Friday with Means - April 17th, 2009

[Sephiroth56]

That says nothing about my points, besides that they needed aprox 2 years for a mac beta.

You just don't have any ability to realise that one programmer is not able to do the same as a full team with the same amount of time. You'd probably say AoC should've taken the same time to develop if it was just one programmer.

Maybe you do yourself a favour and ask Means if he thinks two years are too long for the engine and if they always had a programmer working fulltime on the engine.

Umh, Means already thinks it's been too long, or well, Means has said "it shouldn't be this way. If we had known this is what it would've endorsed, we wouldn't have said what we have as early as we did". Why? Because when they started they were working on their own thing - then they realised "ok, that's just a big cluster****. Let's start from scratch and use Ogre". You might be starting to make sense if they had been working on implementing ogre from the start.

And.. how is saying "ask Means" a logical defense?

For your information, you have the same right as I do and everyone else to post on this forum - free speech, you know?
That has absolutely nothing to do with "authority".

No, but we're saying you don't know what it implies and it's just frustrating when everyone needs to have an opinion about something they don't know anything about. The more people know about development in this type of thing, the more quiet they become.

The point is you are a fanboy that thinks he is god.

Mm, yes. The point of you asking "what takes longer" is that SG is a fanboy.

Anyways .. trying to discuss with any of you is pointless, so back to topic.

This is the best defense when you realise your points have been destroyed, so smart move.

What else should these players do? Play "fair" and get teleported with nearly 0 HP and get then killed from Aune?

So bad game design justifies cheating? Or what you say is bad game design justifies cheating? So you're one of those that cheats in a single player game if it's too hard?

If they did that well maybe they would have already quit AO and that certainly wouldn't be a good option for funcom moneywise.

So Funcom should open for exploits just because more people will play? Isn't that selling out?

The first design was really clear, you fall you die. now it was you fall, somestimes fight stupid adds at the bottom and then use the teleporters to get up to get insta fragged from aune. The result was always death but in the first version you had nothing to do to finally get killed if you fell down.

So, why not just /terminate when you get down there, then? If you don't want a fighting chance you can just get over with it.

[Ebondevil]

What do you think is more difficult, interfacing with a new graphics engine or interfacing with a whole new platform?

I would probably actually say that interfacing with a new engine would take longer, depending on the language that's being used of course.

As for 2 years development on the engine, I believe The Secret World (Fun-Coms other MMO project that's being worked on) has been in development for about 7 years so far and expectations are for it to take a few more years yet.

The new graphics will be ready when they are ready, I know we all eagerly anticipate them, but my views on it are that if they're working on things like new heads etc, then it's probably getting closer to completion but until Means knows for certain about a release date he's not going to say anything for fear of unforeseen circumstances screwing up release plans.

I for one am willing to wait and see what happens, knowing its being worked on as fast as the programmers can is enough for me.

[Ayria]

Oh look another wanna be programmer who thinks that because xxx can be released by EA as a POS in a few months other companies must be able to do it too.

(Reference to SoldiTwo not you Ebon)

[shadowgod]

Maybe you do yourself a favour and ask Means if he thinks two years are too long for the engine and if they always had a programmer working fulltime on the engine.

its garanteed that everyone at FC beleives that 6-months is too long, let alone 2 years.

For your information, you have the same right as I do and everyone else to post on this forum - free speech, you know?
That has absolutely nothing to do with "authority".

this isnt the United States. this is a company hosted forum. we have no "rights" on these forums. anything said and done here is a privilege.

The point is you are a fanboy that thinks he is god.

people that take my alias out-of-context is quite amusing. one reason why i keep it.

and now i'm a fanboy? yeah.. all these years complaining about FC mistakes that coulda been easily avoided, thats me, i'ma fanboi just like Mastablasta!

[SoldiTwo]

its garanteed that everyone at FC beleives that 6-months is too long, let alone 2 years.



this isnt the United States. this is a company hosted forum. we have no "rights" on these forums. anything said and done here is a privilege.



people that take my alias out-of-context is quite amusing. one reason why i keep it.

and now i'm a fanboy? yeah.. all these years complaining about FC mistakes that coulda been easily avoided, thats me, i'ma fanboi just like Mastablasta!

Yeah, it's their forum but even funcom has to to obey the law. fyi free speech is international and national law. This message board is no law free space.

[Wrangeline]

Yeah, it's their forum but even funcom has to to obey the law. fyi free speech is international and national law. This message board is no law free space.

You are so wrong it's not even funny

[Quilluck]

Oops. Thanks for the reminder. I neglected to mention that there will no longer be a wipe, health or nano hit when coming up from the bottom. Now you will simply be returned to the start of the instance...outside the center circle.

Note: Every time someone uses /stuck I get a report with their character name and location.
1000's of players have now abused the /stuck system to get back up from the bottom to avoid the wipe/health+nano hit.

That this many people would be driven to cheat suggests to me that the punishment for falling, which was now much less than death, was too extreme and that /stuck would be abused as long as there was ANY punishment.

There will be no punishment for falling in the next update.

Interesting..

Does this mean you are trying to circumvent the main tactic for the commandos which is calming them at the entrance? Currently with the warp to the entrance it will indeed be a "punishment" and /stuck will still be used to avoid being greeted by 8 happy commandos

[Kaylinne]

I wish someone would clean this part of forum of all the nonsense and keep it on topic.
I know..... I can dream tho

[Chrys]

Yet another FwM descends into moronic trolling.

[Hacre]

lol at you ...



lol at you ...



and lol at you ...



Just lol maybe you could look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(hint: 10 December 1948) and it's constitutional law in the "USA", Germany, Sweden, Ireland, United Kingdom, Switzerland and "Norway" and I guess in many other countries of the western world.

60+ Years don't look like new to me.

Freedom of Speech doesn't apply to forums owned and run by someone who has every right to moderate and regulate the contents therein, however the hell they like.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Why do you even bring freedom of speech up, anyway? I didnt see you being moderated , which is the only case where you could even make a complaint about lack of freedom of speech on this forum (and be fundamentally wrong in the end, but that's another story).

[IHaveHugeNick]

As for the "boss calm" , to be honest i was never a fan of this nano concept myself, it was rather controversial from the start.

But, like it or not , the ability to calm ANY boss, has become one of core parts of Crat PvM toolset. Its not really relevant if the descprition says something about dancing monkeys on antibiotics or a convention of game developers that are also Elvis Presley lookalikes.

The point is, this nano does just that, calms ANY mob ingame, and its working as intended. Its how we use it and its what teammates expect from us. For the sake of consistency , it should do exactly that, everywhere.

If you decide to remove it or replace it a weaker version, that's fine by me , but then be upfront about it , instead of limiting its usefulness from new encounters or silent backward nerfing.

[SoldiTwo]

As for the "boss calm" , to be honest i was never a fan of this nano concept myself, it was rather controversial from the start.

But, like it or not , the ability to calm ANY boss, has become one of core parts of Crat PvM toolset. Its not really relevant if the descprition says something about dancing monkeys on antibiotics or a convention of game developers that are also Elvis Presley lookalikes.

The point is, this nano does just that, calms ANY mob ingame, and its working as intended. Its how we use it and its what teammates expect from us. For the sake of consistency , it should do exactly that, everywhere.

If you decide to remove it or replace it a weaker version, that's fine by me , but then be upfront about it , instead of limiting its usefulness from new encounters or silent backward nerfing.

When my crat was little I even used Junior on normal mobs like in Arid etc. because it nearly succeded every first try and even stopped that stupid snare towers from snaring where my other calms really often got countered.

[Solstiare]

@ Hacre: You are arguing with a brick.

@ SoldiTwo: You are speaking out of your a$$ when referring to the graphics overhaul. The truth of this statement is born out by the effort required to separate one code group (ao engine) into two. (ao game/physics engine + graphics engine) people with a short attention span can stop here and skip to the end.

AO was originally coded as one large engine combining physics, graphics, and the game engine itself. As this was done before graphics cards were in their infantile stages, the graphics engine was more or less the game in its entirety and it depended on the CPU. This is why a new graphics card (usually) has only a modicum of effect, vs. a faster/more powerful chip having a huge impact on the game's performance.

Trying to de-couple the game/physics engine from the graphics engine, as pointed out earlier in this thread, would be utter hell. Separating the pair from the one could cause unimaginable problems, and would take nearly as long to do as it would to bin it and rebuild AO from scratch. It's entirely possible that FC has. Until/if a FC employee confirms one way or the other, however, that is conjecture.

I am the first to point out I have not seen the source of AO and probably never will, but after seeing the progression of the game over the years my money is on a labyrinthine code base that has to damn nearly be rebuilt from the bottom up. I'll also bet that it will take longer then the aforementioned 2+ years.

Synopsis: It's done when it's done, {Edited by Venachar: Profanity removed}

{i r pwn't by forum mod. never a cop around when you need one, always 5 there when you don't)

[Soule]

Keep up the good work means!

[gimpmasta]

BTW.... Durable Bandages LE proc still has a recharge on it.

[Gatester]

Well a good tank won't miss the "Boss" calms, but I would like to see something done about our enforcer taunting to deal with current targets and adds.

When you get morphed in the 12-man raid, all aggro is messed up. Once you clear morph it generally takes me about 8-10 of the IEoM (50000 taunt) just to start getting aggro back. Even when Im not morphed too, if someone hits the bosses with a single Full Auto or backstab before I get a good hit and taunt on em, it can take me the same amount of taunting just to pull aggro off.

"MONGO please!!!" is getting really annoying lol.

[Vhax]

Dear SoldiTwo, You're funny.
Now please stop posting about things you don't know about.
Thank you.

[Boltgun]

The 12 man highlights a balance problem. This started from Albtraum but here it's pretty obvious.

The problem is that in the way profs are designed, some are pretty useless!

It wasn't a problem when content was all about zerg, also pre sl we weren't laying in caps everywhere, but now what reason do I have to take a MA in 12 man for example ?

The result is this, last beast there were 20 solds and 1 MA.

3 profs are performing way too well : Docs being the only meaningful heal, solds with huge damage and more damage reduction then an enf and crats with such a huge CC it kills challenge.

Other profs have still their uses, enfs are still tanks, keepers good elements, but what difference a trader draining makes, Traders can drain NR, AC, etc but I don't see where it's useful.

As a sold myself I'm asking for a nerf maybe and I'll probably regret that, but I think of orgmates who can't figure what they should do, let alone find a team.

It might sound extreme but pushing all kind of numbers and mechanics is required to make this system working again because now it looks like a broken down 8 year old mechanic with numbers way to high to handle it.

[Kaylinne]

Professions balance and instanced Pande ETA/some more info please.

Give me some reasons to play the game in this thread instead of stupid discussions about free speech