Perks? Really?

For many, the perk system allowed Funcom to breathe life into AO. It allowed for deeper character customization and decision making that helped you feel more planful in your build. It gave you an extra burst of power, and for some classes provided class defining abilities.

For some, perks were just a small feature in a much bigger shift in direction for AO, a transition from a SciFi/Cyberpunk themed MMORPG to a mixture of fantasy and SciFi. Some loved it, some were less forgiving. But overall the perk system provided a deeper degree of character growth and customization.

Perks and Project Rubi-Ka

We have always put off working on the perk system. For our early work we focused largely on rebuilding Rubi-Ka. And still that remains our focus. As much as we appreciated some features of Shadowlands, and even enjoyed the fantasy a bit, we were less enamored with the way Shadowlands left Rubi-Ka content feeling more neglected that a red headed stepchild. (Sorry, we love the redheaded community, go team ginger!).

But as we progress through the engineering effort of emulating Anarchy Online we decided to start to peel back the layers of what would go into implementing the perk system.

Oddly Consistent

Perks actually were pleasantly easy to implement! This was because Funcom chose to use the same "SpellFunction" system they use for spells, nanos, armor just about everything else. Under the hood perks are not much different that equipping armor. They get added to your character with "OnWear" effects that get added up. They also make available certain perk actions, which also share similar behavior as nanos in the sense that they have criteria/requirements, they have "OnUse" functions that are executed. You can see for yourselves how this works under the hood when you take a gander at AO Items listing for a perk action.

Once your familiar with a few more key message formats that are used to drive the perk management and perk action execution, you begin to have a perk system that looks and feels alot like live Anarchy Online.

All of this was relatively straightforward to implement, so hats off again to Funcom for building a system with alot of reusability and structure.

Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Portaler

Developer | Co-Founder