Large Quest Update Part 1

Matt

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Hey guys, this has been mentioned before, but here's Part 1 of the large quest update which plans to standardise useful QoL features from later quests and make quests more consistent with each other. This update does not fundamentally change any quest.

Skip Dialogue

The main meat of the update, the vast majority of quests have now been given a skip dialogue option for the start of the quest, meaning you will no longer have you mash to skip all the dialogue to get to hunting.

However, a few quests were not given this option for various reasons:
  • Gallon's Treachery (Script Wizardry)
  • Reach for a Dream (Script Wizardry)
  • Maximum Attack 3 V2 (Script Wizardry)
  • Value of Money English Version (Broken quest file, does not load in QEdit)
  • Maximum Attack 4 -2A- Japanese Version (Broken quest file, does not load in QEdit)
  • The Retired Hunter (Important mechanic in starting dialogue)
  • Seat of the Heart (Heavy Narrative Quest)
  • Blue Star Memories (Heavy Narrative Quest)
If there is anything that is not listed here and does not have the skip dialogue option (and probably should), please let me know.

The skip dialogue in Phantasmal World #4 should also be fixed, as should the camera issues on the first Tower.

Maximum Attack 4 Console Behavior

The consoles at the end of the Maximum Attack 4 series will no longer boot the entire party to Pioneer 2, only the user, allowing players to go at their own pace at the end of these quests.

Note that the Japanese version of Maximum Attack 4 -2A- does not have this feature due to the quest file being broken.

Quest Additions/Removals

The following quests were re-added:
  • Dolmolm Research
  • Lost SON HOPKINS
The following quests were removed:
  • Lost ???? (aka Lost HAVOC VULCAN)
  • Prospective Horizons
  • The Twisted Towers
Part 1?

That's right! This is only Part 1 of this update. Part 2 of this update will feature the following:
  • Adding optional timers to all quests
  • Timers freezing after last enemy death in all quests
  • Clearing the quest after killing the last enemy, instead of talking to the NPC
    • Any quests which have something important from the NPC at the end (e.g. a reward or a narrative quest) will still require you to talk to them.
This will take significantly more work than this part, so it is still a while off.

We hope you enjoy playing on Ephinea! If you have any suggestions for quest behaviors, please let me know.
 
Great update overall. However, why was Lost Havoc Vulcan removed? The official Sega "Lost" quest forces the party to split up, and the enemy counts in that quest are pretty un-exciting compared to Lost Heat Sword, Lost Ice Spinner, Lost Soul Blade, and the homemade versions of the Ep. 2 and 4 "Lost" quests. In fact, I'd venture to say that the official Ruins "Lost" quest is the weakest link in the entire series. I don't even remember what it's called :p

Was this because of Ives protesting the quest being added last year? Or was there another reason?

Other than that, this update is AMAZING and thank you guys for everything you do :3
 
Hey, man, Lost Hell Pallasch is the coolest Lost quest in Episode 1. The original Lost quests, apart from Lost Heat Sword, utilized silly gimmicks pretty heavily and effectively, and splitting the party up in different ways across Ruins was fun. IMO, the only flaw with the quest is that you can just pipe out and meet up after every area starts.

/opinion except the gimmick part that's 100% true facts
 
Ryan, when the party simply pipes out to meet up in LHP, the ensuing enemy counts are very underwhelming for a 4-man party (or any decent 2-man party). LIS and LSB do have gimmicks, to be fair, but those are quickly dealt with. LHP's enemy counts stay bad for the entire quest and its pacing is boring, which is why I rate it poorly.

All this aside, the main question remains unanswered: Why was LHV removed? I didn't play it much so I'll get over it, but I was just wondering.
 
I think this is a good place to request this...

Can you make it so that you aren't locked out of side story quests after completing them? I think this only happens in EP1.
 
Can you make it so that you aren't locked out of side story quests after completing them? I think this only happens in EP1.

If you finish all of the quests, you'll gain access to them again.
 
If you finish all of the quests, you'll gain access to them again.

Thanks for letting me know. I'd prefer it if they didn't get locked in the first place, though. I got annoyed when I tried to initially convert enemy parts and couldn't because the quest was locked. I ended up making another character just so I could access the quest again.
 
This update is very much appreciated, thank you!
 
Thanks for letting me know. I'd prefer it if they didn't get locked in the first place, though. I got annoyed when I tried to initially convert enemy parts and couldn't because the quest was locked. I ended up making another character just so I could access the quest again.

This was a thing on every version of the game
Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, PC, PC-Blue Burst

It would be cool if items that are only obtainable with 0% could be obtained as drops like Soul Eater and the enemy weapons(could drop from the specific enemies instead of the body parts being dropped as part of the Christmas event or something
 
Thank you so much for making this game better than it's ever been guys! I so much appreciate all your hard work getting everything the way it is on this server!
 
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Note that the Japanese version of Maximum Attack 4 -2A- does not have this feature due to the quest file being broken.
Let me make sure my understanding is correct. This feature will not be in effect if the party host uses JP PSOBB and starts MA2A?
 
Nah it will be, just the Japanese player using the console will make everyone go up.
 
Nah it will be, just the Japanese player using the console will make everyone go up.
You mean the game will load quest files with different languages in the same game, and anyone using the JP version will make everyone else return to Pioneer 2?
 
There is something I have been wanting to request for awhile that I think fits with this quest update and with the "Solo’able multiplayer maps" that are already present.

Most of the Govenrment/Lab quests have areas that are barred behind switches that require no less than four players to activate. It's only ever some extra spawns and boxes so it is not required to compete, but it would be nice if these doors were able to be opened by only one player. There are rarely people that do these quests already, and especially not four people at a time, so there is very little opportunity to ever get into these areas normally, and I do not think there is enough incentive to require four people either, especially since optional areas are often skipped anyway.

I believe there may still be some other doors in other quests and/or maybe free-run. I'm not really sure all of where they are anymore or if there was any difference possibly related to difficulty, but I remember it particularly because of Lost Ice Spinner.

Lost Ice Spinner is not currently completeable at all solo, but it also has such a door. I would think the soloability update was supposed to affect a quest like that, but I do not recall it ever being soloable here when I did try it, even with the piping trick for the crusher room (which at this point, we may as well add another button switch there to be able to get out ourselves since we are already breaking the intended flow most of the time, and you can actually get trapped if solo, unlike where in MU2 it is only annoying to have to do so).

Perhaps it was overwritten by accident. I know I recall some conversation about such things happening or some not being done.
 
Well, there already is a solo version of Lost Ice Spinner, and Matt fixed all the multiswitches for solo play on the One Player versions.

I do have a question for @Matt though, there's no retrieval quests for Episode 2 in one player mode at all last time I checked, was this intended or an oversight? Thanks.

(Also as an aside, consider this my regular request for one player government quests that I make every six months or so. If Boss runs are the concern, all of those are super long, as long as any of the Retrieval quests or even free roam. It's not even remotely exploitable. Thanks for the consideration!)
 
Oh I did not even think of checking One Person versions. Well that only solves part of the issue.
 
If only we could do skip dialogue on some peoples posts @Melirei @Ade huehuehue.

Anyways Jokes aside, more QoL is always dope, ty for the hard work.
 
Nah it will be, just the Japanese player using the console will make everyone go up.

So if someone re-translates it and gives you the raw text, you could fix it.
 
I feel like my question was lost in the shuffle: Why was Lost Havoc Vulcan taken down? I really was just wondering. It's not exactly a pushover quest. Its design is rather clunky now, but it was revolutionary for its time. Is that why?
 
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