Oh, I've got a story I tell to everybody... even non-gamers because it's really a fought-fire-with-black magic type of story. Here's a bit of preface.
A friend of mine, let's call him by his game name, Parn, had been hunting some S-Red's Arms in Dreamcast Ver.2 for about 10 months. This was back in the day when NOL'ing was prevalent, where we frequented Miranda 3-3 as "our group's" gathering spot. Open, non-passworded games were common there, because it was usually deserted. Nobody bothered trying to bomb a non-populated area, essentially. We eventually moved to the PSO-World block, where I ended up getting NOL'ed and lost my level 135 RAcast. We decided to go back to our less-popular Miranda 3-3. On that ship, it was pretty common for people to employ the same type of decency you'd expect on this game: call out dibs on what you're after as you enter a game. Talk with people and see what they're after, what you're after, all that.
I ended up having to purchase a Pro-Action Replay device to re-create my character and all my lost items. Granted, I may have added 5% more hit here and there because I didn't remember the EXACT affinities of everything, but, whatever. I re-created my 0/0/-15/0/-5 Yasminkov 9000Ms (on english DC Ver2 they were 9200Ms for some reason). Yeah, back in DC, you could get NEGATIVE affinities on your untekked stuff. I found those as 0/0/-25/0/-15 and tekked them UP into that. But, that's how I found them, so, I made them again.
Seeing is that I had JUST obtained an MKB that I traded two Standstill Shields for. Which, might I add, the 3000 telepipes I used to acquire them added up real fast. Then, before I even had a chance to use it... whammo. You're now an Ace Reporter! Nope, time to hack my stuff back...
---
Our story begins in Mines 1, ultimate mode, only a few rooms deep. I was on my RAcast, DiosGX, and my buddy on his HUmar, Parn. I had just traded for a Monkey King Bar because I really, really liked the idea of a cool twin saber type for farming VH mode that my RAcast could wield. Now, I did have an MKB that was created with a Pro-Action Replay as a "stupid toy" MKB. A few other PAR-users had a contest to make the stupidest hex-edited weapon. A friend of mine had somehow created a -160% Hit MKB. Except, the negative hit value exceeded the game's ability to display it, and so it just didn't show any change to your ATA at all.
A FOnewm joins, whose name escapes me but let's called him LinkxSamus. I throw down a pipe, tell him the recent color, and wait for him to show up. Meanwhile, I put on my real MKB and am just spamming its combo because I love it so dang much. He eventually comes down as I'm swinging away at the air, waiting for Parn to come back from the bathroom break he's on. After probably an entire minute of his guy just standing idly in one place, he finally types out, all in caps, "COOL" and nothing else. I swung it around a few times on some Canabins while spamming freeze traps, I guess from wanting to actually USE the thing, and wanting to show off a little bit. The second thing this guy says, then, after waiting in the previous room we cleared a full minute ago; "I WANT" and finally resumes actually fighting with the team.
We proceed on without much discussion. The force is pretty terrible about keeping shifta and deband up, even deband on himself he seems to rarely realize is going to help him stop being oneshot. Thankfully, back in this era, HUmar had access to Reverser or we would have run dry on Moon Atomizers before Mines 2.
It was in that Mines 2, in the very last room in fact... from the second to last enemy in the room. It was still just a 3-man team, and our FOnewm had been AFK for roughly 15 minutes without any word from him. I figure it would have likely taken him too long to relay why he had to AFK and didn't bother. All that remained was a Baranz and a Sinow Red. Parn kills the Sinow Red... a green box (reds weren't a thing until episode 2!) drops at his feet, and he stops, being bombarded by missiles before my frozen shooter re-freezes it, and he types, and I quote:
"aouskdhfopi;asdhfoinb nxojnasio;faio'vnyepfiahfpfhsadfasdp y8w9fjsjdapfnapaewfn hafasifhas8ifn payp89fywpsdoudfu suyfads89-y 8i8yhsdif h8p Y*hihjefseihoppioy hfdiaofhaewpoi Hdfpish"
For roughly three years straight or so.
Then, out of nowhere, that most ugly-looking FOnewm I've ever seen to this date, still after playing this game for 15 years... walks up, and takes the S-Red's Arms from under him. Parn, unfortunately, being a massive idiot, just spammed random crap on his keyboard instead of PICKING THE DAMN THINGS UP OFF THE GROUND... and they got swiped.
Parn types out "........................................" about thirty times. At which point, the FOnewm says, after standing still for nearly 2 full minutes; "FAIR" and nothing else.
We entered the boss fight, and I could tell Parn was absolutely furious. Normally he talked shit to the bosses as we fought them, telling them to "eat cake" and the like, as he was wont to do. However, he said nothing during the boss fight, and wouldn't rez the Force. I did, because I wanted the fight to end sooner. But I could tell he was beyond livid... because, you see, here was the major crux of this whole story: This was Parn's 28th birthday.
After the boss dies, and before that disgusting abomination of a disgrace to forces can dip out of the party, I tell him; "I'll trade you my MKB for those S-Red's Arms. You can't even equip those daggers. But you can equip the MKB." He says "K" and I tell him to go down to the forest. I stopped by my bank real quick, and exchanged my actual MKB for the, ahem... "toy" variant my friend let me have since he didn't want it clotting up bank space. We go down to the forest, and in "good faith," I tell him, I drop the MKB first. He picks it up... stands there. Still standing there. Not doing anything... equips the MKB. Starts to swing it around a bit. Hits a few boxes with it. I was panicking that it somehow wouldn't be able to break the boxes, but thankfully you cannot miss boxes.
He then finally drops the S-Red's Arms, which I snatch up immediately. Parn loads in behind me as this jerk-ass I just counter-swindled runs into the first room of Forest 1 and attempts to attack some Bartles. Doesn't J/Z, doesn't S/D himself, just Rabarta to CC... and starts swingin' away at level 120 multiplayer ULT enemies on Dreamcast. For reference, DC V2 enemies were about three-to-four times as buff as they are currently, even on Ultima. He would have dealt 0 damage anyway, however, that's not what happened.
Through the closed doors and the mossy walls, the two of us can see crimson justice plastered across our screen:
MISS MISS
MISS
MISS MISS MISS
Followed up by him getting one-shot by all three Bartles unfreezing at the same time and striking simultaneously. We teleport back up to P2, see him coming out of the Hospital and I just tell him "thanks buddy have a good day" and we leave.
Now, interestingly, back on DC V2, there was an online only quest where, if you completed it and did some arbitrary nonsensical objective, Dr. Montague who appeared over near the telepipe/bank area in that quest, was how you converted the NEW monster parts into weapons. I believe, at the time, there were only a few. Baranz Launcher, S-Red's Blades, and something else? Rappy Fans and Booma Claws weren't around until Ep2. I can't really remember what the last one was, but, the real kicker here was that he could also forge older monster parts into weapons and they HAD RANDOMIZED AFFINITIES ROLLED ONTO THEM.
You could get legit S-Beat's Blades with hit%s, things like that. Parn, upon forging his S-Reds on his birthday, got a completely LUDICROUS 55% A.Beast 45%Hit on his S-Red's Blades. Keep in mind, affinity percents worked a bit differently in DC V1 and 2, and capped out at 60%. This was because of how it calculated the bonus damage being ridiculous as all heck. In ep2, a comparable number to 60% I believe is closer to 110% in our current system. So, 55% is equal to having 100% in the current model. Hit% worked the same as always though.
I will never forget that day, because I helped my best friend at the time get the one weapon he wanted more than anything on his birthday. Even if I had to be a little underhanded to do it, I've never once felt any regret for doing what I did. Those blades were my buddy's and nobody else's. Ironically, and I kind of wanted to punch him in his dumb face for it, by the time we'd reached level 170s, he stopped using them in the caves because "it's boring" he would say. He could kill (Go)Vulmers in 2 strikes, not even completing a combo. One button tap would outright slay nearly anything in the caves.
Seriously fuck you if you read this Parn I fought so hard to get those for you and THEN YOU NEVER USED THEM unless you were really mad... then we'd go to the caves in B-Mode, don our S-Ranks and S-rank attack teach other until we had S-Rank S/D on each other. Real annoying cuz S-ranks might also HELL PROC YOU and kill you forcing you to try again, but man... level 120~ S/D that lasted for like 50 minutes. I think his best crit broke 4000 damage at one point. God that old system was broken as hell...
Anyway that's my most fondly-remembered PSO story.
Even though I had the most epic cheating device for that game, I rarely used it other than to make toys, re-create people's lost gear if THEY got NOL'd, edit photon colors and re-create stats of people's weapons they liked with cooler-looking colors. That type of thing. I preferred FINDING stuff, because that was, and still is, the thrill of this game for me. I'll confess the only thing I never earned but made for myself was a Sealed J-Sword... however, it was only to use on my RAcast as a VH farming toy. I never actually wielded it on a hunter. ;p
I don't condone cheating, but I do condone protecting your own stuff. You worked hard for it. You deserve to keep it. o3o!
I had to respond to this, because it's how I feel. Like I mentioned, I've been a PSO addict for a very long time. It was my friend Parn who first uploaded some footage from the Japanese version of PSO DC V1 that got me interested in it. I'd never seen anything like it, and couldn't wait for it to show up on American shores. When it did, I knew it was going to be "my game." I got a Gameshark so I could play imports, and got JP Version 2 shipped overnight from NCSX. I had to play it NOW, because it meant starting over from LVL1... again. Had to set up that awful Dricas ISP account in Japan to even play the thing online, but it was worth it.
Then, years later, modded my Gamecube for Zelda: Wind Waker JP (brother bought the game, I paid for the mod), and of course, EP1/2 JP on 'Cube. Even bought one of those silly keyboard controllers for it! Then I got the US EP1/2, started over yet again. I ended up reaching level 190 RAcast before giving up. But, a few years later, PSO on the original Xbox came out, and a friend of mine from Dreamcast V2 had started playing it... well, guess it's time to start over from LVL1 AGAIN! Played that for about three more years, and then, I never played PSO again. I used Macs at the time, and wasn't ever able to play Blue Burst, see any of BB's new gear, or even a single enemy in episode 4. It was like I had spent my whole life reading a book, and the last three chapters were thrown into a fireplace before I could read them.
I've had an Alienware Alpha for about a year now, and a friend of mine... from Dreamcast V1, 15 years ago, tells me about two PSO private servers I should check out. I'd tried playing on Schthack by messing with my Gamecube, and played it for about a month. None of the server commands were really working, and eventually all my gear ended up deleted so I just quit. I haven't touched PSO for a long time, even though I've been following its every step for nearly half my life (I'm 32). So, I ended up deciding to play on Ultima, and it was definitely the correct decision.
Just as you say, this server feels like it carries on the traditions, thematics, "coolness factor" and thrill of the hunt that I, and everyone I knew, loved and love so much about this game. I do not want to talk harshly of other servers, because I'm sure everyone has their preferences, but, this one feels "right" to me. Eventually you run out of things to hunt. Either you make a new account to play with new section IDs or pay to change your ID... or... just wait for an event when the drop tables change. The hunt thrill is heightened from knowing your time is limited. It's exactly the kind of excitement I play this game for.
I apologize for gushing a wall of text out as a response, but I agree with it so powerfully I couldn't just be like "yeah +1 rep I agree" and move on. ;x
