View Full Version : You ask, the CEO answers!
Some of you may have already wondered why Holger Nathrath, CEO of Reakktor Media is no longer active in the official forum and available for discussions like he used to be in the past. The reasons for this is that Holger’s numerous tasks as Chief Executive Officer are not leaving him any time to deal with the official forum.
Nonetheless Holger has agreed to elaborate on some of your questions. You now have the possibility to post your questions to Holger in this thread. I will make a selection of this questions and let them being answered by Holger in an interview. Please keep in mind that it will not be possible to answer every single question, so make sure that your questions are of importance.
Is anything being or will be done to address server side issues regarding zoning?
(I would list the issues but I'm sure you know them)
Here's a few questions from me.
1. Holger, since you are Chief Executive Officer of ReaKKtor, are you going to push your team to implement the Player Shops feature that was promised for Neocron 2, and then dropped in a plan file.
2. After balancing is completed, what is the next big thing you want to see implemented in Neocron?
3. When will a new method of payment for Neocron be implemented?
PepsiPlayer
06-09-06, 15:55
Will there be a marketing campaign after balancing has been completed, and will it be better than the last attempt?
As Neocron 2.2 is revisiting older areas of the game to bring them up to date, fix them up and generally improve them, will the future of development be used to introduce past features that were either put on hold or only implemented to a certian level?
Such as areas like War Games Inn in the Dome of York, the possibility to change your hair style like you can clothing and the much wanted accessories feature.
2 of those 3 have a presence ingame but are incomplete - will this change at all?
Dribble Joy
06-09-06, 16:11
Are there plans to introduce accessories when (and if) the player/npc model update happens (or at any point thereafter)?
Are there plans to make player actions have a greater affect on their character's influence in the game world (Eg. Make sympathies effect a much wider range of game world aspects such as prices, access, NPC reaction etc.)?
More when I think of them.
Bishop Yutani
06-09-06, 16:12
First, thanks to you all for giving us the opportunity to ask questions.
1) Is there a long term plan for Neocron? (+2,3 years) If so, will it continue on in its current form or will it be retired in favor of a new version, much like the transition from nc1 to nc2?
2) Realted to q1: Is there any link between 10T's aquisition of elseWhere Entertainment and Neocron? Will the NeoReality engine be used for Neocron?
3) In light of the fact that populations are small, fans in the forums have been asking for server merges to consolidate the players together. What is the reasoning for leaving 4 servers open and is there a plan for the future to consolidate them?
4) Has there ever been any thought given to creating a satellite office in the US to hold a US-based server and perhaps even support staff?
Apocalypsox
06-09-06, 16:13
1.) Player shops as already posted by Brammers i beleive.
2.) Will there ever be more new vehicles introduced? Or will the "Mechs" promised in NC2 ever be introduced?
3.) Will the range of Rifles be fixed? Or will the Fog that plagues many areas and reduces view still remain, limiting the rifle?
4.) A Rumor i have heard, Fresh off the Rumor Mill. When the new "Elveon" RPG is released by 10t, Will the Neocron staff be transferred over to this game, and leave Neocron writhing into nothing?
i had to throw the mech one in as a constant rant about me never getting my mechs. :p
Hell-demon
06-09-06, 16:13
Tell me about yourself:
What do you like to eat?
What's your dream in life?
What are your hobbies?
Met anyone famous?
What is KK's stance on pvp, and especialy ally or neutral killing?
Also, will KK put more emphasis on the existance of the LE chip as many seem to have forgotten about the existance of this device. Related to the LE chip, will KK ever consider the implementation of Le'd clans?
Thirdly. Do you think it would be possible to make new runners start out with a bit more cash, since even with decent knowledge of the game it's sometimes rather hard to get started in this game and not go broke.
Will there ever be way to implement/use player made:
- skins
- models
- sounds
- huds
- maps(for neofrag for eg.)
- quests
by:
- releasing maping/modeling tools
- holding art/quest contests
- legal clientside gfx/sound modding
?????
RogerRamjet
06-09-06, 16:36
1) Will NPC skins ever be updated?
2) Will the issue of balance actually be addressed without ruining the PVP element of this game?
3) Will player made mods ever be approved by KK for use?
4) Am i still the sexiest guy in NC?
where is the new hud we were supposed to get?
1. NPC models gonna finally get updated ? after 5 years?
2. Are we gonna get a New set of mobs ? In my 3.5 years of playing, I've seen 3 new mobs implemented.
3. Where is the "More Sex" You falsly advertised before NC2 came out?
4. Can we have something "FUN" to do in NC where we don't have to constantly lvl, Newbies need something like a casino in pepper park !
Have you considered dropping the current Neocron code and starting over with a
better engine?
[ edited - if you want to ask a question, just ask a question ]
1.) Are there any plans to fix the vehicals and improve them? As in better spawning and better zoning, also some of the broken ones that don't fire correctly
2.) Player shops already mentioned (Come on we would love this)
3.) Are there any plans to make clan wars a reality?
Is an OP war overhaul the next thing after balancing?
My Main Question would be -
Server Merge - I Know its been asked , but you could merge the server
Remove the TRADE Dome/MB/TH.
And add - Aliance - ooc (English) - ooc (German)
Also - a Inchar channel
ATM if you wanted to speak Roleplay. you cant speakin in trade/help/ooc...
Holger, what is your prefered class in Neocron ?
With such a small team involved with NC2 and limited resources and..
1) With playerbase dwindling and server numbers droping, aswell as some big MMO's on the horizon , where do you see NC2 in a year's time ?
2) With lack of patches // bug fixes do you realy think neocron will "last" like it has done in recent years just on its genre alone?
Do the "Idea" threads get read by dev teams and get seriously considered?
Are there any plans to help the community be more of a community. (The recent drawball thread/project has required and had a LOT of teamwork.)
Will Pepper Park and the abandoned sectors of DoY get a revamp and serve more of a purpose?
What is Nid's hammer made of?
PepsiPlayer
07-09-06, 00:32
Will we ever see Tokyo II?
@Jodo I think Nid's Hammer is made out of pure unlimited power tapped straight from the universe itself
This thread is for legitimate questions only, please. Trolling or discussion posts will be removed. Thanks.
N
RogerRamjet
07-09-06, 01:14
Will the Ray of God ever be good again?
Me thinks remove the LE chip, what do u think mr holger......
sanityislost
07-09-06, 02:08
1: does the games future rest on just 2.2, or do you have another plan?
2: do you Spit or Swallow?
SiL ..:..
"What are you doing that keeps you so busy?"
is not a legitimate question? I honestly have no idea what the hell he does and I'm just curious what keeps a CEO of a tiny game company too busy for 5 minutes on a forum. No disrespect intended.
Ok CEO - Gaming ideas aside, lets talk big picture, not what cool guns are coming out next. A company is in existence to provide wealth to its shareholders - Either through Profit or Capital growth.
Looking at Neocron through various analytical tools I would suggest it had it's day. http://neocron.jafc.de/images/smilies/old/frown.gif
Lets take for example the Boston Matrix used to determine the allocation of cash into business units for the optimal returns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCG_growth-share_matrix
I would classify Neocron as a "DOG". Low relative market share - Low market growth.
It probably breaks even and from an analysts view is not a worthwhile cash generator, lowers return on investors capital and therefore should be sold off.
What is your opinion on this interpretation of the business?
...or is it a "Question Mark", do you expect massive investment to grow market share or will the market pass you by?
Have you considered letting us choose whether we want the old player models for our chars instead of the new ones. There seems to be the ability seeing as the old models are still in-game, and when you create a new char, there is a button for changing model, but this doesn't do anything.
Ok, batch of questions, grouped by category. May be back with more later:
Neocron
What path do you forsee Neocron taking?
Do you consider Neocron to have been a sucessful product?
What would you say was your worst mistake regaurding Neocron?
And what would you say was the descision that has turned out best for Neocron?
After balancing, what will be the next immediate focus?
What level do subscriptions have to drop to before the game is considered not worth updating any futher?
Could you allocate some time for either the Project Lead or Design Lead (snowcrash?) on Neocron to answer some questions too?
Black Prophecy
Can you tell us any more about this game other than "sci-fi MMO"?
Would it be accurate to say this will be a 'spiritual successor' (e.g. system shock/bio shock or xcom/ufo:aftermath) to Neocron?]?
Will this game be exclusively for asian markets, or is there an inention for a North America/Europe release?
What kind of funding is being supplied by 10T?
How much work is being done by Reakktor and 10Tacle Asia respectivley?
Reakkto
Approximatley how many full-time staff does Reakktor employ?
Approximatley how many part-time/off site staff does Reakktor employ?
What effects has being wholly owned by 10Tacle had on the company?
Are 10Tacle a good publishing house to work with, from a developers point of view?
Personal
What tasks does being the CEO of Reakktor GmbH involve?
Do you enjoy being in the game industry, or are you just a born manager?
How many Rolexes do you own?
How long have you been at Reakktor?
Boxers or Briefs?
What have you learnt from Neocron / Neocron 2 about the MMORPG market - technically and commercially - and how do you plan to capitalise on these lessons in future releases? I'm thinking of what Capcom did with Street Fighter and then hitting the nail on the head with Street Fighter 2...
RogerRamjet
07-09-06, 17:34
[ edited ]
Will you be attempting to sort the dreadful netcode out which renders melee tanks and non-locational weapons obsolete?
Can you explain how you wish to make ground breaking strides with Neocron given this?
Report (http://www.equitystory.com/download/Companies/tacle/VeranstaltungenDownloads2/SES_10TACLE_STUDIOS_AG_23062006_eng_final.pdf)
Where it indicates that Neocron has neither a Budget or a sales expectation?
If you want to comment on someone's question, please PM them. Thanks.
N
Will you remove doy, ban roleplayers and MERGE SERVERS sir?
Oh and will resist psi ever work?
will para ever get removed from guards?
Lets avoid ingame issues seeing as these are less likely to cross your desk on a day to day basis. My question are more in regard to how neocron is marketed and run.
1) Will neocron soon get a much needed advertising campaign in the near future, its shown with many mmo's such as eve general banner type advertisements with a mixture of decent reviews can bring a mmo to the point where it can dramatically increase its active subscriptions via word of mouth advertising which of course is also costless to the company. If not why not?
2) Do you think both personally and as CEO think that neocron is still financially viable and will continue to be financially viable for a number of years to come. If not what would you do to address this and extend the lifecycle of the product.
3) Would neocron ever be considered to be sold to another company? If so where would you like the game to goto and who would you think would provide the best service for existing customers.
Where are the answers? Is there a timeframe that the "CEO" will be answering in? Or are we just supposed to sit and twiddle our thumbs while you guys come up with "answers"??
This thread will be kept open during the next week. There are some information updates incoming, e.g. like the thread by John Doe, which already answer many of your questions. I will then make a selection of the rest of your questions then for Holger.
Asurmen Spec Op
10-09-06, 01:37
Will anything be done to offer an alternative (not more expensive) payment for credit card users for those who dont like C2P giving their info out?
Is this true that kk or 10t is releasing a new game a bit like neocron I heard it and I just wondered if it was fact or myth?????
[ edited - if you have a genuine complaint to make against a GM then send screenshot evidence to schuett@reakktor.com but don't discuss it on the forums. I don't want to see you reply saying you weren't discussing it, either. ]
I have a few questions;
1. Why is it the "little things" are never fixed, I mean things like a floating tree, or a random NPC or a Fallen Angels Turret? Things like the position of NPC's at the desert race track, the shops at the battle dome. Some of these things are REALLY simple and "should" be no problem to fix so why are they left? It gives the impression that Reakktor and their staff are "too lazy" to deal with these little glitches.
2. I know it's a hated subject but lets go there anyway, Why is nothing done about the military base? Everyone hates it in some way and the "guys at the office" should beable to come up with a solution if you don't want to listen to the rest of us!
3. Is there a plan to make BOTH cities "Raidable" in other words instead of fighting at MB zone line, crawling around the wastes or pk'in allies we could gather large teams (15-20 people) and go raid a city without being para'd to death at the gates! I would **love** to see people and i mean ALOT of people charging around Plaza 2 (not 1 because it's a safe zone) killing all the noobies with no LE's and the NPC's shop keepers, guards etc, until either 1. Neocron's Runner force us out, OR B. A gm spawns 50 storm bots on our heads. If you don't like the idea of this happening 24/7, then just create story lines that mean parts of the city are un-defended a good reason for NC would be "Repairing the minds of Copbots etc" We do have enough amok, mad, etc as proff their "Brains" aren't fully 100% always working.
4. Alot of people complain about aim bots etc, and other cheats, Do you have a good way to really check for these? I know sometimes it's server lag etc and you think "Damn i got own by that loser?" Who seemingly missed every shot yet for some reason you lost 400 HP in two seconds.
5. Helpdesk. a much hated name by all runners! I think there is just a single member of staff at helpdesk, so if/when they go on holiday/leave/become ill are their any replacements? I've never had my ticket finished properly when it really mattered, I'd it took Nidhogg telling me that the helpdesk person was on extended leave. So why was it I heard it from him AFTER about three weeks of waiting for a reply? Is it really that hard to send an email to all those waiting tickets "Helpdesk is currently un-available due to staff shortages please be patient you will recieve an email when it's running again and your support will continue."
I think thats it for now....
Over the last time NC turned more and more into a carebear game with more safezones, most good items either being in the safeslot or not even dropping at all and and more and more people hiding behind their LE (Mostly on terra, 1 pvp char and up to 3 LEd fun/tradeskill/hunting characters).
Is this where you want NC to go or is there gonna be more hardcore rules again?
Any chance we will ever be abled to actually raid the enemy cities without being paraspammed and wasted by a million instantly respawning guards?
blackpheonix
11-09-06, 13:46
Any plans to make the newbie MC5 area well more noobish, at its current state it is very confusing and thats why alot of ppl give up with the game (maybe scrap it all together :p)
blackpheonix
11-09-06, 14:57
also are tsunami gonna get any FSM items ?
[ edited - PM me if you wish to discuss it ]
will you ever consider merging the servers to boost the population if they get any lower than they already are.. the players are trying to compramise this but well the rest of the story is known
Are there any plans on letting the community help even more to make Neocron better?
Forget My Name
12-09-06, 09:13
Player help.
The previous CEO didn't like it, but would you allow players to help "create" and actually "finish" neocron one day?
What I mean is this...
Years ago I asked certain people in KK if I could submit desriptions for all the items in the game that have none. I was told that KK would finish the descriptions by the "original release" of NC2 (back in jan of 2003).
Looking at the game now, I can see all the items I was trying to finish for you guys for FREE haven't been touched.
Would it really hurt to have some player submit simple descriptions to FINALLY understand what half the items in game are and DO? That would help NEW runners out if they new what an item did besides its name.
I have a question, what happened to Joerg?
Hmmm.
Could we get a list of KK employees or people who worked for KK that were in some way attached to Neocron, that have left/been replaced in the past year?
Could we get a list of KK employees or people who worked for KK that were in some way attached to Neocron, that have left/been replaced in the past year?
I second this question. A list of current fulltime KK emplyees would be nice see as well.
It would also be interesting too hear what are the plans for Neocron's future, how long it will be kept in the updating cycle and will we see a real Neocron2, running on a new engine and in a new environment (TokyoII?)?
Dribble Joy
13-09-06, 00:58
Are there plans to update some of the older game world object textures? Such as GoGus and GRs?
Would it not be nice if there would be an upgradable GoGu ? You all guys know what kinda problem that is all loot you get to put into a GoGu ^^ Fact is there not enought space.... At least not for me :P ^^
Questions only on this thread, please. Also, please check to see if the question has already been asked before posting. Thanks.
N
Will the SL rules ever be changed so that your SL yo-yos less, but also that you don't drop more stuff when you have low SL? Low SL should be viable imo, but you should be not be able to go in certain places due to guards.
Whitestuff
17-09-06, 19:23
So, since my previous post was deleted, I'll try to come up with a creative question that may shed more light on the situation than previous questions already posed here.
It's really a more indepth version of questions already asked, really, but I think that if you elaborate in the details that I describe then it will give the community a sense of how far you are thinking of taking action.
My question is, where do you see the world of Neocron going? That is to say, in the next 1, 2, 3 years, where will the game stand? Do you have plans to upgrade the engine, or are you going to try and append this one? Things like balancing have gotten a lot of talk, but do you see them being added anytime soon? My point is, many people before me have asked straight foward questions, but I want to hear what you think is going to happen. Speculate on the storyline, the events, the possible technical future (software, hardware, upgrades), and the probable future of what will most likely happen. I think that if you give us a general idea of your thoughts while you answer other player's specific questions, we as a community will have a better understanding of your vision for this awesome game.
I personally would like to know the schedule for implementing the balancing structure, what plans are there for any future expansions, whether any old bugs will get the attention they deserve to resolve them, and where you see outside influences affecting Neocron's development (such as other projects that KK may be working on)?
Basically, what I am asking of you is, while you go through the list of questions that we have posed to you, instead of answering them one after another in a long list and being done with it, share with us as much info as you can explaining your specific goals for each issue we have brought up. And if you don't have any specific goals for something we may have mentioned, take the time to address the problems and come to a consensus with those around you of what may be possible and what kind of solution would pose the greatest positive impact for the community and KK alike.
Would it be possible to totally scrap the advisor e-mail system, seeing as it's so buggy and it's ruining the whole mail system?
Thank you for your participation. I will make a selection of the most important questions you have asked and forward them to Holger. Instead of answering each single question, he will make a statement which will address the selected topics. This will take some time but you can expect the statement within the next two weeks.
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