Lithiumxsl wrote:
> In the beginning of the game my start-up robot got killed and I wanted
to
> build a new robot but dont know how.
> Can tell me how to build a robot for my character? do I need xp and/or
> skill or anything to make this happen?
Lithium, I assume you are very new to AO, so I'm going into some detail on
how to run an Engineer class. I hope the amount of information isn't too
overwhelming. Sorry that it's a bit on the long side, but hopefully it
will
give you an insight into how pets work and how to skill your character.
The short answer to your question is to open the "Programs" window and
look
in the "Space" section, you will see an Icon there which will be your pet,
click on it to cast your pet, this will create a "shell" in your
inventory,
right click on this to actually create a physical pet... This pet is
useful
until level 3 or so, once you get there you will be gasping for a new pet!
Unlike many MMORPG's, getting a bigger pet isn't based upon your level, it
is based upon your skills. You get a certain number of "IP" points per
level to spend on the skills you need. For the first 5-6 levels, you can
pretty much maximise all the skills you need (all abilities, body dev,
nano
pool, main weapon skill, ranged and nano init, duck, dodge, evade, run
speed, nano skills, comp lit (very im****tant), treatment (extremely
im****tant), first aid, break and entry). After level 6-7 you will not have
enough IP's to skill everything again until you reach around level 160-170
- or if you are going to be a tradeskiller, probably never!
One of the main skills of AO is knowing where (and when) to spend your
IP's.
Do you sink it in a weapon skill and have a smaller robot, do you sink it
into MC/TS and get the biggest bot you can? The answer is usually the
latter, your pet should be your main weapon and does the most of the
damage
you will do (and "tanks" for you when you are solo - i.e. takes the aggro
from the mobs you are fighting and takes the damage). You won't have
enough
IP's to skill all abilities and your nano skills and your weapon skills.
You need to work out your im****tant Abilties and always max them
(Sta/Int/Psy to start with I would guess), when you hit level cap for
these
abilities and for your skills, you can start raising the others as well),
you will also need to look at what implants you need to equip next, if you
need to bring up Strength to get an implant in, check what bonuses it
gives
you, it might be worth sacrificing one of your skills for a couple of
levels if it will give you a bigger boost to that skill than if you maxed
that skill for the same period... AO is all about sacrifice and reward.
You
will make mistakes, everybody does, but you can reset your mistakes - but
be warned, there are a limited number of reset points, so don't use them
unless you really need to; once they are gone, they are gone, you don't
get
any more! (Well, you get 1-2 per Title Level I think, but that's all.)
As an Engineer/Crat/MP, you must always max your Matter Creation and Time
and Space skills (and the Abilities which they are based on, most
especially Intelligence). Robots are cast based on your MC/TS skill, the
more you can skill/implant/buff the skill the bigger the robot you will be
able to cast (assuming you have the relevant nano, see below).
Collecting items which boost these skills are always a must for pet
professions (armour, weapons, implants, symbiant etc.).
MP's have a range of buffs which increase MC/TS and Traders can cast
Wrangles which increase the skill base weapon skills and all nano skills
for a short period of time (3 minutes). The basic idea is to get the
biggest buff you can get into NCU (Teachings, Masteries, Infuses or
Mochams
+25, +50, +90, +140 respectively), each range has a full complement of
buffs (i.e. Teachings of Sens Imp, Teachings of MC, Teachings of TS etc.).
With the SL expansion there came a new set of buffs called "combined",
which buff all nano skills together (Combined Teachings +25 all skill,
Combined Mochams +140 all skills), but these are level restricted, you
need
to be a certain level MP to cast them, and you can only cast them on
people
above a certain level. The big advantage they have is that they last 4
hours instead of one (apart from Mochams which come in 1, 2, 4 and 8 hour
versions depending on level) and also they only take up as much NCU space
as one normal buff of the same name.
Most people who have SL cast a robot based on Mochams, then take the 4
hour
buff for their level. This means that they cast the biggest pet they can,
which will still obey them when the smaller buff is running. This means
that they are "independent" for 4 hours assuming either the player or
their
robot doesn't die!
If you don't have SL, you won't be able to use the combined buffs, so
you'll
need to ask for the biggest one that will fit in your NCU's and ask for it
again every hour, otherwise your pets won't obey you... If you really want
the biggest you can get, get Mochams and then a wrangle (they go up to 132
for normal Wrangles, SL wrangles with perks go up to around 150, but you
need to be over level 200 to start getting the effects of these), this
will
get you the ability to cast a bigger pet, but once the wrangle is gone,
you
have to be creaful that the pet will still obey you (it isn't OE).
OE: Over Equipping is the Engineer/Crat's biggest problem. When you have a
skill (any skill or ability) and you put in an item - or try to use a pet
-
which is much bigger than your skills, it will be "overequipped". This
means, as an example, if you got Iron Circle and Behemoth to equip a piece
of Strength/Stamina based armour, when the buffs run out, if your base
skill isn't high enough, the armour will be "over equipped". It will
appear
with a red mesh over it in your inventory slot and will not work at 100
percent effectiveness. The are varying degrees of OE, 75%, 50%, 25% and,
theoretically 0%.
Just to confuse things, certain items, like NCU memories, NCU belts, Crit
Scopes, will not go "OE".
This means that if our piece of armour has 1000AC and it is 75% OE, it
will
only offer you 750AC until you either get buffed again, or you manage to
skill your base skill to at least 75% of the requirement. The same applies
to weapons and pets.
The problem with a pet going "OE" isn't that it become 75% effective (i.e.
makes less damage), but that it will not recognise the player as its
master, and thus will refuse to work full stop! The engineer has to be
careful to make sure that the buffs he needs to control his pet are always
running, if the skills drop too much the pet will stop responding!
Although
not mid fight, if the buffs wear out *after* an attack command has been
given, the pet will finish its current task before returning and telling
you that it doesn't recognise you as its master... Time to look for an MP
again.
Basic Nanos: Always buff yourself Intelligence (+12 nano in basic nano
shop)
and MC/TS (+20 nano for each in same automat). These will give you a
combined boost of 21/22 points before you start looking for an MP.
Implants: Always equip the biggest implants that you can get in (or
Symbiants later on if you have SL), especially those that will boost you
MC/TS and the abilities behind them. You can buy Engineer specific
implants
in the basic shop up to QL100 (QL 10, 20, 30, 50, 75 and 100 are available
pre-built and should last you to around level 60, I would stick with the
level 100 ones until around level 100 and go straight to self-made QL200
implants - there are plenty of guides on the net for building your own
implants (you can get somebody else to actually put the components
together
for you) and look for a program called "Nano Nanny" to help you work out
which clusters to put in which location).
Pet Nanos (and Profession Nanos): In the backyard there is an automat near
Strickland which will sell you a basic nano kit for your profession (make
sure you buy the Engineer one in this case, buying those for another
profession is a waste of money, you can't use them, they are specific to
the stated profession. This will include the second robot, and a couple
more ISTR.
Once you hit the mainland, you can go shopping and buy bigger and better
robot nanos which you can use, based on your MC/TS skills as described
above. Having Pets is an expensive business, the nanos aren't cheap
(starting at a couple of thousand each for the small ones, the level 200+
nanos for SL Engineers can cost in excess of 20m!). The profession nano
shops are found in the "Nano" sections of Basic, Advanced and Superior
shops. Basic sells nanos up to about level 25, Advanced 25 to ~75 I think
and Superior 75-125.
All nanos above level 125 must be found (or bought from other players who
have found them). You can usually roll them (especially the pets) as
rewards for missions. Get yourself a program called "clicksaver", it helps
automate the searching for mission rewards and is a staple part of every
AO
addicts arsenal ;-)
Some nanos under level 100 are "boss loot only," this means that you
cannot
buy them in an automat and cannot roll them as mission rewards, they drop
either from Team Mission Boss's (team missions are much bigger than normal
single player missions and they have an end boss which drops a lot of loot
(often a lot of rubbish with one or two nice items), or Dyna Bosses, these
are the same deal, but dot the countryside of Rubi-Ka.
Most of the Engineers Aura's are only available this way, along with the
bigger pet enhancement nanos and the pet repair (heal) nanos. You will
need
to hunt the wilderniss of Rubi-Ka or take on a lot of team missions to
find
these precious nanos. They also usually come "unmade" as an "Instruction
Discs". This means that once you've found one you'll need to make it, or
get somebody else to make it for you. If you are getting somebody else to
make it for you (and under level 150, you probably won't have high enough
trade skills to make it yourself without gimping your combat skills), make
sure that you give them all the components they will need (they will
usually have the tools, but it would be nice to include a set of tools in
the backpack with the disc, rock, libraries, reflection pattern etc.).
For a good site discussing tradeskills (and AO in general), look at
http://www.anarachyarcanum.com.
It hasn't been updated since the middle of
last year, so newer inclusions in the game aren't there (aliens, tier 3
armour etc.), but it covers the basics and has more than enough to keep
you
going for the first 100 levels or so!
http://www.tirschool.com
is also very useful for tradeskills and is more
up
to date. Arcanum is more lighthearted and covers more than just
tradeskills.
http://aodb.info
is the "Anarchy Mainframe." It lists everything in the AO
database, has configuration sections (allows you to test implant and
armour
configurations etc.) and lists of nanos etc. The list of Engineer nanos
will be a good guide as to what nanos you will need and which nano skills
you will need to skill to use them - there are nearly 100 pet nanos alone,
around 30 AC nanos, 7 pet healing nanos of various levls...
At level 10, with the right buffs and equipment, it should be possible to
be
running round with a level 20-25 pet without too many problems. By the
time
you are 60 you can, with a lot of "twinking", have a level 120-130 pet.
Once you get the 200 Slayerdroid going (probably late 90's or up to level
110 or so depending on your equipment) that is your last main pet till
level 200. If you have SL, you can get the Dog pet as well and post 200
you
have new pets, although these are level restricted - although you'll be
doing incredibly well if you can self cast them at those levels!
There are times (Title Cap's) when your pet won't get any bigger for
several
levels. This is frustrating, but part of the game (and the same for all
professions, their weapons will improve, then get stuck in cap for a
while,
then free to get bigger weapons again once out of cap).
It won't always be possible to find an MP and/or Trader to help you cast
your pet, so be prepared to do some searching round or resigning yourself
to using a smaller pet until you can find one willing to help you... (And
always make sure you have enough NCU free for the buffs before asking for
them, if you go running round shouting "MOCHI'S PLZ" and you only have 40
NCU free, it won't get you a second chance! In fact, be polite, once you
have ascertained that you have enough NCU free for the required buffs, ask
the MP nicely "Excuse me <insert name>, could you please spare a few
moments of your precious time and buff me MC and TS
Teachings/Masteries/Infuses/Mochams*" * delete as appropriate.
I think on RK1 you will often (but not always) have to pay for buffs, RK2
tipping is sort of expected, although not 100% necessary and often
refused.
On RK3 (German Server), just being polite is usually enough...
In fact many of us on RK3 have often been known to specially log onto an
Alt
to buff people because they are polite, show an interest in the game and
desperate for a buff! (Sometimes you will not find anyone of the
profession
you need hanging around!)
Try and get into a guild if you can, they usually have a lot of embedded
wisdom and are often willing to guide you on your way - but don't whine
too
much or expect them to dedicate 100% of their time to developing your
character for you ;-)
I hope you have found this "little" guide useful. If you want me to clear
up
any points, please feel free to ask follow-up questions.
Dave
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