Questions about AO.

David132

Hello,

We haven't downloaded and tried the free trial yet, just been reading about this game. Wanted to ask a few questions before downloading the trial:

• Is it generally considered too late to start this game as a brand new player?
• How difficult would it be to learn and progress as new players compared to if you're veteran?
• Are there any new players starting or mostly older players making a new characters?
• Are new players considered annoying and best to be avoided in groups for lack of knowledge/gear?
• Is it difficult to progress if two people are playing with zero skill and resources from the beginning?

If you've read this far, thank you.
David

Doug_B

The game is Free to play, the learnhing curve is dependent on what class you pick. I've not logged into Ao in so long  I can't tell you about the current state of the player base. From past experience, almost 98% of the player base was socialable and helpful. Occassionally you get that one guy (sometimes me) running through a dungeon and pulling a train that aggros someone else. Ao is linear in how you progress. Meaning, you will learn as you go and obtain resources as you go. The slope is very gradual until you hit higher levels and more nano's are available.

One of the reason i played Ao was because of the tv show Portal, and once I started, i played for a good while .

David132

@Doug_B thanks! We (two of us) were a bit worried that it would be impossible to get into as we're too late to the game. Will download the trial a bit later tonight.

Doug_B

It's free to play.  Think I will check out myself,  kind of need a new filler gamer since I refuse to play lotro anymore . 

Hariken

I would also add try to make friends in this game. If you find a good org.to join it makes it so much easier to play.

ArChWind

Probably one of the best games for social activity I've played. I haven't played for a LONG time so maybe that has changed?

I played in Shadowlands so that means I was a sub. Maybe it is free now? All I know is one day I just kind of left and never came back. EQ2 was my main game for the next 11 years.

howstupidisthis

To be honest, I cant believe it's still running, it died ages ago.
Small but loyal fan base, might be tough to get in with the cliks, but they might enjoy a newbie around.

aleos

pssh, I'm re-downloading this right now. I want to play again.

David132

Thanks for the replies and tips everybody!

I'm wondering, what's the best setting for the graphics? It seems that the default is very low res, and what option do people use out of these; RGB Emulation, Direct3D HAL, or Direct3D HAL T&L?

HellCaster

If you're not using the new beta client I would recommend switching to that. It will make far better use of your hardware and here is a video link on some suggestions on optimizing the graphics performance. I would recommend selecting the setting that lists your specific video card by name. The old client I don't think gives you that option and frankly it doesn't run nearly as nicely as the beta client.

In my case, when using the new beta client, I set the Display Device to "NVIDIA Geforce GTX 980 - Direct3D T&L HAL".

YMMV

QuarterStack

howstupidisthis said:

To be honest, I cant believe it's still running, it died ages ago.
Small but loyal fan base, might be tough to get in with the cliks, but they might enjoy a newbie around.

It's actually seen a resurgence in players. Last time I played, I left 'cause it was just a ghost-town everywhere I went, and it was really discouraging.

This time around, I'm seeing a lot of people hanging out in Borealis and OA. Can't speak for OT places since I can't go there, but I'm sure it's the same thing. So, somewhere along the line it's picked up a nice amount of players again.

I just joined an Org that's very friendly and helpful so far. Chat itself is pretty well active, people are asking questions and getting helpful answers. I'd say it's a fine time to start new.

After all, the more people start new, the more players the game will have. And hey, the more the merrier.

Sweede

The game is fun and fairly complex with crafting and the implants, but if you are two it should be a lot easier since you can always figure things out together, would say the community is rather nice and helpful if you are not begging for money and such, part of the charm in this game is the fact that it can be hard nothing is given to you

Good sites
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=3&site=AO-Universe/Main/News/
and
https://aoitems.com/home/

Should help out a bit at first.

David132

Thanks for the replies guys! 

I was slow to reply.