MMOFury Exclusive: Anarchy Online 17.9 Extended Preview

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Written by ReesyCup

Thursday, 17 April 2008 21:15

MMOFury Exclusive:
Anarchy Online 17.9 Extended Preview

Funcom continues to impress the gaming world with Anarchy Online and its commitment to bring valuable updates to its players. The recently announced 17.9 looks to add even more great features to a game that is already packed with content and MMOFury got an extended look at this highly anticipated update. Anarchy Online is the futuristic mmorpg that takes you 30,000 years into the future On the planet of Rubi-Ka, where clans desperately seek liberation from the all-powerful Omni-Tek corporation in the name of justice, voluntarily if possible; from the barrel of a gun if necessary.

Anarchy Online has already received 20 international awards for this amazing title, and by the looks of it Funcom has no plans to slow down their pursuit of mmorpg perfection. Patch 17.9 hosts major changes to the Steps of Madness, and brings 2 new quests into the game; The Escaped Prisoners, and Dust Brigade. Have a look at the extended preview of 17.9 that you will only see on MMOFury.

17.9 Preview

Steps of Madness – The Nightmare Continues

Neleb the Deranged sits in his cave, oblivious of the world outside and lost in the dark pits of his insanity. He surrounds himself with figments of imaginations and meta-physical manifestations of dreadful childhood memories.

On the outside, a handful of people have long been convinced that Neleb is not a unbalanced mind with delusions of grandeur, but rather a misunderstood visionary. These followers are more than happy to explain their philosophy, directly inspired by the thoughts of a mentally ill hermit in the cave. They call themselves the Nelebai.

There are rumors that one of the Nelebai roams the streets of populated towns and is more than happy to talk to people and will even supply quick and easy transport to the cave itself…if you dare venture inside, that is!

‘Steps of Madness’ was the first dungeon added to Anarchy Online, back around Halloween 2001. To begin with, players had to find a creepy teddy bear called Childhood Memory that dropped from monsters. The bear would grant entry to the new dungeon and everyone wanted the cloak that dropped from the boss.

In retrospect, we see that it wasn’t balanced very well for the level range the dungeon was meant for, so we recently decided to go back and change it around a little, and players have greeted this news with much enthusiasm.

The cave itself is at it was, but the content within has been tailored towards a more enjoyable (and, some would say, possible) experience. We felt that this dungeon was underused due to the previous design and how different it was to the dungeon areas that were added later in the games life-cycle and we thought it was about time that we went through and made it more approachable so that another generation of players could experience this dungeon.

The changes include modified monsters; more of them and spawning more regularly so that moving through the dungeon should be more of an exciting experience. Some of the inhabitants are also reaping the benefit of a new sense of style, some of them looking sharper and all of them have been taken off their insane diet, resulting in a hit point scale that is far more suited for the target group of players. We have added some new and improved loot to their drop tables, including ways of improving some of the old items that some players may already have. In addition we have adjusted the drop rates to be a little less harsh and hopefully allow more players to get their hands on a few new treasures!

While Steps of Madness is designed for level 30 to 60 characters, but currently we have no plans of locking entry to these levels. Everyone can find their way and visit this curious place where sanity balances on an edge.

The Escaped Prisoners

It’s a code red alert, uncommon in the prisons on Rubi-Ka, but not unheard of. This planet spawns a special kind of criminal, someone more ruthless, more unrelenting and more violent. In a world where you can cheat death, life is more brutal because the risk is so low. The maximum security prisons of Rubi-Ka house the fiercest and most vicious of them all. And now they have escaped.

A mass breakout in the largest isolation camp on Rubi-Ka has the prison wardens in a state of crisis. The detainees all have something unknown and frightening about them, as if they’re not normal, so it’s important that the situation gets under control as soon as possible.

The escaped prisoners are a series of new Rubi-Ka bosses. The encounters are geared towards title level 7 players, and each fight varies from boss to boss. We have added some loot that can help upgrade some old, familiar items to new and exciting values.

High level players are invited to track down some of these dangerous foes and maybe earn themselves a bounty or two along the way. Some of the tools they used to escape might have uses in the outside world as well!

The intention with these bosses was to provide some new Rubi-Ka based encounters that are possible for players to attempt without too large groups and are varied enough to provide a little interesting experience if you fancy a little bounty hunting on the side! The bosses each have a trick or two up their sleeves but should be possible to take on in small numbers. There is also a repeatable quest available from worried prison wardens that players can take to earn extra rewards for tracking these foes down.

The prisoners also have some interesting new items stashed away. In prison they have learnt to make the most of improvised materials and their items reflect this. A lot of it may be improvised but its also effective. In addition given that these prisoners were originally linked in some way to environs of the city of Home they seem to have some links to the nearby Crypt of Home and in particular have knowledge of how to upgrade one of the crypts most used items.

Dust Brigade – Locating the threat

It is no secret that the Dust Brigade is interested in Xan technology, but this knowledge has spawned more questions than answers. There is bound to be more than meets the eye to this sudden rebirth of the most radical group on Rubi-Ka. Why are they searching for Xan artifacts? Where is their base? Who directs them? What are they planning?

The ICC intends to find out at least one of these answers, and may accept help from those who have shown their reliability before.

These new quests are available to players who have finished the 17.7 Dust Brigade quests. These new quests are tied to the Dust Brigade and their mysterious pursuit of artifacts somehow left behind on Rubi-Ka by the ancient Xan that the players have experienced over the last few updates.

Each of the recent updates has extended this story arc and while this episode is more of a ‘closing’ to a chapter in mystery of the Dust Brigade, it is important for us to keep the momentum of this pivotal story going - and trust us it’s definitely going somewhere we think the players will find very interesting!

Bringing back these old foes has been a really fun and interesting experience. The mysteries of the Dust Brigade have always been one of the great unexplained mysteries of the Anarchy Online back story and these quests are another step towards answering some of those questions. This aspect of the story will continue into upcoming content as well. One of the things we have strived to do over the last year is start to bring more of the mysteries of the back-story for the game back into play as it were.

Who is behind the Dust Brigade and what are their motives? While all the questions won’t be answered just yet, this ongoing series of quests will start to point the players in the right direction and is just the start of some great upcoming content!

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