Game Director Letter – August 2013

[-tomhet-]

It´s a wonderful idea you people are suggesting. Sure let Funcom focus only on PVP, with all the available resources. Let them not do any work on TSW, AOC PVE content or the upcoming lego game. It should only take them a bit over the year to do a complete overhaul of all the PVP systems in AOC. Than at the end of the day pvp might be what you want it to be - or more likely Funcom would be bankrupt by than.

i wish they would have spent 10% of the time they spent on pve to make pvp content, wich they never did.

Funcom had some idea for world bosses in PVP zones, which would have bought more players in the borderlands. You guys said no. Fine it was back to the drawing board - and no for you. Now Funcom offers you an event which is solely focussed on PVP while they think about how to improve pvp (the roadmap is out there new minigame, Unchained pvp) and you still say no.

ah you mean having a boss in border kingdoms to have guild alliances farm while leaving out rest of non alliance people yeah no thank you.
you mean event wich main goal is to grind to lvl80 and grind pvp lvl's in open world in a shaddy way wich will most likely be easily exploited for player gain and claim players sugested and wanted such a thing?

It baffles me beyond believe how some of you regard changes like completely disabling xp for anything but pvp in the game on that new server a "quick" fix. This will affect everything. It is not that they have a miraculous switch that Joel just needs to pull and suddenly large parts of the code will be auto rewritten. The ongoning system changes (no instant CCs, energy instead of stamina for running etc. are done with pvp in mind).

it baffles me how funcom year after year still doesnt fix sieges, install arenas, and generaly intoduce pvp systems and just breaks pvp further, energy revamp wasnt requested and eficiently dumbed down game especialy for melees wich have almost infinite suply of stamina rendering most stamina drain abilities useless.

Surely you can complain that Funcom is not bringing back the pre-1.4 era of AOC were everything was better (except there was no endgame, the computers at that time had hardly enough power for this game, gem-stacking for one-shots etc.) That will change absoluetly nothing.

if funcom actualy makes a real pvp server with no pve and actual pvp quests for world pvp and rewards for sieging guilds and sieges actualy get fixed would be better then 1.04, especialy because has you pointed out class balance was at its worse back then

Joel has been absolute upfront with and brutally honest. So why are you attacking him? Because he has not the magical wand to turn that game around into your carebear-free-paradise? Most people enjoy PVE and PVP, if you focus on just one aspect in this game, there are for sure better alternatives, especially for the later.

lets start with pve then...
is sepulcher light puzzle random like xibaluku pad puzzle at martyr boss? no its dumb the thrill of solving puzzle is over once you realize its permanet solving sequence

is sepulcher last boss any good? no its a dumb fight requiring very well geared tanks and healers its a dumd and unbalanced fight with rewards inadequate to its chalenge, upon sugesting to add complexity with adds to keep spawning on last phase and using orbs to remove damage debuff staks on boss, funcom decided to break boss to only be killable by exploiting line of sight wich some players claimed "skill" was determining factor and boss was easy(to exploit) upon fixing boss to be "killable" they just made boss still be a boring gear check.

the memory cloud t4 absurdity, wich allows people to skip directly to last bosses once you killed emperor with multiple raids a week with people who didnt kill emperor at all.
denounced, threatened, posts deleted, pure censorship, dozens of times because i ask for it to be fixed so people who offline lvl'd toons to 80 cant get t4 weapons and gear strait away.
did it ever get fixed no it just gets censored by funcom isntead of fixed.

entity fight despite innumerable requests from all major endgame guilds to make fight better with good working sugestions nothing has been done and fight is a relogging to ranged alts frenzy wich developers conveniently made box killable to accomodate for this awesomeness.

temple of erlic despite denouncing its futility in terms of rewards to give incentive to go there and with bugged last boss, funcom refuses to address having a raid no one realy does anymore while t1-t4 gets farmed by all guilds erlic stands there gathering dust.

lurker of the threshold. i am one of the guys who spent days brainstorming and figuring things out on how to even spawn it, imagine the frustration that after discovering the boss it was so insainly hard you had to "rez and run" back in fight for it to be killable wich was after after we exposed this crap the walls got fixed.
some mild adjustments were made for the boss it now is harder then any t4 fight and drops loot wich realy has some creative dsign and extremely poor stats wich makes it impossible like erlic to persuade players to do it instead of t4.
do they do anything about it despite all the threads and posts myself and others have made no.
associated is vile nativity queen boss wich everyone skips and personaly i killed that boss around 120 times still no dress, drop rate for a key item for summoning boss is a joke.

i would repost about the pvp issues but you wouldnt care you would just call me a troll for telling the truth.

you want me praise someone who doesnt even recognize that there are bugs wich dont even allow people to sign up properly to minigames, and once you leave minigame you get stuck in same minigame group; but instead chooses instead of fixing these small bugs wich have lingers so insainly long...

yeah hes upfront about what is convenient for him to state, 200 promised bug fixes and instead of fixing critical bugs i see on patch notes this...

Letter to the King II: Casilda will now turn to face the player if they greet her from behind.

claiming he even listens to player feedback when what is asked for pvp is so clear and makes pve lvling event?

[Kurt2013]

...

yeah hes upfront about what is convenient for him to state, 200 promised bug fixes and instead of fixing critical bugs i see on patch notes this...


claiming he even listens to player feedback when what is asked for pvp is so clear and makes pve lvling event?

Look at it positive...and assume they have a sorted bugfix list. They just sorted it by level up progress and it is natural they start fixing the bugs in Tortage first then

Of course we can only judge that, if the second patch is about khopshef, conalls and wild lands...then maybe around lvl40, we get the invisible horse bug fixed!!!

Seriously, if this means they actually have someone from their team who holds a pen and paper ready to write down bugs and has a list with reported bugs, he/she'll check while starting the game from scratch and levelling to 80...then it is good news!
Sadly if that person is on crom, it means we will get the pvp bugs sorted only when he/she reaches 80, because there are no minis before that.

[-tomhet-]

Look at it positive...and assume they have a sorted bugfix list. They just sorted it by level up progress and it is natural they start fixing the bugs in Tortage first then

Of course we can only judge that, if the second patch is about khopshef, conalls and wild lands...then maybe around lvl40, we get the invisible horse bug fixed!!!

Seriously, if this means they actually have someone from their team who shold a pen and paper ready to write down bugs and has a list with reported bugs, he/she'll check while starting the game from scratch and levelling to 80...then it is good news!
Sadly if that person is on crom, it means we will get the pvp bugs sorted only when he/she reaches 80, because there are no minis before that.

with yet another futile greed war on the horizon, having issues with general management of my favorite videogame is but a fleeting ache on the greater grief of existing in the crude real world of herds of people guided by power craving lunatics who inflict maximum sustained pain on humanity itself.
its almost certain the demise by our own hands, aoc is just a welcomed escape from grim reality and seems almost heavenly simplistic in its pixel plights, sometimes it feels like forum pvp has more content then ingame pvp, despite the real pvp is our fleshy selves puppeteered into orquestrated mass murderer for profit.

sorry i realy am not good at being positive.

[diablito]

This race sickens me because now Saddur drops the key! Tortage will be flooded in no time.

Seriously, get a grip folks. It's a game.

[Djeneraldraza]

i wish they would have spent 10% of the time they spent on pve to make pvp content, wich they never did.


ah you mean having a boss in border kingdoms to have guild alliances farm while leaving out rest of non alliance people yeah no thank you.
you mean event wich main goal is to grind to lvl80 and grind pvp lvl's in open world in a shaddy way wich will most likely be easily exploited for player gain and claim players sugested and wanted such a thing?


it baffles me how funcom year after year still doesnt fix sieges, install arenas, and generaly intoduce pvp systems and just breaks pvp further, energy revamp wasnt requested and eficiently dumbed down game especialy for melees wich have almost infinite suply of stamina rendering most stamina drain abilities useless.


if funcom actualy makes a real pvp server with no pve and actual pvp quests for world pvp and rewards for sieging guilds and sieges actualy get fixed would be better then 1.04, especialy because has you pointed out class balance was at its worse back then


lets start with pve then...
is sepulcher light puzzle random like xibaluku pad puzzle at martyr boss? no its dumb the thrill of solving puzzle is over once you realize its permanet solving sequence

is sepulcher last boss any good? no its a dumb fight requiring very well geared tanks and healers its a dumd and unbalanced fight with rewards inadequate to its chalenge, upon sugesting to add complexity with adds to keep spawning on last phase and using orbs to remove damage debuff staks on boss, funcom decided to break boss to only be killable by exploiting line of sight wich some players claimed "skill" was determining factor and boss was easy(to exploit) upon fixing boss to be "killable" they just made boss still be a boring gear check.

the memory cloud t4 absurdity, wich allows people to skip directly to last bosses once you killed emperor with multiple raids a week with people who didnt kill emperor at all.
denounced, threatened, posts deleted, pure censorship, dozens of times because i ask for it to be fixed so people who offline lvl'd toons to 80 cant get t4 weapons and gear strait away.
did it ever get fixed no it just gets censored by funcom isntead of fixed.

entity fight despite innumerable requests from all major endgame guilds to make fight better with good working sugestions nothing has been done and fight is a relogging to ranged alts frenzy wich developers conveniently made box killable to accomodate for this awesomeness.

temple of erlic despite denouncing its futility in terms of rewards to give incentive to go there and with bugged last boss, funcom refuses to address having a raid no one realy does anymore while t1-t4 gets farmed by all guilds erlic stands there gathering dust.

lurker of the threshold. i am one of the guys who spent days brainstorming and figuring things out on how to even spawn it, imagine the frustration that after discovering the boss it was so insainly hard you had to "rez and run" back in fight for it to be killable wich was after after we exposed this crap the walls got fixed.
some mild adjustments were made for the boss it now is harder then any t4 fight and drops loot wich realy has some creative dsign and extremely poor stats wich makes it impossible like erlic to persuade players to do it instead of t4.
do they do anything about it despite all the threads and posts myself and others have made no.
associated is vile nativity queen boss wich everyone skips and personaly i killed that boss around 120 times still no dress, drop rate for a key item for summoning boss is a joke.

i would repost about the pvp issues but you wouldnt care you would just call me a troll for telling the truth.

you want me praise someone who doesnt even recognize that there are bugs wich dont even allow people to sign up properly to minigames, and once you leave minigame you get stuck in same minigame group; but instead chooses instead of fixing these small bugs wich have lingers so insainly long...

yeah hes upfront about what is convenient for him to state, 200 promised bug fixes and instead of fixing critical bugs i see on patch notes this...


claiming he even listens to player feedback when what is asked for pvp is so clear and makes pve lvling event?

I start liking this guy becouse he is talking in my name...in PvP names.Nice post bro !!!

[kinlock]

This is a very good post, like already mentioned. Well worth the read. I hope Joel and the Funcom CEO's read it and take it to heart.

Joel mentioned that it seems the players biggest complaint is the lack of new content in a timely fashion. I partly agree. AoC has A LOT of content no one does because the rewards vs gear required to do it doesn't equal out. Oh hell, just read below.

i wish they would have spent 10% of the time they spent on pve to make pvp content, wich they never did.

ah you mean having a boss in border kingdoms to have guild alliances farm while leaving out rest of non alliance people yeah no thank you.
you mean event wich main goal is to grind to lvl80 and grind pvp lvl's in open world in a shaddy way wich will most likely be easily exploited for player gain and claim players sugested and wanted such a thing?

it baffles me how funcom year after year still doesnt fix sieges, install arenas, and generaly intoduce pvp systems and just breaks pvp further, energy revamp wasnt requested and eficiently dumbed down game especialy for melees wich have almost infinite suply of stamina rendering most stamina drain abilities useless.

if funcom actualy makes a real pvp server with no pve and actual pvp quests for world pvp and rewards for sieging guilds and sieges actualy get fixed would be better then 1.04, especialy because has you pointed out class balance was at its worse back then

lets start with pve then...
is sepulcher light puzzle random like xibaluku pad puzzle at martyr boss? no its dumb the thrill of solving puzzle is over once you realize its permanet solving sequence

is sepulcher last boss any good? no its a dumb fight requiring very well geared tanks and healers its a dumd and unbalanced fight with rewards inadequate to its chalenge, upon sugesting to add complexity with adds to keep spawning on last phase and using orbs to remove damage debuff staks on boss, funcom decided to break boss to only be killable by exploiting line of sight wich some players claimed "skill" was determining factor and boss was easy(to exploit) upon fixing boss to be "killable" they just made boss still be a boring gear check.

the memory cloud t4 absurdity, wich allows people to skip directly to last bosses once you killed emperor with multiple raids a week with people who didnt kill emperor at all.
denounced, threatened, posts deleted, pure censorship, dozens of times because i ask for it to be fixed so people who offline lvl'd toons to 80 cant get t4 weapons and gear strait away.
did it ever get fixed no it just gets censored by funcom isntead of fixed.

entity fight despite innumerable requests from all major endgame guilds to make fight better with good working sugestions nothing has been done and fight is a relogging to ranged alts frenzy wich developers conveniently made box killable to accomodate for this awesomeness.

temple of erlic despite denouncing its futility in terms of rewards to give incentive to go there and with bugged last boss, funcom refuses to address having a raid no one realy does anymore while t1-t4 gets farmed by all guilds erlic stands there gathering dust.

lurker of the threshold. i am one of the guys who spent days brainstorming and figuring things out on how to even spawn it, imagine the frustration that after discovering the boss it was so insainly hard you had to "rez and run" back in fight for it to be killable wich was after after we exposed this crap the walls got fixed.
some mild adjustments were made for the boss it now is harder then any t4 fight and drops loot wich realy has some creative dsign and extremely poor stats wich makes it impossible like erlic to persuade players to do it instead of t4.
do they do anything about it despite all the threads and posts myself and others have made no.
associated is vile nativity queen boss wich everyone skips and personaly i killed that boss around 120 times still no dress, drop rate for a key item for summoning boss is a joke.

i would repost about the pvp issues but you wouldnt care you would just call me a troll for telling the truth.

you want me praise someone who doesnt even recognize that there are bugs wich dont even allow people to sign up properly to minigames, and once you leave minigame you get stuck in same minigame group; but instead chooses instead of fixing these small bugs wich have lingers so insainly long...

yeah hes upfront about what is convenient for him to state, 200 promised bug fixes and instead of fixing critical bugs i see on patch notes this...

claiming he even listens to player feedback when what is asked for pvp is so clear and makes pve lvling event?

[barbaricwildcat2]

''we feel that the best direction to take in improving open world PvP are sporadic, controlled events which force players into areas that are unsafe.'' taken from the dev letter

well said! itll just be to figure out kind of events work best

[Ideadz89]

Noite for the Game Director!!!!

[Djeneraldraza]

Noite for the Game Director!!!!

Sing........

[-tomhet-]

btw...
feel free to keep ignoring my sugestions as usual for an actual lore friendly pvp/pve event wich could be implemented on a regular basis wich would be hard to exploit and might actualy be fun recurring event.

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=184927

but yeah ignore me when all i do is offer my imagination.
just censor me, telling the truth its too violent.