Dog Pants wrote:They're being very effective with these patches I think. I reckon in six months, if they carry on like this, they'll have a very good game.
Although my experience of MMONGS as a genre and AoC specifically is still rather limited, I'm liking the game so far and think that with due polishing it could be really good. I'm yet to try most of the classes or to see how the game plays out at mid/high levels, but I'm feeling confident in it getting better.
Incidentally, me and Doggers both seem broadly happy with the game and are both still treating it largely as a single-player-with-chatroom. Could the two things be related? No idea if it's of relevance, but that thought did just occur to me.
I group more now than I did at lower levels. The bosses are capable of wiping teams in less than 10 seconds if you get it wrong.
Can't believe they fixed tordealbach after I spent multiple days in groups and attempted to down her about 10 times. She did need it though, her 500 poison per sec aoe went off every 5 secs or so. I only kept the reward sword for a few hours anyway, I had a better one.
Lateralus wrote:Incidentally, me and Doggers both seem broadly happy with the game and are both still treating it largely as a single-player-with-chatroom. Could the two things be related? No idea if it's of relevance, but that thought did just occur to me.
Almost certainly, at least for me. I find being forced to team up to progress extremely restrictive, partly because I don't like talking to randoms and partly because I hate having to rely on other people. I've been considering it while thinking of the relative merits of the game, and although I'm happy with it I wouldn't have felt the same if actually was single player. The addition of a chat function wiht other people playing the same game, and the knowledge that you might run into a friend, make a big psychological difference. Conversely, I've wondered if a chat function and a few friends in the same world might have made Oblivion more enjoyable.
More often than not I find the presence of other people in your world gives you the warm fuzzy show off abiliity - "hey look what I got, aren't I leet" - and the option to asks questions when you get stuck. It's the interaction with other humans over shared experiences that is the main draw, regardless of whether you actually ques together.
Case in point was X3 vs Eve. I enjoyed X3, it was a pretty spaceship trading pew pew game. But when I finally got a big shiny ship I had noone to show it off to and it suddenly all seemed rather pointless. In Eve I got to prance around in said ship showing it off to people before dying horribly in a big ball of fire and crying like a girl. It made it so much more worthwhile.
friznit wrote: It's the interaction with other humans over shared experiences that is the main draw, regardless of whether you actually ques together.
I think this is why I like it. I've always enjoyed games like Morrowind and Oblivion, but the added chatroom does make it a social game, even without the teaming. However, I'll wait and see how well that lasts.
Of course being able to do things together makes things much better. I'm not talking about group quests, especially in the case of 5punkers, more the ability to get together and just do stuff. In City of Heroes the best times were those where we just did stupid thigs as a group, such as the faaabulous pride march and the Spartacuses. Similarly, Eve does group play very well not because the game says "you need to be in a group to do this", but because it just came naturally to co-operate in groups when mining or hunting other players. I suspect part of the responsibility in both those cases are also the poor solo opportunities - both got increasingly difficult to solo, and the missions were all very similar.
Mine hasn't crashed once since I turned everything to 11. And I changed between a staggering 18 areas in 20 minutes last night in a race to see how far I could push the loader before the server shut down.
I do like how the mages have been nerfed again, oh wait no, they're all receiving buffs!
As a conker, I supposedly get the ability to stack 2 buffs that increase damage, needed it really, the later buffs at rank 1 are superior to the rank 5 or 6 earlier ones. But do they actually stack? Do they Fuck!
Also, anyone else get the email recently with this hidden away at the bottom:
Email wrote:Now is your chance to win a lifetime Age of Conan account packed full with exclusive virtual items! All you have to do is send us an e-mail to enter the sweepstakes, and if you win then you can choose to either have your existing account upgraded or to receive a brand new account.
All you have to do is send an e-mail to contest@ageofconan.com by July 22nd to enter. Supply the following information: your name, your address, your telephone number and your Age of Conan account name
No purchase necessary. Prizes are one (1) upgrade to your existing Age of Conan account. Odds of winning dependant on number of entries. Competition open to residents of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.(except Rhode Island and Puerto Rico). Draw will be made by manner of random draw in Oslo Norway on the 23rd of July, 2008. Any applicable taxes or customs fees are responsibility of winner. Entry to this competition is void where prohibited by local laws
[Aquilonia] [Sasky]: how do i reset a ins?
[Aquilonia] [Sasky]: how do u reset a ins ?pl
[Aquilonia] [Bonin]: leave the instance, stand on one leg and hop 720 degrees anti-clockwise, then re-enter the instance, it should be reset
[Aquilonia] [Sasky]: lol im not a morrons u tit
Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Just so you know, I've had to clear the gems out of the guild bank, because the bank was pretty much unusable.
I've left the flawless gems in there, but I've moved the rest onto an unused alt, so if you need any, poke me.
The flawless ones make size 10 gems which I can't use at the moment (I can make them, but not the armour to put them in). I'll take whatever you've got, as each gem has a vaguely random outcome so I can just spam them all into carved gems and pick out the best ones for armour. Speaking of which, I can make most types of armour now. Level 40, one size five slot. I've made myself some nice heavy gloves with +5.4 lightening damage, but I've also got gems that do stamina or mana recharge and a bunch of others that didn't look that great.
Also, I've got tons of alchemy supplies that I'll just ditch to make room for gems if nobody wants them.
Odd, seeing as the first 20 levels are definately the best polished and likely to draw people in.
Incidentally, PCG gave it 77%. I made a post on their forums regarding the review process for MMOs and already I'm getting foaming rants about their AoC review.
Although my experience of MMONGS as a genre and AoC specifically is still rather limited, I'm liking the game so far and think that with due polishing it could be really good. I'm yet to try most of the classes or to see how the game plays out at mid/high levels, but I'm feeling confident in it getting better.
