PSO2JP: Balance changes and new features planned for November and December

A lenghty post containing planned balance changes appeared on the PSO2 Players Site. The complaints of more casual players, who feel that the game is to "heavy user oriented" are the reason of the changes listed below, together with the planned implementation time frames:

  • Request: Lower the experience requirements for levels 41+
  • Staff's comment: Requirements will be lowered. Measures for the experience points to not go to waste in case of already high level characters will be necessary.
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Lower the number of items required for unlocking the level cap
  • Staff's comment: Number of required items will be lowered.
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Increase the appearance rate of Rare Monsters
  • Staff's comment: The appearance rate of Rare Bosses and Monsters will be increased.
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Increase the drop rate of Rare Items in Very Hard Quests
  • Staff's comment: Drop rate of 7-9 star items will be increased. Additionally, since the appearance rate of Rare Enemies will be increased, the drop rate of 10 star items will be automatically increased as well.
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Increase the drop rate of Matter Board items
  • Staff's comment: A change making the drop rate certain about killing a set number of enemies will be introduced.
  • Implementation date: Middle of December
  • Request: Make Techers stronger
  • Staff's comment: Performance of Wands and Techer specific skills will be increased.
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Fix the strength of some of the 10 star weapons
  • Staff's comment: The strength of the following weapons will be fixed: ベルクヴェルカー Berkverger, ノイズブローヴァ Noise Blover, ヴァーダーカノン Vardha Canon, アンブラステッキ Umbra Stick, ヴァーダービット Vardha Beat, マジカルウォンド Magical Wand
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Increase the value of the Premium Set
  • Staff's comment: The following additions are planned for the Premium Set: Increase of the amount of FUN gained, Client Order limit raised to 40, increase of the number of the saved Symbol Arts, Premium Set exclusive Drinks at the Medical Center
  • Implementation date: FUN amount and CO limit increase are planned for the middle of December, but the other changes are planned for a later date
  • Request: Introduce a system allowing to block NPC summoning
  • Staff's comment: An new option allowing to block NPC summoning will be added to quest select options. All parties joining a room with the option set to ON will have it set automatically to ON as well (joining such rooms won't be possible while using the default random game option).
  • Implementation date: Middle of December
  • Request: Allow searching for parties doing the same quest on other blocks
  • Staff's comment: An option allowing to search for parties in other blocks will be introduced. After joining a party which is already doing a quest it will be possible to teleport immediately to the quest counter in that party's block.
  • Implementation date: Middle of December
  • Request: Allow turning off the display of team chat bubbles
  • Staff's comment: A display setting for chat bubbles will be added to options, allowing user to switch between "Show all chat bubbles", "Show only the chat bubbles of players in the same area" or "Don't show any chat bubbles"
  • Implementation date: Beginning of November
  • Request: Prevent players removed from the friend list from calling my friend partner
  • Staff's comment: Friend partners will not be showing on the list after a player is removed from the friend list.
  • Implementation date: Middle of December
  • Request: I want to be able to make a player stop auto following me
  • Staff's comment: Auto following system will be changed so that players will only be able to follow party members. An option to make other player stop following you will also be added.
  • Implementation date: Middle of December
  • Request: Make Time Attack Quests soloable
  • Staff's comment: A way to solo the Time Attack Quests will be introduced along with Client Orders for doing them alone.
  • Implementation date: Middle of December
  • Request: Allow us to download big game updates in parts beforehand
  • Staff's comment: It will be possible to optionally download the updates beforehand. A system allowing to play while downloading an update will also be introduced.
  • Implementation date: Middle of December

There's also one request that won't be fulfilled anytime soon, although a small change will be introduced:

  • Request: Introduce partial match search to My Shops
  • Staff's comment: Sadly, because of the burden that such search would have on the servers it's not possible to implement at the current time. Reducing the server load created by My Shop searches has the priority. To achieve that, a few new options will be introduced, starting with ability to check the market price of the item upon selecting it (change planned for the middle of December) which should reduce the number of search queries.

PSO2 JP: Patch (10/31/2012)

Phantasy Star Online 2 requires an update in order to continue playing the game. When you open the launcher, the game will automatically update both the game and launcher if necessary.

Launcher is Currently

  • Version 01.03.04

Client Update

Patch Size

  • 15MB

(If you are installing the game for the first time, you will have to download an update which requires 2.3GBs of free space.)

Patch notes

  • Added countermeasures to lighten the load during My Shop search.
  • Added countermeasures to prevent the use of cheating tools

PSO2 JP: Call of Mortality Update Part 2 (24/10/2012)

Today's update.

Halloween Lobby

The Halloween Lobby will be available from October 24th to November 21st.

Class and Weapon update

  • New Photon Arts: Partizan / Twin Daggers / Double Saber / Gunslash

  • New Technics: Ice / Light

New Very Hard Difficulty Quests:

  • Tundra (Arks Quest: Lv 42+ \ Free: Lv 43+)
  • Mines (Arks Quest: Lv 43+ \ Free: Lv 44+)
  • Flying Continent (Arks Quest: Lv 43+ \ Free: Lv 44+)

New Rare Enemies

Signoblue

Dal Maluri

Banther Oran and Banther Elena

These are just a portion of the rare enemies.

Limited Time Client Order

Shii, the new NPC distributing Client Orders will be available from October 24th to November 21st.

Shii's Client Orders:

事前調査と下準備を忘れずに!(Don't forget the prior investigation and spade work!)

  • Objective: Clear Free-Forest Exploration under 8 minutes
  • Notes: Grade doesn't matter
  • Prize: メセタ Meseta: 100 経験値 EXP:1200

メインディッシュの隠し味! (Seasoning of the Main Dish!)

  • Objective: Acquire 15 Agnis claws
  • Notes:Items drop rate is different for enemies on levels 1-20, 21-40 and 41+
  • Prize: メセタ Meseta: 200 経験値 EXP:2500

忘れちゃいけないデコレーション! (Decorations you can't forget!)

  • Objective: Acquire 10 Nodiran horns
  • Notes: Items will drop only if Nodiran's horn is destroyed
  • Prize: メセタ Meseta: 400 経験値 EXP:5000

ひときわ目立つシンボル! (Symbols that really stand out!)

  • Objective: Accquire 5 Hard Skin Gourds from El Arda
  • Notes: Killing blow must be delivered to the red core in the bottom part of El Ader
  • Prize: メセタ Meseta: 500 経験値 EXP:8000

不思議でステキな落とし物! (The mysterious and wonderful lost property!)

  • Objective: Acquire 3 Pointy Violet Hats from Latan Rappies
  • Notes:Items drop rate is different for enemies on levels 1-20, 21-40 and 41+
  • Prize: メセタ Meseta: 0 経験値 EXP:20000 and パンプキンロッド Pumpkin Rod

New Interrupt Events Client Orders

    New Client OrdersNew Daily OrdersNew Team Orders

New Items

ノイズブローヴァ Noise Blower (Double Saber)

ポラールハンド Polar Hand (Knuckles)

アヴェンジャー Avenger (Assault Rifle)

パンプキンロッド Pumpkin Rod

System Update

    The contents of "Kill a certain enemy type" interrupt ranking have been changed

Fashion Update

    New FUN and AC scratch items have been added. Details about those can be found here.