Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by ducks1290

I know this might be asking a lot on the mmorpg forums hah, but can anyone that plays the game give me a fair review of the state of the game as it is now... I'm very interested in playing and would like to get some insight on server population, stability,and fun factor..  I know there are a lot of things funcom failed to reach so far, but I would really like some postives also. thanks

 

Some people here have serious issues with the game and will do anything to get you not to try it nor understand there are many people still enjoying the game. Before launch these same people amongst others pointed out AoC will have around 200-250k subs when it settles. I believe its above that, but I can not prove it just as people can't prove otherwise. I'm going of the population I see in game as a current subscriber. I mainly play on Cimmeria, content lvl 40 and up is Top Heavy say to the Tortage 1-20 area. I havent crashed in a few weeks now, last time was the "red line" lag bug. Somepeople still report it, but in my experience in a guild of a few hundred its becomming less and less frequent now but still happens.

It seems you are already aware of where FC have let us down and in which area's so far. Yet your also asking for what is good about the game. And your right to be interested it has a good amount to offer.

If your willing to pay $2.99 for the download I'll send you a buddy key so you can make your mind up yourself. Just send me a PM with your email addy and I'll forward one to you asap.

A good place for research is here: http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=436

Don't you realize that continuing the falsehoods, is just going to continue to lead to negative experiences for people after investing the time in the game?  It looks like you are willing to do anything it takes to feed more subs to AoC.  Short run that may help, but long run it will be even more damaging as more people continue to be misled.

Every person has a right to support whatever game they want, but deliberately misleading people when you wear an "official" title on the MMORPG boards is just flat out wrong.  I hope the Admin around here get around to reviewing your posts some day.  I understand they have a ton of boards, but they seem to be pretty even-minded folks in the posts I've seen from them.

Misleading people into thinking that Funcom's technical issues have improved, or that most people don't experience them in one form or another is clearly incorrect.  There's a reason why the Technical Issues board is the second largest forum on their site.   If you play the game and do any end game content (perhaps that's the problem - you don't).....you know that the seiges are a mess, and many can't do pve raiding either due to issues such as latency spiking.  If anything, these problems have gotten worse, not better.

Originally posted by Nadril

 

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Originally posted by Malickiebloo

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Originally posted by Nadril

 

 
 
avery just because YOU may be lucky enough not to crash or have problems doesn't mean others don't. When I was playing I wouldn't crash but the memory leak would get so severe that I would have to restart. Constantly.

I still think it's funny that you need to pay 3 bucks for a trial though.

 
Originally posted by Nadril

Don't lie to the OP, the majority of people who bought the game are very disappointed with this piece of trash. And I very much doubt you have no problems with crashing and bugs. In fact, that's pretty much impossible.

@OP: Don't waste your $50, please.

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Just wondering how you can attack someone who said the same thing you did.

 

 

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"crashing and bugs". Thanks for completely leaving that out.

And my point is that I did crash, then they released a patch and I wouldn't crash as much but it would get to a point where I had to restart or the game would freeze up.

I left bugs out because you didn't say you didn't experience bugs. You didn't say you did crash and said nothing about a patch.How am I supposed to decipher your "point" from either of those posts?

I like to know who has a credible opinion , It's a necessity in deciphering the truth within so much noise.Some of us are trying to find out the real state of the game. Floods of motivated posts are not what I would call usable information to further that goal with, flooding this forum with the same issues over and over again doesn't help much either.

Originally posted by Steelguru

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by ducks1290

I know this might be asking a lot on the mmorpg forums hah, but can anyone that plays the game give me a fair review of the state of the game as it is now... I'm very interested in playing and would like to get some insight on server population, stability,and fun factor..  I know there are a lot of things funcom failed to reach so far, but I would really like some postives also. thanks

 

Some people here have serious issues with the game and will do anything to get you not to try it nor understand there are many people still enjoying the game. Before launch these same people amongst others pointed out AoC will have around 200-250k subs when it settles. I believe its above that, but I can not prove it just as people can't prove otherwise. I'm going of the population I see in game as a current subscriber. I mainly play on Cimmeria, content lvl 40 and up is Top Heavy say to the Tortage 1-20 area. I havent crashed in a few weeks now, last time was the "red line" lag bug. Somepeople still report it, but in my experience in a guild of a few hundred its becomming less and less frequent now but still happens.

It seems you are already aware of where FC have let us down and in which area's so far. Yet your also asking for what is good about the game. And your right to be interested it has a good amount to offer.

If your willing to pay $2.99 for the download I'll send you a buddy key so you can make your mind up yourself. Just send me a PM with your email addy and I'll forward one to you asap.

A good place for research is here: http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=436

 

Don't you realize that continuing the falsehoods, is just going to continue to lead to negative experiences for people after investing the time in the game?  It looks like you are willing to do anything it takes to feed more subs to AoC.  Short run that may help, but long run it will be even more damaging as more people continue to be misled.

Every person has a right to support whatever game they want, but deliberately misleading people when you wear an "official" title on the MMORPG boards is just flat out wrong.  I hope the Admin around here get around to reviewing your posts some day.  I understand they have a ton of boards, but they seem to be pretty even-minded folks in the posts I've seen from them.

Misleading people into thinking that Funcom's technical issues have improved, or that most people don't experience them in one form or another is clearly incorrect.  There's a reason why the Technical Issues board is the second largest forum on their site.   If you play the game and do any end game content (perhaps that's the problem - you don't).....you know that the seiges are a mess, and many can't do pve raiding either due to issues such as latency spiking.  If anything, these problems have gotten worse, not better.

Again that is just your opinion, and we have a difference of opinion, with your teling me I'm wrong and your right. Im sorry but I have seen an improvement from say 1 to today in my own personal experience (which I did state mate). That is not misleading, thats offering my 2 tin, just like you are. The forums where I linked have populated tech forums. In fact I have sat thru laggy siege after siege - you can check my post history like "Admin" did and find nothing wrong.

Issues are still their but they are better than day 1's issues.

You know I have seriously considered making a video in game of say 5 hrs straight then people can really see issues I have - or lack of them I should say - that would be something I could not of said last month. Whether you would watch for long long I doubt it.

A fair review:

The world is highly populated on most servers, however the odds of you seeing that high population at any point in time are slim at best, mainly due to the auto instancing feature when a zone reaches it's max occupancy.

You can switch *when not in combat, standing at a rez point, and not after doing pvp* the instances in a zone, and when you are in a group and you enter a zone it automatically puts you into your groups instance, however if you are in seperate copies of the instance before you group up, you will have to either manually switch to their copy of the zone of just have every leave and come back in to be in the same copy

The dungeons are fun, the bosses are decent, and the group play style is tweaked to be different or is just already on it's own completely different (ie. healing)

The quests are most definately seperate from your run-of-the-mill mmo quests. Granted most of them do just want "10 of this" or "kill 10 of that" or "go find this person" except with the find a person you usually have to escort them back or have cleared a path for them already to escape through, and the find 10 or kill 10 quests, the story *and audio if it has it* explanation from the NPC is usually graphic, detailed, and disturbing or influencing, it either makes you feel disgusted and want to kill the bad guys, or it gives you the energetic desire to kill bad guys, rofl either way it definately immerses you into the quest more-so than pretty much every other MMO, now that doesnt say it Actually immerses you into the quest, the actions you perform are the same as other MMOs, but specifically regarding the story the npc's tell you and how they talk before and after you finish it, most definately without a doubt puts it higher on the immersion meter than like i said pretty much every other MMO

Most of the bugs are out, a lot of people didn't actually experience game-crashing bugs or desire-killing bugs, most people if they saw anything it was fog/shadow/treeleaf related bugs, or odd physics bugs, and the ones who did or do experience serious bugs you should know by now make their voice heard loud and clear

Most of the zones are just huge, and in my opinion filled properly with static structures/objects and NPCs, also pretty much every single zone you can walk anywhere except 170degree slopes, and contrary to the earlier reports *which i havent seen many of lately* from people claiming to have played the game, the zones are open and mostly fully explorable, able to walk on or get ontop of pretty much everywhere, Not path-based

Even with graphics down for a medium or lower end computer, the vegetation and huge views are in my opinion what seperates this MMO's graphics from vanguard's graphics, the vegetation is thicker, more believable, helps make the scene more complete, and is just all-around newer than vanguard's famous high-end graphic quality, there are a few people who say you can view farthur in vanguard than you can in AoC, however when I had everything max'd in vanguard including vegetation and view distance, i couldnt see most of the stuff *besides barebones/lowpoly trees* getting close to the max distance of my view, however in AoC it seems to be the same distance and the only reason i've seen the view cut off in AoC was due to the zone being so incredibly massive there was no way i would've even LET my computer try to render that far had the view-distance slider let me go farthur, not to mention like I said in a longer view, even medium range, the vegetation and higher quality trees are that point seperate AoC from vanguard, and vanguard already seperates itself from the other lower-quality mmos(WoW) or the pseudo-quality mmos(LoTR:O)

The guilds, their cities, and the eventual full-quality sieging (when they work out the kinks and fix the straight up problems) are definately the community in this game, and will be housing the majority of the pvp-essence without a doubt. Getting into a thriving guild is almost a necessity for a big dose of community in any MMO, regardless of how many people you can meet or how many groups you can find while solo in any MMO. It is the same for most MMO's and is no different in AoC, just their guild design goes farthur than a guild menu and guild chat with guild tags over your head, it takes shadowbane and daoc and rolls them into a big ball of guild fun

Groups are fairly easy to come by, for quests, random fun, and dungeons. I haven't raided PvE yet so I can't comment on that. The general build of the group and how it works is although a nice refreshing change from the standard 'point and click' whether a tank or a healer, but the odd running around, aoe, and no point and click, for tanks and healers (and some dps) was a bit baffling to me at first, but after properly skilling (talents) and learning the grooves of your class in a demanding group, it becomes just another easily learned system, also if you haven't noticed by now, the groups have the standard demand for important classes and dps classes, and the classes have the standard requirements to help the group as pretty much every MMO

The random pvp isn't depressing at all, and in my opinion doesn't affect anyones desire to play the game, every game has known pvp points, and untill enough people reach whatever level or have access to whatever location that the players (or devs in some cases) may specify as 'open pvp area' for random ganking, this game will have sparatic at best pvp across the board, so if you do play a pvp server just remember people are still leveling, not everybody has a level 80 decked out ready for pvp, and most everybody has no idea of non-majorcity areas to go specifically for pvp, yet. The penalty system is a very nice additive, gives both sides something to gain and lose, raises the ante so to speak, and gives it that extra rush, whether hoping you dont get jumped, running from a pk (or a group of pks) or being the pk yourself, when everyone has something to lose and something to gain, pvp becomes a thrill-ride of a world addition, and once the 10 out of im guessing every 1000 get tired of huffing and puffing and threatening to blow my house down, the other 90/1000 who also have a problem, will realize once again they are the minority and most players accept the game and either play or dont play, in this case they are playing (sub #s increasing)

There are still a few kids, or random child-moments for the adults, but for the most part that attitude is specific to the starting area of tortage and fades more and more the longer you play in the real game world

And like i said before, some of the ingame content is very.. mature to say the least, female upper-body nudity, quests talking about sexual assault, murder, stealing, (and in some cases on a mass level for all 3, or a mix of all 3) and the lack of 'carebear' ways of phrasing/speaking make for some believable quests or situations, hence the extra immersion level i mentioned early also. Also some npc's swear and talk smack just like players do.

I'm probably forgetting some areas of discussion, but for the most part the only thing i'm missing is the bad response which will probably start off with "ya you're forgetting" and in my head when i read that response i'll be thinking "(ya you're forgetting) that you're an idiot" about the guy replying lol, angry people are always the loudest, happy people are usually the more quiet (excluding telling friends about why you're so happy lol) and everyone inbetween just goes with the flow or gets out of the water and you won't hear about it from them either way.

The game is solid, a friend of mine cancelled his account so they can add in some more content for certain level ranges and fix some of the bugs, but still promotes the game as above the rest and being very solid and fun. I know more people playing than not playing, and maybe 1/10 or 1/5 of the people i know that bought it, have quit, so thats pretty good odds for a new MMO if i do say so myself

From a neutral standpoint, taking my likes and dislikes to the trashcan before i speak, I've played a lot of MMO's on opening day (or in aoc's case early access) and the ones i didnt play on opening day i played within the first year, and from a neutral honest position, these people freaking out and claiming to report funcom to the BBB, are in all fairness, completely crazy. Every MMO I played at the beginning or near the beginning, was missing claimed pre-launch content, every MMO still had it on their website that some major 'game buying' piece of content was in the game and actually wasnt, and in most cases those MMOs cut content during beta that turned a lot of people away or got them to cancel their preorders, find a 'day 3' real copy of most every MMO's official forums, and you'll see a lot of the same crap, why people decided now with aoc to go the extra mile i dont know, i can understand people are tired of being mislead, or having their personal 'game buying' desire-building content removed, will one day with a new MMO become the straw that broke the camel's back, but why aoc, aoc seems to be one of the higher quality launch MMOs out there in the history of MMO launches, and the amount (and type) of content they claimed to have had and removed, or just removed, or claimed but never had, is actually pretty small, or dare i say miniscule, when compared with the other MMOs.

Originally posted by ducks1290

I know this might be asking a lot on the mmorpg forums hah, but can anyone that plays the game give me a fair review of the state of the game as it is now... I'm very interested in playing and would like to get some insight on server population, stability,and fun factor..  I know there are a lot of things funcom failed to reach so far, but I would really like some postives also. thanks

It really isnt a good game and not worth the money and this is me being as neutral as possible. If a product is bad no amount of neutrality can make it sound good. WIshed I could give you better news. Sorry.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

 

Again that is just your opinion, and we have a difference of opinion, with your teling me I'm wrong and your right. Im sorry but I have seen an improvement from say 1 to today in my own personal experience (which I did state mate). That is not misleading, thats offering my 2 tin, just like you are. The forums where I linked have populated tech forums. In fact I have sat thru laggy siege after siege - you can check my post history like "Admin" did and find nothing wrong.

Issues are still their but they are better than day 1's issues.

You know I have seriously considered making a video in game of say 5 hrs straight then people can really see issues I have - or lack of them I should say - that would be something I could not of said last month. Whether you would watch for long long I doubt it.

The fact that there are serious technical problems, that Funcom refuses to address is NOT a matter of "opinion".   Again I refer you to their own Technical issues forum, the 2000+ post threads, and that doesn't even count what Funcom deletes.

Whether you have issues or not is pointless.   I'm under the impression that your title implies you are here to convey factual information about the game as a whole.   If that's incorrect, then I'm not sure why you have such a title.   Your personal experience regarding technical issues is meaningless in that context.

I have been playing since launch now and I have 3 characters past level 60 so I can give some insight.

I have a quad core, 4 gig of ram, 8800gt 512 card and a new mobo. just for the record.

Performance:

* I run the game on high with maximum view and out of the city I get 40-50 fps, inside the cities I get 20-40 fps.

* Crash To desktop use to happen 3-4 times in 2-3 hours.  Now I am getting 1 now and then.

* Population is always on medium load and I play on a RP-PvP EU server.  Unlike a lot of new launches like Vanguard, TR, PotBS there are plenty of people around after the initial 3 months.  However if you go off track you wont see many people.

Where I get frustrated is trying to find groups but that is in every game.  Its not too bad but I wish there was an automatic group option.  People complain about content not being added at launch but I have played a lot and really enjoyed leveling 3 characters past 60 and I have not been in a situation where I have not had anything to do.  PvP games are not too far away either so I guess I will get into that.

I don't want to go into every thing about the game but for anyone that has a high end rig and likes traditional MMO's then they are mad not to try AoC because I am still amazed at the detail and shading plus the performance at that level.  Fatality and adult content really makes a big difference as it feels more real.  Combat is improved and more interesting compared to the Vanguard, WoW's of this world.  World is big and some of the maps are huge and you wont see a loading screen for hours. 

Highlights for me:

Watching our guild city going up.  Its quite amazing to see what players can create and to run around the walls with incredible scenery is truly something.  Now they just need to add siege combat properly!

Combat: Bloody and in a group it can be quite destructive and movie like.

Music: Its the first time I have been tempted to listen to the CD that I got with the SE.  Its professional, moody and so sets the setting.

If you have a good rig then definitely try it because its worth playing for 1 month regardless as the first 20 levels is like a pretty good single player game and the classes are quite interesting to.

Hope this helped...

Maybe a good idea for finding out the state of the game would be to check out the official forums.

I will say that server load is no indication of server population as Funcom has set all servers to medium.  I also know that Doomsayer is becoming a Ghost town as most are rerolling to Deathwhisper.  I believe that Deathwhisper and Cimmeria are high population servers in North America.  I also believe that AoC is twice as popular in Europe as it is in North America.

I should state that I am a bit of a troll.  As I feel that Funcom has ripped me off promising more than the game delivers.

First post here. I can say that i ve played the game (slow leveler) from day 1. I m actually only level 60, but i amnot to fond of the game. I found it uninspiring and well boring. Technical issues aside this is how i felt. Population mught say medium but theres no way in hell it s medium. There are times i don t see a person for an hour. That said the game could have been great , but fell short bigtime. I would suggest not to get it and wait for other games on the horizon.

a lot of hype came from it for being a big game when it comes to pvp

when it launched, sieges were promised, i dont think they were in. when it launched, pvp levels and a pvp system was promised, neither were in, all you could do was attack people and it really didnt do much. now they are adding some bullsh*t nonsense "criminal" system where if you PVP on a PVP server you turn grey or w.e, then if you do it too much, you turn red. until you work off the red, you can be attacked by anyone without any consquence and THEY can loot you, you cant loot them or if you are neither grey or red and you want to pvp some in the world you cant loot you opponent...honestly, what's the point? if you're going to coppy UO, copy it right

oh yeah, endgame pvp is pretty much who can get their first combo off first because it doesnt take much more then that to kill someone.

Ok here are some of my reviews as I played the game.  The first one is the early review where I loved it then each following is higher lvl and talks about issues I've encountered.  You can see me go from a fan to disappointment.

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2020473#2020473

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2028325#2028325

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2042396#2042396

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2097355#2097355

In the end I quit the game around lvl 57 and went back to everquest 2 but got sucked into vanguard when I decided to try the free month and that's where I am today.

There just isn't much good to say about AoC right now. 

It actually ran better the first week of launch if that tells you anything. 

The GMs and forum Mods have a serious cop mentality, which is magnified by how poorly coded the terrain in the game is, which, in turn, creates a whole lot of exploitable situations for the players for which they get banned.  And of course that induces some serious trolling on the forums, which causes the forum cops to beat down their customers, creating even more hostility. 

That is pretty much what AoC is now.  A downward spiral of epic fail.

Can anyone give me a fair review?

There's not enough fairness in the world to describe how badly Funcom funcomed us off with AoC.

Its funny because I am not sure if I play the game because I like it or its due to there being anything else out there to play right now.  Not only that but after so many years playing MMO's I know that there isn't any big game coming out that will supersede it so much that I will be blown away.  Even WAR won't fill that massive gap straight away...Darkfall..maybe.  Either way games like Vanguard are picking up now because its had 1 year of polish and content added.  AoC for me launched 1000% better than Vanguard because I could actually play it from day one.  So in a years time people will be slamming WAR still and going back to AoC because all that promised content will be there and the client very solid.

For me the biggest issue with AoC is the lack of RP elements.  E.g. Vanguard has crafting halls and this really helped generate an overall RP feel.  However I do prefer AoC in general.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Sevensodd

Its a fun game.  Decent content. The server population is good.  I've played since release and have had almost no problems with crashing and bugs. 

Just realize that the vast majority of people that play, really like this game.  And also realize the vocal minority come to the forums and bash the game.  My advice would be to play it.  If you dont like it, then u dont like it.  But dont just take what people say for the 100% truth.

 

You have to be kidding me... The vast majority playing may like it, but the vast majority that bought it aren't playing it. It is not a vocal minority that doesn't like the game. That is just SOEism if I've ever seen it.

 

To the OP. I didn't really like the game from the get go, even before I got out of the intro town that even the people that really hate this game seemed to like. I found the combat to be really clunky. The melee combat had an action style control to it, where you would attack in certain directions and use combos, which would have been cool. BUT, they added a combat queue to it, which completely ruined it in my opinion. You basically had an action style control scheme but had to wait for attacks to happen after you pushed the button.

I also found a lot of graphical errors(not fps errors as my fps was great even on max settings). Thinks wouldn't render right, or just plain bugs such as all of the character features going invisible when you go stealth(this includes clothes, facial features, everything).

Another thing I hated about the game was the instancing. Having multiple copies of each zone completely ruined the immersion for me.

Just my .02

Lions and Tigers and TROLLS oh my!!!!!...

To the OP the best advice I can give you is to try it out an form your own opinion.....Your really not going to get honesty on here...
 

Originally posted by woody1974

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Sevensodd

Its a fun game.  Decent content. The server population is good.  I've played since release and have had almost no problems with crashing and bugs. 

Just realize that the vast majority of people that play, really like this game.  And also realize the vocal minority come to the forums and bash the game.  My advice would be to play it.  If you dont like it, then u dont like it.  But dont just take what people say for the 100% truth.

 

You have to be kidding me... The vast majority playing may like it, but the vast majority that bought it aren't playing it. It is not a vocal minority that doesn't like the game. That is just SOEism if I've ever seen it.

 

To the OP. I didn't really like the game from the get go, even before I got out of the intro town that even the people that really hate this game seemed to like. I found the combat to be really clunky. The melee combat had an action style control to it, where you would attack in certain directions and use combos, which would have been cool. BUT, they added a combat queue to it, which completely ruined it in my opinion. You basically had an action style control scheme but had to wait for attacks to happen after you pushed the button.

I also found a lot of graphical errors(not fps errors as my fps was great even on max settings). Thinks wouldn't render right, or just plain bugs such as all of the character features going invisible when you go stealth(this includes clothes, facial features, everything).

Another thing I hated about the game was the instancing. Having multiple copies of each zone completely ruined the immersion for me.

Just my .02

Lions and Tigers and TROLLS oh my!!!!!...

To the OP the best advice I can give you is to try it out an form your own opinion.....Your really not going to get honesty on here...
 

from any one fan or hater lol..
 

read the forums make up your mind that way..

any game i buy now adays with the mind set of the players and the corps that make them is what i spend on mmo's is what i do not mind losing. and AoC was  loss to me.

Only good thing I can say: AoC was'nt as bad as Vanguard at release.

I can honestly say FunCom had no idea how to make PvP the end game in Anarchy Online, and after 8+ years of failing to find a way to do it there, they failed to do it again in Age of Conan. By November of this year the PvP will be thrown to the gutter while they put all efforts into PvE, it's what they did for AO, and by all indications will again do with AoC.

Note: For those that did'nt have the "pleasure" of playing AO at launch FailCom talked up the AO PvP just as much as they have for AoC. To give you the short version they lost over 80% of their subscriber base with in 3 months and centered on PvE to keep the few thousand accounts they still had.

Originally posted by ducks1290

I know this might be asking a lot on the mmorpg forums hah, but can anyone that plays the game give me a fair review of the state of the game as it is now... I'm very interested in playing and would like to get some insight on server population, stability,and fun factor..  I know there are a lot of things funcom failed to reach so far, but I would really like some postives also. thanks

"It is like a steak and fine wine.  And the other games are like McDonalds."

"Death never looked so hot."

Yeah, sure. Here's my fair review: It sucks.

Seriously, I'd like to give you more, but I can't. Just thinking about how hard this game flopped and the damage it did to the credibility of the MMO genre makes me want to vomit.

So many people I know said "that's my last MMO" before their free month was even over. Granted, they may play another, but that's really pathetic to see a game flop that hard.