Age of Conan - All Your Questions Are Belong to Us!

[skystride]

GRAW still wins for stupidest acronym that survived.

[CeeKay]

GRAW still wins for stupidest acronym that survived.

I don't know, GRAW is kinda fin to pronounce.

'IT'S GRAW'in TIME!!!!'
'I've got GRAW'in pains!'
'The way we took them down makes me think I pulled a GRAW'in'



I know, I know, bad puns... <GRAWn>

[Chaz]

GRAW still wins for stupidest acronym that survived.

I don't know, GRAW is kinda fin to pronounce.

'IT'S GRAW'in TIME!!!!'
'I've got GRAW'in pains!'
'The way we took them down makes me think I pulled a GRAW'in'



I know, I know, bad puns... <GRAWn>

When working at EB when GRAW came out, I was constantly amazed at how many people asked for that game by the acronym, pronouncing it like a word.  They all sounded like some kind of freakish crustaceans looking for love.



GRAW?

[Lockdown]

So just to clarify... These pre-order mounts are available at what level?  And they can or can not be used to do mounted combat?  And they move at the same speeds as the "real" mounts which are available at higher levels or not?

[Arclight]

What server location would most be picking? I'll be looking for the one(s) on the East side of things.

[Arkon]

What server location would most be picking? I'll be looking for the one(s) on the East side of things.

East coast here, but I thought I read somewhere that all the US servers would be on the east coast...

[crumsteel]

I will probably get on an east coast server unless there is a group of people that want to play somewhere else.

Is it known yet how many servers there will be and what the names will be?

[YellowKing]

So just to clarify... These pre-order mounts are available at what level?  And they can or can not be used to do mounted combat?  And they move at the same speeds as the "real" mounts which are available at higher levels or not?

Not sure on the first question re: level. Typical mounts start at 40, but I don't know about the pre-order. I do know that they *can* be used for mounted combat, and that they are slower than horses. They're not going to be something you want to travel around on, just something to trample people with.

[Daehawk]

You cant use them till 40. Till then you have an extra inv bag till you get your mount.

[Blackjack]

TenTonHammer had the interview where the Funcom rep mentioned all U.S. servers will be located on the East Coast (I was speculating maybe in Dulles, Va., which is awash in data centers, and is where some WoW servers are, I believe, located). But I get teh impression there will be servers labeled East and West U.S. more from a time-zone perspective.

This French forum mentioned you get 8 characters per server.
http://forums-fr.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=55157

This Massively.com item mentions the server farms are geared to handle 500,00-600,000 subscribers at launch. It'll be interesting to see whether it sells that many pre-orders or not:
http://www.massively.com/2008/04/22/age-of-conan-box-subscription-pricing-announced/

If you read the actual investor's update, it actually warns Funcom investors to expect technical problems during the launch, just based on what most large-scale MMOs go through at launch. Or maybe they're just referring to Anarchy Online's initial, disastrous launch (though they probably learned a lot from that experience).

Funcom has, in the opinion of Management, prepared
well for the launch. However, most MMO’s on the PC
platform have experienced technical issues of various
severities during launch. The investor community
should therefore be prepared that Age of Conan may
also experience technical issues during the launch.

That's smart to be realistic like that so the investors don't freak out if some things crop up at launch. It also indicates they're working with some heavy duty networking partners (including Cisco) and can add more server capacity fairly quickly if they have to.

But so far, my Internet search skills haven't turned up the actual number of servers at launch.

[Lockdown]

I thought you were setting sail?

 

[rittchard]

Not sure if this was mentioned already, but I did receive a pre-order email today announcing the May 17th head start and giving me the registration code, etc.  Apparently client downloading will begin on the 14th; that should be an interesting experience if it's really the 30+ GB load people have talked about.

[Blackjack]

I'm still trying Fileplanet. I installed their Comrade IM yesterday which is supposed to notify you precisely but it didn't seem to do anything (I did add the proper "contact" for it).

I'll go ahead at work today and keep tapping F5 (refresh in IE). I just wish for the sake of people having to keep the page open at work, that they didn't slather the page up with half-nekkid Amazonian warrior women. My boss almost walked in on me with that on screen.   

[koanicriddle]

Has anyone played any of the caster classes? Or heard anything about them? I wonder how the casters "feel" gameplay wise. We have 2 pet classes here (and pet classes are my soft spot ), how is the pet control, pathfinding and AI? Do casters ever participate in melee or are they strictly range fighters? Are the pets good tanks (at least for playing solo)? What's the difference between necros and demos? Are there any fun spells besides just the nukes?

I've been in Beta since October, and I've played both pet classes (pet classes are by far my favorite class in MMOs).  Sadly, I found both pretty lacking.  None of the pets can really tank, functioning more as DPS spells that just happen to have a pet model.  Very early in the beta, pets didn't even have common MMO commands (such as attack, follow, etc.), but thank god the devs added those (due to much complaining from testers).  They're still decent classes, but just not as fun to play (for me, at least) as I'd hoped, and nothing like the blast I had playing a Necro in Vanguard (for all that game's faults, and it had many, their implementation of the Necro was maybe the best ever in an MMO).

My favorite caster class is actually the Herald of Xotli.  It's more melee oriented than any of the other caster classes; you mainly use 2-handed weapons and an assortment of damage shields, buffs, and so on.  To aid in battle, you can transform into a demon for a short amount of time, which results in some serious buffs while demon form is active;  has a long cool down, and a fairly short duration, so it's mainly used for boss fights.  HoX can be tricky to play: you're limited to cloth armor, which means that you really have to use you're spells and melee combos wisely to keep from getting killed very often in battle.  But once you get the hang of the class, you're a serious damage machine.

[Blackjack]

I got through for a Fileplanet key finally. Whew.

12GB. Ugh. I'm already envisioning how long it'll take for that much to install off DVDs. 

[cheeba]

Oh and a PVP video...

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/play/26763/PC/Age-of-Conan-Hyborian-Adventures

And people gave me shit for saying PvP was going to be a lot like WoW

[Gryndyl]

Oh and a PVP video...

http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/play/26763/PC/Age-of-Conan-Hyborian-Adventures

And people gave me shit for saying PvP was going to be a lot like WoW

Well, the minigames are but I don't recall WoW having siege engines and destructible fortresses. I'm just bummed the drunken brawling isn't going to make launch.

[Gryndyl]

disagree. Somewhat similar, maybe, and yes, you can stand toe to toe and whack a mole if you choose but I found that moving and dodging during fights as well as actively attacking instead of auto attacking made the combat feel much more engaging.

About as engaging as playing classes with positional based attacks in other MMOs?  For example when I played a rogue class in EQ2 I would stun my opponent and jump behind him and perform a backstab attack.  AoC does have more classes (most of them?) with positional attack than any other MMO.

Taken from a description of a PvP fight on another forum. The writer is playing a barbarian...

In one situation, i was coming up a ramp taking fire from a ranger and in front of me was an enemy demonologist. I was able to instantly send the mage flying through the air with my clobber attack, and sprinted to the ranger where i started my butcher combo, after i pushed the first attack button in the sequence the ranger had already leaped backwards to evade the combo and was out of my attack range, by this time an enemy assassin with low heath was already unleashing an attack on me. Still targeted on the ranger and in the middle of my butcher combo sequence, I was able to actively block the assassins attacks before i switched my targeting to him and pushed the last button needed to trigger high a DPS attack, severing the assassins head.

A good example of why I find the combat to be more engaging.

[Blackjack]

Did anybody else have any Fileplanet mid-way download problems? I had maybe 5-6GB downloaded when I went to sleep. When I got up and checked the computer, there was a "File failed to save because file could not be read" error message (sounds like something Confucious would say ). The Zip download was empty, and there was a separate 3.38GB "AgeOfConan_FilePlanet.zip" labeled a "PART" file. It's good to know Windows remains baffling...

[Arkon]

Did anybody else have any Fileplanet mid-way download problems? I had maybe 5-6GB downloaded when I went to sleep. When I got up and checked the computer, there was a "File failed to save because file could not be read" error message (sounds like something Confucious would say ). The Zip download was empty, and there was a separate 3.38GB "AgeOfConan_FilePlanet.zip" labeled a "PART" file. It's good to know Windows remains baffling...

Not once I used thier download manager.  Before using that I did have some issues.

[CeeKay]

apparently Gamestop doesn't have the CE available in their system anymore.

[Razgon]

okay, the more I read , the more excited I get - The world pvp video and explanation about how it works, seems very very fun! Unless the beta totally puts me off, this is a day one purchase for me...

[Jag]

apparently Gamestop doesn't have the CE available in their system anymore.

But i still think you can get the pre-order bonuses.

[CeeKay]

apparently Gamestop doesn't have the CE available in their system anymore.

But i still think you can get the pre-order bonuses.

I think I'll pre-order from Best Buy.  According to the forums they got the Rhino.

[Blackadar]

I haven't been following this one as closely as I followed LOTRO and Vanguard, but I can't figure out the appeal of this game.  What does this do that the other MMOs don't?  Or is this just the annual "I need a new MMO since WoW hasn't released shit" game that diverts the attention of a few WoWers for a couple of months?  I watched a couple of videos and read a bit about the character classes, but I haven't seen anything that generates any enthusiasm for the game.

[YellowKing]

I haven't been following this one as closely as I followed LOTRO and Vanguard, but I can't figure out the appeal of this game.  What does this do that the other MMOs don't?

DX10 graphics, real-time combat system that hasn't been seen in any other MMO, robust PvP end-game with siege warfare and mounted combat, to name a few. It's nothing revolutionary, but there are definitely some nifty things that haven't been done in WoW or EQ2.

[Razgon]

I haven't been following this one as closely as I followed LOTRO and Vanguard, but I can't figure out the appeal of this game.  What does this do that the other MMOs don't?  Or is this just the annual "I need a new MMO since WoW hasn't released shit" game that diverts the attention of a few WoWers for a couple of months?  I watched a couple of videos and read a bit about the character classes, but I haven't seen anything that generates any enthusiasm for the game.

well, for me it has the following points..

1) The setting - Conan has always had a huge following, since the books, the cartoons, and the movies

2) The PVP - The pvp action and the possibility guilds have for world pvp and building of fortresses, taking them, losing them , siege warfare and so on

3) Maturity - its a game rated M for mature, which is something that is severely lacking these days

4) The combat system - its different from other MMO's as I understand it, catering more to skill than just pure level

5) Horsie combat!!

on top of that, the graphics looks great

[Blackjack]

Actually, according to a mature friend of mine in City of Heroes/Villains, the most important thing about Age of Conan is that "It has boobies!" 

fwiw, I finally got to a speedier Fileplanet server last night, got the beta event stuff downloaded, and installed. Now, barring some massive May 1 patch (naturally!  ) I'll be all set on Thursday.

[YellowKing]

I saw my first boobies in beta last night. For some inexplicable reason one of the female NPC quest-givers was standing around completely nude. I must say it was a little shocking, though not very tittilating seeing as she was standing in front of a plague house full of the diseased and dying.

Much better was the second bit of boobage I saw. My hottie blonde female templar was on the character select screen, and the textures didn't load quickly enough to cover up her nudity. So for a good 5 seconds I got to see my character completely in the buff.

Don't ask my why virtual boobage brings a silly grin to my face when, as an adult with internet access, I have access to as much free REAL boobie video as I want, but it does. 

[skystride]

Boobs without nipples are just plain creepy and detracts from realism.  I'd rather not have boobs if they are not allowed to show nipples for some reason.

YK, ever tried just taking the clothes off yourself rather than glimpsing a peek during character load?    Still can't take off the thong though.  Decapitations are a-ok but full frontal is a sin.  Also during character loading you get the scary moment when only the dentures and eyeballs are showing.

[YellowKing]

I saw nipples last night. Nipples are in folks, nipples are in.

[Harkonis]

Boobs without nipples are just plain creepy and detracts from realism.  I'd rather not have boobs if they are not allowed to show nipples for some reason.

YK, ever tried just taking the clothes off yourself rather than glimpsing a peek during character load?    Still can't take off the thong though.  Decapitations are a-ok but full frontal is a sin.  Also during character loading you get the scary moment when only the dentures and eyeballs are showing.

I'm still constantly amazed at how full gore is fine for most on the continent, but moderate sex/nudity isn't. 

[Destructor]

Boobs without nipples are just plain creepy and detracts from realism.  I'd rather not have boobs if they are not allowed to show nipples for some reason.

Because that for whatever reason, nipples are FAR 'worse' than naked boobies. See City of Heroes - you can have some serious breast sizes in the game, but you'll never see a costumed nipple.

[Daehawk]

You guys seen the $15 mouse pad?

[Blackjack]

That's also the Fileplanet beta signup page artwork, so don't get too excited. They're using it for everything. 

Although I still go back to logic. If you know bad guys are coming after you with pointy things, why are you wearing thong underwear and loincloths without at least a brass baseball player's cup, eh? 

[Destructor]

Although I still go back to logic. If you know bad guys are coming after you with pointy things, why are you wearing thong underwear and loincloths without at least a brass baseball player's cup, eh? 

Because everybody knows that showing your boobies gives you an instant +15 AC rating.

[Daehawk]

If someone wants to send me a copy I can afford the monthly fee

How long do you think it will take before it drops in price for retail?

[Jag]

Just pre-ordered from BB online. You just need to add the pre-order box to your order and it will get shipped out early May in order to get it for the 3 day head start.

[Razgon]

Ordered the CE Mammoth mount version today at our local EB games here in Denmark.... Cant wait till the 1. of may now :-D

[Razgon]

btw, while registereing at Funcom for your account, did any of you get a confirmation email on your account?