[Free Play] Word Select Mod +DL - PSO-World.com Forums

LuneFox · 02:49 PM

Once again I bring my apologies for my poor English, for it's my second language.

Intro:
I think that everyone who played in Free Play knows the fact that Japanese players send their messages in both languages, while European and USA players send them just in English. I always wondered why it's happening, because "Word Select" feature is supposed to send the ID of a message that is locally translated to a player, like it was in PSO (Japanese see only japanese text, French see only french text, etc). After 3 days of researching the source of PSZ I managed to understand the system of messaging in the game. Actually the game always sends 128x48 bitmap images over network, even in Free Play mode. Free play just doesn't allow you to change fixed words (that are actually images with some text drawn on them). So I dediced to do some changes in fixed images.

Mod Description:
So, I made a patch (tested on European version of PSZ) that can change your Free Play shortcuts to another ones. I and DoctorShanks discussed what shortcuts for free play could be more useful than default ones and then I created them. Shortcuts' text is in both English and Japanese, illustrated with characters from old Phantasy Star games.
We replaced old words with more useful phrases like asking for clearing missed rooms, saying that you'll be right back, saying thanks for waiting, saying goodbye, saying "you're welcome" as an answer to "thanks" and so on.

The most important change is that you can invite other players to PSO-World so they can find you on forums and exchange Friend Codes with you! Now you won't lose each other after Free Play just by asking to meet each other on this site.

How to install:
As soon as some copyright policy rules don't allow me to share the modded ROM, I made a tiny patch that can be applied to your game and change all shortcuts. I included everything that you need into this archive:
Download (724 kb)
Note: This is NOT A ROM!

P.S. You will need a flashcart to play the modded game.
P.P.S. Do this only if you own a retail copy of the game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryna

Just as an update to this particular thread, linking to the modification will be allowed.

Last Update:
I have coloured the pictures with monochrome colors (used 3 different shades besides pure white and black) and redrew some elements on characters (diadems, eyes, mouth) so they look a little better. Also changed "You're good" to "You're welcome". So, here go Version 2 shortcuts:

We tested my mod with DoctorShanks and Gavin and it really works, so here you can see first results of our tests:

Spoiler!

If you found me this way, please post here. I want to know if this thing really helps us to find each other.

Version 1 (history):

Spoiler!

Thank you everyone for your support! :3
P.S. You can try applying this patch to JP and USA versions of the game (success not guaranteed: I wasn't testing it), and if it doesn't work, just tell me - I'll make few more patches for your versions.

DoctorShanks · 01:36 PM

I would really like to test this out. If you're available right now I'd like to meet you on FreePlay.

Just a suggestion: maybe you'd like to start out by saying Hello then Visit ... perhaps also a message leading them to the PSZ subforum? And you might want to keep the three essentials at the top (Hello, Congrats, Thank You!)

EDIT: I'm on matchmaker now, all checked except Normal and Hard.

EDIT2: DCed. Back on now.

LuneFox · 02:07 PM

There are only 3 of them on screenshot, but I made 19 phrases. And it's not hard to replace them. Just takes time to put it on the DS.

Alright, one moment.
The bad thing about Free Play is that you can't view the log.

Okay, I'm waiting in Free Play now.

Oh, lol, I have 1 image upside-down.

DoctorShanks · 02-13-2012, 02:05 PM

Thats OK, you can just say the messages twice if you need to. The bad thing is you don't know if they need you to do that or not :P

Perhaps now maybe a new suggestion would be to shorten the messages a bit? The last two seem too long in my opinion for a first time reader or for someone who's second language was english.

LuneFox · 02-13-2012, 02:13 PM

I just clicked them without waiting. They last longer usually. Yeah, the solution is to repeat 2 times.

DoctorShanks · 02-13-2012, 03:14 PM

Cool shortcuts. Except that upside-down one. Hehe. Also, what does the Japanese shortcut say?

Just a few suggestions as a Force, maybe you should wait until getting Lv15 Shifta before offering to use it. Also, at Makara you should try using Barta instead. I was using Grants because ofthe FOmarls 30% boost. Maybe a little down the line you could try mastering the art of Jellen and/or Zalure

LuneFox · 02-13-2012, 03:36 PM

Japanese one says "I can understand japanese a little, but [my] chat is in english only".

And yeah, I know about playing force. I had all shifta/deband/zalure/jellen on my pallete, but i was too lazy to change pallete and use debuffs.

DoctorShanks · 02-13-2012, 04:47 PM

Just as a personal request: I don't think excessive advertisements should be sent out. Keep in mind that we were in a party with two Japanese players, and I don't think they would understand non-simple english. What I'm saying is, try only sending out shoutouts and stuff to players that you only find with English names. Can't make ourselves look too silly :3.

Maybe instead, you could try something like, "if it interests you, please go to pso-world.com and look us/me up!" or whatever you have room for. Good work on this, it's really amazing that you are able to create these.

LuneFox · 02-13-2012, 04:52 PM

I've been thinking about the simplicity of shortcuts.
Maybe I should write them in both languages?
Or, maybe, I must use more images and less text? So that it would look more interesting.

This is a test version, you know. I'm missing some shortcuts like "grats" and "ok" but have some useless ones.

How do you think, what 19 shortcuts can be most useful?

DoctorShanks · 05:08 PM

-Hello! How are you today?
-Allright, let's go!
-Thank you! (picture)
-Congrats! (picture)
-OK!
-I'm sorry >_< (Picture?)
-One moment please, I'll be back in a minute or so.
-Okay, I'm back! Thanks for waiting.
-Good Job! (Picture)
-Maybe we should go back and finish the remaining rooms...
-(Same as above, except in Japanese if you can)
-ZOMG RAPPIEZ! (DURR PICTURZ)
-Be careful! (Picture?) (Rare or boosted enemy?)
-I'm sorry, but could you please not cheat? (Gun Glitchers, or Speed hackers; not much we can do about Dark Falz though unless you'd like to word it differently)
-Hahahahahaha! (Picture; there must be plenty out there)
-(Same Japanese message as before, unless you can get many messages in both English and Japanese)

Not quite 19, but you said in game you had some ideas.

EDIT: Forgot OK. Derp.