New AO Tool in developement

The following was submitted to Allakhazam's by Andreas Brekken aka Adyare (with some editing for emphasis):
Dear Allakhazam Staff I've developed an application for creating, editing and deleting Anarchy Online References. The program has an easy interface with quick color-tools. I was wondering if you could tell your readers about this. Keep in mind that the application is still being developed and I am mainly looking for people that will help me finish it over the next week or so. You can see a screenshot at http://tiobin.com/adyare/files/v105.jpg. The forum, which is the center of development, is located at http://tiobin.com/adyare. There's an IRC channel on Funcom's irc.funcom.com named #AdyaRE. I hope you can help me out :-) -- Andreas Brekken aka Adyare
If you're into testing and debugging new gaming software and tools, then check it out.

Live server patch - 13/11/02

Here are the Official patch notes from the Anarchy Online site:
On Live Server Build Notes for items that have passed the test process and have been patched to the live servers. Changes 13.11.02
  • NPCs using pets have been further tweaked; the NPC will no longer spawn pets above their own level, and never above level 150. In addition, NPCs will no longer use their pets unless confronted by more than one player character.
  • Fixed a bug with closing the overflow window while it contained a Unique. You will no longer be blocked from obtaining a new Unique of the type that was in the window.
  • You can no longer loot your corpse, but will have to wait for your items to appear in the reclaim booth.
  • A resurrection point in Rome has been moved out of the city wall.
  • A crash related to team mission bosses has been fixed.
  • Fixed a bug making Odis Mady stop talking when asked a specific question.
  • A problem with initiating a conversation with some aggressive "partners" in the second Fixer Grid mission has been solved.
  • AO's looking for more Beta Testers

    Funcom needs more Beta Testers for the upcoming Notum Wars. From the official Anarchy Online website -
    Beta Testing for The Notum Wars 30 October, 2002 Editor We have already started the beta testing for the upcoming Notum Wars, and are looking for more testers. The beta testing for The Notum Wars has already started a while ago, first internally, and then through a group of selected testers. Now we are ready to increase the amount of testers, and invite anyone with an active Anarchy Online account to apply for beta testing status. To become a tester, please fill in the application form.

    Scheduled Downtime - Patch

    The next scheduled downtime for the AO servers is Wednesday, Sept 18th, 10am(?) - 2pm(?) GMT. This will be the 14.5 Patch that was postponed at the last minute last week due to bugs found in the patch that were causing server crashes. The Preliminary build notes for v14.5 can be found on the Anarchy Online Bulletin Board as well as below...
    Preliminary Build Notes v14.5 (These notes will change before patch-day) Dynacamps: We have added 140 new camps spread out on seven different playfields around Rubi-Ka. These are camps where mobs regularly spawn, and once in a while a boss will appear. This boss will drop special loot, and be a much harder fight than the ordinary mobs. Static missions: Many NPCs around the world will now give out static missions (quests). These are assignments given to your character, requiring you to travel around and perform certain services for the NPCs involved. In the end you will receive a reward and experience. While doing these missions, you will encounter new monsters and have the chance to get your hands on new loot. There will be added static missions for all level ranges, and for all professions. Monster changes: Some new special boss monster camps have been added. The bosses in these camps go up to level 300, and are incredibly tough. They are meant to be multi-group high level encounters. As such they have their own sets of unique loot. They also have some new tricks to keep you on your toes. We have adjusted the Trash King Spawn time. He will now have a 20 % chance of spawning every 20 minutes. Item changes: In a freak world-wide accident, all existing Arul Saba gems have been shattered! These gems are now useless in the creation of Arul Saba bracelets. Their only use now is to sell in shops for money. Bracers of Reflection have been changed to be less effective. You will now only be able to get a maximum of 7% reflection against a particular damage type, not up to 42%. __________________ Cosmik Anarchy Online Community Representative

    Anarchy Online's New Look

    The Anarchy Online website changed yesterday with a facelift which is a nice improvement over the old design. The layout is a much better organization of the information. The available info is basicly the same with screenshots and concept art of upcoming booster packs and of the anticipated expansion, Shadowlands (now scheduled for release in early 2003), latest news, links, story updates, etc., but locating the info just seems easier and the page is aesthetically more pleasing. Stop by and have a look.

    AO Tools

    There is a new Anarchy Onilne tool which imports any member's list into your AO Buddy List so that you can see if anyone from your organization is online. The tool is OrgBud written by UrbelT of the AnarchyOline.com website. He also has a tool by the name of AOIRC which automatically connects you to the Funcom IRC server and joins the main channel. This eliminates the need for other IRC programs and, for that matter, the need to know anything about IRC. The IRC tool is a great timesaver and very helpful for IRC novices. Both tools can be found on the AnarchyOline.com website under the Downloads section. (Note that this is not the official Anarchy Online website. The 'n' in Online is missing from the name - AnarchyOline.com. Also, I have not tested these tools so your use of them is at your own risk.)

    New AO Site

    A new Anarchy Online site has opened its doors last week. The site is Anarchy Online Arcanum. Their Welcome at the top of the page describes the site as such...
    Quote: Welcome to Anarchy Arcanum, a combined effort and resource center to tell you about all the little things you might have missed or forgotten, or simply wanted to know about Anarchy Online. Hope you all enjoy it! - Ellusion & Twicer
    The site is new and therefore a little sparse in its content but the info they have is interesting and should grow over the coming weeks. AO Arcanum is worth a visit. Stop by and check it out.

    Booster Pack Pricing for AO

    Funcom has announced the price for the new Booster Packs to be released sometime around the holidays. They have set a price of $19.99 for the packs!! This price seems a bit steep since the original Anarchy Online and the Anarchy Online Special Edition can both be purchased for the same price. The packs will contain the original version of Anarchy Online as well as seperate game activation keys for the additional features which will be on seperate disks. This is fine for newcomers to AO...they will get the game and the Booster Pack for the same price as the original. The established players, on-the-other-hand, need to purchase the game again to get the new features. This doesn't sound like the traditional concept of a 'Booster Pack' at all. Instead it seems that Funcom has found a way to sell more games (and hopefully for Funcom, more accounts - read their suggestions for using the 'included' original game here). The Booster Packs can be pre-ordered through the Funcom On-line Store.

    Chat Log with AO Developers

    The chat with the Developers of AO on Unknown Player yesterday was very informative and fun. There were about 240 people logged in as well as the Unknown crew and the Funcom reps -
  • Dai-Galean (Funcom Community Rep)
  • Cosmik (Community Rep)
  • Gaute Godager (AO Game Director)
  • April (PR Manager)
  • The reps answered questions mostly aimed at the upcoming Booster Packs and the Land Control Towers. To read the posted log at Unknown Player use this link - http://www.unknownplayer.com/archive/02/08/12/986.php

    AO Developer Chat at Unknown Player

    Just a reminder...As mentioned in the Press release this morning, AO developers will be doing a live chat on Unknown Player at 2:00pm Pacific time. Should be interesting! Here are the instructions to join the chat (straight from Unknown Player's pages): If you would like to attend the chat please fire up your IRC client and connect to Irc.Sorcery.Net then join #up.com OR you can use our java chat console located at http://www.unknownplayer.com/irc.php