Age of Conan - Page 4

Gust · 05-02-2007, 04:50 PM

Yeah and the PvP wasn't even that good to begin with.

Niber · 05-22-2007, 05:21 PM

LINK

Good read for AoC/MMO fans.

Quote:

This was my problem though: I saw myself getting more and more and more impatient. I stopped crafting. I always picked the DPS classes because I figured: quick kills equals fastest way to max level. I gathered as many quests as I could – never reading the “story” – to the point where killing a monster without getting a quest update felt like a waste of time. Yes, I felt depressed when I saw an NPC with the quest marker showing the available new quests. Oh no, more work! I stopped exploring the world and simply used an online service that taught me to run here and there to maximize my exp per hour potential. And God forbid, I admit to once buying grind gold from an online service (ooh the shame – don’t do it!!). I never used bots, leveling services or anything like that, though.

Quote:

The first thing we did was to tear down the norm of the combat system in MMOs. Out with the watch-the-hotkey-bar combat. Nothing wrong with it, except we wanted more location, direction, distance and hands on player skill to matter! In a Conan game combat must be more than a means to an end (to kill, gain exp) – it must be super-fun in itself. I am happy to say – we are finally close to this.

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Secondly we wanted to make quests more than a collection of experience boosters. We wanted to present fewer, but better written, quests with more meaning. I am not saying that we have revolutionary quests, world changing events or massive pict invasions during every quest (well, perhaps a few ;p), and the majority is true and tested game mechanics. We just present it better. Close up multiple-choice dialogue, often with voice – all beautifully grounded in Hyborian lore. Fewer, but with feeling and meaning, is my slogan.

Quote:

Thirdly, we decided to make crafting quest driven instead of grind driven. It seems like a bad idea sometimes, I know. Many hundred quests to create – but what the heck. Just to make crafting a story, a journey and not work – it is worth it.

hammarus · 05-22-2007, 05:56 PM

I've been following AoC since 2005. There approach to gameplay is interesting if not unique. But Funcom doesn't really blow me away with there games. Anarchy Online was great in the mechanics department, but the art/graphics sucked.

In my mind, what this game has going for it right now, is the forementioned approach to gameplay, a small number of classes but very interesting and distinct, its pvp, and most importantly, its Mature. Ie. blood, guts, nudity, profanity, etc.

And it doesnt hurt that they are sticking closely to the lore developed in the books not the movies. That is a huge plus IMO. It means a much larger sphere to draw future material from.

I am worried about the graphics tho. They are saying DX10, but...my mind keeps drifting back to AO's graphics... yuck.

Faxon · 05-29-2007, 05:41 AM

yea i have been following this since sometime in 04. it looks fucking awesome hands down, and some of the gameplay videos made me almost wanna cry (esp after playing all melee classes in eq2). finally if i get pissed off at someone i can ACTUALLY chop off their FUCKING HEAD! i should app for beta, im just worried tho that the comp i can use for it wont be able too run it very well, if at all (athlon 2600+ 1gb ram 9600pro 256).

arieste · 05-29-2007, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammarus

Anarchy Online was great in the mechanics department, but the art/graphics sucked.

...

I am worried about the graphics tho. They are saying DX10, but...my mind keeps drifting back to AO's graphics... yuck.

dude... I am sorry, but having played AO for 3 years, i have to say that the art on the game was excellent, especially on the expansions. Considering how old the graphics engine is, I think the art was downright spectacular. I think it is much better than it's competition at the time of release - DAoC and EQ1.

AO screenies:

hammarus · 06-04-2007, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arieste

dude... I am sorry, but having played AO for 3 years, i have to say that the art on the game was excellent, especially on the expansions. Considering how old the graphics engine is, I think the art was downright spectacular. I think it is much better than it's competition at the time of release - DAoC and EQ1.

AO screenies:

Its the character graphics that im refering to. But your right, its an old game, old graphics engine. So for its age I suppose they are pretty good. I didn't start playing AO at release, I started much later, about the time EQ2 was released. So I guess its an unfair comparison. Its just the cardboard cutout look to characters that really drives me to dislike it. I always feel that if I just turn my toon a bit to the side or if another player does, they will just disappear. Its the paperdoll cutout feel I don't care for.

I don't expect this from AoC, but again it is the same developer, so I am a bit concerned.

arieste · 06-04-2007, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammarus

Its the character graphics that im refering to. But your right, its an old game, old graphics engine. So for its age I suppose they are pretty good. I didn't start playing AO at release, I started much later, about the time EQ2 was released. So I guess its an unfair comparison. Its just the cardboard cutout look to characters that really drives me to dislike it. I always feel that if I just turn my toon a bit to the side or if another player does, they will just disappear. Its the paperdoll cutout feel I don't care for.

I don't expect this from AoC, but again it is the same developer, so I am a bit concerned.

EQ2 set the bar pretty high for character models and graphics in general I think. It’s 3 years old now and I haven’t seen anything that comes close. Of course it ended up biting SOE in the ass in terms of being unable to create a lot of armor textures and such. But in terms of pure quality of models EQ2 is unparalleled. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea from a taste standpoint, but nothing ever will satisfy everyone on that front.

Back to AoC now. Personally I think the character models are hideous. But not in terms of quality. I think they are all butt-ugly. But this is the look they are going for, just like WoW is going for “Cartoonish”, AoC is going for “rugged and mean”. The actual quality and detail on the models is actually quite excellent. There are a couple of character creation videos floating around. Some of them are pretty old, but even they show the very wide range of possibilities. Another thing that AoC is doing (unlike EQ2) is that the armor is actually “put on” rather than “painted on”. So your character model doesn’t change with armor, the armor going onto the model. It was explained by on of the DEVs.

The latest newsletter has a bunch of armor pictures. Personally I find most of them ugly. But from a graphics quality standpoint, they are pretty good. The mobs on the other hand look absolutely awesome. There is some bad ass stuff out there to kill. The latest developer diary has a hawt-loooking succubus that keeps .. uhm… ehm… adjusting herself.

I don’t have all the links, but you can find a this stuff from community.ageofconan.com

Morara · 06-04-2007, 12:36 PM

I'm still finding current games lacking in the character model department, mainly because they use nasty normal mapping.

Kookynotes · 06-04-2007, 02:48 PM

Character models for AoC have alot of slider features including ones for hair on your chest and face. Allthough right now the Char customization is very limited ATM I think you will actually be able to make a truely unique looking char come release. From what Ive seen already you can bet there will be lots of varity.

arieste · 06-09-2007, 11:17 AM

if you havent watched the DEV diaries for AoC, here is the latest one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D1wEYmVRzw