Friday with Means - November 20th, 2009 - Nanomage says "Wut?"

[windcaster]

bleh, instanced cites suck.. i mean they're good if you can't/dont have a actual plot of land.. but i dont think anyone wants to give their city in *insert zone here* for a city in a bottle.

and that does'nt take into account WHO should get to keep their cities and who should have them moved to instance.

gonna pull names out of a hat?

combining all servers would be good short term.. but the question that needs to be addressed is why are people leaving? and why are not enough new people coming in to fill their place?

the first one is a little harder to answer the 2nd one i think it's because a lot of people have never even heard of AO.

they need more advertising, sure AO is not a new game but i think if it was publicized more people will come, the froobs program is what got me in the door, but back then not as many "Free" games was out there so it might take a little more effort now.

that still leaves the question of why are they leaving? is it a serious flaw of the game driving people away? or is it just that leaving players are about avg %ratio and the new players are just below this break even point.

also even though AoC is'nt the same type of mmorpg it seemed to have stolen some of the AO base, some of them came back to AO, some of them did'nt
the upcoming secret world will probably take some more.

either way when it's possible that 1 server could support the entire world of AO, there is a problem.. one thats been there for a long time but seems to only be getting worse.

i dont ever expect AO will become popular to fill a dozen or more servers, but i'd like to see rk1 & 2 packed.

anyway i hope after the new engine is done they advertise like crazy, otherwise they may have to drop the first M in mmorpg to avoid false advertisement lawsuits

[Dagget]

As for progress on the Engine, how about making some sticky where you can display the progress in various areas related to the engine release? Update it every few weeks.

Example display with status in terms of % completed:

CORE: 85%

New Vegetation: 50%

Avatar Heads/Bodies reworked: 70%

Effects: 20%

Optimizations: not yet started, eta begin Jan 2010

=========

I'm sure the Devs have more categories and they have weekly progress reports in all those areas but this should give an idea of something that could be made public in a sticky and steadily updated.

Unless you can post up pics or video showing dramatic changes, this would be a far more useful display of progress on the engine, and the data could be readily copied from status reports you have already on hand each week.

[Hacre]

As for progress on the Engine, how about making some sticky where you can display the progress in various areas related to the engine release? Update it every few weeks.

Example display with status in terms of % completed:

CORE: 85%

New Vegetation: 50%

Avatar Heads/Bodies reworked: 70%

Effects: 20%

Optimizations: not yet started, eta begin Jan 2010

=========

I'm sure the Devs have more categories and they have weekly progress reports in all those areas but this should give an idea of something that could be made public in a sticky and steadily updated.

Unless you can post up pics or video showing dramatic changes, this would be a far more useful display of progress on the engine, and the data could be readily copied from status reports you have already on hand each week.

I don't think we need a world keyboard shortage due to the mass breakage of F5 keys.

[Phixalicious]

I don't think we need a world keyboard shortage due to the mass breakage of F5 keys.

Not to mention the forum PvP that ensues when one or more of those percentages doesn't move for weeks or months at a time.

[Berinda]

I would like to see new engine pictures of SL and LoX areas. So far as I know, LoX was designed with the new engine in mind.

[Dagget]

I don't think we need a world keyboard shortage due to the mass breakage of F5 keys.

You don't run a script/macro to get 100 F5's a second, 24/7 and no keyboards abused?

[majere]

You don't run a script/macro to get 100 F5's a second, 24/7 and no keyboards abused?

LoL.... for the lunatics

[DePreach]

Hope Means looks at this before posting this week. Probably not but heres hoping...

Can we see projected timescales for the engine and the balancing act, I know you won't have any firm idea yet and making promises now will lead to you being battered with your projections 12 months down the line but personally I would like to know if it is 3 months, in which case I will hold off re twinking into the AS pistols or 12 months in which case I'll go through the pain knowing I will get some use out of it.

What kind of delviery are you looking at? I think any changes in isolation will be ineffective and the feedback will be skewed, so are you going to do a full implementation of everything to live or look at implementing perk changes then breed changes etc etc.

What is your general strategy now for the rest of the changes, an overview would be useful, for example... 3 weeks time nano changes for professions (insert profs) 5 weeks time equipment - suggested changes etc. A few notes on how deep this change will go will be very useful. At the moment it is difficult giving good feedback because each proposal has to be viewed within the context of todays mechanics.

Is there anything the community could get involved with? You are blessed and cursed by the technical savvy of your subscriber base, couldn't you release textures to be mapped? How about a competition for designing a new instance... surely a lot of the effort you are undertaking is pure grunt work which could release your team to the more enjoyable aspects of developing.

I am often critical of your efforts but I wince when I read through a thread like this... not a way I could earn a living. I think as a whole the client base appreciates your efforts and the difficult tasks you set yourself and your team.

As always looking forward to todays FWM.

[Klodovik]

I would like to see the rest of "balance" documentation (nanos, heal nerfs, items, research...).

[Mekh]

I would like to see the rest of "balance" documentation (nanos, heal nerfs, items, research...).

or at least a statement on their general ideas as I doubt they have the big overview of it all as of yet.

[Klodovik]

or at least a statement on their general ideas as I doubt they have the big overview of it all as of yet.

It was said that they have, but it was not published yet. Hey, I even got infrakshn pts for arguing about it if they really have it or not, so... Gief! If you have it (as you said).

[Troxxor]

I think FC are still chatting with Nasa about space shuttle heat shields & how to make their next generation flame retardant teletubby suits...

Maybe next week

[PhoenixOfAges]

It was said that they have, but it was not published yet. Hey, I even got infrakshn pts for arguing about it if they really have it or not, so... Gief! If you have it (as you said).

Actually last I heard they didn't as they were still hammering out various details on what and how to change things. That is they may have a proposed change to a certain thing but keep adjusting and arguing over aspects of the change. While with what they have shown us they were at least more or less satisfied with them when they were put in a PDF and posted to us.