Age of Conan

This is exactly why I'm holding out for WAR.  These two guys were discussing their experience in AoC yesterday.  They don't come off as your typical hater or fanboi:

"Treekicker
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Posts: 916
Registered: Oct '04
Date Posted: 5/20 11:14pm Subject: RE: Just how much instancing is there in AOC? - Date Edited: 5/20 11:25pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Treekicker

I got to 32 today, it's not hard..the combat is so fluid that grinding was actually fun and when you port back to town you hand in a bazillion quests. I think I pulled a bit ahead of the main crowd so I was kind of getting used to being alone, didn't think much of it.

Then I died and ported back into the zone I was in..but no gravestone . Then I realized that I hadn't seen a single person in at least 30 minutes.... . So I clicked the little deally whopper that pulls up the instances and it showed 9 different instances of the zone I was in. I suddenly felt like I was in Guild Wars. My understanding was that another instance would be created if the population in that zone required it, but I assure you that there weren't enough people in this zonee to justify it being created twice, let alone 9 times.

The other thing that bothers me is that you can't really leave the beaten path. All the zones I have been in have walls on both sides of the road and it feels like you are being hearded along. Granted you can hop and jump and push your way over some of them, but those are the exception. In general you follow the path and your little quest arrrows and stay on "the freeway". So exploring (from what I have seen) is a no go. The world is in no way, shape, or form "open", not even close.

This is a big deal to me, the game world that I have seen is like a cross between guild wars and eq2, though I have only seen a few zones past Tortage so I can't attest to the higher level zones. It's confusing having different "planes" and it does not feel like a persistent world to me. Maybe it's just foreign and I will adjust but I do not like this aspect at all so far.

Having said that....the character animation and combat is absolutely spectacular....I'm blown away. The basics are fairly easy to grasp but it's clear that there is a learning curve and that skilled players will excell well beyond the less skilled. I am really impressed with the actual gameplay, it's easily the best I have ever seen.

So...the short version from what I have seen so far is -
1. The world is a very nicely drawn, instanced clusterf***, in which you are forced to stay on the road mostly, and does not lend itself at all to an mmorpg immersion experience.

2. The models, pathing, combat, immersion during all gameplay that's not world oriented, and stability are just flat out kickass.

Right now I'm torn because the downsides are kind of deal breakers to me but the other aspects are so well done that I'm just not sure what I think of the total package .

I hope the border kingdoms are not instanced .

Clearly more testing is in order

PS - the fatalities themselves make it a must see imho

Edit to add - It just occured to me what this game reminds me of. Diablo 2 with updated graphics. Running around as a barb with a big sword in little private games, leaving whenever you want and joining another. Course D2 didn't have keeps or player towns or border keeps so /shrug.


DispleasingReality
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Posts: 390
Registered: Mar '07
Date Posted: 5/20 11:21pm Subject: RE: Just how much instancing is there in AOC? - Date Edited: 5/20 11:21pm (1 edits total) Edited By: DispleasingReality

Nice write up Tree - as always from you.

So if the instancing stays in can you see yourself sticking with it? (ie: paying to play guild wars 2)



Treekicker
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Posts: 916
Registered: Oct '04
Date Posted: 5/20 11:33pm Subject: RE: Just how much instancing is there in AOC?

I honestly don't know.

On one hand I despise instancing. I can deal with it for raid content (probably because I so rarely raid ) but not as "the world".

On the other hand, the combat is so good...lol

If I had to venture a guess now I would say that once the newness of the combat wears off that the instances will probably piss me off too much, but I just haven't seen enough of the content to say for certain. There's too many variables in play atm to make a call based on the snapshot I have seen.

I could see playing it the same way I playd D2. Just play casually on a pvp server when in the mood. Not sure If I could make a long DAoC type experience out of it though.

I need an open world for immersion in my mmorpg's, it's like saying I need brakes on my car. Sure you can decide to just drive slow, but in the end you need brakes on the damn car, ya know .

Anyway, just my 2c"

FYI GW2 is going to be free just like GW one   hmm yeah  im pretty turned off from those things as well (however i am a huge fan of Guild Wars)

WAR will be great...and I can't wait

Intersting post.  It sounds like Treekicker is really bothered by Instanced but found other parts of the game enjoyable.   Perhaps someone who isn't bothered by Instanced as much would find AoC entertaining. 

That's the nice thing that happens when companies start actually release stable games that don't turn into train wrecks.    More choices for everyone.

Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Intersting post.  It sounds like Treekicker is really bothered by Instanced but found other parts of the game enjoyable.   Perhaps someone who isn't bothered by Instanced as much would find AoC entertaining. 

That's the nice thing that happens when companies start actually release stable games that don't turn into train wrecks.    More choices for everyone.

I'm in complete agreement with Treekicker on the instancing bit.  Instancing is nothing but a cheap trick to make people pay $15 a month for a single player game.

The big thing what will improve the game is fixing that zone thing   only give enough zones to support the max population in the area but don't go over board   they fixed it in Guild Wars   Once AoC is fixed and polished  it will be good

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Originally posted by Satarious

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Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Intersting post. It sounds like Treekicker is really bothered by Instanced but found other parts of the game enjoyable. Perhaps someone who isn't bothered by Instanced as much would find AoC entertaining.
That's the nice thing that happens when companies start actually release stable games that don't turn into train wrecks. More choices for everyone.

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I'm in complete agreement with Treekicker on the instancing bit. Instancing is nothing but a cheap trick to make people pay $15 a month for a single player game.

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So I guess you feel the same about EQ2? Please tell me you do... cause if you've not played AoC and noticed it's no different than EQ2.

And it's not remotely like GW. Get this one little bit you guys keep ignoring, instances are private for single group or a solo player, clones are just duplicate zones, like 3 North Karana's and only happens when there are just to many people for that one copy of the zone to support and people have fun.

You want a game w/o that? Go back to EQ1, thank gawd we've moved up in the world. I for one like the fact there aren't a 1000 people in a single zone all fighting for the same mobs.

Give it a few months or weeks and those clones will be gone because the levels will spread out as the population does.

Originally posted by Satarious

 

Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Intersting post.  It sounds like Treekicker is really bothered by Instanced but found other parts of the game enjoyable.   Perhaps someone who isn't bothered by Instanced as much would find AoC entertaining. 

That's the nice thing that happens when companies start actually release stable games that don't turn into train wrecks.    More choices for everyone.

 

I'm in complete agreement with Treekicker on the instancing bit.  Instancing is nothing but a cheap trick to make people pay $15 a month for a single player game.

Other than the night time destiny quests, I have never been in a zone where I wasn't surrounded by other players.  Please explain to me how this is a single player experience and a cheap trick.  It makes sense if you are talking about Guild Wars, as that truly was/is a single player experience wrapped up in the ability to spend some time with others.  AoC is not this way.  I do agree, though, that I wish the world was a little more wide open.  Oh well, the places it shines seem to outweigh the places it doesn't IMHO.

Like said that really isn't instancing. It's more cloning or duplicating of zones than anything else. The problem with that is finding the balance of how many people are allowed before another copy is created. Great way to handle over crowding I feel.

How the single paths in areas does bother me though as that is what you'd see in a single player game since the game controls where you need to go. Shouldn't be there in a mmorpg unless we are talking about a maze or you are traveling through a mountain styled area or being funneled into a zone entrance or passing through gates or something like that. It should be situational, not the entire world or area.

I'm curious how much of Age of Conan (world design wise) was console influenced since it is suppose to be released on the Xbox 360. I've already heard that combat flows better if you use a controller instead of the keyboard and mouse (same way Final Fantasy XI's interface was designed for the a game controller and is kind of difficult to get used to via keyboard and mouse since there was no change).

Now the question is what does this have to do on the WAR forums? Sure it affects WAR's sales, but that hardly justifies posting discussions that are only about AoC on the WAR forums; or else we would soon be seeing a surge of posts about other games on every forum, for the reason that they affect the sales.