Difference between revisions of "Implant"
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Note: This is also one of the most flexible but complex parts of character | Note: This is also one of the most flexible but complex parts of character | ||
− | development in Anarchy Online so do not be | + | development in Anarchy Online so do not be worried if the implant |
system seems a little complex at first! | system seems a little complex at first! | ||
− | Implants can be split up into | + | Implants can be split up into several categories: |
*'''Pre-built professional implants''' | *'''Pre-built professional implants''' | ||
:These are your perfect introduction into implants and are sold in the basic stores across Rubi-Ka. | :These are your perfect introduction into implants and are sold in the basic stores across Rubi-Ka. | ||
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*'''Refined Implants''' | *'''Refined Implants''' | ||
:Implants above Quality Level 200 are known as refined implants and are harder to make and equip but offer the highest bonuses to skills | :Implants above Quality Level 200 are known as refined implants and are harder to make and equip but offer the highest bonuses to skills | ||
+ | *'''Unique Implants''' | ||
+ | :Implant like devices that are implantable | ||
Revision as of 12:48, 17 December 2020
- The sections, "Assembling" and "Cleaning" have been moved to Implant Tradeskills
An implant is a cybernetic device surgically inserted into part of a character's physical body, such as eyes, arms, hands, feet, and others, that augments their abilities.
Implants are one of the key features in Anarchy Online and allow tremendous boosts to beneficial skills that allow characters to equip gear that might be far beyond their normal level of use. The implant system is also highly customizable, allowing a very wide variety of latitude in what skills and abilities can be enhanced depending on what nano clusters are added to the base implant.
General information
You can find the implant view on the third tab of your WEAR window. It looks a little different to the background above, which is normally used for displaying armor. Pictured are some of the more exotic types of implants that can be found in AO; click on the icons to see their entry on Auno. Note: This is also one of the most flexible but complex parts of character development in Anarchy Online so do not be worried if the implant system seems a little complex at first! Implants can be split up into several categories:
Choosing an ImplantBasic implants are the base component for a complete implant, and do not confer any bonuses to your character at all. To start getting bonuses you need to find (or build) implants with 'nano clusters' installed in them. It is these clusters that actually contain the bonuses, there are three levels of nano clusters, and each implant can have one of each type of cluster installed. The three types are Faded, Bright and Shining. All clusters can be found in each variety, and there is a cluster that relates to each and every skill available to your character. A completed implant though will take its name from only one of the clusters that are installed, so it always pays to shift click implants to see what clusters they actually contain. Like all other items in AO, both implants and clusters come in different Quality Levels. The QL of implants you find in missions or while hunting will effect the stat required for wearing the implant, the bonuses given when worn, and the skill needed to add clusters to the implant. Lets take a look at each type in turn, then we will explain how to equip them.
Profession Specific Implant Terminals
Available only up to QL 100, everywhere; since the redevelopment of ICC HQ, also QL 125 in its Fair Trade store only. From a player's perspective, these implants are one or both of two challenges; accepting their limited efficiencies, or, as is subtly urged by the above text, building better implants of their own. In a few cases, the preconstructed implants are excellent, and crafting custom ones is unnecessary. Even then, the mechanics of implants means that sometimes the reading between the lines a little might be necessary. Rifle, Shining cluster? Unlikely as a needed skill for professions other than Agent or maybe Soldier. But that is exactly what is required, with no exceptions, for an Eye implant that has the relatively easy to buff Agility as a requisite, and still has Nano and Casting skills or the (old, including Psychology which is now in Combat and Healing) Trade and Repair skills. While the implants are built to be geared for a specific profession, they are not profession locked. So beneficial implants may be freely mixed and matched out of any of the profession booths. Store implants only go part of the way to QL 200, and the player must find them as loot or mission rewards thereafter. Implants drop as loot from mobs throughout the game, but their bonuses are random, and they are much less likely than the terminal goods to be wholly beneficial. This leaves two routes: one is to blitz Missions for specific implants, with only a little better chance of finding a combination that is suitable, and another is to take the looted implants, clean them out, and add new clusters to them, making exactly the right implants to suit your characters' needs. This is the strength of the implant system. It truly allows you to significantly increase the power of your profession.
Installing an Implant
RequirementsEvery implant has an ability requirement and a Treatment requirement to wear. The higher the QL, the higher the requirements, but the higher the bonus as well. The ability type depends on the combination of clusters being installed. Quality Level comes into play in a much more significant manner when it comes to making Implants yourself. Making Implants is actually fairly easy, but there are a few important points to remember that might help avoid frustration or wasted time. FormulasThere are some unusual variations before level 10, but otherwise, the following formulas apply:
A cluster of a particular skill type has a particular multiplier for use in these formulas. The list of multipliers is in the 'Cluster Locations' chart elsewhere on this page. Multipliers are under the 'X' heading.
As an example if the implant is level 100 the faded cluster you want to install must be at least quality level 82 to install. The game always rounds down when making that calculation. You can install a cluster into an implant of lower quality level BUT the bonus given by the completed implant will be lowered to that appropriate to the QL of the original basic implant used. This is a potential major loss of credits, so be careful, install a QL100 cluster (and the shining ones are the most expensive) into a QL10 implant and you will get a QL 10 bonus from your nice shiny QL100 cluster! Despite what the Arete Landing implant mission implies, with its mission failure for not adding clusters in a particular order, clusters can be added Faded then Shining then Bright, or Bright Faded Shining, or any order at all. Similarly, looted implants with missing clusters can be added to. Breakpoints for implant cluster bonuses can easily be found.
Implant TradeskillsImplants that already have clusters in them can be made into Clean Implants ready to have new clusters added (using Implant Disassembly Clinic and Break and Entry skill). Clusters, bought or looted, can be added to Cleaned or bought Basic Implants, and if the crafter's Nano Programming skill is sufficiently high, the Implant level can be raised (QL Bumping). Some tradeskillers use QL bumping and cleaning to get the implant to the exact level they want. Above level 200, implants and clusters can only be gathered from missions and mob drops above level 200. These Refined Implants cannot be combined with normal implant components and have higher multipliers for their ability and treatment requirements and a Title Level 5 or higher requirement. Jobe Clusters, sold in ICC and Jobe and dropped in RK missions, are Refined clusters that raise skills not otherwise covered by standard implants; skills like AddAllDef, AddAllOff, %XP gain, Damage Add, or nano cost reduction. They have the same additional requirements to wear as Refined Implants do. To add them to an implant requires an additional tradeskill such as Computer Literacy or Psychology. Preconstructed ImplantsFrom the aforementioned Profession Specific Implant Terminals. Once available only up to QL 100; now also up to 125, in the ICC HQ Fair Trade store only. Blank spaces on the chart signify empty cluster slots. Implants with two clusters, or one, cost less than implants with three clusters. Characters with the required Nanoprogramming skill can add a cluster to a vacant position in an implant (See Assembling Implants section).
Notes
Cluster LocationsThere is only one valid cluster location / implant type for each grade of skill cluster. There are online implant calculatorsAuno Implant Designer; a very valuable resource, and in the absence of a formula online, crucial for determining the character Ability (str, etc) required to implant. The chart shows the only, mandatory, locations of skill clusters, and the multipliers used in determining the required Nanoprogramming skill to add them to empty implants. Knowing the the location of particular skill clusters that are crucial to a PC's development at the start, and adding other clusters around them, is a fast and effective strategy to use with the calculators.
<ref> Implant Skill Cluster Locations & Multipliers data from AO-Universe</ref> ConsiderationsCluster conflictsThe only weapon choices a froob has that do not conflict with Nanoskills in implants are Martial Arts, One Handed Blunt, One Handed Edged and Rifle. This is considered by some to be just awkward game design, part of the metagame, and that nothing can be done about it except to work around it. On the other hand, consider Nanoskills themselves. They are uniformly in conflicting pairs: BM MM, PM SI, and MC TS, which all have at least one conflict, and all of them conflict in the Shining cluster. So it is likely to be intentional. Perhaps it is TOO awkward, but it does present a challenge.
The nanoskill conflict itself presents an interesting point: there is definitely an advantage in skillsets that revolve around a non-conflicting pair of nanoskills, such as PM TS (Trader), MM MC (Shields) and BM SI (Martial Artist). Reference Links & Further Information
Article Sources
Popular CultureCyberpunk revolves around cybernetic augmentation like no other theme, despite its themes being many and well developed. Two of the more famous examples and their relation to AO and its implants: William Gibson, most famous for Neuromancer also wrote Johnny Mnemonic. Only the film has the cyborg nemesis, a human so heavily implanted he is half robot. But in both versions, the courier's package is data, carried in implants in his brain, and his bodyguard and opponents are cybernetically enhanced. In the Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix, humans are kept, by their robotic overlords, in a constant dream state; every aspect of their world is fed to their brains through an implanted connection in the back of their skulls. The Matrix' dusters and shades and Agents are easy to spot. But AO has more in common with the Matrix' cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic predecessors in its depiction of a fight for free will against human tyranny, while the Matrix and cyberpunk put much more emphasis on the role of humans and human consciousness in a world increasingly filled with the manmade. Links |