Age of Conan for Dummies (by a Dummy): the Good the Bad & the Future (long).

Morpgeus

 INTRO: No flames or other forms of unjust criticism are ever intended by me. I provoke and greatly appreciate all on-topic comments, but will not react to anything even remotely defamatory, and will not join pointless arguments.

This post is meant to help people find out what (some of) the strong and weak points of Age of Conan might be at this point in time.

My humor and style may be ‘on the edge’ but please, make no mistake: my intention is to help the game. If I did not like it, I would not write this.

 

NOTE: I ‘maintain’ an approximately 20 person MMORPG-group. All adult folk having played anywhere from 3 to 40+ MMORPG. I never, ever speak for anyone else - but I do use this ‘group’ as a reference, because I personally think that, on the whole, the reactions I see there are by and large representative of reactions you may find throughout (the more sane) MMORPG communities.

 

ABBREVIATIONS: MMORPG = Mass Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game; AoC = Age of Conan; EQ2 = Everquest 2; CoX = City of Heroes/Villains; AO = Anarchy Online. Can look the rest up yourself 8-) - try MMORPG.COM.

 

Chapter 1: Dummy finds a box.

 

Rules: open box, yes? Try not to break the DVD’s; it is a 14GB download and will be over 20GB on your disk (and more later). That is twice all the content of the biggest install I have seen, EQ2, which has 4 expansions and 3 adventure packs in there. AoC has graphics galore!

Bad news: localization. I had to import pre-order boxes from US to the Netherlands. AoC is big enough to pull this separation-thing off but several friends immediately reacted disgusted. Part of the reason is that 1) this tends to break up groups of international players and is 100% against what many of us consider one of the very best elements of MMORPG: connecting people 2) the moderators locked a thread that discussed this, yelling ‘necro’ when it was one of the most active threads; this type of thing really does not reflect well on any company and 3) one dev actually gave the old and in my personal view quite pointless story on latency; DAoC used to bounce off of South America if I recall correctly. Never a problem and in any case, any given dialup or satellite account in the US will do a lot worse than me over in Europe with 300 ping (they either choke or easily go up to 1700). I would have preferred they said ‘we do it for the money and because it is easier to adapt rulesets to the various laws countries have regarding content’ - at least the arguments would make sense.

I think a smaller slice of a big pie is better than a big slice of a smaller pie: most companies (like SOE for EQ2) very quickly abandon the localized servers idea because whole guilds and a large % of potential players will simply stay away from the title.

By localization, you immediately lost several people from my aforementioned ‘group’ although one just found out about the new Digital Download and got the US version without ordering a box. Should have offered the DD at release I think (no Mammoth for him) but oh well - nice to have it; I will not fault anyone on improving things.

Good news: price reasonable, game has many options and is made in ‘grand scale’ - even if only half of it makes sense right now (crafting mostly pointless) but…that you can (and should) expect to change. Funcom does not strike me as lazy, disinterested or uncapable. Never did (AO). It plays a lot like EQ2 in my view (crafting apart). Not sure on Siege Warfare yet myself (not participated). Oh PvP is consensual.

 

Chapter 2: Dummy makes a character.

 

Rules: Oh I hate rules let us call this one ‘tips’ from now on. Tip? Make one of at least every major class group (e.g. warrior, priest, scout, mage) so you know what they play like. And keep in mind the Destiny quests are (partially) different for each class-group. Also: the only mage without pet(s) is the Herald of Xotli (battle-mage in my view; darn good fun). Keep in mind even within a type-group, playstyle can be wildly different from one char to the next. A Ranger is nothing like an Assassin.

Bad news: I do not think changing an ability from I to II to III to Umpteen is content. I always thought CoX excels here: you never, ever get the same ability twice. Every power you choose (yes, choose, within abundant pools) is unique. WoW may be the worst in this respect. Please note I rather enjoy and admire other aspects of the game - WoW bashers often forget the whole MMORPG genre was acutely revitalised by the Blizzard effort.

Good news: the various characters are quite different in my view and there is room for more. I see no real ‘petless nuker’ yet, for instance. The abilities you get are surprisingly diverse (not quite CoX but more so than EQ) and you will find that your feat trees really do allow you to develop a char the way you want it, within established limits.

 

INTERMISSION ONE: Travel (Dummy gets on a Horse).

 

Tips: if you do not have a pre-order box: watch Heroes Season 1, gain Hiro’s time-travelling ability and get back in time to swipe a pre-order version somewhere. Git y’r Mammoth yesterday!

Bad news: travelling in AoC takes ridiculously long once you have to get to Fields of the Dead. In fact that really means: past level 40. Later it might get worse (no longer running to Noble District which is close to the capitol, but really to areas very far apart). I have already logged off once just out of sheer frustration, doing the same horrible route for the 20^th time or so. It is spectacularly boring and in my view, 2-generations past. CoX does the best job of them all. I do not expect Superjump/sprint in this game but I do expect Funcom to add a TP-to-all-major-zones area in Old Tar pronto (can then recall back to Wayfarer). Travelling is just a time-sink now; this is not worthy of such an otherwise fine MMORPG.

The travel situation is exacerbated by the fact this is the most stingy game I have ever seen: at level 57 I still could not buy the cheapest and slowest of all horses (ok I spent 1 gold on helping build a keep - but you still need 3 to hoof it).

This has to change, and change drastically and sooner rather than later, or I can almost guarantee oodles will leave. The first thing one of my friends (from Hawai; level 30 at the time) said when I asked him what he thought of the game? ‘Eh, too much walking’. Nudge nudge…

Good news: Actually, this particular dummy pre-ordered so he gots himself a War Mammoth, which, there is no doubt about it, is the best-looking darn mount I ever saw in any game, and I was quite happy with my EQ2 Drooltool (Warg). Mammo is slow, it does not corner very well, but as a fringe benefit Horses and Rhino’s tend to get stuck on your tusks (Scrape ‘em off Jim!). It is beautiful, and truth be told I rather like the Rhino’s/Horses too (even if they are, umm, ‘beneath me’).

 

Chapter 3: The World and the Dummy.

 

Tips: you can have 30 quests at any given time (not enough); I suggest you clean out your book when leaving Tortage (Noob Town DeLuxe) and make sure you get the ones that ask you to go to other zones; it will help you because only when you have certain quests will you see the zone transfer locations (exits) on your map in, most notably, Old Tarantia.

Bad news: the team promises the 55+ area for June, and it is not in yet in July. I rather not see a promise than see one get broken. Also the insanely slow travelling will probably reduce your fun at some point. If you can take it, you are in good shape.

Btw this dummy is supposed to be able to fight a group of baddies - well if I have the abilities it will work, if you do not scale them or simply take them away it will not (and oodles will leave). My Dark Templar of  59 has good offense; no complaint. But defense is too low on most any character I play (7 of them). I think a DT would need 20% more, a HoX maybe 50%. A hero should feel heroic, and if the game throws many patrolling characters my way during most any fight, I should be able to handle them.

Good news: the world is a pretty big place and if you like exploring you will eat your heart out, at least until level oh, 52 or so. After that content gets thin for a bit (until next tier) but you can repeat some quests and the team has promised to add new areas.

There is a bit of overpopulation going on in some areas but mostly the game does allow you to escape bad situations when you decide to do so in time. Sometimes you just get into more baddies that stack on you but at least you do not constantly get stunned when trying to run away. Always thought that was silly. Some monsters chase you for a long time; others give up more easily.

 

Chapter 4: Dummy & Friends.

 

Tip: AoC gives you little incentive for grouping, other than simply having a bunch of zones that are not soloable and really require a full or nearly-full team, if you do them at the ‘correct’ level. I still group though; simply because it is fun.

Bad news: it is a great pity that so many heroic instances exist that do not scale: CoX currently has the best scaling-system that I have seen (it adjusts most every  mission to group level and number) and you can even change it (if you want things to be harder). I think it would be well-advised if Funcom changed every normal (not siege etc.) heroic instance to scale just like that. I have oodles of places that I have not been to because I am in a small guild and we rarely have more than 3 or 4 peeps of a precise level (including the apprentice trick; which btw should not be so silly as to deny me quests that all others will be doing…). AoC also badly needs the reverse of the Apprentice system I think: once again, like CoX (SideKicks).

Good news: the general attitude in AoC seems quite ok; I think Wiccana (the server we play on) is the ‘unofficial RP PVE server’ and that may be one reason. There are always muckups but if you stay polite and friendly you will soon find that, for instance, just about anyone will help you with bosses that have a ‘waiting line’ (they will invite you to group with them) and other such unhappy dynamics.

 

INTERMISSION TWO: Bugs (the Dummy is unhappy).

 

No Tips, Bugs Are Always Bad News: The only thing worse than bugs in my view are griefers. The only real griefers I have seen in AoC so far are the Gold Sellers: they get 70+ chars, kill everything in sight for money, thereby upsetting the game economics and usually stealing bosses etc too, do not care about the game or anything but their own profit and then send you dozens of tells and in-game e-mails to bug you even more and try to sell you virtual gold for cash dollars. A despicable activity that sticks in most anyone’s throat. Funcom so far, I hate to say, does an appaling job at eradicating this. It will make me leave if it does not change in say, 1 or 2 months (this is mostly a matter of 1) deciding, as EQ2 finally did, to ban every last one of them instantly, and 2) getting the personnel and instructing them). This cannot be done overnight; I am swallowing my irritation. And venting it .

Other than that, I offer systematic bug reports (/bugreport) and while every update to the game fixes some there are far too many currently in the game that are beyond reasonable, especially if you swing the nerfbat. I have seen dozens of changes to for instance the Necromancer class: I think it would be good if the major problems like critters moving through walls, my Mammoth sinking through bridges, my Combat Rose disappearing, enemies strafing forever on, my Combo’s not working from time to time, NPC dialogue not playing in Tortage, and a zillion other things, would be fixed first. The players of AoC have to put up with a lot because as per usual, one month after release the game is still in beta. I respectfully suggest you, Funcom, fix errors first, then rebalance. In the words of one friend (Colorado) ’if they really want too kill the game there is not a quicker way to do it hopefully they will step back from the nerfs a bit’.

 

Chapter 5: Dummy goes a-craftin’.

Tip: have patience, this whole thing is beta-at-best. The area designs are beautiful, the devs say they are committed, and the basics are there. It just needs about 6 more months of beta .

Bad news: Virtually nothing works completely yet, and many things do not seem to work at all, although improvements are regular now. The very worst thing currently in place in my view is the harvesting for rares: I had found over 350 silver before finding a single Dark/Ruby Silver. Now you want me to go and get more friends (I got half a dozen over here so far) here, who like crafting, and inform them that you have 6 harvest quests for rares that you must finish to progress, and even just one of them can send you to 70+ (on an average of 5/node) locations and not upgrade once? Impossible. A quest that does not update 350 times is the worst grind I have ever seen and I hate to make a sentence like this (I am enough of a pedant without making it) but: ‘and I have seen a few’. I have actually given up on getting a rare leather; I spent 3 day-parts on it.

The other really bad thing is that I have yet to find a person who thinks crafting is very useful. EQ2 excels in crafting: every single crafting class is useful, and most any gear you buy is player-made. That is not to say you cannot find good quest stuff, but the Master Crafter player-made stuff is nearly the best. It makes everyone putting so very much time into crafting feel appreciated and useful.

My Architect is useful but the gear I have seen that others make (weapons & armor mostly) is just cheesy. Why would anyone take the time for it? It should be strongly upgraded in my not-so-humble view…and what a perfect way to make the chars themselves a bit more viable! 8-).

And the last bad thing is that for every 2 nodes you find, you may have to fight 5 baddies (or even more). Horrifically irritating. I am sure they can change this, and would be surprised if they did not.

Good news: the 3 major areas for Harvesting are splendid, and just building a simple keep (although wa-haaay too expensive or rather, the game being too stingy) gives an enormous sense of achievement.

The game can make crafting into something truly rewarding, but I think it has a long way to go, and I think it should start by allowing peeps to craft armor and such at level 5 (Tortage).

 

FINALE: the Future.

 

Immersion: I applaud the team for having come up with and stuck with a world that is perhaps the most immersive in style that I have seen. Sure, a Dark Templar, blood spouting from my body with the merest buff, should not care much for kids-losing-horsees quests . But hey there will be more content and some quests (the one with the evil mage behind a secret wall in Noble District for instance) really do get you into the game style.

Logic of Bags: anyone care to explain to me why a simple bag is more expensive than a full suit of armor, weapons, food and potions combined? No? Thought so . Now cut the silly prices please so we will not see a land filled with loot bags nobody bothers to pick up because the darn backpack space (goes for Resources too) is so hilariously low.

Ok then, now that we are clear on that, I will be nice again .

Progress: I also greatly appreciate that rather than making everybody too strong and then having to swing the nerfbat hard, the team decided to start low and slowly balance. However I think there is already too much decrease, out of what looks like a largely misplaced fear that characters will be too strong. I think most chars are currently (especially at higher levels) too weak; not because a single monster is too strong but because the game really does group monsters, and uses many patrols, and past level 40 or so this is all becoming rather critical. I hear complaints, and these are not would-you-want-some-cheese-with-that whines, these are well-argued points. I hope the team allows a hero(ine) to be just that, and does not proceed further into the direction of weakening characters. I will gladly play several chars to 80 but I have to have fun doing so. If I have to run away all the time, I will just go to a game where I do not need to do that (and not one char will get to 80, let alone play on with siege etc.).

I would rather stay a bit.

 

Any and all reactions that are intented to help the game progress much appreciated,

Lucas aka Pact, Fact, Tact & others on Wiccana server.

 PS Edits by me never on content, only typo's/style etc.

DeadJester

This was good I liked it. Gratz

Kukulcan

not playing the game and im still resisting .. but written very well and an excellent read!

thx for taking the time to do so