Dragon Quest IX

[Julian]

Haha, yeah. I was surprised at all the old people, but I guess that's Florida for ya :D

At the best buy one, there was this one old lady, probably in her late 60's or 70's or something. We talked a bit, and then she told me how she lurked the gamefaqs forums, and there was a thread about the boca best buy, and 2 people in it said they were going, and she actually memorized their names, lol. She kept going "I wonder if that's nameofguy2341somenumbers?" and I just kinda lol'd. She was cool.

[Yuri-G]

really wasn't that bad? now you guys tell me! I was expecting the events to be like the last time I went to a hobby shop, it was like a meetup for Asperger's Syndrome. oh well. there's a major thread on gamefaqs for the Twin Cities area, hopefully someone will set up another meeting. I got my MKS map now but the JP map with an all-MKS floor would still be nicer.

[Rokku]

I'd love to get a copy of Masayuki's map and Kawasaki's Locker, but the wife and I don't AR/Save state hack/whatever, so the only chance we'd have is going to the damned mall event where I know there's a couple people from GFAQs passing out those maps.

[arus2001]

Thing I posted last at least has an MKS floor. I don't think it's the same as the Masayuki since I didn't get any uber chests to put out, though. If someone here has it by chance, could you maybe post your save so I could look at the map data? Being able to manually edit it in can at least propagate it a little as offset to the whole tag mode/wifi thing.

[Rokku]

It's actually pretty easy to determine the seed of chests without relying on those specific maps. I sat down with a Ruby Crypt of something Lv.85 that I got through tagging at the BB event and managed to map out the fact that it has 2 S rank and 5 A Rank chests, including one that has the full metal set in a 20 second time block in it. Only took about an hour to map out the chest contents using the timer/assumed patterns developed from those maps.

I honestly retract my comment about wanting those two maps, it's not that hard to get a map that has a full floor of MKS, and to be honest it's not that hard to map the chest contents of an A rank or S Rank chest, given that we know the initial patterns that they assume after a quicksave load.

In short, Masayuki's Map and Kawasaki's Locker are seriously, seriously overrated.

[Julian]

It's actually pretty easy to determine the seed of chests without relying on those specific maps. I sat down with a Ruby Crypt of something Lv.85 that I got through tagging at the BB event and managed to map out the fact that it has 2 S rank and 5 A Rank chests, including one that has the full metal set in a 20 second time block in it. Only took about an hour to map out the chest contents using the timer/assumed patterns developed from those maps.

I honestly retract my comment about wanting those two maps, it's not that hard to get a map that has a full floor of MKS, and to be honest it's not that hard to map the chest contents of an A rank or S Rank chest, given that we know the initial patterns that they assume after a quicksave load.

In short, Masayuki's Map and Kawasaki's Locker are seriously, seriously overrated.

I don't really care much about the loot chests, but getting a map full of MKS isn't hard?

What am I missing here?

[Rokku]

Forcing a seed for a particular map isn't hard, there's already a couple of replica maps that people have generated without too much effort over on GFAQs and a couple other places. I wouldn't say it's exceptionally common or anything, but it's certainly something you can influence to the point of making it less than omgwtfbbqetc rare.

I'm just not sold on Masayuki's being essential, I've got at least 3 maps with MKS in them, and I've done revocations and level 99 and everything else with surprising ease. Just check out the exact formulas for forcing a seed/quailty, if you know what you're doing it's not too incredibly hard to bend the game's arm.

[Julian]

I see, last time I checked none of that stuff was known >.>

any particular links? gonna check gamefaqs now <.<

also, Masayuki map isn't that great, having to go all the way to 15 to get to them, but, it was the first legit map that spread across japan, so, yeah.

[Rokku]

Yeah, a lot of that falls on the ease of distribution in Japan, I'd wager. People found those maps, figured them out, and then passed them around like wildfire, so no one really bothered to examine the formula behind them too much past that point.

I'll nudge around in a bit and see if I can find that seeding formula, it's not too amazingly complex though. Kind of busy right this second so I can't go digging for it.

[Niteheldemon]

ROM keeps freezing whenever I try to enter Treasure Map dungeons now. Sad panda. ;_;

Yo, I actually found my own fix on my friend's ds that has done this. Its a simple fix. All you have to do is when you go to the main menu of the game (where load/save/wifi settings is located). go to the wifi settings. After going to the wifi settings, then just exit it right away, this will cause the screen to go white for about 5 seconds and it'll restart the game. Now load your file and it should not freeze when you enter treasure map dungeons and/or getting treasure maps from optional quests.

[pop552]

Yo, I actually found my own fix on my friend's ds that has done this. Its a simple fix. All you have to do is when you go to the main menu of the game (where load/save/wifi settings is located). go to the wifi settings. After going to the wifi settings, then just exit it right away, this will cause the screen to go white for about 5 seconds and it'll restart the game. Now load your file and it should not freeze when you enter treasure map dungeons and/or getting treasure maps from optional quests.

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
I've been spending hours and hours trying to find a fix, going through various methods, ending up in utter failure.
This simple fix is epic :DDDD.

[Julian]

Yeah, a lot of that falls on the ease of distribution in Japan, I'd wager. People found those maps, figured them out, and then passed them around like wildfire, so no one really bothered to examine the formula behind them too much past that point.

I'll nudge around in a bit and see if I can find that seeding formula, it's not too amazingly complex though. Kind of busy right this second so I can't go digging for it.

?

[Rokku]

Shit, I actually had it pulled up the other day and forgot to post it, but in essence any map once you're 99 or so can lead to a quality range that can produce MKS maps. It's actually an anomaly in the coding that can occur on any map where MKS are present. People have found "void floors" and floors full of nothing but Sluggerslaughts too. I actually managed to pick up my own MKS map while dicking around the other day and trying to get a map with Boss#12 (won't name on account of spoilers), so I'm still gonna stick by the whole not as uncommon as people think statement, given the amount of them popping up recently.

I will however concede that maybe Kawasaki's Locker is worthwhile, since S Rank chests are a bitch and out of all of them that I've had show up on my maps I still haven't gotten one with the loot pattern needed for it to have a Gringham Whip in it.

[Odesseiron]

I just started playing this (was finishing some other games) and I dunno. I just can't get into it. I absolutely loved DQ8. I know this was made to be a multiplayer game and it focuses a lot on that, but having no party members and protaganist with no personalities or anything is a massive turnoff for me. I start to wonder what I'm even playing for. I loved the chars of 8, they were all unique and fun. I know it's a new game and all... but does it get better? The story seems very uninteresting, though I can't rightly say that's fair after only playing for about 3 hours.

[Marcicus]

5,7,8 all shit on 9 IMO.

But to keep this on topic, I unlocked Armamentalist. I heard the Fource abilities are good, but I don't want to main Armamentalist in my party. What other job can make good use of the Fource?

[orinthia]

I just started playing this (was finishing some other games) and I dunno. I just can't get into it. I absolutely loved DQ8. I know this was made to be a multiplayer game and it focuses a lot on that, but having no party members and protaganist with no personalities or anything is a massive turnoff for me. I start to wonder what I'm even playing for. I loved the chars of 8, they were all unique and fun. I know it's a new game and all... but does it get better? The story seems very uninteresting, though I can't rightly say that's fair after only playing for about 3 hours.

I'd say if you liked dq3 then you'd enjoy dq9 more. Dq3 had the same "build your team" deal by having a pub where you could create your party members from a variety of jobs and eventually be able to change their jobs. Dq9 has this same thing - you should be around there by now though (can have 3 other pt members). Job choices in the beginning don't alter things much, so go with what you like.

The big thing is each town has its own backstory to them - a few of them are funny while a couple others seem based on stories. Same sort of deal as with pretty much all other dq games though - solve the town's problems and move forward. After a while you'll get back up to that place from the beginning and some more what-the-flap things happen... but you never do get back your wings and halo .

[Julian]

5,7,8 all shit on 9 IMO.

But to keep this on topic, I unlocked Armamentalist. I heard the Fource abilities are good, but I don't want to main Armamentalist in my party. What other job can make good use of the Fource?

Anyone can.

You'll eventually want to get an Armamentalist to 40 and do the quest to get the Armamentalist scroll, whoever you give it to, when they use a fource ability, it will target the entire party.

[Yeargdribble]

Embarrassing true story. I just picked up the game and was playing along all fine wondering when I'd get to change vocations and get a few more characters in my party.

So I got my boat and started wondering when I was gonna go be able to save this Jack guy. I check a guide and found out I could've done it a long time ago. I missed some tiny dialogue thing (talking to a guy twice) and didn't get the party trick to open the door to the tower (which I'd found long ago).

But it gets better. I finish up my business in Gleeba and really am wondering when I'll get some other party members.

Turns out, when I was chatting with the chick in the Stornway Inn I was assuming the recruit a friend crap was for online and I wasn't interested so I didn't check into it. I literally played through a huge chunk of the game with a solo Minstrel. Things are a hell of a lot easier with a full party (that needs to do some catching up), but I honestly found the difficulty incredibly light even solo. I basically never had to grind except if I was specifically saving up for new gear.

[Charismatic]

Yeah, if you'd have tried to do the quest to change vocations before Lleviathan before finding that party stuff (which it seems they intend for you to do). The boss there probably would have been your only challenge. I actually was trying to do a solo challenge run and that was the only boss that gave me a 'challenge'.

Even he wasn't really that hard. The Tyrantula was also annoying solo but the game was pretty much a breeze even solo which is why I ended up putting it down before even finishing it. (pretty sure I was close though)

[arus2001]

I can see it being kinda easy if you fight every fight solo, as you're basically getting 4x the EXP you would've gotten in a 4 man group. Then again, levels don't seem to make a super huge difference in small numbers. It's typically cross-class buffs from specific trees that do more for your performance than level.