So it turns out "as soon as I can get motivation" is today. Surprise!
Mission Pack 5: Dawn of a New DayDownload
here.
Requirements:
Client with third update maps/music (for Sinners' Banquet/Castle of Monsters)
Recommended:
Mission Pack 4 (otherwise, loading any mission pack 1-4 mission from the counter will crash) (note: apply before mission pack 5)
Recommended: File 87e19534e724ac860eb9b0421c65bae0 from the
item expansion)
This pack contains the following:
Sinners' Banquet C-S3 (Neudaiz free mission): Reports indicate that excommunicated COG members have been studying the SEED factor at Ohtori Castle, a long-forgotten landmark. Break through the castle walls and make your way to the tower!
Castle of Monsters C-S4 (Neudaiz free mission): The tower of Ohtori Castle is brimming with SEED-Forms, obviously the result of the ex-COG members' research. Purify the tower so the disaster does not spread outside!
Distant Dream C-S4: A simulation based upon a beloved game from the earliest days of photon technology. Protect the city from the minions of a mad scientist bent on world domination!
Sinners' Banquet and Castle of Monsters are third update free missions from the Japanese server, covering the Ohtori Castle field. They're both pretty cool--Sinners' Banquet takes place outside, which is somewhat reminiscent of PSO's VR Temple, while Castle of Monsters is a mission almost entirely composed of large monsters (SEED-Vance, Zasharogans, SEED-Ardite, things of that nature), which is a fairly unique challenge (also beware of some rather nasty traps!)
Distant Dream is a mission that even people who played the Japanese version have probably never played. There's a very good reason for this.
Distant Dream is a new, custom mission. It has the following unique features:
New maps, taken from Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast version).
New music (also from Sonic Adventure).
Unique ranking condition (find three goggle targets in block 1).
Shiny glass
everywhere (you have
no idea how irritating it was to get the windows in block 1 working correctly).
Part of the goal was to have a simultaneous release of something for Clementine, because being able to do this isn't tied exclusively to one project or the other, but it ended up impossible due to real life considerations. Even this version got delayed by 3 months compared to when I was aiming for (it was intended for the "Sonic's birthday" seasonal event from online).
Please enjoy!
Note: For mission pack 4, I had recommended using a US online .exe hacked for offline mode, but that one caused NPC shops to
always crash. I apologize for the inconvenience; for this pack, I've gone back to a modified version of the standard offline no-gg one, with a different solution to the "opening the counter twice crashes the game" (I've also added a save sphere and PP charger to the club for a smoother experience). The .exe for this pack has the maximum scene draw distance increased for all settings. If you actually needed near/medium, please let me know.
Known issues:
Castle of Monsters has no clear rewards (blame the old client).
Standard text overruns on the counter display.
Enemies not normally available offline have no drops (except Delnadian).
Rarely, monsters that fall off rooftops will get stuck rather than respawning; if this occurs, you'll have to exit and restart the mission.
EDIT 11/15: Surprises don't work if nobody realizes they exist.