Early Access for Age of Conan

Well if you pre-order you can get early access to AoC. Can you tell that I am really excited about this game?

[quote]With your pre-order Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, you will be able to participate in the 3-day Early Access Program. Early access period starts on May 17, 3 days before the commercial release on May 20, 2008. You may begin downloading the game client files and installing as early as May 14. With early access, there is a nominal fee of $5, which covers the cost of the download and includes 10 days of additional game time. [/quote]

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product_id=b646875a Details here at EB Games.

Posted by PoltegIce @ 2:35 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Age of Conan! and Why Warhammer?

So I'm all hyped up and excited for the brand new MMORPG AoC coming out in may, especially if I am able to update my comp to something able of playing it. But where is everybody else from 2o2p. I know there are others here who are interested but I think its a fairly small amount but I hope I am wrong. Seems like more people are excited for Warhammer online... Its even got its own forum at 2o2p! Not fair at all!

I've watched some videos and read a little bit about Warhammer but was unimpressed. Admittedly I still know very little about the game, but it seems the only thing it has going for it are the huge PvP battles (or RvR for those who know). It seemed limited or unorigional in all the other aspects of MMORPG. But still this may be because of my unfamiliarty with the game.

AoC seems to breaking out of the mold on a lot of core game play devices of an MMORPG. The crafting syrstem for one sounds like a true blessing. Instead of grinding for resources and creating 100's of the same item to level up a craft, AoC relies on quests. This in turn with everyone being able to gather any resource they stumble across, will create a more realistic economy. (ex. LOTRO the resources needed to create an item will cost you more then you can sell the item for. Cause people will pay more for the resources(thanx gold sellers) to level up their craft then they will on items that generally are not as usefull as dropped items unless a grandmaster(few) crafter got a critical success and then it costs way to freaking much for a low level toon to afford!) Hey a run on sentence... Also the crafts seem to have a stronger dependence on each other. It seems that to create a truly unique powerful item you need to combine your craft with another one. (ex. weaponsmith makes a good sword, but when combined with the enchantment from a gemcutter, becomes a sword worthy of a true hero!) I think this may make it harder for gold sellars to infiltrate the game, well I sure hope so anyway.

The new realtime combat system where you actually control when your sword swings and can perform combos adds a more exciting twist on combat. Onee part I am really looking forward to is that spellcasters can combine their skills to create stronger spells then one could do on their own, which is known as spellweaving. Also a sinister aspect to spellweaving whether in a group or by oneself is that when trying to combine and create stronger spells on the battlefield, there is the possibility of it backfiring and doing harm where you would prefer it not.

Instancing and raids will be there of course. But another part that really has the mojo running is Player built cities and battle keeps for PvP. You of course need someone in the guild to have the architect craft to do these things, but you have control of what you want in the city and its layout. The cities as I understand them are for PvE only. There is not unlimited space provided for player cities. Only a few spots have areas where these cities can be built. So what they have done is made the cities instanced. Where you can have multiple guild cities on one spot so every guild gets a chance to have the best one. The incentive to own and for others to go to your city is that only player cities will be able to have the required apparati for crafting the truly great recipes. Now battle keeps are a different story. There are 2 types, big ones and small ones easily defensible for smaller guilds. These I believe are not instanced as only one can be on any given spot because these are in the PVP region. The reason for a guild to own one is because these spots will be controlling areas of rich resources, which in turns adds wealth to the guilds. Guilds will have to defend them from other guilds, there is of course seige weapons to break down walls along with special mounts for aiding in these battles. Mammoths great for tearing through walls, rhinos to tear up the oppostion and horses for everything horses do. The mounts will be able to be used anytime, not just in seiges. Also you can hire mercenaries (other player characters not in your guild) to help you battle. Great for the expendable front line assault or if it helps just think of them as the irish! j/k Its easy for guilds to find mercanaries or vice versa cause from the UI you can post your desire for or to be a mercenary that is easily accesible to read.

Oh and I can't forget drunken brawling. When in taverns anyone can participate in bar brawls. Now stats don't count here so anyone can join in. Basically your stats depend on how much you drank. More booze the stronger you get, but also the more disorientated you are. So wether you are lvl1 or lvl80 (current lvl cap) everyone is on equal footing.

This reason although superfiscial of me is that AoC looks better. I know that doesn't make a game but it helps. The terrain looks very realistic, mountains tower overhead, water laps at boats, and the ground is uneven. The ground being very flat in Warhammer really suprised me! I know its only aesthetics but still it helps for the immersion.

Anyways this isn't a knock of Warhammer because I know to little about the game, this is just the strong points of AoC and sometimes how they compare to what I've seen of Warhammer (which isn't a lot) and other MMO's.

So really this is a challenge to the Warhammer fans. Give me more information to base my conclusions on. What are the things that have you excited about Warhammer. Why is it tickling your funny bone and why isn't AoC?

Posted by PoltegIce @ 12:01 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Its me!

http://www.sp-studio.de/

Found after browsing jeeps blog. swwweeeettt.....

Posted by PoltegIce @ 10:20 am EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

PvPers are cyberjocks!

Posted by PoltegIce @ 12:57 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Where were you.....

When you noticed all your friends playing H3? I was sitting on the couch, having the last smoke b4 bed. Right b4 though I checked XL to see who was playing H3 already. I was very surprised to see close to 20 people in my FL playing H3 already!  Wow thats dedication and a little sad lol. Though no insults intended, I did secretly wish I was one of them to. Well wish me luck everyone as I head out into the world without pre-ordering hoping to get my greasy paws on my very own copy.

Posted by PoltegIce @ 8:57 am EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments