Patch Notes 14.6 Pros and Cons

[Nullifax]

Good and Bad points with next patch:

Mobs can cast pets:
Good - a little added variety, I guess.
Bad - Where to begin? First off, they are unmezzable due to spamming of commands by their owner. If attacked so much as once, they continue to attack you after the master dies. Mob pets are many levels above the mob caster, thus totally defeating the purpose of mission difficulty setting (yellow mob, red pet). MP mobs in particular were always a nightmare anyway due to very high chemical damage they do, and their extreme inits. 3 pet mobs in the first room spells impossible mission. All this adds up to a repeat of 12.6: mob difficulty isn't challenging, it's frustrating. Frustration leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to folks ditching the game.

New Items:
Good - Ph4t l3wt to make all the power gamers happy. New items make uber people even more uber. It also gives the power gamers something more to do since they are all level 200 and the treadmill has finished for them.
Bad - All the new items are gotten through either camping or team mission bosses. Camping is bad. Camping is the devil. Not one person that has ever lived can honestly say they ever enjoyed camping in an MMORPG. Static quests all require camping because Funcom seems to think that certain things in AO should be rare. Their method of making something rare is to require someone to stare at a screen for 4 hours and wait for it along with 37 other people. Is it any wonder why this makes players angry? Why would it be a bad thing for people who want to do the quest to be able to? Why would you even want something to be rare in the first place? Does Funcom really hate the players that much that they don't want us to get the items? Here's a simple, unoriginal, yet valid concept: if a player goes to do a quest, they should be rewarded without having to wait. Waiting does not add challenge, it does not add fun, it does not even add rarity, because no matter what the spawn rate is, powergamers will always get an item they want. As for the team mission thing, players should never be forced to team.

New Lowbie Dungeon
Good - new content! Yes, this dungeon gives lowbie players something new to do that is fun and exciting. From what I hear there is an upper level limit, preventing powergamers from camping this dungeon. Honestly, that's a wonderful idea. If a powergamer wants to roam the dungeon, they should just make an alt.
Bad - the level limit may anger some.

New Arrival Hall/Creation Area
Good - People seem to like it. It looks very nice and interesting. It's also much less confusing than the old creation area. Better and less confusing character creation means new people won't be turned off to the game. More people playing is always better.
Bad - Nothing bad about it that I can see. It only affects 10 minutes of your life though, so it isn't really that important.

New Atrox HP, New Nanomage NP
Good - Finally some breed differences. The new hp for Atroxes helps to balance slightly the negatives of such low caps for Int, Psych, and Sense, as well as their low nanopool. Likewise the new nanopool for Nanomages should have been in since the beginning.
Bad - Some Solitus may scream nerf and some nanomages may scream that nanopool is worthless. The truth is, the breed changes are good, but not enough. An additional change should be made which relates to "dribble down." In another thread which I believe Psiraven started, a suggestion was made that green attributes should get 150% dribble down and dark blue should get 50% dribble down. This would make Opifex better at sense/agility skill and poor at stamina skills, nanomages would get the much cried for boost to nanoskills and tradeskills while getting reduced weaponskills, and Atrox would gain affinity to Strength and Stamina skills, while being worse at Int, Psyc, and Sense skills. Also, the Atrox caps for Int Psyc and Sense need to be raised another 40 points or so. 400 is far too low.

Increased XP on outdoor mobs
Good - they finally seem to be understanding some of the concept of risk vs. reward that they love preaching about. This is a step in the right direction towards decreasing that steaming heap of hipocracy over at Funcom. Put a ton more loot on outdoor mobs, and increase the cash. Oh yeah, and that XP bonus should be closer to 50%, but still this is a step in the right direction.
Bad - this isn't enough. The XP bonus needs to be more like 50% and there needs to be a dramatic increase in loot. Hunting should be where you go for loot and XP, and missions should be where you go for dynamic content and tokens.


Well, that's my take on the current patch issues. My next post will include some suggestions that would really be nice to include in the next patch or maybe a patch in the near future. Most are suggestions that do not actually change current gameplay, merely add to it.

[___________JagdTyger]

damn powergamers.....

hmmm i spend alot of time in game, i wonder if im one

*heads to powergamers anonymous*

Jagdtyger

[_____Real Kinky Ityn]

I can think of a lot of strategies that can work against pet casting NPCs.

As a crat, I can charm their pet and use it to kill them

I can AREA MEZZ the place, have my droid attack a pet, charm the pet then have the pet attack the master.

I can do the same as mentioned above but charm 2 pets.

I'm a bit confused by your tack, you seem to be a big advocate of outdoor hunting but are bothered by the fact that missions will offer some new challenges?

+50% outdoor exp is rather extreme. At my level I can get 40k for killing a yellow mantis outdoors now and 60k for killing a lower RM/ACE. So you are saying I should get as much exp for hunting outdoors killing yellows, than indoors killing RM/ACEs?

What I think is best is a balance between the 2. Maybe 10% will be enough, maybe it needs to be upped a bit in more patches till the balance is found. I don't want everyone hunting outdoors. There are a ton of people in my level range now, and I can just see 100 players in EFP around the old Med camp or 100 players in DAV at that med camp or the borgs in PW/Mort even back when there was balance, and either were good these places were so camped it was always a nightmare. All the *****ing about KSing and petitioning and training, it was awful. Mort was a swamp of utter lag, there were all kinds of odd death bugs, and the zone crashed ALL the time from player load. If the incentive to hunt outdoors was that high, you'd never level because you'd always crash and die before you could. CS will be buried in complaints of KSing and training. Nothing was more fun than standing around the borgs, fighting like children over exp.

I think a lot of people are deluding themselves about how good outdoor camp-hunting is going to be. I do it solo all the time myself now, and it's just as buggy and messed up as missions, and it's not any more of a challenge because the AI is the same.

Anyway, I see a lot of good ideas coming up in this patch, and I don't think conclusions are necessarily valid, because I think some of your premises are wrong. The best thing is to make both about as attractive, missions and camp-hunting that is. Then you can keep the outdoor zones under loaded, and keep the mission servers under-loaded. But anyway, a nice thought, every game needs a chicken little or 2.

[Nullifax]

Originally posted by JagdTyger
damn powergamers.....

hmmm i spend alot of time in game, i wonder if im one

*heads to powergamers anonymous*

Jagdtyger

Do you camp? Do you run the level treadmill without stopping to wonder why you are actually bothering getting any levels? Do you make sure you have all the best loot so you can hope to "compete"? Have you ever shelled out tens of millions of creds for an item ingame?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then chances are you have become a powergamer. This is not a bad thing, it's a seperate section of the gaming community. The sad thing is, many folks who play AO who have become powergamers really aren't at heart. Folks who have been become powergamers without realizing it usually aren't very happy with the game at all, and aren't entirely sure why. For the most part when they stop leveling for a minute and actually think about what they are doing ingame, they usually suddenly realize the only motivation for gaining a level is the level itself. The only reason for getting a better weapon is so they can see bigger numbers on the screen. Symptoms like that in a game show signs of a greater disease:
lack of content.

At this point, most AO players probably fit the typical description of a powergamer but in fact deep down aren't. These are the players who get bored with leveling and wonder why they are doing it the first place. Many simply leave without a word. Unfortunately, the only thing that changes as you progress in AO seems to be the numbers on your screen. The mobs all look the same, the nanos all looks the same, and none of the tactics ever change. So, what is the point of gaining a level other than to be able to say "I gained a level." When you think about it, it seems pretty pointless. So what then is the point of any game? Well,

Here are a few simple suggestions for mission changes that would really add something interesting to the game.

1) Multi-objective missions: one of these missions would have 1 primary objective and several secondary objectives. The mission ends when the primary object is reached, but the reward is based on how many objectives were actually achieved. This adds a nice twist to missions beyond the crap we currently have.

2) Tradeskills used in missions: some examples might be using Psychology to gleem information from someone, using Pharma and Chemistry to create a vaccine to a deadly virral bomb, using Comp Lit and B&E to hack a computer and get access to some files, or NanoProgramming to reprogram some sentry turrets.

3) Multiple methods to achieve the objective in a mission: Any mission should have more than one way to achieve the objective. If the objective is to kill someone, you should be able to have the possibility of e.g. poisoning the air in his room, fighting him outright, convincing his guard to attack him, reprogramming a sentrybot to kill him, etc.

4) Obstacles in missions besides simply mobs to kill: these could be anything from an alarm system to get through to a door that requires a password. Each of these obstacles should preferably have multiple ways of getting around them.

There are any number of other example, but I honestly don't feel like thinking them up atm. An excellent thread to look at regarding this is:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...threadid=20069

[___________JagdTyger]

No I dont camp, if what im looking for isnt there when I get there then I move on, one reason I never laid eyes on Daria or any of the others.

I guess you could say I do the level treadmill, I have had a plan from the begining, and that was to get to level 200, and then do everything else. I do stop to help newbies, or lowbies that need advice, creds, or items inbetween treadmill trips.

Cant say I ever had the best loot there was to offer, I get what I get and enjoy it, I dont have expectations of getting Uber Items and such, if I happen to get them, then thats fine, but I do not go out of my way to get them. Now that doesnt mean there isnt Items I wouldnt mind having, or think I need, its just theres no rush to get them.

I did splurge once, on a pioneer backpack! Other then that no, unless a yalm counts....

So...

1) No
2) Invalid (even non "powergamers" get sucked into a level treamill after all who doesnt need levels, thats the object of the game)
3) No
4) Just once!

I remember in other games I played "powergamer" was always used on people that played everyday for a few hours or more, usually by people that only get to play an hour here and there. So if thats the definition then I am, takes time to run on the treadmill each night and keep up with your friends.

Its not really that pointless to me, only because I decided to save all the other things you can do for level 200, in a attempt to have something to do at level 200 I never even did Alvins and everyone else around me has done it. Granted it might not be as fun at level 200, but I wont be without something to do

bah dont mind me Im just being a dork....

I do admit that I like your ideas here, would be nice to be able to say take a solo mission and have a one week timer on it cause thats how long it would take you to complete it, that way you could work on different parts of the objective each night.

Tradeskills in missions Im a Adv with a few dark blue skills, so they arent for me, but I cant see why Traders or another proffesion couldnt roll a mission that uses some their skills they would commonly have. But then again the prizes couldnt be any better for them then anyone else doing regular missions, or the mission any easier, I dont think Enforcers or Adventurers would be doing these missions thus locking them out.

I think making it so that you cant set the sliders on the mission booth to get only character mobs everytime might shake things up, atleast then you wont know what your about to face, thus adding a bit more challenge. Atleast on team booths, solo booths I would leave alone, with a team you would have a better chance of having the right formula to support each other. I been in too many missions that are always the same only to see one person run off to loot chests the whole time while everyone else does the work.

Jagdtyger

[Nullifax]

Originally posted by Ityn
I can think of a lot of strategies that can work against pet casting NPCs.

As a crat, I can charm their pet and use it to kill them

I can AREA MEZZ the place, have my droid attack a pet, charm the pet then have the pet attack the master.

I can do the same as mentioned above but charm 2 pets.

I'm a bit confused by your tack, you seem to be a big advocate of outdoor hunting but are bothered by the fact that missions will offer some new challenges?

+50% outdoor exp is rather extreme. At my level I can get 40k for killing a yellow mantis outdoors now and 60k for killing a lower RM/ACE. So you are saying I should get as much exp for hunting outdoors killing yellows, than indoors killing RM/ACEs?

What I think is best is a balance between the 2. Maybe 10% will be enough, maybe it needs to be upped a bit in more patches till the balance is found. I don't want everyone hunting outdoors. There are a ton of people in my level range now, and I can just see 100 players in EFP around the old Med camp or 100 players in DAV at that med camp or the borgs in PW/Mort even back when there was balance, and either were good these places were so camped it was always a nightmare. All the *****ing about KSing and petitioning and training, it was awful. Mort was a swamp of utter lag, there were all kinds of odd death bugs, and the zone crashed ALL the time from player load. If the incentive to hunt outdoors was that high, you'd never level because you'd always crash and die before you could. CS will be buried in complaints of KSing and training. Nothing was more fun than standing around the borgs, fighting like children over exp.

I think a lot of people are deluding themselves about how good outdoor camp-hunting is going to be. I do it solo all the time myself now, and it's just as buggy and messed up as missions, and it's not any more of a challenge because the AI is the same.

Anyway, I see a lot of good ideas coming up in this patch, and I don't think conclusions are necessarily valid, because I think some of your premises are wrong. The best thing is to make both about as attractive, missions and camp-hunting that is. Then you can keep the outdoor zones under loaded, and keep the mission servers under-loaded. But anyway, a nice thought, every game needs a chicken little or 2.

That was when there was only one place to hunt for any given level range. Optimally there should be many areas you can go to fight mobs of an appropriate level. Where these areas are is not really important for high level folks, because everybody has a yalm at some point. The point of outdoor hunting though is variety. Broken Shores missions are always the same, always the same scenary, always the same mobs, always the same tactics.

And as for using different tactics against pet users, you are a crat. A crat's expertise lies in crowd control. How are Engies going to like these new pets? How about Enforcers? The problem is that you are seeing this from YOUR perspective instead of bothering to take a look from others as well. Fact is, back in 12.6 there were a lot of people who felt that the added mob hp and the then new mob casting abilities were "added challenge" and people should "stop whining." A more important fact is that about 60% of the people who were playing then felt that 12.6 was "utter codswallop" made the game "not fun" and simply left. Human mobs casting pets will most definitely anger the vast majority of players, and will probably cause quite a few to up and leave. That is of course if it hits live the way it works on test. That is of course if it hits live without tweaking pet casting mobs so their hp is much lower and the damage they do personally is pitiful (just like the real players who use pets). Heck, if a player can't mezz, then they will most definitely become "known" in the biblical sense by this patch.

I really wish the mods hadn't deleted my previous thread, because there were some very good comparisons in there about the upcoming patch and 12.6. Most people around today don't even remember that fateful Friday, or the following Monday when RK1 looked like a ghost town.

A large number of players out there are complaining constantly about mob minimum damage, mob hp, and other mob issues such as their lack of need for line of sight, their ability to shoot through walls, and their ability to teleport to a player's location. A minority of players out there counter this argument by saying "it's a challenge, stop whining." First off those players are typically OE'd, twinked, and have a large quantity of l3wt which requires a great deal of either camping or shelling tens of millions of creds to someone who did camp it. Second there is a point at which it is not "challenging" but instead merely "frustrating." Not all challenge is good. Challenge is only good when it is interesting. Good challenge is when you have tactics available to you to use against it. Bad challenge is when you have to use tactics that are NOT available to you (mezzing is NOT available to most classes). Mobs casting pets is merely masocism, end of story. It wouldn't be so bad if mobs had the same restrictions players have. When I hear the word "challenge" spouted by onesided players it makes me want to delete their char and make them play an engie. There's your "challenge."

Once again, I say what is the point of it all anyway when the only thing youa re doing is hitting "Q" and watching numbers go by for hours on end? We need content, not uber loot, not mobs casting pets, not increased mob hp, not increased mob damage.

Content is dynamic missions like I suggested in my previous post. Content is more clothing and an incorporated, player-run radio station for all those party RPers. Content is Land Control. Content is an actual storyline. Content is GM events. Content is massive PvP battles withy a purpose.

[________________Fred]

Could someone tell me where to find the Patch Notes?

Thanks,

Fred

[Nullifax]

Originally posted by JagdTyger
Tradeskills in missions Im a Adv with a few dark blue skills, so they arent for me, but I cant see why Traders or another proffesion couldnt roll a mission that uses some their skills they would commonly have. But then again the prizes couldnt be any better for them then anyone else doing regular missions, or the mission any easier, I dont think Enforcers or Adventurers would be doing these missions thus locking them out.

One of the points I made was that there would be multiple ways to accomplish each objective. It would be up to you to decide which method to choose. If you see an alarm, you may decide to just trip it and fight your way through. You may decide to try to sneak past. You may decide to try to hack the alarm. Or maybe you'll try to find another way around. Maybe reprogram the alarm by finding the computer that controls it. The point is, there would should be a way for nearly any profession to be able to solve each "puzzle" in a mission. Heck if they did that, maybe people would stop arguing about balancing the damage output of each profession.

NOTE TO FRED: http://www.anarchy-online.com/conten...oduction/test/

[_____Real Kinky Ityn]

Actually, I'd just rather see some constructive suggestions rather than condemning something that's still in early phases on test. You are basically saying that this change will ruin the game for everyone that doesn't have calms and that's just not true. I made a level 10 soldier on test and had no real problem with the pets masters, and the pets go idle after the master dies.

I've suggested in other threads the following be done to make PVM more interesting:

Give human mobs our HPs

Give them very good AI and make them work together as teams work together, and give them a 2-3 room help radius.

Put 3 times as many in each mission.

Make exp based on HP, thus nurfing their exp per mob, but with the added mobs a wash.

Now monsters can still have more HP, they will give more exp but have a lower exp mod as they don't cast.

Now if you are a soloist that doesn't have CC you may have to really work it. You will have to jump zones, you will have to PAY ATTENTION while you fight, but you can do it. Few people solo these days anyway, most new players never leave cities, they make teams in Tir or Ent, they do team missions they level, and that's it.

Mobs should cast more nanos then they do now, I was around when NTs were chain casting LW, the problem was not the nano itself, though it did instagib a few classes, it was that it would cast it back to back with no recharge. Mobs should follow the same rules players follow and their AI should be modeled after player behavior.

All you are saying is leave things the same, they are boring but they work. I'm saying take the time to fix the most boring element of the game, PVM, and pets is a step in the right direction.

Outdoor hunting at the borgs or the meds or any outdoor playfield has the same problem, the server starts to lag after 30 people are on it. There are 4 high level zones, DAV, mort (more of a high mid-playfield), PW, EFP, that means AO can only support 120 high level players without adding additional instances of each playfield. If, when efp had 30 players in it, a new EFP spawned it could work, much the way trasque works, but otherwise it will be a disaster to pull everyone out of missions at once with a poisoned carrot.

As to your other content suggestions, I say go for it, make your radio station, organize your PVP events, buy the booster pack so you can control land and suggest they give you more clothes to wear, which will be fun for my Social Alt who can change clothes. Get funcom to start the story line and some GM events, all good ideas, but 75% of that is the events team using the tools they already have and not patch related. They are all fine ideas, but the foundation of the game is leveling, the majority of what players do is level, and making that interesting should be important. Content like a new PVM dungeon holds each player's attention for 30 min then it's dead. What need fixing is the day to day operation of your character.

[Nullifax]

Originally posted by Ityn
Actually, I'd just rather see some constructive suggestions rather than condemning something that's still in early phases on test. You are basically saying that this change will ruin the game for everyone that doesn't have calms and that's just not true. I made a level 10 soldier on test and had no real problem with the pets masters, and the pets go idle after the master dies.

I've suggested in other threads the following be done to make PVM more interesting:

Give human mobs our HPs

Give them very good AI and make them work together as teams work together, and give them a 2-3 room help radius.

Put 3 times as many in each mission.

Make exp based on HP, thus nurfing their exp per mob, but with the added mobs a wash.

Now monsters can still have more HP, they will give more exp but have a lower exp mod as they don't cast.

Now if you are a soloist that doesn't have CC you may have to really work it. You will have to jump zones, you will have to PAY ATTENTION while you fight, but you can do it. Few people solo these days anyway, most new players never leave cities, they make teams in Tir or Ent, they do team missions they level, and that's it.

Mobs should cast more nanos then they do now, I was around when NTs were chain casting LW, the problem was not the nano itself, though it did instagib a few classes, it was that it would cast it back to back with no recharge. Mobs should follow the same rules players follow and their AI should be modeled after player behavior.

All you are saying is leave things the same, they are boring but they work. I'm saying take the time to fix the most boring element of the game, PVM, and pets is a step in the right direction.

Outdoor hunting at the borgs or the meds or any outdoor playfield has the same problem, the server starts to lag after 30 people are on it. There are 4 high level zones, DAV, mort (more of a high mid-playfield), PW, EFP, that means AO can only support 120 high level players without adding additional instances of each playfield. If, when efp had 30 players in it, a new EFP spawned it could work, much the way trasque works, but otherwise it will be a disaster to pull everyone out of missions at once with a poisoned carrot.

As to your other content suggestions, I say go for it, make your radio station, organize your PVP events, buy the booster pack so you can control land and suggest they give you more clothes to wear, which will be fun for my Social Alt who can change clothes. Get funcom to start the story line and some GM events, all good ideas, but 75% of that is the events team using the tools they already have and not patch related. They are all fine ideas, but the foundation of the game is leveling, the majority of what players do is level, and making that interesting should be important. Content like a new PVM dungeon holds each player's attention for 30 min then it's dead. What need fixing is the day to day operation of your character.

You totally ignored my biggest suggestion: dynamic mission content changes.

What you suggest with changes to the AI is easier said than done. First off, Funcom has stated multiple times that they tried making mobs have player weapons and player health. The result was that they were too unpredictable. Sometimes the mobs would be so easy it was ridiculous, other times they would be almost completely impossible. That is why mobs have mob-weapons and that's why they have the hp they do. When Funcom realized people were sometimes tricking the mobs into getting stuck on things in missions, they gave them the ability to warp. Funcom is always about quick and dirty. Currently they do not see the system as being at all broken. Plus, the changes you propose shake up the system, and shaking up the system brings uncertainty at best, lost revenue at worst.

The mission additions I ask for are an entirely new type of mission. Since it would be an addition, players could skip it entirely if they so chose. However, it would add a great deal of content for those who are looking for it. Please read the Dream mission thread and see what I'm talking about. there are so many great examples in there, I can't do it justice with just the few I've mentioned here.

[_____Real Kinky Ityn]

I like your mission ideas. I actually didn't address that, because they are good suggestions. In fact I think all your content suggestions are great too, I can't wait for the story to start!

How did the story start in October of last year, ah yes i recall, the big bang was a truce. Woohoo we are at peace. Oh ya and an apartament building was blown up. By the dust brigade. That vanished. Oh but now you can find them in PW.

I would love to see it.

But PVM is boring and predictable is bad. Predictable is boring by its definition. There are a ton of ways to make things unpredictable and not drive players off, Max exp loss of 30% of gained exp. An exp loss insurance nano, NO REZ EFFECTS. All those things get people back into the game with a small margin of downtime and no sense of great loss.

The only ideas of yours I touched on was your condeming mob pets and the 50% exp bonus for outdoors, neither of which can I agree with. The rest are all good ideas, come up with some good ones to make PVM more interesting. BTW the warping issues are the same outdoors, I'll snare a mob and be out of visual range and STILL take hits from it as if it was standing on me. Outdoors is just as buggy as indoors.

[jakesnake5]

Pip, do you actually PLAY on Test? You've made a couple of errors in observation and judgement.

Originally posted by PipBoy
[B]Good and Bad points with next patch:

Mobs can cast pets:
Good - a little added variety, I guess.
Bad - Where to begin? First off, they are unmezzable due to spamming of commands by their owner.

Not true. I've run into them with my Trader, and had NO trouble mezzing the buggers. Thats bots, crats and meatballs.
Was strange, when their mezzed, they were still taking and answering commands, but not doing anything for the length of the mezz nano.

Mob pets are many levels above the mob caster, thus totally defeating the purpose of mission difficulty setting (yellow mob, red pet).

Also not true. Ive run into orange mobs that threw yellow or green pets (specially after deprived, yesh). At least MP mobs dont cast healers.

New Lowbie Dungeon
Good - new content! Yes, this dungeon gives lowbie players something new to do that is fun and exciting. From what I hear there is an upper level limit, preventing powergamers from camping this dungeon. Honestly, that's a wonderful idea. If a powergamer wants to roam the dungeon, they should just make an alt.
Bad - the level limit may anger some.

Uh, its a LOWBIE dungeon. If your angry about the level limits, go fight Tara.
If they altered the limits, those that would be 'angry' would be camping out in there killing everything, and thus messing it up FOR the lowbies. Try to think things through before engaging your trap.

Increased XP on outdoor mobs
Good - they finally seem to be understanding some of the concept of risk vs. reward that they love preaching about. This is a step in the right direction towards decreasing that steaming heap of hipocracy over at Funcom. Put a ton more loot on outdoor mobs, and increase the cash. Oh yeah, and that XP bonus should be closer to 50%, but still this is a step in the right direction.
Bad - this isn't enough. The XP bonus needs to be more like 50% and there needs to be a dramatic increase in loot. Hunting should be where you go for loot and XP, and missions should be where you go for dynamic content and tokens.

Well, the main limit on XP is how much you need to level. You'll get no more than 10% of what you need to level, no matter HOW much XP a mob drops.

[Nullifax]

Heavypacker, I'm trying to see things from both sides. Some changes are more negative than others, while some changes are inherently positive. I couldn't see much negative with the dungeon, the ONLY thing I could see negative with it was that some folks might get angry. My personal opinion is that they should suck it up and go camp something.

As for your experience with pets, you have to mezz the owner first as was stated numerous times. So, if you ever plan on attacking the owner the pet itself will have a ball chewing on you whether mezzed or not. As for depriving mobs and it having an effect on them, honestly I don't believe you are telling the truth. I'm genuinely sorry if you are, but current gameplay indicates that mobs are not affected by drains. Heck, that's one of the major gripes on the Trader forums is that drains don't do anything to mobs. If drains do in fact affect the mobs now, that is a brand new change that I have not witnessed.

Your comment about XP limit seems to be a non-sequitor. My reasoning though for much higher XP on outdoor mobs is that outdoors is where XP and loot should be gotten. What then should be the point of missions? Missions still get you a very predictable reward. You do missions when you are looking for something specific, and when you want tokens. Personally I think Funcom should change it so you can actually select your mission reward instead of having to use clicksaver. And if Funcom implemented even just a few of the ideas from the Dream Mission thread, or even something as simple as secondary and tertiary objectives in missions, I'm pretty sure that would make a lot of folks happy.

[Kzak]

Or, change the mission selectors to give you a reward -of a certain type- instead?

Choose 'Armor' to get armor as reward (you'll still have to roll through some missions to get what you want, of course), 'Weapons' to browse through various items of firepower and/or bashing/smashing/slashing-rewards, Misc for all the 'stuff', et cetera.

[______________Yazule]

Camping is bad. Camping is the devil.

this made me laugh (and it is TRUE)


good post

[jakesnake5]

My experience with mezzing pets is very specific: Ive NEVER mezzed the owner (wasting time doing that when I should be KILLING him makes no sense to me) but I do mezz the pet. I have only once fired a mezz and the pet didn't mezz.

Using mezz's too low will usually misfire or be broken easily.

Here's the scenarios I had, when I first encountered a pet caster with my Trader:

Sighted Engi
Started attack (dual wielded SA HD's)
Engi rushes me and summons Gladbot
Engi and Bot commence to smacking
My hp hits 50%, I panic and fire mezz AT BOT
Bot stops attacking with orange glow around it
Engi give /pet guard commands, bot acknowledges but does not move or attack
Engi goes down, bot still standing there.
I sit my butt down and heal

This happens with Crats and MP's too, though the Meatballs are not hiting too much, so I tend to ignore them.

Only once did a Gladbot take a mezz but keep fighting (with the aura around it too yesh)

Mezzing the owner is not what I do, unless I desparately need to heal. So I DO know what Im talking about.

BTW, Fixers and Doc (and anybody else with HoT's on) are less concerned about mob pets than most other classes. HoT's are life givers.

[____________Farraday]

Not one person that has ever lived can honestly say they ever enjoyed camping in an MMORPG.

I hate to say this.. but the reason there is camping in AO today, is because a year ago players whined and complained that they were missing the "Camping experience" when there was none at all.

You may not believe me, but I've been here since beta and I've seen what's changed.. and the reason it's there now is because the players asked for it just a month or two after release.

People tell me that I'm lying though, and those that were part of the group asking for it conveniently forget that they were.. but it happened.

/shrug

[Nullifax]

Originally posted by Farraday


I hate to say this.. but the reason there is camping in AO today, is because a year ago players whined and complained that they were missing the "Camping experience" when there was none at all.

You may not believe me, but I've been here since beta and I've seen what's changed.. and the reason it's there now is because the players asked for it just a month or two after release.

People tell me that I'm lying though, and those that were part of the group asking for it conveniently forget that they were.. but it happened.

/shrug

I don't remember them asking for the "Camping Experience" but rather that they wanted Static Dungeons and Static mobs. When they asked for it, they weren't thinking of the camping involved, merely that it would hopefully evolve the storyline and also involve diverse persistant hunting environments. Static mobs do provide prominent figures every player comes to recognize. The problem was that the folks asking for it didn't think of the camping that goes hand in hand with it.

[____________Farraday]

You're right, Pip... I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes more sense than someone actually saying "I wanna camp mobs" =P

The fact still remains though, that it's there because we the players asked for it.

I really feel sorry for Funcom at times.. and every other online game company. No matter what they do, SOMEONE is always *****ing at them.. that's gotta suck.

[Xaielao]

Among the MANY changes and additions not listed in the basic changes is this...


Outdoor mob spawns have been de-nerfed. Most outdoor areas are teaming with mobs now, very nice for hunting as you don't have to spend half the time looking for mobs to kill. With the boss mob camps, I really think outdoor hunting will start to be a real attraction. My MA gained half a level on test yesterday running around in Aegean killing a few bosses and a bunch of Manteze and even a few sylvan bugs. Was fun for a change Even killed a manteze boss mob that dropped some nice stuff other testers could use.