Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on ****ing up old content with what made AO a great game in the first place. This thread will cover a variety of topics i think can use a little attention.
This document is intended to demonstrate various new and creative ideas to encourage player teaming and bring a sense of teamwork and dependance back into the community as a whole. The Anarchy Online community has drawn away from teaming with each other to gain levels and in general to help each other due to the soloing ability of the game that is present everywhere. Content designs in this section are intended to entertain the community, bring new life into the game with new rewards and attempt to remove or seriously diminish the act of pocketing and introverted activities. As we all know, before Shadowlands and even shortly after it's release, teaming with your friends was the core of the game, and it is my intention demonstrate how we can bring that back.
When we think back to a time before the Shadowlands, team missions were the core of the game by which players interacted with each other daily to gain levels and acquire rewards/resources directly used in the development of their characters. Teaming was not only useful but Entertaining due to this fact. Players would wait hours just forming a team and do so all night long to get what they needed accomplished. Player interaction was at a high point for all the a fore mentioned reasons. Starting with Shadowlands missions I propose the following : Bearing in mind that every proposal Stems from the need to be Entertained to capture and keep players attention!
1. Missions able to be pulled in Shadowlands should offer the same types of rewards that are offered on Rubi-Ka however, with a different approach.
• In the dialogue with the mission npc(s) in the various gardens should pop up the traditional Sliders that you get at RK mission terminals. Difficulty slider does not necessarily need to be a choice but it would certainly help. The other 6 Sliders should definitely be included before accepting the difficulty of your mission. Variety of monsters, xp, rewards, credits, etc and the general randomization of missions is a necessity toward gaining the player's attention and sense of worth that they are accomplishing more than just the daily monotonous grind. Proposed randomization of mission appearances will be covered in a later section of this article.
• NPC's should be present in all garden's for the possibility of pulling team missions as with the other gardens and should be named appropriately. Example : Aban-Fala of Destiny, Aban Fala of Adventure, something clearly to indicate this is the guy you talk to to get missions.
• What types of rewards should we offer and how do we choose what to give the players? Standard SL mission rewards should be very similar to RK mission rewards. 5 players in the team, 5 rewards etc. Standard rewards for completing a mission should be as follows:
◦ Nano Formulas: Found in the IPS building in the harbor, market and plaza should be common drop on monsters and chests being killed throughout your mission. Nano formula's of higher ql that are not “high -priority” nano's found in the garden vendor's should also be subject to drop on mobs but perhaps more so in chests and definitely as the typical mission reward for completing the mission. Nano formulas of “high-priority” found in garden vendor's should drop in the boss loot (Havel Van Dummy) on occasion and also able to be found in chests but more rare a drop then the a fore mentioned nano's and also rarely offered as mission reward. Nano's of “extreme importance” should drop on SL dyna bosses in the form of nano crystals or ID's to be tradeskilled (perhaps involving a slightly altered tradeskill process) nano's of various priorities will be documented in a separate form to be open for debate. Weird looking nano's will not be changed in their location or droprate. Mission completion rewards and common drop should also scale as best we can with the mission ql.
◦ Implants/Symbiants/Clusters: Implants of only ql 201+ should drop in sl missions as chest, monster loot, and mission reward similar to rk, but not lower than ql 201 to preserve the very nature of rk missions. Shadowlands clusters should also drop as mentioned, bearing in mind that all of this is appropriate to mission ql. Rk clusters can be dropped in sl missions but never as a mission reward once again to preserve nature of rk missions. Symbiants that can be found on common monsters without the use of a pocket boss should naturally drop in missions in one of the various drop forms.
◦ Weapons and Armor: Commonly dropped weapons and armor from “trash” monsters all around SL should drop from monsters, chests and mission rewards sufficiently randomized as they are on rk. More uncommon weapons such as sided weapons from respective faction temples should only have a chance to drop from sided monsters in the missions. Rare weapons such and JAME Blaster will not be offered to preserve the nature of sl. Sliders as mentioned will assist in this process naturally, if you choose a certain setting you will get a certain monster set for your mission etc. Patch's of hide and other items used to make common nodrop armor should also be offered as monster and chest loot only. Unique armor offered from each specific monster camp around sl will not be offered in missions to preserve the nature of their drop in sl. Example: Smuggler's Armor. As well we should consider the possibility of releasing upgrades for more of the sl weapons and armor as has been made available on rk. After all, player twinks and setups are all cookie-cutter setups. All the same weapons and armor used over and over again. Even the more unique setups have been used before. Let's give the players some real options. Weapon and armor stats changes will be proposed in a later document.
◦ Misc Items: Gemstones, ingot's/ore's, rings, and other miscellaneous items associated with sl will commonly drop.
◦ Credit Rewards: Credits should not drop from monsters in missions, they should be given as mission completion rewards standardized (perhaps more as incentive) as they are on rk.
◦ Mission Sliders: Mission sliders that determine the variety of your mission can be labeled the same however, I propose the following name changes:
Redeemed-----------------Unredeemed
Holy-----------------Unholy
Illuminate-----------------Conceal
Physical-----------------Mystical
Charged-----------------Patient
Reward-----------------Knowledge
▪ The ability to pull these missions does not have to be strictly a mission npc in the garden. You could lively up the shadowlands with the “Discovery of Ancient Operations Terminals” or something to that affect. Place these new SL mission terminals in Various cities throughout the shadowlands, near garden exit statues, common hunting grounds, a few random spots as is on rubi-ka. This will give the community a chance to warm up to new hangout spots near these booths. Do not make it easy for players to pull missions wherever; these new terminals need to be level locked for use depending on the zone they are in to give the player base an understanding of where they need to be. One of the largest cut off points in the whole of anarchy online are the various zones in shadowlands. new players in particular and even lightly seasoned players of a few years are stuck in at best adonis, because they do not know where to go or how to get there and continue to grind monotonously at adonis hecklers or RK missions. You would be surprised at how little new players know about each zone with no clear indication of what adventures lie ahead or how to get there. Such early endings to a players knowledge are the beginnings of player frustrations.
2. Shadowlands Missions and Variety.
• Mission Styles: For example; Inferno Missions should be just as diverse a landscape as with the various Rubi-Ka Missions. RK Missions are indoors of cities and outdoors in caves and are limited as such in their design due to this aspect. Missions in Shadowlands are indoors as well however, some are in structures and some are inside caves. The current design shows indoors landscapes with a entryway and cave like structures that are both indoors and outdoors in design. In some of thees missions there are breaks in the ceiling to reveal an outside area with a sky in some places. As with caves in real life, the design of thees missions should be more diverse in this landscape. In general there should be more of a combination of indoor/outdoor elements.
• As you delve further in the mission there should be more open caverns, moss covered walls, waterfalls in some places. Occasional breaks in the indoor aspect leading to an opening that takes you outdoors for a small adventure during your mission, through the landscape of the appropriate zone. Underground rivers in some places, small lakes to cross or run around as with RK missions but with more detail. Some caverns covered in Icicles or perhaps a wall of fire or fire cave style. Crystal caverns, and other elements you might think of to reflect the sci-fi aspect of the game with a sense of reality to entertain. The more animations the better, and they can be made simple with 2 or 3 designs to be randomized with each mission pull to seem as though they are appearing different in most missions. These types of changes can also be applied on RK once again for the entertainment factor. Keep their attention!
• Mission Types: YES! There should be various mission completion types as on Rubi-Ka. This does not have to be confusing either. Before zones such as Penumbra and Inferno, There should be the standard 5 Mission completion types. Repair, Find Item, Find Target, Kill Target, Return Item. Completion of the mission should also be as it is on Rubi-Ka. You will not receive your reward until the mission is at or near 100% That includes Exp and mission completion rewards as described above.
• For zones where mission styles are in place once again in Penumbra and Inferno, These can be a dual reward/completion system. Where yes, you do get the completion exp for killing the target boss (Familiar of Mordeth) after or near 100%; should your team also decide to complete the mission after or near 100%, they will get the a fore described mission completion reward in the form of credit reward/Items and if deemed necessary a % more experience. This can be tweaked many different ways in a group discussion.
• On a side note, we will mention the possibility of Faction Torq rewards for each completion. This will be described in a later document as a Faction Sided type of Token for the possibility of an SL type Token Board. It will be as a token called something else and with slightly different stats as those on Rubi-Ka. Just as there is Clan and Omni boards and possibly neutral boards in the future, You can parallel them with SL Torq's/Torq of Citizenship Boards as Redeemed, Unredeemed, The Operators. The wearing of this board will also reduce your being able to be attacked by your faction sided monsters, but highly Increase the chance you will be attacked by unfriendly factions while wearing it in SL. Bearing in mind the fact that SL type token boards will not in any way overshadow RK token boards! The slightly modified boards for SL must be adjusted to preserve the nature of RK mission and token boards so people will want both, but perhaps more so the RK board. But we do need more boards/upgraded boards. This is the nature of Team Spirit!
3. Pocketing and Exp Overloads.
• Yes, I enjoy my experience just as much as the next player. There is nothing quite like power leveling your character to 200 then on to 220 in no time however... Pocketing does in fact take away from the very essence of the game and player interaction. Most of the leveling done now days in with the use of a pocket and nt mass killing everything. Whether it is free or not it is an unintended advantage and should be highly scrutinized. I do not agree with the use of a 220 pocket in this manner. If a monster is grey to you in any way, it should run away from you no matter what.
• We must limit or kill the use of a pocket in this scenario to bring player interaction and teaming back to the table. There is no doubt that a nt has area of effect nano programs and should be able to use them as such, that is one things a nt is good for. If players want to level in this regard that is fine, but there will be no high level pocket involved it will be the nt doing all the work as intended. As is, they can still do that but they are either to lazy or have not learned the skill. By killing pockets we can bring back the need to learn this skill. It will not be so easy or as fast as having a pocket but guess what.. tough nuggets, Anarchy Online is the best MMORPG on the market.
• There will still be the use of a pocket by just by making this one adjustment however it will not be some uber high level doc or enforcer having no problems. The only way a person could pocket after a change like this is to have a character in the range of the monsters (Example Elysium Hecklers) and being that low level player vs the level and number of monsters, that will force them to make much smaller pulls or to get a second player such as a high level doctor to assist heal all day and I can tell you now, making it this way will seriously diminish the use of a pocket. Forcing a player to make small pulls or to have a high level doctor to heal their low level pocket is strenuous. The pocket will die, the doctor will get frustrated healing the low level pocket and it just will not happen half as often this way. Once again, if the nt want's to kite by himself, let's make them relearn that skill. Even so, once the monsters are grey to the nt he will no longer be able to kite them. This subject I am sure will be open to many hours of debate to get it just right! I for one, look forward to it.
Continued in next post..
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Originally Posted by Antagonist
whatever makes ya happy man, I can see how much you enjoy AO 
