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Age of Conan, deserving of more subs?
Jesabelle
Member Posts: 7
Lately I've been hearing a bit more talk about this game. Seems to be climbing up a few lists in terms of server population, so I guess people are returning. All of this talk has me interested in returning myself.
The only original titles since 2007 that I can think of have been Hellgate London and Age Of Conan, which at a glance seem to be both going under due to a start full of bugs. Well, in fact, Hellgate is already dead, but in all honesty, I did like the game, and had the game been released about 6 months later, I can totally see it being one of the most top successful PC games of 2008, but alas, Flagship Studios didn't listen.
Anyways, Age of Conan brought originality as well. First and foremost, it was brutal and it didn't follow the same line of races such as other fantasy MMOs, like WoW or WAR. It had a different curve, and so did the combat system. Combos and fatalities were a great addition. My biggest problems were as follows:
1) Very clunky interface. It didn't feel polished enough, horrid font made the game seem poorly designed.
2) Crafting seemed broken, and from what I understand is still pointless.
3) The economy seemed non-existant, not sure if this is still the case on healthy populated servers.
4) No questing content from 50+ as well as no end-game in terms of raids or PvP.
5) No tactics, just a zerg-like environment.
From what I understand server merges are coming, and populated servers seem to be doing well. I read that end-game bosses take a bit more strategy now, which is nice to see. We don't need to strategic WoW battles, but running in and killing a boss D2-style should be avoided. I understand that there are now more interfaces availiable to the public. Do any of these vastly change the look of it, font and all?
Also, what's crafting and the economy like now?
Judging by the trend of interest the past few weeks and the arrival of a new patch and server merges I can see the population rising. From what I understand it's close to 100,000 now? Correct me if I'm wrong. That's by no means a complete failure so long as 4 or 5 servers are populated well with a smooth economy.
So is this game worth returning to? I'd imagine that in the next month things will get better or have already. Any questions that I mentioned if answered would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
You can find a ton of threads with a very similar topic as yours on the first 3-4 pages of this forums section, I think you'll find your answers there.
[quote][i]Originally posted by Jesabelle[/i] [b]Lately I've been hearing a bit more talk about this game. Seems to be climbing up a few lists in terms of server population, so I guess people are returning. All of this talk has me interested in returning myself. The only original titles since 2007 that I can think of have been Hellgate London and Age Of Conan, which at a glance seem to be both going under due to a start full of bugs. Well, in fact, Hellgate is already dead, but in all honesty, I did like the game, and had the game been released about 6 months later, I can totally see it being one of the most top successful PC games of 2008, but alas, Flagship Studios didn't listen. Anyways, Age of Conan brought originality as well. First and foremost, it was brutal and it didn't follow the same line of races such as other fantasy MMOs, like WoW or WAR. It had a different curve, and so did the combat system. Combos and fatalities were a great addition. My biggest problems were as follows: 1) Very clunky interface. It didn't feel polished enough, horrid font made the game seem poorly designed. 2) Crafting seemed broken, and from what I understand is still pointless. 3) The economy seemed non-existant, not sure if this is still the case on healthy populated servers. 4) No questing content from 50+ as well as no end-game in terms of raids or PvP. 5) No tactics, just a zerg-like environment. From what I understand server merges are coming, and populated servers seem to be doing well. I read that end-game bosses take a bit more strategy now, which is nice to see. We don't need to strategic WoW battles, but running in and killing a boss D2-style should be avoided. I understand that there are now more interfaces availiable to the public. Do any of these vastly change the look of it, font and all? Also, what's crafting and the economy like now? Judging by the trend of interest the past few weeks and the arrival of a new patch and server merges I can see the population rising. From what I understand it's close to 100,000 now? Correct me if I'm wrong. That's by no means a complete failure so long as 4 or 5 servers are populated well with a smooth economy. So is this game worth returning to? I'd imagine that in the next month things will get better or have already. Any questions that I mentioned if answered would be greatly appreciated.[/b][/quote]
You are wrong. If AoC is lucky, they have 40k subs which isnt enough to pay the electric bill. If you go by the xfire average, AoC has less than 40,000 subs atm.
All the other threads that you've posted in stating how Funcom is evil and that AoC is a piece of crap but you don't play it?
Yah...I'd say check it out for yourself after the mergers and next content patch. If you like what they've done...then stay. If you don't...
Well that's why they created the cancel subscription button =D
It's not good to listen to anyone on these forums...accept maybe AmazingAvery. He tends to be pretty fair and balanced.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
EDIT: i wrote a serious reply before seeing that its the 1st post of a FUNCOM employee.
I rest my case.
You will get nothing but either zealous fanboys or bitter trolls on these forums.
The only way you'll really know if you like it or not is to wait until the next content patch and pony up 15 bucks.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
All the other threads that you've posted in stating how Funcom is evil and that AoC is a piece of crap but you don't play it?
Yah...I'd say check it out for yourself after the mergers and next content patch. If you like what they've done...then stay. If you don't...
Well that's why they created the cancel subscription button =D
It's not good to listen to anyone on these forums...accept maybe AmazingAvery. He tends to be pretty fair and balanced.
I have 7 years as a FUnCOm customer / fanboi, didn't you already say you haven't ever played the game? Maybe come back once you have.
"It's not good to listen to anyone on these forums...accept maybe AmazingAvery. He tends to be pretty fair and balanced."
Yeah as fair and balanced as FoxNews.
I've read the other threads, they seem to be made up of equally negative and positive posts.
Also, xFire makes up for what 5% of a game's population? Not even in some cases. You can't tell the population for sure. Could be less than 40k, could be close to 80k.
Anyone have a link to the new content patch on the horizon?
1) Interface still has not been changed.
2) Ever since the "temporary" gem fix went into effect crafting has hit rock bottom.
3) With said crafting woes there is a bigger recession in hyboria than on Earth.
4) There have been some improvements in this aspect. but IMO there is just not enough quests. Don't get me wrong, you CAN quest most of the way to 80 now. But if you or doing Alts then you will be doing the same quests. Just not enough to give the players different options yet.
As for end-game seiging, most of it is at a standstill currently as Guilds are holding off till after merges in an attempt to obtain a new plot.
5) Still the same, though they say the 2 new dungeons coming out will be different. Time will tell.
To touch on a few of the OP points.
1) the interface didn't seem any more or less "clunky" than that of WoW or EQ2. The onscreen messages though were very annoying early on as they would take up the whole screen. Those have since bee fixed.
2) Crafting was a bit rough to start. Couldnt start gathering resources til 20 and the actual crafting didn't start til 40. They have since tweaked it, most noteably making resource nodes show up on the map so they're easier to find now.
3) I don't buy/sell that much yet so I can't really comment on the economy. The stuff I drop off to sell usually sells which is all I care about really.
4) Lack of mid-range content was a big complaint early on, they have addressed that. They added a 50ish zone with an included dungeon as well to help people get over the mid-range "hump".
5) Early on pvp was sporadic as there were no guild cities to sack. Have to actually *build* them first which, as I mentioned about, couldn't begin until level 40. Skilled players can dodge and adjust their defenses making tactics a really big deal.
They added 9 servers about a week after launch to handle the sudden surge of players. Since a game rarely lives up to the hype, and this game had a LOT of hype, some became disillusioned and left. So they are condensing back down to keep server populations healthy.
HAHAHAHAHA..
That one gave me a good laugh. Thanks. I wonder if you could say that sentence in real life with a straight face. Lol, "balanced"..
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Originally posted by Frobner
"Massive sieges" "mounted combat" and "spellweaving" are just few words that spring to mind when I hear the word AOC.... But the word FAILURE will always top the list.
AoC has the potential to be a great MMO, but as I've said in other posts, AoC was a 'ship now, fix later'.....which isn't uncommon but sadly it was a bit too broken for most folks it seems.
Is it deserving of more subs? of course....as soon as Funcom gets everything working right, but by that time it may be too little too late...i guess only time will tell.
1. The interface has seen some revamp and updates, but if you do not like the standard Ui, there are lots of playermade UI mods to chose from.
2. There is still much to be done with the crafting in AoC. With the nerf of crafted weapons and armour, and awaiting the new system, there is really only one good profession left; and that is alchemy. This was the most broken one at launch, so it has received some nice improvements.
3. The economy is very much dependant on server population. The popualted servers has decent economy for tradeskill resources and city building resources especially.
4. There allways was raids and questing content above 50, so this is a widely spread exaggeration, but there were gaps in those levels. With the addition of the new zone (Ymirs pass) and 50ish new quests, this really is not a big problem anymore. By doing every quest including group quests, you can allmost lvl from 1 to 80 now without any grind. When it comes to raids, there allways was quite a bit of end game raiding content in the game, but many were bugridden, those are mostly sorted now.
5. No tactics? I really can't comment on this as it does not look like my game experience at all. If you ment for raids, then I guess you have a point for the period around launch, but that is hugely changed now.
Yes, I strongly recommend you yo try AOC again, the game has improved ALOT since lunch and it will improve much more
1) Very clunky interface. It didn't feel polished enough, horrid font made the game seem poorly designed.
Well the interface looks a bit diffrent now, you have alot more options etc, there are many diffrent very good UI interfaces you can download, and yes i have seen people that had some new UI, that made the interface look completly diffrent, when i first saw it i tought hmm wait 1 sec is this really AOC ?
2) Crafting seemed broken, and from what I understand is still pointless.
Well they have improved Crafting in many diffrent ways, so its pretty good now days.
Many new recipes, for exampel they have added Culture armor, very cool looking nice armor.
And in the next patch they will add more recipes, i read about a potion for alchemist, when you use the pot you can take out gems from wepons and put in some new ones. And in Jan or Feb they will lunch a new Stats and item system, and they will also remake the gem system
3) The economy seemed non-existant, not sure if this is still the case on healthy populated servers.
The economy is pretty good at the high pop servers.
4) No questing content from 50+ as well as no end-game in terms of raids or PvP.
There is plenty of new content in the game now
they have added a hole new zone Ymir's pass lvl 55-65, added many new quest for lvl 20-80, revamped dungeons etc.
There is plenty of end-game, many diffrent dungeons and raid bosses, you have Sieges, pvp system / pvp-lvls. In January they will lunch a new huge patch with 2 new lvl 80 dungeons 1 new lvl 46 dungeon and alot of other stuff
5) No tactics, just a zerg-like environment.
Well, i dont see a Zerg-like environment, when you raid and do dungeons you have to use tactics, in pvp you always have to use tactics, well depends on how many players you fight, what classes they are etc.
Yes server merges are coming in january, but the high pop servers have alot of players, i never have any problem finding, groups / people to play with. So i recommend you to return to AOC and have alot of fun
Good luck m8
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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
Fanbois will claim the game is great and growing
Trolls will say the game is dying
Look at the emperical number and interprate it how you want
1. AOC is not on anyone's top 1000 game sales list. This means, despite what people say, nobody new is buying the box.
2. Server mergers were postponed, causing people on dead servers to reroll rather than wait another month or two for mergers. This is what is causing the 'rise' in populations on the 3-4 servers that have population
3. Xfire... however you take it. It shows about a 95% decrease since June30th, which points to about 40-50k players. Which perfectly fits the 3-4 server comment above. Almost every game has about 12k players per live server (eve is the exception, obviously). Count how many servers WOW, Warhammer(after mergers), Lotro have and it's almost always a multple of 10-15k subscribers.
why are people always using xfire as a measurement tool for sub base? i dont use xfire as a lot of people dont, so does that mean our sub isnt counted? give up on xfire numbers.
and yes, i have an xfire banner. its old. i quit coh a long time ago. just too lazy to take it off
I finally got a hold of this game and am installing it now,so i will give a better view on this game in a bit.I already have my pre game thoughts,the graphics will be very good,but some of the UI and mechanics will be clunky.I don't mind change from the normal as long as it is doable and relaxing to plkay is all i care about.We will see after my initial couple hours of gameplay and learning the mechanics.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I already posted this in another topic,you are LUCKY to find the game anywhere in my city,so that gives the game ZERO chance of making sales.There has also been a lot of trash talk ,downgrading the game,IDK i just got it myself and will be playing it to judge for myself.
I for sure cannot trust most other users judgment since most IMO have not a clue about games and the effort put into making them.For one thing the majority are playing WOW ,so that means there is 60% of the player base has no clue or i will give them the benefit of the doubt ,that they can only play WOW over some other games because of system req.
I have not played AOC yet as i am installing it,but i would venture a bet it is at least 3x the game WOW is.WOW has some nice mechanics like tiered spells and the combo/heroic attacks,but they stole those off of EQ,so they deserve no credit for bringing out fun or good gameplay.Last i remember ,developers do not get instant recognition for copying other games,so we will guess it is marketing and system REQ that draws WOW fans from out of no where,and the fact it is pretty much the only older game you can still buy on the shelves.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm not sure I would have gone quite there.. I think the forums here are a good example of why you shouldn't listen to anything someone else says... oddly most of that is posted by people who probably don't play WoW.
The main issue is someone is telling you their opinion and acts like it should be universal fact. In some cases they are telling you someone elses opinion as they haven't even played the game (can be any MMO they are talking about).
The best thing always imho is to form your own opinion. /shrug
Its like a movie review.. most movies *I* like get horrible reviews. So I basicly now look for movies with bad reviews... seems kinda odd.
So what about the servers in Europe?
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
I think the biggest problem with this particular game is how easy it is to say that the game is currently a failure, or in decline. I noticed at the Source last night, a tiny store in our mall, that they had the AoC collector's edition on their shelf. From what I understand there were limited quanitites of those, which doesn't exactly push the arrow towards major success.
People who tried this game for the first month that it was out and either couldn't run it, or had to deal head off with all of the problems it head, and the things the game needed updated, these people are often the ones replying to new threads, placing what happened months ago as how the current state of the game is. Then you've got bitter trolls, honest and fair people, and fan boys. Just like with Hellgate London, first impressions seem to have made a major dent in this game.
It could be patched to perfection, but you'd probably never see a major rise in population, as opposed to if the game was released with those things already present.
What?! You and your friends don't use Xfire? That must mean Xfire is crap!
Go to school and learn STATISTICS.
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Originally posted by Frobner
"Massive sieges" "mounted combat" and "spellweaving" are just few words that spring to mind when I hear the word AOC.... But the word FAILURE will always top the list.
What?! You and your friends don't use Xfire? That must mean Xfire is crap!
Go to school and learn STATISTICS.
Go to school and learn that a good statistic includes all the groups present. If I had never come to MMORPG.com I would have never even known what xfire was. I doubt that xfire represents the casual MMO gamer who just jumps on an plays the game. I've heard the excuse that presidential races can be called accurately with a small amount of people, but xfire isn't the same. It doesn't take into account hardcore or casual. It just isn't as accurate a statistic as you are trying to make it out to be.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Are you high? 40K? EQ2 have maybe something like 80K and compare it's Xfire statistic with AoC.
The population are something between 100-200K. Do you play the game or have any kind of information to support anything else? It still isn't that great but Vanguard and DDO have 30K players, look on their Xfire statistic or logg in to any of them and AoC.
But you might be an American, AoC is a lot smaller in US than EU, the opposite of WAR.
What?! You and your friends don't use Xfire? That must mean Xfire is crap!
Go to school and learn STATISTICS.
Yes there are LIES, DAMN LIES and Statistics. -Mark Twain.
And yes Xfire is a biased and stupid statistical base that only confirms how many ADD free to play FPS players are allowing themselves to be spyware infected at any given point in time.
What?! You and your friends don't use Xfire? That must mean Xfire is crap!
Go to school and learn STATISTICS.
Yes there are LIES, DAMN LIES and Statistics. -Mark Twain.
And yes Xfire is a biased and stupid statistical base that only confirms how many ADD free to play FPS players are allowing themselves to be spyware infected at any given point in time.
lol.. good points but try this. Ask her to make some comments on Xfire today...lol. You see AoC looks somewhat up even though the majority of the 6 moths subs ran out last week. My guess is nobody but the crickets will answer you. lol