is this game worth coming back to i left after my free month when the game first came out and have a conq in the mid 50s, but ig i go back i might make a new toon i heard conqs are hard to pvp with and are not as good as som of the other classes for pvp. Has the game been balenced or can a barb or ranger still gank people 10 or more lvls highers than they are?

You should take a quick peek here: forums.ageofconan.com/forumdisplay.php and check the stickies out. At level 50 you are on the cusp of Ymir's Pass the bigest zone new addition since you last played.

Conq's had a lot of upgrades and tweaks especially over the last little while.

Ranger and barbs can still gank people 10 levels higher then them in the lower levels of the game.  at endgame these classes are more balanced. Conq's are a good class these days, the changes made to them seem to have been quite good and they are a good pvp class at level 80.  If the game is worth coming back to will always be depending on why you left the game in the first olace imo. If you left due to not liking the combat system or the gameplay not much have been changed. They reduced combo's so combo's have fewer steps and some classes have gotten some new abilities and ways to be played. Conq are one of these. If you left due to lack of content the game now is far more polished and the content issues  have been sorted out. Endgame could need more content but you will most likely not run out of stuff to do with the first.

The game today is imo quite good, lack of people on some servers but choose a helathy server and this shouldn't be a issue. :)

Short answer is if you can play it for free go for it. But don't bother paying for it, its not worth real money.

when i first got the game i enjoyed it alot there were 2 reasons i ledt the first and most annoying was the lack of quest after i did all the quest in the 50-60 zone i couldnt find anymore and when i asked around for a new place to quest every1 said that the zone i was in was the only 50-60 quest zone and id have to grind my way to 60 then head to a 60+ zone and after a few levels of grinding i started to get bored i like to do quest alot more than grinding, another reason was because the game was a pure gankfest no1 wanted to pvp they just wanted to roam around in numbers and  attack people lower than they were or when they outnumbered them i remember the 1 guild called BLOOD would take over the zone by blocking all exits and killing every1 that come in or try leaving. That might be my fault when i got the gamer so did several friends and they all wanted on a ffa pvp and i went with them, What i really like about the game is the dungeons tho i love the way they are designed they look alot better than the 1s iv seen in wow and one of my favorite was the 1 where you started in the sewers under the main city. Are there any decent servers where the focus is Mainly on pve with some pvp as well with minimal gankers, i know all the servers prolly still have them but I would like to focus on PvE moslty till laters lvls, I have heard that RPpvp servers are ok would 1 of those be a good choice to make a new toon or is there a character transfer where i can move my conq to a non ffa server? thx for your replies

Originally posted by desecrate

when i first got the game i enjoyed it alot there were 2 reasons i ledt the first and most annoying was the lack of quest after i did all the quest in the 50-60 zone i couldnt find anymore and when i asked around for a new place to quest every1 said that the zone i was in was the only 50-60 quest zone and id have to grind my way to 60 then head to a 60+ zone and after a few levels of grinding i started to get bored i like to do quest alot more than grinding, another reason was because the game was a pure gankfest no1 wanted to pvp they just wanted to roam around in numbers and  attack people lower than they were or when they outnumbered them i remember the 1 guild called BLOOD would take over the zone by blocking all exits and killing every1 that come in or try leaving. That might be my fault when i got the gamer so did several friends and they all wanted on a ffa pvp and i went with them, What i really like about the game is the dungeons tho i love the way they are designed they look alot better than the 1s iv seen in wow and one of my favorite was the 1 where you started in the sewers under the main city. Are there any decent servers where the focus is Mainly on pve with some pvp as well with minimal gankers, i know all the servers prolly still have them but I would like to focus on PvE moslty till laters lvls, I have heard that RPpvp servers are ok would 1 of those be a good choice to make a new toon or is there a character transfer where i can move my conq to a non ffa server? thx for your replies

There is a new 55-65 zone called Ymir's pass and a new 75-80 called Commons Districts which has cut down the grind significantly. There is still some lack of quests 70-75, and at that point you may need to grind a little, or run the same dungeon multiple times (imho, always a good idea anyways). I don't play in NA or PvP, so I can't really help you out there, but I'm sure someone can tell you what your best bet is.

With the sewer instance I assume you mean Cistern/Main System. That place has been revamped and is now a single instance. Still a very fun (albeight lengthy) instance. Now you alo have the Amphitheater (lvl 65-ish) in previously mentioned YP, which is probably the best instance in the game.

thx for the info ima get it a shot with a couple friends of mine

I really do love this game, but...

Unfortunately the population is falling.  I think Funcom is on target with the story and the mechanics of the game.  Unfortunately the world size is an issue and some occasional performance problems.  I played for several months, more like suffered for several months before this latest patch, I did leave and came back after patching.  To my suprise it was significantly better...but not quite there.  I'm interested to see how it will fair after the expansion.

Originally posted by mikewood74

I really do love this game, but...

Unfortunately the population is falling.  I think Funcom is on target with the story and the mechanics of the game.  Unfortunately the world size is an issue and some occasional performance problems.  I played for several months, more like suffered for several months before this latest patch, I did leave and came back after patching.  To my suprise it was significantly better...but not quite there.  I'm interested to see how it will fair after the expansion.

The developers have done alot of work with the technical issues(bugs,memory leaks, etc) but none of that matters without a healthy population. Until Funcom can merge servers again or bring in new subs AoC will contunue to struggle. If funcom could fix the seige problems and offer a FTP model IMO would go along way in bringing new and former players back. At this time I just can't see paying $15 a month for AoC when games like Aion, Eve, etc. are out there that offer better gameplay with very healthy populations to enteract with.

I like  AoC I would reconsider going back if I wasn;t so into Aion right now, AoC has a higher player count then WAR currently on Xfire. Although that usually doesn't mean very much but it is definitely something haha 

I bought the game in early february 2009. I had heard alot of things about the game then and I have to admit I was very sceptic. But I thought, hey, you can't have an opinion unless you've tried it. So I did and I've been a very satisfied subscrider ever since. So there you go, I liked the game back in feb 09, there's been ALOT of changes since then. All I can say you should REALLY try the game!

Stop playing your shitty-elfy-manga-asian-grinders and join a astonoshing and brutal game where there's actully something to do rather than rushing to max lvl to become the coolest disco elf of them all.

Peace.

 In my opinion Age of Conan is underrated. The game is fun, actionpaced and has some of the best FFA PvP amongst current games.

Yes and No.... from my experiences....

If you like the pvp go to pvp server other wise your going to be a farmed..... and the pvp gear is almost out of reach to obtain.

The raid loot boss drops are horrid with duplicate items and 5 main classes dropping predomiately.

Raid glitches unf are all too prevalant.

Not much to do after reaching lvl 80 cept to make another toon.

on the flip side.....

Many glitches were fixed. Combat is better. Fatalities never get old. Plenty of ppl to quest with.

I'm coming back to Age of Conan, after playing Aion.YEAH!!

Originally posted by LordBonezy

Short answer is if you can play it for free go for it. But don't bother paying for it, its not worth real money.

Just wondering, now, in a long answer, why wouldn't you pay 15 dollars monthly for this game.  And why would you play it for free if it's a waste of time as you're apparently leaning towards it being that.  Just explain please.

Originally posted by Reion1

Originally posted by LordBonezy

Short answer is if you can play it for free go for it. But don't bother paying for it, its not worth real money.

 

Just wondering, now, in a long answer, why wouldn't you pay 15 dollars monthly for this game.  And why would you play it for free if it's a waste of time as you're apparently leaning towards it being that.  Just explain please.

I would like to know that too!

He doesn't like what it has to offer.

Such people do not know what talking about, next time think twice before you say something. If you do not like AOC, let him alone. Leave us who pay to play and enjoy.Talk about the positive sides of AOC's because there are many.  XD

May I suggest to create a free account, play the game for a month and make up your mind?

Worst case you don't like it and try another game. Best case you can get (an estimated average) of 45 hours of entertainment for the price of a 1.5 hour movie for each subsequent month. Sounds like pretty good entertainment/cost ratio to me :)

Originally posted by Turntable

Originally posted by Reion1

Originally posted by LordBonezy

Short answer is if you can play it for free go for it. But don't bother paying for it, its not worth real money.

 

Just wondering, now, in a long answer, why wouldn't you pay 15 dollars monthly for this game.  And why would you play it for free if it's a waste of time as you're apparently leaning towards it being that.  Just explain please.

I would like to know that too!

Age of Conan is on life support.

Suppose you subscribe today, this game is simply not going to be around in one or two years like say Aion or WOW or some other mainstay of the MMO market. I say that because of the way it has fallen from grace, declined, imploded on many servers, and continues a steady decline even now while the game is improving.

Why is it declining? It is in part because of the history and record of the company making it, but it is primarily because of the decisions being made by that company and by the head of development. It is also because the pace at which they implement changes. Suppose they put out a major patch, generally there are several things which the community on the test live servers dont like and when the patch makes it to live the rest of the community generally agrees. The areas on which they choose to improve on are simply not the right choices the market needs and because of that they are squandering their limited resources as a company to forward their product.

Put all that aside and lets talk what they needed to do to make this game more enjoyable...

FIX SIEGES!

This should be the absolute top priority. Sieges are a hallmark of AOC. MMOs are centered around many players forming groups and organizations inside the environment to compete and cooperate with each other. Age of Conan doesn't achieve this very well at all. Sieges are one example, according to numerous polls both take by me and others, about 85%-90% of players want to participate in sieges, and that is regardless of the level of their top character. However, with the way the game mechanics are setup, these sieges even when working, only occur between two guilds at any one time, there is no mercenary system where players can sign-up or be drafted from a pool of those interested to get into them, you simply have to be a member of the 2 guilds going to battle at that time. Also there are some guilds which unfairly exploit their size and own more than one of the battlekeeps. Sieges should be available to everybody and they should occur daily. You cant tweak the way in which they are played and the general mechanics there until they get them working 100% of the time and working properly lag free and without studders etc.

Another thing that is busted with AOC is PVP Duels, so you are in a guild and your friend is in the same guild and the only way you can duel each other is with one of you leaving the guild. That makes a player feel so welcome and everybody sees that a total failure on the part of the game designers. We'd all like to see dueling areas, and places where players could go in the guild city which have meaning, or a centralized place where duels could occur and people could place bets and gamble that sort of thing, none of this exists.

There is no guild alliance system and really no guild war system. From the first conflicts in the history of mankind, there were alliances, enemies, double crossers, backstabbers, deals to be made. None of this is present in AOC, there is no trade or barter system, without real trade there is no economy, and without an economy you can't really emulate a market which is another critical component of organization and civilized or not so civilized society.

FIX RESOURCES!

It costs players basically 10 labor hours to harvest the T1 city, 500 labor hours to harvest a T2 city and like 5000 labor hours to harvest a T3 city. The only problem is those first 10 hours can basically be accomplished by 80% of your guilds membership, because level 20-80 can harvest T1, T2 resources require level 50 so if your guild is balanced thats about 40% of your members and T3 resources require level 60/70, so basically the last 10% of your labor force is able to harvest about 95% of the resources necessary. In a more vibrant game there would be a better economy based on these resources but population levels are in steady decline.

Combine this with Siege Mechanics and you get less than 50% of the player base able to participate in sieges, and 90% interested in them. Does that sound like a well though out design? Not to me.

Suppose you hit 80 and you are in one of those guilds which doesn't have the BK or a T3 city, you don't do sieges, you Raid and you can group if you can find folks at that level wanting to group and you harvest. Thats it. Those are you options. There ought to be more things to do and more ability for players to get in on what AOC offers but there isn't. That is the bottom line, that is what is driving the playerbase away so rapidly and that is why out of 100k who played the first free trial about 5k stuck it out for a new sub and the other 95k did not.

To me the game doesn't provide the value that it should. It is also a fact that alot of the world PVP occurs in the first 24 levels because the crowd that plays generally hounds at level 24/25 on WSI and its a gankfest there over and over. When they hit PVP level 5 after getting 3-5k kills they start all over again. I think it would be interesting to have an option to not go back to Tortage ever again as a new player. I also think it totally sucks that if you get stuck on one of these imploding servers we are going to see in the next 2-3 months, that you have to pay $20 to get a transfer. That is total bullshit. It should be a vet reward and it is not.
 

FIX GROUPING

Another thing that is too difficult is getting a group together, some quests require a group, and it simply is impossible to find the number of players in your level range to do a group unless you are playing in the 2-4 peak hours of the day. There is no ingame group signup where you could list your intent to be in a part of a group at a particular time, and that would be very helpful for the players on the 18-20 off peak hours who play in the game as well. The thing is the AOC dev team isn't even close to implementing features on the level of this kind of thing. Not when they have outstanding RED FLAG EMERGENCIES like Sieges which crash 1/3-2/3 the time, and DX10 beta which hasn't made it to charlie, and thousands of missing voiceovers. The fact that 18 months post launch these major things which anyplace else would be an expectation, and a pretty basic one at that, are still issues plaguing the community say to me AOC isn't worth paying to support because they have amateurs working on the project. The only thing Funcom does really well is tell lies, they lie about their strengths, they lie about their weaknesses, they lie about how things are going, they don't level with the community and their leadership isn't any real improvement over Gaute Godager. Gaute was no expert on customer service, or on implementation of concepts, but neither is Craig.

FIX GUILDS

So were supposed to have this guild in the game, but I don't really get any benefit from being in a guild on either a PVP or PVE server. Suppose I want to call my guildies for backup on WSI well when I'm level 17 the majority of my guild is logged in with their level 25-80 character, how about having a potion they can take which dumps their chracter back to level 25 and can open up some whup ass on WSI for 15 min and help me get my questing done, so they dont have to log out and log in with some mule who is level 8 anyway? Another thing that sucks is the total lack of incentive for building a guild city, no NPC attacks, no other guilds attacking us, nothing, its pretty too look at but its just a time and energy sink, sure there is very limited functionality in the guild tradepost but thats basically it. We should also have a tax system to help bring up funds for resources, making taxes automatic. Have the guild master able to set rates with many increments, having low taxes allows guilds to grow faster than guilds with higher tax rates, because more players will be attracted to those low tax rate guilds. We should also have ranks and be able to setup titles for members, we should have a guild tree where the guild master can setup divisions or companies, in order to organize better and help keep a guild together. Players who frequently play at the same time in a large guild should be grouped together more often. None of this type of thing exists. This game has hardly any tools for cooperation and even fewer for competition.

I stopped sugar coating the situation or accepting the positive spin from Avery and the other shills around here who have cut AOC way more slack than they deserve and were they selling a product in any other market, they would be killed by the competition. Here where there is a high level competition but also a large market, they are barely treading water because of the initial success of the game. People's expectations were much higher than what was delivered, those expectations were fed by Funcom's marketing and they continue to market at bascially that same level, with basically the same intent, to sell the product, finished or not, polished or not, functional or not. In the case of functional, yea it is largely functional, polished, it largely looks good, finished, no even after 18 months this game has areas which rip you right out of the immersion and its not an awe inspiring exprience. Its merely a game which was poorly implemented, badly executed, and had a lot more people playing it than they do now for the reasons many have outlined including me.