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

[Grim-One]

The new quest sound nice. But should quest be locked to clan/ omni, neutrals should only be able to do missions from one side not both to keep it fair.
For a mission idea :
Rumors speak of a strange banjo playing, mushroom addicted atrox with an extremely effective secret technique at killing aliens.
Your task is to locate Richelieu and learn his secret alien killing technique.
(mission complete sound)
You have located Richelieu, but he will only give you his secret alien killing technique if you gather ingredients for his mushroom soup.
Richelieu's Mushroom Soup - gather 5 mushrooms, 3 leet legs, 2 handfuls of Frazetta leaves. Return ingredients to Richelieu.
(mission complete sound)
*Secret* <---- this is where he reveals his technique. Hah, you don't get to know what it is.

I will never tell anyone what's in the CoH chests.
MstrBstrd really wants to make some new battle suits, and he's got some awesome ideas for styles.
The door in Number 9's chamber may some day lead somewhere if you guys buy me enough beers.

I already know whats in the CoH chest! (in my version of the story anyway)
MstrBstrd you are my new hero. (shameful bump to get Grimclaw's name in the description of the new melee version battle suit)
Do virtual beers count, since you like to RP so much?

The "shinies" are nice indeed. I'm still not taking my battle suit off for them though! Until I get a better one.

[SoldiTwo]

Oh yeah, shinies! Almost forgot.

Due to scheduling conflicts and a few... uh... interesting things cropping up, my original plans for the grand Fw(o)M finale post didn't quite go as planned. That said, though, there's still a few things to show off. First, we've got a few screenshots from the new agency area for the daily missions - MstrBstrd managed to crank most of this out in a single day, and with a bit of polishing work from Flaptoot it's really, really coming together. There's even a few hidden, secret surprises here that you guys will get to see at some point in the future - Trust me when I say that it'll be worth the wait before you get to see the secrets.

Our second picture comes to us from MstrBstrd - That little teaser image you guys saw last week is actually one of several new armour sets that we're working on putting into game soon. Trust me when I say it may not be quite what you think, but it will definitely be damned cool. The set isn't quite finished yet, but the design and techniques used are so awesome that we just had to share it. Hopefully you guys are looking forward to getting your hands on it as much as I am.

Later!!

PS: Special shout-out again to the ARKs Verony, Maleachi and Theoretician for this week's translation for the DNW peeps. Waldgeist is off helping the guys at GC in Leipzig, so this couldn't have been pulled off without 'em. Thanks guys!

The newest incarnation of the GC is/was in cologne this year.

[Autohead]

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

Well by the name of the screenshot it's just going to be social armor anyways...if you don't like it, don't wear it. Simple enough.

[Technogen]

Daily missions
Well let’s start by breaking them into 6 categories; Attack, Defend, Investigate, Deliver, Repair, and Destroy. The Attack, Repair, Deliver ones will work like the basic AO Missions. In Attack you’ll go kill someone, in Repair you’ll go fix something, and in deliver you’ll go get something and bring it back. The Investigate missions will be like the current Tagging missions were you have to target people/places. The Destroy missions would send a player into a hostile area to kill a destroyable building, kind of like towers. Leaving the Defend mission being the newest in design, but still slightly like the informant or APF 35 missions.

Attack Missions
These would be standard attack missions, Go to location X and Kill Y then return to me with it’s head. These missions would have 2 scale types;
Solo, which are missions which take place in a mission instance and are full of creatures the player’s level.
Group, which are missions that are granted solo but done with a group, an example would be “Kill The Mercs.” “Kill the Beast.” “Kill Tri Plumbo”. These are missions that player’s aren’t able to do solo but if they are already in a group going to do the killing they can get extra experience for doing it.

Defend Missions
These would be a solo only mission and would involve the player defending an area/person/thing from waves of low HP low damage attacks.
Example, Defend Dr. Hercules Lincoln from a swarm of zix, while the good Dr will CH you every 30 seconds, but at level 50 it would still be hazardous.

Investigate missions
These are the experience gainers, but they are also the more complex to complete. The missions would start off easy with a few “Go see wtf Y is doing” but get more complex as they are completed to “Go retrieve X item from Y, and use X item on Z to see what reaction is given.”
Players will want to complete Investigate missions as you’ll gain access to the “Research Assistant” a robotic helper that is a social pet that when used will give you a 1 hour +experience buff every few hours. The amount of exp gained and lock will depend on the pets level which will go up each Investigate mission completed.
Deliver Missions
These are simple Go get Item X from Y and bring it back, these are low exp given missions but are easy to complete.

Repair missions
Simple go to location X and repair Y, may get harder as time goes along as location X will become reinforced with creatures that attack you when you show up.

Destroy Missions
These are basic go to location X and make Pew Pew at Y until Y ceases to exist, these missions are easy to do and give experience comparable to Solo attack missions, while granting the player a short beneficial buff.

[Tyfowler]

It's my birthday!

Also nice new armor

[Prynxkjui]

That new armor doesn't seem to look anything like AO or sci-fi or cyberpunk. I'd rather not have any new social armor at all than that.

[Rewo]

That new armor doesn't seem to look anything like AO or sci-fi or cyberpunk. I'd rather not have any new social armor at all than that.

It seems to be bit cyberpunk with a lot of SL influence to me. Kind of a nice hybrid. As long as they don't go overboard on the scale of things and keep it's shiny glowy ness to a minimum I think it will fit in just fine.

[Technogen]

That new armor doesn't seem to look anything like AO or sci-fi or cyberpunk. I'd rather not have any new social armor at all than that.

What? It looks like Sci-fi energy shock trooper armor. You take the wings off the top of the helm and it looks like armor from any other sci-fi game.

[Sama]

That new armor doesn't seem to look anything like AO or sci-fi or cyberpunk. I'd rather not have any new social armor at all than that.

while i disagree with this as rewo and tech have pointed out. I would agree that we need MOAR cyberpunk and less sl/alien/Xan influenced stuff. bring back the gritty cyberpunk feeling of Froobin aka the subway feel..

[Technogen]

Well I was talking design with some of the guys in IRC the other day and pointed out that AO has to have 3 art style feels to it.

War Torn RK, this stuff needs to look beat up rustic and "Cyberpunkish"
Shadowlands stuff, This needs to feel Organic in nature, but with "energy" running though it.
Space Opera, This is stuff like Ofab, and the space stations, they need to look new and kept well.

[Xenotric]

non of which should have shoulderpads large enough to use as helmets and unnessecarly fantasy like looks :P

[Helgaiden]

Im REALLY liking that museum idea where we can go and visit to hit up the NPCs for backstory and have some other NPCs talk about current events!

[tk421-]

i really hope that armour never makes it ingame, AO has a very unique style (or lack of it ) - the generic manga style armour is just... no..

[Technogen]

Personally if I had to name the new armor id call it "Meta-organic Steal Helix" armor, since it looks like SL armor with Steal plates over it.

Changes id make, add a bit of wear to the edge of the sholders and neck area to show normal movements. Round the fins on the helm so the follow it back, you'll end up with an energy infused steal Keeper helm. Change the enegy color to reflect fraction colors, blue omni, red clan, yellow neut.

There isn't anything drasticly new in the style, but you can tell its not old.

[rustinel]

Indeed the museum idea(as suggested before) is a very good substitute for the Arrival Hall. Would still like to see both but thats probably nostalgia.

[Sama]

Well I was talking design with some of the guys in IRC the other day and pointed out that AO has to have 3 art style feels to it.

War Torn RK, this stuff needs to look beat up rustic and "Cyberpunkish"
Shadowlands stuff, This needs to feel Organic in nature, but with "energy" running though it.
Space Opera, This is stuff like Ofab, and the space stations, they need to look new and kept well.

thats a good observation and i for one dont want to see any of the styles go away, but it seems as of late we are getting more and more SL and ai/le feeling stuff, with little RK style being added. i would love to see old rk stuff revisited and revamp, plus new cyber punk designs implemented...

[Zeephonz]

Oh yeah, shinies! Almost forgot.

Our second picture comes to us from MstrBstrd - That little teaser image you guys saw last week is actually one of several new armour sets that we're working on putting into game soon. Trust me when I say it may not be quite what you think, but it will definitely be damned cool. The set isn't quite finished yet, but the design and techniques used are so awesome that we just had to share it. Hopefully you guys are looking forward to getting your hands on it as much as I am.

While the armour does look cool, it does look very "unredeemed" in nature. The glowing light emanating from behind dark, heavy and metallic features is indicative of a lot of the unredeemed places you see in your SL travels.

How about the development of a "redeemed" version set as well?

[Metafly7]

Hey Kintaii, nice post really

Now as u said in ur post about wanting experienced players at the end, and u wanted ideas for missions. I myself would like to combine those two. Those solo quests could be made specific for ur proffesion. Which means that if ur for instance a Metaphysicist, u get mobs that hit a little harder than normal mobs but u can debuff their damage, or they use nukes which u can prevent with NSD. This so that new players get to learn how to use their toons to the fullest and also learn to use their toolset.

Not only will that help u get experienced players. It will also show u what needs balancing. How much do ur proffesion specific mobs differ from the normal mobs that we already have. Stats of those mobs, AR, Defence, Hp, Nano (if they have any dunno), nanoskills. All of those can be messured into ur balancing act.

For instance i as a non agent player have showed numerous agents that they have a stun nano in their proffesion tools. None of which i told they have knew about it. Why dont they know? They never ran into using it while doing their routine lvling.

As maybe u couldve seen from the proffesion i picked for explaining the proffesion specific mission concept and my name, i love Metaphysicists and its my main toon. But also in that region i get countless ppl telling me that Mps are no good to team with because they hold no advantage to a team. Which leads me to the next thing which u havent asked for. This being that in ur team quests or what u guys had in mind for the 150-200 playfield, u should combine all these proffesion specific mobs so that every single proffesion brings an advantage to the team so to leave no1 out.

And as u can see im not bad at walls of text myself. Ask my org how anoying i can be :P
Great information about it all and thanks for taking the time to write em up

[Xenotric]

Changes I'd make, make the pads smaller and more inline with fitting onto and protecting the persons shoulder (seriously look how big they are compared to the arms... or the persons head!)

lower the spikes and curve them around the head a bit so the shiny bit looks more like a protective force field, remove the "cheek guards" the spiked chin from the helmet, its not a medival helmet can have a lot better fitting stuff these days. And finally shorten the vertical part of the eyes slits to about the first dot on the nose area and perhaps link them horizontally

[Dogtrauma]

You DO need a light to create a shadow (otherwise it's not a shadow, it's just darkness).

Is this by any chance the reason my eyes seem to go wonky when i travel to Ergo in Nascence?
That mountainside seems to eat light like so many crystal-meth-encrusted M&M's.