PSO Online - Advice Sought by Returning Player

[lozz]

Hi all,

Apologies to the admins in advance if I should be posting this elsewhere, or if my questions below are already answered in another post. Please do let me know if that's the case!

I played PSO (v.2) online between roughly 2005 and 2011, firstly in the dying days of the official servers, and then secondly on the servers hosted by the folks over at onlineconsoles.com (username: lozz). I'm returning after a long time away, and I was hoping someone might be so kind as to guide me through things a little, as things appear to have changed quite a bit, and I seem to have forgotten an awful lot too.

My set-up is as follows: a PAL Dreamcast with an official version of PSO v.2, and two characters that still seem to work on the original console I created them on. I have this connected to the internet using a DreamPi, configured using a copy of Dreamkey 3.0 as per the instructions given by the Dreamcast Junkyard, and it is running on a VGA monitor.

I tried connecting this evening for the first time using my secondary character, and to my amazement, it worked straight off the bat. I saw a message specifying that I was connected to the Dreamcast-Talk server, and I could see some players were in the middle of a quest.

My questions are:

I seemed to log on to the DC-Talk servers with ease using the default DreamPi setup. Is this the preferred way of connecting now, or should I be changing the configuration in any way in order to optimise the connection?

There appear to be four active 'ships' when I connect. Are all of these hosted by DC-Talk?

In order to get the best experience out of PSO, do I need to anything more than connect to the DC-talk servers, and check in the game scheduling section of the website to meet up with people? Is there anything new (since 2011!) that I should be aware of in terms of the online play?

The private servers I previously played on were closed to a small number of forum members, and there was a strict emphasis on 'legit' playing. I have never known anything else, and don't intend to play the game in any other way, although I have no gripes about others doing so if they wish. What are things like on the DC-Talk servers in this respect? Am I likely to be putting my characters at risk in any way (hacks, player killing etc.) by bringing them online on the DC-Talk servers?

Is my use of the official PSO disc ideal, or would it be better to use a burned/patched copy - I seem to remember hearing that this might be easier on my DC's optical drive?

Do those running the DC-Talk servers seek donations to help with their upkeep?

Answers to any of the above would be greatly appreciated.

Lozz

P.S. Thanks to all you wonderful people for keeping the Dreamcast online all these years. I couldn't believe how simple it was to hook up the DreamPi and hop online.

[DreamState]

Well I haven’t been on the “online scene” long but already I’ve encountered a few hiccups since joining. I got one of my players hacked into and destroyed down to level 1 by another member after offering me bad rares (Sylverant have now dealt with him I believe). Lucky I made a full backup. I also had my game crash mid game (probably down to my GDEmu) and this messed my game up losing all items that weren’t equipables. Other then that it’s been a blast so far, just make full up to date backups for everytime you play. Sylverant has been fantastic and I missed out on PSO as a kid so I’m definitely making up for lost time! Player name of GAZZAM, send me your guild next time your on ship!

[lozz]

Thanks for getting back to me on this DreamState.

So, it sounds like my characters could potentially be put at risk from hacking. You mentioned below that you make back-ups of your characters to help alleviate the risk of this - how do I go about doing that?

If anyone has any advice on whether I should be doing anything different to my current set-up (outlined in my initial post) in order to get the best playing experience, that would be welcomed.

[Gocha]

Is that Salvador Allende in your picture?

About your questions:
1.- is it the best way to connect? probably, the dreampi connects to Sylverant server, which is probably the biggest one to play on DC, I've heard some bad stories about other communities, but I've never been on them so I can say for sure. Inside the server there is a ship from DC-talk, the others are from sylverant
2.- are all ships from DC-talk? no, only one is from DC-talk, the other ones I'm not sure individually, but there is one that I think is from portugal and maybe 2 that are from the original server creator on Sylverant. You can check how many players are online on https://sylverant.net/, on the left bar there is a list of the ships, their status and number of connected players.
3.- how to schedule? is there anything new? People connect all the time, but saturday is the most active day with about 20 people online, the record I think is close to 40, but its usually at arround 18 and 25 players. You can also schedule in here or on the sylverant discord, they have a very active community in there. About new things, well, the game is not custom made, so there is no much new content, but Bluecrab (the admin of the server) creates online events from time to time, you can read more on the sylverant site.
4.- I played on legit servers, is this one safe for my char? I've been playing online for more than a year now and I've never seen anything weird on this community, but even if something goes wrong you can always msg Bluecrab, the guy is super close to the players and ready to help or ban if it is necesary. You can also back up your items on the server ussing a command while on the online lobby in case you lose connection and your items with it (loosing your items while disconecting was a safety feature implemented by sega to avoid item duplication). I would say is safe, but no place on earth is perfect, nor on Ragol.

Can I donate money to the server? yes, not very sure how, but on dreamcastlive.net I think you can donate to the main server of the community for all the games and on sylverant.net at the botom left corner there is a way to donate and become a patreon too. NO DONATION IS REQUIRED TO PLAY ON THE SERVERS, THEY ARE ALL FREE FOR ALL PLAYERS so no one should ask you for money to connect and if someone does ask the admins about it.

I hope this answers were what you were looking for, see you online soon.

[DreamState]

Thanks for getting back to me on this DreamState.

So, it sounds like my characters could potentially be put at risk from hacking. You mentioned below that you make back-ups of your characters to help alleviate the risk of this - how do I go about doing that?

If anyone has any advice on whether I should be doing anything different to my current set-up (outlined in my initial post) in order to get the best playing experience, that would be welcomed.

I use a physical Dreamcast with DreamPi, and make all my backups and copies of saves via Dreamshell and Dream Explorer. I play on a shared serial, so I’m unable to have server side backups as I’m not registered. The way I do it thought, I make it a habit now. You’ll have a blast so just don’t worry about anything going wrong as hopefully you’ll have several ways of reloading your game if anything goes wrong!

[hawkzer0]

Welcome back! As for your current setup, I would go get Aleron Ives repackaged cdis from pso palace. They are optimized to help the DC laser work less, have several bug fixes, autoconnect to the servers without the use of codebreaker, among other things.

Just make sure to use the non EP(enhancement pack) version if you want a more vanilla experience the way Sega intended.

The EP version reworks and rebalances some things (in ultimate mode) making it way harder when you first start ultimate mode along with making rares drop more frequently. It's more for people who are bored with the gameplay when they reach the later levels (130-150 ish onwards depending on class)

[lozz]

EDIT: One extra question (apologies, I have a lot!), is there any way that I can determine which SNAK I'm currently using? My PSO case has two sets in there - one which evidently came with the game, and then a second printed-out set, which I believe I got from SEGA back in the day. I highly suspect I'm using the latter, but I'm not certain. When I register with Sylverant I want to make sure I get it right.

hawkzer0, DreamState and Gocha, thanks, really appreciate you getting back to me on this.

Backing up characters isn't something I did back in the day, but it sounds like a no brainer now. I believe my SNAK details are exclusive to me (not shared) and so fingers crossed I should be able to register an account with Sylverant and use their cloud backup function. Am I right in thinking that I will be able to do this using an official PAL GD-ROM of PSO v.2, without any kind of patches applied, as long as I am connected to the Sylverant/DC-Talk servers? Also, do you happen to know if the instructions provided here (from 2017) are still correct? https://dreamcastlive.net/blogs/post/ho ... haracters/

If possible, I think I'll stick to using my official PAL GD-ROM for the time-being, and may consider switching to a patched version/CDI later on. The main benefit for me would be saving my poor DC's optical drive (which I can hear grinding away). As I'm PAL, I don't need to use codebreaker at present, and I don't really need to make use of Ultimate mode yet (my chars are below level 60).

Looking forward to seeing some people down on Ragol on Saturday.

Gocha - yes it's Allende, well spotted! I think the forum rules state no political talk, so I probably shouldn't say anything else,

[Nico0020]

Welcome to the scene, it's always great to have returning players.

I seemed to log on to the DC-Talk servers with ease using the default DreamPi setup. Is this the preferred way of connecting now, or should I be changing the configuration in any way in order to optimise the connection?

If you connected, there shouldn't be any problem. The only thing I can recommend is setting your router's MTU setting to 1400 if you see anything weird. For example if your game freezes or crashes loading a quest. This is not just a Sylverant thing, it's a PSO bug in dealing with modern internet speeds.

I would also recommend getting the most current download of the game instead of using the original GDrom. It has patches to fix some issues in the base game, with much faster loading.

There appear to be four active 'ships' when I connect. Are all of these hosted by DC-Talk?

The main PSO server/shipgate itself is not hosted by DCtalk . Only one of the ships/servers, VEGA, is hosted by Dreamcasttalk.
ISELIA is hosted by Bluecrab, the creator and manager of the server/project
ALTIMIRA is hosted by AleronIves, one of the main contributor to PSO server/quest projects since Schtahck was the only private server.
PALMACOSTA is hosted by the Brazilian Dreamcast community, I don't know much about this sever.

Each ship has a little bit of differences in what quests are available. ALTIMIRA has the best variety of new quests. These are high quality quests which have lots of secrets and allow you to get previously impossible to obtain items.

In order to get the best experience out of PSO, do I need to anything more than connect to the DC-talk servers, and check in the game scheduling section of the website to meet up with people? Is there anything new (since 2011!) that I should be aware of in terms of the online play?

Check out the new quests on ALTIMIRA. Spaceship/Palace are now playable in a quest {prospective horizons}. These stages were previously only playable in battle mode. There are also some onoine quests/download quests which were previously only available on Gamecube/xbox PSO that have been backported to Dreamcast. Whenever your complete quests now, the game will register points to your character that can be used in a new shop quest to upgrade your items.

You should also register your games serial to the Sylverant website. By doing so you can enable automatic serverside backup of your character in case anything ever happens to it. This will also allow you to take part in server events. There is one actually going on now. Find out how to register and get the even info on the servers main website.
https://sylverant.net/

There are lots of server commands you can find on the main website also, which allow you to do things like enable serverside drops, set room level min/max caps and other useful things.

The private servers I previously played on were closed to a small number of forum members, and there was a strict emphasis on 'legit' playing. I have never known anything else, and don't intend to play the game in any other way, although I have no gripes about others doing so if they wish. What are things like on the DC-Talk servers in this respect? Am I likely to be putting my characters at risk in any way (hacks, player killing etc.) by bringing them online on the DC-Talk servers?

Mostly everyone here plays legit, and those who don't generally don't bother anyone. I have never run into anyone trying to ruin people fun/game, save for some asshole who wanted to spout racist nazi shit. TBH it's a lot of effort to go through these days to get online with PSO just to mess with a few dozen people.

Is my use of the official PSO disc ideal, or would it be better to use a burned/patched copy - I seem to remember hearing that this might be easier on my DC's optical drive?

Download Aleron's CDI image and burn that. It loads faster and has bug fixes to improve your experience. If you need help finding it just PM me.

Do those running the DC-Talk servers seek donations to help with their upkeep?

No one is asking for money, but Dreamcasttalk and the Sylverant server both accept donations.
You don't need to feel obligated to give anything, just enjoy the server and have fun with everyone. If you have spare cash, its never a bad thing to donate.
DreamcastTalk: https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/ap ... ge/servers - donation button at the bottom of the page.
Sylverant PSO server patreon/dontations - https://sylverant.net/ - on the leftside of the page.

[lozz]

Thanks Nico0020, these answers are all really helpful.

The issue I'm struggling to get my head around is SNAKs and registration with Sylverant. As mentioned above, my PSO ver.2 case had two sets in there when I opened it up recently. One is the set that came with the game originally, the second set is printed off. I'm almost certain that I got the latter from Sega back in the day (when you could still contact them and get a new set upon buying a second hand game) and used these for my current chars. However, it was so long ago that I don't have proof of this. I suppose what I'm worried about is this line from their registration page: "By registering a serial number access key pair here, you are certifying that you actually own the corresponding copy of the game, and you agree that you will provide proof of ownership if it is requested by the administration of the server." Is the SNAK I'm currently using (which I recieved from Sega) likely to be accepted as legit?

Similarly, I'm uncertain about how you could play the game on a patched CDI, and yet still be registered with Sylverant, given their requirements for owning the original copy of the game and registering your SNAK. Do you just use the SNAK that you have from your official GD-ROM with the CDI?

If anyone can help explain this for me that would be hugely appreciated. I suppose I could also contact Sylverant about the first question directly.

[hawkzer0]

To figure out which snak is being used, just erase the DC's flash memory, then try to load your char. It will require you to renter the snak. You just have figure out which one will let you play with your char.

As for your other question, yes, once you figure out which snak works, register that one on the website and you can use that snak with the cdi copy.