Even that statement is presumptuous and naive, at best. Given AoC's slow development cycle and the recent rapidity of the Blizz team it is more likely Cat will be released prior to Rise of the Godslayer. At Blizzcon people could already play the new races and try out some of the quests that pertain to the new starting areas. Basically whole Blizzcon this year was devoted at giving out concrete info about the new expansion.

Well, let's hope both expansions come out as soon as possible.

Keep dreaming, nihce, and stop drinking, it belittles your reason. You know absolutely nothing about Cataclysm, yet claim it will have less content than AoC's expansion. For your information, Cataclysm will contain 4 raid dungeons with numerous optional encounters, 7 dungeons + heroic modes plus two heroic dungeons from the vanilla era. And that is just the endgame pve dungeon part...

Ironically and sadly, the info on the next WoW expansion contains much more concrete and substantial news about the pvp content than the abstract "faction-based" pvp Rise of the Godslayer is supposed to bring.

Yes, Rise of the Godslayer seems to be a nice expansion that AoC badly needs, especially its core philosophy, namely horizontal progression aka more things to do in the game than being bored out of your mind. AoC's expansion will try to add a new core to the game, while WoW's 3rd expansion will improve upon it, since that game long ago achieved what Rise of the Godslayer is trying to achieve.

Oh, and ofc, nihce, you totally and intentionally forgot to ignore the fact that the world will actually CHANGE in the WoW's next expansion, they're not merely adding new zones and leave the old ones in dark.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

people like the above poster wont like aoc no matter what they do.  still living in last years launch.

 

gotta ask, why have a merc system when there are TONS of merc guilds helping smaller guilds fill up for seiges ALL THE TIME? Hell if anyone sieges against a large guild you bet you ass theres the merc guilds as well as the countless enemy guilds of the larger guilds frothing at the chance to seige agaisnt them.  Finding a full siege is a non issue.

 

Finding a full siege is an issue, but a bigger one is finding a siege that works.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

You guys should really read the test server forums for more info: forums-tl.ageofconan.com/

PUG Siege  Full 48v48) just a few days ago - Crash Free: forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php      www.kissmybuns.net/Images/TARumbleInTheJungle5.jpg

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=151754

No crash forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php

Like I said in my post some seems fine, other servers not so much.

Simple fact is there are people out there now playing and not having issues apart from some lag and more importantly having fun. No matter all the hate in the world can't change that.

 

Apart from some lag? 500 ms makes melee combat entirely useless and a far cry from fun. You posted some of the sieges that worked out since 1.5, yet the majority of them still remain a major problem. And on Fury ALL sieges are a catastrophe, so I wouldn't exactly call 3 sieges working on a PvE server something inspirational. And even so, those successful sieges still report the following:

"Lag is still a bitch. Balance between the attackers and defenders remains borked. But at least we can play the sieges out to completion now."

That means that sieges are no better now than at the time I left AoC. Yeah, we could play them, but they were laggy and in my opinion and in my experience that ruins the whole point of besting your enemy on the playfield. On Fury server people report that the ress pad bug is back (another inconvenient thing your forgot to mention, eh?), which means the same old story as it was at the time that I left.

So, again, why do you see a couple of sieges who don't crash but have lag as an improvement to the game? That only means that the game has in this respect stagnated. Sieges never crashed when I played, but there were a plethora of other problems (including lag) which prevented me from having fun in the so-called massive pvp.

http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=129583&page=10

http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=127978&page=11

Threads like these written by players who actually play the game (most of these folks are my ex-guildies from Futilez) tell me more than all the fanfares and PR lies commited by either Funcom or their lackeys, such as Avery. 450 days and sieges are basically back to square one, wall hax (yeah, you know, the "tiny" thing that you can actually walk through enemy's walls and sabotage the keep before the defenders even realize what's going on) hasn't been resolved yet, the performance is downright obnoxious (who cares about dx10 and godrays and such if a mere mortal will never be able to experience a siege with those goodies), and even if the sieges last for more than a minute, the latency is about 500 ms at average which makes melee players completely useless. And notice how the game director is clueless as to what's wrong with the sieges in the first place? I mean, players have to actually give suggestions how to fix, or at least partially fix, the game for them. Clueless developers are clueless.

And even if sieges somehow start working, what's the long-term motivation to participate in them anyway? Casuals cannot possibly see them and the guild owns this battlekeep in some god-forsaken instance anyway, accessible only to that particular guild. You can't actually do anything in that battlekeep city. It's not like in Wintergrasp where holding a keep grants you access to special vendors and a raid boss. It's just a symbol that gives you pvp stats.

So even if they somehow manage to fix the technical difficulties for massive pvp, it'll still take them years to make it worthwhile for the majority of players to experience it and participate in it.

Fortunately, I still have sources that tell me precisely what goes in the buggy and overly instanced land of Hyboria. I can only feel sorry for those who only receive their info from Avery and Erling Erlingsen.

Openedge1 accuses many people of having agendas, yet with this thread and many other posts he clearly poses himself as the one with a clear agenda. How does that make you better than the hater, mr. openedge1?

Failcom's faculty for... fail never ceases to amaze me. Is this some sort of a subconscious sign that AoC wants to be another game, that its identity is shattered?

Oh, nice logic. And it just so happens that 80% of people on the best pvp server don't have level 5. I guess the explanation that everyone is on vacations is more feasible, right? Wouldn't you say that not even the most passionate pvp players will not accept the shiity grindfest that is pvp levels, consciously and subconsciously?

Fortunately I have no problems like these. In fact, after 3.2 Wintergrasp is lagless and the new BG also (it was a disaster the first couple of days).

I remember having this problem "additional instances cannot be launched" prior to 3.1, though, but it wasn't such a big deal. One hour waiting to get in? Ouch

You want honesty? Ok. Only a small part of Futilez has pvp level 5 and the guild has been around since beta. It took Ballsofsteel about 4 months to get to level 5 and he played the game every single day for about 5 hrs, mostly pvping. In 2009 such a grindfest is not only unacceptable but a major step backwards, especially for a pvp game.

Crashloop - yeah, I did. About 3 months total, every day for about 5 hrs. So how can you presume I didn't? And I know how much of a grindfest it is to get the pvp levels (I only reached level 3 before I started to feel suicidal).

And Ballofsteel, ever heard of him? How long did it take him to reach level 5 or others from Futilez? You might want to give honest answers here instead of trying to be presumptuous in the first place.

To the OP - yes, it's a cheap and lame system designed to be a tedious time sink, since Funcom obviously has no imagination nor resources to make PvP anything else than that. And yes, you do need to kill as many people as Stalin.

Just check out the statistics from my AoC guild on the EU server Fury - http://aoc.yg.com/guild?h=8BsldTz2 - many of these players have been playing since the beginning and as you can see, only a minority is actually level 5. And just check out how many kills these guys have. If that isn't the worst grindfest (quite sad for an MMO in 2009), then I don't know what is.

What Crashloop intentionally failed to add is that it takes more than 3 months of everyday grinding to get to pvp level 5. If that is something to look forward to...

Sorry, openedge1, the ancient rhetoric "it's your fault, not the game's" simply does not work anymore. Many have tried the game and many have left it due to those 3 core issues and many others. Sure, all MMOs have those 3 issues, but not in the same degree that AoC has. If you cannot comprehend that, then your fanboi logic has cut off any remaining cell of rationality.

You will be a nice replacement for Avery, I'm sure of it.

Originally posted by Barteaux

Yay! Patches are coming fast and tight.

 

The game is virtually unrecognisable from when it first launched. I'm especially happy with the focus on PvP, both mini-games and Sieges. Sieges have been bad since latest patch, so I'm glad their ironing out the snag from that.

Unfortunately, it seems they won't be implementing cross-server mini's very soon. Well, as long as they don't take as long as blizzard did I won't be not too mad (Can still remember back when I was waiting 3-4+ hours to get into alterac valley).

Dude, you either live in an alternate reality or you simply miss a couple of things in this one. What Funcom does is ten times slower than what Blizzard does. It took them a year to stabilize the client and add enough quests without people grinding villas just to get to the empty endgame. Do you think that such a slow company which after one year still deems sieges as something beyond their reach can achieve cross-server minigames so soon?

3-4 hrs to get into AV. Ah, poor you. Does that mean that Funcom has clearance to take 2 years to implement cross-server pvp  just because it took Blizzard that long? This is 2009 now (soon 2010). Cross-server is something that should be given in today's MMOs, such as AoC.

Originally posted by nihce

Originally posted by Silvapower

Originally posted by teco221

Originally posted by Aceundor

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ageofconan.com

Proof first. Alexa.com shows that age of conan forums have increased traffic of 31% that is dramatic and that increase is even after the veteran win backs have finished.

Now, only paying subscribers are allowed to post on the AoC forums, so this means that there are a lot more playes now than before summer. Probably not 31% but could be more, could be less.

Note, Alexa is a tool that is a lot harder to manipulate than xfire and should be trusted more (eventhouhg its not a perfect tool)

Now, i have presented sensible and constructive information. Unfortunatelyt I am not expecting sensible and constructive anwsers, but as an eternal optimist i will take my chanses.

 

 

So, if it's ranked #1 on Alexa.com means the game is popular?  Then Rune Scape is the most popular MMORPG on earth since it's ranked at #10 on the list.  (Rank 1-9 are not MMORPG)

 

Lol good one Unfortunately OP and that nihce guy just don't understand the difference between website hits and subscription numbers.

Hey nihce! All you do is speculate and make assumptions. There is no need for that because this is a very simple situation.

Funcom gave players FREE playtime which momentarily increased server population. Some of those veteran/trial players visited AoC website looking for information which of course resulted in increased traffic.

Now that free playtime is over, Alexia numbers are declining (look at the graph) because most of those veteran/trial players didn't subscribe and therefore and not visiting the site anymore.

How much more simple do I have to explain this?

Well, well, well ... do I really have to make a picture of it for you to understand? How can you claim that of 31% there is 0 newly subscribed ones? That would be going, as I have already said, to the extremes. That is like 1000 of people, can you with any sense say that NONE has subscribed? Hell, even here we have some who did. (you were talking bout 0 corellation, what I am trying to say is that there is at least a minor one) Oh and alexia says steady increase from august the 3th not decline ... and lets not forget that we are in the worst month of the summer, when every game (speccialy mmos) suffers a decline. Check Alexia ...

Oh and to put Krewel and all other haters (dude you speculate all the time about so many stuff it is funny -but I am not gonna go in details here. Just reread my post, this time use brains) at ease - I predict that AoC is losing subs more that they gathered from these winback and trial programs, simply due to the fact that AoC still hasn't done anything about fixing sieges and people are not seeing reality and they don't want to see reality. I think it is save to assume that most of the vets who came back expected a fully developed game as was promised at release- drunken brawling, pvp arenas, meaningful mounted combat, etc. Now, they have every right to expect something like that ... but there is a huge reality check waiting for them in game. This game might in future have all this, but untill it will always be uprise and declines (oh and xfire puts it on 38th today ... that is increase also)

You're not making any sense and try to make me use brains, lol. Of course there is a minor correlation, and so what? In the long run and in the bigger picture it doesn't mean much. Yes, some have re-subscribed (like me), but also some will end their subscription (like me) when the month ends. Of course there is increased traffic pertaining to AoC. Dude, have you checked Funcom's propaganda? They actually made a deceptive and over-dramatic trailer just because of this re-evaluation period and send deceptive emails to every ex-subscriber.

With AoC the truth always sees the light of day when ONE month ends. You'll see your precious correlation end soon enough...

Originally posted by dhayes68

Originally posted by openedge1

Originally posted by Zlayer77

Think its simple:

1. The game is still Buggy (As are ALL MMO's? Go ahead, show me one that does not have patch notes with big fixes)
2. End game needs alot of work (As are ALL MMO's? Show me one game that still does not need to add endgame content?)
3. Classes are imbalanced (As are ALL MMO's (ok, got me on this one...as are ALL PVP based MMO's?)

Those are the 3 things an mmo needs to keep its players around, Funcom with their buggy Dreamworld engine will never make this happen...

Clearly the poster has a standard of what is acceptable for each of the criteria listed.   And whatever that standard is, apparently AoC is too buggy, end game needs too much work and the classes are too imbalanced for the poster.

That you have to take it to 'all or nothing' in order to make your points indicates the weakness of your arguments.

Precisely. I have a feeling that after Avery switches to another MMO, openedge1 will probably become the next correspondent/advocate and take the throne of defending AoC by all means.

Obviously openedge1 never heard of something called relativity. Yes, we know, mr. Sherlock, all MMOs are buggy, yes, all MMOs have class imbalances (even though that is debatable. Do all MMOs have classes in the first place, hm?) and yes, all MMOs are buggy. But what you obviously do not comprehend, openedge1, is that not ALL are as buggy as AoC, not ALL are as imbalanced as AoC and not ALL are as lacking in endgame as AoC. Are you trying to say that just because WoW can add something to its endgame, it's alright for AoC to have a serious gap in its endgame? I hope not, that would make you the fanboi of the year, meaning you would be bereft of reason right on the spot.

In other words, mr. openedge1 - learn something about relativity. The majority of normal people who expect a game that can at least run on their mid-end computers and who expect the fun factor lasting for more than a month will simply not yield to this ridiculous logic of the absolute. 80% of subscribers quitting after a couple of months can clearly tell you one thing - people will not accept this "all or nothing" logic. Like I said, learn something about relativity and know that there is competition out there.

Now it is definitive that nihce is a troll. So much needless speculation about something so simple. Makes all the philosophers sad pandas, tbh.

Openedge1 thinks that the horrible community is an isolated incident on a European server and nihce thinks that WoW's combat system is bad because 10 AoC players that he knows claim so. WTB the newest edition of fanboi logic textbook.

Originally posted by nihce

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

Originally posted by nihce

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

I've been writing up a list as I go along with this come back trial thing, if something annoys me then I write it down.

- Combat system wonky in PVP it just feels very off and it's hard to see what you're doing wrong with it. Unlike games like WoW where the combat system is perfect and just works and clicks with everyone. I hate for example how I have to use the directions to use specials but theres this lag between the time you click the button and you see it on screen. I want it to happen right away and I want the feedback. It also makes it very hard for melee classes like Assassins to hit their targets because the target is running about all over the place. I dunno it just feels very off in PVP. Oh and I also hate how the animations move you around the screen where as in woW your character stays in one place which makes you feel in control.

- loading loading loading... I hate having to load up everywhere, it breaks the immersion and I wish the game was seamless and felt like a world rather than a series of levels.

-Can't visit lower lvl areas or quests and can't get quests which are oo high level which is annoying if I want to collect all the quests in one area and then level with the quests I can do. Then do the ones I've just gained acces to without having to run back to the quest giver again, which I would have forgotten where he is by then.

- Armour all looks crap and the game is very dull on the whole. The character models while they can look good, looke off most of the time, really ugly and the clothes they're wear always looks like brown rags. I also think all the instances so far have been really poorly designed and boring compared to WoW.

- Game needs a LFG group system that WoW has. I mean it has something similar but it doesn't have the auto join a group or the summoning features of WoW which make it much easier to get into groups and do instances.

- More voice work needed because Tortage had voice work and then after that the world seems lifeless and dull. All the quest givers have no voices which seems very off seeing as it's trying to do the Bioware type thing... if you're not gonna voice that then I'd rather just have them give me quests like WoW.

- More dances cause the ones in the game are crap

- Weird targetting system. I mean it's very hard to target what you want fast and efficiently when fighting more than one target, where as in WoW it works.

- Lag period between combat and resting/stealth is annoying. Theres never any indication I can't do it but theres this weird like 5 second lag inbetween.

- Hate the way u talk to npcs. I just wish it didn't do that Bioware like thing that I said above, just give me the WoW style quest givers.

- Getting stuck to floor under water. I often find myself swimming and then get stuck in the floor bed and have to jump to get out.

- Hate the slow transition between zoning of how the load screen fades, which on a PVP server is annoying.

- Raise the quest limit cause I want to store group quests I can't do yet cause I can't find a group but then be allowed to go to a new area and get quests to level but my quest book is getting full up.

- To have an introduction to gathering and crafting would be nice.
 

 

That'll do for now.

I can tell you right now that you shouldn't have left WoW in the first place. 

 

I left WoW cause Battlegrounds killed world PVP and so I couldn't enjoy it anymore cause it turned from an open world game to might aswel all be instanced.

I'm just comparing Age of conans features to the game that does them best. Thats why WoW is so popular because it nails so many aspects and blizzard are the masters of every genre they touch because they put the polish and testing in. Everyone I know loves WoW for the combat and the main problem my friends have with other mmorpgs when trying them out is the combat system cause they never feel as good as WoW's.

WoW is the standard now.

Everyone I know hates WoW combat (well except for my boy Krewel here - he counts for 50% of ppl I know - thats how big fanboy he is :D ) 

As for combat smashing buttons - you clearly didn't play this game long enough to master the system. The big thing with it is that you have to actually hit the character (granted that goes only for melee) in order to get hits registered. Also button smashing will not get you a win (at least not in 1v1) since you will most likely miss all the combost that way versus half decent opponent. Also, you have to aim for unshielded areas (mainly hitting your opponent on the back) so everyone who knows how to play will try to get around you and land a finisher there and not just smash buttons randomly. 

That being said - this game has some very nice features that were not matched yet in MMO genres and it doesn't matter what lvl 15 ranger who never got off first island thinks about it. You gotta be blind and pretty damn stupid to not acknowledge FC for what they made right - if you do so ... we will be playing button smashing WoW like in 2050. 

Nice to know you're still the fervent agent of subjective idealism. Aka - you know very little MMO players.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

Originally posted by Krewel

Stygia and everything related to Stygia is the best, Aquilonia and Cimmeria are depressing as hell. The game should be designed so that as a Stygian you can, if you choose, only move in Stygian zone, only level up in Stygian zones and feel more connected to Stygia as a whole (for example, quests would differ for you in Stygia as well as in Cimmeria). Instead we have like 3 puny instances connected to Stygia. Bleh!

 

You missed something if you only had 3 puny instances in stygia (im guessing your destanies)  As a stygian i did a majority of my leveling in stygia, for the same reasons you liked it.  Except for thunder river, i loved that map.

From what ive seen, you can do whatever you want on any of the maps to level up, your destiny quests are the only forced home maps quests (i think)

 

Yes, that's the problem and that what I was saying. As a Stygian I should be able to level up entirely in Stygia, not move to some depressing Cimmeria and do FedEx quests for some barbarians just to get to the highest level.