I was one of the very unsatisfied players in first days. Coming from WOW and despite it's »cartoon« like graphics (which I love) ... I was expecting more from a new game with my current hardware which runs very smooth WoW at max settings. Ok, with LOTRO I also had to set to medium to have acceptable gameplay.

I have dual core, 2GB RAM, 3.3 processor, .... I met recommended requirement for hardware. Except for graphics. I had Ati Radeon HD 2400 PRO with 256MB RAM which I thought should suffice and exceed minimum requirement.

However AoC was unplayable for me. At very low setting (=ugly) I was getting acceptable 20fps. With high settings, only 3 (three!!!) fps, max. 4!

 I was nearly ready to dump game, but I just wanted so badly to play AoC (after waiting so much and because of Conan lore) that I decided to risk and buy a new graphics card.

 And ... wow ... what a difference! Replacing that trash of 2400 PRO (which maybe is ok for business use) with Bliss 9600GT (nVidia) with 512GB my FPS went strait from 3-4 in max resolution to standard 30 to 50fps!!! With all set manually even further to max. More then 10x increase just replacing graphics card! And there are even much better graphics cards on market. I have paid new card around 190€, while old is still priced around 90€ (at least in shop). So for roughly double money I got 10 times performance.

Now I can enjoy game at its best nearly without problems. Except that ones, that can be expected from new lunch. So I agree from most Funcom explanations.

 I do not know for rest and I do not what will come after lv. 22, but for now I have Assassin lv. 22 and 7 alts between lv. 12 and 15. I like al lot to experiment with various classes.

In all this weeks since start of game, I have experienced only maybe 3 (minor, non important) bugs!!! Majority NPC's evading. Pretty standard thing in Wow. I really do not know about which bugs are you people talking. At least not up to lv. 22. However I do not participate in raids, I prefer solo and join forces only casually. So I do not know if there are present some other bugs. And, yes, I think instancing is simply great. And no more waiting 1 or 2 hours to get some object because there are 99 players in queue ready to jump at first sight of respawn of that object or mob.

Actually despite initial terrible impression (»thanks« to my graphics card), I now enjoy game, is well built, very stable, lag in high hours even in Old Tarantia is at acceptable level, I love destiny quests, near all others are also nice and interesting, response time from GM for the *start* was always in acceptable range of few hours (but also only 10 minutes), graphics at max are really joy for eyes, sound is decent,  I simply love (unfort only to lv. 20) voice acting while accepting new quests, .... I have not noted any relevant bugs (ok, I will pretend problem with traders did not happen ), ....

All in all, with GOOD hardware, start of AoC was by my opinion fluid above all expectations. At least in Europe.

AoC have a lot of strong points and things I like a lot... but there are also many negatives (hopefully some will be fixed while others unfortunately are »by design«):

-       Funcom does not guarantee alts will be preserved if player discontinue subscription and renew after some time?! Are they kidding??? However note, they do not say something “will happen” to characters in case of cancellation of subscription, they only said (in booklet that comes with DVD), that they “despite best efforts and … blah … blah … blah … can not guarantee ….”. But even this is too much! So, if will happen after few months I will lose interest and will want to wait i.e. few next months to some upgrade ... I will have to PAY all that time if I want **guarantee** my characters will be still there when I continue to play? Even if they reach multiplied number wow base of players, this should not be problem from perspective of space on server, backing up data, … so this is cheap way to suck more money from players even after they will stop to play for some time (or more likely for ever).

-       Only 8 possible alts!? I like to experiment with all classes ... here I can try only part of combinations (or delete some which is not an option after some level as is even less an option to purchase another copy of game!)

-       all races have same(!) starting line of quests; however different classes have a little different versions of same destiny quest chain and this is lovely (i.e. warrior will free Arias from isle, rogue will run to help him after that event, priest will bring him potion after has been helped by rogue, …)

-      program do not have logoff(!); one must quit or wait 30 secs for camping ... and still has then to enter password

-       When selling to NPC’s player must explicitly click sell button! No double-click! No button “sell all”, lock items, ....

-      no option for automatically loot all (always must click confirmation button after clicking with mouse for loot; holding shift is not eq one-click loot)

-    one have to wait until lv. 40 for crafting and gathering??

Among other things I miss »ghost walking« to corpse (like in wow). Is REALY REALY boring to fight over and over same 999 mobs that have respawned in meantime (i.e. in caves with snakes and scorpions).

And when Lich king comes I will again dedicate all my time to WoW.  But up to then after trying all possible MMORPG I was able to get trial or buy cheap in past 2 or 3 months .... AoC is by far the best (and LOTRO second).

Originally posted by arctarus

Erm Mr. Wood, how come you didnt ask funcom, why is there nearly zero content from level 40 to 80???

Because, quite obviously, the Q&A wasn't about content. It's about CS and performance.

Originally posted by Xasapis

AO launch vibe? The game runs perfectly for the majority and servers are rock stable. Not sure what you mean with that.

CS. It sucked from day one in AO and barely rose above rubbish

I have not found alot of bugs where I could not bare with since the game is fairly new.  It's ok to give them time to fix it, you can't expect things to be perfect.  However one thing that's been bugging me from day one is the class balance and even the level balance.

I have never played a game where two Assasin can't even take on a char of any kind (same level and health condition).  Some class are just way over power.

And what the hell is up with a level 50 being gank by two level 30.   They shouldnt' even be able to hit for you for hard enought to drop you that fast.  I was a level 50 Assasin and a lvl 34 Ranger was able to kill me in 4 combos, between the stealth attack in suprise and the snare I was not able to move before dropping dead.  That's 16 level different and I couldnt' even get near the guy let alone put up a fight.  How can an assasin have no CC skill at all what so ever.  Lol I guess it turned out to be more of a Fix my Assasin flame then anything.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by arctarus

Erm Mr. Wood, how come you didnt ask funcom, why is there nearly zero content from level 40 to 80???

Because, quite obviously, the Q&A wasn't about content. It's about CS and performance.

Who needs content! Pfft..

Originally posted by Torvac

 

Originally posted by Ginfress02

Originally posted by Unfinished

 

Originally posted by Torvac

 

Originally posted by Stradden

Recently, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to send eight questions over to Jorgen Tharaldsen at Funcom. In those questions, Tharaldsen addresses instances, CS and more.

Some members are complaining that dealing with customer support has been frustrating, and help comes late and sometimes not at all. Can you speak to this?

Jorgen Tharaldsen

We have been known to give some of the best customer services in the MMO industry for years, and while we are striving to meet the same standards for Age of Conan as soon as possible we are not there yet. The reason for this is naturally the sheer amount of people who is playing the game right now, and while we staffed up significantly for the Conan launch it wasn't enough for what we are now facing. We are actively staffing up as fast as we can in order to reduce the waiting times, and get back to our standard of being among the best, which is always our goal.

Check out the whole Q&A here.

 

hmm more lies , "known to give best customer service" ? funcon is known to give the worst customer service in and out of its games for a long time. the only thing they are quick with is censoring their forum.

 

As a 5 yr Anarchy online customer I can confirm that their customer service has always been the worst by far of any MMO, Tharaldsen straight up lied. Apparently their strong suit is PR & Spin Control.

 

I am losing a great deal of respect for FunCom and its continued AoC debacle. Five years of my Fanboi-ing shot to hell into under a month. They keep this kinda out-and-out lying and dis-information they'll soon by as hated as in the MMO world as SOE.

Isn't that the same guy who stated "There won't be any camping in Shadowlands?

 

that was gaute goudager or something, cant rember the exact name. spreading lies is a company feat at FC HQ

It took them 2 years to patch its the biggest flaws. No coincidence he is the head Dev for Age of Conan. FunCom supposedly has one more MMO in the pipe, with supposedly 4+ years in development already. If Gaute is Lead Dev on that it'll be another giant mess as well.  Gawd I am really starting to hate FC.

Should have asked him when people can expect to play via buddy keys... because no way will I buy another MMO if I can't at least have a look at it before.

I just love how he tries to day it has been one of the most solid launch, if not the most solid launch in MMO history.

I hope AoC does well, the market needs it. But if FC truly feels they had one of the best, if not THE best launch ever then there really is no hope.

IMO and experience FUNCOM has greatly improved the overall smoothness and gameplay in the game compared to the Beta event that i was in, but in the interview itself they managed to evade every single question with a vague statement, and as for good customer service.... ..right.... the day that happens is the day i resub for SWG.

Lack of prompt customer service due to volume of petitions?  How does that explain being number one in queue and waiting for 5 hours with no response?