Friday with Means - May 21st, 2010 - Instability in Greece caused by Macrosun!

[DaviasI]

Low-res textures will still be low-res textures, regardless of the engine displaying them. All it will do is as was seen in the old video (which largely showed things from a distance or moving by quickly), improve the effects so we have better lighting, shadowing and so forth on top of those low-res textures.

I think it was mentioned previously that the other textures were being updated so its no more low-res textures..

[Snikert]

Opi face has a weird uper lip...

for increased agility and evades!



anyways looking forwards to seeing the engine and being able to test it myself
everything looks so smooth =)

BTW, i've come up with one thing no one has asked about. Enforcers when they use challenger they grow huge will this effect be the same like... *POP* HUGE SIZE .buff runs out *POFF* normal size or is there a new suprise effect to it? =)

[Ithnag]

Or maybe as active PvPers just aren't all that plentiful to begin with. On top of that they have already been given more places to PvP so don't bother to go to such places anymore even though in the past they did.

Then if BSs were so popular why are most of them dead and have been dead since launch? Except for two out of nine of them none can expect daily rounds to happen. Then at those two which do have some life they have grown continually more vacant not pulling the numbers they did and having more trouble even getting started. I'd hardly call that the markings of popular content.

cause most dedicated twinks are created with OSB in mind, and basically with the purpose of NW, which at least in RK2 i see going on continuously. Cause most people under 220 are leveling up, so they don't normally stop to PvP at the BS, they are leveling up. Cause the lower the title level the more screwed up you are if you are not twinked in PvP, which puts off newer players, most people don't start PvPing until they get to higher levels, or on their second/third toon. ther's also popular known toon ranges, and many other factors, added to a lower population, which affects both PvP and PvE.

by your rationale PvE also doesn't get much interests from players, as is exponentially harder to get raids and encounters going, for most level ranges, than before.

There is a big PvP community, not the majority by any means, but enough to warrant attention from the devs too.

[Aeliniyah]

Damn those heads look terrible. I sure hope that we'll get the possibility to change our heads for free after those hit live, because from what i've seen so far in this weeks and previous FwM's most of my toons will look absulutely awful afterwards. Unless, there's an option to keep the old low-res head? Especially all the new opifex females we've seen so far have been so far away from the original "feel", that i don't even know what to say about it.

And about the new pvp area... LoL was the first thing that popped up my mind... Most of the BS's are empty, only two of them run sometimes, Notum wars doesn't happen that much... and you're going to add MORE?

Please stop forcing us pvm folks to turn ourselves into cannonfodder. Most of my friends already left AO because of forced pvp (and some bugs thats been around pretty much since the launch)... Afterall pvp'ers have always been and will always be the minority in AO... a very vocal minority that always seems to f"¤#k everyone over by complaining about stuff on the forums (even if they've actually quit the game a long time ago) until everything is nerfed to hell and back.

I'm actually happy that you still develop new stuff for AO, and i've been looking forward the new engine since it was announced the first time. But i really don't have anything positive to say about those new heads. The current AO graphics we're as realistic looking as it was possible when it was released, and the new stuff looks way too cartoonish to my liking. There already is a lot of MMO's out there with cartoon graphics (and many people don't play those games just because of the cartoon graphics). Try to make those more true to the original AO feel, which is NOT cartoonish in any way. And the addition of more PvP stuff when most of the previous doesn't run seems a bit odd. It should be pretty obvious that the vocal minority of AO'ers who populate the forums are the only folks who actually like AO pvp. Because if there was as much pvp'ers in game the BS's would actually run... afterall only 12 people is required to start.

I'd also like to suggest that instead of adding more and more stuff for tl7 peeps, you should add more low/midlevel stuff to make the leveling experience for new folks a bit more varied and to remove the need from new people to grind 220 asap. The feeling that you should be 220 before you can begin to enjoy the game is driving everyone to pocket teams and encourages them to skip most of the game. And that on the other hand just breeds more clueless 220's who don't know about their toolsets and can't bear their weight on raids.

I personally don't like kite and pocket teams since there's nothing more boring than sitting on same place until you're 160 and then move on to inf to afk leech in orgmates inf teams. When i'm leveling my alts i still try to do it in normal teams as much as possible, since for me part of the fun in AO is stopping every few levels to update gear and twink some new symbs and stuff on. The problem with that is that some "veterans" who just want to skip the game before 220, have infected the same attitude to most of the newcomers too. And because of that it's quite impossible to find normal teams anymore... or if you try to build a team from LFT you end up with enfo who doesn't have mongo or any essence nanos, a doc who doesn't even know that init debuffs exist and a lvl 215 soldier with QL50 perennium blaster and medsuit who replies "wtf is that" when you ask for reflects.

Oh well... sorry about the rant... had to vent a bit.

[Aeliniyah]

I have to agree with what Wrangeline and others have said about problems with the new heads.

I'm not usually one to critize work done by other people that I know I would never be able to do at all. But the new heads have gone so far away from the "feel" of the old heads that it's sad. I thought that the idea of the new heads was to take what we had and make it better. The new heads don't do this. They totally change the impression of what I've grown used to as the visual character of the different breeds.

Personally, I'm going to have a hard time adjusting to my opi fixer looking like a vapid, pouty little girl trying to look older than she is instead of the lean, edgy, and maybe even slightly cynical character that she's always looked like to me. And I'm going to find it difficult to look at the trox in my team and get that same feeling that this character is going to be one of our main protectors, willing to sacrifice himself if need be for the benefit of the rest of us.

Perhaps it sounds silly. Obviously the character of the player is more important than the look of the avatar. And I'm sure I'll get used to the new look of the characters. But I just feel that in the quest to make the heads better, something that wasn't broken has been "fixed" in a detrimental way.

QFT! You said it much better and more polite way than i ever could

[Mastablasta]

Yes, worst heads ever. I agree. New engine is waste of time too, noone will be able to run it and it'll just look horrible with old textures.

[Snikert]

And not bright enough to realize this job sucks and only the desperate or not-to-bright would go anywhere near a Notum mine.

you forgetting that the smartest ones, nanomage are notum addicts or something infused with it (don't remember where i read that but somewhere)

[Mastablasta]

Although shouldn't a PvP zone be about the PvP and not some reward? People often complain about four point capping and the like at BSs and the cause of that is bringing in people that came for the reward, not the activity. I've seen people after a four point cap say things like "what's wrong with you people, don't you want to PvP?" Well no, in fact we don't. A PvP zone will work more effectively if those there came to PvP, not just to gather up some reward.

Point is, PVP in AO is about rewards. Killing people without a purpose is just nonsensical. What is the point? The point of BS pvp is to think tactically, and if people are incapable of that and only want deathmatch, then they shouldn't go to BS, should they now?

[Ithnag]

I like the heads, atrox would require some tweaking, in my opinion, and not having them up close and singled out from the world and rest oft he body would also make a difference there, but they are looking rather good.

Edit: however i'd like for them to tweak and improve the NW tower wars, even more than adding new PvP content. Some people don't like tower wars, tho, and a lot of people would like something more of a deathmatch encounter or whatever, over the existing ones, so, they gotta do what they believe it's gonna have a better impact.

[Lusos101]

The heads have one problem. They are fugly as hecks. I dont want to use any of those. They are repulsive. As in opposite of attractive.

New PvP area. Lol.

There are bugs to keel and noobs to feed and all we get is a new PvP area.

[Theft]

With the archaic models we've been content with for years and now it's "The lips are too big" or "It looks too Asian"?!?

After a couple months everyone will be wearing helmets anyway so unless your game time will be comprised of paying FunCom to just stare into the eyes of your avatar I think you guys are taking it a bit too far with the head model critique.

[Mastablasta]

With the archaic models we've been content with for years and now it's "The lips are too big" or "It looks too Asian"?!?

After a couple months everyone will be wearing helmets anyway so unless your game time will be comprised of paying FunCom to just stare into the eyes of your avatar I think you guys are taking it a bit too far with the head model critique.

Exactly

[Ophiuchus]

For all the detail and work put into them, the heads seem to me to be more 'cariacatures' than 'characters' Will all the NM males look wrinkly and old? Will all the Opi females be wall-eyed?

[Mastablasta]

For all the detail and work put into them, the heads seem to me to be more 'cariacatures' than 'characters' Will all the NM males look wrinkly and old? Will all the Opi females be wall-eyed?

Present ones are also caricatures...

[Effrit]

With the archaic models we've been content with for years and now it's "The lips are too big" or "It looks too Asian"?!?

After a couple months everyone will be wearing helmets anyway so unless your game time will be comprised of paying FunCom to just stare into the eyes of your avatar I think you guys are taking it a bit too far with the head model critique.

Majority of the time my characters do not wear helmets, thus i want to know the heads are going to be good quality. People have an attachement to their characters, thus they want them to look good.

[Obtena]

If that trox head makes it ingame like that, I might have to quit. It's way too creepy.

[recklessjr101]

I can't wait until this stuff is live, think I might have to roll a few toons just to check them out in person.

My engi is the black sols with the afro, please god tell me you are keeping that one? :-)

[OfabRk2]

Please redo trox.

[Berinda]

I like the new heads. The atrox looks like he's about to giggle at something involving lowbrow humor, the nanomage looks appropriately reserved, and opi's nose and eyes work well. My only complaint, which seems to be shared by nearly everyone, is the opi's upper lip. My opinion is it isn't too big so much as the shape is not well defined.

Try to make those more true to the original AO feel, which is NOT cartoonish in any way.

Yeah. Things like hellspinner shock cannons, juggernauts, swords the size and shape of airplane wings, gigantic cannons firing notum into the sky, cyborgs, leets and Morgan Lafay don't look cartoony at all.

[Odov]

Heads look great, genius idea to split the missions into chunks.. Open pvp play fields would be awesome, but if you can, I'd put some thought into how you can accomplish this without taking away from the BS population.

Things are looking exciting, funny how I only want to play AO when I can't.