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Anybody on the Fence about trying AOC (Wait 3 more months then try)
LordBonezy
Member Posts: 254
Contrary to reports that Age of Conan has had a spectaular launch. They have had a spectacular launch, failure, and collapse.
There are 5 critical flaws with the company developing the game. There are also a few things you will want to know about the game before you join.
Critical Flaws
1. Funcom does not tell you the whole story about anything. They generally only spin information which is positive about any event, and they either don't reveal the downside or they deny it exists. That probably won't change even with the new game director because that is a culture thing, their company has a culture of protect your own ass and forward the company agenda.
If you don't mind being outright lied to, and actually enjoy that from a developer, then by all means jump on the AOC bandwagon.
2. Funcom has no sufficient feedback sorting system. They waste a considerable amount of time reading the feedback via, emails, and on the forums from players. This is how we got half a game in the first place, and how we got a totally fucked up patch priority schedule since release. This is all passive information collection. They need to start active information collection in the form of polls, dev chats, and acutal community events inside the game.
New game director took over about a month ago, nothing has changed except he talks more now, well he has better english skills because he's American so duh, the other guy was from Norway, so he didn't talk as much.
3. Patching process, way way too slow. At the rate they are going, implementing one critical patch ever 4-5 months, and adding missing features about the same rate it will be many many months and probably years until the game has all the features in it that make it a full game. Not implemented suggestions, I'm talking about acutal necessary working functions of the game, DX10, PVP, etc.
There are no time tables, even though you are paying for development, you don't get to know when it is expected to be done.
4. Funcom has announced they are working on the expansion already. Wow great move. A secret that should have been kept very secret. Of course that totally blew up in their faces because they are so public relations incompetent it isn't funny but I digress. Working on the expansion means, that they will be able to charge another retail fee, and with a new box on shelves, and a digital download system, they will harvest new customers. If it is anything like last time, I shold replace "harvest new customers" with "screw new customers" 
They will also screw you if you are a current customer because they will drop even the dismal level of support they are providing AOC, and make you buy the AOC-X. Promising all new content, bigger, badder, this and that. Remember Funcom is a company, Age of Conan is a product, they both exist to make money, making customers happy is only a means to making money and they have proven that they don't need to do that to make money evidently.
The will probably develop and release the same half-done, pile of fail they did with the first release.
5. The Expansion is likely to have half the launch strength of the original. Successful expansions come if and only if the original product was supported well and had a good reputation. The original AOC has neither. Also every single game reviewer who was fucked over by AOC and Funcom, Erling Ellingsen, i.e. gave it a 9/10, 4/5, whatever when we all know it really deserves a 2/5, will be ready to fuck them right back. I guarantee you even a quality expansion (if that is even possible from Funcom) will get a lower rating the next time around, reducing the value of the expansion in the eyes of consumers.
A few things you should know about AOC that are fact.
Many servers have less than 50-100 players online for 12 hours out of the day. They have said they are looking into merging but haven't given a timetable for that either. A certain critical mass of players have to be on a server daily/weekly in order to keep an economy going, and allow for T1/T2/T3 (T stands for Tier) Cities to be constructed.
In order to achieve some of the higher weaponry and armor you have to be in a guild with a T3 city which takes literally months to complete because you have to harvest, harvest, harvest. Hundreds-of-thousands-of-resources.
Harvest: Imagine being a villager from Age of Empires, one of those dorky little fuckers that just gathers all day long. Yup that's Harvesting. Imagine how fun that would be to spend about 1/4 of your game time doing that because that is what you and your guild mates will do, in order to collect the hundreds of thousands of resources, you basically go out and smack rocks, trees, and bushes with your pick axe (no need to equip it magically appears) and you harvest a maximum of 200 per hour, usually getting about 150-175 per hour. You and every one of your guild mates has to do that for what amounts to literally hundreds of labor hours. Sound like fun?
Or you can level up to 80 ASAP, and then try our Raids which appear to be broken all over the place, and get some loot and gear that way, but for no real purpose becuase Siege doesn't take place on the majority of the servers, because only T3 guilds can do it, and most of them have quit because the devs have failed to deliver the game promised.
That's what you are buying stock in. So if $45 +$15 a month sounds worth it. Go for it.
Comments
Thank you for putting that together LordBonezy. It might be a bit subjective in some areas, but overall it was fairly candid; without any fluff.
I may return to AoC in the future, but that depends largely on how I see Funcom manage its product and community in the months to come. Will you be returning or do you know people on the fence that despite their misgivings, will try it anyway?
hmmm
I am debating. Whether I should switch wow to something else like age of conan.
Ah~~~~~ perplexing
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BattleKnight
A nifty free browser game:
http://s5.battleknight.us/index.php?loc=hire&ref=ODI4
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Love sought is good;
but given unsought is better.
I have to agree that as long as Funcom is in the driver's seat, this game will likely never reach full potential. Especially when they pull stuff like this: http://aocexposed.4-playerz.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=20
Ya, that is the sort of thing that they consider "Working as intended". So once you and your guild mates are done building a T3 city, investing hundreds of collective man hours gathering hundreds of thousands of resources - they decide to undermine your efforts and give one away for free. Stuff of this nature is proving to be Status Quo for Failcom.
Krawnik
Look if you dont' want sensible input I'll stop clearing it up. I think players do want honest info about what is really going on. I know we've all been burned before by software which looked great, was expensive and then failed to deliver what was advertised.
Age of Conan does deliver on some things, however there are mechanics flaws which the developer has refused to even acknlowedge much less discuss, and look for ways to improve. With that being the case, why bother wasting you money. Sure you might be happy, but you will be happy investing your money in a product that is actually finished or in a releasbale state and is polished in more than one single area.
My exprience is all I can rely on, and the feedback I got from members of my guild, from players on the server, from the situation as a whole. It is a colossal disaster. It that is subjective consider, that is also the truth. I'd love to continue to post on the AOC forums suggestions for improvement, or ways to imrpove, however they do not allow anyone to post there, who is not actively subscribed.
The reason they do it is because they can't moderate fast enough in order to prevent the damage that was being created by free and open speech about their product. Because it fails to deliver. I post here because it seems like the most obvious place for MMO players to come and learn about it.
Heed my warning. Give AOC another 3 months before you try it, if you are trying for the first time, or if you are re-trying it. The only thing they have fixed in the months you've been gone is performance is marginally acceptable on recommended systems. If you jump on the ship right now, you'll still be jumping onto a sinking Titanic which Funcom has consistently failed to change the course on.
The game needs a LOT of work, for them to be thinking about an expansion now is just suicide and it will finish off an already deing game.
Their time would be much better spent fixing the current game and actually attracting some players.
I think really it's to late for AoC now, things will only go down hill even if they magicly fix everything. First impressions make or break an MMO. Most people who were disapointed at the start won't come back.
I think you are wrong. I just started the game 3 weeks ago with a herd of other people on my server. The game is excellent and I just frankly don't know what you are talking about? Did you read this somewhere or are you basing your statement on actual gameplay after patch 2.0?
I did not play before patch 2.0 but apparently that made a big difference for most people. You might want to check if you are outdated. Anyway, sorry for preaching but I just have such a hard time understanding what da heck people are talking about when they say this game somehow is not ready. It's fatanstic, thats what it is!!
What you have to realize PezzBomb, is that even if they fixed all the current bugs and added missing content, most people will never return to AoC. Ex-players couldn't care less about patch 2.0, patch 3.0 or even patch 12.0. They were treated like crap by FC and they are never coming back.In the world of MMO's you get one chance to make it big, and FC blew it.
AoC will probably become a niche game with about 50k subs. That is if FC can by some miracle pay back their debt. My prediction is, FC will go bankrupt and AoC will be sold to another company, who runs it with a skeleton crew. Just wait and see.
Also the reason why game seems so "amazing" to you is that you have only played it for 3 weeks and are probably still in Tortage. It will get boring once you get to higher levels. Really boring.
I think you are wrong. I just started the game 3 weeks ago with a herd of other people on my server. The game is excellent and I just frankly don't know what you are talking about? Did you read this somewhere or are you basing your statement on actual gameplay after patch 2.0?
I did not play before patch 2.0 but apparently that made a big difference for most people. You might want to check if you are outdated. Anyway, sorry for preaching but I just have such a hard time understanding what da heck people are talking about when they say this game somehow is not ready. It's fatanstic, thats what it is!!
Before you even played the game a month ago you went posting on the lineage, lord of the rings, warcraft, DDO, knight online etc forums talking about AoC and telling them how wonderful the graphics and pvp system is. I'm afraid I find it difficult to beleive that you honestly belive the things you post. any ideas what happened to orionman?
Well i recommend AOC.
AOC is not perfect, it has its problems and stuff missing, but i think its still a very good and cool game, and you can definitely have a very good and fun time playing it !
Since lunch AOC has improved ALOT and it will improve way way more ! New stuff coming, new fixes etc.
Hope to see you in game !
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Bear Grylls : I need to get out of this frozen hellhole!
Bear Grylls : (Holds a beetle in his hand) 4 times more protein then Beef
I recommend you wait. Yes, AoC has improved, but it's still not "ready" enough to be fun, and I many people agree with me. Endgame needs a lot of work. Also server populations are looking bad.
Just give it 3-6 months and wait for a trial. That way you can decide for yourself and you don't have to waste any of your money, because there's a high chance that you won't like AoC..
December, at the latest, everyone will see the end game content flushed out, new areas added, more fixes to classes, improvement in items across the board, better looks, more PvP option via the commons district, improved economy due to item fixes and changes to crafting, and more mid game content via ymir pass. You can wait it out to resub until then, and I would if you ubsubed with a lvl 60+ character, or u can start now. Your choice. BTW Yamirs Pass, new lvl 55+ zone, is due out by the end of the month.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
i agree Dec should be a good month to come back.
and really your only choices are WoW, War and LoTR.....
WoW = too old even tho i had a blast for 3 years
WaR= RvR not my style i like smaller group battles i dont like zergs some people do. i want my personal skills to shine.
LoTr= is too questy for me and i dont really like the look of any of the chars at high level.
AoC= my only gripe on AoC is the content drop off, since most of the major bugs have been cleaned up
Darkfall should also come out in December. It looks like it's not going to be vaporware after all. Last presentation they had in Athens looked really good and fans are all excited about it. I might give it a try myself. Graphics kinda suck but otherwise it's not looking too bad. I especially like the fact that you can actually aim with a bow, not this boring auto-attack.
I'm just worried they might delay it since they have not announced any date and there has not been any beta leaks (could suggest there IS no beta yet).
Darkfall should also come out in December. It looks like it's not going to be vaporware after all. Last presentation they had in Athens looked really good and fans are all excited about it. I might give it a try myself. Graphics kinda suck but otherwise it's not looking too bad. I especially like the fact that you can actually aim with a bow, not this boring auto-attack.
I'm just worried they might delay it since they have not announced any date and there has not been any beta leaks (could suggest there IS no beta yet).
Yes but my friend Ryti you forget something key here about the graphics. If you are being chased by 20 bad PC's and are running toward 20 friendly guildmates, you wont die as a result of rendering lag in this game. PVP games should have lower than STUNNING graphics as a good PVP game will be all about the gameplay wont it? I mean I dont care if a fire on the ground spits embers if I cant move in a siege battle! do you?
-Lum
Yes, I agree with you. Graphics mean absolutely nothing to me. I'm all about gameplay. I just said "graphics kinda suck" because there are a lot of graphics junkies here and I want them to know the deal before they go check out DF. Otherwise they'll be back here: "OMG graphix sux!!".
AoC is a perfect example of gameplay > graphics.
What you have to realize PezzBomb, is that even if they fixed all the current bugs and added missing content, most people will never return to AoC. Ex-players couldn't care less about patch 2.0, patch 3.0 or even patch 12.0. They were treated like crap by FC and they are never coming back.In the world of MMO's you get one chance to make it big, and FC blew it.
AoC will probably become a niche game with about 50k subs. That is if FC can by some miracle pay back their debt. My prediction is, FC will go bankrupt and AoC will be sold to another company, who runs it with a skeleton crew. Just wait and see.
Also the reason why game seems so "amazing" to you is that you have only played it for 3 weeks and are probably still in Tortage. It will get boring once you get to higher levels. Really boring.
Who cares? What is this absurde mourning BS you MMOers are doing? If it's good game play it, if it's not don't. You currently have a fantastic game on the shelf but you wount play it because FC blew it. WTF?? A good game is a good game and a good game is always good to play. It can get Fracking easier. On top of this we all know that there are plenty of servers with big population numbers (it's not like you have to find the server with the lowest numbers. You play on the server with high numbers). So there is nothing stopping anybody for getting their moneys worth or whatever. The game is there, and it's fcking excellent. You can only thank yourself for not having fun. i'm logging Hyboria now and I swear to god, that the more I post in this forum the less I understand of the MMO community.
And by the way I am Lvl 41 by now.
Well some of us have this thing called "Ethics". Go google it.
As for the game being good.. that's your personal opinion and most gamers disagree with you. If most people thought AoC was a perfect game, 90% of gamers wouldn't have left the first couple of months. I was there and I saw people leaving. Every day I had to clean our guild roster from people who had been offline for more than 30 days.
Some people think it's the patching that will save AoC. They think that if FC just fixes a couple of bugs, people will come back running. Nope. Most people just didn't like the game and they are NEVER coming back. AoC will NEVER become as big and as popular as FC hoped. True story.
You are level 41? Wow, then you must know almost everything about AoC. When will you write this awesome review you have been talking about? We as a community would really appreciate it. Thanks.
What you have to realize PezzBomb, is that even if they fixed all the current bugs and added missing content, most people will never return to AoC. Ex-players couldn't care less about patch 2.0, patch 3.0 or even patch 12.0. They were treated like crap by FC and they are never coming back.In the world of MMO's you get one chance to make it big, and FC blew it.
AoC will probably become a niche game with about 50k subs. That is if FC can by some miracle pay back their debt. My prediction is, FC will go bankrupt and AoC will be sold to another company, who runs it with a skeleton crew. Just wait and see.
Also the reason why game seems so "amazing" to you is that you have only played it for 3 weeks and are probably still in Tortage. It will get boring once you get to higher levels. Really boring.
Who cares? What is this absurde mourning BS you MMOers are doing? If it's good game play it, if it's not don't. You currently have a fantastic game on the shelf but you wount play it because FC blew it. WTF?? A good game is a good game and a good game is always good to play. It can get Fracking easier. On top of this we all know that there are plenty of servers with big population numbers (it's not like you have to find the server with the lowest numbers. You play on the server with high numbers). So there is nothing stopping anybody for getting their moneys worth or whatever. The game is there, and it's fcking excellent. You can only thank yourself for not having fun. i'm logging Hyboria now and I swear to god, that the more I post in this forum the less I understand of the MMO community.
And by the way I am Lvl 41 by now.
OWNER POST REQUEST : Please be respectful of other peoples opinions.
Pezz : You joined 3 weeks ago. You don't have 5 months of knowledge of broken promises, failures to deliver content, and screw-overs by the developer of the product. Yes certain areas of the game are well done. According to your own statments you are only 21 levels removed from Tortage. Consider that you might have a drastic change of opinion when you hit level 50 or 60. Find a particular player who is level 70 on the server. Ask them if they are going to get to 80, track their progress, find out who long it takes, if its worth it. Just ask, they've been around longer. Find out from them what they think.
You state there is a herd of players on your server thats great. The majority of servers do not have that. A few servers, Tyranny, Cimmeria, and Set, are refugee servers, the majority of the playerbase is huddled on those, because their previous servers collapsed. Indeed I was playing on Tyranny in my last month and I enjoyed seeing faces while playing a multiplayer game.
Your opinion of the game may be that it is "fucking excellent", But that doesn't change the facts which are that the developer has lied about what they plan on delivering, what they have delivered, and what they are likely to deliver in the future. Please do take our opinions into consideration, I was told 3 or 4 months ago from players players what I'm saying now, and at the time it was fun, however over the course of my guild exprience I invited literally 2000+ characters into our ranks only to see less than 200 there when I finally gave up.
Fact: People are quitting the game in droves. herds of people there today does not equal herds of people there tomorrow if the game keeps on a steady population decline. The Developer hasn't offered to throw hard core players like I was a bone or anything to stay or come back. Nothing. Just broken promise after broken promise.
The game is in a steady population decline, if it were not so they developer would not be talking about server merging. Your opinions are valuable if not entirely factual or valid points because you lack the exprience or knowledge of what is fact. I suggest you look up some of the forum posts from May, June, July, August, September and compare them to October. You'll find server merges started being asked for about 2 months ago, you'll also find DX10 has been a heavy topic of discussion. Expanding the guild bank someway somehow has been requested since launch. Funcom hasn't touched any of those. They also implied a PVP system was to be in the game before launch, it was recently added a few weeks ago, and only in part. They have also failed to deliver any of hundreds or thousands of player made suggestions on the suggestion forums. Don't just look at the USA forums check out the EU forums, they have hundreds of suggestions there too. None of them are in the live build and none of them are in testlive.
The developer doesn't have the ability to deliver on these in the amount of time that consists an average subscription length. I.e. 2.5 months. How does that metric sit with you?