What do you consider AO's "brand"? (storyline stuff itt)

[Eralius2]

The story depth is easily on par (in terms of complexity) as bungie's halo saga. Now you might think thats an easy feat, but i remember reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of logs, backstory, letters (yes the so labelled cortana letters), myth (heavily related to ancient civilizations) and even the bible (it wasnt coincidence the characters and various important numbers pointed to parts of the bible). The depth was like none i've ever seen and i dont think anyone has ever compiled it because the fact is it would take a ridiculous amount of work organising it.

Anyway, i know MMO players have a distinct patience (axp grind anyone?) and interest in story - hopefully so much that we can pull this together. I would be very interested in working something out with the serious guys about the story, starting from simple things like the original clan/omni war stories all the way down into the very complex inter-linked lives of the xan, humans, the dustbrigade, the NPCs in RK, SL, Xan areas.

Thankfully a lot of the information is out there it just needs compiled, pieced together and layed out in viewable form. Perhaps if any of the hardcore RPers are around, we could have a starting point. Anyone IN?

[Mastablasta]

lol Halo... Triangle penguins and squeaky cartoon voices etc..

[Essessceeaych]

Ya, damn that master chief and his squeaky cartoon voice!

[Berinda]

even the bible (it wasnt coincidence the characters and various important numbers pointed to parts of the bible)

I was under the impression from reading something - don't play Halo and I could be way off base - that the Covenant were a bunch of religious aliens (thus the name) and were convinced humans were some kind of demons.

On topic though, what's special about the 14 professions? Other than them being player characters, surely there's others jobs on RK than the 14 you can pick to play as. What's so special about them that massive amounts of custom gear and nanos, and even entire buildings, are made specially for them?

[Whealer]

I don't really think putting together a database of knowledge will be overly difficult. I think the hard part of it all will come with figuring out where the heck to start. With all the stories so intertwined across all expansions its finding that starting point that will be the major undertaking. That is unless maybe our good friend Kintaii would like to give us a reference point on where to start.

[trousers]

What I *can't* explain is exactly how Jobe hooks up to Nascence. That one never made much sense to me - I can totally get portals out to Ely and stuff, but actually running from Jobe into Nasc still boggles me a bit.

Answer

Reason we don't see it is because it's standard Anarchy-Online Storyline continuity fail. Jobe is on Rubi-Ka. Jobe Research is in the Shadowlands. We opened a Portal that allows us passage between the two, but FC never bothered to implement the portal, therefore we just magically hop between the two using a door.

The proper way to fix this, imo, would be to add the portal Chamber in Jobe and move the blue teleportation portals from Jobe to Jobe Research. That way You have SL junk in the SL and RK junk on RK and you coherently move between the two.

[Galilei]

I don't really think putting together a database of knowledge will be overly difficult. I think the hard part of it all will come with figuring out where the heck to start. With all the stories so intertwined across all expansions its finding that starting point that will be the major undertaking. That is unless maybe our good friend Kintaii would like to give us a reference point on where to start.

"September 03 - 28702

The first human vessel - a small surface lander, the "Atlantean" - makes planet-fall on Rubi-Ka. It is immediately followed by a second lander, the "Rimor". Both surveyor vessels have been commissioned by the Omni-Tek Corporation."

Perhaps you could start from here (web archiver pages load really slowly so be patient).

Here's a list of all Anarchy Online website archives - story pages can be found from most archives. There's some interesting history to read.

[trousers]

"September 03 - 28702

The first human vessel - a small surface lander, the "Atlantean" - makes planet-fall on Rubi-Ka. It is immediately followed by a second lander, the "Rimor". Both surveyor vessels have been commissioned by the Omni-Tek Corporation."

Perhaps you could start from here (web archiver pages load really slowly so be patient).

Currently Supported Timeline. It loads faster and is more complete then the archived one.

[FoosballX]

Currently Supported Timeline. It loads faster and is more complete then the archived one.

Might be a good idea to read over both to see where changes have been made.
And now back to my bigger longer post.

[Isamin]

...and one other thing ? Anarchy online ? why was this name chosen? everytime i mention this name to someone who is not privy with the world of MMORPG i get.. *sounds like some /emo /wrists game to me, im not interested*. i must admit when i actually first heard of it many years ago i did think the same.

I always assumed this was a play on AOL's name, given when the game was developed. America OnLine -> Anarchy Online.

[shadowgod]

Answer

Reason we don't see it is because it's standard Anarchy-Online Storyline continuity fail. Jobe is on Rubi-Ka. Jobe Research is in the Shadowlands. We opened a Portal that allows us passage between the two, but FC never bothered to implement the portal, therefore we just magically hop between the two using a door.

The proper way to fix this, imo, would be to add the portal Chamber in Jobe and move the blue teleportation portals from Jobe to Jobe Research. That way You have SL junk in the SL and RK junk on RK and you coherently move between the two.

you over looked the posts inwhich was stated, they were in the game at one point, for a short time. but it essentially involved zoning twice to get into/out of SL. and convenience/redundant was prolly reason for removing it, despite its RP aspect.

[Technogen]

It should be put back in with some other stuff to do in there. It would make a great place for quest NPCs and "Jobs from Jobe" pretty much "long range" missions in SL that are short quest.

[trousers]

you over looked the posts inwhich was stated, they were in the game at one point, for a short time. but it essentially involved zoning twice to get into/out of SL. and convenience/redundant was prolly reason for removing it, despite its RP aspect.

Might be, but we do inconvenient stuff all time. Grid to Newland City and have to run and zone into the city. Grid to Omni-Entertainment and have to run through 1/2 the city to get to the whom-Pahs.

Removing it because because it was 1 more zone to get there seems awful silly when the lore impact is so significant. Especially now when people can just bypass Jobe by using the teleportation statues or recall beacons.

[FoosballX]

There used to be this great player post, that tied in a lot of stuff about the book and the game. It also had pretty much the story of the pen and ado quests before they came out. For some reason I can no longer find that thread.

Since everyone is discussing and ranting about the storyline, and Kintaii is chiming in here and there.
First off props to FC for the newer SL quests, like pen and ado for finally explaining the Xan only took 5 or so years but better late then never.

Anyway I see a lot of the issues and things missing with the storyline are for a number of reasons.
One I don't think FC ever planned on this game lasting as long as it has. If you follow the key quests for SL it gives a real feeling of finality (well a lot of the old SL quests are written in a totally linear single player game way).
I think a lot of the problems with the storyline so far is, one FC never expected AO to last as long as it has, which could account what the old SL stuff gives you the feeling that the end is near. Also I think there has been a lot of changing of hands on the storyline over the years. So we get some half finished stuff.

There are a few things i would like to see finished, or at least get some better answers too. The whole Omega thing. As an rper this gets under my skin a bit, we're not suppose to know the Omega are out and about or working with Omni-tek and yet there they are as clear as day.
Speaking of Omega and Omni, someone want to answer up the whole Eva Eva thing. I know a while back Pants tried to bring this out into the light, but in the end the answer was "umm their two different people with the same name." Come on that's a horrid answer and when you tie in the missing stuff on her character bio on the main page "Personal details prior to joining Omni-Tek are non-existent, but her ascension within the corporation has been fast and impressive." Come now, that's just screaming something fishy.
And while we're at it what's up with Galahad? Xan of inferno or the trader that built Camelot? Okay if someone said these two had the same name I would buy it.
And speaking of unfinished story stuff what happened to poor Eleena Oak?

In the end some stories need to be continued and shrouded in mystery for the game to go on, others need to have an ending and then have it in a DB some where.

Also I should say, anyone that read Prophet Without Honour deserves answers to some questions.

And to answer Kintaii's question, yes you guys can be way too obscure with your hint dropping; however, I will say they're not impossible to figure our, but I think so many stories have been half finished, or finished without archived info, a lot of people don't really bother to follow. But I will say a lot of the new stuff has been really nice at tying some things in.

*Edited in* Since it's placement does make clanners unhappy campers. Maybe it might be nice to put in some cool story line on why and how Omni-HQ is positioned under Pande? i would think the area Pande would be over would be the Home pyramid. so maybe some hints on that one, that would be awesome.

[trousers]

*Edited in* Since it's placement does make clanners unhappy campers. Maybe it might be nice to put in some cool story line on why and how Omni-HQ is positioned under Pande? i would think the area Pande would be over would be the Home pyramid. so maybe some hints on that one, that would be awesome.

It's on a list for a brainstorming post My Speculation is this. Omni-1 was Built there because of it's relative location to Pande and The Source. Omni-Tek tried to link directly into the source from Omni-1. They did this under the guise of Weather Control. Portal opened to Pande, Chaos Spilled out and totaled the City, so they had to close it and come up with Plan B.

[Ms_Idoru]

On the Jobe portal topic - wouldn't it be SIMPLER to model the interior of the building (Just clone the IPS building without any statues in it) and have the Jobe Research, Nascence frontier, Port 7, and Port 5 portals ALL IN ONE PLAYFIELD instead of spanned across the harbour, marketplace and plaza?

[Grim-One]

On the Jobe portal topic - wouldn't it be SIMPLER to model the interior of the building (Just clone the IPS building without any statues in it) and have the Jobe Research, Nascence frontier, Port 7, and Port 5 portals ALL IN ONE PLAYFIELD instead of spanned across the harbour, marketplace and plaza?

That would be nice. Then they could redesign and make room for more new places. While on topic of redesign how about a "Grand Library of Jobe" that has every piece of chat dialogue with all the Shadowlands quest NPC's taken from the point of view of a Jobe scientist who has run all the quest. Sure players could compile a site with all this info but would be much cooler to actually log into game to see the info. There should be a Library on RK as well but I am not sure if Jobe should be in charge of compiling quest info or ICC or taken from the point of view of OTPC / IRRK reporters.

[Whealer]

It's on a list for a brainstorming post My Speculation is this. Omni-1 was Built there because of it's relative location to Pande and The Source. Omni-Tek tried to link directly into the source from Omni-1. They did this under the guise of Weather Control. Portal opened to Pande, Chaos Spilled out and totaled the City, so they had to close it and come up with Plan B.

That seems a viable and believable reason barring a few key points.

1.) The location of Omni 1 was selected due to it being the central point of the teraformed area of Rubi-Ka at the time. We know now that this location was selected due to an agreement with the ICC that the far side of the planet would not be teraformed due to the existence of what at the time would be considered alien ruins.
(This leads to a whole other time line issue that I'll bring up in another post.)

2.) The weather control system was built long before the known existence of the Shadowlands. One would assume that the location of Omni-1 was the same location of the original OTRK-1, also know as "Downtown", was located. If this is the case it would be have been built within a 10km biosphere. This would then lead us to believe that the location of the original biosphere or first teraformed location was chosen intentionally at this time even though the alien ruins were on the far side of the planet.

3.) This would also imply that the original Omni-Tek corporate officers responsible for making these decisions would either be: A) An Omega, or B) Someone with direct contact to an Omega through either direct or indirect means.

[Technogen]

3.) This would also imply that the original Omni-Tek corporate officers responsible for making these decisions would either be: A) An Omega, or B) Someone with direct contact to an Omega through either direct or indirect means.

Roman was heavy handing Omni-tek from the shadows, that was covered when Omni-tek was created at the end of the war.

[Whealer]

Roman was heavy handing Omni-tek from the shadows, that was covered when Omni-tek was created at the end of the war.

True but I would think that in the amount of time elapsed that it may be difficult to maintain a strong hold of power while maintaining a need secrecy about your true origins and abilities. Of course this also all operates on the idea that he himself had this knowledge as well.