- Casino
- Death penalty changed
- Grinding system change
- Classes rebalanced
- Weapon speeds rebalanced
Graphics Changes:
- Shadow mapping
- Color coded star levels
- Facial expressions on actual avatars
- Camera position calculation changed (sticks to walls better)
- Color coded skill effects
Content:
- New areas and monsters
- More clothes and hairstyles
- 4 new weapon classes
- A-rank weapons from other manufaturers
- 2 new classes
2. Will I be able to use my characters from the original game?
There is a selector that selects which world you want to pull data from. The data is copied from the original servers as of 3/29. Its important to note taht they are copies, and that what happens in the beta stays in the beta.
After the beta, World 1 and World 2 of the japanese server will be combined into a single server. Once Illumines is released, you will be able to use your old character, but only people will illumines will be able to access illumines content (which is color coded in yellow).
3. What are some of the class changes?
- Hunters get B-rank Shadoogs (mags) and single claws
- Rangers get B-rank Shadoogs (mags) and gernade launchers
- Forces get B-rank Madoogs (mags) and mechguns.
Figunner:
A-rank Slicer and Shadoog
Level 40 skills, level 30 bullets
Guntecher:
A-rank whips, slicers, and Madoogs and S-rank Long bows
Level 10 skills, level 40 bullets, level 20 attack techs, level 30 support techs
Wartecher:
A-rank whips, and Madoogs, and S-rank wands
level 30 skills, level 20 bullets, level 30 attack techs, level 20 support techs
Fortefighter:
Level 40 Skills, level 20 bullets.
Fortegunner:
A-rank Shadoog
Level 20 Skills, level 40 bullets.
Fortecher:
Level 10 Skills, level 30 bullets, level 40 attack techs, level 40 support techs.
Protranser:
S-rank of all previously usable weapons
Level 40 skills, level 40 bullets
AoI Class level 10 modifiers:
AoI Class level 10 modifiers sorted and compared to old modifiers:
(old modifiers in red)
4. What are the 2 new classes?
(no prereqs for either right now, and both of them level like basic classes. Nobody thinks it will stay this way in the final version)
Acrofighter:
S-ranks - twin sabers, saber, dagger, claw, slicer, handgun, shadoog
A-ranks - twin handgun, card
Level 40 Skills, Level 30 bullets
20% faster with twin sabers
Description: Acrofighter plays much like a figunner. The class is based on swift melee combat complemented by shadoogs. The class has similar stats to figunner aswell, except for an increase amount of evade and defence at the sacrafice of weapon selection.
Acrotecher:
S-rank - Twin dagger, saber, dagger, whip, handgun, card, madoog
A-rank - twin handgun, wand
Level 20 skills, level 30 bullets, level 30 attack techs, Level 50 support techs.
20% faster with twin daggers
Description: Acrotechers are primarily a tech based class, that can be complemented by single handed melee ability. They achieve this through the use of Madoogs. While not built to rely on melee, even as a beast or cast, the class tries to balance damage potential through techs and swiftness with melee weapons. It also boasts the best support ability, though focusing only on support is cutting an acrotechers abilities short.
5. How do you autorun?
On controllers you press left, on keyboards you press r. You just run straight, endlessly till you press the button again. You can also press down or up to cycle targeting the players in party. And then press left to autro run towards that player. This causes a green line to show up connecting you to the other player.
6. How do looking for party flags work?
One of the "above head" views that you can switch through has a Looking for Party section. In this you can have a variety of things, such as actively looking for party, solo player, not looking for party, etc.
7. How do My Room away messages work?
You can set a message for your PM to say as people enter your room. This is done at your PM. Theres two options for this, I think one might be a "Thank you for shopping" style message. More info later.
8. How do the new weapons work?
Shadoogs - Shadoogs are basically like autofire mechguns. They have no PP and just fire at will when monsters are in front of you and within range. They also have the chance of dealing level 4 status effects, most of which are of better type than can be achieved using guns (such as stun, sleep, and down).
Madoogs - Madoogs are basically off-hand wands. They have about the same TP as a youmei wand, but have roughly half the PP. They regen slower than wands aswell. This makes it so you can't rely on them for support unless there is other support in party. They don't replace wands, but allow you to supplement your offensive ability while in melee range.
Whips - Whips are the most unique weapon in AoI. They function as status effect dealing melee weapons. they have a very large AoE. It has a very fluid movement, but its hard to tell how far it hits and takes some getting used to. Overall, its speed and damage aren't very great, but it can hit a very large number of enemies and its current PA is very effective crowd control. The normal combo is 4 hits, the first 2 coming out slow and wide, while the second 2 come out fast and deep. The PA consists of 4 hits on the first combo, and 3 hits on the second. The second combo has a small pause after the first hit but before the last 2 hits make it have an akward speed. The last hit has knockback.
Slicers - Slicers function similarly to slicers in PSO, but can better be described as melee lasers. They are melee weapons and deal melee damage. You can lock onto what ever is in front of you and the cutters may make what appears to be small curve but is overall still straight. The actual range they can lock on is rather large, but the standard combo for them has a very long traveling distance that can easily make you lose your lock on (especially against flying targets). The normal combo is 3 hits. The PA is 1 large boomerang for the first combo, 2 large boomerangs for the second combo. These boomerangs have increase range and AoE, but take a long time to come out. You also have a sort of lock on effect while charging them, which can make it extraordinarily hard to aim.
9. How does the Casino work?
Each day you are given 100 Bronze to play with. I would expect the actual release amount will be lower.
Theres 3 main things to do in the casino. The first is Roulette, which you're bombarded with as soon as you enter the room. The entire floor is a gigantic Roulette board. The games start when outer circle slowly starts becoming highlighted. During this time you can place your bets by standing on the spaces you wish to be and selected them. After its fully highlight the game begins, betting is disabled, and the wheel spins. You win multiples of bronze based on the rarity of your bet spaces.
2nd, you can do slot machines. You press use to add coins, then press alt attack to pull the lever. You win by getting 3 in a row. Amounts are shown on the left hand side of the screen.
3rd, you can spend your bronze on items.
10. How was the death penalty changed?
If someone dies in party and is revived, then it does not get counted against the death penalty. This means theres only 2 situations where you can lose rank based on death.
- You die and respawn to town
- An NPC dies
11. How was the grinding system changed?
The grind rate was lowered significantly, but the weapon is no longer destroyed when you fail a grind. This doesn't necessarily increase the number of highly grinded weapons because of the lower rate.
12. Do PAs over level 30 get new additions?
Skills do not get any added combos to them, but do get increased damage.
Bullets do not get any added bullets to them, but get increases ATA, ATP, and elemental %s.
Techs do get larger effect areas, and increased damage, and new graphical effects.
1. How about new items in shops?
60mes for normal, 350mes for G - Freeze, Confuse, Sleep, Shock, Silence
70mes for normal, 400mes for G - Poison
75mes for normal, 450mes for G, 500mes for EX - Burn
80mes for normal, 500mes for G - Virus
9star armor and weapons
GRM:
SUV - Gigas Espado
7* dagger / twin dagger
Through 6* long bow
Through 6* Rod
7* Wand
7* gernade
7* card
Youmei:
7* Fist
7* Axe
7* Slicer
7* Rifle
7* Laser
7* Handgun
Tenora:
7* Handgun
7* Mechgun
7* Sword
7* Whip (Says C-rank in store, A-rank in menu)
2. New clothes?
Female 1 ( Colors )
Female 2 ( Colors )
Male 1 ( Colors )
Male 2 ( Colors )
Cast Female
Cast Male
Both female (one piece) ( Colors )
Both Male(one piece) ( Colors )
3. New Hairstyles?
The new hairstyles fit into a basic system. You have a "front" of hair, and a "back" of hair. Then they are combined together in different ways. I will get male hairstyles up later, but for now:
Female Front
Female Back
There is also a new system for choosing hair styles, that allows you to chose the hair style first, then the accessory, so you don't need to flip through the 250-ish choices. Keep in mind though, this does not ADD any previously unattainable combinations, its only a way of organizing what was already there.
4. Do class levels go over 10?
The beta's current cap is 20. But, due to a bug, it was found that the actual cap is 30.
5. What new monsters are online?
There are 2 reskins of Gaozoran in Rozenom (on parum).
Grass assassins as well as a variation of Kamatouze are mini bosses in the Rozenom area.
There are 2 variations of Vanda in the De Rol Le mission.
De Rol Le is a boss on Moatoob.
There are ice variations of most moatoob monsters in the ice cave on moatoob.
Booma, Gigobooma, and a variation of Rappy make an appearance in PSO Forest.
There are 2 new monsters and a reskin of Gaozoran in the Neudaiz Shrine level.
A variation of De Ragnus is a boss on Neudaiz.
6. How is the My Room system changed?
There are new reform tickets available from the store. After using one of these, you get an episode 2 style room. These don't have the little boxes on the ground, and you can turn what is called the "room grid" on and off through your PM. When the room grid is on, you may add and remove my room items. Items are 2x2 blocks on the grid, and theres even grid on the walls, shelves, and even on some of the room items you put in (you can put more items onto a table or shelf you buy). You have a limit to the number of spaces you can use up in the room and each My room item you place takes up a certain number of this limit. Once you reach the limit, even if you have empty spaces on the grid, you may no longer add to your room.
Grid Examples:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...inesRoom01.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...inesRoom02.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...inesRoom03.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...inesRoom04.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...inesRoom05.jpg
There are also interactive my room items such as the infamous fan and the bell series, including chairs and seating that you can place in your room.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...inesRoom06.jpg
7. Why are you obsessed with green green farm boxes?
Because they are AWESOME. No seriously. Heres the low down on them:
They are a my room item. You can plant them in somebodies room, then add one item and a message to them. Then the owner of the room may open them like a present. So they are a sort of way to leave gifts. A mailbox of sorts. Its something thats probably largely overlooked, but a very good addition to PSU.
1. Hows Shadow Mapping work?
In the options menu, you can choose between having shadown mapping for you, your party, or enemies (which I assume includes your party). This is a real time shadow, that is actually in the form of your body. Runs with you, bends over walls, etc. It adds a nice little touch.
Shadow map set to self:
2. Is the text still distorted / hard to read?
Yes, but its far easier to read. They're using a new filter on it that makes everything look crisper and easier to read.
3. How do the new facial expressions work?
The facial expressions are a reskinning of the actual in game face of your character to immitate the cut in chats. Every emote in the game has a default expression associated with it, and this can be further changed by hard coding the emotes. For example, alt+1 has a wide smile emote (@7 I think). But you can change this by typing out "/alt1@4" or something to that nature. You need to have some text after it so you say something, or else the emote won't work. Also, while in a mission, the @ commands will not actually change your facial expresion.
4. How are rarity stars handled now?
The stars are actually smaller and color coded. The first 3 will always be dark blue, the next 3 will always be light blue, the next 3 green, etc. This makes it easier to read how many stars it is by just glancing, and it also makes most of the on screen windows smaller, since the actual stars are smaller.
5. How are new items to shops handled?
New items in shops have flashing yellow exclamation points next to them. This makes it easy to distinguish if something is new. Especially in situations where the new items are mixed in with old ones.
6. How can you tell what is illumines stuff?
All illumines content appears is yellow text. It is assumed that in the final version of the game, people who own the illumines version will have yellow names, and those who have not will have white names. And only those who have illumines (yellow names) can access illumines areas (yellow areas).
7. How does Skill color coding work?
Every time a skill breaks into the next teir up, it gains a new color. These folow the same color patterns as PSO weapons. Lvl 1 through 10 have green, 11 through 20 have blue, etc.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ge00001556.jpg
----- Questions about things Unique to the Beta -----
1. Is there an offline mode?
There is an offline mode, but you are unable to select it, and the content for it is not in the client downloaded.
2. Are PAs expected to be different in the beta?
The new weapons level at crazy speeds, the new classes aswell. This is most likely only because they want people to try out these new things.
Also, in the beta, it doesn't appear to have skill caps on. That means a guntecher can spam level 30 skills if they so choose. And all classes can just continuously level PAs. Not that PAs level that fast.
3. Whats this about you having free warps?
The warp ladies right now are giving free warps to the lobbies. Supposedly, in interviews, it was said that these will eventually cost money. But for now, you don't even need a friend in the lobby, you can warp there for free from the lady.
4. The beta is PC only, but is Illumines expected to be for other systems?
All of the advertisements say PC / PS2 / X360. Its assumed it will be for all 3.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Itsuki-chan on 2007-04-20 01:18 ]</font>
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At the very least, I plan on taking screenshots of every piece of clothing released in several angles at very high res for the fashion thread.
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