Back in this last winter, I think most players had planned to try both AoC and WAR whenever they were released (See my AoC Vs WAR Article). Now that AoC has come and some players are unhappy with it (some justified, some not), I expect many to go through with the plan and try WAR as well.

Knowing that all MMOs have bugs in the beginning and content on release is not complete. My question for discussion is. ...
1. What do you want to see in WAR that wasn't in AoC at release?
2. What issues will you be keying in on to ensure that WAR will not have the same problems that AOC had in your eyes?
 

War already has working itemization and more items in game than AoC.  PvP is already inplemented with stats and goals.  Gear and stats actually make a difference, rather than just +damage gear in AoC.

So in my eyes it already has 4-6 months lead on AoC.

The single most game-breaking factor in AoC for me and my wife was the fact that grouping was pointless and you were actually punished for doing so in early levels.

Secondly I'll be looking at balance issues.  AoC had and still has MASSIVE character balance issues.  With WAR being all about the pvp then balance is a HUGE issue.  I'll be looking at the balance not only between destruction and order but also between ranged and melee.

I am looking for a game where my wife and I can enjoy playing it together.  If WAR doesn't offer a good environment for GROUP play then it will be thrown out just like AoC was.  It's called an MMO for a reason.

AoC was stupid.  They punished you for grouping.  Dumbest damned game design I've seen in years.  Those guys are idiots.  If you take a pile of crap and decorate it to make it pretty, you wind up with a pretty pile of crap.

I'm hoping WAR will be a vast improvement over what I've seen so far.  My Beta experience has left me with high hopes. 

Originally posted by Czzarre

2. What issues will you be keying in on to ensure that WAR will not have the same problems that AOC had in your eyes?
 

Anyone claiming a "miracle patch" lol

I don't have hugely high hopes for Warhammer, but I expect it to be like DAOC - which for those who like DAOC is probably going to be a good thing

I'm not one to get over-excited at a MMO prospect, but I'd say the potentially exciting ones are:

WOTLK - I can't get too excited about this because we all know WoW too well, and it's not like WOTLK is a hugely different game than what we've already played, although you can bet money that it will be super-polished and fun for most people who pick it up

Aion - Seems too weird and eastern MMOs are not to my taste, although people who liked L2 would probably be able to slip into this one and enjoy it

Darkfall - Vaporware that could be anything really, since nothing is actually known about the game at all

As for Warhammer - it will probably be the "next big thing" if they make it a good game. The key things I'd hope for is:

- Mythic being honest and working with players to make the game good

- The game being stable and have the content it says it will have

- The game offering a genuine long-term "home" for MMO players to enjoy playing with their guilds, with stuff to do and content added as the game grows

1) Working content and FUN content.

MMOs (and games period) all have bugs, this is true. However AoC did not just have "some" bugs, it had so many that I swear it was an alpha client and not a fucking retail game.

2) Well I've already seen footage from beta with fortresses working and city sieging working. I've seen numerous RvR videos with it all, *gasp*, working -- and keep in mind this is user made content that isn't going through mythic first (so they can't censor it somehow).

There are so many differences between WAR and AoC. Hell, I've been keeping an eye on WAR and just absorbing all the information that I could -- and I realized just how much more is known than Age of Conan. Most of the games large features I have seen in action and seen run quite perfectly.

However I can't say the same about AoC pre-release, and I don't know how I bought into the hype. Everything they stated that was "in the game" was nothing more then hype with nothing to back it up. Hell, Age of Conan's largest PvP feature, city sieges, wern't even tested period by players!

So I've already seen differences in pre-release for both of these games, not to mention Mythic is much more honest than Funcom.

I think the main difference between WAR and AoC is its meaningful PvP system.

AoC was just PvP with no rewards, without objectives, basically no sense at all. PvP in AoC seems like an afterthought compared to WAR.

WAR on the other hand has meaningful PvP, with objectives, rewards, titles, sieges that actually work, etc...

So I'll be looking at the PvP aspects of it and the fun factor of doing PvP in WAR.

I think a large amount of the AoC haters going over to war will be shocked by the bugs and issues with the game. This should bring their full hate attention onto war which should be pretty entertaining. Other then that no release of any major mmorpg has been great in the first 6 months. The war release will prove this point once again.

Originally posted by maveric007

I think a large amount of the AoC haters going over to war will be shocked by the bugs and issues with the game. This should bring their full hate attention onto war which should be pretty entertaining. Other then that no release of any major mmorpg has been great in the first 6 months. The war release will prove this point once again.

News flash. We dont care about the bugs.  we care about the content that was promised being there.

Like has already been stated. War has this that AoC doesnt.

Itemization, pvp with rewards, Sieges with rewards, content, lore, actually dungeon crawls.

Bugs, we dont care about those, they will be fixed. Content is what needs to be ingame. That is where AoC fell apart.

Originally posted by maveric007

I think a large amount of the AoC haters going over to war will be shocked by the bugs and issues with the game. This should bring their full hate attention onto war which should be pretty entertaining. Other then that no release of any major mmorpg has been great in the first 6 months. The war release will prove this point once again.

Like I said above, I expect it to have issues and I expected AOC to have issues

AOC doesn't just have issues though.

It's just a horrible game where the basics of a MMO aren't even put in yet. Stats that do nothing? No PVP system and broken mass PVP? Rubbish crafting? Crappy raid and instance PVE? A slop-bucket full of bugs, exploits, memory leaks and badly-coded patches?

AOC is like a graphics demo with nothing underneath.

Do I expect Warhammer to be as bad as AOC?

No - no, I really don't, and quite honestly, I'm not sure it's possible for Warhammer to be as bad as AOC gameplay-wise, given what is already being played on beta.

 AoC Release Vs WAR's release ..what are you watching out for.

the NDA not being lifted

but hopefully Mythic will lift the NDA within the next 7 days

I'm watching out for the complaining trolls vs. rabid fanboi luv ratio after the game gets released. A few weeks or a couple of months after release I should be able to judge if the game's worth getting.

All these comments are the same over and over again for every major launch.... Its just regurgitating the same stuff. Not that its bad its just the same stuff. I'm no aoc lover either but the true wait and see for any major release is about the 6 month mark. I don't think aoc will fair well at that mark, however I don't forsee war doing much better.

Originally posted by Teh_ROFFLES

I'm watching out for the complaining trolls vs. rabid fanboi luv ratio after the game gets released. A few weeks or a couple of months after release I should be able to judge if the game's worth getting.

If the ratio between hate posts and praise posts is your measuring stick , I doubt you will find to many games worth playing. I've yet to see an MMO release that didn't receive more hate than love on forums.

What you look at is the ratio of former fanbois who are now trolls to current fanbois.

I was one of the biggest supporters of funcom in the beginning.  look up irriden on the main forums, i defended them like my child.  Then i owned up to the truth.

I may or may not have recently gotten into CE beta.  All I can say is, I will be there to sing its praises (and mention its faults) when the NDA lifts.  There will be far more of the former than the latter.

Originally posted by Vhati

What you look at is the ratio of former fanbois who are now trolls to current fanbois.

 

I was one of the biggest supporters of funcom in the beginning.  look up irriden on the main forums, i defended them like my child.  Then i owned up to the truth.

I really don't judge by the extremes , Fanbois and haters(trolls) usually have an agenda , Which I usually tend to ignore both. It's much easier to find the truth in those who give a fair review to the good and bad.

If one where to use wow as its measuring stick of fanbios gone bad and hate posts that game should have been done in about 4 months..... Neither are reliable measurement tools.

Originally posted by maveric007

If one where to use wow as its measuring stick of fanbios gone bad and hate posts that game should have been done in about 4 months..... Neither are reliable measurement tools.

You have to look at the reason also.  The fact is that there are still more wow fanbois than haters.  By a large margin. 

Fanbois on the AoC main forums are a dying breed, hell i dont think you can really find out anymore.

I was mearly talking about release date of both. Wow forums where insanly posted on with hate for many months. If I remember correctly we had full server outages for hours for at least 2 months during primetime. Quite a large amount posts, however blue did a good job and the forums were much more locked down.;

Originally posted by maveric007

I think a large amount of the AoC haters going over to war will be shocked by the bugs and issues with the game. This should bring their full hate attention onto war which should be pretty entertaining. Other then that no release of any major mmorpg has been great in the first 6 months. The war release will prove this point once again.

you obviously haven't played the game, there is more bugs in age of conan now 3 months into release then in war beta. I glad someone came out and made a fun game or we would see boring games like vanguard(i feel ill thinking about that game) become popular due to lack of anything better to play.

The flaming between AoC and WAR doesn't mean much to me.

The only thing I care for from Game Workshop's IP is a Warhammer 40,000 MMO.

1.  Consistency.  They must do what they say when they say it at least 40% of the time.

2. Waiting three months before buying.  I don't care how good the WAR launch is.  IMO, Conan failed 2 months after release, and WAR does not show signs that it will not do the same.

Things to look for.

Its cliched but... 

1. Does it live up to the " its super fun" hype.  I hope it does, ive been following WAR from the beginning.

2. Class Balancing

3. Community Development.  The gamers keep MMOs alive after all.

I'll be looking at developer communication.  There will be the inevitable uproar from the community over something.  What I care about is how the company reacts to and handles it.

I don't plan to join Warhammer until at least a month after launch anyway.  AoC just kicked me in the balls as far as launch expectations go.