Funcom Merge the servers or do something

[Petridish]

Tyranny went downhill after the world boss event.

I thought Tyranny went downhill when most of the people transferred to Set to get T4 so that they could win at PvP easier?

[Texan615]

Also, I miss getting regular updates/patches. Regular updates are one of the main reasons why people keep playing some games for years.

The lack of updates in AoC is absolutely atrocious. I periodically dabble with playing Rift and SWTOR and the amount of updates those 2 games get is simply amazing. Here are links to patch notes for both those games, just look at how often updates are done, as well as how much is added in the updates.

http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...s/patch-notes/

[Suctum]

The lack of updates in AoC is absolutely atrocious. I periodically dabble with playing Rift and SWTOR and the amount of updates those 2 games get is simply amazing. Here are links to patch notes for both those games, just look at how often updates are done, as well as how much is added in the updates.

http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...s/patch-notes/

Those games may update some content, but the quality and replay value is beyond subpar. I can't speak for Rift, but having played SWTOR for some time the game is trash and the combat system even more so. New content does not mean anything when the game is garbage to begin with. Guild Wars? New content almost every other week, all PvE. Just trying to even be online to enjoy the content is almost a chore, it's just wholesale crap being reworked again and again. How many times can you stand in Lion's Square and wait around for a global event that only makes you wonder what else you could have done with the 30 minutes of your life while you did that, for some trash social item you'll never use again.

AoC may lack new content, but the game play itself is solid and engaging, which 95% of newer MMO's all lack. Even the older dungeons like Xib and Sanctum are still entertaining, and even as bad as it is now, the pvp is still the best out there.

[yuisoku]

I fall into this trap often. I come back after some event, and it's too quiet. I now realize and remember why this has happened before. It's summer. FC NEVER does anything in the summer. I wish they would hold their events in the fall or winter when people are A. actually playing due to crappy weather outside, and B. FC is actually in the office working.

Remember, this is a Euro company, and they love their summers off.

Their game development is in USA atm, no wonder there is nothing coming

[SelfRez]

Im honestly quite surprised how patient AoC players really are.. Its been monts and monts without really new content and what you can see from monthly letters there aint even coming anything like Khitai scale or Tier5 PVE content that would attract people for long time.
Honestly this game has nothing left for veteran players now nor in the future.

[-Tutu-]

It's all part of their epic plan to do merges and achieve single server all at once:

- wait until all servers are empty
- shutdown all servers but one

Done.

But it's nothing new. It was already clear when previous GD announced "single server tech". :-)

[Jurski]

it is summer, relax..

[kalston]

Im honestly quite surprised how patient AoC players really are.. Its been monts and monts without really new content and what you can see from monthly letters there aint even coming anything like Khitai scale or Tier5 PVE content that would attract people for long time.
Honestly this game has nothing left for veteran players now nor in the future.

It has a unique and engaging gameplay that no other MMO has. And clearly not all players care about loot and power progression since you can see plenty of long-time pvp 10 and t4 geared people sticking to the game and just pvping for fun. Count me among them.

Fury does have minis 24/7 (even now in summer) along with pvpers in Khesh. There's not a lot of pve going on though (there's several t4 raiding guilds that are active but on the other hand pug raids are rare even for t2/3)

The only other unique MMO I really like besides AoC is Pirates of the Burning Sea (ship combat is amazing and skill matters much more than gear)
However levelling is kinda slow and tedious (you have to do lots of solo quests) and I don't really have any friends to play it with (even though it's now f2p)
Worth noting that unlike AoC it is getting tons of updates every year and the developers are very active and very close to the community.

[Kurt2013]

The problem might not be attracting new players, but keeping them.

Apart from countless individual motivations and reasons, there are still some you can easily prove:

There is a big discrepancy in gameplay style between the levelling part and the endgame. During levelling the group content is optional (if you don't find a group, you just move on) and it leads the player through a lot of unique quests around the world (main xp gain and progress is through questing and quest rewards).

This changes around lvl50+ to main progress through crafted gear and the dungeon loot becomes better than quest rewards, quests are still good for xp and story though. The gameplay is still variable, if you don't find a group you can progress fine without them.

This changes a lot again at 80. Crafted gear becomes replaced by grinded gear (which is better than random instance loot) and story progression becomes 6-ppl and raid driven. Casual and solo gameplay is limited to pvp or repetitive grind.

Of course there are exceptions to this...and imo those exceptions show a way funcom can game designwise to get out of the "new content is needed" spiral: more random elements and scaling content and replacing the chaos (in a negative sense) open world pvp with one that makes sense and can be fun for everyone, except of favouring the strong only.

That's the gamedesign part. Basically what i am saying is, that the options players have change a lot from 1-79 and 80. Also there are still some quest/levelling breaks. So, what motivated and drove players to the game might be lost on the way (or discovered, in case of raids for others).

The biggest mistake they can do is just add content to the top (like they did with dragonspine).

I don't know much about their limitations economywise or third party wise, but there have to be some serious issues, otherwise i can't explain the actual f2p model and shop design.
Just a few global changes to the shop options (from the amount of wares offered to HOW they are offered and HOW they can be bought) can do a lot revenuewise. For example there are a LOT of things i would buy accountwide for a reasonable price (the solo prices are WAY too expensive now and should be lowered, the accountwide buy option should be around a third of the new cost). Without space to store bought gear (counterable easily by enhanced basic inventory, more basic bank space + more buyable expansions, claim options for bought shop items etc.) and no accountwide buying option i will buy NOTHING.

Just an example calculation from my pov only:
IF the bank space expansion was accountwide and would cost around 500 funcom points for 10 slots, i would buy it for at least the main account to max (2500 points). Then i could start shopping vanity sets, i like...again accountwide. One pirate bundle could cost accountwide maybe 1250 points and one Marique armor bundle again 1250 points (again 2500 points). And due to the bank space expansion and accountwide buy options i would be tempted to buy more stuff i like, when i have the money and need. Under the current model i will buy nothing.
This would be instant money from just ONE subscriber. Even with current population i find it safe to assume there are a few hundred people like me around still.

I am critical about server merges, because i seriously doubt they are good for overall population. They are accompanied usually by latency issues (if accompanied by moves or just through server load changes) and for some also xenophobia and languages issues for part of the population by force. Sure, at the beginning the perception of a big population is good, but that is good only for drawing in new players. If the rest (game design, shop, f2p model, pvp) is not right, this will be a temporary boost doing more harm than good. Just look at previous merges...

[bandytaz]

We will never get this, with the current team size, split across AO, AOC, and TSW. Not possible.

Hell, at this point, expecting anything more than one update a year is an exercise in futility.

I know and that makes me really sad, because I pay for the game like I did back in the days when it wasn't f2p. Basically it turned out that once they went f2p quality of the game maintenance drastically lowered and you just can't do stuff like that when there are TONS of f2p games with regular updates.

Not to mention that f2p system is poorly designed (and it was even worse with class restrictions and ridiculous gold cap).

There's just nothing going on really besides hopping along a deserted town.

I know that feel, I was there couple times already. The point is when population was peaking (because 5th anniversary event was fun) they should have done something to attract even more people and make sure that every single vet stays (and I'm not talking about 40aa's after 2 months). And what happend after event? Unfortunately NOTHING. Soon it will be 2 months since event and still NOTHING is happening.

AoC may lack new content, but the game play itself is solid and engaging, which 95% of newer MMO's all lack. Even the older dungeons like Xib and Sanctum are still entertaining, and even as bad as it is now, the pvp is still the best out there.

I completely agree, but no one wants to play game which feels abandoned, because how could you possibly know that tomorrow all that effort you put in game won't disappear? I spent a lot of my time in AoC (way more than in any other game) and I would be both sad and angry if they decided that it is time to let it go.

It has a unique and engaging gameplay that no other MMO has. And clearly not all players care about loot and power progression since you can see plenty of long-time pvp 10 and t4 geared people sticking to the game and just pvping for fun. Count me among them.

Again, I do agree, BUT that state won't last forever. That reminds me that couple years ago FC was wasting resources on things like "horse racing" (I hardly <if ever> see anyone using it, I was there ONCE myself) or guild renown system (which would be cool if they kept developing it somehow) or Bori (which would be cool if they weren't denying for months that it is broken content instead of simply fixing it).




I came back after almost 1,5 year break (sadly I didn't miss anything remarkable in terms of content and updates), I'm here 3 months and I will be at least 3 more (on premium account) and I'm having fun in PvP (well, except high latency and lags...), though at this point I'm not sure if there is anything to look forward to. If nothing changes I will probably still log in sometimes to play couple minis (I love this damn game) but I'm not going to pay for it anymore (and yeah, I know it is like shooting own feet).