Anarchy Online

Originally posted by burmese

From Game Director Means Friday update today:

 

"The Engine:

Work progressed well this week as the team worked on animation blending and item animations. Replacement of these systems is a "two steps back, three steps forward" process... so unfortunately no sexy screens this week. Hopefully soon!"

They've been busy trying to make a stupid rubber duck look like content. It ain't working.
 

Game Director Means was hanging out on the AO test server and answered a few questions regarding the upcoming graphics engine:

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[Social] Means: Now Enno is working on it with two other coders
[Social] Means: we'll get there.
[Social] Dagget2: any idea yet on how old video cards can be and still run the new engine smoothly? IE, will the typical $20 PCI card from circa 2004 do ok?
[Social] Means: not 100% sure yet. They told me a 20$ card would probably be good enough
[Social] Dagget2: I would imagine that a target would be "If it runs WoW, it can run AO" (WoW runs on some pretty old PC's)
[Social] Means: What is this "wow" you speak of? :P
[Social] Dagget2: ;)
[Social] Nightingale: maybe not a $20 from 2004, but... doubt it'll need AoC type muscle...
[Social] Dyeshi: World of warcraft ? :S
[Social] Pentaflake: If it runs AoC it runs AO maybe?
[Social] Nightingale: I sure hope so :D
[Social] Means: AOC is heavy hardware...we won't be going anywhere near that
[Social] Dagget2: a lot of my guildies have 4 yr old Dells' with built-in video and can only expand video with a simple PCI card and that is good enough for current AO
[Social] Means: There will likely be a Test version of the new engine client out for awhile at the same time as the regular client
[Social] Means: but not for a few months yet
[Social] Means: very very big job
[Social] Means: booster before Christmas...New engine in 2009
[Social] Means: new engine
[Social] Means: this one is being exorcized like a nasty demon
[Social] Means: it did well
[Social] Means: time for it to retire..take it easy :)
[Social] Means: not many 7 year old games look half this good

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I remember they said the engine will come up in 2008, now it's 2009.  At this time, i dont believe it will ever get released.

It's great that theyre upgrading the graphics engine, but unless the character creation is also upgraded, it will miss the mark needed to bring it up to current standards. I'm so sick of the options for character creation, we have all been looking at the same heads for 7 years now, and after playing most any other game, they look like crap. Character creation needs to be totally revamped!

hey guys. i tried it for like an hour. it usually takes me a little while to get used to a game i decide to try out.

i know what you mean with the character creation page, it really needs some clothing options or something... sometimes i dont mind if everyone has the same face/head.. as long as we can at least wear different outfits? anyways. i might not have given it enough time and i just assumed it was a game made for guys so i just left it alone for now =]

i dont think this game was made to look pretty but im glad they're doing something to it now. sounds nice

Actually, the game has a ridiculous variety of clothing, but you have to progress off the starter island to get to the clothing shops.  We recently had someone give a newbie 500,000 credits and 2 days later most of it was spent on clothing and most of those items being 500 to 2,000 credits per article of clothing...

BTW, the ducks -are- content.  Placeable most anywhere, they are called 'Mr Squeaky'. Loot dropped by Uncle Pumpkin-heads. There are also a few 'I Win buttons in some cities - hilarous results from pushing them!

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Originally posted by burmese
BTW, the ducks -are- content.  Placeable most anywhere, they are called 'Mr Squeaky'. Loot dropped by Uncle Pumpkin-heads. There are also a few 'I Win buttons in some cities - hilarous results from pushing them!

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Originally posted by jadesilver

 

i just assumed it was a game made for guys so i just left it alone for now =]
i dont think this game was made to look pretty but im glad they're doing something to it now. sounds nice

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Not true, see here. (scroll down for links to pictures)

:)

Regarding the ducks, I don't think artists typically work on engine code, and I doubt modelling a duck takes a great amount of time, so I don't see how that's a complaint.  If your reason for leaving is the lack of a new engine then good riddance. Graphics aren't going to make the game better and you'll just be complaining even louder afterwards when you realize it didn't.

It'll be a nice perk but I won't be leaving or staying becuase of it.