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Anarchy Online Ressurection

ZzuluZzulu Registered User regular
edited March 2008 in MMO Extravaganza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gkgqZnrGJo

Funcom, the company behind the upcoming MMO giant "Conan - Hyborian Adventures" are planning to completely revamp the 2001's "Anarchy Online" graphics to bring it back to modern times. It used to be a pay to play MMO, but it simply never became very successful and eventually it became a free game to play. Thoughts on this? Will we see the game grow? Will it even become a success this time?

Will you play it?

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Zzulu on

Posts

  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I really enjoyed this game when it was out. But now... I'm not sure if I'd be able to play it, even if the graphics were updated.

    Those mission booths were awesome at first, but at about level 60ish, it made you run across the world to get to it, and you almost always had to go back to return the mission.

    urahonky on
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I'd play it.

    I loved it.

    My Martial Artist was so uber that they couldn't even nerf him down.

    Drez on
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  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    I really enjoyed this game when it was out. But now... I'm not sure if I'd be able to play it, even if the graphics were updated.

    Those mission booths were awesome at first, but at about level 60ish, it made you run across the world to get to it, and you almost always had to go back to return the mission.

    Yeah but by then you should have had access to a number of grid points. I mean even non-Fixers could access most of the grid if you spent your extra points there, it just cost more skill points to do so and took longer.

    Drez on
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  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Well, if it looks like what the video makes it look like I might give it a shot. I remember downloading it when it came free-to-play and shut it down after about 5 minutes because the graphics were just godawful.

    reVerse on
  • KajustaKajusta Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I just wish they showed some character models in that video.

    Kajusta on
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  • Just_Bri_ThanksJust_Bri_Thanks Seething with rage from a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited February 2008
    The "Still Alive" sign tickled my funny bone.

    Just_Bri_Thanks on
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  • Bok ChoiBok Choi Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Kajusta wrote: »
    I just wish they showed some character models in that video.

    I don't think they redid that character models, just the environment as far as I know.

    Bok Choi on
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  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Bok Choi wrote: »
    Kajusta wrote: »
    I just wish they showed some character models in that video.

    I don't think they redid that character models, just the environment as far as I know.

    What? That'd be like baking a cake and then shitting on it.

    reVerse on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Do want!

    Shadowfire on
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  • ZetxZetx 🐧 Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I'd be willing to give this another shot. I had fun with my Fixer and Martial Artist. ... I wonder if my account's still around...

    Zetx on
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  • SorensonSorenson Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Hmm. That looks pretty and all, but if they want to update it I'd rather they did so with stuff like the environment (IE things like adding civilian NPCs and background noise to cities so they don't feel so freakin' empty and lifeless) and some gameplay tweaks so it doesn't feel so antiquated/grindy/ridiculous/what-have-you. I mean, it oozes style and variability and I love AO for it, but some things about it are just painful.

    Sorenson on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    It sure looks shiny for an alpha build, but I can't say this is enough to instantly sell me on this game. :? I forgot what the gameplay was like, was it very different from the grindmmo-mold?

    Aldo on
  • SorensonSorenson Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Not really. It has a few nice things about it like having a pseudo-skillbased system (Still have to choose a class which determines which skills grow the most when invested in, but there's like ~15 of 'em) and assloads of customization, plus the party controls are probably my favorite of any MMO played thus far, but it really shoots itself in the ass with its skill/stat requirement for equipping stuff which leads to people creating massive buff/implant ladders so they can equip things 20+ levels higher than they are. Probably the worst is having to blitz new weapons/armor every several levels because you start lagging behind everybody else, which is murder for people who're anal about having full sets (IE, me).

    Sorenson on
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Sorenson wrote: »
    Not really. It has a few nice things about it like having a pseudo-skillbased system (Still have to choose a class which determines which skills grow the most when invested in, but there's like ~15 of 'em) and assloads of customization, plus the party controls are probably my favorite of any MMO played thus far, but it really shoots itself in the ass with its skill/stat requirement for equipping stuff which leads to people creating massive buff/implant ladders so they can equip things 20+ levels higher than they are. Probably the worst is having to blitz new weapons/armor every several levels because you start lagging behind everybody else, which is murder for people who're anal about having full sets (IE, me).
    That actually doesn't sound unfixable...If they can tackle these problems as well it would make for a game far above the usual level of Free to Play MMOs.

    Aldo on
  • SorensonSorenson Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Oh, you could fix some of that stuff quite easy, I bet - make armor and weapon smithing actually feasable on a large scale instead of just limiting it to Carbonium, special armor suits and random kit drops, make the stores stop generating random shit that's useless 99% of the time, replace the hard-set skill/stat requirement with an efficiency curve so your older stuff doesn't become immedietly worthless upon levelling - but I've got a feeling a whole bunch of the player base would pitch a massive fit about it (primarily the powergamers, I foresee).

    Sorenson on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I always found the scope of this game to be very daunting. I played it several times, (free account w/ all expansions), and I was consistently overwhelmed by both the size of the game world and the overall lack of direction and purpose given to the characters.

    Unless I just blatantly missed something in that regard I'd say this game needs a true redesign rather than a graphics boost. Just like Star Wars Galaxies, a good concept Sci-Fi MMO stifled by sub-par implementations.

    I'm rooting for them though.

    Jasconius on
  • BloodMuffinBloodMuffin Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I played this game when it first came out. Looked really good at the time, Sci-fi MMO's really weren't too abundant back in 2001.

    Played through for a couple months and then the character wipe killed the entire playerbase of the server, something with their data was corrupt losing lots of peoples characters.

    BloodMuffin on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Sci-Fi MMO's weren't ever abundant.

    In fact, 2001 might have been its hay-day.

    It's a very strange phenomenon, since space makes pretty much the PERFECT scalable game environment and particularly in outer space you can do some serious graphics since you have no terrain to render.

    Damn you TR why did you have to be all unfinished upon release.

    Jasconius on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Sorenson wrote: »
    Not really. It has a few nice things about it like having a pseudo-skillbased system (Still have to choose a class which determines which skills grow the most when invested in, but there's like ~15 of 'em) and assloads of customization, plus the party controls are probably my favorite of any MMO played thus far, but it really shoots itself in the ass with its skill/stat requirement for equipping stuff which leads to people creating massive buff/implant ladders so they can equip things 20+ levels higher than they are. Probably the worst is having to blitz new weapons/armor every several levels because you start lagging behind everybody else, which is murder for people who're anal about having full sets (IE, me).

    But you're talking about the game not catering to a mindset of some players. Some of us didn't give a damn about that stuff. Some of us actually went against the grain when levelling our characters, and for us, it made the game fantastic.

    For instance, I had 4 adventurers... when I thought you had to go with the green combat skills (i.e. when I first started out), I made a dual-pistol adventurer, and got him to 75ish. Later on, I branched out a lot. I made a 2-handed edged weapon adventurer. I made one that used rifles. And I made one that used bows. All of them rocked. Did they rock as hard as an adventurer who used dual-blades, had Mochams running, squeezed into level 200 implants at 75, and equipped weapons that were 50 levels higher than him? No, but I still kicked a lot of ass with every one of those characters, and had fun doing it.
    Jasconius wrote: »
    Damn you Earth & Beyond why did you have to be all unfinished upon release.

    Fixed.

    Shadowfire on
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  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Jasconius wrote: »
    Damn you Earth & Beyond why did you have to be all unfinished upon release.

    Fixed.

    Well I didn't want to bring up Earth and Beyond because in the past it always brings out a lot of morons talking about how horrible it was but Earth and Beyond is in my top 3 favorite games all time.

    I passed the tenth grade in spite of Earth and Beyond.

    Jasconius on
  • SeptusSeptus Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I loved Earth and Beyond, though I did quit voluntarily before it was shut down. It had the basics down, but it needed a bit more to do.

    Septus on
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  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    It got quite a bit in its dying throes.

    I would have played it to the final day but my moron brother got my account banned for exploiting.

    Which allowed me in turn to pass the 11th grade.

    I have over 700 levels of characters in total.

    It was a sad addiction... Everything except PW to the final tier.

    I think Tribes and EnB can duke it out for "game I have played the most in my entire life".

    Jasconius on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    The words "Earth" and "Beyond", giving the right combination in a sentence, give me an insta-erection. I miss that game :(

    AO: This game was actually really good. (The L33ts were hilarious!)

    urahonky on
  • HarshLanguageHarshLanguage Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    AO with new graphics would be kinda pointless at this point. The gameplay is so outdated in the modern MMO world that it still won't be able to compete. Like others have said, the grinding/camping, mission generator system (blitzing, ugh), crazy buff stacking to equip gear, overabundance of vendor junk loot, absence of an item market... yuck. It's all gotta go.

    Thing is, that's all totally fixable, and probably not even that expensive to fix. So perhaps Funcom's got their priorities backwards, or they have a lot of graphics staff with time on their hands. AO could be a fun game, and up til TR there were no other traditional sci-fi MMOs (EVE being untraditional), but it hewed too much towards being "EQ in space." Which, at the time it was released, was a fine goal, but everyone else has moved on to better things.

    HarshLanguage on
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  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Jasconius wrote: »
    Sci-Fi MMO's weren't ever abundant.
    In fact, 2001 might have been its hay-day.
    It's a very strange phenomenon, since space makes pretty much the PERFECT scalable game environment and particularly in outer space you can do some serious graphics since you have no terrain to render.
    It might partially be because most of them so far have had utterly uninspired/boring concepts. Instead of giving us The Culture they give us Starship Troopers.

    Glal on
  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I loved AO, still do, but I don't think I'd go back. I love the classes though, trader, crat, engineer, MA, enforcers, fixer, all fun (and all I mostly played).

    Bigity on
  • ScooterScooter Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I loved E&B for the short time I played it (got into CoH beta at about the same time it was announced to close), but it seemed to have a serious lack of missions past level 75 (the halfway point).

    I'd love to see a new E&B style game with less wasteful travelling time and more missions.

    Scooter on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Yeah the character story arcs pretty much ended at 75. Then you had to get the last 75 from grinding, but the game world, in the later days, was huge enough to justify that.

    It was fun to go out near Antares and just warp out in a random direction and stumble upon a Zenshii base.

    We just need EnB without Exploration/Trade grinding. That was easily the most tedious thing about the game.

    Jasconius on
  • JPSJPS Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    They really just need to come out with a full-blown AO2. AO wasn't even originally designed to be running this long. In the very, very, very beginning, they were planning a massive player-directed world-wide on-going story in episodic format over the course of five years, after which they would come out with AO2.

    PS. Back in the beginning I was one of those cheap ass bastard Fixers in Grid Armor. So hilariously cheap. People say WoW is the easiest MMO to level in ever, I'd say my Fixer in AO was far easier.

    JPS on
  • SunglassesInSpaceSunglassesInSpace Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    If they keep it free I'd give it a go; having said that, I tried it again recently and I didn't know what the hell was going on, I'd forgotten all the many different controls and so on.

    SunglassesInSpace on
  • SnareSnare Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I've used to play this game years ago, only ever got to level 70ish, but it was good fun. a bit more harsh than say the standard (WoW) but there were plenty of things to do and the community wasn't too bad!

    I've been looking to try it again over next few days, if anyone is playing, let me know RK1 or RK2 :)

    Fixers are SO cool.

    Snare on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    JPS wrote: »
    They really just need to come out with a full-blown AO2. AO wasn't even originally designed to be running this long. In the very, very, very beginning, they were planning a massive player-directed world-wide on-going story in episodic format over the course of five years, after which they would come out with AO2.

    PS. Back in the beginning I was one of those cheap ass bastard Fixers in Grid Armor. So hilariously cheap. People say WoW is the easiest MMO to level in ever, I'd say my Fixer in AO was far easier.

    Until Shadowlands came out and all that SP you invested into Grid Armor, potentially at the cost of other skills, was completely wasted.

    korodullin on
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  • Toxic PickleToxic Pickle Thash grape! Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Wow, this brings back memories. I played AO as of opening day, but I had a lot of problems with it at the time due to my computer being rather sub-par. The game would run ok for awhile, but then would start getting choppy and eventually un-playable. At the time there was a lot of talk about there being memory leaks, but even if that was the case, I'm pretty sure the problem would have been far less noticable if I hadn't been too poor to properly update my PC.

    During the time I played it, I very much enjoyed AO for it's atmosphere and mix of class and skill systems. I never got very far into it due to my PC problems, and didn't know that it had gone completely free (I got some e-mails from Funcom that they were giving a long free trial, but that it didn't include any expansions).

    A simple graphical update is probably not enough to draw me back, but it's definately something I'd keep an eye on to see if Funcom actually updates the game enough to make it interesting.

    Toxic Pickle on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    As someone who followed the AO launch, believe me. It more than likely wasn't your PC.

    korodullin on
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  • SnareSnare Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Ok, I reinstalled, made a Fixer, and erm, It's not good. It's just not good at all.

    Snare on
  • EntriechEntriech ? ? ? ? ? Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I remember the higher level Grid Armor discs would sell for more money than could fit into a single trade, that was amusing times.

    For a short while before any expansions came out I was part of their ARK program, and that was a bit of fun. There were teams that ran events in game, and we were the first line of ticket-answering in game. It would have been a lot better if they'd just let us handle things at our discretion, but they were adamant on certain things being followed. Like, they always insisted that you teleport your character to the ticket-raiser for some reason, but you had to ask their permission first. It was stupid because half the petitions were for things that just got moved up to the GM level support anyways (things like losing apartment keys, character bugs, etc). I mean, you'd know going in that you were just going to have to bump them up, but they still wanted you to port out there. I felt like such a dork showing up, saying hi, and then explaining how I couldn't fix their problem this second but I was moving their problem up the chain.

    When you weren't out in the world helping people you got to hang out on the GM playfield, which was fun. It had all these different areas (deserts, jungles, a futuristic cafe), and most people when they started their shift would log in, lodge themselves somewhere pretty and then start answering tickets. They used to hold ARK only events for fun, where they'd give you pre-generated characters and you could equip yourself out of these vendors that had everything on them, and they'd have wars out in the desert and stuff. It was good times.

    Entriech on
  • OkoOko Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I played AO for a number of years and I must say, what I miss most is the community. The game itself was a disorganized jumble of critical gameplay bugs coupled with obvious cluelessness on the part of FunCom.

    I will give FunCom some credit though because trying to ensure balance in a skill based game is a near impossible task. You never really know what crackpot idea is going to turn out to be game-breaking in one way or another.

    Let me give you one hilarious example:

    FunCom was trying to make PvP more enjoyable and last longer in general but due to PvE itemization, player damage had far far outpaced player hit-point pools. This meant that some classes could do double your hitpoints in damage in a single attack.

    So the question was on the table; should FunCom spend hours upon hours adjusting player hitpoints and then again adjusting all PvE encounters accordingly, or would they make an adjustment that would only affect PvP and have fewer ramifications with the rest of the game.

    They chose the latter with the following rules:

    1. All PvP damage has been halved. If you hit PvE mob X for 1000 damage, you will hit PvP noob Y for 500 damage.

    2. Any attack against a player can do no more than 40% of their total health pool. Random PvP noob Y has 10,000 Hitpoints, no attack against this player can do more than 4000 damage to him at any time with a single attack. This was to prevent rampant one shot kills that weren't solved by rule 1.

    These rules were all well and good when you took them at face value. However, as usual, the player base found a loophole. There were classes that had the equivalent of Power Word: Shield from WoW which absorbed 2000ish damage with no cooldown, and since AO is a skill based game, they reset their "stamina" to 0. This meant that you had players who SHOULD have been sporting 10,000 hitpoints running around with 100ish hitpoints.

    What does this mean? Well, think of rule number 2 in conjunction with the Power Word: Shield skill that would absorb around 2000 damage every 20s or so, the maximum you could hit this player for is 40% of 100 hitpoints = 40 damage. Since his Power Word: Shield skill had no cooldown, you basically could not break through it... ever... unless you had around 20 players gangbanging him. It was hilarious until these players started to be more and more common in what little PvP AO had.

    Anyway, the point is that sometimes FunCom did not appear that they understood much about their game. (They eventually fixed the above situation by making health a non-resettable stat.)

    Oko on
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Man, some days I *do* miss playing my Doctor with high Shotgun skills...

    Hopefully the rest of the game gets updated with the new graphics as well. I might be persuaded to come back and give it another shot.

    PMAvers on
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  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    WTB Lightning Bolt gun (AO shotgun) in WoW. Can't recall the 'brand' name though.

    Bigity on
  • FrogdiceFrogdice ClubPA regular
    edited March 2008
    Sorenson wrote: »
    I mean, it oozes style and variability and I love AO for it, but some things about it are just painful.

    Like their atrocious skill system with crazily weird costs for training.

    Or their lack of ways to respec skills (I hope they worked on this problem later).

    Or the level of twinking it required to "properly" maximize the use of implants.

    Or the fact that you used the same gear most of the game, you just replaced it with an identical, higher level version of the same gear every 5 levels or so. And if you didn't replace it, your damage and defenses didn't improve at all.

    The style and feel of the game were great. Some of those things bugged me though. :)

    Frogdice on
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