AoC article on Eurogamer....

Branoic

....today amounts to practically the site's third review of the game - and actually seems quite promising. It's making me consider re-subbing. I played the game on launch but quit before even leaving Tortage due to regular crashing and other technical problems. According to the article however all the technical issues have been ironed out, DX10 is finally available (albeit as a beta), and there's a lot of great new content. The guy says he's had more fun with AoC in the last three weeks than he's had with MMOs in a long time.

Anyone else here still playing that can confirm these claims?

The tone and setting of AoC always appealed to me more than any of the other MMOs, so if they've genuinely improved things I'm willing to give them a second chance.

humanji

I got a couple of free months on it a few weeks back and have been playing around on it. I've a shìt internet connection so I'm not sure if it's that or possibly the game that stutters from time to time.

But I am enjoying it. There's loads to do and you can level pretty fast. The servers are pretty full (they had a server merge no too long ago, I think) and it's a pretty friendly crowd. The DX10 has a couple of problems with some textures but looks pretty damn nice, and I'd say the majority of bugs have been well ironed out.

If they had released the game like this at the start, I'd say the fan base would be monstrous. It's well worth a try even, if you can get a free month (not sure if there's buddy keys of trial months etc available).

edit: Just saw that you can get a 7 day trial here: http://www.ageofconan.com/trial/ It's not much, but it'll give new players a taster. If you find a good game guide, you can hit lvl 20 in a day and that's when the rest of the world opens up for you.

Rev Hellfire

Its certainly one of the games I'd like to go back and give a look at.

Dcully

Hmmm interesting to say the least.
I simply loved AOC until i levelled into the late 20s, thats when it became obvious that the game had major issues.
The healing mechanics in AOC are simply awesome and something i thoroughly enjoyed.
iracing gets all my game time now but im tempted to sample AOC again for sure.

Me wonders how long it would take to patch the game at this stage

super_furry

Bought it at launch and swore I'd never go back to it, but it does look tempting. Think I'm gonna give Warhammer a second go first.

Dcully

super_furry wrote: »

Bought it at launch and swore I'd never go back to it, but it does look tempting. Think I'm gonna give Warhammer a second go first.

I recently gave WAR another go and was bored to tears.
Nothing seemed to be any different, to level up my only option was to solo quest or do the usual tedious rvr scenarios over and over to lvl up.
The game just felt so unpopulated.

Kiith

I tried War recently as well, and just couldnt get back into it either. Not really sure what it was, just didnt keep me interested for long enough. Would definitly look at going back and trying this again though, as i really liked the look of it on launch. Once i upgrade my pc that is. Had serious fps issues when playing it before.

Dcully

Kiith i contacted an xfire friend of mine lastnight and he confirms what the eurogamer guy said about framerate being vastly improved.
He has recently gone back to AOC and the first thing he noticed was a huge increase in performance of the graphical engine.

I reinstalled late lastnight on the strength of this thread, i let it update overnight so i might resub over the weekend if i get time.
My priest of Mitra is calling me back to have a nosey atleast.

nix

Dcully wrote: »

Kiith i contacted an xfire friend of mine lastnight and he confirms what the eurogamer guy said about framerate being vastly improved.
He has recently gone back to AOC and the first thing he noticed was a huge increase in performance of the graphical engine.

I reinstalled late lastnight on the strength of this thread, i let it update overnight so i might resub over the weekend if i get time.
My priest of Mitra is calling me back to have a nosey atleast.

My Conq, Assassin and bear Shaman be calling me ><

Dcully

nix wrote: »

My Conq, Assassin and bear Shaman be calling me ><

Good stuff, we might get a few of us back to have a good ould nose at whats gone on since we left.

Reading the official forums just now all seems rosey.

Kiith

I cant read them in work

I'll have to download the whole client tonight, as i have no idea where my discs are. Will do that tomorrow while im in work, and will probably resub after work on Sunday.

nix

What about quests and raids? have they fixed that ? They were the only things that bugged me, lack of anything to do

Beating on primitive cannibals loses its appeal after maiming about 400 of them

Kiith

Still havent read the Eurogamer article, but reading another forum, i'm not sure about re-subbing. I was hoping the PvP was better now, and maybe it is and this is just a jaded ex-fanboy, but i dont like the sound of some things. PvE is apparently decent though.

Random Forum Guy wrote:

I wrote this up on another forum, but I guess I should post it here. I guess it is my review of the game as it stands. Keep in mind this is from a PvP perspective. I still find the PvE to be decent (on pve servers).

While I think the previously mentioned gear, pvp invulnerabilities and BattleKeep buffs are atrocious, they're just a symptom of greater problem. The greater problem being that PvP lacks direction of any kind.

When Age of Conan first launched, they didn't have a PvP system. There was no feasible way of competing with other guilds for territory, glory or might other than zerging eachother in Kheshatta. The first thing Funcom decided to do to "fix" the lacking PvP in early AoC was to introduce a gear grind. This shows a fundamental lack of knowledge in how to construct a fair and fun player versus player experience. To this day, the endgame of Age of Conan is entirely gear oriented.

Age of Conan currently lacks all the features that makes a PvP game good.

There is no dynamic gameplay in AoC at all. The PvP, with all (horrible) imbalances aside, is not even fun. It has no meaning, it has no effect. There is no strife, there is no metagame, no politics. It all boils down to "kill random people in the most dull zone of the game, all day, every day, forever".

The most advanced form of PvP they currently have is "battlekeep sieges"; a scheduled event where people fight for a static structure in an entirely isolated instance for the right to get some buffs.

On a more detailed level; PvP is too fast, not tactical at all and crippled by crowd control, a divide between RDPS and MDPS and overpowered classes.

Ah yes. Class imbalance. You could argue that it exists in every MMO created to date, but I have been apart of few MMO's where the balance is as bad as in Age of Conan. Between getting one-shot by a ToS or ground to dust by a Necro, never being able to kill a bear shaman or getting killed before CC wears off by a demonologist, I'd have to say that the balance does not even exist in this game. Just yesterday I was passively killed by a ToS (who was not even facing me) as his passive pulsing AoE kept dealing 2000+ damage to my 5000hp barbarian.

As for the recently mentioned "divide" between melee and casting, well it is pretty horrible. For a game that was boasting about an advanced and unique "melee combat system", it is pretty sad to see the casting system being both easier and more effective to use. Ironically, funcom has somehow turned a game about the age of conan into a game about an abundance of magic users.

* Casters can still use stamina exclusively for sprinting or blocking, while meleers can't.
* Casters can still deal more damage than melee, and from range.
* Casters can still kill meleers before the CC wears off.
* Casters can still use elevations in terrain (and there is plenty) to kill meleers where the melee can't even touch them.
* Casters still are not weighed down by the "combo system" like all meleers are.
* Casters attacks can't be blocked by passive shielding, and are rarely resisted.
* Casters attacks always hits the target, unless resisted. Meleers have to get close and physically touch someone (and even then, the enemy just has to backstep to avoid most combos) and they can still be parried, blocked or missed.
* Casters have to stand still for 2-3 seconds while casting a spell. Unfortunately, so does meleers since they have to wait for the (sometimes very long) attack animations to end if they want to deal full damage. That is, if they hit at all.


These issues have been around (and complained about) since launch day, and between the flawed melee/magic system and the many (still) broken feats, one wonders what funcom has been doing this past year. They certainly have not been improving the PvP experience. In fact, they have been introducing a lot of PvE content into the game, which leads me to believe that they no longer consider AoC to be a PvP focused game anymore, despite all their promises during the "hype days" one year ago.

Perhaps I am spoiled by previous PvP MMO's (like planetside, UO and EVE) and just expect too much out of AoC. To be honest, I even had more fun with the PvP in WoW back when I played it all those years ago. At least in WoW, you have some very well designed and varied battlegrounds to have fun in. While Age of Conan has 4 battlegrounds to play in, they're not fun, are very unrewarding and have not been worth playing since launch.

So after all is said and done, what has the recent "updates" to the PvP systems in Age of Conan changed?

Nothing.

If you expect anything other than standing around in Kheshatta, ganking people near spawnpoints or joining a zerg to do the very same thing, you are going to be dissapointed. A year after launch, and nothing has changed. I dare say that things have actually gotten worse.

However; there is a silver lining - as I said above, the PvE content is decent in this game, if you're into that sort of thing. Just be sure to not try it out on a PvP server, as you will be destroyed by gangs of gankers roaming the newbie zones and quest areas.

Another thing that is absolutly stupid, is that players with Battlekeeps (only a few in the game) or PvP Rank 5 (takes forever apparently) get 40% damage reduction from other players...

Might give it a shot for the PvE though.

Leprachaun

It's the best MMO out at the moment. I say go for it. :pac:

WellyJ

Leprachaun wrote: »

It's the best MMO out at the moment. I say go for it. :pac:

Lawl

Leprachaun

WellyJ wrote: »

Lawl

-Most Immersive MMO
-Best graphics/music/lore/animations
-Amazing community(at least on Aquilonia)
-Great for roleplayers
-Free for all PvP
-Fun combat system

Imo,even fighting people in that cellar under tortage is more fun than anything in any other big MMO out at the moment.

They're heading in the right direction too. You're able to loot resources off people when you kill them now,DX10 is out(although in beta),the new dungeons are great and there's loads of deadly stuff on the horizon (Torantia Commons,the expansion pack etc..)

I played darkfall in beta and it was pretty fun,but it feels as if it was put together by a bunch of college students for their final year project.
Maybe an over-exageration but you get the idea. Anyway,I can't even manage to buy DF at the moment,so for me, Age of Conan is the only MMO I'm playing and plan to play until Mortal Online.

Kiith

Leprachaun wrote: »

until Mortal Online.

This is my new Holy Grail for MMO's.

WellyJ

Kiith wrote: »

This is my new Holy Grail for MMO's.

Hmmm hadn't seen this.

Just signed up for Beta, it looks interesting to say the least.

Ivan

Their site lies alot. Its basically Darkfall but prettier and instanced.

Leprachaun

Ivan wrote: »

Their site lies alot. Its basically Darkfall but prettier and instanced.

And hopefully a little more professional.

humanji

Ivan wrote: »

Their site lies alot. Its basically Darkfall but prettier and instanced.

It looks like an mmo mod for Oblivion, which I think it pretty cool, anyway.

Slurmsy

Ivan wrote: »

Their site lies alot. Its basically Darkfall but prettier and instanced.

What aspects of MO are instanced?

While Darkfall has easily been the most fun I've had in MMORPG since Shadowbane's glory days, it still has been a big let down for me. Too much crap that doesn't work, limited PvP elements (in terms of skills and character variation), and siege mechanics that just seem to cater to the zerg (I should know I'm in WSX ). I'm hoping that MO will delivery on some of the stuff I was looking forward to in DF.

Ivan

It's not officially been confirmed or denied yet, that I know of, but the only way to make a game that pretty and that big is to make it instanced.

Darkfall is missing some polish and alot of tweaking but it is easily the best PvP orientated game out there at the moment. Mostly because there arent any PvP orientated games out there at the moment, despite what their developers might say...

And hi, I'm in Hyperion too - Homeless o/

Funky

All Hail King Manus!!!!!

Slurmsy

=Ivan wrote: »

Darkfall is missing some polish and alot of tweaking but it is easily the best PvP orientated game out there at the moment.

Oh I agree totally. Loved it in beta despite all its faults and I'm looking forward to playing it again come May (too busy to play it atm thanks to Uni/work).

I just hope they add a few more skills and start fixing things. Cities without gates, pointless walls, seemingly useless magic, and so on.

Ivan wrote: »

Mostly because there arent any PvP orientated games out there at the moment, despite what their developers might say...

It kills me there's so few MMO PvP centred games, and those that there have been have all had major issues (buggy, polish, etc).

Ivan wrote: »

And hi, I'm in Hyperion too - Homeless o/

Yea, you guys impress Brando I think in beta wasn't it. I remember going through your city, oh the irony , a few times when we where raiding the Orc lands. Haven't had the change to play with you guys though.

Slurmsy

Funky wrote: »

All Hail King Manus!!!!!

Lets not and say we did

Leprachaun

Ivan wrote: »

And hi, I'm in Hyperion too - Homeless o/

Me too, Realm of Kirdain.

Dcully

Well i resubbed and couldnt see much change at all, ive already cancelled yet again.

WellyJ

Dcully wrote: »

Well i resubbed and couldnt see much change at all, ive already cancelled yet again.

Nice, removes my desire to check it out again.

Gurgle

WellyJ wrote: »

Nice, removes my desire to check it out again.

Likewise.

Dcully

Its been a while since i sunk my teeth into an mmo.
Not since WOTLK expansion for wow,then i just levelled 2 chars to 80 and raided for a bit.
Maybe ill resub when the next big patch comes that includes Ulduar.

I dunno m tired of buying mmos that just dont live up to anywhere near the hype.
Sitting on a shelf behind me are LOTRO,AOC and WAR, none have grabbed me anything like wow.