Thursday, May 27, 2010

Played Lately: Age Of Conan

  • I've been spending a lot of time in Age of Conan. I wasn't kidding when I said I was ready to get back into a fantasy MMO. So, time for more random thoughts.
  • My Priestess of Mitra has reached the lofty heights of level 35, already surmounting the peak my prior character (the ranger) achieved. And all that in just a couple weeks. The rather flat leveling curve, along with plentiful quests, means that I haven't gone a day without achieving a new level.
  • I mentioned before that I chose to play a Priest of Mitra because of the adventures of MMOGamerChick's hungry eyed vixen. As you can see in the screenshot above, my priestess instead looks like she's continually clueless. At the end of some conversations, she even does a little eye roll. Something about her reminds me of Brittany, the blonde cheerleader from Glee. I'm thinking about spending some of my money (which is only good for buying new bags, so far) to switch to a blonde ponytail.
  • There are a lot of breadcrumb quests in this game.

    No, that sentence wasn't effective enough. Let's try this again.

    OH MY GOD, THERE ARE SO MANY BREADCRUMB QUESTS LEADING YOU ALL OVER THIS FREAKING GAME!!!
  • The moment you step out of Tortage, you are given quests to visit the other main cities, quests to go into each of the level twenty questing zones (and don't forget that includes Khitai, now), and quests leading to each of the crafting zones. I gained a few levels just running around and talking to people.
  • Not that I should complain too much. Running around and seeing all the sights really was a lot of fun. And it did give me the opportunity to fire a ballista at a rampaging kraken. Kudos to the team that made the caravan missions when traveling to the Gateway to Khitai. Who in their right mind would pay to skip all the fun?
  • While I'm thinking about new stuff in the expansion, I'd like to know who's bright idea it was to unlock the first tier of alternate advancement at level 20, but then hide it behind a one million (MILLION!) experience point threshold to earn your first AA points. At level thirty-five, I've earned about 25,000 mastery experience. I don't remember how to integrate a function to save my life, but I'd estimate I won't have enough mastery experience until I reach level 79. (Editor's Note: Number chosen for effect.)
  • I'm kind of amused by AoC's version of dungeons. I've been trying to catch as many as possible as I level because, hey, why skip extra solo content. But these things aren't even instanced. They're just really dense adventuring zones. That said, I really enjoyed the Border Ranges at the southern edge of the Wild Lands of Zelata. (Oh crap. I just realized the zone is named after that Zelata chick hiding in the cave. I'm so thick.) There are a bunch of quests to complete and some nice boss fights available. I was able to complete almost all of the quests after waiting for respawns to come up. Almost all except for the one where I have to collect three hundred sacks of rice to buy the freedom of a camp girl. I got about halfway (yes, I'm insane) before I turned in for the night.
  • This is part where I complain about the lag. Bad Lag! Bad!
  • I skinned an entire man in that tent. It was not pretty.
  • Actually, that's not true. Dude kept his skin in a large chest. Somehow, that's even more creepy.

© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

8 comments:

  1. Wow you've been busy! We never seem to be online at the same time though, bummer.

    I think the levels will keep flying by until you reach the mid 40s...then they start to slow down a little...by level 60-70ish, it takes forever to ding.

    And I can't understand why anyone would pay to get to Khitai either, the protect the caravan quests are really neat. Of course, I never got anything as cool as fighting a Kraken, mostly just killing sandworms and stealing fruit and fish from pirates.

    And I've seen a couple things that made me feel sick in AoC...one was the floor of a demon bear cave littered with skeletons of children. The other was my husband telling me to look at his screen because he had just found some NPC's head on a plate. It was a little disturbing...

    ReplyDelete
  2. 35? Wow! I'm still only 19, but I've been lost in the Wild West for a while now. Good thing I decided on a 6 month sub for AoC, I'll hit 20 eventually. X)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like the pace of the post 20 game has picked up quite a bit with the expansion. 35 is certainly higher than I ever got.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ MMOGamerChick - When I dig into a game, I really dig in. But living on the west coast and gaming late really does cut down on social gaming possibilities.

    @ Blue Kae - Maybe I should slow down a little bit. Hmm.....

    Nah!

    @ Yeebo - I'm not sure if the XP curve was ever moved. I think just being really into the game is what helps. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. my trip to Khitai was weirdly un-eventful . To earn my keep the caravan master tasked with a quest to retrieve sunken treasure from the bottom of the river :/ . I need to re-take the trip , see if i can get any of those fun encounters you mention !

    And I agree about those AA points , whats' the point of opening it up at lvl 20 if it take 1 Million to point to get the 1st one ! the impression it gives is that of a huge a grind that i want nothing to do with !

    ReplyDelete
  6. - Looks like you've been having a blast.
    - Yah, that one million point price tag is really off putting.
    - A Kraken?! Damn, that's awesome.
    - Sorry I've not be on; Real Life and all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You really have been playing some haven't you. I did group with a PoM a few days ago in Khitai and it was awesome. It was so much fun that I considered trying one out myself.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Brutal - It sounds like AA XP is a lot easier to get once you hit level 80, but there seems to be no point opening it up early.

    @ Adventurer Historian - Not a problem. If you had RL issues and were playing anyone, that might be bad. We'll keep a spot open for you.

    @ Jaye Dub - It has been lots of fun, especially if you like playing a spell spamming squishy. Me, I love it. :)

    ReplyDelete