I think they need to reconsider the part where free players can only play 4 classes.. everything else is fine and I would love to give it another try (played it at launch.)
The game really hasn't come a long way. It is pretty much the same as it was when it launched with Khitai tacked on. The bugs, the clunky terrain and movement, the hit and miss challenge levels, the lack of class balance, right down to foundational mechanics such as male and female bear shaman have different attack vallues and finishing move cancels, not because the designers wanted it that way, but because the animations for the two sexes make them different. This is corner cutting in the worst sense.
I just re-upped and found that nothing had been fixed, just some class changes (some getting heavy aromor they always should have had) and some content additions. It's the same with a lot of failed MMOs, sure they launched on a bad foundation, but if they just add enough floors to the building. it won't collapse... nonsense. Fix the foundation folks, it will make it a great game.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire: Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
Funcom is making a smart move: bolstering an underperforming game while capitalizing on the renewed interest in the IP generated by the movie. It doesn't hurt that, in my opinion at least, the game is also pretty good.
I was one of the many disappointed players at launch. I have not been back so I really cant say much about how far the game has advanced since. But, imo, it would be best for the life of this game to model after DDO LOTRO.
As long as they maintain a clear understanding of what to add, and more importantly, what to keep out of the cash shop, then this should be fairly successful for them. I have 2 level 80's and have been really waiting for it to go f2p before I returned. There was nothing overly wrong with the game for me, just simply I had done everything there was that I wanted to do, raided every week, etc etc and found there was no reason for me to keep subbing even though it was one of the most well designed game worlds I had ever been in.
Will deff return with this update, and it will be interesting to see how far they push the unrated part of the game.
I got my old account from 2008 with 2x 80s and some 70s and would like to try the game again after lots of fixes [and new comp] and see if its worth the time but i cant set anything in options, says account frozen - not playable.
You just log in. My account says the same on the account page.
The game is open to everyone.
It still sucks if only 2 classes are avaliable. I had 80 conq, 80 some other, 76 or 78 assassin and ~60 HoX If i cant play them it would suck
As someone who actually enjoyed AoC to a degree and would definitely be playing "Freemium" AoC if it was done right, I am going to say the same thing about this as I did about EQII and CO's "Freemium" models. If you don't add more to a la carte, and allow people to pick and choose what features they want to buy, this will fail horribly just like it did for those titles. If you want to do it right, follow the businiess model that Turbine uses, otherwise forget about it right now. Also, I see that there are some weapons and armor that are oging to be buyable? Be VERY careful with this...
------------------------- "Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
All this will do is saturate the existing servers with people who are too cheap to invest in the game, forcing the existing player base to deal with them. If they really wanted to attract a better, more constistent playerbase, a good starting place would be to break out of the $15 a month mold and reduce the sub rate to $10.
As Turbine did with LOTRO, this is just a slap in the face to the people who already love the game by opening the Hyborian kingdoms up to an invasion by the worst of the WoW "community". Good luck and godspeed.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II "People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
This game should of been f2p from the beginning it just isn't P2P worthy.
Sure the game has lots of classes to choose from and it's very different compared to other mmos but i played it and i payed but i quit after a week because i felt it didn't deserve my money every month.
Honestly I thought they should have made a F2P option 6-12 months ago as low server populations were one of the main reasons I left, too few players means too few groups to go godslayer mode instances in khitai or run T3 and T4 raids which is basically all there is to do at endgame, oh and grind faction in Khitai yay.
Still even with a population boom there is little to do at endgame and I cant see this helping much longterm, they need a better endgame vision.
I played aoc at launch and returned for a month now and again and in my experience aoc had just about the worst community that I've ever experienced in a mmo with the exception of lotro when the floodgates opened on the ftp launch and the waves of human trash desended on middle earth.
Should be interesting when the same caliber of players are unleashed in aoc and they can fight it out in hyboria this time.
#1 The expansion I was going to buy is now useless unless I sub. I was planning on buying it for 10$ and deciding whether I would stay after a month.
#2 Two of my 3 character classes are on the restricted list.
I don't know how it is for your mount, but from what I read if you've bought the expansion and the original game, then you'll have access to those classes and content except for some dungeons and such, even if you decide to go F2P.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
If your silly enough to listen to the defenders,the devs meant all along for the game to be unable to hold players.They spent all that cash, and time,and even put some work into the game all so they could slowly sink into a free to play disaster.....
And low and behold,this particular massive failure ,isnt really a failure,becuase other mmo dev teams have done just as badly.....
This is correct anyone who already have the expansion will get acces if they go f2p.
f2p have classes they can play if they start a new acount but old acount can still play thier old classes reguardless if they belong in the f2p or p2p section, you will be resticted to two characters however.
the biggest problem i currently see is the chat/trade restrictions. this might be come troublesome in order to hook f2p players and the current comunity. get teams going and alike.
a other "problem" people will face is the high end gameplay, make no mistake being a p2p or f2p player does not egual old time players. the Alternate advancement and pvp level ranking makes vet players almost godlike compared to new player, if the increase in players (f2p or p2p) is high enough then this might resolve itself (new 80's fight new 80's old vets do thier own thing) if its not then the new folks will defintly find themself laying down on the group in two hits alot.
Lotro has the best f2p model on the market. I quit Lotro several times because I felt like I wasn't getting my bang for the buck. Then...I started playing when f2p was adopted and I really got into the content. Now I am a subscriber again. I am sure the same thing will happen with AoC if their f2p model is similar to lotro. I have several friends that have been waiting for this announcement. They wouldn't leave their current games to play AoC as a subscriber. But, they said they would go back to it in a second if it went f2p.
Hmm, I might have to try LOTRO sometime this week then.
It's PvE mostly, right (which I like)? Can you do dungeons even though you're not a full subscriber?
Yes you can play Lotro for free through the lonelands which gives you one instance in the Great Borrows which has 3 parts. You get points from playing the game and can then use them for other things in game. And yes it can be played for free. If people can go from 1-80 in AoC in a week then you can play Lotro Free just learn the starting deeds for Bree, Erud Luin and The Shire and you can earn about 900 to 1000 TP on one character if you do this a couple times you can earn alot of the content.
Sherman's Gaming
Youtube Content creator for The Elder Scrolls Online
Comments
I think they need to reconsider the part where free players can only play 4 classes.. everything else is fine and I would love to give it another try (played it at launch.)
The game really hasn't come a long way. It is pretty much the same as it was when it launched with Khitai tacked on. The bugs, the clunky terrain and movement, the hit and miss challenge levels, the lack of class balance, right down to foundational mechanics such as male and female bear shaman have different attack vallues and finishing move cancels, not because the designers wanted it that way, but because the animations for the two sexes make them different. This is corner cutting in the worst sense.
I just re-upped and found that nothing had been fixed, just some class changes (some getting heavy aromor they always should have had) and some content additions. It's the same with a lot of failed MMOs, sure they launched on a bad foundation, but if they just add enough floors to the building. it won't collapse... nonsense. Fix the foundation folks, it will make it a great game.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
Funcom is making a smart move: bolstering an underperforming game while capitalizing on the renewed interest in the IP generated by the movie. It doesn't hurt that, in my opinion at least, the game is also pretty good.
I was one of the many disappointed players at launch. I have not been back so I really cant say much about how far the game has advanced since. But, imo, it would be best for the life of this game to model after DDO LOTRO.
As long as they maintain a clear understanding of what to add, and more importantly, what to keep out of the cash shop, then this should be fairly successful for them. I have 2 level 80's and have been really waiting for it to go f2p before I returned. There was nothing overly wrong with the game for me, just simply I had done everything there was that I wanted to do, raided every week, etc etc and found there was no reason for me to keep subbing even though it was one of the most well designed game worlds I had ever been in.
Will deff return with this update, and it will be interesting to see how far they push the unrated part of the game.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
It will work wonders... Just wait and see..
It still sucks if only 2 classes are avaliable. I had 80 conq, 80 some other, 76 or 78 assassin and ~60 HoX
If i cant play them it would suck
This will probably turn AoC into a major powerhouse. It was only lacking population, imo.
I hope EQ2 does this. I'd love more players to fight in the BGs. Only the 30-39 tier has any action.
As someone who actually enjoyed AoC to a degree and would definitely be playing "Freemium" AoC if it was done right, I am going to say the same thing about this as I did about EQII and CO's "Freemium" models. If you don't add more to a la carte, and allow people to pick and choose what features they want to buy, this will fail horribly just like it did for those titles. If you want to do it right, follow the businiess model that Turbine uses, otherwise forget about it right now. Also, I see that there are some weapons and armor that are oging to be buyable? Be VERY careful with this...
-------------------------
"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
FINALLY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
All this will do is saturate the existing servers with people who are too cheap to invest in the game, forcing the existing player base to deal with them. If they really wanted to attract a better, more constistent playerbase, a good starting place would be to break out of the $15 a month mold and reduce the sub rate to $10.
As Turbine did with LOTRO, this is just a slap in the face to the people who already love the game by opening the Hyborian kingdoms up to an invasion by the worst of the WoW "community". Good luck and godspeed.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
I might be missing something still the 3 years of content seems very thin.
With the launch of the movie I would have expected something more: an Xpack.
The game has certainly been improved still many issues stands especially the bad UI that's killing the fun.
3 years later we are still unable to rebind some very important key nor scale the UI.
This game should of been f2p from the beginning it just isn't P2P worthy.
Sure the game has lots of classes to choose from and it's very different compared to other mmos but i played it and i payed but i quit after a week because i felt it didn't deserve my money every month.
It's a great game if it's F2P.
CROM!
It's sad that it had to come to this, but I am glad I will get to play the rest of the game. Cause I just always had a hard time paying for it...
@ Jesterftk - I laughed at the use of [Stuff] in that reply.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
"Love can be innocent and can be sweet, but sometimes about as nice as rotting meat."
Honestly I thought they should have made a F2P option 6-12 months ago as low server populations were one of the main reasons I left, too few players means too few groups to go godslayer mode instances in khitai or run T3 and T4 raids which is basically all there is to do at endgame, oh and grind faction in Khitai yay.
Still even with a population boom there is little to do at endgame and I cant see this helping much longterm, they need a better endgame vision.
EQ2 did this a year ago, lol its called eq2 extended the live servers are seperate and there keeping the free to play seperated from that sub model.
Horrible...
After struggling to get AOC working again, and finding solutions, I got it up and running this morning, then found this news:
#1 The expansion I was going to buy is now useless unless I sub. I was planning on buying it for 10$ and deciding whether I would stay after a month.
#2 Two of my 3 character classes are on the restricted list.
#3 My preorder mounts are on the restricted list.
#4 This game is not polished enough for $15 a month.
They should have just lowered the sub fee to $5.
Error: 37. Signature not found. Please connect to my server for signature access.
I played aoc at launch and returned for a month now and again and in my experience aoc had just about the worst community that I've ever experienced in a mmo with the exception of lotro when the floodgates opened on the ftp launch and the waves of human trash desended on middle earth.
Should be interesting when the same caliber of players are unleashed in aoc and they can fight it out in hyboria this time.
I don't know how it is for your mount, but from what I read if you've bought the expansion and the original game, then you'll have access to those classes and content except for some dungeons and such, even if you decide to go F2P.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Too funny be far.
If your silly enough to listen to the defenders,the devs meant all along for the game to be unable to hold players.They spent all that cash, and time,and even put some work into the game all so they could slowly sink into a free to play disaster.....
And low and behold,this particular massive failure ,isnt really a failure,becuase other mmo dev teams have done just as badly.....
Great News!
I am giving this another try. Awesome setting and a great and exciting mood. Different and more mature than most MMOs out there.
--Chegg
This is correct anyone who already have the expansion will get acces if they go f2p.
f2p have classes they can play if they start a new acount but old acount can still play thier old classes reguardless if they belong in the f2p or p2p section, you will be resticted to two characters however.
the biggest problem i currently see is the chat/trade restrictions. this might be come troublesome in order to hook f2p players and the current comunity. get teams going and alike.
a other "problem" people will face is the high end gameplay, make no mistake being a p2p or f2p player does not egual old time players. the Alternate advancement and pvp level ranking makes vet players almost godlike compared to new player, if the increase in players (f2p or p2p) is high enough then this might resolve itself (new 80's fight new 80's old vets do thier own thing) if its not then the new folks will defintly find themself laying down on the group in two hits alot.
All games should be subscriptionless. if Arena.net can do it with Guild Wars, anyone can!
Hmm, I might have to try LOTRO sometime this week then.
It's PvE mostly, right (which I like)? Can you do dungeons even though you're not a full subscriber?
Yes you can play Lotro for free through the lonelands which gives you one instance in the Great Borrows which has 3 parts. You get points from playing the game and can then use them for other things in game. And yes it can be played for free. If people can go from 1-80 in AoC in a week then you can play Lotro Free just learn the starting deeds for Bree, Erud Luin and The Shire and you can earn about 900 to 1000 TP on one character if you do this a couple times you can earn alot of the content.
Sherman's Gaming
Youtube Content creator for The Elder Scrolls Online
Channel:http://https//www.youtube.com/channel/UCrgYNgpFTRAl4XWz31o2emw