Recently we had the honor of having our game director Lindelu join us at our headquarters for a bit of Q&A, we all had a lot of fun. Today we would like to share the interview with all of you. Enjoy!
Ipewpewu: So Lindelu as the game director in AO I was really excited to see about the projects you had in store for AO. I had noted that previously with means you had been working on the new player stuff on your own time, and that it became a big team project following your promotion to game director What kind of plans do you have in place to try and help with retainment of new players in the future?
Lindelu: That is a good question! The very first that people see when they log into our game for the first time, are some of the oldest looking graphical resources we have. Most of the newer content is a much higher quality, but you don't get to see it until you've leveled up! So we're re-building some of the first areas to be prettier, and be ready to support the Dreamworld Engine immediately when it's time for release
The second plan we have is re-purposing some of our older content... We have a lot of content in AO, but some of it overlaps because of the level ranges, and so we're planning to one step at a timeadjust the difficulty and increase the loot to better fit the leveling experience!
Ipewpewu: That sounds great, now when you talk about increasing the loot are you meaning to make it so that more items players loot are useable to them when they find it as apposed to lower loot that they just let rot?
Lindelu: Ideally when you do a dungeon with your friends, you should always find stuff that is better than what you have. There may be some cases where twinked on items are better ofcourse!
Ipewpewu: So are there plans then to create new armor sets that will allow people to eventually move out of the cookie cutter sets such as carb armor without spending millions of credits to equip at low levels?
Lindelu: Yes there are plans to create new armor sets, both basic sets and more alternative sets. Basically I wish dungeons have more loot in them, for all professions.
Ipewpewu: Can you tell us a bit more about how the new player experience is going to work?
Lindelu: havn't mentioned this before, but we're looking into the possibilities of making a completely new and shiny Character Creation screen. The first step of this is the new visual login window that was released this summer... You all know it, and the graphics is still showing the old space station right now. So this effort spans all the way through a new player's experience, downloading Anarchy, making your character, training on your chosen profession, learning how to navigate and getting credits.
Do you want to hear more about the details of what will happen?
Ipewpewu: Sure.
Lindelu: At first you'll wake up inside of a Shuttle, taking you from the Morning Star Space station to Rubi-Ka. You'll be able to chose your gear, and learn how to use it, including some of your profession specific nanos as well.
Phyxerbabe: I have noticed on the forums that some players would like to see the old dropship return after a new character is created. Are there any plans to bring it back?
Lindelu: Phyxer, the shuttle where you start will be a modern version of the old drop ship. It will be a lot more interactive and nice looking though.
Doctordogg: whao, so we get to choose our gear instead of having an assigned layout?
Lindelu: Doctordogg, Yeah, with some restrictions as we don't want to confuse new people. An adventurer will be able to choose between two guns or two swords, and an MP will get to chose from a bow and 2 clubs for example. After you chose your gear, you'll get the opportunity to try them out on a poor cleaning robot. You'll get to use the most important nano formulas (pets, debuffs, nukes, heals and so on) as well on the poor thing.
Ipewpewu: this sounds great, it sounds like you've really gone out of your way to try and make this more interactive then our current system. Will the new experience touch on things such as implants?
Lindelu: YES! You'll get to even learn how to build your own implants. However, that's not until you've embared on Rubi-Ka
Ipewpewu: So will this new shuttle meet a deadly landing as well then?
Lindelu: No ((: As you're done with the basics, you'll exit the Shuttle wihtout any deadly landings, in Arete Landing, a space shuttle port built very close to the ICC HQ. I'm sure you've read about it in the newsletters.
Ipewpewu: Alright so new experiance aside a big question of mine I've had for a long time. What ever happened with the mentor system that was going to be put in place?, it looked like it was going to be a very good tool to encourage community members to step up and help new players.
Lindelu: The mentor system is put on hold indefinitely. The mentor system was Colin's legacy, and the team have completed their end of the work... to complete it we need to get help from one of the most booked department in Funcom, shared with all other projects.
Ipewpewu: In an interview you had done when you released the new engine video you had made a reference to if it was up to you that you would like to find other ways to restrict Froob players without alienating them, I really think this is an important step to keep things moving. Pack of Noobs harbors many froob players, and there's often times we'd like to involve them in our activities. Is there anything in the works currently to address the separation of Froobs and Paid players to try and get them back together?
Lindelu: Oh yes! First of all, both froobs and subscribers will play together in these new starting areas. We also think it's important that we don't split up froobs and paid subscribers, so we've begun investigating other possibilities that will bring everyone together. Opening up some of the shadowlands could be a possibility, and adding better xp for leveling on rubi-ka could be another. That will mean that as a froob, you will not get access to all the items, but you will not be as restricted from playing the content.
Ipewpewu: Do you have any thoughts on the idea of adding mini games to Rubi-ka that will allow players who have down time to engaged in other fun activities together as a community?
Lindelu: Mini games! Well, the pvp area with the notum miners were made as sort of a mini game, and I definitely like the idea of it, I believe however that not everyone know about it or know how to get there, but that's something we can improve! Another mini-game has been made but not released yet – the phasefront racetrack! We're adding a racing game to Arete Landing actually, so people can try out vehicles. We've been discussing a third mini game that is mech related, but have not found the time to design it yet. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a good way to present these mini games so they present a quick and fun match between players who want something different from the level grind.
Doctordogg: I've actually got a question that directly relates into getting AO out there onto the grid and attracting more people to bolster the player base. It stems close to when Lindelu was talking about the notum miners, just a few steps backwards. The battle stations. Watching people pvp on streaming sites and other video hosting sites has become a normal thing. Has the team talked about trying to come in line with this trend and bringing such things to AO? Such as a spectator mode in battle stations so that it can be shout casted.
Lindelu: Aha! I have seen. I've been in contact with MMORPG.com a little regarding this and last I heard they were interested! We did a streaming show with them before the summer. We could have a "PvP against the Developers Tournament"?
Ipewpewu: My Assistant Director recently talked to me about this idea that he's had for ages about being able to create Custom org ranks and set permissions for them in order to allow organizations to be able to better tailor their orgs around their needs, this would be especially useful for larger organizations to help reward organization members without giving them unintended abilities.
Lindelu: I don't know if this is something we can do, but we've been talking about possibilities and I will bring this one up in the next meeting.
Ipewpewu: ok so the last question I had on my list that hasn't already showhow been answered is one that I was reluctant to ask. I didn't want vto ask anything about the server migration stuff or anything else brought up a million times to you all. Is there anything to the rumor that all players credits are going to be wiped clean?
Lindelu: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don't know where that rumor comes from, but the point of moving everyone is to let everyone keep their stuff.
After this great interview with Lindelu michizure stopped by, and gave everybody some shirts, and we did a great screenshot outside the organization HQ!
And finally the new ICC HQ
To see all the new screenshots click here.
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Originally Posted by Lazy
This does not happen. They are full-time employees on the AO project, and they work on AO 100% of the time.
