Age Of Conan

[JayDubya]

I got to watch some people play AoC at Dragon*Con last weekend.

Graphics were pretty, but it was exactly the same combat system as LoTRO and WoW and EQ, etc.

<Tab> to select an enemy, click attack style 1, wait for cooldown, attack style 2, wait for cooldown, attack style 3, warmup, and then cooldown, back to attack style 1.

It is most assuredly not going to be "DDO-style combat but in a huge persistent world"

[moorewr]

I understood you would have multiple attack and parry commands, like a martial arts game*. Also there was much talk of formations, flanking, tactics. Was any of that in evidence?

* Say, why isn't there a Mortal Kombat MMO? Now there's a PVP game... :)


I got to watch some people play AoC at Dragon*Con last weekend.

Graphics were pretty, but it was exactly the same combat system as LoTRO and WoW and EQ, etc.

<Tab> to select an enemy, click attack style 1, wait for cooldown, attack style 2, wait for cooldown, attack style 3, warmup, and then cooldown, back to attack style 1.

It is most assuredly not going to be "DDO-style combat but in a huge persistent world"

[Shadow_Flayer]

I went through the Conan booth a few times at Gencon. I saw a lot of people collecting wolf tails. I wasn't impressed. The background image quality was very good, while the characters were blah (to me).

[Dariuss]

But...

But...

AoC is supposed to spell DDOOOOOOOOMMM!!! for DDO!

[Cupcake]

*Takes Dariuss by the Beard..


*drags him back to Muskateers.

[In_Like_Flynn]

Derivative genres result in derivative games.

[Drider]

I think it's another game where the hype overshadows what is actually going to be presented. The combat speed is a little faster then WoW/LotRO, but not as fast as DDO's. There are supposedly going to be combinations you can do to do other more damaging attacks.. but it's nothing more then still just standing there and hitting attacks in certain combinations. It doesn't matter where you are standing, or if you are moving, etc. while you attack. It's still boring compared to DDO.

Now at least they were smart enough to push the game back 6 months, they can hope to fix some of their problems.

Although this just poses the problem that it'll be going head to head with Warhammer and the new WoW Expansion.

[Mockduck]

I understood you would have multiple attack and parry commands, like a martial arts game*. Also there was much talk of formations, flanking, tactics. Was any of that in evidence?

* Say, why isn't there a Mortal Kombat MMO? Now there's a PVP game... :)

I got to play the game for about 20 minutes at GenCon this year. The way it works is that you move with WASD and attack with Q,E,1,2,3. Drider has it right - it's faster than WoW, but no where near DDO's style. It's still hit button, watch it attack, while you're attacking you hit the next attack button, the next attack happens when the first attack finishes, etc. So I personally wouldn't consider it too active a combat system, but it's fairly interactive.

Say for example that you attack with 1. While your character attacks, the Q and 3 buttons will "light up" on your screen (there's a little representation of it in the bottom middle of the screen). If you hit Q, attack chain "a" will happen whereas if you hit 3 attack combo "b" will happen. That continues through combat - various attack combos, patterns, etc. You can also cast buffs and assign a defensive focus to various parts of your body (aka - sides, front, back, etc). There are other combos and stuff as well, didn't get the chance to totally figure it out.

In some ways the combat kinda reminded me of a rhythm-style game you might find on the playstation.

I totally agree with Friar as well. The backgrounds looked great but the character modeling seemed a bit off to me. But - they still have plenty of time to work on it.

My thoughts on it overall? Won't be a DDO-killer (and why does there have to be only "one" anyways? There's plenty of room.) But, if you're into Conan or want another MMO to check out, it'll probably satisfy nicely. Overall there were lots of good things to report about it, including audio-video cut-scenes when you pick up quests and the like. And of course it'll have sex and violence which other MMO's won't, if that's important to you. Overall, the people working on the game that I met seemed very sincere in trying to make it turn out well. I guess time will tell. I'm not going to be playing it (I only have time for one MMO and DDO's obviously it), but it seemed pretty cool.

[Symar-FangofLloth]

So it /doesn't/ have the real-time mouse-controlled combo combat system that it seemed everyone was talking about? Hehehehe....

[Hence]

Ive been reading about how they have to change the UI because it was just to complicated for beginers to figure out.
Doing this also changed combat some.

This is a huge disappointment to me as well as others.

DDO should take a hint, it has something unique here. Why they did not use DDO combat for LoTRO is beyond me, they just wanted a more seamless world at the sake of fun and playability.

This is where Vanguard went all wrong also, nobody cares about zone lines, they care about having fun. DDO has a great idea, and it could easily be expanded upon... if it werent for the developers being just puppets, we may have seen a huge advancement in MMO combat.
Still the biggest problem DDO has is the D&D license. Drop the license, expand the combat system, but leave the same controls. And market the game to the old school mudders, not fanboys of a particular genre.

Somehow, I need to get on a development team. I wish I could talk with some of these developers, here in DDO and in AoC, in person... frustrating as hell that NOBODY can make a good game since the original UO and original EQ. Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!(@&$()!@&$

[Drider]

Ive been reading about how they have to change the UI because it was just to complicated for beginers to figure out.
Doing this also changed combat some.

This is a huge disappointment to me as well as others.

DDO should take a hint, it has something unique here. Why they did not use DDO combat for LoTRO is beyond me, they just wanted a more seamless world at the sake of fun and playability.

This is where Vanguard went all wrong also, nobody cares about zone lines, they care about having fun. DDO has a great idea, and it could easily be expanded upon... if it werent for the developers being just puppets, we may have seen a huge advancement in MMO combat.
Still the biggest problem DDO has is the D&D license. Drop the license, expand the combat system, but leave the same controls. And market the game to the old school mudders, not fanboys of a particular genre.

Somehow, I need to get on a development team. I wish I could talk with some of these developers, here in DDO and in AoC, in person... frustrating as hell that NOBODY can make a good game since the original UO and original EQ. Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!(@&$()!@&$

You'd probably be surprised at the amount of people that are put-off by the combat system in DDO. I think it's great but it's too complicated for most of the MMO masses. The reason WoW is so popular is it's simple, doesn't take any learning time. How you do things in the beginning, learning the game, is how it will be when you are at max level.

Tactics and strategy are a part of DDO. It's more then just standing still and firing off special abilities as soon as your cooldown goes off. Basic attacks in DDO actually mean something, unlike in most other MMO's where you are doing most of your damage off your class abilities.

[Hexum]

The screen shots of it look ridiculously good, but I'm not too big on the game play. If it's like EQ and EQ2, I definitely will not like it.

[Ciaran]

I got to play the game for about 20 minutes at GenCon this year. The way it works is that you move with WASD and attack with Q,E,1,2,3. Drider has it right - it's faster than WoW, but no where near DDO's style. It's still hit button, watch it attack, while you're attacking you hit the next attack button, the next attack happens when the first attack finishes, etc. So I personally wouldn't consider it too active a combat system, but it's fairly interactive.

Move with W,A,S,D and attack with Q,E,1,2,3?! Ugh! Those seem awfully close together and awkward to me. On principle I don't think the same hand that controls movement should be the hand that directs combat.

DDO's combat system and graphics are among the best things it has going for it, in my opinon. So much so that I can't imagine playing an MMORPG that didn't have a similar system.

[GeneralDiomedes]

I wonder if this was due to performance problems, and changing the combat system was the reason for the delay?

This is a big disappointment to me as well.

[Litz]

Hmm guess I need to wait for "Age of Xena, Princess Warrior" now thats a game I could get behind. :D

[Alavatar]

Hmm guess I need to wait for "Age of Xena, Princess Warrior" now thats a game I could get behind. :D

I could get behind Xena as well.

Wait, what are we talking about again?

[EinarMal]

Not sure how age of conan will turn out but hellgate london looks interesting to me. Not a MMO per say (neither is DDO in my opinion), but still looks pretty cool.

I admit I played Diablo II way more than I should have and hellgate looks like a 3-D style sort of Diablo style futuristic RPG. I hope they have a free BETA version to try out.

[Mockduck]

Move with W,A,S,D and attack with Q,E,1,2,3?! Ugh! Those seem awfully close together and awkward to me. On principle I don't think the same hand that controls movement should be the hand that directs combat.


I thought so too when I first was told about it. But it actually worked out pretty well when I sat down to play it. You can also move by hitting a point on the screen with your mouse, so I think there's some flexibility there.

[Drider]

Not sure how age of conan will turn out but hellgate london looks interesting to me. Not a MMO per say (neither is DDO in my opinion), but still looks pretty cool.

I admit I played Diablo II way more than I should have and hellgate looks like a 3-D style sort of Diablo style futuristic RPG. I hope they have a free BETA version to try out.


Pretty much if you liked Diablo, you'll like Hellgate. It's pretty much the same principle.

[Drider]

I thought so too when I first was told about it. But it actually worked out pretty well when I sat down to play it. You can also move by hitting a point on the screen with your mouse, so I think there's some flexibility there.

That's not the "FPS" combat that AoC was saying they were implementing. It's still the same old same old, the click and move thing is old hat and used in quite a few games. I guess you could relate it to KOTOR's combat system.

BTW here's (http://www.jeuxvideo.tv/age-of-conan-hyborian-adventures-video-42501.html) a clip of AOC combat in action

[Vinos]

That's not the "FPS" combat that AoC was saying they were implementing. It's still the same old same old, the click and move thing is old hat and used in quite a few games. I guess you could relate it to KOTOR's combat system.

BTW here's (http://www.jeuxvideo.tv/age-of-conan-hyborian-adventures-video-42501.html) a clip of AOC combat in action


That looks craptastic!!!!

[Drider]

That looks craptastic!!!!


Exactly! lol. AoC = overhype.

The only thing they can do, is take the 6 months it got pushed and rebuild the combat engine. Is Funcom going to do that? Probably not.

[RemoJr]

Seems to be a cross between DDO and WoW. Personally, i don't like it's looks all that much, but i can think of some people who will.