Mandatory storyline. (immersion killer for me. I play an MMO to make my own char, not be told I'm 'The One!'.)
Mandatory, not skippable, single-area, repetitive 20 level tutorial. (Kills the desire to re-roll after the 4th or 5th time)
Loading screen type zoning. (immersion killer)
Entire game is instanced. (immersion killer)
Market/crafting/economic/chat systems either simplistic, barebones or buggy. (kills community)
Small world. (boring)
Lack of a meaningful death penalty. (mkes pvp feel pointless)
No Stygian tanks. (pointlessly limiting)
But most of all: Launching incomplete, not admitting it, then trying to complete development in a live environment without ever telling the players which systems are complete, which are incomplete and which were just put in to get the game launched but will be replaced as soon as they can get around to it.
No seamless world as it should have been. Moved away from Conan lore to much. Not enough class diversity. Not enough armor and weapons choices. The way mounts are handled in the game is ludacris. Game could have been so much better.
I loved the game but for me the biggest reason to quit was lack of armor/weapons variety. Everyone looked the same. It was like as if everyone else is my clone in AOC world.
If they add more customization with new expansion i would definitely come back for second try.
Poll doesnt fit me, because I did not play at launch - and I started 12/08. Since then Ive had virtually no issues ingame, besides the ones people experience globally after patch day here and there -- in which those get rectified w/ hotfixes by the next day, and we all move on.
I was one of the peeps though who wouldnt even try it - My best firend insisted I play w/ him, and try it - its awesome etc , h said -- Im glad he did, becuase I was like everyone else - it had a bitter launch and users were bitter - and it had bad tastes in peoples mouth wihch till this day still comes out on forums etc as current.
AoC is an awesome game. I enjoy it immensely, look forward to raiding in T3 soon!
The poll has pretty poor options. Where's the option "Played at launch, tried trial in 2009" ?
To me it seems the major problem with AoC is management of it. Things take way too long to get implemented and priorities seem just really retarded. At least the communication is improving now that there isn't many people left to play, but that doesn't seem to lead anywhere either. Just take a look at Stamina vs Mana issue and you should catch my drift.
I loved the graphics and the combat and the pvp. I hated the fact that the world is TINY. There is no sense at all of being in a world, its more like being connected to different areas that don't smoothly connect. That said, i havent played since 3 months after release, but that was the major flaw for me: world was too small.
I tried at start Aoc and quited in 34 lvl with my barbarian and went back to wow. Recently i resubscribed and after 4 days i quited again andd went back to wow.
Now i tried to realise why.
Grafix are great as u said.
Music is great also.
Atmosphere and setting too.
Combat system has great cool animations ,very nice fatalities and stuff too.
Classes are better and more complex than wow.
SO..Why the hell i went back to wow twice?
1.Combat system is somehow tiring ,since the player has to play piano in keyboard to do all these combos. I never managed to play evrytime more than 2 -3 hours of continual play in Aoc simply cause my hands/fingers getting tired. I was yelling during Aoc development that the combat system should be made complex yes,but EASY to use..More in the standards of oblivion (Lef tmouse button attack,right mouse button block/parry) . If u want to put many combos in a game u dont have to spam your keyboard necessary. Perfect example is Severance bLade of Darkness (much more easier combo keysetups).
2. Pve instancing. I found myself in a 35 instance with 4 more players. Most of the guys including me were just involved in a massive spamming attacks during the whole instance. Its just the way game is made. Rarely u try to choose the tactical aspect of this game simple because the game gives u the right to attack all times very fast. They SHOULD make the combat SLOWER. I mean by that that every attack should cost alot more energy so there would be a tactical aspect from player's side.Otherwise combat pve and pvp becomes a spam fest!!!!!!
3.Lack of endgame serious pvp with ladder system that gives the player a motivation to go endgame pvp. Somethign similar with wow arenas. Yes guild vs guild ,sieges attack other guilds,mass pvp is good,great for some,but unfair and unbalanced for many others too. I like both pvp types but they should have organised and balanced arena style pvp system too with rewards etc.
4. From what i read pve endgame is loads behind compared to other big titles too.
At the end someone can notice that whats happening in Aoc is a symptom of our times.
Great graficks, little work from devs,instanced worlds, instead of a massive solid well designed world, and LESS focus on GAMEPLAY. Its like their target is to impress 5-15 years old kids audience only. And this goes to almost all developers not just Funcom.
and LESS focus on GAMEPLAY. Its like their target is to impress 5-15 years old kids audience only. And this goes to almost all developers not just Funcom.
Hi, I just had to react to your last sentence.
What do you call gameplay? For me, the gameplay in AoC is above any that I have ever seen in a RPG, it's the most fun and the most "deep" in the sense that the more you play, the better you get at it.
You can really tell the difference between a guy who's been playing for 3 months or 1 year thanks to the way he moves, lands combos etc.
Basically, it's a lot more skill based, which I bleieve is a more interesting GAMEPLAY than many other games. As much as I like to criticise AoC, the GAMEPLAY you talk about is the best thing it has, it's real time, fast, and responsive.
Playing a melee in AoC feels much more realistic than any other RPG I tested before, including WoW.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
Well I haven't played in a long time but here's why I quit AoC,
1.
2.
3.
4.
And before the fanbois jump to report me I was answering the ops question but just with a more graphical way, for those that are offended by these graphical representations of what I think is actually wrong with AoC I'll do a simple version.
1. Siege warfare has been bust or just non existant since launch.
2. The PvP EXP system is rubbish and full of silly exploits and really just another rubbish grind.
3. I and everyone else that pre ordered was made promises by Funcom and they just didn't materialize, all we got was a rubbish game and some excuses that quite frankly would insult the intelligence of a lobotomised chimpanzee!
4. The people in charge just don't care and really refuse to address the issues most pertenant to the playerbase.
Disclaimer: This post and these pictures were not intended to flame/troll or offend any MMORPG.com/Aoc user or anyone at Funcom and are only a representation of my reply to the thread creators question. If anyone either living or dead is offended by this it is purely coincidental and was not intended. If that person or persons continues to feel offence after reading this please PM me and I shall issue a full apology and consider editing this post.
Agricola
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
AoC came too early. The combat, graphics, lore, quests everything was very good and i really enjoyed the parts they had finished but lots of things were not finished. They should have waited for at least a year. That combined with the lies they told, put them at their current stage. They'll probably make the game semi-f2p after the expansion, something like what they have in anarchy online. It never will be what it could have been though, which is just.
You are that type of a player I dislike the most in AoC. You just practically want Aoc to become an another wow clone with dull and boring combat which is all about ludicrous dueling.
It is a pity because AoC could have been a really successful MMORPG with a godd amount of subscribers if they'd only listened to themselves when making it and listened to the community. If you took away the instancing and allowed more freedom along with the bloodmoney system it would be great. As it stands apart from Tortage most of it is broke or just laklustre suffering from lack of players. Tortage is the best part of it and that to be fair is little more than a single player experience. Tortage is like a KotOR clone and the rest is Guild Wars but full of broken features and not enough people playing.
I think Funcom needs to learn some more lessons from this debacle while they make Secret World, since it seems that one shambolic release (AO) wasn't enough. Perhaps after two duds they'll finally get it right? Third time lucky?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
I can sort of tell you what is wrong with AOC,in a round about way lol.
First up i am no AOC hater,i think the game is ok.One big reason i quit,was there wa no players,hardly ever and i was logged on for long periods of time.My guild had over 100 members,but never more than maybe 5 at a time.I did join later ,so most of the members i am sure had moved on.
What i found was missing from AOC was taking each aspect of the game a little further.It also did certain things that bothers me,as when i play a MMORPG i want an open world,not so many things locked out.
If i need to make a list i can start by saying Gear needs to be involved a lot more with customization/stats,quite often i felt like i could be totally naked and it would not make any difference at all,gear felt useless,albeit i never had any elite gear ,but still,it needed to be better designed.
I never got to notice any crafting,is it even in the game?If it is,it needs to be implemented from level 1.
The quests although had this cool feel like i was involved in a living world with a NPC/NPC's would end up coming off as poorly done or unrealistic in the end.They also had a very linear feel to them,like you had to do a certain quest to be able to speak to a certain NPC or enter a certain hut/house.An example of a quest idea that bothered me was when this NPC needed to kill another NPC and had a story behind it cool.The problem was when the NPC leads me into the attack it just stands there like it is a zombie puppet.That removes all realism and immersion for me.
The combat is not bad at all,but i did not get the same feel of needing any thought at all,basically decision making was done in the stats/ skills tree placement when leveling up my character.IDK you really cannot pinpoint the major flaws,it is just a game that has a feel of not doing things quite good enough.
If i had to use a real life scenario to describe AOC ,i would use cars as a example.Say you really like Mustang GT's,ok pretend AOC is a Mustang GT.The problem is it comes with a 6 cyclinder and ONLY in the colour of RUST.So you can see ,yes there will be some people that still like it,but for many others ,it just falls short of expectations.
If i had very little choice in games to choose ,i would not feel out of place playing AOC,it is not that bad,i am just picky ,a real stickler,looking for that 8 cyclinder and Candy Apple red colour.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
and LESS focus on GAMEPLAY. Its like their target is to impress 5-15 years old kids audience only. And this goes to almost all developers not just Funcom.
Hi, I just had to react to your last sentence.
What do you call gameplay? For me, the gameplay in AoC is above any that I have ever seen in a RPG, it's the most fun and the most "deep" in the sense that the more you play, the better you get at it.
You can really tell the difference between a guy who's been playing for 3 months or 1 year thanks to the way he moves, lands combos etc.
Basically, it's a lot more skill based, which I bleieve is a more interesting GAMEPLAY than many other games. As much as I like to criticise AoC, the GAMEPLAY you talk about is the best thing it has, it's real time, fast, and responsive.
Playing a melee in AoC feels much more realistic than any other RPG I tested before, including WoW.
If the gameplay in Aoc is better than any other RPG u ever played then it is obvious u havent played any good rpg's so far. In terms of manual combat system yes.. AOc is the best try out there so far coming second to Oblivion but Oblivion is sigle player rpg ofc.Some ddo fans will disagree ofc claiming that Aoc 's combat is more spamming and less tactical than Ddo's.
Surely its skilled based ,xpirienced Aoc players will handle combat better ,but to become one u must endure the tiring spam of keys . I explained in my thread how they could very easilly implement lots of combat moves and combos without needed the player to play piano on keyboard.
As for wha u said about playing a melee class in aoc is more realistic than wow well yes sure ,i agree. I Always prefered manual combat system vs wow auto-attack system+spaming few skills. Only u cant really compared due its diferrent combat style. If you want my opinion wow's combat thoguh is far more fluid and works better especially in pve,which in Aoc seemed to me a lot dull and silly spamming abilities. If they find a way to increase the cost of energy permove so the players wont be able to spamm atatacks and think more their next move carefully(its called tactical combat) i d agree. Not to mention block / parry system in aoc is tragic till now.
It is a pity because AoC could have been a really successful MMORPG with a godd amount of subscribers if they'd only listened to themselves when making it and listened to the community. If you took away the instancing and allowed more freedom along with the bloodmoney system it would be great. As it stands apart from Tortage most of it is broke or just laklustre suffering from lack of players. Tortage is the best part of it and that to be fair is little more than a single player experience. Tortage is like a KotOR clone and the rest is Guild Wars but full of broken features and not enough people playing. I think Funcom needs to learn some more lessons from this debacle while they make Secret World, since it seems that one shambolic release (AO) wasn't enough. Perhaps after two duds they'll finally get it right? Third time lucky?
great posts Agri but I don't think the graphics engine is efficient enough to allow much freedom of movement. Also open world PvP requires complex rule sets and a fine degree of class balance, which quite frankly is well above Funcom's design skill level. I really do think they were self deceived into thinking they were delivering a fine steak, when as you pointed out it was a bad burger. Pretty graphics will only get you so far, A complex game design is what keeps players and that is where AoC fails miserably
and LESS focus on GAMEPLAY. Its like their target is to impress 5-15 years old kids audience only. And this goes to almost all developers not just Funcom.
Hi, I just had to react to your last sentence.
((())) (see what i did there? it's easy to edit quat u quote so there is no huge wall of texte )
Playing a melee in AoC feels much more realistic than any other RPG I tested before, including WoW.
((()))
Surely its skilled based ,xpirienced Aoc players will handle combat better ,but to become one u must endure the tiring spam of keys . I explained in my thread how they could very easilly implement lots of combat moves and combos without needed the player to play piano on keyboard.
As for wha u said about playing a melee class in aoc is more realistic than wow well yes sure ,i agree. I Always prefered manual combat system vs wow auto-attack system+spaming few skills. (((())))
Hello again !
First off, any type of game which requires skill, requires spaming keys. I have no idea what you mean by what you are writing )
Secondly, I did play all Oblivion and loved it, and AoC combat > Oblivion by a lonnnnnng way. But you can't really compare it can you?
Thirdly, the best thing about AoC IMO is the pvp aspect, this is where the combat system shines. Obviously, you don't need much brains to kill a mob and hit attack, but fighting another skilled melee player with this system is joy!
Lasly, it's extremely realistic and immersive. When a guardian kocks me to the floor, I practically feel it in my bones, and when I am the one chopping someone's head off, or knocking a group of enemies down, I'"m in there, I'm my character.
That's why I cant let you say that the gameplay in AoC sucks.
There are MANY things that suck in AoC, no pvp content, no players, un balanced classes, lag, latency, imcompatibility with certain (mainly ATI) graphic cards, zone crashes, many people cheating and exploiting, DX10 not functionnig properly, bugs in so many areas that I can't just list them...
But the GAMEPLAY fucking owns, it's the best out there.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it. Simple.
Bugged sieges full of exploits, is that not something wrong that has been wrong since launch? I think bugs and exploits count as something wrong with the game, if not how else would you describe it, if it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it. Simple.
Bugged sieges full of exploits, is that not something wrong that has been wrong since launch? I think bugs and exploits count as something wrong with the game, if not how else would you describe it, if it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
That does not constitue the phrase "something wrong with it", if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with every game ever released. And some thing worng with every thing more or less ever created.
So where you want to start or stop my friend........................
I have a sub for AoC that still has a few months left on it, and still I can't seem to stay on for longer than an hour or two. It's really sad when you're in your first trail month of Aion and you decide to get a gamecard for AoC because of boredom, and end up playing lifetime membership to Lotro.
1. Combat style. There is no "My opinion is right on this one" but the combat system is an acquired taste, which does indeed limit the player base. When the next gen of mmo's come out though, I don't see it carrying over. It is still button masher...but more like" hit A, A, B, X to pull of this combo" button masher. There has got to be something better out there than either Aion or AoC combat.
2. Small areas. I feel like AoC zones are a giant facade. At first glimpse they are these magnificent sprawling jungle vista's. But upon further inspection they are just jungle vista's with a painted backdrop. It is absolutely beautiful, but the small boxed areas do create claustrophobia.
3. Bad publicity. I'm going to get a lot of hate, but I just recently played Vanguard. And you know what? It wasn't half bad. Just like Van, AoC is a victim of a poor PR and planning. People won't have actually played the game, yet they will remember "that awful launch". It's not really fair...but look at what it also did to Van.
4. Bland items. The way you appear on Tortage, you'll appear later in game. There is some cool gear out there, but it looks awfully lot like the item you just got rid of.
5. They really need to flush out the PvP. As it is now, it is also an acquired taste. If you like it, cheers, if you don't....you really wont. It reminds me a bit of shadowbane with a ganking style of UO. Quite a few people like this. There is 0 learning curve for newcomers. I remember my first time in the Tortage pvp area (which is the first glimpse new players will get) and it was just a bunch of 20's sitting around farming lowbies. This is not the first impression of pvp you want to give the average new subscriber. It's the quickest way to kill new members, is give them a foul taste early on.
My option wasn't in the poll. I played it a bit in beta, but didn't actually buy it til' this year(7 bucks!). It has great combat, animations, and graphics in general. Some pretty good quests, and great music. I played for about 3 months, got bored and quit with an HoX at 72.
What's wrong with it is...
Nowhere near enough content for an MMO. You have 3 different starter areas after Tortage with unique content that gets you from level 20 to 30-ish. All the content from there is the same for every player. This is what prompted Funcom to give you a freebie lvl 50 character with the itemization release.
In terms of things to do, aside from the combat, everything lacks luster at best, clunky and not worth doing at worst. Crafting is a bore, and also a pain because you have nowhere near enough inventory space. While this was helped greatly by the itemization patch, it's still a bore, and thus not worth using your inventory space to do.
While the zones are decent size, the world still seems small. When it's all said and done, it just doesn't feel like a world at all. The instances provide plenty of immersion, and that's where the game shines, I think. I'm normally not a complainer regarding full world instancing, but having to load from zone to zone strikes a hefty blow against the "big world" experience.
With the box going so cheap these days, I still recommend it to people. But I recommend it as a GAME, not as an MMO. It just doesn't have enough content to keep people coming back. But IMO, the Tortage experience on its own is worth a $10 box. It's just not worth paying $15 a month to repeat that same content over and over.
My hope is that with Secret World, they'll take the terrific animations and good stuff from this game, find somebody who knows how to make a MMO, and build a WORLD where there's much more worth doing than just combat. I think SW's contemporary setting provides alot of opportunity to do that.
There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it. Simple.
(()) it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
That does not constitue the phrase "something wrong with it", if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with every game ever released. And some thing worng with every thing more or less ever created.
So where you want to start or stop my friend........................
please gtfo troll
if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with everything... what kind of a point are you making lol
obviously it's a question of measure, and there is many things wrong with AoC (more than is deemed acceptable by most people)
I can't believe I actually replied
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it. Simple.
Bugged sieges full of exploits, is that not something wrong that has been wrong since launch? I think bugs and exploits count as something wrong with the game, if not how else would you describe it, if it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
That does not constitue the phrase "something wrong with it", if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with every game ever released. And some thing worng with every thing more or less ever created.
So where you want to start or stop my friend........................
I agree with you, just that you made the statement that
"There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it.
Simple."
Really you should have said "there is nothing wrong with AoC in my opinion" but you seemed to be telling everyone that there was nothing wrong with bugged sieges and broken quests and exploits. Also if I buy the box and pay a monthly fee why shouldn't I nit pick? Also I don't see that been irritated by absent features promised and broken sieges and quests as nit picking, I just want them fixed.
Where do I start? I start at broken quest, bugs that impede intended gameplay and exploits. Where do I stop? When there is nothing wrong with the game in my opinion.
You're right that there is something wrong with every game out there, including AoC. It's not my fault, your fault or any of the subscribers fault, it is the fault of the company that developed the game and continues to attempt to do so.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Comments
These are things that bugged me:
Mandatory storyline. (immersion killer for me. I play an MMO to make my own char, not be told I'm 'The One!'.)
Mandatory, not skippable, single-area, repetitive 20 level tutorial. (Kills the desire to re-roll after the 4th or 5th time)
Loading screen type zoning. (immersion killer)
Entire game is instanced. (immersion killer)
Market/crafting/economic/chat systems either simplistic, barebones or buggy. (kills community)
Small world. (boring)
Lack of a meaningful death penalty. (mkes pvp feel pointless)
No Stygian tanks. (pointlessly limiting)
But most of all: Launching incomplete, not admitting it, then trying to complete development in a live environment without ever telling the players which systems are complete, which are incomplete and which were just put in to get the game launched but will be replaced as soon as they can get around to it.
No seamless world as it should have been. Moved away from Conan lore to much. Not enough class diversity. Not enough armor and weapons choices. The way mounts are handled in the game is ludacris. Game could have been so much better.
I loved the game but for me the biggest reason to quit was lack of armor/weapons variety. Everyone looked the same. It was like as if everyone else is my clone in AOC world.
If they add more customization with new expansion i would definitely come back for second try.
Poll doesnt fit me, because I did not play at launch - and I started 12/08. Since then Ive had virtually no issues ingame, besides the ones people experience globally after patch day here and there -- in which those get rectified w/ hotfixes by the next day, and we all move on.
I was one of the peeps though who wouldnt even try it - My best firend insisted I play w/ him, and try it - its awesome etc , h said -- Im glad he did, becuase I was like everyone else - it had a bitter launch and users were bitter - and it had bad tastes in peoples mouth wihch till this day still comes out on forums etc as current.
AoC is an awesome game. I enjoy it immensely, look forward to raiding in T3 soon!
The poll has pretty poor options. Where's the option "Played at launch, tried trial in 2009" ?
To me it seems the major problem with AoC is management of it. Things take way too long to get implemented and priorities seem just really retarded. At least the communication is improving now that there isn't many people left to play, but that doesn't seem to lead anywhere either. Just take a look at Stamina vs Mana issue and you should catch my drift.
I loved the graphics and the combat and the pvp. I hated the fact that the world is TINY. There is no sense at all of being in a world, its more like being connected to different areas that don't smoothly connect. That said, i havent played since 3 months after release, but that was the major flaw for me: world was too small.
I tried at start Aoc and quited in 34 lvl with my barbarian and went back to wow. Recently i resubscribed and after 4 days i quited again andd went back to wow.
Now i tried to realise why.
Grafix are great as u said.
Music is great also.
Atmosphere and setting too.
Combat system has great cool animations ,very nice fatalities and stuff too.
Classes are better and more complex than wow.
SO..Why the hell i went back to wow twice?
1.Combat system is somehow tiring ,since the player has to play piano in keyboard to do all these combos. I never managed to play evrytime more than 2 -3 hours of continual play in Aoc simply cause my hands/fingers getting tired. I was yelling during Aoc development that the combat system should be made complex yes,but EASY to use..More in the standards of oblivion (Lef tmouse button attack,right mouse button block/parry) . If u want to put many combos in a game u dont have to spam your keyboard necessary. Perfect example is Severance bLade of Darkness (much more easier combo keysetups).
2. Pve instancing. I found myself in a 35 instance with 4 more players. Most of the guys including me were just involved in a massive spamming attacks during the whole instance. Its just the way game is made. Rarely u try to choose the tactical aspect of this game simple because the game gives u the right to attack all times very fast. They SHOULD make the combat SLOWER. I mean by that that every attack should cost alot more energy so there would be a tactical aspect from player's side.Otherwise combat pve and pvp becomes a spam fest!!!!!!
3.Lack of endgame serious pvp with ladder system that gives the player a motivation to go endgame pvp. Somethign similar with wow arenas. Yes guild vs guild ,sieges attack other guilds,mass pvp is good,great for some,but unfair and unbalanced for many others too. I like both pvp types but they should have organised and balanced arena style pvp system too with rewards etc.
4. From what i read pve endgame is loads behind compared to other big titles too.
At the end someone can notice that whats happening in Aoc is a symptom of our times.
Great graficks, little work from devs,instanced worlds, instead of a massive solid well designed world, and LESS focus on GAMEPLAY. Its like their target is to impress 5-15 years old kids audience only. And this goes to almost all developers not just Funcom.
Hi, I just had to react to your last sentence.
What do you call gameplay? For me, the gameplay in AoC is above any that I have ever seen in a RPG, it's the most fun and the most "deep" in the sense that the more you play, the better you get at it.
You can really tell the difference between a guy who's been playing for 3 months or 1 year thanks to the way he moves, lands combos etc.
Basically, it's a lot more skill based, which I bleieve is a more interesting GAMEPLAY than many other games. As much as I like to criticise AoC, the GAMEPLAY you talk about is the best thing it has, it's real time, fast, and responsive.
Playing a melee in AoC feels much more realistic than any other RPG I tested before, including WoW.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
Well I haven't played in a long time but here's why I quit AoC,
1.
2.
3.
4.
And before the fanbois jump to report me I was answering the ops question but just with a more graphical way, for those that are offended by these graphical representations of what I think is actually wrong with AoC I'll do a simple version.
1. Siege warfare has been bust or just non existant since launch.
2. The PvP EXP system is rubbish and full of silly exploits and really just another rubbish grind.
3. I and everyone else that pre ordered was made promises by Funcom and they just didn't materialize, all we got was a rubbish game and some excuses that quite frankly would insult the intelligence of a lobotomised chimpanzee!
4. The people in charge just don't care and really refuse to address the issues most pertenant to the playerbase.
Disclaimer: This post and these pictures were not intended to flame/troll or offend any MMORPG.com/Aoc user or anyone at Funcom and are only a representation of my reply to the thread creators question. If anyone either living or dead is offended by this it is purely coincidental and was not intended. If that person or persons continues to feel offence after reading this please PM me and I shall issue a full apology and consider editing this post.
Agricola
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
so sad that you must put disclaimers in your posts now
what has virtual life come to????,
anyway nice post
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
That was great.
Great post Agricola.
AoC came too early. The combat, graphics, lore, quests everything was very good and i really enjoyed the parts they had finished but lots of things were not finished. They should have waited for at least a year. That combined with the lies they told, put them at their current stage. They'll probably make the game semi-f2p after the expansion, something like what they have in anarchy online. It never will be what it could have been though, which is just.
I need more vespene gas.
AOC!
It is a pity because AoC could have been a really successful MMORPG with a godd amount of subscribers if they'd only listened to themselves when making it and listened to the community. If you took away the instancing and allowed more freedom along with the bloodmoney system it would be great. As it stands apart from Tortage most of it is broke or just laklustre suffering from lack of players. Tortage is the best part of it and that to be fair is little more than a single player experience. Tortage is like a KotOR clone and the rest is Guild Wars but full of broken features and not enough people playing.
I think Funcom needs to learn some more lessons from this debacle while they make Secret World, since it seems that one shambolic release (AO) wasn't enough. Perhaps after two duds they'll finally get it right? Third time lucky?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
I can sort of tell you what is wrong with AOC,in a round about way lol.
First up i am no AOC hater,i think the game is ok.One big reason i quit,was there wa no players,hardly ever and i was logged on for long periods of time.My guild had over 100 members,but never more than maybe 5 at a time.I did join later ,so most of the members i am sure had moved on.
What i found was missing from AOC was taking each aspect of the game a little further.It also did certain things that bothers me,as when i play a MMORPG i want an open world,not so many things locked out.
If i need to make a list i can start by saying Gear needs to be involved a lot more with customization/stats,quite often i felt like i could be totally naked and it would not make any difference at all,gear felt useless,albeit i never had any elite gear ,but still,it needed to be better designed.
I never got to notice any crafting,is it even in the game?If it is,it needs to be implemented from level 1.
The quests although had this cool feel like i was involved in a living world with a NPC/NPC's would end up coming off as poorly done or unrealistic in the end.They also had a very linear feel to them,like you had to do a certain quest to be able to speak to a certain NPC or enter a certain hut/house.An example of a quest idea that bothered me was when this NPC needed to kill another NPC and had a story behind it cool.The problem was when the NPC leads me into the attack it just stands there like it is a zombie puppet.That removes all realism and immersion for me.
The combat is not bad at all,but i did not get the same feel of needing any thought at all,basically decision making was done in the stats/ skills tree placement when leveling up my character.IDK you really cannot pinpoint the major flaws,it is just a game that has a feel of not doing things quite good enough.
If i had to use a real life scenario to describe AOC ,i would use cars as a example.Say you really like Mustang GT's,ok pretend AOC is a Mustang GT.The problem is it comes with a 6 cyclinder and ONLY in the colour of RUST.So you can see ,yes there will be some people that still like it,but for many others ,it just falls short of expectations.
If i had very little choice in games to choose ,i would not feel out of place playing AOC,it is not that bad,i am just picky ,a real stickler,looking for that 8 cyclinder and Candy Apple red colour.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Hi, I just had to react to your last sentence.
What do you call gameplay? For me, the gameplay in AoC is above any that I have ever seen in a RPG, it's the most fun and the most "deep" in the sense that the more you play, the better you get at it.
You can really tell the difference between a guy who's been playing for 3 months or 1 year thanks to the way he moves, lands combos etc.
Basically, it's a lot more skill based, which I bleieve is a more interesting GAMEPLAY than many other games. As much as I like to criticise AoC, the GAMEPLAY you talk about is the best thing it has, it's real time, fast, and responsive.
Playing a melee in AoC feels much more realistic than any other RPG I tested before, including WoW.
If the gameplay in Aoc is better than any other RPG u ever played then it is obvious u havent played any good rpg's so far. In terms of manual combat system yes.. AOc is the best try out there so far coming second to Oblivion but Oblivion is sigle player rpg ofc.Some ddo fans will disagree ofc claiming that Aoc 's combat is more spamming and less tactical than Ddo's.
Surely its skilled based ,xpirienced Aoc players will handle combat better ,but to become one u must endure the tiring spam of keys . I explained in my thread how they could very easilly implement lots of combat moves and combos without needed the player to play piano on keyboard.
As for wha u said about playing a melee class in aoc is more realistic than wow well yes sure ,i agree. I Always prefered manual combat system vs wow auto-attack system+spaming few skills. Only u cant really compared due its diferrent combat style. If you want my opinion wow's combat thoguh is far more fluid and works better especially in pve,which in Aoc seemed to me a lot dull and silly spamming abilities. If they find a way to increase the cost of energy permove so the players wont be able to spamm atatacks and think more their next move carefully(its called tactical combat) i d agree. Not to mention block / parry system in aoc is tragic till now.
great posts Agri but I don't think the graphics engine is efficient enough to allow much freedom of movement. Also open world PvP requires complex rule sets and a fine degree of class balance, which quite frankly is well above Funcom's design skill level. I really do think they were self deceived into thinking they were delivering a fine steak, when as you pointed out it was a bad burger. Pretty graphics will only get you so far, A complex game design is what keeps players and that is where AoC fails miserably
I miss DAoC
Hi, I just had to react to your last sentence.
((())) (see what i did there? it's easy to edit quat u quote so there is no huge wall of texte
)
Playing a melee in AoC feels much more realistic than any other RPG I tested before, including WoW.
((()))
Surely its skilled based ,xpirienced Aoc players will handle combat better ,but to become one u must endure the tiring spam of keys . I explained in my thread how they could very easilly implement lots of combat moves and combos without needed the player to play piano on keyboard.
As for wha u said about playing a melee class in aoc is more realistic than wow well yes sure ,i agree. I Always prefered manual combat system vs wow auto-attack system+spaming few skills. (((())))
Hello again !
First off, any type of game which requires skill, requires spaming keys. I have no idea what you mean by what you are writing
)
Secondly, I did play all Oblivion and loved it, and AoC combat > Oblivion by a lonnnnnng way. But you can't really compare it can you?
Thirdly, the best thing about AoC IMO is the pvp aspect, this is where the combat system shines. Obviously, you don't need much brains to kill a mob and hit attack, but fighting another skilled melee player with this system is joy!
Lasly, it's extremely realistic and immersive. When a guardian kocks me to the floor, I practically feel it in my bones, and when I am the one chopping someone's head off, or knocking a group of enemies down, I'"m in there, I'm my character.
That's why I cant let you say that the gameplay in AoC sucks.
There are MANY things that suck in AoC, no pvp content, no players, un balanced classes, lag, latency, imcompatibility with certain (mainly ATI) graphic cards, zone crashes, many people cheating and exploiting, DX10 not functionnig properly, bugs in so many areas that I can't just list them...
But the GAMEPLAY fucking owns, it's the best out there.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it.
Simple.
Bugged sieges full of exploits, is that not something wrong that has been wrong since launch? I think bugs and exploits count as something wrong with the game, if not how else would you describe it, if it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Bugged sieges full of exploits, is that not something wrong that has been wrong since launch? I think bugs and exploits count as something wrong with the game, if not how else would you describe it, if it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
That does not constitue the phrase "something wrong with it", if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with every game ever released. And some thing worng with every thing more or less ever created.
So where you want to start or stop my friend........................
I have a sub for AoC that still has a few months left on it, and still I can't seem to stay on for longer than an hour or two. It's really sad when you're in your first trail month of Aion and you decide to get a gamecard for AoC because of boredom, and end up playing lifetime membership to Lotro.
1. Combat style. There is no "My opinion is right on this one" but the combat system is an acquired taste, which does indeed limit the player base. When the next gen of mmo's come out though, I don't see it carrying over. It is still button masher...but more like" hit A, A, B, X to pull of this combo" button masher. There has got to be something better out there than either Aion or AoC combat.
2. Small areas. I feel like AoC zones are a giant facade. At first glimpse they are these magnificent sprawling jungle vista's. But upon further inspection they are just jungle vista's with a painted backdrop. It is absolutely beautiful, but the small boxed areas do create claustrophobia.
3. Bad publicity. I'm going to get a lot of hate, but I just recently played Vanguard. And you know what? It wasn't half bad. Just like Van, AoC is a victim of a poor PR and planning. People won't have actually played the game, yet they will remember "that awful launch". It's not really fair...but look at what it also did to Van.
4. Bland items. The way you appear on Tortage, you'll appear later in game. There is some cool gear out there, but it looks awfully lot like the item you just got rid of.
5. They really need to flush out the PvP. As it is now, it is also an acquired taste. If you like it, cheers, if you don't....you really wont. It reminds me a bit of shadowbane with a ganking style of UO. Quite a few people like this. There is 0 learning curve for newcomers. I remember my first time in the Tortage pvp area (which is the first glimpse new players will get) and it was just a bunch of 20's sitting around farming lowbies. This is not the first impression of pvp you want to give the average new subscriber. It's the quickest way to kill new members, is give them a foul taste early on.
My option wasn't in the poll. I played it a bit in beta, but didn't actually buy it til' this year(7 bucks!). It has great combat, animations, and graphics in general. Some pretty good quests, and great music. I played for about 3 months, got bored and quit with an HoX at 72.
What's wrong with it is...
Nowhere near enough content for an MMO. You have 3 different starter areas after Tortage with unique content that gets you from level 20 to 30-ish. All the content from there is the same for every player. This is what prompted Funcom to give you a freebie lvl 50 character with the itemization release.
In terms of things to do, aside from the combat, everything lacks luster at best, clunky and not worth doing at worst. Crafting is a bore, and also a pain because you have nowhere near enough inventory space. While this was helped greatly by the itemization patch, it's still a bore, and thus not worth using your inventory space to do.
While the zones are decent size, the world still seems small. When it's all said and done, it just doesn't feel like a world at all. The instances provide plenty of immersion, and that's where the game shines, I think. I'm normally not a complainer regarding full world instancing, but having to load from zone to zone strikes a hefty blow against the "big world" experience.
With the box going so cheap these days, I still recommend it to people. But I recommend it as a GAME, not as an MMO. It just doesn't have enough content to keep people coming back. But IMO, the Tortage experience on its own is worth a $10 box. It's just not worth paying $15 a month to repeat that same content over and over.
My hope is that with Secret World, they'll take the terrific animations and good stuff from this game, find somebody who knows how to make a MMO, and build a WORLD where there's much more worth doing than just combat. I think SW's contemporary setting provides alot of opportunity to do that.
(()) it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
That does not constitue the phrase "something wrong with it", if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with every game ever released. And some thing worng with every thing more or less ever created.
So where you want to start or stop my friend........................
please gtfo troll
if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with everything... what kind of a point are you making lol
obviously it's a question of measure, and there is many things wrong with AoC (more than is deemed acceptable by most people)
I can't believe I actually replied
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
Bugged sieges full of exploits, is that not something wrong that has been wrong since launch? I think bugs and exploits count as something wrong with the game, if not how else would you describe it, if it's not intended and disrupts or makes a feature/features unplayable it must be described as something wrong with the game yes?
That does not constitue the phrase "something wrong with it", if you really want to nit pick there is something wrong with every game ever released. And some thing worng with every thing more or less ever created.
So where you want to start or stop my friend........................
I agree with you, just that you made the statement that
"There is nothing wrong with AoC, you may not like it, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with it.
Simple."
Really you should have said "there is nothing wrong with AoC in my opinion" but you seemed to be telling everyone that there was nothing wrong with bugged sieges and broken quests and exploits. Also if I buy the box and pay a monthly fee why shouldn't I nit pick? Also I don't see that been irritated by absent features promised and broken sieges and quests as nit picking, I just want them fixed.
Where do I start? I start at broken quest, bugs that impede intended gameplay and exploits. Where do I stop? When there is nothing wrong with the game in my opinion.
You're right that there is something wrong with every game out there, including AoC. It's not my fault, your fault or any of the subscribers fault, it is the fault of the company that developed the game and continues to attempt to do so.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis