AO-Universe

It's been a while since I peeked into the MMO that I spent over a decade playing, so I have a few questions.

How is the AO Community doing?
Is AOU still the #1 AO Fansite?
How did things work out with AO being on Steam for a while now?
The new engine has been out a couple of years, were the revamped textures finished?
Did FC finish the prof rebalance?
Any new cool quests for lvl 100, 150 or 220?

Thanks in advance, have a blessed day guys.

I've not played for nearly a year now... :/

Hi Wind ! To reply your various questions (in my pov) :
- community is smaller than when you were active indeed, but still present and kicking
- AOU is still a huge reference for guides along with a few other (e.g. : aodb.us)
- Steam brought a curiosity peak at first, but not as big as expected ; now it's hard to tell if newcomers are steamers or classically sourced ...
- new engine was released unfinished & unstable ; afaik, nothing new since 2 years
- prof rebalance was mostly finished & patched with some more corrections or simplifications (which didn't satisfy everyone, but what would ? ^_^)
- new cool stuff for mid-range is a new RK playfield with missions (The Reck) ; endgame-wise there's the Pyramid Below (3 bosses + 1 final)

Hope it covers your wonderings after i'll have included the new official forum url https://forums.funcom.com/c/anarchy-online/

Hey Win Ive been following you on FB and Im really glad to see you here Thank you for all you put into this game. Some of us are doing our best to continue those efforts.

Windguaerd wrote:It's been a while since I peeked into the MMO that I spent over a decade playing, so I have a few questions.

How is the AO Community doing?

Its waxes and wanes. I' say its about the same from the last time you were in game. Enough to function as intended and enjoy the game in most all aspect, but small enough that everyone knows almost everyone else. Can be difficult at times to get things done when its slow, but the weekends are pretty decently rounded out.

Windguaerd wrote:Is AOU still the #1 AO Fansite?

Absolutely. For awhile people were using it less as many new encounter guides were missing and/or older ones were sorely outdated but with the addition of Bitnyyk and myself, he's been writing new guides and I've been going through and updating existing guides on a decent basis. We have a few more interviews lined up and as soon as Khuri ensures the site is secure on our end, I'm sure we will be back at it.

Windguaerd wrote:How did things work out with AO being on Steam for a while now?

I am honestly not sure why they bothered. They launched it on Steam and then immediately put the game in permanent "Maintenance Mode". They patch mostly when there are exploits and holiday events, with an occasional small update for mechanics.

Windguaerd wrote:The new engine has been out a couple of years, were the revamped textures finished?

The easiest answer is a simple "no". Nor will it be. They have no intend of continuing that endeavor at this time according to FC Devs.

Windguaerd wrote: Did FC finish the prof rebalance?

To FC's satisfaction, yes.

Windguaerd wrote:Any new cool quests for lvl 100, 150 or 220?

I cant remember what was out when you came back. I'm pretty sure you were not here when they opened "The Reck". Its an interesting new zone they added to RK with missions and quest lines from 90-170, though any level can enter the zone. https://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?i ... 10&pid=629

They added a New Inferno Mission instance to Inferno for 170-220 players with some interesting loot on the bosses. Some like it, some prefer to do old Inferno missions.

I think you may have been here when they changed Battle Stations but its no longer Clan/Omni as they have gone with a Red/Blue system. So you can pick a color and end up with a team of the opposite, or mixed faction.

Windguaerd wrote:Thanks in advance, have a blessed day guys.

Always good to see you L! I hope you are well.

Thanks for the replies guys. As I feared FC was all hype and no bite. They have made the exact same mistake over and over and over with every single game.

1. Develop a game, release it even if unfinished/unstable. Make profit.
2. Patch only when needed with a tight budget, keep dev team small even if it severely slows down fixes/updates.
3. Develop and release content even if unfinished/unstable. Make profit.
4. Use profit from game/content NOT to strengthen the title... but to put the money into developing another game.
5. Rinse and repeat.

The only success has been Conan Exiles and I bet they will misuse the profits from that as well. FC stock goes up with hype then drops down after every game launch. I think 10 years ago they were close to selling the company to a bigger gaming studio, forgot which one though. But I think the reason the deal fell through, FC has never been financially stable for 5 years straight (and at the time it been around a while) which was a HUGE red flag and it killed the deal. I don't think any company or even wealthy investor would risk buying out FC. They'd probably need to remove all FC suits, invest in every title to strengthen it (hire more devs and update hardware), and even then... there are so many choices now in the gaming world that it probably wouldn't be worth the investment.

For years (early 2000's) FC was in a position to solidify their position by doing the right thing, invest the profits from a title, into the title itself to strengthen it and maintain customer retention and THEN based on that success reach out to investor for a new title. They could have been as big as Blizzard.

Right now I'm in the middle of a legal battle, no time to dedicate to an MMO, but hopefully it will be solved within a year. If all goes well I'll then make time to play AO again, not as much as in the past ofc, but maybe I can find some of my old orgmates on Rubi-Ka.

Have a blessed week guys, thanks for all the info!