Soloing and Cooperation

[TaintStain]

I ask only a few things, one I have asked for a year almost.
FIX THE DAMN RELOAD..........

Weapons have been bugged since beta3, in one way or another, I can not undersatnd that in all that time this has not be fixed. I have played many many chars during that time, every single one has died numerous times due to weapon not firing for 5 minutes, the msg has changed a couple of times but I bet its the same error, you guys just changed msg to make us believe you tried something...

Could I have at least get to know why this is so damn hard to fix, is there some monumental natural law that opposes this? Is it not within the capacity/possibilities of todays computers? Just pls let me friggin know? Or is it out of reach of the intellectual capital of FC, if so, hire a programmer?

There are many many other bugs that has been there forever and just because ppl have learned to live with them does not mean they should be there... You know what they are, so pls make this game playable on the basic lvl before experimenting with in depth game mechanics?
I have actually seen some progress to this but not nearly as much as we are in our rigth to demand.

And armor, pls pls pls, I have 7000 Melee AC and still a leet can hit me for base dmg??? This means that even if I had a sheet of titanium 4563635798796578567654767867 Ligthyears wide between me and a leet, he would still squeeze 3 points of dmg trough it? It has passed the boundry for stupidity, and are still accelerating...

One final point, that I really hope will make you guys think...
You are loosing high lvl players by the minute, everyone above lvl 100-120 knows this, as we are seeing good friends dropping out all the time, making a difficult situation even more so, as ppl to team with are getting scarse. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, are doing single missions in teams at this point, and BS are getting real old real quick. There just is no high lvl game, at all...

Pls consider what the high lvl gamer contribute to this game before you chase us all out?

Information: I try to comply to questions at all times, helping ppl out with hints and ideas are rewarding.

Equippment: I have easily given away 20+ millions to players, in credits alone, no way to know how much I have given away in things not accessible in shops, ie ql 125+ stuff, but its a LOT.

Storyline: This may not be entirely correct but undoutbtedly we spend a lot of time online and are both accessible and willing to take part in any event, I aint saying we are the only ones but it sure helps having us around, if nothing else we know lots of ppl and can swiftly gather the personell required.

So pls dont make us leave, I have seen far to many good players/friends departing this game in the last 2 months that it just can not be a fluke, something is wrong here, even you guys should see this, even more so as I assume you keep some form of statistics for customers?

Wooa, this turned out to be a bit longer then expected, sorry. But I ask again, pls consider, this is not just me talking, you know it and I know it.

Fury

[___________D.Shaffer]

Well, I suspect my views would be unpopular but...

A: You guys REALLY need to step back, and RE-EVALUATE ALL the classes. Even *Gasp* nerf abilities to further emphasise these changes. To compensate the players, a way to reallocate IP AND Change classes should be added when they are made. You might loose players, but in the long room I think this would serve to prolong the game and make each class seem viable. The reasons, and subthoughts on the matter are below.

1: Each class should have a definite focus and with each and every content patch I see the classes loosing focus with the definite lines between them blurring. Adding additional 'vanilla' crowd control measures just makes it worse. Figure out WHAT that character type's focus should be, remove those abilities it SHOULDNT have, and add abilities to enhance that focus.

2: TEST the character's abilities to solo. It's fine to SAY you think it's OK to solo but you REALLY need to test this. Take a look at the equipment level assorted random characters of that class have, equip a test character with them, and try running them through missions. Try a character at every 25 levels. If you get around to putting into those overequiping fixes, you can use those characters as 'baseline' templates to point other characters at to show if/how they can be going if they dont want to try something radical or to proove it can be done.

3: Non combat/support classes should be re-evaluated with your recent remark that missions are all going to be combat only. This seems to apply combat is going to remain the primary means of gaining XP. This directly relates to soloing. Non-combat/support classes either need a boost in combat ability or given alternate methods of gaining increased reward for fighting since they're 'weaker' then normal combat classes. Giving engineers a nano line that gives better chances of finding trade items as monster loot or fixers a line that opens a temporary, self-only wham-pa to a store where they can sell their loot/buy healing immediately and then go back to their original spot in the mission.

B: I like the idea of 'boss monster' spawns. But DONT make them to regular. They should be suprised. If they have good unique loot, you're going to have people camping JUST to find them and I dont want that.

C: With the changes/suggestion in A:, I add make sure you test them all with GROUP missions too.

D: Add a 'split equally' /team loot setting.

[________________Kail]

I don't have any high-level characters so I cannot comment on the game balance at those levels but there are other serious problems.

Cooperation requires communication and AO doesn't provide a good working chat system and buddy list. I wish the friends list was replaced with an ICQ-style buddy list. Not only would you be able to chat with your buddies on the list but also send them other buddies (in ICQ known as contacts) as well as other useful information. It'd also be good to easily find info on your buddies chars, granted they have agreed to this. I'd also like the option of instantly creating a team from the people on the buddy list and advanced options for team member rights (as setting looting and inviting more people to the team).

Navigation is also essential to cooperative gameplay. I'd like to see a navigation system that enables users to place a waypoint on the map and then send this waypoint to team members or buddies. This way it'd be a lot easier to rendez-vous with your team and/or other players at a specific location.

A waypoint system for walking is also something I'd like to see implemented. You add some waypoints to the map and tell your character to walk along these. This would make it easier to travel long distances as it does't require the player to sit and watch.
I'll edit this post and add wishes as I get new ideas.


Kail

[Skitch]

I wish you would make higher MAs more attractive in groups by FIXING THE DAMN MIN DMG BUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then maybe MAs could get teams at higher lvls

[___________FearDeath]

(before i start, if you dont agree with me, i could give a carp less, so if you have nothing positive to say, stuff it up your ...)

I could go on about this for hours but ill try to limit it to those things that i have experienced directly.

Doctors are essentially useless given the overall strength of MP's now. MP heal pets never run out of nanos, while docs have to constantly re-kit to be able to heal. Heal pets (MP) also can heal while they are being attacked, and when you add this in with the aforementioned endless supply of nano energy, they are easily better than any doc could be. Also, heal pets do not lose time due to server lag as they are controlled by the FC side. Docs often get lagged and cannot heal. Also docs frequently are the subject of one of the many bugs that still exist. My doc personally experiences a bug that stops casting at LEAST every single time i group. Usually more than once am i prevented from healing because of some various bug. These bugs are surely posted.
--- IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT DOCS ---
Due to recent changes in "hate list" by funcom, docs are essentially the tanks for all groups that pull more than 1 creature at a time. Any adds automatically go for the doc because the doc is almost always healing for more points than any chr is doing damage. This formula needs to be changed, OR DOCS NEED TO BE GIVEN A NANO THAT PENALISES THE ENTIRE GROUP WITH XP LOSS WHEN THE DOC DIES. This would give the doc an ability to heal the group without fear of death because the group would b e forced to take the xp hit for letting the doc die (and believe me, docs die, die often, die easily, and they lose xp most often). So the idea here is that if a doc has his special group nano running, and he gets killed, he loses ZERO experience, and the group suffers the xp hit. The doc will of course still be dead and need to return to the group.


On to other classes.
When engaged in group killing, there are certainly classes you want, and classes you dont want in a group. Currently most people prefer a group composed mainly of pet classes as this is by far the safest tactic.

When discussing those classes that are generally not wanted in a group, usually first to mind is fixer, then trader. Traders are undervalued to be sure, but most people simply dont like having traders in the party. They are perceived to be weak, seeing as they lack DOT/HOT and DD nanos.
--- IMORTANT NOTE ---
Trader nano - Mental switcharoo- is seriously bugged. If you take control of a creature and it somehow dies, you are in effect rooted for the remainder of the 5 minute spell duration. This is far too long. if the mental link is broken, the player should regain control of thier own body.

I suppose that is enough for now... not that i think anything good will come of this.. i fully expect the result of this post to be that MP's get nerfed, and all pet classes get weakened substantially, be cause the funcom motto seems to be, "We fix bugs by removing features that lead players to bugs. We do not actually fix anything, what we do is to rip out access to those things that allow players to see how horrible our programmers are."

[______________Nelida]

For high level play (>100) I find that ONLY group missions are of any use.
For my 108 Trader the only missions that I group for are 175+.
I never have more time on-line for more than one of these.
Currently I spend a LARGE amount of time in team preparation...ie. finding remaining members, waiting for them, picking a mission, and buffing. That is PLENTY of time to chat and socialize.

I also play a low level MA (level 22 currently) and there is DEFINITELY not enough NCU for good bufs. Since you made Trader comp lit bufs self-only it is extremely difficult to fit enough NCU at low levels for decent bufs from other players.

[______________Nelida]

Really Mean Crook...and they ARE really mean. I sure don't want to see anything harder than that in a mission anytime soon...especially when those level missions take so long and you often die.

Originally posted by Erelius
The one thing you said about team missions getting a "boss" in the end sounds great. That way, you would make team missions more attractive...(at least for me, but I guess some others feel it that way too)

And about the "every class should get their own unique thing to add" thing woud also be a good improvement. As it is today, tanks (pets) and healers are the only thing that matters... Though I haven't got any clue on how you should proceed to make this improvement, I would very much like to see it in one way or the other... =)

[______________Nelida]

only individual missions with dupped keys. If you go putting boss mobs in them you'll kill solo missions. So this is a good idea for AFTER you install team missions AND get them working well. Just keep the boss mobs OUT of individual missions....please!

Originally posted by Breogan
I think the idea of bosses in missions is good, makes it more interesting... but I envision a different kind of team mission, one that I dont know if it can be implemented, but bear with me...

Books and movies use a lot the "team of specialists" model. You assemble a team that mixes people with completly different skills, everyone is absolutely needed cause there is something she or he can do and nobody else can do (the driver, the thief, the silent killer commando).

Team missions in AO should be similar; there should be a reason why you need a particular profession in your team. Lets say we have multi-level missions (that would be a plus):

On getting the mission you will know that you need an Engineer of skill X to be able to fix the elevator to the lower level, where
a Nanomage is required to reprogram a nano-powered machine so it would be able to elaborate a particular kind of one shot weapon that only a Soldier can use to
kill a otherwise impossible to kill robot.

Thats my 2 cents.

Steward of the Ranger Prime Breogan
Clan Eye of the Nexus

[RoboKa]

Go here to see why!

[_____________Biocide]

I have always thought they game should be more unpredictable.
When hunting, once you know how the mobs are, it becomes too cookie cutter.
I would like to see spontanious things like mobs aggro that dont usually, or an bunch of extra mobs spawn and attack a group sometimes.
Maybe find mobs where you dont usually find um. Have a couple pop into a shop every once in awhile. Of course some people would get pissed, but it would make the game more fun and lifelike for me.
The andrenaline would get flowing when you are sitting at the omni gate as a lvl 80 and not have a care in the world and all the sudden 2-3 lvl 120 mobs come rolling by.
Everyone would just have to save more often.

[__________Wraith4375]

Ok first off with out me sounding too suck up-ish let me say I LOVE THIS GAME!!!
Now that that is out of the way some things that I have thought would make the game more interesting especialy for teams are listed below;

Make at least some of the missions that come from the team booth require real player co-operation. i.e. have a missiion where a person must be rescued from mission area and then transported to some where else. This would work even better if then the opposing force could get a mission to retrieve the subject. (Clan kidnap an OT scientist the n OT has to go get him back.)

It should be more rewarding to work as a team. Both in exp and loot, but also the sense of accomplishment. IMHO simple 'power leveling' blows. Maybe if there were bounties for certain high level monster hides and these monsters had special abilities making them much harder to kill if not in a group, i.e. a Monster can only be damaged while it is 'frozen' and / or takes double damage from melee combat etc.....

Please turn on the Team mission booths. Make the missions that come from them based on the level of the team ldr plus a bit to make them more interesting. I also think that having an end boss that is not necessarily the mission objective could be quite cool. (Ok we got the sensitive info disk, now all we have to do is find a way to shut down the main computer here so that the building defenses don't grind us to hamburger)

Those are just my thoughts for now, thamks for reading.

[_____________Drayken]

Funcom,
First I would like to say "Thanks" for asking the opinion of the community. I would then like to qualify myself by saying that I have played "every" MMORPG that has been sold on store shelfs. UO and EQ being the ones that I played for years. I have to say that when I joined AO and passed level 10 the first thoughts that came to my mind is "Why does nobody group?". Coming from games like EQ where all you could do is group, the thought of no one grouping was foreign to me. Unlike some I prefer to group with people, I feel it is part of the enjoyment of a online community. I think after evaluating the game for awhile that the reason no one groups is because of several reasons.

A) Not many people know where to fight at their levels, let alone where to bring a group so they end up just simply doing missions.

B) Where are the Dungeons? I posted this question on the "Beginners Corner" and received only 1 reply by a high level who only knew of 3 Dungeons. And through all my research from websites and guides I can not seem to find one place that outlines the Dungeons and what level is good for them. Usually Dungeons make a awesome place to encourage grouping, infact in most games I would log my charecter at the entrance so that I could just log in and shout for a group in the Dungeon the next day.

C) What advantages do you have for grouping? People for the most part are not willing to go through all the effort to shout in a zone for 20 minutes to find a well-rounded group if their is no advantage to it. Forgive me for using this dirty word on the board but "Dark Age of Camelot" had a great idea of giving you "ALOT MORE" exp when fighitng in a group. And they also added bonuses for fighting argo mobs, which also encourages grouping because it is to risky to fight argo mobs by yourself, but if the exp is greater by say 10% its worth getting a group.

I would have to list my biggest complaint about this fantastic game it would be the "lack" of documentation to explain a complicated system. Lets face it this game is 10x harder to learn then the "Fisher Price style EQ". So with that we need more info, for instance in regards to guilds, their really is nothing more then a short document under FAQ that explains just the bare minimum to creating a guild and some basic commands, but nothing I found explains the different titles in relation to the different governing forms and what each title has the ability to do what vs other titles etc. Along with that would be the "not knowing" where to fight at what levels or where the dungeons or other special fighting area's are. Why not put together a map that has them all listed out with min and max levels for dungeons and zones.

Just a few suggestions. Again thanks for your time

[Jellobiafra]

no no not the movie....anyway..........im a lvl 61 nt. this was my first and current highest level char. i BELIEVE that ive done everything in my power to make my char as powerful as possible at this level. My problem? At level 61, it is impossible for me to do a lvl 61 mission. i get slaughtered. The last one i tried was at this level at lush outpost. i was greeted in the main room with three dark yellows, something that was very tough at level 30, but was possible to get through with frequent retreats and heals and re-enters. but now.......ugh.......i was able to get 2 or 3 3sec nukes off before escaping with 3hp left. after healing i return to find that the mob i had attacked had also fully healed. with some help from a friend engie we cleared the first room. i told him id take it from there and off i went. made it as far as the first room. a light yellow a-2000 droid or some such thing (didnt last long enough to get a good look) wiped the floor with me.

So for me.....it now to the point that if i want to play my nt, i absolutely HAVE TO team. either that or take missions that are many levels below me which means no more getting armor upgrades from missions. Now, i have heard other nt's say the same thing. Ive also seen other profressions at much higher levels than myself, soloing missions. Being able to solo is extremely important to me. As much as i love to team, i also like to go it ALONE sometimes. Right now its not even an option in missions. If you were to implement a boss, id wouldnt effect me. Id never make it that far.

Thanx for the time and if anyone reading this has any suggestions for me (maybe my noobness is overlooking something) please email me at osiris@swfla.rr.com. thx

[____________Maitrize]

Originally posted by eleetist


This just furthers my point that Engies are overpowered...

AHHHH! noooooo... OMG if any class is "overpowered" it's the MP. Engie's don't even get an mc/ts buff. -_- I like to think that MP's are simply "fixed" and that eng's aren't too badly off. :P

[____________eleetist]

Originally posted by Maitrize


AHHHH! noooooo... OMG if any class is "overpowered" it's the MP. Engie's don't even get an mc/ts buff. -_- I like to think that MP's are simply "fixed" and that eng's aren't too badly off. :P

Sorry... I just got irritated reading about someone saying the game was too easy to solo reds... when at level 112 I can't solo yellows and have trouble against greens.... all with a QL200 weapon... very high armor.... QL130 implants...

Really engies are probably just about right. Last thing I want to see is for Funcom to improve mob strength so that I have to run from greys.

[____________eleetist]

Originally posted by Fazun


/me covers his eyes in pain

ah nay, not that word ....

we'r maybe *well balanced*, but we'r not overpowered ...

pffff come do a cave mission with me ... ,)

I apologize to you too... but this is the first post by anyone who has said the mobs are not hard enough.... I can barely kill a green solo, because of slow reloads on rifles and low body dev on an agent. My chance of a death to a green goes up wildly if he spots me first and I can't Aimed shot him either....

I just wanted to point out that killing reds, or yellows, or light yellows, or yellow-greens is not the norm for an agent past level-100.

I think I posted in my last post that engies are probably just about right! Except they need the trade skills they were supposed to have. BTW, all my friends have Engies, so I don't want to see anything happen to them.

Just the thought of increasing mob strength at all makes me mad.

[____________eleetist]

Originally posted by Pacifica

What if there was a nano for a certain class that was and 'Aggresion Dehancer' of sorts, that you would cast on a doc, or NT that would set thier aggro bar to the defensive position but the doc or NT will still cast thier nanos as if the aggro bar was full aggro. The more powerful the 'Aggro Dehancer' the farther the aggro bar will goto the defensive position. Then the likelyhood of the mob aggroing the healer or NT would be far less, and thus make that profession desireable in a team.

Do you know what I mean?

Please keep mentioning this... As I mentioned it could be a useful Agent Nano... maybe called "undercover espionage" or "Camoflage technique" and makes the Mob less likely to attack whoever the nano is running on. Support classes could really use these and it would actually give groups a good reason to recruit agents! As we could use our nano-technology to camoflage the other support members of our team!!! we already have the fewest QL125+ nanos in the game... this would help a ton! It could be added at several different QL's each with a getting more powerful with level. As obviously it is more needed against higher level mobs.

[________________Eorl]

Do the professions with an adequate number of hit-points to "tank" (survive with monsters bashing them) have enough ways to keep the monsters focused on them? (As in viable "Aggression Enhancers" and Nano Programs?) Are you able to do your job?

The Soldier agro lines are a bit weak in my experience. Spending heavily in Psychology seems to work out somewhat nicely. Agro Enhancers seem to work about 50% of the time.


Do the professions that heal (Doctors, Martial Artists and Adventurers) have any use / purpose in the team? Do you really need a healer when the monsters drop in 5-10 seconds?


Yes, when a few monsters are brought into the group a Doctor is very much needed to keep the members alive. Even with single pulling I believe heals to be necessary. Although the monster may only last 5-10 seconds they hit *very* hard. Without healing I would not be able to "tank" a red conned monster long enough to have the group kill it.


A natural follow up question here is: Should we increase the unpredictability of monster spawns so that they are more "surprising", and different - so that more healers are needed. (More on this later.)


More surprising would be interesting of course, unless this meant more difficult. Different types of monsters (nukers vs. melee, different damage types, different appearances) would be my choice of variance. As an example the Lifebreeders in Lush Fields add a nice panicky experience, especially if you are not prepared.

Do the "crowd control" (the ability to temporally suspend monsters from battle by "freezing" them, "slowing" them down, or totally "wiping" their mind) professions have any use? Do you need a Bureaucrat, Agent, Fixer or Trader to keep monsters at bay?

As you may know, there are not many bureaucrats in the game. Having played one myself for a couple months I found that their nano lines were iffy at best with regards to effectiveness. I think if you made roots stick even when hit by damge it would increase the demand of rooting classes.


Does support people have any real use? I have noticed many players on low levels having an inadequate number of NCUs to really take advantage of the beneficial nano programs ("buffs").

NCU's are expensive and sometimes hard to come across. The high computer literacy skill also is a deterrant to getting the nice belts. Since it seems most people solo I would think they often wear enough NCU's to cover their own buffs and maybe one or two more.


Do you meet monsters that require skill and tactics to fight other than in the static dungeons?

Hmmm, yes and no. Sometimes I change my agro slider with fast hitting monsters. Most times I use the same tactics against all opponents.

Would you like us to add them, or would that seem like we are reducing your capabilities to solo?

As a Soldier soloing is difficult enough as it is. I would not want to have an even harder time.


Imagine going to the mines in Mutant Domains or Lush Fields to fight monsters. Suddenly, larger and tougher monsters spawn among its fellow "cannonfodder" friends. It would have more hit-points, higher damage output, and a higher chance of unique item-drops (Loot). Would that be fun, or a pain in the ...?

Pain in the... if the team was not super balanced. In AO I like being able to do things with a myriad of group make-ups, often not optimal ones. If an average group could reasonably pull off the kill then I'd be all for it. Having to wait around 3 hours for a Doctor or Enforcer to show up would be a bad thing.



Do you have enough time for socialisation?

Not in groups usually. Since battles are so fast and furious and also since downtime is so minimal , typing out converstaional sentences is difficult. This is especially true if you assume the role of a "puller". In Everquest you were able to socialize a lot simply because the gameplay was so mind-numblingly slow. I much prefer AO's style.


In some other MMORPGs there is a much higher "down-time" factor. (Down-time, the time you wait before you can fight again after last battle.) You can sit for several minutes just gazing at your spellbook or such. The only thing you can do in that period is chat with your team or friends. Do you miss this? Is AO too hectic, too fast-paced? Remember the downtime is very much created for your ability to play solo, so in a team - you are a non-stop-fighting-machine. (Pardon the pun )

AO has a perfect activity-time ratio. It's one of the main reasons why I play it verses its competition.

Does the GUI support you in your effort?

Sorry, but God no. The selection of chat channels is horrendous. The main chat window needs to be re-sizeable. I often miss a lot of group chat because of the battle spam. I know I can turn it off but I need to know exact damage output and receipt so that I can tank accordingly.


Is the Map GUI with your team members listed, the team GUI with health and nano enough for you to cooperate? Any good suggestions here?

Allow us to have a mini panel for the team's health and nano. The same goes with chat channel selection. I would love to be able to have a little party window (like EQ and DAoC) that I can move around the HUD. The same would apply for the chat channel selection. Currently I can have all of the information displayed at once but it takes up 33% of the screen to do so.

Great questions btw.

[cellestron]

Hello,

One quick suggestion on this topic that would be fairly easy to accomplish: Update the online Manual!!

Update the professions and provide a little more detail for each. Update the skills list and indicate which ones are not implemented yet. Be honest with this....sharp objects, perfect example. It *will* pay off in the long run. also update the skills list and the ability requirements for each skill. update the breed and include a list of abilities/color per breed. Update the changes to the interface.

Finally, please consider adding like the first 10 or so nanos for each profession and include details(requirements, etc.) to give people an idea of what each profession has.

I realize part of the fun of an online game is discovery, but there is plenty to discover while still giving this info. It would help a lot. AO is a very complex game and really needs a better manual.

In conclusion, I want to say I speak from experince here. This was my first MMORPG. It took me months to figure out what was the strengths/weakenesses of all the professions, and I still am not completely there. I play an agent and didn't even KNOW I could cast other professions nano-formulas for several weeks of playing.

This could be part of the problem with teams. How can I be expected to operate in a team when I am having enough trouble figuring out what my stengths/role is.

In short...don't expect everyone who plays this game to be MMORPG or gamer veterans. Some are new, like me, and an accurate, informative manual will go a long way towards helping.


P.S. - Please don't tell me to buy the strategy guide. I have thumbed through it. Much of the info is so out of date as to be useless, and even contributed to my initial confusion.


Thanks!

[foxal]

Aggro
There are about a dozen soldiers and enfs in my level range. The soldiers never have any chance of keeping aggro. I don't know if their aggro nanos aren't as good as Mongo, or if they just don't try them because they think that is the case, but they don’t ever get more than two hits. If I’m in the team, the mobs will go on me instantly with no enf. With the new doc aggro rules, the bad enfs can never keep me alive, and I end up tanking about half the time even with the best enfs. A good enf would be one that drains his nano pool with mongoes, without tank armor on, and then drains it again after I first-aid him back up another 627 nano points. That *sometimes* gets mobs off me while I’m healing and doing damage. Thank god the mobs do drop fast, and that I’ve had enough IP near the title to max my evades. The aggro situation is still a little odd (I can get flooded by “attacked by” messages when I step into the main room of a mission).

Healing professions have a purpose
Although near lvl 150 I am definitely not needed for or asked to teams as much as I was around lvl 100, healing is still necessary. Perhaps a good team can drop a vet in ten seconds or less, but if you happen to pull three, you are either going to need a calmer or a healer or a pet. Calmers are preferred over healers, obviously; it’s better to prevent damage then to repair it. Obviously, more professions want to be able to calm – soldiers especially seem to clamor for it. I think “calming” is a rather too godlike power for an RPG player, especially when it can be done over and over and over (or area of effect.) Not that I have a conflict of interest or anything – less calming means more healing > Pets are also very preferred, because the overequipping situation is so out-of-hand that engies compete to see how early they can get out their 200 bot. What is the record now, 120? 110? An engy with a 200 bot can solo anything but a pair of lvl220 mobs.

“Surprising” battle
Making battle more unpredictable would be beneficially realistic. Simply increasing random monster spawn is not a good way to accomplish this. Make mobs more intelligent. When I’m leveling with my friends, I’ve noticed that the enfs know to draw mobs with their presence and not by firing at them; firing at a mob in a room full of three will bring all three, but sidestepping around will bring only the one that notices you first. The mobs are still *idiots*. Don’t get me started on pathing.

Downtime
I must admit my ignorance of RPGs here when I say I have no idea what you are talking about. If we had to stop after every battle it would take weeks to gain a level. And so we would all quit.

Soloing and socialization
It makes for slow XP, and little socialization. It gets more difficult the higher you go in level. It’s not done very often (not that I’m saying it shouldn’t be). It’s simply that, with current game mechanics, there are no advantages to soloing unless you have a searing psychological need to be alone all the time. Personally, with the way the chat system is set up, I can socialize to a limited extent during battle: type a bit, hit escape, hit buttons for heal or special, hit enter, resume typing, etc.

Support / tactics
Only bosses / ‘named mobs’ take strategy to kill solo, but mobs en masse like high lvl borgs take skill to take down, so you don’t get 20 attacking you at once. Once again, a cautious enf can pull one at a time for fast XP.

More interesting monster camps
Oh, you mean there would be more than one place to hunt? At my level, the only mobs I see in a high enough concentration to get good XP from are borgs (of which I am extremely tired of). Enigmas are too varied in level and social far too much for safety, and medusas are far too hard after their patch.

My problems
AO has very little content. I have not and will not read the $20 book. I’ve paid a hundred dollars for this game, and I would like it to have some plot. Working NPC static quests. Mobs that don’t have to teleport around because they don’t have the AI of units in, say, Starcraft. Bug fixes. I have to say that the single thing that makes me the most angry is that the HP bars in the Team window STILL don’t draw right when someone enters radar range – I must select them to see their correct HP (which is higher than the initially incorrect value). I would say that several times a day I have a heart attack because I come into radar range of a teammate and think he’s at 70/7000 hp because I was too far away to heal him, only to select him and find that he’s at 70%. I remember this happening in beta. Am I the only one with this problem? Additionally, when I’m walking around Tir, the game can lag so bad that it freezes.

Please note I am sometimes prone to hyperbole. Everything I’ve said here is at least qualitatively true for me.

I assume that one of FC’s biggest problems is that people are leveling too fast. If you make us level slower, people will quit. Unfortunate, I think, but there are lots of other RPGs coming out and if people think they can’t beat the system, they will try to beat another.