Page 1 of 1

Should I get the AI expansion?

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:32 am
by Generis71
Hi folks,

I guess I'm asking a question which has been asked a million times before. But here's the reason why.

A couple of days ago, I decided to have a look at AO again after 3 years. I was surprised when I looked at the time I cancelled it, and was amazed my characters where still active. At the time I cancelled I had gotten the Shadowlands upgrade and had had a brief look at the initial areas.
The problem was, I'd expanded a game which I hadn't really done much exploring in anyway. There are still a lot of areas in the standard AO that I haven't seen. As I'm not one to grind missions, and I tend to take my time (probably too much hehe), I felt I'd not be able to get the best out of AO, and so I cancelled.

Since then I have played EVE, MxO (still playing it), Planetside, Everquest II. Trying to find that happy medium. I love the online roleplaying environment. EVE is another game which needs to be played a lot to fully enjoy it (I've cancelled that too).

AO is a superb game, mainly because of its size and depth when it comes to the number of items it contains. The Trade areas in shops are mind-boggling. The social aspect is brilliant, parties, get togethers etc. The landscapes, the difference between city types. And now I've seen player cities, which look unbelievable. Its a game truly worth not having RL for :) Also the character development is just awesome, and the choices you make early on really do affect how you "grow up".

So, finally to my question. I guess my main reason for thinking about getting the expansions is what content it adds, and whether it upgrades the graphics and quality of the visuals. It looks very good, but to be honest I was somewhat disappointed that the quality of the characters, npc etc haven't improved. My res is at 1280,1024 and I'm running a Geforce FX Ultra 5900. I just thought after 4-5 years (?) it would have improved.

Sorry for the longwinded message. Thankyou for your time.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:00 pm
by Morrgann
Probably the main reason that the graphics haven't improved much since you left is because FC is still using the same 5+ year old graphics engine as when the game was developed. That isn't likely to change unless they roll out an AO2, which with LE coming soon isn't likely to happen.

As for the AI expansion, the expansion adds new playfields, player cities, player shops with a Global Market Search (GMS), new weapons, armor, and most importantly, new perks.

IMHO, if it added nothing else, the GMS and perks alone made the upgrade worthwhile.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:05 pm
by Ukblizzard
Hi Generis71 and welcome back to AO!

As Morrgann mentioned, with regards to the content added, the perks and the player shops options were very welcomed additions to this expansion pack.

What might be useful for you is to have a poke in the Alien Invasion Knowledge section on our site to have a look at some of the new features you could have access to.

If after you have had a look around you think of any other questions before you upgrade, please feel free to post again!

Best wishes,

Katelin

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 8:13 am
by Snakebite
All good reasons...

But here's the clincher...

One payment updates you then you never have to pay for it again, why miss out on bits of the game for one payment...!

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:35 pm
by Tepamina
Snakebite wrote:All good reasons...

But here's the clincher...

One payment updates you then you never have to pay for it again, why miss out on bits of the game for one payment...!
good point. It's not as if you pay more per month.