Power of the Nexus Force Release Notes

WELCOME TO MLNO!!!

[CheshireCat150]

I do hope the name stuff's a glitch or something... =/

No... the name isn't a glitch. When you try to type in a custom name, I giant message pops up saying something like, "This feature is for members only! Become a member now!" I do hope they change it though... I hate the fact that there could be someone else wondering around LU with my name.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

... *Sighs* Well... They could have accidentally included it... But really; how do you explain away including a core feature like names as a special feature for members? >_>

And yeah; there was a Blade in Beta I believe, so I had to resort to a Blademan series name. =P(Were you the one who asked if I was in Alpha/Beta back when LU was first was coming out? I remember someone did, but I forget who it was... And can't check now for obvious reasons. =P)

[Canama]

A glitch. Is keeping. Me from building. On my own property.

Lego, I am paying for this. It had better work.

-Canama

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Okay, was gonna ask in CTAM in an edit, but... What's the glitch?

[Canama]

I selected a model, but it was invisible and couldn't be placed or put away.

Fortunately it seems to be fixed now.

-Canama

[Crushinator]

Wow, it's sad reading through this thread and hearing 90% complaints about free-to-play. I'm not sure I've ever complained about something that is free.

1.) Restricted chat for FTP players - Chat moderation costs money
2.) Restricting pet taming for FTP players - Pet name moderation costs money
3.) Restricting properties for FTP players so others cannot visit them - Property moderation costs money
4.) Restricted minifig name for FTP players - Name moderation costs money. However once you become a full member you get a chance to get a custom name.

As far as the bugs, please just file bug complains within the game and they'll get fixed. I've downloaded FTP on four different computers, from 3 different locations and I have yet to see a single issue that wasn't there before this patch. People should understand there are tens of thousands of possible PC hardware and software configurations, it's literally impossible to test all of them, so although there is a lot of testing before a patch is released, LEGO still relies on bug feedback from players for the issues they cannot find during testing.

Negative feedback is helpful but only if it's constructive, saying something like "combat sucks" does not help LEGO identify which part of combat players would like things to be improved upon. Also realize while some people are complaining about combat there are many others saying they love it, so it can be difficult to identify which changes will be liked the most, they don't want to make a change that makes more people angry than it does happy.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

0. I've lightened up my stance on a lot of it, though I had still been slightly confused by the name restrictions. I understand a lot of it is restricted so that people will buy the full game; but given that only some of the restrictions had been actually mentioned beforehand(Like the chat); that caused most of the reaction here. =P Like, the name thing hadn't been mentioned before the Free Play was released.

Another thing is that one of the reasons that the posts are mostly complaints about Free Play... is because a lot of the people don't have the full version, and therefore can't talk about the rest of the update. =P

1. One question about that mention about chat... Wouldn't it simply be included in everyone else's chat?(Not that I had any expectations for that. =P) Plus, there is the whitelist... Also, this is simply a question, for anyone at all, but... Is there a method of chatting available to the Free Players similar at all to MLN's system? That requires no modding, so that would, IMO, be the perfect system for the Free Players, and would reduce the amount of people upset about that. It's just a suggestion, but...

2. That one makes a little sense, though it could always be restricted to simply being the default. Unless the pets have individual entries, instead of being tied to an account, then that does make perfect sense.

3. I hadn't heard about that one... However, that does make sense. The only question I'd have about that one, is if you can't let people view your properties, why are they in the Free Play? Granted, a lot of people would want to try that feature out, but another part of building stuff with LEGO, is being able to show those creations off. Which it sounds like you can't do until you become a Member...

4. That makes sense. I hadn't fully considered that part. However, is it actually possible to retroactively name a mini-fig? I haven't played since Beta, and even that was a very short time, so I honestly don't know about that one. However, another question, and the main thing that was making me go 'wait, what?'... Are the choices for the placeholder name large? As in, large enough that you don't end up with multiple mini-figs with the same name, or someone accidentally taking your preferred alternate name? I'm simply curious on that one.

6. That does make sense. It's hard to know what to change, if you have no idea what the people are complaining about.

[Crushinator]

0. I've lightened up my stance on a lot of it, though I had still been slightly confused by the name restrictions. I understand a lot of it is restricted so that people will buy the full game; but given that only some of the restrictions had been actually mentioned beforehand(Like the chat); that caused most of the reaction here. =P Like, the name thing hadn't been mentioned before the Free Play was released.

Another thing is that one of the reasons that the posts are mostly complaints about Free Play... is because a lot of the people don't have the full version, and therefore can't talk about the rest of the update. =P

1. One question about that mention about chat... Wouldn't it simply be included in everyone else's chat?(Not that I had any expectations for that. =P) Plus, there is the whitelist... Also, this is simply a question, for anyone at all, but... Is there a method of chatting available to the Free Players similar at all to MLN's system? That requires no modding, so that would, IMO, be the perfect system for the Free Players, and would reduce the amount of people upset about that. It's just a suggestion, but...

2. That one makes a little sense, though it could always be restricted to simply being the default. Unless the pets have individual entries, instead of being tied to an account, then that does make perfect sense.

3. I hadn't heard about that one... However, that does make sense. The only question I'd have about that one, is if you can't let people view your properties, why are they in the Free Play? Granted, a lot of people would want to try that feature out, but another part of building stuff with LEGO, is being able to show those creations off. Which it sounds like you can't do until you become a Member...

4. That makes sense. I hadn't fully considered that part. However, is it actually possible to retroactively name a mini-fig? I haven't played since Beta, and even that was a very short time, so I honestly don't know about that one. However, another question, and the main thing that was making me go 'wait, what?'... Are the choices for the placeholder name large? As in, large enough that you don't end up with multiple mini-figs with the same name, or someone accidentally taking your preferred alternate name? I'm simply curious on that one.

6. That does make sense. It's hard to know what to change, if you have no idea what the people are complaining about.

1.) The whitelist helps, but even with a whitelist people can still say things that are no allowed, like trying to give out a phone number, or bully someone. Moderation is still required for this reason.

2.) Players also cannot even tame pets until they speak take they learn the whistle emote from Coalessa, so we just let players know they can't use pets until they're a full member so that they're not running around trying to figure out how to do it within AG.

3.) You can still do a lot on a property without others being able to see it, you can learn about behaviors, building in brick mode and model mode, etc. Also, while property moderation costs money, so does model optimization. The models you build are optimized by LEGO to have nice lighting and shadowing to make them look more realistic, and it also lets properties run more efficiently on your computer so you'll have a smoother play experience. But the optimization process costs money. If a property had to be moderated and optimized for FTP players that could cost quite a bit as MMOs that offer FTP generally have 90% of FTP players that never sign up, so you can imagine that 90% of the properties that existed would've cost LEGO money.

4.) It is possible to retroactively name a minifig, it was just never something players could do on their own until now because it was never needed.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

1. Well, again, I haven't played since Beta, so, forgive me if this is already general knowledge or an otherwise silly question... But; aren't the chat messages posted instantly? I'm just curious how that can be modded, unless there are faster modders on LU than the LMBs. =P But you have a point there.

2. Ah, I see. I figured it was something that required something further than you can get in Free Play; but I wasn't sure on the details. Just that you needed Pet Cove(Or what it's post-Beta name is... >_>; ), which seemed to be past Nimbus Station. But yeah, that does make a lot of sense. =P

3. I see. I hadn't known that before. But, does that optimization process only work after the approval process, or in others' properties or so? Also, just curious, but does this mean you can't save models either, since they'd need to be modded and approved as well?

4. Ah, that would explain why I hadn't heard of it before. =P Okay, that makes sense then.

5. Just a quick question, since no-one has likely had a chance to test it yet... Can you use Free Play after your subscription expires? So you could just play around AG, for the situation of people who simply can't afford to continue playing for that month? Or is it simply a one time thing for people who haven't upgraded or purchased the full game at all?

[Crushinator]

1. Well, again, I haven't played since Beta, so, forgive me if this is already general knowledge or an otherwise silly question... But; aren't the chat messages posted instantly? I'm just curious how that can be modded, unless there are faster modders on LU than the LMBs. =P But you have a point there.

2. Ah, I see. I figured it was something that required something further than you can get in Free Play; but I wasn't sure on the details. Just that you needed Pet Cove(Or what it's post-Beta name is... >_>; ), which seemed to be past Nimbus Station. But yeah, that does make a lot of sense. =P

3. I see. I hadn't known that before. But, does that optimization process only work after the approval process, or in others' properties or so? Also, just curious, but does this mean you can't save models either, since they'd need to be modded and approved as well?

4. Ah, that would explain why I hadn't heard of it before. =P Okay, that makes sense then.

5. Just a quick question, since no-one has likely had a chance to test it yet... Can you use Free Play after your subscription expires? So you could just play around AG, for the situation of people who simply can't afford to continue playing for that month? Or is it simply a one time thing for people who haven't upgraded or purchased the full game at all?

1.) The messages are allowed to go through if they pass through the whitelist, however they're still logged and moderators read through the logs for any malicious activity.


3.) You can save models in FTP, they just aren't moderated or optimized until they become a member. Whenever you visit another property you're seeing the optimized version, whenever a property is locked then it's not finished being optimized and moderated.

5.) You cannot play free-to-play with an account that has been a member, however if your subscription expires you can start a new free-to-play account and play on that.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

1. Yeah, that makes sense then. So, basically, if free players were allowed to chat, it would take up more money for the moderation? Is it because of the mass amount of messages that would be sent, like on the LMBs?

Also, an off-shoot of the original question; you also can't use the mailbox, correct?

3. Ah, I see then. Now, I have a question about the optimization process; you mention they look as they do after approval because of the process... But, what do they look like beforehand? Is it like LDD bricks and models, somewhere in between, or even different? Just curious on that one, since I have to figure some stuff out before I can install FTP...(And even then, there's no guarantee it'll allow me to play, since I have no clue on the graphics capability of the computer I'll need to use...)

5. Alright... I can see the reasons for that, even if it's something that seems complex. However; I do have a question about that; the accounts you mention are the LEGO.Com accounts, right? Just wondering about that, since in the terms of service(I forget if it's from MLN or DRC or just in general), I had recalled something about no multiple accounts... Not that it was followed, given the dupe accounts on MLN. =P I just wish for some clarification on that statement there. =)

[Flipz]

3.  A suggestion: while I understand the optimization of the model shapes for faster loading, there are some property model Ideas I have that would look lame in LU lighting but would look great in LDD lighting.  Perhaps there could be an option on the property control pad allowing players to choose between different types/complexities of lighting, thus potentially speeding the optimization process and saving Lego money.  As an added bonus, players with lower-end computers could set their properties to use less complex lighting effects, thus speeding up performance. [/rambling]

Specifically, I'm thinking about a property that is based on a certain type of enclosed amusement park attraction; the interior lighting in said attractions is almost always artificial, and thus the property would be enhanced by having unrealistic/unenhanced lighting.  LDD models usually look artificial; but since the objects on this property are supposed to look artificial, that would be a good thing.

1. @ Blade: Imagine having to read through the entirety of the DoaH posts in less than a couple of hours.  That's the amount of chat that goes through small MMOs; now imagine it on a Much.  Larger.  Scale.  Yeah.  I think you're gonna need a bigger box moderation team.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Flipz: Ooh. OOOH. Yeah; that makes a lot lot more sense now.

I take it back; chat can definitely be member only forever. =P I've only experienced a few MMOs, and those have typically been only one area, or very small scale... Now that I have an example, I understand exactly the problems that would be opened by making chat a privilege for Free Players...

[Mahri828]

 The new content is decent, and while the levels could be good, they're really just kinda annoying. LEGO needs to include more to the levels, to give a better insentive to continue playing the game. Maybe restrict certain areas until you level up, unlock more weapon slots, or pretty much just upgrade your minifigure. The update was on the right track, but it still needs some major improvement.

[Crushinator]

The new content is decent, and while the levels could be good, they're really just kinda annoying. LEGO needs to include more to the levels, to give a better insentive to continue playing the game. Maybe restrict certain areas until you level up, unlock more weapon slots, or pretty much just upgrade your minifigure. The update was on the right track, but it still needs some major improvement.

Areas are restricted by skill, for example you can't go to Crux Prime unless you've taken the missions from Duke to defeat a Dark Ronin and Pirate Admiral. And even Nexus Tower is blocked until you at least finish the mission to become a faction member. Also Rank 2 and 3 gear now have level requirements, so I've currently go the Rank 3 Shinobi book but I'm only level 23 so I can't use it. A lot of these things were recently added and if you're an existing player it won't affect you. Upgrading your minifigure is done through new gear, and those now have level requirements on them so there is incentive to level up for that reason. I'm sure the leveling system will balance itself out with the rest of the game more over time, just like any new system introduced.

[Trijhak]

I'd just like to report a glitch: the Adventurer Valiant Cape is not yet available, but the capes for the three other recently introduced specialties are.

I also assume that soon enough that like with the other already existing specialties we'll get different colors and Valiant Weapons for Adventurer. Shinobi, Space Ranger and Inventor in time. Along with other possible actual non-mini bosses which will provide a challenge based on the world they are based in.

[Crushinator]

I'd just like to report a glitch: the Adventurer Valiant Cape is not yet available, but the capes for the three other recently introduced specialties are.

There should be a bug fix patch coming soon, although I don't know which bugs will and won't be fixed by it.

[Trijhak]

Oh, thanks for the info. I'm assuming it'll fix most of them, like the ones immediately obvious and the ones the players are complaining most about.

[Mahri828]

 When do you think that LU will come out with Valiants for the new faction suits?