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Thread: Tying up lose ends.. AO past, present, future..

  1. #1

    Tying up lose ends.. AO past, present, future..

    Anarchy Online, The experience Introductory Words:
    Then, it was a bold and strange (albeit buggy) new world that was 3D and dangerous. It was mysterious and in its time it was beautiful. Now it is old and while the game has expanded in terms of content and locations some things old have been neglected for better or worse till now. Soon the new AO Engine will be released and that feeling of splendorous wonder at the grandeurs within AO will be returning.

    I will do my best to outline how I believe Funcom could yield the greatest reward for their efforts from a developer/fan/player's point of view. As you do care about your product (Quite obvious to me from how things have been changing) and the player base (judging from how you have been taking our suggestions) and humility (having the foresight to listen to your community and react with purpose even if it is to change something that you had planned another way.. ie.. titles, inspect, etc..) and yet you know that these things will increase your ultimate goal: The Bottom Line. Year End Totals, Income and growth of the AO division of Funcom.

    I will encourage all members of this community to see this thread as I will signature it for my every post and hope that through it you can get the feed back needed to maximize every last bit of what you have cooking for us.

    The Beginning:
    A persons first moments with your game are the most important ever. I will to the best of my ability give you some comparisons and my suggestion for AO based on it and categorize it by its parts:
    • Intro Movies
    • Character Creation
    • Entering the Game world
    • First moments on RK
    • Some classics revisted
    • Unfinished Content
    • GUI Enhancements
    • Paid for bonus content
    • RP Points v3
    • General Game Enchancements
    • Bug Fixes
    • Wish List
    • New PVM Encounters
    • Implemented Game Suggestions


    Intro Movies

    By far the easiest way to get your "interested" player in to the storyline of the world quickly. Give them a heads up to the type of speech and buzz words of lingo relevant to the world and by the visual + audible connection you make words like Kyr'zoch actually a real word in our heads.

    Some other great examples of amazing Intro Movies exist in the newest generation of MMOs and Online games as well as offline games. Tabula Rasa has a great opening movie, Hellgate London as well tho I would rank HG:L higher on the engrossing story part.

    Now how this applies to AO. AO has old movies created for it in forms of episodes and even some newer animated content that some have found online and posted (See addition below). I don't pretend to understand your budget constraints or your AO Dev teams capabilities only to say that with the right equipment or "funcom assistance" we "the community" with your help to spear head the project could create an Intro movie for AO if a in house big budget job is just out of the question. Additionally I have this suggestion as the "easiest" most "cost effective" method.

    {Addition: Xinc }

    {Link for Awesome Fan Movie}

    This is an example of a movie that gets exactly the point across I am talking about.. In six minutes and thirty seconds they tell just about the entire history of AO and Rubika to a point of where your pre-rendered movie media ceased and we have nothing new.. please finish this video off with the newest stuff I know you got in house goodies use them! Just please use this video or do something just like it but newer!

    {EDIT: Watch that video then come back here and read this with just the music in the background it matches nicely! }


    If no "defacto" intro movie is made. Use cut excerpts from all pre-rendered material and produce a montage to music leading in to the AO logo closing and opening back up to the character creation screen. The imagery in my personal opinion if I were art director would be to go with the concept of "genetic memory" for the "tie-in" theme through out the movie.. Since there is the going theory that due to everyone having the same faces we are all essentially clones of the first colonists. Either way make the effects sorta like what you would get from a dream like rude awakening in your Gentic Tube you start in during Character Creation.

    {Addition: Keldros }

    {3 Seperate Movies, one for each side but based on the original AO movie intro}

    My suggestion in response: Instead of a 3 seperate movies; Put new quest lines that are received after leaving newbie island and before arriving in the backyard

    <see First moments on RK below for my updated idea based on Keldros post and Entering the Game world for a continuance of the old episodic content thought started here>

    Character Creation:
    The flight down the tunnel ending with the 4 breeds is still to me one of the best ways to lead in a character creation.. It follows the theme of drawing the person in to the world moment by moment that was so well done I would just like to see it face lifted to match the new engine. Enhancements would be having your chosen profession animate and show armor indicative of the professions end appearance vs only wearing Tier Armor which is highly misleading..

    Furthermore I have no idea what you have planned for addressing how players look in the game and if you added a new system much like the toted AoC character creation engine and all of us get to redesign our faces after the "release" I would be in joygasmic heaven

    Ending character creation would be just like before but have the person instead of just see their end result and then zoom in to the door make them step off the platform and walk through the door and before boarding the shuttle to RK.. Bring back the "Museum/ICC" <see below>

    Entering the game world:

    {Originally posted: Zeephonz }

    Please for the love of all thats holy bring back the ICC area where there were a bunch of NPC's to talk to for story bits. I spent a good amount of time reading that whole area before landing on RK / SL and I really miss it. {Edit: You really should take some time and make this entrance hall a showcase of the best your new engine has to offer.. window view of RK.. holographic projections the works I mean.. make it have NPCs boarding shuttles and talking/walking..}

    <Continued from above regarding the old animated series>

    Added to the old ICC space station is a new terminal that works off your in game advertising bill board tech. Giving menu'd access to play back each of the old ICC "holo events" aka the old Animated Series as a "Historical Archive" which you could add to and Mirror on RK in the "ICC Platforming" area. This nifty little thing would either stream locally (big install) or via the net (small install) for newcomers to be able to experience it without having to find the forums or dig through the RP sections of the website. It could only serve to get more bang for your buck out of those ancient videos that ushered many of us in to this game in the days of old.

    I would suggest of course updating it graphically to match the new engine changes but other than this screen would suggest little else other than to make there be at least 1 NPC for each faction that has "Latest News" ie.. Editor Articles that are offical storyline items. AKA A FJRKK, IRKK, OTPC news agent there with the last 3 headlines for each press house.

    Please give the treatment of the shuttle->RK a full work over with "Cinematic" as the core principal behind it. Make it "Tragic" to the person that they are one of the ONLY survivors of the crash.. or Do something equally as cool but keep the word "Cinematic" as the core principal leading up to everything you do beyond it. Now we enter the shuttle for RK but this time.. you should, whether, with a pre-rendered cut-scene (not preferred) or a 3D modeled out custom Scene that actually shows "crash landing" with other people on the ship (NPC is fine) with you and then blacking out then have the person be injured only capable of crawling till they got to the first mob would would unlock the ability to walk and tell them to sit down and use a heal kit on them teaching them the actions /sit, /stand, /crawl and how to heal before even playing which will come in to play later on when they interact with the world.

    First moments on RK:

    {Originally posted: Tani }

    The newbie island as it was with the old item drop table, lootable AI items (glow sticks anyone?), implants, rings, etc, was such a great thing that actually made my time rolling an alt fun. Now I am off the island before lvl 5 if I can help it. There just literally is no reason for me to stay. While before I would find a newcomer and help them explain things to them etc I no longer do. I rush right through and barely even notice a name there. Please make Newbie island fun again when you get to the upgrading it part. And add an implant tech lol.. put a literal "Implants guide" on newbie island so its not out of place anywhere else. Make putting implants together and in part of a quest on the island. This will make the bottom of our playerbase stronger as they come up in the levels. And if the engine is released right and gets a major resurgance of users then this will be a great thing.

    {Additon from: Vassilis }

    {However, I'd like to see something like the old backyards where higher levels could come and interact with new players...}

    My Suggestion in response: Perhaps newcomers don't just arrive at the gate of the city after leaving newbie island.. instead they arrive in the backyards just like the old days.. give the backyards a slight facelift and let people relive what we once did?

    <From above regarding leaving the newbie island>
    When you leave newbie island you arrive in a orientation room and are greeted by a NPC representative of each of the selected factions "parties" For OT you have the divisions, Clan has the Legacy Clans and Neutrals have Local Governments. Each would have a bit about themself and what they stand for which would then let you "sign up" with them. This would then select your starting backyard. Make it like a mini-instance that gears you up with some symbolic RP items and a bit of sided useful gear to show visible support for your side such as an Omni-Pol officers uniform or med suit or other similar type of items that would give a bit of guidance to a new player helping them to have more fun quickly and be drawn in to the game world and storyline.

    What would be really fun is if the actual ARKs randomly showed up in this orientation room such as having a guest apperance by Sir Tristram or by Simon Silverstone just to say.. "Greetings.." and then leave.. you have no idea the impact this would have on players..

    An example:
    • Knights of Avalon supporters arrive in a Camelot Backyard (where higher level Knight supporters would be encouraged to go to find likeminded new recruits) Would be presented with quests that have a "Moral code" similar to what a Knight follower would find "good" to do to level up. Could be saving people etc.
    • Sentinels start in Tir and hunt down some neuts collaborating with Omnis in a backyard..
    • OT would have say "Omni-Mining" and would select the appropriate starting location with a backyard in it oriented around that division.
    • Omni-Pol would start you in say Omni-HQ etc..
    • Neutrals would be presented with the "flavors and themes" within and relevant to each of the local governments.. Borealis for now might be joining a freedom fighters brigade executing little strikes against Omni to free borealis or..
    • Newland City which would have a totally different view such as strengthening the defense a quest might be finding and returning X of Y ammunitions crates etc..


    {Addition: Trousers }
    {Omnis take the Omni Tunnel out of the Arrival Hall and end up in Entertainment in the middle of an alien assault. Here they will have exposure to different OT Departments. Pol trying to maintain order, Med trying to deal with wounded soldiers, AF trying to fight aliens invading the Slums, etc. Players can kill wildlife encroaching into the city for XP, or drug addicts in the Slums not being invaded. Leveling from say 1-10 should mostly happen from quest XP rewards that give Lore rather then grinding mobs.

    Substitute Tir/Athens/Newland/Lastditch as well as factions as needed to create the experience for the 3 factions.}

    My reply: I don't agree with the right out of ICC part but I do believe this would fit with my suggestion of post newbie island.

    Some classics revisted:
    As you detail out the world from what I have seen you are improving everythings appearance across the board. Please add at least 1 if not more new ways to interact with each old environment. Even if its in code still "if clicked == yes do xyz" just spend a little time to increase our interactivity level with each other and the game.

    Currently you could argue that players are many holographs running around in a VR simulation because of how things are tangible. Obviously when your going through and remodeling things the bounding boxes and issues of the past will melt away to being meaningless thanks to new physics engines (any word on which Havok or other yet?)

    A few types of interactions that I think would be nice is things that change the world or let your character feel physically apart of it would take precedence. An example would be making /hug <target> actually animate a hug or /sit <target> actually sit on the object such as a chair or a stool.
    • Add new luxery money sink items in to the game that have these new interactions such as in home grids and home security plus B&E skill becoming useful by allowing for someone to hack a flagged person's house to get inside as mentioned in the "changes for PVP thread"
    • Grid PVP.. come on give this to us already???
    • Fixer Grid PVP.. ok so they get advantages there.. but please make this happen!
    • Upgrades for old RK items such as Edge of Tarasque.. these things could so use an upgrade.. in case you haven't noticed.. We <3 RK tech! -Added in 17.9
    • Custom Org Governing Forms: by Berael (and many others)
    Last edited by Xaun; Nov 6th, 2008 at 14:11:25.

  2. #2
    Unfinished Content:
    Ok so the Shadowlands works as a bunch of disjointed islands without crossable borders between but for RK this is ugh? Please take a look at the old maps created to finish off the entire surface of the planet as it was originally intended with all the missing areas that never got filled in. Please while doing this fix all the broken zone lines that are currently BOLDED on our maps to let us know it isn't crossable.

    GUI Enhancements:

    Alright this is a touchy one but lets just say.. scrap it and start over with the new engine. I mean give it a top down overhaul. An example of a superb GUI Metroid Prime. I know its nice for its time and it works "mostly" but I can think of a few better ways to handle somethings and will outline here:
    • Camera controls make or break a game. Please rethink this from the start as you can see how much people care about this feature. The more options for control by us the better.. just make our cameras have a "director" type mode that gives us settings to make it behave the way we want. This is the ONLY way you will ever please everyone.
    • Mapping is majorly important and as of right now AO's maps are so terrible that they are replaced by 3rd parties as fast as someone learns about it. Its literally a no-no to have the default AO maps installed only and this is no secret. Give us not only newly rendered high detail zoomable map.. make it have a neat interface hell I will design an GUI for AO and submit it if you will give it some considerations.. make the map interactive meaning.. Let us right click on it and mark it then be able to label the mark waypoints on the map then let us send this mark to others in our team or via tell system.
    • Compass, rework it to high res with a dimming (distance) multi-icon (type) system with a visual overlay of waypoints. In Neocron it had a buggy but amazingly done navigation system/compass even Eve has a great navigation system.. (albeit truly the only movement you do in the game most of the time lol.. )You would enter your desired location in to the HUD and it would track out a path for you automatically from your current position to your desination with a nice little overlay that only you could see in the game world. Please use a system like this and make it tied in with the way point system of the Main Map and with the mission terminal system. Variable options for the "point to point tracking" would be safest route, fastest route, non-pvp gas route, grid/no-grid, wompah/no wompah, etc.
    • PF Map, steal the radar right out from GW I do not care what anyone says this is the single best feature in a game for cordination even WoW has it so its not like only one game does it. I want to click and be able to Ping a dot to my party and a little arrow pointing which direction party members are would help too.. Hell that "feature" of wow I do like.
    • Inventory is fine but please implement a WoW like mailing system.. {Originally Posted: Mashalasha } its both a money sink and a means of doing business between time zones without the use of a player city/auction house. It is a way to get items to your alts that you don't have to worry about is xyz going to log off and steal your object worth every penny you've ever saved
    • Tradeskilling window is another thing you can basically just steal right out of WoW and I don't think anyone would protest at all. put a row at the bottom for Tradeskilling to occur where both people put ingredients in the proper slots as is logical.. ie.. only certain parts are tradable and the rest no-drop etc.. there are two reasons for this. One I can't tell you how many times I have been pissed I had to up a stat just to self tradeskill something that is no-drop and two no one can steal your stuff and run, again it happens.. who's really to blame the thief or the victim?
    • Hotbars should be reworked. Yes you guys effectively gave us an unlimited number of programmable buttons but no way to assign them to keys. Please look at that one (can someone find it?) suggestion that a person drew up for how a hotbar could look with multiple rows in one neat bar and base the design visually from that.
    • Implanting, ok.. so its something you can do on the run and if we changed anything in it you'd basically infuriate everyone so I would leave this alone. Its your best invention in the game really twinking == unique to AO and == <3
    • The items/utils/nano programs/etc panels just scrap it.. all of it.. get rid of that entire side bar and just start over. Integrate these things into a clean fluid pretty UI. If none of you have played Neocron please download the trial and see their UI even tho its buggy and old and well ugly.. how it functions is in my opinion one of the best. Next to that would be the PiP boy in Fallout.. give us some love on how we see our stuff please?
    • Preview/Wardrobing, please let us see what we are trying to put on before we do. Again a feature from WoW I don't think anyone would complain about at all if you stole exactly how it works. There you don't have to twink to get a preview and its still one of my most used features in my time there
    • {Addition: Legion84 }
      {Chat interface improvements such as being able to change the colors of fonts for various types of messages }
    • {Addition: Chaoticshade | Letminego }
      {In game notepad, chat system fixes, more dynamic gui options, Various image controls, Friend list improvements, video options}
    • Armor & Weapons, when this goes live I would reset everything in the DB as far as items go for the post SL stuff. Roll the entire system back to when everything had a major flaw somewhere. Nothing was perfect. It made the diversity of the game better even at the top TL's. I had suggested a item socketing system that would let someone keep their twinked on 300 CC set but have to apply items to get the stats they wanted. I would comb the database for "OP" items and truly bring balance back to AO.

      Oh yeah and did I mention.. give users blank item (appearance) templates that have no stats and socket all stats in to it? Use the principal of AI tech robes and let people pick what they want and then assign the stats they want. You will never hear.. "what the hell was your designers thinking this looks like it should be for XYZ profession" again.. they just won't pick designs they don't like but as long as you give us many options to chose from as our base and then customize/add on top of it more layers later then you have yet another way to players making instead of .

      The armor would be differently "webbed" / "rigged" it would still be basically ranging from "Light to Heavy" armoring in various "styles" but then give the purpose true meaning. Anytime you add more raw Armor you lose some of the space to put extra things like critical systems, hacking, life regen, etc. So I proposed a socketing system that would in effect work like this:


      Style template A-10001
      Name: Ghost
      Purpose: Espionage
      QL:300
      Effects: +stat (socketable 1500pts)
      +stat (Socketable 1250pts)
      +stat (socketable 1250pts)
      Base AC: (Socketable 1000pts)
      Weakness: (Socketable -1000pts)
      Bonus Effect: +conceal
      +Perception

      vs

      Style Template B-10001
      Name: Cougar
      Purpose: Close Quarters Combat
      QL:300
      Effects: +stat (socketable 1000pts)
      +stat (Socketable 500pts)
      +stat (socketable 500pts)
      Base AC: (Socketable 3000pts)
      Weakness: (Socketable -1000pts)
      Bonus Effect: Proc effect on hit to snare nearby enemies based on MM skill vs NR check


      ----------------------------


      Style template A-10000
      Name: Ghost
      Purpose: Espionage
      QL:220
      Effects: +stat (socketable 1000pts)
      +stat (Socketable 1000pts)
      +stat (socketable 1000pts)
      Base AC: (Socketable 1000pts)
      Weakness: (Socketable -750pts)
      Bonus Effect: +conceal
      +Perception

      vs

      Style Template B-10000
      Name: Cougar
      Purpose: Close Quarters Combat
      QL:220
      Effects: +stat (socketable 800pts)
      +stat (Socketable 350pts)
      +stat (socketable 350pts)
      Base AC: (Socketable 2500pts)
      Weakness: (Socketable -750pts)
      Bonus Effect: Proc effect on hit to snare nearby enemies based on MM skill vs NR check

      If this was handled the same way Implants are handled now you would have an ultimate winner! Think of it as a pick your appearance and then add extras on top. I added the bonus effect if you keep it somewhat profession oriented albeit not profession locked. This could mean that a keeper could wear +conceal/percep armor at the expense of the extra AC spending points and the proc effect. Mind you I could come up with 5000000 examples of this armor system but will try to sum it up below:

      Each socket is worth a value in points; Each socketable upgrade has an equivalent number of points; Some armor will allow for a higher quality single socketed item or others a more balanced even socket strength at the expense per slot being lowered in comparison to anothers single max stat. In my example the two 300 sets come with a innate socketable value of 5000 total with a -1000 Weakness attribute, while the 220 sets come with a 4000 total with a -750 weakness value. How the player decides to use those points is up to them. If there is a type 1 type 2 and type 3 socket *bright/shiny/faded* it will prevent someone socketing something like say.. Evades 3 times.. in one item.. This will make all armor equal and balanced for its strengths and weaknesses instead of just this is better than that period. If this was added to a meaningful tradeskilling system then you would kill two birds with one stone.

    Paid for bonus Content:
    I would suggest as the #1 bonus content items would be really considered RP aids. Things that even non-RPers would want. Examples:
    • Emotes, more is better let us interact with each other in more ways. You know what goes on down at Reets
    • Animation Overriders, (yeah yeah SL ;p) let people buy bonus content that replaces how their characters sit, stand, walk, dance etc. Entire packs for each race from sexy/slutty to drunken boxing.. do it all you want to make pure gold in terms of paid for content sales? Do this I promise you won't regret it
    • Custom item naming, I still want my 2hE Xaun's Holy Wrath to be my weapon of choice for combat.. destruction..


    Relaunching AO to the Media & World:

    Its been discussed a thousand times.. market it.. use TSW as an example.. give the world something to talk about and do it with passion. Passion will be remembered for all time.
    Last edited by Xaun; Apr 17th, 2008 at 02:19:41.

  3. #3
    RP Points system v3!

    http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=476590 *older v2 discussion

    That is the old thread which I will leave in the past as I had a few refining ideas during its discussion and will re-propose it here updated to reflect peoples concerns in its time.

    Its someone's job at Funcom to decide what next nefarious plot each side will come up with. Where to take the story and along with every other thing the players in the game want.. every little change or addition to the storyline runs the risk of upsetting xyz groups of people. So instead of making the storyline as rich and in-depth as possible... alot of plots are rather shallow, lack any true impact and or go unfinished due to changes in the Storyline ARK team. This causes Chaos because the new members of the ARK team have to figure out who/what/when/where/why of what is going on.. then try to conclude it some how. My idea was to provide a player feedback tool to both Funcom and the ARK coordinators as to where they would like to see their side go.

    Now lets imagine for a second that there is a database that has each side pushing one goal higher than the others in a list based on what players contribute during their regular day to day routines. This option being proposed has no way to influence other than physically having a check mark in a box for your desired objective and being online. The premise is this:

    When you are out there killing XYZ, or in the Cup or in Reets or Farming, Camping, Raiding.. what is your characters true goal? Sure everyone wants to get the phats! But why? What reason would your "character" have for doing those things. Now how you handle your personal storyline plots is your own thing. This would be an additional tool for RPers of all types casual, closet, Epic Story etc.. to tell funcom what their up to without having to email feedback to do so.

    Any ARK current or future would be able to see what plots people are most interested in seeing happen. Would have player based feedback on a large enough scale to make a large group of the player base happy with storyline changes, etc. In the end this would result in a boom of RP because guess what? There are actual EVENTS WITH ARKS based on what your faction has been trying to achieve.. which would spawn all sorts of "little personal RP buzz" which would in turn draw more people into it. Additionally, RPers would want to do that "little pushing" of plots with their friends in "small personal RP" to get them to agree with why you are pushing an agenda (ie convince others to put a check in that box too!) Some plots would disappear when others completed because they would no longer be relevant and would be replaced by new story arcs continued from the other but ranging from Pro-Anti various positions on political things in the game world.

    Funcom would in the same fashion as our LE research windows give us a place where the Story Team could put up potential future goals for a side with no visible feedback to the user so it cannot be exploited. The user would select a position ranging from Aggressive - Neutral - Passive type of plot lines. Examples could range from invading Borealis and reclaiming it for the clans or for omni-tek or the neutrals and the side that spends the most RP Resources in this goal does so. Other goals could be invading say 4-Holes and taking it back by Omni-Tek, Defending 4-Holes by Clans or Leave 4-Holes. It could deal with voting system in game for elections such as Omni-Leadership/Clan leadership/Neutral Local Leaderships. It could serve to allow us to add some more rounded out things such as the wild antics of ARK like new Pie factories and even offworld character involvement such as ICC or SolBanking.
    {EDIT: I had an epiphany during proof reading this.. what if you had just a basic "RP" bar that only worked if you enabled it in the event participation option. Anytime you are online you are earning points in this little counter.. when it "levels" you get to assign RP Points to various plot lines just like we assign IP to stats.. In effect you would get to spread out your characters "spent time" doing things how you like instead of just having to mentally remember to go swap to another plot line you like. This would allow you to support invasion of XYZ, while still saying you want a new Pie shop in OA!}

    The player's written stories in the forums & The special event meetings with ARK teams could be a palate by which the ARK team could use to come up with potential story lines. Then compile a list of say 10-50 possible major story arc per side and the related potential outcomes. Then regardless of wether you sit in the cup all day long chatting or are out there doing something else, at the end of the day there are 5k players who left a check mark in the same option adding .005 more points to that STORY ARCs progress as what they were trying to accomplish all day long wether talking, twinking, pvping, tower bashing, pvm'ing etc...

    The end result would be RP would have the ability to change the world without changing how you have been playing the game thus far. It would just be giving you a direct feedback line to Funcom relating to what the players want to see Funcom do with the story but still leave the final control utterly in their control to make things happen and to pick when to do it..

    Additionally.. imagine this scenerio:

    ARK team wants to run an event.. so they do get it written etc.. then they do a check using this new tool:

    !online EventP1 (event participation == yes)
    :::LIST RETURNED:::
    !filter OTStory1 (online people supporting a particular story arc)
    :::LIST RETURNED:::

    Mind you they'd likely have a cute lil gui to do this if someone put enough time in to it and they could see level ranges of players supporting a cause locations and if the new updated map & waypoint system was implemented that would allow them to contact and rally people in minutes without having to warp etc and even coordinate the event with the players.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nanofat View Post
    The game should include the ability to spend money on items which have tangible RP value.
    RP is in itself its own reward; but supportive tools so people can assume the roles of "Dungeon Master" in their own enviroments would probably benefit the movement.

    Keys to empty dungeons.
    1,2,3 level dungeons in the usual RK and SL styles of Cave/Dungeon/Warehouse/Lab you know the kinds.
    The key itself can be "bound" to a door; which means the RP masta can make quest locations.
    "Master Key" holder wont be agged by mobs so dungeon masters can run around and do their thing; Rclicking a key also toggles invisibility inside the dungeon.

    Summonable mobs.
    NO XP/Cred dropping mobs with RP themes from Omni/Clan
    Summonable bosses - non-agging bosses who will talk with their owner and will accept items/creds in trade which can then be looted by whomever kills him.
    Several Unique names (for persistant quests) along with some random ones for little bosses.
    Dungeon decorations/Mines available.

    Quest Items.
    A bunch of useless quest items with verious art/names who's unique ID can be bound to NPC/Boss interactions.

    Outdoor RP
    RP "Locations" like tower zones which can be "captured" by a RPer for 48 hrs.
    In these locations similar mob/bosses can be spawned but the "Dungeon Master" is the only one who is able to dish-out a NCU program which enables access to the area while it is owned by them. Anyone else just gets warped-out.

    NPCs.
    who will ramble a series of RP-cliche quest sentences and accept items in trade for items can also be spawned.
    (although this can often be a player in role)

    None of this stuff can be considered "phatz" because all creds/items involved are transfered between players.
    Infact its a money sink because all these bosses/dungeons/items will cost creds.
    SL, AI and LE - specific objects for quests can be purchased in SL locations; made/traded for from AI mob drops; and purchased with VP.

    Like ARKS, players will be able to create/run their own quests and series of quests and actually reward eachother with ingame items.

    I'd run quests for lowbies myself; making "Credz plax" froobs jump through my hoops before rewarding them for their efforts
    Great ideas really. I have to say thanks for the additions.

    General Game Enhancements:

    {Addition: Keldros }
    {On a related note, it would be good to see "news updates" about tower wars on the animated billboards--with nine clips, you can give a general sense of which side has been attacking which other side lately. With 27 clips, you can put a different slant on the news as viewed in omni/clan/neutral cities.}

    {Addition: Honorbound }
    {Detailed planetmap with extra info}

    {Addition: Xaun }
    {Notum Wars Bases / Silos actually Mine Notum? Notum Miner Profession ftw! All NW participating or all organizations forced to choose a legacy affiliation for Future Content Reasons such as NPC reactions to a player and rewards, NW toys and more..}

    {Addition: ZephyrClaw }
    {New Animations for Perks/Actions ie.. S&D / Painlance / etc}

    {Addition: Xaun }
    {Allow new IP reset points to be earned through a looped continuously gaining XP counter equal to the amount of XP required to go from 219-220. Each time you would ding you get another IPR}

    {Addition: Megabrawlman }
    {Dynamic Icon scaling in the new GUI}

    {Addition: Legion84 }
    { Apartments, rework the system, make them viewable outside or something new skyscrapers with good views neon lights and all this space age technology also you have to pay a weekly fee (rent/mortgage/buying lump sum) give people bonuses for having one to make it worthwhile owning/renting one so that the economy of AO will spend/get rid of some money (because when items start costing more then 1billion that sucks) 1billion per character could be increased but i think a 1billion limit is good just the economy got out of hand..}

    {Addition:Turbocharged
    {One Key to Rule them all - Sided keys combine into one single key to access all areas of SL}

    {Addition:Threeze
    {Please Consider Opening All RK Zones}

    {Addition:Galilei
    {Wild wild west and terraforming!}

    {Addition:Xaun
    {Fix Link Dead Status & Player already logged in}

    {Addition:Chrys
    {Alien Forward Assault Base/Task Force}

    {Addition:Chrys
    {Level lock decay}

    {Addition:Theonora
    {default settings for stuff}

    {Addition:Xaun & Fixietrox
    {PvP Taunting & CC - Maaango!}

    {Addition:Devictus
    {The "Tab"! ~ Customizable tabbing}

    Bug Fixes:
    • Fix Proc Firing Xaun's | Mastablasta's | Kuznechik's
    • Increase the size of the OFAB Wolf! 2hE Weapons should be bigger! And make it scale with size, right now it looks to small in all breeds hands especially atrox.
    • Flying.. please fix it.. all over it just sux and needs to be fixed it used to work Mech Tech ruined it.
    • Make AI / Apartment objects physical objects that you can sit on stand on and interact with.


    Wish List
    Last edited by Xaun; Nov 11th, 2008 at 18:53:44.

  4. #4
    New PVM Encounters: Elite Instance | Strategic Missions by Zeephonz

    Purpose:
    To create a challenging end game raid environment for 12 players to complete ie two teams with enough variation in "actions" to need almost every profession represented for a particular duty but dynamic enough to not require any exact team template and allow for every profession to be able to be important by making it easier one way vs another because a certain profession is present for a particular part like an example would be if a crat is around it can charm a particular creature that would normally be an obstacle, fixers can hack the defense nodes to disable turrets, etc. The key elements here are that there would be effectively at least 12 different variable key tactics employed to successfully take down this type instance which would be utilizing a mixture of all of the professions in AO. An example of this suggestion is that each profession would have a "item" that only their profession could interact with that gave the teams a key advantage in how it is approached making EVERYONE feel important and useful for every raid. NO PROFESSIONS LEFT BEHIND!

    How to complete:
    Coordinated item usage + normal kill/heal type game play. Let it include Mechs & turrets and be a like an alien hive infestation on Rubika.The aliens have setup turrets and stuff around a great mothership that has landed..

    Starting the quest:
    Each profession would take a profession based non-repeatable quest that can be accomplished with a team each getting a unique reward for their professions tool kit regarding use in this instance at the end along with some xp and maybe some VP in there too The quest would tell the story of how this ship was discovered on a non terraformed part of the planet.. and the beginning of the quest is getting there.. everyone has to start Mech'd just to get into a terraformed bubble around the ship.. this puts a timer on how soon anyone can employ those mechanics again and should be spaced properly to force players to use their mech's turrets from here on out strategically.

    The Elite Instance:
    -The players must, using Mechs, take out the turrets while non-Meched people kill the waves of defenders that come from the mothership.. (the group could not employ Turrets at this point because stopping to turret would be bad due to aerial bombardments that does dmg to "technology" aka "mechs/turrets")

    -Then after conquering that part they move on to the next stage which requires 3 locations to be hacked.. During this time the defenders would setup Turrets (both types because some of the aliens would be using new "siege technology" aka "mecha") around each node to bring down part of the defense grid which will open the final stage of the instance (inside the ship).

    The trick is to make it so that you cannot complete the instance without using all 4 types of gameplay "Mech/Anti-Mech turret/Anti-Personnel Turret/Normal Non-shape shifted.

    -Miniboss fight occurs with a "New Alien" at the point that the ship is hacked and afterward becomes boardable. (I have some sick crazy ideas about how it would look.. damn I wish I could draw it out.. would take so long to do a 3D sketch of it but might have to try >.<)

    -Ship is boarded and is nothing like either Alien ship instance used so far. It would be designed more akin to the BS in layout but not in texture/object detail in that respect it would be either something new or a mix of the existing styles of Alien designs. While inside there will be several paths that can be taken. If you have a NT, you can dissolve a shield bubble that grants a short cut. If you have a Trader you can steal a special power that makes the boss fight easier and turns a trader into a mega DD class for that fight alone, if you have a Shade they can sneak past a certain group of sentries that and open a back door, if you have a fixer they can hack a particular node, etc.

    -Final boss THE ALIEN QUEEN CLASS (I imagine this thing being two stories tall and would make every example of a creature or boss in the game seem small and in perspective for such a huge fight) Battle takes place on two levels dividing the players into two groups, One group will have fought their way to a control room and the other to the boss room. The group in the control room would have to protect an operator while they open doors and unblock obstacles that the second team would be encountering while facing the boss directly. What this does is forces both teams to work together to accomplish the instance and makes it a challenge that cannot just be easily farmed.

    Anyway, I know you all want interesting and challenging PVM and so do I! So this is my suggestion. There would be random dropped loot but also at the completion every member of both teams would get a "token" which would be used in the new vendors with new PVM loot in it.

    This is looking at the gaming market like this: Many have stolen from AO, AO has taken back, everyone "borrows" ideas. I am just trying to point out the ones that I find the things I wish every game did as a status quo of the norm or the best I have ever seen. If you know, or are the person, who came up with an idea that are not my own please feel free to post here and I will update the main post with your credit and a link to your original thread as I cannot remember who or when to find them myself. I would like to make this a compiled list of all the most beloved suggestions and welcome to people posting their ideas with links in this thread to keep it organized. I will update the next post of mine with idea lists as they are listed


    More to come later as this is discussed and feel free to bump this quoting the parts you particularly like...

    ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::NEWLY ADDED PROPOSAL FOR CONSIDERATION ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

    Quote Originally Posted by Xaun View Post
    Thanks

    I had a sort of brain storm based on something rather comical from the community. The "Notum Miner Profession" as we all know is a classic and beloved community joke.. but seriously.. Can our Notum Silo's actually.. you know.. Mine Notum?

    Here's the pitch:

    Having a NW "Base" aka a Mining Site hooks your Org to a side based "extraction and refinement network" Basically it works like this:

    We have an org bank which is a variable number in a database representing "credits". Give organizations a new variable representing "Notum Caches". Every "X" interval of time based on the QL of the site lets just say 1-100 ratio for now and use 4 hours as our interval variable.

    QL 1 site = 100 notum for a CT alone every 4 hours.
    • Each Cannon/Turret tower planted gives an extra 25 Notum per interval
    • Each Support tower planted gives an extra 50 Notum per interval
    • Introduce a new tower call "Notum Extractor" which has 0 offensive/defensive/buffing capabilities beyond harvesting raw notum and gives a bonus of 200 Notum per interval.

    Scale this up as necessary and then introduce a global Notum Trade / Exchange Market both Official and Blackmarket variants:

    Examples:
    • Omni-Mining Facility gives X % interest on the exchange rate for all omni orgs based on side XP
    • ICC Facility gives X % interest based on faction & that faction's side XP
    • Blackmarket options could include "Unionists/Dust Brigade/Sol Banking/Other 'connected parties' " etc... they give a X% interest based on faction & that faction's side XP and how each individual blackmarket resource views a particular side.


    Make these markets non-static.. make the "supply/demand" augment these rates. Let the org pres decide which market to sell their notum to and choose when to sell. This will add more depth to NW on top of giving orgs a reason to have a base beyond "buffs" because it becomes a way to earn money for your members.

    I would like to take a suggestion also and say for the first time ever lets factionalize orgs:
    If all orgs were forced to select an RP based mechanic ie.. "Department in OT/ Legacy Clan / Local Law Government" then it would give this market some true dynamics in how the NPC's reacted to people based on their orgs actions. Lets say for example that a power org that is constantly killing the DB would loose standings with the DB and make any exchanges between said org and the DB drop dramatically but an org that has not killed the DB would get a better return from them.

    Orgs who attack Neutrals will lose standings with ICC. Orgs that attack Clans lose standings with Unionists/clan reps.. Orgs that attack Omni will lose standings with Omni. This would make the actions of an org be held accountable in many respects.

    Additionally, each of the various "Exporters" could have custom Towers/NW items that can only be accessed through gaining enough faction with that particular exchange group based on transactional standings with them. In short, constantly doing business with the same person has rewards that shifting around to the best market does not have.

    I could go on about how important making organizations select an RP based legacy to follow could be for other future PVM content as well as PVP content but I think I have got the ball rolling in your mind enough for now.

    What do you all think? Should I put this in the OP?
    Quote Originally Posted by Boltgun View Post
    I think introductions should be reworked. There is already something about cinematics but I see it that way :

    First it's the only place where they tell you can building your identity like changing breed and such. The only other place I saw it is in the original manual mentioning Tucker being changed from Solitus to Atrox upon arrival to RK. Still it gotta be that way since it only make sense for a Solitus or Opifex to be an moving to the planet.

    But anyway... First starting on Rubi Ka, after a shot of the shuttle (this time with matching OT colors like on the Morning Star!). Your char is sitting in his cabin with his bag, and the script follow the "OMG we're going down". After coma you see the face of the nurse you used to see in the first version of noob island reanimating you and dragging you out.
    Then you're outside, she scan you for reclaim and tells you to talk to the doctor. I don't get why AI weapons are confusing but having to guess that the guy hand you the starting equipment not.

    Shadowlands start, a view of the shuttle landing on a platform at Jobe. Then cut to your char walking down a corridor escorted by 2 scientists and a armed Jobe guard. They talk about the exciting, and dangerous, experiments about to happen. The group reach a door opening to a huge gate room (those who did SL beta remembers), one technician hands you a bag and you walk toward the gate. Materializing in the shadowland and disoriented the hologram guy appears in front of you, and then you have control. The hologram will tell you the usual instructions.

    As for the arrival hall, personal I'd love to have it back as a museum you can access and see important artifacts of the game and events.

    Edit : And the audio must be looked at, many sounds are now gone. I mean all the interface sound, all of them! Lots of footsteps are MIA, ranged and melee hit sound are missing, let alone checking against target type to give a "flesh" or "metal" hit. Missing gunfires ricochets. Tons of unused nano execution sounds, did you knew that all the different nano effect have sounds made for them ? I think FC did a great job bringing new music but the sound effect shouldn't be forgotten.
    It is not to be disregarded, my souvenirs of pre SL days included the sounds of picking stuff of my inventory, the dingdingding when adding my IP and all. It's important for the ambience. And it should helps a lot when receiving tells of invite to team and BS.
    After thinking about it I just moved Boltgun's entire post here.. It is good stuff!

    Implemented Game Suggestions
    • Team PvP titles: {Xaun}
    • Chicken or the Egg: {Xaun}
    • Upgrades for old RK items such as Edge of Tarasque.. these things could so use an upgrade.. in case you haven't noticed.. We <3 RK tech! -Added in 17.9
    • Fix LD Status & Player Already Logged In (Part of this is done.. the team lock out is now fixed as of 17.10 Team mates who have dropped can now rejoin a team: {Xaun}
    Last edited by Xaun; Nov 4th, 2008 at 07:06:51.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Xaun View Post
    Geez people I know its 100,000 pts of wall of text dmg but ffs read the thing lol..
    I agree with everything said Xaun, put the original intro movie back into the game, remake noob island the way it was, finish RK, ect. It will finally add the full life to the game. Make the new zones that weren't added for what ever reason tough zones, make some tough for froobs, some tough for paying players. Add new instances to the game which require the use of the new highly over powered crap that was added, ect.

  6. #6

  7. #7
    ambitious
    Threeze - 220/24/69 Neutral Fixer [Old New E], [Old Old E]
    Threezeley -220/17 Neutral Meta-Physicist
    Maytricks -218/18 Neutral Doctor
    Beautystrike -150/00 Neutral Nano-Technician
    Bloodred -150/05 Clan Agent
    Optimize -147/05 Omni Bureaucrat
    Maytri -120/02 Neutral Engineer
    Oneze -74/07 Neutral Fixer

  8. #8
    Huge bump

    However, I'd like to see something like the old backyards where higher levels could come and interact with new players. I used to enjoy going to the rome blue backyards with my high level toon and help/explain the game mechanics to new players. Now it's not doable anymore
    Vassilis - lvl 220/30 Adventurer (RK2)
    Perasma - lvl 207/xx Enforcer
    Martingale - lvl 150/20 Fixer
    Gouryella - lvl 114/12 Trader
    Zocalo - lvl 95/10 Agent

    Dark Front
    - Visit our Forums

  9. #9
    Intro movies: There used to be an intro movie for the game, and I'm not talking about the animated series. Remember the little clanner girl playing in the sand, then the scene dissolves to the same girl years later, fighting in the trenches?

    What would be great would be three different intro movies, one for each faction.


    On a related note, it would be good to see "news updates" about tower wars on the animated billboards--with nine clips, you can give a general sense of which side has been attacking which other side lately. With 27 clips, you can put a different slant on the news as viewed in omni/clan/neutral cities.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Vassilis View Post
    Huge bump

    However, I'd like to see something like the old backyards where higher levels could come and interact with new players. I used to enjoy going to the rome blue backyards with my high level toon and help/explain the game mechanics to new players. Now it's not doable anymore
    Perhaps a suggestion would be that newcomers don't just arrive at the gate of the city after leaving newbie island.. instead they arrive in the backyards just like the old days.. give the backyards a slight facelift and let people relive what we once did?

    Quote Originally Posted by Keldros View Post
    Intro movies: There used to be an intro movie for the game, and I'm not talking about the animated series. Remember the little clanner girl playing in the sand, then the scene dissolves to the same girl years later, fighting in the trenches?

    What would be great would be three different intro movies, one for each faction.


    On a related note, it would be good to see "news updates" about tower wars on the animated billboards--with nine clips, you can give a general sense of which side has been attacking which other side lately. With 27 clips, you can put a different slant on the news as viewed in omni/clan/neutral cities.
    Indeed I was including it in my concept of "All pre-rendered movie/material" to make a new intro.. but either way I completely agree.

  11. #11
    basically what xaun posted is practically everything that i would like to be done to AO

  12. #12
    Generally, most of the OP sounds nice, a few personal notes/opinion on some parts...

    Intro movie
    Doesn't even have to be rendered/animated to have a strong impact on new players. A series of stills or semi-animated images with panning and voiceovers can be just as good if it's done right and the artwork is class (EVE Online, for example, has this kind of intro, and I liked that one very much). It can deliver a lot more information in the same amount of time (and data) than a 90 second movie filled with eye-candy, but not much more.
    AO has a pretty complex background story-wise which takes time to present, even if you're down to the very basics; a recap of the past 27k years, nanotechnology, corporations, what/where is Rubi-Ka, why is it so important, how the factions came to be, what are their motivations, goals, etc. Offering at least a glimpse into these topics would do a lot to help the new players get their bearings and provide at least a basic understanding of what sort of world (game) it is they're about to enter.

    Char creation, entering the game world, first steps
    100% in agreement. Removing the ICC Arrival Hall was one of the worst ideas I've ever seen in AO reagrding the game world. The new arrival sequence just doesn't make sense the way it is now.
    It would be really nice to have it enhanced and restored, maybe with a check-box somewhere that allows for the more impatient player to skip it and just get dropped on the Shuttleport Island.
    The Shuttleport itself also seems to have lost some of it's old charm; I really enjoyed those first few hours I spent there when I rolled a new char before the changes. It's not that bad in it's current form either, but something seems to have been lost. Taking some time to monitor the most frequently asked questions about certain game mechanics on Newbie OOC, and adding small quests or tutorials to explain them could be useful indeed (like implant creation and use, or even explaining some not-so-obvious profession specific game mechanisms like pet use).

    Interactive billboards could be nice, delivering news, land control status and whatnot.

    Collision detection and improved physics in general could be a problem as it would significantly increase network traffic and/or server load (or both) depending on how it is implemented. It would be nice, but I don't find it a priority.

    Grid PvP, not sure what you mean, maybe some cyberpunk-style hacking/ICE-breaking kind of combat with offensive programs, viruses and such instead of weapons? I don't quite see the point or where it would fit in the game in general as virtual reality never played a significant part in the AO story. Maybe as a paid points mini-expansion...?

    Expanding RK, opening up planned but never finished zones: yes, please, it would be really nice, and would solve some long standing problems (AI city plots and LCAs, if nothing else). I realize it's a lot of work, and I'm not saying I expect them to be finished and opened by the end of the next month. More like a long-term imporvement goal, aiming to finish, populate, and open a new zone in every 3-6 months or so, depending on how much "free" time do the devs have to work on them in addition to the more frequent content additions, fixes and such.

    A new, more streamlined and more freely organizable GUI would indeed be nice; one that covers a smaller portion of the game world view and can be tailored to personal tastes and more effective/faster use/access of functions.
    Detailed planetmap with extra info; we all know how good the player-created maps are, and that probably 99% of the players are using those. Maybe the creators of those maps would agree to have their works officially integrated into the client as community/fan projects (maybe even receive some form of small bonus in excange to acknowledge their work; some paid points, a free expansion/mini expansion of their choice, or whatever).

    Compass with more functionality; shop location, teammates, selected map points, they can come in handy in certain situations.
    Waypoint setting/tracking through grid/whompa jumps: I'm not sure if this is all that important or useful. A good map helps you find your way around, and you'll eventually memorize the mostly used routes so you won't bother with using such features past some point. In EVE, where you have 5k+ solar systems with 2-3 jumpgates in each, a navigation system like that is a must as no one can possibly memorize routes consisting dozens or hundreds of jumps, but on RK it's a lot easier with everything being within only a few whompa-jumps at most.

    Tradeskilling interface without actually having to transfer items to the tradeskiller; a nice idea, tho it would render the "will be nodrop when tradeskilled so you must have the skills to do it yourself" restriction meaningless.

    I personally don't have really serious issues with the current item/nano/hotbar system, although the use of multiple hotbars can be bothersome (tho I've been just fine using only one so far).
    The NCU window could use a few changes to how the running programs are displayed and organized to allow a better and faster overview.

    Preview; I think the new social tab will do exactly that since (if I read the description right) you can equip anything in the social tab regardless of requirements to see how it looks on you.

    Rebalancing equipment; it can break or make a game (I do know it did break some when the devs decided to do a rebalancing of this magnitude and pissed off most of the players with one change or another), it would make half of the playerbase angry with the changes, it would make most of what we've learned about how to equip our chars obsolete, plus it would be an insane amount of work.
    Even though it would do good to the game if done right, looking at it realistically, I doubt it could be done, at least not in a live game with estabilished rules and literally thousands of items to go through and check/match against all their possible alternatives.

    Upgradeable "template" items; I don't think it would solve the problem of "cookie cutter" setups or ignoring "useless" items. Players, instead of all using the same items considered being the "best" and ignoring the "useless" ones would just build items with the very same "best" bonuses and not using the "useless" ones.
    It would be a bit more flexible, but I don't think it would make a significant difference. This behavior cannot really be prevented in my opinion, and "forcing" the players to use items that has pre-set weaknesses to go along the bonuses still seems to allow for a better control over balance than allowing them to build items with the best bonus/weakness ratio.

    "All things point to that they didn't play to win, but for the game itself and to play well. ... Later in their evolution, they forgot all about playing and having fun. When their corrupted minds only cared for what new ways they could gain power, there was no room for the simple things in life."
    - One Who Will Always Listen
    "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."
    - Librarian Isador Aikos, W40k: Dawn of War
    "If you want to make enemies... try to change something."
    - Adam Jensen, Deus Ex: Human Revolution

  13. #13
    Intro - I would definitely like a new intro for the game, but can you image all the ppl complaining about having to download it? It happened with the concert thing.

    Chat creation - Would be really nice if that got remade to look a little more.. modern :P
    After all, ppl tend to judge things based on what they first encounter.

    Entering the game - The arrival hall and ship crashing were fun, Bringing them back would be nice.
    Eseb

    Luckyspawn: spartans know all about pvp in BS /macro sparta /s THIS IS... SPARTA!!! \n /afk

  14. #14

    Bump

    As allways Xaun has great ideeas ,FC pls do what ever Xaun wants!!!
    BIG BUMP

  15. #15
    Thanks all for the replies. Firstly I will say when new ideas are introduced that I feel are relevant and have a finished polish to them I will post them up in the top as I have and link them to your post in this thread. Things from other threads I will use quotes for and if you know of ideas please do the same. You can choose to quote something from one thread then copy and paste it into a replied post here linking it in for review to this grande proposal to Funcom for AO's future. Topics suitable for suggestions / discussion here are things which do not favor a side/profession/gaming style but instead address the whole of AO regarding how things function, are viewed, interacted with etc. Please do not post any suggestions regarding specific new toys for your profession as that is not a point nor on topic for this thread. It is my hope to keep any "Questionable" material separated so that the dev team can have an organized place to find similar typed feasible suggestions and the feedback to them.

    I will address each reply to the Original Post here in the thread with everyone else and handle discussions this way. When something is finalized I will move them to the top as I stated above.

    Next, I'd like say thank you to everyone willing to take the risky plunge of reading my massive 100,000 points of wall of text dmg of a post and then reply with either kudos or suggestions here. I truly appreciate your time in ways I can't put in to words other than by being as transparent and forth coming with this procedure as possible and keeping it up to date and being present to discuss/debate new suggestions.

    If at anytime I get to emotionally attached and take a biased or negative attitude I promise to rectify the post with due speed and will strive beyond my greatest efforts to not take any baits during this process that could lead to such an event. I am approaching this from a professional stand point as if I were working in a position and had a review board watching over me with a giant hammer.

    I will truncate the replies I am responding to directly so that others can see what / who I am discussing as I could see this get crazy.. so if I <snip> something it is not meant as an insult and please do not take offense to it as I believe some have before. It is merely to save space for others trying to read but have a point of reference to my responses without having to rehash every bit of the post prior to which I am responding..

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Generally, most of the OP sounds nice, a few personal notes/opinion on some parts...

    Intro movie
    Doesn't even have to be rendered/animated to have a strong impact on new players.
    While EVE's intro did get its point across I skip it after I saw it once.. thats compared to the Hellgate: London intro I watched like 15 times in a row on purpose before playing. Or Tabula Rasa's which was not as engrossing as Hellgates but still was watched more than once. All three tell you the history of the game world but 1 of the three drew me in and made me say.. wow!

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Char creation, entering the game world, first steps
    Yes in my opinion they should make the world less of a random set of lowbie mobs to kill and more story driven leading in to the situation on RK.. right now you can consider it very separate from the situation on RK in many respects. I would for example make a first quest there finding survivors and using heal kits on them to teach mechanics to the player. I could come up with a dozen newbie island quests that would range from implanting and NCUs to gear etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Collision detection and improved physics in general could be a problem as it would significantly increase network traffic and/or server load (or both) depending on how it is implemented. It would be nice, but I don't find it a priority.
    This could not be farther from the truth. A better physics engine would mean less load on the server since it would have more hardware optimizations on how to handle things such as getting stuck. It would allow for thousands if not millions of more calculations per second which would help across the board and since the engine is being re-written you can bet your bippy its coming with a new physics engine.. it would be utterly retarded to not Havok 3 and 4 are way more efficient than H1 or even a generic home brew type engine...

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Grid PvP, not sure what you mean, maybe some cyberpunk-style hacking/ICE-breaking kind of combat with offensive programs, viruses and such instead of weapons? I don't quite see the point or where it would fit in the game in general as virtual reality never played a significant part in the AO story. Maybe as a paid points mini-expansion...?
    Yes, PVP in the grid I had a long post typed here but will surmise it this way: Meeping while flagged = killable in grid, exiting to NW sites that are hot leads to flagged in grid, exiting from hot nw site means flagged in grid.. in addition the weaker physical professions like Fixer, Trader, Crat, Engineer, NT, Agent, etc should all have some additional toys in Grid over the Adv, Keeper, Enf, Soldier who have the better physical tool kits for PVP.

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Expanding RK, opening up planned but never finished zones: yes, please, it would be really nice, and would solve some long standing problems (AI city plots and LCAs, if nothing else). I realize it's a lot of work, and I'm not saying I expect them to be finished and opened by the end of the next month. More like a long-term imporvement goal, aiming to finish, populate, and open a new zone in every 3-6 months or so, depending on how much "free" time do the devs have to work on them in addition to the more frequent content additions, fixes and such.
    While talking to fixietrox he thought of a sort of carrot + stick effect of releasing new zones of the old RK every couple of months after release with a few added in at time of release. I have to say this would work and I'd be fine with it but would be nicer to roll out all the zones at launch time to fix all the glaring zone issues such as uncrossable zone lines and broken world map edges.

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    A new, more streamlined and more freely organizable GUI would indeed be nice; one that covers a smaller portion of the game world view and can be tailored to personal tastes and more effective/faster use/access of functions.
    I do have a problem with it because of how inefficient a use of space it is. I would have to do some prototype sketches for it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Waypoint setting/tracking through grid/whompa jumps: I'm not sure if this is all that important or useful. A good map helps you find your way around, and you'll eventually memorize the mostly used routes so you won't bother with using such features past some point. In EVE, where you have 5k+ solar systems with 2-3 jumpgates in each, a navigation system like that is a must as no one can possibly memorize routes consisting dozens or hundreds of jumps, but on RK it's a lot easier with everything being within only a few whompa-jumps at most.
    It is very important. I will elaborate. Lets look at standard use first. I am in a team for any PVM/PVP/RP reason and with a newer player. I could say "go to xyz"... "you know".. "by abc?" they reply.. "its my first time in XYZ" you could just mark the dot on a map and then hit send to team which would pop up a window with "X player wishes to send you Y Waypoint. Accept?" They hit yes and it puts a dot on Their map. The person would then select the dot and hit activate relay and a little semi-transparent line appears in their 3D game view with a point based path leading you through "crossable" terrain based on your filters such as "level X" or "no fly" or "no-pvp" etc to get you safely to it.

    Now lets take it to the next level. Coordinating events. From PVP staging for giant NW campaigns across many territories to simple RP events and knowing where everyone should go. If a "director type of raid control for a leader" existed meaning everyone in the team accepts what the leader sends by joining the raid all the confirmations would be gone and all markers become temporary while your in the team with a rejoining do an auto-update between the leader and the re-joining/new joining member. You cannot tell me this would not be <3'd by everyone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Tradeskilling interface without actually having to transfer items to the tradeskiller; a nice idea, tho it would render the "will be nodrop when tradeskilled so you must have the skills to do it yourself" restriction meaningless.
    Yes they could add a flag to the DB and enable it on specialty items like the Agents Mask. This would minimize work to keep certain things self only. But open up the door for the rest.

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    I personally don't have really serious issues with the current item/nano/hotbar system, although the use of multiple hotbars can be bothersome (tho I've been just fine using only one so far).
    The NCU window could use a few changes to how the running programs are displayed and organized to allow a better and faster overview.
    I will have to do a prototype design for this as well with a complete gui treatment. Not much I can say otherwise to much to convey with words I'd hit max text limit (16,000 characters for those wondering I have hit it twice now LOL)

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Preview; I think the new social tab will do exactly that since (if I read the description right) you can equip anything in the social tab regardless of requirements to see how it looks on you.
    Ahh yes, This new feature does enable this for items you currently own.. but that won't get your 650m credits back after you bought something.. hope you can sell it? In wow you can preview any linked item. Its nice because someone in your org can loot something then link it to you and could see what you'd look like wearing it. No more depending on Icons to tell?

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Rebalancing equipment; it can break or make a game
    Yes I know but one can dream?

    Quote Originally Posted by Honorbound View Post
    Upgradeable "template" items; I don't think it would solve the problem of "cookie cutter" setups or ignoring "useless" items. Players, instead of all using the same items considered being the "best" and ignoring the "useless" ones would just build items with the very same "best" bonuses and not using the "useless" ones.
    It would be a bit more flexible, but I don't think it would make a significant difference. This behavior cannot really be prevented in my opinion, and "forcing" the players to use items that has pre-set weaknesses to go along the bonuses still seems to allow for a better control over balance than allowing them to build items with the best bonus/weakness ratio.
    The armor would be differently "webbed" / "rigged" it would still be basically ranging from "Light to Heavy" armoring in various "styles" but then give the purpose true meaning. Anytime you add more raw Armor you lose some of the space to put extra things like critical systems, hacking, life regen, etc. So I proposed a socketing system that would in effect work like this:


    Style template A-10001
    Name: Ghost
    Purpose: Espionage
    QL:300
    Effects: +stat (socketable 1500pts)
    +stat (Socketable 1250pts)
    +stat (socketable 1250pts)
    Base AC: (Socketable 1000pts)
    Weakness: (Socketable -1000pts)
    Bonus Effect: +conceal
    +Perception

    vs

    Style Template B-10001
    Name: Cougar
    Purpose: Close Quarters Combat
    QL:300
    Effects: +stat (socketable 1000pts)
    +stat (Socketable 500pts)
    +stat (socketable 500pts)
    Base AC: (Socketable 3000pts)
    Weakness: (Socketable -1000pts)
    Bonus Effect: Proc effect on hit to snare nearby enemies based on MM skill vs NR check


    ----------------------------


    Style template A-10000
    Name: Ghost
    Purpose: Espionage
    QL:220
    Effects: +stat (socketable 1000pts)
    +stat (Socketable 1000pts)
    +stat (socketable 1000pts)
    Base AC: (Socketable 1000pts)
    Weakness: (Socketable -750pts)
    Bonus Effect: +conceal
    +Perception

    vs

    Style Template B-10000
    Name: Cougar
    Purpose: Close Quarters Combat
    QL:220
    Effects: +stat (socketable 800pts)
    +stat (Socketable 350pts)
    +stat (socketable 350pts)
    Base AC: (Socketable 2500pts)
    Weakness: (Socketable -750pts)
    Bonus Effect: Proc effect on hit to snare nearby enemies based on MM skill vs NR check

    If this was handled the same way Implants are handled now you would have an ultimate winner! Think of it as a pick your appearance and then add extras on top. I added the bonus effect if you keep it somewhat profession oriented albeit not profession locked. This could mean that a keeper could wear +conceal/percep armor at the expense of the extra AC spending points and the proc effect. Mind you I could come up with 5000000 examples of this armor system but will try to sum it up below:

    Each socket is worth a value in points; Each socketable upgrade has an equivalent number of points; Some armor will allow for a higher quality single socketed item or others a more balanced even socket strength at the expense per slot being lowered in comparison to anothers single max stat. In my example the two 300 sets come with a innate socketable value of 5000 total with a -1000 Weakness attribute, while the 220 sets come with a 4000 total with a -750 weakness value. How the player decides to use those points is up to them. If there is a type 1 type 2 and type 3 socket *bright/shiny/faded* it will prevent someone socketing something like say.. Evades 3 times.. in one item.. This will make all armor equal and balanced for its strengths and weaknesses instead of just this is better than that period. If this was added to a meaningful tradeskilling system then you would kill two birds with one stone.

    Anyway, thank you very much for your detailed feedback as you caused me to think yet again and that is what makes ideas move forward to reality and not stagnate as just a nifty concept.

    And much <3 to all for the support
    Last edited by Xaun; Feb 5th, 2008 at 16:13:46. Reason: GRRRRRRRR THE FORUM ATE MY POST! When I spent so much time breaking everything down *Cries*

  16. #16
    Wow Xaun, huge bump! You've seriously done your homework and put a great deal of work and effort into this. I believe Funcom would seriously make a great change in Anarchy if they implemented most, if not all of these features. Job well done!

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Staphyloccuss View Post
    Wow Xaun, huge bump! You've seriously done your homework and put a great deal of work and effort into this. I believe Funcom would seriously make a great change in Anarchy if they implemented most, if not all of these features. Job well done!
    I agree... Job well done on excellent ideas for revitalizing AO big time and make it a lot more interesting and capturing to new and old players alike...
    Mekhdoc 220/27/70 Equip | Mekh 220/28/67 Equip | Shadesch 220/21/70 Equip
    Mekhkeeper 220/22/70 Equip | Roflmao 220/15/50 | Fixyaself 200/23/64 Equip

  18. #18

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Staphyloccuss View Post
    Wow Xaun, huge bump! You've seriously done your homework and put a great deal of work and effort into this. I believe Funcom would seriously make a great change in Anarchy if they implemented most, if not all of these features. Job well done!
    Staphy needs to stfu, and Xaun has good ideas. Things haven't changed much!

  20. #20

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