WE LOVE PSO!

WELCOME TO EPHINEA

Hello and welcome to Ephinea, our Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst private server. We’re a group of fans trying to recreate the classic PSOBB experience, and building around that core with new content and features.

Getting Started

Getting Started

Are you new to Phantasy Star Online?

CHECK OUT OUR BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO PSO

Or you're already an expert hunter?

FIND OUT WHAT MAKES EPHINEA SPECIAL

Recent forum activity



Latest Updates -

The Easter Event has begun! (イースターイベント開始！)

Server maintenance has completed.

The Easter Event has begun! Event Eggs can drop from any killed enemy. These items can drop at 1/2000 in Normal, 1/1800 in Hard, 1/1200 in Very Hard, and 1/500 in Ultimate. Additionally, they now receive a boost in the RBR quests (+15% with 1 player, +20% with 2 players, and +25% with 3 or 4 players).

More details can be found in the event thread: https://www.pioneer2.net/community/threads/easter-event-2024.28348/

Fixed an issue with the Seasons Shop introduced in the Linux port back in December.

The game and launcher were updated with a number of changes.

Restored and greatly improved the lightning effect for Dubchics reattaching their severed limbs or head. This effect was incorrectly rendered with a few issues--the texture wasn't loaded properly, the effect's origin points were wrong for a frame, rendered in the wrong coordinate system, and there was no clipping which would often cause a blinding effect when rendered behind the camera.

Implemented similar clipping for other lightning effects such as Gizonde. You may have noticed that using Gizonde on a target behind the camera would sometimes cover the screen. This should now be fixed.

Restored the lightning effect underneath Gal Gryphon during the lightning attack in Ultimate difficulty. This effect was not visible unless you were playing in 640x480.

Fixed the rendering of photon bullet trails. These were clipped incorrectly and usually invisible when your game's resolution was high enough.

Fixed rendering issues with the Sun and Lens Flare objects in Forest 1, Ultimate Dark Falz (before the fight), Temple Beta, and Barba Ray. The location of the flare wasn't centered on the screen and wasn't clipped to the edges of the viewport correctly.

When advanced effects are disabled, cloaked capture traps in Episode 2 will now render with 10% Alpha. These can be difficult to spot, but sometimes might be easier to spot than the advanced effects version depending on their location. Let us know what you think about this.

Added an option to the launcher to disable Motion Blur. Motion Blur exists only when advanced effects are enabled.

Added an option to the launcher to control whether Shifta, Deband, Jellen, and Zalure icons on the HUD are blinking or fading when running out. This effect occurs for the final 10% of their duration for a maximum of 30 seconds.

Fixed a few small entries in the English unitxt.

Implemented a change to fix the rendering distance and lifetime for many map particles. This should cause some particles to render correctly, such as the lightning in the background for Ultimate Falz, and also fix particles that would sometimes render and then disappear when moving out of range.

Let us know if you run into any issues with the changes.

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サーバメンテナンスが終了しました。

本日からイースターイベントが始まりました！イベント期間中はエネミーを倒すと「イベントエッグ」がドロップされるようになります。ノーマルでは1/2000、ハードでは1/1800、ベリーハードでは1/1200、アルティメットでは1/500の確率でドロップします。さらに、今回からRBRクエストでブーストが掛かるようになっています。（1人で+15%、2人で+20%、3-4人で+25%）

イベントの詳細はこちらのイベントスレッド（日本語版はコチラ）にてご確認ください。

バグ修正として、12月のLinux移植で生じたシーズンショップに関する問題を修正しました。

ゲームとランチャーがアップデートされ、多くの変更が加えられました。

ダブチックが破壊された手足や頭を再構築する際の稲妻エフェクトを改善しました。このエフェクトはテクスチャが正常にロードされていなかったり、エフェクトの原点がフレームに対して誤っていたり、間違った座標系でレンダリングされていたり、クリッピングされていなかったりと、しばしばまぶしいエフェクトの原因となってしまっていました。

ギゾンデなどの他の稲妻エフェクトにも同様のクリッピングを実装しました。カメラの背後にあるターゲットにギゾンデを使用すると、画面を画面を覆ってしまうことがあることに気がついた方がいるかもしれませんが、これは現在は修正されているはずです。

アルティメットでのガル・グリフォンの雷撃攻撃についても、稲妻のエフェクトを修正しました。このエフェクトは640*480の画面でプレイしていないと正常に見えなくなってしまっていたものです。

フォトンの弾丸のレンダリングを修正しました。ゲームの解像度が十分に高い場合、これらは不正にクリッピングされ、正常に表示されなくなってしまっていました。

advanced effectsを無効にしている場合、EP2のトラバサミ系のトラップが10%アルファでレンダリングされるようになりました。見つけにくいトラップですが、場所によって胃はadvanced effectsを有効にしているときよりも見つけやすくなるかもしれません。本件について何かお気づきの点があればご意見をお聞かせください。

モーションブラーを無効にするオプションをランチャーに追加しました。モーションブラーはadvanced effectsが有効な場合にのみ発生します。

HUD上のシフタ・デバンド・ジェルン・ザルアについて、切れる間際にアイコン表示を点滅させるかフェードアウトさせるかを選択するオプションを追加しました。この効果は持続時間の最後の10%で最大30秒間発生します。

英語版unitxtのいくつかの項目を修正しました。

多くのマップパーティクルのレンダリング距離と存続期間を修正しました。これにより、アルティメットのダークファルスの背景の稲妻など、いくつかのパーティクルが正しくレンダリングされるようになり、また範囲外に移動すると消えてしまうパーティクルも修正されました。

これらの修正について、何か問題点があればお知らせください。

Posted Mar 30th, 2024, 21:30 (UTC) by Ender's avatar Ender (11)

 

PSO and PSO Community Appreciation Thread

Hello, Hunters of PSO!

I've been doing some reflecting and noticed that, wow, it's has been quite the journey with PSO for me.

I've been in the PSO scene for quite some time! Online AND offline, I've played every release of PSO so far... JP PSOv1, US PSOv1, JP PSOv2, US PSOv2, JP EP1&2 Trial, US EP1&2, US EP3, JP PSOBB, US PSOBB. I've even tried all the game's potential successors such as PSU, PS0, and PSO2. But none of the more modern titles ever captured the magic of the "OG" PSO.

I think we can all agree that PSO is truly a lifestyle. Once you dive into this Hunter life, it's truly hard to ever get out of it. Sure, you may take a break from time to time, but we all seem to find our way back to the planet of Ragol.

I also made my way around the various PSO communities... As a member and eventually admin of the classic PSO-world PSO fan site, as a member and eventually admin of the classic Schtserv, as a member and admin of the Pioneer2.net PSO community, and as a member and admin of the Ephinea PSOBB server.

I've met so many great people from so many places. I've made some great PSO and now real life friends throughout the years and I feel we'll always remain friends for life. I'm truly thankful for all of you!

I remember wanting to learn how the game works on a technical level and making friends with various programmers. People like Kohle (now known as fuzziqersoftware), Myria, and Schthack really helped me to understand this game more. With the knowledge learned, I developed a very popular PSOGC proxy that is still used to this day.

I also remember getting the phone call on the day after my 27th birthday in 2008... I got the call that my father had been murdered the day before.

I became pretty depressed at this time and, wanting to find a way to push through it, wanting to find a way to focus on something else, I started to develop the PSOBB server software Tethealla, which the majority of private PSOBB servers, including Ephinea, also still use to this day.

When a certain PSO server started to use my software to make money, I became upset, stopped working on Tethealla, and left the PSO community for some time. It was @tofuman who managed to pulled me back in some time later and get me working on Tethealla again. tofuman also joined the development team officially.

Shortly after I started working once more on Tethealla, I became passionate about PSO's development and, sometime shortly after that, the Ephinea PSOBB server was born!

I think, at that time, the PSO community really needed a GREAT PSOBB server since also at that time, another server had fell due to staff negligence.

I wanted to create a place where players could enjoy the game again. I wanted to create a place where players could feel safe and that their data was safe. I wanted to create a PSOBB server that was mostly, ahem, "vanilla", but I wanted to also improve the quality of life for Hunters who decided to play on the server. I just wanted to do things RIGHT.

At that time and for several years after, Ephinea did not take donations to keep things running, everything was financed from my own pocket. I did this because of how much of a negative impact money coming in had on both the popular PSOBB servers at the time.

The other servers let players buy items, gave them double experience, and other things, for cash, which effectively makes the game pay to win to line the server creators' pockets. And, even with that money coming in, a server still managed to not backup any of the user data and lost everything. It was truly a "Wow" moment.

One of the very first things I made sure to implement was a way players could download their character data so as to not totally rely on the server, even though we had multiple backup locations for Ephinea.

People began to play on Ephinea and I was lucky to find great staff members who wanted to help moderate the game and also provide input on ways we could improve the server experience for players as well. And, even though I may have not always heeded to the input given to do things my own way, I did actually appreciate the input.

I know sometimes, it can seem like I can get emotional or angry at some things sometimes. I want to apologize for those moments, but it's really because I do have passion about this game and it's development. I want to do things to improve the game, but I also don't like upsetting people. I can also get stressed about things not working.

Thanks to the birth of my son in December of 2022, I'm more busy with real life than ever, though I'm still around day-to-day. But, you can ask Ender, when he says "Hey, this isn't working" or "I need you to do this", he always follows up with "BUT YOU DON'T NEED TO DO IT RIGHT NOW", because he knows I always want to fix things right away and I can get stressed out.

Oh yeah! On that note, although I'm thankful for ALL of my staff, I'm so especially thankful for @Ender as well. He has definitely improved development here with his own ideas on things and implementing new features. Ender comes up with things I didn't think were possible... He even comes up with things I didn't even think about to develop myself. He's an actual genius. Ender is definitely the real MVP lately.

Ephinea has evolved so much over these years. We've put servers in multiple locations, implemented so many quality of life changes, and so much more to become what many see as the definitive PSOBB experience. It has truly been one wild ride.

I'm so thankful to everyone who has joined up to explore planet Ragol here on Ephinea. I'm so thankful to the people who, day to day, choose to make Ephinea their server of choice to level up their characters and find the rare items of their dreams.

I'm also very thankful to our Patreon and Ko-Fi supporters who, now that we've opened up donations (which don't give donators any benefit except a Discord role), help to keep Ephinea running for, hopefully, years to come.

I want you to know, I love you all, and I hope all you Hunters of PSO continue to rock with Ephinea as well.

If you'd like to share your own PSO or Ephinea reflection, feel free to share it in a reply to this post.

Thank you for playing on Ephinea!

Posted Mar 8th, 2024, 15:53 (UTC) by Sodaboy's avatar Sodaboy (76)

 

Valentine's Event（バレンタインイベント開始！）

The Valentine's Event has begun!

During this event, players will gain extra rare drop rate for playing with other people:
- 2 player party: +5%
- 3 player party: +10%
- 4 player party: +20%
Furthermore, the daily forecast boosts will combine in a party, so if one player has +3% and one player has +5%, both players will receive +8%.

The Valentine's Event will end on 21st February.

We hope you enjoy playing on Ephinea!

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バレンタインイベントが開始しました！

イベント期間中、2人以上のパーティでプレイすることでレアドロップ率がアップします。
- 2Pパーティ：+5%
- 3Pパーティ：+10%
- 4Pパーティ：+20%
さらに、デイリーラックのブーストもパーティ内で合算されるようになります。
例）あるメンバーが+3%、もう一人が+5%の場合、合算されて二人とも+8%になります。

バレンタインイベントは2/21までとなります。

Ephineaでのイベントをお楽しみいただけますと幸いです！

Posted Feb 7th, 2024, 08:37 (UTC) by Matt's avatar Matt (8)

 

Server restart complete for December 22nd, 2023. (サーバ再起動完了 12/23)

Update: Restart complete. Sorry to keep you waiting! (Update was just to fix a minor bug with unit drops from previous update, but took longer than usual due to personal reasons.)

There will be a quick server restart at 20:00 UTC on December 22nd, 2023 to apply an update.

Thank you for understanding.

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追記： お待たせして申し訳ございませんでした、再起動が完了しました！
アップデートは、前回のアップデートで発生したユニットのドロップに関する小さなバグを修正するためのものでした。個人的な事情により通常より少し時間がかかってしまいました。

日本時間2023/12/23 05:00にアップデートを適用するために、サーバの再起動を行います。

ご理解とご協力のほど、よろしくお願いいたします。

Posted Dec 22nd, 2023, 14:55 (UTC) by Sodaboy's avatar Sodaboy (0)

 

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