Friday with Means - December 4th, 2009 - Who is not at the company party? ME!

[Xziztenzia]

1. They can't even populate 3 servers now and there is no guarantee that the new engine will be the "magic carpet" that just drags thousands of players in.

2. First, there is no "completely revamped" AO planned. An engine change with limited graphical improvements and some balancing is not a new AO. So while they will advertise when the engine is out, to call it AO2 would be more of a misnomer than calling AO "successful" is now.

3. This isn't friggin' Second Life or Barbie Daycare Dressup Day. Charging people for a "social ranking"? LOL Go use Myspace or Facebook dude, they're free for those slightly twisted individuals who actually think they are entertaining or informative. And there are already tiered subs, in case you didn't notice. There are free subs, $5 a month subs, and regular $15 a month subs. So there is no reason to confuse the issue when apparently some people can't even keep track of the three simple options already available.

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{edited by Anarrina: removed unnecessary comment}

1) A new server (or 2 if the demand is there) would give new players even ground to build a new realm without having ubergeared 220/30 people to compete with. I would say this is almost a must if Funcom intends to start advertising for AO again as a 2.0 version. Those who dont want to reroll can keep playing without interuption. No harm done.

2) I am not referring to a completely revamped GRAPHICALY Anarchy Online. I dont expect that since its a tremenous amount of work on all the models. What I am referring to is a revamped gamesystem and the new engine at its core.

3) I see no reason why Funcom couldnt try to tap into the same market that Second Life etc drives. Hopefully, more income would mean more attention to the game both in popularity and supportwise from Funcom.

{edited by Anarrina: removed personal attack}

[Xziztenzia]

Well, for many years I have referred to AO as a "3D chatroom", especially in the start, before WOW.

That is what it is to me at times.
a place to hang out with friends from the other side of the earth, hear something different, get another perspective, relax and have fun.

AO still needs a lot to market itself as a social hangout place..
you can not sit on furniture, it is hard taking people places, unless you are an engineer (no multi-person vehicles).
While there are a bit of clothes, it is still rather limited. (no red pumps!! or red leather gloves..)

the orbital apartments were a step in the right direction: something you buy for ingame credits.
The various holidays also bring items for decoration, but the newcommers only have the basic furniture and the bazzit shop.

There currently are 6 types of apartments:
Omni RK, Neutral RK, Clan RK, Jobe, Jobe lux, Orbital
You are able to have 4 of those to decorate.
My favourite is still the style of the basic Jobe one, little and cosy, while the Jobe lux is good for parties.

If they ever succeed in making instanced cities with markets, the AI-city lots could be converted to places for apartments to be build
I would rather have that to be honest.

in short from:
Phixalicious I disagree with you; I do not think that Xziztenzia's idea suck.

Kind Regards
-Ariensky

Thank you.

I think they should keep on expanding the social structure of the game as it is something that appeals to many players.

[Xortdan]

This is a huge can of worms right here the proposed transfers will be detrimental to the playerbase if not handled correctly. I like the rk-prime idea

[Xortdan]

Howabout an rk-prime ironically "the new world" with 16 character slots for people from all 3 dimensions to transfer to? Or just 12 slots that way people only have to sacrifice 4-8 mostly weaker characters. Make it a forced exodus so you can only move a maximum of 8 toons from a particular server

[windcaster]

i hate the rk prime idea.. i'd rather quit.

i think the best thing that could happen to AO is what they're doing but faster.

i dunno who all is on the team.. it seems like a good team and im sure they're working very hard, FC needs to get them some help and get the engine and rebalanced done ASAP.. so then they can start promoting the game..

i think it's a bit like.. beat the clock, "can we get this done before the population dwindles to nothing?"

FC should start surveying new accounts and findout how these new people are finding AO.. i say this because no one i've ever told mentioned AO to has ever heard of it, yet people do still come.. i wonder how many are staying? how many are leaving? something is out of wack here.

i suspect a lot of new people are word of mouth.

i personally got started from a yahoo ad 4 years ago, i have not seen a ad for ao since. the game seems to be resource starved if you ask me.. small overworked team and no promotional budget.

[Ruffixx]

Post

Regrettably, I'm not one to support 'Apocalypse, Now!' or 'The end is near' sort of posts, but I do agree with Wind in the aspect that FC really does need to push out aspects such as the engine and profession/breed balancing as quickly as possible if it reaches to (a) retain the player base it currently has and (b) have any chance at potentially growing ever again.

I know FC can toss stats out that 'x amount of new froobs/toons are made daily!' Want to release the retention rate? Hard to do, but it's certainly less than desirable for endless reasons (graphics, initial learning curve, cred making, still semi-bleh lame startup [loved old backyards and hall], not a big name game, etc.).

What happened to Fixer profession changes being the first of your priority way back when? Are we lumped into the general "Profession balancing" now? Then the mail system, engine progress, the RK3 eventual transfer, the breed balancing... all these new things have been added to the plate. While news of multiple incredible fixes and endeavors make the playerbase happy in the short term, when more and more of these pop up you just create questions of "When is so and so getting done?" Especially with news that TSW's release is being delayed due to layoffs at FC due to the AoC flop. I know time and time again the members of the AO team has said "we're our own profitable and exclusive branch," but they've [FC] taken people from your team in the past and who knows what will happen in the future.

I'd personally rather hear more updates about certain topics that are getting closer and closer to fruition than hear new glitzy updates about far off additions. I'm sure you guys are amazing multi-taskers and I applaud Means for his weekly updates and a hands on approach taken by Kintaii and Macro and others from FC on the forums - hope my post wasn't too much of a whine. Just a long vent. Back to doing something productive

[ArienSky]

What happened to Fixer profession changes being the first of your priority way back when? Are we lumped into the general "Profession balancing" now?

So.. you want fixers to be modified, just to modify then right after, at the profession balancing as well?

You really want to IP reset twice? resetting map-navig, getting all symbiants in, armor, weapon etc.
Not just once, but twice?

I really can not follow the argument of "Fix fixers, then fix the rest".
To balance things properly, you need to do it all together.
I am sorry if you do not get that point.
Wouldn't it also be a waste of developer time, to spend time on adjusting fixers twice, instead of just once?

I am sorry if you have a profession that is outperformed by others, you are not the only one having that feeling, but why not wait till the balancing is over, instead of getting modified twice in a row?

Well unless an AS smg is the solution.. maybe you could try the AS pistols?
Point being: a balancing with all taken into account is better than a bandaid, that is going to be pulled away from you later anyways.

.. AS pistols.. *shakes head*

Kind Regards
-Ariensky

[Mastablasta]

Force everyone on one server please. End of discussion.

[omegahealer]

Force everyone on one server please. End of discussion.

and lose alot of players that dont want to be forced onto another server? no ty

[Technogen]

and lose alot of players that dont want to be forced onto another server? no ty

Why would you possibly not want to be on a server with more people? Isn't that the primary complaint that there arent enough people in game to do everything?

[omegahealer]

because the issue with too few people is just a problem with attitude ><. I can get a team for anything on RK2 with just checking lft, asking my own org, ask allied orgs or just ask in OOC. Roll up those sleeves and make your own teams instead of crying that nothing happens when you're sitting on lft for a few hours?.

RK3 is another story, tried to play there and that server really has a population problem.

[Aiken]

because the issue with too few people is just a problem with attitude ><. I can get a team for anything on RK2 with just checking lft, asking my own org, ask allied orgs or just ask in OOC. Roll up those sleeves and make your own teams instead of crying that nothing happens when you're sitting on lft for a few hours?.

RK3 is another story, tried to play there and that server really has a population problem.

Well said. Even with the small population as it is, if you're not a complete ass-hat it's quite possible to get a team going for almost anything. Just as soon as those screaming for a server merge got what they wanted, they'd likely be the first ones moaning about all the leveling spots being filled & the bloody mobs being camped. You really cannot please everyone. Combining the servers just to please the whiners that can't be arsed building their own teams or making friends is a very very bad plan

[Technogen]

Well I can tell you that's not the problem, I'm glad that at your level range you can easily find teams but that's not true though out all levels. For the record I never sit on lft I always build teams, there just arent enough people leveling to always make teams.

Or do you really think you're the only person that makes teams and that every other person sits on lft for hours?

[Klodovik]

Force everyone on one server please. End of discussion.

Mastablasta for president!!!!!

Seriously, best idea ever. EVER!

[omegahealer]

i have toons at every level range and never have problems finding teams for them.

There are others making teams too... but that's just the minority compared to those that sit on lft and whine all the time.

[Technogen]

Just as soon as those screaming for a server merge got what they wanted, they'd likely be the first ones moaning about all the leveling spots being filled & the bloody mobs being camped.

Do you really think all 3 servers have a high enough population in the same timezone to cause that?


I still have not seen a solid reason for not merging all 3 servers into 1.

[omegahealer]

I still have not seen a solid reason for not merging all 3 servers into 1.

still have to find a solid reason to merge them. FC said rk1 and 2 are healthy and if you actively create teams RK2 is anything but dead.

[Aiken]

Do you really think all 3 servers have a high enough population in the same timezone to cause that?


I still have not seen a solid reason for not merging all 3 servers into 1.

Yes, I'm damn sure that would happen within DAYS of a full server merge.

[Technogen]

Yes, I'm damn sure that would happen within DAYS of a full server merge.

So a server merge would raise the population drastically? Hum....

[Aiken]

So a server merge would raise the population drastically? Hum....

Well duh....