Friday with Means - June 19th, 2009 - AO Complexity

[madrid]

Not sure if I have to laugh or cry at the fact that the FC crew doesnt seem to know basic things like "how many people do you need for a ship invite"

QFT

And these same people are going to be "balancing" the game?

[Bugzybug]

Are parry and riposte ever going to get some love?

[Xephonics]

I would like to ask a serious question about the new engine.

Being one of the players who does not have top of the line systems, I am wondering if the new client will shut me out from AO. This game currently plays on most any system, so it makes it quite user friendly.

I am quite curious if you are going to shoot the reqs through the roof and only have one client, or if you will keep a legacy client as well.

[Amosco]

How's the work on the new engine coming?

Sorry... Had to ask.

[Darkripper]

Not sure if I have to laugh or cry at the fact that the FC crew doesnt seem to know basic things like "how many people do you need for a ship invite"

I agree with desp, it's a shame that the team doesn't know what game they are balacing.
Are you ppl sure u played the game you're working on already?
seriously, this friday with means is really not funny.
And next time if u want to say something that really matters to the players, try not to show them that you don't even know the game you are building...
I hope that Friday with Means like this won't repeat, it just a shame ...
Anyway, keep on the good work with instancing things

[Apothis1]

GJ Means, keep me updated on the AS changes please, im hoping its going to a template similar to dimach so agents are indeed the only ones capable of capping recharge as well as maxing damage output. Check my post in Game Suggestions for "Trained Assassin" also for agent support.

[sultryvoltron]

I agree with desp, it's a shame that the team doesn't know what game they are balacing.
Are you ppl sure u played the game you're working on already?
seriously, this friday with means is really not funny.
And next time if u want to say something that really matters to the players, try not to show them that you don't even know the game you are building...
I hope that Friday with Means like this won't repeat, it just a shame ...
Anyway, keep on the good work with instancing things

Oh yeah, the number of people it takes to get on a ship for an AI raid really makes a difference when it comes to nerfing stun procs, redoing perk damage, etc.

By the way, did you know that GM's didn't count towards getting a ship invite, even when that GM was on the mob's hatelist? Did you also know that all people had to be on the hatelist, which must not have happened for Means since I bet he roflpwnt it with the GM character?

Give the man a break, he really only made two errors that don't make a difference, solo raid and two man raid.

[Dangerbot]

Not sure if I have to laugh or cry at the fact that the FC crew doesnt seem to know basic things like "how many people do you need for a ship invite"

Well its the same with a lot of things. By now theres a great many people who play AO who'd have vastly larger amounts of AO's inner workings commited to memory, and known - from one side of it - faster, better and stronger than any Dev. Theres only be a very few small and select bits of information, some of our more complex formulas, exactly how Add All Def works, etc, where a Dev could flat out say they know better than a player. Or of course future content we've not seen yet.

I recall reading somewhere that George Lucas cannot, by hearing a piece of Star Wars music, identify the scene for the most part where that music may apply. But almost any fan can, from just the first several seconds. Just about all of it will conjure memories of a particular scene in the trilogy. (I-III don't count. I am of course refering to IV-VI.)

Just one of those things. Four years of devving is different to four years of playing. Once the AI raid mechanics were built, working, and finished, it would have been time to move on to the next project. For many of us, AI raids are still a daily activity.

[Obtena]

I agree with desp, it's a shame that the team doesn't know what game they are balacing.
Are you ppl sure u played the game you're working on already?
seriously, this friday with means is really not funny.
And next time if u want to say something that really matters to the players, try not to show them that you don't even know the game you are building...
I hope that Friday with Means like this won't repeat, it just a shame ...
Anyway, keep on the good work with instancing things

Well, it's hard to be critical. We can't assume (other than Means) that any of the current devs actually worked on the AI content. Even in Means' defense, 4 years is a long time to remember rules for ship invites (though I'm surprised that you can't learn that from looking at the code that existss).

What I find rather odd is that this warranted some dev attention. Can't believe there are enough full city raids happening that justify the time spent on looking into this, unless it's critical for a future development.

[Chrys]

Means,

While FC have been notoriously secretive about game mechanics in the past and leaving them up to players to figure out, please when you do come round to balancing, do be more transparent about the way the game works so we aren't shooting in the dark with suggestions. To the credit of past players, they've worked out enormous numbers of formulae to staggering detail, but some things no one has been able to decipher.

Things like the relationship between AAD and pure evades vs AR for regualar hits, for example, will become very important if you're boosting regular hits to become meaningful in PVP again. And we'll get better ideas about optimising our professions so that a clearer picture of real balance can be had.

Thanks

[shadowgod]

It's me! I'm the Macrosun in that post!

lies!

you're his evil twin clone brother!

[Lheann]

Come on people give means a break. They were testing if instanced cities worked properly for AI raids. To the poster asking why this is relevant, that should be clear. Instanced cities are in 18.1.

It was quite funny to read and actaully whether it was planned or not a very good case of regression testing all the rules associated with the raid. I for one did not know about the all have to be on hate list part of the rules.

I do agree that exposing some of the inner working of AO will help the players provide better feed back on a good deal of the balancing.

[Vhax]

A great many of you have been with us long enough to for it to be considered a "career"

Still working on that

[scenenheard]

I don't think everyone has to be on the hate list, only 4 of the team do... have done a few city raids with my 2nd account teamed and not shooting or getting any aggro etc, but still got on the ship - the other 4 in the team were shooting

[biohazardep]

Time well spent, I say.

[Helgaiden]

Meansssss!!!

I reactivated just to ask this:


Will there be a media blitz of some sort (TV commercials, magazine Ads, etc.) for when the new engine is released?

[biohazardep]

Meansssss!!!

I reactivated just to ask this:


Will there be a media blitz of some sort (TV commercials, magazine Ads, etc.) for when the new engine is released?

You wasted your money then.

[Lektronik]

Meansssss!!!

I reactivated just to ask this:


Will there be a media blitz of some sort (TV commercials, magazine Ads, etc.) for when the new engine is released?

While I don't speak for Means, I think it's safe to assume that there will be. They've spent a lot of resources to develop this engine and it would be silly to not hype it with media/advertisements (imo).

[Ninj00]

The aimedshot / full auto nerf patch is going to be GLORIOUS


I cant wait

[Odov]

The aimedshot / full auto nerf patch is going to be HILARIOUS

imo