New Engine on Steam?

[BLOODMODE]

I know Funcom had been working on new engine for Anarchy Online. I heard you have to download that directly from their website. Is that the case or can I just download through steam?

[Salamand3r-]

You have to download it from their website.

It is a bit more crashy than the old engine.

[Skuly]

People call it "the new engine" but I bet they stopped working on it around 2012-2014, I think they started working on it around 2007 and didn't tell us much until a few years later when they came out with videos showing it off.. before that there were occasional crappy pictures then they went quite for a bit.

I haven't really been into or followed AO much since 2015 so maybe my dates and stuff are off but I am pretty sure most of the engine work was done before the game director "Means" left or was fired.

https://forums-archive.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?595958-Letter-from-the-Game-Director-December-16th-2011-Passing-the-Torch

https://forums-archive.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?614468-18-8-0-Update-Release-Notes

The "New" engine looked a lot better in 2007/08 when they first announced it with this trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Psf9srD3UE

[Skuly]

And I think around 2009 they switched from using orge engine to the Engine Funcom made Conan with.

I don't think the new engine is much of an upgrade so the performance issues and crashes at whompahs aren't worth it.

I assume it still crashes at whompahs like it did years ago.

Man that is a word I haven't used in a long time... whompah

[Salamand3r-]

Originally posted by Skuly:

And I think around 2009 they switched from using orge engine to the Engine Funcom made Conan with.

I don't think the new engine is much of an upgrade so the performance issues and crashes at whompahs aren't worth it.

I assume it still crashes at whompahs like it did years ago.

Man that is a word I haven't used in a long time... whompah

I think that timeline is about accurate - I think Ogre was Means idea, and it was a colossal waste of time and resources.

Means was popular at the time, but I think his wastage and excess is one of the key moments in the downfall of AO.

[BLOODMODE]

Yeup I remember Means - I think he tried to breathe life into the game but got hampered by resources. Focusing on the new engine used considerable resources at a time that the labor force was practically union and had breaks every other week. He had World of Warcraft to compete with at the time and many other new MMOs.

I did go back and downloaded the new engine. I got ultrawide screen 5120x1440 resolution working and the game did look great. I did not experience any crashes.

The only problem I ran into was how empty the game was, and how toxic the community is with blatant multiboxing and botting going on. Any public raid area was swarmed with raidgroup sized multiboxers.

AO at this point is just a cheater playground.

At least Means tried to save the community, I just wish it hadn't devolved to what it is now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqibQgHzcfA

Here's a prime example of toxic multiboxer: TreyCrat

[Salamand3r-]

Originally posted by BLOODMODE:

Yeup I remember Means - I think he tried to breathe life into the game but got hampered by resources. Focusing on the new engine used considerable resources at a time that the labor force was practically union and had breaks every other week. He had World of Warcraft to compete with at the time and many other new MMOs.

Means had tons of resources - probably the most that have been provided to AO post-launch.

Not sure where you're getting the labor stuff.

The issue was he wasted them on several time-consuming projects that went nowhere. It was all good PR for him personally, bad for the game long-term.

[Sturmlocke]

I would like to see the new engine / EP2 added to Steam. You could add it to the Beta tab under general launch options as an alternative to the original client.