And i have to say sadly, It's not for me.
I find that the game is devoid of autmosphere. Sure, i can play any of the races they give me and adventure, but it dosn't feel like d&d.
Sure. It has the title and all, thats about it.
I had started a rogue (As in thief, not red) and tried the various starter dungeons. I managed to get to level 2 fairly easily, but i missed the grouping aspect of the game, the cities were devoid of players and the people i did meet tended to ignore others (with the exception of the person who invited me into a group with out even introducing themselves)
I remeber one of my d&d campigne's. Us the bold successful adventueres (we'd cleaned up some kobolds that were raiding some farm, got about 50 gold from it, back in the day of first edition and farmers didn't make 50gp a week) We were having an ale, when a dark hooded huminoid came up to us, and tossed a dirty scroll on the table and left. Being brave adventurers that we were, we imeddiatly fought for the privlige of opening and reading the scroll (Woe to us if it had of been trapped) Was it a treasure map? nah. A letter from some guy who inherited one of those proverbial houses from a long dead uncle and was up to his neck in undead. It needed cleaning out, but he was way and unable to do it, Hence the man servant.
In DDO everyone waits in thier neat little spots, with a cup above thier head, indicating that they have a job for you, It's up to you to goto them, the adventure itself can be chosen as a solo adventure, normal, hard (normal and hard are ment for groups, but i'm sure a well equipped twink can handle it) and off you go to handle the adventure. The dungeon master voice in the background was a neat touch, but the game itself felt exactly like it did in beta. (With less lag, or is it because i have a better computer now) The loot i recieved for said adventures was roughly what was expected and nothing ever made me go wow. Or hey even.
So, I'm going to cross this one off my list for now (Even though turbine has introduced a neat price for thier anniversary 9.99 a month if you buy in 6 month chunks) I'll check on it in a year or so, and see if it's gotten any better. On to Ac, And to see what new surprises it's brought out.
-B-
Hmm. There's no actual catagory for this, So here it sits.
I'll be fair, i've tried vangard several times, Well more then several times, It's just not interesting to me. It's probably not very interesting to a lot of people, and thier (Vanguard's Team) performance adjustments that they've made dosn't readily appear to effect my computer which still runs vanguard like a sluggish overfed walrus.
I'll stick to Eq2 for now, And give V. the undecorated uninstall from my system. You would figure a game that takes over 20 gigs of hard drive space, would be far more appealing.
If any one person asked me why i didn't like vanguard - It's not fun for me, From the get go (Though i do admit, Character creation is probably it's best feature) The game runs slowly, There's no excitiment from level 1 - Which immediatly feels like your grinding towards level 2. The quest format itself is uninspired (And hard to read, for those of us who need thick glasses) and basically is a form of go kill this, Go fetch that, go herd this.. etc). You could say that i'd have to get into the 20's to really enjoy the game - Well any game that requires me to play for 4 weeks to get to 20 to enjoy it, Dosn't deserve to be played. I've much better uses for my time then to suffer through something that might get better..
One note for those who are thinking of suffering thier way through the game - I don't know if this applies to everyone, however there is a shiny free bag available to players - a 70 slot crafting bag, a 50 slot diplomacy bag and a 36 slot adventure bag. I didn't partake in the bags, Since i figured i wouldn't be back.
Thats it.
-B-
It could be bad news for Age of Conan fans, especially in the wake of the positive press that was generated the last few days at their press event in Oslo. Funcom has decided to take an extra 8 weeks to polish/complete Age of Conan and has pushed the release date from March 25th, 2008, to May 20th, 2008.
Here is a link to the announcement on the Age of Conan forums.
Funcom announces a new release date for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
The highly anticipated MMO receives 8 more weeks of development, allowing Funcom to deliver a more polished MMO experience when the game launches on the 20th of May 2008. Despite great feedback on vital aspects like immersion, fun factor and the exciting combat system, the management of Funcom has decided to polish the game even more. Eight weeks of development work is therefore added to stress game systems and polish the game further leading up to launch.
Funcom is fully committed to its communities and the quality-level they demand and deserve, and has previously postponed the Age of Conan launch. The changes implemented as the game was moved to a 2008 release have proven to greatly improve the experience for newcomers, while introducing a more involving and accessible character progression throughout the game. Press and beta feedback in the aftermath of these changes has been very positive. As a result, the ongoing presentations of the game have continued to increase the anticipation for Age of Conan. To date, Age of Conan has received more than 20 magazine covers and 15 industry awards, and is widely considered to be one of the most anticipated MMOs in development.
Funcom has great faith in the Age of Conan game, and feels certain that further polish is in the best interest of the hundreds of thousands of gamers who follow the game. “The companies standing apart in the gaming market today are those with a relentless drive to achieve quality. Even though we regret delaying the launch, I am certain we made the right choice. I hope that our followers and fans will support our decision, and respect our commitment to quality,” said Gaute Godager, Producer and Game Director of Age of Conan.
Funcom will also continue the beta efforts for the title with continued testing on its large server parks in North America and Europe. Players can already sign up at pre-order programs in several countries and enjoy the recently released website at www.ageofconan.com, displaying part of the wealth of marketing and game material already prepared for the game. A special Collectors Edition of the retail box is available for pre-order at select retailers. Thousands of players have been invited to the beta of the game, and the number will continue to go up as Age of Conan moves towards launch. If you too want to join the Beta of Age of Conan you may sign up for the Beta on www.ageofconan.com ______
Shannon 'Pharamond' Drake
Community Manager – Funcom
In this, Game Director Gaute Godager discusses the latest developments surrounding Age of Conan.
It feels to me I am the Herald of bad news (no, it is not a new class). Rather, I am the grey faced postman always arriving with the bills. I am the guy with a yellow post-it on your windshield confessing a fender bender. I am the only one in the elevator when the door opens, and a pretty lady enters reaching for her nose. It seems I only write to you with bad news – that’s all I do! I want to write this update to encourage you – we are on the right track, and by Crom we are close to the finish!
Although you might not see it this way, and you are frustrated, we delay because - it is right. It is the right thing to do! Naturally I sound righteous, haughty and bordering on arrogant when I say this: This is the right thing to do. You want something better than what you would have gotten in March. You deserve something better! I want to apologize – not for what we did but because some of you might have gotten upset. For that I am sorry. For this decision, and every one leading up to it – I stand by it 100%! This game will rock!
Ok, enough with the emotions, though I simply needed to get this off my chest. Why do we delay again? It is simple and it is complex:
- The level of bugs.
The previous delay was for a major reason – the combat control and balance. This is no longer the case. We have the big things under control, although not all has reached beta in the speed I would have liked to have seen! It is now simply getting in the things we did, polished. We have continued to receive fantastic feedback for the previous changes. See this article for instance: http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=178652 if you worry that the game has not progressed. The previous delay was correct and time spent wisely, so is this - and so will this time be spent!
The simplicity of this explanation (bugs) as the reason behind the delay is that you have heard it before by all major players in the industry and by all others making computer software. Bugs are controllable on a statistical level, but I guess sometimes statistics don’t really reflect the experience. Although we have seen bugs go down as predicted by statistics, the increase in polish didn’t really follow suit. This discrepancy can only be explained that the bugs we have fixed aren’t by themselves flawless. Two bugs out of beta and one in. Again a well known phenomena. The added time should now deal with it. We are on the right track.
I guess you saw we hosted a large community event at the end of last week, giving the awesome Conan fan- sites a chance to see, ask and learn as much as they could about the nuts and bolts of the game. (And meet so many of you really cool people – how did you like the Stygian restaurant?) This event was all about giving as much info as we were asked (in addition to us presenting a lot ourselves;-). I think it’s safe to say that many of us had a great time at the event, but since so much info came out of it I also see the need to clarify some things. I am creating a State of the game update so you can learn more about how we are moving ahead. Today, however, I wanted to speak about the additional eight weeks of development, and the new release date.
Reading your concerns and replies about the delay on our forums I see, and understand, that many of you are concerned about the status of the game. I also see that many of you support our decision in pushing it back, since you have played enough MMO’s to understand. Like me, you know that the last stretch of polish is what makes or breaks our MMO straight-after-launch-first-impression. Like me, many of you know that making games is not an exact science. We are dealing with emotions, and fun, and technology and what have you.
Launching in March was our clear goal, even up to last week. As a listed company we are forced to deal with release dates in a different manner, especially since a lot of our value is based on Age of Conan. And whenever something changes, we need to inform the market first. Most of our people only found out this morning due to legal requirements. The final decision was something I and some of our key management people made over the weekend. The premise was simple. As we now moved into the home stretch, we took that last, long look at the state of the game. How would it be come March? Would it become like we intended it to be if we launched in March? The final word from our CEO came on Saturday evening, after we discussed this through the day. And here we are.
Let me be very clear about this; as opposed to our last pushback in August we are not about redesigning parts of the game this time around. Now we are on the final stretch, with the goal plain in sight. I have assured you before, but we are neither the first nor the last gaming company to add more development time to our game in the last stretch. That is not an excuse though, but ultimately it’s the quality which matters. That is the only yardstick which truly matters. This additional time is about hope. In only four more months you will know if we made the right move. I feel confident we have!
Having Richard Garriott's name attached to a game could either be a blessing or a curse. The father of the Ultima Online series has such a strong name in the MMO community that when people hear that he is involved, they immediate sit up and at the very least, take notice. That's what I did when I heard that he was involved with another MMO, and my anticipation grew the more and more I read about the game. In numerous interviews, Richard Garriott said that fans would get something new, and since MMO's had not really evolved much past what was accomplished years ago, this would be a ground breaking experience.
I spend over 20 hours playing a few different characters, and never really found a groove with the game. There was nothing that seemed new, or overly interesting in the game, and several things that came as being "much hyped" really fell flat for me. What is worse, is that I'm still MMO-less, and have been really for months, and there was definitely a window for Tabula Rasa to capture my attention.
Garriott suggested that there are moral choices to make in the game, that can have an impact on the game world. My first moral choice was perhaps around level six, I was presented with the choice between delivering some drugs to various NPC's, or to turn in the NPC who propositioned me to a captain. My friend and I approached it from both sides, I delivered the drugs which ended with a reward of 10,000 credits. My friend got a pat on the back, and 100 cartridges, of course I could have purchased 5,000 cartridges with my reward. There was never a change in the game world that I saw based upon our choices, and frankly, the 10,000 credit reward is a massive advantage for a new character, I really cant see people taking a harder path, if there is no distinct reason for making that choice.
The UI was one of the most simplified that I've seen in quite a while, queue up a skill and then right click to use it. The game play was fairly fast, but the first 11 or 12 levels saw quests that reminded me of any other MMO. Collection, patrol, visit certain points, and so on. Of course just because you kill a beast, doesn't mean that it will drop the item that you need, so keep right on killing. That's something that I thought had been eliminated, but with TR's hype of being "new" it's just magnified.
By the time I had to just phone it in, TR was just implementing crafting and some other needed features, but it was a case of too little, too late for me. While it might present some new takes on MMO's, when you compare it to other MMO's on the market, there is very little that separates it from the existing choices I have, the ones that I'm also choosing not to play. While I'm mildly disappointed, I cant feel all that much, as the hype never really connected with me, despite my being a UO player since about launch.
I tried Horizons again last night with my saris confectioner. I was pretty sad to no longer have my huge plot in Forest Guard. The person I'd given it to back last July had torn out all of the confectioner related buildings and my saris homes.
I recalled, determined to not look back. I went out to our guild plot in Toku (this is all on Chaos) to see what my options might be. One of the largest (I use the term loosely) was still available - a 30x56. I went ahead and bought it and set about rebuilding my Horizons life. I was able to put a saris medium house with my patio giving me a nice view of the beach (except the area where the water wasn't loaded). I snugged in a jman confectioner shop next to that, and as a guildie's request, an expert pottery shop. I put a t2 pawn shop on the corner. I left a lot of space for silo type storage but have not put anything in yet. I did put in palm trees on either side of my front door to the house.
With much help and liberal use of novians, my house, pottery shop, pawn shop and palm trees all went up last night. I expect to have the confectioner shop by the time I log in tonight (if all goes well with today's update).
This isn't going to make me stop playing WoW, but if I can get my confectioner going again and the new confectioner things actually make it in game, I could be spending some time in Horizons in the future.
More exciting news on Chron X! The Registration for the Legacy server has re-opened and is FREE! After you download the legacy server at,chronx.com/download.php , then go here, www.chronx.com/registration . Come and learn the game. PLEASE do not use the web store or attempt to purchase the registration.
There is not much more big news then that. Please come by and hang out in the core or in Chat.chronx.com. There is always room for new players. Hopefully your read the manual or skimmed through it if not go do it so this blog can make sense. I want to talk about a few simple deck types. There is much much more to strategy and it would take ages to explain all of em into detail.
I will explain card types briefly.
Assets-
These cards are your cards you use to defend your headquarter or attack your opponents. A lot have special abilities to help you win.
Bases-
The produce resources, they can only be played once a turn. Resources help you pay to play other cards.
Enhancements-
these cards do mny things such as beef up your assets in some way, or adversely effect an asset which makes it a great tool to slow down your opponent.
Intervention-
These cards do various things They do thins from giving you resources to doing eight firepower attack to all enemy asset( napalm strike).
Programs-
The cards are a little trickier. They need to be ran by an asset. A program will Have a stat which is referred to as CA, Cyber-Affinity. An asset needs to have a higher or equal CA of the program it is trying to run.
The first deck type is the Big Stupid Military, BSM for short. This assets usually all cost Military. The have High firepower and use other things such as a in Napalm strikes or missiles. This deck uses brute force to over power you opponent. Counter to this deck is decks that can stall attacks.
Another deck is a weenie deck. It is designed to swarm your opponent fast and throw more assets then your opponent can block. Speed is key. Using this deck your left with little defense and vulnerable to mass removal of assets.
Disruption is a deck type that controls what your opponent plays. You use cards that steal cards from his hand or discards cards from his hand or deck. Even using enhancements that take control of his assets are useful in this deck type.
Program Burn decks and Direct damage decks. These decks are very similar. One deck uses mostly programs to do the bulk damage to the enemy headquarters. Issues with program burn is keeping week assets at your opponents headquarters. Direct damage uses other cards besides programs such as a missile deck. There are also other cards that are used to damage the headquarters, even assets that do not have to attack to do damage.
Avoiding the defense entirely is another strategy. Many newer cards rely of making your opponents defense just useless. Using non traditional defense helps in these situations.
As I said there are many more deck types, and variations of these deck types. I just kept it simple, and probably over-simplified these deck types. I hope I gave a good feel for the game basics. There is a large variety of deck types and many play styles can be accommodated.
Today's Pirates of the Burning Sea screenshots are very different from each one. One shows a pirate posing in town, while the other gives us a glimpse of some swordplay in one of the game's dungeons.
One is really dark, but ya know....it's piratey! So who cares!
Over at MMORPG.com they've got a few Gods and Heroes Cultural write-ups! Part One and Part Two both look at the cultures we'll be seeing in this fantastic new MMO.
Also, if you haven't yet, check out our very own coverage of "Hero Camp" that was run by the G&H team!
