Ryona: Hyborian Style (1 Viewer)

[Kiri-Ryona]

I'd like to eventually make a few of these of my own, for some of Kiri's many brutal guro scenarios, but in the meantime this is a good showcase video for the nature of Age of Conan Unchained's combat and fatalities.

 

[Rag40]

AoC was one of my favorite games and I played it for a long time. The fatalities were amazing and even one of the generic death animations where the female character falls flat on their face, spread eagle was amazing. They even have her eyes rolled back during the regular death animations, which is pretty rare for games to go to that detail.

Now, since audio is so important to me with ryona, I actually figured out a way to get full custom sounds for my characters. So if you want different sounds for the generic deaths or the gurgles/screams during fatalities, etc...I can tell you how to do it. It's not easy, mind you, lol.

Anyways, great game. However, I do have beef with Funcom and what they have done with the expansion content. All the enemies in Khitai no longer perform combo moves. This means they can no longer fatality your character. This basically killed the game for me and any desire to keep subscribed. The old world and the enemies in the old zones still do combos, so that is good. But it was such a bummer to learn that they went in a different direction with the new stuff.

Cool to see some other people enjoyed this game. Let me know if anyone is interested in modding the audio for their characters. I can try to help. Take care.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

Of the half dozen or so stock voice tracks for a female character, one of the first ones was sufficiently throaty and moaning when suffering bleeding and wounds that I said yes, that's my Kiri; she would sound something like that.

But that thought had crossed my mind; custom, porn-style or hentai-style female voice tracks- based on what I've seen in other games I assume it probably involves not only replacing stock sound files, but inserting new ones with a similar or exact file size. If there's a writeup on it somewhere, I'd like to check out the link.


I agree with you on the Khitai content. The Khitai zones are beautiful, pushes the limits of the game engine (and probably your video card as well). They probably satisfy the almost inevitable demand for Asian content in many MMOs. The problem is Khitai has been a lagfest from the beginning, and you make good point- the reason I never recall getting critted with a messy fatality in Khitai has been made clear.

My favorite areas to get ryona screens are the villas, because you've got a zone instance to yourself where you can set up for some. A couple of them have ample female mobs for girl vs. girl ryona, which is what I try for mostly. Most of the range of fatalities are in the villas. Also upper Cimmeria zones, epic Border Kingdoms, and if you're on the PvP server, Kheshatta is good for ryona when you make yourself a target. Some of the best screens I got is those rare times when I arranged a ryona defeat match with another player.

Khitai no longer matters to me; after about 3 years subbed, I had to drop the monthly for AoC, so no access to Khitai as a F2P, but I don't miss it a whole lot.

 

[Rag40]

Hah, I also enjoy f/f ryona, so villas are definitely one of the best places to go. Female assassins, dual swords, HoX, rangers, etc are all featured in there, so it's a pretty good all around place. The only thing missing is a female necromancer for the awesome unholy fatality, but the noble section has that and it is nearby.

Regarding the audio, I actually think the stock voices that came with the game are some of the best performances I have heard from any game, as far as death screams/gurgles are concerned. They did really well.

However, I have a huge catalog of sounds that I love to use for modding (many of them are from AoC's 5 voice sets) and so I made my own custom soundset for my characters.

As far as I know, there is no real tutorial online for modding the RDB audio files. I kind of just worked my way through it using hex editing experience that I gained from modding SWTOR audio/animation files. For AoC, you basically need two programs: RDBextractor and a hex editor (I use HxD).

I can go into detail if you want. It's kind of hard to explain using words. If you are familiar with hex, then it will be a LOT easier.

PS: Regarding Funcom, were you also completely let down by The Secret World? The animations are so terrible compared to AoC, it is quite stunning how far they regressed. It's kind of baffling. Oh, and the monologues that masquerade as a story are absolutely horrible. If only they used that time and money on making AoC better....oh well.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

Reviewing that vid I posted, I realized the voice track that player used for his topless brunette is either the #1 or #2 voice option, which is the best I found, and used for Kiri; she makes some very satisfying, agonized cries when hit in combat. The sets in general are quite good for AoC, I agree.

While I've done a lot of scripting in different games, I haven't really messed with audio files much at all, so unfortunately no, I don't have hex experience. The closest I got was adding custom voice files back in the day to Baldur's Gate, which IIRC was about as easy as inserting a file and naming it for the one you wanted to replace it with.


That player did a second video I see, which includes some of my 'holy grail' fatalities that I want to get screen capped for my barbarian slave.





If you watch at 3:30 there's a great crotch bash the attacker does with a blunt weapon, I also know there's a bladed version I call the crotchsplitter made with 2-hand swords at the very least. Since my main Ryona character is the all but official cuntbust princess of Hyboria, I've tried to arrange these fatalities done to her.

Edit- if you can freeze the vid right at 3:36, that's a hammer directly to the cunt.


There's three necromancer fatalities I am aware of that are a lot of fun. The most common is the shackles and chains one where the victim goes to her knees and her arms are stretched out in bracelets and chains as she's killed. The one I'm really after is the impaling spike.



I've heard good and bad about Secret World; I've been sort of wanting to give it a go, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[Rag40]

Yeah, I think that is voice set #1, which has some of the best gurgle type sounds for the throat slash or decap fatalities. For example in the first video, the throat slash at 1:13 and the decap at 2:44 have some of my favorite sounds for those types of fatalities.

Regarding the blunt weapons, especially dual wielding, that is one of the rare weapon types that I can't seem to find any female enemies wielding. You kind of need to go pvp to get those, I guess. For me, my favorite of those is the backhand one featured at 4:46 of the second video. I love how the victim falls spread eagle on her back.

Yeah, the unholy fatality with the chains where she falls to her knees is actually one of my favorite ones. Just the overall animation is awesome. The spike necro fatality was I think one of the new magic fatalities added with the khitai expansion. I think it is linked to alternate advancement, unfortunately, which means like the exclusive alternate advancement melee fatalities, only players will have access to them. That was yet another thing with the Khitai expansion that pissed me off, lol.

As far as The Secret World is concerned. For Ryona purposes, it is practically worthless, unfortunately. Some of the gear/outfits look great, though. But there are only two generic death animations, and they are crap compared to AoC's. Not to mention there is some annoying blurry filter that goes on the screen when you die. There is no option to turn it off, either. Oh, and no fatalities, either.

There is one scene that is pretty cool, though. In the Illuminati starting area and also later on in the game at some secret military base you can get this cool scene. 6:40-6:48 of this vid: ? The Secret World ? - Illuminati - Gameplay Part 1 - YouTube

Your character gets dragged away by her arms. Aaaand, that's about all that I enjoyed from that game, lol. The concept and design of the world is also pretty cool, I guess. The combat is a joke compared to AoC, though.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

I checked out Secret World- appears that while it's F2P- you still have to BUY the game download. Was going to have an initial look at it, but right now I can't make internet purchases. <_<

 

[Rag40]

Which means at some point I must have bought it...lol. I don't even remember doing that.

One thing that bugged me with TSW was the way they did the story cut scenes. Each time you picked up a quest, you would get a cut scene with the quest giver. The NPC would talk to you with actual spoken dialogue, like in AoC's Tortage. HOWEVER, there was one small difference. You know how in Tortage, you are able to respond back by choosing text responses? Yeah, that doesn't happen in this game. Your character just stands there looking like a moron while the NPC goes on a 2 minute monologue. It is so dumb looking, lol.

Anyway, I kind of wish Funcom would try a single player type game, simply because they seem to do a great job of bringing a world to life. I would love a full fledged game similar to Tortage in AoC. But oh well...that's probably a pipe dream.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

Tortage was exquisitely detailed, to the point that major NPCs have a persona and feel like actual characters. That tapers off in density after leaving Tortage for the rest of the big bad world, and that's generally a shame, but the choice-driven dialogue remains. That's a shame to hear TSW doesn't have that same format, still it looks good in other ways- if I can find it marked down in a software store, I may get it as the holidays draw closer

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I am a fan of the modern or superhero MMOs; DCUO, Champions Online, and the late great City of Heroes, in the fact that clothing was not gear. What you wore did not really count, and especially it's a genre that's good for a Ryona theme toon, and mine tend to dress like they're 'asking for it'. I see TSW does that as well. That's where AoC is now good with the updates to the game; an entire second tab of vanity slots accompany the power slots now. Power slots are your actual gear- the vanity overlay it; items that are for visible appearance. As a result, Kiri has even raided a few times wearing nothing more than a collar and her hot pants. Always ready to leave a nice Ryona death when called to do so

 

[Rag40]

Yeah, I used to wear the veteran boots with most of my female characters cause I loved how they looked, even though it basically gimped their stats. Unfortunately, by the time they added the vanity slots, I had basically finished playing the game competitively.

I remember when AoC first came out, you could run around basically naked and compete against other players fully geared. Gear basically added nothing in stats, it was kind of cool. Then they did that item revamp and changed the game completely. The game was still great even after that update, though...just completely different.

I just wish AoC had sold more copies and gotten more support. I think the bad press they got from the terrible glitches, like the out of memory bug, held them back. It's unfortunate...and now since they changed the way the NPCs fight, they can't even keep me of all people. I would probably still be playing if they never took combos away from NPCs.

Just looking at some of those Khitai NPCs, like the female Brittle Blade/Shadow of Jade assassins...they would have been perfect for ryona if they could still perform fatalities. Oh well, such a let down.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

The black knee-high leather boots I assume. They're pretty sexy for a female AoC toon, I have a pair for each, but Kiri spends a great deal running around barefoot and battered, and the bloody foot and ankle bandage from the Night of Lost Souls (Halloween) event is standard dress for her.

I didn't know gear was statless in the beginning. Before the vanity slots were introduced I would gear Kiri up but keep her geared in character. That meant absolutely no Strength bonuses, few if any Intelligence bonuses, and gear with preference toward Constitution and Dexterity. Even though it was Hox gear, I got her the Nemedian Cursecaller Breeches because they were effectively short shorts or briefs and best fit her in character. Best of all they offered the stats I wanted.

Now of course it doesn't matter. I think any good MMO with decent character models should offer vanity or appearance slots. AoC definitely has its issues, but still can be fun depending on what you do with it.

 

[Rag40]

Yeah, boots are my favorite and I love the veteran ones in particular. I even used to gimp my assassin character by wearing the mage pvp boots since I liked how they looked better than the assassin ones, lol.

And yeah, when AoC first came out the stats on the gear used to read something like: protection - .06, strength - .04 or some crazy stuff. They literally gave such little impact on stats that you could easily compete no matter the gear you were wearing. It was kind of cool while it lasted, but I understand why they went a different direction.

I agree about the vanity slots and it seems that MMO devs are getting the message. Hopefully it will be a staple of MMOs from here on out.

Regarding AoC...I agree it can still be fun. I might actually reinstall it soon and mess around on Testlive...basically have the whole world to myself, lol. I just wish the fatalities procced more often for the NPCs...trying to get the assassin NPCs to fatality my toon becomes a pain after a while.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

The old gear seems a lot like the slave brackets if you decide to keep them. If you don't remove them in the quest with Turach it's possible to keep them through the rest of the game, the bracelets have only a decimal point of armor class. On Tyranny server I chose to do this, as I perfected Kiri on the PvP server and kept her totally helpless for Ryona in PvP zones. So far she remains perfectly defeated, with dozens of kills on her and no victories.

As a note, at some point in the (supposedly) not-too-distant future (read that as this year, according to FC) all the servers will merge down to a single PvE and PvP server. This means all American and Euro gamers will be on the same servers; something that FC has repeatedly said wasn't possible. It's a good thing- Wiccana has merged into Set for PvE, and is doing all right, but Tryanny is often on life support.

Uh huh.

 

[Rag40]

Hey, have you ever messed around on Testlive? You can create any class and auto level it to whatever level you want. Then there are special NPCs that give you any raid gear you want, as well. They can also give you any of the craftable gear. Its pretty cool. We should mess around on there sometime. We can create any class and take turns getting fatalities, lol. Waiting for the NPCs to get them is almost unbearable.

Beware...you will need another 30-40 gigs of HD space, because it basically duplicates your AoC folder to create the Testlive folder. Let me know.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

I didn't know there was a test live to go to, I'd need to find out how to set it up, but in the meantime FYI there is a Kiri on both Set and Tyranny servers.



EDIT- also, can you do the Testlive on a free account? I was subbed for about 3 years, but recently had to drop to F2P status because of IRL things.

 

[Rag40]

Yeah, recently I was messing around on Testlive with a free account. For a while, they were limiting the classes you could use if you didn't have a real account, but they must have removed that limit since I was able to create any class I wanted last time I was on there (like 3 months ago).

The cool thing about Testlive is we basically have the entire server to ourselves, lol. At least the PvE Testlive was completely desolate. Not sure about the PvP one, which is the one we would be using.

Right now I can't even remember how to set up TL exactly. Once I figure it out, I will let you know. Going to try now. Damn, this is going to take a while...

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

I think I found a link to the forums for a setup, but I'll have to get logged into it to see it

 

[Rag40]

The base game is STILL installing on my computer. However, I just figured out that I can't log into the Testlive forums because I am not subbed. The Testlive duplicator tool seems to be on the testlive forums. However, as I said earlier, I was able to access Testlive a few months back without being subbed. I am thinking this guys method is the one that I used: Testlive DuplicatorTool.exe - Age of Conan Global Forums

I am going to copy my base folder like that guy says, then crash for the night and let it copy while I sleep. When I get home from work tomorrow, I will see if I can get into Testlive using that method. I will post back tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

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Ok, that guy's method works. I didn't even bother copying my main AoC file, since I don't really plan on playing on the live servers. So you just right click the file named localconfig.xml and hit 'edit'. The file should be located in your main AoC folder. Anyway, after clicking edit, it should open up in notepad. Just delete whatever is in there and replace it with the green text from Civilix's post in this thread:

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=181867

Once you are done doing that, the next time you open AoC, the normal updater will be replaced with the Testlive one. Now, in your case, you probably still want to access the normal servers, so I would copy your entire AoC folder and do this method on the copied version, so your normal AoC folder doesn't get messed up.

One other thing...I need to redo all that custom audio I had for my characters....that sucks, lol. Probably going to take me all day tomorrow to do that. Let me know if you get it to work out.

Once you get it, you can try creating a character and messing around with those crazy NPCs that give you all your gear for free. Just so you know, you need to get through the opening part where you fight the pirates/picts/apes. Once you beat that part and exit out into Tortage, the two NPCs will be right there. Oh, and those NPCs can also give you Alternate Advancement points, thus giving us the ability to do the new fatalities, which should be cool. We can get that ice spike one you were talking about, etc.

Anyway, off to sleep.

 

[Kiri-Ryona]

Thanks for the links and information there; it was all completely correct. I removed all the nonessential stuff from my game directory, screenshots, etc., and then copied it and edited that file. Everything worked perfectly, and I copied Kiri from Tyranny (80 barbarian), and she is now officially on the test PvP server as well (actual spelling Kkiri).


Interesting to find out about the 'lobby'....not that there's much to look at. I was expecting something cool, more like the Silver Atrium, but whoo hoo...a big empty plain.

 

[Rag40]

Ok cool, so you are all set up. Did you check out Fate and the Raidmaster NPCs? They have a lot of cool options to mess around with.

As far as the lobby is concerned, I think I have only been there once...seemed kind of worthless, lol.

I should be done modding the audio sometime today. Let me know when you want to meet up on the server. Anytime after midnight eastern time on either Friday/Saturday night would be best for me. We can discuss what characters we want to create for fatality purposes. It's easy to create a character from scratch and auto level it using the Fate NPC.