FunCom announces "Leet" invasion

[Soukyan]

Along with their Alien Invasion expansion, one of the new features will be the introduction of Leet pets for players. I found out about it in this article.

Leets always gave me a laugh in the game and I thought it was a good implementation of a witty idea. This takes it a step further and I would certainly enjoy it if I were still an AO player myself. Check out the screenshots for a giggle or two. Some "punny" names, too.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

I want a Leet Gardis

[Furiously]

I want a Leet Gardis

I think your wife might have something to say about that....

Plus - she would 0wn joo.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

I want a Leet Gardis

I think your wife might have something to say about that....

I hope she doesn't have a Leet Igator

[schild]

"Like a dagger in teh nite, I catch joo unawarez!"

That could be the single greatest sentence ever released in association with an MMORPG. Too bad I'm not playing their crappy game.

[Soukyan]

It's a shame I couldn't get into their game more because some things they do are highly entertaining. And then if you let RKDN run with it, it gets even better.

[Jain Zar]

If the game wasnt so buggy and derivative I would almost preorder for a Leetzilla.

"OMG NO TEHY SAY HEZ GOT TO GO GO GO LEETZILLA!!  W00T!!11!!"

[Furiously]

If the game wasnt so buggy and derivative I would almost preorder for a Leetzilla.

I re-subbed for 2 months before COH came out. I'd love to hear how it is buggy and derivative...

[HaemishM]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

[kaid]

Okay that kinda amuses me in my own twisted little way. Anarchy Online is not a bad game now but its initial disaster of a release doomed it forever to mediocrity.


That said I enjoyed the whole level up thing in AO a hell of a lot more than I did in DAOC.

Kaid

[stray]

That said I enjoyed the whole level up thing in AO a hell of a lot more than I did in DAOC.

Same here. Until I realized the cap was like 200. That's insane.

[Soukyan]

That said I enjoyed the whole level up thing in AO a hell of a lot more than I did in DAOC.

Same here. Until I realized the cap was like 200. That's insane.

Heh. 210 these days I believe. I think they raised it with Shadowlands. I pulled a trial account to mess around with it again.

[Eldron]

Heh. 210 these days I believe. I think they raised it with Shadowlands. I pulled a trial account to mess around with it again.

Actully its 220 now. Wont be higher for AI, but you will get Alien knowledge that can get you more Alien perks and stuff like that.

[AOFanboi]

Actully its 220 now.

That's 200 you can get anywhere and 20 you only get by camping in Shadowlands.

Bah.

My highest got to 68 or so. CoH is just more fun without playing the Excel Wizard with lots of numbers.

[Sky]

My first 'conversation' with a leet in AO is still the best interaction I've had with an npc in a mmog imo. I should dig up the screenshot, it's buried on a backup cd somewhere. I'd say it's more cohesive than some conversations I've had with pcs in mmogs....

[Soukyan]

My first 'conversation' with a leet in AO is still the best interaction I've had with an npc in a mmog imo. I should dig up the screenshot, it's buried on a backup cd somewhere. I'd say it's more cohesive than some conversations I've had with pcs in mmogs....

Yes! Please do dig it up if you get a moment. I have lost my screenshots of my early experiences with leets in AO, but I can remember cracking up the first time I was whooping on one and it said, "I'll get my main!" I almost fell out of my chair. A little sense of humor has certainly gone a long way in that game.

[Sky]

Xerr was my character's name:

[schild]

Xerr was my character's name:

I think I just picked up a touch of the down from reading that conversation. Thjanks!

[Numtini]

I think the Leets also sort of immunized the players against being leet. I think I heard less leetspeak in AO than i have in any other game. It's not like we don't have ubers or anything, but the roxxor talk is very minimal.

[Furiously]

Looks like they are also offering a $9.95 for all the expansions and no other fees until Sept. 1 deal right now. $5.00 a month isnt too bad.

[Alluvian]

Leveling was just too tedious in that game.  Anytime I would say to myself "I only need 50-100 more levels to do xyz" it was just soul crushing.  It was already taking about 1.5 missions to level at only level 30 or so (I forget what level I was).  My wife and I played in short sessions of a mission or two, so those 50 levels was two months of mission grind if we played every single day.  It just sucked the fun out of me.  And I was always feeling like I was fucking up my character more with every new level.  People and websites would contradict themselves on which skills were great for my profession and which sucked.  I wish the respec was more fully implemented.  Just dropping one line every way too many levels was not enough to ease my concerns.

Oh, and the weapon balance was non-existant.  In the same quality level some guns there were only 1-3 valid choices.  The rest simply sucked ass in every possible way.  Delete all the other guns if you are going to do that.  Everyone used the same guns anyway.  The rest were just junk picked up in missions to sell.

I overall did enjoy the game and the missions.  But the shopping and the worry about advancement wore away at my fun.  Fun world to explore though, it had style.  I am very glad I got over the beta shitstorm and then also got over it fucking up my registry 6 months after release on my first trial so I could actually enjoy it some 10 months to a year after launch on my second free trial.

[Soukyan]

Leveling was just too tedious in that game.

Try it again. I detest leveling grinds and I'm having a lot of fun now. Go the the Shadowlands. Experience is much higher there. I can gain 1/15 to 1/10 of a level in experience per even con kill. Granted, that's only at level 21 on a character I started last week so that's only 1/10 of the total levels, so I can't speak to higher level gains. However, there's the good, old SL Heckler powerleveling that will allow you to level from 50-150 in about a week if you so choose. Essentially, they're mobs in Elysium I believe that give sick amounts of experience and are essentially slow melee so you can farm them and skyrocket through the levels. Mind you, you won't have much money or equipment then, but you can always mission every now and then for that stuff. Hit 'em now while they're hot! Or before AO nerfs them... no mention of any upcoming nerf to it though so who knows.

[Alluvian]

No way in hell.  The 50-150 is hardly playing 14 hours TOPS in a week.  COH is currently far more fun for me than AC ever was besides.

As far as exp in AO, I didn't like farming wandering stuff in the least.  100% missions for me.  I don't know if the shadowlands stuff you talked about was mission based or not.

[Sky]

The shopping, clicksaver being almost required, that's the stuff that turned me off AO, I never really thought of it as much of a treadmill. Not sure why.

[Numtini]

Shadowlands is very much outdoor camping a la EQ. I really didn't like the expansion very much. I prefer missions.

Clicksaver never bothered me for some reason. I'm suffering from the need to upgrade equipment and buff into everything. That's probably my least favorite part of MMP gaming.

I never felt the least pressure to level in AO, which is part of why I find the game so much fun. There are interesting things to do at all levels, at least I find it that way. And grouping range is really really large so I rarely have problems finding a group or being with my friends. (Ok I'm a doctor, that's part of why it's easy for me to find groups too.)

[Ralence]

Looks like they are also offering a $9.95 for all the expansions and no other fees until Sept. 1 deal right now. $5.00 a month isnt too bad.

  I have 3 30-day trial keys if anyone is interested in trying it out again, or for the first time.  They sent everyone some buddy keys for a month instead of the normal 7 days for the third anniversary they just celebrated.

  Just toss me a PM if anyone is interested, you can DL the entire client (1.3gig for the entire deal and all expansions) and the trial keys are good for everything, with the 9.95 purchase price at the end of the 30 days if you decide to stick around.
 
  First come first serve on those buddy keys btw.

[Numtini]

I thought those aren't trial keys, but full game keys. As in you don't need to buy the game at the end of the 30 days (which you do for the 7 day trial).

[AOFanboi]

I thought those aren't trial keys, but full game keys. As in you don't need to buy the game at the end of the 30 days (which you do for the 7 day trial).

From the mail:

The keys include the Classic Version of Anarchy, Notum Wars and the award winning Shadowlands. All keys must be activated between now and 30 September 2004, and can only be used to create new accounts.

So it seems you are correct. (Oh, and for "award winning Shadowlands" read "painful campfest Shadowlands". But the rest of the game is OK.)

[Rodent]

I want a Invaleet! Time to pre-order I guess. Having fun ( imagine that! ) with AO at the moment, only damn MMOG I can get my friends to play.