Petition to Re-Open ICC Shuttleport(Original noob island)

Since ICC Shuttleport’s inception, it was regarded as one of the best introductory zones possible. It encapsulated that atmosphere and aesthetic of AO perfectly; the blissful shoreline paired with the exposed rock and rolling green grass capture the essence of Rubi-Ka like no other. As soon as your character loaded in and the iconic “Seascape” theme started playing, you knew you were home. That’s why I believe the Shuttleport should be re-opened. At this point, Anarchy Online is nearly 20 years old and I think the players have earned the honor of choosing their favorite starter area for their new toon to begin its journey. Please join me in signing this petition to hopefully garner enough attention from the AO team to spur change. Thanks, y’all.

2 Likes

No.

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I don’t agree, the new starting area is superior for getting players started and the old one only served the purpose of running straight through it.

Arete is marginally helpful for new players, I’ll concede that. But it’s a slog for experienced players, in my opinion. There isn’t much there to compel new players to want to play through it.

It doesn’t take much longer to run from start, get credit card, turn to credits and get out than it did to run from start to talk to NPCs at old island.

There’s quite a bit there to get a new player started, all from getting composite nanos, building your first implant, learing how to use a lockpick, getting some nice backarmors, getting the chance to fight in an alien ship. There’s also the chance to make some real credits from stuff that you can sell once you get to the mainland, which the AQuest bot message that runs will most likely notify new players about as well.

So in my eyes it is indeed superior in every way compared to the old island.

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Experienced players can spend the 2 minutes extra it might take to get to ICC no problem.

If anything make it a lvl locked zone that you enter from ICC if you simply want to go there to have some nostalgic feelings.

Ah there was a typo in my last comment. I meant to say there isn’t much there to compel old players to want to play through it.

You are right, but the same also goes for the old island :slight_smile:

Nostalgia is a powerful feeling.

yeah just open up Jobe + Island starting areas… for nostalgia … +make it with FFA pvp zones… riight! :innocent:

I do miss the airport you walk through, where they casually announce over the intercom that a flight is delayed because it crashed. There should be optional starting areas.

Also, they should really fix the default GUI layout when you first login. I can honestly seeing that discourage new people from even giving the game a chance. No modern MMO has that awful layout with an action bar in the top left corner with “exit” as one of the actions.

Arete is better for new players, Shuttleport/Noob Island is better for nostalgia. Should be given the choice at character creation, just like it used to be with Shuttleport or Shadowlands. And while they’re at it, should bring back Jobe starter area too. Let people start where they want, if only for nostalgia

There was never really a reason for them to remove Shuttleport / Jobe Backyard / Backyards as starting areas. They shouldn’t be accessible from character creation as new players should be directed to Arete and despite any warnings offered it’s best to not provide them the choice.

With that said, there are dozens of really easy ways to hide access to the different areas within Arete itself for experienced players though. The easiest method I can imagine is having 2 pickups like the Credit Card in Arete right in the starting landing area, when right-clicked, it drops an item in your inventory and if you right-click the item, it creates some beneficial small piece of starting gear. On the other hand, if you TS either of the items with your newbie shades / backpack, it creates a 1-time token that teleports you to the ICC Shuttleport / Jobe Backyard - if you want a real nostalgia fix, combine the 2 tokens together and it takes you to the spaceport and you can make your selection from there between all available options.

The items could just be, let’s say, a HUD3 / Util3 starting item.

Fragment of the Source - Util3 - Adds 1 to each Nanoskill + 20 Nanopool
Defunct ICC Launch Codes - HUD3 - 1 Reflect of all types + 10AC

An average new player will activate them, see they’re gear, and put it on and never be the wiser. A veteran can TS them into an existing piece of gear and get a bite-sized chunk of nostalgia.

220 ICC Shuttleport Raid for 20 year anniversary.

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I’d love to visit the old alien crash site again…

I signed your petition. There should always be a way to access the older zones, even if they no longer function or serve any purpose. I’ll never understand why would you prohibit access to such iconic places where so many people hold their most nostalgic memories.

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