Friday with Means – September 24th, 2010 – Questions and Answers

[Crowena]

Getting symbiants would take a bit longer than getting implants.

[PhoenixOfAges]

First off AO Team, please consider my community Halloween wish list this year. Thanks!

New shadowleet dolls please!

[Esssch]

Fixed just for you...

I always laugh when stuff like this comes from people who have obviously never played WoW.

Pro Tip: AO's endgame encounters are 4 colors' Simon Says-based. WoW's endgame encounters actually has tactics.

At the end of the first week they offered a 25 level boost to everyone over 85. I was 97. All this before there was SL. So with the XP in SL and the skill of our player base I say first 220's on clean server in 60 days.

I'd give it 30 days max.

[SoapTarder]

...I played on test with it was wiped. They wiped it and brought it. A group of us (the bratpack) started a 6 MA team (first toons on wiped server) and was level 30 by time the BH/GM's logged on to check on us 4 hours later.

At the end of the first week they offered a 25 level boost to everyone over 85. I was 97. All this before there was SL. So with the XP in SL and the skill of our player base I say first 220's on clean server in 60 days.

i had yet to play on test at that time yet, (not that i "play" on test per say. i usually test new content if i have the time) but did you have access to the xp buff nano on test back then?

[Phuriae]

New shadowleet dolls please!

Yes! Want to HAS! After all, this IS the second year the Shadowleet doll has been requested for a comeback!

[Ekarona]

I always laugh when stuff like this comes from people who have obviously never played WoW.

Pro Tip: AO's endgame encounters are 4 colors' Simon Says-based. WoW's endgame encounters actually has tactics.


I'd give it 30 days max.

AO's raids might be simple, but whole skills-item system isn't. It takes quite a lot of effort to get over how the system works and there isn't too much help for it, like where do skills effect and how.

[MrMacdk]

I would bet against 95% of players from wow any day compared to an AO player when it comes to understanding of the game they play.

The only thing WOW has on AO is the raiding, and in the end, this is just a slightly more complicated mission grind, that keeps repeating it self endlessly trying to aquire a new tier armor that has been outdated 10 times + now.

[Nanowolf]

*rawr*

Thanks for answering all of these questions Means.

*rawr*

Btw. I play WoW and trust me, there are to many kiddys around the servers.

So I´m really glad to have AO with much more freedom at skilling my characters

The Enforcer tank is much more respected than every tank in WoW. Too many ppl who cry about tanks. No wonder that tanks really don´t like to tank there ^^

[Coookiez]

New shadowleet dolls please!

bump!

[mocs]

bla bla bla.... have no plans for implementing Sided-Neutral changes.

Is this the final answer? In game answer was a bit different.
Just change the name from Neutrals to Mercenaries and review this issue again.
PS: flip-flops are too asian!

[Gatester]

6 Month side change locks, and you must go neutral before you can go clan or omni. How much flip-flopping would happen then?

[Lheann]

i had yet to play on test at that time yet, (not that i "play" on test per say. i usually test new content if i have the time) but did you have access to the xp buff nano on test back then?

Those helpful items did not exist back then. So no is the answer. That was level 30 in 4 hours of RK team missions.

[Crowena]

After getting few 220 toons on new server it would quickly turn similar to old servers and would no longer be "hardcore".

[borriss]

Very interresting FWM, gj Means

[irmo]

On the subject of low level runspeed we have plans to overhaul runspeed in general. Low level players will be moving much faster and high level players will end up slightly slower to better client/server sync. Characters moving as fast as they do now is not practical in a networked game and it becomes a physical problem to accurately depict player locations in such an environment. Vehicle speed will remain as it is to encourage use and to make sure travel does not cause increased delay in game play.

Does this mean we can still outrun mobs in SL? and will we see a SL-Vehicle? (xan upgraded mech?)

[NoGoal]

Thats not what "neutral" means. A Mercenary is not a neutral just because he isnt ideologically attached to one side. As soon as you engage in combat, you are no longer neutral regardless of what your motives are.

There are 2 conflicts that separate OT and clans in AO. First one is the mistreatment and poor working conditions in the OT notum mines. The second one is about the 'Source'. Two conflicts that neutrals never joined.

And yes you can be a mercenary and stay neutral. Neutral doesn't mean that individuals can't be outlaws or that they can't be prosecuted. It just means that they don't fragging care about the above conflicts.

[Boltgun]

And neutrals attach themselves temporally to a side in BS and come back neutral at the end. But I don't think it's the point.

The point is that the game main story is about the conflict between OT and the clans, and I'm really glad that you can be neut here otherwise the game would be quite bland to me.

I think people should get more warnings when talking to the recruiters so new players know what they are doing, otherwise a neut application form would just kill further the conflict.

[Ocene]

And yes you can be a mercenary and stay neutral. Neutral doesn't mean that individuals can't be outlaws or that they can't be prosecuted. It just means that they don't fragging care about the above conflicts.

Well, a mercenary is someone motivated by money to join a side, so that person is no longer neutral to a conflict as soon as he joined one of the sides by definition.
Whatever the motives.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/neutral

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mercenary

[NoGoal]

Well, a mercenary is someone motivated by money to join a side

Nope, or there wouldn't be any difference between soldiers and mercenaries. Mercenaries do jobs for money. They can be paid to protect something and later, attack and destroy it. Or they could decide to resell it to any side that pay the most. It doesn't mean that they join that side and embrace their ideas.

Mercenaries side is money and, as they don't care about OT><clans conflicts, they are put in the trash faction called neutrals along with spies, bystanders, JOBE scientists, etc.

[Worldofalts]

to work for a corporation doesnt mean you uphold their principles.

of course, with omni corp, their employees are indoctrinated with 1984ish idealogy, and same goes for those on the clam side who fight omni-tek corp. both sides being bombarded with propaganda.

to leave a side in the conflict would mean that you disagree with the philosophies/practices/values of the side you joined. does that mean you automatically now agree with the other side?

more often then not, someone that leaves a side in some conflict will be neutral for quite some time before going back or joining the other side. they usually wander around for sometime and eventually run into the opposing side and are greeted as a potential recruit.

why its not like this ingame, where you must go nuetral before joining the other side... i do not understand really. people in RL who leave a side and join the other without any hesitation usually get thrown in front of a bullet because no one trusts them. one could use the argument that its just a game, and Im being too serious about it, but that argument would also nullify any reason for keeping neutral application forms out of game too.