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Evolutionary not Revolutionary and that's fine
chryses
Member UncommonPosts: 1,453
I have seen several threads from people stating that AoC is not original or ground breaking and its basically another pile of steaming poo on the MMO crap pile. Personally I feel a lot of this blame stems from them as its their expectations that are wrong...not the game.
Everyone is waiting for the next generation MMO to change the face of questing, leveling, open world, sandbox etc. Age of Conan is not revolutionary, it does not change the face of MMO's forever, it doesn't turn the industry on its head or anything like that. It does however take the MMO concept and improve on it in many ways.
Lets look at this in other industries.
When I buy a car I expect to go to the yard and find a car that has 4 wheels, steering wheel, seats, doors, windows, radio etc. If I look at a 2000 model BMW I will get a pretty standard car with some nice features that are different to the SAAB or Mercedes. If I look at a BMW made in 2008 I still get something so different the car world will be changed forever! I will get a car with 80% of the same content but I am expecting it to be sexier, slicker, more options, better control, SatNav, DVD and just a ton of extra features. If we translate what we want from the MMO business into the car industry, they would be expected to build a freaking personal spaceship for each person!
This is the same for any industry out there. TV's, Oven, Microwaves...whatever. However as gamers we demand that each MMO that is launched to be so mind blowing so revolutionary that anything which does not match this level of uberness is utter crap and not worth playing.
I am really enjoying AoC because I didn't expect it to change the industry forever. What I have is a game that is familiar in a lot of ways but has a ton of extra features that makes me want to jump in and ride it all the way. Combat is fun and I will never get sick of fatalities, a lot of missions are well thought out and really make you feel part of the game. Graghics are just amazing and I could push it 80% again with the right hardware.
The MMO world will only improve on its current platform and like cars in 50 years we will look back and laugh at our wooden boxes attached to steam engines running at 5mph. Until we have 100mb broadband with massive video cards that can run AoCx10 then I am not expecting any ground breaking game anytime soon. In the meantime AoC has definitely raised the bar.
Comments
Ok..so an mmo with one of the smallest worlds in the mmo history, with instancing and loadings...more linear then a normal linear mmo..this one even gives you the choice of folowing 1 path the only path to the quests...is it that evolutionary??
I see it as 3 steps back...can hardly consider it an mmo....its online yes..but no mmo...but has great graphics thats for sure...they spent 5 years making aoc...was because of the graphics..all other mmos are 3 times bigger, 3 times or more the contend ant take far less time making...
Check that triangle on top right screen thats how many copies of the zone you are in atm...dozens right? an mmo only has one world..not instanced copies...as a pc game aoc is a good game..as an mmo its one of the crappiest...
People that love aoc arent looking for an mmo..they needed a pc game..to play online..but with single player linear world...mmo lovers hate aoc...why?? not because its bad..but because its not an mmo...
/agree with OP.
It's kind of taken the best from a lot of the games and taken it to the next level. So far I'm loving this game.
WoW fanboi: "lolz 11.5 million customers, itz obviously da best"
McDonald's: over 1 billion burgers served
Instancing is a trade off for combat that actually doesn't make me sleep.
WoW fanboi: "lolz 11.5 million customers, itz obviously da best"
McDonald's: over 1 billion burgers served
To be honest I don't see this game as revolutionary, evolutionary, or contrary.
I'll give you an idea; I was playing the beta of some new korean MMO, Requiem: Bloodymare. I thought to myself, you know, this seems awfully familiar. I kill something, it's incredibly bloody, and the women are barely clothed. It doesn't seem very great, more like a slapped together generic MMO, and doesn't feel very finished or planned out. It seems to be very well polished, and starts out well enough. But eventually the road goes from being a freshly paved and sealed one to a craggy dirt road with major obsticals in the way, and eventually just drops off into nothing altogether.
Then I looked up and realized I was playing Age of Conan.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
Great things always comes from mixing or improving something that's already existing, same goes fore mmorpg.
AoC did fine on those borders mostly, of course some of those choices meant it would have some side effects, all the zoning is one of them, not a big deal but it takes some of the "atmosphere" of the lore out.
the combat system is really nice, means you have to actually be present and there all the time, i also suppose how the combo system works (can't just press all the combo follow right away but has to be made in cycle) is another away to deal with bot system?
When i play AoC it feels a little like Dungeon siege, when that came was brand new and just beyond great. But it's not it and got many other features that makes it unique in it's own way.
I'm also enjoying AoC and really this got the potential to keep on going strong for quite some time. I'm so glad to find a new combat system that's fun and doesn't feel like a really poorly made "wow clone" combat system, i see so many mmorpgs who try to make it like wow's combat system but fails so grand. AoC has some few things that is the same as wow but in it's own really unique way and that's how great mmorpgs are made, taking the good parts from existing games and mix them with their own new spices, to make a great new taste.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I disagree with u OP. Gamers do not expect every game to be revolution. Not that a revolutionary game would be ill accepted of-course. Gamers expect new games to have everything that is good about other games, and a small evolution in one or two departments. AoC took a step forward with its combat. But it also took many steps backwards with the way they made the world instanced, or limited the numbers of combatants in a siege to 48. They do not have any pvp ruleset either, this form of pvp is unlikelly to promote politics, which is the core of a pvp game for most pvp gamers. The graphics are amazing back that is double edged knife because they look amazing on high end rigs, but they exclude people with 3 yr old pc's from playing.
All in all if FC managed to pull off the combat and graphics without any comprimises the game could even be considered revolutionary by some. But as it is now it is just another game.
p.s. some1 will say u can't have those graphics, without instances. Frankly most buyers don't care about the why, but only for the end result, myself included
I don't get why people call Age of Conan's combat system anything new and exciting. City of Heroes has had it for what? 5 years now. The only difference is all attacks are conical and don't require a target.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
By the way, if the game was not split into zones this would happen:
- Insane overcrowding. Good luck getting ANY QUESTS at all done.
- Tech issues. You think some people lag now? Imagine a non-instanced world.
Zones are not bad, plenty of MMOs have used them before.
While I agree that instancing, especially in such an intensive game as AoC, is good. I think they overdid it a slight amount with the 50 player cap. I'd have said 200 at least.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
Dozens of other games do not have instancing/zoning and in most situations they play perfectly well.
The whole 'kill ten rats' questing system feels more like a step back, than evolutionary. And it even points out exactly on the map where you have to go. It's very boring and unimaginative.
Only thing thats a bit different is the combat, but it's more a nuisance than that it adds to the gameplay. And thats only for melee play, casting is exactly the same as in any other game.
Age of Conan is fun, don't get me wrong, but I've been playing these games for a long enough time that I didn't really see anything about this product that made me feel like I'd be missing anything if I didn't play. In fact, it almost seems like they are trying to out WoW WoW. Like talent trees? We've got bigger ones, plus we give you an extra point every ten levels! Like to level fast? You'll level even faster than in WoW! Like easy quests? We'll show you exactly where you need to go! My favorite thing about Age of Conan was that they didn't decide to add the Global Cooldown as a game mechanic. That is something that really just sucks the fun out of a game.
AoC raised the bar a little on the graphics side, that's all, but at the cost of inflicting players with a ridiculous amount of instance loading. massive open world my arse.
there are a *lot* of people hanging on Darkfall, which is due to release this year. DF certainly has the featurelist to revolutionise MMOs, the only question is how good will it play.
I really do not care if it is revolutionary.
I like the theme of this title which interests me. It's not cutise or whatever you want to call it like WoW (again I'm not attacking WoW).... Its different in that way.
Its nice that it shares things with WoW because otherwise there would be too many crybabies. I played WoW more than enough... and still I can say that I really like this title.
apparently you some of you have never been a part of a multiraid attack on a major city in wow.
no instancing, hundreds of people in the same area, lag is bareable.
zero lag even.
There we have it - another mis-informed person..
There is no such thing as a 50 player cap.
It looks to be around 300 per zone and currently 96 people in a siege (not including others in the area of the siege taking place)
There we have it - another mis-informed person..
There is no such thing as a 50 player cap.
It looks to be around 300 per zone and currently 96 people in a siege (not including others in the area of the siege taking place)
In other words 96 in a epic siege we know you ll defend it till your death. It s laughable a pvp game with caps.
There we have it - another mis-informed person..
There is no such thing as a 50 player cap.
It looks to be around 300 per zone and currently 96 people in a siege (not including others in the area of the siege taking place)
In other words 96 in a epic siege we know you ll defend it till your death. It s laughable a pvp game with caps.
Whats more funny than having a cap and stability or having none and a slide show with the level of detail in this game with the ability for real time combat (mounted).
Hence they picked pixels over quality gameplay, to me at least. I know quite a few that feel the same.
There we have it - another mis-informed person..
There is no such thing as a 50 player cap.
It looks to be around 300 per zone and currently 96 people in a siege (not including others in the area of the siege taking place)
Euh...no
The official word is 48v48 pop cap in siege areas only.
Everywhere else it seems like a new instance breaks off and is generated at 50 or so people. Although I think I'll cede this point, because there is no real way for either of us to prove it. So we both might as well be wrong and right.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
There we have it - another mis-informed person..
There is no such thing as a 50 player cap.
It looks to be around 300 per zone and currently 96 people in a siege (not including others in the area of the siege taking place)
Euh...no
The official word is 48v48 pop cap in siege areas only.
Everywhere else it seems like a new instance breaks off and is generated at 50 or so people. Although I think I'll cede this point, because there is no real way for either of us to prove it. So we both might as well be wrong and right.
Its 48vs48 in a siege fight - yes
here is some proof for you http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/181978
Oddly enough, I did a count and got 50 people.
So...what were you trying to prove?
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
more than 48 people in a regular zone. Don't have to take my word for it there were more than that there, a lot more. in reply to your 50 ppl in a zone cap.