Monthly Development Update - January 2016 (Getting Rekt)

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! January is already behind us. The bulk of the month was spent on The Reck, it is pretty much ready to be opened up!

The Reck
We have recently opened up The Reck on Testlive! Please feel free to log on Test and give it a try. I posted up a quick write-up about it here.

As previously stated, the intention of this playfield is to offer a new area to level up through the bulk of title levels 4 and 5. Between the various camps and the playfield-specific daily missions, I believe this playfield will offer a solution to those who have had difficulty making it through this section of leveling; if this proves to not be the case, I will work make it so. While the intention is not to completely trivialize certain other sources of XP, I do intend to have The Reck be a viable leveling option. Finally, in addition to being a source of experience, there are many classic and new dyna bosses to be hunted.

Upcoming Development
Once The Reck has been shipped off to Live, the next set of additions will be to add several missions and challenges aimed at specific areas within the game. Rewards for these missions will be themed towards the mission's location and difficulty, and will reward more than XP and/or Tokens. These missions will cycle and have limited availability. Similar to Daily Missions, these will offer a simple set of objectives to complete each day, except they will all be focused to direct players to specific areas. I will provide more specifics on the nature of the missions and rewards as this system progresses further.

Subscriber Rewards
In upcoming updates, we intend to expand the rewards for being a subscriber, through both the Veteran Shop and via additional rewards based on months subscribed, starting from the launch of this system. The Veteran shop has stagnated for a long while and I intend to add in some more meaningful rewards to be worthy of spending those precious Veteran Points. To add more value to being a subscriber, at various month markers, some new account-wide rewards will be unlocked. We hope to have this system launch in the coming months and I look forward to giving out some new rewards. The reward list and schedule should be made available closer to the launch date.

Thank You!
This month moved by pretty quickly. It's a new year with the holidaze behind us, with no real shortage of work to do. While I was unable to finish everything I set out to, the next milestones should be lighter and allow for goals to be completed in parallel. The Reck should be ready for live soon, and I cannot wait to share that, and everything else that's on the way, with all of you. Thank you all and have a great February! :)

Last!

Good Job. Love to see new stuff.

Maybe you can convince someone to give us a real expansion in the future like Conan is getting. We will take 1 and not the 3 they get.

Vet shop love ftw.
Think the pvp could ned a hotfix, some professions is realy broken and it affects open pvp allot.

GJ michi!

But when are you going to nerf agents?

They really need a perk check adjustment.

All sounds good to me :)

However, I could not find any of the Dyna bosses you mentioned when I was on Test earlier today. I was wondering, are you were keeping them secret until they hit Live?

I did a few of the daily's, at level 110 some of them were more suited to team-play, ie level 150 mobs for a level 110 toon, is that as intended? Will the difficulty of the Daily's scale according to the level of the toon, or are there different missions for higher levels?

I assume the Rubi-ka planet map will be updated to include The Reck before it comes to the Live server?

Emma

It'd be so nice to have something new to spend my 325 veteran points on! Can't wait for the shop and rewards to get updated :>>>>

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Originally Posted by Michizure

/Snip:)

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I see what you did thar! :)

Excellent news. A couple ideas as well to put on the table. Look into a version of the legacy system from swtor for ao. It provides and rewards for having and creating the armies of alts people have created over the years. We have always needed a proper alliance system in ao to bring orgs together without using a bot relay for a chat channel. A proper method and system using game mechanics and a shared chat channel without a bot, which is not a fun thing to set up either.

I need a good vet phat for about 300 point, a tool that lets you see what loot a mob has would be very nice ;)

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Originally Posted by Michizure

Upcoming Development
The next set of additions will be to add several missions and challenges aimed at specific areas within the game ... and will reward more than XP and/or Tokens. These missions will cycle and have limited availability. Similar to Daily Missions, these will offer a simple set of objectives to complete each day, except they will all be focused to direct players to specific areas.

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I swear to Xan, if you took my PvP Game Suggestion and applied it to PvM...

I tried to find the link to my suggestion to implement mini-missions in the BattleStation (I.e - Cap 5 points, kill 10 players, kill 2 traders, etc), but it has, conveniently, eluded me.

Much love Michi and Dev Team :) Keep up the great work!

I wonder what 170+ veteran months will get me? :D

A little bit disappointed that you can't enter the reck from Rome.

I am quite sure that back in beta 3 or 4 before release you could enter the reck from Rome but it was also a seriously bugged zone or a wreck it you like.

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Originally Posted by Michizure

I believe this playfield will offer a solution to those who have had difficulty making it through this section of leveling; if this proves to not be the case, I will work make it so.

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*slow clap* We only had to wait ~14 yrs to get a GD who actually cares about player experience. Bravo, sir!

OK that's all good stuff and it's nice to see Michi is still pushing AO forwards :)
Buuuuuuut... what about those profession tweaks (agent perks, advy buffs etc) and new engine bugs (/follow on mobs, stability issues etc)? New engine ironed out = Steam compatibility = Steam launch = influx of people!

I also have some queries about the new Sub reward stuff:
You say it will start counting as of the time it goes live. Will it count whatever sub period you're in the middle of at the time it goes live? For example, say you bought the yearly sub deal with the armour over xmas and this goes live in the middle of that, will it count that year's worth of sub or will it still read as 0 until the next year you buy a yearly sub?
Obviously I'm hoping for the former. I'm (perhaps optimistically) paid up til march 2017 so I'm not going to be buying more sub time before then. Will I (and everyone else in the middle of a sub period) count as nada, or at 1 month, or as the whole year when it goes live?
Also, will the account-wide rewards follow the current Vet Point system in that all accounts grouped under the master veteran account inherit this stuff?
And what about the Paid/Phasefront Point loss? My post-18.7 newbies miss the complete vehicle collecitons all my older chars were able to get!

:D HA!

AO is turning in to a proper 2016 game. Fun daily events, new zones, development in progress, something to look forward and something to play now. Da hell! :D I like what I see, and subscribing will be even more rewarding.

ETA on Reck hitting live?

And what of mentioned system changes? Any chance we would get some Michi magic wand on some of the less loved professions? You know make them great again? :D Like NT's lack of staying power or MA's lack of damage for a dd profession, or Keepers poor DD, ... or to be honest :D other professions seem fine pvm wise. Then there is the question of OP pvp agents. Maybe some slight adjustments to their perks, like go up to 90% evade checks, or even 95%.... just fine-tune it?

In any case, once I see new Reck weapons and armors i'll be able to say more. But i do have high hopes...

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Originally Posted by Cratertina

Any chance we would get some Michi magic wand on some of the less loved professions? You know make them great again? :D Like NT's lack of staying power...

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I bounced some ideas for this off Digitalbath recently.

I think a combination of a few little tweaks to blinds, Nanobot Shelter and some other stuff will help a lot there.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Michi on the laundry list I've sent him a while ago, though. :P

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Originally Posted by Cratertina

:D HA!

AO is turning in to a proper 2016 game. Fun daily events, new zones, development in progress, something to look forward and something to play now. Da hell! :D I like what I see, and subscribing will be even more rewarding.

ETA on Reck hitting live?

And what of mentioned system changes? Any chance we would get some Michi magic wand on some of the less loved professions? You know make them great again? :D Like NT's lack of staying power or MA's lack of damage for a dd profession, or Keepers poor DD, ... or to be honest :D other professions seem fine pvm wise. Then there is the question of OP pvp agents. Maybe some slight adjustments to their perks, like go up to 90% evade checks, or even 95%.... just fine-tune it?

In any case, once I see new Reck weapons and armors i'll be able to say more. But i do have high hopes...

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Yes, Keepers need their damage returned ... and to continue regarding system changes mentioned in the past ... when is Dr Hack'n Quack getting its level lock lowered to 175?

Emma

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Originally Posted by Vinkera

I bounced some ideas for this off Digitalbath recently.

I think a combination of a few little tweaks to blinds, Nanobot Shelter and some other stuff will help a lot there.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Michi on the laundry list I've sent him a while ago, though. :P

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I don't know about you, but michi fixes rather than responds to me. So I hope you get some acknowledgement other than just a patch note 1 month later. Don't know about you but that bothers the hell out of me tbh.

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Originally Posted by Dysfunction

I don't know about you, but michi fixes rather than responds to me. So I hope you get some acknowledgement other than just a patch note 1 month later. Don't know about you but that bothers the hell out of me tbh.

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Let's just say... I'm going to give him the benefit of doubt, but hold him to his statement regarding lack of communication last month when balance changes start to happen. :P