Early access guys - whats the verdict ?

Dcully

Ok so you early access guys have had the game for 3-4 days,whats the verdict?
Im watching this board closely these last few days and there are guys names missing that i know have early access
Does this mean your too busy playing to post or your gone off the game already?

Cmon let us poor souls with no early access what we can expect

God i better stop posting on this board :P

Jim

People need to reply faster.

Hellm0

Hey Cully(did you go to DKIT by any chance / were you in saoirse in wow?)
I just picked up the game myself yesterday, got to level 13 so far. Playing it as little as I have(I work) I cant say much about the game overall but I have enjoyed what I see so far. That is if you exclude the mind numbingly boring and pretty much mandatory quest's you have to do before you get to the "real game". I anticipate great things but we shall see.

Funky

I'm loving it. That said, it's quite unpolished, has had an extremely rocky start(emergency maintenences, extended downtime, general tomfoolery) and the UI is a bit of a disaster. Despite this I reckon it's on track to be a hit, as far as I'm concerned sieges and endgame PvP will make or break it so we'll soon see how that is.

Leveling is FAST, I know there's 80 levels but I didn't play closed/open betas and I'm at level 42 after early access. There's people max level already too but they exploited, I'm sure there's legit people at 60+ already.

My PC struggles with it but that hasn't stopped me from being glued to the screen for an unhealthy amount of time :P

degrassinoel

my guildmates are saying the same thing, its awesome apparently. That is when they actually decide to break away from AoC and say anything on vent or our forums

there are some UI's available on curse (2 afaik) for AoC if you guys are looking to upgrade or make it easier on the eyes or what have ye.

christ am gagging for this game, roll on friday.

Cuddlesworth

Played on my mates account, its quite good from what I saw. Great opportunities for griefing with the collision detecting.

BlitzKrieg

what i'd be interested in is the combat as interesting as they say it is, cause what puts me off almost all mmos I've tried is really really dull combat and the required time commitment needed to be put in to get anything interesting.

If the combat is always interesting and its a rapid rise through the ranks...then sign me up.

Funky

Combat's pretty good, you don't just target someone and let your character stand there swinging you gotta choose the direction of your attack and the damage you do is based on where they've emphasised their blocking. Also if you're using a big weapon that swings through other people it doesn't just hit the person you have targetted it hits whoever it passes through.

Probably won't see these mechanics properly till everyone is max level but on paper it's pretty interesting. In general the combat seems quite area effect orientated but there are classes that excel at single target damage too.

One of the most interesting things is healing though, rather than the spamming of heals like in WoW healers only get 3 heals(and more from feats/talents) and they're all AE heals, one group heal over time, one cone shaped area effect and one group direct heal that puts a minute debuff on everyone effected stopping them from being healed by that spell again. So you see healers having a much more active role in combat actually doing proper damage and doing alot of crowd control.

edit: oh one thing I forgot is the 'double tap' movements you can do in combat. If you tap back twice your character jumps backwards and gets a melee evasion buff, tap forward and your next melee attack has a chance to stun the target(not positive if this is guaranteed or a chance etc, I play a caster) and double tapping a strafe button side steps and increases your chance to resist a spell I think. Where WoW was all about line of sight I've found AoC is all about movement and positioning, especially with healers giving how their heals work.

Ciaran500

With combat like that is there any problem playing with a high ping? My connection isn't always great.

Dcully

While viewing videos on youtube i came across this one which really gives an insight to the tempest of set, the same guy commentating has other videos of other classes.

Nice to see healers doing damage and cc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaJKdH5WNsI&feature=related

same guy discussing the UI among other things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W5wqp4E5vc&feature=related

Drakar

Ciaran500 wrote: »

With combat like that is there any problem playing with a high ping? My connection isn't always great.

It works on an action queue system, so when you are casting a spell for example, you can queue up your next one which will begin casting straight away. On the mellee side you can mash your combos and take your chances. Obviously good connection > bad connection, but spell queuing should make it a bit easier for you (ala Guild Wars).

And yes levelling is quite fast. I'm on the whole not wowed (*groan*), but I'd imagine the real fun starts later on in the game with the 48v48 pvp, better balanced classes, raiding and hopefully we'll eventually see a more polished game. I think it will definately improve as time goes on.

Kiith

Speaking of early access, anyone know if amy shops are selling this today? I'd love to get my hands on it this evening, as i wont get to play over the weekend :mad:

Dcully

I just rang my local Gamestop,they have them instock but wont sell till tomorrow.

Kiith

Thats cause their mean

degrassinoel

and dumb

Cuddlesworth

I hope you let them know that they are a bunch of poopypants heads.

Drakar

Might help people pick their class, heres a list of the top classes on one server:

degrassinoel

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

I hope you let them know that they are a bunch of poopypants heads.

i will if they dont have my game at 10am tomorrow.

picture the 'leave britney alone' guy and cross him with frank drebin from police squad/naked gun.

degrassinoel

forgot to insult the dudes at game, probably coz it took them ages to get me game.. anyway, installing now happy days

Lunatik72

Do they have enough copies or do I need to call them? Can't find the local store in Blanchardstown on their website

degrassinoel

i got there at 10:15am and i was the only one in the shop (game coolock), also i think i was the first person to buy it as they had to look around for 15-20 mins to actually find the boxes. i'd safely wager that you could walk into any shop and pick it up easily enough

Krieg

Bah!
The lack of reviews on this game is irritating me.
Im also trying to take into account the LOTR pyschology when it came out - "LOTR? Yeah its brill, Cancel your wow account and start playing this (snigger)".

May I be bold and ask for a small review on what you think so far?
Something along the lines of "its like X, but with Y instead / Compare to WoW"

zekiel

I've been sitting here and I've read through two magazines waiting for it to install... 25gb's and its still going!

Ivan

Krieg wrote: »

Bah!
The lack of reviews on this game is irritating me.
Im also trying to take into account the LOTR pyschology when it came out - "LOTR? Yeah its brill, Cancel your wow account and start playing this (snigger)".

May I be bold and ask for a small review on what you think so far?
Something along the lines of "its like X, but with Y instead / Compare to WoW"

I disliked LOTRO when I first started playing it, got to level 10 and never logged in again.
With that said, any MMO I like, I tend to love, at least for the first few days.

I'm not sure if this is different, but I dont think I've ever had as much fun as a healer class (Bear Shaman) I'm level 25 and still going strong.

The joy of the game is that every class is a dps, currently I have 3 healing spells. 1 AoE heal that is almost a full heal at this level, but it puts a debuff on anyone affected by it that prevents anyone from receiving any healing from the same spell for the next 30 seconds. It also has a 30 second cooldown. Then I have an ability called Renewal, which makes my next melee swing or Combo grant an AoE hot that heals for 16 health per second. This ability scales up with my level and started out pretty weak but is very good now. I'm level 25 and have 608 hps so 16 a second might not sound like alot but consider most NPCs wouldnt hit for more than 40ish dps, it makes me damn hard to kill. Then my final healing spell is called Blood flow. This is a conal spell (it heals the caster and all friendlys in a 120 degree cone in front of the caster) that heals for about 60 and then places a hot on the target healing 31 per second. The healing effects are a little over half, on the caster. All of these spells combined (especially with a healing potion as well) make me nigh invulnerable. I have a forward knockback (and knockdown) and an AoE stun affect. Wearing mail armour, I am very much as melee as any of the melee dps classes. Compared to a paladin from World of Warcraft, It feels very powerful, very useful and very fun. An AoE resurrect spell tops off "imbaness" of the class, especially as it is combined with one of the best casting animations I have seen yet. As the spell is cast the bear shaman falls into a traditional bear-esque stance, once the spell is complete 3 spirit bears appear and walk around the corpse of the player who is then resurrected with 10% of their normal health.

The melee combat is briliant, though sadly the casting seems alot less fun (though I'm told this changes when you reach high enough level to make use of spellweaving). There is alot of skill involved in lining up NPC targets (or forcing PvP targets to line up to hit you) and therefore allowing you to melee everything. Debuff strikes are applied to all targets then you hit them with. Making the bear shaman bleed strike pretty powerful.

The combos are very fun and the power and the joy of fatalities still stand even after some 16 hours of played time.

I've had alot of help throughout the game, as I started with a friend who rerolled a Herald of Xotli (HoX) after being in the Early access, and he guided me around most of the starting quests in Tortage (the level 1-20 starting areas) that and the fact that 2 people make the majority of quests trivial meant I had less issues that some people would have. This was all the more evidenced when I died quite alot doing the destiny quests from 16 to 20. Granted, this could be because the Bear Shaman is sadly quite weak in this level range, but I still felt very frustrated at times.

The voice acting for the first 20 levels gives the whole experience a very memorable and truly epic feeling, regretably this ends at level 20 when the voice acting stops in the new zones.

I'm not sure what else to say except that at the very least it will be a really great experience for the 30 days that come with the game. That alone is worth the 49.99 (or whatever you end up paying) even if you never play it afterwards, though I'm fairly sure I will

Any other questions, just ask.

nix

This game feels to me like Everquest 2 except with an awesome combat system.

I've rolled a few toons to see which one i like, but the highest toon i have and the one im having most fun with is the Assassin. Currently level 13 im having alot of fun completing the main story missions. It feels like im playing Tenchu stealth assassins with the quests im given, being asked to sneak around and follow people and steal items and so forth, climbing roof tops, sneaking through base camps full of mobs to dispatch their leader.

However i dont survive as long as Ivans class would, if i get surrounded by 3 NPC's the same level or 1 level above me i can kiss my ass goodbye. I found i die an awful lot, but that could just be down to my inexperience with the battle system so far ( i dont block or sidestep out of harms way an awful ) i just mash the attack buttons and hit the flashing arrow after initiating the given combo.

But boy i can dish out an awful lot of damage, im finding it very satisfying when my toon seems to randomly just finish the mob off by driving his dagger into the mobs throat and slicing his neck and blood goes everywhere !

What im not liking is that im dying fairly easy, and the quests ive been getting never seem to be in or near the same place. So im finding im doing alot of running around. Also im finding im having very little interaction with other players, however this is a result of a very basic chat window and lack of emotes. However i feel its just a matter of me getting used to the chat window, i always have trouble getting used to it going from MMO to MMO.

And im hoping a **** load of emotes will be added in the near future

So thumbs up from me so far, having a blast with the Assassin

Krieg

Thanks a lot Ivan & nix

Sounds very interesting, Think Ill pick up a copy next weekend

Ivan

nix wrote: »

This game feels to me like Everquest 2 except with an awesome combat system.

I've rolled a few toons to see which one i like, but the highest toon i have and the one im having most fun with is the Assassin. Currently level 13 im having alot of fun completing the main story missions. It feels like im playing Tenchu stealth assassins with the quests im given, being asked to sneak around and follow people and steal items and so forth, climbing roof tops, sneaking through base camps full of mobs to dispatch their leader.

However i dont survive as long as Ivans class would, if i get surrounded by 3 NPC's the same level or 1 level above me i can kiss my ass goodbye. I found i die an awful lot, but that could just be down to my inexperience with the battle system so far ( i dont block or sidestep out of harms way an awful ) i just mash the attack buttons and hit the flashing arrow after initiating the given combo.

But boy i can dish out an awful lot of damage, im finding it very satisfying when my toon seems to randomly just finish the mob off by driving his dagger into the mobs throat and slicing his neck and blood goes everywhere !

What im not liking is that im dying fairly easy, and the quests ive been getting never seem to be in or near the same place. So im finding im doing alot of running around. Also im finding im having very little interaction with other players, however this is a result of a very basic chat window and lack of emotes. However i feel its just a matter of me getting used to the chat window, i always have trouble getting used to it going from MMO to MMO.

And im hoping a **** load of emotes will be added in the near future

So thumbs up from me so far, having a blast with the Assassin

/emote <space> <Tab> should bring up the list of emotes, I think. It is fairly considerable

Funky

Ivan wrote: »

This was all the more evidenced when I died quite alot doing the destiny quests from 16 to 20. Granted, this could be because the Bear Shaman is sadly quite weak in this level range, but I still felt very frustrated at times.

I'm playing a tempest and i found i was really really weak till heals get a bit more powerful at level 25. Healers are really starting to hold their own in the 40-50s now. I thought the start was very melee biased, had barbs going round two-shotting people but it's balancing out a little.