Originally posted by Agricola1

I think AoC is at the same stage as many failing MMORPGs at the moment, where they institute many cosmetic changes but fail to address the burning issues. New content and character balance aren't going to bring in more players, never has nor will in my opinion. What needs to be addressed is flawed mechanics and game design. This means getting rid of all those exploits and the memory leak that is still in existance, doing something about the tedious PvP system and doing something major concerning instancing.

Only after addressing these issues will players return, AoC already has plenty of content and balancing classes can wait. Funcom need to change end game drastically and I don't mean by adding more instanced battlekeeps, they need to remove instancing with battlekeeps and remove the exploits that have been there since launch. Allow lowbies to get involved with the combat alongside lvl 80s, allow anyone that turns up to view the combat and/or get involved. Instancing sux, fact! Remove it and people will play. PvP mechanics are bad, a novelty at first but soon become tedius to the majority, replace them with a less button mashing intensive system. The PvP system sux, fact, overhall it and introduce what was suggested at launch not a watered down mamby pamby system that doesn't matter anyway and is just a grind.

I accept that most of this isn't going to happen as it's too much work to change the core system now that they're working on a different MMORPG. So let's hope they learn from their second disaster and make Secret World a decent MMORPG and bid farewell to what AoC could have been.

Exactly.

My biggest gripe with the core mechanics is that the combat system does not lend itself well to interesting and/or challenging end game raids.  Everyman and his dog just runs in and bashes away, even the healers!.  With shitty CC and not much in the way of direct healing, everything just comes across as a big mess.

You do realise that 'player no longer exists' also applies to people who transfer off the server?  In nearly every case, when people quit wow, they don't go and delete their characters, they just cancel their subscription.....'player no longer exists' does not apply here as the toon is still there. 

It's just a simple server transfer, not people quitting.  Stop and use logic.

we are also looking at the WAR launch aswell.  Maybe the sub numbers have dropped to extremely low figures so they are taking drastic measures.

I can see Funcom closing up shop and palming off all there titles to other developers.

Originally posted by Malickie

Originally posted by Hydrakana

 

Hmm, I'd have to disagree, Eq1 fights are far more basic compared to WoW and other games due to it being so old - the next gen games have moved on from this with more innovation (except AoC of course).  I don't define difficulty in how much health a boss has and the length of time it takes to take it down, its the depth in the tactics involved to win and the difficulty in coordinating everyone in the raid to follow the plan.

Sure, after a few months of raiding and everyone gearing up plus getting the tactics down pact, its easy for someone to sit there on the 50th run through and say how easy it is.

Old usually actually means it was more complex and less streamlined IMO. Think of it like the streamlining done to strategy games over the last few years.  Old school gamers prefer micro management, SWG combat is a prime example of a transition from micro management to streamlined game play.

In the beginning there were so many variables to worry about. From state affects like dizzy, blindness(when blinded you were useless), knockdowns (dizzy kd's that made you flop around like a fish out of water :)).

Dots were deadly, you also had three health pools to keep track of. Any one running out meant death, fire burned until you had a fire blanket applied to it , which could burn until you had zero health to replinish and then you would have to have someone heal you (for a long time) to be able to fight again (this could be all three pools as well). Diseases had the same affect.

Another issue that had a huge affect on strategy was template building and alpha classes, That's a whole different discussion all together.

There is a fine line between a game being difficult due to cumbersome and bad game design and a game being difficult because the content is challenging.  Streamlining is not always a bad thing when it takes the emphasis off strain injury enducing game control and puts it on well designed and balanced gameplay

Originally posted by Litigator_AB

Edit:  P.S. for any of you interested in making some money on small cap stocks: googlefinance Energulf Resources Inc. on the TSX Venture.  I just bought 20,000 shares at .32 cents.  For a small cap venture stock, the risk/reward is a no-brainer.  (Note: If you are a new investor do not invest in a small cap.  You also have to realize that unlike other investments you can lose ALL of your money with a small cap.  You should only sell these stocks after a find or after significant appreciation of your position.  These stocks should never be sold at a loss...the loss should always come from BANKRUPTCY.   A stock like this can depreciate 30% in a heartbeat..and if you are value oriented or risk averse you will undoubtedly sell at the wrong time.  Google "energulf resources" + "bullboard" and watch how inexperienced investors rattle on about insignificant nonsense.  That is my diligence and disclosure...but if you stick with it for 18-24 months you'll be pleasantly surprised.)

Lit

Do you have any rough guidline you work with regarding when the best time is to sell?  Like is there some sort of percentage gain that you would consider to be 'time' to sell? or is it just through your years of experience you develop a feel for it.

The OP must be kidding around, noone can seriously think AoC has set the bar....can they?  {Mod Edit}

Originally posted by Vespers

Originally posted by Hydrakana

Originally posted by Vhati

ohhhhh.................... im scared????????????????

 

I mean,  have you played anything other than wow, do you even know what a tough mmo is?  If it means anything to you,  AoC is even easier than WoW.

 

I know AoC is easier than WoW, I have had many lengthy forums battles with simpilton AoC fanbois on that topic.

But name one single mmo rpg with harder raid boss encounters than lets say....any of the Black temple or sunwell fights in WoW:BC?  name one that isn't just a generic tank and spank with some novel distractions thrown in for 'difficulty'.

 

Age of Conan can never have dynamic raid encounters due to the silly combat mechanics and bad class structure.

Well, my wife still raids in EQ1 and my son is a hardcore raider in WoW and they both say that the majority of raid bosses in EQ1 pretty much beat the WoW Bosses in the area of difficulty. I havent played EQ1 in about 3 or 4 years now but that game have content second to none and the raids all seem to be based on solid tactics and not Zerging.
 

Hmm, I'd have to disagree, Eq1 fights are far more basic compared to WoW and other games due to it being so old - the next gen games have moved on from this with more innovation (except AoC of course).  I don't define difficulty in how much health a boss has and the length of time it takes to take it down, its the depth in the tactics involved to win and the difficulty in coordinating everyone in the raid to follow the plan.

Sure, after a few months of raiding and everyone gearing up plus getting the tactics down pact, its easy for someone to sit there on the 50th run through and say how easy it is.

Yep, GOA is a joke of a company, they did screw up royally, that's not really in debate, its the reaction to it that's a joke. 

You act like they severed your left nut sack and wont give it back. 

You will get into the game, you will play to your hearts content for hours and hours, you had to wait a day  longer than everyone else.  This is the reality that must be lived with

What a bunch of crying children.  Wow, you miss out on a day or two of OPEN BETA...whip de doo.  If you were actually paying a monthly subscription and were losing time paid for, I would possibly give a damn.  "ohh, but paying pre-order is time paid!" ..give me a break.

Originally posted by Roxianna

The relationship between print advertising and reviews is known and as old as the hills. I personally experienced it when I released a game in 1992 and bought advertising. Back then it was more a matter of will your game get reviewed at all, than about the score. It was print media or no media back at the time.

Is the above an indictment of the "game reviewing industry?" No, I don't think any jounalists lied about what they saw in Age of Conan. However at the time any new game is released, the whole story may not be available to be told.

The problem as I see it is that it's unfeasible for any individual reviewer to spend enough time in an MMORPG to really know it. Too many aspects of an MMORPG don't become apparent until you are part of a community playing. I suspect most game reviews are written after a relatively short solo examination of a game. In the case of AoC, I think most writers wrote their reviews based on the Tortage experience. That experience was awesome. I remember being floored myself.

Back in 1992 the reporters who reviewed my game played maybe 20 hours each--one of them a bit more because he genuinely liked the game. In AoC I played 4 to 6 hours daily for weeks. I didn't start getting unhappy in AoC until about level 50 when content got thin. I didn't angry until I hit the end game and began to realize the extent of the problems. That was a full 60 days into the game--almost the entire lead time for a print publication between putting an issue to bed and when it's available on the stands.

Reporters for print publications reviewing AoC could have only seen whatever pre-beta dog and pony show Funcom gave them. Is this  an indictment of the "game reviewing industry?" No but it's another example why print media is less and less relevant--especially for MMORPGs.

 

I would have to agree in regards to this game and other mmo's, reviewers do not have enough time to evaluate the game properly.  Funcom put all there polish into the start of AoC for good reason.  With the initial 'wow' you get with AoC combined with the promises with the end game, all the hype etc, its not hard to see why reviewers gave this game such rave reviews.

On the issue of game review sites/magazines being paid by publishers to give good reviews, thats definately true.  Most of the 'payment' is through advertising.  If a game review site gives bad scores, the publishers will threaten to revoke all advertising from the site.  Reviewers are given 'encouragement' from employers to give good reviews.

Take the Kane and Lynch reviews on Gamespot for example

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/sources-gamespo.html

Gamespot has no credibility from gamers for this reason.

So....what game did you make in 1992?

Someone needs to post this in AoC general

hmmm

1: The game is bad.

2: Attracts and holds simple folk who make a bad community

3: The game is bad.

The washed out terrain textures look horrible.

that is a good find

Originally posted by Urrelles

Originally posted by Malickie

I can't say I agree with the idea that wow has had a positive effect on the MMO genre. They had great personal success with their product, at the expense of the genre as a whole IMO. They've essentially caused a saturation of the market, everyones chasing that blizzard level polish, this includes both developers and players.

 

Don't worry, once Blizzard makes an FPS game, the MMO genre will slowly return to normal and the FPS game market will get saturated with a bunch of Starcraft Ghost clones or whatever.  Just like the RTS market got saturated during Starcraft's time to the point of failure, before returning to what it is today.

I know this from experience in working in a game store during the crappy RTS explosion.  Too bad no one can remeber any of those hundreds of medivel RTS games now that littered computer shelves.

Now that you mention it, I do notice a trend here.  Blizzard will make a game that completely sets the new standard and becomes very popular, then the other devs will come out with a flood of crap...happened with the warcraft, starcraft and Diablo IP's.

I remember the RTS explosion well....although at the time there were a few good ones like TA and dark reign.

Originally posted by Vhati

D&D online.

...is that game still running? wow

http://forums-us.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=162472

watch as EE gets a roasting.

Originally posted by Vhati

ohhhhh.................... im scared????????????????

 

I mean,  have you played anything other than wow, do you even know what a tough mmo is?  If it means anything to you,  AoC is even easier than WoW.

I know AoC is easier than WoW, I have had many lengthy forums battles with simpilton AoC fanbois on that topic.

But name one single mmo rpg with harder raid boss encounters than lets say....any of the Black temple or sunwell fights in WoW:BC?  name one that isn't just a generic tank and spank with some novel distractions thrown in for 'difficulty'.

Age of Conan can never have dynamic raid encounters due to the silly combat mechanics and bad class structure.