Topic: Age of Conan  (Read 20418 times)

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Offline AcePylut

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Age of Conan
« on: April 21, 2008, 09:18:23 am »
www.ageofconan.com

Looks pretty neat, I like the supposed "focus" on PvP (full PvP servers - I'm sold), although unless PvP is hard-core, it's all care-bear to me.   

Anyone have any input/comment on the game?

Discuss!
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Offline FPF-DieHard

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2008, 12:15:44 pm »
If this is the crap combat that most MMOs have count me out.   SFC has spoiled me, I can't look at these different games without laughing.  Give me a game where a player's skill is the deciding factor, not the "he who has no life" of most MMOs.
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2008, 02:32:43 pm »
Well I tend to call anything "RPG" as role-playing grind, so I don't doubt there's a grind in AoC.

What I don't like is as you say, "items over character".  I alwasy preferred games where "your choices that you make in where to put your ability points" means more to the end-game PvP than having/nothaving the "uber weapon". 

From how they descirbe the combat, it seems far more "skill" oriented than just mashing buttons.  Skill in that, if it works like this, you can "choose" where to attack and where to defend.  I.e. (and this is what I gather), I choose to use my shield to block "low".  If the other guy happened to attack "low" then your shields defense is max.  If the other guy attacked "high" (i.e. head), your shield doesn't do much.  The combat seems to be quite different than "just stand there and press heal attack heal attack" from many MMO's, but I don't know.

That's what is said, but I don't know, haven't played the game.  Gonna try and get in the open beta and check it out.

I was really looking forward to Pirates of the Burning Sea, but then I beta'd it, and didnt' like it. Avatar combat was a joke, and I didn't like how they made the ship combat buff capable.  Ridiclous.  Quaff a tot of rum and your crew works better for x seconds.    I.e replace "tot of rum" with "Magic Strength Potion" and there you go.  I totally wanted something different in PotBS. 
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Offline Pestalence_XC

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2008, 05:09:39 pm »
All I can say is that I signed up for the Beta.. waiting on the response.. will try it before I make a judgment on it.
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2008, 11:13:38 am »
That's what I'm hoping for too.  Beta it and see if I like it, or I'll just wait around and see how the reviews go, filter out all the fanboi and hater crap and see if what's described is something I'd like.

I"m so glad I beta'd PotbS.  Saved myself $50.
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Offline Corbomite

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2008, 09:41:04 am »
As a huge Conan fan this looks really cool. Too bad there isn't more of a single player campaign. I'm not a huge fan pay to play. In any case, I'd have to be a merc. I couldn't devote enough time to it to build up a stronghold.

Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2008, 12:45:57 am »
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Offline Brush Wolf

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2008, 02:55:12 am »
While I have not been following this at all the combat system does look interesting. How well it works in reality though is a big question.
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2008, 01:18:08 pm »
I got a beta key today :)  The dl is 12 gigs!  I"m going to *try* and download it tonite :) 
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Offline Brush Wolf

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2008, 05:01:35 pm »
Twelve GB! That would make my 640K DSL line look like dial up. I think it is a good thing I didn't try for a beta key. I get Wal Mart gift cards on a fairly regular basis from my work so if Wal Mart has it I may go that route once it goes live.
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2008, 11:14:36 am »
Started the DL at 9PM last night, when I woke this morning, it was completed.  Gonna open it up tonite and give it a whirl.

Can't decide which class to play first... I've always preferred mages, but going from NWN and it's 1000 spells to AOC's "10" spells, might not cut it for me. Guess I'll start with an HoX.

I like the mounted combat thing, and want something that can smash, so Dark Templar is probably next.

Then after that, well hell I wanna be Thulsa Doom, so Tempest of Set is where it's at.

Probably stick with the Tempest of Set.  My "mmo" rule of thumb is... the ability to self-heal is king... especially since i'm pretty much a solo'er.


If anyone else does decide to take the AoC dive, we should get on the same server.

I'm going to be playing on either the Open-PvP servers or the RP-PvP servers.  No care-bear crap for me.  I hate care-bear mmo's, which is why I never play any mmo more than a couple of months. 
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Offline Pestalence_XC

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2008, 11:47:46 am »
Twelve GB! That would make my 640K DSL line look like dial up. I think it is a good thing I didn't try for a beta key. I get Wal Mart gift cards on a fairly regular basis from my work so if Wal Mart has it I may go that route once it goes live.

That is why I have Road Runner Turbo.. I got the price lock package that has the phone, digital cable and RR for $89.98 / mo plus $10 more for the turbo.. 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up.. that 12 Gb file shouldn't take too long if their server is fast.

all I need now is for them to send me a beta key.

I'm not too much into MMO's except like Battlefield and maybe Crysis and Battlefield 2 and COD 4.. I have also dabbled with NWN online some, but preferred playing the modules much more than the online aspect.. but maybe I haven't found a good server yet.. If I go MMO, I want an RPG MMO that is immersive.. if people keep popping out of character on the chat, then it kills things for me.

Also, I hope that they make chat between characters local.. basically only allow chat for a certain area, not the whole friggin world.. IMHO it ruins it for me.. If you want to find someone online, communicate offline or over Voice, but to clutter the regular chat window with Crap ruins it.. use the PM system in the game for character to character chat if you want to talk.
"You still don't get it, do you?......That's what he does. That's all he does! You can't stop him! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

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Offline FRA.E.Kehakoul_XC

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2008, 12:00:27 pm »
Ace,i would like to ask you when did you sing in for the beta,..?
Because several admins including me applied for it arround one week after the  recruiting started and we still got no keys.
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2008, 01:13:01 pm »
I filled out the application for open beta about 2 weeks ago.  Then I got an email last friday saying "I was approved" and go here to fileplanet and "get your key if one is still available".    SO on Sat I went to the website linked in my email, tried to get a key, but they were all gone.  I tried again on Sunday, and beta-keys were available and I was able to get one.

I read somewhere that they're releasing 5,000 keys per "release" until the 50k keys are all gone.  Some people are saying that the keys last like 10 minutes, so I either got really really lucky with timing, or that info is wrong.

I don't know when the recruiting started to put a timeframe on your guys apps and mine.

Brush - I'd imagine that the game will have various filters for chat.  I.e. there's probably going to be a "global" chat, a "local chat", a "party chat", "guild chat".  That's what I've seen in most MMO's.  In SWG, they had a "planet chat".... I clicked on it like once, read it for five minutes, never went back.  It was all either "Buy my crap" "xxx hacks", some 12 year old that figured out he could type cuss words and not get in trouble "you're a SDF&* mother&*ing bi-y@#$", or 'you suck your guild sucks". 


PS - if you're looking for an NWN Server, try "The Three Towns" in PW Action. 
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Offline Brush Wolf

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2008, 01:47:49 pm »
Pestalence, I don't have cable for my TV and just use the old and generally reliable rabbit ears. I was an early adopter for DSL and I have a grandfathered CAP line making any speed upgrade a royal pain. Maybe after I win the lottery.  :laugh:
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #15 on: April 28, 2008, 04:42:52 pm »
The compressed (zipped) folder is invalid or corrupted. 

/sigh

oh well guess i'll try again tonite.
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2008, 09:45:28 pm »
This is just grand hehe.  Downloaded the beta... started at 10PM last night, finished at around 9:30 this morning.  Got home from work at 6, isntalled, and there was a patch for it.  188 mB later, there was another 13mB patch.  187mb after that... it was finally patched.


Ahhh, gonna start off with a tempest of set or a Dark Templar... but wait... doh... fine print says open beta servers will be up and ready on May 1st.  Great.  2 more days to wait. 

I tell ya, I'm going to love this game for the first week just because of the thrill of actually getting to play it. 
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Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #17 on: May 01, 2008, 04:36:33 pm »
2 hours to beta game time.  I'm so excited, finally.  I feel like a little kid in a toy store.  I hope this game doesn't suck.

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Offline Corbomite

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #18 on: May 05, 2008, 04:55:43 pm »
Well Ace??????????  ;D

Offline AcePylut

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Re: Age of Conan
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2008, 09:41:08 am »
Well lets see here:

I started off playing as a conquerer.  I’ve found that most RPG’s I’ve played have always been geared towards a tank-type char at low levels… in that… at low levels on a new game that’s never been played, the tank gives you the most amount of leeway to make mistakes.  So I played a conquerer – which is like the “full plate and packing steel” kinda guy from D&D.    Been pretty easy with him so far.

The Good:  Combat.  Combat is really fun, there is no auto-attack so imho that’s a big improvement over the norm. Press the “1” key, and you do an attack on the “left side”, press “2” and you do sort of a “overhand chop” attack, and “3” attacks the right side.  Now this is important, because like in SFC, you as a defender can do shield reinforcement.  I can defend in any one of those three directions “more” than the other, or I can spread my shields around equally (think… “I can focus my defense in this direction”).  If I attack where someone is focused, then my attack does a fraction of damage.  If I attack where someone isn’t focused, then my attack does a heck of a lot more damage.   This is huge in the game, there is a very noticeable effect from attack/defending where they aren’t.  I like this alot, it makes you "pay attention" in combat instead of just "run up into range, auto-attack, and press heal every 7.8 seconds". 

The way I see this work in game?  I go up to a bad guy, and start chopping at where he isn't defending.  After about three successive strikes on this area, the enemy starts shifting shields over, so then I start attacking from another direction.  I haven't figured out how to effectively adjust my shields yet... haven't needed to I guess, but then again, I've only had a shield equipped for about the last level (hadn't found one that I could use, and it took me that long to "step away" from the game play and look at some of the other stuff like finding an armorsmith to go buy one)

That’s your basic combat… on top of that, you get “combo attacks” as you level up.  These are nothing more or less than “special attacks” that you’d have in other games, have cool-down timers, require stamina to perform.  Yada yada yada.  The usual.

The combat is really fun, so far.  That’s definitely the strength of the game.  I don’t see why any MMO would go back to auto-attack after this… but then again, when I saw how CoH/CoV did 3D flight, I thought 3D combat in an mmo was solved and things would never go “back” they way they were.  I was wrong.


Questing:  In this game, there are two “modes” you can play in… one is “daytime”, in which you can interact with others just like a normal mmo, the other is “nighttime”, in which you’re basically playing a singleplayer game.  You can switch back and forth fairly easily (the bartender at the noobie tavern).  There are other differences too, (some merchants don’t appear at night).  It seems as if the “character quest” takes place at night, as night is where people will talk about things that happen at night like assassinations and rebellions and stuff. Sounds stupid in a way, “who wants to pay to play an online singleplayer game”, but I guess the reason is that on the full PvP servers, this will at least give your char a chance to get a little exp under his belt before heading out into gank-ville.  It makes sense in that way.  Most of the quests are the same stuff you’ve seen before “oh the big guy that run the town is a tyrant and is in league with these other bad guys”.

PVP:  Tried it a little bit… a couple of “capture the flag” type games.  Fun, hectic, but my performance issues made this a problem.  It was choppy and laggy and that was just with about 5-10 people on screen.  Good luck having these “200 person battles” that the devs keep raving about.

Levelling:  Fairly easy.  You’ll go from level 1 to level 2 in 1 kill.  So far… doesn’t seem to be any great differences between speed of leveling between this game and others.  I haven’t read anything about being able to respec a char – but did see where you can have your feats cleared to re-select them, so that’s basically about the same thing.

I haven’t been able to check anything else out (mounts, crafting, structures, etc.) as that doesn’t come until after level 13, and level 13 is the max you can get.  Supposedly, there’s a major plot decision to make around level 13 that they don’t want to give away just yet.  That’s not a bad thing, cuz since my conquerer is level 12 right now, I’ll go make a priest type char, then a rogue type char, than a magic-loser type char, and see how they all play.

The Bad:  Performance.  Yes, this is supposedly a stress test and all that… however… in noobie city, I get around 5-10 fps max.  This is unacceptable, my rig is not ancient, it’s above the recommended specs, I should not be getting fps this low.  When I get outside of town, or in a dungeon, I get around 15-20 fps.  I would gather that my machine is probably above your average gaming machine (especially with all the upgrades I did earlier this year), so I’ll say it now that if this doesn’t improve, the game isn’t going anywhere.  If too many mobs attack, it gets choppy and laggy.  There’s no way in hell that this is going to be able to have these “massive guild and siege” wars that are being billed as it’s attraction, not when I can barely fight 3 or 4 mobs without choppiness, and certainly not when I PvP and it lags/chops with 8-10 people on screen.  I will say that when I set the graphics to max and just look around (when I can), the game is beautiful, but then again, what game isn’t?

Maturity level:  So yeah, they call prostitues "whores" and I'm on a quest where "the blood of a virgin was used to sustain life through this magic thing"... and to stop that life-sustaining feature of the magic thing, I have to taint the magic thing with the vaginal blood of a whore.  Yes- it's for mature people.  No, it doesn't really add to the game.  The end result is to "go here and 'use' this potion on that magic thing".  The whole nipple/cussword/mature thing is a marketing gimmick imho... take a look at the forums, and judging by the in-game chat, the player base is as immature as every other game out there.  No better, no worse.

The Bad:  Invisible walls.  I don’t like playing in games where there looks to be enough room for you to “squeeze through a gap”, but there’s an invisible wall keeping you out.  Or, you get those “run up a hill but get magically stopped” invisible walls.  Imho there’s far better ways to stop people from going where  you don’t want them to go… like… go ahead and let them jump off that cliff, and see what happens when they land and explode like a watermelon…. And… if you don’t want me trying to squeeze through that gap between the wall and the house, then don’t make it so friggin big.

The Bad:  Crashes.  I crash a lot, probably every 45mins to an hour.

The things that offset the bad:  Since beta playing began, there’s been two patches released.  Each patch has helped improve the performance and ctd’s.  Yes, performance still sucks, but it’s better than it was a week ago (I basically couldn’t play it when I first logged).  Yes, I still crash, but not nearly as much as I was before.  Loading times between the beta release and this latest patch have improved tremendously.   

Now, I know this is an open-beta, and is supposedly a stress-test of the servers… but don’t kid yourself, “open-beta” is really just a marketing trick to “generate a lot of interest right before release” and get sales.  So it irks me to hear “you’re going to crash, it’s a beta”.  Yeah, I know that.  I know it’s a beta, not the released version, blah blah blah.  I also know that in my business, if I’m going to try and get people to buy a prototype that hasn’t been released yet, I’m not going to make a prototype that has too many issues.   

The Verdict:  In short:  I’m going to buy the game and play it free for a month.  If at the end of that time, I can’t do everything that I’m supposed to be able to do because of performance (as in “oh, I haven’t done that mission where you kill 1000 beetles in a row because my machine lags out” or “I can’t join your guild siege, I lag out / gets choppy / etc”) than I’m not subscribing.



Feel free to ask any questions you want and I’ll try and answer them as best as possible.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2008, 09:52:00 am by AcePylut »
If you care about the environment, it's better to eat a Salad in a Hummer than a Cheeseburger in a Prius.