[MUD-Dev] [bus][des] Anarchy Online and the free MMORPG...

[Douglas Goodall]

Adam martin wrote:

> In fact, thinking about it now, I would go as far as to say that
> AO's twinking is what people like Dan and I have been crying out
> for every time Raph says that players don't want a challenge: this
> rewards cunning, planning, outrageous daring, salesmanship, etc
> with big payoffs - and yet if you don't pour your soul into it,
> you'll never get any of it; and if you screw up, you lose
> everything.

Yes. Very yes.

When I came back to AO, my first character got to around level 50
without any implants. My second character had a 6-slot belt and
~140ish implants before leaving the Temple of 3 Winds. There was a
huge difference between my first and second characters, and all it
took was a look at some "newbie" guides on the forums about
twinking.

Credits are another issue in AO. It's ridiculously easy to earn lots
of money if you know how (more wide-open faucets than any other game
I've played), but new players who don't know the secrets are
probably broke and can't afford even basic equipment. My second
character had a billion credits... which reset my credits to
zero. No, I am not kidding. No, I did not get a refund. As far as I
know, the "billion credits" bug also has not been fixed (and I can't
imagine a 100% repeatable roll-over is a fiendishly difficult
bug). The guild bank has a similar roll-over bug.

AO has done a great job on the "preparation" stage with
twinking. Their combat is fast paced but not well balanced. Crafting
isn't bad, as there are no "sit and wait" timers, but twinking to
get high enough skill levels is the most interesting part of
crafting, and having to change all your clothes and implants 3 times
to make an item gets old.

One risk is that this degree of twinking is only fun if you figure
out how to do it. It's not so fun to people who haven't figured it
out or who can't get some necessary twinking items that are rare
drops. I think it's a good system in theory, but I'd figure out a
way to explain it better, perhaps with some low-level quests
("Here's some real armor, kid, try putting it on." "What do you mean
you can't? Let me give you some tips...").

Another risk is that twinking has diminishing returns. If you equip
level 200 implants at level 130, you have a big advantage. But until
recently it was almost impossible to get better implants, so the
relative benefits are smaller and smaller as you gain levels. Having
level 200 implants at level 200 is nothing to brag about. My main in
AO was a Martial Artist (MA). In theory, MAs are not supposed to be
better tanks than Enforcers or Soldiers. In theory, MAs are not
supposed to out-damage Shades, Agents, and NTs. In theory, MAs are
not supposed to heal as well as a Doc or Adventurer. However, at low
levels, I was often the main tank, the main healer, and had twice
the damage output of any other team member. I could solo content
that non-twinked players could only do in groups. This was a big ego
boost, but it didn't last. At high levels, I could still do a fair
amount of damage, but no amount of Twinking could let me tank or
heal at all, and soloing was no longer possible. This is good for
class balance, but from my perspective, I was getting less powerful
as I gained levels. Any twinked character in AO will not gain much
from around level 130 to level 200. If you are heavily twinked, you
already have almost all your endgame abilities and the best
equipment you can get without months of raiding.

> Nope, never happens. You are getting mixed up between your
> personal experience and what is *actually happening* in the game
> today.

To be fair, ARKs used to have a very good record for greeting new
players. I always got a greeting when I made free trial accounts
from time to time. I've seen ARKs greet other players dozens of
times when I made alts and was in one of the newbie zones. However,
ARK seemed understaffed the last few months I played (petitions went
from being answered within a couple hours to taking days). And even
if they're not understaffed, I doubt they could find the time to
greet every new player while the free year offer is going on.

> That's irrelevant: if your game is properly written, the graphics
> card will be used. Hardware acceleration is automatic if you're
> doing 3D and has been around for more than 10 years as the
> "default" for games development.

Only if you're doing everything via DirectX or OpenGL (and doing it
correctly), which AO obviously is not. DirectX wasn't around 10
years ago (1.0 came out in mid-1996, IIRC) and didn't do 3D well
until DX7 (1999?). Only a few years before that, I was working on a
DOS game with optional Glide support... I can't fault Funcom for not
doing everything via DX7 when AO was released (2001). Nor can I
fault them for not using OpenGL instead when only a few video cards
even had mini-GL support. I can, however, fault them for not fixing
apparently simple bugs that have been in the game for almost 4
years.
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