Am I the only one who wants Old-School AO/RK content only?

Anarchy Online General Discussion
#1

What I mean is…

I dont really want SL back lol
Give me TOTW, Subway, Towers, Cities etc… but I dont wanna go to SL lol

I just feel like Pre-SL…was BEST AO

I mean, to me it just really split the community to me. You had a whole map (Rubi-Ka) that almost instantly became uselss. I know the froob program came along…but the community feeling just didnt feel the same.

Its just made me sad watching everyone disappear and focus entirely on Hecklers and Ingots…I dont want to see that happen again…

Its prob just me also but I’d love a return to the hard-core method of permanent XP loss.
I dont know… I know I’m prob alone…
Hardcore’esque MMO dont sell anymore. I know a MUST for MMO’s now adays has to be “single player friendly” and fast leveling.

I dont know…i just miss hardcore MMO’s that REQUIRE the Trinity…

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#2

A lot of people clearly want “the RK experience”, as evidenced by the enthusiastic froob community and dismay I’ve seen expressed at them saying SL will be patched into the 2019 server after 3 months.

There is a market for RK. It is more “pure” than the many significant changes SL made that makes things we love mean almost nothing. I really hope that FC appreciates that.

They should really do some polling and find out why players play AO - and that is mostly the IP system.

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#3

AndyB said that the progression of expansions/level caps would be based on player feedback, so it’s a good idea to have a thread like this! :slight_smile:

I personally would also prefer SL not being released. I find the storyline and theme of RK far more interesting than SL, and by itself, the froob experience is a well-rounded game. I have a paid account myself but still mostly play froobs even on our current server.

Playing only froob content while having access to shadowlands mechanics (perks) and items (symbiants) is not as challenging/interesting since the mobs are not balanced for that.

A cool thing to consider would be releasing NW/AI/LE but not SL/LoX :blush:

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#5

This is not even a point of discussion. The new server is not going to have all expansions from the start.

#6

yea not from start but they will add them later. did you read current info at all?

#7

… you already have a full server with the expansions if you really want.

#8

Absolutely no point to unlock anything but Notum Wars.

If they unlock SL there’s no reason to not just return to live servers imo.

At the VERY least, don’t unlock the next expansion for at least 6 months after the previous unlock.

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#9

hehe 17€ /month for notum wars

#10

I’d pay 17€/month for Notum Wars. On the side of that I’d also get my main account. People who play the main game pay nothing more than they did before and get this as a bonus. Those of us that do not actually play the main game are the ones getting “ripped off”… but sometimes we’d just be willing to do that. Not to mention that most of us that DID play AO back in 2001-2003 are actually in, or around, our 30’s now so we do have the money to pay for the nostalgia.

I don’t know if you played at those times, but the content available and amount of hours required to get even close to end-game in a fresh server like that is… well… one month would not cut it. Hell, you might even need more than half a year to get even close.

As for the main topic - as if it didn’t come through already - I am primarily concerned with playing the game as I did back in 2001-2003. I can handle some minor differences, but I will be long gone as soon as Shadowlands were to be released. To me, this game is what killed Rubi-ka… and with Rubi-ka’s death, so did Anarchy Online die. By the time they allowed for glorious cities to be built in the middle of the wastelands they were merely tapdancing on the grave of AO (for me atleast) and ruining any kind of charm the world had. At the VERY least they could have made it only be along the coastlines where we had no access normally. But instead they allowed them to be built nearly everywhere, ruining the charm of small shack towns.

Anarchy Online Notum Wars has content for thousands of gameplay hours and years of playing casually. People seem to forget that what the expansions have done is not similar to what WoW did (or used to). They didn’t really make the old game obsolete, aside from endgame raids and of course some changes to the game it self. But Anarchy Online, or Funcom, made the whole of Rubi-ka obsolete. It’s sad to see that too many people don’t actually realize how awesome Anarchy Online was back then - before it was made accessible and dumbed down.

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#11

feature List:

Your organisation can control land and obtain game-play advantages by setting up notum-mining controllers.
Purchase or build towers that will attack intruders and defend your controller.
Service towers that fight for you and give you bonuses in both solo and team play.
Ground-based fighting vehicles add new and exciting possibilities.
Move around quickly and explore Rubi-Ka from above in the brand new Yalmaha flying vehicles.
Customisable in-game voice commands!

sure can spend 1000 hours on tower wars but is there any sense on it i decide not to comment

#13

notum wars is notum wars and base game is base game. notum wars is what it says on feature list. and i didnt write that feature list for notum wars so saying to me that it is idiotic statement is not really valid. and where did i say that is an expansion?

#14

Well u know without SL max lvl will be just 200, no perks, no symbs, not even AI… whats the point? u just want fr00b server but wanna pay for it? Thats a bit pointless…

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#15

“Just” 200 levels? I don’t think you realize what kind of feat it was to level to 200 back before Shadowlands was a thing.

No symbs, no perks, no AI… sign me up! Do you even realize what you write? Why would that come off as a bad thing for someone that wants a game pre-Shadowlands? There’s a difference between froob account on a full expansion server and one where everyone is once more back to playing like we did in 2001-2003. Maybe you didn’t play back then and that is why you don’t actually see the entire point and desire to play like that once more. But I assure you… it is one of the most rewarding MMO experiences to date.

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#17

Im playing AO since july 2001, so yes i know how hard and painful was lvl to 200 pre expansions, but i also tell you without expansions i wouldnt played for 18 years, cuz lack of content. So the original idea of fresh server like it was at launch is ok, and the expansions improve step by step is also necesary if they want ppl keep playing. AO is pvm game mostly and ppl cant live forever doing RK mish and Merc raids.

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#18

Yes, 18 years of Anarchy Online Notum Wars would have been impossible. No one is saying that it could have remained the same game for all that time… however it did handle expansions in a very poor way.

The returning people will be there to play Anarchy Online and it’s boosterpack, Notum Wars. Once they add the expansions, which actually killed the games atmosphere, these same people will leave. Given that Funcom could not keep even Rimor afloat, what makes you believe that they can keep the new server up and running once the playerbase returns to the same net total as it is today? They are OBVIOUSLY starting a fresh server with classic to pull back old players - all due to them seeing how WoW is doing just that. Trying to reel some easy cash in on the nostalgia train.

The game is not going to be around for another 18 years. This is likely their last attempt at making money on the game. A year or two more at best. What better time to give us the game of old before closing up shop for good? Two years of classic Anarchy Online should be well within reasonable amounts. Three or four would be pushing it and THAT is when I would start saying that it would be a good idea to push later expansions… but by then the game will likely be gone and dead for good.

#19

Shadowlands was great, the models, maps, and soundtrack were a piece of art.

The point is, everyone has their own idea of what ‘classic AO’ is for them, and I think progressing gradually through the expansions is the the best comprimise to please everyone and keep the highest number of people playing.

Having said that, they should leave good amount of time between each expansion so people have a chance to get all the end-game gear and have enough time left to use it before it becomes obsolete again.

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#20

I don’t agree to that it will “please everyone”. While respected as a game and for having a longevity unlike nearly any other, it doesn’t actually reel in fresh money from fresh players. Those that do come back for the classic won’t be doing so for the expansions. I won’t be sticking around for Shadowlands and up myself. The map was beautiful and scenery at times quite breathtaking… but it was often a nightmare to traverse Shadowlands. Obnoxious layouts of cliffs, hills and dips that could bring you back to Rubi-ka. I simply did not enjoy staying in Shadowlands… and I hated the weapons.

I am quite serious when I say that I believe that AO classic would potentially bring in a much larger income for Funcom than gradually moving into expansions. AO classic takes at least a good year, if not way more, to be truly “finished” with a character - at least with the old system. Mercs held a lot of the late game stuff and they were quite limited in availability. Even when you DID get the chance to clean out the entire camp for your own group (whenever it wasn’t shared between multiple groups), you had 20-30 people (if not more) gunning for the same equipment. HNT being the most coveted piece… and being extraordinarily rare to actually get for yourself. You could have spent months participating in raids before you got your hands on it.

Point is - if there’s an impending expansion looming around the corner… even if it were to be six months down the line, it’s HIGHLY unlikely that it would be even close to enough time. Not to mention… why bother partaking in endgame if it’s going to be obsolete? Barring the HNT, there’s just few pieces worth raiding for in RK loot once Shadowlands is released.

“Good amount of time” is not nearly enough time. Notum Wars is, as I have said before, quite vast a game. 200 levels with old school leveling would take a small eternity to do if you’re not able to play 16 hours a day… and THEN you get to partake in endgame. And then you also have other characters to level up.

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#21

I would dearly miss the Shade Profession and Scheol if SL never came back. However if it’s want the main player base wants I’ll probably withdraw from the new server and only stick around on it for RP reasons if I don’t get to play as a shade. At least I still have the current server.

#22

i dont understand this hype for rubi-ka. there is not really that many things to do, yea some merc raid etc but those will get repetitive and boring very fast. Rk in general is a huge mess in new players eyes. most of the zones are just full of random dynabosses and nothing else. And leveling too is mostly rk missions and those are very dark and maze like. Shadowlands has actual zones for different leveled people + a lot of quests in each zone and static dungeons. I see it being more new player friendly. It sure is more like modern mmo feel experience. There will be new players too playing in new server not just veterans and those who used to play. Game will definitely die if they keep it to just rk.

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#23

Then you’ve missed the point. This won’t bring in “new” players. This is meant to pull back in old ones to reactivate their accounts. The game is too old and dated looking to bring in “new players”. Also, if that was their primary concern they would just have started a fresh server WITH all extra, ‘un-convoluted’ content. But… here they start the vanilla game (probably with Notum Wars). They want MY money (and everyone else that misses the game of old). Us that cancelled the game.

Also, the game is full of stuff to do. Missions are always “maze like” which is why there developed a way of doing them - by holding right wall. Missions were harder due to people pushing the boundraries of difficulty… and that kept it more fun than it seemed to be.

Being “New player friendly” isn’t going to pull back the old players. I can promise you that exceedingly few people below 25 will ever subscribe to AO as a new player TODAY. It was “notorious” for being difficult to understand, relative to peers in the MMO market.

Playing the game in its classic form shouldn’t FEEL modern. It should feel like it did. How you remembered it. It was A LOT to take in. Hell… while there were tools and sites to go to, back then to find the answers you seek, you practically had to know the question so well you were mere minutes away from figuring out the answer yourself.

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