Moving Away From Nanobots

The engineer profession will be changed to require tradeskills for uploading nanoprograms, this we know. It kinda moves away from the backstory of RK but I understand the logic of the change.

Are there other professions that might also move away from nanoskills for the same reason? My first thought is that trader nanos might require CL , Chemistry, and Tutoring. Or maybe soldier nanos might be based on WeaponSmithing, somethingsomething, and something else.

Granted, if every prof moved away from nanoskills then there'd've been no point to this change; any thoughts?

Best,
Gora

The only other profession I can see as viably moving away from nanoskills would be Shade and possibly Keeper.

Shades I could see being based off of abilities as a strong possibility as most, if not all I can't remember off the top of my head for sure, of their nanos are strictly of the buffing variety and as such would not be cast during a battle where debuffs would play a major factor in them. This would also fit in with them from a RP aspect with them being a SL profession and from everything I've every really been able to gather are more of a tribal type design versus a nano technology type.

Keepers I'm just really not sure since they were a SL profession it could possibly make sense that their nano programs would be based off something else but its just really hard to say what for sure.

I'm not an AO theologist, but I think it works like this: Notum represents the quasi-magical ability to manipulate energy and matter. Nanobots represent the finite constraint that a technological society imposes on notum. From a roleplay perspective, it can be retro speculated that Engineers use macro scale tools to manipulate notum rather than tiny nanobots. In this regard, I think Shades can also get away with manipulating notum without the use of nanobots; the reason being that their bodies are filled with notum rich spirits, each one representing an intelligence that is not found even in symbiants. Everyone else should rely on the use of nanobots, perhaps designed by a third party, to manipulate notum for them. This includes Keepers, which even being a profession that came from Shadowlands, do not have any capability for manipulating notum without nanobots.

In short, Engineers can do the work through the tools they designed and built, which explains tradeskill based buffing and abilities. This would also allow even PvP oriented Engineers to max out tradeskills, which is a boon for the profession that no one should have a problem with.

Shades can do the work through spirits, which represents (I think the ideal situation) the lack of use of nano skills. The will power (read, level) required to equip/control stronger spirits should be the limitation associated with the casting of buffs; all Shade buffs are level locked and fairly easy to cast except for the highest QL ones available at end game. Thus, it could be possible to modify Shades so that they do not require nanoskills to buff. I personally believe that Shades should be about twinking setups through design and versatile hotswap rather than through just getting the highest QL of stuff. This objective is semi achieved already because the vast majority of Shade only items are level locked, yet fairly easy to equip for the intended breed - Opifex. Other breeds do have trouble with things hotswapping end game spirits and armor, though.

No one else (Exception of NTs, maybe MPs) is proficient in the manipulation of notum without some kind of interface; nanobots. As such, all other professions are fine using nanobots and nanopool. Let me put it this way; someone proficient in chemistry can produce a household cleaning agent from scratch. Anyone can go and buy the same cleaning agent at the store, but only the chemist can modify it to their non generalized needs at will.

That's kinda a rambling opinion of mine, though. Much of this post might seem arbitrary, but I'm half a sleep at the moment so meh.

keepers, i think, are normally bred atrox/soli/nm/opi that have chosen the keeper profession. shade's were supposed to be creatures born of the shadowlands - and thus they probably should have had a single breed choice or have their own unique breed.

i think notum is made into nanobots and the nanobots are controlled by nano programs.

maybe some proffessions could have an extra skill added to their casting requirements or attack skill on some programs. kind of like crats have psychology as an attack skill for their charms. some professions have an extra skill which needs to be IP'd for their proffesion to work, some have an optional extra which is nice but not required, some don't have any.

agents - conceal
adventurers - perception - optional
crat - psychology
doc - pharma tech - optional
enfo - psychology for taunts ? - optional
engineer - all trade skills i suppose
fixer - B & E - optional
keeper - parry / riposte ?
martial artist - lots of cmobat skills ?
MP - NP - optional
NT - NP - optional
shade - conceal
soldier - ?
traders - CL - optional

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Originally Posted by Gora

Or maybe soldier nanos might be based on WeaponSmithing, somethingsomething, and something else.

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Hell no! My somethingsomething is dark blue and we have no buffs for something else!

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Originally Posted by mr_road

enfo - psychology for taunts ? - optional

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Psychology IP sink does not effect the increase of taunting power like how points into FA, brawl, fling and etc to reduce recharge time.

Although it would be nice if I have a 20k Taunt item and for every 100 points into Psy it adds an additional 1k or 2k taunt.

So if an enforcer had 800 into Psy, thats an additional 28k or 36k taunt.

Psy has become usless for enforcer other than for a few tradeskill items that are nodrop which we have no choice but to sink a bit of IP into it.

Or make it so that Psy does increase taunting power stacked onto the enforcers Toolset.. Make Psy usefull as intended?

IMO speccing nanos to non-nanoskills is stupid in general, but I do actually agree that some nanos should instead be abilities and/or devices that use non-nanoskills to work. Enfo and psych taunts is a great example...there's a psych using taunt item ingame but it sucks, maybe if it were a little better Mongospam would not be the end all, be all of an enf's existence.

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Originally Posted by mr_road

soldier - ?

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Full auto.

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Originally Posted by Azza

Hell no! My somethingsomething is dark blue and we have no buffs for something else!

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Ahahaha

Made my morning ;)

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Originally Posted by Megasis

Psychology IP sink does not effect the increase of taunting power like how points into FA, brawl, fling and etc to reduce recharge time.

Although it would be nice if I have a 20k Taunt item and for every 100 points into Psy it adds an additional 1k or 2k taunt.

So if an enforcer had 800 into Psy, thats an additional 28k or 36k taunt.

Psy has become usless for enforcer other than for a few tradeskill items that are nodrop which we have no choice but to sink a bit of IP into it.

Or make it so that Psy does increase taunting power stacked onto the enforcers Toolset.. Make Psy usefull as intended?

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so psychology does increase taunting by allowing the use of other items... not very good ones, but an increase non the less.

psychology could increase the taunt amount, or like crats, could be an attack skill of the taunt nanos.

solds and FA... the list was for extra skills (not abils, weapon or nano skills) which proffessions currently need to pay attention to.

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Originally Posted by mr_road

so psychology does increase taunting by allowing the use of other items... not very good ones, but an increase non the less.

psychology could increase the taunt amount, or like crats, could be an attack skill of the taunt nanos.

solds and FA... the list was for extra skills (not abils, weapon or nano skills) which proffessions currently need to pay attention to.

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Yes, which is why Psychology should increase Taunts stacked onto the item being used.

i can understand engineer stuff being made with tradeskills, but for shades?

how on earth can you buff your runspeed with the ability to go sneaking?

stupid idea. nanoskills are just fine..

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Originally Posted by Otinsainpas

i can understand engineer stuff being made with tradeskills, but for shades?

how on earth can you buff your runspeed with the ability to go sneaking?

stupid idea. nanoskills are just fine..

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Yes you're right, they are. I just think it's interesting to look at whether any other prof could easily lend itself to such a move; the comments have been interesting I think.

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Originally Posted by Veebliez

Shades can do the work through spirits, which represents (I think the ideal situation) the lack of use of nano skills. The will power (read, level) required to equip/control stronger spirits should be the limitation associated with the casting of buffs; all Shade buffs are level locked and fairly easy to cast except for the highest QL ones available at end game. Thus, it could be possible to modify Shades so that they do not require nanoskills to buff.

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If I understand you then buffs would reside in the spirits collected. Do you suggest merely upping the stats, or introducing some kind of spirit-perk? The latter might be interesting....

As an aside, since you mentioned a nanoless prof, I thought I'd point out that we likely brought Rollerrats with us to Rubi-Ka. They have no nanopool. 0/0.

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Originally Posted by Berinda

Full auto.

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For enfos all nanos should depend on body dev.

Has anyone wondered yet about the implications of the NR8 engi, now that they won't need nano skills at all for casting? Or did FC already answer that somewhere?

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Originally Posted by Gora

Granted, if every prof moved away from nanoskills then there'd've been no point to this change; any thoughts?

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Not really no point. It would just ease the IP crunch for all, by allowing each prof to focus on a single set of primary (green) skills. Since nano skills are expensive for all profs except the casters (and even for them, cheap only in a few primary skills, except for NT), you often have to gimp skills and waste slots to cast up to your level, or else just put up with buffs 10-50 levels behind for large stretches of the leveling road.

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Originally Posted by blingoutyourdead

For enfos all nanos should depend on body dev.

Has anyone wondered yet about the implications of the NR8 engi, now that they won't need nano skills at all for casting? Or did FC already answer that somewhere?

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Already answered it, funcom stated they will be altering it to fit.

Personally I don't like the thoughts of moving away from nano skills for everyone, it makes no sense.

Why does being healthy allow you to cast nano programs?
Or being good at holding down a trigger?
Or any of the other stuff supplied?

With engineers and tradeskilling there is at least some sense, they are building things rather than casting things and they of course can probably build machines to cast any programs for them.

Asking for nanos to work on other skills just for less IP usage is inappropriate, engineers one was really just to reinforce the fact that they are the tradeskillers, allowing them to do a core part of their class without having to sacrafice usability in other situations.

Enforcers and soldiers don't have to sacrafice their guns and clubs for any of their professions jobs for example.

That said, I wouldn't be opposed to some bonus for certain classes, for example fixers still requiring PM and SI to cast their snared but gaining extra attack rating from breaking and entry on top of the PM and SI attack check, this would help non caster classes land offensive nano's without having to gimp themselves raising it above the requirement to get them to land at all.

But again this wouldn't be for everyone, more for just the non casting support professions rather than tank profs and such.

Just pointing out that Crats already have something like this in the form of their charm nanos


The Voice of God

Biological metamorphosis 34 %
Sensory improvement 33 %
Psychological modifications 33 %
Psychology 20 %

A total of 120% Attack Skill vs 95% NR.

RP wise ? Item descriptions mentions several kinds of bots.

Nanobots, we know them. They are programmed by the user.
Toilersbots, used in weapons and mechanical devices (so I guess they are the engies bots now)
Nanites, preprogrammed and used in ofab, apparently to work inside a body and not in the air.
Viralbots, actually microscopic lifeforms used by aliens.

Maybe there is more in obscure item descriptions or another.

Besides that, it let engies be tradeskillers from the start and stop thm from being dependants of MPs. Other profs doesn't need anything like this.