Anarchy Online Community Update and Fan Gathering
This week, Kintaii steps up again to give us a glimpse into the recent activities at the Anarchy Online offices in Norway. Having personally worked on the upcoming PvP playfield, Kintaii has a great deal to say about it. After getting acclimated to the company’s world-building software, “TIDE”, he revels in the ability to shape the zone exactly as he sees fit. Subsequently, some changes have been made to the playfield; these tweaks include, but are not limited to:
- HP/NP regen inside Tower area
- Expanded teleportation into the PvP area
- Banking/Surgery terminals inside towers
- Improved building collision
- More distinct “areas” within the zone
Kintaii intimates thoughts within the team of employing this playfield simply as a “waiting room” of sorts. Players would queue up for a Battle Station, and be teleported to this playfield while they wait for the scenario to populate. Though, with this approach comes more obstacles,
In a perfect world, what would happen is that everyone would sign up, go kick it in the new playfield for a bit, and then go do a round of BS once it starts up. However…. I know you people. What’s going to happen with that setup is that when the BS starts to run, people will just abandon ship – If we don’t force them to join the BS, then it’ll start and instantly finish due to a lack of people. If we *do* force ‘em to join, they’ll just accept the Deserter hit and end up grinding garbage eventually.
In light of these issues, Kintaii and the team have become more convinced that it is a better idea to separate the two areas and keep the new playfield unassociated with the Battle Station. This way, players won’t have to sign up for one just to do the other. Again, roadblocks arise, and split populace enters the equation. Battle Stations queues will “pop” less frequently, and players in general will spend more time waiting. There is a chance of this, Kintaii admits, though it is still better than forcing people to sign up for the BS just to enter the new area.
In finishing this Anarchy Online Community Update, Kintaii confesses to not obtaining any Rebalancing documentation, as he had promised. If everything goes as expected, the next Community Update should see the Fixer and Enforcer documents released. Check out the full post here. Watch out – it’s pretty wordy.
One last thing – Funcom’s holding a Fan Gathering at their Oslo offices in honor of Anarchy Online and it’s loyal base. On September 11th, 2010, fans will be able to take part in a tour of the studio, a Q&A session, and have some drinks at the neighborhood pub, The Dubliner! For more info on the event, check out the forum post here.
