Friday with Means - March 20th, 2009

[Ebondevil]

Play an agent with neutral undercover kit if you want to be neutral again..

The Undercover Kits are only available up to Ql 200 and only work on characters of level 200 or less, so not really applicable to endgame characters these days.

[Falkvinge]

The Undercover Kits are only available up to Ql 200 and only work on characters of level 200 or less, so not really applicable to endgame characters these days.

That might be true, but side changes where never intended or allowed after 200 whereas side changes under 200 are possible.
A change after 200 might screw things up pretty much, ie shadowbreeds, faction standings..
I just assumed that he meant <200 since he said people switched to one side, and want to switch back to neutral.. ( for switching to a side they need to be <200 anyway )

[Dictan]

2 handed blunt fixes

[Smasherr]

*to Means

1. Will the new engine affect the excessive zoning we have in AO or that's another kettle of fish ?
2. Any plans for pvp arenas, WoW style ? I mean 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, team vs. team deathmatch.

[Ashram]

While I do agree there should be adjustments to VP gains across the lvl range they don't need to link those improved gains to BSs. People into PvP that go to BSs already complain about VP farmers and there have been those asking for things like 0 VP BSs. Then two years after BS VP got bumped as an incentive for people to go most BSs are still dead so VP clearly is a bad lure and would attract the wrong people.

Other things that have been suggested time and again could do far more to improve things for BSs than more VP. Being awarded VP for sitting in a queue of a BS that may never run just makes no sense either. VP gains should be done actively like through improved mission mechanics and other types of missions that have VP rewards (the sided camps we get Dread weapons from has a VP reward mission).

You seem to have missed the point of what I said.

It doesn't matter if BS gives one million points per round, if it never runs, as all but two level ranges never run. And I'm not very concerned about attracting the wrong people. The wrong people is certainly better than no people.

Second, getting VP for sitting in the queue DOES make sense, if invitations are undeclinable.
You are signing up to defend the battlestations. It means you are risking your time, as you could be whisked away at any second. This limits your potential activities.

[PhoenixOfAges]

You seem to have missed the point of what I said.

It doesn't matter if BS gives one million points per round, if it never runs, as all but two level ranges never run. And I'm not very concerned about attracting the wrong people. The wrong people is certainly better than no people.

You're the one that missed the point.

While I do agree there should be adjustments to VP gains across the lvl range they don't need to link those improved gains to BSs.

....

VP gains should be done actively like through improved mission mechanics and other types of missions that have VP rewards (the sided camps we get Dread weapons from has a VP reward mission).

Second, getting VP for sitting in the queue DOES make sense, if invitations are undeclinable.
You are signing up to defend the battlestations. It means you are risking your time, as you could be whisked away at any second. This limits your potential activities.

They don't run, knowing they don't run you could be in the queue for ages and never get a call up. I've still been in the queue of a dead BS for days to about a week before enough were signed up for it to try and start a round, but of course would have failed since most were off line. Even with "active" BSs during "active" times you could be sitting in the queue for hours and never go up with how they work now. During inactive periods "active" BSs could be dead for several hours before starting up. That's even for more active servers like RK2, imagine what RK3 would be like.

So with queue VP you could leave the char sitting there while doing things on other chars or out of the game to gain VP. It's like how with some Asian MMORPGs the shop mode requires you to be on-line. People don't do that when they want to play, or at least play with that char. They do it when they go to sleep, eat, watch TV, play another game, play another char, read, go to work, go to school and so on. It'd be the same here with queue VP as both involve no interaction from you.

If a round actually starts then so what. Some already use some third-party programs or what not to automate a key press to avoid AFK so they can do other things during the round when VP farming in the BSs that do run now. With this they could do the same and get double VP, VP from the queue and VP from the round plus never have to sit and watch for the join pop-up to do it. Your only involvement would be in signing up, big freaking deal.

You should be required to actually do something to earn your VP. Queue VP sure as hell isn't doing something to earn it. FC just needs to improve non-BS VP to provide people with a way to get it at any lvl. Before FC bumped BS VP they even said they were doing it thinking it would draw more people to BSs. But that didn't work out very well as most are still dead and those that do want to be there complain about those that only want the VP. Queue VP is just a repeat of the same mistake but even worse. If they provide some real means of getting VP that isn't BS related that requires people to actively earn it and make adjustments to BSs so they can run more effectively then everyone can be happier.

[harkness]

http://moderator.appspot.com/#15/e=16202&t=325d5

"927 votes on 55 questions from 27 people"

Come vote folks!

[Chrys]

http://moderator.appspot.com/#15/e=16202&t=325d5

"927 votes on 55 questions from 27 people"

Come vote folks!

90% of the questions are pontification about very narrow, idiosyncratic concerns. Means would be far better off with "Big Picture" posting then delving into specifics to illustrate his points, than pander to these kinds of questions. Things like prof balance review, neutrals role/update/redefinition, new directions or such. Not "can we get this particular feature that i rly rly want added plz??"

[gergiskoo]

90% of the questions are pontification about very narrow, idiosyncratic concerns. Means would be far better off with "Big Picture" posting then delving into specifics to illustrate his points, than pander to these kinds of questions. Things like prof balance review, neutrals role/update/redefinition, new directions or such. Not "can we get this particular feature that i rly rly want added plz??"

I think he should focus equally on both.

And besides, the specific questions being posed are overwhelmingly good ones.

[Dictan]

2handed blunt fixes?

[vadagget]

Get a twitter like Sil has, Colin!

[PhoenixOfAges]

2. I believe I read in some Friday with Means you mentioned more pvp areas like the battlestation, any clue when we might see these and can one of them be a revamped will to fight?

I can't remember anything like that but does anyone else remember Means saying that and can show where?

2handed blunt fixes?

That is what, the fourth time you asked that in this thread? Do you really think spamming the question throughout the thread helps your position? Those changes are coming with the overall prof rebalancing from what I remember.

[Berrenta]

They better not mess up trox monkey dancing.

They better not!

Personally, I really liked the new head style. Looks more realistic imo

[Chrys]

I think he should focus equally on both.

I think he should focus on directing the game. You know, as Game Director.

[Binarybits]

<3 happy they re-fixed the head. I was scared I'd end up looking like a shocked cheaply made blow-up doll. The new fix looks like the same face, same expression, just less fuzzy. Mucho Better!

[Heresiarch]

now fix the TITS

[Rktim]

now fix the TITS

Yes! FIx the bewbs!!!

[Khalem]

One thing that would be interesting to know is if there are any plans to make the GUI more customizeable and making it easier to change GUI.

With all the problems the launcher has, are there any plans to replace it anytime soon? (most notably it's inability to properly detect numerous GFX cards)

[Scabadus]

It's not all that hard to change the GUI, I'm no coder or artist but look at my signature. All you need is a text program and a graphics program, and windows at least comes with both. *Takes cover from linux users*

[irmo]

its firday!
more screenies, loads of screenies and more screenies.