At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

really?  i thought savage coast was a ton better than kingsmouth

This stuff is getting rediculous.

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

I'm more worried about the marketing of the game as in will they release a bug free product that actually includes everything they advertise?

and while it is good to question how much polish from area to area I think the problem people have is again with marketing had so many not played tortage and expected that same level of polish further down the line we have to wonder if it woud have been a problem the way the game played from start to finish.

I just caution folks that Funcom has had two mmo releases and they borked them both about as bad as a company can bork a release.

Granted their release wasnt the smoothest but it wasnt so much the release, it was more the introduction of the gem-craft system that rocked the boat.

Kingsmouth has been working fine most of the beta, savage coast works fine, only issue there coming to mind is the black house, blue mountains works almost perfectly so does egypt. Im not worried.

I'm REALLY on the fence about TSW. It's FunCom, and they kinda ruined their reputation (from my perspective) with Anarchy Online's CRAPTACULAR release. I've never played AoC, but I've heard all sorts of stories. The fact that TSW is also relying on the '4th pillar' like SWTOR did also gives me pause.

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

I played AoC on release and got to 80 in about 2 months.  I found the game to be full of interesting content, great combat and most amazing graphics to date.  There was a quest gap in the (i think) 50-60 range, but since killing mobs was actually fun, i didn't find it to be much of an issue.   If they "pull an AoC", i'll be pretty happy in terms of content quantity and quality.  

Now if they "pull an AoC" and make the endgame semi-focused on PvP, i'll probably quit TSW just like I did AoC and go back to waiting for a good PvE game.

Originally posted by arieste

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

I played AoC on release and got to 80 in about 2 months.  I found the game to be full of interesting content, great combat and most amazing graphics to date.  There was a quest gap in the (i think) 50-60 range, but since killing mobs was actually fun, i didn't find it to be much of an issue.   If they "pull an AoC", i'll be pretty happy in terms of content quantity and quality.  

 

Now if they "pull an AoC" and make the endgame semi-focused on PvP, i'll probably quit TSW just like I did AoC and go back to waiting for a good PvE game.

I've heard people say that the first instance/dungeon was quite amazing, so we'll hope that holds true.

I don't have personal experience on the matter, I didn't run it.

PvP has usually been a side-hobby for me as opposed to what I play for, but I'm satisfied with what they have offered in the way of PvP.

ea + funcom, cant miss.

Originally posted by cahenderson

I'm REALLY on the fence about TSW. It's FunCom, and they kinda ruined their reputation (from my perspective) with Anarchy Online's CRAPTACULAR release. I've never played AoC, but I've heard all sorts of stories. The fact that TSW is also relying on the '4th pillar' like SWTOR did also gives me pause.

SWTOR made a huge mistake.   They had 8 short stories.   Should have gone with 2 long ones (one each side) that had, at times, class-based deviations to give some unique class-feel.   But other wise took a LONG time to finish.

By the time you finished the first play-through, it should have taken you a /played of weeks of play time (which would have been spread over at least two months of real-world time) , not days to complete which you could do in a week of heavy gaming, two weeks of dedicated gaming.

But they went  single-player in length, and since the leveling process shared 80% of the side material...   It was just too much repeat, too soon.   And there was no effective way to get around that habituation, but not play.

Plus, honestly, I thought the stories were really badly done.   I'm very, very well read in sci-fi and I could see where things had originated.  Who they stole the ideas and elements from and how they changed them.   They really did a bad job of lifting those stories.  And, beyond that, there were a lot of elements that just didn't work in a coherent, science fiction way.   Like the authors came from MAGIC not SCIENCE in their writing approach.    The fantasy/sci-fi disconnect and over-all poor quality was too great for me.

OTOH, I've thought TSW has done a very good job of lifting from the Lovecraft/Horror genre.   Not much into modern horror, but I was way big into Lovecraft in HS.   They've done a very good job of lifting concepts and threads without being inept or ham-fisted.

Anyway, I'm not afraid of the 4th pillar.   Just because BioWare blew it (and has blown a lot of games IMO) doesn't mean Funcom will blow it.    It doesn't mean Bethesda will blow it.   SWTOR is the DA2 of MMOs.   Big name, big fail because the product was, at its core, a cash-in product, not a crafted product.

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

I thought SC was just as good if not better then KM, and the two instances were very very well done, not sure what you are on about here besides bashing the game

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

I really wasn't nearly that impressed by AoC's starting area.  I did think they had a remarkable combat system and did a good job in scripting combat situations so they actually felt both heroic and dangerous.  

I'm less impressed with TSW's combat.  But the beginning of the TSW is one of the best MMO beginnings I've ever played.   It was really enjoyable.    I still have some disconnect with the way they're doing dialog.   I neve speak, I never select options.  I'm not a fan of that.  But i can live with it.

Originally posted by azmundai

ea + funcom, cant miss.

How can I know this, but still want to support it so bad? I may have to play this hand.

Not quite understanding the whole Funcom + EA hate going on.

EA is only co-publishing.  They do not own Funcom or have anything to do with it's development and content post-release. I also haven't seen any local distribution restrictions as of yet.

Looks like EA only wanted a piece of the sales and Funcom the increased exposure. If only Bioware had gone for that :( .

As I have pointed out elsewhere: There is no way in hell Funcom can screw up a release any worse than their track record has already proven. EA breathing down their neck wouldn't make a lick of difference.

The problem with AoC's starting area, is that after doing it once, i never ever wanted to do it again, but had to do it again every time i made a new character.

Originally posted by alexmino

The problem with AoC's starting area, is that after doing it once, i never ever wanted to do it again, but had to do it again every time i made a new character.

This is true.

Then again beyond looks and faction, there aren't the usual reasons to roll alts, like to experience a different class and/or race.

EDIT: This coming from someone with serious alt-itis. I'm very glad a single character will be capable of unlocking every skill.

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Originally posted by Tamanous
Not quite understanding the whole Funcom + EA hate going on.

 

EA is only co-publishing.  They do not own Funcom or have anything to do with it's development and content post-release. I also haven't seen any local distribution restrictions as of yet.

 

Looks like EA only wanted a piece of the sales and Funcom the increased exposure. If only Bioware had gone for that :( .

 

As I have pointed out elsewhere: There is no way in hell Funcom can screw up a release any worse than their track record has already proven. EA breathing down their neck wouldn't make a lick of difference.

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the hate for ea goes a lot deeper than swtor. swtor was icing on the cake. they have killed quite a few good developers. maxis being the chief of which, for me.

after dealing with the crap that was AOC and the even crappier which was Funcom CS .. I wont buy a funcom game until it has millions of subs and has been out for a year or two. plus the setting of tsw doesnt speak to me much. Played beta for a weekend .. and while it wasnt a complete train wreck, I wasnt impressed. I really gotta stop playing betas.

Originally posted by alexmino

The problem with AoC's starting area, is that after doing it once, i never ever wanted to do it again, but had to do it again every time i made a new character.

I had the same opinion.

If I like the game it won't be from making alts. It will be by playing only one character to see the content and story.  It has been a long time end game mechanic in many mmo's to have players enjoy making many new characters. Story based mmo's have one very large drawback ... they lack this entirely. Even in Swtor I could only play one story once and even then had to switch factions due to all the cross over content.

In fact it has been a very long time (many years) where I have played a game and enjoyed making new characters over and over. Way back in Asheron's Call I could make (even with their extremely outdated skill system) many new characters and play in parts of the world for the first 50 levels while barely repeating content. Hell even Wow managed that nicely when the game was once good.

The problem with story driven mmo's is that new content has to be constantly pushed out to support the story or else we see dramatic end game focus change that disillusions the player base. The number one reason I have quit most mmo's is exactly this. I enjoy a game from level 1 to X and suddenly I find myself on a treadmill of faction/point/gear/token grind/dailies/repeated dungeons that has no reflection on the game I had been playing up to that point.

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by Abye

At release AoC had a great starting area and after that there was barely anything. Now in the TSW beta, you get a fantastic first zone, second zone already doesn't seem to have the same amount of polish the first one had. How do you feel  that Funcom will do any better ?

really?  i thought savage coast was a ton better than kingsmouth

Me too and thats saying alot becasue Kingmouth was what drew me in the game the first place.  I heard through the grapevine that Egypt is amazing too.  So no I dont believe it will pull another Tortage.