-FN-
22-04-05, 19:45
Where oh where to begin :)
So I've renewed my account and have been running around the streets of NC & DoY (and consequently dying thanks to the all the rust from my 4 Month hiatus). I've had a few people tell me about how I said I was never coming back... I never said that in my Leaving Thread (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?t=120738), so, whatever.
I have a specific reason for reactivating. From everything I read on the forums via links over at the SXR Forums, the International Release is looming overhead. If that is indeed the case, for some really sick reason, I still want to see Neocron become a highly populated, overly successful game. nc.synergyxr.net (http://nc.synergyxr.net/) has stayed up, I've applied every update that has come my way in the past and have been working on new features. When NC2 reaches Int. Release, I want, what seems to be one of the leading resource sites, to be up to date for the newcomers. For that I need to be in-game. So basically, I'm here to help, if I can.
Now again, I look back at my "Leaving Post" to see what sort of progress has been made since Nidhogg was appointed to the position of "The Man", DarkFall the new coder has been hired, and those four patches in four months have been applied. A lot of great fixes have been applied, the Theme Weeks have stalled, and Int. Release is coming... so how are things? (This is the part where I get long-winded and Nid regrets reactivating my Forum Account ;))
NPC Playershops - we begged and begged for a status update on this long awaited feature that was in the DoY Plan files. Without this feature, the Faction-Based Item system is skewed. Without this feature, people who are Trade-Oriented instead of PvP-Oriented get screwed in low population hours. And then those who can't play 24/7 are doubly screwed. These needed to be in from the beginning and weren't. It's that simple.
Yeah... Still my biggest hang-up. I've added a few more MMOs to my repertoire and time and time again I see the same thing: In-game populations stir the overall activity of the server. Populations in many games are high, but with a relatively large (maybe 25-30%) percent of AFK people with... you guessed it, Playershops! Where does this major feature stand in the realm of Int. Release? It's really needed for the re-designed item distribution and the game's economy and population will flourish, mark my words, when this is implemented (if done well). I'm envisioning a player must be at a citycomm in their apartment (bypassing huge lag in any single zone), they drag their items for sale to a window within the CityComm; an NPC appears in TH selling their goods with a max of X NPC Shop Slots within the CityComm at any time... something along those lines.
Item Tracking...
No brainer. It's needed for Int. Release and from what I've read it'll be there, so no biggie there. Kudos.
WoC Items - Even if I did play every single day right now, what would I do? OP Battles now almost require 100+ person clans due to the need of a ground force AND HackNet characters. That idea would be great if we didn't have an active playing population of 300ish people at peak times. So I level lots of the time. Killing mob, after mob, after mob, working towards WoC I guess... but guess what, Wisdom of Ceres Skills aren't even 100% implemented yet. I have yet to see anyone using a WoC item. I know of people who have the disc, have the money, have the exp, but they're stuck.
I still know those people :p This was the only leveling-content feature that was supposed to be introduced with NC2, and to my knowledge, is still missing :( I hear the Biogenics Labs are closed now tho...
Accessories - One of the few actually "new" concepts in NC2 - removed after Beta because it's not done. RPOS fixed to remove it.
It's the little things that polish a game - even if you just introduce an array of small 1-slot accessories that add 1 measly point to a skill, and we can mix/match up to say, 3, that's all you have to do. Bam. Accessories. Done.
RPOS/GUI Updates and Alternatives...
http://neocron.jafc.de/showpost.php?p=1677350&postcount=10 - I think that says it all... and that was in November 2004 :wtf:
I'm just really hoping that the following will be addressed before Int. Release comes - otherwise KK is once again, shooting itself in the foot:
- Item Tracking
- NPC Playershops
- At least the first level of WoC Items
- HackNet mobs fixed (I'm hearing their damage/range is still bugged and this specific facet of NC will interest many newbies as it is one of the coolest graphical ares of NC - and then cause them to cancel mad fast after they die repeatedly in frustration)
- This stupid "Right-Click not working on Login" bug I get 3/5 logins that wasn't here when I left o_O
And I also... very, very strongly recommend - removing the Online % display on the login screen. ONLINE or OFFLINE will suffice! You are seriously killing yourself KK by displaying single digit %s :(
Anyway - If you see me in-game, I'm probably doing something to update nc.syn - stop and say hi :)
So I've renewed my account and have been running around the streets of NC & DoY (and consequently dying thanks to the all the rust from my 4 Month hiatus). I've had a few people tell me about how I said I was never coming back... I never said that in my Leaving Thread (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?t=120738), so, whatever.
I have a specific reason for reactivating. From everything I read on the forums via links over at the SXR Forums, the International Release is looming overhead. If that is indeed the case, for some really sick reason, I still want to see Neocron become a highly populated, overly successful game. nc.synergyxr.net (http://nc.synergyxr.net/) has stayed up, I've applied every update that has come my way in the past and have been working on new features. When NC2 reaches Int. Release, I want, what seems to be one of the leading resource sites, to be up to date for the newcomers. For that I need to be in-game. So basically, I'm here to help, if I can.
Now again, I look back at my "Leaving Post" to see what sort of progress has been made since Nidhogg was appointed to the position of "The Man", DarkFall the new coder has been hired, and those four patches in four months have been applied. A lot of great fixes have been applied, the Theme Weeks have stalled, and Int. Release is coming... so how are things? (This is the part where I get long-winded and Nid regrets reactivating my Forum Account ;))
NPC Playershops - we begged and begged for a status update on this long awaited feature that was in the DoY Plan files. Without this feature, the Faction-Based Item system is skewed. Without this feature, people who are Trade-Oriented instead of PvP-Oriented get screwed in low population hours. And then those who can't play 24/7 are doubly screwed. These needed to be in from the beginning and weren't. It's that simple.
Yeah... Still my biggest hang-up. I've added a few more MMOs to my repertoire and time and time again I see the same thing: In-game populations stir the overall activity of the server. Populations in many games are high, but with a relatively large (maybe 25-30%) percent of AFK people with... you guessed it, Playershops! Where does this major feature stand in the realm of Int. Release? It's really needed for the re-designed item distribution and the game's economy and population will flourish, mark my words, when this is implemented (if done well). I'm envisioning a player must be at a citycomm in their apartment (bypassing huge lag in any single zone), they drag their items for sale to a window within the CityComm; an NPC appears in TH selling their goods with a max of X NPC Shop Slots within the CityComm at any time... something along those lines.
Item Tracking...
No brainer. It's needed for Int. Release and from what I've read it'll be there, so no biggie there. Kudos.
WoC Items - Even if I did play every single day right now, what would I do? OP Battles now almost require 100+ person clans due to the need of a ground force AND HackNet characters. That idea would be great if we didn't have an active playing population of 300ish people at peak times. So I level lots of the time. Killing mob, after mob, after mob, working towards WoC I guess... but guess what, Wisdom of Ceres Skills aren't even 100% implemented yet. I have yet to see anyone using a WoC item. I know of people who have the disc, have the money, have the exp, but they're stuck.
I still know those people :p This was the only leveling-content feature that was supposed to be introduced with NC2, and to my knowledge, is still missing :( I hear the Biogenics Labs are closed now tho...
Accessories - One of the few actually "new" concepts in NC2 - removed after Beta because it's not done. RPOS fixed to remove it.
It's the little things that polish a game - even if you just introduce an array of small 1-slot accessories that add 1 measly point to a skill, and we can mix/match up to say, 3, that's all you have to do. Bam. Accessories. Done.
RPOS/GUI Updates and Alternatives...
http://neocron.jafc.de/showpost.php?p=1677350&postcount=10 - I think that says it all... and that was in November 2004 :wtf:
I'm just really hoping that the following will be addressed before Int. Release comes - otherwise KK is once again, shooting itself in the foot:
- Item Tracking
- NPC Playershops
- At least the first level of WoC Items
- HackNet mobs fixed (I'm hearing their damage/range is still bugged and this specific facet of NC will interest many newbies as it is one of the coolest graphical ares of NC - and then cause them to cancel mad fast after they die repeatedly in frustration)
- This stupid "Right-Click not working on Login" bug I get 3/5 logins that wasn't here when I left o_O
And I also... very, very strongly recommend - removing the Online % display on the login screen. ONLINE or OFFLINE will suffice! You are seriously killing yourself KK by displaying single digit %s :(
Anyway - If you see me in-game, I'm probably doing something to update nc.syn - stop and say hi :)