The Official Age of Conan Discussion Thread

With less than a week away to the game's May 17 prelaunch (for people that've preordered Age of Conan), I'm hyped up and ready for some amazing MMORPG that goes far beyond what other MMORPGs have done, and if it's done right, can be a revolutionary game. I'm preordering the game at BestBuy tomorrow. For anyone that doesn't know, if you preorder the game you'll get to play it three days early, plus you get a preorder item exclusive to the store you buy it in. Most stores will offer the War Mammoth mount, BestBuy exclusively has the Killer Rhino mount which is faster, but deals less damage than the War Mammoth, and Amazon has the Amazon Curved Bow.

A few reasons this game will be amazing is it's awesome real-time combat system, an interesting spellweaving system, lots of PVP action, quest variety, NPC voiceovers, top guilds fight for battlekeeps, guild cities that guild members contribute to to build and design, in-depth, truly cinematic style story, mounted combat, amazing graphics, and a unique world.

Deathwhisper will be the official Age of Conan PVP server for NoteBookReview! The gates of Hyboria open at 1:00PM EST on May 17 for Early Access accounts and May 20 for everyone else, see you guys there!

The gates of Hyboria are finally open! Here's a list of all of the NBR members playing Age of Conan on the official NBR Age of Conan server, Deathwhisper:

MICHAELSD01 - Golme
HaloGod2007 - Elirius
Unfair - Unfair
nofxman32 - Bruciand
DemonOfRazgriz - Chelsey
nofxman32 - Nadrius
JCMS - Agrotus

Add your character's name in the thread and I'll be sure to add you!

 

yea i pre-ordered at bestbuy also, im very excited. Im bored of other MMORPG's and this one looks amazing. We should set up a guild for notebookreview lmaoo

if i tend to like nukers(spellcasters), what is the equivalent in this game? (eg. wizard)

 

Age of Conan is horrible.

Darkfall finally had an announced launch date of 2008!!!

www.darkfallonline.com


The best MMO there will ever be.

 

I wouldn't say there's a direct equivalent since a lot of the classes will have different kinds of spells and such. Why not check it out for yourself?
http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp...ISH&template=news_features_game&selected=1084

Yeah, I was thinking about starting a guild for NBR, but it's not worth the time and dedication it takes to start a good guild until you're a higher-level character. My main character will probably be one of spellcaster-warrior mixes, I like trying the best of both worlds the first time around, then I'll mix it up with my other characters. I'm really excited for the game, too. What other MMORPGs have you played? I sort of became a WoW addict, but it gets too repetitive, especially combat-wise. With real-time combat and spellweaving in Age of Conan, I doubt it'll get boring too quickly.

 

Age of Conan beats DarkFall in every way it could. If you try to compare the features and trailers of both games, there's no comparison.

 

What features about darkfall are worse than Age of Conan? Or do you not know them?

 

I enjoyed the PVP weekend, though I had to turn the graphics down a bit to keep thing playable.

 

To start off, visuals are both technologically and artistically better in Age of Conan. Combat could go either way since DarkFall's combat hasn't been showcased too much. Age of Conan has much more interesting, detailed lore, plus has a better story with cinematic-quality progression and unique quests, and so far, it doesn't look like DarkFall will come close to matching that.

 

Darkfall has real time FPS combat whether using a sword or bow or spell.

Darkfall has NO CLASSES you match skills to create your own. (much like in UO)

Darkfall is full PvP ANYWHERE against ANYONE, with FULL LOOT.

There are no levels, also comparable to UO, which means the gap between old players and new players will be shortened, and actual skill will be tested. This also eliminates the tedious grind of levels.

There are no instanced "PvP things" or instances in general. It is an open seemless world. PvP wherever you. Have anyone in your party.

Capture and build cities, siege cities, hire NPC guards.

The graphics as of now before public beta are beautiful but practical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALE91GCgTqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEE4cWA8H4c

Build ships and all of your weapons. Fight on the open seas, or jump onto your enemies ship and take the wheel for yourself. Bombard the shores with it's cannons.

Fear death as you will lose whatever is on you during it.

Here is one of muffins old compilations of some gameplay and screenshots. Most dating back a few years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlV3iTzAf9U&feature=related

It is a game driven by competition for resources and PvP domination. By large and pwerful clans.

Friendly fire and the fact that you can't walk through people will require very smart PvP. As well as the fact that there are NO FLOATING NAMES.

 

AoC has real-time combat with everything, there's full PVP everywhere except cities and the few safe zones. Sometimes you just want to hang out in a major city when you're playing a MMORPG, so having PVP in cities is stupid. Levelling help show the accomplishments you make and how your character turns into a powerful killer. AoC adds instanced PVP (AoC refers to it as PVP minigames) to help break up the action with a quick game of something like capture the flag. You can build guild cities in AoC, which your whole guild has to get resources for. There's a set number of battlekeeps on each server so guilds fight against other guilds in huge siege PVP for their battlekeeps, making owning a battlekeep (or even more) a huge victory. You can't walk through other people in AoC either. You can disable/enable floating names in every MMORPG out there. Age of Conan will definitely be the next big MMORPG.

 

I'll see you in darkfall when you get bored then.

I'll stop hijacking your magic carpet ride.

Edit: I'll be playing UO over AoC until then.

 

Darkfall is not really open world. I can't say where i got this information from as its breaking an NDA. But from a post i read about 30% of the game world is instanced. People like you are really rude who go around trolling threads with other mmos.

By the way Darkfall was meant to be released in 2005, maybey DF will go bankrupt soon. And the graphics really do suck compared to conan.

back ONTOPIC:

Conan is going to be great! Just hope we get some oceanic servers not just oceanic reccomended. Not sure if im going to pre-order but i am in a pre-release guild. Cant wait for some FFA PvP and Boarder Kingdom/Keeps.

 

Welcome to NBR, Nofan! It's worth the preorder if you want an exclusive mount. The War Mammoth and Killer Rhino are pretty sweet.

 

Thanks mate, been a long time reader of the forums just never registerd till i was appaled by the invasion of a darkfall fanatic. Yeah well maybey :S . Items can be earned though.

 

Which server type are you guys playing on? I've heard from the PVP free-for-all from the beta that FFA PVP ruins the game when you're trying to level and that it'll be hard to get around or do anything. It could be fun dueling with a random player a few times a hour, but if you keep getting killed by a huge mob while you're trying to quest it can become hassle. There's still PVP zones on the PVE server, it's just not free-for-all. I'm not sure which one I want to choose, a regular PVP server sounds awesome, but it could ruin the game if people just go around in groups killing each other while you're trying to quest and level.

 

Well im going with what ever my guild goes with. We are a PVP GUILD sooo Either RPPVP or PVP!

 

And that's a good thing? It just means the guy living closest to the server will win. It means combat will be more random at peak hours when the servers are busy.
It means someone who's spent the last 4 years playing Counterstrike will have an advantage.

That is not better. Just different. It adds a whole host of new technical problems, in addition to the obvious balancing problems. And it penalizes a large group of players, just like it benefits others. Which is "better"? The system that makes group A or group B happy?

That is not necessarily a good thing. As much as you like to romanticize UO, it was not perfect, nor did the skill system make much sense. There is a reason most games use classes.
Allowing players to pick and match their skills freely just means that everyone will converge on the same two or three templates. It means you'll have 3 viable builds, and 800,000 useless gimped ones.
It's easy to make a sucky system with no classes, just like it's easy to make a fun and interesting one with classes. It depends on the execution.

Oh, you mean like Conan's PvP servers?
Conan gives you a choice though. Play on a full PvP server, or don't. I'd say giving players a choice is a good thing.

AoC may have one major advantage regardless of everything else. It's going to be played by more than the 2000 "old-UO" fanatics who still can't imagine anything better than a game from 1998. AoC has a lot of mass market appeal. In terms you'll be more likely to understand, "there'll be more people to kill".

And finally, of course, I remember Darkfall was supposed to be out soon in 2003.

How about you judge it when it comes out? They've spent 5 years or so screwing up so far, causing delay after delay for themselves. Perhaps they've finally hit the ultimate ubergame, but shouldn't you try it before you claim it's better than the competition?

As for me, I'm not going to play AoC. Found out European and American customers can't play on the same servers, which cuts me off from playing with a lot of my friends.

 

Age of Conan is VERY impressive... not perfect, but impressive.
It isn't the end-all-be-all, but it most certainly is THE next real MMO.

AoC will have some competitors apparently, but quite frankly all the newer ones are just as likely to be flops or vaporware than they are actual games.

Conan will ship, is already impressive, and won't flop from the looks of the beta.

FYI
I don't miss UO...
PvP never happened in UO after the first few months. 30vs1 1-shot gankfest from 30 archermages (or insert FoTM skill build) was not PvP!

Compare that to the 100vs100 castle sieges of prepared and trained warriors of Lineage2. (yeah Lin2 had its downfalls too, but it made UO look pale in comparison when it came to PvP)


What's everyone looking to play?
Think I am starting with a Dark Templar... goes back to my shadowknight roots from EQ.
Probably play Bear Shaman as my "lets see what healing is like" alt.

 

Jalf you're spot on comparing Darkfall to a Counterstrike. I mean nothing wrong with counterstrike in itself but MMORPGs are not MMOFPS. I mean what's next - little health packs and ammo scattered all over the zone, bunny hopping?

As For AoC, its looking good..the miracle patch has been great. Solves the stuttering issue. Even my midrange lappie can handle the game in a town full of pvp mayhem going on all around me. I might play a PoM just cause healing in this came is a far depature from past games - makes playing healing classes seem much more of a challenge. Plus PoM can deal out some decent damage.

 

If I pre-order which one should I get the Killer Rhino, War Mammoth or Amazon curved bow?? Help can't decide, thinking Killer Rhino. I think this game and STALKER Clear Sky are the games I want most.

 

You can only get the Killer Rhino at BestBuy. The War Mammoth is everywhere else and Amazon has a crappy Amazon Curved Bow. The Killer Rhino is fast and deals decent damage. The War Mammoth deals a lot of damage, but moves slowly and is hard to control. I'm getting the Killer Rhino from BestBuy.

 

The best two MMO PVP games have yet to be supplanted, I do not think even AoC will come close to their potential. Good thing I don't really care all that much for PvP anyway.

1. Eve Online
2. Planetside

 

Have an american friend do some kind of amazon paypal combo with you.

Someone did that with a friend in an old guild for WoW since he only had the european version. Get the NA version and it may work?


And i'm done hijacking your thread. ;] So i'll control myself.

Just don't diss UO.

 

Yeah, the mounts are like this.

Horse - Fastest, but no siege damage.
Rhino - Medium Speed, and does do some damage.
Mammoth - Slowest, and does the most damage.

The difference in speed from what I have seen in videos is not that big, but I like the mammoth the most.

The casters in that game are Priest of Set, Priest of Mitra, Herald Xotli, Necromancer, and Demonologist. The one the most similar to what MMO players have called a mage or wizard is the Demo. They are mostly casting, but have one demon that helps them. The necro is all about making a small force of undead, and all of the priests are dps and healers. Priest of Set uses Shadow spells and heals whereas Mitra is Heals and has Holy Damage spells. The unique caster is the Herald Xotli. They can transform into a demon for a short period of time, cast, and use two-handed weapons.

It is true that the PvP servers are FFA PvP outside the cities. There are also instanced PvP matches just like WoW, and then siege PvP on top of that. Siege PvP is where player cities are attacked by NPCs or other Guilds, and it is your job to destroy or protect them. The Rhino and Mammoth can be used to break down walls and trample players I believe...., but I might be wrong.

I played in the Open Beta and PvP Weekend Beta so if you have any questions feel free to contact me. The NDA was removed for them. I cannot wait for this game, its been 3 years since I heard about it. Was a Pre-CU SWG player from launch til CU and then went to WoW from launch til last summer. This will be my new addiction. =P

PS Darkfall looks fantastic, but from what I know it cannot compare with the depth, lore, story line, and size of AoC. Correct me if I am wrong. Both will have their strength and weaknesses. Darkfall will, however, have a more action oriented form of combat hence it being an FPS. Leave it up to the players to decide imo. Don't force it upon people....... "cough cough"

 

Hey, how's the PVP? Does it get annoying having FFA everywhere when you're trying to quest or level? Also, how're the beta graphics? BTW, Funcom said the retail copy of the game will have higher graphics settings plus DX10 support.

 

PvP was great in ranked matches! So much fun watching yourself perform a fatality on another player, but the FFA aspect was fairly annoying at times. I think it had to do with the fact that there was a cap on the levels, everyone was in the same area, no one had experienced it, and it was suppose to be mayhem. I cannot imagine not being on a PvP server so I will roll on it, but it could get annoying. I think once politics are added in, and players are hunted and black listed for grieding it will cease to be an issue.

The beta graphics are the same as release as far as DX 9, but DX 10 is not an option til release. I, however, heard rumor that the client for the Open Beta was also 6 Months old. That means there will be much more optimization! The game at first only supported single core, but after a patch it was using both. I however could not use SLI. Support is suppose to be added on release. The game ran fine once I turned the shaders to 2.0 instead of 3.0, and it was placed on Medium otherwise. I was getting like 20-50 FPS. So with SLI support it will run no problem. Lots of players were using 8600s and they apparently were running on Medium/Low at great frames as well. Good news for many of the forum users. ^^

The graphics in general were the best I have ever seen in an MMO. I was in the Cimerian starting area and you could see the sun go through the forest leaves, the fog rising from the damp ground, and the thousands of flora below your feet. The city for Aquilonia was amazing. Imagine Minas Tirith from the Lord of the Ring Movies mixed with a romanesque feel. Birds flying over the harbor with all the sailboats docked in the sound; it was great. The Stygian area was cool too. Felt like I was in Arabia. Stygia was nothing new to an MMO player though.

I highly suggest Pre-Ordering if your thinking about this game. The mounts will be a big necessity. You can also pay $5 and play on the 17th instead of the 20th. You also get to play without your Retail CD-Key til the 30th if you get the Early Access.

I don't know much about the Amazon Bow BTW, but I think you might want a mount over it.

 

Yeah, I'll preorder it as soon as I can. See you guys in Hyboria!

 

Does anyone know a place to preorder to get a rhino or mammoth mount in the UK? They also need to be able to ship to switzerland though. I like Amazon.co.uk's offer, but I would also prefer a mount rather then a bow.
Think im gonna roll a HoX as main ^^

nevermind, found a site - game.co.uk has the mammoth

 

aha! and www.play.com has the killer rhino. which will be more useful for mages I guess cause its faster

 

I can't wait for Conan to come out! I've never seen the movies or read the books, but it all looks interesting. Didn't get a chance to play in the beta though

I've pre-ordered through BestBuy.com, but I'm going to Gamestop today so I can get a code for the Mammoth as well. Will be nice to both mounts once I get to 40.

Anybody with an M1730 play the beta? If so, how'd it run?

 

I heard from some m1730 users with 8700s that it ran well.

 

You'll definitely be able to max it out with SLI 8800M GTXs on the XPS M1730. With dual 8700M GTs, you should get a good medium/high combo.

 

Thanks for the info guys! I haven't seen a whole lot of discussions about the game running on notebooks, so I wasn't sure. I've got dual 8800's. Glad to hear it will run well! I'd be dissapointed if I didn't have a shot at high settings.

 

i know ill max the heck out of it with my desktop, but will it play on lowish-medium on my laptop also?

 

Yeah, it should play on medium settings on your laptop. Was there an option to disable nudity in the beta (like to make girls wear bras and panties at all times)? I wouldn't want my mom or sister (or anyone I know...) to see me playing that kind of ****.

 

I don't think you'll be seeing anything more than a couple stray nipples. No way is a mmo going to go for below the belt nudity if they want to keep their M rating.

That said, I didn't actually check to see if they could be disabled. I didn't really see any actual chest action though. Careful when you first start the game, you save a scantily clad women from a bondage situation. Nothing is really showing, but my friends thought it was a little bit kinky.

 

so i have the pre-release code, so i download the whole game starting tomorrow then get to play may 17th, then whats the point of me paying for the hard copy when it comes in at bestbuy if i already have it downloaded? i didnt even pay off my pre-order so how does this work?

 

You need to pay $5 for 10 days of play, starting May 17. Then by May 27, you'll need to add a code from the retail copy to keep playing.

 

Conan's graphics are tastefully mature...

Yes, there are nipples...
This isn't a porno... the people of hyboria are simply not as insanely and stupidly repressed as people in our world.

There are men walking around without any coverings on their chest either...
(in game and in reality)
Only no one seems to care...

Ask yourself this... why are women's nipples pornographic while men's are just "there".

 

because imagine girls walking around school with no shirts on, i would fail instantly and pay no attention to the prof, thats why
lol

anyways anyone having issues getting this game to download, for the pre-order early release

 

I haven't had any issues, other than it's taking it's sweet time. I left my computer on last night and it's only 25% of the way through. Decided to leave it on today while I'm at work so it will hopefully be close to finishing tonight.

 

How many guys walk into class without shirts on?
(my professors male or female would have kicked you out for inappropriate attire... even if you have the chest of a greek god, and even if they think you are dead sexy)

Women in AoC are not always nakid... they choose when and where to be so.
In a brothel? yeah nipples abound...
In a dungeon? Maybe you catch a glimpse through her armor...
Then again, she is carrying a pointy object or wielding fire...

I am a big fan of the female form and all its features... but when she is wielding a pointy object or fire I am less likely to get that excited about it...
The look on my wife's face is just plain scary when she has fire or pointy objects, and I am considerably less likely to put any extremities near her while she has them.

 

I finally bought the preorder today (BestBuy has a ton of them left) and registered my account! I'm just a little pissed off that someone took the username I usually use, MICHAELSD. He's the same guy that's signed up as MichaelSD here, hence the 01 I had to add at the end of my name to register with it. One thing you guys might not know: May 16 is the last day you can sign up for a preorder account. After that you'll only be able to sign up for the retail account.

 

funny post

 

Come on, you need an exciting imposing name like Skull cracker or Maiden Tamer!

 

It's just a username, only I'll actually see it (and the users on the AoC forums) . It just pisses me off that "MichaelSD" takes half of my usernames. Atleast I got my 360 gamertag before him .

 

What are the equivalent notebook system requirements for this game.

 

Judging from other people opinion, it seems the game gonna be a big hit. Probably will get into it since the graphic is great to look at.. but will see how the battle system works nice mmorpg

 

If you guys wanted to join the early access, all of the early access accounts have sold out today! Luckily, I've signed up yesterday and I'm downloading the client at a decent 300 kbp/s, better than most people have been getting with it. The gates of Hyboria open at 1:00PM EST on May 17, see you guys there!

 

A 6600 GT and up should run the game just fine. Integrated cards, like the X3100, can barely run Doom 3 at low settings with shaders and shadows disabled at 800x600 or even 640x800 and get a really choppy experience (less than 10fps average). Age of Conan is 20+ times more massive than Doom 3 (in terms of what you see onscreen at one time) and looks much better, even at the lowest settings, so you'll need at least a discrete card, 6600 GT and up for a decent experience.