Age of Conan becomes a new game [Crafting presented!!]

DaSpack

Joel presents Crafting in this months Dev letter. And OMG AoC economy and use of drops will turn it into a much much more dynamic game on that end. Really really good and massive update. make the read.

http://www.ageofconan.com/news/game_directors_letter_october_2013

 

Any thoughts?

Po_gg

Any thoughts? For a start I think that "becomes a new game" is exaggerated

Based on the pics and what Joel wrote, it has many similarities to TSW's system, with the assembly, stat modification, salvaging... I'm curious how will they handle the resources. In TSW the glyphs form a clear, straightforward matrix, while in AoC the resources are abundant. Without the proper implementation the resource management will be a logistical nightmare

DaSpack

Originally posted by Po_gg

Any thoughts? For a start I think that "becomes a new game" is exaggerated

Based on the pics and what Joel wrote, it has many similarities to TSW's system, with the assembly, stat modification, salvaging... I'm curious how will they handle the resources. In TSW the glyphs form a clear, straightforward matrix, while in AoC the resources are abundant. Without the proper implementation the resource management will be a logistical nightmare

Exagerating... Not really.. The dynamics of what is important in AoC now will totally change. Crafter and crafting skills becomes the thing to do now in Hyboria if you want the meanest stuff.. Half of the items on the auction house is never bid on in the existing system. After the crafting intro, people will run around trading even the most elementary drops... Because now they mean something and now there are incentives to redo dungeons and so on... The dynamics and economy of the game will totally change... To the better.

jtcgs

A yes, the tradeskill overhaul that has been coming for 3 years...right after it went F2P they were talking about it as if it was only a month away. That was over a year ago.

DaSpack

Yes. that one.. Humongous update, patching to testlive any moment now. But also, have not seen the full explanation of the system before like in this letter. It looks very good and VERY promising.

LuckyDucky

Originally posted by jtcgs
A yes, the tradeskill overhaul that has been coming for 3 years...right after it went F2P they were talking about it as if it was only a month away. That was over a year ago.

Not sure if you really care or not, but Joel is going to deliver this crafting update. My hope is that when it is finally rolled out it is not a buggy mess. I don't expect perfection on something as comprehensive and massive as this crafting update without a patch or two, but I do hope it is working well for the most part at launch. I don't want to see a bunch of rage posts about it right after it comes out, know wadda mean ?

 

DaSpack

Originally posted by LuckyDucky

Originally posted by jtcgs
A yes, the tradeskill overhaul that has been coming for 3 years...right after it went F2P they were talking about it as if it was only a month away. That was over a year ago.

Not sure if you really care or not, but Joel is going to deliver this crafting update. My hope is that when it is finally rolled out it is not a buggy mess. I don't expect perfection on something as comprehensive and massive as this crafting update without a patch or two, but I do hope it is working well for the most part at launch. I don't want to see a bunch of rage posts about it right after it comes out, know wadda mean ?

 

Well with the new craft system you basically can break down any item(the most benign stuff to the coolest, but rotting raid gear) and use it to craft new awesome stuff that basically very very few people know the outcomme of. Basically there will be over 100 of thousands of new possible combinations of weapons... I would say that it is an overwhelming task to test all those.. Expect some hickups in the begiinning. Anyways.. New crafting and economy will do this game so well..

My guess is that FINALLY,, FINALLY AoC will grow to the MMO it deserves to be. 

Braindome

Originally posted by DaSpack

Originally posted by LuckyDucky

Originally posted by jtcgs
A yes, the tradeskill overhaul that has been coming for 3 years...right after it went F2P they were talking about it as if it was only a month away. That was over a year ago.

Not sure if you really care or not, but Joel is going to deliver this crafting update. My hope is that when it is finally rolled out it is not a buggy mess. I don't expect perfection on something as comprehensive and massive as this crafting update without a patch or two, but I do hope it is working well for the most part at launch. I don't want to see a bunch of rage posts about it right after it comes out, know wadda mean ?

 

Well with the new craft system you basically can break down any item(the most benign stuff to the coolest, but rotting raid gear) and use it to craft new awesome stuff that basically very very few people know the outcomme of. Basically there will be over 100 of thousands of new possible combinations of weapons... I would say that it is an overwhelming task to test all those.. Expect some hickups in the begiinning. Anyways.. New crafting and economy will do this game so well..

My guess is that FINALLY,, FINALLY AoC will grow to the MMO it deserves to be. 

 

Yep, crafting and economy has been the major thing crippling AoC for years. Great thing is time is on the games side as anyone who starts playing today would think that the game was just made as it holds up to all current MMO offerings on the market and actually leapfrogs quite a few despite its age, minus crafting.

I'm very excited for this and I feel as excited for this game as I did when it first launched as it still offers alot to new players and this is one of the best ideas ever as resourcing and crafting has been a major downfall of the game as it has been so cumbersome and boring.

AoC was so ahead of its time, yet small things held it back, it will be great to see it shine as it offers alot of insight into what so many MMO's are missing in other categories such as engaging gameplay and diverse world interaction. 

DKLond

Didn't they move all servers to US datacenter? So we have crappy ping times in EU?

Po_gg

Originally posted by DKLond
Didn't they move all servers to US datacenter? So we have crappy ping times in EU?

Yep, they did, as the first step towards the single-server tech. I wouldn't say crappy, but the additional 50-100ms is a bit noticeable, especially at the first few times, and if you've played a lot of melee during the years. It takes a few days, maybe a week to adjust your "muscle memory" of the combos. And there are lag spikes as well, we had that very rarely before the move.

But at least the server is crowded again, so there's a gain as well in the process.

DKLond

Unfortunately, high ping is one thing I can't accept in Age of Conan - and even if I adjusted, I couldn't get past the frustration at length - I know myself well enough for that.

It can work with slower combat systems, like in LotRO - but not a fast-paced system in AoC, which is highly reliant on reactivity. Same goes for WoW - which I would never play with a 100+ ms response time. Well, for PvE - it's ok, but not PvP.

Oh well, that means I can write the game off for good. Which is probably not a bad thing, as I have enough abandoned MMOs on my "maybe" list as it is.

Po_gg

Originally posted by DKLond

It can work with slower combat systems, like in LotRO -

Actually, I've had problems with the warden as well, after the LotRO move

I somewhat agree with you on the matter, I'm not happy either when a server got stealed from us and we're stuck with the higher ping... but I love LotRO and AoC, and luckily I'm a PvE-only guy, so it's not a dealbreaker to me. Disturbing, sometimes annoying even, but manageable.

(lol, how many times I cursed at the races on the first festival after LotRO server move... I kept failing at the bridge jump)

LuckyDucky

Regarding server lag it has been my experience that the sever population is tied directly to the issue. When I first played AoC before it went FtP there were very few people playing in the lower level playfields and the server could handle everything very well. My lag indicator bar was always full and green. Then the game went FtP and a rush of players came on for a couple of months. It was great seeing all the new players around, but the price was server lag. Rubber banding, server drops, red line server indicator bar, all these connection troubles I never saw before. Then the wave of looky loos fell away and the population went back to pre free to play numbers. The lag trouble vanished. Now  after the merge and all the players around I am normally seeing my connection indicator bar just barely showing green, and some days it is fully red at times, and I have been experiencing getting dropped altogether. I live on the US west coast.

DKLond

Originally posted by Po_gg

Originally posted by DKLond

It can work with slower combat systems, like in LotRO -

Actually, I've had problems with the warden as well, after the LotRO move

I somewhat agree with you on the matter, I'm not happy either when a server got stealed from us and we're stuck with the higher ping... but I love LotRO and AoC, and luckily I'm a PvE-only guy, so it's not a dealbreaker to me. Disturbing, sometimes annoying even, but manageable.

(lol, how many times I cursed at the races on the first festival after LotRO server move... I kept failing at the bridge jump)

Hehe, don't get me wrong - I was majorly pissed at the LotRO server move as well, and I'm a lifetime subscriber.

But a little lag is more or less ok in a PvE only game - as the AI tends to be supremely predictable, and that's certainly the case in LotRO. I guess the Warden is a bit different - because you have to use combos and what not. I get that

Actually, I wrote off LotRO completely as well, as I find it has become so infested with the cash-shop F2P mindset in the past couple of years, that I just can't get immersed in that world again. They ruined a very good game there - and it was always fully functional, unlike AoC - which has always been troubled and which I consider to be a dead game that doesn't know it's dead.

rojoArcueid

Direct quote from Bylos in that article

"You may have also noticed a famous monster from The Secret World making a guest appearance in Age of Conan during the event. This was actually a fairly important test for us –  we were testing the feasibility of porting monster animations between the two projects and allows us greater flexibility in creating monsters in both games . It doesn’t mean we will directly port creatures between the games, but the animation rigs will allow us to create some pretty interesting new monsters without requiring us to start from scratch." 

 

If this testing ends successfully this brings AoC character animations  one step closer to TSW. I still have hope.

Po_gg

Originally posted by DKLond

 

But a little lag is more or less ok in a PvE only game - as the AI tends to be supremely predictable, and that's certainly the case in LotRO. I guess the Warden is a bit different - because you have to use combos and what not. I get that

Yep, I wrote too that it's manageable, but annoying at first, when you're used to a kind of "pattern" and suddenly it fails a lot. It takes some practice to adjust, especially if you play lots of melee classes.

In LotRO's case the warden was the only issue for me (the other classes have the usual combat with longer cd's), since the warden's gambit system is similar to AoC's melee mechanic - just better

DaSpack

Originally posted by DKLond
Didn't they move all servers to US datacenter? So we have crappy ping times in EU?

People were freaking out first, but the result is pretty much that people in EU have traded in +40 to 50 ms for packed servers. I prefer the last one by fare. Also if you ping increase from 80 to 130 ms, the set back is pretty much close to none. If your service provider already fucks you with 200 ms and you get another 50-100 ms on topp of that.... Sure that sucks, but the solution to that is not to swear at FUNCOM. the solution is to change your net provider to someone professional.

 

Ping increase in UK is actually sometimes less than +40 ms. Russia and Eastern Europe is +70ish.. Not really that bad if you already have good ping.