Friday with Means - September 11th, 2009 - Video Q&A, Sceenies and Info-Nuggets

[Means]

my current biggest beef with the current game play, since i display myself in game as a pvmer its nothing to do with lots of other concerns, is Line of Sight issues.

there are a few line of sight 'bugs' that have cropped up over the years, and watching to video of the QnA and hearing you say there are things that the staff aren't aware of that the players know and have for years, i thought it would be good to throw it out here while you are willing to listen to questions.

Means:

Are you aware that if a mob is pulled through a door, there is no chance in hell that a profession like an enforcer can pull agg on the mob if the mob didn't 'see' them first?
Example: City Alien raid ship. Say my enforcer is in another room, some one in my team decides to take initiative, and runs ahead to another room, however instead of staying in that room, pulls it to the rest of the team. Being lower damage then the damage dealers in team, i won't manage to draw agg away from the mob by just hitting it, i have to taunt it, but in this instance by the way it was pulled no amount of taunting will allow the mob to drop attack from the others and allow me to tank.

i know this isn't to much a problem at 220, how ever its just my personal beef and bane. you can take it from my orgm8z they had to listen to me whine about it in ventrillo.

just wanted to let the staff know about the annoying bug that makes PVM tanks feel gimpy and useless. *btw, that bug does the same thing in Shadowlands*

-Slicingrosez aka Affob6

Sent to the team to try and reproduce the issue. Stranger things have happened and been discovered. We'll let you know if we find anything. If you have a good way to reproduce this (and a few minutes!) issue send it to me by PM .

[Means]

So far the hair on most of the models has looked pretty bad, nothing near realistic hair. Especially on that Solitus head, it's just a big clump of some... stuff. That's attached to her head. It doesn't reflect anything like natural hair does, instead it looks like it's textured in Paint

I like how you've kept the facial jewelry on the opifexes though. It looks a lot like an existing piercing technique called microdermals ( http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Microdermal ), I even have a bunch in my own skin

1. We don't want to push the hair technology into an area where it becomes any kind of performance issue. I will ask the guys about the "reflective" properties of the hair. We are really working on getting the "feel" of the faces right for now.

2. Ouch. I'll stick with my "W00t! I'm a Pirate!" old-guy single ear-ring for now.

3. Do the "bunch in my own skin" hurt when you sit down or ride a bike? :P

4. Sorry about that moderators.

[Means]

Good to see


WARP TO FUTURE: Exited to see the turnout of latest end game encounter and your changes to keeper profession Nice to see some info on this! I just love parry and having Riposte back and working finally!

Edit: btw sent you a pm some weeks ago, ignoring it?

I read your PM...but was on vacation and then at DC...I didn't manage to respond.

Here we go!

Yes. Keepers are in need of attention. Your buffs take silly amounts of time/nano to cast. LOS/Synch issues hit you guys as badly as all the other melee classes etc.

The bulk of rebalancing for profession tools will be on live inside the next two months. I am looking forward to the new Keeper toys. I have to write something new and fun every week...so I am not giving that away here. This will likely not include parry or riposte.

[Means]

Thanks for uploading the vids. Nice Q&A session there.

Since you have some time "off" right now and you want to work on the starting experience, why not try a few small things first instead of trying to do all and everything later on? I love Noob- Island and wouldn't really change too much. But here are some suggestion you should be able to accomplish with less than a weekend....

1. By default have some of the windows open, especially the mission Window. Not all because it might be too confusing. But map, inventory, missions and wear.
2. By default have a mission to contact "Brandon Thorn"
3. Either have by default the name tags on or make Brandon bigger, wave with a colorful umbrella or something else. (Have a sign to the left pointing directly to Brandon Thorn)
4. But a few more NPCs (bots of Thorn) on the island that answer questions on all basic stuff. Put them near all mission guys. This will take the most time, but not much brains. Ask the testers / community to provide it maybe?

Even though you want to wait with the marketing push, it wouldn't hurt to experiment with the early leave rate before that.

PS.: Make the game fun again.... Just hearing that music on noob island still puts a happy grin on my face....

All good and reasonable suggestions. Thank you.

[Means]

Ok firstly, judging from the comments made in video 2 I am glad I spent the time to write that longgg winded post regarding retooling the newbie experience I feel good that it was not in vein. Secondly, kudos to the events team and the discussion regarding getting the storyline going again. It has been some years since there was any real progression. I would suggest before starting new storylines to officially bring some of the lose ends from the past (Phillip Ross for one) to a close. The worst feeling of any storyline is lack of closure. It makes the entire thing feel it was for not. I am happy to see the way things were addressed and the topics that were stressed by the entire team.

As for the solitus head, it looks like it is coming a long nicely but could still use a bit more refinement on the shape.. for some reason the original has a particular allure to it that seems missing in the newer version unlike most of the opi heads except the pigtailed opi. Both the solitus head and the pigtailed opi seem to have lost some of the charm of the original even tho it now looks higher quality.



You will burn in hell for this statement. Noobie island is terribad. I can't even quantify how horrible of a starting it is for a fantasy game let alone a sci-fi game. It had it's time but that time has passed. I can't get anyone to stay past it really that I have introduced to the game. They want cyberpunk, not pretty beaches and cute little leets and snakes.

I wanted to speak with you on the phone at some point. PM phone number already.

[Means]

Hey

I just saw the videos.

To make the game more helpfull for new players, where you are going to make the start area better and such. It would be more helpfull and a better idea to add a new planetmap like CSP map or AoRK integratet in the game instead that you need to download it from another place.

A friend tryed the game, and got very easy lost in it, becouse of the very old and bad planetmap. So i had to help him to install a new one. But some new players might not know that. So it would help a lot to integratet a better and a planetmap with a lot more details

From Kehaan.

Yes. This needs work.

[Means]

I liked the videos. Lots of good info.

I really liked the reference to a certain incident on RK2 with GMs stripping someones toon.

Yes..that one was embarassing. Process for this kind of issue has been changed, so hopefully this will be the only time this mistake is ever made. I hope he can forgive us for that one. Cola came out of my nose when I read the PM about what had happened to his characters...and not in a good way. It burned.

[Means]

98th!

I wonder if means has a secret toon he plays?

Yes...but not nearly as much as I would like.

[Means]

How about adding support for G15 \ G19 Logitech keyboards?
So we can use the LCD display to show stuffs like health\nano\exp\attack'casting time\ etc?

That would be great

I have no idea what that involves...I almost think that some of that is already supported. Send Macrosun a PM about it as he might know.

[Means]

QUESTION:

the new booster with the new instance(s) is gonna be standalone or LoX based? Or if standalone is it going to be free of charge?

The new instance will be a part of a booster. That being said the free players will be able to do a great many of the new daily missions.

[Means]

I have 2x 220 Toons and never seen a Greeter who greeted me, Going to be fun when one eventually shows up

I greet new players myself every now and then...it is great fun and they are so gratefull for a little help. It is also great for helping to remember your own start in AO...ah...memories

[Means]

I greet new players all the time. But unlike ARK, I actually get to show them guides, give them items, and a few creds for things like their first set of implants. It's actually a pretty cool thing to do every now and then.

Cool to meet you at DC this year!

[Means]

Means, In the videos you mentioned bugs, issues etc... that players have been aware of for a long time but you guys don't know about. This jogged my memories of starting a new character.

When you first arrive at dewbie-isle, windows, stat bars etc... are all open. Any changes made to the GUI at this point are erased when you log in the next time. after your second log out, the GUI settings are saved from then on, unless of course one were to manually reset them.

I know im not alone on this, but just curious if it is a global issue, or just an issue with some people. for me its not a big deal. i normally create a character, log off, log back in and then at this point I adjust my interface as I like it, log off again to save the settings, and log on a third time to continue with the game. but, for a new player to the game, this might seem a little odd and low-budget to have the UI change on the second log in.

I dont recall having this happen when i first started playing 5 years ago, but sometime between then and now I noticed it.


edit: -- not sure if this issue is still around, haven't started a new character recently--

Mentioned by someone else...and more detail from you...we are looking into this one. Thanks again.

[Means]

I swear i saw a fawn.

wut?

[Means]

I am not what you would call a serious forum troll, and its never been in me to really speak out on so many things, unless it has serious affectation on how myself or the bulk of my orgmates play.

That being said, after watching these installments I want to first thank Shadowgod for taping them. I got a much better (and positive) feeling about the direction of this game, even moreso than I did before. I'd also like to thank any and all people for participating in that, to the point where it honestly looks like people really are driving the game.

I wanna step back and bring up a certain something that was said and I quote, by Means himself: "We have over 300+ people coming to the game every day." I want to let people know this is in fact, quite true. In the past few months, my org has risen in size from 12 active players (about 100 alts++) and the new batch of recruits I feel quite positive about, and not to take them down a peg or brag about the number of new people in org, but most of them are very fresh and new to the game! They drown me in questions at times, and I am more than happy to help them out any way I can and still enjoy my own time. Players new and old are intermingling and I have never felt happier about things since Means and crew have started to really take the volume of bold steps to see this PASSION reach new heights. You guys are rockstars.

I realize that change takes time, even with a much larger staff, sometimes this cant always happen. Communication between team members can cause a rather proportionate amount of IRL lag, just as quickly as internet speed can become clogged up. So those of you who have had the patient and perseverance to understand wholly this perspective, be glad you have it. It helps more than you think.

For Kintaii. I am adding you to my heroes list. I am a long standing RPr' and I gotta say it takes a lot of mettle for an RPr like you or I to say "i wanna make PVP more exciting" I did get a nice chuckle out of that, because to most PVP'rs, you and I are the enemy. LOL With you at the reigns, I am really intrigued to see what sort of interesting ways youll make PVP for people like me.

I didn't see Nophex talk much, as most of the questions seem to be geared towards problems of the past and future, and not nearly about the engine that drives customer service. I was sort of interested in hearing something about it, but alas. I dont have much to add for that. More's the pity. I usually have had no much issues dealing with Customer Service, and all of my experiences in that range have yielded fruit within a few business days at most. So I guess, thank you for that.

I want to say, as I have said a few times before... the sort of player I am, everything that the game encompasses, I have been involved with. From walking into newbie island, to RP, to well run raids (and even a few crappy ones) to testing FFA, to PVP over the rainbow and back, the steps being taking affect players like me the most. I am not alone, and as you say the bulk of players in general dont post nearly as much as the serious forum trolls. So, it feels in some respect that you guys are representing my particular demographic. My status can be described overall as "Pleased, but eager". By saying that I am happy for the changes, and looking forward to more.

To address them in a general sense, id just like to say that biggest issue is that I seem to play toons that almost always have a hard time. I enjoy that at the same time, but none of them I can call particular uber. What pays off is the time in, for some people, perfecting their toons and their playstyles. Since I experiment with so much, including nanolines/perklines/etc etc.. I often find myself asking "so why CANT I be a melee energy enforcer?!" "Why cant I be a bow Advy or a bow agent, or a bow MA?!?" That leads me to alot of my choices in the game.

Whereas, the bulk of professions are becoming more and more streamlined in certain aspects. Remembering that its a player choice to be cookie cutter, I have to understand that cookie cutter is this way for a reason. Its in this that professional imbalancing really shows the most. I love having the freedom for options. More and more I have been seeing options arise, and for that I am glad I have had the patience to stick around through the dry spots. At the same time, its good to see the dry spots get further and further apart, on your hard work.

I dont generally post unless I feel it truly necessary, so I hope you guys can understand my particular point of view. I think the work that has been done is in our best interests, although many people would disagree or say outright that its just not fast enough. Well, people whom have been here for the past 5 years can tell you what the Dark Age of AO was like. Perspective. It helps. Good work, guys.

Oh and, IBT(TL;DR). Because I caretroll in your general direction.

This is why I am answering these posts at 11:30pm at night...and why when I emailed some notes to Dev-Genele's work email so I didn't forget about it tomorrow...she responded inside 10 minutes. We don't do this for the massive whack paychecks...we do it because any one of the playerbase would do it too given the chance to make AO better.

This kind of feedback helps the whole team keep going and makes it worth it. Thanks for this.

[Means]

Why am I here? Was interested in the backstory, and I'm too stubborn to quit, at least until I see if FC's big plans will actually change things for the better. If not, well, I doubt I'll be missed.

The mindlessness of the grind is bad enough; that so much of it is required is just too much.

Your opinion has been noticed and is not being mocked in any way by me or my team. Thank you for taking the time to express it as not telling us would have been much easier.

[Means]

Oh, and make famine read my PMs!

Famine is busy moving to Oslo. We have to cut him some slack for a little while so he can get settled.

Then we beat him silly.

[Means]

Means, about the in game Tutorials, you guys should get a copy of Aion once it goes live they did it perfectly. What happens is you are guided to events from the start and little ? marks appear that play a video for you to see the GUI animation of it. While that's more advanced then the current engine could handle I bet the new engine could handle blink videos to play. Would be like a mini-billboard on the client that cant be moved.

I generally try to have a go at all the new MMOs that I can...regardless of the many things that can be done wrong there is usually at least a few things that are done right that we can learn from. If not learning what not to do is still very valuable

[Means]

From Game Suggestions: Will we ever see sex change through Org HQ Plastic Surgeon?

How about breed change? <--- Way more unlikely I'm sure.

No to breed change.

Maybe to sex change.

[Means]

Ok...Opening again. I'll be reading...but not answering any more questions in this one.

Thank you all again for keeping this productive and for teaching me about Lightyears. :P