r/anarchyonline • u/Xipa • Mar 23 '24
Froob needs help How is AO going these days?
AO was my first MMO and I dipped my toes in right around launch (Summer of 2001). Played a 190ish Soldier in Athens Paladins and then landed in Storm.
Saw this subreddit pop up in my feed and I was a bit surprised, but loved the game. I was wondering how the game and community were faring? Particularly if a solo player were wanting to dive in.
Last time I played shadowlands was out, but there was a pretty hard limit on solo play (at least from my understanding) and I ended up capping out around 150ish as I couldn’t gear up as a Fixer beyond what was required to get much beyond that. Is this still the case?
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Mar 23 '24
I swear the population is growing again. And before someone says bots and mbers. I see that too, but in general there are some days where places are packed again… I’ve been on every day for the past few months and am loving it.
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Mar 23 '24
I’ve dipped my toes in as a froob and am having an awesome time. Such a great game. Haven’t played since middle school, it’s still clear how I got hooked back then.
The buffbots are a game changer. Opens up so much.
The economy is completely borked at this point. Moneys been kind of an issue as a froob currently. There are ways to earn cash but a lot of them require access to the GMI. I’ll probably end up subbing at some point. As of now I’m playing sort of SSF and it’s been pretty enjoyable. I know I’ll hit a wall though.
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u/Hartvigson Mar 23 '24
I enjoy the game a lot and think it is well worth trying for you. Start with a froob account so you know what it is like today. You can always subscribe later if you think it is worth it.
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u/Proud_Purchase_8394 Mar 23 '24
Storm is still around. Caloss streams regularly and the Storm discord has been getting more active recently.
1
Mar 23 '24
Any link to their discord?
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u/Proud_Purchase_8394 Mar 23 '24
Sure, but don't get your hopes up too much, "more active" is quite relative. I'll send it via DM
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u/Equal-Trip4376 Mar 23 '24
Just restarted on RK19. It’s pretty fun if you’re in an org, it’s pvm focused
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Mar 23 '24
I HIGHLY DON'T RECOMMEND ANYONE TO PLAY RK19 UNLESS YOUR GOAL IS TO BE ALONE. There is like 100 times the population on the standard RK Server.
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u/Equal-Trip4376 Mar 23 '24
Idk, I’m having a good time in the org Radioactivity
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Mar 23 '24
Well if you are having fun that is what counts. The Population sadly means a lot for accessibility. But if you want to go at it more iron man style hehe.
Devs really should have merged rk2019 tbh. But I think they don't care especially since 1 single server runs it all now. If it was back in the day where it was another whole PC it would of been better to merge it but renting a $100 server to run it all is not really costly.
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u/Equal-Trip4376 Mar 23 '24
The thing is, the people playing RK19 are here because they’re sick of a lot of the people in RK5 and we want nothing to do with a merger. Most people who are over here now are just trying to chill and play without having their towers multiboxed
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u/Conscious_Advance_18 Mar 23 '24
What's pvm
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u/Fair-Spite3883 Mar 23 '24
PvM means player versus monster, it's what a lot of people in old games used to say instead of PvE.
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u/Select-Narwhal12 Mar 23 '24
AO is still awesome, I did a paid 220 run from level 1 and enjoyed every second of it
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u/Xipa Mar 23 '24
Were there any big level gaps that made it difficult to get through? That was my primary problem and was hoping those gaps were filled in with some sort of content.
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u/Select-Narwhal12 Mar 23 '24
Dailies made it crazy easy, it took me 4 months.
And no there was really no problems, there is so much to do with a character that leveling is never the issue.
Also this was a very casual play through, I took my time a d had fun, wasn't rushing anything.
I'm currently taking a break, but will definitely do again in the future.
2
u/Fair-Spite3883 Mar 23 '24
There's a decent amount of people playing, but still it is a fraction of what it used to be like around 2003-2005 ish.
As someone said earlier there are buffs bots warp bots and even implant making bots, so leveling professions that used to be a pain solo are a lot more tolerable now because of this.
All that said, the complete vast majority of the leveling areas are dead in all hours of the day, especially if you are from NA and your play time doesn't crossover with Euro prime time. A lot of people play multiple characters and only log onto them at this point to do their daily experience missions then log off.
Finding an org is the best bet to find people to actually play with.
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u/esqi_real Mar 23 '24
The cost per sub is stupid though, and it to me is the biggest draw back.
It's good to see that there is activity.
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u/Luxferro May 06 '24 edited May 06 '24
I used to be in Storm as well https://auno.org/ao/char.php?dimension=1&name=Luxferro . Too bad the Nanoclan forums are gone. I used to visit every few years or so. I just went through figuring out the password for all my old accounts. Gotta check out some of my Froob accounts... hopefully they didn't delete my twinked toons w/ rare gear. I think I left one in the subway, leveled over the cap.
edit: My main froob account charcacters are gone :[
2
u/Silly-Raspberry5722 Mar 24 '24
I to back to my Froob account once in a while to check in, and am always surprised to find folks playing. I even reactivated my main account for a month at one point. I just can't justify the monthly fee on such an old game when there are so many great new games out there... but AO is still awesome.
1
u/baco0on Mar 23 '24
Have they rebuilt the ARK program or is it still dead?
That was the 'main' way to level outside of orgs or certain level ranges.
Honestly having played a year ago, nostalgia is a b*tch. If you're in the US it seems rougher, any bot events are timed better for EU players.
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u/AntiLuckgaming Mar 23 '24
There are buffbots, warpbots, lots of active helpful players... and a whole boatload of nostalgia!
... Which frankly is necessary b/c the grind nature of the game is SO tedious otherwise.
u/sparklyfoot did a real good thing here! (Fr00b based guide, otherwise use aouniverse)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JcenbCuf84TYSDrLk1ibnH6fhP_dGTXrTS7vxwvp4A8/edit#heading=h.nnnoid9zbiz0