What Sets AoC Apart from other MMOs (Trying to convince someone to look into it)

ArchivedUser

As the title says, what separates AoC from other MMOs that are out now? I know someone that is willing to listen to everything I say about AoC, but not without asking a hundred little questions and then comparing it to GW2 and how AoC is copying GW2. It annoys me that he does this, and I was wondering if you guys could give me differences that makes AoC different so I can tell them to him. I know that AoC is borrowing elements from other games, but I also know that they are not copying directly from other games as that person feels they are.

Also, when I talk about AoC in the future with other people, I can look back at this when they have a question so I can answer it for them. Allowing them to see whether they like the game or not.

Thank you in Advance
Tasamuel

Edit: I forgot to add that I agree with everything Intrepid is doing with AoC. I just can't explain it well enough to explain it to this person.

ArchivedUser

So when I'm pitching this game to friends I always start with no P2W, cosmetic item shop only. The time you spend in the game is worth more that out. 

Secondly I talk about player controlled nodes, housing and how each server will be unique. Players control pretty much everything.

I also stress it's a Western Dev team. So many of my friends are over Korean MMOs at this point.

I would say you could argue that any MMO "copies" any other because it has things like classes, leveling, pve/PvP, ect... I don't think a company has to completely invent the wheel to make a good product. IE Tesla didn't invent the car but look at their product. (GW2 blows fish dick by the way and you should dump that friend because they have bad taste) 

Alot of my friends are PvP based and want open world PVP, do I talk about caravans, trade ships. I tell people about the corruption system vif they ask about griefers.

Lastly, I like to focus on what the person is interested in. Ask them what they like seeing in an MMO and compare it to AoC. If they hate P2W, then tell them it's not P2W. If they like Summoner classes, tell they they are in luck. Cater your sales pitch to the person by asking them about their tastes.

ArchivedUser

At it's core AoC is a PvP game, so GW2 isn't really a good comparison. Groups of players will be building up cities and trying to defend that city from other groups of players, or conquering the other cities.

AoC offers the possibility of large scale world PvP without the griefer headaches of current PvP games. 

Whether or not they pull it off depends on how much they have learned from the problems with other PvP games.

ArchivedUser

I assume this freind equates GW2's regional spontaeneous events with AoC's Node System; which is simply not the case, GW2's events are controled by the server whereas in AoC virtually all gameplay content (including events, towns/cities/metropolises, dungeons etc) emerge from player action.

The game will have an ebb and flow between open sandbox and theme-park like emergent content. This idea is ingenious for an MMO and it's the primary reason I backed it on Kickstarter.

ArchivedUser

Sussurro said:

This idea is ingenious for an MMO and it's the primary reason I backed it on Kickstarter.

Pretty much everyone agrees with that but many think that it seems unrealistic. I just hope they focus on the core mechanics of the game like combat more than this "dynamic" world. I've heard about constantly changing worlds from rift and gw2 before, but they were both failures. So without actually wanting to be negative, I'm not really getting excited from this.

ArchivedUser

Tasamuel said:

As the title says, what separates AoC from other MMOs that are out now? I know someone that is willing to listen to everything I say about AoC, but not without asking a hundred little questions and then comparing it to GW2 and how AoC is copying GW2.

I don't think AOC is copying GW2, there are some similar systems in place but you can say that with every MMO out there. From what I have seen so far, the dungeons are using the same method as ESO. I see signs of EvE Online systems being used. You could say that there are systems from WOW, SWTOR as well.

ArchivedUser

There are various ways to pitch this game to different types of people.

• The kind who likes to watch the world burn: it's a Hobbesian megabuffet where you get to wield political power over others, have political influence in the node (or province) you live in and wage wars to inflict material and permanent damage on others.
• The open world PVPer: No more mere battlegrounds where the results have no impact on everyone else. You get to raid caravans, other peoples' villages, smash their property, sack cities, take over castles which have actual utility instead of being just another objective point in GW2 and watch people post their salt on the forums or Discord.
• The PVE Raider who loves the endless treadmill: dynamic content which shows up as nodes develop, level up and progress. Things get hypercompetitive as most dungeons are not instanced and you have to compete with others to get there first.
• The PVE Crafter and Farmer: Money and economy are extremely important to how the game works. Play your cards right and entire PVP guilds will beg for your favors.
• The Social Gamer / Roleplayer: You get to own your own private property, own your tavern and every little bit you do contributes to the overall development of your home node.

ArchivedUser

I think the dynamic world pitch is best, players choose which nodes level, that determines the type of "1-off" events generated, meaningful PvP without predetermined factions determine which nodes level, and the concept of most things built/purchased will be player contributed.

I know meaningful PvP is a core element, but if they fail at the dynamic node development this will be any other MMORPG.

As for your friend that will always compare any MMO to GW2, they will always do that. It's just like the people that come here and *know* they will be back on WoW after 3 months.

ArchivedUser

Thank you for your responses I think I can now effectively explain the differences between AoC and GW2 to him. If this doesn't work then I think he may be a lost cause for convincing him.

ArchivedUser

Rimez said:

Sussurro said:

This idea is ingenious for an MMO and it's the primary reason I backed it on Kickstarter.

Pretty much everyone agrees with that but many think that it seems unrealistic. I just hope they focus on the core mechanics of the game like combat more than this "dynamic" world. I've heard about constantly changing worlds from rift and gw2 before, but they were both failures. So without actually wanting to be negative, I'm not really getting excited from this.

This is a pretty acute take. Those games were all billed as "dynamic", but they were really just mobs that appeared, and then folks went to kill them. After a few months everyone knew where all the "dynamic" stuff happened, and planned accordingly.

AoC will almost certainly be the same in that regard. Node 1 will produce a finite set of predetermined content as it progresses, and so will every other node. After a few months the player base will have discovered the content unlocked by advancing each node, and the guilds in power will then decide which nodes will be advanced based on the content/rewards they want.

Someone looking for innovative PvE game play with "dynamic" content probably isn't looking for AoC.

AoC offers a slightly new take on Realm vs Realm PvP game play. It remains to be seen if they do it better than the other games that attempted it in the past. 

ArchivedUser

I think part of that dynamic will be the difference in servers as well.

I do think someone looking for innovative PvE with dynamic content could enjoy Ashes. They will be able to invest more heavily in the Economic Pillar, all crafts (supposedly) will be player generated, and quest will be generated as the node levels. Unlike other MMO's where once you clear an area of quest there's not much of a reason to go back, in Ashes you should always be able to go back and find new things to do, PvE or PvP.

Not to mention the exploratory value of visiting the same node at different levels as you go about.

That's just my opinion though.

ArchivedUser

Azathoth said:

I think part of that dynamic will be the difference in servers as well.

I do think someone looking for innovative PvE with dynamic content could enjoy Ashes. They will be able to invest more heavily in the Economic Pillar, all crafts (supposedly) will be player generated, and quest will be generated as the node levels. Unlike other MMO's where once you clear an area of quest there's not much of a reason to go back, in Ashes you should always be able to go back and find new things to do, PvE or PvP.

Not to mention the exploratory value of visiting the same node at different levels as you go about.

That's just my opinion though.

I agree that the gaming world will change. especially in the first few months.

However, once guilds have decided how they want the server to function, and which content/rewards they want available, I think the servers will be a lot more static than many assume.

New content can only be found as fast as the devs create it, unless they come up with a clever way to procedurally generate content...which doesn't appear to be within the scope of this project.

ArchivedUser

It will take a lot more than a few months to discover all of the content because it takes a few months to even get one node to stage 6. It will take years to get every node to stage 6 because the current stage 6 nodes will have to be sieged and if people successfully defend their node it will take even longer because of the wait period before another siege can be declared. Intrepid said they plan to release quartly, and possibly even monthly, content updates so there will be a steady release of new content. I do not think any one server will ever see all of the content if Intrepid builds the world the way they are currently advertising.

ArchivedUser

nscheffel said:

Azathoth said:

I think part of that dynamic will be the difference in servers as well.

I do think someone looking for innovative PvE with dynamic content could enjoy Ashes. They will be able to invest more heavily in the Economic Pillar, all crafts (supposedly) will be player generated, and quest will be generated as the node levels. Unlike other MMO's where once you clear an area of quest there's not much of a reason to go back, in Ashes you should always be able to go back and find new things to do, PvE or PvP.

Not to mention the exploratory value of visiting the same node at different levels as you go about.

That's just my opinion though.

I agree that the gaming world will change. especially in the first few months.

However, once guilds have decided how they want the server to function, and which content/rewards they want available, I think the servers will be a lot more static than many assume.

New content can only be found as fast as the devs create it, unless they come up with a clever way to procedurally generate content...which doesn't appear to be within the scope of this project.

There will always be those who choose to  undermine the plans of even the most powerful alliances. If IS creates the game they want to make then this confict will be a story in and of itself.

Much like Eve Online's conflict breeding stories of camaraderie and betrayal they don't come from the developers but from the community; interacting with each other and the systems in the game creates a server's story.

ArchivedUser

The biggest thing IMO is that your actions will change the world. New dungeons/raids, quests will open because you spent time in an area leveling up the node. You can destroy/take a node or castle another group of people worked to build. Seafaring and caravan routes matter because there is no fast travel so the routes you open up via your actions actually matter.

I'm tired of the meaningless round robin pvp. I'm tired of seeing the same quest every single time i make a new character in WoW. I want the world to change and AoC will

ArchivedUser

I am not as big of a believer that somehow several guilds capped at (or around) 300 will be major forces on the server. Sure, maybe they can ally and support 1 node to level 6 and keep it there, but I think it would take way too many alliances to choose how the server evolves let alone being able to keep it static.

I think players in smaller guilds will have to form alliances just to take and keep castles, let alone nodes. As for people living under the rule of a guild, I don't think a single guild will have that much sway.

I could be wrong, but I can hope.

ArchivedUser

Zastro said:

It will take a lot more than a few months to discover all of the content because it takes a few months to even get one node to stage 6. It will take years to get every node to stage 6 because the current stage 6 nodes will have to be sieged and if people successfully defend their node it will take even longer because of the wait period before another siege can be declared. Intrepid said they plan to release quartly, and possibly even monthly, content updates so there will be a steady release of new content. I do not think any one server will ever see all of the content if Intrepid builds the world the way they are currently advertising.

There will be dozens of servers, all (mostly) progressing different nodes. It will not take long for all node progressions and subsequently spawned content to be completely mapped out.

As usual, folks are underestimating the hardcore portion of the player base.

ArchivedUser

nscheffel said:

Zastro said:

It will take a lot more than a few months to discover all of the content because it takes a few months to even get one node to stage 6. It will take years to get every node to stage 6 because the current stage 6 nodes will have to be sieged and if people successfully defend their node it will take even longer because of the wait period before another siege can be declared. Intrepid said they plan to release quartly, and possibly even monthly, content updates so there will be a steady release of new content. I do not think any one server will ever see all of the content if Intrepid builds the world the way they are currently advertising.

There will be dozens of servers, all (mostly) progressing different nodes. It will not take long for all node progressions and subsequently spawned content to be completely mapped out.

As usual, folks are underestimating the hardcore portion of the player base.

I think you overestimate the cooperative nature of human beings over the internet. Just because the content has been mapped out does not mean a server will get to experience even most of it. As I stated before it takes months to get one node to level 6 and will require many more months for several nodes. And that is if the entire server is working together. If there is conflict between players and guilds it will take even longer. More content will be released before a server is able to get all the nodes to the level they want.
Steven also has said that nodes will interact with another node differently than they would if a different node was active. The amount of interaction and content will be vast. Not to mention the effects of the underrealm nodes on their corresponding surface level nodes and vice versa and the ocean nodes.

ArchivedUser

This is easy:  The in-game brothels of course!

ArchivedUser

Crymoar said:

This is easy:  The in-game brothels of course!

All our problems are solved!

ArchivedUser

I  would say ....Nodes mean no such thing as end game!
This world is totally driven by its players with cities rising and falling dynamically, where you live and contribute  to one of these cities , a world where you could be running the government of one of these cities one day........only for the city to be overran and your homeless the next. To me this means no static end game at all. How  can there be a end game of the world around you is always changing.  A game also where every server is totally different.