I have played EVE Online for over six years and I'm just a little bored. From reading these threads I am curious about the excitment most of you express about AO ? Can someone give me a brief idea of what it's about???

It's nearly dead, I wouldn't bother trying to get into it now.

Thumbnail sketch of the story background

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Originally posted by quasar941

It's nearly dead, I wouldn't bother trying to get into it now.

Not so sure this is true.I just came back after a 5 year break and was pleasantly suprised to see how many people still play.This game has a more active population than my last MMO,Darkfall.And since I came back after so many changes I made a fresh toon and have teamed with several n00bs trying out the game for the first time.Gameplay is sill as deep as ever and there is a active fr00b org clan side called Mecury Dragon Academy.No idea about Omni side though,might make a omni toon and check it out too.

OP AO has a steep learning curve,you have nothing to lose making a Fr00b(free to play) account and giving it a whirl.There is still a lot of content in the free version.If I find I can't keep my paid account active for any reason I'm putting a toon in MDA on a fr00b account myself,they still raid and everything.

One of my fav games of all time. Yet it is really old, that fact alone would probly make it too hard for most to pick up at this point.

GOGO AO2! God I wish. As much as I would love to see a second one, I'd probly wait a year before playing. Got burned so bad by AO and AoC, I don't trust them anymore.

There is, of course, no substitute for trying the game out and seeing for yourself. I would hope that everyone reading this forum has the common sense to do this rather than let some random person turn them off from playing a game that they might enjoy.

I said things are dead because I'm on my 6th week of playing AO again on RK2 and the place is a ghost town. Normal leveling teams are so rare that they're something of a novelty when you find one. It's standard procedure now to level in OST/kite teams from 30 all the way through 160 and then to leech in Inferno teams until you can carry your own weight there. Froobs have decidely fewer options. Most froobs never make it past level 60, and even those that do generally give up when they realize they're 120 and already sick of borgs and still have 80 levels to go with nothing else to look forward to. The bottom line, I guess, is that few people actually play the game anymore, it's mostly veteran players power leveling alts.

Regarding AO's complexity, the game is complex for three reasons. The first, is there are a lot of skills, and you have to actually put all of your improvement points into the skills manually. Learning which skills are useful and which are a waste is key and the game does not bother trying to teach you, you must learn either from other players or by trial and error (for example, never skimp on Computer Literacy or Treatment).

The second is the implants system. Your character has 13 slots (ear, head, eye, right hand, left leg, right wrist, etc) into which you may install items called implants which boost skills, attributes, evades, ACs, damage, and other useful stats. This is actually even more complex than it sounds because you can "ladder" implants, or, use multiple temporary sets of implants to slowly build up your stats in order to get in the set that you actually want. It is mandatory that you learn to use implants effectively, especially if you are interested in PVP.

The third is over-equipping. Most of AO's gear does not require that you be a certain level to equip, rather the requirement is usually that you have particular stats and/or skills at a certain level. For example, at the moment my level 162 trader is using a shotgun that has these requirements:

Shotgun from 1747
Fling Shot from 874

The beauty of this is that you only need to meet the skill requirements when equipping the item. Once you get it on, you only need a percentage of the requirement in order to use it effectively (I believe it's 85%). This allows you to use outside buffs and buffing gear that you would not normally wear while playing to temporarily boost your stats in order to get the item on, and then switch back to your normal gear afterwards. This allows you to equip items of a much higher QL than you would normally be able to use. For instance, in my example with the shotgun above, my trader does not actually have 1747 in the shotgun skill but only 1107. The rest came from buffing items, drains, LE procs and an outside wrangle. Mastering the art of twinking is crucial to playing the game effectively. For example, you might see one level 50 engineer running around with a level 170 pet, while another level 50 engie might only have a level 70 pet. It really does make all of the difference in the world, especially for PVP.

The downside to all of this is that while the game is complex in certain areas, actual gameplay is not one of those areas. You can spend weeks and half a billion credits in gear twinking your character, only to find that the only way you are able to level is by sitting in an OST team with a 220 enforcer or doc holding the mob's attention while you and your team safely kill it. In other words, you did it all for nothing.

You certainly don't have to sit on heckler OST/kite teams to level, that's just the lazy way out.  People in my org do hecklers every now and then to clear out some research, and to just be familiar with how those mobs are, and always in teams that take them on directly, no OST or kiting NT.

Teaming is not that hard, either, you just team with orgmates or friends you've made and do stuff with them regularly. If you sit around on LFT and team in PUGs, you'll get mostly lame experiences.  Last night, for example, we had a 4-person group of lvl 175-200 do a Dark Ruins run, followed by an AI City Raid Daily Mission. Then some of the european ppl we were with logged out and some US ppl logged in, and we ran a couple of RK missions with a lvl 126-150 team - lvl 195 mish, followed by a 225 mish (painful but good XP and required coordinated work).  Everyone got 2-3 levels or 1-2 research levels done from that.  No one in that lower group has any AI or OFAB armor, most have moderate Symbiants or imps on. 

If we need cash to buy stuff, the 150's farm sector 10, or have an alt tradeskill stuff like small Arul Sabas and sell them.  Lots of ppl just think they need the billion credits worth of gear because of typical e-peen talk on OOC and the forums but that can be left to those who've gotten 220's to farm stuff for lower alts and know what they are doing with the gear.  If you want to PvP, well, the hardcore vets will mop the floor with you regardless of your gear and the clueless loudmouths will fall easy enough if you have a clue how to fight.

Vets need to get it through their heads that their personal experiences may not be typical of what new or returning players can expect from the game.

I'm that close to resub again. It seems I'm always returning to AO. It has to be something with the whole skill/IP system and twinking. You can't twink so hardcore in any other games. I haven't found a game yet with as a deep skilling system.

I played on RK1 earlier this year, and it was pleasantly populated.

I say go for it. Game is great, but it is very complicated and heavy centered around grouping.

I think the meta-game of twinking can be quite fun in itself. I haven't played in forever but I remember spending quite a bit of time trying to get the right items just to let me get into some other items just to let me finally get into some other items. I'm sure for some people that's a hassle and not seen as fun, but to others it's a mini-game of sorts.

Also keep in mind you don't HAVE to twink. You can play the game without any appreciable twinking just fine, you just go slower. Back in the beginning lvl 50 people messed around with content close to their level and enjoyed it. You don't need to be doing content a hundred levels above you to enjoy the game.

I had a TON of fun with the twinking mechanics.

lvl 100 eng with a 200+ slayer?

HO HO HO HO

Robots are just more satisfying for some reason

AO has some really interesting and unique bits and peices in it. It is always fun to come back to. =D