Phantasy Star Online Xbox
Bugfix Patch
Patcher by: Aleron Ives
Patch by: Aleron Ives & Fuzziqer
http://psopalace.funurl.com

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Introduction:
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Welcome to the Bugfix Patch for PSOX. The purpose of this patch is to fix some of the bugs that Sega left in the game. Below is a list of the various bugs fixed by this patch. For more detailed information, see the end of this README.

1) Barriers no longer get their variable DFP capped incorrectly.
2) Technique targetting angles have been corrected so that you no longer attack random enemies and boxes behind you for no reason.
3) Forest 2, Mountain, and Gal Gryphon raindrops are no longer nearly invisible.

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Installation:
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After downloading and unzipping the PSO_Xbox_Bugfix_Patch.zip archive, you should have this README.txt file, as well as six different patching programs. Each patching program is meant for one of the six possible PSOX releases that you might have:

NTSC-J Disc
NTSC-J Title Update
NTSC-U Disc
NTSC-U Title Update
PAL Disc
PAL Title Update

The "Disc" patches will allow you to patch the base game that you've extracted to your Xbox hard drive. The "TU" patches will allow you to patch the PSOX Title Update, if you have it installed.

To check whether you are using the PSOX Title Update, navigate to:

E:\TDATA\4d53004a\$u\

and check the contents of this folder. If you have the PSOX Title Update, you should see a file named "default.xbe" in this folder. If you don't have this file, then you should navigate to where you have PSO installed on your Xbox hard drive, e.g.:

E:\games\PSO\

and look for "default.xbe" in that folder.

Note that if you're using the PSOX Title Update, patching the "default.xbe" file that came from your PSO disc will have no effect; when the PSOX Title Update is installed, your Xbox will ignore the original "default.xbe" in favour of the one that came with the Title Update. You only need to patch the original "default.xbe" if you don't have the Title Update.

Always be sure to keep a clean backup copy of your game files, so that you don't have to dump your game again if you make a mistake!

Once you've determined whether you need to patch the base game or the Title Update, copy "default.xbe" from your Xbox hard drive to your PC's C:\ drive. Run the patching program that matches the region (JP, US, or EU) and version (Disc or TU) of the PSOX release you're using, and then click the "..." button. A window will open asking you to select the "default.xbe" file you want to patch. Navigate to C:\, and you should see the "default.xbe" file you just copied from your Xbox hard drive. Select it, then click the "Open" button. Now press the "Start" button, and you should get confirmation that the file was successfully patched. When you close this message, the patching program will automatically close, too. You have now applied the patch.

Before you copy "default.xbe" back to your Xbox, you may want to apply other patches, first. Once you've applied all of the patches you want to use, you can copy the updated "default.xbe" back to your Xbox, replacing the original file.

That's it! You can now play the game with the patch.

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Troubleshooting:
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If the patching program gives an error that says:

"default.xbe - File size/version missmatch!"

then that means you tried to use a patching program that doesn't match your PSO version. Double check which region of PSOX you have and whether the Title Update is installed on your Xbox, and then select the patching program that matches your game version.

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Details
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1) This bug is caused by a mistake in the game's legitimacy checker. The game compares the barrier's maximum allowed EVP bonus against the actual DFP bonus, and it compares the barrier's maximum allowed DFP bonus against the actual EVP bonus. Since rare barriers usually allow up to +50 extra DFP and +15 extra EVP, any barrier that drops with > 15 extra DFP violates the faulty legit check, so the game sets the DFP boost to 0, mistakenly thinking that you hacked the barrier with too much DFP. Since the real EVP range of 15 is much less than the DFP range of 50, the EVP never gets erased. Comparing the barrier's real DFP and EVP to the maximum allowed DFP and EVP solves the problem.

2) PSO uses two different formats for calculating angles: one format is a standard angle on a scale of 0 - 360 degrees, while the other format is a special PSO angle stored as a number from 0 - 65535 to represent 0 - 360 degrees. Sega attempted to implement a system where the targetting angle of Foie, Rafoie, Barta, Gibarta, and Megid rises as the Technique level increases, but they made a critical mistake: they used both of these angle formats without converting between them. As a result, Techniques end up with ludicrously large targetting angles in excess of 5000 degrees!

Foie 30 has an effective targetting angle of ~211 degrees, and this angle is so wide that you have no control over which enemy you target. The solution is to fix the unit conversions and adjust the angles of each Technique to give you back control over what you want to attack. The new angles are based on Sega's fixes for this problem in PSOBB.

3) Unlike GC, Sega reads the raindrop colour values correctly on Xbox, but the default transparency value is too low, which makes the raindrops nearly invisible. Even when Sega fixes a bug, the result still doesn't turn out right. Poor Sega.

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Credits:
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Huge thanks go out to Ralf for spending nearly three years working on bug fixes with me for GC, Fuzziqer for porting the fix for Barta's targetting to Xbox, and Gen6Gamer for testing the fixes. Thanks also go out to Soly for porting the barrier DFP fix from GC to PC, which made it possible for me to port the fix from PC to Xbox.

That's the end of this README; I hope everyone enjoys the refined experience. Don't forget to visit PSO Palace, the home of this patch.

http://psopalace.funurl.com