Comp lit, IP costs, and professions

[Mostadio]

I was talking to an orgmate earlier about DB bracers, tower planting, and twinking a while ago and it got me thinking about the disparity between the professions and how much comp lit they can acquire and the difficulty of the operation. The funny thing about comp lit is the requirement and uses for it. There is no single profession who has a need for higher comp lit than any other profession. Everybody needs the exact same values for the exact same purposes. So if everyone needs the exact same amount, why do half of the profs have it easy while the other half would rather scoop out their eyes with a melon-baller than twink it?

I mean, really. I can understand some kind of RP element that makes it so the front-line fighters have less technical proficiency than the scientist type doods, but why make it affect something as critical as NCU, and later, the ability to plant towers? The doods who made symbs realized that it was core skill that everyone needed and was put in every head/eye/rhand symb (along with treatment, which is needed in equal values by everyone as well, but who cares) (ps: dear shades, sorry you guys got hosed).

Why should soldiers/keepers/MA/advy/blahblah have such a tough time reaching the values required for tower planting? Or equipping NCU? They don't need it any less than any other profession, so why make it cost more and have it be such a pain in the ass? Why make DB bracer building a nightmare for half the profs in the game while it's as easy as eating pancakes for the other half? I don't understand the disparity of price/skill for something that is needed universally for every prof at the same exact values.

[MachSchau]

Simply put, its about choice and being diverse in the most smallest of ways.

[Djiax]

CL isn't the only IP cost / twinking disparity in game. Some exemples :

- Doc have it easy for symbs job more then any other prof, cause they don't have to focus on treatment
- Opifex on the other hand, have it easy in the abilities department more then anyone else
- Nanoskill prof have to go to a difficult TS IPing / IP reset operation to buil their Nano Controller Unit http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=253193
- Weapons based professions (Solja for ranged, Enfo for melee immediatly comes to mind) have it rather easy to use any twinking weapons they might need to use, while other profession requires multiple hotswap / implant support whenever they hotswap different twinking weapons
- etc . . .

So i don't know, unless you plan to fix all these disparities at once i don't see this as a valid concern. Disparities / non linear operation beetween prof / breed is part of AO's twinking complexity.

[Righteous]

And why allow a level 1 trader to equip a 6 slot belt?

[Demoder]

- Nanoskill prof have to go to a difficult TS IPing / IP reset operation to buil their Nano Controller Unit http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=253193

I think the original thought here was "lets throw the tradeskillers a bone". But, as usual, it turned out the way you describe here, and that's unfortunate... And yes it probably needs a fix.

That being said, if you remove the disparities in "buffweapons", that'll be one more step towards cookiecutter setups, as everyone will be able to use the exact same buffing tools at the exact same effort, regardless of profession choice.

[NoGoal]

I don't understand the disparity of price/skill for something that is needed universally for every prof at the same exact values.

That's where the problem lies. There are too many OP generic items.

How many players use:
- DB bracer
- Masterpiece bracer
- Inf Ancient Defender
- Inf Viral Compiler
- Supple based armor
- Def|AS hud 3
- AS pistol
- Token board
- ..

It's stupid. Your best gear should be prof (or group) specific, not generic. It does require more work when you design new additions but it will save you time to balance all the crap after.

[Xtremtech]

It's a skill like any other - and there are specialists and non-specialists.

You might as easily say that everybody needs to use implants, so why do some professions have better Treatment? And why shouldn't everybody be able to build the implants as easily as each other? Every profession (except NTs perhaps) needs to use weaponry... so why shouldn't they all have green weapon skills? And everybody needs to cast nanos, so why shouldn't they all have green nano skills?

It's not just an RP response to say that casting professions should have more facility with casting related stuff - and since NCUs are there to run nanos... they are casting related stuff. It's one of the balancing benefits for casting specialists, that they may be better able to receive more buffs because they're better with Comp Lit. and can equip a higher QL of an item as a result... just like a weapon-specialist can equip a higher QL of weapon or get a better recycle rate on a special.

I do have a problem with some powerful items in game, that require Comp. Lit but don't exist in a range of QLs. It should really be possible to equip lower QL versions of such items, so that skills variations have a real impact. The higher Comp Lit of the casters should allow them to access QLs that other professions can't reach... and those other professions should be able to reach lower QLs with reduced benefits.

As it is, many of the items in question are in fact reachable by all professions, with varying degrees of difficulty, which rather ruins the variation that should exist between specialists and non-specialists which breaks the skill-based nature of the game.

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