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Age of Conan: Siege PvP Video
Meddle
Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
Fresh off their victory in the "Best Online Game" category at Games Convention, The guys from Funcom's Age of Conan gve a great presentation on the upcoming game's Siege PvP system.
Siege PvP in Age of Conan
Check out this video featuring Siege PvP in the upcoming MMO Age of Conan.
Check out all of our GCG coverage here.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
Comments
I'm not impressed.
Serious death penalties makes every close call an adrenaline rush, and every minor achievement a major victory. This alternative rule-set should be in all MMORPGs.
Meh, it looks the same as all the others out there.
Oh wait, it has boobs.......whopee
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
Flat out boring looking.
Looks moderately interesting, the hiring of mercenaries is a cool feature. The fact that you can build a keep with your guild is kinda cool. But its just a rehash of Shadowbane to a degree mixed with dumbed down DAOC and pretty graphics and you have what they are showing as far as PVP in AOC. Don't get me wrong I'm probably going to buy this and check it out, but thats only because I'm a compulsive MMO player and will play every game that comes out just once and give it a shot.
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Played (In order of favorite first to least): DAOC, EQ2, EVE, WOW, Vanguard, AC2, City of __, Guild Wars, LOTRO, EQ, Sword of New World, FFXI, Lineage 2, Second Life, DDO, Anarchy Online, RF Online, Archlord, Uru, Ragnarok Online, Shadowbane, Planetside, Auto Assault, Ryzom, Matrix Online, Horizons, Entropia, Sims, Runescape, Lineage 1, AC1, Dungeon Runners
Guys you do realise that its beta and the reason it played so choppy is because that two computers were controlling all those characters. Right now, Conan has the potential to be the best of new MMOs coming out. Combat is different than anything out there right now, the setting is darker and more adult themed than anything out there, and it has more options for the player than any of the new games coming. (and trust me, ive beta tested some of them , most of them are nothing to get up in a roar about) I think it looks great.
I keep seeing people say " oh sucubus, thats original" meaning they think its not. I guess those same people think that wow created the sucubus. The conan universe, along with LoTR, and Warhammer is the basis for all of the current fantasy games available today. People keep saying oh this game is just a mix of shadowbane, WOW, and DaOC. So what, at least its not a carbon copy of one of those games. Noone seems to remebver that wow coppied every game before it, aas most games do. I think its a great idea to take the best idea from all of those games. its very hard to have an entire game full of new ideas that have never been tryed. Name one MMO that did that in the last 4 years and succeded. Even games like guild wars that introduced a few new ideas still play just like the others one when you get down tot he combat.
The success of this game will depend on the combat system. If they can suceed in making it really more action oriented, rather than a simple click and forget system like all the other games out are(wow,eq2,etc), than i think they will have a great game on their hands. Everything ive seen looks amazing as far as graphics, the settings are beautiful and very dark, and combat looks fun. Sure some of the videos are a bit cluncky from time to time, but most of it looked smooth on the Pve end. people need to remeber that it is in a beta stage, not a fully optimized release state, and quit judging it simply by the frame rate. They arent going to release a game that has 15 FPS i promise.
I think the developers would also like to know because then they would gladly give it you so they could take your money.
That is if it is possible to create what it is you desire.
I found the whole thing unprofessional when a game like that is demonstrated even in Beta it should run lag free. The fact it lags shows there are some Hardware/software issues still.
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
If you actually view the video you would notice them saying they were trying to simulate a battle on one PC with 200 players, as far as i can tell that is very impressive to say the least..And from the picture they were actually playing it on rather high settings..
And...The game isn't out until march ...so..
/Thark
If you actually view the video you would notice them saying they were trying to simulate a battle on one PC with 200 players, as far as i can tell that is very impressive to say the least..And from the picture they were actually playing it on rather high settings..
And...The game isn't out until march ...so..
/Thark
Having 200 NPC's standing stil and doing nothing means exactly NOTHING. Of course when they started doing something the lag showed up pretty much showing that the computer couldnt keep up with he graphics."Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
If you actually view the video you would notice them saying they were trying to simulate a battle on one PC with 200 players, as far as i can tell that is very impressive to say the least..And from the picture they were actually playing it on rather high settings..
And...The game isn't out until march ...so..
/Thark
Having 200 NPC's standing stil and doing nothing means exactly NOTHING. Of course when they started doing something the lag showed up pretty much showing that the computer couldnt keep up with he graphics.Not nearly as much as the warhammer lag in the 3 gamespot videos that came from the show - point being there is 6 months of beta to go and I laugh in your face for your unprofessional comment.
Who one best online game at the show??
I have been following AOC since about Dec of 2005. I keep hearing how awesome the combat is and how we are going to love the combat. I have yet to see one video of any kind of exciting combat or the much touted combo move. Even in this the lasted video I am sorry to say I see nothing exciting about the combat . It seems that if you wanted to get people excited about the game, you would show them the one thing that they have been bragging about for months....the combat. And I am aware the combat is being revised, that is the combat we were supposed to love, but turned out to be the suck after 2 days of beta testing. I am not trying to get down on the game but the thing they have been bragging about; I haven't seen one bit of excitement out of. Even the 3 second WarHammer video of the High Elf swordsman put out more excitement then all the AOC combat I have seen. The dude is playing a Barbarian, the most combo heavy class in AOC and he seems to have one slow move. Maybe he is still learning the moves.
Have you ever been involved in game development before? Serious question. I have more than once, and I know there was absolutely nothing unprofessional about the demo or how it was handled.
I thought that the demo they ran worked very-very well, the stuff they wanted to show worked, and they were very cool about problems in the interview on and off camera. The guys that work on this game are great to talk to and were very accomidating.
You got a peak into something not out yet... not even finished. If everyone did it your apparent way, we wouldn't see anything until they were on store shelves. I'll take buggy/laggy/crashy previews any day.
....
According to the devs the only reason for the delay was because the combat system was too hard to understand, and they needed the time to rework it. They said absolutely nothing about lag problems, sliding, incomplete systems, etc.
However as these videos prove quite clearly, there was a whole lot of problems that funcom neglected to tell the community. They leave out every truth that is inconvienant for them. Have to hide the truth to keep that hype up, of course.
They had plenty of ways to show a true siege with other live players. They CHOSE not to. Why do you suppose that is?
Since I'm not there, I'm curious how the network connection/internet connections have been.
I would imagine that the bandwidth get's swallowed up pretty quick, so I'm not convinced that the game lags just because of someone's machine.
In all, not a bad video, showed some more of what people were looking for, and the individual PvP video's that I've seen people taking have been fairly solid. I know push back was a huge issue for many people, but quite frankly, the game NEEDS some more time in development, (female avatars, chat system, anyone?). The ideas are still good, and if they take 5 extra months to polish, and the end result is a smooth release, with a solid game that appeals to multiple playstyles, I'm all for it.
Look at it this way, if Vanguard released today instead of 7 months ago, it would not have suffered as much poor publicity as it did, and it may never have reached its hype, but it certainly would not be the gold standard for shoddy releases it has become to many gamers. Get it right Funcom, because realistically this is the last pushback many fans will accept.
Uhhh, the truth was pretty much out there, you just had to pay attention to it, and realize it. (I fully admit in many cases, I had my blinders on) however no female avatars, the chat system, and plenty of other things indicated that it was not 100% ready for release. Now could those things have been taken care of in two to three months time? Probably, but the quality of the solutions? No idea.
I dont really think Funcom was hiding anything, those concerns were made abundantly evident in many previews written about the game.
Uhhh, the truth was pretty much out there, you just had to pay attention to it, and realize it. (I fully admit in many cases, I had my blinders on) however no female avatars, the chat system, and plenty of other things indicated that it was not 100% ready for release. Now could those things have been taken care of in two to three months time? Probably, but the quality of the solutions? No idea.
I dont really think Funcom was hiding anything, those concerns were made abundantly evident in many previews written about the game.
I agree it was very clear to everyone that was open minded enough to see it. But its not the fact that it was clear that is the issue. More that Funcom said nothing of these things. And that made it very easy for the more extremist fans to always deny that there were problems.
If funcom had just come out and said 'we want to rework the combat to be easier to understand, but we also feel we have some big problems with lag, animations, etc before it lives up to the standards we have for release'... well than the fans couldn't deny these things, because it would have come straight from funcom. We wouldn't have seen all the insults against the people that were skeptical, because they didn't conform to the idea the game was flawless.
I just think it would have been more honest and avoided a lot of problems the AoC community has in regards to spin and misinformation.
One thing you have to realize. Has your computer tried to render a start to finish keep being built in under 10 seconds, everything bump mapped and showing drop shadows? Has your computer spawned 200NPC's in under a minute on the screen running at full resolution at high settings. Cant forget their mounts too. They are also speeding up the siege engines as well, the trebuchets were firing faster than the fiery boulder could even reach its target, all the while speeding up all actions and calculations for the time restrictions of the demonstration.
I think most computers would Cry at the task the dev's tried to do in the demo. Even if they had top of the line computers, which they didn't, to run that demo, its processing and doing more things than you would normally get on your screen when playing the game in a normal scenario. Obviously there are hardware and software issues, were they running DX10? dunno? Vista? dunno? Debug code? dunno? Non optimized code base? Dunno? Making assumptions that it should be that way with out knowing the ins and outs on WHY it was running that way is just.. well.. naive.
Why do people always say the frikkin word lag....sigh. A lag is a byproduct of network latency.
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Played (In order of favorite first to least): DAOC, EQ2, EVE, WOW, Vanguard, AC2, City of __, Guild Wars, LOTRO, EQ, Sword of New World, FFXI, Lineage 2, Second Life, DDO, Anarchy Online, RF Online, Archlord, Uru, Ragnarok Online, Shadowbane, Planetside, Auto Assault, Ryzom, Matrix Online, Horizons, Entropia, Sims, Runescape, Lineage 1, AC1, Dungeon Runners
Uhhh, the truth was pretty much out there, you just had to pay attention to it, and realize it. (I fully admit in many cases, I had my blinders on) however no female avatars, the chat system, and plenty of other things indicated that it was not 100% ready for release. Now could those things have been taken care of in two to three months time? Probably, but the quality of the solutions? No idea.
I dont really think Funcom was hiding anything, those concerns were made abundantly evident in many previews written about the game.
I agree it was very clear to everyone that was open minded enough to see it. But its not the fact that it was clear that is the issue. More that Funcom said nothing of these things. And that made it very easy for the more extremist fans to always deny that there were problems.
If funcom had just come out and said 'we want to rework the combat to be easier to understand, but we also feel we have some big problems with lag, animations, etc before it lives up to the standards we have for release'... well than the fans couldn't deny these things, because it would have come straight from funcom. We wouldn't have seen all the insults against the people that were skeptical, because they didn't conform to the idea the game was flawless.
I just think it would have been more honest and avoided a lot of problems the AoC community has in regards to spin and misinformation.
I have/will of/given funcom the benefit of doubt that they could of fixed the issues seen 2 months ago before start of november. Critical people like yourself wouldn't. The point is its still in Beta now but with double the amount of beta time to go - deal with it. The delay upset alot of people including myself, but I wasn't disapointed to the point where insults have to be thrown around. Lag and animations have constanted been stated by the devs throughtout spring time that these are the last things to get tweaked up in beta.
Whatever your issues with AoC are (all negative) the fact remains you can be critical of the performance of the game engine during this "demoed" "simulation". You have flat out said before that funcom lied etc etc which is just not the case with the seige information. Fan and Forum hype done that and took me long for the ride too. People like Metal Dragon above don't conform to the game because they have no interest in it, just like half a dozen other beefcakes. Banding comments around like "unprofessional" is stock and stable of the insults that the AoC community have had to put up with the last few months.
Btw Funcom did come and say they wanted to rework to combat, just not for the reasons you insist it should be for. In their eyes there wasn't a need to include, animation and "lag" <- overly misued term (as previously said,last things to go into beta)
You see if you listen to the commentry as well as watch the video -
two people controlling 200 characters -
all the tracking for these characters are done thru these two -
50% load on CPU because of system resources which are drained -
They mention several times - demo and simulation - they say they expect the client to crash "alot"
You harp on about an unfinished product, how bad, how lacking it is, how Funcom neglected to tell the community; Its BS, wake up, listen and realise its beta. Stop the SH*T stirring and take your hate blinders off for once, you don't like what you see then come back when the game is finished. - re-read Alchemda's post above again too.
vbmenu_register("postmenu_928753", true);
I will note that from a server/netcode perspective, there really isn't any difference between players and NPCs. In fact, it's generally harder on the server to have that many NPCs, as they all have brains/scripts/AI to run, rather than players that do not.
Balance Team Lead
As long as people like you Avery are around to spread propaganda and misinformation to hype up the game, there will be people around to make sure a more balanced view exists on this forum. As long as you continue to be an extremist persona on this board, you will not have any rest. I will certainly not give you that luxury after seeing your behavior for the past few months.
Every criticism about any aspect of the game is met with a response from either you or Fion discrediting them. From the minor to the major. How hypocritical of you to ever use the words 'hate blinders'. You hate everyone that doesn't feel like you do about the game.
Funcom choose the method for the siege pvp video. They could have easily done it with live people. Easily. I can call up a few people right this second and get more live players than funcom had. That is pretty sad. Since it was their choice to show the siege in this way, it is entirely their fault if 2 computers hosting a bunch of stationary npcs was too much for it to handle. They knew what they were getting into.
If you don't like people telling things as they are... I suggest YOU take a leave the community and not come back until release. Because e-bullys do not have any power here im afraid.
"Funcom choose the method for the siege pvp video. They could have easily done it with live people. Easily. I can call up a few people right this second and get more live players than funcom had. That is pretty sad. Since it was their choice to show the siege in this way, it is entirely their fault if 2 computers hosting a bunch of stationary npcs was too much for it to handle. They knew what they were getting into"
Im sorry its obvious this was a big let down for you - it was a slight one for me, but I didn't make it my crusade to say Funcom "lied" "misguided" "misinformed" whatever terms you want to pull out of your... You offer no luxury to me, so leave your serving at the door. Like I said before - you don't like AoC - why bother???
Ok you do understand the logistics in doing something like that. Having limited space at the conference, as well as furnishing all those computers, tables, prepherials, chairs all those things. It just simply is smarter to do it that way, preface your demo that its going to be like that because of the stipulations. They could of not shown it all, but then the visual representation of what they have been saying is going to be in the game wouldent be able to drive the hype machine. See I think alot of people realize the stipulations of the demo, REALIZE that its not really going to be like that, and take the smarter road and look past it.
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Played (In order of favorite first to least): DAOC, EQ2, EVE, WOW, Vanguard, AC2, City of __, Guild Wars, LOTRO, EQ, Sword of New World, FFXI, Lineage 2, Second Life, DDO, Anarchy Online, RF Online, Archlord, Uru, Ragnarok Online, Shadowbane, Planetside, Auto Assault, Ryzom, Matrix Online, Horizons, Entropia, Sims, Runescape, Lineage 1, AC1, Dungeon Runners
Ok you do understand the logistics in doing something like that. Having limited space at the conference, as well as furnishing all those computers, tables, prepherials, chairs all those things. It just simply is smarter to do it that way, preface your demo that its going to be like that because of the stipulations. They could of not shown it all, but then the visual representation of what they have been saying is going to be in the game wouldent be able to drive the hype machine. See I think alot of people realize the stipulations of the demo, REALIZE that its not really going to be like that, and take the smarter road and look past it.
Some people can't let it go Im afraid.
I think the most PC's in one area was 24, from the photos on the mmorpg.com photo blog. AoC's showing was split into 3 different area's. I thought that the information that came out was most productive, intriguing and interesting, its a shame that no one wants to talk about it.
WoW.. That pvp looked impressive compared to other fantasy mmo . And I loved how building that camp worked. Gathering resources. There is actually meaning in this game other then killing monsters in dungeons.
I dont even like fantasy mmo, but I cant wait to try AoC.
My cool sig: Turrets suck.