[MUD-Dev] [bus][des] Anarchy Online and the free MMORPG...

[Douglas Goodall]

Johan A wrote:

> Once again I do not know what you are referring to. SL's starting
> ground and the newly added one for Alien Invasion beats any other
> MMORPG I have played. DAoC is among the worse. In AO, when you
> create a new account a member of ARK (volunteer helpers) usually
> pops in to spend some time with you to answer questions you may
> have about the game. This is awesome and I have never seen it in
> another game. This of course could never be done in WoW since it's
> too big a game.

The Alien starting zone is on the right track, but AO is more
complex than most MMORPGs. The average gamer would not need a
tutorial to play WoW or CoH. I, a lifelong gamer and former game
developer, took several weeks to figure out even basics in AO. For
instance, I got to level 40 or so without implants or NCU. The new
beginner zones explain more of the game than the original starter
zones, but they don't touch even 5% of what a player needs to know
to play effectively. I'd argue that AO is one of the only games that
requires an in-game tutorial.

The ARK program is good, though, and I wish more game companies used
player volunteers for help and events. I understand the legal
objections after UO, but the ARKs in AO are an invaluable part of
the game. I think all MMORPGs could benefit from this kind of
program.

>    Mission terminals
>    Raid On Demand (Alien Invasion)
>    Instancing (we all love this one)

All good in theory, but poor in implementation. Missions are a great
idea, but the lack of location variety (and common sense--i.e. a
cave filled with robots and wolves) exposes their randomness. "Raid
On Demand" requires hours of camping to start it. I prefer
instancing in games, but AO still doesn't keep groups together or
allow players to choose an instance. It seems like nearly half the
Inner Sanctum raids I went on were cancelled because the group got
split across 2 or 3 instances and those without permanent passes
could not just re-zone until they got the right instance.

> This annoying bug was introduced when they added the final GUI
> tweak some months ago. FC follows the MMO standard of not fixing
> bugs newly introduced just to let them 'mature' and because it's
> probably added to the bottom of the long list of already knows
> bugs.

Randomized backpacks are not a brand-new bug. They just happen more
often with the latest GUI.

And sometimes when the game crashes (not lag, but a Crash to
Desktop), it will delete your local settings, so you have to
re-create and re-order your bank, all your packs, your quickbars,
friends list, spells/nanos, chat windows, etc.

> Now having a little experience in real life I know better then to
> target myself with lethal gear so I tend to avoid the same in
> games ;)

The "fighting" vs. "nano" target is confusing, especially when most
games have a single target (intuitive--but not as intuitive as the
point-and-shoot of an FPS) or a "friendly" target and an "enemy"
target (not intuitive, but at least it's hard to accidentally kill
yourself). For those who don't play AO, you basically have one
target for weapons and one target for spells. This is fine, except
that some spells heal or buff and some cause damage. It is very easy
to forget (or lag...) and hit yourself. Fortunately, you can't do
this to friendly players in most areas.

> I have never experienced a five minute load. Sometimes it may take
> a while but that is if there is an error in the zoning and you are
> kicked back to your old zone. This though takes maybe 1,5 minutes
> the most before you get an error message saying the zoning
> failed. This is insanely rare though.

> Well I think you must be on an old computer. The game does drop to
> killer FPS when zoning and you computer is loading
> everything. Once this is done it's fine. 5 min? 1-2 min the most
> and 2 min I am not even sure has happened for a long long time.

It sounds like you have at least one of the same problems, just for
less time. I think you may be underestimating the delay. In 3 years
of playing AO, everyone I've talked to in game claims similar
symptoms (short server lag, random lock-ups (though this may be
hardware related--i.e. occurs mostly on Radeons or with certain
DX/driver versions), and very poor framerates after zoning).

> Now you are just picking on things. This game is old and the
> graphics still rival even MMORPGS released to day in my
> opinion. How often do you zone? You see the zone wall and zone, a
> few seconds later you are on the other side and on your way
> again. This accounts for what 0.5% of your play experience? I
> think there are more important matters to deal with in AO first.

Perhaps, but sometimes it takes five seconds and sometimes it takes
five minutes. Unless I was doing Hecklers or a raid, I zoned several
times an hour.

> Get a Yalm and GSF ;)\

I don't think you are talking about the same problem. A yalm (an
airplane-like player vehicle) will not make zoning faster. He's
taking five minutes to zone, then taking a step backwards into the
zone wall and taking another five minutes to zone. I've experienced
this myself.

At least they fixed the areas where you used to zone right into (or
even outside of!) the zone wall (which kicked you back to where you
started or left you in limbo unless you could get to the zone wall
again, which also put you back where you started as the zone wall
"works" regardless of which side you're on).

> I think someone here said AO is pre much 100% CPU dependent. You
> graphics card will not make a real difference to the game. The
> engine is not the best no .. DX 7 based I think.

It is mostly DX7, but they hacked in some shader support. It does
not seem to use T&L or even use all available video memory. My
framerates with a GeForce 2 were about the same as with a Radeon
9800, but going from an Athlon 750 to an Athlon "2000" made a huge
difference. It also runs better with at least 1GB of RAM.

If I was King of AO, I'd start work on a brand new client.
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