Now that we've got a better TL4/5 leveling option: QoL patch?
So I just returned from a year-long hiatus to relive some AO nostalgia once again and to mess around on a paid account. My experience over the past few years has reminded me of a few things that I think AO desperately needs from a QoL and usability perspective. To preface, I know FC's AO dev team is limited in numbers and time. Nevertheless, I think maintaining AO's future is going to require at least one long had look at quality of life in various forms:
- Universal pref setups so we don't need to juggle pref templates and Char#### folders.
- Hotbar key labels based on bindings. For example, my primary hotbar would show 1 2 3 4 R V Shift+R Shift+V and so on.
- Perk icons. For the love of god perk icons. And maybe perks in general. Some classes are flooded with them, the icons are basically the same, and it's often not clear without a detailed info sheet reading what perk chains into what. Edit: In a perfect world, I'd love for perks to be fewer in number, more impactful, and more responsive (i.e.: acts like Brawl / Fast Attack - instant, no "cast time", with maybe a short global cooldown). Combat often feels sluggish while you wait for a series of perk actions to fire off.
- While we're talking about sluggish combat, dear god the fling / burst / full auto / etc recharges sub-TL7 (in most cases) are god awful. On my paid accounts, it's not so bad because of perks, but on my froob accounts the lack of any meaningful buttons to press makes combat so dull. If a further froob weapon rework happens (I mention this below), then please take a look at reducing special recharges substantially across the board for sub-TL7 levels.
- Research action information. I've spent probably an hour total looking up my research action information on AOItems to know which Fixer heal proc is better than the others and the like. Edit: Kilmanagh points out that you can now get a lot of info from the shift-click info screen, but I feel like more could be done. For example, show the perk actions on the Research screen and tie them with their given research item to get a clearer sense of "progression".
- Some interface which can lay out a profession's overall selection of nanoprograms in a 4X tech tree-style interface, including highlighting for nanos that can be used but aren't known, can be used but only with buffs (calculating things like Mochams perhaps), and so on. It seems silly that a newer player unaware of something like AOItems has to shift-click through a pile of nanos in a shop to understand what they need next.
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While we're at it, I've been playing around with a froob account alongside my paid account. I realize investing valuable dev time into "froob-specific" content is counterintuitive from a business standpoint (given FC's limited dev team), but whatever. Some stuff:
- I made a thread a long time ago about making Illegally Modified Ofab weapons usable by froobs given that they drop in a froob dungeon. I still stand by this, but I'll also suggest a compromise whereby they may drop in a "Damaged Illegally Modified XXXX" state that's slightly weaker and usable by froobs. A simple screwdriver tradeskill would upgrade to the paid variant. See the unpaid vs paid token boards for a current precedent.
- Clearer and better froob weapon choices in general. The - 000 rework from years ago was a very good step in the right direction, but I feel that the offerings in the weapon terminal could be buffed at lower QLs and pared down in terms of overall offerings. That list of weapons can get rather overwhelming.
- Froob money. Before I realized I had a few million credits stashed on a bank toon, I was seriously struggling to come up with a way to buy a simple *box of ammo* for my new weapons. That cost is prohibitive for a newbie froob - drop the price drastically or give us the option of buying smaller stacks or the old 100 stack again. This isn't getting into potential income vs. nano prices, especially in ICC and Bor. I realize that these neut prices were meant to be a money sink, but I really feel like new players are hurt more than veteran players are drained when ICC is the first place the newbies will look. Edit: Didn't realize old ammo stacks were still sold in neut shops. The rest still stands.
More to come in edits maybe.
