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Thread: Monthly Development Update - September 2015 (To the Dark Pyramid Below)

  1. #81
    Quote Originally Posted by Psikie View Post
    Well... there is a place called Crypt of Home. With a little searching you could also stumble upon smugglers/mantis den, and also lets not forget Inner Sanctum. They all do have story lines.
    Did CoH get revamped with the XP / NPC tweak a few patches ago? It used to be a difficult dungeon for leveling and with crappy xp. It certainly wont offer more XP than borgs, which is kited nowdays too by froobs.

  2. #82
    It was, but after 100 best place is SD. And at 125 omg IS is better than hecks.
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    This'll be fixed for the next patch

  3. #83
    Quote Originally Posted by Caloss2 View Post
    I remember this movie, what on RK was it called ? Spy hard or similar ?
    "Spy vs. Spy"?

  4. #84
    Quote Originally Posted by Nuadha View Post
    "Spy vs. Spy"?
    Found it, it was Naked gun.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQts7E1FvrE
    Caloss2 LVL 220 melee VANGUARD (semi retired).....Llewlyn 220/30/70 meepmeep.....Boooocal 220../30/70 Soldier.......Knack 220/30/70 Keeper.....Hiesenberg 215/xx/xx NT NERFED Neytiri1 220/30/70 Shade Knacker220/30/70Meat shield
    https://www.youtube.com/user/caloss2 for guides/walkthroughs/letsplays and all your other AO needs
    Quote Originally Posted by Mastablasta
    In my special design documents that I feed to the FC devs, who are my willing slaves.

  5. #85
    Quote Originally Posted by Krause View Post
    Why on earth would they focus on a level range that you blast through on your way to Tl7?

    No on cares about people who park at specific level ranges on purpose. Those who choose to play like that are free to, but you cant possibly expect them to spend actual months of development time making content for it.
    Why would somebody just blast through to tl7 ? Because there is interresting/funny content missing on those lvls until tl7 ? Isn't this we are talking about ?

    Personally i would go through interesting content rather then sky rocket to tl7. Simply because i want enjoy my toon and profession i'm playing.
    I prefer learn game this way. Even after 10 years i can still find something new to me. And i guess i'm not alone in this ...
    -o--oOo--o--
    Yama*007
    -o--oOo--o--

  6. #86
    When people never get to TL7, it's because there wasn't enough mid-level content to get them there. New players do not roll their characters and then go sit in kite teams. Providing new mid-level content is not about catering to someone's whimsical "let's play the game right instead of powerleveling" fantasy. It is literally the way population is grown (in a game that doesn't have level-specific zones and zone quest chains to funnel you through soloing all the way up to max level).

    If you're sitting on an account full of fully geared 220s and all you care about is more end-game content, so much that you will complain about new mid-level content being created, and you say "create more end-game content NOW or I'm taking my six paid accounts and leaving" -- which is the sentiment of many veteran players -- then just do it. Leave. Your six accounts will not be missed when compared to the earning potential from probably a lot more than six replacement subscriptions, thanks to players around level 100 who, previously, couldn't figure out what to do next or whether subscribing would be worth it.

    (Edit: Or you could roll another character and check out the new stuff. I'll be there.)

    FC's past focus entirely on end-game PVP and PVE has borne certain fruits. We have an incestuous veteran monoculture (IVM) that cries when any of FC's limited developer personnel-hours are spent on anything that doesn't expand the end-game. As a result, new players have a hard time getting to the end-game in the first place. The population becomes more IVM-like as a result when new players don't engage or stay for long. This leaves all subscription dollars to be collected from the IVM and a few players who were curious about the game but don't pay for more than a month. This decreases the amount of money FC is willing to invest in AO, which in turn leaves the AO team in a position in which they can improve the game in fewer ways at a time. Then they listen to the players who are left -- the IVM. The IVM then proposes that the AO team ruin the game more.

    A successful game collects its money from the broadest audience possible. Game developers must be careful not to slip too far into catering purely to newbies or to veterans. The latter is what we've been seeing in AO for years. They're finally trying to fix this now, and if you know what's good for you, you'll stop whining and let them. The alternative is literally what veterans have often told newbies to do -- "gb2wow" -- because there won't be an AO left to play.

    With more fresh blood in the game, it would be reasonable -- and hopefully they will see it this way, too -- FC will be able to devote resources again to expanding the end-game. In FC's current position, it's a necessary juggling process, devoting limited resources to the audience segment most in need of attention. This isn't a launch. FC isn't flush with AO-directed cash from fresh investors who heard they were doing a new sci-fi MMO. FC isn't going all out to support AO come hell or high water. They are pretty much occupying an almost diametrically opposite position from that, in fact. FC *must* support EITHER new blood in the game OR cater to end-game players, or shut the game down.

  7. #87
    One of AO's strengths is that is has mid-game content. There are reasons to have non-220s that stay not-at-220. This concept is pretty well unheard of in the current MMO scene. How about we don't discard that? Whilst yeah more end-game content is always nice, there needs to be more than a fast powerlevelling service to 220 throughout the rest of the game. I'm personally keen to see what The Reck offers.

    I do keep forgetting about CoH and IS as valid places to go level. Incentivise CoH levelling by doing something with that chest. Go on FC, you know you want to The trouble with trying to level in SD is everyone does their dailies there so a levelling group will end up in the way of people doing dailies, who are usually already in each others' way... IS is also much too tough for a group of newly dinged 125s without higher level assistance. At least, once you get beyond the first corridor. Keep the 3rd floor as is but perhaps reconsider the first and second somewhat?

    Ophiuchus : 220/30/80 HAHA etc
    Nahuatl
    :: 220/30/80 Melee 4lyfe
    Khurkh :: 220/30/80 healtankpew
    Transcendence
    Msanthropic
    : 210/26/60 nanostab
    Spidershiva :: 165/23/42 kite? eh?
    Silentmotion
    : 150/20/42 tankthink
    The Union

  8. #88
    Quote Originally Posted by Ophiuchus View Post
    One of AO's strengths is that is has mid-game content. There are reasons to have non-220s that stay not-at-220. This concept is pretty well unheard of in the current MMO scene. How about we don't discard that?
    True. Although, consider that some of those who stay-not-220 do so just to have well-geared characters to blast their way through essential content for their alts and friends, to make it easier to just get through all that forced stuff (if you can't pay for powerleveling). Some very long-term, but perhaps not forever-level-locking is for farming to make money, also, or to work around certain SK/XP-gain mechanics. And finally, forever-level-locking is mostly for towers.

    Yeah, there is mid-level content, but now let's critique the relevance of what content there is and some of the implications of what you've observed, in depth:

    - Level-locking could sometimes be because content at that level is fun. This is possible and should be acknowledged as a possibility, and I personally have the most fun at low levels, and I think that's because I've got plenty of fresh newbies to play with who are enthusiastic and I show them things and they're all like oh wow that's pretty cool, and I share gear with them because I've got billions of pieces of stuff for that level stashed away or I've just happened to farm an extra (Illegally Modified Ofab, pretty awesome stuff, not the best, but really good and really accessible). Those newbies seem to be more sparse by TOTW, and more sparse again as of Biomare. I friend people to play with later, and either I've leveled more slowly than they have (I don't do kite teams unless I'm really, terribly bored and completely stuck), or they've quit.

    - Level-locking is sometimes for dungeon alts. It could be said that the player who does this really likes that dungeon, but this could also be interpreted as: That player really *hates* that dungeon and wants to farm essential gear there for their alts in the future as quickly as possible, help other players through it as quickly as possible to get them leveled up to join the "real game" that starts at 220 (an attempt at feeding end-game population, which I think, in fact, just ditches newbies in a no-man's-land where they've outleveled their gear and struggle to kill green mobs). For instance, I've heard people ask, "why does anyone bother with the Subway?" I actually do love the Subway, and I hope I'm not unique in that, but I know that thinking the Subway is a waste of time is not uncommon. And I don't get that, because it's not a waste of time; there are plenty of green to orange mobs, and three that remain red almost all the way up to the level 25 lockout, and Abmouth is pretty hard unless you've successfully drained him or are exploiting pathing mechanics.

    - Level-locking is sometimes to lock a kite-service alt to a level where it will be capable of kiting, but exclude the fewest possible kite-service customers from gaining XP. This is the opposite of level-locking because you enjoy the content, and the services exist because of, at the very least, the *perception* that the content from 1-215 is boring. We could interpret that a few ways:
    A) The people who think 1-215 is boring are wrong and stupid and nothing should be done except maybe gimping NTs so that people are forced to not powerlevel (just like SL pocket-tanking has been complained about, and gray mobs now run from you when you shoot them, which is SO FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU JUST WANT INSIGNIAS).
    B) The people who think 1-215 is boring are right and something should be done about mid-game content.
    C) The people who think 1-215 is boring aren't stupid, but misinformed because the content is obscure and hard to find because it's a big world.
    D) The people who think 1-215 is boring are right, but only because the entire game is balanced for teams unless you are willing to re-gear every 10-20 levels so you can tackle the next thing solo, and the population is too small at the mid-levels to support that. (This also forces you to wait around for help killing bosses to get gear that may be essential or at least very helpful for you, which may never happen, forcing you to buy it from the market for thousands haha just kidding millions of credits you don't have.)
    E) Some nuanced mixture of all of the above.

    - Level-locking is sometimes because some of the most profitable and accessible farming is done at levels that aren't 220, and maybe also that spot is a sweet-spot for PVP where the TL7s can't attack you yet. In spite of Sector 10 bounty nerfs (unless that got rolled back), 150 is apparently a nice level to be at. There's quite a bit to do to get there, though, especially for froobs. They're an important feeder population and should be addressed.

    - Level-locking is sometimes, and, for our current population I suspect mainly, for tower fields. In principle, tower fields and PVP-level-ranges are so that level 1 characters can participate in PVP and NW. In practice, the economy prevents all but well-funded veteran players from participating unless you're willing to go the Neleb's rod route for every single profession. (Seriously, low-level traders going melee so they have practically infinite nano to do whatever they want; some might read that as "inventive" and maybe it was, the first two hundred times...) For relative newbies to participate in NW, you'd need so many of them that the enemy just chokes on your corpses and gives up or the zone crashes. NW is mid-level content, but primarily for veterans, or veterans playing other peoples' characters for them ("hi noob welcome to org omg you should lock at exactly level 18 and wear this gear don't worry I'll buy it for you; defend our tower fields nab I need it for the bonuses for all my twinks don't worry you benefit too I mean omg 2 whole points of biomet"), and many veterans don't even want mid-level content (it's just that essential sided tower XP and org contracts for stat bonuses), so I don't really understand this. It's probably mostly that, when NW was being developed, FC didn't foresee what all the OP expansion gear they'd be releasing in the future would do to NW with regard to exclusivity. People don't play according to their class toolset (it shouldn't be a limit, but it shouldn't be something you can just ignore altogether and be all the more successful for it), but according to their gear, and due to a mixture of things like an economy that shuns new players and how hard it can be for new players to engage, this means NW is entirely inaccessible to most potential players.

    Whilst yeah more end-game content is always nice, there needs to be more than a fast powerlevelling service to 220 throughout the rest of the game. I'm personally keen to see what The Reck offers.
    Me too! Except I want the entire list of closed playfields opened. I want to see how, as we get closer to the edge of the teraformed areas, things get more inhospitable. I want to see a zone entirely fortified by high-level cyborgs packed in so tight you have to swim through them. I want to see what kind of so far unseen structures and terrain they were imagining way back in 2001. I want to see where Jobe used to rest on the ground, and that structure on AORK that looks like an incarnator.

    I do keep forgetting about CoH and IS as valid places to go level. Incentivise CoH levelling by doing something with that chest. Go on FC, you know you want to The trouble with trying to level in SD is everyone does their dailies there so a levelling group will end up in the way of people doing dailies, who are usually already in each others' way... IS is also much too tough for a group of newly dinged 125s without higher level assistance. At least, once you get beyond the first corridor. Keep the 3rd floor as is but perhaps reconsider the first and second somewhat?
    Elite dailies are a nice touch, and it helps, but for regular leveling, CoH isn't entirely invalid, but largely dried up. The timer on the first door is way too short, and often enough I can't find a second person to open it with me anyway. Mobs go gray pretty fast considering the dungeon ends up visited not by people to whom all of them are at least green, but people who are 100-110, or people who beacon warp in. If it, and its rewards, were rebalanced for 100-125 that might go pretty well. Cerubin, for instance, doesn't drop anything particularly useful, and the best drops in CoH (Howlets and Blackbirds) are super rare and drop only on stealth mobs. "You can get them," sure, it is possible, but their accessibility can be gauged by their price on the market.

  9. #89
    1-170 is booring 170 - 215 is tedius..

    However 67 to 68 can be fun, so can 115-118. All depends on your goal. If your goal is to have fun at every level it is fun. But if your goal is to go endgame... Many levels are plain booring.

    For me AO fun starts at 101 and ends at 220 when I realize many characters I already have at 220 are way better at job at hand.

    That being said, Subway, totw are fun for one complete run.. Foremans I tend to bypass more often... At 101 I try to bypass hecks phewy. Kitehill drama boredom fest.

    Ao has content before 220, arguably entire froob minigame can be played at Tl4-5 on a paid char. And I kinda like that.

    Besides there Is more level appropriate content bellow 220 than at 220.

    There is however not much content that 220 cannot do better.
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    This'll be fixed for the next patch

  10. #90
    *deleted, double post*
    Last edited by Cratertina; Oct 7th, 2015 at 12:21:06.
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    This'll be fixed for the next patch

  11. #91
    Quote Originally Posted by Yama View Post
    Why would somebody just blast through to tl7 ? Because there is interresting/funny content missing on those lvls until tl7 ? Isn't this we are talking about ?

    Personally i would go through interesting content rather then sky rocket to tl7. Simply because i want enjoy my toon and profession i'm playing.
    I prefer learn game this way. Even after 10 years i can still find something new to me. And i guess i'm not alone in this ...
    There is lots of content though, enough that you can more then spend enough time slowly leveling and enjoying the game without rushing and still not having enough time, and this is going by the old leveling system based on RK missions which was wayyyy slower.

    There just isn't enough to cater to people who want to completely stop leveling and stay at lower TL ranges, and there really shouldn't be.
    Krause Equip

    *** Krause's Evil WTB Thread! (Weird/Odd Stuff) ***
    (Items like "Lost Faith/Hope", "Wreath of Insects", "Chirop Exoskeleton Wing Mesh", "Small Jar", "Old Barrel")
    Quote Originally Posted by Means View Post
    This is going to get done if it kills me or preferably someone else.

  12. #92
    The only real problem with low level content is that mob kill xp is extremely poor relative to their hp, scaling worse the farther you level. As for zones, instances and mobs - there's more than enough of those.

    I'm hoping that soon michi will start focusing on pvp content as this game doesn't really have any.

  13. #93
    https://steamdb.info/search/?a=app&q=Anarchy+Online

    Last update yesterday? Are we finally moving forwards?
    Ekarona 220/30 Female Solitus Engineer, long term member of Northern Star and proper "poor" gimp.
    Ekaslave 220/low Female Solitus Trader, FLAT(TM) pricing TS, almost all can do!
    Ekaros almost there/almost there too Male Solitus Martial-Artist.
    Ekadv gimp/gimp Female Opifex Adventurer

  14. #94
    This might seem like nitpicking, but could you change your background on the new website to anything that would be less distracting (static ideally) and more professional-looking? Thank you.


    Otherwise looking forward to seeing The Pyramid.

  15. #95
    Oh man, can hardly wait, today i was flying around brokens shores pyramid omg so pretty... Howcome nobody gave it content before is beyond me. It even has working doors.
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    This'll be fixed for the next patch

  16. #96
    Ugh, right. Because AO is always broken, no one has ever been able to move becasue of rubberbanding, or loot anything because of buggy corpses. Also no other MMO has had any of these problems. Whatever world you're in, it's not the same one I inhabit.

    Look, most of us get that it's an older game with a small Dev support team (as it were) so most of us are willing to be a bit more patient with its foibles than we would be with a much newer game on a much bigger budget. Whilst that's not to say I'm 100% happy with things because I too occasionally lose corpses through floors, rubberband or get d/ced at a really bad moment - the game is not unplayable.

    We don't even know what the new instance will be like for it! And quite frankly yet another stand there and press mongo/perks keybind/heal at a giant HP sponge encounter that takes zero thought to accomplish is something I find to be dull and tedious in the extreme. My time in other games has spoiled me for complex mechanics and encounters where you need to be paying attention instead of watching TV. I want to see how the balance is struck between quick, precise reactions and the fact this is an older game with somewhat suspect client-server character positioning for many reasons, not least of which is lag. But I'm not going to have a fit at Michi about it being unplayable when AFAIK no one's even tested the thing! If the mechanics mean it's not an instance that can be watching-TV solo'd with a multilog - so be it. DB3 fire floor can't either and that didn't destroy the game.
    Last edited by Anarrina; Oct 12th, 2015 at 17:51:40. Reason: removed obscenities

    Ophiuchus : 220/30/80 HAHA etc
    Nahuatl
    :: 220/30/80 Melee 4lyfe
    Khurkh :: 220/30/80 healtankpew
    Transcendence
    Msanthropic
    : 210/26/60 nanostab
    Spidershiva :: 165/23/42 kite? eh?
    Silentmotion
    : 150/20/42 tankthink
    The Union

  17. #97
    Yeah, complaining before relese . .. Lol
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    This'll be fixed for the next patch

  18. #98
    I have been patient with this game and its "developers" for many, many years. Lag and sinc problems have existed in AO for a very long time and have never been properly addressed and they are becoming worst with time. It should be obvious to any developer "wannabe" that designing playfields requiring precise placement of toons is something to be done only in games with plenty of worldwide servers and no sinc problems. NOT IN AO.

    And it may not be "that bad" for you, I guarantee you it is for me.

  19. #99
    Quote Originally Posted by Gimpynoob View Post
    I have been patient with this game and its "developers" for many, many years. Lag and sinc problems have existed in AO for a very long time and have never been properly addressed and they are becoming worst with time. It should be obvious to any developer "wannabe" that designing playfields requiring precise placement of toons is something to be done only in games with plenty of worldwide servers and no sinc problems. NOT IN AO.

    And it may not be "that bad" for you, I guarantee you it is for me.
    i never lagged in ao, you sure your not lagging in your head?

  20. #100
    Quote Originally Posted by Le-Quack View Post
    i never lagged in ao, you sure your not lagging in your head?
    To say you never lagged in AO is exaggerating. He may seem overly aggressive in his statements but he's right in the sense that AO has always had sync problems. I've had countless experiences with that, from mobs teleporting, corpses disappearing and teleporting, buggy doors and portals with varying loading times, line of sight issues with your target in your face, "you can't do that while falling" and the varying delay on virtually any action. A very easy way to check the actually horrid syncronisation of AO is to put characters on top of each other (inside each other), take a screenshot then have the other person take a screenshot, compare the two and you'll see you're never actually completely in sync. Ever.

    However these problems can't get fixed just like that since the game engine is what's causing them, in order to fix those the entire game needs to be redone on a completely new engine.

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