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Archives des forums MMO/MMORPG > Anarchy Online > AO - Quartier général de l'ICC > Devchat sur Ao Stratics ce W-E
Devchat sur Ao Stratics ce W-E
Par Khalzaam le 29/1/2003 à 13:21:51 (#3125267)
Mail de Cz
Hi there,
This coming Sunday at 8pm GMT there will be a House of Commons chat at
Stratics, featuring lead members of the AO team. The text below is currently
in the AO launcher:
"Several lead members of the Anarchy Online team, including game director
Gaute Godager, will attend this HoC chat, where the topic will be "The road
to Shadowlands: AO development during first half of 2003".
The chat is scheduled for Sunday February 2nd, at 8pm GMT. The channel is
#aohoc on the Stratics IRC network (irc.stratics.com, port 6667). For more
information, visit the AO Stratics site."
http://ao.stratics.com/
I hope we will have a lot of people joining us there, for an update on AO
development, and maybe a sneak peek at some Shadowlands material. :)
Regards,
Thomas / Cz
A vos IRC ;)
PS : Je pourrais pas être là..donc si quelqu'un veut bien nous faire un compte rendu ... :D
Par krisae le 31/1/2003 à 16:05:21 (#3142166)
Par krisae le 2/2/2003 à 13:22:28 (#3153967)
Par Thekkeht le 2/2/2003 à 13:44:38 (#3154106)
Provient du message de krisae
Bon bah......j'ai un peu poireauté pour hier rien dans le channel :D
Sunday
En effet hier c'était samedi ;).
Par Phaine le 2/2/2003 à 14:08:18 (#3154284)
Provient du message de Thekkeht
En effet hier c'était samedi ;).
Oui .. à la limite retente ce soir :D Sunday February 2nd, at 8pm GMT
Par krisae le 2/2/2003 à 19:31:14 (#3156263)
Provient du message de Phaine
Oui .. à la limite retente ce soir :D
lol, que ch'ui c.... :D le pire c'est qu'on était une dizaine à attendre :D
Par Thekkeht le 2/2/2003 à 19:33:35 (#3156281)
Provient du message de krisae
lol, que ch'ui c.... :D le pire c'est qu'on était une dizaine à attendre :D
Héhé ;). Si tu y va tjrs, log tout et post le résultat ici (enfin je pense que Stratics le fera aussi :p).
Mouahaha, j'vous ai grillé :p
Par Wiseman le 2/2/2003 à 22:45:15 (#3157484)
Folks we are experiencing some technical difficulties. [Ho putain! Ca commence!] We will beggin soon!
Thank you. :)
Sorry for being late. Internet trouble at the offices, so I had to run home. :p [Moi je mangeais du poulet, mais je crois que tout le monde s'en fout...]
Too all those who sent be PMs by now: I'm not reading them yet. Need to get set up here first. :)
Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Anarcy Online House of Commons Developer Chat.
Tonight's chat is focusing on "The Road to Shadowlands" [I'm on the hiiiiiiiighwayyyyy to hell!]
I will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query [QT]TeichDragon, [QT]Rhayde or [QT]Stonegate. Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up.
Do not msg anyone from Dev. Team or myself. These questions will be ignored. Remember that some of your questions may not have the opportunity to be answered.
In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
The log of this chat will later be posted on http://ao.stratics.com so be sure to tell your friends if they missed it.
We'll start with a quick introduction from everyone, we'll then begin accepting questions.
Thank you everyone for joining this chat! Tonight we would like to talk about the road up to Shadowlands. As you might know, the Shadowlands is the first big expansion pack since Anarchy-Online launched. There are quite a few people waiting for this expansion, and it is important for us to discuss with you, our players, your expectations, questions and interests. In addition, the Shadowlands will continue to build on the setting and story,
I hope you all will enjoy yourselves! Now, lets have at it!
Im Gaute Godager, Game Director. My job is to be lead of the creative part of the AO development.
Hi I'm Lucien ;) I'm sure some of you have met me in the game. I'm the Customer Service Coordinator for Funcom. Basically that means I help you ingame and work to improve customer service ;)
My name is Johan Karlsson, also known as Belith in game. I work as the lead designer on Anarchy Online
I'm Daniel Persson, Designer, working mostly with static missions atm
Good day everyone. My name is Morten Byom [L'inventeur des Byom Blade je suppose... heureusement que c'est pas Lucien qui l'a crée...] and I am Lead World Designer for Funcom.I will try to answer some of your questions today.
I'm Thomas Johnsen, and I'm the community guy, handing communication with the players, fan sites, etc. :)
I'm also a n00b on IRC, and am currently lost trying to turn off the join / leave messages. :p
Quick reminder, please send your questions to [QT]TeichDragon, [QT]Rhayde or [QT]Stonegate and only them
our first question is:
*Solarax* A question for Cz. Being the Editor-In-Chief for one of Anarchy Online's fansite's I would like to know how Funcom will be sharing information on Shadowlands with the community in the weeks and months before the expansion arrives. Can we expect any interesting media events?
We have a more or less set schedule for PR and community material regarding the Shadowlands. Basically, we will release the info in pieces buidling up to the complete picture of what SL is.
Each month will have a new 'topic', and we will focus most attention on that topic during that month. February starts with the playfields in the Shadowlands, so we have some visuals of that coming to a fan site near you soon. ;)
·greystar· Will Pet Pathing be fixed with Shadowlands ? ;)
I was hoping someone would ask that :p [Remmarque, ça fait 2 ans qu'on le demmande...]
Actually, there has been a breakthrough in the pet-pathfinding work.
We are not completely there yet, NOTE!!, but we are getting much, much closer.
If we are really lucky we shall see if we can submit this before the SL, but we have some other problems we need to take care of first.
It needs to be rebalanced a bit. The monsters are smarter in the dungeons too. They use the same code as the pets, and missions are more difficult.
When we have reach a conclusion on how to deal with this, we shall announce more. I am quite optimistic, though.
Any fixes to pet pathing will be patched out to everyone, not only to owners of SL, just wanted to make that clear
Yeah, of course :) We dont sell bug fixes (or try not to, at least .) ["We don't sell bug fixes... we just sell bugs..."]
Do you intend to improve the GUI (graphical user interface) in Shadowlands?
there will be GUI additions and tweaks in the SL, but no major upgrade. If we change our mind, we will let you know.
*shoCked* Will Adventurer items be implanted in shadowlands? [Y'en à qui pensent vraiment qu'a leur gueule...]
All professions will get specialized items, just for them in the SL.
We are making armor, weapons, nanos and much more to use there.
In addition we have made a new "balance concept".
It is called profession groups, and professions with similarities will get items that are usable by them, but not by everyone else.
A balance concept means a "theoretical method" for us to divide loot. Not very interesting for the players other than that items that are not for one profession wont be for everyone.
Was that understandable?
will the city of Jobe be for nanomage only or have that been changed ?
Jobe will not be for nano mages only, this new city will be available for everyone. It was never intended to be a nanomage only place.
*Morphex* How are you releasing Shadowlands? Will you do anything to prevent the problems with Notum Wars release?
We learned a lot from the Notum Wars distributions, and will make sure to have better margins on the dates for sending things to and from our manufacturers.
We're also looking into having Shadowlands available for download a lot earlier than we did with Notum Wars, though I don't think it'll be at the same time as retail.
Also, pre-ordering will hopefully be handled better, so pre-orders actually get out to people no later than retail gets the boxes. ;)
I'm not in Marketing / Sales, but that's what they tell me. :)
·Morphex· Do you intend to introduce new professions in Shadowlands?
Yes, but let me tell you abit about the background.
The shadowlands shares a common history with Rubi-Ka. When the portal opens there, many, many things will change
Things normally working will stop. Other new things will be introduced.
The setting of the Shadowlands is that of the origin of an ancient race, with ancient technology not bound by our rules.
The intensity of nano-fueling-energy is MUCH higher. But it is NOT Notum!
(Notum - the Nano Program fuel among other things.)
This means that one of the (one or two) new professions will exploit this much differently.
It is also important to think about that many technological objects will not work. I wont give you a complete list, but life will CHANGE when you go there!
Our focus when making the new professions is to see how we can change the gameplay - not give more of the same!
I think they are looking very nice, at least. Next devchat, we will start spilling the concrete beans about it/them.. :)
Will the levelcap be raised from 200 to 250 with Shadowlands ?
We are currently looking at the option of raising the level cap, how much you will be able to level to still remains to see
*Kyrstina* My question is about the storyline. I am relatively new to the world of AO, and have heard a lot about the story actually being played out, affecting the world constantly. Lately though, I havn't seen anything to advance the plot of AO. I know this a concern for a lot of RPers on Rubi-Ka, so I'm wondering if Shadowlands will improve on the story and can we expect to see more GM events/story advancements with the expansion.
We have three main means to do story:
1. Events
2. Ingame patch changes.
3. Web stuff and out of game content.
The events team are still working on, as always, and will do so even after the SL.
The reason why the changes seen to most people are not the "in your face", is actually that we have had not that many story focused patches lately.
The next patch will actually see stuff change quite a lot.
An ingame Neutral Org has payed a story character many, many millions of credits for a mercenary in Newland City as a respons to being mistreated by the Clan story characters in Tir.
Shadowlands will be a GREAT story step forward.
The shadowlands was the Origin of mankind - or that place, where people left many, many, many thousand years ago. Now they return to fight for the future of Mankind!
There are some creatures left from the old civiliazation. They support each their side.
It is The Unredeemed for the Omni-Teks, and The Redeemed for the Clanners.
They see the world totally differently, and it will change how people play the game and interact with the story and mission NPC's.
I can not promise a heightened level of Events though, just one big leap forward. I hope you will enjoy it .)
·enclave· When is the release date for Shadowlands? Will Shadowlands include a graphic engine upgrade?
The release date is not set yet, and we can't be very specific at this time. The current word is first half of 2003.
The AO engine has been in development since we went live and will continue to do so in shadowlands. For you of who that bought Notum Wars you saw that there where several upgrades to the graphics. WIth Shadowlands we have used a lot of our experience from making Anarchy and Notum wars in combination with Code upgrade to make the world of Rubi-Ka look even better.
*Schattenherz* I enjoyed the new room after character creation. I consider it high quality conted. The towers shop is another very good looking place. Can we expect that some of the common places like the shops are getting a make over too?
(znore is typing) [*applaudissements*]
with each new patch/booster/expansion things will look better and better. The teams experience has growna lot the last few years.
hehe
*Destractor* question: I have heard of the different appearances of omni and clans to reflect their moral status in shadowlands, will neutrals have an in between look, or will neutrals not be allowed into the shadowlands?
there is an addon that will be very important to the Shadowlands gameplay.
But first let me assure you, of COURSE neutrals will be allowed into the shadowlands! [Déjà qu'ils ont rien pour eux les pauvres, manquerait plus qu'on les jette de Shadowland comme de Tir en ce moment...]
In fact, players starting in the shadowlands, will not have to chose sides before they go to Rubi-Ka! [Ah! Un truc interessant là!]
But, back to the gameplay element:
It is the Faction System. It is a method for your actions actually to matter. Not only does your side count, but what you do. Which NPC's you talk to, kill, monsters you kill, quests and missions you do etc will be registred and stored on your character.
This means that there will be a less rigid black-white interaction between the sides.
It will be easier to be in the middle, because it is not so binary.
This is what will unlock your inner potential.
We call that your Shadowbreed, but I cant really say too much about it. Neutrals will play a part there too...
·Bovan· with the addition of new professions, are you considering to give us more character slots? I have allready filled all my slots, and don't want to delete any of them to try out the new professions
There are no plans for that at the moment.
·Maista· Will you try to introduce profession-specific elements into the mission-system? Engineers needed to fix things, Nano-Techs to blow stuff up, Enforcers to break down doors, Doctors to administer some vital antidote to a sick patient, and so on... this would improve team-missions a LOT, and make the game a lot more diverse and interesting when it comes to missions
The mission system is being changed. At the moment our focus is not on the mission in itself, (though i would so like to focus on that too. ) but rather on the mission dungeon.
ONe patch we are really, really excited about is the Modular Hallways patch.
This will include (and hopefully launch this spring sometimes) a complete overhaul on all the dungeon styles!
The rooms will be different, the floor plans of hte dungeons will no longer be only square, and there will be long, winding hallways that the rest of the dungeon will populate around.
Sort of like the spine of the dungeon.
And this overhaul is going to be released to everyone, not only for those with Shadowlands
When this is out, Maista, expect us to start looking at other things.
Yeah, but this is the ROAD to shadowlands, so we would like to brag a bit about whatever else is in the pipe as well :)
The new mission design together with a potentional pet pathiing fix promises exiting times ahead of us =)
*Mattie* whats being done about the obvious imbalanced between omni and clan, with clan having more high lvl land and more pvp'ers? [On est les plus forts, c'est tout...] will omni ever see any changes that let them compete equally against clan?
We are aware [On t'a reconu Jean-Claude!] of this problem but remember that this isnt the situation on all servers. You will however soon see that Omni-Tek has invented some new gadgets that will help them fight better.
We will continue to keep a close eye on balance and do out best to make the sides equally strong
*Venrex* Will the MP be more powerful in the shadowlands? The name of the class its self goes along with how the shadowlands is described? [Et encore un qui pense qu'à sa poire...]
All professions will be getting huge boosts to their power in the Shadowlands. This also includes the MP. Today we see the following:
The professions using pets are the least popular in the game. I think the reasons for this is so much the pathing problem.
When that is fixed, hopefully before the SL, this will increase the power of the MP as well. One of the tings we are doing is adding a special ability system in the SL, so called Perks.
Not saying anything about their content, only that they actually will boost each profession differently. The MP will get some nice ones, i can say. I can promise that the MP of today will be nothing compared to the MP of a fully boosted SL mp. What I cannot promis is that he will be significantly more powerful relatively to the other professions, but i didnt think that was your question...
·GoldenEagle· are the rumors about the guild STORM on rk1 getting ther own faction true?
No guilds will get more attention over other guilds on RubiKa, so obviously no guilds will get their own faction in Shadowlands.
*Zxcs* Alot of bad things have happened to the Clanners, in losing the CoT [Je vais passer pour un n00b, mais c'est quoi le CoT?], getting the aggressive Sentinels and geting hated by neutrals, will shadlowlands bring happiness to the clanners?
Bad things to the clanners?
Hm, ok :)
I see what you mean. The shadowlands will CHANGE it. Not in a good / bad way - just different.
The clanners will align themselves with the god-like Redeemed, and get a new focus. Not only squabbles over land (which i very much enjoy, btw :p) but over bigger things.
For the players, i do not know how much change this will entail, but I think at least on RK1 the attitude of the story clans somewhat reflect the power and attitude of the bigger player clans.
*Nyderach* Seems that AO has been going in more of a level/class based direction, instead of the original skill-based system. Which direction is this going to go in with Shadowlands?
AO
s professions (wrong start there)
are able to share a lot of abilities with eachother. [J'ai rien compris...] SL will make each profession even more distinct.
We do this, but still make a LOT of content available to everyone.
How many profession specific implants are there in the game, for instance?
We base this on what players want - less focus just on skill, but on uniqueness and ability to differentiate. Just one thing:
We shall not make the game playable ONLY by a set subsection of professions. Any group of any 6 professions should be better than a specialized team of 4 ie...
·Blask· my question is simply and related someone to the expansion but not fully. Why are nano recharger not stackable?
There is currently a fix for this on testlive :) It will be possible to stack them in 14.7.8
W00t
(but only same QL :p)
:P
*Ktyak* Question: Currently with NW a player has to be in an org to take advantage of tower bonuses. This leaves people who choose not to be in an org/clan are not in any org to be somehow less in terms of abilities. Is this likely to change or be improved somehow in Shadowlands ?
The skill bonuses for orgs will stay that way in the SL.
There will be other (and bigger) skill bonuses for everyone in the SL but they will stack. Buy NW, and you will always have an edge. We are not changeing that...
*Smen* Are there plans to change the engineer profession towards more tradeskill- or pvp-orientation? I also would like to know if there are any new pets in the making for the higher levels of shadowlands?
Yes there are plans to change the engineer profession towards more tradeskills. They where however never ment to be among the top PVPers
The engineer is very good at inventing thing so we will see if they can throw together a new pet for the shadowlands =)
As much as we think playerowned shops would be a really cool addition to Anarchy Online [Wéééé!], it will not be a feature in *this* expantion. [Bouuuuuuh!]
*Mattius* Are player run shops going to be supported in the addon. Possibly hiring NPC's to sell goods for the player.
LOL
Lol
Daniel, the Psychic!
oops
·San· Since most of the upcoming MMORPGS are featuring city making, *real* housing is Shadowlands going to add some content of that type ?
The focus of Shadowlands will be that of an out-of-the-world experience. We will not add housing in this expansion pack.
*Fikksit* Why all this new stuff when there are so many broken things that need fixing? [Là j'en profite pour préciser que les questions étaient "mixées". Perso, j'ai demmandé si il était prévu une amélioration, par trade-skill si possible, pour les 90-95% d'armes et autres objets totalement innutiles actuellement...]
Funcom have been improving the game gradually since launch.
We will continue to do so through patches, before and after the Shadowlands.
I do not agree that there are "so many things" that are broken. If you compare AO to any other MMO today, we are up to par, I would say. [Bah voilà, c'est ça de mixer les questions... "so many things broken" peut être pas, mais "so many things useless or unbalanced" ils en parlent pas...]
We are not satisfied with everything, true, and we SHALL continue to improve them.
The upcomming fix to Recharges, Pet pathing and other minor fixes are among them. I think they will be well received.
Personally, coming from working as a GM in Customer Support prior to Design, I would have to say that pet pathing is the most important issue atm, I couldn't be happier to see that issue solved.
And the last question for this evenings chat is.....
*Angelhunter* Within the months leading to SL are we going to see a patch each month, or will you be focusing everything on SL?? We have aready gon over a month AGAIN without a patch.
We have 14.7.8 comming out the door any day now and an other small patch will follow soon after that one. [Hehe, on le connais tous le "small patch" en question, c'est "l'emergency patch", ou "le patch du patch"... y'a pas de quoi s'en vanter...]
If course 14.8 is also under development and you will see some very nice things in that one
We have several patches in development at any one time. The size will vary, and so will the time it comes to complete them. The bigger, the longer it takes. Since some of the features we currently want to patch out are very big, expect some time between each!
I would like to thank everyone for coming. the logs of tonighst chat can be found at http://ao.stratics.com later this evening
Good bye all!
Tyvärr böljar det bli lite sent, men vi hoppas att ni fått svar på en del av era frågor. Tack alla för att ni dök upp och sköt om er! [Et moi qui trouvais impoli de parler en français sur les forums officiels...]
Unfortunatly it's getting a bit late here in Norway, but we hope you've gotten answers to some of your questions. Thank you all for showing up today and take care!
* DanielP smiles
Thank you everyone, and good night! (Id just like to use this opportunity to say to all our American and Israeli friends that we are all very sorry about the loss of shuttle Colombia) igning off : Gaute
ps. there will be snow
signing off even...
* Lucien waves
Thank you for comming everyone. I hope to see you all soon again
See you all ingame :)
* Belith waves
Big thanks to everybody participating. Hope to see you here next time too. ;)
Oh and if anyone is interested in joining ARK (I know some have asked) You can sign up here: http://ark.funcom.com/Public/InsertARKApp [Engagez vous qu'il disait...]
Par krisae le 2/2/2003 à 22:48:49 (#3157503)
Mouahaha, j'vous ai grillé :p
lol :D c'est surtout ma carte vidéo qui a grillé ce WK, le pc a planté en plein milieu du chat :sanglote:
Par Wiseman le 2/2/2003 à 23:13:44 (#3157622)
Par Cristaal le 2/2/2003 à 23:24:07 (#3157678)
[21:14] Tonight's chat is focusing on "The Road to Shadowlands"
I will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query [QT]TeichDragon, [QT]Rhayde or [QT]Stonegate. Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up.
Do not msg anyone from Dev. Team or myself. These questions will be ignored. Remember that some of your questions may not have the opportunity to be answered.
In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
The log of this chat will later be posted on (Link: http://ao.stratics.com)http://ao.stratics.com so be sure to tell your friends if they missed it.
We'll start with a quick introduction from everyone, we'll then begin accepting questions.
[21:15] Thank you everyone for joining this chat! Tonight we would like to talk about the road up to Shadowlands. As you might know, the Shadowlands is the first big expansion pack since Anarchy-Online launched. There are quite a few people waiting for this expansion, and it is important for us to discuss with you, our players, your expectations, questions and interests. In addition, the Shadowlands will continue to build on the setting and story, t
I hope you all will enjoy yourselves! Now, lets have at it!
Im Gaute Godager, Game Director. My job is to be lead of the creative part of the AO development.
Hi I'm Lucien ;) I'm sure some of you have met me in the game. I'm the Customer Service Coordinator for Funcom. Basically that means I help you ingame and work to improve customer service ;)
My name is Johan Karlsson, also known as Belith in game. I work as the lead designer on Anarchy Online
I'm Daniel Persson, Designer, working mostly with static missions atm
Good day everyone. My name is Morten Byom and I am Lead World Designer for Funcom.I will try to answer some of your questions today.
I'm Thomas Johnsen, and I'm the community guy, handing communication with the players, fan sites, etc. :)
I'm also a n00b on IRC, and am currently lost trying to turn off the join / leave messages. :p
[21:19] Quick reminder, please send your questions to [QT]TeichDragon, [QT]Rhayde or [QT]Stonegate and only them
our first question is:
*Solarax* A question for Cz. Being the Editor-In-Chief for one of Anarchy Online's fansite's I would like to know how Funcom will be sharing information on Shadowlands with the community in the weeks and months before the expansion arrives. Can we expect any interesting media events?
[21:21] We have a more or less set schedule for PR and community material regarding the Shadowlands. Basically, we will release the info in pieces buidling up to the complete picture of what SL is.
Each month will have a new 'topic', and we will focus most attention on that topic during that month. February starts with the playfields in the Shadowlands, so we have some visuals of that coming to a fan site near you soon. ;)
[21:23] ·greystar· Will Pet Pathing be fixed with Shadowlands ? ;) I was hoping someone would ask that :p
[21:28] Do you intend to improve the GUI (graphical user interface) in Shadowlands?
Actually, there has been a breakthrough in the pet-pathfinding work.
We are not completely there yet, NOTE!!, but we are getting much, much closer.
If we are really lucky we shall see if we can submit this before the SL, but we have some other problems we need to take care of first.
It needs to be rebalanced a bit. The monsters are smarter in the dungeons too. They use the same code as the pets, and missions are more difficult.
When we have reach a conclusion on how to deal with this, we shall announce more. I am quite optimistic, though.
Any fixes to pet pathing will be patched out to everyone, not only to owners of SL, just wanted to make that clear
Yeah, of course :) We dont sell bug fixes (or try not to, at least .)
there will be GUI additions and tweaks in the SL, but no major upgrade. If we change our mind, we will let you know.
[21:30] *shoCked* Will Adventurer items be implanted in shadowlands?
[21:30] All professions will get specialized items, just for them in the SL.
We are making armor, weapons, nanos and much more to use there.
In addition we have made a new "balance concept".
It is called profession groups, and professions with similarities will get items that are usable by them, but not by everyone else.
A balance concept means a "theoretical method" for us to divide loot. Not very interesting for the players other than that items that are not for one profession wont be for everyone.
Was that understandable?
[21:33] will the city of Jobe be for nanomage only or have that been changed ? Jobe will not be for nano mages only, this new city will be available for everyone. It was never intended to be a nanomage only place.
[21:34] *Morphex* How are you releasing Shadowlands? Will you do anything to prevent the problems with Notum Wars release?
We learned a lot from the Notum Wars distributions, and will make sure to have better margins on the dates for sending things to and from our manufacturers.
[21:37] ·Morphex· Do you intend to introduce new professions in Shadowlands?
We're also looking into having Shadowlands available for download a lot earlier than we did with Notum Wars, though I don't think it'll be at the same time as retail.
Also, pre-ordering will hopefully be handled better, so pre-orders actually get out to people no later than retail gets the boxes. ;)
I'm not in Marketing / Sales, but that's what they tell me. :)
Yes, but let me tell you abit about the background.
Will the levelcap be raised from 200 to 250 with Shadowlands ?
The shadowlands shares a common history with Rubi-Ka. When the portal opens there, many, many things will change
Things normally working will stop. Other new things will be introduced.
The setting of the Shadowlands is that of the origin of an ancient race, with ancient technology not bound by our rules.
The intensity of nano-fueling-energy is MUCH higher. But it is NOT Notum!
(Notum - the Nano Program fuel among other things.)
This means that one of the (one or two) new professions will exploit this much differently.
It is also important to think about that many technological objects will not work. I wont give you a complete list, but life will CHANGE when you go there!
Our focus when making the new professions is to see how we can change the gameplay - not give more of the same!
I think they are looking very nice, at least. Next devchat, we will start spilling the concrete beans about it/them.. :)
We are currently looking at the option of raising the level cap, how much you will be able to level to still remains to see
*Kyrstina* My question is about the storyline. I am relatively new to the world of AO, and have heard a lot about the story actually being played out, affecting the world constantly. Lately though, I havn't seen anything to advance the plot of AO. I know this a concern for a lot of RPers on Rubi-Ka, so I'm wondering if Shadowlands will improve on the story and can we expect to see more GM events/story advancements with the expansion.
We have three main means to do story:
·enclave· When is the release date for Shadowlands? Will Shadowlands include a graphic engine upgrade?
1. Events
2. Ingame patch changes.
3. Web stuff and out of game content.
The events team are still working on, as always, and will do so even after the SL.
The reason why the changes seen to most people are not the "in your face", is actually that we have had not that many story focused patches lately.
The next patch will actually see stuff change quite a lot.
An ingame Neutral Org has payed a story character many, many millions of credits for a mercenary in Newland City as a respons to being mistreated by the Clan story characters in Tir.
Shadowlands will be a GREAT story step forward.
The shadowlands was the Origin of mankind - or that place, where people left many, many, many thousand years ago. Now they return to fight for the future of Mankind!
There are some creatures left from the old civiliazation. They support each their side.
It is The Unredeemed for the Omni-Teks, and The Redeemed for the Clanners.
They see the world totally differently, and it will change how people play the game and interact with the story and mission NPC's.
I can not promise a heightened level of Events though, just one big leap forward. I hope you will enjoy it .)
The release date is not set yet, and we can't be very specific at this time. The current word is first half of 2003.
[21:49] The AO engine has been in development since we went live and will continue to do so in shadowlands. For you of who that bought Notum Wars you saw that there where several upgrades to the graphics. WIth Shadowlands we have used a lot of our experience from making Anarchy and Notum wars in combination with Code upgrade to make the world of Rubi-Ka look even better.
*Schattenherz* I enjoyed the new room after character creation. I consider it high quality conted. The towers shop is another very good looking place. Can we expect that some of the common places like the shops are getting a make over too? (znore is typing)
[21:52] *Destractor* question: I have heard of the different appearances of omni and clans to reflect their moral status in shadowlands, will neutrals have an in between look, or will neutrals not be allowed into the shadowlands?
hehe
with each new patch/booster/expansion things will look better and better. The teams experience has growna lot the last few years.
[21:53] there is an addon that will be very important to the Shadowlands gameplay.
But first let me assure you, of COURSE neutrals will be allowed into the shadowlands!
In fact, players starting in the shadowlands, will not have to chose sides before they go to Rubi-Ka!
But, back to the gameplay element:
It is the Faction System. It is a method for your actions actually to matter. Not only does your side count, but what you do. Which NPC's you talk to, kill, monsters you kill, quests and missions you do etc will be registred and stored on your character.
This means that there will be a less rigid black-white interaction between the sides.
It will be easier to be in the middle, because it is not so binary.
This is what will unlock your inner potential.
We call that your Shadowbreed, but I cant really say too much about it. Neutrals will play a part there too...
[21:59] ·Bovan· with the addition of new professions, are you considering to give us more character slots? I have allready filled all my slots, and don't want to delete any of them to try out the new professions
[21:59] There are no plans for that at the moment.
[22:01] ·Maista· Will you try to introduce profession-specific elements into the mission-system? Engineers needed to fix things, Nano-Techs to blow stuff up, Enforcers to break down doors, Doctors to administer some vital antidote to a sick patient, and so on... this would improve team-missions a LOT, and make the game a lot more diverse and interesting when it comes to missions
[22:01] The mission system is being changed. At the moment our focus is not on the mission in itself, (though i would so like to focus on that too. ) but rather on the mission dungeon.
ONe patch we are really, really excited about is the Modular Hallways patch.
This will include (and hopefully launch this spring sometimes) a complete overhaul on all the dungeon styles!
The rooms will be different, the floor plans of hte dungeons will no longer be only square, and there will be long, winding hallways that the rest of the dungeon will populate around.
Sort of like the spine of the dungeon.
And this overhaul is going to be released to everyone, not only for those with Shadowlands
When this is out, Maista, expect us to start looking at other things.
Yeah, but this is the ROAD to shadowlands, so we would like to brag a bit about whatever else is in the pipe as well :)
The new mission design together with a potentional pet pathiing fix promises exiting times ahead of us =)
*Mattie* whats being done about the obvious imbalanced between omni and clan, with clan having more high lvl land and more pvp'ers? will omni ever see any changes that let them compete equally against clan?
We are aware of this problem but remember that this isnt the situation on all servers. You will however soon see that Omni-Tek has invented some new gadgets that will help them fight better.
[22:06] We will continue to keep a close eye on balance and do out best to make the sides equally strong
*Venrex* Will the MP be more powerful in the shadowlands? The name of the class its self goes along with how the shadowlands is described? All professions will be getting huge boosts to their power in the Shadowlands. This also includes the MP. Today we see the following:
·GoldenEagle· are the rumors about the guild STORM on rk1 getting ther own faction true?
The professions using pets are the least popular in the game. I think the reasons for this is so much the pathing problem.
When that is fixed, hopefully before the SL, this will increase the power of the MP as well. One of the tings we are doing is adding a special ability system in the SL, so called Perks.
Not saying anything about their content, only that they actually will boost each profession differently. The MP will get some nice ones, i can say. I can promise that the MP of today will be nothing compared to the MP of a fully boosted SL mp. What I cannot promis is that he will be significantly more powerful relatively to the other professions, but i didnt think that was your question...
No guilds will get more attention over other guilds on RubiKa, so obviously no guilds will get their own faction in Shadowlands.
*Zxcs* Alot of bad things have happened to the Clanners, in losing the CoT, getting the aggressive Sentinels and geting hated by neutrals, will shadlowlands bring happiness to the clanners?
Bad things to the clanners?
*Nyderach* Seems that AO has been going in more of a level/class based direction, instead of the original skill-based system. Which direction is this going to go in with Shadowlands?
Hm, ok :)
I see what you mean. The shadowlands will CHANGE it. Not in a good / bad way - just different.
The clanners will align themselves with the god-like Redeemed, and get a new focus. Not only squabbles over land (which i very much enjoy, btw :p) but over bigger things.
For the players, i do not know how much change this will entail, but I think at least on RK1 the attitude of the story clans somewhat reflect the power and attitude of the bigger player clans.
AO's professions (wrong start there)
·Blask· my question is simply and related someone to the expansion but not fully. Why are nano recharger not stackable?
are able to share a lot of abilities with eachother. SL will make each profession even more distinct.
We do this, but still make a LOT of content available to everyone.
How many profession specific implants are there in the game, for instance?
We base this on what players want - less focus just on skill, but on uniqueness and ability to differentiate. Just one thing:
We shall not make the game playable ONLY by a set subsection of professions. Any group of any 6 professions should be better than a specialized team of 4 ie...
There is currently a fix for this on testlive :) It will be possible to stack them in 14.7.8
*Ktyak* Question: Currently with NW a player has to be in an org to take advantage of tower bonuses. This leaves people who choose not to be in an org/clan are not in any org to be somehow less in terms of abilities. Is this likely to change or be improved somehow in Shadowlands ?
W00t
(but only same QL :p)
:P
The skill bonuses for orgs will stay that way in the SL.
*Smen* Are there plans to change the engineer profession towards more tradeskill- or pvp-orientation? I also would like to know if there are any new pets in the making for the higher levels of shadowlands?
There will be other (and bigger) skill bonuses for everyone in the SL but they will stack. Buy NW, and you will always have an edge. We are not changeing that...
Yes there are plans to change the engineer profession towards more tradeskills. They where however never ment to be among the top PVPers
*Mattius* Are player run shops going to be supported in the addon. Possibly hiring NPC's to sell goods for the player.
The engineer is very good at inventing thing so we will see if they can throw together a new pet for the shadowlands =)
As much as we think playerowned shops would be a really cool addition to Anarchy Online, it will not be a feature in *this* expantion.
LOL
·San· Since most of the upcoming MMORPGS are featuring city making, *real* housing is Shadowlands going to add some content of that type ?
Lol
Daniel, the Psychic!
oops
The focus of Shadowlands will be that of an out-of-the-world experience. We will not add housing in this expansion pack.
*Fikksit* Why all this new stuff when there are so many broken things that need fixing?
Funcom have been improving the game gradually since launch.
And the last question for this evenings chat is.....
We will continue to do so through patches, before and after the Shadowlands.
I do not agree that there are "so many things" that are broken. If you compare AO to any other MMO today, we are up to par, I would say.
We are not satisfied with everything, true, and we SHALL continue to improve them.
The upcomming fix to Recharges, Pet pathing and other minor fixes are among them. I think they will be well received.
Personally, coming from working as a GM in Customer Support prior to Design, I would have to say that pet pathing is the most important issue atm, I couldn't be happier to see that issue solved.
*Angelhunter* Within the months leading to SL are we going to see a patch each month, or will you be focusing everything on SL?? We have aready gon over a month AGAIN without a patch.
[22:36] We have 14.7.8 comming out the door any day now and an other small patch will follow soon after that one.
[22:37] If course 14.8 is also under development and you will see some very nice things in that one
[22:38] We have several patches in development at any one time. The size will vary, and so will the time it comes to complete them. The bigger, the longer it takes. Since some of the features we currently want to patch out are very big, expect some time between each!
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