Friday with Means - July 3rd, 2009 - German Server and AO Learning Curve

[Lektronik]

I just know what the number say. I'm just pointing out that the majority of those who took the survey wants to stay.

Fixed that for ya.

Problem is, a 3% margin is not high enough to suggest that RK3 population wants to remain.

[Falkvinge]

i am out of ao after 6 years, if u want a low/mid level team on dnw - hey - i log in my 3 accounts - that´s my team... more u won´t most likey find...
u wanna do anything else? dual log chars and try to gather a team with some other dual logged ones....
it.

bye
does that mean you also stop your rambling here?
I hope so...

[thecheeseman]

Dear means,

I joined anarchy online for the STORY of rebel clans fighting evil omni space empire
not for meaningless items with meaningless stats

items and stats appeal to veteran players but NOT NEW PLAYERS

focuing and revitalizing the story and dramitically increase rp activity and hire more rp staff


also: ITS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE FOR NEW PLAYERS TO FIND A VIABLE WEAPON WITHOUT OUTSIDE HELP. armor is ok, but getting good weapons are a big problem.
the damage of the shop weapons need to be increased from stupidly useless to at least viable

[Mehandor]

Fixed that for ya.

Problem is, a 3% margin is not high enough to suggest that RK3 population wants to remain.

wrong !
a -3% margin is not high enough to suggest that RK3 population wants to leave.

[Proddd]

So only 53% wants to stay on RK 3, anything gonna happen or made possible for the people who want a transfer or are still undecided?

53% isn't an overwhelming majority but just over half of the population.

considering only 20 people play on that server id say 10 of the 20 is an overwhelming majority.

[Odov]

18.2 Path Notes

* Increasing population of AO 1000% across all dimensions

wtb


Seriously, glad you are working on the population issues. It's not just RK3 either..

[Lheann]

Means,

Great post. It is nice to see FC gets it. The one thing I did not see mentioned for any of the servers was Advertising. Come on, I logged on Myspace yesterday and 2 different WoW ads on the same page. We need advertising, but I understand if you all want to wait for the new graphics engine. Just tell us you get that too and I will be happier at least.

Overall great to know the starter experience will be looked at.

[Lektronik]

wrong !
a -3% margin is not high enough to suggest that RK3 population wants to leave.

Agreed. It's basically a survey that says half want to stay and half want to leave. It doesn't suggest anything substantial, however 50% finding serious problems in population would be scary from a management point of view.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Enabling cross-server PVP
With our current technology enabling cross-dimension PVP would be impossible. The way the game works would have to be completely restructured to enable this small addition. The motivation for this request comes from a desire to enjoy more pvp gameplay...and I think the way for us to provide that is through new open-pvp encounters rather than spending a year to make the battlestations available cross-server. We'll work on providing more pvp alternatives that can be done with less people in the near future.

Except: that wouldn't be just a small addition. It would bring life into Battlestations again, and that's by no means small. Thing is, the new "on demand" PvP Battlestations brought, isn't on demand anymore. Its queues and queques and queues , and 50% of the time, it isn't even running. On Atlantean TL7 it usually takes 2-3 victories in a row from one side, to kill Battlestation , sometimes for hours. The low level Battlestations , except 150-174, are basically never running.

The new type of PvP encounters, new Battlestation maps, some open PvP playfield, et caetera, would be of course awesome , but they're not going to spawn more interested players out of the air. And this is what we need the most right now.

Cross-server Battlestation would fix that once and for all.

So the choice here isn't to work 1 year on cross-server PvP or to work on new PvP encounters.

The choice is to work 1 year on cross-server PvP and in result, secure existance of on-demand PvP once again, or to work 1 year on new PvP encounters ,that will be empty 3/4 of the time.

[bitnykk]

okay, advanced and veterans like ao complexity. i think we all like it. even old players often come back to rejump in it and discover last additions made. but if we like the game we also gotta admit that keeping it alive involve to retain incomers.


so i bump on the "learning curve ease" part. make people feel more welcomed/guided on AO. someone mentionned the SL playground as good example of what's needed : clear objective, XP, stuff and fun. removing arrival hall and adding noobie island quest (e.g. : armor line) was already a good start. the overlaying tutorials, the ip distribution help and the new windows (chat/combat) are good too.


then i think we could also imagine to :

- actualize /help content (inspired from Apanel may be ? see showthread.php?t=546697 ) !!! atm in the "gameplay" part there is NO profession specific forum outward ! the only external link given is " Please refer to the online manual." > 404 NOT FOUND ??? that doesn't make it, plus this is dull and a little old ...

- link a little more the different tasks/quests from beach > subway > temple > Foreman & SoM > etc ... that could be done under a deep quest line add with no timeout, leading players to waypoints in a long course goal. i saw a lot of naabz crying "wth where shall i go now ?". if nobody's up to lead them on OOC or if they don't dare asking we lose them. at least the new /waypoint can help a little.

- ENDLY replace/edit the classic AO map ! yeah ! the crappy useless brown stuff with nothing written, no indication, no path, nothing. i'm sure it scared and made lot of people /quit as 0% of the noobs know how to change it or install another instead and even where to get them from ...

- raise the overall froob weapon damage (min dmg at least) a little to avoid people of being discouraged in early pvm and /quit ; now that SL/AI/LE/LoX gave extensed an enormous amount of average dmg that shouldn't unbalance the game nor create jealousy.

- same suggestion on credits while opening loots to make shop content affordable (buy ONE 25 000 credit nano/armor when you gain 125 credit/kill => /quit) ! ofc experienced people trade huge amount from their 100+ mains, know what equipment worth it and how to buy/roll. newcomers don't ...


this is all i could think of for now on low level attractivity.

ps : for server population ... i think soon or late FC will have to fusion RK1/2/3 in the same server. Ofc toon names and City/Field owning are a problem ... + language for RK3, but it's better to play in english than not play at all

[Medoci]

Anarchy Online is loved because it is complicated, let's leave it at that

Complexity can be made understandable, which I think is what should be the focus, and not making it necessarily simpler.

[Djantro]

What i like about the complexity : I remember at some point i could discover more then one new thing per day. Each new thing you discover makes me feel good, for some reason.

Nowadays it does happen less, but still.

For instance, today's lesson was that if i don t hit q on a trader he cannot use YIEEF.

"Cool, next time i duel a tard with my NT i ll try it ! and maybe finally spank it hard ^^" i tought.

And even after playing game for years there ll be always some stuff you won t know.

I think anyone like the fact of facing something bigger then him, the unknown, even if it can be artificially kept unknown by the game so as to produce that proper illusion

[OfabRk2]

First.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Complexity can be made understandable, which I think is what should be the focus, and not making it necessarily simpler.

Yes, that's right. Complexity isn't a problem. Lack of ingame help tools and documentation is. I think everyone would just have to agree that current ingame help is horrible. Outdated (was it last changed when NW came out?) , notintuinivite, with lots of errors, gaps, whole core subjects missing, and hard to find on top of that. Its a complete disaster.

[styles999]

I agree, Keep the complexity!!!! this is why I personally play this game

there is no other matched in that catagory, but yes improvements are good, i think you guys are taking the steps needed to complete what you want to accomplish....


I like the overall changes you have done so far, so much so...I signed up for a 2nd full acct, altho some things need fixed ahem* parry, as, * as not to make them op for the melee classes that use and the overwhelming majority of those that use as weapons on support, keep up the good work means

the advertising should be looked at imho also as to bring in new blood (best done after major upgrades mind you )

[nitr0]

bye
does that mean you also stop your rambling here?
I hope so...

a pity there´s no empty skandinavian server u are playing on, then u would understand
how ao plays like when u take the "massive multiplayer" away.

[Warhead]

I really prefer 1k players and game as it is than 30k players and a wannabe WOW game

I'm not sure if it was your intention, but this is the classic elitist gibberish found too many times on this forum. I'll tell you why:

1. With 1000 players only, this game wouldnt survive next week.

2. 30'000 players is probably closer (but most likely still way off) to the real subscriber base of AO than 1000. However, its a factor of 250 away from being "WOW wannabe".

3. AO was at its best many years ago when the population was perceived (pay attention to the word "perceived") as to be two or three times higher than it is now. There is no way to argue about that, especially not if one wasnt here to experience it.

4. I personally rather have thousands of extra numbnuts in game than two dozen people who constantly repeat they want to keep it their little elite playground - the latter contribute nothing to my gaming experience, while the former add life and perhaps amusement to it.

[Worldofalts]

We were talking about this yesterday in org chat.

I think its about time to boost RK XP.

I think this would really help making "new players" stick around.

I mean, lets face it. Back when we started RK had players. You could find teams and actually feel like you're headed in the right direction. If RK mobs shared the same XP as SL mobs, I think the results would be RK slowly coming back to life with new players.

People will still go to SL, when they are ready. But if I started this game today as compared to when I did in 2002, I'm pretty sure I would have never renewed after the first 30 days since the first impression is RK, and ATM its dead...


We all know hecklers were never intended to be farmed. But thats been the reality for years now. We need to stop that. When I think of leveling in AO, I think of killing the same rocks over and over, then doing the same inferno mission over and over (which I never got to enjoy, it was hecklers for me). How many Halen Van Dummy's do we need to kill?

I would gladly do RK missions if they offered the same XP. Or hell, I'd kill Cyborgs, Rhinos, theres so many amazing hunting spots on RK, its a shame.

Or hey, make an item that can be crafted called "Deja Vu" that can be worn. It would convert XP to SK. All this would pull current players to RK, where NEW players start off. Teams would be going, chat channels would be active. A lot would happen.

We dont need to merge servers. We need to repair the game to make it more interesting to play for lower levels/new players.

Bump! (ow my head)

[Ninj00]

this all sounds good

[Ayria]

I was actually thinking about the learning curve the other day and the idea that all it will take is someone with passion (and a fair few gallons of coffee) for the game to go through something like newb island or subway and make it way more involved and helpful.

It's good to see that there is still passion there.