I absolutely love these types of comments: "If you aren't enjoying the game you OBVIOUSLY should wait a few months before you purchase so they can hammer out the bugs." hahhahahahahaha OR Just making a f-ing game that is polished and playable for the first few months. DUH?!?
Dude this is like with any kind of mass media product. You wont see all the problems before it's used by a magnitude or users. It's like this with cars, hardware and also games.
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
Just had to point out the absurdity of your post. So you're saying that a car has problems after it first comes out until it's tested by tons of people? I think you should leave cars out of your analogy altogether.
A proper simulation wouldn't be a million testers. A proper simulation would be the amount of players to load a server to near maximum. Since each server only has 4-5k players at the most (not sure what the actual numbers are) they've had the proper simulation to test everything out.
The fact that basic things are broken, and only levels 1-20 are fully fleshed out shows that they didn't have enough concern for the game as a whole, but only made the beginning shiny. We're not talking about glitches and bugs. We're talking about content.
If the second half of the levels are lacking content, that's a huuuuge mistake. There should have been teams working on each of the areas so that when the game released, each area would be completely fleshed out.
I believe they just needed more time, or they squandered the time that they had.
The fact that the official forums are only available to paying customers and (hear-say follows) there's a stickied thread saying "Don't let reading the forums get you down" shows that they aren't in as good a spot as they wanted, and possibly even shows that the game is very much unfinished.
--------------------------------------------- I live to fight, and fight to live.
Please don't spread misinformation. LoTR was smooth as glass when released, and EQ2 in its current state has very few bugs. I've been on the sideline quietly rooting for AoC, but the fact of the matter is the launch is premature, and can certainly use a few more months of development.
I'm not going to list all the issues that AoC currently has as that's been posted here and on the official forums. The core mechanics are there, meaning combat and most of the questlines. However, basic components such as crafting, gathering, loot, economy, grouping tools, inventory, skills function and descriptions, etc... are inadequate and can use more development.
taken individually none of the issues are game breaking. But, there are just currently too many of these issues to make the game has any real feel to it post lvl. 40.
My 2 cents. Agree or disagree, this is just my experience with the game in its current state.
*Edit: the misinformation is a response to Manitou76's comment on LoTR and EQ2's current state.
They could make the inventory a little larger, but on the other hand, why woudl you wanna pick up all kinds of items without any significant value. If you stick to green items and above, it will last quite long. Also normally resources and quest items are stored in the normal inventory. That's not the case in this game.
QFT, at least half the loot is only worth a few tin and not worth the bag space, it just forces you to make concessions. The problem the limited inventory space is causing me is that I'm a cheap, greedy bastard who can't pass up little golden bags.
Stopping to pick through everyone's discarded loot slows my roll quite a bit, but due to my garbage picking my 32 Conq is wearing full heavy armor and has over 30 silver in the bank. It's funny how many times I find money in the bags, I guess once people fill their inventory they don't even open the bags to get the coin out.
I canceled my subscription yesterday. I only got 3 charcters to the mid 20s but still it was enough for me to know that I didn't want to keep playing. Even on a decent video card 8700 (512Mb) and 4Gb system Ram I still found that I would have to run the game in the lowest settings if I wanted FPS over 10. And for a game that is not auto attack low FPS can be a killer.
But honestly there just wasn't a lot new to me in the game. Sure I had to watch for mob shielding and adjust my attacks for them. But really all that did was make the game a bit harder. I couldn't find a grouping as everyone just wanted to solo everything which you can do easily enough.
For me I am now laying my hopes on WAR or SGW, else I am just going to stick with single player RPGs. Hell Mass Effect comes out today and I am sure it will keep me tied up for a bit.
-------------------------------- Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
I canceled my subscription yesterday. I only got 3 charcters to the mid 20s but still it was enough for me to know that I didn't want to keep playing. Even on a decent video card 8700 (512Mb) and 4Gb system Ram I still found that I would have to run the game in the lowest settings if I wanted FPS over 10. And for a game that is not auto attack low FPS can be a killer. But honestly there just wasn't a lot new to me in the game. Sure I had to watch for mob shielding and adjust my attacks for them. But really all that did was make the game a bit harder. I couldn't find a grouping as everyone just wanted to solo everything which you can do easily enough. For me I am now laying my hopes on WAR or SGW, else I am just going to stick with single player RPGs. Hell Mass Effect comes out today and I am sure it will keep me tied up for a bit.
Funny, cause I am running on a very similar rig.
I get 30-40fps in shared world, 20-30 in cities, and 100+ in instances.... I have no idea what you are doing wrong.
Group quests start at 40, but I guess you havent ever got there so you wouldnt know.
I will be dammed if i go back to WoW so soon, for those of you who are quiting, where are you going to go!?!
I came from no where, I'll be happy to go back there if this game fails for me. I don't NEED a game. I have other things to do. I hope others can handle it in the same fashion.
I canceled my subscription yesterday. I only got 3 charcters to the mid 20s but still it was enough for me to know that I didn't want to keep playing. Even on a decent video card 8700 (512Mb) and 4Gb system Ram I still found that I would have to run the game in the lowest settings if I wanted FPS over 10. And for a game that is not auto attack low FPS can be a killer. But honestly there just wasn't a lot new to me in the game. Sure I had to watch for mob shielding and adjust my attacks for them. But really all that did was make the game a bit harder. I couldn't find a grouping as everyone just wanted to solo everything which you can do easily enough. For me I am now laying my hopes on WAR or SGW, else I am just going to stick with single player RPGs. Hell Mass Effect comes out today and I am sure it will keep me tied up for a bit.
Funny, cause I am running on a very similar rig.
I get 30-40fps in shared world, 20-30 in cities, and 100+ in instances.... I have no idea what you are doing wrong.
Group quests start at 40, but I guess you havent ever got there so you wouldnt know.
----------------------------------------
Well considering I can run Crysis with Medium settings and get higher FPS I don't think it is my system.
As far as grouping starting at 40, uh I don't want to wait 40 levels to have a reason to group.
To each his own I guess.
-------------------------------- Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
Dude this is like with any kind of mass media product. You wont see all the problems before it's used by a magnitude or users. It's like this with cars, hardware and also games.
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Dude this is like with any kind of mass media product. You wont see all the problems before it's used by a magnitude or users. It's like this with cars, hardware and also games.
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
--------------------------------------------- I live to fight, and fight to live.
Well I thought it was a good review everyone is entitled to what they think especially if they give the game a good go. And some folks like myself if you get a game you wanna dive right in I like to get in and explore and level and since I do not have alot else to do then most of my time is spent in the game. I have the same feelings a the reviewer I myself couldn't get into the game I know alot of folks love it and will play. It was just not my game and I did not enjoy myself. I am still waiting for a new game as I have played alot of them and only a few have held my interest.
But in the end I know some folks will say give this game to level 20 or whatever but the thing is people want to get into a game that they find fun from the start like myself I do not want to have to bring myself to have fun in a game. If the game engages me from the start then it's a good bet I will enjoy myself for a long time. I played to the higher level in AOC and I did not get any more satisfaction from it as it felt like I was forcing myself to play to get to the point to where folks were saying it opens up and is fun. Well I got to like 35 and that was enough for me. I played OB and hoped the real game would be a tad better for me and I just couldn't get into it. I so much wanted to like and play this game but it just didn't happen.
So make up your own mind about a game read the reviews of other folks if you want but do not be so harsh because you have to think only a small percentage write what they feel the rest just leave or keep playing. I think the ones who take there time to tell us what they think deserve some praise for taking the time and letting others know there feelings. But in the end wait for a buddy pass or some free time to see what you think. I think this game will do ok and I wish everyone who is playing it luck.
I will be dammed if i go back to WoW so soon, for those of you who are quiting, where are you going to go!?!
I came from no where, I'll be happy to go back there if this game fails for me. I don't NEED a game. I have other things to do. I hope others can handle it in the same fashion.
- LC
I myself came from WOW and LOTRO and other games. I tried the game to almost 40 and didn't get myself into it. Some say grouping starts at 40 but grouping isn't a huge part for me I group when I have to and thats about it till end game. I go at my own pace and explore and do everything I can the first time through so enjoy the experience but to me the experience felt dulled down and very lackluster, The load screens and such took me out of the experience and I know other games have them but for some reason it really bothered me. I don't know I have no one reason why I quit it was several but the main one for me was I wasn't having enough fun.
And as the other poster said I do not need a game I have other stuff to play or I will wait for another game to come along. There is a few I am waiting to see what happens with them.
1) Even with specs in the middle between Required and Recommended many people are still getting very choppy performance. I have heard many, many others with systems even better than mine that say that they have a hard time getting over 25fps even on lowest settings.
2) Way too much zoning. Yeah I know most games zone but a lot of them hide it far better. Some zoning takes upwards of two or more minutes. That is crazy and truly breaks game immersion.
3) While the classes are fairly balanced they also do not break themselves out very well. Pretty much you are spending more time worrying about hitting the correct key strokes for a combo than actually watching the game.
4) Grouping and Chatting are too bland. The Chat box is terrible. Of course this will be fixed but honestly it is something that should have been 100% better at launch. Grouping is also very strange and counter-intutive when compared against other games.
5) Lack of content after mid to late 20s.
6) Too much instant travel.
7) Was killing typical MMO mobs by level 25. Why oh why must I have to keep killing boars, spiders and wolves in every MMO that I play?
8) Mob AI is very lacking. As mentioned prior some mobs don't even aggro until you start beating on them, while others aggro half the zone on you. Also some mobs will follow you clear across a zone.
9) For a FFA PVP game Funcom is already banning people for PK'ing. Alright I know that they are spawn camping but that is the price that players pay when your game has constant zoning.
10) Personally I wish there would have been some type of Realm Vs. Realm warfare.
11) Even after leveling one of each archetype you still have to go thru Tortage for every new character you create. This gets old very fast. Heck they could have had at least a starting zone for each race instead of just one starting zone.
12) Very limited bag space. LOTRO had bag space just right. The only saving grace with AoC is that they give you seperate bag space for Resources and Quest Items.
13) Invisible Walls. I don't just mean mountains blocking your path but actual invisible walls just to lead you along.
14) Way too linear.
15) No real connection to the world.
-------------------------------- Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
1) Even with specs in the middle between Required and Recommended many people are still getting very choppy performance. I have heard many, many others with systems even better than mine that say that they have a hard time getting over 25fps even on lowest settings. 2) Way too much zoning. Yeah I know most games zone but a lot of them hide it far better. Some zoning takes upwards of two or more minutes. That is crazy and truly breaks game immersion. 3) While the classes are fairly balanced they also do not break themselves out very well. Pretty much you are spending more time worrying about hitting the correct key strokes for a combo than actually watching the game. 4) Grouping and Chatting are too bland. The Chat box is terrible. Of course this will be fixed but honestly it is something that should have been 100% better at launch. Grouping is also very strange and counter-intutive when compared against other games. 5) Lack of content after mid to late 20s. 6) Too much instant travel. 7) Was killing typical MMO mobs by level 25. Why oh why must I have to keep killing boars, spiders and wolves in every MMO that I play? 8) Mob AI is very lacking. As mentioned prior some mobs don't even aggro until you start beating on them, while others aggro half the zone on you. Also some mobs will follow you clear across a zone. 9) For a FFA PVP game Funcom is already banning people for PK'ing. Alright I know that they are spawn camping but that is the price that players pay when your game has constant zoning. 10) Personally I wish there would have been some type of Realm Vs. Realm warfare. 11) Even after leveling one of each archetype you still have to go thru Tortage for every new character you create. This gets old very fast. Heck they could have had at least a starting zone for each race instead of just one starting zone. 12) Very limited bag space. LOTRO had bag space just right. The only saving grace with AoC is that they give you seperate bag space for Resources and Quest Items. 13) Invisible Walls. I don't just mean mountains blocking your path but actual invisible walls just to lead you along. 14) Way too linear. 15) No real connection to the world.
I see alot of my same issues in there I just found the game seeming "limited" in some way to me it always felt as if something was missing and I couldn't figure out what.
This is a bad game. But it's not the worst i've ever played. Vanguard, Eq2, eq1, LOTORO, AOC, WOW, DAOC. In order from failure to made of win.
First line in your comment is only your opinion, best MMO I have played, and I've played a lot.
Also, the fact that you put WoW and AoC side by side, when WoW is extremely popular and successful, and call AoC a bad game, yet they are in order...hmmmm.
Why do you think that all professional game sites gave AoC the title of the best mmorpg with the best marks?Because they consider that as all big mmo's have a lot of bugs witch will be fix in time,and they mark that final stage.
Don't expect a game polished like wow now, 4 years after it's realease.If you compare both stages of wow and aoc within the first week of release and put them together,you'll find that aoc had a way better release than wow had.
Give funcom some time and you'll see in some months a much better aoc than is now.
Dude this is like with any kind of mass media product. You wont see all the problems before it's used by a magnitude or users. It's like this with cars, hardware and also games.
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
I didnt literally mean a million testers - I just meant lots more than you have available throughout development. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you test, problems you didnt foresee will occur.
I'm going to play bully a bit because something on the first page made me trip over the posts for a moment...
"If someone reviews aoc saying good things about it... they have to lie...lol"
If you, or anyone you know, are about to hit the "post" button on such a worthless, opinionated, counter-productive, and above all, blatantly blind-minded thought, just let it go. We don't need any more this crap in these forums, really, that's enough, learn how to keep this crap to yourself.
Back to the conversation: The OP described the Vanguard release almost to a tee. I was in the beta for a few months up until release and almost everything he said AoC, as some have pointed out, plagued Vanguard from beta on. I'm not saying I love Vanguard, but I am saying it's a decently successful MMO, and I will say AoC has potential to be much better than that. Many of the problems that down-rate this game for people are easy fixes, or can at least be patched up until there's a full fix.
Most graphical errors are user errors. Since the beginning of computer gaming, most of the time if you have a graphical problem, it's either your fault, or your PC's fault, not the games. With that said, Conan does have some issues that are not "user error", which are being fixed. Know your PC, learn about the game's engine, I had the same problems as many people, and with a few system specific fixes, I'm getting a constant 60 FPS, on medium high settings, on a **UNDER RECOMENDED** PC.
In game issues such as class balance, rooting out exploits and exploiters, fixing quests, proportional loot throughout the game, and many other issues are POST RELEASE fixes by nature. I really appreciate people like the OP in this thread because they actually give specific complaints that aren't opinion based (for the most part) that can actually be discussed.
Dude this is like with any kind of mass media product. You wont see all the problems before it's used by a magnitude or users. It's like this with cars, hardware and also games.
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
I didnt literally mean a million testers - I just meant lots more than you have available throughout development. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you test, problems you didnt foresee will occur.
You see, that's the problem. They DIDN'T test. End game was never beta tested, the end.
Why do you think that all professional game sites gave AoC the title of the best mmorpg with the best marks?Because they consider that as all big mmo's have a lot of bugs witch will be fix in time,and they mark that final stage. Don't expect a game polished like wow now, 4 years after it's realease.If you compare both stages of wow and aoc within the first week of release and put them together,you'll find that aoc had a way better release than wow had. Give funcom some time and you'll see in some months a much better aoc than is now.
This is an opinion only.
The major difference between World of Warcraft and AoC are a few things.
1. WoW plays to a mass of people not a niche. WoW's expansion not the main game but just the expansion pack sold more in 24 hours than AoC has in a 2 week release. WoW has something for everyone, AoC has something for those who like beheadings and boobies. There is a huge difference here.
2. WoW polished itself through a rigorous beta testing phase. Yes WoW had bugs when it first released ALL games do as has been stated by many. Blizzard however had a fully fleshed out game from 1-60 with minor broken aspects here and there. Blizzard was also super fast at the remedy of these issues.
AoC is broken through-out. 40+ from what a majority not minority are reporting, it isn't fleshed out and very broken. Funcom doesn't seem to be to swift on fixing the issues either. They will get them eventually yes. If you couldn't even trust them though to test a game through and flesh out post 40+ before release, don't hold your breath on getting what you want in a timely manner.
Right now AoC is sitting on 400k players, which was predicted by many here. I can also pretty safely say just from these boards and a few others scattered across the net, that this 400k number is dropping, and I would also be willing to bet it is dropping fast. Everyday I come to MMORPG I see 10 post on people leaving. Combine this with the many other boards, it will not hold on to the 400k. Also as predicted I see this game lowering down to the 250k mark and there it will remain for quite sometime if not forever.
People can say what they want, however the outcry of praise is slowly shifting to a negative light. People can praise all they want, those who make up their minds that AoC just isn't it, are not going to stay.
I do not believe AoC delivered the goods, or lived up to it's super hype. As are the feelings of MANY others.
Everyone has their own opinions and taste in games, if you like it play it. If you do not, then don't
Let people have their opinions and play what they like, the OP did a good job on his review, it is how I felt, and it is how many others see the game as well. We have our opinions, fans have theirs.
i have a 13 necro and a 22 assasin who just left tortage. i have been playing since early access and having lots of fun. the game is real pretty and engaging. i hope they clear up many of the issues i hear some groan about.
Originally posted by elfstone222 Back to the conversation: The OP described the Vanguard release almost to a tee. I was in the beta for a few months up until release and almost everything he said AoC, as some have pointed out, plagued Vanguard from beta on. I'm not saying I love Vanguard, but I am saying it's a decently successful MMO, and I will say AoC has potential to be much better than that. Many of the problems that down-rate this game for people are easy fixes, or can at least be patched up until there's a full fix.
I played Vanguard for like a year in beta and I played it at release and for maybe 6 months after. I'd say it is really hard to compare the games. I'd also say that vanguard was far more buggy at release in critical ways then AoC is for me. In vanguard there were major issues at launch, client crashing frequently for many reasons, huge hitching issues no matter what kinda computer or settings you had, grouping issues where members would drop from group and couldn't be readded and a ton of related issues. Thats just a few of the top issues that affected everyone.
AoC client has been rock solid stable for me. Performance has been generally good and with settings adjustments could be great. Grouping issues once you find the group members and get together are not bad. Gameplay in AoC is pretty fun initially and other then my dislike for the combo system is generally fun.
I kinda feel however at this point that long term AoC won't be that interesting. It feels like it will be ok the first time through but after that will be old and it doesn't seem to have much depth. This remains to really be seen. Vanguard on the other hand has a huge scope and as they keep working on it, it keeps getting better. Fundamentally it still could become a great game and they do seem to have addressed most of the initial bugs and game breaking issues. Now they need to fix content and add more and Vanguard could yet rise from the grave :P
ATM for my money though AoC is what I'm enjoying in spite of my issues. Since I liked vanguard I'm obviously pretty tollerant of bugs . I'll play it through till the end and see how it develops. On the plus side it is getting good industry reviews and it has good subs numbers. Hopefully that means funcom will have a solid development team and can fix things quickly.
Dude this is like with any kind of mass media product. You wont see all the problems before it's used by a magnitude or users. It's like this with cars, hardware and also games.
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
I didnt literally mean a million testers - I just meant lots more than you have available throughout development. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you test, problems you didnt foresee will occur.
You see, that's the problem. They DIDN'T test. End game was never beta tested, the end.
Oh come on . Saying that end-game wasnt beta tested is just plain silly. You cannot release ANY game with ANY part of it not being thoroghly tested, the end. Try to convince a publisher that "we can surely release this without having tested 40% of the game". It will not happen I can assure you.
I think one of the things they do wrong, is not properly guide players to new areas at lvl 40+. It seems you have to roam around randomly to find new places to pick up new quest chains.
You know, the OP had a number of points and explained them decently yet no one disagreeing with him says why or just tell him he should expect bugs.
No one has answered his critique of the fighting system, which is what i found most interesting. Supposedly MORE option makes the system richer. Yet he gave a very good account for a reason why its bad.
And given that most do not have these extra attacks and did not have them in beta or the preview that seems pretty significant if the interface just drops you combo or times them irregularly due to lag.
In fact if he is right that is the main issue that would keep me away from AoC.
Comments
If you were to do a proper simulation, you'd need a million testers, and that's not really a realistic scenario....
Just had to point out the absurdity of your post. So you're saying that a car has problems after it first comes out until it's tested by tons of people? I think you should leave cars out of your analogy altogether.
A proper simulation wouldn't be a million testers. A proper simulation would be the amount of players to load a server to near maximum. Since each server only has 4-5k players at the most (not sure what the actual numbers are) they've had the proper simulation to test everything out.
The fact that basic things are broken, and only levels 1-20 are fully fleshed out shows that they didn't have enough concern for the game as a whole, but only made the beginning shiny. We're not talking about glitches and bugs. We're talking about content.
If the second half of the levels are lacking content, that's a huuuuge mistake. There should have been teams working on each of the areas so that when the game released, each area would be completely fleshed out.
I believe they just needed more time, or they squandered the time that they had.
The fact that the official forums are only available to paying customers and (hear-say follows) there's a stickied thread saying "Don't let reading the forums get you down" shows that they aren't in as good a spot as they wanted, and possibly even shows that the game is very much unfinished.
---------------------------------------------
I live to fight, and fight to live.
Please don't spread misinformation. LoTR was smooth as glass when released, and EQ2 in its current state has very few bugs. I've been on the sideline quietly rooting for AoC, but the fact of the matter is the launch is premature, and can certainly use a few more months of development.
I'm not going to list all the issues that AoC currently has as that's been posted here and on the official forums. The core mechanics are there, meaning combat and most of the questlines. However, basic components such as crafting, gathering, loot, economy, grouping tools, inventory, skills function and descriptions, etc... are inadequate and can use more development.
taken individually none of the issues are game breaking. But, there are just currently too many of these issues to make the game has any real feel to it post lvl. 40.
My 2 cents. Agree or disagree, this is just my experience with the game in its current state.
*Edit: the misinformation is a response to Manitou76's comment on LoTR and EQ2's current state.
Stopping to pick through everyone's discarded loot slows my roll quite a bit, but due to my garbage picking my 32 Conq is wearing full heavy armor and has over 30 silver in the bank. It's funny how many times I find money in the bags, I guess once people fill their inventory they don't even open the bags to get the coin out.
If your really like GW, this one is right up your alley (not saying that's bad, GW is no slouch).
If you're more into sandbox, I would steer clear for now...
I canceled my subscription yesterday. I only got 3 charcters to the mid 20s but still it was enough for me to know that I didn't want to keep playing. Even on a decent video card 8700 (512Mb) and 4Gb system Ram I still found that I would have to run the game in the lowest settings if I wanted FPS over 10. And for a game that is not auto attack low FPS can be a killer.
But honestly there just wasn't a lot new to me in the game. Sure I had to watch for mob shielding and adjust my attacks for them. But really all that did was make the game a bit harder. I couldn't find a grouping as everyone just wanted to solo everything which you can do easily enough.
For me I am now laying my hopes on WAR or SGW, else I am just going to stick with single player RPGs. Hell Mass Effect comes out today and I am sure it will keep me tied up for a bit.
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Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
Quit: Eden Eternal, Wakfu, DDO, STO, DCUO, Sword 2, Atlantica Online, LOTRO, SWTOR, RIFT, Earthrise, FFXIV, RoM, Allods Online, GA,WAR,CO,V:SoH,POTBS,TR,COH/COV, WOW, DDO,AL, EQ, Eve, L2, AA, Mx0, SWG, SoR, AO, RFO, DAoC, and others.
www.twitter.com/mlwhitt
www.michaelwhitt.com
Funny, cause I am running on a very similar rig.
I get 30-40fps in shared world, 20-30 in cities, and 100+ in instances.... I have no idea what you are doing wrong.
Group quests start at 40, but I guess you havent ever got there so you wouldnt know.
This is a good game. But it's not the best i've ever played. DAOC, WOW, AOC, LOTORO, eq1, Eq2 ,Vanguard. In order from win to made of failure.
I will be dammed if i go back to WoW so soon, for those of you who are quiting, where are you going to go!?!
I came from no where, I'll be happy to go back there if this game fails for me. I don't NEED a game. I have other things to do. I hope others can handle it in the same fashion.
- LC
Funny, cause I am running on a very similar rig.
I get 30-40fps in shared world, 20-30 in cities, and 100+ in instances.... I have no idea what you are doing wrong.
Group quests start at 40, but I guess you havent ever got there so you wouldnt know.
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Well considering I can run Crysis with Medium settings and get higher FPS I don't think it is my system.
As far as grouping starting at 40, uh I don't want to wait 40 levels to have a reason to group.
To each his own I guess.
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Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
Quit: Eden Eternal, Wakfu, DDO, STO, DCUO, Sword 2, Atlantica Online, LOTRO, SWTOR, RIFT, Earthrise, FFXIV, RoM, Allods Online, GA,WAR,CO,V:SoH,POTBS,TR,COH/COV, WOW, DDO,AL, EQ, Eve, L2, AA, Mx0, SWG, SoR, AO, RFO, DAoC, and others.
www.twitter.com/mlwhitt
www.michaelwhitt.com
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
Well I thought it was a good review everyone is entitled to what they think especially if they give the game a good go. And some folks like myself if you get a game you wanna dive right in I like to get in and explore and level and since I do not have alot else to do then most of my time is spent in the game. I have the same feelings a the reviewer I myself couldn't get into the game I know alot of folks love it and will play. It was just not my game and I did not enjoy myself. I am still waiting for a new game as I have played alot of them and only a few have held my interest.
But in the end I know some folks will say give this game to level 20 or whatever but the thing is people want to get into a game that they find fun from the start like myself I do not want to have to bring myself to have fun in a game. If the game engages me from the start then it's a good bet I will enjoy myself for a long time. I played to the higher level in AOC and I did not get any more satisfaction from it as it felt like I was forcing myself to play to get to the point to where folks were saying it opens up and is fun. Well I got to like 35 and that was enough for me. I played OB and hoped the real game would be a tad better for me and I just couldn't get into it. I so much wanted to like and play this game but it just didn't happen.
So make up your own mind about a game read the reviews of other folks if you want but do not be so harsh because you have to think only a small percentage write what they feel the rest just leave or keep playing. I think the ones who take there time to tell us what they think deserve some praise for taking the time and letting others know there feelings. But in the end wait for a buddy pass or some free time to see what you think. I think this game will do ok and I wish everyone who is playing it luck.
I came from no where, I'll be happy to go back there if this game fails for me. I don't NEED a game. I have other things to do. I hope others can handle it in the same fashion.
- LC
I myself came from WOW and LOTRO and other games. I tried the game to almost 40 and didn't get myself into it. Some say grouping starts at 40 but grouping isn't a huge part for me I group when I have to and thats about it till end game. I go at my own pace and explore and do everything I can the first time through so enjoy the experience but to me the experience felt dulled down and very lackluster, The load screens and such took me out of the experience and I know other games have them but for some reason it really bothered me. I don't know I have no one reason why I quit it was several but the main one for me was I wasn't having enough fun.And as the other poster said I do not need a game I have other stuff to play or I will wait for another game to come along. There is a few I am waiting to see what happens with them.
My overall issues with the game are:
1) Even with specs in the middle between Required and Recommended many people are still getting very choppy performance. I have heard many, many others with systems even better than mine that say that they have a hard time getting over 25fps even on lowest settings.
2) Way too much zoning. Yeah I know most games zone but a lot of them hide it far better. Some zoning takes upwards of two or more minutes. That is crazy and truly breaks game immersion.
3) While the classes are fairly balanced they also do not break themselves out very well. Pretty much you are spending more time worrying about hitting the correct key strokes for a combo than actually watching the game.
4) Grouping and Chatting are too bland. The Chat box is terrible. Of course this will be fixed but honestly it is something that should have been 100% better at launch. Grouping is also very strange and counter-intutive when compared against other games.
5) Lack of content after mid to late 20s.
6) Too much instant travel.
7) Was killing typical MMO mobs by level 25. Why oh why must I have to keep killing boars, spiders and wolves in every MMO that I play?
8) Mob AI is very lacking. As mentioned prior some mobs don't even aggro until you start beating on them, while others aggro half the zone on you. Also some mobs will follow you clear across a zone.
9) For a FFA PVP game Funcom is already banning people for PK'ing. Alright I know that they are spawn camping but that is the price that players pay when your game has constant zoning.
10) Personally I wish there would have been some type of Realm Vs. Realm warfare.
11) Even after leveling one of each archetype you still have to go thru Tortage for every new character you create. This gets old very fast. Heck they could have had at least a starting zone for each race instead of just one starting zone.
12) Very limited bag space. LOTRO had bag space just right. The only saving grace with AoC is that they give you seperate bag space for Resources and Quest Items.
13) Invisible Walls. I don't just mean mountains blocking your path but actual invisible walls just to lead you along.
14) Way too linear.
15) No real connection to the world.
--------------------------------
Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
Quit: Eden Eternal, Wakfu, DDO, STO, DCUO, Sword 2, Atlantica Online, LOTRO, SWTOR, RIFT, Earthrise, FFXIV, RoM, Allods Online, GA,WAR,CO,V:SoH,POTBS,TR,COH/COV, WOW, DDO,AL, EQ, Eve, L2, AA, Mx0, SWG, SoR, AO, RFO, DAoC, and others.
www.twitter.com/mlwhitt
www.michaelwhitt.com
I see alot of my same issues in there I just found the game seeming "limited" in some way to me it always felt as if something was missing and I couldn't figure out what.
First line in your comment is only your opinion, best MMO I have played, and I've played a lot.
Also, the fact that you put WoW and AoC side by side, when WoW is extremely popular and successful, and call AoC a bad game, yet they are in order...hmmmm.
Why do you think that all professional game sites gave AoC the title of the best mmorpg with the best marks?Because they consider that as all big mmo's have a lot of bugs witch will be fix in time,and they mark that final stage.
Don't expect a game polished like wow now, 4 years after it's realease.If you compare both stages of wow and aoc within the first week of release and put them together,you'll find that aoc had a way better release than wow had.
Give funcom some time and you'll see in some months a much better aoc than is now.
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
I didnt literally mean a million testers - I just meant lots more than you have available throughout development. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you test, problems you didnt foresee will occur.
I'm going to play bully a bit because something on the first page made me trip over the posts for a moment...
"If someone reviews aoc saying good things about it... they have to lie...lol"
If you, or anyone you know, are about to hit the "post" button on such a worthless, opinionated, counter-productive, and above all, blatantly blind-minded thought, just let it go. We don't need any more this crap in these forums, really, that's enough, learn how to keep this crap to yourself.
Back to the conversation: The OP described the Vanguard release almost to a tee. I was in the beta for a few months up until release and almost everything he said AoC, as some have pointed out, plagued Vanguard from beta on. I'm not saying I love Vanguard, but I am saying it's a decently successful MMO, and I will say AoC has potential to be much better than that. Many of the problems that down-rate this game for people are easy fixes, or can at least be patched up until there's a full fix.
Most graphical errors are user errors. Since the beginning of computer gaming, most of the time if you have a graphical problem, it's either your fault, or your PC's fault, not the games. With that said, Conan does have some issues that are not "user error", which are being fixed. Know your PC, learn about the game's engine, I had the same problems as many people, and with a few system specific fixes, I'm getting a constant 60 FPS, on medium high settings, on a **UNDER RECOMENDED** PC.
In game issues such as class balance, rooting out exploits and exploiters, fixing quests, proportional loot throughout the game, and many other issues are POST RELEASE fixes by nature. I really appreciate people like the OP in this thread because they actually give specific complaints that aren't opinion based (for the most part) that can actually be discussed.
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
I didnt literally mean a million testers - I just meant lots more than you have available throughout development. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you test, problems you didnt foresee will occur.
You see, that's the problem. They DIDN'T test. End game was never beta tested, the end.
This is an opinion only.
The major difference between World of Warcraft and AoC are a few things.
1. WoW plays to a mass of people not a niche. WoW's expansion not the main game but just the expansion pack sold more in 24 hours than AoC has in a 2 week release. WoW has something for everyone, AoC has something for those who like beheadings and boobies. There is a huge difference here.
2. WoW polished itself through a rigorous beta testing phase. Yes WoW had bugs when it first released ALL games do as has been stated by many. Blizzard however had a fully fleshed out game from 1-60 with minor broken aspects here and there. Blizzard was also super fast at the remedy of these issues.
AoC is broken through-out. 40+ from what a majority not minority are reporting, it isn't fleshed out and very broken. Funcom doesn't seem to be to swift on fixing the issues either. They will get them eventually yes. If you couldn't even trust them though to test a game through and flesh out post 40+ before release, don't hold your breath on getting what you want in a timely manner.
Right now AoC is sitting on 400k players, which was predicted by many here. I can also pretty safely say just from these boards and a few others scattered across the net, that this 400k number is dropping, and I would also be willing to bet it is dropping fast. Everyday I come to MMORPG I see 10 post on people leaving. Combine this with the many other boards, it will not hold on to the 400k. Also as predicted I see this game lowering down to the 250k mark and there it will remain for quite sometime if not forever.
People can say what they want, however the outcry of praise is slowly shifting to a negative light. People can praise all they want, those who make up their minds that AoC just isn't it, are not going to stay.
I do not believe AoC delivered the goods, or lived up to it's super hype. As are the feelings of MANY others.
Everyone has their own opinions and taste in games, if you like it play it. If you do not, then don't
Let people have their opinions and play what they like, the OP did a good job on his review, it is how I felt, and it is how many others see the game as well. We have our opinions, fans have theirs.
Ok Johnny Blaze.... Flame on!
i have a 13 necro and a 22 assasin who just left tortage. i have been playing since early access and having lots of fun. the game is real pretty and engaging. i hope they clear up many of the issues i hear some groan about.
-I will subtlety invade your psyche-
I played Vanguard for like a year in beta and I played it at release and for maybe 6 months after. I'd say it is really hard to compare the games. I'd also say that vanguard was far more buggy at release in critical ways then AoC is for me. In vanguard there were major issues at launch, client crashing frequently for many reasons, huge hitching issues no matter what kinda computer or settings you had, grouping issues where members would drop from group and couldn't be readded and a ton of related issues. Thats just a few of the top issues that affected everyone.
AoC client has been rock solid stable for me. Performance has been generally good and with settings adjustments could be great. Grouping issues once you find the group members and get together are not bad. Gameplay in AoC is pretty fun initially and other then my dislike for the combo system is generally fun.
I kinda feel however at this point that long term AoC won't be that interesting. It feels like it will be ok the first time through but after that will be old and it doesn't seem to have much depth. This remains to really be seen. Vanguard on the other hand has a huge scope and as they keep working on it, it keeps getting better. Fundamentally it still could become a great game and they do seem to have addressed most of the initial bugs and game breaking issues. Now they need to fix content and add more and Vanguard could yet rise from the grave :P
ATM for my money though AoC is what I'm enjoying in spite of my issues. Since I liked vanguard I'm obviously pretty tollerant of bugs
. I'll play it through till the end and see how it develops. On the plus side it is getting good industry reviews and it has good subs numbers. Hopefully that means funcom will have a solid development team and can fix things quickly.
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Ethion
I was beginning to wonder how far people would go to defend something. Yea lets sell a couple million cars, let 500 thousand of them crash and we'll see what we need to fix!
The game doesn't even have a million subscribers right now, and all these problems are popping up, how can you tell me they need a million testers to do this? It's just the fact that they with-held the end game from the beta tests; "we want to surprise you guys!" Yea, they sure did surprise alright.
Wow, I didn't realize that they didn't put the end-game in the beta test. And I definitely didn't realize the reason was to "surprise you guys."
Back then that would have generated a lot of hype about what the beta testers weren't seeing yet. Now to me, that kind of makes the reasoning a bit sketchy, and makes me wonder if there was much to show the beta testers. Especially in regards to a lot of people saying that at higher levels there's not much content.
I didnt literally mean a million testers - I just meant lots more than you have available throughout development. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you test, problems you didnt foresee will occur.
Oh come onYou see, that's the problem. They DIDN'T test. End game was never beta tested, the end.
I think one of the things they do wrong, is not properly guide players to new areas at lvl 40+. It seems you have to roam around randomly to find new places to pick up new quest chains.
You know, the OP had a number of points and explained them decently yet no one disagreeing with him says why or just tell him he should expect bugs.
No one has answered his critique of the fighting system, which is what i found most interesting. Supposedly MORE option makes the system richer. Yet he gave a very good account for a reason why its bad.
And given that most do not have these extra attacks and did not have them in beta or the preview that seems pretty significant if the interface just drops you combo or times them irregularly due to lag.
In fact if he is right that is the main issue that would keep me away from AoC.