Download Packs

[DjManiac21]

I see your point Flash, I merely use Piranha because I tested all shipn on stertches and magstrips to see how much they could take speewise.
So then the Piranha looked pretty steady, with good high end speed and decent cornering.
I guess my test run on The Amphiseum with the Feisar on Phantom is a good sign that the balance that was meant to be there, at least on fast classes, is indeed there. (at least for me)

I'm not so sure about that though on Venom or Flash, I think the slower the class the bigger the gap.
We are all still in dicovery phase here, so who knows

Good point there Flash, and sorry for derrailing this.

Now the latest pack, I will definitely get it when I get home.
We should arrange for this weekend to get toghether online and play some new tracks with fellow WZ pilots!

[wich]

Well, I got the Mirage pack the day after release and I must say that I am rather disappointed.

5 euros for two tracks and a craft is really too much in my book, especially considering what downloadable content for other playstation 3/psp games costs. I find the edgewinter track rather uninspired, with anything below phantom it's just no challenge at all, and what is that magstrip piece of track with the wave sides about, does that serve a purpose? Vostok reef is an enjoyable track and I'm interested to see what the white edition of that track looks like. Though I must admit I'm more atracted towards the tracks already in the game than I am to Vostok Reef Black. It's good to see the price of the download packs coming down now, but 4 euros is still on the high side for me.

That said, I'd hate to have paid 5 and 4 euros now and then see the price for those packs drop to 3 or even below within a couple of months. At this point in time the extra tracks are all but useless online, yesterday I started a single race Vostok Reef online and I had to wait almost 20 minutes before a single person joined. So we played a race together, and then I waited another 10 minutes for someone to join, but there was simply noone. All this, makes me seriously doubt whether I want to buy these packs now, or just wait until more people play these tracks online.

But the biggest problem of all I have with the playstation store itself. I normally don't use Windows at all, so I had to log in on someone else's computer, which is something I definately don't like to do, especially on a site where I use my credit card. Why can't you use the playstation store on the PSP, that'd solve the problems for just about everyone, then only people who don't have windows *and* don't have a wireless access point available to them would still have problems downloading packs. But of course using someone else's internet connection is way preferable compared to using someone else's computer to log in. Plus I'm lucky to have a credit card, but I know plenty of people who don't, Sony is a big corporation, why can't they offer more than one way to do the monetary transactions. I mean in the US practically everybody has a credit card, but here in Europe this is in no way the case, having a credit card is more exception than it is the norm.

[Dogg Thang]

Well I got the pack and gave it a go. That's the thing with the wallet system too - I put more in than I need and with you only being able to add funds in units of five, you're of course going to end up with more in there that you need. If they can charge a credit card, which they can, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for this wallet system other than to force people to put more money in than they need to. So the price difference here really doesn't matter - you're looking at a fiver minimum.

That's a scam, plain and simple.

Anyway, the pack. Edgewinter Black, just a reverse. Should have come as standard with the White version.

Icaras doesn't look as nice in-game as previous versions as it is a little stumpier but the Concept version is like the Icaras we know and love. Strangely (as it's so non-Icaras) I adore the colour scheme used on the Alternate skin.

The other track, name of which has already escaped me, looks odd. Something about the colour doesn't quite gel for me and it looks like lego. There's a toy plastic blue used that stands out. That said, I looooove the layout. It's got a couple of really harsh turns, a bunch of jumps (to annoy the BR crowd) and both a vertical drop and rise on mag-strips. The layout is excellent. Looking forward to getting to know this track.

All of my previous issues with the pack distribution still stand. The price is better and that, in theory, is a good move but the wallet system scam makes a mockery of that.

[wich]

I'm not that concerned with the wallet system, it makes sense when they will eventually support other payment systems than just credit cards. And it's not like I won't be getting more downloadable content for other games and such in the future.

[KANDANG]

I still say there's nothing special about the Piranha, especially considering the push Feisar has made on a few tracks in the last few days. I see how it's convenient to believe it has something to put it above the rest, chiefly because everyone uses it based on that belief, leading to the perception that it dominates the leaderboards (the more that use it, the more likely it'll flood the boards -- numbers).

Sometime in the near future, I'll be putting my AG-Sys through some paces on some of the straighter tracks (Moa, Talon) to hopefully further convince myself and anyone that cares to pay attention that my suppositions were correct. I firmly believe the balance Egg worked hard to achieve is in fact there, but the closer we come to a proof, the better informed we'll be.

- F

the push feisar has made on a few tracks in the last few days = the player doing the push not the ship.

and holding player skillwise & phantom/rapier speed constant.. if you put the feisar on talon's junction v.s piranha , the piranha will win. certain ships do better on certain tracks. put the piranha on outpost7 vs feisar and the piranha will lose.

from flash downwards, the piranha will come out top, even on outpost 7. if you are able to get 1 on talon's junction white with ag-sys while everyone else is using piranha then i'm sure there isnt' anything special with the piranha. everyone is doing what the good players are doing. if you aren't following you'll be left behind.

just tested the icaras and i was able to shave some time off a few tracks without much difficulty.

[Flashback Jack]

and holding player skillwise & phantom/rapier speed constant.. if you put the feisar on talon's junction v.s piranha , the piranha will win.

I've heard all the variations of the above, but that's only a claim. The results are so far consistently in favour of Piranha because as a group we haven't flocked en masse to any other ship and pushed hard enough to begin to disprove the claim. Not enough to knock every instance of a Piranha in first place out of the slot anyway.

I'm aware it would seem a likely impossibility that a Piranha would be smoked by a Feisar on Moa or Talon, assuming of course we have some semblance of real-world physics, consistent and relatively predictable in their attributes in action here. But such impossibilities are easily overcome in a freeform, code-based world like Wipeout Pulse where rules can be created on a developer's whim. That's primarily I fail to be convinced. An 800km/h versus a 725km/h (arbitrary values) top speed does not necessarily equal win in a world where 2 + 2 does not need to necessarily equal four.

I want to be convinced either way. We can come to a reasonably safe conclusion faster if a few of the fastest pilots organized an approach, perhaps by attempting to equal or better an existing speed lap with different ships. Already this has been done (I've matched your blazing Tech De Ra White Phantom Piranha lap with my AG-SYS -- I'm fairly sure we are comparable skill-wise). If we could do this many times across the various tracks, only then will we have a solid idea of whether there is in fact a supership among the mix.

Mods, feel free to split the thread off into the existing ship discussion thread if this continues.

- F

[Frances_Penfold]

Very interesting to hear about the Icaras being useful for fast runs-- sounds like the ship will be in circulation even if only for time trialing!

As soon as there is a mechanism to obtain the DLC in North America, I'm making the jump! Come on, Playstation Store people, make it happen!

Flashback, I spend a lot of time at Flash and Venom speeds, and have compared Pirrhana and Ag-Sys specifically (these are my two favorite ships)-- I really don't think there is any way that Pirrhana isn't the faster ship in all (or nearly all) tracks at the slower speeds. Faster speeds, I can definitely believe that maneuverability counter acts the raw speeds, at least in a track-specific manner. Note, this is coming from somebody that would REALLY like for more maneuver-able ships to come out on top-- I just don't think that will be the case, unfortunately.

[Lance]

.
The question of whether there is a supership, or whether one ship has a consistent edge in a class, or on a specific track will eventually be answered in the long-term records. An immediate answer doesn't seem necessary . But in any case, the discussion of the point is irrelevant in this thread. Please discuss the download packs and issues closely related to them
.

[Tomahawk]

I'm surprised in a very positive way about the price drop for the new pack. This is something I never would have expected. 3.99 euros is still a little bit too much for two tracks and a ship you can't use in multiplayer mode for my taste, but I feel that this is a good step in the right direction. Seems like someone at Sonys has listend to us... I'm honouring this new trend by buying the two packs now.

[NeXaR_QroN]

Sony has listened... or the first pack sales were really horrible.

[Alex_Se]

No matter how low they get it, some people will still not buy it. They need to add more paying options for smaller countries (mine for example). Not everyone has a credit card on their side.

[Dogg Thang]

Maybe Sony hasn't listened. Maybe it's just how they're working out the pricing. This pack has technically less than the previous pack. Both tracks were available in Zone in the last pack. Only one is this time. Perhaps they just revalued to take into account that difference.

Maybe it's as basic as €1 per track run (2), €1 per Zone version and €1 per ship. I have no idea if that works or how it translates to the UK£ pricing.

[P52Smith]

I think it's 50p per thing + £1 for the download itself
but I might be wrong

[DjManiac21]

I'll say something about the latest pack, since I see no comments about it yet.
This is a much higher package!
I just fell in love with Gemini Dam, it a wonderful track! It has 2 vertical mag strip sections, one going downwards, the next one upwards, it's just an awesome track!

And it has a 90 degree turn manor top-like, awesome stuff!!! Can't wait to play it online with all of you!

Then again this track has a couple of drops which contribute to BRs, but it will certainly rock on Phantom online! It has a great flow.

Edge Winter black is much better than white in my opinion, it's bendy and open. Indeed a much better version than white.

You also get the Icaras grid, 13 challenges this time, one less than the previous pack.

And the Icaras ship is quite good, I didn't try it on Phantom yet but it feels just right, bummer we can't use it online (yet?)

Definitely a good package at a slightly reduced price.

Oh, Gemini Dam...

[Dogg Thang]

I commented on it. Agree with you on Gemini. Not on Edgewinter though. I prefer the layout of white. Also, I think it is visually one of the weakest. The art design for both pure and pulse can be excellent but there sometimes seems to be a 'leave no space unfilled' thinking and Edgewinter is really cramped and messy.

The layout of Gemini is excellent though. Makes me wish the tracks were longer. It's fun stuff.

[Tomahawk]

Maybe Sony hasn't listened. Maybe it's just how they're working out the pricing. This pack has technically less than the previous pack. Both tracks were available in Zone in the last pack. Only one is this time. Perhaps they just revalued to take into account that difference.

I didn't read that there was only one track available in Zone in this new pack. I sure hope that they're not just working out the pricing for DLC, but have at least listened a little bit to our (my) whining about the high prices. I've shown my good will and purchased the two packs now, I'll see what the cost/value ratio is on the next two packs and have a real close look now before I buy anything else...

[Asayyeah]

Stevie and I have bought the new pack few sec ago ( not even tested it yet).
We really appreciate the way SCEE/SL lowered the price a lil' bit: thanks

[Dogg Thang]

Along with my quite horrendous loading times, the addition of this second pack seems to have resulted in frequent crashes. It has switched off several times during loading and more after coming back from sleep.

[Chrono]

That's certainly not good to hear. Picking my pack over at DJ's tomorrow. Trying to get my dutch credit card now, but it's a hassle

[poprock]

Why on Earth is there no Mac support? Surely all I need to do is download a file and transfer it to a specific folder on my PSP’s Memory Stick? Couldn’t Sony even risk letting me do that myself?

Really frustrating. I was ready to pay the asking price for all of these packs, too.

As for not being able to buy and download the packs directly on the PSP … omitting that is just plain idiotic. What if I owned a PSP but no computer? How would Sony expect to make money off me?