Age of Conan

I am reading a lot of complaints about the instances in AoC and people asking questions about it.  I see very little detail posted about how the instancing works.  (Watch someone will point me to that thread now.)  In any case, here is how instancing works in AoC to see if you will like it or not:

Instancing type #1 - solo mode. 

The game begins with you in a solo instance.  It lasts until you reach the main city at which time you are around level 5.  Entering the city you go into instance type #2, which I will describe in a moment. 

Once in the city you can begin a story driven quest.  The game has two modes while in the starting town - day and night.  Night is the solo mode.  You then go through this quest line.  At any time you want you can talk to an NPC and go back to day.  Day is the multiplayer mode. 

Instancing type #2 - mirrored zones

While in the starting area (and not in night mode) you have zones.  Those zones have a limited amount of people in them.  But there are plenty of people in them.  Try doing a quest to something and there will be a dozen other people trying to do it as well.  You leave the city and will go into other zones.  Those zones will also be mirrored.

Doing this makes the game playable.  Not because of graphics or anything, but from lack of space.  (To give you a clue there are at least 25 copies of the starter town on my server this afternoon.)   You will then enter other zones that are also mirrored.  You will be asked when you enter them to pick a difficulty level. 

You can talk to people in the other mirrored zones.  You can even switch what zone you are in to be with those you are grouped with. 

After the starting area:

After you leave the island, things become more like a traditional mmorpg.  You have much larger zones that have day and night.  Some have said in the game that there is still some mirrored zones in some areas, but not nearly as many.

Anyway, that is how instancing works,  If it bothers you are not, that is up to you.  I do not think it breaks "immersion" at all, unless you mean by the fact that it can take 10-20 seconds to load the zone.  Loading a zone can happen in any game that is not a seamless world.  So that is almost every fantasy mmorpg.  Personally I do not see why have duplicates of a zone to handle more players is an issue at all, but that is up to each player to decide. 

That's a good explanation, thank you. 

Originally posted by JulianDracos

I am reading a lot of complaints about the instances in AoC and people asking questions about it.  I see very little detail posted about how the instancing works.  (Watch someone will point me to that thread now.)  In any case, here is how instancing works in AoC to see if you will like it or not:

 

Instancing type #1 - solo mode. 

 

The game begins with you in a solo instance.  It lasts until you reach the main city at which time you are around level 5.  Entering the city you go into instance type #2, which I will describe in a moment. 

Once in the city you can begin a story driven quest.  The game has two modes while in the starting town - day and night.  Night is the solo mode.  You then go through this quest line.  At any time you want you can talk to an NPC and go back to day.  Day is the multiplayer mode. 

 

Instancing type #2 - mirrored zones

 

While in the starting area (and not in night mode) you have zones.  Those zones have a limited amount of people in them.  But there are plenty of people in them.  Try doing a quest to something and there will be a dozen other people trying to do it as well.  You leave the city and will go into other zones.  Those zones will also be mirrored.

Doing this makes the game playable.  Not because of graphics or anything, but from lack of space.  (To give you a clue there are at least 25 copies of the starter town on my server this afternoon.)   You will then enter other zones that are also mirrored.  You will be asked when you enter them to pick a difficulty level. 

You can talk to people in the other mirrored zones.  You can even switch what zone you are in to be with those you are grouped with. 

 

After the starting area:

 

After you leave the island, things become more like a traditional mmorpg.  You have much larger zones that have day and night.  Some have said in the game that there is still some mirrored zones in some areas, but not nearly as many.

 

Anyway, that is how instancing works,  If it bothers you are not, that is up to you.  I do not think it breaks "immersion" at all, unless you mean by the fact that it can take 10-20 seconds to load the zone.  Loading a zone can happen in any game that is not a seamless world.  So that is almost every fantasy mmorpg.  Personally I do not see why have duplicates of a zone to handle more players is an issue at all, but that is up to each player to decide. 

 

Bang on and you re right it s up to the player to decide. I for one hate zoning etc, so i don t like it. To each their own.