AOC - General Information

[melicant]

Originally Posted by UnchainedAcolyte

Well, guess that's one less class choice.

I can't fathom how devs can make such massive, poor, generalized changes to a class.

Inconceivable! *with lisp*

By massive nerf you mean giving them the correct level bow? They had a level 50+ bow. It was removed and they were given a level appropriate bow and it brought them in line (and yes, they were still a competitive class).

Some of the people posting in this thread as if they know what's going on with the game need to just stop.

[Flight]

Reposting this from the beta leaks forum because, frankly, its not fair on people for them not to have this information. Not sure I agree with all of it - my suspicion is that the game will be a lot more forgiving on your CPU, bus and GFX card if you have 3-4Mb RAM. If you only have 2 Mb I would strongly advise an upgrade - 32 bit OS, XP or Vista, will only see / use around 3 Megs. I'll be upgrading to Vista 64 bit prior to release and 4 Mb RAM :



Are you wondering how to run this game as smooth as possible ? Would you like people to test, change and retest stuff until they eventually come up with pre-chewed checklist so you can see in the blink of an eye what to improve about your computer to run this game smooth at release time ? Well, look no further because I have done the work for you. Hope you enjoy.

List of impact per hardware pc component:

1. Central processing unit (CPU)

High impact, depending on which video card you use you will need a stronger processor. Nvidia cards draw their power greatly on the processor and thus generate extra load. ATI cards operate at maximum speed pretty much independent of the processor. In both cases the game itself requires a great deal of continuous processing. I've been able to test dual core and 4-core and even in the case of 4core, all 4 cores were effectively being used. Therefore it's recommended to have a Q6600 (quadcore) or higher processor. If not possible, go for at least a latest gen dualcore processor. The game performs very poorly on a single processor. Don't go for that option under any circumstance.

Note: on a Q6600 used with 2 8800GT cards in SLI (most stress on cpu from graph cards) during grouped gameplay in conarch valley (large scene with far sight) at least 2 cores were loaded up to 70% most of the time, they never reached above 90%. That was max stress. Most of the time however I noticed 2 cores at 50-70% and the other 2 at 10-20%

Note: keep in mind that in the future we will be having largescale battles with 40+ people on your screen while we now only test with 1-10 on our screen, npc's calculated in. This means that the load could be much higher at that time.


2. Random access Memory (RAM)

The amount of memory in your computer is critical to running this game smooth. The game itself has been developped as a 32-bit executable with LA (large address awareness) enabled. What does this mean? 32-bit executables are by design restricted to 2GB per running process on a 32bit OS. (ageofconan32.exe = 1 process = the whole game) As you zone to the inn or other zones, the executable size in memory will try to cache all this information (= keep it loaded in memory under the form of ageofconan32.exe growing in memory usage size) to give you a smoother gaming experience. I have noticed that the "working set" of the executable grows to as large as 1980MB, this is how much of your physically present RAM is being used by the game. If you don't have that amount of free ram BEFORE starting up the game, your game will slow down after zoning a few times and slow down even further over time until you restart it to make the game use less memory again. For this reason you need under XP at least 2.5GB in your computer to run this game smooth and under Vista at least 3GB. Aside from the physcial usage there's also the virtual size (the actual size of the process) which I have seen to grow as large as about 2.9GB after long gameplay.

note: on a default 32-bit windows XP or Vista for that matter, no processes are allowed to grow over 2GB. The game will simply crash when it reaches that size. (you may be experiencing this right now). If and let me stress that only IF you have 3GB or more (4GB preferably) you can configure your Vista or windows XP installation to allow processes to grow over 2GB so they don't crash and run as smooth as possible. Under XP this is done by adding "/3GB" in the boot.ini file and under Vista 32-bit by use of the BCEDIT command with extra parameters. Do this at your own risk and NEVER if you don't have 3GB of memory in your computer. Windows XP 64-bit and Vista 64-bit are by default enabled to do this so they do not require changes and your executable will not crash when it reaches 2GB on such an OS. Just make sure you have 3GB or more in your computer

note: 4GB is the ideal amount needed to run this smooth along with whatever other stuff you run on your OS (services, background apps, the OS memory itself) Vista will even use the extra memory to help cache other stuff. I have 8 and beyond 4GB you do not notice any more improvement in speed and smoothness so it is NOT necessary for running ONLY this game while having all other apps closed. However having 8GB will help cache other stuff under Vista as well as allow you to simultaneously run a bunch of other windows programs. This is luxury however, not a must have. 3GB is must have minimum for smooth AOC gaming and 2GB means running the game at decreased performance. This is inevitable

note: the speed of the memory is completely trivial when compared to the actual amount of memory.Having e.g 1066 Mhz mem instead of 667Mhz will only yield a 1-3% memory read speed increase which is not worth it imho to invest in.

note: although increasing your RAM from 2GB to 3GB is in essence not a direct increase in fps but instead makes the game play and loading/zoning feel alot smoother, it should be noted however that if you lack alot of RAM your FPS will be affected through stuttering etc. Running the game with 1GB will give such problematic play (enough to feel 'unplayable') Having 2GB is therefore a bare minimum for running at all while 3GB is the minimum for running smooth. 4GB is a good standard.

note: although the client currently is 32-bit it will run on a 64-bit OS through WoW (windows in windows) technology. Important to know is that to reach true 64 performance we need a native compiled executable (that would be e.g ageofconan64.exe) There is no such executable available right now. It is not certain or confirmed at this point that there will ever be such a native 64-bit version of the game. It is also my personal guess that the game devs have deliberately programmed the executable to not never use over 19XX MB of memory to avoid problems. In an ideal situation they would compile a native 64-bit client with no immediate restriction so that the executable could easily grow up to let's say 5-7GB in running size for power users with let's say 6-8GB memory onboard. All recently/most accessed zones would then be pretty much always loaded in memory which would require less disk acces and pretty much instant zoning. This is not possible today since the 32-bit executable is limited to a max of 2GB physical memory usage.

3. Graphics processing unit (GPU)

This game uses pretty advanced graphics that are at or a bit ahead of it's time. This allows for a visually stunning game under ideal circumstances with future hardware.I have been able to run at 1900*1200 at high graphic settings in a quite smooth way using 2*8800GT in SLI. A test without SLI showed a noticeable drop in fps which means SLI is well being used and does make a difference in this game. Recommended is the latest gen of graph cards and up for smoothest possible play (nvidia 8800series or ati 3XXX series and up) The graphics card therefore is well worth your money for this game, more than buying the latest processor in any case.

note: as of today the game still has some techical issues that cause extreme drops in fps, some of the worst known in the history of pc gaming tbh. All players are subject to this regardless their vid card (I talked to many ingame) Even with 2*8800 in sli running at low settings in the lowest resolution you still have this so it's not solvable by hardware. patience and debugging by the game devs will hopefully solve this annoying problem. Let's leave it up to them and hope they fix alot at RTM time. How bad is it ? Well it's like this: you stand still in a high graphs environment and notice 25-65 fps in most spots while running 2*8800GT in SLI at 1900*1200 with no AA (AntiAliasing= a GPU hungry technique to improve the visual quality of a game even further), 16*Anisotropic filtering, high graphics settings and no bloom. This is when standing stil. As soon as you start sprinting or doing a 360* mouselook you may experience insane drops to below 5fps even up to stuttering for a moment due to new heavy textures being forced into the GPU. This can only be avoided by more efficient tuning of the graphics engine or better Video card drivers imho. Update 30-03-08: I now have great & smooth results with Vista 64 bit SP1 and Nvidia 174.74 drivers on 8800GT SLI so far !

4. The disc subsystem (HD or a RAID of HD's)

Extremely important and severly underestimated. This component does not increase your fps in any way (at least not to a noticeable degree) but DOES effect exclusively ALL ZONING experiences which is pretty much from launching the game to going in and out of zones nonstop (in tortage e.g) The sky is the limit here since the game dir is over 24GB as it is today and parts of that are being loaded into memory as you zone. I have tested the game while running it off a latest generation 7200RPM harddrive (samsung 400GB) and later on a RAID 0 of two WD Raptor 10000RPM disks. My god the difference is day and night. With the single 7200RPM disk the loading screens take double the time and I can listen to up to an entire song while zoning into the game. On the raid system I could only hear the part of the women with the high voice and I never hear the rest of that song because I'm already ingame. This feels so good. If I had the money I would be buying a 32GB HyperOS hyperdrive to run the game on because it would be blazing fast then no doubt. I can only imagine how good that must feel but I'm already very happy with the raid0 system. Adding more than 2 drives to the raid0 made a further improvement in loading times but only marginal like 10% (not worth it imho) For smooth experience ofc you have no data or anything else running off your game disk or raid system except the game and maybe the OS (peferably even only the game itself and nothingelse)


List of noteworthy software tweaks and tips to make the game run smoother

1. Turn off "bloom" in advanced graphics options. This may almost double your fps if it was enabled before
2. (optionally) turn of AA (4-10 fps gain on average). See and decide for yourself if you find the extra visual quality gain from AA worth the loss in fps or not. (AntiAliasing= a GPU hungry technique to improve the visual quality of a game even further).
3. Run the game off a seperate disk or raid system (where you only install the game and put no other data or programs) This noticeably helps the loading times during zoning and launching the game
4. close all other running programs before playing AOC including background programs such as antivirus, defragmenters, etc. This counters in-game
stuttering partially
5. keep your system disk (where windows is installed) and your game disk defragmented on a regular basis
6. Run the game fullscreen. Especially under Vista this is important because Vista then disables the rendering of the Aero windows interface (which sucks up GPU power even when doing nothing)
7. try moving your windows swap file from your system disk to your AOC gamedisk or raid system or even to another seperate disk that is dedicated for this. Since this game is a memoryhog windows swapping can be extensive and taking the load off a certain disk is well worth it I have noticed. this improves loading/zoning times by reducing them further.
8. Possible corruption of the game due to patching errors is very possible. Best practise is backup your entire funcom directory (under the program files dir) on a regularely basis. If a corruption happens, reinstall the game first with your original installer and then replace the newly funcom directory by the one from your backup and you're rdy to play without repatching 2-3GB

[Flight]

Along with the above post, be aware of the following with regard to 32 / 64 bit support :

No 64bit Version of AOC Confirmed! - Age of Conan Forums

[melicant]

Oh, and that keen guy from the videos is pretty terrible. I don't think he ever realized that you could use abilities from the level 10-19 tab, and in fact pretty much needed to for a lot of the classes. I know it's real hard to look at the tabs on the abilities screen and realize that it shows those for level 20+ in one tab by default (basically just the skills you got when you hit level 20), and you can hit the tab for 10-19 to see there is other useful stuff there and and use those too. Given the fact that probably half the testers didn't realize there were feats to put points in and other skills to spend 700+ points on I"m really starting to question the intelligence of the average gamer. A pvp game that actually takes some thought is going to be an absolute blast vs most of these people.

In that post ranger "nerf" video.... if that guy had actually used an ability other than spamming directional arrow attacks on his ranger maybe he would have done some damage. He was doing the equivalent of auto attacking with a hunter in WoW or something to do damage and crying overnerfed. Take a hunter in WoW and give him a level 60+ bow at level 20 and of course he'll feel overpowered and do great damage with zero effort with just autoshot, but don't take a character with level appropriate items and just use auto attack and cry over nerfed. I'd hate to see what he thought of the ranger before the item fix if he actually knew what he was doing.

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by melicant

Oh, and that keen guy from the videos is pretty terrible. I don't think he ever realized that you could use abilities from the level 10-19 tab, and in fact pretty much needed to for a lot of the classes. I know it's real hard to look at the tabs on the abilities screen and realize that it shows those for level 20+ in one tab by default (basically just the skills you got when you hit level 20), and you can hit the tab for 10-19 to see there is other useful stuff there and and use those too. Given the fact that probably half the testers didn't realize there were feats to put points in and other skills to spend 700+ points on I"m really starting to question the intelligence of the average gamer. A pvp game that actually takes some thought is going to be an absolute blast vs most of these people.

In that post ranger "nerf" video.... if that guy had actually used an ability other than spamming directional arrow attacks on his ranger maybe he would have done some damage. He was doing the equivalent of auto attacking with a hunter in WoW or something to do damage and crying overnerfed. Take a hunter in WoW and give him a level 60+ bow at level 20 and of course he'll feel overpowered and do great damage with zero effort with just autoshot, but don't take a character with level appropriate items and just use auto attack and cry over nerfed. I'd hate to see what he thought of the ranger before the item fix if he actually knew what he was doing.

Heh, funny thing about that. I knew beforehand about all of that stuff, so I rolled a Demonologist and faired pretty well. Then I decided to play around on Priest of Mitra (I hadn't really experienced PvP healing in the game prior) and forgot to dump my skill points. So I get in, try to defend myself against a melee, and my spells kept fizzling. I was thinking to myself "What the fuck is going on here?" then I realized -- "Whoops, forgot to spend my skill points. Time to find a nook to hide in and do it!"

[Type0Negative]

Originally Posted by Hasto

Open Beta starts May 1st at 9:00am EDT. Sign up is through FilePlanet. 50,000 invites. Must have FilePlanet membership. And there is a level cap.

ya a lvl cap of 13...not sure what good that is going to do anybody besides the stress testing aspect.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Type0Negative

ya a lvl cap of 13...not sure what good that is going to do anybody besides the stress testing aspect.

Yeah a serious lack of true open beta worries me.

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

Yeah a serious lack of true open beta worries me.

Considering I managed to get to like level 12 at a preview event, yeah, level 13 cap is a bit low for Open Beta.

[Tolanin]

most open beta is really just a stress test anyway im not really surprised, maybe all they want to focus on is the servers.

[Grave]

They don't want people to see how little content there is.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Grave

They don't want people to see how little content there is.

Which is really my worry...as long as the combat works I should be ok with lack of content for a month or so.

[Rayne]

Originally Posted by Tolanin

most open beta is really just a stress test anyway im not really surprised, maybe all they want to focus on is the servers.

Sounds to me like a good way to encourage players to try more than one class for the whole beta as well. I thought someone said the xp gain was set high for the test sessions/demos?

[Twobit Whore]

People always say that about every beta. If you aren't testing level curves then how the hell do you know if they are working?

From what I hear there isn't enough quests in the upper levels to increase the curve too much without people being force to grind.

[Guzrog]

Originally Posted by Guzrog

Fortunately I'm not one of the people with "world crippling" levels of performance.

I ran the game on high, every setting maxed out, 1680x1050. My system isn't new but its not slow.

Athlon x2 @ 2.9ghz (5200 + OC)
4gb Corsair XMS (only 3gb functional - thanks xp32)
bfg 8800 gtx oc 768mb
xfi sound card

I hit 25 FPS on the low end in the lobbies. Fighting in mini games I went between 25 and 60ish FPS depending on what was going on. I had a couple CTD, the yellow texture thing from AA, but changing the video settings from high to med then back to high again fixed it and I didn't have to restart the client.

For me, the game ran fantastic, there wasn't a single point where I felt like the client was running poorly or unacceptable.

Originally Posted by Hatorade

What Grumpy said it may be your motherboard slowing down your card. What chipset you have? If its a PCI-express card/motherboard that shouldn't be the problem, AM2 or better.

This.
Newegg.com - ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

I was happy with my performance, not complaining. I'm tempted to get a 6400+ because I have the itch and it "MAY" improve my 8800 gtx performance. Doubt I will though, damn itch.

[Tolanin]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

People always say that about every beta. If you aren't testing level curves then how the hell do you know if they are working?

From what I hear there isn't enough quests in the upper levels to increase the curve too much without people being force to grind.

well the game is open for the closed beta guys now so they have all that data, you really dont need 50k people playing to get an idea of the level curve and how the different classes level.