Give us your feedback on Jessica's Transition Diary [Archive]

CyranosCottage

08-13-2004, 03:15 AM

I don't like the idea of the AC1 team moving out west, and to see it say like for thoes who choose to stay won't be part of the ac1 team seems a little harsh, like no choice unless you want to work on another game lol..

I hope the acpl dosn't move out west, espcially if its going to have as many or more games as it did this year. (ACPL seemed pretty waterd down because of other games, still was fun, but would make it very expencive to see very little AC at these Turbine Nations)..

I understand the changes being made, and the reasons to keep the team near each other to work better with each other, but it will be very sad to see them go, espically now I can't make it so simple to stop by and show off my latest Real life work :p

All I can say is if you think you can find more talent out on the west coast, you know our expectations will be higher..

Now will Envoys be effected in the move? Like do they need to be in the LA offices to still be part of AC1? Or are they simply turbine employees who will work from both offices east and west coast? For thoes who are intrested in every applying for thoes types of jobs for ac..

Sangria

08-13-2004, 01:29 PM

I was hoping she would have more info on getting us away from the Zone and some positive things to say about how the new billing proceedure was moving along.

Any chance we will get information on something we all want to know about? It's August - summer is almost over. Surely they know by know what they are going to do and how they plan to do it.

That would help the rest of us get our accounts in order too and make that transition much smoother.

I just get the feeling summer is going to be well over before we ever get away from the zone. Something that is high on my list of things I want you to do.

Zenato

08-13-2004, 02:00 PM

I was hoping she would have more info on getting us away from the Zone and some positive things to say about how the new billing proceedure was moving along.

Agreed. This entire transition update said NOTHING of the transition, but just another Turbine Nation write-up. Argh like we need another.

Also, it contained internal information about a move to LA which has nothing to do with the AC transition from Microsoft.

Certainly there could have been something more than just saying there is nothing to report on the transition that could have been said. If not, why even bother with a post?

CyranosCottage

08-13-2004, 02:06 PM

Quite a bit of the billing migration from zone was discussed at Turbine Nation, that it will be done bit by bit, no planned account deletions for thoes inactive, they wont move any billing information with out permission from the person (concerning inactive accounts).

While at the ACPL, I got the general impression Les might be one of thoes devs who will be staying at the westwood office, meaning diffrent game team?
Not saying for sure he is or not, but just the general impression I got when speaking to devs before acpl..

Heideggar

08-13-2004, 02:25 PM

Without spending much effort:

It was uninformative. Any info worth anything to me, was not focused on, and that which was said, had been said many times before.

Nothing new, and little of concern.

tirador

08-13-2004, 02:48 PM

kclobo2003

08-13-2004, 02:57 PM

ummm ACDM won't be sold After the Expansion Realese b/c it'll be the Whole Game...and like any new playing you will have to play catch up, there are pletny of people out there that enjoy helping others to get them on quests armor weapons and what not.....

They aren't just going to give new players Uber armor b/c they didn't start playing 4+yrs ago b/c that wouldn't be fair to those that had to earn it the hard way.....

tirador

08-13-2004, 03:38 PM

Watch 'em .
they will introduce several levels of items and content that make your current kit obsolete and, remarkably enough, available with low costs (real and skill). While you upgrade to latest greatest, Jane Justgotcheer is armoring up in stuff you never dreamed of owning 2 years ago. Look at Amuli now. I can put al 400+ armor on a new person now. That armor was extremely expensive and used by the elite only when it came out. It now langushes on mules or in chests, and regularly sells for well under the salvage costs. Look at the stuff people throw away in Marketplace:)

Xp is now about as cheap as armor. It took me a good while to get my first character to 50, now it is regularly done in a day. it took less than 4 weeks to get 126s on VT, there are level 200+ players there now.

A similar mechanism will be in place for the expansion pack. Up until Monty started giving out retired pack dolls I would have agreed with you... but then Ibn told me this: "In general, the ability to get items is better than NOT being able to get those items. (lots of spaces removed) Dereth is a changing world. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This has always been true." His remarks on this really opened my eyes....

Zenato

08-13-2004, 04:58 PM

Gosh guys/gals you're more off topic than Jessica's original NON-transition transition update. If you want to get answers to some of these facinating questions about ToD, perhaps posting them to the appropriate board might work better.

Tirador, on day TWO of RTM of the original AC, new players were playing catchup. This isn't an issue.

CyranosCottage

08-13-2004, 05:08 PM

Scratch the note I had on my previous post about les, apperntly he hasn't been on the ac1 team for a little while now..

But I am still curious, since the article was a little blunt on saying that who dosn't move out to the new office probably will be working on diffrent things in the westwood office, are there any devs who are currently in the ac1 team not going to be on the ac1 team when the move takes place?

I found it kind of weird how only a few people were taking questions at the expansion disscussion, and it seemed like they will be on the ac1 team when they move, other devs were like in the room but not up front for questions..

I am kind of only speculating and reading into things here hehe.. So making an *** of my self, it seemed that Srand, Zyrca, I think Scenario and Jessica will be part of the ac1 live team for the expansion. Are there any confirmations as to who will be on the team when the moves takes place, and who might be moving to diffrent projects?

CyranosCottage

08-13-2004, 11:27 PM

ok, I was wrong again in saying Zyrca will be staying :p

And Orion?

I got someone looking over my shoulder correcting me at turbine...

I want to see some of the Dev responces to this.. Give the players some more feedback on these changes. How will we be affected? If a dev is not continueing with AC1 team after the move, have there been people who will be taking over your position and when will we meet them?

Just as a side note, I am very sad to see anyone on this team move off, everytime I had a chance to meet them, I always look forward to meeting them again. To find out not all will be there, and no one is really told when someone moves off the team, its a little shocking.. I was supprised to hear les was gone for a while, I just never recall anyone mentioning that. In 2002 I met the team and the following year, atleast one went to ac2..

But its good to see some of the faces still staying in westwood, and makes the chances more likely to see them again at future turbine nations that happen on the east coast. (Which I hope they do, I was told there might be 2 Turbine Nations, one on east, other on west coast..)

Hey, if it wasn't for these devs, I wouldn't be posting here as much.. wait thats a bad thing... Ok, positive thing.. if I wasn't made fun of soo much at the acpl this year, my allegiance wouldn't have gone from 0 active, 135 followers, to atleast 20+ active that I have met sofar out of 690+..

CyranosCottage

08-14-2004, 12:26 AM

Ok, I just read over what I just wrote above.. And edit time past.. So sorry that I look like a drunk with my spelling and grammer lol.. I hate my compaq computer for posting..

mrgrimreaver

08-14-2004, 01:03 AM

Hi, i read about billing and stuff.

So if i had to recall an account do i go to zone or you.

Zone.com dose'nt seem to want to help me. Everyone points to automated things which are completely useless stuff and information.

I hope you will have better customer service because i was Perma banned and my account name not in my email address because of a recalling problem.

I played game for 4 years and this happens.

I want to know if you will take over the recalling and other billing problems because zone cant do their job :mad: and now i am Perma Banned. 4 years.... 3 Accounts. 2 of which have been deactivated because of this.

MaddyFF

08-14-2004, 06:09 AM

I want to see some of the Dev responces to this.. Give the players some more feedback on these changes. How will we be affected? If a dev is not continueing with AC1 team after the move, have there been people who will be taking over your position and when will we meet them?

Cyranos, it sounded like Orion and Zyrca would be movin to other projects at Turbine, which is a lose for the AC crowd but someone else is gaining something. If you were at the ACPL you did meet one of the people that will be coming to the live team from the expansion pack, plus Srand is coming back to the live team too.

I don't think the devs will respond to this, Jessica maybe to explain the why's. How will be affected? Don't know yet but we got to trust that we know what they are doing.

CyranosCottage

08-14-2004, 08:22 AM

yeah, I know all that hehe.. I gotten pms from devs clearing that up..

But I am saying for the "replacements" I wanted to know if we will be getting introduced sometime soon as they begin to take the job, so they arn't just like introduced the first patch they work on and judged how that patch goes hehe..

I think Orion was talking about at the acpl the day he first started and what was the result of that day.. A pack doll for all the server problems.. lol

I am saying it would be nice to meet the new people as the date approaches when they get all the new weight on their sholders when patch days arrive heh. And for Srand, like people at the acpl heard from jessica, Srand would have to notify Jessica a year in advance before she died. So she is very important it seems for the upcoming team moving and for the expansion.

Its good to see the people at turbine still work at turbine and not be forced to move if they want to stay a part of the team, but each one of the AC1 devs is valued greatly and will be missed from the AC1 community.

And Orion always seemed to give me a look like "oh no its Cyrano" when I see him hehe, but gotta love him. And a note to Orion, at the acpl I told ya how Aqua Teen Hunger Force had their message saying Canceled August 15th, they changed that to Canceled watch it every sunday at midnight.. So what ever that means now lol yay meatwad!

*has officaly lost it (some might say I never really had it to begin with)*

MaddyFF

08-14-2004, 10:14 AM

If you talked to some of the expansion team people, you got a chance to meet them. The expansion pack will probably give us an idea on how things will go witht hem.

Brandon seems to have an interest n the lore/background stories, which is good to have on a team. Beyond Srand, I'm not sure who else will be added to the live team after the expansion pack. And we all love Srand. :)

Eru_LC

08-17-2004, 03:03 AM

In regards to Turbine Nation 2005 (if there is one), will there now be one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast? I am just asking beacuase it was nice having people from the UK here for turbine nation 2004, and it would be quite a long haul from the UK to California.

KungFuTzu

08-17-2004, 04:53 AM

What is the underlying reason that Turbine picked Santa Monica as their west coast base? It's one of the most expensive places in the US to live, and I can't think of any advantage to being in the overpopulated, hyperpolluted, crime-infested greater Los Angeles area versus any of the other nice cities on the west coast. Sure, there's a well-established gaming industry already there, but game companies don't really need to be near any resources I can think of, other than a good workforce pool (which you can find almost anywhere). Plus, they're going to be forced to pay their employees significantly more to make up for the drastically higher cost of living, and I doubt they'd be willing to pay a designer enough to get the same kind of house he could get in a place with a more reasonable cost of living.

I've heard that the guy they picked to run their west coast operation is from the area. That's the only thing I can think of, and it doesn't sound like a very good reason, considering the disadvantages.

And if you're really having problems finding people to move to Westwood to work on the AC franchises, I'd suggest tempering the gaming-industry-ubiquitous knee-jerk urge to hire people who are exactly and immediately qualified for the needed positions, and instead start looking for talented people with great potential who may not hit the ground instantaneously running.

Arlaine

08-18-2004, 11:01 AM

Hey, maybe Turbine Nation will be in Texas next year! ;)

Zol

08-18-2004, 05:17 PM

What are the thoughts on Turbine Nation being on the west coast next year?

Ibn

08-24-2004, 07:54 PM

I don't think the devs will respond to this, Jessica maybe to explain the why's. How will be affected? Don't know yet but we got to trust that we know what they are doing.

How will the game be affected by the transition? As little as possible.

Ibn

08-24-2004, 07:57 PM

And if you're really having problems finding people to move to Westwood to work on the AC franchises, I'd suggest tempering the gaming-industry-ubiquitous knee-jerk urge to hire people who are exactly and immediately qualified for the needed positions, and instead start looking for talented people with great potential who may not hit the ground instantaneously running.

What's funny is that what you're describing -- talented people with little gaming experience -- describes a big chunk of the current Live Team. Me, Orion, Zyrca, Scenario, Mirin... Turbine was our first job in the industry.

And it's definitely cool that Turbine has done this in the past and will continue to do this in the future. But at the same time you also want to be able to hire industry veterans, and it's pretty hard to convince someone to move from southern Cali (where most game development is done these days) to New England.

mishop

08-26-2004, 09:58 AM

Both offices could work on AC1 as they do currently. Its not like you have to be in a certain geographical area to write code. I feel bad for the people who work at Turbine that will be adversely effected by the re-org. Hang in there - I've been re-org'd twice - both times I was moved to do a job I knew nothing about. The purpose of the re-org in my case (as stated by my company's president) was to increase the attrition rate by making everyone's job more difficult. Attrition means no severance and no unemployment costs for the company. I hope the same deal isn't happening at Turbine.

Alenas

09-04-2004, 07:47 PM

Hi, I'm a new player and very much enjoying the game. *HOWEVER* if you are going to be updating the billing system:

please support American Express too (I know, not the most popular card, but getting more and more widely used). As it is I had to jump through hoops to get a subscription and would really like the possibility of paying with Amex.

It would save me lots of hassle. Thanks for listening! :)

Mal the Mad

09-07-2004, 02:28 PM

It's the end of the month already.... got an update please??? just looking for new info on billing migration.. ie on schedule, behind schedule, it goes live next patch... somethin

thanks

Kasar

09-12-2004, 04:17 PM

yes, would appreciate an update...been a month since the last one :)

Ibn

09-15-2004, 05:57 PM

A status update on the Billing Migration was posted on September 7th. Click here. (http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=272)

.Kid.

09-22-2004, 09:51 PM

This kinda stinks...

to tell you the truth, I was planning to join the Turbine (yeah, kinda strange for a die-hard AC fan) after I got done with college at USM (University of Southern Maine) or SMCC (Southern Maine Community College) for computer science. Yeah, kinda a 'long-term' idea but I was just thinking about it. Is Turbine planning to close the Boston base?

FmrSentFlatfoot

09-24-2004, 04:26 PM

What's funny is that what you're describing -- talented people with little gaming experience -- describes a big chunk of the current Live Team. Me, Orion, Zyrca, Scenario, Mirin... Turbine was our first job in the industry.

And it's definitely cool that Turbine has done this in the past and will continue to do this in the future. But at the same time you also want to be able to hire industry veterans, and it's pretty hard to convince someone to move from southern Cali (where most game development is done these days) to New England.

Oh my, does this mean you'll one day be just a "regular joe" playing AC, again? hehehe

Won't that be kinda rough, having been stripped of your Aegis 3 years back, and now having the Turbine Welcome Mat ripped out from under you? Hmmmmmm

Doesn't seem fair. Seems like they're pulling a Microsoft by moving out and leaving all you Bostonians high and dry.

Of course I imagine you'll still stay on as an +Envoy at least? I know we've all been told that +Envoy duty is done from Westwood HQ, but anyone with enough insight would know the liklihood of EVERY +Envoy does not live in the Boston area, as that would be discriminatory, showing favoritism to only the people in the local vicinity. ;)

I mean, logic just doesn't picture a 24 hour shift of +Envoy's going in, punching a clock, while the last shift punches out and leaves. How would the night cleaners be able to clean up all the empty pizza boxes, soft drink cans and candy-bar wrappers in the +Envoy room? hehehe

You might tell us and want us to believe that they all work out of HQ, but anyone who believes that, well... I've got some prime waterfront property available in the Sahara I'd like to interest them in. :D

At any rate, being more or less pushed out of a job that presented a golden opportunity to work in such an industry, SUCKS! :( Doesn't it?

Sangria

09-25-2004, 02:25 AM

FmrSentFlatfoot

09-25-2004, 01:40 PM

I read the Sept. 7th billing info - it didn't really say anything of value. Summer is over and we are still stuck with the piece of crap zone.

For some reason I have a feeling we are being strung along and there is no intention of changing anything over til just before the expansion comes out. Just hand out a little memo that hints at everything but promises nothing each month and everyone will fall for it.

So far so good. :rolleyes:

When will we actually get some REAL information and not just a quick smoke screen?

What does it REALLY matter? The current system works just as well now as it has for the past 5 years. *shrug*

We're still playing. We're still able to access the servers... so I don't follow why the changeover to the new system is going to enhance anything, apart from ensuring Turbine rakes the cash direct into their coffers before Microsoft sees it. lol

I'm with you in wanting the change, but until it happens... I'm content. Besides, if the transition goes anything like the last few patches have, I think we should stay with the Zone.. or the game might be down for a week+ or worse, people will lose their whole accounts... the data will get lost and irretrievable. :eek:

Black-Rose

09-28-2004, 08:02 PM

My greatest concern is about the upcoming expansion. I'm not sure you all took a peek at it but I was very interested. But to say the least I am not impressed with the proposal. First I thought there would be a *much* better update to the graphics. I have heard them say that they can't really do much with the current graphics engine but I would think you would update it. If the big concern is for those players who have comps that can't handle better graphics give us a choice. Other games have done this my old comp couldn't handle the graphics and I was given a choice. How bout so *really big* changes in this area. Second I was wondering why there aren't any special moves or things like pets. I know AC is not like other games but these things do add dimension to the game. Last but not least I was wondering if it had ever occured to the devs to make a special buff type for melee's only maybe a special move they get that would buff all their stats but you only get it at a certain level of skill... Not really sure how the details would go but I think it would be interesting.

Madgic

09-29-2004, 11:34 AM

Here is what I wonder:

How will little Jimmy, who gets ACDM for Christmas and the expansion when it does come out, catch up with those who have played a long time and have uber armor, skills, and weapons?

I for one (call me selfish) Hope little Jimmy CAN NOT make up for my 5 years of hard work and in game loayalty Just Because he decided to buy the game late.

The original players who used to hack away at Monsters when they were worth 1/4 of the XP they are now, and the original players who have gone some way to shape the game, Deserve a boost far more than Little Jimmy.

The game is set up now so you can level a character far faster than a persons player skill will allow, how many 126s do you all know that have no clue what half their keys do in AC let alone the quests or story lines?

Let little Jimmy play the game at his own pace and let him learn how to play and enjoy the game for what it is, lets not make him another 126 toon with no skills that leaves after a few months because he has never really PLayed the game.