Monthly Development Update – 2nd July, 2014

[MachSchau]

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if open beta testing starts around the end of this year. I also wont be surprised if it doesn't (meaning it will be past December).

[Baby]

here it how it will goes:

After several internal testing we can assure that things are going in the right direction. We did some improvements here and there, and soon we will be able to deliver it to testlive.

Now we are focused on patch 18.7, which will provide NPE. As there is plenty work to do, we consider to lunch it within one month, and then - if everyting will work as intended - we will patch it to live servers.

Many players asked about new engine, so I can glady say that work is running as we want it to be and in few months, before Christmas, we should run open beta tests. We ecnountered - during internal tests - some problems, and they required our attentions, and thats why 2 of 3 people currenty working on Anarchy Online departament (the one is responsible for forums community and secod is guarding parklot, actually) had to work to figure out, why seven years old engine is not looking as good as modern games. Actually, we know it wont look any good, so we won't deliver it at all, but hey!, you saw some random video few years ago, and we know its superior to what was... only 13 years ago.

That being said, we have small delay caused by vacations. I was on beach, drinking light beer and was admiring smooth graphics of ocean...

Till next time, folks!

You forgot the random prof nerf

[Dexikcz]

So new engine promised at 2010 is still not here? Development news? What a funny thing! Paying ppl who doesnt like to keep what they promise
New engine n balance is not any near, right? :-) Why you just dont post something like "we took another vacation since we were tired of creating new excuses why we were unable to presend brand new and epic engine and why we didnt bother with balance patch"? I think many ppl would like to see that and they would accept it in peace, because they would see, that developers are at least a little honest people

[Dexikcz]

On a serious note:

FunCom, please cut paymant in half, so I will resub all my 4 accounts - if this won't get old players back, atleast I will have fun doing content with my toons alone. It's to expansive right now, it really is.

Naa years ago they offered 30 free days so you could see whats new, but since there is NOTHING new, they stopped to offer free visit to far-from-cheap game

[Freqflyerdnt]

So new engine promised at 2010 is still not here? Development news? What a funny thing! Paying ppl who doesnt like to keep what they promise
New engine n balance is not any near, right? :-) Why you just dont post something like "we took another vacation since we were tired of creating new excuses why we were unable to presend brand new and epic engine and why we didnt bother with balance patch"? I think many ppl would like to see that and they would accept it in peace, because they would see, that developers are at least a little honest people

Very little on the forums are ever accepted "in peace".
And a post like that would wreak havoc.

I think if Genele doesn't manage to post something in the next day or three, Joel might just jump in.

/pokingfun

It would probably be something along the lines of 'we found some exploits(fixed). 18.7 is ready for TL should be in the next 2 weeks.
18.8 on beta kicked off with a bang as it melted all the testers' GPUs and we needed to replace them. Some delay expected.
Fixing the bones on one of the models and its related animation caused an unexpected Div 0 in the CUDA cores.
Sorry bout that.'

/pokingfun off

[nanoforcer]

All of ao fc staff (what, 1-2 persons?) on holidays so no updates i'm guessing

[Cratertina]

No update for Yo!

Let them take a holiday. Working with sphagetti code is very demanding, rest is a musthave. often you can do more in 4 hours than you can do in 8 with code upon code.

[Ophiuchus]

TSW forum had the Devs tell us there would be no monthly letter because of holidays. Something clarifying that for AO would have been nice...

[Mastablasta]

Genele said on IRC that she couldn't post her newsletter because there was noone from marketing to approve it O.o none of the AO devs are on vacation atm, or have been for most of July.

[Gorathon]

Not sure what folks are clamoring for, tbh. At this point monthly updates are merely flamebait anyway, so why bother?

[Gargle]

Not sure what folks are clamoring for, tbh. At this point monthly updates are merely flamebait anyway, so why bother?

So you're suggesting quarterly updates? Or do we just check the quarterly report to see if it's still cash flow positive?

[Gorathon]

I'm suggesting that there are better ways to occupy one's time than anxiously, vocally awaiting a few sentences sure to upset anyway.

[Gargle]

I'm suggesting that there are better ways to occupy one's time than anxiously, vocally awaiting a few sentences sure to upset anyway.

Maybe it's positive news?

[doctorgore]

Genele said on IRC that she couldn't post her newsletter because there was noone from marketing to approve it O.o none of the AO devs are on vacation atm, or have been for most of July.

A glimpse of how screwed up corp structure is in fc.

[Maofex]

I think if Genele doesn't manage to post something in the next day or three, Joel might just jump in.

It's actually Joels turn to post this month, as they take turns on it...

[Traderjill]

A glimpse of how screwed up corp structure is in fc.

I'm finding it tough to believe that someone from marketing reads over and approves the updates. If they do, it must not be anyone even remotely familiar with AO.

[Caloss2]

I'm finding it tough to believe that someone from marketing reads over and approves the updates. If they do, it must not be anyone even remotely familiar with AO.

They have heard of it, just never ever played it.

[Tryptophy]

I bet this policy is in place to prevent things like the "engine video" disaster. Though every policy should be enforced loosely and given some managerial discretion, i.e. to recognize a company-wide vacation as a one-time exception.

[Montelukast]

What's the policy for a Game Director/Community Managers from saying something about a postponed update?

[Zeephonz]

What's the policy for a Game Director/Community Managers from saying something about a postponed update?

Marketing have to approve that as well.