Friday with Means - February 20th, 2009

[Mekh]

True, the game mechanics need to be altered so that "solo DD=solo XP", even if the player is teamed. If the other players want XP from the kite they should have multiple players landing damage.
...snip...

Soldier and Doc teamed up and killing a mob... Doc is wearing a ToTW grail, hence only the soldier is doing any significant damage, if not the only doing damage.

Above is still a perfectly viable and intended team/killing situation, but would mean that only the soldier received xp, using your situation.

It's really not an easy situation to fix.

[Chrys]

Aside from the 159s can team with 220s problem, I really think many of you are seeing it in the wrong terms.

What needs to change is that it needs to be made FUN and REWARDING to LEVEL. Those three key words.

At some point in AO's history, developers decided that these were mutually exclusive (ok slight exaggeration but you get the idea). So they split them apart and made it so that if you were farming, you were farming. If you were grinding, you were grinding. And if you were having fun (tara, wars, etc.), you weren't doing the other two (mostly, grinding points I guess). This needs to be relooked. Of course the last time something was rewarding and you could level at the same time was ingots, and this was a bad situation - but it was more about balance than anything else.

Few ideas: Tradeskills should have a great deal more spent on expendables (powerful stims, fms, rods, even ones with buffs). And the raw materials for these expendables should drop from a levelling area (presto: economy). And the levelling area should have mobs with more variable AI than hit-you-from-1000-meters-lol (Scheol, Ado) - some of those cool new tricks that are being introduced in instances should be now tested in open areas or at the very least brought down to lower levels. Mobs warping have always been part of it, but how about players having to do specific things to reduce mob resists, mitigate damage - anything to break the monotony and also make it harder for 220s to pocket.

Dynamic AI that gives players more goal-oriented gameplay (outside get 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 expeez) will also help: Have mobs actually constantly spawning and raiding cities that players have to defend or the city falls and associated benefits disappear. It worked in TR so well you didn't realise you were grinding. And FFS, more interesting loot than monster parts. Then make PVP equivalents of these that give players mini-objectives, splits them up and makes them fight in small groups rather than zergs (it'll save your servers too!)

This is something big, grand, and I doubt FC will have the bawlz to undertake such a radical revamp to their game system. But Tabula Rasa is dead. The time to try this is now. Prove me wrong.

[Keldros]

What needs to change is that it needs to be made FUN and REWARDING to LEVEL. Those three key words.

Teaming with 220s who think that full combined is the only thing better than carb, or "using your toolset" means "press Q when the pocket has aggro" isn't so hot either. (and only a slight exaggeration)

[zartosht]

It is impossible to find teams for me at levels 150-210.

It is also impossible to find teams at 220 to tackle end game content that has been released in previous patches. For instance: I have been twice to Albtraum since it came out because I missed it when it was just released.

I am not looking forward to instanced Pande for that very reason!!!

[zartosht]

Instanced Pande = very soon.

This is what could end up making me quit AO.

It is almost impossible to find PUGs at 220 to tackle end game content except for content that has been just released, currently LoX. It is impossible to find enough peeps to do Albtraum, APFs, DBs or the DB quest, HI, and the like.

The only thing possible is to level alts from 1-150 (no PUGs available afterthat) and to raid non-instanced content, aka The Beast, which is the only one left.

This is of course not true for close-knits bands of no-lifers that know each others for ever and spend their entire time playing AO, but it is the sad reality for regular folks who have limited amounts of play time at their disposal.

[Technogen]

I havnnt had much problems doing those, im just not a jerk to people and make sure to remember people who need stuff.

[zartosht]

I havnnt had much problems doing those, im just not a jerk to people and make sure to remember people who need stuff.

I am tired of the usual answers about difficulty to find teams which go: "you need skills to make friends" or "you need to be nice". That does not cut it with current numbers.

I made very good friends in the game and I am still in touch with them IRL. But they left AO and I have to rely on PUGs to get things done. It is in PUGs that I can meet new people and make new friends. But alas, this is not an option. And contrary to what you may think, I am the nicest person in game, especially when in team.

Also look at org's situation. On Atlantean there are but 2 orgs on Clan that have adequate numbers.

[Mastablasta]

Current org situation is a result of non-instanced pande and later outzones, and the introduction of mostly solo and 1-team content. You don't need strength in numbers anymore, you just need 5 guys at most. And you can find 5 guys you never met before to do stuff with.

'tis sad.

[ninor]

@ means
If you know the break-off numbers after starter island are so high then I must ask whey the priorities on changing that seems so low.
I know the Xan-Bosster probably put a nice amount of cash into the AO account, but thinking of all the high end tweaking like fear and knock-back, wouldn't it be better spend on getting new people hooked.
e.g.
- Put an emergency treatment station with NPC doc on the island for example and bring some of the imp drops back.
- Introduce profession houses (Bor needs a major revamp anyhow)where npcs give out good advice and the porf nano shop from the stores (some higher profs might hang out there to help the noobs)

For marketing
- make some design contests for the phasfront or clothing design. should give u lot of articles in all kinds of forums. (or architecture contest for prof houses, see above
- Allow for some player recruitment like in real live; 1000 paid points if u get somebody into AO that p(l)ays for at least 3 month

[Technogen]

They just revamped icc shuttle port this patch too, and have more planned.

[nijushio]

Bump for the Surgery Clinic and small implants dropping on the island! I am very happy to see that some things are changed on newbie island already.

A few good ideas about making new players stay are here http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=548112

and i thought about how it could be helpful to start off new players in borealis after the Island instead moving them to OA/Rome where they are a bit lonely and on their own http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=548102

[zartosht]

And you can find 5 guys you never met before to do stuff with.

No.

[CulannHS]

I'd like to take one quick moment to address this one myself, as I've heard this on more than one occasion and would like to clear up some of the misconceptions about the individual roles on the team.

As a content designer for AO, I worked with vastly different tools and in a vastly different framework than the coders. The truth be told, I don't know the first *thing* about coding. I once made a little password program in GW-BASIC back in the day, but outside of that? I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag. I take a look at the stuff that Macrosun does on a regular basis and it genuinely hurts my head - Same with the stuff that Enno and the other render coders are tackling. This isn't even because of the old "AO code ewww" running gag that's been passed around - It's just that code genuinely goes over my head.

Content designers are hired on vastly different terms and with vastly different requirements from coders. We... don't have to know how to code to do this job. Some knowledge of scripting helps, and it never *hurts* to know coding, but they're not requirements at all. Same with, say, the art team on the project - They're hired because they know how to model and how to use Photoshop - Not because they know C++, nor because they understand game balance.

That said, it isn't that we wouldn't *like* to help out sometimes - I myself have been goofing around in my spare time with particle effect generators, just to see if I can learn how to work with this stuff and potentially offer the engine guys some aid on my spare time (which is unfortunately dwindling these days, but I do what I can). Even though I'm no longer working on AO I still feel a deep, devoted passion to it - One that makes me *want* to help the game along, even if it means taking up my spare time to do it. You mentioned in your earlier post that AO was a game that meant a lot to you, and had influenced your life in fantastic, amazing ways. You're not alone in that, and there are plenty of us here at this office who actually feel the same way - Myself most definitely included.

So it's not that we don't want to help. It's that we're genuinely not qualified. As much amazing talent that exists in the current team, a designer is a designer, an artist is an artist, and a coder is a coder - While some small amount of overlap may exist, usually the people hired are specialized in their specific role, and quite simply just doesn't have the in-depth knowledge to help out that much in other areas. It's like if your mathematics-studying best friend asks you to help them solve a complicated equation for their term grade but you studied woodworking - You could offer to make them a really pretty frame to hang their solution in, but actually solving the equation is beyond your means. That's what it's like, mostly.

Meantime, we still have jobs, and AO still needs content and such to keep people rolling, so instead of us just kinda sitting around and waiting (or worse yet, someone *forcing* us to work on code, in which case literally nothing would get done because we would have zero clue of what we're doing), content gets made. It lets us keep our jobs, it lets you guys get new stuff to play around with in-game, and it keeps us out of the render coders collective hair. Because I can guarantee you that if we aren't kept busy, they start getting tired of us popping over every five minutes to look at the shinies.

Whoa I got a response from a Dev..awesome-sauce. =)

First priority is to say thank you for the response Kintaii. That did answer the question pretty explicitly, and I understood what you meant, throughout the whole thing.

That said, then it's pretty much a case of the render coder's job being so different from other jobs (outside of a programmer field) that there's no way to step up and assist.

I understand that..and it really does make sense..by trade, I myself work as a network systems application programmer with a emphasis on data engineering. As I originally posted, I wasn't sure of FC's hiearchial structure or organizational layout so I wasn't going to make any assumptions about what was what until I got a response.

Thank you for the input Kintaii..I absolutely appreciate it. Now if you could just nudge Means to respond to my last monster block of text that'd be awesome. I'm still boggling over the fact I got a response from a Dev. =)

Have a good day mate.

[Ebondevil]

Well my opinions on sorting out the 130-200 range would be:

• Shadowlands
  
  • Level lock the Inferno boots to level 180 as a minimum, possibly Title Level 6 like Hold Hell at Bay.
  • Fix the solo mission in Adonis, Penumbra and Inferno so different difficulty levels provide different rewards and levels of mobs.
  • Fix Adonis missions so they are more easily accessible.
  • Fix Penumbra missions so the difficulty is better scaled to the team level.
  • Make some loot from Adonis/Penumbra/Inferno missions more valuable so they make a good source of income for players at those levels, thus encouraging people into them more instead of doing hecklers.
  • Increase the drop rate on Inferno insignias to make getting into the garden between missions easier, encouraging people to go in and out often and making the other mission locations more accessible, decreasing the need for missions to be pulled primarily at or near Ergo.
• Rubi-Ka
  
  • Add some interesting areas to level on RK at 150+, More Zones to play in with high level mobs would be good
  • Totally rework Inner sanctum so it's bigger, more interesting and more fun, instead of a loot grind.
  • Add a few more Dungeons to RK for at different level ranges above level 100, Inner sanctum is one of them but needs reworking. They should be accessible for People to solo so they can enjoy it alone and thus encourage people to go there, but they should also be rewarding for a team there. Crypt of Home fails because you need a team to get in which means you can't go there solo and find other people soloing there to team with, thus it's less spontaneous. The best places are really ToTW and Biomare since you don't need a team to enjoy them.
• In general
  
  • More content for the casual gamer to enjoy so people can dip in and out of the game at need, and those without much time to spend playing can enjoy the game as much as those with lots of time to spare.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Yeah, the funny part about Penumbra missions , they are a lot , lot harder to do then Inferno of higher level. As a result, you cant expect thing to turn any other way then Inferno missions (both faster, easier, and with better rewards) become a zone for rich and the resourceful, and Penumbra and below becoming dead zones with occasional noob or two struggling to find a team.

[Technogen]

Make the mission boss drop 6 insgs is a good idea.

[Ebondevil]

Make the mission boss drop 6 insgs is a good idea.

Have the Dummy drop 5 insignias and the Familiar drop 1 insignia, then a Solo mission would always be rewarded with 1 from the Familiar, and a team mission would be rewarded with 6 drops, 1 from the familiar and 5 from the Dummy.

[Technogen]

But what if someone is familiar with the dummy?

[Ebag333]

But what if someone is familiar with the dummy?

Kinky.


But where does the insig go.........oooooooooh.

[Chrys]

Question for Means: FC reported a $33.8m fy loss this week and resignation of their CFO - mostly to do with AoC. Will this have a significant impact on AO?