Here is today's daily update from Funcom: Today we will talk a little bit about how we, here at Funcom, read the forums, and the best way for you to present your requests for changes to AO. After popular demand we will also discuss the viability of the Martial Artists, and the importance of implants, both of which address issues brought up on our forums. First up, the Bulletin Boards. It seems many people are under the assumption that we do not take notice of all your postings on the boards. This is certainly not the case. We take note of all the feedback we get, and see it as an invaluable way to monitor the state of the game. However, when a lot of information is posted about problems, specifics can often get lost in a sea of words. The posts that help us the most are those that contain constructive arguments and criticism that contain detailed facts and offer solutions, if you can think of one. Often times, there are several ways for us to approach a problem. Seeing specific suggestions, along with exact details on what happens on your end when a problem occurs, is a lot easier for us to react to. Sometimes we might not be able to provide an answer as soon as a question is posted, because they are issues that have to be tested and we need to confirm the accuracy of them in order to give the best answer possible. Hence, the fact that we don’t answer straight away, doesn’t mean we have ignored the post or are unaware that the issue has been brought up. We have lately seen a large number of Martial Artists write good, constructive reasons on why they feel their class is underpowered. We have been able to test this, and found that a lot of the issues brought to our attention seemed to be correct. With that in mind, the Martial Artist will be given more opportunities to deal some serious damage, something that will hopefully make the class what is was always intended to be. We appreciate all the feedback we received on this issue and are certain you will be pleased with the result. Last, but not least, there are several calls from every profession on how their class is underpowered. The pure balance of the game is worked with and tested all the time. Make sure your character is all that it can be, and that you realise its potential. The importance of implants might have been overlooked slightly by some, and that could be one of the reasons you feel your character isn’t as powerful as it should be. That said, we’re not suggesting everyone with complaints has neglected their character and hasn’t realised its potential, we’re just saying there are so many ways of customizing each character, and some might be more effective (at least in the short run) than others. So, if you haven’t done so already, and you feel your character may not be as powerful as it should be, you may want to look a little further into various implants. That’s it for today, and we’ll be back with another update tomorrow. Have a nice day:)

Here is the update posted today by Funcom: After a weekend of mixed success, we have had time to look back a little, look at fixes for what went wrong, and also update you on some issues we’ve been working on for a while. Today’s patching has started (and by the time of posting it has probably already finished), and will contain a change in the concealment skill. Feedback from players has made it obvious that our last change was a little too harsh and the skill will now become noticeably better (provided your skill is adequate of course). The patch will also contain a change to the spawning-rate of monsters, so that they will now spawn more often. We do acknowledge that sometimes, old problems have reappeared in our patches. We are of course eager to please you, our players, and might have been a little too quick in patching on certain occasions. We have now streamlined our process for patching and will take more time in testing to ensure that we aren’t bringing back an old problem. Whenever we do see old problems reoccurring however, we are generally able to fix them very quickly, as we have already solved the problem at an earlier stage. In fact, we have already had two patches addressing the problems that were re-introduced on Sunday. However, we know that it should not be happening in the first place and are taking steps to prevent it from happening again. On a slightly different note, we are also very close to releasing our new and improved account interface, a system that will give you real-time information about your account, and full access to inspect and control all the transactions on your credit card. If you have been unable to access your account and have written to Funcom asking for changes to be made, they will be reflected soon after the new system is put into place. That’s it for today; we’ll be back with another update tomorrow.

I know this is a little late, but I was out of town yesterday and couldn't post it up: "The second dimension of Anarchy Online is now online and playable. When you start up the client you will be able to choose what dimension you want to play on. This dimension was brought up due to the amount of people wanting to play Anarchy. We saw that we were not able to handle everyone on one server and had to expand the world. For now, you will be able to have 8 characters per dimension, but when we start the storyline and give you the possibility to travel between dimensions, there will be some restrictions on how you can distribute your characters between the dimensions." Combined with the new patch, this has really seemed to improve the lag problems. Yippee.

For a sneak peak at the upcoming client patch, here is the patch message from the AO test server: - Optimized resource management to reduce amount of loading. - Optimized lookup of items, to process incoming characters faster. - Reduced message size for character updates, when entering new zones. - Included a server-side option to reduce observation range in cities and other crowded areas. - Enabled stream compression to reduce bandwidth. - Eliminated some small memory leaks in the client. - Eliminated several resource leaks. - Fixed an exploit allowing players to select the same mission several times. GUI and controls: - Removed “Trade Canceled” flooding if you ignore someone who wants to trade with you. - All playfield names should now displayed correctly. - The “skill available” message should now be written in a different color, and thus be easier to identify. - Chat channel settings saved. - Fog settings saved correctly. - Client position is now updated correctly on the world map when you change playfield. AI: - The humanoid vendors will now be able to deal with more than one customer at the time. - The monsters should stop attacking when you have “initiated” a playfield change, but the servers fail to complete it. - Nano Formulas run by monsters will from now on be aborted when the monster reach zero health. - NPC's should no longer be able to attack each other in 100% suppression gas areas. - “Debuffing” NPC stats will be more effective from now on. This also means that low-level NPC's should no longer use nano programs out of their level range. - Aggressive “Grey” monsters will no longer “always” attack you unprovoked. - Line-of-sight battle indoor and outdoor enabled. This applies to both players and monsters. RPG Tweaks, Bugs and changes. - Mission Tokens: The mission tokens have always been supposed to be a special reward given for “heroic” actions. From now on you will get your token if your side “deems” you worthy. Tokens will no longer be shown as a reward in the mission description. - In PvP when the master dies, pets will turn into ordinary monsters. When the master gets close to it again, he regains control - You should now look OK after zoning with your trench coat on. - Poison and Heal over Time formulas should still be active on your character after zoning. - You should no longer be able to “use” items in chests without using their charges. - Team Nano programs and area of effect Nano programs can now be aborted. - Ammo should be displayed correctly after play-field shifting. - Cleaned up special attack requirements. Now you only need to meet the requirements of the right-hand weapon to be able to use the attack. - Worn and equipped items will no longer be included in the encumbrance calculation. This applies to items inside worn backpacks too.

In today's daily update, Funcom mentioned that they would be adding a temporary fix in the next patch that would help with the city lag. Here's the full text: There has been heavy discussions at the bulletin board about our posting from yesterday. We said that players would be able to toggle other characters on/off. Please read this daily update to get a clarification on what we meant ... The discussion started with the upcoming patch. We had to define some ideas on how we could make it more livable for characters in the game to be in the large citites. The problem was that it can be so many people in the citites, and with our memory leak bug this can cause havoc on some machines. We talked about how we could remove some polygons from the screen to make it easier for players to move around in heavy populated areas. We would like to emphasize that this is only a temporary solution. We will as soon as we get the memory leaks under control have this situation under control as well. What we will do is make a slider bar, where you can define your own viewdistance and only your own, and within that viewdistance you will not be able to see other players. This is mainly a function that can be handy to have in the larger citites where we know a lot of players have problems. We hope that this will give people some aid for now, when they are in areas that hold a lot of other players. While talking about the next client patch we are now working on a changes list and this will be a long one. We will keep you informed when we have an ETA on this patch.

Here's today's daily update from the AO Community page: Topics today will be a little bit around the upcoming client patch ... We have a client patch in the loop now. We hope to push this out very soon on the testlive server. There has been done a lot of bugfixes in this version and it should also contain one thing some of you asked about on the bulletin boards; to be able to toggle players on/off to reduce numbers of polygons on the screen. We will keep you updated with more information on this patch as soon as it is ready. Other than that we are still working on the memory leak. This is still number 1 priority right now. We are also getting closer with a new interface to the payment system, and an interface to your account information. We see that more and more people are enjoying themself in the world of Rubi-Ka, and we also see that a lot of players are having fun. Remember that you should as far as possible try to get a group, this will show pretty significant on the XP you get :)

AO Atlas has added a nice new AO Mapper program, which provides maps and locations for every zone. Check it out at this link.

Gamespot has put up a long article on their impressions of AO. Here's an excerpt: Now that I can play Anarchy Online for extended periods of time with no crashes, I'm decidedly hooked. Even with nearly all of the visual effects turned down to preserve a decent frame rate, Anarchy Online continues to impress me. In the wee hours of the morning when fewer players are online causing lag, I'm able to explore the many different cities, each massive sprawl a pleasure to behold. The passage of time plays out beautifully across the sky; weather effects are varied and well done, while the wonderful music sets the tone for the very distinctive sci-fi atmosphere that AO works to a T. Funcom has also injected a healthy dose of humor and wit into its world, with monsters that poke fun at gamer "leet speak" and designs that are veritably borrowed from other sci-fi universes, like Star Wars. I'm having great fun with AO currently, while I wait, desperate to see how the storyline will affect the game. You can read the full article at this link.

Anarchy Online has been out almost a month now. I know there have to be some Everquest players out there wondering about Anarchy Online and how it compares to EQ. I beta tested Everquest and have been playing it ever since. I also beta tested Anarchy Online and have been playing it since it was released a few weeks ago. Of course, I have seen a lot more of EQ than AO, so there are things that I can’t compare quite yet, but I still thought I would give you my initial impressions to help you decide if AO is a game you might want to try. So here is my comparison and review. Playability This is something I feel needs to be stated right up front, because I am going to try to ignore it for the rest of the review. At the moment, Anarchy Online is not a quality, playable game. The game was released with Funcom fully knowing that it was bugged, incomplete and unplayable. I was a beta tester and I was astounded when I discovered that the version we were playing those last weeks of beta was truly just a step from the release version. Frankly, I believe that any legitimate company should hang their heads in shame after releasing a game in this bad a shape. Funcom then rubbed salt into the wounds of even their most loyal customers by announcing that the game was “110%” playable two weeks after release, setting off the clock on the 30 days you get with your purchase and assuring that they will start charging people for a game many cannot yet play. The lag in the game is horrendous. Anytime you get close to more than a handful of other players, your frame rate drops to almost nothing and you find yourself standing in place. What’s worse about this is that you can’t sit or move your curser enough to even log out of the game, and you are often forced to stand there for five minutes or more hoping to just get out of the game. Of course, you can always alt-tab to windows and control-alt-delete the game closed, but that seems like a pretty extreme measure. Basically, this means that you are better off just not trying to play during the typical prime time hours. The pathing in the game is so bad that when you are in a mission your best chance is to move to a room, stand still and wait to see what starts to shoot at you. Of course, then it is often in another room and shooting through the walls, but at least you can shoot it back that way. Mobs can attack you through walls and across the playing field without you even seeing them or knowing where to go to fight back. Quite often you will lag out during a fight, which makes it impossible to use your special attacks, and then come back in and find out that you died. High patience and a low frustration level are required to play this game right now. A high performance machine and high speed internet connection are also a lot of help. If you go in expecting a beta quality game, you will probably still be amazed at the problems. Still, many people are able to play the game, so for those of you who are willing to overlook the obvious problems and want to delve into the actual game lurking behind the bugs, I’ll try to give you my view of how it plays. Graphics and Sound The graphics of Anarchy Online are crisper and more realistic than those of Everquest. There are nice little touches that really add to the feel of the world. The sky effects are pretty amazing and there are things like little robots and flying birds that add a touch of realism to the game. The player models are stunning and the number of outfits you can wear are astonishing. I created a female character just to experiment with the rather racy outfits you can buy at the store. This is definitely a PG game. With all the variety, I don’t doubt that you could really get to the point where you can recognize a person just by his or her looks. They also programmed some fun emotes into the game, letting you really express yourself. I know I got a lot of work out of the /anger command when the zones weren’t working right after release. Still, even with such crisp graphics, I find the world to be a little drab. I am sure it is by design, since Rubi-Ka is defined as a dead world that is slowly being terraformed, but there is very little color and variety amongst the cities and zones. Part of the fun in Everquest is zoning into a new zone and seeing how different it is from the rest of the world. Everquest has forests, plains, jungles, oceans, lakes, mountains and a whole variety of other types of terrain. From what I have seen so far, much of Anarchy Online is the same. So, while I like the individual graphics in AO better then EQ, overall I think I prefer the look of Norrath to the look of Rubi-Ka. When it comes to the sound track and sound effects, AO has EQ beat by a mile. I always thought that the music in Everquest was almost an afterthought by the developers. If I recall correctly, music was not even introduced into the game until several months after its release. A good soundtrack can help get the heart thumping and add to the excitement of a battle. AO has this and EQ doesn’t. When I play EQ, I find myself turning down the sound, but when I play AO I like to really crank it. Soloing and Grouping This is an area where these two games differ significantly. Everquest is strictly a group game. While soloing is possible, it is difficult to do and time consuming. In general, groups are easy to form and, because the classes are so well defined, you can form a group of total strangers and fairly quickly figure out everyone’s role in the fights to come. Anarchy Online is just the opposite. It is very easy to solo, and in many ways it is preferable. I have found it very difficult to find a group because most people have quickly discovered that you can get higher experience and better rewards by soloing. Moreover, when you do get into a group most people are confused about what they are supposed to do and in the end everyone basically just blasts away at the mob until it is dead. I assume as people get higher in levels and more specialized that things will change, but groups will never be as easy to define as in Everquest simply because the professions in AO are not so easily pigeonholed into defined roles. This has led to an interesting development in the game. Anarchy Online is simply not as social a game as Everquest. There is no general chat like the zone chat of Everquest and with fewer groups and faster leveling, it is much harder to meet people and make friends. It is more like a bunch of single player games being played simultaneously on the same server. Some of this is due to the lag, which causes most people to do everything they can to avoid other players, but even without the lag, I doubt this will ever be much of a group game. The advantage of this soloability is that Anarchy Online is able to be played in short bursts. If you only have an hour or two to play Everquest, it is almost not worth playing. By the time you log in, get to a zone, find a group and get into a rhythm it is time to log back out. However, with Anarchy Online, you can grab a mission, play it through and gain a half a level’s worth of experience and a nice reward all within about a hours playing time. This alone makes it a far better game for the casual gamer than Everquest. Still, I like the social aspects of Everquest and find Anarchy Online really lacking in that regard. Without more chat features and more incentive to group up with other players, the game will never really seem like a MMORPG to me. What I have discovered is that when I have an hour to play and just want to play a quick solo game, I log onto Anarchy Online. But when I know I can really sit down and immerse myself into the game, a find myself going back to. So far, I don’t think AO has the same addictive hook that EQ can exert on you. Classes/Professions In my opinion, Anarchy Online went the wrong way with their profession system. I don’t doubt that there will be some significant changes as they start to see how the players deal with it. Anarchy Online tried to overlap the professions and also, through a skill system encourage diversity even within the professions. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing. This supposedly lets the players determine their own destiny rather than be pigeonholed into a role determined by the game designer. Unfortunately, from what I can see, it has had the opposite effect. First, the professions don’t vary that much from each other at the start. Because of the easy availability of healing and nano restoring devices, everyone in the game can heal themselves and cast multiple spells. Plus, everyone can wear the same armor and use the same weapons. Naturally, everyone is going to start to figure out the best weapons, armor, nanos, etc and use their skills accordingly. This is especially true because you get so few improvement points that you feel you can’t waste any on any skill that is not strictly necessary. So what you get are few actual variations in classes. Maybe they will vary more in later levels. Also, with the sole exception of the doctor, all of the AO classes are attack classes. With the exception of the doctor class, there are no true support classes. There are classes that could be used in support roles, but because most players will spend a lot of time soloing, players who choose those classes will inevitably end up spending their improvement points on attack skills rather than support skills. This really hurts the grouping process and also reduces the variety in the game. In contrast, Everquest’s class system is very well defined, with each class getting their own specialties, armor, weapons, spells, etc. This can sometimes be frustrating, but it builds up a very well developed reliance upon other players and encourages grouping and interaction. It also makes it easier to know who and what you are dealing with. When you meet a level 25 barbarian shaman, you pretty much know what he can and can’t do. That certainty is not present in AO. On top of that, EQ’s variety increases replay value. The class and race you choose in EQ will significantly effect how and where you play the game. Play an Ogre Warrior and then play a High Elf Wizard, and you will find your aproach to the game to be completely different right from the start. In AO, the breed and profession seem to have little effect on how you play the game. Everyone gets weapons and spells. They may vary in name, but they all work pretty much the same. Are you really going to stop playing your level 150 character and start over with another profession that does much the same thing, only shoots pistols instead of machine guns? So I have to give Everquest’s system the nod over Anarchy Online. I have a feeling others may disagree on this. There is something to be said about having the ability to diversify your character. Still I know that when I switch from a Rogue to a Warrior in Everquest, I will get a completely different game experience, whereas in AO switching from a fixer to a soldier will not really change your style a whole lot. Items and Quests This is an area where Anarchy Online has really improved over Everquest. I love the generated mission system. You go up to a mission generator, put in your parameters and request a mission. You will then be sent to an area to perform a duty, whether it is fixing a machine, killing a traitor, finding a lost item, or some other similar quest. When you get there, your own private dungeon is created. It generally takes an hour to finish and at the end, you usually get a nice reward. You can do missions privately or in a group. This sure beats Everquest’s go camp 10 monsters for a cheesy reward quest system. However, the missions are better in concept in execution, which is a general theme running through much of Anarchy Online. I know I promised not to mention this again, but right now AO is a truly flawed game. Missions are often broken and can’t be finished. The pathing is so bad that you have no idea which Mob will start to shoot at you and you can often find yourself firing at a Mob through a wall while another one stand right in front of you oblivious to your presence. When you lag, the doorways disappear and can’t be crossed, stranding you in the middle of the mission. Still, assuming all of this gets fixed, the missions may well be the best part of Anarchy Online. Anarchy Online also gets a huge thumbs up for making their equipment level sensitive (well actually skill level sensitive, but it works the same way). There will be no twinking in AO, so a newcomer will not find himself wondering why everyone else in the game his level seems to be decked out in great gear while he’s scrounging for enough credits to buy the basics. Plus, equipment drops randomly in accordance with the level of the mob, so there is no camping in AO either. And on top of that, just about everything can be bought in the stores. You are not going to be forced to sit in one place for 15 hours just to get that Phat Lewt. These are huge plusses in Anarchy Online’s favor. There is a negative side to this though. Because it is so easy to get the items you want by yourself, there is little trade going on. Also, there seem to be few, if any, unique or rare items. I always thought items in EQ should drop more randomly, but that doesn’t mean they should become more common. I think that the lack of rare items in AO will somewhat take away from the competition that a true game player likes to feel. While a game should not be all about Phat Lewt, that is still a fun element of EQ that seems to be missing from AO. Still, overall I like the way AO handles quests and items better than the way EQ handles them. Overall Game Play So which game is more fun to play? That’s really the bottom line in evaluating a game. When you are sitting at the computer looking at the AO and EQ icons side by side, which one are you more likely going to click? Well, that’s a complex question. They are both fun games. If you can afford both, I recommend you play both. Why? Because of the differences. While they are supposedly of the same genre, in many ways these are completely different games. AO is a nice solo game that has the added advantage of having other people around to occasionally chat with and interact with and even group with. You can play it for an hour and actually accomplish something. Plus, I haven’t even mentioned the pvp aspects, mainly because I have not tried that yet. EQ is a great group game where you can really lose yourself in a group experience. When you have enough time to truly immerse yourself, this is the game to play. In all, even after setting aside the bugs and lag and lack of playability of AO at this time, I definitely prefer Everquest over Anarchy Online. Of course, EQ’s had more than two years to polish and hone itself to relative perfection, and I’ve also played EQ a lot more than I have played AO, but I doubt that even in four months or so when Anarchy Online finally reaches its potential and becomes a truly final product it will surpass Everquest. This does not mean Anarchy Online is a bust. If you can get past the bugs and the lag there is a pretty nice game in there. If you only have the ability to purchase one more game this year, then by all means save your money and wait for The Shadows of Luclin expansion or perhaps Dark Age of Camelot. If you don’t mind paying $50 for something that is flawed but still kind of fun, then this game is worth a try. Whatever you do, don’t cancel your EQ account though, because you may find yourself wanting to come back in a month or two and you will want that level 60 warrior still sitting there when you return.

Two new reviews are out for Anarchy Online: Hard News put up a review of Anarchy Online, and it ain't pretty. You can read it at this link. Lobbygods also gae AO a pretty harsh review. You can read that one at this link.