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Thread: Ao/ac2

  1. #1

    Ao/ac2

    Sorry, I realize that some of impressions I want to post here are off-topic. But I beleive they are of good value for AO playing community and will help the people avoid a lot of confusion, reading just the press releases about how great the other MMORG games are.
    Got AC2 account (not eliminating my AO one) and played for about a week.

    What I beleive is right there:
    1) It is a finished product not the beta like AO early days. No crashes, no performance issues, no major bugs that I have noticed
    2) extremely fast response from support team. Beleive it or not - they ban people for using bad words in chat and exclamations (at first for 15 minutes, later for 45 etc.) - it is very easy for GMs to view the logs of what everyone ever said or did
    3) unique monster respawn is extremly fast - i.e. no camping
    4) uber items are done by crafters only; by definition every trade skill item is better than the loot of equivalent level
    5) did not try PvP but assume t should be better balanaced than AO

    What I hate there:
    1) Guys, playing there is like switching from high school to kindergarden. You get to lvl 10 in 2 hours of play solo (max level is 50). In two works some chars ar over lvl 40. It is very close to UO where you can be 6GM in 2 weeks. I really doubt they will have high level content big enough to keep players around
    2) AC2 is for 8 year old people brains. It is damn easy. No twinking possible. Just find good materials, recycle them and make great weapons - that's it. No NPCs, no shops. Money comes by "melting" the loot you get from monsters (you do it yourself in your inventory)
    No requirements to wear items - just your level
    You can spend money money only on weapon crafting - or buying crafted items from other players.
    So the town in AO is basically a bank, apartments (not really working but still), mission terminals, save terminals, and shops for crafting implants and sell/buy activities + nightclubs of course
    Town in AC2 is basically a forge where people craft items and trade... boring....
    3) AO is much superior in graphics - maybe my opinion but I strongly beleive it; 10 times bigger world, better designed cities, weather change, looks much nicer
    4) It takes a lot of brains in AO to design a character. You may be brain-dead and still make a very playable character in AC2 - just beleive it; AO has 100 times more options in character development/tuning
    5) AO has 100 times more items, spells, toys etc.
    6) I did not yet saw any need in team tactics in AC2. Monsters are quite easy for solo and no tactics is required for team play - just basic pull - that is it. No need for root/mezz adds/taunts etc.
    Again - I am just starting - maybe it will be required at lvl 35-50

    My conclusion - if you are grown up, if you like that character development requires a lot of analisys and planning, if you are ready that success is acheived through lots of personal relationship skills (to overcome camping, griefing etc.) - play AO - it is much more rewarding
    If you like a small nice not too complicated and still quite beautiful game where balance is grate but acheived through level requirements only and simplification of character development process - play AC2 - you will be happy, 100% supported and will not need your brains there.

    Again - all the above is pure personal opinion after 13 months in AO and 1 week in AC2
    Sorry for off-topic

  2. #2
    Beleive it or not - they ban people for using bad words in chat and exclamations

    What the **** is that ********???
    I ******* don't want to play a ******* where **** ***** can ****** you and get your *** ****** banned for ****** one ******* profane word ****.

    **** that ****!!
    Stupid ********!!!

  3. #3
    I tried AC2 European beta...

    European beta servers are closed (no end events, no email, nothing...) AND
    Microsoft announces that AC2 is currently released only 9 European countries AND
    my country is not one of them
    ---> Microsoft doesn't want my money (=credit card number)
    ---> I don't ever play AC2

    What I believe is wrong there (compared to AO):
    - Microsoft support and communication with European players
    - You don't need to interact with other players. You can solo to level 50 and craft all necessary items if you want. (Compare this to AO implant building.)
    - You can't go inside buildings (no social places like taverns...)
    - User interface is taking too much space when you are playing in 1024x768 screen.
    - No friends list
    - No social clothing or other roleplayer items than some playing instruments (or at least I didn't see any...)
    - No appartments (yes... we don't have those in AO either... we just have empty meditation room with 4 walls)
    - No free scrolling map.
    - No NPCs (or at least I didn't see any)
    - Bad playerbase (They didn't know how to communicate and kill stealing was common practice. Also compared to AO there was much less roleplaying)
    - Compared to AO static dungeons, AC2 dungeons were very simple.

    Good things:
    - Nice graphics (after AC2, AO graphics looks old).
    - Some good quest with good xp. Though, most of them are very similar (either inside somekind dungeon or outdoor hunting). You could actually do leveling by doing quests.
    - Multiple chat windows. And it was possible to configure them so that all battle spam was going one window and chat messages to other.

  4. #4
    Yeah, cards are a real problem in AC2. To start palying I ordered a game from US, gave at registration US address (where I stay when I come to US) and gave them my credit card number not issued in US - actually that worked. I looked through licence agreement very carefully and do not think that anything from what I did violated it.
    Maybe I will be banned when the first month of subscription ends, but I do not think so - my card already got charged for the first month of play for 0,00 (no joke, I got a receipt from this transaction...)
    But yeah, MS sucks big time - they announced that they support 9 countries only the first day when the game was already out and a lot of people like me already preordered it.
    Do not share the opinion on graphics of AC2. Still think AO is better.
    BTW did I mention they do not have a loot alpha option in teams?

  5. #5
    Originally posted by Gavriila
    Yeah, cards are a real problem in AC2. To start palying I ordered a game from US, gave at registration US address (where I stay when I come to US) and gave them my credit card number not issued in US - actually that worked. I looked through licence agreement very carefully and do not think that anything from what I did violated it.
    I hope that your credit card company also thinks that this is ok.

    Originally posted by Gavriila
    BTW did I mention they do not have a loot alpha option in teams?
    DOH! I forgotted that! It was the most annoying thing in those rare times when I teamed with others. Only killer was able to loot! (And I wasn't normally that killer...)

    Another bad thing when you were in team was, that team member lost each other very easily. Normally after half hour teaming you were soloing, because each team member was runned to different directions...

  6. #6
    AC2 is extremely polished compared to AO when it was released. It looks great, much better than AO on my computer (probably because AO always looks dark or blinding yellow in color because they never have put in a gamma adjustment or made a way to regulate the light output of night vision goggles).

    Its obviously lacking on content like every new mmorpg has been. No new mmorpg will ever be able to match up to the years of content that have already been added to games like EverQuest and Ultima Online.

    I put DAOC somewhat higher on the content meter than either AO or AC2 since it has quite a lot of quests already. AO probably edges out AC2 in content because its been out for a year already but they seem about the same if you compare the content they initially started the game with. AO wins for character customizability, which is quite complex and mathematical (too much so for some people) and in a whole different league than AC2 and DAOC which seem to be at about the same level. Graphic-wise AC2 is the best I think, followed by AO then DAOC but better graphics also means higher system requirements and poorer client performance. All of them have adequate enough graphics to play the game without being disgusted, so I personally prefer the performance of DAOC vs AC2 or AO which seem graphically very pretty but slow. These all lose to the original EQ engine which was faster, had adequate enough graphics, and didn't experience client lagginess due to loading of textures since most (all?) of the textures were loaded when you zoned.

    EQ beats them all in the music department with its compelling musical themes.

    EQ used to beat them all in the stability department too when I played that, but I dont know about now. I think AC2 is the most stable of the new mmorpgs as far as the client not crashing and the players not losing connection to the server, followed by DAOC then somewhat behind is AO. I'm not sure about AC2 quite yet but it looks like it has very good stability so far.

    AO wins hands down in the bugginess category. More bugs, bigger bugs, slower fixes, bugs which come back after being fixed, bugs which are obvious to anyone within moments. AC2 and DAOC have relatively much more minor bugs which show better pre-testing or more sound programming techniques I think.

    Overall I think they are all fun in different ways. AC2 is great if you like to solo and you are not super hardcore, more like playing a console game which you expect to finish someday in a reasonable amount of time. AO is great if you have an analytical mind and want to use it to figure out exactly how you can do something with your character that others couldn't figure out how to do and really take time to optimize and focus your character in a way that the other games don't allow you to. It also has the least downtime of all of them. DAOC is great if you like to participate in a team in PvP. You'll get rewarded for your efforts and the game can handle more people moving and fighting in one place than either of the others so you can have more epic pvp encounters and not go into lag lock.
    Last edited by Nianna; Dec 6th, 2002 at 16:52:51.

  7. #7
    AC2 sucks more but if you like that kind of thing go for it.

  8. #8
    Did I think AO graphics is better because my gimped computer (P4-2GHz, Ge-ForceTi4600, 512 RAM, ADSL) is OK to run AO with full details on, but I cannot really play with highest details in AC2 without getting below 5 fps?

  9. #9
    AC2 has a stable client cause they have no content from the server to render...

    Lush grass, some trees, and the occassional mob or two... but really there is nothing to do in AC2 its just a pretty interactive screen saver.

    DAoC may not have bugs, but it has balance issues a plenty. Not that other MMORPGs don't... I'm just suggesting it isn't as perfect as it appears. I played it for a year and well just got plain ol'bored... Epic Traveling for Epic Quests is not content.
    Graduate of the Elite Academy

    Viray's Yalm Cleaning Services

    Viray's Taxi Co.

    The moral highground was levelled the very day the first player landed in a backyard, saw a cute leet and said "I wonder what it drops?"

    - Savoy

  10. #10
    Originally posted by Gavriila
    Did I think AO graphics is better because my gimped computer (P4-2GHz, Ge-ForceTi4600, 512 RAM, ADSL) is OK to run AO with full details on, but I cannot really play with highest details in AC2 without getting below 5 fps?
    The graphics in AO look pretty nice in the daytime, but its too dark at night. That leads you to use night vision goggles, which cause the graphics to look horrible in the day. To make this worse you are going in and out of missions all the time so you keep alternating from situations where you need night vision and where night vision will make everything look poor. Eventually you just decide to leave the night vision goggles on because its too much of a hassle to keep taking them on and off. However, leaving them on all the time means the sky is a mostly a blinding white region and you cant read the default chat text when you are in the desert in the daytime. This ruins AO's graphics score, for me at least.

  11. #11
    Actually, I don't use night vision goggles. Most people I know don't.

    A floating torch does me fine in the dark, and I don't have that irritating blinding yellow effect.
    Gunned down the young. Now old, crotchety, and back.

  12. #12
    I've never had a problem with thing in AO being to dark, I guess i'm just lucky. And turned other effects off when i used a LTTS and it was daytime or in a mission.


    I'd have to disagree about EQ having the best music. If there is one thing FC did fantastic is the music and sounds of the game. The way it pieces together the music and enviromental sounds from the 8 bar segments to create orginal tracks based on time, health ect is. It would be even better if they started using all the sounds they have. The cd of the AO soundtrack is worth a listen if you have access to it.


    AC2 graphics are pretty but like everyone else said there isn't much else to it. Would be cool to see some AO areas in the AC2 engine though.
    Fausto Biggfoo Clyburn

    Are you some kind of robot? And if so what kind of powers do you have? Do you use them for Good? or for Awesome?

  13. #13
    AC2.. .Was in beta, and that was it. Not my thing to put it that way. EQ played it for a few weeks, spent nearly all of them fishing, wich is something I miss from AO No sound, and it crashed my puter as fast as AO did when i bought it. Still got my account there, but its more lazyness then anything else (have to reinstall EQ to cancel ). DaoC, never played, now its sort of dead. SWG, hope I'll get a chance to Beta as that will probably save me for a few bucks if it sucks.

    AO: Been here since a few weeks after launch (as with NW its hell to get, and back then I was in no hurry ). Its addicting as any game out there, and thats part of its shortcoming too. Its very easy to burn out on the game when you play too much. When the game starts to piss me off, I try to take breaks and play less for a while. Usually works. And I really want Snublefot to 200

  14. #14
    Originally posted by Kiryat-Dharin
    Actually, I don't use night vision goggles. Most people I know don't.

    A floating torch does me fine in the dark, and I don't have that irritating blinding yellow effect.
    no substitute... I use nightvision from time to time when im in an really dark dungeon.... the flying torch thing doesnt do much of anything, they should increase the brightness of it imo...
    "Yesterday we bowed before kings and bent our necks to emperors, today we kneel only before truth"

  15. #15
    Originally posted by Shubalubdub
    AC2 sucks more but if you like that kind of thing go for it.
    LOL!
    Vanguard Mharc. Self-equipper extraordinaire no longer. I'm back!

  16. #16
    On the night vision/torch issue, have you ever tried just the enhanced vision (believe its an alternative out there)? Also you may want to adjust the monitor contrast and brightness, if you have a vid card that lets you adjust gamma I suggest you play with that too...

    I run with a floating torch really for appearances more than use... I can see just fine in all the dungeons without any additional source of light/vision enhancement.
    Graduate of the Elite Academy

    Viray's Yalm Cleaning Services

    Viray's Taxi Co.

    The moral highground was levelled the very day the first player landed in a backyard, saw a cute leet and said "I wonder what it drops?"

    - Savoy

  17. #17

    Ac2/Ao

    Hmm... Okay I like AC2 now and I'm bored of AO. Well I played AO for over a year. AO was my first MMORPG.

    Thing is I tried DAOC and I didn't like it. Mainly because of the pace. I started it around release and found not much to do (like stupid delivery quests) and a single small land mass with towns of 4 buildings. Lvling seemed a grind from about lvl 3. I was used to Athen size cities.

    I play on a PvP server in AC2 and find that PvP is fun when the whole server is vulnerable because it produces extra friendly helpful people (as well as griefers). Because others know you are vulnerable, want to help you out with stuff & get you a "guild" also the PKers are like mobs. You actually have a chance to kill them if they are around your lvl. And it doesn't feel bad to get killed by those higher than you just annoying at the interruption. The death penalty is low and that is good when you are PvPing.

    The quests are fun 'cause you are not alone like a mission, you can meet up with people at any time. Not like a solo mission or even team mission where you have to pre-organize. Plus there are ALOT of quests. Also so far you get a respectable chunk of exp for quests, so even though it still takes a long time to lvl from hunting you can lvl quickly if you want.

    I think AC2 started with enough content and new content patches come once a month. These patches are big... like 10 quests and 10 dungeons and 50-60 items etc. Its amazing what financial backing can do for you.

    Plus I like how it is possible to do things like crafting without wasting 5 hrs (and exp). For me even implants gave me a head ache from running around and trying to read small print in shops. But I knew without implants double my lvl, I would be gimped.

    I kind of think Anarchy is dying from lack of money. NW was an attempt to cash in on previously unused features 'cause of lack of money to develop new content. It worked a little but also changed the landscape drastically and as a somewhat casual gamer I find that without time for a guild (I barely had enough time to find a team for a mission) I feel quite left out of the whole tower thing. AC2 maynot be for the uber gamer types but if you don't want to invest 20 hrs per week you can still sample ALL the content of AC2. In AO, content seems limited for casual gamers. All the dungeons are impossible without a well organized (read not organized on the fly) team, unless you go to one way below your lvl. Towers, uber loot all impossible without large time investment. I could play that long but I find it gets boring.

    AC2 still has flaws... the map and inventory system come to mind. But its still a new game. PvP is a little strange cause lvl 50s can attack lvl 1. I can see a solution needs to be worked out but I can also see that it is difficult to have a war if the fighters all have to be approximately the same lvl. And man I wish I had a yalm even though the walk isn't to far.

    Well, Anarchy is a more elegant environment and has great potential for diverisity in storyline. AC2 is a streamlined solution with little downtime, quickly increasing content and no bottlenecks.
    The problem is: potential is nothing... you need the content.
    Last edited by Hermione; Jan 16th, 2003 at 05:43:27.

  18. #18
    Amen to the last line. Content.

    Lets see Subway was the last one. Before that hmmm?

    Changing the guards and moving the grid point isnt content to me at least.

    "Story". Yeah... I got a bridge to sell you too if you believe there is a ACTIVE story here. The last thing that I could say was cool was the cyborgs attacking. Of course dying because I lagged so bad wasnt fun and then not being able to relog in....
    Elbo - LVL 220 Top of the line: Supreme Creator Engineer

    Making 5 Gem Saba Bracers! Give tell in game!
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    Making QL300 AI Armor and Weapons!


  19. #19

    yes the wonders of financial backing

    ac1 was alot simpler then ao at launch.

    because of that it worked at launch though it was basically the same shell of a game ac2 is right now.

    it was original enough to appeal to me back then plus some real life buddies played it so it was my first online game back in the days and got me hooked.

    i think the main problem of ao is its bad management.

    the game was released at least 6 months to soon and since then a couple of totally unnecessary things have been done that just rubbed the long time players the wrong way the latest of which was not to make the booster available for download (yet).

    content is one thing ... but ac and ao are radically different from the other new crop of games like daoc or ac2 because of the depth of character development. you need to invest alot of time and effort into your character highly specialising yourself in order to remain competitive in ao whereas games with simple skill trees like daoc or ac2 make all the decisions for you.

    ac2 can have all the content in the world and i would only change to it when there is no other alternative and i am completely burned out on all of my ao chars....
    sept 03 - the day ao was keeled by sl.

    gone now. byebye.

  20. #20
    Originally posted by Resetgun
    I tried AC2 European beta...

    European beta servers are closed (no end events, no email, nothing...) AND
    Microsoft announces that AC2 is currently released only 9 European countries AND
    my country is not one of them
    ---> Microsoft doesn't want my money (=credit card number)

    Do you have no concept of international trade? I can't make a product an instantly sell it in every country i feel like...

    there are dozens of laws, registrations, legal issues, this, that, and the other.... plenty of flaming hoops you have to jump through to get products sold in every country.

    I'm sure Microsoft would love to have your money. But they have to be able to release their product in your country first.

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