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Konger av kaos - kings of chaos
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Anarkistene. Tommy Strand (til venstre) og Martin Amor i Funcom.
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Onsdag 27. lanseres tidenes dyreste norske dataspill. Fredag 22. juni stilte to av hovedpersonene bak "Anarchy Online" til nettprat.
Mye står på spill når norske Funcom lanserer nettverksspillet "Anarchy Online". Aldri tidligere har et norsk firma satset så mye på en enkelt tittel. Så langt har utviklingskostnadene beløpet seg til 120 millioner kroner.
Planleggingen av spillet startet allerede i 1996. Siden den gang er det meste blitt forandret. Bare navnet ("Anarchy Online") og settingen (Science fiction) er det samme.
Det siste året har Funcom jobbet tett med tusenvis av potensielkle brukere. 100.000 mennesker har testet beta-versjoner av spillet. Tilbakemeldingene har vært gode, men den virkelige testen kommer ikke før spillet blir gjort tilgjengelig for alle - førstkommende onsdag.
Fredag 22. juni stilte hovedproducer Tommy Strand og hovedprogrammerer Martin Amor her for å svare på dine spørsmål.
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Anarchists online
On June 27 the most expensive Norwegian computer game in history will be launched. Two of the men behind "Anarchy Online" were here for an an online chat at Aftenposten Interactive on June 22.
The stakes are high when Norwegian Funcom launch their multi-player online role-playing game "Anarchy Online". Development costs have already reached NOK 120 (US$ 13) million an amount never before invested in a single program title.
Planning for the game began as early as 1996. Since then almost everything has changed - only the name ("Anarchy Online") and the setting (a science-fiction world 30,000 years in the future) are the same.
Funcom has worked closely with 100,000 potential users who have beta-tested the game over the past year. Feedback has been positive but the real test won't come before the game is available to the public - Wednesday June 27.
On June 22. designer Tommy Strand and lead programmer Martin Amor were here to answer some of your hundreds of questions.
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Has Funcom come close to deciding whether or not Anarchy Online will feature a monthly fee? Retailers everywhere are offering a cost of $49.99! Is this a sign of the one-time $50 pricetag? If so, I think Anarchy Online is in for a MASS amount of gamers logging onto the servers.
Collin Smith, United States
Anarchy Online: Hi Collin, There are two fee's for playing AO. First the fee of playing for the box in the store that will give you the CD, manual, map etc. and then there is the $12.95 you pay each month. When purchasing the box you get one month free of charge and the subscription fee will then automatically start running after this month is over, if you so choose. - Tommy
Hvorfor koster.... TULLA! ;) Lurte også på om utviklerne har tatt i bruk ideer som fansen har kommet med underveis, og om dere evt. kunne gi eksempel på det? Nailz cOmnies gotta die...
Nailz, Norge
Anarchy Online: Hei Nails Vi tar hele tiden i bruk ideene fra communities. Vi følger tett med og deltar på aoforum.funcom.com for å se hva folk liker eller ikke liker. I tillegg har vi jobbet veldig tett med en rekke betatestere med nye ting vi trenger for å få et enda bedre spill. Siden dette spillet vil fortsette å utvikle seg over tid vil vi hele tiden forsøke å høre på community rundt spillet om hva de ønsker seg. Vi vil gjøre vårt beste for å tilfredstille så mange vi kan. - Tommy
Hva er anbefalt netthastighet?
Krølle, Oslo
Anarchy Online: Hi Krølle Det er ikke netthastighet som er problemet i AO. For å gi et lite exsempel så kjører vi kun en ISDN linje fra vår stand når vi har messe i London. På denne kjører vi opp til 8 AO versjoner. Det vil si at hvis du kjører med et 56k modem eller ISDN vil du ikke få noe problemer. Du vil kansje få litt problemer med å kjøre alle de fine effektene. Går maskinen din for sakte kan man faktisk slå av mange av dem for å øke hastigheten. - Tommy
hva er anarkisme for dere, og hvorfor valgte dere navnet "Anarchy Online"? Så vidt jeg kan se finnes det ikke noe element av anarkisme i spillet deres, det er bare krig mellom to temmelig strukturerte og hierarkiske parter.
;arra, Oslo
Anarchy Online: Hei Arra, Som vi har forsøkt å definere blant annet i reklamekampanjen for spillet så er anarkisme for folk på Rubi-Ka den perfekte tilstand. "Du kan gjøre hva du vil så lenge det ikke skader andre." Det er dette klanene ønsker å oppnå, men inntil de har kunnet oppnå frihet så må de stå sammen mot Omni-Tek. Uten struktur vil man ikke kunne vinne. En annen side ved navnet er den typiske misforståelsen mellem Anarchy og Chaos. De blir i de fleste sammenhenger tatt for det samme, så hvis vi ville - i en typisk 'hollywood-vri' - utnytte denne missforståelsen, så kan man jo si at tilstanden på Rubi-Ka er "Total Anarchy" - Tommy
Since it's the 27th in Norway before it is in the USA, EXACTLY when will the server go LUVE?
Sweet, USA,FLA
Anarchy Online: Hi Sweet The exact time we go live has been decided, but we will not yet tell you when (= We are preparing a countdown in our office with bigscreen viewing and champagne. We have counters that will show how many people log in and we can see on the big screen the different areas when people start playing. We are really looking forward to the explosion of people pouring into our servers on the 27th. More info on this later. - Tommy
I hear from a lot of people that AO is not based on group play. Given the fact that each phase of bata test doesent usually last very long and people usually are not able to get thier characters to "high" levels in such a short peroid of time, is AO Solo Friendly at the highest of levels? -> Eq is not = (
Grezkull, London(Canada)
Anarchy Online: Hi Grezkull One of the major gameplay features in AO is the mission system. Based on the risk you are willing to take you can in most cases play these missions Solo. It is, however, much more fun to do them as a group. We provide the players with a single player experience in a massively multiplayer setting if they so choose. It is however more rewarding to play as a group. - Tommy
How can you possibly release on 27th june, when it still has so many problems, broken quests, unbelievable lag, crashes & bugs. The game has great potential, but releasing on 27th will be a big mistake.
Markas, England
Anarchy Online: Hi Markas We like to belive that you are wrong (= Yes, there are problems in the current version you are playing, but once they are identified they are easily fixed. In the 11.3 version that we have in the pipelines we have fixed all the broken missions, a vast majority of the lag problems and a bunch of crashes. Like I mentioned earlier, there will always be bugs in a production of this size. We do the best we can. We are still looking at a great release on the 27th. - Tommy
Jag måste faktiskt säga att jag är mycket missnöjd med hur AO ser ut idag...Det som förstör spelet mest är kontrollerna och det här med den vänstra musknappen...usch säger jag bara...om ni fixar det, så betalar jag gärna vilket pris ni än sätter på...hehe man är väl inte snål...
Erik, Sverige
Anarchy Online: Hei Erik Det er leit at du ikke liker hvordan AO ser ut, vi kan bare gjøre så godt vi kan. Vi har forsøkt så langt det er mulig å lage en realistisk setting med mye grafisk 'fluff'. Jeg synes personlig at AO ser veldig vakkert ut og det har også kommet VEDLIG mange kommentarer fra presse og community på det samme. Vi kan ikke tilfredstille alle. Når det kommer til kontrollen så er det mange som har vanskeligheter med å venne seg til den vi nå har i AO. Vi legger hele tiden til nye camera modes slik at spillerene har valget i hvilken type kontroll de ønsker å spille med. Hvis ingen av kontrollene vi har lagt inn passer deg kan du jo sende inn en request til support etter at du har kjøpt spillet. Er det mange som føler som deg vil vi legge inn også din kontroll stil som en option. - Tommy
Hvor lang tid det tar før "story-line'en" i AO kommer i gang? Vil det drøye til september når resten av Europa har fått spillet tilgjengelig? Nailz cOmnies gotta die...
Nailz, Norge
Anarchy Online: Hei Nails, Vi har planlagt å starte story ut på høsten en gang når vi har fått kritisk masse av mennesker inne i spillet. For at historien skal få nok trykk ønsker vi en viss mengde mennesker. Det vil komme små events og story teasers før vi starter selve historien også, men ikke i så høy grad som etter høsten. - Tommy
Regarding the readiness of Anarchy Online to go live next week, just how many open bug reports are there now, and what is your bug fix rate?
Jim, Santa Clara
Anarchy Online: Hi Jim. In a game of this magnitude there will always me bugs. In terms of the current version there were only a few serious bugs that we have identified and these will be fixed before the version goes live. As for the bug rate fix, it all depends on what is wrong. Some weeks we might be able to close a thousand bugs, only to end up fixing 10 the week after. - Tommy
What was the the main inspiration for you to make the game Anarchy Online, and did you dream it would look like it is today?
Keith Hammond, United Kingdom
Anarchy Online: Hi Keith, We have been inspired by a lot of things. Most of the team players old pen and paper roleplayers - we have played Dungeon&Dragons, Rift etc. of course some of the inspiration comes from that. Certain books like Snowcrash of N. Stephenson have been a good source of ideas and movies like bladerunner. The initial vision is pretty much the same - but I would never have dreamed of the kind of feedback we are getting. It's incredible nice. Regards Martin
1. Is there going to be possible to reach the highest level? (I certainly hope not, since its always nice to reach new heights...) 2. Will items have random stats like in Diablo 2, or static stats like in Everquest? Diablo was nice that way, in that you ALWAYS could get better equipment. 3. Will there be monsters that are so powerfull as to need hundreds of high level players playing together to kill it? This would be nice as it sets a goal for people to strive for.
Dagger, Norway
Anarchy Online: Hi Dagger, We have a level cap at level 200. I think most people like to have a goal they can reach - however you can development and improve your character forever if you want to (at least in the four years we are live with AO) There will always be better equipment to get. We have "boss monsters" that requires lots of teams and good strategies to beat - but I also think that the conflict on the game will be the focus of many players. Regards Martin
Has the BETA 4 code been updated much for release to the public? Will there be a discount for paying for several months in advance?
skunk720, USA
Anarchy Online: Hi Skunk, Yes - both the client and server side of the code has been improve during beta4. In the 11.3 patch you will see the differences. We have esp. focused a lot on the playfield changing problems, lag and general stability. We will have several different payment schemes, e.g. you will be able to pay for 6 month in advance and get a discount. Regards Martin
Går det ann å få kjøpt t-sjorter og annet AO "stasj" i butikkene rundt om i Norge? Og hvis dere skal ha en egen dimension server i Europa, er det da mulig å flytte over spilleren din dit da? For vi i Norden vil jo spille på serveren i USA frem til den tid....
Jørgen, Skjetten, Norge
Anarchy Online: Hej Jørgen, Efterhånden vil det være muligt at købe alle mulige slags varer med AO logo. Vi har allerede t-shirts, zippo lightere osv. :-) Mht. til dimensions - i udgangspunkten vil vi bare have een stor verden, hvor alle spiller. Det kan dog vise sig at Anarchy bliver så populært at vi er nød til at starte op flere "dimensions" - men det vil være muligt for vores spillere at flytte sig mellem dimensions. Vi satser på at have mange 10.000'ende spillere inde i den første dimension. Hilsen Martin
Except for the graphix, can you name a few things that makes AO a better game than Ultima Online?
Mike Andersen, Norway
Anarchy Online: Hi Mike, I think there's a huge difference between Anarchy Online and Ultima Online. First of all - we like to think of Anarchy Online as a 2nd generation massive multiplayer online game. We have been playing a lot of other online games and have learn about what makes them good games and what they lack. We have integrated a lot of other features to emphasize the social and online aspect of AO e.g. the friends list - sort of ICQ inside the game. Other than that; we have the autocontent generation system that will run-time generate content to all the players that want it, we have removed camping problems and have a large varity of items and tradeskills. Of course AO is a science fiction game unlike the current fantasy games (like UO, EQ, AC etc.) Regards Martin
Why is the storyline added so late? I think it will hurt RPG players ... I don't want to play another doom (was on AC) - I hope levelling is not the sole game aim ... please enlight me !
Laurent, Paris
Anarchy Online: Hi Laurent, One of the reasons why we'll start the *full* story-line a few month after release is that we want to have a certain amount of players - also we don't want the players that buys the game a month or two after release to feel they have been missing out on something. We will have event that leads up to the story before we launch the full story-line. Regards Martin
I have been a beta tester of the game since early in Beta 3. I just recently got the Beta 4 version of the game. I've been playing it for a couple days and I have notice many many bugs and crashes along with server crashes. Not to mention the heavy lag in many areas. How do you plan on launching the game so soon with this many problems?
Robert "StarBob", United States
Anarchy Online: Hi Robert, We have been working *very* hard the past time to fix the last bugs. The whole team is quite comfortable with releasing 27th of june. The server lag problem is finally solved and the fixes will be introduced with the 11.3 patch. Regards Martin
Hvor mange kan spille AO tilsammen? Er det en grense?
Krølle, Oslo
Anarchy Online: Hej Krølle, Rigtig mange kan spille Anarchy på samme tid. Vi satser på at have 10.000-vis af spillere online på samme tid i den samme verden. Rubi-ka (planeten hvor Anarchy udspiller sig) er kæmpestor - der er mange store byer med masser af liv og der vil være masse at gøre hele tiden. Verdenen er faktisk så stor at det vil tage omkring 2 real-time dage at krydse den. Hilsen Martin
How much will it cost??
Michael, Florida
Anarchy Online: Hi Michael, The game will cost $49.95 in the store and in addition you'll have to pay a monthly fee of $12.95. For the monthly fee you get customer service, monthly events and you can play as much as you want. Regards Martin
Hvordan vil de ledende NPC'ene i spillet bli styrt? Vet at dere (utviklerne) kommer til å spille disse, men hvordan og hvor ofte vil slike ting skje? Nailz cOmnies gotta die...
Nailz, Norge
Anarchy Online: Hej Nails, Vores ledende NPC'er vil i starten bliver computer-styret - og til dels overtaget af os udviklere - men efterhånden vil vi gerne have at vores spillere overtager nogle af de centrale roller i spillet. Hilsen Martin.
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