It is still a button mashing game and for me it's gamebreaking. Having to press 5-6 keys to do 1 move is annoying to me.
That's your opinion if you don't like it, you don't like it. I just have one problem with what you said here. Button mashing. If you're button mashing in this game you're not going to be completing those moves. Button mashing usually refers to brawlers where you can pretty much press anything and be successful, that does not describe AOC's combat in any way.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
It is still a button mashing game and for me it's gamebreaking. Having to press 5-6 keys to do 1 move is annoying to me.
That's your opinion if you don't like it, you don't like it. I just have one problem with what you said here. Button mashing. If you're button mashing in this game you're not going to be completing those moves. Button mashing usually refers to brawlers where you can pretty much press anything and be successful, that does not describe AOC's combat in any way.
I agree with Distopia. It's not a bunch of buttons for one move. At least for physical combat ( I do wish they would add spell weaving into a similar system as they intended). It's different buttons ..performing different attacks from different angles..building to a final fatal blow. You can chain attacks in other games and its fuggin spectacular..but somehow when you do it in AOC..people think its bullshit key-spamming. I don't get the dichotomy.
People want innovation..and when it is added..no matter how slight or major....we still hear bitching. Chronicles of Spellborn also had a nice...different combat -wheel system that took a little bit of pre-planning and a little quick thinking (as far as using combat moves or abilities in a certain way to attain the best result) It also had a decent original and interesting..albeit slightly small..world rendered in a uniquely pleasant and charming art style and well written quests with ,at times, a quirky sense of humor.Look what happened to that game.. most had probably never even heard the name before today.
Originally posted by Papamac (truncated for brevity)
I liked the graphics in AoC. I didn't mind the combat system, because it was different than what I was accustomed to. But, to me, it has almost zero replayability because it forces players to go through Tortage all over again. Let me bypass Tortage after I've done it once, and I'll re-evaluate my score.
If you're referring to this: "All players with characters already above level fifty now have a one time option to create another character that starts life at level fifty.", then we're not on the same page. You're referencing a "one time" short-cut to 50.
I don't want the ability to create a new level 50 character. I want the ability to play the WHOLE game with a different class/character, but I want to skip past Tortage after I've done it once.
Let me bypass Tortage and go straight to my respective starting zone at level 20. Is that too much to ask?
You can totally skip Tortage. You can also level many toons and still not repeat the same quests. There are many different areas to level in. Can be a totally different experience each time..
Not sure how a Starting Area designed just to get someone to 20ish is a game breaker even if you could not skip it. Every game has a sort of starting process. It takes a few hours to hit 20ish even if you don't skip it.
Just knock out your night missions for some quick decent starting loot. The NIGHT quests in Tortage are DIFFERENT from class to class. (Soldier,caster,priest,rogue are all different)
Originally posted by Papamac (truncated for brevity)
I liked the graphics in AoC. I didn't mind the combat system, because it was different than what I was accustomed to. But, to me, it has almost zero replayability because it forces players to go through Tortage all over again. Let me bypass Tortage after I've done it once, and I'll re-evaluate my score.
If you're referring to this: "All players with characters already above level fifty now have a one time option to create another character that starts life at level fifty.", then we're not on the same page. You're referencing a "one time" short-cut to 50.
I don't want the ability to create a new level 50 character. I want the ability to play the WHOLE game with a different class/character, but I want to skip past Tortage after I've done it once.
Let me bypass Tortage and go straight to my respective starting zone at level 20. Is that too much to ask?
You can totally skip Tortage. You can also level many toons and still not repeat the same quests. There are many different areas to level in. Can be a totally different experience each time..
Not sure how a Starting Area designed just to get someone to 20ish is a game breaker even if you could not skip it. Every game has a sort of starting process. It takes a few hours to hit 20ish even if you don't skip it.
Just knock out your night missions for some quick decent starting loot. The NIGHT quests in Tortage are DIFFERENT from class to class. (Soldier,caster,priest,rogue are all different)
Please explain how "you can totally skip Tortage". Perhaps I'm reading too much into your assertion but, to me, that means that there is an option available when you create a new character to actually SKIP Tortage entirely, and go to the starting area for your race. If there is no such option, then your statement is false.
The balance of your post suggests that what you really mean that it's possible to shorten the amount of time you have to spend in Tortage. Finding a "work-around" so you can avoid the "Tortage grind" isn't the same thing.
And, unless things have changed, you have to meet minimum level requirements before you can do each night mission. Which means that you either have to do some daytime quests, or you have to grind for levels.
Am I really being that obtuse? Is my request really that difficult to understand? Or are those who are bent on defending this game being disingenuous, and trying to trivialize my concerns by posting misinformation.
Please explain how "you can totally skip Tortage". Perhaps I'm reading too much into your assertion but, to me, that means that there is an option available when you create a new character to actually SKIP Tortage entirely, and go to the starting area for your race. If there is no such option, then your statement is false.
The balance of your post suggests that what you really mean that it's possible to shorten the amount of time you have to spend in Tortage. Finding a "work-around" so you can avoid the "Tortage grind" isn't the same thing.
And, unless things have changed, you have to meet minimum level requirements before you can do each night mission. Which means that you either have to do some daytime quests, or you have to grind for levels.
Am I really being that obtuse? Is my request really that difficult to understand? Or are those who are bent on defending this game being disingenuous, and trying to trivialize my concerns by posting misinformation.
Which is it?
I think I remember the guy behind the counter in the Tavern giving an option to "skip" tortage, I could be mistaken though.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I thought AOC was a decent game,it even did some things i liked as in the climbing/ladders and different skills.AOC was alot like VG was for me,it just lacked that little bit of depth in both class and combat design.
I was and still am spolied by what ffxi first created for class and combat structure,so it is hard for me to accept anything less.
Example is combos in AOC were ok,i just lined up my icons on hotbar and really didn't have to any thinking.In FFXI combos were all about team work,whcih i prefer bigtime,solo combos are for single player games.
Aoc does have very nice graphics and good detail throughtout,but i quite often felt like i was in a siongle player game.Again i wil luse an example ..
I make a player in FFXI,i start in a huge city and i am free to go abotu where ever i feel like,this is a true mmo design.In AOC just like many other games you are forced into a linear pattern of gameplay.Even Wow has you attain your gear doing their linear quests,FFXI again did not do that,it was about freedom.
Over all i would say the reviewer gave a pretty good accounbt of the game,i agreed with most of what he had to say.I still feel AOC is a game decent and worthy enough to play just as Vanguard is,but in both cases,the lack of players in a MMO,just makes it hard for me to stick around.
One thing i might mention is ,i really don't liek the EQ clones on how dungeons are done.What i don't like is how there is no way around movement without having to fight.Once again FFXI was more in depth as it had sight mobs/hearing mobs/magic mobs and undead scent.The more a game shows me the depth of design,the happier i am,i hate simplicity,which is why i recently quit FFXI as they turned the game into a real simplistic joke.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
One of the NPC's in tavern has an option to skip THE REST of your destiny quest and leave Tortage to the mainland. However, I don't think it is option until around 15th level. I could be wrong. I know I did it once just to check it out and went to Khemet . I can't recall my level at the time but I do know I wasn't yet 20th level.. They do give an option to go right back to Tortage to finish up.
Funcom can't program a game if they tried. Just to see the new stuff I tried logging under my old account, nothing doing even though I could log into it via the web interface. So I created a new account, again nothing doing. Broken authenticator. Another POS brought to you by Funcom.
One of the NPC's in tavern has an option to skip THE REST of your destiny quest and leave Tortage to the mainland. However, I don't think it is option until around 15th level. I could be wrong. I know I did it once just to check it out and went to Khemet . I can't recall my level at the time but I do know I wasn't yet 20th level.. They do give an option to go right back to Tortage to finish up.
Not sure about the level (15 or 16), but skiping the destiny quest and leaving tortage are different things. The destiny quests you get at levels 5, 10, 15 and one at 19 to leave tortage. You can skip destiny quests, but if you skip the one at level 15 it'll just mean you'll stay in tortage until you're high level enough to pick up the 19 one, and at 19 you might as well just do the quest and leave than skip it.
To leave tortage earlier you must pick the smuggler's quest, which I'm not sure can be done starting at 15 or at 16, but starts on a note in the wall on the back of one of the last houses you see while going to the boat to white sands island. Your destiny quests aren't skipped this way but you leave the island, and if you want to start them again (next one at level 30 IIRC) you'd need to go back to tortage to do the destiny quests you left or tell your trainer there to skip them.
I mostly agreed with the OP. I have been playing on and off(mostly off) for 3 months or so. I have a demonologist to lvl 40 I think. I am in a guild that no one is ever on. I guess finding a better guild would be better. Graphics, music, gameplay is good. It's basically like LoTRO to me though. It's all questing. If I cba to make a new toon on the pvp server, I might feel different.
The gathering/crafting is a bit odd too. I can't harvest granite til i'm lvl 50? It's not a big deal, just odd. I don't know yet if I want to buy a sub or not. I enjoy logging in and playing some, but if I don't, I don't really care. Odd actually. I guess I will just continue my f2p, I mean free unlimited trial until I decide to stop playing it.
I think I will enjoy it more if I start a melee character as the demo is sorta boring...but I do like watching people burn alive. The HoX looks like fun, but I don't have access as a free 2 player.
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die Hiatus: EvE Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh) Interested in: better games in general
Longevity 8 ? are you kidding ? if you play a couple of hours every day you will reach 80 within 4-6 weeks & then what ? even if you pay there is bugger all to do in AoC endgame other than grind for X,Y,Z.
I played from pre-launch & quit january this year. IMHO this game has never reached its potential and (free 2 play aside) in the current direction it is going it likely never will.
Longevity 8 ? are you kidding ? if you play a couple of hours every day you will reach 80 within 4-6 weeks & then what ? even if you pay there is bugger all to do in AoC endgame other than grind for X,Y,Z.
The end game is pretty much the same as almost every other mmo out there. So if you are complaining about that in this game, then surely you have the same opinion for just about every mmo no?
After reading the article there are two things that caught my attention. Number one, to be picky, is that Funcom is a company, which is a single entity, so you would say Funcom is or Funcom has, not Funcom HAVE. That was irritating, or should I say, I were irritated.
The second thing is (or were, lol), why didn't you give the graphics a 10 out of 10? Seriously, what game out there right now has better graphics? While many things are subjective, it seems like a game that still, arguably, has the best graphics of any MMO should get a 10 out of 10.
As for the game itself, I made several characters, but never got very far. The graphics are amazing and the combat is unique, but knowing that the end game PVP was weak kind of took the wind out of my sails.
Also, I should mention that, for returning players it can be frustrating to try to play the unchained, free-to-play version. I wanted to check out the new free for all PVP server, but I couldn't make a new character, nor delete an old character to allow me to do that. I returned for that reason specifically, but ended up giving up after I realized that I couldn't even try the server without making a new account. What a bummer.
Currently playing: Rift Played: SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot World of Warcraft, AoC
Gotta say I've always loved AoC and I come back every now and then... The only reason I've not stayed is because simply... I couldn't get any of my friends to touch it with a ten foot pole with all the negativity about the game.(Which I've almost always disagreed with) They won't even touch it now. I'll probably rejoin after they put in the single server tech that they've been talking about.. or.. I get bored with SWTOR/GW2/Skyrim/ Alamar/Witcher 2/Diablo 3... Good thing about this long queue.. MMOs get better with time..:P
It is also just a mass of instances. It does not feel like a coherent world. Nothing open to it. Sure some of the instances look big and open but they are just levels in a level based game.
...
THIS is what I don't like about the game.
It's a proven historical fact that beer saved humankind.
Tried this again recently, and I still cannot get past having to enter a password every time I want to execute a skill. It sounds really interesting on paper, but in execution it just does not work. Oh, and it only applies to melee skills. Stupid.
I for one plan to test this combat style out. I've been dying for an iterative combat style that bases more on tactics than this is my ubber move and I'm goin to spam it as much as possible. And FINALLY graphics that doesn't look like something off of a cartoon network, yay! I guess I'll find out ...
Actually, the only thing I don't like is the fact F2P accounts are stuck with a 2 gold cap with no cap increase available. Allow me to carry more than 2 gold on a character and I'd gladly come back and play.
"gold do a long way in AoC" Not like in WOW ehere you need 100Gold ore sow to get a mount. In AoC 2gold cap will hold until lvl 60-70. And guildbank can hold money for you.
And the conan world can feel smal in the start, but endgame playfields are 4-5times larger.
@Robsolf you know how in other games where using skills becomes second nature...same here combos become second nature unless your a mouth breather and don't progressively get better as you play.
Also crafting isn't wothless...infact it plays a hand in making the best weapons in the game.
I think, if you haven't played Mount and Blade, you might not understand why some might say the melee is still button-mashing in AoC.
Try it.. it has a free trial to level 7 or some such (warbands, not fire n blade, that one's game is nerfed to a crappy quest based system instead of a sandbox)
That's the sort of combat MO wanted to replicate (not very well at all). And no, DF isn't anything close either.
You hit the nail on the head here. Mount and Blade combat is something that everyone should try and then say that Conan combat is any good. Or oblivion.
Conan was half way there, it was close but no cigar. It was a button masher that simply was not the swing your sword and it might hit something, real physics. Not even close.
Darkfall and Mortal Online did actually get closer to proper combat.
Comments
That's your opinion if you don't like it, you don't like it. I just have one problem with what you said here. Button mashing. If you're button mashing in this game you're not going to be completing those moves. Button mashing usually refers to brawlers where you can pretty much press anything and be successful, that does not describe AOC's combat in any way.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I agree with Distopia. It's not a bunch of buttons for one move. At least for physical combat ( I do wish they would add spell weaving into a similar system as they intended). It's different buttons ..performing different attacks from different angles..building to a final fatal blow. You can chain attacks in other games and its fuggin spectacular..but somehow when you do it in AOC..people think its bullshit key-spamming. I don't get the dichotomy.
People want innovation..and when it is added..no matter how slight or major....we still hear bitching. Chronicles of Spellborn also had a nice...different combat -wheel system that took a little bit of pre-planning and a little quick thinking (as far as using combat moves or abilities in a certain way to attain the best result) It also had a decent original and interesting..albeit slightly small..world rendered in a uniquely pleasant and charming art style and well written quests with ,at times, a quirky sense of humor.Look what happened to that game.. most had probably never even heard the name before today.
The starter area of Tortage is the best part of this game.
You can totally skip Tortage. You can also level many toons and still not repeat the same quests. There are many different areas to level in. Can be a totally different experience each time..
Not sure how a Starting Area designed just to get someone to 20ish is a game breaker even if you could not skip it. Every game has a sort of starting process. It takes a few hours to hit 20ish even if you don't skip it.
Just knock out your night missions for some quick decent starting loot. The NIGHT quests in Tortage are DIFFERENT from class to class. (Soldier,caster,priest,rogue are all different)
Please explain how "you can totally skip Tortage". Perhaps I'm reading too much into your assertion but, to me, that means that there is an option available when you create a new character to actually SKIP Tortage entirely, and go to the starting area for your race. If there is no such option, then your statement is false.
The balance of your post suggests that what you really mean that it's possible to shorten the amount of time you have to spend in Tortage. Finding a "work-around" so you can avoid the "Tortage grind" isn't the same thing.
And, unless things have changed, you have to meet minimum level requirements before you can do each night mission. Which means that you either have to do some daytime quests, or you have to grind for levels.
Am I really being that obtuse? Is my request really that difficult to understand? Or are those who are bent on defending this game being disingenuous, and trying to trivialize my concerns by posting misinformation.
Which is it?
I think I remember the guy behind the counter in the Tavern giving an option to "skip" tortage, I could be mistaken though.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I thought AOC was a decent game,it even did some things i liked as in the climbing/ladders and different skills.AOC was alot like VG was for me,it just lacked that little bit of depth in both class and combat design.
I was and still am spolied by what ffxi first created for class and combat structure,so it is hard for me to accept anything less.
Example is combos in AOC were ok,i just lined up my icons on hotbar and really didn't have to any thinking.In FFXI combos were all about team work,whcih i prefer bigtime,solo combos are for single player games.
Aoc does have very nice graphics and good detail throughtout,but i quite often felt like i was in a siongle player game.Again i wil luse an example ..
I make a player in FFXI,i start in a huge city and i am free to go abotu where ever i feel like,this is a true mmo design.In AOC just like many other games you are forced into a linear pattern of gameplay.Even Wow has you attain your gear doing their linear quests,FFXI again did not do that,it was about freedom.
Over all i would say the reviewer gave a pretty good accounbt of the game,i agreed with most of what he had to say.I still feel AOC is a game decent and worthy enough to play just as Vanguard is,but in both cases,the lack of players in a MMO,just makes it hard for me to stick around.
One thing i might mention is ,i really don't liek the EQ clones on how dungeons are done.What i don't like is how there is no way around movement without having to fight.Once again FFXI was more in depth as it had sight mobs/hearing mobs/magic mobs and undead scent.The more a game shows me the depth of design,the happier i am,i hate simplicity,which is why i recently quit FFXI as they turned the game into a real simplistic joke.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
One of the NPC's in tavern has an option to skip THE REST of your destiny quest and leave Tortage to the mainland. However, I don't think it is option until around 15th level. I could be wrong. I know I did it once just to check it out and went to Khemet . I can't recall my level at the time but I do know I wasn't yet 20th level.. They do give an option to go right back to Tortage to finish up.
Funcom can't program a game if they tried. Just to see the new stuff I tried logging under my old account, nothing doing even though I could log into it via the web interface. So I created a new account, again nothing doing. Broken authenticator. Another POS brought to you by Funcom.
Not sure about the level (15 or 16), but skiping the destiny quest and leaving tortage are different things. The destiny quests you get at levels 5, 10, 15 and one at 19 to leave tortage. You can skip destiny quests, but if you skip the one at level 15 it'll just mean you'll stay in tortage until you're high level enough to pick up the 19 one, and at 19 you might as well just do the quest and leave than skip it.
To leave tortage earlier you must pick the smuggler's quest, which I'm not sure can be done starting at 15 or at 16, but starts on a note in the wall on the back of one of the last houses you see while going to the boat to white sands island. Your destiny quests aren't skipped this way but you leave the island, and if you want to start them again (next one at level 30 IIRC) you'd need to go back to tortage to do the destiny quests you left or tell your trainer there to skip them.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
I mostly agreed with the OP. I have been playing on and off(mostly off) for 3 months or so. I have a demonologist to lvl 40 I think. I am in a guild that no one is ever on. I guess finding a better guild would be better. Graphics, music, gameplay is good. It's basically like LoTRO to me though. It's all questing. If I cba to make a new toon on the pvp server, I might feel different.
The gathering/crafting is a bit odd too. I can't harvest granite til i'm lvl 50? It's not a big deal, just odd. I don't know yet if I want to buy a sub or not. I enjoy logging in and playing some, but if I don't, I don't really care. Odd actually. I guess I will just continue my f2p, I mean free unlimited trial until I decide to stop playing it.
I think I will enjoy it more if I start a melee character as the demo is sorta boring...but I do like watching people burn alive. The HoX looks like fun, but I don't have access as a free 2 player.
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die
Hiatus: EvE
Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh)
Interested in: better games in general
Longevity 8 ? are you kidding ? if you play a couple of hours every day you will reach 80 within 4-6 weeks & then what ? even if you pay there is bugger all to do in AoC endgame other than grind for X,Y,Z.
I played from pre-launch & quit january this year. IMHO this game has never reached its potential and (free 2 play aside) in the current direction it is going it likely never will.
After reading the article there are two things that caught my attention. Number one, to be picky, is that Funcom is a company, which is a single entity, so you would say Funcom is or Funcom has, not Funcom HAVE. That was irritating, or should I say, I were irritated.
The second thing is (or were, lol), why didn't you give the graphics a 10 out of 10? Seriously, what game out there right now has better graphics? While many things are subjective, it seems like a game that still, arguably, has the best graphics of any MMO should get a 10 out of 10.
As for the game itself, I made several characters, but never got very far. The graphics are amazing and the combat is unique, but knowing that the end game PVP was weak kind of took the wind out of my sails.
Also, I should mention that, for returning players it can be frustrating to try to play the unchained, free-to-play version. I wanted to check out the new free for all PVP server, but I couldn't make a new character, nor delete an old character to allow me to do that. I returned for that reason specifically, but ended up giving up after I realized that I couldn't even try the server without making a new account. What a bummer.
Currently playing:
Rift
Played:
SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
World of Warcraft, AoC
Gotta say I've always loved AoC and I come back every now and then... The only reason I've not stayed is because simply... I couldn't get any of my friends to touch it with a ten foot pole with all the negativity about the game.(Which I've almost always disagreed with) They won't even touch it now. I'll probably rejoin after they put in the single server tech that they've been talking about.. or.. I get bored with SWTOR/GW2/Skyrim/ Alamar/Witcher 2/Diablo 3... Good thing about this long queue.. MMOs get better with time..:P
THIS is what I don't like about the game.
It's a proven historical fact that beer saved humankind.
People who pay real money for their gear in AoC when you already have a P2P subscription must be total idiots.
Tried this again recently, and I still cannot get past having to enter a password every time I want to execute a skill. It sounds really interesting on paper, but in execution it just does not work. Oh, and it only applies to melee skills. Stupid.
A re-review that skips the PvP portion of the game. Terrific.
Sorry but this re-review reeks of advertising. Though it is preety normal for specialized websites / magazines
Some things that was not mentioned about AoC:
cons:
- awful p2w model + if you want to play end-game you have to subscribe anyway
- claustrophobic small zones
- instanced world + loading screens
- game looks nice but still is awfully optimized
Finaly. Here is the re-review after going freemium
"gold do a long way in AoC" Not like in WOW ehere you need 100Gold ore sow to get a mount. In AoC 2gold cap will hold until lvl 60-70. And guildbank can hold money for you.
And the conan world can feel smal in the start, but endgame playfields are 4-5times larger.
Also crafting isn't wothless...infact it plays a hand in making the best weapons in the game.
You hit the nail on the head here. Mount and Blade combat is something that everyone should try and then say that Conan combat is any good. Or oblivion.
Conan was half way there, it was close but no cigar. It was a button masher that simply was not the swing your sword and it might hit something, real physics. Not even close.
Darkfall and Mortal Online did actually get closer to proper combat.