Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 68

Thread: Answers from FWM November 11th, 2011 Questions

  1. #1

    Funcom employee Answers from FWM November 11th, 2011 Questions

    Rebalance time estimate?

    Clearly this will not be "soon" in any sense of the word. The more we have dug into the old AO systems the more "interesting" things we discover we really feel needs to be examined. It is also important to mention that if we assign 5 minutes/nano that needs to be changed this alone runs up to a total of 3 months of dedicated work by one individual. With the release of the engine and new player experience coming first unfortunately we won't be seeing this live and open soon...regardless it will need some time to simmer on a Beta type dimension as it will be impossible to really gauge the state of the changes without large-scale player participation. I wouldn't expect to see this hit Live servers before April 2012. That being said there will likely be some non-system-wide smaller adjustments in the interim between then and now.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  2. #2

    Funcom employee

    Engine time estimate?

    Full focus was put on creating a preview video in the middle of October and has been there since. Once the focus was put on producing something to be seen externally, with that kind of attention to detail that we know critical individuals will have, we began to see small but significant rendering issues we were not happy with. Fixing these issues has been far from trivial and has resulted in more than a few complete re-writes. In some cases we have run in to some limitations of the engine we were not particularly happy with and have been working with the engine team to resolve these issues. Many of these changes have also resulted in what would have been a complete rebuild of the entire client...which for the conversion processing of 400+ old AO playfields represents approximately 400+ hours of exporting/conversion. We all want a closed beta running as soon as possible but we are not really wanting to run that process before we are dead certain we will not have to run it again. It also goes without saying that we all want this out as soon as possible, but with years already invested in this undertaking we just aren't willing to deliver something we are not happy with. If there is a positive note in the delays associated with getting the code aspect of this change up and running it is that it has given the artists much more time to upgrade assets to be there for the day it goes live. Our goal is to have a closed Beta running this year. This is still an aggressive target at this point and it is hard to determine whether we will make it or not at this point as a great deal of this work is still "innovation" and "creative" in nature.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  3. #3

    Funcom employee

    Can you give us a rough "roadmap" on the new engine. What has been done so far, and what is left to be done before a beta can be released.

    The new engine is largely "feature complete" (most displays and runs as it should) with a few significant exceptions.

    Incomplete Features Required for Beta:
    - Completion of first run optimization.
    - Proper "equipping" of the new heads with hair and new associated meshes.
    - Equipping of new meshes associated with new attractors added to new character models. (ie: proper belt mesh to go with Belt-type items)
    - Rebuilding of all in-game waterfalls and alteration of new engine technology to support them.
    - Proper handling and display of transparent body texture types to allow for proper display of partial clothing. (ie: bump map of shoes to allow for correct display of bump map of feet.)
    - Weather systems
    - Integration of new effects system to be able to utilize new tools to produce new effects.

    Areas that are still "buggy" that will likely have to be corrected before Beta:
    - Shadow group size causing shadows to "flicker" from buildings.
    - Grass (mesh and billboard) display distance being too close to character and changing colour incorrectly at certain times of day.
    - Incorrect display of low level of detail version of certain meshes.
    - Horizon display needs improvement.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  4. #4

    Funcom employee

    Are you going to relaunch ao when the rebalance/gfx engi is done?

    There is a plan to do some significant marketing once the new engine is up and stable.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  5. #5

    Funcom employee

    Do you play any other games besides AO? Are you planning to play Diablo 3?

    I had a lot more time to play games before I started working on them..and also before I had small children. I hope I find some time for Diablo 3. I really enjoyed the last version and can only imagine how great the next one will be. I would love to find time to play many of the great new games that have been released over the last few years. I've found some time to play few other titles over the last few years...but very rarely have I found time to complete any of them. With many new titles offering 50+ hours of gameplay to complete the basic stories it isn't looking like I will be finding the time to finish any of them either. Most games I end up trying I get to play the first 3-4 hours and that is usually it. The last game I completed was the first Portal and I had a great time with that as I felt it was a totally unique experience at the time. Largely I spend most of my time obsessing about AO.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  6. #6

    Funcom employee

    What's your favourite item/armor ingame?

    My favourite item of all time is definitely the "I WIN" button. It is pure fun with pretty much no downside and ,as silly as it is, it is my favourite single thing I have made in my time here.

    Favourite "regular" item is the Spear of Forbidden Ceremonies. Something about that weapon is just so awesome. I love seeing someone sneaking around with one of those.

    Favourite armor would be the Soldier Ofab back item. Love the look of it and I remember how hard it was to get it to work on all the breeds/genders.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  7. #7

    Funcom employee

    Is EA gonna publish AO when the new graphic engine is out?

    No. There is no plans for EA to be involved with AO.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  8. #8

    Funcom employee

    Don't you think that giving up monthly fee is the only way to make AnarchyOnline a bit more populated?

    Most of the product revenue still comes from subscription. I think there are a few areas we can definitely explore before we resort to something that drastic. Ideas like server merge and expanding the "free" part of the game are going to be explored before we get to that point.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  9. #9

    Funcom employee

    Is CoH chest openable?

    Not right now...but for the future...who knows. At this point when it DOES open it should be something pretty special
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  10. #10

    Funcom employee

    Since every char has an alien kill counter, I've wondered how many of the green bastards have been eliminated since they first set foot on Rubi-Ka. Seperate figures for each server would be awesome!

    I would also love to know this number as it would great fun to see that huge number. Unfortunately the "InvadersKilled" stat is burried in the "blob" of character data so it isn't a simple query to find out....I'll try to get them to find out at some point when it won't affect the performance of the live dimensions.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  11. #11

    Funcom employee

    Can i test the engine ?

    When the closed external beta starts we'll have some kind of application process.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  12. #12

    Funcom employee

    Whats the point of having 201-214 and 215-220 battlestations instead of 201-220? Both of existing rarely run and suffer from lack of players. Since "pvp" missions were introduced 201-214 is completly deserted.

    The non-pvp daily pvp mission has indeed affected the number of times these playfields run. Rather than merging these playfields we are first going to change the pvp daily so it can be repeated up to 3 times for the applicable reward.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  13. #13

    Funcom employee

    What advice would you give a new or newly returning player wanting to narrow the equipment gap separating them from players who got theirs when S10 and/or ingots reduced the time investment to purchase viable endgame gear?

    S10 and/or ingots represents a spread of almost 7 years of game play. I would recommend people who want certain items should get in a good organization and go out and get what they need...not buy it for credits. The notion that everyone bought their gear with credits is absurd.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  14. #14

    Funcom employee

    As a veteran player (long term paying customer across multiple accounts) I was rather frustrated with the rubi'ka hardcore pack that was offered. I think it was a good offer, don't get me wrong, but as someone with 3 subscriptions under year long terms I felt really slighted. AO seems to have a long history of throwing rewards at people that have not been loyal in order to get them to return or subscribe whereas not providing comparable rewards to those of us that have been consistant in supporting this game over its lifetime (me personally for over 7 years). I've spoken to customer service and basically been told 'too bad' but Id like to know your perspective on why existing customers, especially those that have existing year long subscriptions under no promotions, can not be given the same types of virtual perks as new people or folks that have been away and decided to resub with the new offer.

    I disagree with the idea that we do not reward long term subscribers. Anyone on a yearly subscription is saving almost 50% off the cost of regular subscription prices. This kind of discount is not matched by any other MMO that I am aware of and it is offered purely as a reward for our longer subscribers as it certainly does not generate more revenue for the company. I think it is also important to note that the offer you are speaking about was offered to all players, not just inactive ones, and that active players could actually purchase the pack for a lower price than inactive subscribers. I'm also not sure that as a company we should feel compelled to provide every single promotional item we put out to people currently on a year susbscription. That being said I do feel we need to do a better job of rewarding our long term subscribers. The items in the veteran vendor, while fun and offer some advantage, are inadequate for the purpose. We are discussing a better way of doing this going forward.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  15. #15

    Funcom employee

    Recently I have noticed quite a few ninja changes with extremely slow (if any) responses from the dev team when the forum community has actively complained. Some examples would be the length of time it took to respond to the S10 change, the changes to the heal kits, the PvP flag changes and the ninja change on the ancient novictum refiner (and I've noticed at least one other item in my bank that's just showed up as nodrop and previously was tradeable). Are there any plans to have more consistent communication with us on changes?

    The Sector 10 change took one week to respond to as other issues were more important (ie: producing another update). The reason for that unusual delay was explained in the response I wrote last time. There is no plan to increase the amount of time invested in the forum community as this is already more than significant. Our primary responsibility is working on the game to add to it and to make it better and this has to be our core focus. There have been some accidental ommissions from patch notes recently and we will try to avoid them in the future. I don't feel we ignore or marginalize our community in any way..I think we spend more time and effort working with our community than any similar product has ever done before.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  16. #16

    Funcom employee

    From time to time I have the unfortunate experience of having to petition because a quest bugs out. Whenever this happens, I always get a GM that seems to know little about how the quest works and that gives me a response that is careless at best and downright rude in some cases. When this has happened, I send an e-mail to customer support. In one case I had to contact you directly for resolution (which I greatly appreciate). I, however, do not want to waste the time of the Game Director on routine quest bug issues. What type of resolution path should I, as a player, take when I have encountered a GM that was imcompetent and did not resolve my issue. As it stands now, I petition, get no resolution and am basically left feeling slighted. You can't discuss petitions on the forums or share GM conversations here so really as a customer I feel trapped. As it stands now, my org's Inferno Key Quest bugged (somehow my 220 doc, barely being played OD'd an entire quest team that included an endgame 220 soldier and other TL7's that were all actively playing). I'm out a pocketboss crystal and though I farmed another.. I'm afraid to try again seeing as it bugged the first time. There must be some other way to get assistance when a GM doesn't perform their duties properly.. what is it?

    I think by and large considering the extreme complexity of Anarchy Online that they do an excellent job of handling the myriad of issues that can and do occur. Customer Service is unfortunately limited by policy and documentation of what they can and cannot do. If the design team over the years has failed to provide them with an adequate way of resolving an issue then they can not be blamed for not knowing the solution. Some GMs might be better than others but that can only come with experience...and with the learning curve presented by a game like Anarchy Online, the years it would take to become an expert are also a factor in that talented individuals are often given promotion opportunities along the way. We maintain lists of the most commonly petitioned issues and strange new ones are reviewed by the customer service teams on a regular basis. We of course try and remove the most common issues on the development level...and the other rare ones we try and create policy for the team to be able to find and apply to solve issues. If there is an issue customer service was unable to help you with then sending me a note about it is unfortunately the best way to get it resolved...and for me to try to be sure it does not affect other users going into the future.
    Last edited by Means; Nov 18th, 2011 at 14:04:26.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  17. #17

    Funcom employee

    How are you going to fix sync in the game as a MA im having a real tough time catching up to some professions like agents ect.

    There is going to have to be a general decrease in runspeed associated with the rebalance. Having people moving at 14m/s in a networked game is not practical as it becomes impossible with ping distances to be able to accurately represent where a player truly is within reasonable tolerance. The rework of runspeed will see most high level characters slowing down, low level characters gaining speed, and vehicle speeds staying the same as they are now.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  18. #18

    Funcom employee

    Is Shadowlands only subscription no longer available?

    Unfortunately the 5/month option is no longer available to new subscribers. It was not working as a low-cost step to full subscription so it was removed. Players who already have 5/month subscriptions will be able to continue on those plans without any changes.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  19. #19

    Funcom employee

    What are the chances of some new 'classes' being put into AO?

    I think we feel that 14 professions are plenty of option for everyone at this point. But never say never I guess..I can't speak for what a future team might want to do. For now we are focused on making the existing professions more diverse, useful and more interesting to play.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

  20. #20

    Funcom employee

    Can you state your current position on a server merge?

    I did not want to merge the servers before the release of the new engine. The engine of course has taken much longer than anyone would have anticipated. Currently merging the servers is a technical problem as character information between the servers is not unique. Most relevant character data is held in a BLOB (binary long object) which makes it very difficult to work with in terms of processing/read/write times. We are looking into solutions for these problems but I don't want to give any estimate on when we might expect to see it reach the execution stage. I would prefer not to "merge" servers at all as with land control + city plots it would represent 50% of the relative population missing out on these objects....so we are also considering alternative plans currently to address these specific issues. It is also important to mention that the relative populations of RK1 and RK2 are incredibly similar regardless of what people might be saying (about 5% difference in peak times). I do however think it is important to acknowledge that in terms of maintaining an active population level on the servers it is unlikely that anything we could do in terms of marketing etc will match the effectiveness of a server merge.
    Colin Cragg
    This "Means" Cake
    Past Game Director (2008-2011)

Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •