Age of Conan

You people should read the OP more closely before screaming come back when you see the game after 20....  Did you make note that the poster is also speaking about experiences using the closed beta client as well?  Meaning this poster has very likely experienced the game past 20 but can't talk about it but still saying they don't know what the game is like and can't make a judgement might be completely wrong....

Originally posted by Cabe2323

 

Originally posted by DAS1337

Originally posted by Cabe2323

So I don't know what to think now.  I was hoping to get a new game to play but...

 

First off the client seems to run pretty well but it is somewhat clunky imo.  Reminds me of the plastic feeling of EQ2's character models. 

The combat is different but not really that much different.  I honestly like the reactive styles of Dark Age of Camelot more then the "Active" combat so far. 

I honestly don't like the overall feel of the game though.  It doesn't come off being very adult oriented.  It has a lot of unrealistic gore (ie massive amounts of blood on wounds that would be more blood then a person actually has) and also way over usage of sexuality. 

The number 1 thing that I don't like so far though is the zoning and path walls.  I honestly do not like zoning.  I feel like the game is a cross between guild wars and vanguard/eq2 style.  I just don't feel like I have a world to explore.  It feels like I am being pushed down paths to where they want me to go.  Literally too,  I mean I am really being pushed down preset paths to where I have to go. 

 

Overall the performance of the closed beta client was a lot better then when i tried my open beta client.  But it still just doesn't have that "it" factor for me. 

My best example would be that Age of Conan is like one of those big blockbuster popcorn summer movies.  They overdose you on special effects and load bangs, but have no depth at all. 

 

How many times do we have to say that the first 20 levels are linear and story driven?  Even Funcom has stated that there will be some walls, they are driving you in one direction because that's how the tutorial Tortage Island is supposed to be.  How can we make you understand?  The main land is supposed to be much more open.

You don't need to make me understand.  Why would anyone want to play something they don't enjoy for 20 levels, just for the promise that it will be better later?  In my opinion it is a horrible design plan. 

 

EQ2 has a starter island but it isn't linear like Tortage Island is.  It allows you to run around the entire zone up to the cliffs etc.  What I hate are these artificial pathways that are created in games. 

I'm concerned about the same thing. In a MMORPG in certain areas you should be able to take off in any direction and run for miles,. A truely open world experience.  If you don't know what I mean assume you're in a dessert with a path in front of you. In MMORPG's you could take off in any direction you like and die of thirst days later. In a linear game if you varried off the path you'd run into an invsible wall at 15'.

For AoC OB it's very linear like Guildwars. You can't stray too far from the path before you run into insvislbe walls or terrain you can't navigate past.

People keep claiming the world opens up at lvl 20. I think we're all ware the full multiplayer part starts then and the world is open for travel but are the zones still linear? That could indeed be a killer if so because there are probably many MMO players that do not like to be restricted like that. including me. One of the main reasons I hate games like GW or DDO.  And seeing as the OP stated they played closed beta too I'm not happy.

Wish they would let us level up higher or at least lift the damn NDA totally so we would know for sure. Another reason that makes me wary. They release NDA for 1-13 but leave the rest intact with only a week before they let early people play retail.

This isn't a horrible design, it is just completely unforgiving.

I've known since the start that this kind of thing would happen in this game, and I applaud funcom for the inovation and the guts. They will reap the rewards for what they have done.

Even if that reward turns out to be a niche game with a small playerbase.

The point is, they WANT you to go through 20 levels, forced, in exactly the way THEY want you to... because it prepares you for the game. And it weeds out those who just don't want to play the game.

Leaving them with the cream of the crop. Not just fanbois (who will latch onto the nearest shiney object once it pops up and AOC loses it's shine anyway) but the people who LIKE the gameplay mechanics, the storyline, the world structure, the over saturation of gore and sex... and like conan also.

If NO ONE likes this game post-20, then they fail miserably as a company. If even a few like it, their plan pays off. Not as well as it could if they were aiming at a HUGE demographic (and animating cartoonish WoW or japinime avatars while they were at it) but also not with the same satisfaction and integrity of product they appear to be striving for.  If they fall short of that, they still were one of very few developers to try something different on a large scale. Not a tentative dipping of the toes into the swimming pool to test the waters, but a definative shift from the safe and boring toward the inovative. Even if the innovative might be flawed, or completely broken.

If their game sucks, I at least take my hat off to them for rolling the dice. And I doubt very much that their game just sucks. But I guess, in 17 days, I'll see for myself.

Originally posted by boomerangx

those folks claiming this game looks like eq2 or whatever ...LOL

 

1 word = UPGRADE

I am running an AMD 64 X2 4200+ 8800GTS (g92) 512MB Card and 4 gigs of PC6400 Ram all on Vista 64-bit Home Premium.  I am well beyond the specs for the game and should be able to run it just fine.  I can run LOTRO at Ultra High with DX10 and I get around 50-70 FPS. 

I made a new character again last night to try out a new guy and see if the changes they have made helped my performance.  It is running better but I can't help but feel boxed in. 

My favorite MMO of all time is Asheron's Call which was completely wide open.  If you saw a mountain and you wanted to climb it you could go and try.  Even games like Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, and LOTRO have artificial walls but Age of Conan really feels more like Guild Wars then them.  (Remember we can only talk about 1-13)

Originally posted by Cabe2323

Originally posted by boomerangx

those folks claiming this game looks like eq2 or whatever ...LOL

 

1 word = UPGRADE

I am running an AMD 64 X2 4200+ 8800GTS (g92) 512MB Card and 4 gigs of PC6400 Ram all on Vista 64-bit Home Premium.  I am well beyond the specs for the game and should be able to run it just fine.  I can run LOTRO at Ultra High with DX10 and I get around 50-70 FPS. 

 

 

I made a new character again last night to try out a new guy and see if the changes they have made helped my performance.  It is running better but I can't help but feel boxed in. 

My favorite MMO of all time is Asheron's Call which was completely wide open.  If you saw a mountain and you wanted to climb it you could go and try.  Even games like Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, and LOTRO have artificial walls but Age of Conan really feels more like Guild Wars then them.  (Remember we can only talk about 1-13)

Erm, the game is zoned and linear without free roaming world and that much has been made clear. Closer to GW zones as opposed to EQ II zones, not much exploration if any.

Originally posted by Illyrian

 

Originally posted by Cabe2323

Originally posted by boomerangx

those folks claiming this game looks like eq2 or whatever ...LOL

 

1 word = UPGRADE

I am running an AMD 64 X2 4200+ 8800GTS (g92) 512MB Card and 4 gigs of PC6400 Ram all on Vista 64-bit Home Premium.  I am well beyond the specs for the game and should be able to run it just fine.  I can run LOTRO at Ultra High with DX10 and I get around 50-70 FPS. 

 

 

I made a new character again last night to try out a new guy and see if the changes they have made helped my performance.  It is running better but I can't help but feel boxed in. 

My favorite MMO of all time is Asheron's Call which was completely wide open.  If you saw a mountain and you wanted to climb it you could go and try.  Even games like Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, and LOTRO have artificial walls but Age of Conan really feels more like Guild Wars then them.  (Remember we can only talk about 1-13)

 

Erm, the game is zoned and linear without free roaming world and that much has been made clear. Closer to GW zones as opposed to EQ II zones, not much exploration if any.

Again this is largely in the level 1-20 Tortage area.  This area was originally supposed to be entirely single player so the design is more of a single player RPG game.  Of course to each his/her own though.  If you don't like the design of 1-20 maybe you will like it after, but maybe you won't give it a try because that's the kind of person you are.  I know I wouldn't eat through a plate of something I didn't like just to get to a dessert I did.  Although I happen to love this plate of something.

Originally posted by ProfRed

 

Originally posted by Illyrian

 

Originally posted by Cabe2323

Originally posted by boomerangx

those folks claiming this game looks like eq2 or whatever ...LOL

 

1 word = UPGRADE

I am running an AMD 64 X2 4200+ 8800GTS (g92) 512MB Card and 4 gigs of PC6400 Ram all on Vista 64-bit Home Premium.  I am well beyond the specs for the game and should be able to run it just fine.  I can run LOTRO at Ultra High with DX10 and I get around 50-70 FPS. 

 

 

I made a new character again last night to try out a new guy and see if the changes they have made helped my performance.  It is running better but I can't help but feel boxed in. 

My favorite MMO of all time is Asheron's Call which was completely wide open.  If you saw a mountain and you wanted to climb it you could go and try.  Even games like Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, and LOTRO have artificial walls but Age of Conan really feels more like Guild Wars then them.  (Remember we can only talk about 1-13)

 

Erm, the game is zoned and linear without free roaming world and that much has been made clear. Closer to GW zones as opposed to EQ II zones, not much exploration if any.

 

Again this is largely in the level 1-20 Tortage area.  This area was originally supposed to be entirely single player so the design is more of a single player RPG game.  Of course to each his/her own though.  If you don't like the design of 1-20 maybe you will like it after, but maybe you won't give it a try because that's the kind of person you are.  I know I wouldn't eat through a plate of something I didn't like just to get to a dessert I did.  Although I happen to love this plate of something.

ProfRed, that leaves me with one conclusion.  Funcom screwed up in a big way by making 1-20 too much like a single player game and not enough like an MMOG.  You don't need 25% of your levels to teach people how to play your game.  Again, I've been playing MMOGs for 15 years and I have always known within the 1st hour if the game was for me or not.  You can't tell me your fellow guildies don't feel the same way either.  I was in your guild and we all tried Vanguard.  Guess what, most didn't make it past level 20 and quit.  After the end of the first month of play, only four of us were still playing. 

What is my point you ask?  First impressions are everything.  It is called PISS POOR game design to use 25% of your levels on Tortage as a tutorial and then switch it up to the traditional way of playing MMOGs.  Either they screwed up big with this design or the rest of their game is more of the same as the first 20 levels.  I guess will know the answer to that on May 20th.

Sorry but i'm not one of Avery's boys.  I've talked to him once in IRC and just because we are in the same guild doesn't mean I work for him.  Our guild is AoC and WAR. 

What I am saying is that they designed the game originally to be single player 1-20.  Whether this was smart or not is up for argument and i'm sure plenty of people would hate this.  I don't think they wanted this as a 20 level tutorial, but instead a way to make the player feel immersed in the World.  They changed it so that you could group after level 5, but this is a deviant from their original design.  The areas are largely zoned due to this and yes it might be poor game design.  However, it is not like this to 80 and like I said if the first 20 levels are enough to turn you away when it's like this then that sucks, but that is how it's going to be for some people. 

On the same idea though that will draw in players.  I personally like the first 20 levels... but it's not for everyone.