I know it's only been a few days since the retail release but I would love to get some feedback on your experience of it so far. I see theres plenty of seasoned GA gamers playing AoC so I trust your judgement :)
I know the graphics look awesome and theres some interesting departures from the norm of MMO land. I am tempted to just buy it rather than wait for a trial.
Before I splash out that £50 (game and timecard) I'd love to get a little feedback and first impressions from you folks.
Like most games PvE is incredibly easy. The one dungeon I've gone through so far, one group had me tanking 2 levels below the dungeon and the healer being spec'd for DPS, and thats a level 40ish dungeon.
The quests are much more involved then most games, (see the great quests thread for an example) mostly because you actually
talk to the quest givers.
If your on a PvE server, crafting is going to be hard I'm betting, not many nodes and lots of people camping them. Not as bad on a PvP server... we just kill someone if theres camping a node xD
The game is instanced much like GW, different copies of each zone. But lots of people per copy about 250 or so I'd say. So think what GW2 will be like, I'm guessing its almost the same way.
This is only up to level 42 though... so you'll have to wait awhile if you want info on level 80 raids ;p
What is there to decide, EG? Lani and I are playing the game. Isn't that enough reason?
But seriously, the game is truly beautiful. The running through thick jungle forests, old temple complexes, dark dungeons, lively towns, it is all stuff not to be missed. The character customization is pretty detailed. Every level you get skill points and feats you can distribute over several progress trees. Because the game is so new it will really be an adventure trying to raise your character. Perhaps you won't make the uber guy, you will have fun trying stuff out.
I have never played GW or WOW so I can't really compare it with either. But to me it feels a lot more like Oblivion/Morrowind than COV, Vanguard or DDO.
The first 20 levels play out around the start town of Tortage. Your time there is split between night time in which you have a class specific solo story, and day time in which you can team or solo more quests than you can handle. The quests are all pretty good. Not too much kill 30 rats. Some, but you can skip those.
The only thing I think it kind of weak at the moment is team play. It is really hard to keep track where you team mates have disappeared to. Also keeping track which missions you are working on and which steps get completed are quite confusing. I hope they will improve on that, but that is not reason enough to play the game.
EG, I can think of only one reason this might not be an enjoyable game for you. Hardware spec requirements.
Other than that it will be a throughly enjoyable experience.
I don't know if it'll last, but I for one am enjoying AoC as much if not more than I did Vanguard with all of its problems. I stuck with that game for 8 months.
And if you'd roll on the EU RP-PvE server you'll have given me an excuse for my first alt and Phe's second (or third) :-)
Little note on "easiness of PvE", I found that this is dependent on class, group, physical age of your nervous system and whether you went into the "Normal" or "Epic" instance of a particular dungeon/map.
For me, I think GW generally looks prettier, although this one has much more "mood." This has a much more rough-hewn look and feel to the world.
Its enjoyable, but I don't have that "gotta get home so I can play" addiction to it (yet). I do think Geo's right about this seeming like a preview of GW2 in terms of some of the instancing/persistence. Last night I went into the catacombs under the first city, and had some fun aggroing 3-4 higher level baddies and leading them into parties of other players without them realizing it (really I was just running away, and the others were in the wrong place at the wrong time). Good times. ;-)
To be honest, of all the MMO's I played the one I would NOT compare AoC with in any way, design, play-style or looks wise, it is Guild Wars. And not just because AoC is one of those "It's about the Journey, not reaching the end first" games.
Where GW made the most out of less graphics wise, AoC brings out the big guns. With GW2 I'm sure ArenaNet will stick close to their Blizzard roots and once again go for minimal hardware requirements. Age of Conan is squarely aiming at a different market. It will come as no surprise therefore that it's not games like GW suffering from a withdrawal of players, but the likes of graphically comparable Vanguard.
Instancing in AoC is 100%, like Guild Wars, but unlike Guild Wars you don't get the feeling you're effectively running around in a revamped BattleNet's lobbies and maps. It's more integrated into the game, to the point where people don't seem to grasp there are instances. It's more like Tabula Rasa or Pirates of the Burning Sea that way.
It's also very much unlike GW in that it's not about peaking your level as soon as possible, but much more about the journey. More like WOW or even closer EverQuest II or Vanguard again. But, games like GW, WOW and EQ2 are all stemming from the common root of "High Fantasy", whereas Age of Conan harkens back to an older genre. I'm referring to Sword & Sorcery. An altogether different style, more nitty gritty than the cloying grace and moralism of High Fantasy.
I find the 'maturity' of Age of Conan a breath of fresh air, not because I crave being able to banter with a virtual prostitute, but because it's not made a big deal of in this game. It is in the hype around it, but you know? I've only seen one topless female player running around doing dance emotes so far. Ther's a lot more hormones flying around GW's Pre-searing Ascalon than in down town Tortage at the brothel.
The Combat System is fun but different, and I suspect we'll see some tweaking and adjusting to it in the future to make it more a match to players' expectation of what is tough and what isn't. This should be interesting as there's a much larger element of player's focus (not skill, focus) involved. The combat is much more engaging than that of other MMOG's. I find I like that a lot, even though it means I can play for shorter stretches at a time. Something the youngsters may not yet be feeling, but at my age I notice I prefer the keyboard over the mouse more and more and with this game, that burn in the wrists comes on sooner than with some other clickfests (CoX, GW, et. al.)
- Looks-wise it's closest to Vanguard and Oblivion, couldn't be further from the cutting-corners engine of Guild Wars. Sorry, I like the look of Guild Wars to, but it's DX8 barely into DX9 whereas AoC is Dx9 almost into DX10, the difference counts, even at minimal settings.
The only game with the same level of Quality of Animation though, is CoX.
- Gameplay wise it's closest to Oblivion or Tabula Rasa except that this system is more Controller ready. heck the entire interface is done with the XBOX 360 in (the back of the) mind.
- Lore / Background wise, it's hard to compare due to most games being High Fantasy and this being Sword & Sorcery. I think it's best comparable to WOW's depth, but with less pop-culture jokes and references and more dark / mature humor and references. Some pretty blatant references. From what I've seen it's as in depth as WOW or EQ(1 or 2) and thereby surpasses GW, Tabula Rasa and Vanguard. You can't even see the Caribean form AoC's lofty peaks :-)
- Crafting is really just gathering of resources until you filled your list. So, pretty recognizable to a WOW or GW player and a bit of a let down to Vanguard or EverQuest 2 fans where both Harvesting and Crafting are mini-games in their own right.
- Market economics, while not in at the moment due to duping exploits needing to be fixed, will be auction house based. A far cry from GW's Open Fish Market style of trading. From what I saw in Beta, it will need some work but will be better than Vanguards, but not as complex as WOW's or god forbid, Eve's.
- Character Cutomization, is not as diverse as CoX, but also not as toony. Comparable to Oblivion and Heroes Journey (not released).
All in all, the closest comparison really is Oblivion "online".
I wasn't comparing it to GW in any way cept the instancing xD Just saying that this is probably how ANet will do GW2, open PvP, instanced but still open worlds, a proper AH... *cough*
Fraid it was me that compared graphics. I'm quite sure AoC is the more technically advanced. It can obviously handle higher settings and polycounts (most of which seem to reside in the posterior of the female models). xD
I was just stating a general preference for the look of GW (a contrast more than a comparison), particularly latter areas like in EotN. I'll be the first to say that this is just my personal opinion though.
I agree that Oblivion is probably a better comparison. I haven't played much of it, but it does have a moodier feel that AoC has as well.
Heh, please don't read my post as a "this is not Guild Wars" rant, it wasn't intended as such. I opened with that line because I feel that way, then went on to draw comparisons where I se them :-)
Thankyou for taking the time to give me feedback :)
I hadn't realised it was set in instances, the fact those instances contain a larger amount of players than the GW instance I'm used to sounds appealing.
Oblivion is a game I got bored of very quickly, I think I may have made the wrong choices too early in that game- it was about 4hrs in that I got that 'not doing it for me' feeling. It was a nice looking game and ran fine on my machine, this is where I have a doubt - system specs,I think my machine just about meets the AoC minimum specs, if I got it and it was too laggy to play I would be severely dissapointed. I'm guessing like WoW you need to either have a credit card or pre pay time card when you create your account? or can you just play the first month without either of those ?
The quests sound great, I am definately tempted but Im not currently in a position to buy a game, timecard and upgrade my PC should my specs not be able to run it. My current machine is AMD 64 3ghz, 1gb ram and a Gforce 8500GT. HD space I dont have a problem with.
The maturity aspect sounds good and means a different experience straight away and of course a different player base...I am tempted.
QUOTE
What is there to decide, EG? Lani and I are playing the game. Isn't that enough reason?
Always reason enough :)
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
• Guild Wars: Mutants [MU] • Age of Conan: Ampian Forerunners •
Well, you really need more ram, 2gig for XP, 4 for vista x.x
but hey, ram is cheap atm lol
You vcard might be a little stressed, but should run it.
About the CC, yeah you need one or a time card to set up an account, but just cancel the sub right after the account is set up, the 30 days will have kicked in.
As usual with subbed games that one month free only starts after you picked a payment scheme for month 2.
Time-cards suck in this regard because you immediately commit to a 2nd month.
Credit Card's better that way as you can still choose to reneg on your sub until the new month starts. Even then you can claim it back through your company but that'd be stealing.
I understand there's also a Pay-by-Cash option. Dunno how that works in practice, but if you give that choice you have to give an ID number (passport I think) but you do not have to buy a time-card for month 2 yet so strikes me as the better option if a CC isn't available.
I concur on the RAM, you're gonna need 2GB I think but then you should be able to run the game. Not at highest, but I can't either with an Intel 3.4G Duo Core, 2GB ram and a Geforce 8800 w/ 512MB on it. Medium looks gorgeous and if you turn of Shadows (something I always find not giving me enough bang for the buck) that helps a lot.
I understand there's also a Pay-by-Cash option. Dunno how that works in practice, but if you give that choice you have to give an ID number (passport I think) but you do not have to buy a time-card for month 2 yet so strikes me as the better option if a CC isn't available.
I was chatting to someone else earlier who activated their acct for the first free month without having to supply cc details or a timecard number, must have been how they did it.
I trust your folks judgement and this Necro video :)
Guess I'll be seeing you ingame soon.....
• Guild Wars: Mutants [MU] • Age of Conan: Ampian Forerunners •
If your on a PvE server, crafting is going to be hard I'm betting, not many nodes and lots of people camping them. Not as bad on a PvP server... we just kill someone if theres camping a node xD
To come back to this comment, it appears Funcom actually anticipated this. Maybe the same mechanic is applied to PVP servers as well though.
Today I found the Aquilonian TradeSkill village / instance where Guild Villages are also placed, the town of Poitain. I later took Phe there as well, as she'd just hit 20 and that's when you can get the skill-quests.
We browsed around the area a bit to see how the Guild Villages were laid out, pretty neat I might ad, and hit our first nodes. We were promptly ambushed by a "Jealous Prospector", a pack of wild hounds and then a Mini Boss. All of them at the same node.
I believe we did not mine a single node (about 6-8 harvesting attempts) without at least one ambush. The whole area was in fact littered with ambushes of various kinds.
We even got ambushed by foes who remained invisible until we used Search and later walked into a group of level 34's (I was 25 and Phe 21/(24) apprenticed). The result was one fatality (Phe) some strategical running (especially when a pack of L25 dogs joined in) and turning to fight and we emerged victorious from that fight. These were mobs a good 9 to 10 levels above us. Mind they were men and therefore did not have the stamina to chase us for more than 20 yards or so, but this did made me feel the game could use some balancing :-)
Anyhoo, I did not get the same kind of ambushes in the Wildlands of Zelata, but there's more roaming mobs there and all in all I haven't harvested more than 2 nodes there yet. The rest were depleted when I happened upon them. But it looks like Funcom did a pretty good attempt at recreating the kind of play a PVP zone creates, but without the griefing and spawn-point camping. I also think I would not have been able to stand up to L34 players :-)
Well thanks to you all I bit the bullet, hit my local retailer and got the game. I was pleasently surprised that :
1. Installation and patching was much quicker than I anticipated, during patching my download speed was a consistent 500-600kb which meant it was way less than the expected hours before launch time.
2. My system can actually play it and it looks awesome, I turned off shadows, bloom and set reflections to only reflect landscapes. None of those reductions had any real significance as far as eye candy goes, sure with a better system all those shadows and reflections would be nice but in a trade off between the expence of boosting my PC and losing some fancy effects...losing a few fancy effects wins :)
The only problem I did have was a little lag in a crowded area and some textures loading a little slow, the latter I'm hoping can be helped by the defrag currently underway on my hd.
Lani's deion of an online Oblivion best sums up the way the game looks. Gameplay is quite unique, the much raved about combat system is interesting and once you recognise the basics (how to spot where your foes shields are concentrated - took me a while before the penny dropped on that one) you'll find you spend a little less time being dead :)
How threat and aggro works i'm still a little unsure of, it seems much harder to pull single mobs in this game than others and its very easy to get whiped by multiple mobs, there have been a few times when that single foe bought 2 of it's mates who where just behind that tree you didn't notice.
Quests are great, alot of thought and dubious voice acting with some hard to pin down accents (greek or scottish?) make the whole questing experience much more enjoyable if your the kind of player happy to sit back and listen to what is being said, you can of course be click happy and skip all the voice overs but I'm in no rush. Every quest so far has these 'cutscenes' and we have yet to find a suitable acronym for 'sorry I was in a cutscene' when you miss something in chat.
I was somehow hoodwinked into joining the AMP guild, I should have seen right through Lani's 'it will make it easier to chat' ploy....but little did he know I bought an invading army with me :)
So far so good and of course those ghoulish looking minions should make any Necro proud, but if anyone knows what triggers that frozen minion (reminds me alot of Oni from GW) then please let me know, it seems completely random atm.
• Guild Wars: Mutants [MU] • Age of Conan: Ampian Forerunners •
05/31/08 05:29
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