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!

It came to my attention a couple of weeks ago that Wii users were unable to connect to the server using Devolution in the normal manner prescribed by it’s author tueidj. Being that I haven’t changed anything in the Sylverant code in a while directly related to logging in with the Gamecube version, I was naturally curious as to what was going on. To this end, I reached out to tueidj regarding the matter.

Upon contacting tueidj, he informed me that he had effectively blacklisted any traffic from his server to Sylverant (by a process known as null-routing any connections). The effect being that he blocked all Wii users from connecting to Sylverant unless they set up their own PPP emulation servers to do so. As of now tueidj is still null-routing connections to the IP address for Sylverant (if you were to specify 0 for a phone number and specify Sylverant’s IP for the DNS server), but connections that normally would go to Sylverant automatically (using 2 for the phone number) are being now directed to l33tserv instead. tueidj took this action without contacting anyone associated with Sylverant and with no warning whatsoever.

I have had nothing but respect for tueidj up until this point — he created Devolution and has hosted the requisite PPP emulation server for many years without any problems. I also respect that most Devolution traffic generally goes through his server and he can do with that server as he pleases. However, null-routing the traffic bound for Sylverant (and subsequently redirecting it to l33tserv) without even the decency to notify me is not exactly deserving of respect. Out of full disclosure, I should also mention the reason that tueidj has taken this action: he got into an argument with Aleron Ives on the forum (over something completely pointless) and I chimed in to ask everyone to chill out. That is it.

I have held up on writing this post for about a week after I found out about the issue, hoping that an amicable conclusion to the situation could be reached. However, it appears at this point that there will be no amicable conclusion to the issue with tueidj, especially being that traffic is now being redirected to l33tserv. Unfortunately, the software that has been discussed previously to set up a PPP emulation server is horribly out of date and does not build nor work properly on the OS I have set up on the server here. This unfortunately means that until I can develop a replacement for that PPP emulation software (I have begun on this task about a week ago now), nobody will be able to connect with the Wii to Sylverant (unless someone else sets up the PPP emulation server software successfully).

It was fifteen years ago today that Sega released Phantasy Star Online for the Sega Dreamcast in the United States. It seems fitting to do something to commemorate this anniversary, so we have a new server event that starts now.

Event Information:
Start Time: January 29, 2016 @ 05:00 UTC (@250)
End Time: February 12, 2016 @ 05:00 UTC (@250)

Description:
The original Phantasy Star Online for the Sega Dreamcast was released 15 years ago. Let’s keep the hunt going for 15 more years!
Your task is to hunt down the enemies that tormented all of those brave hunters that took to Ragol in the original Phantasy Star Online.

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 the previous two 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 hunt down the creatures that tormented the brave hunters of lore!

It’s been a while since there’s been any news here, but all in all that’s probably a good thing. It means that things are pretty calm and running relatively smoothly (which is always a good thing). Over the past few months, I’ve not had much time for working on the server, but there have been a few changes here and there. Here’s a little list:

• Added NOL protection code
• Small bugfixes to server-side drops (yes, I know there are still issues on PSOGC)
• Made the quest list show quests for all episodes on PSOGC, not just the one that the game is set to
• Fixed the quest list icons on PSOGC
• Added long descriptions of quests on the Download Quest menu

Thanks go to Aleron Ives for nagging me to do all of these (and for filling in the long descriptions on the download quests). 😉

Speaking of download quests, there’s been a few other interesting developments regarding them. First of all, Aleron Ives has gone ahead and added all the different language versions of the PSO+ quests that are available as download quests on PSOGC. (Thanks go out to Hayame for providing the quests from his Japanese copy of PSO+.) Also, I’ve added all the download quests I can find for PSOv1. Unfortunately, I’ve only got one language for each quest (Letter from Lionel is only in English, all the rest are Japanese-only). That said, we do finally have some PSOv1 download quests, which is a good thing, all in all. 🙂

Anyhow, that’s all I’ve got for today. I hope everyone in the US has a great Independence Day (and everyone else just has a nice day regardless of it not being a holiday). 🙂

I’m getting this organized a bit later than I would have liked, but I really wanted to have an Easter event, so here it is…

Event Information:
Start Time: April 3, 2015 @ 16:00 UTC (@708)
End Time: April 10, 2015 @ 16:00 UTC (@708)

Description:
Forest-dwelling monsters are stealing all the Easter Eggs that were hidden for the annual Pioneer 2 Easter Egg Hunt. Hunt down the monsters that seek to ruin the holiday for the children of Pioneer 2!

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 the one earlier in the year, requires you to have enabled /trackkills on your account while logged in (with /login). 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 event, 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.

Well, even if it is a few hours early for me, officially by the server’s time (UTC), it’s the new year. So, it’s time to unveil a new feature of the server that hopefully some people will find enjoyable. 🙂

Last year, I started accepting donations in Dogecoins that would be put toward server events and whatnot. Today begins the first of these events! As of the time of the writing of this post, the donations wallet has just under 14,000 Dogecoins in it, so I’ll put 7,000 coins up for grabs in the event that starts today.

How the event will work is as follows, anyone who wishes to participate in this event (as well as any future events) must be logged into his or her account on the server (i.e, you have to have used the /login command in-game), and then must use the new /trackkills command. Once you do so, the server will keep track of the enemies you kill in-game and will automatically record them when you leave the team you’re in. Note: the new /trackkills command and enemy tracking now works on Iselia, Vega, Altimira, and Palmacosta.

For the current event running, your kill counts of certain Episode 1 enemies (no, I’m not telling you which ones, but feel free to try to figure it out 😉 ) will be totaled up across all free-play (non quest, non challenge, non battle) teams that you participate in for the next month. At the end of the month, the top three players by that count will receive a prize. It’s as simple as that. First place will take home 4,000 DOGE, second place will take home 2,000 DOGE, and third place will take home 1,000 DOGE. Winners will be contacted by me after the end of the month to figure out where to send their winnings (and if any winners wish to reinvest their winnings in the donations pool, they are more than welcome to do so).

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys our first server-wide event and I hope everyone has a great new year.

PS: Continue reading for answers to a few questions you might have…
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Everyone probably knows by now that PSO itself doesn’t support voice chat (except for the Xbox version, which isn’t supported by any server anyway), which can get pretty annoying when you’re trying to discuss things with other people while you play, especially if you’re playing on the Dreamcast or Gamecube and don’t have a keyboard handy for the console. To this end, I’ve set up a Mumble server for anyone who wishes to use it to use while playing.

EDIT: Since it appears to be unclear to some… This does not allow you to use your Dreamcast or Gamecube microphone for voice chat in PSO. This functionality is not built in to the game and it would be inconceivable to add it to the game. This setup allows you to use your PC or smartphone to do voice chat with others who connect via their PC or smartphone while they’re playing on Sylverant.

Mumble is an open-source, multi-platform Voice-over-IP (VoIP) client and server, designed for low-latency voice communications, such as would be useful for online gaming. You can get a Mumble client for pretty much any OS out there (OS X, Linux, Windows — even for iOS or Android too) for free and use it to connect to a variety of Mumble servers. For more information on how to connect to the server that I’ve set up, continue reading…

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