Friday with(out) Means - May 7th, 2010: hbaaaaalllhggrrrrrraaaagghhhhh

[Autohead]

This game has a story?!

[Nosgoth]

Yay! The ICC guards will finally look like they're armed intervention troops in a civil war area, not like fancy dressed diplomats who don't know what is happening around them.

[Dancingrage]

I have yet to actually FINISH the collector, the tanks usually tend to get slammed into the spikes and dropped like rocks about the 3rd wave or so.

With that said, this has sparked something of a debate on how to handle items in the rebalancing, because as stated, if the effort vs reward doesn't justify the time put into it (which it seems Collector is on the losing end of at this moment) then people won't play it. This doesn't just apply to one instance, it applies to the whole of AO when seen from an outsider, fresh player experience.

The discussion between Alternity and myself came to the tenative conclusion that we need to seriously re-examine droprates and such on things to make it so that the new player doesn't feel as though it'll be nigh-impossible to compete with the older veterans in any real sense while giving the veterans something to continue to strive for that's damn near impossible to get.

Any thoughts on this? I think this will be a pretty important part of the rebalancing act going forward and will need to be sorted out and looked into soon.

[Lionaire]

wow, I like the ICC armor!

[saxobul3]

So this has been a fun week. And by 'fun' I mean 'holy crap I'm glad it's the weekend'.



Feedback on the latest update has certainly been enthusiastic to say the least. At the end of it, with the update we released on Weds., I think the Collector has just about hit the spot we were initially looking for in terms of risk vs. reward. The instance isn't designed to be a one-stop-shop for everyone to get everything they need from the game - Far from it. Instead it was designed as a difficult encounter requiring a unique, new train of thought from the players involved - It's not about tank 'n spank, it's about coordinating efforts and discovering tactics that fall outside the scope and realm of previous character roles. Is there a chance for phat lewt? Oh yeah, definitely - Gotta have something to get you guys up there. But getting the loot should be a bonus - An additional reward to the sense of satisfaction gained in actually managing to complete the encounter. Plus, hey, awesome new social armour for folks to grab; all good stuff all around.

I really hope you haven't hit the spot as far as the risk-vs-reward goes, because they don't match. Someone made a good suggestion earlier to have social armor on the first boss, bronze boxes on the 2nd, and Silver on collector, and to leave the %chance of gold in the silver low. That would more accurately reflect the risk-vs-reward.

[Aiken]

Lol @ thinking risk = the rewards. Really guys ? No, just no imo.

[Reetzor]

I just thought I'd pop in to say the daily missions made my day this morning. (Which is no mean feat when I got woken up at 4am a one year old who thought it was playtime...) With a family and a shiny new job I thought my AO subscription was going out the window, but this just might be enough to keep me nibbling away.

Only managed to run three of them so far and two have been good, one has been a bit silly (one of those kill 3x12 different mobs in order in a dungeon you can't possibly stay alive in at the level the mission is given out...) Apply some common sense to the missions given out to the various level ranges and you have pure win.

[Vitaliy]

ICC armour looks hot wtb collector loot being restored...maybe minus things that require farming/assembling, e.g. apf nanos, bracers etc...and make it harder and/or add a requirement that prevents any less than a full team taking part.

[Technogen]

Man, I'd love to get me some of that ICC armor now /me rolls neut

[Saetos]

... Alright, time to admit it. The ICC armor does look fantastic; nice to also see the guards wielding "advanced" (or at least updated weaponry).

[madrid]

I have to say that my biggest complaint about this update is the loot in the collector instance. I don't care that its a one stop shop for all of your end game loot. That is fine. The thing that bugs me is how un-original it is do make the loot for this instance just a repeat of other instance's end game loot. It just stinks like a total short-cut to really thinking and designing something unique. It doesn't even fit the story line, not that I care but I thought I'd point that out too .

I know you guys run with a small staff and its hard to come up with content but this seems like such a cop out. I would have prefered making loot that is social loot only than having said at the end "ah well, we can't think of anything so lets just throw in the loot tables from all other end game instances" Sound good!

Hehe...++ my 2 cents

[Alternity]

Feedback on the latest update has certainly been enthusiastic to say the least. At the end of it, with the update we released on Weds., I think the Collector has just about hit the spot we were initially looking for in terms of risk vs. reward. The instance isn't designed to be a one-stop-shop for everyone to get everything they need from the game - Far from it. Instead it was designed as a difficult encounter requiring a unique, new train of thought from the players involved

While The Collector is a gem in game design, and actually dare break from the age old kill 5 mobs at X, run to Y and kill larger mob, repeat til insertion of big boss Z.

I will say I was let down by this "difficult" instance, Kintaii DB2 was sad to say harder to figure out, and it people were not 2-man-farming it from day 1.

I'm not sure what went through your heads up at FunCom HQ, when you decided the loot vs risk was a good idea, because it was preposterous!
And if this is the way you think Anarchy online should go forward, you will lose a lot of people, while catering others.

Did you ever think about that?

[Wrangeline]

First of all, great Fw-oM Kintaii. You know I love you!

Ok, now that I creeped you out a bit, I got one suggestion:

I personally don't have much of an opinion on the risk-vs-reward for the Collectors instance because I have only done it once so far. If however those people who say that the risk-vs-reward isn't quite good enough atm, IS correct, then I have this suggestion:

As I understand it, there are 3 different boxes that can drop from last boss. bronze, silver and gold?

Well, how about having the first boss in the instance drop 2ish bronze boxes. Second boss drops 2 bronze boxes with a 20% chance or so of dropping 1 bronze and 1 silver or maybe even 2 silver boxes instead if you are really lucky. Only last boss can drop gold boxes and only last boss drops more than 2 boxes per kill (last boss currently drops 6 boxes I think?)

That would give the instance a tiiiny boost in terms of risk-vs reward and it would make the entire instance up until the boss more rewarding and feel less like a timesink. Dying and having to do the instance again might not feel so bitter then as well.

[haxi]

This has to be a first, new armor and not one disparaging remark! Good job, free this person up for more 'shop time please.

[Waldgeyst]

Tsherman Translashion

[wyldebeast]

Regarding the new instance, I'm really disappointed. The first two "bosses" and the kickers are only there as time sinks. What's up with that? There's nothing hard about them, they just take time. How on Earth did you come up with this? At least let them drop something, give a buff or in some way be a prelude/practice to what is to come. As it is now, I support removing the first part of the play field and just placing the Secretary directly in pande to warp us straight to The Collector. Wasting our time with menial tasks as these is not fun or challenging (except maybe to our patience).

Oh, and the way you handled the OP loot and exploiting. Don't even get me started. This way it seems you are actually rewarding or at the very least condoning exploiting. Maybe you did in fact punish the exploiters in some way, but not saying anything leaves us thinking you didn't, and that's not very motivating.

Hiiiihhiiiiiiiihiiiiiiii!!!

Kintaii think, "Player like difficult. Player like think. Player like story. Player like puzzle. Player are good person."

Player think,
"More toys!"
"Want more toys!"
"My toy better then you toy!"
"You got same toy? Whaa!"
"Kintaii, why you give them my toys?"
[So can play]
"That no fair!"
"I AM more special!"

Are be continue...

Couldn't have said it better We're players. We want rewards for time spent. True, new things are fun a few times, but there HAS to be incentive to go back. That incentive is called loot or, like you've done lately, a PHAT buff.

No word on how Bureaucrats are still the #1 profession to search for when doing not only Collector, but nearly any instance, due to their powerful auras, DD potential, superior CC, and stack able init debuffs? I'll agree it's not as ridiculous as when they had a pair of stun procs, but it's still rather jarring.

I couldn't agree more. You talk about balancing, but keep releasing content that makes 1 profession the go-to guy. What you're doing is basically turning any teammaking effort into "Can I get doc, enf, crat and reflects for this encounter?" All other professions are pure fluff. Yes, I know you somehow keep saying this isn't true, but try looking at how groups are built or follow chat between players. This IS becoming the norm, regardless of how good or interesting you might think the other professions are.

[Effrit]

Quick question, is the new ICC armour the start of a revamp of all the guards across Rubi Ka?
As for example the Watchers and the Vanguards in Old Athens, the Urban Patrollers in Tir and Newland Militia are beginning to look jaded.

[harkness]

... as well as tweaking the wall spikes from the Collector instance - After this you'll only get hit by one spike at a time, giving you a small grace period before you can get hit again. This should hopefully prevent any 'instakill' occurrences in the instance where someone gets slammed across several of the spikes at a time...

Thank you for this, really, really thank you.

[Wrangeline]

Quick question, is the new ICC armour the start of a revamp of all the guards across Rubi Ka?
As for example the Watchers and the Vanguards in Old Athens, the Urban Patrollers in Tir and Newland Militia are beginning to look jaded.

Bump for an update on OA and tir guards and such as well yeah. They currently look a bit odd

[Colawren]

first