Anyone here ever played Anarchy Online?

[gwlech]

Just curious. I've got a well-established character on RK2...planning on popping back in there to see how things have changed since I last stepped foot in the Shadowlands.

[Dinfaroth]

I used to play AO. I was even addicted. ^^' I've been thinking about going back there after the new engine's out, but I'm not sure when this happens. I know they made some major changes - new expansion pack for highbies, mail system and stuff. I'm a lil lost in all this. They didn't nerf advies tho, so I can still come back and own.

I know it's harder and harder to stay f2p, there are almost no new free features. If you ever had a payed account they sometimes offer you a 30 days free to come back and check what's new.

[Eladiun]

Yes, it was my first MMO from just about start for 3 or so years.

[gwlech]

I liked AO for its complexity, and played it nonstop for 3.5 years. You really had to take time out to make sure that your characters were ready for the next phase of content. "twinking" was heavily important, and required a good deal of thinking and planning to execute. You simply would get to a point where you could not progress if you did not heavily twink, unless you found a group that would adopt you as a total pileon.

My biggest disappointment about that game though, is the promised new engine that never seemed to happen. In addition to this, when I left...almost all of the endgame content (cities, ai loot, certain dynas)"was "monopolized" by a handful of players who strong armed their way into power, often by ninjaing other people's stuff. (but hell, its anarchy right?) This is actually cool, but it made it to where a brand new player, with no good organization, was left completely in the dust in terms of having any chance at competing, so I think that heavily contributed to making the non ftp game a ghost town.

There was also an abundant lack of good currency sinks, and the economy became so inflated that vendor trash was nerfed to where you needed to be a very high level to ever farm any reasonable amount. So this in turn, resulted in a few people having more money than they knew what to do with, owning all access to the equivalent of "raid loot, and even many dyna spawn spots, which were camped almost 24/7, who had the gear and resources to ninja any kill someone else tried to make.

Oh, there was a way to make money if you were an incoming new player! If you were a lowbie, you pretty much had to resort to "cheating" by using clicksaver to farm twink gear for the rich guys, who basically paid whatever they felt like for it. While it was very much against the EULA, the arks did nothing about it afaik. In addition to the lowbie troubles, there was an abundance of new players begging for handouts in the cities.

I only mentioned that I have an "established" character there because honestly, if you don't, (it, at least was) a VERY bumpy road to try to get anywhere (don't know how this has changed). Just resurfacing all of this is making me regret even wanting to step foot in AO again, although, I suppose it definitely adds the "anarchy" to Anarchy Online.

[Dinfaroth]

I liked AO for its complexity, and played it nonstop for 3.5 years. You really had to take time out to make sure that your characters were ready for the next phase of content. "twinking" was heavily important, and required a good deal of thinking and planning to execute. You simply would get to a point where you could not progress if you did not heavily twink, unless you found a group that would adopt you as a total pileon.

Yeah that's what this game was about - twinking. I've spent 3 days twinking Doctor's Right Hand of Hope and Left Hand of Grace, not mentioning perk resets which I had alarm set for and got up in the night to do it.

My biggest disappointment about that game though, is the promised new engine that never seemed to happen. In addition to this, when I left...almost all of the endgame content (cities, ai loot, certain dynas)"was "monopolized" by a handful of players who strong armed their way into power, often by ninjaing other people's stuff. (but hell, its anarchy right?) This is actually cool, but it made it to where a brand new player, with no good organization, was left completely in the dust in terms of having any chance at competing, so I think that heavily contributed to making the non ftp game a ghost town.

New engine is coming. Guys from Funcom were just too optimistic, thinking that new engine can come out this year.
I smiled reading about the 'monopol' for loot... Was it really that hard on RK2? Or maybe you didn't join a decent org.
People quit from AO because there are new, awesome looking games. But I met many who play only AO and they find AO their second home (or first actually, I know something about it).

There was also an abundant lack of good currency sinks, and the economy became so inflated that vendor trash was nerfed to where you needed to be a very high level to ever farm any reasonable amount. So this in turn, resulted in a few people having more money than they knew what to do with, owning all access to the equivalent of "raid loot, and even many dyna spawn spots, which were camped almost 24/7, who had the gear and resources to ninja any kill someone else tried to make.

Oh, there was a way to make money if you were an incoming new player! If you were a lowbie, you pretty much had to resort to "cheating" by using clicksaver to farm twink gear for the rich guys, who basically paid whatever they felt like for it. While it was very much against the EULA, the arks did nothing about it afaik.

I disagree about the farming stuff. You could get a decent money being a freebie lowbie, for examle getting a basic armor (1m/piece). Farming gold and gems of medusae was a good idea either. Not mentioning Bioware loot.
Calling "clicksaver" cheating is - IMHO - unfair. First of all - you needed a pair of twinking cushions for yourself. Second of all - clicksaver is used for rolling missions, not making them. Third and final - you described it like only rich guys could pay for things which anyone could roll. You sound like jealous.

In addition to the lowbie troubles, there was an abundance of new players begging for handouts in the cities.

OMG YES! Worse than a plague...

I only mentioned that I have an "established" character there because honestly, if you don't, (it, at least was) a VERY bumpy road to try to get anywhere (don't know how this has changed). Just resurfacing all of this is making me regret even wanting to step foot in AO again, although, I suppose it definitely adds the "anarchy" to Anarchy Online.

If you're f2p - yeah. Even trying to get to somewhere (100 levels of team missions) is pointless. But when you have shadowlands and some money (pearlz farmin for example, dropping everywhere in shadowlands, from ql1 to ql200), a team for AI missions and org with a city - not a problem.

If you want to come back to AO - wait for the new engine. And don't play a toon which u didn't roll and twink. I bet you'll find it annoying.

[gwlech]

Yeah that's what this game was about - twinking. I've spent 3 days twinking Doctor's Right Hand of Hope and Left Hand of Grace, not mentioning perk resets which I had alarm set for and got up in the night to do it.

Yeah, loved spending days swapping out gear to just get one item on. Finally getting my augmented Master Engineer Pistol, and that um...forget the name...other ridiculously OP pistol fully upgraded on was really exciting.

New engine is coming. Guys from Funcom were just too optimistic, thinking that new engine can come out this year.I smiled reading about the 'monopol' for loot... Was it really that hard on RK2? Or maybe you didn't join a decent org.People quit from AO because there are new, awesome looking games. But I met many who play only AO and they find AO their second home (or first actually, I know something about it).

Yeah...soon (tm)...lol...and as for mono...there was a certain person...I won't say his name, but people knew who he was, who at one time owned ~80% of the cities in the game, he made people pay rent to use them for ai raids. The rest were owned by a small handful of people, while you had a few orgs that had 1 or possibly 2. Most orgs did not have a city...could cost you 7-8 billion easily for a small one. I hear they instanced cities after I left, to make them potentially infinite, although I never saw that change.

As for SL dynas...yeah, there would be some guy decked out in AI armor and the best possibly imaginable gear that would go from point to point (sometimes these guys would be in packs) and kill steal everything and then laugh at you while they looted.

Or certain orgs that would camp Heckler spots almost 24/7...and if anyone else tried to do anything, they would bring a flag in and gank the entire team that was there. It was a harsh place...yeah adds to the anarchic atmosphere I think.

I disagree about the farming stuff. You could get a decent money being a freebie lowbie, for examle getting a basic armor (1m/piece). Farming gold and gems of medusae was a good idea either. Not mentioning Bioware loot.
Calling "clicksaver" cheating is - IMHO - unfair. First of all - you needed a pair of twinking cushions for yourself. Second of all - clicksaver is used for rolling missions, not making them. Third and final - you described it like only rich guys could pay for things which anyone could roll. You sound like jealous.

Hell, even I used clicksaver, everyone used clicksaver...but it was an outside program that automated, yeah it saved tons of time. Basic armor was an option. I remember back when CAS used to be valuable, I would farm up a perfect QL xxx set to tradeskill and sell while I was leveling up...could get 10+ mil for a set easily. I was in an org with 2 cities, and I remember soloing my own AI raids to farm parts to make AI armor, which I would then sell. You could also make decent money in a short time pearl farming in Ely, or running Inferno missions. I wasn't jealous, because I didn't have money issues, but most people did.

OMG YES! Worse than a plague...

Yeah, I tried to imagine filthy street beggars everywhere you went...kind of adds to the atmosphere...It was worse if you could tradeskill, because you could get bombarded with tells to make something...and they don't give you the right mats...and after all that clicking, don't bother to tip or even say thanks.

If you want to come back to AO - wait for the new engine. And don't play a toon which u didn't roll and twink. I bet you'll find it annoying.

As I suspect alot of people will do when it comes out. There will be alot of returning players, and possibly new players.

[Impaqt]

ah, I remeber the day I tried Anarchy Online....


Log in.. Get Killed....

Respawn... Get killed.....

Repsawn again.. Run abotu 20 feet.. THEN got killed.....

Repsawned.... Get Killed.....

What a fantastic game.. I cant believe I dont still play. What am I thinking?

[Eladiun]

You wanna talk about bad patches AO had a patch October of the First year where when you killed MoBs they would die, 'rise from the grave' as invulnerable, and wipe you. It was awesome. That's the worst bug I have ever seen...

[Dinfaroth]

ah, I remeber the day I tried Anarchy Online....


Log in.. Get Killed....

Respawn... Get killed.....

Repsawn again.. Run abotu 20 feet.. THEN got killed.....

Repsawned.... Get Killed.....

What a fantastic game.. I cant believe I dont still play. What am I thinking?

Hmm, could you actually get ganked in a city? City had 100% gas...

@gwlech - I have no idea who are you talking about. O_O But I played on RK1.

I'm not sure if there will be many newcomers to AO after the new engine is out. It's really hard to "own" now. Many players with maxed toons, getting every expansion loot ASAP. There is Earthrise for example, which is younger and even more skill-based game.

[LunaCee]

Yeah I played on RK1 for a couple years... hit burnout when they added a 4th XP system...
That is the one thing I find the most irksome about that game.

Basic levels, shadow knowledge levels, alien invasion levels, research levels... and perk resets so you can twink on that last piece of gear. Your character wouldn't be in their combat spec for a bloody WEEK as you waited out that stupid timer to hit the next reset.

Though they eventually did institute an emergency chain death system to toss you to a neutral spawn point if you got stuck someplace getting killed over and over. Usually though it won't show up unless somebody does something stupid like having their chosen reclaim be in Clan turf, using a side changer to go Omni while in the Clan area patrolled by sided guards and then get themselves chain killed by NPC guards a few times until the chain death system kicks in.

And I did go back and look it over again a few months ago. Its... almost dead compared to what it was. RBB and RGA were practically deserted on RK1 during prime time the couple days I messed around with it again. And yeah, entry to the game is not newb friendly. Especially since somebody trying the game out with the fr00b option is less than 1/3 as powerful as a fully paid account. The power creep put in with each expansion is astronomical.

Also doesn't help that in general most people remaining rush new content for about 3 weeks and then it goes dormant and you have to cajole people that already have everything to help you get stuff. But yeah burnout and the sheer pain of getting most things solo because most of the org/alliance would be off elsewhere in 170+ instances on T6 & T7 characters while you are trying to level and equip during T3-T5 solo with the occasional pug and maybe if you are lucky somebody has a low or mid tier tower alt twink that could solo a few places and help you gear up your character.

[Geonis]

Yeah, you kind of had me thinking about trying this AO out, then this-

I've spent 3 days twinking Doctor's Right Hand of Hope and Left Hand of Grace, not mentioning perk resets which I had alarm set for and got up in the night to do it.

Any game I need to set an alarm for (especially in the middle of the night) is beyond ridiculous waste of time.

[Dinfaroth]

You don't have to. I said I was addicted. I spent every free minute playing. And twinking those two beauties when you're a doc is not before lvl 220, no worries.