Friday with Means - September 2nd, 2011 - Engine Screenshots - Tir

[lainbr]

Ppl complains that new engine is taking to much time(maybe it really is) but everybody seems to forget they had to restart from scratch 2 years ago.

To finish: What is the problem to pay a game you enjoy so much and like so much? Just because of old graphics? And... If you dont like the game anymore, why you all keeping saying "ill not pay if the new engine if it is not live" like children who just stop to make things they like so much because they didnt got that candy?

[Graftmage]

from scratch 2 years ago

They're adapting existing engine, not writing one from scratch.

[Mastablasta]

The point is you buy a house finished unless you're some sort of investor and developing the land... which isn't what a typical gamer is. Anyway maybe it's a sucky analogy but pay-to-develop makes very little sense when they aren't marketing and have an attitude of game-in-terminal-decline approach to public relations.

No you don't. Loads of people around here buy a parcel of land and construct a house on that according to some preapproved designs. Then interiors are up to the individual to decide. And a sucky analogue

Yeah so minecraft etc did that but they are novel and unique in their own way. AO is only unique in that everyone else started making MMOs differently after WoW came out and no one followed in AO's path for a number of very good reasons (the neverending balance patch being the most visible sign of how difficult AO's "choice" has become for the devs). It doesn't have enough of a "hook" to be worth paying to support development - especially development of a 5-year-old graphic engine and mere "game balance" (what every MMO does anyway, supposedly). remember all the promises of LE (and then the disappointment)? This isn't even half that

Loads of games do it. Not just Minecraft, or a handful of games like that. Many, many games now a days and have been doing it for many years. AO's choice isn't so much a problem in the balance department because of it as it is because of the period of time over which it has run and shortsighted inclusions of items in to the system over that time.

AO is "indie" in what sense exactly? That FC fail at game development so aren't big enough to be a real game developer?

Indie means independent. AO is developed by Funcom alone, and was published by Funcom alone. All expansions to AO have been developed by Funcom alone with resources and investments gathered by Funcom alone for the purpose of developing them for AO. No publishers are involved with AO, which means no monetary support for marketing, no huge QA departments, freebie middleware (apart from engine), and the various other boons and banes.

[Mekatronik]

"I recently came back to check out Anarchy...

This game has so much depth on the player development side that no other game can come even close to. I am not sure why it took me so long to come back but I am so glad I did.

Anyways I plan on being back for quite some time. I am not suggesting that all with Funcom is perfect but the game is awesome"

Gorg

Same here...i recently came back and reactivated my old account(2008), made some new friends and im enjoying the game a lot again (with less people online and sometimes hard to find a team)
I really hope this game survive for a long time and that the new engine, rebalance,etc come to see the light of day...someday

[Gunfytr]

In my own humble opinion, the biggest thing that hurt veteran subscribers is the "Soon(tm)" mentality. The cyclic "frenzy" the new engine and then rebalance brought on is tiring. Tibbits of info, a screanie here and there, over the course of years, wears on a person. Sure, the nano docs, rebalance ideas, ect were fascinating and exciting. But, c'mon, FC has been waving this under our noses for years, with no tangible results. Yeah, I'm not a programmer, and I'm sure its very difficult and complicated. But lots of jobs are like that (try Police work sometime).

Most of us love this game. Even the trolls love this game. Most of us realize just how unique AO is, thats what keeps us around. I have over 500 days /played on my toons, and I'm sure many, many have as many and more. Why? Because AO rocks. We all know it. But subjecting ur population to hype, hype, frenzy.../denied again and again over several years will crush the most loyal player base. Do I have a solution? Nope. Do I think FC did/does the hype/frenzy on purpose? Nah, its mainly player perception. But. Theres an expression here, "It aint right, but it's real."

[Marketplace]

Ppl complains that new engine is taking to much time(maybe it really is) but everybody seems to forget they had to restart from scratch 2 years ago.

That is very true. But you have to see that there is a reason why people complain, it's not because they just complain for the sake of complaining (well some do, but if we don't feed them, they will apparently whiter away!)

February 25th, 2011

The Engine:

I am sorry if there was any confusion with the information I gave out before concerning delays. When I mentioned that this move would result in significant delays I should have specifically mentioned that this of course would also affect the engine work. We are not going to be able to release the engine in Q1 but we are still hoping for an "Early Beta" in Q1 or early Q2...but at this point it is still dependent on the release of the new version of the engine in Conan as to how much resource we will get in getting it set up and running. There are a few visual glitches (shadows, water and grass) I absolutely want repaired before we open it up...but we need external assistance in resolving those before we continue. I have to admit to being a bit critical of what I will allow outside the building with our expectations being so high. On a positive note the more time the artists get before we open it up the better the first versions will look. Work is getting close to complete on new bodies and heads and a great deal of the "high impact + most used" resources (trees rocks etc) are being upgraded at a good pace while we wait for the tech to come together.

But on the other hand, things will be done soon, and then the FWM can have the headline: "In j00 fac3 non-belivers, the new Engine is on test". Hehe

Please note, I am possibly, and maybe, in a dubious way, highly likely and exceedingly so, with tremendous honesty, and discomfort from the pizza I just had, trolling.

[Mastablasta]

Well, trolling aside, he is right that there's going to be a lot more resources ready for the first build.

[Racheloblade]

I gotta say the dynamic lighting and shadows look really great. pat yourselves on the back guys you deserve it.

As for the flames.. dudes, chill out, FC has like 8 people that work on AO and they do what they can and spend a lot of there time on it, so lay off the grief, they aren't wizards... thats an other game...

[Marketplace]

I gotta say the dynamic lighting and shadows look really great. pat yourselves on the back guys you deserve it.

As for the flames.. dudes, chill out, FC has like 8 people that work on AO and they do what they can and spend a lot of there time on it, so lay off the grief, they aren't wizards... thats an other game...

What they should do is actually just put a launch date prior to or coinciding with The Secret World, that would give them time to work out everything. Leave it on test until then, I mean is it really going to damage the AO player base?

[Pomidor]

From my perespective, I went from hardcore gamer (sad for 31yrs old man) to casual player. AO is the only game I have, so I log from time to time, see whats happening (or whats NOT happening) and sit around. I dont have time for develpoing new toon 150-200, so leveing froobizie engi is pain. I dont see ppl at lft. Ufrozing accounts doesnt seem to be good choice now, since there is not much city pvp or BS going on at lvls, I could participate without sacrifacing loads of time for rising/building new twinks. So, as I said many times before - new engine is not needed for me personally, but its needed to attract new players - thus gain somone to play with. And thats AO is about - to play and share experiance with others, not just sit in Bore/OA and watch ppl are doing the same.

[thunnix]

I totally agree, new engine itself is not a requirement for me to continue play, however it is required for new people to start play, and many others to come back and play again.

And sitting around ingame somewhere day in day out is starting to get very very tedious to say the least.


If its even possible id like to see them push the new engine "soon™" and then update textures of buildings and so on one by one (weekly update with perhaps 1 new building/texture) and rather give us a feel that the game is alive and they actually do any work. That did sound harsh and it not intended that way, because i know they work as hard as they can, but imo the way its pushed it seems to me "once new AO is ready we will give it, but not a second before". Heck look at many other games they add new content to the game on a monthly cycle. Theres not much thats required, maybe try push the limits.

Theres one "goal" in the game itself get best/coolest items, and in many cases its the coolest item were after, great new social items but you have to pay for em... WTF, add it to older bosses, make us travel RubiKa like we once did... Give us something to do. As for new instances, i could not care less. (dont get me wrong new instances rock) but for the sake of the game i would like to have and actual purpose to go a place. Not to go to a place and find the exact same loot i found nearly 10 years ago. Because after nearly 5 accounts (all full) with all chars from lvl 100 - 220 it gets old.

[Alternity]

I really don't want a patch per week for 2 years...

[AOLUVER]

AO is gonna be uber sexy.

Can't wait for the lighting and shadows and less lag.