Friday with Means - November 11th, 2011 - 111111 - Open questions

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Traderjill

1. 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.

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Agreed

Can you state your current position on a server merge? Even with a shiny new relaunch, I find it hard to believe the population levels will rise enough to stop the game from feeling empty.

If you are against a server merge, are the reasons technical (such as how to deal with dupe names, tower fields, etc.) or symbolic (merging servers makes it seem like the game is dying) in nature? Or is it something else?

Thank for listening and I'll take my answer off the air.

Are you ever going to make the GMS system more intuitive and functional? For example, allowing people to buy things directly through the GMS terminal (or having the item sent to them through mail)? And after such a feature, then allowing people with instanced cities to have shops? And expanding the amount of space in the shops so you don't have to log 4 characters to put all your crap for sale?

Have you considered altering the mail system? The token cost to send mail, and the ability of froobs to receive mail but not send it were poor design choices.

Any plans to revitalize city raid functionality? They are too slow and too easy with little useful loot anymore (besides bots ofc) and poor axp. You should implement a slider that controls how many aliens per org member spawn, and make waves go faster.

I realize rebalance is probably farther away than anyone at FC will admit. Why don't you start implementing parts of it? Surely there are some nano and perk changes that are more convenience based or fixing of old bugs than reshaping game balance, and putting these changes ingame would show that something, at least, was happening. Breed change? Buff durations?

Server merge? Ever?

Are there any plans in the works to improve organization function and org cities?
such as:
Adding basic "org bot" function to organizations by default, so we don't need to rely on outside programs;
allowing org leaders to change ranks of their members without having to physically target the player;
adding org bank for items, where org members can add/remove things;
adding gms/mail terminals to org cities?

Also, I can haz resignation form and go back to neutral? The story line says the original Neuts were omni/clan who quit their sides :( I'll offer bribes of chocolate. And bacon.

Also, what's in the agent nano docs? tell me tell me! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Traderjill

1. 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.

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Bump for this, I'm in the same boat here really, with 3 accounts on yearly subscriptions, except I'm lucky enough to have one that just ran out...

The question every european player who pays for AO in Euros wants to know:

1- When are you going to fix the price difference between Euro and US Dollar?

While Americans pay 14.99$ Europeans pay 17.19€.
17.19 EUR = 23.6401 USD
14.99 USD = 10.8988 EUR


2- Are you planning on advertising AO when the engine hits live?

3- What's the progress % on the engine till it hits beta?

4- Why don't you improve low level dungeons/missions in Shadowlands in order to have proper rewards when you kill the boss like you have in Inferno missions?

5- Have you ever thought of making a new "battlestation" map?

6- Do you have any plans or ideas to help newcomers get credits more easily?
(this is one of the main reasons to most of the players quiting the game in the first days! BROKEN ECONOMY! I've known lots of new players who have made their efforts into making some credits but they could barely afford buying a few implants, so you can imagine when they even thought about buying nanos: Instant quit! and this is not making the game easy mode, no. Taking measures on this issue would be a smart move to get more people to continue playing and even buy the expansions.)

7- Why do you lose time making useless new icons for items that have existed for so many years now instead of focusing on the many issues the game has?

8- When will you take a look at the broken aggro issue?

thong or frenchies?

Can people expect a change in NW mechanics in the future?

Are you ever going to make Mission Terminals searchable so we can ditch Click Saver? What's in that chest in Crypt of Home? How can we get Omni out of Borealis? Is it time for my medication now, Nurse?

Are you already regretting the decision to make this installment of FWM an open question format?

201 - 214 & 215 - 220 BS


Can you guys for the love of all that is evil merge those two? I mean if you are 201 it don't matter jack if you are steamrolled by a 214 or a 220, you do not stand a chance!

At least merging the two would bring more stable uptime on BS, people are currently using 3rd party bots to announce the need for Omni/Clan at different battle stations. Would be nice if you guys could at least have the endgame running stable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Haxi

Are you already regretting the decision to make this installment of FWM an open question format?

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/thread

... i guess

Question:
How far is the progress on the new newby (island) experience? and when will this be available to test on testlive?

I find this more important than the engine/rebalance. This part should not come out together with the release of the engine. New people won't stay if the newby experience is still 1/4 as terrible as it is now. Extensive testing by actual players is necessary

I'd ask "when" for everything, like rebalance, GFX engine, and such, but that would just add on to the hundreds of questions everyone else is asking.

Personally, at what point would it be a better idea from a GD perspective to put other projects on hold and just go full speed ahead with the larger scale projects like GFX/Rebalance/New Player Experience/etc., that are intended to have a larger impact on the game as opposed to new instances and such for current players?

I would have done things differently, but I'm also not in your position or perspective as GD, and I would imagine you have more to juggle than is immediately visible.

I want to help to make the game better. What can I do?

1) You mentioned long ago that all the trees in the game would need to be replanted, and you would not be using a program like Speedtree but manually placing them all. Where do things stand on this issue?

2) Will the New User Experience include some decent tutorial/NPC work to help newbies understand implants?

3) Since the new engine client will work alongside the old client, have you planned a future removal of the old client, much the way Eve Online ran for 18 months with duel clients before retiring the old one?

4) Can those of us with 150+ veteran points expect some new Vet booth items of some worth to consume those points? ex: Consolidated recall beacon pad (RK/SL/APF/?? @10 mins)

5) Mentoring system when?

6) Rework of the Registration site pages coming anytime soon so they are no longer the laughing stock of the online commerce world?

7) You supposedly now have a video person, how about they warm up for a new engine video by doing a few little 'walk-abouts' the office much the way CCP is currently doing to show the playerbase who is working on what that is coming soon?

.

Any chance to have new in-game music?

Credit rewards with the Dalies, Doesn't have to be alot., Just a little bit for the new players that don't leave over the lack of shiny graphics.

Please tell me you guys back up the servers regularly. I don't want to get online one day to find out that AO was irreplaceablly deleted like the Japanese MMO 2M was.

Will there ever be a chance that we could see the contents of backpacks by hovering over them instead of opening them?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Traderjill

1. 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.

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^^ This... Severely!!! While I have not been here for as long as many, I am an active subscriber of multiple accounts since 2005, not some second class customer that should be mistreated just because you already have my money.

After the fiasco of multiple requests about active subscribers with 9+ months getting the 10th Anniversary special going unanswered, I bit the bullet & added an additional year to every one of my paid accounts to get the heckler pet. Here we are a few months later & my only option for this round of "specials" are to spend ANOTHER $90+ per account??? That's preposterous!

I've kept my accounts active since they went paid & have waited patiently after countless multi-year delays of the deadlines stated for the majority of the ETA requests (listed below). Each of my paid accounts just now dropped down to 12 months or less. When the ETA deadlines have continued to slip by for years, what incentive do I have to extend my accounts out to 20-24 months when someone can just quit the game & get LOTS of extras to come back 30 days later?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kiwifruits

Are there any plans in the works to improve organization function and org cities?
such as:
Adding basic "org bot" function to organizations by default, so we don't need to rely on outside programs;
allowing org leaders to change ranks of their members without having to physically target the player;
adding org bank for items, where org members can add/remove things;
adding gms/mail terminals to org cities?

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These too please.


Also:

• New player experience update ETA?
• Rebalance ETA?
• Engine update ETA?
• Website update ETA?
• Overall SL quests nerfs to make them possible for a non-twinked team of the appropriate level WITHOUT a pocket/escort ETA?
• Will we ever see new items in the Veteran Points terminal? If so, when?
• Will there be an in-game alternative to clicksaver? If so, when?
• Will we ever see larger inventory or banks, or full access (including tradeskill) to items in our backpacks? If so, when?
• Can you PLEASE allow froob access to GMS & froob purchasing from paid player shops? You are handicapping paid players by reducing their customer base.
• Christmas 2011 festivities ETA and the timeframe that it will be available?
• When will the launcher's "Anarchy Online Tip of the Day Week Month Quarter Year" be updated from "Did you know Anarchy Online is 10 years old." & is that a question or a statement?

and finally...
Earliest removal date of the Halloween 2011 content? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Traderjill

1. 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.

2. 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?

3. One of the devs clearly stated, in another thread, that the changes to how sit down nano/hp rechargers work were really in preparation for the rebalance.. and that eventually the old school heal items would work the same way (not useable when pets or team are in combat). Since the rebalance is not out, and doesn't appear to be remotely close to being released, why were the old heal items removed from the shop terminals?

4. 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?

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Bump for Jill's questions, in particular 2 & 4.

2. This is unbelievably frustrating for players and I can't imagine what benefit it provides to FC staff either. Yes, a segment of the population will always be displeased with any given answer. However not responding at all is a problem for the entire population. Plus it leaves a void that can be filled with all sorts of paranoid emodrama and then you all have to shut down threads, close the blinds, etc.

4. We all have horror stories of GMs and ARKs not understanding the problem and ramifications - everything from quests bugged for years to getting hit with the banhammer because a disappearing backpack is "an exploit". Few of them have any solution other than "PM Means/Kintaii". That is not a good solution for anyone. Not for the GD and devs who now get to be GMs, not for players who feel they have to do an end-run around the petition system to get anything done and, in the end, not for the GMs who are supposed to be the interface because it sets up the expectation that they will fail so why bother.

(I will admit that previously there was no solution but to ignore the problem or quit. So in that light I guess PMing the GD and devs directly is an improvement.)

Simple, why the melee hate?