Age of Conan Early Access Liveblog

So, like I suspect quite a lot of MMO players, I’m sitting here waiting for the Age of Conan servers to come up for the Early Access period.

I shall be attempting to record my first experiences for posterity, that folks not in early access may live vicariously through my adventures!

5:55 BST I’m all patched up and ready to go. The servers are due to open at 5 GMT, which will be 6 BST. I notice that the official forums are down right now, presumably to get rid of the pre-release forum, and replace it with an equally annoying hive of scum and villainy.

6:01 BST They’re late! Consider my account cancelled, Funcom!!!!

6:07 BST Turns out early release has been delayed to 8 pm GMT. Let’s meet back here in 2 hours and fifty.

Conan the King will be along in his own good time.

6:36 BST Rain stopped play for most of today’s England vs New Zealand Test Match. This has been quite a day of waiting for things to happen! Still, let us remain calm. I wasn’t in AoC’s beta, or I’d have an awful lot more worth saying at this point. My primary goal is to set up a happy little crafting guild, and if possible, build our town next-door to that of the Scions of Nordheim. Knowing precious little about costs, I don’t know yet if that is a realistic ambition.

7:29 BST Halfway there! What are you doing to pass the time, apart from randomly checking blogs for information? Drop me a note using my handy comment thingy down below! Me, I’m eating cherry cake.

8:49 BST OK, let’s try this again! Ten minute warning for the arrival of King Conan!

9:01 BST Oh Funcom, must you toy with us?

Conan laughs at your puny timezones!

9:09 BST Oh dear. Well, see you in 50 minutes then!

9:23 BST I have some patching action going on. It’s a bit slow though, what with everyone else also patching.

9:24 BST And then the patch server went down again :(

9:27 BST I’m all patched! However, the login server seems unwilling to make my acquaintance.

9:54 BST Well, I’m in! I was a little dismayed by the lack of decent hair options, but Alfric is born!

Behold the mighty Alfric, bearer of bottles!

11:26 BST OK, I’ve played through with a character up until opening the Acheronian gate now, and am now the proud owner of a level 5 Necromancer. I had been, right up until the end, a little concerned that combat was too easy, but it does seem to be getting a little more dangerous so I guess those crocodiles were just going easy on me!

Things began with my slave ship exploding, for reasons I have yet to discover. I washed up on a sandy beach, and was instantly approached by this gentleman.

A murderous old man.

A strange old man who apparently feels comfortable inciting complete strangers to commit murder. I am sorry, Sir, but I really don’t know you well enough yet.

But it didn’t seem like I had a lot of choice but to follow through with the bloodthirsty fellow’s plan, and so I set forth through a jungle wherein most everybody seemed to want to kill me, to their own regret.

The much vaunted combat system, thus far, seems to me a lot like hitting the 1, 2, and 3 keys at random until things fall over. I didn’t really need my spells up until the final bit. I do suspect that once I face some beefier opponents, taking a little more thought about what the heck I’m doing is going to wise.

Graphically, everything seems decent enough, especially given my meagre specs. A healthy enough framerate to play with, though I have yet to step into a city with other players, which is where framerates tend to suffer the worst.

66 comments to Age of Conan Early Access Liveblog

  • nick

    hey man, its 8pm gmt. any idea if the servers are up yet? i am still unable to connect? to the authentication server

  • It’s 8 British Summer Time. It’s only 7 pm GMT right now. We have another hour to go :(

  • nick

    oh right…hummmm another sleepless night it seems…think im going to order myself a chinese. What server you planning to go for? RP-pvp? pvp? pve? rp-pve? lol if they have that many!

  • A load of us from PotBS (across all three Nations of it) are heading to Ymir, a PvE server. From what I can tell, there’s still more than enough PvP options to keep us happy. FFA PvP tends to end up annoying me.

  • nick

    I cant decide what i want to do…considering im getting 6 days early access and a ring from the CE box-set for 20% extra exp im tempted to go RP-PVP because im gunna be generally ahead of the crowd…but im really looking forward to the guild building cities and inter city guild wars that iv heard about!

    Im just hoping this really does own WoW. it looks amazing but from beta testers iv not heard good things about the ranged combat system.

  • nick

    any luck getting on yet?

  • serphin

    still not up yet, running out of things to do.

  • Age of Call me a bum >.>

    Still not working, damn it’s 10:06 here already.

  • 10:8 and still not working :/

  • nick

    LOL these guys are blatent sadists!!!

  • sargie

    sigh another bad opening night just like the open beta. thing is one of the 3 days of early access is almost over!

  • Funcom... wheres the fun?

    ffs how long are they taking for this!

  • THE END IS NIGH

    13 minutes past “release”, wtb age of conan..

  • Age of OHMAN

    come on..

  • Age of Drudgery

    WTB mind power to imagine myself in Hyboria…. Y A W N

  • Hey,

    1:14 PST, Fuckom still has no servers up.

  • Age of OHMAN

    i know, i havent slept in two days waiting for this bullshit, gimme a break

  • Age of OHMAN

    -.-‘

  • cry baby cry

    oh god, why WHY you doin this to me XDDDD

  • Age of OHMAN

    ”’\(,,x_x,,)/”’

  • serphin

    anyone else just get rage whilst seeing “cannot connect” to choir music. its wow all over again

  • World of Age of Funcom not being funny

    hello funcom people, WAKE UP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND GET THE SERVER UP!

  • Age of OHMAN

    The servers will be available very soon from now. The final things are getting tweaked and tested. To make sure everything works fine the way it should we want to test it properly. Due to that the servers will open in ABOUT 3 hours from now (4+ hours ago) (8 pm GMT). So sharpen your weapons and test your war gear one more time. The gates to Hyboria will open very soon now. Thank you.

    -Funcom , aka Satan

  • World of Age of Funcom not being funny

    sharpen what? my gear? by the time the server starts… my gear is all rusty >.>

  • Age of OHMAN

    actually thats a lie it was only 1 hour ago

  • Hey,

    Wow, Fuckom.

  • Age of OHMAN

    OHMYGOD THEY SENT A MESSAGE SAYING ITS UP AND ITS NOT WTF

  • serphin

    so what time will they be up in the uk?

  • Age of OHMAN

    seriously check the updater it says its working

  • sargie

    says on the client now we appologise for any bumpiness smoother waters lie ahead so all this twesking and they are already telling us its not gonna perform well.

  • World of Age of Funcom not being funny

    King Conan at the log in screen looks as annoyed as us xD

  • serphin

    hulk rage rising!

  • Age of OHMAN

    I bid you Welcome to Hyboria!

    For 5 years, we, the galley slaves of Funcom, have toiled on the oar for your future pleasure. For 5 years we have felt the merryw hip inscribe the letters”Conan” on our backs, mixing sweat with blood, reminding us to pull harder. Now we have at last reached the shore. The barge now transformed into a luxury ship and we bid you welcome on board. Not as slaves, naturally, but as captains, esteemed passengers or pilots.
    The point is – from now on, Hyboria is yours as much as ours. We will build this world with you. We hope you will fall as much in love with it, as we have. Know though, that we might experience a bit of rough sea the first days. This is the nature launches… Let me take this moment to apologize for any bumpiness. Smoother waters are sighted ahead!
    Welcome to Hyboria, welcome home!
    Yours truly,
    Governer FUCKHEAD.
    kgo?

  • nick

    some guy said one of the 3 days of early access over. its 6 days were getting. EU release is on the 23rd now

  • my patience has run out ^^

    meeeeeeh, all i can do is meeeeeeh plox gief me some AoC before mr knife gets tempting

  • Age of OHMAN

    ASL?

  • Age of OHMAN

    sorry im that bored.

  • my patience has run out ^^

    16/m/amsterdam mood: pissed ^^

  • Hey,

    How can we sharpen our blades or be welcome in Hyboria if we CAN’T EVEN GET IN.

  • serphin

    so not only have they pushed back our fun but the guys who didnt get into the early acess have to wait even longer, nice

  • Age of OHMAN

    my patcher just moved on its own

  • Age of OHMAN

    we sharpen our blades with the bones of funcom employees.l2p

  • serphin

    i am in

  • Circa

    The patcher must be getting slammed, it’s gonna be a day of patching, 2 days of playing

  • once upon a time, people were on crack

    those guys over there…. wtf, they are so fed up with it they start imagining its working :D?

  • serphin

    but it kicked me :D

  • OHMYGOD

    SCANNING LOCAL FILES, GOODBYE LIFE

  • nick

    IM ON!” OMFG IM ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • nick

    ITS AMAZING GUYS ITS LIKE SEX BUT BETTTEERRRR