Friday with Means - February 20th, 2009

[gergiskoo]

INCOMING!
Macrosun is making Map Navigation resetable.
Right-Click-Ignore in chat is done and coming soon.
"Get over here!" reverse knockback is in the works.
Instanced Pande = very soon.

[shadowgod]

Was he? For some reason I was thinking Marius was Znore's RK4 name.

Nay.

Znore is Morten Byom.

Marius is Marius Enge.

i think the problem is, marius didnt have some alias to go by, and Marius is somewhat "generic" even as a name.

Gaute got a pass i think, cause i think its not as common a name (world-wise), and it was easy to forget how to spell his last name.. so it was just easier to say "gaute" instead of full name.

course, for a while there, it felt like they were doing musical-chairs with the Director position. then it kind of leveled off and felt more solid when Sil became it.

[SSK]

i think the problem is, marius didnt have some alias to go by, and Marius is somewhat "generic" even as a name.

Best memory of Marius

[Technogen]

Where is Perfekt's list!? I thought we would be knee deep in the problems by now.

[Windguaerd]

Where is Perfekt's list!? I thought we would be knee deep in the problems by now.

I second the motion!

[zeet]

I would just like to say...

Love the booster. It's been... a challenge... Need to worry about others not screwing me over as well as the aliens. It's interesting but loving it.

Hurrah on the news of Map Navigation become resetable. Not that I raised it halfway one day because I was very bored and wanted all the maps for some odd reason.... Nope... Didn't do that...

[Chrys]

Can I make list if Perfekt won't?

1) Lack of marketing / promotions to attract fresh blood / old returning players:

Don't really need to elaborate there. Talk to any player in any other MMO and they're like "Anarchy-what?" If you're lucky, it's "lol that game still exists?"

2) Graphics:

Soon(tm) doesn't cut it anymore, this is 2 years on since it was announced and we're not anywhere closer from the looks of it than then - the utter lack of news or screenshots or whatever since the teaser movie has all the characteristics of vaporware, which is bad for those who aren't familiar with the game or who may be watching from a distance. While your loyal fanbase may be willing to wait, the rest of the gaming world doesn't even know you exist and aren't going to wait on you. The more you delay, the less likely people like me will ever come back, regardless of how awesome your gfx engine is because you aren't operating in a vacuum, there's this thing called competition. While we can kind of understand there's only so much you can do/say, it would be nice to see more previews/screenshots - especially leaking them to gaming sites as a way of marketing.

3) Prof Balance Review:

Eagerly anticipating this one: where when how what? What are the 'roles' of professions supposed to be? Are any professions specifically intended not to be able to PVP 1-on-1? Are professions intended to be 'complete' PVP packages, or will those that are great in nearly every category get nerfed, or those that have big holes in toolsets be fixed? How is "team-balanced" PVP supposed to function in AO exactly? I get how it works in Warhammer, I've no idea what it means in AO.

Basically, FC have to come out and say what professions should be capable of, what the limitations are and how they're going to do that (in consultation with professions). Leave it to players and everyone wants to be unstoppable Rambos with no weaknesses, and that's why no one is ever happy with their profession (till they become unstoppable Rambos). At this stage, I think players want a 'big picture' analysis of PVP from the dev's perspective, because there's a feeling among certain professions that devs are out of touch because some recent new additions for specific classes have made no sense to these players according to their experiences in PVP.

And btw while we're at it, what exactly does the Professionals programme do - can we get ones that are more active and/or representative of the profession itself? Some of them come up with assertions totally in contradiction to everyone else's experiences, and they've completely lost the trust of the players they're supposed to represent.

4) Server population:

Sorry, time to cut the crap about healthy server populations. This game's entire population on all three servers is less than some 'not doing great' MMO's single servers out there (like hm, you'll know this one - you run it: AoC). It needs to consolidate so that there is more activity at all levels.

5) Learning curve:

I know diehards in this game don't want the game any easier, but the concepts and the progression needs to be better introduced to new players. In a recent MMO I played, I found I could go through the entire first half of the game just enjoying myself playing, finding things progress from one step to the next naturally. In AO, once you leave the relative safety of noob island it's a big scary world out there and people don't know what to do next. It needs to be made with more big signposts saying "Go hear" "Do this" "Try that". Yes, dumb down the intro by showing them what they can do on their own so that they give it a shot. Without guidance people lose sight of what to do before they either quit or discover Nasc hecks and then powerlevel to 220 and find they don't know what nanos their prof has.

6) Out of whack damage-to-HP ratios (PVP):

Players can basically all one-hit-kill other players if it weren't for damage caps. What needs to be done is to make damage and damage mitigation go in an arms race against each other, rather than percentage mitigation (e.g. RRFE) that eventually reaches 100% and then you have a retarded fight and silly bandaids like BR. The pacing of damage needs to slow down (and nerf heals at the same time) so that PVP becomes easier for new players to enter, while making mass PVP less about who can spam O and assist more.

7) The full game experience:

This needs to be stated because sometimes both devs and players can lose the woods for the trees. The overall experience in AO is ... what exactly? A rush to get it over with till you get to the 'fun' parts? For example, I liked playing my little fixer - the fixer quests, the levelling on RK and SL, the dynamics and mobility of the profession just made for an overall enjoyable experience. I hated it on my soldier. Just felt like a grind I wanted to get out of the way. But yet fixers are utterly dissatisfied with their prof at tl7 and what made their profession fun at lower levels just doesn't make up for being at the short end of everything at endgame. Some Professions need some fun things to do, others need some boosts.

Maybe you can go back to basics with some of the questions that happen in beta testing (and tie this with the prof balance review): What's fun for you about the prof? What's unique about it? What was your experience of it at tl1, tl2, tl3, ... tl7? How balanced was it at each of these levels? What changed? What needed to be improved? How did you feel relative to other professions?

The fact that the entire levelling experience for almost everyone is now via pocketing says a great deal about this game being in the evening of its life. Would people pocket if the levelling process were more fun or if it were shortened? I know in my current MMO I'm playing, the levelling process (via PVP) is so fun I don't want to miss out and I put off levelling the easy way (via grinding Public Quests, hint hint what game this is) so I can PVP (where levelling is slower but way more fun). People have been asking for more levelling options, putting SK on RK, or whatever else to just give some kinds of alternatives to rinse and repeat grinds. I haven't got the booster (or actually I'm not even active atm), but I believe the booster hasn't fixed the overall game experience, especially the levelling-for-lowbies.

8) Exploits:

Please. PVP aspect of the game at tl1-5 is meaningless as long as these are prevalent. There are sites out there that sell exploits for AO, that are apparently still working a year after I reported them. Shell out the cash. Test and then nerf these exploits immediately. It's about saving your brand, not just making some disgruntled PVPer whine less.

9) Credit spamming:

Again, it's about saving your brand. You want to see the worst case scenario? Try Aion. First impressions mean a lot to your potential new players in this game. NCsoft's brand in Asia is indelibly tarnished for being bot-heavy in games and the amount of credit spam you get in AO is the same thing. It says to the new player: "Here's a game the developers don't even visit enough that bots can spam credselling daily with impunity."

10) Halp ima MP get me outta here:

<insert all my whines about state of MPs, gameplay, mechanics, lack of <3 etc. here>

[Kaylinne]

I think I can sign this list that Chrys made... apart from nr. 10, nerf those shield MPs

[ninor]

I think Chrys got it pretty well covered, Except for 10 which is way too typical. I don't care if one prof is no balanced for PVP if rest rest of the game is out of shape.

So for the game experience or as extra point i would add a decent trade/shop/auction system.
As well as open up all the RK TSing over 200 like imp cleaning, monster part cleaning and stims or just carb armor.

Some of the basics in this game need attention, not such BS and PVP.

[Chrys]

But no. 10 was the rly srs suggestion

[Keldros]

I'll throw in another, although you can argue this is a combination of 5/8:

For years, AO has been "Hecklers Online." While it makes sense for a well-equipped team of skilled players to take on a challenge and level up faster, the "challenge" part has aways been missing from the equation.

In the old days before SL (and thankfully fixed back then), there was a bug in the loot rights/XP system that allowed a low level team to recruit a high-level damage dealer. Even though the damage dealer was out of teaming range of the rest of the party, he could help them powerlevel. By fighting as a team member until the mob was below 50% health (ensuring the team got loot rights/XP) and then leaving the team after that point (so other team members would be allowed to get XP), the high-level player allowed teams to earn ridiculous amounts of XP from missions and mobs they had no hopes of being able to tackle. Fortunately, Funcom fixed this early on.

Flash forward to SL release, and people learn they can earn utterly insane XP for killing hecklers (a lvl 160ish mob that gives XP comparable to 210+ RK mobs). This is not a problem in itself, but leads to the current situation with kite teams and pocket teams where people skip past levels 50-200 without even attempting to learn their toolsets (or even what the attack button is).

How are these any less of an exploit than the old team XP bug was? In all three cases you have players earning vast amounts of XP as a reward (actually much much more with hecks) while they dont face the corresponding risks at all.

The consequences to this are obvious to anyone who plays the game--new players complain (and rightfully so) about how an entire booster pack has no content fo them. Powerlevelled players complain if you release any content they can skip by grinding hecklers. Then they post enormous whine threads about how they're leaving the game because AO is nothing but a heckler grindfest, or how PVP is totally unbalanced because some players know how to use their toolsets while others simply don't know how to function without a 3rd party mitigating all the risk.

[Klodovik]

10) Halp ima MP get me outta here:

<insert all my whines about state of MPs, gameplay, mechanics, lack of <3 etc. here>

QFT

Halp!

[Tryqz]

I suspect FC are planning a PR glut when the new engine is ready for release. If they did a PR campaign right now, they'd get the wrong sort of attention, and I think they learned this from advertising the new engine waaaay too early.
If they did an ad campaign right now, AO isn't visually something which catches the eye compared to other MMOs out there, and the first bite is, as they say, with the eye.
Sure, a few people may take a look, but among them, a large number (as always with any game) will drop out after deciding it's not for them, and will be LESS likely to check it out after the update.
If they wait till then to advertise it... Then they'll get a lot more new players trying it out, and therefore more deciding to stick with it, as well as a likelihood of more favourable articles from review sites.

[Technogen]

Also marketing cost money, if they did it now and then didn't bring in much rev, finance may be werry of giving them enough for when the engine comes out.

What I would like to see is a new picture from the new engine every FWM, that way we could get a feel for it and suggest improvments and see them happen.

[scenenheard]

I'll throw in another, although you can argue this is a combination of 5/8:

For years, AO has been "Hecklers Online." While it makes sense for a well-equipped team of skilled players to take on a challenge and level up faster, the "challenge" part has aways been missing from the equation.

In the old days before SL (and thankfully fixed back then), there was a bug in the loot rights/XP system that allowed a low level team to recruit a high-level damage dealer. Even though the damage dealer was out of teaming range of the rest of the party, he could help them powerlevel. By fighting as a team member until the mob was below 50% health (ensuring the team got loot rights/XP) and then leaving the team after that point (so other team members would be allowed to get XP), the high-level player allowed teams to earn ridiculous amounts of XP from missions and mobs they had no hopes of being able to tackle. Fortunately, Funcom fixed this early on.

Flash forward to SL release, and people learn they can earn utterly insane XP for killing hecklers (a lvl 160ish mob that gives XP comparable to 210+ RK mobs). This is not a problem in itself, but leads to the current situation with kite teams and pocket teams where people skip past levels 50-200 without even attempting to learn their toolsets (or even what the attack button is).

How are these any less of an exploit than the old team XP bug was? In all three cases you have players earning vast amounts of XP as a reward (actually much much more with hecks) while they dont face the corresponding risks at all.

The consequences to this are obvious to anyone who plays the game--new players complain (and rightfully so) about how an entire booster pack has no content fo them. Powerlevelled players complain if you release any content they can skip by grinding hecklers. Then they post enormous whine threads about how they're leaving the game because AO is nothing but a heckler grindfest, or how PVP is totally unbalanced because some players know how to use their toolsets while others simply don't know how to function without a 3rd party mitigating all the risk.

I also see this fast-track-to-220 method as a catalyst for credit buying/selling, due to the fact that a lot of powerlevelled players will have absolutely no finance for any of the endgame items such as combined AI armour. And of course they're going to whine like hell if they find out they have to farm for 3 years to get said items.

[Chrys]

Marketing does not have to cost the market. You can do PR (like that interview with MMORPG), you can do viral releases, you can better use/support player-driven content, introduce a friend... there's a ton of things you can do that can hype things up without much outlay - this is the beauty of the Internet. You don't need to advertise at the superbowl for your product to get noticed. But there's been next to nothing, that was bothering me all through last year, and look at how much they got for LoX, their biggest news of the last two years.

I work in investor relations, and like it or not, I see my MMOs the same way I see companies I work with. Do I trust the management team? Do they have a great vision and will they take the companies/products to the next level? Am I getting what I want out of this investment?

Sadly, if you think small, you'll always be small. And while you can't quite compete with WoW, I do feel FC can and should think bigger about AO than they do (I won't blame the devs here - I think this has more to do with corporate management than anything the devs want). Reason I didn't come back for the booster? I looked at it and thought - this is it? This is what players can expect for the future of AO - a bunch of minigames and content desperately trying to hang on to what players they've got left? I remember at some point I think it was Sil who said there'd be no more levels, no more full scale expansions - this booster gave me the feeling of "end of the line". I hope the prof review and the graphics engine change that perception, because I don't want AO to end, just like I didn't want Tabula Rasa to end.

But I want a big new 'thing' to look forward to or this game is seriously at The End for me. The gfx engine has been going on too long to still get excited about

[SSK]

Can I make list if Perfekt won't?
<big text>

It's not bugs!

Agree on most part of list tho and delete MPs already, let everyone play w/o portable nanoskills buffing terminals

[juksrz]

check your tells mr Means

[Dunsany]

I also see this fast-track-to-220 method as a catalyst for credit buying/selling, due to the fact that a lot of powerlevelled players will have absolutely no finance for any of the endgame items such as combined AI armour. And of course they're going to whine like hell if they find out they have to farm for 3 years to get said items.

I've become cynical in my old age. The world has changed. I'd hate to see it happen but I bet Funcom would do pretty well selling credits, armor, etc. on the paid points page.

[Sephiroth56]

I love that Perfekt has yet to reply.