Age of Conan 1.5, Finally Release Worthy

[Morfiend]

I just wanted to drop a post here, because a lot of you might have missed it in the AoC subforum.

AoC has released patch 1.5, which basically brings the game to what it should have been at release. They have re-balanced all the classes. Completely changed the way stats work (they make sense now), and reitemized the whole game with these new stats in mind.

Thread already in progress here on 1.5 changes

If anyone was waiting to give AoC another try, now is the time. A few of us have resubbed, and have started new characters on the Agony (PVP) server. Its a fairly new server, so its not overloaded with level 80s.

New AoC Guild Thread

Come join us in trying out AoC once again. We are having a blast so far.

[schild]

Watch out for the Picts!

[ghost]

I've never been a been fan of the "jungle" motif.  I don't think I can deal with it long term.  I will definitely check it out again though.

[Falconeer]

Oh hey! This must be an interesting game! Anyone who tried it care to tell me if it is any good? 

Meh, I'm only sad cause my EURO account won't let me play with you guys.

[Brogarn]

Watch out for the Picts!

Goddamn nostalgia.

[Numtini]

Damn. I felt very burned, but I went back to AO and had some of the best times there after they finally got it running and that's got me thinking of giving them another shot.

[Ard]

Did they ever fix the craptastic crafting system, and the even worse resource gathering system?  It seemed like nothing much was worth making before, and it was just a tedious grind to both get materials and level up.

[schild]

Damn. I felt very burned, but I went back to AO and had some of the best times there after they finally got it running and that's got me thinking of giving them another shot.

Burned by what? The first 40 levels are still the best 40 levels I've played in any MMOG. Even with the crap itemization. There's a reason I did it 3 times in one month. >_>

[Morfiend]

I am really surprised by how much more finished the game feels now. If they had gotten the game to this state before releasing it, they would have done much better.

[Ashamanchill]

This is a strange coincidence.  My roomate and we sipping on Coronas and rehashing the fun we had in AoC (before we looked behind the curtain), and decided to go back, completely unaware of this master patch.  Cool.  That is just icing on the cake.  I'm not sure what server we're on anymore, I'm pretty sure our original one got closed down, but if I can convince him than I'll reroll on Agony with y'all.

[Rendakor]

Damn. I felt very burned, but I went back to AO and had some of the best times there after they finally got it running and that's got me thinking of giving them another shot.

Burned by what? The first 40 levels are still the best 40 levels I've played in any MMOG. Even with the crap itemization. There's a reason I did it 3 times in one month. >_>

Schild, are you both talking about the same game? I think Numtini's talking about AO, not AoC.

[schild]

Damn. I felt very burned, but I went back to AO and had some of the best times there after they finally got it running and that's got me thinking of giving them another shot.

Burned by what? The first 40 levels are still the best 40 levels I've played in any MMOG. Even with the crap itemization. There's a reason I did it 3 times in one month. >_>

Schild, are you both talking about the same game? I think Numtini's talking about AO, not AoC.

I read it as "I felt burned by AoC but maybe I'd have a great time if I went back because I went back to AO and had a great time."

[Numtini]

Burned as in ripped off by a half finished game with broken systems and half assed excuses. Swimming up waterfalls comes to mind as a symbol of my dissatisfaction. Not burned out as in the grind is to terrible. (I liked EQ2 at launch remember?) The first 20 were good as a single player experience, though I wasn't as enamored as many people were and I really can't say I saw anything good after Tortuga.

But like I said, I lasted all of five minutes at the AO launch--most of that waiting for a loot box to open and that being after the installer bluescreened my PC. But I came back later and really loved the game and had an incredible time.

[Shatter]

The biggest problem I had with AOC was there was nothing to do at 80.  Fixing a bunch of crap if great but end of the day, whats there to do at 80?

[schild]

The biggest problem I had with AOC was there was nothing to do at 80.  Fixing a bunch of crap if great but end of the day, whats there to do at 80?

lol

You made it to 80. When there was nothing to do at 40, did you say to yourself, man 80 is gonna be great? Can I get some of that sweet sweet shit you're smoking?

[Falconeer]

The biggest problem I had with AOC was there was nothing to do at 80.  Fixing a bunch of crap if great but end of the day, whats there to do at 80?

Once again: at 80 you are supposed to raid for loot or PvP for fun. What's there to do at 80 in other MMORPGs?

At launch raids were terribly broken and the loot was so meh that it wasn't satisfying or worth getting. Now the raids are working, there's more of them, and the loot is better and more shiny. Check on everything I guess. Other than a compelling PvP metagame. Which is my only and biggest whine since forever.

[Shatter]

The biggest problem I had with AOC was there was nothing to do at 80.  Fixing a bunch of crap if great but end of the day, whats there to do at 80?

lol

You made it to 80. When there was nothing to do at 40, did you say to yourself, man 80 is gonna be great? Can I get some of that sweet sweet shit you're smoking?

On my own I never would of made 80 but I played with friends that kept things interesting past 40.  I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did. 

[schild]

On my own I never would of made 80 but I played with friends that kept things interesting past 40.  I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did.

We had about 80 people around level 40 and even all of us combined weren't silly enough to stick it out.

[Falconeer]

I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did. 

I hate to sound like an asshole, but you haven't seen many games then.

[schild]

I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did.  

I hate to sound like an asshole, but you haven't seen many games then.

Actually, he's absolutely right about that. Having gotten 4 characters or so to 40 in the first month, he's absolutely correct. Content just died. Sure there was the odd quest here or there but they totally weren't worth doing. MMOGs, ironically, work best when content is condensed as much as humanly possible.

[Shatter]

I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did. 

I hate to sound like an asshole, but you haven't seen many games then.

Yup, 11 years of MMO's I dont have a clue what im talking about...

[schild]

I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did. 

I hate to sound like an asshole, but you haven't seen many games then.

Yup, 11 years of MMO's I dont have a clue what im talking about...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand your retort was crap. No one cares about your MMO resume. Should've gone with a simple "you're wrong."

[Falconeer]

We disagreed about this exactly 12 months ago, Schild, June 2008.

Having kept going on back then I won't deny there were holes in the quest-only progression which led to some bare mob-grinding, but it was nowhere near to the emptiness you and other kept claiming for the past year. The worst, unacceptable holes were the 52-59 and the 74-80 parts (fixed now).

But at 40 you have (and had) plenty of things to do. Two full zones, a big dungeon, a small dungeon, a few solo instances.
I keep thinking everyone left not because of the poor content but because of the poor itemization (let alone the bugs!): take items out of these games and you are soon left with a tasteless turd that leads you nowhere. There's your "not worth it" and what killed it.

But seriously, short version: No point in denying content degradation from lev 1 to lev. 80 (with the exception of the 60-72 range), but saying "I have never seen a game that hits a content brick wall as bad as AOC did" sounds like an exaggeration I don't like to see unchallenged.


Fake edit: We all have 11 years of MMO's around here, Shatter. That doesn't make everyone right.

Real edit: Engrish! Still there, btw.

[schild]

You were wrong then too 

[Falconeer]

Moving on: to you all Returners, I strongly suggest you to take on the dungeons when you can, even if it seems you can do without (because you can - the game is totally and easily soloable from 1 to 80).
Get a good group, as they are usually kinda hard, and go look at the sweet job they have done with traps, bosses, and stuff like that. They are not all equally cool, but you can see they spent some time trying to make dungeons worth exploring and beating instead of just cramming mobs in a tight space. Xibaluku is especially cool, but that's a high level one. The group one (not the pyramid, which is soloable and still great) in Kopshef province is a good early example. The Tarantia cistern/sewers are still kind of a letdown though, but lotsa quests in there.

[DLRiley]

Falconeer simply feel in love with the combat system and would gladly grind out even 1000 levels if it means using the combat system. Funcom's ideal playerbase pretty much. I see AoC ultimately surviving into 2010, but it may never really have the money to make the changes it needs to solve the problems that the people who didn't fall in love with the combat system have with the game.

[kildorn]

If you don't enjoy a game's combat system, you're likely just suffering through it for some gimmick, or you play Eve.

My issue with conan was very much the release quality/content, and that PVP was pretty much instagib people.

[Feverdream]

I am getting a little desperate for something to play, but I'm not a fan of PvE for the sake of PvE.  The world PvP in Conan (in the very brief time I was able to play before the bugginess drove me right out of the game) was fun when I could find it, but despite all of the rhetoric about the game pre-release, I never felt like there was a coherent PvP system in place.  Maybe it's just that I never leveled high enough to experience it, or maybe it didn't exist.

What's the status of the PvP system in the current incarnation of AoC?

EDIT: Ignore me.  I'm an idiot.  Reading the other thread now and hoping there's someone posting there who can speak to my question.

[Falconeer]

I played and still play AoC a lot and 99% of the time PvPing. The system is flawed. Means, the actual pew pew is great, but the final goals aren't really working as intended.

The Battlekeeps are there, 8 for each servers, so only 8 guilds can have it. This opens up to lots of sieging, and that happens and it's kinda cool. But the lack of real recognition for the BK holders (no signs, no frills, no cool screens with your guild name in golden brackets, no rankings, not much) makes it a bit of a letdown.

Again, BK give great PVP bonus so you definitely want to have them, but best case scenario sieges take place every 3 days for two hours. Out of that, you will be bashing each other in Keshatta as if it was some kind of Royal Rumble Unreal Tournament the Medieval Edition.

The system is there. It is just under-developed.
Of course they are working on it and a PvP system revamp will come. But when? This is my well known lament since the beginning. A wonderful, awesome PvP game flawed by an inconsistent PvP system.

The best PvP time in my opinion is what you get from level 1 to 70. Good, good stuff.

PvE server? You fail at Conan, and Conan fails you.

[DLRiley]

If you don't enjoy a game's combat system, you're likely just suffering through it for some gimmick, or you play Eve.

My issue with conan was very much the release quality/content, and that PVP was pretty much instagib people.

Well its not really a matter of whether or not you like AoC combat system. You will like it, its whether or not you find it special. If you think conan is doing something extremely special with its combat system, you're quite likely to ignored most of conan's glaring issues and still play. If you don't think conan is doing something special, then conan's has many problems that you simply can't ignore for the most part and is waiting for most of these issues to be addressed.

[Morfiend]

I originally loved the melee system up until I got the 2 extra directional attacks, and then I felt it became overkill. Having to do 5 chain combos with 5 different keys just bogged stuff down. They have really made a lot of good changes in this area.

I played my level 55 HoX a bit, and the combos that used to be 5 swing chains are now 2. Also they speeded up a lot of the actual combo animations, leading to a faster paced feeling.

On another note, if you dont like the combo system, you can always play a caster.

[Kirth]

Well look at this, just as I am coming off a wow binge to burnout  . how much less suck are we talking here? and can you download the client or do i have to dig around for the cd's?

[Morfiend]

Well look at this, just as I am coming off a wow binge to burnout  . how much less suck are we talking here? and can you download the client or do i have to dig around for the cd's?

You can DL the client, but its huge, so if you have the CDs probably worth your time to dig them out.

[Engels]

I wonder how large the patching is once installed from the original DVDs at release.

[Kirth]

I wonder how large the patching is once installed from the original DVDs at release.

I'll let you know.