Friday with Means - March 27th, 2009

[biohazardep]

No. The effort invested in traveling out to a city to grab something is part of the price paid for gaining that object imo. No more noobs turning AO into instant gratification.

Because we all know travel distance is a better form of currency than credits. It's just common sense.

BTW; WTS Robust backpack, no creds required. You just have to come to Perpetual Wastelands from Borealis, on foot (walking). No cheating! PST

[Hacre]

We're in a war, things get lost over time in a war.

Research doesn't.

[Technogen]

Research doesn't.

I dont feel like having another argument like about what "On Demand" means, so I'll go with this.

It will make the game more dynamic and less static.

There, go with it or dont, I dont care at this point I made my statement.

[Hacre]

I dont feel like having another argument like about what "On Demand" means, so I'll go with this.

It will make the game more dynamic and less static.

There, go with it or dont I dont care at this point I made my statement.

I can think of better ways to introduce a sense of dynamism than researching again what we've already researched.

Unless you think every so often scientists re-research penicillin? You know, just it case it wanders off somewhere..

[Windguaerd]

Means, a few things that you need to be aware of.

AO Universe staff have been spending a lot of time in the newbie island to help new players. While doing that, we found some problems.

These 3 images show that even though the requirements to upload a nano are met, they still give an error as if the req is not met. This has confused a lot of new players and lead to the following questions:

Is the nano broken?
Are my skills broken?

http://www.ao-universe.com/website/i...d/island01.jpg
http://www.ao-universe.com/website/i...d/island02.jpg
http://www.ao-universe.com/website/i...d/island03.jpg

The users were not debuffed, their NCU was clear and they zoned to make sure it wasn't a temporary bug. We believe more than one nano has this issue, I would suggest a Bug Hunter to be sent to the newbie island to track down the problem, and hopefully lead to a fix.

Also the amount of credit sellers have reached a disturbing level, I mean... I've timed some of these people, and about every 5-10 minutes, they spam their advertising. That adds up to more than 200 spams per day, per spammer (there is more than one, representing at least 3 different sites). New players see this and some even think they are legitimate transactions!!

[Technogen]

I can think of better ways to introduce a sense of dynamism than researching again what we've already researched.

Unless you think every so often scientists re-research penicillin? You know, just it case it wanders off somewhere..

Bad example because they are constandly researching and improving penicillin.

[Kurasaki]

Wind I think it has to do with the skills window rounding up trickle down to where it may show 35 but its really some weird number like 34.999... Atleast its what I'm "thinking" is the problem. Because I get the same problem when i'm rezzing.

Also one question. What GUI are you using? Love those Hp/nano bars.

[Hacre]

Bad example because they are constandly researching and improving anti biotics.

Fixed.

Why can't you just accept that adding more grind because the grind is now less cumbersome isn't the best idea you've had? You've had some good ones, that isn't one of them.

[Wrangeline]

Very interesting update this week.

It all sounds (potentially) extremely good.

The AS-change will be.. interesting. WTB more info on that one as soon as you have any to give

[Windguaerd]

Wind I think it has to do with the skills window rounding up trickle down to where it may show 35 but its really some weird number like 34.999... Atleast its what I'm "thinking" is the problem. Because I get the same problem when i'm rezzing.

Also one question. What GUI are you using? Love those Hp/nano bars.

Answer to the GUI question: BETA stage of the new AOU Mod, which includes a new GUI (probably a few versions and a slimline version).

http://www.ao-universe.com/viewtopic.php?t=3173

[sultryvoltron]

one could hope that he meant that the fix to the unneutral "neutral" people is to just ignore them.

I think Hyde's suggestion is the most fair fix for this. It needs some serious checks and balances, since I regularly end up on the same side of BS because of low numbers. Either way, a fix to faux-neutrals is only half of the problem. The other half needs equal attention from the devs.

Please.. Don't let them level past 200

A bit too late for this. The bed is made, and now it needs new sheets.

[boggengie]

Also the amount of credit sellers have reached a disturbing level, I mean... I've timed some of these people, and about every 5-10 minutes, they spam their advertising. That adds up to more than 200 spams per day, per spammer (there is more than one, representing at least 3 different sites). New players see this and some even think they are legitimate transactions!!

at least they are better than they were, the one I see on rk2 all the time was spamming every minute, for months, and then another came along spamming every 15 seconds... I posted on forums, sent a petition, and also sent an email to support, saying the game likely gained no new players, and lost some players that night due to spam flooding and newbies not knowing how to ignore or turn off the channels.

Since then the spams have dropped to the 5-10 minutes, but their continued existence, sending the same exact spam, would indeed make some people think they are allowed, and even supported.

and spams on island...why do the spammers think newbies will buy credits that soon?

[MachSchau]

""global research: questions has been here before. Do you still plan to bring new ones or are you not really a fan of those , e.g. it's leftover from before your time as boss"

I was never a fan of the global systems. I didn't like the idea of producing huge amounts of content that..when the research was complete...would never be seen again. The mechs are a great example of this...hundreds of hours of work producing and texturing models that a new player will never see. I don't feel this is a good use of resources...I also don't feel like people feel they are getting value by contributing their XP to the common good. I would much more prefer to implement more personal research to allow for individual improvement...perhaps one like the ability to build new building (just an example) for your new city....the player who researches the line can create a building that can be enjoyed by his entire guild."

I enjoyed the global research. I run a lot of inf missions with my org, ever since it was released up until now, I probably could have finished an entire level 1 by myself. With that in mind, I find that when I do SK with the org, that reward doesn't go anywhere. I would like it to because there isn't much of an incentive to continue to roll missions for others, except to be nice, when your char doesn't need any sk. Not to mention, scrounging up a viable team in inf is becoming more and more difficult with the constant flood of 160-200's hanging out on lft and in the garden so the idea of running a lower level inf mission with what you can find make it that much more difficult.

So, anyways, it would be a nice idea to make global research useful again. Not in the same sense like how we had in the past, but perhaps a different method. Right now, global research is done and when its done players dont have to do anything to benefit from it. I think one idea would be that players would need a certain amount of SK per some time-frame to maintain the benefits of global research. Also, with the proposed route of gaining SK by other means on the drawing board, I am sure some 220/70 players would use these methods for fun, for exploring, for the story etc.

On a side note, I find that if global research were to maintain its current run of adding stat enhancements to characters it would really cause negative side affects to gameplay. The current hud3 researches are good in the way that they are subtle and not over-powered but honestly, where can you go with them in regards to enhancing them? Only up, and that would be bad. To keep up with the hud3 twinking trend, you could possibly add global research that add to non-major skills like trade skills, spying, navigation etc. Other than that, I cant really see global research having longevity unless global research armors, symbs or other hud/util slot researches were introduced.

But in the end, I like my first idea of requiring people to SK to maintain the rewards of global research. Maybe throw in an RP element about how the items need to have maintenance and the SK is used towards that etc.

[intelknight]

I have played other games with [mail] systems in place and never really liked that I could not see members of my org for weeks at a time..yet exchange items etc with them all the time. Travel in AO is really quick and easy...so a quick visit with your friends never felt like a "bad" thing for me.

I know I will be hated for pointing this out, but some of us have jobs, need 8 hours of sleep, have offline friends and (oh the blasphemy) family. Or it is official policy that AO's target audience are hardcore 18 hours-a-day players like Means and the rest of the AO team?

Not to mention a few other facts:
- There are different time zones.
- There are own alts.
- There are newbs that need help
- There are veterans who can provide help but can't b/c they are in Inf/S10/Dreads etc.

Can we at least have "send credits" thing? Make it instant delivery like org donations.

PS About global research. I was actually a very nice competition between clans and omni to unlock stuff. I realize FC does not have resources to design new meshes, but it should be easy enough to just change stats.

PPS And speaking of competition. Neuts were nerfed for their refusal to pick a side in the conflict, and should remain this way.

[Klodovik]

Please, no prof specific HH@B.

There will probably be ones with silly mods and ones with nice mods on them and we will all start to bitch like we are bitching now with stellar nanodecks. I guess it would be nice to avoid that.

Really, if there's something good as it is, it's the HH@B ring.

[Hacre]

Please, no prof specific HH@B.

There will probably be ones with silly mods and ones with nice mods on them and we will all start to bitch like we are bitching now with stellar nanodecks. I guess it would be nice to avoid that.

Really, if there's something good as it is, it's the HH@B ring.

I'm inclined to agree.

Oh, your hidden message, I can still read the name of the recipient.

[Liamboru]

I can think of better ways to introduce a sense of dynamism than researching again what we've already researched.

Unless you think every so often scientists re-research penicillin? You know, just it case it wanders off somewhere..

From what I have read of the history, a lot of the scientists involved in the US atomic-bomb program started out somewhere else, working for the other side (since we went the irl route).

[Klodovik]

Oh, your hidden message, I can still read the name of the recipient.

ONOES!

Really?

[shadowgod]

I dont feel like having another argument like about what "On Demand" means, so I'll go with this.

It will make the game more dynamic and less static.

There, go with it or dont, I dont care at this point I made my statement.

losing and regaining items/stats isnt dynamic, its annoying.

think of NW that, instead of losing your towers to pvp, you lost them due to "age".

[sultryvoltron]

Please, no prof specific HH@B.

There will probably be ones with silly mods and ones with nice mods on them and we will all start to bitch like we are bitching now with stellar nanodecks. I guess it would be nice to avoid that.

Really, if there's something good as it is, it's the HH@B ring.

WTB Agent Only HH@B ring with 200% CH Blocker Resist and OVER 9000% DOUBLE AS RESIST!!