Monthly Development Update - April 2016 (Let's Talk)

[Phatkeep]

This is what I suggest, and most people have suggested at one time or another.

It's the most simple, and easiest to code, and has the greatest effect without impacting any other part of the game.

just do it already.

It would cost literally nothing, too. All it takes is a decision. But before a decision can be made a realization must come. And sadly I think we'll never get to that.

[Uaintseenme]

There has been a realisation.....

FC management have realised that multiboxers pay them for 6 accounts instead of just one.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I give this game less than 1/6 of the attention I gave it when I used to enjoy it.

[Phatkeep]

There has been a realisation.....

FC management have realised that multiboxers pay them for 6 accounts instead of just one.

So did many others who quit over MB as well.

[Krause]

Any ideas how to sabotage the multi boxers ? Any idea how to block the use of a box ?

They could make something like a "Tower of Displacement" for Notum Wars. A tower that randomly sends out a pulse that scatters players within its range.

All of a sudden having your carefully blobbed alts get strewn about will screw up any multiboxers world. No simple way to regroup, would have to control each manually to get them back to the same point. Would also be hilarious as a means for breaking up crowds.

[Utopian]

They could make something like a "Tower of Displacement" for Notum Wars. A tower that randomly sends out a pulse that scatters players within its range.

All of a sudden having your carefully blobbed alts get strewn about will screw up any multiboxers world. No simple way to regroup, would have to control each manually to get them back to the same point. Would also be hilarious as a means for breaking up crowds.

So, once again ....so short sighted.

What about the small group of separate players that are working together?

[Krause]

So, once again ....so short sighted.

What about the small group of separate players that are working together?

I covered that at the end there where I stated that breaking them up too would be hilarious.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I covered that at the end there where I stated that breaking them up too would be hilarious.

It doesn't work... you press F1 then whatever your hotkey is for follow. Then all players refollow your leader. I mean, unless you REALLY bounce them.

[Vinkera]

It doesn't work... you press F1 then whatever your hotkey is for follow. Then all players refollow your leader. I mean, unless you REALLY bounce them.

Adding in even a short snare to the kick effect could be very problematic, especially if the toons flew off in all different directions.

Still annoying to single toon, but not as bad as having multiple.

[Hekthor]

I dont know why you want to destroy the game mechanics from anarchy to Nerf multi boxer. There are using illegal software to control the toons. Don't allow third party tools and get some real protection like anticheat. Why it's still possible that mber can assist and normal player not? It's cause of his third party tools...

I remember the day when assist got nerfed and the MB can't assist also. Quite easy to handle but they changed his software to avoid the disabled assist. And this is the only points why mb is so strong.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Harder stance is needed to combat MB.

Developers remove assist --> MB uses 3rd party tool to create assist

That's either cheating, or it's against the EULA.

But I haven't seen any enforcement of anything yet.

[Avari]

Recently returned to the game and I'm reading all this about change/removal of the "/assist" function. Can anyone elaborate for me? What about raids and other PvM situations where you want to focus down particular targets? Assisting is kind of invaluable for that, so what do people do now if it's removed?

[Mazzarin]

What about raids and other PvM situations where you want to focus down particular targets?

Assist still works if the target is a mob.

[Hekthor]

If I didn't have a soft spot for this game I'd have given up trying to make it good again. Perhaps it's worth noting that some people ARE cheating.

The problem is assistbots.

I'm not sure if michi knows what they are, or how they work, but here's a GENERAL description of how it MIGHT work (I'm only speculating) but here goes:

* Docci turns on an option in the F10 menu which attacks the player attacking him
* he runs a fast script to return the fighting target to a third program which then holds that value in temp storage (imagine pressing M+ on a calculator)
* assistbots run on docci's computer (lets say, any of the char's he has on follow, so, 10 agents, say) use a mouse pointer with an auto click system, spamming at 10times/second or whatever (this is easy to code). The clicked target becomes the nano target and the nano target is then retrieved clientside by the assist bot,
* the assistbot then checks the value found on each click against the value held by docci's original target (that held in M+ for laymen)
* If a match is made, the autoclick stops, and instead the program relays "attack target" otherwise known as Q
* now all the assistbots are attacking the same target as the "caller", or Docci
* whoever is in control of the MB proceeds to mash the "kill anyone button" which fires NS2, agents top crit /dmg buff, fling shot, AS, and nuke.

Hurrah, target is dead and now we just wait for a few sec to get next shots off.

While it's a nicely coded piece of work, I'm 100% sure assistbots are retrieving information from clientside cache's that are MEANT to be hidden.

Oh ya, and Docci should be investigated for breach of EULA, explicit or implied.

FunCom removed the possibility to assist in PvP if the target is a player. This change is basicly very nice but there is a massivly problem with Multiboxers and their third party tools to controls their toons.

Iam not 100% sure if the third party tool works like this, but if you go to mass pvp, noone can assist. If you get attaked by one of the Multiboxxer you will notice that you are dead in 2 seconds because all toons attack you at the same time and annhilate you with special spam. And this is only possible with assist.

This is the only reason why everyone says that MB are cheating like hell - FunCom does nothing, imo they are to incompetend to code Anarchy Online to make this impossible.

As i sad, after the first mass pvp since they nerfed assist in PvP, the Multiboxxer was easy to handle because their toons dont attaked the same target...their dmg was random split to different targets. But they changed their software to avoid this assist nerf. Its like a godmode if you have the possibility to assist while every normal player cant assist.

[Awikun]

I've already written an easy solution to remove 99% of MB (all those who use 1 computer to log few characters)
Whenever 1 character is in pvp zone if another client tries to zone to the same pvp zone then client running that 2nd character should close down.
That would still allow to log few characters such as bank mules or buffing characters as long as they stay within zones with 100% gas.
Problem solved.

[Vinkera]

Harder stance is needed to combat MB.

Developers remove assist --> MB uses 3rd party tool to create assist

That's either cheating, or it's against the EULA.

But I haven't seen any enforcement of anything yet.

The "assist" that PVP multiboxers use was around before the removal of /assist.

As I understand it, it uses in-game functionality to identify the target to the slave toons. I'm pretty sure Michi knows how this is done... Maybe not. The problem is, I don't think it's his call to do anything about it. Although it uses in-game functionality, I'd still say it's against the EULA. The problem is, I don't think there's any way to really prove it.

Which is why I'd suggest things like Towers casting Kicker of Kell, or warping random people away and blinding them (sort of like that annoying boss in Albatrum) since they're things that Michi might actually be allowed to do

[Hekthor]

Fact is, it's FunComs job to solve the problem. We are user not creator. If they don't realize that's something like this important , it's shows simply that they learned nothing in the past. And this kind of publisher quality is known by the most players in the gaming series.
And this is why they also will fail with new Conan game. I think Anarchy Online have a big future but not with FunCom as publisher. It's a joke...

[Avari]

I've always wondered at a solution where mass PvP was somehow made organisation only. Somehow instancing tower zones and restricting the number of players able to partcipate maybe.

It's not like the mass wars 5-10 years ago were that much fun for anyone. Massive lags when two blobs of 100+ people ran into each other not to mention the arrival of orb cannons...

Battlestation is actually the most enjoyable PvP I've had. Don't know if you could make ownership of tower fields dependant on instanced "battlestation" fights between organisations.

It's always been face roll omni or clan owning all or no tower sites in the time I've played. Organisation and number restricted instanced zones to fight for control would let the strongest organisations with the most skilled PvPers all own tower sites regardless of faction.

[Anonimofied]

fc biggest misstake is taken advice from amateurs, and they have been doing this for 10 years. as we all can see ao only gone down hill. if you guys think your idea and suggestions are so good why dont you apply and work as game developer, instead you sits at home crying for fc to fix this and fix that? ao will die, and its you guys to blame so stop blaming anyone else then yourself

[Alves]

Sorry Guys... You are only talking about MB's that kills AO... That's not right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is on Point - MB is a {removed} that should not allowed in PvP and PvM!!!!!!!.......

But it gives many other reason why these game is duying...

1. PvP Balancing system is one of the worst system in the mmo area (e.g. Agent need 3 perks and a Aimed Shot to kill a Person - *irony on*wow that is a very skilled system!!!!!!!.......*irony off*) these system is ridiculous.... If think only 20-30% of the community care about pvp - the rest are pvm guys...

2. Battlestation concept is very bad and more than up to date in the mmo area... it is only a killfarming area where People going in sneak or afk... If we not have the dialies for the BS, the Battlestation were dead!!!!!!!!!!

3. Notum Wars concept with the towers are very old too and uninteresting... 70-80% of the community dont care about it... *irony on*wow i get some little boost for my characters and some side xp*irony off* You got so much buffs that gives XP nowadays and so much items that boost the charatcer that you can nearly solo beast*exaggerated*

4. Anarchy Online become more easier and easier... You dont have any challenges in these game anymore... Nowadays i could solo playfields and raids nearly.... And Michi pumps the game with more and more ubar stuff fully... it's ridiculous too...

5. PvM Content and Quests - over the years you can't see the same content anymore... The same Quest/raids fu..s the people still up... Beast, Aipf, Tara and other raids are simply boring with the time... We need a new Playfield with new raids, quest and leveling Abilities... A Playfield that is hard to play (in my Opinion)... I cant see these raids and playfields anymore and the tara raid is ridiculous... These game is boring after years off playing and losing attractiveness with the new ubar items - the twink System, that i love, is now ridiculous...

6. Cheating in AO - some claner (and surely some omni) using the fu..ing aohm **** that never knows best invented... and it gives a second cheating tool... Nobody from funcom doing something against it... some exploids are ingame too and will not be patched... I wrote so much pm's to Michi and Videos and nothing happened...

7. Support in AO - *irony on* Have Anarchy Online still GM's? *irony off* You must wait hours to get an GM... we get less and less Support ingame...

8. Development for AO - We only have one Person (michi) to improve AO... And he works parallel for the new conan survival game... that makes me sad... And we have changes, where the community would not be asked for (e.g. Veteran Points)...


Guys think about it - Funcom wont change anything - the game and the profit is to small to invest Money in these game... Nothing will happened... That's the reason why so many People leaving These game...

*signed* Funcom wont do anything aginst multiboxing or the fu..ing aohm Tool... and the game needs definitely more love

Fact is, it's FunComs job to solve the problem. We are user not creator. If they don't realize that's something like this important , it's shows simply that they learned nothing in the past. And this kind of publisher quality is known by the most players in the gaming series.
And this is why they also will fail with new Conan game. I think Anarchy Online have a big future but not with FunCom as publisher. It's a joke...

*signed* Anarchy Online wont have a positive future with Funcom... but Anarchy Online isnt a game for a large crowd... it's to complex for the most gamers - today's players will love the simplicity of Playing
Funcom must have success with the new conan game or they go bankrupt...