Discuss: Game Director Letter December/January

[Kurt2013]

I find it a huge waste of time to spend so much resource into a crafting revamp, what is FUNCOM thinking?
A massive crafting update that most players could care less about, when they could be adding content all could use.

What a clueless waste.

Actually the BASIC idea of a crafting revamp is good, because it offers a lot of opportunities (and it has not been updated for literally YEARS). Independant on how it is done, they could use it to restructure the database and introduce a system that is not based on predefined items (as it is now), which in turn would allow for more player customizeable stuff or random options to use as a longterm investment. But i doubt they will do it like this...it will all be hype and then leave it broken for months (years), because some management or fanboy says "it works for me".

Problem with the way they communicate it so far is, that people who like crafting (and there are a lot, it is one of the basic pillars in an mmo, imo) can not be sure they will like it, when they are finished. Some say, it cannot get worse than now, but i know it can. If you do not believe me, that the info is contradicting, then just look at the history here: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthr...the-old-forums

[nico0815]

I find it a huge waste of time to spend so much resource into a , what is FUNCOM thinking?
A massive crafting update that most players could care less about, when they could be adding content all could use.

What a clueless waste.

so much resource?? how do you know how many resouces they spend on the crafting revamp ?

[Jaedelyia]

I find it a huge waste of time to spend so much resource into a crafting revamp, what is FUNCOM thinking?
A massive crafting update that most players could care less about, when they could be adding content all could use.

What a clueless waste.

Just because you don't care about it doesn't mean most of the player doesn't give a damn. Crafting, especially in the way promised, can be a huge timesink that have to potential to maintain a large number of payer occupied for a while, which is pretty much what AoC need (among other things, of course).

[Mellaus]

That crafting revamp is a must have in AoC.

It's important to understand that there are many players who play alone, or are part of very small guilds and thus do not have access to higher tiers raids or to the hardest dungeons.

A crafting revamp made properly would allow high end raiders and dungeonners to spread rare resources through the trader so lonely / casual / new players can actually craft much better gear than what they have access to through regular raids or dungeons.

This would also invigorate economy, which is a big plus.

All in all, the crafting revamp, the sooner the better.

[Chillee]

That crafting revamp is a must have in AoC.

It's important to understand that there are many players who play alone, or are part of very small guilds and thus do not have access to higher tiers raids or to the hardest dungeons.

A crafting revamp made properly would allow high end raiders and dungeonners to spread rare resources through the trader so lonely / casual / new players can actually craft much better gear than what they have access to through regular raids or dungeons.

This would also invigorate economy, which is a big plus.

All in all, the crafting revamp, the sooner the better.

That's part of it, but lots of us are also completionists and are OCD that will allow/compel/condemn us to spending hours crafting things that ultimately may or may not be worthless.

[lmagowz]

That crafting revamp is a must have in AoC.

It's important to understand that there are many players who play alone, or are part of very small guilds and thus do not have access to higher tiers raids or to the hardest dungeons.

A crafting revamp made properly would allow high end raiders and dungeonners to spread rare resources through the trader so lonely / casual / new players can actually craft much better gear than what they have access to through regular raids or dungeons.

This would also invigorate economy, which is a big plus.

All in all, the crafting revamp, the sooner the better.

They have so many bugs and "things what don't works" with T5 raid/T5 gear in last updates. They NEED put crafting revamp on testlive server first. Putting it on live server without test will be big fail

[Kurt2013]

They have so many bugs and "things what don't works" with T5 raid/T5 gear in last updates. They NEED put crafting revamp on testlive server first. Putting it on live server without test will be big fail

They also need to open a free faq or discussion thread in the open forums. A few months up front. Also they NEED to be willing to change it after it goes live and balance it out and supervise it. E.g. reserve more time on the agenda than just "finished at release". Also a LOT of inhouse testing should be done, tests on TL with a limited community and more tests when it goes live (or open a real bug report thread and channel for f2p and premium players alike).

Why? Because bad crafting revamp has the possibility to ruin and inbalance ALL aspects of the game, from shop revenue through pvp to high end pve raiding or solo gaming. Just as a good crafting revamp can bring a lot of new motivation and new choices. Because crafting IS important as both means to progress alternatively AND as means to offer player customizeable content.

[LunaticAsylumLA]

Why? Because bad crafting revamp has the possibility to ruin and inbalance ALL aspects of the game, from shop revenue through pvp to high end pve raiding or solo gaming.

It will, most likely, do that exactly, considering the financial situation within Funcom and Age of Conan. Look at how long it takes to fix the most simple critical bugs: minigame queues, loot chests not showing items until you switch loot options, or resurrections jumping around. Now, imagine how buggy the update of this size will be, and how long it will take to debug it.
I would rather ask Funcom to fix bugs for a year and focus on creating a new PVP map and a new Dragonspine dungeon.

[Usedtissue]

It will, most likely, do that exactly, considering the financial situation within Funcom and Age of Conan. Look at how long it takes to fix the most simple critical bugs: minigame queues, loot chests not showing items until you switch loot options, or resurrections jumping around. Now, imagine how buggy the update of this size will be, and how long it will take to debug it.

Not to mention there's a whole server that is unable to play their characters. That seems like it should take precedence over everything else honestly...

[lmagowz]

Why? Because bad crafting revamp has the possibility to ruin and inbalance ALL aspects of the game, from shop revenue through pvp to high end pve raiding or solo gaming. Just as a good crafting revamp can bring a lot of new motivation and new choices. Because crafting IS important as both means to progress alternatively AND as means to offer player customizeable content.

Right now craft don't have much affect on pvp & high end pve raiding. And khitai replace all effect from craft in solo gaming. Only T2-T3 craft have chance to shine. If new crafting revamp take same place, they just throw away money and resources for years. They NEED make crafting important or crafting turn into something what don't worth in all. Again. And don't use dirty tricks like "you need learn how gather resources to get pvp xp from pve on Bori"