Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion - GOLD

[Liquidator]

Funcom announces that Anarchy Online - Alien Invasion has gone gold. The forthcoming Anarchy Online expansion pack is packed with fun and innovative features, bringing the finest sci-fi MMORPG on the market a huge step forward.

"With this expansion we seek to further strengthen the sci-fi aspects of Anarchy Online," said Game Director Marius Enge, "Not only that, we have filled the expansion pack to the brim with unique and fast-paced action features, as well as a host of socially orientated features like player-made towns and guild houses. I believe that the combined package of Alien Invasion and the original AO will further cement our reputation as the ultimate sci-fi MMORPG"

Funcom is also implementing a brand new beginner experience with the coming of Alien Invasion. The new sci-fi orientated beginner playfield lowers the entrance barrier into the world of Anarchy Online, allowing everyone a more entertaining beginner experience.

New Action Features:

Repel massive world-spanning invasions by a ferocious alien race
Provoke alien city invasions! Experience epic large-scale warfare for entire guilds!
Attack and board alien spaceships
Discover and utilize powerful alien weapons, armor, technology and perks
Challenge yourself on numerous new quests
Experience a brand new beginner area

New Social Features:

Build epic cities with powerful benefits
Construct towering guild houses
Decorate cities with extra fixtures
Set up your own player-controlled shops
Access revised tradeskill interface and item search tool
Dress up in a wide array exciting new social clothes
Rule the sky in futuristic flying vehicles

This is great news.  I really had no clue that this expansion was so close to being finished.  It looks like it is time to pre-order this and bring my level 205 Martial Artist out of retirement.  Finally, I will be able to open my own Mantis Armor shop!

-Liquidator

[Soukyan]

Be sure to pre-order and get your free Leet pets. It's slated to come out on September 1 so it looks like they're right on schedule.

[SirBruce]

Now if only I could get some more reliable subscriber numbers from them...

Bruce

[Liquidator]

Now if only I could get some more reliable subscriber numbers from them...

Bruce

I would be interested in seeing how many people are on the servers during prime time on weekdays/weekends more than the total overall subscribers.  The fact that some games don't display hard numbers for server populations really bugs me.  Why can't everyone be like Turbine and show the number of players on a server at a given time?

I know Everquest used to do it, then after a while, they stopped doing it.  Is it just to keep the numbers from their competitors?

-Liquidator

[SirBruce]

The numbers are directly tied together.  Your peak total users are going to be anywhere from 10 - 30% of your total subscriptions.  I realize that's a pretty big range, but once a particular game finds its particular ratio, it's pretty stable for a given population level.  Smaller MMOGs tend to be closer to 10% and larger ones closer to the 30%.

Bruce

[Nyght]

This is probably of little to no help but...

I have been playing AO for about 2 months now and my 'feel', based on playing about every MMORPG out there, is that their hitting 3 to 5k prime time peaks on each of two servers. Busy times see probably a hundred players in each of the 'gathering' zones, of which there are many. And the game is large and the population fairly spread out.

So 50 to 100k?

Probably a pretty high roll over rate too. They offer lots of free or low cost to try promotions. My current one cost me $10 from late June until September 1 with no box and I'll most likely bail before it expires.

[RipSnort]

After I finally canned UO, AO became my "bacburner" game.  Even though I sub to about every MMO that comes down the pike I stay subbed to AO to revisist when I burn out on the others. The main reason are it's instanced solo missions, which let you ease back in to the game, since all your buds have disappeared from the last time.
Even though COH beats it in graphics and combat fun AO has a more developed world and unlimited indoor missions( you dont have to run around to find a contact with one.) Outside the occaisional weekend of catassery this game can keep the casual player sated IMO.
Lookin forward to checking this expansion out.

[Eldron]

Hope they manage to get the Sci fi feeling a little more back. Its a bit too "elfi'ish" some places in SL

[Liquidator]

Hope they manage to get the Sci fi feeling a little more back. Its a bit too "elfi'ish" some places in SL

Yeah, Shadowlands is definately more fantasy than it is sci-fi.  Alien Invasion takes place on Rubi-Ka, so the sci-fi feeling will be in place.  It has always been there, you just have to stop grinding hecklers and go back to RK.

-Liquidator

[Zane0]

There's a good database that has a list of all *guilded* characters here.  The number is high at 238,212 but one AO account can have 8 characters.  Divide the total by 4, and you probably have a reasonably good idea of the subscription numbers:

238,212/4=59,553

This seems to be fairly accurate based on my humble player perspective.  The actual number might be higher or lower based on the exact average of characters to an account, and the amount of subscribers who never join a guild.  Of course, most who don't join a guild are usually one-month freebie players, so you might not want to even consider them as subscribers.  Whatever.

Anyways, AI will show how good a designer Marius Enge is in comparison to Gaute- AO's previous lead dev.  Enge hasn't been able to truly prove himself yet, since he replaced Gaute after the launch of SL.. which was a pretty big disaster behind the scenes.  For quite a few months, most dev time was spent fixing bugs and adding content that was already supposed to be there, leaving very little opportunity for creativity.  Even after most of the bugs were fixed, SL is still a fundamentally flawed product, so it's not fair to truly judge Marius until AI.

AI looks great, but so did SL.  In all honesty though, AI looks to be better.  If half of the lauded features in AI are successfully pulled off, the game will be revolutionized for the better.