Seeking Mentors or a "mother alliance" for a newbie org.

[jorricane]

I've got no idea in first place how to use such a bot. I have not returned to be a member of a chat channel.

Using such a bot channel is just like using OOC or any other channel, and the normal bot functions such as "!items" and such you will learn over time.

I would like to know though, what else is an org than a chat channel of like-minded people? In fact, your newbie-friendly goal would actually probably work much better as a bot-utlilizing private channel, rather than a single-faction org.

The more I see your posts, the more it becomes apparent that we are on completely different wavelengths - I am willing to help you level and give advice, but your theme seems to be returning to more the lackadaisical, wander around until things happen way that AO, and MMOs in general were played 10 to 15 years ago.

In those days, groups and orgs just sort of happened, simply because there were no resources, no guides, and less encounter-based content in general. There were no bot based channels except org chat that crossed zone borders.

Now, I do find something about the "take it as it comes" playstyle appealing at times - it can be a nice break from actual levelling and twinking, but those days are never coming back - even with an influx of a million new players, they would play AO the way people play MMOs now - with goals based upon the resources available, not aimlessly wandering thru playfields and gaining XP incidentally.

There is nothing wrong with that approach in itself, but sadly, gaming has evolved away from it (notice I did not say "beyond"...a subjective judgement).

I am still always available for advice, help, etc., but I think we are too divergent in goals for much to be gained.

~Sauer

[Beornin]

I understand your goal, and think understand why you want to do things the way you describe it.

I'd still advise you to remember that AO is a mature game and most players who frequent the forums are veteran players. I don't think you will find any existing org where you'll meet people who'll jump at the chance to do some old lowbie content regularly. You might find someone who'll do a trip with you for the sake of nostalgia, but it will probably be on their schedule as any active AO playes has quite a few projects going.

If you want to join an existing org, you'll most likely have to get used to getting to know the org by using a chatbot for a bit, as orgs want to get to know people before recruiting.

If you want to create a noob-org full of new or returning players who are actively playing lower level chars daily and can do things together, that is something different. Personally I believe this is actually viable, as there appear to be no such org active atm, and you only need 5-10 active members to get a small community going. I do however believe your odds of succeeding would be greater if you chose omni or clan. This because few players leave noob island as neutral as the NPC's kind of push you towards chosing a side, and because being neutral means giving up on some lowbie prioritized convenience like a tokenboard.

What I'm trying to say is: Most noobs will start their chars long before they visit the forums, if they ever do. Most noobs will chose a side. You won't be able to convince noobs to reroll and go neutral to join an org.

[Aggro]

I will try see how far I can get on this road of mine while asking politely for advices. I have no need to be hand-held, but I do understand I would need some help once a while to achieve different things. If I were a newb, I would have quit on Newbie Island, that's for sure.

I don't believe I am not the only lost soul outthere, without other players in same position as I am. AO is by far the most elitistic MMO I ever played; which is also it's biggest enemy. Newbs wandering around having no clue what to do while the community hands over an invitation to a bot and a link then "here you go" is counterproductive. Have AO really become so über that every AO player have gotten the mentality "I have been able to get to 220 without any newbie org, so others better manage it too"; like veterans are treating newbs like they are begging for credits mentality? AO has changes, oh yes, but the player base mentality has change even more.

One of my friends who I try to get into the game, tried this game some years ago and gave up on newbie island. This is a person I rate above average able to get into MMO's.
If this person had been able to get past Newbie Island, I'm quite sure he's been there for a few minutes. I really used all my best convincing skills after we left Newbie Island together to get him to continue playing. Haven't heard a peep from him about wanting to play more, even with my guidance.

I read lots of complaining about AO is loosing members and is dying. When newbs are not catered, either by the game or by idealistic gamers themselves, that is the result. Not some discussion whether AO will die because of implementing gear inspection will be an option or not.

Nearly all my friends gave up AO because AO requires way too much from the player; it has no newbie community but instead a very elitistic community and steep learning curve.
I totally disagree that 'even with an influx of 1 million AO players, AO would be played like any other MMO'. Comparing AO to another MMO itself, is completely wrong in the first place. If there came 1 million newb AO players, 999.000 or even more would have quit on or right after Newbie Island as the situation is of AO now. The only ones returning today are old AO players who want to give it a new try, maybe many in my shoes, plays for some weeks, maybe a month or 2, then cancel their sub.
Not that AO can be compared to EVE Online, but even that (and WoW) have dedicated newbie organizations. But not AO.
My personal opinion would be that AO would gain alot from a community more newbie friendly. Blaming newbs for not being able to adapt into the game is pointing the finger at the absolutely wrong "problem".

Anyways. I will continue my solo adventure this time still, until I hopefully find me a spot where I can enjoy AO over time. The difference is that I will avoid farming Hecklers as much I can. Choosing side is not an option as I regret not staying neut from the day I understood the concept of the game back in 2001.


Just wish me luck. Seems like I need a ton of it :/

[Aggro]

You won't be able to convince noobs to reroll and go neutral to join an org.

Returning players would be the primarly aim for the org. They (hopefully) know what they are going to. I wish more could be interested in ding something for community of AO, especially since most neutral orgs are not into the Tower Wars.
I really find it puzzling that a game with such a steep learning curve as AO, doesn't have any sort of (neutral) newbie friendly organizations.

'Newb Adventurers' would be a catchy (though cheesy) name for the org.

I love FunCom and its MMO's, and I would have no problem dedicating time to help the community grow. Am I really the only one around here with a piece of altruism inside my heart?

[jorricane]

Blaming newbs for not being able to adapt into the game is pointing the finger at the absolutely wrong "problem".

You totally missed my point. I was simply saying that very, very few people I have met in ANY MMO in the last few years plays the way they used to. I am in fact blaming the average gamer for adapting to the newer playstyles that game designers are pushing.

In the old days of AO, or EQ, or AC, or whatever, people just went thru the gameworld and DID things. Explored dungeons, found dynas, and just played things as they came. There are still people who play that way - sadly, they are just out of their element in gaming communities that suffer from endgame myopia.

I took pains to say I don't necessarily approve of the way MMOs have changed. I'm not blaming people for not adapting, I just saying the expectations of of the general gamer now are very goal oriented, and you will be hard pressed to find people who still play like that.

I am NOT telling you to give up, I am 100% behind you and your goals. I just don't think I personally could go back to those days, and I don't see it working out as well as it could, unfortunately.

Best of luck!

[Aggro]

You totally missed my point. I was simply saying that very, very few people I have met in ANY MMO in the last few years plays the way they used to. I am in fact blaming the average gamer for adapting to the newer playstyles that game designers are pushing.

In the old days of AO, or EQ, or AC, or whatever, people just went thru the gameworld and DID things. Explored dungeons, found dynas, and just played things as they came. There are still people who play that way - sadly, they are just out of their element in gaming communities that suffer from endgame myopia.

I took pains to say I don't necessarily approve of the way MMOs have changed. I'm not blaming people for not adapting, I just saying the expectations of of the general gamer now are very goal oriented, and you will be hard pressed to find people who still play like that.

I am NOT telling you to give up, I am 100% behind you and your goals. I just don't think I personally could go back to those days, and I don't see it working out as well as it could, unfortunately.

Best of luck!

I see, just a bit of misunderstanding here then
I'm not a native English speaker, and I was frustrated that I could not come up with those words you just said.
Thanks for the support. I will head on down the road, alone or with someone at my side. Farming Hecklers ain't gaming in my eyes no matter how many people do that here. I need something meaningful to achieve my goal.
My mind was "locked" on getting to 220 asap when SL was released, and finally that obsession has left me. This time I will head out on an adventure, just like MMO's are meant to offer, even though it will take considerably longer time to get to 220.
I've got 1 year subscription. If I can't get to 220 this time, then I am done with this self torture and I fully admit I am not capable of reaching my desired goal on my premises.

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Encouraged by your reading, so I decided to join Union with my little MP, Makaber.
My stomach told me to not do it too hard, which have always been tempting me throughout all my life. I will listen to some reasonable advices this time. Thanks all!

I will though try keep this thread a bit alive, to get some suggestions and advices from you on the road of mine. I hope you don't mind. One day I might be 220 and be able to give you a helping hand myself, who knows?

[Beornin]

Edit: writing on an iPad during a meeting, so can't be bothered editing typos)

Some pointers about things to do as a levelling non-hecklering neut:
(I will have to refer to ao universe for locationinfo simply because this is the easiest way to explai it without writing all the info again.)

-Do your dailies. Ao universe - knowledge - daily missions

Daily missions give a variety of tasks through the levels, and give good xp reward. If you do 5 dailies every day you'd reach 220 in around 3-4 months purely on daily xp rewards. You don't have to do 5 a day of course, but each one you do moves you significantly forward.

At higher levels 200+ some dailies are a lot more popular than others, but by the time you get there you probably know that. Otherwise, ask.

- Do some of the Rk dungeons. Or do all. Ao universe - knowledge - classic AO - encounters guide

Use the list for info on where the dungeons are and what levels are appropriate. If you want to experience them yourself don't read the guides.

I'd recommend Condemned Subway, not much loot to speak of, but it's an oldschool AO area where everyone's been, and it has a good AO feeling to it. Vagabond cloak is nice enoughas lowbie, morphing memory is useful into the highlevels, ring of the nucleus basalis has it's use.

Temple of Three Winds is also a classic and has useful loot. Good odds to find other players to team with.

Crypt of Home drops useful and sellable items. You'll find highlevel players warped in to farm valuables.

Smugglers Den - popular for daily missions so you'll find others here.

For all the classic dungeons you might be able to find orgmates and others who will join you on an alt for nostalgiaruns.

- Do the shadowlands zone quests. AO universe - knowledge - shadowlands - quest guides. Use this page for infoon where to start quests, and do the quests without reading the guide. Read guide if you get stuck.

Many of the quests give both very good xp and rewards.

The Xan civilization quests from Scheol upwards give excellent xp and rewards, but some parts will be very hard if you do them at the level they're made for, and you'll need full team or highlevel help. These quesrs will take you all around the zones and give you some explorer-feeling.

..............................................

If you want to run around RK and SL exploring, do that but don't expect it to give much otherreward than the experience of exploring. The xp you'll get will move you forward, but at a bery slow pace, and random loot is rarely of any use. The exception is if you find and kill RK or SL bosses and get lucky drops.

Be aware however that more than half te time you'll find 220s camping bosses that drop valuable loot, and they will not go away and let you kill the boss just because you show up and are of an appropriate level for the mob. They will peobably team with you if you need the kill for a quest though.

You will also find many lower level characters with a lvl 220 following. This is a common way for people to level alts on a second account.

The use of 220s for farming and helping alts level is something you have to understand and accept if you want to go around the world having fun. If you cannot accept this you will just spend half your time being annoyed. The reason for doing content this way is that most of us have done the content "for real" not 1 or 2 times, but 10-50 times. As an example I've got around 400 days /played across my characters, which means 9600 hours ingame, and 75% of that time is spent doing content solo or in teams on sub lvl 200 chars, without highlevel support. People like me don't want to spend 3 hours getting a team and 2 hours doing something that can be done in 10 min, when it's been done 50 times before.

I still claim I'm not an elitist.

Good luck.

[Awikun]

Beornin gave you some very good advice.
All my Neutral characters are in "The Union" org so if it is the same Union that you joined just give me a shout when you see any of my characters (in signature) a shout and I ll help.

I always have some leveling alts (froob or paid) and I regularly spend 20-40 min on each of them to do dailies. Right now I have a leveling fixer froob around level 50 and new paid trader around level 10. I am usully online between 8pm and midnight (Central Europe time zone).

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I came up with an idea of making a "Newbie Island Org", where we farm some Alien Weapons, greet newcomers welcome and give them some general help & tips.
If we were say 20 players who were willing to give 1 hr playtime to this each day, not much effort would be required for newbies to get a good start and a much higher chance of staying.

Anyone who think this could be something worth trying to promote Anarchy Online thus hoping it's community will grow?

[Traderjill]

I came up with an idea of making a "Newbie Island Org", where we farm some Alien Weapons, greet newcomers welcome and give them some general help & tips.
If we were say 20 players who were willing to give 1 hr playtime to this each day, not much effort would be required for newbies to get a good start and a much higher chance of staying.

Anyone who think this could be something worth trying to promote Anarchy Online thus hoping it's community will grow?

It is a good idea. Years ago there were orgs that did this (I know mine did). I believe house of black star still recruits from noob island though it might not be more than just a timed spam script. Whenever I've made a new character and kept it neutral for more than a few minutes I've seen them spam helpful tips and recruiting info in OOC.

HoBS isn't the most 'powerful' org in terms of decked out endgame players but there are a lot of knowledgeable people there and they're very friendly. It is the first org I joined back in 2004 and I even returned to them, briefly, about 3 years ago because I needed a non-PvP org for my neutral toons. I'm a tad too particular and set in my ways to stay in that org for long (i.e. I don't pvp much but I got tired of leaving org everytime I wanted to attack someone in Bor) but it might be right up your alley. http://www.blackstaruo.com/news.php

On an unrelated note, I really wish you the best as you try to make your way through AO. If I were actively playing these days I'd be happy to work with you. I tend to like newbie projects though rarely have I seen any (in the past couple years) that actually worked out. I actually came out of hibernation a couple years ago because of a newbie project someone posted on the forums but the org leader turned out to be a tard and I lack the patience to deal with idiots in video games.

That being said, if you need anything resource wise, feel free to contact me on the forums. I don't have AO installed on my PC but I can put it back on. I have an unreal amount of money and items that I'll probably never use and an equal amount of game knowledge. I'm also happy to help with script generation, marketing/publicity and events/games if you want. I guess it all depends on how much attention you want brought to what you're trying to do.

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It is a good idea.

-Thanks!

That being said, if you need anything resource wise, feel free to contact me on the forums. I don't have AO installed on my PC but I can put it back on. I have an unreal amount of money and items that I'll probably never use and an equal amount of game knowledge. I'm also happy to help with script generation, marketing/publicity and events/games if you want. I guess it all depends on how much attention you want brought to what you're trying to do.

Thank you!
I've underlined what I need help with as I have no idea how to make scripts. If I could get some help me with scripts & marketing, and some outside help too as I can't be online 24-7, I'd be very thankful.
I will use my froob account which can be online while I play on my paid accounts, to promote and help newbs. Helping newbs where & when they need the most, would be extremely rewarding for myself as I have at least a partial altruistic soul

Anyone who are interested in helping me a bit on this? Farming them Alien Weapons I guess it's best with an Enforcer? Just as I know so I don't need go thorugh all them classes to find out which one is best to kill them Aliens on newbie Island.

-Aggro

[Gargle]

I was invited to the Unionbot, not invited into any org, with "here's the invite to the Unionbot, see if you like it." Then it was like BB, GL & HF.

I've got no idea in first place how to use such a bot. I have not returned to be a member of a chat channel. I have returned to find some friends, hopefully some dedicated ones who care about countering the dwindling population of AO.

I doesn't seem there's any dedicated newbie orgs left in AO. I will stay neutral, as that suits my playstyle and I have always been a "Neutral at heart" since AO was released.

So the best thing I could do, is start a newbie org (we have all been there), then try get some friends, around from different orgs who could give us some tips as I am not going to farm hecklers; I will learn how Shadowlands works this time, level with "soloing as purpose", then pass my knowledge on. Hopefully I will find members who are willing to do the same.

I think 'Old Fellows' would be a good name for such an Org, what you think

Sorry to hear that it happened that way. I'm sure you've read Phyxr's guide stickied in these forums?

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Sorry to hear that it happened that way. I'm sure you've read Phyxr's guide stickied in these forums?

Yes, read it several times and it's great! Downloaded some maps yesterday and had some runs in the dungeons in Crippler Cave where I soloed from level 45 to 60 in a blast

Heya! I just sent you a PM but I'm not sure if people read those. I subscribed to this game back in 2013 for 30 days. I ended up playing other games with friends after a week or so, but I'm back to give Anarchy Online a proper chance to see if it grows on me. So I'm wondering if you ended up starting the newbie guild? Or did you find a newbie friendly home? I'm Jackroth ingame and I just restarted because my Enforcer that I did back in 2013 had all sorts of weapon lines and nano skills that I don't think were meant to be used as an Enforcer.

Hi Jack!

I've sent you a reply. If you want to adventure with me ingame, leveling & such, I would be happy to have you on my side, teaching you the tricks so you (hopefully) get settled too.
The ingame toon I am playing atm is Makaber, feel free to contact me on him. I have a few other "needed" alts; I also need 1 Enforcer as a buffbot, and it would be nice to have a Crat too.


-Aggro