Friday with(out) Means - Aug. 21st, 2009: The Last Ramble

[Binarybits]

I for one want to see the arrival hall back in the game. It was that arrival hall that really sparked my interest in the game as a froob. Many other games with that sort of 'free-trial' usually end up dropping you out in the game world with no clue what the game is about.

With AO's arrival hall I was given the chance to find out what AO was. As it is now... go do this mission, no reason why, but go do it. I doubt I would have stayed with AO if not for that bit of background, and explanation of what the games' scenery is set to accomplish. Otherwise AO just looks to be a starwars spinoff of rebels vs the empire.

[Aethyrguard]

I for one want to see the arrival hall back in the game. It was that arrival hall that really sparked my interest in the game as a froob. Many other games with that sort of 'free-trial' usually end up dropping you out in the game world with no clue what the game is about.

With AO's arrival hall I was given the chance to find out what AO was. As it is now... go do this mission, no reason why, but go do it. I doubt I would have stayed with AO if not for that bit of background, and explanation of what the games' scenery is set to accomplish. Otherwise AO just looks to be a starwars spinoff of rebels vs the empire.

I also want this for the same reasons basically. AO's arrival hall to me set the ambiance of the entire entry to the game. I personally would like something totally different for the start instead of the arrival hall. I would love to see the arrival hall replace that one unused "dance bar thing" that is in the ICC currently since there is going to be a morning star club being put in anyway. This museum/library replacing that location would in fact serve to enrich the game and allow people to leisure there anytime they wish instead of being forced to create a new character simply to experience it. As I put in my old post:

Very good points in this thread. I disagree on newbie island tho. I hate it. Worst intro to a sci-fi game ever.

Fully revised Post:

Starting at post character creation arrival to RK -
The three sides:

Omni-Tek:
Starting point: Omni-tek Facility

Designation: New Employee - Corporate Orientation.

Localization Description: A small room with Omni-Tek propaganda on the walls. A small desk with an NPC seated like a receptionist that greets the player after moving with a popup quest box. A single door leading out to an Omni Training Facility.

Interaction with the Omni-Tek training NPC: The NPC will introduce the player to the current situation on Rubika politically. The NPC would then introduce the player to the various Omni-tek divisions: Omni-Pol, Omni-Trans, Omni-Med, Omni-Mining, etc with a brief overview on each that can be selected and read before choosing a path. After introducing the player to these divisions they would be given a choice of which to enroll with (this is important for new quests & profession quests to be added to the game for the levels 1-200). After the player makes their selection they are given a new employee kit with starting items that reflect their choice. Examples: Omni-med social back item(robe), Omni-Pol social back item(armor), Omni-Mining Social back item (armor), etc, along with their first set of profession specific newbie items. The NPC would then give them a key to the door behind them with a quest to complete basic training.

Basic Training Overview:

Overview: I will use two examples, Doctors (Omni-Med) and Soldier (Clan-Sentinels).

Part 1 - Depending on the profession/department choice (either or both?) a unique instance would be generated fitting their selection (If you recall in the randomly generated RK missions there are several rooms totally fitting to this entire sequence that could be used without any new asset creation).

Part 2

Doctors would be given a med lab stylized room which would give them a crash course in healing and using init buffs/debuffs as well as HoTs & DoTs in a series of progressing steps accessible by passing and getting the key to the next room. This NPC would show them their Skills window and explain IP spending and point out the most important attributes to IP for their profession. Base stats, Comp Lit, Treatment, <profession specific nanolines>, <typical weapon stats + specials>, <appropriate Initiatives>, <appropriate evades if relavent to the profession>. It would explain that you can use nanokits/stims to regain lost HP/Nano as well as how to use them. (after selecting a department they would become level 2)

The first room: The purpose of this room would introduce them to healing. Several dying patients would be on med lab tables who have DoT's on them that last a particular duration. Their quest would be to keep say "5" patients alive. The NPC would instruct them on how to locate their NCU Programs window, find their HoTs and their Healing nanos as well as how to place them in the bar, target and cast. After keeping the five patients alive (note five others is typical for a team hence the selection of this number) through the DoT effects they are rewarded with some Victory Points, XP (move them to level 3), Money, one or more pieces of profession specific armor, one or more profesion specific implant(s), and a new low level nano used in the next segment.

The second room: The purpose of this room would be to introduce them to Initiatives debuffs. This room could have an NPC Omni-Pol guard in it who are being fired on by a group of turrets. They would be asked to debuff the Turrets with their nano to see the effects of inits on attack speed. After successfully debuffing all of the turrets (3-5?) they would be given their quest reward of VP, XP (move to level 4), Money, New armor pieces, New implants, new nano, along with a new quest and key to the next door.

The third room: The purpose of this room would be to introduce them to their DoTs. They would be presented with a group of low HP NPC's "robot droids" which do not attack but have low NR to easily land DoTs. After landing their DoT on each of the droids they would be given their reward of VP, XP (move to level 5), Money, New armors, New implants, New nano, along with a new quest, key to the next door and a weapon.

The fourth room: The purpose of this room would be to introduce the player to combat mechanics. There would be an NPC in the room which would explain their weapon specials to them and the later importance of perks (hint hint tease froobs here). They would have a few droids to kill for the quest reward of VP, XP, their final armor pieces giving them a complete set of basic starter armor that has very low but simple buffs to their profession specific stats, (BM/MC/Inits/-%nanocost, etc. Nothing too OP just enough to give them the idea of what stats on armor are important to their profession and to be looking for in the future), their starter Computer Deck, NCU memories, and a simple HUD item (Nano/range meter, or something similar) a quest and the key to the final room.

The fifth and final room: The purpose of this room would introduce the person to using their computer deck, ncu memories, HUD items and how to use a surgery clinic (located in the final room with them at this point) to install implants. They would be rewarded with a token board with their very first side token (boosted to give a lvl 1 board immediately so advantages can be seen on them, many newbies delete it and I have heard of them deleting tokens too because they don't understand what they are/do) and instructed to use it by right clicking it, then telling them to target themselves and hit "t" to see their current information.

Final moments of Newbie land: They are then congradulated on their completion of orientation and then given a quest to inspect the subways and arrive infront of the subways after exiting this last room. At the door of the subway will be a quest giver that the last quest pointed them too. This person will give them some baby quests to upgrade their newbie items they just received in the orientation for hunting in the subways.

{Whew that was a huge one need to take a short break but want this saved.. come back for more later}

[Worldofalts]

I for one want to see the arrival hall back in the game. It was that arrival hall that really sparked my interest in the game as a froob. Many other games with that sort of 'free-trial' usually end up dropping you out in the game world with no clue what the game is about.

With AO's arrival hall I was given the chance to find out what AO was. As it is now... go do this mission, no reason why, but go do it. I doubt I would have stayed with AO if not for that bit of background, and explanation of what the games' scenery is set to accomplish. Otherwise AO just looks to be a starwars spinoff of rebels vs the empire.

Bump!

[ArienSky]

Interesting to read about the situation in other countries, where I live internships are paid, and so are student jobs.
The only "free" work is Bachelor and Master thesis projects, where companies pay for materials, but not the work time, on the other hand they also work as counsellors for free.


I appreciate the feedback Trousers and Aethyrguard
Yes, what I responded on was user submited contents.

I interpreted Trousers' "not everyone who would have an interest in aiding with the game development also have an interest in a 10hr a week committment to answering petitions"
to mean that it would be a "pasttime volunteer thing" with a workload around or less than 10 hours, where you submit a texture once in a while.
So that is the situation I responded to.

I can see from his more recent posts that he means a real job.. just without payment.


I have nothing against people applying for jobs at FunCom.
Go do it, not everyone was hand-picked from ARK, some "just" applied for a job and got it (Hail MicroSun). Go ahead and send them a letter.

I am unsure about the "unpayed" part though, I am pretty sure workers unions will be against that, I am wondering if it is even legal in Norway, at least it isn't in all scandinavian countries.
Interesting question though, does FunCom have a collective agreement (Tariffavtale)?
For all there offices, in Norway, USA, Switzerland?
I better hold on to that for the next question session.


Mr. McAtee has opened up for user suggestions on daily missions, I hope I get time to write down the ideas I have in my head on that subject later.
Just wanted to let you know that working for free to get experience is not an universal standard, not even global.

Another interesting de-tour of FWM: are non-payed internships legal in Norway..
also the interesting perspective of other countries having it that way, working for free being the standard..

Kind Regards
Ariensky

PS. That is another reason to love AO:
World servers, where you get in contact with other cultures, and round the clock DJs, as timezones shift

PPS. For some highly educated people, the local councils actually have an obligation to hire unemplyed people if they have been out of jobs for a certain amount of time.
That is the life of a socialist country..
ok rather social democratic
The 63% incometax and 25% VAT has to go somewhere..

PPPS. If a baker bakes bread for himself, he has to pay the government the 25% VAT of the value of the bread, the same with carpenters, electricians etc. working on there own house. So I wonder if it is like that in Norway too, if FuncCom has to pay VAT for free work done for them, if it is even legal that people work for them for free..

[trousers]

PPPS. If a baker bakes bread for himself, he has to pay the government the 25% VAT of the value of the bread, the same with carpenters, electricians etc. working on there own house. So I wonder if it is like that in Norway too, if FuncCom has to pay VAT for free work done for them, if it is even legal that people work for them for free..

I find this to be outrageous; but that's a topic for another day and another forum

[Aethyrguard]

Interesting to read about the situation in other countries, where I live internships are paid, and so are student jobs.
The only "free" work is Bachelor and Master thesis projects, where companies pay for materials, but not the work time, on the other hand they also work as counsellors for free.


I appreciate the feedback Trousers and Aethyrguard
Yes, what I responded on was user submited contents.

I interpreted Trousers' "not everyone who would have an interest in aiding with the game development also have an interest in a 10hr a week committment to answering petitions"
to mean that it would be a "pasttime volunteer thing" with a workload around or less than 10 hours, where you submit a texture once in a while.
So that is the situation I responded to.

I can see from his more recent posts that he means a real job.. just without payment.


I have nothing against people applying for jobs at FunCom.
Go do it, not everyone was hand-picked from ARK, some "just" applied for a job and got it (Hail MicroSun). Go ahead and send them a letter.

Ok cool I am glad you understand now what Trousers had suggested. I 100% agree with him as well on this stance because of how people like even some members of my clan are talented artists, musicians, writers, etc. These people could contribute "quality content" that could be used by funcom to improve the end result of the game. The very contract signed between FC and the intern would substantiate that if any wrong doing is done based on the content submitted via an intern would lead to the intern receiving the penalty for any violation of a copyright law, etc. In the end if the papers were drawn up properly every i and t would be handled and FC would have new animators, writers and artists on staff to help alleviate some of the stresses of an under funded product within FC.

We know this game is ancient and the fact that they have as many as they do still devoted to it after all these years is a testament to FC's loyalty to their customer base. I know people who would donate content to help make AO even better. The main situation required to put such a program in to effect would be as follows:

-Source material standards
-Web based communication method
-File submittal tool
-Reward System
-Promotion program

Once these factors have been met with proper attention AO could benefit from things that currently exceed the teams budget being done. I know for example Xaun in my clan would love to help FC because she truly loves this game. Even I wouldn't mind a situation as I too look to break in to game development some day. However my skills are different than hers but both could aid FC in the transition to the new engine.

Take for example if FC put a job up on an "Intern Job Board" that said "looking so see all character faces remodeled and expanded. Interns could design and submit both 3D models and textures that could be added to the new engine. Another example would be, converting the 9b items in AO's database into physical 3D objects that can be used with the coming system of attractors as mentioned by the DEVs.

[Technogen]

Hell FC could hire on 3 paid people to inspect the work coming in for problems and such and as quality control. The amount of new content coming in and the HUGE PR boost from the content, items, and game expansion would be more then enough to pay for the 3 people.

[Xeralix]

i got one concept (just dinged in my head lol) (for daily mission)


to revive the rk wilderness what's about sending people to kill some dyna boss "because of some trouble of the peace" or "they killed traveller in a road that should have been safe" or whatever

They are not very hard to kill and it's would make player running on r-ka

[Aethyrguard]

i got one concept (just dinged in my head lol) (for daily mission)


to revive the rk wilderness what's about sending people to kill some dyna boss "because of some trouble of the peace" or "they killed traveller in a road that should have been safe" or whatever

They are not very hard to kill and it's would make player running on r-ka

It is a bad idea to make quest mobs also mobs which drop loot by nature without the quest seeing as they are constantly farmed.

[PhoenixOfAges]

Interns in the United States are unpaid employees, this means completion of Federal I9 forms. Hire US Interns out of Durham, NC office. Send Paperwork via U.S. Certified Mail (Requires Signature and photo ID to receive the letter) and IMO - Problem Solved.

Anyone who would then claim ignorance would be subject to criminal fraud, and I doubt anyone wants to deal with that.

They are unpaid interns at the job site, not potentially on the other side of the planet. Then, "hey dad, can I borrow your wallet for a few minutes?" That or they make up someone that does not exist. FC would have to contact various offices in other countries to check if the info is valid. Then contact the people through other means to make sure their kid isn't using their info or what not. The most certain way to do that is to hire a lawyer to go there and get the papers signed in person. All that verification takes time and money. Then there's time zone issues and time limitations of this other person. FC likely would want to be able to talk back and forth somehow at times but when they are in a time zone some ten hours away it's a lot harder to pull that off.

That is the problem as players are all over the globe. It can be hard enough to maintain a certain degree of control and communication when they are in the same building and area let alone sight unseen who knows where. They have next to no control over what they will and will not do while working, communication is a lot harder, they can't effectively verify identities and so forth. You want to check on how things are going, talk about sudden changes or what not when they are in the same building you walk over and see them or call them, no problem. You can't do that too well at all when they are in another country and have other obligations as they may if they're just doing the job for you on the side.

This matter comes up now and then with a few going on how great it could be without addressing all the problems or just brushing them off. People also get all psyched as someone shows some great image or what not they did on their computer. I'm sure there's people working on AO that could make something as good or better but they have to work within the limits of what AO allows, not what their graphics program allows.

Means said they may open up advertising images that would be put different places to the public. People send in their work and FC picks what they want to use. That's as far as such a thing is likely to ever go.

[Aethyrguard]

They are unpaid interns at the job site, not potentially on the other side of the planet. Then, "hey dad, can I borrow your wallet for a few minutes?" That or they make up someone that does not exist. FC would have to contact various offices in other countries to check if the info is valid. Then contact the people through other means to make sure their kid isn't using their info or what not. The most certain way to do that is to hire a lawyer to go there and get the papers signed in person. All that verification takes time and money. Then there's time zone issues and time limitations of this other person. FC likely would want to be able to talk back and forth somehow at times but when they are in a time zone some ten hours away it's a lot harder to pull that off.

That is the problem as players are all over the globe. It can be hard enough to maintain a certain degree of control and communication when they are in the same building and area let alone sight unseen who knows where. They have next to no control over what they will and will not do while working, communication is a lot harder, they can't effectively verify identities and so forth. You want to check on how things are going, talk about sudden changes or what not when they are in the same building you walk over and see them or call them, no problem. You can't do that too well at all when they are in another country and have other obligations as they may if they're just doing the job for you on the side.

This matter comes up now and then with a few going on how great it could be without addressing all the problems or just brushing them off. People also get all psyched as someone shows some great image or what not they did on their computer. I'm sure there's people working on AO that could make something as good or better but they have to work within the limits of what AO allows, not what their graphics program allows.

Means said they may open up advertising images that would be put different places to the public. People send in their work and FC picks what they want to use. That's as far as such a thing is likely to ever go.

Uhm you don't actually believe that do you?

[PhoenixOfAges]

Uhm you don't actually believe that do you?

I seem to recall saying that those for this sort of thing make a habit of claiming it's a great idea while ignoring or brushing aside any possible problems.

Any rate since no one ever does anything wrong, lies, cheats, steals, does things with the intent to cause harm, etc there's no problem. .... Photo ID means nothing if you can't see the person and the value of ID is greatly diminished these days when it's a sent copy from someone you've had little to no dealings with. The point of having photo ID to prove your identity is when you're there, they're there and they can hold your photo ID in their hand while looking at you to compare the image to you as well as to see if the ID looks real. That will not be the case when you're sending a copy of your photo ID and they never see you in person. Then it's a fairly easy task to make a believable fake "copy of your ID" on your computer or send a copy of one that belongs to someone else.

There are also far too many people that spend a lot of time effort and even money to bugger up as many people as possible where they may gain nothing but an ego boost. Computer viruses, worms and other such malicious programs are examples of such things. There also are people that can hold quite a grudge against a company due to one thing or another. Back in the earlier days of AoC in open game forums some would say even if it turned out to be the greatest MMO ever there is no way in hell they'd play it since FC made it. This was due to the hate built up after the messy AO launch years earlier.

Even if all you'll be doing is flipping burgers at Mc Donalds or something you would get handed some long ass form or forms stuffed full of legal jargon to sign. You sign it right there and it's all made up largely to protect there asses/assets. Business is about balancing the potential gains against the costs/risks in such a way that the gains should win out. AO has a low budget these days and doubtfully can afford much risk. Any meaningless little task that would have hardly any risk would also take hardly any time. So why bother going through the mess of getting outside help for such things? If it is a larger and more important task it would have more risk attached and more could go wrong all around.

Let's say someone was suppose to make an original image for use in AO. With a bit of falsified IDs, addresses and the like and basing it on copyright protected material by someone working with you a lawsuit could later be filed. If it's not too large the legal fees to go through all the mess of tracking down the unpaid unseen hired help that has since gone poof and fighting the suit could cost about as much as just settling. So they do that and are out money while the unpaid unseen "help" pockets that money.

i got one concept (just dinged in my head lol) (for daily mission)


to revive the rk wilderness what's about sending people to kill some dyna boss "because of some trouble of the peace" or "they killed traveller in a road that should have been safe" or whatever

They are not very hard to kill and it's would make player running on r-ka

In the Q&A FWM a while back I think it was he said the idea of the daily missions at the time was go out and kill X number of this type of mob. Someone asked how if a number are hunting the same type of mob wouldn't that be a problem? Means responded with something like they could just increase the spawn rate and volume to compensate. It's easier to do what with normal mobs though.

There are quests where you go after a dyna mob or boss in an open zone. Kill the director and Tri Plumbo in Biomare/Foremans or kill two lvl 250 borg dynas for that one NPC that wanders outside around Reets for instance. The Biomare/Foremans ones aren't bad as their timer is about 10min now and there usually aren't too many people around if any. The borg one I don't think I've done before so can't really comment.