I had a dream about AO last night.

[_____________Cranium]

>>what FunCom is doing to fix the camping issues<<
We've had long discussions on this issue and one of our network gurus has written up a pretty clever design on it. The issue is scheduled to be reconsidered for 14.6. I'm crossing my fingers into knots that the system works as planned, but there's A LOT of factors to consider when filtering players into static dungeon instances.

>>Almost every post that Cranium makes is worth about a thousand Cosmik and Cz posts put together.<<
That's not very fair to Cosmik and Cz, they've done way more for the community than I. They basically _have_ to respond to threads whether they are able to gather the neccessary info or not, to show that issues are being registered by FC. I get to pick & choose posts that happen to correlate with what I know is going on with AO, like this post that was collecting dust in the attic. If I worked in community there'd be a helluvalot of loose threads on my track record as well.

>>I love the idea of having the Subways be static adventuring areas for low level characters.<<
Good!

>>If it hasn't been already envisioned, I would suggest interlinking all these various Subways into a supersystem. <<
That's close to the original vision, which unfortunately made it into the printed manual but not into the game. Basically, the Whom-Pah proved a more resource-friendly solution to the core functionality we needed (city-to-city travel).

>>the merger area of the Clan and Omni sections of these interlinked 'dungeons' should be 25% or 0% gas<<
I love the idea of connecting PvP tunnels, but linking instanced dungeons (static or not) used to be nigh-on impossible. Still looks very unlikely to happen but we're looking at ways to just maybe cheat fate on this one...

Miracles or not, there will be a static location for each start-up city where lowbies can play. 'Condemned Subway' (architecture is complete, waiting for monsters, loot & testing) is currently planned for 14.6, but no promises.

[Bionitrous]

Really appreciate the efforts your putting forth with respect to these particular issues. My jadedness with mission after mission is starting show through in particularly dark colors these days.

As far as interconnecting the 'lowbie' Subway tunnels, I fully appreciate what you're saying with regard to linking multi-instantiated playfields. I am guessing that the 'cheating' you are talking about involves 'hubs' that are single instance with exits to the tunnel systems that would eventually end up in Borealis or Newland. You would enter the Subway in the Eastern part of Newland and work your way through all kinds of newbie dungeon delight.

At the end you could turn around and head home or perhaps climb over a pipe and end up in some water-filled murky Train Switching Station that would actually be a single instance playfield. This could be devoid of most native wildlife to conserve resources and rely on player 'interaction' and atmosphere to set the tone. Through further exploration your party might find additional tunnels that have outlets in other parts of the world. These could then be the multi-instantiated 'lowbie' dungeons of the the other cities.

However, none of this is as interesting as the slipped tidbit about what may or may not occur in 14.6. Basically, my entire guild is fading away from lack of anything that we can say we are going to do on 'Tuesday' where we can all sign on on Tuesday and have a start, middle, and end to our adventures.

A romp in Smuggler's Den is spoiled by 'trainers', super high level players, groups who have the technicians spawn mapped and timed to the second, 'egg pharmers', well you get the idea. It is completely and utterly impossible for us to say to our gang that "'Tuesday' is going to be a blast. Bring your bug zappers and prepare for some fun." The way things are set up now, it is an almost certainty that it will be the exact opposite of what is fun.

Not now. Not this week (you're going to have the fallout of 14.2). But soon. Soon, you are absolutely going to have to address the fact that for a majority of your players who are completely able to handle the static dungeons, they simply don't exist in all practicality. I can probably save my guild if I could give them a timeframe. I could beg them not to cancel and even send out emails to get people to come back if I could say to them that 'July 18th or so, we'll be able to group together as brothers once again and kill that Mantis b*****."

We, the 'non-entitled' need to be able to log on and say to each other 'what do you want to do today?' and be able to choose from a half-dozen REAL options. 'Let's do Smugglers', 'Lets give that new Dragon a shot', 'How about them do-hickeys in DAV?', etc., etc., all with understood risks, rewards, and a reasonable chance of achieving 'completion' and that ever-less-frequent smile at logoff time.

Thanks for listening.