who else in this thread's name starts with shadow? seriously? yes im talking to you.
if you used bow way back in the day then you should know bow's with AS is nothing new for mp's, i dont understand your problem.
even with the tigers stats agents still do more dmg, our AR dmg is nerfed and i've never seen a mp with tigress critical like a agent can and often do.
you're stuck on the tigress stats but if you look at the dmg it's still far inferior to what agents carry around.
like you said sacrifices have to be made if you want lots of AS as a mp.
as for our pets.. tell it to FC not us, depending on the situation pets usually only make up 50% or less of our dmg, how sad is that? and no thats not because of the tigress im talking over several weapon choices.
a pet only mp will be at the bottom of the dd list, right down there with doc's and traders, only mp's dont have the valuable nano skill set that doc's have.. our heal pet can't even compare to a doc, and we can't mezz or wrangle like trader.
our PvM NSD is worthless on 98% of the mobs out there, most mobs are either immune or has no actual effect in stopping them from doing something.
not to mention it's hard to land on red mobs (which are the ones you're most likely to actually need it) our enhanced NSD has good land rates but only works for PvP, again most mobs dont even care about nsd anyway.
our dmg debuff line is actually slightly helpful, i say slightly because when you're dealing with mobs handing out 5 or 6k+ dmg throwing -920 on them ain't so fantasic, doc's with UBT can get more done then our dmg reduction.
we need that weapon to boost dmg in a team to keep us in the middle.
then we have PvP which is another ball of wax, granted pet pathing has been greatly improved, but a weapon of your own is still needed, pets can be kited pretty easily, they are pretty easy to land nanos on.. Pets are a blessing and a curse, and a weak point in which every mp no matter how twinked will always share since other then RS pets do not improve given the same buffs from one mp to another that area will always be the same.
except a 2 grafts and a perk, CoC is nice in pvp to let pets catch up but is hard to land, has long recharge, short duration so it's a big gamble.. which leaves other better options on the table.
anyway as for agents loosing their identity i agree they should'nt just add AS to every weapon in the game, i agree with this, my only objection was shadows attitude like tigress started it all for mp's with bow.. when bow has had AS for a long time.
i would suggest they give agents a 2nd aimed shot based attack.. like advy and shades get with sneak attack (they get back stab) this of course does'nt work usually in pvp unless they're attacking someone else which usually is not the case.
perhaps something like "follow up" if target is'nt moving you can do a smaller aimshot after the first aim shot, say cap it at 3k
but then i thought.. sneak attack has a cap of 40 seconds.. so i can't see any justification for giving agents a 2nd "aimed shot" like attack when it caps so much lower.
i dont know what to tell you agents, i'd be in favor of moving AS cycle cap to 15-20 for every one else but agents, thats about the best i can do.
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OK!!! If we are getting a sweet ass ride in AO, I wanna be able to pick up some Opifex chicks in the passenger side
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All this AS stuff and whining is really only an expression of the nature of a game as old as AO.
Really, the best games are ones where "normal" damage =90% of your total damage and specials are just that.. SPECIAL.
However as games age the inflate. We got Perks.. then perk alphas.. then everyone got HP boosts so to be effective you needed more damage... and onward it goes as everyone seeks to have capped, Sneak Attack, Aimedshot, full auto and burst on an enfo.
Means.. seriously. Its absurd. You can either continue on our merry path.. or you could swing the biggest nerfbat ever seen in AO and knock everyone to the ground with a massive special nerf trippling or quadrupling. the cycle time on them across the board. Make ACs matter. And shift the game back to normal damge. Remove damage from PERKS. Thats right.. remove perk damage. Perks should be perks.. not primary damage means. Thats how 2he became so imballanced compaired to 2hb. 2HE strength was in its PERKS. This would go hand in hand with game wide nerfs on bonuses even to AI armor. The poking holes in AI armors. Add in suit penalties or something: This armor is made from Alien Bio Material, a living thing. However it is not fully compatable with human DNA and NANOBOTS and as such the more of it on the person the less controlled it is and the player recieves diminished returns. A full suit would still be good, but would suddenly not be as it is. OF course I am also for the mass-deequiping of every player in game to force out any sploited twinks.. but again that would /quit alot of people. SO you would need to /command Funcom Corporate Budget Request Form 10000000, reason: Advertising.
If anything the only damage perks should be for special profs like shades. Which actually makes sense.. oddly enough shades should be perkmobiles its how they were made. Perks should be small bonuses to help a prof in one area or another. AKA. the bonuses and benies we see in the GENERAL perks should be the template by which all perks are managed (SMALL bonuses that can add up).
Course the player bases WhineClub would hunt you down and eat your children. But sometimes its better to do the right thing than to be loved. Its better to do the right thing in the long picture and be hated in the short term.
If even half that stuff happened, AO would collapse. It's currently riding itself on the free rein that all the points Meaty's made is giving players, and any cutoff with that would kill subscriptions very fast.
On that note, I hope they get the new engine done before they start an advertising blitz--otherwise we'll get nothing more than two weeks of extra crowds on newbie island and totw, followed by a return to curren t(or lower) populations. (You have to fix the reasons why people left before you can get a new crowd to stay.)
The problem is the fix is what I suggested.
The gameplay is old fashioned and very stale. Our tottering tower of power is unappealing to new players.
To get new players we need to fix whats wrong. (like the AS debate)
Fixing what is wrong will kill the game.
Yeah.. its just screwed.....
meatybtz for spokesperson y0 heh.
Yeah they really could(should?) start an ao 2 on a new server and advertise that one.
With the fixed, and balanced game engine.
Let the ones who want to stay on the stagnant servers do so.
Hell lets just do a p-base wipe.
The ones who have all the cool stuff tell everyone else how easy it is to do so they shouldn't mind
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My corporate slavery came with a shiny decoder ring.
screw that, they make a ao2 they better let us import our chars, i ain't starting over.
although "the secret world" looks pretty cool, but fc has a not so good track record with new releases.
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They did say Aimed Shot would get adjusted and it looks like the new AS pistol is suppose to be the new/updated craphandler we were told was coming. Although what they should do since they have added another AS weapon which will be used by many profs is adjust AS now as well. When we see what the new AS is suppose to be like it may cause the extreme whining caused by the AS pistol to die down some at least.
In regards to meatybtz's post:
The reason specials become such a big deal is that at 220 there are those running around able to use just about all of them through hot swapping as they have enough IP and bonuses from symbs, imps, gear, etc... to use just about all of them well. Heck, some enfs or shades use AS at times. They shouldn't restrict certain specials to certain profs as that would go against the open ended aspect of AO but they could adjust how well each special can work for each prof as some have suggested. It would be things like better/worse recharge times, higher/lower multipliers, max number of bullets hit with full auto and burst (burst is three normal hits), etc... This way all profs could use all the special but the "main intended" prof/profs would do the best damage with it and have the best recharge time.
With perk damage I don't really think that needs to be stripped for all but shades. Imagine how long high lvl huge health bar mob fights would take if most profs lost perk attacks and all weapon specials cycled far longer. With things as they are some profs can only stand a chance against others due to what perk specials they have. Instead they could adjust some of the PvP mechanics since that's what you're basing your argument for that and the change to specials on.
The problem we're having now is much of the old rules from the start of AO are still in use but people have a whole lot more than they did then. Symbs can give far more bonuses than imps. They have added twenty extra levels which works more like an extra hundred. Gear with bonuses to all sorts of things have been added in excess. Then perks and research can add many added bonuses and attacks. So they need to go back and update the old rules of how things work or strip a lot of those added things. Obviously the second would cause so much trouble they'd be insane to do so meaning changing the rules is the best option.
AO 2:
In regards to AO 2 that really does not seem necessary or wise. With a MMORPG all sorts of things or really everything is subject to change. So if the problem is some aspects of AO as it is rather than scrap the whole thing and start over may as well just adjust those things. A new version of a MMORPG is done if they want to take the title into a new direction making the game into a new beast entirely for the most part. So if they make another AO it's certain to be a dumbed down version as that is the trend of MMORPGs and what they've done with AO some already. So twinking and other things that define AO and turn people away due to the learning curve would be gone or nerfed to near oblivion. Then there's the community split, some would stick with the first, others would leave for the second. Look at AoC and the problems over there. Look at what happened with Ashren's Call 2. The world economy sucks right now so people and businesses are looking to spend less, not more. Things are running fairly smoothly over here, things are getting done and fixed so just let them fix up and update AO.
Last edited by PhoenixOfAges; May 17th, 2009 at 19:05:34.
Maybe AO2 sounds too radical with much resources to be invested.
Nevertheless the background idea is to clean the game of grinding and offer a more entertaining way to fight mobs.
Will that drive away people?
I bet the new engine will not bring many new gamers.
I don't see people who left the game complaining about engine but about the game play in general.