I haven't really posted much lately because - well, what is there to say? With the near arrival of NC2.1, KK has yet another chance to reel in more customers. However, with each chance they have to do that, there is also the chance to drive customers away with long-existing bugs and unfinished game content. With that being said, I'm really hoping Reakktor is addressing some of the following issues with NC2.1. After all, while fresh meat is important, isn't retention more important?
Things (in no particular order) that still drive me nuts in NC and make me want to quit at times:
### The Pile-of-Crap Buddylist Function ###
Simply put, it's useless and it's a pile of shit. Take this crappy function out and replace it with a REAL Friend/Buddy System! Please! For the love of all that is holy, fix it! The in-game buddy system should include:
- Buddy List Management: You can request to add people and remove people from your list. Asking permission should be required.
- Buddy List Notification: Give me a system message when a Buddy/Friend signs on/off. Ideally give each Buddy a checkbox options of "Notify".
- REMOVE Buddy Chat - Talking to a hardly-managable list of people you have added over the months, with none of them having a clue who you're talking to, is plain stupid. Top it off with the fact that some noob could've added you to their Buddy list and you didn't know it - now it's REALLY random.
- Add the option to "Import Clan into Buddy List" so that you can get online/offline notifications of your clan members as well - OR simply add this to the Clan Options.
Fix the Buddy List or remove it. In it's current state, it's a huge annoyance in my opinion. It's been muted since Day 1 because I hate getting half a conversation from someone I may or may not know that may or may not be directed towards me.
### Lack of Reasons to Explore Existing Barely-Used Dungeons ###
The new dungeon teaser is great, but there are a lot of places runners simply don't visit. The game needs more item drops specific to TYPES of caves and a REASON to use them. I'm hoping the new runs/quests/whatever do this somewhat.
- Perhaps add a new drug that adds Energy Resist to Worm Tunnel Mobs 90/90 and better with a drop rate near that of Tech Parts off WBs?
- Or add Tech Part drops to the Mutants in Point Red or Calida Village storage?
- Or Poison Resist drugs to Swamp Cave Mobs 90/90 and better that drop at a Tech Part Rate?
storage?
- Or Fire Resist drugs to Swamp Cave Mobs 90/90 and better that drop at a Tech Part Rate? or the Graves for that matter?
- Maybe let the Juggernaught parts be used to boost item stats when used in construction like slot enhancers, except with a 5% guaranteed boost to a weapon aspect?
- Add a new heavy laser drone, buildable out of parts dropped by 90/90 and higher COPBOTs in the Gaya Mine? Building one yeilds a stack of 10 non-bpable drones...
- Add a new rare Toxic Halo slightly stronger than the Toxic Beam with a LOS req (a la Chaos Queen Flame Avalanche) that is constructed via organic parts from 90/90 and higher snakes in the graves and a new rare loot part only dropped by the Bloodviper King and Yoda?
There are a million ideas out there - but the REASONS to go to these places are needed!
### Make Plaza 1 & DoY City Center Anarchy Zones Again ###
The zoneline fighting is pathetic. The P1/P2 zoneline is *exactly* the same as the old NC1 P3/PP1 bullshit. End it and kill the safezones. In my opinion, the ONLY safezones should be Faction HQs and Tech Haven Sec-2. MB's safe zone should be their HQ, not SEC-1, and any zoneline between a safezone and a non-safezone should have slow-opening double doors on the NON-safezone side. It's just COMMON SENSE from a design standpoint. You're stuck with the limitations of a zone-based world - at least DESIGN it that way.
### Once Those Aren't Safezones - Give Tradeskillers a REAL Home ###
Now to replace the beloved Tradeskill zones, create Tradeskill Centers in both NC and DoY. Give them the Vendors tradeskillers need, booths that players can get accustomed to using, and create a generally nice atmosphere for people to trade and socialize in. We're never getting Playershops, so the least we could get could be a zone with built-in booths that people could treat like their own shops - and I'm not talking about that shitty Tech Haven Sec-2 setup - I'm talking more like the Stores on the Skywalk level of Plaza 1. Almost like office cubicles with a GoGo, a shop table, and then a plant or something to make the cubicle unique.
### Stop Fucking Over Pro-Neocron in the Wastelands ###
Get some more STORM Troopers in the Wastelands. Has anyone ever seen that small group of NC's Elite in the Escuador Zone? That's fucking cool. Add more groups & roaming PRO NC Mobs. Invent a new COPBOT model or two that is designed to go around the wastelands looking for DoY Bots & Runners.
Either that or follow up on SnowCrash's suggestion of making the DoY Bots the monster faction - throw a "Malfunctioning" onto it and bam - mobs for all to level on and be wary of! Right now DoY, the city that is nearly destroyed, completely owns the wastelands. And they get to raid Neocron via it's zilliion outside entrances while Neocron Citizens have to go down one of three LONG elevator shafts, all guarded. Seriously, how does that make ANY fucking sense to anyone? Add DoY "Secret" Entrances please. Pro-NC is tired of defending and would love to be able to attack now and then.
### Clean up the Clan Database! ###
Basically - require 5 Runners in 24 hours to create a clan. If you don't get 5 runners in, the clan is removed and the key is either reset or destroyed. Neocron's clan system has no method (that I know of) of keeping itself current or up to date. If nobody in a clan logs on for say 90 days, delete the clan and make the clan apt belong to the clan leader. How many 1-3 person clans are there in the database? How many clans haven't had a single person log on in months? Either that or add some sort of filtering options to the Info > Clans portion of the terminal so I choose to see clans listed with more then 10 runners and minimize the Terminal Loading/Search times.
Every other game I've played, to create a clan/guild/etc, there were requirements to create & maintain it. This keeps the needless pollution of truly non-existant clans. It may not seem like much at first thought - but compound it by number of players over months, even years... that's a lot of garbage data.
### Wisdom of Ceres is good for what? ###
So far two items. I certainly hope NC 2.1 expands on that. People have had enough experience for WoC levels since the FIRST DAY of the Dome of York expansion... and look at the WoC rewards over a year later
### New HUD/RPOS ###
This your chance KK - bring back all the people who quit because the overly-organic, taking-over-my-screen, extra-lines-where-they're-not-needed, and way-too-friggin-small RPOS made them quit. Add the selection of NC2 or NC1 Style RPOS as an option. There have already been a number of NC1-esque files seen in many screenshots here. Add the option officially and bring back the minimalistic users!
### Anonymity & Multi-Char Servers ###
I won't go into much detail here, most everyone knows the issue... I'd ask that Characters be "look-up-able" so people can see who their alts are on that account to stop the maddening politics and ganking disruptions
-OR-
Restrict accounts to make slots All Pro-NC or All Pro-DOY, with CM being allowed no matter what. Terra's Saturn-like atomosphere, combined with the fact that we never got a Pluto-like atomsphere back, irritate me to no end.
I've attached a PDF of my original outline. I've created some images for the items in my boredom, but the idea has all but stalled. You'll see the date on the PDF and I've not heard anything back from KK
### Past Polls ###
I hope some attention was paid to this thread as well!
### Accessories: The Erased Part of the NC2 RPOS ###
I've attached a PDF of my original outline. I've created some images for the items in my boredom, but the idea has all but stalled. You'll see the date on the PDF and I've not heard anything back from KK
--------------------------------------------
All of that being said - I'm looking forward to NC2.1 being a new breath of life into NC - but it won't last long if many of the existing issues aren't addressed (netcode, itemtracking, PE Model Bugs, etc). How many re-releases of Neocron can there be?