Friday with Means - November 11th, 2011 - 111111 - Open questions

[Tazalanche]

Simple, why the melee hate?

Because you don't have to stand still while you fight?

[Vitaliy]

Bump for the GM beef, i recently went through 2 days of petitions and GM/ARK conversations in an attempt to get our old twink org back, the first 2 GMs both attempted the same "solution" which they should of known wouldnt work, the 3rd GM seemed to have a bit more sense and fixed the problem in about 10 minutes, the added bonus of waiting an hour+ for each petition to get through really made my day.

[Odov]

May as well add to the interest:

1. When is the engine coming out?
2. When will re-balance be complete?

It's been a long .. long time

[Deaconfrost]

Simple, why the melee hate?

... This X Infinity

If you want to "rebalance" something then fix the stunning chasm between the ranged toolset and the insanely gimped in all areas of the game melee toolset!

New Graphic Engine eta?

Rebalance?

As a Ten Year Vet on this coming Nov 17 with 6 accounts I must say some serious bumpage for us long termers getting some of the goodies offered to new or returning accounts. Something beyond the Veterans Booth points and items (need new items in Vet booth as well of course!) Throw us a bone! Or at least a Dust Brigade Parasite Helmet!

Make DB3 doable? (Thx for collector change in that vein)

Will AI and Sl content be re-worked and modernized to address some of the design decisions that 5-7 years later are in need of some updates to reflect the current state of the game?

When is the next expansion with actual ZONES coming out? Like the next SL? A 7 zone or more huge expansion Out in Space on the Aliumz Planet or Back in Time during the Xan Era or something! The micro-content is cool but we need a new frontier...

Last thing! About the "Gm Issue" I have had several long term problems on two characters for 8+ years in one case (lol) that GMs now no longer even know the root issue Im talking about! My agent got the SL release bug of loading a Shadowbreed before 205, now cant load SB and have no SB. For 8+ years. Just Sayin...

[Darcwrangle]

Also, I can haz resignation form and go back to neutral? The story line says the original Neuts were omni/clan who quit their sides I'll offer bribes of chocolate. And bacon.

The above quote I assume you are sided whether it be Clan or Omni.

In my opinion NO. Neutrals have, I feel are part of the problem with this game. They are the most populated faction, which causes me to make my next comment. Before Notum Wars Neutrals were only able to defend themselves in PvP and could never engage (start) PvP. Funcom made the choice to allow them to engage in PvP in order to create fairness in game play, Tower Wars, Battle Station, etc. Neutrals also have the benefit when acquiring faction fast in SL. I had some neutral players tell me that if I made a new character I should remain neutral for easy leveling, though I disagree. Yes, Neutrals should be able travel freely between cities, but they should not have the same or similar access to gear, items, as Sided Players. Upon writing this post, it may seem I am bashing Neutrals, maybe I am, and maybe I am not. I just feel that finding a team would possibly be easier if more players were sided. Yes, I could team with Neutral players, but that should be second to last resort as I play Omni. Neutrals I believe were not meant to be a large faction as it is today. I knew players that were Neutral and with the release of Notum Wars decided to quit playing, as they did not like the way the game was heading.

Bottom line you choose a side, either delete or role a new toon if you want to be neutral again.

My question for Mean's is during the anniversary Q&A you said you do not want to be as big as WoW. My thought was why not more revenue coming in so you could have more staff. Now if it because of the problems such as or similar to what I encountered as a WoW player such as Account(s) being Hacked consistently, Gold (in-game currency) farmers, etc. I can understand that to a point, but currently we already have credit (in-game currency) farmers in game now, which should to be addressed further, I agree with the decision on S10, now I do not have toon at that level or maybe I do, as AI is new to me. This is the main problem with the game economy.

[Escapegoat]

They are the most populated faction, which causes me to make my next comment.

Do we play the same game? :O Unless you're on another server where things are different, Neutrals are the smallest faction - I know virtually every established Neut player, and the neutral orgs circle like vultures around any new neut players who show up.

I know many would disagree, but I actually would be fine with Neuts only being able to self-defend and not go on the offensive.

What I'm not happy about is that I made my GA4 fixer before I realized that I'd actually much rather playing on neutral. Now I'm stuck on a side I feel zero loyalty to, and it seems silly that I can switch back and forth between clan and Omni to my heart's content, but not actually join my own chosen side and put that toon in my own org.

I'd obviously prefer neutral application forms, but I'd settle for an answer of "yes, we're planning on it" or "no, absolutely not, this will never happen". If the answer is No, I'll start levelling a new fixer and get a new copy of grid armor. So far there has only been a very vague response about it.

[Galilei]

Is there any plans to add AO to Steam / Origin / Impulse / GamersGate / Direct2Drive etc. to bring in more new players? FC's Bloodline Champions is already in Steam so why not AO too?

What's the next expansion / booster called (after the engine update)?

Are you going to "hijack" artists/coders from The Secret World's team once it's released and dev team there is reduced to regular "keep the game running" -crew size?

[hokutonoken]

will neutral get a token board with tokens?!

[Superflare]

Many of us who has been around since 2001 have a different life situation today than we had 10 years ago. As an example I have a 125 % job, a house to maintain, and multiple kids that I did not have back in 2001.

I will never ever find time to fully grind out and equip new toons (or get my old ones into shape) with my current situation (no, im not getting a divorce and quitting my job to play AO, though it is tempting sometimes).

SO MY QUESTION IS:
Will the Ingame Shop in the future be extended to contain EVERY item and levels in this game?

If yes, I can continue playing AO till the servers go offline

If no, hello Xbox

[Tazalanche]

Will the Ingame Shop in the future be extended to contain EVERY item in this game?

If no, I'll continue on the same path I am currently on, in regards to game time vs. family time.
If yes, I don't care if I have 11 months & 29 days of subtime available on each account... I'll cancel every one of them as soon as I see the items available for purchase & probably end up banned from the forums before that day ends.

[Gatester]

1. As a veteran player (long term paying customer across multiple accounts) I was rather frustrated with the rubi'ka hardcore pack that was offered. I think it was a good offer, don't get me wrong, but as someone with 3 subscriptions under year long terms I felt really slighted. AO seems to have a long history of throwing rewards at people that have not been loyal in order to get them to return or subscribe whereas not providing comparable rewards to those of us that have been consistant in supporting this game over its lifetime (me personally for over 7 years). I've spoken to customer service and basically been told 'too bad' but Id like to know your perspective on why existing customers, especially those that have existing year long subscriptions under no promotions, can not be given the same types of virtual perks as new people or folks that have been away and decided to resub with the new offer.

I am going to address this and then deal with my own questions in a seperate post. As a result of my thread involving this subject I did, in fact, PM Means about this.

Means took the time on a Saturday while home with his family to reply to my initial inquiry about this and similar veteran-esque issues. I did not feel it was appropriate for me, a consistent resubber to pay for 20-24 months of game time just to be included in special offers. The reply I recieved stated that Means did not feel it was unreasonable to expect players who already pay for years at a time, and have been paying for so long, to simply extend their accounts another year.

Many people did not mind and went ahead and resubbed, but I did offer a counter-suggestion.

***Being able to add onto current subscriptions would put myself into paying for account time until August of 2013. I will not lie and say I am one of the players who cannot afford to do so, I simply do not feel that investing so far into the future is a reasonable request of anyone. My counter to a static addition of account time however should be reasonable I hope.

Instead of simply adding a year of account time for current subscribers, perhaps an extension based upon already used account time could be created? In my case I have already played nearly 3 months of my current 1-year subscription, my special offer could be the benefits recieved in the deal but only add 3 more months and have a price reflecting that. I would
not mind paying a higher price for those 3 months as opposed to paying for an additional year, or from this point, having pre-paid for 20 months of game time. This would make me feel equal to that new player or player who has quit and chose to resub using this method.***

A lot can happen in 2, 3, or 4 years. How far ahead can someone be reasonably expected to pay just to recieve these special offers? Means stated he would reply again but I think any response in this thread should be enough on at least this issue.


Just to clarify, Means did ask for suggestions and I felt a reply on the weekend was above and beyond. Whether I agree with Means' opinion is beside the point but I still feel his pixelated heart is in the right place.

[nijushio]

-Is there any plan to fix Notum War, pvp level ranges (165 vs 207 etc) and faction issues (uneven numbers/benefits)?
AOs backstory and lore is about the conflict so it would be nice if the main part of the game got more attention.
No engine update or huge total conversion rebalance needed here. A few rather small changes would be enough (see game suggestions).

-Will there be any background related story events and changes to the world happening after engine update (like major cities changing hands/getting destroyed/rebuilt etc)



completely agree here with Jill:

1. As a veteran player (long term paying customer across multiple accounts) I was rather frustrated with the rubi'ka hardcore pack that was offered. I think it was a good offer, don't get me wrong, but as someone with 3 subscriptions under year long terms I felt really slighted. AO seems to have a long history of throwing rewards at people that have not been loyal in order to get them to return or subscribe whereas not providing comparable rewards to those of us that have been consistant in supporting this game over its lifetime (me personally for over 7 years). I've spoken to customer service and basically been told 'too bad' but Id like to know your perspective on why existing customers, especially those that have existing year long subscriptions under no promotions, can not be given the same types of virtual perks as new people or folks that have been away and decided to resub with the new offer.
...

[Makihran]

1. As a veteran player (long term paying customer across multiple accounts) I was rather frustrated with the rubi'ka hardcore pack that was offered. I think it was a good offer, don't get me wrong, but as someone with 3 subscriptions under year long terms I felt really slighted. AO seems to have a long history of throwing rewards at people that have not been loyal in order to get them to return or subscribe whereas not providing comparable rewards to those of us that have been consistant in supporting this game over its lifetime (me personally for over 7 years). I've spoken to customer service and basically been told 'too bad' but Id like to know your perspective on why existing customers, especially those that have existing year long subscriptions under no promotions, can not be given the same types of virtual perks as new people or folks that have been away and decided to resub with the new offer.

This type of treatment of long time, loyal subscribers is one of my biggest gripes with this game. I'd like to add my name to the list of people who would like an answer to this.

***Being able to add onto current subscriptions would put myself into paying for account time until August of 2013. I will not lie and say I am one of the players who cannot afford to do so, I simply do not feel that investing so far into the future is a reasonable request of anyone.

...

A lot can happen in 2, 3, or 4 years. How far ahead can someone be reasonably expected to pay just to recieve these special offers?

Can't be said any better than this...

[kesh]

1. Do you acknowledge the problem AO has with having only 1 pure tank and 1 pure healer profession and do you feel that the rebalance will fix this?

2. What percentage of your revenues come from itemshop and is this percentage high enough to consider making AO a free mmorpg at some point? I'd be satisfied with a partial answer.

3. Have you considered updating the froob offer, 6 years after it was introduced, and adding other expansions to it?

[Mavritanic]

What devs plan in the 2012?

[Artona]

Did you hear?

I put in 3 more Alphas today!

[MajorOutage]

1. Do you acknowledge the problem AO has with having only 1 pure tank and 1 pure healer profession and do you feel that the rebalance will fix this?

Judging by the docs released thus far, it's pretty obvious they think railroading professions into certain roles is the fix.

[Gatester]

My actual questions, and lots of them:

Any chance of the "XP raid" suggestions being implemented? The XP raid suggestions were encounters with high XP gain and a final massive XP reward for completion and no actual loot rewards. If not, are there any plans for other XP boosting alternatives, such as adding mini-xp rewards to RK/SL general missions?

How long until a raid that makes being melee rather than range a benefit becomes introduced? Even the final boss of DB3 only requires the team's crat pets to attack the healer mob.

LE research severely limited the "uniqueness" of some builds, would you consider limiting players by forcing them to select only 2 research lines to keep active at a time?

Would you consider opening up nearly all perk lines for all professions? New players could become overwhelmed, but the perklines could be sorted in "typical profession perks" and then other perks left as "general". The variety of builds and the limiting amount of perks a player could use could offer some exciting setups. (Just remove Mongo Rage first and no one could complain)

The RK-weapon upgrade items for specials on weapons are very rare drops from robot type mobs. Although a quest can be done to recieve a kit that seems better for higher level players and not lower level ones (as they cannot complete the quest). The costs are also relatively high, but availability is the bigger issue. Could the upgrades for RK-weapons be added to the vendor in borealis up to maybe quality 50 or 100? Example: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=272297

Since a group of shades completed pande without the use of any other professions, can we expect massive shade nerfs now?

May I have a lightsaber for my nanomage forums avatar...or...can you ask Kintaii to give me one please?

When they close the Age of Conan servers do you think all the character and monster models could be added to AO to really boost the variety?

What is the critical rate formula already!?!?!

Is there any chance that pvp titles and scores can be changed or at least adjusted again? Impossible scores I can live with, but pointless kill counters are terrible. Even worse, if you never die then you get consistently lower kill rewards, but if you frequently die while killing just as often then you gain a significantly higher score rate. In otherwords, the current system rewards the reckless or gankers and not the most skilled. The old system was bad too, but surely there is a common ground between what we have now and what we had before that would work.

Why were "PVP" dailies created which involve no actual pvp whatsoever? AKA, tower tagging.

Will there ever be weapon type specific properties introduced? Example being piercing weapons generate DoT damage, grenades could proc AOE damage, or 1he weapons could cause targets to be snared.

Will symbiants or AI armor ever be nerfed or made more specialized before rebalance? If post rebalance, is it likely that symbiants will be equal access for all or will some have access to many types while others are limited to maybe one set?

Will synergy effects or gear sets ever be considered? IE boosts for more of the same armor type rather than mix-matching.

Facial tattoos, earings, necklaces, ties, etc...when?

[Gatester]

1. Do you acknowledge the problem AO has with having only 1 pure tank and 1 pure healer profession and do you feel that the rebalance will fix this?

The only problem is that the pure tank profession is unnecessary. Too much healing and debuffing but FC knows this.

[Regidoc]

Many of us who has been around since 2001 have a different life situation today than we had 10 years ago. As an example I have a 125 % job, a house to maintain, and multiple kids that I did not have back in 2001.

I will never ever find time to fully grind out and equip new toons (or get my old ones into shape) with my current situation (no, im not getting a divorce and quitting my job to play AO, though it is tempting sometimes).

SO MY QUESTION IS:
Will the Ingame Shop in the future be extended to contain EVERY item and levels in this game?

If yes, I can continue playing AO till the servers go offline

If no, hello Xbox

I believe it was stated when the shop was first started that it would never contain items that can be gathered through the content.