Friday with Means - July 10th, 2009 - Stims, Neutrals, Content and Vacation

[Ebondevil]

Neutrals

After long thought and discussion with both neutral and sided players alike I am preparing to move forward with some actual action on this issue. This will consist of two separate actions:

1. High-level side change forms will become available to neutral players.

These forms will require significant sided faction to use (meaning the work to establish faction as a sided player can not be skipped.). Once the neutral player has chosen a side, they will receive their sided token board and will be able to obtain tokens in exactly the same manner as a sided player. This is fair.

Don't forget to increase the level of Undercover Kit's for 201-220 Agents to use.

- The first new nightclub in many years will be opened with appropriate fanfare and an event on the new space station.

Don't forget the sexy dancing catgirls, Meow! ^^

[Neista]

Well thats some really nice news all round, hard to pick a favorite but i think it would have to be the gap between neutrals and sideds being narrowed. Finally those A**clowns who reply to every thread about neutrals with something like 'reroll sided' or 'you chose neutral now QQ more' can choke on their own bitter bile

[Metafly7]

Not to discourage the idea of revitalizing DNW but some already transfered themselfs starting over. If thats how desperate they are then they sure should be able to transfer all their belongings over to where they are at atm.

If numbers are so small wouldnt it be possible even for GMs to make a list of items bound to an account and make em pop in the other server. Big invest of manpower but on the other hand u dont have to make a charackter transfer which could possibly brake

[Sonikeep]

1. High-level side change forms will become available to neutral players.

poor Higgins/Lee =)

[Ahndracorvid]

Firstly, thanks for continuing to keep us up to date, this communication is awesome. Coupla things I want to comment on:

...the effort required to level through 200 regular levels, 20 Shadowlevels, 30 Alien levels and 70 lines of personal research is enough that it has become essential to "shortcut" this as much as possible.

Please remember that not everyone sees the grind as too unreasonable; it looks like people are leveling to 220/30/70 faster than ever already, and some of the people who play this game have the attitude that everything should be shortcut for faster gain. These are probably the same people that blitz straight to the boss whenever new content gets released simply to get the loot, missing out on actually experiencing the content along the way, and then think there is nothing else to do and get bored with the game and leave. People can simply become impatient and start to complain about the grind. This doesn't necessarily mean that the effort required is unreasonable, it just means that people are being impatient. :P Please bear this in mind when deciding what to do, if anything, to shorten the grind.

Neutrals who wish to remain Neutral will have the opportunity to obtain items that will narrow this gap to the previous reasonable levels.

A lot of people have already pointed this week's FWM out to me in-game along with comments like "you get a token board soon!", and are surprised when I'm not entirely as enthusiastic as they expected me to be (I guess it's funny how people read "neuts will get new but not yet specified items" and immediately think "it must be a token board", but that's slightly besides the point).

Whatever items you give, please do not make them too similar to the Omni or Clan concept of a token board. The Xan board bases are already close as far as the concept of a token board goes (the concept, not the buffs, before people get confused). I personally feel that lack of a real token board is one of the things that makes Neutral as an alignment unique from the other factions, and this distinctiveness is one of the few of its kind left in a game where the trend seems to be for people to become more and more similar. Alternative setups like the ones Wrangeline talked about in her thread are becoming increasingly rare, for example. One of the things I've always loved about AO is that it's been a game where you supposedly have a lot of room to experiment and not everything is a mirror-image of something else. As someone who plays neutral partly because I feel it is more distinctive than Omni or Clan, I'd personally like to see this kind of uniqueness preserved.

As a disclaimer I know this post might not get read by too many people; I am one voice among many and I have already felt that what I've been trying to say has been lost in other threads related to this issue where one group of people starts arguing with another. A few pages later the constructive posts I've seen will often get forgotten amongst the flames and insults, and it is frustrating to see this happen time and time again. This last point is directed at the community rather than FC, but I felt it needed saying.

[ArienSky]

Finally those A**clowns who reply to every thread about neutrals with something like 'reroll sided' or 'you chose neutral now QQ more' can choke on their own bitter bile

It was always intended that neutral as a side should, as primarily an RP choice, not be an equal power to the two main factions of Omni and Clan.

Neista, to me it sounds like you are the bitter one, not realising the choice you have made and standing up to taking the responsibility of your choice, a choice you have up to lvl 200 and in the future even longer.

Being a (the only?) Bow Agent I know about bad choices, but Bow Agents actually, based on the skill colours and perks, should be a possibility.

Neutrals has always meant to be less good, as an incentive to pick a side, just as Means puts it.

Kind Regards
Ariensky

I stand by my promises, and take the responsibility of what I do.
call that "bile" if you want.

If the pistol fix is a new AS pistol, I promise to go Bow on my agent.
The good old Agent alternative, that was not carried through in nanoes and SL (along with green Sneak Attack)

Thank you for the full IP reset, that enabled me to do that by the way.

[Dors_Venabili]

what makes fixers special seems to have been lost along the way...we need to find it again and bring it back.

Thanks !

[Mereditche]

Make sure faster levelling doesn't affect new players. The grind isn't to long for a first character, but after a few characters it becomes boring. Also, I fear to fast levelling for new players will leave them clueless. Making the game more inviting to new people shouldn't be done by making them level faster, but rather by giving them options to get good equipment, nanos, implants, which for a new player is very troublesome. Or by giving them directions on where to go, where to spend IP, what equipment is decent, etc.

[Flyingengi]

First.

[lusthorne]

Well thats some really nice news all round, hard to pick a favorite but i think it would have to be the gap between neutrals and sideds being narrowed. Finally those A**clowns who reply to every thread about neutrals with something like 'reroll sided' or 'you chose neutral now QQ more' can choke on their own bitter bile

Not really, when the inevitable bitching comes from lack of happiness at the shortened gap, instead the clowns will be armed with "So go pick a side, high level forms are available, QQ more!"

[Autohead]

First.

Lemme guess...still on 28k dial up connection?

[Suicidal]

Neista, to me it sounds like you are the bitter one, not realising the choice you have made and standing up to taking the responsibility of your choice, a choice you have up to lvl 200 and in the future even longer.

There is something that people who say things like 'reroll sided' or 'you chose neutral now QQ more' seem to miss or just ignore.. what I see on these forums is not neutrals asking for your damn token board, but instead asking for gap between neutrals and sided remaining same instead of increasing. Now, I play omni and I personally couldn't care less if neutrals get same token board or whatever sided item that I do, but that's not what neutrals are asking for (reasonable neutrals at least).

That part of post you quoted from Means.. mind reading what he wrote right after it?

[torakx]

well if you do manage a server transfer at some distant future you can always use the spare server for a pvp based world!!! aaaww yeah! everyone starts level 1 everywhere 0% gas mwuahaha imagine the fun and frustration

[Kain97]

We all want to see the fast moving hacker/slicer type class working the way it should and standing apart from the other choices....what makes fixers special seems to have been lost along the way...we need to find it again and bring it back.

\o/

Make sure faster levelling doesn't affect new players. The grind isn't to long for a first character, but after a few characters it becomes boring. Also, I fear to fast levelling for new players will leave them clueless. Making the game more inviting to new people shouldn't be done by making them level faster, but rather by giving them options to get good equipment, nanos, implants, which for a new player is very troublesome. Or by giving them directions on where to go, where to spend IP, what equipment is decent, etc.

The grind is still quite long, frankly, more so for a new character than an established player who can throw creds at an nt and afk for hours. Those new toons won't have the creds to spend on afk leveling, and established players generally seem to have the easier time finding teams, be it kite teams or just hassling orgmates. Advantages that newbies just don't have.
Making the leveling faster and more worthwhile means more people will actually do it actively, and what do you think will teach you more? Playing your toon or afking in kite team somewhere?
It should be easier however to get some decent equipment, nanos, implants, etc... and I think it would be very easy to tie the faster leveling with the methods to get some decent gear...which adds even more reason to actively play your toon and get the knowledge that's expected of you in the later levels.

[Sturmfaust]

I was AFK for a couple years, Whats wrong with neuts? I missed it

[Wrangeline]

@Means

What you said about the leveling process, adding variety to this process, the daily missions, is music to my ears. (as well as the other things related to this that you mentioned earlier, like the SL dungeon).

I have often stated that the amount of work people have to do in order to become an endgame character is often too much for new players to commit to. It's also often too much for older players to make alts for.

AO is a complicated game and it requires a lot of work and patience. However, making the leveling process less monotonous and less redundant and thus making the game more accessible to new people (and us oldies) is easily as important for the game as the new graphics engine.

[Chrys]

When AS gets nerfed, will MPs get +500 AS?

[shadowgod]

I was AFK for a couple years, Whats wrong with neuts? I missed it

they've decided the benefits of being neuts arent worth having, but rather want some little token board around their neck.

[Wrangeline]

BTW, what do you people think the odds are of 220 neutrals that wants to change faction will join clan and help get NW back on track again on rk1?

[Sturmfaust]

@Means

What you said about the leveling process, adding variety to this process, the daily missions, is music to my ears. (as well as the other things related to this that you mentioned earlier, like the SL dungeon).

I have often stated that the amount of work people have to do in order to become an endgame character is often too much for new players to commit to. It's also often too much for older players to make alts for.

AO is a complicated game and it requires a lot of work and patience. However, making the leveling process less monotonous and less redundant and thus making the game more accessible to new people (and us oldies) is easily as important for the game as the new graphics engine.

Yus. Even research to me is unbearable. I have also been AI13 for years. Its just too much of the same garbage.

If they made more outdoor camps, with dynas that spawn now and then, it would be great.

I'm not sure about others, but I liked outdoor grinding. Not hecklers, (same mob over and over) but if for example:

There were high level Cyborg camps with Borg Dyna bosses that can drop ql300 stuff.

Same with Ninjas. Nano-freaks, DB camps, you name it. Open up those unused zones, plop tons of dyna spots, and just watch how many groups will be at those spots.

I gotta admit, I had more fun doing Ninjas in wine (the boss could drop cool stuff at the time, thats always a bonus) and Cyborgs, then I do in any of the SL missions.

Toss about 30 or so Dyna camps that give XP equal to SL, and you have some happy levelers.