So, here we are, 19 days after Early Access to Age of Conan began. Where are we?
On a personal note, my guild has managed to build our Keep in instance seven of the Lacheish Plains. It does absolutely nothing at this time, but it sure looks nice!
The State of the Game. I’ve covered this a little before, especially here and here. The issues I mentioned there are mostly still present, so I won’t repeat myself. There has not been a patch since last I wrote, nor is there an ETA on the next one, though there has been a letter from the lead developer, which admitted that many zones, quests, and features that were supposed to be in the release did not quite make it in. they will be along over the course of the summer. I have that in full further down the page.
It turns out that the double-buff bug introduced in the last patch is a great deal more serious than I first thought. As well as allowing us to gain double the strength of some buffs, in some circumstances debuffs are proving to be permanent until you log out. This is especially problematic on the PvP servers, where folks are finding themselves permanently rooted, stunned, or snared by magic-using opponents, and then shortly after finding themselves deceased.
It has been discovered that female characters are attacking a great deal slower than their male counterparts, when using the duel-wielding fighting style so important to classes such as the assassin and ranger. There has been no dev response on this, or on many of these issues, but you will be happy to learn that a recently introduced bug that reduced the breast size of player characters merited a special announcement that it would be quickly fixed. Maybe I’m underestimating the number of people who play AoC for partial nudity and gigantic breasts.
It appears that character stats such as strength and intelligence are doing very little indeed, possibly nothing. Many of the skills which we can put points into also do absolutely nothing.
The PvP minigames are suffering from a particularly poor method of setting up matches. What happens at the moment is that you select what sort of match you want, and then you select which map you want to play it on. Then, if enough people are looking for the same combination, of appropraite level, your match starts. The problem is that you have no way to see what sorts of match and map everyone else has selected, making it more of an exercise in ESP than in PvP. We desperately need to be able to set up a match, and then have that match appear visually on a list that other people can simply select and join. The current system will see the PvP minigames mostly ignored as too frustrating. Though as the PvP advancement system is not in game yet anyway, perhaps it does not matter so much, but when finally we can gain PvP xp those of us on the PvE servers will need the minigames to get a good quantity of fightage. Also I love capture the flag in any game.
Players and NPCs appear and dissappear seemingly randomly, especially in town. I can only imagine how annoying this must be on PvP servers. It appears to be an issue with the game’s LOD settings. A separate issue is how long the game takes to load up the graphics for an NPC. I am frequently forced to stand waiting for up to 30 seconds in front of where a NPC will eventually appear to so I can speak to them. This gets peskier yet in situations where NPCs are spawned to attack you, such as when gathering. While invisible, they are still more than capable of hitting you (and being hit if you can find them). AoC’s texture management, and graphical memory management in general, is appalling. Maybe my PC isn’t so great, but if there’s an NPC going to attack me I don’t care if you use a placeholder graphic that looks like an angry lego brick, providing I can be aware that there is something there I need to worry about.
Ranty today? Why yes, I am!
As usual, I want to say that I AM enjoying the game. It’s just frustrating to see so many wasted opportunites. Lets see what the Lead Dev has to say:
Gaute Godager – Game Director
Fellow Hyborians!
As you may have noticed we have had frequent patches the last two weeks. We hope this will soon start to quiet down, but as long as there are major issues – and there have been – we will dedicate the Conan team to fixing them and giving you these fixes as soon as possible! We have a plan on how to move this game forward because as you know, what you have today is but the platform – the dawn of this world. I hope you enjoy the game as is, but I can ensure you, this is but the beginning!
Our focus from now on can be summarized by these points:
1. We will add content, specifically in mid-late thirties and mid-late fifties and make the leveling speed smoother in those areas, reducing the need to grind.
2. We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things.
3. We are fixing bugs you reported through all channels we can get information from.
4. We will add a new large outdoor region in the 55-60 range this summer!
5. This is only a small teaser! More information about the exciting summer and fall Roadmap will come the end of the next week!
6. We are staffing up Customer Service, Quality Assurance and Community departments!
I will spend some words on a bit more details now.
1. Filling “thin areas†in our content
We have seen that there are certain level ranges of these Hyborian Adventures that do not have the amount of quality we wish them to have. Most specifically these are the end of the Thirties and the end of the Fifties level ranges. We are addressing this in several ways.
* Several mid-late thirties dungeons are getting a complete overhaul (Black Castle, Pyramid of the Ancients and Treasury of the Ancients)
* Several quests are being made fuller and more entertaining. If people wish to revisit these quests, we will add a system to let them try them out again.
* we are adding first a batch of quests in Eiglophian Mountains (lvls 55+)
* We are also adding in a bunch of quests that didn’t quite make it for launch in the 30+ areas.
* Around 60 quests through the game have been flagged as “Lore Questsâ€. They will now be patched out with full Voice-Over. (Roughly 1 quest per level after level 20).
All this will come in June! In July the first level 80 additional Dungeon will be patched out. More on that later…
2. Overhauling the PvP System
People like our open PvP system. There are many plans on how to give this open free PvP even more meaning and Purpose. In the meantime we will be doing some smaller tweaks, and we plan to get these out sometimes in June. I will not go into 100% detail here, but that will come next week! What I can promise is:
* An update on how sneaking and perception works in PvP (nothing major, but an adjustment).
* A change in the amount of information you get when you hover over an other player.
* An added system of consequence to “gankingâ€. (Killing much-much lower level players).
* A system of adding consequence to losing a PvP match, and winning a PvP match + turning on PvP Leveling.
* A change in how Crowd Control (Root, Knockback etc) works in PvP.
* PvP gear.
3. New Massive Region
We will unveil this location later, but it will feature a host of quests, new monsters and places of dreams or horror. It will be styled towards the players in the late 50s and bridge the experience on the way to Atzels Approach. We have plans for releasing several of the areas that didn’t quite make it for the release.
4. Fixing bugs and increasing Customer Service
Funcom has always prided ourselves with having great customer satisfaction. The success so far for this title has left us with the need to increase the size of CS. This will go in parallel with the constant fixing of bugs and other issues that lead people to petition. Included in this is even better testing of the game by increasing the size of Quality Assurance and informing you better about changes by staffing up the Community Department. I know a blurb like this will haunt me always, but I will still venture one: We aren’t satisfied until all our customers are! You know we had a very, very difficult launch of Anarchy-Online! That was a very painful process for all of us working on it – 4 years. You might not understand how driven we are to make sure you enjoy this game, and all the support around it!
The future is very bright for Hyboria. There will be many bright mornings following this, the very first. Together we shall surge ahead and build the world even bigger, better and more detailed!
Yours truly,
Gaute Godager
Game Director
Age of Conan, Funcom
OK, the update notes are out, and do deal with a few of the more pressing issues I mentioned in my earlier post. It has been noted before that Funcom’s patch notes are far from completist, so we can hope that there are some other fixes included also.There’s still a long way to go. I also wish they’ed use a decent version numbering system for these things, instead of just giving them a date.
Update: The patch has introduced new bugs.
I now have two sets of buff icons. One set is cancellable, by hand or by death, and seems normal. The other set cannot be cancelled, and refuses to go away even upon death. And has started flashing and refuses to stop. I am getting double the effect from my buffs, and have hit the defense cap for my level. I promise to use my superpowers only for good.
My recipe book does not allow me to get at half my recipes. Not sure if this is a new one with the patch, but it’s the first time I have noticed it.
The level 30 stamina potion, Old Redrouse, is not consumed when you drink it, and no longer stacks with itself in your inventory.
The patch notes for June 2nd continue below:
Continue reading Age of Conan Patch Notes for the 2nd of June
Firstly I should say that I am still enjoying AoC, and I belive my guildmates are also. As I get further into the game though, I am coming across more and more cases of things being done half-arsed. Funcom has time to fix these, and there is a patch taking place right now which may help (No patch notes released yet). Here’s a few of my major quibbles.
The Trader made it in finally, but unfortunately the Auction House does not show stack numbers, so you do not know whether the leather that is for sale at 5 silver is a single unit, or a stack of 20. You have to buy the whole lot, either way, and the price is for the whole stack, regardless of size. Needless to say, no-one feels much like buying crafting resources under these circumstances, and I am confused as to how anyone never noticed this. Also, the mail system has been routinely swallowing any mail, items, or cash that anyone tries to send via it, so I would suggest not using it right now!
Crafters are also hurting from a bug that was introduced last week. Cotton and leather from before that patch no longer work in any of your recipes. Leather found now does work, but cotton harvesting is completely broken. There are also issues with some sorts of resource nodes not refillling. Gem cutters cannot advance their crafting quests, though it is just as well, as if you mouse-over an item that has a gem installed it in, you will immediately crash to desktop.
The bug which caused structure building to fail, costing you your exceptionally pricey ingredients, has been squashed, but at this time no city building gives any benefit, so there is little point in making them other than for bragging rights. Fortunately bragging rights appears to be enough for many guilds, but my own is going to wait until they are working correctly. There are still reports coming in from the PvP servers of folks managing to use exploits to destroy eachother’s PvE guild cities.
Speaking of exploits, with great fanfare there was a mass suspension of many accounts earlier this week. Mostly Guildmasters and Architects who, as mentioned, have to deal with vast amounts of money in order to build their towns. Since then, most seem to have had their accounts reinstated with rather less fanfare, so I’m a little unclear as to how many people caught up in this dragnet actually turned out to be exploiters, rather than just having been flagged for having a bunch of cash donations from their hundred guildmates.
I have been finding more and more unfinished areas. Take the Treasury of the Ancients. Nothing in this small dungeon drops anything at all, even money, and the two ladders at the end of the corridor, should you climb them, drop you outside of the world geometry on a long fall to your death. The nearby Pyramid of the Ancients, while at least dropping some basic loot, is also completely bugged, with the main quest uncompletable, and the whole area giving a feeling of menace, not because of the enemies, but because you never know if what you’re doing is going to break something. Now, as you know I level slowly, so the usual argument that the high end content doesn’t have to be in at launch does not stand. I am talking about level 30-40 content, which is reachable even by the most casual players by this point. Even in the Outflow Tunnels underneath Old Tarantia, the numerous human opponents down there once again drop nothing, ever (With the exception of one Boss).
There’s also some profound game engine issues, but I’ll go into them in depth in another post.
Basically, polish is rather hit and miss once you leave Tortage, and I would strongly recommend that new players be in no rush to leave that island, to give Funcom some time to sort out the problems with the mainland.
In short, those who claim this is the best launch ever are wrong. It is a pretty much average MMO launch with the sort of bugs that make anyone who has ever been involved in software production, such as myself, boggle with disbelief. Seriously, MMO companies, hire some real quality control people, and stop taking advantage of our patience. We older MMO players are starting to get grumpy about it.
An update on my guild’s progress. We have booked our City Spot in instance 7 of the Lacheish Plains, but we’re still a little way away from being able to afford to build our first building, the Keep. Architect is a fiendishly expensive profession, and it is going to be difficult for small guilds to build very often. Difficult, but not impossible! In any case, for now we’re just going to build the keep until the other buildings start giving the bonuses they’re supposed to.
What rough beast, its hour come at last, slouches towards Tortaga to be born? It’s the Buccaneer, brimming with tradey goodness, and our ocean will never be the same again! Not just for those scurvy Pirates either. Across the board characters will be logging in to be greeted by a free respec, as the skills available to all classes have been completely revamped. Only time will tell if this is for good or ill, but with greater choice available, I am hopeful it’ll work out for the best.
Economic unrest has been given the old heave-ho too, with the bundles now being placed into the care of NPCs who will slowly trickle the unrest at a more sedate pace, putting an end for once and for all to econbombing.
There’s lots more in this update. New stuff to buy with commendations and MoV, new ships, a scad of ship changes, and fixes in abundance. Have a good ol’ rummage and see what you reckon,
The full 1.4.34 patch notes for Pirates of the Burning Sea continue below:
Continue reading PotBS 1.4.34 goes live
Yesterday I hit level 40, and so it is time for me to start looking around for where I want to build our town. The majority of guild towns on Ymir seem to be at Poitain, with only a very few in the Purple Lotus Swamp and the Lacheish Plains. If you have any insight as to which one is best, please drop me a comment below! One thought I have is that there are only 2 town spots in a Swamp instance, as opposed to 3 in the others, so there might be less competition for resources there, but I do find the swamp a bit laggy and claustrophobic.
Today’s patch has gotten around to fixing one serious condition that had been worrying me. Some people were trying to build town structures, but finding that the action failed, while still removing the high resource cost from their inventory. Kind of terrifying, but it should no longer happen.
The extreme lag in the Fields of the Dead may also have been fixed. I’m still a little nervous about going in, as I have a number of friends trapped there in the old Lacheish Plains Style.
Patch Notes continue below.
Continue reading Age of Conan Patch Notes 26th and 27th of May.
The arrival of 1.1.2.4 saw me freed from my imprisonment in the Lacheish Plains, and once more did I begin my criss-crossing of Hyboria in the name of Mitra. My meteoric levelling has not abated, and I am now level 37!
While the Lacheish Plains may have ceased entrapping unwitting victims, there is a similar issue with the Fields of the Dead. Luckily, I don’t have much of a need to travel there yet, and I trust that it will be fixed by the time I need to spend any serious time there. The trader is STILL disabled, and I hear that player cities are not providing their intended bonuses to their guilds, so my haste to start building has been replaced with a patient calm. There is another update due tonight, so I’m looking forward to seeing the patch notes for it. Hopefully it also fixes the exploit that allowed one guild on a PvP server to destroy another guild’s entire town!
I am no longer alone in the Green Lodge! Two old friends from previous games have traversed time and space to join me, and there are more on the way. It’s nice to not be a guildmaster of a guild of one any more.
Below (belatedly, as I was trying to find out the version number.) are the Age of Conan patch notes for the update of the 23rd of May.
Continue reading Age of Conan Day 7 and 1.1.2.4 Patch Notes
A fairly small update to the test build, though there are a lot of skill tweaks. The Bahamut gets significantly increased in power, and Sabanqui loses it’s unrest decay, which is going to seriously inconvenience Campeche from time to time. Privateer skills get a surprisingly sharp smack with the nerfbat.
Patch notes are below:
Continue reading PotBS Test Server Patch Notes 1.4.30
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