I'm still worried. I pre-ordered from GameStop (in-store, not online), and still haven't gotten a pre-order card with the mammoth/early access stuff. They had no idead what I was talking about when we pre-ordered over a month ago, and still don't. Anyone else have this problem? Should I go back up there? Man, I hate GameStop, but I want the mammoth. Same thing happened when LOTRO came out, and I had to cancel and go to Best Buy, where I was handed a box right there. Maybe I have to do that again.
Call them. They promised me they'd call me when they got them, but my Gamestop/EB Games got theirs the same day as GTA:IV. So call them, they should have them.
I'm still worried. I pre-ordered from GameStop (in-store, not online), and still haven't gotten a pre-order card with the mammoth/early access stuff. They had no idead what I was talking about when we pre-ordered over a month ago, and still don't. Anyone else have this problem? Should I go back up there? Man, I hate GameStop, but I want the mammoth. Same thing happened when LOTRO came out, and I had to cancel and go to Best Buy, where I was handed a box right there. Maybe I have to do that again.
Call them. They promised me they'd call me when they got them, but my Gamestop/EB Games got theirs the same day as GTA:IV. So call them, they should have them.
Yea, if they don't know what your talking about now, cancel and go somewhere else, even if it's just another Gamestop.
Aiserou on
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gaming_librarianTurn your face to the sun...Registered Userregular
I'm still worried. I pre-ordered from GameStop (in-store, not online), and still haven't gotten a pre-order card with the mammoth/early access stuff. They had no idead what I was talking about when we pre-ordered over a month ago, and still don't. Anyone else have this problem? Should I go back up there? Man, I hate GameStop, but I want the mammoth. Same thing happened when LOTRO came out, and I had to cancel and go to Best Buy, where I was handed a box right there. Maybe I have to do that again.
Call them. They promised me they'd call me when they got them, but my Gamestop/EB Games got theirs the same day as GTA:IV. So call them, they should have them.
Thanks. I think I'll do that. I"ll just keep calling them until they're annoyed enough to at least call their corporate office about it or something. :P I will have my mammoth, by God.
After playing the beta and listening to beta players concerns, I am now no longer sure I want to get the game. From what they're saying, the world is small and cramped, lacking quests and a lot of content, and more importantly, zero decent world pvp. I hope so badly that Funcom really have a magical internal build that they'll release at launch.
What? Who said that? The first 20 levels are supposed to be played solo, and are heavy into the story and play almost like a singleplayer game, but after twenty (which really shouldn't take long to hit) the game opens up like any other MMO. The starter area has *tons* of quests, I've made like 10 characters and still find new ones from time to time. And isn't the whole game built around world pvp? Player built cities and sieges and stuff?
Sure, the client has legitimate problems, but the world is fuck-awesome.
Aiserou on
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
What? Who said that? The first 20 levels are supposed to be played solo, and are heavy into the story and play almost like a singleplayer game, but after twenty (which really shouldn't take long to hit) the game opens up like any other MMO. The starter area has *tons* of quests, I've made like 10 characters and still find new ones from time to time. And isn't the whole game built around world pvp? Player built cities and sieges and stuff?
Sure, the client has legitimate problems, but the world is fuck-awesome.
I was actually talking about the game post level 20
Also, I too thought the game would come down to awesome sieges and world pvp, so I was not so concerned about the PvE parts lacking, but after reading the mechanic for the battle system, well, I was just dismayed at how horrible it sounds.
Guilds will get to grind battlegrounds in order to end up in a queue in order to get the chance to siege one (out of only a few) fortresses? On top of it all, it's entirely instanced!
In my mind, this mechanic will destroy any hope of world pvp other than ganking.
Sorry for being so doom and gloomy by the way, but I couldn't help it
Ah, I guess that's different. Good thing is we can all find out this weekend when they open up the entire world.
As for the monitor, it goes into sleep mode when I turn the computer off. Leaving it on isn't really an option since I sleep in the same room and it would keep me awake.
Aiserou on
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AngryThe glory I had witnessedwas just a sleight of handRegistered Userregular
What? Who said that? The first 20 levels are supposed to be played solo, and are heavy into the story and play almost like a singleplayer game, but after twenty (which really shouldn't take long to hit) the game opens up like any other MMO. The starter area has *tons* of quests, I've made like 10 characters and still find new ones from time to time. And isn't the whole game built around world pvp? Player built cities and sieges and stuff?
Sure, the client has legitimate problems, but the world is fuck-awesome.
I was actually talking about the game post level 20
Also, I too thought the game would come down to awesome sieges and world pvp, so I was not so concerned about the PvE parts lacking, but after reading the mechanic for the battle system, well, I was just dismayed at how horrible it sounds.
Guilds will get to grind battlegrounds in order to end up in a queue in order to get the chance to siege one (out of only a few) fortresses? On top of it all, it's entirely instanced!
In my mind, this mechanic will destroy any hope of world pvp other than ganking.
Sorry for being so doom and gloomy by the way, but I couldn't help it
The world seems fairly large but there is one deal-breaker for me as far as it is designed: everything. is. instanced.
Say you're in one town and you want to get to the next. You cannot simply ride your mount across the world to reach that town. Zones are not connected. Each zone is an island unto itself and you must, effectively, warp there via an NPC. If you're traveling over an ocean you talk to an NPC at the docks and he takes you there on his ship (aka: simply a loading screen) and if it's by land you talk to a stage coach NPC and he takes you there on a coach (aka: simple a loading screen).
I just love actually travelling places in an MMO, because it gives the world so much more. You get immersed in the sheer size of the realm you are playing in, rather than simply hoping from zone to zone via warps through NPC dialogue. Kind of negates the point of having a mount when all you use it for is to get from one area in one zone to another area in the same zone.
Apparently there are plans to have the zones eventually connect where you zone through to the next one (like in EQ) but I don't really want to wait for that. By then, I'll be used to warping all over like a retard and I won't bother with the travel. It's weird. I want to travel the hard way because it's just more immersive and fun, but once I'm used to traveling the easy way, the hard way isn't fun anymore.
Also, the game hasn't been singleplayer to level 20 for quite some time now.
That's very true. Everyone thinks it's singleplayer only til 20, but that's totally false. From 1-20 you play in Tortage, which is a rather smallish and cramped area of the world. You run quests through here like any MMO, except the difference is you can visit the Inn and talk to your class's "Destiny" quest giver to enter "Night time."
Here, it's just you. You complete the Destiny quests which are the main storyline ones. At 20, you go off to the rest of the world. Apparently, there are only a couple more Destiny quests in the game from here on, which is kind of underwhelming considering so much pre-20 is focused on it.
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited May 2008
Closed Beta is being patched tonight
Update notes for May 7th (46927)
The version we have just patched out is mostly focused on improving performance and stability of the game. There should be a very noticeable reduction in client stalls, crashes, and memory leaks! You may also notice the improved light model and texture quality! Underwater Fog is now in so all of your underwater adventures will be even more realistic! Last, but not least, we have spent a great deal of effort on polishing the shader cache system. This, along with all the other fixes, should provide you with the smoothest AoC experience yet!There are some larger known issues with the version, but we decided to release the version with them due to the greatly increased performance of the client.
* NPC`s pop into a T-pose or slide at times when your client does not have the animation pre-loaded.
* Some NPCs with patrol points do not behave in the intended manner. This is causing some issues with a few of the Destiny quests.
* There is a collision box that needs to be adjusted on the rooftop for the Rogue Awaking I. If you become stuck here, please use your Path of Azura to free yourself.
* Character models may fail to load in character selection or cause a major stall while loading.
Destiny Quests:
Destiny Mage:
* The Awakening I: Valeria should properly appear to slay the Executioner and give the player a trinket from the Resistance.
Items
* Heavy Hood no longer allows hair to stick through.
Client/Server
* A multitude of server and client crashes and asserts have been resolved in this latest version.
* Fixed a bug causing chat channels available to one character to remain in the client's channel list when relogging with another character without restarting the client.
* The client will now show a warning dialog when low on disk space, and an error dialog when totally out of space. The error dialog will exit the client.
Gameplay
* You should longer lose stamina when entering hiding.
* You can no longer use climbing points if you have no line of sight to them.
Character
* The Looting animation should now be properly interrupted when switching to another task while looting.
* The player should now be able to dodge in any direction even when close to an opponent.
Rendering
* Fixed an issue which occasionally caused odd colors to appear on the ground.
Camera
* Mobs should no longer permanently disappear from your screen.
* Added lighting to dialogues.
GUI
* The Cash display in the gui should no longer become blank during trade.
* On the quest tree only the Region that has the currently selected Quest should be highlighted, not all of them.
* The Tradeskill window should now display the Turn Page button when applicable.
* Added hover highlight to the people/pvp button.
* Added hover highlight to the guild information button.
* The Friends/Guild Members window should no longer appear every time the player enters conversation.
* Fixed an issue that caused the Soul Fragment bar to not appear for some Assassins.
* People search should now update correctly.
* Guild mates on the opposing team in PvP should not have a pink overhead name in a minigame any more.
* Trying to use an ability while not possible (i.e. rest while in combat) should now procuce an on-screen message.
* The login and password fields should now gain focus when clicking anywhere on them and not only in the center.
* Fixed an issue that caused single control key (shift, ctrl, alt etc) remapping to not work.
* Exclamation points on the minimap which indicate quests for which a player does not meet the requirements should appear gray instead of gold.
* The arrow keys and enter can now be used to select a character in character selection.
* Added an option for displaying time stamps on chat messages.
* Fixed a bug causing the tooltip for the "People and PVP" button to be wrong for characters below level 5.
* Fixed a bug causing the "time left" entry in buff tooltips to be off by upto 2 seconds at the beginning of the countdown.
* The Need/Greed/Pass dialog should now show all the appropriate information about the item in question.
* The loot options were added to: - right-click-menu of all the team-members - right-click-menu on the portrait of a loot-bag.
* The command timer bars should no longer appear in cutscenes and NPC dialogues even if "Display Hidden GUI > Timer bar" is selected in interface options.
* Made the cooldown indicator on potions more visible and fixed a bug causing the center of the "clock effect" to be off center if the item was zoomed when the cooldown started.
* The delete character dialog should now open with the password input field focused.
* All appropriate combat actions should now display in the combat log, including blocking, missing, parrying, evading, dodging, etc.
* The flash effect on spell icons when their cooldown period is over are now properly clipped to the size of the spellbook GUI.
* Fixed a bug causing the map windows to reopen at the exact position they where closed at, even if that was a temporary position during the slide-in animation.
* It is now possible to sort by price at vendors.
* The horizontal feat dependency lines now have arrows.
* Feats that have dependencies that span multiple tiers should now have feat lines showing the connections in the feat gui.
* Magic rating should once again be showing the proper number.
* Single-button dialog boxes can now be closed by pressing enter.
* The login progress dialog should now center correctly.
* Combat logging should no longer occasionally appear in Vicinity.
* The Brightness, Contrast and Gamma sliders should now update in real-time, without the need to press "Apply" or "OK" to see the changes.
* Fixed various text issues in the video options GUI.
* Options that are not available at the time should now be grayed out.
* Pressing 'r' to respond to a tell should no longer pop up an on-screen message if the player is not logged in.
Guild
* There is now a confirmation dialog when promoting a Guild Leader.
* The building construction window on the player cities will now show the correct name of the resource needed to build the building.
PvP
* Removed the training match dropdown and options.
* The ingame score for the Capture the Flag matches should now be correct at all times.
* The resurection view will now show the text "No resurrection points available" if no resurrections points available in Team Annihilation matches.
Movement
* Added support for walking under water-filled areas.
* You can no longer start climbing in the middle of a jump or fall.
* It should no longer be possible to fall through the world when exiting hide.
* The player should be moved when exiting hide only if they are occupying the same space as another player. The max distance the player should move is capped at 2 meters.
Also, here is an interview on MMORPG.com where they grill a Funcom rep about the betas so far:
Last week, we spoke to Funcom’s Age of Conan Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen about the company’s decision to hold an Open Beta through the subscription-based website Fileplanet. Now that the Fileplanet Beta is underway, a number of player concerns have arisen about the game’s performance and potential launch problems. This week, Tharaldsen speaks once more with MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood, answering a number of concerns that have been raised by our readers.
MMORPG.com:
We have heard many complaints about the presence of loading screens in Age of Conan. Can you tell us why they are there? could the game have been made without them?
Funcom:
When we started to develop Age of Conan we really wanted to bring a new level of immersion to MMOs (and judging from the feedback we have done exactly that!), and we wanted the most lush and detailed areas we could possibly deliver (while hand-picking the best from the Conan lore, across Hyboria). It was therefore a trade-off that we divided Conan into zones, and by doing so we also, naturally, had to have load times between the zones. I think this price is worth paying, for sure, but for Open Beta we reintroduced an old bug which expanded the loading times way beyond the acceptable (the bug makes the game write and store tons of code while loading, which increase the loading times too much).
It is noteworthy to mention that if you want a seamless world, you need to stream a lot of the content to make it load right. We tried this, but it meant degrading the quality of the graphics, and even getting a lot fewer interest points in the game, so the end result was an easy choice. Quality won!
MMORPG.com:
We have heard that the Fileplanet Beta client is actually an old client and won't be the one used on release. Can you speak to that?
Funcom:
It for sure won’t be the one we have on release! I mean, 150 experienced MMO developers working crunch are able to polish, a lot;) We are making some great updates and fixes based on the lessons learned, lessons we would not have received without the stress we put our servers and systems under. I must stress that it was, and is, beta, and the verdict should come for our launch version, not the version three weeks before.
And yes, I have seen the same rumors that it’s old, but it’s not entirely true. We tried to include the best we had on a stable approach, but in our eagerness to please we wanted to get a few additional fixes out (hence we pushed the launch back a couple of hours). In order to reach the May 1st date some of those fixes led to unwanted side-effects which weren’t discovered in time. For some, it got a bit rockier than we wanted. We are running an extensive survey now, and from the first few hundred replies (which should be statistically correct), it seems that most people are actually having tons of fun AND good performance. We are humble about it though, and admit that things could have gone smoother, but the experience some people have had now has helped us to improve for launch, which is what really matters.
It’s also clear that those who are in our Closed Beta have had a more stable and better experience because of the reasons mentioned in this interview, but rest assured we are aware what caused this and have some really nice updates for you come launch
MMORPG.com:
A number of players are complaining that they are experiencing poor performance despite meeting the recommended system specs. How do you respond to this?
Funcom:
This is true for a minority of the players, but I feel pretty confident it’s not because of their systems alone but because of stalls and memory leaks, or even simpler things like trying high settings on a low-end machine. I mean, with the graphics we have, no lowest spec machine can even be kicked to perform well on high. I have to point out that a number of players are reporting stellar performance on the very same approach (meeting recommended specs). We cannot knee jerk to forums posts though, we need to ensure that the data we get, and where we subsequently put our best coder brains, is based on logic and correct data. We have now gathered loads of data, and we have learned a lot. It will surely improve for launch.
MMORPG.com:
Do you expect performance issues to be resolved before launch?
Funcom:
I don’t expect any high-end PC game to resolve absolutely all performance issues before launch, and it won’t be any different with Conan. It never ends as new graphics cards, drivers and machines are introduced. HOWEVER, when we are playing the launch code here we see great performance across numerous systems, OSes and cards. I was just down to the coder HQ (aptly renamed and organized for launch), and a laptop on low specs performed great with the fixes implemented! We have now FIXED the main causes of the issues on the Beta which were synch compiling of shaders and fragmentation of memory. The symptoms of these problems included most of the issues that some experienced, including missing NPCs, players falling through the ground, the map missing and crashes. In the latest builds we have improved memory handling and we do shader-compilation asynch, and OMG does it help! That we have solved this issue means a lot to us. It was unfortunate that some people on the Open Beta were affected by these issues (our bad), but now that we have the solution I am in a strange way happy about it too. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack, now that we have found it I can with relief say that it would have been _much_ worse to find out about this at launch.
MMORPG.com:
Can you tell us what led Funcom to decide to create a game that would require higher-end computers to run?
Funcom:
People love great graphics, and everyone is, regardless of what they say, being pumped by graphics. It’s a trade-off, surely, and both a gift and a curse, but at the end of the day it has also propelled us into the position as the, by far, most read about, viewed and awarded MMO in development. In all of this (famous last words etc.), I think people will actually be pleasantly surprised about how well Conan runs on lower than the highest spec machines.
MMORPG.com:
There are members who are complaining that (from their experiences in the Fileplanet Beta), they expect AoC to have a "rocky" launch and point to AO's launch as an example. Can you speak to this?
Funcom:
If you say that you surely weren’t there for the AO launch. I was, and it can’t even by a fraction compare.
We got a couple of surprises when we launched the Open Beta (which it was honestly great we found them at this point and not at launch). We also proved beyond any doubt that our server technology is rock stable once we deployed the first fix (we expected more issues, and did not get them, a very good sign). That most all (80-90%?) seem to think our core gameplay is really fun and engaging is a very nice outake, and that we have taken immersion, storytelling and audio in MMOs to a whole new level is another one, and so much more. We are on track to something special, and it’s FUN. The day we dig down because of bad news we have lost as a company. We are about learning from the things which don'tt go as well as we would have liked them to, and improving on that.
Do I think we will get a rocky launch? Any MMO launch is a major challenge, and there is always something, but I think we are looking good at the moment. We have been through the storm before, so we know what we are up against, and I think we have what it takes to make it right.
MMORPG.com:
On the flip side, what are the best results that you have gotten out of the beta so far?
Funcom:
That most people love our game! That it’s fun, that it’s mature, that the combat system delivers, that the previews coming up are so good, that our server tech is even better than anticipated, and that we learned so much, and not the least, that we are able to fix the majority of the reported issues for launch.
MMORPG.com:
You hinted at a beta surprise in our latest interview, care to reveal this today?
Funcom:
Yeah! The short version; we have an epic ending to our open beta! We had always planned something special, and it was a chore to not speak about it during the fuzz leading up to this, but we didn’t want to destroy the emotional impact the news would have. Hopefully the players will love what we have coming for them, and I think they will. We don’t plan to do major patches to the Open Beta before it ends though, but some tweaks there might be;)
And what is the surprise? On the 10th of May, we are transforming the entire Open Beta into PvP MAYHEM, while at the same time giving players to all which Hyboria as to offer! That is right, as we take down our servers for a short period we are at the same time changing the entire server rule-set to Free For All PvP carnage! Your servers will ALL become PvP! Participate if you dare, or make a new character and stay in the safety of Tortage!
Aside from the usual PR Spin, I think the Funcom rep came off a bit pompous. That might just be because I am a bit biased, having experienced probably every single issue that went wrong during the recent betas, it sounds like he is brushing it off saying, "Most people say it performs great on low-end machines! We can run it quite well on low-end machines!"
Come on, just admit that the current build was fucking shit and then talk about the improvements that we'll see at launch. Don't say that the launch will be spectacular and the current version is only causing "some" people problems.
Ok, So I'm going to get on tonight when I get home in... roughly two hours. Would anyone care to group up with me (Tempest of Set) to try to get some actual group play in? Considering I haven't been able to do it yet. If we get enough people we could group up and do some pvp too. So who's game?
Dyvion on
Steam: No Safety In Life
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
Ok, So I'm going to get on tonight when I get home in... roughly two hours. Would anyone care to group up with me (Tempest of Set) to try to get some actual group play in? Considering I haven't been able to do it yet. If we get enough people we could group up and do some pvp too. So who's game?
I'll be on for a couple hours. I'm a Priest of Mitra, level 26 I think... around there.
Right now the patch keeps getting pushed back. The current ETA is: there is no ETA. "The closed beta servers will remain down until further notice"
I'm kind of excited because, apparently, this build is all about performance.
Ok, So I'm going to get on tonight when I get home in... roughly two hours. Would anyone care to group up with me (Tempest of Set) to try to get some actual group play in? Considering I haven't been able to do it yet. If we get enough people we could group up and do some pvp too. So who's game?
I'll be on for a couple hours. I'm a Priest of Mitra, level 26 I think... around there.
Right now the patch keeps getting pushed back. The current ETA is: there is no ETA. "The closed beta servers will remain down until further notice"
I'm kind of excited because, apparently, this build is all about performance.
Oh crap. It seems in my excitement to see the game get fixed I missed the 'closed' portion of the Closed Beta being patched tonight... I'm in the open beta. darnit. Looks like more DAoC for me tonight.
Dyvion on
Steam: No Safety In Life
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
Other than often stuttering (which is really no big deal considering my minimum specs and a beta client), I'm really not impressed with the positional attack system.
It feels like Diablo or a regular MMO with more micromanagement.
That being said, I do like the world and the more LotR-style cinematic setup (though I think LotR did them quite a bit better, in terms of style). I could see spending some time exploring it.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy the game. With how much time I'll have to dedicate to it between real life and TF2 I'm not sure will make it worth the price but I do want to explore the world a bit and give funcom a chance to iron out the kinks and see what game it becomes (and I've always had a thing for the less played MMOs (AO, Vanguard)).
I've been out of town for the past week so I haven't be able to play, but from what i have played I've enjoyed. I think I've lucked out as far as performance problems because I haven't really had any, nothing game breaking anyways. I'm in open and closed beta, but I'm debating on whether or not to play the closed beta or not, I think I'd rather save the experience of exploring beyond Tortage for release.
LittleBoots on
Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.
Other than often stuttering (which is really no big deal considering my minimum specs and a beta client), I'm really not impressed with the positional attack system.
It feels like Diablo or a regular MMO with more micromanagement.
That being said, I do like the world and the more LotR-style cinematic setup (though I think LotR did them quite a bit better, in terms of style). I could see spending some time exploring it.
The direction combat thing gets better once you have a lot of combo starters and it's less you just mashing whatever direction you feel like.
I'm still worried. I pre-ordered from GameStop (in-store, not online), and still haven't gotten a pre-order card with the mammoth/early access stuff. They had no idead what I was talking about when we pre-ordered over a month ago, and still don't. Anyone else have this problem? Should I go back up there? Man, I hate GameStop, but I want the mammoth. Same thing happened when LOTRO came out, and I had to cancel and go to Best Buy, where I was handed a box right there. Maybe I have to do that again.
My store didn't have them until Tuesday of this week. It's probably worth your time to check your store again.
GoodOmens on
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
0
DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
Ok, So I'm going to get on tonight when I get home in... roughly two hours. Would anyone care to group up with me (Tempest of Set) to try to get some actual group play in? Considering I haven't been able to do it yet. If we get enough people we could group up and do some pvp too. So who's game?
I'll be on for a couple hours. I'm a Priest of Mitra, level 26 I think... around there.
Right now the patch keeps getting pushed back. The current ETA is: there is no ETA. "The closed beta servers will remain down until further notice"
I'm kind of excited because, apparently, this build is all about performance.
You told me there was to be no excitement. Stop that.
But yeah, sucks for us open-beta users. We're like... the unwashed masses of this beta process. Why can't we get a performance hike?
The game is full of oddness though. For example, when taking a swim in the waters of tortuga, my hair randomly switches on and off as my head bobs up and down.
Or during a cutscene, when every NPC is standing in the leonardo pose for no apparent reason and floating over the terrain without a single animation
Or you know, naked females walking around because the game is not loading their clothes
Zzulu - That vitruvian man big has been around in various forms since I got in beta several months ago. When I first started, anytime you went into a new area, it had to load the NPCs and all their assets, so you'd turn a corner and see a nearly naked NPC in that pose as one by one his armor popped into place. Good times =p
dachish on
My heart it ceases, my breath undrawn.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
HaHa. yeah I have never seen that girl do that yet in the Thirsty Dog!!! Thats pretty cool looking though. It seems like people are getting a lot of different random stuff happening to them. I have been in the open beta since they started it up and I haven't had too many problems. The only big things are the load times and studders, which aren't supposed to be in the final launch of the game: we have an old client.
chaddlock on
0
DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
edited May 2008
The inane chatter in the general chat is such that I don't pay attention too often (a lot of "lol wut? I are the leet cuz I have it on highs!!!!111one ATi suxors.") but I saw last night that there's supposedly a sword in the Volcano that has a chance to drop and the same sword also increases your fatality chances... anyone seen it?
Other than often stuttering (which is really no big deal considering my minimum specs and a beta client), I'm really not impressed with the positional attack system.
It feels like Diablo or a regular MMO with more micromanagement.
That being said, I do like the world and the more LotR-style cinematic setup (though I think LotR did them quite a bit better, in terms of style). I could see spending some time exploring it.
The direction combat thing gets better once you have a lot of combo starters and it's less you just mashing whatever direction you feel like.
I've gotten a few, but it doesn't change the feel of it. It still gives me the impression of complexity and micromanagement just to be different than everyone else. Oddly, I think I would enjoy the combat *vastly* more on a console.
I got an awesome graphics bug where the beach prostitute's head did the rotating thing, but her breasts also rotated on a horizontal plane. Really strange. I keep getting people's heads with broken geometry too.
Post-patch my bug is actually worse. I'm losing my internet connection as soon as I load up the game instead of about 30 seconds into playing. I've managed to play this game for six consecutive minutes over the past 3 days.
Posts
Call them. They promised me they'd call me when they got them, but my Gamestop/EB Games got theirs the same day as GTA:IV. So call them, they should have them.
Yea, if they don't know what your talking about now, cancel and go somewhere else, even if it's just another Gamestop.
Thanks. I think I'll do that. I"ll just keep calling them until they're annoyed enough to at least call their corporate office about it or something. :P I will have my mammoth, by God.
Sure, the client has legitimate problems, but the world is fuck-awesome.
I was actually talking about the game post level 20
Also, I too thought the game would come down to awesome sieges and world pvp, so I was not so concerned about the PvE parts lacking, but after reading the mechanic for the battle system, well, I was just dismayed at how horrible it sounds.
Guilds will get to grind battlegrounds in order to end up in a queue in order to get the chance to siege one (out of only a few) fortresses? On top of it all, it's entirely instanced!
In my mind, this mechanic will destroy any hope of world pvp other than ganking.
Sorry for being so doom and gloomy by the way, but I couldn't help it
As for the monitor, it goes into sleep mode when I turn the computer off. Leaving it on isn't really an option since I sleep in the same room and it would keep me awake.
The world seems fairly large but there is one deal-breaker for me as far as it is designed: everything. is. instanced.
Say you're in one town and you want to get to the next. You cannot simply ride your mount across the world to reach that town. Zones are not connected. Each zone is an island unto itself and you must, effectively, warp there via an NPC. If you're traveling over an ocean you talk to an NPC at the docks and he takes you there on his ship (aka: simply a loading screen) and if it's by land you talk to a stage coach NPC and he takes you there on a coach (aka: simple a loading screen).
I just love actually travelling places in an MMO, because it gives the world so much more. You get immersed in the sheer size of the realm you are playing in, rather than simply hoping from zone to zone via warps through NPC dialogue. Kind of negates the point of having a mount when all you use it for is to get from one area in one zone to another area in the same zone.
Apparently there are plans to have the zones eventually connect where you zone through to the next one (like in EQ) but I don't really want to wait for that. By then, I'll be used to warping all over like a retard and I won't bother with the travel. It's weird. I want to travel the hard way because it's just more immersive and fun, but once I'm used to traveling the easy way, the hard way isn't fun anymore.
That's very true. Everyone thinks it's singleplayer only til 20, but that's totally false. From 1-20 you play in Tortage, which is a rather smallish and cramped area of the world. You run quests through here like any MMO, except the difference is you can visit the Inn and talk to your class's "Destiny" quest giver to enter "Night time."
Here, it's just you. You complete the Destiny quests which are the main storyline ones. At 20, you go off to the rest of the world. Apparently, there are only a couple more Destiny quests in the game from here on, which is kind of underwhelming considering so much pre-20 is focused on it.
The version we have just patched out is mostly focused on improving performance and stability of the game. There should be a very noticeable reduction in client stalls, crashes, and memory leaks! You may also notice the improved light model and texture quality! Underwater Fog is now in so all of your underwater adventures will be even more realistic! Last, but not least, we have spent a great deal of effort on polishing the shader cache system. This, along with all the other fixes, should provide you with the smoothest AoC experience yet!There are some larger known issues with the version, but we decided to release the version with them due to the greatly increased performance of the client.
* NPC`s pop into a T-pose or slide at times when your client does not have the animation pre-loaded.
* Some NPCs with patrol points do not behave in the intended manner. This is causing some issues with a few of the Destiny quests.
* There is a collision box that needs to be adjusted on the rooftop for the Rogue Awaking I. If you become stuck here, please use your Path of Azura to free yourself.
* Character models may fail to load in character selection or cause a major stall while loading.
Destiny Quests:
Destiny Mage:
* The Awakening I: Valeria should properly appear to slay the Executioner and give the player a trinket from the Resistance.
Items
* Heavy Hood no longer allows hair to stick through.
Client/Server
* A multitude of server and client crashes and asserts have been resolved in this latest version.
* Fixed a bug causing chat channels available to one character to remain in the client's channel list when relogging with another character without restarting the client.
* The client will now show a warning dialog when low on disk space, and an error dialog when totally out of space. The error dialog will exit the client.
Gameplay
* You should longer lose stamina when entering hiding.
* You can no longer use climbing points if you have no line of sight to them.
Character
* The Looting animation should now be properly interrupted when switching to another task while looting.
* The player should now be able to dodge in any direction even when close to an opponent.
Rendering
* Fixed an issue which occasionally caused odd colors to appear on the ground.
Camera
* Mobs should no longer permanently disappear from your screen.
* Added lighting to dialogues.
GUI
* The Cash display in the gui should no longer become blank during trade.
* On the quest tree only the Region that has the currently selected Quest should be highlighted, not all of them.
* The Tradeskill window should now display the Turn Page button when applicable.
* Added hover highlight to the people/pvp button.
* Added hover highlight to the guild information button.
* The Friends/Guild Members window should no longer appear every time the player enters conversation.
* Fixed an issue that caused the Soul Fragment bar to not appear for some Assassins.
* People search should now update correctly.
* Guild mates on the opposing team in PvP should not have a pink overhead name in a minigame any more.
* Trying to use an ability while not possible (i.e. rest while in combat) should now procuce an on-screen message.
* The login and password fields should now gain focus when clicking anywhere on them and not only in the center.
* Fixed an issue that caused single control key (shift, ctrl, alt etc) remapping to not work.
* Exclamation points on the minimap which indicate quests for which a player does not meet the requirements should appear gray instead of gold.
* The arrow keys and enter can now be used to select a character in character selection.
* Added an option for displaying time stamps on chat messages.
* Fixed a bug causing the tooltip for the "People and PVP" button to be wrong for characters below level 5.
* Fixed a bug causing the "time left" entry in buff tooltips to be off by upto 2 seconds at the beginning of the countdown.
* The Need/Greed/Pass dialog should now show all the appropriate information about the item in question.
* The loot options were added to: - right-click-menu of all the team-members - right-click-menu on the portrait of a loot-bag.
* The command timer bars should no longer appear in cutscenes and NPC dialogues even if "Display Hidden GUI > Timer bar" is selected in interface options.
* Made the cooldown indicator on potions more visible and fixed a bug causing the center of the "clock effect" to be off center if the item was zoomed when the cooldown started.
* The delete character dialog should now open with the password input field focused.
* All appropriate combat actions should now display in the combat log, including blocking, missing, parrying, evading, dodging, etc.
* The flash effect on spell icons when their cooldown period is over are now properly clipped to the size of the spellbook GUI.
* Fixed a bug causing the map windows to reopen at the exact position they where closed at, even if that was a temporary position during the slide-in animation.
* It is now possible to sort by price at vendors.
* The horizontal feat dependency lines now have arrows.
* Feats that have dependencies that span multiple tiers should now have feat lines showing the connections in the feat gui.
* Magic rating should once again be showing the proper number.
* Single-button dialog boxes can now be closed by pressing enter.
* The login progress dialog should now center correctly.
* Combat logging should no longer occasionally appear in Vicinity.
* The Brightness, Contrast and Gamma sliders should now update in real-time, without the need to press "Apply" or "OK" to see the changes.
* Fixed various text issues in the video options GUI.
* Options that are not available at the time should now be grayed out.
* Pressing 'r' to respond to a tell should no longer pop up an on-screen message if the player is not logged in.
Guild
* There is now a confirmation dialog when promoting a Guild Leader.
* The building construction window on the player cities will now show the correct name of the resource needed to build the building.
PvP
* Removed the training match dropdown and options.
* The ingame score for the Capture the Flag matches should now be correct at all times.
* The resurection view will now show the text "No resurrection points available" if no resurrections points available in Team Annihilation matches.
Movement
* Added support for walking under water-filled areas.
* You can no longer start climbing in the middle of a jump or fall.
* It should no longer be possible to fall through the world when exiting hide.
* The player should be moved when exiting hide only if they are occupying the same space as another player. The max distance the player should move is capped at 2 meters.
Also, here is an interview on MMORPG.com where they grill a Funcom rep about the betas so far:
Last week, we spoke to Funcom’s Age of Conan Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen about the company’s decision to hold an Open Beta through the subscription-based website Fileplanet. Now that the Fileplanet Beta is underway, a number of player concerns have arisen about the game’s performance and potential launch problems. This week, Tharaldsen speaks once more with MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood, answering a number of concerns that have been raised by our readers.
MMORPG.com:
We have heard many complaints about the presence of loading screens in Age of Conan. Can you tell us why they are there? could the game have been made without them?
Funcom:
When we started to develop Age of Conan we really wanted to bring a new level of immersion to MMOs (and judging from the feedback we have done exactly that!), and we wanted the most lush and detailed areas we could possibly deliver (while hand-picking the best from the Conan lore, across Hyboria). It was therefore a trade-off that we divided Conan into zones, and by doing so we also, naturally, had to have load times between the zones. I think this price is worth paying, for sure, but for Open Beta we reintroduced an old bug which expanded the loading times way beyond the acceptable (the bug makes the game write and store tons of code while loading, which increase the loading times too much).
It is noteworthy to mention that if you want a seamless world, you need to stream a lot of the content to make it load right. We tried this, but it meant degrading the quality of the graphics, and even getting a lot fewer interest points in the game, so the end result was an easy choice. Quality won!
MMORPG.com:
We have heard that the Fileplanet Beta client is actually an old client and won't be the one used on release. Can you speak to that?
Funcom:
It for sure won’t be the one we have on release! I mean, 150 experienced MMO developers working crunch are able to polish, a lot;) We are making some great updates and fixes based on the lessons learned, lessons we would not have received without the stress we put our servers and systems under. I must stress that it was, and is, beta, and the verdict should come for our launch version, not the version three weeks before.
And yes, I have seen the same rumors that it’s old, but it’s not entirely true. We tried to include the best we had on a stable approach, but in our eagerness to please we wanted to get a few additional fixes out (hence we pushed the launch back a couple of hours). In order to reach the May 1st date some of those fixes led to unwanted side-effects which weren’t discovered in time. For some, it got a bit rockier than we wanted. We are running an extensive survey now, and from the first few hundred replies (which should be statistically correct), it seems that most people are actually having tons of fun AND good performance. We are humble about it though, and admit that things could have gone smoother, but the experience some people have had now has helped us to improve for launch, which is what really matters.
It’s also clear that those who are in our Closed Beta have had a more stable and better experience because of the reasons mentioned in this interview, but rest assured we are aware what caused this and have some really nice updates for you come launch
MMORPG.com:
A number of players are complaining that they are experiencing poor performance despite meeting the recommended system specs. How do you respond to this?
Funcom:
This is true for a minority of the players, but I feel pretty confident it’s not because of their systems alone but because of stalls and memory leaks, or even simpler things like trying high settings on a low-end machine. I mean, with the graphics we have, no lowest spec machine can even be kicked to perform well on high. I have to point out that a number of players are reporting stellar performance on the very same approach (meeting recommended specs). We cannot knee jerk to forums posts though, we need to ensure that the data we get, and where we subsequently put our best coder brains, is based on logic and correct data. We have now gathered loads of data, and we have learned a lot. It will surely improve for launch.
MMORPG.com:
Do you expect performance issues to be resolved before launch?
Funcom:
I don’t expect any high-end PC game to resolve absolutely all performance issues before launch, and it won’t be any different with Conan. It never ends as new graphics cards, drivers and machines are introduced. HOWEVER, when we are playing the launch code here we see great performance across numerous systems, OSes and cards. I was just down to the coder HQ (aptly renamed and organized for launch), and a laptop on low specs performed great with the fixes implemented! We have now FIXED the main causes of the issues on the Beta which were synch compiling of shaders and fragmentation of memory. The symptoms of these problems included most of the issues that some experienced, including missing NPCs, players falling through the ground, the map missing and crashes. In the latest builds we have improved memory handling and we do shader-compilation asynch, and OMG does it help! That we have solved this issue means a lot to us. It was unfortunate that some people on the Open Beta were affected by these issues (our bad), but now that we have the solution I am in a strange way happy about it too. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack, now that we have found it I can with relief say that it would have been _much_ worse to find out about this at launch.
MMORPG.com:
Can you tell us what led Funcom to decide to create a game that would require higher-end computers to run?
Funcom:
People love great graphics, and everyone is, regardless of what they say, being pumped by graphics. It’s a trade-off, surely, and both a gift and a curse, but at the end of the day it has also propelled us into the position as the, by far, most read about, viewed and awarded MMO in development. In all of this (famous last words etc.), I think people will actually be pleasantly surprised about how well Conan runs on lower than the highest spec machines.
MMORPG.com:
There are members who are complaining that (from their experiences in the Fileplanet Beta), they expect AoC to have a "rocky" launch and point to AO's launch as an example. Can you speak to this?
Funcom:
If you say that you surely weren’t there for the AO launch. I was, and it can’t even by a fraction compare.
We got a couple of surprises when we launched the Open Beta (which it was honestly great we found them at this point and not at launch). We also proved beyond any doubt that our server technology is rock stable once we deployed the first fix (we expected more issues, and did not get them, a very good sign). That most all (80-90%?) seem to think our core gameplay is really fun and engaging is a very nice outake, and that we have taken immersion, storytelling and audio in MMOs to a whole new level is another one, and so much more. We are on track to something special, and it’s FUN. The day we dig down because of bad news we have lost as a company. We are about learning from the things which don'tt go as well as we would have liked them to, and improving on that.
Do I think we will get a rocky launch? Any MMO launch is a major challenge, and there is always something, but I think we are looking good at the moment. We have been through the storm before, so we know what we are up against, and I think we have what it takes to make it right.
MMORPG.com:
On the flip side, what are the best results that you have gotten out of the beta so far?
Funcom:
That most people love our game! That it’s fun, that it’s mature, that the combat system delivers, that the previews coming up are so good, that our server tech is even better than anticipated, and that we learned so much, and not the least, that we are able to fix the majority of the reported issues for launch.
MMORPG.com:
You hinted at a beta surprise in our latest interview, care to reveal this today?
Funcom:
Yeah! The short version; we have an epic ending to our open beta! We had always planned something special, and it was a chore to not speak about it during the fuzz leading up to this, but we didn’t want to destroy the emotional impact the news would have. Hopefully the players will love what we have coming for them, and I think they will. We don’t plan to do major patches to the Open Beta before it ends though, but some tweaks there might be;)
And what is the surprise? On the 10th of May, we are transforming the entire Open Beta into PvP MAYHEM, while at the same time giving players to all which Hyboria as to offer! That is right, as we take down our servers for a short period we are at the same time changing the entire server rule-set to Free For All PvP carnage! Your servers will ALL become PvP! Participate if you dare, or make a new character and stay in the safety of Tortage!
Aside from the usual PR Spin, I think the Funcom rep came off a bit pompous. That might just be because I am a bit biased, having experienced probably every single issue that went wrong during the recent betas, it sounds like he is brushing it off saying, "Most people say it performs great on low-end machines! We can run it quite well on low-end machines!"
Come on, just admit that the current build was fucking shit and then talk about the improvements that we'll see at launch. Don't say that the launch will be spectacular and the current version is only causing "some" people problems.
Ok, So I'm going to get on tonight when I get home in... roughly two hours. Would anyone care to group up with me (Tempest of Set) to try to get some actual group play in? Considering I haven't been able to do it yet. If we get enough people we could group up and do some pvp too. So who's game?
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
I'll be on for a couple hours. I'm a Priest of Mitra, level 26 I think... around there.
Right now the patch keeps getting pushed back. The current ETA is: there is no ETA. "The closed beta servers will remain down until further notice"
I'm kind of excited because, apparently, this build is all about performance.
Oh crap. It seems in my excitement to see the game get fixed I missed the 'closed' portion of the Closed Beta being patched tonight... I'm in the open beta. darnit. Looks like more DAoC for me tonight.
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
Other than often stuttering (which is really no big deal considering my minimum specs and a beta client), I'm really not impressed with the positional attack system.
It feels like Diablo or a regular MMO with more micromanagement.
That being said, I do like the world and the more LotR-style cinematic setup (though I think LotR did them quite a bit better, in terms of style). I could see spending some time exploring it.
I've been out of town for the past week so I haven't be able to play, but from what i have played I've enjoyed. I think I've lucked out as far as performance problems because I haven't really had any, nothing game breaking anyways. I'm in open and closed beta, but I'm debating on whether or not to play the closed beta or not, I think I'd rather save the experience of exploring beyond Tortage for release.
Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.
The direction combat thing gets better once you have a lot of combo starters and it's less you just mashing whatever direction you feel like.
My store didn't have them until Tuesday of this week. It's probably worth your time to check your store again.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
You told me there was to be no excitement. Stop that.
But yeah, sucks for us open-beta users. We're like... the unwashed masses of this beta process. Why can't we get a performance hike?
I was talking to a female NPC when suddenly her head starts rotating vertically, and so did my own
then her arms kind of dislodge and start rotating next to her torso until they sink into her torso and dissapears.
This continues until the dialogue is over and everything pops back into normal.
Oh and our hair vanished as well.
It was just one of those "what the fuck just happened" moments
Tell me you got a screenie
The game is full of oddness though. For example, when taking a swim in the waters of tortuga, my hair randomly switches on and off as my head bobs up and down.
Or during a cutscene, when every NPC is standing in the leonardo pose for no apparent reason and floating over the terrain without a single animation
Or you know, naked females walking around because the game is not loading their clothes
Visual bugs are fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfl9Kg8TIIw
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
It looked almost exactly like that and it was the same NPC as well.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
I've gotten a few, but it doesn't change the feel of it. It still gives me the impression of complexity and micromanagement just to be different than everyone else. Oddly, I think I would enjoy the combat *vastly* more on a console.
I got an awesome graphics bug where the beach prostitute's head did the rotating thing, but her breasts also rotated on a horizontal plane. Really strange. I keep getting people's heads with broken geometry too.
as long as content and pvp will work as intended I don't really care if I'm surrounded by vertically rotating tits
How'd that patch work out?
others are having improved performance, some not at all and others claim they're encountering new bugs
I think you're forgetting that mounts are not just forms of travel in this game. They are also tools to effect evisceration.
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