Originally posted by burmese

From Game Director Means Friday update today:

 

"The Engine:

Work progressed well this week as the team worked on animation blending and item animations. Replacement of these systems is a "two steps back, three steps forward" process... so unfortunately no sexy screens this week. Hopefully soon!"

They've been busy trying to make a stupid rubber duck look like content. It ain't working.
 

Game Director Means was hanging out on the AO test server and answered a few questions regarding the upcoming graphics engine:

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[Social] Means: Now Enno is working on it with two other coders
[Social] Means: we'll get there.
[Social] Dagget2: any idea yet on how old video cards can be and still run the new engine smoothly? IE, will the typical $20 PCI card from circa 2004 do ok?
[Social] Means: not 100% sure yet. They told me a 20$ card would probably be good enough
[Social] Dagget2: I would imagine that a target would be "If it runs WoW, it can run AO" (WoW runs on some pretty old PC's)
[Social] Means: What is this "wow" you speak of? :P
[Social] Dagget2: ;)
[Social] Nightingale: maybe not a $20 from 2004, but... doubt it'll need AoC type muscle...
[Social] Dyeshi: World of warcraft ? :S
[Social] Pentaflake: If it runs AoC it runs AO maybe?
[Social] Nightingale: I sure hope so :D
[Social] Means: AOC is heavy hardware...we won't be going anywhere near that
[Social] Dagget2: a lot of my guildies have 4 yr old Dells' with built-in video and can only expand video with a simple PCI card and that is good enough for current AO
[Social] Means: There will likely be a Test version of the new engine client out for awhile at the same time as the regular client
[Social] Means: but not for a few months yet
[Social] Means: very very big job
[Social] Means: booster before Christmas...New engine in 2009
[Social] Means: new engine
[Social] Means: this one is being exorcized like a nasty demon
[Social] Means: it did well
[Social] Means: time for it to retire..take it easy :)
[Social] Means: not many 7 year old games look half this good

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I remember they said the engine will come up in 2008, now it's 2009.  At this time, i dont believe it will ever get released.

It's great that theyre upgrading the graphics engine, but unless the character creation is also upgraded, it will miss the mark needed to bring it up to current standards. I'm so sick of the options for character creation, we have all been looking at the same heads for 7 years now, and after playing most any other game, they look like crap. Character creation needs to be totally revamped!

hey guys. i tried it for like an hour. it usually takes me a little while to get used to a game i decide to try out.

i know what you mean with the character creation page, it really needs some clothing options or something... sometimes i dont mind if everyone has the same face/head.. as long as we can at least wear different outfits? anyways. i might not have given it enough time and i just assumed it was a game made for guys so i just left it alone for now =]

i dont think this game was made to look pretty but im glad they're doing something to it now. sounds nice

Actually, the game has a ridiculous variety of clothing, but you have to progress off the starter island to get to the clothing shops.  We recently had someone give a newbie 500,000 credits and 2 days later most of it was spent on clothing and most of those items being 500 to 2,000 credits per article of clothing...

BTW, the ducks -are- content.  Placeable most anywhere, they are called 'Mr Squeaky'. Loot dropped by Uncle Pumpkin-heads. There are also a few 'I Win buttons in some cities - hilarous results from pushing them!

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Originally posted by burmese
BTW, the ducks -are- content.  Placeable most anywhere, they are called 'Mr Squeaky'. Loot dropped by Uncle Pumpkin-heads. There are also a few 'I Win buttons in some cities - hilarous results from pushing them!

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Originally posted by jadesilver

 

i just assumed it was a game made for guys so i just left it alone for now =]
i dont think this game was made to look pretty but im glad they're doing something to it now. sounds nice

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Not true, see here. (scroll down for links to pictures)

:)

Regarding the ducks, I don't think artists typically work on engine code, and I doubt modelling a duck takes a great amount of time, so I don't see how that's a complaint.  If your reason for leaving is the lack of a new engine then good riddance. Graphics aren't going to make the game better and you'll just be complaining even louder afterwards when you realize it didn't.

It'll be a nice perk but I won't be leaving or staying becuase of it.

Originally posted by digitydarkman

Who cares what it looks like will it raise the fun factor and replay value... no it will not.

210+ levels amazing amounts of character customiztion not enough fun factor for you?

Originally posted by hobo9766

 

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Originally posted by burmese
BTW, the ducks -are- content.  Placeable most anywhere, they are called 'Mr Squeaky'. Loot dropped by Uncle Pumpkin-heads. There are also a few 'I Win buttons in some cities - hilarous results from pushing them!

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The only thing here that is hilarious is that you think that is content.

 

Actually its more hilarious that you think its not.  God forbid ANYONE has a sense of humor ... or finds something SMALL enjoyable when you don't.

I bet you don't like 1/2 hour sitcoms because they are Half the content of a full hour Comedy show like Chuck huh?

Well is there a date yet? I would think this December after WoW’s pile of stuff comes out? Any official info on the new engine?

Taken from the site and the game director...

Our current goal is "Summer 2009".

I am disappointed by this. By then many new games will be out. I have a high end system (quadcore, 8800 GT 640 MB/4 gigs ram) and I can't run more than 2 -3 FPS on this game. I've tried every fix, it just runs like crap because its what, dx 2? Just kidding, but you know what I mean.

I am basically waiting for the new engine so I can play the game. I'm pretty disappointed. Oh well, I'll just have to play something else in 2009.

Just to confirm the current ETA for the new engine:

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Q - Is there any eta on the engine and how is it progressing?

The new engine is coming along well. We are slowly being able to strip out the work done by the old engine and soon all basic/core functions will be provided by the new engine entirely. The removal of the old engine means a complete removal of the old effects system...and the re-creation/improvement of all the effects in game. This is of course a very significant amount of pure time consuming work. At the same time work will be done to improve the look of the game where possible...things like character model alterations, new trees etc are all adding to the time required to get this done...and get this done right. We really want to take our time with this to make sure it lives up to all of our expectations. Our current goal is "Summer 2009". I'd like to promise it will be ready...but all I can really promise is that I will not release it until I am certain it looks amazing and is well optimized to ensure excellent performance on the vast majority of systems.

Source: Friday with Means - Nov 21, 2008

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The fact that it might well take yet another YEAR before the new engine goes live (we all know this is not gonna be last delay, and if they say Summer 2009 it will rather be Christmas 2009) is a bit disappointing, but then again it's nice to hear that they are now planning on improving the character models as well.

Originally they said they would only recode the engine so it would utilize modern GPUs, increasing the performance but NOT changing the looks and textures at all.

Then they stated that they were going to redo the enviromental textures as well and also released some eye candy vids/screenshots.

And now they also plan on improving character graphics - which honestly always has been my major gripe with this awesome game, and probably is needed the most.

Also the fact that they seem to have long-term visions for AO (I mean the game will already be 8 years old when they release a new engine for it) is very reassuring.

Originally posted by Vasburg

Just to confirm the current ETA for the new engine:

----------------------------------------------------------------

Q - Is there any eta on the engine and how is it progressing?

The new engine is coming along well. We are slowly being able to strip out the work done by the old engine and soon all basic/core functions will be provided by the new engine entirely. The removal of the old engine means a complete removal of the old effects system...and the re-creation/improvement of all the effects in game. This is of course a very significant amount of pure time consuming work. At the same time work will be done to improve the look of the game where possible...things like character model alterations, new trees etc are all adding to the time required to get this done...and get this done right. We really want to take our time with this to make sure it lives up to all of our expectations. Our current goal is "Summer 2009". I'd like to promise it will be ready...but all I can really promise is that I will not release it until I am certain it looks amazing and is well optimized to ensure excellent performance on the vast majority of systems.

Source: Friday with Means - Nov 21, 2008

 ----------------------------------------------------------------

The fact that it might well take yet another YEAR before the new engine goes live (we all know this is not gonna be last delay, and if they say Summer 2009 it will rather be Christmas 2009) is a bit disappointing, but then again it's nice to hear that they are now planning on improving the character models as well.

Originally they said they would only recode the engine so it would utilize modern GPUs, increasing the performance but NOT changing the looks and textures at all.

Then they stated that they were going to redo the enviromental textures as well and also released some eye candy vids/screenshots.

And now they also plan on improving character graphics - which honestly always has been my major gripe with this awesome game, and probably is needed the most.

Also the fact that they seem to have long-term visions for AO (I mean the game will already be 8 years old when they release a new engine for it) is very reassuring.

Sounds to me to be more of the "dangle the carrot as long as you can" scenario.

Yea, who knows if Funcom will even survive that long.

2 days ago they just confirmed mass layoffs, TenTonHammer reported something about 70% of the US Staff having been fired.

some how i dont think it will ever  happen there losing to may players now  i wonder just how many players are subing  still .  any one who played  few years ago will remember how busy athen use to be  . now it a ghost town . . how many players are gonna buy  the new booster pack  . not many  i think  i know i wont 

The only -facts- available are that the number of subscribers has held steady the past 2 years (as stated in the quarterly reports to stockholders).  Their problem is that they have added a lot of content since then and there are just too many things to do.  2 years ago I could could the number of remaining quests/goals for my main on the fingers of one hand - now it takes all fingers and toes combined - and I play quite a bit every day working towards those goals.  People are spread all over the planet and Shadowlands now.

 Has anything new in terms of news been added to this coming engine update? Or has Funcom sadly pulled the plug on this? 

Originally posted by Lateris

 Has anything new in terms of news been added to this coming engine update? Or has Funcom sadly pulled the plug on this? 

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/215991

"Q - Is there any eta on the engine and how is it progressing?

The new engine is coming along well. We are slowly being able to strip out the work done by the old engine and soon all basic/core functions will be provided by the new engine entirely. The removal of the old engine means a complete removal of the old effects system...and the re-creation/improvement of all the effects in game. This is of course a very significant amount of pure time consuming work. At the same time work will be done to improve the look of the game where possible...things like character model alterations, new trees etc are all adding to the time required to get this done...and get this done right. We really want to take our time with this to make sure it lives up to all of our expectations. Our current goal is "Summer 2009". I'd like to promise it will be ready...but all I can really promise is that I will not release it until I am certain it looks amazing and is well optimized to ensure excellent performance on the vast majority of systems."

http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=2473&table=CONTENT

Yeah, AO needs more then the engine upgrade to save it. While the game IMO, is the best MMO out there, and while there is TONS of stuff to do in the game - It's to hard to figure out where to go for the content that is there - And a lot of the content in the core game has been made worthless by the expansions anyways. They need to overhaul Rubi-Ka itself and stop adding onto SL/AI stuff.

 They need to rerelease Anarchy Online with this new engine.  From what I'm seeing, they're not just updating the graphics... it's going to be a whole new experience.  Now, I'm not a fan of what happened with SWG, but from what I can tell the updates new new game experience here is going to be phenominal and would actually encourage me to renew my subscription to the game.

     I havent checked on AO in almsot a year....The new engine was supposed to be out last summer but they were also working on AoC so thre was no way it was going to be done.......I never played any of the expansions, just the classic version.......While its a good game and has some great features, there jsut wasnt enough to keep me entertained long term........Pretty much all I did were missions and really the missions at level 95 felt the same as they did at 20.........I jsut hit a point one day where I saw no reason to keep on going.

Jeez, that video is real old. FC is about going bancrupt. Game has barely changed last 4 years; it is clunky, laggy and old fashioned in every way.

AO should be avoided at ALL costs!

This comes from a veteran player who was there from beginning.