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Funcom: Age of Conan to become a hybrid free to play MMO

C

crimsonheadGCN

Banned
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/05/25/age-of-conan-is-going-free-to-play/

Funcom just announced that their gritty MMO, Age of Conan, will be adopting a hybrid free-to-play business model (meaning there will be an optional subscription and cash shop available, much like LOTRO and DDO). The upcoming update will also add a lot of new content at the same time, including new areas, items, and storylines. We sat down with Age of Conan’s Executive Producer, Craig Morrison to talk about how their hybrid business model will work, what they’ll be charging for, and why AoC’s mature content and siege-focused combat systems still has a lot to offer MMO players!

For full details, be sure to read the official announcement and FAQ on Age of Conan’s forums.
Click to expand...

Interview at the link.

I guess I'll be playing this game again. :)
 
G

Goon Boon

Banned
As someone who only played till just after Tortage off a friend's account, did the game ever get really better?

Also one of the few games with a necromancer class and when I played it it was considered super-underpowered.
 
D

derFeef

Member
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
Is it still 30 gig?
Click to expand...
Depends which areas you download, but the full client is pretty much 30gig, yeah.

Also interesting:

The following four classes are available for all players of ‘Age of Conan: Unrated’.

Barbarian
Demonologist
Guardian
Priest of Mitra

The following classes are only available to Premium subscribers:

Assassin
Bear Shaman
Conqueror
Dark Templar
Herald of Xotli
Necromancer
Ranger
Tempest of Set
Click to expand...

So everything interesting is for subscribers only ;)
 
B

B_Rik_Schitthaus

Banned
derFeef said:
Depends which areas you download, but the full client is pretty much 30gig, yeah.
Click to expand...
Free or not that is the thing that will sink them, I have 2 pc's neither of them has 30 gig free, can't see it gaining many users with that holding them back.
 
S

SteveO409

Did you know Halo invented the FPS?
I haven't touch this game since launch and this should keep me occupied till Guild Wars 2/SW:TOR comes out
 
D

derFeef

Member
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
Free or not that is the thing that will sink them, I have 2 pc's neither of them has 30 gig free, can't see it gaining many users with that holding them back.
Click to expand...
Wow, really? It is 2011 and afaik does WoW + addons have a similar size.
 
C

crimsonheadGCN

Banned
derFeef said:
Wow, really? It is 2011 and afaik does WoW + addons have a similar size.
Click to expand...

For World of Warcraft, the size of the client depends on how you install the game. If you do a clean install of the Cataclysm client via downloadable version or disk then it's 14GB. If you upgrade the Wrath of Lich King client to the Cataclysm client then it's 25GB.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
I liked this game, but the performance took a sharp dive once I left Tortage. I kept having to screw with settings, and I couldn't figure out how to keep it looking half as good as it did without becoming choppy as hell in spots of the new area.

Sullen said:
How could anyone be running a computer with less than 30 gigs free/easily freed up? What is this 2002?
Click to expand...

This shit needs to stop now. For those running solely off SSDs, space is a premium anyway.
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Not sure why anyone would only have an SSD, seems like a pretty terrible idea.
 
D

derFeef

Member
crimsonheadGCN said:
For the WoW, the size depends on how you install it. If you do a clean install of the Cataclysm client via downloadable version or disk then it's 14GB. If you upgrade the Wrath of Lich King client then it's 25GB.
Click to expand...
Ah okay. I think starter area and areas up to level 50 are about 20gb for Conan.
Would love a small GAF guild to be honest, even if I would need to make a new character on a new server.

Ikuu said:
Not sure why anyone would only have an SSD, seems like a pretty terrible idea.
Click to expand...
It's fast and silent? edit: oh only, ok I can see that.
 
D

Dynoro

Member
Bought AoC on launch and it was a bug ridden/poorly optimised mess; but I've heard it has improved greatly since then so I will give it a go again.

As for the SSD discussion, I sense a whole "Nintendo/empty the fridge" analogy coming up. If you don't have the space for a 30GB game on the SSD; either clear out space or get a bigger fridge/SSD
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
Ikuu said:
You can run AoC on a Chrome netbook?
Click to expand...

Didn't say that, did I? I was just giving an example of someone who thinks that SSD-only isn't necessarily a bad idea.

But I was also just giving SSD as an example of "not everyone has huge amounts of hard drive space available all the time," I know I had to delete L4D and L4D2 just the other day because I was scraping the left-over space on three separate hard drives.


Teknopathetic said:
LOL @ Chrome Notebook.

Nobody in their right mind is going to be using that to play Age of Conan.
Click to expand...

Again, didn't say that. It was a response to his "SSD only is a terrible idea" comment.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
I remember when I played this way back at launch that Priests of Mitra were absolutely unstoppable. That's probably changed, especially if they are free.
 
D

derFeef

Member
Sinatar said:
I remember when I played this way back at launch that Priests of Mitra were absolutely unstoppable. That's probably changed, especially if they are free.
Click to expand...
Priest of Mitra is getting a revamp soon as well. Classes are well balanced in terms of PvE, all are fun and challanging (Necro maybe a bit too strong). I do not play much PvP so I can not comment on that.
 
R

randomwab

Member
I bought the Collector's Edition version of this at launch, and ended up never playing it 'cause my computer couldn't run it at the time. Will definitely give it a go now.
 
T

Truant

Member
One of my favorite games of all time. It's great of you love single player games, but want to play with other people.
 
E

Effect

Member
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
Free or not that is the thing that will sink them, I have 2 pc's neither of them has 30 gig free, can't see it gaining many users with that holding them back.
Click to expand...

Seriously. The client is massive and they have to find a way of getting that thing either smaller or into hands easier. Shipping the client on a dvd for free or for a few bucks might be the best way of doing this. They can't expect people to download the entire thing. Even if you have an original install disc you are still looking at a several gig download for just the updates. An updated dvd is needed. They know this as well. Why else would they allow you to download different sections to keep the download size and time low.
 
D

derFeef

Member
Effect said:
Seriously. The client is massive and they have to find a way of getting that thing either smaller or into hands easier. Shipping the client on a dvd for free or for a few bucks might be the best way of doing this. They can't expect people to download the entire thing. Even if you have an original install disc you are still looking at a several gig download for just the updates. An updated dvd is needed. They know this as well. Why else would they allow you to download different sections to keep the download size and time low.
Click to expand...
Like, the Rise of the Godslayer addon, where the main game is included?
But seriously, if you plan to play a MMO, you have to get used to big downloads.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
When I saw the old AoC thread pop up the other day I suspected this was what it was for.

I will be playing it, as long as it doesn't use the "we're not really free to play...once you put in a few dozen hours we're still going to make you pay for it unless you haven't got enough in game dollars" rule that LOTR follows.
 
L

Label

The Amiga Brotherhood
Kulock said:
Didn't say that, did I? I was just giving an example of someone who thinks that SSD-only isn't necessarily a bad idea.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but nobody is going to be concerned with playing many games on a Chrome Netbook.

For a PC where you do a lot of gaming SSD-only is a bad idea unless you want to be installing/un-installing games all the time.
 
E

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Kulock said:
Didn't say that, did I? I was just giving an example of someone who thinks that SSD-only isn't necessarily a bad idea.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a netbook based on cloud storage uses small hard drives. Doesn't help your point. A terabyte us less than a hundred dollars. Anyone capable of running AoC isn't going to be crippled by storage space.


And a large client sure as hell isn't going to stop people from playing it. Dragon Age is around 20, did that stop it from getting DD sales?
 
Subterranean

Subterranean

Member
I will be checking back in once F2P launches. I loved AOC when it launched, probably the most immersive MMO I have ever played.
 
E

Effect

Member
derFeef said:
Like, the Rise of the Godslayer addon, where the main game is included?
But seriously, if you plan to play a MMO, you have to get used to big downloads.
Click to expand...
It does? Thought it was just the expansion. Didn't realize that. Hmm. Might have to pick it up with it priced low on Amazon. Thanks.
 
Z

Zeona

Neo Member
Will check it out when I get bored. I wonder why it always takes them so long to make this switch, they should consider doing it early on to keep population steady.
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
Might have to reinstall this. I always loved the atmosphere of the game but the content after like level 30 or so seemed to be really dead. I hope they have fixed this.
 
M

Minimum Rage

Banned
The following four classes are available for all players of ‘Age of Conan: Unrated’.

Barbarian
Demonologist
Guardian
Priest of Mitra

The following classes are only available to Premium subscribers:

Assassin
Bear Shaman
Conqueror
Dark Templar
Herald of Xotli
Necromancer
Ranger
Tempest of Set
Click to expand...

If I pay for premium, then create a character from the lower list. Will I be able to continue playing with it when I stop paying for premium ?
 
S

SneakyStephan

Banned
Kulock said:
I liked this game, but the performance took a sharp dive once I left Tortage. I kept having to screw with settings, and I couldn't figure out how to keep it looking half as good as it did without becoming choppy as hell in spots of the new area.



This shit needs to stop now. For those running solely off SSDs, space is a premium anyway.
Click to expand...

Buy SSD for maximum speed (for a year or two until performance tanks so much it's useless), never have space to put anything on it.

That's pretty derp to be honest.

Anyhow,who doesn't have a 1.5TB HDD as secondary drive anyhow if they have an SSD.
 
D

Dynoro

Member
Minimum Rage said:
If I pay for premium, then create a character from the lower list. Will I be able to continue playing with it when I stop paying for premium ?
Click to expand...
If I remember right with EQ2 you pay a one-off fee for access the extra classes; so I would guess AoC will work in a similar way
 
B

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Ikuu said:
Not sure why anyone would only have an SSD, seems like a pretty terrible idea.
Click to expand...
exactly, ONLY running off an SSD is like your ONLY car being a Lamborghini. If you have the money to be running an SSD as your system drive, you have the $100 for an external 1TB esata drive.
 
D

derFeef

Member
Minimum Rage said:
If I pay for premium, then create a character from the lower list. Will I be able to continue playing with it when I stop paying for premium ?
Click to expand...
From the forums:
People who have been subscribers don't need to worry there. Any users who has at any time been a subscriber, or a premium member, will have the class restrictions 'unlocked' as it were. So if you go back to being free having previously been paying you will have access to any characters, regardless of whether they are premium or not, but only those within your allowed slots as a free players (i.e. two character slots by default - you do get to choose which slots you unlock when moving from paid to free, so it is your choice which characters are available)
Click to expand...
 
K

KernelPanic

Member
I've been playing this for the free month.

I subscribed for a few months after launch and I had lots of fun but the game was unplayable with constant crashes and horrible performance on ATI cards so I quit in disgust and haven't played until now.

Hasn't crashed yet, performance is much better and the DX10 graphics are very impressive for an MMO. Gotta be one of the better water effects I seen in a game.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
I love that hours later, people keep replying to one single example. And if I had a Lamborghini I'd sure as fuck want to drive it every single day. Wouldn't be ideal for all tasks, but it'd be like going back to a station wagon after hours on the test track.

Anyway, I get it. The answer is always throw more money at things, there's no room for expecting developers to optimize their work a little better. Nevermind that a 30 GB client also means a 30 GB download. Not like network caps are a hot issue now, after all.

Either way, I'm done with the SSD comments. That ship has sailed.
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
Has there been any major expansions for this game since it was launched? It has been out a while I figured at least one expansion would be out.
 
K

KernelPanic

Member
Worst part is Funcom has the worst downloader speed in the industry. We're talking about 100 Kb/sec on average.

I was able to find my install CDs and still had to download about 7 Gb in updates.

It took all night.

Can't imagine downloading 30GB from them, they might as well snail mail you the 1s and 0s and have you enter them yourself.
 
D

Dynoro

Member
Kulock said:
I love that hours later, people keep replying to one single example. And if I had a Lamborghini I'd sure as fuck want to drive it every single day. Wouldn't be ideal for all tasks, but it'd be like going back to a station wagon after hours on the test track.

Anyway, I get it. The answer is always throw more money at things, there's no room for expecting developers to optimize their work a little better. Nevermind that a 30 GB client also means a 30 GB download. Not like network caps are a hot issue now, after all.

Either way, I'm done with the SSD comments. That ship has sailed.
Click to expand...
There is a limit to how much a developer can optimise when you have that many models and textures in your game. If they drop the resolution on the textures people would whine about a gimped version and those that want the correct resolution would have to download the full 30GB anyway.

I appreciate that internet caps exist and 30 GB is a lot (especially in some countries); but that is the nature of downloading an MMO with this level of content (WoW 15-25GB as previously mentioned and EQ2 is a similar size and in all likelyhood TOR will be at least 30GB).
 
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