Age Of Conan

[schild]

.mov is the same as .avi now? crazy.

Edit: By Crom, I wish that was a console game.

[stray]

What's with the trend of "groundbreaking" graphics all having that clayish look to them (EQ2 and Doom 3 would be other examples)? It doesn't look very attractive imho.

I do, however, like how trailer begins with a naked guy on a mountain, then ends it with a armor clad guy on a mountain. That's a nice touch.

[Morfiend]

Trailer = meh

[Comstar]

I think the game may be more popular if they make it Gor Online rather than Conan Online.

[stray]

Gor?

[Zetleft]

How bout Groo Online, now THAT I'd play.

[schild]

How bout Groo Online, now THAT I'd play.

That's exactly what I thought when I read the above posts. Also, Transmetropolitan online. Someone needs to make THAT city.

[Hoax]

The video told me nothing other then Funcom has balls.  The greatest online endeavor or something like that, not to mention the use of the word groundbreaking like 8 times.  You know I'll be railing against this video when we finally see the playable product and it is yet another Diku clone.  Although I have to say, that AO's classes were pretty unique/cool so I have some degree of hope in their ability to do something different. 

Here's hoping...

[Margalis]

For it's time AO was pretty cool. Really an under-appreciated game.

I would not say I have high hopes for Conan, but it has potential. The movie didn't do anything to turn me off, like have an interface with 15 different floating windows in it.

[Comstar]

Gor?

Think a infamously bad ripoff. Over 40(?) novals and 2 really bad movies.  Type it into google. Started off as a bad SF series about a earthman thrown onto a parraell earth where men are men, women are weak and swords rip people apart with really bad diagloue. As it continued, the SF and fantasy was dropped for more "Men are strong and Women deserve to be in bondage and heres a 40page descirption of that".

Lots of Sex and Violance, but not nearly as we'll writtin as Conan. Hence more popular I suspect.

[Alkiera]

Gor?

Think a infamously bad ripoff. Over 40(?) novals and 2 really bad movies.  Type it into google. Started off as a bad SF series about a earthman thrown onto a parraell earth where men are men, women are weak and swords rip people apart with really bad diagloue. As it continued, the SF and fantasy was dropped for more "Men are strong and Women deserve to be in bondage and heres a 40page descirption of that".

Lots of Sex and Violance, but not nearly as we'll writtin as Conan. Hence more popular I suspect.

Until the author was blacklisted by the publishing industry for his very non-PC opinions on women.  I ran into him on a panel on 'Women in Sci-Fi/Fantasy', panel was him, David Weber(for Honor Harrington), the woman who wrote the 'Chicks -n- Chainmail' books, and one other woman.  It was an... interesting... discussion.

Alkiera

[Nija]

"trailers" like that just don't do much for me. I'd rather see something FRAPS'd with the actual user interface and a character going about his business.

Someone page me when something like that happens and is actually hosted on the official site for any game. I really hate the noclip flybys and other Hollywood shit.

[Fargull]

I am looking forward to Age of Conan.  Trailer looked okay, and I really liked how they presented the world.  I just hope they dont have terrain walls, I hate terrain walls.

[JoeTF]

"trailers" like that just don't do much for me. I'd rather see something FRAPS'd with the actual user interface and a character going about his business.

Someone page me when something like that happens and is actually hosted on the official site for any game. I really hate the noclip flybys and other Hollywood shit.

I bet they don't have interface yet.
Trailers are good, they show you what devs aim for.

[Rasix]

With all of the buzzwords that trailer used, this better be one hell of a groundbreaking, stunning, BESTEST MMORPG EVAR! Smoke and mirrors; I saw nothing in that trailer of any substance.

How anyone can expect anything positive out of this is beyond my comprehension.  We were all thinking "WOW, OMG, YES" when SWG announced their new twitch system.  Some of us forgot to remember how incompetent the devs were at putting any changes into the game.  Did anyone here play AO's launch or the first half year?  Anyone still have the scars from the 12.6 patch? This looks to be very ambitious and well beyond the means of Funcom. 

I wonder what the Vegas odds are on the launch of this game being an abject disaster and the beta being an unstable mess.  Themis must be salivating in anticipation.

[Hoax]

I think that Funcom is uniquely poised to do it right though, if they can.

They suffered for their shitty launch.  I'm sure they look at DAOC and CoH's numbers and think if they hadn't stumbled so badly out the gate they would have had that for AO. 

Either that or they think AO failed because it was too unique and interesting, in which case we'll get another lame-as-fuck EQ clone.

[stray]

The thing that worries me about it being from Funcom, "game-wise" (I won't mention lore), first and foremost is the fact that AO became a Super Grind. There's like 220 levels in AO, if I recall. I fear for Conan.

Secondly, that they've seemed to have put a lot of thought into seige combat, yet, they're ambigous about PvP. Their descriptions of the seige game speak only of the cooperative aspects, against enemy AI. That's a shame.

[Rasix]

Either that or they think AO failed because it was too unique and interesting, in which case we'll get another lame-as-fuck EQ clone.

AO was pretty much a lame-as-fuck EQ clone (I kind of like some lame-as-fuck EQ clones, see: WoW).  It ended up having an interesting social atmosphere but otherwise.. it's your standard DIKU with guns.

[stray]

AO has more interesting classes and skillsets than your average EQ clone imho.....Or maybe that's just because it's Sci Fi.

That's about the only good thing I can say about it.

[Hoax]

-they tried to do an actual storyline
-they didn't skimp on classes
-they tried to make multiple builds viable (although the penalties for taking lt. and dark blue skills were so great it did not quite work)
-huge item diversification, although again some items were so unbelievably superior that it didn't quite matter
-complex crafting system -not my thing so I never bothered to figure it all out
-lots of different armor looks
-they included as much in-game humor as any blizzard game
-the world was quite large and diverse even more so now with the expansion areas I suspect

I really wanted to like AO but the grind + the brokeness of much of their content at launch made me un-sub and I never really committed to going back.

[Velorath]

With all of the buzzwords that trailer used, this better be one hell of a groundbreaking, stunning, BESTEST MMORPG EVAR! Smoke and mirrors; I saw nothing in that trailer of any substance.

How anyone can expect anything positive out of this is beyond my comprehension.  We were all thinking "WOW, OMG, YES" when SWG announced their new twitch system.  Some of us forgot to remember how incompetent the devs were at putting any changes into the game.  Did anyone here play AO's launch or the first half year?  Anyone still have the scars from the 12.6 patch? This looks to be very ambitious and well beyond the means of Funcom. 

I wonder what the Vegas odds are on the launch of this game being an abject disaster and the beta being an unstable mess.  Themis must be salivating in anticipation.

I don't know, I guess I just find it pointless to be cynical due to a company fucking up it's first MMO launch over 4 years ago.  I guess if Age of Conan sucks when it comes out you can do the whole "I told you so" thing, but I'd rather just wait and see.  Worst thing that could happen is the game is complete crap with no redeeming qualities and I'm out a few bucks.  Such is life.

[Murgos]

I just want to make it clear that I am copywriting the tag line - "Hyperboring Adventures" and no one may use it without my permission (and a small donative).

I know gamers and what they like to complain about and I have faith that I will be a millionaire within days of release.

[HaemishM]

-they tried to do an actual storyline

Failed and gave up

-they didn't skimp on classes

Most of which were just bad sci-fi reskins on standard EQ/Diku-esque classes only IN TEH FUCHUR!

-they tried to make multiple builds viable (although the penalties for taking lt. and dark blue skills were so great it did not quite work)

Yet still focused on Tank/Mage/Healer formulas

-huge item diversification, although again some items were so unbelievably superior that it didn't quite matter

Most of which couldn't be found by the player without using a 3rd party plugin to juggle missions or a borked crafting system

-complex crafting system -not my thing so I never bothered to figure it all out

From all reports I've heard, it was borked, and may still be unviable or unrewarding

-lots of different armor looks

Yes, they did, and the engine couldn't handle it until well after release.

The other stuff they got right. I'm sure AO turned into a decent if unspectacular Diku-esque game. But nothing about AO makes me hopeful about Age of Conan. I WANT it to be good, and the graphics engine looks good. But they are going to have to let me play it before I'm convinced.

[Velorath]

RPG Vault put up five arcticles last week:

Interview with Game Director Gaute Godager
Music
Art Direction
Technology
Combat

The interview is probably the most interesting of the bunch.   There's a lot about combat (which sounds like it will be more fun if you use a gamepad), a bit about PVP including Drunken Brawling, and at the end of the Combat article is a 2 minute video showing parts of the Jungle area where I think part of the single player game takes place.

For Stray's benefit, Seige PVP:

There will be a massive PvP battle option, where your clan can build a PvP keep fully protected by walls, towers and siege engines. This can be attacked at set points in time by other clans. The winner gets to keep the area, and gain advantages from it. These mass battles should prove to bring some truly epic moments along, I hope, with player clans competing for the bragging rights and glory.

And now I really want an Elephant mount:

And finally, which also is something new to online RPGs, is our system for mounted combat. In Conan, your horse, or elephant, is so much more than just a vehicle for transportation; it's also an instrument of death as you can sit on top of it while attacking.

There are many important things here that I will touch upon briefly. The speed you are traveling at defines how much damage you do. Think about it! Charge your horse and do massive damage. Charge your elephant, and *shudder* - I wont even think about it!! The feeling of power atop your mount is devastating! It isn't so easy though; you have to handle that sword or lance while you bob up and down, but by *crom* you are there, on horseback...

[Signe]

I don't believe it.  It'll never happen.  If they make a game, it won't have half the features they've listed.  Even if it has all the features and does exactly what they say it'll do... it'll be crap, you wait and see.  All these new fangled games are crap... just ask anyone here.  Anyway, the internet is just a fad.  It'll be long gone by the time we get elephants.

[Velorath]

I don't believe it.  It'll never happen.  If they make a game, it won't have half the features they've listed.  Even if it has all the features and does exactly what they say it'll do... it'll be crap, you wait and see.  All these new fangled games are crap... just ask anyone here.  Anyway, the internet is just a fad.  It'll be long gone by the time we get elephants.

You couldn't just let me have the dream of an MMO with Elephant mounts for even just a half an hour?

[Signe]

No.  Get those sugar plums out of your head and replace them with cob webs... like me.    

[stray]

I'm with Signe (but thanks for pointing the seige stuff out anyways, Vel  ).

[AOFanboi]

seige.

What is it with Americans and double wovels? SIEGE. THIEF. THEIR. WEIRD.

See? Easy.

That Age of Conan stuff reminds me about the "underwater cities" spiel about Anarchy Online - not to mention the Clan vs. Omni war that was MIA until a twisted version appeared in Notum Wars in the form of the tower battles.

I think you are right in not taking everything Funcom states as truth. They are selling their product first and foremost.

[Merusk]

seige.

What is it with Americans and double wovels?

From the age of 5 we are told, 'when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.'  Later we're told "except when they don't."  From that point most of us say, fuck it I own a dictionary and a computer with spellcheck.

[Soln]

Q4 2006 for GM is a long way away.  This is hype over an incomplete and as yet publically invisible Alpha.  Haven't we been here before?

Edit: there's some impressive stuff here, particularly Combat.  Hope if anything they can pull that off.  Graphics be damned.

[stray]

"Siege" it is then.

Whatever. You knew enough of what I meant to correct me, and ultimately, that's all that matters on video game message boards.

[Velorath]

Q4 2006 for GM is a long way away.  This is hype over an incomplete and as yet publically invisible Alpha.  Haven't we been here before?

There have been much bigger offenders as far as hype goes, especially if you're going by how far away the expected release date is.  How long have we been hearing about games like MEO and Vanguard now?

Fuck I don't really care if Age of Conan ends up being a complete failure as long as they fail at some new shit.  Some people here can manage to get excited over some half-assed attempt to add pseudo-twitch combat to SWG.  Seems to me that if nothing else there should at least be some interest here in how the Conan combat system turns out.

[stray]

Some people here can manage to get excited over some half-assed attempt to add pseudo-twitch combat to SWG.  Seems to me that if nothing else there should at least be some interest here in how the Conan combat system turns out.

Heh, sorry bud. I don't know Signe's excuse, but at this point, I honestly, truly hate all mmog's thoroughly. I'll laugh at all of them with equal measure.

That being said, yes, it'll be nice if they actually do something new and interesting with the combat. It'll only be interesting to me, however, when it actually happens.

[Velorath]

Some people here can manage to get excited over some half-assed attempt to add pseudo-twitch combat to SWG.  Seems to me that if nothing else there should at least be some interest here in how the Conan combat system turns out.

Heh, sorry bud. I don't know Signe's excuse, but at this point, I honestly, truly hate all mmog's thoroughly. I'll laugh at all of them with equal measure.

I've noticed that, but I much prefer the "usefully cynical commentary", rather than just the cynical.  One leads to conversation, like some of your other posts in this topic.  The other just leads to "MMO's suck".