Friday with Means - September 11th, 2009 - Video Q&A, Sceenies and Info-Nuggets

[Raynefists]

In my opinion:

* Swimming: Delete, swim speed determined by half your runspeed plus a small portion of BodyDev or Stamina.
* Parry & Riposte: Delete, make the little parry shields require Dodge or Duck, MA attacks requiring Parry or Riposte require Evade Close, Type 880 and 992 have P/R requirements thrown out.
* Vehicle Water: Delete the skill and the vehicles from game. The vehicles as far as I'm aware aren't usable in Adonis, the only place where you'd probably find any semblance of use out of the original skill.
* Trap Disarm: Delete, bomb checks are made with the same tool but check Break&Entry.


All I can think of.

I agree with all of this except for parry & riposte. All the other skills were originally intended to be secondary skills, but parry & riposte were suppose to be core mechanics for MAs, keepers, and shades, and to a lesser extent enfs and melee adventurers. There are several nanos and perklines for these classes, and each has a discount in these skills. If you're going to delete parry/riposte, then these profs really ought to get something for all the time they've waited. I'd much rather see an actual use for these skills though, or even better make them actually work as active/passive abilities.

One idea i thought was good was to make them pvm only skills to encourage more classes to tank. Make it so that parry was a % chance to reduce 0/25/50/75/100% of damage based on parry vs AR. Then make riposte an activated ability that did main weapon damage+large taunt, but only after a parry, and on a cooldown whose length was a function of riposte skill and weapon recharge time. This would give MAs, shades, and keepers the ability to tank single targets reliably if no enf were around. Enfs would still be the best tanks, especially for aoe, but at least you wouldn't need one to get an effective tank.

Another option is to make them part of the general rebalancing effort. If you're gonna be rebalancing the game anyway, might as well implement some skills into the mix that haven't been used in the past.

[Litestrider]

Now that you reminded me...

Back in the day Funcom had a referral program where people could put these banners on their pages, websites etc. They earned credit for the referrals.
That system is gone now. Why not bring that program, or something similar back?
At the very least, the AO team might want to consider making those banners/buttons/etc easily accessible and linkable.

I've got implants!



I'm very encouraged by the videos. I'd love to see even more communication and interaction with the players. Every sign that you're actively working with the players is really exciting and makes me want to play the game all the more.

[Dancingrage]

The Q&A session inspired me to crank out another Great Wall of Text guide for new players, I looked up some of the older ones and realized they're WAY outta date. I should be done in a few days, time permitting, and I'll be working off the assumption that the player is utterly new and has no idea what does what in AO. Would be interested in coordinating with other folks on this, so PM me on this.

Noted the 'Just friggin PM us already' so I'll be sending one out re one of my current pet peeves/projects.

I do have one big question however, and that's in regards to pet profs in general and MPs in specific: What's the timeframe for working on pet kiting issues? MPs are really hurt more than the other profs by the kiteability of pets (I watched Corily on RK1 slog out a fight with an agent that took ages simply because the agent ran around in huge circles while Rihwen tried to keep up and failed) and complete lack of controlling tools aside from our mezzpet that fails in these matters in a hilarious way (under the assumption that Yidira's PM/SI are equal to the nanoskills used to cast, would need DOUBLE the AR to hope to land a nano in modern TL7 pvp at the very least)

Second Question: I noticed not long ago that while some caster/support profs have the capacity to reach similar levels of skills in their bailiwick as the combat profs, there is no reward for the effort (better pets, for a good example) as there would be for the combat profs (SoW/SoC/SSoS/etc). Any chance of looking at this and tweaking it so such effort is rewarded, or at least so that the caster profs aren't stuck at, say, TL5 with a toolset that is static while combat profs are free to twink on bigger and bigger weapons?

The Q&A session was good, and I look forward to more screenies and updates on the planning for the future soon!

[Axtilmor]

All good suggestions, but this one...

* Vehicle Water: Delete the skill and the vehicles from game. The vehicles as far as I'm aware aren't usable in Adonis, the only place where you'd probably find any semblance of use out of the original skill.

Absolutely not. Hydro Vehicle + essence + growth bracers + Borealis = startled noobies. As long as you only bust it out once a month, this never gets old.

[Triadninja]

I was very happy with the things that they are going to try and accomplish. I fully agree, that the new player experience should be revamped, infact I think that should be the number 1 priority, along with the engine. If people understand what to do, and THEN are unleashed, they will have a much better time in what they can and can't do yet, and understand what they should be doing. I also agree with that guy that stated that PvP needs a revamp, I fully agree that once you guys are done with fixing up the stuff such as new player experience, the engine, and fix current mechanics, that PvP should get a new twist, so that once you hit 220, there will be more to do than just BS and NW.

Overall, I was really happy with this Q&A, it answered alot of the questions I had myself.

P.S. Means, you can't be one of us, you look like too much of a rockstar :P

[Regidoc]

500 days played?

Wow, that's a lot of AFK time

[Shareida]

and they are one step in front of the game made by Funcom
http://www.alkis.org/eadv50.html

Uhhhh. Alex11's web page design skills have improved.

[Berinda]

With all the work being done on new character heads and meshes, can you guys change the meshes for things labelled as skirts so they display as skirts instead of shorts?

[RedR053]

my current biggest beef with the current game play, since i display myself in game as a pvmer its nothing to do with lots of other concerns, is Line of Sight issues.

there are a few line of sight 'bugs' that have cropped up over the years, and watching to video of the QnA and hearing you say there are things that the staff aren't aware of that the players know and have for years, i thought it would be good to throw it out here while you are willing to listen to questions.

Means:

Are you aware that if a mob is pulled through a door, there is no chance in hell that a profession like an enforcer can pull agg on the mob if the mob didn't 'see' them first?
Example: City Alien raid ship. Say my enforcer is in another room, some one in my team decides to take initiative, and runs ahead to another room, however instead of staying in that room, pulls it to the rest of the team. Being lower damage then the damage dealers in team, i won't manage to draw agg away from the mob by just hitting it, i have to taunt it, but in this instance by the way it was pulled no amount of taunting will allow the mob to drop attack from the others and allow me to tank.

i know this isn't to much a problem at 220, how ever its just my personal beef and bane. you can take it from my orgm8z they had to listen to me whine about it in ventrillo.

just wanted to let the staff know about the annoying bug that makes PVM tanks feel gimpy and useless. *btw, that bug does the same thing in Shadowlands*

-Slicingrosez aka Affob6

[Noxira]

So far the hair on most of the models has looked pretty bad, nothing near realistic hair. Especially on that Solitus head, it's just a big clump of some... stuff. That's attached to her head. It doesn't reflect anything like natural hair does, instead it looks like it's textured in Paint

I like how you've kept the facial jewelry on the opifexes though. It looks a lot like an existing piercing technique called microdermals ( http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Microdermal ), I even have a bunch in my own skin

[Regidoc]

I have an actual real question. Now, granted, I haven't been playing for some time (I just haunt the forums) but the thing I didn't see much of (if at all) during the time I did play was the Greeters. I was watching the video and you mentioned about someone going around holding the hand of the new arrivals. As I understand, Greeters were there for any new arrivals to lend them a hand and answer any questions they may have had (without offering spoilers). Has there been a shortage in those (I know they're volunteers like any ARK) or is there plans to try and boost those?

[Ophiuchus]

Very nice work on the heads. I'm hoping that the Opi models will regain their sleek original looks. Rounded skulls are best left for the Solis and such.

[CriticalDmg]

http://www.anarchy-online.com/anarch...nt/130x285.gif

anarchy online - light years beyond elves

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... "light years" is a measurement of distance not time ! Shred that banner already...

[Tazalanche]

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... "light years" is a measurement of distance not time ! Shred that banner already...

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... elves are here ...X.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................X.. Anarchy Online is here.

Is that not a rudimentary example of a measurement of distance between them?

[McKnuckleSamwich]

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... "light years" is a measurement of distance not time ! Shred that banner already...

ya, good call i saw this, and, as an engineer I felt compelled to puke into FC's lap.

at least make it unit consistent: ie, divide the distance by a rate (velocity) to get a unit of time. for example:

1 light year traveling faster than the speed of sound even with a headwind of 30 km/h beyond elves. But, you can be an elf if you want, they are called opisex.

Better though is:

The time it takes you to go around the front yard and the backyard pushing a lawnmower while hungover beyond elves.

That way, we can all relate.

[glitterdust]

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... "light years" is a measurement of distance not time ! Shred that banner already...

I think Light Years is an appropriate measure with the implied time it would take said Elf to arrive at where said Opifex is utilizing their relatively primitive technology. After all, they can't even leave their atmosphere. So, factoring the technical evolution they have yet to make, then I'd say that Anarchy Online IS indeed Light Years ahead of Elves.

Now that I've tossed some bits to the trolls...

I really think it's wonderful that some attention to the new player learning curve is being considered and I agree that it would probably be good to increase the retention ratio of new players before blowing any money into an advertising campaign.

PS. I like my updated head. I thought all that cake was going to catch up to me eventually...seriously though I have to agree it does seem a very tad squashed along the vertical axis in contrast to the current rendered version. But then it may look fine when in relation to everything else once in game...what do I know?

[Neosh1]

OK, usually I keep my nose out of these threads, but I have to ask. Means, are you wearing two watches? And if so...why?

one is for real time and other is for respawn timers

[Regidoc]

Are we going to have another shadows and darkness discussion now?

[drainbamage]

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... "light years" is a measurement of distance not time ! Shred that banner already...

Have you never heard someone say that something is "miles beyond" something else? Replace "miles" with "light years".

[CriticalDmg]

For the <insert a giant number here>th time... elves are here ...X.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ......................X.. Anarchy Online is here.

Is that not a rudimentary example of a measurement of distance between them?

Have you never heard someone say that something is "miles beyond" something else? Replace "miles" with "light years".

FC tried to describe a time difference in that statement, not distance, thus it's a wrong use of measurement units.

I think Light Years is an appropriate measure with the implied time it would take said Elf to arrive at where said Opifex is utilizing their relatively primitive technology. After all, they can't even leave their atmosphere. So, factoring the technical evolution they have yet to make, then I'd say that Anarchy Online IS indeed Light Years ahead of Elves.

Now that I've tossed some bits to the trolls...

See above. Calling someone with a 0.01 posts/day ratio a troll, is "very accurate" too...

As logic & common sense goes down as the thread gets more posts, I'll refrain from trying to show the obvious any longer.