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Any EU People still playing
Hi.
I was thinking about give AoC another try when the Expansion goes live. I havnt played since like 2 weeks after release. Heard about a few changes, so hope its better then at release. -hehe-
But what I wanted with this post, as you might have guessed... Is there a good player population on AoC-EU. So I wont log in and then see an empty wasteland. Sure, it can be rather empty in low lvl areas since most people should be high lvl's. But you understand what I mean. I wont play this is theres no population out there, why waste money on a game with no players?
Thanks for your time.
Comments
There are alot of people playing. In total about 150k atm and half on Eu serves. Crom is the server with most people I belive.
It would be cool if you joined use and stayed to check out the expantion with you lvl 80
we all know you love the game and you think its the second coming but there's no need to pull numbers out of your arse. if AoC has 150k subs then I'm a frikkin cd player.
if i were to take a guess based on the number of active servers, i'd say its half of that tops. but i wont, and its not what the OP asked.
OP, the couple of active servers have good population, so if you roll on one of them you'll be fine.
It had around 90-100k last quarter, and since then AoC activity went up on x-fire charts by around 10%-20% - it's very easy to assume, it might be around 120k.
REALITY CHECK
It's a very small sample, you can never assume such things using xfire because the less players there are the more meaningless it is. You can only have an idea about the trend (increasing/decreasing), but even that is not at all accurate when the number is near 90k.
Nobody but FC knows and they are keeping their numbers for themselves.
Thanks for the answers.
So, what I understand, theres still people playing. And that it wont be an empty wasteland, expect low lvl areas perhaps. But wich server do you think is the most Active EU server? Both Low lvl and High lvl.
And if any of you are playing AcO atm, what do you think of the gaming experience? At release it was rather dull and lots of buggs. Would be fun to hear what a real player thinks. Dont say all the positive stuff, I also wanna hear the negative sides of AoC. Nothing is perfect. ^^
I think Crom is the highest populated PvE server and Fury is the highest populated PvP server.
I don't know if you were there with launch, but most of the annoying bugs and stability issues have been fixed, just as a number of balance problems. Some people seem to have still bug/crash issues, but besides lag sometimes I haven't experienced any like that for quite a while now, nor do I hear any large complaining from friends and such that are playing now.
PvP seem to be concentrated around the borderlands now, the Shrines of Bori, that have been added last March, and less in the high level zone Kheshatta or in sieges. Sieges, there are sometimes lag and crash problems that swing up and down depending the latest installed patches (havent sieged myself for a while now though).
The leveling can be lonely sometimes, since so many people are on end levels with their chars, but lately more and more people seem to have returned - or trying AoC for the first time - so servers seem to become more populated.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I play on CROM the EU pve server and it has a decent population. I have alts from lvl44 to 76 and enjoy doing the dungeons(my main way of levelling).
Crom has enough people on it to make it enjoyable, never looked at Xfire figures i go by what i see in the game. And there is a decent pop across all levels, not bursting at the seams but enough to get a group for any lvl instance. From Black Castle upwards. More and more are coming back now as the expansion is due.
The game has improved since release, and the main areas are the graphics, so smooth now. The amor stats have been re done completely, no more +0.001 to damage. And the content gaps have been addressed. All in all the game is on a good heading now with the new GD, and the expansion will be equaly good, content wise as there is no level cap.
Bad stuff: I am not sure about the seiges and how they are working out lag wise etc as i have not participated in any. I am not happy with the mini games as the lvl gap is to great and there should be way more maps than 4. Not happy about xp penatly when grouping with higher players, it is to severe. And i wish i had more alt space.
So nothing major wrong with it really in my opinion, try the trial first as a reminder to how the gameplays, or just take a 1 month sub and see.
Crom (PvE) and Fury (PvP) are the two most active EU servers. Both have very decent levels of activity. As for gameplay at the moment, it is improved in many, many ways from launch. Here's a, hopefully, objective list:
Pros:
- Plenty of raiding to do, with more to come in the expansion.
- Lots of instances of varying levels of difficulty. Some of the lower level ones can be dull, but the level 80 ones are generally good fun.
- New zones added, Ymir's Pass and Common District. Both are excellent.
- Lots of new quests.
- The guild renown system, essentially guild levelling, is good. It provides lots of decorations, buff items, social gear and various other fluff, and whatever you do you contribute to your guild's 'levelling' and weekly ranking.
- Minigames received various improvements, and are pretty damn good now.
- Still the best combat system in any fantasy MMO, hands down.
Cons:
- Mid-levels are pretty empty, it can be hard to find a group for quests or instances.
- Very little PvP content. Sieges are still laggy, and the new Shrines of Bori - added in the last patch - are simply horrible as PvP content. The Shrines will no doubt get fixed in a time, but for the time world PvP and minigames are all there is, really.
- Poor class balance. Caters and assassins are head and shoulders above other classes, it's like melee is effectively playing in a different league. Most likely balance will change completely with the expansion and its Alternative Advancement system, though.
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Put it this way, I am confident in saying there are more EU players than NA server players.
Here are your EU English speaking server choices:
PvE Server CROM
PvP Server FURY
PvP-RP Server AQUILONIA
PvE-RP Server HYRKANIA
The first 3 are healthly populated, recent reports of decent PvP on Aquilonia if you are into that is something to consider.
If you was to compare release bugs to today some 2 yrs later 90% of the bugs have gone.
Those bugs that are remaining are typically Siege Bugs or PvP related. Consider that most players have never even sieged, a potential player would have to ask themselves if that is something that would be a big issue from day 1. Which to be honest is not straight away. later on yes it can be an issues especially if you go to Fury server. Other servers have little to no issues with sieges at all. (Best to read official forums here)
Performance is about 40% better FPS than at release lots of optimization has happened.
Class balance is better than ever, not perfect, not saying that, just a lot better than before.
Lots of new content has been added in to fill gaps where it was short in leveling up.
The game is really a GvG game progress here in regards to Renown: http://guilds.ageofconan.com/
Here are some recent update notes: http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1109&table=PUBLISH&template=news_features_game&selected=1109
What the game needs right now?
Some dedicated PvP updates eg, some new challenges
The release of the Tower PvP system is being developed, think scaled down Siege but still largish.
A dedicated crafting update - not much has gone on here.
Better RP support - step in the right direction is in the expansion but still a focus.
Continued focus on itemization
Thanks for your answers. AoC sounds alot better now then it was when I played at release.
After reading I thought of another question, since I cant remember since I played.
PvE and PvP servers, I know that at the PvP server, you can attack people almost anywhere. Cant remember if you could do it inside cities or not. But at PvE Servers, where do you do your PvP? Is there like Battlegrounds, or specific areas where its open PvP. I like PvP, but dont know if I want to watch my back constantly for backstabbers. Rogues/Assassint in most games are a pain in the **s when it comes to that. -hehe-
After reading your comments it gives me a new hope for AoC I havnt felt since before release. So I will give this a new try when the exp comes around.
Btw, I read that the new race starts of in the normal starting-zone. And can travel to their homeland after. But can the earlier races do that aswell, or do they have to continue to the standard zones after? Would be fun if all new ppl, all races can travel to the new lands right after their done on the starting isle. Havnt seen any information about that, might have missed it, or theres nothing to be found of that.
Im pretty sure everyone can visit the new racial area once they leave tortage.
I just leveled 4 levels in Tarantia Noble district on Crom (EU) and I had to camp on the spawns with other people because there were too much people around. I see people wherever I'm leveling, so don't know why all the people says the mid-level places are empty!?
Really?! Wow... you played very recently?
Well, else you can always try Aquilonia (RP PvP) or Hyrkania (RP PvE) if it gets too crowded on Crom
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
i have been playing in fury for the last month tis level 57 atm and every area i quested on was crowded and i never had problem to find a group for a quest or for a dungeon so i guess the games population atm is ok
Hey all that matters is that there is at least 1 populated server. 15k total players vs. 10 million total players makes no difference because 10 million just fills up 100's of servers, but your server only has 15k on it anyway. The servers are very well populated and it's a fun time. Don't let population sway you or the asshat naysayers here. I recently came back and have been having a blast.
I just started yesterday on Crom and think the population is just fine. It might be because it is the starters area but at least there it's ok.
In fact, x-fire represents around 2% of the whole playerbase if you compare the actual x-fire activity with the games that announced its subscribtion-base (such as WoW).
2% is extremly large sample size.
The inaccuracy would not come from the sample size, that's for sure, but rather from the fact that x-fire user might have slightly different preference for games than non xfire user. And again, I was talking solely about trend, and not compared AoC with other games on the list.
REALITY CHECK
Welcome back to Hyboria!
Have no fear, Crom -EU and Fury -EU are largley populated. Just right now i'm leveling an alt on Crom and every area I've step foot in has plenty of people questing. Since the demolarizing release, Funcom have worked hard too establish the game as a 'staple' MMO.
Age of Conan runs very smoothly right now. Lots of new content and upgrades, such as the Guild Renown system and outdoor Guild skirmishes like Shrines of Bori. Tho Bori could use some tweaks, all in all Age of Conan is fantasic game. Unfortunatly the bad release hindered Age of Conan's population for some time. With the expansion pack 'Return of the Godslayer' drawing nearer(which is being shipped via retail) a fresh start for Funcom, so lets hope they get it right this time ;-)
Now all Funcom need is more advertising and UPDATE 1.8 just after the expansion. Ironing out any lingering bugs etc.
'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing'. - Robert E. Howard
I just resubbed on Crom, after I hooked up my comp to the nuclear reactor plant for more graphic power
Crom and Fury (EU) are the server with most people on, but it first around 20.00pm there is any people around, otherwise its complete deserted. Worldwide there is about 20.000->50.000 people still playing Age of Conan.
I played at monday, and the time wasn't good either. 14:00 GMT or something. Atm leveling in Field of the Dead and pretty much people here too, though not as much as in Noble District, but of course Noble District is smaller place.
I'd expected the midrange levels to be far emptier. But sounds good, seems a lot of people have been returning, or maybe a lot of people have picked it up for the first tmie recently.
Time to start leveling my alts again, always nice to find more people for the group quests
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
W00t resubbed yesterday and i'm having a great time. Don't even know what server but i know this game is much better than after launch. Ofc i only played till level 12 so i know nothing of the mid and high level content but i saw plenty of people in Tortage during the daytime( i played from 15.00 till 22.00). Also the global chat channel was crowded all the time to the point annoyance. I didn't get an empty feeling at all. Lots of guilds recruiting etc.
WOW,eq2,Vanguard,WAR,LOTRO,AOC,Rift Aion, SWTOR, TERA.
Currently playing GW2.
A good idea is to remove Global from your main tab. Right click the chat -> subscribe to channels -> uncheck Global. Then make a new tab just for Global. That way you have Global there if you need it, but you don't get annoyed with the chatter if you just want to quest.
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Welcome back, hope it works out better for you this time!