Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
BIG concern
Bruceybaby
Member Posts: 254
I've been enticed by the way this game is turning out. It looks like it's going to be great, imho, and I really want to play it once it comes out.
However, it's just struck me how problematic the real time fighting is going to be.
I'm a strong player in World of Warcraft, and I have no problem with the lag found in this game, mostly because of the fighting system - which isn't so much real time as Conan is... i.e. you don't click your mouse button to swing your sword.
However, I feel AoC is going to suffer from the same problem as Planetside does (which I have also played).
What happens to players who live... far away? I live in Bangkok, and I suffer from a latency of about 250 in World of Warcraft... which DOESN'T affect game play (because the US servers are so fast)... however, in a game that requires precision, aiming and timing... it doesn't look as though this game is going to appeal to the mass market!
People who live in asia, for example, will be at a significant disadvantage! We simply won't be able to land hits without luck!
This is what my concern is.
/discuss 
Comments
The hacking and slashing doesnt exactly require a lot of aiming, its mostly ''point in the general direction and swing''. I'm also betting the activation of combo's is client side, meaning that even if there's a delay between you making the combo and the server executing it, it won't really affect your ability to combo.
I also think that even if this problem were to be present, Funcom would work a way around it (Personally I don't think asian servers are a bad idea).
Heard of lag compensation? Naturally people with low ping will be always have easier time but if you have ping around 300ms you should be equally competitive.
More here for the interested, it's a wiki link for unreal engine and for fps but the principle is exactly the same:
wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Lag_Compensation
I will read the article you posted in the link.
However, i doubt there will be asian servers.
Even with 9mill subs, WoW still hasn't brought out Asian servers - with the english language. Soooo many people in Asia play WoW, however, they play on US servers, as you have to understand how to read/write Chinese to be able to communicate... which, surprisingly, many people don't know how to do, as it's just one of those really complicated langs. Everyone speaks english !
Fair point about the Zerolag thing.
But still, I played the Beta of DnD online... which also uses a hack and slash system... but the lag was UNBEARABLE and the delay was ridiculous. I got so annoyed, that I uninstalled it after about half an hour.
I highly doubt combos will be calculated client side. That would just be way to easy to exploit. They would have to put in several security checks to prevent exploitation which essentially would nullify any benefit client side calcs would provide to high ping customers.
-Atziluth-
- Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.
Despite Age of Conan being an MMO and having a action-y combat, it is still like Tekken or Street Fighter II. The combo´s are similar like set-combo seen in Tekken or even Virtua Fighter, but more of the button mashing type. So the combo clock is there as a cool add-on, not as a technical combo system, which is fine with me.
But Tharaldsen already said that he was inspired by Street Fighter II. In that everyone knows that a quarter-circle forward performs a fireball when playing as Ken or Ryu, and he wanted to impart a similar feel for the combo moves here.