Originally posted by RedwoodSap

The #1 complaint from players is overinstancing yet nothing about removing it. Embrace that.

Huh?  What game are you playing?  This is most definitely not the number one complaint.  It might be yours, but not everyone elses.

Other than that the BIGGEST complaints have to do with the lack of delivery on promises, the half complete game mechanics and UI, broken keeps, broken stats, incredibly poor itemization, etc etc.  The list goes on forever.

The other poster said it best.  What is the point post 50...

Draltar:

It seems to me that the players who are more realistic are the more experienced players. Those who are relativley new to online gaming, are the ones most likely to be posting such negativity here. Experienced players may not like Conan, but they don't feel a need to diss the game, they just move on to something more to their liking. They realize their opinions aren't the only opinions and definitely not the most important.

Originally posted by Brynn

 I'm not even level 40 because I'm taking my time to enjoy what there is in the game. Perfect? No. Fun? Yes. Conan largely aimed for PvP play, a part I don't enjoy unless it's RvR. When I've milked the game for all the enjoyment I can find, I will move on.

Well you've got about 15 levels of enjoyment left, dont use it up all at once!

Originally posted by Lizante
The launch *did* go quite smoothly.  As a long-time closed beta tester, I was shocked at how smooth the released game was, actually.

But aside from that, the other issues *surrounding* the launch were, at best, unexpected by FunCom and, at worst, al most totally ignored.  I lean a lot to the latter, since, even now with this very positive release (OP), FunCom refuses to acknowledge, much less address the incredible high number of dick-steppings they've done with this game so far.

What about Pre Order issues?

What about Billing Issues?

What about the non-existant Customer Support?

What about the performance issues for nvidia based players?

What about the lack of anything to do half way through the game?

In comparison to AO, sure it was smooth, in comparison to WoW, it was a rocky country road filled land mines..

Originally posted by Brynn

Draltar:

It seems to me that the players who are more realistic are the more experienced players. Those who are relativley new to online gaming, are the ones most likely to be posting such negativity here. Experienced players may not like Conan, but they don't feel a need to diss the game, they just move on to something more to their liking. They realize their opinions aren't the only opinions and definitely not the most important.

Brynn,  FunCom is hiring. 

With your bent toward the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time-Conan and your elitist attitude and opinions, you fit right in with the Oslo fanbois who believe their own hype -- and if you look like the blonde in your avatar, that's certainly a plus.

I love Age of Conan.  As I've said before, I played the closed beta for a long time.  AoC has great potential.  I'll definitely keep an eye on it and actually might come back to play it in 3-6 months once the game is out of beta.

Originally posted by godpuppet

Originally posted by Brynn

 I'm not even level 40 because I'm taking my time to enjoy what there is in the game. Perfect? No. Fun? Yes. Conan largely aimed for PvP play, a part I don't enjoy unless it's RvR. When I've milked the game for all the enjoyment I can find, I will move on.

Well you've got about 15 levels of enjoyment left, dont use it up all at once!

 

Originally posted by Lizante
The launch *did* go quite smoothly.  As a long-time closed beta tester, I was shocked at how smooth the released game was, actually.

But aside from that, the other issues *surrounding* the launch were, at best, unexpected by FunCom and, at worst, al most totally ignored.  I lean a lot to the latter, since, even now with this very positive release (OP), FunCom refuses to acknowledge, much less address the incredible high number of dick-steppings they've done with this game so far.

What about Pre Order issues?

What about Billing Issues?

What about the non-existant Customer Support?

What about the performance issues for nvidia based players?

What about the lack of anything to do half way through the game?

 

In comparison to AO, sure it was smooth, in comparison to WoW, it was a rocky country road filled land mines..

Godpuppet,

 All the "problems" you mention are those encountered by the poor saps who were naiive enough to actually believe that FunCom and distributors could handle the volume of players.  All we can do is pity those poor bastards who didn't like the pre-order/billing/no CSR and for some reason, known only to themselves, didn't expect those problems to happen.

As for performance issues, what we have now with AoC is a beta game that's about half baked so of course, half of the AoC sizzle FunCom was selling pre-launch  didn't materialize in the release version.

There are some here who are fine with that, as has been said above, there are truly quite a few veteran MMO players who are loving Age of Conan and really don't mind paying $50 and $15 a month to play a game that is less than half of what FunCom promised.

Personally, I'll hold off and wait until FunCom offers the proper release version and I might come back to play it.

I see that Funcom is working on the issues, and preparing for more higher level content. I don't know of any other online game that hasn't gone through this process. Perhaps some of the Korean games?

Perhaps I'm lucky enough to not have the multitude of problems so many other players have. On the other hand, I was in beta and knew I would need a good computer, a level up from my AGP, so I prepared. I'm also astute enough to listen to the posters who offer solutions to problems, and wise enough to know that a game like Conan needs a computer that is well taken care of. I defrag often and use good anti-virus and spyware programs.

If you don't have a high end computer, you can't expect to play with all options set to high. I know there are other problems not related to my above statements, and Funcom knows they need to provide better customer service. I do sympatize with people who would like to play, but who feel it would be best to wait until Conan is more stable and has added the content they said they would. Considering how many people are playing and enjoying it now, I would say at this point, Funcom is not hurting.

Yes, ppl beleived them when they promised to deliver all kinds of stuff at launch, now 'experienced' fanboys are praising a marketing newsletter. There are so many things wrong with this game, its not even funny anymore. Yes, its very polished on Tortage, only minor issues there (well if we exclude textures/walls/other graphics glitches and the fact that the engine is quite hard on my 8800gt). Once u get out of Tortage its pure crap. Bugged quests, quest mobs with horrible spawn rates, same old go there and back here, kill 370 mobs type, revolutionary ofc. Im not afraid to grind, and thats what I decided to do after I wasted 2 hours trying to fight ppl to kill 5 mobs only to find the next quest task bugged. But guess what, u cannot even simply grind, cause respawn rates sux soooo bad and mobs are so abundand, u can actually make a kill every minute! Read the fckin patch notes: 'we added 100 more mobs', LMAO. Or 'servers are down for 1 more hour to test the patch'. Jeez, I wonder what that test server thing is all about. And im not gonna even comment on the gm/support/qa teams...

So good luck with all the (re)promised stuff, im gonna spend some months away from this game before even considering giving it a second chance.

Originally posted by Brynn

I see that Funcom is working on the issues, and preparing for more higher level content. I don't know of any other online game that hasn't gone through this process. Perhaps some of the Korean games?

"higher" level content, my friend, the game is lacking MID level content. Your not level 50 yet so you really cant comment on it. But lest to say there are plenty of MMO's out there, that at release, were able to provide a clear 1-max quest based leveling system (WoW, LOTRO, DDO).

It is not normal to release with major content inadequecies.

Also, we dont know if Funcom is working hard on this issue, all we have had is word saying "they're working on it". Dont forget there have been MMO companys that have been working on promised content indefinately (SWG, Vanguard). It would be naive to take their word as providence.

Originally posted by Brynn

If you don't have a high end computer, you can't expect to play with all options set to high. I know there are other problems not related to my above statements, and Funcom knows they need to provide better customer service. I do sympatize with people who would like to play, but who feel it would be best to wait until Conan is more stable and has added the content they said they would. Considering how many people are playing and enjoying it now, I would say at this point, Funcom is not hurting.

Its not about having a good computer, there were people with top end machines who were unable to get good FPS's. My RL mate reinstall his OS twice in player advised attempts to achieve a greater then 10 fps on a £1000 self built PC.  He was a hairs breadth away from quiting AoC and what fixed it was a registry tweak, of all things.

Conan is more stable, they have NOT added content, did you even read the patch notes? It was balances, revamps and fixes, there is no new content. Your not even level 50 yet so how can you justifiably comment on something you have no experience on.

Players are getting to level 50 and have two choices, Grind mobs or quit. Judging by the amount of players who still play old style grind MMO's and the number who play the new style quest MMO's, it doesnt take a rocket scientist to understand this game is going to get mass quits. My 80 member guild has all but disapoeared becuase of it.

Funcom is going to start hurting, and they need to start reeling from this problem, so they can fix it. People wont stay subscribed to this game to make alts.

Well duh.  A MMO is all about adding content.  Is Funcom saying they will add content to AOC, wow that's amazing.   I tought i bought a single player rpg.

Reality check... This game needs to get out of week 9 of open beta or there will be no future. Fix the original release b4 future, These guys have learned nothing since AO. Too many mmo's have released in ten times better shape then this game to fool the old school mmo'er.

Always disappointing to see so many apologists for mediocrity,  as if Incomplete and Untested are the new acceptable standards of excellence.

And " Well everyone else does it too ! "  stopped being a valid argument for anything sometime around kindergarden.

Just a lot of sour notes here by people who don't have the computers to play Conan.

Originally posted by Brynn

Just a lot of sour notes here by people who don't have the computers to play Conan.

You know Brynn i'm not totally sure that is it, but it might be. I have no idea why so many people are complaining. I've played ALOT of MMOs as they were released, and this one isn't any where near as bad as others. World of Warcraft had so many bugs when it was released it was rediculous, but i'm sure no one remembers that, now do they.

I've been playing since day one, and I don't see myself quitting any time soon. I've really had alot of fun with the people, the free PvP is enjoyable and not alot of ganking, the combat is a ton of fun and fast, the quests are good and the dialog is quite hilarious in a serious way.

Another thing, why on earth is everyone saying there isn't anything to do over level 50. There is tons to do, I've just got my second level of Alchemy going, building a city with a small guild, still have tons of quests to do in the mountains, have not done a single instance since Sanctum. That leaves me to instances, finish up a bunch of quests and by then i'll be well over 60. Instanced zones are fine too, there is no problem what so ever, you can jump freely near a rez point, OOC and Region chat covers all instances so no problem chatting.

Seriously maybe its just me, but i've not run into alot of bugs either.

I think most of you just need to realize like ANY MMO starting out there are problems but most are soon corrected and already make it one of the best MMOs I have played.

Originally posted by Brynn

Just a lot of sour notes here by people who don't have the computers to play Conan.

Its not just the people who lack the computers to play Conan, its the lack of a game that Conan is and the lack of a company Funcom shows itself to be. Sure its a pretty game and all, but its pretty light in everything else.

There are still game breaking bugs for some. I crash every few hours. The crash confuses the social server and stuffs up my grouping. My client thinks I am ungrouped but others in the group think I still am. No matter what we do, disband, reinvite, if I restart, zone etc no matter what, I can't play again until the social server times out whatever setting is incorrect. Not being able to group is the reason I left Vanguard the first time. Posters like the fanbois above can insult and abuse me as much as they like, it wont change the fact that AoC has problems.

Originally posted by rounner

There are still game breaking bugs for some. I crash every few hours. The crash confuses the social server and stuffs up my grouping. My client thinks I am ungrouped but others in the group think I still am. No matter what we do, disband, reinvite, if I restart, zone etc no matter what, I can't play again until the social server times out whatever setting is incorrect. Not being able to group is the reason I left Vanguard the first time. Posters like the fanbois above can insult and abuse me as much as they like, it wont change the fact that AoC has problems.

Apparently its not the game, its your computer

dont play on pvp servers but if i did i would like this part "The more lower level players you kill, the easier it is for others to hunt you down."

Really have to love ignorant posts like this "Apparently its not the game, its your computer".

Everyone I know who plays gets occasional program errors, the game is hardly perfect, the chance that all these computers are the problem is so minutely small it is not worth bothering with it.

Just for the person above, by 52 there was no one in our guild with ANY quests left and yes if you want to be a crafter you can certainly busy yourself there, but that does not interest everyone and there is really nothing else but a grind left to 80.  As to guild housing, there have been so many people who have lost everything including us when constructing buildings that many of us are hesitant to do anything about it. 

Funcom's support is beyond horrible, approaching the ridiculous.  The only answer we got  to the failed building was too bad, start over.  I have yet to see any fix for that problem.

So yes a pretty game that can be fun at times, but really needs a good year of seasoning, but what is new, that is the standard we see with most MMO's these days.

Anyone commending this game just shows their naivete.

Originally posted by Brynn

Just a lot of sour notes here by people who don't have the computers to play Conan.

No you are wrong. I bought a new computer to play AoC and it runs it fine (though sadly some people are having trouble with state of the art rigs). My issue is once you have finished the polished 'content based' 0-60 game the 60-80 grind (with a few quests thrown in) there is absolutely no game left at all. I guess that will change but there is nothing to do right now.

I see an awful lot of MMO romanticising going on here...

People generally remember two things about all their previous MMO encounters: the really fun times, and the reason that made them quit.  Then when a new MMO comes out, it is inevitabley compared to the two said memories.

AoC's launch went really smoothly.  Servers remained up, downtime minimal, and lag being a one-in -a-blue-moon event that genreally resolved itself quickly.  There was (and still is) the occasional disconnect and bugout, but it's tolerable.  I have seen a lot of people compare AoC's servers to WoW, but people forget when WoW released, there was MASSIVE lag a big part of the time.  Let's not forget the 4-hour long server lag session where all you could do was chat or Alt-F4 to quit, or the impossible to loot lag issue that forced you into loot mode for 15 min stretches, or the constant server restarts that took place 4 times per day.  This stuff lasted a good 4 months after release (and some things longer).

As for the Pre order people, I feel for you, I really do.  But I separate that stuff from the launch and classify it as more of a distributor problem.  I only had one friend who pre-ordered and everything went smoothly for him.

Is AoC perfect? No.  Is AoC great? That's a matter of opinion, really.  I am enjoying the game, but it I am not without my share of complaints and concerns- However I generally tend to be concern about mechanic-oriented problems, not piddly little stuff like "I don't like the quests" or "I blazed to 80 and now I am bored." since that is ALWAYS a problem in every MMO.

What makes me nervous about my longevity with AoC is:

-Zone based and static resource collecting.  Boring and poorly thought out.  Gathering should be dynamic, not about who was fortunate enough to get into a low-populated instance of the gathering zone and who downloaded the most waypoints from the web.

-Stamina drain being a percent based.  Seriously, there is no point to aquiring +stamina pool gear.  In fact, it is detrimental to do so.  Casters have a huge edge being able to sprint more often and always having the option to get away, unlike melee.

-5 directional swings for melee classes are a joke.  There is ZERO difference between your normal 1 keystroke swing (upper left attack) and the Q keystroke swing (Lower left attack).  They still check against the same shield.  It is just fluff and serves NO PURPOSE other than to clutter your hotbar & make combos even MORE annoying as they grow from a 2-3 step combos to ridiculous 5-6 swing ones.

-Combat should be revamped to the way it was in Beta.  You got combos, you memorized them, you swung them manually and they procced.  The "press a combo and follow the simon commands" method is pretty stupid and a great waste of button space if you ask me.  They basically dumbed the game down because they were afraid of the learning curve.

-I also always have the fear that any MMO is going to turn into a massive raidfest, which is not at all my playstyle.  I happen to love playing in small groups with my RL friends, I don't want to raid, nor do I find it entertaining.