Friday with Means - February 20th, 2009

[bungerman]

What needs to change is that it needs to be made FUN and REWARDING to LEVEL. Those three key words.

eeeeeeyup. What fun is it for someone that recently upgrades to SL (lets say level 100ish like me back in the day :X ) to get told (once they ask where is a good place to gain some levels), go kill some rocks for 60 levels? then when you get high enough, go to the next area and kill some MORE rocks. Where is the variety?

Doesn't seem like a good way to retain subscribers if their first taste of the Paid Areas is to kill the same group of mobs over and over and over until you don't get good XP, then move to the next set of identical mobs and kill them over and over. One might wonder what all these other areas are for eventually.

Yea...yea, you can go kill other mobs and gain levels eventually, but

A. No one else is, so you are no longer part of the massive multiplayer game, and
B. The XP is not as good, so if your main goal that day is to level, why would you not get the most bang for your buck and ignore the rest of the game?

I think one of the biggest upgrades that could happen is to get away from HECK>> HECK>> HECK>>MISSION>>>MISSION>>>MISSION, and give incentives for people to LEVEL in the beautiful outdoor scenery. It makes the game seem small in scope when reduced to certain areas of teaming and indoor missions ad infinitum.

Possible fixes:

1. Make other outdoor mobs XP the same as hecks or vice versa nerf the hecks XP to be the same as others of the same QL (which I don't recommend, seeing as how we are talking about grind as it is.)

2. Make outdoor mishes that require you to kill X amount of mobs like some quests do but make the XP equal to doing the same amount of hecks in the same amount of time.

3. other stuff that I can't think of right now but there are many options to get away from the current situation of monotony.

[Mekh]

...post...

I agree 100%...

[ThePartisan]

Question for Means: FC reported a $33.8m fy loss this week and resignation of their CFO - mostly to do with AoC. Will this have a significant impact on AO?

As far as I could see, this has much to do with a depreciation of the value of AoC. I don't think it means that they lost 33.8m CASH. But no, it's not a good sign...

But that's just the way I understood it, and I'm no expert... So feel free to correct me/elaborate.

[Chrys]

As far as I could see, this has much to do with a depreciation of the value of AoC. I don't think it means that they lost 33.8m CASH. But no, it's not a good sign...

But that's just the way I understood it, and I'm no expert... So feel free to correct me/elaborate.

They lost 22.8m on revaluation of AoC assets - and that's reflected in Q4 results, which, excluding the revaluation, they lost about $600,000, from what I can tell much of it to do with forex losses - not a big amount in this climate and yes their cash holdings went up. But Full Year results totalled $33.8m loss, after AoC launched then tanked and now (apparently?) is getting pieced together again by Sil (no surprise - I've told people on other forums who were hating on AoC that Sil would pick things up and he did - after all he saved LE from being an utter disaster too). Where does it leave FC? Or AO?

FC was a company that was on the verge of getting big (though AO players prolly didn't appreciate being sent to AoC support ), and now it's back down to medium-sized (which is still a step up from tiny).

Edit: I love the look of their java based MMO. If they can get that to work off an iPhone/Omnia/Touch or something, they are on to a friggin winner. Screw the young target audience, get first-in on the platform. Remember WoW was originally targeted at children.

[Ayria]

Is it bad that I skipped everything in this thread just to read Mean's funny posts?

[Omutb]

Level lock the Inferno boots to level 180 as a minimum, possibly Title Level 6 like Hold Hell at Bay.

No, dont like that idea.

What really needs to happen is the Soul Devourer wont give out missions to people if the team has members that are under 180.

I dont see why people of lower levels shouldnt be able to wander around Inferno, and die horribly, or be helped in killing roaming mobs, just need to be excluded from the missions.

Part of that would also need to be the improvement of Pen as a real source of XP/loot for those that are 209 or under (upper cap for rolling Pen missions).

[ArienSky]

No, dont like that idea.

What really needs to happen is the Soul Devourer wont give out missions to people if the team has members that are under 180.

I dont see why people of lower levels shouldnt be able to wander around Inferno, and die horribly, or be helped in killing roaming mobs, just need to be excluded from the missions.

I second that, Inferno is a wondrous place and the sole place for a light utility! for those too old to have experienced the ICC shuttleport*.

The current system with getting access to the ShadowLands play fields work well.
If it is only the missions you do not want people to get to, then fix that, instead of limiting the playfield altogether.

Some explorers survival tips for Inferno travel as low level:
Concealment skill for land
& swimming through the lava for long distance traveling (adv buffs help)

Kind Regards
Ariensky

*I will admit that the number of toons from 2004, but not level 180 might be limited, but not having a light source is none the less annoying.
Yay for the Never-ending Being of Light, that was what I went to inferno for, to get it before the boots are level locked, if that sad suggestion wins.

[Technogen]

Maybe they should make the 7x ring harder to get. A 220 farming a pb isnt exactly hard.

[Tryqz]

*Post filled with Incontrovertible logic........*

Means, please hire him.

[Omutb]

*I will admit that the number of toons from 2004, but not level 180 might be limited, but not having a light source is none the less annoying.

My 2 oldest toons, from 2002, are both under 180

I have many others that are pre-2004 and under 180.

Admittedly, most of them will probably never get to 180 either.

[wormx]

Level locking items, such as Inferno boots, and forcing people to level in certain places would most likely make even more people quit imo.

Forcing the whole team to do dmg on a mob? how would that solve teaming? would the person in team that does the most dmg get the most xp? ... Sorry doc, seeya in a few months when you've catched up...

We all know that 95% of AO is about having/making friends to level/quest with.

I'm going to be Captain Obvious here and state that we need more people, people that wants to stay in AO. It is however up to us players to help tease them enough to stay.

I'd love more content for more levelranges and working rewards in Penumbra missions is one example.

The problem is that there too much to chose from for to few people.
No, I'm not saying remove this or that. You know what I mean.

Having mobs adapt to what profession you bring into a mission just sounds like it would take more time to level that way and add to the kite/pocket "problem".

Regarding mobs using specials; I've seen the blue mobs in pande use(d) burst.

I personally don't see it as a huge threat to AO that people spend time on kite hill or in pocketed teams. Yeah, I've been on kite hill a few times on some alts, was a kick to see all that xp roll by. You all know you go "ooh!" when getting a high ammount of xp/sk/ai.
If not, people would kill green mobs all the time.

Yes I want more ways of leveling but how many can we get? A majority of gamers will always go for the fastest way to gain levels, that goes for any game...

Forcing people out of pocketteams might help a few to learn their profession, sure.
But would that help the population? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't.
I'm certain it would not keep all us "veterans" still rolling alts ...

Learning your profession is ofc important but then who would we laugh at when that 200ish un-orged soldier in carb and a pearlfarmer hat goes "what's Riot Control?"


And finally: You will not successfully keep people playing a game by introducing more restrictions such as level locking even more items. To test that theory, you could always level lock a huge load of the NT and trader nanos to see how many of them will like it...


.

[Lektronik]

"This particular model is now environmentally friendly."

The chair has no exhaust in the next version. There is a change you asked for, a good start. I am sincerely interested in your views on the game Perfekt. This is not some silly wind-up...I don't have time for that. Let me know what you think. If you don't feel like putting it here...PM it to me.

Thanks to everyone else who has been adding to the discussion...it helps when we can see all these opinions at the same time. It lets us know what really matters to you guys.

Whoa.....missed this post. Hadn't been following this thread until mastablasta mentioned something about you challening me.

First, thanks a lot for fixing this chair issue.

Second, as far as my opinions...they generally get beat down by some fanboy who thinks being spammed 90 MPH is OK for everyone to endure. I care more about function right now because the game is broken. People complain of hardcore lag everyday. Spammers are spamming all the time, killing OOC because people turn OOC off thanks to them. Name bot is broken still. Ignore is broken so even when we do /ignore and relog (happens quite often) you get spammed again. Ignore being broken in itself constitutes harassment since it has been broken for 3 YEARS. I don't like being harassed by someone whom I pay monthly to provide a service.

For now, my first idea that I would like to see happen is something mentioned by Aramsunat. His idea was to allow user configurable chat filters that would block out chat entries with specific words or phrases, which is all done and configurable locally.

This would remove the immediate need for a fixed /ignore system (though that does need to be fixed badly regardless). This would remove the need for players to request FC intervention of spamming. And I do believe it is doable without a huge waste of resources.

I will post more ideas later but I have to go to work now. Thanks again for fixing the chair!

[Technogen]

I believe macro's ignore thing will fix the ignore problem some people have. i personally do not have this problem.

[Sephiroth56]

I have honestly yet to see a single line of spam ingame. Not that I've had OOC active for the last 4-5 years, but still.

[CulannHS]

...
And finally: You will not successfully keep people playing a game by introducing more restrictions such as level locking even more items. To test that theory, you could always level lock a huge load of the NT and trader nanos to see how many of them will like it...
...

A lot of the NT nanoprograms ARE level locked. Dunno where you've been but all of the SL and LE nukes are level locked. It *is* annoying, especially when you have the MC and / or reqs to cast things 3-4 levels higher than you but it's not game destroying.

That said, as a very very small step, I'm in favor of locking the inferno boots and quite a few other things.

[Keldros]

A lot of the NT nanoprograms ARE level locked. Dunno where you've been but all of the SL and LE nukes are level locked. It *is* annoying, especially when you have the MC and / or reqs to cast things 3-4 levels higher than you but it's not game destroying.

Actually, I'm having trouble thinking of anything we've gotten since 2003 that wasn't level locked...

[Hacre]

Actually, I'm having trouble thinking of anything we've gotten since 2003 that wasn't level locked...

Ofab Armour!

[Lektronik]

Per the request of Means, I have created a thread in the Game Suggestions forum listing the "Perfekt 10".

http://forums.anarchyonline.com/showthread.php?t=548490

[Technogen]

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=548494 There's my list of 10 things + a few extras.

[Means]

Per the request of Means, I have created a thread in the Game Suggestions forum listing the "Perfekt 10".

http://forums.anarchyonline.com/showthread.php?t=548490

Thanks! We'll get right on it.