General Discussion

Corrected:

We have heard many complaints about the presence of loading screens in Age of Conan. Can you tell us why they are there? could the game have been made without them?

Yes, it could have been made w/o them, but the technology we use for our world requires them.

We have heard that the Fileplanet Beta client is actually an old client and won't be the one used on release. Can you speak to that?

It isn't the client that will be used on release because we'll have patched a few times before release, but it wasn't an "old" client when they received it. In fact, they received the latest client, but we had a few patches to apply, so we delayed launch and then patched a little later because we wanted to test them before we finalized our shipping client.

A number of players are complaining that they are experiencing poor performance despite meeting the recommended system specs. How do you respond to this?

While we do have many reports of issues, we have many reports where players aren't having issues. Honestly, we don't know and we're just going to ship and let our tech support department spam canned responses to people who are unhappy. In the end, it will all even out.

Do you expect performance issues to be resolved before launch?

As with any other project this size, we fully expect to have some issues on launch. For example, those having issues in beta will likely have issues on launch. Those that don't have issues probably won't have issues with the final client.

Can you tell us what led Funcom to decide to create a game that would require higher-end computers to run?

WoW has low end graphics. If we want to compete, we have to do something better. We're putting all our eggs in one basket, graphics. We're also going to do what we can to convince people that our combat system is so unique and FUN, that we're that much better.

There are members who are complaining that (from their experiences in the Fileplanet Beta), they expect AoC to have a "rocky" launch and point to AO's launch as an example. Can you speak to this?

Funcom would like to avoid getting K.O.'d by Apollo on launch. Having said that, what do those people know, they're just gamers!

On the flip side, what are the best results that you have gotten out of the beta so far?

We learned a lot from all the clients patching and trying to connect on the first night. We really weren't ready for that and hopefully we'll have the servers to handle it when the game is released to the public.

You hinted at a beta surprise in our latest interview, care to reveal this today?

We're going to have DEATH MATCH (aka FFA) EVERYWHERE (except in towns and starting area). Exciting right?

TLDR summary: spoof

I am glad and happy for those who can run the game with minor glitches.

The simple fact is that there are massive amounts of people who cannot.  This is no small issue.  An unplayable game is a broken game.

I hope you will be around to explain to all the people who buy this meeting the required specs and can't play it because it is fundamentally flawed.

I played the open beta and... well...

Funcom thinks quality is graphics over immersion.  Loading screens are not a new level of immersion... it's a step backwards.

WELCOME TO SPIN CITY.

The first question is the most important - why would graphics require a loading screen? Why would you need to stream more if you wanted 'lush graphics' without a loading screen? That doesn't make sense at all.

It's quite clear that Funcom simply does not have the capacity to make it's seameless.

Loading-screens on normal zone-progression is bad coding, nothing else, all the damage control/PR mumbo jumbo in the world won't change that - pure and simple, bad coding.

If this is the level of coding, GL spending your money on AoC the first 6-9 months.

I'm a newbie here,and want to know more about Age of conan, thank you in advance.

I'm glad we have such expert game designers and coders here that they can enlighten us with their knowledge, no doubt based purely on facts.

Funcom has some truely brilliant people... unfortunately they also have some hardasses in the finance dept.

Most likely they are launching before the game is ready, having forgotten the hell which was AO.. or thinking that ANYTHING is better than an AO launch.

What is most certain and true is the fact that I HAVE learned my lessons, and I DO remember the AO launch. So I may buy Conan... after summer has come and gone.

my rig: e6600/2.4ghz/8800gts512/1600x900/2AA/bloom/all sliders maxed/everything checked.

2gb ram, have another 2 sticks waiting to be installed tonight for when i reinstall vista64.  i'm running the latest nvidia beta drivers.

performance = extremely good.

i have a weird issue though when the sun is shining on my back (which is more often than not) the back of my char has weird jaggies on it that i haven't been able to get rid of no matter what i toggle, haven't exhausted the options, but not putting much effort into it at the moment since i'll be running the retail in vista64 (for the dx10).  whereas right now i'm using my XP side.  maybe its the beta drivers, maybe its the beta code, i'll find out in a week i guess.

Originally posted by Mortemia

I'm glad we have such expert game designers and coders here that they can enlighten us with their knowledge, no doubt based purely on facts.

Some of us do infact make a living coding you know!

Some are even former Funcom employees that decided to work a place where quality of design and code matters more than textures...

Originally posted by Miklos

 

Originally posted by Mortemia

I'm glad we have such expert game designers and coders here that they can enlighten us with their knowledge, no doubt based purely on facts.

I'm glad to be of service.

 

Some of us do infact make a living coding you know!

Some are even former Funcom employees that decided to work a place where quality of design and code matters more than textures...

The game runs fine for me and the people that have judged the game by the open beta code, which has been patched twice all ready since some of you uninstalled, have made a premature decision about the game.

I like AoC and it kind of reminds me of old school SWG. I really enjoy the combat and the stories in the quest lines.

So for those of you that haven't played the game, don't jump on the cool guy bandwagon and hate on a game you've never played.