Forget about old timers when...

[Mekh]

you get the new engine out as well as the rebalancing...

Focus on player retention....




/Discuss

[Waahash]

Retention AND accumulation.

[Notcrattey]

Retention AND accumulation.

Kerbump, retention only works for so long, with lack of a steady flow of players it screams death.

[Cyberleet]

I agree, rewrite the island and bring back the motherstar for the teleporter-thing

The first 25 levels could be a bit less steep for newbies.

And maybe lowlevel ofab should be more accessible (missions with vp-rewards for example) without pvp (is advanced) aswell.

But yes, retention is your friend!

[Towerblock]

Retention also requires most players to not have the brainpower of goldfish.

[Warhead]

you get the new engine out as well as the rebalancing...

Focus on player retention....




/Discuss

/Fail (god, I hate that dweebspeak)

I'm with you on the rebalancing but not on the engine thing - see the big picture! In my opinion this game is dead - and I mean plug pulled - within 24 months (I'm being optimistic) if they cant draw in fresh blood. Keeping a already too low number of players isnt going to stop that process. Silly, shortsighted ideas like merging servers to delay the inevitable arent going to stop it. Player retention alone isnt going to stop it either.

1. Engine - people today want to see eyecandy before they even consider a game. Sad but true.
2. Nub island experience needs DRASTIC improvement to not drive new players right out of the door again
3. Advertising. AO still has properties no other game on the market can match, at the very least not in this combination. They need people to know about it and if point 1&2 are fulfilled, these people might actually stay.

[Waahash]

If, for instance, they dropped alot of the what is seemingly "necessary" RP introductions to things, an implant tutorial could do plenty for a newer player instead of having to work it into a questline. It doesn't even have to teach them how to ladder the implants - just how to build and that you can't, say, build a rifle/rifle/rifle eye; the essence being how implants work and how they are made/designed.

I would have liked a tutorial system rather than the current Shuttleport questline chains.

[Taranide]

"Old timers" have never really been a valid argument in this business. You see, when this new stuff hits live, they will most likely be getting free months, wasting in up and gone again. The product needs to appeal into random consumers eye.

[Pomidor]

Sorry to say that, but AO went wrong way. I see that as a former AO player (Curently, i dont play anything...) that was attracted to the game by not only by MMORPG, but by its story. With current state, Omni vs Clan gone away and no ENGINE or balance will change that. I mean, ask youself now what AO is about, or ask some random player. Back in the days, everyone would straight say: Its about WAR! We fight or we are neutrals. When first options come to mind, you got Clans and Omni-Tek, you can chose either of one side, get towerfields and attend BIG clashes. These days war went away, game is dead and I dont belive it will change. Even when I start to read game magazines, I dont find any info (or aknowlogage from writers) about AO. Many players, here in Poland, doesnt even know such game exists and, tbh, it doesnt metter if its paid (huge money) or its free.

FC lost my trust long time ago, and along with "Comming soon" about Engine, they just made me sad like no company in my entire life. AO used to be part of my day, something I was always eager to do after work, when I got free time. But currently, they broke up almost everything - game is way to easy for hardcore players (like me) and its way to hard for newbies. Combine it with OLD graphics and u got losy compilation of inatractive game for new flow of playerbase. Thats why I quitted - FC doesnt listen old ones, neither new ones. They just dont have a clue, which way to follow, so they try everything. So we got broken promises.

[cbus97]

Dang you kids get off my nano-lawn!

[Yesiamstoned]

OMG graphics first plx..

[Glarawyn]

Retention also requires most players to not have the brainpower of goldfish.

Turn...LEFT!

[Mastablasta]

Forget about oldtimers to keep them? I don't get it O.o

[Glarawyn]

I see one of the problems with is is that it is too vast. Activities too fractured and mutually exclusive, and there is too much "get your stuff and get out" content.

Fractured Activities: In general, Item Acquisition and XP/SK gaining are mutually exclusive activities. Nothing of use or value drops in team missions anymore. The best items are in instances such as Abalatum, and these instances don't give an XP reward comparable to missions. Items that are only available as mission rewards are usually obtained by mission blitzing.

Once you have your items in various instances, there is little incentive to continue doing that instance, so new players and casual players have an increasingly difficult time getting items.

Progression quests are another example of get your stuff and get out. Peacekeeper Constad's quest-line is required for high level players, but also has zero replay value for those who have completed the quest. The Biodomes are yet another example, there is very little incentive for doing the domes other than to get your MP/Trader/Crat friends their end game pets.

I've droned on about this in the past. Here's one thread, another is locked away in the Professionals archives so excuse the following long quote...

There is very little worth doing that doesn't take a long time to do. (Examples: Dreadloch Camps, Alappa, Ablataum. Lots of effort, little reward, some professions get zero interesting items, huge time commitments.) The random drop rate on things is extremely low to prevent everyone from having everything they want before anything new is released, and yet almost everyone at the endgame is up against that wall anyway, because so little is released so rarely.

Many activities are mutually exclusive. LE Research and AIXP for example. Research was added with the Lost Eden expansion, but if you are L200+ you must go to Shadowlands to gain Research because you need Shadow Knowledge. L220 players have to go and grind at the same content they have been working at for years to get from L200 to L220, and now you've added more of the same.

Rubi-Ka is being invaded by alien forces (Side note: and if this is an all out invasion, they Kyr'Ozch are doing less than a half-assed job at it.) and FunCom is sending our most powerful warriors (L220 players) into the deepest reaches of the Shadowlands (where no Kyr'Ozch roam) to complete research instead of encouraging these players to get on the front lines of the alien invasion.

Though with the current effort of the Kyr'Ozch I suppose if the L220s were encouraged to get on the front likes and kick some Kyr'Ozch arse any surviving Kyr'Ozch would be high tailing it back to their home planet within a month.

Some thoughts:

* Leveling dungeons (ICC Shuttleport, JOBE Research, Condemned Subway, Temple of Three Winds, Biomare). These areas have great loot for the levels they are aimed for and are a source of good XP (and AIXP in the case of Shuttleport) for the players that go there. Why not give Cyborg Barracks, Crypt of Home, Smugglers Den, Inner Sanctum, etc. a similar refresh?
* Hecklers: Do something to this experience to break players free of the feeling of being a member of a chain gain sentenced to hard labor.
* SL Missions:
o Adonis: Get the mission locations out of the Abyss or make navigating the Abyss easier. Add transporters or something to let players who fall off a cliff get back up the cliff without having to run to the other end of the zone. Add sanctuary statues near mission locations. Most Adonis missions fail before they start because players find it near impossible to navigate the Abyss.
o Penumbra: Locations are generally OK and near statues. I haven't had many issues getting to the missions here. The difficulty scale of these missions is out of control, often they end up being harder than a L200 Hard in Inferno.
o Inferno: Similar to Adonis. Players pull missions for Trial Area or the cave near Ergo. Missions for other locations get deleted. Add garden statues near mission locations, and up the drop rate of insignias in the missions. The barrier to entry for the Inferno Garden and Sanctuary keys is too high for many players. Perhaps add a third class of transportation statues so you have statues that only require an insignia, statues that require a garden key, and statues that require a sanctuary key. Another possible alternative is putting a NPC near the mission locations who will summon your team to the area for a price...
* Dustbirgade Instances: Does not take a long period of time to complete an instance, and the loot rates are good so players have a good chance at getting needed items. Downside: small loot tables and no new items have been added with new patches, so interest trails off as players gain all the items so there is limited replay value. Switch it up, maybe it's time for Ground Chief Aune to leave guarding the Xan Machine to one of her lieutenants so she can do something else. New boss, new loot (as well as the existing loot). Aune in a new location with new loot and a new fight for players. Win win?
* APF Instances 13, 28, 35: The time required is reasonable, and rewards are decent. Usually worth attending just for the AIXP.
* Dreadloch Camps. Very limited interest from players it seems. Not all professions have loot that is of interest. Limited replay value once you have your desired item.
* Alappaa & Albtaum: It takes ages to empty these zones. Players have come up with unintended work around to speed the process up. For Alappaa, team runs to cascading, kills it, loots bane, break team, reform team, kill cascading. Repeat until everyone has a Bane of Ice, then clear and spawn boss once for each player. Wouldn't it be better for Cascading Mooklah to drop 6x Bane of Ice? It is tagged NODROP UNIQUE already.

[-Klod-]

Forget about oldtimers to keep them? I don't get it O.o

And I thought I was the only one who got confused in the same way.

[MassDebater]

And I thought I was the only one who got confused in the same way.

I suppose he means old timers as in people who whine about AO changing for the worse.
Being a pvm carebear I can only assume he is talking about how pvp has slowly be stripped away. People like Pomidor are the ones who have left in droves.

[Loucretia]

stuff...

Excellent post, this describes perfectly what is wrong with so many elements of the game.

[Ciex]

IMHO millions of new people are awaiting for balance and will join us when its finished. As soon as triple is removed, heck spots with flourish with hecknewbs and none of them will even think why triple was introduced to be removed X years later. Same with AS pistol. Oh wait ...

Nope, with boring and repetitive pvm, boring and repetitive pvp (no open pvp - ganking even, i have never seen as carebear mmorpg), no storyline (as it was stated there was a war or something but now we live in peace farming together), no low level attention it cant live. It is a miracle it has 9 years already when its worse and worse with every sibgle change.

Rollback to pre-SL may be needed as AO lost its cyberpunk character then.

[borriss]

Here's a option, make faction city guards very powerful with 40 yards range weapons. Hitting like trucks needing at least one or two full teams to kill... Then open up for free pvp, aka 5% gas everywhere. Maybe not SL
This will feel like back in the day, I remember roaming TIR beeing scared sh*tless from Commander Fisk and his team of "sentinel terrorists".

I realize this would require alot of other chanes aswell, but I would like AO alot like this at least..

[Pomidor]

IMHO millions of new people are awaiting for balance and will join us when its finished...

Its almost a valid opinnion. Almost... cause, when the BALANCE will be done (soon™), those with ultra twinks will lose their powers and will find themselfs in less advenagous sitation. On low/mid lvls those are 90% traders/enforcers, and actually, I dont belive they will just jump in back to the game and redo/reroll their twinks. its not like veryones are like ME - got 35 twinks various claass and lvl, just awaiting to finish twinking (thus, the whole balance thingy) and got bilions of creds just to build dream setup (and ofc, hours of free time).

By the time balance will get done, most will suffer due lack of power they had and they will get frustrated, when some crat lvl 100 or other MP will kick their asses (no metter if its due balance, or player skills - they will whine).

Apart of NW and whole Game Sci-Fi which gone to hell with SL, FC abondoned most briliant thing - Team Missions. I have rised most of my chars on that, even a year ago i draged fr00bs with my twinks to make Research or just for fun, but seeing 1 or 2 players on LFT i felt like playing CS 1.5 novadays - games feels so empty!

Besides, lets take a look about three MAJOR changes that FC did to newbs:

1) After hiting lvl 5, every player was given information about Subway and it was missoin-alike, to travel there, get group of players and lvl. Now, this information is not aviable, which means they are even more lost at n00b Island.

2) Every single mish displays message, that the player will get information when entereing correct area, which is wrong, cause NO information is displayed when entering mission area... well, another thing to be confused about.

3) FC never implemented support for LFT window, which leads new ones, even at lvl 70ish, to not know about whole briliant interface. I sugessted it many times, to introduce POP-UP window with informatoin about LFT, even at lvl 5 or so, to inform players about such option...


When we get all bugs/abondoned ideas/not tweaked ones to one basket, we can get pretty mess - that shows AO sutiation and trust me, no new player will find it nice in any way.