Aren't people constantly saying that AO is a hard and complex game of many mechanics that you need to master and that keeps out the WoW-noobs and so on? So I guess we're weeding out the WoW-noobs that were attracted over the years... but yeah, I guess the devs are working towards fixing some of the flagging issues introduced with the latest patch and its attempt at streamlining the mechanic.
Maybe we're seeing AO go back towards being more accessible while retaining the hard part of old. I am looking much forward to seeing tons of hardcore nerfs to everyone. When specials go back to 30 second lockouts we can all be happy again.
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
It's a stupid mechanic with no benefits. Nobody likes it. The community has spoken. You seem to be pretty much the only person that I have ever seen defend the new flag system. The community has already given multiple different fixes to the "pocket pvp" problem. All of them better. They chose the worse possible way to "fix" the problem.
Idiots are just like slinkies. It makes you smile when you push them down a flight of stairs.
[Zacyx]: i will perma bann u from MR
I am in a neutral org, we have a medium city with a rent of 22m. Our org started our city with no excess credits in our org bank, we had to borrow from friends to buy the city and make the buildings. In past years we were making more than our rent with only 1% commission rate ... so 3 - 5 billion is sales per month, if I did the math correctly. In the most recent months we were just making rent or a bit lower. So we have the credits to wait out this tax building debate ... from the sound of it we won't be able to build (because of late of space) until after the server merge and we move to an I-city.
Not sure if our numbers help in the comparison to the numbers quoted in the June update. I am guessing that on average every outdoor player city with a market was making more credits than they needed for rent or FC wouldn't see the need for a credit sink.
If the GMI continues as it is going lately, we may not build the tax building at all. So far our members who have tried selling on the new GMI have removed their items and either stopped selling or cut back significantly. There is no point for the tax building if our org-mates aren't using the GMI enough to produce a useful return.
Kinnik
We looked into the org tax functionality awhile back... it's not working as one would think it works (lets just say it has issues), and it's something we want to revisit when we get to more comprehensive org improvements... but this is down the road. It's not something we have time to touch right now due to everything that's going on. The team felt a better, and more immediate feature to give orgs an income is the building/market house.
Last edited by Ilaliya; Jul 9th, 2012 at 16:39:40.
So if our org don't have the tax monkey house, we still pay sales tax but get well... let's call it a popular treatment buff often cast by doctors?
Last edited by Notcrattey; Today at 05:51:45. Reason: Didn't actually edit it, was a mistake!
Players (even those who left AO months or years ago) usually had their shops full of items, including common nanos, implants, and all kind of crap.
Launching GMI has reduced A LOT availability of all common/normal items and that is the biggest problem!
With old shops I could buy easily most of implants of different QL, majority (if not all) of rollable nanos etc.
Now buying majority of those for a leveling toon is a dissaster because there are only 2 options:
1. The item I need like rollable nano or popular dyna drop is not listed by anybody on boths server
2. There is only 1 nano for 10-20m when in the past there were always 10+ nanos sold priced between 500k and 2-3m maximum.
If it was intentional then I would never understand who would like to ruin economy and playability by doing this.
If it was unintentional then [edited before I got more infraction points for verbal abuse of FC staff]
Awikun 220/70/30 Ranged adv - my Main that I hardly ever log
Awisha 220/70/30 Shade - Can solo 95% of all bosses
Cratawi 200/70/30 Crat - S7/DR Solo farmer
Awiken 220/70/30 Eng - Pvm Eng
Nukiwa 200/70/30 NT - almost forgotten (awaiting retwink)
Awidoc 200/70/30 Doc - 200 fun pvp twink
Awix 200/70/30 Fix - 200 fun pvp twink
Awienf 220/70/30 Enf - tanked every single boss (and still lives)
Soldawi 220/70/30 Sol - Pvm Sold
Awima 150/xx/xx Ma - best S10 MA farmer
Doctorawi 220/70/30 - Pvm Doc
Awienfo 200/70/30 - Atrox with Pande red belt and 2xQL300 hammers
Macierewicz 220/70/30 - Pvm Crat
Zlakobieta 220/70/30 - max complit +top tradeskiller
Considering that the org tax building is something that we've talked about fairly early on in the process as a feature of the market, I wouldn't call it a band-aid. Any more so than any feature you spend time on is a "band-aid."
We didn't want to divert coding resources away from other high priority projects -- such as the server merge, market improvements, engine upgrade, new player experience, profession changes, etc... to dig into really old org tax code. Basically, that was the call that was made, and (obviously) I think that's the right call. You are free to disagree, however.
Last edited by Ilaliya; Jul 9th, 2012 at 18:06:39.
You hit Tarasque with nanobots for 18280 points of melee damage.
First shade with Blades of Boltar
---
How much is enough?
Member of Halinallet!
Because they promised a profession re-balance and a new graphics engine. I agree that the taxing and many other changes are needed, but I want them to concentrate on finishing something before starting on something else. If AO is to have a future, the re-balance and graphics engine will be required.
Funcom knows the formula to kill AO. Make lots of promises about things that are coming and never deliver them. Make changes that nobody wants and then break other stuff. The population will dwindle to the point that nobody will care if they shut down the servers. In other words, continue what they have been doing the last few years (intentional or not). We have repeatedly asked for more progress reports (pictures) but only seen a minute video (we have seen that trick before). How are we to know if progress is being made or their milking us? Ilaliya said they made progress last month and will make more progress this month.
Fix OMHH
Fix Mongo
Remove AS pistol
Lockout 1he/1hb perks working simultaneously like you should have the first time
Fix Devastating Blow so it's 100% vs 100% instead of 100% vs 50%
Fixers with EVERY ranged special
Buff Agent PvM damage
Remove RI spammability
Remove effing Triples
Nerf Crats more, they are still godmode
I'll stop there as that's enough for 1 patch.
I suspect a living game world would help. I know that there was a leet in a picture somewhere, but I suspect progress will feel real when it's relevant to the players. Some pictures/videos that include players interacting with the content, maybe with the new GUI, would go a long way. I understand that you're not there yet; I'm giving you my opinionated answer to your question.
Ghosts of Rimor
Gorastopr 220 MA Doctor :: No pew pew. Thwack thwack.
Goratinkr TL5 OT Hurler Factotum Engineer :: Bringin' the thunder since 2008.
Scrubup 100 Bow Doctor :: Will she ever get out of perk reset? Stay tuned!
Ghosts of Atlantean
Unda TL7 MA Engineer :: Crying for more crit.
Measles LVL1 Pistol Doctor :: It takes 2 stims to self the Expertises.
Speaking as one of the less technologically advanced folks (meaning I'm not a programmer and do not work on PC's for a living like it seems many posters do). Most of the updates you guys have given over the years actually go over my head and mean almost nothing to me.
I'd like to see something, written in layman's terms, that explains progress. It doesn't have to be lengthy or overly detailed. I'd expect it to be no more than 5 or 6 lines something like:
Target Goal-Date/Description
August 2012/ Some short descript here
October 2012/ Beta Server Up
January 2013/ Something Else
March 2013/ Go live with dual clients
June 2013/ Etc Etc
Basically something simplistic that gives non-techies an idea of timelines without having to come up with wild guesstimates in our head based off of information we don't understand. I think that's been my biggest frustration with the communication. I see things like 'we need to update our toolset' or 'we need to import assets' or whatever and I have no idea if that's a week project or a year as I don't work in your industry. Basically you end up telling me a lot of nothing.
While I don't agree with a lot of changes you guys have made, thus far you guys have been fairly decent about meeting commitments and expectations. So seeing what type of timeline you're working on would be something interesting to me as a player.
I have one thing i'd like clarifying here, since one of main/only PvM uses for this nano (and what i'm presuming is one of the main reasons the instance i'm gunna mention works like it does) is the 12m LoX raid. When you say it'll be "shared with the team" do you actually mean it will shared with the raidforce, or are we going to start needing 1 keeper per team for it to be even the slightest bit sensible in 12m? (before anyone points out that it is in fact *possible* to do this raid wihout a keeper at all, i've done it this way before, it was a pain in the bum even with 2 full teams of friendly org mates.)
To stop "fixing" things that aren't broken. Or at least when you do, actually fix them. Do you know what your pvp patch fixed? Nothing. People still pocket heal lowbies in cities. Every time I've flagged up on a lowbie alt since the patch, it's happened. Do you know why? Most the people that are doing it are pvp twinks themselves and don't care about the flag. Your "solution" did nothing to the problem. All it did was inconvenience everybody else.
Want to make my happy? Explain why the much praised and player back suggestion of fixing this problem was not implemented. You should require anybody that wants to buff a flagged player to be in their level ranged and flagged themselves. Sure, it would have taken a little more coding to begin with. But then you wouldn't have had to re-code every friendly aura to be team only. Which, in essence, destroyed most of the fun in MASS PVP.
I'm waiting for your response that will never show up.
Idiots are just like slinkies. It makes you smile when you push them down a flight of stairs.
[Zacyx]: i will perma bann u from MR
New Engine - Announced: June 2007 ETA: Soon™
Rebalancing - Announced: January 2009 ETA: December 21, 2012
New TL7 Pets - Announced: March 2009 ETA: Uh...
AS Changes - Announced: July 2009 ETA: TBA
Parry/Riposte - Announced: October 2009 ETA: ???
Perk Changes - Announced: October 2009 ETA: Right after server merge
Breed Change - Announced: November 2009 ETA: Hell freezing
Beta Server - Announced: January 2010 ETA: Pigs Flying
Courtesy of Rocker
Idiots are just like slinkies. It makes you smile when you push them down a flight of stairs.
[Zacyx]: i will perma bann u from MR