Eh, I liked it. I like the horizontal leveling. I like running around with my stupid friends near the walls in Khitai saying "godamn Mongolians, why you tear down my schitty wall!"
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Eh, I liked it. I like the horizontal leveling. I like running around with my stupid friends near the walls in Khitai saying "godamn Mongolians, why you tear down my schitty wall!"
Heh. Yeah, as with all Howard's cultures and nations though there are very strong relations with historic cultures
Originally posted by Azrile
Originally posted by Johnsavant
Beta keys never ran out, those crocodile pet thingies never ran out (I think 1000 remained), no new servers, no server queues of any kind on launch day, many bugs have returned (most notably memory leak), the game is actually less optimized than it was at launch, pvp is just dwindling, pve got a little better ... the expansion pretty much did nothing for the game.
Oh, and they had the balls to release 2 entirely bugged and inaccessible raid bosses and call this a tr00 pve expansion. I haven't seen a greater joke in gaming history since I saw AoC sieges with my own eyes.
I can't understand how anyone would call it a good expansion
1. No new players, no new servers, population levels remain completely unchanged
Actually, on the servers I play on there were enough new players, a number of those stayed around. Population levels are at the moment samish as they were the month before release, true. It's still consistently higher than it was the beginning of this year.
2. The only PVP content added to the game was exploited by pver's and now the non-exploiting pvpers will take a year to catch up. Seiges are still broken and remain mostly ignored
Not completely true, sieges were frequently being held on several servers (excl Fury) fairly satisfactorily from the beginning of 2009. The exploits I hate too, especially I'd wish they would reverse it for everyone whose PvP or AA levels showed an unnaturalness.Then again, exploits and bots are a problem I encounter with more MMO's.
3. The majority of the pve content added (ie raid bosses) are bugged and not killable. Previous raid content remains bugged and is only killable using exploits. The remain 'raid' bosses are dumbed-down encounters that are face-roll puggable.
'Majority of the PvE content' is a gross exaggeration if not a suspicious lie, have you really played AoC extensively the last few months? It sounds as if this is not the case.
4. The only thing that is working correctly are incredibly simplistic faction grinds that involve only a handful of quests.
And again, where is the hope for the future? what is the next thing to look forward to? NOTHING. the most exciting thing fans get excited about are the monthly newsletters that are just words.
Actually, also not the case. In a former newsletter was talked about the Bori update and the extensive ranger revamp and merely a month later the patch with those changes has been implemented.
As to the first comment, about wondering why this was a good expansion:
well, I guess opinions and tastes will always differ, but looking at the reviews and players' comments made I'd say the RotGS did pretty well, in showing more open, extensive zones, new dungeon mechanics, an interesting and detailed new culture and region added and a leveling that wasn't level cap raise for a change, but smarter horizontal leveling with the AA system. Will Funcom get a 100% for execution of it? Heck, absolutely not.
But all in all, it was a good expansion that added in a positive way to the PvE experience.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Eh, I liked it. I like the horizontal leveling. I like running around with my stupid friends near the walls in Khitai saying "godamn Mongolians, why you tear down my schitty wall!"
/facepalm
They're Hyrkanians not Mongolians......
I did say we were "stupid."
Please tell me you've seen the South Park episode.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Beta keys never ran out, those crocodile pet thingies never ran out (I think 1000 remained), no new servers, no server queues of any kind on launch day, many bugs have returned (most notably memory leak), the game is actually less optimized than it was at launch, pvp is just dwindling, pve got a little better ... the expansion pretty much did nothing for the game.
Oh, and they had the balls to release 2 entirely bugged and inaccessible raid bosses and call this a tr00 pve expansion. I haven't seen a greater joke in gaming history since I saw AoC sieges with my own eyes.
Sadly John makes good points about the expac.
Actually he doesn't. Nobody expected server queques, memory leak I have not seen yet, About game being less optimized than at launch - well this is flat out lie and he runs it on subpar computer that has problems rendering anything but WoW ... my game with few adjustments runs on high settings in dx10 mode on a computer that is not even average today.
Comments about pvp and pve are not even opinions. And expansion did nothing for the game? Flat out lie again. Expansion added lots of 80 content that was lacking.
Let's adress something else Johnieboy. You comment in the other thread the raids and high end pve stuff. I wonder how many of bosses have you seen? I bet you have not even been in T3 and I know that with the gear you have you are not welcome in HM 6men in Khitai. So what exactly are you basing your comments on? Let me tell you what I saw (decent gear and the skill set that makes me wanted in raids and groups get me there):
- I saw bosses in T3 being killed, they are nice bosses but I must say just a simple improvements to T2. more tricks and that doesn't really do it for me. Are they bugged or designed for high end gear full AA people ... well I will leave that to you.
-I saw HM and NM bosses around Khitai. While T3 is just harder version of T2 I was pleasantly surprised by creativity thrown in Khitai 6 men. Boss concincing you that he is surrendering, comming out as a wolf, sweet sisters attacked by evil monster (after you kill the monster u see that it is sweet monster and evil sisters), monks without trash which makes you feel like in those kungfu movies where the good guys face evil monk in the dojo, etc ...
-I have not seen T4 but the word on the forums is that without proper AA training and critigation gear you are unable to fight there.
Saying PVE in Khitai is not improved is, like I said, a flat out lie which comes from uninformed mouth (or unable to enjoy the high end game due to being noob or undergeared) . This expansion brings a lot of immersion, fun and overall quality into PVE aspect. The only problem is PVP, I agree on that.
Beta keys never ran out, those crocodile pet thingies never ran out (I think 1000 remained), no new servers, no server queues of any kind on launch day, many bugs have returned (most notably memory leak), the game is actually less optimized than it was at launch, pvp is just dwindling, pve got a little better ... the expansion pretty much did nothing for the game.
Oh, and they had the balls to release 2 entirely bugged and inaccessible raid bosses and call this a tr00 pve expansion. I haven't seen a greater joke in gaming history since I saw AoC sieges with my own eyes.
Sadly John makes good points about the expac.
Actually he doesn't. Nobody expected server queques, memory leak I have not seen yet, About game being less optimized than at launch - well this is flat out lie and he runs it on subpar computer that has problems rendering anything but WoW (I should have stopped reading at this point but oh well) ... my game with few adjustments runs on high settings in dx10 mode on a computer that is not even average today.
Comments about pvp and pve are not even opinions. And expansion did nothing for the game? Flat out lie again. Expansion added lots of 80 content that was lacking.
He meant the expansion did not help the population of the game, of course the expansion added buggy content with a good amount of exploits as well.
Let's adress something else Johnieboy. You comment in the other thread the raids and high end pve stuff. I wonder how many of bosses have you seen? I bet you have not even been in T3 and I know that with the gear you have you are not welcome in HM 6men in Khitai. So what exactly are you basing your comments on? Let me tell you what I saw (decent gear and the skill set that makes me wanted in raids and groups get me there):
That comment made no sense.
- I saw bosses in T3 being killed, they are nice bosses but I must say just a simple improvements to T2. more tricks and that doesn't really do it for me. Are they bugged or designed for high end gear full AA people ... well I will leave that to you.
T3 is not designed for full AA, T4 is supposed to be designed for that, full T2 people do just as well in T3 raids as long as they know what they are doing.
-I saw HM and NM bosses around Khitai. While T3 is just harder version of T2 I was pleasantly surprised by creativity thrown in Khitai 6 men. Boss concincing you that he is surrendering, comming out as a wolf, sweet sisters attacked by evil monster (after you kill the monster u see that it is sweet monster and evil sisters), monks without trash which makes you feel like in those kungfu movies where the good guys face evil monk in the dojo, etc ...
This just made me lol
-I have not seen T4 but the word on the forums is that without proper AA training and critigation gear you are unable to fight there.
T4 is broken, broken, broken, just look at the test live forums.
Saying PVE in Khitai is not improved is, like I said, a flat out lie which comes from uninformed mouth (or unable to enjoy the high end game due to being noob or undergeared) . This expansion brings a lot of immersion, fun and overall quality into PVE aspect. The only problem is PVP, I agree on that.
The only problem is that funcom still sells this game as a hardcore PvP game.
Look, nihce, as this highly-praised pve expansion they released 2 buggy tier 4 encounters without even properly adjusting, fixing tier 3. That's a fact and that is fail. If everything hinges on 6 man dungeons and faction grind, then people will get bored too soon, sooner than FC can actually add some working and meaningful RAID pve content. For a PvE game boredom means death.
About tier 3 encounters - please give me some concrete info on the encounters. I can only find those first 3 bosses which are really primitive from what I saw. If other fights are so much more advanced than tier 1 and tier 2, then why is the community HIDING it? Why no Youtube videos of the whole Tier 3 run?
And didn't they boast about some fight that Conan himself comes along and fights with the rest of the raid? Where is it?
Beta keys never ran out, those crocodile pet thingies never ran out (I think 1000 remained), no new servers, no server queues of any kind on launch day, many bugs have returned (most notably memory leak), the game is actually less optimized than it was at launch, pvp is just dwindling, pve got a little better ... the expansion pretty much did nothing for the game.
Oh, and they had the balls to release 2 entirely bugged and inaccessible raid bosses and call this a tr00 pve expansion. I haven't seen a greater joke in gaming history since I saw AoC sieges with my own eyes.
Sadly John makes good points about the expac.
Actually he doesn't. Nobody expected server queques, memory leak I have not seen yet, About game being less optimized than at launch - well this is flat out lie and he runs it on subpar computer that has problems rendering anything but WoW (I should have stopped reading at this point but oh well) ... my game with few adjustments runs on high settings in dx10 mode on a computer that is not even average today.
Comments about pvp and pve are not even opinions. And expansion did nothing for the game? Flat out lie again. Expansion added lots of 80 content that was lacking.
He meant the expansion did not help the population of the game, of course the expansion added buggy content with a good amount of exploits as well.
Let's adress something else Johnieboy. You comment in the other thread the raids and high end pve stuff. I wonder how many of bosses have you seen? I bet you have not even been in T3 and I know that with the gear you have you are not welcome in HM 6men in Khitai. So what exactly are you basing your comments on? Let me tell you what I saw (decent gear and the skill set that makes me wanted in raids and groups get me there):
That comment made no sense.
- I saw bosses in T3 being killed, they are nice bosses but I must say just a simple improvements to T2. more tricks and that doesn't really do it for me. Are they bugged or designed for high end gear full AA people ... well I will leave that to you.
T3 is not designed for full AA, T4 is supposed to be designed for that, full T2 people do just as well in T3 raids as long as they know what they are doing.
-I saw HM and NM bosses around Khitai. While T3 is just harder version of T2 I was pleasantly surprised by creativity thrown in Khitai 6 men. Boss concincing you that he is surrendering, comming out as a wolf, sweet sisters attacked by evil monster (after you kill the monster u see that it is sweet monster and evil sisters), monks without trash which makes you feel like in those kungfu movies where the good guys face evil monk in the dojo, etc ...
This just made me lol
-I have not seen T4 but the word on the forums is that without proper AA training and critigation gear you are unable to fight there.
T4 is broken, broken, broken, just look at the test live forums.
Saying PVE in Khitai is not improved is, like I said, a flat out lie which comes from uninformed mouth (or unable to enjoy the high end game due to being noob or undergeared) . This expansion brings a lot of immersion, fun and overall quality into PVE aspect. The only problem is PVP, I agree on that.
The only problem is that funcom still sells this game as a hardcore PvP game.
Man I don't know what is appopriate here. My sincere condolences or congraulations for making the worst post of the year. I mean you don't adress anything I said, you just make a few quick half-sentences there.
And what, are you middle school or something? OFC on the box it will say "PVP IS AWESOME". Hell, same kind of lies and bending the truth surrounds us - practically every product contains them. If you want to adress FC on this problem you are crazy...
My advice to you - ignore what is written on the box, read into Craig's statements where he openly admitted that his first concern is PVE. Seriously, name one game that has advanced hardmode's like you can see in Khitai ... Oh wait, I bet you can't because you don't own the damn game.
Anyway, your post made me lol. But I am a good guy and I like to educate people, show them how to present an argument and how to build a case out of it.
@ johnie: How is T4 broken? Hell, how is T3 broken? Have you EVER been there to see the fights? I guess not, since you want me to explain the fights to you. which is something I am not going to do btw, I just gave a few examples of what is in Khitai to show you how ignorant you stand. I bet you never been to Khitai dungeons ...
I am not talking about T4, because I have not been there. And when I am talking about it ... I cite my source. I don't just go "FUCK T4 IS BROKEN BROKEN BROKEN". No, this is plain wrong. You might say that the word is that T3 is broken, but you have as many stating that T3 is just hard as stating it is broken.
And as far as 6 men going. I think 6 men is better than a raid. It is easier to gather and much easier to control. I say bump HM (that is hardmode for those who don't play the game) to raid level difficulty and you are sitting on a winner. (they almost did that already IMO - some hardmodes are really harder than any content that is on farm status in AoC)
It takes over an hour to gather 6 right people for these new 6-man dungeons, and you can't even pug those hardmodes, not to mention most of these hardmodes are kept secret. In WoW I just click on the cross-realm dungeon finder and get a group going in about 10 mins (if you're a tank, it's done in an instant), in AoC I wait for over an hour just to find out we can't find a SECOND tank. I saw lots of videos from those 6 mans and they do seem awesome, but as someone who's just visiting AoC I can't really experience them by myself, unless I quit WoW and dedicate fully to AoC, which is, of course, out of the question. Then there is this "TBC" elitist approach where people look only for experienced and properly geared people to run those 6 mans. So, for a PvE expansion they really need to work out on the concept called ACCESSIBILITY. It's not exactly a smart approach to make even 6 man dungeons elitist and inaccessible in an MMO that's suffering from lack of population. 6 man dungeons are, of course, welcome any day, but what good is it to me if I can't really do them properly and can't get that famout gier mount without fully dedicating myself to the game.
Tier 3 and tier 4 raids? There's only one or two proper videos from the first boss in tier 3 (3 wizards) and it's anything but special. From the feedback section on the forum people seem to be complaining a lot about bugged encounters, I do not see any praises from Thoth-Amon's Stronghold. There are many videos from the new 6 mans, but a total eclipse when it comes to tier 4. I saw some guy who couldn't even approach the entrance due to shitloads of "skull" mobs there. I bet it's not even accessible to anyone. I saw no feedback at all on those tier 4 bosses, not even on TL, so where are they? Why no pictures, videos? The logic is usually thus, especially with Funcom - if they made tier 1 and tier 2 crappy, they didn't change this method substantially with tier 3. And if noone even tested those TWO bosses prior to launch, they aren't even there. Players' responses (or rather, lack of) tell me everything I need to know. If you wish to disprove, tell me something I don't know about tier 4.
Beta keys never ran out, those crocodile pet thingies never ran out (I think 1000 remained), no new servers, no server queues of any kind on launch day, many bugs have returned (most notably memory leak), the game is actually less optimized than it was at launch, pvp is just dwindling, pve got a little better ... the expansion pretty much did nothing for the game.
Oh, and they had the balls to release 2 entirely bugged and inaccessible raid bosses and call this a tr00 pve expansion. I haven't seen a greater joke in gaming history since I saw AoC sieges with my own eyes.
Sadly John makes good points about the expac.
Actually he doesn't. Nobody expected server queques, memory leak I have not seen yet, About game being less optimized than at launch - well this is flat out lie and he runs it on subpar computer that has problems rendering anything but WoW (I should have stopped reading at this point but oh well) ... my game with few adjustments runs on high settings in dx10 mode on a computer that is not even average today.
Comments about pvp and pve are not even opinions. And expansion did nothing for the game? Flat out lie again. Expansion added lots of 80 content that was lacking.
He meant the expansion did not help the population of the game, of course the expansion added buggy content with a good amount of exploits as well.
Let's adress something else Johnieboy. You comment in the other thread the raids and high end pve stuff. I wonder how many of bosses have you seen? I bet you have not even been in T3 and I know that with the gear you have you are not welcome in HM 6men in Khitai. So what exactly are you basing your comments on? Let me tell you what I saw (decent gear and the skill set that makes me wanted in raids and groups get me there):
That comment made no sense.
- I saw bosses in T3 being killed, they are nice bosses but I must say just a simple improvements to T2. more tricks and that doesn't really do it for me. Are they bugged or designed for high end gear full AA people ... well I will leave that to you.
T3 is not designed for full AA, T4 is supposed to be designed for that, full T2 people do just as well in T3 raids as long as they know what they are doing.
-I saw HM and NM bosses around Khitai. While T3 is just harder version of T2 I was pleasantly surprised by creativity thrown in Khitai 6 men. Boss concincing you that he is surrendering, comming out as a wolf, sweet sisters attacked by evil monster (after you kill the monster u see that it is sweet monster and evil sisters), monks without trash which makes you feel like in those kungfu movies where the good guys face evil monk in the dojo, etc ...
This just made me lol
-I have not seen T4 but the word on the forums is that without proper AA training and critigation gear you are unable to fight there.
T4 is broken, broken, broken, just look at the test live forums.
Saying PVE in Khitai is not improved is, like I said, a flat out lie which comes from uninformed mouth (or unable to enjoy the high end game due to being noob or undergeared) . This expansion brings a lot of immersion, fun and overall quality into PVE aspect. The only problem is PVP, I agree on that.
The only problem is that funcom still sells this game as a hardcore PvP game.
Man I don't know what is appopriate here. My sincere condolences or congraulations for making the worst post of the year. I mean you don't adress anything I said, you just make a few quick half-sentences there.
And what, are you middle school or something? OFC on the box it will say "PVP IS AWESOME". Hell, same kind of lies and bending the truth surrounds us - practically every product contains them. If you want to adress FC on this problem you are crazy...
My advice to you - ignore what is written on the box, read into Craig's statements where he openly admitted that his first concern is PVE. Seriously, name one game that has advanced hardmode's like you can see in Khitai ... Oh wait, I bet you can't because you don't own the damn game.
Anyway, your post made me lol. But I am a good guy and I like to educate people, show them how to present an argument and how to build a case out of it.
@ johnie: How is T4 broken? Hell, how is T3 broken? Have you EVER been there to see the fights? I guess not, since you want me to explain the fights to you. which is something I am not going to do btw, I just gave a few examples of what is in Khitai to show you how ignorant you stand. I bet you never been to Khitai dungeons ...
I am not talking about T4, because I have not been there. And when I am talking about it ... I cite my source. I don't just go "FUCK T4 IS BROKEN BROKEN BROKEN". No, this is plain wrong. You might say that the word is that T3 is broken, but you have as many stating that T3 is just hard as stating it is broken.
And as far as 6 men going. I think 6 men is better than a raid. It is easier to gather and much easier to control. I say bump HM (that is hardmode for those who don't play the game) to raid level difficulty and you are sitting on a winner. (they almost did that already IMO - some hardmodes are really harder than any content that is on farm status in AoC)
I played the game from pre-launch and only quit a few weeks ago, i'd still come back to AoC if there were some good PvP changes and somehow Funcom made sense of the mess of the Bori system that allowed people to have only 50 pvp kills, yet attain pvp level 8-10 gear. I know what i'm talking about, you sound like a fanboi newb and I feel sorry for you cause I was there for over two years defending this game.
While I wouldn't call it a failure I would say that the enthusiasm that surrounded it's initial launch has certainly been tempered by the complaints that I've read about as of late.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
It takes over an hour to gather 6 right people for these new 6-man dungeons, and you can't even pug those hardmodes, not to mention most of these hardmodes are kept secret. In WoW I just click on the cross-realm dungeon finder and get a group going in about 10 mins (if you're a tank, it's done in an instant), in AoC I wait for over an hour just to find out we can't find a SECOND tank. I saw lots of videos from those 6 mans and they do seem awesome, but as someone who's just visiting AoC I can't really experience them by myself, unless I quit WoW and dedicate fully to AoC, which is, of course, out of the question. Then there is this "TBC" elitist approach where people look only for experienced and properly geared people to run those 6 mans. So, for a PvE expansion they really need to work out on the concept called ACCESSIBILITY. It's not exactly a smart approach to make even 6 man dungeons elitist and inaccessible in an MMO that's suffering from lack of population. 6 man dungeons are, of course, welcome any day, but what good is it to me if I can't really do them properly and can't get that famout gier mount without fully dedicating myself to the game.
6 men ... few comments. Funcom stated that Khitai is suited for players who finished all the content in previous lands and that the main focus is not accessibility.
2nd. Good tanks are hard to come by in a pug but that is mainly because good tanks and good players in general don't like pugs. I made some sort of name in leading pillars and I get top players rather quick (was a time i had 3 tanks and 3 other pugs were trying to get one ). Also I don't want no dungeon finder for my pugs because dungeon finder will dungeon find me dungeon useless people - undergeared and without experience. I made a habit to ask a series of questions when inviting to pug - first about gear, than some of the crucial moments of hard mode we are about to pug. Only than a person gets an invite. Dungeon finder ... I rather wait 20 min than get a team up in 10 min and play a less than 1 hr dungeon for 3 hours and than disband.
3rd. Khitai is content for veterans. I don't like rejecting people but players with blue armor or even T1 have no place in my pugs because the content is simply 2 damn hard to be able to afford people who just leveled. If this is elitist ... it might be. But FC somehow had to create a challenge for veterans. If you make 6 men so easy that blue geared people can pug the place ... than this same content is easy mode for veterans in full epics. Now the content is challenging. The content is not locked for a week and the content offers few greate rewards (got myself first faction epic the other day) .
Tier 3 and tier 4 raids? There's only one or two proper videos from the first boss in tier 3 (3 wizards) and it's anything but special. From the feedback section on the forum people seem to be complaining a lot about bugged encounters, I do not see any praises from Thoth-Amon's Stronghold. There are many videos from the new 6 mans, but a total eclipse when it comes to tier 4. I saw some guy who couldn't even approach the entrance due to shitloads of "skull" mobs there. I bet it's not even accessible to anyone. I saw no feedback at all on those tier 4 bosses, not even on TL, so where are they? Why no pictures, videos? The logic is usually thus, especially with Funcom - if they made tier 1 and tier 2 crappy, they didn't change this method substantially with tier 3. And if noone even tested those TWO bosses prior to launch, they aren't even there. Players' responses (or rather, lack of) tell me everything I need to know. If you wish to disprove, tell me something I don't know about tier 4.
Quote from US forums (I notice lots of "high end" players being total noobs):
Trash... there is 1 pull before the first boss, none between hathor, 2 pulls before arbanus, none before gyas, 4 before louhi, 1 before keeper, 1 before thoth; this is not an issue.
Brothers: No changes needed here, maybe if this is the only thing you have killed it seems boring.
Hathor Ka: If anything bring back the original version, this fight is a joke now, we killed her the other day and she had 3 adds up.
Arbanus: fun fight, don't need to change grim bane, you know you can remove heals on you?
Louhi: We did him the other day in 9 minutes, and were one of the only guilds that actually kills the phylactaries, i think this fight is fine.
Keeper: balance to the two forms yes, lowering hp no, this fight is about to become super easy.
Thoth: maybe didnt get tested on TL, but this fight has a large number of variables to take into account, not enough is known about it to make a educated decision.
In conclusion:
a.) your player response is incomplete - go read more
b.)player response you got is insufficient. I saw players claim Pillars of heaven is hard on HM but I pug it everyday ... It is easy mode instance and yet people claim it is hard.
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Destiny used an Necro Pet idea that had been floating about for a while but no one wanted to use....
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Why is reducing PVE into 6 men a step backward? It eliminates the chance to have a goof that will fuck up your raid, the content is much faster to run and the bosses require deep strategies. No trash is a plus as well - just time sink.
Let me explain to you the hardmode term. It is an old term that was used for first increased difficulty dungeons in AoC - namely Iron Tower and that other dungeon in River I can't remember the name now. In Khitai for that term we have "Challenge of the godslayer". Now, what exactly is HM or Challenge of the godslayer? Some a different, harder last encounter which drops an epic or new combo or recipe, etc. It is meant to cater to the veterans and normally the hardmode is considerably hard (IMO harder than T1 and most T2) and good experience and good gear is needed.
So players have to TRIGGER it. Meaning they have a chance to finish the dungeon in normal mode and loot decent blue items for killing the bosses. Normal mode is okish. It is a bit harder than normal mode in old playfields but still not hard at all. - for example Kang Pagoda COTGS (challenge of the godslayer) encounter needs ideally 3 tanks and is quite hard to complete. Killing the boss in normal mode I did with very weak tank and not the best group in general. It is extremely easy. If you trigger the challenge it becomes considerably hard.
So it is not that all dungeons are for veterans, far from it. Normal modes are not that hard, at least some of these encounters can easily be beaten on normal mode. The game is considerably more difficult all together. Which in my opinion to is an unusual move by FC who decided to make better content for players who already play this game and made little effort to draw in fresh blood. So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them.
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Why is reducing PVE into 6 men a step backward? It eliminates the chance to have a goof that will fuck up your raid, the content is much faster to run and the bosses require deep strategies. No trash is a plus as well - just time sink.
Let me explain to you the hardmode term. It is an old term that was used for first increased difficulty dungeons in AoC - namely Iron Tower and that other dungeon in River I can't remember the name now. In Khitai for that term we have "Challenge of the godslayer". Now, what exactly is HM or Challenge of the godslayer? Some a different, harder last encounter which drops an epic or new combo or recipe, etc. It is meant to cater to the veterans and normally the hardmode is considerably hard (IMO harder than T1 and most T2) and good experience and good gear is needed.
So players have to TRIGGER it. Meaning they have a chance to finish the dungeon in normal mode and loot decent blue items for killing the bosses. Normal mode is okish. It is a bit harder than normal mode in old playfields but still not hard at all. - for example Kang Pagoda COTGS (challenge of the godslayer) encounter needs ideally 3 tanks and is quite hard to complete. Killing the boss in normal mode I did with very weak tank and not the best group in general. It is extremely easy. If you trigger the challenge it becomes considerably hard.
So it is not that all dungeons are for veterans, far from it. Normal modes are not that hard, at least some of these encounters can easily be beaten on normal mode. The game is considerably more difficult all together. Which in my opinion to is an unusual move by FC who decided to make better content for players who already play this game and made little effort to draw in fresh blood. So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them.
Age of Conan is way down at #57 in xfire rankings today. Also check the last year's worth of Funcom Financial reports; making a statement that "So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them." Is ridiculous on two points.
One - The available data shows the game has lost the boost in subs it gained when the Expac launched and is either now bleeding vets or alot of people are taking a break from the game, either one isn't good.
Two - The game has been losing funcom money at it's current low population level, to continue with this population level the game will be unsustainable unless TSW is a hit for funcom, which I doubt it will be after so many MMO players were burnt by the launch of AoC
Some people are so blinded by their hate for AoC/Funcom and so rigid in their beliefs that they want Funcom to fail in all aspects no matter what, and they'll never be willing to concede any positive points.
Let's wait for the Q2 and Q3 financial reports shall we, before calling upon doom and damnation over FC.
As to TSW, I could try and appeal to common sense and say 'let that game be appraised on its own merit and values' but I already know that that's too hard to do for some people. Some people just need fuel for their feelings of hate and grudge, anything will do. That's basically life as it is.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
When Rise of the Godslayer first released the praises flowed like a rushing river, now that all the bugs and issues that the expansion has brought into the game are evident we can see a drop in population. For example on xfire just after ROTGS was released AoC peaked at #23, as the bugs, exploits, and broken Bori system wore on people AoC dropped to the mid 60's and is slightly up at the low 40's today. In essence the population has stablized to where it was before ROTGS launched.
Why the hell do people still quote xfire? Who the hell uses that garbage. Most people either use vent or tm speak and or don't use voice at all. Only people who use xfire are cheap or poor or just have no clue about better products.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
When Rise of the Godslayer first released the praises flowed like a rushing river, now that all the bugs and issues that the expansion has brought into the game are evident we can see a drop in population. For example on xfire just after ROTGS was released AoC peaked at #23, as the bugs, exploits, and broken Bori system wore on people AoC dropped to the mid 60's and is slightly up at the low 40's today. In essence the population has stablized to where it was before ROTGS launched.
Why the hell do people still quote xfire? Who the hell uses that garbage. Most people either use vent or tm speak and or don't use voice at all. Only people who use xfire are cheap or poor or just have no clue about better products.
Xfire has always been good at pointing out trends, take LOTR for example it's been holding steady in the high 20's forever, which shows a very stable population. Despite what you think people do use Xfire, and it's good at showing trends, Age of Conan's trend has been a steep drop a few weeks after ROTGS was released. The inability of some people to accept that Xfire is good at showing trends shows ignorance and tunnel vision stubborness.
Some people are so blinded by their hate for AoC/Funcom and so rigid in their beliefs that they want Funcom to fail in all aspects no matter what, and they'll never be willing to concede any positive points.
Let's wait for the Q2 and Q3 financial reports shall we, before calling upon doom and damnation over FC.
As to TSW, I could try and appeal to common sense and say 'let that game be appraised on its own merit and values' but I already know that that's too hard to do for some people. Some people just need fuel for their feelings of hate and grudge, anything will do. That's basically life as it is.
Funcom will get a boost from the initial Expac sales, or should at least knowing all the fools like myself that spent almost $100.00 with all the stupid add ons. So for one quarter things should be up, the quarter following though should be back to business for Funcom with more losses, no doubt though the expac sales should give them the liquid money injection the company needs to finish TSW.
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Why is reducing PVE into 6 men a step backward? It eliminates the chance to have a goof that will fuck up your raid, the content is much faster to run and the bosses require deep strategies. No trash is a plus as well - just time sink.
Let me explain to you the hardmode term. It is an old term that was used for first increased difficulty dungeons in AoC - namely Iron Tower and that other dungeon in River I can't remember the name now. In Khitai for that term we have "Challenge of the godslayer". Now, what exactly is HM or Challenge of the godslayer? Some a different, harder last encounter which drops an epic or new combo or recipe, etc. It is meant to cater to the veterans and normally the hardmode is considerably hard (IMO harder than T1 and most T2) and good experience and good gear is needed.
So players have to TRIGGER it. Meaning they have a chance to finish the dungeon in normal mode and loot decent blue items for killing the bosses. Normal mode is okish. It is a bit harder than normal mode in old playfields but still not hard at all. - for example Kang Pagoda COTGS (challenge of the godslayer) encounter needs ideally 3 tanks and is quite hard to complete. Killing the boss in normal mode I did with very weak tank and not the best group in general. It is extremely easy. If you trigger the challenge it becomes considerably hard.
So it is not that all dungeons are for veterans, far from it. Normal modes are not that hard, at least some of these encounters can easily be beaten on normal mode. The game is considerably more difficult all together. Which in my opinion to is an unusual move by FC who decided to make better content for players who already play this game and made little effort to draw in fresh blood. So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them.
Age of Conan is way down at #57 in xfire rankings today. Also check the last year's worth of Funcom Financial reports; making a statement that "So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them." Is ridiculous on two points.
One - The available data shows the game has lost the boost in subs it gained when the Expac launched and is either now bleeding vets or alot of people are taking a break from the game, either one isn't good.
Two - The game has been losing funcom money at it's current low population level, to continue with this population level the game will be unsustainable unless TSW is a hit for funcom, which I doubt it will be after so many MMO players were burnt by the launch of AoC
Let's see.
One- Game was down for update today. And even than it had 200 more users logged on xfire than pre expansion. How is that bleeding vet subs is beyond my reason.
Two - Game is losing money? How is that even possible? All they need is pay the staff and servers. If you meant "game lost the money". Well that is more reasonable. It is very unrealistic to expect them 25 millions to come back. If game would be losing money monthly - meaning the income is lower than outcome ... than they would stop all support for it.
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Why is reducing PVE into 6 men a step backward? It eliminates the chance to have a goof that will fuck up your raid, the content is much faster to run and the bosses require deep strategies. No trash is a plus as well - just time sink.
Let me explain to you the hardmode term. It is an old term that was used for first increased difficulty dungeons in AoC - namely Iron Tower and that other dungeon in River I can't remember the name now. In Khitai for that term we have "Challenge of the godslayer". Now, what exactly is HM or Challenge of the godslayer? Some a different, harder last encounter which drops an epic or new combo or recipe, etc. It is meant to cater to the veterans and normally the hardmode is considerably hard (IMO harder than T1 and most T2) and good experience and good gear is needed.
So players have to TRIGGER it. Meaning they have a chance to finish the dungeon in normal mode and loot decent blue items for killing the bosses. Normal mode is okish. It is a bit harder than normal mode in old playfields but still not hard at all. - for example Kang Pagoda COTGS (challenge of the godslayer) encounter needs ideally 3 tanks and is quite hard to complete. Killing the boss in normal mode I did with very weak tank and not the best group in general. It is extremely easy. If you trigger the challenge it becomes considerably hard.
So it is not that all dungeons are for veterans, far from it. Normal modes are not that hard, at least some of these encounters can easily be beaten on normal mode. The game is considerably more difficult all together. Which in my opinion to is an unusual move by FC who decided to make better content for players who already play this game and made little effort to draw in fresh blood. So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them.
Age of Conan is way down at #57 in xfire rankings today. Also check the last year's worth of Funcom Financial reports; making a statement that "So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them." Is ridiculous on two points.
One - The available data shows the game has lost the boost in subs it gained when the Expac launched and is either now bleeding vets or alot of people are taking a break from the game, either one isn't good.
Two - The game has been losing funcom money at it's current low population level, to continue with this population level the game will be unsustainable unless TSW is a hit for funcom, which I doubt it will be after so many MMO players were burnt by the launch of AoC
Let's see.
One- Game was down for update today. And even than it had 200 more users logged on xfire than pre expansion. How is that bleeding vet subs is beyond my reason.
Two - Game is losing money? How is that even possible? All they need is pay the staff and servers. If you meant "game lost the money". Well that is more reasonable. It is very unrealistic to expect them 25 millions to come back. If game would be losing money monthly - meaning the income is lower than outcome ... than they would stop all support for it.
Oh my you really have no clue do you, how long have you been playing Age of Conan?
Comments
Eh, I liked it. I like the horizontal leveling. I like running around with my stupid friends near the walls in Khitai saying "godamn Mongolians, why you tear down my schitty wall!"
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
/facepalm
They're Hyrkanians not Mongolians......
Heh. Yeah, as with all Howard's cultures and nations though there are very strong relations with historic cultures
As to the first comment, about wondering why this was a good expansion:
well, I guess opinions and tastes will always differ, but looking at the reviews and players' comments made I'd say the RotGS did pretty well, in showing more open, extensive zones, new dungeon mechanics, an interesting and detailed new culture and region added and a leveling that wasn't level cap raise for a change, but smarter horizontal leveling with the AA system. Will Funcom get a 100% for execution of it? Heck, absolutely not.
But all in all, it was a good expansion that added in a positive way to the PvE experience.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I did say we were "stupid."
Please tell me you've seen the South Park episode.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
I'm having fun playing AOC: ROTGS.
There is lots to do now and I've played through Dungeons, Khitai, pvp, and raid content.
I highly recommend this game.
There are bugs, but they are not gamebreaking.
Funcom has been working out the kinks pretty fast.
The graphics are beautiful and the combat is really fun.
My server, Wiccana, has tons of active players.
I've had no trouble joining up with groups or forming them.
It's a great expansion for me.
Tons of new 20-40 content to enjoy, I don't do PvP and my characters are all mid 20's so big thumbs up from me
Actually he doesn't. Nobody expected server queques, memory leak I have not seen yet, About game being less optimized than at launch - well this is flat out lie and he runs it on subpar computer that has problems rendering anything but WoW ... my game with few adjustments runs on high settings in dx10 mode on a computer that is not even average today.
Comments about pvp and pve are not even opinions. And expansion did nothing for the game? Flat out lie again. Expansion added lots of 80 content that was lacking.
Let's adress something else Johnieboy. You comment in the other thread the raids and high end pve stuff. I wonder how many of bosses have you seen? I bet you have not even been in T3 and I know that with the gear you have you are not welcome in HM 6men in Khitai. So what exactly are you basing your comments on? Let me tell you what I saw (decent gear and the skill set that makes me wanted in raids and groups get me there):
- I saw bosses in T3 being killed, they are nice bosses but I must say just a simple improvements to T2. more tricks and that doesn't really do it for me. Are they bugged or designed for high end gear full AA people ... well I will leave that to you.
-I saw HM and NM bosses around Khitai. While T3 is just harder version of T2 I was pleasantly surprised by creativity thrown in Khitai 6 men. Boss concincing you that he is surrendering, comming out as a wolf, sweet sisters attacked by evil monster (after you kill the monster u see that it is sweet monster and evil sisters), monks without trash which makes you feel like in those kungfu movies where the good guys face evil monk in the dojo, etc ...
-I have not seen T4 but the word on the forums is that without proper AA training and critigation gear you are unable to fight there.
Saying PVE in Khitai is not improved is, like I said, a flat out lie which comes from uninformed mouth (or unable to enjoy the high end game due to being noob or undergeared) . This expansion brings a lot of immersion, fun and overall quality into PVE aspect. The only problem is PVP, I agree on that.
Look, nihce, as this highly-praised pve expansion they released 2 buggy tier 4 encounters without even properly adjusting, fixing tier 3. That's a fact and that is fail. If everything hinges on 6 man dungeons and faction grind, then people will get bored too soon, sooner than FC can actually add some working and meaningful RAID pve content. For a PvE game boredom means death.
About tier 3 encounters - please give me some concrete info on the encounters. I can only find those first 3 bosses which are really primitive from what I saw. If other fights are so much more advanced than tier 1 and tier 2, then why is the community HIDING it? Why no Youtube videos of the whole Tier 3 run?
And didn't they boast about some fight that Conan himself comes along and fights with the rest of the raid? Where is it?
Man I don't know what is appopriate here. My sincere condolences or congraulations for making the worst post of the year. I mean you don't adress anything I said, you just make a few quick half-sentences there.
And what, are you middle school or something? OFC on the box it will say "PVP IS AWESOME". Hell, same kind of lies and bending the truth surrounds us - practically every product contains them. If you want to adress FC on this problem you are crazy...
My advice to you - ignore what is written on the box, read into Craig's statements where he openly admitted that his first concern is PVE. Seriously, name one game that has advanced hardmode's like you can see in Khitai ... Oh wait, I bet you can't because you don't own the damn game.
Anyway, your post made me lol. But I am a good guy and I like to educate people, show them how to present an argument and how to build a case out of it.
@ johnie: How is T4 broken? Hell, how is T3 broken? Have you EVER been there to see the fights? I guess not, since you want me to explain the fights to you. which is something I am not going to do btw, I just gave a few examples of what is in Khitai to show you how ignorant you stand. I bet you never been to Khitai dungeons ...
I am not talking about T4, because I have not been there. And when I am talking about it ... I cite my source. I don't just go "FUCK T4 IS BROKEN BROKEN BROKEN". No, this is plain wrong. You might say that the word is that T3 is broken, but you have as many stating that T3 is just hard as stating it is broken.
And as far as 6 men going. I think 6 men is better than a raid. It is easier to gather and much easier to control. I say bump HM (that is hardmode for those who don't play the game) to raid level difficulty and you are sitting on a winner. (they almost did that already IMO - some hardmodes are really harder than any content that is on farm status in AoC)
It takes over an hour to gather 6 right people for these new 6-man dungeons, and you can't even pug those hardmodes, not to mention most of these hardmodes are kept secret. In WoW I just click on the cross-realm dungeon finder and get a group going in about 10 mins (if you're a tank, it's done in an instant), in AoC I wait for over an hour just to find out we can't find a SECOND tank. I saw lots of videos from those 6 mans and they do seem awesome, but as someone who's just visiting AoC I can't really experience them by myself, unless I quit WoW and dedicate fully to AoC, which is, of course, out of the question. Then there is this "TBC" elitist approach where people look only for experienced and properly geared people to run those 6 mans. So, for a PvE expansion they really need to work out on the concept called ACCESSIBILITY. It's not exactly a smart approach to make even 6 man dungeons elitist and inaccessible in an MMO that's suffering from lack of population. 6 man dungeons are, of course, welcome any day, but what good is it to me if I can't really do them properly and can't get that famout gier mount without fully dedicating myself to the game.
Tier 3 and tier 4 raids? There's only one or two proper videos from the first boss in tier 3 (3 wizards) and it's anything but special. From the feedback section on the forum people seem to be complaining a lot about bugged encounters, I do not see any praises from Thoth-Amon's Stronghold. There are many videos from the new 6 mans, but a total eclipse when it comes to tier 4. I saw some guy who couldn't even approach the entrance due to shitloads of "skull" mobs there. I bet it's not even accessible to anyone. I saw no feedback at all on those tier 4 bosses, not even on TL, so where are they? Why no pictures, videos? The logic is usually thus, especially with Funcom - if they made tier 1 and tier 2 crappy, they didn't change this method substantially with tier 3. And if noone even tested those TWO bosses prior to launch, they aren't even there. Players' responses (or rather, lack of) tell me everything I need to know. If you wish to disprove, tell me something I don't know about tier 4.
I played the game from pre-launch and only quit a few weeks ago, i'd still come back to AoC if there were some good PvP changes and somehow Funcom made sense of the mess of the Bori system that allowed people to have only 50 pvp kills, yet attain pvp level 8-10 gear. I know what i'm talking about, you sound like a fanboi newb and I feel sorry for you cause I was there for over two years defending this game.
While I wouldn't call it a failure I would say that the enthusiasm that surrounded it's initial launch has certainly been tempered by the complaints that I've read about as of late.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Totally unacceptable, you and your beloved Funcom need to start working on the concept of accessibility and "stop-being-elitist-prick-approach". If these 6 mans and latest raids are only available for veterans, you're doing it wrong, totally wrong. In WoW you have 10 mans, 25 mans, 10 man heroic, 25 man heroic, so every idiot can raid, and for veterans you have heroic or hard mode options. Everyone is satisfied, fun for the whole family. 5 mans are just 5 mans, in the previous expansion 5 man heroics were tough as fuck, it was extremely hard to get a good pug going, it was elitist, it was ... well, it was exactly as it is in AoC now. Sure, at the beginning of WotLK some 5 mans were pug killers, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way for eternity nor does it mean that MOST of them must be designed this way. If you want a challenge in WoW, you either do 5 v 5 arena or latest 25 man heroic, everything else is just meant to be available to anyone. In other words, AoC is now at the level of TBC (previous WoW expansion), but only when it comes to 6 man dungeons, step backwards. Providing utmost challenge in 6 man encounters is just fail, imo, because that means they're leaving behind tier 4 and other potential 26 man encounters, and AoC just proves every patch it can't handle MASS numbers. 48 v 48 sieges are a clusterfuck of lag and every single horror known to mankind (people just prefer good old minigames), and now it seems PvE is reducing itself from 26 to 6 man as well. You see, that's what bothers me - making steps backwards. Moreover, it's sad and it's a waste to spend all your resources on something that the minority of your playerbase will experience. Blizzard simply said, 'Fuck it, why bother spending all that time on some dungeons that 20% of our players experience?'.
So, you've just described a total fail when it comes to the philosophy of the expansion - make the latest content available for veterans, alienate the remaining "non-veterans" and newcomers. Jeez, and people wonder why this game is losing customers. What remains for those who can't either be in top guilds or 2 guilds in 2 mmos is do rep dailies. Thx, but no thx.
Oh, Destiny managed to down the penultimate boss in tier 3. Gratz! How many months now till someone manages to kill Thoth Amon, how many years before tier 4 is actually available to "normal people"? The charade continues.
Destiny used an Necro Pet idea that had been floating about for a while but no one wanted to use....
And what is that? Let me guess, some lame exploit? It wouldn't surprise me one bit, really.
Why is reducing PVE into 6 men a step backward? It eliminates the chance to have a goof that will fuck up your raid, the content is much faster to run and the bosses require deep strategies. No trash is a plus as well - just time sink.
Let me explain to you the hardmode term. It is an old term that was used for first increased difficulty dungeons in AoC - namely Iron Tower and that other dungeon in River I can't remember the name now. In Khitai for that term we have "Challenge of the godslayer". Now, what exactly is HM or Challenge of the godslayer? Some a different, harder last encounter which drops an epic or new combo or recipe, etc. It is meant to cater to the veterans and normally the hardmode is considerably hard (IMO harder than T1 and most T2) and good experience and good gear is needed.
So players have to TRIGGER it. Meaning they have a chance to finish the dungeon in normal mode and loot decent blue items for killing the bosses. Normal mode is okish. It is a bit harder than normal mode in old playfields but still not hard at all. - for example Kang Pagoda COTGS (challenge of the godslayer) encounter needs ideally 3 tanks and is quite hard to complete. Killing the boss in normal mode I did with very weak tank and not the best group in general. It is extremely easy. If you trigger the challenge it becomes considerably hard.
So it is not that all dungeons are for veterans, far from it. Normal modes are not that hard, at least some of these encounters can easily be beaten on normal mode. The game is considerably more difficult all together. Which in my opinion to is an unusual move by FC who decided to make better content for players who already play this game and made little effort to draw in fresh blood. So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them.
Age of Conan is way down at #57 in xfire rankings today. Also check the last year's worth of Funcom Financial reports; making a statement that "So it tells us that FC is happy with current numbers and want to retain subs more than gain them." Is ridiculous on two points.
One - The available data shows the game has lost the boost in subs it gained when the Expac launched and is either now bleeding vets or alot of people are taking a break from the game, either one isn't good.
Two - The game has been losing funcom money at it's current low population level, to continue with this population level the game will be unsustainable unless TSW is a hit for funcom, which I doubt it will be after so many MMO players were burnt by the launch of AoC
Some people are so blinded by their hate for AoC/Funcom and so rigid in their beliefs that they want Funcom to fail in all aspects no matter what, and they'll never be willing to concede any positive points.
Let's wait for the Q2 and Q3 financial reports shall we, before calling upon doom and damnation over FC.
As to TSW, I could try and appeal to common sense and say 'let that game be appraised on its own merit and values' but I already know that that's too hard to do for some people. Some people just need fuel for their feelings of hate and grudge, anything will do. That's basically life as it is.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Why the hell do people still quote xfire? Who the hell uses that garbage. Most people either use vent or tm speak and or don't use voice at all. Only people who use xfire are cheap or poor or just have no clue about better products.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
Xfire has always been good at pointing out trends, take LOTR for example it's been holding steady in the high 20's forever, which shows a very stable population. Despite what you think people do use Xfire, and it's good at showing trends, Age of Conan's trend has been a steep drop a few weeks after ROTGS was released. The inability of some people to accept that Xfire is good at showing trends shows ignorance and tunnel vision stubborness.
Funcom will get a boost from the initial Expac sales, or should at least knowing all the fools like myself that spent almost $100.00 with all the stupid add ons. So for one quarter things should be up, the quarter following though should be back to business for Funcom with more losses, no doubt though the expac sales should give them the liquid money injection the company needs to finish TSW.
Let's see.
One- Game was down for update today. And even than it had 200 more users logged on xfire than pre expansion. How is that bleeding vet subs is beyond my reason.
Two - Game is losing money? How is that even possible? All they need is pay the staff and servers. If you meant "game lost the money". Well that is more reasonable. It is very unrealistic to expect them 25 millions to come back. If game would be losing money monthly - meaning the income is lower than outcome ... than they would stop all support for it.
Oh my you really have no clue do you, how long have you been playing Age of Conan?