FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

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Chrisax
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FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by Chrisax »

Source: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showth ... p?t=612052
Important Community Announcement
by Nusquam (Joel Bylos)
Creative Director


Hi guys,

Two of our long-term Anarchy Online developers, Genele and Macrosun, have decided to leave the company, as they will be relocating back to their homelands in Scandinavia, to pursue other opportunities. They have both been pillars of AO development during the past few years, with Genele pushing dozens of updates into the game, including the (New) New Player Experience, and Macrosun being the driving force behind the new engine reaching its current beta state.

It’s always tough to lose developers, especially those with the dedication and drive that these two have consistently shown throughout our time working together. Everyone on the team wish them all the best and thank them for their hard work over the years.

So the next question is, what does this mean for Anarchy Online, the new engine and future development?

The reason that we formed a Live team a couple of years ago is so that we have competence sharing across the games and so that when people inevitably move on, we don’t lose all of the knowledge. With that in mind we have now passed on many of the duties shared by Genele and Macrosun to our other live team coders and developers. We will also be hiring more developers for our live team, and they will also be working on Anarchy Online going forward.

I am very excited to announce that long-time Funcom and Anarchy Online veteran Henry "Michizure" Senger will be picking up the torch from Helene, and you can expect to see a lot more of Henry on the forums as he takes over many of the important design tasks, including the ever-looming 18.7 patch. We've shifted a large part of the coding responsibility to our other live team coders, and we also look forward to bringing in new people to the live team to work on content and features planned for Anarchy Online.

Of course losing competent and knowledgeable people does have some impact on our development schedule, so we've had to rearrange some things and tune our schedules to make sure we can deliver on our vision for the game. Originally we were planning to patch 18.7 to live this month. We have now delayed it until we have had the chance to give it a thorough going over with the new designers. It is a large and complex patch and we want to be a hundred percent certain that we understand all of the intricacies of the patch before we make it live.

Additionally, because Macrosun was the technical coordinator on the new engine, it causes some challenges on the code side. It will take our live coders some time to get themselves acquainted with the engine and all that it entails. The beta will remain up and running and we hope to get past beta status as soon as we can.

As I mentioned, we are also filling several new positions to replenish the strength of the Live team. Experience with Anarchy Online is obviously a major plus – please check http://www.funcom.com/jobs/durham in the near future and send us an application if you want the opportunity to work with your favorite game!

Thanks for listening,
Joel
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Chrisax
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by Chrisax »

Sigh... I take a few days of vacation away from AO, and boom...

Well more comments in the future.

Good luck to Michizure! :) He is a great guy and has been a long long time player (as old as me). I worked with him and Lindelu on several things, like the first daily missions, or cataloging the errors in world building with my database tool. Michi is the right guy for the job; I just hope he will have the required resources.

And good bye to Genele and Macrosun, two pilars of AO. Miss you already.
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by Hyde »

Ok, I'm going to channel Fuzenmode for a second here.

"
How to String Along Old Players and Win at Ancient MMO Budgets

* Announce new graphics engine
* Continually lose the one or two people you assign to the task while throwing out the occasional unobtainable render
* ...
* Profit?
"

Problem with the meme is in the end, the profit (ie, what would be that last step) would have been much better if they'd thrown the budget that in the end it will cost to complete (heh) and gotten it done a year or two ago.

And the really sad thing is, I'd have stayed longer and/or come back by now had there been significant new content in the last 5 years. Legacy of the Xan was 2009? I know there have been a few content updates but I can't recall anything but Collector getting added as raidable content since I left. And except the new APFs there was nothing beyond single boss raids added then. It is at what, 18.7 or so? Any other game, every minor patch (ie, .X) knows that it needs to add something new for high level raid players to keep them interested.

Yeah, WoW has been at version 5 for almost 2 full years now and people are getting bored. BUT ... 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 ... each point release people knew significant new content would hit. And the content from just one of those point releases had more bosses and gear than was released in LoX inclusive of all patches.

I'm not saying AO ever needed to be WoW. But AO's engine, old as it is, is not what is holding back people from playing. There just isn't enough new to do. I want the engine to release so I can come see things in a new light ... but without new raids / game systems / stuff to do and acquire I'll be gone again a month or so later. I can't be the only ex-AOer in the same boat.

Funcom lost its shirt on too many games since AO came out and AO suffered for it :(
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by Elrojo »

The problem with adding new content is that it usually is about making the previous end game not end game anymore. For example 200 goes to 220, then 220 goes to 220/30 then 220/30 goes to 220/30/70. Then AI comes in, then Alphas, then upgraded beast etc.

This is all well and good for those who are 220 and then think "ok cool perks for AI and such". But then someone new says "OMG 220, then 30, then 70, there is no way I'm going to spend my whole time doing this.

So the game then becomes about increasing speed from A to B. In this case we get inf missions, dailies. No drop become yesdrop etc. instanced pande....

So all the vets complain "it's too easy, back in my day... Blah blah".

Shiny new graphics don't really make games better. Think of the life of SWToR (I chose this because it's one that was really different and I played it). It had new graphics, better mission for rewards system. But eventually it gets boiled down to the same as everything else. Grind for epic gear, pvp only viable on certain profs and inevitably lvl 50 is now 55 and maybe even more.

Something like AO has this intangible appeal. It's just different, nostalgic, complex and yet it's a grind. What it needs is not new graphics, not more levels, but that thinking that made TSW interesting. Customisation, "endless" possibilities to gear, abilities and weapons. It needs encounters that reward diversity. Something that means when an MP is in the raid something different happens. Rather than the new playfield giving an item that is then "needed" to be endgame, the item may just give customisation, or an alternative to something else. I guess what games like TSW and SWtOr did was to allow 2 different ways to gear up to epic. Also after time it released missions that "jump start" the process. For example to could do say 15 LE missions and then at the end you can chose 1 nodrop uncombined AI piece of a set QL.

What ever the solution it has to be about gameplay, increasing the experience and removing obsolete things. Literally 90 of the AO database of items is now worse than shop food.
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Hyde
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by Hyde »

Elrojo wrote:The problem with adding new content is that it usually is about making the previous end game not end game anymore. For example 200 goes to 220, then 220 goes to 220/30 then 220/30 goes to 220/30/70. Then AI comes in, then Alphas, then upgraded beast etc.
That's actually the point. Subscribers play 3 main ways ... "explore everything", "level everything", "level a main and keep it maxed out". The first one is already handled with old content. The other 2 need new stuff.

Don't even need to have new levels or new symbiants to add new content for max level players. Dustbrigade, Collector, APF all added stuff that kept people going for years. There are still a lot of toon/class combinations that have problems installing all symbiants and it isn't -easy- for a good 1/2 the combinations. 5 years later a trox doctor (much less advy or keeper) can't install a 300/Alpha Int brain ... at least not as far as I know. And to even get that far those combinations have to farm a ton of gear that others may not need.

I agree that, like with other games, as new endgame content is added to increase levels that the earlier levels should be easier. But wow, compare getting AI30 now to when AI came out and they already have. Or Inferno missions compared to grinding hecklers. So getting to max level is already way easier than it was.

People who played since beta aren't going to keep sitting on their same content and be happy. Do some? Sure. Hi Chrisax :) But he also happens to have a LOT of things going that a normal player wouldn't. Can you go to twink-out mode? Sure. Hi Noobas. But plenty of others want to focus on one or two characters. Those are the people who go away when there is no new content.

Anyway, doesn't matter much. Other games out there. For the folks happy with AO as it is I'm actually very happy for you ... that's a good thing. But the slow attrition in AO will continue. It is likely pretty stable at this point. But it could have gone so much farther back to the old days. Simple truth is there isn't any other MMO out there that fit this niche. I'm just sad they didn't keep growing it instead of letting it collect subs with very little to add to it for so long.
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noobas
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by noobas »

AO - the only game I know of that has this.... has a fourth way to play:

Twinking for ______

I see guys who have played for eons still very active, myself included, and generally the main draw for me still is twinking and gaining the upper hand in war.

edit: oops, I didn't read all of hyde's post.

Hi hyde!
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by Elrojo »

I had a big long thing typed out. But the problem, the major problem with AO IMHO is below;

If anyone joins AP on anything but an enf/doc/crat as a 1st toon what do we recommend? Where is the profession balance?

How many, viable, end game set ups are there for each profession? Maybe 2?

Of the total item database how many items are actually relevant? Less than 1%?

If you start out and you mostly play solo, how many missions will give relevant and useful rewards?
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by noobas »

Actually, there are many viable 'first' toons.

The problem, if I may say so, given my several years of experience with AO, is lack of completion.

I chose a not-ideal first prof, being MA.

But the reason I succeeded wasn't that I rerolled doctor/crat/whatever. The reason why I succeeded was that I played it to completion.

I didn't stop playing MA when I got AI 26
I didn't stop playing MA when I got LE 64
I didn't stop playing MA when I got a QL 300 strong sleeve

Right?

The problem most people have is that they get to 220, they get to "I can do that" stage where DPS is "OK", survival is "OK" and people don't look down on them for showing up with peculiar social to hide mediocre gear, and think that it's sufficient.

Back in 2009, I farmed long hard hours on my MA building my first CC set. I didn't buy credits, I didn't sploit, and I worked at it. I remember when I got my first 240+ supple drop. The first thing I did was build a 300 CC sleeve, and promptly sold it for 550m, I then bought another 240+ supple bot and two strong bots, and built one more piece of 300 CC plus another 300 strong piece.

Whatever about that but it took me from AI 26 to AI 29 to farm my whole CC set, and by the time I finished, I was very happy because I was so used to PVPing with incomplete gear that incredibly I was no longer handicapped, which kinda scared me.

Anyway, my point is that most people take their advy to 220, take their soldier, trader, doctor to 220 and then they look around and FEEL capable. But most are a far cry from capable, most are still lolling about the doldrums and rely on previous knowledge to pull them through. But that's NOT what makes people good!

What makes people good, is failure, acknowledgement, teardown, rebuild, testing and adaptation.

I don't know how many times I read about some nobody rolling with class "x" saying damage sucks, or, xyz sucks. Granted, I've done it myself. And I still do it today, but only after I've explored furthest vestiges of original concept in order to produce a result. But what boggles me is lack of exploration. For instance several months ago I ran a damage parser on an inf easy mission. I used an HP setup on my doctor, save purple hud 3. I triple dotted every mob I could find while spamming damage as fast as I could go. My damage rate over the mission was 169k DPM.

It's a number that I will remember forever. Why? Because in one shot I disproved the ENTIRE popular opinion of "doctors are poor DD". Bullshit. I can do it - any not only can I do it, but I can do it without swapping gear. So why don't people know this? Lack of testing, lack of gumption, lack of experimentation.

Number of mobs UBT'd in that mission? zero. They were dead too fast, and why bother UBting if I can hold agg and outheal damage with one insta cast/perks between fights?

Enforcer, same thing. There's a 14 page long thread on enforcer damage dealing on the forums, in which I successfully defended the claim that an enforcer can break 200k DPM vs high AC mobs in SL. AND I did it without a 15% scope, without calculators, without a 5/5 melee arul, and without damage rings, etc. Standard gear.

The problem is perception, fuelled by popular apathy, laziness and lack of initiative. Rubyzero, went all out crit on his enfrocer, and could easily OD a 220 soldier orgmate when they had damage races. While I agree running against a soldier won't be the most difficult adversary in a damage race, a well played soldier can generate a LOT of DD as well. But it takes testing, sacrifice in setup, and a healthy dose of "I want to win no matter what". Wizzytropper, another person who went balls out. Sucio, an advy who you couldn't OD on pande raids, another solid example. Jeonas, a crat, who was never beat in a DPS race.

It doesn't matter what prof is your first, if you play it hard, and don't give up when you're half way you'll be fine.

The problem is giving up before you're "good"

The reason why I encouraged people to roll crat/doc/enf isn't because I didn't think they would make it, it was because we didn't have the necessary profs to raid. That said, if someone is parked at 204 on an arguably difficult prof to start on , hasn't even started research, has crap for gear and doesn't have AI 16 yet....Ya might as well start on something that you won't be still trying to finish in 2020.
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Re: FC Announcement: Genele and Macrosun leaving AO

Post by enakur »

I totally agree with Nooba here,

I've got quite a few 220s now, and so far i have seen that all profesions are viable at 220. One easier than the other though.

What's for certain is most players are lazy. When you play a toon, be certain to do the research and do the alien levels in time. And most important try at least to keep the symbiants and clothing up to date.

When players whine the most, do inspect and you'll see low ql's symbiants, clothing and weapons.


Best, eNa
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