I don't use XFire and never will. Funcom still doesn't get it. There game is an MMORPG. There is nothing massive in cloned zones where you have to pick a drop down menu to determine which copy of a zone you want to go play in. If you want better PvP in cloned zones, go play Hellgate:London.
They use instances, their areas are only clones of eachother if you're blind or mentally challenged. Hellgate London's zones are procedurally generated for a part, AoC's zones are not.
If you don't like zoned areas, go play another MMORPG, there are enough around to choose from for you.
Mav, you are wrong. Each zone hits a limit. I believe it's 40 players, then a clone of that zone is created. That is why if you and a guild mate go to a zone and are not in the same group, you may not see each other and have to either group or use the drop down menu to ensure you are going to the same one. That is zone cloning and it sucks.
Mav, you are wrong. Each zone hits a limit. I believe it's 40 players, then a clone of that zone is created. That is why if you and a guild mate go to a zone and are not in the same group, you may not see each other and have to either group or use the drop down menu to ensure you are going to the same one. That is zone cloning and it sucks.
You call it 'cloning', the regular term is instancing, that's why I misunderstood especially since you referred to Hellgate which, btw, uses real instances for its world areas, like you'll see in DDO, GW or dungeon instances in other MMORPG's. Totally different.
AoC's world areas are persistent, even if the player cap per area when it starts creating another instant is lower than other MMO's. However, even EQ2 and LotrO have them, I think some other MMO's as well. In fact, even GW2 will have it, but they also mentioned that the player cap per area is so insanely high that chances that the cap will be hit will be very, very rare.
I can understand how that may not be your thing though, and bothersome enough to not want to play any MMORPG that uses it for its world areas. I think that AoC's player cap per area was different for each area, something like 50-100, but that should be easily verifiable, I'm actually curious enough to check it out what the cap is now for the various areas.
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."
What is not to be mistaken in many opinions above is that Xfire is mostly used by teenagers. The key group of Age of Conan is definetaly mature, so I am not sure how to take these numbers seriously. I do not think that the key group of Age of Conan is the casual 'Hardcore player' for which Xfire is used. In my experience, the people who play Age of Conan are begin 20's or above. They all have some better things to do then stick on Xfire all the time.
Another explaination for the slow start of Age of Conan Unchained is the lack of advertisemenets that they are doing. They want to take it slow and easy before advertising that will lead hundreds of thousends of players back to the game. That is in my opinion a good thing, because some of us remember the launch days very well. It seems that Funcom has learned from it's previous made mistakes.
Mature? Have you actually played the game? It's immature community is only bested by the WoW crowd.
"Give players systems and tools instead of rails and rules"
Mature? Have you actually played the game? It's immature community is only bested by the WoW crowd.
I have. It was one of the most awesome and interesting communities I've encountered in the MMO's that I played, at least on the servers I played on. On par with other MMORPG communities at their least, and at their best vastly more fun and entertaining than a lot of other server communities of other 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."
Mav, you are wrong. Each zone hits a limit. I believe it's 40 players, then a clone of that zone is created. That is why if you and a guild mate go to a zone and are not in the same group, you may not see each other and have to either group or use the drop down menu to ensure you are going to the same one. That is zone cloning and it sucks.
AoC's world areas are persistent, even if the player cap per area when it starts creating another instant is lower than other MMO's. However, even EQ2 and LotrO have them, I think some other MMO's as well. In fact, even GW2 will have it, but they also mentioned that the player cap per area is so insanely high that chances that the cap will be hit will be very, very rare.
I can understand how that may not be your thing though, and bothersome enough to not want to play any MMORPG that uses it for its world areas. I think that AoC's player cap per area was different for each area, something like 50-100, but that should be easily verifiable, I'm actually curious enough to check it out what the cap is now for the various areas.
Yes, you are right about EQ2 and LOTRO. Never played EQ2 seriously, but I did LOTRO. I don't like cloning of cities and such. To me, cloning should be reserved for BGs and small group instances. I don't understand how EVE can have 10s of 1000s of ships all fighting each other in one small area and not crash their servers but we could crash the WoW servers in a heartbeat with a good Southshore war. LOL
AoC Xfire numbers skyrockets. Before on a friday we had 270-280player 1200-1300hrs played. Now there is 1000players and 3300HRS played one week after going freemium. Alot of new player having fun in AoC. Join the hords
AoC Xfire numbers skyrockets. Before on a friday we had 270-280player 1200-1300hrs played. Now there is 1000players and 3300HRS played one week after going freemium. Alot of new player having fun in AoC. Join the hords
I don't mind AoC F2P setup. Of course i was a subscriber for a long time..so i got a few perks. At first I thought the prices in the shop were ridiculous...and some are...but some are very cheap and most of the stuff is unnecessary. Just new bags, classes and content (with more bank slots in the future...from what I've read). these are the only things i'd purchase. I didn't like the f2p models in the past...but with games like DDO,LOTRO and now this (and hopefully Fallen Earth when it goes free)..I have no problem pumping some cash in from time to time until all I'll need in the future is the occasional content update. Then i can log on and off at will with access to anything I care to experience already chosen and paid for at some earlier time.
I'd guess something broke over the weekend, X-Fire renamed the game from it's old Hyborian Adventures moniker to the new 'Unchained' I am going to guess it screwed stuff up for some. The server was just asbusy this weekend as last (at least on Crom and the new B&G server where my characters have been hanging out)
Just checked the XFire numbers. Looks like the last week of June it bobbed between 1000 and 1600 hours. In July it went up as high as 3600 on July 10 and been on a downward trend since. In the last 6 days it has dropped from 3000 hours down to 2000. Whatever boost F2P gave it seems to be evaporating fast.
It's practically impossible to have 50% drop over 2 days. I think what that poster said about xfire being broken is correct.
never was a 50% drop, the doubling referenced in the OP was for a Saturday and Sunday when the game went up top 3200 and 3600 hours. LAst weekend it went down to the 2000 range. I figure a lot of people were like me they went back p[layed for a hour or two for free then deleted it after seeing that is still the same old POS
yeah it is popping up and down 700 hours for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd
Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.
ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.
yeah it is popping up and down 700 hours for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd
Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.
ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.
it was at 3300 hrs today (saturday figures) and usually rizes on further on Sunday so we should see about 3500 hrs tomorrow. This is about a month since F2P and Blood and Glory. Seems like its stabilizing for the summer. Then soon there will be the new Conan film and probaly another influx of players. Quite nice actually for a 3 year old game that was predicted dead an buried within a year after launch. Yet again Funcom has turned a catastrophic launch to a solid MMO.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
yeah it is popping up and down 700 hours for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd
Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.
ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.
it was at 3300 hrs today (saturday figures) and usually rizes on further on Sunday so we should see about 3500 hrs tomorrow. This is about a month since F2P and Blood and Glory. Seems like its stabilizing for the summer. Then soon there will be the new Conan film and probaly another influx of players. Quite nice actually for a 3 year old game that was predicted dead an buried within a year after launch. Yet again Funcom has turned a catastrophic launch to a solid MMO.
depends on the retention, AOC never did have a issue attracting people, bbut has neve been goood at retaining them. Several times since release the game made it back into the 20's overall on XFire but within a month or so they would start falling again.I think it was made it back into the teens overall when the Xpac was released. for referance yesterday it was #39 overall with 11 other MMOs ahead of it. Better than a month or 2 back when it was dipping below #100
yeah it is popping up and down 700 hours for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd
Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.
ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.
it was at 3300 hrs today (saturday figures) and usually rizes on further on Sunday so we should see about 3500 hrs tomorrow. This is about a month since F2P and Blood and Glory. Seems like its stabilizing for the summer. Then soon there will be the new Conan film and probaly another influx of players. Quite nice actually for a 3 year old game that was predicted dead an buried within a year after launch. Yet again Funcom has turned a catastrophic launch to a solid MMO.
depends on the retention, AOC never did have a issue attracting people, bbut has neve been goood at retaining them. Several times since release the game made it back into the 20's overall on XFire but within a month or so they would start falling again.I think it was made it back into the teens overall when the Xpac was released. for referance yesterday it was #39 overall with 11 other MMOs ahead of it. Better than a month or 2 back when it was dipping below #100
Jackdog - i agree with your conclusion. It will depend on retention. However your figures are wrong. At the launch of the Godslayer xpac AoC never got above rank 26. Also the dips below 100 were due to patches and downtimes. It was down in the 80s
Source: A norwegian group of investors has made a website that tracks statistics for Funcom games. Have a look at the xfire stats on this page: zhttp://www.funcominvestor.com/aoc_statistikk.php
Klick on "xfire rangering" (xfire rank) and move the cursor over the graph (dont think it works in IE so try another browser if it fails to load. )
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Just watched this graph , thanks for providing it.
Xfire and other systems like that were not good indicator imo , but if there is not otehr stats it can at least show a trend.
Seems F2P gave AoC some small boost , like it was expected - almost all big changed/expansions bring some old players back and attract some new ones. Though in this case it seems that this increase imho is smaller than expected. Still AoC is lower atm than in may 2010 according to FuncomInvestor graph.
Still imo we'll have to wait for 2-3 months to judge it better.
I tried f2p AoC and leaved quickly but I am still interested even if just because of my personal interest in mmorpg industry as whole, how diffrent business model are succesful, etc.
So quick question: have it been announced that AoC will have some new sizeable content added? or massive revamp to old one? Havent heard personally but well it might be just me.
Comments
Mav, you are wrong. Each zone hits a limit. I believe it's 40 players, then a clone of that zone is created. That is why if you and a guild mate go to a zone and are not in the same group, you may not see each other and have to either group or use the drop down menu to ensure you are going to the same one. That is zone cloning and it sucks.
Power to the Sheeple
You call it 'cloning', the regular term is instancing, that's why I misunderstood especially since you referred to Hellgate which, btw, uses real instances for its world areas, like you'll see in DDO, GW or dungeon instances in other MMORPG's. Totally different.
AoC's world areas are persistent, even if the player cap per area when it starts creating another instant is lower than other MMO's. However, even EQ2 and LotrO have them, I think some other MMO's as well. In fact, even GW2 will have it, but they also mentioned that the player cap per area is so insanely high that chances that the cap will be hit will be very, very rare.
I can understand how that may not be your thing though, and bothersome enough to not want to play any MMORPG that uses it for its world areas. I think that AoC's player cap per area was different for each area, something like 50-100, but that should be easily verifiable, I'm actually curious enough to check it out what the cap is now for the various areas.
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."
Mature? Have you actually played the game? It's immature community is only bested by the WoW crowd.
I have. It was one of the most awesome and interesting communities I've encountered in the MMO's that I played, at least on the servers I played on. On par with other MMORPG communities at their least, and at their best vastly more fun and entertaining than a lot of other server communities of other MMO's.
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."
Yes, you are right about EQ2 and LOTRO. Never played EQ2 seriously, but I did LOTRO. I don't like cloning of cities and such. To me, cloning should be reserved for BGs and small group instances. I don't understand how EVE can have 10s of 1000s of ships all fighting each other in one small area and not crash their servers but we could crash the WoW servers in a heartbeat with a good Southshore war. LOL
Power to the Sheeple
AoC Xfire numbers skyrockets. Before on a friday we had 270-280player 1200-1300hrs played. Now there is 1000players and 3300HRS played one week after going freemium. Alot of new player having fun in AoC. Join the hords
It has been a week..... and it is free....
99X some 39 position any game in the top 50 is worth a look
I don't mind AoC F2P setup. Of course i was a subscriber for a long time..so i got a few perks. At first I thought the prices in the shop were ridiculous...and some are...but some are very cheap and most of the stuff is unnecessary. Just new bags, classes and content (with more bank slots in the future...from what I've read). these are the only things i'd purchase. I didn't like the f2p models in the past...but with games like DDO,LOTRO and now this (and hopefully Fallen Earth when it goes free)..I have no problem pumping some cash in from time to time until all I'll need in the future is the occasional content update. Then i can log on and off at will with access to anything I care to experience already chosen and paid for at some earlier time.
375 players today. nr. 64. fail
uh oh new flash... people like free.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
I dont get the number though. How can 400 + players that uses xfire out of 800ish decide to leave the game at once? thats 50% decrease
I'd guess something broke over the weekend, X-Fire renamed the game from it's old Hyborian Adventures moniker to the new 'Unchained' I am going to guess it screwed stuff up for some. The server was just asbusy this weekend as last (at least on Crom and the new B&G server where my characters have been hanging out)
Just checked the XFire numbers. Looks like the last week of June it bobbed between 1000 and 1600 hours. In July it went up as high as 3600 on July 10 and been on a downward trend since. In the last 6 days it has dropped from 3000 hours down to 2000. Whatever boost F2P gave it seems to be evaporating fast.
I miss DAoC
It's practically impossible to have 50% drop over 2 days. I think what that poster said about xfire being broken is correct.
never was a 50% drop, the doubling referenced in the OP was for a Saturday and Sunday when the game went up top 3200 and 3600 hours. LAst weekend it went down to the 2000 range. I figure a lot of people were like me they went back p[layed for a hour or two for free then deleted it after seeing that is still the same old POS
I miss DAoC
check the rating today
yeah it is popping up and down 700 hours for no valid reason unless the servers were down Tuesday...odd
I miss DAoC
lol, look at the graph
Nothing can vary that much
Servers were down for a small update, most likely what caused the drop.
"Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day!"
ok a 6 - 7 hour downtime would account for it. Games just don't drop 25% and pop back up in the middle of a week for no reason' Looks like it has settled out around 2700 hours per day weekdays and most likley peak onSundays with about 3000- 3200 or so. Respectable.
I miss DAoC
it was at 3300 hrs today (saturday figures) and usually rizes on further on Sunday so we should see about 3500 hrs tomorrow. This is about a month since F2P and Blood and Glory. Seems like its stabilizing for the summer. Then soon there will be the new Conan film and probaly another influx of players. Quite nice actually for a 3 year old game that was predicted dead an buried within a year after launch. Yet again Funcom has turned a catastrophic launch to a solid MMO.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
depends on the retention, AOC never did have a issue attracting people, bbut has neve been goood at retaining them. Several times since release the game made it back into the 20's overall on XFire but within a month or so they would start falling again.I think it was made it back into the teens overall when the Xpac was released. for referance yesterday it was #39 overall with 11 other MMOs ahead of it. Better than a month or 2 back when it was dipping below #100
I miss DAoC
Jackdog - i agree with your conclusion. It will depend on retention. However your figures are wrong. At the launch of the Godslayer xpac AoC never got above rank 26. Also the dips below 100 were due to patches and downtimes. It was down in the 80s
Source: A norwegian group of investors has made a website that tracks statistics for Funcom games. Have a look at the xfire stats on this page: zhttp://www.funcominvestor.com/aoc_statistikk.php
Klick on "xfire rangering" (xfire rank) and move the cursor over the graph (dont think it works in IE so try another browser if it fails to load. )
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Just watched this graph , thanks for providing it.
Xfire and other systems like that were not good indicator imo , but if there is not otehr stats it can at least show a trend.
Seems F2P gave AoC some small boost , like it was expected - almost all big changed/expansions bring some old players back and attract some new ones. Though in this case it seems that this increase imho is smaller than expected. Still AoC is lower atm than in may 2010 according to FuncomInvestor graph.
Still imo we'll have to wait for 2-3 months to judge it better.
I tried f2p AoC and leaved quickly but I am still interested even if just because of my personal interest in mmorpg industry as whole, how diffrent business model are succesful, etc.
So quick question: have it been announced that AoC will have some new sizeable content added? or massive revamp to old one? Havent heard personally but well it might be just me.