Noob questions about the game

kinky10

Thought I'd give this a go as I heard good things even though I know it is an older game.

I've rolled an Adventurer as it seems a well rounded class to start with.

Just a few questions,

Do you get skills as in traditional other MMO's all I have is a standard auto attack and nothing more?

Can an advernturer only use pistols? I've seen other classes running around with some nice bigger weapons and wouldn't mind a go with one of those?

Do many people still play the game, Noob island has a few people on but not a lot.

Can you improve the graphics? I know they are dated but I was wondering if I could force any improvements with my GPU which is more than a match for the game.

There seems to be some sort of Camera bug, in that the behind the view camera seems to reset and so I'm aways running backwards, is there a way to fix this?

Are there any customer interfaces or mods I should be using?

Is there any crafting to this game?

Would welcome any pointers or advice here.

thanks

Warzod

Do you get skills as in traditional other MMO's all I have is a standard auto attack and nothing more?

You purchase skills in the form of nanos from the various nanoshops around the world.

Can an advernturer only use pistols? I've seen other classes running around with some nice bigger weapons and wouldn't mind a go with one of those?

Pistols is one of the weapons you are best with but many adventurers also use 1HD swords.

Do many people still play the game, Noob island has a few people on but not a lot.

The core community is still very solid but you may have a hard time finding lower level people to group with.

Can you improve the graphics? I know they are dated but I was wondering if I could force any improvements with my GPU which is more than a match for the game.

You can turn everything up but the game's engine still is what it is. Look for the graphics update to come 'soon'.

There seems to be some sort of Camera bug, in that the behind the view camera seems to reset and so I'm aways running backwards, is there a way to fix this?

There is a key to reset the chase came. Look in your keybinds in options. I want to say it is 5 on your numberpad.

Are there any customer interfaces or mods I should be using?

There are a couple. Just Google for it. They are visual only though really. The interface is not being modded the way WoW was. Do get the map upgrades though.

Is there any crafting to this game?

There is but it is extremely limited and very difficult. They have one of the best system in the MMO world in my opinion there just are not that many things to make.

bishbashbosh

I havent played a lot or know a lot about the game but adventurer is Funcom love child.

they can both use pistol and 1H sword.

there are quiet a few people playing the game, go to the neutral city, (Borealis). thats where most people hang out by the look of it.

the only mod I know that is popular, I've never really used it though, is Clicksaver. it just pulls up mission automaticly for you until you find a reward that you want.

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=384353

kinky10

Thanks that is a great help.

 

What is the map mod called?

Is a soldier any good? I wasn't so sure about the advernturer or are there any good other starter classes?

It looks a fun game and I can look past the graphics for now,

when is the upgrade coming?

Grebdnull

You'll find pretty much all you need at http://www.ao-universe.com. Check under Downloads > Maps for Atlas of Rubi-Ka and Atlas of Shadowlands.

A martial artist is known for being a quite good and cheap starter character, mostly thanks to not being forced to upgrade your weapons that frequently (since you're using your fists).

"We are not going to be able to release the engine in Q1 but we are still hoping for an "Early Beta" in Q1 or early Q2...but at this point it is still dependent on the release of the new version of the engine in Conan as to how much resource we will get in getting it set up and running."

Source: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=587798

burmese

Originally posted by kinky10

Thought I'd give this a go as I heard good things even though I know it is an older game.

I've rolled an Adventurer as it seems a well rounded class to start with.

Just a few questions,

Do you get skills as in traditional other MMO's all I have is a standard auto attack and nothing more?

Can an advernturer only use pistols? I've seen other classes running around with some nice bigger weapons and wouldn't mind a go with one of those?

Do many people still play the game, Noob island has a few people on but not a lot.

Can you improve the graphics? I know they are dated but I was wondering if I could force any improvements with my GPU which is more than a match for the game.

There seems to be some sort of Camera bug, in that the behind the view camera seems to reset and so I'm aways running backwards, is there a way to fix this?

Are there any customer interfaces or mods I should be using?

Is there any crafting to this game?

Would welcome any pointers or advice here.

thanks

Skills:

You have IP (Improvement Points) to apply to those areas you want to improve (health/nanos/weapons/etc).  You also get nanoprograms which you cast to enhance your chars abilities - some are general, some are profession-specific.

 

Adventurers:

Advies are well-rounded jack-of-all trades (combat-wise) and while they are not the best at anything, the sum of their skills can make them quite formidable, both in PvE and PvP.  While the class can (like any profession in AO) use most any sort of weapon, their skillset is tilted towards a choice of pistols or 1-hand edged weapons (ranged versus Melee).

 

Population:

The core player population is there, as is a steady stream of new 'fr00b' players.  The game has expanded over the years to the point where ppl are found in far flung corners of the game world, thus the population centers are not as densly populated as they were in the past.

 

Graphics:

You can usually use your video card utility to specifically force some graphical improvements on the game (such as anti-aliasing and a bit better texture rendering).  Target the 'client.exe' in yourt AO folder with the appropriate utility and experiment with different 'imposed' graphics settings.

 

Camera bug:

Not sure on this one, would have to see example of what it is doing. F8 toggles between 1st and 3rd person, and Alt-F8 toggles between 3 different 3rd person views.  Numpad '5' centers the lock view.

 

Mods:

There are a few alternate UI 'skins', check AO-Universe.  Also from there pick up Clicksaver (version 3) as it is a wonderful tool for rolling/sampling 100's of missions in search of specific reward items.

 

Crafting:

There is actually quite a bit that can be crafted, though much of it is of marginal use.  Some crafting can make an elite tradeskiller rich.  Dipping your toe into crafting is easy and interesting, getting to where you can tradeskill stuff that end-game players will pay well for is a whole 'nother story.

norvak

AO doesnt spoon feed you.  It is a complicated game, but very fun once you learn the ropes.

burmese

Originally posted by kinky10

Thanks that is a great help.

 

What is the map mod called?

Is a soldier any good? I wasn't so sure about the advernturer or are there any good other starter classes?

It looks a fun game and I can look past the graphics for now,

when is the upgrade coming?

Atlas of Rubi-Ka, link found on AO-Universe.  The default map they havfe now, though, is vastly improved from just a year ago, and only lacks markers for interesting stuff like dyna camps and the like.

 

Soldiers are quite good but unless you have paid expansions, you'll find they end up pretty nerfed well before level 100, as there are few good Full-Auto capable weapons available to free chars.  Soldiers also start needing to team with some sort of healer as they get to higher levels - they can do tremendous DD but any heavy-hitting mob they can't kill inside of two minutes can pose a real problem for them without healing.

Martial Artists and Fixers are quite good starting professions for free players.  Fixes especially get most of their 'unique' toolset available to free chars. If you can get over the learning curve of pet professions an engineer can be easy and potent.  Properly equipped engies at lvl 100 can clean missions at levels other lvl 100 chars can only dream about.

 

Upgrade:

See above post and link.

FYI, Age of Conan got its' big Dreamworld engine patch today. Once they get the glitches out of that, they'll turn their attention to polishing up the AO engine, which is essentially a subset of the AoC version of the engine.

P.S. AoC looks more gorgeous than ever today after the patch -IF- you are running an nVidia card or a very recent vintage ATi card.  A lot of older and low-end ATi chipsets have major issues , many of which are new with this patch, including a severe drop in FPS and lots of visual problems.

theratmonkey

Originally posted by kinky10

Thought I'd give this a go as I heard good things even though I know it is an older game.

I've rolled an Adventurer as it seems a well rounded class to start with.

Just a few questions,

Do you get skills as in traditional other MMO's all I have is a standard auto attack and nothing more?

Nanos allow you to have more abilities. + Whatever your weapon is will give you new abilities. For instance, if you use a Machine Gun, you'll have burst and full auto as an extension of those weapons. Some classes, such as the Martial Artist, have specialized items that give them abilities attributed to their class.

Can an advernturer only use pistols? I've seen other classes running around with some nice bigger weapons and wouldn't mind a go with one of those?

The Adventurer can use most weapons, just like any other class in the game, but they most commonly use duel pistols and swords. (If you notice on your skills menu, the 1H Edge and Small Guns skills are light blue, this means they're a main attribute of your class, and easier for you to train and use.

Do many people still play the game, Noob island has a few people on but not a lot.

I don't think it has the numbers it used to, but Noob Island is an instanced terrain. There's actually like 6 or 7 versions of the Noob Island. Once you go Mainland, instancing will only apply in dungeons.

Can you improve the graphics? I know they are dated but I was wondering if I could force any improvements with my GPU which is more than a match for the game.

As of right now, what you see is what you get. I know it's not that great, but giving the game a chance is always a good thing. Plus, if all goes well, maybe Funcom will actually release that engine update this year.

There seems to be some sort of Camera bug, in that the behind the view camera seems to reset and so I'm aways running backwards, is there a way to fix this?

I believe holding the left mouse button down readjusts the camera. If not, the actions portion on the interface (On the top left side) should give you camera options. Keep in mind that this old bird doesn't really have as stable of a camera as something like wow though.

Are there any customer interfaces or mods I should be using?

There's only one I can think of, which is the Mission mod that allows you to look for missions that give specific items. (I forget the name, hopefully someone has explained it already.

Aside from that, I don't think there's many UI mods out there that are more than just looks. I could be wrong, however.

Is there any crafting to this game?

Yup, it's in the Tradeskills section. It works differently than some games, however. Instead of having a set crafting (Mining/Armormaking/etc), you have tradeskills you can level in order to become better at a certain task. Everything in this game will be based on the 72 or so skills, and you should put your points into the skills you want. (Or the skills you need.)

Although, some classes aren't as good at crafting as others. You won't see a soldier or Enforcer having a heavy focus into Tradeskills like a Trader, Crat, Engi, or Fixer.

Would welcome any pointers or advice here.

thanks

 

I know this has probably been answered already, but I wanted to give my 2 cents.

The only real pointers I can give are this: Stick with Adventurers, or if you want to try out another class, go with Easy classes first.

The Engineers, Traders, Fixers, and Doctors are all fun classes, but they're much much harder to manage as a noob. Hell, the first real toon I had was a NanoTech, and I royaly screwed him up. (He was level 60 and could only use lvl 20-30 skills. Yikes.)

There's also a good chance that your first character WON'T be your main character. With the way the game works, a lot of people tend to reroll once they start learning the basics. (Or at least the crowd I used to roll with did. I remember back in the day when like 5 or 6 of us in an Org rerolled together when we were froobing it up. The good ol' Days )

Plus, rerolling once you know the game better will actually allow you to find the class best for you. Like, I thought since I love playing casters so much in other MMORPGs, I thought  I'd love the Nanotech. But as it turns out, my main character became the soldier. (Which, when played right, is filled with gallons and gallons of awesome.)

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEND YOUR SKILL POINTS

Unlike Wow or other newer games, those little skill points aren't resettable everytime you make a poor choice. You need know what you want to do before you start putting points in things all willy nilly.

First bit of advice is something I mentioned earlier: The skills and abilities on the Skills menu are highlighted from Light Blue to Dark Blue.

Light Blue and green skills are the skills your class is naturally adept at, and take less points to max out.

Dark Blue skills, on the other hand, are skills that your class isn't naturally good at, and take much more points to max out.

As a noobie player, it's best for you to focus more on the abilities in light blue. There are many abilities that are dark blue that are required for you, which is why it's good to look up your class on the forums, or on any of the popular AO sites to see exactly what's required to use these nanos, armors, and items.

There is one skill that is a basic requirement for all classes: Computer Literacy.

Try to max this out as much as possible. Having this as high as possible allows you to use better belts and NCU devices, which in turn allow you to have more and more buffs. (Yes, depending on your NCU, you're going to have a limited number of buffs you can have on you at one time.) It also allows you to access higher portions of the Grid, which is an essential form of Travel beyond Whoompahs (Teleporters).

With certain skills, you won't want to just put points into them just because you can max them out easily. The weapons skills are a good example of this. As a soldier specializing in Machine Guns, that's the only thing I focused on, despite the fact that my weapons skills are all light blue.

If you want to be an Adventurer that focuses in Duel Swords, just focus on 1h Edge and related skills.

That's pretty much all I can think of. My advice might be a bit dated, so I suggest you go to the AO forums and Auno.org for more information. Many of the players in AO aren't going to flat out make fun of you for not knowing anything, so don't be afraid to ask other players things. (So long as you don't annoy them by constently asking questions.)

I'm probably gonna be hanging out on Rimor soon (Clan, bitches), so if you need help, hit me up.

 

Vanae

Anarchy online has a huge learning curve and is one of the least noob friendly games i have ever seen tbh....Having said that, even now it is still one of my favoriite experiences in a game world.

Personally i would go with an ma/advy/fixer as your first class.

If you are on rk1 then i could give you a few mill to get started, farming money at the beginning of the game is one of the most boring/repetative timesinks ever and you soon get very gimped if you don't keep your imps, weapons, nano's up to date.