Longjevity Of Ao

[________________Xcia]

hey all I am pretty new to the game been playing just over a month, have a level 60 sold, 44 engi, 30 agent etc etc

I come from playing asherons call, I came to this game caus it was new great graphics and thougth this could be my new long term game to settle down to play with for the next few years.

but i doubt that is going to happen.

mainly caus you level too damn fast in this game.

in asherons call you would probably never see level 100+ most i ever got to was level 36, but at least i had heaps of room to grow.

in this game if you devote some time to full on play ( i am on school holidays so i can) you can have a level 200 anything in no time.

whats the point of playing a game once you have achived level 200 and seen and done most fo it.

sure start again with a new character type, but why would you waste ya time doing all that again.

leveling in the good spot to a certain level moving to the next good spot to a certain level etc etc just to get to a good high level.


in AC you could get to level 30 in about 2 weeks of good solid play and after that cruise along at a nice pace, adventuring across the lands.

in this game all i see are people power leveling to 200 then starting again or not even getting close to 200. maybe 100 then starting again.

My personal opinion is why continue playing a game when you have clocked it.

funcom hopes for a 4 yesr long story but most people can start a character and finsih in a few months getting to 200.

plus there is no real depth to the game its a just an online shootem up.

i like the graphics of the game and all the toys ya get to play with but once i reach 200 if i ever choose to go that high on any 1 character, i dont see the point in continuing the game.

and its not an adventure game which i hoped it would be, such as the missions are to clinical 1 room at a time and all 1 level.

asherons you had to jump over pits, jump up platforms like distanced steps to get to another level and if you missed you fell and had to start again -= there was a skill element involved.


i could keep going on in comparisons but basically - this sums it up

AC = good long term adventure game with depth to characters and skill sets, but dated graphics.

AO = great graphic shoot em up

[-Zagadka-]

I agree with leveling too quickly. The game is basically too easy... you get all the cash you evern eed freely available, infinite items, XP very easily from battling, and to top it all off, most of this is done only thgouh fighting right now. THere is no structure for doing anything other than fighting; you will NEVER level if you don't fight.

[________________Xcia]

in AC - i had a mule that was stickly for appraising items in the shops - which you basicaly needed a character soley for doing this

what it is is a character could not read the req's of an item unless he had skills in apprasing - so you never know what your buying until you buy it and someone buffs it so you can read it.

wasting huge money, so i made a character for appraising only so he could buy everything i needed.

he leveled to level 12 in about a week purely from apraising

my main character leveld to level 30 in about 2 weeks just to give you an idea on fighting vs appraising leveling.

you earned experience from each succesful appraisal, now that is depth to game.

if asherons call was better looking graphics i would still play it, but after playing AO i went back to AC for 1 hour and said forget it AC isnt worth playing until graphics updated.

so now im off to try Dark Age Of Camelot

im reading there web site now - I heard the game sucks but them again everyone has there opinions.

I am looking for a long term game to buy and settle down with - and AO isnt it.

[Paffy]

AO dont have this far anything that will keep me long term...

Like he said, we all level like mad so that we can do it again. For what? Some of you say that stop leveling and roleplay. Yes, Ive done that and its quite fun actually but still there is not much to do in this game.

I am sucker for eye candy and no, fantasy dont interest me at all in MMORPGs so I propably be here until next one comes with equal graphics and something more to do, then I am very likely to skip to it.

Sadly this game had the potential but I am not going to wait a year for it to become reality. So sad they couldnt hold the release for one more year. Had they released the game more like it is now, it would have been better game overall (since I wouldnt know about nerfs and wouldnt be so depressed)

Also they could have seriously put some time to story content etc. As it is, AO is now just bench to sit on and chat while waiting the ferry (next game).

Zarch and bunch of other chars...

[______________Scorus]

Unless they get the story line REALLY started soon (i.e. NPCs that we can talk with anytime, story missions, ability to take territory from each other), then this game will keep losing people to boredom or the next game to come along.

And since I very much doubt that will happen given their past speed and bugs, I don't think the longevity is there either.

Scorus

[Laeni]

Oh geez, first people were whining that things were too haaaard, the missions were too far away, the mobs regen too quickly, we can't kill them easily...yada, yada, yada.

Now people are complaining that the game is too easy! Make up your minds will you?

[________________cson]

There two extreme groups of people here.

First group - people who solo missions. Mostly casual players that have only a couple of hours a day to play. Have real jobs, social life, and other responsibilites. They level once or twice a week.

Second group - people who group to hunt. Hardcore players that play up to 15 hours a day. They're either students with no jobs or just have no job period, or perhaps one of those few lucky ones that actually play the game at work. They level 5 times a day.

Then there are those in between, like me. I try to do missions during the week when I have a couple hours to play after work. And then on Sunday, I can play 12 hours straight and level 3 or 4 times. Friday evenings and Saturday belong to my girlfriend as well as most of the evenings during the week.

[Szentasha]

Please note that your style of play has a lot to do with how fast you level. I discovered early on that the quickest way to level was to get in a big group, find a good hunting ground, and blow the hell out of stuff. Unfortunately, this becomes boring fast (for me anyway, I'm sure that there are plenty of people who love it). I have started to appreciate more of the roleplaying aspects of the game .. meeting new people, interacting, dancing, chatting ...

If you stop and smell the roses a few times it does a lot to slow up your leveling .. but this is not for everyone.

The problem is that it is impossible to satisfy all types of gamers. Because I take more of a casual approach to playing, if the game was made extremely hard, I would never level. I remember playing EQ and how boring it was trying to level and how long it took.

I wouldn't mind it if the game was a little harder but I doubt that they could find a solution that is challenging enough for the hard-core gamers yet not impossible for casual gamers. Anyway, I would not hold your breath since this would put balance out of wack anyway .. Funcom probably won't do it.

- Szentisha

[____________Kohistan]

How fast u level and for how long u play every day, dosnt change the fact that the sole way of gaining money in this game is dead boring. The thing I like mostly in this game is when my guild is together in a joint venture on a uber uber mission or Hunting..
Soloing missions in this game is boring and is done on reflex now - while I chat with guildies make food, do laundary.. stuff like that.
RP is a dead fish - Sure we can have heated debates about Clan/omni relations on the guild channel and we can go to the reet retreat and dance our @$$ off - But there is no interaction in this game.. everything is automated - The Mission booth keeps spitting missions out with Pre-recorded messages from Radiman, and a mystireous guy that I might find out who is some day. But its still just kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill.. ther eis no items that is only one of a kind - Making weapons must be done after a book, Nanos must be done after a instruction disk - U cant EXPERIMENT - and there is nothing to peer u'r curiosity.

Things tha tcould be done:

1) make missions with 10000% more RP in - Not just this boring style that is now

2) Make One-of-its-kind items. Hell Hire a Design School to create a 5000 unique items

3) Make Trade items so u can combine them however u want to, do u really think Ill spend a ton of IPs and a lot of money to make a weapon I cna buy in my local store ?
MAke it so U can combine all SMG items - All Energy items blablabla etc. Let the player have a go on some creative thinking on that part - dont put us in a box and say "do it this way, or dont do it".

4) Story missions, interactive NPC', Player made missions (Create much more powerfull tools to the players on this field - For instance, empty dungeons all over Rubi-ka that players can use for making their "home" or using them as parts in a player made missions)


There is much much more that can be done.. But im to tired to think atm... goodnight.


Kohistan
Black Dawn Syndicate

[____________Ejeckted]

stop. just stop. please.
stop comparing AO to the pace of other games.

the game is not too easy. leveling is not too fast.
it is already tedious and monotonous and i've
already killed a million mutants and i dont understand
why any player would want to be forced to have to
kill millions more . . that is entertainment ? ? ? ? ?

you want to spend the next 4 years wearing out that
Q key just so you can feel some sense of accomplishment?

The whole reason AO is better than so many other onlineRPGs
is the huge amount of creativity you're allowed in creating
truly unique / hybrid / unusual / 'gimp' characters.

But it's painful to have to spend many months on every 'experiment'.

People scream and moan and whine endlessly on these boards
because their character-choice got balanced/nerfed.
Why? Because having to reroll if you dont like the changes means
months of wasted time. It's simply not an option for most.
All the headaches caused by people feeling cheated
by changes could be avoided if it was made easy for players to change too.

Hasn't anyone noticed they have 8 character slots ? ?
You dont want to use them all ?? I want more!

And that the best abilities of many professions are not
realized until very high levels . .
Adventurers turning into flying dragons and engineers turning
themsleves into slayerdroids and all this great stuff.
It's hard to afford the IP for tradeskills until very high levels
and only higher level stuff is really worth building.

I've used NanoNanny to design whole implant sets for
characters ill probably never actually have the time to
develop .. all because of some narrow-minded notion
that as soon as every player gets their first toon to 200
they'll cancel their account. This makes the cost of experiments
very harsh if they prove unviable.. and only encourages
mindless templates and more complaining.

Nevermind the fact that at 200 there is still a War to be fought.

Stop counting and start creating CHARACTERS

[______________Xombie]

I'm already getting burned out. I'm tired of the turn-based combat, even in groups (and I hate grouping now, too, since it just serves to get me killed more often). And the problem is... there's nothing BUT combat.
The tradeskills aren't worth ANYTHING until high levels, and the only way to make money is by going through missions to perform combat. every single mission type is the same: kill everything. then there's occasionally a variable where you do something with an object.
And none of it is in combat that I can control. It's boring. I've played almost every class, and all to simply do the same thing: combat. If i wanted a combat simulator, i'd get something that actually simulates it. But as it stands, AO is the equivlent of taking out hordes of the same skeleton throughout the entire campaign of Baulder's Gate. I don't see how they expect to hold interest, when everything good about the game isn't even FINISHED yet. With Neocron coming up (a TRUE cyberpunk MMORPG, with combat i can take PART IN), Reakktor has implemented features into the beta that Funcom is still CONSIDERING doing for AO. I find it hard to think that this will hold my interest when I could be playing that game.

[______________Xombie]

And that the best abilities of many professions are not
realized until very high levels . .
Adventurers turning into flying dragons and engineers turning
themsleves into slayerdroids and all this great stuff.
It's hard to afford the IP for tradeskills until very high levels
and only higher level stuff is really worth building

Yes, but where is the fun in being low level? What is the point in having 200 levels if you'll just get bored and quit before you can have fun? It's as if the game rewards power leveling.

[_____________Cloudeh]

Ughnn..

I have College From monday to friday.
I work Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays.

I play ALOT, about...hmm.. 10hours a night.

I have been for the past 5 years, dont say I have no life, Just because gaming makes me happy and clubbing doesnt does not mean I have no life (by the way =)

But, LEVEL TO FAST?!?! WTFHELL!?

I have leveled like, ONCE in 6 days now, not because i takes that long, becuase I donthunt as often ooooooor, I do hunt but teams get nowhere......

And leveling gets harder and harded, made some new chars, level in a few minutes alone.

All Im saying is, if you dont like the game, shut up and leave.

If you want it fixied, then......uh no..... leveling is fine.
Earnin money is HARD for me, I have more going out than i have coming in so , please !

[____________Slivicon]

There are also a large number of people who would enjoy top level. I used to play another mmorpg where there were all kinds of people who were at the top level, but you would see them around all the time. I'm not really sure what they are doing, but they were always there.

Perhaps its the socializing, I dont know, but there is a large number of people who just enjoy sitting at the top level and doing whatever it is that they do

[______________Scorus]

While I hate to ask the CS people to come out of the hole they have been hiding in since patchday (or is that since launch?), a suggestion:

You have several players here who often disagree with each other saying what is needed in the game to give it the kind of longevity that you originally visualized (though I'm sure you originally visualized most of the stuff that we are talking about would be implemented at launch). How about making this sticky so people can see it and continue to add their ideas on what will allow this game to continue past the next few months, by which time most everyone will be sick of xeroxed missions, hunting and not being included in the storyline unless they happen to be on during a massive GM event.

The main things I see here are: we want more to do than leveling, we want ways to make money other than missions, we want missions to become less rote, and we want an in-game, active storyline!

Scorus

[Thyrra]

i just went to the Reet Retreat tonight for the first time. wish i had gone there bofere. it was great.

making missions like that would make a lot of people happy, or at least be quiet, about missions for a while. the current mission structure is fine at first, but gets really tiring after 500, probably less.

in AC most ppl spent a lot of time killing logians for lvling. i would do that as a job, and adventure and do quests as a diversion.

we have hunting in know hunting grounds here. its not as bad as the lugians in AC, but its heading in that direction. people complained that ppl camping the one mob was bad, they did not mean that they wanted to hunt a whole zone to get enough xp to lvl up.

right now we have two ways to get xp: hunting and missions. hunting is by far the more efficient method to get xp fast.

we have one viable way to make money: missions. missions get really really boring quickly. the economy requires that we get all the money we can because we outlvl our equipment so quickly. missions are paying less these days than they used to. we need to do more missions than before. more boredom.

make missions more fun and interesting. fix the economy. many ppl have high lvl chars feeding their low lvl chars cash because the cost for equipment is crazy.

the game mechanics lead us to get the best equipment we can get our grubby hands on because mobs keep getting harder. mobs keep getting harder to make the game more challenging to the powerlvlrs. the casual gamers get hurt by this.

FC needs to decide who their target audiance is.
if it is the powergamers then things are going well, keep the direction u are haded in.
if the target audiance is the casual gamer, then changes are needed. the game has become too skewed toward the needs of powergamers. these ppl are going to do their best to push the limits of the game. its ok. they will leave soon enough. they will hit lvl 200 a few times and get tired of it. the casual gamers have the potential to stay for a really long time. if the get a game that offers entertainment and a sense of accomplishment and variety, casual gamers can play for a very long time.

i got bored with this game early on. its all about fighting right now. the only reason i'm still here is the social portion of the game. the great people i have met in my guild are the driving force that keeps me here.

if the mobs are tones down, all classes should be able to solo. if all classes are able to solo, ppl will be happier. if all classes have something that makes them unique and an asset to others, socialization will be encouraged. people that socialize and enjoy their time playing are likely to keep coming back.

the only viable way to improve your character in AO so far has been through fighting and missions. all classes have had to be combat classes. give us other options. we don't need every class to be able to teleport. we don't need every class to be able to tank 10 reds at once.

we need enough variety in the game to make ppl feel like they have choices and can make it by in gamelife. give each class something that makes it a valueable asset in a team. when u get turned down from teams, it makes u feel bad. it makes u less likely to want to keep playing.

i helped out a lower lvl friend recently witha noob MA char and i felt really useful. i helped keep us alive. i felt like an integral part of the team. we need more of that.

give fixers nanos that not only bring them back to the grid, but that let them take teams to far off locations. they will be sought after in teams.

give an agent the ability to change affiliation. i sure would have loved an agent who could have made me appear to be OT before the amnesty, and after. this way i could get to missions in OT territory without fear of the guards. this would make them sought after in teams.

give crats a way to effectively tone mobs down when they are getting rushed by a bunch of mobs. i would love to have someone who can keep tose 3-6 mobs in the first mission rooms off me. this would make them sought after in teams.

give adventurers something useful. those people are suffering. tone down the multi wield requirements or give them buffs to make up for it. pistols are underpowered by the nature of the ac system. why make weak weapons so much harder to use effectively? i recall that everyone had FAs in the beginning. those weren't so good as ql went up, and they are almost gone from the game. help adventurers out now. i feel bad for them.

give traders a way to get into the logistics system and work some magic. if a trader could do my shopping and save me a bunch of cash, i would be looking for them all the time. traders ( by the nature of the title ) are/should be a profession for people who want to be merchants and other things like that. if they can save u a lot of cash when dealing with shop terms, they will be sought after by everyone. they might not mind it so much if u nerf their buffs this way.

--- [don't pay attention ]
enfs are terribly gimped right now. we can't heal well. we can't teleport. we can't run well. we don't do enough damage. we don't have enough nanos. our nanos are broken. we don't have enough weapons to choose from. challenger locks your skills long after it ceases to function. ungimp/unnerf enfs. oh, we should also get green ranged weapons. what kind of tough guys doesn't carrya gun too? its nuts not to, when the other guy can cap u long before u can reach him with a stick.
---[/don't pay attention]

i hope i stayed on track here. if not i'm sorry. if i did, wow.

[alphane]

I disagree with someone who said previously that hunt was the best way to lvl fast. did u ever do team mission with 75-80 % difficulty and a full team ? i'm lvl 52 agent and last time i took 1,5 lvl in one hour, 140 k xps. u dont have to find and wait for mobs or spawn , they're alreday there and u just have to kill them and i can ensure u it can be fast and not so difficult (past the usual three dark red mobs at the beginning of mission).
About AO longevity i 'm quite sure funcom will pay their past errors and its sad because they deserve to go further and still for a long time. but online games are poping up here and there with all the experiment that funcom cumulate since one year. its the first real amazing and beautiful online game with a unique atmosphere but with a lot of youth defaults.. if there is not soon a real ingame story with real interaction possibilites this game will die and will see all players move to other new online games.

[_____________Kodiene]

Originally posted by Scorus
While I hate to ask the CS people to come out of the hole they have been hiding in since patchday (or is that since launch?), a suggestion:

You have several players here who often disagree with each other saying what is needed in the game to give it the kind of longevity that you originally visualized (though I'm sure you originally visualized most of the stuff that we are talking about would be implemented at launch). How about making this sticky so people can see it and continue to add their ideas on what will allow this game to continue past the next few months, by which time most everyone will be sick of xeroxed missions, hunting and not being included in the storyline unless they happen to be on during a massive GM event.

The main things I see here are: we want more to do than leveling, we want ways to make money other than missions, we want missions to become less rote, and we want an in-game, active storyline!

Scorus

yup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[_______________Orion]

You see these same topics in all MMORPGS regarding the rate of leveling. IN EQ the casual player is is screwed while AO is more accomodating.

Too rapid leveling effects the people who play too much. Yes, I know we prefer not to judge others, yet there are empirical truths such as clinical addiction--ask yourself if you're addicted to MMORPGS. If you're honest enough to admit it that you are, then don't request that your dysfunctional desires shape the development of AO. These games are intended to entertain as a diversion from RL--they are not meant to supplant RL.

It is not healthy to live your RL in a MMORPG. The companies that make these games don't care if you're sick--they're like the tobacco companies that feed an addiction. I know that if you're addicted you're saying screw you and the horse you rode in on. But hardly anybody in these communities ever says maybe too much fantasy warps reality. Don't forget that when all is said and done, that if you waste too much time in a MMORPG you may never be able to get it back--that just may be your life that you're throwing away . Well I'll go fu*k off now and be flamed.

[Seraphim]

What crap is this post, what a lie! AC is the game of powerlevling, i know friends who got to level 30 in few days, myself i gain a lvl 54 char in about 2 month play ( in AO this corresponds to 100+ char), and remember i didnt play alot, there is power gamers in AC but much harder to achieve the info and one thing more, its NOT team oriented, u powerlevel solo best. I agree that it was something special over AC, but dont come and say people dont powerlevel at that place, sigh ....

Remember anything about Ac, twinking? O my god, wherent the char twinked or not? I do know one thing u seem to forgot, u dont see the high level char alot since they had their save points in areas not achievable for lower players. You simply didnt see them so i aint surprised. In this case AO is much better, people are more gathered and it happen alot more stuff than it did on AC.

Just a smaller reaction....