Age of Conan

I've heard that this game is using the same instance relocation as EQ2, which was ok in EQ2 because you rarely saw different versions of the same zone, because there was so few players there was maybe 2-3 versions max in heavily populated areas.

Does anyone know what the zone cap is before a zone becomes a copied instance of itself? I've heard the zones are huge, so is it like around 500+ players per zone? or are we looking at more like 100ish?

Tortage is heavily instanced.  You play there from 1-20.

After 20 you go to your starting city, depending on race.  During the open beta I did not see much instancing of either the starting city or the leveling areas around it.  On one occasion late Saturday night the zone I was in did spawn a second instance.

Overall, It is similar to EQ2, but the instancing isn't as heavy (I remember the days of 3 or 4 Commonlands hehe). 

Yea, I realized that Tortage was heavily instanced I played around a bit in beta, from 1-20 im actually GLAD they instanced it, i hate the start of a game when theres so many players after the same spawn.

But I refuse to play a MMO like Guild Wars and pay for it, when the rest of the game is heavily instanced, I realize it's instanced EQ2 style, that's why all that matters to me is the amount of players per zone, if its 500ish people per zone, im totally cool with that, around 100, and i;ll cancel my pre-order.

not nearly as heavy, and yes the zone are gigantic.  Tortage is acceptable since its a pretty small bottle neck to funnel tons of players through.

When I was in the major cities however there were TONS of ppl about same with the outlying areas.  500+ ppl per seems fair, kinda seemed like more in some cases.  Anywho you really don't notice it and for ppl making comments that its like guild wars are WAY off base. 

That's what i figured, thanks.

Instancing was a concern for me too, but after this weekend, I'm content. 

Originally posted by Rhafe

Yea, I realized that Tortage was heavily instanced I played around a bit in beta, from 1-20 im actually GLAD they instanced it, i hate the start of a game when theres so many players after the same spawn.

But I refuse to play a MMO like Guild Wars and pay for it, when the rest of the game is heavily instanced, I realize it's instanced EQ2 style, that's why all that matters to me is the amount of players per zone, if its 500ish people per zone, im totally cool with that, around 100, and i;ll cancel my pre-order.

It was quite awesome how large the outer zones were when  you left the city...I ran around for hours looking around, running from mobs, PvP'ers...just to get as many screenies as I could..

HEEE....and it was beautiful...

looks pretty amazing, they really out done themselves. 

Its definately not GW style ( Thank God! ) But more the EQ2 style as mentioned already. Starting Area is quite fine as it is really 1-20 with focus on you learning the game, controls not to mention the important and exciting storyline. Even at the starting area i found atleast one quite huge zone ( Quest with remains of demon picts - or something like that ) Huge valley area that nearly choked my pc to process at first. And it only gets better after lvl 20 ( Zone size wise ). Hope that adds to you unlucky few´s perspective of the game who hasnt had the chance to discover Hyboria on there own. Hope to see you in game the 17th. :) 

I don't know for sure, but if I had to make an estimate based on the number of people I saw running around each zone, I'd lean more toward the 100 side than the 500.

I like it on the smaller side because you don't have to camp that long at quest spawns, but there's still a bunch of people running around.
Siege warfare is not going to be instanced though.

You're being way too picky.

I would think closer to 500 than one hundred. Most likely 350 and up.