looks interesting.  It's a shame tho that there is no official website, it would have helped a lot for people that could be interested in this game.  I have to hunt through 5 forum websites to get some basic info.

I "H A T E" click-n-move, and I hate when you absolutely have no control over controls, it's a game breaker for me.....a #1 reason I don't play Asian MMOs.  Hopefully Aion will heave natural controls as it seems that it will.  Game looks great, tho I'm not holding my fingers crossed for PlayNC-made game.

Thanks for the input Dabble, it's defenitly something I will consider next time, makes sense.

Yeah, music is from LoK: SR1, track called Ruined City

If anybody missed it, here is AoC Newsletter 2

Google Video Link

I hope you like it.  I spent a great deal of time working on this short clip, timing not only scenes, but transitions and effects just as well.  It was challenging but I like doing stuff like that :)

One more thing I want to add about lag complaints.  There WILL BE combat "queue" thing that will aid with lag.  No, I can't explain it, but you are not going to be able to queue 5 attacks and sit back and watch, go to www.bymitra.com and search for dev quotes.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to more gameplay vids.  I think they're models need some work.  The movements don't seem natural and the skin seems really plastic.  But other than that it looks good for what it is.

Now, we are in the same boat: More vids, fix movement, remove plastic. :)

Also the only MMO I've ever played where I pressed the auto attack button and watched the fight unfold was ironically in AO.  Every other MMO I've played had skills to use in combat, most of which I had to discern which fight to use what in, based on strengths and weaknesses of my opponent.



What about WoW, CoH, RO, Ryzom...just the few MMOS that I have played.  In all of them there is that "Auto-Attack" where you press single burron and just watch your character fight w/out any further input from the player.  Sure, you waht to use other skills aside from that one auto attack, but the point is, it is possible to fight through entire battle, again and again, w/out any input from the player aside from initial click.  I did this all the time, MOST OF THE TIME with my hunter in WoW, just click and watch, next.  In RO, that was how you fight on regulary  In AoC, that can never be the case.

I know AoC is not the first MMORPG that has housing, like you said UO and SWG, EQ and many other games had housing, even CoH/CoV had sort-of housing.  But we are talking about single facility in these game, whereas in AoC we are talking about entire city + battlekeep.  A city you construct yourself from ground to finish and various buildings serving various purposes, in my opinion that well above any other games.  True other games have sieges, but in what other game do you bring siege engines with you and are able to PHYSICALLY destory the battle keep or entire city.

Another thing I want to point out is your argument about lack of archer classes.  Now when I think about it, what game had more than two archer class?  WoW has one: Hunters, RO has one: Hunters....dunno about EQ and I don't really recall L2 since I didn't play it for long, but I doubht either of them had more than 2, and AoC has two, PRIMARY archers.

All I can say is even if half the features they promised make it into the game, it will still be more than any other MMORPG on the market yet.

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Originally posted by checkthis500

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Originally posted by kalzero

I know you are skeptical like me. However, I putting my hopes for this game and by looking at the game currently, it looks promising. There will be skill advancement, there will be chain combinations, and special abilities. The game is not hack and slash. If that is the problem then there is no FPS nor magic weaving(i need to see that) nor mounted combat, we'll be playing something similar to Diablo. That leaked beta, is still beta and the guy didn't even perform any combos. With sample gameplay videos from IGN, and such, u can see the dev playing the char using different combo chains and so forth. Like the kicking slash for example, where he did a combination of performing a kick then a quick slash. This game isn't for everyone, it's made for mature players and give you the freedom to control your attacks, not time-attack and spamming one or two keys that are known to have the best skills on your hotbar. There is no MMORPG out there for me but AoC because every other MMO is a cookie cutter of one another without any innovative ideas that can change the gameplay and start a revolution in the genre.

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I guess I just see what they're claiming as "revolutionary" as the same thing but with a different method.  For instance, to me it looks like they're replacing a few buttons on a hotbar to spam with a few directions on a circle to spam.  I'm sure there will be combos that work all the time, and that people consider to be "the best" just as there are skills in other MMOs that people consider to be the best.

After thumbing through the classes, the amount that are going to use melee weapons far outnumbers the amount of classes that use ranged, or spell-weaving.  There are only 2 classes out of the 23 that use a bow or crossbow from the descriptions on the community portal.  there are also only 4 or 5 mage types that aren't healers.  This means that there are 16 classes that use melee weapons. 

i don't see that as being very diverse and considering the skills you get with melee weapons are all forms of combos with 6 directions, I'm failing to see the variety that they're claiming to have.

The more I read, the more it seems like every other MMO with a fancy bow on top that says "MATURE" and "REVOLUTIONARY" when the only thing mature is the amount of gore and nudity and the only thing revolutionary is the spell weaving and ranged combat, which are a very noticeable minority in the game's classes.

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First of all, I respect your opinion, everybody is entitled to one.  2nd, I can't grasp even a hint of where you get your opinions.  For the record, all melee classes will be able to use some sort of ranged weapon.  Now, tell, how many types of bows are there really?  There is bow and there is crossbow.  What would be the point of making classes that are just clones of the next class that uses the same weapon.  Now, how many melee weapons are there?  Think about it, Swords, Polearms, daggers, blunt weapons.....this is as general as it gets, if you break that further down you get A LOT OF weapons for melee in use.  Also, there are shields, there is dual weilding, not to mention variation of classes that use diffrent armors.

Furthermore, magic in Hyboria was superb and rare, hence why you see only 4 mage classes, which does not include priests...where a lot of them can be compared to mages.  In short, I believe everything is balanced perfectlly as far as class ration goes.

Now about combat.  That's where you really get to me.  How is it not revolutionary? Sure, it's not new to gaming world, but it is defenitly new to MMORPG world.  D&D tried something similar, but their approach was nowhere as near revolutionary or appealing as AoC's.  How can you honestly say it's just like any other mmor combat.  In other MMOs, you select your target, you click on that auto attack button and that's that, you watch your char kill the rat.  In AoC, you can't select a target, and you have to attack actively....if you stand there, even a little rat will eventually kill you, since there is nothing automated about AoC's combat.  Aside from that, let's talk about combos, and directonal attacks.  In what other MMO can you say "oh...hmm...where do I want to hit my enemy next.....leg perhaps...and then I'll swing one uppercut to his head followed by thurst through his belly"  There are HUNDREDS of combos in the game that you will have to work for, not just press a magical button and it happens for you.  And controls......IT IS FULLY CUSTOMIZIBLE!!!!(sp?)!!! You can use your mouse, your keyboard, game pad or any mix of these, how can you complain about that.  I don't see your comparison about replacing few things from hotbar with hotkeys...it's irrational, it's like comparing apples and oranges. 

Also, your last part of the post is very.... well, wrong.  The only thing mature about AoC is nudity and gore?  That is "statement" and not opinion, so you are asking for it.  Why don't you go and educate yourself a little more about the game before making such foolish comments like you know something.  The very atmosphere and setting and the very air your avatar breaths in will feel mature, not to mention story lines and big big big amount of quests, of which a lot of them will involve a story of mater level and nature. 

Not only do you say, "the only thing revolutionary is the spell weaving and ranged combat" like it's a small thing, a minor detail, but you left out a whole lot of other revolutinary things out, such as Mounted Combat, Formation Combat, PVE Sieges, PVP sieges, player-build "cities" with purpose, just to name a few truly "REVOLUTIONARY" things, that don't exist in MMORPG world or even if it does, it's done so bad that it's not a feature but handicap of the game.

-Mel

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Originally posted by Aelfinn

Hold up, this thread is starting to look like a ball of yarn after kittens have been batting it around the room.

All right, here is what we KNOW:

Raid gear will not be significantly overpowered

The terms overpowered above is undefined

crafting creates the best gear

the best crafting materials come from both raids and other sources

Various situations, including some in PvP and small group PvE will be considered just as difficult or more as raids.

Devs are not answering questions directly

the above may be because we won't like what they have to say

It might also mean that there is one axe you get from a raid that has .0001 more DPS than any other lootable axes, and they'd be called liars for issuing a broad statement

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Ok, first one is more or less comfirmed.

"Crafting creates the best gear" - that one is 100% wrong.  Crafted gear will be situation-specific, dynamic and customizible, but it will not be THE BEST gear, unfortunatelly.  It might be the best gear for one specific situation or mob, but defenitly not the best overall.

Unfortunately I think the best crafting materials will come mostly, if not exclusevly, from raids :(  - gotta hate that

The rest I think you nailed.

There will be hot keys, fully customizible to your taste, there will also be little interface that will allow you to use your mouse and decide direction of your strike.  It works like this, once you are engaged into combat, imagine a semi-transperant circle at the bottom of your screen (middle), not too big, but big enough for you to click on different parts of it.  That circele will be broken down into 6 areas, which area of the circle you click on will dictate how your strike will play.  It's very elegant.

I can't dig up a quote, I'm too lazy, but I do recall one of the devs stating that "dual-weilding" will be unique with unique animations.  Meaning they will not transfer animations from one-handed weapons of single handed class and just make put them in left and right hand, they will look and feel unique.  That beta leak footage shows that, and yes it does look two of the weapons will be hitting the same target at the same time as opposed to them hitting two different targets at the same time.  From what I have seen in that clip, animations do look unique, very unique actually, can't wait to try it.

I don't think WAR will be WOW's rival.  WoW is already coming up with expension that is sure to spice things up and reinvent itself in many ways.  Tho, I really really hate WoW, I just don't have any hope for WAR.

I will put my money on Age Of Conan however.  If AoC doesn't become WoW's rival, WOW will be the king of it's own for years to come.

yeah, thanks for the info, I wasn't fortunate enough to get invited into closed beta, looks like I'll have my chance soon in open beta.

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Originally posted by vmoped

www.tcos.com

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Why don't you go  and fish yourself.

Anybody else with hands-on experiance can give us "general" overview of the promised features, simple I like it and I don't like it will do so there are no EULA problems - avoid details.