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Phoenix_Hawk 4/16/06 12:12:18 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 3/24/05 |
09/22/2007 |
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Phoenix_Hawk 4/16/06 12:12:57 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 3/24/05 |
I figured I'd write this up to address the common questions and troubles people have as a new AO player that I've seen posted here and asked in game. I've really aimed this at the newbie fr00b since I expect those in SL to know their way around well enough already and could always post in the AO forums. This has some info also found in the AO site and/or manual but also is meant to go beyond the scope of the manual which I strongly recommend all players, especially new ones download and read (there is also a version you can view in the AO site). Please note that they finally updated the manual late in 2005 and made a few revisions since then, the current one is quite good and answers most of the questions I see new players asking in game. Note: I also did not write all of this for this post. Almost all of the B and C ones I wrote over time and added to personal help files I can access while playing for my own reference or so I can just copy paste in answers for others. Then at least some of those in A section I had answered one or more times in the past here or elsewhere so just found and added them in. As a result most of this was just copy pasted together from things I wrote over my time playing AO. .
. . . . . . Before Playing . A-01 Is it Really Free? Currently free play of classic AO and NW is until early 2008 but so long as that offer does not cause them too many troubles expect them to continue lengthening that period (has already been lengthened multiple times). The MMORPG.com trail offer refers to a free 14 day trail of the original, NW and SL expansion, once that ends though you either start paying to play or you will no longer be able to play using that account. . A-02 Is it Complicated? If you spend some time looking over your options with the help of various info sites on AO you should be fine and be able to make up your own build. You can also look in the profession specific forums in the AO official forums for help (anyone can read them but you need to be a paying player to post in them). There's a good bit of possible and usable variations not just between professions but builds of a profession as well. It takes a bit of time and thought but I'd sooner do that than be like just about every other char my level of a given profession. . A-03 Getting Started (Downloading & Patching) 1. Go to the Game Download page and select either the small (about 800 MB) or large (about 1400 MB) client. The small client is only for free play while the large one will allow you to play for free or any of the expansions. You can get either by way of a BitTorrent download or through various listed download sites. With a BitTorrent download you will get a small torrent file from the AO download pages then need to open that up in a BitTorrent client and let it download everything. You can use the official BitTorrent client or a host of other ones (personally I like Azureus). . Once you have it all the client will continue sharing it with others until you stop it. It is a good idea to let it share as much as you've downloaded (100%+ share or a 1+ share ratio). With lots of people sharing some to all of the data downloading something with BitTorrent can move along quite well. 2. While the game is downloading you could register your AO account. As a new player it would be a good idea to get used to it the basics of playing by playing for free for a while. Once you've got the hang of things and if you're thinking of going P2P there's the MMORPG.com 14 day SL trial offer which gives you a trial code. Also Funcom offers 7 day upgrade trials for either expansion which include NW but if you decide you don't want to keep playing you'd need to cancel the account before either traials end or your credit card will be billed. Please note that both trial and paid accounts are not reverted to free accounts when their period expires and cancelling a trial account will likely result in the deletion of all related data including player accounts and characters. Also you will need the large client to use any of the expansions. 3. In the downloaded folders you'll find a setup.exe file, run that. If the installer asks for numbered disks when installing browse to the main folder you just downloaded and select the folder with the same disk name that was requested (disk1-disk3). 4. The game version you've downloaded will likely not be the current one and the main folder you just downloaded will have the version in the name (AOInstall16.0.0_EP1_EP2_live = large client version 16.0.0). Rather than using batch patching AO applies each of the required patches one at a time in sequence. Once installed you can run AO then let the patcher get the patches and use them or you can download each of them from the AO site. If you download them get the ones from the version you have to the current version on the servers. Also if you download them yourself from SL/15.x on there are two of each patch (ex. 16.0.0 - 16.0.1 and 16.0.0_EP1 - 16.0.1_EP1). The ones ending with EP1 are for those with the large client, the ones without are for those with the small client, make sure you get the right ones. The patcher may need to restart one or more times as it patches from your downloaded version to the version on the servers when it hits certain updates. So there is no problem if it restarts and says you need to patch some more. Then in the bar at the top of the log-in window it shows what version your client is at and what version is in use on the servers, until those match you will need to patch further. Since patches are applied one at a time what I like to do is download them from the AO site, use an app like WinRAR to extract the files in the "Patches" folder each contain and save them in one folder I could back up to a CD later on. Should I need to reinstall for some reason I just put all those files into a single "Patches" folder and put that into the main AO game folder. When the patcher goes to work it finds the patches in that folder so won't need to download them, just verify and install them. 5. Start up AO, enter your account info in the log-in window, log-in, select create a new character (not that you have a choice), make a new character and off you go. . A-04 I let it Patch but it Says I Need to Patch Again . A-05 What do the Expansions Add? . A-06 What OSs does AO Play Under? Since the graphics engine is still based heavily on the power of your CPU and not your graphics card it is possible that it may play on a Power PC based Mac running Virtual PC or something like it, your results will not be that great though. Although for those with an Intel based Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will have an option that lets you install and run Windows natively on your Mac with usable drivers for your video card and other hardware so you can play games and do other things perfectly well. At this time Apple is open beta testing this function which they've called Boot Camp so those with 10.4 (Tiger) should be able to use it once completed as well. Official AO forums thread with info on running AO under Linux. Note: Anyone can read the official AO forums but only paying players can post in them. . A-07 ATI or nVIDIA? . A-08 Graphics, Lag and Performance Tips A new engine that makes better use of the graphics cards of today was announced and is expected to be completed in about a year or so (mid 2008 or there abouts). This is just an engine upgrade, at that point they are not planing to upgrade the textures as well but have said that it will then allow them to make things look better over time. The new engine is just the first step and should also lower client lag due to the amount of graphic effects and items being managed quite a bit as well. For now though the two places you'll get the most lag are while running around in player AI cities on Rubi-Ka or anywhere with a lot of players grouped together. To get AO running smoothly you'll need to tinker with the graphics settings available to you in the settings options of the log-in window. There are various graphical extras you can disable while in game (press F10 for the options window and select the Preferences tab) without having to restart like clouds, nano effects, environmental effects, client side wildlife and others. Then two other such options that really help are the two distance ones. Press F10 in game, then select Preferences > Visual > View Distance and move the two sliders there to the left as much as needed. Those control how far another player needs to be for you to see them (you'd still see their names floating there, just not them) and how far you can see things like trees, objects and the like clearly. After some tweaking you should be in good shape. Although if you know you'll be going into a good sized PvP battle or raid it would be a good idea to lower your setting somewhat ahead of time. Other basic things to improve performance is to have plenty of bandwidth available so something faster than dial-up and don't download things while playing. Also close as many apps as possible when running the game and you could try restarting the system before playing as well. Aside from that you can get more RAM and make sure the RAM you have is working properly. Even if it shows the right amount and everything usually seems fine some small faults in your RAM can cause system crashes and the like. Some utility programs have an option to check your RAM then if you search online for something related to "RAM memory check" or something like that you should be able to find some sites with those available. There are at least a couple decent free ones you could try, such as Memtest86. It's best to get your RAM from better suppliers like Crucial and all of the same exact type. A fast hard drive, lots of available space on your drives and a maintained/clean install of Windows helps too. Bigger drives are good for the space, but they are slower than the smaller ones so it's good to have two physical drives, one small one to put your OS and programs on and another for all your various files. Also Windows can act funny if your drives are too full so make sure additional drives/partitions have at least 10% free and that your main one has as much free as possible for virtual RAM and temp files. There are various apps like the Norton Utility ones and SpeedUpMyPC which will help clean out the junk and fix up the registry or tweak things to avoid at least some errors you can run into. Also one crashing problem that has occured with those playing free in the past had to do with the ads shown in game. Cleaning out the medicache folder in your main AO folder occasionally (as in once a week or something like that) fixes that problem right up. If you're paying to play you can turn ads off and then there are no billboards in the Shadowlands. As far as I know this error has long since been corrected. . A-09 How Much Does it Cost if I go P2P? Download and price info page. . A-10 System Requirements and Communication Ports Used Recommended: The ports that need to be open are TCP ports 80, 7012, 7013 and 7500-7600. . A-11 Is there PvP? Players can also be flagged which makes them open to attack almost anywhere and from anyone outside of their current team. Then once you attack a flagged player you will also be flagged. You can tell that someone is flagged when their name has asterisks (*) on either side, how long this will last varies (you'll find a nano running in your NCU). If you're looking to be flagged the easiest way is to attack a guard and then live through the experience. Easiest way to do that is to target the guard then hit the attack button twice quickly, setting your Agg/Def slider (lower right corner) to full defense to slow your attack rate isn't a bad idea. Lost Eden (third expansion pack) added the PvP battle stations where you can go for group PvP. You can also attack towers in notum fields (requires a shield disabler which you can buy in tower shops) with a team to get some PvP action so long as the org controlling the field can send some people in the right level range to fight you (the Notum Wars booster pack was added to the fr00bs deal a while back). A-12 Can I Solo in AO? |
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Phoenix_Hawk 4/16/06 12:13:19 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 3/24/05 |
Starting Out . B-01 What are good Professions for a Newbie? If I were to pick one I would say a martial artist would be your best starter character. You could then use that one to get the items you need for future characters and earn creds. . B-02 How does the Breed I Pick Affect my Profession? Nanomage: On the down side they will also have the least health of all the breeds and eventually any breed of any prof can use all their nanos. So for characters you intend to take to level cap there really isn't much advantage in going with a Nanomage, especially if you have the expansions. Atrox: On the other hand they will have more health than any other breed and as eventually they will be able to use all the nanos of any prof for high level PvP chars most people will go with an Atrox for any prof. Also limited nano is much easier to deal with than limited health. Opifex & Solitus: . B-03 I Just Made and Named my Character, Now What? You should see a doctor NPC standing not too far in front of you near the rock wall and a ground light, talk to him (right click him to open NPC chat) and that alone will give you enough XP to get level two (that only gives XP while level one) and gets you some starter items. When talking to him he will offer you a simple quest to find some local wildlife. Running around pressing the tab button is the easiest way to do it, if facing the rock wall the first two are to the right, the other two to the left. Do that and talk to him again, tell him you found them all and you'll be asked to do a second quest to go back through them and kill each one once in the same order. Do that then go back to him again and tell him you killed one of each. Doing each quest gives some XP and some credits plus two nodrop items, a light bar (best light source in the game) and a rather nice newbie NCU belt. The way the belt works now is you get one version of it at first then when you ask the doctor what you're suppose to do with it you'll be told to show it to another NPC named Antonio. Once you're shown the belt to Antonio you get the proper version of the belt and one small NCU memory module you can equip once you have the belt on. Before moving on you should level up some on the reets and leets there. To get to Antonio on the main platform from where you start run down the beach with the rock wall on your right till you get to a tunnel in the rock wall (second quest NPC is there too). Run down the tunnel and the one that follows it then when you exit the second tunnel there will be a ramp in front of you and a bit to the right. Run up that ramp and the two that follow it then once at the top turn left so there is a fence on your left and a wall to your right. Run straight and then up the small ramp ahead of you and you'll see Antonio (always people around him) in front and to the right of you a ways and Travis a ways further ahead (bald guy in black). Another thing you can do with the doctor is to exchange three of the monster parts you may find when killing animal mobs for a collection of basic low QL recovery items (last I checked you must do his two quests before he'll accept them). You can trade those in as often as you want to get more and can then stack the items by picking them up in your inventory and dropping them on those of the same type and QL (don't get too many as the QL is very low). To hand items in to an NPC right click on him then click on the hand icon with a box in it at the bottom of their dialog window to bring up a little window to put the items and/or credits in to then press the check mark button on that small window. Those med items will be given to you at a QL equal to your level plus one and cap at QL six. If you run down the beach you will hit another NPC at a tunnel with more quests for you to do. First you'll be asked to kill some certain mobs you'll find roaming the beach further down which earns you a bracer with +20 to your max health. Next you will need to find and select each of the mob bosses on the beach, these will come in order starting from the far end beyond the doctor near where you started and all along the edge of the beach away from there. Since people often kill these bosses though (for the quest you just need to select them) this can be somewhat annoying. This quest gives you a range meter which you could also make which can be a much easier way to get it at times. If you do the second quest you'll be sent to another NPC. This next NPC is on the other end of a tunnel near the docks on the other side of the island (go through the two tunnels near the bio researcher you just helped, straight and to the left from there and through another tunnel, he's just to the left once you exit the tunnel). He will ask you to collect various parts from different mobs and one basic island weapon in return he gives you an upgraded version of that weapon. Next he sends you out to kill a series of robot mobs and the two robot mob bosses on the docks. In return you get a back pack to store stuff in (right click to open, don't wear it). The order of these two quests apparently can differ depending on if you came to him from the prior NPC or not. Once the second quest is done he sends you off to Travis on the main platform. On the main platform behind Antonio and against the wall you will see a kind of vending machine like thing, this is a shopping terminal selling sets of early level profession specific nano programs you should buy before leaving, right click it to open the shop window (only one set for each profession, they cost about 1500 credits for each set). Then on the one side of Antonio are five NPCs. One is the neutral observer then there is a recruiter and merchant for both Clan and Omni. Before you went up that last ramp to get to the area Antonio and the others are on you would have seen a break in the fence to your left, this is where you can find the Clan medic and Omni unicorn commander you're sent to see by Travis for the island shoulder pads quest. Near Travis is a large door, this is where the whom-pahs (teleporters) off the island are located. Travis will offer you various small quests you can do for different pieces of newcomer armour and starts off the two island sided shoulder pads quests. Then Antonio offers items and tells you how to upgrade your starter weapons, the Clan and Omni merchants sell badges to upgrade newcomer armour if you belong to either side as well as other items. . | |
