Mystic Worlds

Age of Conan: Very Early Impressions

Now that I’ve been running around the game for a couple of days, here are some very early impressions.  I WISH I could run the game on maximum graphic settings.  Lush virtual worlds are a key element of pleasure for me in MMOs.  The first evening I saw the game I wasn’t so impressed.  On Low settings it looked like a minor upgrade to the Asheron’s Call 2 graphics.  However, with my new graphics card and my dialed down High settings, there is a huge difference.  I’ve taken a peak here and there with everything on HIGH and wish I could play the game that way.  But alas and alack, I cannot.

I’ve read about the User Interface being clunky.  Eh, the UI isn't the worst I’ve seen. It has a few things that I like such as the maps that aren’t full screen so you can’t see where the heck you’re going with them up unless you download a mod.  /Cough Blizzard.  The maps stack like cards and you can move them anywhere on the screen.  They also zoom in and out with the scroll button which is very convenient.  Similar to what I recall from the PotBS BETA they have markers on the map directing you to quest objectives.  Maybe that was GW and not Pirates that does that, hmm.  Anyway, it’s convenient even if the so-called hardcore players think it’s noobsauce.

The Road to Playing Age of Conan - Mileage May Vary

I'm not hating or anything but the road I traveled to get Age of Conan playable with a reasonable amount of performance was LONG.  Please note that my computer which is a Dell XPS 3.2Ghz Duo Core, 3 GB RAM and Radeon 850XT was more than the minimum requirements.  It should have been somewhere near medium performance expectations.  I did expect to have to tweak a few things or update drivers since I'd heard that people with ATI graphics cards in the BETA had issues.  The luck of the Gods was not with me.  I didn't fall into the "Magic Combination" of factors that produced a reasonable registration, installation and optimization that many others did experience.

I think a person with average computer competency would have given up.  I almost did.  I never did hear from Tech Support.  I contacted Amazon to see if they'd take the game back since I couldn't register the key and hadn't had a timely resolution from Funcom and they said yes.  I'm a HUGE amazon customer and I knew they'd take anything back within reason.

I decided to give it few more tries and over the course of another day and evening, I finally got the game working to an acceptable level.  GO BEST BUY GEEK SQUAD.  I was at the point of just giving in when I decided to take it there.  I think many people would have and WILL bail if they encounter this many issues.

I'll let this picture speak for itself.  You'll want to click the image to view the larger version.

Graphics Pains with Age of Conan

Late into the US holiday weekend, I was finally able to register/activate my game code so that I could play Age of Conan (AoC).  I quickly found out that my inability to register wasn’t going to be my only problem.

I knew going in that the graphics requirements were pretty steep.   I did however, think that my computer, Dell XPS gaming system was up to the test.  My only real concern was reading that some players with AMD graphics cards were having issues, which meant that my Radeon 850 XT might give me a problem related to performance. Unfortunately, what I had was bigger than performance problems.  First I had the black screen issue which I found an answer for on MMORPG.com.  Then there was the screen stutter which I found an answer to on some other web site.  After a couple of hours I finally got into the game and created a character.

To even move around reasonably, I had to have everything on low which left the visual absolutely unacceptable to me.  I must have good looking graphics.  They don’t have to be realistic but they have to be high quality or I just can’t be bothered.  I pushed on anyway to get a feel for the game and then I started getting over heating warning from my graphics card.  At first it happened once in an hour, then twice then every few minutes.  I would stop playing for a while and turn the PC off.  Unfortunately, that didn’t resolve the issue for long the messages just kept coming.  The card’s fan was running and the air flow fine.  I went back to the internet, did some research and downloaded some tools.  By this time it’s Monday midday and I’ve spent more time on the internet trying to resolve problems than playing.

Age of Conan - Fix for Bad Activation Key / No Offer Found

If you're in the situation where you're Activation Key isn't accepted on the registration page or it was consumed during registration and you can't log in, don't wait for Customer Support to email you!  I read forums with people complaining about having gone several days with no response yet from Customer Support.  Just to see if anything had changed, I went back to the registration page and instead of trying to log in, I tried registering the key again.  This time I received a message that explained the problem as a batch of Activation Keys that have to be replaced.

The message will tell you where to email your key and what information to include in the email in order to have a new key sent to you.  I just sent my information and am hoping this is resolved before the long weekend passes.  If not, then I guess I'll just get around to some other things that I haven't had time to do much of lately.

Good luck!

Bad Start to Age of Conan

I've held off playing AoC.  Didn't do the BETA even after I suffered through the long download.  I pre-ordered for early access but I read about the BS drama with access keys really being "while supplies last".  I wasn't in a particular hurry and still very busy at work, so I didn't bother following up on mine.

I did however, want to SEE the damn game when it arrived today.  After installing and patching, I was greeted by audio and the BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH.  I tried accessing the Support forums but they're locked to only paying customers.  I go to register my key and give them my credit card.  So why oh why, couldn't I login to anything AT ALL??? Dunno.  It says user/password invalid.  Tried registering again but the activation key was consumed so that didn't work.  I tried requesting a new password but it says it didn't recognize my email address. Grrrrrrrrrr.  Very strange since I still get BETA email from them and it's the same email I used when giving my game's activation key.  Suffice it to say, that I'm not happy about it grabbing my key and credit card information but not knowing who I am now.

After updating every damn thing I could thing of and having the game check Verify the Resource database it still didn't work.  I searched several unofficial forums and found that I wasn't alone with this problem.  I tried things that had worked for others but it didn't work for me.  Finally, I ran across an article on MMORPG.COM which provided two XML files that needed to be replaced in order to get the video working.

I downloaded them, placed them in the designated folders and voila video.  All I saw was the game introduction which looked like crap on these downloaded settings.  I hear the game looks good so hopefully, they're are fixing this video driver issue and patching it toote sweet. 

Not a good beginning Funcom.  Bugs and the video thing I can deal with for a first launch.  Being locked out of the official forums, support and the login because your registration is fucked up, I don't like one bit.  I especially don't like the game key being consumed with payment information while being told immediately after that I don't exist in your database.  Not cool at all.  The first thing that came to mind was, "Aww hell nah, I wasted money on another Vanguard??"

I hope that's not the case.  I'll give it a few days and see if the email I sent to technical support gets a response.  If not, I'm going to be one pissed off...

Be Back Soon

I took a week's vacation just to get away from work.  I spent lots of time just relaxing at home on the deck and tending my flower garden. I also treated myself to a couple of nifty gadgets.  I thought I'd post while on vacation but so many thing to do and so little time.  I'm back to work now and paying for the 5-day respite. :-)

I should be breathing a bit easier toward the end of next week and start posting again.

What’s Your Hook?

I browsed a couple of posts on the internet today which seemed to give the impression that Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS) isn’t a successful game.  That’s my nicer slant on what was being inferred, they were really trying to say it was more like a failure.  Hmm, I hadn’t heard that it was going down hill on the high seas.  That must have slipped by me. *Wink*  I did read about the server merges and the reasons they’ve occurred.  The Flying Lab explanation appeared to be straight forward to me and not bells tolling its end.

I played a bit of the PotBS BETA and discussed my impressions here.  It certainly wasn’t a bad game.  They seemed to hit the niche areas that you’d expect to be polished in a seafaring game quite well.  I knew it wasn’t my genre going in, so it was no surprise to me that I didn’t buy the game.  For me, there was nothing to hate.  There also wasn’t anything to love about it either.  It’s one of those situations where many aspects are well executed, some things bug you and overall, you’re not really inspired enough to get on board.  PotBS isn’t the only game to leave me with that feeling of “eh, I’ll pass.” 

There are many things that I like about EverQuest II (EQ2) – crafting and player housing among them.  Unfortunately, there an equal amount of things that leave me feeling lukewarm or illicit dislike.  All combined, it becomes the same, “I think I’ll pass.”  I come back for expansions and twit around a bit but I don’t think I’ve ever played a solid two months of EQ2 – ever.

The whole out in space sandbox environment of EVE Online thrills me conceptually.  The avenues of character development and interior role-playing are limitless.  I like the player driven economy and it’s potential.  I love the idea of being a space pirate.  I hope CCP does amazing things and this game continues to grow.  Having said that, it doesn't explain another game that I like on the surface but I come and go – where my going is more frequent than my staying.