Weird looking

[Wakizaka]

Nobody forces ANYBODY to buy those nanos, or anything else ingame for silly ammounts of credits. Every one of us has the chance to go 'farm' them ourselves. People pay those prices because they either cba farming it themselves, or are just too impatient to do it themselves.

I bought iCRT & iSC for my Crat, simply because I didn't get either to drop after a month of camping. Some people are just on the wrong end of the FCRNG.

Nanos like these should be in shops for stupid high price like say 500milion creditaz... same for NS2, (well that's getting nerfed anyway), and other wierdness, let it be expensive to obtain... but also make it possible to obtain at all.

And it shall be done.

[alfora]

I'd rather have items in locations where I am able to get them within a reasonable amount of time than items that are super rare.

Make those weird nanos nodrop but increase the drop rate significantly!

I never understood why some nanos drop like mad in SL dungeons (Ball and Chain, anyone?) but others don't drop at all. Why can't I just kill mobs of the appropriate level, go into SL dungeons, kill dungeon bosses, and get the nanos for my profession?

[Louderer789]

Some profs will be at a disadvantage if they don't acquire them especially in pvp situations. I would prefer not to be a gimp. You fail to even address that only certain profs have them and the unfairness involved.

As for assumptions as you put it.. They love the weird nanos and the whole dungeon on a timer needing to be empty etc thing its right up their alley and works with their business model. They make a killing and can monopolize it for an infinite timeframe.

You are at a disadvantage if you miss a piece of CSS too, I don't see any suggestion to put that in an NPC shop (yet). This is no different - you take time to try to farm it, or you pay someone else to do it. You really think some small amount of damage or aad or healdelta or NR is a gamebreaking thing not to have? It's not. I don't see the issue and frankly I wish there were more improved nanos and for every profession. Since LE there is barely anything valuable to spend money on besides AI armor, just commodities, bots and symbs. New and useful weapons are nodrop, most of the HUDS are nodrop, most of the nanos are questloot, most tradeskill parts are not worth the effort.

Back in my day the nanos were most often farmed by quality players who for one reason or another needed a massive cash infusion to realize their MMO dreams and barring soloing raids (which they may not be able to do, or may not have access to) these nanos are the best way to do it. If they are now being targetted by chinese farmers, I would think if anything that would increase supply and lower price (not counting inflation)

[Lusos101]

What AO needs is decent drop rates (and better ql) on leveling gear and decent dungeons for better loot. Everyone interested in leveling a toon should have no problem doing it. ANYONE interested in equipping better gear should be required and able to farm it by playing.

All the weird nanos should be rewards for team dungeons or quests.

[nat3s]

I've been spending a few hours a week heading to tinker tower and the Ado dungeon on-and-off for 3 years to try to locate an iCRT for my crat. To this day I still do not have one. I've unsubbed quite a few times in frustration. I always return of course, my MMO tastes fluctuate month-to-month, and in that is the reason why this is bad design. You want to retain players by offering fun content, rare items help people feel rewarded and enhances personal enjoyment but the journey to them needs to be engaging and fun else it's bad design (as people will lose interest and head off to WoW etc).

I'm not quite sure how mandating players to grind for thousands of hours is good game design. I play the game for fun, spending so much time, with no guarantee of a drop of course, in static dungeon is simply not compelling gameplay. Ultimately the designers are looking to provide a fun experience. I'm 100% in favour of rare items (it helps drive the sense of achievement and excitement) but the journey to obtaining them must be fun, static grinding does not tick this box.

My idea of a rare item that does include a fun journey would be ACDC. It's more of this team content that I think should be encouraged, not solo grinding a static.

I'm not sure providing the nanos in a shop is good design either, I would prefer them to drop from the final boss of the new SL missions (some kind of group content where you work for them but the journey is more social/enjoyable).

tldr: It's the journey that designers need to get right not the destination (ripped off from Greg Street's blogs). Static farming is not a fun journey, players will unsub before they get to their nano (s42 for ACDC - a similarly rare item - is a fun journey imo i.e. better design).

[grandefiasco]

My point was very simple
There just have to be rare items ingame
And funcom is making everything available or easier available because people complain
Does no one have a sense of achievement after they reach a goal?
Getting everything easy isnt fun...

[Traderjill]

My point was very simple
There just have to be rare items ingame
And funcom is making everything available or easier available because people complain
Does no one have a sense of achievement after they reach a goal?
Getting everything easy isnt fun...

I take it you're one of the minority of people that farm their own weird looking nanos. I once attempted to do the same, for my first doctor. I found a crapton of other weird looking nanos and never found my doctor nanos. That was after some months of farming. The result of that experience was me just buying the nanos from players because it simply is not worth my time to run around dungeons looting chests with no guarantee that i'll ever get the item I need.

I don't get any sense of achievement from buying anything with credits. There is no difference, to me, whether the credits are going to a NPC or a player. Now maybe some people's standards are different than mine but if I didn't loot an item on the toon that needed it (for the most part) I get no sense of accomplishment/achievement from the experience. That includes me using 220's to grab items for lower level and unfinished alts.

Now if you get a sense of achievement out of farming those nanos for your toons then there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing that. They aren't removing the weird looking nanos from the loot tables.. just also making them available for purchase. Even those people that are indeed farming them, not for self-use but to sell, will still be able to sell the nanos to players if they undercut the close to 500m price of the NPC.

I still don't think they should be that expensive. I feel like the devs missed out on an opportunity to set things right by charging ridiculously high prices for both those Greedy Shade nanos and the ql 300 clusters. Those items shouldn't be ridiculously priced. Nanos and implants are basic items.

Regarding whoever argues that those weird looking nanos should remain rare: There was a time where someone having those nanos was a big deal. Others might have looked upon those individuals with additional respect. The same applied, back then, to a person wearing a Burden. Well.. times have changed. Having your improved nanos is not something extra.. it has become a standard. You're not looked upon with added respect for having them.. you're considered gimp if you don't. So since they've become a standard AND THEY'RE JUST NANOS they really shouldn't be an arm and two legs costwise. In fact, they should just be integrated as quest rewards or the regular nanos should just be swapped to have the same stats as the improved.

[doctorgore]

My point was very simple
There just have to be rare items ingame
And funcom is making everything available or easier available because people complain
Does no one have a sense of achievement after they reach a goal?
Getting everything easy isnt fun...

Yes games are more interesting with rare items, but why do these weird nanos need to control the fate of the universe and be the atlas that hold up the entire economy? Judging by some of the ridiculous replies in this thread these nanos are placed on an altar next to god and the very idea of making them easier to obtain or easier to purchase is blasphemy. I happened to log in earlier and check the GMI and found most of them at current prices are more expensive than GRACE which is utterly ridiculous. These nanos provide skills on use and this is what separates nanos from many items.

I've already gave the wow analogy earlier. There are reasons we don't get new players in ao or retain them and silly crap like how the mechanics behind these nanos are one such reason. Mechanics like this would cause a mass exodus in wow and most modern mmos. Only in ao does archaic nonsense like this still go on and is accepted as normal gameplay design.

Some things need to be easier to obtain. The way people play games especially mmos has changed and for whatever reasons people don't have the time to play. AO is in the situation it is now because it so slow to adapt to the paradigm of change in this manner.

I see no sense of achievement or gain for that matter farming a rng dungeon for months to years against Chinese who can farm it 24/7 with an army of 30 people if they wanted and greedy players with gold fever thinking about how they can make enough credits off one damn nano to buy a city just so to learn a damn nano program for my prof. If anything I feel a sense of rage and anger at the wasted time and effort on the stupid game design.

[grandefiasco]

@Jill I've found the ones for my paid toons, i bought the ones I have on my froobs (<-- Completed/euryke)

@Docgore, I just lolled at 'faith of the universe', as if weird looking control the market....
And there's plenty of dungeons to go around, i've checked in the past 2 days, every single one I used to go through, still is empty most of the time, so... just matter of luck really, my first ones for my crat i found after 4 years, I just did a run every now and then, and well, after I had those, I found plenty more, just luck

[fakiiri]

Some profs will be at a disadvantage if they don't acquire them especially in pvp situations. I would prefer not to be a gimp. You fail to even address that only certain profs have them and the unfairness involved.

As for assumptions as you put it.. They love the weird nanos and the whole dungeon on a timer needing to be empty etc thing its right up their alley and works with their business model. They make a killing and can monopolize it for an infinite timeframe.

So would profs be without QL 300 AI armor especially in pvp situations...

Get real. Some items just needs to stay rare.

[Tsuniko]

inb4 its in NPC vendor for 1bil

[Louderer789]

I still don't think they should be that expensive. I feel like the devs missed out on an opportunity to set things right by charging ridiculously high prices for both those Greedy Shade nanos and the ql 300 clusters. Those items shouldn't be ridiculously priced. Nanos and implants are basic items.

What happened with clusters? Is this the end of the 1b heal delta foot cluster?

I see no sense of achievement or gain for that matter farming a rng dungeon for months to years against Chinese who can farm it 24/7 with an army of 30 people if they wanted and greedy players with gold fever thinking about how they can make enough credits off one damn nano to buy a city just so to learn a damn nano program for my prof. If anything I feel a sense of rage and anger at the wasted time and effort on the stupid game design.

To you, not being able to possess every nano/the best nano is a negative. But to other players, being able to get something that not everyone else has is a positive. A goal even.

You seem like you have a lot of pent up anger - at China, at capitalism, at basic MMO rare item mechanics. You should get a stress ball or something.

[doctorgore]

Nobody in this thread can explain why these things need to be the scapegoats to prop up a failing economy.

Its the same old hot air arguments like,
its been that way deal with it or as fakiiri they just need to stay that way. Pathetic on all accounts. Defending it yet can't answer or explain the reasoning behind it.

[Louderer789]

Rare items provide people with something to hunt for, either for character fulfillment or as a payday to purchase other goods. I'm not sure what other reasons you need.

[Lusos101]

Rare items provide people with something to hunt for, either for character fulfillment or as a payday to purchase other goods. I'm not sure what other reasons you need.

I personally do not need reasons. Only people to play with. People to play with tend to not be obsessive vets constantly farming grey level dungeons for a sense of "achievement" (aka "beer money").

[meeep]

Some feel finding rare stuff is an achivement, others feel ganking each other as an achivement. Not everyone have the same way to play. Taking away rare stuff is just another thing the pvpers have whined about to get their way.. Like every change in the game....
In a year i Guess the 90% of the People have left and only the few pvpers are left, now happy cause you get everything handed to you and all those annoying pvmers are gone.

[Lusos101]

Some feel finding rare stuff is an achivement, others feel ganking each other as an achivement. Not everyone have the same way to play. Taking away rare stuff is just another thing the pvpers have whined about to get their way.. Like every change in the game....
In a year i Guess the 90% of the People have left and only the few pvpers are left, now happy cause you get everything handed to you and all those annoying pvmers are gone.

There are plenty of things in game that are very rare and nobody wants to farm them.

[schloops]

Everything being a 15 mins work is not ao's way and would be the end of it. Anybody that doesn't understand this has a problem with reality.

Everything can be tuned, sure, but you don't solve a nail problem by hitting it with a nuke (unless you're a nt ).

[Tryptophy]

I for one really appreciate that FC found a credsink which is not a burden on "casuals" like doubling city rents or something. As long as the weird nanos still drop in the dungeons and handing in the cash is just a shortcut, despite all the problems with it getting creds out of the economy is super important. The QL300 clusters are an even better solution to me.

I know it lacks a sense of accomplishment to hand over creds for items but I'd so much rather farm cash through a reliable method than fight the FCRNG. FC could ofc make new quests for every item and that would be best, but if they don't have the resources to do that, plus they have this inflation problem to deal with, this is a good middle ground in my view.

One day if the credsinks prove effective, deflation happens and few people have 500m to throw around, it might actually become time-efficient to farm clusters/weirds instead of farming creds to buy them from vendors - then the fact that they are for sale will just become irrelevant.

[schloops]

It's not a credsink. A credsink removes credits from circulation. This only makes them change hands.