PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download,Retail | Retail Price:$19.99 | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
Age of Conan: Letter From the Director - Roadmap for the Future
The Age of Conan website has been updated with this letter from Age of Conan Game Director Gaute Godager. In the letter, Godager lays out plans for the game in the near future.
Fellow Hyborians!
As you may have noticed we have had frequent patches the last two weeks. We hope this will soon start to quiet down, but as long as there are major issues – and there have been – we will dedicate the Conan team to fixing them and giving you these fixes as soon as possible! We have a plan on how to move this game forward because as you know, what you have today is but the platform – the dawn of this world. I hope you enjoy the game as is, but I can ensure you, this is but the beginning!
Our focus from now on can be summarized by these points:
- We will add content, specifically in mid-late thirties and mid-late fifties and make the leveling speed smoother in those areas, reducing the need to grind.
- We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things.
- We are fixing bugs you reported through all channels we can get information from.
- We will add a new large outdoor region in the 55-60 range this summer!
- This is only a small taster! More information about the exciting summer and fall Roadmap will come the end of the next week!
- We are staffing up Customer Service, Quality Assurance and Community departments!
I will spend some words on a bit more details now.
1. Filling “thin areas” in our content
We have seen that there are certain level ranges of these Hyborian Adventures that do not have the amount of quality we wish them to have. Most specifically these are the end of the Thirties and the end of the Fifties level ranges. We are addressing this in several ways.
- Several mid-late thirties dungeons are getting a complete overhaul (Black Castle, Pyramid of the Ancients and Treasury of the Ancients)
- Several quests are being made fuller and more entertaining. If people wish to revisit these quests, we will add a system to let them try them out again.
- we are adding first a batch of quests in Eiglophian Mountains (lvls 55+)
- We are also adding in a bunch of quests that didn’t quite make it for launch in the 30+ areas.
- Around 60 quests through the game have been flagged as “Lore Quests”. They will now be patched out with full Voice-Over. (Roughly 1 quest per level after level 20)
All this will come in June! In July the first level 80 additional Dungeon will be patched out. More on that later…
2. Overhauling the PvP System
People like our open PvP system. There are many plans on how to give this open free PvP even more meaning and Purpose. In the meantime we will be doing some smaller tweaks, and we plan to get these out sometimes in June. I will not go into 100% detail here, but that will come next week! What I can promise is:
- An update on how sneaking and perception works in PvP (nothing major, but an adjustment).
- A change in the amount of information you get when you hover over an other player.
- An added system of consequence to “ganking”. (Killing much-much lower level players).
- A system of adding consequence to losing a PvP match, and winning a PvP match + turning on PvP Leveling.
- A change in how Crowd Control (Root, Knockback etc) works in PvP.
- PvP gear.
3. New Massive Region
We will unveil this location later, but it will feature a host of quests, new monsters and places of dreams or horror. It will be styled towards the players in the late 50s and bridge the experience on the way to Atzels Approach. We have plans for releasing several of the areas that didn’t quite make it for the release.
4. Fixing bugs and increasing Customer Service
Funcom has always prided ourselves with having great customer satisfaction. The success so far for this title has left us with the need to increase the size of CS. This will go in parallel with the constant fixing of bugs and other issues that lead people to petition. Included in this is even better testing of the game by increasing the size of Quality Assurance and informing you better about changes by staffing up the Community Department. I know a blurb like this will haunt me always, but I will still venture one: We aren’t satisfied until all our customers are! You know we had a very, very difficult launch of Anarchy-Online! That was a very painful process for all of us working on it – 4 years. You might not understand how driven we are to make sure you enjoy this game, and all the support around it!
The future is very bright for Hyboria. There will be many bright mornings following this, the very first. Together we shall surge ahead and build the world even bigger, better and more detailed!
Yours truly,
Gaute Godager
Game Director
Age of Conan, Funcom
In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.
Oh just stop it already. WoW still has bug fixes and updates, and EVERY MMO will too. And you know how buggy SWG was the first few months? Yet people still loved to play it.
If you have a problem with playing a game that will continuously have fixes and patches, go play a boardgame. Otherwise, stop moaning.
Should have been more clear i was commenting on the content missing and parts of the game no one got to see to realize it s NOT IN GAME YET.
I can't beleive they are having complaints from people who don't like the grinding at lvl 50? Lvl50? WTF the game just came out! If I wanted a game I am going to be done with in two weeks I will buy a single player game, I want my MMO's to last me atleast the summer.
Guys seriously read www.wowwiki.com/Patch_1.1. Youll be surprised theyre still fleshing out classes, and areas. I mean Maruaden horrible dungeon it may be, wasnt added until 3-4 months from US release. Remember Captain Placeholder? Come on cut AOC some slack
Regardless of the issues in hand trust me its nothing comparing to the anarchy online launch.
anyway i got hooked i said i wouldnt but heck why not
Done here.
Yeah got to agree so so sick of the Whiners on this site, they are starting to spoil what should be a great Forum.
Too little, too late for me. Uninstalled AoC and I'm back playing Lotro until Warhammer or Stargate releases. Keeping an eye on JGE too.
Normal launch bugs aside, maybe next time they will release a completed game, and think twice about instancing it down into a single player game with a (quiet) chat window. Maybe they won't over look HUGE bugs and missing features in order to meet a launch date they weren't ready for.
I'm at the point in my life where I am sick of getting burned by companies. Talk is cheap, so instead, I stop giving them my money.
Be careful what you say on these forums friend. Someone who says other ppl are whiners get called trolls or hater haters which in turn just makes you a hater. this is, of course, the opinions of other ppl. not mine, these were just a couple of things thrown in my face when i stated something very similar.
All good things headed for AOC and thats a good thing. This is my first time dealing ith Funcom and I think they are doing a pretty good job of cleaning up alot of stuff. I think they tried to be too ambitious with the game, trying to perfect everything. They clearly have good intentions of improving and making the game even better despite some issues at the moment.
AoC is anything but ambitous. The original design of Star Wars Galaxies, now that was ambitious and one of the reasons they never could balance the game or keep up with it's problems. If anything AoC suffers from a lack of vision. Too much time and effort was wasted on making it a pretty game, instead of a fun game with tons of content.
They simply released the game in an unfinished state, and now they are paying the price. I understand some people like this game, but it's hardly an MMO the way it was designed. It plays like a single player game with online elements, including the fact that you can level to 80 very quickly without ever having to group.
Trust me. These forums are NOTHING compared to the user forums on the AoC web site. I also wish people would stop complaining. While people are certainly entitled to their own opinion, one has to wonder how many posts that complain about the same things are necessary...
Jon
Thank you for stating the obvious. I don't care if you're 12 or if english isn't your native language, atleast make the effort of reading through your post! The spelling mistakes really turned me off from reading through your entire "letter". Also Funcom shouldn't have to apologise for anything. If you were serious about buying this game, then you would have known enough about the game to realise that certain things like Directx10 wouldn't be in the game at launch. HOWEVER! It would have been a lot worse had they said that Directx10 would be in the game, but then decide to never add it. Then my friend, they should apologise.
Give them some slack, they are a small team and they are doing what they can.
yawn
I am also tired of the "unfinished" comments. By nature, ALL MMO's are unfinished, constantly being changed, tweaked and updated. I've beta tested LOTRO, Warcraft, and MxO, and all of these were buggier than this MMO was at launch (though I think LOTRO, possibly, was slightly smoother).
The "unfinished" argument really doesn't hold water for this reason. A better way to phrase it, perhaps, would be "incomplete content promised upon launch" which, in its own right, is a worthy complaint.
Jon
Nighttime quests are single player only daytime quests you can either solo or group. Though the higher level you are the more grouping is needed such as Sanctum of the Burning Souls dungeon and many other dungeons that are 50+.
Too much time and effort was wasted on making it a pretty game, instead of a fun game with tons of content.
There is plenty to do in AOC. Problem is that some just glue themselves 24/7 to the pc and rush to level 80, then we have to hear their complaints about not enough content on the forums.
I would like to suggest that all the whiners do EXACTLY what they say and leave the game. All of you who are threatening to leave...please do so.
The rest of us are having a really good time and I'm all for not having to listen to you any more.
Thanks for playing.
In LOTRO beta we were balancing classes far before release. We were polishing up the completed crafting sytem. Even finalizing the initial higher level areas months before it went live. AoC seems to have just hit beta from alpha... That's the feel anyway. And I played beta (err alpha)...
damn! still no fix for the instanced *outside* world and immersion killing loading screens... oh well at least some people like playing technology from 2002...
Overall, I think AoC is a pretty decent game and if they do PvP right and keep adding PvP elements it will do fine. If they pull a WoW and go from what could have been a great PvP game and turn it into an EQ PvE grindfest, then so long, farewell.
PvE has been done to death, it was derived from single player games that required it simply because it was all that we knew. Once MMO's came out, companies realized the players could in turn be used as content and excitement in terms of player driven societies, cities, economies and wars.
PvE is still important till the end game, but PvE has never served a purpose in any end game environment. Seriously, raiding a dungeon once is bad enough, I don't want to raid it over and over a hundred times just to get MY gear.
AoC will be fine as long as they stick to their PvP guns and focus on that. Perhaps following the design ideas of Shadowbane and Dark Age of Camelot.
As you can tell by my Avatar, I should probably hate this game out of respect of WAR, but I don't. I was skeptical and such, but I've been having fun so far and I'm only 45 since launch. I think what helps a lot is the fact I have 2 army buddies that I group with a majority of the time.
Friends and guilds make any MMO 100x better than what it is solo.
Well, I take it as with Vanguard, I will see how it is in 6-12 months. Maybe its really good then, maybe not. At least they admit their probs earlier than Sigil did, which speaks for them.
Just like every other MMO other than LOTRO, would you like a cookie?
When I say AoC was unfinished, I am not talking about normal launch bugs, and 'normal' missing content. (which, by the way, is only normal because people continue to pay these game companies to release unfinished games.) I am talking about glaring bugs that could only have been completely overlooked in order to get this game launched on time, and never should have made it past the beta stage. I'm talking about barely implemented key features such as the chat and emote systems, quest log, grouping features, etc. I'm talking about the feats system not working, and the stats on armor not working and/or making little or no impact on a player's stats. Hell, there are stats on items that no one even know what they do because funcom won't release the information.
When I am talking about missing content, I am referring to giant gaps in quests for certain levels. This game was purposely designed so that players could reach the cap (solo) in only 250 hours. Some people have done it in 200. You can't design a game like that, and then use the excuse that you didn't expect players to level fast, so you didn't have the middle and endgame content completed. Also, let's not forget that player cities are bugged to death, and siege warfare is MIA.
What about crafting? Crafting is usually a great side project for people to do while they level. It effectively slows down leveling for many people, because crafting is supposed to be a fun activity that can get you away from grinding and combat. The whole system seems like it was thrown in the game 3 months ago. Static spawning resource nodes that people can mark on their map? In Stygia I played for several days and only came across one node that had one item in it. Crafting itself is not working, including the game breaking gemcrafting system. How did any of this make it past beta?
I'll tell you how. The issues were completely ignored. There are countless beta testers out there who tried to get Funcom to hold the game because it was no where near ready for launch. In my opinion, someone in management at Funcom must have decided it was time to push the game out, so they did. They put all their time into making Tortage nearly flawless, pushed mounts and crafting to level 40 so few people would notice that none of it worked right, and rushed the game out,. Ask yourself how, after FIVE (5) years of development, this game finds itself in such an imcomplete state? You would think it would be the most polished MMO ever released considering how long it's been in dev. This tells me that the team is either too small, or too unorganized to handle this project correctly.
The things I stated above are aside from 'normal' launch problems and missing content. These are key aspects of the game that should have been in the game and completely functioning. Did Funcom do no research of other MMOs to figure out what players consider normal MMO features these days? Any half wit gamer knows that MMO launches can be a rocky ride, but there is a huge difference between launch bugs, and launching a game that is missing a large portion of working standard MMO game features.
First of all let me say that I already did speak with my wallet and am not playing AoC, second, the previous fact does in no way invalidate my opinion of the game.
I find it amusing that the game is less then a month old and we are looking as a revamp of the PvP system already. Wasn't this one of the big pointswith AoC, all the PvPers were gonna go there?
I guess it wasn't so great. . .
I like the game and had fun playing in the beta but even I think they should have waited. They even said in the letter that their are major issues that need to be fixed, this shouldn't have happened. I won't pay for the for another few months because I know their are issues from playing in the beta and from what I read. I have no doubt that Funcom will fix them and part of me doesn't blame them for brining it out when they did, it costs money every day they would have delayed the game. BUT its a double edged sword and they took a chance. Bring out the game with major issues and take a chance that people are going to get angry and leave and have a bitter taste in their mouth or delay the game, loose money and still have people pissed off because they didn't bring the game out on time. A dev is damned if they do and damned if they don't...but with issues that AoC has and as major as they are maybe it would have been best to wait. When the game has most of its kinks worked out (no game has no kinks), this game will be a lot of fun and worth the money. Right now...for me anyways...its not worth a monthly fee. I'll give it time and then I'll pay.
Good post, MindTrigger. All of the points you made are valid, and even accurate. Though on one point I disagree: most MMOs HAVE had glaring bugs at launch, not just AoC.
It was merely your "incomplete" statement I was taking issue with, simply because there are so many thoughtless critics out there that don't really think out their reasoning. If you looked at the last line of my post, the "adjustment" to your comment, you would have seen that that comment is in agreement with your analysis.
I agree that the game could have used some more polish time, while acknowledging the need to get the major issues (namely, core content that was advertised) completed before they launched. That said, I think AoC is a great game, and am thoroughly enjoying my experience. Though, part of this is probably because I have neither started the crafting nor the sieging.
I do completely agree with you that the crafting system sucks and is in desperate need of some attention, however.
Jon
Wooohooo. about time. pvp levels!
no but he sounds like an AWESOME guy.
Every time the shine begins to come off the latest/greatest release we see the "just leave you whiners" phase. And then you know what the next phase is? The whiners "just leave"...followed by a week or two more of new grumbling-this time by the next wave of folks that are reaching the unfinished content. These new whiners start to whine-and are asked to leave...they to leave. The forums then shift toward "my server is empty" "cant get a group" "when is the server consolidation coming"....followed by more cries for the whiners to leave.
Sometime, a few months out, the general consensus begins to form that the game was in fact a disappointment. People coalesce around this fundamental truth-a select few dig in and stick with the game-the game either lives or dies based on the companies ability to support a diminished population. We the game community all migrate to the latest greatest, campaign for our beta keys, watch video's and screen caps...and the circle of mmo life continues...
Unless I have a terrible memory, those where canceled completely. I dont think all guilds liked be constantly attacked by random npcs whilst trying to thier there shopping/crafting/sociallising/roleplaying/cyb0ring etc.
Yes, I also heard that, but couldnt find any official info so I thought its still planned. My bad then.
Don't get me wrong, I thought LotRO had a good beta/launch, but just pointing out it was far from "finished"
Change is inevitable in MMO's.
Still no word on stats being more than text on the screen?
"We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things."
Yes!!!!!! One of my biggest and only true major concern. Not to say I love everything about AoC(Instances
) but this was something I have been hopeful for since my first night playing.
I have just gotten out of Tortage and have been playing since the 23rd. So far I am having a blast, seeing all there is to see, and have run into no true bugs. At my pace(2-3 hours most days, 6+ hours 2 or 3 days) I should be able to enjoy the same quality every 10 levels. I knew better than to shoot through the levels at unenjoyable speeds.... but of course I have played MMORPGs before.
Funcom is good at sweet talking. Thats all about it. Age of conan is build up to be a pvp game and only now funcom realized the current system is flawed and need an overhaul? I'm not going to wait like a naive kid.
People praising this game are normally all still under level40. Wait till they see the real thing.
An issue that is most important to keep in mind while browsing forums is that each user is convinced that his/her opinion is the only correct opinion. For instance, I am a supporter of what Funcom is doing (though I am not without my criticisms), and Cetra obviously has considerably more issues than I.
I am also in a different position than you, Cetra. As a casual player, I haven't hit 40 yet. My main is 33, and during that time I have taken the opportunity to level another character who is currently at 17. I understand how you must feel, getting to the mid-high level content and not having anything to do. That said, one must keep in mind that virtually all MMOs lack high-level content at this stage in the game. LOTRO didn't implement its content until they were within the 1-2 month mark. MxO had more than enough problems that eventually lead to the sale of the MMO franchise to Sony; Tabula Rasa is just devoid of any depth (in my opinion).
Point being, everyone is going to have different opinions on issues, and none of us are likely to change our own, no matter how well-thought-out a post may be. I am convinced that my opinion is the correct one; others that are heavy Funcom critics believe their opinions to be just as correct. It's a hard thing to come to terms with, but this is the reality: If you believe Funcom is going to turn things around, then you will be patient with them as they work things out. If you believe that they dropped the ball on this one, then you will bash them for an under-developed product and, in some cases, label them as a company that is without hope, at least in this go-around.
Personally, I have become very discouraged with all the negativity surrounding this game. It seems like the nay-sayers far outweigh those that are optimistic about the game's future, and it is hard for me not to get discouraged with AoC after reading these kinds of posts. It sure would be nice if people would state their opinion, while at the same time valuing the fact that there are other players that are enjoying it, and not bashing them for their support of the product.
Just my opinion.
Wait wait...wait...I know this. What are....the 5 things we should have had done before release!
I won't pay to Beta test. Theres a HUGE difference between playing a new game and playing one that just plain isn't close to done. Sorry Funcom. I may see you guys in 6 months or so to see how things have come along. Good luck.
/cancel
I am level 50, and the game is great so far. What I find strange is a lot of you seem to be mocking the fact that they are changing up PvP when you yourself also state that the current PvP isn't that great.
Yup, its horrible for a company to change something because it isn't good! I mean WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?
Seriously though I've had more fun in Age of Conan that I have ever had in WoW and really any other MMORPG I've played to date.
Also, instanced zones. Sorry but when I'm out and about I don't want to see 200 people in the same damned zone trying to kill the same damn mobs. Maybe some of you enjoy that competition (look at WoW's launch and even the launch of the new sunwell isle) but I enjoy the game to actually feel a bit real. How "realistic" and immersive is it if you have 300 of the same "heroes" all trying to kill little boars?
The zones are still incredibly populated anyways, and there is PvP and players to be found everywhere.
By the way, I feel like most of the players complaining about the game haven't even done any of the content yet. They do 1-20 or so and then start complaining on how they don't look as cool as their character in WoW who has been raiding for 3 years, or how the game isn't as polished as games who have been out for years and years. If you're going to compare the game than compare it to other games at launch.
And hell, at least unlike the WoW launch I can actually play the game without the server being down for 8 hours. :D
Funcom has been incredibly responsive on the problems so far and are working to fix them. When is that suddenly a "bad" thing? In all my time as a conq as well (again, lvl 50) I haven't come across any game breaking bugs or really even very serious ones. In fact my main issues with the game was:
- Guild cities not really doing anything atm. My guild has about 7 buildings so far that don't do anything.
- Confusing stats, not sure what some of them do.
- Zones are a bit thin around lvl 50. However I'm used to grinding from Lineage II and, honestly, the grinding in this game isn't bad. Combat is actually fun unlike in WoW so -- yeah. Plus, group grinding is seriously effective.
Otherwise the PvP additions are all just gravy for me. I was fine with just being able to kill whoever wherever but this just means that the game is going to be that much better :).
Age of Conan is already a great MMO, and as these changes come along it'll become even better. Meanwhile games like World of Warcraft constantly are on the downfall, due to them trying to add in horrible PvP mechanics (arena sucks) and trivializing any sort of PvE encounters in the game. While they'll still have a majority of the "Casual" players Age of Conan should hopefully pick up more of the big gamers who want something new.
Some of you just don't get it. Well you will soon, this game is so void of things to do after 50 it is pathetic.
What is really sad is that alot of us are already in the 50's after a couple weeks after release. That is really going to accentuate the lack of stuff to do at endgame very soon.
Talk about an unchallenging game, can you spell boring...
Any MMO that let's you level so fast has huge issues and this game has them in triplecate.
Sorry so many of you are so blind. You will eventually get the idea that this game needs a minimum of 6 months to a year to mature enough to have decent content.
Case is closed on AoC and there will be alot of people canceling before the first month is out, that certainly does not indicate a good game.
I am very disappointed in Funcom, they just don't understand what a good MMO should be.
Blizzard is laughing itself silly at Funcom.
Well I'm having heaps of fun playing various characters - I like how the night missions in Tort change depending on your character type, thats a nice addition.
I played thru EQ2 opening and I had a lot of fun in that too , depsite the bugs..
for me its not about having a complete game, something that has 50+ content, heck even 40+ content can wait - for me its having fun and AOC has that in bucket loads -
Everyone plays these games for different reasons, but in the end of the day its a game to me and every game ive played thats been online has involved some major and lots of minor changes and implementations..
some people cope with change and growth others gnash and wail, shrug if you dont enjoy new released games...dont play them..
there are costs and benifits for doing so - and seriously by now all you people should know that new games have all the same new game issues that EVERY game released in the last few years has...
so either enjoy the rough edges or keep out till its at a more mature game, but whining because a new game doesnt have the depth or stability of a 3yo + game is daft.
Nice, it's gonna be a fun summer. I love AoC!
there is content in the 50+ region, i.e. in the eglyphian mountains
i never ever got bored in aoc and i play 30h/week
maybe people that want 100+h/week content for 30euros should either buy an expensive version of tetris or wait 2 years into the game.
from what ive seen so far exeeds the content of a lot of "standard video games"
They've been pretty good at delivering thus far. Sure, I'm entirely disgusted with what they're trying to call a crafting system, based on the concept glimpses we saw back near the start of development, and with how half-assed their guild city status still is but that's about it.
As for under 40? I have 3 chars over 40, one of which is over 50, and I'm finding no lack of content. Not as much content as under 40, sure, but when I'm still having extreme trouble with there being more quests than I can fit in my questlog? Argh! Heh. Anyways... for every one of you people that bitch and whine about lack of content, on these forums, I've spoken to a player that says they're having a whale of a time, more than just a few of which are all the way to mid 70s. That doesn't scream "lack of content"; it screams "you're too single-minded about wanting to bitch about something and just can't be bothered looking around for more stuff to do". :P
Every game, without fail, has had people spewing out negativity in spade-loads, when they find things don't match their perfect little vision 110%. I'd guess that more than half of it's just disgruntled (and annoying) little pessimists that want to find something to complain about, so they can look like they know what they're talking about alongside all the other whiners. No biggie, though... World of Warhammer will be out, soon enough. :P
The nay-sayers always look like they outnumber the optimists, though. Keep in mind that all the optimists you're looking for probably aren't reading or posting on the forums; they're actually playing the game!
That said, the game's definitely not without its "issues" - what game isn't, even 5 years after launch, assuming they haven't actually died by then? - but overall, I've found AoC to be the smoothest launch I've ever been involved in (and I've been around since pre-OSI/UO days). Even with the bugs, I'm still having heaps of fun! That, in my opinion, is what counts: it's fun! When it stops being fun then the solution is glaringly simple: I'll stop playing it. Right now, the game is, in fact, extremely playable and, so long as you avoid the couple of game-breakers, you'll be fine (those being gemmed items causing client crashes [already fixed on PTR] and, for us crafting nuts, having a full quest log when trying to learn a craft bugs out the craft [personally never had a problem with it]).
True, they do need beaten to death, several times, with what they're trying to call a crafting system but my biggest gripe, by far, is that my system is a heap of steaming monkey poo that needs upgraded... and that's not Funcom's fault, at all! Argh!
Of course, the day I find a fun PvE/PvP game with a crafting system akin to SWG's is the day I uninstall all my other games and play that one. Still not found another game that I found as much fun as SWG pre-CU and that makes me sad. Ho hum.
I find it amusing how people are talking of cancelling after just 2 weeks of playing, about being burned by this MMO and how they're going to get out before any more damage is done. Oh noes!
EVERYONE knows that the first month of an MMO release is its messiest time. Almost ALL MMOs are released too early, because companies know they can give you 90% of a game and it will keep most people happy. Funcom even hinted the start would be rocky - 'open' beta only to level 13, NDA beyond that.
When you look past the launch problems and content-sparse areas (which are being addressed within the month) AoC is a GREAT game that is unlike any other MMO out there.
For better and for worse, this ain't LOTRO.
It shows funcom listen to their community. Big thumbs up from me. Im having a great time playing, just have to ignore the doomsayers on the mmorpg.com forum.
AOC isn't the game for you, ok, makes sense, best you go play one of the other new games that was recently released.
Oh wait... there aren't any. NM.
Anyone level 70+ that is complaining about being bored needs to brush the potato chip crumbs off their chest and go empty the crap bucket from beneath their chair.
If any player thinks they can get to level 80 solo, then they didn't do things like Sanctum of Burning Souls at the quest given levels, because, if they did, they didn't make it beyond the spiders, guaranteed, and there are many such group oriented instances.
If a player *didn't* do these instances, they are missing out on some pretty dang nice/cool places to adventure and cheating themselves of content that occurs *before* endgame.
Sitting at 45, and having a blast playing AoC. (I have played, WoW, LotR, CoH/CoV, Lineage 2, ShadowBane, SWG, DaoC, EQ2, AC2, AO, Eve Online, Guild Wars and many more I am forgetting right now.)
Best looking game I have played MMO wise, and better than alot of non MMO's. (Eve and LotR come close)
Best 1-20 gaming expierence in any MMO. (Nothing compares, very well done)
Best Melee Combat in a game. (nothing like directional swings, combos, fatalities)
Best Music in a game. (I am really enjoying the sound track while I play.)
Questing - On par with WoW, LotR, EQ2
PVP - better than WoW, but Guild Wars, and Eve are probably better at this point.
Guild functions - Several buggy features, but you can build a city, which very few games let you do that.
Crafting - Not so good, feels added on late, similiar to WoW and PvP at launch, something they didnt plan much.
Instancing - there is one annoying spot in Tortage sewers, where it seems like every door you walk through triggers another instance, most people that complain about this most likely have run into it. It is the only place I have been in that is like that, and the rest of entire world, you hardley notice it, so i am ok with it at this point.
Spell casting - pretty much what all other games have, nothing really new.
Classes - very fun and exciting to play, nice variety.
Feats - I have grown to enjoy testing results and builds, with out all of the info right in front of me, and having to read about the only build anyone is useing for thier class. It's exciting to be in a game that hasn't been dissected by the mathameticians.
Mounts - best in any game I have played
The Grind - Are you kidding me? stop complaining, this game is very easy to level in even if there were no quests at 50-60, which there are plenty if you know where to look. And be social, do some grouping.
All in all, this is a great game and has set a high bar for all existing, and upcomming MMO's.
While this might very well be the case, some would undoubtedly call it welcome communication on the part of the devs to the community. MxO also does this, and if I'm not mistaken, SWG did this too. It's not a new concept. Not a lot of games do that, though; therefore, for those that do, IMO it makes them look really good.
The fact that he acknowledges shortcomings to the community? How can that be a bad thing? I'm pretty sure that the gaming population is growing, not declining. The people that have left are those who complain 24/7 and, in reality, would be dissatisfied with the product no matter what happens. Also IMO, the AoC community is better without the negativity.
I personally appreciate what's been going on.
Absolutely spot-on. In epidemiological science, we would call forum posters a "skewed sample." Same goes for political polling. This is why I rely on these forums only to discern what key game-play elements there are (like instancing and special directional attacks), and the degree to which core game mechanics need improvement. Thus the forum commentary of "trolls" has utility to me-- but only to some extent.
In contrast, I know better than to make predictions on the commercial fate of a game based on the postings of < 1% of a game's players on release. Both auto-assault (ha- remember that one? See my avatar) and AoC forums had passionate defenders and haters weighing in here at release. However, the number of toons I saw around me in-game in AA plummeted within a couple weeks of release, whereas AoC is apparently adding servers left and right. That is a better guide, and the true commercial fate will only be evident once time actually passes.
I'll be purchasing and playing this game... in a month or two when the worst of the kinks have been patched out. Even so, I would probably have a blast installing it tomorrow since I'm a casual player who would not need a crap bucket under his chair (that was hilarious by the way), such that content patches would likely be rolled out by the time I'd need them. Took me a year to get a toon to 50 in LOTRO.
In sum, be realistic on what can be meaningfully inferred from these forums considering the high likelihood of a skewed sample of participants.
It is said that , even God took 6 days to create the universe...and this is God i'm talking about...a supreme being...and I think its safe to say that the universe still undergoes regular patches and updates ...even up to this day...to this minute....and bugs...Platypus anyone? Not a very successful launch,,,seeing as popular belief is that earth is 10,000 years old..give or take.So lets give some credit to the AoC Developers...nothing is perfect...Ask God...if he'll listen.
....and unlike the AoC Director...good luck on God writing in to advise of upcoming changes/improvements in the universe.
We? You're a developer for LOTRO?
Ah yes,
THIS is what happens when you run out of time / money and have to release the game, despite the state it's in....
Then your first few months are spent using the boat load of money you just made to bring the game up to "Launch Ready" status.
I'm really not trying to burn AoC of Funcom, it's just a tragic reality of this market. MMOs are unique in that they can release an unfished product to make money to finish the product. Name any other gaming genre that can do that!
The real question then becomes is:
Is what they currently have available enough to warrant your purchase and financial support (subscription fees) until they patch the game up to the point they WISH they had it in at launch?
It's a personal question, everyone will likely have a different opinion and viewpoint.
Me? I'd rather they push launch back and get things right. But, as I said, sometimes (especially with self-published titles) that's just simply not an option.
There will always be people who like to level to the highest level in shortest possible time, people claim they can get to 220 in anarchy online in a few weeks and here i haven't even made it to 180 playing on and off since 2001 :) then again i'm not in any rush and by leveling slow i take time to see the world around me not just the zones that let me level the fastest.
I remember when sony released the planes of power expansion for everquest and the hardcore raiders could not get to the end zone(plane of time) cause it was not ready, that to me is even worse since it was an expansion.
Disturbs me a bit that tradeskills seems bad in AoC i have started to like doing tradeskills in other games, but hopefully they will fix it up to VG level (and yes i think Vanguard have super crafting reminds me of Horizons)
Haven't played AoC much yet but it looks fantastic and i bet it will get better when more dx10 stuff is added.
It is a nice stable beta at the very best. I have played a solid two weeks. I have seen many technical issues as well as creative short cuts. Look at the models. Most look similar or near alike. As far as a ton of people having a good time so far I see most people in chat complaining about getting ganked repeatedly. I love PVP but this is P-PVP, "P" is for pointless. Being camped my a player 10 levels above my own on the resurection pad is just pointless in my book.
Would I pay, I am still deciding. Probably not at the end of my 30 days. The real question is should I get my money back. Knowing what I know now I would never have bought the game and waited until 6 months to see what others were saying of if, or if the servers were still up. Do I think this game is here for the long run, nope, the attention to detail is that poor (even withe the first 20 levels that I totally enjoyed).
One my pet peeves in wow pvp to, being corpse camped by a lvl 70 when you are 30 are so much fun, what sucks is they risk nothing doing it, bit sad that AoC is taking the same approach at least in a game like eve going ganking the newbies in secure space had a risk, you where likely to loose your ship and take a sec rating hit, do it enough and the police force will attack on sight.
Considering that well yeah, the game needs to be tailored for MILLIONS of PC configurations and not to mention the whiney biatches out there who stomp their feet and DEMAND the game be made specifically for them.
It really makes me shit my pants in stupidity how people go off on a tangent and compare a fecking OFFLINE game which is made for one up to three console configs with something this massive.
If people are too blind to see when the basis of a game, which has a fricking long lifespan, is good and that future "fixes" or patches will only add to this making it a GREAT game then I don't know what to say.
I take my hats off to all the developers out there.
P.S. no insult intended to the poster of the quote, simply used it as leverage.
I like how people are saying WoW had bugs and was missing content at release...
I played at release, and I don't even remember any major bug, except 2 evenings where lag made the game unplayable.
Also, I never had to grind to reach level 60. There was no "missing" content. The content at release was sufficient. It was still quest grind of course ^^ but nothing like AoC.
Anyhow the best part of this update was
I loled.Seriously, it's ridiculous.
Mainly I agree with original post.
I'm starting to love more and more AoC every day, despite I was pretty disapointed at the beginning (90% of this solved purchasing new graphics card
). Still my no.1 is WoW, more complete in any sense (but is also out much more time), but when I return now back to wow I'm realising more and more at least 2 very big minuses with WoW: in wow I guess I have spent 30% of gameplay only due to constant need to EAT and DRINK nearly after every single fight. In AoC there is virtually no downtime due to this. In WoW walking and even using mounts is PAINFULLY SLOW! Only now I realise this. In AoC is very fast. And one have bonus of using shift key for short runs which increases a loooot travelling. One can actually play game.
Unfortunately still a lot of things looks like in pre-pre-beta
(like crafting and alike) and hope they will fix this soon. Using AH is not even remotely comparable to wow's. And number of alts is too limited. They should allow players to create as many alts as number of classes. And few other things.
I find it amusing how the pro-WoW people seem to be in denial that their game wasn't perfect at release. Servers were crashing so they had to add queues. Login servers were crashing so they limited the data by having all your toons "nekked" at login screen. Stuck while looting bugs. Certain Radeon cards had issues with Searing Gorge which weren't fixed til several months later.
WoW wasn't missing content? Huh? Mara, DM, were added in later even though the area was in game at release. To this day there is still an instance in Stormwind and Winterspring that hasn't been made useable. Near Kara there is a locked off area where "something" was supposed to be added at some point.
So please, spare me the WoW Is Perfect rants cuz we all know that is Bull***t. It had (and has) issues like every other MMO out there.
Far as AoC is concerned my only complaint, a minor one at that, is the lack of voice overs once you leave Tortage. Doing voice overs in mulitple languages is probably taking a while. Rather than delay the game months to just add voice overs, they released it. Overall game had a good launch, none of the bugs are game-breaking. Worst bug I found was a bug with Awakening II quest, but being only ONE quest I just worked on others while my petition was in queue.
I think part of the problem is the powergamers blitzed their way to (or near) 80 and are now screaming how bored they are and how the content isn't "completed" for them.
You can't say WoW was missing content because it didn't include everything at once. The thing is there was enough content at release.
DM weren't in? Big deal! It's just an instance. How is that an "issue"? You didn't need it to level up.
Of course, no MMO will have all its content delivered at release (you want a game without any updates? lol). But when the content is so poor that you have a very hard time leveling up, there is a problem.
I was a beta tester for AoC, I had very high hopes for this game but even as a beta tester I felt we were being slightly ignored. If that was on purpose or if the dev team honestly couldn't figure out the issue I won't ever know. But I am really glad I got to beta test the game because personally for me, AoC doesn't meet my standards for a MMO.
Granted people do enjoy this game and that is great. If you want to support Funcom and play AoC then don't let people regret your decision. But for those of us that expected AoC to be what Funcom said it was supposed to be, those optimists need to understand our point of view also as some of us are angry.
Every game will have people who are disheartened and people who are optimistic about the game/it's future. Fair enough. In the end it's up to the individual to decide, forums can debate and tell others what do to with their time / their opinion but it really doesn't matter.
Yes Funcom should of listened to a lot of us in beta but in their eyes/situation the push for release was necessary. That is fine. The lovely thing is we all have the freedom of choice. I for one do not like this game so I don't subscribe.
For those of you enjoying the game, I am happy for you. For those of us that didn't fair it well, there are tons of new MMO's on the horizon.
I am a guild leader with over 40 poeple on TestLive (aka Beta Server-1). We are constantly posting on the beta forum and hitting ctrl-b to send in bugs along with many others on TestLive. What we dont see is much feedback from the Devs about our findings. We honestly dont know if the Devs even see what we post or submit because we still hear about the bug reported when they are released to live. Then we sit back and scratch our heads saying "We have been telling you guys about this bug/problem/issue for a week now."
Thankfully I am not paying bug test it.
We have all Tier 1 buildings complete. Too bad they dont do anything for us to test as the feats for these buildings are turned off.
When they patch the TestLive they have VERY abreviated patch notes. We never see the full version of what is being changed/fixed/tested. I usually have to hit the AoCNews site to find out what is being posted to live servers.
Trust me when I say that I and many others are trying to find the bugs before they hit live but in the end it is up to the Devs to listen to us and fix them before they get to you.
Ramino, 61st Conquorer
Bug Exterminator Guild
I think part of the problem is expectations and WoW's success have left people jaded as to what to expect. This game was heavily hyped for quite some time, you are bound to find disappointed people when the game doesn't fit into their highly hyped expectations. They also unfairly compare the game to WoW, which will probably be commonplace with any MMO coming out in the future due to WoW's vast success.
To an above poster, my comment about DM was actually very relavent. Many people are complaining that AoC is lacking mid-high end content. They blitzed through levels and then are screaming "we're bored WTF?!". This is the same problem that happend in WoW early days, people were hitting the cap quickly and Blizzard reacted by adding Mara and DM early on to give people more options at 50+ on what to do. AoC got hit with the same "growing pains" by a percentage of the playerbase that leveled quickly. Funcom has been doing patches twice a week to get bugs squashed and these concerns addressed. Today (thursday 6/12), they tweaked quests and spawn rates in the 30-50 range to help with this.
Game not even been out a month, give it more time. Heck WoW's first couple weeks were a queue filled, stuck while looting, why is my char at login nekked mess. Then Blizz got it together and the rest is, as they say, history.
First I am not flaming you but just using this as a point. For $60 I would expect a complete game. A comparison to WOW is just a comparison to other products in the market which is valid. What I see being said is that it is ok to buy a game and start a monthly subscription and only receive a partial product. That is like saying I will start paying for a car and every week I will take it back to finish the assembly.
Personally I disagree with this and think that publishers/Devs need to get better at delivering more complete games on the day they say they intend to release the game.
My big issue is all the content that they add that I should be getting now when I level my current character is not yet in the game. I do not have the time to level a second character to get the experience that they I should be getting now, this is my choice but it diminishes the value of the game.
Blizzard raised the bar, but look at all the other games that have failed to date. Every other MMO since WOW has failed or only had marginal success (Eve, COH, etc). The reason, is that the bar is that high and OAC devs understood that and yet they still went forward and prematurally released the game.
So what you are saying is your $60 is an investment in a future game. When the game does not hit critical mass the client will be given away for free, so what does your $60 get you now. The opportunity to be in an open beta tester. Bottom line is that we are working for Funcom as testers and feature focus testers.
I have seen many people leave already, I have seen many people not buy the game based on the forums and posts here, and I see this game going away or diminishing to some point and expect to see it in the collection of Games at SOE station as all defunct games end there.
Call it game heaven or hell but here is a fine list of games that never quite lived up to expectations...
http://www.station.sony.com/en/freeTrials.vm
Well in the last month, content and issues have been fixed and more are slated to be done soon.
Very early on ganking was rampant on pvp servers. Higher levels would camp the rez spot of the newbies and endlessly, mercilessly kill them over and over til their death penalities stacked them into uselessness. They then patched a buff that grants a short term invulnerability every time you load into a zone. This is one example of something they did in reaction to how the players were playing.
Many people took one character and ran with it, blitzing through levels and then started screaming "we're bored! no content!". Actually the content was there, but some required groups... which were hard to find since these people had passed up many others. So, they added more content and faster spawns in the mid-range. Today's mini-patch (6/23) added more quests to the Khoseph(sp?) stygian zone to further help out people in their early 30's.
Now if you played a cimmerian, and only played in cimmerian zones... yes you probably ran into areas where the quests were slim. However, you have two other areas, aquilonia and stygia that you could go to as well.
No game comes perfect, 100% complete and bug-free at its launch. WoW had to add Maraudon in its first patch because players were complaining they had no instances to go to in the 50ish level range. Now, one could complain that WoW wasn't "complete" when I think it is fairer to say that Blizzard reacted to how the players were playing and made an adjustment.
Finally I don't think you flamed me at all. However, I do say that your belief that many people are leaving may be unfounded. You don't add 9 more servers if people are leaving. You can't fairly judge a game only 1 month into its release. Heck if everyone did that, WoW would of been dead before January 05.