Age of Conan: Pricing, Beta Revealed

[hooflung]

I think they will do fine. Its not a loot whore game but it does have loot. Its more of a fortune and glory game where persistence is much more meaningful. Instead of being the 'first' to raid dungeon xyz or being the 'first' to build a keep the game will be more along the line of 'the only guild to secure the keep for x amount of time into the future.'

Two different game models. AoC is the first game to actually bring this type of game to the masses. EVE is still a bit too harsh for the millions of gamers and this seems to be a good mix. Obviously Pirates of the Burning Sea has failed this, as suspected, because they tried to bullshit PVP into instances and not seperate the EU and Americans so the timezone warfare wouldn't destroy accomplishments for no other reasons other than bad foresight.

 

[Bateluer]

Are they still sending on beta keys?

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Are they still sending on beta keys?

Have to be a fileplanet member but yes over there still doing it.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I got my beta key today, I am actually pumped about AoC...kind of. Looks pretty, lets see how well it plays.

(I forgot about Comcast founders package! -- free fileplanet member + other goodies).

I wanted to add, looks like some confusion when it comes to a free month or not , I have your answer !

6.7 Will I have to be online to play the single-player portion of the game?

Yes. You will still be playing on our servers, in a personalized instance of the gameworld. You will also have to purchase a retail box to play the single-player experience and the retail box includes 30 days of free game time to explore Age of Conan.

 

[HumblePie]

I've been waiting for this game for years personally since I found out about it. I have already upgraded both my systems, and have been upgrading systems for friends.

q9450 @ 3450
8800GTx's Oc'd at 660/2100 in SLI
4GB of ram running at 1166
4 raptors in RAID 0

I think I should be able to play this game decently. If not I'm gonna raise some hell with funcom and on their forums.

Now my second system is a bit less as a AMD skt 939 opty 165 running at 3100~, 8800 GTX at 645/2000 and 2GB of DDR at 255 if memory serves me right. I expect no problems with my second system but who knows.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
I got my beta key today, I am actually pumped about AoC...kind of. Looks pretty, lets see how well it plays.

(I forgot about Comcast founders package! -- free fileplanet member + other goodies).

I wanted to add, looks like some confusion when it comes to a free month or not , I have your answer !

6.7 Will I have to be online to play the single-player portion of the game?

Yes. You will still be playing on our servers, in a personalized instance of the gameworld. You will also have to purchase a retail box to play the single-player experience and the retail box includes 30 days of free game time to explore Age of Conan.

ooh, so the 30 days of free time includes the time you play the SP part? that kinda sucks.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
I got my beta key today, I am actually pumped about AoC...kind of. Looks pretty, lets see how well it plays.

(I forgot about Comcast founders package! -- free fileplanet member + other goodies).

I wanted to add, looks like some confusion when it comes to a free month or not , I have your answer !

6.7 Will I have to be online to play the single-player portion of the game?

Yes. You will still be playing on our servers, in a personalized instance of the gameworld. You will also have to purchase a retail box to play the single-player experience and the retail box includes 30 days of free game time to explore Age of Conan.

ooh, so the 30 days of free time includes the time you play the SP part? that kinda sucks.

30 free days includes when you first sign up for service. The question is do you need to be signed up to play the single player? if not then won't be a big deal if so well kind of sucks for people that take their time but oh well it's still cheap entertainment.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
I got my beta key today, I am actually pumped about AoC...kind of. Looks pretty, lets see how well it plays.

(I forgot about Comcast founders package! -- free fileplanet member + other goodies).

I wanted to add, looks like some confusion when it comes to a free month or not , I have your answer !

6.7 Will I have to be online to play the single-player portion of the game?

Yes. You will still be playing on our servers, in a personalized instance of the gameworld. You will also have to purchase a retail box to play the single-player experience and the retail box includes 30 days of free game time to explore Age of Conan.

ooh, so the 30 days of free time includes the time you play the SP part? that kinda sucks.

30 free days includes when you first sign up for service. The question is do you need to be signed up to play the single player? if not then won't be a big deal if so well kind of sucks for people that take their time but oh well it's still cheap entertainment.

that FAQ you just posted makes it sound like you do have to register since you're playing on their servers.

 

[Tremulant]

I believe there was a video on youtube that said the single-player part takes you through the first 20 levels, but you're still playing online. I think you're still able to group with other PCs during the 'day.' Apparently, there's a night and day cycle that can be controlled by resting (ie: rest at an inn at night and it'll be daytime when you awaken)

But my memory kind of sucks, so I could be wrong.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Tremulant
I believe there was a video on youtube that said the single-player part takes you through the first 20 levels, but you're still playing online. I think you're still able to group with other PCs during the 'day.' Apparently, there's a night and day cycle that can be controlled by resting (ie: rest at an inn at night and it'll be daytime when you awaken)

But my memory kind of sucks, so I could be wrong.

That sounds right. And you can leave single player at almost any time. Apparently though playing through entire single player you'll get some pretty good storyline.

Shrug I figure first few days will be kind of rough with servers (always are every MMORPG ever released) so I don't mind anyway.

 

[miniMUNCH]

Well... the one or two reviews I have read of AoC so far have kinda paned it... i.e. they said it is not worth getting. Still i might try a trial at some point.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
Well... the one or two reviews I have read of AoC so far have kinda paned it... i.e. they said it is not worth getting. Still i might try a trial at some point.

What reviews have you read? Everything I have read has said it exact opposite. And from beta weekends people love it.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar

Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
Well... the one or two reviews I have read of AoC so far have kinda paned it... i.e. they said it is not worth getting. Still i might try a trial at some point.

What reviews have you read? Everything I have read has said it exact opposite. And from beta weekends people love it.

There will likely be a large chunk of people who play it briefly and say "This is exactly like WoW, what garbage, now back to grinding for <Insert Item Name Here> in <Insert instance here>."

 

[manko]

I assume we won't see this kind of stuff in the open beta, but once the retail game goes live how many levels/weeks/months will it take until we start seeing some big player towns and siege warfare?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: manko
I assume we won't see this kind of stuff in the open beta, but once the retail game goes live how many levels/weeks/months will it take until we start seeing some big player towns and siege warfare?

Never under estimate how fast someone with no life can level.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: manko
I assume we won't see this kind of stuff in the open beta, but once the retail game goes live how many levels/weeks/months will it take until we start seeing some big player towns and siege warfare?

Never under estimate how fast someone with no life can level.

Well beta is capped at level 13.

I would expect you'll see the first wave of maxed level within the first month. And many more in the following 2 or so.

So I'd say seiges should start somewhere 2-4 months in.

We'll see though.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
I got my beta key today, I am actually pumped about AoC...kind of. Looks pretty, lets see how well it plays.

(I forgot about Comcast founders package! -- free fileplanet member + other goodies).

I wanted to add, looks like some confusion when it comes to a free month or not , I have your answer !

6.7 Will I have to be online to play the single-player portion of the game?

Yes. You will still be playing on our servers, in a personalized instance of the gameworld. You will also have to purchase a retail box to play the single-player experience and the retail box includes 30 days of free game time to explore Age of Conan.

ooh, so the 30 days of free time includes the time you play the SP part? that kinda sucks.

I read my 'prerelease' card I got for preordering it at Gamesteop, pay 5$ and you get an extra 10 days + the 3 days (so you start on the 17th).

As for the single player, you must be online and paying monthly for the account, that is what hte FAQ says.

I just got into a huge guild for AoC, but we plan on creating a huge city in a few months after the 17th.

I am pretty pumped to try something new, new storyline, new dynamics. I got my two buddies to pre-order as well.

 

[Skott]

I thought they said you can skip the single player part if you wanted to? I heard they were going to make it optional. If true then its kind of a moot point about paying for the single player part. Considering there are 80 levels I doubt 1-20 will take that long any way.

 

[Scrimmy]

Originally posted by: Skott
I thought they said you can skip the single player part if you wanted to? I heard they were going to make it optional. If true then its kind of a moot point about paying for the single player part. Considering there are 80 levels I doubt 1-20 will take that long any way.

Yeah, the Tortoga part is either instanced or not, depending on whether it's day or night. You can choose to level to 20 entirely by yourself if you want (though you're obviously still playing online and on the company's servers) or you can play with the general population and group up with friends if you want. You can also switch at any time, it's just a matter of going to an inn and resting until either day or night.

 

[Scouzer]

When do the FP beta registrations begin?

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
When do the FP beta registrations begin?

They are done already.

 

[Fingolfin269]

One thing I do enjoy about WoW is that any class can successfully solo up to max level. Some are better equipped than most but overall it really isn't that difficult regardless of class selection.

Does anyone know if this same scenario is planned for AoC? The one thing I hate about a lot of the old massives is basically forcing you to group if you want to progress. There is nothing wrong with that but sometimes I prefer to do it myself. Especially when leveling up an alt.

**BTW, my damn beta download has been going for 2 days now! The servers must be flooded with a lot of last minute downloaders.

 

[Scrimmy]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
One thing I do enjoy about WoW is that any class can successfully solo up to max level. Some are better equipped than most but overall it really isn't that difficult regardless of class selection.

Does anyone know if this same scenario is planned for AoC? The one thing I hate about a lot of the old massives is basically forcing you to group if you want to progress. There is nothing wrong with that but sometimes I prefer to do it myself. Especially when leveling up an alt.

**BTW, my damn beta download has been going for 2 days now! The servers must be flooded with a lot of last minute downloaders.

Yeah, they've specifically said that every class will be viable for solo play all the way to 80. The other thing is that there are no pure healer classes in AoC, so all classes have DPS abilities built into both of their non-archetype trees, so no one will be stuck with the equivalent of leveling a Holy priest or Resto druid.

Healing is actually looking pretty nifty, as there are no targeted heals so a classic MMORPG spam-healing playstyle is flat-out impossible; they're all AE or group heals, with a combination of HoTs and burst healing, and most of them have a cooldown of some sort. The other thing they're doing (much like WAR, apparently) is making a combination playstyle much more of a benefit than just casting the same spells over and over.

The damage-dealing and healing are linked for the two casting healers (Tempest of Set and Priest of Mitra) so that casting damage spells on a ToS buffs their healing, and casting heals on a PoM buffs their damage. Bear shaman are a melee healer who get heal procs and things of that sort on top of the normal spell healing.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar

Originally posted by: Scouzer
When do the FP beta registrations begin?

They are done already.

nevermind

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar

Originally posted by: Scouzer
When do the FP beta registrations begin?

They are done already.

Signed up for the beta 10 mins ago and it gave me a key and is letting me download so they still might be letting people in.