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Age of Conan (PC MMO) - Launch Thread

W

Wollan

Member
ConanBanner.jpg


____________________________________________________________________

Please Note: This is not an official meet up thread.
To meet with fellow NeoGAF barbarians, visit this thread.
____________________________________________________________________

• Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
• Developer: Funcom
• Release Date:
OUT NOW in Europe, North America & AU/NZ.


Key Features

• M-rated MMO
• Based on the age-old Conan license created by Robert E.Howard
• Active combat, a change of pace in the MMO market
• Fully voiced, narrated lore quests (think Kotor)
• First 20 levels (of 80) can be played as a singleplayer adventure
• OMG soundtrack (3.5hours of awesome)
• Siege combat, Mounted combat, Guild towns
• Cutting edge, DX10, ~25GB install, motion captured horses..etc
• Funcom, these guys are ultra passionate & AO is great

More detailed info here:
• Official Promo/Launch Site
• Official Community Site
• AOC Music Samples
• Classes
• Combat Tutorial @ Youtube

AOCcover250.jpg
AOCCcover.jpg



Media

• Age of Conan Trailer @ Youtube
• Age of Conan Epic Moments @ Youtube
• Age of Conan Combat Tutorial @ Youtube
• Guild Cities Crafting Tutorial @ Youtube
• Spell Weaving Demonstration @ Youtube
• Last day of Open Beta @ Youtube

Village.jpg


Cave.jpg


Field.jpg


Blood-Defiler.jpg


Wolf-Lady.jpg


Tundra.jpg


Vanaheim-Entrance.jpg


Boss.jpg


Gathering.jpg


Valley.jpg


Face.jpg
 
T

TheHeretic

Banned
I've been waiting for a game that will make my PC beg for mercy that isn't Crysis, and this looks like it.

BRING ON THE PAIN
 
W

Wollan

Member
GONZO said:
How does preorder work so I can jump online this weekend?
Click to expand...
When you buy online from one of the bigger online sites (maybe all?) you will get an e-mail which gives you the opportunity to pay $5 to access it this weekend (you can already start downloading today).
 
X

xabre

Banned
Obviously dungeons and guild cities will be instanced but is the Tortage night aspect early on the only part of the game world that is instanced?
 
W

Wollan

Member
They instance other areas when they get over crowded.

Slightly OT but Funcom has server capacity for 400 000 people on day one.
 
X

xabre

Banned
Wollan said:
They instance other areas when they get over crowded.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I like the sound of that. Just say you want to meet up with your guild but they're all spread out between instance 1, 2 and 3?
 
D

Dedalus

Member
GONZO said:
How does preorder work so I can jump online this weekend?
Click to expand...

I think it closed on the 9th. I pre-ordered my CE on the day and haven't received an email so I guess you're SOL as well :lol
 
S

SteveO409

Did you know Halo invented the FPS?
I'm still on the fence to see if I could run the game well before purchasing it. I'm not expecting to run it at high settings but hopefully a decent looking setting with steady frame rate. It's a shame that the main opportunity to try it out was on Fileplanet's subscription based closed beta.

I'm really interested to see how guild activities will be besides the typical raiding bosses at end games. The 48v48 PvP seige sounds great in text but I wonder how it will execute in game. I have a hard enough time loading up 24 other people in another MMORPG :lol

Card name: RADEON X850 XT
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 3072MB RAM
 
W

Wollan

Member
I have a dual core 3.4GZ P4, 2GB ram and 6800XT and the game runs more than fine.

Here's how it looks on my rig (average fps @ 25, smooth running - no hitching):

Conan5.jpg


Conan3-1.jpg


Conan4.jpg


Conan1-1.jpg


Conan2-1.jpg
 
X

xabre

Banned
Might be a good idea to do a brief overview of the classes in the game too. I'm thinking maybe Ranger, or maybe Dark Templar or maybe something else. Don't really know yet.
 
Everdred

Everdred

Member
xabre said:
It's not cliche auto-attack if that's what you're asking.
Click to expand...
Well I've always been confused by the combat in this game and have never seen good videos for it. Will I be able to literally move my character away from attacks? Like I run in and hit them and strafe away or behind them and dodge their attack? If that doesn't make sense... Do you physically need to hit them with your character (visually) to hurt them? Or is it BS like other mmos where they hit you automatically and missing is random.
 
G

GONZO

Member
Dedalus said:
I think it closed on the 9th. I pre-ordered my CE on the day and haven't received an email so I guess you're SOL as well :lol
Click to expand...


Well I just purchased mine from gamestop and this was the statement.

"3-Day Early Access Program

With your pre-order of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, you will be able to participate in the 3-day Early Access Program. Early access period starts on May 17, 3 days before the commercial release on May 20, 2008. You may begin downloading the game client files and installing as early as May 14. With early access, there is a nominal fee of $5 payable online when you download the client, which covers the cost of the download and includes 10 days of additional game time."


DOesn't say that there's a cut-off. I'm gonna have faith. :p
 
I

iamblades

Member
TheHeretic said:
The classes seem really wierd. Is the tank/healer/damage dealer dynamic in groups?
Click to expand...


There are 4 archetypes:

Soldiers are the tanks/melee dps

Rogues are melee/ranged dps

Mages are magical dps

Priests are healers

Now guardians are going to be by far the best tanks because they are the only ones that can wear full plate armor.

The conqueror is a duel wield or 2her class, and the dark templar is a melee caster that uses a shield. Not sure how well conquerors are going to do, they seem a bit redundant to me. But dark templars are supposed to be fairly good.

As for the other archetypes its a bit more mixed up, pretty much every other class has some degree of versatility, not just a single role they can do. Like the three healers, you have a plain healer with slight nuking ability(priest of mitra), hybrid healer/nuker(tempest of set), and melee healer(bear shaman).

With the mage classes, there is a demonologist who can have one pet with nukes, or the necromancer which can have lots of pets(up to 8 weak minion type pets, iirc) plus nukes, and then the Herald of Xotli which is a melee caster that uses 2h weapons.

The rogues have Assassin, a weak very high dps class. Barbarians are a slight bit more durable with slightly lesser DPS, and the ranger is, well, a ranger, really good with ranged attacks, but can also melee a little.

There are very few classes where you basically have one job to do and that's what you do.
 
I

iamblades

Member
strange_booj said:
Well I've always been confused by the combat in this game and have never seen good videos for it. Will I be able to literally move my character away from attacks? Like I run in and hit them and strafe away or behind them and dodge their attack? If that doesn't make sense... Do you physically need to hit them with your character (visually) to hurt them? Or is it BS like other mmos where they hit you automatically and missing is random.
Click to expand...

Yes you need to physically hit(well accounting for lag anyway). You can actually dodge attacks in this game. There are also some dicerolls, there is a parry/dodge/block mechanism built into the combat system. You can do an active block by holding your shield up at the cost of stamina and mobility.

There are special dodge manuevers you can do by doubletapping the move keys. doubletap forward to jump forward and get an attack boost. Doubletap back to get a huge evade boost. Doubletap to either side to do a sidestep and get a boost as well. You can also just sprint around and dodge stuff manually.

All these options use stamina and cancel any combos you have started, so you gotta be wise with the timing. You aren't going to be circle strafing people or anything.

You also do damage to everyone you hit, so if you have a polearm, you damage basically everyone in front of you when you swing. No more swinging a giant sword and hitting 1 person in a massive crowd. Every attack is an AoE if it should be an AoE.
 
Everdred

Everdred

Member
iamblades said:
Yes you need to physically hit(well accounting for lag anyway). You can actually dodge attacks in this game. There are also some dicerolls, there is a parry/dodge/block mechanism built into the combat system. You can do an active block by holding your shield up at the cost of stamina and mobility.

There are special dodge manuevers you can do by doubletapping the move keys. doubletap forward to jump forward and get an attack boost. Doubletap back to get a huge evade boost. Doubletap to either side to do a sidestep and get a boost as well. You can also just sprint around and dodge stuff manually.

All these options use stamina and cancel any combos you have started, so you gotta be wise with the timing. You aren't going to be circle strafing people or anything.

You also do damage to everyone you hit, so if you have a polearm, you damage basically everyone in front of you when you swing. No more swinging a giant sword and hitting 1 person in a massive crowd. Every attack is an AoE if it should be an AoE.
Click to expand...
Thank you sir, that is what I was wondering. Going to pick this up day 1.
 
R

Roxas

Member
I'm interested, but dont think my PC can handle it?

I've got 3 GHz P4, 2.5GB RAM and a shitty X1550 Saphire Radeon.

Win or fail?
 
Everdred

Everdred

Member
Roxas said:
I'm interested, but dont think my PC can handle it?

I've got 3 GHz P4, 2.5GB RAM and a shitty X1550 Saphire Radeon.

Win or fail?
Click to expand...
Hate to say it but most likely fail. I haven't heard good things from single core users plus that radeon card won't do much for you.
I think.
 
T

TheHeretic

Banned
iamblades said:
Yes you need to physically hit(well accounting for lag anyway). You can actually dodge attacks in this game. There are also some dicerolls, there is a parry/dodge/block mechanism built into the combat system. You can do an active block by holding your shield up at the cost of stamina and mobility.

There are special dodge manuevers you can do by doubletapping the move keys. doubletap forward to jump forward and get an attack boost. Doubletap back to get a huge evade boost. Doubletap to either side to do a sidestep and get a boost as well. You can also just sprint around and dodge stuff manually.

All these options use stamina and cancel any combos you have started, so you gotta be wise with the timing. You aren't going to be circle strafing people or anything.

You also do damage to everyone you hit, so if you have a polearm, you damage basically everyone in front of you when you swing. No more swinging a giant sword and hitting 1 person in a massive crowd. Every attack is an AoE if it should be an AoE.
Click to expand...

I think the main problem with this will be latency. MMO's attract players world wide and having such time dependent moves is going to be a huge problem if someone from Germany is fighting someone from New Zealand.
 
C

Chris_C

Member
strange_booj said:
If I hate every other MMO because of combat, will I enjoy AoC? I like action rpgs and whatnot.
Click to expand...

I think that's very possible. I steer clear of most MMO's because of the combat, and while it's not DMC, it's considerably more fun (in my very brief experience).
 
W

Wollan

Member
It's been pretty okay so far from Melbourne AU to Amsterdam (I believe that's where the Beta servers are).

There's actually less running in pvp in this game unless you're escaping. You loose stamina fast when running which is important to have in Combat.
 
f@luS

f@luS

More than a member.
Wollan said:
When you buy online from one of the bigger online sites (maybe all?) you will get an e-mail which gives you the opportunity to pay $5 to access it this weekend (you can already start downloading today).
Click to expand...
dont forget that the 5$ fee includes 10days online play
 
W

Wollan

Member
It's a pretty smart little system actually. Takes off the load from day one.
You still get relatively money's worth as well.
 
f@luS

f@luS

More than a member.
i wonder if my pc will be enough to run it at 1360 mid detail

(E6750 @ 2.66 C2D /2gb DDR / X1950 pro)
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Think I might order it from Play.com (comes with free Rhino mount!), seems quite a few of my old WoW/Eve people are getting it also.
 
W

Wollan

Member
Visualante said:
Has it been in beta or something? Someone on my Steam list has been playing it for weeks.
Click to expand...
It's been in a closed Beta for a long time, a year or so. Open beta has been active for the last two weeks or thereabouts.
 
P

Plissken

Member
Been looking forward to this for a while. Pre-ordered it yesterday via Best Buy to get my free Rhino mount, hopefully I will still be able to play early.
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Is there a free month? I might bite then. There is a big group of people in my town looking forward to this and the hype is getting to me a bit.
 
H

Hitmeneer

Member
I'll be waiting on the PC Gameplay review and the result of a contest where I can win AoC :p. If the review is good, I'll definitly buy it as WAR is delayed.
 
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