Friday with Means - November 27th, 2009 - Uphill in 6 feet of snow

[Means]

There are good weeks and bad weeks. This one was a bad one...it didn't feel like I had the chance to get much "done" as I would like...or even close. Many small fires to put out leaving very little time to really focus on the issues we have been trying to work through for far too long. It is a good thing that I am not the only one on this team.

The rest of the team has been hard at work on the Daily Missions, working through the profession nanos (there are a LOT of them), Breed Change and associated difficulties, this year's Christmas goodies and of course...the new engine. It sounds like a lot...I guess because it is. We are hoping to bring the new Christmas content to the Test Dimension on Tuesday to get it to Live as soon as possible...after which the Daily Mission system will quickly be deployed to TestLive to be tested until we are all happy that it will launch as smoothly as the new mail system has.

Today's brief downtime for Atlantean (RK1):

There has been a persistant (though rare) server crash issue related to database connectivity. A possible fix to the issue has been deployed to RK1 only that we will be watching closely over the next week. Excellent reason for a quick downtime...if it performs as hoped it will be deployed to all dimensions and bring us very close to the 100% solid server performance we have all been wanting. We are very close now it will be great to finally exorcise the very last of the AO server demons

The Professionals Program:

Kintaii would like me to remind you that voting will begin Monday next week for the Professionals to represent each profession in the community. The nominations are closed...again voting begins next week.

The German Server:

It is safe to say that the time I asked for to implement programs to help boost the population on the German server has finished. While I still have hopes for the sponsor system that will be coming to the live servers soon, it is unfair to ask for more time at this point as the German community has been more than patient and unfortunately seen very little action on this issue. Discussion began this week on the practical/technical issues of offering server transfer to players on the German dimension. As the process becomes clear information will be made available to the German community as soon as possible. Population has been a concern on the German dimension for years now and is far from being a recent discussion...as much as I wanted to maintain a German only population the game experience for our German customers should not be held hostage while we wait for new programs to be implemented in hopes of future success. I appreciate the patience and cooperation shown by the German community in the last few months and look forward to a smooth transition for those players to a more populated server where you will no doubt be welcomed with open arms.

Have a great weekend everyone, we will see you next week.

[Zackkeep]

1st?

[RichardDom]

am i first hehe

nooooooooooooo

[majere]

1st page, 3rd - OMGZ!!!!!


I will certainly be happy to have RK3 come over. We need all the population we can get.

[Fishpaste]

1st


poop 5th.

Bet my week was worse!

[Soliartist]

Sixth wow.

[orionat]

first page ^^
we all have our bad weeks once in a while
also shame to cancel a server but I guess it will boost population on the others a little too

[Berserkmc]

I was here.

[Cdogg421]

few questions i hope you can answer or give a good guess on.

1. more char slots. is this gonna happen and when
2. you spoke of new end game pets beind designed a few months back, how are those comming.
3. you mention that your gonna be moving ppl from rk 3 to the other servers, will it be possible to move between rk 1 and 2 in the future?
4. any update on expected launch on the engine?

[Nanostratege]

char transfer from rk3? :/

and no new pdfs?

well atleast the daily mission system will come soon

[-Plexor-]

Even laster!

Very much looking forward to the Daily missions! It may have been stated somewhere before, and I apologise if it has and i've missed it, but i'd like to know if it will give a really viable option to level a character all the way to 220? Any indication how long it would take to get there from say level 20 doing 1 mission a day? Or is it just meant as a small supplement to the existing options?

Good news for the RK3 players! If any of you will be looking for an awesome Clan Org on RK1 then take a look at the link in my sig

[Macrosun]

Pantsed!

[Mekh]

Thanks for the update...

and dasm good news for our RK3 relatives... :-)

[Aiken]

Nice change on the German Server at last

Also, as previously asked, How about some new character slots Means !?! Still strikes me as odd we can't have one of each prof on an account

Make it so Means !

[ArienSky]

The rest of the team has been hard at work on working through the profession nanos (there are a LOT of them)

That is one of the selling points of AO for me: the nanoes.
From changing into a slayerdroid, for Martial Artist skill, over sparkling shields, HP size-increasers, spawning (temporary) weapons, armors etc. to buffs of speed and almost any other skill.

All varied over 200 QLs, and made very imaginative.
some are slow, some fast, others cost a lot of nano, while some just never lands (especially in SL).
and the buffs lasting for literally hours.

one of my preferred aspects of AO; the nanoes.

I look forward to what you are suggesting there.

Kind Regards
-Ariensky

PS. My agent has 907 nanoes.. I know there are many nanos out there!
all the stat-buffing nanoes, that can be given to others, along with the top QL combat nanoes, of the various professions.

PPS. Please have a look at the "Weird looking"-nanoes some of them can be uploaded by an Agent, but can not use them.

The crystal says "virtual profession", the nano-formula says "profession".
and yes, I have tested it out.

on that note: why not make an ingame indicator on if a nano can be used by an Agent or not?
Currently you need to use 3rd party tools to see that on a webpage..

[Cistie]

Good news for the RK3 players! If any of you will be looking for an awesome Clan Org on RK1 then take a look at the link in my sig

we have already an clan org on rk1 named Project Transfer
thanks means for this good information

[stormranger]

The German Server:

Discussion began this week on the practical/technical issues of offering server transfer to players on the German dimension. As the process becomes clear information will be made available to the German community as soon as possible. Population has been a concern on the German dimension for years now and is far from being a recent discussion...as much as I wanted to maintain a German only population the game experience for our German customers should not be held hostage while we wait for new programs to be implemented in hopes of future success. I appreciate the patience and cooperation shown by the German community in the last few months and look forward to a smooth transition for those players to a more populated server where you will no doubt be welcomed with open arms.

dose this mean the german server is going too be shutdown? if so when so i could cancel my account early enough. it's a pity that you listen too all the whiners that nobody likes on DNW.

[sannz]

Und dann gibts da natürlich noch die gute Dragon Security Agency auf der Ommelseite

Nice to finally see some action on the rk3 matter. Even though I don't really like the direction of it. I guess it is better than having the server die out.

Wouldn't be too worried about having no "big" things to show. It's the small joints that keep the big wheels turning.

[SSK]

Pantsed!

Aww

[dustmouse]

dose this mean the german server is going too be shutdown? if so when so i could cancel my account early enough. it's a pity that you listen too all the whiners that nobody likes on DNW.

Wasn't there a survey, and most DNW players wanted transfer?