f13.net

Not found....

Also, notice that AoC contains the letters AO. It's a sign!  :ye_gods:

So if the launch of the new web site is experiencing problems with load, what can we expect of the game launch? Also, notice that AoC contains the letters AO. It's a sign!  :ye_gods:

It was just announced like...every where and is most likely getting slammed. *shrug*

Sorry, but you are not permitted to view these materials at this time.

Funcom and Eidos announces new release date for Age of Conan

Funcom and Eidos today announce a new release date for the highly anticipated Massively Multiplayer Online Game `Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures`.

After careful consideration, and analysis of recent feedback from Beta testing of ‘Age of Conan’, Funcom and Eidos have concluded that more development time is required to reduce the entry barrier to ‘Age of Conan’ and make the game even more accessible during the first hours of playtime.
 
The new release date is set to the 25th of March 2008.
 
The Company Management regrets the delay in the launch date, but believes the extended development time will increase the financial upside of the game and is therefore the correct decision.
 
For further details, please contact the Funcom management.

It's probably stored in your flash plugin cache via an LSO.
Go here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
Go to the Website Privacy Settings and Website Storage Settings tabs, find the AoC site, and pick 'Delete Website'.   Or just delete all if you're sure you don't need to keep anything flash has saved on your box (you almost never do.  They're basically cross-browser cookies)

If you click the British flag instead of the American one on the first page, it doesn't ask for your birthday.

Servers:
Still planning to have:
- RP PvP
- PvP
- PvE
on release.
On RP PvP Servers you will have slightly adjusted rules on how to behave and player/guild names.

PvP:
-Everyone not in your Group is your enemy. (Perhaps Guild Members will always count as friends – not decided yet.
-All Itemstats have 2 different versions – 1 for PvE and 1 for PvP. The PvP Stats are used for special PvP Equipment. There will be a ranking for pvp experience – you gain experience by killing others and loose exp by dying.
-Every few months, the currently highest ranked ppl will receive a small price (ingame item)
-There will be other CTF Arenas (you’ve seen the one from stygia). The Arena is chosen randomly, not sure if the other Arenas make it into the release version
-Modes : CTF & Team Annihilation still in

Crafting:
- Every Char can learn 1(!) crafting profession
- Right now you’ve got to be lvl 40 to start crafting, perhaps will be changed to 20 – not yet decided
- Professions: Armorsmith, Weaponsmith , Alchemy, Jewelcrafter, Architect
- Crafting lvls are gained by doing quests, it won’t help to build the same thing 1000 times
- Recipes don’t vanish after you used them
- You’ll probably reach max crafting lvl within a few hours
- Almost all Items are available in 2 versions, one version with usual resources and one version with rare resources. Crafted Items are the only items with sockets.
- Sockets come in different sizes and there’s a max of 4 sockets per item
- You can’t remove jewels if you’ve attached them to an Item before
- Most (perhaps all) crafted Items won’t have stats like int or str. The crafted Items define themselves through their basic stats
- Without jewels the crafted items will be weaker than dropped items, if you fight against enemies with special resistances crafted items with sockets probably will be more effective than dropped items
- High lvl crafting items can only be assembled if you’re a member of a guild which owns a guild city and the needed crafting building
- Crafting doesn’t need an anvil or sth like this next to you, you can craft everywhere.
- Crafting itself is completely automatic and there’s no risk of loosing the resources

Guildcities
- there’re 3 instanced zoned (can be copied without any restrictions – no max number of guild cities on one server) so every guild can build a guildcity. Those zones are: Lachleish Plains (Cimmeria), Poitain (Aquilonia) and Purple Lotus Swamps (Stygia)
- A guild needs at least 30 players to start building a city. Some of those players have to be 60+
- You can chose the desired country in the beginning, the instance and the slot are automatically chose by system though
- All buildings need a combination of metal, wood, stone and gold
- In the city you’ll find dozens of foundation stones of different size. A guild member with enough authorization and the profession architect can use those stones and chose the building he wants to be built. After you’ve paid for the building, construction starts automatically.
- The first buliding you have to build always is the keep
- Almost all buildings have different tiers (1-3 or 1-2)
- Upgrading your buildings will raise the lvl of your city
- Walls are also buildings. You can construct an inner and an outer wall (seems to be determined where you build them – not sure though,  my opinion). Towers and stairs can be built “relatively free”. If you build walls, there’s no way to get past them (so no climbing or walking around them).
- Every player will be able to teleport to the guildkeep. Not yet decided if this ability will have a CD

Harvesting
- there’re 4 basic resources
- every resource is available in (6-8) different tiers (bronze, iron …)
- if you’re harvesting resources, there’s always the chance of finding rare resources of that specific resource you’re harvesting
- resources will be shown on (mini) map
- most resources will be found in the three guild city zones (only few resource spots in the rest of the world)
- at the moment it’s not planned that you’ve got to specialize on one of the resources (everybody can harvest everything)
- next to the basic resources, there are special resources you only receive from specific enemies

Border Kingdoms
- still 9 Keeps per server, if there are some server with a smaller amount of players the number of keeps will be adjusted (for those servers)
- if you want to build a keep (seize a slot/take possession of a slot) you’ve got to have a player city @ lvl 3
- a guild can only have one keep, you’re still able to attack other keeps if you own one though
- the longer you own a keep, the bigger the received bonus for guild members will become
- a keep also can be upgraded but not as detailed as the player cities, the keeps are something like an outpost and not a second player city
- every guild can choose the time when their keep is attackable, there is a minimum amount of time you’ve got to make you keep attackable. The possible attack times depend on the region of your server (Europe vs USA for example)
- the longer the attack windows are, the easier it’ll be to defend your keep
- the max duration of a siege is 90mins at the moment, if the attackers don’t manage to win, the defenders win
- to attack a keep, you’ve got to “build” a tent in front of the keep (while the attack window is open), guild members of the defending guild receive an ingame msg if the attackers start to build this tent
- there are two ways to capture a keep:
- 1. “partial victory” – the keep is destroyed within 90 minutes, the defenders loose all the bonuses they received before for “holding the keep”, but the defenders don’t loose their battle keep
- 2. “total victory” – all buildings are destroyed within 90 minutes – the winners can take the slot and build their own keep (if they don’t already own another keep)
- siege weapons are constructed in the playfield during the attack, they’ll cost a combination of wood,stone,gold and iron (like buildings), there’ll be (probably) 8 spots for siege weapons
- there are siege weapons spots for the attackers and the defenders
- walls can be destroyed very fast (in a few minutes), so if you’re hiding in your keep, you’ll probably loose the fight
- next to the battle keeps, there’ll be other targets to fight for in the Border Kingdoms (for example towers). The rules for towers are the same as for battle keeps (attack window etc.). Those towers should encourage smaller guilds to participate in the combats of the Border Kingdoms. At the moment there is no limit on how many towers can be held by one guild
- it’s not decided yet if the towers will be upgradeable, if they’ll be, the options will be very small

Group Play
- groups get a small amount of bonus xp for killing enemies
- at the moment there are three different loot options (round robin, master looter and ffa)
- quest items will drop for all group members
- almost all caves and smaller dungeons (the maze, acheronian ruins etc.) will support a “hero mode” to provide a challenging group play experience, because they’re usually made for smaller grps or solo play (don’t muddle this up with real dungeons)

Mounts
- there’ll be a great variety of horses (5-10 different horse and those also in different colours)
- the mounts differ by HP, stamina, speed and mobility
- all mounts are able to attack and do different amount of damage
- many spells can be cast while mounted
- it’ll be possible to be thrown off the mount while engaged in combat
- due to balancing issues the war rhino and war mammoth are almost equal (rhino bit more mobility, mammoth more HP)
- mammoth and rhino still are still planed to be exclusive pre order mounts
- you’ve got to be lvl 40 to buy/use a mount
- mounts are items in the inventory (you can have more than one)
- mount equip will not make it into the release version but the idea still is there (-> addon/patch)
- not yet decided what happens to your mount if you dismount
- mammoths are big … veeery big

Stealth
- every class is able to use stealth
- there are different elements which determine if a stealthed player will be discovered or not : 1. stealth skill (your char) 2. perception skill (other char/npc  can also be trained by every char) 3. noise: there’s a difference between a soldier in heavy armour on grit compared to a rogue in cloth armour on grass (just examples) 4. Viewcone: if you’re in front of a player you’re more likely to be discovered than if you’re on the side of/behind a player 5. “light lever”: night vs. day and also shadows of obstacles vs. open field (very complex)  there’ll be a for the current “light level” added to the interface

Gameplay
- even if your latency is ~500 you’ll still be able to play AoC without any problems. Amongst other things FC uses an invisible “action queue” to ensure this. FC is aware of the concerns of dial up/isdn users and therefore built the engine in a way that let those players also enjoy the game.

Zoning/Travel/World Map
- while zoning you’ll see the your travel path on the world map, the travel path is also your loading bar
- there will be specific loading screens for all regions you’re travelling to (perhaps in the beginning some regions will have the same screen)

Audio
- the background music available for AoC has a duration of ~3hours. In combat the SIM Player will show his abilities (music mixed for combat)
- all music tracks are composed in 5.1 surround sound
- many tacks feature choirs and opera singers

Online Ranking and Database
- there’ll be a online database for pvp and basic server stats, comparable to WoW’s Armory, not at release though

Classes
- SoS got merged with the Stormcaller  new class Tempest of Set, ToS is a priest only available to stygians, his dmg mostly is electrical aoe dmg
- The more dmg the ToS does, the better his heal abilities become  counterpart of PoM (the better the healing, the better the dmg)
- Lich has been removed because he felt like HoX (only difference was the undead scheme) there were also problems with the lore, especially in tortage (Acheronian ruins !?  my opinion)
- The most interesting skills of the lich have been added to the Necromancer class  necro is able to transform into the lich form (for example) via feats
- Now there are 3 classes of every archetype (3 sodliers, 3 rogues, 3priest, 3 mages)
- Every race has its own specific priest (ToS  stygia, Bear Shaman  Cimmeria and PoM  Aquilonia)

Raids
- raidsize: 4 groups with 6 members each (24 players)
- loot usually will be items  no tokens
- raidgrps also can have a master looter
- raids will be a big part of PvE engame
- in the release version there’ll be ~20 (!) raidencounter
- those encounters are divided into 8 raid dungeons with different size
- most of the dungeons should be completed in 1-3 hours (if you play good enough )
- there are three “tiers” of dungeons, if you’re not 75+ you shouldn’t even think about getting near the easiest dungeon
- items from the lower tier dungeons will make it easier to survive in the higher tier dungeons (it does not matter in which dungeon of the tier you start)
- raidinstances will have a CD of 7 days (cd is for the players not for the whole guild

Localisation
- PEGI and ESRB already rated the game, USK not yet finished (only for interesting for us poor german players )
- German (therefore also other Europeans  my opinion) will be able to receive a mammoth/rhino via pre order, the sale partners are being searched and will be announced soon (following days/weeks)
- There’re also fatalities in the german version, some very brutal animations may be eased (don’t start to laugh, I’m going to buy the uk version :P)
- There’ll also be a Spanish localisation, Cm already hired

Spellweaving
- still ingame (omg omg omfg YES ) but it got changed a little bit. Now it works like the melee combo system  with the correct line of spells you’ll start a spellweave, those will not happen as often as the melee combos and therefore will be a lot stronger
- the possibility to kill yourself and even your team through spellweaving is still planned, there’ll be also other negative consequences
- hell is not in game anymore, too frustrating if a caster went to hell while his grp was still in the dungeon  they had to wait for the caster to come back

Tortage
- even if it’s possible to reach lvl 25 due to the amount of quests and size of tortage it’ll grow because many beta testers said that they were missing the feeling of travelling, there’ll be some other “trips” for example a trip with a smuggle gang
- you can exactly reach lvl 20 on tortage, if your 20 and still do quests etc. the xp will be lost
- after release there’ll be more starting areas but right now it’s more important to have one very good starting area

Last but not least
- Release date is fix  no more delays, the devs are working very very hard to present a preferably perfect product at release.

Wow, that's a soulkilling feature list.  It screams 'WoW, except with half the features and 10 times as many griefers'.  Oh, but with beheadings. 

Also, tits. Except if your IP betrays you to be citizen of the US, then you won't get the nipples. (censor features are apparently going to be controlled by the server depending where you connect from, rather than be part of the game client version)

"Mature" in the U.S. is blood and guts. I believe toplessness according to ESRB is AO. And AO drops most mass retailers from distribution.

For me it's none of those. It's that AoC is coming in a post-WoW world. It's just not different enough in what's launching.

The above (about delay/release date) was announced in August last year, so not really news?

Anyway, check out the full-screenable version of the CES trailer (one of the three video trailers being shown on the new page), it's about their Dreamworld MMO engine and what it's capable of:
Linky to 720p-version (http://ftp://ftp.funcom.com/media/Age_of_Conan/videos/techDemoCES08/Techdemo2008v7rated-720P.wmv) (144MB)

Which wouldn't make it a trainwreck unless you're talking just about subscription numbers in comparison to WoW (which would make every MMO a trainwrect).  Also, I'm not sure how a heavily PvP focused game, with mounted combat, a somewhat unique combat system, seige warfare, and guild-built cities isn't different enough from WoW.  If anything, part of the reason people are expecting a trainwreck is because they're putting so many things in the game that they just can't crib off of WoW, that people are expecting most of them to be broken on release if they make it in at all.

Stock's going good (http://www.bors24.no/bors24.no2/site/stock/stock_detail.page?magic=(cc%20(detail%20(tsid%20178000))))

Well I give up because so many people in the community enjoy rolling over and taking it....

I am proud to consider myself a consumer who doesn't take lame excuses from anyone.

Let's face it, we are all going to play the game when it comes out because it is probably going to be the best. But at the very lease we shouldn't make excuses for them.

They are going to make a ton of money off of this, it is supposed to be hard. If it was easy to make games, then everyone would do it. Don't take lame excuses from people, there is nothing wrong with demanding excellence as well as punctuality for a product you are going to spend your Hard Earned Money On.

Demand something in return for us having to wait an extra 2 months.

I know for one with all this extra time the bar is going to be set so high for me that if there is one bug on the game release I will be even more angry than I am right now.

Better for them to keep delaying (and delaying) so as to not repeat the AO launch.

Meh, in spite of the game, they have created one of the best collector's editions I've ever seen:

Didn't they just announce the March date? Or was that WAR? And if it's the latter, I'd be more inclined to believe that's the reason for the former, though 8 weeks at this point would be something anyone would love :-)

Release date is set to the 25th of March 2008. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=12021.msg398176#msg398176)

Rather cool (http://www.ageofconan.com/), also contains new info, and vids.



EDIT: Added release info.

- Jan 21, 2008

Funcom announces a new release date for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

The highly anticipated MMO receives 8 more weeks of development, allowing Funcom to deliver a more polished MMO experience when the game launches on the 20th of May 2008. Despite great feedback on vital aspects like immersion, fun factor and the exciting combat system, the management of Funcom has decided to polish the game even more. Eight weeks of development work is therefore added to stress game systems and polish the game further leading up to launch.

Funcom is fully committed to its communities and the quality-level they demand and deserve, and has previously postponed the Age of Conan launch. The changes implemented as the game was moved to a 2008 release have proven to greatly improve the experience for newcomers, while introducing a more involving and accessible character progression throughout the game. Press and beta feedback in the aftermath of these changes has been very positive. As a result, the ongoing presentations of the game have continued to increase the anticipation for Age of Conan. To date, Age of Conan has received more than 20 magazine covers and 15 industry awards, and is widely considered to be one of the most anticipated MMOs in development.

Funcom has great faith in the Age of Conan game, and feels certain that further polish is in the best interest of the hundreds of thousands of gamers who follow the game. ?The companies standing apart in the gaming market today are those with a relentless drive to achieve quality. Even though we regret delaying the launch, I am certain we made the right choice. I hope that our followers and fans will support our decision, and respect our commitment to quality,? said Gaute Godager, Producer and Game Director of Age of Conan.

Funcom will also continue the beta efforts for the title with continued testing on its large server parks in North America and Europe. Players can already sign up at pre-order programs in several countries and enjoy the recently released website at www.ageofconan.com, displaying part of the wealth of marketing and game material already prepared for the game. A special Collectors Edition of the retail box is available for pre-order at select retailers. Thousands of players have been invited to the beta of the game, and the number will continue to go up as Age of Conan moves towards launch. If you too want to join the Beta of Age of Conan you may sign up for the Beta on www.ageofconan.com

Didn't they just announce the March date? Or was that WAR? And if it's the latter, I'd be more inclined to believe that's the reason for the former, though 8 weeks at this point would be something anyone would love :-)

I'm glad they are delaying it.

I still am looking forward to it.

Reactions I've seen have been universally positive. You wouldn't know it by funcom's 10.4% stock price drop, but the fanbois seem to understand the delay. First impressions are everything. Release quality matters. Etc.

And WAR isn't coming out until fall (at best) so they can afford the delay.

You need to be lvl 40 to start crafting and you'll get to max crafting level in a few hours?  WTF?  Why bother with crafting levels, then?  You can't raid anything until max level?  Then why have raiding?  Nobody's anticipating AoC for the raiding.  It's open pvp and everyone can stealth?  Good god.

There will be some rudimentary crafting processes that you will encounter in the early stages of the game, but we didn't want to focus on the early levels when it comes to the crafting elements. This is because we want to introduce it to people when it can make a difference and when they feel they can produce items, weapons and armor that will be truly useful to them and their friends.

We didn't want to go down the route of forcing people to 'grind' items countless times in order to progress in crafting and at the same time make the process more involved and in keeping with the ancient traditions of learning your trade from a learned master as was the way in ancient Hyboria!

At level 40 players will be able to begin to embark on the crafting quests that will see them progress through the tiers of crafted goods. You will seek out one already well versed in the craft you wish to study and perform a series of quests for them to prove yourself worthy to receive the knowledge they are capable of teaching.

In this, Game Director Gaute Godager discusses the latest developments surrounding Age of Conan.

It feels to me I am the Herald of bad news (no, it is not a new class). Rather, I am the grey faced postman always arriving with the bills. I am the guy with a yellow post-it on your windshield confessing a fender bender. I am the only one in the elevator when the door opens, and a pretty lady enters reaching for her nose. It seems I only write to you with bad news – that’s all I do! I want to write this update to encourage you – we are on the right track, and by Crom we are close to the finish!

Although you might not see it this way, and you are frustrated, we delay because - it is right. It is the right thing to do! Naturally I sound righteous, haughty and bordering on arrogant when I say this: This is the right thing to do. You want something better than what you would have gotten in March. You deserve something better! I want to apologize – not for what we did but because some of you might have gotten upset. For that I am sorry. For this decision, and every one leading up to it – I stand by it 100%! This game will rock!

Ok, enough with the emotions, though I simply needed to get this off my chest. Why do we delay again? It is simple and it is complex:

- The level of bugs.

The previous delay was for a major reason – the combat control and balance. This is no longer the case. We have the big things under control, although not all has reached beta in the speed I would have liked to have seen! It is now simply getting in the things we did, polished. We have continued to receive fantastic feedback for the previous changes. See this article for instance: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178652 if you worry that the game has not progressed. The previous delay was correct and time spent wisely, so is this - and so will this time be spent!

The simplicity of this explanation (bugs) as the reason behind the delay is that you have heard it before by all major players in the industry and by all others making computer software. Bugs are controllable on a statistical level, but I guess sometimes statistics don’t really reflect the experience. Although we have seen bugs go down as predicted by statistics, the increase in polish didn’t really follow suit. This discrepancy can only be explained that the bugs we have fixed aren’t by themselves flawless. Two bugs out of beta and one in. Again a well known phenomena. The added time should now deal with it. We are on the right track.

I guess you saw we hosted a large community event at the end of last week, giving the awesome Conan fan- sites a chance to see, ask and learn as much as they could about the nuts and bolts of the game. (And meet so many of you really cool people – how did you like the Stygian restaurant?) This event was all about giving as much info as we were asked (in addition to us presenting a lot ourselves;-). I think it’s safe to say that many of us had a great time at the event, but since so much info came out of it I also see the need to clarify some things. I am creating a State of the game update so you can learn more about how we are moving ahead. Today, however, I wanted to speak about the additional eight weeks of development, and the new release date.

Reading your concerns and replies about the delay on our forums I see, and understand, that many of you are concerned about the status of the game. I also see that many of you support our decision in pushing it back, since you have played enough MMO’s to understand. Like me, you know that the last stretch of polish is what makes or breaks our MMO straight-after-launch-first-impression. Like me, many of you know that making games is not an exact science. We are dealing with emotions, and fun, and technology and what have you.

Launching in March was our clear goal, even up to last week. As a listed company we are forced to deal with release dates in a different manner, especially since a lot of our value is based on Age of Conan. And whenever something changes, we need to inform the market first. Most of our people only found out this morning due to legal requirements. The final decision was something I and some of our key management people made over the weekend. The premise was simple. As we now moved into the home stretch, we took that last, long look at the state of the game. How would it be come March? Would it become like we intended it to be if we launched in March? The final word from our CEO came on Saturday evening, after we discussed this through the day. And here we are.

Let me be very clear about this; as opposed to our last pushback in August we are not about redesigning parts of the game this time around. Now we are on the final stretch, with the goal plain in sight. I have assured you before, but we are neither the first nor the last gaming company to add more development time to our game in the last stretch. That is not an excuse though, but ultimately it’s the quality which matters. That is the only yardstick which truly matters. This additional time is about hope. In only four more months you will know if we made the right move. I feel confident we have!

Yours truly,

Gaute

It's open pvp and everyone can stealth?  Good god.

Reactions I've seen have been universally positive. You wouldn't know it by funcom's 10.4% stock price drop, but the fanbois seem to understand the delay. First impressions are everything. Release quality matters. Etc.

And WAR isn't coming out until fall (at best) so they can afford the delay.

Plus WAR's probably going to be $20/month & staring down the teeth of a WoW expansion release as well.

I don't actually understand what the problem is with that.

Because stealth is fucking lame in a PVP game, and that's coming from someone who played the two stealth classes in WoW.

Whoa, what? Twenty a month?

This game is going to fail hard. I think that most of us here have suck radar, and it's only a matter of how much we silence that radar with alcohol and delusions of hope. Failtrain inbound, gate AoC, all aboard.

For any particular reason?  Or was that just a "So there!"? 

I have no dar!  Any dar!  I am darless!  You can be Asian and I'll think you're Hispanic.  You can be a gay woman and I'll guess lumpy straight man with a very pretty face!  I get it all wrong.  It's easier to pretend you have suckdar, though.

Its very important that no one repeats Dark and light, Vanguard or Anarchy online release day.


I don't hold it against them (Funcom delaying).

I have no problem with a delay.  I don't plan on playing any shitty games or at least playing them.  Keep delaying it until it's ready.  *shrug*  Why would anyone get mad?  Wah Wah I can't play the game yet!  Get over it.

Where are these angry mobs?  Vnboards?  (http://www.scribeoz.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_hmmm.gif)

That press release is dated 8/10/07. The OP posted old news, in a big font.

http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1230&table=CONTENT

Edit: and before anyone mentions it, the 1/25/07 press release on funcom's site also says 3/25/08 but it was changed-- it originally said 10/30/07.

I don't think that's so bad personally

Well, it was delayed three times in one year. I wouldn't take it as a positive sign.

And Signe, love the new avatar :P

Well, it was delayed three times in one year. I wouldn't take it as a positive sign.

That's all I came here to say.   Oh and every MMO gets delayed, big deal, rather it takes a bit longer then getting rushed out even earlier then it should be.

Unless you are SOE in which case you do rush them out early.

Developers just need to learn how to shut their fucking mouths.

It can still be both here.  Getting delayed and being released before they are ready are not mutually exclusive.

Meh, in spite of the game, they have created one of the best collector's editions I've ever seen:

(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4125/647263lgnu0.jpg)

I want a drinking cape IRL.

I've got one.  It's awesome and shiny.  Chicks dig it.

Although I absolutely believe that you wear a cape IRL, I have a feeling you are exaggerating when you say chicks dig it.  Pointing and laughing is not usually a sign of digging something. 

Trust me.  Really.

I think Conan looks cool and I know I'll try it. We also have a lot of respect for our friends at Funcom.

The graphics also look top notch in quality.

That said, remember to compare apples and apples. Games like D&D Online, Guildwars, Tabula Rasa, etc. are not about huge online worlds to explore, nor about freedom. They are a different type of MMOG, if MMOG is even the word to describe them. They use a lot of single player elements, tons of Instancing, etc. to make a more linear experience.

The problem with this genre thus far has been longevity. You just can't make enough content. A single player game is meant to entertain for weeks, whereas an MMOG for months and years.

From what I can see of Conan, especially from their official site:

1. It's a branching style single player game to level 20. This means a lot less content to build and no online play during this time, no community, no player driven economy.

2. When you do hit online, there seems to be a huge focus on PvP, much more so than PvE. This also means a lot less content to build, but games who have relied on PvP to auto-generate content have shown that even in a PvP focused game, there has to be a 'default background activity' -- there has to be PvE. It's one of the reasons PvP worked so well in EQ and works so well in WoW -- it's layered in with a large world with lots of NPCs, quests, and a world to explore.

3. On their main site, under world, I only see 5 or 6 places. At E3 I saw 2 (a forest and a city). Looking at the screenshots I don't see a lot of variety either. While this is again fine for the game they are building, I don't think we're talking about a large virtual world to explore. I may be wrong here and they just haven't released that information yet.

4. While the dates on their site make it appear that the game is coming out in the same time frame as Vanguard, what I hear elsewhere is it may be up to a year later than Vanguard. They certainly aren't in beta 3 and as far along as we are unless they are keeping it a huge secret and I don't know how or why they would do that.

5. Other people mentioned here that the game is zone based, doesn't have multi-sphere advancement, only has one race, etc. I can't verify that, but again, that means a different sort of game with a different focus.

6. The siege weapons and PvP stuff sounds very cool. Mounted combat was mentioned I think as well. Again, I don't know when the game will come out, but it's possible Vanguard will have a lot of that by then as well. I can't say for sure, but city building and mounted combat will be worked on once we release the game, and PvP will be a big part of that (although so will PvE).

7. Overall the FAQ is not very detailed and nor is the rest of the web page and other than saying they will be out 2nd quarter 2007, which I find hard to believe, I see very little indication that this is a game like EQ, EQ 2, WoW, Vanguard, etc.

Again, nothing against the game at all. The only thing that gets me a bit riled up is when developers/publishers/marketing firms/whomever call their games MMOGs when they lack so many elements that make an MMOG an MMOG. It can still be a great game and not be an MMOG -- there are many great games that aren't MMOGs. But you won't see me calling Vanguard a story driven single player RPG, or a great RTS with lots of options and build trees, etc.

Lots of people enjoyed Guildwars and few complained about it not really being an MMOG because it was free. Not so D&D Online -- they charged, and when people ran out of content, there were problems. Tabula Rasa still isn't out and has been re-designed from scratch at least once if not twice.

But using MMOG to try to mislead people who are super excited for another MMOG to come out... well, I think it's tacky.

Looking at Conan's tech, like I said, the graphics look great, but appear to be about a year or more behind Vanguard's in tech and they are rendering a LOT less. You don’t have the view distances, the massive variety of different art on the screen, including player characters with different items, etc. If they are using heavy instancing, they can also control how many people are in an area tool. Talking to my Dir. Of Tech, one specific example: They don’t use a lot of multitexturing, which helps performance but also means pixilation at close range. He agrees the tech is 1-2 years behind Vanguards. And, again, who cares in one sense – it was just something to point out. WoW’s tech is very low and one can hardly criticize that.

Others who checked out the game only saw two environments at E3 as well. Perhaps they are keeping the others under wraps, I don't know.

In summary, very different game, older tech, likely a lot less content (and therefore longevity), solo player focus and then PvP focus -- where's the PvE and exploration? Cool combat system and lots of gore -- they're really going after the M rating where we are going for T. One race? Why so little info on the web site? Why the release date on the web site that seems a year off? And why do people call it an MMOG?

I hope they release a lot more information about it, and I do know Funcom knows how to make a good game (AO). Is it something that is made to challenge WoW in 2007 like Vanguard? Is it about freedom, races, character customization, owning houses, multi-sphere development, a massive and varied seamless world with meaningful travel, ships and flying mounts that can go virtually anywhere?

Doesn't seem to be. Doesn't have to be either to be a great game. But it does have to be to be compared with games like Vanguard, WoW, EQ 2, and others as if they were the same genre of game.

Lastly, lest anyone think I’m picking just on Conan re: calling these games MMOGs, please check out a couple of articles on www.bradmcquaid.com from several months back where I talk about Instancing and what makes a game an MMOG, etc. and how calling a game an MMOG when it’s likely something else isn’t IMHO cool because it misleads the consumer/gamer.

edit: I talk about this a bit on www.bradmcquaid.com on the Instancing article and then more on my response to Booth here: http://www.bradmcquaid.com/Response%...Instancing.htm

Hm.

He's allowed on the internet again?

Hm.

He's allowed on the internet again?

I preordered that.

Schild -- the world-weary cynic with the big wallet.

Interestingly his vanity site (http://www.bradmcquaid.com) doesn't work anymore. Even Romero manages to keep his hosting bill paid...

I'm kinda concerned that Vanguard broke his soul, for reals.  :? Guess I'm just a softie.

Eh, what if you already pre-orded it?

I'm kinda concerned that Vanguard broke his soul, for reals.  :? Guess I'm just a softie.

It is being reported now that Best Buy preorders will get you a Killer Rhino mount (and belt, just like the Game Stop War Mammoth).  But the game is not yet up for pre-order at Best Buy.  So hold off if you want the rhino more than the mammoth. 

Choosing between a rhino and a mammoth is possibly the most difficult decision I've ever been asked to make.

Same for me, but I was shopping for condoms.

AOC thread up on the FOH boards.

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/29675-aoc-masses-have-begun-grumble-95.html#post968943

That's the specific post.

2.5gig patch last week.

800 meg patch on one file plus a 5.99 gig patch on another file.

Christ.

2.5gig patch last week.

800 meg patch on one file plus a 5.99 gig patch on another file.

Christ.

Ya know, for all the NDA bending, you'd think there'd be some legitimate complaints about the game.

Want to complain about hard drive space? Someone tell me why a damned shooter needs 9gb of space for a bunch of individual maps.

Want to complain about hard drive space? Someone tell me why a damned shooter needs 9gb of space for a bunch of individual maps.

I'm not worried about the disk space. Now, when i see a video made during community meet and they show off all the new armour sets, and the game literally freezes for 10+ seconds while the guy showing the stuff off is simply moving around completely still NPCs in middle of Bummfuck Plains, Nowhere... well, that would make one question the game performance in real gameplay environment. These freezes are indirectly tied to size of files on the hard drive, btw.

21 GB isn't about running out of disk space, it's about how badly will my machine chunk the shit out of the hard drive trying to swap those gigantic texture files out, and how long is the fucking client download/patch going to take? It reeks of lack of optimization.

Or it could just be a humongous game. I just thought it, like Failguard, was excessive.

Computers get more powerful, asset management gets better and learns new tricks, its inevitable that the disk space, and memory space footprint would increase.

Your right, it could be as badly implemented as vanguard, or, its not and its just part of the natural evolution.

I don't think it will be a problem.

This is the problem with added degrees of customization. There's a reason Second Life runs for shit (aside from the base engine being an abomination). Loading custom art assets every two steps is a performance killer. So what's the solution? Do MMOGs start to handle assets like multiplayer FPS with player mods. Enter a zone and wait for X minutes while all the new art assets are piped down to your PC? Or do they give you a 21 GB installation directory and monstrous patches to keep you up-to-date? Then what do they do about swapping those files from disk. They're getting bigger, so do they just bump the minimum memory requirements for users to 2GB or 4GB of RAM? Or do they cache the files in an optimal manner based on zone that you enter? Or... I don't know all of the options available, but the more customization you get in these games, the more this becomes an issue, especially when you get into large scale PvP with hundreds of player models on a screen at any given time.

The problem is with AoC they not only don't appear to learn new tricks, but go backwards. Even SWG managed to get basic multi-threading work and would load the textures without completely freezing your client until done, IIRC.

First sentence = What? How would you know what system they are using, and how are they going backwards?
Second = Apples and oranges and years apart.