How Rubi Ka dies( An Omni Testimonial )

[______________Orchid]

I was born in Rome. It was 11.0 and the world was well and we ate of fruitbats and orangatangs. oops, wrong story..

anyways, From Rome, I dove headlong into Galway Shire, hunting bulls with friends.

from there we ventured to higher grounds in Glaway County hunting hammer breeders, and soon the elite team of manteze hunting, bring your swimsuits!! Watch out for them rock gardens, eeeeeiiiiiyyyayaa!!

ok from Galway County we'd head to Lush and go mine hunting, if we felt really brave we'd venture to the high cave in Lush and hunt there.. Spot a lifebleeder and it was RUN AWAY !!! RUN AWAY !!! ( radiation damage was the scourge of hell! )

From there we'd move to 20k and bothackers, something people coin as Hotbackers nowadays.

Havent hunted there in 100 levels :P

From 20k we sought out Newland, Broken Shores.. and the outlaying communities

This all leads me to a revealing pattern and a relavent conundrum.

The pattern in which Rubi Ka dies.

Funcom does nothing to make locations interesting so the staying power wains quickly and with clockwork precision.

GalwayShire was hopping in 11.0. Its been legally dead for a year untilt they intriduced the new subway.

Rome was hopping in 11.0 and well, it's deceased.

Galway County .. dead. Broken Shores missions took all the people away from the fun of this county.

Lush Resort... dead swimming pooll entertaintment value, etc never realized.

20k... dead. not enough high end content

Newland. my guess is will be next to die

Broken Shores... has always been dead due to lag exept for people LFG,but they do that now in Newland.

So what do I forsee as the next center of attention and hangout for Rubi Ka? I predict that everyone will eventually leave Newland just like they did all the other places and start hanging out in Broken Shores, come NW, since everyone will be wanting to towercontrol the area.

Another center could very well be Borealis if some high end content was put out in the wilderness out by the waterfalls or the sattelite?

Another center could very well be MORT, bring back the pumpkins of war !! RAWR!!!

If there were more out in PW i think youd see that area really hopping since a lot of high levellers really like going after cyborgs these days and the Dust Brigade.

Perhaps something could be done with EFP since alot of people love the new primus camp.

What I would like to see is some content brought back to Galway County, and 20k

[____________Dominata]

Heh, hard to believe that the bridge between Galway Shire and County used to be positively packed with people and we actually had to compete with other teams hunting out there.
Galway Castle was also a great hangout with people forming teams constantly.

*sniffle*Those were the days*sniffle*

[______________Orchid]

Yea, not just Galway County, but even up until 14.X 20k was really hopping still.

And, Rome in 11.0 was the main thuroughfaire. With guilds being started in front of the generalstore ( topfloor ). Good times, yes they are missed.!!

[Mhar]

I actually never hunted or went to Galway Shire mush until 5 months after release.

My first character ( Kemono, release day breed baby ) always solod and wondered around Lush Fields and Clon****.

But yes, these were good times, we were newbies, and very easy to please. My guess is Newland will die with the release of Notum Wars and eventually (if ever ) Shadowlands.


I very much look forward to being a newbie again. Although this time I'll know what to expect from FC.

[__________RumbleFish]

I too remember those days...
I had left AO back in April but the pull was too great and I came back the beginning of November. I was shocked at the complete lack of people EVERYWHERE.
Not just in Galway or Lush, but in Ent, and Trade, in the bars, and everyplace else in between.
I remember when there would be 50-60 people easy hanging out at the BB near the whompasin Ent. Now, I consider it full if there are 10.
Everyone I knew has left this game. I've made some new friends, but my friends window went from a list of 30+ down to only 7. It's hard being in the Trade district and seeing maybe two people in the shops at any one time...
In the time I was gone, I tried: Meridian59. AstoniaIII, Project Entropa, Earth & Beyond, Neocron, Redmoon, Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call2 (beta), and a whole bunch of other korean-comic-book-based MMORPG's, but nothing snagged me the way this one does.
It's a shame to see it dying by degrees like it is. One can only hope that Notum Wars and Shadowlands will bring in some sorely needed bodies into this game.
I DO NOT want to go to SWG, but at the rate things are going, I may have to.
This game has so much more potential than anything I've ever played, and I've been around a while. I just hope there comes a point where everyone, AO player and developer alike, can reach that ephiphany that is so badly needed to turn this game around...

[skybert]

I miss hunting in Galway shire/county. I guess that's why almost everyone of my charsd has been there. Even if that ment I had to go SOLO.

Not sure what draws me there, though. Must be all the good memories I've had from there. From first fearing the minibulls, until we pwned them, even with four-five adds

Those were the days....

[Streaz18]

I loved the NW mines. Those lifebleeders were so scary! I remember meeting great people and forming pickup teams. I remember having a teammate give me his old ql50 hanshi decus armor coat (the red one) at lvl 40 something and feeling so happy. I remember the long runs back from the op and the pain from losing 30k xp. That was fun, but I dont expect those times back. The game has evolved, and for better or worse, its a different game then the one I started playing 11 months ago.

[____________Cyblade7]

Ah yes....the n00b days were great!

But if you think about it, there are scores of high levels now, all have lowbie twinks and most know where all the shops are. There are so many shops in this game, the populace spreads out quite a bit.

IMO, there are two types of players: 1) The powergamers (the ones that level past 150+). 2) The low level RPer's or players that start a new toon at level50-75 and never get past 100.

The powergamers don't RP. They level, know the ins and outs of the game. Have uber gear. Kill there own side NPC's for fun.

The RPers could careless about level. They generally have fun living in there altered state of reality (hey its a RPG right?). Most RPer's think they are a force to be reckoned with even tho a few lvl200s could wipe out their whole guild if they could.

Sounds like I don't like RPers? No, I do, they have their place in theis game and actually make it entertaining. I used to RP, then got tired of trying to be something other than myself.

Ok, I went way off track here, so back to what you were talking about...yes, I miss my old hunting grounds (clan ones).

[______________Orchid]

Originally posted by Special Agent Seven
Ah yes....the n00b days were great!

But if you think about it, there are scores of high levels now, all have lowbie twinks and most know where all the shops are. There are so many shops in this game, the populace spreads out quite a bit.

IMO, there are two types of players: 1) The powergamers (the ones that level past 150+). 2) The low level RPer's or players that start a new toon at level50-75 and never get past 100.

The powergamers don't RP. They level, know the ins and outs of the game. Have uber gear. Kill there own side NPC's for fun.

The RPers could careless about level. They generally have fun living in there altered state of reality (hey its a RPG right?). Most RPer's think they are a force to be reckoned with even tho a few lvl200s could wipe out their whole guild if they could.

Sounds like I don't like RPers? No, I do, they have their place in theis game and actually make it entertaining. I used to RP, then got tired of trying to be something other than myself.

Ok, I went way off track here, so back to what you were talking about...yes, I miss my old hunting grounds (clan ones).

What about the powergamers who do RP, like me? And I'm sorry but you made one huge blundewr in your post.

The populace spreads out

If you explore rubia ka on Atlantean, formerly rk-1, the populace hangs in several main areas/zones. 85% of the world map is veritably empty of players.

[__________RumbleFish]

My favorite memory of Galway Shire:

Me and some buddies were out hunting snakes and reets as usual, when one of the guys starts screaming (ie, using Caps lock) that he needs help.
We all rush to his aide to find him under assault by 7 reets of various types. He's dead before we can even fire a shot and the reets hang around his body for a second or two like a scene out of "The Birds" before they each pick a target and swoop down on the rest of us.
From then on he kept getting aggro from Reets no matter what.
Later someone else became the uber-target of Reet aggro (me). We called it "The Eye of the Reet."
Ahh, the good old days.....

[__________Specialone]

for Clanners -

long ago the OP just north of Tir was a hopping place, and teams would fight over hunting spots out at Bot Mtn, Temple and Emaciated Whale's Woods. Even Inquisitive Wasp OP (E of Tir) was a place I occasionally could pick up a team

I also remember the terror of the LifeBreeders in Lush, as well as the camping of Bully Bridge in VW, shades in NW GTC...

I've been pleasantly reminded of this recently with a few teams I've been in that decided to forego BS and hunt in PW and Mort...so much more fun than BS missions over and over again

[Mercatura]

/s LB! LB! LB!

Loved how they would spawn in chains too.

[____________Alantria]

Yes the social and strategy aspect of the game is killed as soon as you get to the point of doing BS missions, you always know what to expect, most players you pick into a team are there to just numbly stumble through a mission because theyve done it before and like it or not it is the most efficient way to gain xp.

I very much miss places like lush where an add or a bleeder would wake everyone up and make you think a bit.
Sometimes even frightening you.

I heve 2 140 plus characters one is 148 and a 143, I started the second due to the boring missions and lvl caps.
Now you guessed it, getting the same feeling

[______________Orchid]

What i do on a typical day in rubi ka lately:

1. head out to primus camp see what's shakin

2. hang out on the mountain get a few funny screenshots, 2 primus's killing each other or whatnot, the usual.,..


3. fly in parrot NE to cyborg camp and treehouse fighting plants along the way and mindharvesters

4. fly around Belial searching for GA to sell so i can buy a prof joines vest to helpme out during this uber titlecap hell.

i have alot of fun without BROKENSNORES missions.

[______________Orchid]

looking for a higher level guild now to take advantage of my abilitites and vice versa

[______Character Zero]

...and we can work something out.

[______________Orchid]

Originally posted by Captain *BLEEEEEP*
...and we can work something out.

ive been asked to goi clan many times, and the maiun reason i dont, is because i would lose myh 1000 token board, and that s alot of health nano and comp lit that i need.

[Zane0]

Yeah, what happened to 20k? There used to be at least 50 people every day, just hanging around. Getting prepared to make their run for money and fame with some others, exploring a dangerous camp out in the wilds.

Those were the good ol' times. I still remember the day that I went to 20k looking for a group, but instead only found a strange quasi-sane adventurer stumbling around looking for his community that would never exist again.

Y'know what FunCom? You should make hunting worth while again. Rubi-ka isn't nearly as interesting with everyone in missions and out of sight. Areas are disappearing... :/ The only places as an omni-tek citizen that I can count to have people in, is trade, ent miss terms and BB, and newland.

Give hunting back it's advantages. Make NPC's that point the way to hunting grounds. You should maybe even nerf team missions. I'd gladly lose some potential exp to regain the feeling of an 'alive' AO.

[______________Orchid]

Looks like Omni Trade was the next hit.

Moving the grid and bank seems to have driven everyone away.

Or, perhaps it's something alot less problematic, like everyone is out in the wilderness building towers.

Yea, that's my guess.

In the long and short, the new grid area is a much nicer place to organize. There's less throughtraffic, so it's less confusing.

So, I think the change was a good one, once I figured out the grid is NORTH wall of Trade

[azzface]

So, I think the change was a good one, once I figured out the grid is NORTH wall of Trade

lol... I do the samething. Everytime I want to use the grid I run to the center on trade, look around, slap my head, and then run the north...