How to fix the 'upgraded' (-000) RK weapons.

[Leamartini]

Problem is that paid players have perks/AI armor/..., LE researches, ... So they will equip the QL200 a lot earlier. And also be able to go above QL200.

[xxaaaxx55]

Froobs are restricted to RK only, where max dmg is king, so they wouldn't even sniff most of these weapons.

The ONLY way these weps ever made sense, given the time frame when they were released, is if they were meant to be cheap options for the $5 SLers (IIRC they started that offer a month or so after the 000 update), but without an extension to QL300, it fails at that too.

I don't think they'll ever make them give more dmg than currently, theyd want AI weps to still be superior, but allowing them to go to QL300 would solve most of the problems with this line. But after the non-answer in the FWM thread, I'm not holding my breath.

[bitnykk]

imo they used the QL 1 and 300 alien weapons, nerfed them and interpolated the 200 upgraded for froobs. that's only a conception matter, it was never intended that they exist in QL 300 IG.

also they were never intended to SL-only subscribers, wich got a panel of other weapons of choice up there (pere, tiig, cata, static, ...). but to be sure no froob could slap an averagely equiped extensed, they kept the requirement as high as they are now.

so the result of this safety is a fullset of medium "min damage but flat" weapons, mostly unknown by froobs and lot lesser in PVM than the usual classic killers (rare & dyna drops, CoH or IS weapons, etc ...).

those weapons are barely acceptable. they'd prolly need a recheck, especially the 3 i mentionned in red. also someone asked to add aimedshot on pistol line.

[Galilei]

Since these upgraded weapons aren't available at ql200+ why not make a little adjustment to high level RK dyna and RK unique monster loot tables. For example RK dynas level 201+ could drop the -000 version of these weapons and level 201+ uniques could have a chance to drop the -C01 weapons (ie. the fully upgrade weapon which are also nodrops).

If RK dynas would drop those basic -000 weapons, then you would have to get the upgrades from RK missions where the upgrades drop at very high quality levels. Since -000 aren't nodrop, these would find their way to game market as well.

If RK uniques (Ljotur, Pest, HI, dustbrigade generals, Mercs etc.) dropped the -C01 versions, you would have to loot the weapon with the char that needs the gun since it's nodrop. This could lead to some more raiding...

Now this above doesn't solve the initial problem which is the high skill req. / low damage output problem but if they made some adjustments to these weapons (like 90% of damage of AI guns instead of 75%) and added the ql201+ weapons to those loot tables, perhaps then some of the weapons would be useful...

[kickenix2]

bump

fix -000

[Dancingrage]

Expecting an answer from an FWM thread is iffy since the chances are that if it's gonna be fixed it'll be fixed in the rebalancing. Cross your fingers for that, folks.

@Leamartini: That's sort of the point, I drew comparisons between ql300 -000 weapons and some popular options for, say, TL5 earlier in the thread, this would mean that there'd be a few viable options instead of whatever highest ql of Ofab weapon you could get on, you'd have a few options open. This would also mean that 'support' professions could stuff on these weapons and have something useable in the interim until they get and equip their 'endgame' weapons.

[Xercia]

A few thoughts from a Sloob's perspective...

These weapons... they really did get me all excited when I first opened up a new Froob account with AO a few weeks back. I heard about them, checked out the data base, and was giggling like made seeing that I might beable to make a viable froob pistol advy/soldier or have some decent weapons kicking around for other characters.

Then I saw they didn't go above 200 still and I was sad.

If they tone down the requirements as suggested and open the range all the way to QL 300 the weapon line would be rockin, in my honest opinion. They till would not perform as well as their AI/LE counter parts due to lack of specials and special recharges generally being a bit longer, but it would give some nice weapon options for sloobs and froobs alike. That way they could get a little variety going on and variety is good.

Personally I am looking at doing a character using these weapons, well one of these weapons paired with an SL Staple gun, the JCGPP/JPGPP. A pistol/re soldier. Was really the best option that was tossed out for a sloob pistol soldier other than going with a BBB in the off hand (which I have as well so will have that to fall back on if need be.) The way I figure it, if FC can see someone using these weapons maybe, just maybe, we can get them to look into it and see how fail they are currently. What I am looking at doing is comparing as the character levels the various QL's I was able to get on with out breaking the bank on twinking.

[NotDavidBowi]

Bump for more variety in weapon choices! Fix these weapons.

[jtrainor]

Bump for agreement.

[mes]

lets have another bump, having sensible alternatives is always good.

the upgradeable rk weapons was a nice idea to begin with but the implementation turned out to be poor, lets hope that we will see a fix to that since it wouldn´t be complicated to develope.

[Dancingrage]

Bumping again to bring it up since the rebalancing is nigh...geez, sounds like I'm saying the End is Nigh orsomething...

[Mostadio]

QL300 interpolation makes weapons really horrible choices at mid levels. Compare perennium weapons to their AI counterparts. Superior Perennium Blaster does comparable damage to a QL300 AI carbine with half the requirements. wth?

[MaxiM]

My turn to *BUMP*

I loved the idea, I love the quest for parts and I love the looks of those forgotten weapons. But damn they suck. I really tried to make use of them as a froob but that turned out to be the biggest waste of time and money in my entire AO career. FunCom, why would you waste so much time and effort on this and then never fix the problems? That idea is still kicking but needs some work. Requirements, specials, damage and ql scale... I won't be repeating what was already stated, just reminding you that there are still people who would like 000 weapons to be useful. There's an abundance of completely useless weapons in this game and everyone is running with the same stuff. We need variety!

[bitnykk]

totally true.

these weapons should be checked/bumped (OR decreased in requirement) and their basis added to standard shopping boothes among the thousand of useless weapons -that only clueless noobies dare to use ...

that wouldn't kill the HitW quests (nor need of upgrade looting among RK mobs) BUT would at least update the classic game and its shops a little, along with making these weapons worth to be worn.

[Binarybits]

I'd like to see them do an about face on the -XXX weapons, and add a expansions = not AI LE LOX. make them FROOB SLOOB friendly and more useful for the target audience which is RK peeps.

[MaxiM]

Oh, I forgot about one of the most important flaws to fix: remove the NODROP tag from the last upgrade, this is really stupid.

[blingoutyourdead]

What ever happened to this idea? Apparently nothing. As so coherently explained above, these -000 upgrades would provide a quite viable line of weapons for toons across different TLs, who could get, upgrade, and use them as "good-enough" weapons at various points, if only the skill scaling were tweaked to better align with their stats. Rescale them all with that 1,500 skill cap instead of 2,000 as they are now, and they'd be back in game.

There are also some really neat options in some of them, like the Flamethrower - C0C, which uses AR as primary skill, has burst and FA, does fire dmg, AND checks duck-exp instead of dodge ranged. Even the much maligned Subturbine becomes interesting in C0C form where it also uses AR as the primary skill, does Projectile dmg, but checks duck-exp. Very few weapons in the game give you those kind of options, and they would be tons of fun to play with in certain situations, if only you could get them on at QLs that would allow better performance.

[blingoutyourdead]

One other thing I think was not mentioned above is that the -000 upgrades nerf the MBS of all these weapons, for no apparent or sensible reason. In fact, given the way-too-high skill reqs, lowering the MBS is the exact opposite of what should happen. If they ever take the time to go back in and rationalize the reqs on these, they should also un-nerf the MBS to cross QL200 at 2,000 or 2,500 across the board (scaling to higher at QL300 ofc).

http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=121929&ql=200 (Premium Flamethrower, MBS 2,500)

http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=272089&ql=200 (Flamethrower - C0C, MBS 1,605 ???)

[Lackofgravy]

Bumping this cause it needs to be bumped!

[Xeralix]

Impressive that's it's still not done...Seriously can't we get info about that, if it's planned to change or if they will stay as they are forever, i can't wait to have an alternative weapon to the blue manga-wow-medieval-fantasy weapon that LoX give to endlife player :/