General

PQ changes on GMST: Ludi, Kerning, and more!

So I just had a fairly interesting evening. For the first time since I've started on Tespia, I ran into enough fellow players to test some of the party quests. Lots of interesting new features lying around: I'll try to cover the more interesting things I noticed.

- In general, as most of you probably know by now, there is no longer a max level for most PQ's. This is amazing.

- What you might NOT know is that the minimum number of players required for many PQ's is more flexible now. I was able to get into the Kerning, Ludibrium, Elin Forest, Herb Town, and Orbis PQ's with just a party of 3.

- Most bonus stages are completely gone now; in their place, when the boss dies you are presented with a pop-up window with six treasure-chest buttons. You click a chest to claim your prize. Unfortunately, the window doesn't last for long, and if your EQP, USE, or ETC inventories are full you're basically out of luck.

[b]Kerning PQ[/b]
The KPQ npc in Kerning now takes you to a kerning PQ lobby, similar to the lobby used for Spieglemann's PQ and most other party quests- no more random KPQers running around Kerning.

No surprises on stage 1, nor on stage 2. Stage 3 had two oddities about it. First, after our first guess, one of the kitty platforms started sparkling as a "hint"; I assume that it marked the lowest numbered platform that needed a player on it (ie, platform 2 was sparkling and the combination was 235). Second, an extra NPC in the room offered to give me an etc Puppy item that I could use to replace a missing party member- just drop it on a platform and check your answer. The things look hilarious, with a little luck my screen shot will be accepted.

EDIT: http://www.basilmarket.com/show/screen/190558/0/Puppies_in_kerning_pq.html

Stage 4, as we used to know it, was gone entirely. Instead of a puzzle, we had to kill curse eyes.

Finally, the boss stage. Unlike the old boss stage, there were no mobs here other than King Slime. Since my party consisted of level 200 fourth jobbers, you can imagine that it didn't last long. Once the bonus window was finished with, we were lead directly out of the party quest.

[b]Ludibrium PQ[/b]
Regrettably, connectivity issues prevented us from completing LPQ, but we got most of the way to the end. The first stage is just like it's always been. Stage 2, however, is very simplified; the map is smaller, there are fewer boxes, and the box that used to teleport you to a secondary map is just plain gone. As a particularly nice touch, the NPC is smart enough to check your entire party's inventory for tickets on this stage- no need to pass them to the leader. Not sure yet if this is true for other stages as well...

The stage with the boxes filled with Blocktopus is gone. The stage that required Dark Sight and Teleport is also gone (still bitter about that, I wanted to use Genesis on those murderous King Block Golems rather desperately). The stage with the monsters that hide in the dark no longer uses tickets; the npc simply knows when all of the monsters have been defeated. The Rombot stage no longer has the Dirty Ratz that need to be defeated by a ranged player; the Rombots simply spawn freely across the map.

The maze is still the good ol' combination. Those numbers will haunt me forever.

The last stage before Alishar was where we all DC'd. The number blocks were much more spread out now, probably so that we can more easily use the party-member-replacement ETC items (like the puppy I mentioned in KPQ). Unfortunately, the party-member-replacer in Ludi PQ is glitched, and trying to get one DC'd us all.

[b]Orbis PQ[/b]

Most of Orbis PQ seems largely unchanged, though having 4th job skills put the experience in a very different light. That aside, my biggest surprise was to find that the Sealed Room stage was missing; the door simply didn't respond to me as party leader, and the statue piece we would normally get from Sealed Room was given to me on a different stage. This could be because I was in a small party (3 people), but I can't find enough PQers to test that theory. In either case, the stage that contained the vanishing lioners, magic immune grupins, and physical immune cellions was also gone.

The Storage room- that tall place where Celions spawn on random platforms- now tells you the number of the platform where the Cellion spawned. Makes it much faster to find and kill it, especially with a small group.

Again, we were unable to reach the boss; we DC'd during the jump quest stage, so no news on the boss.

[b]Herb Town / Pirate PQ[/b]

No surprises in the PQ itself on this one; it wasn't until the end that I was caught off guard. The NPC that gives out Lord Pirate's hats no longer keeps track of your PQ count. To get the count, you instead need to collect "Lord Pirate Hat Fragments". Problem is, no one in my party got any fragments- not from the boss, not from the NPC's on the way out, and not from the PQ reward window that popped up when Lord Pirate died. I find this troubling. Glitch perhaps?

[b]Ellin Forest PQ[/b]

Ok, to be honest I don't know EPQ well enough to recognize what's changed. I mostly listed it here to drive home the point that Tespia is incredibly unstable, because my party DC'd on this one too.

If you have specific questions, I'll try to field 'em. In any case, I'm definitely excited that all of these party quests will be open to us again. Huzzah for the Big Bang!