quote from dev chat form this weekend

[tasker]

gaute - umbrood: seeing as ga are going this way, can you give us an aproximation on how much of our current technologu will be rendered obsolete within sl, and i dont only mean yals
gaute - Ok, first let me state something!
gaute - ALL of these changes will ONLY be inside the Shadowlands themselves. Nothing, NOTHING will change in Rubi-Ka!!!
gaute - People have misunderstood this before...
gaute - 1. All treatment and nano recharge equipment will be obsolete. It will be exchanged with other, just as effective, equipment based on Spirit-Tech instead.
gaute - 2. All flying equipment and nanos will be obsolete. So will all other cars. (I guess fixer-runspeed buffs will grow somewhat in popularity).
gaute - (This includes also flying effects from Adv. Polymorphs).
gaute - (but there will be new / other polys for the Advs
gaute - 3. All grid-in nanos, summon team member nanos, evacs etc, and teleport to location (NT) nanos will be obsolete. They will be replaced by something, but we havent decided which of the (3) alternatives we shall go with yet.
gaute - 4. GA will not work as today. We hope to have a spirit-tech version of it ready for launch. It can most likely be gained through a quest. It will not work in the same way, but will still make the fixer very distinct.
gaute - 5. Some nanos will work differently. The shadowland beasts are less affected by some nanos than others... This is a more detailed consideration, that we do ongoing... More details later...

so we may not be that bad off
NOTE our run buffs are stil going to work
and our evac will be replaced
and a replacement for GA AND IT WILL BE A QUEST ITEM

READ THE CHAT HERE
http://ao.stratics.com/content/commu..._04_2003.shtml

[Logain]

let's just hope it's not a kill something quest
i forsee everyone and their fixer alt just camping for it while we poor fixer mains have to queue a long way back...

[Suricia]

A different version of GA? If they make it a kill something quest than we, the real Fixers, have no chance of ever getting it. Ugh, what a bummer.

[Trox Hooligan]

See! This are better then they seem when you are just guessing pesimisticly on what is going to happen! We are not nerved! I cant wait for this new GA-like item

Note: I DO however hope it is not a "kill for item" quest!! ill never get to the new item!

[tasker]

Originally posted by Trox Hooligan
See! This are better then they seem when you are just guessing pesimisticly on what is going to happen! We are not nerved! I cant wait for this new GA-like item

Note: I DO however hope it is not a "kill for item" quest!! ill never get to the new item!

if it is a no drop item it would not be a problem as a kill for item quest

[____________Alantria]

You missed the part where Butwalrus asked about the GA changes and was anwered were getting a weaker item then GA.
Weaker then GA plus better armor for rest is obviously a double negative, it still looks bad unless they really rework our abilities to be viable in pvp at high lvls without the GA.

[Hukk]

But the GA replacement can be worn with armour, they said. So is armour + new GA equal to the improved armour everyone else gets? That's the question.

[Njain]

I had a feeling they had something stashed up their sleeves. They can't just completely abandon an entire proffesion and everything that that proffesion holds dear.

[____________Marlamin]

Well the problem will be if every other professions recives same defence capabilities as us. Then the fixer profession will be utterly useless unless our other abilites gets HEAVILY upgraded.

[______________Shatai]

Originally posted by Njain
I had a feeling they had something stashed up their sleeves. They can't just completely abandon an entire proffesion and everything that that proffesion holds dear.

Yes, they can. FC already did so once, it was called the crit nerf. And crits, I might venture, are just that wee bit more important to MAs than GA is to fixers.

Yes, they repealed that for MAs. I'd like to see how good this "armour + mini-GA" combo could be. Possibly people could be just as happy with it as they are with GA?

NB: "at least once". I haven't been with AO since launch, so I won't say it hasn't happened before that.

[aiwass777]

Originally posted by Shatai
I'd like to see how good this "armour + mini-GA" combo could be. Possibly people could be just as happy with it as they are with GA?

Most likely not.

I hope that Funcom has half a clue and gives us a short-term defense buff that will allow this armor combo thing to work as good as grid armor for short periods of time. Otherwise we are crippled. It should be easy to code this one, the anti-GA nuke has the basis for it.

[eahenryii]

Originally posted by tasker1
gaute - Ok, first let me state something!
gaute - ALL of these changes will ONLY be inside the Shadowlands themselves. Nothing, NOTHING will change in Rubi-Ka!!!
gaute - 2. All flying equipment and nanos will be obsolete. So will all other cars. (I guess fixer-runspeed buffs will grow somewhat in popularity).
gaute - 3. All grid-in nanos, summon team member nanos, evacs etc, and teleport to location (NT) nanos will be obsolete. They will be replaced by something, but we havent decided which of the (3) alternatives we shall go with yet.

can i get a big fat "i told you so" from all the people who still had hope after the last dev chat?

on the down side: fixers will officially be the second or third most sought after class if run buffs are going to be as crucial to getting around as it's sounding right now. or is that an upside? who cares?

yay for run buffs not getting teh nerf! and evacs!

but if you want something on which to focus some negativity, try to pick apart the nuances in the phrase "hope to have a spirit-tech version of it ready for launch." what, exactly, is meant by "hope to?" discuss.

[Hukk]

I'm guessing it's the same way they 'hope to' have the NCU refresh bug fixed in 14.8, and the way they 'hope to' introduce guild housing, and they way they 'hope to' introduce kamikaze bots.

Pah. I need coffee.

Edit: changed 17.8 to 14.8. Doh. I'm living in the future, baby!

[Ketzal]

Originally posted by Hukk
I'm guessing it's the same way they 'hope to' have the NCU refresh bug fixed in 14.8, and the way they 'hope to' introduce guild housing, and they way they 'hope to' introduce kamikaze bots.

Pah. I need coffee.

Edit: changed 17.8 to 14.8. Doh. I'm living in the future, baby!

I think it's more like, "We hope to have something that can be integrated soon so that we can make alot more money, who cares if we screw some people along the way by not having all of the features implemented."

[Trox Hooligan]

It didnt say that it will make it a less effective item, just less +alldef. obviously its gonna have less, otherwise it will be waaaaaaaaaay overpowered. How do we know that we wont get a unique set of armor that is fixer only like all the other profs? Some of you guys are making your ideas about what is going to happend facts. And they are not..

W-A-I-T & S-E-E

[Hurrey]

"We the real fixers"

??

[roxstar]

don't forget rubika when SL comes

grid armor will still be useable

[________Labyrinthine]

"we the real fixers"

I'll try to explain this and I might be wrong. The real fixers are those that love this profession and play it out of affection. They care about the growth of a profession on a whole. The 'fake' fixers are those who made it because it has obvious benefits such as blitzing and possibly pvp (GA). Such people would drop their fixer in a second if it became nerfed.

[pudds4tw]

You do realise that you make it sound like GA is the alpha and omega for a fixer.
I know several fixers who do not use GA at all.
Yes, it is a great great great uber item, but fixers can do without it, they just wont be able to play in the same style.

[DaveDread]

The devs probably don't want fixers to have such a distinct advantage in evasive skills, but rather excel in other areas.

I'm fairly certain that the shadowlands GA-like back item won't be anywhere near the relative power of GA on rubi-ka, thus I expect that you'll have to adapt by using other items in your toolset (kiting, anyone?).