AOC - General Information

[Istros]

Originally Posted by Gylen

You couldn't be more wrong.

Yeah, I was gonna say... Not that I'm in beta, but from what I've heard, the tutorial 1-20 kedwyn described above is supposed to be "the polished game" with level 30+ barely finished...

[ModernDayDruid]

Originally Posted by balouch

Sorry, but Vanguard 0.8

Not even close. I'm not sure what game you guys were playing today, but other than not being able to log in for the first few hours, the game ran better than ever for me. This last patch was damn close to the 'magic patch' that's always touted but never surfaces. I was very pleased with what I saw today, and the content updates across the board. I've never seen more improvement in such a short amount of time in an MMORPG beta as I have with AoC over the last 2 months.

Can't wait for PvP weekend to see what's in store.

[Gylen]

Originally Posted by Istros

Yeah, I was gonna say... Not that I'm in beta, but from what I've heard, the tutorial 1-20 kedwyn described above is supposed to be "the polished game" with level 30+ barely finished...

Kedwyn also has no idea what he's talking about. I'm not going to bother picking apart his post because most anti-AOC people have already made up their minds.

[Gylen]

Ahh why not...

Abilities seem to come automatically on level up. Not really a fan of that but whatever.

This is true, for the most part. A lot of classes have to buy their spell scrolls, though. All melee abilities come as you level. Why would you not be a fan of this? I don't know. I guess you enjoy wasting time to go see your trainer?

Loot? What loot. Nothing great from what I could see but I was really low level. Not a big surprise here. Found WoW's lowbie loot more varied and useful to be honest. Heck even EQ's for that matter. Give me some junk to sell or at least loot at. Not just a couple pieces of armor and teeth off everything. Give me a break.

There is plenty of loot. There hasn't been a time where my bag wasn't constantly full. As for junk loot to sell, you just contradicted yourself with what you said at the end. Mobs drop tons of junk loot for selling (teeth, armor, weapons) Judging the game's items at pre-level 20 is a bad idea. The game has great itemization and there are plenty of great items beyond 20.

One thing that is annoying is the level requirements don't seem to be listed on gear so if you try to equip a dagger it may tell you nothing or it might tell you that you need to be level 5 but its not listed in the tool tip. Got an error on my necro that said I had to be a certain level but on my dread knight or whatever the hell they are called got nothing and the dagger couldn't be equipped. Similar thing happened on a sword I got later on off a boss.

I didn't participate in the tech. test today, but perhaps the tech client people were using had the old database. I remember this was a problem in earlier builds of beta, but this is a almost non-existing issue right now.

Combat feels easy, AC1ish actually. Charge into 5+ mobs and kill them without issues. Maybe this changes higher up but up to 10 that is how it has been. If you think WoW's early game was easy AoC is even easier and actually feels slightly more brainless. The directional attacks are a waste of finger movement they add nothing to the game and do nothing to make things any better. You simply spam to the weakest side and sometimes the mob will swap their shields. Wow, big deal. Has some implications for PVP but for PVE its just more button mashing.

I agree, combat for the most part (especially at the beginning) WAS easy. Once again, the general and technical clients are different and the new client has made a lot of shit much harder. It gets even harder at later levels when "elite" mobs are introduced. As for the directional attacks being useless, I disagree. It's a fast paced combat system, and having to switch the sides you attack on the fly prevents people from playing semi-AFK. Someone who pays attention or who bothers playing properly will curb stomp the other.

Graphics are nice, no real issues on my system.

Client has become incredibly smooth and graphics still as pretty as ever.

Zone structure, not sure what they are thinking here but I feel like i'm playing a game more like Mass Effect for the 360 than a MMO like WoW or EQ. The zones are very clustered, not much room to move around or explore. I felt very rail road tracked while playing. This may be due to the low level but honestly there is no excuse for it. Every other MMO i've played had significantly better noobie areas and you had room to explore and move not just 3 or 4 paths to follow leading to some mobs hanging out with a named. Very closed in.

You will definately feel this way until you get into Tortage's day time quests. The night time / Jungle intro are very linear and guided. But Tortage day, and beyond lvl 20, it is just as open as any other MMO. Zones are open and extremely detailed.

UI is fine. Nothing great but not bad. The default key bindings suck you'll probably be changing them. Not sure how to get chat to work without having to click in the window. Just had a limited amount of time with all the problems.

I wish Funcom would allow us to mod the UI, but I guess we'll see.

Lots of bitching and whining on the boards. Many of the tech testers were not even able to log in at all. Many of us were only able to get in for 20 minutes or so tops. Lots of client issues and patching issues. Downloading the same 5.2 megs every time you restart the client (not a new patch but the patcher made you do it anyways), entering game with only a blank screen and it never clears up, not being able to load the game because there is another patch waiting after you are done with the patcher then crashing and having to repeat, character issues of not being able to log in due to having a character in game, issues with the game saying you are exploiting and crashing but you are doing nothing but changing your feature on your character creation, and a lot more.

If you think only a couple hundred of people were trying to login, try again. This was a stress test, and there was a shitload of people hammering the server.

Lag was pretty bad for most of the test. 9k+ pings. Chat server worked ok but was also pretty laggy. That can be expected in a Tech test the other stuff is pure and simple bad coding and piss poor quality control.

Once again, this was a stress test. All stress tests are supposed to have their limits pushed. You're complaning about lag in a stress test? In previous tech. tests, I remember sitting in a room with hundreds of other people with barely any lag. And that's an older client... I'd imagine it would be even smoother now. You can't expect not to have lag when thousands of people are hammering the server. (ie Stress test, Launch day)

Lots and lots of bugs, even in early quests. Not sure if they are related to the servers but no excuse for it because when release comes its going to be a mess. Things like the keys for the gate getting lost after receiving them, dialog getting stuck or lost and not being able to complete the noobie quests. Went through the damn thing 3 times and finally was able to finish it. I at least was one of the lucky ones that was able to get in for a fair bit of time. Many other were not so lucky.

Most likely due to the stress test, however they sometimes have problems with the scripted events. Relogging always fixes it. If it, it will be bug reported and always fixed.

With 30 days out to release, this game is going to be a nightmare. I'll be passing for at least the first few months to see if its worth getting later. Being able to decapitate your enemy is cool, no doubt. That will last all of a few hours and the rest will grate on your nerves. I didn't see anything new here and judging from the testers interested in the game I see more of a barrens style global chat in its future. Lots of immaturity which is odd for beta, even a tech test.

Having played as much as I have, this game is going to be incredible. Especially if the siege PvP turns out to be as good as I think it will. If Funcome can get a decent launch, this game will be great.

I

didn't get the feeling there were that many people in the Tech. I'd estimate around a few hundred actually in game. Chat was rolling but nothing outrageous and there was nothing to do but chat since the game was so lagged for most of the test it was impossible to do anything else. Not sure how the servers will hold up at release but with 30 days what you see is what you get.

I'm positive there was MUCH more than a couple hundred.

I've been in several betas (friends and family) and open beta / stress tested many other games. This one ranks pretty low in playability (stress test wise). It also ranks about a 4/10 on my interest scale after getting in for a little while. No you can't have my account, no I don't care that I have broken the NDA and no I don't care if you agree / disagree or feel I have some how hurt Funcom or that I have some sort of agenda to bash this game. Just posting how I feel about it and I'll be taking a wait and see attitude depending on how beta finishes up in the next month. I'm not holding my breath for a magic patch like many others are.

Once again, you're complaining about a stress test. There is no magic patch. There isn't a need for one. The client today is absolutely amazing, and in my opinion very close to launch. With the way Funcom has been patching, I have no doubt the game's launch build will be pretty smooth.

I can't wait.

[balouch]

There will always be diehard fans and there will always be haters as far as any MMO is concerned.

I have no vested interested in AOC other than liking the Conan stories/movies etc. I don't want it to fail because it would be great to have a new MMO to played.

My honest opinion after today is that AOC it is far away from being LIVE worthy, and they will just hurt themselves if they push it out too soon.

The game looks promising, it would be a shame to see it Vanguard itself.

[LexarkT11]

Originally Posted by balouch

The game looks promising, it would be a shame to see it Vanguard itself.

VANGUARD HAS TURNED IT AROUND, OKAY ASSHOLE!@#@$%

[Clericnon2boxed]

Why are the reports so conflicting ?
Do tech testers really have an outdated built + are in the game under worst circumstances VS real beta testers with the latest built and no stress test conditions?

Do all with graphic problems have nvidia cards (8800 etc) and those without ATI ?

[Zindan]

So, I got to run around in AoC for this latest Tech Test (not nearly as long as I wish I could have though), and the game ran fine for me on high graphic settings. There seemed to be problems with shadows though, my character didn't cast any, and environmental shadows would awkward (TR's environmental shadows look much better). Also, the mangine I made didn't have any nipples...odd! ;p

Animations seems alright, jumping looked weird, combat animations were fine, though combat it self was very twitchy..not sure how I'll like it (the left-side directional attack didn't have an icon on my client). I'll buy the game though and try it out.

[Twobit Whore]

The tech test and the general beta use the same build.

[Fury]

Rumor places open beta on May 2nd. I guess there have been some comments from the devs to that effect on the beta boards.

[Aria]

I have a 2.4ghz core 2 duo, 2gb ram, geforce 7900gs and I could only run it on low.. it was really disheartening. I know I'm not going to play on max settings, but it was unplayable on medium. This also happened to my friend with a similar computer but an 8600gt.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by Fury

Rumor places open beta on May 2nd. I guess there have been some comments from the devs to that effect on the beta boards.

Sounds about right. With 5 weeks to go, less for headstart/preorders, it's now or never to announce a delay. Doesn't look like it's coming. Whoever said Vanguard 0.8 is pretty close. It's got a lot of the same issues. Lack of content in areas, performance issues and very little class balancing - especially in PvP. Bottom line is it is releasing 4-6 months too early just like Vanguard did.

[balouch]

quadcore 4gigs ram ati x1950 pro

ran like crap on low

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Aria

I have a 2.4ghz core 2 duo, 2gb ram, geforce 7900gs and I could only run it on low.. it was really disheartening. I know I'm not going to play on max settings, but it was unplayable on medium. This also happened to my friend with a similar computer but an 8600gt.

I think your computer is not built correctly, you had issues with VG before someone helped you as well.

[Elsebet]

Many of the tech testers were not even able to log in at all. Many of us were only able to get in for 20 minutes or so tops. Lots of client issues and patching issues. Downloading the same 5.2 megs every time you restart the client (not a new patch but the patcher made you do it anyways), entering game with only a blank screen and it never clears up, not being able to load the game because there is another patch waiting after you are done with the patcher then crashing and having to repeat, character issues of not being able to log in due to having a character in game, issues with the game saying you are exploiting and crashing but you are doing nothing but changing your feature on your character creation, and a lot more.

These happened to me. All that downloading/patching and I couldn't even participate. I found it humorous when I checked "DX10" on the graphics tab the client refused to launch. Yes, I'm running Vista 64 and LOTR runs fine with DX10 enabled.

The character creation music and overall sound was nice though!