Friday with Means - January 23rd, 2009

[Dagget]

so lets assume the bot drop rate stays at 10%-20%... meanwhile cred farmers can create a new account, place 8 diff toons in 8 diff cities, and mass farm while dual logged( or quad logged, etc. 2 people for each ground raid.)

Only thing adding more "temp" or "instanced" cities will do is make farmers richer, unless they really shaft the drop rate. (So more cities, and less bots.) I just don't understand why we would want to "Add more cities" when most of the "bigger" orgs have a city, or two.

Actually the opposite will happen - AI armor costs a lot because the demand is high and the supply is low. Adding instanced cities increases the supply, lowering the price. In particular, it allows people who used to have to go to farmers to buy bots to get their own. Farmers lose out, average players win. Of course some ppl will still just buy what bots/armor they need but a significant % will now go get their org an instanced city and get their own bots...as well, I expect to see quite a bit more competition among and against the traditional farm orgs.

[Wrangeline]

If you can't see the difference between placing a mine and hoping some steps on it and a nano you can actively try to land on someone then you are lost on this argument. Maybe goth should come in mine form instead?

What on earth are you on about?

I was clearly talking about creativity, not what is most effective out of mines and nanos.

If you want to say something to me then you better learn to understand english and the concept of >context< or you will just keep making a fool of yourself.

[rustinel]

The last thing I need a landmine that makes me **** bats.

LOL!

That'd piss Draculeet right off...

[bungerman]

The last thing I need a landmine that makes me **** bats.

lol fixed the edit, to GTH, damn cell phone texting.... oh crap I've turned into you, halp!

[bungerman]

What on earth are you on about?

I was clearly talking about creativity, not what is most effective out of mines and nanos.

If you want to say something to me then you better learn to understand english and the concept of >context< or you will just keep making a fool of yourself.

my point being maybe next upgrade to trader toolset should be some "bomb" you just plop on the ground and hope someone steps on it since it would be unique and interesting, thus you would like it right? Or do you possibly see it might not be all that much of an upgrade when it can just be put in a mechanic that is already working (nano,throwing grenade,proc) and they wouldn't have wasted a year trying to get them to work.

[egadsrk2]

I thought Means said in a previous post that AI armor is over powered and items like it will never be put in game again. With this in mind, instancing player cities seems to be completely counter intuitive. You will now have way more people with AI armor....

What you read was Means' confirmation that Digamma's AI armour, and other nodrop flavours that were seen in the very first 18.0 DB rip were never going to see the light of day and that these were designed as a concept that a person was never meant to own an entire set of. He finished the thought with saying the designer of these particular items didn't understand us, the top grinders, one bit. And thus completely underestimated just how quickly a person could get a full set if they wanted it.

It wasnt a general ceiling of power for all things.

Back to Digamma's, how it was in the DB at all is a subject of mystery. Something tells me we were never meant to even be aware of their existance. Wonder if theres resources in place for them. (Extra special combined combined visual meshes or whatever.)

[Hacre]

What you read was Means' confirmation that Digamma's AI armour, and other nodrop flavours that were seen in the very first 18.0 DB rip were never going to see the light of day and that these were designed as a concept that a person was never meant to own an entire set of. He finished the thought with saying the designer of these particular items didn't understand us, the top grinders, one bit. And thus completely underestimated just how quickly a person could get a full set if they wanted it.

It wasnt a general ceiling of power for all things.

Back to Digamma's, how it was in the DB at all is a subject of mystery. Something tells me we were never meant to even be aware of their existance. Wonder if theres resources in place for them. (Extra special combined combined visual meshes or whatever.)

He was actually talking about regular AI armour when referring to the original designer, and people never being intended to have a full set. That's where the underestimation came in...because anyone wanting a full set, has one.

[Brampfine]

i think....

Yesterday:
Letter from the Game Director: 5 October 2007
""I’ve read various threads back and forth on the forums asking why these vehicles aren’t stat increasing items or give actual game-play benefits. We have said from the outset with this particular project that we didn’t want to create a situation where gameplay was affected by the size of your bank balance, and that has been a vital part of the development. These are purely social items, designed to look cool and be a little fun addition. Sure, they won’t be to everyone’s tastes, and that’s fine, after all we wouldn’t ever know for sure if it’s something people appreciate unless we try it.""

Today: Pay for a booster with paidpoints + $/€
.............

Today: no no no it never get life the armor

Tomorrow: there is it

and it cost $/€
and it is a gameplay who is affected by the size of our bank balance with some new better items

it is not a addon its a booster for Paidpoints + $/€


...

[IHaveHugeNick]

Are you also boycotting credit cards because they allow buying stuff with virtual currency?

[bungerman]

Are you also boycotting credit cards because they allow buying stuff with virtual currency?

no, I'm boycotting until I found out there is more than +7 symb upgrade and a token board.

[Technogen]

Yes, there's a lot of fun PvM content. The new PFs are fun and look good.

[Tiralee]

i think....

Yesterday:
Letter from the Game Director: 5 October 2007
""I’ve read various threads back and forth on the forums asking why these vehicles aren’t stat increasing items or give actual game-play benefits. We have said from the outset with this particular project that we didn’t want to create a situation where gameplay was affected by the size of your bank balance, and that has been a vital part of the development. These are purely social items, designed to look cool and be a little fun addition. Sure, they won’t be to everyone’s tastes, and that’s fine, after all we wouldn’t ever know for sure if it’s something people appreciate unless we try it.""

Today: Pay for a booster with paidpoints + $/€

They are talking about items. Items that you can get with Paid Points won't give actual gameplay benefits.

The booster is not an item like a jetbike or hoverboard. It is game content, a mini-expansion. That's different than an in-game item.

[Keldros]

i think....

Yesterday:
Letter from the Game Director: 5 October 2007
""I’ve read various threads back and forth on the forums asking why these vehicles aren’t stat increasing items or give actual game-play benefits. We have said from the outset with this particular project that we didn’t want to create a situation where gameplay was affected by the size of your bank balance, and that has been a vital part of the development. These are purely social items, designed to look cool and be a little fun addition. Sure, they won’t be to everyone’s tastes, and that’s fine, after all we wouldn’t ever know for sure if it’s something people appreciate unless we try it.""

And your point is?

Last I checked, you could get better items by upgrading from a froob account to a paid account with AI/SL/LE...but i don't think anyone believes that's the same thing as buying uber items for cash.

[Means]

This is on the level of creativity of me eating my sandwich upside down.

Pix or it never happened.

[Falkvinge]

i think....

Some people shouldn't start to think at all.
-------

I've seen some kamikaze drone npc with a kamikaze self destruct proc in the new 18.xxx db and I wonder if now, after it seems to be possible to self destruct a npc with a proc, it would also be possible to start working on the kamikaze bot again ?

It would be a nice addition for the Engineers... They could release a shell while having someone targeted and the kamikaze bot will be on /follow and explode near the target ( doing aoe damage like mines do ).

[Jellyfunk]

Last I checked, you could get better items by upgrading from a froob account to a paid account with AI/SL/LE...but i don't think anyone believes that's the same thing as buying uber items for cash.

So you've not read any of Jenshai's posts then?

[Ellarisa]

edit: sorry for the wall of text!!

here's my thought on this week's FwM

sync issues:
good to see you're working on it, personally i dont have much of a problem with em usually, but it's nice to see that you're working on fixing it (kick out savvis, mkay?)

pvp Nanos:
seems interesting, though i'm scared of what it will do to my pets...

Mines:
i dunno, it seems like another one of those things that goes with 90% of the other stuff we get, aka cast and forget. what gunfytr said might be nice, give us the ability to remotly detonate em, that will at least make em a bit more usefull
would be nice if we got some more active content to do though other then hitting pet attack; hitting coon and hitting BR/bio rejuve at the right times (in my case). mines dont really fall under this category.

The booster:
looking forward to it, when can we pre-order?

instanced cities:
really really cool, been trying to get a city for my org but without much succes so far, farming 4bil takes a long time for me >.> (most of my org mates are fairly low lvl, so not much help there)
you talk about org advantages, but which ones would be considered here? small HQ+mining ops+grid house? or will it depend on the rent you pay (aka choose between 3 or something size and get a rent attached to it accordingly)

Professional balance:
be very very carefull here, it's not cause people whine nerf this nerf that about something that it's OP. curious how you'll handle this

other stuff
-------------
engi prof description:
doesn't it say that we create pets to do the work for us also? last time i checked i did more work then my pets in any kind of combat (be it pvp, dd prostitution or soloing)

about what people think engis should do:
a trader shouldn't kill or drain stuff! it should be selling blood plasma to the trader shop or something!
an advy shouldn't kill stuff or survive! he should be exploring RK and fly around in reet form with the other reets!
an fixer shouldn't evade everythign and kill stuff! they should hack stuff and run around really really fast!
and so on...

dont start with the "an engi does this or that in some other game so they should in AO too" it really doesn't work in ao...
oh and comparing AO with an fps is just laughable...

about non-engi saying mines will be fun:
yeah ofcourse they will be....... for you. for us it'll be just another cast and forget.

more for Mr Means:
--------------------------
- IRRK? any news on if it'll come back some time?
- mixing personal stuff into your FwM letters is a good touch, makes it nicer to read (i dont like patchnotes-style letters, too boring for normal letters)
- if you ever come to belgium lemme know, i'll treat you to a beer, chocolate and some fries!

ok i think i did enough ranting for now

Greetings,



Ellarisa

[Mastablasta]

I'll be in Copenhagen again this weekend and the Skåne area. Thanks for all the Danes and Swedes who made last weekend so much fun. If anyone gets the chance to go to the Copenhagen Zoo it is fantastic...I haven't had that much fun in a long time. I'll be there again this Sunday so we can see the Elephants we missed last time.

Visit Århus instead, it's much nicer here

[Mekh]

Visit Århus instead, it's much nicer here

I actually live no more than 1 hours drive from Århus and have some family living there...
We could treat him with a beer there... Hehe

[Klodovik]

I still think that MPs deserve green flying monkeys. Means?