Age of Conan

Here are the facts:

Age of Conan is intended to be released on the Xbox; if you were not aware of this; check out the article on this very site. http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/feature/1958

Want to know why your Age of Conan runs terrible on your computer?

It's because the game is cross platform designed.  In other words; tailoring the game to Xbox hardware is much easier than tailoring to PC hardware as the specifications for each idividual PC varies wildly.

Valve ran into problems with cross-platfrom when developing Team Fortress 2.

See page 20 of this article: http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2008/GDC2008_CrossPlatformDevelopment.pdf

The above article was a presentation given by Valve; on page 20  you can clearly see that some of the known big issues with cross-platform gaming "Out of Memory" Error. Sound familiar??

Want to know why your Age of Conan is instanced?

To address the problem with cross-platforms and the memory loads the game zones are split (Instanced) to accomodate the varying memory loads on the different platforms.

Want to know why your Age of Conan Emotes have the /e command and the emote list?

Not all Xbox gamers will invest in a keyboard and mouse for their system; therefore they have to make the emote system accessible through use of a joypad; thats why you see the list of emotes and thats why you as a PC gamer have to type the /e before executing an emote to bypass this list.

Spent a fortune on a PC System but getting low FPS?

Isn't it strange that you get higher FPS on High graphical settings and lower FPS on Low graphical settings? It's because of the cross-platform issues with the game engine and how it manages memory, textures; so on and so forth.

I really don't need to go on.  This presentation from Valve which was delivered to the Game developers Conference 2008: http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2008/GDC2008_CrossPlatformDevelopment.pdf

I think the above presentation highlights all of the issues currently being experienced by Funcom on Age of Conan; and all because the game is cross-platform.

So yes you may be a fan, yes you may hate the game.  The truth is; your beta testing a game so that it can launch to Xbox.

It's not big secret that the game's finish state will be when it launches on the Xbox and not before. Most of us are just amazed at how much of it is still unfinished.

Originally posted by neya

So yes you may be a fan, yes you may hate the game.  The truth is; your beta testing a game so that it can launch to Xbox.

 

Here are the facts.  Get used to it, the lure of easy money has a very strong appeal.  Making an MMORPG that is popular cross-platform is the dream of every Game development house out there today, (yes even Blizzard) and companies will continue to experiment to try and pull it off.

Trouble with experiments is there always are a lot more failures than successes.

I am just amazed that the game actually passed it's certification stage when it is totally unfinished.  What botehrs me more is that we as PC gamers are expected to buy into this and stress test for console gamers!

How are we supposed to know what a game is like? It's not as if we can take a MMORPG game back to the store and request our money back once the game key has been activated.  This is why the MMORPG industry needs to change or perhaps we as PC gamers need to start being more reserved when it comes to purchasing just launched titles.

Originally posted by neya

Here are the facts:

Age of Conan is intended to be released on the Xbox; if you were not aware of this; check out the article on this very site. http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/feature/1958

Want to know why your Age of Conan runs terrible on your computer?

It's because the game is cross platform designed.  In other words; tailoring the game to Xbox hardware is much easier than tailoring to PC hardware as the specifications for each idividual PC varies wildly.

Valve ran into problems with cross-platfrom when developing Team Fortress 2.

See page 20 of this article: http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2008/GDC2008_CrossPlatformDevelopment.pdf

The above article was a presentation given by Valve; on page 20  you can clearly see that some of the known big issues with cross-platform gaming "Out of Memory" Error. Sound familiar??

Want to know why your Age of Conan is instanced?

To address the problem with cross-platforms and the memory loads the game zones are split (Instanced) to accomodate the varying memory loads on the different platforms.

Want to know why your Age of Conan Emotes have the /e command and the emote list?

Not all Xbox gamers will invest in a keyboard and mouse for their system; therefore they have to make the emote system accessible through use of a joypad; thats why you see the list of emotes and thats why you as a PC gamer have to type the /e before executing an emote to bypass this list.

Spent a fortune on a PC System but getting low FPS?

Isn't it strange that you get higher FPS on High graphical settings and lower FPS on Low graphical settings? It's because of the cross-platform issues with the game engine and how it manages memory, textures; so on and so forth.

I really don't need to go on.  This presentation from Valve which was delivered to the Game developers Conference 2008: http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2008/GDC2008_CrossPlatformDevelopment.pdf

I think the above presentation highlights all of the issues currently being experienced by Funcom on Age of Conan; and all because the game is cross-platform.

So yes you may be a fan, yes you may hate the game.  The truth is; your beta testing a game so that it can launch to Xbox.

 

The game runs fine on my system.

instancing -  it's zoned and instances only spawn if the zone goes over X amount.

/e??? lol  I don't even know what you're talking about there. In every mmo I've played I've had to type a /something to do an emote.

Clearly I should just take my PC  outside and shoot it.

Have you ever played an mmo?

All i can say is thank god a friend in town here bought the game. I got to try it many times at his place. Just glad he tested the game out (which he cancelled his sub) and not me wasting the time and money.

Originally posted by Mordria

The game runs fine on my system.

Then you are one of the lucky ones

instancing -  it's zoned and instances only spawn if the zone goes over X amount.

Yes all areas are zoned and when was the last time you were only in 1 instance?

/e??? lol  I don't even know what you're talking about there. In every mmo I've played I've had to type a /something to do an emote.

In nearly all MMORPGS to execute an emote you simply type /wave to wave.  In Age of Conan to execute a wave command you have to type /e wave rather than /wave. 

Clearly I should just take my PC  outside and shoot it.

Your PC; hope it's legal to own a fire arm in your country though!

Have you ever played an mmo?

Countless; AO, SWG, EQ1, EQ2, LOTRO, WOW, RYZOM, PS to name but a few.

I'm sorry, but I don't see any proof at all.

Age of Conan is not build for the Xbox, it's build for the PC and dumbed down for the Xbox360 later on in the form of a port. If Age of Conan was build with the 360 in mind it would

- Be released prior or simultaneously with the PC version

- The client would be much, much smaller.Age of Conan is 30gb, the vast majority of Xbox360 owners have a 20gb hard drive.

Originally posted by Leucent

All i can say is thank god a friend in town here bought the game. I got to try it many times at his place. Just glad he tested the game out (which he cancelled his sub) and not me wasting the time and money.

Wish I could have done the same; I cancelled my Sub but still £30.00 down the drain.