Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
AoC - Sadly The Shine Is Off And Reality Sets In - This is barely an MMO
chargerrich
Member UncommonPosts: 4
Let me preface this review by stating the following:
1. I was really looking forward to Age of Conan
2. I am desperate to find a "WoW" killer
3. I have been to a certain degree a fanboi of this release
4. I was not in any BETA but did launch with EA
5. I have leveled two characters to level 44 and 35 so I have not maxed
That being said I am sad to say that the more I play this game, the more I am let down and disappointed by some of the core mechanics of this game and am not sure this is really even an MMO (at least not in the typical MMO vein).
The Review
First the good:
Environment - The games "setting" and "environment" is about spot on to what I would consider my "ideal" environment. The mature rating allows for a more adult oriented game, some violence and gore and some sick animations. 9/10
Combat - Probably the best aspect of the game, grinding is still grinding but the "no auto attack" combat certainly keeps you interested and the aforementioned animations are very well done. 9/10
Graphics - I guess this is a love it or hate it aspect of the game, some will say they are dull, but I believe that was a design decision to go with the realistic environment. I personally like the graphics and they are a 180 from the crayon colored cartoon grahics from World of Warcraft. 8/10
Character Creation - AoC comes in second (albeit a distant second) to the character creation system of City of Heroes/Villains. I like the options that are available and coming from AC/AC2 and Wow this is a nice feature. 7/10
Now the Bad:
Now with all the nice things said above, one might wonder how just one negative aspect of a game can take this game down so far in this reviewers opinion. But the one problem I have with this game is a big one and not one that can be fixed with a patch as it was a core design decision.
And that is...
AoC uses a "guild wars" type of instancing system... so much so that one can argue that this game is not in fact a true MMO. So you have picked a server that say supports 2-3000 players (estimated). Now unlike WoW or CoH/V or most MMOs if 1000 players go to any one city you are all not in fact in that city together, you are in one of upwards of 15-20 "instances" of that city or quest area even though you are all on the same server.
What this means is that you are really only playing with 5-10% of the actual server at any one time. This obviously completely ruins PvP. Want to get revenge for a gank? Too Bad! The ganker can switch instances and you are left with A) doing nothing or 
spending the next 30 minutes instance hopping just hoping to catch the offender.
This is completely unacceptable and it baffles me why this decision was made. Performance? Perhaps in 1998, but in 2008 this could not have been a performance issue when all other mainstream MMOs can and do handle > 2500 players per server without this type and level of server instancing.
This decision is very disappointing and really limits the appeal of the game to many who are used to playing with more than a handful of players.
There are other small quibbles (stats make no sense, armor does not seem varied enough, et al) but all of these are fixable. The instancing decisions are core to the game and for many will ruin the experience and any longevity.
If you like Guild Wars then I can completely recommend this game. It has a lot of nice features even some level of innovation, but if you are looking for or are used to a game where all players of a server are available to you, then this game falls woefully short.
Comments
AoC instancing is totally different from Guildwars instancing. See numerous threads for reason!
Well...... I hope you find a game to your liking. So far I'm having fun.
You make it sound like he doesn't know what instancing is. He played the game, he gave an example, and reason to back up the claim. Maybe you should read it more carefully before telling him to do research.
I personally am not gonna let the instancing ruin the game....ya it sucks..but the overall game makes up for it 10x, the game is awsome...then again it is your opinion and there is other options if you dont like AoC...
You make it sound like he doesn't know what instancing is. He played the game, he gave an example, and reason to back up the claim. Maybe you should read it more carefully before telling him to do research.
I'm simply re-enforcing the fact that the two are totally different, not trying to just discredit him.. guildwars has private instancing, while aoc has public instancing(which is more or less transparent unless meeting someone). Even the dungeons aren't privately instanced normally.
I've begun to enjoy proper player division after playing this beast
Real PVP! *yeah, right*. Closer to a zerg where no one knows what the hell is going on.
For some MMORPG players, this instancing system is really a turn off.
GW and DDO use per party instancing to fully control player enviroment. Thus, meeting other players is only possible in cities.
WoW, LotRO and Vanguard use hidden zoning, giving you a really good impresion of seamless world. running into other players is possible almost everywhere.
AoC is same as TR in this respect. It is zoned with loading between zones, but will also parallel instance any zone if its deemed crowded.
I noticed this in TR beta for myself ... I really prefer games that give illusion of seamles world. It's a personal choice. So it's ok to post about it, as some of us have preferences this way.
As long as posts are kept factual and objective that is.
3 posts = your credibility is -1 ,now go reroll another account here and post the same whine again mr. no life kid.
lol because he has 3 posts his credibility is -1 and he has no life? you sad sad fanboi, go jump off a cliff please.
About the review, Im thinking of buying of AOC but the instancing sounds really bad, I rather have lower graphics and a full open world
World of Warcraft is a proof that MMORPG quality should affect schedule/budget and not the other way around.
Wouldn't a person with a million posts be the "mr. no life kid"? Also, people that get worked up enough to make an account and start posting specifically about something are a great source to me. They aren't one of the people just READING what everyone else says and make their opinion based on that, probably without even playing the game.
3 posts = credibility none? Why? are you kidding?
Only an imature person would not realise that post count has nothing to do with the value or credibility of someones post. i read his post and by the way i love the game. But i dont PvP much and his main trouble is being ganked and looking for revenge, its messy to do with multiple instances so i can understand how he feels.
But come on dont go calling him names or saying his cred is low as he hasnt posted a lot thats just ridiculous. If the lead designer of Aoc registered today and posted his first ever post about the game design, would he be told he has no cred as he hasnt posted a lot? or if my 12 year old son posts lol to every post he finds funny and so has 2k posts would he be classed as valued?
sorry for going of topic but that just bugs me lol.
I can say few posts=no credibility, to many posts=troll. There you have it now tell me where is the credibility ?
there is one thing that AoC is doing that no other game (save EVE) is going and without instancing it would not work and that is the collision detection it is using for Players. This is a highly CPU intensive process to detect collision on constantly moving targets, it is bad enough to have to do this cull for NPCs, where you can determine the maximum number of moving targets in any one area (either through spawn control or leashing) but a different matter entirely when it comes to players.
Thus you use instancing to manage that number to ensure that the heavy collision detection code doesn't bog the game down too much. With out this, they probably could of gone for the fake wow/vanguard seemeless world concept, but it would of also eliminated alot of the game play designed for the game.
It is a trade off.
Am I thrilled with the number of instances? No, but that doesn't mean I don't think they made the right choice for the game and I full expect that once the average computer system increases, that we will see an increase in the number of people who can be in a particular instance, but they didn't want to cut out 90% (stat pulled out of ass) their potential subscribers because they would have to require a E8400+ with SLI'd PCIe2.0 video cards to play the game
Now that is stupid. What has credibility to do with number of posts ?I can say few posts=no credibility, to many posts=troll. There you have it now tell me where is the credibility ?
maybe he just got tired of the millions of reviews/threads who all state the same, that aoc doesnt feel like an mmo cause of given reasons... we get it now
same goes for all the praising - great graphics, combat good, etc etc we get the point
people should use the search function next time and insert opinion there.. same goes for the poster below me. we get your point, u absolutely hate it beyond limits.. ive read the same stuff a thousand times now
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
dude it takes like 2-3 seconds to load to another area its not something to cry about.
Everquest 1 used collision detection and from all I have read games like WoW made the choice not to have it based on that they didn't want the greifing aspects of it.
Also I would definitely argue that AoC is not an mmo, I don't see much of a difference between playing AoC and playing CoD4 on Xbox live.
Just want to point out that CoH/V uses the same zone instancing, the number in the zone may be a higher number, but when you reach it you will get 'Atlas Park 1' and 'Atlas Park 2'. The reason you haven't noticed it is that a lot of groups are in private instances and the remaining are spread across the zones.
AoC will probably have more instances because it has less private ones, but after the number of active subscriptions drops to its running level, and the player levels spread out, it will become less noticeable.
The above is not a whine, just fond memories.
No instances or Hidden zoning in Vanguard (except for one raid Dungeon) It is seamless.
You didn't understand anything I wrote above did you ?I say that the limit of people playing in an instance was made to keep the game M O V I N G and this theory was confirmed by an ex programmer of FunCOM.
They "found" probably in open Beta the exact balance to still have good FPS for higher systems with number of players you "meet" in one instanced zone.
Meaning 30 at the most at this moment.
You DO realise your computer needs to upload (from your HD and from stored memory) ALL the graphics data from ALL the players in that zone...
The PRELOADING of content you talk about is ANOTHER problem but doesn't interfere with this one.
In games like LOTRO, TR, Wow ALL data are being uploaded in the background. meaning some really great programming (although I confess with far lesser data of course).
You are wrong, the way a character is preloaded in AoC is the same in Lotro, TR and Wow.
To tell the truth, is very similar to TR and EQ2.
You dont know the exacly number os players in all AoC instances, so 30 is not a reality.
Somehow you are having strange fantasies about how AoC works... and it is easy to see this is disturbing you.
Anyway, if a player just hated the zoning aspects in EQ2, maybe AoC will not be a good choice for this player, I would recommend Vanguard for PvE and Lineage 2 for PvP.
Everquest 2 is a MMO, so AoC is for sure a MMO.
...
I am enjoying the game but agree that instancing sucks in that I want to always be in the same 'world' as everyone else - not just 35 other people. On the other hand, for PVE its not so bad as there's less competition for spawns.
Overall I'd like to see no instancing and less people per server (eg 2K instead of 10K or whatever)
i tend to agree with the op . conan is more of a co operative online roll playing game , its more like a single player game ( even past level 20 ) with some multiplayer aspects . but given its zoneing and limits to the numbers of players allowed in each zome it can hardly be called massive .
its enjoyable . but theres little to keep you here
i agree with his post i been looking forward to aoc for so long .now that i can play. just cant be botherd . this is the one thing i hated about hellgate . being in instance with 30 people sucks what happends if you have 30 players in a guild all wanting to meet up . cant do it unless you go to you city plot . im giveing this game till the end of the month by then need to release some thing else . at moment all i do is grind gather quest . bringing the wow in to it . i can do all that on wow and more . as much as i hate wow now .
i feel that the only game that is going to give choice in things to do . have i got to now wait months for war . begining to think the people who make these games dont play much . i rather have open space than full on grathics . nice grathic wont keep this game going it the content sucks
how many of you are playing less now than when you first got the game i cant play for more that 4 hrs now with out wanting to take a break
3 posts = your credibility is -1 ,now go reroll another account here and post the same whine again mr. no life kid.
WTF does the amount of posts the OP has on MMORPG.com have to do with is credibilty?? I think you need to get a life.
You forgot to mention a few more bad stuff about aoc but overall really good explicit review..especialy explaining the instancing and its sucky problems...
Well I find the original post a bit odd. Basically he raves about the game.
Enviroment 9/10
Combat 9/10
graphics 8/10
character Creation 7/10
Those are pretty high marks. Then they spend the second half of the long well worded post on instancing and specifically on pvp instancing. I play on a pve server so ganking is not an issue and hunting down gankers has nothing to do with my play style. Half the post is on one thing they feel is negative pvp instancing. They Even say there are other small quibbles that are all fixable, which is pretty good . Sounds to me like a great game that uses instancing.
Everyone knows this and goes into AoC expect it. This is Common knowledge. What I am pointing out is the tone of the OP is that this is a game breaker. They go on about how great the game is but opps instancing the shine is gone. The reality sets in? When did this happen for you? The minute I logged in I knew I would have instancing did not take me to level 40 to suddenly see the light.
So with all this great review from the OP all I learned was they do not like instancing on a pvp server. So I quess I was wonder how exactly is the shine off? It still is shinning brightly for me.