Potential newbie ...

jimbobfurley · December 2013

I'm interested in AoC ... have read Howard's entire series of books, so am very familiar with the lore, and do love it. Have read some disparaging things about the game though. Have read posts on the Funcom site about how there is just not enough content updates anymore, how this game is 'dead'. Is it ? Or is that a load of crap ? I have read about how the crafting system is being revamped. Static nodes are being removed and will now be dynamically generated. This is a good thing. But how much more of the crafting system will be changed ?

I read of how innovative the combat system is, and how good this game "could have" been ... but never was. Something that does not give me the warm and fuzzies. Then I read the countering posts that say, 'But this is still a great game because it does this and this and this and this' Who do I believe ? What do I believe ?

I'm not here to troll. Just here for some answers.

If I do subscribe I will for a year. That is usually the way I do things. So for $100, is it worth it ?

Thanks in advance

Travis

Vonatar · December 2013

It's free-to-play so just make a character and spend some time checking it out. The f2p model is not that restrictive so you can get a reasonable sense of whether you like it or not.

I would strongly recommend playing through all of Tortage (the starter zone to lv 20) and getting into the world proper, as this is not reflective of the rest of the game. This has been one of the lingering complaints since Tortage is fully-voiced and story-driven and people have felt a bit lost and disappointed when getting out into the world proper (not much voice acting and more typical MMO zones and questing).

The game is certainly not dead. I started a new character this weekend and there were plenty of people running around Tortage and chat was buzzing away. I still find it pretty decent to play and it looks nice now PCs are powerful enough to run it on max settings.

boris20 · December 2013

I am currently playing aoc daily. I had taken a few year break and after not finding a game home returned to aoc a few months ago and am finding it very refreshing. I feel it's one of the better Pve games around. I am on the normal Pvp server and I find it plenty active for my liking. Always groups to join, and since I've been back I rolled a new lvl 80 and haven't had a problem getting into raids. Open world Pvp isn't "hopping" but you can find fights. Mini games I enjoy the most and I haven't had problems getting into matches within 5-10 mins after finishing one. Like the previous poster said, try to free to play, if you get to level 80 and are wanting more there is a ton of content for end game awaiting you, I suggest you sub and get godslayer, you won't regret. Also there are big things coming sooner or later to the game such as open world bosses and new crafting over haul.

Panther2103 · December 2013

From what I've seen, the game died for a while, it had very low pop spread across multiple servers, but when they merged the servers a ton of people came back. It seems to have garnered a relatively large population as well compared to the state it was in before. Trying it and playing will only bring another person back and help the game continue on, so there isn't any harm in attempting to make a free character and mess around until 20+ to see if you like the game before diving into a year based on what a bunch of people on a forum say.

LuckyDucky · December 2013

AoC has basically two camps of players, PvE and PvP. Which side of AoC you intend to focus on will have a major impact on your view of what the game offers. I have dabbled in PvP, but the main draw for me is PvE.

If you are looking for a great Conan video game AoC is a far as you need to look. The devs stuck pretty close to the REH vision of Hyboria and everything about it. Things like art, motion quality of all characters, detailed graphics, music, are all the best in the business. Combat is another high point of the game. Really it is about as exciting as MMO style combat can be. Melee is down right R rated bloody! Limbs are severed, heads are lopped off, all in gorgeous DX10, lol. But it is not all blood and gore. There is a ton of beauty in the game as well. The landscape, big cities, small villages, camps, forts, NPCs, are all so well done and capture the feel of the Conan stories to a T.

Then as a noob you have so much content to look forward too. This game truly is massive, and if you take to the game it will provide months of Conan gaming goodness.

Most of the leveling content from 1 to 80 is accessible via free to play. There are a few restrictions like limited bag space, limited number of characters you can create, restrictions on the chat channel, and maybe a few instances you are locked out of. But for the most part you can play the game for free up until the max level if you don't want to sub up. No need to sub up front, play the game for a while for free then make the decision to sub or not. If you really like the game I would sub because it does open the game up and it truly becomes "Unchained."

jimbobfurley · December 2013

Originally posted by LuckyDucky
AoC has basically two camps of players, PvE and PvP. Which side of AoC you intend to focus on will have a major impact on your view of what the game offers. I have dabbled in PvP, but the main draw for me is PvE.

If you are looking for a great Conan video game AoC is a far as you need to look. The devs stuck pretty close to the REH vision of Hyboria and everything about it. Things like art, motion quality of all characters, detailed graphics, music, are all the best in the business. Combat is another high point of the game. Really it is about as exciting as MMO style combat can be. Melee is down right R rated bloody! Limbs are severed, heads are lopped off, all in gorgeous DX10, lol. But it is not all blood and gore. There is a ton of beauty in the game as well. The landscape, big cities, small villages, camps, forts, NPCs, are all so well done and capture the feel of the Conan stories to a T.

Then as a noob you have so much content to look forward too. This game truly is massive, and if you take to the game it will provide months of Conan gaming goodness.

Most of the leveling content from 1 to 80 is accessible via free to play. There are a few restrictions like limited bag space, limited number of characters you can create, restrictions on the chat channel, and maybe a few instances you are locked out of. But for the most part you can play the game for free up until the max level if you don't want to sub up. No need to sub up front, play the game for a while for free then make the decision to sub or not. If you really like the game I would sub because it does open the game up and it truly becomes "Unchained."

If you say that one can play from 1-80 (the cap, I presume ?) for free, what is the motivation / incentive to subscribe ? How exactly does the game "open up" or become "Unchained", as you say, upon subscription ?

Thanks again for your input, BTW

Kabaal · December 2013

Originally posted by jimbobfurley
Originally posted by LuckyDucky
AoC has basically two camps of players, PvE and PvP. Which side of AoC you intend to focus on will have a major impact on your view of what the game offers. I have dabbled in PvP, but the main draw for me is PvE.

If you are looking for a great Conan video game AoC is a far as you need to look. The devs stuck pretty close to the REH vision of Hyboria and everything about it. Things like art, motion quality of all characters, detailed graphics, music, are all the best in the business. Combat is another high point of the game. Really it is about as exciting as MMO style combat can be. Melee is down right R rated bloody! Limbs are severed, heads are lopped off, all in gorgeous DX10, lol. But it is not all blood and gore. There is a ton of beauty in the game as well. The landscape, big cities, small villages, camps, forts, NPCs, are all so well done and capture the feel of the Conan stories to a T.

Then as a noob you have so much content to look forward too. This game truly is massive, and if you take to the game it will provide months of Conan gaming goodness.

Most of the leveling content from 1 to 80 is accessible via free to play. There are a few restrictions like limited bag space, limited number of characters you can create, restrictions on the chat channel, and maybe a few instances you are locked out of. But for the most part you can play the game for free up until the max level if you don't want to sub up. No need to sub up front, play the game for a while for free then make the decision to sub or not. If you really like the game I would sub because it does open the game up and it truly becomes "Unchained."

If you say that one can play from 1-80 (the cap, I presume ?) for free, what is the motivation / incentive to subscribe ? How exactly does the game "open up" or become "Unchained", as you say, upon subscription ?

Thanks again for your input, BTW

Been a while since i played but 80 is just a mile stone. Levels stop at that number but progression doesn't with abilities and stats.

From what i remember Free player = level 80 is the goal and where things stop apart from some gear. P2P you can carry on with the Alternate Advancement trees that open up at max level and give new abilities and stats, plus more gear options.

Sithos · December 2013

Unless they have changed their model, you'll need to buy the expansion and subscribe to get AA/Perks post 80. Even if you have purchased the expansion, you can make little to no use of it unless you are subscribed. You can only enter 1 base zone from what I recall and all beyond that in the expansion are locked without a subscription. So if you really do want to advance your skills after level 80 you need to buy the expansion and continue paying the subscription fee or you will lose access. At least that's how it was a few months back.

LuckyDucky · December 2013

Originally posted by jimbobfurley
Originally posted by LuckyDucky
AoC has basically two camps of players, PvE and PvP. Which side of AoC you intend to focus on will have a major impact on your view of what the game offers. I have dabbled in PvP, but the main draw for me is PvE.

If you are looking for a great Conan video game AoC is a far as you need to look. The devs stuck pretty close to the REH vision of Hyboria and everything about it. Things like art, motion quality of all characters, detailed graphics, music, are all the best in the business. Combat is another high point of the game. Really it is about as exciting as MMO style combat can be. Melee is down right R rated bloody! Limbs are severed, heads are lopped off, all in gorgeous DX10, lol. But it is not all blood and gore. There is a ton of beauty in the game as well. The landscape, big cities, small villages, camps, forts, NPCs, are all so well done and capture the feel of the Conan stories to a T.

Then as a noob you have so much content to look forward too. This game truly is massive, and if you take to the game it will provide months of Conan gaming goodness.

Most of the leveling content from 1 to 80 is accessible via free to play. There are a few restrictions like limited bag space, limited number of characters you can create, restrictions on the chat channel, and maybe a few instances you are locked out of. But for the most part you can play the game for free up until the max level if you don't want to sub up. No need to sub up front, play the game for a while for free then make the decision to sub or not. If you really like the game I would sub because it does open the game up and it truly becomes "Unchained."

If you say that one can play from 1-80 (the cap, I presume ?) for free, what is the motivation / incentive to subscribe ? How exactly does the game "open up" or become "Unchained", as you say, upon subscription ?

Thanks again for your input, BTW

I mean the game opens up in the sense all the FtP restrictions are lifted, which is not a huge deal, but still it is nice to experience the game without any restrictions, especially if you are new to the game. But content doesn't change when you sub, it is still the same game. I think the only content restrictions would be instances that you can't enter without subbing, but they are very few, maybe one or two. I am talking about leveling through the game until max level 80. After level 80 you will need to sub to play.

Po_gg · December 2013

Originally posted by jimbobfurley
I'm interested in AoC ... have read Howard's entire series of books, so am very familiar with the lore, and do love it.

Agree, Howard is great (though I never really liked Solomon Kane... but even those books are cool).

Regarding content updates, I don't think the game is "dead", it had one big and two moderate-sized expansions during the 5 years, and a bunch of seasonal smaller contents. True, it's not in the "pumping out new stuff every week" area, but not dead either.

Crafting revamp is coming Soon(tm). Coming closer and closer with every month ( ). Based on the infos so far, it will be a pretty huge change, from the recipe-based crafting towards a more freeform, TSW-like crafting, building stuff from the ingredients in various configurations.

Innovative combat system, there was a thread not long ago about it, you can check that. (or here's a tutorial vid, a bit old and low-res, but you'll get a hint about the system http://youtu.be/wQ2LCkM8DuI)

Who should you believe; as others already said, yourself. It's f2p, jump in and play with, check the game from first hand.

And for the later question about f2p, yep, you can play until the cap (80) pretty much free. Incentive to subscribe: the endgame, more precisely the Godslayer expansion, which is sub-only. If you want to go deeper with your character beyond lvl80 (there's a system for it, called Alternate Advancement), or want to play more endgame dungeons and raid, then you need to subscribe. (you have lvl80 dungeons and raids for free as well, but only from the original game, not the expansions) Of course you can make that "to sub or not to sub" decision later, after you've played 1-2 months for free, and reaching the cap.

An another incentive could be the smoother leveling (bigger inventory space, if you like to pick up everything you see on the road), or the character slots if you like to keep numerous alts. If those aspects aren't that important, then you can indeed play through 1-80 for free, without any serious restrictions.

DocBrody · December 2013

it is amazing, give it a try, it really took off for me after Tortage. Wich game lets you level in four major different continents where you can go everywhere in huge areas? Even the quest stories are actually compelling.

I wish Funcom would do a Star Wars MMO, their world design is amazing and immersive

jimbobfurley · December 2013

I've gave AoC a try and am utterly amazed by the game. As a Howard fan, I look forward to see how closely they stick to lore as I go along in the rest of the game. From the small bit into Tortage and the game mechanics / class choices, etc., it seems they have really given this game close treatment when it comes to Howard's canon. The music at the login screen just blew me away and gave me goosebumps !

Combat is very intense and it does indeed make you think on the fly, so to speak. The atmosphere is bang-on the world of Conan, indeed. Brutal, savage, lusty.

I can't wait to immerse myself further.

Thanks for all of your posts !

Po_gg · December 2013

Yep, I forgot that indeed: Knut made awesome OST's (Godslayer's one a bit weaker but still far ahead from the average game soundtracks).

Since the game went f2p more than 2 years now and it's only available in digital format, I'm not sure whether the OST is available or not (they were shipped with the collector's boxes), but it's on the web in numerous places anyway.

"I look forward to see how closely they stick to lore as I go along in the rest of the game."

The books are mostly history since FC chose the best route and placed the game after the (chronologically) last book. Conan is on the throne of Aquilonia since years, there's a peace (more or less) between the kingdoms, though the Vanir are invading from Nordheim, there are some unrest in the Border Kingdom, and of course Toth-Amon is doing again what he usually do the best (as in trying to s**t into the fan )

jimbobfurley · December 2013

Originally posted by Po_gg
Yep, I forgot that indeed: Knut made awesome OST's (Godslayer's one a bit weaker but still far ahead from the average game soundtracks).

Since the game went f2p more than 2 years now and it's only available in digital format, I'm not sure whether the OST is available or not (they were shipped with the collector's boxes), but it's on the web in numerous places anyway.

"I look forward to see how closely they stick to lore as I go along in the rest of the game."

The books are mostly history since FC chose the best route and placed the game after the (chronologically) last book. Conan is on the throne of Aquilonia since years, there's a peace (more or less) between the kingdoms, though the Vanir are invading from Nordheim, there are some unrest in the Border Kingdom, and of course Toth-Amon is doing again what he usually do the best (as in trying to s**t into the fan )

Thanks for giving me a point of reference for the game in terms of where it is at with regards to the books. Very good to know this.

If ever I could get a soundtrack to this game, I would be a lucky man. The music is incredible. I must seek.

Po_gg · December 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL6b16B8pC4&list=PLC4232455A3D49E58

A good start, though not the best quality.

And while the events from the original books are there only in references and hints on the world, FC had written new books for AoC. I only red a few, it's not Howard (obviously...) but some of them are pretty good. Not to mention it's fun to know more about the npc's you meet in game, it has that unique, "hey, I know you, you were..." feeling

LuckyDucky · December 2013

Enjoy your time with AoC Jimbo, there is not another MMO quite like it! I've been playing on and off for three years or so and I still look forward to loging on.

MikeMoss · December 2013

Hi

I played the game on and off since beta, and it's still one of my favorite games.

I just came back after a while away playing The Secret World and Guild Wars 2, started all over with a new character.

Still having fun.

Mike

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