AO Newcomer and impossible OFAB and AI Weapon Upgrades

[Mihu]

This is not for Froobs

• i have write this for LE/AI/SL Player they have pay for AO and like to enjoy to play with AI and OFAB Weapons

**This is for Newcomer or Return to AO is still alive **

• When you have a 200+ Sugar Daddy, i know, you don’t have all this Newcomer issues!

Give it a try, play AO “like a Newcomer”, and then try to upgrade AI or Ofab Weapons, without a big GMI wallet, without a 200+ Trade skill character in the Backyard. And without a Team Dummy for AI Sector Boss Missions ^^ See?

Letz sta rz (i like the Leet King, he makes me smile)
After the Tutorial Map (you see your first AI Ship) you get QL L9 - QL16 AI Weapons, i have all Types (just to look at this shiny tingz) in my BANK. But all this AI Weapons need Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material XXX and some Trade Skills, with HUGE luck you find a Teammate to kill the AI Boss in the Tutorial AI Ship, and get Bio Mat …

Now we SKIP, letz say we are Level 15. Yo, we go in the Subway - With your Shiny little AI Weapons, but then with L20, you realize your AI Weapons “without an upgrade”, are useless. But you have LOOT your fist “illegal” OFAB Weapon in the Subway. Now we SKIP again, and we are Level 25, the illegal OFAB Weapon is not bad, you may use it up to L40 in ToTW…

SKIP again you are L50 and THEN your Weapon DREAM comes to a END! No AI no illigal OFAB Weapons any more, and you now, at this point you have to play with OLD RK Weapon’s… the Shiny Weapon Thingz are gone! - How to get this “shiny tingz” back in your Hands? Remember, we pay a Acc for this, to have FUN!

Think of it, even when i buy today a QL75 Ofab Pistol in the Battleground Shop, for 1100 VP, this Pistol is useless without Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material 812. That means VP is useless for AO Newcomer, you can buy a OFAB, but without Upgrade, you have no Fling or Burst or Fast Attack… like the AI Weapons before… This are useless Shiny Tingz

Well, Newcomer to LE/SL/AI, play most of the Time, with old Rubi-Ka Weapons, was that intended? (after QL15 AI Weapons from Tutorial Map, and Subway illegal Ofab) AO Newcomer can not play with AI or OFAB Weapons before 200+, because again upgrade Material is not easy to get. Because a Newcomer (or Return to AO Player) don’t have the Resources to upgrade a Low Level OFab or AI Weapons Now, I think you get my Point very well?

# OFAB Weapon Upgrades
The OFAB weapons can be upgraded and improved into 5 new versions
Here are a list of items you will need for the tradeskill
http://www.jexai.co.uk/anarchy/le_weaponupgrade.php

# AI Weapon Upgrades
Alien weapons can be upgraded to add special abilties, and are available up to quality 300
Here are a list of items you will need for the tradeskill
http://www.jexai.co.uk/anarchy/ai_weaponupgrade.php

To make it clear: Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material" has to be 80 % from the Weapon QL

And not forget the most Impossible Trade skills, - again - this means without a High-level Trade skill Friend, you can not Upgrade AI Weapons, in YOUR OWN QL Level Range, even when you get the Material and your Kyr’Ozch Structural Analyzer, i have test this with a L105 Fixer, and was not able to upgrade a QL110 AI SMG, to make it just useable. (remember, without a AI Weapon Upgrade, the AI SMG has no Burst) and - again - you need all this Trade skills to upgrade a AI Weapon:

4.5 x QL of Bio-Material in Computer Literacy
4.5 x QL of Bio-Material in Electrical Engineering
6 x QL of Bio-Material in Mechanical Engineering
6 x QL of Bio-Material in Weapon Smithing

And about JOBE Amor - “a try hard”, Newcomer can “maybe” get all the things for JOBE Amor
to upgrade this Amor to T1 - but THEN comes: “Right-click your Canister of Liquid Notum on each Glyph.” this is just a easy click? NOOOO This requires 550 in Quantum FT

Looks like JOBE Amor is a Impossible Task for a L100 with NO TRADE SKILLS. Or do you really think a Newcomer will skill 550 in Quantum FT, or give all his JOBE or AI Weapon Upgrade Stuff, to a unknown other Player, to Trade Skill this? (Maybe when you make a Player interactive “secure” Trade Skill Window for this upgrade Task… like in old times SWG…)

Please, think here of a AO Newcomer, they like just upgrade his/her first low level Weapons or Amor “before QL 150”… that is my huge Point here!

*Or will you say to a Newcomer - SKIP to L200 - make just a L200 Trade Skill Toon and go from there, or make 2 Paid Accounts, to have a AI Buff and Boss Team in the BY But that is not how MMO in 2021 works, “a brand new” AO Player, will not play a MMO like this, when he start AO the Fist Time, he will quit, because the Weapon upgrade Wall is maybe too high!

FC gives you “shiny tingz” a QL15 AI and Illegal OFAB in the Subway but then, they just forget the next steps and let you alone on your way with RK Weapons (not to bad) but bad for SL and AI Content.

So, how can a Newcomer between 25 - 100 get Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material - Type XXX ?
Without buy it over GMI - Today there is no Daly Mission for it! This Freelancer NPC gives you XP, but nothing for your Weapon or Amor upgrades! Nothing for YOU to enjoy our next AI or OFAB Weapons. Well, at this Point you are alone with your good old RK Weapons, maybe a Home Defender, or whatever you can find in a RK Mission or Dyna Camp. That means: Level 25 - 100 even 100 - 200, you play AO most of the Time, with Old RK Weapons (but you pay to play), with LUCK you get in between, a SL Weapon for your Level range. but thats it, no OFAB or AI

There is no Mission for SL Weapons or SL Weapon Upgrades

• the SL Worst Case is OUR good old Rubi-Ka Weapon, makes 20 - 300, but you need for SL 250 - 300 or? Grey SL Mob will kill you in no time… welcome in SL, your L100 Nightmare has just begun Keeper, MA, MP they have a bit more FUN… but YOU little Guy with a Rubi-Ka Water Pistol? Come back when you 20 Level higher and all Garden Key - SL MoB are GREY. That’s SL for NEW Player, when they don’t have the right Gear or Profession to play and enjoy SL and AI Missions.

@FC - Looks like “for me” you think, all Player have a 200+ in the Backyard, a Sugar Daddy for help? Looks like “for me” you have lost the connection to “New Player” Gameplay, a long time ago… in my Eyes AO Today is for 200+ with Billions Credits and all the good Stuff for Twinks

So tell me please, why is AI and OFAB Weapon “Upgrade” - Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material
not a possible Mission Reward for 18 Hour AI Day Mission’s? Maybe play 10 Missions to get a Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material XXX for your Weapon…

Level Up is useless in AO, without the right Gear! The 18 H Day - AI Mob goes higher but not your Weapon. Yes AI MoB in a Day Mission Drops sometimes a AI Weapon BUT HEY you can not upgrade this Shiny Thingz At the End of the Day i play AI Missions with RK Weapons, is it FUN? NO! RK Weapons are not made for AI or SL MoB… is just a very bad experience. For AI and SL you NEED the right Gear to have FUN-com

We have Newcomer Amor 1 to 200 (have just bought this Steam Amor Kit for my Twinks)
But what about Newcomer Weapon Upgrades 1-200? Nothing or? A hard Time for Weapon User.

Or is here something, i don’t see in the “very nice” AOU Tutorials! BTW, when you start AO this website is a must-see: https://www.ao-universe.com - without this Website, it would be impossible to play AO again “for me”. SL would be a Nightmare without all these Tutorials - Thank You! @AOU

What i do, to get around this Weapon and AMOR Upgrade? I will start a new MP, just with a Steam Amor Kit (no JOBE, no OFAB Amor), and i have just my old MA L182 “Mihu” in the BackYard and have blizz all no Vendor NPs, all i need for my new MP) and i play in a very nice ORG. That’s just my way, i will go to 200+. See, for now, I don’t like to fight with this AI Weapon / Amor Upgrade “again”. I will just enjoy AO and SL and get my Garden Keys, will just try this again. Maybe this time i will get a Inferno key … ERGO omw

Wish you all FUN in AO!

[Gentlekill]

big post with some true statements, but keep in mind that both LE and AI add-ons were made with aiming for TEAM action.

[Machschau]

The Jobe armor used to be top tier stuff back in the day and it just hasn’t changed to make it easier to equip. Back then you had to make some hard choices, now you can just skip it. Older, obsolete items and content will not get adjusted for the modern era.

A lot of your complaints come from you being a newb and not knowing how to play. People have been handing items to trade skillers for years to make them stuff. There is a process, you either A. Have a friend. B. Tip the person. C. Simply ask someone and they might be nice enough to do it for free. or D. (by your logic) Make another account, make a trade skill alt, level him to 200, then back track to the one you want to play and make him the gear.

You can literally bypass all the ofab weapon and kyrozch weapon stuff and for the most part use nodrop RK weapons if you are absolutely poor and dont know how to make money. The ones you get at low levels are there to show the player that they exist and to get acquainted with them and are not to be seen as the end all be all, must have at all times weapon. Or if you had some money you can buy some of the weapons from the shop terminals. However, there are potential stopping points along the road to where having those items will help a lot and where you will be at the right level to get them. What I mean is, dont just instantly assume that once you are level 25 you need a 25 ofab/ky weapon and the same goes for level 35, 45, 55 or whatever level you are thinking about. You level so fast in AO (in the early game) that stopping and wasting the time to get those items is stupid because that same amount of time you wasted sitting at that level to obtain them could have been used to leveling. Only time you want to stop and farm that kind of stuff is if you are making a twink that is going to be staying at a certain level range or in certain dungeons you want to farm credits for. Sector 10 is a 100-150 playfield where AI weapons and what not drop. Sector 7 is a 151-200 zone where some really good weapons drop also.

Your experience in AO is heavily dependent on teaming to getting some of the good stuff while you level. AO, however, is on life support and is essentially a dead game. Finding people actively doing content is scarce and you may have to skip entire zones that people use to farm because there isn’t anyone doing them. Your org might help sure, your org may be part of an alliance of orgs and they might help, sure. But the problem will still be there, and you doing content will be heavily reliant on your org/alliance scheduling and willingness to do various things. Gone are the days where you can log on and do whatever you wanted when you wanted. The answer to your question, “How can a Newcomer between 25-100 get Kyr’Ozch Bio-Material - Type XXX” is by forming a team and doing the content (AI raids/missions). But you and I both know no one does it and you have alluded to the fact that you cant do it by yourself so doing it solo isn’t an option (also a waste of time at lower levels for reasons I mentioned).

There wont be any new content that will address your issues. There wont be any new content in general. Enjoy the game as is, or hate it, or learn to accept it and learn how to deal with it/play.

[Mihu]

And with multi boxing team action in mind, right?

We are in 2021, go find a team with “normal” players “without” pimped up Twinks. (Today AO is a Otherland and 220, rules here) As a newcomer, (or returning player after years) Twinks can easily play from 25 to 200 (when y will, best in slot is easily possible),

Please remember the newcomers, pay the same monthly fee (better yearly fees) why shouldn’t Funcom support these players a little better along the way, between 1-200, maybe with a 1-200 clickable profession weapon?

What is also important, that people who learn AO, still get something on the row, without having to ask others first, if you come into the army, there are also no people in the team, who have a rusty old gun and wearing the wrong Amor, in Multiplayer Games like “The Division 2”, is a dynamic Team Gear level", that means i can play with a low level on “the self level” - like in GW2 scenarios

New MMO and older MMO have done many things to “Welcome Newcomer”.
Today, AO is not 1 - 25 and call it a day! - Newcomer Gameplay is for sure 1 - 200

I think the best could be just a 1-200 profession weapon, just like Newcomer Amor 1 -200.
Then all have a “NICE TIME”, between 1 and 200 for the dailies too. And when newcomers “themselves” level up, he/she can learn along the way how to make implants, how to trade, how to ask other players for the right buff (name) - and learn what his/her profession “needs” to be a bit better in the long run to maybe exchange the newcomer weapon for an AI, OFAB or boss weapon sometime. But with a Newcomer 1 - 200 Profession Weapons, you stay on the safe NOOB side, you can always do your quest with it, or even participate “more realistically” in LE Battlefields.

If YOU want to bring new people to a AO, or keep newcomers, it would be good to think about such compromises. Heckler Juice is a “very bad” advancement aid “for newcomers”, because on the way from 1 to 200 they don’t learn anything “by themselves” to play their profession well, or even get fun at low level 1-60 twink by themselves.

If we now had Newcomer 1 - 200 Profession Weapons’s

• that won’t destroy anything we have now, that’s like the Newcomer Amor 1-200 today
• all others can TWINK like before and will still be much better, because they know the game very well and also have all the necessary resources to do so, so they can continue to rule the AO 220 Otherworld, in all its glory!
• I don’t want to deny anyone, to have the best Twink, with best in Slot Gear, because Pimp and Twink, this is a great part of the AO game culture!
• that does not mean that newcomers in 2021 have to run around with junk weapons, when they first get to know all AO, LE, SL, AI areas between 1-200.

The old AO with “The way is the goal” was already thrown overboard with Heckler Juice.
But I find the way, where 1 - 200, is still completely played by yourself better. To finally make this way more pleasant in 2021, either via weapon upgrade material via dailies or even better more uniformly via 1-200 click weapons, as with the newcomer Amor, would be much better for AO as a whole today. So, if you could make 1-200 Amor (even already in many - also buyable - variations) it would surely work with 1-200 weapons, please think about it again - Team Play can also be better with it, if you don’t have people running around with very bad equipment

In the end: We can buy a 1-200 Amorset’s, we can buy HJ, we can buy VP + Token
But what about Profession Weapons 1-200 ? When you sell stuff, then make it at least “all together” useable, right? Please don’t sell this Gear pack with OE 50 %

In the end, is all about money, AO is not a Gift to play is a Profession ^^

[mhill0531]

AO has never been more newcomer friendly than it is right now. I’ll spare everyone all the “back in my day” anecdotes, but other than absurd price inflation (cured with the purchase of 1-2 GRACE keys), the game is insanely welcoming to newcomers compared to the past. And I was one of the people who played on launch day in 2001.

Almost every part of the OP (and follow up) gripe is cured quite easily and profitably with the time tested and player approved strategy of PLAYING THE GAME and stop worrying about how twinked you are at any given level.

Daily missions alone are so much better than how grinding exp used to be. Clicksaver means 90% of your nanos are free and earn you money/gear/exp while you farm them. Daily login exp boosters can help power through tough TL grinds. And for the majority of classes, good weapons and armor are entirely soloable. Will you be the boss twink of Rubi-Ka? Nope. But you can quite easily play the game 1-200, solo, and never give a single credit to the GMI.

Example - I made 2 new characters on each account. Ran all through Arete and now have them all in ICC. Took one to Subway on daily mission. Entered at 17, left at 25 when Abmouth teleported me to reclaim. Took maybe 70 minutes. Finished two research lines, and oh by the way, got the illegally modified Ofab weapons for the other three new toons. They drop constantly, and a little patience goes a long way. Is that early game? Sure, but playing the game nets me a pretty decent solid starting point.

So this first subway toon is a shade. Leave Arete with two alien rapiers. Leave Subway with two ofab vipers. Next weapon upgrade? Oh that’s right, Fear Forged Blades from SoM. Credits spent on GMI total = 0. Is my ultimate goal to get a pair of Nippys or whatever twink weapon? Sure, neato, yay for twinking. I can grind money to buy them, beg for teams to grind the nippy slither in the abyss and hope and pray, check GMI for what stuff sells that is soloable by me, or…and this is the radical idea of all radical ideas…I can go another way and just keep playing the game, comfortable in the knowledge that while not 100% twink godmode, I am still moving exp bars to the right every time I go stabby stab on bad guys.

If you really think about it, most players will upgrade weapons in the 1-200 level range like 3-4, maybe 5 times. On my keeper, it was the standard stygian/FBR/kyr’ozch path. Yeah, I needed a team in the Inner Sanctum for the FBR, but it was free. Bureaucrat rolling up on 200, and I have spent exactly 0 on GMI or with other players to upgrade my crat weapons. The CDR pistol is free, just have to go get it off the Lab Director. And oh by the way…weapons are like window dressing for a crat, since long and short charm are how you kill stuff without ever firing a shot. Same for engineer. What the heck do I need to shoot when my bot does the work? Same for my MP. Hell, make a shade and you don’t even need to sweat implants, and eventually you have a soloing machine.

See my point? Even without a new colonist bundle or exp twinking, you have a ton of options to just go out and level up a 200 toon without much fuss and no money spent. It just requires actually playing the game. The point of the game is, after all, to play it, not skip it with heckler juice, GMI twinking, auto-leveling armor and weapons, etc. You do realize that everything on the GMI other than GRACE keys and other store items was all DROPPED IN THE GAME by bad guys or made by other players from stuff that was…you guessed it…DROPPED IN THE GAME by bad guys. Remarkable how much stuff you can get, totally for free, just by killing bad guys.

Is the first toon the hardest? Of course. So pick one that gets around your weapon problem. Crat (loved by teams), MP (loved in ICC for buffs), Engie (loved by all for tradeskills). Any of those three can effectively solo to 200 without ever spending a single dime on GMI, and probably with the weapons they got in Arete. And any of the three provide substantial benefits to your whole account once they ding past 175 or so.

Too many solutions to a problem that only exists for the impatient.