Friday with Means - December 18th, 2009 - Busy day and Leet infestation

[Iamkama]

Excited.... Can't wait to see some more previews from the new engine

I know! I'm so stoked to see a vid of SL playfields.

Wtb pics of penumbra :O

[Rurounin]

While you are working on the new engine, please add in more optimization and stuff for the GUI as well I know I would love it, I know other's would love it and I know you developers would love it when you log your playing characters! :P

- Moveable Attack/Nano bars.
- Moveable Credits/Aggdef parts (I know custom GUI's can take care of that, but still :P).
- Ingame Scripteditor! (Not sure how hard something like this would be, but I know it would neat to have an editor ingame where you can open and save scripts, that shows the amount of characters used and not to mention an XML library where one could add in custom ready-made scripts. It could all just be a text editor with a preview button really :P).

Merry Christmas!

[Hacre]

It was great getting the chance to show two real players the new engine today (it was last week's version...not with the new support for dynamic light sources in working today!). Up and running...not cut in any way shape or form. I look forward to being able to show it directly captured from game NOT in Tir in the very near future. This has been an uphill battle the whole way...we clearly will not be seeing this hit the servers in 2009...but it is great to see it coming together. We are finally starting to win this one...I'm really hoping to put a hard release date (rather than a guess) on this soon.

I cannot overstate this enough. After a few conversations with friends AS WELL AS people who don't even play AO, who's sole comment was "Wow..." after seeing current screenshots, you need a trailer that tops the trailer that Sil released, the Still Alive trailer. It was so awesomely produced we even forgave the highly reflective "glass mud". Despite that fact that I'm perfectly sure the moving grass video was light years ahead of what we'd have with what was in the "Still Alive" video, one would certainly attract more people than the other.

Also needs music to top the ARK Theme used in Still Alive, if that's at all possible. I'm on approximately my 30th replay since my buddy found the mp3.

Seriously Means. It's the difference between an emotional response from the die hard AO fans and a "meh" from potential subscribers.

[docine]

The Engine

Damn it is starting to look good...

Oh yes... !

Thanx for having us today, it was loads of fun. We'll have that pizza another day.

[Warhead]

Large playfields crash the conversion utility. AO playfields are 4000 x 4000. Conan playfields are 2000 x 2000.

Hah! I knew Conan was peanuts all along!

[Amosco]

Oh yes... !

Thanx for having us today, it was loads of fun. We'll have that pizza another day.

Hey! You saw it in PERSON???

Tell us EVERYTHING!!

Was it so awesome that just seeing it made you poop rainbows?

[Alternity]

Hey! You saw it in PERSON???

Tell us EVERYTHING!!

Was it so awesome that just seeing it made you poop rainbows?

I've seen Docine poop rainbows IRl, it's a pretty sight despite it sounding gross!

[tokrika]

oh my... lots and lots of positive news. So two actual players got to see the stuff? how did they manage that? do you sell gamengine-tours?! Fihnaly someting to use my paidpoints on!

[Typeon]

gnarliest FWM yet!

Thank you.

[docine]

I think we survived, even with all the rainbow-crapping. It looked great, it really did. After playing since 2001 it was really cool seeing real animations of how good this game will look in the future. I am certainly looking forward to the launch of this.

[Jekonam]

Hey Means,

Really positive news. I think the playerbase has waited for a long time for this kind of light at the end of the tunnel. I hope you can give us a release date for the new engine in the near future. Maybe as a late christmas gift

It's pleasure the read this stuff every friday. Keep up the good work guys!

[Noxira]

Work is beginning in earnest shortly in the Beijing office on the new heads. We received the first Atrox head complete back from the office and it was more amazing and detailed than I ever would have imagined..it will be great to have all 358 done over the next few months.

So you're not doing the heads in-house now? What happened to Genele and MstrBstrd's work? Pictures!!

[Phixalicious]

So you're not doing the heads in-house now? What happened to Genele and MstrBstrd's work? Pictures!!

Chinese sweatshop labor was cheaper. Plus, the beatings ensure quality work.

[Mastablasta]

So you're not doing the heads in-house now? What happened to Genele and MstrBstrd's work? Pictures!!

Think that was the plan all along. Usualy when doing stuff like that you have artists produce the original / design specification, and then you send it off for massproduction. So Genele and MstrBstrd made the basis ones, and the chinese artists will modify them and create textures to make the remaining 300+ heads.

[Ebondevil]

So you're not doing the heads in-house now? What happened to Genele and MstrBstrd's work? Pictures!!

Well Funcom do have a Beijing office, at least they have a place for job listings for jobs in their Beijing office which can be found at the bottom of this

[Tazalanche]

Thank you for the very informative update on the status of so many things involving the game. Even without a definite date for testing or live release, we still have a better feel for where everything is at in each of their processes.

[Iamkama]

Think that was the plan all along. Usualy when doing stuff like that you have artists produce the original / design specification, and then you send it off for massproduction. So Genele and MstrBstrd made the basis ones, and the chinese artists will modify them and create textures to make the remaining 300+ heads.

Interesting, makes sense though.

Thank you for the very informative update on the status of so many things involving the game. Even without a definite date for testing or live release, we still have a better feel for where everything is at in each of their processes.

I agree.

[windcaster]

Leet Infested!

Today' quick downtime was a result of a Christmas Leet infestation across all servers. I asked Customer Service to "make sure there are ALWAYS enough leets for everyone"...as a result the scripts got bit out of hand and we had (in some cases) 4000 Leets on single playfields. The servers were not happy and this problem would have escalated over the weekend. The only quick way of fixing/exterminating this number of the furry bastards was to restart the servers. I hope the quick downtime was not too bothersome and you can forgive us for this little interruption. It is interesting to note at this point that "Leet infestation" while unusual is not particularly unusual in regards to the interesting problems that tend to surface on Fridays. I am happy that this one was handled quickly and efficiently before everyone begins their vacations for Christmas this week. It did interrupt my plans of having pizza with Strups and Docine...we'll just have to reschedule.

OH!, so you're the guy who nerfed my antleets.. nice going.
i thought someone else was killing them when i logged in today

i was doing a good job of keeping the population under control, the PW server should have been breathing easy :P

http://i45.tinypic.com/282jkvl.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/2u5f97l.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/33m95p1.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/2vdjq07.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/11ih7k1.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/316b1mt.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/2wrp3lk.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/2afll55.jpg



was fun while it lasted, i could get 3-5 kites that size per tower site..
now the best i can muster is about 1/10th of that for an entire site.

[DaviasI]

Holiday Party Details and Times:
http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/an...&table=CONTENT

Fridays are ALWAYS busy. Today was of course no exception. We were privileged to have a visit in the office from Strupstad and Docine in the Oslo office.

Awww..darn don't tell me there was a contest and I missed it. I would have loved to visit the Oslo office....well maybe when its warmer.

The Engine

Damn it is starting to look good...and the artists haven't really even started to poke it yet. From an integration standpoint we are getting pretty close to feature complete. The reason we always use Tir is this: most of the visual features of the entire game can be found in this little easy to load playfield: meshes, ground, statel animations, npcs, self illumination, character animation, water, gfx effects, sky, weather systems, grass, dynamic shadows etc etc. All the visual resources need to be converted to a new format to be viewed in the new engine...so working in the same feature rich environment makes a lot of sense. Both the old AND new engine are rendered at the same time..side by side...for comparison to make sure that things look as they should and no detail is missed (and in most cases drasticaly improved upon). Watching the orbital strike in Tir today was great fun...we weren't 100% sure how it would look or if it would work..but stunning is the best word for it.

new crude video of you nuking simon silverstone plz!!! Given the massive improvements in the engne and the (relatively)high ql textures of SL this would would be awesome to see some SL enviroments. Having played AoC I am hyper curious to see how Adonis would look since it has some nice underwater effects and the upgraded textures, then some place dynamic in the shadowland as well. Keep the side by side rendering in the video, the impact is amazing. Maybe do a few video cuts. One old, one new, and one side by side for full impact.

Large playfields crash the conversion utility. AO playfields are 4000 x 4000. Conan playfields are 2000 x 2000. It wasn't important until we made it this far. Now we are working on it. I'm not even remotely worried about it. I hope we can show an enormous SL playfield soon.

Okay this comment *really* amuses me. I've played AoC and I remember trying to get through Conarch valley on a horse and it takes nearly 30 mins (and that's when I remember the correct path and use my stamina potions). And yet I can blow through an AO zone in oh <5 minutes if I walk away from the keyboard. I am so glad I get faster as I level up in AO because I would got nuts otherwise.

What is next:

With integration (all features where they should be) next we get into optimization. This will consist of cutting out the old engine completely and running only the new. Removing "old" AO will immediately result in a better framerate...but there will be work to do on making it run as smooth as possible..with options in place to work with as many setups as possibe...from the most humble laptop right up to the gnarliest gaming rig available.

plz plz plz, set AO's minimum recommended specs slightly higher than AoC so that in 8 years we don't have peope impeding the 3rd engine redesign because they refuse to overspend more than the bare minimum amount on a pre-built computer as opposed to buying a parts machine with 3x the performance. And more importantly when the scrooges actually part the the cash to upgrad they actually have an enjoyable experience as oppossed to the bare minimum experience to which they are used to?

Work is beginning in earnest shortly in the Beijing office on the new heads. We received the first Atrox head complete back from the office and it was more amazing and detailed than I ever would have imagined..it will be great to have all 358 done over the next few months.

Um...any chance once you get a full gallery of a breed that we will get a preview?

Note:
I am clearly getting this one to the translator horribly late. Rather than negatively focusing on him possibly not being able to get this out tonight let's be grateful for all the other times I have screwed his weekend plans when he put this translation first. It is NOT his job to translate my ramblings at 9pm on Fridays. Thank you Waldgeist. Sorry again. I will be on the German dimension for some time tonight in "The Grind"..maybe I'll see you there.

See you all over the weekend at The Grind

Wait are you saying you don't speak english or you don't speak german? I was lead (by the voices behind me) to believe you spoke all languages standardized in the last century....though one voice is convinced you know Mycenaean Linear B, but we will ignore them for now.

[Phixalicious]

plz plz plz, set AO's minimum recommended specs slightly higher than AoC so that in 8 years we don't have peope impeding the 3rd engine redesign because they refuse to overspend more than the bare minimum amount on a pre-built computer as opposed to buying a parts machine with 3x the performance. And more importantly when the scrooges actually part the the cash to upgrad they actually have an enjoyable experience as oppossed to the bare minimum experience to which they are used to?

Sure, let's lose half the customers currently left playing on the hope there will be more new players with high end comps to make up for them.

Sure glad you don't make FC decisions, game WOULD be dead by now.:P