Friday with Means - October 2nd, 2009 - A week of daring escapes

**Maxisolja** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:05:59

Originally Posted by Means

The grand opening of "The Grind" will be on Friday October 23rd.

But my birthday is on the 23rd

**vallikat** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:06:48

Originally Posted by Dagget

Good to see the progress. nail down those doors, though.

Would be nice if the next engine update was a little video.

Yes. I want a before/after video like we get on those home makeover shows.

**vallikat** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:10:35

Originally Posted by Means

The grand opening of "The Grind" will be on Friday October 23rd.

Oh...hmmm... This makes me sad. I have tentative plans to be away that weekend. I normally wouldn't miss the Halloween party on RK (and especially the nightclub opening) for anything but didn't even think about it when I agreed to this trip. Hmm...*ponders angling get everyone to go on the 16th instead*

**Troxxor** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:11:58

Yay for screenies & balancing <3

I'm really looking forward to seeing that document

The shadows & ground are looking awesome *happeeee*

One comment (I know it's a work in progress), but in screenie old 2, Old Athen in the background has that AO feeling for me, where it disappears in to the dust of RK. Please can we keep that effect with the new engine
/pray

Anyway, I hope you guys have a great (& restful) weekend

Exciting times for AO *grins* ... off to play now!

**Saetos** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:14:28

Originally Posted by Means

Balancing

This week we have had Metaing in the office for lengthy balance discussions with the entire team. After purchasing new helmets these discussions will continue all next week. Next Friday we will be posting a document containing all the proposed changes to existing perks and descriptions of new ones.

Oh snap...

They best be good, or we be bringin' some hurt on to yo team!

...

**Means** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:31:59

Originally Posted by IHaveHugeNick

Actually, oh the hilarity, with so many changes i don't think anyone will be able to grasp the big picture just from paper, so it'll be propably be reasonably quiet.

Thanks...I did need a laugh :P

**Dagget** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:37:42

Quiet for maybe 5 minutes. Then, unable to grasp the big picture, they'll just start spamming their bullet points for fixing pvp again while ignoring the information presented.

**Brostalinox** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:38:42

please tell me the bumpmap textures are work-in-progress. Or at least that the progrmmers did them.

I would instantly fire any graphics designer who gave me those over-done mega-hard bumpmaps. They look horrible! Hurrr!

*hides in a corner*

**Grim-One** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:40:20

Originally Posted by Means

Engine

At the bottom of this thread I have attached some of the first "new engine vs. old engine" screenshots.

Any chance we can get some screen shot with some Anti Aliasing turned on?

With the bump mapping ground texture, the limits of the ground full quality radius really sticks out. Will there be a way to increase the ground full quality radius with new engine so you wont even have to see such a sudden drop in detail?

**Ellarisa** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:41:06

my first response about the screenies:
oh my god ........ holy shit.....*keeps staring*

looking really good Mr Means!

so how bout them professional spots?

Edit: also looking forward to see what you guys have in mind for the rebalancing stuff!
Greetings,

Ellarisa

**Wrangeline** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:43:14

The bump mapping looks nice and the shadows looks nice as well.

I have one comment and one question though.

Comment:
Shadows on buildings seem to be almost pitch black while shadows on the ground seem more natural. Is that intended or just a symptom of "work in progress"?

Question:
Now that we get proper shadows, will we get more movement in both lightsources and objects such as trees? I mean, shadows is awesome but they would come so much more to life of the trees could move about a bit and if various light sources, both indoors and outdoors, could move about a bit. Moving shadows are always better than static shadows!

Keep up the good works. Looks very promising

**SoldiTwo** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:45:32

Originally Posted by Means

It has been a week of escapes. After a reasonably quick update to solve some hefty/horribly random issues from the 2003 to 2005 conversion of the entire client it seems like thing are reasonably back to normal. That and of course it is great that we are still all at our desks. Macrosun tells me he wants to quit at least three times a day...so work on the mail system must be going well.

Engine

At the bottom of this thread I have attached some of the first "new engine vs. old engine" screenshots. The engine guys are working very hard on getting this together and it is fantastic to see it really starting to get that AO "feel"...but now with proper shadows, bump mapping on the ground, and general improvement on all texture rendering in general. I can't wait for them to tell me the new grass and water is "ready" for me to be able to show it...I don't like waiting either...but you know how people are with "works in progress". These screens show the "nuts and bolts" of the new engine working (ground, mesh and shadows)...I can't wait until we get to show the new shinies that this conversion is going to give us. I know it doesn't feel like it...but this is going way faster than I ever would have imagined.

Balancing

This week we have had Metaing in the office for lengthy balance discussions with the entire team. After purchasing new helmets these discussions will continue all next week. Next Friday we will be posting a document containing all the proposed changes to existing perks and descriptions of new ones. This will give us all a chance to examine these changes in detail before implementation in the coming weeks.

Nightclub Opening

The grand opening of "The Grind" will be on Friday October 23rd. Watch the launcher for the time closer to the event. Halloween is traditionally the largest AO party of the year...what other time would be better to open the new club? Anything else would be wrong.

Pants. Definitely Pants. I am really tired. This FWM was brought to you by Tylenol - Extra Strength.

Hi Means,

I already posted that question in the last FWM, but it seems it was read over.
The RK3 "Cost of an AO subscription has been a long term concern voiced by the DNW community" problem could IMHO easly be solved if one could use the Age of Conan Gametimecards for AO.

I mean, basically it would be like the NCSOFT Gametimecards, they also work with all NCSOFT titles.

Could you please make that possible, so that one can choose on which Funcom game he wants to add the gametime if he enters a gametime key?

Screens! Nice!

Greetings
SoldiTwo

PS
Should be a PM - but the receiving inbox is full.

**Phuriae** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 17:51:40

Originally Posted by Means

The grand opening of "The Grind" will be on Friday October 23rd. Watch the launcher for the time closer to the event. Halloween is traditionally the largest AO party of the year...what other time would be better to open the new club? Anything else would be wrong.

Does this mean we have to wait until the 23rd for the Halloween patch? I would hope we have more than 1 week to wreak havoc on that scourge of Rubi-Ka, Uncle Pumpkinhead (and rake in all the free phatz). The whole fun of Halloween on RK is, of course, wearing those phatz all month long or more compared to IRL where we just get to wear our phatz one night.

Anyways, the new screens look great. Thanks go out to you, macrosun, and the team.

**Technogen** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:04:39

Not bad, I really have nothing else to say, which in itself is huge.

**Gimpeline** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:06:59

Perfect timing with the opening! I'm dinging 40 two days before so what better way is there to celebrate? just hope my familly dosen't have other plans...
(extra phats for the birtday kid?)

**Shareida** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:11:16

Originally Posted by Macrosun

Hello.

Hi. Dont quit.

Otherwise Vhab will take over and make WoW out of it.

**Worldofalts** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:14:37

wow! for a work in progress the improvement is very noticable. 7 thumbs up to you and your team. cant wait to see the grass added, maybe with anti-aliasing running (and possibly improved trees plees? the trees on the right side of the 2nd screen shot stuck out like a sore thumb to me, sowwy).

keep up the good work chief!

**spookiepants** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:38:01

nice.
seems we lost the sky though; All one solid color. Probably cuz it hasn't been done yet.
...right?

**Uriam** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:44:01

Originally Posted by Macrosun

Hello.

Who undid his chains?

Back to work with you. *cracks whip*

**Xenotric** · Oct 2nd, 2009, 18:55:43

Stuff definitly looks like its coming along.

Can't wait to see what balance and changes you lot will come up with that we can all complain about ^_^

Quick question though:

Are the rumours that all this work on fixers is just to keep them happy so that you can sneak up on them and chain them to mail boxes as a mail delivery system true?

Thread: Friday with Means - October 2nd, 2009 - A week of daring escapes

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