Monthly Development Update – Nov 5th 2012

[lindelu]

Exciting! Great job guys ((:

[Traderjill]

Probably bound to a character, but who knows

lol, I hope Funcom knows and I'd like to know too Some are responding to this question/concern as if they definitively know that copy/pasting your prefs will work under the new char ID. If it does that's great.. I'd just like someone that actually knows to chime in or for people that are certain about how it works to quote their info sources. I'm completely clueless on this type of thing thus me asking the question in the first place.

[ByLogic]

What about the unique ID's assigned to items (like backpacks)? When I look at /Prefs/Username/CharID/Containers/ folder, every backpack has its on container ID/label. An example (not exact, inserted #'s to mask because no idea what this information is) is Container_#####x617###043.xml. Is that Container number/ID something that was generated server side that is also potentially existing right now on RK1/old RK3 like the character ID's or is it unique to my char/server/whatever?

Item ID connected to your char is stored on the server. you container item order, are all in the Container folder so just copy everything from your char folder to new charid folder and you be fine.

Item id is not related to server merge or your char, you either have the item or not. I am sure the dev can confirm this. If your items
are different from what your xml pref files say, the xml file will change loaded from the server. Its only visual stuff.

[Ilaliya]

Server merge inbound! Awesome!

But

I still havent found a clear answer to the questions revolving around duplicate names of characters and organizations - is it really going to go down on a first come first served base or is it going to happen in the same awful fashion as with the RK3 merge? Or possibly in a way where everybody gets to keep his/her name with some flag that discriminates the former servers?

Neither.

Obviously, I have a very strong interest in making sure duplicate names are resolved in a 100% fair fashion. Most of the time a person can look at the details of duplicate name and say "yeah okay, legitimately this name belongs to this guy/girl." We identified 5 categories that you would mostly look at, and then we incorporated those factors into an algorithm and put it through the normal what-if scenarios. I'm confident in the vast majority of cases, it will pick the one that a rational, impartial human being would pick. And no, we can't use level because people twink.

But the AO community is very smart, and very good at "gaming"/breaking systems. It's what AO is about, after all. So I'm not going to run the risk of having the outcome being changed, because it's more work for Customer Service. If we're talking about your main, I wouldn't worry. But looking at the algorithm I could probably take someone's alt or mule that I knew was a candidate for "stealing" because I know what to look for, and then do specific things to trick the algorithm (again, if I knew what to do AND if the circumstances were correct).

Ultimately, if someone thinks their name was unfairly given to someone else... Customer Service will look at the names and be the rational, impartial human being that's like "yeah okay this person legitimately deserves it." Because in the above case, if I tried to steal someone's name Customer Service could look at it be like... "yeah, okay Ilaliya... I can tell that you really don't legitimately have name rights to LazyAlt257." (for example)

So, hopefully you can understand why I just don't want to open the can of worms of actually releasing the specific algorithm.

[Lazy]

"yeah, okay Ilaliya... I can tell that you really don't legitimately have name rights to LazyAlt257." (for example)

brb rolling that

[ByLogic]

brb rolling that

confirm Lazy has a alt named LazyAlt257 :P

[Hulk]

My account is frozen. Will my characters be merged? All I saw was something about logging in to get in the queue. How will inactive players be handled?

[Humlee]

My account is frozen. Will my characters be merged?

Did you read the OP?

They will, and upon first login they will all display inactive, and you'll be able to activate X number of characters.

[Ekarona]

My account is frozen. Will my characters be merged?

At some point yes.

[Vhab]

My account is frozen. Will my characters be merged?

Merging is an incremental process.
Your characters will be transferred to the new server when you try to log on.

[Ekarona]

Merging is an incremental process.
Your characters will be transferred to the new server when you try to log on.

Do you prioritise active accounts in the begining? I mean in the queue, or aren't every account in queue to begin with?

[Hulk]

Thanks for the triple reply and yes I read it but all I saw was something about logging in to get in a queue. Was just curious how it will be handled after the fact, like say, next year or in a couple years or whenever I decide to resub.. Thanks for clarifying vhab

[Vhab]

Do you prioritise active accounts in the begining?

As Ilaliya mentioned in this update, you get to prioritized by attempting to log in.
So in a sense, yes active accounts are prioritized to be transferred.

We expect everyone that wishes to, to be able to play on the same day as the servers go live.
You don't have to be too concerned about being in the queue too long.

[Lheann]

So when we log in the first time on the new server we get told to log out and wait for an email if I understood correctly.

Is there anyway that the email could contain old char id to new char id mappings in it for the account? That sure would be nice for us to help in manually moving the prefs on our side. I mean that information has to exist for the process to work at all, so I am asking is can the info be passed on to us.

Thanks

[Warhead]

[....]

So, hopefully you can understand why I just don't want to open the can of worms of actually releasing the specific algorithm.

I do. Thank you for clarifying. Let's hope it turns out good for everybody.

I think I said it before, but AO was sorely missing the position of a producer and specifically you. I think of you as the duct tape that keeps things together and the crew focused. Stay sticky!

[Liwa]

Neither.

Obviously, I have a very strong interest in making sure duplicate names are resolved in a 100% fair fashion. Most of the time a person can look at the details of duplicate name and say "yeah okay, legitimately this name belongs to this guy/girl." We identified 5 categories that you would mostly look at, and then we incorporated those factors into an algorithm and put it through the normal what-if scenarios. I'm confident in the vast majority of cases, it will pick the one that a rational, impartial human being would pick. And no, we can't use level because people twink.

But the AO community is very smart, and very good at "gaming"/breaking systems. It's what AO is about, after all. So I'm not going to run the risk of having the outcome being changed, because it's more work for Customer Service. If we're talking about your main, I wouldn't worry. But looking at the algorithm I could probably take someone's alt or mule that I knew was a candidate for "stealing" because I know what to look for, and then do specific things to trick the algorithm (again, if I knew what to do AND if the circumstances were correct).

Ultimately, if someone thinks their name was unfairly given to someone else... Customer Service will look at the names and be the rational, impartial human being that's like "yeah okay this person legitimately deserves it." Because in the above case, if I tried to steal someone's name Customer Service could look at it be like... "yeah, okay Ilaliya... I can tell that you really don't legitimately have name rights to LazyAlt257." (for example)

So, hopefully you can understand why I just don't want to open the can of worms of actually releasing the specific algorithm.

I know you won't give out the algorithm ... and I understand why.

Can you at least confirm that you apply this algorithm in such a way that it looks at the old servers for information and not which person with the same name migrates to the new server first?

I assume the toon that came in 2nd or 3rd with the algorithm will get a "-##" after their name like was done when the German server merged ... correct?

Also, can someone speak to the many suggestions for keeping our preferences and backpack labels in tact, please?



Kinnik

[Otansaanpas]

How will inactive players be handled?

why does it matter how, or if, inactive characters are transferred or not?
its not like you would interact with them anyway :P

[Ilaliya]

I know you won't give out the algorithm ... and I understand why.

Can you at least confirm that you apply this algorithm in such a way that it looks at the old servers for information and not which person with the same name migrates to the new server first

It has nothing to do with who migrates first. It only looks at the current servers.

[Metafly7]

Question related to the engine upgrade to come;

As the engine is from age of conan and i recall having heard the system requirements would be relatively the same, is the engine to come going to be making use of having multiple cores in your computer?

And relatively related question will it also make more use of the graphics card instead of mostly using the CPU as ive heard it does now?

[Dragocze]

I guess, that character name conflict will be resolved by played time.