Page 5 of 10 FirstFirst 12345678910 LastLast
Results 81 to 100 of 200

Thread: Monthly Development Update - 1st November 2013

  1. #81
    Quote Originally Posted by Traderjill View Post
    What I'd love to see in a monthly update is Genele giving us her take on the new player experience now and where she wants to see it say a year from now.

    Check

    The economy in this game is screwed up. I'd like to see some open/honest communication regarding the devs view on why it has happened and how you plan to address it (if at all).

    Check

    As for the game and what is driving me away this time:
    1. Beast reflect shield change. The screw up with the beast's reflect shield is a prime example of me feeling like the devs couldn't care less about the playerbase.

    Check

    2. REALLY messed up loot system for endgame instances. If you want to take something from games like WoW then take a look at how they handle loot.

    Check

    3. Primetime USA is a joke.

    DOUBLE CHECK

    4. Clanside PvP.. what happened to our bots?

    Uncheck...I am neutral after all this does not affect me.

    5. Multiboxing. Mentioned above but it needs special mention not because I think it's the end of the world but because I can't believe Funcom actually came out and endorsed it.

    Hrm This one is a pretty big RED CHECK- I can't say how long I sat with mouth agape when I read this. Multiboxing is legal. Totally the opposite strategy to promote "teaming". I would say it's a judgement call of current game director, but I dare say I could read minds and I do not think former GD's would approve that multi-boxing is even remotely in the spirit of AO team play and most likely would have banned players who did. (I could be wrong though)

    6. Too many exploiters in game. Its easier now for me to count the people I know in game that don't exploit than the people that do.
    Another RED CHECK I would agree with, I have kicked players from my org for exploiting, or border line grey area cheats imo. Simply because I did not want that type of player being associated with my org...or by further extention me.

    I have to say this is one of your better essays Jill. I also agree 99%, only the clan pvp thing I don't care about lol.
    ~Anyone can level, but only the wise gain experience~

    *Bronto Burger, serving 10,000 high level noobs daily*

    http://wolf-brigade.webs.com/

    My Story

    Don't feed the Mensa Tralalalala

    Everyday I'm Shuffling.

  2. #82
    So i came back after really long brake and it feels like i was here yday...Same old story "fixing bugs, working on stuff, soon"

    Will this ever change ?
    Xarr 220/30/70 Atrox Keeper
    Xarrdas 220/30/70 Solitus Engineer
    Wrathwithin 220/26/70 Atrox Agent
    Drimarcus 220/22/60 Opifex Shade
    Mycurse 214/18/42 Solitus Soldier
    Backend 150/20/40 Opifex MA
    Leethium 200/20/60 Opifex Bureaucrat

  3. #83
    Quote Originally Posted by Genele View Post
    Re-exporting items is purely design (for the most part manual labor).
    However, after npe is out, the next big design project is going to be systems changes.
    And that will require a lot of items being re-exported. When I'm already making changes to an item, adding one row in the table doesn't really make any difference in workload or time spent.

    It is not like I will set anyone full time on re-exporting all items in AO because we added item rarity. That would be insanely stupid. Over time we will have the most important items covered anyway.
    It used to be that just about any item in the game had a use. Even 'trash' guns could be good in certain situations (against certain armors, for instance, or swapping). Almost all the 'trash' in the game is or once was part of a tradeskill process.

    Since you're going to be changing a bunch of stuff at the same time how about adding back some degree of modifiability. So we can hack and mod guns, add some elements but risk blowing the gun up or reducing some other feature.

    Agree with others that obviously colored loot - or the radioactive dog turd looting system that turned me off from AoC - is best left out of this game.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gorathon View Post
    Wouldn't it be better if all the attributes were combined into one skill called "goodness?"

  4. #84
    Multiboxing is not automation - passing a keystroke to multiple windows or computers can be done using a mechanical setup involving wooden dowels operating on multiple mice.

    Automation is when people are afk and still achieving some activity in the game - if that is the case then I can assure you those fellas selling COFFEE for 1m a bag are the real culprits lol...

    The team aspect is moot because I have more choice on who I want to team with...as do most players who own more than 1 account.

    I can count the number of competent multiboxers on all hours of AO on the fingers of one hand - just because it is something you are too lazy to do does not mean you are entitled to condemn it as something that plagues the game. In fact more people have probably benefitted from Shadowlevels on my team than you have in Shadowlevels on all your toons combined, so go find another scapegoat.

    In the meantime continue to spend your attention staring at parsed combat logs!
    Last edited by Quisty; Nov 5th, 2013 at 14:26:28.
    Proud Member of Coven of Hunters, Rimor.

  5. #85
    Quote Originally Posted by Quisty View Post
    Multiboxing is not automation - passing a keystroke to multiple windows or computers can be done using a mechanical setup involving wooden dowels operating on multiple mice.

    Automation is when people are afk and still achieving some activity in the game - if that is the case then I can assure you those fellas selling COFFEE for 1m a bag are the real culprits lol...

    The team aspect is moot because I have more choice on who I want to team with...as do most players who own more than 1 account.

    I can count the number of competent multiboxers on all hours of AO on the fingers of one hand - just because it is something you are too lazy to do does not mean you are entitled to condemn it as something that plagues the game. In fact more people have probably benefitted from Shadowlevels on my team than you have in Shadowlevels on all your toons combined, so go find another scapegoat.

    In the meantime continue to spend your attention staring at parsed combat logs!

    i dont care if people do multiboxing when they do pvm , it doesent effect other players when u do it in pvm

    the problem is in pvp when u get 18 special attacks on u in 0.1 seconds time from a cheating idiot

  6. #86
    Betting a full set of ql300 CSS that the new engine won't go live untill the end of next year, at best.
    A new monthly update that doesn't adress ANY of the real issues this game has. Instead, we're gonna have color codes on items to help new players distinguish between crap loot and good loot. Yes, asking your orgmates or on OOC/vecinity sure was hard. The agony!
    Glad I didn't resub. Thanks again, FC!
    Contra
    Urynt
    Malraux
    Fontane
    Critbull
    Cleanex
    Fontane2

  7. #87
    They really cant win can they, lol..

    For years people have been complaining that new players need more help whilst getting into the game. Its well known that AO for new players is very confusing and hard to grasp.

    So what do FC do? try and think of ways to help out the said new players and give them a bit more of an idea of the game... and now they have a bunch of old vets moaning and being all negative

    You just cant please everyone!
    Devil Inside

    Spead 220/30 Fixer Fpea 170/24 Agent
    Default1025 144/18 Trader Imaganker 75/8 Agent
    Franklucas 30/3 Trader Battleprod 13/0 Trader
    And exactly 137 other alts that you dont need to know

  8. #88
    The problem with newbs isn't that they don't see the value of an item, therefore needing a color code. It's the absurd number of useless junk in the shops paired with the incredibly huge cost of those said items.
    This color coding won't change that problem one bit.
    What FC needs to do, in order to please everyone(mostly), is to actually read and implement suggestions proposed by players for many many years. If you open up the game suggestions forum and read it all, if you know the game a little, you can actually choose alot of those suggestions that would actually make this game great again. Newbs don't need a color code on a sword they can't afford and they don't need a color code on armor and implants they can't afford. To help the newbs, make them able to afford those items.
    -delete 80% of the items in the shops. Atm, their single purpose is to confuse new players.
    -reduce the prices in the shops. If you're just coming out of noob island and you see a shop, you wanna know what's in there that could boost your toon's performance, right? Well, untill you see that doing all those missions on noob island and farming all those dynas over and over for 2h straight only enables you to buy 1 nano and 2 implants. Then what does any casual player do? He will quit. FC needs to realize that nobody starts a game with grinding in their minds, but with "having fun". Well, there is no 'fun" when you can't afford even the simplest things. And don't sell me that "you can download clicksaver, right, and you can make GAJILIIONS selling concrete cushions" story, please. When you download a game with the ideea of fun in mind and then you notice that you need 3 other outside programs to make money, grinding for hours, you move to another game that provides the element that's missing in this one.
    -remake lowbie quests so they actually reward players for their efforts. No, doing a mission for 5k credits isn't rewarding. Make a profession specific line of quests that provides the newbie with:
    a)a decent weapon that levels with you for a while and doesn't require ammo.
    b)a backpack containing useful nanos for your profession.
    c)a set of basic implants that can grow in ql(upon right-clicking) as long as you don't add clusters to them. Then, the newb can choose if he wears ql10 imps or waits till he can wear ql30. This quest would also teach newbs the "ways" of tradeskilling implants.
    d)a set of profession based armor that levels with you for a while.
    my 3 cents
    Contra
    Urynt
    Malraux
    Fontane
    Critbull
    Cleanex
    Fontane2

  9. #89
    I like the amount of comprehension failure this update produces. Looking forward to my invite :-)
    Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
    The Red Brotherhood

    I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.

    Means: about f'ing time :P
    Satenia: heresy <3
    Znore: Mastablasta <3
    Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
    Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
    Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics

  10. #90
    Quote Originally Posted by MyGift View Post
    So i came back after really long brake and it feels like i was here yday...Same old story "fixing bugs, working on stuff, soon"

    Will this ever change ?
    Hopefully not, because that'd mean development was halted.

    Also @Contra - l2p the game of understanding player behaviour and system design instead of posting such raging posts of nonsense.
    Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
    The Red Brotherhood

    I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.

    Means: about f'ing time :P
    Satenia: heresy <3
    Znore: Mastablasta <3
    Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
    Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
    Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics

  11. #91
    Quote Originally Posted by Mastablasta View Post

    Also @Contra - l2p the game of understanding player behaviour and system design instead of posting such raging posts of nonsense.
    Wich part of my post does not reflect my understanding of player behavior?
    It's a known fact that newbs have a problem with credits when they start the game, isn't it?
    It's also a known fact that the need to use clicksaver and farm 50.000 missions so you can afford basic equippment isn't a solution to the problem and only drives newbs away, right? Then, what part of my post was "raging" and "nonsense"?
    Contra
    Urynt
    Malraux
    Fontane
    Critbull
    Cleanex
    Fontane2

  12. #92
    I'd just like to throw in my 2 cents for what it's worth...

    I started playing in like 2004 and I've been a long-time casual player and ex-froob. I still don't understand about 90% of the game mechanics, haven't gotten past lvl 50 on any of my toons, and have yet to really experience the "best" part of AO -- the intensely loyal and social fan-base. This is probably due mostly to my "casual" playing style.... a couple days every few months.

    I think the reason I play so little is that there is such a huge learning curve. There's not nearly enough hand-holding in the beginning and even less so as the game goes on. With 200+ levels, it's really easy to get lost by level 30. And while I'm sure the hardcore players would be more than happy to show me around, I can't help but feel intimidated by all these lvl 150+ players hanging around the starting areas right after seeing nothing but 10- players in the NPE.

    I'm really excited about the new NPE which, from what I understand, will allow higher level players to mix in with the noobs at the very beginning (unless I totally missed that part). Though I have to say that I'm still fond of the old generic backyards where I was free to start my own story (not "Oh, I crash landed from the space station ((which you don't even get to go to anymore)) and now my story starts exactly like everyone else.)

    I'm so glad to hear about all the "dumbing down" like the rarity and such (even though I miss the reclaim terminals, as annoying as they were.) If anything, I'd love to see it dumbed WAY down to match some newer games... at least in the beginning. I'd love to have an NPC explain to me how to use a Nano. Full disclosure, though, the only other MMORPG I've really played was Star Wars, which I really liked... but it lacked the openness and charm of AO. I liked all the voice acting, though and really miss being greeted at the space station with "Hello, friend!"

    So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that as much as hardcore players want AO to stay complicated, I'd like to see it simplified so I'm not so scared to level past 25. I want to see it match some of the more modern standards set my newer games. Including the new engine which I've been patiently waiting for, for what seems like decades.

    That is all.

  13. #93
    Benabus, interesting post.

    Here's a little well known bit of info that most people don't admit... Twinking.. even 'pro twinking' is easy and anyone with a calculator and access to an items database (auno, xyphos, aoitems) can figure out how to put on almost anything. The complication of AO has always been in obtaining the items you need to turn the theory into reality. The same goes with almost everything else. The complication in the game isn't raiding.. AO has some of the easiest raids of any game I've played in the last 10 years. The complication comes from the loot system. I could go on and on in this manner in regards to what makes AO 'hard'. That whole "Don't dumb down the game" thing is silly. What's dumber than the existing process where people sit afk at 2mt then kite hill then leech in inferno and end up not knowing jack about their profession at 220? What's dumber than people throwing RL cash at the items shop to buy lootrights to stuff in game and not even knowing how to do the raids or where to obtain items? The game can't get any more dumbed down than it already is if you ask me.

    What makes AO 'hard' is an outdated starter system that doesn't cater to players that were born in the past 2 decades. Does the starter experience bother me.. or did it when I started? No. But yeah, I'm part of the generation that was used to DOS prompts and can remember when the web was text based. Believe it or not, that describes a rather large part of our playerbase (people that are 30-40yrs old). We come from the generation of "figure it out" and that's why most of us weren't bothered by this game and thrived in it. But times have changed and to suggest that people used to modern standards are 'dumb' is really short-sighted. When I want milk, I go to the store and get some, not go outside and milk a cow like my mom had to do on the farm. Thank goodness they 'dumbed' that down because I like my modern conveniences. This is a video game.. I think sometimes people really forget that.

    So anyway what you're saying is correct. People, for years, have been asking Funcom to make the starting experience more user friendly.. because once you get the basics of how the game works, the reality is that anyone can play it and most people will love it. The problem with new players was always getting them past those first couple weeks of playing to see the true gem that is AO. I couldn't care less how many colors they put in, signs they throw up or tutorials are out there to cater to new players. If it keeps some people interested and helps them get further along.. it doesn't hurt me... in fact it'll be a help because one of the 'hard' things about leveling and raiding is finding people to play with these last few years.

    Now in defense of the people annoyed with this color coded rarity thing.. its par for the course with the AO population. It was 2 months ago that the beta signup was announced. As usual, every individual sets in their mind when something is going to happen. It's been x years (I've honestly lost count and can't be bothered to go look) since they announced the engine. At this point, anything that gives even the mildest appearance of taking time/resources away from things is going to get criticized by a certain portion of the population. I'm guessing most people missed the part where it was stated that additional resources wouldn't be used to make this rarity color adjustment.. some people just read/skimmed the idea and then went off about it. Personally, I think the rarity announcement without the announcement that the database is going to be reviewed and scrubbed makes it feel pointless to me as well.. but as I mentioned earlier.. 'whatever'. It won't hurt me and if it helps a few people and doesn't take more resources from NPE then I couldn't care less.
    Last edited by Traderjill; Nov 5th, 2013 at 20:54:30.
    You can find me at:
    Battlenet @ Marilata#1680
    Steam @ http://steamcommunity.com/id/marilata

  14. #94
    Quote Originally Posted by Traderjill View Post
    I'm guessing most people missed the part where it was stated that additional resources wouldn't be used to make this rarity color adjustment.. some people just read/skimmed the idea and then went off about it.
    It always surprises me that most people don't seem to know the difference between designer types who can use tools to modify the database, edit monster behavior, script quests, etc. and coders who can actually change the game's mechanics. If you've ever messed with a level editor (like the ones that come with Blizzard RTS games), you have some idea what one job is like. Knowing that stuff doesn't mean you can start poking around under the hood of the engine. Or if you need an analogy, think of the difference between someone who is a wiz at Excel, and the people who actually develop Excel at Microsoft. Different jobs, different set of skills.

    As they've stressed before, all work on the engine is in the hands of the coders, and nothing the designers or artists do or don't do is speeding up or slowing down engine development.
    Last edited by Trypha; Nov 5th, 2013 at 22:46:44.
    Trypha - 220/30/70 Engineer - General of Nocturnal Fear
    Trypothecary - 220/30/69 Doctor
    Trypocalypse - 220/30/70 Soldier
    Tryptophy - 220 Crat

    "Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so." - Bertrand Russell

  15. #95
    Quote Originally Posted by Mastablasta View Post
    Hopefully not, because that'd mean development was halted.
    What development?

    I don't want to be mean but its always working/fixing bugs on something that doesn't even exist ( game engine, rebalance etc )

    Listening to that for 5+ years without any actual result is ridiculous even for amateurs, not to mention professionals like Funcom.

    Fact is that AO didn't get any major update ( except lots of promises ) ever since LE ( 2006 ), if that can be called major update...

    Just my opinion, cheers ^^
    Last edited by MyGift; Nov 6th, 2013 at 08:38:25.
    Xarr 220/30/70 Atrox Keeper
    Xarrdas 220/30/70 Solitus Engineer
    Wrathwithin 220/26/70 Atrox Agent
    Drimarcus 220/22/60 Opifex Shade
    Mycurse 214/18/42 Solitus Soldier
    Backend 150/20/40 Opifex MA
    Leethium 200/20/60 Opifex Bureaucrat

  16. #96
    Quote Originally Posted by Trypha View Post
    As they've stressed before, all work on the engine is in the hands of the coders, and nothing the designers or artists do or don't do is speeding up or slowing down engine development.
    Actually that is not true at all. You see these models that have too many bones have to be re-rigged and animated again. I know that the 3D artist will be using 3DS Max or Maya or similar program to be doing this work. It is exactly the work that the artist are there for. And yes the animations have to be reworked for the new bone structure. Depending on how big a difference in bone count their was this can be simple adjustment to complete re-working of each animation attached to that model.

    In a long PM to FC I asked the question why this bone issue exploded in their face so late in the development. My guess is that someone did not see the value in having the artist do risk assessment of all the models over two years ago (maybe 3 by now) when they hit the first snag with the player character models not looking proper. I believe it was Means that wrote about that if you want to go look it up. Something about the limbs flattening out when they moved a certain way in the new engine. And so they where going to fix the character models so they looked proper.

    You see that would have been a red flag to me. And instead of having all the artist make new items for what ever it was they were working on, I would have had one or two doing a complete risk assessment of all the models. You know, texture types all present and sizes correct. Normals calculated correctly? Properly rigged? <-- Should have caught the bone issue right here. Run through all the animations in the models and test them in the rendering tool that again Means talked about them having a good bit ago.

    Since Vhab spoke up about the old engine using software skinning versus hardware skinning I really don't understand why a list of capabilities and limits of the old engine was not compared to the new engine as part of much earlier risk assessment. Oh look the old engine allows for 200 bones in a model but DX9 says 128 bones is the limit. OK add a task to check all models for less than equal 128 bones. Better yet lets do a full risk assessment of all models for all parameters.

    As I have stated it comes down to the artist would have had at least 2 years to assess all the models and fix them from the first publicly announced point of knowing the models where not going to be plug and play. The way it is wrote up makes me think they just tried them all and the ones that blew up are getting looked at. That scares me because if the others have not been fully assessed what time bombs are waiting for us when this goes beta and then live.

    Vhab ,Marcosun and the other coders have done incredible stuff in the code I am sure. But this engine upgrade is not all code. Anyone that used any game engine for a fun project knows that the models and textures have to conform to the engines requirements. The new engine is DX9 and that means there exist a clear set of hard requirements for models and textures. At a minimum those should have been checked for a very long time ago.

    So understand every time they say the upgrade is all on the coders I just cringe. At best it is arrogance in the belief that all the assets (models, textures etc) are just going to be plug and play. At worse it is complete incompetence at the project management level.

    The Program Managers Professional qualification has a great point about risk management. Failure to do proper risk management is guaranteeing your project to fail, fall behind schedule, overrun cost or all the above. It is sighted as one the leading causes of project failure, right behind under estimating the scope and improper staffing. I would say this engine upgrade may very well have covered all the big reasons listed.
    Lheann
    President of When I Grow Up

    Lhisa - MA - RK1
    MaxKillz - Enf - RK1
    Namaru - Enf - RK1

    "If you find yourself loosing a fight, your tatics suck."

  17. #97
    This ^

    Its like building a house for 5 years and then when you're about to move in, you realize u forgot to make foundations.

    All this indicate that engine was just a bone for a dog and now we got new one, its called beta testing.

    What bothers me most is financial part of this project. As a Game producer ( project manager ) in mobile game industry we have strict deadlines and consequence if we brake them. Also every delay cost company money. If one of the projects took 10% more time then planed it would be a huge deal and id have one serious talk with director and maybe even got fired.

    How come that AO engine got delayed million times for years and years now and nothing happens, FC still financing this project and everything is all right? Its just unbelievable unless order from the top was "make something up and keep them playing as much as u can".
    Last edited by MyGift; Nov 6th, 2013 at 10:44:36.
    Xarr 220/30/70 Atrox Keeper
    Xarrdas 220/30/70 Solitus Engineer
    Wrathwithin 220/26/70 Atrox Agent
    Drimarcus 220/22/60 Opifex Shade
    Mycurse 214/18/42 Solitus Soldier
    Backend 150/20/40 Opifex MA
    Leethium 200/20/60 Opifex Bureaucrat

  18. #98
    DX9 was the latest version when the engine was first announced. Then came DX10 with AoC. Now we are on DX11. By the time this engine hits live we will be on DX12 and the fun part about that is that AO will once again go through a 7 year project of upgrading from DX9 to DX10 (or 11) to be able to run on modern hardware! But when that update happens we will be on DX15 and that kids is called the circle of strife.
    Last edited by MachSchau; Nov 6th, 2013 at 10:43:18.

  19. #99
    Quote Originally Posted by Contra View Post
    The problem with newbs isn't that they don't see the value of an item, therefore needing a color code. It's the absurd number of useless junk in the shops paired with the incredibly huge cost of those said items.
    This color coding won't change that problem one bit.
    What FC needs to do, in order to please everyone(mostly), is to actually read and implement suggestions proposed by players for many many years. If you open up the game suggestions forum and read it all, if you know the game a little, you can actually choose alot of those suggestions that would actually make this game great again. Newbs don't need a color code on a sword they can't afford and they don't need a color code on armor and implants they can't afford. To help the newbs, make them able to afford those items.
    -delete 80% of the items in the shops. Atm, their single purpose is to confuse new players.
    -reduce the prices in the shops. If you're just coming out of noob island and you see a shop, you wanna know what's in there that could boost your toon's performance, right? Well, untill you see that doing all those missions on noob island and farming all those dynas over and over for 2h straight only enables you to buy 1 nano and 2 implants. Then what does any casual player do? He will quit. FC needs to realize that nobody starts a game with grinding in their minds, but with "having fun". Well, there is no 'fun" when you can't afford even the simplest things. And don't sell me that "you can download clicksaver, right, and you can make GAJILIIONS selling concrete cushions" story, please. When you download a game with the ideea of fun in mind and then you notice that you need 3 other outside programs to make money, grinding for hours, you move to another game that provides the element that's missing in this one.
    -remake lowbie quests so they actually reward players for their efforts. No, doing a mission for 5k credits isn't rewarding. Make a profession specific line of quests that provides the newbie with:
    a)a decent weapon that levels with you for a while and doesn't require ammo.
    b)a backpack containing useful nanos for your profession.
    c)a set of basic implants that can grow in ql(upon right-clicking) as long as you don't add clusters to them. Then, the newb can choose if he wears ql10 imps or waits till he can wear ql30. This quest would also teach newbs the "ways" of tradeskilling implants.
    d)a set of profession based armor that levels with you for a while.
    my 3 cents
    I despise quests. They are the opposite of a good sandbox game.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gorathon View Post
    Wouldn't it be better if all the attributes were combined into one skill called "goodness?"

  20. #100
    Quote Originally Posted by If6Was9 View Post
    I despise quests. They are the opposite of a good sandbox game.
    IDC for what you despise. Quests add variety to a game and variety is good.

Page 5 of 10 FirstFirst 12345678910 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •