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thinking of trying this out
croyal
Member Posts: 136
so im thinking of trying AO since there is a free trial and all. my question is, is it any good and what is the game like. is there any pvp and if so what is it like.
im not over powered! look it took me 10 minutes to kill that guy
Comments
First this game is good. My fave mmo. ITs not like much, being its the only true scifi mmo that doesnt suck in my opinion. SWG is good but doesnt have this gameplay. This is like eq in space. You have bigger weapons, more areas, tons of missions, and dungeons. You have a vast set of classes and 4 differient races to play. You can craft, own cities, own apartments, use guns swords, magic(which is called nano), theres vehicles and a lot of things. The pvp is great, its not as emphasized as the rest of the game, so if your just wanting to pvp most of the time, this game isnt for you. However, there are guild wars and designated pvp zones.
This game is a jack of all trades, and all of it is polished, however not one point is emphasized, so you can do pvp, but its not one of the emphasized points of the game.
Just another handsome boy graduate...
There are several open pvp areas scattered around the world and found in some buildings. There are pvp arena areas for Tir and a corresponding one for Omnis. Whereever towers have been constructed by organizations pvp can be happen. I believe there is a duel feature now too. YOu can only pvp with people within your range (range is generally wide though, especially the higher level you eget )
Most of the pvp revolves around the destruction of or the defending of towers and turrets that can give all sorts of bonuses (like nano skills) or just generally control territory. You also get an xp bonus for how many towers your faction has up (clan and omni, not neutral).
I can't say that the classes and weapons are balanced perfectly, but AO is still one of the only mmos with complex challenging pvp. You may find yourself changing strategies to play different classes or different playstyles within that class as this game leaves a lot of room for variation and uniqueness.
Meaningful pvp experiences can be had at as low a level as 15, although it is true that you need money to twink to stand a chance. You're best bet I would say is to level to at least 50-60 and join an org that will help you get into pvp. It shouldn't take too long to reach that level. If you have shadowlands you can reach level 80-90 in around 3 days (well an experienced player can).
For an easy first character to learn on, and one that will have pvp potential, I would only suggest certain classes. Certainly any class can pvp, even well, but that all comes with a lot of experience and sometimes money. Also I am trying to suggest a class that an org might find desirable (this could lead to them giving you money and twinking you out if you are a pvp asset).
Anyway, the classes I would suggest are: Enforcer, Soldier, Fixer (will be harder for fighting mobs, etc. but can be good pvp), Martial Artist (pvp abilities vary greatly with level range), Adventurer (not as good pvpwise as soldier or enforcer or fixer but still not a bad choice. If you are hoping to get lots of funding and support from an org for pvp I would choose one of the first three I listed. But one advantage to being a martial artist or adventure as that they are generally very strong at pvm, or fighting npc mobs, etc.
Oh yeah not to mention if one attacks a guard in a city they become pvp flagged. This sometimes leads to "invasions" by higher levels such as Omnis going into Tir and killing guards off which in turn flags them for pvp which in turn leads to a bunch of Clan opening attack on them. Many times this is done just to start a fight but also sometimes important NPCS in the area are targeted.
I hope I helped.
Anarchy Online is a very good Game, It has alot of content and different things you can do. Its not as simple as alot of MMORPGs, in AO you have alot of options from skills to implants and armors, Weapons as well. you can pick from missions quests and static missions doungons.
It can take some time to get it all learned but when you do you will have alot of fun. I started playing anarchy back in 01 with my boyfirend and played it until earlier this year, Its been alot of fun.
Funcom is a very good company. Whatever you do if you don't try ananrchy for sure don't try any SOE games they are all crap and poorly ran.
You should give anarchy a try with the free accounts.
IMO, its a great game. Graphics are a bit dated, but thats to be expected from a 5yo game.
PvP, not really my cup of tea but its there, and there is alot of it.
As a "Froob"-free account noob- I wouldnt suggest it. You WILL get owned by just about anyone who pays, as the quality and amount of items is vastly different.
You, as a free account, get access to the main game world, its items and quests. Buy paying and buying the expantions, you get all that and at least 2x more.
Its free to try it till 2007. Give it a shot. Dont like it, all you wasted was a couple hours downloading it and the time you spent playing it.
Like it and you just might find yourself hooked.
Hi,
I highly recomend trying this game. Its a very unigue game and has you hooked once you know what your doing.
The only issue i had was gettign used to the UI but thats all customizable. Just dont let it push you away. After i spent ALONG tiem lookign and figuring out the UI, i just cant stop playing.
Great game.
""But Coyote, you could learn! You only prefer keyboard and mouse because that's all you've ever known!" You might say right before you hug a rainforest and walk in sandals to your drum circle where you're trying to raise group consciousness of ladybugs or whatever it is you dirty goddamn hippies do when you're not busy smoking pot and smelling bad."
Coyote's Howling: Death of the Computer
Newbie friendly indeed
I find it awesome how this game contains so much content
and features for a 5 y.o game. There is alot of freedom given to you
in this game, it has enough content to play as a single-player RPG.
It kind of reminds me of a sci-fi version of Elder Scrolls 3.
Issues you will probably face is learning alot of the stuff in the game.
You should learn how Nano Implants work to your character,
how clusters work (i still dont know how clusters work) , the whole skill & ability system,
the interface & how missions work and how the map is in use to your missions.
To be brutally frank, while AO is a bit antiquated and suffers from being developed for older technology (it was ASTOUNDING for its time, even with its rough release issues), it is at this time the ONLY viable and stable sci fi MMO on the market. FunCom's customer service is not too shabby and rather enthusiastic most of the time. Their servers tend to be fairly stable the majority of the time. Their coding is a little loose in places, but it is nothing you can't work around easily. Most bugs that interfere with actual game play are addressed and fixed in a timely manner. For the beginner (anyone having played for under a half year) there is a decent amount of ingame content and last time I looked, players were still providing additional content in the form of activities both combat and socially oriented. For th price of admission (free for the basic game, affordable monthly sub fees for those who purchase the expansion content), it's a VERY good deal.
Both SWG and MxO are currently owned by SOE, which has a seriously bad reputation for mismanagement, abysmal customer service and questionable development practices (all of which is richly deserved and not at all exxagerated). SWG is currently in a state of constant player churn due to the frequency of core system changes the company is inflicting on its live players and MxO is on the slate for what SOE is calling a Combat Upgrade (last time they did something like this to one of their games, they lost a large chunk of their playerbase) so this game is also one to approach with extreme caution.
EVE is not too bad if you don't mind being perpetually stuck on your ship, but this type of game really lacks appeal for the hardcore MMORPG player.
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I would agree with azhrarn in that it is the only decent and stable sci-fi mmo out in the market however when I very first started out I found it slightly difficult getting to know all of the different skills, races, jobs and most importantly stats. If you are looking for a game where you can do almost.... anything and are getting sick of the typical MMORPG then i would suggest this game for you.
So you claim to have 9 lives ey? Well I've got 10 bullets! xD
AO is for you if:
Not for you if:
Personally I found the game very enjoyable for quite a while. AO is the game that I always went to for a break from SWG and have always had fun. Honestly, if you like the game, it is the best MMO entertainment deal out there. Azhram pretty much summed it up.
Points of interest to new players...
AO does have a VERY stiff learning curve. It is a very sophisticated and deep game. This may be extremely frustrating at times. However, it is also a game with a wonderful support system. Both players and the official player run community help and relations team (ARK - Advisors of Rubi Ka) will gladly help get you through this difficult adjustment period -- in game and out.
Official Forums - the AO official forums are filled with information and pointers to get you on your feet and running. Note that while you are a Froob, you have read-only access to the official forums.
Numerous Fan Sites - this game has one of the most devoted player communities to be found in MMOs. There are many websites maintained by players devoted to everything that has to do with AO, from professions to crafting to detailed databases and quest descriptions.
ARK - The Advisors of Rubi Ka are a player volunteer organization sanctioned by FunCom to act as ingame customer service. They even have a team of "Greeters", ARKs whose sole responsibility is to help a new player by answering questions, showing noobs basic things like how to use their nanos and weapons and even occasionally giving brief tours. These people are just a lifesaver.
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PvP.... as has been mentioned already in the thread, PvP isn't something I'd advise for a froob. AO, like most games out these days, has issues with the best loot equating PvP superioroity; and the best loot lives in the paid expansion areas. Shadowlands and Alien Invasion loot is vastly superior for PvP use over original game loot. Both SL and AI also introduce new ability/buff sets unavailable to those who do not have the expansions.
So in all honesty, you will be unable to get a true impression of AO's PvP until you become a paying subscriber and manage to accumulate some of the expansion loot and abilities.
I played from beta to a few months after the release of Alien Invasion. My personal feelings on AO's PvP system weren't particularly warm. I honestly disliked the level restrictions, even though I understood why they were implemented. As I am oriented towards a casual, mixed approach to MMORPGs and can by no means be described as "uber", I never picked up the majority of the most sought after gear that AO's PvPers favor and never bothered to do the "numbers crunching" it took to fully twink out any of my characters. Because of this, I never did particularly well in AO's PvP and it always left a rather sour taste in my mouth. Uber and number crunching personalities adore it though.
I must say I tended to have a lot of fun at the weekly GSP sponsored Bar Room Brawl shows at the bar in Hope. As these events are more for fun and are frequented by a more even mix of people than regularly PvP in the arenas and on the notum bases, you might just discover you enjoy casual, social PvP. Bear in mind that should you attend a GSP show in Hope, it's a good idea to ask if someone feels like dueling rather than just jumping in and attacking, as that's a real good way to make yourself unwelcome -- ESPECIALLY if you happen to have the misfortune to gank a society favorite while they're dancing. I've seen extermination squads from "uber guilds" called in to clean up deb-gankers. It's ugly.
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Kote lo'shebs'ul narit
Sorry if this winds up a "double post"....
Follow-up questions....
I was playing AO about 2-3 years ago and left for several reasons (one of them was largely financial). As I type this, I'm planning on buying a new computer soon and plan/hope to get broadband (to minmize the lag problem I hated). I would also like to get back into MMO games, and have been looking for another one to join. Partly because of all the good things said about AO on this web site, I realized that if I DID rejoin AO, I would have a lot less learning to do (and I did enjoy the sci-fi backdrop
). I just have a few questions regarding things that...er....really annoyed me....near the end of my AO experience.....
At the time...the (supposed) "Neutrals" hired mercenaries to steal one of the rebel cities (it started with an "N" IIRC....Nusomethingorother). Did the guys at Funcom give the reds back the city or at LEAST stop finding stupid excuses to rob factions of thier ciites? (Uhm...the were supposed to be NEUTRAL and trying to stay out of the war...duh!)
Eventually I realized that for all that posturing and tower fighting, no one side could ever win the "war". I reasoned this out based on that if any one side conqured most/all of the play field, there wouldn't be any real reason to play AO...and Funcom would lose customers. No customers, no business...."case closed"....*no one* wins the war.....just utterly mindless fighting.
Another problem I had was (silly me!) I was trying to play AO and "have a life". You know....only playing 4-6 hours a day, every day (and hopefully hold down a job to pay for my "gaming supplies"
). So far so good....until other players who couldn't or wouldn't have a life showed up.... Basically I figured it out that the other players were "selling thier souls" to AO to get thier hands on all the *really cool* gear (at the time it had to do with some temple that you had to *invade*) OR they had buddies that would get the "uber gear" for them.... So...in the end I was starting to get into tower battles and I was getting *blatantly* executed by other players (generally enforcers and sometimes in rapid succession by the same....er....player) simply because I refused to "not have a life". (((I will spare you the obscenities))). Did Funcom ever fix that?
It's 3:30 AM local as I type this....Thanks for the help in advance
Peter
er.. mate.. i am not here to flame u.. infact i agree with most of ya points except pvp OCASIONALLY.
if u r into pvp u can pvp any as and when u like. from whoompa to towers. jus join tnet of either side(omni or clan) and u will get atleast 2 major war in amonth.. other times probably whompa war to brush up ya alpha skills. there r too many hardcore pvpers in AO. be sure to check AO official forums for drama :P
and sometimes.. whoompa pvp can turn the places upside down.. what do u think lvl 220s with pvp setup idle at whoompas/ grid for? they r there for some reasons...
Cyberdog musta ate the first post again...I'm still getting used to the interface here
In short:
I feel so....UNflamed!
No worries...I think I'm going to "get back on the horse" (of AO) for at least a few weeks and look up a couple of peeps. I can always shut down the account again and wander off to another game if I'm not happy
Thanks for the 411
LOL! Well welcome back. I was surprised at both how many of the familiar old faces I once knew and loved were still around and the number of new, enthusisatic folks who had joined them in my long absence.
I guess it's the same with mmos as it is with we women in real life. Youth and beauty are all well and good, but there's many who still prefer an older, smarter date. So what if our old girl isn't as pretty as her young rivals. She still has class and she's still got a few surprises left in her.
Seasons greetings from RubiKa.
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Kote lo'shebs'ul narit
....the cable access installer comes tommorrow.....
I can't wait.....
Peter I'm sorry I overlooked this one.
Newland City kicked the mercenaries out and fielded their own gaurd -- a neutral one. No more annoyance.
The Notum Wars tower PvP is still very much in effect, though "mindless" and "purposeless" are not words I'd use to describe fighting for the many bonuses each tower gives its owning guild.
Having a life is possible while remaining "uber" if you join one of the guilds that schedules raids, BUT it has to be a choice YOU make to only play a certain amount of time. It's easy to fall into the trap of MMO addiction, even more so in a good game, but it's not impossible to set limits and stick to them.
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In brief...the THIRTY-EIGHT megabyte patch that will only download at about 17K per second (I have cable access....GRRRRR!) spends over an hour downloading the patch and then I get an error message about the "checksum" not matching....(sigh)....
I've got an email into support@anarchy-online.com, but if anyone knows anything, I would really appreciate it
Thanks
Peter
I find that the best way to patch is to download them from the site, extract the "patches" folder from those with a archiving app like WinRAR then move the files in those folders to the "Patches" folder in your AO folder. When the game says it needs to patch your version it brings up the patcher, tell it not to save patching files for later and let it go to work. Since it finds all the files in the "Patches" folder it doesn't download anything, just sorts through it all. If you need to patch a long ways it may need to restart a few times but other than that it just keeps working through the files till it's done. I recently reinstalled AO after making changes to my computer, with the 15.7.3 version and patch files I had saved to CDs I was able to patch to the current version easily. One thing that can be an annoyance though is that if you have a software firewall each time it patches up and tries to make a net connection you need to tell the firewall it's ok to let this new version do so.