Age of Conan

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 22, 2008, 12:27 pm

prolly picking it up tonight to check it out. might roll a demo or a necro

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 22, 2008, 12:37 pm

Started a Dark Templar on Set (Canelek). Got him to about lvl7 before I went to bed. Created one of those firedemon dudes on Manansnnanmnma named Canno.

Few things....

Graphics are good. I run at AA x 4 @ 1920x1200 with no issues. Have not tried running Max gfx on anything yet, but have no lag issues anyway.

I could not figure how to search for anyone nor add friends., but I have not really sat down and googled anything yet. Kinda neat game. Has potential!

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 22, 2008, 1:29 pm

I think the fire demon dudes are weak because the demon thing is on a timer and only lasts a few seconds, then you're stuck as a cloth wearer in combat. We'll see.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 22, 2008, 1:31 pm

I found myself dying quite often with that class...but we are talking lvl 1-7 or whatever...I seem to like that dark templar....may reroll on myanmar server and ditch the nancy demoncloth guy.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » May 22, 2008, 1:32 pm

Why does he mini-map suck so hard?

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 22, 2008, 1:33 pm

it just does.

Best map evar = EQ2 w/ EQmaps plugin

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 22, 2008, 1:36 pm

Fash wrote:Why does he mini-map suck so hard?

It's so frustrating because it has some really good features that minimaps in other games are missing, such as good zoom levels, scrolling on the map, ability to change quest watch through the minimap. I just wish you could f'n see your group on the minimap.

On an unrelated note, I turned off the feature that makes you auto face your target, and now it's much easier to move groups of mobs into cleave range.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » May 22, 2008, 1:40 pm

Aardor wrote:I turned off the feature that makes you auto face your target, and now it's much easier to move groups of mobs into cleave range.

$\:D/$

Cotto · Post by **Cotto** » May 22, 2008, 5:36 pm

Been in early release, got me a Herald, combat is lovely and tis all good fun!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 22, 2008, 6:10 pm

Remember that you can respec for free while you're still in Tortage. During daytime (multiplayer mode) there is a dude down by the harbor next to that really tall tower that will reset your feats.

Also, like with Guild Wars, after you enter the final battle/mission (when you hit level 19 and are able to accept the mission) there's no going back to shops, etc. You have to move on to your home city so keep that in mind if you want to level or are thinking of redoing your feat trees.

I redid mine right beforehand. Thankfully I like what I did and it's pretty early to screw things up much. Dark Templar forums are driving me nuts. Right when I'm feeling good about going down a particular DT Feat Tree, someone comes up with a great build and reason to go the other way. Good news with that is DT has two excellent, and different, trees to work with.

AoC is the best MMORPG since the original EQ for me so far. I haven't had to deal with other players yet except for a handful of positive experiences while grouping on a quest so multiple people could benefit from a quest kill.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 22, 2008, 6:50 pm

Winnow wrote:Remember that you can respec for free while you're still in Tortage. During daytime (multiplayer mode) there is a dude down by the harbor next to that really tall tower that will reset your feats.

Also, like with Guild Wars, after you enter the final battle/mission (when you hit level 19 and are able to accept the mission) there's no going back to shops, etc. You have to move on to your home city so keep that in mind if you want to level or are thinking of redoing your feat trees.

I redid mine right beforehand. Thankfully I like what I did and it's pretty early to screw things up much. Dark Templar forums are driving me nuts. Right when I'm feeling good about going down a particular DT Feat Tree, someone comes up with a great build and reason to go the other way. Good news with that is DT has two excellent, and different, trees to work with.

AoC is the best MMORPG since the original EQ for me so far. I haven't had to deal with other players yet except for a handful of positive experiences while grouping on a quest so multiple people could benefit from a quest kill.

Uh...You can go back to Tortage by talking to the "smuggler" next to where it takes you after you finish the last night quest at 19/20. And you can still respec for free (it costs gold in all other cities), but it is a bug and they will probably fix it (i've changed feats 7 times so far since level 20).

Edit: This is also helpful if a friend is just starting, and you want to go grief them for a bit (in jest). Or i guess if you want to grief low levels in general.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 22, 2008, 7:09 pm

Aardor wrote:
Uh...You can go back to Tortage by talking to the "smuggler" next to where it takes you after you finish the last night quest at 19/20. And you can still respec for free (it costs gold in all other cities), but it is a bug and they will probably fix it (i've changed feats 7 times so far since level 20).

Edit: This is also helpful if a friend is just starting, and you want to go grief them for a bit (in jest). Or i guess if you want to grief low levels in general.

Ah good to know. Tortage looked like it was in ruins when you leave. They must have a crack cleanup crew.

noel · Post by **noel** » May 23, 2008, 12:35 pm

Is this game solo friendly or is it totally group oriented?

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 23, 2008, 12:57 pm

theres a percentage of quests that are intended for groups (and designated as such) but it appears that they designed it for whichever you prefer. from what i hear, all of the classes including the healers can solo fine, but some of them are obviously better suited for it. i think the best soloists are supposed to be the soldier and rogue archetypes. i never really get the grinding feel when soloing. you regenerate health and mana so fast out of combat that youre usually full by the time you start your next engagement, and you can use Rest which increases your regen time even more at the cost of temporarily immobilization. Essentially the exact same thing as eating & drinking in warcraft except you can do it without having to keep actual food and water in your inventory.

i'm really enjoying it after my first day and i'm glad to be proven wrong about my thoughts on the game while it was in development. got my demo to 13.. he's definitely not the strongest choice right now in terms of PVP, but once they get spellweaving in and I hit the higher levels i'm hoping the investment will pay off. mainly i chose demo because im playing the game with a Tempest and a Guardian, and Electric demo's seem to have a lot of synergy with Tempests.

the game has a few notable grievances.. the minimap is mostly a pile of shit. PVP spawn camping is almost completely unmitigated, which was a little suprising. spawn times in public areas could be improved or at least temporarily increased to alleviate the ballooned release population.

graphics are great but the load times are still fine. animations are mostly good, but sometimes a little silly. for example, when i root a guy he stops and bends over to try to pull his leg out of the ground.. but when i jump up in the air my guy flails all of his limbs around like crazy for no particular reason.

it is impossible not to notice some aspects of the game being carbon copies of warcraft. feats, the entire questing system, and other interface elements. i dont really consider it a good or bad thing, but its just interesting.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 23, 2008, 1:19 pm

Any way to turn OOC perma-off? It is easy enough to leave the channel, but it always comes back when you zone--gets rather annoying since it is non-stop WoWtard.

The graphics are nice and smooth though.

As far as questing, there is no shortage, although I would prefer fewer to begin with as to alleviate some confusion about where shit is.

noel · Post by **noel** » May 23, 2008, 1:20 pm

Thanks for the info. I've mostly been playing around with a tanker in CoH for the last while because I can easily solo with him and can do something semi-meaningful in the short periods of time I have to play. I just don't have the time for grouping.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 23, 2008, 1:26 pm

I am hoping for solo-friendly as well, although it seems that way so far.

Of course, I can always play EQ2 (and often do). Plenty of soloing available there and I still like it more.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 23, 2008, 1:32 pm

Most of the quests I've done recently put me in MOB-infested areas in and around Tortage where we're facing 2-5 MOBs at once. This would be death solo IMO (and often was even though Canno's barbarian was backing up my Bear Shaman). The old EQ/EQ2 trick of proximity aggro to pull one of a group doesn't seem to work much, as about half the time the others tend to come anyway even though they don't seem to be tied. They are definitely social. It seems kind of flaky.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 23, 2008, 1:36 pm

NPC zerg-rush indeed. It was fun, but it seems like more shit would spawn just as we took out 8-12 mobs!

Granted, they were 2-4 levels higher than us at the time.

I really didn't mind so much, really....just seemed to be rather densely populated on what appeared to be a regular path up the hill.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 23, 2008, 1:42 pm

Canelek wrote:Any way to turn OOC perma-off? It is easy enough to leave the channel, but it always comes back when you zone--gets rather annoying since it is non-stop WoWtard.

There are a few ways to do it, none of them particularly good. One way is to turn it off on the general tab, then uncheck "autojoin new channels" on the general tab. However, this is a PITA because you won't join group chat automatically when you get a group.

What I did last night was form a new window, and put guild, group, say, yell, etc in it (every chat but OOC). I then just display that channel, and click general, combat log, or system message channels when I need to read one of those.

As far as soloing goes, yes you can solo for the majority of the game. I hear that from 50-60 there are a lack of quests, and it's either group dungeons or solo grinding (which apparently isn't bad). I am not sure if this is true or not because I'm only 37 right now, because of raiding in WoW.

I had no problems soloing to level 37 (I did group for fun for about a level, but I could have just soloed instead). If you are having problems taking 2-4 mobs, strafe around till they're all on top of each other, so your attack hits them all.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 23, 2008, 2:29 pm

Anyone know how mentoring (i think that's the name, but i'm at work and can't check) works? A level 46 friend mentored me and made me a level 45 yesterday, and I was curious how experience etc works. You don't get skill points, feat points, or new combos when it happens, but can you still get a good amount of experience being mentored, and doing group encounters at the higher level? What was pretty sweet was being able to stealth threw sanctum of the hidden stars, and get all the quests done, since I couldn't find a group.

miir · Post by **miir** » May 23, 2008, 2:31 pm

the game has a few notable grievances.. the minimap is mostly a pile of shit. PVP spawn camping is almost completely unmitigated, which was a little suprising. spawn times in public areas could be improved or at least temporarily increased to alleviate the ballooned release population.

Just change your instance... hit the little dropdown arrow above your minimap.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 23, 2008, 3:15 pm

miir wrote:Just change your instance... hit the little dropdown arrow above your minimap.

Ahh, that would probably explain why after a server burp Rich and I were in the same group but couldn't see each other (and he was grey on my party view - which sucks btw). We must have been in different instances of Tortage.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 23, 2008, 3:36 pm

miir wrote:
the game has a few notable grievances.. the minimap is mostly a pile of shit. PVP spawn camping is almost completely unmitigated, which was a little suprising. spawn times in public areas could be improved or at least temporarily increased to alleviate the ballooned release population.
Just change your instance... hit the little dropdown arrow above your minimap.

I did try that at my friends suggestion after I was getting spawn camped repeatedly. Theres 2 problems with that.. First, if youre dead you cant switch instances (from what I could tell). If you get killed fast enough, you dont get the chance to switch. Second, I loaded in 4 different instances of White Sands and each one had 3 or 4 guys standing at the spawn ready to kill me instantly, at which point I stopped trying to get a new instance and spent the next dozen or so deaths trying to sprint to the boat and leave.. which i was able to do eventually.

More could be done.. i'd like to see the ability to switch instances even if youre dead, and also a little more info on the instance selection screen, such as current population.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 23, 2008, 3:54 pm

Spawn campers are fuckheads - that's not even PvP, that's just juvenile jackassery.

Hence, I rolled on PvE.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » May 23, 2008, 3:56 pm

I noticed a buff over my lunch break that I didn't notice before. It was basically a temporary invuln buff that popped on me whenever I zoned. Was this there before, or does anyone know if it also pops up whenever you rez? At first I just thought it was some crappy graphics (spell effect has some kind of yellow-orange radiance around the character) before I noticed that I had a "new" buff on me.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 23, 2008, 4:00 pm

Ashur wrote:Spawn campers are fuckheads - that's not even PvP, that's just juvenile jackassery.

Hence, I rolled on PvE.

it goes both ways though, man. one day i will be a POWERFUL WIZARD and then the juvenile jackasses will pay in blood.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 23, 2008, 6:19 pm

OOC is not an issue on the PvE servier i'm on (Thog)

This game is solo friendly for sure. So far I haven't needed to group for anything although have for quest rewards just so someone wouldn't have to wait for the mob to spawn again.

Loving the game although I git stuck int he Lacheish Plains last night and that blew six hours (I couldnt resist hte 5K exp point quest!) They fixed it with a patch over night.

During that time I leveled a Conquerer up to 13. They seem ok, can duel wield right off the bat. I don't see much compelling about the class over Dark Templar though for my liking.

Peeps very friendly so far on PvE. I must have been saved from dying 4 times at least from someone seeing me in trouble and helping to finish off a mob. I've return the favor twice so far and will do so more as I level up.

The world is massive and gives me the old EQ feeling as I travel great distances through unknown territory to complete some journey quests. They've done an outstanding job making use of verticalality (that a word?). I can't remember the zone, but it's in Cimmaria. It's huge. I entered on side and travelled down a large mountain, all the time being able to see the trail beneath me and above for some amazing views. This probably has a lot to do with your graphics card. I'm on medium. High or Low will result in a different viewing distances.

The background music is outstanding. Now that I've traveled through the three major areas, I can see that put a lot of thought and time into the background music.

Here's an example of a directional compo thingy:

[Show]

And here's an example of shields. Notice the bear has full shields on his right side. (so, of course, you smack him on the other side)

[Show]

The little blue + numbers you see are me being my Dark Templar self. I'm always getting healed and doing damage just standing there (at least I have a shot to kill a mob if I go linkdead! Since there's no auto attack, most peeps will kick the bucket for sure if LD)

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 23, 2008, 6:22 pm

Much

for you putting the images in spoiler tags so it doesn't screw up scrolling on the page

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » May 24, 2008, 10:52 am

Winnow wrote:Remember that you can respec for free while you're still in Tortage. During daytime (multiplayer mode) there is a dude down by the harbor next to that really tall tower that will reset your feats.

I am not seeing this guy. Was he removed, or can you give a better description of where he is?

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » May 24, 2008, 11:33 am

I heard a lot of people shouting out about this last night. They did take the guy out from Tort but not from the other cities.

I've discovered something else that is really kind of annoying. It may be that I am just doing it wrong but the whole chat function is really cumbersome. From what I have seen you can't just go /group or /party or /ooc which makes it really hard to have a conversation with multiple people in different formats. If they are going to copy WoW's concepts then why not go all the way and make it easy to talk to each other? Right now I found that I have to create a group chat window for when I am grouped and set it to default else each time I hit Enter to talk it goes to Say instead. Right now it is hard to determine just by chat whether the person I am grouped with is retarded or just having trouble with the interface.

Question. What level should you be before leaving Tort? I know you can't do the final quest until you are at least 19 but there are still a number of quests that can be done before you do that. I am closing in on 20 right now. Do any of these quests have bearing after Tort? I have found one so far that you pick up in the Inn for the Shadow Council or something like that. Are there more?

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 24, 2008, 5:20 pm

/group <message> will send to group and make your default channel group
/guildsay <message> will send to group and make your default channel guild
/say <message> same thing

You have to actually send a message for it to set it to the default channel, and i swear it didn't work for the first few days.

As far as leaving tortage, I don't think it really matters, I left after my quest at lvl 19.5, but I had friends stay till they were 21. I don't know the answer to the question you asked about quests.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 24, 2008, 5:35 pm

Re comments above:

Totage Feat Retrainer

That sucks if the free Feat retrainer was removed from Tortage. I think at minimum peeps should be able to respec their characters up through level 20. It's just too hard to know what feats are going to be good. You can respec outside of Tortage but it end up getting expensive quickly. The first time isn't too bad.

I redid my attributes (running speed, recovery, etc) and it cost me some tin but I tried again and it was going to cost me 1 silver. Since DT's need stamina badly so I loaded up on stamina recover, chance for double stamina recovery, running speed, and health recovery. I'm amazed how fast you recover in rest mode. Just a couple of seconds in rest mode will save you if stuck in a place where you're going to have to fight again.

As a Dark Templar I have this fast casting 8 second refresh spell, "Right of Blood" that converts health into stamina. When you see me running, I try to hit sprint mode as much as possible so I'm constantly hitting Right of Blood to get more stamina for sprinting. The spell effect leaves a black trail of smoke and gives off a howl like a mammoth or something so I look like a car burning serious oil with black smoke trailing off me all the time.

Chat:

Bubba sent me a /tell yesterday and I'm glad I caught it. I don't care for the chat windows and commands. They should have copied EQ 1's chat. so easy.. "r" reply to last tell, /g group, /ooc, etc. I opened a separate window for tells but didn't test it to see if it worked (sorry if I missed any other tells from you Bubba, last one I got was about you seeing a Mammoth) I also had two request for friendships that I had no idea were there from people I grouped with. (at least I think they were requests...they were names in my friends window with "?s" beside them. I feel bad if I just ignored those requests as I had no indication of the requests. Hoping the chat system gets a workover. Don't like not being able to resize the windows. For some reason, my separate /ooc and /group windows don't work when I type in them. I've only been able to use /say when in groups. I just need to read up a little on the system I guess. I figured if you had a dedicated group or /tell window you wouldn't need to preface your text with [OOC] [GROUP] ect.

Before Leaving Tortage:

Just do all the quests you can. after 19/20, you'll do better in either Knopshef or Wild Lands doing quests. (those are the two zones for Aquilonians. The armor/weapon you get from the quests will be the best you get for a few levels. At level 24/25, I started getting better gear from new quests.

Quests:

Do all you can. They are your bread and butter for leveling. Much faster than grinding and you get decent armor/weapons once in awhile as rewards.

One tip is to move over to the 20-40 newbie zone for the other races once you've exhausted your own line of quests. They are all 4-6K exp and you can do all three area quests.

----

One embarrassing thing for me. I went through levels 10-25 not realizing I had spells. I just figured I had combos and feats as my spell list was empty. Well it's a minor bug in that if you don't click on the "friendly" spell tab (even through it's the only one you have and starts on that page) your spells don't show up. I finally clicked that tab and realized that I need to cast three different spells to get the effects: Covenant of Arms (I had loaded up the feats for this but there's a spell/buff to cast for it), Drain Blood, and Infusion of (something). Two of these spells last an hour and the other one four hours so it's not a pain at all. All the sudden after level 25 I started kicking some ass. As all three of those spells give me back even more health while I'm dealing damage. My health bar actually goes up in some fights with multiple mobs.

Here's some pics of the Mammoth and Rhino mounts. Pretty impressive when you first see them in game:

[Show]

I'm going to regret not getting the pre-release box as everything is so expensive atm (like it was in the original EQ early days) I heard it costs 1 gold to train mounts. I have 10 Silver after 28 levels.

edit:

Online Stats Parser:

http://www.aocstats.com/freeParse.aspx

need to turn combat log on first:

/logcombat on

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » May 24, 2008, 9:12 pm

Mobs all have a (maximum pursuit without damage occuring) distance.

Meaning, you stand 20 feet away, shoot an arrow and the mob takes damage. A timer starts. If you do not deal damage to the mob or the mob cannot damage you over XXX amount of seconds the mob will reset.

You can use this to Yo-Yo pull mobs out of groups.

3 mobs, shoot one and run. Take note of the spot on the ground where they got to before turning back around on you. Go back shoot mob and run once again, stop just past the point where they stop to turn and reset. When the all but one mob has turned to run back, step forward and engage the last mob that should still be agro.

Yo-Yo pulling, you heard it here first. Xanupox El'Ninjapox, making online games trivial since 1997.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 24, 2008, 9:46 pm

That online parser i linked above is pretty cool. Breaks down by mob type your damage done/taken and by evwery type of damage you deal so you can tell which combos and spells are the most effective.

http://www.aocstats.com/freeParse.aspx

Nerd Alert!

I was killing undead workers on the Khopshef island that's home to the Queen Spider and some armor dropped that only had a "?" as the icon. Looks like it's invisible armor (or bugged).

*NWS* here's pic of it:

[Show]

I also went into settings and finally turned on "hide helmet".

Much better!

All I can say is I'm glad I have a game controller for the directional attacks etc. I have a bunch of stuff programmed into the 21 button game controller: combos, potions, sprint, rest, etc and the little thumb joystick has been great for movement allowing me to move, hit sprint and right of blood for stamina boosts all with one hand while, leaving my mouse hand free to look around and position myself in combat, etc.

I also went into settings and added the a second hotbar for non critical stuff like my long lasting spells and food. AoC can be made a lot more enjoyable and less tiresome for keystrokes after taking time to investigate the possibilities.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » May 24, 2008, 10:36 pm

Nice tits.

I still haven't seen any tits in game. What kind of mature game is this?!

I'm 30-something at the moment, and still enjoying the game. I level so fast I lose track of what level I am. I'll go to a town, stock up on quests, and gain a couple levels doing them, and then gain another level turning them all in.

I've only got about 15 silver. I don't think I'll get my first gold piece until I'm 80!

It would be nice if some of the smaller camps of quest givers hired a vendor of some kind, so I could sell shit, and make room for more shit to sell.

miir · Post by **miir** » May 24, 2008, 11:06 pm

Xanupox wrote:Yo-Yo pulling, you heard it here first.

Except that has been an EQ2 tactic for the past 3+ years.

/fail

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » May 25, 2008, 7:48 am

miir wrote:
Xanupox wrote:Yo-Yo pulling, you heard it here first.
Except that has been an EQ2 tactic for the past 3+ years.

/fail

you would know about that, exploiting EQ2... go figure, you piece of sony shit.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » May 26, 2008, 1:39 am

Daellyn - Priest of Mitra on Dagoth Server PVE

Spang · Post by **Spang** » May 26, 2008, 3:44 am

Leviticus - Necromancer - Ajujo

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 26, 2008, 4:40 am

currently 35. game's charm is wearing off quickly, tbh! as you get higher and higher in level, the content and quality just gets lower.. and lower.. and lower. gonna roll an alt with friends on warcraft tomorrow prolly. dunno if i'll keep playing aoc or not

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 26, 2008, 5:09 am

Outflow Tunnels are a great place to level around 33-35. You can roll through the snakes, crocs and salamander thingies non stop. It's an instanced zone so you have it all to yourself. The Boss Croc drops an level 36 OK Necklace.

I'm enjoying the content. The main storyline is fun although there's not much of it after level 20. A little piece at level 30 and then you wait until level 50. I'm having a great time playing solo. The Wild Land level 30+ quests in the side zone (also instanced) Outward Borders I think it's called was a fun romp.

I just try to hit all the quests I see as they're the most entertaining. Grinding isn't the best part of this game.

I missed a few Wild Land level 20 quests and felt bad picking flowers and gathering stuff at level 30+ when none of the mobs would attack me anymore but hey, multiple 4-5K of easy XP can't be missed!

Dark Templar rocks PvE. I've got so many healing/damage dealing dots going. Half of them are abilities that don't require triggering. I think the slightly higher complexity of the DT along with the game controller, reducing repetitive tasks is making the game more enjoyable for me. Lot of running around! My Stamina quick refresh spells allows me to be in sprint mode half the time though.

For DTs at least, the game gets better and better levels 15+. Took a break to study the ability trees as I still can't decide exactly how to spend my feat points.

Some different camera viewpoint snapshots:

[Show]: My throat!

I flash the mangina eyes and that guy to my right is ready to give me the jewel right out of his crown if I ask!

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » May 26, 2008, 7:26 am

Lvl 36 and I am all over the place. LoL. Took a full day off to just harvest resources so when I hit 40 I can craft up a ton. Game rocks, especially on PvP server, the thought that someone can attack you anywhere always in the back of your mind adds that extra element.

Cimmeria server is PvP but also the first Roleplayer server. The ganking is quite low, the server really doesnt tolerate it after you get out of Tortage. A few guilds were known to try and make their name as ganker/pvp type but they seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. I guess they moved to straight up PvP, or the Faction based PvP server... who knows, dont care really.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » May 26, 2008, 1:30 pm

a basic map of zones to level in:

[Show]

Spang · Post by **Spang** » May 27, 2008, 2:31 am

Once you hit 40, you can use your pre-order mount without purchasing any riding skills. The mammoth adds about 700-800 hp, but isn't very practical for PvE, and you can't cast spells while mounted. The coin really starts to drop after 40. 3 to 6 copper a kill in Field of the Dead, and there's a vendor near by.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 27, 2008, 3:20 am

Spang wrote:Once you hit 40, you can use your pre-order mount without purchasing any riding skills. The mammoth adds about 700-800 hp, but isn't very practical for PvE, and you can't cast spells while mounted. The coin really starts to drop after 40. 3 to 6 copper a kill in Field of the Dead, and there's a vendor near by.

Still takes awhile to get 3gold. And the 2 mounts aren't any faster than normal run speed. Mauling people to death is fun though.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 27, 2008, 4:44 am

I finished up the long weekend level 39. I'll have 40 with around another hour of play. I don't have a mount so not a big deal.

Nice spot to level 37-39 is the Treasury (right by the Pyramid). It's a bugged zone. There's only one hallway of level 38 mobs and a level 38 boss mob at the end of the hall. You pull two of the statue thingies at a time and get 1K xp. Can cycle through the hallway, including boss in less than 10 minutes for about 11000 XP. repops are 15 minutes apart so you're getting 44K/hour. No loot or money though. The rest of the zone is bugged. If you try to climb up the vines, you'll fall at the top and die.

I leveled 35-37 in the Pyramid. Not bad but the quests are bugged and I guess I screwed up my main quest by killing a boss mob out of order in there. Not sure yet.

I fucking blew 7 silver on a potion. It was level 20, I didn't notice the price as the level would indicate cheap. That was about a third of my entire money supply. What a pisser. the level 30 potions are 2 copper and change. They help a bunch. Get the ones with the highest regens. adding to your total isn't as helpful as regenning the hps and stamina fast (especially for sprinting out of combat)

No idea how I'll get 3G at this rate. I'll pass on the mounts I suppose. I have 18 silver at level 39. That's 278 silver short for a horse and training!

This is the bugged boss mob I killed in the Pyramid. Don't kill him. The emerald quest right outside of his chamber is bugged as well.

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Apparently this quest is bugged as well in the Pyramid although I got a reward for it. The chained lady zooms away, chains and all after you use the key on the locks.

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Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » May 27, 2008, 11:15 am

It's a shame both of the Ancient instances are bugged to hell, they could have been a really fun instance. Also Winnow, you can reset zones easily, and don't have to wait for a respawn timer. Just invite someone to your group while you're in the instance, leave the instance, leave the group, reenter, and it should be reset.

I'm 45 right now, I have been busy with WoW raiding and RL stuff, so my leveling has slowed to a crawl. From 40-50 there appears to be two zones: Field of the Dead and Noble District. Both of these zones are actually not bad, but they can be overcrowded, and many of the quests are buggy in each zone. In noble district, get ready for buggy arena quests (invisible mob that is 3 levels lower than you hitting for 800? sweet), buggy "talk to this person, and hope they decide to actually become killable, but probably not" quests, and quest markers being totally off about where you need to go.

It seems like the developers of the game didn't have enough time to fill leveling from 50-60 with quests, hell even zones. There are reports of level 58's camping level 50 mobs because it's the best experience around. Hopefully they address this somehow, or people are making it out to be much worse than it is.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 27, 2008, 11:55 am

yeah like i said aardor- as you get higher in level the quality of the content just plummets and you see the game for what it really is. compare the well-polished Tortage area to places like the ancient pyramid, which even if it wasnt bugged to shit it would still be completely boring and uninspired. compare the truly overwhelming amount of quests available in Tortage to the amount you'll find in the 30+ range. i actually did visit the outflow tunnels that you mentioned Winnow... after going through 4 identical curved tunnels with 2 or 3 snakes in it I decided to leave before i fell asleep. it reminded me of the totally bland sewer instances in City of Heroes with random vanilla spawns of the same mobs here and there, except this
didnt have the excuse of being a dynamically created instance map.. or being a game that was released years ago where that could be passed off.

the game is just another triumph of marketing over substance. AOC promises everything that is missing from other successful MMO's on a bullet-pointed sales pitch. It delivers on some of those things, especically in the opening of the game where critical first impressions will be formed (as intended, certainly)... but for me it seems like it is missing a lot of the fundamentals which detract from some of the game's attractive features.. especially after the novelty of them wears off.

i cancelled my subscription yesterday along with the 5 friends i was playing w/

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » May 27, 2008, 12:23 pm

I can't enjoy the game with all the video bugs, skips, causing my 2 8800 GTs to sound like they are taking off of a runway. I'll be cancelling for now. Maybe I'll come back when they have made it run as well as EQ2.