Monthly Development Update - Oct 1st 2012

[MajorOutage]

Please tell me that AO will also update through Steam. It really kind of pisses me off when I buy games through Steam but they still force me to patch them via their own launcher

It won't.

This used to be part of Steam's policy, but MMOs have been made an exception due to the turnaround time to make those patches available.

[spathi]

Is a life time account also comming to AO?

And what about a account like SOE had, Station account. With access to AO, AoC and TSW.

[Windguaerd]

Is a life time account also comming to AO?

And what about a account like SOE had, Station account. With access to AO, AoC and TSW.

Lifetime account, unlikely. They rarely give those, if you're lucky you can win it when they do a contest.

I don't think SOE Station was on Steam.

[Ekarona]

Lifetime account, unlikely. They rarely give those, if you're lucky you can win it when they do a contest.

I don't think SOE Station was on Steam.

No, but being on steam doesn't prevent that kind of thing. I think it might give some boots on all games... But it might take some money away from AO...

[Roboholic]

Thank you for a very nice update!

Digression: it's funny how people claim AO is dying. AoC forums and the montly update from 28th September got 533 views, while AO's monthly update got 5627 views and 103 replies since 1st. October..

[Dragocze]

Digression: it's funny how people claim AO is dying. AoC forums and the montly update from 28th September got 533 views, while AO's monthly update got 5627 views and 103 replies since 1st. October..

You know that line about comparing apples and oranges. AoC forum monthly update is just a link to web page with real update text. Many people go directly to web page without visiting forum thread.

[Fhinn]

Thankyou for a detailed update. I hope these will continue as I find your writing style very clear.

I had 2questions on steam -
1) is steam roll-out likely to happen before the NPE? If so, isn't that going to hinder player retention? the current start up and early levels aren't the best.
2) have you made contigency plans for a sudden upturn in players if the steam roll-out is particularly sucessful?
will we hear 'the servers cannae take it cap'n!!'

looking forward to seeing what the next patch brings!

[Roboholic]

Many people go directly to web page without visiting forum thread.

Is that how they camouflage the low forum activity?

Funcom should unplug aoc and give all the resources to ao to get the new engine done

[Scottik]

Digression: it's funny how people claim AO is dying. AoC forums and the montly update from 28th September got 533 views, while AO's monthly update got 5627 views and 103 replies since 1st. October..

That's because AoC players spend their time in actual game rather than on forums

[Neon_1]

[Trying to gather points from letter to whine/troll about]

[Trying to find post about old ETA:s of these projects and troll about nothing being done]

[See if MastaBlasta has posted something positive and troll that]

......

=(

.....

....erm....Is there any ETA for the server merge yet ?

[Ekarona]

[Trying to gather points from letter to whine/troll about]

[Trying to find post about old ETA:s of these projects and troll about nothing being done]

[See if MastaBlasta has posted something positive and troll that]

......

=(

.....

....erm....Is there any ETA for the server merge yet ?

Soon™

[Lazy]

2025

[trousers]

How long until the full suit of Stormtrooper Armor is complete?

http://cdn.funcom.com/ao/forums/attractortests.png

Ilaliya

[Otansaanpas]

steam... how about saving prefs folder in steam cloud?

[Ravenneyez]

This is a question that other players have had.

Basically, in 2009 Means promised a free breed change when we change game balance with respect to breeds. As far as I know, we haven't touched breed balance. So no breed-change-related promises from Means have been invalidated.

So why not just "award" the remaining loyal subscribers with 1 free Breed Change?

[Genele]

I wonder if there is still a way to get flagged in the newbie area, that will make for a TON of fun if we have a wave of new people from steam

We plan to add a pvp area in the NPE.

[Wakizaka]

We plan to add a pvp area in the NPE.

Reminds me of the days of yore where you could still get back onto n00b island with a flag and pew pew with people hehe.

[Gralmuph]

steam... how about saving prefs folder in steam cloud?

some kind of a cloud storage would be awesome atleast!

[Gimpynoob]

What I really would like to know is why are ql 119 sanguisugent pants dropping from Ado dryad bosses?

[Harios]

Thankyou for a detailed update. I hope these will continue as I find your writing style very clear.

I had 2questions on steam -
1) is steam roll-out likely to happen before the NPE? If so, isn't that going to hinder player retention? the current start up and early levels aren't the best.
2) have you made contigency plans for a sudden upturn in players if the steam roll-out is particularly sucessful?
will we hear 'the servers cannae take it cap'n!!'

looking forward to seeing what the next patch brings!

Steamlaunch with NPE, rebalance and engine would result in many more players, Im sure. But my guess is that the balance/NPE/engine got delayed so much that the steam plan kept running and the rest fell behind. Would just be stupid to launch the game without the updates.