Age of Conan (MMO)

Since i been playing this game for more than year now i'll be posting videos, information and discuss it here with whoever is curious about it

Age of conan is MMO (massive multiplayer online) game. It's different from World of Warcraft in many ways, but most important and innovative is it's combat - unlike other MMOs in AOC you control your character directly with keyboard+mouse much like real time action games you play on your computer/console (or first person shooters). There are real combos, blocks, evades that look like such and not just some weird text appearing you evaded/blocked etc. Distance and weapons length is also taken into account - swords hits depends on what it collides with in space and not which target you selected. All stuff in game is realistic an more history based when it comes to weapon sizes, armors etc.
It's PVP is heavily squad/group dependant but at the same time each class has a lot of flexibility and is able to defeat any other class in game so combat depends 70-80% on player actions/skills and not items or even level. I defeated ppl 10 levels higher than me many times.
Game has best graphics and physics for MMO atm and all character animations are based on motion capture.

Here is video of Conqueror class PVP.All footage is taken from actual gameplay. Not recommended for chieldren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hXy8WJX6ZM
World (early graphics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kp5z5UAl44&feature=fvst

Note - game is quite brutal and is M rated - there's violence, blood, gore, nudity etc. In other words - i'ts dark fantasy, original Connan style world - it's not WoW (thankfuly)

Funny video of dances (they're combo controlled)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Nuyx-xTCs&feature=related

Well, making true skill shine is shure realistic, but this can be a disadvantage to people with slow computers or connection. Or people with bad control options like me. I usually struggle more with controls than with the actual game difficulty. (I still finished CoD4 at hardened -_-
And I'm sure some people will be unhappy to be defeated by someone playing for a day while they spend years on playing.
More importantly, how is the economy and item management? limitations, self creations etc?

Sure, you won't be playing it with modem . Graphics is somewhat demanding but ok for average videocard level. I get average ping of 90ms here in ukraine, people in europe 60-70ms. USA has it's own server and i think everybody in US got decent internet.

There's some kind of economy, crafting (items, armor, alchemy, even building castles etc) etc. and money sure have value but it's not main part of the game (or maybe it's just me) since you don't loose items when you die so i guess it's like WOW in this aspect, otherwise it wouldn't be so intense when it comes to fighting. Sure no one can beat the complete market than the one EVE online has, but it only works well cuz EVE is realistic homeworld style MMO with very complex combat/politics/economy mechanics and is not as fast. (I probably should make topic about it too.)

The focus of AOC is fighting and tactics - either individual or team. It's not about how fast you press buttons but how fast you think and make decisions based on situation.It's sure not as fast as first peron shooter like COD4. Though sometimes i think of it as of fantasy counter-strike, sometimes it it remind squad tactics game - in your group there are mages, healers, rangers etc and each has various exclusive abilities. If team work is good - your group wins vs opponents, even if they're better equiped.
Example: Soldier main class (consist of Guardian, Conqueror, Dark Templar) all have 2 main stances - defensive and frenzy. In defensive you get bonus to defense (resistance, health regen etc) but do -15% damage. In frenzy stance you deal +100% damage but also receive 66% more so you must carefuly pick moment when to strike. So unlike other games there are measures/countermeasures approach.

During PVP you get experience (it's different from regular experience) that let you use even better items that require PVP level on top of regular level. Or accomplish team goal - castle siege, when you play capture the skull, team torrent etc.
If you have (build or conquer) castles you gain all kinds of benefits from it - PVP resistances, armory (allow advanced crafting), alchemy lab etc.
You do can make your own items with unique characteristics. It's not easy though - it require skill level, good recipes, ingridients etc. When it comes to crafting - it's not quantity but quality you're after.

Another important aspect is configuration of character - there are 3 skill trees among which you distribute Feat points you earn as you level. You
can never have every feat. But they make characters of even same class
very (if not totaly) different. You can alwayus re-spec your feats for $ at temple to find configuration that will suit your tactics/style better, use different weapons etc.
Combat may seem quite unpredictable but every time you die - you usual know exactly what you did wrong. But even when someone has advantage at first - i can be down to 50% health and still win a fight if i'm clever.
Here is video of duels to see how quickly you can loose advantege if you're not careful or make mistakes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ePLz4QniOo