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Thread: Monthly Development Update - April 2015 (Shock and Awe!)

  1. #1

    Funcom employee Monthly Development Update - April 2015 (Shock and Awe!)

    Hello everyone - I hope you have all had a great April!

    18.7 Launch & Upcoming patches

    Last week, the 18.7.0 patch arrived on our Live server. As stated in previous Dev letters, this patch is the result of a rather long development cycle, spanning a couple of different Game Directors, and is the result of everyone on the team from then until now; I am honored and humbled to be in this position, delivering the fruits of our labor to all of you.

    Change is often scary, for everyone involved. Many decisions were second-guessed, changes reverted, toolsets revamped or redone...to unleash such a list of changes at once is quite a lot for all of you, as well as us. Now that the initial patch has been deployed, however, we can begin to adjust and adapt. Earlier this week, the first follow-up patch, 18.7.1, was released, with a couple more on queue behind it. While I am very proud of what has been accomplished with 18.7.0, it would take a grotesque amount of hubris to write off AO as being perfect, and then moving on. Over the next couple of weeks, expect a couple more follow-up patches which will primarily be focused on further tweaking and polishing aspects of the game.

    It is worth noting that with 18.7.2, which I aim to release towards the middle of May, a Full IP Reset will be available to everyone to redeem. The delay of this Full IP Reset is the result of having to redo aspects of how the Full IP Reset actually works, ensuring that players will receive the correct amount of IP for their level, and allowing for multiple Full IP Resets to be held by a character at once.

    Thank you to everyone who has been providing feedback on the changes made in 18.7! Over the next couple of patches, I hope to address the lingering issues.

    Future Content

    After the planned batch of 18.7 patches have been released, focus will be directed towards implementing some new content targeted at two very specific level ranges: endgame and roughly levels 90-150. These new encounters will serve rather different purposes, but both should enrich the experiences of characters within those level ranges. This content will be primarily Rubi-Ka based, and will open up a couple new zones/instances to explore!

    I look forward to being able to provide some more information, once some tangible progress has been made towards these endeavors - Stay tuned!

    It has been quite the month. Thanks again to everyone who made 18.7's launch possible, and to everyone who shared in this occasion. Have a great May, everyone, and I'll talk to you later!
    Henry "Michizure" Senger
    Lead Designer
    ___________________________________
    Twitter - Welcome to Testlive - Customer Service

  2. #2
    1st? Also: Nice news
    keep smiling
    Najade s, Najengi s, Najngi s, Najmp s, Shadysannz, Toccata, Frobos, Chaodoc, Najcrat, Najtank
    sannz - ENL - NR01-GOLF-11
    a time of changing has begun; the leaves are fallen and undone; inside my spirit starts to run; and all my fears are overcome. - Chiasm, Rewind, 2005

  3. #3
    Second!
    Kumo to kumo no aida wo tsukinukete
    Dare mo mita koto no nai basho e
    Yume no naka de egaiteita basho e
    Arifureta SUPIIDO wo koete

  4. #4
    Content for levels 90-150 sounds really good.

  5. #5
    Great progress so far!! Thanks Michi

    I suppose Tranquility & Coast of Peace are available zones ...

    Stuff for the middle ranges 90 - 150 would be my first choice.

    Emma

  6. #6
    Damn you quick forum dwellers
    Don't you just hate this kind of ppl
    http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/w...rouscranus.htm

  7. #7
    I liked the vote format that was use in one occation, perhaps bring that back when the time is right for ppl to vote on such things as on where to focus next?
    Last edited by nanoforcer; Apr 30th, 2015 at 17:03:33.
    Don't you just hate this kind of ppl
    http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/w...rouscranus.htm

  8. #8
    Loving 18.7 thus far.

    New Engine Coming Soon™

  9. #9
    Looking good mate. 90-150 is a pretty notorious area for levelling. Glad to see it getting some focus.

    Keep it up
    Pricecuts - 220 Trader
    Feel free to contact me via PM or in-game.

    Raggy - 220 Bureaucrat || Raggeh - 220 Fixer | Back as 'Raggys' - Shade for the time being. | Nuclei - 217 Nanotechnician || Nanobiology - 214 Doctor

    Tip #743: As noted in Tip #244, tea bags have an infinite variety of uses. However, there's always one jerk who will want to give you crap over drinking tea. Particularly if in a new town, use this as an opportunity to assert yourself. Any drunken idiot can win a bar fight. It takes a real man to win a bar fight while enjoying a cup of Earl Grey.

  10. #10
    This is really awesome Michi!!! You made whole lot of players to come back btw. Only positive things came with this massive patch. You even managed to get a story about it in PC Gamer magazine! Im really looking forward for the mid level new content. Im hoping we get to see some new loot also perhaps?

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Kalmii View Post
    Only positive things came with this massive patch.
    The fanoboism is strong with this one.


    /OT

    Will you consider revamping tower wars? Current system is a bit clunky to say the least and it ended up being 2nd (behind new inf missions) in fairly recent poll of things we would like to see implemented/improved. Not that I'm unhappy about your current future plans, it sounds awesome, I just hope TW will be next. Btw what happened to the engine? It's been in beta for year and a half and there're zero news about it. I think community deserves the turth.
    Last edited by Scottik; Apr 30th, 2015 at 21:38:54.

  12. #12
    bump post ^_=
    "Don't think...feel, it's like a finger pointing towards the moon"

  13. #13
    Last
    Ekarona 220/30 Female Solitus Engineer, long term member of Northern Star and proper "poor" gimp.
    Ekaslave 220/low Female Solitus Trader, FLAT(TM) pricing TS, almost all can do!
    Ekaros almost there/almost there too Male Solitus Martial-Artist.
    Ekadv gimp/gimp Female Opifex Adventurer

  14. #14
    glad to hear adv still might get a nerf for once !

  15. #15

    Funcom employee

    Quote Originally Posted by Scottik View Post
    Will you consider revamping tower wars? Current system is a bit clunky to say the least and it ended up 2nd (behind new inf missions) in fairly recent poll of think we would like to see implemented/improved. Not that I'm unhappy about your current future plans, it sounds awesome, I just hope TW will be next. Btw what happened to the engine? It's been in beta for year and a half and there're zero news about it. I think community deservss the turth.
    I am not sure how much of a revamp Notum Wars will receive, but there are changes I would like to see. For example, even though I do love our Hawaiian playerbase, I would prefer to see more variance of when towers are active.

    The engine update is not dead, though it has been a while since any sort of update has been provided. I did have a paragraph or so dedicated to it in this update, but as it was lacking in substantial information, I left it out. The plans for taking things to the next stage are forming, but there is still much work to be done.

    Changes beyond what was posted today are in the works, but until certain things solidify further, I do not have much to report in regards to them. I will discuss these in the future when there is more information to share.
    Henry "Michizure" Senger
    Lead Designer
    ___________________________________
    Twitter - Welcome to Testlive - Customer Service

  16. #16
    YAY for 90-150 content!!!
    Lainbr - 220/30/70 Meta-Physicist Nanomage - E / Spirals - 220/30/70 Enforcer Solitus - E / Kokusho - 201/22/55 Fixer Nanomage - Equip Soon ;o
    Traderbr - 180/0/0 Trader Nanomage - / Kaoru - 60/0/0 Meta-Physicist Nanomage - totw semitwink
    Proud veteran of Spartans

    To devs: You failed redesigning MPs as NTs with pets. I want my debuffer back.
    Dreamer: Basically - I wish THIS much effort was put in to ALL profs rebalance docs.

    Kintaii: Genele is more hardcore than you, your guildmates, and anyone else you've ever played with
    Anarrina: Trust me, I'm not that scary in real life.

  17. #17
    good work Michizure

  18. #18
    Thanks a lot the all the work that has been done on 18.7. While a few things certainly need some polishing most of the changes are going in the right direction and it all went surprisingly smoothly for such a large patch.

    That said, AO certainly isn't in need of new content and i'd rather you spent all the man-power you can get on finishing what was started with 18.7.

    As an example, i would be rather upset to see any new content coming while some professions still have 30 minutes "long duration" buffs.

    You recently worked on the 000 weapons, which was a great idea, however the results are still far from optimal. I'd definitely like to these reworked some more.

    There also are plenty of places in AO which are never visited and plenty of equipement which serve no purpose. Working on these would also be great.

    Adding new content without fixing any of the sub-optimal already implemented content is a behavior that i have seen in several online games before.

    You have so far proven to be a well above average game director and I hope you won't do that same mistake.

  19. #19
    Michizure is the best thing that has happened to AO in a long time! The man steps in and it takes barely a month for him to get things moving. Simply amazing. I really do have high hopes for AO with him as the lead.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    I am not sure how much of a revamp Notum Wars will receive, but there are changes I would like to see. For example, even though I do love our Hawaiian playerbase, I would prefer to see more variance of when towers are active.

    The engine update is not dead, though it has been a while since any sort of update has been provided. I did have a paragraph or so dedicated to it in this update, but as it was lacking in substantial information, I left it out. The plans for taking things to the next stage are forming, but there is still much work to be done.

    Changes beyond what was posted today are in the works, but until certain things solidify further, I do not have much to report in regards to them. I will discuss these in the future when there is more information to share.
    I truly hope Michi remains our GD for a very long time, but for anyone in the future that takes on the role......... this is what you are supposed to be doing !
    Caloss2 LVL 220 melee VANGUARD (semi retired).....Llewlyn 220/30/70 meepmeep.....Boooocal 220../30/70 Soldier.......Knack 220/30/70 Keeper.....Hiesenberg 215/xx/xx NT NERFED Neytiri1 220/30/70 Shade Knacker220/30/70Meat shield
    https://www.youtube.com/user/caloss2 for guides/walkthroughs/letsplays and all your other AO needs
    Quote Originally Posted by Mastablasta
    In my special design documents that I feed to the FC devs, who are my willing slaves.

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