Letter From The Game Director 30 November 2007

[Sapfeer]

uber! pretty ****in nice job FC!

[Spart]

17.8 will contain a new social clothing mode for players. A new tab has been added to your equip window that allows you to equip any item purely for the visual effect (i.e. you wont get any stat bonuses from them, but will get to use the visual looks). There will be options that allow you to tell the game client whether to render your equipment tab, your social tab, or a combination of the two (in effect having the social tab ‘overlay’ on top of your existing armor). This is a feature we have wanted to do for some time now, and are delighted to finally be able to bring to life! I don’t think the parties on Rubi-Ka will ever be the same! The tab also does have special rules regarding combat to ensure it can’t be abused to trick people in PVP, but we will go into more details on that closer to release of the update.

One question I got about this. Lets say i got some armor that i want to have on visually, but is underpowered than what i have equipped. Due to the special rules, does that mean i can't wear it when PvPing?

[silentsteeple]

Excellent stuff here. I have been looking forward to 17.7 and it sounds like 17.8 is going to outshine it completely! Praise goes out to everyone at Funcom for keeping the game alive and fresh. I can't wait to see and experience the new content. I'm very excited already and we only have a small preview of what is to come. Keep it up guys, you're doing a great job!

[Twangleman]

Oh. My. God.

QFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dagget]

Just have to be aware that current clothing articles may have to be segregated from armor by flags (some already is) and no armor allowed on the social clothing tab. Otherwise you get ppl going around trying to farm titles by claiming they are wearing junk armor when they really have CSS underneath. Judging from the comments in the letter, though, FC is well aware of this issue and such a scenario will not be possible when the feature arrives.

[Binarybits]

The tab also does have special rules regarding combat to ensure it can’t be abused to trick people in PVP, but we will go into more details on that closer to release of the update.

I think they have that covered, might not be a "no armor in the social tab" but maybe a "starting attack failed" result if someone tries to initiate combat? Anyhow I'm confident they will have something to prevent your fear.


but ZOMFG "Social Mode"!! finally 6 years but hot dang, they figured it out!!!!!!!
(this even after a reply to a social mode post stating it was near impossible with the way things were already. Mucho <3 to you Guys in the Dev. room.)

[Eskarin]

holy

[Norbal]

This has to be the most exciting news I've heard about AO since the engine upgrade was announced.

Wooty!

[Linkee]

Nice I look forward to the improvements

As a side note, I would also spend a significant amount of effort, money, time recruiting new/old players to the game. A great game without players is no fun. The population on RK is down...ALOT and you are gonna have to entice people to come back for this new content.

[stateofmind]

Problem is every time they try to make any kind of big changes how many other things go haywire.

[Izolenta]

Awesome. Hope you can introduce it not FC-way ^^

Go ahead, so sweet. Really!

[BigT]

Now, I can guess one of the next questions! Will there be rewards beyond the ranks themselves? In the short term ...

While this section does sound very exciting, I'd like to stress (In case it hasn't been brought up yet to get it out as early as possible), that if you really want this new system to be embraced by the community, you need to spend some time making sure the system is abusable via farming the same person or same group of people all day. This is ESPECIALLY true if rewards are to be offered for the ranks you can acquire. My apologizes for using the 'W' word here, but in WoW they offer dimminished returns on title gain for killing the same person within a short period of time. Now while I do realize that because of the population of WoW versus AO that this system couldn't be simply Copy->Pasted onto this game, it would be nice to see some sort of similar idea implemented to prevent 3 people from attaining the best of the best in 2 hours (Or however long it would take to group farm some title). If you've already thought of this, then wonderful; if not, I'd appreciate it if you'd look into this.

So that’s the lowdown on 17.8… a true raid interface for the game...

Very exciting to see something the community has asked for repeatedly like this be implemented. Every time we see something like this, we take Famine's signature more to heart (That you all really DO *read* feedback). I'm curious as to how adaptable this will be to different sizes of raid forces from 2 teams on up to 100+ players doing APF42, but I would assume we won't know more about it until it gets a bit more testing with the engine

We hope to be able to start showing you some footage from the new engine very shortly...

Very, very exciting. Can't wait to have a glimpse of how this upgrade will improve the game

Nice I look forward to the improvements

As a side note, I would also spend a significant amount of effort, money, time recruiting new/old players to the game. A great game without players is no fun. The population on RK is down...ALOT and you are gonna have to entice people to come back for this new content.

Possible free month incoming?

[bungerman]

Why did Phar post this and not Sil?

[atlasdreamer]

I think that the simple Oh. My. God. sums it up

[Kotts]

Why did Phar post this and not Sil?

Phar is the Community Manager now, not Sil.

Sil is now the game Director.

Sil prolly made a few posts like this before even under his new title because old habits die hard.

[Jonalethian]

Phar is the Community Manager now, not Sil.

Sil is now the game Director.

Sil prolly made a few posts like this before even under his new title because old habits die hard.

Which was the reason to ask why Community Manager posted a Letter form the Game Director

Very nice news anyway ):

[BigT]

Which was the reason to ask why Community Manager posted a Letter form the Game Director

Very nice news anyway ):

Letters aren't always delivered by their writers

[kuznechik]

Awesome. Hope you can introduce it not FC-way ^^

Go ahead, so sweet. Really!

Well, considering

The new nanos are intended to be something that you shouldn’t take for granted. They offer tactical options for your character if you want to make the changes necessary to use them. We know that they are very difficult if not almost impossible to cast with Notum Repulsor trained for example, that’s exactly why they are set where they are set.

and fact that NTs can cast their new nanos in NR2 while shade need just full CoNC, CMo and arith set - I won't be over-hoping.

But... Hope dies last. Too bad souls are eternal so they live even after hope is dead.

[Palux]

Just have to be aware that current clothing articles may have to be segregated from armor by flags (some already is) and no armor allowed on the social clothing tab. Otherwise you get ppl going around trying to farm titles by claiming they are wearing junk armor when they really have CSS underneath. Judging from the comments in the letter, though, FC is well aware of this issue and such a scenario will not be possible when the feature arrives.

Hi!
I see no reason to forbid that.

Use veteran leet and noone is able to see what you wearing atm.


Greetings
Palux

[Mekh]

Hi!
I see no reason to forbid that.

Use veteran leet and noone is able to see what you wearing atm.


Greetings
Palux

It' is however easy to ask people to cancel it before a duel or whatever might be the reason, in order to check equipment.
Leet/wolf can always be casted again if needed.