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Considering going back to Conan? - I did!
Halandir
Member UncommonPosts: 773
Disclaimer: This is my personal opinions and experience with AoC. Yours may very well be different - That does not make neither mine nor yours "wrong" or "invalid", just different!
Originally I bought the CE version and to say the least I was appalled by what I got. Funcom hyped, some of us bought it and Funcom did not even have the decency to admit their game was almost a complete failure. I left after some 10 days.
I came back about 2 months later and found a game that was even worse than at lauch - Stayed 2 days!
AoC is now 8 months in and hearing all the positive things about what is happening I decided to give AoC another go. This time with a buddykey because I had serious doubts about funding Funcom further.
Account creation
First of all: Decent of Funcom letting me use my CE buddykeys without an active sub.
Overall account creation went smooth.
But: One of my friends got a buddy key as well but he never used it. I asked him why and he told me: "Have you even read what you agree to with ingame and gamerelated advertizing? Their privacy policy is questionable in places and they want all my personal information, heck even my phone number is mandatory! Plus you need to enter all your creditcard information as well - To try their product. No thanks!"
Game client
The gameclient has improved immensely. I have not had a single crash/lockup or anything like that during my week of testing.
Performance is a lot better too. My gaming PC exceeds the recommended in all respects and it struggled with AoC last I tried. Now the game is playable on high settings with 8x AA on the same PC. Loading times are still slow but nothing major.
As several others have already said: If performance/stability was your only problem with AoC then it is safe to go back now 
Graphics and environment
The graphics in AoC is good, no doubt about it and everyone knows that. They are however not as incredibly amazing as some say: Skin looks a lot like plastic. There is a lot of popup as you move around (even after fiddling with the multitude of settings for almost an hour). Shadows and edgedetection is messed up in places.
The animations are very mixed. Some are great (most emotes/player gestures) and some are just plain bad (try running and jumping with a robe). There also seems to be some timing problems with player/mob animations not being adjusted properly with movement speed. Result is sliding/skating look on some things.
Sound is good in most places. The music is not to my taste but it is still high quality and seems fitting.
Overall my complaints here are minor and does not kill immersion unless you desperately want them to.
Interface look and feel
This is important to me and also one of the things that annoy me quite a bit. I know that the user interface is customizeable (by installing 3.rd party modified xml files) but I prefer to use the UI that the game provides. (I think most casual gamers do, not wanting to have to keep 3.rd party addons updated.)
The chat interface is clunky and archaic - You can add more windows with specific channels but it just adds to screen clutter and the interface is still clunky. Nothing new or groundbreaking here, still the same old crap. (No cursorfocus, no definition of attention words etc.)
I liked the quest log. Nice to be able to look up quests you have already completed.
My (reported) latency while playing was fine, around 60 but I still felt like clicks on skills were lagging more like 3-500 ms. Not too noticeable most of the time playing a melee char but when I rolled a necromancer it was extremely annoying: I would click on a skill, and click again just to see the original click got registered and I was told something like the skill is still recharging/not ready... Feels sluggish especially while fighting someone.
I dont have a problem with turning to face my opponent when casting a spell, but the targetting system and semi-autoturn thing in AoC is simply annoying and not intuitive. At least make my char NOT turn any other way than what I do myself!
Servers, population and gameplay
I made 3 different characters. A caster on a PvE server, a caster on a PvP server and a melee char on a PvE server. I only played the first char for about 2 hours. During that time I met a total of 1 other player in Tortage. (Nice guy though, I think he tried to teach me to speak polish.)
After this I went for the recommended servers Fury and Crom. These seems to have a population. Still just 1 instance the places I got to but at least something was going on in global chat.
I played a bit with my melee char but the (highly praised) melee combat system simply never got to me. It does not feel "hard" or "complicated", at least not on lower levels, it just feels different for the sake of being different.
In the end I only played my necromancer on Fury since a lot of people says that this game shines in PvP.
Populationwise Fury seems ok. It is not exacty overrun and I managed to do my quests on White Sands and Underhalls without being ganked more than 4-5 times in all.
The global chat is active but not to the point where you have any sort of problem keeping up. Most global chat seems to be guildrecruitment in english, spanish, russian and polish.
I tried asking a question in global chat: "Is there any way to reduce the lag when casting spells?" and I got 2 responses: "Game is fine your PC sux" and "Go back to wow carebear". Oh well...
Originally I had high hopes for the minigames because I thought those could be a sort of organized and balanced, even competitive class PvP but judging from global chat not many want to join these. That is a pity because the rest of the PvP simply does not appeal to me.
I dont have a problem with ganking and I dont complain about being ganked, but the openworld PvP is just like any other gank-/zergway PvP game, without factions. The consequence of being ganked is just: Wasted time...
Quests in AoC are mostly generic and I can't help feeling that Funcom could have used the instanced world a lot better to their and AoC's advantage here.
My conclusion
I think Funcom have done a lot of good things with the quality of the AoC client.
To me their biggest problem is the basic design where they tried to get the best of two worlds: An instanced game with a persistent "MMO-world". IMO they ended up with more disadvantages than advantages from this decision. (And I am really concerned about the future of Guild Wars 2 by seeing this).
This time I went back to AoC with the intesion of seeing how the game was now with me possibly subscribing once the fresh start servers launch.
Quite paradoxical there is nothing really wrong with the game now. But the new stability let me play enough to find that the gameplay in there is really stale to me... Yes I find it boring and generic and the combatsystem + graphics is not going to change that for me.
In the end I doubt I will ever resubscribe and I uninstalled AoC that have been on my HDD since may.
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
Comments
Ok seriously, this is extremely well written and to the point...everything is laid out and every question answered. Bravo sir, bravo.
This should be a sticky labeled "how to write a review"
I too went back and, much like yourself found very few players...maybe it was the time i was on, i dunno...and i left again as well.
I'm with you on this for the most part.
Thank you for your comments. My intention was not to write a "why I won't resubscribe" review - It just came out that way
The population (or lack of) was not a big problem to me but then I did play at EU primetime.
The trial gave me a chance to see that this game will probably never be what I hoped it would. The only reason I kept following the game until now was that hope.
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
Would have to agree with you there the instancing kind of killed AoC for me, although I was playing it from launch for 6 weeks or so. All of the zones felt extremely linear and as you say again there didn't seem to be much depth to the game when I played.
Having said that I enjoyed the PvP combat/ ganking :P a lot , and had a lot of fun playing the game with about 10 of my friends because of it.
Good review. I've been thinking about coming back myself but am quite hesitant.
My only experience is in beta, I never went beyond that. I really could'nt stand the instancing and the game ran poorly on my dual core, 4gb, 8800gtx. However, I've been playing Neverwinter Nights 2 and quite enjoying it and everything in that game is instanced so maybe I could get past all the instancing in AoC.
I remember in open beta, loading times can take more than a minute during peak times, I hope this isnt the case anymore ?
I think I'm going to try out this game. I've heard some bad stuff about it. But in most game play videos it looks really great!
fomportal.com
Loading times are usually from 8 to 10 seconds from a major zone to another. Shorter if you go into a bar or similar, or if you have zoned there before in this session.
Just a comment. You mentioned Guildwars 2, and big parts of that game will not be instanced.
Strain wrote Wow GFX engine and he said in a forum that he made a new thing that will make non instanced play with good graphics for GW2. There are still to be some instances but the world in itself will be open.
And another thing, I kinda feel that AoC is actually a lot better in a PvE server than a PvP one, my PvP experience is the same as yours. The classes in AoC works best in group action PvE.
I agreed with almost everything up until you said the PvE quests were generic. It might just be me, but I thought the quests were tons of fun. I really like the lore in tortage. It might just be my love for the combat system and a few friends I made along the way, but the quests just seem to have a ton more depth compared to the game I came from (The-one-that-shall-not-be-named =P).
I really do enjoy the PvP. I haven't done a ton, but me and a few others took on a Ranger ganker in WS and I had a great time. Also while I was in the Underhalls I got that feeling like I had back when I played Runescape and was running through the wilderness. I was excited and afraid again. I haven't had that feeling in a loooooong time.
------------------------------
Meow
I really hope (and to some degree trust) that the GW2 team will keep in mind what made GW successful. While a lot of ppl was disappointed that GW never had a persistant ("server locked") world that was exactly why it succeeded on so many other levels.
All its "faults" and "limitations" aside I really hope we will see another competitive quality game. AoC failed at that so far because the "even playing field" side of the game was toned down.
Actually I originally played only on "PvE" servers in the hope that AoC minigames and well defined areas would offer some of the competetive quality PvP experience that GW provides - just with different skills and a new setting...
My recent experience showed me that no matter how much people honk their horn for the AoC PvP servers they simply have very little to offer to a player looking for balanced competetive PvP.
My advice to anyone looking to try AoC would have to be: Get a buddy key or buy the game at the current discounted prices. Join a PvE server to get a feel for the game and see most of the starting area.
)
(Game client is fine, server community on recommended PvE servers seem fine, server community on PvP servers may be fine but seems to lack skill - Social skills
(Yes I know a lot of the very loud AoC players like the "pvp" in AoC - Thats fine but it will never appeal to most - not because of ganking etc. simply because that most new players will find it hard to spot the reason to pvp...)
edit: just spelling/grammar - sorry english is not my native language
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
I will come back some time in 2009 before Aion Online
I will come back after they release DX10 version. Finally I'll get to see what my computer is really capable of
First observation about your post, you can turn off auto targeting, auto facing, and auto attack.
2nd I have a necro mancer and the problem may not be lag, but the animation. Your character does go into a "spell stance" when you start to cast a spell and if you move much it cancles. Annoying if you are used to being able to cast spells while running or have limited movenent.'
other than that a fair assesetment, but most zones can sustain a min of 50people and some can sustain 125 (kesh can I think). This is done because of the high lvl of detail in the game and to reduce lag. GW2 isn't going to have this kind of system, but they are going to have instanced areas with a limited number of people in them, while having a full persistant world.
I hope AoC will never have titles. GW had titles and there wasn't any reason to PvP other than the /fame emote or if you were really good (top 800 players world wide 100 guilds) you could do GvG, but the ladder sysetem didn't offer anything to thoes who weren't as good. Titles and PvP levels are the same, they only show how often you PvP in the long run, not how good you are.
AoC PvP can get really competitive, but it depends on your server. For instance Tyranny has lots of mini games going on post lvl 40, epic kesh battles, and sieging.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
I think we simply have a different view on what a competitive game have to offer: I want a level playing field, much like a Guild war in GW or a Clan War in Counter strike. AoC does not now and probably never will offer this!
As for titles I don't really care about those in GW and people also enjoyed GW PvP even before we got those. They are however quite different from AoC PvP-levels: Titles do not offer any advantage affecting gameplay directly such as PvP levels does. While PvP levels may work well in a game such as AoC they would completely destroy the balanced nature in GW.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with AoC PvP - I simply consider balanced competition much more fun... A lot of CS and GW players seem to share that feeling
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
I was looking for the same thing.
A level playing field like what they have in GW is much more interesting to me. It's the only way to make sure the fight is "fair" and neither side has a huge advantage. With a system like that you can make sure winning is about skill and nothing more.
Pvp in AoC is about ganking lowbies and zerging. For me, and many others, this is not interesting.
Most hardcore pvp guilds have already left AoC. They went to WAR or are waiting for Aion or GW2.
-----------------------------
Originally posted by Frobner
"Massive sieges" "mounted combat" and "spellweaving" are just few words that spring to mind when I hear the word AOC.... But the word FAILURE will always top the list.
I think we simply have a different view on what a competitive game have to offer: I want a level playing field, much like a Guild war in GW or a Clan War in Counter strike. AoC does not now and probably never will offer this!
As for titles I don't really care about those in GW and people also enjoyed GW PvP even before we got those. They are however quite different from AoC PvP-levels: Titles do not offer any advantage affecting gameplay directly such as PvP levels does. While PvP levels may work well in a game such as AoC they would completely destroy the balanced nature in GW.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with AoC PvP - I simply consider balanced competition much more fun... A lot of CS and GW players seem to share that feeling
Yea, PvP armor + BK invuls are a little unbalancing, but I don't expect MMOs to have an FPS type of play style. Even GW has had balance issues with classes. Remember FoC spike, Searing Flame spike, EF exploit, SoMW spike, Smite monks, ect? Granted, its not really the same thing as a gear based game, or a guild based game (AoC is guild based IMO) but its nothing like an FPS.
GL on your search for a new game
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
I think we simply have a different view on what a competitive game have to offer: I want a level playing field, much like a Guild war in GW or a Clan War in Counter strike. AoC does not now and probably never will offer this!
As for titles I don't really care about those in GW and people also enjoyed GW PvP even before we got those. They are however quite different from AoC PvP-levels: Titles do not offer any advantage affecting gameplay directly such as PvP levels does. While PvP levels may work well in a game such as AoC they would completely destroy the balanced nature in GW.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with AoC PvP - I simply consider balanced competition much more fun... A lot of CS and GW players seem to share that feeling
Yea, PvP armor + BK invuls are a little unbalancing, but I don't expect MMOs to have an FPS type of play style. Even GW has had balance issues with classes. Remember FoC spike, Searing Flame spike, EF exploit, SoMW spike, Smite monks, ect? Granted, its not really the same thing as a gear based game, or a guild based game (AoC is guild based IMO) but its nothing like an FPS.
GL on your search for a new game
I agree Xpiher. Did you see the last 5 page Guild Wars patch. GW still has some of the most unbalanced classes in my opinion and they went OTT. I played ladder matches in the guild I was in all the first year out. AoC is a different set up with different meaning. GvG is different you actually fight for something you helped make in AoC. PvP armor in AoC is pretty balanced for PvP but not so great for PvE which is something said a few yrs ago and now is true.
You can't get a team of 'bunny thumpers' to do a siege in AoC
I think we simply have a different view on what a competitive game have to offer: I want a level playing field, much like a Guild war in GW or a Clan War in Counter strike. AoC does not now and probably never will offer this!
As for titles I don't really care about those in GW and people also enjoyed GW PvP even before we got those. They are however quite different from AoC PvP-levels: Titles do not offer any advantage affecting gameplay directly such as PvP levels does. While PvP levels may work well in a game such as AoC they would completely destroy the balanced nature in GW.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with AoC PvP - I simply consider balanced competition much more fun... A lot of CS and GW players seem to share that feeling
Yea, PvP armor + BK invuls are a little unbalancing, but I don't expect MMOs to have an FPS type of play style. Even GW has had balance issues with classes. Remember FoC spike, Searing Flame spike, EF exploit, SoMW spike, Smite monks, ect? Granted, its not really the same thing as a gear based game, or a guild based game (AoC is guild based IMO) but its nothing like an FPS.
GL on your search for a new game
I agree Xpiher. Did you see the last 5 page Guild Wars patch. GW still has some of the most unbalanced classes in my opinion and they wrsent OTT. I played ladder matches in the guild I was in all the first year out. AoC is a different set up with different meaning. GvG is different you actually fight for something you helped make in AoC. PvP armor in AoC is pretty balanced for PvP but not so great for PvE which is something said a few y ago and now is true.
You can't get a team of 'bunny thumpers' to do a siege in AoC
You are both right. GW have monthly skill updates where usually about 20-30 skills get updated. This keeps changing the metagames and while some hate this most find that this is one thing that keeps GW PvP alive.
As for a "5-page" patch I guess thats the recent "Title adjustments patch"? That is totally irrelevant to PvP
(Well except that it does give the PvE'ers a little more reason to join Alliancebattles)
I have played more than 5000 hours of GW so I am quite familiar with various gimmick-builds. Without going in to that debate one of the features in GW is: If a team can make a build anyone else have the option of making the exact same build within minutes (skills, weapons and equipment) - The winner is the team that is best at running the build!
(Even if it has been a while since bunny thumpers were the flavour of the month you would have 8 players facing 8 bunny thumpers... Not 8 players overrun by a 24 man zergtrain!)
While the PvP style in AoC seem to have a lot of supporters it was simply not for me. Nothing wrong with that but some of the design choices are still quite puzzling to me.
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
I liked the constant competition in GW between devs and players. players trying to think of ways to combine skills to become overpowered and devs destroying any combinations people came up with.
and the thing with GW is even if something was overpowered I think it was less upsetting because anyone can use it too. its not like in a class focused pvp game like AoC where if say ToS is ridiculously OP you can't play any other class.
also in gw's skill focused pvp any thing could be countered, even the most overpowered character could be utterly owned if you designed your skill set on countering it. the mentioned team of bunny thumpers could easily be made useless by aoe blinding or anti mele hexes, or a simple earth tank could solo them all.
My blog:
LOL can you say Age of Conan PR.
x_-