Hey Sharptony, Sturm here, and I know deep down you’re all about that action (and living that lifestyle), but many of us miss your videos.
I just returned in part because I stumbled across one of them (I think it was about traders, and big damage (boom boom)).
So what the frig, maybe make a new one about all the changes (good or bad). What say you?
Quit like everyone else. And what new changes? There hasn’t been any changes in nearly a decade.
“qUiT lIkE eVeRyBoDY eLsE 
” You sound like an angry little girl in everyone of your posts. Where did funcom hurt you? Show us on the leet doll.
Whats up Sturm
Hey man! Sorry I missed your message! Thanks for the kind words, it definitely warms my heart that people still think about me. This is gonna be a long post, but I’ll gladly answer your question about the changes.
I did quit like everyone else hahaha. As a PvPer, the game is a joke now. The “rebalance” made PvP worse that ever in AO and absolutely destroyed balance. Rampant exploits and P2W aspects in the cash shop, such as the nano cans, also drove me away. I won’t get too deep into that or my post will magically disappear. Also, TNET absolutely ruined PvP. There’s some very bad apples that enjoy multiboxing and griefing more than creating a fun and healthy environment that spurs competition. People are still trying to claim Copy of the Excalibur is legit at 60. It isn’t.
This is definitely more of a personal complaint, but I hate the new starter area and ICC. Also, recycled content does not interest me in any way and Awakened Beast Armor makes PvP very pointless. Even trying to find Inferno teams is a slog because most people just multibox it. I feel like AO has adapted the idea of giving the customers what they want the customers to have, not what the customers want. First rule of fight club; don’t give the customer something they don’t ask for.
My last point of contention will be complaining about the cash-grab practices. It’s AO’s 20th anniversary. Most games are lucky to see 5. This is a momentous occasion. How will they celebrate? Perhaps doing something special with community members and whatnot? Get All American Rejects to perform another in-game concert? No. One year sub reward XP armor to appeal to all the people multiboxing 6 accounts to level their alts. You’re welcome.
Even after saying all that, would I love to come make a new Shade, Keeper, or MP and love the leveling process and enjoy immersing myself in the world? Absolutely. And I’m so glad people still love and enjoy the game in the same way. But with the current state of AO, I see very little reason to return. The game is a shell of its former self, but maybe listening to the community could remedy that one day.
Sorry for the long response, but I hope I was thorough! I also put a video up on my feelings a few years back, but I can’t post that here either haha.
Holy hell, Kem! What’s up man? I just returned for a nostalgia fix. You still playing? What’s it been, 15 years?
That’s a good response. The multi boxing definitely is the first glaring problem I noticed. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, I’ve been having fun the past few weeks, but I haven’t tried pvp yet.
It does feel like the game could be repairable. Add new character textures to match the engine, update the GUI to be more modern (any new players logging in for the first time won’t last long with the jumbled mess) crack down hard or cheating, alter the subscription model ($15 is way too steep for a game this old). Add a dungeon finder/auto grouping thingy etc.
Good to hear from you Tony! There are a million things I’ve been complaining about for years, and I’m definitely not the only one… They should listen to the actual community and fix at least the most glaring exploits and issues first., and then work on the rest over time. Also it’s high time for lifetime accounts and/or making expansion content a one time buy, no subscription required. Add non pay-to-win perks for subscribing, like a cash shop stipend, etc and remove the pay-to-win stuff that exists now. The population would explode overnight. Not huge numbers, but exponentially more than now, enough to make the game profitable again I’d think… I keep hoping, because I’d come back in a big way, and so would many people I know that used to play. I know none of that is likely to happen, but a guy can dream…
Nah I came back about 2 or 3 weeks ago also… Im playing when I can still.
I feel it’s amazing that Funcom still hasn’t done anything about multiboxing even with all the complaints against it. I’m certain the game would see a lot more life if they just enforced their rules about third party programs better. I have no issues with people logging 6 accounts and tabbing between them if they want to do that. But having software handle all keys is just silly.
Hey man, hope you’ve been well, it’s been a minute! I wonder if they’ll ever listen to the community, who knows. I have heard PvP has started up again and there is a truce that no sides will use multiboxing for towers. I will say that grabbed my attention a bit haha.
Oh for sure, if people are 6-logging in a legit way, then more power to them. But using an automation software to literally play the game for you doesn’t seem right, yet everyone uses it.
I wanna say this is also a problem particularly at lower title levels, just because players aren’t using a MB tool its still extremely unfair to attack a field with 4-6 of your own twinks when there might only be 2 defenders online. I’ve had run ins with players who do this and while it is not quite as bad as simply multiboxing six at once, its unfair tactics to have a couple enforcers attacking a CT while your agent/trader is sitting in 75% waiting for defenders. you cant expect defenders to log in their own army of twinks to have an alt-tab 1v1 war, and even if that is the case, an alt-tab war hardly sounds like any fun at all.
edit: especially when a fully planted tl2 field will drop in mere minutes (before defenders can even show up) versus a group of 6 dps froobs. So this is a problem for players who want more fairness in pvp and notum wars. one player should only control one character in pvp (not including buff toons… maybe an engi warper, although I think that should be nerfed as well, at least put a cooldown on it or something)
Hit the nail right on the head there my man! So frustrating to see how great this game could be if they only listened to the community and made some relatively small changes. Not asking for major overhaul like they did in the past. And ffs just outright ban MBing in PvP, Mb has not happened for last 4-5 months but you still get idiots who ego challenge everyone and it’s just so lame. I find it amazing after 10 years of arguably one of the most unbalanced PvP mmos out there yet FC has legit done nothing to address it. They added a few new raids to increase the unbalance with beast CH and new items yet they did nerf the pdkp for PvM aspects………LOL. I’m the hopeless addict who will forever play this game so at least your smarter than me Tony and quit while you were ahead. I don’t really want to comment on tnet and clan PvP either because you couldn’t have said it any better. When you have a faction do everything in its power to avoid fun/healthy/competitive PvP and do anything just to win…….makes for a very poor PvP environment. Obviously all sides have there ego maniacs and problems but maybe one day it will come back to the OG days. I am stupid enough to believe/hope it will………Tony anniversary is soon hope to see you than!
This is the same old complaint people have been making since the froob program went live. At what point do you think Funcom will make some sort of change? Tomorrow? Next month? Because repeatedly pointing to the obvious problem - for more than fourteen years - is simply silly and naive.
Notum Wars was broken the day it went live. The developers knew it was broken. Beta players knew it was broken. But here we are in 2022 and people are still SHOCKED!@
+1