2010 Events-Player meeting.

[Pheats]

I know some of you have been waiting patiently for this and its finally time to announce it.

This years events-player meeting will take place on July 25th at 19:00 GMT. This is for all servers.

This meeting is so you the players can come question the Events team (and special guest Kintaii) about Events related things, be it "why did we shoot you that one time" to "whats this part of the storyline actually mean". Its also so that we events team can ask players questions to get a better understanding of what you expect from us and how we can improve on what we do.

As always this meeting will be OOC, however we are doing something new this year, the meeting will be held on the Funcom IRC server and both dimensions will be at the same meeting, rather than separate meetings.

The chat will be moderated by an Events Team member, all questions should be submitted to that member in IRC, it will then be answered by the team. The player submitting the question will be able to speak with and respond to the team while their question is open.

We will not be able to support in-game chat relay for this meeting, however if you wish to set up your own game relay bots you are welcome to do so, though only people in IRC will be able to submit questions.

As stated this will be on the Funcom IRC server ( irc.funcom.com ) and will be in channel #AO-Events

As such this meeting does require an IRC client. For windows users we recommend mIRC. For mac users we recommend Ircle. And for Linux users... well you lot should know how to do this already.

For further info on joining Funcom's IRC server please view the AO IRC page; this should tell you how to connect to and set up your user name on the server.

[FoosballX]

Hmmm I really wish this would have been posted a week earlier. :/

[Effrit]

Its somewhat simpleton proof, i mean i managed to get irc and get into a channel with names i recognise.

[trousers]

For those unable to, or unwilling to, join the IRC discussion the Rimor chat channel 'AARP' will be relaying the meeting into Anarchy-Online.

Communication will be one way only. IRC -> AO.

If you'd like to listen in and participate in the private discussion feel free to !join.

[Maleachi]

Just a small reminder that this meeting will be today.

[Dagget]

Beh, I'll be travelling at that time and unable to join in.

Hopefully, someone will post a nice transcript here.

[trousers]

Since the overwhelming opinion on Rimor seems to be that mIRC is the suck, here are some simple directions on how to use a better program; Pidgin.

Step 1) Download Pidgin.

Step 2) After the Installation you will be prompted to add a New Account, Click the Add button.


Step3) Select the IRC Protocol. Input the server (irc.funcom.com) and your AO Username. Leave Password and Alias Blank.


Step 4) Confirm the settings and click Close.


Step 5) You will receive a popup window from irc.funcom.com saying OHAI! Tell it /join #AO-Events


Step 6) Join the meeting.


---------

NOTE: If you receive: Disconnected. ERROR :Closing Link: Mack by irc.funcom.com (USER: Bad username)

Go to to Step 3. Click Advanced Tab. Set the 'Username' field to be identical to the username field on the Basic tab.

[trousers]

Kintaii^: Hello!
Kintaii^: It is now 19:00 GMT and that means it's meetin' time!
Kintaii^: First off, let me thank everyone for showing up today - We've got a good turn-out here and it's great to see most of the names I was expecting and quite a few that I haven't seen before. =)
Kintaii^: This is our first time running one of these meetings via IRC and, for those of you who've done this before it'll work very closely to times past.
Kintaii^: There are a few changes from how we ran the meetings in-game, though, so please pay attention. =)
Kintaii^: This meeting will be run under an open channel, with moderation rules. This means that though the channel will be open for conversation, we ask that you do not speak unless you have been given the floor.
Kintaii^: As a note: I will not hesitate to kickban anyone actin' a fool. You have been officially warned. :P
Kintaii^: The meeting will run in two parts: First, where we take your questions and comments and answer them to the best of our ability
Kintaii^: Then, after this, we will ask questions of you and take your feedback.
Kintaii^: (thank you SG)
Kintaii^: During the first segment: If you have a question for the Events team, please send a private message to Maleachi: You may do this on mIRC by either typing "/query Maleachi your message here" (without the quotes) or by right-clicking his nickname in the IRC nick list and selecting "query"
Kintaii^: You may also you "/msg Maleachi your message here" with your question.
Kintaii^: Questions must be submitted to Maleachi.
Kintaii^: We will take your questions and answer them in the order they are received. When we are responding to your question, you have free reign to speak however you wish and respond.
Kintaii^: If we are answering someone else's question, and you feel you would like to comment on it, please do the following:
Kintaii^: !
Kintaii^: We will note that you have a comment, and allow you to speak.
Kintaii^: When your question has been answered, we will move on to the next question and ask that you remain silent once again.
Kintaii^: Again: Please do not speak unless called upon. This ensures that the meeting will flow in an orderly fashion.
Kintaii^: You may begin submitting your questions to Maleachi now.
Kintaii^: Now, before we get started, we'll do a quick round of introductions.
Kintaii^: My name is Brad L. McAtee, AKA Kintaii (dur) and I am a senior content designer on Anarchy Online. I am in charge of many things, but most importantly to this meeting I am the storyline lead for the team, as well as head writer on staff.
Kintaii^: Pheats?
Pheats: Erk, ok Im Pheats, Director of ARK events, I lead the team that runs the events and try to keep things running as best as possible
Maleachi: Okay, seems that it's my turn in the barrel now. Well, I am Maleachi, I'm the Training Coordinator in the Events Team and my main job is to train new Eventeers and ARKlings who want to participate in our events. Other than that I help out where it is needed.
Rainys: Erk...well my turn..Im Rainys, Guardian in Events, I just help out where it needed for the moment aaand run around having fun with events and so on. and just....Yeah thats about it..
Zeenab: Greetings there everyone! Yes, as you might have guessed, it comes with the "Z" I am the last in team, Advisor. Lowest in rank in team and I pretty much participate in LTCs/train lower ranks somtimes in RPing/Do an event/etc.... All rounder you would say, yes. That is it.
Kintaii^: (zee is awesome do not think otherwise)
Kintaii^: Now, we've already gotten a lot of questions so we'll begin opening the floor here in just a second
Kintaii^: Before we begin though, based on the questions received I feel I should state this:
Kintaii^: This is an *EVENTS*/Player meeting, not really a Developer/Player meeting. The only questions we'll be answering today are about the storyline and roleplaying scene of Anarchy Online - Not anything about the rebalancing, the graphics engine, the rebalancing, etc. etc.
Kintaii^: 'cause I ain't cleared to talk about stuff you guys haven't heard already anyway. ;P
Kintaii^: ... and hey, I said rebalancing twice, awesome.

[trousers]

Kintaii^: Change that to 'instances' or something whatever.
Kintaii^: ANYHOO!
Kintaii^: Let's get this party started.
Kintaii^: Pheats, our first question please.
Pheats: Just want to point out this isnt the ENTIRE events team, we do have others that couldn't attend today
Kintaii^: Aye, this isn't all of us. ;P
MstrBstrd: :>
Kintaii^: (oh yeah and mstrbstrd is our official gimp)
MstrBstrd: pfh. just Mstr. of most things.
Pheats: Ok first question is from Windguaerd: Is there a set amount of events per server that the Events Team prepare ahead of time for each month?
Pheats: Other than the monthly meetings the short answer is no
Kintaii^: The Events team has always been pretty free-wheeling when it comes to that sort of thing. Usually we prepare storylines and then dole out events as the storyline requires.
Kintaii^: So its not like people sit down and say "Ok, we're going to have fifteen total events this month - this is exactly what needs to happen".
Pheats: because of the voluntary nature of events work its inplausible to set up a schedule for events, instead its down to when we can find time to do things and get people to help
Kintaii^: More like "This is the overview, here's what we wanna accomplish - Do what you need to get done."
Masuraki: !
Kintaii^: Yes, Masuraki?
Pheats: Go ahead Masuraki
Masuraki: so that acctuly affects when events are taken place timewise ?
Masuraki: meaning you cant anounce a few days in advance or so when an event is gona take place
Pheats: Very much, unfortunately we don't have (that many) people who are up to staying up untill mid morning to run events, its unfortunate but such is the way with timezones
Windguaerd: !
Maleachi: Announcing events is a problem in most cases, because in most cases the dealings and stories cannot be announced without breaking character.
Namiru: !
enilias: !
Rhus: !
Masuraki: -!
Pheats: Thats not to say we can't set up events before hand, but we generally wont be able to set up a full months worth up at once (as who knows whats going to happen in life in weeks times)
Maleachi: A bank robber for example will not announce his task. I know that this makes events a hit or miss thing in many cases, but I think doing it otherwise would take away too much from it.
Saetos: !
Kintaii^: That said, there *are* certain types of events which don't preclude some form of announcement - This is one of the reasons we've created the forums LTC accounts, and are also looking into other ways of announcing certain types of events.
Saetos: disregard
Kintaii^: But in the majority of cases, no - It's hideously character-breaking to announce a lot of the events that we do, and I don't wanna see us break that barrier.
[2010-07-25 19:25:45] [TELL] [OUT] -> aarp: pgrelay This Channel is Currently Connected to the FunCom IRC Server's #AO-Events channel to relay in a Special Event. You can only hear the event in this channel. To participate click <a href='chatcmd:///start http://tinyurl.com/3a7qmux'>here[/link].
Kintaii^: Anything else, Masuraki?
Ariensky: !
Masuraki: i think i got my answerd questions but i still find there are other ways to anounce events whit out braking charecter, like having rumors spread around or something
Ciyanid: !
Denali: !
Kintaii^: This works for things that are more major storylines, yes, and we've done that sort of thing before.
Kintaii^: But like Maleachi said, a lot of our events are just one-off "dude's robbing a bank" stuff, and that's much harder to plan/advertise for.
Pheats: even as rumours, it generally takes more work to spread such a rumour than it would to do the event
Kintaii^: Yep. &gt;&lt;

[trousers]

Pheats: I think we'll move onto Windguaerd's comment now
Windguaerd: Diamondcut did it in the old days, we spread the word about events he told a few of us.
Windguaerd: And then, everyone had fun.
Kintaii^: Yes, but again, that's a larger-scale storyline.
Windguaerd: End of comment.
Kintaii^: We've done that for things since then - I know because I've done it myself for events I was involved with. ;P
Kintaii^: Like I said, it's easy to do it for something that's part of a "big plan". But when it's a simple one-off event (like the aforementioned bank robbery) then it's usually something that's run more 'spur of the moment' and doesn't have any pre-existing storyline in-game to back it up with.
Pheats: I also have to point out it HAS been tried for smaller stuff, and failed spectacularly as no one seemed to want to give information to others, even when asked specifically to do so
Kintaii^: Anything else on that comment, Windguaerd?
Windguaerd: Not regarding this question. Thank you.
Kintaii^: Cool.
Pheats: Ok then Namiru, your floor.
Namiru: I'd just like to note that no forewarning really hamstrings the people that want to be involved in RP Events. Rubi-ka is a big place, even when you exclude the Shadowlands and the Wilderzones. Finding an event (even if you know it's going on at that time) is "needle and a haystack" searching. You factor in that you don't know WHEN it's happening, and most people will (and have) give up trying.
Kintaii^: ( We're closing comments for this question, just for the record - Don't wanna spend all day on the one topic. )
Pheats: Well I want to point out we dont expect people to wander the wilderness to hope to find events there, we know the way the population is spread so even if the event IS in the middle of no where, it will be announced in the major cities in some fashion
Maleachi: We are aware of that and we try to announce events when and where we can. Just one comment about them: The events are not meant to be the be all and end all of RP on the servers, they are meant as a hookup point to get you involved and to give you chances to start your own stories and events.
Kintaii^: Again, that's one of the reasons why we've started the forum LTC accounts and are looking at other options for announcing events - I mean, I agree with you completely, but there's also a fine line in how far we can actually *go*. Part of the impetus *has* to lie on the player to try and get involved, by doing things like meeting LTCs at the OTAM/CoT and such. There are ways to start getting involved that don't rely on stumbling across
Kintaii^: n stumbling across a random event somewhere. =)
Kintaii^: Anything else on that comment, Namiru?
Namiru: No, that was it.
Kintaii^: enilias, your comment please?
enilias: How about the news channel to get people to gather? Omni-Tek might ask for volunteers to assist in a sensitive case they're not ready to divulge details on yet, for example.
Pheats: I assume you mean the newswire broadcasts/
enilias: yep
Rainys: It has been done several times, but i would personaly say its always depending on the event.
Pheats: We do infact use that as much as we can to announce events (when its working...)
Kintaii^: We're looking at increasing some of the functionality of the newswire as well. I don't want to say exactly *what* yet as it's all still in the formative stages, but it *is* a good resource to find out about events-related stuff even now.
Pheats: It has worked quite well but at the same time not everyone always takes notice of them.
Pheats: having it enabled in your chat with a noticeable text colour may help with it.
Maleachi: Same goes for the zone wide broadcasts we've done.
Kintaii^: Anything else on your comment, enilias?
enilias: no that was all, thank you
Kintaii^: Rhus, you're up.
Rhus: Are there any ideal times to be on the lookout for Events then? Like x and y hours GMT type of thing?
Kintaii^: We're a pretty multi-national group, so not really no. We're all over the place, so we're in a lot of different time zones.
Rhus: k, thanks
Kintaii^: Looks like... Ariensky's up next.

[trousers]

Ariensky: Dear Brad, I understand why you don't want to break the barier on announcing events ahead, but some times you must take the real world into consideration, that most people/players have not seen an event.. Announcing an event on the forum once in a while.. 1 a month? might introduce some new people
Ariensky: As you mention, speading rumors take more work than the event..
Ariensky: ..and only people knowing someone that has heard the rumor will get it.
Ariensky: New players are stranded in AO, if they want to RP.
Ariensky: one event a month announced on the forum would not hurt I think.
Ariensky: -Over-
Kintaii^: Well, that's the thing - There *are* announced events in that sense. There's the OTAM/CoT meetings every month that people know about and can attend. They're great ways of not only meeting LTC/Legacy characters but also a good way to *network* with other RPers. And those we do announce every month.
Kintaii^: Something *outside* of that...? Maybe not a bad idea, but it'd have to be something we'd have to put a lot of thought into within the team on exactly how to go about it.
Tucxedo: !
Brazen: !
Pheats: (would point out comments are closed until next question, sorry)
Ariensky: Yes BoD are open, but boreing as hell as your first RP event. Thank you for taking it into consideration, -over and out-
Maleachi: On a sidenote: There's a character limit in IRC, so if you've tried to send me a whole story in one go it might not have gone through. Try to split it up.
Kintaii^: Let's see... Ciyanid, go ahead. =)
Kintaii^: Ciyanid, you still with us? ;P
Kintaii^: Alright, we'll move along - As a note!! If you have posted a ! for commenting, *please* go ahead and have your comment typed up and ready when we call on you
Kintaii^: Makes things a lot quicker. XD
Kintaii^: Denali, you had a comment?
Agrestus: (psst, trying to get her awake again, she went away on another chat thingy, sorry)
Denali: What about using the existing in-game IRRK newswire, or something similar to spread word of events? I've seen that done a few times already, and thought it was great
Kintaii^: (if they come back, they can comment after denali)
Kintaii^: Well, as we said earlier we've used the IRRK newswire in that capacity before, and we *are* currently looking to expand some of its functionality a bit.
Pheats: Err wasn't that what enilias just asked?
Denali: Alright, thanks
Kintaii^: But yeah, that's more or less what enilias just asked so we've already given a response to that particular question. XD
Kintaii^: Ciyanid, you got 30 seconds to come back before we head on to the next question. =)
Denali: Thought i scrolled back up to check it hadn't been answered before hitting send, but meh &gt;&lt;
Ciyanid: Sorry! O_O
Kintaii^: XD
Windguaerd: 30 seconds of mayhem!
Kintaii^: Welcome back!
Kintaii^: Your comment, please. =)
Ciyanid: I actually got answer to my "question" already.
Kintaii^: *nodnods*
Ciyanid: So nothing from me, continue^^
Pheats: Ok then, onto the second question! (after 50 minutes)
Pheats: From Namiru: When are you planning to continue/resume overall AO storylines, such as the OT Occupation of Borealis and the Clan takeover of 4 Holes?
Kintaii^: Ok
Kintaii^: Lemme take a second here
Kintaii^: First off, to directly answer your question: We are planning to continue that storyline Soon (tm)
Kintaii^: Now there's a reason there's a (tm) there
Kintaii^: There's a big old document that the Events guys wrote up under my direction outlining a plan for the next several months of AO
Kintaii^: It's a good document
Kintaii^: Hell of a plan
Kintaii^: It was my job to then take that document and break it down into manageable tasks and create a complete "overview" of how we're going to go about doing what we wanna do
Kintaii^: I took this document with me on vacation a couple of weeks ago, while Macrosun, Genele, MstrBstrd, Iriche and myself were sailing.

[trousers]

Kintaii^: I got work done, it was great.
Kintaii^: Then, on the last day of the trip, I left a window open in my berth.
Kintaii^: It rained.
Kintaii^: My laptop was directly underneath said window.
Kintaii^: ... you can see where this is going.
lasliana: !
Windguaerd: !
Kintaii^: So it's more or less the digital equivilant of "the dog ate my homework" :P
Windguaerd: remove my !
lasliana: (remove mine too, you said what i thougt)
Windguaerd: !
Kintaii^: We DO have a plan, we *do* have a place we're going. And we're very close to getting there.
Ariensky: !
Kintaii^: I just need to find a little time to rewrite the document. :P
Kintaii^: Initial movement has already begun, however, and the bigger changes should start happening within the next month or two.
Pheats: Though we have started sneaking tiny bits of it out already, while waiting for kintaii
Kintaii^: Yep. It's already started - You guys just don't have enough information yet to recognize it. =)
Kintaii^: Windguaerd, your comment?
Windguaerd: In this age, not having a backup, specially from a dev, hard to believe, no offense Kintaii. I got backups of important docs on free online space, on a flash drive, another puter with a pw...
Kintaii^: I'm not That Nerd (tm)
Kintaii^: Sorry dude
Kintaii^: 'sides, I was on a boat. :P
Windguaerd: Damn, i keel you.
Windguaerd: But the original document was done in Norway, no?
Pheats: the keel goes in the water!
Kintaii^: If I'd been at work, yeah - It would have been on one of the internal drives which gets backed up.
Kintaii^: Oh, yeah, the original document's still around
Kintaii^: Just not the *plotting* created from that document
Pheats: the original document was done in my bedroom actually...
Kintaii^: So it's not hard for me to redo the work, I just need some time.
Windguaerd: Ah then the original doc is safe... copy it! FLASH DRIVE! ask a nerd from the dev team pls pls pls!
Kintaii^: It's on an internal wiki site - It ain't goin' nowhere. X
Kintaii^: XD
Maleachi: Hopefully.
Windguaerd: End of comment. Again, I keel Kintaai.
Kintaii^: Yes, hopefully. &gt;&lt;
Kintaii^: Fingers crossed, knocking on wood, etc. etc.
Pheats: Ok Ariensky your up
Ariensky: it costs 2.000$ to get it restored at a professional lab, they CAN fix it..
Ariensky: They can get data out of harddisks from a fire, water is usually nothing.
Namiru: Okay, becuase us old skool Neutrals have been spitting blood now for YEARS about it. It's really seemed lie you were spinning your wheels and not going anywhere. The neutral communiy has lost some of it's key RPers who got bored while waiting for things to continue. Many were pissed at that storyline in the first place because it disrupted RP events already in place (i.e. The borealis elections on RK1)
Ariensky: Good to know if you have months of work "lost".
Ariensky: -Over-
Pheats: what was lost wasn't months of work, it was just the work kintaii did on his week off.
Tucxedo: !
Kintaii^: Yeah, this was my personal laptop, not a company machine
Kintaii^: It's not, like, months of work - I could probably bang it all out again in a day or two
Kintaii^: It's just finding that "day or two" to do it. There's a *reason* I did this while I was on vacation. :P
Kintaii^: Anyhoo, Tucxedo, your comment?
Tucxedo: can we move on?

[trousers]

Pheats: well we would have if after that last comment if there hadn't been another comment
Kintaii^: Pretty much. Way to defeat your own purpose, guy. =D
Pheats: Ok next question is from Saetos: What can we expect from future PVM events? Can we expect monsters to drop their damage shields, for instance? Charm effects to be more controlled?
Pheats: My first comment is, what do you mean by charm effects?
Saetos: By charm effects, the 12-man style of charms. Oftentimes a mob will enable players to attack other players regardless of level or PVP flag (or lack of).
enilias: !
Kintaii^: We have actually used that, in our Halloween events last year. But it's something that we keep a really, really tight reign on.
Pheats: Well the Events characters should no longer do that (unintentionally anyway, we may do it intentionally now and then)
Pheats: oh wait you meant the confuse effect
enilias: -!
Saetos: Yea.
Kintaii^: (for the record, its referred to internally as 'mind control')
Saetos: If I know what's going on and I know peopel are being charmed I have no issue with it, I'll stay away. But if I'm getting buffs and just running into a city and bam, I'm being attacked on my level 130 MA by a 190 keeper with a frikkin Blade of Khione, then lose 3-5 mil XP, then yea
Pheats: well there is a limit to what we can do with that with out current system of using it, we can only control who it gets applied to, not who the character then decides to attack
Saetos: That's cool.
Pheats: that said, we rarely use it
Pheats: I mean VERY rarely
Pheats: a couple times a year rarely.
Kintaii^: It's one of those things where they more or less need direct approval from me before they can use it. We keep stuff like that on a fairly tight leash, particularly while it's 'new'.
Pheats: mainly because it is so potentially fun destroying if used incorrectly
Pheats: As for the rest of the question by PVM I assume you mean the ARK characters not the regular NPC's?
Saetos: Hmm. I'm not quite sure if that's what we both mean
Pheats: Generally we have very little control NPC wise, its a case of dropping them in and letting them do what they do
Saetos: If there's a monster that's designated as the event mob and people are supposed to kill it dead, recently I've seen it have this gigantic reflect/damage shield.
Saetos: As in if you're not 210-220 and teamed and well-geared, you'll get hurt badly
Pheats: specially if its dropping into the middle of an event where regular npc's have a life expectancy less than a microsecond
Saetos: Well, I don't mind the reflect shield
Pheats: As for the actual events characters, well there are lots of things to take into account
Saetos: What I don't really care for is the damage that comes *from* that that just utterly rips apart anyone that's TL1-TL5
Pheats: First of all each eventer will tend to run the event their own way, I personally like to start off strong and adjust things as it goes on, I know some have prefered to start weaker and just roll with it.
Zeenab: Do remember events are made for several people, not one or two or three. Yes, the shield is huge, but it balances with the current audience - at least we try to.
Saetos: I had a 206 shade that was rather badly equipped (I'll admit) so her total HP score was aroud 7.5k. Every six swings I'd have to stop for about 2 minutes to heal up
Maleachi: Sadly, that's game mechanics, we try to balance it out so that the STs and NPCs pose a threat to all level ranges, sadly we are limited there and thus yes the low levels tend to get slaughtered, we try our best and usually we go for the high levels first
Pheats: secondly, yeah in a lot of these events the characters have to fight more people then anything else in the game, hence why they often drastically reduce damage incomming, to even it out a bit (and give lower levels a chance to contribute)
Saetos: No no, I don't mind the damage reduction against the NPC, I perfectly understand that.
Saetos: It's being hit for 800 points of damage every time you swing for like... 170
Pheats: The reflects, when they do have damage will scale with level, if its returning 1k damage to a 220 its unlikely that a level 10 is going to be getting 1k damage returned, simply because they can't do that much to it in the first place
Saetos: The damage shield's a good idea, but it hits way, way too hard as it is

[trousers]

Pheats: as the damage returned is directly linked to the damage dealt to the mob
Saetos: That's all, really
Zeenab: If we take off the damage shield or reduce it to say... 100 or so. Then it won't be an actual threat. Would you have fun when bunching a sandbag or when you actually face a threat?
Pheats: so if your only capable of hitting 400 damage hits, your not suddenly going to be getting 1k back
Saetos: But if a 206 shade with 7.5k HP (and they can't get a lot more) swings for 1300, they're going to be murdered
Pheats: indeed, and as I said things will be adjusted if we see issues in most cases, though that said its hard enough killing any of you as it is
Saetos: Heh, I guess it is
Denali: !
Saetos: All I'm gonna say after that is look at Ian Warr
Pheats: when you have 6 level 220 docs in an event its pretty hard to get anyones health down
Saetos: weak version of a perfect raid boss
Saetos: I r done
Pheats: Ok Denali?
Pheats: We'll move onto the next question after denali's comment
Denali: Just throwing some ideas out: what about intead of a reflect that hits back for way more than you hit the mob, give the mob the ability to heal up every now and then? that would let people do damage to it but it won't die within 10 seconds, and the fight can drag on until everyone's had a chance to feel like they've done some fighting
Denali: ./end
Pheats: I would just point out that the shield will NEVER hit for more than you put in
Pheats: at best it will do 99% of the damage you put in
Saetos: !
Pheats: of course then your damage is subject to reductions after that, but the base damage is used to calculate how much you get back
Saetos: -! disregard
Pheats: as for healing, sometimes we do intend to heal but then the mobs take so much damage they die before we get it off, or we have to heal a huge amount that makes it look like everything done untill that point was pointless
Pheats: but its always an experiment to find out what works during which event, the players arriving can have a huge factor, specially if we planned for defenses to go down depending on certain actions.
Pheats: Now onto the next question
Denali: Yeah, i can understand that. Fair enough
Pheats: Pinkeltje asks: How, if at all, can players or player driven events have an effect on the overall storyline? And if there is an effect, is it bound to the server it took place or will it propagate to the other server(s) as well?
Kintaii^: It depends on the event, at least on FC's end. I mean, this is one of those things where we *do* sorta have to say "It's our world, you're playing in it". No matter how awesome the player event is, we won't let someone up and, say, kill Silverstone. There are limitations to this sort of thing.
Saetos: !
Kintaii^: But there have been cases where something that a player group has done that has snuck into the storyline proper - The cyborg tokenboards are a great example, as that was something that the R.U.R guys were behind back in the day.
Pinkeltje: !
Namiru: !
Kintaii^: I tend to keep track of what you guys are up to as much as I can - This *is* one of the reasons that I want to try and encourage people to 'decentralize' from the game and start using resources like our official forums more often, though, in that it makes us easier to keep track of what *you* guys are up to
Kintaii^: Otherwise we'd have to have a spy character perma-logged in the org channel of every RPing group out there, and sorry to say but that ain't happening. ;P
Pheats: Its also why I keep trying to get you all to mail stuff in, its hard to keep track if you dont tell us.
Kintaii^: The more that we're *aware* of what you're up to, the more we can work around and with it.
Kintaii^: So yeah, again, part of the impetus is on you guys too - If you want us to be aware of what you're up to, then you need to come to us and tell us.
Kintaii^: Make sure we stay informed. That's *your* job.
Kintaii^: Saetos, you're up first.

[trousers]

Saetos: Well, you can still have something like that, once the RP-flag on accounts gets working again - you could have, for example, Agents and Shades that're willing to be part of an event be able to assassinate certain characters, like drug lords or something. Make it like a PVM (or even PVP) encounter, where they have to kill a central NPC and not get noticed by or dodge his lackeys. Never would have to be Silverstone, that is pretty outlandi
Kintaii^: You got cut off at "that is pretty outlandi"
Pinkeltje: disregard my !
Saetos: there was nothing after outlandish
Kintaii^: Aye, but at that point that's not really "official storyline".
Kintaii^: I kinda look at it like this:
Kintaii^: There are two layers to storyline in AO
Pheats: Such events have happened before Saetos, its just hard to get them running in a fashion that makes them feel its important (as it generally wont be)
Kintaii^: There's "Official Storyline (tm)" and then there's "storyline"
Saetos: Well if it has to be Silverstone to drive the plot forward, it can be
Kintaii^: "Official Storyline (tm)" is the high-level stuff. It's getting a new CEO for Omni-Tek. It's killing off Silverstone. It's Borealis burning to the ground. That sort of thing
Saetos: Just saying, player interaction, something to make them feel like "Hey, I did x and y to z side, I pushed the story forward"
Kintaii^: (for the record, none of those are on the plate they're just examples :P)
Saetos: right
Pinkeltje: !
Saetos: ... Borealis burning to the ground would be earth-shaking ;p
Kintaii^: Then there's "storyline", which is the day-to-day *life* on Rubi-Ka. Which is what we get from *you* guys.
Kintaii^: And that?
[2010-07-25 20:25:46] [TELL] [OUT] -> aarp: pgrelay This Channel is Currently Connected to the FunCom IRC Server's #AO-Events channel to relay in a Special Event. You can only hear the event in this channel. To participate click <a href='chatcmd:///start http://tinyurl.com/3a7qmux'>here[/link].
Kintaii^: That's harder to control than anything else. :P
Ariensky: !
Saetos: Heh, that's perfectly fine But let us in your little club of events for a one-off every now and then, and we'll be a happy bunch. But about that, can we confirm a fix to the RP flag on accoutns?
Saetos: After that, I'm done
Kintaii^: I can't confirm it, unfortunately, as our tools guy is hideously overloaded at the moment and it's a very low-priority thing on his task list. :\
Saetos: Mkay :/
Kintaii^: I wish I could say that there's a defined time-table on that sort of thing, but he's doing everything he can with all the tasks he has.
Pheats: Would point out that those that were signed up before it was gone are still on our list
Kintaii^: Namiru, you're up.
Saetos: I"d love dearly to get on that list by any means. -!
Kintaii^: Yeah, next time Saetos logs on, someone go gank him 'k?
Saetos: :&lt;
Windguaerd: !
Namiru: I'd like to point out that getting FunCom events staff involved in a player organized RP event has been problematic at best in my own experience.
Pheats: Funcom has events staff?
Kintaii^: We got volunteers.
Kintaii^: FC's "events staff" pretty much consists of "me". &gt;&lt;
Pheats: problematic how namiru?
Ciassene: Events "Kintaii" Staff
Kintaii^: (i am also a designer, a member of community management, a volunteer manager, official ao forums wrangler, a writer, a bug stomper, and means personal whuppin' boy ;P)
Agrestus: !
Kintaii^: (i do textures sometimes too)
Namiru: One time we were trying to stage an event as the Newland City Council some point after LE came out where we were going to do a "bounty" exchange on AI gen drop "junk" items. One of us was trying to get it quasi-"officialized" and put on the IRRK news, and event kept dragging out the process until eventually Berael, who's idea this was, stopped out of sheer frusteration.

[trousers]

Pheats: (going to be closing comments for this question now, agrestus will be the last for this one)
Namiru: In general, trying to get FC involved means small RP events like that never happen, or if they do it's so late in the game they aren't plot relavent anymore.
Pheats: I have to admit, things havn't been clear in the past in how to get things to us, that said we HAVE tried to make it a lot easier for you lot to get it to us
Pheats: for example in this thread in the 4th wall (which is in the 4th wall info page at the top) http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=576126
Kintaii^: Aye, part of the initiative with the whole Fourth Wall forum is that we're trying to increase the communication lines between players and ARK Events.
Namiru: I'll look into it. End of comment.
Pheats: In many MANY cases we've had players complain that we have not helped or got involved when we have had no direct contact from the players setting it up
Kintaii^: I wanna take a second and digress here before we go on to the next comment
Pheats: We NEED to be informed if you want us to help, we are not mind readers...
Kintaii^: Please, please, please, please, *please* - If you haven't yet, head over to the Fourth Wall. Read, post, make new threads; populate the area. Get some life goin' on in there.
Kintaii^: Again, we *want* to talk to you guys about stuff. But you also need to start being more proactive and coming to *us*. Stuff like the 4thW forum are a good means of doing that.
Brazen: can froobs post?
Kintaii^: Start spreading the word, point people to it, start making threads and posting and talking about everything going on in-game. The more activity there the better.
Kintaii^: Brazen: If you have any further comments, please post "!" and we will get to you in turn.
Kintaii^: But, to answer your question, no - Froobs may purchase forums accounts for a nominal fee, however.
Kintaii^: Pinkeltje, I think you're up next?
Pinkeltje: So, for example, to have one or several neutral and/or clan organisations make an attack on Bor to regain control from OT, this is not something that could be done by the playerbase? It is all orchestrated by you?
Kintaii^: You're welcome to *make* an attack, but until we're ready to actually do something along those lines (not saying we *will*, for the record) then the attack would be a great way of showing outrage but little more.
Kintaii^: Unless you can round up enough players to take on the entirety of the OTAF and the Unicorns, whos numbers are somewhere in the 'eleventy bajillions'. ;P
Saetos: !
Kintaii^: (comments on this question are closed, sorry)
Saetos: sorry -!
Pheats: yeah your free to plan attacks and such, but for the most part ingame things wont change (that would require funcom doing patching and such so...)
Pinkeltje: (and btw, about the 4th wall... if i hadn't stumbled upon it while browsing the forums, I wouldn't have known about it. I thought the dimension forums had their own rp place)
Pheats: It will give interesting things to talk about at meetings and in general roleplay but the guards will still respawn
Pinkeltje: ok, my question is answered
Kintaii^: Ariensky?
Ariensky: "My org was hired to guard Ross for his speech"
Ariensky: An example of something that was remembered and made the player feel he had an impact on the world.
Ariensky: Not story changing, but it makes people feel they are part of history.
Ariensky: Ross' speech when he was shot, the following execution..
Ariensky: We were there, we did not change anything, but we were there, and it was real earth-shaking events.. and they were announced so a lot could attend
Ariensky: The world felt alive and changing.
Ariensky: The timeline, in the start was also filled with things that people knew, had attended or at least knew of.
Ariensky: Now it is mostly a RP explanation of new things coming.
enilias: !
Ariensky: (On that note: please give some RP explanation on coming expansions, boosters, instances in advance, so they are coming, not that they are suddently there from one day to the other.
Ariensky: Reading what you have already typed, I will talk with my org about being hired to protect an events charecter and send a mail
Kintaii^: (again, comments for this question are closed)

[trousers]

Ariensky: (On players raiding cities: it indeed has been done, clearing out the guards, taking the city, and the other side rushing in.. a great anf fun event indeed, when done )
Ariensky: -Over-
catcrab: !
Kintaii^: (omg i just said comments are closed)
Tucxedo: !
Pheats: Well hopefully we can get things more involved Arien, and more flowing when we get things going again
Kintaii^: For the record: The story arch we're preparing for *is* the new direction for Anarchy Online in the future... and will be tying in heavily to any future expansions/boosters we might be planning.
Pheats: Windguaerd your up next
Windguaerd: Froobs can purchase forum accounts? wasn't aware of that one, I thought it was related to having a subscription account, could you elaborate? Regarding the RP account flag, once it's fixed, why not do a reset, then promote it on the official forums, mention it in the launcher and then get an up-to-date list of people interested? End of Comment.
Maleachi: If you absolutely have to voice your comments after comments have been closed, please send them to me. They will be taken into account in the internal summary of this meeting.
Kintaii^: You can find more about the froob forum account thing on the forums, so I won't go into to much detail here as it's really outside the scope of this meeting.
Kintaii^: As for the RP flag, I don't know about doing a "reset" but I would like to promote it if and when we get it fixed. Being more or less 'the community dude' for AO these days, I have a lot of leeway in that area and will be promoting RPing more heavily in the future.
Windguaerd: About mofo time, pardon the language.
Kintaii^: Agrestus, you're up. =)
Pheats: though would point out that its an ACCOUNT flag not a character flag, so the list will always be populated by non RP chars so hard for us to single people out for very specific things
Agrestus: just a quick silly comment on Kintaii's one man FC events.. employ me kintaii! i'll work for free! :P (but yeah, on the talk of storyline suggestions, it's quite difficult to suggest a direction for the main storyline without needing to be revealed a spoiler or joining ARK to learn a little more, but my question was answered pretty much any ideas i'm going to throw in the fourth wall)
Kintaii^: =D
Kintaii^: Saetos, you're next.
Saetos: Oh
Saetos: um
Saetos: Oh right... was gonna mention the Unicorn in Borealis has been killed several times, so it's not exactly insurmountable
Saetos: 'tis all -!
Kintaii^: So they were! Oh well. ;P
Kintaii^: And yeah, but there's a crapload more where that one came from. XD
Kintaii^: And now our next question!
Pheats: Windguaerd asks: Have you ever considered allowing players to join Events Team without the requirement to do petitions?
Kintaii^: I don't want to comment much on exactly what the requirements for being an ARK are, but I will say that the petition requirement for the Events team is slightly different from the rest of the ARK volunteer group.
Kintaii^: Otherwise I can't really give out anything more specific than that. If you wanna discover what I mean... join Events. XD
catcrab: !
Kintaii^: Yes, catcrab?
-Removed-
Tucxedo: !
Kintaii^: I mean, that's what they *do*, so naturally we tend to look at their ability to create stories and such before allowing them into the department.

[trousers]

Pheats: but you have to go through ark training before you can apply for the events team, its all part of the program.
Kintaii^: But before being Events you have to be an *ARK*. It's like joining the military in a way - You may end up as a field medic, but you gotta go through basic training first.
Tucxedo: -!
Kintaii^: Windguaerd had several smaller questions about the team, so we're gonna barrel through 'em all while we're here.
Maleachi: The other two questions you had Windguaerd, regarding the length of the training and the number of eventeers: The training can be rather long, but it teaches the trainee everything he or she has to know about it and it depends a lot on the initiative of the trainee, can take a few weeks, can take longer. Regarding the team size: We can always use more.
Kintaii^: I think shortest possible turn-around on Events training is about three weeks. And that's if all the stars are aligned and such.
Maleachi: Sadly we have lost a few good people over the last few months and we are not up to strength again yet.
Kintaii^: Yeah. :\ We could well do with some new, motivated and interested recruits
Kintaii^: For the official record, current team size is eight.
Kintaii^: (not including me)
Kintaii^: That ain't a lotta folks considering everything that we want and try to do.
Kintaii^: Anyhoo, our next question!
Pheats: Ok we have a few question from people about a similiar line of information so we're going to try and deal with them together if possible, to save on prolonged time about similiar things
Kintaii^: Oh, there you are. XD
Pheats: Tuxcedo asks: my question then: when do we get LTC-clanners on RK1 (and I dont mean simon or the crew but specials ltc like , and where (I suggest OA)?
Pheats: Domaldel asks: Is there a chance that &lt;&lt;some&gt;&gt; (not all) of the LTC arrivals could at times be scheduled beforehand on the forum? So people could plan ahead a bit where they are when they turn up? And I don't mean the important story stuff, just a few randomish being out there and talking with people stuff.
Rainys: Yeah...we do have clan LTCs on RK1, not many but they are there
Tucxedo: "specials like tinkerbots etc"
Tucxedo: !
Pheats: Go ahead tucx
Maleachi: On a general note: LTCs try to be out and about when players are online. We do not have set times when they have to be there.
Tucxedo: Who are they then? and where? I have in all my time seen 1 one time a long time ago
Ariensky: !
Tucxedo: all i see are a whole lotta neutrals and omnies
Pheats: they should be listed on 4th wall
Rainys: Well at the moment i can just remember the name of one of them, and they walk around alot. and they are listed on the forums as well
Ariensky: disregard my ! (thanks pheats)
Pheats: I would point out though that the LTC's logging on depends heavily on the volunteer playing it, generally events cannot control that
Pheats: Which brings me to domaldels question
Pheats: SOME LTC's will announce their times on the forum (or we hope they will be soon)
Tucxedo: yeah well you dont get a whole lot of clans intressted with neutral LTC we cant do anything with them
Maleachi: And we do not want to control it as it would lead to a decline in the quality of the interaction if people would be forced (sad,but true)
Pheats: but not every one will, the LTC's are voluntary they will be played when the volunteers has the time to do so, we do not want to make them have to keep schedules, they have their own work to think about as well
Pheats: also not all LTC's will be on the forums, so it would be hard for them to do so.
catcrab: !
Pheats: go ahead catcrab
catcrab: how do i apply for a ltc? is it part of events?
Maleachi: Join ARK.
catcrab: okay thanks
catcrab: -done
Pheats: technically players can make LTC's their called RP playcharacters
catcrab: (blue names get you taken more seriously though)
Pheats: They come with bonuses in the fact that they have less rigid rules.

[trousers]

Windguaerd: !
Pheats: Ok last comment on this, Windguaerd
Windguaerd: I'd like to say that rolling a temp lvl 10 toon as part of a player-run event, is not hard to do. You can do as much, or more than an LTC if you have the imagination for it, and a few creds for social items.
Windguaerd: It's up to you as a roleplayer. End of comment.
Pheats: Ok, onto the next question
Pheats: Rhus asks: What are the chances of Richard Doyle-Chick Fight bartender getting his own place in OA? Old Athen could use an instance, if somewhat larger, like the Cup to be frequented occasionally by LTC's, if only to make them more commonly visible to the player base. A large social instance may help promote RP awareness and provide a common location for RP NPC's.
Kintaii^: I'm gonna be honest here and say that the odds of us adding any new social hubs at the moment is pretty slim.
catcrab: !
Kintaii^: Our artists (MstrBstrd and Flaptoot) are pretty overloaded at the moment as-is getting ready for the new engine stuff.
Rhus: Understood, thanks.
Rainys: There is loads of social places on RUbi-ka that is used, the cup ive noticed is frequently used, neuters, and so on..
Rainys: Just need to find them
Kintaii^: So stuff like that is at an extremely low priority for them compared to making the new bodies, overseeing the new heads, recreating stuff, working on the new startup, etc. etc.
Kintaii^: Not saying you won't ever see new social areas in-game, just probably not for a while. They've got a lot to do.
Rhus: That's the thing, need to find them....I was thinking of someplace more highly visible
Kintaii^: catcrab, your comment?
catcrab: i also agree with kintaii, main problem is motivation to rp. the grind is pretty new, but is deserted.
catcrab: -done
Rhus: But still, understood.
Pheats: Ok I think that was pretty much answered, lets move onto the next question
Windguaerd: ! sorry, quick one
Pheats: Go on Windguaerd, gonna take me a moment to condense the next question
Windguaerd: Can you add whomp-ahs to The Cup to add to cities pls Kintaii?
Windguaerd: Just a thought, there are whompahs to neut and omni places, not clan
Kintaii^: You know I have *no* clue why the hell those don't exist
Kintaii^: And no one around here that I've asked knows either
Kintaii^: That's one of those things that's been on me "should really fix that" list for a while now, but it's just a matter of finding time to squeeze it in. &gt;&lt;
Windguaerd: Well, less asking and more "lets make one!" would be nice, pls
Windguaerd: ty
Kintaii^: That said, now that we've actually learned how to make AI City Buildings again with the birthday building, I might be able to shove it through as a quick fix at some point.
Pheats: Ok before the next question, I would like to make it clear that some of you have put in questions to maleachi that we wont be bringing up to day, not because we're being mean, but because their more along suggestions or do not fit with the meeting (developer questions in general are not going to be answered)
Pheats: those that put in suggestion questions may get to talk about them after questions are over (depending on time) but be assured, we have received them and will read through them and take them into consideration
Pheats: Ok next question is condensed a fair bit Denali asks: Will there be more of a sense to upcoming events that there is a conflict going on?
Kintaii^: Hahahahaha oh yeah
Kintaii^: Hooooooooohhhh yeah
Denali: &lt;3
Kintaii^: We're gonna blow some **** up. Y'all hold on, 'cause its gonna be a bumpy ride. XD
Pheats: very much so, but you will have to take into account the sort of conflict has changed a fair bit from the opening cutscene that you mentioned denali
Denali: Yeah, it was more of an example that stuck out in my mind and represented the sort of thing i meant
Pheats: hopefully it will be just as epic
Denali: other good things include the Shadow Compedium plot and Sentinels invading Rome
Denali: Particularly the former because it mixed intrigue with actual action (a fight at the end was a nice touch)

[trousers]

Denali: we were given little clues, and we had to put the pieces together
Denali: I really liked that
Pheats: the shadow compendium isn't finished just yet, its just on hold while we get the main stuff going
Denali: and hell, thats not even conflict :P But it adds a lot to the whole experience
Saetos: !
Denali: !
Tucxedo: !
Pheats: GA saetos
Saetos: One thing I wanted to counter that with was the Dust Brigade - they werebrought up in the storyline as mysterious and ruthless terrorists, throwing threats at every side... with Xan, they're just mobs.
Kintaii^: It's the end of their arch, though... LoX is more or less the last time you'll probably see the DB be a "major storyline threat" - Their story is, more or less, told.
Saetos: I read that story before I even dinged TL4, I wanted to see them in the flesh burnin' buildings and crap
Kintaii^: They had eight years as the badasses - Time to move on. =)
Saetos: Course I was 15 then but
Pheats: gotta let our new stuff have a turn at being badasses
Kintaii^: I wanna say something real quick
Saetos: So do we get a new breed of terrorists to pillage cities and get driven back by brave players?
Kintaii^: A major focus and theme of what I am about is 'change'. Doing things differently. Shaking stuff up.
Kintaii^: We've got nine years of AO behind us - Nine years of awesome stuff.
Kintaii^: But that's nine years... and as we go into our tenth year, with a new graphics engine, a new startup experience, and a new crew leading up production, it's also time that AO's storyline starts changing and evolving as well.
Kintaii^: There's nothing wrong with what came to pass - AO's storyline has always been one of the most interesting and intriguing parts of the game, at least to me. And we will never get rid of that or diminish it.
Pheats: And yet you wont let me nuke borealis kintaii
Kintaii^: But it's time to start moving forward and trying some new stuff.
Kintaii^: Pheats: Shhh! Quiet you! =P
Saetos: Pheats, not all of us are opposed to that; we need something like that to shake the mold
Saetos: -!
Kintaii^: Denali, did you have another comment?
Kintaii^: (no reboot ;P)
Denali: Just that i understand things have evolved, and its not just about clan vs OT any more
Denali: its gotten bigger than that, like "oh crap what was SL say about our history?"
Denali: and just that i think thats a good thing maybe something could be done with that too
Kintaii^: I don't see us ever losing the Clan vs. OT aspect of the game's storyline, honestly. Certainly not while I'm around, at least.
Windguaerd: Pardon for breaking protocol. But it Den, it hasn't been Clan vs Omni for years, except the PvP'ers in the game.
Denali: yeah, but you're also adding to it. and thats cool
Gimpeline: !
Pheats: losing the clan vs ot aspect would spell disaster for food based insults aswell, it will always be core to most things.
Kintaii^: I wanna do new stuff without erasing the *cores* of our roots, and Clan vs. OT has always been one of the central pins of AO's storyline, even if it's gone back and forth between a 'hot' war and a 'cold' war over the years.
Denali: Wind - you can't tell me the two sides are happy to hold hands and get long even now though
Kintaii^: Anyhoo, order. :P
Kintaii^: Enough of that derail
Kintaii^: Tucxedo, you had a comment?
Tucxedo: any chance I now can get into shadow Comp without being send into mission impossible? (btw if you start blwoing things up could you start with omni 1 please?)
Denali: coming back to Kintaii -- another good example is the link between Home and the shadowlands. i loved what you did with the inside of the temple after you zone out of the beast's lair, and part of me wishes that might be looked at again some day