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

[Keldros]

Also, on the topic of missions, will we see any profession-specific quests?

Time and time again, we see "support" professions left out in the cold while DD/healing professions can solo most content.

For instance, if crowd control is intended to let PCs escape rather than win a fight, there's not much reason to bring a CC profession along for raids.

I'd just like to see more variety in team content, so "tank+doc+4dd" isn't the perfect team for everything--i.e. we could use missions that involve disarming traps, sneaking past sentries, etc.

"Kill all the mobs then get the phatz" ignores about half the professions' toolsets, and "Tag the relays and kill any mobs along the way" really isn't any different.

Oh--newbie quests. How about less "run around some city and find a guy with this name" and more "Here's how to use your map coordinates"?

[Saetos]

Also, on the topic of missions, will we see any profession-specific quests?

Time and time again, we see "support" professions left out in the cold while DD/healing professions can solo most content.

For instance, if crowd control is intended to let PCs escape rather than win a fight, there's not much reason to bring a CC profession along for raids.

I'd just like to see more variety in team content, so "tank+doc+4dd" isn't the perfect team for everything--i.e. we could use missions that involve disarming traps, sneaking past sentries, etc.

"Kill all the mobs then get the phatz" ignores about half the professions' toolsets, and "Tag the relays and kill any mobs along the way" really isn't any different.

Oh--newbie quests. How about less "run around some city and find a guy with this name" and more "Here's how to use your map coordinates"?

QFT, we need some more profession specific quests

[Keldros]

Haha! I was right, I guessed it was an armor set. What do I win?

Hey, my "kyr'ozch biomechanical snail symbiant to replace cabbage" theory hasn't been disproven yet...

[Surm]

The eyes on that helmet are all wrong. Has a weird "happy anime" look to it. Evil Cylon vizor kthxbye!

[Keldros]

The eyes on that helmet are all wrong. Has a weird "happy anime" look to it. Evil Cylon vizor kthxbye!

But as an atrox you're OK with the idea of your cabbage being replaced by a giant snail, right? Because it's gonna happen...

[crude4gone]

@Kintaii

Will the daily missions be available for froobs? I'm certain they would ask the same if they had write access on the forums.

Anyone that has tried to level a froob past TL5 knows that all the the grinding to hit 220 is nothing compared to hitting 200 as a froob. They need daily missions even more than paying customers.

As for ideas to missions, then my only request is to stop sending us out in the middle of nowhere, and instead make missions that take place in cities or any populated areas. This is a sci-fi game after all, i miss more high-tech settings and not just more canyons and deserts.

[Gralmuph]

QFT, we need some more profession specific quests

ditto

[Ebondevil]

Game Intro/Arrival Hall: I think, looking at the starting areas of AO at the moment, there's a distinct lack of focus in the questlines and the progression - Particularly the transition from n00b island to the game-world proper. I tend to believe that there's a lot there which could be done, but as it tends to go in a team as small as ours we often have to make hard judgment calls on what takes priority. That said, I don't personally think that the introductory experience to our game should have a low priority in the slightest - Far, far from it. But there are other things we're working on at the moment from a design and technical standpoint which, unfortunately, does. Does that mean we'll never revamp the intro to the game? Not at all, and I personally hope we have the opportunity to do so fairly soon. But, as always tends to be the case with this sort of thing, I can't make any promises.

I remember when I first started playing, at level 5 you'd get sent a message to try and hit the Subway on the mainland, as well as co-ordinates to them, I guess this was removed though as many people wouldn't have chosen a side by then and be directed to the borealis subway at level 5, instead of the subway for the side they eventually choose, guess that was a little confusing.

So what I'd suggest as a way of replacing that and tieing the newbie Island to the mainland more would be to introduce a specific mission to the players, perhaps directing them to the new daily mission hall to give them somewhere to go once they get off the newbie island, instead of dumping them on the Mainland with no idea what the hell they're meant to be doing.

As for the Daily missions, this might sound a bit odd, but a 24 lockout may well be too long, it could have the effect of forcing people to wait around for a specific time of the day, and I'm sure people don't always log into the game at the same time each day or they could be busy when the time rolls around, or for any reason they may want to do the Daily mission at say 9pm one evening, 6pm the next and 8pm after that. The 24 hour lockout wouldn't be flexible enough to allow for this.

So I would suggest instead you lower the lockout timer to around 16 or 18 hours, leaving for a bit of flexibility in the time allowed for taking the mission. Another possibility would be to base it on whether the date has changed on the players computer, I know AO can already pick up on that information, but that would be open to abuse.

Another idea would possibly to retool the old subway message to inform the players as soon as they can do another daily mission, which would show up when they next logged in, or the instant the timer timed out.

Daily Mission Ideas:
Get sent to a remote location, listen to a scripted (but semi random) conversation in Vicinity without being seen yourself and report back key pieces of information.

(This might be a bit more complex, but based on towerfields Might be possible) Go into a Zone and perform a mission there. Successful completion of the mission would lower the gas levels for the zone by 5%, enough people do the mission in a day and the the gas levels drop so the area becomes a PvP Zone. Say the Gas levels recover by 5% every hour or two until they're back to normal.

[Chrisax]

New missions:

Generate instanced islands like the ones for instanced cities with (more or less) random buildings on?

Modify some scenery areas and islands in SL to make them actual missions areas? For example there is a zone that can't be reached south of Ergo in Scheol.

Use the abandoned cities on RK to create some scary missions with an atmosphere. For example, the city at the end of The Longest Road. It's really a scary place. (OR keep that for a bigger project where the potential of many zones could be used for great plots with stories behind them, like in an adventure game.)

[PhoenixOfAges]

They will then no longer be able to receive another mission from the agency for another 24 hours (hence that whole, y'know, "daily" bit).

Would be better if the rest period between missions was more in the 20-23 hour range like the CRU one. That way someone could start their missions at the same time each day rather than about 30 minutes or so later each day till they have to skip a day.

Meanwhile, it looks like the public has spoken, and the #1 choice for the new nightclub name is The Grind

Might want to reconsider given the copyright issues you could run into like you did with another name choice in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grind

The Grind may refer to:

• The Grind (TV series), an MTV dance music show
• The Grind (1915 film), a 1915 silent film
• The Grind (2009 film), a 2009 crime film
• The Grind (2009 U.S. film), a 2009 thriller film

Aside from that there's coffee shops, a magazine and such with that name. Just do a goggle for "The Grind" to see more.

[Technogen]

I think 18 Hours would be about perfect, it would let people get things out of the way and give them some room so if 1 day they can log in later then the next they wont have to log in later to do it again.

[PhoenixOfAges]

Also, on the topic of missions, will we see any profession-specific quests?

I mentioned these as possible solo VP missions before.

One that's a straight kill everything one. Another that requires high conceal where you sneak past certain areas to kill one or more targets in each area. Another could involve helping a NPC go from point A to point B and it killing certain targets. You would use things like roots, snares, calms, heal the NPC and help it fight to complete that.

[shadowgod]

Might want to reconsider given the copyright issues you could run into like you did with another name choice in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grind

Aside from that there's coffee shops, a magazine and such with that name. Just do a goggle for "The Grind" to see more.

maybe you should let Apple Computer know about Apple Records?

multiple uses of the same name can co-exist just fine, so long they're not trying to overlap in their business operations. all those listed dont seem to be actual night clubs, let alone ones in a virtual world.

[Eeod]

I think 18 Hours would be about perfect......

I agree. I'm slow.
I mean slooowww.
and when a LTC pops in i want to be able to search for him instead of repairing a notum cannon without beign punished by not getting a fresh daily mission tomorrow.

[Maxtrim]

I think the helmet looks a little like one of those guyver armors (if anyone else knows that anime)

on another note. those daily missions would indeed be nice if they were (partly) profession specific. these could even be a small quest (Advy sword anyone)

[Homeostasis]

Might want to reconsider given the copyright issues you could run into like you did with another name choice in the past.

How about a simple change to Teh Grind? A quick Google search didn't reveal anything that looked to be an issue with copyrights.

[Technogen]

Yeah, try to get the name changed :P but no, I looked into it already there aren't any bars listed as "The Grind".

[PhoenixOfAges]

maybe you should let Apple Computer know about Apple Records?

multiple uses of the same name can co-exist just fine, so long they're not trying to overlap in their business operations. all those listed dont seem to be actual night clubs, let alone ones in a virtual world.

Not all that have a business register the business name. Those that do register it have the option to defend it should others later use the same name for a business elsewhere. Some movie names or related get trade marked. Then Apple Computers and Apple Records aren't the same name, they just share one word between the two. The examples I gave were the exact same name.

FC has run into problems in the past with names. I think it was with "Rubi-ka Rumble" but someone copyrighted/trade marked the use of "rumble" in names of things or what not and slapped FC with a lawsuit. FC lost and had to pay out a good bit of money apparently plus legal fees all over the name of some PvP contest. Why take the chance again over a virtual club name in a video game?

[Xenotric]

Eeep... WoW designers broke into AO!

Over sized shoulder pads and glowy sparkly coloured armour for the loose

I want my AO to be gritty and futuristic! Whats next? Elves? :P

Also for daily quests, proffession specific ones would be great

Enforcers have to go clear out a bar of brawlers, medics have to go heal some people, fixers have to break in and hack something, keepers have to go afk for so much time. Something for everyone would be great, specially if each had there own place to get it ala jack quest.

Also... 50 meter walk is a major inconveniance?

[Klod8999]

Please, don't make the new armor to look like some Aion shizzle.