All Posts by eric1000

Originally posted by Neverdyne

Alright thanks for the great advice! What I'm concerned about Vista for gaming, though I've never tried it and if you think it's not better I might give it a try.

As for Amazon, well it's the only place I've found that sells computer parts to foreign countries, so I don't have many options to buy from (sadly).

I was investigating about memory and I'm kind of confused still on which memory is the fastest in the DDR2 category. It seems that if I increase the MHz, the latency increases too, making it slower?

Finally, what would you change to that you can run AoC on high?

 

Thanks!

1066 is faster despite the higher latency, however for lotsa money you can get 1066 memory with low latency as well :)

As for changes mate it all comes down to how much you have to spend, just get the best that you can afford at the time.  If money was no object then you would be looking at a 790 motherboard with 2 GX2 video cards in quad SLi & DDR3 memory  etc. but obviously very few people these days can afford the best of everything.

As mentioned above you need a 64bit OS, Vista if you want DX10 ( minimum Home Premium).   You could also fit faster memory with that motherboard.  As also mentioned above I would shop around a bit for lower prices.  As it stands that system would run AoC on medium settings fine I should think.

Originally posted by Arcken

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

I just want to know why Eric thinks that this weekend is wrong? I mean you made your point, but like nearly every one of your posts on the AoC boards are never as constructive as say your posts on the warhammer boards of mmorpg.com?

Marketing.. Great, Its all business. As you once said Mythic and warhammer will win in a popularity contest this year against AoC because they have EA backing them. Lovely. So this weekend is a marketing thing, and that is sooooo wrong because....?

Just trying to understand where you are coming from.

If its to make the point that its marketing? then great you done that. But there is the other aspect to seeing if the client runs on peoples machines. The overwhelming response to that is yes and very well too, for the most part, also negating some of your older post arguments. But I guess thats a bad thing for you too, to see a game in the genre we follow come across so well received, even with critics like yourself around. I mean eventually you run out things to be critical about..

hes the yin to your yang, the counterbalancing hater to your fanboi ;)

Do I hate AoC, no.  Do I hate Funcom, no.  I do however mistrust them which comes from many years of playing Ao and seeing everything that Gaute Godager had a hand in turn into total crap. That aside however let me clarify for Avery and others here what I attempted to get across.  This weekend as has been stated is far from what the full game will be and even though this little taste ran fine for most people, although many couldn't even login without crashing, it should not be taken as any worthwhile indicator of how the game will run on release.  That's it, point made.

In answer to Avery:  You stated in a post above that the client used for this weekend was outdated, so seeing how it would run on peoples machines would be a pointless exercise as this isn't the client that will ship or that is even in use in closed beta at the moment.

Originally posted by DeadJester

Originally posted by DeadJester

Originally posted by eric1000

 

Originally posted by dethgar

Originally posted by eric1000

Did you read the guys review at all?

 

Even in a carefully choreographed beta weekend he crashed when zoning, his framerate dropped to <10fps on medium settings etc.  If FC can't even get this right what chance for when the game goes live and there are many thousands of people in the starter zones?  Also, if class balance is as bad as he says just a month from release then I'm sorry but a balancing pass isn't going to fix it.  Many mmo's spend years and still don't get balance right.

Have you ever...and I do mean, EEEEVVVVEEEEERRRR...beta tested a game? IT'S A FRICKIN' BETA TEST, BUGS, CRASHES, BALANCING, AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES ARE THE PURPOSE! This wasn't sneak peek pvp weekend, it was BETA TEST WEEKEND, for fucks sake people stop pretending to be savvy mmo gamers around here if you don't understand the structure of development. This is the billionth time I've seen a post that lacked the common sense of what mmo and general game development is about, both here for AoC and in the WAR areas. Brush up on the industry just a bit before throwing "they have no chance if" and "they don't know what they're doing" comments about.

 

Sad when people are unable to get a point across without swearing every other word.  Allow me to show you how it's done.

 

If this was merely a part of the beta test they have thousands of closed beta testers that could have done it.  Testers that have been vetted etc. by FC before being allowed in.  What you saw this weekend was a marketing exercise, nothing more.

 

There now, not that hard is it.

Beta / marketing  can you tell me off hand what company has not done this?  Yes its  marketing but what I got from you was that they are trying to pull a bait and switch. trying to show you something that is not the real deal .

And as for swearing here I go; fuck fuck mother mother fuck fuck  thats my point !  because you have no point just like me.

Ah the kiddies have invaded, time for me to go and do something more constructive, like sleep.  Have fun little ones.

Originally posted by dethgar

Originally posted by eric1000

 

Originally posted by dethgar

Originally posted by eric1000

Did you read the guys review at all?

 

Even in a carefully choreographed beta weekend he crashed when zoning, his framerate dropped to <10fps on medium settings etc.  If FC can't even get this right what chance for when the game goes live and there are many thousands of people in the starter zones?  Also, if class balance is as bad as he says just a month from release then I'm sorry but a balancing pass isn't going to fix it.  Many mmo's spend years and still don't get balance right.

Have you ever...and I do mean, EEEEVVVVEEEEERRRR...beta tested a game? IT'S A FRICKIN' BETA TEST, BUGS, CRASHES, BALANCING, AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES ARE THE PURPOSE! This wasn't sneak peek pvp weekend, it was BETA TEST WEEKEND, for fucks sake people stop pretending to be savvy mmo gamers around here if you don't understand the structure of development. This is the billionth time I've seen a post that lacked the common sense of what mmo and general game development is about, both here for AoC and in the WAR areas. Brush up on the industry just a bit before throwing "they have no chance if" and "they don't know what they're doing" comments about.

 

Sad when people are unable to get a point across without swearing every other word.  Allow me to show you how it's done.

 

If this was merely a part of the beta test they have thousands of closed beta testers that could have done it.  Testers that have been vetted etc. by FC before being allowed in.  What you saw this weekend was a marketing exercise, nothing more.

 

There now, not that hard is it.

I didn't swear to get my point across, I swore out of frustration of seeing little nerdy flame bots running around trolling the hell out of this site just for attention. Sure it was marketing, but you really think they held the event and ignored the feedback? Maybe they decided it was time to get feedback from sources outside the current control environment and assessing what needs to be done? Or are you too hung up on the fact that its drawing attention from media outlets and the like? I personally didn't get into the weekend and don't mind, but I am so incredibly tired of baseless prognostications by trollers such as yourself who have nothing better to do than play market forecast analyst telling us all that game x is doomed cause I believe a and b and don't really know what in the hell I'm talking about.

Well if you think I'm a Troll stop feeding me you dope

Originally posted by dethgar

Originally posted by eric1000

Did you read the guys review at all?

 

Even in a carefully choreographed beta weekend he crashed when zoning, his framerate dropped to <10fps on medium settings etc.  If FC can't even get this right what chance for when the game goes live and there are many thousands of people in the starter zones?  Also, if class balance is as bad as he says just a month from release then I'm sorry but a balancing pass isn't going to fix it.  Many mmo's spend years and still don't get balance right.

Have you ever...and I do mean, EEEEVVVVEEEEERRRR...beta tested a game? IT'S A FRICKIN' BETA TEST, BUGS, CRASHES, BALANCING, AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES ARE THE PURPOSE! This wasn't sneak peek pvp weekend, it was BETA TEST WEEKEND, for fucks sake people stop pretending to be savvy mmo gamers around here if you don't understand the structure of development. This is the billionth time I've seen a post that lacked the common sense of what mmo and general game development is about, both here for AoC and in the WAR areas. Brush up on the industry just a bit before throwing "they have no chance if" and "they don't know what they're doing" comments about.

Sad when people are unable to get a point across without swearing every other word.  Allow me to show you how it's done.

If this was merely a part of the beta test they have thousands of closed beta testers that could have done it.  Testers that have been vetted etc. by FC before being allowed in.  What you saw this weekend was a marketing exercise, nothing more.

There now, not that hard is it.

Originally posted by templarga

 

Originally posted by eric1000

Did you read the guys review at all?

 

Even in a carefully choreographed beta weekend he crashed when zoning, his framerate dropped to <10fps on medium settings etc.  If FC can't even get this right what chance for when the game goes live and there are many thousands of people in the starter zones?  Also, if class balance is as bad as he says just a month from release then I'm sorry but a balancing pass isn't going to fix it.  Many mmo's spend years and still don't get balance right.

Um, wow....thats what you got from my whole review? So apparently its all about the negatives then so let me help you address them properly.

 

1. "Carefully choregraphed beta weekend"  - Um, yeah okay. Apparently Funcom held us by the hand and did everything for us and gave us the best everything. Um, okay - now spell it with me B-E-T-A. There enough said.

2. Crashed while zoning - World of Warcraft has been out how long and I still crash from time to time when zoning. Same with LOTRO and other games.

3. Framerate below 10 - DId you even see my computer specs? With the system I have I am lucky to play it in my opinion.

4. Class balance is an ongoing thing and it will continually get better. WOW, DAOC, EQ2 - all the games are still doing balance.

5. Starter zones with 1000s of people? You do understand the single player experience and how that works right?

I apologize for the sarcasm but its sad that all you pulled out of my entire review are the negatives; kinda makes me feel like why did I bother to write it even....

1. If all it was intended for was a stress test they would have had the closed beta testers do it, not gone through all this trouble to get everything setup as it was with all new players.  It was marketing, pure and simple.

2. I never crash while zoning in either WoW, LotRo or EQ2.  I do get the odd rubberband lag in LotRo however.

3.  Your PC isn't as bad as many that will be used to try and play AoC and you have a decent graphics card.

4. True, but if the balance is as bad as you say it is then it will be a very long time before it's even close to being right.

5. So what happens when all those thousands leave the single player part at roughly the same time hmm?

Originally posted by templarga

 

Originally posted by eric1000

Amazing:

This weekend was a marketing gimmic carried out in a strictly controlled environment with strictly controlled numbers taking part.  This was not the full game and is not how the full game will play on release.  I really hope that AoC is indeed an amazing game, I have it pre-ordered so I am far from being a hater, I am in fact a realist and can see a marketing ploy when it smacks me in the mouth.  Funcom are hoping to get people like you writing reviews like this to offset all the bad stuff that has come out of closed beta as of late, and in the knowledge that the naive amongst us will believe it.

 

FC will have spent weeks or even months setting this up with the perfect environment, hardware and bug free code to wow those taking part, and in my opinion that time, money and effort would have been better spent on the game itself.  But hey, it worked, FC have got you marketing the game for free with a donkey and carrot approach.  That carrot sure looks tasty don't it?  well before you bite take a look at the rest of them that are still in the bag.

This weekend was much more than a marketing gimmick and if thats what you think it was, then you are sadly mistaken. This weekend was a stress test designed specifically for PVP feedback; if other companies had taken the time to focus on PVP, maybe their PVP would have been better at launch.

 

I think the naive people believe the stuff coming out of closed beta. There people say one to two sentences about the game, in very general terms, and thats all they write. I on the other hand spent a while writing this up trying to do my best to present an objective view as much as possible. Did you even read my review? If so, then re-read the last paragraph. I tell everyone to take every review as it were, one person's opinion. But to refer to this weekend as a marketing gimmick and anyone who reads our reviews as naive, is rather insulting to thsoe of us who bothered to actually test the game this weekend. And yeah your ignorance shows because it was not a perfect environment and not bug free.

Anyway, if you follow this link, it will take you to some screens with comparative graphics of a gate and a moutainside in high, medium and low settings. Enjoy!

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563155341qfpJYA

Actually for what it's worth I thought your review was well written and unbiased but unlike you it would seem I don't rate a games success or failure based on how pretty the graphics look.  If you think that the few small things that FC will change between now and release just one month away will fix it all, then sorry but you are indeed naive.

Did you read the guys review at all?

Even in a carefully choreographed beta weekend he crashed when zoning, his framerate dropped to <10fps on medium settings etc.  If FC can't even get this right what chance for when the game goes live and there are many thousands of people in the starter zones?  Also, if class balance is as bad as he says just a month from release then I'm sorry but a balancing pass isn't going to fix it.  Many mmo's spend years and still don't get balance right.

Amazing:

This weekend was a marketing gimmic carried out in a strictly controlled environment with strictly controlled numbers taking part.  This was not the full game and is not how the full game will play on release.  I really hope that AoC is indeed an amazing game, I have it pre-ordered so I am far from being a hater, I am in fact a realist and can see a marketing ploy when it smacks me in the mouth.  Funcom are hoping to get people like you writing reviews like this to offset all the bad stuff that has come out of closed beta as of late, and in the knowledge that the naive amongst us will believe it.

FC will have spent weeks or even months setting this up with the perfect environment, hardware and bug free code to wow those taking part, and in my opinion that time, money and effort would have been better spent on the game itself.  But hey, it worked, FC have got you marketing the game for free with a donkey and carrot approach.  That carrot sure looks tasty don't it?  well before you bite take a look at the rest of them that are still in the bag.

I think AoC will start out with about 200k - 250k in the 1st week of release and this will drop after the free 30 days to about 150k.  If FC stay true to form on quality, customer service and the Gaute effect ( pretty crap game ideas that piss off the player base ) I would be surprised if it levelled out at more than about 120k avid players.  If any game is going to hit WoW by a reasonable amount it will be Warhammer and not AoC.

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By pre-ordering the game from a retailer that retailer will supply you with a pre-order key. You can use this key to purchase Early Access from the Funcom website for $5 / 5€.

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Originally posted by Meridion

I wonder: what is the big difference compared to the state of the game one year ago?... I've been playing ever since so well I might not realize the changes you find refreshing... Enlighten me

Meridion

It's not something that I can immediately put my finger on, just something that has made the game a lot less boring than it was.  At release it was more of a chore to login and the fun factor just wasn't there compared to other games, now it is.  Whatever Turbine did, it worked.

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

I played this game in Open Beta and thought it looked nice but was boring.  I've tried the trial twice since then, and my opinion was the same.  A couple of weeks ago, the VG servers were down a couple days in a row, so I decided to try it again.  Something seemed different.  I made an elf hunter, and I've been having a blast ever since.  I cancelled my VG account and never logged back in.

This game has more going for it than I originally gave it credit for.  I'm still going to check out the new MMOs this year, but now I'm not too worried about them flopping.  This game rocks and it's updated a lot more than most other games I've played. 

BTW, I'm not even a LOTR fan.  I just like the game.

I have had the same experience.  When Lotro was released it was the most boring MMO on the market  and although it still needs more work the game is heading in the right direction.  The combat system still needs to be made more intuitive and there are way too many kill collector quests but apart from that not a bad game now..

With a new build and new hardware you wont get any compatibility problems.  The only problems that you are likely to have are 1) some older games will not run on vista 2) display drivers are not exactly up to speed yet so in some games you may find that the driver crashes, you will get a message like display driver stopped responding or the computer will just freeze.  Note that this is not with all games by any means, just those that could have done with better coding.

Vista also uses a lot more resources than XP so if you have less than 2Gb of ram I would think twice about getting it at all, with 2 - 4 gig you will be ok.

You can get the phenom 9750 for about the same price.  The black editions are fror people who want to overclock as the only difference between them and the normal ones is that the black edition has an unlocked multiplier.  If you don't intend to overclock then get the normal version.

the difference between 800MHz and 1066MHz memory is noticible when multi-tasking.  If all you are doing is running a single application like an MMO for instance then you wouldn't really notice the difference.

The phenom is a quad core so a little more future proof than it's dual core counterpart but it all depends on how often you intend to upgrade the rig.  If like most people you upgrade every 4 or 5 years or so then get the quad.  If you upgrade more frequently then the dual core will do just fine.  As with all new systems build to a price, to what you can afford.  Get the best that you can afford at the time because if you hang around until you have enough for that next step up another step always appears before you get there :)

np happy I was able to help :)

Originally posted by nblitz

Originally posted by eric1000

 

Originally posted by nblitz

People should stop supporting rehashing and the MMO's nowadays that have become a hamster-on-a-wheel.

Hit them where it hurts. Their pockets.

I presume you are talking of new games copying WoW.  This always makes me laugh to be honest because Blizzard blatantly copied every other game out there with WoW and brought nothing that was new or innovative to the table.

 

 

I think that the WoW players that like PvP will migrate to WAR because the RvR in WAR will be a hell of a lot better than any PvP that WoW has to offer.  The players that like PvE however will most likely stay with WoW for the most part.  Will WAR be a WoW killer? no but it will take a big bite from Blizzards pie.

Oh God no lol. I was referring to WoW itself ;-)

hehe you have my heartfelt apologies :)

Originally posted by nblitz

People should stop supporting rehashing and the MMO's nowadays that have become a hamster-on-a-wheel.

Hit them where it hurts. Their pockets.

I think that the WoW players that like PvP will migrate to WAR because the RvR in WAR will be a hell of a lot better than any PvP that WoW has to offer.  The players that like PvE however will most likely stay with WoW for the most part.  Will WAR be a WoW killer? no but it will take a big bite from Blizzards pie.