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Thread: Letter from the Game Director - My last update

  1. #221
    Quote Originally Posted by drainbamage View Post
    How the hell do you fix this when the game simply does not measure up to even the barest of modern standards?
    What are you talking about?
    Dagger 220/30/70 Shade // Attempted 219/24/?? Enforcer // Canidae 180/0/0 Adventurer // World 185/26/32 Meta-Physicist// Cramp 150/20/35 Engineer
    Ya wanna fix something - give RK mobs better xp, make RK matter again.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mamman View Post
    Give shades love or we will stop buffing people!!

  2. #222
    Quote Originally Posted by Traderjill View Post
    That includes everything from Trine 2 (my AO friends make fun of me but it's awesome in single-player or co-op) to even grindy World of Warcraft.
    Trine 2 was an awesome game, pity it was so short.
    Enter the Information Age
    Proc Descriptions

    Hunt, and be hunted: The Hunting Grounds | Alien Tower Field :Aliens, that really invade!
    Pet argo management: Servants Protection | Expand the Notum Silo :Make it worthwhile


    Rimor
    Tesgri - 220|17|58 (Omni Agent)
    Leara - 220|25|62 (Omni Doctor)
    Ponygirl - 220|25|56 (Omni Bureaucrat)
    Means: "We have done way dumber things than this..."

  3. #223
    Quote Originally Posted by Traderjill View Post
    That includes everything from Trine 2 (my AO friends make fun of me but it's awesome in single-player or co-op) to even grindy World of Warcraft.
    Grindy? Compared to AO?


    lol

  4. #224
    Quote Originally Posted by Esssch View Post
    Grindy? Compared to AO?


    lol
    Not grindy compared to AO.. just grindy.. most MMO's are grindy from what I've seen.. my point is that I didn't eliminate grind with some of my current gaming options.. but did go to things that I found to be more entertaining.
    You can find me at:
    Battlenet @ Marilata#1680
    Steam @ http://steamcommunity.com/id/marilata

  5. #225
    Quote Originally Posted by Ilaliya View Post
    A server migration is essentially required to get rid of the inventory blob. Specifically, we need to go character-by-character (not by hand, obviously) and iterate through the relevant tables in the database and unpack the blob, and then put the inventory data in a new blob-less table structure as we migrate each character. The only time we're ever going to do all that is when we're migrating servers, because you need to do a character-by-character copy anyway. So this was a now-or-never thing for us, and we went with "now"
    Despite all the grief - which I don't disagree with - I keep finding it courageous of the FC employees to keep posting here. Must be tiring to see that amount of negativity on every topic.
    I do believe in the AO team being very capable, and doing their best with what they are given from FC. I don't think anyone has ever "redone" an MMO while keeping it live.
    As for my subscription fee, I consider it like a paypal "donate" button every month (yes, monthly) to keep the greatest game I ever played alive.
    Who knows, some day the engine might not turn out to be vaporware
    Alynte - 200 trader - Retired...
    Alydoc - 220 doctor
    Alypal - 220 Keeper

  6. #226
    Quote Originally Posted by Traderjill View Post
    The problem that AO will have at this point, for me, is that now that I'm not playing it I've seen the light.
    I wish I had... Every time I try out a new MMO, I leave after 2 weeks, disappointed of the simplistic game mechanics. AO, what have you done to me... : (
    Thornee - resurrected lowbie, former 200 Fixer
    Stannerd - 220 Soldier
    Megusta - TL7 Doc
    Kaleeh - TL5 Shade

  7. #227
    Quote Originally Posted by Thorneee View Post
    I wish I had... Every time I try out a new MMO, I leave after 2 weeks, disappointed of the simplistic game mechanics. AO, what have you done to me... : (
    This
    You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

  8. #228
    Quote Originally Posted by Le-Quack View Post
    the engine is killing ao, all the time spent on that should been spent in balance, new playfields and maybe a profession or two. ofc players who has been here for 5-6 years or more quits when nothing ever gets changed.
    Finally somebody who shares my point about the engine. Not only that it drew a lot of resources for very little reward (yeah some light and shadow crap will look a lot better but the majority of assets will still be the same crappy old low polygon assets that they where at release of the game).

    AO invented a great open PvP system with the Notum Wars. AO invented theory"craft" with its twinking mechanics. AO created great social stuff with the player/org owned cities. But instead of expanding the stuff that make AO great they copied other crappier games where they could, mostly the game with two "w" and an "o". The shadowlands expansion, AI and LE all tried to be like the before meant game and thats where the playercount started dropping.

    I do not care what crispbread is now the CEO of Funcom but when they are so proud about the fact that AO is still "cash-flow positive" they owe it to the people that developed the game in the first place that got so many people hooked so long time ago that they still pay that big subscription for the memory alone what AO once used to be and not to the people that made the game worse with every single patch or let it fall behind by idleness.

  9. #229
    Quote Originally Posted by Garremp View Post
    Finally somebody who shares my point about the engine. Not only that it drew a lot of resources for very little reward (yeah some light and shadow crap will look a lot better but the majority of assets will still be the same crappy old low polygon assets that they where at release of the game).

    AO invented a great open PvP system with the Notum Wars. AO invented theory"craft" with its twinking mechanics. AO created great social stuff with the player/org owned cities. But instead of expanding the stuff that make AO great they copied other crappier games where they could, mostly the game with two "w" and an "o". The shadowlands expansion, AI and LE all tried to be like the before meant game and thats where the playercount started dropping.

    I do not care what crispbread is now the CEO of Funcom but when they are so proud about the fact that AO is still "cash-flow positive" they owe it to the people that developed the game in the first place that got so many people hooked so long time ago that they still pay that big subscription for the memory alone what AO once used to be and not to the people that made the game worse with every single patch or let it fall behind by idleness.
    You aren't making a lot of internal sense in this post

    SL was out before WoW, AI is nothing like anything in WoW and neither is LE. But whatevs!
    Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
    The Red Brotherhood

    I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.

    Means: about f'ing time :P
    Satenia: heresy <3
    Znore: Mastablasta <3
    Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
    Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
    Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics

  10. #230
    Right click to equip instead of twinking is nothing like WoW? Battlegrounds err Battlestatons are nothing like WoW? "Tier" Sets are nothing like WoW? Shade and Keeper are nothing like any professions in WoW?

    Shadowlands might have been released before WoW but the influence is pretty obvious. I do not care who copied who but the things i dislike in WoW made me start hate AO. People farming one instance to get one certain item that every class needs.

    AO has changed its style from a game where your character strenght was determined by the thought you invested into it (old twinking, lots of blitzing to get high ql items to be stronger as a character) to a game where your characters strength relies on the time you invested into it (AI city farming for example). I hope you get my point now why i do not like the WoW'ishness in AO and i think a lot people do not like it either.

    AO always has been a big grind but there was a time where people accepted that grind (and 2 day perk reset times for example) to enjoy the twinking. Today everybody has their toon "maxed" and "done" because of level restrictions and what not. As long as you have the feeling that you can improve a toon further you try and calculate different setups to further improve your character but "Done" characters are the reason to cancel a RPG. Today the playercount that is willing to accept all that stuff becomes smaller and smaller. Its not only that AO is getting old. It was old 6 years ago but it had a certain community that keept supporting it but now it lost that community. Going back an look what chased them away might reveal the awnser why it is empty now. Its up to you to find the awnser that suits you most but to me the best explanation is that it became way to much of a game for everybody that nobody wants to play in the end instead of entertaining the few perverts that always liked it.
    Last edited by Garremp; Sep 28th, 2012 at 11:47:10.

  11. #231
    Quote Originally Posted by Garremp View Post
    AO has changed its style from a game where your character strenght was determined by the thought you invested into it (old twinking, lots of blitzing to get high ql items to be stronger as a character) to a game where your characters strength relies on the time you invested into it (AI city farming for example).
    Sorry if I think that by this description, nothing has really changed.
    Dagger 220/30/70 Shade // Attempted 219/24/?? Enforcer // Canidae 180/0/0 Adventurer // World 185/26/32 Meta-Physicist// Cramp 150/20/35 Engineer
    Ya wanna fix something - give RK mobs better xp, make RK matter again.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mamman View Post
    Give shades love or we will stop buffing people!!

  12. #232

  13. #233
    Funcom has appointed a new Game Director for their latest MMO ‘The Secret World’. The position will now be headed by Joel Bylos.

    "TSW gets a GD where is AO GD?"

    CEO Ole Shereiner reply to your fans and this community......................

  14. #234
    Quote Originally Posted by Divalicious View Post

    CEO Ole Shereiner reply to your fans and this community......................
    rofl i wouldn't hold my breath if i were you.

  15. #235
    Quote Originally Posted by Thorneee View Post
    I wish I had... Every time I try out a new MMO, I leave after 2 weeks, disappointed of the simplistic game mechanics. AO, what have you done to me... : (
    I used to be this way as well to be honest. I long ago lost count of the number of games I'd try and then 2-4 weeks later end up back playing AO. I love the twinking.. honestly that is the one thing about AO that doesn't seem to exist in anything else but... twinking alone does not make an entertaining experience for me.

    What I find entertaining:
    1. Team/Raid play/Community: I play a MMORPG because of the MMO part mainly. I want to play and interact with other gamers and work towards a common goal.. be it a short term goal (like a leveling team or instance) or long term goal (even like the old notum wars massive battles that would go back and forth for days/weeks). AO no longer has the MMO feel for me. When it takes forever to organize a team or when you do 1/2 the team is fail because they're undergeared and powerleveled.. the fun is sucked right out of the experience for me. A lot of the subpar performance/gear we see on toons these days (such as a doctor at Sector42 wearing QL 100 implants.. real example) is because the whole 'pride in your toon' thing has long been gone from AO. I blame the game mechanics on that moreso than the players to be honest. I bring this up because ultimately the reason why people that take pride in their toons don't team with those that don't (or they don't know) is a combination of AO's crappy loot distribution system and the fact that people suck so hard that you can't be bothered with them.

    2. XP gain via storyline progression: I really enjoy the 'feel' that as I'm playing a game I am actually progressing.. even on a virtual world level. Doing the same thing over and over again is boring and grindy no matter how I look at it. Yep, I know that killing hecks is me helping to rid SL of the danger on the brink (think that was the reason) but that's not good enough. The random quests litered in SL coupled with SL dailies and the RK dailies put a good dent in xp at the lower levels but that really grinds to a halt past adonis IMO. Grinding inferno missions until my eyes bleed is not fun.. it wasn't when inferno missions came out and I doubt it ever will be. It has become a necessary evil that we do just to get to a level goal.. that's about it. And most of the community doesn't have a clue about the storyline or why they're doing what they do in game. I'll be honest and say that prior to the Xan expansion (and some of the yutto quests added prior to that) I was a bit confused as to the storyline myself.. probably still missing a bunch of stuff.

    3. Mini-games and 'other' stuff: Social activities, world events and such are really important to keep a game interesting. There simply isn't enough of that in AO.

    4. Tradeskilling: The tradeskilling system in AO is something I'd love to see completely trashed and revamped. I won't go into detail here but there are tradeskill systems in other games (even some of funcom's) that make a lot of sense and are far more entertaining than what we have to tolerate in AO.

    Anyway, twinking is great but twinking is not greater than the combination of the other 4 missing elements I listed above.. Twinking out a toon and then having no one to play it with seems like a massive waste of time. I was, for instance, working on my S7 twink. I had a lot of plans for 2 of them (one MP and one crat) and farmed almost everything I needed and was working on research before dinging them 200. But.. at the end of the day I was sorta left wondering why I was even bothering. The crat is able to solo (even unfinished) so guess that was going to be a 'run gimps through to farm a weapon' toon and the MP, which was meant for team play probably would collect dust from lack of use.
    Last edited by Traderjill; Sep 28th, 2012 at 16:21:18.
    You can find me at:
    Battlenet @ Marilata#1680
    Steam @ http://steamcommunity.com/id/marilata

  16. #236
    Quote Originally Posted by Notcrattey View Post
    Sorry if I think that by this description, nothing has really changed.
    To me the game needs way more farming now. One example: lets compare CAS or Mantis armor to the modern twink, "endgame" armor on almost every level at almost every slot: Combined Armor.
    Old state as i learned it back in the days:
    Several types of armor, with different stats for different breeds. Some special armor for some professions that gave certain profession and breed combinations an advantage.
    New state as far as i experienced it:
    Alien armor all the way, an occasional OFAB part here and there. You get OFAB by holding your arse still while people that already have their stuff have their away with you. You waste dozens of AI raids (about 30 minutes each raid and another 90 minutes for the cloak to finish its cycle) for the chance to find one part for a single item. If something interesting drops you have to cross fingers that it has the ql to be able to build what you need. So far i managed to get one part of CC in about 140 AI Raids.
    Cas and Mantis took a lot of farming too but the credits/time you invest now to get some gear is ridiculous (especially if you need supple bots in any combination) Leveling is fast but getting gear is not. That way its pretty unrewarding to keep your items at a good level and characters start to suck and people leave because they can not solo an ado-heckler in the Med-suit they just put on a few days (maybe hours) ago (extreme example but thats what happens).

  17. #237
    Quote Originally Posted by Garremp View Post
    To me the game needs way more farming now. One example: lets compare CAS or Mantis armor to the modern twink, "endgame" armor on almost every level at almost every slot: Combined Armor.
    Old state as i learned it back in the days:
    Several types of armor, with different stats for different breeds. Some special armor for some professions that gave certain profession and breed combinations an advantage.
    New state as far as i experienced it:
    Alien armor all the way, an occasional OFAB part here and there. You get OFAB by holding your arse still while people that already have their stuff have their away with you. You waste dozens of AI raids (about 30 minutes each raid and another 90 minutes for the cloak to finish its cycle) for the chance to find one part for a single item. If something interesting drops you have to cross fingers that it has the ql to be able to build what you need. So far i managed to get one part of CC in about 140 AI Raids.
    Cas and Mantis took a lot of farming too but the credits/time you invest now to get some gear is ridiculous (especially if you need supple bots in any combination) Leveling is fast but getting gear is not. That way its pretty unrewarding to keep your items at a good level and characters start to suck and people leave because they can not solo an ado-heckler in the Med-suit they just put on a few days (maybe hours) ago (extreme example but thats what happens).

    ^This. Hell even now I still find it entertaining to play the lottery and kill some moles in hopes that I will actually get some notum satureated metaplast to drop. But the fact that I can chose if/when I want to do this at anytime is very nice. If I was a min maxer I would feel pressured into raiding or pvping for eternity for combiners and OFAB. There ARE no alternatives. Hell before Alien Invasion I was always very happy and satisfied with the plethora of armor and gear choices. If I wanted to waste time hunting for rare resource drops, so be it. Made the suit all the more rewarding but it wasn't so inferior when compared to the high end stuff.

    It's like they don't even play their own game anymore....

  18. #238
    Quote Originally Posted by notinthere View Post
    FC has become same as Blizzard, they want only our money.
    Minus the quality.

    http://instantrimshot.com/

  19. #239
    so who is the new GD? or is she leaving without finding her replacement? whats the future of AO?
    MyNameIsCani 220 Trox Solja
    Canibaal 215 Trox Enf
    Canifix 215 Trox Fix
    Pureevul 220 Trox Shade
    Canikeep 220 Trox Keeper
    Deathreturns 220 Solitus Doc
    Alphadawg 164 Opifex Fixer
    CanIKillYou 150 Solitus Adv
    Canistrikes 80 Nano Agent

  20. #240

    Funcom employee

    Quote Originally Posted by Canibaal View Post
    so who is the new GD? or is she leaving without finding her replacement? whats the future of AO?
    http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...601144&page=12

    In particular this, this and this post.
    My posts are my own and do not reflect the views of my current nor former employers/clients

    Remco "Vhab" van Oosterhout
    Former Anarchy Online Game Programmer


    Live Chat Support | E-mail Support | Forum Rules | AODevs | Vha.Chat

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