Monthly Development Update - March 2016 (April Fooled)

[Le-Quack]

steam is coming ''soon'
the rebalance is coming ''soon''
i am so bored of the empty promisses on top of this.

no hate thou, it is just boring for a guy that has a passion for this game to see it so broken when it has so much potensial.

[Aiken]

As this patch and its ramifications become more apparent, I can't help tasting the sour flavour of cash-milking in my mouth.

I wonder, would they prefer we m00 occasionally while being milked, or just prepared to be harvested for meat?

Joking aside, thank you for yet another kick in the balls to your long-term subscribers FC. This does not & will not go unnoticed.

[DigitalBath]

FunCom just took a huge step back.

AO is not TSW and switching to a similar rewards system is harmful to the community and to the subscription base.
Disabling character transfers while not much of an issue for me personally is INCREDIBLY STUPID in a game with so many people that play 2-3-4-5-6+ accounts. You're denying yourself income and making your FunCom Points even less attractive.

Examples of bad things: Kicking the playerbase in the balls, punching them in the boob, curb stomping them, this set of changes to AO Accounts.

Listen to your playerbase when the issue unites their voice. Multiboxing has both sides (some say it ruins the game, some disagree heartily and see it as a consequence). Many pvp and profession changes have both sides (some say OP OP NERF, some say "l2p!").. This one? No one actually likes it. The best replies in this post were before details were had and people were giving the thing a chance... after the patch hit it's clear - it's a dud.

FunCom can choose to fix it or.. well.. disappoint the community again.

[doctorgore]

This was the worst patch in a very long time and I can only assume corporate driven. Not allowing vet point accumulation is utter cash grab greed. I have nowhere near many of the vets on here and one of the reason I get long subs is to get more vet points.

My sub is good to summer of 2017 even and all I got was x1 heckler juice to pump an mp from lvl 1 to lvl100. Everything else as a reward was total garbage. You now force me into paying for items I want such as beacons and budget the sub 100 vet points to buy social items from the vet shop and not things I would consider useful.. This was a fools update and example of greed when my sub is up I am done. I am sick of mmos in general and the pure greed that goes behind them.

[Anonimofied]

FC needs capitals for the development of their new game "Conan Exiles". FC needs more milk and juices to survive, thanks to KGJ Investments S.A my calculations i claimed back in January 2016, that AO will die at the end of 2016 seems to be wrong. It seems like FC may survive longer than i expected, but at the same time i feel like the longer FC survives the bigger their debt grows ...

FC needs more milk ::: http://www.funcom.com/investors/tran..._related_party

[Alternity]

Pretty sure most of this debacle could have been avoided, had the old veteran point system been allowed to coexist.

[Winning]

Vet points is a dead system that has lived out its age. Why are you so upset about this?

[Anonimofied]

I believe most veterans are not upset about the veteran points issue, they are upset because it seems like they are not being appreciated or rewarded for being veterans. Also, removing something is never a good idea, because there will always be someone that will be dissatisfied.

Best Regards and Wishes,
Self-proclaimed AO Forum Veterans Representative

[Le-Quack]

i can live with this, i just like to get some benefits becose i stuck with this game for around 13 years :P
but i never stopped to subscribe even in the hard times where i felt there was no hope for this game to excist during periods of big xploits, cheats, bad patches etc.
i given allot of money to funcom during the years here, and it does feel nice to see you are still appriciated as a subscriber by reciving a gift or two for the loyalty wich vet points once did and this new system doesnt seem to do if its based on how long you paid in advance.
but agein the vet point reward system was realy realy outdated and never realy gave me much benefit except from the tokens, but still.. i like to be rewarded for beeing here for a damn long time, and i dont seem to be alone on this.

but in the end here i problabe remain as a subscriber to this game end up f2p many years ahead no matter reason, i just wish there was dedicated more time for balance :P

[Governator]

i can live with this, i just like to get some benefits becose i stuck with this game for around 13 years :P
but i never stopped to subscribe even in the hard times where i felt there was no hope for this game to excist during periods of big xploits, cheats, bad patches etc.
i given allot of money to funcom during the years here, and it does feel nice to see you are still appriciated as a subscriber by reciving a gift or two for the loyalty wich vet points once did and this new system doesnt seem to do if its based on how long you paid in advance.
but agein the vet point reward system was realy realy outdated and never realy gave me much benefit except from the tokens, but still.. i like to be rewarded for beeing here for a damn long time, and i dont seem to be alone on this.

but in the end here i problabe remain as a subscriber to this game end up f2p many years ahead no matter reason, i just wish there was dedicated more time for balance :P

Just wanted to clear up, that while it does pre-load your rewards for anytime you have already subscribed into the future, these rewards are also earned over time. So if you still do 1-month sub then after 6 months you will get the 180 day rewards. So it is similar to the vet points in that it will build up and reward over time but also allows people to get rewards right away based on already paid time. (this is taking my feelings on this program out, btw. Just stating facts.)

[doctorgore]

Just wanted to clear up, that while it does pre-load your rewards for anytime you have already subscribed into the future, these rewards are also earned over time. So if you still do 1-month sub then after 6 months you will get the 180 day rewards. So it is similar to the vet points in that it will build up and reward over time but also allows people to get rewards right away based on already paid time. (this is taking my feelings on this program out, btw. Just stating facts.)

The rewards are garbage everything good costs real $$$ that is the problem.

[Governator]

The rewards are garbage everything good costs real $$$ that is the problem.

Other than the Unlimited Ammo and the extra character slot I agree. I also feel that if we got 1200 Bonus Points ($9.99 worth of points, similar to how TSW does it) then that would go a long way to making the membership more worth the cost.

[PigBrother]

The bright part of this patch is too far that you can't see it

Well, after this patch I saw a nice part : I was able to get in some really nice public teams for some quests and I saw Borealis and even ICC very populated.

P.S. a game which is not making money is shut down so is absolutely natural that they want to make some money out of it to keep it alive. Is NATURAL and everyone here is blaming something natural. As I am always saying : being invited to a raid bot is a privilege not a right and going further, getting veteran points is a privilege not a right - you pay to play the game - if the game is giving you something in return (items, etc) is ok - if not, is also ok - you paid for playing it.

Further more, the game got a ton of content lately and even more, the ones that are crying more loud are the ones that are not playing anymore (or saying are not playing).
I will let you think about that for a while

[BytEfLUSh2]

getting veteran points is a privilege not a right - you pay to play the game - if the game is giving you something in return (items, etc) is ok - if not, is also ok - you paid for playing it.

While what you are saying is true - it has no meaning in this discussion. We're not talking about suing FC, going all the way to Strasbourg Court of Human Rights, or taking any other legal means. What we are saying is that this is a bad, really bad move, as their customers. We really want this game to survive and keep going for a long time, but FC corp decisions are disappointing.

the ones that are crying more loud are the ones that are not playing anymore (or saying are not playing).

You actually made my point clear. People stopped playing, but still care, still want this game to succeed. People who love this game keep checking these forums and GD newsletters hoping for some change for the better. Why would they keep silent when it's obvious that FC has made a terrible move? Those people are not paid by competitors, they are not casual trolls that wander around on the Internets, those people are paid subscribers who only want what's best for this game and voice their opinion. So far, the feedback to these changes has been overwhelmingly negative. Doesn't that say something?

[Odonoptera]

Hey all,

We've gone ahead and re-enabled the character transfer service. This should help everybody transition into the new Membership system more smoothly.

[nanoforcer]

Hey all,

We've gone ahead and re-enabled the character transfer service. This should help everybody transition into the new Membership system more smoothly.

Good, thanks for listening, and next time before any drastic change PLEASE give warning well in advance.

[Baby]

Is it back for good or just temporary?

[Le-Quack]

problabe temp since they want to try fix something with that service

[Vinkera]

problabe temp since they want to try fix something with that service

That's fine if the new service has better functionality, and replaces the current one with little down time or some kind of warnings.

"Hey guys... Character Transfer will not be available next week as we rework it."

That's about all it takes and is pretty easy. I don't understand the communication malfunctions.

[Psikie]

OK now for the most part most members on the forums are pretty well recognized. Lazy likes to talk trash about neuts, Awikun advocates for neut equality, Caloss likes to talk trash about pvm players, Soju is an educator, Darkerthanblack wants to ban any MB player, and Knuckle is a math major, while I like to call people on BS whenever I read it.

Now all that aside, I think the vet shop WAS a great idea to reward long term players. For example, i've been a subscriber for over 12 years (3 months after launch) and I have about 360ish vet points on a new toon. So for my loyalty to AO i can buy my beacons, a few social items, and if I was sided enough token to max out my board (after lvl 200) and still have over 200 vet pts remaining.

So getting rid of vet shop is kinda a slap in the face for me. I dont even get the unlimited ammo because ive never bought more than a 3 months subscription. So i'm kinda like wtf is that about after paying for AO for over a decade i would think I'd be able to get something more than a few social items and maybe some heckler juice for the extra 4 toon slots I bought with cash for my paid accounts among other item store buys. But what do I know im just another number I guess. Welcome to the unappreciated club, population = current subscriber base.