From Schthack
Fragments of a Memory
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capsules left
in the Ruins.
Client: solider
Quest:
A message capsule thought
to be from the Pioneer 1
Military was discovered in
Ragol's underground Ruins.
We would like you to
search for more.
Reward: ??? Meseta
After a great deal of work, I'm pleased to say that this quest is finally done. You might wonder how hard it could be to make it be "done" when it was only in Japanese, but there was a lot that needed to be fixed. FoaM is now available for BB, GC, and for the first time, DC and PC. I believe this is another first for Schtserv quest development, a BB quest that has been made fully compatible with PSO Ver.2.
* Script changes made to allow the quest to function properly. JPBB quests are strangely coded... It seems likely that on JPBB the server interacts with the quest to allow the actual quest to be coded less fully. Thus, when you try to play the quest on a server without the extra crap on JPBB, it doesn't work. It could also be a problem with our editor, but either way the problems are fixed.
* A little debug junk left in the quest by Sega has been removed so the quest is a bit smaller.
* Spawn points of players and positions of the warpers in Ruins fixed to be in the correct positions.
* The solider next to the main teleporter was moved to the side so the green gem player isn't hugging him when returning to Pioneer 2. >_>;
* If you've played the quest on either BB or GC, you might be aware of the "missing warps" problem in Ruins 1 that occured on one version of the quest. After analysing the quest, it turns out that Sega intended to have a warp roulette in Ruins 1. The three warps which you see send you to different locations in Ruins 1 every time you play the quest. After a great deal of work, this has been fixed. Ironically, it took me trying to create my own, simpler roulette to figure out how to make Sega's work. Though a lot of work went down the drain, Sega's is far better anyway so it was worth it. It was easiest to get the roulette functioning on DC/PC, but making it work on GC/BB was a major pain. I was about ready to give up and release a somewhat crippled version of Ruins 1 for GC/BB so the stupid quest could finally come out, but thanks to Lee the roulette has been fixed on GC/BB as well. It only took a lot of head bashing, hex editing, and FTPing, lulz.
* Enemies. While testing the quest at one point, Shadowfox mentioned that the quest had only Dimenians. I hadn't noticed, but it was true. Why exactly this is, I don't know. If the quest has only Dimenians on JPBB, I also don't know. Considering how apparently quickly the quest was made due to the little tweaks necessary and the fact that every enemy type is used extensively (except for Bringers, boo), it seemed like perhaps either 1) Sega didn't code the Dimenians properly or 2) JPBB would make them La or So types through server interaction with the quest (assuming Sega didn't actually want no La or So Dimenians to appear in the quest...). Since we had no idea what the quest would be like properly, it seemed like greater variety was a better option and likely to be correct. However in case Sega did want you to be fighting the same type of enemy all the time, the enemies are divided by area. You'll fight Dimenians in Ruins 1, La Dimenians in Ruins 2, and So Dimenians in Ruins 3. (This was also the easiest to do from a development standpoint...).
# Minor script changes to accomodate GC scripting differences.
# Meseta. For some reason, Sega changed the quest reward system on BB to give miniscule amounts of Meseta. Why they did this, I don't really know since they already admitted Meseta's uselessness by creating Photon Drops. Regardless, the rewards have been scaled by difficulty again on the original Meseta stat system. The quest has multiple rewards depending on what you do
# Significant script changes to accomodate Ver.2's different script system. Thankfully, this quest does not have any elements significant to the quest's gameplay that are unsupported by Ver.2. All changes made are, I believe, merely aesthetic.
# The Pioneer 2 map was imported from a Dreamcast quest and modified to be mostly the same as the GC/BB Pioneer 2. (I didn't edit a few of the NPCs IIRC, like the Tekker lady.) Ver.2 doesn't like BB Pioneer 2, when you talk to the bank and shop NPCs the camera zooms to the wrong location, and if you talk to the Guild you RSOD. tongue.gif Using a Dreamcast Pioneer 2 fixes these problems.
# The scrolling timer messages in Ruins 2 have been removed. While it might be possible to create similar messages, I don't know how and it wasn't really worth figuring it out.
# The "AWOOGA" siren in Ruins 2 has been replaced with the "Uneasiness" Symbol Chat sound since the sound used on GC/BB doesn't exist. The delays were slightly adjusted to make the triple sound effect sound better.
# The fancy failure message box for the timer in Ruins 2 has been replaced with a normal message box.
# Oodles of script was added to make the quest behave properly when you fail in Ruins 2. Players who are already on Pioneer 2 will be sent to the Guild, while players who are in Ruins 2 appear by the main teleporter. The script might not have been needed, but it works so oh well. tongue.gif
# The client's behaviour was changed slightly. On GC/BB if you talk to him when you fail the quest or if you choose to quit early, you get immediately sent to the lobby. This doesn't work on Ver.2, so he will ask you to cancel the quest at the Guild Counter instead.
# Protection has been added to prevent players from quitting the quest and then continuing since they are not immediately sent to the lobby.
# Minor changes were made to the ghosts in Ruins 3 to make them work on Ver.2. Thankfully, they seem to behave exactly the same as they do on GC/BB.
# The method of generating the sparklies used for capsules was changed to make them work properly.
*NOTE FOR DREAMCAST USERS*
The new sparkly creation method has decreased the visual range of the capsules, i.e. you must be close to them before they appear. I don't think this is a bug; it's probably related to the Dreamcast's low clipping distance compared to PSO PC. It's possible that the visual range on PC is also low if high-end clipping is not selected, but I haven't tried. Regardless, just know that the capsules are there, you just have to get close to them before they appear.
