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
Since last I spoke to you, I finished up all outstanding business in Tortage and headed out for the mainland. The first thing you notice is that the quests no longer have voice-overs, but they are still abundant and interesting.
Level 20 meant I could start resource gathering (although you cannot begin to learn crafting until level 40!). It is a fairly standard resource node system, though the nodes are static, and slowly refill. To liven things up a bit, while harvesting you often spawn enemies of an appropriate level who hanker after your goods. The only problem with this is that I found myself levelling quite fast during my harvesting periods, when I would have preferred to not have outlevelled any quests.
Levelling is fast. Quests give abundant xp, often astonishingly so. Those of you who have adventured with me in the past know I level just about as slowly as it’s possible for a fellow to do, and yet I’m already level 30. If these pesky NPCs would stop jumping me when I’m trying to mine sandstone I’d probably be more like level 25. I hope, for the games sake, that levelling above 30 takes significantly longer, though I have seen level 60’s running about already, which suggests to me it’s not going to get that much tougher. I would not mind levelling so much if it wasn’t for the feature that quests you have outlevelled no longer appear on your map, so they’re a bit of a pain to find.
The Trader is still disabled, blocking access to bank, auction and mail services. This has been revealed (Only in an interview in Norwegian, annoyingly) as being due to the discovery of a moneymaking exploit, but I really hope they get it fixed in tonight’s pre-launch downtime.
My character is currently trapped in Limbo. Limbo, in Hyboria, appears to equate to the Lacheish Plains. Once entered, most people have great difficulty leaving again, as they crash almost immediately upon logging in there. I don’t begin to know what’s causing it, but I do know that having a zone, that several mainland newbie quests send you to, devour it’s visitors is not terribly helpful. Hopefully tonight’s 5 hour downtime will release me from my unjust imprisonment, so I can continue my most enjoyable adventures!
For completion’s sake, below are last night’s update notes. They are not particularly interesting, and in the case of the Lacheish Plains, quite untrue.
Continue reading Age of Conan Day 5, and 1.1.2.3 Patch Notes
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