Elliander wrote:Is it possible for an access key to be all zeroes or something like that? and if so how many characters should it be? That wouldn't help me with the serial number though even if that were the case.
It is not possible for an actual "valid" access key to be all zeroes, that is for sure. Access keys are 8 case sensitive numbers/letters for the Dreamcast version of PSO.
If I create a new character with a new VMU it creates a new Guild Card. Wouldn't it's ID be different?
A guild card file and your guild card number are two different things. The guild card file just saves the cards you have gotten from other people online. Your guild card number is assigned by the server and is required to be a unique number amongst all other people playing online at any point in time. The server itself never sees your guild card file and has no idea of what the content of it is.
I could purchase a new factory sealed copy to make sure that the code has never been registered and then use it with all the consoles, but what kind of problems would I face if I were to do that? What would it mean for Guild Card searching to not work the way it should? and can the key saved on the console ever be deleted? Alternatively, I could plan to buy a new case for each console, but to do that I would still need a way to delete used codes. Either way, going forward, I will plan to tape onto the underside and inside of the console case the PSO serial and access keys.
Once again, I'm only speaking about Sylverant here as I have no idea how Schtserv handles this at all...
When logging onto the server, your Dreamcast sends the serial number, access key, and another identifier to the server to log you on. This identifier is treated by the server as a console ID. Thus, the server has three pieces of information to identify you: a serial number, access key, and that "console ID". However, certain circumstances can cause this "console ID" to change.
If a serial number/access key pair is not registered on the Sylverant website, the server will check whether there are any guild cards in the system that have an exact match for all three of the identifiers in the log on packet. To this end, a non-registered key can be used on multiple consoles as long as that console ID from earlier never matches on two consoles. To this end, Sylverant will not allow "shared keys" (that is to say keys that people have posted online) to be registered on the website. You can still use these keys to play the game, but you cannot register them to your account (and thus, any characters created using these keys cannot use any features that require registration on the website).
If a serial number/access key is registered on the Sylverant website to your account, the server will no longer take the console ID that is connecting into account when determining your guild card number. To this end, every console that uses that same serial number/access key will have the same guild card number and you will be able to thus freely use any character with that serial number on any of the consoles. However, as I said before, this will also mean that only one of these consoles will be able to be online at a time because the guild card number must only be in use by one client at a time.
You do not necessarily need to purchase factory sealed copies of the game -- any copy that has the original serial number/access key page or sticker is fine (assuming the version/region match whatever disc you are using to play the game, of course). If you happen to purchase a copy that has already been registered on the website, I can help solve that problem for you for Sylverant.
As for why guild card searching doesn't necessarily work right... Think about it this way... Let's say you start your character on the console with ID 1234 and you move it to the console with ID 2345. These two consoles will have different guild card numbers if the key is not registered on the website. Thus, a player you exchanged cards with on the first console wouldn't be able to find you on the second console and vice versa. Also, as I mentioned earlier it is possible for that console ID to be changed by some circumstances, which will also break any cards you have exchanged with others.
Keys saved on consoles can be deleted by resetting the flashrom of the console (there is a homebrew program out there to do this and the US v1.0 web browser can also do it). Keys saved on the website can be deleted on the website (although, this does not delete the key from your console or your save file, obviously). Keys saved in a particular save file from the game cannot be changed -- once you enter a key, that character is locked to that key forever more.
So, is there no way to extract the keys from the DC internal memory? I get that the save file is encrypted with the keys, so I wouldn't get them that way, but that means the keys have to be stored on the console itself in some accessible state, right?
There is currently no way to get the access key back from the console. It is possible to get the serial number, but without the access key it is pretty much useless.