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Community Update: August 13th, 2010 from AoC boards
Lateris
Member UncommonPosts: 1,847
Community Update – 13th August This week has seen our new junior designers and scripter start in Montreal, along with the arrival of the majority of the team now, so we are fast getting up to full speed in the new location. A few people asked about what was done where now, after last week's update. The main production of new content will be done in Montreal, with those in the Oslo office providing live support, and additional production, but the majority of the team is now based in Montreal. But now, on the stuff you are more interested in, amid the settling in we have been working on the next game update, and as mentioned last week there are quite a few interesting adjustments making their way into it. There are a reasonably extensive list of adjustments and tweaks to the Raid content for the end of tier three and tier four, hopefully removing some of the issues that were making certain encounters a touch too difficult (Keeper of Artifacts we are looking at in particular!), generally we tried to make sure we covered the areas where guilds were getting blocked by the difficulty curve being too steep. We have also increased the mastery awarded for completing tier three raids so that there is more incentive for those currently exploring in Khitai to return to try these raids. We also resolved a couple of instances (like the hardmode of the Den of the Crowmen) where the correct loot would not always show up. Then we have the next stage of the progression changes for the expansion content. There are a few things we are doing there, we are raising the faction rewards for higher tier repeatable quests, in particular in Paikang and Kara Korum, increasing the award of Marks of Acclaim in Paikang and Kara Korum, as well as adding in a new option for solo players where Marks of Acclaim can be traded up to Trophies at an exchange rate if you really want to chase epic items (it should be noted that manner won't be 'quick' as we have to still maintain the balance that teaming and doing the group content is the best way to get all those items, but we wanted to add it for players that really wanted to pursue the solo path only). Then we have some class balance adjustments and a few ability fixes. This primarily relates to Rangers, where we will be adjusting their traps to prevent the effect stacking when multiple rangers combine, and also adjusting their damage downwards a bit, and resolved a couple of issues that caused some of the abilities (Hunting Hawk and Shred Armor) to be more beneficial than intended. Along with a few other miscellaneous fixes, this update has shaped up to be more extensive than we intended with quite a few good 'tweak' type updates. We think they are needed though, and didn’t want to wait for 2.1. The update is being tested this week and next and we will look to release it to the live servers the following week. |
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Comments
PvE game strikes again! Only like ~1 month late with their ranger changes (by the way FC, even one ranger is too much at the moment, this is the part where you went ITS ALL SUBJECTIVE STFU BITCHES!!). Seriously new mmorpg players, if you like some substandard raiding and daily grinding, this is your game! Just stay away from PvP servers!
They have new junior devs huh? Who wants to bet that means more bugs in game, and looks like PvP loses out again, I knew they wouldn't address PvP until after their engine upgrade........
They are taking advantage of tax breaks in Montreal to do it on the cheap. Probably the only way to keep a viable future for the company.
Hopefully these new guys may actually be better than the old coders.
Lots of gaming talent in Canada.
Nice they are thinking about soloers with the trophies.
This update looks pretty meh on all fronts but the developer said everyone was on vacation/getting pink sliped, after years of Funcom saying just wait a bit for some super PvP patch and then releasing a PvE expansion it isn't a big suprise that it will never happen and if it ever does there won't be PvPers around to care. Most likely, there will just be a skelly crew on AoC from now on and all the developers that are not laid off will go work on The Secrete World till that gets that released.
Unless if people start subscribing in mass and staying, it would be pretty silly to keep throwing money at AoC from a buisness point of view. Since release AoC has been on a shoe string budget, hence the slow patch cycle. It seems they gambled on an expansion but even after giving free trials to everyone, it doesn't seem to have blown up AoC's population.
I played the free trial so am not sure if masses came back after, are there waits to log on to the few servers now? IDK but that or new servers would be a good indicator that this game is doing well.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
well, I see at least they are good at one thing.. nerfing.
The grinding and how mobs crit in Khitai is just putting me off. Why didn't they come up with something more intelligent to make people grind for new armor?
They have smart designers, since some boss encouters in instances are just amazing experiences.
I guess Khitai is the shadowlands for AoC.
I hope some improvements come to the game soon, or otherwise i won't keep paying the subscription. And I only play since May this year!
Fingers crossed the next expasion is more like Hyboria and not Aion meets AoC.
Good to know FC have new designers, I'm just curious to see if the old designer will let them work properly and not just to the "dirty work".
Everytime you post you are wrong. Let's see... the update Tarib is talking about is an update that is scheduled to be released as 2.0x not 2.1. Which means it is not the big update AoC is supposed to get in september but a smallish update - and it is very big for small update. Fixing T3 and T4 is very high on players list, adjusting rangers is probably the fastest response to OP class ever, additional adjustments with rewards and a chance to trade Marks for Trophies is great and often requested. All this when majority was on holiday. Quite the opposite to you bollocks I can say this is quite a big update.
And let's not forget september is probably the time 2.1 gets released - pvp/pve + engine= huge update
Again being optimistic when director's letter pops up? How typical. Your "september" date is merely speculation, nothing else.
This content of the letter is meh all they from Norway to Canada, even by Funcom's standards. Sorry, not impressed with fixing the obvious things that shouldn't be in existence in the first place.
PvE updates = Death of PvP and PvP oriented players leaving.
The current PvP players aren't hanging around till September for a PvP fix that will probably just break the game again.
Don't forget after the engine update you'll also get your first taste of F2P!!!!!!!!!
Oh yeah it only took them over a month to address OP rangers, that is real progress! lmao....
The developers have already said that new PvP content was on the way. No one has stopped focusing on PvP content at all. Thus, more details to follow.
Glen ''Famine'' Swan
Senior Assistant Community Manager - Funcom
Given AoC's history, its a bit silly to point to future plans as content. Brag about it when it happens.
I see it as reaffirmation for those that are interested and for those that have forgotten those plans.
Its a reaffirmation alright. A reaffirmation of the old saying about a sucker being born ever minute.
So in your eyes no mmo company should talk about any forthcoming patches. You better send a note to mmorpg.com to let them know. Oh and tell everyone not to bother releasing monthly updates/newsletters etc. See the backward thinking...
There was absolutely nothing missing from Godslayer, infact there was extra stuff and suprises there, given as the last big addition to the game. In addition everything that has been talked about to be done after has happened. There are simply different teams working on different content and some finish before others. That timeline / order of process has not changed
Still playing?
So you are not impressed with FIXING half of your list of demands? They are fixing T3 and T4, reducing the grind and adding ranger fix. How are you not impressed by that? (or are you not impressed because there is no oother thing beside difficulty to complain about if they get it right)
The pvp populace would like to have a word with you. In fact, the whole Fury server ...
I can understand the frustration of the PvP gamers, but please consider this.
Don't PvP players raid? - They do. So you will benefit from the Raid fixes.
Don't PvP players live in the same virtual world than PvErs? - They do - So you will benefit from optmisations and bug fixes as well.
I really don't think Funcom is ignoring PvP at all and if they say changes/content are on it's way, then be a bit patient.
It's easy to see that if people complain is because they love the game and want improvents right away. But game development is not as easy as it looks.
Overall, I'm too disappointed with the "blunt" development of this expansion. Khitai is clearly not friendly to new players that started a few months ago and go directly to Khitai, just to see mobs hit like there is no tomorrow and crit like Tax rates.
At the present I think Funcom really should get some new gameplay designers. Don't touch the artists though - the game world is beautiful.
Pretty sure what I said was accurate, if what you say is accurate then I will be truely impressed when the population blows up and doubles or quadruples and AoC becomes all the rage and buzz of the MMO world.
T3 is ancient now in MMO standards, it is almost a year old. I havn't followed T4 but I hope by fix, it means adding more than 2 bosses. MMOs hotfix broken classes all the time, I can't think of any MMO that was popular that didn't.
Even the PvE players need stuff, if AoC wants players it needs something fun to justify the subscription price as most people won't keep subscribing if they are not playing and are bored of the stuff in the game. I tooled around with the free expansion as did other players and it didn't seem to be enough to keep most people interested unless they where already into the game before the expansion, which is what my sig backs up.
Reducing grind is pretty silly as that is the expansion content and it doesn't seem as if much "fun new content" will be added in the future at any reasonable rate of speed. The main issue in original AoC was they made leveling easy and there was no end game so people maxed out and quit....now the end game is grinding and they are making that easy but many probably left do to grinding being boring, repeating the same quests over and over.
Most players would not be impressed with these small changes because the expansion ran out of steam so quickly, not do to bugs but do to being pretty meh with "fun" stuff to do: PvP stuff,new raiding stuff, a lot of fun grouping stuff, whatever stuff that isn't a boring faction grind.
However, at the end of the day the developers say someday there will be PvP focus so maybe it will be true someday. I been hearing that for over two years now and they couldn't be bothered to add anything PvP related to the expansion while top PvP geared players earned that gear by farming rocks.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
PvE content for PvP levels ftw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@finaticd: you don't even read my posts anymore? 2.1 is the "content" update, while discussed is just "inbeetween fixes" labeled probably 2.05.x. I seriously don't get what is wrong with THIS particular fix. It is an important, rather big bunch of fixes that are to be rolled out before 2.1. The update is 3 times this update and nobody complained about it:
GENERAL
The drop rates of the following trophies have been adjusted:
Increased the drop rate of Simple Trophy I by 300%
Increased the drop rate of Simple Trophy II by 200%
Increased the drop rate of Simple Trophy III by 200%
Increased the drop rate of Rare Trophy by 200%
RAIDS AND DUNGEONS
Pillars of Heaven: Fixed an issue which caused Alpha Wolf's "Enraging Howl" to not stack properly.
Enigmata of Yag: Spawn of Nyarlathotep (one of the ‘Trial of the Godslayer’ encounters) should now properly drop loot.
I think you just mistaken the update for famous 2.1 which is supposed to be engine+ content update
I know it was a hot fix and nothing special, and no idea what will be in the next patch...all I'm saying is Funcom and AoC need something pretty amazing pretty quick to keep people satisfied and happily busy for BOTH PvE players and even more so PvP players.
I played a bit but not following AoC so much anymore as not much is happening with it lately and is summer.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Word has it that recently Funcom has done precisely the opposite to your request.
--------------
Waiting for Guild Wars II
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/videos/
A link of that word would be nice, the article here is clearly talking about gameplay designers and scripters.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Posted on the EU forums recently:
22nd July 2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silirrion
We are currently investigating the performance issues you mention as a priority, and 1.05.04 has one potential resolution in it (I say potential as sieges are probably the most complex part of the game, difficult to test, and you will only ever know the strength and reliability of any potential fix until it reaches the live environment)
That was over a year ago.
I wonder what "priority" means in Norway.
Yup FC doing a great job on fixing those sieges!