New Topic Mutha: Rockband 2 AC/DC Track Pack
I am a HUGE Rockband fan. The wife and I play at least a few songs almost every night. So right when I heard about this I was totally pumped, and to a point I still am. As I have thought about it more though I have thought about 2 things I am not digging about it:
#1 these tracks are not available separately . Its all or nothing, while I totally understand this from a biz perspective, I as a consumer like the ability of choice. Blood. Sugar. Sex. Magik came out today by RHCP and I am very happy I can purchase a few of the tracks instead of all of them (I never dug the whole album).
#2 I don’t like that some of the tracks will be live tracks. For those that had downloaded a bunch of the DLC for rockband I REALLY loved the Who live tracks, I thought that they were really well done, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the Live Jimmy Buffet Tracks that came out. They really kinda sucked compared to the original studio recordings. Thats totally subjective I know, but they did. There is nothing that ruins Volcano faster than changing the beat.
Regardless I can’t wait to put on a school girl outfit, drink way to much whiskey and guitar kick across my living room floor:
(Press Release Leached in full)
[quote]
AC/DC COMES EXCLUSIVELY TO ROCK BAND™ TO BRING AC/DC LIVE: ROCK BAND® TRACK PACK™ TO FANS WORLDWIDE
Set List from Legendary Live AC/DC Performances Come to Life in Rock Band for Global Release Beginning November
New York, NY, September 30, 2008 – AC/DC comes exclusively to Rock Band beginning this November for the worldwide release of AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band® Track Pack™ by Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks, (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B). This exclusive deal with Columbia Records and AC/DC marks the first time ever the band has included an entire album for video game play, with 18 live tracks from their prolific live performances becoming available in one electrifying, standalone game. The AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack allows players to experience this amazing set list with Rock Band, Rock Band 2 or other compatible music game peripherals. Full of the band’s classic songs, the game will be available this November in the US and throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand beginning in early December.
“When MTV first launched in 1981, we promised that people would ‘never look at music the same way again’ and, with Rock Band, we continue to fulfill this commitment,” stated Paul DeGooyer, MTV’s Senior Vice President of Electronic Games & Music. “We’re excited to be part of AC/DC’s and Columbia’s global plan for the release of their new album, DVD and now, videogame. Being the first to present these revered songs in interactive form, exclusively on the Rock Band platform is a true honor. For those about to rock with the AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack, we salute you!”
“AC/DC fans can now experience performing live, on stage with the band,” said Columbia Records co-Chairman Steve Barnett. “An unforgettable concert is now an ultimate at-home entertainment experience with the AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack.”
AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will feature the master recordings from the best of the band’s live performances. The live recording was specially remixed for Rock Band by Mike Fraser. The game features 18 tracks, with more than 99 minutes of game play for each instrument:
“Thunderstruck”
“Shoot to Thrill”
“Back in Black”
“Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be”
“Heatseeker”
“Fire Your Guns”
“Jailbreak”
“The Jack”
“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
“Moneytalks”
“Hells Bells”
“High Voltage”
“Whole Lotta Rosie”
“You Shook Me All Night Long”
“T.N.T.”
“Let There Be Rock”
“Highway To Hell”
“For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”
All tracks from the AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will also be available for play in Rock Band and Rock Band 2[1][1] by entering a special export authentication code for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system versions. As previously announced, AC/DC’s anthem “Let There Be Rock” is featured in Rock Band 2 – the first time the group has been included in a music-based video game. In addition, look for the epic Rock Band 2 TV commercial featuring the studio version of AC/DC’s rock anthem “Let There Be Rock” that premiered during the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at www.rockband2.com.
The AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will be available in the U.S. on November 2nd on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and on November 16th for Wii™. Pricing for AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and Wii is MSRP $39.88 and MSRP $29.88 for the PlayStation 2. The AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will also be available at most major retailers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in early December on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii. In the UK, AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will be MSRP £29.99 for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and Wii and MSRP £19.99 for the PlayStation 2. In the rest of EU, the AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will be MSRP €39.99 for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and Wii and MSRP €29.99 for the PlayStation 2. In Australia, AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack will be MSRP $49.99 for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii and PlayStation 2.
AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack follows the release of AC/DC’s first album of all-new material in eight years. The album, “Black Ice,” features 15 new tracks from brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson, Cliff Williams, and Phil Rudd. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train,” the album’s first single, was released on August 28. “Black Ice” will be available in the US exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club retail locations and Web sites Oct. 20 for $11.88, as well as on the band’s Web site, www.acdc.com.
Released first on Xbox 360 on September 14th, Rock Band 2 features the largest music catalogue of any music-based videogame to date including over 100 songs[2][2] on the Rock Band 2 soundtrack with an unrivaled blend of classic and new artists including AC/DC, Guns ‘N Roses, Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam, Motorhead and more! The Rock Band online music store recently surpassed 21 million paid downloads since the game’s launch in late November 2007. With more than 300 tracks available to date via disc and download purchase (complete list of tracks at http://www.rockband.com/dlc), the addition of complete and immediate backwards compatibility for songs purchased from Rock Band’s ever-expanding online music store and the ability to export most songs from the original Rock Band disc, the Rock Band music library will feature more than 500 songs[3][3] by year’s end.
For more information on Rock Band and Harmonix Music Systems please visit www.rockband.com and www.harmonixmusic.com.[/quote]
Letter from the Game Director 09/29/2008 - Ten Ton Hammer
Updated Content and Server Mergers…
Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures new Game Director Craig ‘Silirrion’ Morrison posted his first "Letter from the Game Director" to the community today. In the letter Silirrion tells about future plans for coming content such as Ymir’s Pass and the Notoriety PvP system. The Kingship system has been sent back to the drawing board for another pass and DirectX 10 is nearing its ready phase for the test servers. Itemization is getting looked at big time as plans are being made to make items more desirable and useful for players. However, one of the most notable things in the letter is the confirmation that plans are underway to merge some North American and European servers.
Another aspect which has popped up in the forums recently is whether we are going to do a server merge or not, and I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It’s important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future. Still, there are many complexities involved in this, and we want to ensure that everything happens as fair and streamlined as possible. That work has now started, and we are naturally making sure that guilds and players can get to new servers in the best possible way. We will come back with more info on this, but I hope that this will serve as a positive injection to the social scene in the game.
Patch notes 09/17/2008 - Ten Ton Hammer
Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures first part of the PvP update is now live. This patch is the biggest one in a while and has a lot of changes and new features that are now live.
Change to Tradeposts:
One of the changes to the tradeposts, which will be activated with this update, makes it necessary that players put their items on sale again. All items previously on sale will still be in the bank but not on sale.
GENERAL
- Several client crash and assertion error causes were fixed.
- The Noble Villas have been optimized. Some players should experience a noticeable increase in performance.
- Facial expressions have been added to a number of emotes.
- Female characters can now use the “pointdown” emote.
- The following emotes now work for both male and female characters: cheer, excitedclap, excited (formerly jig_f), flirt, hugefish, lightheaded, pushaway, trance.
- Players will now use the crawl animation when sprinting while swimming.
- Corrected several typos in dialog in many areas.
- Fixed the random seed on characters for animations
- When creating a new character you should no longer see lots of spam messages about gaining abilities etc after the cut scene at tortage beach is over.
- Path of Asura will now display where you are bound to.
- Sound system was optimized, lessening memory usage and improving performance.
- Fixed action animations playing on equipped weapons as well (for bow animations, in particular)
- Resolved several memory leaks
- Two players zoning from zone A to zone B at exactly the same time won’t cause one of them to be invisible to the other one, anymore.
- Fixed root animation extraction.
- Made foliage removal to behave properly when disabled.
- “Interrupted!” will no longer be shown twice in chat when using the rest ability.
- Particle effects are not played on the character selection screen.
- You now get xp and can level by discovering resurrection points if you cross the needed amount for the level.
- /say should now be working again.
CLASSES
- You may now have up to two Team Heal effects (Renewal, Healing Lotus, Emanation of Life, and Martyrdom) running simultaneously.
Priest (General)
- Vindicator will now properly affect Soldiers who joined a group in Defensive Stance.
- Vindicator will no longer be removed when the Priest dies.
Rogue (General)
- Quick Dismount will no longer go on cooldown if used while moving.
- Quick Dismount will now work even with weapons drawn.
- Using Quick Dismount while riding a mammoth or a rhino will now result in an actual dismount, rather than just an ability cooldown
- Agile Mind is now a clickable. The cooldown is 9 minutes, and is reduced by 3 minutes per rank.
- Escape Artist will now always work. The cooldown is now 3 minutes, and is reduced by 1 minute per rank.
- Fixed being able to get a double sneak attack/mezz shot from stealth.
- Mountaineer will no longer be removed when the Rogue dies.
- Fixed locking of the hide skill that sometimes occur after resurrecting.
- General feat ability Ambush will hit for bonus damage against non-minions once more.
Soldier (General)
- You should no longer be able to charge corpses.
- Frenzy and Defensive stance no longer persist after zoning.
Assassin
- Assassination (2) buff will now properly appear in the Buff GUI instead of the debuff GUI.
- All Assassin combo damage and stamina costs have been rebalanced to match some newly adjusted animations.
- From the Darkness and Ambush should now occur correctly, when performed from stealth.
- When executing From the Darkness in stealth, you should now properly leave stealth.
- Clarified the tooltip and combat log for the Blindside ability to show that the target is the one losing the stamina specified.
- From the Darkness can be used while visible again.
- Feat ability From the Darkness’ charge combo attack now has 100% crit chance.
Barbarian
- Cyclone of Steel II is now usable only with the correct weapon type.
- Ambidextrous will now increase off-hand chance by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10% per respective rank.
- Thirst For Blood will now properly increase the player’s Stamina Regen values.
- Arcane Marauder will now properly drain mana with 4 feat points invested.
- Buffs from Reaver Stance will now display a stack count in the GUI.
- Buffs from Blood Rage Stance will now display a stack count in the GUI.
- Rampaging Horde now works for any class nearby, not just Barbarians. Description has been updated to reflect this.
- Rampaging Horde will now increase in duration based on the number of feat points invested. The duration is now 12/15/18/21/24 seconds per respective rank.
- The knockback part of Clobber will now also work if you are below level 22.
- Feat ability Finishing Blow now has a charge combo attack for bonus damage. Investing feat points improves the damage of the attack.
Bear Shaman
- Blood Champion will now give the proper buff effect when one point is invested in the feat.
- Blood Champion will now proc off Blood Flow (Rank 1).
- Iron Hide will now properly absorb all damage from the next hit inflicted on the Bear Shaman.
- Feat ability Ursine Rush now has a charge combo attack for bonus damage in addition to the bleed effect. The feat has been updated to improve both the combo and the bleed with further points spent.
Conqueror
- Rend Flesh’s bleed effect will now stack in the proper order.
- Changed the name of the feat ‘Improved Wrath’ to ‘Improved Fire Weave.’
- Changed the name of the feat ‘Lingering Wrath’ to ‘Lingering Fire Weave.’
- Changed the name of the feat ‘Skirmisher’ to ‘Fleet of Foot.’
- Rend and Tear will now improve the damage over time effect from Bloodbath I.
Dark Templar
- Invulnerable Soul now increases the amount of damage absorbed by Covenant of Invulnerability by 2/4/6/8/10 points per respective rank.
- While running the spell ‘Soul Barrier, if you parry, evade, block, or the attacker misses, it will no longer go off your absorb shield.
- Blood for Aid I and III now has the same duration as the other ranks
Demonologist
- Fires of Gehenna will now have a 1 second cooldown applied to it after using Greater Flames.
- Chaotic Blast’s damage component can now perform critical hits.
- Your permanent pets will now follow you when you zone, and if they are alive when you die, will reappear when you resurrect. Temporary pets do not follow you when zoning, nor reappear after your death.
- Shrink now has a new icon.
- Fixed an issue with a certain rank of Soul Spikes giving twice as much Magic Shielding value.
Guardian
- The Defiance heal effect will now use the proper icon in the buff GUI.
- Impale combo now has a squelchy fleshy sound when used.
- Feat Stunning Charge now requires 1H+Shield equipped to execute.
- Fat ability Impale now requires a Pole Arm equipped to execute.
- Feat ability Impale now has a charge combo attack for bonus damage in addition to the bleed effect.
- Feat Momentum has been updated to modify the charge combo attack damage
Herald of Xotli
- Tweaked the animation played for Pillar of Infernal Flame.
- Burn to Death I, Molten Steel Slash I, Pillar of Infernal Flame I now have new icons.
- The duration of the Flame Tongue buff has been increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
- You should no longer move like in slow motion when exiting demon mode while moving.
- I Eat Your Heart will now properly heal the Herald after killing a minion.
- I Eat Your Heart will now properly spawn a Blood Pit after killing a minion, with the proper feat trained.
- Ability Hellstep now requires a 2H weapon equipped to execute.
- Hellstep ability now has a charge combo attack for bonus damage in addition to the burning effect.
Necromancer
- Blasphemy’s cast time has been reduced to 2 seconds.
- Touch of Winter will no longer overwrite Ice Shackle’s snare effect.
- Your permanent pets will now follow you when you zone, and if they are alive when you die, will reappear when you resurrect. Temporary pets do not follow you when zoning, nor reappear after your death.
- The spell Misdirection will now display an On Screen message when trying to cast when no targets are in range.
Priest of Mitra
- Empowered Repulse should also increase the length of the knockbacks by 1 meter for each point.
- Holy Conquest’s bonus holy damage on the Devotional Prayer spell will now properly affect teammates.
- Channeling spells now use correct amount of mana per tick. Players should no longer be able to cancel spells early and recast them for a reduced mana cost.
- Channeling spells now use correct amount of mana when they are percentage of mana cost
- The knockback part of Repulse will now also work if you are below level 22
Ranger
- Cripple and Cripple Enemies now have new icons.
- Flesh Ripper and Piercing Shot IV now have new icons.
- Leghold Trap should no longer ignore Root Immunity.
- Traps should not triggered by corpses anymore.
- Incapacitating Stabs I now has a new icon.
Tempest of Set
- Inner Charge will now properly remove its effect after casting Lightning Strike.
- Set’s Life Spark will now wait until you are fully dead before trying to resurrect you.
- When a player is charmed, he will follow the same rules as other pets (cannot be attacked by you, your team or your raid).
COMBAT
- All Channeling spells now use mana, even if it is a small amount.
- The base spell Immunity chance on all players is now 5%.
- The base spell Immunity cap on all players is now 15%.
- Sidestep will now increase the player’s Immunity Cap by 10%.
- You can no longer go into hiding while fighting a much lower level NPC.
- Fixed a bug where, if your current target went into hiding, you wouldn’t be able to target him again when he reappeared unless you’d targeted something else in the meantime.
- Combat transitions for all characters dual-wielding any combination of weapons should now be smoother.
- Female polearm users who double tap should see a correct animation.
- All weapons should now work correctly with the combos available to that weapon type. (e.g. Guardian combo Slaughter).
- The female charge animation has been corrected to not throw the female backwards anymore.
- Pressing ESC to abort a fatality will not make it appear that your opponent is dead anymore.
- You can no longer shoot a bow or crossbow while moving.
- Pets will now teleport with you when you zone.
- When you die, all the pets that were alive will respawn when you resurrect.
- You can no longer go into hiding while fighting a much lower level NPC.
- Combo timers are now adjusted to not time out when the server lags.
- Added possibility for unarmed players and pets to crit.
- The issue with combat damage being delayed or lagged behind the animation has been corrected.
- Some changes have been made to the Charge ability. All Charge attacks now apply a combo attack to the target when you arrive and no longer increase your Damage Multiplier.
- The modified damage multipler in various tooltips now shows up with percent values, as intended.
- At times reapplied buffs would show 2 icons, this has now been fixed.
- Shield of the Risen is not given to new characters until they reach level 5.
- Improved sound output during massive battles
GUI
- Players should no longer see duplicated buff icons for some abilities on their clients.
- The modified damage multiplier in various tooltips now shows up with percent values, as intended.
- Combo and spell tooltips should always display with gray text now.
- Maps updated for Tortage Island, Tortage Day, Tortage Night, and the volcano.
- You will now see an onscreen message when you cast a targeted spell without a target.
- The time display while in Tortage Underhalls at night should now be correct.
- PvP health/mana/stamina taps will now be displayed as intended in tooltips.
- Combo Tooltips should now show extended information, such as combo starter, combo finisher, and effect over time.
- You can no longer open multiple skill reset windows.
- Windows in the GUI should now remember their locations and not reset to their default location.
- Guild Search defaults changed to the following; guild member count to 1 to 100, guild level range to 1 to 80, and group member count to 2 to 5.
- Added a Quest Sharing GUI
- When shift-clicking a character name in chat, information about that player will be shown in yellow in the same window you clicked in.
- The channel “Character Improvements” will display new featpoints, skillpoints, spells, combos and abilities.
- Item loot will be shown as a clickable link in the chat (Item Loot channel)
- The “General” tab is now the default tab for new characters.
- Only chat channels you can talk to will display their channel name in brackets before the actual chat message.
- Need/Greed rolls have been moved to the Need/Greed rolls channel and will display a link to the item in question instead of just the name.
- Improved the mouseover tooltips for items to better describe “why” a given item cannot be used by your character.
- Chests with purple items will now have a different visual look than chests with blue items.
- When vieing your Tradeskills and viewing Recipes these windows should now remember their location and no longer open to their default location after closing and reopening them.
- PvP Minigame win/loss stats now displayed in the GUI
- Added PvP Kills and PvP Deaths fields to the player info window.
- When others hit your pet with spells or physical hits, the combat messages should go to their correct channels.
- Items which require the character to be of a specific class will now display this property as “Class Type” in the item tooltip.
- The Tradeskill window should no longer remain after logging out.
ITEMS
- Fixed an issue with tier 5 one handed edged weapons. These can now all be dual wielded.
- All vendor-bought resources purchased will appear in the “Bag” tab and not the “Resource” tab of the inventory.
- Sacrarial Cabochon Iolite will now give the proper invulnerability bonuses.
- Cotton and Cottonwisp can no longer be found on NPCs.
- Guardian tier armor wrist and gauntlet pieces will now give bonuses to polearm and 1h weapons.
- Fire and Glory spear is no longer tiny.
- Loot has been distributed to the new chests in Atzel’s Fortress.
- Bloodsire Boots should no longer cause weird ankle animations.
- Dark Templar raid armor, such as Gauntlets of Baleful Blood, now only gives bonuses to 1h weapons.
- Items that you can not use no longer prompt you regarding their BoE status.
- You should no longer get a prompt about BoE when moving an item to or from an inventory type that can’t be equipped from.
- Fixed a bug with the Bloodcrest Bracers making the lower arm transparent.
- Fixed layering issue with the male Tasset of the Martial Paragon. This should be fixed on all tiers of armor for the Conquerer.
- Fixed a bug with the Hammersteel bracers making the lower arm transparent.
MOUNTS
- Mounting rhinos while having your weapons drawn should now work.
- When you dismount a horse, your regular runspeed will always be applied.
- Using your mount as a weapon should no longer gain bonuses from effects that were intended to only affect the player. As an example a Assassin “ordering” it’s horse to bite someone should no longer deal poison damage if Poison Stance is active.
- Mounts should now properly deal siege damage. Horses are also doing siege damage, but rhinos and mammoths will still be a bit more efficient.
- All attacks from siege mounts should do siege damage (including normal arrow attacks)
- Mounted players will no longer stand up on top of their mounts after getting knocked back when too close to damaged siege buildings .
- Characters jumping while moving on horseback will no longer freeze when they land if they let go of the movement keys before landing
NPCS/MOBS
- Removed long range bows from NPCs.
- Npcs will not try to attack players that have left the playfield anymore.
- (Eiglophian Mountains) Chief Uruk’A has dinged, and is now a higher level!
- (Imirian Ravine) Blade Champion Krol should now reset properly.
- (Imirian Ravine) Deatheater Setmorpok has had his name changed to Deatheater Setkanh.
- (Kheshatta) Scorpion Archers should now behave normally, and exit stealth when agroed.
- (Kheshatta) Selkhetite Archer spells damage has been changed, and has been nerfed to proper values. They should also no longer bypass damage deflection (Such as PoM Hand of Mitra)
- (Scorpion Cave) Scorpion Abomination should now regenerate health less frequently.
- (Tarantia Noble) Fading Black horses should now have animations.
- (Tarantia Noble) Aviton’s pants are no longer clipping with his tunic.
- (Tarantia Noble) The Nemedian Archers have decided to use arrows again.
- The spell Sabazio’s Constriction cast by the Blood Constrictors in the Sabazios encounter will now damage players as intended.
- Agroed deer should once again have animations while chasing you.
- Yetis have had their textures corrected.
- Gameplay in the Tarantia Noble Disctrict Villas has been updated.
- Bosses in the Main System are no longer mezzable.
- Har-Shebesh should no longer become passive in some rare situations.
- (Lacheish Plains) Farghan no longer has looping dialog.
- Emotes and camera angles have been implemented to all 11 tradeskill dialogs.
- The player city guides will no longer give you the option to teleport to your guild city if you are not in a guild.
- [Fight Club]: Marlia the Cimmerian have had her abilities tweaked.
- Some NPC’s in Noble District will now walk around statues rather than over them.
- Arachnid Worker: Reduced the damage and proc rate of his poison proc.
- The player city guides will no longer give you the option to teleport to your guild city if you are not in a guild.
- Drunken Pirates have had their bandanas personally fitted for their heads.
- PvP Vendors can be found in Lion’s Market of Old Tarantia. There are shops in Khemi and Conarch Village where you can find the PvP Vendors as well.
- The NPC’s Adofo and Abasir have no longer the use gear icon on them when the user hovers over them.
- The quest NPCs Sheana, Raelina and Fendaen will now display quest markers when they have available quests.
- Have placed a new mob in Khemi called Recruiter Nadik that will teleport players to a pvp area.
- Yakhmar now casts “Blizzard” and no longer steals spells from Kylikki.
- The Gurnakhi Honorguard should no longer randomly reset.
- Asapon will now correctly spawn at all times outside the Atlantean Cave.
- Wagoner Manan wil now take you to Atzel’s Approach at level 56
- Made changes to the NPC Combo, Death Whirlwind.
GUILDS
- Fixed some visual issues for player city buildings.
PVP/ MASSIVE PVP
Massive PVP
- Ballistas will now properly despawn after a tower is destroyed.
- Several collision fixes done for Battlekeep buildings.
- The gate will now display a message when the damaged state is preventing you from opening it.
- City gates are now functional until the gate is heavily damaged.
- The city gate will no longer receive an extra lever after repairing it.
- It’s no longer impossible to repair a destroyed city gate.
- Player City Guards will now detect hidden enemy players.
- You should no longer get teleported out of the playfield when you leave your group in the Border Kingdoms.
- Battle Keep guards should no longer get confused about who to attack during a siege.
- Guards will now hit for a more normal amount.
- Guards will now take longer breaks during patrols.
- The new Channel “Siege Scores” will display point gain in siege combat.
- Siege weapons are now immune from fatalities.
- Attacking siege buildings with melee/ranged or unarmed will show correct damage on the client.
- Changed the Ballista to use the correct spell.
- Changed the Ballista Hit spell to not hit players.
- Players are now dismounted when they are knocked out of city buildings.
PvP
- Minigames - You will no longer be able to have different tier players in your team when your team joins a match.
- Minigames - Buffs for carrying the Skull have been renamed to ‘Carrying Skull.’
- PvP levels gained will be shown as an onscreen message.
- If under attack while you have the Shield of the Risen active, out of combat regeneration and resting are no longer interrupted. This stops a griefing technique where spawn campers could stop you regenerating.
- PvP XP is given if the player you kill is of higher level than you or no more than 7 levels below you (cons a color to you).
- PvP health/mana/stamina taps will now be displayed as intended in tooltips.
- You should now get a on screen message stating “You gained a new PVP level!” whenever you gain a pvp level.
- All minigame team displays use the small person icon now.
- If under attack while you have the Shield of the Risen active, out of combat regeneration and resting are no longer interrupted. This stops a griefing technique where spawn campers could stop you regenerating.
- PvP XP diminishes linearly each time you kill the same player. After 5 kills you will no longer receive PvP XP from killing that player, until the following day.
- Added the three PvP regions to the worldmap.
QUESTS
Destiny Quest (End Battle)
- The Red Hand High Priest will no longer spawn above level 20.
Destiny Quest (Priest)
- Awakening II: Defend the townsfolk - Waymarker changed to an area waymarker so it’s easier to spot.
- Awakening II - The Red Hand Inquisitor Leader will no longer spawn above level 20.
Destiny Quest (Rogue)
- Awakening I - You should now be able to stealth without every guard spotting you.
- Awakening III: The Tortage Keep instance has been revamped slightly.
- Awakening III: Ulric should no longer sleep with his eyes open.
General Quest
- (Atzel’s Approach) War Standard - Should have a slightly more interesting quest ending.
- (Atzel’s Approach) Kidnapping and Torture - Added feedback when interacting with the last palisade.
- (Conarch Village) Rotten Molars - The drop rate on teeth has been changed. Now 2-4 teeth will drop per mob.
- (Eiglophian Mountains) Flowers of the Snow - Corrected waypoint for returning to Nola.
- (Eiglophian Mountains) Rithrall will now speak to the player in the quest ‘Convincing the Hunter’.
- (Field of the Dead) The Price of Treason - Quest item added.
- (Field of the Dead) The Rescue of Isobail II - Now has a more accurate waypoint.
- (Field of the Dead) The Curse of the Werewolves - Now has a larger area waypoint.
- (Kheshatta) Grim Grey God - Added animations for interacting with the sarcophagi and pedestals.
- (Kheshatta) “Heady Kaphil Liquor”, “The Spice in the Sand”, and “Anuket Spring Water” quests have had item respawn rates tweaked.
- (Kheshatta) The Abomination - Item rewards will now be given out correctly.
- (Khopshef) The Aberration - Hamadi should now patrol correctly at all times.
- (Khopshef ) The Dead Devotee of Derketo should no longer be selectable when you are not on the quest.
- (Khopshef) The Slave Rebellion - The cage key will now drop correctly.
- (Scorpion Cave) Quest “The Four Accursed Keys” has had it’s goal coordinates set properly.
- (Tarantia Noble) Catus for the quest “Nobles of Tarantia” has been moved, and the quest coordinates updated.
- (Thunder River) Moonshine - An Empty Bottle will now be spawned in the player’s quest inventory when starting the quest.
- (Thunder River) The Kitten - The bottle of milk now has an icon. Also, the cat now correctly patrols and eventually despawns
- (Villa Verde) The quest “Noble Valuables” has been changed. Vandal Despoilers will drop the loot bags now.
- (White Sands) Garden of Cursed Mysteries can no longer be completed outside the search area.
- (Conall’s Valley) The Gambler’s Gambit - The collision in the Spider Cavern has been fixed, and it is once again possible to pick up the debt money to finish this quest.
- (Khopshef) The Roots of the Earth - Quest goal has been updated with correct name, Darkroot.
- (Lacheish Plains) Brandoc Village - The waymarker for this quest has been made more visible.
- (Pyramid of the Ancients) Dangers of Decadence - The key is now removed your inventory when you free Shali.
- (Tarantia Noble) Paetus and the Nemedian Crown IIII is now named Paetus and the Nemedian Crown IV.
- (Tortage Underhalls) Gold and Gore - Looting rings from corpses should work correctly.
- Tongue of the Raven: Charad now dies much faster after poisoning him
- Atzels Approach: The quest “The Crown of Acheron” will no longer mention the Bane spell in the journal text, as only Mages and Priests are able to get it.
- In the Thunder River quest “Absolute War”, the quest goal now tells the player to talk to Pavo. And the waypoint is correct.
- In the Eiglophian Mountains quest ‘Enemies No More’, Nera now gives the player the boots when the trade updates.
- In the Eiglophian Mountains quest ‘The Blood-Furred Beast’ we haveincreased the radius of the bounded area that triggers the locate, reduced the area the mammoth roam within.
- Khopshef Province: Quest “The Troubles of Thutmekri”: Players should no longer have any problems with not being able to interact with friendly NPCs after killing quest targets.
- Added 13 new quests to Eiglophian Mountains.
- Wild Lands of Zelata, quest “Curse of Flies”: This quest has gotten a small overhaul. A quest goal marker has been added, and the Acheronian Chest should now work as intended.
- Eiglophian Mountains: Quest “Wolves and Lambs”: The door on the cage inside the Cannibal Cave should now actually open when the player frees the captive children
- Conall’s Valley - The Lurking Horror: Quest now has a waymarker leading to the Spider Cavern.
RAID BOSSES
Raid bosses in general
- Most Raid bosses will now attack and move at the same time.
Yahkmar
- Yahkmar’s add will now delay a little while after spawning before attacking players.
- Yahkmar will now correctly lock the instance when attacked.
Excorant the Gargoylemaster
- Gargoyles have gotten stronger.
- The Blood-Fused Gargoyle now behaves differently.
- Excorant will use his Earthen Curse at a slightly higher frequence.
Yarekma the Soul Eater
- He now enrages less frequently.
Sabazios
- Sabazios now has an additional spell that he casts.
- Sabazios Poison vulnerability now has got better names.
- His snakes have gotten weaker.
Ahazu-Zagam
- The swamp demon will now spawn more swamp at a slightly lower rate.
Incubus Succubus
- Reset mechanics fixed.
- The fountain has been fixed.
- The Cambions now behave as they should.
Chatha
- The Strength in numbers buff has been improved.
- Chatha’s second form now knockback players with the correct strength.
- Chatha’s second form does a bit more damage.
Seruha
- Seruha has received a new powerfull spell, Ripped from within.. beware!
- Both she and her minions have gotten new abilities.
TRADESKILLS
- Slotted gems should now appear in armor consistently, even after zoning.
- “Padparasha” gems have been renamed “Padparadscha”.
- The tradeskill merchant Graehm in Lacheish will now sell Common Thread.
- Resource & Gathering: The chance to get rare resources from tier 1 and tier 2 resource nodes has been increased.
- Teardrop Amethyst now requires the correct gem, Flawless Amethyst.
- Reduced the bonuses granted by all Invulnerability, Evade, Fatality, Offhand Chance, and Damage gems by a significant amount.
- Alchemist Cache no longer contains the easily accessible vendor-bought resources.
- The Skinner dialog now works,and resolves the quests to allow you to continue in the class.
- Larozzo should now show that he has a tradeskill quest for the players.
- Armorsmith: Moonsteel-Studded Armband, Girdle and Bracers now use the proper quality leather to make.
- Weaponsmith: Swapped around the names of the goals in the Tier 2 Weaponsmith “Swords” quest so that they accurately reflect the items whose creation they are updated by.
- Some of the jewelcrafting quests will no longer tell you that you need a thieves guild building to make the items.
- Fixed message when failing to harvest Aurichalcum.
- Leather resources have now a chance to drop of wildlife mobs at all level ranges (lvl 20-80).
- Fixed typos in the Alchemist dialogue.
- Ironsilk Cloak and Fine Ironsilk CLoak now require armorsmith workshops
- Corrected some armorsmith items in requiring the Armorsmith Workshop III
- The Bloodsilver Broadsword now require 6 copper to make in addition to the hilt and silver components.
- Gems can no longer be added to items from bank or guild bank. Only from the backpack and tradeskill inventories.
- Crafted items will now display “This Item was created by <CreatorName>”.
TRADEPOST
- Added feedback to the guild bank when not enough money to withdraw.
- The item delete on the guild should now show the name of the item.
- Seller search field is no longer case sensitive.
- Added a Cancel button when adding or removing money from guild bank
- Mail: Changed the sorting of the columns, now it should be possible to sort properly on each one.
- After deleting a mail the view now jumps to the next available mail (if any) instead of displaying the compose view again.
- Mail: The money field is now hidden if there is no money attached, shows the amount otherwise.
- Mail: Changed timeout format from displaying a date to displaying the remaining days.
- Added Seller Price and tradepost fee to the item tooltip.
- Updated the mail text gotten from the Tradepost.
- It is now possible so search for items using Item Rarity.
- Added Times out column to the Search results list on tradepost.
- Added Times out field to the Item tooltip on tradepost.
- Items on sale at the tradepost will now expire after 7 days if they have not been sold, and will no longer show on the tradepost after expiring.
- The sales commission is now added to the price of the item and withdrawn from the seller.
- You will no longer be charged a fee for changing the price of your item.
WORLD DESIGN
- Atzel’s Fortress has been re-textured and re-lit.
- (Poitain) Rocks near buildings can no longer be scaled.
- (Tarantia Noble) Several texture issues on buildings were corrected.
- (Tarantia Noble) The climbing point in Villa Amiel is now functional.
- (Tarantia Noble) It should no longer be possible to clip your camera through the wall in the Catacombs.
- (Tarantia Noble) Both Torches and Braziers have had their names fixed.
- (Tarantia Noble) Numerous collision fixes done here to improve movement through areas.
- (Tortage) The Seadog Mansion now has a proper roof.
- (Tortage) Added some fish in the ocean outside the beach.
- (Tortage) The Coastal Caves have been revamped to make it easier to find your way around.
- (Tortage) All ladders should be usable and work correctly.
- (Tortage Night) Players should no longer be able to climb outside the playfield.
- (Wild Lands) Fireplace flame effects should no longer be visible on house floors.
- (Purple Lotus Swamp) The ladder near the armorsmith trainer in Purple Lotus Swamp is now properly climbable.
- (Catacombs) Fixed various camera and collision issues.
- (Villa Camillus) Fixed some missing textures.
- (Eiglohpian Mountains) Fixed some issues of getting stuck in some areas.
- changed the respawn in Atzel’s Fortress.
Gaute Godager Resigns - AoC Gets New Game Director - Ten Ton Hammer
Changing of the Guard…
Gaute Godager the now former Producer and Game Director for Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures (AoC) and one of the founding members of Funcom has resigned from the company. Gaute Godager cited some elements of dissatisfaction with AoC and that he felt it needed a pair of fresh eyes as his reason for leaving the company. Craig Morrison of Funcom will be stepping in to fill the role of Producer and Game Director for Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures. He has served the role for Anarchy Online and has worked as a Community Manager for AoC.
How will this affect the future of AoC? Time will tell, but with a new person in charge we could hear about some possible changes coming soon, or perhaps we will stay the course.
Craig Morrison has been appointed as the new Producer and Game Director for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
Craig Morrison has served as the Producer and Game Director on Anarchy Online for several years, as well as working as the Funcom Community Manager prior to that. Funcom believes he is the perfect candidate to take Age of Conan to the next level. Mr. Morrison will replace former Producer and Game Director Gaute Godager.
Prior to starting at Funcom in 2004, Craig Morrison worked as an Operations Executive at the Telegraph group, the respected UK newspaper, taking care of operational aspects related to IT and Customer Service. Due to his passion for MMO games he simultaneously worked as an Associate Editor at IGN’s Vault Network, managing dedicated websites for several MMO games. He has extensive experience in managing various sized teams and complex projects across large media based environments. He has also played, written about, managed, produced and directed MMO games for over a decade by now. With his passion and unique skill-set he brings proven MMO experience to his new position, and during his years as Producer on Anarchy Online he has shown a unique ability to tailor development according to the needs and requirements of the players.
“Taking on the position as Producer and Game Director on Age of Conan is a great challenge but also one I welcome. I have a clear conviction I can lead the further development in a good way, evolving Age of Conan into something even better. My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns, while ensuring we add additional great content to the game,” said Craig Morrison. “At heart I will always be a gamer, and the coming changes and additions to Conan will always be done with the gamers in mind. Together I am certain we will shape an amazing future for Age of Conan.”
Former Producer and Game Director Gaute Godager has chosen to resign from Funcom after working on Age of Conan since the initial conception, and he leaves the company after 16 years. Godager was one of the original founders of Funcom, and leaves a large legacy, having contributed to making Funcom the largest MMO company in Europe. “I have done my very best making this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan, and I wholeheartedly support the appointment of Craig. I have had a fantastic time these last 16 years, and I am very proud of the many things Funcom has achieved. Funcom and Conan will always be a big part of me, but as I now look to new ventures outside the gaming industry I am certain Age of Conan’s future is in the best of hands.”
AoC: Border Kingdom Cryer - PvP and Packing Heat - Ten Ton Hammer
A New Game Director Takes the Helm…
Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures first big PvP update has stirred up quite a commotion in the community as the battlefields are drenched in the blood of warriors and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire. With this new mechanic has come some commotion about some players possibly Fight Clubbing or throwing fights to get PvP experience. Needless to say this has not gone over well with players. Many other topics have turned up as well, including a post from our new Game Director about a possible future resurrection of the Drunken Brawling mechanic. Finding all the good information like this can be a challenging job as the forums become more saturated with endless rants and dramatic post. Let the Border Kingdom Cryer save you the trauma of reading through the drama. Join us as we examine some of the top pieces of discussion over the past week. PvP Fight Clubbing, Age of Conan’s Game Director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison chimes in on Drunken Brawling, the Weekly Funny includes a heat packin granny, all this and more in this week’s Border Kingdom Cryer.
This thread has a lot of
good points about various topics and not just boobies. Drunken Brawling gets brought up and the new Game Director
Craig "Silirrion" Morrison drops in for a quick response and the possibility of renewed hope that we might one day see Drunken
Brawling get resurrected.
AoC Game Director declares server merge, previews coming changes
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, PvP, PvE
Age of Conan players have been curious to see what new Game Director Craig Morrison will bring to the table. He’s already proven willing to wade in to the forums and give players clear answers to their questions, and today he’s provided a lengthy and frank letter about what will be coming to AoC in the future. There’s a lot of information to digest.
Although it’s low down on the list, the news of coming server merges caught our eye immediately: ‘we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America.‘ While this can (and no doubt will) be interpreted as an admission that the population is low on certain servers, it is also indicative of a willngness to do something decisive about the situation, so that the players can have the best experience. That gets points from us.
In addition to explaining Power Points and Kingship, which were announced some time ago but not really mentioned much since, Craig also provides some very interesting new information about the PvP consequence system, which adds more detail and game world immersion than had previously been announced.
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Having fun in Conan’s homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age! |
Continue reading AoC Game Director declares server merge, previews coming changes
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The Best of Massively: Our most helpful guides
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Galleries, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Guides, Warhammer Online, Massively meta
In just over one month, Massively will celebrate its first birthday! Last week we started a countdown to the event by kicking off a series of features highlighting the best stuff from the site so far. We started with our ten most important interviews. Today, we’re continuing the weekly countdown by listing some of your (and our) favorite guides!
We broke them out into six categories, counting down to the best and most popular. A wide variety of games are covered, so chances are you’ll find something useful in here. This list can serve as a springboard to a ton of content — dozens and dozens of articles. So consider this your go-to place for info on some of the hottest games.
Without further ado, here’s the guide to our best guides. Wow, how meta is that!
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Episode 11 - Hyborian Herald Podcast
On today’s show we’ll talk about a changing of the guard at Funcom, long awaited and massive changes with the new patch, the arrival of part of the new PvP system, Patch Delays hang from the Tree of Woe, and we’ll talk about the ancient empire of Stygia as well as get to a little listener feedback.
Show Links:
- Update Notes– 17th September - Age of Conan Forums
- Hyborian Insider #4
- videogaming247 ” Blog Archive ” New Age of Conan movie shows incredible future DX10 graphics additions
- Funcom’s product manager speaks out on Gaute Godager’s departure - Massively
- IGN: Age of Conan Updates PvP System
- Age of Conan declares rules for RP, four months after launch - Massively
- American Cancer Society
The Daily Grind: Are consoles the future?
Filed under: Age of Conan, MMO industry, The Agency, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Consoles, Free Realms, DC Universe Online
The MMO genre was born and raised in the PC culture. The reasons are obvious, of course — personal computers have been connected to networks for a long time, the keyboard was more effective for communication before the advent of Voice-over-IP. That said, a lot has been done to make platforms like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 more attractive for MMO developers and players.
Funcom plans to release Age of Conan for the 360. DC Universe Online, The Agency, and Free Realms will all be available on the PS3. In fact, noted MMO developer SOE was not long ago moved into what is basically Sony’s PlayStation division with the explicit intent to focus on console MMOs. Blizzard has hired workers with console experience to work on its unannounced “Next-Gen MMO.” Clearly, this generation is going to greatly expand on the pioneering efforts of past console MMOs like Final Fantasy XI. Surely if the genre doesn’t explode on today’s consoles it will in the next batch, right?
Are you looking forward to leaving behind the mouse and keyboard so you can lounge on the sofa with a wireless controller, or are you concerned that too much will be lost in translation? Maybe you think that attempts like The Agency will fail, and the bubble will burst before anyone even really notices it. There are a lot of problems, such as the expense and hassle of the process of authenticating patches in a tightly-controlled service like Xbox Live. Are problems like that deal breakers?
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AoC: Border Kingdom Cryer - PvP and Packing Heat at Ten Ton Hammer
A New Game Director Takes the Helm…
Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures first big PvP update has stirred up quite a commotion in the community as the battlefields are drenched in the blood of warriors and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire. With this new mechanic has come some commotion about some players possibly Fight Clubbing or throwing fights to get PvP experience. Needless to say this has not gone over well with players. Many other topics have turned up as well, including a post from our new Game Director about a possible future resurrection of the Drunken Brawling mechanic. Finding all the good information like this can be a challenging job as the forums become more saturated with endless rants and dramatic post. Let the Border Kingdom Cryer save you the trauma of reading through the drama. Join us as we examine some of the top pieces of discussion over the past week. PvP Fight Clubbing, Age of Conan’s Game Director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison chimes in on Drunken Brawling, the Weekly Funny includes a heat packin granny, all this and more in this week’s Border Kingdom Cryer.
This thread has a lot of
good points about various topics and not just boobies. Drunken Brawling gets brought up and the new Game Director
Craig "Silirrion" Morrison drops in for a quick response and the possibility of renewed hope that we might one day see Drunken
Brawling get resurrected.
