Discuss! Game Director Letter - May 2014

[barbaricwildcat2]

just take a breathe and muck around trying crazy stuff with other people!

alcohol is a step in the right direction

[Khaletohep]

No way, if you give t4 rings and weapons for tokens people will be full T4 without killing emperor and zodiac. [...]

a.) My suggestion was to include T1-T3-Tokens in prices for T4 accessoires/weapons. You reason against that in the assumtion that T4 accessoires/weapons will be available without having some requirement like a Dragon Tear, having done the Emperor quest or reaching a vendor placed at the Emperor room. There's a lively discussion about pricing on Test Live that should be read to understand my suggestion:

http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=59201

If they want to enable the exchange of tokens so be it but the ratio has to be lower. Something like 10T2:1T3 or worse. This exchange should calm the feeling of lootwhores of "loosing time" but shouldn't encourage a T1/T2 farm of geared people.

b.) Including T1-T3-Tokens in prices wouldn't allow people to get "Full T4" without killing the Zodiac, because they can't get dragon tears for the armor pieces, unless they're able to kill the Entity - and if they do, let them have it.

c.) Even if: so what? The pieces you already have are worth any less by other people having themm, too. Let's get people equipped for T5.
All current suggestions set prices rather high. Players without access to "successful" raids would need a lot of time to even buy a single pieces - just as a real life carpenter can buy the same egangement ring a doctor can. He'll neeed to save longer (a lot longer, actually), maybe too long to make it viable, but there's no law prohibiting him from buying it. Why make it harder to buy a ring in Hyboria?

BTW people with full t4 gear don't help new players when they do the dungeons for them. Think about what means nowadays "need MT, OT" it means "I need a solo tank overgeared and a slacker who can kite or use his dread shadow and loot. And with T4 tanks in T2 happens the same all become a competition about what tank has the long dick.[/QUOTE]

If I had to put values for your wxyz I would say 60 T4, 30 T3, 10 T2 and 7 T1 tokens for a T4/T3.5 weapon or accessory. This would force me to raid T4 or T3.5 quite regularly and do about 2 runs in all other tiers.

Sounds good to me. Both the prices and the T1/T2/T3-raiding. ;-)

[stiiixy]

alcohol is a step in the right direction

Yeah mate, I've had to resort to it a few times to make sense of some peoples attitude towards the game. Playing it like it's some sort of life-support programme and if they fail a 6man, game over maaaan!

[stiiixy]

a.) My suggestion was to include T1-T3-Tokens in prices for T4 accessoires/weapons. You reason against that in the assumtion that T4 accessoires/weapons will be available without having some requirement like a Dragon Tear, having done the Emperor quest or reaching a vendor placed at the Emperor room. There's a lively discussion about pricing on Test Live that should be read to understand my suggestion:

http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=59201

If they want to enable the exchange of tokens so be it but the ratio has to be lower. Something like 10T2:1T3 or worse. This exchange should calm the feeling of lootwhores of "loosing time" but shouldn't encourage a T1/T2 farm of geared people.

b.) Including T1-T3-Tokens in prices wouldn't allow people to get "Full T4" without killing the Zodiac, because they can't get dragon tears for the armor pieces, unless they're able to kill the Entity - and if they do, let them have it.

c.) Even if: so what? The pieces you already have are worth any less by other people having themm, too. Let's get people equipped for T5.
All current suggestions set prices rather high. Players without access to "successful" raids would need a lot of time to even buy a single pieces - just as a real life carpenter can buy the same egangement ring a doctor can. He'll neeed to save longer (a lot longer, actually), maybe too long to make it viable, but there's no law prohibiting him from buying it. Why make it harder to buy a ring in Hyboria?

BTW people with full t4 gear don't help new players when they do the dungeons for them. Think about what means nowadays "need MT, OT" it means "I need a solo tank overgeared and a slacker who can kite or use his dread shadow and loot. And with T4 tanks in T2 happens the same all become a competition about what tank has the long dick.

Sounds good to me. Both the prices and the T1/T2/T3-raiding. ;-)[/QUOTE]

Too many people who form groups expect pro-gun people to do the work for them. It's true, it happens, and quite often disband after a fail.

The last thing I want in a T1 raid is know-it-all T4 raid experts showing off and making a motza of the show. I'll never learn my fresh toons place and requirements in such an instance. After all, this game's best aspect is discovery, and I should emphasis 'self-' in there.

'Wow, new combo!'. 'oh, shorter one's are better here, but not here' kind of thing.

I can't say I want to many T4 people running around in lower tiers doing the 'hard' yards and hurrying the fight along and preventing others from enjoying their first raid and learning the ropes.

PS; I think your quotes broke and they're now affecting my post =D

[Okkie]

PvPstreak increases the motivation for winning (and in relation to that teamplay) even if you already got the quest for the mini on cooldown.

Step in the right direction if you ask me.

ok, how well they counter the players that only tunnel vision the flag? How will they prevent flagbots?

Look at that patto guardian, didn't kill a single player in past 6 months I've seen her play. went from pvp 3-pvp7 with full pvpt2 gear. Avoided every single pvp scenario possible. Ended up with the best gear and leveling the quickest.

How can funcom fix that?

[lmagowz]

Now TWO developers work on AoC? Good news!

[Khaletohep]

The last thing I want in a T1 raid is know-it-all T4 raid experts showing off and making a motza of the show. I'll never learn my fresh toons place and requirements in such an instance. After all, this game's best aspect is discovery, and I should emphasis 'self-' in there.

A valid concern, though not above all other considerations in my opinion. There is a problem, esp. with twinked/new tanks, who never really learned how to do fill the role of the main tank, as they got carried through the game on the shoulders of experienced players/tanks. Same may be true with other classes than soldiers, but it's most apparent with soldiers in my opinion.

However, mixing the players a bit is still a good idea in my opinion. In the job, it's also wise to put experienced and inexperienced people in a group to facilitate transfer of knowledge. THe new guys/gals have to be given their own tasks, but having an experienced dude(tte) with them doesn't hurt.

[Caudilloo]

The last thing I want in a T1 raid is know-it-all T4 raid experts showing off and making a motza of the show. I'll never learn my fresh toons place and requirements in such an instance. After all, this game's best aspect is discovery, and I should emphasis 'self-' in there.

I know what you mean and I think it is fun to find out stuff on your own too. Why find out the wheel for the second time tho?
I really won't spend hours on teamspeak with new people knitpicking on everything they are doing wrong unless they ask me. There is some stuff however which is just routine for me that I can tell them in one or two words.
Like 'This encounter is physical/magical' or 'Protection is good in magical fights while armor is good in physical fights' or 'use defensive stance to tank' (yes, I've said this more then once ).
The knowledge transfer part is quite valueable if you ask me even if it is something as simple as a build or what comboes do what.

This will help them improve quite a lot in a short time and will only make their gameplay more fun imo.
Also, when I end up with 5 tanks that are doing their first raid I will let them try to maintank but if they can't make it or die in 2 hits I can take over and function as a sort of safety net to provide a environment to learn without having to go to the process of endless beatdowns and flamewars.

[ViolentLeonidas]

ok, how well they counter the players that only tunnel vision the flag? How will they prevent flagbots?

Look at that patto guardian, didn't kill a single player in past 6 months I've seen her play. went from pvp 3-pvp7 with full pvpt2 gear. Avoided every single pvp scenario possible. Ended up with the best gear and leveling the quickest.

How can funcom fix that?

You blame funcom because the whole other team all 6 of them are scared to take a flag! if 6 players let tank run from flag room to flag room 3 times then they deserve to lose!

That's a team of 6 useless players cant play map objective and scared of picking flag up and you think funcom should fix that! lol

[Kurt2013]

I know what you mean and I think it is fun to find out stuff on your own too. Why find out the wheel for the second time tho?
I really won't spend hours on teamspeak with new people knitpicking on everything they are doing wrong unless they ask me. There is some stuff however which is just routine for me that I can tell them in one or two words.
Like 'This encounter is physical/magical' or 'Protection is good in magical fights while armor is good in physical fights' or 'use defensive stance to tank' (yes, I've said this more then once ).
The knowledge transfer part is quite valueable if you ask me even if it is something as simple as a build or what comboes do what.

This will help them improve quite a lot in a short time and will only make their gameplay more fun imo.
Also, when I end up with 5 tanks that are doing their first raid I will let them try to maintank but if they can't make it or die in 2 hits I can take over and function as a sort of safety net to provide a environment to learn without having to go to the process of endless beatdowns and flamewars.

There is an easy solution to this partly in game too. Just give quest rewards and good stuff away the first time someone does content. Tokens for the repeatables to let players choose what and where they want to do and go. Everyone wins. Also you kind of have normal and unchained versions for this too. Doing the normal versions should give you the experience and gear to do the unchained ones. Sadly this is not always the case with instances in aoc (normal/unchained, normal/godslayer).
Another different approach could be to use normal/unchained/epic/godslayer methods to create virtual "time" or a "revisiting" feel. Then each would be different and the fun factor could decide. THat goes better with original approach and more luck based drops though does not rule out a token system too.