Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion, and does not represent the views of AO Universe or it's Staff.
Now, let's get on with it.
Alright, before dailies this may have been unbalanced, but at the rate in which anyone can do dailies... my 220 enfo has 5.2k tokens, he was powerleveled and most of those tokens are from dailies, he is still not finished with research so I guess I will get close to 6k tokens when he is done. Highest tokenboard: 2.5k, enough said.
People who don't really enjoy PvP (me among them) will be glad to see this option. However I could have run LE missions to get my vp. I still went to bs 'cause it was faster to get and even tho dedicated PvP'ers would destroy me a bit. Since I don't care for PvP titles, it only bothered me once in a while. PvP Daily made getting vp easy, I have 50k vp on my 220 enfo, and all I did was dailies and I got all I need already, the vp is just sitting there.
The only reason I could see PvP'er dislike this option... well, less easy non-PvP'er targets and more skilled PvP'ers to actually have to deal with, more work for an epeen title, yeah, tragic. Borealis is full of hardcore PvP'ers, want a title, go get it.
PvP'ers will make a profit with the massive amounts of vp they got selling ofab.
When the anniversary stims were around (and YESDROP) peeps made millions, some even billions farming them. Without this an experienced player can hit 220 in a week or less, so at 20% all the time, what does that save? a day? It's far from unbalancing or unfair.
This is most likely an option for a casual player who doesn't have as much time to play AO than his friends/orgmates but wants to try and keep up with them a bit. It gives a bit more xp, doesn't make you uber, won't help you in raids because levels without gear = gimp.
#1 Reason why people reroll (and sometimes new players quit AO over), wrong choices in IP distribution. Yes, plenty of options ingame as-is to fix this if you got the time to do it. If you on the other hand rather spend that time doing something else, this is a fair alternative.
Social, nobody should have an issue with this.
Froobs getting a taste for expansions? good marketing. Same as test driving a car before you make a purchase. Well done.
Level packs,already available on a few MMO's. If you are a 220 and didn't get powerleveled, then you should have enough game experience to handle a 199 toon. It's on the player to learn the profession, not FC. Could this make a few more 220 noobs? possible, but I had 3 220's already when I started my enfo, would have loved to save 199 lvls of grind. Still, 199 without any gear, far... far.. far from uber. At best a vet saves a few days of grinding, at worst... a noob 220 has a 199 toon which is naked, without gear and locked out of some quest because he is too high level, heh.
Good business, means (no pun intended) more cash for FC and hopefully to continue investment in AO (Dev Team) for the coming years.
Good stuff, would <3 to see a fully functional ingame browser, so I can check official forums, org site, auno, youtube, facebook, etc etc. Yeah, there will always be a chance of some malicious 3rd party site that would try and trick gamers, but those have been around for years. Chain letters anyone?
Use common sense, and we should be ok.
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AO Universe - By Players, For Players! The #1 AO Fansite Worldwide - Site Founder (Retired). | AOSpeak - Unofficial AO Teamspeak 3 Server - Founder (Retired). | AO Recipebook - In-Game Recipe/Tradeskill Bot - Founder (Retired).
Founding member of the Council of Truth Clerical Staff.
Keep in mind: My posts are my own personal views and thoughts.
Ebondevil - Omni Level 220 Agent on Atlantean, Feel free to contact me any time if you have questions, in game or out.
Varinox - Omni Level 220 Meta-Physicist on Atlantean
Yamarra - Omni Level 150 Shade on Atlantean
Feel free to send me any tell in game or a Private Message if you require anything.
You do love shifting those goal post dont you lol... So in your initial post you say ppl are "lazy elites". Now you put "work" in parenthesis as if somehow that "work" didnt count. Oh wait now I get it, since it invalidated your initial argument you had to move those goalposts again and denigrate the "work" as well lol. Make up your mind, am I a "lazy arrogant elitist" (you sure know how to win friends and influence people you old charmer) or did I "work" to get my toons?
AO has been fun for me since 2001 thanks mate, been enjoying it tremendously which is why Im still here. Please dont suggest any course of action for me again since you know nothing about me, my life, what I like, and what I do. You did the same thing last time, and Ill repeat what I said last time again... if you have to put RL assumptions about another person you dont even know in a forum post about an online game, you epically fail.
Cya Pal!
Innervoid 220 / 30 / 70 MA (sadly no longer teh main man cos MA haz no lub)
Thedarknight 220 / 30 / 70 ADV (name reset FTW)
Shrektehogre 220/ 30 / 70 KEEP (Prolly the Main, maybe)
Enemywithin 220 / 30 / 70 AGENT (RAWR)
Lastsamurai 220 / 30 / 70 SOL (6th 220 FTW!)
Innerpeace 220 / 30 / 70 CRAT (First Calmer)
Stargazer 220 / 30 / 70 MA DOC
Abyssgazer 220 MP (8hr CM lubbin/all around MP gamp)
Misterscott 220 ENGY / Deaconfroste 220 SHADE / Vforvendetta 220 ENF / Haljordan 220 Fix
ok perhaps we should all quiet down and get back to complaining rather than ripping on each other
hmm i started to understand that as well after reading a few comments now..
I'm not too happy with that...that's even worse than an OST-kite-dsharknoob-sol. At least those have ran to ely kitehill and inf cata..and picked up a weapon.
I think the level buying is a bad idea.. (yes i'm speaking against myself now)
not gonna read wh0le thread
ao turning into pay more to win game is bad idea
lvl buying is lol i remember Means saying not long ago that would never happen lol
Rapped 220/30/70 Enforcer game over equip retired
Rapzilla 220/30/70 Adventurer game over equip mr newb?
Mayhemia 220/30/70 NT game over equip Fixer's best frand
Rippli 220/25/70 Soldier new equip BS junkie
Amazinghorse aka Rippped 170/24/42 Agent equip new OP tl5 tool
Rappjr work in progress
Rippped 207/30/70 Agent fastest AI30 Ever?
General of Quetzfags // General of The Asylum
The way this stands atm this wont be a feasible option for any serious player, atm ppl with finished endgame toons that roll a new future 220 have certain lvls they stop at on their journey to 220.
1st is lvl 60 for totw 2nd is lvl 100 (maybe) for foremans then onto lvl 150 for sec10 then to 199 for sec7 and on to 220.
lvling straight to 199 will make the grind at 199+ even harder and not enjoyable.
I would suggest being able to stop at certain lvls on the speeded up ao journey to take advantage of ao's lvl locked instances.
A slider in the range thats been bought and able carry on to the next choice lvl when you're ready instead of straight to 199 etc.
Also i think 220 could be included in that list but the req. should be to have a 220/70/30 toon already.
Shamen 220/30/70 soli/solja
Izgimmerjoo 220/30/70 nm nt
Roycegracie 200/30/68 opi ma
keeledjoo 171/23 atrox/advy
fixsham 150/16 opi/fix
shamsenf 95/10 atrox
shamensmp 86/9 opi
shamography 213 engie tradeskiller
samydavisjnr 116/10 trader
TSW
Dragon "Isham" hammer/chaos/shottie on Daemon
Dragon "Starzy" assault rifle/blade on cerberus
Hard to say if i really like this ive never been a big fan of micro transactions
paid levels isnt to bad
paid tokens are great for me i hate most of everything that gets me tokens
paid VP thats iffy id rather just have a better PvE way like everyone else :P
i wanna get my 215 neutral army ready xD
Dochollie 220 Opifex Doctor
Hu? Wut? I mean, really, WOOT? You can read right? And you can understand what you read? Yes? Because it seems you dont. What goal posts? Are you trying to use the "Chewbacca Defense"?
I say it for the last time. This game, if it wants to survive, should not cather to a few veterans who log on to farm a few bots or a have a laff in the BSs. That will not bring new players into the game, quite the opposite.
PS- You sure lol a lot. And "last time", like now, I made no assuptions about other peoples lives. Maybe "metaphoric couches" are to much for you? Or you still are butthurt because I pointed to you that your many accounts are irrelevant to the validity of your arguments?
DISCLAIMER: My use of the words "lazy veterans" is not intended to offend people who like to play the game and have done so for a long time. It is meant only for those who consider that even powerleveling toons is already to much of a bore.
Gustatus similis pullus.
Can only buy a 199 toon? Bah, it's so damn hard to level these days, make it 220 pleax! Good thing we dont have to worry ab tokens at least, Visa ftw. But but... how am I supposed to compete with just Ofab, and its way more usefull for some profs than others... let us buy AI armors too! Oh and add Touch of Marius to that twinkbag, so we dont have to bother thinking how to get them on.
Oh but wait. Need ai tech 3 for that. So plx add a way to buy AI levels too - people could feel cheated otherwise! And symbs ofc, cant go without those. Altho maybe some of the buyers wouldnt even notice the empty slots on that one tab...
- - -
On a serious note... just lol. Read about the xp stims last week, already felt pretty annoyed about those but wouldnt have been that game ruining for me, would still have people to level with, even if some would do it a bit faster. These proposed buyable levels, VPs (wtf?) etc just feel like April 1st but sadly seem real... think twice please. Do you really want people to skip much of the content, and at same time make leveling (at lower levels) even harder for new players than it already is? And most of all, make it more LONELY? Yes you can do dailys if no luck with teams, but this is an mmo after all. Giiive $ or level alone isn't really the best way to advertise imho
Two thumbs down for most of the suggested items available. Xp stims, social items and maybe tokens (long time vets can already use their vet points for those) would be tolerable for me at least. Time-limited access for froobs is great as well, good way to give a feeling what paying gets you. "buff items" sound pretty ok too for twinking purposes. But buyable levels, buyable VP... they ruin the whole point of this game. It's like you are allowing people to pay to not have to play - sure it's a good business i guess (lol) but you have to understand the effects on normal gameplay.
I have to say, not a fan of this. Maybe it's a knee jerk reaction but it looks like watering down profession specific toolsets to me.
Also, I don't appreciate that the alternative to PVP for gaining VP is handing over more cash to FC. People have wanted a viable method in PVM for years - this feels a bit like those serious PVMers are being mined for cash instead. However, I know plenty of people who can barely stomach the BS missions and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate this option being taken from them. So it's probably better than nothing but I don't think that makes it good.
I don't care one way or the other on the leveling for cash. *shrug* Idiots will determinedly not learn their prof regardless of how they gain levels. And I *like* TL 3-5 so I'm looking at it going "why would you want that?" Might be nice for setting up twinks though - you don't have to spend any ip until you're at your final level and gearing up.
Hi, welcome to the grown-up world. Let's put that in a different context.
lol... so let me get this straight, if Bill Gates with hundreds of thousands of millions (that NONBILLGATERS dont have and have no reasonable expectation of EVER attaining) buy expensive s**t and sell/give it to friends thats ok...
But robbing a bank and then having the temerity to spend that stolen money on items for a 199 pre-lvled toon is game destroying?
This is not Hello Kitty Online. This is not a fair game. Regardless of your repeated assertations about what you get up to, the game itself is PVP oriented. Everything in PVM is designed to feed into PVP. If you don't play half the game, and therfore put in half the work, but still charge 10 dollars to your Visa and then get what the rest of us worked for... yes, we will be slightly miffed.
Last edited by Means; Nov 12th, 2010 at 19:56:06. Reason: removed abuse
Hellcom "Stillian" Receptionist | Eternalist | Squad Commander of Primal Evolution
Agent "Lilmiz007" Isbeak | Finalizer | Squad Commander of Primal Evolution
Style "Heldale" Attack | General | Squad Commander of Primal Evolution
|| Primal Evolution ||
guys! let's not rip on each other! you really want the mods to come in here and whoop everyone?
Yes
Autohead 220/30/70 Solitus Soldier - Synergy Factor
Auron 220/25 Keeper ::: Shadowslave 220/23 Shade ::: Radius 211/21 Nano-Technician
Sunza 207/21 Martial Artist ::: Voss 182/15 Engineer ::: Shadowhead 150/16 Agent
I'm gettin' close to it, so I suggest the personal infighting and bickering come to a screeching halt. ;P
Brad L. McAtee / Kintaii
Former Senior AO Designer & Jack of All Trades
(2007 - 2012)
~~ Twitter :: Facebook :: Norse Noir ~~
/wtb powerlevel to 220 so I can buy toons in my preferred level range pst
Interesting changes as well as the reactions. I will just say that rewards should be something you earn rather than pay for. If tokens really drop like rain now ( have never done a daily...) then I guess it doesn't matter but still, these were rewards from your side and purchasing in lieu of earning them just feels wrong.
Not an active subscriber so feel free to ignore me but keep in mind, there are a lot of us who *could* be active subscribers. I would probably re-sub just to buy a nice agent buff toon if I had a 220 which I never will because I solo too much and hate OST and leach teams.