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The "Lets Be Honest Thread."
AmazingAvery
Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
Ok, if possible in a constuctive way, what do you find appealing / like and what do you dislike / turned off by?
Dislike / Turned off by:
- Server situation - why can't it be global - like say in Guild Wars where you can choose anytime to change regions - N.America to Europe to International - I understand the rating issue but it should still be possible to set up servers for this, surely the tech is there for this?
- I dislike no in game alliance feature for those that want it - I understand reasons why, just thought it could be an area where something productive could come from, rather than leaving it up to the community.
- I dislike the announcement that "We have 64-bit support using 32-bit binaries, but no native 64-bit binaries"
- That there will only be one starting area at launch.
- That you can't build "BattleKeeps" where you want, set places in the border kingdom. (Although they can be built different each time)
- Worried people can't look past the nudity and rating for the game that it is as a whole.
- Disliked the focus early on, on boobs (felt that it was mentioned alot too much in earlier interview and gave the community a different impression than what was intended)
- Wish they would focus more on the female gamer in a male stereotypical world - again understandable because of the lore, however, I think more could be done to market what the game offers that would appeal to the female gamer - like customization options etc. Funcom Offices you can smell the testosterone! Don't lose sight of the female gamer's tastes!
- Im wondering about quest rewards and hoping they will be good enough and useful for your level.
- Really hoping the customization of toon's is good enough so we dont see half a server looking like Conan.
- Hoping it will be polished enough at launch for the demands of todays gamer.
- Dislike they havent made a decision yet about looting options on different servers - there is plenty of feedback out there, would be nice to get some clarification on direction taking and options available for those who want and dont want types.
Appealing / Like
- The swimming (and under water)
- That I can go out into the wild and skin an animal and make a living off from it.
- All the emotes - hundreds of them!
- The Music and Immersion (7.1 sound) never heard such spine tingling music in game before.
- The combat, not harder than other games but different at the same time. (Especially the shields)
- The classes all have unique abilities and again might be similar to other games but what they do and how they do it is different.
- The lore - Rich and Longstanding - pre tolkien etc.
- The fact that crafting isn't experience based
- The story and the quests are presented in a unique way, you feel as you are making an impact in the game as you progress and developing in a mature setting. (from short play experience and speaking with quest designers)
- The fact that many area's with in a graphical setting can be changed to suit your PC. (I saw many, many sliders when I played at the community event)
- The thought & design process gone in to PvP to keep it appealing to all types of player.
- The fact that PvE and PvP are seperate
- The guild play
- The A.I is really unique, pull one guy, there is a chance he will call out for more to come help, that they react to what you do, how you do and your position to theirs. eg. attack a camp they will sound a horn calling for more and fortify the postion you approached from.
- The world design
- The fact that the guild PvE and PvP cities will be fully hand made from the ground up.
- Character customization is a blast!
- The fact that I can fight from a mount in realtime attacking from either side.
- That the game has support in different area's at end game to keep you occupied, appealing to a broadscope of player
- That crafted items can be better than raid items in PvP.
That will do for starters 
What do you think? If poss can you be a bit constructive in your delivery of likes and dislikes please if leaving feedback.
If you don't like something say why and maybe offer better alternative if possible, same for if you like something.
Cheers!
Comments
I agree mostly with what you've said Avery, so I'll try to add my own twist or cover the ones you haven't mentioned.
Dislike / Turned off by:
- Lack of manual aiming for spells and bows
- Lack of manual blocking
- Linear progression (as apposed to sandbox)
- Level system (as apposed to skill based)
- System requirements (even making them as low/high as Oblivion is going to turn away a lot of people)
- Monthly fee (I'd rather it be like AO or Shadowbane where it's F2P, but has advertising)
(For the most part my dislikes are impossible to change at this stage of the game, or with regards to the monthly fee will be mean less money for Funcom. They aren't game ending for me-- just a disappointment.)Appealing / Like
Thanks for the input Throckmorton
Think I would have to agree about the manual blocking, shame they couldn't put it in.
Im also looking forward to the fatality moves too: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28580.html
and the Border Kingdom non instanced Siege Open PvP.
Btw, used to live 5 miles from Throckmorton village in England
Without repeating anyone elses post, as I agree with them so far.
Likes
- I like the dark look and gritty feel of the screens I have seen. Toss in a few of the more fair zones and you have a great fantasy mix.
- I like the fact I can ride different mounts at release... and the fact i can tusk someone to death.
- I also enjoy the look of alot of the armor sets I have come across in screenies.
Dislikes
- The fact that I am uncertain of the combat system right now.
- The crafting system and crafting content does not seem to have the depth of other games I have played. I hope this is more of a fear, than a dislike... I have not tried it out yet.
Short post, but most of it has been covered already.
_____________________________
*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
I am very much thinking that instancing and lag are gonna be tricky for funcom. I suspect there will be a constant tension between number/size of instances and the combat system.
I also thought spells were AE or cone effect with manual aim?
_____________________________
*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
Dislike:
Limited Race's
(not much they can do with that.)
Like:
AI looks really intresting.
(iv wanted stronger AI in games for a long time.)
With everything they promis , id say they need to push back this game.
Iv read they have a release date already....
They dont inspirer confidence in me.
They will Polish untill they run out of money and stick the product out there finished or not.
I think this game will still be Beta for arround 8 months after its been put on the shelf.
What???? Isent this the "Lets be honest thread"?
Sadly I completely lost interest in this game , after 1 whole year of waiting like nut for its release.
I just do not believe anymore that it will be any good.
Good thing about it is , that i may be pleasantly surprised.
So lets wait and see...i am done speculating on this one
like
They have some PvE focus in the game.
PvP is like a separate parallel advancement system
Mounted combat
Good looking graphics and animation at good performance?
Support for multicores
class customization system
dislike
Combat system looks risky and could blow the game
all the hoopalla over nudity
The above will draw teen age boys like a magnet
---
Ethion
Just a quick comment on these two things before I post my additions.
Manual aiming is still in the game for bows, I'm not sure about spells. I don't ever recall hearing that it was being taken out, just that you could choose between manual aiming or 3rd person.
Also manual blocking is in the game, kind of. Remember the video that shows the mob with the three white "shield" icons that move around their body. It was said in an interview when that system was first introduced that player characters would be able to use the system to shield certain parts of their bodies more then others.
Now, my likes/dislikes.
Likes:
Dislikes:
For those of you that have not played Shadowbane basically what happened was that 1 huge, organized Alliance took over an entire server (It happened on my server, it was actually my guild DHL that took it over. I'm not sure about any other servers.)
We had multiple guilds all ally with us under our flag when the game was released and basically squashed everyone else. It was fun for the first few months, but then we realized that there was no one left to war with. We had destroyed all of the other cities & our Alliance were the only ones left. We "won", it was horrible. It effectively ruined the game for us and we all tried to start on another server to get back into the original rush of the game, but it was gone, we all quit about a month later.
I could see this easily happening with an organized out-of-game Alliance that could take over all Battle Keeps in the Border Kingdom and keep everyone else from competing with them. I would never have thought this was possible if it hadn't happened in Shadowbane.
The lack of an in-game Alliance system really only hurts smaller guilds. It will be a lot harder for people to make alliances to take down the "big boys" that will inevitably show up once the game is released. I have seen no information on any systems in place to keep this from happening, so I guarantee, at least on one server, it will happen. If they had an in-game Alliance feature this scenario would be a lot less likely.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
I pretty much agree with what others have posted so instead I will just post a couple of concerns I have.
1. How will it run on most machines. Not everyone has top of the line machines so this concerns me. If the graphics are tuned down, will it look decent or turn people off? Performance issues do to graphics and large siege warfare.
2. The combat system has me a little worried only because its new. Will people be able to adjust to it easily or will it be a complex thing that will immediately cause people to say screw it and not even give it a chance.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC
I also thought spells were AE or cone effect with manual aim?
Range does have a manual aim option, but it won't be the primary way in which people fight ranged. It will only be in specific situations. It may turn out to have a large amount of interactivity, but I see it turning out just like the magic system.
And about the magic system: There was a video 2 years ago that shows some manual aiming, but all of the videos since then have the regular click method found in other MMOs. Most notably the demonologist PvP videos that people recorded at the gaming convention. It was click on the target --> click on the skill -- > attack.
The videos have shown that you have to aim your AoE spells as far as where the place them on the ground, and the cone magic was shown in the recent TTH raid video where a demonologist let out a flamethrower type of spell. So there are some differences from other MMOs, it won't be exactly the same.
So what I mean by my dislikes is that although there are some differences to the way that range and magic is handled in AoC compared to other MMOs, the "click on the target --> click on the skill -- > attack" paradigm has still not been broken. That disappoints me.
Yes this does sound fun and will be a welcome addition, but what I meant by manual blocking is more along the lines of Mount and Blade or Oblivion where you have to time your block according to visually seeing your enemy swing.
But this shield switching option may turn out to be more fun than the way oblivion does it if you can change it fast enough so that you can block according to which direction the attack comes from. hmmm. . . .
And yea, your thoughts on the alliance system are interesting. I've been playing on Mourning for the past 2 months, and I was wondering why Athelan was talking about how alliance systems create RvR. As of now, Mourning is far, far from RvR. And DHL is still on Mourning too, though they are only mercenaries. I've been killed a few times by some DHL.
Dislike:
Having to spend 700€ on upgrades plus installing Vista. No thanks. Maybe next year.
I know I can play with XP but I would have the feeling that I'm missing something.
I don't see people saying this same thing about other new games like Crysis. Why are MMO's Held to a different standard? Everyone else expects cutting edge games to need cutting edge technology. I built my computer 4 years ago. I can spend $170 on an 8800GS, and run this game with Medium to Hight settings. I'm only running a 19 inch monitor, so If i was on a 24, maybe I would need something like an 8800GTX, but I dont.
I don't see people saying this same thing about other new games like Crysis. Why are MMO's Held to a different standard? Everyone else expects cutting edge games to need cutting edge technology. I built my computer 4 years ago. I can spend $170 on an 8800GS, and run this game with Medium to Hight settings. I'm only running a 19 inch monitor, so If i was on a 24, maybe I would need something like an 8800GTX, but I dont.
Crysis was way overhyped just with Bioshock. The game there run with all the credits in 2007 was Call of Duty 4. Basis there is no game worth spending $6000 on, not even Age of Conan if it really have that high end demand for tech spec.
Off Topic
I heard that you guild lost interest in Age of Conan and disband. Current there is only you left and now you are looking for a new guild?. Is that true?.
Link: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/165239
Spoils of War - The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
Somthing i missed:
They seem more intrested in X-Bot Market then the the computer Market.
I bet there going to use the 6 months delay from computer to X-bot to fund and fix any problems.
Notice how 6 months from there Releas will be the end of november.... Yes the truth comes out.
I think that if I really wanted to play this game Id wait for it on X-bot.
It would save me from being a ginny pig for the first 6 months.
Im a loyal PC gamer
I support PC games & buy all my games.
They are more intrested in geting therer game on X-bot.
I dont trust platform lover's.
im turned off by delays
they create lurking ideas of ignorance and deception
either they were ignorant of how much longer it will take, or they lied to keep people and investors interested, or a combination of the two
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
Just a quick comment on these two things before I post my additions.
Manual aiming is still in the game for bows, I'm not sure about spells. I don't ever recall hearing that it was being taken out, just that you could choose between manual aiming or 3rd person.
Also manual blocking is in the game, kind of. Remember the video that shows the mob with the three white "shield" icons that move around their body. It was said in an interview when that system was first introduced that player characters would be able to use the system to shield certain parts of their bodies more then others.
Now, my likes/dislikes.
Likes:
Dislikes:
For those of you that have not played Shadowbane basically what happened was that 1 huge, organized Alliance took over an entire server (It happened on my server, it was actually my guild DHL that took it over. I'm not sure about any other servers.)
We had multiple guilds all ally with us under our flag when the game was released and basically squashed everyone else. It was fun for the first few months, but then we realized that there was no one left to war with. We had destroyed all of the other cities & our Alliance were the only ones left. We "won", it was horrible. It effectively ruined the game for us and we all tried to start on another server to get back into the original rush of the game, but it was gone, we all quit about a month later.
I could see this easily happening with an organized out-of-game Alliance that could take over all Battle Keeps in the Border Kingdom and keep everyone else from competing with them. I would never have thought this was possible if it hadn't happened in Shadowbane.
The lack of an in-game Alliance system really only hurts smaller guilds. It will be a lot harder for people to make alliances to take down the "big boys" that will inevitably show up once the game is released. I have seen no information on any systems in place to keep this from happening, so I guarantee, at least on one server, it will happen. If they had an in-game Alliance feature this scenario would be a lot less likely.
I totally agree with you about SB's great weakness at launch. What you guys did on your server pretty much happened on every server. I was really enjoying the game, my guild was a small, but growing one with a nice town. We weren't gankers or griefers and didn't really piss many folks off.
Then the major alliance formed and swept every single city off the map that wasn't theirs, including mine.
Seeing no choice but to either try to get in the alliance, or exist as a homeless wanderer I decided to quit the game and go back to DAOC. I was not alone in my decision and I think it really ruined the game more than anything else.
I sure hope AOC doesn't follow this same path. EVE manages to avoid it by shear size, hard for any alliance to take over all of space, though BOB sure made a great run at doing it. I am hoping AOC achieves this sort of balance as well.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
What are you talking about? The developers barely talk about the X-Box version. The only time that I have seen them even mention it is when an interviewer asks a question about it, and the response is always the same.
They are focusing on getting the game released to the primary market, PC. Then a few months after release, after they have had ample time to fix any big bugs that show up after release, they will split the development into multiple teams with multiple goals. One of these teams will be working on the X-Box version & there is no estimated release on the console version of the game.
It is perfectly normal for a development team to split into smaller groups after release of an MMO, one team will continue to develop content & advance the current game, one team will begin work on an expansion for the game, & another team will begin work on the next project. This is perfectly normal procedure.
I have seen no proof to your claim that they are more worried about the console market then the PC market, in fact, I would say it's quite the opposite from what I have heard straight from the developers mouths.
Where's the proof of your claim?
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
Nice feedback folks
I don't see people saying this same thing about other new games like Crysis. Why are MMO's Held to a different standard? Everyone else expects cutting edge games to need cutting edge technology. I built my computer 4 years ago. I can spend $170 on an 8800GS, and run this game with Medium to Hight settings. I'm only running a 19 inch monitor, so If i was on a 24, maybe I would need something like an 8800GTX, but I dont.
Is this the Crysis forum?What you say is not true anymore. Everyone else is completely fed up of dumping money on their computers, and expects games to run well in 1-2 yo computers and expects not being forced to change their SO, specially to a crappy one.
I'm generally happy with the game, what they are doing/trying to do BUT they are having problems with giving out information. they dont have to or required to give info but when they do give info they omit things that get forums heat up pretty quickly.
when they say "we dont plan open beta" they dont add "because we've already stress-tested the servers with X amount of people which is Y% higher than we will normally allow in a server"
when they give some vids they dont give through their webpage, high quality but through some 3rd person, handcam, youtube.
There may be a reason for this, marketing was never my thing maybe this builds up hype much better, but this is not working for me.
oh btw they said when sieging the sides can pay players and hire them. do we have any insights on this? when wil the payment occur, before siege, after siege? what if the merc go afk? what if guild dont pay? how will the pricing go? (head count, lvl, time spend etc)
I need more vespene gas.
To early to say anything.
Pritty much all my likes and conserns have been posted in here however...
I thought bows were manual or auto aim?I also thought spells were AE or cone effect with manual aim?
Range does have a manual aim option, but it won't be the primary way in which people fight ranged. It will only be in specific situations. It may turn out to have a large amount of interactivity, but I see it turning out just like the magic system.
And about the magic system: There was a video 2 years ago that shows some manual aiming, but all of the videos since then have the regular click method found in other MMOs. Most notably the demonologist PvP videos that people recorded at the gaming convention. It was click on the target --> click on the skill -- > attack.
The videos have shown that you have to aim your AoE spells as far as where the place them on the ground, and the cone magic was shown in the recent TTH raid video where a demonologist let out a flamethrower type of spell. So there are some differences from other MMOs, it won't be exactly the same.
So what I mean by my dislikes is that although there are some differences to the way that range and magic is handled in AoC compared to other MMOs, the "click on the target --> click on the skill -- > attack" paradigm has still not been broken. That disappoints me.
The range lock yes kinda defeats the 6-way melee combat system I mean why try and hit multiple things in meleewhich are running about as possibily miss when you can easily target lock a single target and range them to death? I personally see many opting for range classes to have that advantage, meaning combat would be one sides unless melee was vastly more powerful, but then thats got it's own problems... IMO you can't have and non-target system and then slap a target system for another type and hope to balance it, one will always be overpowerful..
Oh there is a game in which spelltargeting is manual for the looks of things and thats Spellborn
Bring on the WARRRRGGHH!
Dislike / Turned off by:
The combat system although an improvement on the average is not a fundamental change and is more of an evolution then a revolution. I think a lot of people will be disappointed, its not anything like mount and blade.
For an MMO game there’s an awful lot of instances breaking up the game play and reducing opportunity’s for co-operative play.
The majority of the maps are relatively small and have invisible walls blocking exploration that force the direction of the player through the content.
Stability and performance issues are a real concern, potentially limiting the accessibility for a large portion of gamers.
A lot of the so called “mature” content is limited to blood and gore effects and half naked npc’s with adolescent quest dialogue containing naughty words , not necessarily anything that is more sophisticatedly designed for adult appreciation.
The first 20 levels have an overwhelming emphasize on the solo play experience.
Hybrid fps/ 3rd person ranged and magic combat system not quite satisfactory like Tabla Rasa for example.
Some of the cool and exciting extra features like bar room brawls or going to the underworld probably not being implemented for launch.
The separation of the PvP and PvE elements, and the emphasis on guild end level PvP over open PvP.
The possibility that the large scale PvP aspects might only be possible with much smaller numbers of players then expected.
Appealing / Like :
Graphics and music
Combat system although not as good as I expected is still an improvement.
The lore of the IP (apart from the racism and the sexism etc.)
I’m sure I would have more things to mention if or when I play it but I don’t count anything that is generic or industry standard as something particularly appealing or likeable, just consider it as the minimum acceptable.