Sitting on the Fence with Age of Conan

It’s nearly over. The free month that comes when purchasing the game should end on or around the 27th of June.

And I’m not sure if I’ll resubscribe to Age of Conan when time’s up.

I think the problem is the hook.

Have you noticed that when you start reading a novel there is a certain number of pages that you turn before the author either grabs you and you cannot put the book down, or you lose interest and stop reading?

Funcom has spent a lot of effort on the hook. The first twenty levels in Tortage are well set out and in particular the nighttime destiny quest is pretty well thought out. It even offers a bit of variety if you choose different archetypes.

Tortage alone would normally be enough to hook me. Unfortunately, it’s the problems I have encountered that has spoiled the game for me.

• Yesterday I crashed to desktop twice in an hour, from what I understand is a known memory leak bug.
• Funcoms patches fix some problems and break other parts of the game. Since the last patch some spots now prevent me running past, I have to jump over them. The great boob nerf was also apparently a result of a fresh bug introduced in a patch. And the previously mentioned memory leak seems to occur more often now than when I first started playing.
• I’ve been unable to enter the preorder code in order to claim the mammoth.
• Graphics issues with the map textures disappearing so that I have a gray map with the map icons on it.
• I did have some other graphics issues that I have since fixed.

There are a few game design ‘features’ that bug me too.

• The biggie is not being able to switch characters without exiting the game and logging back in. I find that very annoying.
• Bag space is way too limited. Though to be fair, quest items and resources have their own tabs and plenty of room. It’s vendor trash that’s a problem, on a normal run I have to leave huge amounts of stuff on the ground. sigh.
• The quest GUI is pretty poor. While I haven’t reached the limit, I can only track one quest at a time. It also doesn’t provide the quest level, a feature other games have had for a while.
• The tooltips provided on spells and feats is pretty spare. A feat tip will tell you that it increases some stat or damage, but not by how much. There’s no real way to compare feats until you test them.
• I’m also hearing reports that one of the best features of the game, the destiny quests, have major gaps after 20. After Tortage the next destiny quest is at 30, and there isn’t that much involved. Pity. I was hoping for a sequence of quests like the Tortage quests.

Okay. Now all that sounds pretty negative.

There’s a lot to like about Age of Conan too.

• It had a pretty solid release, even despite the large amount of downtime during Oceanic primetime the first couple of weeks, and that is now much reduced. Like all these games there have been some server issues. That’s to be expected. But Funcom have learned a lot since the launch of Anarchy Online and that’s evident in this launch.
• The graphics are excellent. Of course that was one of the major selling points of Age of Conan, and Funcom have delivered on this point.
• At last there are some skills I haven’t seen in other games like Climbing. I’ve wanted to see climbing in a MMO for years. AoC doesn’t do it exactly the way I’d like — If you’ve trained enough points you can click on a special vine or ladder and climb it — I’d like to see climbing on any face or object if the player has enough points. In this case though, good enough.
• I like the combos. I haven’t done any spell weaving and I understand combos are useless in PvP, but I don’t PvP. The combos add a little bit of additional skill, if you can get them right.
• I like the world. Hyboria is a dark and dangerous place, and AoC brings that feel across. The devs have certainly done a good job and have shown that they know their source material. I think there is a huge amount of potential for a lot of stories to be told here.

The problem is that Funcom have on the one hand hooked me with the good stuff, but by releasing prematurely have loosened the hook with the other hand.

I have no doubt that Age of Conan will come together in the next few months to be one of the best MMORPGs around. AoC could have been released that way if Funcom had taken the time to polish it before release.

So I’m wondering if I’ll keep my subscription going when the free month ends. Do I want to pay to be a beta tester? I haven’t made a decision yet. I’ll give it a few more days.

Popularity: 12%

Signup for the Mythos Beta

One of my readers, Azalus, commented on one of my posts about Mythos asking if anyone had a spare beta invite.

Reading the review makes me want to play this even more, unfortunately I have yet to receive an Invite…

Lucky for Azalus, the Mythos beta was opened up a while back so he can go to the Mythos web site and enter his email address in the signup form provided.

A lot has changed since I took my original look at Mythos. The biggest change, a sort of back to the drawing board level event, involves the de-instancing of much of the world. The areas between dungeons are now open for one and all.

Personally, I’m not all that sure this is a good move. Sure it makes the game more MMO — a lot of folks have commented that Guild Wars isn’t a true MMO simply because it instances the space between towns, something that Mythos used to do — but it removes that Diablo feel. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Anyway. If you’re still interested in Mythos, head over to the main site and sign up for the beta.

Popularity: 10%

Dreamlords: The Reawakening Beta

Lockpick Studios last year released a MMORTS that received some pretty good reviews from the major MMO websites. This year the Swedish studio is following up on that success with a followup to that game called Dreamlords: The Reawakening.

I received a press release today from Lockpick and an invitation to participate in the beta. In fact the beta is open to anyone to participate in. Just go to the Dreamlords The Reawakening site and sign up.

Here is the press release:

Dreamlords The Reawakening is the follow-up to last year’s acclaimed
MMORTS debut title (Stratics 8/10 – MMORPG.com 7.6/10 – TenTonHammer
4/5 – GamersHell 8/10) from Swedish Lockpick Entertainment. Blending the
popular RTS and RPG genres, The Reawakening is set in a ravaged world where
the players each controls a Dreamlord, a celestial warlord, in their quest
to restore order and peace.

• Free to Play.
• Recruit and manage your troops, form alliances with other players or crush them…
• Bring your Dreamlord with you all the time in the game, equip it with various exciting gear and cool stuff.
• Simplified rules system, easy to get into – hard to master.

Like its predecessor, Dreamlords The Reawakening is a MMO-cross genre game
that combines role playing aspects such as character development, trade
skills, and special abilities with a RTS combat mode. Developed in close
co-operation with the massive community, The Reawakening has an
asynchronous online model where an infinite amount of players exist in the
same universe where fierce battles are fought between players over the
precious lands. Dreamlords is much like playing a traditional RTS game
online with the added enhancement of a persistent world filled with
exploration, questing and wars for conquest.

Dreamlords – The Reawakening is a free-to-play MMORTS that will be
available at www.dreamlords.com in a near future.

======================================================
About Lockpick Entertainment
Lockpick Entertainment is a privately funded company in the digital
entertainment industry focusing on the development of computer games based
on original concepts. Located in Skövde, Sweden the company was founded
2005. In 2007 the company released its first game, the acclaimed MMO
Dreamlords, a unique blend of RTS, RPG and Strategy. Lockpick is currently
working on Dreamlords – The Reawakening which will release in Q2 2008.
Lockpick Entertainment works closely with the University of Skövde and
Gothia Science Park.

If you are a fan of the free to play MMO genre, and don’t mind beta testing — please join up to actually test and give feedback — I’d recommend you look into this one. I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to have a peek, but when I do I’ll give you the lowdown.

Popularity: 12%

Kill ‘em, Kill ‘em All

Just a quick tip for those of you just starting out with Age of Conan.

You are probably aware that the starting island, Tortage, gives you two quest choices. A daytime mode where you get the stock standard quests that nearly every other MMORPG gives you, and the nighttime mode where you get your destiny quest line.

While the daytime mode quests are the same for every character you create, the destiny quest mixes it up for each archetype. The archetypes are Priest, Rogue, Mage, and Soldier. So if you roll an alt of each type, your destiny quests will have some significant differences. You’ll still get some of the same tasks, for instance climbing the volcano, but you’ll see the story from four different perspectives, and hear about how your alts have helped out. Something I think is pretty darn cool.

The problem is that you cannot just play straight through the nighttime destiny quests. At certain points in the story you will be required to be level 10, 15, and 19 to continue.

This means that you will have to do the daylight quests.

If you’re like me and have rolled umpteen alts, you might not want to repeat the daytime quests ad nauseam, so here’s a way to minimize the daytime quest grind. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to completely bypass them.

The trick is to kill everything.

From the beach to the gate, make sure you kill all the crocodiles, pirates, Picts, apes, and demons. This will get you a little past level 5. From there head into Tortage and do the quests that get you through the gate into the city. When you get the stone blocks, kill more pirates than necessary and try to level 6.

When you are sick of that, hand in the quests, enter the city and pick up the quests just inside the gate. Go do those. Fight the pirates that stole the whores valuables and kill a few more than necessary again. Hand in your quests — you should be level 7. If not kill a few more baddies until you hit level 7.

At this point head into the Thirsty Dog, hand in the letter to Tina, and start your destiny quests.

You should be quest your way all the way to level 14 before you need to do the daytime quests. The only thing you need to make sure of doing is to kill every mob in the areas you quest in. You’ll hit White Sands island, and the Volcano twice. If you’re a mage, you’ll also do Mithrils Mansion. The mobs you encounter will be at your level when you entered the instance. Killing all the mobs in these areas alone will gain you several levels.

Once you hit fourteen you’ll need to do the daytime quests again. This time level up until you are at least level 18. This might depend on the class archetype you choose since the quests are different and involve different amounts of killing.

From there it’s simply a matter of doing the destiny quests until you complete them and leave Tortage.

It’s likely that starting the destiny quests a couple of levels later, between eight and ten would leave less of a gap and get you straight to the chain starting at fifteen. I haven’t tested this, but I expect the amount of daylight questing will still be similar. Mainly due to the higher levels experience requirements.

So there you go. Getting through Tortage without doing daylight quests isn’t possible, but if you plan on a lot of alts, the steps above should get you through with a minimum of repetition.

Popularity: 15%

A View From The Tailors Shack

Age of Conan may not have been quite ready for release, but there is no arguing that the developers have done a bad job with the graphics. Age of Conan is a graphically gorgeous game. One of the sights that you can see very early on is the town of Tortage — a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Where you need to keep one hand on your coinpurse and another on your knife. And where you always need to watch your back.

It’s also a good looking place in it’s own way, as this view from the Tailor’s Shack just outside town attests.

Popularity: 15%

Age of Conan Announcement

Funcom hasn’t been taking vacation time since the recent release of Age of Conan. On logging in to Age of Conan today, an announcement of the near future of the game by Gaute Godager, the games director, is up on the game loader. I’ll present it in full below. You can read the original on the Age of Conan community site here.

Fellow Hyborians!

As you may have noticed we have had frequent patches the last two weeks. We hope this will soon start to quiet down, but as long as there are major issues – and there have been – we will dedicate the Conan team to fixing them and giving you these fixes as soon as possible! We have a plan on how to move this game forward because as you know, what you have today is but the platform – the dawn of this world. I hope you enjoy the game as is, but I can ensure you, this is but the beginning!
Our focus from now on can be summarized by these points:

1. We will add content, specifically in mid-late thirties and mid-late fifties and make the leveling speed smoother in those areas, reducing the need to grind.
2. We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things.
3. We are fixing bugs you reported through all channels we can get information from.
4. We will add a new large outdoor region in the 55-60 range this summer!
5. This is only a small taster! More information about the exciting summer and fall Roadmap will come the end of the next week!
6. We are staffing up Customer Service, Quality Assurance and Community departments!

I will spend some words on a bit more details now.

1. Filling “thin areas” in our content
We have seen that there are certain level ranges of these Hyborian Adventures that do not have the amount of quality we wish them to have. Most specifically these are the end of the Thirties and the end of the Fifties level ranges. We are addressing this in several ways.

• Several mid-late thirties dungeons are getting a complete overhaul (Black Castle, Pyramid of the Ancients and Treasury of the Ancients)
• Several quests are being made fuller and more entertaining. If people wish to revisit these quests, we will add a system to let them try them out again.
• we are adding first a batch of quests in Eiglophian Mountains (lvls 55+)
• We are also adding in a bunch of quests that didn’t quite make it for launch in the 30+ areas.
• Around 60 quests through the game have been flagged as “Lore Quests”. They will now be patched out with full Voice-Over. (Roughly 1 quest per level after level 20)

All this will come in June! In July the first level 80 additional Dungeon will be patched out. More on that later…

2. Overhauling the PvP System
People like our open PvP system. There are many plans on how to give this open free PvP even more meaning and Purpose. In the meantime we will be doing some smaller tweaks, and we plan to get these out sometimes in June. I will not go into 100% detail here, but that will come next week! What I can promise is:

• An update on how sneaking and perception works in PvP (nothing major, but an adjustment).
• A change in the amount of information you get when you hover over an other player.
• An added system of consequence to “ganking”. (Killing much-much lower level players).
• A system of adding consequence to losing a PvP match, and winning a PvP match + turning on PvP Leveling.
• A change in how Crowd Control (Root, Knockback etc) works in PvP.
• PvP gear.

3. New Massive Region
We will unveil this location later, but it will feature a host of quests, new monsters and places of dreams or horror. It will be styled towards the players in the late 50s and bridge the experience on the way to Atzels Approach. We have plans for releasing several of the areas that didn’t quite make it for the release.

4. Fixing bugs and increasing Customer Service
Funcom has always prided ourselves with having great customer satisfaction. The success so far for this title has left us with the need to increase the size of CS. This will go in parallel with the constant fixing of bugs and other issues that lead people to petition. Included in this is even better testing of the game by increasing the size of Quality Assurance and informing you better about changes by staffing up the Community Department. I know a blurb like this will haunt me always, but I will still venture one: We aren’t satisfied until all our customers are! You know we had a very, very difficult launch of Anarchy-Online! That was a very painful process for all of us working on it – 4 years. You might not understand how driven we are to make sure you enjoy this game, and all the support around it!
The future is very bright for Hyboria. There will be many bright mornings following this, the very first. Together we shall surge ahead and build the world even bigger, better and more detailed!

Yours truly,
Gaute Godager
Game Director
Age of Conan, Funcom

Lack of quest content in the mid to late 30s and the 50s has been one of the biggest complaints that I’ve seen in the official forums. It’s good news that this is been looked at with some urgency. It appears that this wasn’t due to oversight on Funcoms part; the content just simply wasn’t ready for launch.

Adding full voice over for the lore quests after level twenty. Excellent. Strongly needed to give a continued impression of polish. But they shouldn’t stop there. All quest givers need to be given a voice. I don’t mean they need a full voice over. But they should do more than just grunt at me. I know the Conan universe is set in a slightly post stone age world, but a "hello there" is much better than an "ugh!"

I had hoped for some comment on the patching during the Oceanic primetime, though that does seem to have reduced a bit and they are doing the patching an hour later now — the game comes down at 9pm instead of 8pm — but with continued patches promised by Funcom (a good thing btw) the Oceanic prime downtimes seem set to continue.

All in all, a good message from Funcom. It does show that they are recognizing the major problem areas early and are working on them. This should go a long way to calming the Age of Conan community.

Popularity: 14%

Age of Conan First Thoughts

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. I’ve been spending much of my time in Hyboria on the island of Tortage.

So far I have three characters going, all on the Wiccana server. There’s Stropp the male Dark Templar, Perditos the male Ranger, and Marrow the female Necromancer. Out of these Stropp is the only one to have left the starter island of Tortage. The other two are very close to completing the destiny quests.

I haven’t rolled a character in the priest archetype yet, but I probably will soon. Each archetype has a different trainer, and some of the destiny quest line is different. I’m keen on seeing where the priest line fits into the story.

So far I’ve seen only a couple of major bugs show up in the gameplay. On one occasion my avatar stopped responding to commands completely. Which was a problem since I was in a hostile area. I used the /stuck command (the only one that worked) to shift him out of harms way and shut the game down.

The other issue was with the Necro. There were a couple of occassions when my pets just wouldn’t attack, leaving me to fight the mob off on my own. Luckily, the Necro seems pretty powerful (at the lower levels at least) and can dot the bad guys down.

Other than that, there have been some minor graphical glitches like icons and buttons not appearing, the necro pets sometimes being invisible, and some other graphical artifacts that I’ve seen — but not too much. Other players are reporting more serious issues but I haven’t encountered them yet. Touch wood.

There are some annoyances though. The biggest by far is that to change characters while in the game I have to exit the game and log back in. I don’t know why Funcom has gone this way. It makes quickly switching chars impossible. It’s not really a user friendly system.

There is also a major limitation on the number of alts that a player can have. The number of character slots available to players is eight per account. You can have one avatar on each of eight servers, or eight avatars on one server, but that is it. Very limited considering there are twelve classes. A player cannot play each class without deleting some of them. To be fair, this may change later once the number of subscribers settles down. Once Funcom gets some solid statistics they may be able to increase the number of slots. As someone with severe altitis, I hope so.

Having said all that. Age of Conan wasn’t ready for release. The starter area is very polished. The quests all have cinematics and decent voice acting, and are very well thought out. Once you leave Tortage, as far as I’ve seen, none of the quest givers have cinematics. And while the quests are reasonable well thought out, there is no voice acting for any of the NPCs. It’s a little disconcerting after the polish of Tortage to simply have NPCs grunt at you, or "woo hoo" when you talk to them. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to give them a canned greeting, a’la "Zug Zug" when you open a conversation. Sad.

There’s a lot of talk in the forums about the effect of skills and armor stats. No one seems to know exactly what effect, if any, increasing these values seems to have. One forum poster claimed to have tested combat at level 55 in green/blue armor and then in vendor trash armor and seen very little difference in the fight. From what I’ve heard and seen, skills seem to be the same, with little in-game (and out of game) information on what different things do.

Content is also a concern for some players. It seems from the complaints that there are level ranges in the game where the quests run out and players have to grind for five or more levels. If this is correct — not good. However, from what I’ve put together, a player needs to do all the quests from all the starting areas and all the green (and perhaps gray) quests to get the XP for them. It seems at this stage that rushing through the levels will mean much more mob grinding.

The Great Boob Nerf also has some players up in arms. In one patch, Funcom appears to have reduced the size of the female avatar boobs. Players who created the largest size possible have been complaining about the reduction. The biggest, and best argument so far, is that regardless of the anatomy being changed, Funcom is changing an aspect of the players character that they selected, and this is wrong. There’s apparently also been some reduction of the mature content; language of NPCs, and female graphical attributes that has some players concerned that the mature content is being nerfed in response to complaints.

The upshot is that Age of Conan was released a little prematurely. Funcom probably should have taken another three to six months with its development. A little more polish above level twenty would not have gone astray. Some additional work on the game systems before release would have a good thing too.

In the end, Funcom had a nice little window in which to release Age of Conan before Wrath of the Lich King and Warhammer Online. Releasing when they did certainly paid off. Age of Conan apparently has over 600,000 subscribers in the first week or so of release. That’s pretty good going.

Popularity: 14%