How Edit Fixed Keys in AO

25 08 2009
The well dressed dyna hunter Baba at level 138, click for larger view.

The well dressed Dyna Hunter Baba at level 138, click for larger view.

Baba managed to hit level 138 this past Monday evening. On his way out to Perpetual Wastelands from Newland City, he stopped several times along the way to pick off a few Dynas. The first Dyna was one he has taken down before and has never had trouble with. Tonight it gave him quite a drubbing before Baba’s Panther eventually cut it down to size. While Baba sat healing up afterward, and wondering what went so wrong, he checked his running nanos. He found that he had neglected to cast his absorb nano. Without it, he immediately started taking damage when the fight started. He figured later that the absorb has a very strong effect at the start of a fight when the mob is strongest. By the time the absorb has been used up, the mob has usually been weakened enough that it is no longer needed. He won’t be taking his absorb nano for granted again. The Gird for Punishment nano gives 436 absorb layers.

When Baba arrived at the PW dunes area, he found no one else there, and the Borg looked to be about 90% repopulated. He still had to clear the main dune area and work his way up the ‘Pinch’ towards the Helipad in order to finally level up to 138. After he hit 138, he jumped back in his Yalm and headed south towards the Player City owned by ‘Jacks Violent Crew’ that is situated just south of the Borg’s main mine complex. While passing over the section of road between the mine complex and the military base, he spotted a high level player kiting a rather large number of Borg. A list command indicated that there might be a team in the area, but all he could spot was the single kiter.

HOW TO EDIT FIXED KEYS

After Baba got back to Newland City and after he arranged for Tireen his trader friend to fence the loot, he chatted with Ohtizz our rather new adventurer. Ohtizz was complaining about the HUD interface not allowing the re-assignment of what it identifies as “FixedKeys” This puzzled Baba, because he has his Brawl key re-assigned from the default. He went back and studied his config files and found that he had made some custom edits to his Login.cfg file that re-assigned the Brawl key. The Login.cfg file lists all the HUD actions and the corresponding hot keys identified by ASCII character decimal number. Fast attack for Baba is listed in this file as KEY_BUTTON_FASTA 87 which Baba has re-assigned to 87, the hex EBCDIC code for the letter ‘g’. Baba uses this handy table that can be found here to find the appropriate hex code for any key .  The Login.cfg file is found in your Prefs directory. Be sure to make a back up copy of the file before you start editing it, just in case you hose it up somehow.  Baba has his fast attack and brawl keys re-assigned to be close to the other keys he uses.

While talking to Ohtizz, Baba also passed on another tip to the newbie. The social tab in the HUD can be used as a sort of extra backpack. Baba showed him how it can be used to free up space in your open inventory for more loot collection. Items that need to be in your inventory to use, like hacked boosted grafts, special rings, etc. will also activate from a hot bar key if placed in the social tab. The only limitation/consideration is whether it is something that shows up if you have settings that cause social tab items to display. This does not apply to rings, but does to back items and armor items.

Baba hits level 138 in Perpetual Wastelands. Click for full view.

Baba hits level 138 in Perpetual Wastelands. Click for full view.

Baba spent some time doing research on the net concerning the Pained Panther weapon. This two handed edged weapon is the next step up from his current Panther axe. He was happy to see that he will be able to equip one quite easily. His fast attack, brawl, and dimach skills meet the requirements, while he will need a 131 wrangle plus a few other buffs to meet the 2 hand edged requirement of 1001. He had been around level 90 when he purchased his Panther. The Panther and the Pained Panther drop off of mobs in the Crypt of Home dungeon.

The Crypt of Home is one of Rubi-Ka’s stranger dungeons. Everything about it is a bit odd. First of all to enter it requires two or more people acting together to throw two switches at different places. So unlike the Subway, Foreman’s or even the Temple of the Three Winds, a solo player can’t just simply waltz in and hope to pick up a team once inside. The few times we have been to the exterior, it has been deserted, it is not a gathering place like the other 3 dungeons. The mobs and bosses are said to be in the 90 to 110 range, however, players over 110 cannot enter via the entrance. Players above 110 can be warped in by Engineers. Another odd bit about this place is that almost all the boss loot is free from being NO DROP. Several pieces are Unique so that a player can only have one in possession at any time. In addition to the Panther line, the Cenobite Shadows also drop 3 other prized weapons, the Blackbird line of sub-machine guns, the Howlet line of two hand blunt weapons, and Chiropteras, one hand edged weapons. These are very popular weapons which are amost always in demand.





Baba Breaks 136 at PW Dunes

29 07 2009
Start of Babas Tuesday Borg hunt, click for larger image.

Start of Baba's Tuesday Borg hunt, click for larger image.

Baba continued his hunting trip to Perpetual Wastelands for Borg that he started the day before. For the duration of this trip, he camped out there in the dunes, rather than commute back and forth from Newland City. When he approached the main dune area, he found it about 2/3 populated. This was the best he had found it recently. As far as PW Borg dunes is concerned, there is no shortage of players, as the Borg population is frequently culled by hunters like himself.

Baba is motivated to level up to 150 at which point he will be eligible to join in Froob Title 5 group activities. Soon Baba had cleaned out the main large dune and he had to head south to the small hilly section in the pinched area between the Helipad, the acid lake and the cliff wall. Getting to the point where his standard Borg kite attack is second nature, Baba focused on adding another special, the Library of Foul Language taunts. These not only taunt the enemy, but do a small amount of radiation damage as well. With a fairly quick cool down of 6 or so seconds, it can be repeated several times during each kite. A QL 140 Library does 35 radiation damage, so hitting a Borg four times in a kite, nets an additional 140 damage. No where near a crit, but Baba is not going to pass by anything that brings Borg down faster. Also just in the last few levels, the increases to his basic skills and speed stats, he has been able to start using Fast Attack and Brawl 2 to 3 times per Borg. For the longest time the cool downs for these were so long that Baba rarely got to use them more than once per fight.

Main Dune cleared, time to start south, click for larger view.

Main Dune cleared, time to start south, click for larger view.

With his loot bags full, Baba took to the skies in his Yalmaha, and headed due south to the nearest player city’s whompa. As he was passing over the mountain that sits between the Omni Mines and the main Borg base, he spotted a group of players standing around on the mountain top. He put his Yalmaha into hover and looked closer. There were about 5 players standing or sitting at the south east edge of the mountain top, looking down at the strip of road that runs between the Borg base and the Omni Mines. Down on the road he saw the 6th member of the team, an NT, that was kiting Borg.

It was one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that moments.’ If he had been up on the mountain top, safe and secure, he would have not gotten wiped like he did the last time he was on the ground here with a kiting team from his guild. He had been too close to the action, and sent back to reclaim when several Borg took an interest in him.

Baba dings 136 at PW Dunes, click for larger view

Baba dings 136 at PW Dunes, click for larger view

He proceeded on to Newland City, where he needed to sort through tonight’s loot take. Unlike the night before, when he had only gotten a handful of Miy’s armor pieces, tonight he had not only picked up many Miy’s pieces, but it also seemed to be “special guns” night in the loot table of his Borg. He sorted the guns out, but left them for identification at another time. He was more interested in cataloging his new Miy’s armor items, and since he had also just leveled, to look for pieces he could wear. It turned out that most of the Miy’s items dropped tonight were much higher than what he can equip now. He got several 200+ pieces, which he does not recall ever looting items that high before. He filled up a backpack with the new Miy’s pieces.

He placed that in his bank, and later after portioning out his level 136 IP points, he got out all his Miy’s armor bags and went through them looking for items he could now equip. This last level pushed up several of his stats enough that he could now equip a new Miy’s armor legs, arms and boots. The QL 111 carbonum armor arms that he removed were the last pieces of his former all carb armor set that he has worn since around level 90. Roughly 40 levels out of one set of Carb armor, goes to show what great armor the Carb is. It really is great for froob Enforcers as it buffs NCU and nano in addition to providing good AC protection. The Miy’s helps less with the NCU, but adds Health Points. At lower levels Enforcers are struggling with nano, but by the time they level up to where Baba is now, 130-140, nano is more plentiful as long as nano pool has been increased along the way consistently.

Babas New Miys armor that retired his QL 111 Carb, click for Auno.org equipment page.

Baba's New Miy's armor that retired his QL 111 Carb, click for Auno.org equipment page.

The new Miy’s pieces have both improved his stats and his AC protection. Comparing his previous armor set up with the new one, here are some of the highlights:

* Projectile AC +5%
* Melee AC +3%
* Energy AC +7%
* Chemical AC +18%
* Radiation AC +29%
* Cold AC +4%
* Poison AC +18%
* Fire AC +4%

The Radiation should help with some of the Borg guns that do radiation damage. Baba has also noticed some Borg doing poison damage, but he has never looked at the logs in detail to try and figure out the weapon used, he has just noticed poison damage showing up in the combat log window.

His abilities stay about the same, but, max health went up 19%. The only downside is he has 39 less max nano, although NCU remained unchanged.

While writing this, we relaxed to the “Open Plains” theme, which some of you will recognize as the AO in game music that plays while out in the wilderness areas like Wartorn valley.  It reminds me of one of Baba’s first encounters with the Wartorn Valley at level 29 or so.  With no Yalmaha yet, he had pulled a mission in the far upper right hand corner of the WV map.  It was night and he was way out in that desolate stretch of road on foot, just past the player cities on the other side of the mountain ridge that surrounds the plain where Old Athens sits when he first heard this music.  It was calming and yet did little to quell his fears of the many dark red mobs that he had to take detours around   It was a long night, but he did eventually make it back to Old Athens in one piece.

You can listen to this piece and the rest of the AO in game music at AO Stratics here, or download all the tracks at Soundspace, by clicking on Skydrive.  Both sites give some interesting background on the music, including a description of how it is dynamically generated in the game from numerous short clips.  That explains why it is never exactly the same.

Baba 136 at Borg Dunes

Baba continued his hunting trip to Perpetual Wastelands for Borg that he started the day before.  For the duration of this trip, he camped out there in the dunes, rather than commute back and forth from Newland City.  When he approached the main dune area, he found it about 2/3 populated.  This was the best he had found it recently.  As far as PW Borg dunes is concerned, there is no shortage of players, as the Borg population is frequently culled by hunters like himself.

Baba is motivated to level up to 150 at which point he will be eligible to join in Froob Title 5 group activities.  Soon Baba had cleaned out the main large dune and he had to head south to the small hilly section in the pinched area between the Helipad, the acid lake and the cliff wall.   Getting to the point where his standard Borg kite attack is second nature, Baba focused on adding another special, the Library of Foul Language taunts.  These not only taunt the enemy, but do a small amount of radiation damage as well.  With a fairly quick cool down of 6 or so seconds, it can be repeated several times during each kite.  A QL 140 Library does 35 radiation damage, so hitting a Borg four times in a kite, nets an additional 140 damage. No where near a crit, but Baba is not going to pass by anything that brings Borg down faster.  Also just in the last few levels, the increases to his basic skills and speed stats, he has been able to start using Fast Attack and Brawl 2 to 3 times per Borg.  For the longest time the cool downs for these were so long that Baba rarely got to use them more than once per fight.

With his loot bags full, Baba took to the skies in his Yalmaha, and headed due south to the nearest player city’s whompa.  As he was passing over the mountain that sits between the Omni Mines and the main Borg base, he spotted a group of players standing around on the mountain top.  He put his Yalmaha into hover and looked closer.  There were about 5 players standing or sitting at the south east edge of the mountain top, looking down at the strip of road that runs between the Borg base and the Omni Mines.  Down on the road he saw the 6th member of the team, an NT, that was kiting Borg.

It was one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that moments.’  If he had been up on the mountain top, safe and secure, he would have not gotten wiped like he did the last time he was on the ground here with a kiting team from his guild.  He had been too close to the action, and sent back to reclaim when several Borg took an interest in him.

He proceeded on to Newland City, where he needed to sort through tonight’s loot take.  Unlike the night before, when he had only gotten a handful of Miy’s armor pieces, tonight he had not only picked up many Miy’s pieces, but it also seemed to be “special guns” night in the loot table of his Borg.  He sorted the guns out, but left them for identification at another time.  He was more interested in cataloging his new Miy’s armor items, and since he had also just leveled, to look for pieces he could wear.  It turned out that most of the Miy’s items dropped tonight were much higher than what he can equip now.  He got several 200+ pieces, which he does not recall ever looting items that high before.  He filled up a backpack with the new Miy’s pieces.

He placed that in his bank, and later after portioning out his level 136 IP points, he got out all his Miy’s armor bags and went through them looking for items he could now equip.  This last level pushed up several of his stats enough that he could now equip a new Miy’s armor legs, arms and boots.  The QL 111 carbonum armor arms that he removed were the last pieces of his former all carb armor set that he has worn since around level 90.  Roughly 40 levels out of one set of Carb armor, goes to show what great armor the Carb is.  It really is great for froob Enforcers as it buffs NCU and nano in addition to providing good AC protection.  The Miy’s helps less with the NCU, but adds Health Points. At lower levels Enforcers are struggling with nano, but by the time they level up to where Baba is now, 130-140, nano is more plentiful as long as nano pool has been increased along the way consistently.

The new Miy’s pieces have both improved his stats and his AC protection.  Comparing his previous armor set up with the new one,  here are some of the highlights:

  • Projectile AC +5%
  • Melee AC +3%
  • Energy AC +7%
  • Chemical AC +18%
  • Radiation AC +29%
  • Cold AC +4%
  • Poison AC +18%
  • Fire AC +4%

The Radiation should help with some of the Borg guns that do radiation damage. Baba has also noticed some Borg doing poison damage, but he has never looked at the logs in detail to try and figure out the weapon used, he has just noticed poison damage showing up in the combat log window.

His abilities stay about the same, but, max health went up 19%.  The only downside is he has 39 less max nano, although NCU remained unchanged.

old

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=139143

new

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=140417

http://ao.stratics.com/content/ingame_music/music.php