Monthly Development Update - November 2015 (Tryptophan Overdose)

[paperjockey]

Michi, for how long are you gonna dodge PMs?

With posts like this I would dodge your posts also lolz.

For Gauntlet I think its an issue with the 18 hour window and peoples availability/willingness to do it. I have been lucky and have been invited to mostly clan groups (thanks to those clanners) but maybe not everyone has that luck or option.

[Wakizaka]

What's the biggest issue with the Gauntlet? I've been meaning to have it run more often, it's just a very delicate encounter that'll require a lot of careful adjustments and reverse-engineering.

The main issue with Gauntlet, is the having to schedule your life around the timer if you actually want to get any gear from it.
I always found it odd that FC did away with the long rotating lock timers for playfield access in favour of a more approachable instancing, and then shortly thereafter created an instance which brought back the long rotating timer.

To quote myself from this thread.

Keep the 17 hour timer to visit the top floor in open Pande, but put a 5~6 hour raid lock timer on being able to enter the Gauntlet and clear the preceding floors.

That ensures that there will still be competition for the strand, but will also mean people can farm their set of Collatz in less than 3 months.

[hokutonoken]

or make the bat-thing npc exchange gauntlet tradeskill material for parts you need ^_=. ie if you have 4 of these items, you can trade for one of this..etc. took me 6months to get full set last time when I did it and it was at the brink of when teaming was getting hard to find and form.

[Eedesti]

Like the others said, the low availability is the biggest issue. Meaning that you have to schedule your life around the timer or just hope you are lucky enough to be able to play at that exact time.
Side effects of this is:
People don't want to waste a run by inviting non essential professions. Less people more loot, fewer runs to complete a pad.
Gathering teams with a hard deadline forces people to either go with a sub par thrown together group or have a bunch of players idling for a long time just waiting to enter.
People very rarely join to support, mainly because they then waste a window of when they could do gaunt on a toon.
And since it's so rare it's extremely annoying to wipe.

On the note of wiping, I don't mind that we can't reenter, even if we make it an instance. But when I do one gaunt a month, man that's frustrating.

Thank you for acknowledging the question Michigan

[Vinkera]

Well, in the new inferno hard missions, there is the possibility of an Albatrum inspired wave.

Why not replace one of the other boring waves with a Gauntlet inspired wave, with a *good* amount of drops? You wouldn't be giving away Gauntlet armor away (and for how good it is, it should require some work to get), but it would still be possible to farm it any time. Also wouldn't require a new instance.

[MachSchau]

Still waiting on my PM to be answered.

[Heresiarch]

Really happy to see more of Rubi-Ka opening up, as the Post-Apocalyptic world is what enticed me to play in the first place.
SL is a nice little bonus to make you feel that you get something extra for your money, but RK is where my heart lies.
Bit of a shame that we can't enter The Reck with our mains, but I guess that's where our TL5 twinks come to their right?

[Artyomis]

Michi, for how long are you gonna dodge PMs?

Same question

[Biancha]

The Reck [...]will be a level-locked experience.

Not to complain, but wow that really makes me sad Level locking a whole area of the surface of the planet goes against a lot of what first drew me in to AO.

[Le-Quack]

Not to complain, but wow that really makes me sad Level locking a whole area of the surface of the planet goes against a lot of what first drew me in to AO.

wow immagine all the 220's on follow there if it was open, and how much some 220's could harass that area.

[Tommysold]

wow immagine all the 220's on follow there if it was open, and how much some 220's could harass that area.

Not like it will make a difference, he has boxes of all level ranges...

[doctorgore]

Same question

He is busy cut him a break.

[Cratertina]

Sounds fun ... Atleast one RK zone will be up to date ... On paper it sounds legendary.

[PigBrother]

Stop QQ-ing about PMs. Michi is one and we are many. We're doing nothing except playing, he is at work.

Gauntlet ? I was there since the beginning. Not in some org arranged teams, not with 6 accounts managed with 5 buttons, but in pubs. There were times when the tradeskill process was unknown and people were rolling for every SINGLE item that was dropping - very nice times.
You only want one shoulder item from G ... you don't even NEED it, just want it because is best-in-slot. Well ... for an "I want it" item you must sacrifice something, maybe your schedule, maybe a beer in the city - the sacrifices draw the line between real players and amateurs

Questions ? ... let them roll ... I'll be around

Or maybe will be better for the "new born" toon to have in bank all the good stuff and equip it at some point...

[Eedesti]

With that logic I shouldn't bring a toon out of arete. And we shouldn't even do inf missions cause inf heck was good enough in 2006. Noone needs intels/alphas so let's put pande and xan on a 17h rotation. I hope these irrational non-arguments can help you realise how poorly your arguments will hold up. An MMO that forces people to schedule their life after ingame events will quickly fade into the background.

[orochi3]

"The Reck" could use some vertical level design, mountains, treehouses, caves, skyrim style. As far as possible regarding mob pathing.
Please dont make it into another generic green field.

[Bluecheeze2]

Will 'The Reck' be able to compete with leveling at Kite Hill, where you can drop 60+ level 180 mobs with an OST?

You mention that this is an open field which contains many camps and outposts. If these are the camps and outposts that we are accustomed to, will there be a lot of running from camp to camp in order to continue the leveling grind? If the number of mobs per camp are minimal, then I can see paid players returning to Kite Hill very quickly. Regardless, more missions are always welcome!

I do love the thought of having a place to level that is fr00b-friendly. Hopefully, this zone will serve to hold their interest in the game.

Gosh! I am so excited for this I'm going to bring a flag and kill all of you while you try to learn the zone!

[Artyomis]

Honestly - I have no idea why AO needs another specific TL playfield.
There are LOTS of different locations already in both, RK and SL. There are LOTS of different items, armors, weapons and other.
You have a car that is slow, but instead of working on its engine, suspension, transmission and other parts - you simply get 100 slaves pushing it from behind to make it move faster.
If playfield provides good SK/XP - then people will outlevel it fast enough. If it gives poor SK/XP - people will use alternative ways to level up, such is afk at kite hill.

Anyway, I honestly love to see initiatives like this from Michi and his team, but I totally do not understand the purpose of new instance, especially if you look at it from real perspective of current playerbase.

I'm totally sure that all AO content should provide both, good xp/sk and item upgrades, that will be useful while you level up and at endgame.
For example - make SoM drop some basic weapon that will have its step-by-step upgrades dropping at TOTW, CoH, IS, then in SL instances and, at the end, at LoX instances. Such items might have compatible or even better stats compared to current endgame weapons/armors/huds/utils.
Something similar to Hellspinner cannon or another item, which has its upgrades dropping in different locations doable at different levels.

Of course, the Reck will entertain current playerbase in short-term perspective, but if we're taking mid-long term perspective - it's nearly useless, no matter what kind of sk/xp/items you put in there, because you'll either OP items in there, or make them useless when specific level is gained.

/Arty

[Tommysold]

for example - make som drop some basic weapon that will have its step-by-step upgrades dropping at totw, coh, is, then in sl instances and, at the end, at lox instances. Such items might have compatible or even better stats compared to current endgame weapons/armors/huds/utils./arty

love it

[Emma]

Is there a link somewhere to this new armor offered in this year's holiday subscription offer?

Emma