Age of Conan's 'kinda' launch

by William Dobson May 19th 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Age of Conan, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Launches, MMO industry, New titles

We say 'kinda' launch, because the actual launch isn't for another day in the US, and a handful of days elsewhere, but the quick ones who managed to secure their Early Access spot will have been able to log in to Age of Conan for the last day and a half. The launch of the Early Access had a delay of around 3 hours from the expected 5PM GMT on the 17th, but since then, the servers have mostly been quite stable, and many people have been expressing their thanks for a successful launch at the official AoC forums (requires login).

The other thing you'll see at the forums is people upset about the Early Access debacle, and those wanting some form of compensation. Those issues and the small delay aside, how has your head start in Hyboria been thus far?

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, early-access, forums, head-start, launch

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Canti said on 9:29AM 5-19-2008

Call the waaambulance to come and pick up your people...

Arnie said on 9:39AM 5-19-2008

I was of course pissed about the 3 hour delay but honestly the game has had such a smooth lag free play that I am happy that it made playing the game such a pleasant experience. Of course there were bugs like I being unable to collect my in game virtual items (Collectors Edition+Pre_order)

I played to my hearts content and enjoyed it thoroughly the game is really beautiful. People who have computers which can handle this should really try it out.

Epiphanize said on 10:31AM 5-19-2008

Being a die hard WoW player, and having been around for some mediocre (LOTRO) launches, and some down right disasters (Vanguard), I must say this has been a smooth, successful launch. There are plenty of people to group with (even in EA), and plenty of things to do. I think I may have found a new home.

Ictinike said on 10:38AM 5-19-2008

I was one of the unlucky that was able to get EA but had massive technical issues getting AoC to run. I added some hardware recently in anticipation and I've been slamming the system with Crysis and Fear at full trying to get it to break but it ran pretty dang stable. Fast Forward to Saturday and this was me:
"remove eyeballs from socket"
"place eyeballs on desk"
"proceed to scream gibberish at the screen"

(Credit goes to someone on the AoC forums for that one. He was having problems too.)

Arabica said on 10:46AM 5-19-2008

The three hour delay got me scared, but after that the launch was so smooth I was waiting for something to ruin it...but nothing ever did. The game client? RIDICULOUSLY GOOD compated to what was used in open beta.

This was the one time when a developer said "don't worry we'll fix all that" and it really was fixed.

TwistedBishop said on 11:04AM 5-19-2008

I'd concur with the statements so far. Everything has been very smooth and pleasant, and the servers only went down once for a patch.

I really hope this marks the industry turning a corner on MMO launches. Of course, the real test will be tomorrow as 500,000+ people all try to log on at once...

br3ntbr0 said on 12:03PM 5-19-2008

I posted some of these same thoughts in my blog just this morning. There have been problems with early access, the file planet beta, etc. But I have to say that early access has been nearly flawless from a stability perspective. You can see my full thoughts about early access after 2 days at the link below, if that is permitted in these comments:

http://textwall.blogspot.com/2008/05/age-of-conan-early-start-is-resounding.html

I got my ranger up to level 21 so far and am having a blast :)

danarchy said on 12:24PM 5-19-2008

Incredibly smooth, yep. Few downtimes for patches etc but just enough time to make me go get something to eat etc. Only issues I have found at all annoying are:

grouping is buggy and horrible xp
some quests (at least in the stygian homeland) have long drawn out chains where you only get xp on the very last step, and its the same amount you'd get from doing a non horribly convoluted quest.
Occasionally monsters that aren't part of a group will aggro from insane distances away for no reason.

Considering it's not even really out yet its a very well done release though! I think they are trying to make up for the reputation they got with there anarchy online launch (two hours stuck in a wall anyone?). This was really smooth and the gameplay is fantastic
If you can swing it upgrade your video card so you can run it at full settings, its really worth it

ScytheNoire said on 1:15PM 5-19-2008

Tried a few classes on Saturday before deciding on the Conqueror and starting it on Sunday. Didn't play much, but up to level 19 and having a blast. The game is very polished, haven't had any major problems, and the starting area, from 1-20, is as good as any game out there, if not better than any other game out there. It's just a ton of fun, and very polished. Just upset no DX10 until August, but that will have me continuing to play to see this gorgeous game in all it's true glory.

Leshrac said on 1:22PM 5-19-2008

I've been playing single-player mode exclusively and it has been very stable.

I am pissed about DX10 but I'll live with it. The game looks very good in DX9.

I'm just so bored with the Tortage, after being in CB for so long I just want to blow thru it and get to the next area.

GRT said on 8:09PM 5-19-2008

I've put 19 hours in on my Ranger and got him to level 20 (I sat back and enjoyed a lot of the NPC conversations which I imagine slowed me down a lot).

Haven't had a single crash, been essentially lag free, great fun. Tortage has a lot of interesting quests (and yes, a lot of Kill 10 Rats quests too, only with Picts instead of rats) but I do wonder how much fun it'll be for the altaholics among us on our 4th time through.

The UI/HUD is pretty awkward in a lot of ways, and I know the modding community has already started to fix some things Funcom should've caught. But its usable as it is and will only get better.

I can't believe Funcom was masochistic enough to schedule the "prep the servers for launch" downtime from 5-10 pm ET tonight, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit I wish I was playing, but the game has been so fun and so stable that I'm willing to be patient while they do their thing.

I just hope things are as stable after launch, and we get a good 3-day weekend of AoC joy this coming week.