Game is too hard. Make it easier

[JohnPayne]

population on crom will dwindle soon when eso comes out for sure because they arent bringing t5 any time soon and pve servers are very vulnerable to lack of content.

game is dying because funcom refuses to implement pvp systems, wich if well implemented dont separate pvp & pve populations rather it integrates it to a whole.

instead you have 2 types of pvp servers wich have the exact same pvp content of a pve server.

and honestly pvp lost its meaning when any guy with too much time to spare could go farm nodes and hit pvp 10 with less then a 100 pvp kills.

not to mention yet again the amount of players using autocomber, teleport, radar, and other third party programs wich further debase overall pvp experience, for example there is a particular polish demo on crom wich openly admits to speed hack and and multiple players fraps him sent to funcom even when he was back in fury... yet there he is still online justifying shamelessly his hacking with class balancing favoring soldiers...
adding to that there is guilds actively guard hugging running off after 2-3 deaths and suporting members who hack and exploit geometry in minigames and open world.

so like i said aoc is a pve game crom is only healthy server for now and pvp is very poorly implemented non rewarding and lacking systems to even justify existence of pvp servers.

Sad, but true. However, not being able to hunt people down in open-world and the only place you can kill them is in a minigame match they can instantly click leave- is instantly un-relieving compared to pad-camping a shlttalker who completely deserved it. PVE will and always will become boring except for those lootwhores who make 2 of every class, just because they can.

Funny thing about hackers - they are still garbage, and will lose in premades. Because they are garbage (thats why they use programs).

Back to my original post. TO RETAIN NEW PLAYERS: REDUCE GRIND!!! REMOVE COOLDOWNS: solo instances, minigames. Remove Alt restriction from hardcore pvp server (it locks out t4 content!!!)


How many lines of code does it take to remove cooldowns? How much more money do you think you'll gain/lose over such adjustment?

[-tomhet-]

Back to my original post. TO RETAIN NEW PLAYERS: REDUCE GRIND!!! REMOVE COOLDOWNS: solo instances, minigames. Remove Alt restriction from hardcore pvp server (it locks out t4 content!!!)

you should read what you write.
you want solo pve content wich awards rare tokens(group rewards)to be able to be solo farmed without restrictions of any kind.

meaning solo play reward same as group chalenges????
wich is a huge no thank you this isnt skyrim.

remove alt restrictions so you can do end game pve content in a hardcore pvp server...couldnt this be more obviously inadquate.

you made this thread to bitch about wanting more pve rewards made easy for hardcore pvp server.

that is plain illogical and avoid going into to the actual issues.

wich are the same that have been for years:

.particular class abilities/spells/combos needing balance
.pvp armor&weapons being imbalanced and innadquate for pvp
.sieges not giving any pvp xp or tokens rewards
.no guild vs guild content
.no world pvp content
.no faction pvp integration
.the shamefull existence of shrines of bori wich give pvp rewards for doing pve
.minigames dont allow people to play together in team anymore
.no duel arenas for solo/duets to parry with pvp rewards
.no open world capturable points/places
.no scoreboard for pvp ranking players based on pvp objectives won
.lack of pvp stats and existence of death stat wich causes more harm then good and doesnt encourage teamplay

[Shax84]

To the opening poster.

FYI this is a MMORPG. It is not a €49,- singleplayer game you can expect to complete within 20-30 hours of play time. Age of Conan is one of, if not the hardest MMO on the market, and I appreciate that. Very much. I love the challenge some fights make, and that some instances and raids require finely tuned groups with defined roles. I have done most instances (not Jade Dugout) on all my characters and honestly it is not that hard as long as you have done it a few times. You can't expect to jump into the hardest instances in the game and think you can steamroll it with bluegear non-aa characters?

Remember that the PvE servers has evolved through five years of playing, and the hardest instances should be neckbreaking difficult. Because veterans need challenging instances to keep them interested. New players and new characters that you get free-50 and offline to 80 and buy trader gear and think you are awesome and uber because you saw another guy with that class do something extraordinary, well get a grip man... That guy has probably spent thousands of hours on his character to perfect his playstyle on it. Most veterans have 5000+ hours online in this game since launch and THAT is the difference.

I hate tank and spank, no-brain fights and streamlined quests. Perhaps Age of Conan just is not the game for you..? Make it easier? Too hard? Read up tactics and use your brain. And spend the 100 hours leveling to 80, and another 100 hours to gear up and learn the class.

[Kurt2013]

Still, assuming certain raids or instances are not popular or have a bad reward+fun/effort+time factor...what can be done?

Look at the formula..."making it easier" (effort) is just one varable. Fun on the other hand is very subjective and hard to influence or predict as designer. Rewards for example also do not have to be direct rewards...a balanced token approach can help here too.

More player choice can also help, like offering different versions (like funcom already started with unchained versions and hardmode triggers).

Defending the lab rat approach (creative mind of the fight designer against creative mind of the player) as the above poster and saying bluntly: "i spend my time working, now you do the same!" can easily result in players doing just what he said...playing something else. You can't have everything...if you like the game, but it keeps discouraging a large group type of players (like them or not, they pay the same as you do)...you can either keep the elitist approach or try to change things. In this case, apart from the development effort, i see no drawback in offering different triggers or versions of the same instance. People like the OP could have their "easy mode" with less rewards and time, people like the above poster could have the "hardcore triggered special mode" for the latency blessed and experienced heroes...and there can even be a middleground. There are items in the game, that share the same look, name and model, but have different stats already. THere are dozens types of tokens to be given away...you can even take the xp and renown values as rewards.

Also humans being humans...sometimes you might want tank & spank for relaxation...and another time just the challenge the puzzle bosses offer. Why limit yourself and offer only one way per instance?

For the longevity of the game, i hope funcom considers this approach (or keeps up with things in this direction already started).

[Shax84]

Elitist? For suggesting that a player should level his character normally from level 1 to level 80 without powerleveling/offline levels? For saying that a player should learn the class by playing or reading or otherwise dedicating time to getting better on it? For saying that I appreciate the hardest instances because I have played the game for 5 years? I am no elitist. I would dare say that I am much more forthcoming and accepting towards new players than many others. I help players with less experience than myself almost on a daily basis. I explain strats in most of the groups I am in, though I am not the group leader - he just says "all exp????" and charges in before anyone can say anything else.

You have an overview here of instances and difficulties: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=181203

You have all the tactics here, if bothered to read rather than expecting to be bottlefed tactics after having joined a group and being clueless: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=181863

Thanks to Cins for both the linked threads! :-)

[Kurt2013]

Well, maybe elitist was a bit harsh and you should not take it personal (i don't know you and it wasn't meant as personal attack). I have heard similar arguments just too often from people who have lost ground contact...but you're right, blaming them as elitists is not suitable in most cases. I do apologize.

See it more as a reference to the OPs mention of content for 1% (a disputeable number, but i hope you see the point). I also hope to have illustrated that making things easier is not necessarily a good way...especially when there are so many other options to increase that 1% to a much higher number and less risky.

Another point remains, if i take all what you said. New players simply can rarely follow the same route you (and maybe i) took. First, many instances are neglected and not popular, that were regularly visited in the past. Second, even if you're in a friendly guild, the people available for doing group stuff are not always there. Third, if there are such people, they tend to jump right to the closest thing to further their progression...just experiencing or practicing is not a top priorities. Fourth, i am not really sure, that these kind of players who enjoy going all the way are even the majority now (be it by force or choice).
This must not consider the important points of learning to play the class and game mechanics (which are not that complicated), but it does affect the amount of resources you can rely on (be it different guilds, friends, twinks or simply ingame resources).

[Boesch]

I started to write a list of reasons why I disagree but I lost interest it seems. You want the game to be easy and doable regardless of what gear you have. I don't think that's a good idea.

[Shax84]

Another point remains, if i take all what you said. New players simply can rarely follow the same route you (and maybe i) took. (...snip...)

Yes, well that is true. You might struggle getting a group for old world lvl 80 dungeons if you are not in a guild that can help you with this. I have nothing against helping a new guild member with old world instances on a fully geared character.

But there is a route that a new player should follow, and the new player need to accept that there is content with various difficulty at end game. There is a big difference between Atzel's Fort and Ardashir Fort.

[KullOfValusia]

Fact is, the game has reached equilibrium. I don't see this game attracting many new players, mostly on FC's policies and management. And I also don't see the game getting any bigger then it is. Sure, once in 6 months we'll get some PvE content... but it's going to be slow and with the ONSLAUGHT of awesome games coming out in the future the population Veteran especially is going to dwindle.

If Legominifigures game does well we may see AoC 2 with an updated engine, but I doubt this too, the 50~100 million needed to make that caliber of game won't be there (unless something miraculous happens). Overall, just play the game for what it is, stop blaming everyone. YES YOU HAVE GREAT IDEAS. But nothing is going to change. My sense is that the new management's job is to maintain "stability" of the population and not increase or doing anything to "rock the boat". So, in reality nothing of note will come out from AoC that will really reverse things.

How do I know all this? Think about it.The developers wouldn't merge all servers (physically as well) if they thought in the future we'll be geting a mass influx of people. Rather, we are the last stragglers on the Island of Tortage while everyone else has left a long time ago for better and greater things. Why are we still here? Who knows, everyone has their reasons (much of it...too much time invested to start over somewhere else). But if another game LIKE AoC comes out with a realisitic brutal gameplay...well like Porky Pig might say "...thats uh thats all folks".

[JohnPayne]

I started to write a list of reasons why I disagree but I lost interest it seems. You want the game to be easy and doable regardless of what gear you have. I don't think that's a good idea.

The game is already easy and doable regardless of what gear you have. People who know what to do (like myself) can be full khitai and very good AA in about 2 weeks. The problem is, these methods of completing a character arn't immediately obvious to a new player. Instead of continuing their grind, they run into roadblocks, get destroyed in pvp, then quit the game.