Anyone Remember when AO was still a game?

[edmaster3]

I remember the days of making teams off the lft, by asking people if they wanted to join for totw, rk mission, foremans, borgs, etc.
1. The days where thousands of froobs ran around helping paid toons, while other paid guys ignored them.
2. When in a rk mission it was, is that guy afk? we are loosing a lot of damage, maybe we should kick them. While now its, "220 puller have alt/ friends alt/ friend on afk" or "have pocket need afk alt in team."
3. It was "They hate me and here they come!!!" run to team, with train "lol we almost all died, next time map upgrades......" Now its "inf mish?", "Eveyone staying for a next one" inf mission "Eveyone staying for a next one"
We lost the ability to communicate.

What happened to the froobs when did they disappear? Even though they were slowly going down, it was that one decision that changed everything. When sl became $5 all of us ran to sub, finally it looked like ao cared about us.
But when they got into sl, it was like wtf is this. Sigh..... is this is what I payed for? I cant do anything myself, everything is so expensive.
"That's an RK weapon, you noob". "You wanna team with me, 2 mill per lvl." "We been pocketing kiting here first, get out of here or ill petition you for harassment"

When did we stop actually playing the game? Why did it seems like sl changed people into a different person. Why are so much 220 newbies (only been playing AO around 1-3 months) running around with an unearned sense of accomplishment.

Because this is in suggestions. Increase drop rates on everything, remove all dailies xp reward but keep the vp and ai ones and half the token rewards. Let lower lvl pocket bosses drop higher ql symbs or at least let symbs have a 100% drop rate.

[Stillian]

I remember the days of making teams off the lft, by asking people if they wanted to join for totw, rk mission, foremans, borgs, etc.
1. The days where thousands of froobs ran around helping paid toons, while other paid guys ignored them.
2. When in a rk mission it was, is that guy afk? we are loosing a lot of damage, maybe we should kick them. While now its, "220 puller have alt/ friends alt/ friend on afk" or "have pocket need afk alt in team."
3. It was "They hate me and here they come!!!" run to team, with train "lol we almost all died, next time map upgrades......" Now its "inf mish?", "Eveyone staying for a next one" inf mission "Eveyone staying for a next one"
We lost the ability to communicate.

What happened to the froobs when did they disappear? Even though they were slowly going down, it was that one decision that changed everything. When sl became $5 all of us ran to sub, finally it looked like ao cared about us.
But when they got into sl, it was like wtf is this. Sigh..... is this is what I payed for? I cant do anything myself, everything is so expensive.
"That's an RK weapon, you noob". "You wanna team with me, 2 mill per lvl." "We been pocketing kiting here first, get out of here or ill petition you for harassment"

When did we stop actually playing the game? Why did it seems like sl changed people into a different person. Why are so much 220 newbies (only been playing AO around 1-3 months) running around with an unearned sense of accomplishment.

Because this is in suggestions. Increase drop rates on everything, remove all dailies xp reward but keep the vp and ai ones and half the token rewards. Let lower lvl pocket bosses drop higher ql symbs or at least let symbs have a 100% drop rate.

You make me nostalgic, but it's not to be. Even when the game was 6 or 7 years old, when I levelled my first 220, everything was still an adventure. There was plenty of exploration and discovery. They may have made for really annoying signatures, but there were plenty of records to beat and server firsts to gain. There were lots of us, we were still exploring the game to an extent, and very few of us were massively rich and much too comfortable.

Now? Everything is found and mapped. Records and server firsts are few and far between. We're all rich, we're all comfortable, and I'm mega-odd for having just one 220. AO is still a game purely if you have people, good people, to enjoy it with when you play.

[Difs]

I just rolled a froob in the past couple of weeks and I'm having a blast.

[Aiken]

My God, it's full of Stillians!

get back in game you IRL-loving fewl!

[Stillian]

My God, it's full of Stillians!

get back in game you IRL-loving fewl!

I'll pop in this week sometime, if I can. Marriage ruins gaming time!!!

[Encyros]

Because this is in suggestions. Increase drop rates on everything, remove all dailies xp reward but keep the vp and ai ones and half the token rewards. Let lower lvl pocket bosses drop higher ql symbs or at least let symbs have a 100% drop rate.

AO has a 201-219 content problem. Unlike other MMOs, for the high-level chunk there doesn't exist any level-locked content. There are no 205, 210, or 215 dungeons with unique and desirable loot.

This is a chunk of the game that represents 70% of the XP gain from 1 to 220, yet has no interesting content to motivate anyone to stay at any particular level between 201 and 219.

It is entirely logical to do Inferno missions until 220, and experience the unlocked content at a later time. These facts won't change, as FC doesn't have the resources to make those changes.

Removing daily xp just means more people need to spend more time in Inf Mishes

[Stillian]

AO has a 201-219 content problem. Unlike other MMOs, for the high-level chunk there doesn't exist any level-locked content. There are no 205, 210, or 215 dungeons with unique and desirable loot.

This is a chunk of the game that represents 70% of the XP gain from 1 to 220, yet has no interesting content to motivate anyone to stay at any particular level between 201 and 219.

It is entirely logical to do Inferno missions until 220, and experience the unlocked content at a later time. These facts won't change, as FC doesn't have the resources to make those changes.

Removing daily xp just means more people need to spend more time in Inf Mishes

I confess I have spent a lot of time away from AO, so I may be missing something; I have found, since the population began to decline (etc etc litanty of woes etc) that 140-180(-ish) is also awful for that. Particularly as I missed the rush on Dark Ruins, found myself doing it solo on an Agent, which was frankly boring and slow as hell.

I spent 3 and a half years making my way to 220 on my Doctor, and it remains the only 220 I've ever had. I'm full of sympathy for your comment that there is too much haste to reach max level and then do stuff. However I would rather we made the best of a bad job and encouraged people to max out, certainly on non-specialist characters, even more. At least this way we will have a majority of the (remaining) population at the same point for content to focus on. I am thinking in particular of froobs; what was a fantastic and unique scheme is now neither of those things, and broadly speaking needs to catch up to everyone else to remain relevant and to keep the population together. There is only 20 levels of difference, but the majority of the content I want to do with my limited time is not content on which I can (or would) take froobs. That could do with changing, 10 years after the programme started!

[hokutonoken]

yap mainly farmages to get twinkages ...no real exploration these ages ^_=

[HelloWorld]

This is what happens in old games like AO. There are more veterans than anything, and they are not interested in leveling inefficiently. They want their new toons fast and to do so they skip a large majority of content in ways that new players are unable to. There is nothing new to discover in AO as it has simply been around too long.

You occasionally will see the legit ely heck team, or the random guy trying to do RK team missions, but the fact is that AO doesn't have nearly enough new players or people interested in nostalgic leveling to support it.

I am not advocating the ely->inf leeching leveling method I am only pointing out that veterans are going to level in the most efficient way available because they don't care to re-do the same content for the 15th time.

[ilengineeru]

All of my three accounts are being frozen and I am not renewing ATM. I haven't even played in a few months. I played on and off since 2005 and still am not very rich. Things are way too stupid expensive and content is hard for me to solo. It is also hard to find a team that actually wants to do content as opposed to power leveling AFK.

I think online gaming has reached a stagnation point as has AO. Unfortunately the mentality of gamers is to hit max level and then start doing content. To me that kind of thinking is backwards. Playing NWN 2 and that game appears to be all about the end game as well. Payday2 was pretty fun and it is fun from level 1 to max level. Rust looked promising but it is not really being developed. 7 days to die is good without a leveling system as of yet but does not really have a good player base. There is nothing out there including AO that appears to be worth playing.

So for me, for now it is good bye (paid) AO which is unfortunate but I really cannot support 3 paid accounts with such a rotten gaming environment. The inflated economy, LR selling, low drop rates, solo difficulity and the general malaise that has fallen on the game must be lifted before it is worth renewing the accounts. My AO career did begin as a Fr00b so maybe it will end as a Fr00b if nothing changes or improves.

[Alexander1992]

If Funcom really want to do something great they should open up a whole new "area" as such for both RK & SL.

For the RK side, you often see a struggle leveling from 90-150 -> Open up a new area in BS for instance, can be a large instance for team leveling and cap it to those under level 150 or just an open playfield for leveling. Boost the XP for missions and/or mob kills and let them drop decent armor/weapons that they can use at that level....

For SL side -> (Everyone is sick of kiting - IMO they should increase casting time on AOE nukes but it'll never happen.) A big struggle is 160-190 - 191-210 - 211-220. Unless you're doing a tonne of inf missions at any of those levels which you tend to be waiting on lft for ages unless org helps out.... create an area like suggested for RK -> Level appropriate weapons/armor drops, mobs, etc..... Surely it would not take too much time to develop this..... With the new engine coming up it would make amazing use of its true potential.

[Le-Quack]

well i miss the days before SL came, evryone was more or less balanced, it didnt excist a alpha that could instant kill you in less than 1 sec. it was loong nice fights in notumwars etc without perks..!

would be fun to see funcom make a brand new server with only notumwars acces. no perks or anything or the option at all to get perks. just a 100% old time rk server.

if they do that i make a froob to play and not to hold items and creds for my alts.

[Cratertina]

Agreed. When was the last time we played AO?
Yesterday, when I went medieval on Ado quest. With 150 MA solo style.

Comming up next pennumbra, also geeking out in pande clan garden hunting them bosses is fun.

Just play. For last year or so I go get my own lewt, ncus nanos, sl items, ai armor. Economy does not hurt me. Power leveling should be abolished.

[edmaster3]

I wonder how much people would truly be willing to sacrifice to get more people to enjoy ao.
No I will not ask you to give up your creds, or make them worth less.
But are you willing to give up some of the abilities of your low lvl twinks. So at max you are 50%-100% better than competent new people not 1000% plus better.
1. lvl lock ql100+ implants to lvl 75+
2. Lower the requirements (base abilities) for ql 50- implants
3. Nerf the capabilities of combined amours below ql 110 by at least half (from 11 to 5). Create a lvl locked 1-100 only combined clone Armour (adds 4 skills) that can be gained by doing an rk instanced quest like DR. For lvls, 30, 50 and 75.

Another way is have a lvl locked newbie area up till lvl 60. That you can leave but not return like newbie island. With no daily lvl reward missions.

The MAIN OBJECTIVE is to INTRODUCE people to the game let them have some FUN, TWINKING and PVPING and KILLING STUFF, WITHOUT anyone being SUPER OPED. Or basically doing all the damage in team.

Many of you dont realize it, but no one wants to play a game (its not fun) when everyone else is super powerful 1 hitting things you were happily taking 45 secs to kill. This is not a problem when you are 100+ but not at really low lvls.

At least let people enjoy all aspects (yes including pvp) of the game and learn something before you throw them into the harsh reality of AO

[Traderjill]

edmaster- I guess my answer is no.

I'm all for funcom improving the newbie experience by making it easier to obtain the items/gear they need to be competitive. I'm not, however, supportive of someone essentially removing the most unique aspect of the game.. twinking. I've played a lot of games and I've yet to find one that has the same ability/stat based equip system that we have in Anarchy Online. It is that reason that I have come back to the game time and time again.

If, all of a sudden, level 100 implants were locked to level 75.. I'd be annoyed and I wouldn't play the game or return back after breaks. There are many ways that funcom can improve the newbie experience without taking away from twinking. I won't bother with stating those options as they've all been said a zillion times before.

Just thumbs down for your suggestion.

[edmaster3]

edmaster- I guess my answer is no.

I'm all for funcom improving the newbie experience by making it easier to obtain the items/gear they need to be competitive. I'm not, however, supportive of someone essentially removing the most unique aspect of the game.. twinking. I've played a lot of games and I've yet to find one that has the same ability/stat based equip system that we have in Anarchy Online. It is that reason that I have come back to the game time and time again.

If, all of a sudden, level 100 implants were locked to level 75.. I'd be annoyed and I wouldn't play the game or return back after breaks. There are many ways that funcom can improve the newbie experience without taking away from twinking. I won't bother with stating those options as they've all been said a zillion times before.

Just thumbs down for your suggestion.

Not trying to kill twinking, but eventually AO wil have to make some hard decisions. The fact is that people can twink far beyond the acceptable levels (this is a fun thing).
Even normal twinking puts them at a lvl much higher than any competent newbie or group of them can compete with.
While people who do this find it fun to prey on newbies, it also kills population and pvp.

If newbie island were to extend up to lvl 60 with the option to leave anything you want, that would not make a big difference to vets would it? Let people twink with only lvl 60 alts and lets see how good they really are.

Competent lvl 25 newbie (did some research online, hardly understand wtf they are taking about) first pvp experience.

You tried to hit max but missed
Max hit you with 300 points of damage
Max hit you with 300 points of aimed shot (fling shot, fa, fast attack etc) damage
You tried to hit max but missed
You tried to hit max but missed
You tried to hit max but missed
You hit Max with 75 points of damage, critical hit (yeah got ya)
You tried to hit max but missed
You tried to hit max but missed
Max hit you with 300 points of damage

you died of weapon damage
damn.. "how did you do that" Max opt1 "Noob go back to playing wow" opt2 " a year of experience" opt3 "try to explain, they hear a foreign language" opt4 "a lot of items and creds they dont have"
rest of BS run from people, still die a lot. Opinion: Game very fun for them they will return to bs often.

While vets should have an advantage it should not be to big an advantage.

[Traderjill]

I understand the problem you're identifying what I disagree with is your proposed solution.

The problem you're referring to is really caused by two things: lack of understanding on how twinking works and lack of resources to get gear.

The first issue can easily be fixed by the game staff via ingame tutorial videos. The Secret World did it using the same technology (from a layman's view.. I could be wrong) that is used to display the GMI, Item Shop and Help Tickets/Support. I'm willing to bet that if they solicited players to do such a thing (after providing a general format) they could probably get most of the work done for free.

The second issue regarding gear.. well there's more threads with suggested solutions than I care to start quoting here.

My point is that there are ways to get newbies up to speed without making the hard choice of taking away from the one thing that makes AO unique in comparison to almost every MMO on the market. The quickest way to get the doors shut on the game is to start messing around with the ability for people to twink their non endgame toons. That's something that pretty much affects everyone (PvP and PvM) equally.

Now as for your suggestion regarding a 'locked to level 60..can't return once you leave' area you're just delaying the inevitable. Without proper education and gear they'll leave this area and run up against the exact same issue you're trying to combat. To be honest you may actually make things worse because if the area works as you think it will they'll be 10x shocked to see how truly gimp they are in comparison to everyone else when they were doing 'so well' in newbie world.

At some point, new players will have to learn how to play the game and they'll have to learn how to get gear. If they don't there are really only two options. 1. Pull out a credit card (which covers gear but not l2p). and 2. Play another game because they're going to fail at AO.

[edmaster3]

I understand the problem you're identifying what I disagree with is your proposed solution.

The problem you're referring to is really caused by two things: lack of understanding on how twinking works and lack of resources to get gear.

At some point, new players will have to learn how to play the game and they'll have to learn how to get gear. If they don't there are really only two options. 1. Pull out a credit card (which covers gear but not l2p). and 2. Play another game because they're going to fail at AO.

I dont disagree with you, with AO's learning curve it takes a long while to learn how to twink. That is not a problem. But yeah they really need to add some tutorials, although there really is a lot to add.

There is a very small possibility it could make things worst, although it is hard to imagine how things things can get worst than they are now.
In the short term it provides vets with a new twinking challenge with limited resources.
Its a concession to those who want a new clean server.
It would probably be the most populated area since it allows vets and others who populate it to help others learn the game. No one oped, pvp is somewhat balanced.
Ofc the area still has some amenities like rk missions, sub totw, stores and raid areas.
Maybe a raid instanced version of totw and foremans. and the sub, with gain-able loot. details pending.

It really cant get worst than it is now, were you literally cant get things yourself. Farming is frustrating and annoying. And just buying creds get you geared faster and is more fun than the empty lft of low lvls. Sl life was a shock in comparison to rk.

[lunarsolace]

I levelled my first 220, everything was still an adventure.

Holy Flying Chocolate Jelly Donuts! You ventured beyond TG?

ps I hope you are well J

[Artyomis]

I can admit 3 phases of AO that were the most exciting to me:
1. First months after SL release. Tons of new content, infinite recalculations of different setups due to appeared perks, new armors, weapons n stuff. Inferno dynaboss camp conquests.

2. First months after AI release. Again, new perks, armors and items. Playerbase is still new to AI, first combined AI pieces taken as great achievement on both, getting parts farmed and finding appropriate tradeskiller to actually combine them all

3. NW blob wars. 100+ vs 100+ damn long fights. 1 site assault could last whole 6 hours without even 50% of towers destroyed. CC backwarps due to overcrowded area was both annoying and exciting.