Friday with Means - June 4th, 2010 - IIBAWDKW

Means, you had mentioned that VP would be increased for alien missions at some point, to decrease the gap between the alien mission and battlestation vp reward. just curious if this is still planned or has been scrapped.


Imo, its great to solo LE missions by yourself, as mitocondria samples etc can provide a small amount of vp, but in a team its a drop in the bucket. would be nice if the clumps that drop off mobs for vp were removed, and instead, you could simply gain vp for each alien killed regardless whether your soloing it out or in a team. i dont think it would be overkill if it was something like 2 vp per mob x titlelevel or something close.

Birthday again?

you are going to get old eh....

i think some Hats would be nice for birthday... oh and maybe the social pet clothes line... lemme put on a "birthday hat" on my brain dog pl0x

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Removing the level locks on Composite Infuse, Masteries, etc? That is going to be wild. Those traders are going to be so ... O.O

Edit:

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Originally Posted by MisterBishop

In regards to composite nanos, unfortunately it seems that Means was talking about making them more accessible to players with expansions, who already have the (potential) ability to cast them. Just reducing the requirements, possibly (but not very likely) reducing the level-lock. I don't see any of them being made froob-usable, as great as that would be. Call me a pessimist, and I'll probably say "I really doubt it," :P

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Cast on everyone? So sl00bs are going be pestered for composites? Muhehehe

I still don't get the point of the 18 hour lockout on deleting the missions if you look at the mission and know it's not possible for you to do, or you don't want it.

Why not just allow the daily mission to be deleted and allow you to get a different one and only apply the lockout if you successfully complete it?

I mean, it makes about as much sense as putting an 18 hour lockout on looting a DOJA chip, which doesn't make any.

Composites for froobs would be such a fantastic little thing :)

On the other hand, any word on acknowledging the fact that pets have been severely broken by the latest synch changes? They cannot find their owners any more and Pet Warp is in no way a workable stop-gap, being a slow casting, easily interruptible nano that leaves you virtually defenceless while it's running and that can't work if anyone in on a hatelist. Before the patch pets would home back in on their owners very quickly. Now they simply cannot be relied upon if you've had to move anywhere after zoning. This is particularly tortuous on lowbies such as MPs who are critically reliant upon not only their DD/tank pet, but their emergency mezzers and their heals.

Means,

Thanks again for the update! I hate to say it though...

For next week's update... Engine Vids or GTFO! :eek:

pets are definitely broken atm. I don't play pet classes much myself, but i watched during a few different inferno missions, both crat pets and mp pets running around like they were chasing ghosts.. someone who is on afk/follow does a better job at keeping up than pets do atm.

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Originally Posted by navycut

Because some missions are harder than others and if it didn't have this timer, ppl would just keep rerolling 'til they get the really easy ones.

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Then why not put an 18 hour lockout on Rolling Inferno Missions because people re-roll those until they get them at an easy location to get to.

Makes as much sense (which is none).

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Originally Posted by navycut

Yeah because the choice of running to a location and just talking to a npc to remove a dot OR killing craploads of mantis is the same as getting an easier location for inf :rolleyes:

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It is. Means already said the 'Kill a Crap Ton of Mobs" missions have a higher reward now then "easy ones". So, Yeah. I don't see the point. If you don't have the time to do more work and get a higher reward, why punish the casual player?

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Originally Posted by DePreach

Add comedy 'sproing' sounds to the rubber banding.

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Heading north from Harry's (about Southern middle of zone is where you come in), rubber banded twice on flight to Dangerous prisoner. It seemed like it took longer to get to said prisoner than to kill him. Some comedy "sproings" might have lightened the mood...Yakety Sax (sp?) might also be appropriate.

On a positive note, when headed to Neutral Bar in Bor, I typically lag near the basic implant shop and "wake up" inside, sort of like saving a step or something.

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Originally Posted by Trousers

It is. Means already said the 'Kill a Crap Ton of Mobs" missions have a higher reward now then "easy ones". So, Yeah. I don't see the point. If you don't have the time to do more work and get a higher reward, why punish the casual player?

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If you're so casual you only have 10 minutes to play you could've spent the time it's going to take you to reroll missions infinitely to get through the one you didn't want to do anyway. Or you should stop paying for an MMO, or find something else to do with your 10 mins of sparetime...
Accept that that's the exact job they have available for you at the time. That's it. As you can see in every other area of the game, if it's possible to get an easy way out of something, players will take it. If there's a daily mission that takes shorter than any other to finish, players will reroll untill they get that one. The only thing then stopping someone from starting a clicksaver to get that exact mission would be the low number of people dev'ing for AO now. You're into RP. Accept that the game forces certain things on you.

In regards to composite nanos, unfortunately it seems that Means was talking about making them more accessible to players with expansions, who already have the (potential) ability to cast them. Just reducing the requirements, possibly (but not very likely) reducing the level-lock. I don't see any of them being made froob-usable, as great as that would be. Call me a pessimist, and I'll probably say "I really doubt it," :P

OMG OMG.. a Pearl Of Rubi-Ka when 'Cut' reverts to the old graphic!!!! omg omg.. Mr Means, Fix Please!!

I'm gonna hunt down every single gem in game to do test cuttings,.. we can't have these kinds of errors slipping in.. anyone care to help in the hunt/collection?

I'll be on Doctorval (RK2) when I'm hunting gems.

Cheers!

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Originally Posted by Means

- Significant nerfstick treatment to LE Alien Mission nasty Aliens to make it easier to survive at all levels.

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This was a long time coming lol.


In regards to adjusting the composites, aka basic buffs, would we also be able to see expertises in general improved with a better duration? If you guys are digging around in there, this short and harmless change to the 30min expertise and 20m ability durations would not hurt :)


And thanks for including doc's graphics icon updates, suprisingly enough they are much nicer to see than I expected.

Aight maybe some dev reads my question with in this spam we have
we know that xp stims are always available every year when its birthday celebration time and we also know it is nodrop for a reason

but i'd consider 5 pairs not to be as appealing as it sounds
so what about adding like 3-4 pairs of xp stims as a reward of the daily mishes for that time so in a week everyone can get 40-50 stims and still not being able to sell but good for a 2 months to use

just an idea

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Originally Posted by Means

Also in next week's theoretical version:

- Increased drop rate on LE Alien Mission Biomaterial.
- Significant nerfstick treatment to LE Alien Mission nasty Aliens to make it easier to survive at all levels.

Other news:

The Alien daily missions are coming along well.

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So.. you will be able to pull an LE mission without having to team soon?


I am very glad you went oldschool with the types, removed the NODROP tag.
Before people were complaining over getting types they did not need, now they can sell the one they have and buy another, while others can skip the killing altogether and those lvling on LE missions get a nice extra income :)


A nice story on how removing a NODROP tag can make a lot of people happy and apeal to more enjoyable gameplay.

If it was up to me, there should be very few NODROP items in the game, so that you are not punished for getting good equipment while you are lvling up, and can pass on your tools to an alt or friend when you are done with it, so you are not wasting the hard work you have made getting it in the first place.

The open economy in AO is one of the thing to pull me in.
You can either go get teh item yourself, or pay someone to do it.

Some hate City raids, but love missions, while others do the opposite.
In an economic system, they can both be happy, because they get items they don't need and can sell them to those needing it.


Lost Eden being the worst thing ever to be introduced to AO..
Victory points.. only available (in accecptable ammounts) in Battle Stations.
They need 5 upgrades that were rate and NODROP..
and when you had done that, well then you needed t do it all over again on the next weapon..

Some have proposed that OFAB weapons and armor levels or you get some VP back.. what about removing the NODROP tag, so you can sell it?
The nanoes do not have a NODROP tag and are already a way to get credits for your VP.

It could also be cool if the armors then no longer had a profession lock, then *gasp* people could be different, they could take bits and pieces of several armors instead of having just one set, a developer told them to wear.
We might even get people that use different setups with the balancing act, as people by then will not be forced to use one particular weapon for damage perks but rather just "ranged" instead of the current SMG/rifle..

..leading back to the good old AO classic, where there is room to experiment, and the OOC question "What is the best weapon?" again can be answered by: "How do you like to play?" rather than sending a link to an AUNO.org page.


Personally I like the concept to be:
Slow fireing, but hard hitting.
vs.
Fast fireing, but not hitting so hard.

If you want to take a shield(absorb) down to help the team, the 2d is the best, while if you are soloing, you just want to fire through the shield, to get the target down.

But there is a choice.

Just my 2 cent..
I am glad to know we are on the way away from cookie-cutting to a place with choice.
Thank you for removing the NODROP tag, it is a step on the way.

Kind Regards
-Ariensky

The LE mission vp reward increase is definitely nice and long overdue. 200 VPs per mish, in worst case scenario divided among 6 team members = WTF :p

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Originally Posted by Worldofalts

its great to solo LE missions by yourself, as mitocondria samples etc can provide a small amount of vp, but in a team its a drop in the bucket. would be nice if the clumps that drop off mobs for vp were removed, and instead, you could simply gain vp for each alien killed regardless whether your soloing it out or in a team. i dont think it would be overkill if it was something like 2 vp per mob x titlelevel or something close.

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I totally subscribe to this, then there's no more "let's go with as few team members as possible so we maximize the vp gain per team member". Not to mention the annoying "oh, I gotta wait till this corpse becomes lootable while all my team members are already in the next room killing stuff".

Where in Means' post did he say that the le missions would drop more VP. He said more Bio-Material. This doesn't necessarily mean VP, I took it to mean the types. Hopefully I'm wrong and you guys are right though.

Re: Composites. My guess is they'll just be A: Lowering nano skill required to cast the top ones, or B: Moving the garden sale location.

I doubt very much if they're giving them to froobs...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Means

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- Increased drop rate on LE Alien Mission Biomaterial and decreased "level range" on Boss Drops. ie: a level 250 Boss should always drop Biomaterial close to level 250.
- Significant nerfstick treatment to LE Alien Mission nasty Aliens to make it easier to survive at all levels.

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Well, there goes my income source.