Tentonhammer have a new article up today: www.tentonhammer.com/node/72340

Talking specifcally this time about the technical issues, population and a bit about crafting with hindsight.

Here is a little snippet>:

Hello? Is Anyone out There?
"After launch and just before the server merge, chat was just a little too quiet for an MMOG. I think the last time I actually saw a global channel that silent was back when I was forced to check out Asheron’s Call 2. Silence in a game that depends on player community is a scary thing and it ends up being a sort of domino effect. “No one else is playing? Well then I’m not gonna play either! “ Community population can make or break a game.

Server mergers were announced, and the doomsayers came out of the woodwork to build the coffin and dig the grave for AoC. However, I feel that the server mergers were some of the smartest moves that Funcom could have made. Nothing is worse than a game clinging to high hopes of a better population while they watch the few followers they have left flounder on dead servers. It’s a hard call for developers to make, but this server merge was well timed and much needed.

I currently play on the Wiccana server which is enjoying a decent population. Even when I log in late at night on west coast hours, there is still quite a bit of activity happening. I see people harvesting in the tradeskill zones, players running through the cities, and groups being formed in global chat. All great signs that players are in game and looking to have some good gaming fun!"
 

I have to agree the best thing to happen at the start of the year was the server merges something that was in the works for a fair few months prior.

I also have to agree about the Wiccana comment too ;)  I think a lot of people just get to 80 and have that perspective from there only and fail to see / experience the changes that have happened at lower and mid levels and more recently on the climb to level 80.

With focus on content, now that the core mechanics have been updated (not totally finished), all those people running around pre 80 have plenty to look forward to.

If your wanting to visually see some changes there is a great video here (2nd part) www.tentonhammer.com/node/71170 and information on that page, as well as the recent Game Directors newsletter that details some of the things forthcoming: community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi

It has been a rough year, I am glad stuck through it and I am personally in a position to appreciate game changes that have happened for the better. (been 2 years since I got on Tortage beach first time!)  At the same time I have experienced some dreadful issues with sieges from which we will have to see if todays patch (with notes) forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php has gone some way to fix a very complicated particular issue.

I think for the game to mature and grow properly, focus should be on:

• Continued post level 80 content
• Revamped focus on Crafting
• Cross server minigames if possible (It took Guild Wars 18 months to do (If I remember right) )
• Faster / Better / Smarter and "chewable" bite size updates.

The problem here is those 4 things suggested are 4 things only a small percentage of  players give priority to,and this is were funcom are going wrong, concentrating on just one part of the community while the rest get nothing, thus cancelling their subs.

We are in agreement with you Avery when you say better faster smarter updates are needed. Problem is AOC isn't going to deliver that.

Cross Server Mini-games would be here if they could deliver those but they can't.

Both of these are largely irrelevant arguments or talking points when you regard BROKEN SIEGES, and BROKEN GROUPING. So what is wrong with Sieges? Allow me to detail them.

Foremost broken with sieges is that they are not stable, while the majority of the rest of the game can claim to be stable Sieges are indeed not.

Additionally, they are buggy, to the extent that players can walk through walls, walls which only purpose aside from resource i.e. time sinks, are to historically and in game serve the purpose of preventing players, or soldiers from walking through them. Funcom AOC dev team has not seen fit to fix this bug identified pre-launch, even today 450+ days from launch.

Sieges are also an area of the game where players cannot use visual settings which compare to how the rest of the game runs. That is bogus.

Another critical mechanic is that the majority of players playing the game on any server at any time cannot participate in them. This is because there is no mercenary system, and you essentially have to be level 75-80 to be at all effective, and because you need to be a member of either guild A or guild B to participate. There may be dozens of guilds on a server but only a small handful ever have control of a battlekeep, or have enough points to challenge. So it is entirely possible to have been subscribed from launch and still not have participated in a Siege which was to be a flagship feature of AOC.

I'm not even going to go into grouping except to say that it is basically the same thing that it was at launch plus a few weeks, once they fixed the mini-map bug. Nothing positive to talk about when all questing can be done faster or better solo.

The author of the article you are putting up here for folks to read really looses all credibility when he says AOC is the hardest working MMO. They may have been the MMO with the most work to do in order to get a launchable game, to say nothing of the fact this game is nowhere near complete, or even half as complete as most MMOs are a year into the game. Its a laugh and a half and a kick in the ass for anybody paying a sub fee to prop up this development team when the only two major events they've accomplished in reality is stable performance in just about everything but sieges and DX10 Beta, not premier quality DX10, but Beta trial DX10, again 450+ days from launch.

What about features promised before launch, drunken brawling, battle towers in the border kingdoms, should we allow them to take the rest of 2009 to deliver those and a good hardy chunk of 2010 to deliver them? Better not hold your breath on drunkenbrawls.

Where we were told about Drunken Brawling being a PVP option.

http://aoc.wikia.com/wiki/Drunken_Brawling

No its not, and here is where we were told about DX10 shaping up nicely back in September 2008 while populations where in a mass exodus you guys at AOC were talking about DX10, because it was the smaller of problems, thats why everybody makes it an ISSUE!

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=168513

So what does the guy say in the article about PVP?

"Funcom has gone beyond just adding shiny new zones and content; they have a dedication to make the game better in every way. Game systems have been overhauled, class balance has been re-worked, PvP has been put under the magnifying glass repeatedly, and technical troubles have been ironed out. Over the next few weeks Ten Ton Hammer will be re-visiting Age of Conan and sharing what changes have been made and what aspects of the game still need some attention. For those who haven’t been in AoC since launch, it may inspire you to take a second look."

Classes have been rebalanced, oh yes just like in just about every one of the patches. But is it really news in an MMO that class balance is not achievable so long as the underlying mechanics are different. They won't ever be balanced when underlying mechanics are different between casters and melee and rangers. Pressing a sequence of buttons is harder than pressing one or two buttons over and over, thinking about combo strings is harder than just using the same combo string over and over. 

It is just silly insanity expecting different output from the same input. We know that, we've played the game, the author has not or he would have missed the 5:1 kill ratio casters presently enjoy over melee. Or the 3:1 ratio they enjoy over rangers.

Ten Ton Hammer has been in the pocket of AOC from the beginning, and they continue to not dissapoint as fanboi AOC HQ. Technical troubles have been ironed out. Is that accurate about Siege? 

How about the half a million players who quit because ganking and griefing was rampant and unavoidable on PVP servers? Is that fixed? Does the new and irrelevant consequence system limit or curtail ganking? Or does it substantially encourage players to not gank without cause? Does the new system or group of systems offer players better options as an alternative to ganking like a mofo. Answer to all of those is NO..

Sieges are busted,

grouping is busted,

ganking is rampant,

consquence system is a consequenceless system.

Yeah and how do I know? Precisely because I did take a 2nd look, and mine was a paid for look of 30 days ending on the 2nd of this month. This look resulted in me being banned from the official forums and an additional 30 gigs of harddrive space on my computer.

Case closed, AOC was, is fail. Its not a steak, its when you go through the drive thru and order a 20 piece Mcnuggets with BBQ sauce, and where you get 16 pieces 450 days+ later without your BBQ sauce. When you ask to talk to the manager about it, he tells you to get off the property before he calls the cops.

I'd say give the 14 free trial a shot guys and see what a pile of crappy trash AOC is. Then after you come to the same or similar conclusion, free up your harddrive for real entertainment.

The AoC Advocate still talks in future tense to talk about the present and it seems he will continue to do so, unless he gets sold first to a higher bidder. Same old, same old.

Of course focus should be on the things listed, but why would we after a year of clear evidence that the development isn't going in that direction or simply to slow, care? Yes, they should add cross-server pvp, yes, they should add everything... Are we paying subscription to give ourselves hope for the future? Login a few hrs per week and spend the rest of the day providing hope for the community? Thanks, but I'll pass.

There's really no point in making threads here about suggestions. Seriously, that is what the official forum is all about for the past year. The few remaining fanbois spend more time on the forum writing suggestions to Funcom than playing the game. In fact, the Suggestion thread has the most posts. Are these people seriously still expecting anything to come into fruition just because they make good suggestions on the forum? Better question - are they paying the monthly fee to write suggestions on the official forum? I can't imagine a worse way to spend your money and time.

Nice post Bonezy, now thats you have vented your anger in a forum...im sure you can sleep better at night. If you arent intrested in the game, move on...its a sad fact that you would take all that time to post somthing about a game you hate and dont play. Maybe you should play some of your other entertainment products, with your free 30gb of space.

As for the OP, the article was a nice find thanks.

Yes, Age of Conan is for the most part on the right  track.

From the article I especially agree on the timing of the server merges. When I returned in January it was kind of slow, but has since gotten continously better.

For mee the best thing would be to implement cross server mini's. The added 80-content is appreciated too. Even though, for me, that's more a 'thing' to do while in between pvp-happenings.

# Faster / Better / Smarter and "chewable" bite size updates.

Im sorry but next content patch in AOC is payed for "expansion" right ?

If someone should realise what the future of AOC brings then its those ppl that have already stayed with the game for the past two years.  Funcom will NEVER offer the same quality content on regulare basis compared to the competitors.  And alot of the content WILL be totally rewamped again and again - till the game goes free to play - in .... X months ?

Fans of AOC will hopefully stay as loyal for the next 2 years as they have been for the last 2.  But the fanbase is growing thin... and more and more will realise what the meaning for subed for MMO game means.  Most know now that the money they have spent so far have gone into fixing the things that were broken or simply not in the game at launch.  And most know that they will not get anything without paying double or triple for it compared to other MMOs.

But thats what beeing a fan is... stick with your team (in football terms) even if they can't kick a ball. 

Originally posted by Krewel

The AoC Advocate still talks in future tense to talk about the present and it seems he will continue to do so, unless he gets sold first to a higher bidder. Same old, same old.

Of course focus should be on the things listed, but why would we after a year of clear evidence that the development isn't going in that direction or simply to slow, care? Yes, they should add cross-server pvp, yes, they should add everything... Are we paying subscription to give ourselves hope for the future? Login a few hrs per week and spend the rest of the day providing hope for the community? Thanks, but I'll pass.

There's really no point in making threads here about suggestions. Seriously, that is what the official forum is all about for the past year. The few remaining fanbois spend more time on the forum writing suggestions to Funcom than playing the game. In fact, the Suggestion thread has the most posts. Are these people seriously still expecting anything to come into fruition just because they make good suggestions on the forum? Better question - are they paying the monthly fee to write suggestions on the official forum? I can't imagine a worse way to spend your money and time.

I agree with your thoughts Krewel well put.

Originally posted by Frobner

# Faster / Better / Smarter and "chewable" bite size updates.

 

Im sorry but next content patch in AOC is payed for "expansion" right ?

If someone should realise what the future of AOC brings then its those ppl that have already stayed with the game for the past two years.  Funcom will NEVER offer the same quality content on regulare basis compared to the competitors.  And alot of the content WILL be totally rewamped again and again - till the game goes free to play - in .... X months ?

Fans of AOC will hopefully stay as loyal for the next 2 years as they have been for the last 2.  But the fanbase is growing thin... and more and more will realise what the meaning for subed for MMO game means.  Most know now that the money they have spent so far have gone into fixing the things that were broken or simply not in the game at launch.  And most know that they will not get anything without paying double or triple for it compared to other MMOs.

But thats what beeing a fan is... stick with your team (in football terms) even if they can't kick a ball. 

 

 

Wrong, the next updates include content such as Iron Tower, House of Crom, Thoth Amons and other raid addtions.

I love the advise past players still try to give out when they are not clear on changes past the fall last year.

Game is 15 months old.

Game has had plenty of updates content wise over this time. All documented and I suspect not tried by If.

Did you even read the article? Pages of info there from vid 1 + 2. If you can't read then there is a visual side too.

Im sorry AAn but I thought informed players like you knew that  most of the content added to the game so far was supposed to be in the game at release.  Even many of the issues that are added in the next "content" patch like vet rewards and guild renown system were talked about when game launched... 

Some of us stay informed without kissing up the arse of Funcom.  But you would not know anything about that ....

Yes like Ymir's Pass and Tarantia Commons playfields as well as Xibaluku, Cradle of Decay, Salughterhouse cellar, and additional raid content. Adding 100's quests to the game. Lets be honest have you experienced any of this additional content? If I remember you told us back at the very start of October that you were never playing again - some 10 months ago... That is a long time to think and say things are the same or not happening.

Some of those things that you mention were talked about 3 months after launch and plans of an old game director. Craig inherited that plan and was upfront and honest in addressing questions on it right away. Things like "Guild renown" and leveling guild up are new things. Things like 'Towers' are revisited ideas that were scapped some months prior to launch. Only thing in my eyes that should be fully functioning in the game that should of been there was DX10. Everything else has been addressed and people have moved on.

Simply put it is hard to argue that anything from 1.5 onwards will not include content now that the very core of the game is now at a stage where the company and the player wanted it. Freeing up all resources to focus in this area, coupled with ongoing class changes and tweaks something which is mainstaple of any mmorpg I have every played.

Avery, it's time to cut your losses and admit that AoC has failed on a magnitude just shy of Vanguard.

It's shocking to me that anyone not on Funcom's payroll would be defending a game whose major features are still broken more than a year after launch.

Originally posted by Daedalus732

Avery, it's time to cut your losses and admit that AoC has failed on a magnitude just shy of Vanguard.

It's shocking to me that anyone not on Funcom's payroll would be defending a game whose major features are still broken more than a year after launch.

Some of us arnt so anal about games.  Some of us missed launch, and are not holding year long grudges against a game.

Its a fun game, it surprised me, from what i heard about it.  Endgame has been a blast and im not lacking anything to do, theres a lot of stuff to do at endgame.  Epic equipment to get, crafting to skill, resources to gather, pvp levels, seiges, guild towns.

Seems like a lot of you guys are expecting everyone else to feel the same rage as you do about launch, eventhough a lot of what you hated about it has been resolved.

I don't know, maybe its me, but if the illusion of greater population due to mass server merges is the smartest thing FC has done for AoC, it sounds to me like the overall situation is pretty bleak.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

Some of us arnt so anal about games.  Some of us missed launch, and are not holding year long grudges against a game.

Its a fun game, it surprised me, from what i heard about it.  Endgame has been a blast and im not lacking anything to do, theres a lot of stuff to do at endgame.  Epic equipment to get, crafting to skill, resources to gather, pvp levels, seiges, guild towns.

Seems like a lot of you guys are expecting everyone else to feel the same rage as you do about launch, eventhough a lot of what you hated about it has been resolved.

Who's talking about launch? I'm talking about problems with the game that have persisted since launch. The point being that such major problems should have been fixed in the more than a year's time since the game officially hit the shelves. Check out the very long and well written post on the first page of this thread. I think he summarizes most of the major problems pretty well.

Like more than 80% of AoC's initial subscriber base, I've moved on to less buggy and stabler things. I just don't think at this stage in AoC's development, anyone could legitimately think that Funcom delivered what it promised or has made any real progress fixing the game's most serious problems, even if you are enjoying the game today.

In point of fact, almost nothing I hated about AoC has been resolved. Even if the game was running without lag or as intended, it wouldn't fix the linear gameplay, instancing, small zones, and the hand gymnastics required to execute combos.

Originally posted by Daedalus732

Originally posted by crunchyblack

Some of us arnt so anal about games.  Some of us missed launch, and are not holding year long grudges against a game.

Its a fun game, it surprised me, from what i heard about it.  Endgame has been a blast and im not lacking anything to do, theres a lot of stuff to do at endgame.  Epic equipment to get, crafting to skill, resources to gather, pvp levels, seiges, guild towns.

Seems like a lot of you guys are expecting everyone else to feel the same rage as you do about launch, eventhough a lot of what you hated about it has been resolved.

 

Who's talking about launch? I'm talking about problems with the game that have persisted since launch. The point being that such major problems should have been fixed in the more than a year's time since the game officially hit the shelves. Check out the very long and well written post on the first page of this thread. I think he summarizes most of the major problems pretty well.

Like more than 80% of AoC's initial subscriber base, I've moved on to less buggy and stabler things. I just don't think at this stage in AoC's development, anyone could legitimately think that Funcom delivered what it promised or has made any real progress fixing the game's most serious problems, even if you are enjoying the game today.

In point of fact, almost nothing I hated about AoC has been resolved. Even if the game was running without lag or as intended, it wouldn't fix the linear gameplay, instancing, small zones, and the hand gymnastics required to execute combos.

The game runs stable, theres some bugs but nothing that has effected me yet, and the game doent run laggy.  Perhaps its your setup.

When i referenced launch i referenced the hate youve carried since then.  Its a game, so you didnt like it, not the end of the world. 

I could care less about what the pop was at launch and that 80% of the people are gone (random stat?)  its fun now, i wasnt it expecting it to be.  I was expecting it to be like you described, but its not, which is why ive stayed.

You dont like the combo system?  All the attacks are setup nice and easy for you, its a hell of a lot more entertaining than the standard mmorpg combat...mabey thats what you want?

You have to admit that the next patches are going to include some good ideas for guild renoun points and public rankings for them via member leveling.

my guess is that your looking for the ultra niche super sandbox ffa open world pvp full loot game thats not comming?  or did you not like darkfall?

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Originally posted by crunchyblack

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Originally posted by Daedalus732

Avery, it's time to cut your losses and admit that AoC has failed on a magnitude just shy of Vanguard.
It's shocking to me that anyone not on Funcom's payroll would be defending a game whose major features are still broken more than a year after launch.

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Some of us arnt so anal about games.  Some of us missed launch, and are not holding year long grudges against a game.
Its a fun game, it surprised me, from what i heard about it.  Endgame has been a blast and im not lacking anything to do, theres a lot of stuff to do at endgame.  Epic equipment to get, crafting to skill, resources to gather, pvp levels, seiges, guild towns.
Seems like a lot of you guys are expecting everyone else to feel the same rage as you do about launch, eventhough a lot of what you hated about it has been resolved.

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Crunchyblack, you have to remember that over 900 thousand people paid $50-$100 per AOC box at Launch. These people were mislead as to the actual content of the game as well as it's playability. Personally, I dont care how much AOC has improved or how much it will improve in the future. Whenever a company knowingly lies to me or purposely misleads me in order for them to make a buck then I will cease doing business with that company.
Is there a way for FC to try to make ammends? In my case, the answer is no. There are too many MMOs on the market with much better game play and quite a few MMOs close to release for me to want to go back to a game that has a history of poorly run customer service, shady billing practices, misleading business practices, and a game which have more than it's fair share of bugs. The graphics themselves arent enough for me to return. I play MMOs for the playability of the game not for its pretty graphics.

Why do I keep voicing my opinion about how I feel about FC and AOC? Because that is my right. I have just as much right to tell people my views of the game as anyone else. I have the right to attempt to negativly effect AOC just as you have the right to positively effect AOC. What give's me that right? Well, besides the fact that I live in a country that has won those rights through the many, many sacrifices made by it's soldiers and citizens down through history, I have bought the rights to give my personal opinions of the game when I paid FC $50 for the game itself.
If I had never bought the game and if I had never played the game then I would keep my mouth shut about AOC.
For the 10% of the players(from the original 900K players) that are left playing AOC, I am generally happy that you are enjoying your time in the game. I hope that AOC doesnt close it's doors for many years. I dont like seeing MMOs close down. I was saddened when Tabula Rasa shut down, and I was saddened when Matrix Online shut down as well.
Will I ever stop giving negative perspectives of AOC or FC? Honestly, I doubt it unless FC refunds my $50 that I paid for the game at release.

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Originally posted by crunchyblack
The game runs stable, theres some bugs but nothing that has effected me yet, and the game doent run laggy.  Perhaps its your setup.

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It ran stable for me at launch. I was actually fine with it, and one of the few not prone to the memory leaks.

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When i referenced launch i referenced the hate youve carried since then.  Its a game, so you didnt like it, not the end of the world.

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Hate? I don't see hate. I see an opinion. Hate would be expletives in all caps strung across multiple message boards.

I played at launch for three months. I won't touch anything FunCom makes without some serious consideration again because of how crap the game was. I got to level 62 I believe before there was absolutely nothing left to do for PVP besides get ganked by rolling death squads or gank others.

The mini-games were (are) kind of a joke, and I was mostly looking forward to the sieges. The patches were hit and miss, reps were gritting their teeth, and overall nothing was being done.

I'm happy to see it's at least on a good track with Gaute out of the picture and there's some consistent updates, but from what I've heard Sieges still aren't fixed and end-game raids are still buggy.
 

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I could care less about what the pop was at launch and that 80% of the people are gone (random stat?)  its fun now, i wasnt it expecting it to be.  I was expecting it to be like you described, but its not, which is why ive stayed.

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It's closer to 75%. FunCom sold roughly 1Million copies of AoC. The last quarterly report I saw revealed their population to be roughly 200-250k. The staggering fact that they lost half of their initial population within 3 months is one giant red flag for the state of the game, and didn't help Gaute's resume.

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You dont like the combo system?  All the attacks are setup nice and easy for you, its a hell of a lot more entertaining than the standard mmorpg combat...mabey thats what you want?

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A series of buttons is a series of buttons is a series of buttons. As a Mage in WoW it was 6 --> 3 --> Shift 5 --> Shift F. Frost Nova, Blink, Fireball, Fireblast. In AoC it was Q, X, R, T... If you were fighting a mob it was Q, Q, Q, T, T, T, Q, Q, Q, etc....

Not that different. No different at all if you were a caster in AoC.

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You have to admit that the next patches are going to include some good ideas for guild renoun points and public rankings for them via member leveling.
my guess is that your looking for the ultra niche super sandbox ffa open world pvp full loot game thats not comming?  or did you not like darkfall?

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I hope the next patches include some good ideas. AoC needs SOMETHING to keep it going. I didn't even get to end-game and I saw PvP as worthless, futureless (without any interesting large-scale battles), and I wasn't in the mood for long bouts of PvE grindfests like I got away from in WoW.

Personally I'm looking for something more sandbox, with reasons to fight large-scale battles on a consistent basis. I don't like full-loot nor FFA, I prefer factions and damaged gear (or just losing money). I like expansive un-instanced worlds with plenty to do.

Barring those, a really good schtick that draws my attention. Currently I'm keeping an eye on Jumpgate Evolution and The Old Republic to see how they turn out. I was keeping an eye on WAR as an alternative to AoC, but the bad engine set me off something fierce.

Originally posted by dhayes68

I don't know, maybe its me, but if the illusion of greater population due to mass server merges is the smartest thing FC has done for AoC, it sounds to me like the overall situation is pretty bleak.

AOC is on lifesupport, which is why they did the free trials. They don't have substantial improvements in the game, but they are trying to hold onto existing subs, while also trying to attract new subs with a feeling of dense populations.

The 10% of the original subscribers who are still there, either enjoy the game as is, or truly are morons because they believe Funcom will provide the exprience they are chasing one day. To me it looks like about 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 players trying the game again are actually re-subbing which is much much too low to sustain anything. They needed something like 1:2 or 1:3 but without real feature adds, community suggested things in particular and vetern rewards, you're going to see a big vet dump of this game in the next 2-4 months. Combine that with nobody new trying smoking/AOC. Funcom loses too much revenue and either launched a half-done expansion or their publishing partners say do it yourself. At which point Funcom either shoots the moon or cancels AOC.

The sooner this company goes out of business or is bought out by a real company the better.

There track record says no they will not cancle it but slowly start shifting assets to anorther area ie there new The Seceret World and the hype and promises begin anew.\