Age of Conan Cometh

I got invited into the technical BETA.  I started the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG process of downloading and patching the client then figured, eh, I’ll just wait.  Today I received a FilePlanet email about BETA keys for subscribers.  I started to check out the link and read the details, but once again I decided not to bother.  No reflection on Funcom or AoC but this game was never on my list of MMOs I wanted to play this year.  I’ve only considered it since the games I thought I’d be playing have been repeatedly delayed.  Okay, well one of them has been delayed where as The Chronicle of Spellborn won't way when that is coming our way. Do they think they're Blizzard or something??

I think I’ll just wait to read what reviews come out of the Open BETA.  I’m curious about two things.  First thing is what people think about the initial solo play period where it plays like an RPG.  Was it a valuable experience?  Did it allow them to introduce epic storylines or special interactions like LOTRO does with the solo instanced quests?  Is the initial learning curve for the combat system so challenging that you need alone time to get going?  I really want to know what gives with this idea.  As curious as I am about that, I’m  more interested in reading player reactions to the FFA twitch style of the combat.   

I’ll admit to not having read much, so I could be way off base.  However, I believe it’s supposed to lean more toward the Free-For-All (FFA) style, combined with the fact that it is somewhat twitch-based like a first person shooter.  For console gamers that might not be anything new.  Where as for pure PC MMO players, that’s a bit of a twist.  I want to see how people respond.  I think many people take auto-attack and sticky targeting for granted.  It’s probably all that they know.  Other than the game statistics crunching behind the scenes to determine the probability of your accuracy, hitting a target is pretty much a sure thing.  My understanding is that it won’t be that simple in AoC.

Veteran or hardcore PVPers aren’t likely to have an issue with a serious FFA environment, and perhaps those are the only players that will actually play the game.  However, I’m kind of expecting that there will be players who purchase the game because they love the IP but won’t like how FFA feels up close and personal.

WOW PVP on PVP servers is about as care-bear FFA as can be implemented - I think.  I’m not sure why it feels that way to me.  You can be attacked, ganked and camped by players of the opposite faction no matter what level they are anytime you are in contested zones, which are most of the zones outside of the starter areas and capitol cities. And even before the Battlegrounds (BGs) when there was actually large scale world PVP, it still didn’t feel as abusive as that crap that was implemented in EQ2. 

I mean there where areas awash with corpses day and night – the lag so bad you couldn’t even move, let alone run for your nooblet life!  You cast spells or attacked and hoped you were hitting something.  Most of the time you were already dead, you just didn’t know it. Then there was the rooftop ganking where players level 40+ could use mounts to leap from cliffs or hillsides on to rooftops and just 1-shot noobs with ranged attacks.  Again, a whole town would come to a grinding halt until someone of your faction could come and oust the gankers.  Corpses everywhere – dead players, mobs, NPCs, anything that got in the way ended up face down in the dirt.  Good times.  Good times.  I guess Blizzard got enough complaints about that behavior.  It was eventually banned in the pre TBC zones.

I led a campaign in our guild to call Duskwood our headquarters and we asked everyone to Hearthstone there so we could respond to noob calls for help quickly in DS, SS and AP.  I hosted Duels-n-Drinks twice weekly where I’d buy in-game alcohol for the first 30 minutes of the 1-hour event.  It was fun.  It was a time when all the guild members actually got to “see” each other and meet the characters across the various levels.  The higher toons, dueled the lower ones naked and bare-handed, while we lorded over DS and nuked any unfortunate would-be gankers who had arrived not expecting a full guild to be in the area. HAHA   Sometimes our presence would inspire Horde guilds to mount an offensive and come across the bridge from the Elwynn Forrest.  We did this crazy thing with Mages called the Narthbomb.  It was named after one of our top mages named Narthalion who would somehow explode in the middle of the Horde with priests bubbling and healing him.  It was so long ago I don’t even know what spell he was using but it was funny as hell!

With it being FFA for all intensive purposes, I do remember being frustrated some evenings in my earlier levels.  You couldn’t get anything done and you wasted the little bit of coin you had on potions, food and repair bills.  It wasn’t so much the fighting that annoyed me as Alliance’s indifference to defending the lowbie zones, hence me starting the D-n-D nite once I was high enough to help defend people. I would try to shame them in to showing up to help with things like, “How will we work together later in raids on the upper zones or capital cities if you won’t even come help that people trying to level now?”  I hated players that would actually stand there and watch me get killed and not lift a finger to help.

Like all PVPers, I exacted my revenge when I was at max level and Blizzard un-crapped my class, which at the time was a Warlock.  Yes, that’s right, I LOL noobcoiled Horde all over the place when that patch hit and it was my turn at world PVP.  I never went into the real lowbie zones or dismounted to kill someone on foot – that’s not worth the time.  But I did roam the jungles of STV ganking on occasion and I took advantage of DOTing up people from a far and then running before the guards could reach me.  HAHA Gadgetzan.

Then there was Southshore – home of the leet PVPers with nothing to gain but bragging rights.  No rewards, no titles or phat lewts.  Just your KillBook (logged players that had killed you), your ballz and yer boys!  Oops, I’m a chick. LOL  But you get what I mean.  I’m sure there were players that absolutely hated it.  Having lived through that on two toons, I don’t understand people that are complaining about being ganked on the forums now.  *Snicker*  What is there to complain about with so little world PVP??  Most players don’t camp you for long when they could be running around or AFK in some BG for honor and marks.

Anywho, I envision the PVP in AoC to be old WOW style but amplified.  I think it will be more along the lines of the roving gank squads of EQ2 and I’m really curious to see how the general player population will respond.  The obvious response is, “don’t roll on a PVP server if you don’t want to PVP or be ganked.”  Sure that makes sense, but it sure as hell doesn’t stop people from whining about it on the Blizzard forums so I’m not thinking it will stomp them on Funcom’s either.

Yeah, I think I’ll sit this one out for a while and see how it turns out before wading in the shark infested waters.

Comments

[Varka]

/cry

And so many ppl wait just to get a key.

[Khan]

There's a pretty interesting write-up of AoC over at Keen and Graev's blog: http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=982

Doesn't sound like a game that would appeal to me personally. I'm not all that into the Conan lore, the PvP doesn't sound stable and I think the mature rating won't result in the player base many of its proponents think it will.

I'm not writing it off completely, but I'm with you in the wait-and-see camp.

[JoBildo]

Just a note that the FFA PvP is on seperate servers, just like PvP and PvE servers in WoW.

I can't say much, but what I can say from the PvP weekend is that I really dig the PvE, the PvP needs balancing, and ultimately this game has the most fun combat of any MMOG to date.

More heavy impressions when the real NDA lifts, likely over at TTH where I brood these days.

[JoBildo]

Oh you know that... ahem. That'll teach me to post before reading it all.

One thing that intrigues me about the open PvP servers is that cities will be safe zones and only in the wild will there be PvP. I'm curious to know exactly how bad the town exit bottle-necks will be.

I have a feeling, from all my time spent in the community these past months that the majority of eager players that are into PvP are ready for the game to be a brutal experience. But that doesn't mean Jo Blo isn't going to pick up the game, log into a PvP server and be shocked to find himself mercilessly attacked again and again until he rerolls on PvE or never logs in again.

I know a lot of people in the community used to fight tooth and nail for AoC to be ONLY FFA PvP and have no PvE servers at all. Let's just say at least Funcom's not that stupid. I may be biased, but FFA PvP is a niche audience these days.

I prefer my PvP to be in a more controlled environment. In AoC, I'm only worried about the balance in the arena games, and just how well the sieges will play out in the Border Kingdoms (which incidentally are entirely open FFA zones for end-game PvP even on PvE servers).

But really, I think most of my time will be spent in a PvE environment only venturing into PvP the same way I did in WoW... for a change of pace.

[Saylah]

@JoBildo - Thanks for clarifying how the PVP has been implemented. I find something missing in the area of adventure and risk when I try to roll on PVE only servers. Although if the end game sieges are FFA PVP not matter what, that might be enough.

I guess I think because of the initially ravenous cries for FFA only, I think the people the roll on PVP will be those brutal wanna stomp you in the ground crowd. I don't a good fight. I dont mind a fair fight. But as a solo player, I'm not going to have a gang around to keep me from being ganked or mercilessly camped so that give me pause when considering this game.

Gankage doesnt worry me in the other games that are coming out, as I expect them to be similar to WOW. But something about this particular crowd just lends me to believe that it will be more like the roving death squads on EQ2 and that's not for me. However, you've said the combat is good so I haven't written this off and will just continue to wait and see.

Thanks for the information.

[JoBildo]

No problemo. Just did some further thinking on the issue of bottle-necks myself. Might want to give it a read and pay attention to the "solution" I came up with... *wink-wink*. Keep in mind I'm not saying I know this is how it is on FFA servers for a fact... but you know *wink-wink*. Oh I'm sorry there must be something in my eye.

Still as a solo player, your best bet will likely be a PvE server where you can choose your fights while leveling up and then head to the Border Kingdoms for some even leveled open zone PvP later in the game.

Heck, you could always join us TTH staffers on whatever server we roll on. We'll watch your back. ;)

Open beta is next week and the NDA will be lifted soon. All the info you could possibly want will be making its way very shortly.

[Khan]

Interesting stuff there, JoBildo. *hands him some eye drops* :) Can't say I'd be that interested in FFA PvP (at least as I've seen it in other games). I'll just have to wait and see what the feedback is before jumping in.

I haven't seen anything about flagging / unflagging in PvE servers. Is there a similar set up to WoW where you can opt to be PvP-enabled even though it's a PvE server?

[JoBildo]

You know I'm not sure on that actually... honest to Jeebus. I didn't even look into it yet.

[JoBildo]

Oh, and finally added you to my blogroll. I can't believe I never had. I'm always stopping by... my bad.

[Saylah]

@JoBildo - Since I have your attention, what the heck does your name stand for?? I wondered about it the first time you posted a reply but it slipped my mind.

thanks for link will do same. I'm bad about keeping that up as well. heck, i often for get to see if real comments have gotten snagged in the "spam filter" until someone emails me asking to free their comment. :-)

If I join the AoC crowd, I'll try stepping out of character a bit and find out where the TTH folks have landed. Happy BETA, I'm going to skip Open as well.

[JoBildo]

It's a long story, but my real name is Bill. In elementary some older kids thought it would be cool to mix it with a certain female toy and thus the nickname "Bildo" was born. It stuck, but I always thought it was a little too misconstrued as dirty, so when I started working at IGN and now TTH, I added the "Jo" which is my wife's nickname.

JoBildo I am.

[RomaGoth]

I was also invited to the Fileplanet Beta, but the keys were all taken for the day, and after seeing the download size I will pass. I don't want to dip into AOC until I see what the reactions are. So far, I have heard that:

1) The graphics are outstanding
2) Combat is difficult but fun
3) Special moves in combat don't work unless you are standing still
4) Casters appear to be the toon of choice right now

I am not all that interested in a FFA environment, I believe someone needs to be able to watch each other's back. Who can you trust in that type of environment?

I am waiting on the game just as you Saylah.

[Gaming Diva]

I was almost temped to pull out my Windows notebook to see whether I could be lucky enough to try this out, almost. Too bad they don't offer support for Mac. :-( There are a lot of Mac gamers. Thankfully more game developers are making games available for the Mac.