There is something clearly wrong with professions as we know them in AO. They look all the same, there are only minor differences like nano programs and skill colors. As an engineer, there's really nothing that prevents me from being a successful martial artist, and my enforcer could produce trade-skill items just as easy as a trader. Nothing, really nothing is profession-unique.
As AO has developed, all professions have tilted more and more towards being soldiers. They are soldiers, except that they all have some extra, funny nanoprograms.
This is because here is only 1 viable way to get XP in AO: To kill tons and even more tons of MoBs.
What I suggest is for FunCom to make each profession really Unique. There already are unique items, but none of these are actual aspects of the game, they're just variations of basic items everybody can use. See where I want?
Some suggestions:
- Adventurer
What is an adventurer supposed to do? He's walking around in the wilderness. That's his "job", and therefore, he should get XP for that. He should be able to get experience by exploring areas, maybe even tracking different creatures. Of course that does exclude the use of a Yalmaha.- Agent
Agents I think need a special sort of missions. They would of course include a lot of sneaking around, maybe even outside. A lot of alignment switching and different disguises should be standard. A whole array of unique equipment would be necessary.- Bureaucrat
Tricky one. A crat is a politican, and besides the out-of-game fiction, there are no politics in AO. "Speeches" and "charms"? Go boil your head, that simply isn't good enough! Maybe an ability to directly affect upcoming events could open an arena for the not very popular Bureaucrat profession.- Doctor
The skills of this profession are outstanding in usefullness, but not unique (fair enough, as this isn't the most popular prof). Added to their healing, I think these should have a wide array of Doctor-only tradeskills, mainly on producing drugs. We could imagine diseases caused in battle, reducing skills, only healable by the tradeskill items of a doctor.- Enforcer
This is a pure fighther, and all XP of this profession should be made from missions and hunting.- Engineer
This master of tradeskills should have a wide array of produceable, unique tools and weapons. Many parts and tools should be nodrop, or even better: Prof NoDrop, makes an item only tradable by members of a certain profession. As a controller of war machines, he could double as fighter.- Fixer
The Fixer's already got his own Grid and shops, which is very good. However, none of these really give XP, so that he should have his own version of Trader Missions (see Trader below), with a "shady" twist.- Martial Artist
Not as much a fighter as the enforcer, the martial artist deals considerable damage, and has no other real uses besides secondary healing. XP from combat only.- Meta-Physicist
Another difficult profession. Nano-tradeskills would be the most likely source for alternative XP. Anyone got ideas here?- Nano-Technican
FunCom better quickly decide whether this is a Technican or a Warrior. At the current state, he is a pure fighter, and nano-programming unique tradeskills could be left to the MP. That could work well, but for Zarquon's sake: Give them better DAMAGE!!!- Soldier
Need I say more? Pure fighter, combat XP only.- Trader
This is the real weirdo of the Anarchy Online profession system. Altough he's called a Trader, but is actually just a soldier with some funny-named nano programs. Give him his own half-mission this way: Put a new terminal in each zone, severals in some, and make it trader only. Here he can pick up an item or two (max 3-4), and transport it to the destination terminal mentioned in the description, there to recieve XP/money reward. Loading a Yalmaha, using Grid or Wom-Pah immediately deletes mission. Carrying items gives him a different range of aggro reactions. Food transport aggros only natural aggro mobs like Rollerrats. Weapons may aggro all NPCs. Illegal goods may even cause guards to attack!
Summary: All professions except the fighting Enforcer, MA, Soldier and NT has alternative ways of getting XP and/or money, which could allow for some reduction of their fighting capabilities. This would balance out the game at once, and elliminate the need for nerfs (or "profession improvements", as FunCom like to call it.) Then they could base patches on storyline and stability, rather than working 3 more years just to create 10 variations of the Soldier/Enforcer profession.
More suggestions wanted!
