RANT : This is a rant, don't read it

OK, maybye I'm a fanboy (I have a 140 nt so I don't know how I could be) but this is a fantastic game. Funcom IS working on ALL of the issues of grievance. They WANT you to be happy. If they could have fixed the particular problem you have without creating other problems they would have already. They will work out any problems that they can within what's possible with existing code. They know what they are. The proffesionals know all the issues with each class and so does funcom. Please start any thread that is a rant with RANT: and proceed to fire your scatershot barrages of ill informed whining. All constructive critisism is more than welcome. But the ranting level is deafening and nothing positive or constructive can be heard above the din.

I love you Funcom

I agree, I'm having a good time playing the game and I assume that Funcom wants the customers to be happy and are working hard.
The only real problems that I see is alot of people complain about things that are just basic things that should have been fixed long before some of the new content was put in, IMHO. A lot of people seem to complain about a lack of communication from FC about their issues as well. I think better communication between FC and fans would help a lot of people deal with the problems better and stop them from complaining as much.
Something that would help with communication would be if people would add their complaints to an already existing post instead of creating new ones until there are fifty threads about the same thing, which FC can't hope to reply to every one. An old idea, but a good one.

Good point. Communication is the point where funcom could do with the most improvement.

About additional content before fixes to old bugs and such:
Different divisions within the game work on new content. These people may not be qualified to fix existing bugs so re-alocating resources from new content to bug fixing may not be as easy as it sounds.

Thanks for the civil reply.

Im glad You are happy and love Funcom.


The proffesionals know all the issues with each class and so does funcom


The proffessionals, yes.
Funcom, no way.


Merry Christmas everyone :)

Just apply common sense to how FC operates in relation to the rest of the world, lets take home building for example. I build a home for you, its constructed of typical materials but there are a few annoying problems.

When it rains the roof leaks and the ceiling becomes saturated with water and collapses, in addition the plumbing leaks under the house and now a moldy stench is permiating your basement, plus everytime you use your oven the circuit breaker trips and must be manualy reset, Lets not talk about the over flowing toilet, or the septic tank leach field not performing properly.

What would you do if your home was like this example?.

I understand PvP class balance issue's are complex and will never satisfy everyone so I'm not really speaking to those issue's, but basic game bugs like the multitude that seem to never be fixed drive people nuts, and we as players deserve better.

The automotive industry was forced to accept the notion that *lemon cars do exist, and must reimburse people for a product that doesnt perform as intended, maybe software companies need to set some industry wide performance standards.

Lokgen

IMO this game is really dynamic and fun.

Yes, there was a deep and dark ravine for Funcom to start out in, but now, this game is as stable as any and just keeps getting better and more varied. And I actually think Funcom not only cares about us, they care about the f***ng game. To start fixing it with all its problems at launch and the following months, they needed to be... crazy? Stupid? Or did they need to care? I think so.

/cheer on

Still appreciating the positive tone of all responses.

Comparing a house or a car to something as organic as a mmorpg is, I would think, unfair. Funcom does have an obligation to fix old bugs and such. But, like I said, if it was in their ability to have done so already they would have. It is in their own self interest to do so. The more enjoyable they make the game the more recommendations we will give it and the more money they will make.

The only option they would have at this point is to fire all those working on new content and hire a bunch of bug fixers. This presents far more problems than would be solved.

And yes, I do think they actually care about the world they have created.

I have been here since day one. And I freely admidt that I still love this game. I'm also a veteran MMORPG player, with a year of UO, 2.5 of EQ, bout 6 months of DAoC, and Lord knows how much text-based RPG play before then under my belt. What distrubs me is that FC seems to have the same stumbling block that all the others did, a Vision. Let me rephrase that, its not the Vision that disturbs me, but its method of implementation.

The AO gameworld is designed around the concept of a war. At the moment this war is between the Clans and Omnitek (but these battle lines will take a drastic change once Shadowlands comes out), for control of this world's most valuable of resources, notum. That is to say, AO appears to be intended to be a PvP game, weather we like it or not. The vast majority of the so-called nerfs have been nothing less then attempts to balance PvP play, usually with serious repercussions to PvM activities. Notum Wars is cleverly designed so as to FORCE players into PvP situations.

Now, pre-NW, the actual amount of people who activly participated in PvP was rather small when compaired with the bulk of the playerbase. I wont quote any numbers, because there really arent any relyable ones, but the fact of the matter is that up until this point, not many folks went out picking fights. The problem is that the ones that DO are very, very vocal. Which suits FC just fine, PvP is what they had in mind in the first place. This places thoes of us who dont care to waste time killing our fellow players in a bind. Due to the small but rabid section of the playerbase that likes to kill off his/her fellow Man, we have been saddled with things like level reqs, repeated and apparently pointless nerfs, and poorly thought-out tower fight scenerios, to name a few. And all at the expense of important and long-standing PvM issues like pet pathing.

At least Verant had the guts (if you can call something as asinine as this, such) to blatently state that the terrible changes they implemented were in service to thier Vision. Funcom seems content to keep thier Vision to themselves, while nerfing the vast majority of us into the stone age. And that includes PKers and mob-hunters alike.

Sometimes, I really feel betrayed by this hobby that I put so much time and effort into.

I knew if I read these boards long enough some one would make an intelligent and well written comment. Nice job

Mr. T

The problem isnt that FC knows or the proffessionals know , because weather they do or not does not matter. What matters is THEY CANT FIX WHAT THEY BROKE. They have no idea whats inside there own code, they patch they break they patch to fix whats broke they fix that break more. It is a neverending patch to fix what they patched the last time. I have played so many games online , and yes they all patch and have a few problems.. BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN A COMPANY THAT PATCHES IN THE SAME PROBS THEY HAVE FIXED 5 TIMES OVER. This is just plain stupid.
There servers are incapable of holding the few people left that play. The LAG and LDs are inexcusable after 2 years, Beta was more balanced than there PVP expansion. Level reqs for a game that wont be out for 6 months or more.

Tons of bugs that have yet to be FIXED since early beta. Sure they fix them once, well mabey twice, well lets be honest some 5-6 times they have been fixed only to be right back. They dont fix exploits that destroyed the community as a whole, 18 hours to spawn something LOL what a crock. All the lvl 150 + most of them could care less anymore. They start new toons or leave.

More and more accounts show up on ebay and such sites. get sold then played then sold cause they are bored too. Sure they added content for 150 + .. PVP was added. OH wait ITS BROKE!

You see fanboys can all say one thing , the rest of the majority can say the other.. Sure the game is 100Xs better than release,but then again SO WAS PONG!!!!

Funcom needs to learn to use what they put in place. Polls tell them majority says no to something so they do the other.. Its part of there VISION, well hey FC got a question.. WHY THE HELL YA EVEN ASK THEN.

These are but a fraction of the problems and things that make people say yo suck. FIx something ya might save it, keep going the way ya are, you wont be very big.

Weasal

An mmorpg is not pong. (a curt answer to a curt remark)

Just because they break something in a patch does not mean that they can just remove the part that was broken.

Many things in gaming code are redundant. So if they take out the "part" that broke something this may cause a series of other things to get broken because of interrelationships in the coding.

A patch is not like a patch that you put on a hole in your blue jeans. Consider a patch as a change to every fiber in the pair of jeans. (terrible analogy but I just woke up)

Anyway. I again agree that their needs to be better communication, regardless of the amount of critisizm ANY change to the game will recieve.

Anyway. thanks for positive feedback. Please limit comments on technical issues to areas of which you are familiar.

Actually i am familiar with it. I know how programming works, however most people dont want to listen to a bunch of technical crap that doesnt mean a thing.
I posted it so even my child could understand the problems. And ya know if my jeans needed to replace the threading because all my jeans on the market were screwed up.Well your damn right i would fix it, because as a company i dont want my jeans falling off peoples BUMS as they walk around. That wouldnt be good advertising.(unless they were womens jeans )

As far as the patches go , why add more broken stuff on top of broken stuff that just adds to the problem. It doesnt make it go away( well temp. it does for them till next patch) Im not saying it is a days work ,but damn two years of the same bugs is a little long for a program fix dont ya think. And if they cant fix it mabey just mabey it should be removed if possible. Not just hanging in the game causing grief.
As far as the pong comment went well i shouldnt have to even comment on that . I do know the difference i would have figured you would have known that since the intelligence of your post is MUCH higher than norm. :_P

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Originally posted by smotheredhope
An mmorpg is not pong. (a curt answer to a curt remark)

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Well no **** sherlock! (a smart ass remark to a curt answer to a curt remark).

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Just because they break something in a patch does not mean that they can just remove the part that was broken.

Many things in gaming code are redundant. So if they take out the "part" that broke something this may cause a series of other things to get broken because of interrelationships in the coding.

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Redundant code can cause many problems, but the biggest problem? Wasted CPU time. Any programmer worth their salt knows this. Redundancy vs efficiency is not even a question in the world of code: efficiency will win that debate every single time. AO's resource manager goes as far as redefining the word inefficient. Whether or not AO's source has much redundancy is something I do not know because FunCom will not send me the NDA. If it is redundancy, they need to read beyond chapter 1 - Hello World in their C++ for dummies books.

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A patch is not like a patch that you put on a hole in your blue jeans. Consider a patch as a change to every fiber in the pair of jeans. (terrible analogy but I just woke up)

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That depends on who is doing the patching. If you ask me, FC's patching reminds me more of the patch you put over a hole on the jeans instead of an entire reworking of its fibers...and the jeans this game wears has a lot of holes....

Quote:

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Anyway. I again agree that their needs to be better communication, regardless of the amount of critisizm ANY change to the game will recieve.

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And I agree also. Communication is the building block of any type of relationship be it girlfriend-boyfriend, client-business, client-server, etc.. FunCom needs to fix their communication skills. I have not yet seen a fully documented patch hit the live servers. I have not always seen a posting in the forums regarding the patch schedule or the patch contents. I have never seen a .plan file from any dev. I have not yet seen a logical explanation as to why my former guild pres was banned. How hard is it for the moderators of this forum to relay info to and from the devs?

Naraya

Thanks for correcting me on redundancy. What I meant to say was that many parts of gaming code are used for different parts of a game. Redundancy was the wrong word.

I'm not a programmer and won't pretend to be. Perhaps you could fix the game by yourself. I'm not sure.

I don't see how your post does or suggests anything that is going to make the game or the gaming environment any better.

About your guild president. I think the issue was not as cut and dry as you believe it to be. (or as I had believed it to be)

If dissecting this post and attacking it in it's individual parts makes you happy then by all means do so.

Good Luck, I hope you find happiness in some other area of your life.

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Originally posted by smotheredhope
Naraya

Thanks for correcting me on redundancy. What I meant to say was that many parts of gaming code are used for different parts of a game. Redundancy was the wrong word.

I'm not a programmer and won't pretend to be. Perhaps you could fix the game by yourself. I'm not sure.

I don't see how your post does or suggests anything that is going to make the game or the gaming environment any better.

About your guild president. I think the issue was not as cut and dry as you believe it to be. (or as I had believed it to be)

If dissecting this post and attacking it in it's individual parts makes you happy then by all means do so.

Good Luck, I hope you find happiness in some other area of your life.

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Dissecting and responding to the pieces is more fun...heheheh. But since you get offended by it, I won't do it here. I apologize if my surgical response offended you.

I've been a programmer for about 18 years now and without being able to fiddle with the code myself, I can't say if I'd even have any impact on it at all. I'm not too optimistic seeing as how FunCom can't even figure it out though.

My suggestion in the last post was perhaps not as clear as it needed to be so I will express it in one sentence.

FunCom needs to enhance their communication skills...bigtime.

And as for the Drabin issue, I've heard all I need to hear to know what I need to know. It's history now unfortunately and I'm really disappointed at how that whole thing went down but time doesn't stop...

My fault for being offended. One has to want to be offended to be so in my philosophy.

Aye. The Drabin Issue was mishandled on both fronts I think. One as a matter of "shoot first ask questions later" mentality. The other as emotion over logic.

Anyway. GL to you and sorry that I took your post the wrong way.