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Thread: Monthly Development Update - November 2014 (Gobble gobble)

  1. #1

    Funcom employee Monthly Development Update - November 2014 (Gobble gobble)

    Hello everyone - Happy Thanksgiving to our US players, and happy weekend to everyone else! I hope you have all had a great November.

    Pre-Christmas Patch
    Before we begin this year's holiday festivities, we plan to deploy a patch to Live. This update will set the stage for the return of Santaleet, his chaotic workshop, a wandering Father Time, and other holiday high jinks. In addition to holiday preparations, a number of updates and improvements are queued up to persist after the holidays have concluded.

    Some time after this update, also expect to see a new subscription offer and some new account-wide items for sale! We will also be offering some Christmas-themed gifts for you to keep or share with your friends.

    The Xan Reliquary
    This past month we released some new Inferno missions - Thank you everyone who gave them an try and provided feedback! The intention with this encounter was to offer a new leveling option with fewer barriers to entry, also improving on a few shortcomings of the existing missions, while not fully eclipsing the other sources of XP; overall, I feel this was a success.

    To improve the overall experience, this coming update will bring some adjustments to these missions. Within some specific waves of monsters, the amount of monsters needed to reach the boss will be reduced. Rewards for some of the bosses will also be improved, occasionally offering a symbiant or other gear useful for twinking/leveling up.

    18.7 Patch
    With the new Inferno Missions Live, work has resumed towards preparing 18.7. Focus has been primarily on the larger, non-profession specific issues, though attention will be directed towards the rebalance changes soon. Overall, many great changes were previously made, it's just a matter of massaging some aspects of what has been done, while enacting some additional changes. I look forward to providing more specific updates in the coming weeks.

    - 000 Weapons
    A few years ago, a selection of weapons introduced at the game's launch were remade with more contemporary attributes, while being hidden behind high requirements and elusive upgrade items. The requirements of these weapons have been lowered with damage ranges adjusted. Andre Bottle has also been given a few new items to sell.

    These updated weapons can be found in Basic/Advanced/Superior shops in Omni-Tek and Clans General Stores; these terminals can be accessed by Neutrals as well.

    Illegally Modified Ofab Weapons
    Deep within the Abandoned Subway, a rash of modified Ofab weapons have begun surfacing. Just as many of the creatures living within the Subway have received (or fallen victim to) illegal and dangerous modifications, these weapons also have been altered in unnatural and unintended ways.

    In addition to the new "- 000" weapons in the shops, I hope these new weapons will help new characters as they progress.

    Updated Foul Creatures
    In Eastern Foul Plains, some new, higher level Medusa have begun appearing. Despite sharing a physical appearance with other nearby Medusa, these foes are not to be taken too lightly, and should be approached with caution.

    Further south, within the Mercenaries' camp, an often overlooked and avoided resident can be found standing near one of the several bonfires. Often seen in a tacky, green cloak, this individual has been given a few new tricks, in addition to some new rewards to those who best him in combat.

    Additional Updates
    This upcoming patch will include a number of other changes. For example, upon Tarasque's death, a rather irate assistant of Administrator De'Valos will make his way into the halls of the castle to inform players of how long until the dragon has been repaired. Quest targets of the various Inferno questlines will appear in slightly greater number, and respawn more frequently. Some pieces of Carbonum armor will appear within General store armor shops. Some more changes are coming, and will all be included on the Testlive/Live patch notes, when they reach those stages.

    Thank you everyone and I hope you have a great December!
    Henry "Michizure" Senger
    Lead Designer
    ___________________________________
    Twitter - Welcome to Testlive - Customer Service

  2. #2
    1st!

    Shadow Atlantians
    __________________________________________

    = Tikra :: 220 Advy (Inf Hater) | Inevitable :: 220 Crat (Hunting stuffz) | Gotnobuffs :: 210 MP (TS Totem) | Atlantiana :: 200 Solja (Clueless Blondie) =
    = Unabletonuke :: 160 NT (Kitehill Victim) | Aliumeater :: 150 MA (S10 Citizen) | Canhazcalms :: 100 Froob Crat (Foremans Slave) | Canhazbaffs :: 163 Froob Agent (Buffbox) =

    __________________________________________

    PVM all the way

  3. #3
    Good job Mitchi, that's feckin nice work there.
    Caloss2 LVL 220 melee VANGUARD (semi retired).....Llewlyn 220/30/70 meepmeep.....Boooocal 220../30/70 Soldier.......Knack 220/30/70 Keeper.....Hiesenberg 215/xx/xx NT NERFED Neytiri1 220/30/70 Shade Knacker220/30/70Meat shield
    https://www.youtube.com/user/caloss2 for guides/walkthroughs/letsplays and all your other AO needs
    Quote Originally Posted by Mastablasta
    In my special design documents that I feed to the FC devs, who are my willing slaves.

  4. #4
    Keep up the good work Mitchi! Just nerf shades next please. Even before the new balance changes they could use a downgrade in thier AR debuffs and heals.

  5. #5
    It's really nice to see some useful weapons dropping where people are leveling and that the weapons in the shops won't be just crap
    Starphoenix 220/30 Adventurer - Shesmine 220/30 Enforcer - Sgtcuddle 220/30 Soldier - Pervonen 220/27 Doctor - Startrade 218/30 Trader - Letter 200/30 Bureaucrat - Shiasurprise 199/20 Soldier - Envelope 150/17 Bureaucrat

  6. #6
    (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ Tryptophy's Avatar
    *applause* Sounds like a ton of great changes we've been asking for a long time.
    General of Nocturnal Fear
    Trypha 220/30/70 Engy | Trypothecary 220/30/69 Doc | Tryptophy 220/30/68 Crat | Trypocalypse 220/30/70 Sold | Tryharder 220/30/68 NT | Trypointy 220/x/x Shade | Peasantry 200/30/69 Keeper | Trycharm 150/20/42 Crat

  7. #7
    Dang it!!!! I'm starting to loose faith in my lack of faith on AO's developers. Just a tiny bit...

    If this crap continues I might even roll a new toon.

    I really would love to see the 000000000 weapons turned into something useful. That, imps and carb armor up to ql 200 in shops (for a decent price) will do more for AO's failing population then anything else combined.
    If we could also have RK and SL missions with useful loot starting at lower levels...

  8. #8
    Really, you're further reducing the number of mobs in some waves, in the new inferno missions? As i posted in another thread the number of mobs in waves (if you can call them that, i wouldnt) is far far too few as it is. I kill 1-2 mobs and sit there sucking my thumb for the remaining 90% of the time (10% spent actually killing). It's too slow.

    Please, i beg of you mich, increase the number of mobs per spawn! Maybe on hard or make a new uber hard mode that simply increases the number of mobs per spawn or increases the spawn rate. Or better yet, have new mobs spawn as soon as the last is killed.

    Bringing more damage should reward you with faster missions, as this is now it does not help at all, it actually punishes you by making the waiting even more monotonous.




    PS: And while youre at it, maybe you could look into AI raids some time. I'd do more raids if i didnt have to sit there twiddling my thumbs between waves. Bottom line, waiting on waves over and over and over = bad.
    Last edited by Adeptall2; Nov 28th, 2014 at 16:44:04.

  9. #9
    First page. Joy.
    'The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard.' - Steven Wright

  10. #10
    Awesome update!

    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    - 000 Weapons
    A few years ago, a selection of weapons introduced at the game's launch were remade with more contemporary attributes, while being hidden behind high requirements and elusive upgrade items. The requirements of these weapons have been lowered with damage ranges adjusted. Andre Bottle has also been given a few new items to sell.

    These updated weapons can be found in Basic/Advanced/Superior shops in Omni-Tek and Clans General Stores; these terminals can be accessed by Neutrals as well.
    Ohh man you so had me thinking you were going to be talking about the APF updated Old School weapons like the Hellspinner that no one ever really got a chance to use since the upgrades were still behind current weapons.
    Last edited by Krause; Nov 28th, 2014 at 16:54:09.
    Krause Equip

    *** Krause's Evil WTB Thread! (Weird/Odd Stuff) ***
    (Items like "Lost Faith/Hope", "Wreath of Insects", "Chirop Exoskeleton Wing Mesh", "Small Jar", "Old Barrel")
    Quote Originally Posted by Means View Post
    This is going to get done if it kills me or preferably someone else.

  11. #11

    Funcom employee

    Quote Originally Posted by Adeptall2 View Post
    Really, you're further reducing the number of mobs in some waves, in the new inferno missions? As i posted in another thread the number of mobs in waves (if you can call them that, i wouldnt) is far far too few as it is. I kill 1-2 mobs and sit there sucking my thumb for the remaining 90% of the time (10% spent actually killing). It's too slow.

    Please, i beg of you mich, increase the number of mobs per spawn! Maybe on hard or make a new uber hard mode that simply increases the number of mobs per spawn or increases the spawn rate. Or better yet, have new mobs spawn as soon as the last is killed.

    Bringing more damage should reward you with faster missions, as this is now it does not help at all, it actually punishes you by making the waiting even more monotonous.




    PS: And while youre at it, maybe you could look into AI raids some time. I'd do more raids if i didnt have to sit there twiddling my thumbs between waves. Bottom line, waiting on waves over and over and over = bad.
    I think most of the time is coming from the NPCs heading to their target location from spawn. As soon as a group of mobs has been killed, the next group should spawn ~1 second later. I'll play around with it a little and see if that'll speed things up.

    I do agree with the AI Ship room stuff. It is something that I looked into before shifting focus towards eating vast amounts of turkey and stuffing. These fights are fueled by old magic, but it should be reasonable enough to adjust. I hope to look into ship mobs spawning in walls; I should be able to expedite these fights a bit during that time.
    Henry "Michizure" Senger
    Lead Designer
    ___________________________________
    Twitter - Welcome to Testlive - Customer Service

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    Quest targets of the various Inferno questlines will appear in slightly greater number, and respawn more frequently. [/URL]
    Thank you for listening and more importantly improving things. Happy holidays

    Edit: Any update on the professional program?
    Last edited by Traderjill; Nov 28th, 2014 at 17:21:41.
    You can find me at:
    Battlenet @ Marilata#1680
    Steam @ http://steamcommunity.com/id/marilata

  13. #13

    Funcom employee

    Quote Originally Posted by Traderjill View Post
    Edit: Any update on the professional program?
    When I last spoke to our Community team about it, they indicated that they were still reviewing the candidates. I am looking forward to an update on this in the near future.
    Henry "Michizure" Senger
    Lead Designer
    ___________________________________
    Twitter - Welcome to Testlive - Customer Service

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    I think most of the time is coming from the NPCs heading to their target location from spawn. As soon as a group of mobs has been killed, the next group should spawn ~1 second later. I'll play around with it a little and see if that'll speed things up.

    I do agree with the AI Ship room stuff. It is something that I looked into before shifting focus towards eating vast amounts of turkey and stuffing. These fights are fueled by old magic, but it should be reasonable enough to adjust. I hope to look into ship mobs spawning in walls; I should be able to expedite these fights a bit during that time.
    Thank you, i suggested something along those lines a while ago and i'm very happy to see that there will be less "downtime" waiting for stuff to pop, even in city/bossroom of ship iirc

    What should we next suggest? Being able to raise city cloak time in ~10 mins vs 1h like it is now?
    Don't you just hate this kind of ppl
    http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/w...rouscranus.htm

  15. #15
    What also would be fun is if we where able to "uppgrade" a 100% cru with different types of gadgets/upgrades so it would work more like the s10 pf where you spawn a specific kind of general depending on the cru and such.

    These upgrades could drop from apf/s42 or just random drops, up to other ppl to figure out/come with their own ideas
    Don't you just hate this kind of ppl
    http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/w...rouscranus.htm

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Abcewaitwhat View Post
    Keep up the good work Mitchi! Just nerf shades next please. Even before the new balance changes they could use a downgrade in thier AR debuffs and heals.
    STFU ! lol catch online in a bit mate :P
    Caloss2 LVL 220 melee VANGUARD (semi retired).....Llewlyn 220/30/70 meepmeep.....Boooocal 220../30/70 Soldier.......Knack 220/30/70 Keeper.....Hiesenberg 215/xx/xx NT NERFED Neytiri1 220/30/70 Shade Knacker220/30/70Meat shield
    https://www.youtube.com/user/caloss2 for guides/walkthroughs/letsplays and all your other AO needs
    Quote Originally Posted by Mastablasta
    In my special design documents that I feed to the FC devs, who are my willing slaves.

  17. #17
    Love to hear these changes happening!
    Hope you keep this up.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Michizure View Post
    - 000 Weapons
    A few years ago, a selection of weapons introduced at the game's launch were remade with more contemporary attributes, while being hidden behind high requirements and elusive upgrade items. The requirements of these weapons have been lowered with damage ranges adjusted. Andre Bottle has also been given a few new items to sell.

    These updated weapons can be found in Basic/Advanced/Superior shops in Omni-Tek and Clans General Stores; these terminals can be accessed by Neutrals as well.
    Awesome stuff.

    Will these also be rollable in higher QLs?

  19. #19
    These patches are proof that there is such a thing as Intelligent [Game] Design.

    Praise Michi.
    -= Make the new engine look even better. Don't forget to post a screenshot! =-

  20. #20
    Michizure is the kind of guy we've needed for a LONG LONG LONG TIME.

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