Well I went back to AoC just for grins.  Not so much has changed.

   The quest lines still drop in quality post Tortage.  Just think about all the Tortage quests both day and night that referred back to the Strom as tyrant theme.  Think about the fact that the evil spirit that was purged when you almost drowned became the Bat Demon.  How cool was that?  Not much afterwards compares.

   You still can't ride a horse until level 40.  Now how hard would it be to lower the level requirement to 30?

   You still can't craft until level 40.  How hard would it be to lower the level requirement to 20?

   You still can't set guild permissions for different ranks.  They are what they are and guild leaders can't change them.  How hard would it be to fix that?

   The above disappointments were present day one and they are still there four years later.  Seems to me all but the quest line problems would be an easy fix.  Kinda makes you wonder if  AoC is on autopilot.

Age of Conan is one of those games I only played for a few days and just couldn't find a reason to keep playing.  The memory of it has blended into a conglomerate of all the other boring games I've played.  I can't remember any specifics about it, including what class I tried or the name of my character.

Nice to know nothing has changed.

I just started playing myself, so obviously I can't comment on how it is now compared to any time before. 

I am loving it though so far. Combat feels pretty good to me, it's visually stunning (my god is it just downright beautiful in some places at max settings), and I love the music. I just love the ruggedness and brutality of the Conan universe, it's quite appealing to me. I'm only halfway through Tortage (level 11) and I understand the game changes after level 20, but I figure the questing can't be any worse than what's currently out now, plus the other things I enjoy (setting, visuals, music, combat, etc) should help with any boring questing. The Guild Cities also intrigue me a bit, so I can't wait to see what all that is about once I level up a bit and get into a guild. Also, supposedly Funcom is looking to base their crafting revamp on SWG, so that should be pretty nifty. 

All in all, I think it's pretty fun and entertaining. I'm sure it has its rough edges (hell, I experienced a bug today where the slavemaster wouldn't spawn at the top of the volcano ruins and had to have a GM fix it) but I'm impressed. It perhaps could be the "this is new to me" factor though. I'll find out soon enough.

Originally posted by dave6660

Age of Conan is one of those games I only played for a few days and just couldn't find a reason to keep playing.  The memory of it has blended into a conglomerate of all the other boring games I've played.  I can't remember any specifics about it, including what class I tried or the name of my character.

Nice to know nothing has changed.

This...

And WTF was up with all the instances in AOC.  I mean there were litterally instances inside of instances.  Just makes me feel trapped.  I would much rather play a sandbox.  

Originally posted by Erow

Seems to me all but the quest line problems would be an easy fix.  Kinda makes you wonder if  AoC is on autopilot.

There have been quite a number of changes and content and mechanics updates throughout the years that negate your statement that AOC is autopilot.

There have been changes in guild city leveling and ranking, class revamps, content updates from an expansion to added new areas and dungeons, weapon stats and mechanics changes, graphics update and so on, up till now the crafting overhaul. There's a significant difference to how AoC played back then in those first months and now.

But ok, this summing up has little to do with whether someone likes the game in the first place of course.

Was just adding some facts to counter your false assumption that AoC was on autopilot, even if the changes you want most weren't the one carried out.

Originally posted by username509

And WTF was up with all the instances in AOC.  I mean there were litterally instances inside of instances.  Just makes me feel trapped.  I would much rather play a sandbox.  

Well, there's your problem. AoC isn't a sandbox, so it'd never be able to sate your sandbox cravings.

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Originally posted by Erow

Seems to me all but the quest line problems would be an easy fix.  Kinda makes you wonder if  AoC is on autopilot.

There have been quite a number of changes and content and mechanics updates throughout the years that negate your statement that AOC is autopilot.

 

There have been changes in guild city leveling and ranking, class revamps, content updates from an expansion to added new areas and dungeons, weapon stats and mechanics changes, graphics update and so on, up till now the crafting overhaul. There's a significant difference to how AoC played back then in those first months and now.

 

But ok, this summing up has little to do with whether someone likes the game in the first place of course.

Was just adding some facts to counter your false assumption that AoC was on autopilot, even if the changes you want most weren't the one carried out.

 

It had some changes but the game plays much like it did in beta and is so shallow and mediocre.  The graphics were good 4 years ago but that was the only reason to play and now they are dated.   Your comment is an echo from the lead developer http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=3043769&postcount=48 .  The problem is the changes over 4 years were very little and whoever is in charge of the last four years does not know how to develop. 

less than 40 developers?  Most working on cash shop or mission packs.

2 huge blocks were nothing was developed, post expansion was an entire year and how long has it been now?

I'm glad some stuff was changed but the game has been on auto pilot since launch,  they released an expansion that changed things but the expansion was a seperate launch for $$$ and it didn't seem to fun, no new raids and grind the same few quests forever. 

You do realize this game requires a subscription to do anything aside from level?  The developer must not benchmark very well as Aion, SWTOR, LOTRO, Rift, and others blow them away in development scale and pace.

Originally posted by tares

It had some changes but the game plays much like it did in beta and is so shallow and mediocre.  The graphics were good 4 years ago but that was the only reason to play and now they are dated.   Your comment is an echo from the lead developer http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=3043769&postcount=48 .  The problem is the changes over 4 years were very little and whoever is in charge of the last four years does not know how to develop. 

less than 40 developers?  Most working on cash shop or mission packs.

2 huge blocks were nothing was developed, post expansion was an entire year and how long has it been now?

I'm glad some stuff was changed but the game has been on auto pilot since launch,  they released an expansion that changed things but the expansion was a seperate launch for $$$ and it didn't seem to fun, no new raids and grind the same few quests forever. 

You do realize this game requires a subscription to do anything aside from level?  The developer must not benchmark very well as Aion, SWTOR, LOTRO, Rift, and others blow them away in development scale and pace.

 

Like I said, the list of changes has little to do with whether someone likes the game or not, and if someone isn't interested to play the game or having fun in it in the first place, as good as all changes to it they'd care a rat's ass about, since it won't change their core dislike of a game anyway.

Obviously you disliked the game from the start, so there you are

If you found the graphics the only reason to play, then that says it all to me. hard to camouflage a dislike or disinterest of a game with comments like that. I played the game bc I liked the low fantasy setting, the visceral melee combat that's among the best combat I've experienced in an MMO in the past 12 yrs of playing them, and bc I found the questing more appealing than questing in other MMO's. Added to that guild cities that can be leveled up and expanded and keep sieges that were pretty fun.

But hey, if the graphics were the only thing you liked, can't help you there, to each their own. Probably other MMO's that float your boat more, good for you, everyone should have their pick of MMO's they enjoy, it'd be insane to think that those would be the exact same for each and every one person.

As for development pace, SWTOR I discount bc it's only out a few months yet and I find their development progress depressing, it's obvious that AoC beat other MMO's in development pace like FFXIV, WAR, VG, DDO and DCUO, RIft has one of the quickest paces if not the quickest but still has no expansion, the same for Aion that has no expansion in all these years and where I question the speed of development pace of, regardless of comparing it with AoC's.

But hey, you dislike AOC and like some other MMO's, so it seems that you're not really interested in the positive aspects that happened to AoC's gameplay and updates in the course of years. So I'm going to leave it at this, it's kind of futile to rehash the same arguments esp when people dislike a game to that extent that they're closed off to any good about it

Played it to around level 25.  Great environment.  Loved Tortage, it easily rivals any SP RPG I've played.

It wasn't a perfect experience.

Loading after zoning is soooo slow.  I'd have to stand for a minute or more outside the Thirsty Dog for the world to load up.

Post Tortage gameplay just feels clunky.  This was the reason I stopped.  I don't know if it was just burn-out or boredom, but I cannot imagine questing from 25 to level cap as anything less than torture.

The cash shop driven business model isn't terrible other than being about 50% over-priced based on my comfort level.

Overall, a good game but could easily be much better.

Development is still in full swing!

Funcom is constantly hard at work on innovative and fun features for this mature rated PvE game.

Why, they just added Facebook into the game! Even managed to code it into the game option menu, by golly!

A lot ofthings have changed in AOC LOL if you think its still exactly as it was when first released you need to go back and try again.

As for the quests well after doing the fully voiced quests a few times they are pretty boring now, they dont stop in the start area but continue through the game by the way as they are the main story quests..

AS for the other game quests well they are your standard run of the mill themepark quests nothing wrong there.

I dont play anymore but in my opinion AOC is one of the best themepark MMORPGs out there.. sure its not what we where promised all those years ago but they still made a game that was fun to play and thats the main thing.

*Great combat system

*Awesome graphics still nothing beats this game in the MMO world when its maxed out (TSW will soon tho)

*Awesome game world/setting

*Great character progression with different builds.

*PVP battle grounds are fun but i hate that type of PVP, open world PVP can be pretty good

*Some of the best pve on the market.

Originally posted by cutthecrap

 

 

Obviously you disliked the game from the start, so there you are

I'm very simple, I have no atachments to any game, genre (don't FPS anymore), or playstyle.  I like quality games and dislike substandard games.

Quality is simple - well thought out game mechanics, consistancy of the gaming experience, functionality of what is in the game, quantity of content on par with other similar games, etc.  Is easy to tell when developers skimp out on a game as quality suffers.  I'm going to take the company resources into consideration but Funcom had a typical MMO budget of what 40-60 million?

For MMOs there is another one I add that is very easy to prevent.  Keep server populations as high as possible so players  have other people to do stuff with.  Looking at you age of conan and SW:ToR.

I think AoC is a pretty good MMO and a great Conan game. It captures the essence of Howard's stories better than any other video game out there. It has done a great job of adapting Conan from pulp fiction to PC game.  The DX 10 graphics are better looking than most MMO's and even many single player RPG's, but the real reason they impress is the art work and attention to detail put into them. The whole world of Hyboria is stunningly recreated, making the game universe a fun and awesome environment to play in.

If you are cool with a quest driven action MMO that has excellent visuals, high production values, set in a low fantasy universe, AoC might be worth a fling. It is not for everybody, but there is a lot to like about the game. It is a matter of appreciating what the game has to offer. To say it has nothing to offer, or the game is garbage is just trolling nonsense. It has plenty to offer and is continually being developed. In the 2 years I played it I saw it improve and grow at a steady clip with major content additions, gameplay tweaks, engine upgrades, and many minor patches.

If you are fond of bloody melee combat in a beautiful setting, backed by an award winning musical score, you may get swept away with Age of Conan!

AoC has a nice looking world and some good ideas, but it was just never finished and launched far to early.  The expansion wasn't that amazing either, it was basically a remake of the level 20+ content and it didn't fix any issues with the game :/

Originally posted by NasherUK

AoC has a nice looking world and some good ideas, but it was just never finished and launched far to early.  The expansion wasn't that amazing either, it was basically a remake of the level 20+ content and it didn't fix any issues with the game :/

i loved playing conan regardless of its faults..hehe i,m a vanguard veteran and that game was bad at launch compared to conan..the rise of the godslayer was the last straw for me.it was such a grindfest i just gave up.saying that though they have made alterations to godslayer content but for me it came too late.still a great game though and still looks way better graphically than most mmo's on the market today.

I do pop in on f2p now and again but i can't se me ever subbing to this game again unless they come out with a great expansion pack..then i may be interested.

I agree on many points, the quality drops after Tortage, and updates lately have been slow. If they get some money after TSW is launched I hope they can spend some on voicing the quests after Tortage and add some quality quests.

Crafting will soon start at 20, and a dungeon finder should be ingame before the end of the year.

Questing in AOC isn't that much different from many other games though, the quests in Rift or Tera isnt much better. But when I leveled in Rift last year I did so many dungeons, in AoC it's hard to find dungeons and they don't start before 30-40 range. the first dungeon Black Castle is fairly hard too and not so popular.

The game is dying now, income has dropped dramaticly since Q4 2011.

Played this back in 08/09. Lemme ask some questions :)

The PVP still centered around Keshatta? Hows the PVP siege zones? Did they dumb down combat even more? (Before i stopped they cut down the steps for combos to 1-2 arrow clicks.) I loved how you could time a 4-step combo and try to land it.

What happend to that district in the city? Where you could park-cour and shit? High level pvp zone nowdays?

thanks!

What you want, its the game to be easier and to be like World of Warcraft and lower everything.

As if a MMORPG should always follow path of WoW.

AoC is my favorite themepark MMO.

U.O is my favorite MMO.

I dunno, Funcom sent me an e-mail, talking about it being their birthday, and I get free stuff, so I go to my acount download the game, and gee cant play my account, unless I re sub.

Typical, from my recollections, of all things Funcom.

Originally posted by WaldoCorn

I dunno, Funcom sent me an e-mail, talking about it being their birthday, and I get free stuff, so I go to my acount download the game, and gee cant play my account, unless I re sub.

Typical, from my recollections, of all things Funcom.

 Actually you need to go into your account on their site and reactivate it as a free account.

The game still isnt that great...it suffers from being a Funcom game...they still havent learned how to create new content and fix bugs in a decent amount of time....took almost 4 years to re-do crafting.

Originally posted by jtcgs

Originally posted by WaldoCorn

I dunno, Funcom sent me an e-mail, talking about it being their birthday, and I get free stuff, so I go to my acount download the game, and gee cant play my account, unless I re sub.

Typical, from my recollections, of all things Funcom.

 Actually you need to go into your account on their site and reactivate it as a free account.

The game still isnt that great...it suffers from being a Funcom game...they still havent learned how to create new content and fix bugs in a decent amount of time....took almost 4 years to re-do crafting.

Yup sure enough, I spoke too soon, somehow I had the EU client, doh.