Clarification about recent events

[Cosmik]

Hey all,

I've come across a few rumours lately that are claiming the recent events and happenings concerning the event arc dubbed "Angel of Light" is, in fact, part of the main storyline. The characters involved in this event arc are people - they have their own lives, they go about Rubi-Ka, interacting with one another and other citizens. In short, they have their own story. But they are not a part of the main storyline. Simply put, this event arc is not directly related to the emergence of Jobe (as was rumoured), or that the AO storyline is taking a different direction than the established one already set (as was rumoured).

It's extremely possible for a number of things to be happening on Rubi-Ka, whether it be directly related to the main storyline, or is a part of a smaller story arc. This falls into the latter category.

I hope that helps clear up some of those rumours.

[______________Scorus]

Great, but what is happening with the MAIN storyline? Remember Radiman? Remember Ross? Remember Galahad? Remember all those people that you put in the manual when you put out the game? Where are they? What are they doing? What do they want us to be doing? What have the Sentinels been doing? How about Omni-Pol? The Eco-guerillas?

You are approaching a 1st anniversary and you still have no coherent, cohesive storyline! Just a series of generally unconnected events that you let fizzle out just as they are getting interesting (Manteze War, that cloning doctor, etc.).

P.S. These are NOT rhetorical questions and these are NOT new questions. We have been asking them for months and we are sick and tired of being ignored! We are paying customers and even if you aren't going to provide the product you promised, you can at least have the decency to tell us so!

Scorus

[_____________Dankman]

I will answer that for you later, Scorus. I'v got a dirty secret on Funcom, and you are all gunna hate it.

Dankman

[Bionitrous]

There is something really fishy going on with respect to the Story as far as the 'ongoing' part is concerned. I still wonder about what truly happened to the movies.

Likewise, something as simple as the updates to the 'Omni-Tek Departments' or the descriptions of the Clans at the Story section of the webpage haven't been updated in months.

And I wonder what happened to Tommy Strand. He seemed to be in touch with the playerbase. Apparently replaced with Gaute Godager whose decisions seem to be poorly researched, poorly implemented, and out-of-touch with the needs of his product.

Then the big kicker is Shadowlands which on all fronts seems like it should have come out after Midgard in terms of FunCom's development model, but more importantly seems to be the end of the storyline in terms of spilling all the beans and setting the stage for the final conflict. A December release means essentially one year after the launch of the Story and we are into the denouement and simply playing out the aftermath of the climax.

Everything does tie in with the novel as far as the Shadowlands are concerned. It definately appears as this expansion was envisioned quite a long time ago. It just seems that it ought to be the 'knockout punch' used to trigger the start of the 4th year of the story.

I can't see what could come in years 3 and 4 to follow the Shadowlands.

My feeling is that the new game designers have given up on the Story and are working towards EQ'ifying AO so that it becomes simply a long-term sustaining 'game'.

The other fear is that after the Shadowlands is delivered, they will have satisfied their requirements to their investors and may be able to pull the plug if that ever seems to be the right move.

We all know that the original business plan was to have about 100,000 players on a single server. My guess is that we've got about 30k-40k active subscribers over the two FunCom-run servers. I don't see any way in hell that they can get another 60k new sign-ups to move back into their original business plan. 2 sign-ups a day doesn't make for massive increases in the playerbase.

Definately something fishy in Denmark. Nothing that's going on with the game has anything to do with the user manual, the movies, the story website, nothing.

All changes with regard to the Story as far as game design is concerned seem to involve the 'back'-story. NPS's that will repeat the history of Milky Way for the next 10 years don't seem to be working towards a changing game that one day will exist without Clanners or Omni-Tek.

The ability to capture territory does nothing to advance the Story. Just a way to appease the PvP'ers by giving them something to do.

Static Quests are in polar opposition to the requirements of a dynamic Storyline. If the very face of Omni-Tek is to change this coming New Year, won't the Dodga and Alvin quests become anachronistic? Why would people be running around bugging stupid robots when humanity is fighting for its very survival?

Just too many non-sequiturs being introduced.

Seems like the heart has been taken out of those who nurtured the game to its current state. The impatient players who quit and whiners on the boards (myself included) really sucked the life out of this project.

My best guess is that we are going to be treated to AO-lite which is going to be launched with the Shadowlands and set out on the ocean of MMORPG's and allowed to sink or float on its own steam.

I really hope that this doesn't spell the end of the Midgard project. The feature list for that game was perfect. It was 'UO finds a proper graphics system and is painted by talented artists and designed by people who learned what NOT to do in a trial by fire'. Most importantly they promised NO ongoing pre-scripted Story for Midgard.

I guess the biggest and most repeated black spot on the whole AO 'fiasco' will forever be manifested in the two words 'broken promises'.

Yeah, it's a pretty good game. I enjoy it and probably will until at least next summer. But it coulda been 'special'.

[______________Scorus]

Originally posted by Bionitrous
I can't see what could come in years 3 and 4 to follow the Shadowlands.

If SWG and Shadowbane and such were coming out in 3-4 years then I think Shadowlands would also, but Funcom needs to compete. They lost a good number of players to a vastly inferior game in DAOC, just think what happens if one of those or something else turns out to be a real winner. They need a hook to keep players on and Shadowlands is it.

My feeling is that the new game designers have given up on the Story and are working towards EQ'ifying AO so that it becomes simply a long-term sustaining 'game'.

In this respect I'm afraid they are reacting to their playerbase. There were massive cries of "I can do X in EQ, why can't I do it in AO" on the boards and elsewhere. That brought us camping and dungeons and all sorts of other fun things. Though those cries probably wouldn't have gone up if we had been given the unique things that AO was supposed to give from the beginning: a storyline, story missions, etc.

Definately something fishy in Denmark. Nothing that's going on with the game has anything to do with the user manual, the movies, the story website, nothing.

Norway. Many of the original designers and programmers left before the game launched, so it could be that Shadowlands is the game that the CURRENT devs and programmers would have made from the start. On the other hand, I've received some private "I can't answer that and I can't tell you why" responses to some very basic questions lately and that fact worries me.

Seems like the heart has been taken out of those who nurtured the game to its current state. The impatient players who quit and whiners on the boards (myself included) really sucked the life out of this project.

Again, I think many of the nurturers were not the conceivers, therefore non-sequitors will occur frequently. And the game was gimped from day 1 by the decision to launch six months before the game was ready. That was a hole they'll never quite get out off.

The game IS good, you are right. And my frustrations have been so high because the potential was high and it was right there, just waiting for them to grab and run with into a new and exciting paradigm for MMORPGs. I'm here until a better game comes along, but I seriously expect that to happen before we close the door on 2002.

Scorus

[____________Travesty]

Im right there with you all. Im not even mad anymore about the lost storyline or even the out of control GM NPC's.

Im actually sad.

I feel that we were close to being involved in Gaming History, a computer role playing game that had a wide sweeping story arc that immersed its players in the world around them with something more than eye candy and rewarded them with real accomplishment rather than with shiny treasure. But, it seems, that was not to be.

I think many of us were expecting Babylon 5. Instead we have Star Trek Voyager....

[________________Veha]

Maybe one of the reasons the storyline hasn't been pushed might be due to the amount of people that would run for Omni-Tek HQ if there was a scheduled appearance of Mr. Ross, or where ever the Council of Truth might meet up. If there was a posting on the launcher about such a meeting, the zone server for Omni-HQ would be so lagged, that the zone would be unplayable.

Also, if there was such other event (say an alien speices lands in Harry's) that would make a difference in the story, I bet the whole RK1 player base would be standing in Harry's looking up waiting for for the ship, but think about the lag and how the zone would be, again, unplayable.

Maybe this is the reason that FC is doing individual GM events with only a select amount of people, the lag is reduced per zone.

-----------

I do agree that these little GM events not pushing the story line ahead in the least, nor are the thousands of missions done daily by the populace. Maybe if the server updates and patching was focused on making the playfields able to withstand a large amount of people gathered in one area with the zone remaining stable...instead the programmers have spread apart areas so the populace would spread out more and not lag the zone (ie 20K and NLC).

This is my opinion of maybe why a Ruki-Ka wide mission where the outcome would affect the story-line has not been focused on in the first place.

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Plus also think about how the areas affected would have to be adjusted. For example, lets say Rome is flooded in such a manner as Omni-3? (the now barren flooded city in Cental Artey Valley(I think it was called Omni-3)) The whole 3 zones of Rome would have to either 1) Be made in to an undersea adventure and have all the backyards and apt's made useless and another city would have to be rebuilt or 2) The flooding was avoided and now clan owns the city and all the shops and guards are now clan or 3) Life returns to normal. The area changes that 2 of the 3 possible outcomes could mean would make the programmers maybe have to rewrite the whole zones.

I don't think the programmers would be prepared for what MIGHT happen. This is the problem with performing story and zone changing events. The amount of forethought and resource allication for what MIGHT happen is missing from the game.

-----------
One last point and I'm done

I also want to point out the HUGE number of Apt's and backyards that the cities have in them. I think that FunCom planned to have a MUCH larger player base than what is currently on now. That would show that the resources for performing the story changing events might not be pushed along due to the lack in the playerbase. Maybe that's why everything is turning monotone instead of how it was in the beginning. (No I wasn't logged in then, but I have heard)

I would LOVE to see an awesome attack that destories Omni-Trade or the rebuild part of athens, but the amount of players that it would invole are missing, nevermind the serverside resources (that have probably been toned down in the due to the lack of playerbase) wouldn't be able to handle such a workload.

IMHO, the story won't get rolling until 1) the servers are upgraded to sustain huge amounts of people in one spot; 2) more people are storming thru the rolloerrats in the backyards (playerbase increase to maybe triple what it is); 3) A team is setup to support and maintain the storyline and work with the programmers so zone wide changes could be put into effect depending on the outcome of the event.

Sorry for the length, I talk to much

[____________Sapphyra]

Hey all

I'm a fairly new member to AO and to RPGs in general. I started playing the game after hearing about friends talk about it. At first, it was confusing for me, because though people tried to "role play" with me, I wasn't really sure what to do. Call me Nubi

Now however, I have a level 57 MA and a better grasp of the game. I haven't seen any definitive storyline (though I haven't taken the time yet to read P.O.H., so I'm not really sure what I'm looking for), but I've seen a lot of everyday people like yourselves create your own story. And isn't that the whole part of an RPG? To build your own style, character, and story?

I've witnessed people creating alternate characters specifically to add to a story. Brainstorm, don't complain. If you want a piece of the action, don't rely on Funcom to hook you up. Create your own destiny!

Now, I realize you are all gonna tear a chunk out of me for actually being positive, and that's ok. It won't bother me a bit. For some who may read this, seeing a positive message may actually be a relief

Sapphyra

P.S. - You can send me a /tell if you wanna reply positively to my positive message

[______________Orchid]

The above post is completely beside the point, the point here is the game was supposed to be a actual PHSYICALLY CHANGING WORLD. meaning its not in your head how you perceive the game, but that you are in a real world with real life changes, could be major could be minor, but sofar there's been next to nothing in storyline progression.
Ive been in AO since beta, and left for around 5 months, came back and nothing really has changed.
I still have fun but missioning and hunting is BORING.
I want the storyline the real feel the real deal I was told to expect from AO.

[______________Orchid]

I do love AO though

[Bionitrous]

We were not paying for some other player's story. We were paying for FunCom's story. All the other stuff is nice for those involved. But FunCom was supposed to treat us to an Official story that changed the world as the plot twisted and turned.

Nobody is begrudging those who entertain themselves with some quality roleplaying. That's part of what this is all about.

It's the huge unfulfilled promise of a game that would be different from one month to the next based on the actions of larger-than-life characters directed by an admittedly good storyteller at FunCom.

Right now, for example, we got someone saying that they have taken over the Fair Trade stores. Yeah, that's nice for them. And I honestly hope they are enjoying their roleplay. However, there's three issues that take this argument to the heart of everybody's disappointment with the Story.

First, FunCom has not given them control of the shops. If they wanted to, 2000 people could say they run Fair Trade and each would be just as valid owners within the rules of the game. Not a one has any more valid claim than the other. I think I'll log on tonight and proclaim myself Mayor of Tir. It's the same thing.

Second, no impact on the game. You want to say you run the Advanced Store in Borealis. OK. You can't set the prices. You get no percent of the profit. You can't refuse service to anyone. You can't do anything.

Third, and vastly most important. The story is not about who owns a mini-mart. It's about incredibly important political and moral actions and decisions. It's about the fate of a planet and humanity. Mankind returning to its roots for the final faceoff with himself. Who sells me a Plumbo-XXX at a mini-mart has no impact on whether my species is damned for a millenia.

Go play a waif in the sewers. Pretend yer a lunatic hermit out in Deep Artery Valley. Whatever. You make the game more enjoyable for the rest of us.

But don't try to cloud the issue of the MIA Story. Cosmik's post at the top of this thread had to be put out to clarify that FunCom and only FunCom moves the plot if and ever they decide to start moving and shaking things again.

[Gene13]

Originally posted by Dankman
I will answer that for you later, Scorus. I'v got a dirty secret on Funcom, and you are all gunna hate it.

Dankman

So Dankman, when is later?

/G13

[Jhoanna]

Hey mr. B!

Snarf (even tho not so here) will always be Major of Tir, dont come here and tell us something else!

Long live the king!

[______________Orchid]

I think you are being unreasonable.

Funcom creators are not God. They cannot make the storyline happen and update in realtime, they just dont have the technology to do that.

Think about realistic approach to game creation. FunCom advertised wide arcing storyline. and yes U havent see hide nor hare of it, but you have to imagine how hard that would be to develop and implement !
If it is possible, then give them your support and patience, and I hope a ARK member or GM will respond to this! We need to know what your true aims are for AO

[______________Jeamus]

I don't believe that they need to be gods in order to give us a changing world with a true storyline. They simply need the will to do it. We have seen no true large scale story events since the Salabaulm (sp?) storyline. Ross and Radiman have been gone, more or less, since the last story movie. The storyline pages on the website are updated infrequently at best as well. Reintroducing these things would not be hard, except perhaps the movies.

Back in Janurary when they announced the decision to discontinue the movies they gave the excuss that they wanted the story to be told in game instead of outside on a website. Since this is what many of us had been asking for, more ingame story and less out of game stuff, many of us believed them and supported the idea both on the boards and ingame. Unfortuanately this ingame story system never materialized. My feeling is that if they are still unable to provide the story ingame, then the should at least go back to the old website based story for now.

As far as the problem of crashing zones due to lag and changing playfield goes. The easiest way to prevent these problems for meetings and speaches would be to lock zones after x number of players have entered. For those unable to physically get into the zones, the content of speeches, meetings, ect. could be replayed over the news channels (Omni Herald broadcast channel for Omni, not sure what it is for clans and neutrals). This would be like watching CNN/reading newspapers are in the Real World. I don't need to be in Washington when the Pres. Bush gives his State of the Union address, I can simply watch/read about it afterwards. The samething goes for any news worthy event. Set up something like the way the /help command works and title it /news. Have it list short little news stories for the past few weeks, and simply keep it updated as needed.

Other things can be done with the world as well. One of the things that I just loved about Asheron's Call was the changing seasons. Areas that had grass and dirt in Summer and Spring would have snow in Winter and Fall. NPC's would even change costumes during these times to reflect the season. Rubika's teriforming might make snow improbable but, changing themes based on season and other effects should not be. All of these changes could be made in a patch. This has happend once in AO on a small scale when the Dusters blew up that building in Omni Ent. The building was reduced to rubble for a few months and then rebuilt (without any fanfare, The least yall could have done was put up a historical marker or something).

Anyway this has gotten much longer than I wanted it to be. I would really like a reason to continue playing this game but at present there seems to be little out there besides leveling.

Give us our story!

[________________Veha]

is this for the good or the bad?

http://www.ao-basher.com/mem_show_lo...memlongid=1146

[_____________Kirrana]

Hi Cosmik,

I think we have very simple questions which for some reason nobody in FC wants to talk about.

1. First Where is the story line gone, the one with Radiman, Ross etc. Has this story line just ended.

2. Who is in charge of the storyline now ?

[____________VonVolks]

I agree with Bionitrous 1000% percent.

We want to RP as PART of an FC story where things change in the world, and players have an impact on things.

I can pretend to do anything ( i dont even need AO for that!!)
but i wanna see stuff in the Game world actually change. Thats what i pay for and why i joined AO.

[Intone]

Originally posted by Emiko
I think you are being unreasonable.

Funcom creators are not God. They cannot make the storyline happen and update in realtime, they just dont have the technology to do that.

Think about realistic approach to game creation. FunCom advertised wide arcing storyline. and yes U havent see hide nor hare of it, but you have to imagine how hard that would be to develop and implement !
If it is possible, then give them your support and patience, and I hope a ARK member or GM will respond to this! We need to know what your true aims are for AO

Funcom claims AO was developed 5 years before actual lauch. Game box promises strong storyline, old AO-site (http://download.funcom.com) describes storyline that players can participate. New site has section called STORY.

Funcom states that the very storyline will be the way to shadowlands to compete against SWG and others.

So, funcom has had time to develop tools to deliver the storyline (5+1 years). Funcom seem to have the storyline as cosmics mystic post refers.

Where is it? Perhaps you get the story when you continue your support to Funcom and buy Shadowlands?

Oh, please. We all like this game and so on.

But what funcom should do is to stop pretending there is a story somewhere!

[Nyadach]

Originally posted by Cosmik
Simply put, this event arc is not directly related to the emergence of Jobe (as was rumoured), or that the AO storyline is taking a different direction than the established one already set (as was rumoured).

It's extremely possible for a number of things to be happening on Rubi-Ka, whether it be directly related to the main storyline, or is a part of a smaller story arc. This falls into the latter category.

BUT, I take it Ida Sculler, and the T-Dim experiments of Professor Maitland ARE mucho connected to the emergence of Jobe, and we should keep poking her for info since she's got the worst ability to keep a secret on this planet?