AO is and has been on life support for way too long to still be charging a sub.
This. And I find it hilarious AO is _the most expensive_ MMORPG today regarding monthly sub costs (17+ euros per month) and they also deployed that lousy item shop on top.
Cant blame them thou, in a way they need the money to get the new GFX going. I just hope they get it out this year or mid of next year. If they dont i see it closeing down or only 50 loggging in. I love this game and i still do think that this is the only true MMO sci fi game out there.
Originally posted by punkrock I just hope they get it out this year or mid of next year.
They won't. I tried AO for a few months (paid player, not froob) in early 2007 or 2008 (forget which now), and they (player base and developers) were promising that the new graphics would arrive that summer. Since the old graphics lagged horribly on my then-new gaming PC, I stopped playing AO and waited for summer.
And waited, and waited, and waited, and waited... years later, no graphics overhaul, no improvements, no nothing, and the population has apparently gone way down even since I played. 2007-2008, the population was actually halfway decent. I even found a guild with its own towers (?) and a number of friends.
It's a real shame.
Currently Playing: EVE Online Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
They just dont have the man power devoted to making this work, and given the time its taken them to do this, they could have literally remade every aspect of the game making an Anarchy 2.0...
My hope is that TSW does go smooth, and they can then devote a proper staff to adding some life to this game and making it modern looking and feeling modern, without dumbing down or tampering with the in game systems.
I would like to see some form of intergrating SL properly into the game, it always stuck out as a better and more boring way to get from level 1 to 220. Also a revamp of their over the top research system would be nice...possibly modernizing the standard skill set...not really removing skills but rather making the needed secondary skills more secondary and some of the oddball skills need to be made viable rather than adding as an 3rd and 4th stat pre-requisite on some items. Perhaps adding benefit rather than just being used as a lock out mechanizm for some gear.
On top of that id like to see better land usage.
Given the right amount of "love" this game would grow, they just need to devote resources to it and really need to keep what was done right with the game, while modifying what was wrong with the game, something that will be very difficult to guage. Dumbing down this game further than the SL easymode, nerfing death penalty and making twinking a must..oh yeah and some class imbalance issues that are ancient.
They just dont have the man power devoted to making this work, and given the time its taken them to do this, they could have literally remade every aspect of the game making an Anarchy 2.0...
My hope is that TSW does go smooth, and they can then devote a proper staff to adding some life to this game and making it modern looking and feeling modern, without dumbing down or tampering with the in game systems.
I would like to see some form of intergrating SL properly into the game, it always stuck out as a better and more boring way to get from level 1 to 220. Also a revamp of their over the top research system would be nice...possibly modernizing the standard skill set...not really removing skills but rather making the needed secondary skills more secondary and some of the oddball skills need to be made viable rather than adding as an 3rd and 4th stat pre-requisite on some items. Perhaps adding benefit rather than just being used as a lock out mechanizm for some gear.
On top of that id like to see better land usage.
Given the right amount of "love" this game would grow, they just need to devote resources to it and really need to keep what was done right with the game, while modifying what was wrong with the game, something that will be very difficult to guage. Dumbing down this game further than the SL easymode, nerfing death penalty and making twinking a must..oh yeah and some class imbalance issues that are ancient.
Shadowlands pretty much ruined AO for me and most others I would love nothing more than to see them just get rid of it period or at the least make it to where you can lvl to 220 on Rubi-Ka add more zones to it,Shadowlands was Gautes Fantasy expansion in a sci-fi game dumbest idea ever then he went on to make AoC a total mess.
Well there is a lot of things that need to be mentioned.
The AO developer team is 8-9 people, so for those of you thinking they could just make AO2 as easy as flipping a burger need to re-think. Not every member of that team is a content creator, AO has a staggering amount of content. To even produce half the content that AO has now, we're talking all the outdoor areas (RK, SL, Xan) dungeons, quests woukld probably take them a good deal of years. Then there needs to be monsters created, items, nanos, skill system and the list goes on. You really think 8-9 people could do that in a few years? Then what about the original AO? Should development just stop while the new game is being made over 5-6 years?
As for the person saying there really are no exploits? Please. Some of the recent exploits:
The credit exploit, used by duping Single Jobe IPRs in a 2 backpacks with the same item ID, then sold as shop food.
The AO MultiHack tool, been around for years and used by loads of people. The fake one posted on youtube with a keylogger in it, and the storm of hacked accounts attest to that.
The perk exploit, letting you perk and do unknown damage to flagged people without entering combat.
The PvP flag exploit in 18.5 patch, that let engineers attack flagged people while in grace. Thus remaing not attackable themselves.
The /stuck exploit in Pande that let you circumvent just about all mobs, the LoS exploit in Pande that let 2 people farm all bosses up to the Beast.
The LoS/wallhack exploit that let people target and attack people 5 rooms away.
The packet injector exploit that let you gain inf mission completion % by killking mobs in a Backyard.
And the list actually goes on, only a few of those hacks mentioned are fixed. With FunCom having the policy of simply finding an exploit, attempt to fix it and leave the exploiters ingame. They can continue to find a new exploit and simply rinse and repeat. FunCom does not hammer down on exploiters. You are told to petition exploiters when you see them, however when it can take up to 4 hours for a GM to arrive, you know you are just beating a dead horse.
The lack of proper endgame raid content, everything has been instanced. The latest Xan area can for the most part be farmed by 2-3 people and loot rights sold. Making Orgs less important this again affect the community in the sense that people don't really need to interact and be a cohesive force like we did back in the day. The days of 30+ dead bodies spread over the plains near Primus Camp is gone, the days of KT wars on the Beast is gone. The raid interface destroyed KT wars, making a lot of PvMers leave because there was nothing left for them to work towards. Being top DD used to mean something. FunCom says that this was only a small group of people, well then how come so many people left shortly after. Let us not forget that the endgame content in AO is so easy it makes you hurt inside.
With the promise of more instances content I can't but help feeling that this is the final downward spiral.
The market economy is destroyed due to the fact that a constant stream of NODROP items, surpases the stats of YESDROP items. There is less items of interest making the market slow down and less trades being made. Again instances come into play, as both YES and NODROP items can be farmed by a few people we are left in a perpetual state of lootright selling.
Then there we have the never ending line of broken promises, and unfinished projects. Mentor program anyone? There was a lot of fuss about how great that was gonna be, how much time did they waste on it? It seams that FunCom gets bored quickly and then move onto something else, more flashy. I for one wish that at least, only one! developer had taken a University course in project management, because the ratio of finished projects contra the new ones we hear about constantly is unbalanced to say the least. Just stick with one project and complete it, I don't know any other company where employers would be allowed to conduct a development process like the on in AO.
Two consecutive birthday parties have left players in rage, lessons from one year are not carried over to the next. Hence the same bad descisions are being made, only servering to further alienate the players. This years GMI? It's a hopeless attempt at making an auction house, sad to say it's worse than any other on the market. Why can't FunCom do research before implementing poor design? Learn from other MMOs you do not have to reinvent the wheel. FunCOm's statement along the lines of: "Well the GMI has been on the test server for a while, you should have tested it there first" Guess what FunCom we pay to play a finished product, not beta test projects that makes people wonder if you guys are developers by profession and not simply 8-9 guys doing a garage software code. Oh and yes people did beta test the GMI, but you did not listen to them for god's sake. You decided to release the damn thing anyway, because it coincided with the 11th birthday party. Was that only to show that you guys had at least made something this year?
I want new developers, not a group of people pretending to be developers.
good post, saved my money. I was thinking to resub for one month, but now im certain and will keep it at froob status. First time I played AO was in 2002 and its fucking sad, that nothing comparable has been released up to date.
bleeeeeeh! fuck SL, relaunch classic ao+nw..
Omni-tek is your friend!bleeehhh If I could I would cry and eat some cookies now, but as a loyal OT employee I have no feelings...Kels+RB+cat(AS) = alot of dead claners..good times
Extremely valid points have been mentioned above, but what is far more disheartening is the direction the developers are going. Anarchy Online has gotten so easy, you can reach endgame so extremely fast. Once endgame you are faced with the instances mentioned above.
One would think that in the current climate of MMOs, and seeing how just about every new MMO lose players because they are to easy and you reach endgame to fast, only to be met with no real content. The developers would be going back to the roots of what is Anarchy Online, but no. They insist on mimicing the WoW formula as if that is gonna save the day, because it worked for so many other MMOs.
I'll be hard pressed to mention a single feature or content added the last few years that have brought more players in, new and old. The level of stupidity from the developers is nothing short but mind blowing.
I guess that's what you get when you left a university dropout sit in the directors chair. The majority of the people working on Anarchy Online should be sacked, because they have no frigging idea on what is going on with their game.
I say this knowing without a shred of doubt that they would never make a game as complext and non-noob friendly as this game was, on top of the games unheard of progression that takes players though 220 levels. Basically their only hope is to make a souless AO2 that would more than likely have to appeal to the ADD kids with IQ's competing with your average house plant.
The planned engine port is going to be nothing more than new skins on stuff. No new animations or character models. Nothing aimed at fixing what was really wrong with the game, mainly shadowlands "pay a nanomage to kite hecks while you watch tv".
They have a MASSIVE...i mean epicly large landmass with the games origional content that was never really utilized and SL made it all the more underused. I loved SL for the story and the look though.
Ive also stated it here before but i would have loved to see the stats in the game, rather than simple weapon lock outs instead make the weapon preform better, meaning your not limited to your weapon use based on the skills but limited in how well it works. Also the gear removal upon death is sorely needed back in the game, it kept twinking to a specific use and made death really hurt.
Really though this game deserves more attention, and i do realize the skeleton crew up in canada is the only team working on the game, and ive even heard that they used fans of the game with the skill sets needed to help them reskin items for free.
Ill for sure come back for the new engine, should it ever occur,but the game needs its old problems dealt with, and it needs modern combat, modern animations, and some mechanics to make use of its seemingly endless amount of landmass.
Id love for them to spend time making AO2, however im certain it would dissapoint more than just spending the time and giving the origional the love it deserves. One thing is for sure...the games community will never be what it was, and that was one of the best part of AO...people just dont act like they use to in games and it really keeps me from getting glued to a single game for very long.
I think he means you press once your attack key and your character keeps attacking on target (while you only need to press different keys for your specials) until you press the key again to stop attacking. He would like to have more involved system for that like AoC's / Darkfall's for example.
Same thing happened to me when i went back to classic Everquest combat is just to slow , Tera, Tsw, Gw2 all have faster pace combat .
mind i dont play any of those games but just pointing it out i played AO in 2001 i remember those days .
I think he means you press once your attack key and your character keeps attacking on target (while you only need to press different keys for your specials) until you press the key again to stop attacking. He would like to have more involved system for that like AoC's / Darkfall's for example.
Same thing happened to me when i went back to classic Everquest combat is just to slow , Tera, Tsw, Gw2 all have faster pace combat .
mind i dont play any of those games but just pointing it out i played AO in 2001 i remember those days .
Im actually okay with the combat....I dont want them to pretty it up too much because, much like the games today, they will focus all their resources on how an MA does a roundhouse kick and less on the actual wealth of content that could be fixed adjusted.
I just started AO back up and am loving it again...I just hope it's not too easy to get to 220...that would suck....back in the original days when I played, I never got to endgame....but played for about 1 year straight. did they remove the death penalty also?? haven't died yet or I'd know
Thought I would mention that two years after the OP posted this, the game is very much alive. All the end game raids still run regularly, the largest (s42) running several times a week. LFT is full during euro prime and it's not hard getting quests done.
My other favorite mmo, Asherons call, is much closer to "dead" than AO.
The player population is so low that the Guantlet buff npc is inactive for days and days. The far SE Mort CT site has been controlled by a tiny 3 man org for months - and they don't even bother setting towers/conductors -one QL 200 contol tower and no one even bothers to attack it. We used to pvp for hours on end to gain control of a CT site in Mort/PW.
[Clan OOC] Endure1: Hello?? [Clan OOC] Retrofit: heh [Clan OOC] Endure1: what's up [Clan OOC] Retrofit: not much [Clan OOC] Macgyverr: any mp for ci? Pos: 432.8, 540.5, 12.1, Area: Old Athen West. Time: 2012-12-03 05:50:43 (UTC) Suppression field at 75 Wildlife may attack you.
Comments
This. And I find it hilarious AO is _the most expensive_ MMORPG today regarding monthly sub costs (17+ euros per month) and they also deployed that lousy item shop on top.
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They won't. I tried AO for a few months (paid player, not froob) in early 2007 or 2008 (forget which now), and they (player base and developers) were promising that the new graphics would arrive that summer. Since the old graphics lagged horribly on my then-new gaming PC, I stopped playing AO and waited for summer.
And waited, and waited, and waited, and waited... years later, no graphics overhaul, no improvements, no nothing, and the population has apparently gone way down even since I played. 2007-2008, the population was actually halfway decent. I even found a guild with its own towers (?) and a number of friends.
It's a real shame.
Currently Playing: EVE Online
Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
This game is being replaced by TSW.
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com
MYSPACE ACCOUNT
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Which FF Character Are You?
They just dont have the man power devoted to making this work, and given the time its taken them to do this, they could have literally remade every aspect of the game making an Anarchy 2.0...
My hope is that TSW does go smooth, and they can then devote a proper staff to adding some life to this game and making it modern looking and feeling modern, without dumbing down or tampering with the in game systems.
I would like to see some form of intergrating SL properly into the game, it always stuck out as a better and more boring way to get from level 1 to 220. Also a revamp of their over the top research system would be nice...possibly modernizing the standard skill set...not really removing skills but rather making the needed secondary skills more secondary and some of the oddball skills need to be made viable rather than adding as an 3rd and 4th stat pre-requisite on some items. Perhaps adding benefit rather than just being used as a lock out mechanizm for some gear.
On top of that id like to see better land usage.
Given the right amount of "love" this game would grow, they just need to devote resources to it and really need to keep what was done right with the game, while modifying what was wrong with the game, something that will be very difficult to guage. Dumbing down this game further than the SL easymode, nerfing death penalty and making twinking a must..oh yeah and some class imbalance issues that are ancient.
Shadowlands pretty much ruined AO for me and most others I would love nothing more than to see them just get rid of it period or at the least make it to where you can lvl to 220 on Rubi-Ka add more zones to it,Shadowlands was Gautes Fantasy expansion in a sci-fi game dumbest idea ever then he went on to make AoC a total mess.
Quit just before Shadowlands, but have fond memories.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
Well there is a lot of things that need to be mentioned.
The AO developer team is 8-9 people, so for those of you thinking they could just make AO2 as easy as flipping a burger need to re-think. Not every member of that team is a content creator, AO has a staggering amount of content. To even produce half the content that AO has now, we're talking all the outdoor areas (RK, SL, Xan) dungeons, quests woukld probably take them a good deal of years. Then there needs to be monsters created, items, nanos, skill system and the list goes on. You really think 8-9 people could do that in a few years? Then what about the original AO? Should development just stop while the new game is being made over 5-6 years?
As for the person saying there really are no exploits? Please. Some of the recent exploits:
The credit exploit, used by duping Single Jobe IPRs in a 2 backpacks with the same item ID, then sold as shop food.
The AO MultiHack tool, been around for years and used by loads of people. The fake one posted on youtube with a keylogger in it, and the storm of hacked accounts attest to that.
The perk exploit, letting you perk and do unknown damage to flagged people without entering combat.
The PvP flag exploit in 18.5 patch, that let engineers attack flagged people while in grace. Thus remaing not attackable themselves.
The /stuck exploit in Pande that let you circumvent just about all mobs, the LoS exploit in Pande that let 2 people farm all bosses up to the Beast.
The LoS/wallhack exploit that let people target and attack people 5 rooms away.
The packet injector exploit that let you gain inf mission completion % by killking mobs in a Backyard.
And the list actually goes on, only a few of those hacks mentioned are fixed. With FunCom having the policy of simply finding an exploit, attempt to fix it and leave the exploiters ingame. They can continue to find a new exploit and simply rinse and repeat. FunCom does not hammer down on exploiters. You are told to petition exploiters when you see them, however when it can take up to 4 hours for a GM to arrive, you know you are just beating a dead horse.
The lack of proper endgame raid content, everything has been instanced. The latest Xan area can for the most part be farmed by 2-3 people and loot rights sold. Making Orgs less important this again affect the community in the sense that people don't really need to interact and be a cohesive force like we did back in the day. The days of 30+ dead bodies spread over the plains near Primus Camp is gone, the days of KT wars on the Beast is gone. The raid interface destroyed KT wars, making a lot of PvMers leave because there was nothing left for them to work towards. Being top DD used to mean something. FunCom says that this was only a small group of people, well then how come so many people left shortly after. Let us not forget that the endgame content in AO is so easy it makes you hurt inside.
With the promise of more instances content I can't but help feeling that this is the final downward spiral.
The market economy is destroyed due to the fact that a constant stream of NODROP items, surpases the stats of YESDROP items. There is less items of interest making the market slow down and less trades being made. Again instances come into play, as both YES and NODROP items can be farmed by a few people we are left in a perpetual state of lootright selling.
Then there we have the never ending line of broken promises, and unfinished projects. Mentor program anyone? There was a lot of fuss about how great that was gonna be, how much time did they waste on it? It seams that FunCom gets bored quickly and then move onto something else, more flashy. I for one wish that at least, only one! developer had taken a University course in project management, because the ratio of finished projects contra the new ones we hear about constantly is unbalanced to say the least. Just stick with one project and complete it, I don't know any other company where employers would be allowed to conduct a development process like the on in AO.
Two consecutive birthday parties have left players in rage, lessons from one year are not carried over to the next. Hence the same bad descisions are being made, only servering to further alienate the players. This years GMI? It's a hopeless attempt at making an auction house, sad to say it's worse than any other on the market. Why can't FunCom do research before implementing poor design? Learn from other MMOs you do not have to reinvent the wheel. FunCOm's statement along the lines of: "Well the GMI has been on the test server for a while, you should have tested it there first" Guess what FunCom we pay to play a finished product, not beta test projects that makes people wonder if you guys are developers by profession and not simply 8-9 guys doing a garage software code. Oh and yes people did beta test the GMI, but you did not listen to them for god's sake. You decided to release the damn thing anyway, because it coincided with the 11th birthday party. Was that only to show that you guys had at least made something this year?
I want new developers, not a group of people pretending to be developers.
good post, saved my money. I was thinking to resub for one month, but now im certain and will keep it at froob status. First time I played AO was in 2002 and its fucking sad, that nothing comparable has been released up to date.
bleeeeeeh! fuck SL, relaunch classic ao+nw..
Omni-tek is your friend!bleeehhh If I could I would cry and eat some cookies now, but as a loyal OT employee I have no feelings...Kels+RB+cat(AS) = alot of dead claners..good times
My thoughts
Extremely valid points have been mentioned above, but what is far more disheartening is the direction the developers are going. Anarchy Online has gotten so easy, you can reach endgame so extremely fast. Once endgame you are faced with the instances mentioned above.
One would think that in the current climate of MMOs, and seeing how just about every new MMO lose players because they are to easy and you reach endgame to fast, only to be met with no real content. The developers would be going back to the roots of what is Anarchy Online, but no. They insist on mimicing the WoW formula as if that is gonna save the day, because it worked for so many other MMOs.
I'll be hard pressed to mention a single feature or content added the last few years that have brought more players in, new and old. The level of stupidity from the developers is nothing short but mind blowing.
I guess that's what you get when you left a university dropout sit in the directors chair. The majority of the people working on Anarchy Online should be sacked, because they have no frigging idea on what is going on with their game.
Ad astra per astrada
Rubi Ka was an extra ordinary place I have some really fond memories. A flawed masterpiece. probably the game I hav resisted most often.
Their best hope would be to make an AO 2.
I say this knowing without a shred of doubt that they would never make a game as complext and non-noob friendly as this game was, on top of the games unheard of progression that takes players though 220 levels. Basically their only hope is to make a souless AO2 that would more than likely have to appeal to the ADD kids with IQ's competing with your average house plant.
The planned engine port is going to be nothing more than new skins on stuff. No new animations or character models. Nothing aimed at fixing what was really wrong with the game, mainly shadowlands "pay a nanomage to kite hecks while you watch tv".
They have a MASSIVE...i mean epicly large landmass with the games origional content that was never really utilized and SL made it all the more underused. I loved SL for the story and the look though.
Ive also stated it here before but i would have loved to see the stats in the game, rather than simple weapon lock outs instead make the weapon preform better, meaning your not limited to your weapon use based on the skills but limited in how well it works. Also the gear removal upon death is sorely needed back in the game, it kept twinking to a specific use and made death really hurt.
Really though this game deserves more attention, and i do realize the skeleton crew up in canada is the only team working on the game, and ive even heard that they used fans of the game with the skill sets needed to help them reskin items for free.
Ill for sure come back for the new engine, should it ever occur,but the game needs its old problems dealt with, and it needs modern combat, modern animations, and some mechanics to make use of its seemingly endless amount of landmass.
Id love for them to spend time making AO2, however im certain it would dissapoint more than just spending the time and giving the origional the love it deserves. One thing is for sure...the games community will never be what it was, and that was one of the best part of AO...people just dont act like they use to in games and it really keeps me from getting glued to a single game for very long.
Same thing happened to me when i went back to classic Everquest combat is just to slow , Tera, Tsw, Gw2 all have faster pace combat .
mind i dont play any of those games but just pointing it out i played AO in 2001 i remember those days .
Yup i would be back in a flash
****************************
Playing : Uncharted Waters Online
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Im actually okay with the combat....I dont want them to pretty it up too much because, much like the games today, they will focus all their resources on how an MA does a roundhouse kick and less on the actual wealth of content that could be fixed adjusted.
I just started AO back up and am loving it again...I just hope it's not too easy to get to 220...that would suck....back in the original days when I played, I never got to endgame....but played for about 1 year straight. did they remove the death penalty also?? haven't died yet or I'd know
Thought I would mention that two years after the OP posted this, the game is very much alive. All the end game raids still run regularly, the largest (s42) running several times a week. LFT is full during euro prime and it's not hard getting quests done.
My other favorite mmo, Asherons call, is much closer to "dead" than AO.
The player population is so low that the Guantlet buff npc is inactive for days and days. The far SE Mort CT site has been controlled by a tiny 3 man org for months - and they don't even bother setting towers/conductors -one QL 200 contol tower and no one even bothers to attack it. We used to pvp for hours on end to gain control of a CT site in Mort/PW.
.
Dead game is dead.
.
Welcome to AnarchyOnline
Pos: 209.2, 172.0, 5.4, Area: Supermarket. Time: 2012-12-03 05:45:41 (UTC)
Suppression field at 75 Wildlife may attack you.
Changing area. Please wait.
Entering 'Old Athen'
Pos: 426.4, 534.2, 12.1, Area: Old Athen West. Time: 2012-12-03 05:46:11 (UTC)
Suppression field at 75 Wildlife may attack you.
[Clan OOC] bbbbb: Hi
Name: 'Oddcar105', profession: 'Bureaucrat', level: 200, Side: 'clan'
Name: 'Kerratha', profession: 'Bureaucrat', level: 175, Side: 'clan'
Name: 'Anzela', profession: 'Bureaucrat', level: 77, Side: 'clan'
Name: 'Klepptoman', profession: 'Trader', level: 127, Side: 'clan'
Name: 'Macgyverr', profession: 'Engineer', level: 116, Side: 'clan'
Name: 'Glock22', profession: 'Bureaucrat', level: 110, Side: 'clan'
Name: 'Fuelcell', profession: 'Engineer', level: 27, Side: 'clan'
Dynels listed: 8
[Clan OOC] Endure1: Hello??
[Clan OOC] Retrofit: heh
[Clan OOC] Endure1: what's up
[Clan OOC] Retrofit: not much
[Clan OOC] Macgyverr: any mp for ci?
Pos: 432.8, 540.5, 12.1, Area: Old Athen West. Time: 2012-12-03 05:50:43 (UTC)
Suppression field at 75 Wildlife may attack you.
Funcom: MOO ghetto slum lord.