Age of Conan Impressions!

Nabobalis

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So I've got my copy on its way from game. Anyone playing the game? I know some people might have the early access and might of got the game shipped early etc.

Anyone want to give their impressions of the game as it currently stands? :D
 
Okay, I don't mean to be obnoxious. Truth is there's a good few on the forum that are/will be playing this and MMORPG's are something that I'm somewhat curious about.
 
I'm still playing the closed beta ..guess NDA doesnt really matter now :)

my impressions; been playing since nov 2007, I've rolled 8-9 toons representing most of the classes and all three races:

- it's a lot of fun

- performance is reasonable after the latest patches (8800gt, x2 4200, 3g ram - 30 -45 fps (1680 X 1050 on mostly high, however some settings were disabled in beta - hi rez textures)

- the first 20 levels are unlike most MMOS in that the plot is fairly important to the gameplay ..it's a little linear at this point but it's effectively the newb area ..once past lvl 20 you get sent to your race's homeland where it opens up to exploration a bit however the game is heavily instanced (due to high graphics) but for the most part it's not a big deal as there's plenty to do

- imho the graphics and animations are top notch and really look great - the enviroments easily match or surpass Oblivion, whichis a feat in itself seeing as how this is a mmo

- combat is where the game shines ..it's directional in that you have 3 directions (keys 1-3, at lvl 40 or so you get two more directional swings) ..keys 4-0 are your combos, you hit a combo and it tells you which direction key to hit in order to initiate the combo ..I've seen a few combos that require 3 key strokes to initiate ....once you get used to the keys it makes combat exciting as it definately involves you more than typical mmos ..the combat is easily the best feature of the game

- fatalities are pretty cool ..so far I've yet to see more than a handful but what I have seen is preety cool without being over the top silly like in some fighter games

- character creation is almost worth it alone imho, best since oblivion with additional sliders for the body (chest arms, ass, boobs) and height/heaviness - all of the toons I've made are unique looking as the character creation allows for tons of variations ..could use a bit more tattoos/hair styles

- the player/npc characters look fantastic, I made the tallest, most muscular character possible that looked like some wrestler on steroids with a shaved head, tattoos, and face war paint; he looked intimidating next to other players, npcs. I've also made a short thick broken nosed bruiser of a character, an aquilonianian assassin (think romans) that could easily have been an ancient gladiator ..also the female toons are some of the best I've seen in a video game. boobies = hot, I'm sure some players will get off on the fact that they can take their toon's tops off and there's nudity underneath (omg nudity! :dozey: ) ..it suits the lore of the game but it's not a big deal imho and I havent seen it on npcs

- quests try to avoid the tradional mmo staple: the courier quest (fetch 22 rat tails, you wont be collecting rat tails ..one quest asks you to collect the head of a npc ..too bad it's not tied to a fatality) ..however there's still quite a few of them ..there's enough variety that it's not as annoying as it is in other games ..the running back and forth is tedious at times and there's some grinding but nowhere near WoW and you're often fighting human mobs so it's not a big deal

- horses are cool although I havent riden one I've seen them in action ..they're not your typical mmo horse (glorified vehicle) as you can use them in battle ..both mounted combat (ride by, take swing at mob, hopefully cut off his head) and the horse itself can be used as a weapon to kick mobs ..there's also a Mammoth and war rhino ..I've seen the mammoth and it looks impressve/deadly ..all can be used during seige battles, the latter two especially as they're used to take down city walls). The horses are motion captured so look very realitic and are actually a lot more useful than say horses in oblivion

- there's an auction house in every major city, the economy is pretty standard mmo fair although I suspect gold farming wont be a big issue because of the player controlled combat (no auto combat in AoC)

- played for a few weeks on a pvp server which is pvp everywhere (except in cities) ..spawn camping is a bit of a problem but death isnt that much of a penalty so it's mostly just annoying because some players camp spawn, instance entrances so that they can grind pvp experience ..it'll balance itself off eventually ..I'll probably roll toons in a pve server as well as rp-pvp server

- havent tried seige warfare, player built cities or crafting as it wasnt in the beta for most of my time there ..also I've never lvled a toon beyond lvl 28 (there were a few character wipes because new builds)

some negatives:

- performace might be an issue for those with older pcs (anything older than 2 years) it's playable but doesnt scale great visually on lowest settings (still better than wow at high settings)

- the lore is somewhat superficial ..I'm a huge fan of the world and having read pretty much everything written by Robert E Howard (creator of conan from the 1930's) and this is conan lite ..at least in comparison to the original short stories by Howard ..however this is a video game I cant expect it to be completely faithful to the originals. At launch there's only 3 nations even though the source material has dozens of nations that are the backdrop for the stories ..I'm hoping the expansion packs will add to the territory as it's a little bare in comparison to the source material ..also need pirates/turianian horsemen (kozaki) as the word isnt complete without it.
the lore ialso take a backseat to the the fact that it's a mmo and mmo player love caster classes which the lore doesnt really support in such huge numbers ..Conan is fantasy light ..it's more sword combat than sorcery ..but the sorcery is at least darler, more sinister than your typical happy little elves type magic in games like WoW

- the game is rated mature but it doesnt stop the whiny bitches/ganking morons from running amok ..general chat is still full of the usual stupid teenagers whining but whatever or spamming endless strings of idiotic nonsense ..rppvp servers are somewhat monitored for spam but as in every MMO there's stil the public at large to contend with ..the rp-pvp servers also has the creepy role players who take it too far or the idiot RP who mashes up the lore to create a character/backstory that is repellent to the point where you want to smash them repeatedly (recently there was a petition made by christian adults to take out nipples because nipples are lustful/immoral ..the good thing is if that they get together and build a christian friendly guild I can (with the help of a guld) raze their city to the ground and slaughter them wholesale ..that in itself is glorious

I'm going to best buy today to see if they have copies of the game ..also a game card ..after months of playing this game I'm still not bored and look forward to creating my first permanent toon
I've played every single mmo released since WoW and this is by far the best of the bunch ..and it's not because i'm a fanboy it's just that the other mmos since WoW had very specific problems that couldnt be patched out (tabula rasa was missing the "fun" pretty much from the very beginning, LOTRO is far too ..wimpy?/homersexual for me etc) Age of Conan has it all imho and it's where I'll be hanging my mmo hat for months if not years to come ..I havent played any other game since nov 2007 ..except portal, 11 hours worth of gta4 and some crysis/tf2 ..the majority of my time was spent in hyboria

feel free to ask me any questions
 
Any idea what the system specs are? Might have a look at it after my exams have finished.
 
Required
OS: Windows Vista/XP
Processor: 3GHz Pentium IV
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: Shader Model 2.0 and 128MB RAM: NVIDIA GeForce 5800 or ATI 9800

Recommended
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (E6600) or better
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 or better
RAM: 2GB or more

Enhanced for: DirectX 10, 64-bit processors, multi-core
Supports Parental Controls on Windows Vista


dx10 isnt in the game yet, it'll be patched in at some point

best performance: 8800 series, dual core, 3g+ ram
 
(recently there was a petition made by christian adults to take out nipples because nipples are lustful/immoral ..the good thing is if that they get together and build a christian friendly guild I can (with the help of a guld) raze their city to the ground and slaughter them wholesale ..that in itself is glorious
If I get this game, I am totally on your team.
 
Stern: You should roll a toon on my server. My toon's name is Diablo (I'm a HoX) and I'm the Stormrage PvP server.

Impressions: The game is awesome. All that stern says pretty much sums it up. Combat is a breath of fresh air in a stagnant genre, cannot emphasize enough how much it rocks... seriously.
 
not enjoying my HoX all that much ..kinda squishy ..will roll a Guardian or barbarian as my main ..havent decided which server yet ..but will most likely roll on rp-pvp and pve servers ..we should get a consensus as to which servers people are playing on ...a hl2.net guild would be pretty awesome

cormeh: I'd be honoured to have at my side as we slaughter christians ..errr ..players in game
 
HoXs don't start to shine until lvl 20ish. You have to make sure you use hellfire breath in between each combo and take the 5 point feat that reduces its cast time.

I've won 2vs1s with this guy. They were even 5 levels higher than me.

Fun times.
 
I'm sure my HoX will be wiped today :( ....it's on the closed beta so it should be shutting down soon
 
How's class balance? Heard a few bad things about that.
 
hard to tell as I've only pvp'ed a HoX ....rangers and casters with trap spells seem to be over powered ..mostly because of ranged attacks and the inability to fight back (I can chuck axes/knives but it's ineffective when a caster can spam me with ranged attacks before my flying axes does any noticeable damage)
 
Thank you Cpt Stern! That was above and beyond the call of duty :D

I think I won't regret getting after I read that. Just need to get my computer and exams out of the way and I'll be in there.

Shame about the lore being lite. I was hoping it might be heavy so I might learn a lot about the series. Might pick up the short stories over the summer. :cheese:

Once again thanks. :cheers:
 
Thank you Cpt Stern! That was above and beyond the call of duty :D

I think I won't regret getting after I read that. Just need to get my computer and exams out of the way and I'll be in there.

Shame about the lore being lite. I was hoping it might be heavy so I might learn a lot about the series. Might pick up the short stories over the summer. :cheese:

Once again thanks. :cheers:

well to be fair, I find the lore to be lite but I've read almost everything written on Conan so I'm kind of biased ..for someone unfamiliar with Howard's books the lore is quite faithful (if you've only read the comics/seen the movie) ..I was able to pick out mispelt names, characters who according to the timeline should be dead etc so I'm not typical of most AoC players ..they've fixed those glaring errors since then
 
I totally would like a trail key of anyone has one to spare...I might get the game on Friday.
 
well to be fair, I find the lore to be lite but I've read almost everything written on Conan so I'm kind of biased ..for someone unfamiliar with Howard's books the lore is quite faithful (if you've only read the comics/seen the movie) ..I was able to pick out mispelt names, characters who according to the timeline should be dead etc so I'm not typical of most AoC players ..they've fixed those glaring errors since then

Would you recommend getting some books? Which ones are good to start with?
 
getting this game in a week, can't wait!
 
..the combat is easily the best feature of the game

i hope you're right because stale combat is usually what turns me against MMOs
i'll definitely check it out when they release a free trial
 
I'm in the early access atm, and loving it.

The combat is great, class balance at this level isn't perfect but not too wacky. Don't know what it'll be like at 80.
Beautiful zones and cities, great quests.
Excellent server stability so far, we'll see what it's like during sieges though ;)

Cons: UI needs touched up, guild and party interfaces need some work, few small bugs here and there. Nothing that can't be fixed in a fairly short time imo.
 
Wow, that actually sounds pretty damn good. :eek:

One question - how does it perform with high latency? An educated guess is fine too.

I'm getting 116-120ms ping off one of the closedbeta servers (not sure on physical location)

here's a list of servers, note there are servers recommended for Oceanic ..dont know if that means there'll physical servers in aus or not but your neck of the woods isnt being overlooked :


US Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

* Set
* Dagoth
* Zug
* Omm
* Derketo
* Thog
* Wiccana
* Gwahlur (recommended Oceanic)
* Anu

PvP Servers

* Tyranny
* Bane
* Deathwhisper
* Bloodspire (recommended Oceanic)
* Doomsayer

RP-PvP Server

* Cimmeria


European English Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

* Crom
* Dagon
* Ymir
* Bori
* Astoreth

PvP Servers

* Fury
* Wildsoul

RP-PvP Server

* Aquilonia


French Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Server

* Ishtar

PvP Server

* Ferox

RP-PvP Server

* Stygia


German Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

* Mitra
* Asura

PvP Server

* Aries

RP-PvP Server

* Asgard


Spanish Server (Early Access 17th of May)

* Zingara (PvE)




i hope you're right because stale combat is usually what turns me against MMOs
i'll definitely check it out when they release a free trial

I'm not you but I've been playing AoC almost exclusively for the last 7 months and it hasnt grown stale yet




Would you recommend getting some books? Which ones are good to start with?

here's a listing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/R-E-Howard-Collection/lm/R1H0KPSLA2L1HX/ref=cm_lmt_dtpa_f_2_rdssss0

I'd start with:
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: Book One
 
More pvp servers to that list:

Battlescar - PvP (EU english) ~ I'm here
Twilight - Culture PvP (EU english)

Think the US got another one or two as well but I don't have access to the USA forum.
 
the not being able to join european servers or vice versa really sucks ass ...some people are purchasing US copies just so they can play on US servers (majority of guild is in US)
 
I'm getting 116-120ms ping off one of the closedbeta servers (not sure on physical location)

here's a list of servers, note there are servers recommended for Oceanic ..dont know if that means there'll physical servers in aus or not but your neck of the woods isnt being overlooked :
If it just says "recommended Oceanic" then I doubt they'll physically be over here, but it's nice they're making the effort to keep everyone together on launch at least. For reference, I was usually getting around 300ms from WoW's US-based servers on a good day. :p
 
well hope you get less than 300ms cuz you'll be slaughtered in pvp
 
I've been playing since Early Access allowed me to, and beta before that. Currently have a level 37 Conq on retail. It's a lot of fun, and the game runs very smoothly on my setup. The zones are well crafted and look amazing with a high view distance. Unfortunately, the Something Awful retards decided to bring their horrible WoW guild to the server my guild chose, but lag issues are still pretty non-existantThere are quite a few bugs that need to get fixed still, mainly the UI and map ones. Also, the charge ability is bugged, because when you charge an enemy, you will often fly backwards until you hit a wall. There are also a handful of incomplete areas, but you have no way of knowing if they're finished or not. I spent a good two hours in the ancient pyramid last night only to find that none of the quests are finished.
 
I'm highly intrigued by this game.

I hope they release a trial in the near future.
 
I'm highly intrigued by this game.

I hope they release a trial in the near future.

x2

4 of my friends are currently playing the retail release and are BEGGING me to join them
i must resist.
for now.
 
**** I need a trail before I spend fitty bucks.



pleassseeeee somebody share a trail key with me.
 
I so need an RPG right now... this just seems so bloody generic I can't even justify it a little. Every character looks the same in videos I watch. I mean okay there's only humans, but let's have some sweet armor and stuff! Okay, that's higher-level... or not, nobody really knows. I need more than just an addition of 1 2 3 weapon swinging for some fun. Is grinding really gone? I doubt it... and as far as PvP I've just heard that it's a loadscreen, spawncamping disaster.

Then even if it is great, I'd need to go about starting or finding a guild that gets together in the 9 PM - 2 AM Central timeframe, which is pretty much a nightmare... mercenary system sounds like it could help with that, though. That's a really good idea.

But God I need an RPG... I can replay Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale yet AGAIN or just keep not really feeling like playing GTAIV but doing it anyway 'cause there's nothing else, haha.
 
(recently there was a petition made by christian adults to take out nipples because nipples are lustful/immoral ..the good thing is if that they get together and build a christian friendly guild I can (with the help of a guld) raze their city to the ground and slaughter them wholesale ..that in itself is glorious

I pledge my allegiance, oh Stern.
 
I so need an RPG right now... this just seems so bloody generic I can't even justify it a little. Every character looks the same in videos I watch. I mean okay there's only humans, but let's have some sweet armor and stuff! Okay, that's higher-level... or not, nobody really knows.

I know of several people who have several toons who are at lvl 80 during beta ..in fact in the last character wipe/patch funcom offered a years worth of subscription fees for whomever reached lvl 80 first ..I think he completed it in 4 days ..straight, his friend helped him but he literally played 24 hrs a day. And yes items arent varied enough but you cant judge it from videos or beta. Anyways even though there isnt enough variety (in beta I dont have retail yet ..stupid me not pre-ordering) the armor and weapons suit the world the game is based on ..you wont see any giant purple flame swords or armor with giant shoudler spikes the glow, this isnt WoW, it's closer to a historical look ..fictionalised but based in part on history

II need more than just an addition of 1 2 3 weapon swinging for some fun.

dont forget q and e when you reach lvl 40 ..and it is fun there's no mistaking the fun because after 7months of combat it's not boring ..and I havent even tried mounted combat yet

btw ..have you played the game yet?

Is grinding really gone? I doubt it...

it's a mmo, what do you think? you expect it be the be all and end all of MMOs for some strange reason as if it has to top all other mmos just for it to be worthy of playing ..methinks there's an underlying motive at play here in your diatribe against a game you havent played: WoWjealousitis :E ..you know, like when you have a really cool thing and all your friends have the same really cool thing and then a new really cool thing comes along and all of the sudden it's somehow a threat to your really cool thing because it may make your really cool thing less really cool ..as if there's a monopoly of really cool things and only one thing can be a really cool thing at any one time ....if you cant follow this line of reasoning, you are broken inside

:E


and as far as PvP I've just heard that it's a loadscreen, spawncamping disaster.


now what are we talking here? ..pvp mini games or pvp servers? ..cause there's spawn camping in both ..the reload screen implies pvp mini games ..again beta. the last few patches (a day or so before release) greatly decreased load times in several areas

Then even if it is great, I'd need to go about starting or finding a guild that gets together in the 9 PM - 2 AM Central timeframe, which is pretty much a nightmare...

oh come on now you're just whining .. I have a little less time than you do and I've soloed almost exclusively in the last 7 months

mercenary system sounds like it could help with that, though. That's a really good idea.

yes it encourages people not in a guild to partake in guild activities

But God I need an RPG... I can replay Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale yet AGAIN or just keep not really feeling like playing GTAIV but doing it anyway 'cause there's nothing else, haha.

if you want an rpg then play an rpg, MMOs are rpg-lite, it isnt the focus of the genre/gameplay ...that said Age of conan is better than most in that respect at least at the quest lvl
 
updated impressions from retail version of Age of conan

the graphics are significantly better than what I saw in beta, it runs hell of a lot smoother and there's nowhere near as many bugs ..although to be fair this is only after an hour of playing

performance took a bit of a hit in retail but I'm now using higher textures and 8x AA ..still runs smooth

there seems to be far more variety in terms of items ..I've already picked up a few items I havent seen in beta ...however there's still a bit of sameness in the newb area (tortage)

a few negatives:

the loading screens while much faster still hang for a bit longer than they should at times between zoning

a few texture problems and a few bugged quests that werent all that big but annoying nonetheless

there's already an expoit so the auction houses have been shut down temporaily


beyond some niggling issues I can honestly say that this is one of the smoothest launches for an mmo I've seen
 
I've made it to level 51 in retail. Recently there has been a huge shortage of available quests at around this level range. I've had to just grind through 49 and 50.
 
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