Oh, hello there. Here you are, yet another week; welcome once more to the world of Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer (formerly Hyborian Adventures.) That’s what expansions do to game names. This week I would like to introduce you to Delinor, ex-“Lord” of a guild in AoC. No, don’t be mistaken, she is not a man; little Deli is a girl, a bird, a woman, a lass. Call her what you want, she definitely is not male. So why on earth do the titles of the different guild government types not change when gender does? It doesn’t make sense at all. Particularly when the tips and tutorial of the game clearly specify that ranks can be customized when, in fact, they can’t be. But we’ll come back to this point later.
Let’s follow Deli in her ordeal through various events where the words that gave this article its title kept springing to mind…
In her adventures around the lands of the old world of Hyboria, Delinor met some masters, miners, prospectors, woodcutters, etc. who selflessly shared their knowledge of the trade with her. That was so nice. What left –me- perplexed was being sent to areas at a certain level, for example at level 40 you can go to Field of the Dead; yet the resource nodes available in that area aren’t harvestable until you reach level 50!! I’m sorry, but yet again, that doesn’t make sense! Particularly when level 40 is when you can choose a crafting profession. So, why not allow gamers to progress on their quests while being able to gather, mine, woodcut or prospect without having to go back to areas already left behind, or sending them to harvest zones where there are areas with creatures and enemies up to level 80?
Then, the time to choose a profession arrived. Being a thief around Old Tarantia is not as profitable as one would think, after having a chat with the masters and considering the uses of such trade as Alchemy to her shadowy dealings, Delinor became one. You know, toxins are really useful at times, as are certain potions to boost one’s attributes. What she found astounding, was the lack of Archery crafters from which buy bolts for her lethal crossbow. All sorts of weapons, armor, finely cut gems to inlay into the armor or weapons as adornment and customization… but no ammunition? You know what comes now, right? That doesn’t make sense, not to little Deli at least.
Being an MMO, meeting other people was inevitable, not only the incautious victims of her mischievous nature, but also comrades who could provide company and entertainment. (In truth, I convinced some friends from LotRo to come over to AoC.) Well, things seemed to go just fine and we formed a guild, the one I spoke about earlier where my character had to become Lord. As most of you will know, you can choose among different types of government, each one with a set number of ranks and fixed names for each of those ranks. So fixed are they that they won’t even take on a female form if the rank is given to a female character; the same goes for the Harem type government, the maximum rank is Madame and it won’t change if the leader is a male character. This one sort of makes sense, ok, but an army can have female leaders, can’t it? I can hear some of you using the original lore of Howard’s books to argue that Conan’s world is how it is, and that women’s presence in armies was non-existent. Right, I can’t say otherwise and here comes the big but; why do we then see, in game, females among the personal guard of King Conan? Why do we see high ranked female soldiers among different armies? I’m perfectly aware that lore will sometimes clash against the need to open the game to a wider market (yes, I’m talking about us girls) who, otherwise, would find such world too restrictive and not appealing at all, profit is profit right? But if you want to make the world equal to both genders, (the fact that a certain Renegade dwelling in Aztel’s Fortress and who Conan wants “retired” is indifferently and randomly a male or a female each time you zone into the instance says in itself that developers wanted to introduce equality) then why not make sure that titles fit the gender of the character? Or at least, give the gamer behind the screen, the opportunity to choose whether they want the male or the female version, for whatever reason.
Which brings me to the next fact, Delinor acquired a village (guild city) by dubious means (a friend with two guilds on different characters, one of them unused offered it to me, since it had a tier 1 guild city already built I, of course, accepted it) and invested some time and effort to rebuild it.
Repairing the buildings wasn’t as difficult as it seemed at first, having found a good overseer to coordinate the works. What she didn’t like was that there were walls surrounding the village, so she ordered them knocked down; to her surprise the walls were so well founded that it was simply impossible to even damage them.
Yes, yes, why destroy the walls if building them up costs resources and money? There is a very simple explanation; I wanted the guild city as an RP hub, where not only the guild members could go and spend time, but anyone else interested in sharing some stories and action. Maybe some of you know this already, but guild cities are located in “instanced” zones. These zones only come into existence whenever a guild member ports to that area, thus making it impossible for non “guildies” to access the city without either being grouped with a member of said guild, or with someone who is already in that instance. There is a way to allow players to go there without a guild member being present. Once you’ve zoned to the guild city instance, if you camp there to log out of the game, you will log back in the same location. As you should know, when you are in a group and the system detects that group members are in different instances, it offers to “port” you to the group leader’s instance. So there you go, that’s a way for people to reach a guild city area without a guild member of said city online and in the guild instance. It’s not an easy way, and it requires the presence of someone in the instance at all times, but RP hubs have that you know.
The problem comes with the walls. Each time someone logs in the instance, opening it, (that is, without someone else being there already) the gates giving access to the guild appear closed, by default. Again, only guild members or characters grouped with a guild member are able to open and close those gates. So, what would happen if a roleplayer logged back into the city and there was no “guildie” around to allow him/her entrance through the gates? He’d be locked down inside the city, and no one else would be able to enter until a “guildie” came online. And that is why I needed to knock down the walls of my city. Sadly, even GM’s were unable to help me, kindly saying that there is no way to destroy a building or any part of the guild city once it’s been built up. There went my hopes of an RP hub in my newly repaired village (actually we upgraded all buildings from T1 to T2, which is a lot of effort for a small guild).
Alright,back to guild management tools and ranks (and with that I will finish this week’s article which, in the end, is longer than I expected.) As you can see in the picture above, taken from a screenshot, the in-game field manual says clearly that the privileges of the ranks can be customized by the leader and possibly by the officers. Well, sadly this is another of those things that doesn’t make sense because that’s not an option in this game. Ranks are fixed and have set privileges, like inviting new member to the guild, kicking them or retiring items from the guild bank among others. Those privileges cannot be customized or changed. So, what you find is the first 2-3 ranks merely ornamental, with the name being the only difference among them, and then all of a sudden, the first rank with privileges can not only invite new members, but also kick them. Only the leader and the highest ranked officers can withdraw items and/or money from the guild bank. Why? Why this change of mind? I can understand that the game has evolved, but the field manual has changed little form the start, so if developers had such customization planned, why not make it true?
In fact, some of the government types allow one, just one, officer rank. That doesn’t make sense.
Disclaimer: Despite all I’ve said above, this does not prevent me from enjoying the game greatly, having many moments of fun with both my online and RL friends. But that doesn’t mean that things cannot be improved to offer a better gaming experience. If no one says what’s wrong, it can’t be fixed.
There are tons of stuff that should have been done but where scrabbed during development. Guess it was due to a lack of time and money. Personally, I’m still waiting for the Bar brawls =)
I think FunCom are using the Chebacca Defence ^^
http://www.southparkstudios.co.uk/clips/sp_vid_103454/?searchterm=chewbacca defense
I just read a couple of your points, but they seem valid observations. Have you entered a ticket on them, to see if they actually listen to what is essentially you playtesting the game for them?
When they release a mmorpg, they seem to cut the team down by a great deal, who go off and do other projects. From programming myself, even I have trouble keeping up with just the code I’ve written. The few people in charge of the mmorpg probably don’t have much of an idea of what’s out there in it. What’s obvious to you is unknown to them, even though they are perportedly in charge.
Hi Callan.
In fact, I haven’t reported all the points on this post, though I know for a fact that many other people has been asking for an improvement to guild management tools, which apparently is something that has been promised from launch (if forums are to be believed).
But I personally have sent a petition regarding the PvE Guild City, and answer was: nothing can be done.
Besides, there is a suggestion thread going on in the official forums (one for each language in EU version of the site as well) that people can use to ask for what they want in game, both improvements or new things/content. Even if some see it as a tool for the developers/owners, it wouldn’t matter how many people working on the game they have, if people doesn’t say what they think/feel about the game, if subscribers just quit without saying what they don’t like, game wouldn’t improve ever.
I think it’s worth pitching some suggestions to see if they adopt or not. But if they don’t adopt any of them, then perhaps it is evidence to quit.
Anyway, don’t accept ‘there’s nothing to be done’. In real life, sometimes somethings is just impossible. In video games, very few things are impossible – it’s just someones either stubborn and/or someones stubborn about how much it’d cost in coders to get done. ‘there’s nothing to be done’ is rarely actually the case.
Guild management… Yes, I remember there was a nice totally costum interface for guildleaders, where you could set permissions and even tax people in the guild.. This was to be implemented when the game left beta I think.. Like the bar brawl. And even though that the roof thingy the top guild get now really is somewhat of a slap in the face.. Things are getting better I think. Horse race, letting people get all the dances, quests (that is not seasonal) for social stuff.. No storage.. Meh..
And yes, we bonked down those walls pretty well didnt we :p
Meh.. doublepost, but, if you log out from a guildcity that aint your guilds and then log back and everyone else is gone, then the guards will come charging and kill you…