So I read somwhere that the game may or may not have gone through a turn around after a shift in leadership at Funcom.  Is this true?  Can anyone who is playing vouch for this?  I re-installed last september / october ish and saw no on online and called is quits again.  Are people actually playing again / is there more content now?!

Well the results in the new leadership are about to be put to the test when the new patch comes out. Its sposed to be huge and a game changer.

How the player base feels about the patch and also critical, how FC handles the bugs that are sure to crop up will mean a lot.

Nonetheless, a lot of people think the fundamental game itself is deeply flawed and nothing can be done to save it.

Wait til you hear news of the patch, wait 2 months after that for them to iron out the wrinkles then try a free sub.

Not dead but but in bad shape compared to what it was supposed to be.

Are you currently playing it? I own it... I bought it when it released and played it for about 2-3 weeks then quit due to lack of content  I suppose I'll wait to hear about this patch then.

the game is just internally flawed, although it was a cool game at first since it was completely different play style as wow, unlike warhammer which is just a crappy version of wow.

It still has a serious internal flaw with the combo system, especially in pvp situations. I played at the start for the first month and than started playing again more than a year later. A lot of the bugs are gone in the game but the combo system is still flawed and i don't see it ever changing.

Yea the combo system is tedious at times.  HOwever, AoC is far from dead, in fact it is having a bit of a resurgance.

The OP question is easily answered, however,  by giving the free trial a go and seeing for yourself.

Originally posted by dhayes68

How the player base feels about the patch and also critical, how FC handles the bugs that are sure to crop up will mean a lot.

Considering how poorly FC has been handling bugs on AO, I wouldn't hold my breath.  About two weeks ago, they did a system "upgrade" where they changed a lot of ports, etc. and even their own internal level reporting system has stopped working and they haven't fixed it yet. 

Originally posted by DiSpLiFF

the game is just internally flawed, although it was a cool game at first since it was completely different play style as wow, unlike warhammer which is just a crappy version of wow.

It still has a serious internal flaw with the combo system, especially in pvp situations. I played at the start for the first month and than started playing again more than a year later. A lot of the bugs are gone in the game but the combo system is still flawed and i don't see it ever changing.

Flawed for you, you mean, not for me and 1000s others. The combo system is one of the things i love about AoC, no more auto attack for the win! How boring is Auto attack after using the combo system.....?...

AoC is getting more and more subs, i have experienced this directly, as twice in as many days i have joined a party and was asked to switch instance. Implying that there were at least two instances, this was in Fields of the Dead, a lvl40 to 50 zone.

Some of the players were new to the game others were not, i believe a lot of them came from the new trial.

So a game that is growing cannot be dead........................

The performance has been addressed, and there is more than enough content from 1 to 80 and more on its way.

AoC in its current state is the MMOs best kept secert, it is fundamentally different from the rest of the other fantasy based MMOs out there. It cannot of course, be to every ones liking, but if you are tired of auto attack and want something different to the run-of the-mill clones out there go and try the trail, you have nothing to lose...............

Bullkaka, You wount see much more behind tortage durring trial. Tortage was polished before release, the game was sucky at higher levels, but you cannot check that with trial.

The change in game directors was imho the best thing to happen to AoC. The new game director changed the policy on patch releases to hold them until they are ready.

As far as player numbers go, the areas definitely feel busier than they have in the past.  A couple of my WoW buddies have recently come over to try out AoC and are having fun. We were able to find groups for BC and Sanctum without issue. 

The combat style may not be everyone's taste. However, I like reactive combat (ala AoC). You can not sit there and just spam your one button to success. The combat system is definitely not auto attack your way to victory.

It was an "ok" game when I tried the trial a few weeks back. It ran great, which surprised me because I'd heard it was a real laggy beast of a game and I had no issues running it on med-high on my 2 year old gaming rig.(2 256mb sli 8600's, 4 gigs ram, Vista 64, 2.4 dual core processor - not really all that powerful of a rig by today's stanards).

The game was fun until level 20ish or so, but by then I was slightly bored of it. Once the eye-candy gleam had worn off, it's very much like most other MMO's: level and loot grind.

The combo system was ok. I thought it could have been implimented a little better but I really did like the animations and the finishing moves, but it wasn't a whole lot different than mashing hotkeys or macros - essentially that's what you were doing, they just had a different icon. You still sat there and mashed certain buttons during certain "cool down is up combo !" times.  It was mildly amusing though.

I did like the artwork direction better than any MMO out there. It took what EQ2 tried (and miserably failed at) to do and made a gritty sort of "realism" to the character and armor models. I liked the fact it was low-key fantasy and I wasn't surrounded by elves and gnomes and beast-people for a change.

It's not a great game, but it's not nearly as horrible as people try to make it out to be. I know launch was a disaster, but they've turned it around and now it's a fairly solid, playable MMO that might appeal to some people who aren't as burnt out on the "same old grind" thing I'm a little tired of. And it certainly didn't feel dead when I was playing the trial - it was pretty crowded actually.

I'm trying the trial right now. It's a lot better than I thought it would be, given all the negativity. But I'm going to reserve final judgement until I pass level 20. I'm told that it becomes a whole different game after that.

Are people rolling up anything other than Necromancers? There are armies of zombies up and down Tortage.

aoc is far  from dead

I really would like to come back to this... or WAR, or something. However, I'm not into gear grinds or even PvE... I don't know what else AOC offers other than that...

I always point out that besides Guild Wars, Age of Conan will be the only other MMO I will hit max level in (I am level 78 and halfway to 79).

I am super critical of MMO's (I dare you to ask me about LOTRO or Vanguard for example). If you liked AoC but was more on the fence due to bugs and content, then I suggest a return. But, as others have stated...patch 1.05 will change the game pretty drastically. I personally am a supporter of patch 1.05, and it offers some good changes.

You can get the game cards pretty cheap from various retailers, so I suggest paying the 28-30 bucks, use the time card for two months of play, and see how you feel.

Cheers

i wasn't trying to badmouth the game just give my personal opinion. If you like the combo system thats great, i thought it was cool at first until i started to pvp on my conq. I almost threw my keyboard out the window because its so easy for any class to just run away and get out of the combo. I really don't see how you can disagree with the statement.

Originally posted by DiSpLiFF

the game is just internally flawed, although it was a cool game at first since it was completely different play style as wow, unlike warhammer which is just a crappy version of wow.

It still has a serious internal flaw with the combo system, especially in pvp situations. I played at the start for the first month and than started playing again more than a year later. A lot of the bugs are gone in the game but the combo system is still flawed and i don't see it ever changing.

The game released last week in may last year. Playing it for one month make late june. One more year + would make it late summer now....

I agree that the combo system could be better however. The collision detection that AoC uses to see if you hit however is something totaly new that hopefully more games will get.

Originally posted by DiSpLiFF

i wasn't trying to badmouth the game just give my personal opinion. If you like the combo system thats great, i thought it was cool at first until i started to pvp on my conq. I almost threw my keyboard out the window because its so easy for any class to just run away and get out of the combo. I really don't see how you can disagree with the statement.

I see your point, but I concentrate on PVE and the when playing pvp i do experience what you say here, ie if you perform long combos ur targets move out of range so that the final blow does not land. This is a known tactic, and to over come it i used shorter albeit less powerful combos.

I hear there is a problem in seiges too where melee fighters dont stand much of a chance aganist casters and it turns out a caster match. These are problems i admit, however i still enjoy this system over auto attack..

honestly the biggest problem with melee combos in pvp is theres to much of a delay from one arrow to the next.

to do a 3 point combo is left attack (forced to wait 3 secs) right attack (forced to wait 3 secs) forward attack, unless your fighting another melee the guy your trying to kill is long gone. You can pre do combos and wait to hit the last combo attack at the last moment, but it just doesn't work all the time and you end up without doing a combo and having to wait for a gcd.

I don't understand the .."After Tortage it is crap"  comments that I see made of AoC on many threads. The only difference I noticed is that every npc does not have voiceovers. Other than that....I have a book full of quests at 32nd level and the graphics are still stunning. I am hoping the patch doesnt change the game too much...because I really like it  as it exists now.     

edit: It's funny ...I would almost bet that the same posters who whine about  AoC not having voice acting after Tortage....are the same posters sighing "woo hoo...big deal." about SW:TOR having ALL voice acting. ...Some people just find any reason to chew the bitch bone.

Originally posted by BarCrow

I don't understand the .."After Tortage it is crap"  comments that I see made of AoC on many threads. The only difference I noticed is that every npc does not have voiceovers. Other than that....I have a book full of quests at 32nd level and the graphics are still stunning. I am hoping the patch doesnt change the game too much...because I really like it  as it exists now.

You are not the only one who doesnt understand it.

As far as i can see after Tortage is EXACTLY like evey other fantasy MMO on the market, get quests go do them and return. So by their reasoning every other MMO is crap.

It is statements like that, that make me believe in trolls, who will simply bad mouth a game cos they dont like it.

Not eveyone can like every game, it is not anyone's fault if you don't like a game................

The patch will not affect the flow of the game and will look at increasing the effect of gear, they originally did not want it to be a "gear" game but admit they went to far in the wrong direction, although they say they wont go aas far as WoW when it comes to gear dependency.