All Posts by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by zwildiris

I am not in beta, so can make no comment on AoC.

 

But I am a little concerned reading about the "real-time combat" system.  There is a big bad common monster in ALL MMORPGs that might cause major problems with "real-time" anything... The Lag Monster. 

 

I am trying to read between the lines in this and other posts.  Either I am reading that combat is like Elder Scrolls Series where your control the swing of your sword/weapon OR it is closer to EQ2/DAoC where you hit a sequence of buttons in the proper order.  I am reading more the former than the latter and that concerns me.

 

Lag Monster will always win.

From impressions from people I have personally thought it to be a hybrid of the the games mentioned above. I'll see if I can dig out a video where it explains a bit better. But at the end of the day, we won't know till we played it really. There are sequential buttons, in a times fashion for combo's (U.I. Help), directional attacks for melee attacks (could be combo's), 3 or 5 directions, and offensive and defensive spells ( either "cone" shaped effecting everything in "cone" area, or manual targeted AoE spells (for eg) with graphic motion to steer and aim and fire manually, also a AoE type spell might be done in a "cone" fashion too. Defensive spells like a "buff", or knockback etc etc. Apologise if I have it wrong but thats how I see the "basics"

Guild Wars free online play structure wont make it loose ground in the amount of players it attracts. I know quite a few well known GW guilds on the AoC forums already, recruiting. The thing is even with all the skills and all the different maps the core mechanics of the GvG seem stale to me (I've been playing right from the get go too) The system isn't knew it just gave a greater scope to achieve more things, which isn't bad. The limiting number of people allowed in guild battle is too small too imo.

Whatever happens, people will be interested to see what happens with GW2 more so because of the excellent way the first ones were put together.

Originally posted by Amalaric

 

Originally posted by Tastywheat1

I have never bought a collectors edition but I think I will buy this one. I am a fan of Fun Com as they made the Longest Journey and Dream Fall. Both were great games. I am also happy to pay a little more to support this game having a Mature rating. Some cool swag would be nice to.

 

Finally one who likes this game!

Give yourself one big pat on the back and ignore the haters

Oh I like the way the game is shaping up too, its just that the usual collector edition of other titles rarely offers anything that you won't just put in a desk draw and not see again for a year.  So it would be nice to have something actually usefull to justify the extra cost.

Originally posted by Battlekruse

A multi-direction attack-and-defense system is great in theory, and fairly bad in practice, unless you're playing under pretty much ideal conditions on a LAN.

If combat isn't ridiculously slow (at which point, not only immersion suffers, but also player skill again becomes fairly redundant, if I have ~1 second to make the right choice, there's virtually a 0% chance of a gamer not making it), it'll be heavily influenced by latency and general network performance. At that point, you get either a click fest or button mashing, depending on the type of control input. Making this work will require a massive effort from Funcom, and even then, it cannot possibly get rid of the inherent deficiencies of the system, i.e. distance between players. And, if for whatever reason, player skill is not the main deciding factor in combat, then, for me, the game lacks the competitiveness needed for any amount of long-time appeal. Unfortunately, what appeals to me as a player is commercially less appealing to the game's producers, as it doesn't make massive amounts of playing time a prerequisite for ingame success.

Yes, yes, yes the game should be like every other one out there and not try anything new. That way the genre stays stale, smelly and over used. But you know if you already want to hypothesize any shout failure then thats up to you mate, but everyone knows the game isn't out yet and technology advances. Suffice to say there is no real time blocking, not making it as dependant on latency as much as you would think. There is one form without the other. Even in an mmorpg less then a second can be crucial in any "edge of the sword" fight, even with auto attack. Manually steering the character and then deciding on either to direct an attack at an appendage OR use a skill/Combo takes more than 1second. Especially if the combo has up to 5 strings to it...

Lest you forget this is an mmorpg and NOT a FPS. Desgined as an mmorpg from the start.

But its doesn't matter anyway does it, you said you wont be playing, you tried to justify Funcom's financial position as a cause for how good/bad this game might be, and now your harping on about the same thing like you did back in May. So your arguments are kinda pointless really as whatever happens wont affect you in any way.

Just want to add these in before people jump to silly conclusions:

Today, 10:22:36

#46

LordOrion vbmenu_register("postmenu_1014776", true); Product Manager Funcom     Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Norway

There were unfortunately some technical problems at this event. We were not given any time to set up and make sure everything was working prior to going on stage, so we had to spend stage time actually getting the image on all the screens, adjusting them etc. The sound wasn't working either, but at that point we had to just run with it or else we would have missed our slot. Thanks to everyone who was there -- even though we had no sound, I still hope you enjoyed what you got to see.

Today, 11:43:57

#67

LordOrion vbmenu_register("postmenu_1014930", true); Product Manager Funcom     Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Norway

I just want to point out that we have not revealed the crafting system yet, so I suggest not drawing any conclusions just yet. It certainly won't be the most detailed one out there, but it's not going to be the shallowest either. Age of Conan is not an economical trade simulation, but we're committed to presenting a solid crafting system in the game, a system that is -- above all else -- entertaining to the player. We'll reveal all the details about it in due time.

Today, 11:56:43

#68

LordOrion vbmenu_register("postmenu_1014956", true); Product Manager Funcom     Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Norway

Quote: Originally Posted by Archlight Wile you are here. Many people don not know that a game company has many departments, and that dev and marketing are separate things. Its great that you are out and about. We want this game to be the best it can and to be. AOC needs a solid player base to stay prime during the coming years. No revenue= no new candy and content for later. Thanks again. My pleasure, and thank you for coming. Very good to meet you there. That's what I like about these sort of events, I get to meet potential players that are passionate about the game. I hope to do this more often in both Norway and other places. You're right, there are several different departments in Funcom -- including a marketing department. It's marketing who goes to these sort of things, but once in a while we bring one of the developers as well -- particularly to press events where they want to tap into the minds of the makers directly. We would, of course, not bring someone whose absence could risk the development. Generally, though, Funcom going to these events have no impact on the actual development of the game. Only for larger events like E3 and GC will it ever require development to put time into producing a build needed for the show. Those shows are very important from a marketing perspective, and we need to provide the extra bang in order to get the gaming press' attention. But worry not -- the most important thing for us is developing the game and doing that properly. Everything else comes in second. But at the same time, having a presence out there among press, community and gamers is very important to Funcom.

Insight from atendee on official boards:

Formations
The group leader / raid leader selects formations from a UI. They give different kinds of bonuses. After formation being selected, there are green circles on the ground that the party members have to move to. Formations can be used both in Pve (dungeons) and PvP. Formations are optional, you don't have to use them, but the bonuses give an edge.

Colision detection
You can use colision detection to block other players in PvP. For example, a row of defenders blocking the entrance of a battlekeep, to prevent the attackers to enter.

Fatalities
You CAN use fatalities in both PvE and PvP. Although, how graphical the PvP fatalities will be might depend on censorship laws of the country. How to deal with fatalities in PvP is something currently under discussion.

Player bounties
I asked if you will be able to put a bounty on another player, say 100 gold for x player's head. He replied this had been included in earlier builds, but not in current build, and it had been some debate whether they should have that. I suggested this would be a relatively easy thing to include in echange for an interesting PvP mechanic, and he replied "yeah, but you never say to the programmers include this, because its easy to program. They will object and get annoyed with that". That is a good point, I still hope bounties will be included though, if not at launch, perhaps in a patch?

Alliances
There are no alliance system in the game. Alliances will have to be made using forums, chat and other communications. I wonder how this works though on a PvP server, where alliance members would be marked as attackable, rather than green as guild and party members? Sounds like a can of worm for diplomatic incidences. I think FC needs to think this through a little more, because it makes little sense. Look at what EVE online is doing, and the impact of standings, alliances, declaring wars etc. It is not a particular resource heavy feature to implement either.

Soldier classes
I asked how well a Dark Templar can tank under a PvE dungeon raid, is he a viable main tank? Yes, apparently he is, especially if you have no Guardian around. The Guardian is slightly better at it though. The soldier classes are not strictly defined into one role. Someone else asked if Dark Templar will be able to dual wield with two swords, even though this is not defined in the class description. Lord Orion was not sure, but he suggested you can use a wide variety of weapons, although, if you don't have the class specific feats to use them, you would not be able to wield them as well as a class that specialise in it.

My overall impression: This looks like a solid triple A title and a true next generation MMO. Some disappointments though in the design direction, but things are subject to change. Some of it may change after launch. I was particulary impressed by the visuals. Absolutely no competition there, unless you count Crysis.

There were some people taking video, so that should hopefully appear soon..


Monster edit: Some additional details I remember now.

A few more things I would like to mention, just for the sake of giving a complete summary. Right at the beginning of the show, while the technicians were sorting out the video output problem, Lord Orion had a little prize giveaway of caps with "Age of Conan" printed in golden letters. I know it sounds geeky as hell, but those caps looked REALLY nice (I want one). Maybe we will be able to order those some day? Anyway, a few eager fans were picked out of a crowd, and to win the caps they had to do 25 pushups on the stage (Lord Orion apparently is a former aerobic instructor?). And then after that exhaustion, they had to yell out all they could muster at the hall "Cooooooonan!!!!!". The rest of the hall was like WTF? That was funny

.. and now a couple more details from the Q&A! (nothing particulary new here, but every piece of info helps I guess?)

Climbing
Climbing is still in and working. You can climb buildings and mountains. Only designated buildings you can climb. For example, there might a a ladder, or some climbing foothold, or a special area designed particulary for climbing (I assume he means an area like the Tarantia noble district).

Mounted Combat
Still in and working. Can be used in both PvE and PvP apparently. Not sure what type of weapons you can use though, and what if any feats are available to on the horseback (ran out of time, did not get to ask him that).

Blood Money & Item Looting
Blood money can be used to buy PvP gear. Blood money also gives you titles / ranks. PvP feats are gained through the 20 PvP levels. PvP looting is primary blood money, and currently no item looting, but this is under discussion and could change.

Reputation and NPC behavior
There are different ways you can deal with an NPC. Sometimes different paths /choices in a quest which may affect his future reactions to you. You could even attack the NPC and do other horrible things which can cause him to get angry at you. You do not get globally "bad" reputation for this however. The concequences are related to the NPC(s) you dealt with directly.

.............................

I like this bit: >

"After Tortage, it was time to show some spellcasting and morphing of a demonologist. He transformed into a 'shadow form' or whatever it was, can't remember exactly. They zoomed in on the beast, and it looked very ominous. Here came the second scoop of the day: "When you get too much soul corruption, demons appear from the ground and pulls you down to hell!" Sounds impressive and a nice touch."

Originally posted by Expatriate

Long development times are a general problem for mmo's.

By the time they come out, people's computers are 2 or 3 generations more advanced, so they can't really take advantage of the new pc's capabilities.

When someone solves the problem and gets development time down to a year, they'll be massively succesful.

Its just not viable to put something out with just one years development time

Originally posted by Expatriate

Well, I searched "slow" and didn't come up with any threads.

Is it a big deal?  Well, I was hoping for some good news, but no, I guess my disappointment is not that big a deal.

But with TR, CoS, and now AoC turning out to be probable disappointments, what do I have to look forward too?

Nothing the world is ending - move along..  do you know how to search your own post history?

No point to this thread now

Its on page 2.....

Originally posted by vajuras

 

 

im very sorry my post was directed at a guy above that post it was late and my head was not screwed on tight. I dont wanna piss off the AoC community and I find this discussion interesting.

 

I've been reading all the viewpoints trying to get an idea what keeps are instanced and what isnt

Thanks guys I should stop posting when its late good posts and viewpoints here.

No worries, didn't piss anyone off I don't think. It was pretty late! But yes if the stupid comments from others can be left at the door, im all for exploring different viewpoints on PvP being meaningful and peoples perceptions of game mechanic and style that they see fit in their opinion of accomplishing that.

Originally posted by Euthorus

AmazingAvery

Do you get the above options in an RvR system? And these are just Beta screens.

Dont forget you can set the mandatory boobie size to be accepted into guild - thats gotta be worth something to justify AC2 gamepaly coupled with AO scenary.

What options? AC2 gameplay? you played AoC?    AO scenery? futuristic > Fantasy  ?

Thats nearly as bad as if I dare compare warhammer to WoW...

Poor attempt mate, but nice colours!

Really well presented constructive comment there

Originally posted by Isokonari

Originally posted by jor8888

this is what I come up with:

AoC=guid vs guild ( unless u play the FFA server) and spend most of the time sitting at ur own keep waiting for someone to attack.

WAR=none stop 24x7 pvp/rvr action.

 

 

I'd have to correct that you don't sit at your own keep the whole time, only during the time window when it will be attackable.

I'll have to add in too, that the game offers alot more than sitting in your 'Keep' lol . You see everything is hand made / crafted and placed to your desire, so the upkeep will take a bit of work - things aren't just given to you, or aren't laying around for no reason. But when you want to fight and you own a keep, it would be a good idea to turn up to the battle... Of course, depending on if you have done the quest where you get 'buffed' for some.

I hope there are game mechanics in warhammer to allow you to not sit around waiting for an instanced fight when a large guild might take up all the spots on "your" side. I'd hate it to be like Guild Wars AB where the timer can get to 30 mins waiting before fighting.

Originally posted by alyndale

I must wholeheartedly agree with you.  Unfortunately, this is one of a few BIG errors Blizzard has made in reference to where you are allowed to play.  On Lineage 2, I mixed with folks from all over the world.  Service men and women could play on servers created for North America.  I met a very, very attractive lady from the UK and I had finally talked her into coming to Uldum server and be in my guild..but..guess what?  Yep, you said it!  She couldn't because she is considered Euro.

It is a sad state of affairs when your choice has been dwindled.  I miss playing with my lovely "partner in crime".... sighs...

 

Just want to throw in that I met my wife in game, got her to join my Euro guild (she was Canadian), met up a few times in RL, celebrating 1 yr wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks and I emigrated to be with her =)

Options for International Servers FTW!

You could take the grind away by spending $$$ on items via the cash shop and stand still for an hour getting your stats boosted, skipping on days worth of manual exp grind.

That is if you have the money and don't see it as cheating.

Ship travel plays a big part but you can still have fun on land though. No options I know of for working as crew for someone else.

WOW to the idiot above.

The option should be open to both International and localised servers. I know AoC will cater for French, German and now Spanish I believe as well as having International servers giving the user the option to play or join worldwide servers.

Guildwars used to confine you to one or another continent  with choices of changing up to 5 different times, they scrapped this now and people are free to go where ever now. Terms and Conditions are different though for each area.

Edited for quotation from stupidity of the poster above.

Originally posted by vajuras

okay so if role play is more important when it comes to PVP try this

 

pick a totally gimped character for role playing purposes. go try it.

next, step into a PVP zone. Yep there are games like that where you can do it. like city of heroes. many Classes are all out gimp in PVP and those classes u never see them in the PVP zones.

roleplay != PVP

 

Next, if roleplay is more important then do this. take a