Friday with Means - February 12th, 2010 - I got the year right!!!

[SSK]

Each week it's the same. Means posts some info and then come people:

1. Who actually read what was posted and share their opinion about it
2. Who always cry Means / FC isn't doing what they want or there's no info about it.
3. Who think FC doorkeeper, plumber and their families should be working just on new engine
4. Who think all threads is perfect place to talk about random stuff not related to topic.
5. Who know best all things and speak if they were part of FC (Hi techno and masta)

Sad thing is 1st group is minority compared to 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but it's good there are just few from 5th.

[spookiepants]

call me some old crazy grumpy guy.. but.. an mmo really should be about the journey.. not the destination.

cosign

[Castaras]

Please for the love of god means, add more dungeons/instances like bio-mare.
and make content for 80-149!

This. 20-60 has loads of stuff compared to 80-149. From around 100-125 as far as I know there IS NO DUNGEON. Then 125-149 there's only IS, which has 220s over everyone else, and S10, which is AXP orientated rather than XP orientated. Other than that, you have RK Mishes, Hecks, and the incoming Daily Missions. That is why a TL4 dungeon is needed - there is crap all content there, and it is the commonplace "Giving up" spot for many characters. You helped out a bit with 150-200 with Dark Ruins (difficult to solo, fun to team, some useful leveling loot, thumbs up for that), now do the same thing with 100-125.

[byteflush]

From around 100-125 as far as I know there IS NO DUNGEON.

Well, there is CoH for 100-110, but anyway - bump for more TL4/TL5 content!

[sakus]

wtb an option to filter out all posts not made by fc people
I try to skip over them looking for official postings but you're bound to catch a glimpse.. oy what's wrong with people

[Sephiroth56]

Guitar hero referenced instances are old news. Please this theme is played out in so many ways in so many games now it really is feels old school and over done.

This statement is like saying "condements on sandwiches are old news". Colours is a way for your brain to match stuff. It's a way to have a mechanic work without understanding what's going on getting in the way.

I don't think you'll think this instance is old news nor over done when we see it! :>

call me some old crazy grumpy guy.. but.. an mmo really should be about the journey.. not the destination.

Such a cop out, mr lvl 190!

[Lliers]

Hi!

First of all, "Thanks, Means!".

Second of all, I can't seem to find a thread with an answer to this question: "Will the new engine require DirectX 9 or 10?" Because if its 9, then "Yay! My perfectly running Windows XP system will work great!" If its 10, then "Boo, I'm gonna need to go buy Vista or Win7 and maybe a whole new computer. =((("

Third of all, there has been no FC comment on this thread: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=567685 Can we get our higher ranking officers their ability to remote kick people from org? Org management without this is very difficult.

Finally, "Item Lock" = "Yay!". Now can someone come up with a feature that prevents me from spending a couple hours twinking something onto social?

[Technogen]

Second of all, I can't seem to find a thread with an answer to this question: "Will the new engine require DirectX 9 or 10?" Because if its 9, then "Yay! My perfectly running Windows XP system will work great!" If its 10, then "Boo, I'm gonna need to go buy Vista or Win7 and maybe a whole new computer. =((("

This is pure speculation but based on the engine they are upgrading to it will be DX9 compatible. AoC can run both DX9 and DX10, I dont think the devs are going to put DX10 in AO so. *shrug*

No solid answer but I dont see it being DX10 only.

[Wrangeline]

Yeah AO wont be dx10-only or probably even dx10 at all.

Dx10 requires modern graphics cards and FC is trying to get as much graphics-bang for the buck in AO as they can without forcing people to do heavy expensive upgrades to their hardware.

[monk13]

hate to be joining the chorus here but, for froobs the only ingame content that ever really gets used is noob island,subways, totw, and maybe biomare and borgs, then IS where they just beg for a team of 220s to get them the loot they need to make mishs easier , then they grind missions for MONTHS and they might do hollow island once or try and die @ mercs

for expansions content is good until about lvl 80 when we've got to pound rocks till we get to adonis where we have 1 FINALLY new instance to play in and content starts to pick up there

daily missions sound like a stopgap , unless there is some amazingly well done implementation there it will end up like inferno missions currently are, wait about 1-2hrs unless you're on in primetime then you find a team, or u can take your 1 mission that day and solo it, but that removes the fun of sharing an experience with your team

the bottom line is this, the game NEEDS content for 80-150 for both froobs and paid
the lack of content in that region is why most froobs quit playing their toons after lvl 120ish

[Technogen]

One thing I want to note for those reading my post, I do think content should be added but I do not think the game is "DEATH! DEATH!" with its content right now. A lot of you are focusing on the 80 to 150ish area, thats where almost ALL of the outdoor content currently is. At that level there's 8 maybe 9 zones on RK for those level ranges. Then there's 2/3 zones in SL for them.

This area is not some huge void that you guys act like it is, the problem is the content is all over the place so a lot of it gets ignored.

[bitnykk]

i think some are posting every 2/3 messages

nerf spamz !

[Wrangeline]

One thing I want to note for those reading my post, I do think content should be added but I do not think the game is "DEATH! DEATH!" with its content right now. A lot of you are focusing on the 80 to 150ish area, thats where almost ALL of the outdoor content currently is. At that level there's 8 maybe 9 zones on RK for those level ranges. Then there's 2/3 zones in SL for them.

This area is not some huge void that you guys act like it is, the problem is the content is all over the place so a lot of it gets ignored.

The main problem as I see it is Ely hecklers and other things that cause imbalance in terms of XP-gain. It's just such an obvious place to go for XP that all the other possible areas to go and things to do becomes relatively pointless.

There are many forms of balance in a MMO. PvP balance, combat-balance in PvM and so on. Another form of balance is mob availability, XP-gain from kills and such things that really do dictate the behaviour of leveling players.

The ideal goal is for players to feel that teaming up and hunting random wildlife in a non-pocket or non-kiting fashion is worth it and that they make good progress. The other important thing is that players need to feel like whatever they are doing is very similar in terms of productivity as any other activity they could be doing. This is where AO isn't very balanced atm. Players wont go to scheol in a team and kill wildlife and do quests together for XP because hecklers are "OP" in terms of XP-gain. Players wont do quests in SL for XP because quests are underpowered in terms of XP-gain compared to hunting wildlife. And so on.

FC needs to balance the world of AO both on RK and in SL so that players feel productive in a much wider range of activities than they do atm.

FC needs to lower the amount of hecklers by.. A LOT, so that there isn't enough of them to gain 10 levels an hour. Then FC needs to change the XP gain on random wildlife so that players don't have to kill DEEP red mobs in order to gain reasonable XP.

[PhoenixOfAges]

A lot of you are focusing on the 80 to 150ish area, thats where almost ALL of the outdoor content currently is. At that level there's 8 maybe 9 zones on RK for those level ranges. Then there's 2/3 zones in SL for them.

If you mean outdoor stuff like dyan/named mobs and the like then what can often happen if the mobs/items are of interest is a 220 swings through or is camping them and splatters them in a moment as they want the loot too. Dynas for dyna only drops, certain named mobs for specific loot, named mobs for pattern parts and so on. Once it's outdoors rather than dealing with that or slowly chewing the mob down with a lower lvl char most log their 220 and insta gibble the mobs. If you mean mobs for XP then there people have turned to the OST and kite teams for years. Once it's outside people try to bring their 220s along to make it easier.

FC has been pushing reward over fun for some time and is something I dealt with in the second and third threads linked in my sig. A game is there to be enjoyed and once people aren't having fun anymore they tend to leave. Often enough with these new instances or what not rewards would be loot which is rare and nodrop. So there you are doing it over and over and over again to get that loot and it's always the same zone with the same mobs doing the same thing. You also do it with as few people as possible as the more people you're doing it with the less likely you are to get the thing you want should it drop. By the time you've done it all with one char you just don't want to go through it again with another and they keep adding more content like that to reinforce that sentiment.

If more variety could be mixed in, the rewards weren't hope and pray random luck gained loot and should you be well equipped you could have the option to do harder versions for better reward rates it'd be more enjoyable. If you don't find the process too bad or even fun you'd be more inclined to start more chars to try to experience things in a different way as how you approach things with one prof can be quite different than how you'd do so with another. You'd also want to spend more time in game as it's fun, not because you have to grind that new gear they added.

Think about how many 220s you have which have their alpha symbs, Xan weapons, QL 300 combined and so forth that makes them complete. Now think about how if you started another char to be lvled to 220 that you'd have to go through all that again with that new char. Just how willing would you be to start that new char knowing what you know? Although what if it wasn't so bad or even fun getting your stuff, if having more people in your group didn't mean less of a chance to get your desired item and there were other things to make you want to do it even if you have all the item loot? Now how willing would you be to start that new end game char? Most would be more willing and that's a good thing for the game on a whole.

[Technogen]

FC has been pushing reward over fun

You are pushing for reward over fun the whole thing you posted. Your whole argument was centered around Loot, and Small areas to gain experience at a fast rate.

[PhoenixOfAges]

You are pushing for reward over fun the whole thing you posted. Your whole argument was centered around Loot, and Small areas to gain experience at a fast rate.

When BSs didn't live up to expectations they threw more VP into them rather than adding/changing some of the many things people suggested, then they kept doing that. That's the kind of reward over fun concept I'm talking about.

The main thing I was getting at in that post was there's the reward but let's change the process you go through to get it so it's not just a grind to get over with and you don't want to repeat. There's no real new rewards it's really just the process that's changed. So my focus was on not the shiny bauble at the end or adding new things to get but what you have to go through to get them.

[MajorOutage]

Where? He said they were planning some adjustments to BSs but didn't say what or when. He did comment on an entirely new PvP area with no queues. To which as I said when he mentioned it last year seemed a bad idea given the problems getting PvP content working that existed then and is only worse now. With it being a no queue PvP area that's always open it would seem what many asked for with BSs to try to get them easier to start up. But with it not being BSs but something else it means that this new something else is coming at the cost of BSs since surely people would go for the option that's easier to get going.

I dunno, the new PF sounds like a persistent PvP area. As in, there's nothing else to do to gain VP but killing other players. If that's the case, you'll still see plenty of gimps waiting to farm BS still.

Yeah AO wont be dx10-only or probably even dx10 at all.

Dx10 requires modern graphics cards and FC is trying to get as much graphics-bang for the buck in AO as they can without forcing people to do heavy expensive upgrades to their hardware.

Sticking to the DX9 API is definitely the best thing for them to do right now, since it will pretty much guarantee anyone currently playing AO will be able to run the new engine.

However, even if they did add extra graphics features that were only available under DX10/11, nobody would be 'required' to upgrade anything to keep playing without them, or even to use the new features, if you could take the performance hit from not having a brand new card. DX10's "extra capabilities" were a bunch of smoke and mirrors to get people to upgrade to Vista anyway. Crysis's artificial limitations under DX9 is a great example of that. A little config-file tweak and bam, full "DX10" features under XP/DX9.

[Iriche]

There will be no "stepping on coloured lights to make stuff happen" in the playfield. Doesn't mean the colours aren't important, but no - This instance isn't like anything else in the game currently.

O'rly?

[Castaras]

Well, there is CoH for 100-110, but anyway - bump for more TL4/TL5 content!

CoH is a good point. But due to the Beacon Warping of 220s in, it's alot of the time just used for soloing for the weapons and necromancer cloaks. Getting rid of that functionality (which is going to be annoying for me but better for the little people) might go some way to helping in that area. Not sure, not been to CoH before without a high level (which says something, doesn't it? =|)

[Technogen]

Apparently there are so many 220s in this game that they are EVERYWHERE, no matter where you are, not matter what you are doing a 220 will be there farming!