Age of Conan

I realize it's still early, and that most of the forum is still flooded with hot battles between fans and haters.... (the instances are sort of negative sounding to me, but graphics and lore and combat sound pretty good). ...

but there is one aspect of the game I still have a question about.

My question is about end-game large battles and how the game performs, particularly its combat mechanics in the presence of a large number of players. To compare with something, I played WoW at release for 5-6 months and we would have these nightly fights evolve around SS-TM and they would grow to around 80-vs-80 sometimes. Once it got that high, as a melee player, I would try and hit somebody standing in front of me, only to realize 5 seconds later that although I saw them there, they really were 20 yards away, running off.

Now, AoC does some positional moves in it's combat, so theoretically, I would think it would be even more sensitive and unplayable under such circumstances. I raised the question during beta, and although I couldn't get a straight answer at the time of course because of the NDA, there were hints that it worked great. I'm a software dev myself, so I took such answers with a grain of salt. Because honestly, I don't see how FC could pull it off where WoW could not, ( WoW having it's simpler one-button = one-move kind of mechanics). The internet bandwidth has not really increased much in the last 4 years.... so if they were able to pull it off, I would be amazed and impressed, and left wandering how.

SO.... now that the game is out, are you guys-n-gals having any large fights (50+ a side) and during those fights, is the server able to deliver exact position and actions of every player you are dealing with? Such that you can actually do positional moves in combat smoothly with that many people fighting it out at one time?  What's the biggest fight you've been in and how did it work?

(honestly, instances are bleh, quests lore and combat are so so... if AoC pulls this off, to me, it would be a blast to play)

I can't say for AoC (so correct me if I'm wrong), but I don't even think that WoW can handle 100 people in the same spot, all executing spells and bunny hopping everywhere.

But there is no way to tell. My guess is that there will be issues with lag, but Funcom will find some way around it. (Reduce number of players to 30 v 30, maybe different parts of the player-cities will be instanced).

Only time will tell.

thx humble... and I don't think WoW can handle a 100 people either....

/bump

Any feedback from AoC players?

/bump again...

Isn't there anybody playing the game that can tell me something about this? It really is a question I have, have had, still have... and now it's released. Anybody?

The big endgame battles for the battlekeeps are not in the game yet so nobody knows.

WoW can't. I remember the days of running battles in Hillsbrad foothills around Tarren Mill, the server always crashed...

As for AoC, I don't believe there are enough level 80s to comment, plus PvP seiges are not in the game yet.

I understand that is going to cut at 48x48, so you only get 96 people in one instance.

On my server, there are no battle keeps even up yet. I dont think there is a full PvE guild keep going right now. It is way to early for the end game to take effect right now. 99.9% of folks are leveling up and doing quests. Also there is a bug or something going on with the PvE keeps right now that makes them useless. We are not adding anything more to the keep, but we are saving gold whenever this issue is fixed. Bottom line is: we dont know how the server will handle a siege, and we are not even close to finding right now either.

I am curious as well.

I just found this information.. <PC Gamer Magazine> July 2008 - Page 23

-- YOU SIEGED MY BATTLEKEEP --

Guilds with a Tier 3 city will be able to claim a battlekeep, an 'outpost' for the city that provides PvP bonuses to the entire guild. Each server will have 9 keeps, so expect a landrush to grab them at launch. Once a keep is claimed, its guild must select a day and time during which it will defend the keep on a weekly basis from attacking guilds. (Challengers must also own Tier 3 cities.) Up to 48 players on each side will compete to defend or take the keep. The only certainty is that it will be nearly destroyed during the timed PvP battle.

The end game content looks pretty cool as well "Age of Conan Raids'

The game's total of 8 Raid dungeons will contain 20 encounters, all with bosses and multiple bosses. Boss battles will last 5 to 15 minutes, they state 1 to 3 hours to complete a raid dungeon..

So we got some good shit to look forward too. I am only level 40 now and pretty much a casual player in a big guild. I can't wait! So I am enjoying the journey to level 80 and meeting Conan himself! LOL

Originally posted by HumbleHobo

 but I don't even think that WoW can handle 100 people in the same spot, all executing spells and bunny hopping everywhere.

There is no reason for what AoC has done with its extreme instancing. WoW is 4 years old and handles it fine. I hate to give WoW credit for anything but funcom made a garbage game.

Originally posted by namelessbob

 

Originally posted by HumbleHobo

 but I don't even think that WoW can handle 100 people in the same spot, all executing spells and bunny hopping everywhere.

WoW can easily. Also it could handle far more than 100 long before battle grounds too. Hillbrad fights used to be 100+ and it sometimes got a little laggy, but overall handled well.

 

 

There is no reason for what AoC has done with its extreme instancing. WoW is 4 years old and handles it fine. I hate to give WoW credit for anything but funcom made a garbage game.

It also took WoW 4 years to be what it is now. WoW wasnt a instant success on day 1.

WoW did'nt have much during its launch day either. It just progressed into a very addicting game. I think people started to forget about the walt disney pastel colors in the game and started enjoying the content blizzard  implement the 1st year. There were No BG's and only 1 Raid Dungeon 'Molten Core'.

and when it came to battles...

I remember on the pvp server the other guilds would camp the Flight Paths and lock up the server, You would die instantly with 5 to 10 FPS flashing on your screen (then bamm, zone crash), then you would have to reboot the game to a dead corpse. (fun times though when you look back at it, but then, I was soooo pissed!)..