Best of AO

[______________Frappe]

With all the recent complaints about, well, everything, I thought it'd be a nice change if we all shared what we think is good about AO. Why is it fun, why do you play it?

I'll start:

- Excellent sound and graphics.
- Futuristic setting without being postapocalyptic. With all the elves and dwarves littering RPGs, this is a nice change.
- Skill based, I prefer this over level based RPGs.
- "Mana" based "spell" system. D&D, yuck. Sleeping 8 hours just to cast a magic missile is a major bother.
- Mission system. Nice
- Lots of funky gadgets to play around with

[__________Little Rot]

The best part of AO is just about everything under lvl 80 - then you're stuck doing missions until endgame and that just plain sucks ass no matter how you put it.

[Bionitrous]

If FunCom didn't screw up the Static Dungeons like they did with Camelot, you could go on a raid and have a blast for several hours.

Too bad the monster won't be there or one of the three guilds who 'own' it will grief you till your group decides to log out, do another mission, or quit the game.

We need seperate instances of Static Dungeons and more outdoor options, NOW!

Oh, and I like the sense of humor prevalent almost everywhere.

[____________Disporea]

finding a mob that you've been camping come up, and having 10-12 + people rush out of missions to help wiht it, wait you can do that in eq to=p

[Cheddar]

In the spirit of positive thoughts...

The 1-30 game is actually pretty good, and tailored to make the game easy to get into. You honestly don't need to overequip to be viable and have fun. Moreover, you can acquire much of your equipment from mission terms. Plus, you can easily solo missions and don't have to run far. I miss the days of standing in rome green and pulling a mission in the same zone.

If you haven't rolled up a new toon lately, try a fixer or ma and you'll remember why you got into this game at all. First 10 levels are fun.

[binaural]

with a game like this, I find it is only as fun as you make it. I set goals and it makes the game fun.

when i started my MP my goal was to cast a demon (almost no one had them at the time) and it took a long time to reach this goal but I did it.. then i sort of lost interest in the MP.

When i started playing my soldier again, I wanted to make level 150, get a set of 200 implants use a 200 nova and a good flash.
As I progressed i made new goals though, like getting a set ok mk 2, maxing certain skills.. and getting the 1k token board.

now I've got most of what i want, so i set new ones.. i want to make 175, so that i have enuff ip to max some skills.. i want to get my q 192 LLTS in, I want to rearange my implants, i want to get a rust pitted ring.

when u get most of what you want.. the game becomes boring at high lvls.. so always have something u want to do and then you won't get as bored.

i think one of the last things people do is pvp.. cause they've got everything else lol.

[________maxgallagher]

For me I think the best part of AO is exploring.

When i first started up, around level 10-15 or so, I drew a mission from Newland that was way over in the area of Athen. Of course, all i had to go on was the little flag on the world map, I didn't know then that the city of Athen was right next to it, or that I could whoompa there...

That night I walked all the way from Newland to Athen. Took forever, i didn't get any xp or uber items out of it, but it was a blast, and is probably the thing that hooked me on this game. It was scary as hell wandering through forests and across plains and deserts filled with deep red creatures. I literally got shivers a couple times, jogging across the desolate landscape while a violent dust storm raged around me.

Then, when i crested a hill and saw the junkyard outside of Athen east stretched out before me, with tech-scavengers wandering about (deep red then ) and the immense walls of Athen just barely visible beyond...it was such a sense of having accomplished something, even though all id done was walk.

The whole thing had a bit of an anti climax, though, as I, being neutral then, walked into Athen and was promptly killed by a clan NPC, and then respawned all the way back in Newland But still, it was an adventure!

Thats why i prefer hunting to doing missions for xp gain, and its also why ill never buy a Yalm. I intend to invest my IP in other skills, and as i become more powerful, range further and further out into the wilderness to explore. Heh, maybe one day ill set out on a trek across the whole contintent, from north to south, just to be able to say i did it

[______________Frappe]

I especially like the little exploration bonuses left here and there. It may be anything from a patch of glowing mushrooms to a psychothic leet named Joo. I really don't mind running between missions thanks to these things.

More of this, FunCom. Thank you.

[___________Verillius]

So many things about this game that is good.

Some bad aswell, but the good stuff outweighs the bad IMO.

Great graphics, which is very important to me.
Diversity to a certain degree between characters, due to the skillsystem and great selection of weapons and armor.
An extremely well done world with a awesome background story and history.
It's science fiction!

Of course, there are lots of other things aswell but these are my favourite ones.

[________________Mona]

1. Dynamic dungeons, i.e., missions - 250 tokens later, over 500 missions later, I am still not bored. I think the reason why is no matter how similar they are, they are still dynamic. And you know you are going to get that item in the end. There are always useless little things that I like to earn through killing.

2. Exploration - The world is huge. And dying is no biggie if I save before hand.

3. Yalm - Contrary to what an earlier poster says, I love my Yalm. It's a whole new world once you find a Yalm! Have you ever watched a moonrise in your Yalm parking in the sky on top of a desert storm?

4. Skill-based vs Level-based. Skills actually count. I left my Evade/Dodge out for 30 levels and raise them one day. I felt like I just gained 10 levels!

5. Social wears. Whenever I get tired of doing the usual thing, I go shopping.

6. The easeness of target toggling, assisting, and nano execution. I have been in DAoC where this kind of things are a pain. It makes a huge difference in my enjoyment when I can do what I intend to do without jumping hoops. In the end, a player's play skill is well reflected through the easeness of controls.