Age of Conan

Well you get SOME loot, it's just not the erection-inducing epics you're used to from WoW. And you get XP and levels I suppose, but really, if you're mostly playing for the reward rather than because it's fun you might as well not bother, right? That's how it devolves into pure addiction and I don't like that feeling.
 
I've actually decided not to renew too - it was Black Castle that did it for me - it had to be the most uninspired, boring, soulless dungeon I've ever encountered. Big square, empty rooms with mobs just standing around taking up space. Even the top boss room had zero though put into it. That plus gaining another level without any new skills or abilities, I suddenly found I just couldn't be bothered anymore.

And the fact that you die and the enemies have all respawned (not on a timer, just respawned), so you have a choice of trawling through them again, or taking a chance by legging it through them?
And that 2 casters at once can really, really hurt you!

I agree that place wants me to eat my own testicles with acid.

And Hedge, some people play to experience new dungeons and story and stuff so the gear is more a stepping stone to more instances.
However, from what i hear, there isnt really much in the way of scripted events and stuff in this game, so i don't know what people will be wanting to experience besides a new environment?

The armor etc really sucks in terms of rewarding the player, as does levelling up, i mean, where's the fanfare?
I actually enjoyed going to an NPC to learn new abilities in WoW, just because it feels like more of an achievement. AoC is just "here ya go"
I did hear the fabled leveling up sound effect once the other day. It was suffice to say... ****!

I'm going to persevere with it for another month, just because i like playing my Necromancer at the moment and i wouldnt mind getting to 40, if its not better by end of july im going to quit me thinks.
 
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Well you get SOME loot, it's just not the erection-inducing epics you're used to from WoW. And you get XP and levels I suppose, but really, if you're mostly playing for the reward rather than because it's fun you might as well not bother, right? That's how it devolves into pure addiction and I don't like that feeling.

I see the point you are making, but when i play RPG games, the gear and becoming a stronger character are what appeal to me. Fun is important, but if i want just a fun mess about for a few hours, id rather play something that can be completed in a more reasonable time. Where the end is the reward
 
Yeah, I can understand that, and I think that partly what alienates people about this game is that it hybridises the style of a single-player RPG (in that it requires more user input, has a more linear storyline etc) with the length of an MMO, stretching out the reward. With WoW, even for the short time I played it, it was very easy to play for a few hours and feel you've accomplished something, either from learning a new skill or getting a new piece of gear. Here I often find myself using the same combos for 3-4 days straight until I gain a level that replaces one of them (and then I run around in circles and trip over myself because the muscle memory in my fingers has to be reset:p), and I know it's not the best for providing an incentive for you to keep playing. TBH, the reason I'm still playing, and still enjoying it, is because whenever I feel bored I give up, I don't often do the epic 4-5 hour marathons. For a couple hours a night it's lots of fun, and I'm not in a hurry to reach the endgame cause I've read about what a pathetic stae it's in so I'm giving them time to fix it!:D
 
Well i just uninstalled AoC, i think ill keep it at hand incase future patches prove to get a good reception.

The game itself has some very appealing aspects for me, i like the character models, i like the towns and environment.. but the performance is a bit hit and miss on my pc, and the items dont show any appeal for me.

I think theres something nice about getting a random magic drop, that actually boosts your stats a good amount.. In other games ive played (probably blizzard i admit), you can get an item even at a low level, and it will make you do more damage or survive longer, until it gets outclassed a little way down the line.

On AoC i was wearing low level stuff because its stats were better than anything id seen on my higher levels. That lack of scale is a negative for me personally.

MMO games will always be about go here, get this, go there, get that. thats probably all thats achievable without being linear/on rails. I dont mind this at all, however i want to get rewards that make that running about feel worth while.

The xp from quests is good on AoC, you level up quite fast... but XP isnt the reward i want. I want character improving stuff, so i can kick mobs asses easier, or not die easily
 
I think a lot of people think the same way you do - if only because of Diablo and WoW, there's still millions of people whose experience of online RPGs are those 2. And I do understand it myself, I remember I felt a minor thrill when I first found a piece of armour that had +natural stamina regeneration on it, and especially when I found a sword with health and stamina tap on it (what can I say, I dig vampirism:p). They just don't mean as much to me as to other people.

This game must've had a really troubled development, the amount of stuff they left out is staggering. I remember for years they were telling us that items would have 2 values on them - one for pvp and one for pve. So far the only 'pvp' stats I've seen are the ones that say "+heroic defense rating", and it's usually a tiny number, so I'm guessing dual stats was something they couldn't implement (probably would've made the data matrix too big for their databases to cope with twice as many fields in it). Obviously they decided to keep only the pvp values, which are naturally toned down so as to keep the game balanced and non-gear dependant in pvp, and I think that was the right choice as I'm looking forward to the endgame pvp and I don't fancy having to grind a dungeon 30 times in order to get the gear for it first. But with so many people quitting the game over this it's really a pity they couldn't fit it in. At the very least they could've provided more variation in the mid-level items' bonuses (while keeping the values for max-level stuff the same) so as to give people a bit of a nice surprise every now and then, but I guess they seriously underestimated what a hugely addictive aspect of an MMO item drops are for people.
 
I think a lot of people think the same way you do - if only because of Diablo and WoW, there's still millions of people whose experience of online RPGs are those 2. And I do understand it myself, I remember I felt a minor thrill when I first found a piece of armour that had +natural stamina regeneration on it, and especially when I found a sword with health and stamina tap on it (what can I say, I dig vampirism:p). They just don't mean as much to me as to other people.

This game must've had a really troubled development, the amount of stuff they left out is staggering. I remember for years they were telling us that items would have 2 values on them - one for pvp and one for pve. So far the only 'pvp' stats I've seen are the ones that say "+heroic defense rating", and it's usually a tiny number, so I'm guessing dual stats was something they couldn't implement (probably would've made the data matrix too big for their databases to cope with twice as many fields in it). Obviously they decided to keep only the pvp values, which are naturally toned down so as to keep the game balanced and non-gear dependant in pvp, and I think that was the right choice as I'm looking forward to the endgame pvp and I don't fancy having to grind a dungeon 30 times in order to get the gear for it first. But with so many people quitting the game over this it's really a pity they couldn't fit it in. At the very least they could've provided more variation in the mid-level items' bonuses (while keeping the values for max-level stuff the same) so as to give people a bit of a nice surprise every now and then, but I guess they seriously underestimated what a hugely addictive aspect of an MMO item drops are for people.

Glad you understand. Items are the main thing for me I guess. It is the whole effort reward thing that exists in Real life however just with quicker returns.

Like people have stated here, you just end up wearing the same kit for 15 odd levels - and with 80 levels in total that is quite a fair chunk of your character leveling career.

I never used to grind dungeons for kit in past MMO's, I would do them once or twice for quests only and if a drop occured which I could use then all the better. I found that, with WoW anyway, that some really good stuff came from quest rewards, and this was more often than not. And if not then it was worth getting the Xp for the quests and you could get further along to that new skill. It was great looking at trainers and knowing what you were going to get and wanting that skill. Finally attaining it was great; both for your own solo questing and knowing how you would better benefit a group

However, in AoC you have no idea what abilities you are going to get and the quest rewards are lacking at the moment. So all you get normally is a feat point or 2. Great, but when you spend then - reward gone. NO new armour to look at no new ability etc etc.

THere is some reward - just for me - at the moment - not enough.

Will check again in a few months.
 
I doubt they're gonna "fix" this aspect of the game in a few months mate, the game isn't designed to be item-centred and never will be (hopefully:p). As I said, I too understand the appeal, although for me probably the closest I've gotten to it was unlocking a new rune or skill in Guild Wars - and then it wasn't so I could use it, most of them were useless, but I unlocked it for my PvP characters where it counted!:D But to an extent you have to be aware that this is one of the carrots of addiction that MMOs hang in fron t of us to keep us paying. It's a very artificial reward that has no meaning outside the game. It's not like WoW becomes more "fun" if you got a kickass piece of armour, does it? The new skills maybe, in the sense they allowed you to mix up your tactics more, but the items didn't really change the way you played, they just made you more powerful: an exclusively in-game reward with no consequences on you personally, just your character.
Personally if I found myself playing a game in which salivating in anticipation of the next cool item drop was one of the biggest draws I'd drop it, because it's a highway to addiction. THat's how I quit Diablo II on the second day after buying it, after having played over 12 hours during those 2 days! :eek:

With AoC, the draw for me is the actiony controls with the twitch gameplay. Some guy posted this melee guide on the US forums - you watch the first 10" and it appears random and chaotic - then watch the next 5' and stand amazed as the frantic action in the beginning turns out to have been a planned mix of carefully-executed strategies that need a level of quick thinking and manual dexterity that I haven't even APPROACHED yet!
http://files.filefront.com/Mephs+Ragni+Entourage+lavi/;10700925;/fileinfo.html
Maybe by the time I'm 80 I'd be good enough to be able to get that guy down to 50% HP before he impales me! :p
 
When will people understand that AOC isn't just WoW with better graphics.

This item obsession? My god what has WoW (and other ****ty mmo's) done to the genre?! Its not about items damn it :/ MMO's should never EVER be about items. Ever.

I guess the people who care about items in MMO's probably walk around in their Nike/Adidas track suites all day, or the latest FCUK t'shirt... gah.
 
When will people understand that AOC isn't just WoW with better graphics.

This item obsession? My god what has WoW (and other ****ty mmo's) done to the genre?! Its not about items damn it :/ MMO's should never EVER be about items. Ever.

I guess the people who care about items in MMO's probably walk around in their Nike/Adidas track suites all day, or the latest FCUK t'shirt... gah.

Point is from what im reading here and other places there's little else to make you want to continue playing either. The story driven part of the game dries up mid-way through levelling.
For an RPG to suceed it either has a decent evolving story, a solid quest system or good character progression and AoC seems to have very little of any of this after the first few levels.
I really do hope they get it sorted I like the look of it a lot and something to drag me away from WoW might be cool (tho I AM a WoW fanboy, will have to admit, being in a fun, social PVE raiding guild it can't do much wrong atm, do have friends without this who see more of it's flaws tho).
 
The beta 177.39 nvidia drivers & physX driver have increased my fps 100% with my 8800GT



*EDIT seems to be better in some places (mountains) but worse in others, also there are many shadow corruption problem,*
 
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Point is from what im reading here and other places there's little else to make you want to continue playing either. The story driven part of the game dries up mid-way through levelling.
For an RPG to suceed it either has a decent evolving story, a solid quest system or good character progression and AoC seems to have very little of any of this after the first few levels.
I really do hope they get it sorted I like the look of it a lot and something to drag me away from WoW might be cool (tho I AM a WoW fanboy, will have to admit, being in a fun, social PVE raiding guild it can't do much wrong atm, do have friends without this who see more of it's flaws tho).

PvP, sieges, guild towns.... MMO's never use to be about handing out everything to the player on a plate. WoW has an awful lot to answer for in dumbing down the genre.
 
PvP, sieges, guild towns.... MMO's never use to be about handing out everything to the player on a plate. WoW has an awful lot to answer for in dumbing down the genre.

Guild towns are broken. Ours had almost all the tier 1 buildings up and running and they do NOTHING. The devs put the mechanism in to actually place the buildings, but nothing else. It's just not finished. It might as well be a half finished Unreal 3 level for all the good it does.

Sieges?? Have you seen the uproar about the one siege that's taken place so far? It was so bad that there's a producers letter at logon promising to fix it all.

I agree it's good to have to work for something, but it's a pain to work for something only to find it's either broken or not in the game at all.
 
Guild towns are broken. Ours had almost all the tier 1 buildings up and running and they do NOTHING. The devs put the mechanism in to actually place the buildings, but nothing else. It's just not finished. It might as well be a half finished Unreal 3 level for all the good it does.

Sieges?? Have you seen the uproar about the one siege that's taken place so far? It was so bad that there's a producers letter at logon promising to fix it all.

I agree it's good to have to work for something, but it's a pain to work for something only to find it's either broken or not in the game at all.

Our guild town is Tier 2 :)

However these are all mechanisms that will be fixed. Their development time has been very good so far in fixing things and offering up new changes.

The PvP changes by themselves are fantastic and make the game worth playing.
 
I'm not interested, I've played the game so I can give my opinion about what somebody says.

If you're not interested, get out. If you claim you know what you're talking about, rebut their arguments intelligently. "PvP is terrible" is phrased as an opinion, it's phrased a statement of fact so you need to support it, otherwise you are, indeed, merely trolling. The PvP is deep, complex, input-intensive and skill-reliant, and if you disagree I suggest you watch that video.
 
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