Friday with Means - March 13th, 2009

[Junttius]

kinda model is ok but its chin is 2 big and u r missing textures.

Edit: U cant risk a High poly faces in a MMORPG it will be a hell when 10 ppl gather together, so sadly the models should be as low poly as possible, just my opinion tho, the models some ppl posted are great, ........ for a offline game or sumting but for mmo with that much polys im not quite sure.

Very much true. Kind of like comparing apples to oranges when comparing high poly models to actual game models. I'm too much of a noob to 3d-modelling to be able to texture stuff succesfully. Still learning..

You made me look phat.

No no, not fat. umm.. behe!

[Trebie]

Yes, this is the PROBLEM I have.

Means said they'd leave the old faces for those of us who want to keep them, but make them unavailable to choose from.

If this meant Face Graft would stop having the old ones available it would upset me quite a bit, as I use the nano to keep my existing face, while cycling through the hairstyles.
I like my face and would definitely choose to keep it, but it would be a shame to lose the ability to cycle back to it, effectively meaning I'd never use the nano again. (In which case I'd also want the ability to delete nanos from our list restored - so I could prevent accidentally using it)

So it's not even a possibility that you might wind up liking some of the new faces and wanting to swap between them too, correct?

[Tryqz]

So it's not even a possibility that you might wind up liking some of the new faces and wanting to swap between them too, correct?

No, that's not what I'm saying, BUT - I would like to have the OPTION if I check them and DON'T, to stick with the faces I currently use. So all I'm saying is I'd like the old faces to remain on the rotation for that nano line, as well as the new ones. However the talk of removing them as new options for players to take would imply also removing them from that nano, as you'd be taking them out of the character creation screen and the plastic surgeon, so it'd be a bit inconsistent not to make the same change to this nano as well.

Remove from shortcut bar, nobody really using the nano menu that stores all except maybe he favorites tab, in which case you can remove from that tab back to the original one.

I use the main nano menu a LOT.

As an agent I would end up taking up more shortcut bars than would fill my screen if I stuck every buff I'm ever asked for on them. It's easier to look at the main nano box when finding the highest wrangle my target can use, etc. Rather than sticking EVERY SINGLE ONE on a shortcut bar. And my faves box is all my FP/AP/Mimic nanos.

[Boltgun]

I can't find an old face on a next high res model good if you ask me.

Maybe replacing them in a serie of updates instead of one go, or even better make a custom face creation process (default existing ones to set values), would be good. But low poly head on high poly body seems goofy for me.

[ajukusoja]

Very much true. Kind of like comparing apples to oranges when comparing high poly models to actual game models. I'm too much of a noob to 3d-modelling to be able to texture stuff succesfully. Still learning..

No no, not fat. umm.. behe!

well u did well with yer models and im not quite sure that high poly model in a MMO is a bad thing however it sounds reasonable, same way as high model building for a whole city visualization is kinda bad thing, exept the com buildings and arch things i mean ... oh whatever :P

p.s. what software did u use for the model?

im only familiar with 3d max, simply cuz i work only with it :P for modeling thats it.

[ajukusoja]

I can't find an old face on a next high res model good if you ask me.

Maybe replacing them in a serie of updates instead of one go, or even better make a custom face creation process (default existing ones to set values), would be good. But low poly head on high poly body seems goofy for me.

both head and bodies must be similar build if u ask me i find it acceptable like 50 000 polys for example, but then again im not a game developer so i dont know at all.

[ArienSky]

Remove from shortcut bar, nobody really using the nano menu that stores all except maybe he favorites tab, in which case you can remove from that tab back to the original one.

I have 6 hotbars, 4 of them are set to specific profession eg. Shift-4 for Enforcer, then I go Alt-2 Shift-4, Alt-3 Shift-4, Alt-4 Shift-4, Alt-6 Shift-4.

That way I have 40 nanoes for that profession, that is enough for most, but for MP, NT and Trader the 1st and 5th bar, which are normally Agent nanoes and perks, comes into use for those professions.

Even with that extensive setup, that just covers most of the 440 most used nanoes, true, there are only 196 (last I counted) nanoes Agents can buff others with, not counting heals and HOTs, but agents have a lot of self-only nanoes also.
I just counted the nanoes on my lvl 172 agent: 855 nanoes, 402 of them in Psi, the rest of the categories have ~100 nanoes.

So yes, the programs window comes into use
(we do not need to delete them though, Means has talked about a hide feature, that will do the same, but without permanently deleting them)

I would like to know where you have your data from, that nobody uses the programs window (the menu featuring the list of nanoes available is called "Programs")
Or better, have you think about using finites in an infinite universe
(ok, ok, the number of AO players is finite, but in general you should be careful about coming with statements that have a possibility to be untrue)

apparently there are at least two agents using it.
and I doubt anyone with 8-900 nanoes would hotbar them all, as some are more infrequently used than others.
Sure I could use 10 hotbars, which is the maximum number we can have, but the current system works fine, and will work even better when nanoes can be hidden, so you do not accidentally execute them.

Kind Regards
Ariensky

[Technogen]

I believe you missed his sarcasm.

[Junttius]

p.s. what software did u use for the model?

blender

[Tryqz]

I can't find an old face on a next high res model good if you ask me.

Maybe replacing them in a serie of updates instead of one go, or even better make a custom face creation process (default existing ones to set values), would be good. But low poly head on high poly body seems goofy for me.

Scaling it actually seems like a "two birds with one stone" option to me.

Have a poly count slider - running it from current quality to the new quality. Or even add a dynamic element, scaling the poly count depending on your framerate, so for example, by Borealis grid or at a pande raid those on lower spec systems would have a poly count on player models roughly equal to what it is now, while in Omni-HQ it'd rocket up to the highest.

[Mastablasta]

well u did well with yer models and im not quite sure that high poly model in a MMO is a bad thing however it sounds reasonable, same way as high model building for a whole city visualization is kinda bad thing, exept the com buildings and arch things i mean ... oh whatever :P

p.s. what software did u use for the model?

im only familiar with 3d max, simply cuz i work only with it :P for modeling thats it.

To make textures with normal maps you create high-poly models, then use them as a base for the shadow/heightmap, reduce the polycount on the model to where it can be used ingame then slap the texture on there, and the normal map through the magic of modern rendering techniques, make it look like it's much more highpoly than it really is.

[Shrubberyman]

I'm glad we didn't put out the perk reset npc last week as it would have broken all your characters. It is now working correctly and should be getting it on TestLive early next week together with the 12 man instance for testing...

Awesome news Means.
Allow me also to poke you one more time about the issue of "neutral power" that you were kind enough to mention recently and stated as not being to be swept under the rug. Is it something you already have plan for in the near future or is it still in the "Issues to tackle at some point" cardboard?
You got us kinda excited, you know!

[ajukusoja]

To make textures with normal maps you create high-poly models, then use them as a base for the shadow/heightmap, reduce the polycount on the model to where it can be used ingame then slap the texture on there, and the normal map through the magic of modern rendering techniques, make it look like it's much more highpoly than it really is.

that was not my point, i was merely making a difference between the FC models and some of the models ppl show, it is doable the way u described however if u take a look @ some of the models u will actually see the quantity of polys ppl were using, and there comes the difference.

@junttius: ill google it thanks for the info, could be a nice thing to play with during free time

[Tinypain]

New "team" specific chat channels for the Battlestations.

Very cool and long overdue but nice to have.

Orbital Strikes only hitting ONCE inside a period of time...no more stacking.

Elaborate on this please. Is this fixing an exploit where 1 org was able to fire multiple OS or is this making the change to only allow 1 omni OS every 15min and one clan OS every 15min? Please please answer this question (anyone).

Some more new exploit fixes.

Thanks for listening



Oh and if you do read this means. Just a suggestion but a patch with some updated Battlestation maps/zones/whatever you want to call them would go a very long way on it least livening up the battlestations. A simple rotation between 2 or 3 different battlestation layouts and designs, possibly with a bit more design put into them then the current state would just be flat out awesome. I think the whole community would appreciate that one.

--Steve

[Hacre]

Elaborate on this please. Is this fixing an exploit where 1 org was able to fire multiple OS or is this making the change to only allow 1 omni OS every 15min and one clan OS every 15min? Please please answer this question (anyone).

I'm pretty sure this is so they can't just use a countdown script and 2x blammo your force back to reclaim. I don't know the exact timer though.

With this change, FC can't really do much more to make it viable for Clan to go for towers again on RK1. Well aside from perhaps forcibly migrating some Rimorians.

Oh and if you do read this means. Just a suggestion but a patch with some updated Battlestation maps/zones/whatever you want to call them would go a very long way on it least livening up the battlestations. A simple rotation between 2 or 3 different battlestation layouts and designs, possibly with a bit more design put into them then the current state would just be flat out awesome. I think the whole community would appreciate that one.

--Steve

The "Red vs Blue" ideas that have been floating around as well would be nice. I appreciate the RP reasons behind why it's Clan vs Omni obviously, however current population just doesn't gel with that.

Even if they just made it Red vs Blue until the new engine or something.

[Tinypain]

Red vs Blue works great as long as blue isn't entirely comprised of the pvpers and red is the cannon fodder. It would have to be entirely random generated teams with zero preference options.

And let's hope the blammo changes go a bit further than just a simple change so 2x blammo can't be sent within the same second. Wtb 15min faction lockout on orbitals for each field.


--Steve

[Hacre]

Red vs Blue works great as long as blue isn't entirely comprised of the pvpers and red is the cannon fodder. It would have to be entirely random generated teams with zero preference options.

This -should- go without saying. But yeah.

[Means]

Artists still checking out that Opifex Head.

[Hacre]

Artists still checking out that Opifex Head.

That's muuuch better.

[Junttius]

Artists still checking out that Opifex Head.

Nice.. Thats pretty damn good already! Very nice work.

EDIT- Used to be carefully optimistic before, now i'm thrilled!