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Thread: Anarchy Online Information Guide (New and Old players)

  1. #1

    Anarchy Online Information Guide (New and Old players)

    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.
    Last edited by Shiekah; Mar 28th, 2009 at 08:37:42.

  2. #2
    CHAT WINDOWS

    Normal or Borderless
    Opening the Chat Configuration window with Shift + C gives you a wide array of options. This is where you customize all of your chat windows. When right clicking a window in the list there is an option of "style" and you can choose between Normal and Borderless. The main difference between these 2 is that with Normal you can 'stack up' windows together and you switch between them by clicking the tabs on the top of the chat window. You can also move your chat windows while they are in Normal mode. With Borderless, you cannot move or resize your windows but they appear more clean and less clutter.

    Logging Messages
    By right clicking a chat window you have the option to turn on or off "Log messages". Basically what this option does is it allows you to keep a record of everything that has been said in that chat window since you started logging messages. This log continues on even after you have logged out of the game. To view the entire log list, right click the window and click "Show log window". Be advised that all logged text is stored on your computer in your Anarchy folder so if you have a window logging a lot of text, your Anarchy Folder will grow in size over time. You can clear the log window by showing the log window and clicking "Clear" in the bottom right hand corner.

    Misc Chat Info
    By right clicking your chat window (not in the Shift + C menu) there are some extra options here that are not in the config menu.

    Right click a window --> Visual --> Transparency - In this option there are 2 bars, the top bar is an indication of how transparent the chat window is when you are NOT typing in it. The 2nd bar is how transparent the window is when you ARE typing in it.
    Right click a window --> Visual --> Show timestamps - With this option enabled, you will see the time that messages in that window were sent.
    Right click a window --> Visual --> Disable Text Input - Make it impossible to type messages in this window.
    Right click a window --> Visual --> Autohide Input Bar - Having this enabled means that the little chat bar where you type in only appears when your actually typing and using the window. Otherwise it is hidden.
    Right click a window ---> Visual ---> Timeout Messages - Over a specific length of time (that you set in the F10 menu) chat will fade away.

    Thats all for right clicking the windows themselves, the rest is pretty obvious. There are however afew extra options that can only be changed through a different method. If you open up your friends list (Ctrl + 7) you will see a section dedicated to your chat windows. If you right click the chat windows here you will get a few extra options that are nowhere else.

    Enable clickthrough - This option means that clicking the window will not activate it but instead will click through it. To click the window itself, hold ALT and then left click.
    Deactivate on Send - With this option off when you send a message, you will not have to push Enter again in order to start typing.
    "Default Window" - lets say you have 2 chat windows. Chat window A and chat window B. If Chat window A has Default Window enabled then when you send a message in chat window B, the next time you push enter to start typing, it will type in Chat window A. Only 1 window can have the "Default Window" option enabled.

    SKILLS

    This is a very important section as it directly results on how powerful and strong your character is and can become. Skills are everything in this game. You can be 220 (the highest level) but if you dont increase your skills, you will be pretty much just as powerful as a level 1. Almost EVERYTHING that makes your character better is a result of the skills that you choose to increase. There are a total of 75 skills in this game and by level 220 you will NOT be able to maximise every skill so distributing your skills intelligently is very important. You increase your skills through the use of Improvement Points (IP). IP are gained each time you Level your character up. The amount of IP you get per level is dependant on your Title Level (TL) and they are as follows.

    Improvement Points and Title Levels:
    Level 1-14 (Title Level 1) = 4000 IP Per Level
    Level 15-49 (Title Level 2) = 10 000 IP Per Level
    Level 50-199 (Title Level 3) = 20 000 IP Per Level
    Level 100-149 (Title Level 4) = 40 000 IP Per Level
    Level 150-189 (Title Level 5) = 80 000 IP Per Level
    Level 190-204 (Title Level 6) = 150 000 IP Per Level
    Level 205-220 (Title Level 7) = 500 000 IP Per Level


    Although you do get more IP the higher level you get, your skills will also require more IP to increase the higher they are. There a certain points towards the end of your TL where you will be unable to increase your skills until you reach your new TL. Onto the importance of Base Abilities! 6 of the 75 skills are called "Base Abilities" and they are the most important of all skills and I will explain why. The 6 Base Abilities are as follows:

    Base Abilities:
    Strength
    Stamina
    Sense
    Agility
    Intelligence
    Psychic


    Now I know a lot of you have probably seen these skills (or similar named ones) before in other games however in Anarchy Online these skills work a little bit differently. Every Single one of the remaining 69 skills that are not part of the 6 Base Abilities are dependant on these 6 skills. What do I mean by that? Well what I mean is that if you increase all 6 base abilities, all 69 other skills will also increase. The ratio of increase from base abilities to normal skills is not 1:1 instead it works like this. Lets take a look at Computer Literacy for example. When checking Computer Literacy ingame by clicking on it in the skills window it says this:

    Dependencies: Intelligence 100%.

    This means that Computer Literacy will be increased if you increase Intelligence. Increasing any other of the 5 Base Abilities will not effect your Computer Literacy whatsoever. The way to calculate how much Comp Lit will be increased by increasing Intelligence a certain amount is calculated like this:

    (Intelligence Increase)/4 = Comp Lit Increase.

    So if you buff your Intelligence by 40, your Computer Literacy will increase by 10. If you buff your Intelligence by 8, your Computer Literacy will increase by 2. Simple!

    Lets try another example. When checking Run Speed in the skills window it says this:

    Dependencies: Agility 40%, Stamina 40%, Strength 20%.

    The way something like this would be calculated is like this:

    (Agility Increase x 0.4 + Stamina Increase x 0.4 + Strengh Increase x 0.2)/4

    Ok it looks a little bit confusing but it makes perfect sense. Lets say you increase your Agility by 15, your Stamina by 26 and your Strength by 12. That would be (15 x 0.4 + 26 x 0.4 + 12 x 0.2)/4 = (6 + 10.4 + 2.4)/4 = 18.8/4 = 4.7. Values like this do not round up, they always take the Integer of the number so in this case your Run Speed would be increased by 4.

    Well that wraps up everything about how Base Abilities work in relation to increasing other skills. Base Abilities themselves are useful to equip certain items as well, such as Armor/Rings/Cloaks and Implants as well as other things. You will also notice when looking at your Skills Window that each skill appears as a different colour. Some skills appear Dark Blue, Others appear Blue, Others appear Light Blue whilst some appear Green. These colours are an indication of how much IP it will cost to increase those skills. Dark Blue skills require the most IP, Blue require alot of IP, Light Blue requires a fair amount and Green requires little IP. The skills colours are determined by your profession. Nano-Technicians for example primarily use Nanoskills and as such their Nanoskills are all green, while an Enforcer which is more of a brute force profession has dark blue nanoskills. While your skills are dependant on which Profession you have chosen, your Base Abilities are completely dependant on your Breed (Atrox/Solitus/Opifex/Nanomage) and NOT your profession.

    For more information regarding skills, visit this page.
    Last edited by Shiekah; Mar 31st, 2009 at 03:21:47.

  3. #3
    Shift-F1,F2,F3 : target your pet.

  4. #4
    Ctrl + F10 - Logs you out of the game, and re-opens the launcher.
    Tools: AOCrafter | AOcrayon | GUISelect | WebCrafter

    - Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

  5. #5
    Cool thanks, didnt know about shift + F keys (since i dont play pet profs) and I used to know ctrl + F10 but I forgot about it. Thanks for the input! I plan on reposting this guide once its completed so that the whole guide isnt broken up by other peoples replies but for now, feel free to post with whatever controls/commands etc that I may have missed.

  6. #6
    Haven't seen any obvious errors, though i must say the guide looks very good and informative right now, good work.
    Rimor Server
    Robotgubben lvl 173/14/29 engineer

  7. #7

  8. #8
    -add how to get a custom map?, even if its just changing to dovves, i couldnt imagine using that horrible standard one.

    - add a peice on equip, post a whole weapon/armor/nanocrystal reference and explain what each stat/requirement etc is


    - overequipping

    -duels/pvp

    - mission terminals

    -gms terminals/ai cities/shops



    not sure what scope your guide is going to cover, but thats some i quickly thought of
    This was what I was wearing. Tell me I asked for it

    Quote Originally Posted by Marinegent View Post
    Soldier reflects just flat out need to be much stronger all the time (70%~ at level 220 at all times...)
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowgod View Post
    the day our pets last forever, like yours, is the day your reqs will be lowered.
    Quote Originally Posted by Obtena View Post
    To be fair, you are lucky the mods are as forgiving as they are.
    Quote Originally Posted by Obtena View Post
    your an idiot



  9. #9

  10. #10
    What Debater said. Excellent work so far.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by MassDebater View Post
    -add how to get a custom map?, even if its just changing to dovves, i couldnt imagine using that horrible standard one.

    - add a peice on equip, post a whole weapon/armor/nanocrystal reference and explain what each stat/requirement etc is


    - overequipping

    -duels/pvp

    - mission terminals

    -gms terminals/ai cities/shops



    not sure what scope your guide is going to cover, but thats some i quickly thought of
    Yep, I plan on adding all these kind of things into it. I've been pretty busy recently and I just recently caught a cold so this has been on hold for a while. I'll try to pick up from where I left off as soon as I can.

  12. #12
    Unfortunately Funcom decided to ban my account and so this guide will never be completed ;( Wanna help it get completed? send support@funcom.com an email and tell them to unban me
    Last edited by Shiekah; May 15th, 2009 at 09:52:54.

  13. #13

  14. #14
    The guide looks good so far. What for did you get banned?

  15. #15
    Leveling too fast apparantly. Seriously, no joke.

  16. #16
    How can you get banned for leveling too fast? And who exactly defines what is "too fast"? I mean leveling speed is a personal preference. Some peoples gain 30 levels a day, others 2 levels a month.

  17. #17
    I completely agree with you. I asked funcom the same question and instead of admitting they made a mistake, they have chosen to ignore me.

  18. #18
    Unfortunately these things cannot and will not be resolved through the forums. Inquiries regarding your account should be directed to account@anarchy-online.com .
    Guardian Creacal
    Public Forums Moderator
    Communications Team
    Operations Department
    Advisors of Rubi-Ka
    Forums Social Guidelines

    Muffins are awesome.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiekah View Post
    I completely agree with you. I asked funcom the same question and instead of admitting they made a mistake, they have chosen to ignore me.
    Quote Originally Posted by Creacal View Post
    Unfortunately these things cannot and will not be resolved through the forums. Inquiries regarding your account should be directed to account@anarchy-online.com .
    I'm assuming this implies that he did send an email?
    [[ RYUAHN | 220/21 Opifex Trader
    == Proud Member of Core ==
    [[ ALASTROPHE | 220/15 Solitus Martial-Artist

    Quote Originally Posted by Raggy View Post
    There is literally nothing wrong with {Shutdown Skills} in it's current incarnation. What should be being looked at is the reason why it's needed so much. E.g, the incredible amount of Alpha being thrown around and the fickleness of Evade profs.
    Quote Originally Posted by Cratertina View Post
    I walk in to BS... could not perk people... with 3704 AR and 300 AAD drain... NT facerolled me, shade instagibbed me, after a few minutes I just decided not gonna bother.

  20. #20
    I have sent quite a few emails yes

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