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

[haxi]

Tree shadows appear to be living entities that consume buildings. Kind of harsh. Also, the ground in the new engine / 2nd pic seems to be under the influence of a rogue sine wave. The effect is there in the original but much more pronounced now.

[Rewo]

Good stuff, screens showing promise and I can't wait to see the proposed perk changes.

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

We've never had a month lead up to Halloween in the past, it has always been in the neighborhood of a week prior. Usually we get a few days to a week after as well though.

[neverest]

Random question: How does last weeks layoffs in Funcom affect the AO team?

[lordran]

Random question: How does last weeks layoffs in Funcom affect the AO team?

Doh, for the 1000th time.... nothing, their team is still the same.

Good work on the GFX, Very nice.

[torakx]

just like to say thanks for deciding to post the changes before actually patching.

[Thwarn]

Next Friday we will be posting a document containing all the proposed changes to existing perks and descriptions of new ones.

Means, with the mention of new perks/perk lines. Does this mean we will get more perk points to spend or consider giving more?
Or more along the lines of more choices to spend current perk points on?

[Aethyrguard]

Cool, bulleted lists of the big picture <3 Photos from the new engine <3 Can't wait and good job on the conversion overall, seeing as it is stabilizing now that means the transition to the new codebase/compiler is complete or just getting there?

Was that using HDR, Bloom? I ask because I know some things don't like anti-aliasing when those are running. I always force override that option on HDR + AAx16 if possible

[Phuriae]

We've never had a month lead up to Halloween in the past, it has always been in the neighborhood of a week prior. Usually we get a few days to a week after as well though.

I was over-exaggerating of course, though sadly, last year indeed was about a week prior I believe. But if memory serves me correctly, I remember the year before last having the update at least 2 weeks ahead. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe Sil did things differently, or maybe I just don't remember as well as I would like to think I do. Either way, It would be nice to have them sooner!

[Aethyrguard]

Actually my real question is; Considering the extreme difference in polygon counts between AO and AoC; What is the tested frame per second even in it's unfinished form? I would assume that barring some type of bug it would be like jumpin jack flash fast, or, be like you got struck by lightning!

[wormx]

Shinies!

I guess I'm one of the few who prefers the "old" screenshots. The new ones are a bit too dark to see stuff imo.

But as long as the game will run smoothly, I don't care what the hell it looks like.

[Aethyrguard]

Shinies!

I guess I'm one of the few who prefers the "old" screenshots. The new ones are a bit too dark to see stuff imo.

But as long as the game will run smoothly, I don't care what the hell it looks like.

I can see why you'd say you prefer the old vs the new. Look at the sky itself. Also take in to consideration that they are showing us lighting tests not full final form. When the new version is finished, I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you will prefer it's new form.

@Means - make the code monkeys give us a nice settings page for AO in the future and then give it to us to show off the graphic bars and sliders for settings with min/max values, when they get a chance. Might help people grasp the extreme difference in possibilities.

[Suicidal]

But as long as the game will run smoothly, I don't care what the hell it looks like.

This.

I have looked at these "horrible" graphics for years, I can look at them for more years. I didn't start playing AO because of GFX :P
I'm just waiting for AO to actually run better.

[wormx]

I can see why you'd say you prefer the old vs the new. Look at the sky itself. Also take in to consideration that they are showing us lighting tests not full final form. When the new version is finished, I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you will prefer it's new form.

Yeah, I have to clarify here, I do think it looks really good.
And being a fixer I guess I should say style over function but when it comes to the smoothness, I'm sure everyone agrees that its more important than shinies

[Righteous]

What's this business about "new" perks? Are you adding more perks in some cases?

Is one of these new perks the tractor beam?

[cratters]

Something I'd also like to see in somewhat more detail in this upcoming document of yours is:

Considering how AS is currently the only reliable attack for several professions, how do you propose to offset this with the upcoming nerf to AS? Will they recieve new weaponry? What about those professions who, well, innately suck at using weapons due to poor add. dmg, crappy AR modifiers and little support for said weaponry? Mainly talking about traders, crats, engis and MPs here; professions who's offense in PvP pretty much revolves around AS. Agents will obviously be affected by this as well, but who cares about midgets? They're not even real people, rite?

[Boltgun]

Tree shadows are black on vertical surface, directly lit by the sun.

Which is kind of nice for a bright day but both vertical and horizontal hardly match, they are black by contrast btw. Any case, I don't think such thing will be a problem ingame.

[vallikat]

I was over-exaggerating of course, though sadly, last year indeed was about a week prior I believe. But if memory serves me correctly, I remember the year before last having the update at least 2 weeks ahead. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe Sil did things differently, or maybe I just don't remember as well as I would like to think I do. Either way, It would be nice to have them sooner!

I think you may be right. It does seem to me that Halloween got patched in a little later last year than we've seen in the past. Not by a large difference I don't think, but for some reason I do believe that Halloween last year seemed shorter than in prior years.

Although, Uncle Pumpkinhead usually does start haunting the forums early in the month. In fact I'm surprised he hasn't surfaced yet this year.

[Tazalanche]

I was over-exaggerating of course, though sadly, last year indeed was about a week prior I believe. But if memory serves me correctly, I remember the year before last having the update at least 2 weeks ahead. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe Sil did things differently, or maybe I just don't remember as well as I would like to think I do. Either way, It would be nice to have them sooner!

WTB AO Halloween from October 15 - November 14, AO Christmas from December 15-January 14, AO Anniversary from June 15 - July 14.

They went to the effort to make the stuff we collect during those times of the year. Why not let it exist for a month before never being seen again?

[Alternity]

The shadows look like they could use some work tho, te go from soft to being rather harsh ;X

[Noxira]

Bear in mind that what we're seeing in thos screenshots is a VERY rough and early version, just to show off the new engine's capability to render realtime shadows vs. the old clunky one.

Also, omfg bump mapping!!! *runs in a circle screaming*