Answers from FWM November 11th, 2011 Questions

[Means]

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.

We don't feel that it is a poor design choice at all as it has been very effective as both a small credit drain and effectively prevented the use of spam. The new mail system has provided our paying customers a way to effectively and safely transfer items and credits. Free players who wish to remain non-subscribed can purchase the ability to use the mail systems in the account pages of the billing site which will also activate their ability to post on the forums. Maintaining control over offensive content/harassment in both the mail systems and forums with the ability to create unlimited free accounts is of course impossible...thus the purchase or limited access.

[Means]

Any plans to revitalize city raid functionality? Are there any plans in the works to improve organization function and org cities?

I would like to see new options/choices for instanced cities at some point in the future (ie: different plots/sizes for different sized organizations). There will be some new buildings coming at some point in the near future. Changes to ****e up city raids wouldn't be a bad idea at all but it is not in the works at the moment.

[Means]

I can haz resignation form and go back to neutral?

Open access to side change would result in flip-flopping within the factions. I am still on the fence about this issue as a paid service..but there are no immediate plans to implement it.

[Means]

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?

The new icons are produced by a volunteer (Docaholic) and does not take significant resources away from current projects.

[Means]

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

Many times. We have some ideas we'd like to see realized next year. Mstrbstrd has assured me he will give up eating and sleeping to get this done.

[Means]

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

This is much more work than a normal weekly post but I felt it had been much too long since the previous time. This is needed to keep the dialogue going as a lot of people who normally wouldn't speak up to voice their opinion generally do in an open question format opportunity like this one. I can't possibly answer ALL the questions I get, but I can try

[Means]

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?

Replacing the trees has gone relatively smoothly with a few issues that pop up here and there. Replacement meshes have been built with similar height/size etc so that when the "final" export is finally done they should simply appear in the correct locations. I was a bit worried about this issue so it has been great to have this one work out quite well.

[Means]

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

I don't think we plan to address implants in the new start-up playfield. But it is likely we will add a mission during the early part of the game to try to ease the process of this difficult part of the game. The startup experience will already have a significant amount for the players to get through without adding that kind of complex element right from the start that does not prevent them from enjoying the start of the game experience.

[Means]

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?

We'll be monitoring user stats after the launch and at some point will remove the old client. There will of course be lots of notice given as to when this might happen. If we see significant numbers of people continuing to use the old client going into the future it might remain quite viable to continue to run both...but we'll have to wait and see.

[Means]

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)

We are considering new items for the vet booth to be added in the new year.

[Means]

Mentoring system when?

Work is being done on this when possible by shared billing team resources here in the company. They helped design the system with me and are equally excited about what it could do for our veteran players so it is significantly delayed, but not forgotten.

[Means]

Rework of the Registration site pages coming anytime soon? Website update ETA?

Yes. The entire AO site is going to be rebuilt by an external company in the new year.

[Means]

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?

We're going to spend our time just making the engine video, not making a making of the engine video video. Sounds fun but too much to do already unfortunately.

[Means]

Any chance to have new in-game music?

There is no composer on the team anymore...and I still love the music we have. Anything else would feel odd. I am hoping in the future to have collaborative work from artists to use in new specific locations, much the same as Ayria provided music for the "Grind" space nightclub. One label I spoke with expressed interest in partnering with us for this idea.

[Means]

Credit rewards with the Dalies? Doesn't have to be alot.

We do need to address the issue of it being difficult for new players to gain the credits they need to be able to play. However, adding credit gain to the best source of XP in-game is not the way we plan on doing it.

[Means]

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.

Yes there are regular backups. I can't imagine what those guys were thinking...or what they might be feeling now.

[Means]

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

Unfortunately no. The contents of a backpack are not loaded on the server until they are actually opened for performance reasons.

[Means]

Is there any plans to add AO to Steam / Origin / Impulse / GamersGate / Direct2Drive etc. to bring in more new players? FC's Bloodline Champions is already in Steam so why not AO too?

After the launch of the new engine there is a very good chance this could happen. I can't see any reason why we wouldn't want to participate in that area.

[Means]

What's the next expansion / booster called (after the engine update)?

Unnamed as of yet but there are plans to release one in 2012.

[Means]

will neutral get a token board with tokens?

No. This is a sided feature. Some token board alternatives are already available to neutral players and the skill-gap has never been this small before. This issue is as addressed as it is going to get.