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AOC Impression Correct?
tenthring
Member Posts: 173
I have been debating whether to buy AoC. Originally I had been waiting for Warhammer to come out (played it in beta and love it) but that doesn't come out till the end of the year. It also isn't FFA PvP (I love).
From what I understand it has some pretty decent feedback (around the 8 out of 10 level). I here the early levels are well developed, but the higher level content isn't finished. Is this a pretty fair description?
Based on that assessment I was planning to wait a few months and then pick it up when they've had time to patch stuff.
Comments
I'd advise you to wait, the game is pretty unfinished for a released product and after level 30 its supposedly downhill for content/bugs.
Add to that, that is it turns out you are one of he hundreds of people with crashing/memory leak and issues, there little to no customer service to help you with it. Personally wish i had waited, 50 dollars and 3 days later i'm still sitting here waiting on Funcom, can't even start the game.
So it may sound negative, but its the cold truth atm. Up to you if you wanna play russian roulette.
The game is alright up to around 40 then its just brutle.. You run out of quests and are forced into field grinding which sucks imo.. A: because theres very little mobs and B: because theres 10 people fighting over those same mobs..
The game was fine up till about 45 then you progess into this area where you end up running out of quests at 45-47, then the npcs won't give you anymore till like 48/49.. and then its only like 2 delivery or kill quests which only give you maybe 20-30% of a lvl.. So its right back to mob grinding.. But they did put in these repeat kill quests which my friend said to do in a group 6 times for 1 level.. So she wanted me to find a group, kill 25 of these one type of mobs 6 times.. to go from 50-51... Then oh wait, repeat that up till about level 55....
The complaints on their forums are accurate.. The armor is ugly and stupid looking then you get some clown saying "oh its realistic:" Well too bad realism is boring.. The particle engine is freaking horrible and looks like some script kiddy threw it together in a week.. You do need a beefy system to run it and to be honest I played it on my bros pc which has a nice 8800 something or other, all i know is its the card with 384 bit memory interface and that seems to be the key thing on video cards for performance.. His pc was getting 60 fps steady and yet the game looks like dog crap in my opinion.. The textures are horrible, ambient lighting is non exsistent..
The games combat gets to be mind numbingly stupid after 50 levels.. All you really do is press icons which represent abilities then you press the corrosponding arrow key combination.. So basically all you do is watch what arrow keys to push.. Its mindless and has zero complexity to it..
Everything in the game is one giant placeholder or so it feels like.. What I mean is the UI is definitely GTG for console gaming.. Its very basic and poorly done.. Friends list, guild windows, chat windows etc etc are poorly designed.. Again its why I mention placeholders because honestly they need to upgrade those..
When viewing the items in your inventory bags, there just plain ugly to look at.. The icons, the description etc etc its just horrible looking..
Their stat systems is stupid... Its based on % instead of raw numbers.. Like a piece of armor will say +3 defense, + 0.2 invulnerability to slashing/crushing,piercing etc... Then if your lucky one item might have some proc on it..
The game honestly feels like guild wars 3.0 with a monthly attached to it.. Its that bad.. And i think guild wars has better performance and graphics and a shitload more refinement than AoC..
Its not a Vanguard type flop but not too far off... The game needed another year in development.. 40+ zones and areas are the problem.. 1-40 is where all their fanboys are right now cheering them on but they will see what 50+ is like...
Theres a ton more issues with this game as well.. Mainly being forced into a group at around 50 when I just spent the last 50 levels completely solo.... So by that they forced me into a guild, then into a guild which already has their own clique groups so Im not really getting groups anyways.. The pug scene is dead.. Everyones in this "I can solo to 80" mindset.. but you can't beyond 50 the game gets pretty tough.. and not tough as in difficult, just tough as in if your not into open field grinding mobs for very little Xp.. Don't friggin bother.. Some people seem to like it though.. I dont ..
wait until the buddy passes are activated. Best advice I can give atm
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Ya definitely wait for a key.. The game will seem fresh and new like I mentioned its really cool and fun up till mid 40s.. Then its just very monotonist.. I regret buying it..
No way ppl should buy this. Im lvl 38 now and we are starting to show the unfinished content. Went into instenced pyramid just to find series of huge bugs - including messed up inrances and bosses not dying - ended up having to do it 3 times before I just gave up.
And ... Mounts at 40... oh well... Lets put it this way ... I need 3 gold to buy the ceapest mount ingame. After 38 lvls and nothing bought I got a whopping 32 silver.
So in terms of foldfarmers and sellers we just found a winner !!
Dunno wtf FC is thinking. But plz plz plz - dont give them your money
What kinda issue are you having? Do you have a post on their tech forums?
Meant to quote seaka btw..
http://forums-us.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=40242&page=19
I'm a tad confused by what the above people claim about "unfinished content". Are we playing the same game? Honestly, the only thing that seems incomplete is the lack of voice overs after Tortage (starter area). Though I can understand that voice takes a while to add in, especially since it will have to be done in multiple languages.
My necro and barbarian are not lacking for things to do, so maybe some of the above people have just been unlucky and haven't found quest givers? I've found quest npc's off in the middle of nowhere before. My journal is almost always full cuz I can't seem to stop myself from accepting quests when I find one.
Also, tech-wise, I have had no problems. Disabling bloom and setting shadows to self only, really helped keep my framerate 35+ in towns. Outside I'm usually at 60-75fps.
As for the pvp servers, I must warn you they are a Gank-O-Rama right now. It got so bad that last week a mini patch was added to give people a short duration invulnerability buff whenever they load in (from a zone or dying). This was due to rampant corpse spawn camping. One of the devs did say on G4's MMO Report that they plan on implimenting a prison system for people who PK excessively. That may deter some of the bullies, but not all I'm sure.
I totally agree with you, you have every right to be confused. You see one of the above posters is just commenting on hear say as they have tech issues and havent even loaded the game up. So what you get is chinese whispers.
My journal is always full of quests too, there is plenty to do and see, its all out there just needs to be found.
More voice overs will come with the expansion, but it was never intended to have alot of them after tortage.
I know i haven't played the game yet, but i didn't make my arguments on that issue particualrly strong in that area anyway.
Considering the lack of customer service for the people who DO have issue(note the word DO, not most people) can you honestly tell a new player to play Russian Roulette with their money hoping they don't have a bug? This game does look fun and interesting but the company behind it seems to be botching a good idea, i couldn't feel right about suggesting this game as it stand now. In a couple of months yes, or on a buddy key, but seriously consider the purchase outside of the fanboyness that is so rampant in these forums.
This was a conclusion you came to in your very first post on these boards, it was in reference to the trial. You have stated several times how bad the game is, and was, in CB which you state you were in. Yet you stil bought the game and play it. Why? You again here advise people with no prior knowledge, who are asking for advise what they should do. You tell them not to buy it due to the game being in such a sorry position, but you yourself with prearmed knowledge bought it anyway. Do you have an alterior motive for this blatant contradiction.
To the OP, as someone here has already said, the buddy keys will be along soon, if you really don't want to take a chance without trying, you probably won't have long to wait.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
It has nothing to do with fanboiness, you are taking things out of context. Anyone who has played mmo's for decent period of time knows how their lauches go. This one has been smooth by and large for those meeting the req specs. But you seem to be suggesting that if someone has a problem running the game no-one else should play it in case they also have the same issues. Thats just foolish and you may as well give up trying to find a game to play now.
The boards at launch are not representative of the experience the community has as a whole, the majority of posts will be about the issues they are have or rabid over optimism, the vast majority of normal gamers are busy leveling in game enjoying (or not) what the game has to offer.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
It has nothing to do with fanboiness, you are taking things out of context. Anyone who has played mmo's for decent period of time knows how their lauches go. This one has been smooth by and large for those meeting the req specs. But you seem to be suggesting that if someone has a problem running the game no-one else should play it in case they also have the same issues. Thats just foolish and you may as well give up trying to find a game to play now.
The boards at launch are not representative of the experience the community has as a whole, the majority of posts will be about the issues they are have or rabid over optimism, the vast majority of normal gamers are busy leveling in game enjoying (or not) what the game has to offer.
At least here's someone that seems to know what he's talking about.
This is the best signature ever. Well, it is really up to you to decide. :x
My point is that a company like Funcom, that at this point in time is not living up to it's end of the deal, does not deserve to be supported through game sales.
If that changes overnight i will take back my statements and apologize, just check the support boards, theres a handful of un-helpful posts in the entire for at BEST. Bad PR for the game will dissuade future consumers, as it should, the dent in income hopefully will change their policies.
I'm sorry if you have a much lower standard for a company and its community relations/customer service, but I don't, and Funcom's is atrocious.
When it comes to their current customer service I will totally agree, as it stands, it is at best a shower of shit, but I'm personally paying for the game. To me the game is good quality and worth the box sale and future sub,.. so far.
I wasn't trying to be argumentative, but I just felt that the goal posts are being moved continually in regards to this game. Each time the game doesn't fail to the naysayers expectations a new failure mark is made, until they are at a point where to my memory I can't think of any games which adheared to those standards a few weeks into launch, not even close.
There are problems with the game, some big ones and imho I feel they have underestimated the man power they are going to need in the CS side of things to properly run the game, in the long run this will knock on to all aspects of the game.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Alright, then we agree, except i'm paying for it also and all i have to show is the icon on my desktop and the game box.
I'm in ventrilo constantly, with my guild members who are all in their 20s-30s and its really discouraging that its being handled so badly, it sounds like a fun game. But as per my experience i wouldn't recommend people to buy it, try a buddy key or wait a month or so, because if you do end up having a problem, they seemingly don't care too much/if at all.
Well Funcom did announce that they will be getting more support people in place. I think the problem was AoC exceeded their expectations and they got caught offguard. You don't want to have this huge staff if your game flops, but you don't want to understaff either. Looks like they got caught understaffed. Petition times vary widely, I've only had to petition once and it took 6 hours. Some people claim it takes days others say it took less than 30 mins.
Another problem is that some people are used to playing WoW smoothly and don't realize this game requires a much better PC to run at the same framerate. I would strongly suggest that people don't even consider playing this unless you meet the recommended specs. A good tip to help framerate is disable bloom, set shader to 2.0 and set shadows to disable (or character only). Plus turn texture cache slider all the way up.
by Funcoms own admission
- some later areas of the game are not as polished and will be seeing added content this summer
forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php
that said,
you can still have plenty of fun if you buy the game and play the under 40 content
EQ2 fan sites
obviously i never post on these threads as you can tell by my huge post count.
However. I waited a little bit to see what the boards, and other forums would say.
The one thing i noticed was the ones the cry and whine about everything were once again doing
just that. T he more they complained the more interested I got so I bought it. It is going to be a great
game. Has it's problems, but they will be fixed. Funcom is on top of the problems regardless of what
all these board trollers are saying.
Do yourself a favor and check the game out yourself. When i did I canceled all other accounts,
and very happy i did. Good luck
<img src='http://lotrosigs.level3.turbine.com/0320200000031cd29/signature.png'></img>;
Lack of content? Ugh.. I can't seem to keep my quest journal open enough to get new quests, and I'm almost 51!
There is a lot to do if you adventure.. Quest givers can be found in the oddest places too. Resource harvesting quests, crafting if you want to do it. Dungeons, quest items scattered through the land, so it's there, and yes it's thin, but it'll fill in.. they always do.
There are things that don't work, or don't work properly, and they are working to fix them. Personally I like the game, I enjoy it, and I'm glad I got it.
A harsh review but, sadly, not unfair or inaccurate (except maybe for the graphics comments). AoC is not Vanguard II but it is somewhere between VG and SWG in terms of being incomplete and buggy and off to a rough start in terms of development from here on out as a result.
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Achiever 60.00%, Socializer 53.00%, Killer 47.00%, Explorer 40.00%
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I totally agree with you, you have every right to be confused. You see one of the above posters is just commenting on hear say as they have tech issues and havent even loaded the game up. So what you get is chinese whispers.
My journal is always full of quests too, there is plenty to do and see, its all out there just needs to be found.
More voice overs will come with the expansion, but it was never intended to have alot of them after tortage.
No DrowNoble and Avery, there is no confusion. Dont get me wrong, i do think AoC right now is ok for what it is. But you cant advertise the game to a mass market. The game has 0 gameplay for such a market. The vast majority of this market wants to log in and do something for 1-3 hours.Harvesting is the most boring thing i have ever seen in a game. Its build for a hardcore-ish PvP/siege crowd. The average player doesnt want to run around for 2 hours just for 3 cotton, 8 rough leather and a few copper and sandstone. On a bad day its even less. Its not even enough to craft boots for a crafter quest. The average player wants to seen some progress at what he is doing. Its to late now, many buildings are growing and funcom would have a hard time balancing those issues.
The game has no i-win class. The mass market needs such a class like an EQ2 conjurer or a WoW hunter. Just a class that lets players get things done without dying to often. So many players grind in AoC to level and be able to do the quests. Ofc those people post that there are not enough quests.
People with one to five static friends do expereince the game in a very different way. A much better way. But the average mass doesnt have them, because they cant comit playtime regular. They play when they have the time. Since the game has no sideshow those people cant do anything else and get bored very fast.
I'm level 30 and I'm having fun with it. I'm also not omfg I must race to max level. Is it the second coming? No. Many things could of been done better.
If you're not tight on money and you have a fairly decent machine I'd suggest picking it up and trying it for yourself. Meh $50 I could waste more then that going out 1 night.
People think the support for AoC is bad, They have totally abandoned Anarchy Online's support, read their forums and see. Lost of peoples accounts have been frozen, no GM's replies to problems from AoC emails. Looks like there way to undermaned to deal with AoC issues theyve stolen all the AO Gm's for AoC.