Month: June 2012

27 Hour Maintenance Continues!

Now that the servers are down and half the people have left, lets talk about some juicy stuff.

 

What's coming up in Phantasy Star Online 2?

At this point, we still do not have an official release date for the game, but Famitsu Connect!On talked about some of the things coming up in the July update.

A new field on Planet Naberius called the Tundra.

• King Yedi and Yedi
• Snow Banshee and Bantha
• De Malmoth and Malmoth.

 

Tranmizer the Transforming Mech.

A new field on the Planet Lillipa called the Underground Tunnels (or mines)

• シグノビート Signobeat
• ガーディナン Gardinan
• トランマイザー Tranmizer (transformable)
• ビッグヴァーダー Big Vader (Boss) (transformable)*

*Pronounced Va as in "Vanilla"

 

Upcoming Costumes in July

Jean (Voiced By: Yousuke Akimoto)

Heavy Scudo (ヴィスクード) or Jean's Outfit

 

Furie (Voiced by:  Hisako Kanemoto)

Rank Series  (ランクスシリーズ) or Furie's Outfit

 

Aki (Voiced by: Kumiko Watanabe)

Tiger Pierce (タイガーピアス) or Aki's Outfit

And if you really wanted to know, everyone's favorite character, Lisa, is voiced by Kana Hanazawa.

[via shougai]

The Start Guide Book's Item

If you managed to purchase the Phantasy Star Online 2 Start Guide Book, there was an item code for the Gur Bazka/Nacht, a slightly modified version of Phantasy Star Universe's Gur Bazga launcher.

• Name: Gur Bazka/Nacht
• Category: Launcher
• Range Power: 141
• Rarity: 7 Star
• Ability: EXP Boost I

In the Start Guide, Sakai comments about item drop elemental percentages. Items will drop with up to 30% of an element, if you want to go beyond that, you'll have to use the Item Lab to grind it.

[via shougai]

Phantasy Star Online 2 Premium Package

On September 13th, the premium package set for PSO2 will be released.

Premium Package Set includes:

• Game Install Disc DVD
• Five Original Weapons (Item Codes)
• 30 Day Premium Set (Item Code)
• FUN 1000 Ticket (Item Code)
• Mag Evolution Device (Item Code)
• Color Change Item (Item Code)
• 5x Scape Doll (Item Code)
• Boost Type Item Set (Item Code)

It will cost 6279 Yen or $80 but you can get a discount if you order it from Ami Ami.

Hideaki Kobayashi

Hideak Kobayashi

Kobayashi, the music composer for PSO2, will be speaking at this year's Computer Entertainment Development Conference. He will discuss the concepts and techniques behind the procedural background music system, "Sympathy." During the lecture, he will also perform a live demonstration and compare it to the previous music system of PSO1.

(The complexity of PSO2's music is rather interesting since it's not just a set of 2 tracks with points of transitions. Note the music that plays during PSE Burst, when you are near death, the arks lobby, the title screen and how everything tries to seamlessly flow into each other.)

We've been flourishing in numbers since the Open Beta started; through the many people who registered for a SEGA ID, and through breaking previously held simultaneous connection records. However, as the number of players increased, numerous problems seemed to occur.

Typically during peak times, players have noted delays in picking up items, or even damage numbers showing up late. The cause of this problem is a bit different from previous tests, it seems the delays stem from the writing of data to the database. With this many people connecting, accessing the database becomes extremely excessive, and an online game must be equipped to handle a large increase in players.

Therefore, Sakai plans to make some adjustments to the database server to help reduce lag while playing the game. An extended maintenance will be carried out from June 28th, until June 29th for about 27 hours!

Special Maintenance:

• THU June 28th @ 11:00 AM ~ FRI June 29th @ 02:00 PM JST
• WED June 27th @ 10:00 PM ~ FRI June 29th @ 01:00 AM EST
• Other Time Zones

PSUBlog Status Report

The same situation occurring on PSO2 is happening here on the blog. I've never expected this many people to access the site. I do thank you all for visiting and recommending the site to your friends and communities. I do take note of feedback from other sites, especially, "Bumped doesn't have 'this', or doesn't explain 'that' very well in the guide." After such feedback, I try to add it into the guide as quick as possible, but unfortunately, Bumped.org is run by one person, and there's really no way I can answer all of your questions. I'm sorry for not making some things clear and I will continue to adjust things around based on feedback. If you notice any discrepancies or mistakes, the best thing to do is let me know so that I can correct it.

As you may note, the site will suddenly spout out "Internal Server Error," with this many people connecting at the same time. It leaves me to a cross roads in deciding whether if I should:

• Move the site to another host (but the same problems may occur.)
• Do nothing and wait until the game's popularity dies down.
• Move the site to a dedicated server. (Expensive)

With the situation coming up in September which we'll discuss later, I will also need:

• Volunteers to write Maintenance Reports on the Blog.
• Volunteers to write articles and keep track of the International version of PSO2 if it happens.
• Volunteers to translate or contribute to the translation of articles from Sakai's blog.
• Volunteers to edit content on the site.
• Experts in hosting advice and backend.

Depending on what happens in September and January, I may have less time to cover the site than normal. Even if you don't know Japanese, you can still help contribute to the articles on the site.

You can email me at admin@bumped.org if you'd like to help in contributing.