Doing a live interview this Sunday with an AoC dev.. looking for questions

[Nerion]

My radio show Grenade has got an interview with an AoC dev(Athelan) this Sunday and I have been seriously looking to get some questions that will make him think. For one I noticed they are using the same graphics engine as AO called DreamWorld. I have heard alot of mixed information on this engine and was wondering if someone could walk a non-graphics designer throught the basics enough to ask some intelligent questions. Besides that, we have 2 hours on the air to talk and will be taking some live questions through either Ventrilo, IM's, and Uberguilds radio IRC. Also if you want to post a question here I will reference you if it is unique and we use it on the air. The show itself is at 7 pst/9 cst/10 est at www.UberguildsRadio.com and there will be some recordings up on the site afterwards.

To contact me with a question on the air...
Vent. 66.207.167.26 port 3907 pw ragnaros(Im in here most of the time if you want to just chat 8o)
IM:grenaderadio@aol/hotmail/yahoo.com I have them all on trillian going
Email:grenade@uberguildsradio.com

Again, I really don't want this to be a normal interview and we have the time(2 hours) to really cover things thoroughly. Any good questions would be much appreciated!

[Trippy]

Are decapitations still in the game?

[Nerion]

After watching the latest siege video in my research, yes.

[Trippy]

Okay then ask him how do you decapitate somebody. E.g. is it random? Can you target body parts? Etc.

[Nerion]

According to the website it is a fancy finishing move that is done when very low health and can be tagged at the end of combos. I believe body targetting is a big part of the game with 5 different areas you aim for from what I last read.

[schild]

Just look straight in his eyes. Smell the fear. Ask him if it's fun.

And then when he lies, ask him if he's played Portal. And then walk out.

[Simond]

Ask him about how female characters start the game.

[Xuri]

An article on RPG Vault (from 2005, but still relevant, I think) has more indepth info on the underlying technology for AoC. Probably not as indepth as you'd like, but it's a start.
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/671/671195p1.html

[dr_dre]

Will the 64 bit version utilize the 64 bit extensions  or will it just run on a 64 bit windows platform without using the windows on windows ( wow) emulator.

[WindupAtheist]

Ask him what mistakes he feels were made with Anarchy Online, and how he plans to avoid them this time.  Demand specifics.

[Velorath]

Ask him what mistakes he feels were made with Anarchy Online, and how he plans to avoid them this time.  Demand specifics.

Having looked around, I don't think he was around Funcom at the time.  Athelan's real name (listed in the AoC forums) is Jason Stone.  The only Jason Stone listed on Moby Games did QA for EQ2, SWG, and a couple EQ expansions (Planes of Power, and Scars of Velious to be exact).

If he is in fact the same person, I'd ask him a little bit about his background, in particular what happened in the interim between doing QA on EQ2 and being "NPC/Monster Designer, Behavioral Control Center/Combat Guru" on AOC.  He's likely not going to give up any new information about the game.  It's pretty much all going to be PR speak.  Maybe he'll be willing to give up some background information on himself though, like how he landed the job. and how he's adjusted to having a larger role in the development process.

[Arrrgh]

Ask them how they're avoiding the "biggest guild wins" problem.

[Xuri]

Ask him whether or not it will possible to sit in chairs/on benches/fallen trees! ;P

[WindupAtheist]

Ask him whether or not it will possible to sit in chairs/on benches/fallen trees! ;P

That is fucking important, and I am 100% serious.

[Bunk]

Will female characters be able to lament?

[Venkman]

I'm no expert on the tech end of things by any means, but here's some stuff I'm curious about:

Have they considered different ways of adapting their client rendering to a broad array of PCs? The original intent, iirc, was to go the EQ2/FPS route of compeling people to buy better hardware so that the game could grow in visual quality as technology grows. Unfortunately, at least in the case of EQ2, the game that was playable on normal PCs looked like * minus the terik. How will AoC ensure they take advantage of the cutting edge hardware that may come someday while not alienating the people who normally play MMOs and which are arguable their earliest adopters?

Given this is one of the first MMOs to push DX10, what does AoC offer for the DX10 viewer that would make it worth them upgrading to Vista?

How does their engine scale to the number of participants they state wanting to have in large PvP battles?

Will there be flying? Is their engine capable of it?

[sam, an eggplant]

Ask when the real 24/7 beta is actually going to start. If he says it already has, just stare him down.

[taolurker]

Ask if they've submitted to the ESRB for a rating yet, and whether they expect to be the first MMO to receive an AO rating in the US?

Featuring nudity, decapitation and whatnot... Then ask whether they plan to have only online distribution when no stores in the world will stock shelves with their boxes.

[Nerion]

Hey guys, thanks a ton so far, last night I sent in a letter to the network head listing the general stuff we wanted to talk about. I am sure there are misspellings but this is the slightly organized brainstorm list we came up with:


Intro

*Get to know you a bit more more... your history, what games you play, and mechanics you favor

*mention what people were pushing us to ask about and talk about players experiences with prior MMOs

*talk about the website a bit you have and your information funnel, we think you guys have done a great job

*also talk about how you guys see the information from the recent poll

*ask about the disenfranchised elf mangina crowd(super important)

 

Development/Technical

*Where the other developers come from(what companies and games they worked on)

*Get a few details on how you guys manage the team,such as what the management style is and feel of the office compared to other places

*Some more information about the in-house graphics engine you are using

*What experience, technology, and concepts from AO are being translated into AoC\

*stress test and your level of focus on preparing the game for large scale battles, PUT MY FEARS TO REST ABOUT LAG!!!

*what kind of steps you plan to have on release to combat 3rd party programs

 

PvP/Sieging

*Is a high end border-kingdom guild going to have incentives to PvE

*are you going to try to seperate pvp from pve to a point where a pure pvp player will never have to go NPC hunting to get the best gear or close to it

*Im worried that blood money could end up becoming a grinding element to the PvP and kind of take away from the competitive spirit, put my fears to rest!

*How are you guys leaning with FFA servers now!

*The idea of formations seems very similar to shadowbane but I noticed a bit about a spell resistant formations and such, Im really curious about this idea

*Crowd Control is a razor thin balance, where do you guys stand on it and what are your goals for it in pvp

*Surviviability ratio to dps in the increase of gear, such as we are wondering

*also what would be your goal for a 10v10 fights length to be

*and at what point are insta kills going to be introduced, 1v1,2v1,3v1.. etc

*what kind of ideas have you had for giving an advantage to battlekeeps over pve cities

*ticketing system concerns me that it will take away from the feel of pure destruction and instead convert it into a staged points fight, PUT MY FEARS TO REST!!

*any kind of special spells that are used for sieges with massive costs and cooldowns?

*

details on the buffs and dispelling system
 

PvE/Raiding

*We're curious about what kind of goals you have to achieve in the PvE realm of AoC

*What kind of size are you leaning to in raids?

*Is there a guild leveling system other than cities?

*for battlekeeps/cities, is there going to be a limit to what you can have in your city or a certain paths you chose to focus on, such as a patron deity, a certain class to focus on, or type of crafting

that will make your city unique from others, or will all maxed out cities be the same?

*are you guys planning on having raiding content DAY 1, and are you willing to put your wife on the line to show us you are serious about keeping your word!!!

*

what kind of goals are you guys aiming for in releasing pve content over time?
*what is the longest travel time a player is to expect in your game

*we were wanting also to know what type of quests to expect and their impact on leveling

*what is your goal for the length of time needed to clear a dungeon?

Crafting

*What are the goals and position you want crafting to have in AoC, PvE and PvP realms

*We have been real curious on what kind of flavor the crafting system is

*What places and spheres of gameplay will crafting pull its resources from to create items?

*details on guild management system of resources

*what kind of time is it going to take to level crafting and how many crafters do you expect the "uber" guilds to need?

*can all crafting be done in-house at guild cities/battlekeeps?

*where are the best recipes found in crafting?

[Salamok]

Ask if they've submitted to the ESRB for a rating yet, and whether they expect to be the first MMO to receive an AO rating in the US?

Featuring nudity, decapitation and whatnot... Then ask whether they plan to have only online distribution when no stores in the world will stock shelves with their boxes.

On this note ask him about the rumor that EU servers will sport different content than the US servers.  Will we be able to get both boobies and blood or is it just boobies for the EU and blood for the US?

[Hoax]

That's not a rumour, go check the link I posted in the AoC beta thread like a month ago.  According to your IP address the server will not show you certain shit.

[Signe]

Oh, Oh!  Always my favourite question:  "Sooo... what are you wearing?" 

[Muggi]

Ask them how they're avoiding the "biggest guild wins" problem.

QFE. This will probably make or break the game for me.

[Driakos]

Will female characters be able to lament?

Hahahaha I love this.

Ask him what will enemy AI do to avoid being crushed.  How do you drive your opponents before you?

[Der Helm]

Ask him what is best in life?

[Rasix]

What's going to make me want to log into this game after I've hit max level? 

Same question as above but from the perspective of the anti-social soloer.

Levels being equal, player skill being relatively equal: how much of an advantage is the 4 nights raiding a week, 5 hours a day, poopsocker going to have against a semi-casual 1-2 hour, few days played a week casual?  In essence, how are you going to limit the effectiveness of rare raid weaponry on PVP balance?  (Yes I know, loaded question.)

Other interests:

Is there going to be scalable dungeon crawling?  Such a solo player may not need to gather 4 strangers to experience dungeon content. 

Average fight time for a 1on1 pvp encounter? Pve?

Do I at any point have to fight one of the following creatures and harvest their body parts for some NPC:  rat, bat, wolf, snake, spider, beetle, bear, or kobold.

[Nerion]

I added a question about the different tiers/levels of PvE content they plan on having. I am also planning on doing a question on gear progression.

[Salamok]

Do I at any point have to fight one of the following creatures and harvest their body parts for some NPC:  rat, bat, wolf, snake, spider, beetle, bear, or kobold.

you left out the boars.

[schild]

If you don't ask him "what is best in life?" you fail so so so hard.

[Hutch]

And if he fails to answer correctly, the interview must end.

[tazelbain]

Ask him why, despite the fact that Conan hates magic, Conan's rule has been the greatest boon to the proliferation of magic users?

[Hoax]

Seriously though, keep the intro short.  Ask him about how he got his current job and what he did along the way then move the hell on.  Don't toss him fluffy questions about the atmosphere at Funcom (its the best place I've ever worked!).

If I didn't want to pull punches on the pvp front I would press about monster spawns attacking towns (never going to be working @ launch) and hell I'd love to hear him say on record that player cities is a working function at this time (doubt this makes launch).

Also your entire objective should be to trick him into answering questions that will reveal just how similar to WoW AoC is or is not.  Don't ask him outright about WoW because we all know he's got a bunch of PR bullshit ready for that.  Just frame the game mechanics questions in a way that will make him answer in a way that comparison to WoW will be easy and obvious.

[eldaec]

Will there be cake?

[Triforcer]

Can I fill barrels with water?  And if I can, am I an exploiter?

[Aez]

Will there be cake?

It's quickly becoming an universal question.  It's also one of the best pick-up lines ever invented.