Friday with Means - November 28th, 2008

[Falkvinge]

New Engine:
My team says we can have screenshots for next week. I believe them.

Did that sentence imply the meaning of a "next week" as of monday-thursday or as of "next friday with means" ?

An updated teaser would be nice as well, since the old engine teaser is nearly 1 year old *cough*

But anyway, get better soon, you should have suffered enough by now

[Xaun]

Well, I must say.. nice weekly post. Glad to hear some of the choices you are making.. This communication thing you are doing is king.. I hope you enjoy that pimpin chair you deserve it.. and feel better.




PS: I promise to put away the voodoo doll as soon as Keepers & Fixers are un-nerfed.. ;p

[-XeI20-]

just tried to get my name changed btw and the GM wouldnt do it cuz my soldier is 220

sooo pretty much i'm paying FC to let this guy harass me?

./MACRO stfu /tell 'x' STFU
spam and enjoy and get frands to help

[Theonora]

just tried to get my name changed btw and the GM wouldnt do it cuz my soldier is 220

sooo pretty much i'm paying FC to let this guy harass me?

Did you consider petitioning the harassment?

Theo

[-XeI20-]

Question for you means

when will /ignore be fixed?

i am currently being harrassed by a person who i stopped talking to months ago,he sends me a tell everyday multiple times a day,when i /ignore him it resets when i relog(which for anyone who has more than one toon knows that can be alot) ive asked him to stop,he said he wont and has told me it will go on for years,i have /petitioned it and the arks all tell me the same thing first they say "have you tried /ignore" then "save the tells and time of day"(which i do everytime) and then they tell me they have written a report on it and send me on my way

means please do something i would hate to have to quit a game i like to play because of someone who is bitter i didnt have a spot for him in my team

Yes. It seem's he has

[Troxxor]

Means, a question for this friday (if you've not been attacked by a hoard rabid leets or something equally random & unfortunate):

It's great to see FC investing in AO's long term future. Since AO is an old game, in recent years it's been lagging a fair way behind modern hardware in terms of supported features. The new gfx engine with DX9 support will be a huge leap forward for the game, closing the gap significantly.

Are you intending to continue this momentum? Closing the gap even further & hopefully one day keeping up with the times as it were. I'm thinking true hyperthreading, multi-core support, multi-graphics card support & other stuff like DX10 too?

[Deathorglory]

Question for the next FWM: You mentioned shades will be getting ql300 spirits. Are these a fix to the loot tables of high mobs and spirits in Shadowlands or will they be acquired in the new playfield ?

What I'm trying to find out is if these ql300 spirits a.) require the booster and b.) are they the "upgraded symbs/spirits" everyone is talking about or the "upgraded" spirits will be an upgrade to ql300 spirits.

I'm really hoping ql300 spirits will be found in Shadowlands and whatever we get from the new booster will be a further upgrade to these spirits. There seems to be a lot of confusion about this on the shade forums.

[If6was9]

You were sick before. The cold could have irritated the nerves to your inner ear... throwing off your internal balance... making you puke... re-irritating the nerves. I think a scopamine patch might help break that cycle... and Tang or Gatorade to re-hydrate, (or soup or something). Other things that might continue the irritation would be smoke (smoking anything) and snuff. My .02.

[Falkvinge]

You were sick before. The cold could have irritated the nerves to your inner ear... throwing off your internal balance... making you puke... re-irritating the nerves. I think a scopamine patch might help break that cycle... and Tang or Gatorade to re-hydrate, (or soup or something). Other things that might continue the irritation would be smoke (smoking anything) and snuff. My .02.

Was about time that someone wrote an amateur diagnosis! I think every forum should have at least one hobby doc who'll base every diagnosis on tv series like dr. house / scrubs or ER.
How about you watch some more TV, read a book and improve your skills ?

[SSK]

I'd say, nerf NTs and you will feel better instantly

[Klodovik]

I agree.

/me puts needle and voodoo doll down

[If6was9]

Was about time that someone wrote an amateur diagnosis! I think every forum should have at least one hobby doc who'll base every diagnosis on tv series like dr. house / scrubs or ER.
How about you watch some more TV, read a book and improve your skills ?

Sounds like you've concluded I'm wrong. Given that about 3 people on this planet could possess that information - true or false - I think you're speculating about my actual skills, talent, knowledge. How about you wait to find out if my idea worked before passing judgment?

[shadowgod]

You were sick before. The cold could have irritated the nerves to your inner ear... throwing off your internal balance... making you puke... re-irritating the nerves. I think a scopamine patch might help break that cycle... and Tang or Gatorade to re-hydrate, (or soup or something). Other things that might continue the irritation would be smoke (smoking anything) and snuff. My .02.

Was about time that someone wrote an amateur diagnosis! I think every forum should have at least one hobby doc who'll base every diagnosis on tv series like dr. house / scrubs or ER.
How about you watch some more TV, read a book and improve your skills ?

i hate to be one supporting if6 here... but he gave some logical and sound advice. even one of the bosses at my office was having inner ear issues recently due to allergies/cold.

even my dad was having similar problems means described. and after spending the night in the ER, they concluded it had to of been allergies or something that wasnt that serious.

and i dont watch any of those stupid drama shows on tv.

[SSK]

yeah, AO forums drama is better

[Theonora]

Was about time that someone wrote an amateur diagnosis! I think every forum should have at least one hobby doc who'll base every diagnosis on tv series like dr. house / scrubs or ER.
How about you watch some more TV, read a book and improve your skills ?

While I wouldn't ever diagnose a patient based on forum information, in general he wasn't really that wrong...I've had to care for patients who had vertigo just because of that. It's really not that much fun for them, or for their nurses/medics, either.

Theo

[Falkvinge]

While I wouldn't ever diagnose a patient based on forum information, in general he wasn't really that wrong...I've had to care for patients who had vertigo just because of that. It's really not that much fun for them, or for their nurses/medics, either.

Theo

Well, I got carried away but at least I had my attention for today... thanks
Oh and I didn't say anything about vertigos beeing fun and the cause can vary from low blood pressure caused by antibiotics or just epilepsy et cetera. But again, an amateur diagnosis or even a simple general to-do in a forum is just.. useless and can cause more problems than vice versa.
It's important to get a real diagnosis in regards of vertigos, vertigos are not something to be careless about.

But either way, do what you all think is right for you. I still stand my point...

-----
btw. tomorrow is friday and we should finally get to see new engine pics

[egadsrk2]

I'm a little confused what's going to be so exciting about these new pics. We've seen a video of it all shiny shiny, a long time ago. We've seen current progress picture of the engine in clientside just a few weeks ago. If you look a the video again, the trees and junk are the exact same models we already have, with the exact same textures. Seen the shadows (new). Seen the grass (new). Seen the sparkly water (new).

FWM does a good job at distracting us. :P

Not that I mind a good distraction.

I think I'd like to see a screenshot with Framerate enabled in a crowded place, in Widescreen 1920x1200. This would also show piles of nano effects, as 50 odd folk buff up. Better yet, do the screenie from inside whatever garden the gather is taking place, so we get the grass and stuff.

For example, Means just popping up at a Pande Gather or something tonight, with the clientside engine going. Clearly they can do that, the screenie with all those people in it was taken on RK1.

With the new engine in a live environment, AO is still going to look like AO. Any real improvements, will be much further down the line. And theres no problem with that. Right now, I must say I'm most excited about a genuine performance boost - and an extremely significant one. On most gamers computers these days, with an above average but not huge budget, the limiting factor of their gaming quality is not their hardware, but the fact they bought a cheaper monitor. For example, 1920x1200 is the common choice. 2536xiforget is not. That's for the folks who desperately need to play COD5 on a 30 inch screen.

[shadowgod]

I'm a little confused what's going to be so exciting about these new pics. We've seen a video of it all shiny shiny, a long time ago. We've seen current progress picture of the engine in clientside just a few weeks ago. If you look a the video again, the trees and junk are the exact same models we already have, with the exact same textures. Seen the shadows (new). Seen the grass (new). Seen the sparkly water (new).

FWM does a good job at distracting us. :P

Not that I mind a good distraction.

I think I'd like to see a screenshot with Framerate enabled in a crowded place, in Widescreen 1920x1200. This would also show piles of nano effects, as 50 odd folk buff up. Better yet, do the screenie from inside whatever garden the gather is taking place, so we get the grass and stuff.

For example, Means just popping up at a Pande Gather or something tonight, with the clientside engine going. Clearly they can do that, the screenie with all those people in it was taken on RK1.

With the new engine in a live environment, AO is still going to look like AO. Any real improvements, will be much further down the line. And theres no problem with that. Right now, I must say I'm most excited about a genuine performance boost - and an extremely significant one. On most gamers computers these days, with an above average but not huge budget, the limiting factor of their gaming quality is not their hardware, but the fact they bought a cheaper monitor. For example, 1920x1200 is the common choice. 2536xiforget is not. That's for the folks who desperately need to play COD5 on a 30 inch screen.

besides fact fps isnt a good metric for AO (never been a high-fps game), trying to show an area with nano effects being cast is a huge problem.

said effects are the things holding back the release of the new engine. as they're having to rewrite all of them.

personally.. i dont want sshots. you cant really tell anything by them. i want in-game video. its been about 6 months (or more) since the first video was put out. you'd think enough has changed since to warrent a new one.

[Falkvinge]

I'm a little confused what's going to be so exciting about these new pics. We've seen a video of it all shiny shiny, a long time ago. We've seen current progress picture of the engine in clientside just a few weeks ago. If you look a the video again, the trees and junk are the exact same models we already have, with the exact same textures. Seen the shadows (new). Seen the grass (new). Seen the sparkly water (new).

The engine teaser is nearly one year old and means wrote

Q - Is there any eta on the engine and how is it progressing?

The new engine is coming along well. We are slowly being able to strip out the work done by the old engine and soon all basic/core functions will be provided by the new engine entirely. The removal of the old engine means a complete removal of the old effects system...and the re-creation/improvement of all the effects in game. This is of course a very significant amount of pure time consuming work. At the same time work will be done to improve the look of the game where possible...things like character model alterations, new trees etc are all adding to the time required to get this done...and get this done right. We really want to take our time with this to make sure it lives up to all of our expectations. Our current goal is "Summer 2009". I'd like to promise it will be ready...but all I can really promise is that I will not release it until I am certain it looks amazing and is well optimized to ensure excellent performance on the vast majority of systems.

which means we'll get new trees and other improvements like better performance as well

personally.. i dont want sshots. you cant really tell anything by them. i want in-game video. its been about 6 months (or more) since the first video was put out. you'd think enough has changed since to warrent a new one.

The first engine teaser was released in January this year and of course it would be better to see some in-game vids, but screenshots are better than nothing and show the progress of the work
as well.

[lugoman]

i hate to be one supporting if6 here... but he gave some logical and sound advice. even one of the bosses at my office was having inner ear issues recently due to allergies/cold.

even my dad was having similar problems means described. and after spending the night in the ER, they concluded it had to of been allergies or something that wasnt that serious.

and i dont watch any of those stupid drama shows on tv.

Itz not ah tumah!