I seem to be nearing the end of the big story arc of Tortage and will probalby be leaving soon. How much does the game differ once outside the confines of the lovable little pirate haven? I must admit that even though I do not think of AoC as an "Average MMO experiance" I do find it very fun to play, and for once, being a caster actually means power in all the right places. I am playing a Tempest of Set, so that is another question how well will I fare out in the big PvP areas?

Tortage was the one thing almost everyone agrees was well done, the game really shifts gears and tone once you finish that PF. You may be in for the rude awakening many people got once the moved into what the game really is.

As for PvP, almost every class is viable, but casters are easy mode compared to melee.

One of the reason I quit was because my bear shaman had about 7 buff spells that lasted from 10-30s that i would have to keep putting up and it got extremely annoying. There are to many active spells that could be passive. The pvp is sometimes really bad because everyone can just hide and turtle. The game gets worse the more you play.

I loved Tortage. In fact, it is the only part of the game I really liked.

Once you leave, the game starts going down hill.

Fact:

Once you leave Tortage, you'll be dropped into a starter city for your race.  One thing that you'll be lacking is direct guidance on where to go and what to do like you were given with the night-time quests in Tortage.  You'll only check back to advance the "epic quest line" ever 10 levels as I recall.  Everything else is up to you - you can pick up random quests to level up, you can go grind, you can go PvP, etc.  One other thing to note is that you won't have much voice-over acting from the NPC's anymore (though occassionally you'll luck out, for the most part you're reading quest text only from now on).

Opinion:

The quests are no longer as engaging once you leave Tortage.  They're typical "fed ex" or "kill task" quests, and only a few will lead directly to new quests in a mini story arc (though as I recall, a few do have a short arc and are quite fun).  You'll also need to jump from "zone to zone" to find new quests for your level... you can easily exhaust all of the level-appropriate quests in one area, and you'll need to go searching around other areas for new ones.  When I hit my late 40's I couldn't find anymore solo quests... everything required a group, and so the only way for me to advance solo was to grind.

They may have added more quest content for those mid-levels... I'm not really sure, as I decided to start a new character on a newly merged server and haven't bothered to check the old character since that time.

Overall my opinion is that the best part of the game is Tortage... but admittedly I haven't reached "end game" with any of my toons, so it might get better...

Originally posted by jposavatz

Overall my opinion is that the best part of the game is Tortage... but admittedly I haven't reached "end game" with any of my toons, so it might get better...

End game in AoC= game over, re-roll. It's the single largest complaint since launch.

Originally posted by Roosevelt

I seem to be nearing the end of the big story arc of Tortage and will probalby be leaving soon. How much does the game differ once outside the confines of the lovable little pirate haven? I must admit that even though I do not think of AoC as an "Average MMO experiance" I do find it very fun to play, and for once, being a caster actually means power in all the right places. I am playing a Tempest of Set, so that is another question how well will I fare out in the big PvP areas?

Well after Tortage the real game begins . I think Tortage is fun and really well made, but i think AOC is much much more fun after tortage.
You will see

The zones are well made and really fun, the dungeons are nice also. You really need to do Black Castel at lvl 32+ really awesome dungeon. Oh and Conall's Valley is really beautiful and the music is wonderful. The destiny quests are also really fun, oh and just wait until lvl 55 when you get to Ymir's pass a really amazing and fun zone.

Im sure you will love it !

Tempest of Set is a very good class, you do really nice damage, you can heal, stun etc. If you play good you will own

Originally posted by majinant

I loved Tortage. In fact, it is the only part of the game I really liked.

Once you leave, the game starts going down hill.

Down hill ? i can see you havent played since launch.

No the game dosent go down hill after tortage, it gets better and more fun.

I swore up and down that i would never try this game.   Well i lied...i just had to see for myself.  Tortage has a great story to follow.....the areas are small and easy to get around.  When you leave it gets more interesting.  You have to get to lvl 30 to do the next step in your destiny.  I ran all over town doing every quest i could find.  The Library quest finding the rare books lead me to 3 other cities full of quest.  I am currently in one of the zones having a blast.   The travel is really tough....its huge compared to Tortage with many dangers along the path.  As you level up the zone gets easier to the point the mobs stop aggroing on your travels.  I really like the dungeon layouts....the Spider Cavern was really cool.  It had a hidden room behind the spider webs that was required for a quest.  The boss and mini boss are also really fun to kill.  Yes i wasnt around when they had a tough launch.  But i was around for Anarchy Onlines tough launch....and Funcom has a history of getting it right if you give them a chance.

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Originally posted by DaveTT

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Originally posted by majinant

I loved Tortage. In fact, it is the only part of the game I really liked.

Once you leave, the game starts going down hill.

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Down hill ? i can see you havent played since launch.
No the game dosent go down hill after tortage, it gets better and more fun.

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I think 9 out of 10 people will disagree. Why do you think 90% of the people who sub quit after 2 months.

Considering AoC took in about $100mil in revenue in 2008, I doubt very much that 90% of the players quit 2 months after subscribing.

The first thing you'll notice out of Tortage is the lack of voice over work.  Initially, no npc (except your "destiny" questgiver) had any voicework at all.   They did add some more in a later patch, but there are still a lot of NPCs that you'll just have to read what they say instead of listening.  I'm a tad disappointed about that, but then you have to realize that voice data is rather large, plus they have to do multi-language voicework. 

I liked the Strygia and Cimmerian post-Tortage starter areas better than Aquilonia.  Conan's capital city is rather big and can overwhelm some people. 

The Funcom-haters will always rag on this game, but it's met my expectations and kept me subscribing since launch day.

Originally posted by Pluto78

You wouldn't just pull that out of your arse now would you? Reference please.

You are late to the party, that has been discussed ad naseum on these forums.  No one knows for sure, but even the hardcore fanbois around these parts don't try to argue that point anymore, 80-90% of the playerbase not resubscribing is an accepted estimate around here.

And FC-'Famine' himself often visits this site and has not once stepped in to correct that figure.

Originally posted by DaveTT

Originally posted by majinant

I loved Tortage. In fact, it is the only part of the game I really liked.

Once you leave, the game starts going down hill.

 

Down hill ? i can see you havent played since launch.

No the game dosent go down hill after tortage, it gets better and more fun.

I can see how this is a matter of opinion.  Tortage is well done, but very linear, and really carries the player along.  Once I left Tortage, though, it was like the gameworld suddenly opened up, and I realized how massive and open it is.  Has more of a world feeling, less of a scripted little game feeling.  That's naturally going to have its ups and downs, but I have to weigh in on the side of those saying it gets better.

Personally i like the part after tortage much more. Tortage is basically a big tutorial, places like white sand and the ruins have pretty big maps but still nothing compared to what is comming. The game really opens up when you leave tortage, you can to where you want and do what you want. You will be sent to your race's homeland, but if you feel like it you can just go quest in another homeland with a friend or something. There are so many quests in each homeland area that you won't even be able to complete them all before you out-level the area.

Plus i need to say that the areas after tortage are HUGE.

So, heres is what you can expect:

-Less voice acting(There is still some from important npcs and for some quest npcs)

-Pvp mini games(You can start joining them at 21)

-Getting your gathering proffessions

-Insane amount of quests

-Very large areas to explore/quest in

-A lot more world pvp(If you are on a pvp server that is)

-Different looking gear(Still not enough variety in my opinion)

I can't tell you about the rest cause i'm only level 26.

well AoC lost me and my wifes accounts the day they decided to merge servers, this is a bad thing it tells your players we don't care about you. Now server transfers are different it allows the people to move to another server that is higher pop. and not kill off someones toon on that server that maybe 1 level lower and when i say kil i mean they have the right to take your name even though you where there first and are still playing just because they are nuts about grinding to max and you like to rp and level slower.. so since me and the wife took a couple months of we decided to not worry and uninstall it . to many other games coming out to worry about 1 that kills peoples toon ..

just my 3 cents

For me tortage is the worst part of the game. The game became great for me at late lvl 30s - the atmosphere gets a lot darker and the environments more interesting. I'm talking about pyramid of the ancients, black castle, sanctum of burning souls then all the 40+ areas. Also don't listen to the people saying lvl80 = game over. Not true at all.  Also, yes tempest of set is very good in pvp.

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by Pluto78

You wouldn't just pull that out of your arse now would you? Reference please.

 

You are late to the party, that has been discussed ad naseum on these forums.  No one knows for sure, but even the hardcore fanbois around these parts don't try to argue that point anymore, 80-90% of the playerbase not resubscribing is an accepted estimate around here.

And FC-'Famine' himself often visits this site and has not once stepped in to correct that figure.

And why should he bother? What would they possibly gain from it? You won't find a company stepping into discusiions like that because no matter what they can't win. If Famine did enter and said they have 200k active accounts today you would find most of the haters go mad claim he lies, and say that is what funcom is known for and so on. There isn't a need for funcom to go into this discussion, they know the truth, and we know the game lost lots of subs.

To the OP;

What you can expect is a much less linear world in the terms of not haing to follow a certain path to do quests, voiceover for quests are gone, some quests still have them, but majority don't.

Myself did enjoy the world outside tortage more then tortage itsel, while tortage is very well made and polished, the outside of tortage does have some very nice quests.

Originally posted by Hamrtime2

 

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Originally posted by DaveTT

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Originally posted by majinant

 

I loved Tortage. In fact, it is the only part of the game I really liked.

Once you leave, the game starts going down hill.

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Down hill ? i can see you havent played since launch.
No the game dosent go down hill after tortage, it gets better and more fun.

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I think 9 out of 10 people will disagree. Why do you think 90% of the people who sub quit after 2 months.

9 out of 10 people who quit every other MMO after 2 months. I think 90% of the people will agree on that. 

I actually liked koshef too and it also I think was very well put together but only zone I ldidn't like was Eiglophian Mountains

  Expect more small instanced zones that are long and narrow with only a few routes through it. After that expect even more instancing that are small.

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Originally posted by IAmMMO
  Expect more small instanced zones that are long and narrow with only a few routes through it. After that expect even more instancing that are small.

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Lol please explain.

Personally I did not like tortage that much.
Main reason was its to small with zoning all around the place.

Once you leave Tortage you will find BIGGER zones/maps so no more annoying stuff pickup a quest at X map zone to Y map deliver back to X map.

After tortage you can expect each map to be bigger then tortage all togheter if you combined all zones into 1 aka Acheronian Ruins+Tortage City+White sands+Underhalls.

Basically after tortage you can expect to have lots of fun and PvP .. the problem in Age of Conan is what can i do after I reach max level 80 as not many will be satisfied with raids+Open world PvP+Mini Game+Siege.

Originally posted by IAmMMO

  Expect more small instanced zones that are long and narrow with only a few routes through it. After that expect even more instancing that are small.

True story I second the notion.

People have such different opinions on the post-Tortage experience because it is such vastly different gameplay. While I quit the game after my first month (I think it might have been two months, I honestly can't remember--lvl 56 was the highest I got overall in those two months, later returned and made it to 80), I didn't quit because I hated the post-tortage experience. Actually, I preferred it over Tortage.

Tortage is something comparable to Guild Wars PvE. Very very small maps but very very detailed. Missions fluently lead you to the next; it isn't very open questing but it's very well put together. Everything flows like a nice story but it's a very linear story; little to no options. After Tortage, the world becomes very, very open; not as open as say WoW, as there are still some places in AoC after Tortage that have invisible walls (though significantly less) but overall, it's much more larger and less direct. All of the capital areas dependant on your race have a good amount of quests, but most won't lead you on a specific path to another quest; you'll often find yourself running all over the place, overwhelmed and confused. At least that was what it was like for me with my Aquilonian character... much easier and direct for a Cimmerian or Stygian in their respective cities.

I can probably sum up the major difference of Tortage to the rest of the game is that it no longer holds your hand.

In short: A steaming pile of crap.

You should expect an mmo that feels like a bunch of battlefield 2 maps hooked up together with loads of loadingzone...