Official Answers

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by Gummizluv
A lot of fixing being around and many old problems starting to be adressed, I wonder what kind of advantage Clans should get over OT ?

I realize that some guild advantages were supposed to be active in a distant future... but is this what we need now ? Would you be happy for instance to see a +3% XP bonus to all Clans when you are reaching lvl 120 now ?

Well OT advantage is all about equipment. CLAN advantage could be about stealth, evasion, rapid movement, xp bonus, improvements in Clan controlled zones (read better loot, more spawn points, more static dungeons), ...

What's your ideas ?

Ok guys, this is what we have planned. Clan bonuses will be given as available advantages for organisations. There should be a good selection of these bonuses. Omni-Tek organistaions on the other hand will have very few or no advantages available. At the moment there is no ETA as it's still making its way through the normal processes, but it is indeed coming.

I'll forward the suggestions you guys have supplied here as well. There's always room for good suggestions. I'm sure you'll have a few words to say about the upcoming advantages (now that I've reinforced what they are) so I look forward to your comments.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by Satherial
Subject says it all. After those dirty little things were added there's always a total of 1 NCU chip and 3 Android NCU chips in tool shops. Shouldn't it be the other way around? This is just wrong.

With the new tradeskill shops coming up in 13.4, the range of items in the shops will be looked into. One thing that will be looked at is NCU. So, you could be seeing more soon.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by Sigfried
THe Vector shotgun has me puzzled.

I used one for the first time the other day and the difference was amazing!

Before I was using a veriety of weapons, pistols, shotguns, hybrids. They did mostly impact damage, some used duck some used dodge for defense. They used variouse skill sets for the attack value, used different kinds of ammo. Some had high min, damage, others had high max damage. But they all had one thing in common, they did min damage most of the time. And when they didn't they did average to min allot.

So I pick up the vector and wham, near max damage about 80% of the time. What is it that makes it so good? It can't be just the duck for defense, I've tried other guns with that like the home defender, biopower, and others to no effect. Its not the shotgun skill (lower than my pistol skill.) I've got two guesses at this point.

1. Energy damage: I havn't used any other energy damage weapons, are MOB ACs especialy lacking in this?
2. High Max Damage: This seems strange. Why would high max damage make you hit for max damage allot? It makes sense you would see higher average damage but thats not what I'm seeing. Its either all near max or all near min.

Its a great weapon, I don't think it should be nerfed or the like, but I'd like to understand why it is so good so I can select other good weapons in the future.

Originally posted by Miir
It has to do with the way AC absorbs damage.

It abosrbs a set amount instead of a percentage.

What Miir says it true. AC absorbs a set number of damage rather than a percentage. I just wanted to back up this comment.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by Kohistan
For the first time I saw a fixer with the Grid armor on today - She told me it was perfect.. And exactly what it should do. Her evades were sharp and she could blitz missions like never before (Practically this is the thing a fixer should do - get stuff that others cant get that easy)

But then she told me that this disc was found by one of her Guildies and after many trouble she had finally got it combined - And she could use it. She also told me that her informations was that only 2 fixers had this armor yet..

Ok so the deal is that this Armor that should be fixers upper hand - Is Only for the extremely lucky ones ? - and the 99.9999% other fixers should just go by and feel like a deranged and worn down class.. This sucks -and makes me real real angry and frustrated. I have used lots of lots of time to look for this disc - and cant find it anywere..

Funcom - Plz do something - U cant contiually just piss all over a whole proffesion like this. Atm I feel like my AO life is just fun because I have some great Guild mates - I cant solo more than 50-55% missions after I hit lvl 67ish - and that is still with my toptuned and overequipped Mausser and gear.

U gotta goddamn respond to us fixers soon - Cant u hear the frustration on this board and on the Fixer Proffesion boards.. U gotta respond - give us feedback.. help us understand what u have in mind, what is comming to us.. we have waited a long time since u first promised changes.

U have used up the Fixers patients - we were promised "Super Duper features" and got a Crappy summon line and a Grid armor that is impossible to get...

Why is it that the Grid Armor is so rare - when every other proffesion addons can be find quite easely with some mission camping ?

Ok, in regards to finding the new items - The difficulty in finding the new items introduced (or the parts needed to make them) is intended. The items are supposed to be a little unique, and to 'force' players to look for others that might have found them. (This is also the reason for not making them available in shops.)

The new trade skill shops should make some of the componens for the newly introduced items easier to find. Other components will still have to be found as loot, and will be hard to come by.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by spydr


Yeah, but most people don't realize that both yata's and low-light targeters increase range of weapons. Also, I think the 'yatas don't work for soldiers' is more like 'yatas don't work for fling/burst/full auto', though I could be seriously mistaken, due to the fact that I havn't tested with a soldier, though my mausser can burst at the increased range.

Wanna know my argument against the 40m range cap?

The nanoformula Superior Nano Command. Now check out the range on, oh say, Ice Flechette.

Superior Nano Comamand (the 3rd highest nanorange buff) extends the range by 67%. Ice Flechette has a range of 25m.
Whats 167% of 25, you ask? 41.75.
I guess
Nano Cloud Supplement (86%) and Notum Overload (104%) also wern't supposed to be in the game, either. Much less the deck range increases that increase them beyond 40m.

Thats my argument. Why have these in the game if they extend past 40m unless the range cap is ARBITRARY AND RANDOM!!!

Agreed. With the new range cap the nano extenders above Superior Nano Command aren't much use on nanos such as Ice Flechette. However, if you take nanos like Tremor and Volcanic Eruption, Nano Cloud Supplement and Notum Overload do come in use. Granted they don't have an impact as much as before (on the 25m nanos), but they will stay put in AO. I've even been hinted at that they might have more use later on.

Now, regarding the plants being exploited. It was not only the plants, but theoretically it was possible to exploit all MOBs this way, and we can't really go about removing them all.

The nano range cap will continue to exist. I'm not saying it'll be there for ever, but at the moment it is the best solution. Please do continue to give your ideas and suggestions on it though. I'm all ears and I know there are some good ideas out there.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by Satherial
If you're a pet user then the title says enough. For those of you who don't use a pet these missions are practically impossible to get through without resummoning 100 times and pulling out half of your hair. There's nothing worse than running 10 minutes to a mission only to find that you can't do the mission because pet pathing sucks. =\

Booyah. The team is on it. Pet pathing will be improved, as we are constantly working on getting this as close to perfect as possible. Also, some dungeon rooms and dungeon styles are getting a close look-through to help with both pet pathing and mission variation. I've suggested that the catwalk one be looked at.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by ZenBeck


It does.

Its good to know you guys are on this. Is this same bug the one that effects the specials and the "wait for prev attack to end" when changing guns for special attacks? Or is it another variation of the "take it easy" bug. Honesty counts here

The 'looks like firing wildly while reloading' bug is present on alot of weapons with ammo, but it looks exaggerated with the launchers since they literally reload all the time. The bug is with animation, and is not connected to the "take it easy" bug or similar bugs.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by Konril

1: Fixers are a "rogue" class, alonside the agent. We are supposed to be masters of the rogue skills, and the ultimate treasure hunters, using breaking & entering and trap disarming to reach things out of reach of everyone else, yet traps and locks are currently so trivial that even a nano-technician, enforcer, or anyone else is really challenged.

The B&E skill will be put to more uses in the future, and should be a very nice skill to have in certain situations and locations. Traps will probably have more variety, and be more risky, as well. The Fixers will be at home with these so its definately something to look forward to.

2: On a similar line, fixers are supposed to be second only to the agent in concealment, but the fact is we are a distant fourth, because we don't have the concealment buffs of the agent or adventurer. That's right, the adventurer is better at concealment than the fixer even though their concealment skill is more expensive than ours.

Fixers are meant to be shady, rather than sneaky. They don't seek complete hiding but rather prefer to dodge in and out of the shadows. So, they rely somewhat on concealment but not to the extent of the Fixer, and so there is no concealment buff planned.

3: Our nano skills have the most severe cost of any of the professions, both in terms of how much IP is required in raising a skill, and how many skills our nano formulas require to use.

There are no plans to change the Fixer nano skills. So, nothing has changed on this front, but I shall keep leeting the team know your thoughts on it.

4: Fixers don't really have anything of value to contribute to groups at high level. We can't tank as well as a soldier, or enforcer, or even a martial artist or adventurer. We can't match the damage output of these professions either. Crowd control becomes very difficult at high levels compared to the trader or 'crat since we simply can't keep our nano-skills up to date. While we can heal, Fixer HoT nanos are expensive both in terms of IP cost, and NCU cost to the target. The heals of the adventurer, martial artist and doctor become much more valuable to the group because they heal instantly, with no NCU cost. We don't even get any combat-skill buffing beyond the general formulas.

The upcoming Fixer changes will improve the Fixer group desirability. I already enjoy having Fixers in my team and I look forward to the improvements.

5: High level fixers (80+) apparently get really screwed because the only way for us to fight is to play soldier and shoot targets to death, at the same time, the other combat classes are doing double the damage the Fixer is doing because they aren't limited to doing their damage in the "projectile" category. Most "monsters" are practially undefended against energy, while there is nothing out there that doesn't have a significant defense against projectile types.

There is currently one type of SMG which deals non-projectile damage. So, non-projectile SMGs are rare, but they will become more common later on. New SMGs, like other weapons, will also be added with time.

6: The fact that we are limited to buying 4 skill per level in all trade skills puts us at a significant disadvantage to the trader and engineer, simply because they get 5 per level, and they both have powerful trade-skill buffing nano formulas.

Fixers aren't meant to have their tradeskills as good as those of the Trader and Engineer. Those two profession are meant to have the best tradeskills in the game. The tradeskills for Fixers are relatively cheap however, which makes them very useful in tradeskills (although not to the same extent as Traders and Engineers).

So, some good things coming your way. I hope that helps define the Fixer role as there seems to be a little confusion over it. The upcoming Fixer changes will help further in defining the role and give you a much needed boost.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by gardner1
I am finding i am fumbling MUCH more now, and can be potentially deadly if fighting an orange, dark orange mob.

Previously i would get a fumble about once every 5-20 mobs, usually on the more difficult casts (Energy Projectile; my MC = 284, cast req is 258) I use this fast high/variable damage mob the most once in battle and use Feet of Stone/E.P./FoS/E.P/FoS/E.P. until it is dead.

I now have fumbles at least ONCE per fight!

This I HOPE, is NOT as it is intended!

Please, have a dev comment!

I will cross post this on the NT board.

thanks.

Ok, regarding some points:

1. Hate (mentioned by another poster). Some nano lines add a lot of 'hate' (aggro) to the MOB, some add very little. We do not wish to enclose which lines add a lot or very little, as figuring that out is part of the trick with being a nano user.

2. Regarding fumbles and counters - these have not been changed at all. However, I'd like to get some more information from you all so this can be looked into further. What happens when you fumble or get resisted? Any particular patterns on behaviour? With your information we get find out whats going on there. Thanks.

[Cosmik]

Originally posted by MorphX

After reading the agent-forum for a while I decided to put some of the great ideas in here.

I just think we need some agents discussion in this part of forum too. They need some change.

Thanks to Monstajugz, Fakewin and Canidy for great posts.

Monstajugz on False Profession:
Hi,
My name on RK-1 is Monstajugz and I'm a 110 OT agent. I am really dissatisfied with the recent changes in False Profession, and here is the reason/reasoning.

Before 13.1 FP acted just like tank armor. If you had twice the nano available it would cost all of it to cast, yet if u were a little short of twice but still had the nano to cast w/o the penalty it would still let you use the nano.

Now the FP nano lines have 150% na penalty. As you go up in the lines through assume and mimic, the NA penalty decreases. That is good. As far as the recent changes in penalties in NA go, I am all for it. But this is where I feel that funcom's idea of False profession stops being rational.

If you look at nanos of other professions, u see them outperforming any nano of a lower QL in the same class. For example, Essence of Titan adds more HP, STR, and STM than Essence of Cyclops. The only drawback is that it takes more nano to cast, this makes sense. You don't see Titan adding more STM but less STR than cyclops. That wouldn't make sense.

Now look at the FP nano line. The only thing that changes as u go up in QL is a slight decrease in NanoC. and NA penalty, and huge penalties in the amount of time it lasts and negatives to our nano skills. I don't see why anybody would choose to use mimic profession over false profession.

As a nano goes up in QL it is supposed to get better. I suggest:

FP starts off with -85 to all nanos, 150% in NA cost, and 1hour FP duration.
Assume could have -50 to all nanos, 100% in NA cost, and 45 minute duration.
Mimic would be -25 to all nanos, 50% in NA cost, and 30 minute duration.

Now THAT would make sense. But i don't see why anybody would dump points in IPs just to use a worse nano as of now. This doesn't make sense to me, and to anybody I've talked with.

Please consider this. I feel that funcom has overdone the balancing. Agents weren't that strong to begin with, and we've undergone nerf after nerf and I honestly don't feel the point in playing one anymore. We're just another average damage class with nothing to show for now. Funcom has made an RP game into a mindless ill-balanced Combat game.

Monstajugz

Fakewin on Aimed Shot, part 1:
Aimshot is screwed up beyond recognition, and now i am tired about FC tries to say this is improved and some moronic comments by players in agree upon this, now its time to give some facts.

I too the BEST weapon for agents at the moment ,well that can be discussed but from whati see its a very good weapon.

Weapon:

Agent lvl 108

O.C.T. 77a. Ranee, ql 188
Dmg 13-410(580)
Attack rate: 2.5
Recharge : 2.5
clip 5

Hud3 : Extreme low targeting scope ql 108, crit:+8%
aimshot : 720
attack skill: 605

I have different buff so i separate them into class these numbers are taken during my hunting of Borgs at Mort and while i am bored at clainyard,

Case 0: No Buff, Leet at trinyard , crit buff +8%
AS:
4676 7014 2338 2338
4676 2236 2234 7014
2338 4668 2334 2334
4668 2334 2334 2338
2332
Normal shots:
2338 2333 801 2338 2333 393 2308 2333 2333 2333 2334 256 2333 2334 313 303 159 532 608 2333 2333 2333 793 2333 1333 2333 2333 2333 2334 256 2333 2334 128

Case I: AT+VS, Cyborgs, crit +34%
AS:
1033 5032 2332 1033 1033 2106
1033 1053 2540 2550 2049 1051
2110 1050 2486 2441 2441 2449
1046 2490 2490 2096 7206 5006
1042 1042 2501 2121 2513 2110
2550 7650 4676 7014 4676 2226
2226 7014 2338 2338 4668 2334
2334 4668 2334 2334
Normal shots:
2338 2332 512 2338 2333 801 2338 2338 398 2338 2333
2334 256 2333 2334 2334 313 303 159 532 2333 608 2333 793 2333 2333 1333 128 587 134 273 201 376 314 84 89 171 445 463 2101 362 103 568 503 86 464 126 526 2117 491 558 680 2127 169 347 99 2127 156 240 183 282 2179 253 2177 635 635 574 568 2145 266 162 2136 179 32 257 465 2163 250 99 2136 166 89 242 557 55 2131 2112 2112 213 113 2150 206 302 241 2112 401 291 480 391 530 2140 622 485 309 2140633 451 2181 593 325 239 39 557 476 2115 615 242 202 482 394 334 655 639 170 629 2194 2154 2154 2194 2179 81 636 782 282 2178 253 2177 635 574 568 2145 266 162 2136 17982 357 465 2163 250 99 2163 167 89 647 95 401 186 256 2070 185 2193 217 438 2143

Case II: SG , +15% crit, Cyborgs at Mort
AS:
2486 2441 2449 1046 2490 2490 1046 2490 2490 2096 7206 1013 1015 1015 2450 1010 2450 1016 2030 1016 2030 1010 2032 1016 3048 1030 1030 1030 1030 2436 2436 1030 2435
2443 4182 1051 1051 1051 7520 3153 2102 5006 2500 2500 1021 4908 1046 1046 1046 1046 2490 1046 7460 2490 2490
1030 1015 1016
Normal shots:
2126 81 367 286 81 2150 148 2139 358 116 273 108 631 122 124 58 289 545 515 312 435 309 2117 327 2145 180 515 109 2099 268 388 669 161 154 174 669 161 133 2075 335 2104 652 604 169 410 439 410 587 635 2080 514 650 645 609 2090 402 372 554 40 120 2117 613 30 2138 224 53 276 584 397 62 466 571 631 499 610 233 118 632 2152 523 2138 209 2081 559 292
230 133 579 209 487 477 537 187 109 86 2037 64 642 184 90 254 549203 291 522 477 478 143 435 233 455 633 574 376 2135 542 117 300 156 2100 140 56 412 140 2104 622 645 248 558 2071 383 513 569

This is RAW material from which i am going to discuss the flaw in AS in detail and motivate why its so poor. So lookout for the sequel of this topic! I could improve the damage output if i maxed out shotgun skill, which would be from my estimate at most 10-20% increase of average damage ( concluded while using +200 trader buff discount already taken for rifle bonus)

Fakewin on Aimed Shot, part 2:
I want to start this thread with a quote from Kyoshi E.M. Morris, MA trainer in international Jiu-Jitsu,

"After u have pinned down the opponent with this technique, broken his arm, u better be quick broke is other arm too since otherwise you will have a pissed opponent at your throat"

This is not exact but the content is the same, the point is clear i hope and surely it suit this general discussion here.

Part 0 :

Shows clearly that u cant discuss AS from there value since they arent correct, we must take us out to real ombat place and as soon we come to green mobs the stastistic shows the similar result as below but slightly improved. Why this difference, the answer is : evade skills.

Part I:

It is claimed that Automatic target (AT) is supposed be the same as VS (Vulnerable Seeker) which i am not sure of. It seems to me that the chance for crit without any boost from eq is less than 10%, perhaps 5%. Here we see 77% crit for AS and 29% for normal shots.

Part II:

SG was claimed to be not functional for a while dont know wether this is still true. 15% crit chance for normal shots with +8 come from targeting scope. Crit chance for AS is 53%.

Remember, i dont know exactly the effect of evade skill, but if i assume VS=13%, Scope = 8%, SG =8%, Base Crit 10%,AT=13%. Then we get from Part I, that the evade skill mod is -13%. If We apply this to Part II for calculate SG, then SG = 15-8-10+13 = 10%. This proves nothing more than that the observation lies within margin of error and that we can proceed with the discussion with next part, damage output range.

I have been with NT, the real nuke in this game, they are very similar in game style as for agent while soling, in general NT is outstanding ( my own experience) in solo if u choose your targets wisely. Root/Calm + nuke spell is a lovely combination. Agent cannot do this due "awareness" which is amazing miss FC have done. If now according to quote, have succed in broke the arm of your subject, well i should be able at least broke it another time or make my AS twice as good the very beginning.

Why? As you clearly see which i wil discuss in Part III the distribution of dmg output AS is screwed up!

Fakewin on Aimed Shot, part 3:
This is the continue of the discussion,next step in my argument of why AS is screwed up, from what you see the crit chance while using all the best current buff is used you get a from what i understand a fair crit chance, i dont wanna argue what i think of what critci chance shall be used since i dont have a clear picture what model FC have for AS, so i want to discuss the general features of the raw data material.

From what i see people are satisified with this minimum damage, this can be ok against lower mob, green ones which mean 20% reduction by AS against a mob in which case for me light green, lvl 80-100.

From a quick glance it seems the AS works like a damage multiplier is added to a normal shot. And if the damage is under a threeshold, ie max damage ie 410+580+14, 1004 damage (havent taking in account 2x title I Projectile Dam rings).

What i react upon is the low average damage, its not acceptable, all classes with root have better damage output or similar. The first shot wether its 2k or 3 k in average is nothing compare to the total hp on the mob its the base damage that is most important then. In this case the average is close to the crit damage of a normal shot, amazing poor skill i must say, since i only can using it once in battle. For you who havent followed the development from Fc, yes, u cant after patch 13.0 with nerf of cloaking device make more than 1 AS against same mob.

Further investigation will be made using correlation diagram technique. However before i do this it would be nice if i could get more info and feedback from Funcom or player who knows this better about damage calculation, AS damage calculation. Its alot of work behind this.

Canidy on Concealment:
I would like to see conceal work like this:

IT is the primary skill an agent has and should be used as pets are used for MPs/Engies/Crats - IT should be a powerful tool that other's envy as only agents can really RAISE their conceal to a very high level.

1) When doing missions, conceal never just "goes off". If you are seen, you should have the chance to run "out of the line of sight" and then conceal again.
2) There should always be perception vs conceal checks, and make the mobs have REALISTIC perception levels. Honestly the only thing that should see a maxed out agent is another agent so a Veteran Clan Spy should have a CHANCE to see you, other classes probably shouldn't.
3) agents are COVERT, why can't we sneak into missions, unlock doors/go through water etc without conceal staying? IMO only combat or a perception vs conceal roll should break my conceal. You say they can hear me, so what if they can't SEE me they can't attack!!!
4) I would like to conceal work in enemy cities against guards. How can agents get intelligence if the guards blast us? Again if we do something to attack that breaks. IE in 2ho if a clan agent is concealed and guards don't attack, as soon as they attack or get attacked, that conceal breaks and the guards can step in.
5) When missions goto stealth setting i want this to have more RP stuf for agents. Make our conceal more about just getting cash from missions, high level agents get/have more cash then we will ever use, we like to sneak to FEEL like we are agents.

Basically make conceal a skill worthy to have, I would like to see shadow bonuses/night bonuses, as well agents should have a special SHADOW CLOAK (maybe other lesser sneaking classes would like this too) I mean you made a 1k token board have +200 conceal, why not a cloak that is rare or you can only get with a certain title. Doctors have omni med suits where you can get +80 to treatment/firstaid by wearing it, how about a cloak that does something similar.

Make conceal more worthy, maybe take the stacking agent/adv buffs out, but make a 1000 conceal worth somethng special.

Lastly FIX cloaking devices, they are broken.

Canidy
LVL 112 Agent

False Profession

Nano skill decreases go up because the other penalties go down. The Agent already has a huge benefit from the ability to use other professions' nanos, and we do not intend to allow them the use of the top level nanos from other professions.

Aimed Shot and Concealment

Still running after the answers for you guys. Please bear with me.

[Cosmik]

More Adventurer concerns:

Some more answers:

- A multiple melee buff will be included as well. Its likely that Adventurers and Enforcers will get it.

- Not able to walk through doors (pet and/or morphed characters) is a bug, and we are working on fixing it. So, this is a great thing for the polymorphs.

I'm very aware of the Adventurer problems, Brann. And I'm working on making them all known to the team. All the things everyone brought up in reply to my first answers (and more) will be passed on passed on, and pushed, by me.

As for the top 10 thread, yes, I think I may create one soon.