It has been 9 years since I publicly announced/released Sylverant as of today, which also means it has been 19 years since the release of the Dreamcast in the US. While I regret how quiet I’ve been around here lately, the relative quiet certainly doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been stuff done.

For instance (for those who don’t pay attention on twitter), after a bit of a false start, I’ve rolled out online runtime patching of PSO version 2 for the Dreamcast and PSO Episode I & II for the Gamecube. There’s still more work to be done with that particular feature, but it’s still functional and available to bring some interesting and useful patches to Dreamcast and Gamecube users (at least those not using PSO Episode I & II Plus).

I seem to have promised people there’d be at least one more event incoming before the end of the year, so I’m going to make good on that promise. This one will at least start before the end of the year anywhere in the world. 😉

Event Information:
Start Time: December 31, 2017 @ 05:00 UTC (@250)
End Time: January 14, 2018 @ 05:00 UTC (@250)

Description:
No matter how you wish to celebrate the arrival of the new year, let’s see some fireworks down on Ragol. Take out some baddies and fight on for another year!

This event is open to all versions of the game currently supported on Sylverant.

(Not So) Fine Print:

• This event, like previous events, requires you to have enabled /trackkills on your account while logged in (with /login or /tlogin). It is only open to those with a registered account on the Sylverant website that have registered their serial number and access key on the site.
• The /trackkills command must be run on each registered guild card in your account for any kills made with that guild card to be counted (results are aggregated across all guild cards in your account).
• If you used the /trackkills command in the earlier events, unless you have since disabled it, your kills will be tracked for this event.
• Only enemies killed in free-play will be counted — no enemies killed during quests will count toward your totals for this event.
• Cheating of any kind (be it by way of using a cheat device such as a CodeBreaker or by abusing game bugs) is not permitted! Anyone caught cheating in any way is subject to being banned from the server. This event is meant to be fun for everyone, not for a small group of cheaters to run away with it! There have been people disqualified in previous events — don’t become the next one to be disqualified for cheating!

Well, so much for having events several times a year… It certainly wasn’t my intent to go a full year between events, but sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Anyhow, it’s about that time for a new Halloween event, so let’s get down to business…

Event Information:
Start Time: October 25, 2017 @ 00:00 UTC (@41)
End Time: November 8, 2017 @ 00:00 UTC (@41)

Description:
The monsters of Ragol are at it again — hosting a party and not inviting us Hunters. Swoop in dressed in your Halloween best and sweep away the monsters that didn’t even think to invite us to their party!

This event is open to all versions of the game currently supported on Sylverant.

(Not So) Fine Print:

• This event, like previous events, requires you to have enabled /trackkills on your account while logged in (with /login or /tlogin). It is only open to those with a registered account on the Sylverant website that have registered their serial number and access key on the site.
• The /trackkills command must be run on each registered guild card in your account for any kills made with that guild card to be counted (results are aggregated across all guild cards in your account).
• If you used the /trackkills command in the earlier events, unless you have since disabled it, your kills will be tracked for this event.
• Only enemies killed in free-play will be counted — no enemies killed during quests will count toward your totals for this event.
• Cheating of any kind (be it by way of using a cheat device such as a CodeBreaker or by abusing game bugs) is not permitted! Anyone caught cheating in any way is subject to being banned from the server. This event is meant to be fun for everyone, not for a small group of cheaters to run away with it!

By the way it is the Halloween season, so be on the lookout for some tricks to go along with all the treats. 😉

If you haven’t been around in the past couple of days, then you probably never noticed, but Sylverant now has a new host. I apologize for the downtime over the past few days, but things are getting a lot closer to normal now…

I’d like to sincerely thank our previous host GrizzlyAdams for graciously hosting us for the past seven years. It’s hard to believe, but it all started with me joking around on IRC and asking if he’d like to host a PSO server that I was writing — and he agreed. I never expected him to do so, and I never expected the server to still be around all these years later. Unfortunately, due to a number of issues, he had to discontinue our hosting, thus I’ve moved us over to a new cloud hosting solution.

There are still a few things that aren’t quite back to normal yet, but they should get there over the next few days. The server itself has been back up for several hours, even if the website has lagged behind a bit.

I’ll be posting more details about what this move means in the near future.

If you are using one of the DNS tricks to access the server, you will have to update the address of the server. The How to Connect page has already been updated with all the information that you need to know. Anyone using the Sylverant PSO Patcher disc on the Dreamcast shouldn’t have to change anything (unless you were also using the old DNS server — if so, just remove it as it is not necessary). I still need to get the PPP server set back up for use with Devolution, so Wii users will have to wait just a bit longer for me to get everything back to normal (sorry!).

It’s been a while since the last event (which wasn’t my intent), so I figure it’s a good time for a new one. So, here’s what you need to know…

Event Information:
Start Time: October 24, 2016 @ 00:00 UTC (@41)
End Time: November 7, 2016 @ 00:00 UTC (@41)

Description:
Hunters! Are you ready for Halloween? The monsters of Ragol certainly are. Crash their party and help make the streets a safer place for children of all ages.
This Event is only open to PSOv1 and PSOv2 users (on Dreamcast or PC).

Prizes:
No prizes are being given for this event. This one is completely for the fun of it.

(Not So) Fine Print:

• This event, like previous events, requires you to have enabled /trackkills on your account while logged in (with /login or /tlogin). It is only open to those with a registered account on the Sylverant website that have registered their serial number and access key on the site.
• The /trackkills command must be run on each registered guildcard in your account for any kills made with that guildcard to be counted (results are aggregated across all guildcards in your account).
• If you used the /trackkills command in the earlier events, unless you have since disabled it, your kills will be tracked for this event.
• Only enemies killed in free-play will be counted — no enemies killed during quests will count toward your totals for this event.

Get out there and crash the monsters’ party!