Age of Conan PVP stress test weekend

[bub64882]

The Funcom/Eidos game Age of Conan will be having a PVP weekend/open beta/stress test April 18th - 20th. They are making this available only to Gamspot registered users. The info can be found here:

http://www.gamespot.com/test/ageofconan/

I wish they had opened it to their own forum members, instead of evil gamespot, but what can ya do?

[Devilturnip]

Nice find. Thanks.

[Ten19]

Just registered, but it's not guaranteed, there's only 15,000 slots.

[Panthera]

I have a feeling that 15,000 slots will be more than enough. I've signed up.

[Savok]

I have a feeling that 15,000 slots will be more than enough. I've signed up.

Yeah, sure, if this was Generic Fantasy Crap 5, it's not, this is Conan.

[Heretic Machine]

Signed up as well, since I already have a Gamespot membership by way of Gamefaqs.

[Devilturnip]

I still haven't heard anything. If they aren't letting the people download the client as of now, I predict a weekend of desperately trying to download, followed by wordless rage at having a corrupt file.

[Panthera]

Yeah, sure, if this was Generic Fantasy Crap 5, it's not, this is Conan.

I agree on the sentiment, but I'm not sure that actually means significantly more people will be interested.

[Heretic Machine]

Jeeze-god, people are saying that the install of this thing is 19gb.

[Felonous]

Make damn sure you get the client DAYS before this next weekend and be sure to attempt to patch the game EVERY day.

I was in the stress test yesterday, had downloaded the client and patched it up a week ago. 4 hours before the stress test I launch the client to see if there are any new patches....

There was a 5GB patch! And their servers were getting pounded and of course the patch didn't load in time to participate in the stress test (I'm still downloading the patch).

[Vandenh]

Make damn sure you get the client DAYS before this next weekend and be sure to attempt to patch the game EVERY day.

I was in the stress test yesterday, had downloaded the client and patched it up a week ago. 4 hours before the stress test I launch the client to see if there are any new patches....

There was a 5GB patch! And their servers were getting pounded and of course the patch didn't load in time to participate in the stress test (I'm still downloading the patch).

Exactly the reason why I decided in NOT participating in the beta (I got my Beta key months ago). The continuous killer downloads just stressed me out ;) I will play it when it hits retail if it gets good vibes.

[Drayven]

Exactly the reason why I decided in NOT participating in the beta (I got my Beta key months ago). The continuous killer downloads just stressed me out ;) I will play it when it hits retail if it gets good vibes.

Oh yeah? You know if you click on someone's name this option comes up to send them a PM. It's a good way to send bits of information back and forth. I'm just sayin... ;)

[Panthera]

Oh yeah? You know if you click on someone's name this option comes up to send them a PM. It's a good way to send bits of information back and forth. I'm just sayin... ;)

Or maybe - just maybe - this is good information for other people who want to participate in the beta?

[Drayven]

Me and my failed attempts at subtlety. I meant for him to send me the unused beta key :P

[Panthera]

Well, that would make sense. :p

[Heretic Machine]

Me and my failed attempts at subtlety. I meant for him to send me the unused beta key :P

Your subtlety is too subtle. Try spicing things up with bold and italics!

[Drayven]

Your subtlety is too subtle. Try spicing things up with bold and italics!


should've spent a good part of this morning coming up with something that people would have a better chance at picking up on. But hey, who's got time for that?



yes, it's a very slow day at work

[Devilturnip]

I'm in. Anyone else?

[SilentScreams]

Not me. I applied, although my PC is well below the recommended specs, which I guess is why I didn't get in :D

[Panthera]

I'm in. As of this morning it was 50% done downloading.

[Kem0sabe]

These guys have one of the strangest patching systems i have heard of, every week there be gigantic 4 to 6 GB patches, basicly they replace every resource in the game instead of just updating the ones that they need to change.

[Deadend]

Their beta selection process is weird as well. As it still says I will be told if I am in or not... not an outright no, which is kinda lame of them.

[Panthera]

That's pretty common, Deadend. It's because beta introduce people in waves.

This weekend is obviously an exception, but they're still working in the same beta framework.

[Nura]

Also, abit of open beta info here (http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&&func_id=2396&table=CONTENT)

[Drayven]

I started downloading last night.

[Slowpc]

Well , i got my email last night and started to download...

[GrinR]

I'm in! See you in Hyboria

[Panthera]

Their beta selection process is weird as well. As it still says I will be told if I am in or not... not an outright no, which is kinda lame of them.

According to the official forum, not all keys have been sent out. If you don't get it by the end of today, though, that's it.

[Deadend]

According to the official forum, not all keys have been sent out. If you don't get it by the end of today, though, that's it.

Yeah, I was reading the gamespot forums, it just felt like a sloppy way to do it.

I just want to try out the sword swinging, see if the game is worth dropping WoW for... even though I just hi lv 40 for the first time.

[AliasRomanian]

I'm in but a bit skeptical. Hope its fun :).

[SilentScreams]

I only want to get in to see if it can scale down enough to run on my PC :D

[Devilturnip]

I'm all downloaded and ready to go. Looking forward to giving it a shot.

[Zurik]

Also, abit of open beta info here (http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&&func_id=2396&table=CONTENT)

You should mention that the open beta is only for Fileplanet Subscribers. Got my hopes up until I tried to sign up.


edit: My bad, it says founders and members. You just have to have a Fileplanet account!

[Deadend]

I really want to see if the game is worth pre-ordering for the mounts, as those fuckers were expensive in WoW originally. But considering that Funcom is giving them away, maybe they will be cheap so I can have a stable of rides for every situation.

[Ten19]

Got a beta key, but now I'm debating the 6GB+ download just to see how poorly it'll run on my machine.

[Whimbrel]

I just tried the beta and it was pretty unplayable on my system. My system is about 4 years old and was not high end back then, so I can not say this is any fault of the game. It looked good, but I could only see some graphics and not any of the actual gameplay.

[randir14]

If I like the open beta i'll probably buy the game and play it until Warhammer comes out. I've heard a lot of bad things about Conan though.

[Tabasco]

So, the NDA has been lifted for the PvP weekend and I must say that this game is fucking awesome. This is the direction MMOs need to take in the future. I pre-ordered it just based on the PvP alone.

The game has mega system requirements. But if you have a nice rig it is gorgeous, and totally blows away other MMOs in the graphics department. But it's the combat that makes this game so fantastic. The combo system is solid and actually requires skill to use! You can dodge backwards (it gives you a little defense buff but you miss more). you can charge forwards, you can't walk through people, you can sprint away; I mean this actually feels like real FPS level combat here.

I've spent a lot of time with 6 of the 12 classes so far. Each one was very unique, and I did not dislike any of them. In fact, it is going to be very hard for me to find which class I want to play come retail. There are still some balance issues, but I was damn surprised at how much more balanced this game is than WoW. I can actually kill someone of any class with any class easily if I know what I am doing. It is so much more skill based than WoW, and that makes me super happy.

On top of that the servers did not crash on me once, and I could start playing the second the beta started. Funcom seems to know what they are doing here, and I am impressed. I thought this game was going to be so much worse than it actually is. I love it, and I encourage anyone into MMOs to check it out.

[Pirate Of Doom]

So, the NDA has been lifted for the PvP weekend and I must say that this game is fucking awesome. This is the direction MMOs need to take in the future. I pre-ordered it just based on the PvP alone.

The game has mega system requirements. But if you have a nice rig it is gorgeous, and totally blows away other MMOs in the graphics department. But it's the combat that makes this game so fantastic. The combo system is solid and actually requires skill to use! You can dodge backwards (it gives you a little defense buff but you miss more). you can charge forwards, you can't walk through people, you can sprint away; I mean this actually feels like real FPS level combat here.

I've spent a lot of time with 6 of the 12 classes so far. Each one was very unique, and I did not dislike any of them. In fact, it is going to be very hard for me to find which class I want to play come retail. There are still some balance issues, but I was damn surprised at how much more balanced this game is than WoW. I can actually kill someone of any class with any class easily if I know what I am doing. It is so much more skill based than WoW, and that makes me super happy.

On top of that the servers did not crash on me once, and I could start playing the second the beta started. Funcom seems to know what they are doing here, and I am impressed. I thought this game was going to be so much worse than it actually is. I love it, and I encourage anyone into MMOs to check it out.

What he said. Quite an amazing game.
Even tho all character was lvl 20 out of 80, each one hade several abilities to choose from and they all played a bit diffrent.

So far the client has crashed 1 time and that was due to a memoryleak i my guess.

[Kem0sabe]

So, the NDA has been lifted for the PvP weekend and I must say that this game is fucking awesome. This is the direction MMOs need to take in the future. I pre-ordered it just based on the PvP alone.

The game has mega system requirements. But if you have a nice rig it is gorgeous, and totally blows away other MMOs in the graphics department. But it's the combat that makes this game so fantastic. The combo system is solid and actually requires skill to use! You can dodge backwards (it gives you a little defense buff but you miss more). you can charge forwards, you can't walk through people, you can sprint away; I mean this actually feels like real FPS level combat here.

I've spent a lot of time with 6 of the 12 classes so far. Each one was very unique, and I did not dislike any of them. In fact, it is going to be very hard for me to find which class I want to play come retail. There are still some balance issues, but I was damn surprised at how much more balanced this game is than WoW. I can actually kill someone of any class with any class easily if I know what I am doing. It is so much more skill based than WoW, and that makes me super happy.

On top of that the servers did not crash on me once, and I could start playing the second the beta started. Funcom seems to know what they are doing here, and I am impressed. I thought this game was going to be so much worse than it actually is. I love it, and I encourage anyone into MMOs to check it out.


The only problem with the games classes is that they are still somewhat in flux, with no clear direction.

In the general beta, casters are the least played classes because they suck to be honest, and are about the worst designed classes of the bunch.

But if you enjoy melee, this is the game to play, the combat system is awesome if you enjoy doing combos and fatalities.

One thing they need to improve is the first 20 levels experience, tortage is a pain to get trough, they should scrap it all together and start you out in the mainland, because the tuttorial levels (1-20) are no indication of how cool and large the main game zones are.

[Slowpc]

Funcom is always on top of things. They show that with the dedication they have to AO and how well they have worked that game into what it is now.

AoC ... no question I will be getting this game.

[Saladin]

In the general beta, casters are the least played classes because they suck to be honest, and are about the worst designed classes of the bunch.


They stated in a recent interview that they're holding back the spellweaving for release day - its' the caster's combo system so it should make casters more interesting to play, compared to the meleers.

Kind of boggles the mind that they're holding that back from testing though, since it sounds like a fairly fundamental aspect of the classes.

[Panthera]

They stated in a recent interview that they're holding back the spellweaving for release day - its' the caster's combo system so it should make casters more interesting to play, compared to the meleers.

Kind of boggles the mind that they're holding that back from testing though, since it sounds like a fairly fundamental aspect of the classes.

Keep in mind that they have huge internal betas all along. That's where they do all the real bug testing - the public betas are mostly just stress tests for their servers. It's not like all these features are going to be released to the wild untested. I could tell the PvP build was a bit old.

Now, for my impressions: This game is badass. It's Conan, alright. Hell, I enjoyed playing through the intro level more than the PvP. How many games start you off by beating dozens of men and beasts brutally to death with a broken galley oar? I approve.

[Drayven]

I really enjoyed my experience this weekend. I'm not much of a PVP'r but I did have some fun anyways. I played through the tutorial a couple times and watched the GF play through it once and honestly, I wish I could go home and do it again. I like that fact that if 2 mobs are standing by side and I'm swinging around a giant oar there's a good chance I'll hit both of them even without doing a multi-target attack. I thought the combo system was very smooth and I felt much more connected to what my character was doing. Even at the low levels I had a couple of those "OMG that was sweet!" moments. I remember one time I had 4 enemies around me, I hit slam and my character swung her oar around knocking them all straight back in an arc around me, it really felt like something you would see in a movie and I think that's important to this time of game. For the most part the action seems reasonable and "realistic" with the occassional OMG moment tossed in. This is now a must buy for me.

[SilentScreams]

Damn you guys.
Now I definitely need to buy a new PC for this.
Unless it can scale down extremely low. :D

[Savok]

So glad I have the CE preordered.

[Grifter]

I'm not a huge PVP fan at all but it was OK, on the other hand I really enjoyed the first 20 levels of solo play and if I can get into the full beta and test it out a bit more I may drop LotRO for this (I won't buy an MMO without at least two weeks of play prior to purchase).

I do have to say though of what I have seen of Conan even though the combat puts all other MMOs to shame I feel that LotRO looks much better and runs a hell of a lot smoother but I'm sure the final release will be cleaned up.

Hmmm...decisions, decisions.

[roboninja]

Some good impressions, it seems. Might need to give this one a shot.

[Devilturnip]

Well, my pre-order is confirmed based on the stress test. This game went from completely off my radar to a must buy very quickly.

[SilentScreams]

I'm not a huge PVP fan at all but it was OK, on the other hand I really enjoyed the first 20 levels of solo play and if I can get into the full beta and test it out a bit more I may drop LotRO for this (I won't buy an MMO without at least two weeks of play prior to purchase).

I do have to say though of what I have seen of Conan even though the combat puts all other MMOs to shame I feel that LotRO looks much better and runs a hell of a lot smoother but I'm sure the final release will be cleaned up.

Hmmm...decisions, decisions.

LotRO was very well done in that respect. My PC has an old Athlon 2800+, 1gb of RAM and a X1650 graphics card and it looked great even on that, and ran smooth as you like too.
I get the feeling that Conan will not run anywhere near as well as that, even with everything turned right down.
I'm sure as hell going to try though. :D

I'm also looking forward to the single player part of AoC. I think it's a good idea, and will set out the story pretty well.
When I'm playing WoW for example, as good as it is, I never really learned any of the story. When I fight a boss, I don't know why I'm killing him, just that he needs to die.

[Goronmon]

Funcom is always on top of things. They show that with the dedication they have to AO and how well they have worked that game into what it is now.They've also shown, with AO no less, that they are very, very bad at releasing games.

There is no way I am buying this game on release day. I'll be waiting to make sure the game isn't completely broken before spending a dime.

[Drayven]

I feel that LotRO looks much better and runs a hell of a lot smoother but I'm sure the final release will be cleaned up.


Not sure if you did any of the LotRO beta stuff but for me it was actually worse as far as performance goes compared to the build of Conan that I played. Not sure what that means to the final product though.

I agree with Silent on the story thing. I've been playing WoW for so long that it felt wierd that the quests were about me. It feels as though leveling up will actually be a journey for your character where as in WoW the quests are all centered around you being Anonymous Hero 4375 who needs to do a favor for this guy for no particular reason. I hope that the story telling and progression that I saw start in the first 5 levels of AoC can continue through the game.

[reimomo]

They've also shown, with AO no less, that they are very, very bad at releasing games.

There is no way I am buying this game on release day. I'll be waiting to make sure the game isn't completely broken before spending a dime.

AO was released in 2001. While I understand your concern, voicing it so strenuously still makes you sound like a twat.

Sounds to me like the opinions voiced in this thread by people who have played the beta are pretty much the opposite of "completely broken".

[Drayven]

AO was released in 2001. While I understand your concern, voicing it so strenuously still makes you sound like a twat.

Sounds to me like the opinions voiced in this thread by people who have played the beta are pretty much the opposite of "completely broken".

In all fairness though, performance on servers when you can restrict the number of people that could be on at one time can be vastly different to how they perform when you open the gates.

[rulyblue]

Age of Conan System Requirements:

Minimum configuration (1024x768, detail reduced)

• OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent
• RAM: 1GB Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better
• Video memory: 128MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB ***

Recommended configuration (Up to 1280X960, most features on)

• OS: Windows XP SP 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
• Video memory: 512MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB

Online Gaming;

• Broadband connection required.


*** 30 GB! Wowsers!

[Devilturnip]

*** 30 GB! Wowsers!

Welcome to the HD era.

[Panthera]

AO was released in 2001. While I understand your concern, voicing it so strenuously still makes you sound like a twat.

Sounds to me like the opinions voiced in this thread by people who have played the beta are pretty much the opposite of "completely broken".

I agree, MMO launches have come a loooong way since 2001, when it was practically a requirement to have a terrible launch. Every major MMO of the time, right up to WoW, sucked on launch. Since then, things have been smoother.

That said, I won't be playing this on launch, but not because I expect it to be completely broken. It'll probably have rough edges to smooth over, there might still be server performance issues, and so forth. MMOs go on for years, why hurry?

[Grifter]

Age of Conan System Requirements:

Minimum configuration (1024x768, detail reduced)

• OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent
• RAM: 1GB Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better
• Video memory: 128MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB ***

Recommended configuration (Up to 1280X960, most features on)

• OS: Windows XP SP 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
• Video memory: 512MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB

Online Gaming;

• Broadband connection required.


*** 30 GB! Wowsers!

Unfortunately Conan seems to have one of those game engines that unless you can run it at or very close to max specs looks pretty shitty and even the recommended config I don't think will run the game maxed. When I started the game a lot of the settings were turned down and it looked so bad I thought there was something wrong with either my video card or the game and was about to send a bug report.

[Panthera]

Unfortunately Conan seems to have one of those game engines that unless you can run it at or very close to max specs looks pretty shitty and even the recommended config I don't think will run the game maxed. When I started the game a lot of the settings were turned down and it looked so bad I thought there was something wrong with either my video card or the game and was about to send a bug report.

I disagree. The Medium settings looked like the Max settings do in a lot of other games - the textures looked beautiful, and like they were meant for that setting. The only thing I disabled was character shadows.

The Low setting was a bit crappy, though. If you have to play on low, I suggest bumping up the ground textures.

[Goronmon]

Sounds to me like the opinions voiced in this thread by people who have played the beta are pretty much the opposite of "completely broken".Hey, AO wasn't broken during the beta either.

[SilentScreams]

Hehe, I almost have the minimum specs :D
I have no qualms with turning everything right down, as graphics mean approximately nothing to me, but I don't think I can run this even so.

Also, 30gb HD space? What the hell?
Then again, it says 20gb on the back of the TF2 box, and it didn't even take up half that.

[Grifter]

Also, 30gb HD space? What the hell?
Then again, it says 20gb on the back of the TF2 box, and it didn't even take up half that.

Yeah, I think it's mainly a generalization for how much room it could use depending on the types of patches and content updates they release for it over the years.

[Kem0sabe]

Keep in mind that they have huge internal betas all along. That's where they do all the real bug testing - the public betas are mostly just stress tests for their servers. It's not like all these features are going to be released to the wild untested. I could tell the PvP build was a bit old.

Now, for my impressions: This game is badass. It's Conan, alright. Hell, I enjoyed playing through the intro level more than the PvP. How many games start you off by beating dozens of men and beasts brutally to death with a broken galley oar? I approve.

Theres been an internal general beta for many months now, and its not a stress test, turbine just recently released 2 patches that combined were more than 10GB of data.

The excuse for spellweaving not beeing in the beta was that they wanted to keep something "fresh" for the release, the same excuse was givin for the absense of endgame pvp, player run cities, sieges, etc.

Hopefuly Funcon has a "miracle" build being tested in an independent internal beta, because the game is being released in the 24/25th of May, and thats right around the corner.


AO was released in 2001. While I understand your concern, voicing it so strenuously still makes you sound like a twat.

Sounds to me like the opinions voiced in this thread by people who have played the beta are pretty much the opposite of "completely broken".

You should see the beta forum, the negativism around there is amazing, every other thread is "omg this feature is not in, the game is going to fail" "omg my class is broken, fix it" "you suck Funcom".

Funcom has a very bad rep because of the AO launch, and they are not geting a very positive feedback frmo their testers, instead of constructive opinions, every is screaming bloody murder.

Myself? im not buying it at launch, mostly because class balance is all over the place and pvp will not be feature complete, so as im buying conan for the pvp, ill wait a couple of months and see where it goes from there.

Yeah, I think it's mainly a generalization for how much room it could use depending on the types of patches and content updates they release for it over the years.

The client is about 15GB and its still missing a bunch of features, i could see it going up to 20GB, dunno why they list 30GB.

[Deadend]

Wait, so all the features they are hyping, like sieges and city building.. along with an essential part of doing DPS for the caster classes... is not even in the fucking game yet?

The reason you give that stuff to the general testers is that they can find the exploits quite well and you can see what happens in a closer to real world setting.

I think I may hold off on Conan for a while now.

[shunoshi]

Ouch, I barely meet the minimum specs.... Looks like that day everyone dreads is approaching for me. Time to upgrade the computer. :(

[Panthera]

Hopefuly Funcon has a "miracle" build being tested in an independent internal beta, because the game is being released in the 24/25th of May, and thats right around the corner.

The problem is that people don't understand how software development works, and this is the perfect example of that.

[Savok]

Wait, so all the features they are hyping, like sieges and city building.. along with an essential part of doing DPS for the caster classes... is not even in the fucking game yet?

The reason you give that stuff to the general testers is that they can find the exploits quite well and you can see what happens in a closer to real world setting.

I think I may hold off on Conan for a while now.
If you wanna get the game out the door, that's the stuff to drop (well not the spellweaving, heh).

No one is going to have the money or resources to build cities for fucking ages.

[Goronmon]

Every major MMO of the time, right up to WoW, sucked on launch.I don't want people to think I'm just hating on Funcom for no reason. But it's almost impossible to understate how bad AO was at launch. It had all the usual (if not more) bugs, with stuff like coats resetting to the base undergarment texture every time you changed zones (which was often, especially in cities). If that was all though, it would have just been your normal bugged and annoying launch. However, it was the client crippling lag and constant disconnects that made the game entirely unplayable for at least a week or two, and not stable for another couple weeks. And that was even if you were able to get past the login screen.

Imagine a WoW launch where after an hour of staring at a login screen, you were unable to move your character 5 feet because he kept rubber-banding back. Then after 15 minutes of that you got booted from the server and had to spend another hour trying to log in.

But...like you said, it's been a while since AO launched and hopefully Funcom has a better handle on how to deal with those issues. Still, I'm definitely going to take a wait-and-see attitude. Hopefully launch goes relatively smoothly and is well-received and I can enjoy myself in a nice new MMO for a while.

[Kem0sabe]

The problem is that people don't understand how software development works, and this is the perfect example of that.

So, the most important features balance wise are being withheld from their testers, mainly the pvp and endgame, and you think that’s sound software development on their part?

I understand that their build might be a couple of weeks ahead of the general beta build, but these are major features that are missing, features that the beta testers have never touched and had no input on whatsoever.

One of the larger issues at hand are the caster classes, a glaring problem was that they merged several of the classes a few months back, but they didn’t went so far as to merge coherently the new classes talent trees, so now we have skills and talents all over the place that have no synergy or balance to them, this has gone on for a while now in classes like the Tempest for example.

Then there’s spellweaving, for anyone that has played the beta for any period of time, both pet classes are useless, the pets do no damage, they frequently died by your AOE attacks, the spell variety was very small and a class like the Demonologist had countless buffs but little to no variety in damage spells, which was absurd. So with no spellweaving in, casters were limited to selecting a couple of spells from their hotbar and that was it.

The problem with all of this? The devs go on interviews saying that the testers are loving the game, for example:

. They say we love the maturity of the game and especially the nipples on the female npc's, when there are no nipples in the game.

. They say we love grouping at higher levels, when grouping is non existent due to group chat not even working and other bugs with grouping.

. They say that we love testing the endgame, when there is none.

Im confused, are they even playing the same beta as the testers are?

[Panthera]

So, the most important features balance wise are being withheld from their testers, mainly the pvp and endgame, and you think that’s sound software development on their part?

I understand that their build might be a couple of weeks ahead of the general beta build, but these are major features that are missing, features that the beta testers have never touched and had no input on whatsoever.

The problem is that you are not the testers. You are playing a public build that is not the main focus of their attention.

I should also point out that Funcom could probably do a better job of communicating that. The public beta is for the development of the backend more than the game itself.

[Savok]

I don't want people to think I'm just hating on Funcom for no reason. But it's almost impossible to understate how bad AO was at launch. It had all the usual (if not more) bugs, with stuff like coats resetting to the base undergarment texture every time you changed zones (which was often, especially in cities). If that was all though, it would have just been your normal bugged and annoying launch. However, it was the client crippling lag and constant disconnects that made the game entirely unplayable for at least a week or two, and not stable for another couple weeks. And that was even if you were able to get past the login screen.

Imagine a WoW launch where after an hour of staring at a login screen, you were unable to move your character 5 feet because he kept rubber-banding back. Then after 15 minutes of that you got booted from the server and had to spend another hour trying to log in.

But...like you said, it's been a while since AO launched and hopefully Funcom has a better handle on how to deal with those issues. Still, I'm definitely going to take a wait-and-see attitude. Hopefully launch goes relatively smoothly and is well-received and I can enjoy myself in a nice new MMO for a while.
Some of us were around back then, we remember.

But it was seven fucking years ago in a completely different time. Not to say it won't be fucked up, it probably will be, but you can't go off AO, hell half the people who worked on that game are probably dead by now.

Also WoW managed to skip the lag problems by simply not being online whatsoever. World of Downtime, remember that?

[Kem0sabe]

The problem is that you are not the testers. You are playing a public build that is not the main focus of their attention.

We are not the testers? This is not a public build, its not an open fileplanet or whatever beta. We have been testing since late 2007.

The devs have claimed that they have a QA team testing builds that are only a few weeks at most ahead of our build and features are deployed for testing as soon as they can.

My problem is that these features, especialy thing like spellweaving and class skills are extremely important for balance, and need extensive input from the testers, why are they not in so close to launch? They have gone on the ebat forum saying that they cant delay the game anymore, so they will probably launch with not all features complete, i just hope that the next patch wont be a minor quest bug update like the one this weekend.

Anyways, too much discussion for nothing, we can all see for ourselfs come may, and hopefuly it will be all good.

[Savok]

Dude, uh..... NDA?

[Goronmon]

But it was seven fucking years ago in a completely different time. Not to say it won't be fucked up, it probably will be, but you can't go off AO, hell half the people who worked on that game are probably dead by now.It was a long time ago, and still most launches don't go off too well. Just look at Vanguard's reception when it was launched.

Also WoW managed to skip the lag problems by simply not being online whatsoever. World of Downtime, remember that?And that was still less annoying than dealing with AO when it launched.

Edit: I guess my point is that the AO launch annoyed me so much, I will not let Funcom live it down until they are able launch another MMO successfully, haha.

[Illuminus]

Wow, you guys seem to enjoy breaking the NDA.

[Kem0sabe]

Dude, uh..... NDA?

F*ck it, worse thing that could happen is being kicked from a beta that will be ending soon anyways. :)

[Panthera]

The NDA went down on Sunday.

[Illuminus]

No, not for General and Technical Beta...

And Kem0sabe, your are being rather ungrateful. You are one of the lucky testers that were chosen to participate in the beta, the least you can do is wait for the NDA to be dropped.

[GrinR]

Imagine a WoW launch where after an hour of staring at a login screen, you were unable to move your character 5 feet because he kept rubber-banding back. Then after 15 minutes of that you got booted from the server and had to spend another hour trying to log in.

I don't have to imagine it, I remember it.

[Deadend]

F*ck it, worse thing that could happen is being kicked from a beta that will be ending soon anyways. :)

Well, they could sue you in theory, I doubt they would in practice.

But no group chat? Really?

What about any sort of voice chat, or do I need to use vent?

[Kem0sabe]

No, not for General and Technical Beta...

And Kem0sabe, your are being rather ungrateful. You are one of the lucky testers that were chosen to participate in the beta, the least you can do is wait for the NDA to be dropped.

It was droped, ahead of this last weekends pvp beta test. I was being sarcastic with my f*ck it comment.

Hell, i could even send any of you my login, i gave up on this thing for not wanting to spoil my fun too much for when i eventualy buy it. The same thing hapenned with Tabula Rasa, i played the game so much during beta, that it held no interest for me when it hit retail.

Well, they could sue you in theory, I doubt they would in practice.

But no group chat? Really?

What about any sort of voice chat, or do I need to use vent?

You have to use vent, i think they have plans for a voice chat later on, but no word on it yet.

Wish the game had something like lotro's or DDO's voice chat, those were the best implementation of the system so far.

[Savok]

No more NDA? Cool, I can talk about my non-beta experience finally where I couldn't even make my account work.

[Goronmon]

I don't have to imagine it, I remember it.Sigh, then I guess I'm not describing it right. If you think the WoW release day was as bad as the AO release day, you didn't play the AO release day.

That said, WoW, wasn't that bad, and I played one of the servers with the worst downtimes back during launch. It was referred to as Icedown for a reason, haha.

[Panthera]

I wouldn't say that WoW was nearly as bad as Anarchy Online's launch. My point was just that it took a long time for the games industry as a whole to figure out how to do proper MMO launches.

[GrinR]

Sigh, then I guess I'm not describing it right. If you think the WoW release day was as bad as the AO release day, you didn't play the AO release day.

That said, WoW, wasn't that bad, and I played one of the servers with the worst downtimes back during launch. It was referred to as Icedown for a reason, haha.

My expectation for MOG launches is the same for every title: lag, downtime, bugs, and asshattery.

I kinda miss AO. That game had love.

[Bone]

Hell, i could even send any of you my login, i gave up on this thing for not wanting to spoil my fun too much for when i eventualy buy it. Yes please! I've been trying to get into the beta for ages. My PC exceeds the recommended specs- so hearing people who got a key but their PC couldnt handle it was driving me nuts :)

[Acidpoptart]

OK Forget this game for now. I was really looking forward to it, but after the shitfest that was Hellgate: London, I will never believe a developer when they say the beta does not represent what they have in house.

I will not believe anything until I see it.

[Whimbrel]

"Imagine a WoW launch where after an hour of staring at a login screen, you were unable to move your character 5 feet because he kept rubber-banding back. Then after 15 minutes of that you got booted from the server and had to spend another hour trying to log in."

I am not sure if this was meant to sound sarcastic, but this is a pretty good description of WoW on day one. I even abandoned my launch day character and server when they opened up new servers in my time zone a day or two later because the launch day server was impossible to log into. Those were the days.....

[Goronmon]

I am not sure if this was meant to sound sarcastic, but this is a pretty good description of WoW on day one.No it wasn't. You are lying if you are claiming otherwise.

Edit: Hmm...that came of a little stronger than needed. Basically, from my experience with WoW, yes the queues were a pain in the ass. Yes the servers were down a lot. However, if you were able to get into the game, it was relatively playable. With AO, even if you got it game, it was impossible to actually "play".

[Devilturnip]

The NDA for the period of time before the NDA was dropped is still in effect. You can talk about things that you've seen since this weekend, but not about things from before.

[Tabasco]

Well, I can really only comment based on my experience with the PvP beta. I am sad to hear about what seems to be an absence of content in the closed beta though. I'm probably not going to play a caster this time around (I was a mage in WoW, and am sick of being so easy to kill), so I'm not worried about spellweaving. I also take a while to play these games (I am big on exploration), so I'm not too worried if they need to tweak endgame content.

I am going to play a Conqueror, so based on how I did with them this weekend, I'm not too worried about balance. If anything maybe the class will get a nerf, because I was unstoppable a lot of games.

For sure I would say if you are going to play a melee class, the game is worth picking up. I would say probably wait on spellweaving if you are into casters though. Or just wait on it if you blow through these games quickly. MMOs tend to only get better with time after all. I just enjoy being there on day one, despite the almost guaranteed launch problems.

[walkstheplanes]

So the PVP looks like it's gonna be solid. How's the PvE? How's the Solo'ing?

[Tabasco]

So the PVP looks like it's gonna be solid. How's the PvE? How's the Solo'ing?

Well they let you play the tutorial level in the PvP weekend, and I liked it a ton. It just took me from levels 1-5 though. I pretty much went on an awesome killing rampage for those 5 levels, complete with cool fatalities and stuff. It was a hell of a lot more fun than any solo content I ever played in WoW. The combat system is just straight up better and more fun.

[Whimbrel]

My memory of the first WoW weekend was that if you did get through the queues and could actually log on your characters would not respond to anything. You would click to pick some loot or mine something and it would just hang like that. I don't think I am lying about this.

I can not, however comment on the AO launch.

[sparkfizt]

My memory of the first WoW weekend was that if you did get through the queues and could actually log on your characters would not respond to anything. You would click to pick some loot or mine something and it would just hang like that. I don't think I am lying about this.

I can not, however comment on the AO launch.

warcraft did have a really rough launch, and for pretty good reason. At launch they had pressed about 250k copies, and given previous mmo trends they expected to sell through those copies in 6-12 months. Unfortunately they sold all those copies in roughly the span of 2 weeks. They didn't have the infrastructure to support all those servers. The server we chose originally (malganis) was down for something like 4 days as they physically moved the data center. In the first couple days they had database issues, whereby looting things would cause a reaaaaly long pause before the loot window showed up. This was resolved pretty quickly. Overall if you were on a server that wasn't taken down once you got in game you were usually okay.

I think the main difference is that AO was a horrific launch because they launched a product months before it was ready. Warcraft was more than ready for primetime but ended up massively more successful then they thought it could be and buckled their infrastructure.

It does really worry me though that they have fundamental aspects of conan not in the closed beta yet. We're in the last bit of rush time before the DVD's are stamped. The testers need to be hitting a 95% feature complete game in order to test them. What worries me about this most is funcom does'nt have a good record for shipping things right, AO and the first real AO expansions were both rather horrific.

[Goronmon]

You would click to pick some loot or mine something and it would just hang like that. I don't think I am lying about this.If it was even close to the AO launch, you would have never made it far enough to be able to even kill a single monster. When I say AO was unplayable, I don't mean "wicked annoying to play". I mean, you literally could spend an hour and multiple login attempts to try to just walk a distance of 20 feet.

[SilentScreams]

Ugh, I was there for the AO launch. It wasn't pretty.
I'm going to assume that Funcom have learned their lesson though. Just like when Blizzard release their next MMO it probably won't have the problems that WoW did.
WoW was Blizzard's first MMO, just as AO was Funcom's. They know what to expect now.

[Savok]

In the first couple days they had database issues, whereby looting things would cause a reaaaaly long pause before the loot window showed up. This was resolved pretty quickly. Overall if you were on a server that wasn't taken down once you got in game you were usually okay.
Yes they fixed that by having it hang on the loot window instead. Loot lag then took something like 2 years to fix.

[Deadend]

Yes they fixed that by having it hang on the loot window instead. Loot lag then took something like 2 years to fix.

Oh man, I remember that. It's because the item database, suddenly in the last couple weeks before launch... Blizz added in item damage. The poor Item servers did not like that, suddenly having to track every piece of gear with real time item decay... then the servers got slammed, and it was not a well tested feature. It didn't scale well at all.

And Conan is doing even bigger changes from beta to release. Oh. Boy.

[Saladin]

Ugh, I still remember the bad old days of login queues for WoW

[sparkfizt]

Yes they fixed that by having it hang on the loot window instead. Loot lag then took something like 2 years to fix.

eh? I've played since launch, it was fixed in the first couple weeks. there is still an issue where sometimes you try to loot something and after about 30 seconds you get a 'you cannot loot that' comment. But this is likely a sync issue and not database, otherwise you'd see it all the time.

Their database issues where due to something not being optimized properly, and until you get a sufficient number of queries/second it wasn't noticed.