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Age of Conan is a good game
PharaDar
Member Posts: 44
Is a huge amount of hatred towards this game it seems just want to try my hand at giving an opinion about it to anyone thinking of trying it out.
Firstly the majority of the hatred is down to the failed promises upon game launch, it was and in many ways still is a shallow game with longevity issues. Most haters do appear to see the next game as some sort of life changing experience or religion they can subscribe to and seem dissapointed like as toward a parent who didnt bring them their christmas present they wanted..its understanable people are dismayed when people dont meet their expecations and Funcom are guilty of the Hype bandwagon they tried at launch.
However a few points
- AoC combat system
is not a standard WoW / EQ clone it doesnt use a click your group mate to target a spell as much as rely on action format heavily on AOE in fact every sword swing is technically an AOE if you line the opponenet up correctly..as a healer you need to actually face who you want to heal and go find them if in a raid situation etc and are still expected to do many other things besdies. The combat system is hectic and faster than many MMOs i played but overall i enjoy it very much.
- Lore and M rating
The conan world much unlike most other fantasy MMOs you might play actually has darker content , frequent violence head cutting off , occasional slavery themes, whores who give out quests and so on. The graphical style appears more to head for a low fantasy realistic feel than the over the top high fantasy of EQ clones and Asian designs. People remark often that it doesnt always follow the "lore" of conan exactly this is however difficult to claim the original creator of conan produced very little overall source material and people have added their own take on it ever since to make money from the franchise.
- The end game
Conan launched with basically the same content as EQ1 launched with end game wise, that is to say a few raid zones and couple of high end group areas. This is however not enough for todays market who expect WoW style content from day 1 its understanbale peoples expectations are higher today than in EQs launch day and Funcom definatly spent far to logn designing their initial tutorial zone than they did the end game. If you like Diverse end game content Conan is not for you at present and you may wish to wait for expansions for example they add a new raid tier in the next update.
- Casual gamer
90% of conan can be done in solo or with very small groups this is ideal for a casual gamer, however the double edged swords means its far from ideal for hardcore MMOs (who are very vocal in hating AoC) . If you looking for a good less taxing experience you wont need to devote your life to AoC will enterain you for a good while.
-Pvp - PVe
You can choose to be on a free for all pvp server or a Pve server, the latter there is very little pvp at present because the siegiing element does not work properly. This is Funcoms biggest overall failure given it was one of the apparent main features of conan. Currently no form of large scale war and battle occurs on a regular basis . there is plenty of chance to fight others duel and so forth and ganking does exist but you lose no items or experience from any pvp at present. Pvp is of very little personal interest to me I dislike the blurring between shooting games and MMOs but is definatly a negative point right now if Epic Pvp is your desire.
The Pve design some of the zones are very good indeed Ymirs pass is an amazing pve quest driven area however funcom still havent mastered the art of making an enjoyable grind out of Pve content, most Pve is over very soon a zone they worked on for months will take you 2 days at most to be done with, The Pve appears designed as if conan was a single player game. On the positive side most Pve content is fast and you do feel heroic given as a rule you fight at least 2 or 3 mobs at a time rather than 6 people vs 1 low level mob as per the old everquest format. So basically pve is fun but over to soon there are no epic quests of note.
- Crafting and what to do outside of the fighting !
Well crafting is functional and there are recipes to hunt for that make for desierable armour sets for many people however I do not rate the crafting as enjoyable in itself its really been used right now as a filler grind while they make new content essentuially crafting comes down to farming for rare random drops around the world, there is precious little to do beyond fight its as far away from a sandbox MMO as you can find.
-----Summary
-if you dont expect a life changing experience AoC will provide you with fun espcially in the first 2 months of play, beyond this is lacks the depth to sustain however if you play casually it could be the MMO for you.
- the combat system is at least not a copy of everything else out there and is worthy of trying at the very least , classes do not always play out as they do in other cookie cutter games.
-the lore and niche value of the Low fantasy setting make for a differnt experience the soundtrack is first rate and presentation first class if you have the PC for it.
-It is flawed as a long term experience. Much work to be done to improve the game.
Comments
My biggest complaint on launch was the combo system, orginally designed to stop players from having a button for each skill, then became a button for each skill to start and then a series of more button pushes, than and tempest of set pewned everything. Stuck it out with 2 80's, also having one zone for 71-80 and one guild controlling it made things somewhat difficult.
My biggest beef was the grind, zones for me had a tendancy to get very boring as u neared the level cap but were too low to go to next zone. I left 3 months after launch, and recently went back. the leveling was a little better but it was the same good (entertaining and engaging) quests and then some filler, go kill 30 of these guys quests, to pad out the leveling. maybe this expansion will help improve it but im waiting for something new i think. Kinda wished they would/ve made the level cap 60, woulda made the game more compact and exciting.
Well, this is essentially true but your statement is also misleading.
Conan has been released for about 15 months now. EQ had it's first major expansion(Kunark) 12 months after it's release and then another major expansion(Velious) 9 months after that.
For you to evenly compare EQ content to AOC content you must do so at Launch(which you did) and not in it's present state. However, you are basing the rest of your AOC assessment on current AOC playability so in fairness, you must also compare the AOC vs EQ content to 15 months post Launch. In doing this, you will see that EQ, at the 15 month mark, was much more superior in gaming content because of the Kunark expansion.
People have suggested the AOC expansion will be Launched around May, 2010. If this is indeed close to being true then AOC would be releasing it's first expansion much later than EQ released it second expansion.
Well, this is essentially true but your statement is also misleading.
Conan has been released for about 15 months now. EQ had it's first major expansion(Kunark) 12 months after it's release and then another major expansion(Velious) 9 months after that.
For you to evenly compare EQ content to AOC content you must do so at Launch(which you did) and not in it's present state. However, you are basing the rest of your AOC assessment on current AOC playability so in fairness, you must also compare the AOC vs EQ content to 15 months post Launch. In doing this, you will see that EQ, at the 15 month mark, was much more superior in gaming content because of the Kunark expansion.
People have suggested the AOC expansion will be Launched around May, 2010. If this is indeed close to being true then AOC would be releasing it's first expansion much later than EQ released it second expansion.
Sorry if you felt misled by this statement im simply explaining how much content actually is in the game to be less ambigious for anyone it is as follows : -
Tier 1 Raid - One dungeon style raid area with boss, 2 monster areas
Tier 2 Raid - 9 bosses across 3 dungeon style wings
High level group areas
On launch - One instanced dungeon, one none instanced dungeon
Today - in addition another instanced dungeon and 1 small instanced dungeon
---
Everquest launched with - Two raid areas, 2 dragons, and 2 high level group areas
it is true that kunark was a HUGE expansion and im not sure ever repeated in size by anything since either and is no way conan will compare even when it does launch its expansion however..this may also be misleading because..
In EQ to launch a new dungeon or raid mob you basically made a model gave it some spells and off you went there was really nothing scripted about most encounters resuting in the tank and spank ad nauseum. I played EQ passionatly but can see the complexity today to add an "acceptable" raid encounter area will be somewhat beyond what humble EQ could manage all those years ago..essentially EQ gave you the same content over and over it just looked different.
Sorry OP but you cant judge AoC with EQ,
Times have moved on and so has mmo's,yes AoC is a decent game but it falls well short of what they promised.
I found the end game very linear,alot of the end game instances were basically kill 1 or 2 mobs and then fight the boss,some were just enter and fight the boss.
There were alot of things to enjoy with AoC but it had to many short coming's,every mmo needs a good a good story line and a good if not great end target,AoC had the story line but the end target is/was very lacking.
I am no WoW fan but I would rather spend a night inside the old strat/Scholo instances and having a good time than enter a giant worms pad and already facing the boss,some people are not all about the gear but more about having a good nights gaming....AoC fell short here.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
good review.eq1 will be comapred to many games but aoc isnt in same class. eq1 went from player friendly casual to hard core raider game after kunark .closer we got to planes of power less open raids or pick up raids .after pop it becaue guild vs guild an who would get to the end of the best gear ever in eq. nonthing was supsoed to be better ever.
few expasnions later an they had better gear.few more an the raid content of old became group material. an to some soloable.aoc starts off casual friendly .i would say famiy guild friendly but the family that chops off peoples heads seems weird.in time its posible their will be more raid group content that would rival eqs.
but as it stands now alot of eqs vast world is baren more or less hot zones become the prime group zones.an haveing done crafting in both aoc an eq1 i rather like aoc better for this aspect. specialy as a pain it is to get the items in both games.items you make in aoc seem to be uasable where as unless your top end raid guild an top end crafter in eq 1 their not.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
Ya AoC was advertised as a PvP game and as I already posted in another post it is the worst PvP game and fails at every level.
Guess what? I played EQ 1, and compared to EQ 1 at this point, EQ1 gets a 10 and AoC gets a 1, AoC's PvE sucks, there was so much to do in Kunark and a few month latter came Veliouse the greatest MMO experience ever made with ToV and Sleepers temple. The big diffrence is in EQ 1 I grouped and had to group all the time and In AoC there is no reason to group at all.
So your argument is AoC fails at both PvP and PvE yet it is alright for some people who could care less about both?
EDIT: P.S. AoC's combat system is a WoW clone 100%...global cooldown anywone? it is just in AoC instead of using diffrent skills of your choice you are forced to use arrow keys to get an ability off. I play street fighter and other fighters and know any ability taking more than .17 of a second can be reacted to. In AoC a combo takes activate 1.5 arrow 1.5 arrow to get off so 3 seconds. In any fighter a 3 second attack would never be used.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
The game wasn't finished on time and some simple things weren't thought through (like some mid-level grinds that took waaaaay too long and armor not really making a difference) I'd give it one more year and it should be up to snuff, but by then would it be too late? The game isn't very well populated at the moment.. They could probably fit everyone that's on at once in 2 servers.
That is true but many things are still broken over a year after release esp in regards to PvP. It was marketed as a PvP game so most original players were PvP people and they left and a year latter the PvP stuff is still broken. PvE? ya Funcom doesn't make content fast enough as they only have 2 end game dungeans 15 mos after release and nothing is on par with WoW or EQ PvE.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Actually, adding content in EQ 10 years ago was very difficult and time consuming as opposed to adding content in todays MMOs.
Verant didnt have anything near the type of programing tools that the developers/coders have today. Also, in order to add content to AOC FC will simply Instance the dungeon to accomodate a large number of players who wish to enter a specific dungeon. EQ had to take into account the large number of players who would simutaneously be adventuring in a specific dungeon and then take measures to spread out the players so that there would be a minimal amount of players over-lapping in an area.
Between the far superior developing tools, and Instancing ability, the devs of EQ had to work much harder at putting out playable content that would satisfy the players.
As to the difficulty of the EQ raids.....
Back then there was no Ventrillo type programs. There were no ingame maps. There were no raids functions that had the ability to group up 72 people. You essentially had 12 independent groups who would call out directions in /OOC or /shout. Healing chains were also called out in /OOC or /shout. Loot was done by the appointed raid leader but the corpse couldnt be locked so anyone, be he in the raid or not, had an opportunity to ninja-loot the corpse.
Despite what people think about raids in todays MMOs, raiding in early EQ was much more difficult.
Your also forgetting the fact that EQ had proper risk
eward ratios
a penality of meaning for dyingfucking up
a much bigger world to explore
and when you did kill another player, you actually got to loot his shit
and getting a maxed level character was a true feat to behold.
not a weekend 247 grind like wow and aoc is.
So much was done right with ultima onlineEQ, and nobody uses that formula anymore
It's a real shame.
Lmao ya I used to play a monk in EQ and was able to pull for raids 4 hours a day 5 days a week for one of the top guilds on bristlebane and ya there is no risk vs reward...even after rezzez I still had to grind to get XP to pull for the next raid and I was damn good at it as I would post strats for other monks.
OMG I miss the socializing in EQ, I used to be a God at PvP in WoW - I quit 2 years ago and there are still pages on my server forum mentioning me, it was insane when I played. But the game seemed lonely even raiding and PvP, and I downed all bosses as hoard and then took a long break before topping all arenasas a hunter, I was in the top 10% of all arenas for my class and in the top 20 in my battle group which had BG 9.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
That is one big ego you got there. Anyone that brags about themself like that has no class, in my opinion. Not that I believe any of it, nor do I care.
I'm glad the monk that pulled in the guild I was in back in EQ didn't brag about how he was the shit. Actually he was dying of cancer and one of the most humble players I ever met.
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
--------------------------------------------------------
Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
This is not true. Their crimes far exceed simply "hype"--and any "real" business would be in big trouble. In fact I think people should report them to the BBB in NA--take you 5 minutes. False Advertising is one aspect...but their are others. In other words, FC is the author of their own misery...not simply "pre game hype,"...everyone knows that.
Nobody cares if this MMO is the next WoW in popularity. If it's good people will play--that's the bottom line. Although i can tell you that FC is a horribly mismanaged organization; it really doesn't take a lot of insight to see that (and this next year is when they will pay, because there are "metric tonnes" of people who will NEVER buy another FC game---and that includes SW). Whether it be their constant lies ;which YES still exist to this day--just check out the realm's "Population Meter" they are all medium populations--which you and I know is a blatant LIE. Or the way they whore'd out their player base to celebrate their 1 year anniversary (still makes me lol). Then there's the fact they hide AoC's population..(I wonder why????) Do you think this may be, because their population may be LOWER than even the most exaggerated guess? I think so too.
But in spite of all of that- Aoc as a game still isn't up to snuff--not even close. As a game they have three major areas that make this game unplayable as an MMO.
1)-Terrible class balance.(everyone rolls mages for PvP)
2) An economy that simply doesn't work (It's flat out broken because Economics is a subject that must elude Funcom EG: Supply and Demand)
3) Crafting-This is just a joke and is linked to the failed economy, but there's a lot more to it than that; which makes it broken.
I haven't even mentioned, sieges, broken instances, poor CS, no MEANINGFUL armour therefore no meaningful advancement in end game, red bars/lag, exploits, horrible community....I could easily continue with this list
No offense OP--but this is your 13th post---and you come in talking about AoC "haters?" (who are simply critics)
That seems "fishy" in my opinion.
This is not true. Their crimes far exceed simply "hype"--and any "real" business would be in big trouble. In fact I think people should report them to the BBB in NA--take you 5 minutes. False Advertising is one aspect...but their are others. In other words, FC is the author of their own misery...not simply "pre game hype,"...everyone knows that.
Nobody cares if this MMO is the next WoW in popularity. If it's good people will play--that's the bottom line. Although i can tell you that FC is a horribly mismanaged organization; it really doesn't take a lot of insight to see that (and this next year is when they will pay, because there are "metric tonnes" of people who will NEVER buy another FC game---and that includes SW). Whether it be their constant lies ;which YES still exist to this day--just check out the realm's "Population Meter" they are all medium populations--which you and I know is a blatant LIE. Or the way they whore'd out their player base to celebrate their 1 year anniversary (still makes me lol). Then there's the fact they hide AoC's population..(I wonder why????) Do you think this may be, because their population may be LOWER than even the most exaggerated guess? I think so too.
But in spite of all of that- Aoc as a game still isn't up to snuff--not even close. As a game they have three major areas that make this game unplayable as an MMO.
1)-Terrible class balance.(everyone rolls mages for PvP)
2) An economy that simply doesn't work (It's flat out broken because Economics is a subject that must elude Funcom EG: Supply and Demand)
3) Crafting-This is just a joke and is linked to the failed economy, but there's a lot more to it than that; which makes it broken.
I haven't even mentioned, sieges, broken instances, poor CS, no MEANINGFUL armour therefore no meaningful advancement in end game, red bars/lag, exploits, horrible community....I could easily continue with this list
No offense OP--but this is your 13th post---and you come in talking about AoC "haters?" (who are simply critics)
That seems "fishy" in my opinion.
I think most likely people didnt read what I wrote, it clearly isnt a glowing reference for funcom or AoC most of what you are saying is entirely true which I support. I appreciate reading more than the title is tough going if your only intention is to repeatadly put out the same opinion that funcom created the biggest travesty of mankind since the holocaust..
its simply not the case that AoC is a blockbuster and can hold a candle to other detailed games now or probably in the future but it can be a lot of fun for a lot of people none the less..the whole issue with MMOS at present is noone creates Niche games in enough quality everyone trying to be the mass selling fast food MMO...to half quote the ex director of the AoC project he was going to..create a steak rather than a hamburger MMO one of quality
sadly in terms of the underlying game mechanics they delivered yet another mcdonalds outlet for the MMO public but if you like fast food give it a try.
..out of interest though for the "haters" what game is it that occupies your time at present that I might check out im certainly watching out for anything that approaches my feelings for EQ1 ..a game I loved even my name is from that game for the lore ..the only reason i use frequent comparisons to it..and probably any game I ever play again.
aoc had its good points for me, i enjoyed leveling my priest of mitra to 80, i took my time and made it in 30 days, spent about another 30 days getting my tier 1 armor, then spent 30 days watching our guild not be able to do tier 2 because it would crash out half the raid randomly during boss fights. all in all the leveling was fun, the tier 1 raiding was good and the malfunctions of tier 2 drove me away. the games not for everyone, but it was a dam refreshing 3 months (feb march and april of 09) and i dont regret them save for the end of april when i was so fed up with tier 2 crashes.
Forgive me if i seem difficult.
but....
THEY WISH THEY WERE A MCDONALD'S OUTLET.
You are comparing FC (their product) to the most competent, successful restuaranteurs to ever exist.
IF you like fast-food---then AoC is more like........
A bag of stale and broken potato chips (you know when the chips get all soggy after being exposed to air for 48 hrs, and the chips are all smashed from laying at the bottom of the case).
World of Warcraft is usually considered the McDonalds of MMO's--but that's a testament to a complete game with a ton of polish, and a game that has been well crafted and executed...you have to earn that right . FC has not. In fact it's not even in the same food-chain when it comes to comparisons.
Sorry but this company has been way too abusive with it's customer base and their product and is way too sub-par to be even considered for "pleasing the masses" as a fast food reference would suggest.
Because it's not, ..and it can't.
Forgive me if i seem difficult.
but....
THEY WISH THEY WERE A MCDONALD'S OUTLET.
You are comparing FC (their product) to the most competent, successful restuaranteurs to ever exist.
IF you like fast-food---then AoC is more like........
A bag of stale and broken potato chips (you know when the chips get all soggy after being exposed to air for 48 hrs, and the chips are all smashed from laying at the bottom of the case).
World of Warcraft is usually considered the McDonalds of MMO's--but that's a testament to a complete game with a ton of polish, and a game that has been well crafted and executed...you have to earn that right . FC has not. In fact it's not even in the same food-chain when it comes to comparisons.
Sorry but this company has been way too abusive with it's customer base and their product and is way too sub-par to be even considered for "pleasing the masses" as a fast food reference would suggest.
Because it's not, ..and it can't.
Gaute godager tried to suggest Conan would be..rather than a mcdonalds..a fine restaurant where they served quality steak instead..this is in my opinion where the issue was..it was like a fine restaurant in apperance but they still tried to serve you a hamburger.
Conan should have tried to carve itself a niche with its M rating, rich lore licence , cult following and so on..but Niche is not profitable yet in the MMO market its a world of fast food restaurants or bust. As my other recent post mentions this is mostly down to MMO players lack of willing to PAY for a quality product.
People get all upset that they had to spend ..15 DOLLARS A MONTH!! to play a game for hours upon hours every week and expect a life changing experience. I think the day we start seeing varation in pricing so you have Niche costty high quality games..and mcdonalds WoW clones at the bottom end will be the day im waiting for
But as for Mcdonalds the real chain, as with WoW if you think you can judge the quality of something purely by popularity ..then ..yeah
I know what your saying, but how does any game out there get away from having to press a button for anything to happen?
It will always boil down to having to depress buttons in some manner, no matter how it's delivered, to gain access to combat.
Now if we had a game that enabled "Matrix" technology or the "Holo-Deck" from Star Trek then you've got something that wouldn't mean you where button mashing, but can any of us see that happening in the foreseeable future?
So no matter what we are stuck with games/MMO's having in one way or another using a series of different combinations of button depresses to get us to carry out set sequences in any given situation, AoC just managed to make it a little less straight forward than most.
I think AOC is a good game with crappy interface design.
It is good to see a pretty through review. I find the game fun now and that is what matters.
I think the GUI could be improved to. I am hoping patch 1.06 gives it some welly.
You should try some different skins/ UI much better experience.
I have to agree with the OP's assessment.
I just tried aion for while and found it stale. I wll probably give AoC another shot since there seems to be some decent updates.
AOC has come a long way and i give props to fixing all the bugs but it feels like not a lot of people are playing advice?
IN THE FACE!
The combo system can easy be seen as a replacement for global coldowns, but what makes AoC's combat system unique compared to WoW and many other games is that it is AE based. We can discuss to all eternity about the combo's being a form of global cooldown or not, but in theory they are doing the same thing as a global cooldwon does. The only difference is that it's the player himself who actually has to do them. WoW combat is from what I remember largely based on 1vs1 in melee, some classes have skills that can attack several mobs at once. However a large portion of it is 1vs1. AoC isn't a 100% wow clone here as the AE system allows you as the player to move and place your attacks in ways that allows you to hit multiple opponents at the same time. Movement and placement is actualy very important in AoC, where in other games you are to a certain degree forgiven if you don't do the right things.
There is a reason why a 3 second attack wouldn't be used in street fighter, those games are based on fast paced action. Whilst 3 seconds might not be fast paced action AoC melee combat never felt slow or dull. The combo system is a thing players either love or hate, I loved it as it gave me a feeling of being slightly more in charge of the combat, rather then pressing an ability and watching it being done on the screen. Others will hate it as they feel it is too much work for one ability.
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC)
On my radar: TSW, MO
MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside
MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom