how to make AO more fun and give a purpose to lvling and stuff:

[Zio]

ok well as the title says

heres a bunch of ideas to make AO more fun, interesting, balanced, and overall more enjoyable

some of these i imagine have been posted before, and some are probly just stupid, but i really dont care lol
oh ill set it out like the patch notes cos... i want to lol
ok:

Playfield changes:

give the old dungeons a tweak so its actually possible to lvl in them if you want, and add an equivelant one for each side.... e.g. a Dust brigade hideout/clan base/big nasty monster cave for OT as an equivelant camelot

put lvl req's on whompas... not strict ones or anything, just stop low lvl people using ones they dont need to, would hopefully encourage people to use other means of getting somewhere (or failing this just add 'lvl guidlines' when you examine them so newbies dont end up getting eaten or something)

more 'not quite dungeons but static places with set stuff in' lol dunno what theyre called properly, how about making EVERY building like this, would make a bit of a change

signposts, i get lost easy lol and having to remember where everything is can be a pain, would it be too much to ask for a few directional pointers in big citys?

make a DECENT official map so people dont have to use unofficial ones (or make dovve's official )

merge the whompas and grid into one, is there a reason we have 2 modes of instantly getting anywhere? lol put lots more whompas, and give em lvl (not comp lit) req's and you can ditch the normal grid altogether (fixers can still keep theyres i guess, but why is it fixer only? i know theyre supposed to be the 'hackers' but just about everyone has high comp lit... why not make the thing have high req's (or low req's, but have req's for going up floors)

clear up those wrecks...... theres been wrecked spacecraft and stuff around for AGES, heck theres one right outside omni 1 ....... why doesnt omni tek clear em up? and add some more variable scenery, IE make stuff thats there sometimes and not others, like wrecks, skeletons and stuff

how about non player controlled yalms? we have all these other ships flying around with NW, but there seems to be a big lack of just ordinary traffic

MORE MISSION ROOMS and layouts, missions are DULL it'd make them at least a bit more interesting if there was a bit more variety in the rooms, wouldnt have to be much, just a few different colour textures on stuff, a few crates lying around randomly, and how about making them multi floored? i dont mean like boss ones, but how about having stairs up and then another floor above it
oh a few suggestions for other mission settings too.....
1. a spaceport type thing, with ships and stuff in it, general layout: big rooms connected by corridors
2. an eremite burrow, theyre giant worms, i imagine they leave tunnels in places, general layout: big twisty tunnels
3. an old abandoned temple, theres statues of eremites and stuff about, why not temples, the aztec/egyptian sort with big stone blocks, and maybe a few traps if its possible to code (also giving another use for trap disarm), general layout: rigid straight corridors and rooms set out symettrical (spelling isnt one of my strong points lol)
4. a factory, with a big conveyor belt with yalm parts or something on running through it general layout: pretty much like the office or whatever missions we have now, but dirtyer
5. a lava type cave, kinda explanatory, we have lava, why not have a cave with lots of it in (oh and make jumping in lava/slime do more than the pitiful amount it does now, and make a higher adventuring skill let you take less dmg)

and if you want FC i can come up with lots more, and im sure other people can too

ok i can probly come up with more playfield changes, but those are the ones that spring to mind, ill edit it later if they do

monster/badguy changes:

more monster variety too, especially the bosses.... glowing and being big might be good for some, but would it be too hard to just make em have a different colour texture? (IE have a white albino leet boss like ownz, or a red wolf type thing)

different weapons on the human type mobs,a vl150 enforcer using a baseball bat is stupid..... give em beams, swords hammers etc.. and make the dmg types the equivelant (as energy is supposed to be a major AC it might be a good idea if a few mobs actuallly use it, especially, and it might make people a little less eager to wear that ugly carb crap)

less adds in solo for those of us without calms, more for those with, if the mission term can determine if someones a fixer to give em extra 'richness' im sure it can work out whether you can deal with 4 mobs at once or not

make it impossible to attack a grey mob, and make it so that NO grey mob (like the specials) will attack you, and make it so you cant get mobs anything less than green in a mission, (thus stopping high lvl people camping stuff 100 lvls lower than them cos they forgot/couldnt be bothered/whatever to get it at earlier lvls) or just make it so that if you kill a grey mob then other people get to loot first

make the uniques spawn randomly, and i mean randomly, make it so that some of them can appear any time and any place (wouldnt it be interesting to see one pop up in a city and have everyone rush to try and kill em? ) and make em drop at least one bit of theyre special loot list when theyre killed too

more uniques that are lower lvl, dont even have to come up with more loot... make a lvl30 mob that drops a +5 vest, or something, pretty useless at higher lvls compared to the +20, but i imagine a lvl30 would find it nice

make more monsters social, if i were a leet ( ) and someone attacked another leet i'd help!

faster monsters, make raising runspeed more useful, give mantis's enough speed to catch a person with 750 runspeed (and see the demand for runbuffs rise )

flying monsters, make monsters that can fly after a yalm, people are too safe at the moment in one (or just make the vultures etc... capable of proper flight)

ok enough monster stuff

item changes:

get rid of the crap no one uses and replace it with stuff that people WOULD use, for example: good bye overtuned crappy rifle hello overtuned FDA poisonsting (or whatever, i suck at names lol), dmg somewhere in between an x-3 and a caterwaul, but with poison dmg, and a chance to dot em for a small amount....... goodbye premium waste of DB space sword, hello premium SOL ice warblade type G, (copy a SOL fires stats, increase dmg a lil and make it 2he (oh with ice dmg of course), goodbye irreparable 'noone uses SMG/assault rifle hybrids' SMG/assault rifle hybrid, hello yatamuchy x-5 custom assault rifle, (same dmg as an x-3 but with assault rifle and burst/FA), etc.... thus 1. making alot more variety in the weapons people use, 2. getting rid of the crap in the stores no one uses 3. stop some classes getting about 1 decent weapon to use (anyone using assault rifle who's not soldier for example) while others get tons *cough* fixers *cough*

grenade launcher changes: they tend to have a ammo of 1, which is fair enough, however, make em do ALOT more dmg with that one shot to make up for it, and make some of them aoe too

non adv pistol changes: its not THAT hard to use 2 pistols at once , make the original elec right hand only (or left if it matters lol) and any other decent non adv pistol the same (if there is any) (oh and not including stat pistols like peppers) and halve the multi req's, (correct me if im wrong) but while lots of classes have light blue/aqua pistol they still have dark blue multi, so end up being more expensive than a weaponskill thats dark blue, but doesnt need to be dual wielded (face it: pistols arent the best weapon ever.... dualing 2 MTI USP's or flettchettes or whatever isnt gonna outdmg ANY decent other weapon, it'd be nice to have a weapon skill on my doc i could use that isnt as much an IP sink, even if the dmg is lower)
make those stupid stat pistols with burst and/or FA, ie galahad inc <whatever>, into pistol/ pistol and flingshot only ones, lets face it, theyre there for the buffs, not the dmg, plus FA on a pistol just doesnt seem right

different looks for exsisting armour: biomech helms are very VERY UGLY, carb,graft,organic, metaplast, lowtech (though its probly supposed to be) are almost as badly UGLY
(though graft/organic are turnable into nicer, and most of the rest is shabby looking too....

more types of special armour, dillon, sekutek and the rest are good, but wheres the int/psy type? or the sta/psy, int/psy type is supposed to be the armour for 'smart people isnt it?

"The Cyber Armor is lightweight, made with the Homo Nano in mind. It is built as an exoskeleton and pretty much carries its own weight, which makes it comfortable to move in. Also, the protection it provides depends on nanobots and sensors, connected to the nervous system of the user for highest possible data transfer rate. The higher quality versions of the Cyber Armor can also gather and use information directly from the user’s Senses. High psychic ability is needed to keep the suit operational, and high intelligence is required to be able to actually utilize its functions. "

....... so it basicly plugs into youre brain, but its too hard to make a stat version?
examples: Jobe Nano enhanced cyber armour: same ac as ordinary cyber armour (which is crappy ) and with a small amount added to nano skills/whatever, voila instant desirable boss loot
Omni med Biomech: make it white and red, with sucky ac's, but same treatment buff as the omnimed suit, and doc only, we dont have enough boss loots stuff
Galway Ranger's tech armour, adv only, give small buffs to various adv type stuff
omni tek supreme bodyguard armour (or ICC for the clanners :P ) : enf only, hp buff, and LOTS of ac
............etc... make an equivelant of fixer CDS for all profs, that way everyones happy
, probly running outta space so ill start a new post

[Zio]

ok continued:

gadgets: at the moment theres pretty much only a few (or one in some cases) things that go into some of the hud and utility things, we need more!
ideas:
lookout probe:
and adds to sense, map nav and perception, same graphics as wen wen (or different if you want )

pirate leet:
lol joky one, a lil leet that sits on youre shoulder, adds to b+e and trap disarm

intelligent reflective shield:
gives a low, but constant dmg shield, and a sparkly affect

defensive absorbtion shield:
gives small buffs to all ac

humidity absorbsion enhancer:
artificially recreates the effect of the humidity extractor line (with poorer results)

artificial omnimed assistant:
same as above, but a lil HoT instead

laser targetted guidance system:
hud3, and adds to ranged init (for those of us who dont like scopes)

close target aiming system:
same as above but melee and pys init

oh and make that range increasing thing hud3 instead, and have it add to dmg too

ncu enhancements... well just make the stupid things work quicker! soooo annoying... and make a nano core skill upgrade chip or something that goes in slot2 (dont think that has a special in it yet lol) that adds small amount to nanoskills, and make NCU's OE so people cant twink as much at lower lvls lol

stupidly rare loot changes.... ok i have nothing against GA and NS etc being so rare, i think there should always be some stuff thats hard to find, but what about us other prof's? give us super rare stuff to
possible examples:
soldier:
omniAF (and sentinel for ordinary) heavy tank armour, add to dmg, range, attack rating and def rating, with huge ac's, but loss of runspeed and nano init
Engineer:
nano crystal: (summon personal juggernaut), summons a mini juggernaut (like the iron reet) that is basicly a pet better than the slayer in every way, and sends a pulse buff of AC's (like the annoying whirring turret things)
nanocrystal (beacon tower warp) , teleports engy to his/her tower (have a menu come up like in the grid if they have more than 1, and a team version too maybe
crat:
SOL banking remote access terminal:
an item that allows access to the bank at any time
MP:
nanocrystal (demonic blessing) turns the mp's attack pet into a much nastier thing for 5 min (or whatever), and makes it larger and more red (as it should do in my opinion),
nanocrystal (angelic martyr): completly heals the caster, team and attack pet, but kills the heal pet
nanocrystal: (possessed by madness) makes the mez pet possess the next mob it hits for 10 min
Agent:
Undercover shades, make clan, omni and neut versions, (and use the 3 different shade designs for each), while wearing them you become omni/clan/neut, till you take em off, put a long equip time (say 5 min) on em so people cant exploit
nanocrystal: (disguise: <prof name>) makes the agent into the prof stated, with no init debuff but -150 (or something) nano skills debuff
Doc:
nanocrystal: (cosmetic surgery), basicly just the agents facegraft for us docs, but allow it to be used on others
nanocrystal: (apply anesthetic), very short dur calm (5 secs or so) that blinds the target for about 20 sec (useful to get all those annoying adds off ya)
adv:
nanocrystal: (call of the wild), summons a leet, reet, wolf, kitty, or dragon randomly as a pet for the adv for 15 min
antique bow: a very good 2 handed pistol (but make it look like a crossbow ) that has flingshot and AS
MA:
Claw of kali: very good weapon, an upgrade of the weasel/rat/bear/duck claw, with buffs to evades
nanocrystal: (marksman mastery), buff of 150 to bow and sharp obj
Trader:
fangs of the baby eater: allows traders to regain health by eating a mobs offspring (j/k )
nanocrystal: (salesman's bargain), drains the targets abilitys, and returns some to the trader
Krutt 220 assault shotgun critical special : very nice trader only shotty with +3% crit chance
enf:
nanocrystal (stomp!), nuke! lol thats aoe, centred on the user, and stuns all mobs hit for a few sec
Bodyguard Elite shades, atrox only, +20 str and sta (and coolness :P )
NT:
well they have NS already but they can use more loving
nanocrystal: (Izzgimmers memoirs) self only, adds +50 to ALL nanoskills, but doesnt stack with mochies, or infuses (i belive it would be possible to have it stack with just teachings and masteries though, and that would be balanced i think)
nanocrystal: (Enfraams knife of darkness) nuke that does disease dmg, and dots and blinds at the same time
fixer:
dont be greedy

dont think i've forgot anyone , remember if some of these seem overpowered that theyre supposed to be RARE loot

thats all that i can think of for item changes for now, so....... onto.......

nanoskill changes:
general:
higher gen buffs! would it really hurt to have gen buffs of say 30 as well as 20? and ability buffs of 18ish? or a runbuff of 50......... (hardly gonna make us fast as lightning.... )

a 3-5 min grid nano usable by anyone, its still quicker than walking/flying back from a mission,a 5 min team one and a 3 min self one would be good

the missing skills......... theres no gen perception, multi ranged and melee, map nav and vehicle air/ground/water buffs (and maybe one or 2 ive missed) the multi buffs i can understand kinda, but perception?

engy:
ok they need loving lots so theyre first
beacon pet warp: everyone asks for it, why not give em it......
kamikaze bot....... are we ever gonna see this?
Teachings of Electrical Engineering/etc : smallish tradeskill buffs that stack with traders
Study quantum physics/etc : mediumish tradeskill buffs that might stack with trader buffs (depends how good they are)
Research Chemistry large tradeskill buffs that dont stack with trader ones
(all self only)
nanoline of pet buffs to help em keep aggro more, call em adjust/recalibrate/enhance agression circuits or something
new pet line! , how about a mechdog pet that hits hard, and fast, but has little hp, or a turret type pet thats powerful, but cant move, or a little drone thing that flys like a MP meatball and does ranged dmg
wardroid, gladiatorbot, android transference , lower lvls of slayer tran, but with different buff types, have the android type one do pistol, the gladiator one do shotgun and the wardroid type one do grenade+heavy weapon, i think that's pretty much the range of engy weapon choices
more variety on the way pets look too i know engys have the most pet graphics as it is, but theres plenty more mob bots that look different... how about:
automaton: those lil short ones that look like the trash king lackey
android: what it has now
gladiatorbot: buzzsaw thingy
guardbot: same as now
warbot: same as now
warmachine: one of those t-60 type things that looks like a sorta slayerdroid snake
wardroid: blasterbeetle
slayer: same as now
that'd make em much more interesting
ok enough engy stuff i think

adv:
different polymorphs: how about a mantis one that adds to evades and inits, a shadow mutant one that adds to concealment (like a better leet form) , a rollerat one, that adds to youre annoyingness , a vulture one that lets you fly earlier than the ql150 calias form parrot or a bileswarm one that gives a chance for the mob to run away
different polymorph graphics, lets face it, those 2 headed wolves are ugly, im sure people would be much happier for it to look like a nighthowler type thing, and make the pitlizard morph look like a pitlizard, not a dragon (ie not have wings) now its flightless
charms, leet friend is funny..... but what about other animals? this could be a useful nanoline instead of a funny, but useless one, as it is now (and i want a santaleet friend by next christmas too )
faster standard runbuffs (not parrot/wolf looking ones) a nice line, that just sort of stops, extend it to 200-300ish and it'd be much better

and thats all i can be bothered to type at the moment lol, ill finish this later

[_______________Xuric]

I like all of those idea except for the grey mob ones.

As the title of your thread had giving a purpose to leveling, that seems an anti-purpose to not be able to attack grey mobs and 75% olf the mobs i've seen are <50. I don't get grey mobs attacking me either.