Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
This is all that has been added in 9 months? Really
finaticd
Member Posts: 843
At release AoC was devoid of content and just seemed empty, even with players all over. Today people are blaming the exodus on technical issues and bugs, but under neath it all was this lack of fun stuff to do in AoC, exhaberated by how linear Age of Conan can be and how content devoid the game was and seems to be now.
So anyway I saw this list of things that were added and;
One mid level dungeon - Amphitheatre
One mid level location - Ymir Pass, with 42 solo quests
13 new quests in E.Mountains
Voice Acting
Whole new crafting system with 100+ new items and 12 new item sets, 120+ receipts
PvP system, yes - with new PvP items for all classes, Outlaw Camps and redeemer quests
New feats for few classes
Improved alchemy system
Improved The Cistern dungeon
New musical themes
PvP system
I still hear the Tradeskill system needs much work, but in all the reviews I read it seems that people are impressed with ALL the new content, but if this is it...I'm not sure what they are talking about......most of my friends left because they were bored hanging out at level 80 with nothing to do aside from under whelming raid encounters or PvP.
Also, don't get me started on the PvP system ; who thought penalties and guards to enforce PvP is better than a player enforced world?
Just want to know whats up, because this game was content devoid and I'm amazed that that is all they could do in 9 months yet people make it out to be epic.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Comments
During those nine months FC were also rather busy trying to fix the tehcnical issues AoC had -crash to desktop ,grey map of death etc. No doubt improving the (initially very poor) stability took up much of their time. They've also fixed a good many bugs that were in at release.
Maybe those bugs (including technical problems) shouldn't have been in at release, I hear you say? Well, perhaps not, but then AoC could have done with some more months of work before releasing a poorly finished product.
As for a PvP system that's purely player-enforced, I'm not sure where you'd begin to look for that these days...even Eve has its high security space, and Darkfall will apparently have towers around the towns that will shoot at wrongdoers.
Ymirs Pass is level 50+ content.
“This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark,” says Game Director Craig Morrison. “In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!”
Also to note as desribed above, more stuff to come in the way of high level dungeons. To be honest, what they have done is alot. I don't see how you can't read down through all there patch notes and not see that. Do you even develop games? It does take awhile to create content. Try not acting like a child and expecting so much more and you might enjoy things in life. If you don't get what I mean, ask yourself why you made this thread.
To be fair, Ymir's Pass was one of the zones they intended to be included at launch, but it was never ready. However, I can definetly say that there were likely a number of vacations being taken right after launch. That typically happens in a gaming industry where sometimes you end up sleeping at the office in the runup to launch. Taking that into consideration, with all the bugs they fixed, and finishing up Ymir's Pass and some dungeon revamps, that wouldv'e taken a few months there. Instigating a PvP system that they can agree on, with new models for gear, wouldv'e taken a couple of more months. Then you have the Dx10 stuff on test now, of which I know would've taken more than a few months alone (as MS made sure no programmer got to learn how to use it before the launch of vista). Plus the new high lvl content takes about 3-4 months production time from start to finish, as I feel these are areas they are adding AFTER they realized they dropped the ball on endgame. All in all, I'm actually a bit suprised they managed to get this much done in 9 months.
-----------------------
Tried- L2, Ryzom, WAR, DDO, PWI, Tab Rasa, Requiem, Champs, AA, JD, PWI, SUN, Dawntide
Played- SWG (pre-cu), AoC, VG, WoW, LoTRO,CoX, EQ2, DAOC, GW, PotBS, Aion, MO,APB, NASA, Fallen Earth, DCUO, Rift
Playing- EVE, Black Prophecy, TOR
Waiting for- Tera, Jumpgate Evo, WH40K, WWE, WOD, TSW
--
--
"Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it," Double Fine President Tim Schafer said. "Oh great, now Beyonce is going to sue me too."
The op has a point.
The game was boring in the beginning and that has not changed much.
You can say they done a lot, me and i'm sure, many others think they didn't do enough.
As another said they had to fix many bugs and stuff but that has nothing to do with new content.
FC said there are different teams working on bugs and new content.
Maybe they had to few people working on the new content and had bugfixing as priority (which i kinda understand), but for me the game is not much better than in the first month.
That looks like a pretty extensive list to me. I'd be curious to see any other major p2p game that added this much( or similar amount) within 9 months of launch.
Dungeons aren't something you can just pump out within a month. They have to be itemized, balanced, tested, and an appropriate location relative to the storyline found, before they are put in. When you are working within a strict storyline/history like conan, I'm sure it becomes a bit more difficult to accurately put in new quests and dungeons.
It is not what has been added, but more what has been fixed.
And believe me, they fixed lot of shit.
60% of the Dungeons weren't finished and the quests related to them were all broken, now all the dungeons and relative quests works fine.
The client has been fixed, it's way more stable than at launch.
All the quests have been fixed.
So basically what Funcom did is to fix all the content and bugs which weren't able to fix at launch.
Yes they are 1 year late but they fixed it.
From now on I believe they will concentrate on adding content.
So we shall see what kind of potential AoC will show in the next 6 months.
Example of same amount of time for WoW
Patch 1.1 - Added traits
Patch 1.2 - Fixes only
Patch 1.3 - Diremaul, Outdoor bosses, Meeting stones
Patch 1.4 - PvP Honor system (hmmm...)
Patch 1.5 Battlegrounds and Fixes
Patch 1.6 - Blackwing, Darkmoon Faire
So, I count Diremaul and Blackwing (1 Regular dungeon and 1 raid), PvP honor system (hmmm), Battlegrounds, more quests (Faire, time limited and constrained) and fixes
How is that for perspective!
(EDIT: For complete notes, you can go here....WoW Wiki Google Search. Please note, all patching had tons of stuff in them, but the above are the "main" additions, done as the OP just did for AoC...seems Funcom is coming right along...)
hehe, nice one
Nicely put, people tend to think every other game got their functions at launch
Ya and WoW had technical issues at launch as well, but fewer true bugs. Though WoW had more stuff to do already, such as Ony, MC, UBRS, LBRS, Strath, etc and way more content.
Dunno, just my theory that the lack of content was keeping people away and drove them off to begin with, well buggy raids and sieges didn't help) and hearing over and over how more content was added, I was pretty shocked when I saw that list.
thanks
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Now there is some contrast! excellent example for comparison edge.
This is a picture perfect example of an uninformed OP just trying to bash the game, without bothering to inform him/herself ahead of time.
Ya and WoW had technical issues at launch as well, but fewer true bugs. Though WoW had more stuff to do already, such as Ony, MC, UBRS, LBRS, Strath, etc and way more content.
Dunno, just my theory that the lack of content was keeping people away and drove them off to begin with, well buggy raids and sieges didn't help) and hearing over and over how more content was added, I was pretty shocked when I saw that list.
thanks
But, that is not the point. The point remains that you stated "Is this all?" and I just wanted to make sure that you saw how this same patch schedule flowed for a game with more money involved, more of a player base, and more cash input overall...
Does not stack up so much when you look at it that way is my opinion...
Ya and WoW had technical issues at launch as well, but fewer true bugs. Though WoW had more stuff to do already, such as Ony, MC, UBRS, LBRS, Strath, etc and way more content.
Dunno, just my theory that the lack of content was keeping people away and drove them off to begin with, well buggy raids and sieges didn't help) and hearing over and over how more content was added, I was pretty shocked when I saw that list.
thanks
Hey it is ok, everyone has different expectations.
They also revisited and improved:
Sure things could be better from the get go, but we are dealing with today.
as someone who still loves the game and resubscribes for a quick peek into the game i sadly have to agree with the op
we are talking 9 month here and i doubt that for example even after 12 month well have dx10 running in full glory on the live servers let alone half of the promisses that were made after launch.
i know that this is probably because of the management change and reworking of disasterous code but really do hope that in the 2nd year aoc finally picks up speed
if your bored, visit my blog at:
http://craylon.wordpress.com/ dealing with the look of mmos with the nvidia 3d vision glasses
I dont think people understand how much FC has fixed AOC since launch, they have added alot of stuff but think of all the stuff that were broken, you guys dont remeber the damn lagg spikes, memory leaks, all the buggs etc.
They have fixed and done ALOT since launch more then you think, and just think about the new dungeons and DX10 etc, they will release soon they have putted alot of work into it.
Dont forget the new Item / stats sytem, I think it was the GD who sad in a intervju that the system is already done internally, and think about common district they have probably putted alot of time into it, and all other thinks we havent really heard about yet, like the expansion etc.
FC are working hard really hard, ofc you can hope they will work harder and faster but they are only humans not robots
, and ofc they dont have so much money as Blizzard. I mean you shoulden compere Blizzard to any other mmo company becaus they have atlest 10 times more money.
Well yes WOW had also some problems at launch and they have putted in alot o new stuff over the years, its not like WOW had it all at launch. And remeber that WOW got launced in EU a couple of months after the US launch. Anyway i think the MC time was the best in WOW, i think they have overdone the game now.
I remember when i heard about MC for the first time i was running around in Feralas and a irl friend told me on TS about MC, well i probably heard about MC before but this was the first time someone explained it to me. So i think some guy told this to my irl friend and then he told me, MC is a huge dungeon its a big cave biggest ever, it will take you around 3 days to complete it, i sad damn thats long time, but you cant play for 3 days straight ? so how do you do it, well the hole raid has to log out at the same time and next day the hole raid need to log in at the same time and you will start were you left inside this big cave, and i was really excited about this huge cave that takes 3 days to complete. Hahaha
. Well it dident really work that way 
.
------------------------------
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
basically...all that they did is fix things that shouldn't have to be fixed in the first place. Great comeback..NOT.
And for the extra content.....thts like adding 1 drop of content to a vast plain of emptiness. Obove 70 its all boredom and no play. Gl and HF.
Don't shoot the messenger.....it will ruin you monitor
Imo they did not add that much however they did fix a lot.
Check patch notes from May till now at: http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6
There is probably few thousands lines what was changed / fixed etc..
Funcom being Funcom you may expect AoC to really shine 2 years after release.
So far they are doing great job especially since September when game director was changed.
There are still some issues but game changed a lot since release.
The only major flaw for majority of players that AoC have is skilled based PvP and not item driven .. on paper that sounds perfect but in reality players like to grind and grind as hell for items that will make them uber.
Futilez[Do You Have What It Takes ?]
The one point you forget is children get things for free or atleast are usually not spending there own hard earned money to get it. If you are asked to part with money for something you had better have expectations otherwise lot's of people will be in line trying to sell you any broken code as an excuse for an mmo or whatever the next big thing is.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Ya and WoW had technical issues at launch as well, but fewer true bugs. Though WoW had more stuff to do already, such as Ony, MC, UBRS, LBRS, Strath, etc and way more content.
Dunno, just my theory that the lack of content was keeping people away and drove them off to begin with, well buggy raids and sieges didn't help) and hearing over and over how more content was added, I was pretty shocked when I saw that list.
thanks
But, that is not the point. The point remains that you stated "Is this all?" and I just wanted to make sure that you saw how this same patch schedule flowed for a game with more money involved, more of a player base, and more cash input overall...
Does not stack up so much when you look at it that way is my opinion...
WOW and AOC added about the same amount of 'things' inthe first 9months, but the fact is that WOW was MUCH MUCH fuller at launch and was already a complete game AT LAUNCH. The things that AOC has added are not 'additions' as much as they are fixes and plugs. Nobody was 'bored' at endgame in WOW for the first 6 months.. yet 'no endgame' was probably the second biggest reason players quit AOC (after crashes)
The first 9 months of WOW, players were not bored and 'waiting for something to do'. There is a reason that WOW doubled in population every month for the first 6 months after launch, and AOC dropped significantly more than 50% of it's players.
My biggest reason for leaving WoW is that the content got soooo boring, and it took 2years to come out with BC, Blizzard took wayyy to long to come out with an expansion and i and many left before that came out.
That looks like a pretty extensive list to me. I'd be curious to see any other major p2p game that added this much( or similar amount) within 9 months of launch.
Dungeons aren't something you can just pump out within a month. They have to be itemized, balanced, tested, and an appropriate location relative to the storyline found, before they are put in. When you are working within a strict storyline/history like conan, I'm sure it becomes a bit more difficult to accurately put in new quests and dungeons.
In 6 months after launch LotrO had got 3 content updates (Book 9-11) including: 2 new raids, 1 new zone, 2 expansions to old zones (High pass and Tal bruinen) 4 group instances, 3 public dungeons, Player and kinship housing, Dx10 support, major changes to PvMP, major changes to crafting.
But Funcom have done a great job to turn AoC around and Im glad to hear that its doing fine now! Keep up the good work and have fun in Hyboria
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
While I am far from being a WoW fanboi I have to say that this is entirely misleading. While yes, it did take quite some time for BC to make it's way out look at what did make it into the game before BC hit... Black Wing Lair, Silithus, AQ40,AQ20, Zagsomething or other, Naxxramus, and.... oh ya the first one lol Dire Maul. All of these were released with no increase to subscriber fees and without charging for an expansion pack. Then of course there was also the battlegrounds honor farming, and a ton of little things above and beyond the fixes.
In adding content Blizzard has gone far and above just about anyone else I think in the amount of stuff that they "gave" to the player base. As to the quality and entertainment value of all that stuff, meh I dunno... it was all fun the first 2 or 5 times but then became a huge p.i.t.a. at least as far as I am concerned and is the main reason I left.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
WOW and AOC added about the same amount of 'things' inthe first 9months, but the fact is that WOW was MUCH MUCH fuller at launch and was already a complete game AT LAUNCH. The things that AOC has added are not 'additions' as much as they are fixes and plugs. Nobody was 'bored' at endgame in WOW for the first 6 months.. yet 'no endgame' was probably the second biggest reason players quit AOC (after crashes)
The first 9 months of WOW, players were not bored and 'waiting for something to do'. There is a reason that WOW doubled in population every month for the first 6 months after launch, and AOC dropped significantly more than 50% of it's players.
But, here is where it gets real technical...
The problem is NO MMO as of yet can be such a complete package as to be compared to WoW in it's release state content wise. Lets look.
Vanguard - WAY more content, races, more in depth gameplay....and buggy as all get up.
LOTRO...stable, full amount of content. Just, they forgot to tell everyone most of that content was the decimation of bears, wolves, and boars
WAR - People saw endgame too soon, and found out they would just do the same things over and over when they got there, and then if they went back to make an alt, they found empty playfields.
DDO - No one really thought that a company would make a whole game where you play JUST in Dungeons...
Every other MMO - Unstable at release, missing features.
Show me one MMO that has the launch success of WoW, and has all the content to boot.
I think my problem is that you think Age of Conan is the only game to do this, and it is far from it. The issue with the game lies totally with Funcom and how they hyped up the "More than we can offer", and for that Funcom deserves the attitude. The game itself is not a problem, and is getting better for those who like to play that style of game. I loved Guild Wars for example and enjoyed EQ2, thus AoC fits into my playstyle (as it has the instancing, story, etc.)
As to your statement about population, WoW is the ONLY MMO to have ever garned such a large populace (and to actually double every month). The only other game to come close is ...Guild Wars, which so many still say is not an MMO.
So, basically, no MMO has done what WoW has done on release...
Now as to patching, EVERY game has done more than WoW, because everyone is trying to play catch up...thus, again AoC is not alone.
Your issue lies with your preconceptions of the launch, and you just wont let it go. You are like the stalker that your old girlfriend never wanted, but you gave her anyways..always chasing her down in the mall..."Why did you do that to me.." ...Boohoo dude!
The list of fixes and features is a good start, and by the end of a year, I expect the features for high end raiding, mid level questing, PvP and DX10, all will be fully operational...
Stop worrying, and just watch it grow
Nah; AoC has much less content...remember it's pretty linear and shallow with one empty end game, and no reason to farm or progress as gear upgrades give very little?
WoW....loads of content at release and a decent end game, loads of instances.........2 instances and ony Vs. what AoC has + BWL was well done.
War......22 chapters times 6 (for all races)....of PQs, then plenty of side quests.....end game had 4 instances, constant sieges, and constant BGs...which is more than AoC has after 9 months.
EQ1 had more content...but that game developed rapidly and if you believe AoC will be as well tuned raid wise and content wise, your on something, actually the original EQ (no Xpacs) had more........the main issue w/ AoC is it takes so long to do graphics that it is hard to release new content...I bet the two zones released post release were already mostly finished at release.
EQ2: Way, Way more content at release!
I can't think of another MMO as linear as AoC...and at level 80, they may as well roll the credits because the few people that still play mostly just reroll anyway.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427