Friday with Means - April 30th, 2010 - About the Future

[mastafroobtest]

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/...-and-too-hard/

Games are too big and too hard. Read the article and see why we can't have nice things.

[Worldofalts]

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/...-and-too-hard/

Games are too big and too hard. Read the article and see why we can't have nice things.

thanks for posting that, was a good read (although it was almost a tl;dr).

Copy & Pasted This From Article:

The nature of the majority, as one developer told me recently, is that their preference is to "just d!@k around" rather than follow the structure. It's not just an occasional thing – in terms of behavior its pretty much pervasive. There's always a minority that plays things the way the studio intended, but as another developer told me, "sometimes, you just want to tell people that they're playing it wrong."The thing is, we're not playing it wrong. What's happening is that studios are starting to look at the way they make games and concede that they're making them wrong. The vast majority of releases, even the most spectacular and successful, adhere to structural conventions that date back 20 years. As an audience we're getting bored of that, if we're honest. Right? Younger gamers demand something more sophisticated, while older gamers don't have the time or energy to play through something built around a punitive system for a bazillion hours.

I'd say ao would be a benchmark for players finding a way of doing things contrary to design, except that the design of ao seems to encourage out of the box thinking. glad to know ao is ahead of the game.

[Keldros]

Question about the patchnotes:

"- Three simultaneous Artillery Commanders now respond to player intrusion in

Ask Gene Ray. I think that gives one artillery Commander for each day in one rotation, minus one day off.

[spookiepants]

i notice on the fallen earth site (www.fallenearth.com) that they now have an officially supported mac client in Beta, which also works in Linux. They are making use of Wine to do this. I don't think it would take much to do something similar for AO, and it would definately gain AO some some positive visibility in the Mac/Linux community

[Notcrattey]

The first thing that should be added is a new start-up experience, the most important thing imo.

[MassDebater]

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/...-and-too-hard/

Games are too big and too hard. Read the article and see why we can't have nice things.

"Conventional gaming wisdom thus far has been "bigger, better, MORE!" It's something affirmed by the vocal minority on forums, and by the vast majority of critics that praise games for ambition and scale. The problem is, in reality its almost completely wrong. The vast majority of gamers don't need more. They don't have the time or the inclination to invest enormous amounts of time and effort with a game. "


The perfect argument to reinstate collector droprates imo.

[Gunfytr]

Any chance that the Company will make a statement about the exploiters being "handled"? As obvious and public as this problem is/was, a public statement to reassure the customers would be a smart thing. NOT saying anything would set a dangerous precedent in regards to future/current exploits. If theres no detriment to using 'sploits, then why not?

[Fifthmark]

Some things that I've pondered over and would enjoy, or at least be amused by, in Anarchy Online
In addition to the current selection of yalms, wraiths, boards, and bikes, I would be entertained by class-specific vehicles. Mostly, I just want something white with red crosses and a flashing light for my doc.

Most class specific content would be fairly nifty. Fixers get their grid quest already, as well as probably a few other classes. I'd like a quest to go off and...well...be a doctor. Keeping an NPC team alive while they conduct some kind of assault or defensive action.

While I have enjoyed everything I've encountered since I've reached Pande/Xan/APF, I think more instances of the storyline with scripted events on the way and a boss at the end would be fun.

I don't now how many people out there would actually back me up on this one, but I'm also a big fan of things that are utterly useless but completely fun and an occasional change of pace. Maybe neutrals NPCs can capture an Alien ship and charge everyone a reasonable fee to go skydiving or something.

Lastly, one that may have even been addressed with one of the new daily mission varieties. As a player that really...really...doesn't enjoy Battlestations (nothing wrong with it, just not at all my thing), I'd appreciate other ways of acquiring Victory Points. Mothership missions are possible, but take forever to get any amount of Victory Points, especially if multiple people in the team want them. Maybe even something along the lines of the PVP token quests on RK. Just something similar with VP as a reward would be just swell.

Well, thanks for reading.

[Aeliniyah]

Some things that I've pondered over and would enjoy, or at least be amused by, in Anarchy Online
In addition to the current selection of yalms, wraiths, boards, and bikes, I would be entertained by class-specific vehicles. Mostly, I just want something white with red crosses and a flashing light for my doc.

Hmm... Here's your red cross and this should be enough of a red light, no?

Well not a vehicle really but already a red cross to make targetting a doc easier and a huge red light to make sure everyone knows who to attack first.

On topic: yeah, more profession based content please!

The first thing to fix should be the newbie experience and first half of the game though!

[Datch]

New start up - good - maybe add a dungeon to it - that would be cool and get ppl use to zoning.
SK to cash after 220 and all research is complete - that would be cool.
a New zone or 2 to explore - but put things in it everyone needs so ppl go there.

hmm have a few more ideas but will post them later

[bitnykk]

suggestions all over the topic :

- startup experience : on the model of SL playground, noob island need some revisitation. also on explaining players howto play (video tutorial, or at least voice & interactive 3D). the whole stuff should be funny & attractive (graphic + content) as the recent content of the game is ...

- new BS/PVP map(s) : why not but start already with a simple recycle of "Will To Fight" wich could be a great place to fight in, totally abandonned and never intendly used by FC. now with BS system applied that would become possible, isn't it ?

- rebalance PVP : i hope discutions we had on forums will be taken in account on different subjects like trader drain at low level, enfo NR/AAO low title, notum repulsor senseless values, high level unbalance like adventurers coon/evade/CH/snaroot-resist, NT double/triple "1 button kill", etc ...

- PVM/XP : with daily mish on live & SL content added soon, i think some quests now need fix & XP/SK bump (e.g. Scheol's both). with those alternatives available please kill HL OST by making hecklers afraid of higher players (mongo CH nuke or any). so people stop PLing in medsuit ignoring most of the content while heckling will still be possible for intended level team.


thanx and gratz for this nice patch !

[Krause]

Id really like to see the missing RK zones added in. Years ago one of the Devs said they were fully mapped but missing buildings/NPC's so their pretty much empty. Back during the Mission entrance bugs and Team Beacon Warp bugs people have even been accidentally warped into them before.

Add them in! Its an entire expansion pack worth of additional maps, we can have more outdoor spawn bosses! Add enough at once and there wont be much of a bottleneck on them.

One of the zones is supposed to have a third Omni City, it could be abandoned and be some kind of PvP enabled lawless city with black market shops, that would be so awesome.

[froobvet]

What just about everyone so far said, startup experience and some changes to fix leveling.
DMs are step in right direction, fixing outside tanking would be aswell (just slap self +% exp nano into vet booth called deja vu so roling XYth alt is less pain for vets :P) and some work on lowbie dungeons would be nice. SoM was nice try but it should really need a lvl lock as right now everyone just drags high alt with them.

[PhoenixOfAges]

Unfortunately, I doubt FC currently has the manpower to process the results of such a poll.

But they have the man power to sift through all the posts put up on the forums? They claim to do that.

A poll can in part or in whole be select option A, B, C, etc types and may offer a limited space to enter your thoughts. Going through the posts of what people say they want in however long the posts may be and understanding it takes a good bit of time too plus it's harder to sort out. At this point they can't really afford to go left with things, they need to make sure they're going forward. If it takes some time to figure out what direction that is then they need to take that time.

[Dredd]

Many good ideas already- noob island experience- revamping old dungeons and items as was done in Foremans and SoM. I vote for Cyborg Barracks for a possible upgrade. Even a simple revamping of the weapons and items would be good. There seem to be a lot of level locked items and weapons that are worthless to anyone high enough to use them, and this dungeon has its share of those (Hellspinner/Hellfury etc..) Speaking of Froob Soldier Assault Rifles, there seems to be a shortage of good ones of those . Someone else made this suggestion once so I can’t take credit for it but it made sense to me: Add an Assault Rifle to the CoH weapons- make it just like the Blackbird but add Full Auto- make it Soldier only, or maybe Soldier/Doc since all the rest have dual professions.

In general, I think AO could use some help in general instructions and guidance for people. I know we can look to OOC chat, forums and third party sites for help but it can be hard to know what to do- even when you know what you want to do. When I upgraded to Alien Invasion way back, the first thing I wanted to do was take my lvl 130ish MP to go find the alien playfields. Took me quite a while of wandering around the Unicorn Outpost and reading forums to figure out that I wasn’t high enough to do any of that. When I wanted to get into an Instanced City a few months ago, it took quite a while to figure out how to go about doing that exactly- and even longer talking and asking in chat and forums to figure out how to find out the command to add money to the org bank and find out how much was in there. The community is good and generally helpful, but even “search” on the forums fails sometimes. Try searching for “instanced city” or “purchase instanced city” or “how to build instanced city”- (with or without the quotes) and eventually you might find a small thread with one helpful reply and a link to AO-Universe .

I don’t know if it’s a deliberate design decision- to encourage players to get ideas from other players, but I get the impression that players sometimes don’t know what to do. I remember when I was playing my first toon/toons back about 5-6 years ago. All I really knew was team missions on RK, probably around lvl 35ish, until someone mentioned The Temple of Three Winds. I had no idea how to get there or what it was, but eventually found my way there. I think it would be good to have some way for players to find out what they can “do” at a given level. Some players will gravitate to online guides which are great, but some may not and with the smaller number of players, there are less people to make the suggestions- like “Dude- have you been to the temple?”. It would be good to have more in-game suggestion boxes or something- to help people understand their options.

The old backyards had lots of floating question marks that told you how to do things and I thought those were great. It’s not too obtrusive and were very helpful. Something like that could be used in the cities even- or maybe use the billboards to advertise dungeons and playfields. The more I think about that, I think that might help people know what they have in store for their future at higher levels. Give them a taste of what they can do as they get higher- might motivate people to see various things and explore places they might not have any clue exist.

“Have you been to the Temple of Three Winds? Are you level 20 to 30+ and looking for uber-leet-loot? Infiltrate the Cult of Three winds- Challenge Aztur the Immortal! Ask for directions today!” Insert picture of Aztur on billboard (with someone training cultists in background... ) (Have nearby floating question mark or NPC guide for more help with finding these places etc..- or direct them to OOC chat and hope they catch people in a helpful mood )

“There’s No Place Like Home! - The Crypt of Home that is... Are you looking for a challenge at level 80-130ish? Visit the Crypt and open the magic chest! if you can...” Insert picture of Cerubin or maybe Bane or something lower if you don’t want to put spoilers on the billboards.

Smuggler’s Den is a very cool dungeon but a major pain to get to for anyone without a Yalm or an Engineer friend. Almost always empty when I go there. Maybe add an NPC and a teleport thingy like Rome Green has for a quick warp to the Temple.

Anyway, that’s all I got- add more direction for people to know what their options are- at all levels. Great game- great patch. Delighted that this game is still getting so much development. Appreciate all the work!

P.S. 80% might be a bit high for Clumps to be used on OFAB armor. I just spent last weekend running team LE missions for VPs for a pair of QL100 sleeves for my lvl 60 Enforcer. After a mind-numbing amount of missions and 2000+ AI kills I had enough VP for my sleeves and also got 5 type 295 clumps. They worked on the sleeves of course, pre-patch, but now, none of them were higher than QL70-75ish and wouldn't work on those sleeves. I realize that I could have pulled medium or hard AI missions but it would still be a drag if you do missions and wouldn't even be able to use the clumps that drop from the boss- even if they drop your type... I know, I don't have to use QL100 Sleeves , but QL75 armor is a bit low for a lvl 60- especially if it's a leveling toon, who would soon be using armor lower than his level. I'd suggest you drop the requirement to 65-70% so that toons would have a decent chance of being able to use the clumps that drop from bosses that they can kill..

[Dragam]

(just slap self +% exp nano into vet booth called deja vu so roling XYth alt is less pain for vets :P)

HUGE bump ^^