Age of Conan questions.

Yesterday I posted a thread regarding World of Warcraft and many questions I had about the game. I downloaded the free trial and while I really enjoyed myself for the first several hours, I started to grow tired of the handholding and, in my opinion, boring combat. So I started looking at other MMO's to get into (LOTRO, DDO, Fallen Earth, etc.) and I cam across Age of Conan. I have been researching all I can about this game for the past few hours but I still have some questions I can't seem to find answers to.

What is the death penalty? Does it differ from PvP servers and PvE servers?

How do guilds work in the game?

What exactly is city building?

And lastly, does the game have a stable subscribtion base or would I be walking into no-man's-land?

Age of Conan is the only MMO, in my opinion, to rival WoW in terms of combat.

So, if you find WoW combat boring - you're really in trouble with this genre.

Apart from that, Age of Conan has better lore than WoW, and it's a lot prettier (and more demanding). This is subjective of course.

It used to be a relatively strong PvP game - or at least it had potential to be the best of the bunch.

But it's slowly becoming just another WoW - and WoW beats everything by a country mile that tries to compete with it.

People are hoping for it to live up to its PvP potential, but I say: it will never happen.

So, I would stay away unless you're really into the few strengths it has.

Oh, and your questions:

What is the death penalty? Does it differ from PvP servers and PvE servers?
Nope, it's very lenient and on par with WoW. IIRC, you're not penalised for PvP deaths at all. They do stack "deaths" and it can eventually be a problem if you keep dying, but you'd have to be a bit retarded to actually experience much of that.

How do guilds work in the game?
Pretty much like WoW, except they have recently implemented guild levels - that grant relatively minor advantages to guilds in accordance with how much grinding you do as a player - and combined as a team. I don't actually know if WoW has that by now, so maybe it's nearly identical.

What exactly is city building?
It's a guild city that grants special crafting advantages and some such. You build it through 3-4 stages, basically by grinding towards it via crafting. I never actually was in a guild, so I don't know how it works. I do know, though, that sieges never really became stable enough to be an entertaining experience - judging from thousands of players.

And lastly, does the game have a stable subscribtion base or would I be walking into no-man's-land?
This is unknown - as they don't release such information. Personally, I would estimate it's around 75-150k at the moment - but that's guesswork. I think it's just enough to keep it afloat with slowly implemented improvements. But you'd be taking a chance no matter what.

Thanks for the info. I pulled the trigger and bought Fallen Earth: Blood Sports last night and trine. Both were new and it only cost me $5.13 and FE:BS comes with a 30 day trial so I won't be too disapointed if I don't like it. It's just the cost of a pack of Camels. I'll have to give AoC a shot later this month assuming there is a free trial.