arieste

i don't know. some games get pushed back and still get released as unfinished crap.

on the other hand, i was in TR beta for 4 months or so before release, the game 2 months before release was missing half the class skills, ran horribly and had a never-ending supply of bugs. yet in 2 months, 95% of all these issues were fixed and the game was released almost flawless (i mean technically btw, not from a "Greatest game ever" perspective).

So who knows. I think that with Funcom's experience of having one of the worst launches ever with their first MMO, they learned that it's better to push off than to release early. Of course there is always the chance that it's a horrible failure and they are remaking the whole thing from start. But i've seen no indication of this being the case.

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Stinkfinger

Stinkfinger

Yeah but there comes a point where pushing the game out and pushing it out, is just flat silly.

This game was due out 1-07….then 10-30-07 then 3-28-08

I mean that’s a long period of time. I doubt it will be out in May. I think there is a 50/50 chance this game will never be out.

At some point you have to do,,,what you say your going to do. Or you just lose all credibility.

Also keep in mind this game has been hyped even greater then Vanguard for a very long time, you just know your going to have some unhappy customers when and if it does get released.

There is no way this game can live up to all the hype, I mean its just one more video game in a market full of them.

I love the AoC geeks, on their forum posting and posting every day on a game, that does not even exists yet J

arieste

hyped up? what hype? I been waiting for this game for a couple of years and talk about it a lot, and about 90% of people i talk to have no clue it even exists.

if it wasn't for me being a die hard AO fan, i probably wouldn't know AoC exists either.

the hype of Vanguard was coming mainly from Brad McQuaid who's "i made EQ1 therefore I am god and my game will be the second coming of MMOs" shpiel seemed to get all the EQ1 fanbois wet in the panties. There are quite a few fans of AO, but nowhere near EQ1 and there are as many haters as fans.

The developer approach has also been completely different for AoC and Vanguard, where vanguard right up to a month prior to release kept saying "Yes, we will have everything, for everyone", AoC devs have always been honest with saying "this won't make it in, this won't be in on launch, these are the priorities, etc, etc."

If you go back and read DEV posts on AoC forums for the past year or more, you will see 0 bragging or overpromises.

I've seen people even on AoC forums claim that the developers are lying about this or that, but honestly, if you look back to two years ago to the game that was being promised, that is exactly the game that is being delivered. Aside from minor changes such as removal of certain class, the vision for the game hasn't changed at all.

But maybe i just see things this way because I'm a fan of the company rather than the game. I coudln't care less that they are making Conan or Hyboria, as long as Funcom's making it, i tend to think it's in good hands. Until experience shows me otherwise (the way it did for legions of Brad McQuaid fans), I'll expect good things.

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Kookynotes

First off the push backs have been way longer than what you think...They announced release in Nov 05 to be May 06', then Nov, 06, then 1-07, 10-07, 12-07, 3-08 now may 08. If they keep changing the combat system it will never launch, I for see bad things for a game that could of been really good. It seems they are bending their vision due to care bears bitching and complaining about this and that trying to make it like a game other than what AOC was intended to be.

All though they have some very nice features in the game, great graphics and a great AI, something as big as the combat system should of been decided on and finalized when they drew up their plans to make the game. Ive been in beta since day 1 and have seen the combat system change 4x already, every time getting worse.

Their biggest problem was their choice of beta testers for general. They gave away loads of spots to people winning contests who never followed the game at all. They all came in bitched and moaned until they got thier way....the squeeky wheels always get the oil and the long time followers get the shaft. Getting rid of the combat rose was a very bad decision. Lets hope they find a happy medium and make it work.

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arieste

What do you think is the state of the game today? Is it mostly done and needing polish / bug fixing or are major things still missing?

Also, today's preview article on MMORPG.com mentioned that the beta version is quite outdated.

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drychnath

Man, I was looking forward to that. I thought that was one of the coolest features... the closest in a long time to actual sword combat, picking your openings. I just kept hearing about it, but never actually got to see it. I did see the pirates of the carribean at worlds end combat and prayed that AoC wouldn't be like it, though it seemed similar by description only... I hoped for something very fast... adding some twitch to MMO.

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EQ2: Avenger Drychnath Malcherion (retired)
WoW: Sanguinus - Turalyon
AoC: Drychnath - Omm

The Internet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -Gene Spafford

Sarahlit

a Good chunk of ligo content was still broken when the game went live, and decent, howling maw, and abyss isn't finished (i got mission to instances to zones that arent open), But DG did do good fixing up 95% ish of the game content from may to live for the content before ligo.

Anyways the AOC delay doesn't matter really to me, cause the more the polish the game is going get the better. tho the official boards the user base went into cry mode

drychnath

One nice thing about the date change is, now I can concentrate on GTA IV in march and go into AoC with a clear plate in May. (what else is coming out in may? It's a historically slow video game month)

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EQ2: Avenger Drychnath Malcherion (retired)
WoW: Sanguinus - Turalyon
AoC: Drychnath - Omm

The Internet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -Gene Spafford

Kookynotes

it is true that testers are playing outdated versions of the game. As far as graphical elements go, they seem to be about 90% done, AI just needs to be tweeked here and there, but like I was saying they keep changing how the combat system works so who knows what the final system is going to be. Itemization is always never close to done in beta, but from what I have seen already it will be top notch.

The UI also has me very concearned. It's limited in beta only 1 hotbar available, still having to use your spell/ability book to get buffs up and whatnot because their just isn't enough hotbar space available. (I've been told by a dev that multiple hotbars will be in game though) Generally the UI is just too simplistic, I like simple and I def don't want to see something like AO, but some options would be nice because I would hate to see a plethera of mods needed to play effectively.

My biggest problem with AOC is this change in the combat system. It worries me that a cry from the beta testers possibly made that change due to it's unfamiliararity. If they changed it for technical reasons we will never know even as beta testers. FC is very tight lipped about why they are doing anything which makes me think someone hasn't put a lot of this code in stone.

A huge part of their original "player base" formed in late 05' all wanted a new combat system to learn, something appealing to adult venue and difficult to master. It looks just like any other MMO out there now... just some hotbars to hit. Even though in theory the combat rose is just a modified hotbar the original version of it was very difficult to get combos out of. It also gave you a perspective of what you were doing in conjunction with the mob. I fear that with the combat rose now gone your revellance to your avatars position to the mob will make no difference short of having to be behind or on the side of a mob like we have here in eq2.

In conclusion I think "we" the player base are our own worst enemies and FC is allowing us to do it. They need to stick with their vision and quit bowing down to the whines of players that want to make the game familiar.

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