THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS, THIS GUIDE IS NOT YET COMPLETED
Well, here you are. Your playing Anarchy Online (AO) and your daunted by the amount of information that there is and the amount of skills you need to learn. Theres no doubt about it, Anarchy Online is a complex game at first and it has a VERY steep learning curve compared to other online games. I know that when I first played this game many years ago, I was very confused about the mechanics of this game and it took me a long time to get the hang of it. Once you understand the way Anarchy Online works, it becomes a completely different experience to any other MMORPG on the market, AO is unique. The purpose of this guide is to try and explain the basics of AO to new players as well as touch on some less obvious commands and details that even more experienced older players may be unaware of. Theres a lot of information to cover and its my suggestion that you learn a section of it, apply it to your characters ingame until you completely understand it and then move on until you have read everything there is to read.
To start with, Anarchy Online is generally split into 2 major areas and these are the Shadowlands (Abbreviated as SL) and Rubi-Ka (Abbreviated as RK). For new players that have a free account only the RK areas will be available to you, you must have the SL expansion to go anywhere in SL. As such, the first section of this guide will be limited to information about RK.
DEFINITIONS
Hotbar - Your Hotbar is a little window that can be displayed vertically or horizontally that contains slots for 10 "slides" each with space for 10 actions. This means that you can have up to 100 actions in a single Hotbar. These actions can be almost anything, whether they be an ingame chat message, a nanoprogram, a script, an attack action, a sit action, a special attack action and a few others. In order to assign actions to your hotbar, simply left click the action from your control window (CTRL + 2) or wherever else it is and drag it onto the hotbar in the slot you want it in. It is possible to have a maximum of 10 Hotbars on screen at any given time allowing for a total of 1000 shortcut actions. You can choose the number of Hotbars you want to have visible on your screen by pushing F10 ---> GUI ---> Misc and moving the slider thats named "Number of hotkey bars"
Quality Level - This is definetly a unique system in Anarchy that I have never seen in any other game. The Quality Level (QL) of an item is basically how good a 'version' of a specific item is. Its a little hard to explain but it makes perfect sense. For example, theres an item called a First Aid kit and when you use it on yourself it heals you. The amount that the kit heals you is dependant on the QL of that specific kit. You can check the QL of an item by holding Shift and Left clicking it. The same applies to weapons, you may have 2 of the same weapon but one of them may be QL 20 while the other may be QL 40. The QL 40 weapon will do more damage than the QL 20 one as it is a higher Quality Level. Be aware however that as the QL of an item increases, so does the requirement to use that item.
Whompa - A Whompa is sort of like a portal from 1 location to another except it doesn't look like a portal at all. A whompa looks like this. It is basically a doorway that allows you to teleport from one location to another quickly. The location that a Whompa takes you to is shown by the Sign on the doorway (in the example picture that location is Wailing Wastes). There are mutliple Whompas throughout the game and they are generally located in major cities.
The Grid - The Grid is an alternative means of travel other than Whompas and normal running. The Grid has access to some locations that you cannot get to via Whompas however you require a certain level of Computer Literacy (CL) to access The Grid. Depending on which Grid exit you take, depends how much CL you need to take that exit. The Grid is split into 3 different floors, the top floor requires the most CL to use while the 1st floor requires the least. Here is a list of the locations and their respective CL requirement:
FLOOR 1
EMERGANCY EXIT - 0
ORGANIZATION EXIT - 0
OMNI-1 TRADE - 76
OLD ATHEN - 81
TIR - 81
NEWLAND - 91
FLOOR 2 - 101
OMNI ENTERTAINMENT - 76
2HO - 81
MEETMEDERE - 91
ROME (Red) - 91
GALWAY - 101
HARRY'S - 121
LUSH HILLS - 121
WEST ATHEN - 131
CLON**** - 151
4 HOLES - 181
BROKEN SHORES - 251
FLOOR 3 - 201
OMNI-1 HQ - 151
CAMELOT (AVALON) - 451
SENTINALS (MORT) - 461
CONTROLS
W/Arrow Up - Move your character forwards.
A/Arrow Left - Turn left.
S/Arrow Down - Move your character backwards.
D/Arrow Right - Turn Right.
Z - Strafe Left.
C - Strafe Right.
X - Sit down and Stand Up.
SPACEBAR - Jump.
Q - Begin and End Attack.
T - Open an information window about what you have currently targeted.
Shift + Left Click - Opens an information window about whatever item or action you click on.
BACKSPACE - Toggle between Running and Walking.
Enter - Begin chat and send your message.
Page Up - Scroll your chat up a certain amount.
Page Down - Scroll your chat down a certain amount.
Esc - End chat, Cancel casting a Nanoprogram, Close certain windows.
Tab - Target nearby enemies.
Ctrl + Tab - Target nearby friendlies.
F1 - Target yourself.
F2,F3,F4,F5,F6 - Targets the person in your team in order from top to bottom (so F4 will target the 4th person from the top of your team window).
Shift + F1,F2,F3 - Targets your pets.
F10 - Opens and Closes your Preferences window (where you can change graphical settings, view distance, fade % and a lot of other things).
1,2,3,4...0 - Execute whatever you have assigned to 1,2,3,4...0 in your active Hotbar.
Shift + 1,2,3,4...0 - Switch to the corrosponding Hotbar number.
Alt + 1,2,3,4...0 - Activate the corrosponding Hotbar number.
Shift + R - Will initiate sending a tell to the previous person to send YOU a tell.
Ctrl + 1,2,3,4...0 - Opens windows such as Equipment, Missions, Stats etc.
Numpad 0 (with Numlock ON) - Continuously run forward.
Ctrl + Alt + F - Show your Frames Per Second (FPS).
Shift + F - Opens and closes your Looking For Team (LFT) window.
Ctrl + Shift + R - Open and close your Raid Interface (RI) window.
Ctrl + Shift + F7 - Opens and Closes a special window with ingame chat commands and system values (DO NOT TOUCH UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!).
Shift + \ - Opens and Closes your Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Shift + C - Open and Close your Chat Configuration window (This is where you create/delete/copy chat windows).
Alt + F4 - Logs you out of the game, if you push it twice within 3 seconds it will instantly log you out.
Ctrl + F10 - Logs you out of the game and takes you to the AO Launcher.
H - Begin and end Sneaking.
+ - Zoom your camera in.
- - Zoom your camera out.
Y - Opens and Closes your Hotbar(s)
I - Opens and Closes your Inventory.
P - Opens and Closes your Large Map.
U - Opens and Closes your Skills Window.
K - Shortcut key for Dimach Special.
O - Shortcut key for Aimed Shot Special.
N - Shortcut key for Fast Attack Special.
J - Shortcut key for Sneak Attack Special.
B - Shortcut key for Brawl Special.
M - Shortcut key for Burst Special.
, - Shortcut key for Full Auto Special.
. - Shortcut key for Bow Special Attack Special.
L - Shortcut key for Fling Shot Special.
V - Shortcut key to Reload your weapon.
SHADOWLANDS, ALIEN INVASION AND LOST EDEN SPECIFIC CONTROLS:
Shift + P - Opens and Closes your Perk window. SL
R - Opens and Closes your Research window. LE
Shift + O - If R doesnt open your Research window (dont know why this happens), Shift + O will.
USEFUL INGAME COMMANDS
/cc addbuddy <name> - Add someone to your friends list.
/cc rembuddy <name> - Remove someone from your friends list.
/cc rembuddy ? - Removes everyone from your Recent Messages list.
/open pet - Opens a window to control Pets.
/camp - Logs you out of the game.
/tell helpbot !calc <equation> - Ingame Calculator
/tell helpbot !whois <name> - Find information about someone (their level, profession, guild etc).
/tell helpbot !whoisall <name> - Find information about someone on each dimension.
/tell itemsbot <#> <item name> - Search for an item. The # you put in determines the QL of the item your searching.
/petition - Call an ARK (Advisor of Rubi-Ka) or GM (Game Master) to gain assitance from volunteer players and Funcom employees (be advised that FC's Customer Service is the worst service you will probably ever encounter in your natural lifetime).
/follow - Follows the person you have targeted.
/assist - Targets the enemy that your target is fighting.
/afk - Set your character as Away From Keyboard (AFK).
/list <paramater> - Lists people with a specific characteristic. For example, /list soldier will list all soldiers in the zone you are in.
/anon - Do not have your character show up when other people type /list.
/born - Shows the date that your character was created.
/played - Displays the length of time your character has been online since creation.
/duel - Send a duel request to your target.
/ignore <name> - Ignores a player. This means you cannot see anything they type and you will not be able to open trade window with them.
/lft <message> - Puts you on the looking for team list with a description.
/o <message> - Speaks in guild chat.
/t <message> - Speaks in team chat.
/r <message> - Sends message to the person who last sent you a tell.
/<space> - Sends message in vicinity.
/v - Sends message in vicinity.
/s <message> - Shouts out a message
/g "Groupname" - Sends message to a specific group.
/text <message> - Displays text in YOUR chat window only.
SHADOWLANDS, ALIEN INVASION AND LOST EDEN SPECIFIC COMMANDS:
/open faction - Opens up your Faction window. SL
/raid locks - Displays the remaining timer until you are no longer locked out of specific raid areas. AI
Yeah there are a lot of commands and controls to remember, but over time as you use them, they become completely natural.