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

[Honorbound]

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

I've read it somewhere a long time ago, in some interview with some of the original creators who worked on the game around the time of it's launch that AO was originally meant to be a whole lot different game than what it turned into during the development process (and I think there also was some redeisgn involved).
It was to be a heavily PvP focused game about two warring factions that try to gain control over the gameworld through a mechanism similar to the current tower wars. There was to be only a minimalistic story involved and the game was planned to be perodically "reset" (or only have a very limited planned lifespan/runtime) once one faction or the other gains ultimate superiority.
The name "Anarchy Online" was to reflect this fierce and somewhat chaotic battle fought over the control of the land without any rule but one: destroy the opposition.

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.

The way I see it, everything Omni-Tek (including its earlier incarnations, whatever their names may have been) does is in some way originates from the Omega, and what they do is suggested by those of the Unredeemed (or the Braces they worship, or whoever Vanya and Co. actually are) who manipulate/control them.
The Omegas themselves may not always have all the information about why they "should" do what they are "suggested" to do, but those who make those "suggestions" to them know a lot more about a lof of things.
And Omni-Tek was built exactly to be controlled like this, to provide total control over the employees, to ensure their unconditional loyalty and to make sure they don't ask questions, don't think about the orders they are given, they just do as they are told. And when your people are trained out of asking the wrong questions, or any kind of questions for that matter, you don't really have to make an effort to keep things in secret as there won't be anyone who you need to keep those things secret from.

[trousers]

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.

1. Yes.

2. Yes.

3. Yes.

[Whealer]

Another thing that has me slightly perplexed, as I mentioned earlier, would be the fact that we know that both Omni-Tek and the ICC knew about the alien ruins on the far side of the planet. We also know that they were important enough for the ICC and Omni-Tek to make a non contractual agreement to not teraform and develop that half the planet. Since we also know that the ICC's planet survey was actually based off the initial Omni-Tek report then one would have to assume that Omni-Tek was fully truthful in the their reasons for coming to the planet as these ruins were most likely left out of the ICC's planetary report where the listed the planet as dead and barren and uninhabitable.

This brings into question the ICC's motives for allowing the initial 1000 year lease of the planet to Omni-Tek.

[Phantom]

For those interested in compiling AO's story - or at least what we know so far - I've actually begun a wiki project this week after a conversation with some other roleplayers on RK2.

I'm still putting together some very basic information and the layout, but I figure now is as good a time as any to look for volunteers to help gather and organize the more in-depth stuff. I'll make a more formal announcement/request for volunteers over the weekend, but for now if anyone is interested in helping out, feel free to shoot me a PM.

[LyraJ]

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.

This. Have these scientists check against your mission tags for some things but simply having most of this available in game would be sweet. You could sway it to both perspectives as well...scientists who primarily have worked with unredeemed or redeemed a la Veronica and Donna in Nasc.

I know plenty of the newer players in my org - and by that I mean 2-3 years playing only - would love this. Those of us who've been around longer may know more but typing it all in chat just sucks.

If it's something that is supposed to be vague, don't include it, but so much more of the additional information would make more sense if there was a solid grounding in the backstory.

[Nanostratege]

About the Novictum issue: Somewhere the whole Notum/Novictum thing is explained and if i recall correctly it goes like this:

- Originaly the Source was Notum
- The Xan were able to use it to create live
- No one died
- Just a bit before the Cataclysm Novictum appeared and People started to die
(not sure about this: - The Xan then started to experiment with Novictum creating the Incarnator technology and quite a lot other things)

Therefor it has to be assumed that the Cataclysm was caused by the Source being tainted with Novictum, which ultimatly caused the Xan to become what they are now.

Also somewhere it is descriped that Notum is Live and Novictum Death - and both have to come together to create live as we know it.

Here you can speculate that the tearing apart of the Dimensions which created Rubi-Ka and the Shadowlands also (mostly) seperated Notum and Novictum.

---
About the storyline:
I love the hint dropping thing and piercing the storyline together, please don't stop that.

However it would be cool to have some kind of Quest Log where you can reread all Questtexts which you have already done, maybe with a cool hologram of the quest-npc.

[Nevo-RK3]

Off topic considering Storyline:

- but when i think of AO as a brand, some Unique features have to be mentioned too, bcause they add so much to the atmosphere, and are so important to the whole gameplay:

Implants! and Symbiants. They not only are part of the Sci fi Side of AO, but also add to the individual character creation, a part of the game that makes it so much fun! There is only a handful of games that allow so much individual and creative ways of building a character and it is definately one of the keyfeatures of the Brand Anarchy Online.

[MassDebater]

This. Have these scientists check against your mission tags for some things but simply having most of this available in game would be sweet. You could sway it to both perspectives as well...scientists who primarily have worked with unredeemed or redeemed a la Veronica and Donna in Nasc.

I know plenty of the newer players in my org - and by that I mean 2-3 years playing only - would love this. Those of us who've been around longer may know more but typing it all in chat just sucks.

If it's something that is supposed to be vague, don't include it, but so much more of the additional information would make more sense if there was a solid grounding in the backstory.

You know its funny, I loved all the myst games for their deep storyline stuff, and yet when playing AO and doing a quest or what not, I skip all the dialogue as fast as possible.

This seems like a contradiction, but I always like going back to the myst worlds and exploring more deeply after I have skipped through the game, a library like you suggested would add this ability to go and read the information you want.