Monthly Development Update – 2nd July, 2014

[Aiken]

For the improvement of the professions themselves...

Are they permitted to give feedback on the status of other game elements?

We often do anyway

[Esssch]

How many of us get messages from people in game saying "Hey, I read your posts.. totally agree." from people you've never heard of and never seen post at all themselves?

I don't think I've ever gotten anything remotely close to that.

[MachSchau]

After the two major rescructures and basically FC going down the drain I really dont have much faith in them delivering a solid product. I am not talking about AO specifically but all of their projects(by solid I mean released in a timely fashion and without being 1-2 steps above garbage). In my mind its much more about money (I mean it always has been but in their current state it REALLY needs to be about money) and I believe I read some where they were going to focus on mobile games.

AO forum users really keep beating a dead horse, "Where is the communication! What is going on! Where is the engine! Whats going on with X Y Z!" and maybe its their lack of common sense, lack of experience with FC/AO, or that they are extremely naive but the fact of the matter is there really is no point in trying to communicate with them. It has always been the same things under development, it is never changing and there is nothing really new to communicate. People keep asking for things, but there simply isn't the staff to do it and as a player knowing that, it sucks. It makes it so I dont play the game, it makes it so I dont recommend it to my friends, it makes it so I dont try to convince people that once played it to come back.

It may sound pessimistic or may sound like its easier to give up, but look at AO/FC history, look at what has happened recently, look at the state of the game (in terms of what has been under development along with what the game really needs and fast) but the game as well as development have far different intentions to what the players need and when they need it. It really seems that once the story line of AO was over, they abandoned the project and spent its resources else where and thus began AO's steady decline to maintenance mode. While I dont think it was intentional that this was to happen but the fact of the matter is, is that we are here now and you (the community) dont even realize it and you (the community) all continue to throw your pennies in to the wishing well but the well is actually a bottom less pit.

There are too many things wrong with AO and too few people working on them to see any noticeable progress. What may be normal/easy to do to us may not be for them, I mean, I have never worked for a company that has developed an MMO I dont know what all is involved with all the hierarchy and corporate red tape not only that but FC is struggling to stay afloat. The small surge AO will get with the engine, NPE and Steam release will not mean them hiring people for AO. You can disagree on that all you want, but look at the state of the game and its history of releasing patches that deal with bugs, issues, mechanics and in the end you wont see the players reaping from those 3 things being released.

Do you all remember when the restructuring happened and all the dev teams were going to be consolidated? Did you really think that with all the devs being together and using all their collective resources to work on each one of their MMOs as a zerg force one by one was a reality? I did(because that was how I interpreted it and that was also how it sounded). I was seriously hoping that each MMO got a rotation in dev power where things would get released in a much more speedy fashion and once that rotation was up, it would go back to a skeleton crew releasing things every now and then until the next rotation. Boy, I was wrong.

It also seems there is constant resistance to even get the consolidated dev team trained to work on AO. "AOs code is bad" "AO's tools are difficult to understand" etc etc, well it has been 1-1.5 years since the restructuring which is a lot of training time for the consolidated dev team. In AO's case though it is about time vs reward. Why take all those devs that are working on TSW, AoC and possibly the lego MMO and have a majority work on AO for 6-12 months (or however long) to push the engine and whatever out the door? Because in that same time period AoC and TSW could have produced something that would be more bang for their buck.

The company needs to provide something to the players. More specifically, they need to do so in a timely manner. Players are sick and tired of things taking years to be introduced and it is apparent in the population of the game (coupled with the saturation of the MMO market) as well as the theme on the forums. But, as I said earlier, the company wont listen to you because of whatever reason (might be because they cant because they dont have the money or time vs reward).

Lastly, if you truly care about the game then stop caring. Stop caring about what is in store for the game, stop caring about the monthly updates and what is "about" to happen, stop caring about ETAs, stop caring about it all and just play the game. When AO becomes stagnant to you then stop playing. Dont go out of your way to go on the forums and say "Make this game I play better for I am bored!" because that wont get you much of anywhere. Just stop playing for some time (a long time because development is slow) and come back when the game is fun to you again. It should hopefully still be here.

[macer85]

i dont care about any of this talk on here, i just want my nt back :'(

how long on this update? are we going to have to wait until this holiday update is over with?

[Psikie]

It's nothing to write home about. On test the reworked nano is basically a faster cast longer recharge Izzy Ultimatum. Some times on test dummies it can hit 10-12k but just as often it will hit for 8k while IU can hit 9-10k. So you basically get Garuk, IU, IU, - Garuk, IU, IU, all doing relatively same dmg. DM could get hits 19-22, that won't happen with Garuk unless you can get really high MC to crest the scaling dmg around 3k.

[Phatkeep]

It's nothing to write home about. On test the reworked nano is basically a faster cast longer recharge Izzy Ultimatum. Some times on test dummies it can hit 10-12k but just as often it will hit for 8k while IU can hit 9-10k. So you basically get Garuk, IU, IU, - Garuk, IU, IU, all doing relatively same dmg. DM could get hits 19-22, that won't happen with Garuk unless you can get really high MC to crest the scaling dmg around 3k.

Does it have the same, low NR check?

[solcv2]

*cough*

Nightelves

*cough*

Actually its a LoM server

[Iorekzix]

Yep, totally recognize what you've said though this conversation was moreso referring to non-profession and non-roleplay type concerns that seem to come up on a regular basis (sometimes as a result of happenings in game, sometimes as a result of monthly updates).

That being said...

The Professionals program is the biggest example of a player liaison program and it doesn't appear to work properly. Even when the votes were done ages ago, there were professions that didn't have 2 reps. At this point, some years later, many of the players that were voted in are no longer active. While I can see that some of the professionals do their best, it is difficult for me to take a program seriously that seems to lack any level of accountability, even in the form of something as simple as a quarterly role call or a yearly vote for new professionals. I've brought this up on several different fronts and threads and no one seems to take ownership of the program. The closest thing I got to an answer was in the new Community Manager's thread where he said they recognized it was broken and are working on it (another 'Soon' style answer that we've all been hearing on that topic for several years).

You're already aware of my concerns regarding the trader professionals falling into some black hole and therefore the class not having proper representation during a time of critical changes. Browsing over a few other profession areas and I found the same thing (though the trader profession happens to be the only one I'm willing to spend time bringing to anyone's attention, at this point).

That brings me back to the point you were responding to originally. Seems like there is a time consideration with the devs being able to respond to liaisons. I won't speak for anyone but I read a post by Mastablasta, that indicated that he was not in the know regarding the change to DM. I would think that the NT professional, of all people, should have been up to speed before something like that hit Test and definitely able to provide answers before it hit Live. So again, appointing people as liaisons when the devs aren't willing or don't have the time available to work with them is essentially pointless. [Note: I did see updates in the DM thread where Masta seemed to be involved with Genele.. but that was for the 2nd version of Garuk's, not the first.]

Mastablasta stated earlier in this thread that there are only 2 people working on AO development. That's a bit confusing to me but if that's true, then yeah.. I get why there's a time issue. That doesn't really change the fact that the communication between the devs and us is lacking and there isn't anyone within Funcom that seems to have maintaining proper community relations as part of their responsibility list.

As a player it is frustrating. I ask the new Community Manager about handling player concerns and he says it isn't his job. I ask the Game Director and it's not part of her job and kinda refers me back to the Community Manager. I ask questions of sezmra in the new community manager's thread and PM her with a link to this thread.. no response. Not that I expect some sort of special treatment but shouldn't someone be able to tell me whose job it is to review and, most importantly, respond to player concerns? Just a lot of finger pointing to the next guy.

Thank you for this posting!
/signed

[Gargle]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if Dreamfall Chapters got released before the new AO engine/NPE/Steam?

[Technorabbit]

Alright, but if you ever run out of ideas, you know where to find me. I have many, many ideas.

[Alves]

Wow look at these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYbl5B8R9-E

Funcom, please sell Anarchy Online to Zenimax... They doing so much for ESO - it's fantastic/awesome I want These for Anarchy Online !!!

[Caloss2]

Wow look at these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYbl5B8R9-E

Funcom, please sell Anarchy Online to Zenimax... They doing so much for ESO - it's fantastic/awesome I want These for Anarchy Online !!!

I watched that and just found myself thinking the exact same, the phrase "we read and listened to your feedback, on our forums and also twitter reddit and all other social media so we have done X, Y , Z" so many times and then the cheering and rounds of applause from attending players, it made me feel sick to core when I think how FC treats us in general.

Every one of those DEVs had great ideas and solutions and plenty of game knowledge.

[Esssch]

Wow look at these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYbl5B8R9-E

Funcom, please sell Anarchy Online to Zenimax... They doing so much for ESO - it's fantastic/awesome I want These for Anarchy Online !!!

I almost went to QuakeCon today, until I drove over to the hotel it's hosted in and found nothing but paid parking. Instead I went to Taco Bell and went home.

[Anarrina]

Knock off the name calling, people

[macer85]

Where is this update? I subscribed for another month to see this promised 'fix' to the nt nerf and my sub is nearly up again.

You guys sure do know how to aggravate your customers.

I want my darn NT back. How long are you going to keep ignoring this issue???

[Pafpuf]

FC answer: next patch.

Honest answer: they don't really care so don't expect anything good.

Best chance at something happening is if AO were to decline in revenue for FC to attempt another last ditch effort to keep it alive (like LE and LoX previously), but with AO becoming pay2win abandonware cashcow I'm not entirely optimistic.

[Mastablasta]

Where is this update? I subscribed for another month to see this promised 'fix' to the nt nerf and my sub is nearly up again.

You guys sure do know how to aggravate your customers.

I want my darn NT back. How long are you going to keep ignoring this issue???

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=611616

On wednesday, it seems.

[doctorgore]

Where is this update? I subscribed for another month to see this promised 'fix' to the nt nerf and my sub is nearly up again.

You guys sure do know how to aggravate your customers.

I want my darn NT back. How long are you going to keep ignoring this issue???

I waited years to play a viable agent and still wait, get in line.

[Difs]

guys, look at the true problem!
advy needs better heals and more cocoons please
also more def because there are 2 profs that can perk him

[Esssch]

I waited years to play a viable agent and still wait, get in line.