Returning to PSO online with BBA...

[DCUltrapro]

Hi gang, been a while since I played PSO online on the Dreamcast using my BBA, I used it about 3 years ago, I had set it up using the XDP browser and sylverant servers etc but was just wondering if, given the amount of time which has past since last time I used it, things had potentially changed in the setup?

Before I get raged at, I have read through the guides etc and the parts I'm concerned about are the bits which mention having to use a PC with a Static IP, I don't remember ever having to do that previously.

I'll give my DC with the BBA a try on PSOv2 when I get home and see how it goes but I might need a few pointers, hope that's ok? Thanks in advance... apologies if this has been raised in the wrong place or if its something I shouldn't be posting at all, just trying to remember how it all works and I got quite lost reading back over the guides

[Kobra Kai]

Plug and play with PSO
Should be good to go.
Patcher disc isny needed either for me in the UK.

After watching star wars
Revenge of the sith.

Im amazed of how much PSO resembles some of this movies back drops.

And this film was released many years later.

Did star wars copy PSO level design

[DCUltrapro]

*Not sure whether serious or taking the mick*

Haha! Revenge Of the Sith... Serious question?

Hmm... ok well I will definitely give it a go but I know from experience that it required tweaking to allow PSOv2 PAL to use the BBA and point to the Sylverant server rather than the sega servers, but when I set it up I didn't use any of the bits about a static IP or a patcher disc... hence why I was curious to see if anything had changed

I'll give it another whirl tonight and see what I'm dealing with, it might be it just goes straight on

[BlueCrab]

To connect to Sylverant, there's three things you can do with a European copy of PSOv2 (or a European or US PSOv1):
1. Use the Sylverant PSO Patcher disc as a boot disc before playing the game. This has the benefit of being able to patch a couple of bugs and other things like that in the game as well (like making it so that you can actually use quests with certain map sets in Ultimate difficulty). If you don't mind burning a CD-R and using it to boot the game every time (you just swap with your PSO GD-ROM when it tells you to), then I'd recommend this method.

2. Use the "DNS Trick" to connect to the game. By setting your Dreamcast's DNS server to either the Sylverant IP Address (138.197.20.130) or another DNS server that does the same thing, you can connect to the game with a completely normal copy of PSO. This only works with certain versions (EU v1/v2 and US v1). This, of course, doesn't apply any of the patches that the PSO Patcher disc does, which is one disadvantage.

3. Use a CodeBreaker with codes to redirect the server. I'd highly recommend not doing this, as the game may prevent you from finding any rare drops if you take this approach. You'll also have to put in big old lists of codes that are annoying to type in, so yeah...

In any of the above cases, you still have to set up your BBA's network settings properly, of course.

[DCUltrapro]

Awesome thanks for that! I believe I previously went via number 2, the "DNS Trick" when I was playing before. I believe the BBA has been setup and that should still be the case (Unless I have unknowingly moved it to another DC which it was not setup on) but I am keen to try the PSO PAtcher Disc as an alternative as I'd rather load a different disc first and have the benefits of patch fixes to the game/server code than not. I assume I can find out how to get the Patcher Disc Image from the guides? Now to find out whether I still have CDR discs floating around somewhere lol

Will let you know how I get on!

[BlueCrab]

You can either get the patcher disc from Ives' site, or from the downloads link on the Sylverant website. Some people have better luck with Ives' image than mine (I think he calls it something like "BlueCrab's PSO Loader 2.0" on his site), so you might want to try his first.

[DCUltrapro]

Lol ok cool, thanks again mate. Will see how I get on. Does it matter what kind of CD I use? I assume it has to be CDR right? God all of this stuff is taking me way back in time to my days burning Dreamcast Discs for all the homebrew stuff I used to have, good times

OK So I've just tried PSO v2 (PAL) on my Dreamcast (PAL) with the PSO Patcher from Sylverant which I had apparently already burnt/tried, however it didn't seem to work, tried it twice and both times it complained I couldn't be connected.

IS this because I previously setup my BBA using the xdp browser or dreamshell browser to use a specific IP and that IP is now maybe defunct? Or is it an issue with the pso patcher image I have? The disc loaded saying 1.1.

Thanks in advance guys

[BlueCrab]

If it's complaining that it can't connect, it's entirely possible that you set up your ISP settings to point to the old Sylverant IP address for the DNS, which will not work anymore.

That said, I would recommend either using 2.0 of the patcher or just using the DNS trick as there are some bugs with 1.1 that break some things in the game (like battle mode).

[DCUltrapro]

Sounds good, thanks mate. I've been trying to find the instructions on dctalk, looking in the guides and the how to get online with pso but am coming up empty unless I'm misreading/misunderstanding, is it the section that mentions Dr dns and needing a static op pc or is it another section? Or failing that, is there a link to patcher 2.0? Apologies if I I am just being plain blind lol

[Aleron Ives]

Set DNS 1 to 138.197.20.130 if you want to use the redirect method, or get v2.0 of the boot disc here: http://psopalace.sylverant.net/download ... er_2-0.zip