Conan the Betarian

[Creole Ned]

Who all is in for the Age of Conan Open (re: FilePlanet) Beta? I downloaded the client using the key for the tech test and then installed it after a long and exciting process. When I click on the fancy icon, however, I get prompted for a username and password. I enter the ones for the Funcom account I have but they are unrecognized. I then grabbed a FP key and entered it to be all official-like but still can't pass verification. This may be perfectly normal, the FP FAQ is a bit vague on this part. Anyway, apart from not being able to launch the game I'm set!

[LogRoller]

i think i have like 30 minutes of free time every night after the kids go to bed and i do house crap

do you think i can finish quests in like 30 minutes and stuff

i'm betting that it takes me at least 5 days just to download and install it

[Creole Ned]

Thirty minutes is probably enough time to punch a camel, crush the spirit of one man, pull out the spine of another and cause the lamentations of at least one woman.

The best part is it's all free!

[Tai]

No idea yet but I will let you know as I make progress.

[Harka]

I am in.

Did you set up an account with Funcom?

Thats the login you would use.

I am in and patched and ready for tomorrow.

[Falhawk]

I had considered checking AoC out, especially since I don't have gta4, but I don't really feel like subscribing to FP to do it.

The game itself looks ok and the combat could be innovative to an extent but I doubt it'll unseat my attention from WoW. The only thing on the horizon that looks good is Warhammer.

I mean I'd try AoC, but not for $5 :)

[Postal]

Its 15$ not 5$. 3 months minimum. I will try to login when I get home once I remember what username / password I registered with. :(

[Creole Ned]

Postal the Forgetarian.

[Falhawk]

Its 15$ not 5$. 3 months minimum. I will try to login when I get home once I remember what username / password I registered with. :(

did they change that? I used to pay just the one month when I wanted whatever beta

[Creole Ned]

I was able to get the game launcher to work by registering on the forum and using the username/password from there. All of the patch patch patch certainly makes it feel like an authentic MMO experience.

[Harka]

So far warhammer online is no big deal. Nothing to leave WoW over.

[Creole Ned]

Age of Authentication Failure. :madhop:

[Creole Ned]

To further elaborate, the game has (for no apparent reason) two logins. The first is a standard Windows dialog box, the second is inside the game itself (the one MMOs typically have). Both require the same username/password. Last night only the first login was working for me, the second one would constantly produce an "Authentication Failure".

Tonight, the initial login is also not working. So yeah, pretty impressed with Funcom so far! :nod:

[Creole Ned]

They seem to have ironed out a few kinks on their end and I got my open beta account working. I've created a ranger named Mullen on OpenBeta3 but I'll probably make another character for adventures/camel punching tomorrow (Saturday) since my ranger seems unable to operate his bow and arrows.

EDIT: But combat seems pretty fun so far, very fast-paced. I killed Ape King and got something like 50 bananas!

[Circuit]

Also, if anyone knows how/if you can find what instance other people are in on the same server, I'd love to know. Ned and I were both on OpenBeta03 last night at the gate as you come in from the starting area, but neither of us showed up on the list of people.

[Creole Ned]

As we found out, typing /instanceselection brings up a list of instances. Choose the same one and voila, everyone is in the same happy jungle together!

"Did the latest patch remove degubber?" -- someone on the official AoC forums asking an important question.

Here are a few shots from our adventures so far.

For some reason, the game has turned on Circuit and he is now crashing regularly. This led to his character Goldie the Barbarian running aimlessly into a wall until his client crashed. From our point of view it looked like Goldie was sent to the corner for being bad. The guy with the huge pile of hair is my Conquerer, Muller. Getting ready to kill just to the right is Postal's guy, Karzan.

http://creolened.com/images/aoc/aoc-goldie.jpg

A close-up of Muller. I swear he looked more awake when I made him. He'll need a good night's rest before he's ready to punch any camels.

http://creolened.com/images/aoc/muller-goldie.jpg

This handsome devil is Zaron, my Herald of Xotli. He's part fighter, part weird demon-shifting cool cat.

http://creolened.com/images/aoc/zaron.jpg

And finally a general scenery shot with Zaron after he found actual clothing to wear. The icons in the actionbar are, from left to run: upper left attack, overhead attack, upper right attack, sweep (an AoE attack, not related to dusting or cleaning), rest (guess what that does?) and desecrating essence, an attack that transforms my handsome devil into a blood-soaked demon who slashes and causes constant fire damage for 25 seconds or so. Good fun at parties. The woman standing next to him is someone you rescue on your first quest. She follows you to the city of Tortage, clapping and shouting with delight as you battle opponents along the way. She has no money but promises a reward of a different sort later on. Ahem.

http://creolened.com/images/aoc/zaron-scenery.jpg

More on combat and other stuff soon!

[Circuit]

I like the game so far and it runs well when it's running. But lately, one out of every 2 or 3 times I load into another area, the game locks up. It's really weird, too, since there were no patches or changes to my system. It just started crashing. The game's just almost fun enough to tolerate it, except for the fact that loading is loooooong.

[Tai]

Is your system overheating after longer periods of gameplay?

[Circuit]

No. The system isn't freezing. Just the game.

[Reaver]

Whoa, hey! Can I play as a chick? Maybe I'll beta wif you guys if I can.

My new schedule has me home by 5 pm pst on most days, so I can theoretically play!!1

[Circuit]

It's probably some kinda trick.

[Creole Ned]

Yes, you can play as a chick. They seem to start out in what looks like a leather bikini. Also, boobies.

However, I'm not sure if any beta keys are left. If you can't get in, I'll make a chick in your honor and name her Hairless Ape Mistress.

[Reaver]

No, no! Name her Gams Akimbo!

Or how about Felicita DerVelvetcrotch?

Juggella "The Rack" Gazongas?

Quik Lee Layafella?

[Falhawk]

I got into beta and played for 2.5 hours yesterday.

My quick review: combat is very fun due to how interactive it is. The lack of an autoattack makes a big difference here.

However the game lacks polish in a big way. Also the fact that I levelled to 9 basically in the single player "night time" part of the game seemed weird to me.

[Creole Ned]

The original design was for the first 20 levels to be a single player game before you got into the multiplayer. They apparently revised that down to 10 and currently it looks like the system in place is somewhere between the two.

You will get to level 5 solo no matter what since the journey from the starting beach to the city of Tortage is a single-player instance. Once there, you are steered toward the night-time quests, also specifically solo-only (instanced) but you can pick up and do the other quests around the town first, if you prefer.

The heavy solo focus in the early part of the game definitely puts a (curious) damper on grouping.

And yeah, the game is still very rough around the edges, although specific issues seem to plague only some players.

With this club, I thee bash (by Crom)

Like Fal says, there is no auto-attack. You cannot start automatically swinging your Fancy Pirate Club and go make a sandwich while you clobber your opponent to death. This alone makes combat a lot more interactive. Another aspect -- when you highlight your target, you'll see arrows on the target's right, left or all around. This will let you know what side your enemy is favoring and you can take advantage of that by swinging on his open side. This can and will shift during battle, so consistently bashing from the left will not always be the best way to use that Fancy Pirate Club.

Many attacks are combos that require a follow-up to execute. For example, a common combo is sweep. Once you start the sweep, you must then swing from the right to finish executing the move, at which point you do indeed sweep your weapon in a wide arc, striking multiple foes. Other special attacks like slam don't require a follow-up. Slam lets you tap your inner linebacker and send your opponent flying backward. I recommend a hearty overhead swing as a follow-up here. It just feels good.

Along with the brisk pace of fights, you will often find yourself facing three or even four enemies at once, a nice change from most fantasy MMOs where a second attacker is declared an "add". The characters I've played so far have not felt particularly weak but early gameplay is often not reflective of later play, so I'll reserve judgment on how mighty these guys feel later on.

Taking a cue from EQ2, leveling up results in your new abilities being automatically assigned and placed in your action bar if there's room, no training needed. I like this. It feeds both my lazy inner child and ADD inner child. You also get skill points that vary by class, allowing you to improve things like bandaging, climbing and perhaps embroidery. Point distribution is a bit curious -- I have characters who only have the skill of bandaging (which can be assigned 100 points total) and over 100 skill points, meaning he could, uh, make uber bandages starting at level 5, I guess.

Also, this is the first MMO where the jumping actually felt like jumping. You hop into the air instead of float. If you do it repeatedly, it looks like you're throwing a tantrum. Even better! They even got pivoting down -- turn your character 360 degrees and he will actually move his feet to turn. These are little things but the attention to detail is nice.

You are too far away! (interface)

So combat is pretty groovy, definitely the best-feeling of any MMO I've played since CoH. This is important since combat comprises the bulk of most MMOs' play (with the exception of games like Second Life where making giant penises replaces combat). What about the rest of the interface?

Apart from the baffling inability to logout of the game by clicking on an appropriate onscreen button (you can only do it by hitting ESC and selecting the right option), the UI is for the most part pretty clear. Loot drops in little bags that sparkle and the pop-up has a nice "Take All" function -- handy for getting all those gold teeth everyone carries around. The quest journal and mini-map are so detailed that there is little question on how to go about completing quests. Your active quest will even make a grid appear on the mini-map to show where you can kill appropriate enemies. Indicators point out appropriate NPCs and items. There's very little guesswork involved -- good for people who just want to get things done, disappointing, perhaps, to more exploration-oriented players.

The UI has some issues, though. Chat is a bit hard to read and doesn't seem to remember settings. The Friends window insists on always popping up. I've yet to figure out how to set looting in a group (it appears to automatically go to Need/Greed if someone loots an especially valuable item). Sharing a quest will often result in the recipient losing the ability to move until logging out -- handy! There is also no indicator I could find to show whether a quest has already been shared or not. A crane could not be operated for one quest, preventing its completion. So work remains to be done in a few areas to get the level of polish were it should be for launch.

Quests themselves are pretty much as expected, but with a Conan flavor. Tortage's largely revolve around the Red Hand Guards being pooheads wrecking everyone's good times. You will gather items from the docks, defeat scurvy pirates, deal with slave traders and women who ply flesh for gold. People also cuss freely. They've done their homework to earn the M rating.

For me, the game has been fairly stable. Apart from the occasional hitch when moving and attacks sometimes taking multiple clicks to work, the game has performed well. Others have experienced lots of crashes or other glitches, so I'm not sure what the magic configuration is to avoid problems. I'm probably spared some of the memory leak issues by having a video card with 768MB of ram.

In a move that apparently follows what they did in the Anarchy Online beta, Funcom is converting all open beta servers to full PvP starting May 10th (they have not specified for how long) and will automatically bump any level 13 character to 20, give them better equipment and then let everyone unleash his inner ganker. That could be interesting. It looks like any character not level 13 before this will be left out as 14-20 content is still locked out for the open beta (curiously, the 20+ content doesn't look like it will be).

My overall impression at this point is favorable, simply because the combat is so dang fun. The meaty thump of club meeting opponent's head just never gets old. Even the PvP might be zippy because of the feel of the fighting. The game definitely lacks polish in many areas but open beta is allegedly running an older build of the game, so who knows how stable the live client will be. Funcom has presumably learned a thing or two since the disastrous launch of Anarchy Online.

I'll probably pick this up and at least give the free month a shot.

Still haven't seen any camels, though. More pics soon™!

[Postal]

I go back and forth on the game. I would really like to like it. It seems to have everything for a good MMO but it didn't grip me. I keep trying to decide if the issues I have with it are with the game or the Beta issue. For example a lot of times when I select a combo attack the button doesn't push and I get nothing basically making combos worthless for me. Its also hard to get a real feel for the game by the first 13 levels especially when a lot of that is SP only.

I think I will wait to see how people feel about it after launch and then decide to get it or not.

[Harka]

Ned left out the nifty fatalities they have put in the game.

So far I have found that if you get a enemy down low on health and finish him with a combo move you will be rewarded with a number of different fatalities. A few I have seen so far.

Decapitation - Pretty straight forward, you hack the dudes head off, it flies and lands on the ground as the body falls seperatly.

Jamming your sword into his gut then use your foot to push him off your blade.

And my favorite, bury your weapon his his chest as he falls to his knees you laugh and taunt him with your hands.

There are others that I have not seen personally but have heard of and I look forward to seeing them

Each fatality is graced with a blood splatter on your screen. I can see this getting old after a while though.

I am also on open beta 3, I have dabbled with a barbarian, Dark Templar, Guardian, Conqouror, and tempest of set.

I have gotten my Conqouror to level 13 the others are still in the single digits. Once you hit level 10 you get points to put towards a particular school in your given class. Its very similar to WoW's skill system with 1 branch dedicated to your class, ie soldier, rogue, priest, mage and then the other 2 for options for your specific class choice. For instance a barbarian can put points in his rogue tree and then decide how to split his points in the other two trees, one favoring 2 handed weapons focusing on massive AOE damage or dual wielding focusing on massive single target.

As mentioned before, the early game to 20 is built for you to basically get the feel for combat and how things work so leveling is pretty fast, especially to level 7 or so then it slows a bit, but is still quick. Open beta is capped at 13, closed beta is not.

I am running on a barley there system for AoC, and it runs ok but I will definatly be on low settings. I had an issue last night where i crashed out and subsequent logging back in got me an error message that i was using the wrong version of the beta client. I quit out and retried and was back in with out a problem.

And yes, there are boobies, if you create a female it seems you can strip off all of your top clothing to free them for the world to see. I have seen several characters running around Tortage boobies akimbo.

From what I have seen so far, I like AoC's play much better than Warhammer Online.

[Tai]

going to have to start working on names for my character.

Maybe instead of Red Sonja I could go with Pink Nipples?

[Falhawk]

I encountered the furor of the fanboys last night

there was a discussion about the game in global chat and I made the mistake of saying:

"I really like the combat in this game but the lack of polish will end up being a problem"


hell hath no fury like a fanboy scorn. Holy shit the outcries were incredible. Apparently I don't know what "beta" means


and they don't understand what polish means.

[Tai]

I still fail to grasp your fascination with Polish. What's wrong with running the game in English?

[Creole Ned]

You silly person, talking on global. You should have mentioned old build vs. new build, that's also a fun topic.

Yeah, I did not mention the fatalities, Harka, as I've only seen a few. While the moves are neat, if you're being beaten on by other foes, they won't stop and be dazzled by your fancy decapitation of their compatriot. I could see it driving min/maxers crazy. :)

Another thing I neglected to mention was the amount of voice from NPCs. This is by far the most voice I've seen outside of EQ2 and most of it is decently done. It's also interesting the way the view switches when talking to an NPC and having multiple responses to choose from adds some nice flavor, even if the actual choices are not that meaningful. I have had a few odd situations where the "camera" gets blocked, though. I'll be hearing the surly tone of a Red Hand guard while viewing an extreme close-up of another player's butt.

I keep making new characters so I haven't progressed any past single digits but I'll probably take my handsome demon-shifting dude out for some adventures tonight and see what happens.

[Postal]

Yeah I see the AoC women being more of a problem then the dancing underwear clad elfs of Ironforge.

What is worse is the on fire emote. It causes you to scream and flail your arms. Add to that not being able to walk threw chars and you get the 2 idiots the other day that were blocking the city gate spamming the emote.

I am going to give this game another try. I still really want to like it.

[Tai]

Yeah I see the AoC women being more of a problem then the dancing underwear clad elfs of Ironforge.

I fail to see the "problem". What is the problem?

[Kermit]

Holy shit the outcries were incredible. Apparently I don't know what "beta" means


and they don't understand what polish means.

I would think a beta should have to be somewhat polished but be bug-laden. Beta should be a period of time before the release to clear up any problems running the program, not making it look better with extra nipple polygons.

How does magic work in the game? Can you create a little Japanese Wizard who sits cross-leg and flashes gang signs to do magic, while narrating?

[Harka]

Ned, I have found you can override the animation by attacking the next player.


And yea, i have run into the close up cam on a fern leaf or some other item as well. I have notices lately though after the last patch that it will sometimes shift and correct itself. And yes, the voice overs are a nice touch ala EQ2. The different dialogue choices do give you different responses from the NPC's but it all leads to the same end result. I have found if you dont choose one like asking the guard at the gate about Tina, after giving her the initial letter, the option disappears and you cant ask it again.

[Tai]

Can you create a little Japanese Wizard who sits cross-leg and flashes gang signs to do magic, while narrating?

:bg: Too funny.

[Reaver]

Is this a game any of you guys will be playing? I'm willing to get this game so I can play with youse again, especially since my schedule now allows me to be online at reasonable EST times during the week... 5-6 PST.

[Circuit]

I'll be buying it.

[Creole Ned]

I thought pay-to-play was heresy for you (although the first month is free).

There was a big patch today that fixed a bunch of stuff and made the game both smoother and prettier. I'm pretty sure I'll get it and at least give it a go for that first month. (The patch also introduced new fun bugs but the good outweighs the bad.)

[Reaver]

I don't really care for mmo's but Conan sounds kinda interesting. Plus I want to play with you guys again. I'm willing to give it a go and see if I like it.

[Circuit]

Reaver's just interested because of the boobies.

[Reaver]

Well really I'm more of an ass man.

[Creole Ned]

Fortunately it has asses, too.

[Tick]

There's some sort of joke there about the maturity of the playerbase in WoW (and really, every MMO/videogame/anything on the internet), but I really can't come up with a good one.

[Creole Ned]

The open beta servers have now been converted over to full PvP and early reports are it's a huge gankfest.

Working as intended!

[Falhawk]

yeah I checked it out last night

I like pvp for the most part but it was just not fun. I can't tell if it was the community, class balance, or whatever but spawning only to immediately get hit by a ranger who somehow jumped on a roof above the spawn point != fun

[Paladin]

yeah I checked it out last night

I like pvp for the most part but it was just not fun. I can't tell if it was the community, class balance, or whatever but spawning only to immediately get hit by a ranger who somehow jumped on a roof above the spawn point != fun

Hmm, Conan of Darkshire?

[Postal]

The PvP servers are not fun. They need to fix the respawn so you can't just keep getting spawn killed.

[Postal]

Well now with the Beta over I wanted to get a count of who is getting this game. I know a beta is not the best place to determine if a game is good or not but it did change my opinion of the game. At the moment I think I will take a wait and see approach to this game. I'm gone the first weekend after the game is out anyway so after I come back I'll see what you guys think. What are you guys going to do?

[Circuit]

Nothing's changed for me. I think your opinion is colored by the open PvP mess, Postal.

[Creole Ned]

I'll still get it and try out the first month at least.

I won't be playing on a PvP server. Although it may not seem like it, I do like PvP but wide-open PvP just never seems balanced in these games, it's always gank or be ganked (usually in a matter of seconds). Conan will have PvP mini-games and a PvP area (The Borderlands) on PvE servers from what I understand, so it's always there if you want it.

But overall, I enjoy the combat enough to swing my Heavy Jungle Club for at least the free month.

[BoX]

I haven't tried the beta but I'm super bored with wow so I'll also explore the first free month.

[Postal]

You guys are going to make buy this game arn't you? :P

[Falhawk]

overall AoC is just too bland for my tastes

[armerius]

not a chance.. i'm still waiting for Guild Wars 2... and trying to beat Mass Effect

[Circuit]

Well, you know how time-consuming waiting for a game is!

[Elf]

I didn't realize there was going to be a Guild Wars 2... I like their price model much more than pay per month - I just begrudge anyone trying to take a piece of my monthly income & betting I'll just keep paying for lack of attention well past my usage of the game.

With that all said, I am thinking I will give AoC a try for the free month & play it by ear thereafter. I figure I can play it for pay a few months & still have shelled out less than an outright retail purchase. The combat sound interesting - GW got boring for me in that regard.

So count me in. Part of my problem with GW was that I reached a point where I really couldn't progress without playing with others - & I had no one I knew to play with. I'd be very into playing collaboratively if we can iron out our schedules to do so.

[Reaver]

Are there going to be restrictions on who you can group with? i.e. Can a stygian dark templar team up with a cimmerian bear priest or whatever? I think I want to be a stygian something something. Will I be able to group with what ever classes the rest of you are going to be?

Also, should I pre order and get a nifty War Mammoth mount or Killer Rhino?!?!!!!1

[Postal]

There was no restriction on grouping in the Beta. That being said it was hard to fully understand how that worked. I know you start in different cities so at the very least you have to get yourself to the other area.

If I order I will get the War Mammoth. They say they have the same stats but the Mammoth has more HP and the Rhino is somewhat faster. They really don't come into play unless we get a big enough clan to attack a city.

[Creole Ned]

Each race starts at different cities? I got the impression everyone does the shipwreck/rescue Giggles/fight apes thing to Tortage and then you got to your home city later.

And yeah, it sounds like the pre-order mounts are for PvP. There's regular mammoths, rhinos and horsies for just riding around, I think.

Beta has ended (with a giant pile of corpses at the resurrection points). The headstart or whatever they are calling it starts on the 17th.

[Postal]

I think you are right Ned that everyone starts in Tortage but I didn't really count that because it is all SP mostly. When you want to group you will be in your start city. I don't think it is hard to get from one start city to the other. If I didn't keep getting ganked in the Beta I could tell you more. :)

[Harka]

I was unable to take part in the gank fest over the weekend. The guild I have joined had several reactions to it from it sucked terrible to it wasnt that bad and most of the gankage was located in certain areas. Several guild members were able to level from 20 to 25 solo with few asshats trying to kill them.

I have preordered so I will be in, actually downloading now so I can be part of the early start program which kicks off this Saturday. I opted for the war mammoth as the rhino was only being offered by Best BUy and they were way late with any information on their pre-purchase plan. So I figured not to risk it and have a huge Mammoth which to ride, trample people, and knock down buildings with.

That being said, the guild I joined will most likely be on a RP-PvP server. If any of you are interested and like to RP or are not opposed to RP and want to have a look the guild is located at: http://www.silverwolfclan.com/

I post under Kelteth there.

oh, and to answer the question:

You start off in Tortage and play up to level 20 there, then you leave and are sent to your racial starting city. At that point there are boats and caravans I believe that will take yo to the other racial starting cities.

There is no rule on who can group with how so any race can group with any other race.

One of the big controversies coming out of open beta is that if you play on a PvP FFA server you can kill members of your own guild if they are not in a group with you. AOE and Spalsh damage will kill them or harm them. Add to that you can not rez or heal anyone outside of your group so running up to help someone that is about to die is a tricky situation, you have to be a bit more strategic in what attacks you employ and you just cant run by and heal them real quick and be on your way. This topic is raging on the AoC forums with vehement replies coming from both sides of the argument.

The flip side of this, for some reason, funcom has stated that this will not be the rule when it comes to siege battles over the battlekeeps in the border kingdoms. In those you will not be able to harm your guild mates.

[Creole Ned]

I will not be playing on a PvP server. Ever. :P

Also, what do you mean by "downloading now"? Don't you already have the game installed?

[Harka]

early access pre order. If you preordered you got the super secret code to create your account with. yesterday they started sending emails out to all pre order folk telling you to login to your account and get the early access download files which lets you install the game, then get the last minute patch that all MMO's have and start playing on the 17th while the rest of the folks wait until they can get their DVDs to load up on the 20th.


The Beta software is obsolete now and you should uninstall it. At least thats what I have heard.

[Creole Ned]

That would be the first time I've ever heard of a beta client being obsolete in an MMORPG. The idea of having to download a 12 gig client again is absurd. If they can't patch the beta up to the most recent build they're doing something very wrong.

Tai, cut and paste that and send it to those Funcom guys. :P

Also, did you create a brand new account for pre-order, Harka or just add the pre-order to your existing account? (ie. did you have to create a new username and so on or use your existing one)

[Postal]

I heard you couldn't start the early download till Wed. Hmm. I guess enough people are looking at it that I will wander in and grab the pre-order tonight. Yeah for another 17 Gig download.

[Postal]

OK next question then. If we are playing what are you guys thinking of playing?

I have thought about being a Bear Shaman though I think that will be hard to play.

I actually like the Assassin but I don't think I will play that as a main.

[Creole Ned]

I'd play a ranger but they didn't exactly make my socks roll up and down in beta. Maybe a conqueror or one of them herald guys. Turning into a demon and spewing fire is always fun.

[Harka]

Ned, it might be a different story for the closed beta guys, i think they are playing with a much more closer to release version than the open beta folks were. Just a guess.

Its about a 13 gig download from what i remember of what it started at , i have 11044.9MB left, says 20 hours at 156kb/sec. Earlier I was getting 190kb/sec but about 3PM it slowed down.

I plan on being a Cimmerian Conqueror, but I will have some alts. Guardian and Dark Templer were fun as well, the dang guardian was a major meat shield. Played a ranger to 7 and I can see where they would be lots of fun in a group. I tired the Tempest of Set and the HoX and I will make a HoX as well, as Ned said, Turning into a demon and spewing fire while holding a huge ass sword is something you cant pass up for fun.

I created a new login, different than my open beta one. I read folks that had made it into a previous testing weekend had been having issues with trying to use it when registering for open beta so I went the new login route in order to by pass any issues that might arise when kicking off the release version.

[BoX]

I'll most likely go necro.

[Falhawk]

I'll most likely go necro.

sicko

[Reaver]

Ok, what are the usual times people play? When will the most people be available?

[BoX]

I got the preorder for 10bucks + five bucks for the 3 day early start which also gives me 10 free days. I figure I'll see if I like it in that time and if I do i'll go pay the rest of the money for the game.

I'll probably poopsock it for the first 2 days then work out a schedule after that.

[Postal]

I'm working on the downloading the installer for the 3 early days.

I play around 9-11:30 EST.

I'll look / post here for the server. I think it will be a PvE one for me.

[Creole Ned]

Early access has sold out (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=93023). Pre-order items will still work when the game officially launches on the 20th. Since I hadn't gotten my early access key yet, I'll see you all on the 20th! :wavey:

[Circuit]

Eh, how did they run out of access?

[Creole Ned]

Good question. I had no idea it was even going to be limited.

[Shadowrat]

(.)(.)

[Postal]

The EB Games site said "Offer good while supplies last" which made me wonder how you run out of bits. I figured it meant they ran out of those pieces of paper with the scratch off code.

By the way is that eyes or boobies in Rats post.

[Creole Ned]

Theoretically stores shouldn't have any more early access codes if Funcom says the codes are "sold out". On the other hand, if Funcom distributed, say, 50,000 codes and then decided that they didn't want more than 40,000 players hitting the servers on the 17th, that might account for any (or many) leftovers.

Any way you look at it, I'm fairly confident in saying Funcom has screwed up. Probably spending too much time playing TF2! :nod:

[Postal]

I worry this means they are only going to only turn on some servers for the early access. That makes sense and would explain the limit but that also means those servers are going to be very full ones. I keep getting the feeling I will be redoing my chars in a week or so after launch.

[Circuit]

I doubt that. I would bet it's more along the lines of what Ned said. They just didn't want a giant amount of people all hitting the servers early. Giving limited early access would seem to help avoid potential server overloads on release day by allowing a large number of people to get on early and spread it out a bit.

[Tai]

Any way you look at it, I'm fairly confident in saying Funcom has screwed up. Probably spending too much time playing TF2! :nod:

Nah, there were over in Norway for the release party.

[Postal]

So the server list is out. I like Zug or Omm. I think Omm was the big spider that people thought was a god that Conan killed.

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2136546#post2136546

[Circuit]

I don't know anything about Conan lore, so which one would be the one people like the least? Actually, lots of other people might think the same thing, so which one is going to be the most medium popular?

[Creole Ned]

Here are the PvE choices:

PvE Servers
• Set
• Dagoth
• Zug
• Omm
• Derketo
• Thog
• Wiccana
• Gwahlur (recommended Oceanic)
• Anu

I am currently undecided.

[Postal]

Here are the number of votes for each server name so that will give you idea which people like the most: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=83549

Zug is high but Omm isn't.

[Harka]

I will be on Cimmeria to start with, it is the RP-PvP server.

[Circuit]

I'm not touching a PvP server. The last few days of the open beta were about as good an indication of the quality of play I could imagine. It's great if you're into that, but I certainly am not.

[Postal]

Yeah I don't totally mind PvP servers but this anyone can kill anyone and the rez stone issues make me never want to play it in Conan. That last day of Beta was hell.

[Postal]

Gamestop just called. My age of Conan is in and ready for pickup tomorrow. What the hell is that??? They do say servers are not online till the 20th for the retail version. That being said I'm at 87% complete on the early entry download and I hope to finish tonight. Its just weird they are selling the game early.

[Circuit]

Not surprising for an MMO, really, since nobody can actually play until they turn the servers on.

[Creole Ned]

Over on Quarter to Three they seem to have settled on Anu as the server using the logic that the name is wimpy enough to keep at least some of the immature twits away. Not a theory exactly based on hard science but it's as good as any. Thoughts?

[Circuit]

Good as any, I guess. As long as it's not overpopulated or laggy, I really don't care which server I'm on. Is there even going to be any auction houses or an economy besides player/NPC vendor interaction?

[Harka]

Here is a link to the forum with what guilds are going to what servers, at least the ones that have piped up so far.

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2141541#post2141541

I hope this helps you guys choose.

below is the same link just playing with what ned posted a different thread to see if i can get it to work.

Thread of servers and what established guilds are going there! (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2141541#post2141541)

Lookee there! It WORKED!

[Postal]

I ran into an AH when we were bumped to level 20.

[Circuit]

I can't think of any reason I should be concerned with where "estabilished guilds" are going. :)

[Harka]

well, if your looking for a low pop server you would want to stay away from a server if a bunch of guilds have stated thats where they are going, wouldnt you?

[Circuit]

well, if your looking for a low pop server you would want to stay away from a server if a bunch of guilds have stated thats where they are going, wouldnt you?

Well, I don't know. I assume lots of people won't be announcing which server they'll be on, too, so picking the funniest name seems like just as effective a method. :)

[Tai]

=P I'll make a character on Bane.

[Creole Ned]

Okay, let's go with Anu. And by that I mean you guys all make shiny new characters tomorrow and I'll join you sometime next week or so.

[Harka]

Tai, if your going to go PVP make it on Cimmeria so you can tag a long with me!

[Tai]

Tai, if your going to go PVP make it on Cimmeria so you can tag a long with me!

This I can also do. I will point out that I don't plan to really play the game much, just explore and noodle around in it a bit. :)

[BoX]

I leveled a necro up to 12 and decided I'd try another class. Shortly after my desicion I came to the conclusion that necros are not where it's at.

[Creole Ned]

Circuit and Postal are on Omm since Anu apparently disappeared from the server list. They've been too busy playing to post, however. :P

[BoX]

I made a dude on Set but it was the lackluster Necro, so I'll roll a ToS over there and see if it's the bees knees.

[BoX]

His name Corpse, so be my friend or something.

[Creole Ned]

/cc addbuddy Corpse

(or so I've read)

[Postal]

I have Bear Shaman named Amos on Omm. So far he dies a lot.

[BoX]

My ToS is pretty awesome so far, what lvl are you?

[Postal]

I have made level 15th so far. I got a ton of spells at 15th.

[BoX]

I just got to lvl 12 with the ToS, just wish i didn't waste so much time with the Necro. I'd probably be like lvl four thousand by now.

[Postal]

:)

I keep thinking I want to do this one night time quest over. I had to have done it wrong. I died over and over. There was no way you could survive what they put you though even with a warrior. I was fighting waves of 3-4 equal level guys. When one wave ended I had about 10 seconds before the next. If you died you respawned in the room and a new wave would come right at you.

[Creole Ned]

I have Bear Shaman named Amos on Omm. So far he dies a lot*.



* 50 billion times, if the count on Ventrilo was any indication

[BoX]

Where you had to save all those dudes in the wine cellar? I just let that girl get the intial mobs on her and fought one while the others hit either the girl or the peolpe you're trying to save.

[Postal]

I guess I tried to save them too much. Any time one went for the people I pulled him off.

[Harka]

I hit level 18 last night with my Conqueror and so far have died only a couple of times. I have grouped with a Dark templer, he was 16 at the time and I was 14. We blew through the picts in the Ruins area like a hot knife through butter. Dark Templers look pretty good. My conqueror is decent as well, I did get owned 3 times in a row by the same duo in PvP though, they were 2 levels lower than me and one was a conqueror not sure what the other was.

I am guessing your doing the last quest in the Tortage night destiny series? I am waiting to get another level or two before tackling it as I have a ton of quests in daytime Tortage left to do.

If you come to the dark side and make a toon on Cimmeria I am Kelteth over there.

[Postal]

The one I had problems with was actually one of the early destiny quests for the priest class. I hit 19 last night and the other destiny quests are easy for me.

I now understand how to play my char solo pretty well. I'm still trying to figure out how to do group play though. Circ, Box and I grouped and we did well and had fun but it was confusing to keep track of the other people in your group.

[Postal]

Looks like they are taking the servers down from 5PM to 10PM EST today. Guess I won't make it out of the starting area before launch. Oh well. Seems like they are working hard to piss off people with this early launch stuff though.

[Creole Ned]

Yeah, but you're still level 91 compared to my level 0!

It does suck that there's been so much downtime in the early access. They really shouldn't have charged even the $5 for it.

[Circuit]

I think I've gotten $5 worth of play. Hell, just being able to move further from the starting area as we approach the influx of people on launch day is worth it.

All things considered, this has been a surprisingly smooth launch for an MMO and it's not even officially launched yet. People still love to find things to bitch about if things don't go 100% perfectly, though.

[Postal]

It has gone very smooth for a launch so far. That early access was just asking for trouble though. The good question from the website is if we can expect more patches in prime hours as that is their work hours. Oh well. Tomorrow Ned gets to deal with all the noobs getting into the game. :) I really need to stop reading the forums.

[Creole Ned]

Okay, I revise my position to: I demand $5! :o :yay: :o

[Circuit]

It's in the imaginary mail!

[FoeKilla]

so, if I like WoW, I will like this?

[Postal]

I think you would like it Foe but its not totally like WoW. Not sure how to explain the difference except maybe WoW is more gentle. I don't think it is a WoW killer but I think it is good enough to last.

[Circuit]

The combat is more active than WoW's and has a much more solid feel to it. So far it feels sort of like a 3rd person action game played with a mouse and keyboard. Also there's lots of sexy loincloth action.

[BoX]

and nipples.

[bridude]

so have you guys decided if you're going to play long term yet?

[Kermit]

bat nipples?

And yes, if everyone is switching and this is the game of the future for us, someone please figure that out and let me know ASAP. Last time I left WoW for another MMO I got burned on AD&DO.

[Circuit]

I think we all know better than to say what games others will or will not like. :) All I can say is that I really like the game so far and I'll be playing it. The melee combat is utterly fantastic and since I've always been primarily a melee guy in these games, I'm having a blast. The combat is definitely not as cut and dry as WoW, especially in regards to telling exactly who has aggro, but weapons act like real weapons in that if you're swinging your giant spear towards 3 guys in front of you, you hit all 3 guys. Targetting mostly just determines your facing and who gets the majority of your damage. The only drawback to this is that the tank can only keep the majority of the damage on himself, not all of it. At the same time, all the melee classes so far have pretty good survivability.

I'm really excited to see how my Guardian plays out. So far, the game gives me the rush of being able to get pounded on by several enemies and kill them all myself like in CoH. As much as I still love WoW, it's sort of a drag to be wearing plate armor and have to fear getting one extra enemy attacking you while questing.

[bridude]

ok I'm sold. I will see if I can find it today.

[bridude]

one more thing. I heavent heard much about the environment or mobs.

how is the exploration aspect of the game?

[Creole Ned]

You fight pirates and apes. The game also starts by having you rescue a woman in a metal bikini.

And Best Buy says it won't be out until May 22. CROM!!

[bridude]

pirates and apes? thats it?

[Creole Ned]

No, there's a lot more, I was just pointing out some of the early highlights. Besides, who doesn't like pirates?

[Falhawk]

ninja

[Creole Ned]

Also, :mad:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/marketing/_midnight_publish/key_departments/21132_EN.jpg

[bridude]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17006&type=page&_requestid=303150

USA -1
Canada -0

[Tai]

I can still get a rhino if I buy at Best Buy?

[bridude]

also nedders, can you PM me the vent info or the private pass or both.

thanks

[BoX]

I can still get a rhino if I buy at Best Buy?

You cannot.

[bridude]

got it.

I heard it takes like an hour to install. :(

Edit: it seems to be going pretty fast actually.

Edit 2: ok now it says "Installing resources: this may take a long time." :(

[Tai]

got it.

I heard it takes like an hour to install. :(

Edit: it seems to be going pretty fast actually.

Edit 2: ok now it says "Installing resources: this may take seven beers." :(

Fixed.

[bridude]

ok im on Omm

name = Bridette

[Postal]

Circ when I was wandering the UI setting there was one for showing the enemies target. Not sure if you are using that yet or not.

I got my Bear Shaman up to 20 and I like him even though at points he tends to die a lot. Mostly when it is 4+ vs him. I played a Barbarian up to 13 now and he feels like easy mode.

[bridude]

Got my Ranger up to 10. :)

I would like to see the enemies target. thanks for the tip.

[bridude]

Is anyone else thinking about going to a higher pop or even a pvp server?

I couldnt find a lot of info on world PvP hence I have no idea how it works.

[Falhawk]

doomsayer seems to be a popular server.

my old pvp guild from shadowbane is playing there as well as the majority of TW ppl

[BoX]

Is anyone else thinking about going to a higher pop or even a pvp server?

I couldnt find a lot of info on world PvP hence I have no idea how it works.

Is omm a low pop server?

The pvp servers are free for all pvp, I'm not into that too much so I'll just stay on a pve server.

[bridude]

yeah box after reading the PvP forums I'm amazed of how many kids are defending GY camping and shit like that.

I think I'll stay PvE as well.

I'm not sure if omm is a low pop. I thought you mentioned that last night?

[BoX]

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if it was or not. It could be that I'm out of the starting sreas so i don't see much ooc chat.

[bridude]

damn power levelers

[F7]

Anyone else receive an email like this?

A Message From The King!

Greetings!

You have been a long and thrustworthy participant in our community, and as such we would like to thank you for helping us form Age of Conan into the marvelous product it is today. The last weeks has seen some serious enhancment to the game, and with the release we will be opening several new areas and neverbefore seen content in the launch version of the game. What and where it is? You have to find out for yourself!

As a sign of gratitude for your aid, we are pleased to offer you the in-game item used by those loyal to King Conan: The Drinking Cape. This item will allow your characters (one game account only) to free of charge demand the very sought after alcholic drink of "Ambrosia" - free and in unlimited supplies for life! After having claimed your cape, merely find one of the kegs in the finer Inns of Hyboria and click it whilst wearing your cape to receive your drink.

To register your cape, log in to your account page by https://register.ageofconan.com clicking here and under the option "Use a Key" - enter this key:

Once this has been done, use the command "/claim" inside the game to claim your in-game items. These items work for all the characters you create on your account. Note that all in-game items are only available on full accounts, and do not work on pre-order, buddy or (later) trial accounts.

Note that this item will not be made available again at later dates - so wear it with pride!

Regards,
Funcom

[bridude]

no :(

[Tai]

Damn, that's awesome! I do like "thrustworthy" that's a pretty good typo.

[Creole Ned]

I checked five stores. None had copies of the game. Several apparently sold out shortly after opening.

I did get my drinking cape for being "thrustworthy", though. I'll never get to use it, but I have it.

[Postal]

F7 that is if you signed up for the Clan of Conan email newsletter. I have not gotten mine yet but there is still hope as they say they are putting them out in batches.


--- Edit ---
I just got mine :)
Lets go drinking.

[bridude]

damnit ned!

[bridude]

even if you don't have the particle problem I highly recommend this

Age of Conan Forums (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=6180)

It took me 3 tries to wipe the old drivers. The first 2 times I removed and installed the new drivers it still loaded the old drivers. The last time I unistalled my vcard, set it to standard VGA, rebooted then installed the new driver.

This is the only time I've ever seen new driver make a huge difference in any game.

quoted for peeps who haven't made a forum account:

Many nVidia graphics card users, especially 8800 series users, are having problems with not being able to see spell (particle) effects.

What I did not know until I resolved the problem myself is that your FPS is also markedly lowered by this problem. If you're having this problem, try this fix that has worked for others of us:

Uninstall current drivers
Do not reboot when prompted
Run DriverSweeper (guru3d.com) to remove video drivers only
Reboot
Enter Safe Mode by pressing F8 at Windows boot time
Run DriverSweeper again in Safe Mode
Reboot
Do not allow Windows to install any drivers at boot time
Check in Add/Remove Programs to see if there is an "Nvidia Drivers" listing, if so repeat the above steps until it is gone.
Install latest ForceWare drivers (currently 175.16 WHQL at nvidia.com)
Reboot
Some users have had to do this multiple times and perhaps in slightly different orders to get things straightened out, but it is very worthwhile.

Also, the game uses "particles" for many other effects in the game, if you're having this issue then you are missing a lot of eye candy and your game is performing a lot worse than it should.

Anecdotally it seems that people that update their drivers every time there's an update (like me), are more likely to suffer from this issue.

EDIT:
A lot of people seem to be having various performance problems with AoC and that is unfortunate. However, this fix is targetted at a specific issue with players not being able to see spell/particle effects on nVidia hardware and does not claim to resolve other performance issues.

AoC is a beautiful game. With higher graphics settings enabled it is demanding on system hardware (GPU, CPU and memory) regardless of how good your machine is. For instance I have 4GB of RAM in my 64-bit Vista machine and it's common for AoC to have allocated 1.25GB of memory and pegged one of my CPU cores at 100%. If you don't have a top-end system it's not a crime; use the performance options, that's what they're there for.

Some people seem to have been able to squeeze a few fps out of the game by cleaning the drivers as described above even though they are seeing spell/particle effects. If you're comfortable with trying this technique in order to experiment with your configuration then by all means do so, you really can't hurt anything.

At present the latest Microsoft Certified (WHQL) drivers from nVidia are 175.16 across all operating systems and these are the drivers I link to below. Some minor confusion has arisen due to people using leaked drivers with version numbers higher than 175.16. Leaked drivers have a spotty performance record in my book and I've shied away from linking them here for that reason. We're trying to solve problems not create them.

Lastly, I have seen a couple of laptop players have a difficult time finding drivers for their hardware if it's more than a couple of years old. Laptops are a special breed; if the nVidia links below do not have a driver for your hardware/OS combination, try your manufacturer's site first. If that fails try LaptopVideo2Go, google and asking here. freak1337 just made a good laptop post in this thread here (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpos...&postcount=127).

Good luck!

jaf

Driver Sweeper at Guru3D
Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (Setup) download from Guru3D.com (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655)

Driver Cleaner Pro at Guru3D
A couple of people have had more success with this program than with Driver Sweeper.
Driver Cleaner Professional download from Guru3D.com (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745)

nVidia's Latest WHQL Drivers
Windows XP/XP Pro, Windows XP Media Center Edition 32-bit:
GeForce Release 175 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.16_whql.html)
Windows Vista 32-bit:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...5.16_whql.html
Windows Vista 64-bit:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvist...5.16_whql.html

Laptop users with older hardware may need to find their drivers here
LaptopVideo2Go & NVIDIA Related News (http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/)

* thanks to damafan for the original list format

[Postal]

Wow thats a lot of work to clean out your video drivers. It makes me wonder what effects and am I seeing them or not. At some point I will try this though I have been staying away from the newest drivers as I heard people were getting more crashes with them.

[bridude]

You may not have to go through all those steps. The key thing is just make sure the old drivers are removed.

[Creole Ned]

I have been declared thrustworthy again and now have TWO drinking capes!

Still no game, though.

[bridude]

I'll take 1!

[Creole Ned]

I don't think it's tied to a specific account, so let me have a look-see when I get home. Hopefully you'll be swigging Ambrosia and punching camels in no time.

[Reaver]

Probably gonna be another few weeks before i can pick this up. =/

[bridude]

I should be on tonight. Fitty was looking to pick it up as well. Not sure if he found it last night or night though.

[FoeKilla]

I'm leaving the country on a mission for the government. I will return in 2 weeks time. I then have 2 weeks until I move to Seattle. I will attempt to find this game during that 2 week interval and see if i can't get an hour or two, but I feel WoW coming all over again, where you guys had a one month head start on me and I never had anyone to group with (I love you Q!).

[Creole Ned]

I'll group with anyone!

As soon as I actually have the game, of course.

[Tai]

I checked 4 stores this morning. All sold out. :(

[Postal]

Thats not good. :( Guess the game is doing good though if they are selling out.

[Tai]

Could we get a list of player names? The only ones I know are Bridette and Taitoo

[Q]

Mine is Quaron

[BoX]

Corpse

[Tai]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that I got left behind again last night (I just coulnd't stay awake any longer). You all are around 15 or so?

[Circuit]

I'm all sorts of levels!

[BoX]

I are level 41.

[Creole Ned]

I've made three characters so far, ranging from 6 to 10, so no, not left behind yet. :)

The only name I remember for certain is my ranger, Arohl. I'll have to login to check the others. :P

It's times like this that I am still struck how flat-out awesome CoH's global friends list is.

Remember, to add a friend who isn't standing in front of you: /cc addbuddy [name] (note I've never tried this, so I'm not sure if it works when a friend is offline).

EDIT: Here are my loincloth-clad dudes:

Arohl, ranger
Gorlan, conqueror
Zarlan, herald
Lucanis, necro
Dragol, guardian

[BoX]

I open the find group pvp thing, click add by name and check off add to friends. Anyone who is lvl 20 can create a guild pretty easily it seems. I don't know how the guild tracking works though, I've heard reports of lackluster.

[bridude]

UHG! I still cant decide on which char I like most.

Box never responds to me ingame :(

[Postal]

My guys so far are:

Amos - 20 Bear Shaman (Waiting for people to catch up)
Garith (I think that is the name) - 20 Barbarian
Gaunter - 11 Dark Templar

[Creole Ned]

I think everyone playing already knows but just in case, Circuit has created the Quirky Bastards guild. Most characters can invite others to the guild. The guild interface is pretty barebones, so it's really just a collection of names for now. Circuit also discovered how to switch guild masters by accidentally overpromoting my conqueror Gorlan to War Chief and demoting his guy to Chieftain in the process. Oops!

[bridude]

when can we build a city?

[Creole Ned]

I think you need 24 guild members, not sure if they have to be unique accounts or just 24 total. And there's probably some level requirement. I'll check around the official™ site.

[bridude]

24?? thats just dumb.


To book a city spot, you yourself need to be the Guild Leader, level 40+, and have 24+ members. If you meet those requirements, you can simply choose to reserve a piece of land in one of the so-called “resource and gathering areas”.

* Laceish Plains — The bleak, snowy, and mountainous Laceish Plains are where Cimmerians may feel most at home.
* Poitain —The “smiling sun-washed plains and blue lazy rivers” of Poitain will remind many Aquilonians of their homeland.
* Purple Lotus Swamp — Dark and mysterious, but also green and full of life, the Purple Lotus Swamp is where Stygians may gather to do their devious deeds.


Guild city - AoCWiki - Ultimate Age of Conan Wiki with information on Archetypes, Classes, Lore, Guilds and more. (http://aoc.wikia.com/wiki/Guild_city) - This link explains what buildings can be made and what each one does.

[Circuit]

If it's 24 characters and not 24 unique accounts, I'm pretty sure we already have that many. And if we choose to build a city thing, I say we go for the place with the best framerate.

[Harka]

I got tired of waiting on the Queue for Cimmeria so I created a barbarian on Omm named Tiomach.

[Harka]

I have a few friends who also got tired of the queue on Cimmeria and are playing on Omm as a diversion. If you want numbers I can see about sending them your way for a larger guild.

[Circuit]

I think we're a ways away from any sort of city building. Sounds 'spensive, too.

[Creole Ned]

Would you like to build a city? Yes
Please deposit 1 trillion gold. lol
You are canceling construction of your city. Are you sure you wish to do this? Yes

[Harka]

I am not sure what the costs are on the city, but I know our guild on Cimmeria is starting to build one already. We have the resources to build a couple buildings, just need the silver to purchase the parchment and Ink i think it is for the plans before building can commence.

[bridude]

Went 1-14 with Daddoo (ToS) last night. Grouping was a blast. :)

[Tai]

I was planning on playing last night and then when I sat down in front of the computer and had to choose between the games, I went with TF2 yet again. My Herald is level 13 though.

[Creole Ned]

Yeah, Bri, Postal and I tore through most stuff fairly quickly. Bri even proved his priest can pull off miracles by keeping Postal's character alive. :o

My Herald is level 10 or 11 now. I may take him through the night missions next.

My ranger is also 11 and I'll probably finish off his first batch of destiny quests. He's a fun character to play in a group with a melee type who can hold aggro. Like the ranger in EQ2, he stands up well in melee but really needs to stand back to tap into his full and terrible powers.

I still have several lowbies kicking around if anyone starts another character, too.

[Tai]

Fitty should be starting soon, his new hardware arrived. My T1 is down again though.

[Circuit]

Please no more lowbies. I've got two characters at 20 waiting in their respective 20+ zones. I don't mind grouping and helping everyone else get characters leveled up, but Tortage is starting to wear thin after going through it so many times.

[bridude]

I would like to get off the island. :)

[Tai]

There's an island?

[Creole Ned]

I mostly meant if anyone new joins up. I'm not stamping out a ton of lowbies, myself. I just have a few that I haven't done much with while I figure out who my main is.

Also, having only one path for lowbies in an MMORPG = bad design. See also: Tabula Rasa, City of Villains.

[Postal]

I hate to say that I gave up waiting with one of my chars. My bear shaman is still 20 but my barbarian is 22 now.

[Circuit]

Also, having only one path for lowbies in an MMORPG = bad design. See also: Tabula Rasa, City of Villains.

I agree, except the Destiny stuff in AoC is at least well done. There are technically 3 paths and while they're similar, they're all entertaining the first time through. This type of thing just doesn't lend itself well to lots of alts.

[Creole Ned]

That's another debate, too. I don't think solo-exclusive content really belongs in an MMORPG, no matter how well done.

[Postal]

I like the first 5 levels of solo. Good enough time to learn the controls and fast enough i don't mind doing with each char. The rest of the destiny you really should be able to do as a team.

[Paladin]

That's another debate, too. I don't think solo-exclusive content really belongs in an MMORPG, no matter how well done.

I'm kind of the opposite. I like having all the low level stuff being solo. It does depend on the game though. Solo in CoH/CoV wasn't as fun because the door missions really were better in groups. WoW, on the other hand, works great as solo through level 20 or so and I prefer doing those levels solo so I'm not having to share XP. I suppose the middle ground I'd like best would be low-level instances that scale based on the number of people in the group, but everyone gets a full share of XP for kills. That's the key question for me at low levels... do I get through the low levels faster grouped or solo?

Planetside, the only other MMOG I've played, didn't require grouping at low level, but unless you just wanted to snipe all the time, grouping was highly recommended and it was alot easier to advance as part of a group.

[Creole Ned]

The solo content in Conan is instanced, like CoH. Unlike CoH you cannot group at all in it, it is 100% solo-only, which is the part I don't like.

[Circuit]

Go Back to WoW, Cry-baby!™

[bridude]

I guess im the only one that looks forward to doing the night quests.

I need something to do after you girls go to bed.

[Tai]

I do them in the afternoon while everyone else is still at work. The two times I played anyway.

[Falhawk]

what sort of endgame for PVE players is there for AoC? It seems geared more towards PVE. I've read about the raids but they seem only for 24 players

[Creole Ned]

I also do the night quests when all the girls have gone to bed. I kind of accidentally made a new character last night (a barbarian) and got him to level 10. I think I like him better than the conqueror because he's mainly melee but can also use a bow for good old-fashioned pullin' fun. I think he or my herald will be my main toon™. I'll finish the night stuff with both then beg people to help me wrap up the Tortage quests and get to 20 and leave the newbie area at last.

The copy of the game Tai sent me arrived yesterday afternoon. I will send it off to anyone who is interested in playing.

[bridude]

one thing I love about this game is there is no shortage of quests.

I'm only 17 though.

[Harka]

If your looking for a something that will detail somewhat what zones are good for what level you are one of my tribesmates on Cimmeria found this:

Map of where to go to level (http://www.got3n.com/wp-content/gallery/age-of-conan/aoc_1.png)

[Creole Ned]

Regarding Fal's question, I always got the impression the endgame is geared more toward PvP via player cities, raids, sieges and stuff like that. I actually have no idea if the game has the traditional 25-person PvE raids or whatnot.

We can check with BoX when he reaches the level cap any day now. :nod:

[Falhawk]

I'm pretty shocked how quickly people are levelling. Hearing from many people in their mid 40s

[Harka]

Yea the guild im in on Cimmeria have 50 plus folks already.

As Ned said alot of the end game is geared towards taking and keeping the battlekeeps as well as there being content up to 80. As I am only level 22 and taking my time and doing all the quests I can find it will be a bit until I get there.

[Creole Ned]

There was also an exploit that allowed one class (demonologist?) to level insanely fast, too.

But fast leveling is pretty much the way most MMOs are going these days. People have level 50 Villain Epic ATs in CoV a week after they were introduced, the early to mid-game in WoW is *much* faster than before, you can go 1-20 in EQ2 in a single long play session if you want.

That said, my highest in Conan is just shy of 13. I should be much closer to 20 when I finish all of the early destiny quests, but I'm much like Harka, taking my time and enjoying the ride (at least when I'm solo).

[Harka]

Yea I will add, I am 22 and just left Tortage last night at 21, and a good way to 22. I made 22 doing 3 or 4 quests in Conarch village and one in Old Tarantia.

I hear that quests level you fast once you leave Tortage, but thats just hearsay until I experience it myself and can report.

[Tai]

At level 13, I have boobs.

[Circuit]

but I'm much like Harka, taking my time and enjoying the ride (at least when I'm solo).

I'm not sure what you mean there. Do you not have fun when grouped or do you feel rushed?

[Creole Ned]

Sometimes I feel rushed. It's not due to anyone else, I always just feel like if I actually read and follow all the quests (that most people have already done), I'll always be lagging behind the others who keep pressing ahead.

I also tend to be among the last to jump in and play (being west coast), so that cuts into the time for grouping, contributing to the "falling behind" feeling.

None of this is a big deal. It's not like I hate all of you very much. :o

[Circuit]

Believe me, I don't mind if you want to read/listen to the quests. They're all pretty good and the voice acting so far is great.

[Creole Ned]

I have found several NPCs have this weird tendency to suddenly kneel midway through speaking to you, effectively disappearing from sight or ending up positioned in such a way as to...er, earn the game its M rating.

Also, my herald has the best-named power ever: Burn to Death. Three words that tell you everything you could possibly need to know!

[Circuit]

Yes, Redrik, the captain of the ship near the crane inexplicably kneels during one of his cutscenes and it just looks...naughty. Maybe that's part of the quest reward.

[Circuit]

Good news, Ned! They're taking applications for moderators for the official AoC forums! That would be awesome fun, I bet!!

[Tai]

Good news, Ned! They're taking applications for moderators for the official AoC forums! That would be awesome fun, I bet!!

hahahahahahahahaha

[Tai]

Burn to Death? How'd you get that? I don't think I have that one.

[Circuit]

He played and leveled up. :P

[Creole Ned]

I got it at level 15, I think. I have yet to burn anyone to death with it yet, though. I'm assuming it burns someone else to death.

Also, if I had been living in the U.S. I would have actually applied for one of the two permanent moderator positions that were recently filled for the CoH forums. For Age of Conan? Yeah, a long string of laughter is about the right response.

[Tai]

He played and leveled up. :P

Thppt, once I turn in all the quests we completed last night I might hit 15 too.

[Creole Ned]

The ruins outside Tortage contain many foul things -- demons and their worshippers, vicious animals and, of course, NPCs that do the backstroke in mid-air instead of attacking you. Here we see Zarlan, my Herald of Xotli, prepared to fight just in case the Pict Stormstriker decides his swim is over.

http://creolened.com/images/aoc/aoc_swimmer.jpg

[Circuit]

Turach, the blacksmith got a bit too friendly with my Priest of Mitra last night. The promise not to "break" her "booty" is at the same time scary and I guess polite.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9894/myrapicture000zj1.jpg

[Reaver]

Damn, I want to play with you guys! I just have too many things going on right now, not the least of which is practice, practice, practice for a salsa dance routine that supposed to debut on the 28th of June...

Yes, I joined a dance team. No, I've never danced in front of an audience, nor have I danced in public before. No, I don't know WTF I was thinking. Yes, I'm freakin' terrified.

[Creole Ned]

All we ask is for embarrassing pics.

[Reaver]

There's probably going to be a video for your viewing entertainment.

[bridude]

22!

[Postal]

Cool Bri. So I guess we need a second group to start questing with you when your around. I have a Dark Templar and a Barbarian around that level. We also need a 3rd group or we need to catch Q and Tai up. :)

[Creole Ned]

I'm trying to settle on a second main alt. Since Zarlan is pretty much a melee fighter, I'm leaning toward a ranged class for variety and stuff. I'm thinking either ranger (since, you know, they have "range" right in the name lol!!) or a Priest of Mitra. I made a PoM last night and got him up to level 7. It's pretty fun being able to zot things in one-shot with Smite. It only lasted until I got to the apes but still, take that Mr. Fancy Pict Archer!

My highest character after my herald is my barbarian who is 16 but he's pretty much melee-only except for using a bow to pull. I'll keep noodling around with him, too. He seems to have a good balance between damage and survival.

[bridude]

Sounds good postal.

Also Fitty is up and running and hes ready for questing.

[Tai]

Still no internet. Still level 15.

[Creole Ned]

That's funny, I feel the same way about TF2!

Bri, I noticed Daddoo is 24 now. Our highbies are around 28/29. If'n you want to join up, you could probably do it in a couple of levels. Or I could push to get a lowbie up high enough to join your foxy mama. Either way I don't want you to see you soloing with your highbie if you'd prefer to get in on some group action. Plus you'd add much-needed breasts to our manly man party.

[Tai]

INTERNET, not interest. =P

[Creole Ned]

oops, my mistake! :bg:

[bridude]

That's funny, I feel the same way about TF2!

Bri, I noticed Daddoo is 24 now. Our highbies are around 28/29. If'n you want to join up, you could probably do it in a couple of levels. Or I could push to get a lowbie up high enough to join your foxy mama. Either way I don't want you to see you soloing with your highbie if you'd prefer to get in on some group action. Plus you'd add much-needed breasts to our manly man party.

:lol:

I will hopefully catch up soon. We lost power for 2 days plus I've been working my ass off on the new addition.

[Tai]

I made level 17 today before the internet fdied again

[Creole Ned]

Verizon = Mithrelle

[Tai]

Verizon = Mithrelle

They got the internet up, but in the process they seem to have killed my phone.

Also, I'm trying to find Mithrelle in the Keep but am lost in the sewers/wine cellar or something. Do you get to the Keep via the Uptown Sewers?

[Creole Ned]

I can never find where anything is in the Underhalls (unless it's the Doom II map). Postal could probably provide a few pointers, though.

[Tai]

He claims to have never done this quest. There's a fork after the wine cellar where you go right or left. I went right into something labelled 'Astria'. I might have gone the wrong way.

[Circuit]

You're Herald of Xiotli, right? Should be able to enter the Keep through the prison area on that quest, but I don't remember more specifically than that.

[Tai]

Yeah, I've been asking around some more. Apparently I can get to the prison area by going either way, left or right. Then I look for a well and stairs. I shall assume "the prison area" looks like a prison and I'll know it when I get there. In the meantime, I am loving my Pillar of Flame.