Community answers - part 1

[Paffy]

Since youre such a nice guy and did an effort for community to answer things (good thread btw) I wont kick your butt too much BUT!

Start Quote:

What many people percieve as a memory leak - namely that AO uses a lot of memory - is intended to a certain point. As long as you have memory available, AO will not purge textures and such, but keep them in memory for faster access. That is not a leak, but it will greatly decrease the resources available for other programs as long as you run AO (and a while after you end AO, until the memory is fully released again).

End Quote:

Ok. Well someone there could tell your programmers that HELLO, we dont live anymore in the world of early Windows.

All modern systems (ok, I am willing to put W2K and XP to "modern systems") will NEVER, EVER run out of memory unless you run out of diskspace and no, they dont tell application that hey mr. application, I am about to run out of real physical memory and everything you insist keeping after this point will make me swap into HD like mad.

No, they dont do that. Part of the modern OS is to make sure that application will never get out of memory.

So its not a leak at all it seems. Its simply ignorance and very bad programming then. Atleast you might now know where it comes from

IF this is indeed the case I would like a config panel that asks how much memory you are willing to give AO and that after that point, AO would purge old textures instead of endlessly loading them and making my machine halt on swap dance.

Example looking from my machine I see that before loading AO but after loading everything else I have 107Mb memory used of 512Mb physical memory. I would now put to config that allow AO to use max 256Mb of memory and after that, purge old stuff...

Ofcourse the fact that I would have to do that is again bad coding from your part and would kind of feel like going to old MacOS again

Well, perhaps its time to talk with your programmers then...

Zarch and da chars

[Turin]

Originally posted by Bionitrous
If the 'level' is the hardest requirement to satisfy which is apparently the case in 100 of the 103 new nanoformulas with level requirements, then it is a level-based game. Why do people choose NanoMage if they can't execute a nanoformula that they have the _skills_ for until 15 _levels_ later when even a braindead Atrox can do so?

I got Dai Gailins ear on this one on the IRC. His only response to me would be "wait and see, we have a answers but I cant tell you "

THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!!!!!

You know the answers to alot of our biggest concerns, but you WONT TELL US!!!!

How are we supposed to feel? I feel gimped in the future, with no clear vision of how I wont be. And no one there can explain it to me. Please help. I need an aswer to this before my subscription runs out so I need to know if I renew it. If there is no answers, I wont pay you money anymore. I might come back later when I see the direction you take on it, but.. I dont feel the need to be ignored, told that I cant be told, and that I just have to trust you ( why would I trust you guys of all people? Id trust a bum to bring me back change from a 100 dollar bill before I trust you guys ) and continue to pay money to be ignored and abused like that.

[Turin]

Originally posted by Xenlong
The Customer is wlays right... FC should make the game fun not aggravating. Sensible.. practicle...

I have NVEER believed in that line, and never will.

[__________malaclypse]

Camping.

AO has a good mission system where private missions can be generated and shared with groups. Why is this system not used for static, non PvP missions?

Meeting strangers and joining in with them can sometimes be part of the fun here, but people can meet outside. Maybe split these missions into 2 zones where the first part is public, but you can generate a key for the 2nd part (with the phat lewt) at the end of the first part.

Outdoors named mobs are trickier, but could some be moved indoors with something random but predictable giving you access. I.e. Personal Key to nuggets hideout could be a rare drop on a level 140 lifebleeder.

Memory.

Please consider giving us an option to limit how much memory AO uses for whatever it isn't deallocating. Don't think that this couldn't use a fix because people are using the wrong term to complain. Its not a memory leak, but it is a problem with AO hogging too much memory that results in poor performance and warnings from the OS.

[_____________Mr Bean]

Yes My question is why all the self onlys AND level limits(Though you said no level limits fine ok no talking about level limits)

Still I'll repeat them

1. Why the level limits on Leet Charms?
2. Where is our reload key
3.Why oh why does Leet Friend line of nanos have SO many restrictions on it?
4. Why are all these SELF only things on TEAM missions bosses
5. A repeat if we are suposed to be able to solo why are the *fixes on team missions bosses?


Regards
Mr Bean

[Dudicas]

Storyline... probably the most difficult topic in the e-mail. Everybody knows there is not too much of it visible right now on Rubi-Ka. There are reasons, but I really can't divulge much about it. I'll try get away this time around with saying that we do have plans, and there is movement, and leave for the future (close future, I hope) to show what's coming.

Lord British is dead? Sorry Cz, but that statement sounds way too much like something we've heard somewhere before regarding storylines...

[alphane]

/mode Offtopic ON

Excuse us , Cz , Cosmik, we are not DAoC/EQ/AC lobotomized players...

/mode Offtopic OFF


A good beginning of what should be a normal and decent customer communication. A little bit more effort please.
If you complain about the amount of messages to read and answer on this board why not restraint the subjects ?
Professions
Bugs
Patch
Some more..
whatever you want but in a more synthetic way.

[Jayde]

Aaack...I had a whole post written up and I accidentally closed my browser.

Anyway, to sum it up...

Cz,

Thanks for at least trying to answer our questions. It is appreciated.

Quick follow-up:

This is now confirmed. Shorter average spawn time on the Trash King, and no despawn on Alvin and Dodga, is the way it's intended to work, and the way it will work in the future. I'm not completely sure when this will be in, but I doubt it will be later than 14.6.

The mission has been changed to what was originally intended - that is the despawn of Dogda/Alvin and the time of the Trash King. They were changed between 14.2 and 14.4 because of other issues that arose with the mission during that time, and was done so to help alleviate those issues. So, it was changed back in 14.4. Now though, we are currently discussing the mission, based on all your feedback (and believe me, I've read it all ). I am unable to say right now whether it will change, but I am working on it and will let you know as soon as I know.

Who's who? Which it right? Why are we getting contradictory info? Etc...

This can be a huge cause of frustration, when things are explained poorly or simply wrong. Was Cosmik right? Did you guys backpedal when you saw the dissatisfaction? Did the dev Cosmik talk to not know what was going on? Etc...

At any rate, the little things *do* matter--probably even moreso than the "big" things.

The problem is, I think the dev team and the community can't seem to sync up as to what they think is a "big" thing or now.

Just a couple things ignored that are "big" to the community (by no means is this a comprehensive list, just a few examples off the top of my noggin):
-Updated in-game maps that reflect the 14.2-14.4 changes to the topography
-Wailing Wastes map
-Fix inits on weapons (BBI Faithful, bows, MTI Russian Good Day, Collins IX Bio-Energy Rifle, etc. There is a full list in the test server forum.)
-Fixing health display in the team window
-Probably any of the plethora of issues The Professionals are bringing up

There have been a few replies regarding the first 2, some saying stuff to the effect of "it was an issue with the size of the patch." Guess what? WE DON'T CARE. We just want our maps fixed, for instance. If it takes an intermediate patch tomorrow, I doubt many people would complain. (Of course, I doubt that's the reason anyway. But, oh well.) If it's done (I seem to remember some dev posting in the test forum that the maps were indeed completed) put it in. Don't tell us it's done, and then tell us "We just haven't got around to giving it to you." That just angers people.

And it's not *just* the BBI. The BBI is maybe the most prominent of all the issues, because it's really the best (read: only) option pistol Advents have at dealing decent damage. The Schuyler Bow is another very important one to fix. The Collins IX Bio-Energy Rifle would have been a boon to Agents had it not been so abnormally slow since its release. Arwen MO-404 Grenade Launchers are "bugged". Nova Flow - Mark I was pointed out as being bugged before it was "released" into the game...now it's in, but it uses Melee Init. I'm sure that'll make all the soldiers out there happy. (Notice the trend of Trader Shop items. lol)

Semi-complete list: (c&ped from http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...threadid=26316 -- Who knows how many others there may be...melee weapons with ranged init? No user has the time to check all this out without getting paid for it. )
*BBI Faithful
*HSR Explorer 661
*Arwen MO-404 Grenade Launcher
M-1 Bipower
*Mausser Chemical Streamer (it appears as if this is fixed now)
MTI - Russian Good Day
*Manex Catastrophe
*Nova Flow - Mark I
*Collins IX Bio-Energy Rifle
Ill-Treated Netgun
*Sapphistic Bow
Joint Clans Exocet II
Kevlar Bow
Oneida Razor Half-Bow
Reet-Tech Stryker X
Reet-Tech Venom Compound Bow
Spring Inc Tube-Bow
*Schuyler Bow

* denote weapons that are, or were intended to be, "important" or "good" weapons for various professions.

It's nice that you're fixing other bugs, but it would really be appreciated if you looked to the community for priority every so often. Those issues (especially the init and team health bar ones) are *very* important to *most* of the players I know. (Of course, I can't speak for everyone. But I'd imagine the vast majority of players view these as very serious issues.)

Anyway...that's all I can muster to re-write...I hate it when that happens. =(

-Jayde

[_______________Bunny]

Story and events on Rubi-Ka 2
Why did you say there would be an equal storyline on RK-2 when there was never any effort made to make that come true? Even when the story was going strong on RK-1, there were far, far fewer events on RK-2. Attempts to get answers as to the discrepancy between Cosmik's very authoritative statement that this would NOT be the case and the fact that it was most obviously the case were ignored.

The effort was made, but several factors made this very difficult. First of all, we were not entirely prepared for running events on two dimensions. It is quite obvious that it would be hard running connected events on the two dimensions, as those participating in the first one might want to (or even have to) participate in the second.

In addition we have seen several times that running events on the second dimension is difficult. It is harder to find the event-loving people unless you have the right contacts, and when events had the reputation of crashing servers - something which was a main reason for people playing on Rubi-Ka 2 - events people were not always very welcomed by everybody.

What do we do with this? Right now, I don't know. I'll look into that.

Did I pick the wrong server then? It would have been helpful if a popup came up when I chose RK2 that said "choose this server if you do not want to see events" and "choose RK1 to be part of events". Because I want events! I would have picked RK1 if I had known this!! Now my main character is almost level 80. I feel like it was a waste of time now. Can I move my character to RK1 so I can be on the server with the events????

[Cz]

Worked on the issues I listed, and a few more, today, and will make a new thread tomorrow.

Turin, I'll check that with Dai.

Dudicas, I won't refrain from answering because people have heard it before, and I won't give out info I am not allowed to (ok, I slip sometimes ), so I'm not entirely sure how to please you on that one. Sorry.

dijou, I think merging forums won't help much on the post count, but only make posts disappear faster from the first forum page and thus have the same issue brought up in several threads more often.

We have some plans for reducing the reading time a little bit, but want to be confident we can make it work before announcing it.

JaydeStargunner, what I posted in this thread is the official thing on Alvin and Dodga. What Cosmik got for an answer when asking was an unfortunate misunderstanding.

All the bugs you list are registered, and I'll go through the list in the bugged initiative reports and make sure every weapon you list are in them.

Bunny5, we're gonna have discussions about events in the close future (this week or next, depending on how long time a couple of other issues take), and I'll make sure we put proper focus on Rubi-Ka 2.

---

Logging off for today. Will post again tomorrow.

[Ditka]

I have to admit, CZ, this thread is exactly the sort of thing I've been screaming that you guys need to do.

If you'd done it two weeks before 14.4 rolled it might have made a big difference. I'll check back from time to time, if you beat it into the devs' heads hard enough that they repeal the level reqs and find another way please post it in here somewhere and we may resubscribe our accounts. (Assuming that this exact kind of player-FC interaction keeps on going in the mean time.)

Overall, I remain unconvinced that the dev team and thier managment are competent enough (or care enough) to keep from further ruining this game's best features (since most of them were 'unintended'). Prove me wrong though, and I'll come back.

Good work in here so far, no fluff, no smokescreaning, at least once a day updates to major playerbase concerns. Coming from me, I hope that means a lot.

[einexile]

cZ wrote:

Storyline... probably the most difficult topic in the e-mail. Everybody knows there is not too much of it visible right now on Rubi-Ka. There are reasons, but I really can't divulge much about it.

The reasons are as follows.

But priorities continuously change, resources are reassigned, and we have to take all player feedback into account ... there are a lot of other demands and wishes that the team must accommodate. Like balancing. Like new content. Like bug-fixes. Should this get in the way of the story? No. It shouldn't. Does it? Yes, sometimes it does.

Ragnar Torquist, 9 April 2002

"So, two jobs: one contributing a tiny bit - not enough, but doing my best - to Funcom's most important project ever; the other a largely ineffective, but well-intentioned, addition to the management structure."

Mr. Tornquist again, 13 June 2002

To me it looks as though Mr. Godager and Mr. Bakken have converted the poor man into a jack-of-all-trades, a sort of handyman who is expected to bounce around Funcom's offices doing work for which he receives no credit.

Meanwhile, one looks in the manual and finds him credited with something for which this game is generally ridiculed. This is truly shameful.

Even for those of us who don't care for roleplaying or backstory, there are many things I believe would be overlooked by this easily-angered community if only there were something interesting happening in the world for us to focus on. I urge you to ask that Mr. Tornquist be freed to do his job.

Moreover, the story MUST be divorced from the technical considerations of the game. If you are without the resources to destroy buildings and the elegant engine required for large scale battles, or otherwise crippled by problems of that sort, it is vital you assume those problems will exist in the future, cut the high-budget elements from the story, and GET ON WITH IT.

"Kill your darlings," as the saying goes.

Story is nothing but people acting and those actions having consequences. We're not asking for Dune anymore.

Nor are we looking for surprises, and surprises will not be appreciated. Please put an end to this flirty "teaser" language as though something really exciting were on its way. Funcom is no longer in a position where it is charming to keep its customers in suspense. It is obnoxious. At best, what's on its way is a long-overdue element of this game which we have been paying for all along and which your company has neglected. After this much time, frankness and openness on the issue are due us.

[Cz]

Capital 'C', noncapital 'z'. Keep the touch on that Shift key timed correctly now.

Bah! Who cares? At least most people understand Cosmik and I are two different people now, not one person named Cozmik.

I'll be tracking down some more info today and make that part 2 thread.

[___________Evilspork]

*keels over, clutching his chest*

Two posts from a community person! Everybody get your snowboards out, hell hath frozen over!

[einexile]

Bah, I freaking hit Preview Reply to reformat and proofread a dozen times and crap like that slips through. Sorry about that. No offense meant.

[__________LostBoyJim]

Ok, I have collected some new questions here, and by e-mail and in other channels. Things to check up now include:
- Memory issues
- Storyline and events (might take a while...)
- Reload key
- Self only nanos (I guess it was about nanos, Mr Bean. Is that right?)
- New stuff onto boss MOBs only (well, almost)
- Other camping issues, plus verifying future changes on the Alvin /Dodga and robots spawns
- More designer articles (they've been absent for a while)
- Deleting old characters to free up names

This, and hopefully a bit more, will be in new threads, not this one. I prefer to have the initial info in the first post, not on page 3. [/B][/QUOTE]

Hey giget, you forgot the BBI Faithful again already! The reason this is such a glaring and infuriating issue for players is that this is a single field in the database that is causing the problem. A developer should be able to fix it in 5 minutes max.

The fact that they haven't indicates that YOU, CZ, YOU PERSONALLY, aren't communicating with the developer team properly about the needs of the community. It's a 5 minute fix you loser!!!

LostBoy
jim

[___________Evilspork]

Originally posted by Vacuos
Bah, I freaking hit Preview Reply to reformat and proofread a dozen times and crap like that slips through. Sorry about that. No offense meant.

We know it was all part of your devious plot to take down poor cZ.

[Cz]

LostBoyJim, I normally don't react when people call me names, but one more 'loser' comment from you (at anybody), and I'll make an exception just for you.

As I told JaydeStargunner I'd do, I made sure all the weapons listed were in the bug reports on the bugged initiatives; One report for bows, and one report for other weapons.

We had already assigned it to the first client patch scheduled. Unfortunately, we can't just patch it in at any time. Building a patch takes time and testing, and postponing the next scheduled patch for throwing this fix in now is not very likely.

Now, it's sleepy-time for me. G'night.

[_______________Sjoko]

Originally posted by LostBoyJim
Hey giget, you forgot the BBI Faithful again already! The reason this is such a glaring and infuriating issue for players is that this is a single field in the database that is causing the problem. A developer should be able to fix it in 5 minutes max.

The fact that they haven't indicates that YOU, CZ, YOU PERSONALLY, aren't communicating with the developer team properly about the needs of the community. It's a 5 minute fix you loser!!!

LostBoy
jim

Your name should be Get Lost Boy. Would be a perfect name for an adv. heh ;P

He're we have a perfect example of an adventurer who just recently got lots of good stuff. What does he do.. He goes right here and whine about it. That's all I've heard from adventurers the last couple of months. Now you got some nice nanos and items. Back off and let someone else who sorely needs a fix for their profession to get something.

As a soldier I'm the one who should whine about my weapons not being as good as a lousy pistol. So be quiet!

And to be completely honest, hadn't you found out that BBI was using melee init you probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. Before you go all haywire you should thank FC for making that gun use melee init, cause melee init seems to mean more than ranged init.

And because they haven't changed it doesn't mean that Czeffyr went to the devs and said "hey guys, I know this moron on the boards, whatever you do, don't change the BBI faithful gun from using melee into ranged init yet, let them bleed first, muhahaha". It means something else, (hopefully) more important issues gets fixed first. And it's not a 5 minute fix, first you have to plan it, you have to take the servers down and create a patch to fix the item database. Now if you could do that in 5 minutes, I'm impressed.

Try and show some understanding and not just think of yourself ?

[Tetra]

Originally posted by Sjoko


Your name should be Get Lost Boy. Would be a perfect name for an adv. heh ;P

Don't be insulting... the guy crossed the line but don't drop down to his level.

He're we have a perfect example of an adventurer who just recently got lots of good stuff. What does he do.. He goes right here and whine about it. That's all I've heard from adventurers the last couple of months. Now you got some nice nanos and items. Back off and let someone else who sorely needs a fix for their profession to get something.

Here's a little timeline for you...

Advents recently got notes about our fix leaked before it was placed on test...

Advents spoke up with very specific concerns and worries about the various things in it

Advents were told that their input was important and being listened to...

A patch was placed on test seemingly without having taken into account single thing said in responce to the complaints on the leaked/official patch notes..

Advents continued with their concerns on various things in a well meaning constructive way

Advents were left in 100% silence with the exception of one post from cosmik which made absolutely no sense then abandoned the thread never to respond when his argument was pointed out as being undefendable.

Advents in irc were told our complaints were in reguards to dead issues but our input was important.

the forums exploded in anger and rage at being ignored completely.

Patch was placed on live, or in the eyes of many "snuck onto live"... Not one single change occured in 14.4 from the time it went to test to the time it went to live and there was zero effort made to communicate with us as to why until after the fact.

So the reason you are seeing so many advents who are angry is because for all intents and purposes we were ignored completely until we became unreasonable...

As a soldier I'm the one who should whine about my weapons not being as good as a lousy pistol. So be quiet!

I'd probably be more annoyed that high tech weaponry is classed in the same league as things like an I beam but then again I'm the type who's always been bothered by the constant flow of games that have people punching in a useful way against armor designed to stop whatever "high tech" weapons exist given the setting (yes a sword is "high tech" if that's the setting)

And to be completely honest, hadn't you found out that BBI was using melee init you probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. [*snip and move elsewhere*]

And because they haven't changed it doesn't mean that Czeffyr went to the devs and said "hey guys, I know this moron on the boards, whatever you do, don't change the BBI faithful gun from using melee into ranged init yet, let them bleed first, muhahaha". It means something else, (hopefully) more important issues gets fixed first. And it's not a 5 minute fix, first you have to plan it, you have to take the servers down and create a patch to fix the item database. Now if you could do that in 5 minutes, I'm impressed.

Try and show some understanding and not just think of yourself ?

After much time spent bringing up the issue and being told it was a known issue we were told on the test forums by nizmo? that the inits problem on the bbi faithful among other weapons would be corrected in 14.2

we were told in the advent forum that the inits problem on the bbi faithful among other weapons would be corrected in 14.4
We've been told that it's going to be fixed in 14.6 now... given the track record on the issue it's hardly difficult to see where the lack of understanding in someone correcting it this time comes from.

Before you go all haywire you should thank FC for making that gun use melee init, cause melee init seems to mean more than ranged init.

uhhh.... yer gonna have to explain that one.... really... i want to see you try.