Improvemnts for Notum Wars and Shadowlands

[Dharshar]

Okay, Here goes

As a Beta tester on Notum Wars and a Dedicated AO player, my view on the upcomming Booster is that it is a good step. It has alot of feature that warants it a a stand-alone addition to AO. But there are still element that need some serious work before I would call it ready for Release. There some element of Client instability. Not alot but still enough to make it a priority to fix it prior to release. The Main instability is Related to the high amount of players in certain playfields during group PvP skirmishes. This is to some extend addressed with the implementation of crowd control, but its still not enough. There are still a good portion of instability at crucial moment which needs to be ironed out. Since the NDA of the Booster Beta doesnt allow specifics I can't really go into details. But in most cases its more a question of optimization rather than complete rewrites in the code. I believe it is a primary task for the Programmers at the Moment and I, for one, still think it needs work to function satisfacturi. Also there are quite a few of the weapons that are bugged in some way or another. I have the ability to test it a no expense to myself, but I would believe that the players on the Live Server who invest everything on this one item and build the character around the usage of the item, would be very disappointed when they find that exactly the Item they have choose to focus on is bugged and doesnt work, so therefore the fixing of these items should also have a very high priority. Higher than new content addition IMHO atleast.

As for the Shadowlands Expasion, the implementation of Jobe is a great idea, but I dont think the Expansion should rest on this alone. I would like to suggest the adition of even more playfields geared toward the more experienced players as well as playfields suited for lower levels. Also a nice adition would be an almost abundance of static NPC quest. Most people seem enjoy these to some extend, since it gives a feeling of an ingame storyline that makes the investments, the players have made in their Character, more worth while and help to keep them active and still maintain a feeling of progress. A suggestion would be investigative quest, more than a "go-there-and-whack-that-mob" quest. These quest isnt really that fun, especially since the most recent of these quest requires you to gather 6-12 people to complete your quest alone. The Quests should also focus on the personal sense of accomplishment. Something where it the persons sense of Logic and problem solving that is the driving factor. Not how damage he can do or how many highlevel friends he has.
Something else I think would make a great addition to Shadowlands would be the ability to modify the Ingame weapons. Like adding Fling Shot to an X-3 rifle or like adding burst to a Krutt through the use of tradeskills. Also adding more weapon construction kits, more effective player made weapons, Construction possibilities for all types of armor other than specials, would make tradeskills an area that more people would emphasise on.

I would be able to add alot of other suggestions but these would IMO be a good place to start. I really hope you like it and will consider it when finishing up Notum Wars and add content to Shadowlands

[Myers]

In Shadowlands the zones will include Jobe, the Shadowlands themselves and other zones that fill in some of those blank spots on the map.

[_________________Dakxx]

yeah did you forget about the alternate reality? that is shadownlands (:

[Dharshar]

I must admit, Im not fully up to date with the Content of Shadowlands but I prolly will be when (hopefully) the beta for it is released. Most the buzz have been revolving around Jobe, the mystical city. So since I almost never heard anything else about Shadowlands other than Jobe, I assumed that the bulk of the expasion was based primarely around it. But the point I was trying to make with the post was that we needed something extra in regards to some actual storyline based quest and some added value of trade skills. I've seen many different suggestions throughout the board on how to improve the gameplay/roleplay value of Anarchy Online, and I must admit, all of them have elements that could be used in one way or another.

I dont address balancing issues in my post because since I fairly content with things as they are and I always learn to live with the different changes. In most cases because I see the logic in the steps being taken. Im am very pleased with AO for most parts and Im only voicing some points that I feel would make it even better than it is now.

One thing I would like is: feedback on the suggestions mentioned, possibly even more suggestions to improve AO even more. If we by some chance manage to keep a contructive and positive view in this thread we might even get so lucky that CZ or Cosmik passes it on to the Devs (*hint hint*)

All for now, See you all on Atlantean (RK1)

Sorry for the poor grammar/puntuation. English isnt my native language