Hey, I get to pick a game to pay monthly for *lucky me* and i have the ability to play the best.

Now i've looked though a lot and played a LOT of trials and games,

SWG
EQ2
FFXI
And more

And now, I'm getting the trial to this game

When i asked

EQ2
or
FFXI

Ppl said

AC2
Which means Asherons call 2 right? heh ^_^

Can you guys tell me all the cool stuff about it, ive seen screens, BEAUTIFUL Graphics... now i need buttering up ^_^ thanks in advance... this will really help.

INSERT PROS and cons too.

That was me, and I'm glad you are interested.

Right now there are 3 races, and a total of 18 different professions. The expansion pack will add the Empyreans, and pre-order people will also get drudges as playable characters. That brings it up to 5 races, and 30 different professions. Drudges will be available to everyone a few more months from now by completing a quest.

The new landmass with the expansion pack will add 30% to the total landmass in the game. It will be about the size of one of the three continents we have today. Over 100 new quests are supposed to be added throughout the game.

The hero 2.0 system is how we will advance past level 50. Most of the hero skills and perks are listed on the other thread about the detailed explanation of hero 2.0. The system should allow lots more customization than before, and more than most other games.

The crafting system has about a dozen different materials, gained by mining or butchering. The materials are then used for making tools, weapons, or armor of many different varieties. You can also pull spells off of looted items and put them onto crafted items. Whenever you use a crafting or gather skill, you gain craft experience. Some is put directly in the skill. Some is available to spend on whatever craft skill you want. There is no limit to which crafting skills you can raise, but raising many skills is very long and hard work.

That should be enough information to get you interested, but I'll answer any questions.

Ok cool, now im not a pvp BIG fan but a duel or 2 is always cool,
i heard there's realm battle or something... like DAoC.
also HOW ARE QUESTS.
do the quests take you on far beautiful journeys because
i love quets thats why i was going to get everquest... but ac2 looks cooler.

the KvK is great and some quests u have to go threw a part of KvK

 

Quests can take from mins to hours =D and the people are great here!!!~

I don't believe there will be 30 professions after the x-pack is released next week. The Empyrians are only going to have 3 professions initially and there will only be 1 drudge class. That makes 22.

One con is there aren't that many people who play the game now. Sometimes it is very hard to find other players to run quests with. Although some of the quests are very unique. The Dereth Rally is a good example where you have to race to 4 checkpoints on one of the islands.

It is highly recommended to have a very good videocard, lots of memory, and a fast processor. The game will use this hardware to the max, no matter how uber it is. This is especially true if you download the hi-res file. If you try to play this game on anything less than a P4 or Athlon XP, you are guaranteed to run into a lot of lag. I have 1 gig of memory, Radeon 9800 pro, and an Athlon XP 1700+ and I still run into some lag, probably because of the processor.

Play the 2 week free trial first and see what you think yourself. Because of you trying the game at the same time that the x-pack is released, the population levels should be at the highest since November (when World of Warcraft went to market).

One of the reason I have stayed with the game like I have done is  because of the quests.  There may not be an abundence compared to WoW, but the ones that are there are very fun.

 

If you want to get buttered up watch some of the videos to see waht is in the game.   

They can be found http://ac2.turbinegames.com/?page_id=40

Sorry about the mistake on professions. I didn't get the full info.

But yes, the quests are very high quality.

If you want to see the drudge race in action, check out the trailer on this page.

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Originally posted by Falconoffury
But yes, the quests are very high quality.

---

The bulk of the quests in AC2 end up being a mad zerg rush to the end of the dungeon, never stopping to check lore, see the graphics, or anything except zerg the end boss, grab the quest completion flag, and go get xp. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseum. And because of the lack of quests versus the huge leveling curve, there are people playing AC2 who have run some of these quests 300 or 400 times. That's as bad as standing in HOD in one spot killing things for 16 hours a day to get a fraction of your next level.

So yeah, if you like mindless zerg rushes that someone in Boston calls a quest, then AC2 does that just fine.

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The bulk of the quests in AC2 end up being a mad zerg rush to the end of the dungeon, never stopping to check lore, see the graphics, or anything except zerg the end boss, grab the quest completion flag, and go get xp.

---

That sounds like more the fault of the players than the game designers. They can put in interesting stuff in the game, but if the players don't take advantage of it, then it's the players' fault.

I find the huge quests groups fun, but you don't always have a huge group when you run quests.

---

Originally posted by Falconoffury

---

The bulk of the quests in AC2 end up being a mad zerg rush to the end of the dungeon, never stopping to check lore, see the graphics, or anything except zerg the end boss, grab the quest completion flag, and go get xp.

---

That sounds like more the fault of the players than the game designers. They can put in interesting stuff in the game, but if the players don't take advantage of it, then it's the players' fault.

I find the huge quests groups fun, but you don't always have a huge group when you run quests.

---

That is the fault of the designers. When you build reward systems heavily oriented to one central kind of reward (in this case "levels") then most players are going to try to maximize their rewards. This is simple human nature.

If you don't want that sort of behavior in your dungeons, then give the dungeons additional rewards that make taking the time to work through them as compelling as the end reward.

id definately recommend AC2 over SWG or FFXI
I haven't played EQ2 though... so couldn't tell ya

I totally agree, Thor. Final fantasy XI is the worst mmorpg I've ever played. It's too group dependant and too much work and not enough fun. SWG is just a buggy everquest clone since the combat upgrade. It used to be a fairly unique game, but no longer.

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Originally posted by Falconoffury

That sounds like more the fault of the players than the game designers. They can put in interesting stuff in the game, but if the players don't take advantage of it, then it's the players' fault.

I find the huge quests groups fun, but you don't always have a huge group when you run quests.

---

It happened in GW too and it wasn't the designers fault there either, people are impatient and often lack the social skills required to complete the quest as a tight group fighting through it so they just run and hope that one person makes it all the way.

I wanna be a cleric just to see the top end of the game faster when people wanna group me :D

AC2 would be my MMO of choice...if there were more players. There are about 20 people left playing the game it seems. Which sucks ass because it really is a good game. But unfortunatly, it got a bad rap with alot pf people early on for being to dissimilar to AC1. Well, it's a different game. People didn't get that though. They have already consolidated the 8 original servers down to 2. That is a BAD sign. It would seem to me that after the release of D&D Online and Middle Earth Online Turbine will evaluate AC2 against the massive amount of people playing the other two games and deem it not worthy to keep afloat any longer and shut it down. That's my guess anyway. It's damn unfortunate, but that's what I think is gonna happen.

Do you even play? They consildated the servers long ago, why even bring it up? Also far more than 20 people play. If you goto Cragstone alone you'll see that many people standing around.

If DDO and MEO are successes which they should be based on the names alone. I don't see Turbine closing AC2 any time soon. The funds they make off of those games could cover AC2. AC2's financial situation is obviously not that bad if they invested in a expansion pack and it is still running after all these years. Plus they will keep AC2 going to keep up a good image. Canceling AC2 right after DDO and MEO would look pretty bad and shake peoples faith in those games.

No I don't play. Anymore. But I played for the first 18 months of the game including BETA. I was part of the LARGEST monarchy on Thistledown, Order of the Sacred Moon. We had probably over 1,500 active members at our high point. And what do you mean by 'all these years'? The game isn't even 3 years old! As I said, it's an awesome game and would be my game of choice if there were a more solid player base. And I brought up server sonsolidation because it's a traditionally BAD sign in MMO's.  I brought it up because server consolidation means that there isn't enough players to populate the original server capacity. Meaning that there aren't as many people playing the game as they intended. By that I mean each server was meant to hold about 3000 or so players simultaniously. They took away 6 of the servers. They are left with two now. That means that they over shot the projected amount of subscribers by a VAST amount. Again meaning that thier financial goals for the game are not being met. Those servers each suck up a HUGE amount of bandwidth monthly. That much bandwidth costs ALOT money. More so than i'm sure they were bringing in. In thier contract with Microsoft they were required to have a certain number of servers. They did a small consolidation while still with MS. But as soon as they cut loose from MS they did a bigger one. To save money. Businesses like Turbine do what they do to make money. Money is ALWAYS the bottom line in a successful business plan. If you think they will be keeping AC2 afloat by the means of another MMO's income then you will be sorley dissappointed. Concerning the expansion, it came as a means to attract more players to return to the game and maybe a few new ones. My bottom line point is that AC2 is a struggling MMO right now. My personal opinion is that it's a fantastic game with alot of flavor. BUT it's being overshadowed by all the other high profile games that are out now and coming out soon. With games like WOW and City of Heroes sucking up the players interests and soon D&D Online and Middle Earth Online i'm afraid the future of AC2 looks pretty bleak. Recently at E3 they didn't even mention AC1 or AC2. They focused soley on D&D and LOTR. ALrighty, enough rambling now...i'm tired...

There have been many posts saying AC2 is on its way out the door... and yet it is still here. Like a Timex watch, it takes a licken  and keeps on tickin.

pros: MOUNTS WOOT!, easy leveling game, fun pvp combat, Allegiance halls, REAL Fun quests. Unlimited leveling (not really, 150 is limit last time i played)

Cons: Some Lag, some quests are the same, they just edit something, but still fun. It's no fun when your not in a allegiance.

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Originally posted by Thors1982
id definately recommend AC2 over SWG or FFXI
I haven't played EQ2 though... so couldn't tell ya

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 LOL! SWG has more players on one of its servers than AC2 has in its entire game on ALL its servers combined! LOL! Of course it is your choice to waste your money on a sinking ship being kept afloat by the profits from AC1. (SWG can hold a max of 12k players per server. SWG has a solid 200k total players. Vs AC2 which after 1 year of being out had 6k total players with 200 to 600 players on each server! AC2 currently has less than 12k total players ) AC2 at release had roughly 50k players. 1 year after release it lost 80% of all its players.

 Heck, even Runescape has more players on 1 of its servers than AC2 has in its entire game all its servers combined! And RS is a 2D javascript mmorpg! (RS can hold a solid 5k players per server.)

 I will leave it to the other posters, and lurkers to take what you said seriously... or not.

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Originally posted by darkfalz

pros: MOUNTS WOOT!, easy leveling game, fun pvp combat, Allegiance halls, REAL Fun quests. Unlimited leveling (not really, 150 is limit last time i played)

Cons: Some Lag, some quests are the same, they just edit something, but still fun. It's no fun when your not in a allegiance.

---

 Everyone and anyone in AC2 who likes mounts, uses mounts, have ME to thank for it! LOL! I was the only one who pestered Turbine, who led the charge, to have mounts in AC2. It took them over 1 year to realize I was right and put it in. After 95% of all AC2 players, as well as the AC2 game DEVs all told me I was wrong, and posted wimpy excuses saying they knew better than me.

 

       

-Personal Website (A Work still in progress):
http://www.geocities.com/xplororor/index.html

-AC, AC2, AO, EQ, Freelancer, SWG:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor

-More SWG:
http://community.webshots.com/user/captain_sica_xol

-More EQ, Dungeon Siege, *UXO*, Diablo II:Lords of Destruction:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01

-EverQuest II, Horizons:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_eq2archives01

-EVE Online !!!
http://community.webshots.com/user/sica_xol_archives01

-DAoC
http://community.webshots.com/user/sica_xol_archives02

-Coming sooner or later... CoH, WoW, MXO, UO, GW, As3, RS

The community on AC2 is amazing and the mates that you can meet really get involved and help each other out, you couldn't ask for a better online gaming community.

That said I subscribe to three MMORPGs, AC2, EvE-Online, and EQ2.  I love each and every one of them but AC2 keeps me comming back for the people playing in there with me.

 

Cheers