Funcom Interview - We want your questions!

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king-si
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Funcom Interview - We want your questions!

Post by king-si » Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:20 pm

Hi there AOU community,

First let me introduce myself, my name is Mike and I currently co-own Split Infinity Radio, an online station geared specifically towards gamers and focusing mainly on the world of MMO's.

We are in the process of arranging a future interview with Funcom to discuss the upcoming Lost Eden expansion and are looking for a little bit of input from you guys, the players.

As our station isn't centered around any specific MMO - parts of the interview will be an overview of AO in general, in an attempt to attract new players to the game if they like what they hear. However, we want to make sure there is plenty of info for existing players too, and thats where you come in.

Any questions that have gone unanswered, anything you desperately want to know about Lost Eden, now is your chance to get them in there.

If you have something you'd like to ask, please post it here, and we'll select out the best and most popularly requested questions for use in our interview.

If theres anything else you'd like to know about the interview or our station, please feel free to ask away.

Cheers,
Mike

Trgeorge
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Post by Trgeorge » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:08 am

Do you guys even play AO? Otherways you'll have one hell of problem selecting questions. Especially since paying players (at whom expension is targeted at) already have option to post their questions on official forums. Ofc as which questions get answered there is selected by FC, so more contraversial ones get left out.
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king-si
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Post by king-si » Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:52 pm

I play the game when I can, yes, as do others at the station - but I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a seasoned/veteran player.

If no questions come from this community then i'm certain I can piece together a good enough line-up myself, however thought it would be cool to get you guys in on it - or not, however the case may be.

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Post by Trgeorge » Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:18 pm

Ok, so here' question for you (actually for FC ;) )

So far, none of expansions brought all promised content, some of it was patched in some time after release. Will LE break with tradition and actually give players what they paid for?
"War may be Hell....but it's good for business!"
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Chad
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Post by Chad » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:21 pm

- Is there any plans to attempt to "fix" the current economics in AO with the new expansion?

- Is there any plans to change the PvP mechanics, to end the "Aimed Shot Wars" once for all?

- Can the new Mechs be customized to some extent, with diffrent weapons and equipment?

- Will there be new diffrent ammo types to use?, diffrent damage types and effects, similar to what fixers have.. AoE and taunt bullets

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Stillian
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Post by Stillian » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:06 pm

Your first three questions were answered ages ago Chad

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Chad
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Post by Chad » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:08 pm

i guessed that:P

i havent been able to follow all the info on the xpansion:)

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Post by Stillian » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:10 pm

lol 8)

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Windguaerd
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Post by Windguaerd » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:04 pm

- Will the mechs be in small/medium/large size to add more variety?

Example: A smaller mech is lighter therefore faster and maybe can use a better weapon (shoots faster) at the expense of armor. A medium would be a balance of armor and weapon, while the large one will have thick armor but the weapon will be less efficient than med or small.

- How much can a mech be customized? will it allow change of weapon? upgrade/downgrade of armor plating? painting of mechs in different colors and themes? (like camouflage)

- LE focuses a lot on aliens, single and team play....yet one of the things that sort of doesn't make sense is that players start in AO and they see a ship docking with a space station orbiting the planet...and there are NO alien ships (we're supposed to be under siege for a year now) which clashes with the AI story. So how about updating the intro so people see the aliens attacking, maybe a few ships defending the transport to the station...a nice ongoing space battle would be cool in the background so people know "oh! aliens...can't wait to kick their butt".

- Will LE be the last expansion, or are you already considering ideas and suggestions for a 5th expansion?

- Will the GUI get an upgrade? meaning a customized friends list, a location window (not map) so instead of the white text showing in the middle of the screen which sometimes you can't see (specially if you're in a yalm) it can be optionally viewed in a window? this also includes the separation of comercial ads and RP ads to appear separately (paying customers want to see the RP ads without watching unwanted RL advertising).

- Will LE be a direct download or will it also be in stores? it seems like the most affordable thing these days for companies is the online dl through bitorrent or ftp rather than spending cash on boxes and CD/DVD burning reducing the cost of production by quite a bit.

- Does FC have any plans to promote AO stronger worldwide (not specifically related to LE) or perhaps expand the franchise along with the LE expansion?

- After LE is release, will the AO Dev team be reduced in numbers or remain the same?

- Will there be any new large content (like the apf) related to SL or AI before LE goes gold?

- Some worry about more lag with LE because of the PvP aspects of it, will these orbiting stations have their own 'zone' apart from RK? and in your latest stress test how many players were able to play without serious latency PvP'ing in a station?

- Will the Devs will be 'cleaning up' the AO database before LE? there are practically thousands of items which were on 'test' during every expansion and were not added to the game, they were just abandoned or scratched yet remain in the database. I believe someone could check the drop tables and see which items are NOT in-game (meaning drops from a mob/mission reward or tradeskill item result).

- When will Silirrion be named CEO of Funcom?...no seriously, he should be the man in charge =P

Alright...enough questions I guess.
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Chad
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Post by Chad » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:29 am

- Will the GUI get an upgrade? meaning a customized friends list, a location window (not map) so instead of the white text showing in the middle of the screen which sometimes you can't see (specially if you're in a yalm) it can be optionally viewed in a window? this also includes the separation of comercial ads and RP ads to appear separately (paying customers want to see the RP ads without watching unwanted RL advertising).
- any plans to add a scalable GUI?, it can be a pain to play for those who can only play in low resulution. GUI elements tend to fill the screen at lower resulution.

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Sefus
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Post by Sefus » Thu Aug 10, 2006 11:38 pm

- I read about a "general" code tweak. What can we expect to see as far as less lag goes? Will it be a significant difference?

bah..thats kinda the same as one of Wind's q's I think.

king-si
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Post by king-si » Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:10 pm

Thanks a lot for all the great questions - i'll be taking these and putting together our final lineup for the interview.

Once its arranged with a solid date, i'll be sure to keep you guys posted.

Thanks again!

king-si
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Post by king-si » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:56 pm

Just a quick update - Funcom are dotting around the globe for the next few weeks for various expo's, conventions and events, so the interview is pencilled in for around mid-September.

Hopefully we'll be able to confirm solid dates and air-times for you soon.

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Post by Snakebite » Sun Aug 20, 2006 5:24 pm

Will FC be coming to England to visit their English Customers?
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