New patch equipment and character balance

To start, one aspect in character development in AO I've so far liked much is that the system does not favor the ones knowing the ins and outs of the development mechanics. If you're a gimp at level 100, the situation can be remedied with reasonable effort (unless you have made horrendously stupid errors in IP distribution) and you can correct the situation.

However, looking at the items most likely to be found in the low level and high level dungeon I feel I'd like to drop my level back to 60. For instance, the new implants look quite nice (like http://www.aodb.info/showitem.asp?AOID=204651), same goes for some rings as well.

It'd be quite ok if the new high level dungeon had similar, higher level copies of those. It's not a big difference, but I hate the idea of another character being tougher and having better equipment only because he's created later.

Anyone have any idea (experience with previous patches, though Dev reply should do five too) on the matter?

Well, I don´t mean to be rude, but where is your problem? Start a new char if you want to visit the new dungeons? You probably have a quadrillion credits to twinks him/her all the way up to 70.

I really think you shouldn´t be upset about this, as you at least can do something about it. In my case I won´t ever have a LLT. Don´t exist anymore, in fact never did on DNW. So as was repeated so many times on these boards:

Stop whining an play the game! ;)

I think the point she is trying to make is that a lot of the equipment in the low level locked dungeon would be useful for high level characters. So old players/characters are penalized for .. being old, while you would normally expect them to be rewarded for having a long term subscription.

I guess they could put a max level on those items to make sure there is a level playing field between characters created before and after the level locked dungeon.

Best solution would be to have 3 copies of the dungeon, with MOBs and loot suitable for several level ranges (1-59, 60-94 and 95-124) and make sure you enter the appropriate one based on your level. That way there is a dungeon for everyone (3 versions of the temple up to 124, and the inner sanctum for 125+) and suitable versions of the loot in each.

Doubt it will happen, and certainly not this patch, but its a nice idea I feel...

I must admit being penalized for not being a lowbie anymore does suck, then again they already did the Subway dungeon, so it wont matter.

You are not being penalized. That is the cry of the whiner.

"I personally myself am being singled out and picked on!"

Yeah, thats why they made those dungeons to screw you and you alone.

Chill. There is plenty of stuff. IE (THE BEST STUFF IN THE GAME!) That can only be obtained by higher level people.

Now I do agree there should be stuff in the higher that is not available to the lower and make the good loot found in the noob area obsolete.

Living cyber armor is great for non twinks, as are morphing memories, cuz they grow with you for no money. But after a little while they are useless. The stuff in the noob dungeon sounds the same way to me.

So please. We all are getting good stuff, and for god's sake.

Its not about you!

Difference between this and the Subway is most of this in NODROP. And not all of it is useless past 60. Still, you'll be able to get into the Inner Sanctum eventually, and from the look of the DB, most of the loot will drop there in higher versions. Only people losing out atm are those 60-124.

It's not a matter of twinking, and I'm only playing a single character. also I don't consider myself being solely picked upon with these changes. Also, I'm not complaining when FC adds new, undoubtedly very nice dungeons and items into the game.

What I'm complaining is that, as someone already said in the thread, that it would be nice to have upgraded versions (they don't have to be identical, but similar enough) in the high level dungeon to the ones found in the lower level dungeon.

Why? Because I don't want to feel bad about not having access to nice things they add to the game, just because I've made a good effort in gaining levels. I'm not saying they should make the items droppable, I like there being nodrops so that the lower level dungeon isn't run over by rude high levels stealing all the fun from low levels. There are those too, you know.

I don't want to end up noticing I'd have to remake the character I like very much just because characters who were created later are better just because of that.

As I said in my post, so far I'm liked very much the way it is now. You can make mistakes, or not optimize your character for the first 150 levels, then shape up and put some days of effort into it, and have your character emerge as good as those who have been twinking their characters all the time (nothing wrong with that either).

When I was still playing MUDs some 7-8 years ago many of them had character development mechanics which made the character tougher at higher levels if you knew how to do it. A simple example was giving out xp or development points based on say, intelligence stat. Of course many times, even if you were making a Conanish barbarian, you raised intelligence as high as you could, to net more development points, resulting in a tougher barbarian fighter.

While this item issue is a small one compared to that example, the cause of worry is the same. I meant to ask if anyone knows if a character who is created post-14.7.8.2 will be tougher than one created and levelled above 60 before that.

While some of the items in the excellent Anarchy Mainframe do have low and high level versions, some don't, and some of those look like as if they'd be very useful even as low level versions to a higher level character.

Usefulness aside, according to the icon in the Guardian Tank Armor for instance tell me it'd be an extremely good looking armor for my Enforcer, despite the low ACs for a high level character. Completely black, gleaming black tank? I love it! But I can never get it so I'm upset. Not too much, but still.

This was the point.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Orionite
Well, I don´t mean to be rude, but where is your problem? Start a new char if you want to visit the new dungeons? You probably have a quadrillion credits to twinks him/her all the way up to 70.

I really think you shouldn´t be upset about this, as you at least can do something about it. In my case I won´t ever have a LLT. Don´t exist anymore, in fact never did on DNW. So as was repeated so many times on these boards:

Stop whining an play the game! ;)

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WTF are you talking about? you think TTL6-player should start new chars and lvl them again only to get those items? FU.
those items are Nodrop.

most of the things in the temple ( everything i've seen so far ) have higher versions that drop in the Inner Sanctum.

i have a lvl 61 char that missed out on the temple by one level. i felt penalized at first. if i really want cool toys, i can just get my butt in gear and go to the Inner Sanctum, or start a new char since it is easier.

as the inner sanctum drops the higher level versions of this stuff.

i think the best time would be lvl 60-124 since everybody and their mom will be camping the living daylights out of the inner sanctum.

at least 3 professions get love armor, 4 if you count the omni doc suit (dunno where the hell that drops) and as far as i know they ALL need to camp the sanctum for a complete suit - yay!

guess that will clear up broken shores and the mort borgs a bit for a month or two.

What realy sucks with these new items is that some of them are nodrop AND profeesion specific. Wich goes totaly against funcoms stated policy about camping. but with these nodrops, Camping is the ONLY way to get them. AO is sadly turning in to a big camp fest.

Get rid of nodrops, The only time nodrops should exist is on quest items. Other then that every item in game should be tradeable.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Alvador
What realy sucks with these new items is that some of them are nodrop AND profeesion specific. Wich goes totaly against funcoms stated policy about camping. but with these nodrops, Camping is the ONLY way to get them. AO is sadly turning in to a big camp fest.

Get rid of nodrops, The only time nodrops should exist is on quest items. Other then that every item in game should be tradeable.

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while i strongly agree with the sentiment here, it is hard to tell a newbie to the game who, is trying to get an NCU ring in the subway but can't because it is camped by uber twinks there to farm the rings for sale, that he can't get the nice item because he doesn't have the time/cash/connections/whatever to compete.

Indeed, you get camping either way. At least this way, many of those campers will be newer players rather than twinks, and given the spawn rate is fast and no drop that rare (2-3 kills of a mob usually gets all the items it can drop), I don't see camping being a major problem after the first few weeks. (Remember, whilst many of these items are not unique, they are nodrop so you can't sell or trade them, so picking up more than one is pointless for most of them).

spawns are very fast
and since the high lvl dungeon has all the stuff u would want at high lvls that was in the first one, i don't see the issue

Hmm ..

I don't agree with this thread. Also, if one were to make three different versions of a dungeon .. Well, it doesn't make sense. And it takes away some of the exclusiveness that I like. No, I won't be able to see the dungeon when it comes, but I can manage without the stuff.

And more importantly, it's something I can look forward to with an alternative character when he/she gains enough level.

Even if you don't have an alt at that level, (and I haven't played much with mine), it is nice to know that if you start over, there'll still be some surprises.