Friday with Means - November 11th, 2011 - 111111 - Open questions

[Demoder]

Questions:
Is the rebalance taking more effort than first anticipated?
What's the next milestone in the rebalance work?
What's the next milestone on the gfx engine upgrade?
What do you think about Skyrim? (Or didn't you get time to try it yet? )

[Ruffixx]

Can there be some questions answered? Love Q/As

[Chrazy]

You should be in bed Ruff!

[Ciex]

Since a group of shades completed pande without the use of any other professions, can we expect massive shade nerfs now?

Eeee? You can do exactly same thing on docs, crats, agents, advies and most likely on mas and traders ...

[TharBeDragons]

Another question.. will minimum/recommended system requirements ever be updated on AO official page?
Currently listed requirements seem to be about as old as game itself.

Minimum

Windows 98/ME/2000 SP1+2/XP Pentium II 300 128MB RAM 2X CD-ROM drive DirectX 3D 8Mb video card DirectX compatible sound device 700MB free hard drive space Internet connection, 28.8K Modem

Recommended

Pentium II 450 256 Mb RAM 3D card with 32MB RAM, DirectX 8X CD-ROM drive 1GB free hard drive space Internet connection, 56K Modem

Even if game would actually fit in 700MB/1GB free space, only thing that PC with these specs would run is launcher (maybe...)

[Rktim]

Hi Means!

Could you consider adding more items to the veteran shop?

I see allot of people in this thread feeling that there loyalty isn't rewarded, and that was the point of the vet shop after all ^___^

Perhaps you could add "re-sub" bonus items in there? Like the +15 exp helmet and such, not saying all of them etc, but a new useful item every now and then would be nice =D


Or maybe some other items all together -.^

[Pomidor]

My questions:

ussual, like rest of the players:

1. ETA of Engine?
2. ETA on balance? (Sorry to say that, but I am very concerned about this one...)
3. FC plans to remove OST?

Some other things:
4. Does FC consider to increase droprates on items, that actually noone uses, but it could be nice to have them and ACTUALLY use, but the droprate is close to none, thus makeing it not acquairable (I mean - Sword of Lord Mordeth... damn it, and few other items...).

5. There are items in DB which doesn't drop at all (myis backpiece, some weapons that doesn't show in ql 200). Will it be fixed?

[Aikey]

Dear Means & Co.....
How successful do you think your time as GM has been, in regards to the active playerbase, loss of a server & the like...Do you feel you're doing a good job & do you think the current levels of players is a sign of how well you're really doing ? Also, how much do you think the current rather larger price differences between EU & US pricing is effecting things?

[Darcwrangle]

Do we play the same game? :O Unless you're on another server where things are different, Neutrals are the smallest faction - I know virtually every established Neut player, and the neutral orgs circle like vultures around any new neut players who show up.

Yes, we play the same game. When I run through Borealis majority of the players I see are mostly Neutral and this on RK1. I rarely see my own faction in Omni cities or even the SL gardens. There are a few Omni's in Borealis; however, Neutrals seem to show a higher number. Keep in mind this only my opinion.

[Gridpain]

I bet Means forgot to lock this thread ...

He s gonna have a bad monday...

[Juggernat]

Account security another hack last week, Valve got hit. So how good is your account security?

[Colawrenn]

Can I have a job?

[Swordbreaker]

1. Can we look forwards to a wipe or reset if you will, upon launch of the new engine/rebalance to restart the economy and level the playing field for all new and old players?

If no, I'm going to continue playing the game as I have, playing intermittently while bringing in some money to FC's coffers.

If yes, I'm finally quitting for good. I'm not starting over in AO ever again. It was okay the first time around, but after that leveling has been more of a chore than something I like doing. And without any support from pre-existing toons... There I'd go!

[Escapegoat]

Yes, we play the same game. When I run through Borealis majority of the players I see are mostly Neutral and this on RK1. I rarely see my own faction in Omni cities or even the SL gardens. There are a few Omni's in Borealis; however, Neutrals seem to show a higher number. Keep in mind this only my opinion.

Perhaps that's the difference - I play on RK2, and neutrals seem to be a dying breed here. Bor is entirely overrun with Omni, and you maybe see something posted on Neut ooc once per day that isn't just an org recruitment script or other spam.

[orochi3]

Have you ever played Deus Ex 1?

and

Dear FunCom,

Dont worry this may look like a flame mail but its not.
The forums are nice and all but.
The game suggestion forums, and the proffession sections for suggestions are kindof "messy"
The large ammount of content requires alot of moderating(meant to get rid of flaming/trolling/non-constructive comments attached to it).
And because of that alot of good ideas of several people have been drowned in flames.

So why not give each member thier own game suggestion section on thier profile, where they can post thier FC-read-only ideas.
Because lets be honest, haters will always hate, and dumbasses will always remain dumbasses. This would just make them easier to distinguish and skip thier section altogether.
Maybe seperated into prof-specific/generic, to make it easier to catagorize when looking for what people think about a certain prof.
Would also stop having to read all (90%)the non-constructive comments and arguments from forums, and remove peoples fear of flames/trolling, therefor not posting thier ideas.

A filter based on WHO said something, instead of what is MOST RECENTLY said.

[Ekarona]

Where is fates?

New start-up, any more clear idea of the "museum" and could it include the old hall?

Why am I always shipped to Omni-1 when I leave the space station?

[thombgun10]

I have a couple questions, no idea if they are easy to answer or in some cases possible to answer at all but here goes

1. Have you and the whole AO team been considering unique / nodrop tags on items where they make no sense to have them removed from those items?
I am wondering this since a couple very popular ones where changed and i really like these changes and i think alot of other people did aswell.

2. Similar for buffs with certain constraints, i am wondering if a limited ammount of buffs would be made possible to be casted on froobs but not possible to be uploaded by them.
One of possibly the most requested ones would be Neuronal Stimulator (since int/psy lack any secondary buffs other then +3 from bureaucrat unlike the other abilities).

3. Miy cloaks, hate them or love them would be awesome (but OP'ed in the way they are right now in the database affcourse).
Would a 2 ability buffing version (list like the other bits of this armor) be reasonable with the same stats as they do have currently (no ql 300 MIY can drop anyway so no chance of too high ammounts of high buff cloaks).
I think it would make a nice addition but affcourse no idea if it is too insane to have something like this ingame.

4. For that matter there are a couple more pretty nice items some OP'ed if they where put ingame like they are but some also not so bad but still nice additions to create versatility and to bring the OP'ed items more inline as a nice addition / alternative.
Any chance if a list of these wanna have's would be posted that some might be taken up for considerations?


Probably could think up more but if these questions are answered that would really be awesome!
Also thanks for giving us all this oppertunity means, kintaii and everyone else who might be checking / answering questions

[bitnykk]

As already asked many² times :
Wut abut ENGINE ? ETA vs population left ? Can we get viddies as i asked last week ?

As you know, rebalance will please veterans & noobisland relift will please newcomers, but engine would please both & retain community. Also, it's been promised for so long ...

[Traderjill]

Additional questions:

5. When you put tradeable items in the items store that provide power/great benefit to players (i.e. Victory Points and Token Packages) did you foresee that players would start to use these items as a way of "buying credits" (using real life money to purchase from the item store and then selling them in-game for credits)? If so, why put these types of items in game as they are? If not, any plans to fix such things?

6. How do you expect players to reasonably earn money to level from 1 to 220 within the confines of existing game mechanics? I guess I'm asking if you think that there are reasonable options currently in game for new players to be able to actually play the game and have average level equipment as they progress? If not, how soon do you expect to make adjustments?

7. You mentioned that the bounty removal in S10 was meant to be released along with other changes to that zone. When will the 'other changes' to S10 be on the Live server and what types of changes are incoming?

[Hardcore]

Why is there a tip of the week on the ao launcher when it has never been updated since It's first introduction?