Funcom's post-Conan MMO?

[TripleDES]

Apparently Funcom is planning another MMO, apparently in a futuristic setting, which is supposed to come out somewhen after Age of Conan. There isn't much info to be found about it, apart from some stuff on a blog of a Funcom worker and some shady Wikipedia article. Latter thing claims there's a teaser trailer, but doesn't reference it and I'm too dumb to find it via Google. Working title is apparently "The World Online".

Anyone has some more info about that one?

http://ragnartornquist.com/?cat=13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Online

[schild]

There's no way they are calling it The World Online and not having something to do with .Hack. It would never get released. Bandai/Namco would probably crack the whip on them. Mostly because I'm pretty sure they had plans to make a .hack MMOG, most likely for consoles. It only makes sense given the structure of the license. As for Ragnar:

I don’t think it’s actually based on .hack, but more partly inspired by it. NBT is neither based on nor inspired by .hack.

I don't think he reads what he writes. If he did, maybe the end of Dreamfall would have been a bit more cohesive.

[Chenghiz]

It would be awfully nice if they just released and maintained AoC, if it's half of what it claims to be.

[TripleDES]

Don't hold your horses, while googling for AoC stuff few moments ago, I've read that it's based on an overhauled version of the AO graphics engine.

Their business report from May claimed that they were setting up beta infrastructures, so there might be a test of AoC soon.

[schild]

Googling the AO Graphics Engine pulled up the following (from an interview):

I've heard rumors that with this expansion, that Anarchy On line will be getting the brand new Age of Conan engine to improve graphics, make for smoother game play and give the development team an easier time tweaking and fixing the game. Is this true?

No, there wont be a graphics engine upgrade with this expansion. It actually would be far from ‘easier’ and would raise the minimum specifications too much for us to consider using the engine that we are using for Age of Conan. We will though be improving the current engine in terms of performance, which leads us nicely to the next question!

Anyway, having seen AoC in action first hand, I can confidently see it doesn't matter at all if AoC had in fact used AO's engine. As it obviously had some long legs oin it.

[CmdrSlack]

Since this thread is talking about the AoC engine, and since I can't seem to find the system spec for AoC anywhere....does anyone know what the expected system specs are?  I'm sitting here in my last semester of my LL.M., and if I can exploit my student discount to upgrade my PC now, I will. 

Since I can't find any system specs, I have no earthly idea if my older rig (circa SWG launch) is going to shit itself trying to run AoC or any of the other games due out "soon."

[Signe]

I did a search on the official board and came up with some posts that said the system requirements haven't been specified yet. 

[CmdrSlack]

Ah that'd 'splain why I couldn't find them anywhere.

I salute your bravery -- I try to avoid official forums at all costs, they're just too scary. 

[Yegolev]

Didn't any of you play AO?  That's Anarchy Online.  It was made by FunCom.

[Signe]

Didn't any of you play AO?  That's Anarchy Online.  It was made by FunCom.

I never got past the part of AO where it ate my computer and spit the bits out in my face.  So, no... not me.

[stray]

Didn't any of you play AO?  That's Anarchy Online.  It was made by FunCom.

I played it after Funcom got their shit together somewhat. At that point, I didn't think it was any worse than other games of it's type. And some elements, like the classes and skills, were better than what other games were offering.

Problem was, the level cap was something insane like Lvl. 220. The minute I saw a LvL. 100 character, and realized they still had a long way to go, my Lvl. 14 self quit.

[Falconeer]

Levels were (are) pretty fast anyway.

220 levels of AO are like... say... 55 of Lineage 2 but with much more fun than L2.

Actually the 200 levels cap at launch of AO still is the highest level I've ever seen in a MMO and I used to love that. You got to level often, you got to spend skill points and advancements about 200 times in your character life as opposed to the 60 of the average mmo now.
Plus, given that you are playing a diku mmo, you are supposed to love that ding! thing.

[stray]

Plus, given that you are playing a diku mmo, you are supposed to love that ding! thing.

Well, that's the kicker, I guess. I didn't really know what Diku was at the time (late 2002?), but I hated it even then. "Ding!" doesn't compel me much. And even if the grind equated to 55 in another game, "220 levels" just comes off as far more demoralizing.

The one thing, like I said, that I did like about AO was probably the least Diku-ish (or rather, least conventional) thing about it -- The skill system. It was a lot more extensive and flexible than the average MMORPG.

[Strazos]

Try playing a game with infinite levels then....but after a certain point, you can no longer get XP through combat.

Now that is demoralizing.

[Yegolev]

I'll post this for posterity: Horizons had a large level cap... was it 200 or only 100?  In either case it was worse due to the fact that you could hit level cap in all forty classes.