Fix The 0-HP/Non-Death Bug!

[_____________Swahili]

When someone hits zero hitpoints, they should die. None of this getting up stuff, no more capacity to take additional damage, no ability to run off and recover. You should die. Period. And it should be a standard AO death in that it takes just a second too long and is overly dramatic. It's one of those fundamental principles, right?

Whatever the case, I've been hearing about this recent bug/exploit wherein you don't die upon hitting 0 HP. Rather, you just sort of fight on, taking unlimited damage in the process. I'd read about it in numerous threads in these forums, I'd heard accounts from guildmates, but I'd never seen it until last night. Yep, some few hours ago in Camelot, I got to see this bug/exploit/display of uberness in action. I went, I saw, I took screenies, I laughed about it. I assumed it was just another silly bug, the kind we've all grown used to. I even joked about it in this very forum, as you can read in http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sh...threadid=37131.

Alas, just moments ago, I came across a lowly level 90 MA soloing multiple 150+ Cyborgs at once. He had no hitpoints yet somehow managed to fight on, racking up XP all the while. Funny. I get within 40m of any of those same borgs and am suddenly at 70%, yet here is this one single Clanner making me look like a gimp! I mean, I know I'm a gimp next to most MA's, but they're usually my level and quite experienced. No, no. This was an exploit, plain and simple.

Now, I don't care what you personally may or may not want to call this 0-HP non-death situation. What I saw last night with Nubs, well, I chalked it off to the bug category. But what I witnessed moments ago, that was exploiting. Call it what you will, this needs to be fixed.

As it is, it is starting to seem that AO is having some serious issues retaining people. Or have none of you noticed all the high level farewells from the last two weeks?? This stuff right here, this exploiting, this will kill AO in no time at all. Why should anyone PVP when there is the chance that some foolio isn't going to die, even when he gets down to zero hitpoints?? What's the value in anyone obtaining 200 when someone else can go solo multiple medusas at level 100 and bypass all the hard work in a matter of a couple weeks??

Funcom, I am still enjoying AO despite all my complaints. I have no intention of leaving it until the bitter end, but this is pathetic and you all really need to figure out what is happening and then you need to fix it.

As for you Lost Chapter guys, well, I know some of you are probably innocents in all this, but I trust you know the saying about a couple bad apples spoiling the bunch.

[Jayde]

I DON'T want them to fix it in the way your suggest. Why? Because it (typically) is a result of LAG.

Every time it has happened to me, it has been because I have zoned, however the server still held me in the zone even after I was "changing areas" and I got hammered by 4 or 5 hits while in limbo. I DON'T WANT THIS TO KILL ME.

AO has enough lag deaths as it is, let alone making this one work "as intended." If you want a real fix, make sure those phantom hits don't happen, and you'll never see it.

Also, you exaddurate the ability to exploit this glitch. First off, the most any monster can give is 10% XP. Meaning, in the best case scenario, you have to kill 10 enemies to level. Now, I have seen situations where people could freely attack MOBs without worry of dying. I have seen people get into positions where the ICC guards couldn't attack back, and the Enhanced Shark in Athen is another good example. I watched a level 112 soldier with crit buffs take almost 20 minutes to kill one of the level 190-200 Female High Commanders in ICC.

Even if they DID give XP, 10-20 minutes for 10% XP is not a good deal at all. Take a good team into a hard team mission, and you will level MUCH faster. I gained 3 levels in just over an hour (along with 12 other people--so a combined 36 levels worth of XP spread around) with a good pair of teams taking a 200-man high-level mission. There is no way someone could solo a super-hard mob that quickly to gain XP, even if they did have infinite HP.

There are much more effective ways to power-level, as well. And very few involve anything remotely considered an "exploit."

-Jayde

[_____________Swahili]

Thanks for the reply, Jayde. Now, can you do me a favor and tell the handful of Clansman I came across in Mort today who were all soloing mobs well beyond their levels? Nothing like an 80 Agent taking on a couple 160+ Mantises. Fortunately, he was kind enough not to kill me though he easily could have. We laughed about it and went our different ways.

[Nullifax]

How about this: stand in a cyborg camp with autoattack on and just walk away from your computer. Watch a movie, eat dinner, have a few beers, come back a few hours later and suddenly you find you've gained like 20 levels. Kinda nice if you ask me.

While we're at it, they should just have level terminals in the game. These would be terminals where you click on them and they give you a level. Or better yet, so you don't have to click so many times, just type in the number of levels you'd like to get and it gives it to you. Yeah, that would make everything REALLY fun!

Seriously though, this is some bad mojo.

[megaram]

Unless I got the crappy version of the bug... You do not get XP from kills in this state... only loot.

I was trapped in Newland for over 2 hours until a friendly ARK helped me warp out.

-Mega

[Nullifax]

If you don't get XP in this state, you could still try keeping your char camped at some rare aggroeing Unique for a while like the Tarrasque or something. Or maybe you could go hang out at the Humungous Baraton. So far that mob hasn't dropped anything worthwhile, but seeing as how I've never seen Plumbo drop anything, and Plumbo supposedly drops the rust-pitted ring, maybe Humungous drops something decent once every 100 or so kills. Who knows, for all we know maybe he drops a QL 200 Juggernaut Maintenance Console (+40 treatment, goes in a wrist slot).

[___________Solinarus]

Strange- this has happened once or twice to me, but I passed it off as an oddity and healed up.
Maybe this is a good spot to mention this- I passed off having 0 hp and being alive, because my total hp when completely healed tends to be 3 hp above my max hp. Not sure why, but I guess I assumed it worked the other way too- since I was three above, I should actually die at -3 rather than 0. Maybe it has to do with the number weirdness funcom has (weapons need +1 from the documented skill to equip, grid requres +1 from the actually required skill to use). Has anyone else noticed that about their HP?