Of all the current MMORPG style games, Anarchy Online has the potential to be the best of the current games out there.

However, I am concerned about a trend that I see from patch to patch. It seems to me that some new things are added (generally for a specific class or high level people), sometimes old things are tweaked, but very rarely is a core problem fixed.

Now, it could just be that what I would think are core issues are things that you really could care less about, but please hear me out.

I like new content as much as the next gamer out there, but would propose that instead of adding a lot of additional content to what we already have that you instead try to balance your patches so that you are doing the following:
~1/3 bug fixes
~1/3 original content fixes
~1/3 new content

I am sure you have an internal list of bug fixes. Spending time to slowly go through them and quash at least a few (starting with the most glaring) each patch would be much appreciated by all. I know you all work hard to get them fixed.

---Original Content Fixes---
These are things that have been around since the beginning, but could really help AO in the long run if done.

1) Balance Weapons
As much as it is nice to have a large variety of weapons, it is even nicer when there are not 1 or 2 weapons that are obviously superior to all other weapons in its class. Currently, 95% of all weapons in AO are pretty much worthless/unused due to the fact that they are clearly not nearly as good as other weapons.
To fix this, I would recommend doing the following:
- Go through each weapon class and decide what its advantages/disadvantages are when compared with other weapons.
- Define a base weapon for each class of weapons.
- Make 10+ variations on each base weapon that have different damage types, trade off (damage/crit/speed/reload).
- Make specials (fling, burst, etc) dependant on weapon type. Not particular weapons. This way, people who put points into flingshot and pistol know that they will be able to use flingshot with any pistol. Maybe give certain weapons a bonus to a particular special rather than only letting specific weapons use specials.
-Determine the q200 versions of all weapons designed and then calculate stats for those in between (I would say to just drop quality on weapons and make damage/crit chance/etc depend on skill, but am thinking that it would be far too much work on your part and/or too large of a change for most of the playerbase)
-Delete all the useless weapons in the game

2) Fix professions
-Look at all professions and note what their specialties are supposed to be.
-Go over their nano lines and make sure that they can do what they are supposed to be able to do.
-Remove any obviously overpowering nanos and replace them with good, but not gamebreaking nanos (i.e. some trader and metaphys nanos are one of the roots of oe problems).
-Fix/replace all broken/worthless nanos (trader charm comes to mind...)
-Add new nanos as needed to give everyone a decent amount of options.
-Make sure all professions have at least 3 light blue/green weapon skills. (variety is always nice)

3) Fix tradeskills:
-For all the base weapons (see 1) and variations, let them all be built, broken down into components, and modified with different pieces (say swap out that chem pack for a radiation pack to make your newly found rifle do radiation damage instead of chem damage).
-Do the same for armor, devices, etc. If you slowly add these things in patch by patch, eventually players would be able to build just about anything they need.
-Make sure it is cheaper to build an item than it is to go buy it from a shop.

4) Fix mission selection:
-Add the ability to limit missions to a particular area
-Add the ability to limit missions to those with a particular type of reward. Sure, this would let people get the equipment they want more easily, but it would save players a lot of time/frustration.

5) Fix breeds (Nanomage/Atrox)
-Give atrox the extra HP/STR/END they are supposed to have at the high end. currently there really isnt enough of a difference for the losses they incur.
-Give nanomages the extra PSI/NANO/etc they are supposed to have at the high end.

6) Bring back item weight
-I remember back at launch that one big reason to play an atrox was all the extra stuff you could pack around. This would also make it so you could make the heavy armors heavy..and thus not used by weak characters. Want to see the end of everyone using assault weapons, wearing heavy armors, and packing around all the equipment they need? This would do it nicely.

7) Fix stores:
-Let people buy whatever they want (standard equipment) or at least have certain stores always carry certain equipment.

8) Fix loot:
-Make loot dropped items have a chance of having extra bonuses on them (+str, +fling, +hp, etc) depending on item type. Make the bonuses random dependant on quality. This would give people more incentive to go out hunting and trade. This (combined with letting people specify location/item for missions - which could return no missions available for given item/location) would give people a reason to go hunting even though they can get all items they really need via missions. This would also help alleviate camping to an extent.

9) Remove Level Restrictions and Fix Overequipping:
-Drop level restrictions (ick)
-Fix Overequipping: Remove (or tone down) the couple of nanos that let people massively overequip and give them some new (usefull) nanos to make up for the loss. Remove the ability to raise complit via implants. doing these 2 things would basically make it so that no one could become extremely over-equipped. They could still do it decently, but they couldnt make a level 1 so powerful that a level 30 couldnt defeat him.

Adding in the above things one piece at a time, patch by patch would eventually get AO to the point that it would have more to it than any other MMORPG out there.

As to new content, try to make new content applicable to all players (instead of just high level players) where possible.
Examples would be new vehicles, the ability to customize vehicles (maybe give them hardpoints and nano slots where people could install weapons and nano progs (i.e. you cant use nanos except those installed in your vehicle while in it), land ownership, pvp missions, etc.

Anywise, here is hoping that AO keeps doing well.

Finally, my rundown of its competition:
-EQ : Camping Inc. (blech)
-DAoC: EQ Lite (blech)
-AC : Fun, but after playing it for 3 years it is losing its luster
-AC2 : Tries to be EQ/DAoC and fails miserably (blech)
-EnB: Traderun Inc with a bit of EQ tossed in.

-Religion
-"Still awaiting my AO linux client "

p.s. if there is anything here you really dont agree with, please explain why...as I would like to hear it.