I would call it dumbed down from the likes of Anarchy Online. But from what we've seen, it's still quite a bit more 'advanced' then WoWs. You've got (according to Athelan,) partial attribute adjustments, skill points to spend on skills like stealth, perception, climbing, bandaging, and 3 feat trees that are each 4x as complex as WoW's talents.

So yea, dumbed down compared to the old days and AO or Eve. But still quite a bit more customizable and advanced then WoW and LotRO.

Originally posted by Fion

I would call it dumbed down from the likes of Anarchy Online. But from what we've seen, it's still quite a bit more 'advanced' then WoWs. You've got (according to Athelan,) partial attribute adjustments, skill points to spend on skills like stealth, perception, climbing, bandaging, and 3 feat trees that are each 4x as complex as WoW's talents.

 

So yea, dumbed down compared to the old days and AO or Eve. But still quite a bit more customizable and advanced then WoW and LotRO.

Partial Attribute Adjustments - He couldnt say for sure (infact I got even more worried after reading those responses, they sounded more like excuses then explainations... but that might just be me  )

Skill Points - This depends really on how many skill points we get... can we max out all skills? or do we have to spend them carefully? 

Feat Tree - Meh, Feat - talent - traits, call it what you want, the class is still laid out for you.

Originally posted by BesCirga

 

IMO... We know too little to draw that conclusion.

 

Partial Attribute Adjustments - He couldnt say for sure (infact I got even more worried after reading those responses, they sounded more like excuses then explainations... but that might just be me  )

Skill Points - This depends really on how many skill points we get... can we max out all skills? or do we have to spend them carefully? 

Feat Tree - Meh, Feat - talent - traits, call it what you want, the class is still laid out for you.

1: He couldn't say for sure, but he wouldn't have said at all if he wasn't pretty confident. He's a dev, he knows if he says something, forum goers and players will take it completely out of context and go ape shit if their statement turns out wrong lol.

2: I'm assuming it's somewhat like Anarchy Onlines skill system (AO being Funcom's first MMOG.) You get so many skill points and you can put them in various skills as you see fit. Of course certain skills will be more useful for some classes then others (mana regen for mages, sneaking for assassins, etc) and I HIGHLY doubt you'll be able to max all of them. Though I think you'd probably be able to max a few. But in the end this is just an assumption, but also an educated guess.

3: True, but at least unlike WoW were your power as a player is based far more on what gear you have and what talent build you've taken, in AoC it's been said over and over that feats are meant to augment abilities you already have, or let you specialize in the styles your class has (such as 2h weapons for barbarians vs duel wielding, etc.) Another example is that Priest classes have no Feat tree that increases their healing ability. So they don't have to worry about taking some spec that will let them heal uber, but be utterly gimp at anything else, and unable to do anything without a team. Combined with the fact that the feat trees are far more complex then WoWs (assuming those shown to use are a standard layout through all classes.) In WoWs you start with 3 or so choices and slowly work down to 2, and finally just 1, in each talent tree. In AoC each tree has 4 branches, which gives you a LOT of choice.

Now thats just the basic 'class advancement' systems. It doesn't count things like what kind of gear you choose to use, how you slot gems into crafted gear, what prestige class you choose, what kind of mount you get (we now know that there is a variety of even just horses, from light and fast riding horses to slow armored war horses, war mammoths, killer rhinos, camels, etc.) Really, class specific customizations are just the start. After all, in AO, easily the most complex MMOG around, especially when it comes to class advancement, choosing your skillpoints each level was just the start of what made your character unique in that game.

Lets leave gear and mounts out of this  even though Prestige classes sound interesting. (must admit I havent reseached even a tiny bit on prestige classes, going to now)

You wrap AoC character development into a very nice looking package,  but im still worried. Maybe its just all those recent letdowns im getting from the AoC front: classes based on stealth, heavy zoning, limited character devolopment, another heavy quest based game. Some of these might not be true, but it still gives me a niggling feeling... 

Originally posted by Horkathane

 

Originally posted by Bakhalla

WTF?

three skill trees per class? where have i seen that before? ooh i can't remeber *cough* WoW*cough*

 

man that pisses me off. inescapable wow cloning going on everwhere!

 

i can totally see Aoc's battle plan for sub victory over wow, and war.

wow=wow

war=wow+advanced pvp

AoC=wow -fantasy races+advanced pvp+titties = >all other wow clones todate.

 

wtg Aoc!!

*begins to pray that darkfall may actually exist... and is as they say.*

Hmm, I find it amazing how you can take 1 aspect of a game and draw a curtain completely around the entire games structure and rubber stamp a label.

 

Its got swords? OMGWTF!!!!!! its a wow clone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was reading this that was th 1st thing that poped into my head,

<sarcasm>After all, wow was the 1st mmo ever made and every other game must be a clone,</sarcasm>