AO, a failure?

xoblivionxx

After playing Anarchy Online for 1 week, i got bored of it. The irritating trade function, the bad graphics, the poor movement and the gameplay has driven me away. I know some people also feel this way about this game, while others strongly contradict my post. Feel free to post your thoughts.

alakram

It's an old good game. looking at it from a newbie perspective usually produces this opinion. It happened the same to me. I found a good game, but old for me.

xoblivionxx

But what changed your mind about this game? Maybe it will give me a new incentive to start playing it again. I feel that the developers also have a part to play in what i consider a failure.

Kilmar

AO is soooo funny, if there were a sequel just with new graphics and a new community, I would restart it

Gindace

The launch of AO was absolutely terrible and it was going to just be another game forgotten in the crowd, but with the release of a few expansions it really got turned around.

The game is old. The graphics engine is old. The story is old. But it's a free to play game that has a dedicated player base and has so far stood the test of time. If anything, AO is not a failure, but a wild success sticking around as long as it has.

xoblivionxx

I find the community quite good, as people are always willing to help me. But the graphics definitely need an update. It so old and outdated!

burmese

The new graphics engine is coming this year, mainly affecting water and landscape, judging from the teaser Funcom has put out.  Avatar flesh tones and equipment might look a bit better, too.  The animations will stay the same, of course, as changing those is a far more expensive and time consuming proposition but they are already more detailed than any other MMO.

Tarka

 

Originally posted by burmese


The new graphics engine is coming this year, mainly affecting water and landscape, judging from the teaser Funcom has put out.  Avatar flesh tones and equipment might look a bit better, too.  The animations will stay the same, of course, as changing those is a far more expensive and time consuming proposition but they are already more detailed than any other MMO.

I wouldnt agree that the animations are "more detailed that any other MMO".  All the later MMO's had as good, if not better animations.

 

AO desperately needs the graphics update, hopefully this will for once and for all get rid of that awful lag problem that has plagued the game since day one.  Just run around in Borealis if you dont believe me. 

That ain't my system having a problem either.  No way in hell should the whole graphics system lock up on an 8800 GTX lol.  Anyhoo, I digress.....

Yes, the graphics are getting an update later this year.  And to be honest, the teaser didn't actually show much in the way of difference apart from implementing new look water and grass effects.  Something tells me this aint the extent of what they are planning.  Because if it was, then they would have already done that by now.

Personally I'm hoping that the graphics update will finally make AO a good contender against the planetside part of SWG.  Yes, I'm optimistic in some way.  But if AoC pulls off, then that might help bolster AO's future.  And why bother giving an old game a graphics update if you're not planning on doing something with it afterwards?

Just in case any AO devs are reading:  For the love of god, change the way how the avatars run:  They run like they're going to sh*t themselves, with their butts constantly clenched! lol.

xoblivionxx

haha nice reply especially the last part. I agree about the running, it makes them look constipated...

burmese

Character animations have nothing to do with the graphics engine update coming.  The avatars will run exactly as they always.  If how they are animated turns you off, nothing coming down the line will change that for you.  Anarchy Online's avatars will also jump (something many MMO avatars can't do) and crawl (I know of no other MMO besides AO has avatars that can crawl).  The graphics engine upgrade is mainyl about reducing lag, and improving the quality of the environment and textures.

//\//\oo

When I first played it, I thought it was anything but: I had even paid to play it (that is before there were any expansions to buy.. just rubi-ka)! For it's time, it was very innovative especially in terms of character development. I still play AO off and on (mostly between games). In fact I'm playing it right now as I have nothing else to play before AoC is released.

I still think that the immersion, world size and character customization is rivaled by few. While it might have been a financial failure, the game still left it's mark and has people playing it today.

 

Tarka

Originally posted by burmese


Character animations have nothing to do with the graphics engine update coming.  The avatars will run exactly as they always.  If how they are animated turns you off, nothing coming down the line will change that for you.  Anarchy Online's avatars will also jump (something many MMO avatars can't do) and crawl (I know of no other MMO besides AO has avatars that can crawl).  The graphics engine upgrade is mainyl about reducing lag, and improving the quality of the environment and textures.

iirc your char can crawl in swg.

However, on the subject of crawling, I remember holding a big guild meeting in our huge HQ immediately after AI came out......and whilst one of the guildies were addressing the heads of the guild, I spotted another guildie slowly crawling along behind all the guild heads seats.....I could do nothing but laugh at the stupidity of watching this guy slowly crawling along, trying not to be noticed.  He even stopped when my character turned to face him.

hehehe.  Sorry.  I suppose its one of those "you had to be there to appreciate it" gags.

Now, coming back to the discussion.  I know that the update is mainly for the engine.  I just think its odd that they would update only the engine at this late stage if they weren't intending on doing something more with the game.  Also, Sil's letter suggests that after the engine update will come more graphics updates. 

So who knows what they'll do.

burmese

Graphics updates will undoubtly come after the new engine.  New patches will utilize the new engine to full effect, and some older nano casting effects will probably get facelifts.  Character animations are not graphics updates, though, and are a whole different animal; requiring enormous amounts of labor hours - more than the new engine and with less visible benefit. If AoC is silly profitable, Funcom may hire a few more people for AO but you can bet that redoing character animations is not near the top of their list in terms of what they will focus on to increase subscriptions.

WSIMike

 

Originally posted by burmese


The new graphics engine is coming this year, mainly affecting water and landscape, judging from the teaser Funcom has put out.  Avatar flesh tones and equipment might look a bit better, too.  The animations will stay the same, of course, as changing those is a far more expensive and time consuming proposition but they are already more detailed than any other MMO.

 

Actually the new graphics engine is more than just water and landscape - though those are two things that are most prominent in the video.

Some other things shown in the video:

- Bump-mapped surface textures

- Real-time lighting/shadowing

- More vibrant rendering overall (natural result of going DX9)

- cleaner looking skies

- better/cleaner specular mapping.. right now in the engine it's on a per-vertex basis. From the video, it looks like it's going to be per-pixel; far more precise and much better looking.

Don't know if they are, but here are some things they *could* also add... They might well add the option for full-screen glow, focal blur, or some other such post-processing effects as well that you see in other DX9 games. Might also add emissive surfaces so that when you run past one of those digital bill-boards, it actually acts as a light source.

There are some other things, but those immediately stand out in my mind from when I last watched it.

Also, moving the graphics processing/rendering off of the CPU and on to the GPU is going to improve performance drastically... both in gameplay and in graphics rendering as things are now split up so the CPU is left to do what it does best and the GPU to do the same.

As for animations... they could probably tweak the animations overall over time. If you have these gorgeous environment graphics with quirky/clunky looking characters and creatures, it's going to look all wrong. They've been improving other areas of the game as well - such as the camera.. so I don't see why they wouldn't do the same for the characters/models.

Personally.. I can't wait to see the Shadowlands areas with the improvements. I thought the design of those areas was really nice already, given the tech.

Zorvan

Originally posted by WSIMike


 
Originally posted by burmese


The new graphics engine is coming this year, mainly affecting water and landscape, judging from the teaser Funcom has put out.  Avatar flesh tones and equipment might look a bit better, too.  The animations will stay the same, of course, as changing those is a far more expensive and time consuming proposition but they are already more detailed than any other MMO.

 

Actually the new graphics engine is more than just water and landscape - though those are two things that are most prominent in the video.

Some other things shown in the video:

- Bump-mapped surface textures

- Real-time lighting/shadowing

- More vibrant rendering overall (natural result of going DX9)

- cleaner looking skies

- better/cleaner specular mapping.. right now in the engine it's on a per-vertex basis. From the video, it looks like it's going to be per-pixel; far more precise and much better looking.

Don't know if they are, but here are some things they *could* also add... They might well add the option for full-screen glow, focal blur, or some other such post-processing effects as well that you see in other DX9 games. Might also add emissive surfaces so that when you run past one of those digital bill-boards, it actually acts as a light source.

There are some other things, but those immediately stand out in my mind from when I last watched it.

Also, moving the graphics processing/rendering off of the CPU and on to the GPU is going to improve performance drastically... both in gameplay and in graphics rendering as things are now split up so the CPU is left to do what it does best and the GPU to do the same.

As for animations... they could probably tweak the animations overall over time. If you have these gorgeous environment graphics with quirky/clunky looking characters and creatures, it's going to look all wrong. They've been improving other areas of the game as well - such as the camera.. so I don't see why they wouldn't do the same for the characters/models.

Personally.. I can't wait to see the Shadowlands areas with the improvements. I thought the design of those areas was really nice already, given the tech.

Also, I remember someone saying how the current engine was unable to process the alpha channels correctly with graphic cards, meaning that most textures including player characters are actually in a higher detail than they appear to be due to the engine/cards not being able to process them fully together?

xoblivionxx

Wow! looks like this update is going to be quite major! If i see a huge improvement, i may play AO again. Thanks for what you have shared guys!

WSIMike

Originally posted by Zorvan


Also, I remember someone saying how the current engine was unable to process the alpha channels correctly with graphic cards, meaning that most textures including player characters are actually in a higher detail than they appear to be due to the engine/cards not being able to process them fully together?

I hadn't heard that myself, but I don't see why it wouldn't be true. If it's regarding alpha mapping of surfaces, then yeah I could see that being the case.

In any case, I think the transformation of AO from this graphics update is going to be the most drastic "night and day" change players will have experienced in any other MMO to get a facelift... I think even more so than the Eve Online update.

Now if only SE would do that with FFXI...

embody

Personally I think AO character models look very good for being made around 2000.

I also think the animations are quite allright, they may not seem all that dynamic but its ALOT better than most other games and i think the reason you notice it better in AO is because you can move as you like, unlike Lineage2 forexample where you just point and click. I do agree running seems a littlebit odd but gets better when you get higher runspeed.

On a side note, Anarchy Online deffenantly has the best Emotes in ANY game, you can combine them and do almost what you want. You should see how well some people can dance in AO by combining alot of emotes.

I do look forward to the graphics update and will without a doubt play AO again when it comes.

Lydon

If AO is a failure, it wouldn't still be up and running after all these years...

RabidBowman

Originally posted by xoblivionxx


But what changed your mind about this game? Maybe it will give me a new incentive to start playing it again.

YALMS!

xoblivionxx

just because its running doesn't mean that they have a huge player base or anything

Trashcantoy

the 2 international server (so not the german server) have very healthy pops

im not playing it anymore and im really curious how many flocked to aoc

burmese

There's somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 active players.  AO has been a profitable cash cow for Funcom every year of it's existence, as can be seen from its' stockholders reports.  Development of AoC has been keeping them in the negative the past couple of years but will, starting now, start generating a profit of its' own.

Lydon

 

Originally posted by xoblivionxx


just because its running doesn't mean that they have a huge player base or anything

Your point being? Whether or not the playerbase is large...they still have one, even after so many years. If the game was a failure, the servers wouldn't be running anymore as no one would be playing it.  Funcom are obviously making money from it if they're putting so much work into adding new content too.

 

If the previously stated stats are correct (10-20k players), it is still doing very well. Look at a new game such as Vanguard and compare the population stats.

Viekas

AO is like EVE, unless you devote your time to learn and play it further, its not so enjoyable. Best community, one of the best game mechanics and ability to solo has been always my big turn ons in AO. 1week is just a scratch on surface, dig deeper, get involved with active orgs and you get addicted

theratmonkey

funcom wouldn't be able to make expansions or update the graphics if the game was a failure.

Sure, at its release, it bombed. But its made up for that.

And even though I know it probably won't happen, having some new character models/animations along with a new look to the combat system (Without really slaughtering or changing it completely.) would be great.

Anything to give it more Eye candy.