Fixer Discussion / Week 3 - Blitzing

[Bima]

To find what level missions you can pull,
/tell helpbot level number

Helpbot is unfortunately occasionally wrong in the answer, but is pretty good.

Those of you who can run Perl scripts might like to get one I wrote for calculating mission levels. It is http://www.dd.org/~tale/ao/level . Having used it a lot, I recall only one instance of it being wrong, but I forget what that instance was.

It has three basic modes:

level (with no arguments) -- Prints mission levels for all character levels
level -c number -- Prints missions pullable by that character level
level -m number -- Prints character levels that can pull that mission

[Anarchin]

Just a hint regarding the Find Person missions.

I usually set full Chaos to force mobs to be non-human. That way the Find Person will be a white minimap dot, the mobs red dots. (This requires the respective map upgrades obviously.)

Happy blitzing!

[Darumar]

Great reading so far - most points have been covered, I will try to add some of the stuff yet untold,


Fixer Reward Bonus
In a recent patch a Fixer reward bonus was added to the game, meaning that when a fixer rolls a mission chest rewards will be higher by a percentage. This percentage is supposed to be dependent on your B&E skill - higher B&E=Higher % chest loot, but i havent been able to verify this relationship yet.
Now an annoying side effect to this is that in "find item" and "return item" type missions the "find" and "return" items will be subject to this % increase. I'm not sure this was intended by FC, but nonetheles this is a fact and it makes our job a bit more difficult then it was before. Rolling full armor sets including coats is a pain now because the coat will always be either the "find item" or the "return item" - meaning it will be a percentage higher then what you normally would get. Now one workaround to this is blitzing the whole set as "find items" or "return items".

Opening Chests while Blitzing
In an older thread it was stated that locked chests could always be opened while blitzing - even when you had aggro. I tested this and must say it's not true - not anymore at least. NO chest can be opened while having aggro. Now loosing aggro while blitzing is a common occurance - we don't always realize, but it happens a lot. Speed and turning corners is the key to loosing aggro, try to keep out of LOS as much as possible and you will loose aggro. Now the way i do it is usually just running like hell and right clicking chests as they pass by. Unlocked chests will imideately prompt a "Can't open chest while in fight...something" if you have aggro, while locked chests will reveal this only if you attempt to pick it. So as KD said in that older thread, popping chests while blitzing is really a reward/risk calculation, but it's doable and should be considered.

Of the nature of Blitzing
Now a lot have been said about the act of blitzing, but i feel i must add a little aswell.
For me blitzing is all about familiarizing oneself with the different mission/room types. As said before each room has 1-2 spots for chests, and this is where you'll find the mission objective too. But it's not just about knowing where chests might be, it's also knowing the room as your own apartment: how many exits does a room have, where are the exits located etc. this information can save you a lot of time as some rooms you don't even have to enter. One quick glimpse of the room through an open door will reveal a lot of information, a lot of time even the mere color of a room will tell me if i need to enter it or not, some rooms have only one exit - no use running all the way to the end wall to confirm it - just go past.
So blitizing is basically being one with the mission halls or caves, being one with your mini map - it's actually a highly spiritual act, and all your Gods should be praised before you enter a mission


/D

[Fixerben]

I dont blitz much with my Fixer. But when I have its been in a real difficult mission cuz I didnt know what to pick, lol. I never liked Blitzing but its a nice rush I had to blitz someones xmas present this year She liked it.

[Fixerben]

Originally posted by Darumar

Fixer Reward Bonus
In a recent patch a Fixer reward bonus was added to the game, meaning that when a fixer rolls a mission chest rewards will be higher by a percentage. This percentage is supposed to be dependent on your B&E skill - higher B&E=Higher % chest loot, but i havent been able to verify this relationship yet.
Now an annoying side effect to this is that in "find item" and "return item" type missions the "find" and "return" items will be subject to this % increase. I'm not sure this was intended by FC, but nonetheles this is a fact and it makes our job a bit more difficult then it was before. Rolling full armor sets including coats is a pain now because the coat will always be either the "find item" or the "return item" - meaning it will be a percentage higher then what you normally would get. Now one workaround to this is blitzing the whole set as "find items" or "return items".

The % bonus only applies in team missions. And it also applies to all loot in the mission. Not just the chests. However it doesnt always work when a Fixer gets a mission. I have gotten team missions with no % bonus, and I have gotten as high as 8% richness bonus. And yes it is dependant on your B&E skill.

[Bima]

Originally posted by Benjacrat
The % bonus only applies in team missions.

It definitely applies to solo missions as well. Try it. Pull a Find Item mission that has an item to find which has a variable QL, note the QL of the reward, then go out and get the item. Compare the QL.

[Fixerben]

"When characters of the Fixer profession request missions, the treasures in the mission building will have an added richness (higher quality level). The bonus size is related to the "breaking and entering" skill, ranging from 5 to 15%."

Yes they dont state whether it is just Solo or Team. But I personally have never had a problem with blitzing things and getting the wrong ql. *shrugs*

[Darumar]

Well to sort things out:

Believe me Ben the % increase will apply to all "find" and "return" items in solo missions aswell as team missions. This is a conclusion drawn not from reading but from pure experience alone.
The mission reward itself will be the right QL, but the "find" and "return" items will have the percentage applied.


/D

[locomdenom]

Simple solution: blitz only "Repair" and "Find Person" type missions.

Also, if you're blitzing low QL (40% or less, I'd say), you can sometimes pull off "Assassinate" missions as a quasi-blitz, but it's definitely harder.

[Hurrey]

What ever mission i blitz i have always gotten the 7% extra richness ( wish i was 7% richer lol)

Well when blitzing dont forget to wear the keelars the brightlights as u move into hyperspace can be quite blinding and why do we trun on the spot so slowly this is the casue of aggro for me.

Running through the mission at almsot 1450 runspeed then blam a wall ! takes a while to spin round and get ur bearings also happens when u get warped all over the place still nonetheless

Thouroughly entertaining

[saerra]

:-) Thanks for all the tips on mission blitzing. I'm at level 64 now, and had tried a little blitzing a few levels back (mid-50s), failed miserably, and kind of walked away thinking, "well, guess I'll be the only fixer on rubi-ka who can't blitz".

After reading the tips, went out last night and successfully blitzed 3 missions on the first try! :-) Two others (red caves) killed me, but this was great fun and much faster than I expected. :-)

The highest one I did last night was 96 :-) - which made me just about ecstatic :-))))))).

Thanks!

[________________Wigz]

My strategy to blitz'ing:

Efficient blitz'ing for cash: roll mission from higher level area and get the mission a quickly accessible location.

The Cash reward is nice but the item is by far more important. Only certain items have good value, omni battlesuits, anima nano's pull in some big cash.

Type of mission? Observe Person pays decent but is the easiest type of mission since you can just tab the target, complete, and grid out.

Observe Object pays more than Observe Person, but the mission can be difficult such as the item being under the crates in a brown cave... But, you can also pick up the item which could be worth something or just extra.

Pickup and Return: pays about the same as Observe Object and has similar benefits but sometimes keeping the return is more worthwhile than completing the mission.

Those are really the best options, since the person type is easy to complete, the item one has both reward/item to observed 's value as a benefit and the pickup & return is also on the side.

To blitz, you need a third party tool such as clicksaver, otherwise... this game is tedious at mission terminals.

A suggestion to Funcom would be to improve the mission terminal interface. People really don't care about the description of the mission, just the objective and reward. That would be my one suggestion.

The addition of increased % loot is nice for us fixers, I like it for one