Scarcity of Devs to answer questions about 18.7

[Tomium]

Official Suggestion Thread is here: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=611967

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE use the format we have there. I know it is customary to have discussion about suggestions, but the thread I posted is not for that. That thread is simply to catalogue your suggestions, without weight, so that the devs can address them.

Thank you

[Pafpuf]

Gonna give it some time to see if that thread will actually make a difference or if it's just another "we listen we care" placebo funcom post.

[Tomium]

Thank you to those of you who have started posting in that thread. A double thank you, from me personally, for putting the suggestions exactly as I asked for them- you have no idea how much that really does help!

[Traderjill]

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the delay in this reply.

Welcome back You were sorely missed!

[Poko]

Michi for gd!

[Baby]

While you guys say no one is listening to what we have to say, I have to chime in that I did read someones post about ammunition being to scarce when starting out and that there should be more ammo given at startup and or atleast an ammo vendor near by the spawn point. While there was no response from FC, I made a new toon yesterday and actually saw that there was now an ammo vendor near the spawn point!

I have a feeling you're referring to my post, because I posted exactly that a couple days ago.
However, the terminal was always there, right at the start. What I meant to say was, that the NPC vendor in the market hall sells them for a lot less. Actually 1/10 of the price at the terminal. That's why I suggested to put the NPC vendor closer to the start.

[lunarsolace]

Michi for gd!

This

[Neista]

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the delay in this reply. In regards to the changes made in 18.7, particularly the Profession/balance changes, few are set in stone. Ideally, I'd like to massage the changes that are currently on Testlive into a state that is less jarring or difficult to swallow; this may not be entirely possible in some cases, but that is what I hope to fully grasp before we sign off on 18.7's Live release.

Given how these forums are abundant with ideas/suggestions, I feel bad asking for more feedback, but that is what we are looking for. Our Community team will be putting up a more official Suggestion box thread. I'll also be scrounging up information/feedback on my own from Professionals, the forums, harassing individuals, etc.

I also invite all of you to come onto Testlive and try these changes before requesting everything be reverted. Change can be scary, but it isn't always as bad as it may seem.

Thank you everyone for your patience, and sorry to those who have been running low. This patch's development has been an interesting process, and we hope the end result will be a large step towards gaining back some lost momentum.

You can look forward (or dread) hearing more from me in the near future.

Thankyou for replying and letting us know what you want

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the delay in this reply. In regards to the changes made in 18.7, particularly the Profession/balance changes, few are set in stone. Ideally, I'd like to massage the changes that are currently on Testlive into a state that is less jarring or difficult to swallow; this may not be entirely possible in some cases, but that is what I hope to fully grasp before we sign off on 18.7's Live release.

Given how these forums are abundant with ideas/suggestions, I feel bad asking for more feedback, but that is what we are looking for. Our Community team will be putting up a more official Suggestion box thread. I'll also be scrounging up information/feedback on my own from Professionals, the forums, harassing individuals, etc.

I also invite all of you to come onto Testlive and try these changes before requesting everything be reverted. Change can be scary, but it isn't always as bad as it may seem.

Thank you everyone for your patience, and sorry to those who have been running low. This patch's development has been an interesting process, and we hope the end result will be a large step towards gaining back some lost momentum.

You can look forward (or dread) hearing more from me in the near future.

I just want to say that this is the most cohesive and well thought-out statement I've heard from FC in a very, very, very long time.

Seeing this statement from michi makes me feel happy that someone in FC:

1. wants input from the community
2. is actually looking at our complaints
3. wants to do something about it

It also makes me rightly annoyed that, for the entire time Genele has been the GD she hasn't ever, once, attempted to reach out to the community to assess or discuss what really needs to be done, with the sole exception of a poll that hasn't yet been followed through on.

The amount of disconnect and discontent that the players of AO put up with, clinging blindly to the threads of hope that the GD's are actually doing something productive with this game is absolutely astounding.

The fact that Michi here has finally, after some 3 years, of neglect has sat down at the keyboard to type out something MEANINGFUL to us - I don't know whether to laugh and cry, or to stamp my feet and throw my laptop out the window.

Thank you michi for this clear outline of your plan.
Thank you for being direct, truthful (I hope) and transparent.
I'm am sorry, but Genele and the rest of your team currently will not see a thank you from me. You may be an adequate coder, but the lack of simple transparency to your playerbase makes it clear that either you are not a good communicator, or you have lost the support of your marketing and QA/QC team.

I look forward to appropriate dialogue regarding future changes and the evolving path forward.

[Caloss2]

If I see 20% the player suggestions being implemented, I would actually sub another 12months. Pass this back please. Thanks for the post Michizure.

[Emma]

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the delay in this reply. In regards to the changes made in 18.7, particularly the Profession/balance changes, few are set in stone. Ideally, I'd like to massage the changes that are currently on Testlive into a state that is less jarring or difficult to swallow; this may not be entirely possible in some cases, but that is what I hope to fully grasp before we sign off on 18.7's Live release.

Given how these forums are abundant with ideas/suggestions, I feel bad asking for more feedback, but that is what we are looking for. Our Community team will be putting up a more official Suggestion box thread. I'll also be scrounging up information/feedback on my own from Professionals, the forums, harassing individuals, etc.

I also invite all of you to come onto Testlive and try these changes before requesting everything be reverted. Change can be scary, but it isn't always as bad as it may seem.

Thank you everyone for your patience, and sorry to those who have been running low. This patch's development has been an interesting process, and we hope the end result will be a large step towards gaining back some lost momentum.

You can look forward (or dread) hearing more from me in the near future.

Welcome back ...

Can we please have an overall view ... discussion ... summary ... or something explaining what is intended with all these changes? I am sure there is something you all discussed in meetings to help direct the development of all these changes. It would help a lot towards the process of testing them if we understood the WHY's.

Grafts will be restored to loot tables. The nano fingers, blister packs, and other peasant forms of grafts will not be restored, however. The removal of grafts was a part of a larger set of changes which have been vetoed - Sorry for the scare.

This comment from another thread seems to confirm there is an overall direction you all are hoping for with all these changes. We would like to know and understand what that direction is.

What is the point of me spending my precious time on Test-Live if all or most of my suggestions are already on the "list" and when all the changes seem to come from a "black box" no one is willing to explain, or even worse no one person knows what is inside?

Emma

[Michizure]

Welcome back ...

Can we please have an overall view ... discussion ... summary ... or something explaining what is intended with all these changes? I am sure there is something you all discussed in meetings to help direct the development of all these changes. It would help a lot towards the process of testing them if we understood the WHY's.

This comment from another thread seems to confirm there is an overall direction you all are hoping for with all these changes. We would like to know and understand what that direction is.

What is the point of me spending my precious time on Test-Live if all or most of my suggestions are already on the "list" and when all the changes seem to come from a "black box" no one is willing to explain, or even worse no one person knows what is inside?

Emma

Thank you for the welcome back.

The mission statement of the rebalance was to go through all the professions and apply systemic changes in order to make a larger pool of the professions viable for more areas of gameplay, while also improving their identity/uniqueness as professions; these changes would be in contrast to some previous changes made over the years which could be called "band-aid" fixes. These rebalance changes were presented in a number of different ways, as seen in the nano/perk docs. As I'm sure you're aware, however, a fair amount of time has passed since this Rebalance initiative was announced, the documents created, and the present...during this time, we've found ourselves rethinking a number of these changes, in addition to the overall scope of this project.

Here we are today, 18.7 is on Testlive, and it has brought along sets of changes which in essence stayed true to what we set out to do. Some difficult, large, borderline-earth-shattering changes were made; some parts of AO have been rocked to its very core. Once again, I do invite everyone to explore some of these changes on Testlive before passing too harsh of a judgment.

It is our job as developers to do what we feel is best for the game and community as a whole. That said, receiving such a strong reaction from the community reaffirms both how much passion is still here, that some marks may have been missed. It is with a fresh pair of eyes and ears that we are willing to go through these changes, making needed adjustments, before releasing 18.7 to Live. Please feel free to add suggestions to http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=611967 (Do follow the formatting rules, though!). A nice chunk of the changes made from now until patch day will likely be inspired from that suggestion thread, my upcoming correspondence with your Professionals, and from some other sources/avenues/haunts that I choose to tap into.

I do apologize if development has seemed like a black box. Once we get past bringing 18.7 into a better state, we'll continue moving forward with enacting other items on the hit list; I believe next in the queue will be the new kind of Inferno mission.

Now I need to finish preparing for a flight I'll be on in ~18 hours. I'll have a long list of suggestions to go through to keep myself occupied until I return mid-next week.

Thanks again!

[Doctrony]

Bravo Michi, for fronting up with a statement on the proposed changes. To hear that there is some semblance of rational thought behind the changes being made and that those of you at FC are still listening feels like a figurative breath of fresh air.

I may have to scratch the AO itch and re-sub for a period, with the intention of testing these new changes. Mildly off-topic, but can anyone verify the state of TestLive character transfers? I would prefer to use my live characters simply because the items from Auto lack a certain 'fidelity' for some professions.

To reiterate my appreciation, I did indeed feel like AO's development was a bit of a black box, but between your own statements and Tomium's efforts on feedback collection I am feeling much more positive about the whole balance process.

My thanks and appreciation
-Trony-

[Xootch]

lol

[Tryptophy]

I'm so happy, this is even better than Friday with Means!

[LyraJ]

Thank you for the welcome back.

The mission statement of the rebalance was to go through all the professions and apply systemic changes in order to make a larger pool of the professions viable for more areas of gameplay, while also improving their identity/uniqueness as professions; these changes would be in contrast to some previous changes made over the years which could be called "band-aid" fixes. These rebalance changes were presented in a number of different ways, as seen in the nano/perk docs. As I'm sure you're aware, however, a fair amount of time has passed since this Rebalance initiative was announced, the documents created, and the present...during this time, we've found ourselves rethinking a number of these changes, in addition to the overall scope of this project.

Here we are today, 18.7 is on Testlive, and it has brought along sets of changes which in essence stayed true to what we set out to do. Some difficult, large, borderline-earth-shattering changes were made; some parts of AO have been rocked to its very core. Once again, I do invite everyone to explore some of these changes on Testlive before passing too harsh of a judgment.

It is our job as developers to do what we feel is best for the game and community as a whole. That said, receiving such a strong reaction from the community reaffirms both how much passion is still here, that some marks may have been missed. It is with a fresh pair of eyes and ears that we are willing to go through these changes, making needed adjustments, before releasing 18.7 to Live. Please feel free to add suggestions to http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=611967 (Do follow the formatting rules, though!). A nice chunk of the changes made from now until patch day will likely be inspired from that suggestion thread, my upcoming correspondence with your Professionals, and from some other sources/avenues/haunts that I choose to tap into.

I do apologize if development has seemed like a black box. Once we get past bringing 18.7 into a better state, we'll continue moving forward with enacting other items on the hit list; I believe next in the queue will be the new kind of Inferno mission.

Now I need to finish preparing for a flight I'll be on in ~18 hours. I'll have a long list of suggestions to go through to keep myself occupied until I return mid-next week.

Thanks again!

Michi,

Not to be a wet blanket, but that doesn't actually provide a lot of clarity on the reasoning and goals behind all the additional changes that were made. To badly paraphrase, if we don't know where you're going, then it doesn't matter what we tell you on how to get there.

In other words, I see changes designed to encourage teaming, to discourage teaming, to reduce the power level of professions, to reduce the complexity of professions, to make things easier for new players, to make things harder for new players, etc. But what I don't see is the overarching goal that helps these various changes make sense - that's what none of us can see. And without knowing what that goal is, we can't effectively test or provide feedback on whether it's working.

I think the fact that people are trying to sensibly and politely request this information on a few threads is indicative of how much we do care, are trying, and yet feel confused and baffled by the changes.

[Misat0]

I think the overall goal (or philosophy) of the changes was to retain the complexity of AO, while providing an easier access to the game systems and remove some unneeded clutter.

A good example are the new MP pet nanos. They retain the ability to twink into casting higher level pets, while removing the unneeded clutter of having multiple nanos to do so.
Unfortunately this solution is not feasible for all nanos, i.e. trader wrangles where you still want to be able to cast lower ones without having to reset skills or unequip items buffing nano skills, etc.

Of course it is difficult to assess how all the balancing changes will play out if we don't know what's planned. Some valid suggestions to the current changes might prove no longer relevant or even completely wrong when other changes are patched later. But without knowing about these changes it is simply not possible to know this.

We had the profession nano/perk docs once as a reference to what changes will come, but as they are no longer showing the current planed changes they are no longer useful as a base for suggestions.

Something like these documents updated to the current plan or at least an overall concept (what direction of changes are planned for which profession / nanoline / perkline / etc.) might help a lot.

[Cyberleet]

I believe next in the queue will be the new kind of Inferno mission.

Can this be changed to new RK-missions instead? PLZ!!!!

[Psikie]

Michi,

Not to be a wet blanket, but that doesn't actually provide a lot of clarity on the reasoning and goals behind all the additional changes that were made. To badly paraphrase, if we don't know where you're going, then it doesn't matter what we tell you on how to get there.

I would disagree. I see a very reasonable clarity to the situation which has been a gradual power creep over the years. For example NEVER in anyone's wildest idea when SL launched did someone think it would be possible to solo LoTV. Yet there are a few profs that can do it in todays live environment.

The mission statement of the rebalance was to go through all the professions and apply systemic changes in order to make a larger pool of the professions viable for more areas of gameplay,

these changes would be in contrast to some previous changes made over the years which could be called "band-aid" fixes!

What I take from this is yes, some-most-all profs are going to get some nerfage. It will scale back the holy trinity of end game raids, because they just won't have the staying power to compete without more players with more toon specific abilities in team. That's also to scale back some of those Band-Aid fixes that have kinda been thrown into the pot.

I like the premise but have to see it in action tonight before making a final judgement.

[Traderjill]

Psikie are you planning to go on Test to do any PvM content? I've yet to manage to do a single endgame raid since 18.7 hit TestLive so I still have no idea how any of my toons play with the new changes in a group environment. Most of the people testing things, with endgame toons, only seem to want to do PvP.