Anarchy Online

Anarchy Online (AO) is a science fiction MMORPG released in June 2001 by Funcom. It stands out as being one of the few popular MMORPGs that makes use of a science fiction setting as opposed to the more common fantasy setting. The game is set in the years following June 29475, predominantly on the harsh desert world of Rubi-Ka (planet set in a fictional binary star system) and its extra-dimensional twin, the Shadowlands.

The story

The story of Anarchy Online revolves primarily around two factions, the hypercorporation Omni-Tek and the rebel worker caste, the Clans. These two factions are fighting for control of the distant desert planet Rubi-Ka. In addition to these two factions there is a third faction of Neutrals, people who have decided to take no side in the conflict. This conflict has been waged on and off for centuries. In addition, there have been larger conflicts between Omni-Tek and other corporations over the control of Rubi-Ka.

Rubi-Ka, the seemingly useless desert planet, is of such tremendous importance because it is the only known source of notum in the universe. Omni-Tek, having been granted exclusive ownership rights to the planet, controlled notum for many years and benefitted tremendously when it was discovered that the mineral would revolutionize, and eventually become the key component of, nanotechnology. Eventually, notum led the way to the development of technologies that seem very like magic, including programs that create things such as fire and ice, heal injury, shield people from harm, affect their physical bodies, and even achieve resurrection. Notum even makes its way into the very genetic makeup of some sub-breeds of humans.

Because Omni-Tek had managed to get unfettered control of Rubi-Ka, they were mostly free to do as they wished with their colonists and the planet. For most of the early years, Omni-Tek did its best to treat its people well, even to the point of receiving commendations for its treatment of workers. However, over the centuries, Omni-Tek's policies began to degrade, until, finally, approximately 500 years after the planet was first settled, a significant number of poorly-treated colonists rebelled against Omni-Tek and began to secretly trade stolen notum to a rival corporation. This led to a series of wars between Omni-Tek and the colonists, and between Omni-Tek and its rival corporations.

Content

Anarchy Online originally intended to separate itself from its competitors by minimizing tedious elements such as camping, instead basing the gameplay on automatically generated "content on demand"; In fact, Anarchy Online is known for the first to invent instance-dungeon system, which is then copied to many other major MMO titles until today. In the Shadowlands expansion pack, such elements were introduced on a massive scale and often taken to extremes. Subsequent patches and expansions have moderated some of the initial excesses.

Typical play activities include:

Dungeons — static indoor locations, often expansive, involving unique enemies to be defeated and items to be found. They typically require one or more teams to thoroughly conquer.
Terminal missions. These generate instanced indoor zones, have a variety of objectives, and are available for both soloists and teams.
Static missions granted by known NPCs throughout the game world.
Camps of concentrated enemies in the wilderness.
"Dyna-bosses" and "pocket bosses" — nearly-isolated and greatly-enhanced enemies that can provide items available nowhere else.
Player vs player combat, primarily in the forms of 1-on-1 duels, guild-vs-guild mass combat at tower control sites, and faction-vs-faction mass combat in well-defined "Political conflict" areas.
Crafting.
Roleplaying.
Socializing at one of the game's many nightclubs.

Character Creation

A player chooses one of four breeds and one of fourteen professions for his character upon creation, and one of the game's three factions shortly thereafter. There are no forbidden combinations; a character can be of any breed, any profession, and any faction. Breed and profession are permanent, but faction can change an indefinite number of times, subject to some restrictions and potential loss of progress.

Faction influences a player's costs and profits when using vendor terminals. It also determines a character's starting city and which territories he may enter without being attacked by guards or local players. Breed primarily determines how expensive it is to raise the character's basic stats, how high each of those can ultimately become, and how efficient the character's skills are at increasing his health and program-running "nano energy" reserves. Profession determines the improvement cost and ultimate maximum of the character's other skills. More importantly, profession also determines which nanoprograms the character can use. Although nanoprograms are analogous to spells in fantasy MMORPGs, all professions — not just a subset — make heavy use of them. They define a profession's play style more sharply than any other single game element.

Character development is skill-based. As in many MMORPGs, characters in Anarchy Online gain experience points, and thus levels, through defeating enemies and completing missions. However, a character's level has no direct impact on his capabilities other than some incidental health and nano energy. Instead, each level awards the player with more Improvement Points to spend on raising the skills of his choice, and doing so is how the character actually improves. Breed and profession will combine to make some skills more efficient to raise than others, and a large part of character creation involves finding beneficial matches, but no skill is denied outright. All skills are available to some extent to all characters, so a player can improve his character's performance in whichever areas he is willing and able to afford. This, combined with the facts that there are 85 improveable skills and that the use of most equipment is restricted via minimum skill requirements and not by breed, profession, or faction, makes character development in Anarchy Online flexible and complex.

Professions

=Adventurer

= An Adventurer's soul is at home in the wild. Adventurers study the animals, learn their ways and gain some of their abilities along the way. Their weapon skills are well balanced with equal advancement opportunities in melee and ranged combat. They also become skilled at using nanotechnology to withstand damage or to create metaphysical cloaks that damage their aggressors. An Adventurer is an excellent healer, only truly rivaled by the Doctor. Difficulty to play: Low / Medium

The Adventurer is the stereotypical 'lovechild' profession, getting seemingly good choices of weapons, armor and nanotechnology. Being able to do well in pvp, and act as a doc/tank in high end pvm the advy is a great choice for those who have the resources and desire to be good soloer, though without being able to excel in any area.

=Agent

= An Agent’s life is spent in the shadows. Agents focus on concealment and subterfuge skills and one of their special abilities is going undercover. Doing so enables them to use nanotechnology normally only available to other professions. When it comes to combat, the Agent’s speciality is sniping opponents with high velocity rifles using unique nanotechnology to further increase the damage. Difficulty to play: High

The agent is typically a pvp profession as the special attack for sniper rifles is 'aimed shot' which caps at an incredible 13k damage, some believe this to be highly overpowered as little skill is required to hide and almost instakill. Agents are good damage dealers, but tend to steal aggro and die a lot, meaning many will find it hard to get teams until they perfect their profession mimic abilities, which are usually highly desired by teams.

=Bureaucrat

= The Bureaucrat brings order to chaos. Bureaucrats have very limited weapon skills but their vast knowledge of nanotechnology makes up for that. They use it to directly damage opponents and create robots that will fight for them. But most importantly, a Bureaucrat uses nanotechnology to boost his leadership skills and to control hostile beings, bending their minds and blurring their aims. In a team situation, a Bureaucrat is therefore a natural leader. Difficulty to play: High

Bureacrats are a highly desirable profession for team and solo play, as they can calm, charm, give experience % buffs, give experience reclaim % buffs and summon their own pets for great damage.

=Doctor

= A Doctor is really a biotechnology specialist. The Doctors' prime skills focus mainly on healing and protecting but they also learn how to produce and administer powerful biotoxins that slow, weaken and wear down their opponents. Limited weapon skills can lead to a bumpy ride when going solo, but in a good team the Doctor really shines. When chaos descends on the team in combat, its survival usually lies squarely on the Doctor's shoulders, so this profession is not for the faint-hearted. Difficulty to play: Medium

Doctors will almost never be short of teams to choose from, but they require a lot of work to keep up to date and alive. Endgame doctors are typically the best soloers (though slow), taking on monsters with their self healing and damage over time abilities. Much to the chagrin of many combat-class players, doctors will take aggro from tanks just by healing, leading doctors to die easily if not appropriately defended by their teammates.

=Enforcer

= An Enforcer specializes in close combat using raw power and naked rage to subdue opponents. Enforcers are physically better suited than all others to sustain damage and can learn some protective nanotechnology to further increase their chances of survival. Their brutality and in-your-face combat attitude normally make them the prime targets for any opponent. Enforcers utilize this for the good of the team and rely largely on others to heal them. Difficulty to play: Low

Enforcers are the first choice as 'tanks', they can use their nanotechnology to keep aggro from all monsters nearby, can give out huge hp buffs and damage/absorption shields. Enfos can be good in pvp too, as their toolset allows them to hit hard and easily counter movement speed restraints. Enforcers are the stereotypical meatshield.

=Engineer

= An Engineer is a specialist in creating all sorts of machinery. Engineers really excel in constructing powerful battledroids and have access to unique nanotechnology to enhance and repair them. The Engineer's weapon skills are not that great, but the Engineer/robot-pet duo is quite formidable. All Engineers learn to create powerful protective shields and the best Engineers can hack into satellites, and use them to teleport any member of the team to the Engineer's location. Difficulty to play: Medium / High

Engineers require a lot of work to keep up to date, but can see the benefits of the work easily. Their robots make them great for solo levelling, team levelling. The engineer profession has a few 'pet pathing' issues, making their pets sometimes unpredictable. PVP wise, the engineer is difficult to play with, as the pet is usually just ignored and the engineer killed.

Engineers can be extremely weak endgame, unless one has the expansion packs, in which case they can be "OK".

=Fixer

= Fixer specializes in getting people what they need when they need it. By hacking into what is known as The Grid from anywhere in the world, Fixers can use it to transport themselves or their entire team in digital form around Rubi-Ka. The Fixers move fastest of all and special armors make them the hardest to hit as well. A Fixer's main combat strategy lies in limiting the maneuverability of opponents and they favour weapons from the sub-machinegun category. Difficulty to play: Medium

Fixers used to be a fine all round profession before a series of patches and the release of ShadowLands reduced their capabilities. Fixers are still good for PVP and can deal good damage in teams, their runspeed and ncu buffs cannot be beat. The Heal over Time programs they use are badly scaled and are regarded as almost useless at high levels, the heals are more oftenly used to overpower low level PVP twinks. Fixers utilize a special armor and transport system for their own (and in the case of the transport system) and others benefit.

=Keeper

= The Keeper is a fighter that radiates valour and heroism - a beacon of light and hope to the team. A formidable opponent who specialises in close combat, the Keeper is especially proficient wielding two-handed edged weapons. This profession's uniqueness lies in the ability to share life and diverse powers with nearby allies. As a genetically engineered profession dependent on an abundance of notum, the Keeper must begin life in the Jobe research facilities in the Shadowlands. Difficulty to play: Medium

Keepers are pretty decent damage dealers and can occasionally tank, though they have little in their toolset to keep aggro. Keepers can heal hp or nano with auras, but it scales badly, much like fixer HoTs. Keepers get a variety of auras to enhance damage and other in-battle stats.

=Martial Artist

= When it comes to dishing out raw combat damage a Martial Artist outshines all other professions. Fighting unarmed, the Martial Artist's main strength lies in their ability to deal a high percentage of critical hits very quickly, knowing how to cripple opponents by attacking their weak spots. The Martial Artist is also a very proficient healer, truly surpassed by only the Doctor and the Adventurer. Difficulty to play: Low

Martial artists are a great team and solo profession, as they have excellent damage and moderate healing capabilities, the martial artist excels in evade tanking at higher levels and can solo high end bosses with relative ease.

=Meta-Physicist

= The Meta-Physicists get their strength from the \"other side\". They can manifest their emotions in the material world and eventually control multiple materialized entities and use them in combat.They also have the ability to direct damage toward opponents with a freezing blast of nano. The uniqueness of a Meta-Physicist lies in manipulating the underlying fabric of the world where nanotechnology operates, adjusting the nanotechnology skills of friends and foes alike. Their weapon skills are poor but they can use their powers to damage their opponents directly. Difficulty to play: Medium / High

Metaphysicists are an excellent solo, team and PVP profession. They can buff up nanoskills a great amount and summon attack pets, calm pets and heal pets. They are sometimes good damage dealers and good for backup healing and debuffing. MPs tend to be less powerful near endgame, but are still desirable.

=Nano Technician

= A Nano Technician is an expert user of aggressive nanotechnology. Nano Technicians are experts at using nanotechnology to deal explosive area-of-effect damage and the types of damage they can manage are incomparable. They are also capable of using other kinds of nanotechnology and can for example teleport themselves and their teams to pre-determined locations. Nano-Technicians must be devoted to nanotechnology skills and as a result, physical and weapon skills will suffer. Difficulty to play: Medium

The nanotechnician is possibly the hardest profession to play in AO, using a flawed toolset and carrying a history of bad patching/balancing issues, the NT is usually low damage at certain points throughout the game, their damage and reputation have suffered greatly over the course of AO's 5 year run.

However, with the current patch of Anarchy-Online, it seems as though the NT has the absolute best potential to kill hoardes of opponents in very short periods of time with it's area "nukes". It is well known that an NT + Doctor combo is nigh unbeatable against any opponent.

=Shade

= The Shade is a mix between a predator and a parasite. Dark and aggressive, the Shade sucks the life and energy out of opponents, robbing them of the basic elements they need to subsist. The Shade stays out of harm's way by relying on concealment and good combat mobility. Shades can't wear any armour, but have nanotechnologically enhanced tattoos grafted into their skin to give them some protection. As a genetically engineered profession dependent on an abundance of notum, a Shade must begin life in the Jobe research facilities in the Shadowlands. Difficulty to play: High

Shades have a rough time keeping 'twinked' up until high levels. Their damage is always a desirable trait and the ability to drain and evade tank allows them to stay alive if they steal aggro, or if they're soloing. Shades at endgame are excellent damage dealers and evade tanks.

=Soldier

= Soldier strives for excellence in armed combat. The skill advancement of Soldiers focuses entirely on assault and survival. They use unique nanotechnology to protect their bodies, enhance reflexes, weapon skills and their armor. Perhaps most importantly, Soldiers are able to create strong damage reflection shields around themselves which make them partly invulnerable and even reflect some of the damage back to the attacker. Difficulty to play: Low / Medium

Soldiers are the usual second choice for a tank in teams, using powerful reflect shields and high damage they can tear a monster down quickly before they take too much damage. Their main weapon uses the 'fullauto' special attack, releasing an entire clip of ammo at their target. This is a powerful attack for both pvm and pvp

(the best class for a froob/noob on their first adventurre to rubi-ka)

=Trader

= Trader is the ultimate entrepreneur, getting more for less in every single transaction. Like others, they create and trade material goods. But in combat situations, they use unique nanotechnology which enables them to drain opponents of skills, energy and health, transferring those benefits to themselves or their allies. This frequently causes the most formidable opponents to wither to a cracked shell of their former self. Difficulty to play: High

Traders are almost unbeatable at low level pvp, draining their enemies into oblivion before finishing them off with their enhanced damage. Traders have wrangles as a part of their toolset, making them a desirable profession for damage and nano enhancements both in and out of battle. Traders also get calms and Armor debuffs, but these are viewed as unusable until specific points in the game. Traders can AoE root, making them formidable in pvp even later on.

Release

The release of Anarchy Online went poorly, with the game becoming known for the massive number of problems and bugs that nearly ruined it. Most of the major problems now fixed, Anarchy Online shows no trace of its problematic launch. Nevertheless, the game remained, for a time, best-known for its poor performance.

Expansions

The Notum Wars

Anarchy Online received its first major upgrade, labeled a "booster pack", by Funcom in late November 2002. This expansion introduced one of the major components of the game's PvP system, the towers. In this expansion, players and their organizations (AO's name for player guilds) became capable of building towers on specific land areas across Rubi-Ka, for the purposes of mining notum. These towers included a central controller and a vast array of defensive towers, which typically conferred bonuses to individual players or their organizations, or which conferred penalties on invading players. These towers would regularly become open to attack by players of the opposing factions, who, after successfully destroying the towers of their enemy, could claim the land as their own.

The Shadowlands

Perhaps the most well received of Anarchy Online's expansions, the Shadowlands presented a tremendous new world, collectively called the Shadowlands, which is the last remnant of the world Rubi-Ka was before it was wrenched apart by a dimension-breaking cataclysm in ages past. Enriched in notum, this diverse world is inhabited by vestiges of the ancient races that lived on Rubi-Ka, called the Redeemed and the Unredeemed, as well as a giant, world-reaching computer, named Ergo, who recognizes humans as descendants of the past and whose motives in propelling players through the Shadowlands are ambiguous at best.

Released in September of 2003, the Shadowlands expansion was very well received critically, though there were concerns that it had too strong a fantasy bent to mesh completely with the AO universe. In addition to the tremendous world the expansion added, it also introduced significant changes, improvements, and additions, to virtually every aspect of the game, from music, to character development, to interface, enough that some players considered it a wholly different game than the earlier versions of AO.

Alien Invasion

Building on the storyline introduced in The Shadowlands, Alien Invasion was the next major expansion to the Anarchy Online game. This expansion introduced player-built cities, new social interactions, including clothing, and, most significantly, a new threat to the world of Rubi-Ka, in the form of an alien race that has suffered tremendous pain and death because of human interference in the Shadowlands. It was released in September, 2004.

Lost Eden

Lost Eden is the working title for the upcoming expansion pack, and is expected to be released in 2006. This expansion will focus on PvP elements and is expected to add a variety of new features, including player-controlled battlemechs, orbiting space stations that players can vie to control, and artillery fired from orbital cannons.

Other Notes

The background of the game is described in greater detail in the book Prophet Without Honor: Anarchy Online Book 1, by Norwegian author Ragnar Tørnquist. A detailed timeline of events, from the discovery of Rubi-Ka until 29479, is available at the official Rubi-Ka Timeline page.

The original game, without any of the expansions, is part of a special promotion in which new players can register an account and download the core game free of charge, with all monthly fees waived until January 15, 2007. Players wishing to use the content available in any of the three expansions would need to purchase those expansion packs, after which monthly subscription fees would begin to be charged. It is possible to upgrade a free account to a paid one and at the same time purchase the first three expansions at a reduced package price.

Leets

A "Leet" is the name of a furry, cuddly creature resembling a Rodent in Anarchy Online. Leets are cuddly, speak in leet speak, and have a strong following of players. The names of the various kinds of leets found in the game world play on leet, with progressively stronger leets named Leet, Eleet, Leetas, Soleet, Phear Leet and Supa Leet, in addition to special unique leets named Joo, Ownz and brb. Their cuteness has in many ways made them a mascot for the game, with calls for plush leet dolls being common, stories such as the Leetville series being made, and a special set of leet pets being the pre-order gift for Alien Invasion, Anarchy Online's third expansion.

Froobs

Froob stands for "free paying noob". Someone is a 'Froob' when they sign up for a free account. In game, there are several 'orgs' for Froobs, such as "FBI - Froobs But Intelligent", which was one of the first orgs to win the banner competition. Players using free accounts are subjected to a number of billboards featuring real-world advertisements. Paying players don't have billboards, but can turn them on if they wish, they may opt to view the same material as Froobs or switch to more immersive fake advertisements that deal with in-game related subjects.

The free account offer has been extended to January 2007.

External links

2001 computer and video games | Funcom games | Massively multiplayer online role-playing games | Windows games

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