Monthly Development Update: February 2012

**SoapTarder** · Mar 1st, 2012, 16:27:13

I look forward to the new engine. maybe combat sounds will work again?

**sannz** · Mar 1st, 2012, 16:49:31

I don't suppose there would be an estimate time frame on that "suitable moment" for the video release, would there?

**Awikun** · Mar 1st, 2012, 17:21:21

Originally Posted by Xamofne

No,you are wrong,in AoC u are solo untill lvl 5,then u entering area around Tortage along with other players...u can play with other people up to 20ish lvl and then do night series of solo quests wich let u leave Tortage..

In AO you can team from level 1 in AoC you wrote "you are solo until lvl 5"
You can team from lev 5 to level 20 but that would be extremely stupid because you can not leave Tortage unless you do whole solo quest and if you start solo quest at level 15 or 20 you would loose a lot of XP from whole quest line. So majority of players get more level from solo playing than from teaming.

**Malosar** · Mar 1st, 2012, 17:46:29

Thanks for the update and focusing on the key points to AO's future survival. Now show me that damn video!

New engine + server merge + marketing = reactivating subscription for 12 months minimum.

**Plaything** · Mar 1st, 2012, 18:02:38

There has to be a wiki out there somewhere cataloging the reasons why the new engine video is not available.

**Aeliniyah** · Mar 1st, 2012, 18:13:40

Originally Posted by Plaything

There has to be a wiki out there somewhere cataloging the reasons why the new engine video is not available.

Damn that would be one huge catalog. Would love to browse through such catalog though. It would be great to see all the soon (tm)'s and then the excuses why it never happened.

Even this MDU (tm) (sorry, i had to) is only one long excuse about why we still see nothing new. Not even the engine vid that was supposed to come out during february. (Actually i think Means promised a new engine video to be out only a bit after that AO gathering in Montreal last year).

But hey, it really doesn't matter what they say at this point. Nobody sane would ever believe a word that any FC representative ever says or promises. Not after years and years of constant lying.

**3246251196** · Mar 1st, 2012, 18:22:52

Originally Posted by Malosar

Thanks for the update and focusing on the key points to AO's future survival. Now show me that damn video!

New engine + server merge + marketing = reactivating subscription for 12 months minimum.

int newEng_market = (int)(New engine + marketing); //force these to be int
int reactSubs_servMerge = (int)(reactivating subscription for 12 months minimum - server merge); //force these to be int

bool success = newEng_market - reactSubs_servMerge; //where succes should != 0

if(!success)
endItAll();

**Demoder** · Mar 1st, 2012, 19:20:17

Originally Posted by juku

I won't comment on monthly update because it's SSDD (Oops. Guess I did comment.), but I want to comment on some of the comments here (excuse my bad english).
Many people seem to think that this rendering update is all about "eye candy".
It's not.
It makes it possible to make AO look better and some things will be made look better too, but most important thing is it brings AO rendering out of 18-th century (yeah, exaggerated, sue me).
I don't care if leet has 182 polygons or 1820 polygons.. if it has one 512x256 texture or 14 1152x1152 textures with 6 mipmap levels.. if it has 26 bones and few animations or if it has animated eyes, mouth, toe nails and stuff.
For a start it would be nice if AO would just run well on up to date hardware.

I agree to this... The #1 benefit with the new gfx engine is being able to run (decently) on modern hardware. In the past, I've seen people be forced to quit AO because they can't get it to work on their system.
Eye candy is just a bonus.

Originally Posted by 3246251196

Code:

int newEngineMarketImpact = ((int)newEngine) + ((int)marketing);
int subscriberReactionToServerMerge = (int)"reactivating subscription for 12 months minimum") - ((int)serverMerge); 
bool success = ((newEngineMarketImpact + subscriberReactionToServerMerge) >= 0); // Is reaction positive?

if(!success)
{
  endItAll();
}

Fixed

**Farlath** · Mar 1st, 2012, 20:01:34

Originally Posted by NoGoal

uh.. engies can maek crab. Iz dat no nuff for u?

It would be funny if that wasn't exactly the direction they are pushing engies.

**Traderjill** · Mar 1st, 2012, 23:55:16

Thank you for the update.

I just have a couple simple questions:

1. Originally the term "New Player Experience" was being used (by Means at least) to describe an aspect of the game that was being worked on. I always took this to truly mean the new player experience and not necessarily just the starter area. I noticed, in your posts, that you are using the term "New Starter Experience". Now while the New Starter Experience is part of the New Player Experience, there are a lot of other factors that affect new players that go beyond their 'noob island' time. So I guess my question is whether or not you have plans to actually fully revamp the New Player Experience which, from my vantage point, would mean addressing what happens when they leave the starter area. Some things that come to mind are the high prices on nanos and implants needed just to be average, crap items in the weapon and armor vendors, and the fact that the mission rolling system is so ineffective that we all have to use third party tools (Clicksaver/Mishbuddy) just to find items that we need. Additionally, the LFT interface could use some revamping (is there really a reason why it is limited to your team range? why not allow "level" to be a delimiting parameter so people can always see what's available in a range and hop on toons appropriately). I think all of what I mentioned (and so much more) contributes to the New Player Experience more than anything.

2. In regards to the Server Migration. Is this something that you see happening sooner or later? Meaning is this a pre-New Starter Experience thing, a post New Starter Experience plan or something that may or may not happen depending on what happens when the new engine/rebalance is released?

**Cogline** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 00:46:23

Traderjill (as usual) got me thinking. Can part of the new experience explain implants (seeing as it's key to gameplay). Also can the Mission Terminals have PROFESSION OPTIONS added to them so I can look up rewards that might not just be shop food? When I first started and knew certain nanos are mission only I couldn't understand why as an advy I couldn't say "ADVY REWARD TA" or something. And while we're at it: why the heck is a Neut Engie getting offered bits of Omni-Pol armour in a Borealis terminal as a mission reward anyway? Please, so the new blood don't think there's a bug, fix the terminals. And have someone mention the generic nanos in the Basic Store as well. I didn't even know they were there until someone asked why I wasn't running a generic composite Treatment boost at level 70 on my first toon...

**Kron** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 02:58:59

Perhaps this is a bit controversial but maybe create the new startup experience and the rebalance on the new server without allowing transfers. Merge rk1 and rk2 onto another server. So there is a new server for the release of all the new stuff from scratch where new people can start unaffected by past inflation.
So there will be a new server and then rk1 and rk2 merge into a veteran server where the hardcore players can test their abilites against the old vets?
Old players worth their salt will have 220s within a month or 2 on the new server anyway so no need for complaints.
Maybe do a customer survey and ask all the old players if they want the rebalance on the vet server.
I might need flame proof underwear :-(

**Snakebite** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 03:20:21

Originally Posted by Taymo

The character name issue can be solved quite easily: The older characters can keep their name, those with the same name but newer creation date have to choose a new one.

Nice idea, but I'm afraid it doesn't work...
See, if I had been playing AO with the name wizzy (I have no idea if this name is in use) for 8 years on rimor, and you'd been playing 7 years with the name wizzy on Atlantian, then I deleted all my characters and quit AO, someone else could come along and create a character with the name wizzy on Rimor, play for 2 months, hit server merge and HE would get the name, not you...

The other alternative would be the character who has the name longest without deletion (if that's even possible to check difinitively) gets the name.
Unfortunately, even this has a problem, in this other alternative, you could have been playing since beta with the same name, decide to delete and re-roll to make him better, and I could have had the name for only 6 months, and then I would get the name, not you...

So basically, neither one of them is fair...

**Zeephonz** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 04:30:18

Just suffix the name with the dimension they came from, when they appear on the new server, but don't allow the creation of that name on the new dimension....

e.g Zeephonz [Rimor] & Zeephonz [Atlantean] but no Zeephonz

**Seoin** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 05:37:51

Originally Posted by Zeephonz

Just suffix the name with the dimension they came from, when they appear on the new server, but don't allow the creation of that name on the new dimension....

e.g Zeephonz [Rimor] & Zeephonz [Atlantean] but no Zeephonz

Wow I kind of like it.. but you can't have spaces, and imagine having to type "/tell Seoin[Atlantean] hai" every time. Kind of a mouthfull.. the same suggestion but with Zeephonz-1 and Zeephonz-2 seems okay tho.

At least this way nobody has to fight over who gets to keep the original name. But I'm sure it would bother some people to get a -1 or -2, for what it's worth it won't bother me though.

**Zeephonz** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 05:41:59

Originally Posted by Seoin

The same suggestion but with Zeephonz-1 and Zeephonz-2 seems okay tho.

At least this way nobody has to fight over who gets to keep the original name. But I'm sure it would bother some people to get a -1 or -2, for what it's worth it won't bother me though.

I think whatever solution is done, it has to be elegant... -1 & -2 is just awful.

**Tanisthonus** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 05:59:45

Originally Posted by Zeephonz

I think whatever solution is done, it has to be elegant... -1 & -2 is just awful.

what about [a] and [r]?

**animaly** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 06:30:53

How about just add some flair to the name? If you are from rk1 put some stars surrounding your name IE *Javcky* and then maybe underscores or expnonet symbols for rimor ^Javcky^ or does any1 else remember the days of Red names? (Glyph of Arcana ring a bell?) well just change name colors red and blue or white and red, etc...

--Ani

**Seoin** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 07:15:57

Originally Posted by Animaly

How about just add some flair to the name? If you are from rk1 put some stars surrounding your name IE *Javcky* and then maybe underscores or expnonet symbols for rimor ^Javcky^ or does any1 else remember the days of Red names? (Glyph of Arcana ring a bell?) well just change name colors red and blue or white and red, etc...

--Ani

How would you send tells or !whois if their names were colored ;p

**Mertia** · Mar 2nd, 2012, 08:54:06

for daoc it worked like this after server merge:

Charactername: Mertia
Server 1: Lyonesse
Server 2: Avalon

Merged:
Mertia-Lyonesse
Mertia-Avalon

/tells accepted Mertia-L and Mertia-A because normal Characternames did not allow an "-"

Thread: Monthly Development Update: February 2012

Thread Tools

Posting Permissions