Non instanced , non linear dungeons.  The real danger felt when  fighting deep inside a dungeon because dying actually meant something.

Originally posted by Aurelyn
I would definitely apply for any Beta now... In fact I would never fork over money before doing a beta or having a trial ever again... The one thing I have learnt is, the MMORPG world is full of bullshit marketing, and bullshit opinions for hating or loving a game... In other words, you can't go by what they think, you definitely have to go by what you think... I ain't going to pay for bitching rights ever again.

Haha, agreed. I actually was in the beta and saw the potential and wanted to give it a try and support them. On top of that I was bored and there was nothing else being released anytime soon. Actually in my post history I did a little review of the game which was pretty fair and did not bash it.

Hype had nothing to do with the purchase of VSoH, nor am I forming an opinion on AoC, it could suck ass.

Pretty funny when you think VSoH was recently released, millions spent, and the AoC beta probably has more entered in it then the total number of VSoH subscribers.  At least I found it funny. Yea I wasted my $50 on the crap game so I get to bitch a little.

AoC Beta numbers

First MMO was Everquest which I have tons of fond memories of, but my favorite is DAOC. (pre-ToA)

Give me your address, Ill come over and punch you in the head every time you get hit.

j/k 

1.) That would depend on how good WAR turns out to be.  Age of Connan and Darkfall are also supposed to be out late this year so between the three of them DaoC will probably take a large hit in population.

2.) Guilds seem easy to find, no raid gear is needed.

3.) Play on a classic server and you will be fine. Highest pop and they are the most fun for a new or returning player.

4.) They have made tons of changes, 99% for the better. As long as you play a somewhat friendly solo class (which there are plenty of) you can level rather quickly (all classic zones give 1.5xp points and battlegrounds are 2x xp) and there are battlegrounds along the way to mix it up a bit.

5.) Classic servers basically cut out ToA.

I recently returned about 3 months ago and am having a blast.


-its a free download with a free 2 week trial so nothing to lose by trying-

Daoc > WoW.

So instanced PvP will be worth the most....... ugg.

Originally posted by Consensus

That intro movie is such a rip off of LotR. I know all rpg's steal from LotR but that video was just helms deep with tacky versions of duels such as sauron vs elendil, ringwraith vs gandalf, dwarf vs troll etc. The art was even copied from LotR film.

Anyhow this game looks tird IMO. I like geeky things but grown men playing with little model goblins is just too far. And the game just looks soooo tacky. just lots of goblins with big weapons repeatively growling (sounds so laughably lame) hacking at each other will no visble purpose or plot.

So dull.

Easily the most insane post I have read in a few days.

I have a feeling this is going to be a twitch fest that will get frustrating in large scale battles. Also have to remember this is a console game, this isnt designed just for PC gamers so Im sure there will be "Mortal Kombat" type combos and attacks that can easily be done with a gamepad. I think they even mentioned this a couple times in the past. They might be swapping, what they are calling a "basic" combat system, for an annoying combat system. I know I dont want to feel as though Ive been playing a fighting game for hours on end playing an MMO. Obviously this is just speculation.

DAOC 2.

Im sure WAR will be a good game but why shelf such a great concept and solid PvP system. Even though the DAOC classic servers have a little life in them, they will be wiped out after the release of WAR, AoC and DF.

Well said OP.

Devs have lost sight of basic fundamentals in an effort to create something new and revolutionary.

Like: Daoc(andred/mordred), AC1(darktide)

Dislike: WoW

Originally posted by DJXeon

Originally posted by Paragus1
I find it comical that in regards to chunking his only real statement is telling everyone else to upgrade instead of making his game actually playable with the technology available during the time it released.  What an arrogant ass.

The game is very playable with today's available technology  - i think you are referring to players with older pc's

 

If you mean playable as in the game will start and run then yes I guess you could consider it playable. However 80% of the players Ive talked with in game and in my guild have to run the game on the lowest graphical setting for somewhat smooth gameplay. Nothing is optimized and the game has tons of video lag/chop at the default "balanced" setting and above.

DoD and Civ4

Starting with my credentials, which seems to be the thing to do around here, my first MMO was EQ1 and have played the majority of the titles released since. These are my opinions on Vsoh so far, maybe it will help some people who are still deciding on spending the $50 or not for the game. Im not a big forum poster but there are so many crazy posts about this game Im sure its hard for someone to figure out what the hell is exactly going on with this game. I play on the Varking PvP server, and am currently a level 18 DK.

"Rig" Requirements
Its no secret that the resources needed to run this game are steep. There are video 5 settings and 90% of the in game players I chat with play on the highest performance setting including myself. I can turn the settings up to balanced when I go off to solo and as long as there is not a high concentration of mobs or any other players I can run the game fine, but I dont feel like constantly adjusting the video settings so I just keep it on high performance. I have a respectable comp, solid vid card, 2 gigs of ram, etc..., it ran EQ2 with little problems on the medium and high settings. Also playing on a PvP server you want to keep the lag down to a minimum at all times so it does not hinder your PvP combat. Running through a city, and PvP combat in a town is a bit frustrating and you will get video lag unless you have a very high end computer.

Character Creation
Plenty of race and class options which is very nice. Some of the options such as hair styles are limited which seems silly since that is one of the basic elements of an MMO, creating a unique character but Im sure they will add more later. (this point is funny because they do not have helm graphics in the game yet, haha. ) It looks like you can go back and change your appearance when you want so not a big deal.

Itemization, AH, Banks
There seems to be a nice assortment of items that drop, it always was annoying in an MMO when everyone looks and has the same gear at the same levels. Armor and weapons have nice look and feel to them when you are in combat and there seems to be a nice variety of models for them. The auction house works fine so far and its very simple and straight forward to sell items. (you have 10 sale slots at any given time.) Im not in a guild but I have been told guild banks are not in the game yet which is another basic feature that should be ready when a game like this is released. Personal banks work fine.

I play a DK, a heavy armor wearing class, and I must say the speed at which items lose durability is way to fast. This is more of a problem with defensive fighters since we are mainly the ones getting hit. I have been in situations where I cut my way down into a dungeon and by the time I get to the spot I want my durability is already at 50% or so. Some players have complained about the cost of repairs but I have yet to get into a situation where the coin earned from an exp run is less then the cost of repairs.

Mobs
There is still a bug where mobs can sometimes go invisible or fall through the ground, if you move back or forward a bit the mob will reappear and all is well. This is an annoying bug but doesnt really hinder gameplay all that much, even though your hotkeys will "grey out" to show the target is out of range, attacks still go off. Another bug that Ive come across is where the mobs health bar stays full throughout the battle even though you are dealing out damage. The mobs health bar will stay full till it fall over dead.

Named/Boss mobs from what I have seen spawn on a pretty reasonable timer. Some have place holders that can spawn other when killed with respawn in a few minutes in a random part of the dungeon. On boss mobs with place holders the spawn time is around 10-15 min.  This might change the higher the level of dungeons, not sure.


Quests
Straight forward, pretty much what you expect. If you highlight a quest then open your map it will point to where to need to go to complete the objective. Pretty much on easy mode. Im pretty happy with collection and kill quests, for me it breaks up the monotony of exping a bit and adds little bursts of exp, and coin which are always nice. Some people like the big elaborate quest chains which have you traveling all over  the world, I have not run into any of those yet.

Combat
Combat is straight forward and pretty much what you expect. All of my abilities seems to work with no bugs so far. I tested out a few different races and classes before moving forward with my DK but my knowledge is mostly with DK abilities and spells. The chain and rescue moves add a nice little elements to combat, while not ground breaking or revolutionary it still keeps you focused on the action.
I am still able to solo fine at 18 while little downtime but a solid exp group with make the leveling go faster. However if im in the mood to relax and exp on my own its still something I am able to do.

The "Grind"
Everyone has a different idea on what is slow or fast level progression. My opinion is that its faster then L2 (thank god)  but not nearly as fast as WoW. Its going to be a haul to max out your character but the world seems big enough that there is a lot of adventuring to be done. At level 18 I am still relatively close to my starting area. The levs have gotten slower though so what awaits in the 30's I could not tell you.

Community
Everyone seems ok so far,  all the "pugs" ive been in have gone well and I met some quality mature gamers. Ive had my questions answered,  been given buffs when Ive asked.

PvP
PvP is what I play MMO's for, I enjoy the challenge of playing against other human opponents. PvP is an after thought in this game but still has been ok from what I have experienced so far. There is no PvP reward system yet in the game and with everything else they are working on Im sure there wont be for some time, but so far PvP is amusing. Class balancing is always an issue in any pvp game and there will be people complaining no matter what they do, people playing DAOC still complain and that game has been out for years.

These devs dont do PvP  so you have to live with the mistakes they make and just suck it up. One day your class might be a formidable pvp class then the next you might be the weakest, you never know.

Graphics
I dont know the first thing about video or programming but if the games stays in its current state I dont see how anyone could have a fun end game raiding/pvp experience. Just way to much video lag and who the hell wants to play the game on the lowest quality graphic settings. When turned up the game looks great, but unfortunately the majority of gamers cant enjoy it. Ive heard things like they still have to "optimize" the video settings or there is a memory leak, I have no clue what that shit means but this game will get crushed when new next gen mmo's are released  this year that players can run smoothly and are visually appealing.



The game itself has a very solid framework but is simply not finished, boats to travel to other continents, caravans, helm graphics, guild banks, etc.... these are all fundamental aspects of an MMO that are just not in the game yet or not working.Seems like they tried to do too much and had a poor team leader managing the development.  Will this game ever get finished and polished, probably, but the real questions is will it get its shit together by the time the next batch of MMO's get released later this year or early next year.

Would I recommend this game to a friend? Not yet. I would recommend this game to someone who can deal with the bugs and poor performance who wishes to have a maxed out char by the time the game does get finished.

WAR is not in beta. They still have yet to create at least two of the factions/races.

Originally posted by bongo123
you give me $20 and ill take it of your hands and dispose of it

LoL.

Amen.

dont post much but found this funny.

WoW fanboi's are very silly and I find it hard to believe they even believe in the nonsense spewing from their mouths.

""Prior to TBC PVP was confined to only instances. Go play TBC and you'll realize world PVP is back. Especially if you want to gain some nice items and lots of rep by completing PVP objectives. Anyways the fact that you mention EQ2 in comparison with WoW's PVP just made your argument null and void.""

So you admit WoW's pvp was all instanced before. Ok good. Do you think the reason people are no longer in instanced PvP areas is because they are leveling to 70? hmmm I think it might be, so once everyone gets to 70 everyone will dive right back into the newest "battleground" Blizzard can come up with. Who knows what exciting game of capture the flag awaits the hard core pvpers of WoW! Try and think past next week. (which is probably how long it will take to get to 70)