We have announced an expansion pack for Anarchy Online.
Please feel free to discuss here!
We have announced an expansion pack for Anarchy Online.
Please feel free to discuss here!
given the current state of the game I dont think an expansion pack should of even been considered.
especially since alot of the things in the pack should of already been in the game.
between the new german server and the expansion pack coming soon Funcom has spread itself to thin.
this is the straw that just might break Funcom's back.
MP lvl 139 Mysticknight
Wheee!
Or... much depends how and what kind of new stuff are added to the game until this comes.
I have no problems with buying an expansion, as long as we get some new stuff during the meentime.
If nothing is added until the expansion, well that would be bad real bad!!
What should have been or not at release I don't care about as long as we get it.
Most of this is in the past and it's nothing to whine about!
We need to look forward and see new possibilities!
And we need sneak info on the expansionplease
Expansion
New Areas
OK, new playfields are the staple of MMPORPG expansions. I hope we get one or two of the currently MIA playfields (hell, there are even maps for some of them!) from Rubi-Ka itself, maybe 1 in clan territory and on in Omni. But even without those, this sounds kinda cool.
Profession Specialisation and Perks
Interesting, will need more information on this before we can come to any real conclusions on it though.
New Breed Variations and Graphic Effects
Improved graphics are another staple of the MMPORPG expansion, so nothing unexpected there, though AO is still very pretty as it stands. As to breeds, well, fix the existing ones first. But new stuff is always cool
New Armour and Other Items
Again, expected. And what does this upgrade thing mean? New items that we can find that are of the same type but better, or will we actually be able to improve our existing gear? Like make the MMR useful? More information on that would be helpful.
Guess we'll get more during E3.
And the logo rocks BTW
Originally posted by Darkbane
Guess we'll get more during E3.
Yepp, holding back comments until I get more info.
It's just to little and vage to really get an opinion on the matter right now.
Gonna have to agree that there is WAY too much that needs addressed before an expansion is released. While I like the fact that there is going to be more areas and such, it really seems as if everything that should of came with the game initially is now being released in order to fatten up Funcoms pockets a little more. Understandable. But hearing quite a few people's reaction to this wasn't favourable.. Too bad I'll still buy it.. Wankers
So instead of fixing the old classes, your going to make a new one? That i bet is gonna have to be fixed.
So instead of fixing old zones your making more?
So instead of fixing serious game mech issues, your going to improve the graphics?
The Exspansion is you last chance! It better no just add new stuff, but fix old stuff! Maybe they went to fix everything in one whack!
I will buy you Exspantion, and i will try it!
-----------------------------If you screw up I am gone!
Hey Shadowbane, Starwars, and Neverwinter nights come out real soon!
Expansion vs Fixing Things
Well, I'd still be expecting game fixes to come in the normal patch process. An expansion is about new content.
So I'd rather hope they'll be doing both...
added some hate from me to funcom!
mh i cant belve what FC makes!
there are thousend of problems that need to be fixed NOW!
and what does FC makes? thy make a exp. set that will add 1000 new bugs! what QL is the Inelligence of FC? 1? Special? Nodrop?
come on...the fixer have to wait another 6 moth for a bit love ( make nano skills light blue and 50% is fixed)
sorry FC with that kind of actions you just loose players....
of corse i like the ideas that should be in the exp pack...nut most of it should allrdy bi in the game.....why should i beleve you that it will be in the exp pack? do we need to buy another exp. pack that add things to the game that shoud be implantet with shadowland? sorry FC but did noone ever told you that you have to take step by step? args this is so useless...FC does not care about the players that give them monay..thx
Same Question I had about the Special Edition.
I assume that buying the expansion pac will come with a free month.
Will this free month be usable on existing accounts?
Every Expansion I have purchaced allowed for this and its not too much to ask for giving your asking us to purchace the game again.
The last thing this game needs right now is an expansion. Don't add more empty zones nobody will ever go to, you already have TONS of that. Make people visit the zones you have first, then when these become overpopulated you can add more. Right now people just hang out in cities and two or three other places - the vast majority of the world is empty, only rarely somebody runs/drives/flies across as quick as possible to get to a mission. You can run all the way through PvP zones (on RK2) without meeting anyone at all.
Why is that so? Where are all the Players? They're doing Missions. Missions aren't neccessarily evil, but right now they're out of balance. Missions are too good and the outside areas aren't rewarding enough. With missions you take away the MMO part of the game. What people do in solo missions they can do as well in any offline game, and team missions aren't much better.
Missions should be an alternative for the player who can't get a group right now, or only has 1 hour to play or doesn't know when he gets called to work. They should be the minor part of the game, not the largest as it is now. Especially not the most rewarding.
Btw, the removal of the envisioned section is BAD.
Hmmm, one might suspect the reason for releasing an expansion right now is the need for cash?
Funcom has once again gone back on their word after realizing that a new Customer Service they promised might result in customers being served. Thus, because of the new expansion pack (read: smoke and mirrors), they have gotten rid of the sections of the web site that were supposed to keep us informed about what new things were on the way. While Funcom says that we shouldn't think that these ideas are dead just because they are off the boards, their record in such matters reeks for itself.
Help me out, people. I know I have posted a list of other things that Funcom said they were going to do to help customer service and then reversed themselves on, but it got eaten in one of the board wipes (sorry, I forgot, it was that once there was no back-up, once they just happened to want to change and dump everything the week before the game went out for sale in Europe, and for the last you can see #3 below). I can remember:
1) Admitting that they had been bad about providing information about upcoming changes and establishing areas of the web site that would provide that info (done away with after a few months).
2) Admitted they had not been very good about tracking and answering questions and promised to establish both an answered and an unanswered questions thread (answered established and done away with after a few months, unanswered never done).
3) Fought back allegations that the forum renovation was actually a board wipe and sought to prove it by keeping all the old messages in an archive, where conveniently no one that had not already bought the game could read all the problems that the game had (archives were suddenly inaccessible after a couple of months, a couple of months of questions later they admitted that the archives were no longer there and never provided an answer).
4) The President of Funcom sent a letter out promising that they would be more accessible and answerable to players (that day it was discovered that he changed his email from that listed on their web site so that he would no longer be accessible or have to answer).
I'm sure I've missed other cases where Funcom's CS threw themselves on the mercy of the players by promising something that they later either didn't deliver or pulled after it was detected as something that might provide customer service. Let's hear them. And if you want some fun reading, take a look at some of Funcom's news releases here, saying 7 months ago how active the players were going to be in the storyline and how much customer service was going to improve:
http://www.anarchy-online.com/conten...tml?b_start=60
Scorus
As a few previous posters allready has stated, there are still issues that need attention in the current game. I would like to know if you have enough resources to do all these things, like the German server, patching the current game and deploying an expansion. When reading the rather short notice on the website about the expansion it is hinted that you will remove some of the resources used currently for the patch process to use for the expansion pack. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
I am no heavy poster in these forums but I have read quite a few threads over the last months and I get the view of a quite disappointed community over the lack of speed in patching and adding content. Again, please correct me if I'm wrong. My opinion about it is that I think you are making a turn too early in the lifetime of this game. I have no clue about your plans for the future ofcourse, but I guess you have one to follow where it says you are about to release an expansion pack. It's not wrong to do that, not at all. But still, many issues still need attention in the current release and the player base has many many hours of playtime invested in the game. I fear many will feel left behind while you race to renew the interest for AO with the expansion.
I have played since Beta4 and I must say that if the current planned and "envisioned" patches doesn't get more attention I will not buy any expansion pack you might release. I like the game very much, but it still lacks features that made me decide to play it from the start.
I fear I am not the only one who feels like this.
Funcom should hire a player who play's the game .
Someone who can advise them. Say what you want but, i feel there a little out of touch. Yes, the expansion sounds good.
I hope the new content we where promised is not based on this expansion.
Ok, good and bad
Good - the potential of specialization and perks (if they are implented properly will add more dimension to the game).
- New areas, if these areas are filled out and aren't 3% area people will have a desire to got to and 97% areas that are just filler. The new area need to have a degree of compartmentalizing that makes people go to different areas to do different things. This will allow more utilization of the zone and also help to break up lag in major areas of meaviest congestion.
Bad - Planning the release of this expansion without the completion of the core elements of this game is going to do just what is admitted to in the announcement about the removal of the envisioned section. It will pull resources away from these things. This includes completion of the trade system, by this I mean things that were indicted all the way back in Beta 4, during that time you could alt click on an item and it woud give you an indicator that you could break it into component parts. I believe this is indicated by the (splitable) notation on items now. Armor trade machines are in the game but as of this point serve no purpose that I have been able to determine. There are many other examples of trade things which are hinted at but not developed (monster drop items - monster part with think skin and with tusk and ivory).
- Classes are still not well balanced and there are skills that are entirely Nerfed in the game now. The idea of changing things but in order to take advantage of these changes and make them worthwhile you'll need to buy this expansion for another outlay of money will be unforgivable if this is what happens.
- As stated by other people the gameplay as it stands is of limited function, there is no real reason for people to do anything over than missions over and over, other than the very few quests currently implemented in game.
- There is so much in the way of game areas that can be fleshed out and finished first, example I encourage people to go into 4 holes and look at the shops there that are mislabeled. Or try talking to an NPC and figure out if there is any purpose for them to be around other than the same purpose that the trees and plant serve - to look pretty. Functional static quests even if for only minor items or money (use those pelted monster parts).
- The number of people who have hung in and played through the agony of the disaster of initial release and it's subsequent series of patches that only made them more bitter need to know that they really have been paying the highest fee in MMROPG gaming since the very begining of this game for a reason.
One thing I'm not sure of but I would really like to have access to the old archive to try and go back and look it up in is that I believe we has at one point been told that part of the reason the monthly cost ws higher on this game was because that the storyline was going to be released in an episodial nature and that thes new area were part of what was being paid for by our monthly costs. All in all I am not impressed with the idea of the release of new material when there is so much left to do on the original project.
I think the expansion will be great...
*but*...
I do think that the devs should look at the back of the original box and check that they have delivered everything that everyone has payed for already... and then, once they have completed that list expand on it with an expansion pack
looking forward to the additions that have been mentioned... and cant wait to see the fixes that come between now and then
No Thanks
Expansion pack? No thanks.. I am fustrated enough with the game as is. Without the following bug list eliminated I wouldn't consider it:
Pet Pathing: My pet must be able to follow me - how bout having it 'remember' my footsteps and have it friggin follow me.. not use the inaffectual algorithm that is current. How about removing object collision for pets.. let them follow through a wall (or at least a chair, or bump on the ground)
Group Heath updates: Dont blame bandwidth here.. I am on a T1 at work and cable at home... in either case my group window is not even remotely synced with the battle. I can see my partners monitors at a LAN party here.. even after the fight someone is sitting at 50% health and I show them at 100%.. I started EQ as a cleric on a 28.8 dialup and had MUCH better experiance in groups.
Now if your considering fixing these items only in the expansion because you want to reduce patch downloads and the such.. make an optional patcher (haven't you leanrned anything from EQ????).
Expansion pack.... can you friggin believe it? I can't. When will this pack be released? maybe I can re-enable my eq account before my chars are deleted by then.
My one question is this:
What happens to those that choose to NOT get the expansion pack? Will they just get a skinned down version of new graphics so they can still play but can’t take advantage of the new features? It's one thing to add new zones and say, "If you don't have the expansion. You can't go there." We are talking about new code and visual graphics that people without the expansion are going to see on other players. Is this going to work?
One feature that everybody wants in the expansion pack. No More Nerfs!
Stop screwing up the result of people's time and effort cow towing to cry babies and this thing will be worth buying.
I used to look forward to the expansion with anticipation. After seeing FunCom beat it's game into the ground like some sadistic bastard with the Nerf bat, I really am ready to jump ship and go to SW:G.
It's getting out of hand.
Okay, my turn.
First, I would like to say that I am all in favor of an expansion pack. Why? Because it gives me something to look forward to.
Second, there are a few misconceptions here.
a)The German server: As as far as resources go, the only thing Funcom will be providing for this "Dimension 3" is patching. All the other stuff (customer support, in game help, ARKs and GM's) will be provided by Gamigo. This has been stated a few times already. So just because they are releasing the new dimension, doesn't mean that they are stretching themselves even thinner. It stands to reason that Gamigo probably paid Funcom a pretty penny to do this. So personally, I'm not worried about that.
b)Things won't get fixed: It has already been stated NUMEROUS times, that they WILL NOT stop working on patches or current game issues just because of the expansion pack. Patches will still come on their normal schedules, and game issues will continue to be addressed and fixed. The way I see it, this is May. That means they have roughly 7 months to get everything on track (or damn close to it) before the expansion is released. That is a long time! Look at how much better the game was 7 months after launch.
c)Things that were "promised": Okay, here I'm not talking about Scorus's CS promise breaking list, I'm talking about the other ones. The ones who are saying that "these new zones should exist in game at launch". At what point did they ever say that ALL game zones would be there at launch? They didn't. Even the box(which yes, has a bunch of things still not in game)didn't say it! You can't blame FC for this, it's just the nature of the beast. EQ didn't have all the zones it said it would have at launch. A lot of them weren't released until later, in each of EQ's THREE expansion packs. If all the zones were in game at launch, what do you have to look forward to? Nothing. As far as missions being to powerful, causing people to not hunt outdoors? I agree.
d)The "Why do I have to pay more" syndrome: This is the one that irks me the most. Simply put, if you don't want the expansion, or the things that are going to come with it, DON'T BUY IT!!! Knuckleheads. If you don't buy it, will you be missing out? YES! Will other players get cool items and stuff that you won't? YES! That is one of the motivating factors behind an expansion! Funcom not only expects you to feel slighted for not getting the new items, they COUNT on it. If you don't feel like everyone who has the expansion is better, you might not buy it! Just for fun, I installed and tried EQ. No expansions, just basic EQ. Was I behind all the others? YES! Was I being told about cool items I should have, but couldn't get because I didn't have the expansions? YES! That's the whole point. As far as the expansion costing a lot of money? Nobody knows for sure, so it's not prudent to argue about it's cost until we know for sure.
e)The SW:G crew: Everyone remember DAoC? Everyone remember people screaming at Funcom that, DAoC was gonna kill their game? That it was going to wipe the floors with AO? How many people jumped ship and went to play it when it was first released? A bunch. How many are back now? I'd say a majority. Point is, just because a game gets all the hype in the world, and get's elevated and put on a big pedestal before launch(which is necessary to generate initial sales revenue), doesn't mean that it is actually going to do well. Don't get me wrong though. I am seriously looking forward to trying out SWG, but I also don't think that it will be an AO killer. Everyone who sits there saying "Funcom j00 suXXorz, and I'm gonna go play one of the other 1337 games that's coming out" really annoys me. Do I think SWG will be successful? I hope so, yes. Will I quit AO for it? No. Granted that is just me, but I probably wouldn't be totally out there if I guessed that a lot of others were the same way. Point: Just because something is hyped, and it's webpage looks good, and the beta crew says it's great, doesn't mean it will actually be successful.
f)Comments at players: Okay Senond, you are up first. Let me start by saying that THIS IS NOT A FLAME. 1000 new bugs is a little excessive, don't you think? We have no facts or proof to base this allegation on. As far as your little tantrum about fixers there? I agree they need fixed, Funcom agrees they need fixed, hell most of the playerbase agrees they need fixed. It has been addressed by the devs, and they already said no to changing your skill color. You are kicking a dead horse.
Mr. Nothing, your turn
Very last thing from me.
I am VERY VERY disappointed about the removal of the envisioned sections. Cuurently, you have them replaced with a pretty graphic. Not functional, just pretty. Please put them back until you are ready to upload a functioning section. And please don't forget what was on those pages. That is all.
Catch ya planetside.
Nakomis
101 Opi MA RK1
In Search of a Friendly Helpful Guild
Wistler
53 Sol Engie RK1
President of NFC
Catch ya planetside...
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