Questions about AOC

mmovass

I hear alot of people saying that AOC is 10 times better now than when it was released.



I liked AOC alot, but when they failed to implement almost all of the features they advertised myself and my guild left.



Here are some specific questions I have in regards to progress made on those features which I found to be most annoying/ directly attributed to my leaving the game.



1: performance. I run 2 8800gtx cards in sli, with 8gb of ram and a 2.8 dual core processor and was getting shitty performance from the game. I hear alot of people saying that the performance of the game has improved, but I want to know specifically if they have adressed issues with sli and 64bit users?

DX10?



2: pvp system. When i was playing the pvp system was disabld so as "not to promote ganking and to give everyone a chance to level" which to me sounded like a bunch of german spun horse sh!t. I want to know if they pvp leveling system has been implemented?

Is it any good as compared to the pvp systems of say wow or war?

is it casual friendly?

Is it mini game or world pvp centric?

does it garner any meaningful reward for time invested or would ones time bebetter spent in pve if one was trying to obtain gear etc?

3: gear. When i was playing stats on gear were disabled, so none of the gear was doing much of anything. There was also very little gear to be had. Have they enabled gear to actually work?

Are thier gear options that are meaningful and worthwhile or is it just an afterthought like it was previously?

Does all the gear still look the same, in other words are there different looks for different sets of gear, and do those sets of gear even exist?



4: Grind. I was playjng a barbarian back then, and I noticed that almost all the mobs in this game are in little clusters. I found myself constantly fighting groups of 3-4 guys with a class that was clearly not as strong against a group as say a conquerer. Have they addressed this sort of thing?

Is it still a slow and arduous grind for some classes to level and a cake walk for others?



5:Class balance. How is it now as compared to launch?



6: German spin. This was perhaps one of the worst PR disasters in an mmo launch I hav ever witnessed, I think the last time I saw a launch this bad was in fact anarchy online, which was the same company. Failure to implement at least half of the features advertised at launch is a disgrace.

I am aware that the game has a new head guy who is sort of turning things around, and I want to know if people playing the game feel that this guy is taking the game in a new direction, ie implementing features that were promised, fixing bugs, fixing performance so on and so forth, or do you feel it is more of the same funcom bullsh!t?

If this guy is turning it around (which seems to be the hype) how quickly is he doing so?

How long should one wait to see the actual result of this new guys efforts before passing judgement?

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and respond to this.

AmazingAvery

Originally posted by mmovass


I hear alot of people saying that AOC is 10 times better now than when it was released.



I liked AOC alot, but when they failed to implement almost all of the features they advertised myself and my guild left.



Here are some specific questions I have in regards to progress made on those features which I found to be most annoying/ directly attributed to my leaving the game.



1: performance. I run 2 8800gtx cards in sli, with 8gb of ram and a 2.8 dual core processor and was getting shitty performance from the game. I hear alot of people saying that the performance of the game has improved, but I want to know specifically if they have adressed issues with sli and 64bit users?

DX10?



2: pvp system. When i was playing the pvp system was disabld so as "not to promote ganking and to give everyone a chance to level" which to me sounded like a bunch of german spun horse sh!t. I want to know if they pvp leveling system has been implemented?

Is it any good as compared to the pvp systems of say wow or war?

is it casual friendly?

Is it mini game or world pvp centric?

does it garner any meaningful reward for time invested or would ones time bebetter spent in pve if one was trying to obtain gear etc?
3: gear. When i was playing stats on gear were disabled, so none of the gear was doing much of anything. There was also very little gear to be had. Have they enabled gear to actually work?

Are thier gear options that are meaningful and worthwhile or is it just an afterthought like it was previously?

Does all the gear still look the same, in other words are there different looks for different sets of gear, and do those sets of gear even exist?



4: Grind. I was playjng a barbarian back then, and I noticed that almost all the mobs in this game are in little clusters. I found myself constantly fighting groups of 3-4 guys with a class that was clearly not as strong against a group as say a conquerer. Have they addressed this sort of thing?

Is it still a slow and arduous grind for some classes to level and a cake walk for others?



5:Class balance. How is it now as compared to launch?



6: German spin. This was perhaps one of the worst PR disasters in an mmo launch I hav ever witnessed, I think the last time I saw a launch this bad was in fact anarchy online, which was the same company. Failure to implement at least half of the features advertised at launch is a disgrace.

I am aware that the game has a new head guy who is sort of turning things around, and I want to know if people playing the game feel that this guy is taking the game in a new direction, ie implementing features that were promised, fixing bugs, fixing performance so on and so forth, or do you feel it is more of the same funcom bullsh!t?

If this guy is turning it around (which seems to be the hype) how quickly is he doing so?

How long should one wait to see the actual result of this new guys efforts before passing judgement?


Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and respond to this.

 

1. SLI and neither CrossFire is officially supported. However, I have both in two rigs in my household the situation is one that it does provide a boost. It is not equal to twice the amount but is still a boost. I am sure you are aware that there are plenty of games out there where the SLi boost can really be seen and where it can't. For some truth - Age of Conan will be the first game ever to use CUDA when the patch comes off test server and it hits the live servers. The Patch also contained a line that said something like ageofconan64dx10.exe conspiracy theories suggest that a 64bit client is being looked at - but it is not in the game. DX10 is on test server right now and is being optimized in update patches to the main patch. Performance for me is with everything enabled with SLI'd 8800 GTS' in DX10 compared to DX9 is a drop of about 5 FPS at this point in time. There are many users on the test server forums who have conducted experiments which show less CPU usage in DX10 over DX9. Summing up 64 executable may or may not be on the horizon. DX10 is here and looking and working well right now for many. Recent driver updates nVidia and ATI - if you read especially the last nVidia one you will see a peformance boost in games with SLI and something similar with ATI.
2. The PvP system is in, working and fun. It has dramitcally prevented ganking as there is now a consequence to your actions in PvP in game. The fudamentals are still there if your comparing WoW or WAR to AoC - the PvP system in AoC is another level of consequence not mechanics in physicallity. Skill > Gear in AoC which is why the hardcore reside there still. In Melee no autoattack, directional movements, perfect animations and response time, no superhuman jumping -  basically it is not an old, rehashed style like WAR and WoW. You can click off autoface and autotarget if your a mage in AoC, as you know you have the benefit of cone shaped healing and spells and the Mages / Healers are useful in combat.. The actual consequence system itself  was put in place in an effort to prevent high level players from interfering with lower levels' ability to continue leveling their characters. Once a low level hits you they are a free kill. You can fight back without gaining Murder Points. However, if they are not grouped, or one hasn't hit you first, you will gain MP so you have to pay attention. You have a system that penalizes those who play outside of normally acceptable behavior. It is actually kind of fun playing a murderer at least of low-mid lvl. My only gripe is for all the negative effects it might be nice to have the odd upside included for those that do decide to try and live outside of the system. Guards are there to prevent campers killing people coming off the rez, buying pots or zoning in. Notice how they're only placed around rez pads and merchants. Some ppl complain about them but the soloution is to move the fight away from them lol. The in's and out's can be read on the official website, in practice it can be fun being a murderer and a pain in the ass to. PvP at it's peak and in all it's glory is in sieges, there is more gratification in holding onto something you have helped build up and repair / protect. Rather than the static keeps in WoW / WAR. Keep bonus' are worthy but could be better. PvP Gear is just for PvP, it is not really good for PvE.
3. Gear does and has always worked. This is what the Game Director says "With that in mind we have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for a shift in the range and meaningfulness of character statistics and items. So what exactly does that mean? Well, firstly it does not mean that we are going straight to the other end of the spectrum and making items the ‘be all and end all’ of progression. We will though be making items and statistics more important to your characters. Currently the items account for a maximum contribution of 25% of your characters total in any given statistic or ability (if you had all the stat modifications available for that statistic equipped, which in itself isn’t always practical). We are aiming to increase that so that your statistics from items contribute closer to 50% (although it will vary slightly from class to class), while also adjusting the formulas so that ability statistics (strength, stamina etc) contribute more meaningfully to your visible abilities, like health and Damage per Second. Items do have an effect on those calculations at the moment, but just in numbers, and that mean it isn’t always all that visible or impactful given the vagaries of an inherently random roll system. The most telling factor is probably that many players felt these statistics were ‘broken’ when in fact they were working correctly, they just didn’t contribute enough of a variance for players to see or feel it properly in combat. Evolving this part of the game is therefore something we deem very important, and something we are actively working on right now. So what does it mean to the game-play? It means that items will have more varied and more meaningful statistics. Existing items will be modified appropriately and you won’t have to go and find new gear (of course it might mean you want to, once the statistics start to be more meaningful!). We are aiming for the conversion to the new system to feel like players have not lost any relative power in their game-play experience. The key difference will be that if you don’t have your items equipped, or relatively up to date with your level, you will start to notice the difference! We feel this is important for the ongoing progression in the game to be more meaningful and we are not doing it lightly. It will go through extensive testing and feedback cycles (this letter being the start of that part of the process!). We genuinely want to ensure that we have the ability to deliver a much more meaningful feeling of progression and achievement for players, but without going too far away from the action elements that makes the unique combat system what it is. "
   
    
4. Grind in the way you put it is really down to the uniqueness of how each class is different. Grind is something not really mentioned a lot with AoC in terms of getting to level 80. Obviously some classes have better CC than other at the lack of another area. It is just the way they are made. Healers are not neccessarily squishy for example. Babarians have one of the highest DPS in frenzy mode in the game. Conq has tanking abilities whilst Barbs dont really.
5. Well there has been several dozen updates, I reckon there are only a couple of classes left that need some more tuning. It is always ongoing though. Guild Wars a game that has been out for years recently had a 4 page class balance patch. Try an official forum search for better examples.
6. Here is a link to the search for all posts made by the Game Director : forums.ageofconan.com/search.php if the indication from susequent posts from the community is a measure of how well he is doing then things are most excellent! The last 3 patches can be a testiment to the current direction. All well received.

xpiher

Originally posted by mmovass


I hear alot of people saying that AOC is 10 times better now than when it was released.



I liked AOC alot, but when they failed to implement almost all of the features they advertised myself and my guild left.



Here are some specific questions I have in regards to progress made on those features which I found to be most annoying/ directly attributed to my leaving the game.



1: performance. I run 2 8800gtx cards in sli, with 8gb of ram and a 2.8 dual core processor and was getting shitty performance from the game. I hear alot of people saying that the performance of the game has improved, but I want to know specifically if they have adressed issues with sli and 64bit users?

DX10?



2: pvp system. When i was playing the pvp system was disabld so as "not to promote ganking and to give everyone a chance to level" which to me sounded like a bunch of german spun horse sh!t. I want to know if they pvp leveling system has been implemented?

Is it any good as compared to the pvp systems of say wow or war?

is it casual friendly?

Is it mini game or world pvp centric?

does it garner any meaningful reward for time invested or would ones time bebetter spent in pve if one was trying to obtain gear etc?
3: gear. When i was playing stats on gear were disabled, so none of the gear was doing much of anything. There was also very little gear to be had. Have they enabled gear to actually work?

Are thier gear options that are meaningful and worthwhile or is it just an afterthought like it was previously?

Does all the gear still look the same, in other words are there different looks for different sets of gear, and do those sets of gear even exist?



4: Grind. I was playjng a barbarian back then, and I noticed that almost all the mobs in this game are in little clusters. I found myself constantly fighting groups of 3-4 guys with a class that was clearly not as strong against a group as say a conquerer. Have they addressed this sort of thing?

Is it still a slow and arduous grind for some classes to level and a cake walk for others?



5:Class balance. How is it now as compared to launch?



6: German spin. This was perhaps one of the worst PR disasters in an mmo launch I hav ever witnessed, I think the last time I saw a launch this bad was in fact anarchy online, which was the same company. Failure to implement at least half of the features advertised at launch is a disgrace.

I am aware that the game has a new head guy who is sort of turning things around, and I want to know if people playing the game feel that this guy is taking the game in a new direction, ie implementing features that were promised, fixing bugs, fixing performance so on and so forth, or do you feel it is more of the same funcom bullsh!t?

If this guy is turning it around (which seems to be the hype) how quickly is he doing so?

How long should one wait to see the actual result of this new guys efforts before passing judgement?


Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and respond to this.

 

1) All, or most, performance bugs have been fixed and the game rarely crashes anymore. I haven't had a CTD since sep

2) The pvp system works .... sorta. High lvl characters can still grife, but gifeing happens by lower lvl character giving high level characters murder points. On Tyranny, this happens often enough to be annoying, but not often enough to be game breaking. However, even if you do get murder points they are easy to grind off. There aren't anymore guilds actively grifing players any more because the murder system made it hard to do (seprate respads and expensive travel). The PvP in the game is guild open FFA. Mini games are done, but its ually pug vs guild and most people don't bother with them because other than guild points you don't get more exp for doing mini games, as it should be. If you love mini games for PvP then WAR may be a better choice for you.

3) Stats on the gear has never been disabled; however, since the game is player skill focused gear makes a little difference. Upgrading gear from lvl 50 to 80 makes a difference, but not from lvl  50 to lvl 60. They are going to be chaning this somewhat around Feb but the difference in gear in crease from say t0 to full t3 is only going to be like 10% or so.

4) Every class can solo to 80 easily, you just have to lear to play it. If you think this game has grind then you haven't played many MMOs. This game is proabably the easiest to level in. And no, they'll never change the cluster of mobs because all attacks have AoE, you just have to learn to pull differently in this game. That being said, grouping and questing are the easiest ways to level in this game.

5) Currently, there are two class people favor to play in 1v1 pvp necro and sin. People claim these classes are OP, but they only really shine in 1v1. While they are usefull in group battles, they actually can die quite easily. However, necro is currently "bugged" and can do instant Spell Weaving to do crits with grip of death. Once that is fixed, then the necro will be fine.

6) I disagree with you on this points. They did spin the game, but they didn't fail to launch it with half the advertised features. The only thing the game was missing at launch, which was said to be in launch during beta was DX10 (which was pulled 2 months before launch), drunkin brawling, and the PvP  system (again rebuilt to meet the needs of the player). Everything else was in the game, although buggy. Yes the new game director is doing all what you are asking, but the main difference between him and the old one is that he talks to us in the forums are a simi regular basis. If something goes wrong, he tells us why, and a when it should be fixed, although vague because peopel are like "you said it would be done now its not fail"

Unfinished

Ten times Zero is still Zero.

 

When I asked the folks who were in my AOC Guild why they left, they didnt say CTD, bugs or missing content. They all said the same thing " The game wasn't fun"

Belgaraath

Originally posted by Unfinished


Ten times Zero is still Zero.
 
When I asked the folks who were in my AOC Guild why they left, they didnt say CTD, bugs or missing content. They all said the same thing " The game wasn't fun"

 

You are not helping anyone and Im wondering if this is an illness. Your last 2 months or more  of posts are only in this forum and they all basically say the same thing.  This is the first time I have ever commented on anyone in particular in what is obviously  a full time job to confuse new people like myself who come into these forums to try to be objective and learn the pros and cons about things and then form there own opinion. I personally think that the moderators should review the history of certain posters and ban them for what is obviously an attempt just to slander regardless of progress made since Launch. This has nothing to do with providing negative feedback to allow people to see your viewpoint. Your only goal is to provide the same posts over and over again. Please look outside your window, see that there is an outside, and get some fresh air.

mmovass

Thanks to those who took the time to reply to my questions.

Based on your feedback I may have to give this game a second look in the near future.



/salute

 

Elsabolts

Hope it works out for you but be prepared for dissapointment.

Unfinished

Originally posted by keithianw

Originally posted by Unfinished


Ten times Zero is still Zero.
 
When I asked the folks who were in my AOC Guild why they left, they didnt say CTD, bugs or missing content. They all said the same thing " The game wasn't fun"

 

You are not helping anyone and Im wondering if this is an illness. Your last 2 months or more  of posts are only in this forum and they all basically say the same thing.  This is the first time I have ever commented on anyone in particular in what is obviously  a full time job to confuse new people like myself who come into these forums to try to be objective and learn the pros and cons about things and then form there own opinion. I personally think that the moderators should review the history of certain posters and ban them for what is obviously an attempt just to slander regardless of progress made since Launch. This has nothing to do with providing negative feedback to allow people to see your viewpoint. Your only goal is to provide the same posts over and over again. Please look outside your window, see that there is an outside, and get some fresh air.

 

Interesting, what about the folks who spam the same "game is so much better than launch" and 'news' about AoC that is the exact same sound bites for the past 6 months? They seem to poliferate this board a lot more than the detractors. Many have 2K posts in the last 2-3 months. But I guess they get a pass cause they  troll WAR threads.

 

 

chryses

1: performance. I run 2 8800gtx cards in sli, with 8gb of ram and a 2.8 dual core processor and was getting shitty performance from the game. I hear alot of people saying that the performance of the game has improved, but I want to know specifically if they have adressed issues with sli and 64bit users?

DX10?

Runs like a dream on my PC and I only have one 8800GT card with 4 gig of DDR3 ram.  No CTD's or freezes.  Seriously none for several weeks.  FPS rangers between 40-65FPS and I play on high settings.

2: pvp system. When i was playing the pvp system was disabld so as "not to promote ganking and to give everyone a chance to level" which to me sounded like a bunch of german spun horse sh!t. I want to know if they pvp leveling system has been implemented?

PVP system implemented.  I find it to be fair enough.  You get murder points for attacking without cause and  once you are a murderer you have to get rid of your rating by killing NPCs or missions.  It is a pain in the arse if you are a murderer as you cant enter cities.

Is it any good as compared to the pvp systems of say wow or war?

is it casual friendly?

Is it mini game or world pvp centric?

You get XP in PvP and you can use in world and mini games.  However you dont get murder pts in mini games.

does it garner any meaningful reward for time invested or would ones time bebetter spent in pve if one was trying to obtain gear etc?

PVP gear looks uber and I am dying to get some so yes its worth it.

3: gear. When i was playing stats on gear were disabled, so none of the gear was doing much of anything. There was also very little gear to be had. Have they enabled gear to actually work?

Are thier gear options that are meaningful and worthwhile or is it just an afterthought like it was previously?

Does all the gear still look the same, in other words are there different looks for different sets of gear, and do those sets of gear even exist?

They have added more sets of armour and you can find recipe drops now and find armour drops from certain mobs.  Cant answer on gear stats

4: Grind. I was playjng a barbarian back then, and I noticed that almost all the mobs in this game are in little clusters. I found myself constantly fighting groups of 3-4 guys with a class that was clearly not as strong against a group as say a conquerer. Have they addressed this sort of thing?

Is it still a slow and arduous grind for some classes to level and a cake walk for others?

I have played 4-5 classes and I find toughness different for each.  e.g. PoM is better against groups.  The assassin is much better one on one.

5:Class balance. How is it now as compared to launch?

6: German spin. This was perhaps one of the worst PR disasters in an mmo launch I hav ever witnessed, I think the last time I saw a launch this bad was in fact anarchy online, which was the same company. Failure to implement at least half of the features advertised at launch is a disgrace.

I am aware that the game has a new head guy who is sort of turning things around, and I want to know if people playing the game feel that this guy is taking the game in a new direction, ie implementing features that were promised, fixing bugs, fixing performance so on and so forth, or do you feel it is more of the same funcom bullsh!t?

If this guy is turning it around (which seems to be the hype) how quickly is he doing so?

Put it this way I was going to quit about 2 months ago and the amount of stuff that has come into the game has been quite remarkable.  Ymirs Pass, more missions, PVP system, Gear, Crafting changes.  It seems they are listening to players and trying to make the best changes.  Going forward there are high level single player dungeon and group duneons.  Plus resources specific for keep builds and fully lootable off other players so now wars should start over them. 

How long should one wait to see the actual result of this new guys efforts before passing judgement?

Similar to the above answer but the feeling is its becoming a solid game going forward and one sign is the number of players entering our guild.  I have not seen 15-25 members online regularly since launch but its happening most nights now.  Plus plenty of new players joining.  

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and respond to this.

 

Another point: The game has improved massively IMO however it still is not the best and only game out there.  If you join a good guild then you will have some fun.  Server merges are coming so population should be concentrated a lot considering I see plenty of players on my server.   The biggest improvement is performance and the quality you can get out of this game and still have those high FPS.  They proved that an MMO can be gorgeous and still have smooth playability.