Friday With Means - November 14th, 2008

[egadsrk2]

Notum Wars was a booster pack. It makes you stronger.

[Maeventura]

Notum Wars was a booster pack. It makes you stronger.

Yeah, but when LE came out, previous Game Director said booster packs won't make people stronger anymore, just add more pleasurable ways to level/get stuff/change your mind.

So if this has changed with the latest Game Director, it might be nice to tell us, don't you think?

[Maofex]

From what I recall, boosterpacks weren't supposed to make people stronger than those who only went for expansions.

ITEMS bought with payed points wouldn't make you stronger. They never said anything about booster packs not making you stronger. Boosterpacks was ment to be small "expansions".

[Autohead]

now that i think of it, with the insane stats... maybe this line of armor is something for testlive only. something people can use without having to resort to requesting a ToM buff.

I was kind of thinking that, too.

[Mekh]

Few questions. Some of them very much on peoples minds:

If the combined combined combined combined combined armour is not intended for the booster; was it intended for anything and if it was intended for anything; what was it intended for and was it ever meant to be obtained by players? Also if it wasnt intended for anything, why was it made at all? Seems like a gross misallocation of resources. Finally, since you know the playerbase grabs hold of the DB rip five minutes after it goes on testlive, was these items making it into a place where we can see them simply an accident?

Because if it was a joke, damn man. That's straight up twisted. A lot of people were in a panic. Now true, many of these folks need to re-adjust their priorities in life, but no reason to exploit the knee jerk reaction for giggles.

Personally I'd like to be able to completely forget about six-layer combined armour. Many of us would heave a great sigh of relief if we never encountered these armours again in any way shape or form. Although I was personally looking forward to changing my soldiers four pieces of QL300 CC into six-layer, to avoid hotswapping Nano/Combat huds. As they are not a right click hotswap, and thus vaguely irritating. And yes, I'd outlay up to 4 billion credits and 60 perk resets (30 up, 30 down) reset to avoid a vague inconvenience.

People need to realize they are looking at something picked up from a TEST server...
It's been said time and time again... That something is in the DB do not in any way mean that it will make it in-game whatsoever...

Was good fun to read all the drama threads/posts tho

[Mekh]

Uhm.

From what I recall, boosterpacks weren't supposed to make people stronger than those who only went for expansions.

Hence the hoverboards and hoverbikes and such and the veteran shop.

All were meant not to imbalance the gameplay.

Now you say some of the better goods will only be available through boosterpacks?

Not whining, just surprised of the change of attitude towards boosterpacks.

I think you're confusing items purchasable with paid points, with boosters/expansions.
A booster is really nothing but a smaller expansion...

This booster gives you the possibility of playing to get the goods through playfields, not having the items spawned in your inv upon purchase of the booster

[Chrys]

- I'm really looking forward to the playfields but will they require the same amount of organisation (regarding gathering people) as the DB quests and instances?
Because currently it is very very hard to gather people to do the things you need. Examples are DB quests, Instances, apfs, etc.

- Is there any eta on the engine and how is it progressing?
Sorry for asking this over and over but I'm just very excited about this

Bump for these questions. To add to the first - any new solo-able content (or just open playfields) in the works?

And my question: What can avid PVPers expect from 18.0?

[Jick]

I think half of you are still confused about what will be or wont be in 18.0 , so wouldnt be nice to just wait for it to come out and then talk about that then crying and bitching when its not even done ? Have a little faith , at least those who have been playing for years hope that things will change to better, and hope never dies :-)

[egadsrk2]

Yeah, but when LE came out, previous Game Director said booster packs won't make people stronger anymore

All he said was items bought with paid points weren't going to have any impact on the game. So we got bikes, boards and free AI clothes.

[Dolfindwe]

People need to realize they are looking at something picked up from a TEST server...
It's been said time and time again... That something is in the DB do not in any way mean that it will make it in-game whatsoever...

Was good fun to read all the drama threads/posts tho

Yep but the problem was not so much the actual numerical values of the stats of those armors, but it was the very idea of the fact that FC could even think 1 second about making new upgraded more powerful AI Armors. It is the last thing the game needs. AO is in need of more diversity, of more choice for players. To truly be and remain unique, the game needs to offer something else to players than one crazy cookie cutter setup you have to get by farming x times the same instances, a concept you can already find in nearly every other mmo out there.

The real AO is the game where for each slot of your Armor or Weapon panels, you have to truly think, and make a choice between different possibilities, even if you would have all the items in the game available. this choice existed for implants too, but symbiants kind of took it away, even if the twinking needed to equip the high quality levels ones is still better than nothingat all.

Today people do have the to choose between different alien, Ofab or other kind of armors, even when making the ultimate end game setup, which is, even if it is unfortunately not as true for every profession, a great thing.

Now, what we need in the booster, is even more options being made available to us players, and in a perfect world, options that are not too boring to get, DB2 is a great example of non-random and very nice and refreshing instance. Ultimate better than everything item, like the last Bracer or those possibly new alien armors, can only turn away more people from anarchy online, which is the last thing we all need.


Oh yeah and also some Questions :
- Have you at all considered making new maps for the Battlestation, given the enormous amount of time most TL7 players spend in it and since it is the only reliable easy to get to and take part in player vs player even of the entire game?
- Have you also considered the idea of making low levels Battlestations more frequented, by for example letting people sign up from anywhere or more accessible places in the game?

[egadsrk2]

People need to realize they are looking at something picked up from a TEST server...
It's been said time and time again... That something is in the DB do not in any way mean that it will make it in-game whatsoever...

Theres a ring of truth to that. But I don't think (since I've started reading DB rips) that any of those occasions included an entire set of items never meant for us. Just items that were unbalanced and tweaked in testing. Or unbalanced and made it to live.

This will be the first time over 150 items went into a DB Rip and wont make it to live.

[IHaveHugeNick]

I have a question. Why do i have to PvM for 1.5 a year to get an endgame character ready for competetive PvP.

[Klodovik]

I have a question. Why do i have to PvM for 1.5 a year to get an endgame character ready for competetive PvP.

Because you didn't roll a trox soldier or NM NT?

[Twangleman]

Uhm.

From what I recall, boosterpacks weren't supposed to make people stronger than those who only went for expansions.

Hence the hoverboards and hoverbikes and such and the veteran shop.

All were meant not to imbalance the gameplay.

Now you say some of the better goods will only be available through boosterpacks?

Not whining, just surprised of the change of attitude towards boosterpacks.

Im pretty sure the "not making u stronger"-rule only applies to items purchased with money, like the hoverboards

[Xaun]

To Means, On the top of my head I am wondering more than ever the following.

1. What plan of action is being enacted to try to draw in a new player base and retain them once they finish their download and patching (please update the patcher it really is insane to download something for days then patch for days - Many new user experiences sound like that).

2. Is there any options for putting back the old ICC welcome museum before Newbie Island. Or better representation of post Newbie island experience. So many suggestions could be made on what could be done for new players so have an amazing first experience.

3. What do you think about taking some rather drastic / controversial measures to add end game diversity such as adjusting perks, changing existing perks, or grouping, adding new perks to allow more weapon support for more professions at end game.

4. Fix for Parry/Riposte soon'ish?

[Thwarn]

My main questione is this: Are the 5 areas just PFs like Alappa/Alb or are we talking new zones?

Follow up to the above: If they are just small PFs like Alappa are there any plans in the near future to release new zones to the game?

ty


PS: Oh and bump Harios question about Blunt improvments.

[Dagget]

Is the Booster pack bringing new goodies for low level chars? Every paid Expansion/Booster to date has stuff whose benefits can be felt at very low levels. From what has been so far revealed, the upcoming Booster pack will only benefit high level chars - not something conducive to bringing in fresh blood.

[Rktim]

Question for next week:

Means, with a new GM and the new graphic engine (that hopefully will reduce some lag issues) will it be possible that one day in the future we might finally have the SL tower bases opened up to the players to fight over "old stile" (aka no fancy LE toys), and at the same time, could you consider rewamping/upgrading/further developing the NW fields on RK to be better compatible with todays game and the LE toys?

//Rktim

[Lupusceleri]

Items/Loot 100% in this booster will be deck slot item upgrades, Spirits and Symbiant upgrades.

Means, could you please clarify, do you mean that:

These symbiants will be better than the old SL symbiants, and therefor an upgrade - similar to OFAB armor being an upgrade of the Faithful/Chosen armor?

Or:

These symbiants will require the old SL symbiants as base items to upgrade - similar to Yutto's Modified NCU being turned into Spirit Infused Yutto's Modified NCU?

Same of course goes for the spirits and deck slot upgrades.

------------------------------

Now my inevitable question: Will you guys please take a look at the Remedy Inhibitor nano and clarify what the hell it's supposed to do? And maybe adjust it to be less spammable if it is supposed to block CH (along with modifying the description), or make sure it no longer blocks CH if it's not supposed to block CH (along with giving One Foot in the Grave a lower NR check to compensate for the soldiers)?

[Tiralee]

Uhm.

From what I recall, boosterpacks weren't supposed to make people stronger than those who only went for expansions.

Hence the hoverboards and hoverbikes and such and the veteran shop.

All were meant not to imbalance the gameplay.

Now you say some of the better goods will only be available through boosterpacks?

Not whining, just surprised of the change of attitude towards boosterpacks.

Items bought for by Paid Points (hoverboards, jetbikes, etc.) aren't supposed to give people buying them a big advantage over those who don't

However, buying a boosterpack (with game content) is different. It's the same/similar to buying a full expansion. It doesn't matter if you buy them with Paid Points or with cash. It's the same as if Paid Points were available for buying LE, and you paid cash to get Paids Points to buy LE.