age of conan

[Warrior]

Yeah, I definitely think it applies.  The MMO condition was artificially introduced and isn't really that relevant.

your kind of logic lends itself pretty well to an apples vs oranges comparison imo
mmo is a different beast than a traditional rpg, and therefore requires special care in ensuring its success

this is the point I was trying to (albeit sarcastically) make, it's very indicative of the amount of support a
company is willing to put into a game if there are not even basic security measures taken. this is especially true of an mmo, where you interact with other users over a network.

you're basically giving away your credit card information to a company, and it's evident that security is an afterthought if even a thought at all in their development process.

so my question is, how many other mmos do client side calculations of spells yet remain successful? not many, and it's because of the reasons I outlined.
other genres remaining successful or not are irrelevant because the chemistry involved is quite different.

[Sidoh]

I'm hesitant to have any kind of serious conversation with you on the forums, but I'll go until it becomes obvious that you're trolling.

mmo is a different beast than a traditional rpg, and therefore requires special care in ensuring its success

Absolutely, but the particular detail we're discussing is universally important in the world of multiplayer games.  If the game is easy to exploit, there are going to be easy-to-use hacks that ruin the fun of the majority.

this is the point I was trying to (albeit sarcastically) make, it's very indicative of the amount of support a
company is willing to put into a game if there are not even basic security measures taken. this is especially true of an mmo, where you interact with other users over a network.

I agree, to a point.  Here's something that's important to consider, I think: they may have been on a budget or a deadline and were unable to "get around to" putting a great deal of effort into taking security precautions.  I understand that there's a certain amount of good development practices that can help avoid introducing vulnerabilities that was clearly lacking here.  The design decision to make casting time, etc, handled locally was probably a really dumb idea.

you're basically giving away your credit card information to a company, and it's evident that security is an afterthought if even a thought at all in their development process.

I agree.  It's kinda messed up that they made some of the calls they did.

so my question is, how many other mmos do client side calculations of spells yet remain successful? not many, and it's because of the reasons I outlined.
other genres remaining successful or not are irrelevant because the chemistry involved is quite different.

They definitely are different types of games.  However, like I said, there's an intersection in their properties.

[Warrior]

I agree, to a point.  Here's something that's important to consider, I think: they may have been on a budget or a deadline and were unable to "get around to" putting a great deal of effort into taking security precautions.  I understand that there's a certain amount of good development practices that can help avoid introducing vulnerabilities that was clearly lacking here.  The design decision to make casting time, etc, handled locally was probably a really dumb idea.

I don't think that's a good thing, security should not be something you get around to. I don't think what's been shown here is any effort let alone anything less than a great deal.

I'm really just coming down really hard on them because it's funny seeing screenors response, but I do find it somewhat disturbing that after Anarchy Online (great mmo ideas, horrible execution) they still don't have the formula down.

I have high hopes for AoC, and I wouldn't like it to be a "Other" MMORPG but who really knows.

[warz]

well, in all fairness, aoc will most likely just become "another" mmorpg. it'll be forgotten in a year or two, and will be overshadowed by the success of wotlk, and warhammer. i came down really hard on funcom, too, because they've been through this before with anarchy online, and they seem to be doing no better than they did back then. i'm not going to be renewing my monthly subscription, and i'm not trolling, either. i truly want to see the game do well because it's got so much potential. sadly, it's blatently obvious that most of the major issues with the game are so deep into the core of the game that it'd almost require an entire rewrite of the engine to fix them. this is why i figure it'll die fairly quickly. there is a pretty big patch coming out tomorrow, apparantly, so we'll see how this patch goes. this, in my mind, is going to be a pretty big breaking point for me. if i see they're putting in a lot of effort to the patches, and fix a lot of bugs here after a week or so, i'll be fairly impressed. if they do another one of their small ass waste of my time patches, i'll be going back to wow without thinking twice about looking back. i'm over horrible companies - there's no reason to have to deal with this type of bullshit when mmorpgs are the "new favorite genre" of online games. blizzard has the best ethics ive seen so far, and i dont care what anyone says but im going to hold any competitors up to blizzards standards - they'll have to be just as good if they want my monthly payments.

on a side note, screenor, is that you on mmownage.com forums? :P

[Warrior]

I feel you, I loved the AoC concept .. I remember talking excitedly to you about them..but Funcom has always had good ideas, their execution blows though.
Who knows, maybe they'll come through with this patch you speak of and they'll be able to survive the WoTLK blitzkrieg.

I don't know though, I wanted Lord of the Rings: Online to succeed to, and it's nothing more than a mediocre mmo.

[warz]

yeaaa, theyve done it again. their patch notes sucked, and they fixed a lot of typos. lol. they dont explain what they fix, really, either. here's their notes (this was a patch that took 3 or 4 days to put out)

General

*Fixed some more server and client crashes.
*An issue which could make NPCs evade forever has been resolved.
*An issue which could lead to pets become unresponsive has been resolved.


GUI

*You should now receive feedback if you try to take items from the guild bank without having enough rank.


Items

*Items in tradepost now show stack-size.
*Resources Gathering: Cotton and Cottonwisp have been fixed.
*Kheshatta: Drop rate for Scorpion plate has been increased.
*Fixed a grammatical error with Knarled Leather. It should now be named Gnarled Leather.
*Boltshock Bangles are now properly classified as "Cloth Armor" instead of "Wrist Armor"
*Thunder River: The quest item 'Smoked Meat' has re-received its visual appearance.
*Field of the Dead: 'Fur of Bloodclaw' will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
*Thunder River: The quest item 'Helvenia's Herbs' has re-received its visual appearance.
*Sanctum of the Burning Souls: The boss drop 'Bloodtainted Hoop' will no longer end up in the quest inventory.


Massive PvP

*PVE Player city buildings should no longer be attackable.


NPCs

*Bartholomo's Wife will now respawn more often.
*Acheronian Ruins NPCs will respawn more often
*It should be easier to deal with Renton's Corrupt Friends when doing the quest Awakening II.


Player Characters

Barbarian
*Finishing Blow damage boost should only affect the first hit after the charge.
*Thirst for Blood should correctly trigger it's stacking damage bonuses for you and your team.

Necromancer
*Pets should not auto dismiss so fast when they cannot reach their owner.

Ranger
*Knee-Capping should no longer trigger Root Immunity on NPCs
*Marked for Death should give the correct damage values for bow/xbow.
*Marked for Death cooldown has been adjusted to 3 minutes like originally intended.
*Critical Aim should no longer fail to execute in some situations.
*Critical Aim duration increased to 10 seconds, but it will instantly terminate on the next ranged hit
*You should no longer get messages about getting non existing abilities when training Eagle Eye.

Tempest of Set
*Triumphant Life of Set has had its total damage dealt per cast increased.
*Triumphant Life of Set now deals the damage over 3 seconds instead of instantly.


Quests

*Old Secrets: Golden Golem should now always spawn.
*The Demon in The Tree: The Demon in the Tree Minions should now always attack the player.
*End Battle: Strom should now respawn, making it impossible to break the last part of the end battle.
*Quests Bloodroot, Concealing the Chinks, Purging the Fallen, and Source of Contagion have been improved in Tarantia Noble.

they left out 5 or so pretty big additions from the patch notes. doesn't make sense. anyways, i'm done with aoc for now. i'll check back in on it right before my 30 days expires, but i doubt i'll see much improvement.

back to wow, for now.