Age of Conan

I played beta of AoC and basically every big MMORPG there is. AoC is not only the smallest, but also the least complex and very unfortunately the least finished game out there.
it is very pretty, but most skills and feats of all classes are completely not functional and do not have any effect. at some classes, e.g. Assassin, almost all feats are broken. All things like dexterity or strength have no effect. it has been thoroughly tested by the community and it is just for show.
same for things like skulking or endurance.

this game is not market ready. it is still in early beta. most features that have been advertized are not in the game yet.

I am very very disappointed. the "big improvement" in fps since beta is mostly due to disabled animations in the environment.

but the worst thing is something that is simply a design flaw that can not be fixed without a complete overhaul:

imagine you want to attack someone with special attack X: in other games, you hit one button, in AoC you have to hit often a 5 button combination (in high level).

the trouble with this is, that what feels intuitive and responsive at low levels becomes a completely indirect lag experience.

if you press the buttons in the correct order, but too fast, you stood 5 seconds in front of your enemy and did nothing while it was pounding you to shreds.

I have played several classes to high level and even as a ranger, which does not need to use so many button combinations for a simple special attack, it is abominable:

rangers have a crossbow attack that is powerful and affects enemies in a certain arc/column.

but if I use it, my character will at first aim at a mob or player and shoot one time (minimal damage attack)

-> mob runs to you

then you have to hit another button (again, a minimal damage attack)

-> mob has been bashing you now for at least 4 to 5 seconds

then you will shoot the special attack that you wanted from the beginning. and help you God if you pushed one button too fast. then you will have wasted 5 seconds. but you are lucky to be a ranger. as a barbarian or assassin, you have to do 5 button combinations in high level.

in other words, there is no way, it is impossible by design, to use almost any special attack as you would think it would work in other games or in reality.

imagine: you sneak around and see 3 bears standing close to eachother. you could hit them all with one shot.

AoC says you have an atack arc that hits creatures within this arc/column.

but then, by design, the first 2 mandatory attacks isolate your target from the other 2 bears.

in low levels, this is not a problem. you could pull all three bears and you could withstand their attacks long enough to kill them all.

but at high levels, 2 mobs are already a serious problem.

and even if not, I want to use my attacks cleverly. I want to be tactical. I want to lay hidden, wait for the right moment and then kill them with few well placed specials.

but that's not how AoC works, by design.

Assassins are even much worse. they do not have ONE crowd control ability. no snares, roots, traps or anything.

sneaking during daylight is pointless at high levels (50+) and mobs, even grey mobs will detect you FROM BEHIND, if you sneak behind them, from 10 meters or more.

you will then lose hide. and be visible to all creatures and every hostile player.

even under the best possible conditions:

- backstab from hide - will, at high levels, have almost no effect in PvP on certain classes.

Assassins are the punching boys of every PvP match.

my ranger and my barbarian eat them for breakfast. even players 10 levels higher.

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world design: 

I can not even count the instances where I cursed the map designers. in AoC is is more difficult and often impossible to climb or jump down from even tiny hills let alone "mountains".

very often, you see rock structure that tells you you could jump down on it and survive easily and then you slide down like on a buttered slide, over every obstacle to your death, of course.

even leaving a river or jump on any structure can become a challenge.

where experience from other games tells you: you can easily climb this, is AoC, it is impossible. and if you manage to get up 50%, and you jump again, you wont land where you were, at this 50%, but you will slide down and break your back. again.

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ah, and because jumping in combat does not cost stamina, the "pros" are bunny hopping and strafing around you all the time. so it is impossible for any dagger whielding profession (read: assassin) or bow using guy to hit even one time.

sure, my barbarian will employ the same tactics. but to become one of these idiots just to win fights is just moronic....

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I have nothing against Funcom. Anarchy Online was a blast and I still have fond memories.

but already their "early access" fraud cast doubt on the stage of the "final" version and the game itself is no different from beta.

And the game world is really really really small.

They talked about twice or 4 times the size of their compeditors, but having played Everquest 1 and 2, their own Anarchy Online, WoW (for a month) and so many others, plus, of course EVE, AoC really has, BY FAR the smallest and least complex game world.

and it is structured like EVE. you can not just swim out of a town and continue into the open wild, no you have to "jump through a space portal" or in AoC terms: talk to a guy that lets you sit on his carriage.

I accept this in SciFi and it makes perfect sense in EVE, because of tactical and lore reasons. But in fantasy?

excuse me? why are there invisible walls when I want to swim in a river or to an island?  it is moronic.

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in conclusion: please do not judge AoC based on the "newbie island" Tortage.

where in EQ2 the fun starts after the newbie Island, in AoC it begins to end. it is really that simple.

the game works very well in 1-20 and after 40 and absolutely after 50 you have basically no quests and nothing to do.

World PvP is very nice, even as a totally gimped assassin, but that is genre specific and no result of Funcoms design.

I just like world PvP.

when you are used to a so incredibly balanced PvP system as in EVE, which such diverse tactics and incredible rewards and harsh penalties, AoC feels like throwing cotton balls at clouds....

at the beginning it is a lot of fun, but believe me, after you have been in the game for some time, it will grow so stale, you won't believe it.

so to all who are below 50 and see no problem in anything yet, and especially to all the newbies who are still in Tortage or fresh out of it, remember that this is a MMORPG that is supposed to entertain you for months or years.

WoW couldn't hold me for a 2 months, but I have to admit that, while it looks very bad, it is 10 times better designed and also has about 10 times more quests and content.

I never thought I would ever say sth so nice about WoW...

I would not even know where to begin when I would compare AoC to EQ2... EQ2 looks almost as good and has about 100 times the depth and quest richness.

yes, PvP... but EVE starts tomorrow with factional warfare, tons of new planet systems, quests, new PvP ranks, new "dungeons", new explorations areas.... and all that on top of an already polished beautiful and so very deep and complex and  rewarding game....

compared to the competition, AoC is just a beta you pay for... and some design flaws which will never make it better than other games...

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and before I forget: I really do not like it when companies just delete critical threads. Funcom has mastered this despicable tactic.

plus, you need to buy the game to read their forums....

that is just .....

Originally posted by Backwash
TLDR. From my lil skim it looks like valid concerns and stuff, but AoC's still pretty fun and I dont feel like im just grinding for my e-job. Maybe all you unE-employed nerds wanted a new job to waste your lives on, I wanted a fun game. And... tits and gore ftw.

I like tits and gore

but AoC is nothing more

rhymes

at this stage at least

and you are low level, so have fun while it lasts. which it wont

Originally posted by Backwash
TLDR. From my lil skim it looks like valid concerns and stuff, but AoC's still pretty fun and I dont feel like im just grinding for my e-job. Maybe all you unE-employed nerds wanted a new job to waste your lives on, I wanted a fun game. And... tits and gore ftw.

And you got all this from skimming a review?

Wow...

All I can say is either someone is being compensated to write something that long, or someone has way too much time on their hands, which is why they want a more Grindy game.

It's a sad waste either way.

Originally posted by fyerwall

Originally posted by Backwash
TLDR. From my lil skim it looks like valid concerns and stuff, but AoC's still pretty fun and I dont feel like im just grinding for my e-job. Maybe all you unE-employed nerds wanted a new job to waste your lives on, I wanted a fun game. And... tits and gore ftw.

So because he posted his thoughts on the game and they are not all that positive, hes an unE-employed nerd who wants a grindy game to waste his life on?

And you got all this from skimming a review?

Wow...

I have read OP and after playing my main character to level 73 I can only say that post is pretty much dead on with my own experience of AoC. Make no mistake the game starts great and will get you rolling, but after a while you will realize that you have seen all the complexity it has to offer at level 20. On top of that add unfinished and plain non existent content and the game is becoming a chore. I am not even mentioning the bugs, since I assume that they will get weeded out asap.

At this point the only truly positive thing I can say about AoC are art (both graphics and sound are superb) and stability of the client (I have not had a single crash of the retail client since early access started, although I have heard that some people are crashing due to some sort of memory leak).