Lets talk about Age of Conan (MMO)

[Scrimmy]

I've been playing since Early Access and have been having a blast (late Closed Beta before that). Sure, it's got some issues but so has every other MMO every released. Overall, I'd say the quality at release was pretty close to WoW; not the best, but certainly not the worst.

The game is in general quite stable, looks great, and is lots of fun. The world seems pretty huge so far, the skills are interesting, and the combat is fairly complex. The PvP is really a lot of fun, too; it seems like they've got a pretty good class balance going where skill actually has a noticeable effect on play and it's not just a simple rock/paper/scissors.

The two biggest negatives for me are the chat UI and the lack of a functional bank/trading system. The chat setup is really pretty awful and I have no idea how they even managed to take several steps back from AO. Also, there's absolutely no reason not to have a working bank at this point.

Wreckem, it sounds like you're holding out for WAR, and comparing a game that just got released to a game with at the very least 6 months left of its development cycle, and one that really needs longer than that based on my own personal experience with a friend and some guildies who are in beta. Obviously, the best game is always the one that hasn't come out yet, but WAR PvP is little more than a series of linked Alterac Valleys. If you expect much more than that, you're going to be in for some serious disappointment.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: Scrimmy
I've been playing since Early Access and have been having a blast (late Closed Beta before that). Sure, it's got some issues but so has every other MMO every released. Overall, I'd say the quality at release was pretty close to WoW; not the best, but certainly not the worst.

The game is in general quite stable, looks great, and is lots of fun. The world seems pretty huge so far, the skills are interesting, and the combat is fairly complex. The PvP is really a lot of fun, too; it seems like they've got a pretty good class balance going where skill actually has a noticeable effect on play and it's not just a simple rock/paper/scissors.

The two biggest negatives for me are the chat UI and the lack of a functional bank/trading system. The chat setup is really pretty awful and I have no idea how they even managed to take several steps back from AO. Also, there's absolutely no reason not to have a working bank at this point.

Wreckem, it sounds like you're holding out for WAR, and comparing a game that just got released to a game with at the very least 6 months left of its development cycle, and one that really needs longer than that based on my own personal experience with a friend and some guildies who are in beta. Obviously, the best game is always the one that hasn't come out yet, but WAR PvP is little more than a series of linked Alterac Valleys. If you expect much more than that, you're going to be in for some serious disappointment.

Im not comparing it to WAR. The two are going to be completely different. Id rather AoC succeed than WAR, but its got a long ways.

I can see why they released it in May and not Sept(they could have used atleast three more months). If it was released closer to WAR(while will be out this year, buggy or not) it wouldnt sell like it did. It was a business move on their part. It worked for a business standpoint.

Niether AoC or WAR will end up like Vanguard but AoC could have used several more months of testing(actual testing, not just testing server/client stability). Im sure WAR will be released to soon as well, again for business reasons.

On a side note, I honestly dont know how you fuck up banking and trading like they did. It should be one of the first systems in place. Its like developers never learn or something.

Finally, I could live with the few short comings those being its to easy to level, it not a seamless world, and the heavy use of instancing, if they could just deliver on everything else sooner rather than later. I've been looking for a more PvP oriented game since Darktide with Asheron's Call(release to 2.5 years out, then it started sucking).

Developers are stuck in the EQ/DAoC/WoW/soon to be WAR rut. They are all practically the same game with mere evolutionary differences. AoC is different, and like i said if they can get everything working the way they said, everything would be great.

 

[larry89]

Well, I just got the game today... The Installation is well... long.

It's been about 30 minutes and about 3/4 of the way installed

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: larry89
Well, I just got the game today... The Installation is well... long.

It's been about 30 minutes and about 3/4 of the way installed

Its not over with the installation. Theres been a few patches since the game went gold. Though it shouldnt take as long to update as it did to install.

 

[VashHT]

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: VashHT
Lol you sound way too pissed off about this game Wreckem, if you don't like it just don't play it and ignore the game, no use telling other people that they shouldn't be enjoying something they are.

Im not saying they shouldnt be enjoying it, Im just warning people, that it isnt all rosy and is quite broken currently. It has a lot of potential which is why Im sticking around to see if they get their shit together like they eventually did with AO. Hopefully it doesnt take them close to a year like AO. I couldnt recommend picking this game up for atleast another month or two. Some of the bugs are just not excusable. If they could get everything they promised working, the game would be worthy of a good review, until that time its 6/10 at best. The first 20 levels are definately 10/10 though. They just need to deliver on the rest ASAP.

Fair enough, I'm only up to level 19, so I haven't run into anything gamebreaking yet. Does it go downhill really fast after 20 or is it just worse bugs in the later areas?

 

[Chiropteran]

I'm up to level 51 on my main, a priest of mitra.

So far, the game is pretty good but it has a few flaws that need to be worked out. The downtime during US prime time is unacceptable.

PvE: So far, very much on par with WoW. Quest drops getting a dedicated bag slot is a HUGE improvement. Leveling speed feels a little faster than WoW, and that is without the advantages of sites like thottbot. Instance dungeons seem to be harder to find though, I didn't see anything like deadmines where a low level group could run and get some nice loot.

PvP: I love FFA pvp, but there are some issues to work out. Zero death penalty is a mistake, it's just too easy to gank in town and if the guards kill you who cares because you didn't lose anything.

Classes: It seems every archtype has some nice advantages. Soldiers get amazing in-combat hp regen and stances, rogues get superior stealth, healers each have interesting forms of heals and buffs, mages either get a pet demon/undead or they turn into one.

 

[FlasHBurN]

Well, son of a bitch! They just patched in a fix to get the bank and traders working.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: FlasHBurN
Well, son of a bitch! They just patched in a fix to get the bank and traders working.

Okay so I was wrong... The statement they issued earlier in the day made it sound like they were far from fixing them.

Thumbs Up to FunCom for getting on the ball. Lets hope things stay like this.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran
I'm up to level 51 on my main, a priest of mitra.

So far, the game is pretty good but it has a few flaws that need to be worked out. The downtime during US prime time is unacceptable.

PvE: So far, very much on par with WoW. Quest drops getting a dedicated bag slot is a HUGE improvement. Leveling speed feels a little faster than WoW, and that is without the advantages of sites like thottbot. Instance dungeons seem to be harder to find though, I didn't see anything like deadmines where a low level group could run and get some nice loot.

PvP: I love FFA pvp, but there are some issues to work out. Zero death penalty is a mistake, it's just too easy to gank in town and if the guards kill you who cares because you didn't lose anything.

Classes: It seems every archtype has some nice advantages. Soldiers get amazing in-combat hp regen and stances, rogues get superior stealth, healers each have interesting forms of heals and buffs, mages either get a pet demon/undead or they turn into one.

Id say the two downtimes today were worth it.

 

[anandtech02148]

Aoc is putting me to sleep.
the quesst are played like Guild War, that game made me quit after 2week.
This instancing, seperation of game from in-town server is weak, it beats the purpose of true collaboration and party systems, all i get is mass global chat.
Has anyone notices the patches are getting up in the gigabytes? maybe they should ship the game plus another dvd worth of patches, the money invovled in this development is making programmers nervous, rushing out games that's probably 3/4 complete.

 

[j0j081]

some of the negative comments on the last few pages sound like they are coming from pepole that barely tried or have never played the game.

as for instancing, the style of this game which I like very much would be impossible with out it.

 

[KMFJD]

Originally posted by: shrumpage
After reading about AoC i'm very tempted, just got a couple of questions:

Can the game folder be moved from computer to computer? The game is huge, and has some pretty big patches i don't want to keep downloading per machine. Is there any way to back up the install or at least the patches? Can you just download the patches with out the game?

What affects the performance the most, assuming you meet the minimum? Ram? Processor? Video card? Ram on video card?

Yes, you can move the folder to a different system and it will run (You might however need to update you Direct X from the game cd but it is quick and painless)

 

[KMFJD]

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: LumbergTech

Originally posted by: Xellos2099
Anyone here got a spare invite key so I can try out the game for 7 days?

those aren't available yet..they dont want to over burden the servers yet

Or they want people to shell out $50 to try the game. I think its more along the lines they are trying to recoup as much money as they can at the moment. The servers are fine, thats the one thing they have going for them.

Which MMORPG's had free trial accounts at launch?

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: dNor
AoC has heavy instancing since characters, NPCs, and enemies actually take up real space, i.e. there's collision detection.

Running around Old Tartania and Khemi even WITH instancing is a little annoying sometimes with collision detection...people in my way all the time. It's not really an issue though.

I absolutely love collision detection. It makes the game feel much more alive than your standard "everyone's a ghost" methodology. For instance, yesterday someone dragged the half-giant elite from conarch valley into the town. This huge half-giant was fighting 5-6 guards and 3-4 players while standing on a bridge, and you could not pass. It made a real event out of the whole thing. Think about it, if a massive monster is fighting half the town on a bridge, why should you be able to stroll across? You shouldn't. Either help the guards clear the issue or sit on your thumb. Also, we setup a human roadblock and it really messed with people. That kind of stuff is a lot of fun.

I remember back in EQ1, when Ogres could literally jam up an entire hallway by themselves. Hillarious.

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: skace
I remember back in EQ1, when Ogres could literally jam up an entire hallway by themselves. Hillarious.

Yeah, it was. I played on a PVP server with EQ1, and sometimes in dungeons we'd have ogres stand in the way of the exit so people couldn't run away from PVP battles.

 

[larry89]

Well patch came out 2 days ago and fixed a bunch of stuff, no more crashing in areas and the trader works now. If you're looking for a new server that wasnt early access so it has alot of new people, go to Scourge

 

[larry89]

OK Finally got to 20 and let me explain some things for people.

The Night and Day separate is only part of the "Newbie" Land zone. The Newbie Land zone is extremely large and it is Tortage city it also contains many zones. There are instances in this area and when you get to the actual real game it is totally different, there is real time night and day.

The Night time in the newbie zone was for the single player part that you complete so you can travel to the real zones of the game. The tavern was instanced so you could switch beetween day(multiplayer) and night(singleplayer)

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I played AoC for the first time last night. The install took a long time (2 DVD's) but the patch process was very quick. The patches downloaded very quickly for me.

I only played for an hour last night, got my character to level 5 and stopped in Tortage city. Game runs good on my C2D/8800GT system. There are so many advanced video options, I hope someone comes out with a tweak guide at some point. I like the character/mob models and the environment, for the most part it is well done. The combat is interesting. I started combat before I read any directions so it was kind of confusing at first. Everything is very easy to kill in the first 5 levels, even taking on more than 1 enemy at a time.

I thought some of the character animation in the game is a little rough in places but it's not terrible. The mini-map systems seems to be pretty good showing points of interest along the way. I'm not sure how much the conversations really affect the outcome of an event or the game in generally. I normally just clicked through most of it without listening to much.

Overall, I think it's an okay game so far. I was a little disappointed with what I've played up to this point. Nothing really amazed me about the game . It may take a little more time to decide if it's something I would continue to play.

 

[KMFJD]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran
I'm up to level 51 on my main, a priest of mitra.

So far, the game is pretty good but it has a few flaws that need to be worked out. The downtime during US prime time is unacceptable.

PvE: So far, very much on par with WoW. Quest drops getting a dedicated bag slot is a HUGE improvement. Leveling speed feels a little faster than WoW, and that is without the advantages of sites like thottbot. Instance dungeons seem to be harder to find though, I didn't see anything like deadmines where a low level group could run and get some nice loot.

PvP: I love FFA pvp, but there are some issues to work out. Zero death penalty is a mistake, it's just too easy to gank in town and if the guards kill you who cares because you didn't lose anything.

Classes: It seems every archtype has some nice advantages. Soldiers get amazing in-combat hp regen and stances, rogues get superior stealth, healers each have interesting forms of heals and buffs, mages either get a pet demon/undead or they turn into one.

Define US Prime Time hours?

 

[imported_Section8]

When I signed in last night I noticed on the little news blurbs that some players got banned for exploiting the game. Anyone know what happened?

 

[BZeto]

Originally posted by: KMFJD

Originally posted by: Wreckem

Originally posted by: LumbergTech

Originally posted by: Xellos2099
Anyone here got a spare invite key so I can try out the game for 7 days?

those aren't available yet..they dont want to over burden the servers yet

Or they want people to shell out $50 to try the game. I think its more along the lines they are trying to recoup as much money as they can at the moment. The servers are fine, thats the one thing they have going for them.

Which MMORPG's had free trial accounts at launch?

WoW did.

 

[hooflung]

I just got my newest character to 30 today, nearly 31, before going to work. This game is simply sick and addictive. Fighting over resources makes PVP worth it. Noone is going to set me back 15+ minutes if I have anything to say about it. The graphics are amazing. Funcom is active at patching the game up and we'll have a patch to bring Siege warfare into full swing sooner than later at this rate.

This game has free trial accounts BZeto. Its called buddy keys. I don't remember WoW coming with anything but that on release. I know for a fact I didn't have ANY option for a trial account on its release. It was pay 50 bucks or 80 bucks and be happy with what you got.

The instancing is stellar. In the day times, like 9am EST there are only 2 Instances for Stygia on my server and at primetime 8pm EST there are like 15. Either time, I never have a problem finding people to kill trying to take my boss spawns. Collision detection is stellar too. This game starts to open up around the late 20s with your feats and really starts to give you really nice loot of quests late 30s.

 

[Scrimmy]

WoW actually didn't have Trial Accounts until about a year after the game came out, I think. Might've only been six months, but it definitely didn't have a trial until well after release.

As far as instancing goes, I'm becoming a big fan of it. It can be an inconvenience when you're forming a group as you have to get everyone in the same instance, but other than that it's great. The cap for instancing outdoor zones is fairly high so you can end up with zones feeling crowded sometimes, but they're never ridiculously overcamped. If you need a quest mob or want to harvest resources, you can switch instances and usually find one that's relatively clear. Makes grinding when you need to much more pleasant. Or if you want some good PvP, you can find a nice, crowded instance and go start some brawls. Really a very cool thing.

 

[Lumathix]

Originally posted by: skace

Originally posted by: dNor
AoC has heavy instancing since characters, NPCs, and enemies actually take up real space, i.e. there's collision detection.

Running around Old Tartania and Khemi even WITH instancing is a little annoying sometimes with collision detection...people in my way all the time. It's not really an issue though.

I absolutely love collision detection. It makes the game feel much more alive than your standard "everyone's a ghost" methodology. For instance, yesterday someone dragged the half-giant elite from conarch valley into the town. This huge half-giant was fighting 5-6 guards and 3-4 players while standing on a bridge, and you could not pass. It made a real event out of the whole thing. Think about it, if a massive monster is fighting half the town on a bridge, why should you be able to stroll across? You shouldn't. Either help the guards clear the issue or sit on your thumb. Also, we setup a human roadblock and it really messed with people. That kind of stuff is a lot of fun.
I remember back in EQ1, when Ogres could literally jam up an entire hallway by themselves. Hillarious.

Yeh sounds like lots of fun......

 

[KMFJD]

Lol yeah i saw people blocking entrances and what not with their mounts, soo many people where stuck and couldnt get past them (hint, hide and you can walk through)