First Age of Conan Expansion On the Way 47
Funcom announced today that they are working on the first expansion to Age of Conan, titled Rise of the Godslayer. In addition to high-level content, it contains new objectives for lower levels as well, in an effort to fill out the leveling process. It also introduces new factions that are at war with each other: "Faction gameplay plays a large role in Rise of the Godslayer, presenting the player with choices that earn them both allies and enemies in Khitai. Through questing and adventure players can advance through faction ranks, rewarding them with treasures such as epic new armor and weapons. Players can choose to continue their adventures with existing characters, acquiring new combat abilities and spells through a robust alternate advancement system, or start over again as a Khitan — an all-new culture." A brief trailer has been posted, and Eurogamer has a more detailed preview of the new content.
Re:Ah, yes... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So what's the game like now? (Score:5, Informative)
From a technical point of view (i.e. client and game stability), the game has vastly improved since last year's summer. For those who weren't there, the game at launch was ok-ish, there were some issues but nothing really game-breaking. But subsequent patches and updates made matters much worse, to the point that the client would almost invariably crash after a hour of playing or sooner, with frequent disconnects and clients freezing when loading a new zone. People left the game in droves, not because AoC was a bad or boring game but because it was rather unplayable at the time.
Those problems are mostly gone. There are some very minor issues and the occasional crash, but I'd say the game's stability is more than sufficient, if not quite on par with the industry standard. They've also added some content in free updates since then... If you liked the game itself back then, it's well worth taking another look (though I think you've just missed the recent 2 week free trial offer)
Re:So what's the game like now? (Score:3, Informative)
I was there at release and played for a few months. When I realised that it was the most expensive MMO available I decided to give it up until it had a chance to improve.
They recently sent me an email offering a free retry period.
After a few days, I deleted all my characters, old and new, uninstalled the game and emailed them to ask that they delete my account completely.
You feel like you got conned into buying it?
I feel conned that they got me to reinstall the game and download a couple gigs worth of patches.
I am NEVER going back. And never buying another Funcom product ever again.
expansion? fix what's there (Score:1, Informative)
An expansion? With so many things still broken they should fix the pvp murder system, fix the rez pad choice after getting almost constantly ganked by 3+ vs. 1 and enforce some policies regarding RP. Leveling after 67 is a tremendous grind and you mostly become prey for higher level players hunting you for your tasty pvp xp. Pvp is a fun part of most games but with the pvp leveling and the murder system there are many exploits and it pretty much ruined the fun. However, it seems that a lot of people like to run around in groups killing anyone they can find and then insult them.
If you get in with a larger guild and play with a group you can get some things done. The AoC world is really pretty and some areas are really creepy so the pve servers can be fun to explore but then you can't pvp without paying Funcom to transfer to a pvp server. But after you've been through it once it's the same, again and again.
After playing since AoC for the past 15 months I finally canceled my subscription and started the open beta of Champions Online, which seems to have fewer problems in open beta than AoC has now. AoC is one of those that had great potential but imo it fell on it's face. I think I even heard Conan crying......
Re:So what's the game like now? (Score:2, Informative)
For those who weren't there, the game at launch was ok-ish, there were some issues but nothing really game-breaking.
Bull. For starters, the game's base stats didn't do anything. Str, dex, etc--they were just numbers and affected nothing. Now I'm no game programmer, but shouldn't the most fundamental stats be the first thing nailed down?
There were also MANY feats that were either broken or just not implemented, though the game would happily let you spend your feat points on them. I did 3 respecs with my ranger before giving up on it, because every time I found that I'd wasted 5-15 points on broken feats. That's pretty damn gamebreaking to me.
Re:aw man, still? (Score:1, Informative)
You can skip Totrage, you know.
There's a piece of paper hidden on the back of one of the buildings which will let you skip the area when you click on it.
Re:So what's the game like now? (Score:3, Informative)
Expecting stats to function correctly isn't asking very much of a game. Any game that can't do that is not ready to ship.
This was one of the most botched launches in the history of MMOs, and it came in an era when majorly botched launches aren't tolerated anymore. To say that the game is "vastily improved" is also like saying "the game actually works most of the time now."
Re:So what's the game like now? (Score:3, Informative)
Not terribly helpful since you don't illustrate WHY you left.
For one thing, I would imagine that anyone who has played this game would understand that.
For another, the reasons are far too many to list here. If I gave one or two of my reasons, by themselves they may seem insignificant and people would wonder what the fuss is about.
Let me put it this way;
If MMOs were a drug, World of Warcraft would be the heroin of MMOs.
Age of Conan would be the methadone.
Its list of adverse effects on the user is far longer than that of heroin. Its very unpleasent to use but still addictive.
You want a concrete example?
The graphics.
Phew, the graphics in AoC are amazing aren't they? Fantastic effects and detail.
But what about the colors? Everything is so drab; all browns, greys and greens.
You may say 'well much of nature is browns greys and greens' and that'd be true.
But in nature the contrast between shades of these colors is noticable.
Age of Conan may *use* 24 bit color but it may as well be 16 bit.
I turned the digital vibrance on my video card up so high it hurt my eyes on the desktop and that produced *some* contrast in AoC.
Thats the flavor of the game; its drab, dull, boring and monotonous. I have never seen an MMO like it.
Interestingly, Funcom is a Swiss company. Perhaps if they had done an MMO based on cleaning, for example, it'd have been truly great.