[Free Play] Word Select Mod +DL

[LuneFox]

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

Intro:
I think everyone who has played Free Play knows the fact that Japanese players send their messages in both languages, while European and US players send them in English only. I've always wondered why this happens, because the "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). I managed to understand the messaging system in the game after 3 days of researching the source of PSZ. Actually, the game always sends 128x48 bitmap images over the network, even in free play mode. Free play doesn't allow you to change the fixed words (which are actually images with some text drawn on them). So I decided to try to change some of the fixed images.

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

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

How to install:.
Since some copyright 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 the shortcuts. I included everything you need in 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.

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

Last Update:
I colored the pictures with monochrome colors (used 3 different shades besides pure white and black) and redrew some elements on the characters (tiaras, eyes, mouth) to make them look a little better. Also changed "You're good" to "You're welcome". So, here are the shortcuts for version 2:















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 all for your support! :3
P.S. You can try to apply this patch to JP and USA versions of the game (success not guaranteed: I haven't tested it), and if it doesn't work, just tell me - I'll make some more patches for your versions.

[DoctorShanks]

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]

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]

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]

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

[DoctorShanks]

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]

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]

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]

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]

-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.