re: the most recent article,


For instance, on one of my characters (around level 60) I only have 120 in Breaking and Entering. I haven't bothered raising it any higher, because I know that even with chests around 400 in difficulty I will open it if I try 3-4 times. (I know that because I get 400 points of experience. You get 1 point of experience per Unlock Difficulty.) That difficulty is used as a DMS (Defensive Modified Skill) against my breaking and entering skill. (Serving as AMS - Attacking Modified Skill) (Sorry bout the names for these values :/)

Going back to sneaking: Think of your Sneak skill as the DMS of the chest. Think of the Perception skill of the monster as the AMS. Once every 10 seconds or so, a dice is rolled. Even though the Perception skill of a level 200 is around 800 and you have 2k in Sneak, there is still a 20% or so chance of it detecting you. If you "linger" you will be detected!
THANK YOU!

We desperately need more info like this.

AO did not come with a 'real' manual;
so players are still confused about how the game mechanics work.

You have now cleared up one major area of uncertainty,
and the agents can stop crying that conceal is 'broken'.

Please continue to elaborate on AOs rules.

for example:

- most players still think nano-resist is 'broken'

I believe it is not and I believe I've figured out
how it works and have attempted to debate the
theory with other players, but as I am not 'official'
it always ends with some NT hurling insults.

- many players are still confused about evades.

once also called 'broken', their effect on reducing crits
is now evident but more info would be appreciated.

- inititives are a mystery too.

there are currently 2 main theorys.
a) 1000init = 1sec off attack and 1sec off recharge for 2sec total
b) 600init = 1sec off attack and either 0 or 1 or 2 sec off recharge.
please confirm which is correct or if both are wrong. (and correct us)

I appreciate that there is more to enjoying the game than calculations.
however (as im sure you've noticed) when players invest so
much time into a game like this, they become very emotional
about building thier characters and dont like to feel that they
are making mistakes or 'wasting IP'.
AO is not a game you can learn through trial and error,
as progression is too slow and mistakes too permanent
to quickly recover from a failed experiment.

Rather than have endless threads on these boards from players
fighting with eachother and whining at you that 'X' is broken,
tell us "'X' is not broken; this is how it works..."

Then, instead of angry confused whiny players,
you have educated players able to make informed decisions.