LATEST CHATTY HEADER
Subscribe to Shacknews Mercury starting at $1/month!
Chrome Shack Community Guidelines Chatty Search
Scroll down to join the conversation.
New to Shacknews? Signup for a Free Account
Already have an account? Login Now
Subscribe to Shacknews Mercury starting at $1/month!
Chrome Shack Community Guidelines Chatty Search
Scroll down to join the conversation.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 100 replies.
First of all, character creation is awesome and you can really give your character a VERY unique look in comparison to everybody else. They have a 'conan'ish look, gritty and mean if you really want.
I was in testing with AoC for a month or so. The client that ships with the release is amazingly stable in comparison. Runs very smooth. I put my settings to 'medium' then went into advanced and jacked a few things up here and there, runs and looks gorgeous with 1/5th of the loading times and almost no stuttering than what the beta gave me. (AMD 5600+ 8800 GTS 2gb ram)
One thing I can't stop pimping in this game is the combat. The combat is what really separates it from any other MMO. You are active, it is real time.. your weapons and magic have to physically touch the enemy. There is no invisible dice roll that justifies whether you land a hit or not, and vice versa if the enemy is attacking you. PROTIP: Turn off 'Auto-facing' in combat. This way you can position yourself better when fighting multiple mobs. Make sure you pull back a bit, let them bundle up together and attack the middle enemy - so your strikes will also hit the surrounding enemies. It is very efficient in Conan as you will be fighting multiple enemies alot.
The gore is awesome, every swing and slash sprays blood everywhere - and if you finish them off with a combo, there is an improved chance of performing a fatality which is just awesome and gory. Blood spraying, body parts flying - plus you get a stamina regeneration bonus for a few seconds afterwards.
The tooltips for spells and such could use more description, often I really have to just test them out to see what they really do - the Field Manual is very good if you're a beginner and you can learn alot from it. Do not forget your field manual, it goes into detail about anything having to do with gameplay.
Do not base a decision on the 'power' of a class until after level 20. The first 20 levels you will never really get a 'feel' for your class. The first 5 levels in that run-through before entering Tortage is a basic movement/combat tutorial. At level 5-10 is essentially the same thing in Tortage. 10-20 is essentially an 'advanced' tutorial before reaching level 20 where you can kind of blend into the 'real' world. Do not judge your class prior to level 20, most classes shine well after that anyways. It doesn't take long to get 20 so be patient and do some research on the future of your class.
Spend your feat points, they are there for a reason - do not reserve them if you're unsure where to spend.. you can reset them with a feat fixer if they kept that NPC in the game. Spend your stat points as well. Do not forget about these when you level.
The world is gorgeous, ofcourse you feel a little 'zoned in' but for the most part the 'zones' are huge, and you still feel part of a giant world.
One of my concerns is the leveling speed. I believe there are some level 60s already, the game was just released yesterday minus 2 days or so for the early starts. Will we be seeing level 80s in a week? I can see the 'hardcore' players getting truly bored because of this. Running through the pre-Tortage and Tortage until level 20 when playing multiple classes will be a chore IMO and will turn alot of the hardcore players off. I am hoping at level 80 there will be alot more to do than just PVP. I love my share of PvP but not something I want to do ALL the time in Conan.
So, it was a pretty good launch. Good client stability, performance. Most players are solo'ing until 20 so you won't get TOO much of a feeling for 'grouping' until after then unless playing with some friends. You can pretty much solo the whole game if you'd like sans a few quests which you can skip if you really wanted to.
I pretty much drudge around doing day quests until I get bored, stuck or if I can't find anyone to group.. then I go do some of the night quests. I am not a big fan of this night/day questing stuff to be honest. They could have left the 'night' quests in there but still have other players around IMO. Not too sure why it has to be single player.
Also, stealthing is not bugged like people think. This is not WoW where you are pretty much invisible. You actually have an icon that indicates the area you're stealthing in, whether it is bright or dark. You are expected to 'skulk' in shadows to get those sneak attacks on people, and always come from behind. If you're stealthing and it is a 'bright' location, you will be spotted. You have to be very careful in the stealthing aspect of the game, it really does a good job of immersing you because of this.
So my 2 cents? 4.5/5 - As a vet with MMOs I am highly impressed, and the combat is what really keeps me interested. I can't wait for the mount combat, formations, lancing, and all of the good stuff that the later game has to offer. The PvP is fun and plays almost like a 3rd persion action game.. Think 'RUNE' in a sense, but with more depth. Colorful and fun. You are kept busy and fighting mobs doesn't feel like a chore, I actually look forward to the combat in comparison to other MMOs.
The post has been reported. Thank you!
You must be logged in to post.
You must be logged in to post.