The game director has decided to do a complete overhaul of ao's core fundamentals which have for most part remained unchanged for 5+ years. The last time I saw a game do this it alienated all the veteran players and the game closed. The forums are in uproar at the moment so much that it reminds me of the old days.

The forums have been in a constant uproar since FC implemented the customer feedback system of "scream the loudest and the most and you'll be heard, be quiet and reasonable and you'll be ignored". There has been no unusual increase in forum pvp since it was announced that special attacks would be changed.

About the future changes, little is known atm and in the mean time FC are apparently nerfing and boosting things at random. It doesn't help either that the devs themselves are not that knowledgeable about the game (relatively speaking compared to many of their players), base their decisions on impressions rather than ratio and also often do not realize the repercussions their changes have. They are indeed making it pretty hard for the players to keep any faith in them (if they had some left that is, personally I've been a cynical bastard for years now when it comes to FC).

the upcoming changes are exciting indeed for me as a vet, ao is constantly evolving and improving itself and i think that the changes are essential to keep pvp alive and more balanced, cause atm ao might aswell be called aimed shot online cause everyone uses it.

ofc, this will either make or break the game, the game that relies on its vets for several years now

 well, the first balance patch (with instanced ai cities and instanced pande and other stuff) will go live tomorrow. great timing for me, i quit the game 2 months ago to study for my exams (done with those in 2 days) and fc offered me 30 days of free playtime 3 weeks ago, offer lasts till july 1st ^^