Monthly Development Update – 30th of September 2013

[Ekarona]

Jobe is also weird because there is some air currents or something which drop you to totally different parts of the world when juping from plats...

[Krause]

The new Whom-pahs models are cool, but they don't fit as well in Omni cities compared to the original ones. They are perfect for Clan/Neutral cities though.

[SaloSalo]

Whom-pah changes are very welcome, but they need to add something to make them look a little more majestic. These look too much like phone booths.

[Zwelgje]

In Omni Shire (place where the Omni subway is located etc) there are also anti-air/spacecraft huge cannons that fire a beam into space from time to time (or a bit more towards Galway (or however it's spelled)) I believe.

That beam effect whenever a person uses the (new) whoompa and a few antennas then we have a deal

[Ekarona]

In Omni Shire (place where the Omni subway is located etc) there are also anti-air/spacecraft huge cannons that fire a beam into space from time to time (or a bit more towards Galway (or however it's spelled)) I believe.

That beam effect whenever a person uses the (new) whoompa and a few antennas then we have a deal

That is how they ship Notum of planet...

[Liwa]

In 18.7 it is time to look at a new area. And by making ICC HQ a convenient gathering point, I help new players find experienced players when they exit the new startup area.
ICC HQ will have more stuff than Borealis ever had, and Borealis is only 2 whom-pah jumps away from ICC HQ and 3 from Jobe. You can also enter the grid and exit in ICC HQ next to the Jobe whom-pah. (So it will actually be faster to get to Jobe from Grid than it ever has been.) I'm sure you will survive just fine even though you decide to remain in Borealis.

Perhaps the neutral Freelance Inc. mission spot should move to ICC as well?

Otherwise it makes a lot of sense to have lots of stuff in ICC HQ if that is where the new NPC exits new toons.

Liwa

[trousers]

Ok, well grats you just prompted me to look into this and I discovered that Jobe is floating in the air above RK.. go figure. Now I'm confused because from Jobe Research you can you can cross a continuous bridge that starts in Jobe research and continues through to Nascence (Shadowlands). The zone point there, I always thought, was a game mechanic versus you actually walking through a Stargate portal to get to Nascence. That also makes me wonder why you always had to use SL stims/kits in Jobe, why Fixer/MP SL garden meeps work from Jobe Platform/Jobe Research and why you can go up the stairs in Jobe Research, enter a building and be in the Shadowlands starter area.

To address these points for you:

Jobe Platform, Harbor, Plaza and Market are all located above Rubi-Ka.

Plaza and Market are connected to the Shadowlands via the small, blue trans-dimensional portals. Harbor is connected by a larger portal. The Door that separates Jobe Research from Jobe Harbor is the barrier between dimensions since the portal was removed by development.

As for the kits - They're designed to only work in Shadowlands Zones, and since all parts of Jobe are Shadowlands Expansion Zones, they'll work there. This is a violation of Lore based on Game Mechanics.

It also makes me wonder, even more, why Jobe didn't get blown to pieces by the aliens since its orbiting the planet... also, why can't we see Jobe from the battlestations?

Jobe's Survival is generally tossed in with "Why isn't Morningstar Station Destroyed?" or "Why isn't Sunrise Station Destroyed?". The Easiest way to explain this is the direct involvement of the Omni-Tek Naval Forces. They're in space fighting the aliens which are keeping the Stations protected as well as keeping Shipping Lanes open.

Jobe's unvisibility i'm not clear of. It could be that it's low enough in the atmosphere that isn't not visible, or, it's simply not visible from the viewing angles on the Battle Stations. More likely tho, it was a design oversight.

I'm sure I'm missing something about the story.. that's one aspect of the game that I feel has always been a fail. In a MMORPG, the storyline should be crystal clear if you bother to play the game.. I've done every quest and such a dozen times and still feel clueless on what's actually going on.

That's what we're trying to do in the Fourth Wall. Stop by any time with Lore & RP questions, we'd be happy to assist you.

[Metafly7]

What would make it float over rather than being an inside out world under the soil of RK? Much like the tales of jules verne? :P

[Darkbane]

Jobe is also weird because there is some air currents or something which drop you to totally different parts of the world when juping from plats...

The intense notum fields keeping it aloft...

What would make it float over rather than being an inside out world under the soil of RK? Much like the tales of jules verne? :P

See above It is a city built by the best and brightest Nanotechs and Meta-Physicists... and flaoting cities are cool it's just a pity they never though to add it to the skybox...

[Ekarona]

The intense notum fields keeping it aloft...

I mean why the distance of jump offs' landing spots are so much off each other even if it's rather small town...

[Lazy]

I mean why the distance of jump offs' landing spots are so much off each other even if it's rather small town...

because nanobots

[Neista]

Ok, well grats you just prompted me to look into this and I discovered that Jobe is floating in the air above RK.. go figure. Now I'm confused because from Jobe Research you can you can cross a continuous bridge that starts in Jobe research and continues through to Nascence (Shadowlands). The zone point there, I always thought, was a game mechanic versus you actually walking through a Stargate portal to get to Nascence. That also makes me wonder why you always had to use SL stims/kits in Jobe, why Fixer/MP SL garden meeps work from Jobe Platform/Jobe Research and why you can go up the stairs in Jobe Research, enter a building and be in the Shadowlands starter area.

It also makes me wonder, even more, why Jobe didn't get blown to pieces by the aliens since its orbiting the planet... also, why can't we see Jobe from the battlestations?

I'm sure I'm missing something about the story.. that's one aspect of the game that I feel has always been a fail. In a MMORPG, the storyline should be crystal clear if you bother to play the game.. I've done every quest and such a dozen times and still feel clueless on what's actually going on.

Go here http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ao/ao/aoart.html and take a look at the concept art for Kaneko Gardens, Inside the Gateway and the Jobe Administrators Estate. Based on the original concept art for Jobe i think it was supposed to be on the ground in a RK zone.

What we got looks like a last minute thrown together jumble of random rooms and NPC's that all say the same thing. Jobe could have been beautiful if they'd bothered to spend a little more time and effort on it.

[Trypha]

Jobe could have been beautiful if they'd bothered to spend a little more time and effort on it.

To be fair, it came along with SL which was a huge expansion and I wonder whether you would still want Jobe to be prettier if it meant less time spent on the pvm zones. But I too remember being very disappointed in it at SL launch. I had something very different in mind from reading the descriptions on Jobe clusters and nanos, something more academic/lab-like perhaps. They ended up fitting it to the whole fantasy orientation of SL though.

[Nanoshaper]

because nanobots

[Darkbane]

To be fair, it came along with SL which was a huge expansion and I wonder whether you would still want Jobe to be prettier if it meant less time spent on the pvm zones. But I too remember being very disappointed in it at SL launch. I had something very different in mind from reading the descriptions on Jobe clusters and nanos, something more academic/lab-like perhaps. They ended up fitting it to the whole fantasy orientation of SL though.

Certainly it was shown on the original map as an island, and described as such, there was also to be a Jobe outpost in The Reck (see this and the Jobe link).

I'm not sure when the concept was changed to a floating city, though I'm sure it was described as such somewhere before SL launched...

[Rurounin]

FC should remake all of Jobe, make it into one zone and change the way it looks now. Would be neat with a possible hang spot while you're waiting for teams (could even make more portals if you have either the garden key or the ring to enter that zone :O)

[Onkelolsen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6DslMwVBU

[Kauh]

FC should remake all of Jobe, make it into one zone and change the way it looks now. Would be neat with a possible hang spot while you're waiting for teams (could even make more portals if you have either the garden key or the ring to enter that zone :O)

Albeit a rather large undertaking, I second this motion. ^.^

[Rigister]

So, how´s the STEAM release going? Did we forget about that? Or AO is so awesomely populated that it doesn´t need the space in there?

[Tanisthonus]

So, how´s the STEAM release going? Did we forget about that? Or AO is so awesomely populated that it doesn´t need the space in there?

See this thread for that conversation. Short answer: There are still technical problems.