All Posts by burmese

Originally posted by Doomcow

 

AI and LE Expansions $15 UPFRONT, no further monthly fee's.

 

No, you got it wrong.  If you buy the Alien Invasion (AI) or Lost Eden (LE) expansions you have to pay a -subscription- fee over the $5/mo fee for the Shadowlands expansion.  It is $15/mo (less if paid bulk in advance).

Depends on what you want in a game.  The graphics are (currently) dated but functional.  The content is deeper than just about any MMO, certainly much deeper than anything introduced since (and including) WoW.

When was the last time 2 different games by one company had the number 1 and number 2 slots for hits during the course of a day?  As of a few minutes ago, Anarchy Online had 8,500 and Age of Conan had 8,000 hits; both games by Funcom.  I'm sure it's happened in the past, just can't recall...

Funcom has posted their own links to the new graphics engine video:

ftp://ftp.funcom.com/media/ao/newEngine2008/

Funcom is adding a new subscription tier where you get the Shadowlands expansion for $5 (or eu) a month.  AI LE are still part of the $15/mo plan and you still have to view the ads on the billboards when on Rubi-Ka.

http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=2405&table=CONTENT

Depends on the situation.  For Eve, the graphics were directly modified to look nicer but the change is a small evolutionary update - you might categorize it as a sort of content update.   In the case of AO, the current engine is DX7 driven - practically a dinosaur (although that has the paradoxial effect of allowing much older PC's to run it while slowing down newer ones in many cases).  Anarchy Online's update is a full under-the-hood engine update but they will not necessarily change the textures or models.  It will greatly reduce lag and still run on most anything made since 2003.  Aside from reworking the 'world' effects like water and sky and grass, they probably will just run all the old textures thru an updating process w/o actually redoing them anew.

I'm sure there are some older games, like Acherons Call, that could use a similar upgrade but I don't think any new MMO's will get much benefit from a graphics upgrade.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/features/loadFeature/1718/gameID/10

Interview with Silirrion about the new AO graphics engine

the linked video is a puny one, though...wtb more links to the 40mb version

UI will stay the same, player model movements also.  The player textures will probably be a lot better.  The UI is, imo, one of the best out there and almost no complaints about it in the forums so don't expect FC to touch it.  Player models could be better and ppl would like but that is very time and money intensive to do.

FYI, Anarchy Online, the original Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk MMO, is getting a graphics engine upgrade this year. They just put out a demo video showing off the engine as it is on the alpha servers right now.

See 

http://mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/163799

for details and links to the video.

The new graphics engine will help with hooking people new to the game in the important, early stages.  The game already has a ton of content - and they have been adding a -lot- this past year, much of it back on Rubi-Ka, where the freebie players can get involved.  There was a time a couple of years ago when I knew without referencing any database, everything that buffed every skill and what every encounter or quest accomplished.  Now there is so much new stuff that I don't begin to have to time to examine/quest/explore.  The current population is good and stable but FC has put in enough new stuff to keep 4x the ppl very busy.  OFC there is still the usual crowd who gets in the game and their only goal is to hit 220 and acquire by any means the best gear eBayed credits can buy, then still get their butts kicked in PvP by the vets, and then become bored and quit, having missed 90% of the games' content.

They have indicated in comments last year that the engine was due to go online this year.  I suspect we'll see it before the 4th quarter.

Verified...check their home webpage

After seeing the new clouds, I must say that I hope the Devs don't make it 'too' earth-like.  The current 2 suns and 3 moons should all be doing their thing and the weather should be eye-catching but still a bit different than what we would expect on Earth.

Saw a couple of comments mentioning this in comparison to Anarchy Online and citing better graphics as one reason they tried TR as an alternative Sci-Fi MMO (does anyone even count SWG anymore?).  FYI, Funcom just released a new video demoing their upcoming graphics engine overhaul for AO later this year:

http://mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/163799

Download the 40mb file, burn it to DVD, and play it on a big screen.

Not calling the graphics better, but for code still in alpha it's looking awfully sweet.

Originally posted by Zorvan

 

Originally posted by burmese

The real key will be to see if Funcom takes some of the cash infusion from AoC and puts it into a credible promo campaign for AO.  The current big MMO's largely keep their top positions thru constant, visible promoting.  With a new engine in place, and fresh cash,I would expect to see Funcom promote AO heavily - probably in the final quarter of this year.

As noted by Sil: "The video was prepared for the press tour attending a press tour for Age of Conan here in Oslo on Friday."

 

So, they already intended for the press to get ahold of this, which is marketing. And I'm willing to bet that video plus others, along with more and more screenshots, will end up making the rounds as they get closer to implementation.  Also, the fr00b program will give them a very nice "word of mouth" promotion system, as well.

Well, handing material out to the media and hoping they write articles on it is not what I had in mind.  If they really want to promote AO, they're going to have to pay to post banners on a -lot- more sites, do full page ads in gaming mags, maybe even run a few television ads.  The 'big boys' do just that already.  I think AO can grab and hold a much bigger audience then it has right now, it just hasn't made itself a visible face in the crowd in years.

The real key will be to see if Funcom takes some of the cash infusion from AoC and puts it into a credible promo campaign for AO.  The current big MMO's largely keep their top positions thru constant, visible promoting.  With a new engine in place, and fresh cash,I would expect to see Funcom promote AO heavily - probably in the final quarter of this year.