Friday with Means - May 21st, 2010 - Instability in Greece caused by Macrosun!

[Iriche]

Lets just blame macro?

[Trgeorge]

Lets just blame macro?

I think he'll give you a finger

[spookiepants]

The heads look different. Their quality is better, even if they don't match the current avatars exactly. No new player to AO would complain about them. We'll get used to them.

[PhoenixOfAges]

I don't know what rock you're living under but there's a rather large number of people who want to pvp.

On the forums or in game years ago (which still would have been a minority of the population) maybe, but not in game these days. Now one of the biggest gripes people into PvP have about current PvP content is in regards to the lack of participation. BSs don't run much or at all so let's change this and that to get more people in them. Tower battles don't happen too much and are often all attackers with no defenders so let's change some stuff to try to get more interested. Related suggestions happen often enough due to the lack of interest in game. Although if there were so many looking to do that stuff in game as all the chatter on the forums may lead you to believe the problem wouldn't exist.

BSs came mostly dead on arrival and stayed that way. Why would you expect the new zones to fair any better when the population is now lower than then? Then while some may want to do new PvP content some would rather do a certain existing one. If the new zone was a free for all one where side and org allegiance was not an issue as to who could be attacked some may go for that, some won't. So some may decide to stick with BSs as they get lowered into their grave while others will go to the new zones.

Also keep in mind FC has been actively trying to pull in the disinterested just to eek out what activity BSs have been able to muster. So those at BSs don't represent the number of interested PvPers at all. Those there for only the VP will go to where ever they can get their VP and a big part of that is it actually functioning. Not having a queue and always open would mean that could be the new zones, presuming they don't add some functional non-PvP alternative.

So if what PvP content we have now is having activity problems how could more help? If anything it will likely mean BSs, the new zones or both will fail to run that well if at all while some will most likely be pulled from towers and Tara as well causing more activity problems all around. Then what, add more PvP zones?

[Aeliniyah]

I don't know what rock you're living under but there's a rather large number of people who want to pvp.
And GTA SA had rather much more detailed characters than AO does. And it was a console title of a very succesful brand. Could you perhaps take a more unrelatable title and compare with?

Where exactly? Here in the forums it seems that there are a large number of PvP'ers or atleast people who PvP'd BEFORE they left the game a few months (years) ago. But in game... heh... it requires only 6+6 people to start a round of BS, yet they never run except for the 210+ one and even that is not continuous. And the tl5 BS seems quite dead too.

I don't consider 12 to be a large number, do you?

[Wrangeline]

Where exactly? Here in the forums it seems that there are a large number of PvP'ers or atleast people who PvP'd BEFORE they left the game a few months (years) ago. But in game... heh... it requires only 6+6 people to start a round of BS, yet they never run except for the 210+ one and even that is not continuous. And the tl5 BS seems quite dead too.

I don't consider 12 to be a large number, do you?

How much BS runs doesn't tell us much about how many are interested in PvP in AO. If you want to do something that involves 200 people in AO, you do PvP because there are 100 vs 100 fights happening from time to time. Good luck getting that many involved in any PvM scenario

People that enjoy PvP do spend most of their time doing PvM because this is a MMO and that's just how most MMO's work. There's a lot of PvM to do. None of this means that few people care about PvP.

I don't PvP much these days myself because I'm busy leveling alts and making credits and my arm hurts a lot and I don't really want to PvP with only 1 arm most of the time. This leads some people that doesn't actually know me to conclude that I mostly care about PvM and don't care much about PvP. The fact however is that if it wasn't for PvP, I would not be playing AO at all. 70% of my motivation for doing any kind of PvM in a MMO is based on what kind of PvP it can let me do. I might not PvP all the time but PvP is always in the back of my mind and a carrot on a string for me.

Having fun and meaningful places to PvP makes this game so much more interesting for me and if I didn't have access to such things, then all this PvM I'm doing would just feel empty and meaningless and ultimately a waste of time.. because it's not actually moving towards anything.

Quests, leveling, roleplaying and PvM encounters/instances generally keep me interested for 6-12 months in a MMO. PvP has kept me interested for 9 years now.

[Ocene]

Work also began this week designing the "long awaited" open PvP areas that will offer a "wait free" alternative to the Battlestations. I'm not sure when this will be complete...but again we are trying to keep this as simple as possible.

WOOT!

Awesome stuff incoming, lots of people will love this.

[Jahh]

for the elite type mission i want catcrab skin for the NPC !

[Traderjill]

Means,

I have a couple questions:

1. Any chance that there will be any adjustments done to the research caps for level 220's.. especially for level 9 and 10 research. This question is more specifically regarding the daily missions but if you can comment on the inferno mission rewards also that would be great.

2. When will the new playfield be fully functioning (messages to let you know whose city you're entering.. no more unknown pf)?

[Alternity]

On the forums or in game years ago (which still would have been a minority of the population) maybe, but not in game these days. Now one of the biggest gripes people into PvP have about current PvP content is in regards to the lack of participation. BSs don't run much or at all so let's change this and that to get more people in them. Tower battles don't happen too much and are often all attackers with no defenders so let's change some stuff to try to get more interested. Related suggestions happen often enough due to the lack of interest in game. Although if there were so many looking to do that stuff in game as all the chatter on the forums may lead you to believe the problem wouldn't exist.

This the number of tower attacks last week or so on RK1, is pretty close to 100.
There is enough attacks going over a wide spectrum of TL ranges, I've had a few days where I could 6 hours per day doing nothing but NW on my tl5 and tl7.
WIsh my TL3 and 4 toons were done, so I could join there also.

RK1 has quite a lot of NW

BSs came mostly dead on arrival and stayed that way. Why would you expect the new zones to fair any better when the population is now lower than then? Then while some may want to do new PvP content some would rather do a certain existing one. If the new zone was a free for all one where side and org allegiance was not an issue as to who could be attacked some may go for that, some won't. So some may decide to stick with BSs as they get lowered into their grave while others will go to the new zones.

More options is better here.

[Iriche]

I think he'll give you a finger

Hahahahahahahaha

[cutsman]

you guys critiquing the heads forget that these are computer generated -_-. changes in minor shape aren't hard. and keep in mind that they have to do normal maps and everything for each one of these heads individually. look at the atrox head. i think it looks ****ing awesome, because the wrinkles you see on his face are actually just a 2d map of how light is supposed to reflect off of it. i'm pretty sure from the other pictures theyre using either mudbox or zbrush, and fixing the lips is crazy easy. the head i'm most unsure about is the nanomage, but i can't really see a whole lot so meh. pretty good work though.

[wyldebeast]

How much BS runs doesn't tell us much about how many are interested in PvP in AO. If you want to do something that involves 200 people in AO, you do PvP because there are 100 vs 100 fights happening from time to time. Good luck getting that many involved in any PvM scenario

Move tara to 100% and find a public bot to host s42 and I'm sure you'll never see 100 vs 100 again. A lot of the people engaged in tl7 pvp are only there because that's how you gain tara loot and farm for ACDC. Just look back 2 years or so when omni had towers+tara and public bots did s42. During that time there was no mass pvp on RK1.

This the number of tower attacks last week or so on RK1, is pretty close to 100.
There is enough attacks going over a wide spectrum of TL ranges, I've had a few days where I could 6 hours per day doing nothing but NW on my tl5 and tl7.
WIsh my TL3 and 4 toons were done, so I could join there also.

RK1 has quite a lot of NW

The NW battles happening at sub-tl7 are the same old twinks played by the same old crowd. That doesn't count as more people, just the same guys on new toons.

[Alternity]

Move tara to 100% and find a public bot to host s42 and I'm sure you'll never see 100 vs 100 again. A lot of the people engaged in tl7 pvp are only there because that's how you gain tara loot and farm for ACDC. Just look back 2 years or so when omni had towers+tara and public bots did s42. During that time there was no mass pvp on RK1.

Please tell me what zergbot it was doing Sector 42, on a weekly basis with success during that period.
If you think that zergbots was the reason for no mass PvP, during said period you've missed a few facts.

The NW battles happening at sub-tl7 are the same old twinks played by the same old crowd. That doesn't count as more people, just the same guys on new toons.

Old or new don't change the fact that there is people having fun, and sorry it's just not the same old people.
Such a statement is rather weak.

[wyldebeast]

People weren't doing NW because there was no need to. Today, you get clan support at tl7 NW because there's something to gain. Back a few years ago, there was no gain, thus there was no support. There's likely a thousand other reasons as well (and you'll likely try and make all those sound more important), but those do not change that when there was no phatz to be gained, there was no NW. What I'm saying is, that if you remove tara and s42 from tnet, I think you'll have a lot of trouble motivating people to join NW.

And regarding sub-tl7 NW, I doubt you can find 50 players (not toons, real people) involved in that on the entire server. I might be wrong. I actually hope I am, but fact is, it's not something players do, it's a thing for the few twinks. AO pvp is designed to only cater to the dedicated, and will thus never be popular.

[Alternity]

People weren't doing NW because there was no need to. Today, you get clan support at tl7 NW because there's something to gain. Back a few years ago, there was no gain, thus there was no support. There's likely a thousand other reasons as well (and you'll likely try and make all those sound more important), but those do not change that when there was no phatz to be gained, there was no NW. What I'm saying is, that if you remove tara and s42 from tnet, I think you'll have a lot of trouble motivating people to join NW.

And regarding sub-tl7 NW, I doubt you can find 50 players (not toons, real people) involved in that on the entire server. I might be wrong. I actually hope I am, but fact is, it's not something players do, it's a thing for the few twinks. AO pvp is designed to only cater to the dedicated, and will thus never be popular.

We were not doing Notum Wars because of the Omni SB/Orbital Strike mechanic, right after Means finally fixed this mechanic into something more sane, there was massive wars.
And currently we are seeing a lot of action almost all title ranges, no it's not the same 5 people that you think you saw in 2005.
There is a lot of people joining up for the experience.

Phatz play their part, they entice the general crowd to join up. I really fail to see how such an service is a bad thing, or waste of time.
PvP bots that offer some of the more exclusive PvM content in AO, are at the same time subjecting players to another side of AO.

Some will never enjoy PvP, but if a few people gets some fun out of it, well guess what it's a win-win situation.

You can't have done much PvP at the lower ranges yourself, as you seam to be under the impression that only "Über" twinks can do something, you can make extremely cheap and effective twinks for lower title ranges.

[Ithnag]

Phoenix, it's OK not liking PvP, but denying there are a big number of people interested in it, ingame, or stating that there are no tower attacks save for weekends, or trying to dismiss the desires of the PvP community 8which i'm not quite really part of) is absurd, not as many attacks ahppen now as they did 3 years ago, but also applies to raids and all things around.

And yes, Weekends are more active on NW, but you see attacks and victories during the whole week in RK2, perhaps not during your online times?

[Helkus]

I think it's really important to point out that the image size is 133.7 kb.

[Keldros]

How much BS runs doesn't tell us much about how many are interested in PvP in AO. If you want to do something that involves 200 people in AO, you do PvP because there are 100 vs 100 fights happening from time to time.

Where? I don't think I've seen one of those since 2004 or 2005.

[Iriche]

i think it's really important to point out that the image size is 133.7 kb.

<3 <3