Patching tomorrow

All,

The AO log-in says that the system will go down for patching tomorrow. I assume this is 13.8x.

Funcom: You have said over and over than our feedback matters, whether you take the time to respond to it or not. You have set up sticky threads on this page to get responses. You have gotten very vocal responses to the issues of player-corpse looting, the Unique items stealth nerf of 13.6 and change in 13.8, and the token changes (plus other less controversial changes, of course).

What effect has it had? Are you at all swayed by the almost universal call to either reverse the Unique change in 13.6 or at least explain why you are doing it in relation to MA Attacks, IQ Rings and Flurry of Blows. Cz promised me feedback on this issue over a week ago since the IQ Ring debacle looked su****iously like the pillow debacle that you claimed would never happen again.

And are you still going forward with the player-corpse looting and the token changes as reactions to both of those has been rather mixed (though largely negative in the former case, I believe)? Are you at all planning to comment in those threads that you started?

We just want information, as usual.

Scorus

Most people that play the game do not post here and it is difficult to determine the overall view. I ask players in game about various topics concerning the next patch and most dont seem to care either way. However, overwhelmingly I have found players very receptive to the idea of larger token rewards.

Thanks for the info, Scorus. ;)

It shouldn't have been you, that posted such an info out here (nothing personal, ya know).

Sigh, the longer I watch/play the game I get more and more the impression they build a game for themselves (or a very restricted 'community') rather than for their customers.

Hey, Funcom: You are getting input over input from your paying customers (we, that keep you alive, in case you forgot). The response to it has been more than sparse, if I might say so. Is this new dungeon so damn important. Just another add on for Dark Carnival (cool, big fellows, just an 'example', replace it by any other 'prominent' guild).
We know that you can do beautiful graphics - the best in (online) business even, but where the hell is the balance and the content?

Just some ranting - not expecting any reaction. :(

So long,

Max(imilian)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Maximilian
Sigh, the longer I watch/play the game I get more and more the impression they build a game for themselves (or a very restricted 'community') rather than for their customers.

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Personally, I think they worked long and hard on this game and when it came under such attack after launch (for things as petty as not being able to start, lag like people who weren't playing then can't imagine, and downtime on the order of several hours/day), they built the barricades and have only occassionally peaked.

Plus they launched the thing six months before it was ready and have had to throw so much money into in-game customer service and bug fixes that they haven't had the time to do all the other stuff that they had hoped to, like creating and serving a community. That is why so many of the once-good fansites out there have either closed shop or fallen into disrepair.

Scorus

Scorus, as usual you and I seem to be on the same page regaurding the communication issue. I was pleased to see that they decided to break down the patch notes into sticky threads to get feedback on the upcoming changes.

But as usual I am severly disapointed at the effectivness of them. I have read them all and there is (as is almost allways the case) a very large amount of constructive and well thought out advice and direction from the player community in those threads. I don't think it could be any clearer about the reaction regaurding the PVP changes being poorly implimented. I have ready the entire thread a couple of times and it is obvious to me that a vast majority, even the hardcore pvp'ers to some extent, feel this is the wrong way to give pvp incentive. But did we see a response? Is anything positive going to come out of the hours worth of effort that all of the players and community members spent reading and giving there constructive feedback on the patch issues?

As of right now I can see no evedance that they have even read them at all. I feel more and more that posting on these boards is just a way to communicate with my fellow players and nothing more. FC it is a shame too, you started out so good after the last patch. You posted the new patch info quick and in a reasonable format. You did the right thing with the new patch notes by orginizing the seperate issues for comments from the player base, and then boom lights out. No word on the board on when the patch is going live, its been schedualed but yet again a player had to point out when it is going to happen. What are you doing with all the feedback we gave you. I don't think there is any doubt that there are some changes in there that your player base is not pleased with?

Wasting my time I think, my guess is they threw it up there, let us comment till were blue in the face, never read it, might read it after they go live with the patch and then say "Oh well its live now".

Please give us a sign that someone is at least making an attempt at relaying the players wishes to the proper people.

I'm with you on this one.. I asked the exact same question in a similar thread..
It makes absolutely no sense to me that they ask for feedback, get it, and don't even give us one little answer????
I feel cheated...
*Looks sad*

See my post about FC's communications problems at

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...threadid=12743

It pretty much sums things up.

-> Scorus: Due to the fact that Funcom does not communicate with us, we have to discuss such interesting topics on our own. :(

Quote:

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Originally posted by Scorus
Personally, I think they worked long and hard on this game and when it came under such attack after launch (for things as petty as not being able to start, lag like people who weren't playing then can't imagine, and downtime on the order of several hours/day), they built the barricades and have only occassionally peaked.

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110% agreement on the effort point. ;) Compared to what I have seen and heared AO is a groundbreaker/has the potential to be one. I really like AO and to some major extend I admire their work. But this fact is to often outweighed by their (design) flaws and (general) mistakes.
No need to talk about premature release of software. AO is 'now' in the state that it should have been released in. Quite frequently in the last few days I get the feeling to be immerged in a future world that has its own rules.

Impressions:
You know the picture around the mission terminal in Newland when there are 15+ people standing around, mingled with robots, hovering MP pets, crat droids and a couple of Yals in the air - this looks like SciFi/Fantasy to me. :)

We are far from a solid state, but compared to the first weeks ... . Imagine the effect AO would have had on the 'community' if it would have been released with 13.6/13.8 (no discussion on this topic here). But if/when/why/what does not help at the moment. Concept and realization are two entirely different things, and as I see it, they have a severe struggle to survive (maybe not that drastic, but do we know?, do we want to know?).
They should do what they can to work on their reputation and this comes mostly via Customer service with such a complex product. I think (own experience) that the ingame service has improved significantly, but, as you said very clearly, the communication with the community via their portal is lousy (or even worse). Information flow is almost not existant, if so, it is spread by the word or much to late. It looks like they had/have to draw the last two community guys (Cz and Cosmik) from the boards for testing ... (wild guess). Nothing more than some meaningless statements (board). ... We could go on for hours critisizing, no good either.
I think, there would be enough volunteers to fill the gaps that are more than obvious. Some ideas:
- Get one 'responsible' for each profession board that transfers information from and to the community.
- Update the manual/FAQ more frequently. Sure it is fun to find out new things. But only a minority knows about the real 'cool' things (uniques). Knowledge alone is not enough to get them, so this won't imbalance to much.
- Introduce some ingame bulletin bords (old idea)
- Is there content for solo players in the game?

That is my major point: Either you are one of the 'elected' and know what is going to happen (story, events) or you are part of the (ignored) masses (personal impression).

I hope we can discuss this topic in a few months under different circumstances. ;)

So long,

Max(imilian)