Friday, March 21, 2008

Part 1- Twink Project Supplemental Material

If you’re on this site- hopefully you’ve arrived from the Anarchy Online forums page and are looking for the supplemental information regarding the Low Level Twinking guide. If you stumbled on this page through a random web search, then you might want to take a look at the whole guide on the AO forums http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=525818.

Sassy's final Setup here:http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=100723

This is SassyBlade, our level 15 Solitus Enforcer (Froob) and the subject of the twink project. She started this project at level 10 and remained there for the first section of twinking. After getting some basic equipment and implants she was leveled up to 15 and finished off with a couple of QL90 implants and a set of armor and piercing weapons.

Part 2- Twinking Screenshots

Here we have some screenshots of a typical twinking process. I do most of my implant making with my MP, and I keep my Agent and Doctor around for buffs as needed. So, yes this is quad-logged on three computers :). If you ever need to dual/triple log and you happen to have an older computer kicking around, you may have better luck if you turn down all the details and resolution on your non-main computer.

The second screenshots are of Nillan's Skill Emulator. It is getting old and doesn't have all the newest items in its database, but it works very well for quickly playing with implants and finding out what QL you can use with a given Ability and Treatment. Great for playing with configurations and getting a ballpark idea of what's possible at a given level. Check out the newer Emulators though. They might do a better job at this that I'm not aware of.



Part 3- Video Walkthrough for the Nodda Greg Quest:

This is really a rather valuable quest so I figured I’d walk through it quickly to show one possible way to get it done. I get the feeling that not a lot of people know about it, but the rewards are really quite useful especially at low levels, and it’s not necessarily as hard as you might think. The Solid Steel Hydraulic Legwear (+5 Stamina) and Loose Fitting Hydraulic Gloves (+4 Strength) are very handy for buffing that bit extra which might get you a couple levels of implant higher or help you get your GTA on.


If you don’t have an Engineer:
It is tricky for Omni to do this, but can be done, even without an Engineer to Beacon Warp you around. Most of the quest is pretty straight forward, but going to Downtown Tir with a low level Omni toon is an interesting prospect :). Here's one way to do it without switching factions and without having an Engineer.


The first time I did this quest was two or three years ago for a Level 12 Omni Enforcer and I had no warping options. I did this triple logged but you could do this with a couple of friends if you have to. The toons I logged were a lvl 130ish MP, 130ish Doc and the 12 Enf. I first went to Tir with my MP, and kept an overhead view of everything while flying high up in my Yalm. I tried to see if there was any route through the buildings and archways where I might make it all the way through to the Bronto Burger lady without drawing aggro from the Tir Guards. It didn’t appear that I could make it all the way to her, but I did find a semi-clear path to the canal/river in Tir. So, while keeping an overhead watch with my MP, I carefully/methodically moved my Doc (still in her Yalm) and then alternately walked my level 12 Enforcer around buildings and passages toward the canal. My plan was to move the Doc, and see if she got aggro- if not, then I moved up the Enf to where she was. Then I move the doc some more and then if she was still safe, I moved the Enf to her spot. The theory being- if she got attacked, at least she could take a hit or two and keep the guards attention, while I tried to keep the little Enf safe.


The Enforcer made it all the way to the canal without drawing aggro and then jumped in and swam down the canal to the Bronto Burger place. Once he got there a guard did see him and attacked. At this point I flew my Doc closer to the guard and she took his attention while the Enf began his conversation with the Bronto lady while treading water in the canal. Eventually a couple of guards attacked the Doc and so I tried to keep her a safe distance in her yalm while they ran around and tried to get in optimum shooting range. After the Enforcer had his items from Bronto Lady, I could have just let him die and spawn back in Rome, but I wanted to see if I could get him back safely through Tir :). With the two guards still attacking my Doc, but out of range and unable to hit her, I swam back down the canal with the Enforcer, climbed back out near the Whompahs and ran quickly to the ICC portal. Then I flew my MP and Doc back as well and continued the quest. This is the hardest part of this quest for Omni’s. I have to say, that was one of the most fun times I’ve had in AO- I felt like some kind of secret agent trying to sneak through enemy territory without being caught- pretty cool :). Anyway, there are sometimes guards near Nodda Greg himself, but they don’t seem to be as much of a problem. You can have any semi-high level friend with a good run buff attack and draw them away while you talk to Nodda Greg.

Part 4- Implant Leveling and Implant Laddering/Stacking

This video is two demonstrations in one. The first is an example of how to make custom implants, specifically leveling them up to a desired level. In this video I mention that implants will go up by one QL for each cluster you put in. At higher levels they will go up more than that- dependent on your Nano-programming skill. You can search the AO forums for more specifics on how much an implant will increase. You will notice me jump up to the second level in the tradeskill area in this video and I don’t think it’s entirely clear why. The machine on the bottom floor didn’t have a cluster high enough (I had checked just a minute ago :) so I jumped up and the machine on the third level did.


You’ve no doubt heard of imp-stacking or implant laddering. In this portion, I switch to Sassy’s view and ladder up implants in the Leg, Chest and Waist slots (two of the ones we just made in the leveling demo). This laddering will also be done with Treatment during the twinking process in the Head, Eye and Right-hand.


Part 5- SassyBlade in the Subway

Here we go- off to see the fruits of our labour :). Here is a quick run through the subway with SassyBlade to see how she handles all the mobs in the Subway. She is self buffed here except for a very low level run buff I cast with my lvl 14 Fixer. Assuming you followed this guide semi-closely, you should be able to do at least this well with your twink. Enjoy!

Part 6- Equipping a 6 Slot Belt on a level 10 Trader.