Conan's Second Coming Comments by Rob Fahey

Hmmm, might give one of these keys a go.

Bought it when it launched, but after having so many issues getting a servicable frame rate I just gave up. If they've fixed this then I may well have a proper go at it.

@Benno
WoWs launch was amazing. I didn't have one single problem with it at all. Like none at all.

Depends on what you mean by "WoW's launch" really, if you're referring to the day it launched then yeah, it was fine for me too. I logged in about 10am, created my account and started playing. My house-mate had some problems creating his account and patching his client when he got home from work and a bit of trouble logging in and a little wait due to queues but I'd been playing since that morning solidly (and compulsively) without problems.

If by launch you're referring to the weeks and months afterwards then there were severe technical issues: out of curiosity I checked my WoW account and I got 14 days of exemptions in the first year playing WoW, in case anyone doesn't know Blizzard gave these days as compensation whenever the service was down or otherwise unplayable a lot over a period of several days (if the server was just down for an evening then you got nothing). Now perhaps you were lucky with when you were playing and on which server but my servers Dragonblight and Bladefist were down one or two evenings a week for months. The authentication servers also frequently failed due to overloading so even if the servers were up you often couldn't log in. For a time it was 50-50 whether or not you'd be able to log in on the evenings and you'd often drop and then get the unable to authenticate message while you tried to log in. The auction house and mail systems also had problems (empty auction houses or delayed mails).

These problems were, basically, due to overloading so things improved hugely when they improved their back-end and especially when they opened new data-centres but for a long time it was flaky as hell.

Maybe some people were lucky with all this and through sheer coincidence just happened to not want to play when it was down but my friends, guildmates and I have different memories of the early months.

I've got to say Sneetch, I'd hate to be on a plane with you, as you sound like a real Jonah... :)

I am disapointed to have found that i cannot use this 7 day trial offer with my old account.

So...

I either start another character and play a section of AoC that i already thought very highly of and abandon my existing lvl 80 character, complete with items/gold/standing and ability to see for myself if they have made enough headway with the section of the game that actually counts....

or...

I pay another sub.

So i can only assume this is not an effort to bring ex-subscribers back into the fold but only to attract fresh meat. Which kind of renders the whole article associated with this offer a little pointless and makes EG's nose smell a little bit like its been up Funcoms arsehole.

No, you pay your original account sub again and lose all the progress and - more importantly - the bonus items this trial gives you.

Rob sounds like all he did was pve.

The only bit of conan that really caught my interest was the pvp, thats where all the potential was and a shame they seem to have focussed so much only on the pve side.

how much patching is there now like 4gb??

how much lipstick is there now like 4kg??

fixed

STOP COMPARING AOC LAUNCH TO WOW LAUNCH!

Dammit, AoC was NOT competing against "WoW at launch" it was competing against WoW THEN, X years after launch. It does not matter how WoW was at launch that was almost ANCIENT HISTORY! You fail @ marketing.

If the argument is that we should give AoC the same time to mature as WoW has had, then I do not think Funcom would like us to not play for those X years - that is after all why they have this campaign now; they want us to play now. And in X years WoW will have improved even more, maybe even dumbing down to AoC's "X marks the spot" quest indicators...

MOAR EXCLAMAPTION PONTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I'll give it a go with this trial, but I'll probably stick with WAR for this year at least. (gonna start with that in a couple of months)

Yes. No other MMO matters. Only WoW matters. All others are horse dung. Yes, let us drone this over and over again because that will make it true. Yes.

...

Yes. No other MMO matters. Only WoW matters. All others are horse dung. Yes, let us drone this over and over again because that will make it true. Yes.

...

We don't have to make it true, it already is, and we won't see any game change that until possibly Bioware's The Old Republic or Blizzards unannounced mmo.

I resubbed back in January (gave up on LotRO's constant HM grinds) and went back to me ol' lvl71 barbarian. Aside from a drought at lvl 78 I found loads to do solo, grouped and in wee raids.
I know regularly run in 24 man raids on the phatlewt trail, but not as often as most people playing the game.

DX10 'test' went live last week and it looks lovely, but you take a framerate hit and it's not advisable running the DX10 client if you're going into groups or raids.

All in all AoC is falling into a semblance of shape now. I see it getting better when FC finally get round to the 1.05 update which will move the game wow-wards with phatter lewt for the dedicated to chase after.

The 5-day trial FC are offering may blow up in FC's faces though as it will take most new players most of that to complete Tortage, so in the last day or so of their trial they'll be left wondering why the chatty NPCs in Tortage have been replaced with txt'rs, they'll also be left wondering where they're going to get any gear for their lvl 21-25 characters. The truly adventerous will realise that although they can gather crafting materials, they're not allowed to use them until lvl40..Impossible in 5 days.

I look forward to the trial'ers spamming the already uber-spammed global chat with daft questions.

Aye, It's a hard life in Hyboria!!

"The 5-day trial FC are offering may blow up in FC's faces though as it will take most new players most of that to complete Tortage, so in the last day or so of their trial they'll be left wondering why the chatty NPCs in Tortage have been replaced with txt'rs, they'll also be left wondering where they're going to get any gear for their lvl 21-25 characters..."

On the other hand, if they are running the game at high settings, they may just be so wowed by the visuals when they arrive on the mainland, that that's enough to make them stick around for more :).
Well, I can't speak for the Cimmerian and Stygian cities yet, but I just arrived in Tarantia last night after a few days on the starter island, and I was blown away by how the sight - and even more when I switched to DX10 (where I oddly enough didn't seem to take quite as hard a framerate hit as I did on Tortage).

But it looks like you're right about the gear - I arrived as a level 19 Guardian and it seemed like non of the NPC vendors I could find were even selling armor, weapons etc. below level 30. The trade (auction) house did help though, as I were able to buy some green level 22 items at extremely low cost, but I'm obviously still three levels away from being able to use those.

Miths -

Gear in AoC is actually useless. You may as well run around naked for all the good your items do you.

And no, I'm not being a smart-arse there. It's a known fact - which has been recognised by the developers - that gear is useless. They're addressing it at "some point in the future" but for now, don't worry about your gear. Just pick out gear that doesn't make you look like everybody else - s probably the most Epic Quest in AoC right now...

But Anduz - one of the big problems in playing AoC is that you get no sense of advancement or achievement. There's no "ooh, I must get THAT" to drive you forward or any excitement when you loot a corpse or whatever. It's all "great, more brown armour that does nowt. Yay."

All it does is make the game more "focused" (i.e. narrow) on your level and the XP grind, as there's not much else to actually DO or be rewarded with. Other titles have XP-focus, too, but there's also that "Ooh, if I complete this quest I'll get X" or "If I can sell this item, I can afford that new armour/weapon/item" etc.

AoC lacks that and it makes for a very shallow experience.

Monkeychild:

You keep at it i see lol.
Problem is you are running out of arguments. All things have been fixed that you had problems with , performance, bugs ,lack of content, balance, raids, siegeing and more. Now confirmed fixed even by eurogamer.

2 things/problems remain:

1: DX10 on live now but only a test version, the player choses if he or she wants it activated or not.
2: Items not meaning anything. This will be fixed in the next patch.

So basically all you will have left against this game in a month or two is the fact that it's an instanced game, and some players like yourself might not like that.

You can off course continue to be pissed at Funcoms poor launch, content and performance wise, but thats living in the past.

About time you start liveing in 2009 together with the rest of us instead of rambeling on about how bad this game was 6 months ago, when you QUIT PLAYING AGE OF CONAN.

Grow up and move on will ya!!

DX10 is so 2007.

Damn MONKEYCHILD!!!!!!

*shakes fist*

Well here you go, 1semen1, here's your perfect opportunity to actually PLAY AOC FOR YOURSELF! Gasp!

Go on - grab one of the keys, download it and give it a go. Go on.

I find it amazing how you criticise ME for not playing the game for 6 months, yet you YOURSELF HAVE NEVER PLAYED IT AT ALL.

Go on, download it right now. There are PLENTY of trial keys still available.

But no, that's a silly idea, isn't it?

And again, funny how everybody here agrees with me, yet you're singling me out AGAIN for your "special attention..." I've told you, I'm spoken for, so you'll have to find yourself somebody else...

Monkeyrude, already told you, i'm not into gorillaz.........

Most people that "agree" with you seem to have quit before or around the same time you did.
Meaning BEFORE all the changes to the better had started.

Those that have tried it in 2009 will most of the time agree with Eurogamers findings.

True i haven't played it, i work to much to play MMO'S at the moment. But i still follow interesting games out of habbit. I read the official forums and the players reactions. You know the people that are actually playing the game....

I usually trust existing players for the pros and cons over mokeys that quit long time ago.....

Oh and i don't critizise you, i critizise your EVERLASTING BITCHING AND PERSONAL VENDETTA against a game you didn't like in every....and i mean every news story made about AOC on Eurogamer and other websites.

Seriously, you should consider getting help, this is getting pathetic!

I knew you wouldn't give it a try.

You see, here's your chance to experience the game FOR YOUR SELF FOR FREE, yet you won't do it. I don't know about you, but if I was so excited about a game and so keen to see it as you are, I'd jump at the chance to give it a try.

Yet you won't. I wonder why that is?

Oh, that's right - you don't "have the time." Funny, you find enough time to log onto this site every day looking for MY comments to jump on, yet you don't have time to try out a game. You know, if AoC was so great, you'd be able to jump-in, play for 20 minutes and think, "hey, that was fun." So why won't you give it a try? The "I don't have time" comment is clearly a lie, as you have plenty of time to troll these forums. Or rather, post comments directed at ME, considering that's all you actually DO post here...

And regarding the "others agree" comment, I'm talking about the other posts in this comments section. You know, the ones made by other posters here? Or are you so enamoured with me that you can only see MY posts? Yeah, I figured as much...

But go on, right now. Download it and give it a try. Until you do, NOBODY here will take you seriously, because to be presented with the opportunity to try the game and refuse makes it obvious you're a fool, a Funcom employee or a troll.

Or posssibly all three.

Monkeyrant:

There you go calling me a liar again. I guess the guy from Eurogamer is a liar to then, cause he sure don't agree with you either...

Great arguing tactic by the way. If someone don't agree with you he is clearly a liar.
Or a fool, or a Funcom employee, or a troll. You calling someone else a troll just made my day lol.

I say it again. Pathetic!!

Well then why not download the trial version and prove me wrong, hmm?

Go on, there are a load of trial keys left. It's easy. Just get one, download the trial, install it and then have a play of it.

Then you could form your OWN OPINIONS about the game, rather than continue making yourself look like a Funcom shill/troll/idiot by just repeating the opinions/experiences of somebody else.

You see, that's the difference - Rob has played it FOR HIMSELF and come to his conclusions (even if, IMO, he's being very kind and missed the fact that grey mobs will still kill you, the world design is linear, the instances make it feel fractured and there are still a number of badly-conceived quests and general progression mechanics.) You on the other hand are continuing with your "it's great" ranting with no actual experience of it to back that up.

So yeah, until you actually form an opinon of your own BY PLAYING THE GAME you're either a Funcom employee, a troll or an idiot.

Take your pick.

Monkeytroll:

Rob played NOW, he did't quit in august like you did.

So what you are saying is that you know better because you have played the game six months ago.
While Rob who just played it, as the game stands today after all the improvements, seems to differ quite a lot opinionwise compeared to you.

Guess he must be a troll, idiot or Funcom employee to.

Talk about shooting yuourself in the foot............

I'm saying I know better than YOU as I've played AoC and you haven't, nor it seems, do you want to.

You're criticising ME for not playing in 6 months and claim I can't make a comment. So where does that leave you with your... sorry, how many months did you play AoC? Oh that's right, you didn't. Ever.

And even now, when you're presented with a no-risk, no-charge chance to play this game you've spent so much time hyping and getting excited about, you suddenly "don't have time."

So, what logical conclusion can we come to?

Troll? Shill? Or just plain idiot?

Monkeyinfant:

Sure you can comment about how your game experience was when you played.

The problem i have with you is that you comment on the game as it stands today 6 months later as if nothing has happend to it.

The game has evolved, you havn't.

I have have never told anyone here that i find AOC to be brilliant. I have presented what existing players have been saying in the official forums and some info regarding patches( after reading patch notes and the players reactions to those), basically because you have been, in my opinion, spreading misinformation.

I want players to find out for themselves if they like the game or not. You don't. That my friend is the difference between you and me.

That and the fact that i'm more polite and better looking.....lol

And still you dodge the real issue: YOU haven't played the game.

I HAVE.

YOU have no experience of AoC's shitty use of instances, its poor level design, its imbalanced combat and generally poor level of implementation. These things haven't changed. FACT.

You glean your information from fanboys. FACT.

So which of us is spreading "misinformation?" The person giving actual prove-able criticisms of a game THEY ACTUALLY PLAYED and of elements THEY WITNESSED that are STILL PRESENT or somebody taking all of their information from other sources and repeating it without actually validating and verifying if what they're saying is correct?

But seeing as you're incapable of forming your own opinions, I'll give you something else to chew on. Check out the other comments thread about the AoC giveaway to see how "great" this game is. Or re-read Rob's article and you'll see where he points out that the game STILL has serious issues.

Or better yet PLAY IT FOR YOURSELF.

Go on.

PLAY THE GAME YOURSELF.

It's free, there's no risk and hey, you might even enjoy it.

See? There's me ENCOURAGING somebody to play the game for themselves and form an opinion. And you're not the only person. Look up at the first page of this thread. My opening comment:

Yeah, that's one piece of advice I would give - before ANYBODY considers subscribing to AoC, make sure you've completed the Tortage quests (and are above level 20) as the the tutorial segment of AoC sets a high standard from which it crashes spectacularly. So before you part with your subs, make sure you're out of that zone and that the game is still "fun," otherwise you'll be severely disappointed when you reach the "real world" and have to pay for it.

Where did I say not to play this game?

That's not true at all of my experience of AoC, which actually started badly and was no better after 3 months, at which point I cancelled my account.

Again, please show me where I said not to play AoC.

Now, from the thread about the trial keys give away:

:)

Give it a try. I won't be, but hey, you might like it.

Just be ready for a step-back in time with a lot of aspects of the game design though.

There's me ENCOURAGING people to try it for themselves.

Yet you seem bent on doing everything you can to AVOID playing it. Why is that? What message does that say about encouraging people to try it when YOU YOURSELF won't even give it a go? You, the most ardent supporter of your fellow Norwegians and their products, won't take the time to try it for yourself? Come on, Semen. Give it a go. It's there, waiting for you to download right now and play. Go on. Download it and try it for yourself.

Because as I've stated before, until you do, you're nothing more that a troll, an idiot or a Funcom shill and nothing you can say here will change that.

Monkeylol:

You are making yourself look worse evertime you write now.

You want people to try AOC? Those of us that have read your posts about this game for the last 8 months will find that statement mildly amuseing.

Instancing and level design, sure you can critizise that. Does that game design choise make the game good or bad? That is a matter of taste. Some like it others don't.

Balancing. You haven't played the game since August. There are few balancing issues left now in april 2009. Was an issue when you played, isn't an issue now. That was confirmed already in Eurogamers rereview a few months ago.

You are beginning to clatch at straws.

Anyone that thas followed the official forums for information will find that comments made there are both good and bad. If people don't like something they will let the devs now. That is commen knowlage for any MMO that you do your best to ignore.

Any change made by the devs will create positive and negative threads. in these discussions about wheter it was a good change or not will emerge. These discussions are good information. Much better than what i and you have to say.

Better than me beacuse i never played the game.
Better than you because you quit 7 months ago before the good changes started to drip in.

They are much more valid than us informationwise because those discussing in the official forums are existing players playing the game as it stand today.

They know what they are talking about good and bad, we don't.

Again, your old "I'm more informed because I go off the experiences of others" argument.

Why are you so opposed to playing AoC?

Again, here's your chance to prove everybody wrong.

So answer me this question - and please, no bullshit about "I don't have time" - why haven't you downloaded the AoC trial version and PLAYED IT FOR YOURSELF?

You can dance around it all you want but the crux of the matter is you have ZERO experience of this game. I have.

So troll/Funcom shill/idiot - choose whichever title you want. Or play the game FOR YOURSELF because until you do, your opinions are meaningless.

Monkeycrap:

I'm not claiming to be more informed. I'm stating the obvious. The opinions of many are more imprtant than the opinons of the few, meaning me and you.

The opinons of existing players are more important than the opinons of players that quit in August or never played at all.

And i DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR MMO'S i work to much. A consept you seem to have a hard time with....

Oh and i don't have a personal opinion of the game. I haven't played it remember.

Yet you have enough time to come here and whore yourself for Funcom/troll the forums/make yourself appear an idiot...

Go play AoC. Until you do, you cannot contribute anything to the discussion.

Monkeydude:

Watching you making a fool of yourself is much more fun and entertaining than any game at the moment.
Oh and less time consuming to.....;-)

The ganking is just crazy.
I chose a PvP server because I like PvP and I don't mind getting ganked from time to time... but here... there is no way I can even do quests. I get killed by some higher lvls almost immediately after I respawn.

I picked up one of the keys from Eurogamer, because I hadn't tried AoC. The combat is interesting for a chronic clicker like myself, because you really have to use the keys. The graphics are very good and the avatars and combat animations look great. I'm guessing the richness of the quest interactions doesn't last past the starter island, but if you haven't tried this game and enjoy MMO's, you really should give it a go.

I played CoH for about 6 months and enjoyed it...even though I knew it lacked the depth to keep my interest for long. And I have no idea if I'll play AoC for very long either. But I usually burn through single player games in a week, so any fun I get out of a game that lasts longer than that is a good thing.

I was in AoC beta and played it at launch And I agree, for a good while the game was fundamentally broken. Constant ctd's, basic functionality missing and a major lack of 'stuff do to' after being let loose on the wild world. Lets just say my initial hopes for the game turned into dissapointment then gradually to complete bemusement as the game actually got worse over time.

I resubbed a fortnight ago with view of not letting my past experience get in the way. I've started from scratch and let's just say it is now a very solid and enjoyable mmo. It has plenty to do, it looks great, it plays nice.

Yes itemisation needs to be and is being fixed but I think a lot of people need to realise it is being simplified to make items easier to use/sell and understand. The 1.05 patch is not about new stuff or moar epix, its about replacing the rediculous item stats like + 0.01 hate modifier with a simpler +1 Strength/+1 Wisdom approach which will have all of these miniscule calculations included in it.

Overall, I'm happy playing it just now. Over WAR and WoW its a nicer place to be and is a more enjoyable game at the moment.

(Playing PvE by the way. PvP servers are definitely gankfests just now. Surprisingly not the lowbie ganking but groups of 30-40s ganking 80s and them not liking it :D:D:D)

Watching you making a fool of yourself is much more fun and entertaining than any game at the moment.

---

I know I'm great and all but seriously, you'd rather read my comments than play the game you hail as being the saviour of the MMO genre? That shows the game is either utter shit or that your obsession with me has reached the point of no return. Or both.

Go play AoC and then we'll talk, 1semen1.

Still plenty of keys available 1semen1. Why not go grab one and give AoC a try for yourself?

Yes, I see you checking-in every day and lurking around and I know you're reading this post.

So go right ahead - give it a RISK-FREE TRIAL and then we'll talk, okay?

While the article was enjoyable and glowing to read about Conan, the failures of the game seem to not be adressed, other than making leveling faster.
The author not once spoke of the failed crafting system. I was an armor crafter when the game released, i mined nodes, did all the gatherer quests (bugged as they were, and yes i even used an obvious exploit of pulling a gathered item out of the bank and stacking it in my bag to get the gathered quest update. Was i bad? Yes i was but after petitioning GMs often in hopes of them fixing my quests and getting a standared reply of" its a known issue and will be addressed in the next patch" (only it never was, and i stuck with the game 4 months with no fix). My original female guardian was horribly quest bugged and even my newly made characters had fewer bugs.
Anyway we all know Conan has awesome graphics, i will never forget the waters of White Sands Beach! But the game istelf no matter how you sugar coat the speed leveling now, seems no reviewer actually plays the game enough to speak honestly about crafting, bugs, raid exploit bugs and so on. Although i admit this author did conceede that armor stats and graphics have not been improved and has little reason to change from "level 40 to 60 gear". This does not bode well for the armor crafters or other crafters does it?
Also the author not once speaks of what to do with your character once reaching Max level? Making alts to be a healer is grand, but is the fate of a max level character to be simply "shelved" to go on the leveling grind over and over? Where is the depth in that? Hate WoW all you want, but at least at end game there really IS a GAME!

I just want to add, i really do hope Conan continues to evolve and fix bugs, i would LOVE to come back to this game in a couple more years to discover that it finally is able to live up to its release promises. WoW is already 5 years old, ive played it since the 3 day stress test, and if a MMO really steps up and shines im right there to give it a shot, but no longer will blindly buy any MMO without BETAing the game, because thats truely where you see a games dedication or lack of to fix their bugs and make it a great game or a failure.

Oh noes... an internet post battle. Get married ffs and leave it at home.

The game is much better today compared to release. I have an open subscription and played the game a few hours ago. So much have been fixed. The game has gone from broken to a very solid MMO. There are still some issues though. Some are game design choices and others something that can still be fixed.

- Instancing with only 100 players in one place at a time feels lame for a MMo. This won't change, and while I'd prefer an open world style, it may be the best way to run the game, considering the combat style.

- The world seems fake. Dots on a map. You can't really travel the world. It feels more like going from one shooter level to the other. On top of that the design of some world areas is bad. Feels like a shooter level with narrow paths that you have to travel.

- PvP is still rather pointless apart from the fact that it can actually be fun in itself. But there is no great reason to fight.

- The setup of PvP on FFA servers is silly. It would be simple to change things so ganking wasn't so great a way to gain points.

They may keep improving the game and if they manage to stay focused they may very well turn AoC into the best current MMO. But they are not there yet... not at all.

http://www.ageofconan.com/updates/#/uk

Look at that!

"it won't be long before Funcom has one of the best MMOs in the world on its hands."

That's what it says on the FC page.

But eurogamer wrote:

If it can sustain this rate of improvement - and that is a big "if" - it won't be long before Funcom has one of the best MMOs in the world on its hands.

that is a BIG "if"

FC is just back hyping the game with lies just like prior to launch.

Fools.

They should just fix the core gameplay and class balance instead of all their BS.