As the title suggests in todays screen shot update we have some boobies and lots of blood and gore. Nothing like playing an "M" rated game. I also managed to hit level 40 last night before the server update, which allowed me to purchase a horse. Level 40 puts me halfway to the end game which is the reason I'm am playing. For siege PVP and generally PVP battles over zones.

Looks like Funcom patched in some bugs with last nights updates as the servers went down at 9pm last night our time and they are currently still down 08:30am the next day. They are the joys you get when you play a MMORPG that is less than 6 months old. I have also noticed some more annoying bugs that are starting to show up as I progress through the levels. One very annoying bug is when you try and sell things on the auction house, they don't sell so you decide to sell them to a vendor just to make some coin anyway. Well vendors wont buy things that have been on the auction house. Its like the vendors are snubbing your business for not selling to them first. My understanding is that king Conan has sent word to the merchants union that they better fix the issue or it will be off with their heads.

Anyway heres the screen shots for today.

Part of enjoying Age of Conan is playing with friends. So I recently joined a guild called The Kelly Gang which was a little ironic considering when Oceania came up I started a guild on that shard called The Kelly Gang. Anyway one of the features of Age of Conan is the apprentice capabilities. What this allows is you to adventure with friends that are several levels above you.

One person takes you on as an apprentice and you get a temp level boost to one level below your master. This is a stats boost only which means you earn experience at the rate the group earns at and you don't draw all the agro. Other games give an XP penalty when you try and power level with higher level players, AOC actually have addressed this issue and even made it fun.

So todays screen shots are of me being power leveled with two members of my new found guild mates. Notice in a couple of them I'm level 36 and then I'm level 50.

The series of screen shots are from Age of Conan found in the guild I have joined. I have permission to use them here as they are in the private forum for the guild.

In my last post I mentioned I was making some mods to the site so that I could post screen shots without having to load a new page. I had some issues with Firefox and they have since been fixed.
So my plan is to try and do daily updates with at least some screen shots of what is a stunning looking game. I recently changed my video options to max out the video settings and I switched to a AOC UI Mod called Mirage.

The second part of the new update is being able to group images together and view them like a gallery. So these next couple should work in this fashion.

While the AOC servers are down and being patched, I decided to update the code behind this site and make a quick modification.

Heres a good video I saw on the potential of the end game for AOC.

http://www.afraidyet.net/forums/showthread.php?t=46388

So far I have to say I am enjoying AOC a lot and think it has some real potential. The down side is I saw how Funcom handled Anarchy Online and that leaves a shadow over this game for the long haul.

In the meantime I am having a blast. I'm playing on a free for all PVP server which is the way I like it. Sure you get your share of wankers that can't compete with players at there own level and need to be a cyber bull. However the worlds big enough that if you encounter one of these digital fools you can either get help, leave the area and do some other quests or just stand there and offer no insults or challenge, there tiny brains eventually get bored and they will seek someone who bites and sends them tells complaining.

The PvP in AOC has a lot of potential and if you see this video you can appreciate that button mashing has an art form and its more than hit combo and wait. Those that say its purely button mashing truly have no clue and most likely return to UO as the only game they ever where any good at.

So the day has dawned and I have closed my accounts for the last time. UO on Oceania is dieing a slow and painful death and I no longer wish to be a part of it.

I maybe moving to the US next year to work for Cisco in San Francisco and if that pans out I may reopen my accounts. However I have started playing Age of Conan on a PVP free for all server and am loving it so far.

I have been ganked a number of times and truly feel like the old days of UO when reds used to hang out just on the edges of town and gank anyone that stepped outside. Funcom have some issues to sort out, however Ill make another post soon about my take on the game so far.