Difference between revisions of "Changes in Ambition of the Illuminus"

Revision as of 16:42, 9 April 2007

This page documents the differences between standard PSU and the Ambition of Illuminus expansion currently in Open Beta on JP.

A few things to note:

• This is a beta, so anything here is subject to change. This page will also list some specifically beta-only changes.
• English translations are not final and are subject to change as the US release nears.

Balance Changes

• The synthesis success rate of weapons and armor has been adjusted.
• When synthing, Element Attribute rates of melee weapons and armors have been adjusted. It now appears to be possible to synth any even % between 10 and 50.
• Room Goods synthesis can no longer fail.
• S-Rank Grinders can now be synthed.
• When failing to grind a weapon, it is no longer destroyed. Instead, it is returned to you, but without any grind (+0).
• Grinding success rates have dropped dramatically.
• The chance of synthing high-grade grinders has been adjusted.
• Meseta droprate has been adjusted.
• S-Rank items (such as weapons etc.) now drop.
• Drop rates for items of all ranks have been adjusted.
• Type stats have been adjusted.
• Weapon proficiencies and max PA levels have been adjusted (in general, types can use more weapons and with higher level PAs than before).
• Type level cap is now 20. PAs can now go up to level 50 (although only Acrotecher gets level 50 PAs, and they are Support Techs, everything else has an absolute upper cap of 40).
• TECHNICs have been adjusted.
• Dying, but then being revived without going back to the lobby no longer counts as a death, and thus doesn't affect final mission rank. However, if NPCs die and revive themselves this does count as a death.
• Several weapon types have different animations. Details are sketchy, but Twin Dagger and Twin Saber animations have been sped up.

Missions

Parum

• Planet's Scar C-S has been added. Available at the Holtes City Flyer Base on Parum. Takes place in the Rozenom Ruins. Features Grass Assassins!
• City of the Thunderbeasts C-S has been added. Available from the Old Rozenom City lobby and takes place in the Rozenom Ruins. Features the new enemy, Ghinoceros.
• The Old Rozenom lobby has been added.
• A new beach lobby has been added, available by talking to the CAST NPC or by completing City of the Thunderbeasts. It has a dressing room and unique music, and appears somewhat similar to Seaside from PSO.

Moatoob

• Cave of Ice C-S has been added. Available from the Vio Tonga lobby (the Ice Fields), takes place in the Galanigus Mine.
• Serpent's Awakening C-S has been added. Available from Galanigus Mine lobby and takes place there as well. The ancient beast, De Ro Le, was trapped in ice, but has been awakened by the SEED Virus being spread by the Illuminus. Defeat it!
• A Galanigus Mine lobby has been added, reached by beating Cave of Ice or by talking to the CAST NPC. Serpent's Awakening starts here.
• The Casino Volwayale has been added, available after beating Serpent's Awakening or by talking to the CAST NPC. Here you can use special Vol Coins to play on a giant roulette wheel or on the Vol Slots. You can get 100 coins per day for free, however these cannot be transferred or traded to other accounts. Did the Vol Brothers finally make good on their pledge to make it big in the world of the Rogues?

Neudaiz

• A Temple lobby has been added. Appears similar to Hakura Temple, but is peaceful and has pillars of water. Currently no missions either take you to the Temple lobby or from it, so it can only be accessed via the CAST NPC.
• Mt. Ohtoku lobby has been added. Currently no missions lead to it so it can only be accessed via the CAST NPC. There is an Oracle here who can tell your future.

Items

• Stars are displayed differently. They are bunched up and instead of having one colour depending on rarity, they now show all the relevant rarity colours. The stars go like this: ★★★★★★★★★★★★ (this would be a 12* item)
• A 13* Item, the De Ro Le Kouro, is known to exist. The 13th star is white and is animated.
• Non-Crea 7* weapons are no longer standard to one manufacturer.
• 4 new weapon types: Slicer, Photon Whip, Madoog, and Shadoog.
  • Slicer: Right-handed melee-class weapon, with a medium range attack (note: the Slicer has Skills, not Bullets).
  • Photon Whip: Right-handed melee weapon, capable of causing status effects.
  • Madoog: Left-handed weapon. Can have two TECHNICs attached to it, and casts more quickly than a Wand, but has less PP and TP.
  • Shadoog: Left-handed shooting weapon that fires automatically and needs no PP (PP is literally 0/0). Shadoogs have no PAs, and have fixed elements, like melee weapons. Shadoog shots can inflict status though:
    • Fire = Burn
    • Ice = Freeze
    • Lightning = Shock?
    • Earth = Stun?
    • Light = Sleep
    • Dark = Infection?
• Traps can now be synthed. In addition, Burn Trap EX is now available (Protranser only).
• GRM make Rods. The GRM 1* Rod is called Rod, whereas the Yohmei 1* Rods name on JP is Rodou. It remains to be seen what Rod will be known as on the US version (since Rodou became Rod).
• Some recovery items on the action palette now have different colours. Moon Atomizer is yellow, Antimate is blue.
• New Room Tickets, which allow access to 'advanced My Room functions', including:
  • 'Free Layout' - in new rooms, you can talk to your PM to activate a grid, allowing you to put Room Goods anywhere in your room!
  • Shop functions, such as a Bulletin Board and messages for your PM to say.
• Several items are now only available as Casino prizes (see below), including an old favourite: the Chainsawd.
• New weapons, including some from PSO.
• New hairstyles, clothing, and parts. These are not available when creating a character.
• 2 new SUV weapons have been added: Gigas Espada (ギガス・エスパダ Gigasu Esupada), which summons a giant sword to swing at enemies, and Paradis Cataract (パラディ・カタラクト Paradi Katarakuto) which resembles the Heaven's Punishment special from PSO.

Monsters

• New monsters have been added, these include:
  • Go Badira (ゴ・バジラ Go Bajira), appears in Rozenom and acts like normal Badiras do. Fire-element usually, but in the second Rozenom mission it becomes Lightning like every other enemy.
  • Par Sorza (パル・ソーザ Paru Sooza), appears in Rozenom and acts similar to Gaozorans. The Rod it carries determines which TECHNICs it uses, a blue Rod means Barta and Deband, whereas a Par Sorza with a brown Rod throws lightning bolts and casts Gizonde. Lightning-element.
  • De Ro Le (ディー・ロレイ Dii Rorei), is the boss of Serpent's Awakening, and an obvious homage to De Rol Le from PSO. A tricky boss with many powerful attacks in his arsenal, including lasers, ice attacks and shooting missles. Ice-element.
  • Nava Rudda (ナヴァ・ルッダ Nava Rudda), appears in Galanigus Mine and appears to be a reskin of Naval. Likely Earth-element naturally, but as the Galanigus Mine missions have all Ice and Earth respectively (and Naval Rudda appears in both), this isn't certain. Ice Nava Rudda can shoot Barta and freeze with their melee attack, Earth Nava Rudda can shoot Foie. Leader Nava Rudda can cast Shifta.
  • Vanda Olga (ヴァンダ・オルガ Vanda Oruga) are larger and more reptilian versions of the Vanda. They only appear in Serpent's Awakening, where all enemies are Earth so their natural element is unknown at this point. In their Earth incarnation, they can spit Foie and breath high-level Damfoie.
  • Grass Assassin (グラス・アサッシン Gurasu Asasshin), appears in Rozenom and acts similar to its PSO incarnation. It can slash with its arms, spit mucus, and charge when low on health. Lightning-element.
  • Ghinoceros (ガイノゼロス Gainozerosu), are the bosses of City of the Thunderbeasts. They act similar to Kamatoze, but can jump and throw multiple lightning bolts.
• Some existing monsters appear in new elemental forms:
  • Lightning Jarbas appear in City of the Thunderbeasts. They cast Retier and spit lightning bolts. They don't cast Megid.
  • Lightning Shagreece and Distova appear in City of the Thunderbeasts, and seem little different from their normal versions.
  • Ice Vanda appear in Cave of Ice, and cast Barta at range and Dambarta close up. Extremely dangerous.
  • Ice Bul Buna appear in Cave of Ice. They can cast Barta.
  • Ice Bil De Vears appear in Cave of Ice. They cast low level Gibarta at close range and Barta at distance. They also have all the usual Bil De Vear attacks, and are also buffed with Sword, Shield, Boot, and Staff monster effects.
  • Earth Vanda appear in Serpent's Awakening, and cast Gidiga very often close up. They appear to have no ranged attack, and unlike other versions aggressively run up to players instead of keeping their distance.
  • Earth Lapucha appear in Serpent's Awakening, they seem little different from their Ice incarnation.
  • Earth Drua Gohra appear in Serpent's Awakening, and spit Diga instead of Foie from their mouth.
  • Earth Jishagara appear in Serpent's Awakening, and spit Diga.

Levels and Types

• New expert types: Acrofighter and Acrotecher. They have proficiency with one handed weapons. Currently they have no requirements.
  • Acrofighter: Expert type skilled with one-handed weapons. With their exceedingly high reaction speed, they can wield a number of weapons easily. Proficient with Slicers and Shadoogs.
  • Acrotecher: Expert type specializing in support. They have an exceedingly high reaction speed, and focus on TECHNICs in battle. Proficient with Photon Whips and Madoogs.
• Type level cap is now 20.
• PA levels have been modified, and certain classes have had their PA levels changed. Attack and Support TECHNICs are now considered seperate for the purposes of PA level caps.
• PAs for the Whip and Slicer have been added.
• For the purposes of PA caps, Offensive and Support TECHNICS are now considered seperate.

New Features

• New 'Online Status' option available under the Community menu, this allows for flags to be set such as Looking For Party, Solo Player etc.
• Autorunning and the ability to follow party members are now available.
  • Autorunning can be activated and deactivated by pressing R (or left on the gamepad).
  • Following party members is activated by first pressing K (or down on a gamepad), this will generate a line showing who you will be following, so keep pressing K to cycle through nearby party members until you get the one you want to follow. Then press R (this replaces the autorun function). Note that you cannot follow NPCs or PMs.
• You can now warp to areas by talking to the CAST NPC, for free (only free during the beta). Yellow areas are expansion-only.
• Shop NPCs now offer you the option to send items from your inventory to your Shared Box (NOT your PM storage!) for 300 Meseta. Note that the Meseta covers all items sent, and you cannot exceed the item limit of your Shared Box.

Graphical

• Shadow Map setting is now available.
• Effects surrounding Skill PAs are now colour-coded depending on PA level.
  • 1-10 = Green
  • 11-20 = Blue
  • 21-30 = Purple
  • 31-40 = Red

Misc

• Expansion names are Yellow, similar to how PSOv2 and JP EPIV players had orange names.
• You can now see player's type and type level above their heads by cycling through name, ID number etc.
• The 'travelling from colony to planet' cutscene has gone.
• Different colour schemes for character create and login.
• New voices for character create.
• The HUD seems to have a slightly bolder font.
• When selecting hair and accessories, you select the hair style and then select the accessory from a seperate menu.
• When selecting missions, you first select the mission then the rank. Yellow missions are expansion-only.
• The mini-map now tracks party members who are off the map, by showing you their general direction relative to your own.
• New lobbies have a Female Beast NPC vendor instead of the usual CAST Male.

Beta-only changes

These have been implemented to make testing easier, and will not be in the final release, most likely.

• New missions have 3x rare drop rate. Existing missions have 2x.
• 2x EXP compared to normal PSU.
• Acrofighter and Acrotecher have no type level requirements. They also level like basic classes instead of expert types.
• New A-Rank weapons and boards are sold in the NPC shops.
• More types can use weaponry from the new weapon categories.
• Elemental photons are now sold at NPC Shops.
• Lumilass changes are set to a low price.
• Character level cap is 120.
• There is no fee for warping to lobbies for which your party does not have permission.

Bugs

• Completing a mission as a FO levels up your FO level to 30, but you get no stat upgrades.
• Acrotecher's DFP seems to drop dramatically upon levelling up.
• PA limits appear to be glitched, allowing characters to level PAs as high as their highest PA cap. Example: a type with level 20 Skills, level 10 Bullets, and level 40 Offensive and Support Techs can level ALL their PAs to 40 regardless of the PA type.