Friday with Means - March 27th, 2009

[Hacre]

Well being banned *usually* does mark someone as asshat in my opinion. People dont get banned for just one wrong post in wrong mood. So how many such posts is enough to be marked as "asshat"?

I would like to see professionals with social, not only gameplay skills.

I was referring to bans from game, like the 24 hour vacations people get for being hot headed and swearing at someone, who then decides their skin is thinner than paper and makes a whiney petition about it.

Not forum bans, in my experience you need to go pretty far to get banned from forums.

[Technogen]

Well being banned *usually* does mark someone as asshat in my opinion. People dont get banned for just one wrong post in wrong mood. So how many such posts is enough to be marked as "asshat"?

Not sure if this is about the forums or the game but Fam baned me just for the hell of it then Sil unbanded me.

[Koizumi]

"When are are you going to let meta get stuck in to new main pets for all 3 pet clsses? We have had the same pets now since the launch of SL and to a pet class, pets are the same as a weapon."
Soon.

Gah, him working on our pets? :/

[*] Target NCU window. See hostile nanos running on your target (with restrictions on which ones you can see).

Much <3 VERY much <3 for this!

[*] Split the default new player chat window into default (system/vicinity etc) & combat tabs.

Good idea

[*] Right click names in chat to get a menu with the option to ignore them.

Oh damn yes, bye credspammers!

[*] Mouse targetting improvements. It will now be easier to target small/fast moving things/players.
Very nice aswell [*] Hotbar timers on skill-locked items (including shadowbreed). Timers also work in the programs and controls windows.

Sweet, super sweet, especially skillock times!

[*] Added battlestation chat channel(s).

Finally! I was always so in favour of this idea
<3 it, better late then never, but still <3 it
Only 1 thing about it id like to know:
-Will this be side-locked? As in to prevent neuts from spying?

[*] Improved various tools to help GMs handle chat spammers.

Oh yes yes yes, much greatness indeed!

Only thing i didnt see adressed yet was the ever hated by me:
-Is it intended that decon doesn NOT clear all the debuffs from pets?

[Kaylinne]

I was referring to bans from game, like the 24 hour vacations people get for being hot headed and swearing at someone, who then decides their skin is thinner than paper and makes a whiney petition about it.

Not forum bans, in my experience you need to go pretty far to get banned from forums.

I never got even a warning in 5 years, least ban. So if I can control myself and behave, and trust me I can be hot headed just like anyone else if not more, everyone can.
You cant judge the thickness of someones skin online, people can react on something you wouldnt understand and yet have right to be "whiny" all they want.
If someone even mentioned my Father in first month after his death, I would sure overreact as whiniest person possible - so dont be too fast to judge who has thick skin..... rather adjust your behavior accordingly.

I still cant believe FC is just banning people left and right for marginal reasons or no reason at all.

[Hacre]

I still cant believe FC is just banning people left and right for marginal reasons or no reason at all.

I got a 24 hour vacation for looting a ql 250ish Ring of Computing from an LoTV corpse that had gone FFA. That renders me unsuitable for the Professionals programme, under the current rules.

[SSK]

Well being banned *usually* does mark someone as asshat in my opinion. People dont get banned for just one wrong post in wrong mood. So how many such posts is enough to be marked as "asshat"?

I would like to see professionals with social, not only gameplay skills.

I was banned for 1 post I posted expansion beta related stuff in wrong forum section.

[Windguaerd]

well.. for obvious reasons, i dont think most of the current, still-hanging-around professionals should be removed just for a "reboot" of the system. as theres a few quite good at what they're doing, and know how to properly test out things.

If the people you mention have been doing a good job, they would easily be re-elected by their specific group as a professional. Those who have been inactive, obviously would have to step down and then a new election to have the position filled.

the professionals dont get paid, or anything special. in theory we get better access to the devs, thats it. and trying to hold a professional up to some high standard of a paid employee when it comes to what they can and cant say, just isnt realistic.

Hey, people who sign up to be a professional, know exactly what they're getting into. The reward is helping the community and peeps of his/her profession, that's IT. The reason why I never applied to be agent prof is because I don't post int he agent forums much, also I'm happy with my toon as it is, don't PvP and I know I would not have the time to dedicate to the position. Why should we have low standards for professionals which represent thousands of players?

the rare occasion any professional really does make a bad post, they do get a yelling at by FC. so its not without punishments. however, theres the saying of "one man's troll is another man's brilliant writer". everyone here can point to someone who they beleive posts nothing but flame bait, while half the people will point to those same baiters and call them great posters who say things that need to be said.

One thing is reading "you are wrong, idiot" and the occasional aggressive sentence, another is having to read long posts full of insults, name calling which reminds me of my 12 year old nephew and going off the deep end.

Means has a different managing style than his predisessors. and i think hes still trying to work out alot of methods, towhich he just hasnt gotten around to the professionals program yet. and that could be considered fine, when looking at the whole.

I agree with you 100%, the man has been doing a LOT for the game and our community. I've had low expectations when he took the position, now I'm thrilled he is our GD, we got an upgrade!

alot of current professionals want to do more, and expand what their roles are. but still requires FC take the time to talk to them.

Well, like you said, Means is doing a lot. I feel he will get to it, as he will also get to the DNW community.

and lastly, there should not be hard requirements on devotion of time. as i'm sure many people here have experienced times where work-life becomes very hectic, or personal-life has, and for a few weeks you just cant devote much time to just a game. some of the most brilliant people we have in the community, also lead very full lives, that know a game shouldnt take presidence over the paycheck that pays for the game, or other more "down to earth" areas. so i'd hate for such people to miss out on contributing great work cause of this.

Not to mention theres people who do more than just being a professional. as i'm not only a member (shame i'm not the president as well!), but i also oper FC's irc server (one of only two active at that). and course, i have some other minor projects i'm doing for FC.

I got to place Means as an example here. He had some stuff come up in RL, and he TOLD US, and we understood. Same should apply to professionals. If they got RL stuff coming up, then post in their forum and SAY SOMETHING, peeps will understand.

I thank you for your work, I have no doubt from what I've heard that you have dedicated a lot of time and effort into the Community

[Windguaerd]

Breaking a rule or two is one thing. However calling people names and similar behavior is not what I would care to see from professionals.
Heck, I have been vocal enough on this forum and yet I got 2 infractions in almost 4 years, one of them for posting something OOC in RP forum.
How far you have to go and be banned then?

You may think that nothing but being "uber" player in your profession matters in this game - but it does for some of us.

Exactly what I meant. I've been here since 2001 and I got ONE warning. Nobody is perfect, but there is a difference between being vocal... and disrespecting people or breaking the rules to the point of being banned.

[Windguaerd]

and i'd like to see people also reprimanded for calling professionals names. as it seems people think its perfectly fine for people they perceive to have more power to be attacked, but lord forbird it might happen the other way around.

so i'm all for equal treatment of things like this. we're all human after all (well, most of us).

Forums Mods needs to crack down on the name calling, I believe that is against forum guidelines/rules so yes, it should go both ways.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Ban? For bad behaviour? Not on these forums. The things people say sometimes , i barely ever saw someone banned.

Hell, i'm hardly that friendly myself and i have like 2 warnings, one expired years ago and one was so completely uncalled for (this isn't an attempt to discuss moderation) that i wasn't even allowed to put the whole thing into my signature.

People were banned for serious stuff like breaking NDA , having info about being kicked from professionals in sig (they know who i'm talking about). If you managed to get yourself banned, you really had it coming.

[PhoenixOfAges]

"What is the role of VP moving forward? Could more quests or the new booster instances give us a way to earn VP other than through battlestation? Or is VP still seen as the reward to the PvPers, that the rest of us just have to live with."

I would like to implement more varied ways of gaining VP...much the same as gaining XP. The fastest way will still likely be PVP related...but the options are going to be more varied. Again, Daily quests for VP are a possibility as are PVM encounters in areas that would expose you to PVP should there be any "hostile" players in the area. There is potential for improvement in this area and we will be looking into it

Sounds good. Please bridge the huge gap between BS VP and mission VP some with this so people can get at VP reasonably at any level. Also please try not to make too many of the more PvM methods too PvP related. A good PvP geared twink can completely obliterate even a small group of lesser equipped lower level chars. Trying to send people where they are more likely to run into such trouble too much will just create a new series of complaints.

Then as aside from BS meds those into PvP tend to have little to no use for other VP buyable items beyond for use as buffing items to get symbs or such on. Although those same VP items that aren't of much interest in PvP can be rather nice in PvM. So having VP gains favour PvP too much does not seem to make a lot of sense.

The single biggest one that would be nice to change is the Arul Sabas. ....

Another annoying one are the Small Ebony Figurines. Many types with the exact same name for all of them. Others like the Upgraded Reanimator cloaks and Bag of Exchange would be more convenience issues.

You might want to create a temporary forum section for Balance Discussion when the time comes. It will be easier for two-way communication between players and FC.

Good idea. Would also give a nice defined place for the flood of threads on the matter we all know people will be making.

[haide]

"In a survey a ways back there was a question about if we'd like to see an account wide bank added. Is something like that or a mailing system where we can send items and creds to others being considered?"

We don't have any immediate plans for implementing an in-game mail system or account wide banks. From a technical standpoint these two systems can introduce a whole new set of issues and would represent months of work. The coders are already very busy with new features and the new engine. The mail system I am not a huge fan of personally...as I like that people congregate together to exchange items/credits...it is social and nice to actually see each other now and then. I have played other games with these systems in place and never really liked that I could not see members of my org for weeks at a time..yet exchange items etc with them all the time. Travel in AO is really quick and easy...so a quick visit with your friends never felt like a "bad" thing for me.

How about adding a mailing system to the apartments, you go to your apartment to send out or receive items, it would ofc not be instant and would be associated with some sort of cost (credits i assume...)

[nijushio]

How about adding a mailing system to the apartments, you go to your apartment to send out or receive items, it would ofc not be instant and would be associated with some sort of cost (credits i assume...)

Yay nice idea, and add bank + grid terminals to appartment, would make them useful finally .)

[Windguaerd]

Yay nice idea, and add bank + grid terminals to appartment, would make them useful finally .)

Jobe Luxury Apartment has grid terminal. banks should never be added to them, ever =P

[Odov]

A bit too late for this. The bed is made, and now it needs new sheets.

I hear they give you a new set of sheets when you re-roll omni. Otherwise, it's your own fault you pissed the bed.

[sultryvoltron]

... I tried to make a lame joke out of a metaphor ...

I'm glad we have your insightful thoughts on the matter. I'm also glad you thought before you made your post. Your suggest to "Not allow neuts to level past 200" is clearly an impossible task, since I swear when I press f1, followed by t, it CLEARLY shows Shadowlevels on my info, and many other Neutrals have the same problem. I keep petitioning it, but ARKs always tell me "You're Neutral, and you leveled past 200, its ok, its part of the game."

Please go back and try to convince more people that Sneak Attack needs to be the same as Aimed Shot and leave the big kid conversations to the adults, k?

Thanks in advance.

[Arlancor]

Nice to see you guys working on!

I did not read the 8 pages of comments, so it might have been up already;

- Any plan to fix fear nanos so they work in next patch?

- I hope you dont plan to make AS crap, that would end the life out of many pvpbuilds.

[Windguaerd]

Can we try a bit harder to remain constructive without cheap shots? I think this is my fifth post asking people to chill out.

As for neutrals not going past lvl 200, that is something that will never happen. Neutrals are already handicapped, even at level 220. Of course it can easily be explained because they are a minority in the storyline and in the percentage of characters overall. However devs could give them a bit of love and throw them a bone by improving a single aspect of their gameplay, be it weapons, armor or nanos.

Regarding a mailing system, last year I propose the idea in this thread at the Game Suggestions forum.

Based on the comments in this thread, I would change the features from the thread I started to this:

1. Mail boxes are located inside Jobe Apartments, Jobe Luxury Apartments and the upcoming Orbital Luxury Apartments (sorry froobs, you do have to pay to get the good stuff).

2. You can send mail to ANY character in the server level 50 or above that has a Jobe Apartments, Jobe Luxury Apartments and an Orbital Luxury Apartments.

3. You can attach ONE item per mail OR credits up to 100 million.

4. Mails are sent once every 60 minutes, delivery is guaranteed within certain conditions.

5. Funcom is not responsible for any mails sent to the wrong character, exact and proper spelling of the character is the sender's responsibility.

6. The mailing system does NOT have a delivery confirmation feature, this would double the resources needed to run it. For confirmation contact the character you send items/credits to.

7. Nodrop items cannot be mailed, however Unique and Special items can be sent.

8. If the receiver already has a Unique item which he cannot claim, the item will be LOST and unrecoverable.

9. Any abuse of the mail system in any way (commercial advertising, abusive language ets) may lead to the temporary or permanent ban from the mail system on any account found guilty of such actions.

10. There will be a 10% charge for Credits being sent, so if (for example) you send a friend 10million, he/she will receive 9million.

11. Each item you send will have a flat fee of 10,000 credits.

I think this way cred sellers can't abuse the mailing system to transfer credits illegally in bulk, while at the same time allowing players to transfer items and credits at an acceptable ingame fee.

[Brodello]

How about Temporary Research? OR the degrading research techno suggested? One idea is make side xp a researchable thing up to maybe 20% that keeps degrading over time.

Another questing, I cant reactivate my account, prepaid visa's don't work and I don't have access to a atm card or credti card. Is there any possibility of adding more options to pay for a subscription with?

Odd, i have tried Prepaid Visa and Prepaid Mastercard and both works properly. Make sure the bank that issued the card have opened up online transaction for you. Unless, the card you used requires Verify by Visa or online transactions.

Overall, this weeks Friday with Means is the best read Double smile on most of the changes particularly the one about GUI, uber!

[Ayria]

Odd, i have tried Prepaid Visa and Prepaid Mastercard and both works properly.

Ditto, all I have is a PrePaid Mastercard, all I've ever had, AOs payment has always worked (except once but that got resolved).