New Guy, with questions.

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kraizer793
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New Guy, with questions.

Post by kraizer793 » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:56 pm

Hi, My name is Brian, screenname is kraizer793. I downloaded AO for free to see if it was worth any of my hard earned money. being a low level, and having played it for only a few days now, I have some basic questions. Well, I hope they're basic.

1. As far as the expansions are concerned. are they a 1 time payment or a subscription-type deal?

2. I hear a lot about "Orgs" which I assume is short for "Organization". Either way, do i need the expansion packs to create/join these "Orgs"?

3. XP, how do i get XP? I know, I know, I'm new to the whole MMORPG scene, yet, I have tried killing various things, no XP.

4. In athens, what is the subway supposed to be? I go down there, to where the shops are, and I can barely stay in there for like 30 seconds. Then some jackass comes and picks a fight....that I can't win :(

5. Nano, can SOMEONE PLEASE! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! explain:
-Nano
-Pets
-NCU
-Programs
And how to use them.

6. do I ask too many questions :D

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Fourthaid
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Re: New Guy, with questions.

Post by Fourthaid » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:40 am

kraizer793 wrote:1. As far as the expansions are concerned. are they a 1 time payment or a subscription-type deal?
Both. You pay the upgrade fee and then, depending on how long you wish to pay at one time (1 month, 3 months, 6 months or a year) you pay X dollars/euros a month
kraizer793 wrote:2. I hear a lot about "Orgs" which I assume is short for "Organization". Either way, do i need the expansion packs to create/join these "Orgs"?
You can join and/or create organizations regardless of if you have expansions or not.
kraizer793 wrote:3. XP, how do i get XP? I know, I know, I'm new to the whole MMORPG scene, yet, I have tried killing various things, no XP.
To get XP you have to kill mobs that do not register as "grey" to you (you can tell from the color of their HP bar when you select them)

You can see how much XP you require for the next level from the XP bar (can be enabled or disabled at: f10 - GUI - Control Center) and in the stats window which is opened by pressing ctrl-9.
kraizer793 wrote:4. In athens, what is the subway supposed to be? I go down there, to where the shops are, and I can barely stay in there for like 30 seconds. Then some jackass comes and picks a fight....that I can't win :(
Those are mobs attacking you I presume. You might want to consider teaming or getting in a few implants and armor as well as weapons to be able to fight them off more efficiently.
kraizer793 wrote:5. Nano, can SOMEONE PLEASE! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! explain:
-Nano
-Pets
-NCU
-Programs
And how to use them.
Nano Program is the "magic" of Anarchy Online, to put it bluntly. Most nanos are only available to one or a few professions, such as the best heals in game are of course only available to doctors and the best aggro management nano programs are only available to enforcers.

To use Nano Programs you need to meet the nano skill requirements and any other requirements (such as Level) that might be needed. By default, AO will automatically put a shortcut on your hotbar when you upload (right-click) a new nano. You can also access them from the CTRL+8 menu which lists all nanos you have uploaded.

Pets are only available for three professions:
Meta-Physicists who are able to manifest part of themselves into three different pets: Heal pet, which can (as the name implies) heal you, your team mates or your other pets. Attack pet, the pet that does the damage and finally the "Mezz pet", which can temporarily calm mobs.
Bureaucrats who use robotic droids and can also charm mobs into becoming their pet as well.
Engineers who can use mechanical droids/bots as well as a mechanical dog if you have the Shadowlands expansion.

NCU determines how many Nano Program buffs you can hold on your person. It is one of the most important parts of the game, and it is why Computer Literacy is a universally important skill to raise to be able to put on better NCU belts with more slots as well as NCU chips which grant more total NCUs.

And finally, Nano is the "Mana" of Anarchy Online. The more nano you have, the more nano programs you can cast before you have to regain your Nano Pool. Not all professions rely on large nano pools, but professions that cast a lot during combat such as Doctors and their heals, Enforcers and their aggro nanos and Nano Technicians and their Nukes can not function properly without a nice nano pool.


I hope that helps you out some, feel free to reply again if something was unclear or you have more questions

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Post by Casorinth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:49 am

If your brand new to MMORPG's then I do suggest going and getting this:

http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarc ... ,1009,1076

It will have a lot of the information you need to get started, of course if theres still stuff you need help with people here will always try and answer them, but I do suggest having at least a quick glance through that manual to get the basics down

kraizer793
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Post by kraizer793 » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:17 am

One step ahead of you :)

So what color are mobs' health bars? And, what do the different colored HP bars of other people/NPC's/mobs mean? is there a certain color for each?

In my stats menu, on the right, I have my HP bar, my Nano bar, and 2 other bars that aren't even filled up. what are they for?

Do the "Insurance Devices" and/or "bank" terminals save my credits? I know I can deposit items in the bank, yet, what about my credits?

Orgs, I'm real interested in these. I play a lot of "faction vs faction" style games. So, how, exactly, do I Join/create/and leave orgs? and I also hear about "org cities"....These are...?

What's the difference in a raid, a team, a squad, and a org?

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Fourthaid
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Post by Fourthaid » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:32 am

kraizer793 wrote:So what color are mobs' health bars? And, what do the different colored HP bars of other people/NPC's/mobs mean? is there a certain color for each?
Grey = Mob has a level quite a bit below your own. You will not get XP from these.
Green = Mob is slightly lower in level than you.
Yellow = Mobs are almost equal to level as you.
Orange = Mobs are slightly higher in level than you
Red = Mobs are a lot higher in level than you
kraizer793 wrote:In my stats menu, on the right, I have my HP bar, my Nano bar, and 2 other bars that aren't even filled up. what are they for?
That would, I assume, be the PvP score bars. You can customize which bars you wish to view via the I in the top left corner of the stats window.
PvP in AO is not something I would recommmend trying out before you have a better understanding of the game, so might as well turn the PvP score bars off for the time being :)
kraizer793 wrote:Do the "Insurance Devices" and/or "bank" terminals save my credits? I know I can deposit items in the bank, yet, what about my credits?
Your credits are stored on your person, I believe they are displayed in the lower left of your GUI (might be lower right, I forget :) )
kraizer793 wrote:Orgs, I'm real interested in these. I play a lot of "faction vs faction" style games. So, how, exactly, do I Join/create/and leave orgs? and I also hear about "org cities"....These are...?
To create an organization you need:

A team filled with 6 people of the same faction that is not currently in an organization. You can then type in /org create <org name here> and it will be created.

As for recruitment to others, I'd advise checking out the recruitment forums of the server you are on (Atlantean (RK1) Recruitment or Rimor (RK2) Recruitment) or the Recruitment forums on AOFroobs. Usually you have to post an application and then the org in question will check it out, maybe have a chat and possibly an application period.

To leave an org you are in, simply typing /org leave does the trick.
kraizer793 wrote:What's the difference in a raid, a team, a squad, and a org?
Team = A team of between 2-6 people that do a task together (usually leveling or quests/missions)
Raid = A bunch of teams linked together into a Raid Force. Note that you can not gain XP while in a raid.
Org = An organization you belong to, what an org means can be different from org to org. Some enjoy doing tons of raids, others just use organization as a social "get together" to hang out with friends ingame. It all really depends on each org :)

kraizer793
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Post by kraizer793 » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:16 am

:D next round of questions!

Org stuffs...

I hear of several "Org Cities" or towns. I dont see any of these really. Maybe due to the fact that I am in Athens still. What ARE these org cities, and how do I get one once and if I create an org?

Are there any benefits from being in an org? and how do you "manage" it after you've created it?

items...

How do I give another player an item? I have a ton of stuff that I have. I'd like to give a friend of mine whom I invited to join AO (which he did, needed someone to hang out with in there :lol:)

What do the "surgical centres" do? I have a basic eye implant I scored off of a mob, yet, I can't "insall" it.do i need a certain skill/level to install it?

how do I stack\split items?

is there a way to combine items? Like if I had item 1, and item 2, can I put them together to get item 3? A better example would be if I had a string, and a piece of wood, can I make a bow? I know that's not an actual combination, I hope, yet I think it gets the point across.

I have a pair of pistols, they were out o fbullets. I bought 2 cases of bullets, (made sure they were the right kind, pistols use bullets) so how do I "reload" the pistols?

I see these basic ranged weapon upgrades, like auto trgeting things, etc. how do I use these? I don't want to buy them and not know how to use them.

Whew, I'll run out of questions sooner or later :D

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Fourthaid
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Post by Fourthaid » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:08 am

kraizer793 wrote:I hear of several "Org Cities" or towns. I dont see any of these really. Maybe due to the fact that I am in Athens still. What ARE these org cities, and how do I get one once and if I create an org?
Organization cities are located all around Rubi-Ka's open playfields. These are extremely expensive (we're talking 3 billion (with a B ;) ) plus) They are essential for being able to make use of the Alien Invasion content (City raids) and they also give benefits to each player depending on which buildings are on the city plot. A notum mining facility will for instance give each member of the organization that has Alien Invasion a boost to all 6 nano skills.

In the last "Friday with Means" ("Means" is the game director and each friday he writes a "letter" with some quick updates on what is going on) he mentioned making instanced cities, so that any org can get one without having to dish out 3 billion to a player, but a few million to an NPC. But when this will be ingame is another question entirely :)
kraizer793 wrote:Are there any benefits from being in an org? and how do you "manage" it after you've created it?
There are some benefits, yes. When in an organization you can make use of Notum Wars towers if you organization has a Tower Site, note that this means having to deal with PvP whenever the tower site is open for attack and someone attacks it (this section gets into more detail about the Notum Wars booster pack which froobs also can take part in and get benefits from)

Also there is org cities and the benefits they give, as mentioned previously. However these benefits are only for players that have Alien Invasion.

For more information on how to manage an org, just type in /help org and an info window with all the information needed will pop up.
kraizer793 wrote:How do I give another player an item? I have a ton of stuff that I have. I'd like to give a friend of mine whom I invited to join AO (which he did, needed someone to hang out with in there :lol:)
Right-click the person and a trade window will open, put any items you want to give this person into the window (make sure the other person has enough inventory spots open) and then click "Accept". Once he has clicked accept a confirmation box will pop up that you answer yes to if you wish to go through with the trade.

Note that you can not:
Trade NODROP items
trade Unique items that are inside a bag, those have to be taken out of the bag they are in and then traded.

If an item has one of these two flags, you can see it underneath the name of the item in the info window that pops up if you shift-leftclick an item or hold the right mouse button on an item and then choose "Look at item".
kraizer793 wrote:What do the "surgical centres" do? I have a basic eye implant I scored off of a mob, yet, I can't "insall" it.do i need a certain skill/level to install it?
Aaah, implants.. The, imo, best part of AO. Implants can be customized and built to suit your character to the last detail.

I would not recommend installing implants that you find off of mobs or get as reward from the mission terminal, in 98% of the cases it will simply not give you any beneficial skills you require or is not optimal for your character.

This guide goes over what you can install into implants.

But as a new player, I would recommend going to one of the basic shops and heading into the "Profession Implant Department" which is usually located at the immediate right of the entrance. Here you can find premade implants of various QLs for each profession that can carry you for quite a few levels.

Now to install them... you will need to use a Surgery Clinic, these are located in all shops across Rubi-Ka. It will give you a temporary boost of 100 treatment and costs 300 credits. You can then install implants If you meet the skill and treatment requirements. You can see what the requirements are by shift-left clicking the implant(s). Then open up your Skills window with U and see if you have enough skills to put it on.
(Note that there are several nano buffs as well weapons/armor that buff abilities as well as treatment, but seeing as you are quite new to the game that might just confuse you even more than necessary ^^ )
kraizer793 wrote:how do I stack\split items?
To split items that are stacked, ctrl-left click it and then drag your mouse right to increase the number you wish to split and drag left to reduce the number. Note that this does not work for all items that have multiples (boxes of ammo for instance)
kraizer793 wrote:is there a way to combine items? Like if I had item 1, and item 2, can I put them together to get item 3? A better example would be if I had a string, and a piece of wood, can I make a bow? I know that's not an actual combination, I hope, yet I think it gets the point across.
Indeed. This is known as "Tradeskilling" and creating custom implants as mentioned above is perhaps one of the most usual tradeskills.

Unlike other MMOs where pretty much any profession/class can tradeskill, in Anarchy Online there are mostly two professions to get hold of when you need help tradeskilling items; Engineers and Traders. They have nano buffs as well as great support in the armor/implants/symbiants available to them to do tradeskilling.
kraizer793 wrote:I have a pair of pistols, they were out o fbullets. I bought 2 cases of bullets, (made sure they were the right kind, pistols use bullets) so how do I "reload" the pistols?
Pistols will automatically reload when they are empty, the reload process takes as long as the recharge of a gun is. So if your gun has a 1.5 second attack speed and a 2.3 second recharge speed, it will always take 2.3 second to reload.

When I play a ranged character, I usually reload manually inbetween fights as well. You can do this by pressing V.
kraizer793 wrote:I see these basic ranged weapon upgrades, like auto trgeting things, etc. how do I use these? I don't want to buy them and not know how to use them.
A long forgotten set of tradeskillable weapons that are, frankly, useless compared to other weapons :) Just "shopfood" them to the nearest terminal I'd say :)



(yes.. anarchy online has a sick learning curve, hehe ;) but just read up, enjoy the game and most of all I'd recommend getting into a newbie friendly organization on at least one of your character. it helps a lot to have friendly people at hand to answer any questions you might have. Newcomer's Alliance on Atlantean is one example of an org that "specializes" in taking in new players and learning them the game)

kraizer793
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Post by kraizer793 » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:34 am

I REALLY appreciate your help. or else a poor ole sod like me would probably have given up on this by now :(

So, just wondering, for the clan cities, and alien invasion. So, does the org have it's own cred balance? or does it take x% from all users' incomes? like a tax? and, how exactly does the aliens attack? do you lose money? please explain.

Is there a way to transfer credits? like if I didn't want to trade one of my items, can I just pay the person in credits?

if/when I die, do I lose X ammount o fcredits?

is there an alternate map? the topography just doesn't cut it in ide open areas.

If I were to get an expansion. how much is it per month (all expansions, I'm lovin this game so far)

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Post by Snakebite » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:40 am

I'm about asleep so I'm gonna leave most of those questions for someone else to answer lol.

However...

Do NOT get the expantions for at least 1 month... It's gonna take you at least this long to work out basic game play, if you had the expantions it would just be a waste of money...

However... (again)

If & when you DO decide to upgrade, if you can afford it, pay for a full year in one go, it HALVES the cost of monthy payments over the year in question...!
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Don't make me come in there and Moderate you!

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Fourthaid
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Post by Fourthaid » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:57 am

kraizer793 wrote:I REALLY appreciate your help. or else a poor ole sod like me would probably have given up on this by now :(
Hehe, we were all in your spot once. God knows it took me ages to learn the game, and there's still much I don't know about either :) But that's part of the fun for me :)
kraizer793 wrote:So, just wondering, for the clan cities, and alien invasion. So, does the org have it's own cred balance? or does it take x% from all users' incomes? like a tax? and, how exactly does the aliens attack? do you lose money? please explain.
It has its own bank yes. Most of the orgs I've been in have had it be on a "donation" basis, if we are low on the bank account we usually chip in a few credits each and we can pay our upkeep (the monthly "tax" for having an org city)

You can in addition also set up a tax system, so that each member pays X credits every X day. Most of the time though, if you have an organization with a city, the %s off of sales from the Shop Building will cover the expenses needed for the city.

Aliens attack an org city when the CC (City Controller) has a charge of above 50%. In 99% of the cases where alien invade a city, the CC has been charged up by members of the org, then they have lowered the cloaking shield to allow the aliens to detect activity in the city and then proceed to try and invade it.

Alien raids are covered very nicely in this guide, and probably a lot better than I could :D
kraizer793 wrote:Is there a way to transfer credits? like if I didn't want to trade one of my items, can I just pay the person in credits?
Indeed. In the trade window I explained in the last post, where you right-click the person, there is also a field at the bottom, just above the "Accept" and "Decline" button where you can enter the amount of credits you wish to transfer to the person.
kraizer793 wrote:if/when I die, do I lose X ammount o fcredits?
Nope. The only thing you lose is the XP you gained since you last saved. (Note that it does cost a bit to save, if I'm not totally mistaken it is [Your Level] x 10, so at level 10 you pay 100 credits to save your XP. You can Not lose levels, so only the XP you earned since you last leveled is lost.)
kraizer793 wrote:is there an alternate map? the topography just doesn't cut it in ide open areas.
Indeed there is. Along with the somewhat limited Planetmap that comes with the game, Funcom also included a 3rd party map that was made quite a few years back.
To change Planetmap open up your Planetmap by pressing P, click the I in the upper left corner of the window and then "Select Map"
All the maps available to you are located there. You should see a map called "Peave 'Dovve' Forejt", it is a slightly more detailed map that among other things shows you information on the Grid as well as where the Whompahs go. Definitely much better than the default map.

There are also a few alternate maps you can download from other sources such as:
Atlas of Rubi-Ka

AoRK is the one I use, and is the only one I am aware that is completely up to date. After you have downloaded and installed it according to the readme, you do the same procedure for changing maps as I explained above.

kraizer793 wrote:If I were to get an expansion. how much is it per month (all expansions, I'm lovin this game so far)
Depends on how many months you pay for in advance..

But as Snakebite says, I would definitely recommend playing the game as a "froob"/free player for a while longer to get the basics of the game down and have some fun without any economical commitments :)

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Post by Casorinth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:10 am

Just a quick note about saving and death penalties.

The cost of saving is entirely dependent on the machine, some machines are cheap others are expensive, its mission rolling that is 10x your level in credits

every time you level you automatically "save" so its not necessary to save again, at low levels there is absolutely no penalty to death, I believe it is level 10 you get resurrection sickness (temporarily lowered skills) and at 20 you "loose" xp

but its been a while and I can't remember if items to reclaim (don't worry this no longer happens, I'm just a fossil) used to come before sickness so sickness could be 15

But either way until 20 there is no real need to save other than to move your spawn place (you will spawn at or near the save terminal, look for the blue floor pad near)

You also don't actually loose the XP anymore, it is instead placed into a pool where it can be regained, every time you get experience you will get a little back from your pool the amount is a % and can be altered with certain buffs but you will generally always get it back quickly unless you chain die.

Also on your questions about organizations, I really do suggest against trying to set up your own if you want it to be a serious gaming one, at least not until you've got the hang of the game and a reasonably high character, you'd be best of looking for a friendly org that will let you in thats already established if you want to get any benefits (granted only towers can benefit non expansion users so its unlikely that you'll get any stat bonuses, but you'll have some people to help you out and perhaps spot you a few bits of gear here and there)

That said if your just wanting to set up a group to chat with your friends, then thats fair enough, but just bear in mind that taxation and organization cities and towers will most likely be something you'll never get in such an org.

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Post by Fourthaid » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:26 am

Casorinth wrote: The cost of saving is entirely dependent on the machine, some machines are cheap others are expensive, its mission rolling that is 10x your level in credits
Are you certain? I am almost positive that I always pay my level and at least one (possibly two) extra zeros at the end *shrug*

At any rate, not a major concern until you get to higher levels when you may want to save a lot more frequently to save XP and such

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Post by Casorinth » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:31 am

saving is definitely dependent on the machine, missions are level based cost.

but yeah theres essentially no point in saving these days beyond setting where you respawn, I don't even bother saving xp, easier just to reclaim it then go back to a safe place most of the time, granted some people may be a bit more cautious and not want to have to reclaim pool, but since that only starts at level 20...

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Post by kraizer793 » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:33 pm

Okay. This is veery odd. I loaded up AO, signed in, blabla.

the 2 little button sets and my bar at the bottom showing my credits is gone. if need be I can get a picture.

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Post by Ukblizzard » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:43 pm

try pressing

shift and \

at the same time

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