5 Froob Shopping Tips

One of the greatest disadvantages Froobs face is how they are locked out of the Anarchy Online player shops and the shop searching mechanism. As players advance, there are basically two ways to acquire the best weapons, armor and buffing items. Get them directly by killing the appropriate mob or completing a quest. This is not always possible. This alternative is to buy the needed items from other players. Subscribers can browse player shops and/or search all player shops using the in game GMS search function.

There is a way for determined Froobs to find and buy their needed items. All it takes is a little more effort.

Here are 5 tips to help Froobs find and buy needed items:

1. AO Junkyard and Rogue. These two things combined make a Froob alternative to the GMS.  No, it is not the equivalent, but it can help you find sellers who are ready to sell what you need at the moment.  It involves using the Rogue in-game web browser and the AO Junkyard website. Rogue is a free in-game web browser that minimizes the CPU and memory load involved with running AO and a browser at the same time. It is coded to enable one to use it on top of an open AO window while still having full control of the game.  AO Junkyard lists in real time, all posts to the shopping channels in AO. It lists the actual text of the each selling Shopping Channel post and the name of the player that posted it. It will also tell if the poster is online at the moment.

2. Auno.org and AO Pricewatch These two web sites can provide valuable background information to help you be able to determine what a reasonable price for any AO item might be. Auno.or is a popular database of all things AO and it can provide helpful price and availability information. The comments under popular items often contain posts about the selling price of items, where they drop or can be obtained originally, and other pertinent information. While the comments can sometimes be way out of date, the more information one has the better one can bargain. AO Pricewatch, keeps a historical record of asking prices pulled from the AO shopping channels, which can help give one an idea of what the ballpark price for an item has been.

3. Friends List. Once a potential seller of a desired item has been identified, add their name to your toon’s friends list and keep the friends online tab open when online. This will let you spot when they come online so you can send them a direct personal tell immediately to make your offer.

4. Be Prepared to Deal. Have more than enough credits on your toon for the purchase, and make sure there is enough empty space in your immediate inventory to allow the transaction to take place.  Complete your research ahead of time so you will know what is the maximum you are prepared to pay for an item. If the item is unique, make sure ahead of time that you do not have a lower quality version and either get rid of it, or have it in your immediate inventory so you can delete it if required in order to pickup the new unique item. (AO will only allow a player to have 1 of any item marked unique).

5. Trade at OA or BOR Grid. Determine the best place to trade with your intended seller. It is important to do a whois check on the name of your potential seller to learn which faction they belong to. If they are clan, and you are clan, than Old Athens grid is probably the most convenient place to meet. If they are omni or neutral, then Borealis Grid will be the best place to meet. When both sides are omni or neutral, then Borealis Grid may still be the most convenient location to trade due to being reachable by whompa and grid.

When you do send a private tell to your potential seller make it short and to the point.

Example:

Hi  (name of seller), I want to buy your  (name of item) for  (number of credits) credits, meet at (name a grid location) grid?

This tells them what you want to buy, what you are offering to pay, and suggests a place to meet. Remember the other player at this point may be occupied killing mobs or completing a quest. Be patient and be prepared to agree on a future time and place to meet if needed.

Be flexible on where to meet and when. Players are often occupied at the moment, but still motivated to set up a future rendezvous or they may request you come to them.  As long as the alternative place they suggest is relatively safe, you may have to agree in order to get what you need.

Borgs and Backpacks

Babaoroody headed out for Perpetual Wastelands from Newland City Sunday evening, determined to get back on the leveling train. His experience bar was sitting just past 50% towards a new level, so he was hoping to tick it over tonight.

He took his usual route there, which consisted of using the grid from Newland City to the Sentinels post in Mort. From there he flew due east in his Yalmaha, passing over sandworms, anuns and mantises.

He paused at the Mantise Dyna camp name Tranquility just inside Perpetual Wastelands, but although he is levels above the 105 Dyna, the enclosed nature of the ‘fort’ style camp and the fact it is packed with 70-100ish mantises, leaves him unwilling to try and find out if he can attack that Dyna without getting swarmed by the rest of the Mantises.

Bridge of Escape, the plateau is too small to out run a Dyna borg.

Baba did drop down at the next Dyna camp with two 105 and 110 type Borg Dynas.  The spot is called ‘Ruins’ on the map, and is in a small platueau surrounded by gorges, with two large suspension bridges for access.  He thought he had had approached so that he could just pull one of them, but when he got close enough to trigger aggro, they both came running.

Baba made the mistake of trying to stand toe to toe with these two, and before he knew it, he was down past 50% health.  As soon as Baba dropped one, Baba started running east and crossed the suspension bridge with the other Dyna in chase.  He needed to run long enough to use and cycle his First Aid stim at least twice.  Once he had done this to bring his health back up, Baba circled around and kite killed the remaining Dyna.  While the loot both dropped was nothing Baba could use, it was good shop food.

Borg Highway, levels 110-140 Borg, in North East Perpetual Wastelands.

Baba headed a little farther east and when the road turns from going due east to heading North East, he could see Borgs every few hundred meters, guarding the area.

Baba got buffed up and started kiting Borg singly and in groups of two to three.  These Borg were for the most part in the 110 to 140 level range, and a fitting warm up for Baba.  Eventually he planned on hopping over the Borg mine and main base and work on the level 175+ Borgs in the dunes north of the Helipad.

His experience bar was gradually moving towards the top the farther up the road he progressed.  Just before he reached the area labeled ‘town’ on the map, he stopped to rebuff and then recharge his nano.

Taking a break from kiting, to watch an Alien raiding a player city nearby.

As he was sitting there, he spotted an Alien ship raiding a player city off to the south east.   By the time Baba had worked his way to the ‘town’, he was very close to getting a level.  There is now a Tower field just west of the town, which eliminates pulling Borg to that area for kiting.

Baba first proceeded around the outer perimeter of the base and pick off the Borg he found there.  He started making careful forays into the town, to pull single Borg out.  When he approached the center portion, he spotted a high level 200 Dyna, General Chira Sulanol, unmistakable in her shiny greenish aura.  Baba took note of her position, and retreated to the back side of the base, where he picked off the remaining Borg that were outside of the Base.

General Sulanol where she made short work of Baba in PW

He was getting so close to leveling that he was starting to think about his return trip from this expedition, when things took a wrong turn.  He tried to stay around the North side of the base because General Sulanol had been spotted on the South central portion.

After pulling several Borg from the North West corner of the Base, he squeezed through an alley between two buildings to try and taunt a few Borg he could see in the North central part of the base.  They came running soon, but they were trailed by General Sulanol.  He guesses that the General had a habit of waking around the base more than the typical high ranking officers.  Baba did a 180 and ran a fast as he could, but her level 200 skills enabled her to up the distance quickly and she sent him back to reclaim in a few seconds.  Baba is not sure if this is a new Dyna, or if it had been trained from a spot located due east of the town on the other side of some hills. Several maps show a 200 level mob located there.

After rezzing to at the Newland City reclaim, (the one on the hill overlooking the city), he was a bit discouraged, but he also knew that when he returns to kite the Borgs his experience pool will speed up the leveling.  He was feeling good about his Borg Kiting skills, had he not gotten too close to Sulanol, he took hardly any damage while kiting this evening.

His many backpacks were mostly full, so he took some time to sort them out.  He had gained almost a half bag of various Miy’s armor, which he is sure Babaente and Tireen will thank him for eventually. After sorting out the Miy’s, the monster parts, 125+ implants and clusters, and interesting items, he handed off 8 bags to Babaente, our Nanotechnician, who in turn transferred the bags to Tireen, Baba’s trader alt.

Tireen took the bags to the Trader terminal in Newland City and was turning in the shop food there, when a fellow Trader, Sypherdias (level 93 male Omni Trader, member Good Old Days) took note of Tireen’s Solar Powered Backpack.  The trader offered Tireen a bag of 60 of the experience stims, which Tireen might sell for many credits.  Tireen had no idea what the going market rate was for these, and had no idea as to just how liquid such a resource might be.

The Solar Powered Backpack was a promotional gift handed out by NPCs during the 7th AO Anniversary weekend celebration.  It looks nifty, and works like a standard backpack in both capacity and function (it gives no buffs).  In the year or so since she acquired it from an NPC at the ICC Whompa center, she has perhaps seen one or two other players wearing one.  So while in a typical stroll down the streets of Borealis you will spot many copies of supposedly rare or hard to get back items, Tireen very rarely sees another Solar Powered Backpack.  Since traders as a profession seem to lack a trader specific back item, she feels her nifty backpack sets her apart.

It is the most unique possession Tireen has at the moment on Rubi-Ka.  She may not sport the best implants, armor or weapon, but she is proud to display her unusual backpack.   She ended up turning down the offer.  She knew how much she got out of wearing the unique backpack and she did not really want to use the experience stims to speed up leveling.  Beyond that, she did not savor trying to sell them.  Even though she is a trader, trying to hawk stuff on shopping chat channel is not her preferred way to pass the time.

So after she declined, and finished feeding shop food to the terminal, she traveled back to meet up with Babaente, to return Baba’s empty backpacks and his new credits (Baba’s 8 backpacks of mostly Borg loot, netted around 800,000 credits).

Solar Powered Backpack and the Refitted Backpack

When she met up with Babaente, they posed for a picture framing both of their special backpacks.   Babaente’s backpack is the second type handed out by NPC’s during the 7^th Anniversary celebration.  It is named a Refitted Backpack and it looks exactly like the Empowered Robust Backpack, which is one of the harder to get rare items since it must be made by combining two items which drop in Camelot Castle in Avalon.  The items are dropped by a mob called Administrator DeValos who spawns following the death of Tarasque. The two items are the Robust Backpack and an Infusion Device.  Combining the two items makes the Empowered Robust Backpack which provides 1000 in all ACs and +80 in all damage to the wearer.