All Posts by AmazingAvery

In my opinion it's the same mentality as not having official forums (because the staff can't cope apparently) but I see now it's for the forthcoming influx of "Punkbuster screwed my system up" threads are the real reason they don't have them.

GM's are pretty fast these days.

They also have a sense of humor....

I had to laugh. It's unconfirmed whether the emote will be taken out in patch 3 yet.

And for the sense of humor part:

They will try their best to help you, even if you pee on them!!

Originally posted by _Shadowmage

 

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Originally posted by AmazingAvery

 

I saw this blog entry earlier and felt its a good fit with this thread and what quite a few at saying on the official boards, plus this thread too:
Blogger can be found here: http://ferv0r.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/war-im-not-having-fun/

I’ve been playing WAR for the past week or so and it has utterly failed to grab my attention. This is rare. Usually, for a triple-A game, I get at least a couple weeks of solid entertainment before boredom sets in. For me, WAR has many core problems and honestly, I’m not sure why the game is so appealing to so many people.
1. ‘Old School’ one monster at a time PvE
This is the biggest problem. In Age of Conan (and other recent games like Tabula Rasa, Sword of the New World and Hellgate London) many of your attacks are area based. Most of the PvE encounters are you versus a group of monsters. Facing multiple mobs at one time adds so much complexity to the PvE grind.
Imagine playing a single player action game where you face an endless stream of solo monsters for hours and hours. Imagine God of War or Grand Theft Auto or Mass Effect with only solo encounters. You’d get utterly bored of the game very quickly. The fun comes from managing groups of monsters, positioning yourself properly, managing your resources and most importantly, FEELING HEROIC.
When it’s you versus a group, you are a hero. When you have just enough power to kill a solo monster, you are just a peon…a lowly minion…no one special.
2. Public Quests are just another grind
At first, PQ seemed like a clever idea. Now that I’ve done dozens, I’m utterly bored of them. They are all basically the same. Kill a ton of trash mobs, then kill a dozen stronger mobs, then kill some boss mobs. The only difference is that you do it with a random group of people.
A grind is a grind is a grind. In order to get the rewards from doing PQ’s, you have to grind enough to earn influence or work hard enough and be lucky enough to get a reward. That takes grinding time.
I’m actually starting to think that PQ’s are a lazy way out for the developers to make content. Compared to making a dungeon, a PQ is just a big open space with endlessly spawning monsters. Add a thin (and pointless) storyline and the developer can move on to the next task.
3. Scenarios are too simple and straightforward
I prefer the elven classes (for both Order and Destruction). I’ve done Khaine’s Embrace many times now and I’m SICK TO DEATH of it. Two capture points. Two paths back and forth. That’s it. Very little strategy. Very little variation.
I’ve done the other tier 1 scenarios as well and they are just as simple.
I would much rather do Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin over and over. Both of those are well designed mini-games with quite a lot of variation and strategy. In comparison, the Tier 1 scenarios in WAR are basically zergfests.
PvP is fun. Zerging is fun for a while, but it gets stupid and boring very quickly.
So basically, most of the PvE combat and a primary form of PvP in WAR is utterly boring to me. No wonder I’m not having any fun.
Does WAR magically become far more interesting in later tiers? If I grind myself to utter boredom for a few weeks doing stupid quests, stupidier public quests and simple minigames, can I finally get to the meat of the game?
I’m seriously considering rerolling one of my favorite classes on one of the popular servers in Age of Conan. I can make a Bear Shaman on Cimmeria and have fun killing everyone with the most overpowered PvP class. Of course, endgame content is still severely lacking, but if I take it slow, maybe Funcom (with their new management) will have fixed many of the issues with the game.
 

The comments make for a good read too

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That quote is a great add for WAR - the person you quoted doesnt like WARbecause his character isnt totally overpowered in PvE and unbalanced in PvP.

 

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I’m seriously considering rerolling one of my favorite classes on one of the popular servers in Age of Conan. I can make a Bear Shaman on Cimmeria and have fun killing everyone with the most overpowered PvP class.

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There a great advertisment for AOC & WAR - He wants to play AOC because PvP is unbalanced, and doesnt like WAR because its balanced and doesnt give him a god complex in PvE.

 

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When it’s you versus a group, you are a hero. When you have just enough power to kill a solo monster, you are just a peon…a lowly minion…no one special.

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He's correct - WAR is a game for group play. Its balanced for groups in PvP not 1v1, and plays a lot better as a group in PvE. ie you cant solo a public quest.

That said I can solo (so far) in WAR I just have to be aware there are some things I cant do solo.

Khaine's embrace is my least favourite of the Tier 1 scenarios in WAR.

Actually he believes Bear Shammy is overpowered, its not. It's a versatile class with lots of diff abilities, a proper hybrid. Thats why its perceived as being better.

Apart from that I sourced the thread because I thought it gave a more balanced view than I could give with my whole experience with warhammer.

There is no "Win" group in AoC or side, however, in WAR it looks like Destruction > Order all over the place. There are lots of balance issues with war atm I read on the forums here and at tentonhammer, just like the was with AoC at launch. AoC has 4 months worth of fixes and the general consensus is that the majority of classes is pretty much there in balance. What made it unbalanced is certain gems, which got fixed, however, there are still pulsing gems which can be stacked in a way can heal a lot. Needless to say the classes are not mere mirrors of each other in AoC.

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Amazing Avery it seems like you have become the embassador for Sieges. How is the ballance in Siege now? I have also heard about minor changes on the WarMammoths in siege, how is that working?

Mammoths are now doing better damage making them more worthwhile and not a fashion accessory ;)

I have an article coming up in the next week or so which should answer the balance question nicely. Submitting it this weekend / Monday then it shouldn't be too long till it's up. I hear there is another siege coming on test server new, with even more changes now implemented I hope to get in and take some footage and give a more updated opinion too soon.

Originally posted by Loke666

 

It is 5 attacks for all rouge and soldier classes, not 3. Seems like you either never played a melee class (or ranger for that matter) or never leveled particulary high.

There is nothing about dumbing down the attacks but youll lose 15% damage per strike you miss. That is before many PvP players did their combos in thin air and launch the last strike at another player making full damage. So unless the OP read different patch notes than the rest of us he missunderstood it.

The items wont be like WOW, the coolest suff will now be able to bost you 50% instead of 25%. How many % boost you get in wow is unknown to me but it is more. EQ2 have something around 300%. 50% is acceptable, I got worried too when I saw that they will raise it.

I think thats the case.  You see later on it turns into an assumption which is past the "this is how it is".

The Change hasn't happened yet, but what happens to the people who say AoC gear is crap you can run around naked attacking people and the gear has no effect? - this is a direct relation to that query brought up by a large portion of players. Taking it from 25% to and up to Closer to 50% with differences.

I think what Craig said is coherent enough:

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/show...d=1#post384911

 

 

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Upcoming Changes to Crafting

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Hail fellow Hyborians!

First I want to let you guys and gals know who I am. I have in recent months taken over the crafting system here at Funcom. Rest assured I do read the crafting forums. And believe me when I say individual suggestions are noted, and we are working hard to accommodate them where appropriate. Obviously, some concerns are easy to address, while others tie back to known underlying issues. It's always a balance between spending resources on a quick-fix to get something out to the players, and concentrating on more comprehensive profession upgrades which to varying degrees are planned across the board.

A few months ago Twicer laid out an overview/roadmap for crafting, and since then the team has been hard at work to get players all that was promised.

Along those lines I wanted to let players know what's going on with tradeskills both in the up-coming update, as well as hint a little at our future plans. In terms of the crafting experience, we want players to see immediate, incremental improvements which bring each profession towards our long term goals for the system as a whole.

If all goes well, you will start to see the following appear on test live as part of the scheduled content release for update 3. Just as a note, the new Weaponsmith and Armorsmith recipe items outlined below have a combination of gem slots and inherent stats.

Weaponsmithing

City Weapons

City weapons are crafted weapons which use the current feat progression, and utilize guild city buildings. Scores of these blue recipes ranging in level from 42 to 80 will be found throughout Hyboria as world or dungeon drops. Incidentally, weaponsmiths can now make weapon types that were previously unavailable to craft.

Base Weapons

Base weapons are mid-level wearable weapons, which may also be upgraded into high level culture weapons. Each recipe can create a few different base weapons. The base weapon recipes will drop in specific dungeons. Base weapons have no gem slots, due to the fact they are consumed in higher-level recipes.

Culture Weapons

Culture weapons are end-game lore related weapons that are upgraded from a base weapon. Each of the recipes can make three different culture weapons, grouped by Hyborian geography. The recipes do not require the top tiers of weaponsmithing, nor do they require a guild city. This is in order to create a viable path for, shall we say, less social crafters. Culture weapon recipes will drop off lore-appropriate bosses in endgame group dungeons, group social dungeons, or ACGs.

Armorsmithing

City Armors

Like their weapon counterparts, city armors are crafted armors which use the current feat progression, and utilize guild city buildings. Over a hundred of these recipes ranging in level from 42 to 80 may be found as world or dungeon loot.

Base Armors

Base armors are wearable armors, which are also consumed in crafting. For these base armors we have created a small number of mid-level recipes – one per base class. Each recipe can produce multiple pieces of the given base armor set. These recipes drop off specific bosses in appropriate level dungeons. Base armors have no gem slots.

Culture Armors

Culture armors are high level lore-related armors, and we have given each class their own set. The recipes for culture armors do not require the top tier Armorsmithing feats, nor do they require a guild city. Each recipe can produce multiple pieces of the set, and each piece requires the appropriate base armor piece as a component. We intend for this to be the first step in supplying players with explicit visual variety in crafted armor. I'll leave the details for you guys to explore in the world!

The culture armor recipes drop off lore-appropriate bosses in endgame group dungeons, group social dungeons, or ACGs.

Alchemy

Resources

We have reduced the number of the alchemy resources in the game by about two thirds. This means existing recipes have been remapped. This change is currently not on test live (it's a big one!), but our target for this is still update 3. The removed resources will remain in banks and inventories, but will no longer be dropped nor will they be consumed. In the course of releasing new recipes if we find we also need new resources, we will pull from the pool of removed resources. We realize for those players which have stockpiled large stacks of alchemy mats that this change may be unfortunate, but we felt it was necessary in order to move forward with the system.

Having fewer resources solves a number of problems, such as bag space issues and the low statistical probability of any specific resource dropping. The reduced set of resources may be found dropping off mobs, in a variety of different types of caches, or obtained from resource nodes where appropriate. In addition, a small number have been marked as green or blue, to give players an indication of relative worth.

As an added boon to alchemists, the yield of food/potion recipes has been increased. We are currently evaluating new potions types with various effects, so keep an eye out for this in later patches.

Metallurgy

Metallurgy recipes which make alloys will drop off specific dungeon bosses, and be available to Alchemists. Currently, alloys are required by smiths for culture armors and culture weapons but this may be expanded in the future.

Skinning

6 new recipes for skinners have been added to the game. These treated skins are consumed by the new culture armors.

Weaving

6 new recipes for weavers have been added to the game. The cloth yielded by these recipes is consumed by the new culture armors.

Wood Cutting

New recipes for wood-cutters have been added to the game. The recipes drop off specific solo bosses in adventure zones. They yield equipable green staffs that weaponsmiths may upgrade into blue staffs. The upgraded staves use normal feat progression, but do not require city buildings to make.

Moving Forward

Just so Architects and Gem-cutters don't feel left out, I'll say a bit about them. Since these professions are heavily tied to Massive PvP and item balance respectively, improvements for those professions need to be bundled with existing planned upgrades to those systems. Those upgrades will happen a couple patches down the line, and that's when Architects and Gem-cutters should see some love.

Progression Items

We are aware that weaponsmith and armorsmith progression items, needed to advance through the profession tier system, were rendered largely irrelevant by the gem nerf. Gems are getting rebalanced as part of a greater initiative, and we are currently working on this internally. With the gem re-balance down the road, we will see progression weapons and armors modified to fit with those changes and provide players with greatly increased usefulness. We feel that alchemist progression items (food and potions) likewise have a narrow range of utility, and this is also being examined.

Tradeskill Resources

All tradeskill resources have had their valid drop level range widened. Combined with the alchemy resource reduction, this should provide players with a greatly increased opportunity to gather the resources needed for recipes. R&B playfields have also been modified to reflect these changes (and make more sense in general), and the resource drop rates off mobs in those playfields have been slightly increased.

All hail the new crafting guy!!!

Culture armor sound intriguing! 100 city recipes too woah!

I had shelved crafting to the side personally, this will make me jump right on it again.

Patch 3 got an update on test server:

Also we have 3.21 Notes:

hmm interesting change with the way PvP XP works in groups now

Originally posted by Malickie

Nice ranger fixes in there, I'll have to check that out before cancelling. Avery wake me up when they do server merges:).

Heh! I think they should offer people the chance to move (even for a small re-location fee) instead of merging. I think wont happen until next year though, not to sure. It's one of those topics that gets mixed reviews.

I think your 90 % is quite an exaggeration, Cimmeria has had at least 4 sieges per week, sometimes they are full as shown in one above, sometimes not due to vunerability window.

No offense but I have characters on 3 different servers and see unplanned events all the time. Also no offence but sieges do occur regularly on plenty of servers I suggest you check them out. Sieges are planned to a certain degree. Whats the matter with planned events on an RP server? If you read the Tesso posts most are posting after the event has happened, after a tell went global in chat :)

90% more like 40%. This has been my experience since launch and currently an active subscriber:)

So the server is seeing an increase in regular action again.

1st up, we have a video of Adeptus vs. The Guardians

Title: Friendly Fire
Author: Asphodel
Download Location: http://www.kissmybuns.net/FriendlyFire.wmv
Clicky (Right-click and "Save As" for best results)
File Size: 202 M