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

[If6was9]

...
Of course, any player that changes from Clan/Omni to neutral shoud have their combat capabilities disabled anytime they are standing on 25%/5% tower land. They can come and stand off the property and give support (think Red Cross) but should never again be able to engage in the direct combat on tower land. This would fit with the storyline description as it is listed, too.

Good point. Now that I think about it - why do neuts have tower fields at all? That doesn't make sense. But once someone went neut they'd definitely have to lose their rights to NW benefits for a long time if not forever.

[Sama]

Good point. Now that I think about it - why do neuts have tower fields at all? That doesn't make sense. But once someone went neut they'd definitely have to lose their rights to NW benefits for a long time if not forever.

so you have to be a rebel or omni employee to mine and sell notum? that makes no sense to me...

[Onkelolsen]

Neutrals have towerfields because they're about mining notum and smugling it out of planet, not about sides - just like clan do

Why should we not care about profit, just because we do'nt care about your sides ??

They do have banks in Switzerland on earth I think

[Dictan]

Any chance we'll be getting a fix for all those "You can't do this while falling" messages that occur randomly when you're standing on the seam between two polygons in the landscape?

(or worse, when you're wedged in a V-shaped hole, and can't use /stuck)

lol wedged between a v shaped hole

[Neista]

Never forget Neutrals can be mercenaries rather than Pacifists, quite a lot of RL Soldiers have 'retired' from active service into 'Conflict Resolution'

[Dunsany]

Never forget Neutrals buy subscriptions and expansions, or not.

[cube]

Using a shared engine for all Funcom products provides an obvious advantage and we are getting close. We are very excited about it. Another important aspect of the development that needs to be mentioned is that both new AND old versions of the client will be supported…meaning that ideally nobody will be shut-out the day we launch the new engine due to not having a strong enough machine. Making the new client support two sets of data has definitely accounted for some of the extra time that has been spent developing this change.

This week work is focusing on getting the sky, clouds and all those twinkly stars working. The atmospherics in AO are daunting but it needs to be there for the game to retain its unique feel. When that is done work will begin on handling the multiple ocean volumes that exist in many places…for a desert planet Rubi-Ka sure has a LOT of water.

With the increased scope of supporting both clients a Christmas launch is becoming less and less likely…but a Q1 2011 launch seems relatively certain.

Finally got a chance to read the good news! I never thought that there were any intentions on using two different engines for one client, so this definitely seems interesting!

Looking forward to next Friday, as always ;]

-Rob M.

[Notcrattey]

I’m not a huge roleplayer but from a story perspective it has always felt absurd that you could return to being neutral after taking a side in the conflict.

Then JOBE shouldn't exist. Resigning from a side is hardly absurd.

[Ashes2Ashes]

I am a bit disappointed to see Means take the stance against neutral side change. But it's nothing new, same was said basically when they introduced the high level omni/clan application forms. I did wind up using it on my fixer to go omni which I regret doing now.

If flip flopping is your worry Means...

Just make side changes post 200 a paid service for all sides (Clan, Neutral, and Omni). 1k paid points seems fair. Hell, I would even fork out $20 for 2k paid points to get my fixer back to being neutral. People aren't going to be flip flopping much if they got to pay for it. I also wouldn't mind if they even put a long lock on side changing, similar to the agent undercover kits in addition to the paid points.

[Warhead]

Never forget Neutrals can be mercenaries rather than Pacifists, quite a lot of RL Soldiers have 'retired' from active service into 'Conflict Resolution'

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.

[haxi]

Why do people with no personal desire to change sides care one way or another about someone else wishing to do so? They pay their sub and they should be able to play on the side of their choosing. Would you rather see someone "go neutral" or just leave the game because they do not wish to continue their alignment with Omni or Clan? Mind your own, seriously. Way too many busy-bodies in this game worried about what other people do and how they prefer to experience the game they pay for.

[Ayria]

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.

Neutral means a few things. Simply because you choose one and only one to follow doesn't mean everyone else has to just deal with it the way you want it to.

Neutrality can pertain to not taking sides although still being in conflict.

[Pomidor]

Test sever is for trying skills, DNW if kept could be first fully wiped and then restarted... So everything starts from 0, lot of free cities and quite intresting economy. Would provide new kind of challenge for people. No ready market with tons of items or nanos, no free creds all nanos would need to be rolled after certain point. I might be intrest in that kind of server also cred farming would be hard work before hitting hi-lvls...

Damn - thats sounds like a very good idea! I would try that for sure...!!!

[thombgun10]

BTW means since it does not seem likely we, neutrals will see an faction resign token atleast make neutral a more obvious choice.

On the friday with means july 10th 2009 you also talked about The current power gap will be "Narrowed".
Unfortunately there have since then not been many additions specificly aimed or usable by neutrals that actually seem to decrease the powergap, infact alot of items and stuff was changed that made it even bigger again like (a small ammount of examples):

- Now fredericks micro kinetic sleeve can be hacked and used by clan aswell as omni (but not neutral).
- Omni gunship can be hacked so it becomes usable by clan (but not neutral).

Are there any obvious items that are usable by neutrals filling in the powergap that i missed?
Come on it has been 14 months allready!

[polartiger]

Test sever is for trying skills, DNW if kept could be first fully wiped and then restarted... So everything starts from 0, lot of free cities and quite intresting economy. Would provide new kind of challenge for people. No ready market with tons of items or nanos, no free creds all nanos would need to be rolled after certain point. I might be intrest in that kind of server also cred farming would be hard work before hitting hi-lvls...

This would be interesting for sure, and I would give it a shot if it ever happens.
See how the economy rebuilds itself, might even make it easier for newcomers to AO, ina starting market etc

[Ekarona]

This would be interesting for sure, and I would give it a shot if it ever happens.
See how the economy rebuilds itself, might even make it easier for newcomers to AO, ina starting market etc

Yeah, also would be somewhat intresting to see how long first 300QL armor set takes ;D Or the cred spammers to hit game and see if they can produce massive amount of creds in pure enviroment...

[-Klod-]

This would be interesting for sure, and I would give it a shot if it ever happens.
See how the economy rebuilds itself, might even make it easier for newcomers to AO, ina starting market etc

Yes, I can already see it.

Doc, soldier and a crat on each corner, plus engie alts on follow.

[polartiger]

Yes, I can already see it.

Doc, soldier and a crat on each corner, plus engie alts on follow.

Klod, funny as always?

I really think its interesting, just because all have to start from scratch, no alts for OST, tradeskilling or anything.
Clean pure environment, en most inportant: the gap between "old" and "new" players will be smaller.
It will also revive RK a bit more, because npeople DO have to make credits, and as the economy is fresh also, there wont be much demand to begin with.

[PhoenixOfAges]

Any chance we'll be getting a fix for all those "You can't do this while falling" messages that occur randomly when you're standing on the seam between two polygons in the landscape?

(or worse, when you're wedged in a V-shaped hole, and can't use /stuck)

Yes, that is being worked on. May not get them all fixed but we are trying to find and report as many as we can find at least. Such problems were one of the things we were to look for so that does show an interest in fixing them along with floating, buried and other such glitches.

[Ekarona]

Klod, funny as always?

I really think its interesting, just because all have to start from scratch, no alts for OST, tradeskilling or anything.
Clean pure environment, en most inportant: the gap between "old" and "new" players will be smaller.
It will also revive RK a bit more, because npeople DO have to make credits, and as the economy is fresh also, there wont be much demand to begin with.

Yep, atleast there would be people running different missions just for nanos and camping Dynas. I think this should be done if AO gets proper player base in future...