Friday with(out) Means - March 18th, 2011: Pretty Pictures Of Stuff

[Kamarar]

PSO called. They said they wanted their weapons and art style back.

[Ixal]

Is that really a new body mesh on the nanomage? No matter how I look at it, I can't see a difference to the ones we have ingame, the poly structure looks exactly the same and the shoulder area particularly gives it away. I'm confused!

[Tryqz]

PRETTIER PICTURE OF STUFF

http://washu.co.uk/misc/beastarmourfixed.jpg


*Bows*

Way better it s still a little to shiny but it doesn t looks like a doc armor too much anymore

Yeah, it was the best I could whip up in GIMP at short notice, while desperately trying to recover my Windows 7, from safe mode, in 640x480, with serious kernel errors bluescreening me every 5 minutes.

And it's STILL BETTER THAN THE IMAGE IN THE FWOM POST

[Tryqz]

Is that really a new body mesh on the nanomage? No matter how I look at it, I can't see a difference to the ones we have ingame, the poly structure looks exactly the same and the shoulder area particularly gives it away. I'm confused!

Looks like there's still work to do to get it up to the same ballpark as the head on polycount. I think it was mainly showing off self shadowing.

[Saetos]

Yes! It is time to get rid of those dirty terrorist that kill innocent citizens, place bombs, destroy cities, steal and disturb the peace. I remember the old times where you could walk from your office in omni-1 to take the ferry to have some leisure in omni-ent, kids could play in the parks alone not fearing random bombing, assaults or hijack. Remember history, for hundreds of years the benefits from the mines where used to get a good pay for the notum miners and their families while now they have to be expent in heavy security. That was life.

And now it's............................... not much different? The game has muted the conflict between Omni and Clan, and ever since AI has fashioned more of a cooperation between the two sides, LE only giving them an excuse for sporting-esque scuffles.

Toss as much RP as you want, it hasn't been reflected in the game at all.

[Worldofalts]

^^ Not to go off on a rant here:

its obvious that low population has played a small part in the omni-clan conflict being almost none existent. heck, if i could team with clans for inferno mishes, i would likely cave in and do it. not because i like teaming with clans, but because i wouldn't have to spam neutnet for a half-hour sometimes to form a half-decent team. oddly, those missions are the only pvm content ingame that are faction-enforced, besides the garden-key quests that are a "do once only per toon" thing, but they don't really count imo.

all players, with the exception of ebayed toons, start off this game with pvm. you cannot pvp as a new player, unless you are fighting another new player, or else you will go squish.
.
so, new players spend months--if they keep playing--fighting mobs with crappy AI and two dimensional mechanics, running around grabbing buffs from opposing factions in neutral cities, and levelling with omni, clan and neutral in harmony. from newbie island to kite hill, it doesnt matter. where is the clan-vs-omni fighting? im not speaking of pvp here, but of pvm content, and just plain content in general.

the first thing a player should have to do when they start a new toon is be faced with the conflict and have to make a choice.

imagine creating your first toon as a new player, zoning into the newbie area, and there is an omni guard shooting at civilian rebels who aren't as twinked as the guard for some reason. you have a choice of either attacking the omni guard and helping the rebels kill him, after which you are presented with a clan sign-up form by the rebels. or, attacking the clan civilian rebels, helping the guard kill them and then being given an omni-tek sign-up form by the guard. or, or, ignoring them and walking into the next area and staying neutral. or, or, or, killing the guard and the rebels and then walking away to stay neutral .

that to me is more realistic then being plopped on an island, and having recruitment officers kindly chumming up together handing out business cards and application forms to newbies. when i first started playing this game 6 and an odd half years ago, i thought that was an inside joke of sorts, and realized at that point that the conflict was virtual (oh the irony), and that it was pretty much carebear pvm, vs hardknocks pvp. and i think most new players still realize this when they first play this game and see all the guards standing around handing out forms likes its a job convention.

not to drag this on, but seriously, the new starting area should reflect the fight between omni and clan better. and the sl backyards should have more redeemed/unredeemed presence and conflict.

this game really is too carebear, and im a pvm lovin' carebear so that means something (not that i don't enjoy the odd gank fest). PG-13 rating or not, there needs to be more conflict between the sides that isn't just pvp. to pvp in this game takes time, effort and knowledge. which means only the older players really stick at it and win enough to want to keep doing it more than every once in a while.

but the notion that a pvm'er doesn't care about the conflict is just silly. the lack of ongoing pvm conflict in AO is what makes it so sterile much of the time. yes, i can start killing guards in the enemy city, but then i am flagged and if im not geared for it, I may go squish. yes, i can roll rk mishes to fight mobs of the opposing faction, but that gets boring very quick, as the AI in AO really is quite silly for the most part. all in all, the fight between the two sides is only skin deep, and this conflict is what initially brought alot of us into the game, and got us initially interested ({edit} besides the other good reasons too, like its sci-fi!). its a good thing AO is so complex and broad, that a player gets completely lost in the game world at the start. otherwise, people would try pvp out too early, go squish and just plain quit out of frustration.

in an attempt to cut myself off, ill finish it up by saying that something really needs to change in the story/conflict department. pvp balance will hopefully address the pvp issues, and allow new players to get "the kill" every now and then. but regarding pvm, rebalance will do little to spark interest for new players in the long term, possibly just the opposite unless the levelling experience is smoothed/quickened out({edit} dailies have helped alot in this area. everyone can agree there). giving the conflict between omni and clan, unredeemed and redeemed, a 3rd dimension, even some depth perhaps would go a long way to keeping people interested in more than their next power-levelled project.

my 2(00) cents

[Mastablasta]

Is that really a new body mesh on the nanomage? No matter how I look at it, I can't see a difference to the ones we have ingame, the poly structure looks exactly the same and the shoulder area particularly gives it away. I'm confused!

Of course it looks the same, it's just a lot higher res, which is also easy enough to see.

[Vhax]

Is that really a new body mesh on the nanomage? No matter how I look at it, I can't see a difference to the ones we have ingame, the poly structure looks exactly the same and the shoulder area particularly gives it away. I'm confused!

They're a bit constrained by the original model to make sure old textures look right on it.
It does look better when you're able to see it spin around and even better when seeing it side by side next to the old one.

Also, the single directional light in the previewer doesn't do a very good job at showing off normal maps.
It looks better in-game with more lights around.

[edherbs147]

^^ Not to go off on a rant here:
imagine creating your first toon as a new player, zoning into the newbie area, and there is an omni guard shooting at civilian rebels who aren't as twinked as the guard for some reason. you have a choice of either attacking the omni guard and helping the rebels kill him, after which you are presented with a clan sign-up form by the rebels. or, attacking the clan civilian rebels, helping the guard kill them and then being given an omni-tek sign-up form by the guard. or, or, ignoring them and walking into the next area and staying neutral. or, or, or, killing the guard and the rebels and then walking away to stay neutral .

Even could abolish signup forms altogether, and replace sides with SL like faction system (just with ways other than farming kills), doing missions, and just generally anything for a side to improve standing with it, and to swap sides, there would be missions of scaling scope and length, to prove to the side your swapping to your changed allegiance.

Even without missions though, a faction type system could be much more interesting than just sign this form, and the codes already there, would hopefully only need minor tweaking.

New meshes/textures/models etc. look good so far, but have to agree with others about adding a bit of "wear and tear" making them look that much more realistic, be interesting to see more as release date gets closer though.

[Armus]

So, would the other pictures we've seen of heads and such also have been rendered in 3ds max?

[Vhax]

So, would the other pictures we've seen of heads and such also have been rendered in 3ds max?

Most were a screenshot of the 3ds max viewport.
Which is somewhat lesser quality than a render.

[bitnykk]

Most were a screenshot of the 3ds max viewport.
Which is somewhat lesser quality than a render.

Yap but that shoes the leaves on trees need lotta job anyways

[Vhax]

Yap but that shoes the leaves on trees need lotta job anyways

I was talking about the head screenshots in previous FWM though... :P

[Ebondevil]

so, new players spend months--if they keep playing--fighting mobs with crappy AI and two dimensional mechanics, running around grabbing buffs from opposing factions in neutral cities, and levelling with omni, clan and neutral in harmony. from newbie island to kite hill, it doesnt matter. where is the clan-vs-omni fighting? im not speaking of pvp here, but of pvm content, and just plain content in general.

It may not be too obvious but there is some Clan Vs. Omni Conflict in the generated missions, when fighting human opponents (Opi, NM, Soli, Trox), typically you will end up fighting members of the opposing faction, or neutrals (everyone hates neutrals it seems). Also when wandering around in various areas on RK you can can also end up in conflict with opposing faction mobs whereas the same faction mobs won't attack you.

Back to the missions though, there are some occasions where, dependant on the sliders' positions, you will end up with Mobs in the dungeon who share your faction, when this happens, at least from what I recall, you do not get xp for killing those NPC's and your chance of reward (Token/Xp) does not increase when you kill them, meaning the more of your faction in the mission the less likely you are to get a reward for completing the mission.

[Gimpeline]

Please, dont put that new boss or whatever it is at endgame. Endgame is already a nightmare with way to many things to do. Every time you think your carracter is finally done, another instance opens. It's the beginning of the game that needs fixing, not the end. How are we supposed to get more players when your team focus time after time at the end and not the beginning?
Put the boss somewhere between level 60 and 150 where there is nothing to do but hecks.

[Mastablasta]

Please, dont put that new boss or whatever it is at endgame. Endgame is already a nightmare with way to many things to do. Every time you think your carracter is finally done, another instance opens. It's the beginning of the game that needs fixing, not the end. How are we supposed to get more players when your team focus time after time at the end and not the beginning?
Put the boss somewhere between level 60 and 150 where there is nothing to do but hecks.

That's why we keep paying, to have more content. Endgame needs more things to do. BS pvp is boring, towerwars only happen at low lvls, so really, we need stuff at high levels because everything is about low level twinks for people with far too much money. Those of us who spent years and years grinding our ass off to get ultimate gear just sit there collecting dust with nothing to do with our fancy characters but try and get +2 to some skill by equipping alpha symbs.

[Izgimmy]

It's the beginning of the game that needs fixing, not the end.

I agree. The journey towards end game must be more enjoyable. Rolling alts is a big part of Anarchy Online since there is no support for a classless* system. To be able to bring what is needed to the table, you would want to have a variety of professions up your sleeve, and this is only obtainable by an army of alts. As it is today, the levelling process is not something you want to do over and over and over again, which results in, among other things, end game characters "sitting there collecting dust" waiting for more content to be added. Some people can endure the heck grind and a lot of people will probably buy the pre-levelled characters when/if the option is implemented, but I'm not one of those people; I'm playing to have fun and I'm not having fun at the moment. Let us enjoy title levels one through six too.

*In theory a classless system will allow players to match and blend different traditional skills like healing, melee fighting, stealth, and the like. Basically, you can be whatever you want to be without having to rigidly force yourself into a predetermined class. (The Secret World @ Mmorpg.com)

[Amickson]

Please, dont put that new boss or whatever it is at endgame. Endgame is already a nightmare with way to many things to do. Every time you think your carracter is finally done, another instance opens. It's the beginning of the game that needs fixing, not the end. How are we supposed to get more players when your team focus time after time at the end and not the beginning?
Put the boss somewhere between level 60 and 150 where there is nothing to do but hecks.

What content? 8 years old Pande or 6 years old APF's sectors? The last high end content was Collector (year ago and 1 team only) and everyone knows it's epic fail. 1 instance per year with crappy mechanic or no action after initial week rush just isn't enough. The game dieing with no progress at all.

[Flipyap]

In theory a classless system will allow players to match and blend different traditional skills like healing, melee fighting, stealth, and the like.

What? Like Adventurers?

[Izgimmy]

What? Like Adventurers?

Sure, why not. Adventurer Online sounds kind of fun actually.