I was just using spell animations as an example since that was the example I had read, but it was implied that this was something common to all actions - that there were relatively few animations (because they made them more detailed, and more animations would take more time/disk space/memory).
And how do the instances work? If you and a friend log on, can you meet up, or is there a chance you will both be in the same place but on different instances (and so never actually encounter your in-game friend)?
Is there a guild system in place?
Are half the people trying to make their own Conan?
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How is this game with the whole 3 pillar approach to group content? (ie, Tank, Healer, DPS)?
I really want to see a game break out from that formula and turn their "dungeons" into Gauntlet style romps. To me, that would suit more people and be a heck of a lot more fun in general. No more worrying if your "tank" is semi-intelligent, or if the DPS style player knows more then two abilities.
The removal of "crowd control" from games like this would be a plus too. I hate having to spend a minute setting up each battle, even the stupid fodder leading up to an actual boss.
I'll try to comment on this, but bear in mind that I haven't really gotten far enough to try to do group dungeons and explore all of this but I can tell you what I've heard and some extrapolation.
There are classes who can tank (soldiers, which consist of 4 sub classes) and those that can heal (priests, again 4 sub classes) and then the others who just do damage and provide support (4 rogues and 4 mages). From what I hear is that any of these classes are able to do decent damage, so I think that the Holy Trinity (tank, healer and dps) may be a bit looser in this case but it will still be there in some form. For instance, I think it would be fairly viable to have a group made up of 4 soldiers (warriors) and a bear shaman (a type of priest who can also fight) and be perfectly fine, as opposed to how things normally work where you need 1 warrior, 1 priest, 1 mage, 1 rogue and a warlock to off tank.
I think that there will need to be at least one tank and one healer, but the rest of the group may be a bit more fluid than I have seen in the past.
That is sort of the vibe I get, albeit I might be completely off base.
I was just using spell animations as an example since that was the example I had read, but it was implied that this was something common to all actions - that there were relatively few animations (because they made them more detailed, and more animations would take more time/disk space/memory).
And how do the instances work? If you and a friend log on, can you meet up, or is there a chance you will both be in the same place but on different instances (and so never actually encounter your in-game friend)?
Is there a guild system in place?
Are half the people trying to make their own Conan?
To be honest I haven't really paid much attention to the animations, sorry. From what I can remember this is probably a valid complaint.
Sorry I forgot to mention the instances in the last post. Basically what they have done is separate each zone into a bunch of different instances. So a single city may be separated into 10 instances on a single server. this is done to reduce load on any one instance (which I'm sure you understand). If you are playing alone this just means that you don't interact with as many people at the same time (I'm not sure how the chatting works if it is across zones or not, sorry) which may impact the number of people you meet/group with in a totally random manner (i.e. stumbling across a guy who is getting beat up by a vampiric bunny and you save his life and are best friends forever). If you already have friends you will see when they come online, if you group up and meet in the same zone it is very easy for the party leader to summon you to the particular instance you are in. I think it is also very easy to switch instances, so you can meet up that way without grouping.
There is a guild system but I have no idea how well it works. However the interesting bits of the guild system are that you can eventually
a) build a castle
b) take over other people's castles (weather permitting).
I don't know much about either of those to be able to comment on them much.
I haven't been out of the initial "noob" area so I have no idea what the class disparity is. If you mean making up names like "ConanXX" and "xConanax" and talking about how you like to hear the lamentation of the women, I don't think the filters actually allow that sort of naming and most people would probably ignore him anyway.
There is a siege system in place where you destroy other peoples player towns/defend them. Not completely sure how it works yet though.
From what I have read, it gets a bit complicated and I'm really not sure exactly how it goes. By the time I get to a level high enough they will probably change it anyway.
My character is on the server Set if you are looking for a place with someone to chat with. PM me and I'll send you my characters name.
I really love playing adventure games where you get to explore a huge land at your own leisure. Obviously MMOs aren't quite the level of a single player game, but I still enjoy it since there isn't a whole lot of quality adventure games being released these days. Basically what I want to know is if the environments are actually pretty fun to explore (like in WoW for an MMORPG example) and are they pretty varied (ie; snow, plains, forests, etc.)
In terms of variety, so far things have actually been pretty interesting. In the beginner area alone you end up fighting in at least 5 different types of environments. You start on a beach, fight your way through a rain-forest, end up at a city, fight your way through a volcano lair and eventually making your way through a keep. For the future I can see having the ability to visit areas with great Egyptian, Roman and Northern (barbarian) influences just based on the lore (although I could be wrong).
In terms of the environments being fun to explore, I will have a harder time commenting on that. In the beginning it seems like everything, even opening a door on a warehouse, is new and exciting. The one thing that people have complained about is that the areas "feel" linear. The mountains and hills will sometimes cut you off of any other avenue of travel except going forward. Personally, I haven't encountered too much of this and most places have been fairly standard in terms of how much you can get around and explore.
The third thing I'd like to touch on is the amount of detail in the environments. When I played it briefly at my friends house you could pick out small artifacts that were left behind from some civilization as you walk through the rain-forest. Etchings in the walls of the volcano lair. There are places you are permitted to climb, sometimes things that you would not have expected. Basically, from what I could tell in my brief time playing on his machine (which doesn't suck like mine) is that there is huge attention to detail in the environments for the game which I think will help to ensure that the environments are even more interesting.
If anyone is playing this game and is having trouble with their Frames Per Second here is a good thread that I used to get the game running pretty well on my 2 year old PC.
well i'm hooked to this game right now, playing as a Tempest of Set on the server Zug and i quite enjoy it. also have a level 10 Barbarian on Dagoth if anyone is on either of those two servers and wants to group
Pretty fun game. Combat/Quests is about 100x more engaging/fun than WoW.
They just need to concentrate on fixing a LOT of imbalances/problems now, but this should eventually be a good game.
ya the Tempest of Set is kinda ridiculous right now, but i love taking advantage while it's so uber. i can solo several mobs 3 levels higher than me without a problem. when i stack the heals with a healing potion i'm damn near invulnerable, i can take more of a beating than a tank. and with Storm Field i can now kill faster as well, it's nuts
Yeah, maybe at end game they do, but for leveling?
I seriously wanted to mutilate myself trying to quest/level in WoW. I just can't stand it.
Honestly, there was no difference for me. The only difference I found was I could level in Elwynn as a Dwarf. In AoC I'm stuck in one spot. It felt more like a linear JRPG than an MMORPG (at the start).
I can hit 70 in a week and a bit so even when it comes to leveling, I'm a WoW man.
I didn't find AoC combat to be that great. They put a lot of effort in to do a lot of things in combat and ended up with them all just being very "eeh".
