I still don't 'get' it...
What IS the motivation for controlling land under the au****es of 'notum mining'? We don't actually get any NOTUM do we? Does our bank account grow from mining notum? I don't think so. So what precicely IS our return on invested capital? I understand we get bufs including exp bufs BUT are these bufs REALLY a good return on the time and effort to buy, build and defend towers? If I spent the same effort doing missions for exp and loot wouldn't I end up with MORE exp and MORE credits?
Or, as I suspect, is this whole thing a way to slow down leveling and suck credits out of the game? If I RP my trader correctly I will need to understand what my return on invested capital is...and right now I just do NOT understand.
Quote:
Originally posted by TreeTrunk
" I spend much more time in RPG's because they offer more options and interesting things to do than the Shooters. "
Some would argue the exact opposite. This is mostly due to the lack of tactical capability induced by the position-lite requirements of the M in front of MORPG. By using 'towers' and other 'PvP beacons' a position-lite game might involve radial tactics. It might work out. We will see. If it does, it could be a lot of fun. And if it can be done at all levels (with relatively cheap towers for newbs out in Tir county) then it could work for just about anyone at any level to set up their little PvP game out in the wilderness. Its not the role-playing dream of story driven combat, but it is, at least, a potential for motivated combat.
Story driven combat can be done and should, and requires additional pVp mission-based mechanics.
Let me ask this another way...
So what exactly do these towers have to do with 'notum mining'?
Is the 'notum mining' part ONLY RP? We don't really mine notum nor do we 'sell' it to OT for credits right? Could it as easily be said that this is just a Land Grab War?
And nobody has yet offered any explanation as to why this has anything to do with OT vs. Clan. In a grab for land won't fellow Clan or fellow Omni be JUST as much a competitor? And hence an adversary?
Quote:
Originally posted by TreeTrunk
As I understand it from the press and interviews, the main goal of tower control is to provide bonuses to organization members, including tactical defense and statistical gains when in the region.
I don't think there is any 'accumulated' output, thought there may be and I just didn't read about it anywhere.
why I am thinking of leaving
These aren't whines or threats, just some of the motivating factors that are making me considering cancelling.
1. PVP focus. I prefer solo missions, FC is putting an increasing amount of effort into making PVP important. Really, I am not interested in getting killed by someone with more time, money and uber items that I. Its not a battle of skill, but investment, and contacts. If I could kill someone I doubt I would find much pleasure in doing so.
2. Pet Pathing. I prefer the pet classes, but FC seems unable to fix some basic issues. It concerns me because I dont think FC is incompetant, but rather that they are more interested in doing other things.
3. Lack of input. I feel FC is not allowing users to customize the world sufficiently. They take some ideas from the forums, and in talking to some players, but really, the only place where you can can have real input that others might respond to is these forums. Even apartments suck. If FC allowed player owned cities, where you could buy buildings, additional levels and features that others could see externally, It might be more interesting. If you could write graphitti on a wall it and others could see it, it would be more interesting.
4. Boring gameplay. Many good ideas have been floating around how to make the game more interesting. There has been some good work done on quests, but really, automatically generated content ammounts to find a single object, target it, sometimes pick it up, sometimes take it places. We all have played games involving many more steps to complete a mission.
5. FC is working on other games. When Miitgengard was cancelled, i felt good, that FC was trying to make AO work. But now I hear that they have people working on a second project, I feel that sooner or later more and more resources will be spent getting the new game to work, rather than making the old one work.
6. Ignoring testers. whenever there is a new patch, there is a chorus of, we found that in the test server. The testers, paid and unpaid are your first line of defence to keep people playing the game. Each bug that is let out into the live server further increases the distrust of the player base. o
7. pour attitude toward customer support. I pitty the people who moderate these forums, because forums are self help customer service. the Ark program is self help customer service. most times you only hear silence from FC in the forums, and the common answer with the arks is "sorry, i can't help you."
8. Events. There seems to be few of them that most people can benefit from, so the game is one long experience of missions, hunting and chatting. There is not much going on in the game, and I cant think of anything except santa leets and pumpkinheads that I am excited about. If on the other hand if there were regular events, It would distract me alot on how boring it is to just complete acg material.
9. It does not seem that FC designers spend much time actually playing the game. It would make a world of difference for me to know that each FC employee had characters that they have to advance through the game. If they had to do so, and without any special help, it would make me feel much better about the game. I would love to see "PLAYERNAME (DESIGNER)" above people's heads, especially if they were joining people in normal missions, and were restricted to player available options.
10. What is the direction of AO? FC is tight lipped about many things that are planned for the game. The way the booster pack was handled made me thing that they realized the player base is growing increasingly annoyed, and needed something to compete against SWG. So they pulled a bunch of content together so they can have a new box for the shelves for christmas. That said, I want to point out that this is my opinion, and my opinion is that the decision was made for business and real world considerations, rather than for the good of the player base, and responding to what your customers want. It seems the focus moved to getting new customers rather than keeping old ones happy. Remember the proverb about birds in hands and bushes.
Anyway, My friends have already noticed that I am playing much less, if I don't respond, I may have just walked away.