Putting the fun back into AO.

[Wulf-GTI]

I personally don't worry (as much) about what players are learning or not learning when it comes to being in OST-teams. It's an issue yes but not anywhere near what I consider to be the main problem.

The main problem to me is that people are rapidly (and most have already) completely forgotten that AO is more than learning your profession and getting good loot fir it.

AO has an atmosphere. AO has a story. There are a lot of things going on in the world of AO. AO is more than a ladder you have to climb.

AO is supposed to be an experience. You start out with nothing in this world and you and the people you meet have to live in this world and progress and experience all the interesting things that happens in it together. To me, this is what a MMO is. If I simply wanted to climb up some arbitrary ladder and maybe PvP some, I'd just play Tetris and compare my score to a friends score or something. I realize that this is a somewhat silly analogy but the point is, a MMO to me is a lot more than just making sure that the numbers on my characters are bigger today than they were yesterday by any means necessary.

Enjoying the world of AO for all its glory, like people used to do back in the early days when people even roleplayed, is destroyed when progressing through the game is limited to doing incredibly easy solo-dailies that has a whacked risk-reward balance and no need to interact with other people, sitting afk on a hill in ely and doing loads of inf missions at level 160 with 220's doing all the DD.

At that point, most things that make AO what it is (or was), is lost.

My biggest worry is that FC is sometimes dealing with quick-fixes rather than fixing things in ways that maintains what AO is. My worry is that those people working at FC now are all so relatively new that they all came here after AO had turned into what it is, so all they know is how to maintain what it is, not what it was. What it currently is, compared to what it was, is not progress to me. A lot of things have improved of course and I realize that Means and the rest have done and are doing a lot of good things for the game. But the CORE aspect of the game, is perhaps unknown to them. I honestly don't know.

But when I see permanent systems put in place to combat problems in the game, that takes even more away from what AO used to be, then I just think that FC is running around slapping bandaids on cracks in the dam, before it fails completely. Daily missions is a bandaid that doesn't make the GAME better, it just makes leveling easier. This could have been achieved in MUCH better ways, that supports teaming and exploring and all that good stuff. But they decided not to. And it's the reason they decided not to.. that worries me. Not doing anything about OST'ing is also a bandaid fix. They don't want to deal with the actual problems head on in a logical way so they just leave it as it is and throw their hands up in the air and say "weeeell what can you do, it is what it is" or whatever. And that worries me.

Sometimes it simply feels like both FC and half the playerbase have given up on Anarchy Online and no graphics engine is going to change that.

FC have had the balls to start a total rebalance of professions and to start work on a new graphics engine for the game. I have commended them for this in the past and I still do. I like the fact that they are willing to jump in with both feet like that. But the core aspect of the game and how its played continues to suffer and HOW people play the game and HOW they experience the game is to me A LOT more important than how the game looks. It's also a lot more important than giving tl7's another item-farming dungeon to fart around in. It's also more important than me doing "this" to kill a mob before rebalance on my trader compared to doing "that" to kill a mob after the rebalance.

Anarchy Online is bleeding and it has been for years but all the doctors are combing its hair over and over as if that was important!

It's bleeding ffs!
Someone pay attention!

More for add

[andribesti]

I just want to see more stuff for the froobs, everyone i've told about the game and they started to play it, quit because it was too hard and complicated, i even gave them money and stuff to start out, but levelling for a froob becomes so slow after 60, most people don't bother and just go play something else.
Would like to see xp boost on rk team missions, possibly a rk team instance.

<not a froob, got 2 paid accounts fyi

[catdog]

Not quite sure how i ended up in this thread. But it deserves a boost.

[Cogline]

It'd be nice for us Neutrals to have a bit of plot. I mean most players run off to join Omni or Clans without thinking. A hint about Neut smuggling operations from some bint under a tree in Newland City is about as far as it goes. Ye gods, being able TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING with the Neut id chip would be nice.

[Biancha]

being able TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING with the Neut id chip would be nice.

Something to do with the Neutral ID Chip!

[Cogline]

I was thinking more along the lines of, I dunno, using it to hack Faction requirements off things or something. Or a special BS instance. Or something to move the plot along.

[Mastura]

Bumping for ol' time's sake.

[Aiboluk]

Hello camrades
Big discussion we have here, huh?

Changing servers and such - sounds revolutionary.... but revolutions never lead to good changes, its way to chaos...

Let's see...

First thing about AO - theres alot of DIFERENT ppl. With diferent playstyle, diferent goals and ways to get fun.

For me RK part of AO is "hard" playfield. Theres engi gun, that requires alot of combinations and parts from diferent parts of game (from rk mish, from unique mob, from HI raid...), and its 'same" gun you use on endgame toon that you used on noob island. Theres implants, and you need not only camping, but head on shoulders to made and put on set of imps, that give you uber power.

Sl... thats "easy" part of AO. Theres symbs. Camp one and put in slot. Most profs not have alternatives even - only one type. You cant put other symb, you can only put higher ql. Beast weapons drop as they are. Upgradeable with Xan item (same for all) and shop item. Heckageddon in afk mode. Perks... require head on shoulders, but way easy to change em if you set em wrong. (Personally me have that feeling, when i got paid acc, like i was owned - i got not what i was thinking i get. some wise man with grey leet on avatar said about it here in first pages of this topic already)

AI and LE - good attempts to put more action on RK, and not only on RK, for paid players, and its mostly succesful. I cant call them as "part", its more "upgrade".

Xan... well, counting, its latest expancion pack.... once i seen on youtube doc soloing mitaar... xan is fail IMO. Its not docs who OP. Its Funcom fail, because other profs cant do it. Doc + crat can solo it all exept 12man. Fail.

When i made twinking of my 200 lvl froob crat (endgame equip), i spend 3 days on it (time on calculations not counted, just twinking itself) - that was a task! Right after that i did twinking of my 220 paid doc (endgame equip too), and i was done in 2 hours, and even not search for Ibehe....
"Hard" part and "easy" part.

Now - back to diferent "parts" of game. PROBLEM IS in BAD CONNECTION between them. They are for diferent styles of play, but they not make alternatives for each other.
I have same amount of adrenaline when i played with my froob 200 lvl crat on froob HI raid, and when i played my 220 doc with mediocre team on beast raid. But HI is too outdated for paid 220 player... Same with RK mishes and rest RK stuff. With very small exeption RK stuff are just shopfood in better case.

Now lets see next.
What is more easy - make smaller things like some instances, with couple of goodies or upgrades to goodies, or make recalcualtion of all old/new stuff to keep game balanced?

Obviously - first variant easyer and require less resourses. But it also leads to disbalancing and slow dieing of game. Way like this kill content for some part of AO community.

AO have alot of holes to fill - theres gap between nasc hecks and ely hecks - why not fill it with some RK "hecks"?

Theres such thing exist like Dark Ruins. It was very fun for me to do it, sinse theres very funny and interesting quests. Those escorting NPCs make me laugh alot But its instance for lvl 150-200... damn, where such stuff for every lvl range? With some newbie guide info and little changes it can be very cool location for newbies to learn how cool to play in team! And not just for paid players - for any newbie player, who we want to see in AO for long time and as paid player! Just example.

Each player have own goals in that game, but we all love changes - we like to change from a heckageddon to something diferent for a bit... and - we have nothing to switch on. Any or almost player want to run oldscool RK mish from time to time, and some even do it, but theres no good enough XP, no loot, to stay there more than just for 1-2 ... Somethimes i want to switch to something pretty dump, just for relax from hard raids or long quests - some solo dumb camping/killing for XP... and once again - no alternatives. Symbs almost not have alternatives in imps face. Only couple imps can make competition to symbiants, like leg imp with evades and HD in it....

Its so huge world there in AO... but ppl getting bored there - why? Because its NOT BALANCED WELL. Each part itself balanced, but theres disbalance between them. Need SOLID balanced game instead bunch of balanced patches. And i talk not about just planned prof nerfing. Need raise XP from RK mishes, and make RK raids interesting for paid players again. And - once again - need more new stuff to fill gaps in leveling and more alternatives so ppl not sit doing nothing - this way they start to be boring and leave.

Now one more question ppl talk alot about - who cares about froobs? Aha, noone, but froobs...

But why i have feeling, like FunCom CARES about froobs?

Let's see closer...

Once upon a time there was no froobs at all. But time passed, FC pop up SL, and made RK part of game f2p. Sinse SL expancion FC keep paid players way more powerful, probably so they have feeling that they pay for something, and free players its just a non-upgraded so far paid players in future.

Ok, maybe, but then - why i got feeling like i was owned, when i start to be paid player, after i play some time on RK part, and was very impressed of it?
Because SL its OTHER, DIFERENT style of playing.
FunCom made great job by popping SL expancion, but then they start to slow down, more and more. And - they did very small about balancing whole game to something solid. SL stuff are very OP on RK... Someone can say - roll a froob and be happy. Ok, but why i need to roll a froob, if i PAY for that game??Dont say me nobody cares about froobs, answer me, why nobody cares about PAID PLAYERS? Its easy to keep froobs gimped, so paid players have feeing they pay for someting. But im not so dumb. FC do almost NOTHING to make RK interesting again for me as for paid player. WTF i need to roll 200 froob so most beautiful part of game (in my opinion ofc) start to be shyning in all his colors to me again, if i PAY for that game??? For what i pay? For sitting in part of game that i not really like? Why RK not give me same amount of XP, as SL, if FC dont care about froobs? What so bad happeing if froobs start to level faster too, same fast as paid players?
I dont care about froobs - but FC care looks like.

Another question - why froobs not allowed to visit SL?
We all know froobs are really nothing there - they too weak. All stuff locked with SL reqs, mobs way harder and such... isnt more sense to allow ppl to see whats there, and let them team with paid ppl more? So they upgarde acc faster?
No. Because not all players impressed by RK, gonna be happy from SL, which is mostly place for expirienced ppl for fast leveling to 220 nowadays, or place for ppl who like that playstyle.
But if they allow access - some ppl not gonna pay for AO
If no access - ppl pay, go in, part of em dissapoint, some leave, some stay....
If i come to SL as froob and see it - i doubt i ever start to pay for it rly... Its diferent playstyle, not bad - just DIFERENT. If i not meet some friend, who drag me trough all that SL stuff to 220 - where i found exiting raids and alot of team work - i not gonna spend time on it otherwise.

FC not working on reviving of RK for PAID PLAYERS, and make em sit only in SL, and this way leads newbies to become heckon00bs, sinse theres no imputable alternatives.

Another question - vets kill game. Well - i not agree. They kill nothing, they choose playstyle most acceptible for them, and nothing wrong in it. They come to get fun, not for hard work or baby sitting with some st00pid ppl who even not deside if they stay here or leave in 5 min. They pay for it, and they have right to play their way. Its Fc's job to keep ppl interested and provide alternatives, not vets job.

Theres still not so many imputable althernatives to AO in sci-fi games. Its not wise to let AO rot, that game still have great potential. Isnt it obvious?

Do you ppl remember such game as Fallout? What keep ppl addicted to it? ALTERNATIVES. No way you play it same way 2 times. It was new every time.

FC did great job before, but now they slow down or even stop to work on AO... i pay to play AO, not Conan-Shmonan or some other stuff. I pay for AO, so - FC, keep work on it and keep it up to date please.

It was Aiboluk and you hear my word!
Peace!