Age of Conan

From my experiences it is not an issue of pc specs.  I built my own last july, and I run the game at high settings with lows of high 20s and highs of 64 fps.  Throughout my time in beta testing (cb) from levels 1-13 (since I am restricted by the NDA still) I only once fell through the inn, only occasionally ever saw the checkerboard textures, and only once after a recentish patch had all the sand turn teal.

Performance issues and loading aside, for myself the issues that drag down the game have more to do with the gameplay.  Sure there are added steps to making a single melee attack or a combo melee attack, however it isn't that different from the combat that we have been seeing for almost a decade.  Now, when AoC was first announced and being talked about across forums and mmo game sites the Funcom folks talked about a completely different combat system.  One which was more akin to an action game, one where basically where you moved your mouse your sword moved.  Combo's weren't supposed to be trained like every skill in every other mmo they were to be "unlocked" through trial and error.  You were suppsoed to be able to parry dodge and do other things that were not tied to a characters skill set, but were supposed to come from the players own personal skill.  Sure you can push all your shields to one side or another but that is a FAR cry from the revolution that funcom had stated was coming.

Funcom themselves said that melee combat went through several iterations during the course of beta testing to come up with what they have today.  The quests from 1-13 aren't a whole lot different from the same quests we have been running for a decade now (nearly 30 years if you want to count the single player crpg).  As I have stated before if you think that Funcom, with nothing but internal Q&A, are able to do with spellweaving what hundreds of external beta testers did with the melee combat, you are sadly mis-informed about how software development takes place especially in a competitve mmo sphere.

As far as performance issues are concerned, look.  This is DirectX9.  A platform that has been out for SEVERAL years now.  DirectX 10, according to funcom, is being held away from the testers until launch.  The vast amount of hardware and configurations that are available make developing any PC game difficult, even on a proven standard platform like dx9.  With something as new as Directx10 does it make any sense to not allow as many testers as possible to help iron out these bugs?  Instead, I imagine, paying players will be greeted with a message similar to: "We understand many of you are experiencing issues with the DirectX10 client, please be assured that we are working night and day to fix this problem.  We ask you to send us your dxdiag files along with any error messages that you have gotten.  In the meantime please continue paying and enjoying yourselves in Hyboria using the DirectX9 client.  Thank you for your patience."

Look, in the end all that matters is that you have fun.  I personally will not support a game company that is lookign to release a game with several issues (most of which can not be discussed yet and MIGHT not be issues in 2 weeks time) and expecting players to pay a premium price for a less than premium product.  There are inherent issues in the gameplay, for myself and some others, that regardless of the amount of time funcom had will not ever be addressed.  The other issues that can not be talked about, go above and beyond basic mechanics like combat etc. and are what make me say ok, I will play through the buddy key program then 6 months later I will see if thsoe issues have been addressed.  If they have I might come and join my friends, otherwise I will play something else that will hopefully earn my time and my money.

Originally posted by mmonkeyboy

 

Originally posted by onlinenow225

 

Originally posted by Sabic133

Well, I can tell you this.  I haven't followed the game at all, I simply read a preview along time ago and decided to sign up for the beta and didn't look at the game again untill I got the email saying I was in. 

90% of the "beta reviews" I have seen on this site and many others are posted by frustrated people who don't go to forums to find fixes to issues they are having.  The client that I played before the one now was HORRIBLE I couldn't even make a damn character it was that bad.  Now (with fixes for the hitching found on forums) I am able to play on my medicore system on med-high settings and run at 30-45 FPS.  But yes before I actually SEARCHED for answers to my problems AoC really frustrated me on preformence and I wanted to post a troll post myself but decided not to and I'm glad I didn't because I'm really enjoying the game now.

Honestly, I can just hope that if there is this "magical build" it is as big of an improvement jump as the last build to the current one was for me and AoC will be a A+ game.  If not I can tell you right now AoC will "survive" but it won't be as great as it could be if the release build is as unstable as it is now.

So really what I'm saying is the game has issues anyone who tells you otherwise is full of it, but they are issues that can and probably will be fixed within 3-4 months of release I will personally probably wait about 2-3 weeks for the initial patches and read some hopfully unbias reviews before I buy the retail copy on if they are fixing what needs to be fixed.  Hope this helps.

So if you went and bought a brand spankin new car and it didnt run, but you had to go to the junk yard and SEARCH for the parts to fix it, would you be happy?

 

 

Same thing.

 

Yes, this. 

Joe and Mary six-pack are not going to waste a nano-second scouring forums to fix their broken game.  They might be willing to update their graphics/audio drivers.  However, they will not go any further than that.

Hardcore gamers might be willing to tweak and fiddle and hack their way to a better/working game.  But there are not enough of you to keep a game like this afloat for long. 

Life is simply too short to waste on a game that doesn't work.  And people are tired of being abused by their computers.  And as long as WoW is an option, they won't allow themselves to be.  End of line.

 

Also to the next guy I'm FAR from "hardcore" I know the same shit that 90% of other people who use computers know.  Everything I've done has been pretty basic and easy stuff, but yes your right the 12 year old dorks who play WoW will probably have a seizure "why r it not run ma ;puter!?!11?!".  And yeah WoW is as popular as it is because you could probably run the thing on an N64 if they released it for consoles.  But there really comes a time if your life when you realise life is too short to run around as an elf trying to get your cyberz on. (not directed at the origional poster unless you do in fact play an elf, then yes grow up)

Never let other people's negativity (or positivity) influence your decision to play a game. Try the game and see for yourself. Also, realize that many people on these and other MMO boards are jaded, disgruntled MMO vets who don't know what they really want anymore.

Originally posted by URMAKER

Originally posted by Mordith

For those claiming that it is just an older client and the new client in closed beta does not have this problem, then why is Funcom trying to find out what is causing all of the problems?  If the problems are all solved on the closed beta client, wouldn't they just say "We are aware of the performance issues, but those have been resolved on the beta newer client"? 

Here is the post from Funcom:

_________________________________

Originally Posted by Funcom

We are aware of the technical problems that several testers are experiencing. Unfortunately I don't have a fix-all solution for you at this time. Performance is our number one priority at this time though. We have been patching our internal servers 4-5 times a day with new code so that we can get a fix out to you guys as soon as possible.

We are working on eliminating stalls, increasing fps, decreasing load times, and decreasing the amount of asserts/crashes you are experiencing.

Beta has gotten worse in the past few weeks because we have had to put out a lot of new code. We'll get it tuned and optimized over the next few builds. I apologize for all the technical problems. We are working on it though.

_________________________________

pretty much ends the whole "much older client" debate doesn't it?

However, I still want to give Funcom the benefit of the doubt.  When and where was this posted by Funcom?  Can you post a link?  What were they referring to?  Where they infact talking about the open beta, closed beta, and how old is the news?

Originally posted by chryses

Just to state something up front.  I pre-ordered AoC about a week ago and the game has been on my radar for several months now.  Have to say WAR is my first choice but with the latest push back AoC went to the front of the queue.

I am a regular player of MMO's and recently I have spoken to a fair few AoC beta testers who are being less than complimentary of the game.  I log on here and I see a lot of the same issues being raised, which are:

* community is mostly 14 year olds getting off on the gore and nudity

* combat is average

* way too buggy and not ready to launch

I take a lot of this with a pinch of salt because 3 MMO's I play now and really enjoy were slammed at this stage also.  However I have yet to speak to one person who really swears by this game...not a good sign imo.

I did worry about a game that was pushing for 'unbelievable' graghics and tailored combat.  I don't think the average PC or ISP can handle it tbh.  Vanguard looked great on my pc but bombed out because 6/10 gamers couldn't play the damn thing.  I wonder if AoC needs another 6 months and maybe wise to push back just like War...

Be glad to hear from anyone why this game is so great and how they had some good experiences with the community because I am losing faith fast!

 

 

 

I have yet to see nudity so the "14 year olds" are not there for that. they - like in all games - are there to play a free game. Hopefully some will not be there at launch but it is an MMO and so expect them in every MMO.

Combat is the best I have seen in an MMO. It just looks and feels amazing. Is it perfect? No. Is it a blast - very much so.

The bugs are there but  they are typical beta bugs. Some graphics glitches, hitching, etc. Nothing major and nothing that a week or two can't help in optimization.

Depending on the kind of player you are I would say wait till release and then activate your copy when you have had a better chance to get the release feel for it versus the beta. Then activate when you feel good about it. As for me - I am happy enough with it now, knowing that patches will be there at release and that the beta client is not the release client. Etc.

If I were you I would judge the game on it's content, not the beta's in-game community (which really isn't a fair judgement of what the game's actual community will be) or people on this forum (extremely biased).

I'd judge the game with a close friend's opinion if you have one that is also expecting this game (or a couple, depends) and by your own experience... but tbh the OB doesn't really offer much. Which goes to what FC has been doing from the beginning, trying to package all the information from the public until the last second. This could work for a lot of companies, hell if Blizzard did this with a new MMO it would become twice as popular as WoW overnight, but considering FC is doing this (whereas they hid information about AO and the result was far worse than vanguard). So really, I'd do exactly what you are planning. Give it a few months. And if you don't like it after that, meh. A game is a game, we're all just looking for something to fill that tiny void of free time we get.

Originally posted by Raknar

Can the people who say that the Fileplanet beta and closed beta run different you back this up, or is it wishful thinking.  Game runs like shit for me on two different computers, one of which is quite close to high end with quad core, 3 GB ram, HD3870, etc. And one look at the closed beta boards tells me that many others are having the same issues.

I am in the closed beta and there is little to no difference.  the game is unplayable for many of us in closed beta just as I am guessing it is for m,any of you in the FP beta.  But the difference is these problems are new.  The game used to run a lot better.  While it was never good it was much better and it was playable.

Originally posted by Mordith

For those claiming that it is just an older client and the new client in closed beta does not have the performance problems, then why is Funcom trying to find out what is causing all of the issues?  If the problems are all solved on the closed beta client, wouldn't they just say "We are aware of the performance issues, but those have been resolved on the beta newer client"? 

Here is the post from Funcom:

_________________________________

Originally Posted by Funcom

We are aware of the technical problems that several testers are experiencing. Unfortunately