Originally posted by NasherUK

It is a bit of a step backwards with all the instancing and zone points if your coming from wow, which has very large open and seamless continents.  But the graphics are a bit more up to date.

Graphics up to date? Give me a break, you can't and won't do any better with World Of Warcraft's graphics because their art dictation says it is good enough. Here you have Age of Conan which tries so hard to replicate a reality that could quite easily be imagined, so yes, Age of Conan's graphics are not up to date and will never be. It's called creating your own world through artistic means and very few get the concept. Ones that do will retain a game that will never grow old except through gameplay means. Take a page from Blizzard's book once in a while... instead of all the hate because you're trying to fit into some MMO elitist group.

Sorry, can't stand people who don't understand the concept behind some of these games.

Originally posted by Garvon3

 Well WoW is the game that made instancing the dominant force in the universe, no one that plays WoW should mind any instancing. 

This is completely false. Try walking from one end of the continent to the other in AoC without a loading screen. Try walking into 99% of the buildings in AoC without a loading screen. Dungeons in WoW are instanced, but the world is open, with the exception of expansion content that needed a loading screen as a barrier of entry to those who haven't purchased the expansions. Not hating on AoC, but I really hate this old strawman. Now, if you alter the last word of your sentence and add another at the end to make it read "...no one that plays WoW should mind any instanced dungeons.", it'd be a different matter.

Originally posted by jonrd463

Originally posted by Garvon3

 Well WoW is the game that made instancing the dominant force in the universe, no one that plays WoW should mind any instancing. 

 

This is completely false. Try walking from one end of the continent to the other in AoC without a loading screen. Try walking into 99% of the buildings in AoC without a loading screen. Dungeons in WoW are instanced, but the world is open, with the exception of expansion content that needed a loading screen as a barrier of entry to those who haven't purchased the expansions. Not hating on AoC, but I really hate this old strawman. Now, if you alter the last word of your sentence and add another at the end to make it read "...no one that plays WoW should mind any instanced dungeons.", it'd be a different matter.

But since 90% of wow plays in dungeons or battlegrounds or arenas, 90% is instanced ;)

Originally posted by Kilmar

Originally posted by jonrd463

Originally posted by Garvon3

 Well WoW is the game that made instancing the dominant force in the universe, no one that plays WoW should mind any instancing. 

 

This is completely false. Try walking from one end of the continent to the other in AoC without a loading screen. Try walking into 99% of the buildings in AoC without a loading screen. Dungeons in WoW are instanced, but the world is open, with the exception of expansion content that needed a loading screen as a barrier of entry to those who haven't purchased the expansions. Not hating on AoC, but I really hate this old strawman. Now, if you alter the last word of your sentence and add another at the end to make it read "...no one that plays WoW should mind any instanced dungeons.", it'd be a different matter.

 

But since 90% of wow plays in dungeons or battlegrounds or arenas, 90% is instanced ;)

Okay, you got me there. :D

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Originally posted by tro44_1

can somebody explain deeper into the Instanced world concept please?
Is it fully instanced like Guild Wars? If so, how would it be a mmo than?

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No, it is nothing like Guild Wars.

AoC got zones technicaly - people come in and go, you can see and interact with them; but new instance of the zone is created and newcomers are placed there once the original zone reach certain population treshold.

You can change the instance at ress points.

It has pros and cons like any system.

It's a huge misconception that the zones are instanced. They are NOT instanced, they are zoned. That means there are zone lines and once you reach a point in the zone that leads into another area you generally zone through, instead of it being entirely seamless, it is more like Everquest 2 than WoW in world design. But the game-world is persistent and gives a very open atmosphere regardless of the zoning. I am a WoW fan and I love Age of Conan, I find it to be one of the more immersive MMORPG's out there right now and I highly recommend at least trying it.

Originally posted by Valentina

It's a huge misconception that the zones are instanced. They are NOT instanced, they are zoned. That means there are zone lines and once you reach a point in the zone that leads into another area you generally zone through, instead of it being entirely seamless, it is more like Everquest 2 than WoW in world design. But the game-world is persistent and gives a very open atmosphere regardless of the zoning. I am a WoW fan and I love Age of Conan, I find it to be one of the more immersive MMORPG's out there right now and I highly recommend at least trying it.

 I always saw these arguements as mute point as long as your enjoying the game.

(BBBBBBBBWWWWWWAAAAHHHHH teaches many Aquilonian ladies new river dance steps!)

Originally posted by AOCtester

As for instancing.  Yes it is heavily instanced.  And the loading screens can be quite long (depending on your PC).  The starting areas are specially poor design when it comes to instancing.  One of the worst you will see in any game - ever.

But just download the trial version and see for yourself =)

You mean like the three zones you have to load to get to in the starting area? One you only need to visit for quests, and the other two quite large themselves?

I'm not seeing how they were the worst ever.

Ya zones are ZONED, which is why they are called zones. But yah I played WoW for 4 years about, and i actually just quit to play this... I think the game is one of the fastest paced MMOs I've played actually. I can not honestly comment on PvP because I don't do it a lot, not that I don't want to, I rolled on a PvE server so I don't get much PvP action. The PvE is fantastic, great raiding and what not. Some have said it's not as "unique" or "complex" as WoWs, but I honestly beg to differ. A lot of WoW's bosses just depend on positioning and that is it (excluding ICC), this game actually makes an effort to implement a lot of the environment into the raid. WoW is a great game, gets tiresome after a while, this is a great alternative and somewhat change of pace from what WoW is.

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Originally posted by Valentina
It's a huge misconception that the zones are instanced. They are NOT instanced, they are zoned. That means there are zone lines and once you reach a point in the zone that leads into another area you generally zone through, instead of it being entirely seamless, it is more like Everquest 2 than WoW in world design. But the game-world is persistent and gives a very open atmosphere regardless of the zoning. I am a WoW fan and I love Age of Conan, I find it to be one of the more immersive MMORPG's out there right now and I highly recommend at least trying it.

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I think you do not fully understand how AoC works.

There are indeed instances - same place created multiply times for different group of people.

Read again what I wrote, please.
This is how every zone in AoC works apart from dungeons or such.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by arenasb

Originally posted by Garvon3

 Well WoW is the game that made instancing the dominant force in the universe, no one that plays WoW should mind any instancing. 

 

QFT

for the OP, the only GW type instancing is in the very begining where you have some solo quests.

 

That would actually be City or Heroes or even way further back, Anarchy Online to an extent.

CoH wasn't really instanced unless you were in a mission.

Originally posted by Xondar123

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by arenasb

Originally posted by Garvon3

 Well WoW is the game that made instancing the dominant force in the universe, no one that plays WoW should mind any instancing. 

 

QFT

for the OP, the only GW type instancing is in the very begining where you have some solo quests.

 

That would actually be City or Heroes or even way further back, Anarchy Online to an extent.

 

CoH wasn't really instanced unless you were in a mission.

CoH had both private and public instances right?  Missions were private instances and the entire world could be instanced depending on the population in the zone. 

Instancing was a very big design for CoH.

Originally posted by ryman

Originally posted by NasherUK

It is a bit of a step backwards with all the instancing and zone points if your coming from wow, which has very large open and seamless continents.  But the graphics are a bit more up to date.

 

Graphics up to date? Give me a break, you can't and won't do any better with World Of Warcraft's graphics because their art dictation says it is good enough. Here you have Age of Conan which tries so hard to replicate a reality that could quite easily be imagined, so yes, Age of Conan's graphics are not up to date and will never be. It's called creating your own world through artistic means and very few get the concept. Ones that do will retain a game that will never grow old except through gameplay means. Take a page from Blizzard's book once in a while... instead of all the hate because you're trying to fit into some MMO elitist group.

Sorry, can't stand people who don't understand the concept behind some of these games.

LOL. one of the best posts in MMO ever. just LOL
 

AOC is one of the best PVE games right now and you can not go wrong with it.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Xondar123

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by arenasb

Originally posted by Garvon3

 Well WoW is the game that made instancing the dominant force in the universe, no one that plays WoW should mind any instancing. 

 

QFT

for the OP, the only GW type instancing is in the very begining where you have some solo quests.

 

That would actually be City or Heroes or even way further back, Anarchy Online to an extent.

 

CoH wasn't really instanced unless you were in a mission.

 

CoH had both private and public instances right?  Missions were private instances and the entire world could be instanced depending on the population in the zone. 

Instancing was a very big design for CoH.

Instancing only kicked in when zones had extremely high populations. They were designed as a means to lower player lag, not to compensate for low server capacity.

I've only seen instances kick in in the world zones two or three times, and then it certainly didn't feel instanced at all.

Originally posted by Xondar123 

Instancing only kicked in when zones had extremely high populations. They were designed as a means to lower player lag, not to compensate for low server capacity.

I've only seen instances kick in in the world zones two or three times, and then it certainly didn't feel instanced at all.

Early on CoH had plenty of public instances, but I can't speak for the current game.

However, coh having both public and private instances was pretty unprecedented as far as mmos went back then.