New Disc

Well there's plenty of reasons not to use a legit copy of PSO DC these days as there are lots of fixes that could be made to the game. While I know Proxen has been working on one, I thought I'd start this topic to list all the things that we probably want to be added/changed.

• Fast load. This is probably the most obvious.
  
• Partial saves -> full saves. Instead of saving only your equipped items and bank when playing online, checkpoints should save everything if they are going to save at all to prevent item loss when you get FSOD. Some of the checkpoints could probably be removed to speed the game up a bit.
  
• Resist mod?
  
• Direct connection to Schthack's server, no need for CB codes or DNS programs. Sega's server is gone, there's no reason for the game to still connect to them by default.
  
• Support for Proxen's modified coder's cable to allow connecting the DC's data port to USB on a computer. This is supposed to let you leech broadband from your PC without setting up a PC/DC server or buying a BBA.
  
• No HL check. Since USv2 is still held hostage by Sega, this needs to be removed so the game will still work after their servers close.
  

Class starts in a minute, post anything I've forgotten.

as long as the fast load does not create fsod's like echelons did

i want:

new area skins
new music
new character skins
new title screen
new lobby skins

This sounds very cool, to play once in a while maybe, cause reading CDs kills faster thee GD room drive.

@ ducky

This topic is not about adding things to the game, this is about fixing bugs and making the original game run better. Adding new areas like Episode 2 is something entirely different.

@ Treamcaster

CD-Rs do not kill your Dreamcast. This is a lie propogated by people who don't want you to use illegal games on your DC. Since the DC is the only console capable of playing pirated games out of the box, the myth took off as a way to make people use legit games instead of backups.

Your DC will actually die faster using a legit PSOv2 than a hacked one, as fastload significantly decreases the wear and tear on the GD-ROM drive as well as speeding up load times.

OMFG! If that is really true, hellz yeah!! Are you really sure, how did you get that information?
If that's so, then I will be very happy to get my hands on this project!! Who's releasing it btw, you or Proxen? I heard he was into a revolutionary project, I wonder if it will feature new skins, for both characters and levels... (night forest, woot!) maybe I am just dreaming

Must... have... faster... loadtimes! BTW, anyone that IS using a CDR of PSO, are they having any bug issues that have arisen from a faster load time?

I had that myth sqashed by Tweeg who you may have played with before, he's an old friend from the Sega DC servers of mine and he's into the whole homebrew DC scene. He's registered here but I'll see if I can get him to post to confirm.

About fastload--

Remember that fastload works 100% correctly in a legit version of PSO- PSO Ver.1. To my knowledge, fastload Ver.2 is basically the idea of making Ver.2 load the same way Ver.1 does. (It isn't possible to get any faster than this, is it?) The reason the Echelon version has FSODs and such is because he did it wrong. If you do it right, it should be the same as playing Ver.1. Quieter, easier on the lense mechanism, and of course faster.

Interesting =)
I saw his website, and felt some kind of nostalgic creep

I'm in a few of his screenshots in those massive archives he has, hehe.

so what was the last word on Proxen with this disk anyways. What has he said he has done, if anything for it so far?

I have no idea. He's yet to say what's been completed, he just says he's been fixing bugs.

Lol, yeah. I tried asking him a while ago and as fas as I can tell, there's a lot of mystery goin around this.
Hope it's something big, and hopefully being realeased soon

There is no hard evidence to back up the myth that playing CD-R's will cause your Dreamcast's laser to wear out quicker.

It was a rather successful scare tactic started, most likely by Sega, to discourage piracy. And I myself and many other people I have known were perfectly aware of this and as loyalists we supported the myth by putting the fear of the Lords into any one that even dropped a hint at piracy. Since there is no longer any need to continue defending the myth I don't mind admitting to this.

Don't take this as a nod towards pirating from me, I am still very much against it. If you do own a legit copy of a game though, then I don't see any problem with owning a "back-up" copy of it. And to me this project qualifies as a form of a back-up, a very useful back-up.

The only thing that caused your DC laser to ware our faster was using CD-RW's. this was because to be able to use them you had to increase the laser strength as CD-RWs are much duller than CD-Rs. This is what caused problems. CD-Rs do not cause problems at all. I've been apart of the DC homebrew scene for years, so my DC has seen ALOT of CD-Rs and no problems thus far.

and about proxen, I would love to see something of this released. But I gave up on that disk ever coming out. equivalent of vapor ware. Just seemed to follow the same trend of "when its done" projects on the net.

Hey Aleron, would you be able to make it yourself? I mean the topics you've pointed up in the first post?
Like Nico said, I am not sure anymore if we gonna see any soon release form Proxen... I may be wrong I wish!

I wish, but I'm not a hacker. I haven't the foggiest idea how to make a selfboot PSO at all, let alone modify it to work better than a normal one.

I understand. Hope he didn't give up on this project.
In addition to the things you reffered, back on the 1st post I would also like to see:

(however not as important as the other aspects)
-Night Forest, or other level mods
-Chars costumes
-Changed tracks

Well those types of things are preferential. Personally, I do not want new music (I love PSO's music) and I don't want skins (PSO looks fine the way it is, and I don't want to give up the normal Forest for a different one). IMO the only purpose for skins is if we can find a way to add them to the game on the side without replacing anything, and then call new skins for use in quests.

For people who want to use the various skins produced by the community, we need some sort of "auto-burn patcher" type application which would allow you to apply the skins you want to the raw game files, and then click "Create image" to make a new .CDI with the appropriate modifications, or something like that.

I agree with you, its preferential. I also enjoy the original themes, however having a side backup project with revanped stuff would be nice for sometimes.

what was the last thing that proxen said was going on with this?

Currently he's setting up his FTP server which will be used to host all the projects he's created. Different users will have access to different levels of data, i.e. the drop data will not be accessible to the general public since people would start making everything drop Double Cannons if they knew how it all worked.

He had two versions of the fast loading disc finished. One had the resistance mod and the other did not. He however is redoing them since he has learned a lot more in order to improve them. So again we wait I am sure upon leaving the project he would release what he had and pass on the torch.

Kudos to Proxen for doing all this, from what I hear this guy knows the game inside out. It looks like the HL server is finally down, so those of us who are using anything but EU v2 will be kissing his feet once this is released.

auth01.dricas.com <-usa auth server (I take it this went down a long time ago)
pso01.dricas.ne.jp <-JPN auth server (Is this the one that just went down?)

When I checked pso eu v2 auths to a servers which is equally vunerable to be taken down which means that all versions of DC will be offline eventually:

I thought it was one of these 2 but it seems they do not accept connections;
master.pso.dream-key.com
pso.dream-key.com

Domain Name: DREAM-KEY.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
Name Server: NS-1.PLAYSEGA.COM
Name Server: NS-2.PLAYSEGA.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 22-apr-2007
Creation Date: 21-jun-1999
Expiration Date: 21-jun-2009

When I checked the dricas servers both where still up O_o

Domain Information: [ドメイン情報]
a. [ドメイン名] DRICAS.NE.JP
b. [ねっとわーくさーびすめい] どりーむきゃすと
c. [ネットワークサービス名] Dreamcast
d. [Network Service Name] Dreamcast
k. [組織種別] ネットワークサービス
l. [Organization Type] Network Service
m. [登録担当者] TS1992JP
n. [技術連絡担当者] YA408JP
p. [ネームサーバ] ns1.isao.net
p. [ネームサーバ] ns2.isao.net
[状態] Connected (2008/11/30)
[登録年月日] 1998/11/08
[接続年月日] 2000/09/13
[最終更新] 2007/12/01 01:16:03 (JST)

Domain Name: DRICAS.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
Name Server: NS1.ISAO.NET
Name Server: NS2.ISAO.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 02-sep-2006
Creation Date: 31-aug-1998
Expiration Date: 30-aug-2009

auth server != game server

The game server is the pso.sega.blabla.net address that PSO considers to be the shipgate.

The auth server is the SSL server that verifies your Hunter's License. JPv1/JPv2/USv2 use auth01.dricas.com as the name, however this server's SSL certification died several years ago around the time Sega made JPv2 free to play. As such, Sega set up a new HL server at a different IP, so even to play on Sega's server in the end you had to use a fake DNS server to connect (they provided one for JP players). However this alternate HL server is no longer responding, so apparently it has died and the versions that have a HL check no longer work.

USv1/EUv1/EUv2 will always work online because they were always free to play on Sega's server, and thus they do not have to authenticate with Sega to enter online mode. The master.dream-key.com address is the game server for the European version.