Difference between revisions of "Changes in Ambition of the Illuminus"

Revision as of 10:40, 25 December 2007

Listed below are the changes in detail. For information on the Japanese updates, please see Ambition of the Illuminus Japanese Updates.

System changes

Lobby warping

Players will be able to move to lobbies for which they don't have permission for a fee, by talking to the lobby attendant NPC. The NPC now gives three options: travel via the old method (i.e. where a party member is), travel with meseta, and an explanation of the service, as well as the cancel option.

The player must have visited the lobby beforehand to be able to travel there. Notably, the lobby must be visited after the update or it will not be available to travel to.

Battle type changes

Battle type equipment and PA levels will be changed to their new Ambition of the Illuminus versions. In general, this means classes get more weapons, at higher ranks, and higher level Photon Arts.

Characters playing regular PSU cannot use Shadoogs, Madoogs, Photon Whips and Slicers even if their type can. See here for more information on the new weapons and Photon art limits.

Players of regular PSU get the level 40 Photon Arts, just like players of Ambition of the Illuminus do.

The Level Cap will be raised to 110 at launch.

Protranser traps detection

Protransers now have the ability to see traps without the use of goggles. However they will still need to use goggles to be able to destroy traps.

Photon Art Disc conversion

Players of Ambition of the Illuminus are able to convert their Photon Arts back into discs. These discs retain their level and can be transferred to different characters on the account via the Common Box. They cannot be traded or transferred to other players.

Auto-run and follow modes

Players can press a key to auto-run forward, and can also target another player in order to follow them. A line connecting the player following and the player being followed will be shown. For obvious reasons, you can't follow NPCs.

Mouse movement

Players can move using their mouse in Ambition of the Illuminus.

Simple Mail changes

In the expansion, players can send Simple Mail straight from the Partner Card menu. In addition, the default option when replying to a Simple Mail is now 'Reply (no quote).'

Partner Card changes

The Partner Card list now shows the current number of cards you have and the maximum number of cards you can have, in an x/y format. NPC cards do not count towards the limit, as before.

First-person view changes

Players of both versions can now activate the first-person view mode while sitting down.

Online status flags

A new feature whereby players can choose a flag to designate their online status has been added to Ambition of the Illuminus. Options include Absent, Briefly absent, Playing solo, Members wanted & Beginners guide. This is accessed through the Community portion of the menu.

Conditional shop search

Players of both versions have an additional option when searching for a shop - conditional search. This is a powerful system that allows players to search for items with the qualities and criteria that they want. Search criteria include: max/min price, max/min rarity, item category, and a item description box where players can enter things such as the exact name of the item, the manufacturer or even the element they want. For example, setting category to Swords and entering 'GRM Fire' would bring up a list of GRM-made, fire-element Swords.

When searching for items, the items appear in a list without you leaving your room, so you can check out the item before you decide which one to buy. When you select an item you are taken to the seller's shop to buy it. Note that players of regular PSU cannot search for 13š+ items, nor can they search for new weapon categories. In addition, regular PSU players cannot enter rooms with expansion-exclusive decorations or styles, but these are not filtered out.

My Room, synthesis and grinding changes

Synthesis rate changes

Synthesis success rates have been increased. Items requiring special materials will receive the biggest increase, but other items will see an increase too.

Note: A glitch on the servers meant that boards already inserted into PMs did not have the correct success rates after the update. Some of these values may be inaccurate.

In addition, elemental attribute rates when synthing melee weapons and armours have also been increased. Japanese sources state that in 10 trial synths of a Saber, 8 were between 18% and 28%, and the other two were 38% and 42%.

Synthesis failure items

Items received upon failing a synthesis will be changed. Players may receive materials, even materials not used in the synthesis, back. For example, failing a Saber may return Par Ash, or even Zepotite or Giganite.

Failing high grade items appears to give even more unusual items. For example, failing a Halarod may give you an Okiku Doll room decoration.

Grinding system change

The grinding system is being changed. Upon failing a grind attempt, the weapon will not be destroyed, but instead reset to an ungrinded state (0), and its grind limit will drop by 1. This is represented by two numbers: current grind/grind limit e.g. failing a 5/10 weapon will result in it becoming a 0/9. If a weapon reaches 0/0, it will become ungrindable.

Item distribution change

The default item distribution method is now set to random instead of give finder.

Battle changes

Just Attack

This is a new battle system that will allow you to score critical hits through carefully timed attacks. It is only possible with melee weapons. In order to execute a Just Attack, you must first use a normal attack, and at the end of a normal attack's animation use another normal attack or Photon Art. If executed correctly, the circle that appears in the lower-right of the screen when you press a button will be doubled in size and you will score a critical hit. PP recovery also works for normal attacks.

Note that the current edition of PSU will not have a special effect for Just Attack, and Just Attack is not possible after the 3rd hit of a normal knuckle combo (this will be fixed in Ambition of the Illuminus).

Just Counter

This will allow players to immediately counterattack during the block animation, and it works for skills, bullets and TECHNICs. Melee weapons will retalitate with a critical hit, others won't.

The current edition of PSU will not have a special effect for Just Counter.

Melee PP recovery

Normal melee attacks will recover the PP of the weapon used, critical hits recover yet more.

Elemental formula changes

Although elements will no longer be as powerful on their own, adjustments to character stats mean that 50% weapons will perform almost the same after this change. On the whole characters will be offensively more powerful on their own, and lower % weapons and elementally neutral weapons will perform better than before.

Character status adjustment

Character stats are being adjusted. As well as offensive stats, defensive stats are being adjusted so that characters do not become too weak as a result of the elemental attribute changes.

Known changes: all types appear to have boosted ATP, DFP, TP and MST. Some types have other boosted stats as well. Exact stat modifiers and base stat changes are not known yet.

SUV and Nanoblast changes

Positive status (i.e. buffs) will no longer be removed when using SUV weapons or Nanoblasts.

Weapon and line shield drop changes

Completed weapons and line shields will drop with random elements and element %, between 7% and 21%. Additionally, some S-Ranks now seem to drop premade, including Two-headed Ragnus and (Gekitsunata).

Meseta drop changes

The amount of Meseta that drops will increase with bigger parties.

In addition, Meseta distribution will be changed. Under the random or set order distribution systems, Meseta will be equally divided among all party members. Under give finder, whoever picks it up will get it all, as before.

Photon Art rebalance

Photon Arts are being rebalanced (and mostly boosted). Known changes are listed below. All figures are for the Photon Art at level 30 unless stated otherwise.

Monster stat changes

The STA of large monsters will be rebalanced. Large monsters will have their STA lowered so they can be inflicted more easily with status effect. Level 2 status will be effective against many of them.

In addition, EXP given by monsters will be rebalanced. Monsters will give much more EXP than before, particularly at lower levels. It will be easier to reach Level 100 than before. The following table shows the expected EXP values from a monster that has an 100% EXP modifier (such as Delsaban). Values for new EXP and the % change are approximates.

Item changes

NPC shop changes

Weapons will now sell for more to the NPC shops up to 75% more. Traps are now cheaper to buy.

Item capacity changes

The following items have had their carrying capacity increased to 20:

• Sol Atomizer
• Agtaride
• Defbaride
• Zodiaride
• Retaride
• Megistaride

Item color key

Items in the palette are now color-coded, as opposed to all being green;

• Heal items are Green.
• Resurrection items are Yellow.
• Status cure items are Blue.
• Photon recharges are Red.

New weapon categories

The following weapon categories are available for players of Ambition of the Illuminus: Madoogs, Shadoogs, Photon Whips, and Slicers.

Players of regular PSU will not see these weapons at all, nor will they see the animations of their wielders. They will only see damage numbers.

New weapons in existing categories

New weapons have been added in existing categories. In general, weapons are available from more manufacturers than before. For example, Yohmei now make A and S-grade Rifles. NPCs initially sell up to 7★ weapons and 8★ weapon boards.

Ambition of the Illuminus mission drops

• Kubara copy boards drop in the new missions. These include new Kubara copies such as [B] Doleec as well as Kubara copies of existing weapons such as [B] Sweet Deathic. These all appear to be area drops, with S-Rank Kubara boards dropping in Lv100+ missions.
• Completed S-grade weapons, such as Gekitsunata, Shura-Hiken, and including previously available weapons such as Two-headed Ragnus and Daiga-Misaki, drop. Like all weapon drops they drop with a random % if melee (although if the element is fixed, it will always be of that element).
• 13★ and above items, mostly synthesis materials, drop.
• Existing monsters can drop different items in Ambition of the Illuminus missions - this is because the Area Drops for the new areas are different. Their normal level drops remain the same in any mission.

New units added to shops

The following B-grade Units have been added to the NPC shops: Gi / Magic, Tero / Hit, Tero / Guard, Tero / Legs.

New clothes and parts

Ambition of the Illuminus introduces several new outfits, including costumes from PSO, which will be released over time. In addition, several outfits from the original PSU now have new colors exclusive to Ambition of the Illuminus.

Players of regular PSU will see basic starter clothes, as they do not have the graphics data for the new clothes.

New Photon Arts

New Photon Arts appear in Ambition of the Illuminus. The current launch Photon Arts are Chikki Kyoren-jin for Slicers and Visha Grudda for Photon Whips. Existing weapon types will also receive new Skills, for example Absolute Dance for the Double Saber.

New SUV weapons

New SUVs will appear in Ambition of the Illuminus. At launch Gigas Espada and Gigas Faust are available at the NPC shops. Other known SUVs include Paradis Cataracte, Ascension Gift (available from the Casino Voloyale at launch) and Lapia Fluge.

Players of regular PSU will not see these SUVs at all, and will not even see players summoning an SUV.

Feature list and backwards compatability

This is a list of changes to PSU that either occur in the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion pack or have been changed in regular PSU to ensure compatibility with the expansion.