Age of Conan

sadly, it look like Funcom did'nt learn from the horrible launch of Anarchy Online.   With only a few days before launch the game is still bugged like hell, crashes, lag, hitching, bad fps.   I was really confident that the folks at Funcom would have learned something, but as of today, Conan seems to be heading in the same direction of anarchy online.  

Hope i'm wrong, but i don't see how they could turn the game around in 2 weeks if this is the result for 4-5 years of developpement.

Originally posted by Aguitha

sadly, it look like Funcom did'nt learn from the horrible launch of Anarchy Online.   With only a few days before launch the game is still bugged like hell, crashes, lag, hitching, bad fps.   I was really confident that the folks at Funcom would have learned something, but as of today, Conan seems to be heading in the same direction of anarchy online.  

Hope i'm wrong, but i don't see how they could turn the game around in 2 weeks if this is the result for 4-5 years of developpement.

I'm actually starting to turn optimistic.  I think that most of the problems they have are rooted in a common core.  Namely the graphics/driver interface.  Once you get through that horrendous issue the game seems to play pretty well.

There are still massive lag issues but these are not server based they are graphic.  And they seem to be the same issue Vanguard has in that it is compiling textures or some such thing.  Basically when you zone into a new instance you will be unable to move for awhile till it has the textures compiled.  Now once that is done you move a bit and it freezed again.  I think what happens is your view distance hits more uncompiled texture data.  I'm gonna do some experimenting but I'm thinking if I expand my view distance to max it might compile a lot more at once.  This means it will take a lot longer till it starts moving properly but it might make it get it all done so I don't have it happening as I move.  Once the textures are compiled the game runs smooth.  I also think it is supposed to write this data out and save it so the next time you reboot it doesn't have to recompile but I think when you quite the game it crashes and looses all that data.  But that is a theory.  Tonight I'll play with it some more and prove my theory.

I have given up on playing AoC.  After getting a few chars to lvl 13 through all the crashes, lag, bad community, bugs, etc...it just isn't that fun to me.  Even if the game ran flawlessly I would still not play this game.

Originally posted by ethion

 

Originally posted by Aguitha

sadly, it look like Funcom did'nt learn from the horrible launch of Anarchy Online.   With only a few days before launch the game is still bugged like hell, crashes, lag, hitching, bad fps.   I was really confident that the folks at Funcom would have learned something, but as of today, Conan seems to be heading in the same direction of anarchy online.  

Hope i'm wrong, but i don't see how they could turn the game around in 2 weeks if this is the result for 4-5 years of developpement.

 

I'm actually starting to turn optimistic.  I think that most of the problems they have are rooted in a common core.  Namely the graphics/driver interface.  Once you get through that horrendous issue the game seems to play pretty well.

There are still massive lag issues but these are not server based they are graphic.  And they seem to be the same issue Vanguard has in that it is compiling textures or some such thing.  Basically when you zone into a new instance you will be unable to move for awhile till it has the textures compiled.  Now once that is done you move a bit and it freezed again.  I think what happens is your view distance hits more uncompiled texture data.  I'm gonna do some experimenting but I'm thinking if I expand my view distance to max it might compile a lot more at once.  This means it will take a lot longer till it starts moving properly but it might make it get it all done so I don't have it happening as I move.  Once the textures are compiled the game runs smooth.  I also think it is supposed to write this data out and save it so the next time you reboot it doesn't have to recompile but I think when you quite the game it crashes and looses all that data.  But that is a theory.  Tonight I'll play with it some more and prove my theory.

Actually, the Graphics and the Graphics Engine was, and still is, the major issue with Anarchy Online.

They pushed the limits with AO using a Software Graphics Engine.  The system, and the game, never recovered from that mistake.

If Funcom simply moved to the more standard DX engine now, but still chose to architect for the system that will be available in 5 years, well they may have made the same mistake in AoC that they made with AO.

We shall see once folks get the release box purchased, installed, and patched.  If they game still lags bad with an average system, well that will put AoC into the Niche market, right alongside AO.

You mean the game crashes during a stress test?!  This must be the end!

Originally posted by Paragus1

You mean the game crashes during a stress test?!  This must be the end!

That not good.

Just want to add this.  Don't get me wrong, i loved AO, i played it for 2-3 years.  But the launch was horrible.   Conan would probably be an awesome game also, but if Funcom launch of Conan is similar to what we saw in AO, they'll forever denied themself of a huge population. 

Many, many new players make themself an opinion of a game within minutes, if the game crashes constantly, they'll just leave and NEVER, EVER come back.   That's what happened to AO, the game altough endup to be relatively succesful, it could have done WAY better if the launch would have been smoother.

I actually beta'd AO and was one of the ppl screaming it wasn't ready.

This game is no where near what a disaster AO was.  It has a few bugs and I get good fps and no crashes.  My first day was not much fun but since its been alot better. 

Think it all depends on your system setup and PC knownledge.

Originally posted by Aguitha

sadly, it look like Funcom did'nt learn from the horrible launch of Anarchy Online.   With only a few days before launch the game is still bugged like hell, crashes, lag, hitching, bad fps.   I was really confident that the folks at Funcom would have learned something, but as of today, Conan seems to be heading in the same direction of anarchy online.  

Hope i'm wrong, but i don't see how they could turn the game around in 2 weeks if this is the result for 4-5 years of developpement.

You DO realize your playing OB, which is for Load Testing, right?

To the guy that says that the issues here aren't server based, but graphics/core based. Let me rebut by saying that it's not an issue.. at ALL, in closed beta. As long as your computer specs match the minimum requirements (and surpass them by a fair margin is even better,) you have no problem with framerates these days, accept during prime time in Tortage and a few other areas. But I"m on a system that really just breaks the requirements and it runs fine in closed beta in most areas. 30+ FPS fine.

As to crashing, I don't think I've crashed in closed beta in a month.