Age of Conan’s next update promising alt leveling and travel improvements
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Leveling, News items
Not every update is going to be a cavalcade of new and awesome systems, even though it feels really satisfying when they are. Craig Morrison, Age of Conan’s director, has come out and said in so many words that unlike the game’s recent 1.06 update, the upcoming 1.07 will largely feature changes under the hood that might not be as obvious to players. But his most recent letter to the game’s fans is hardly all doom and gloom — even with the lack of major new systems, there are still new things players will notice.
Travel concerns are one of the two major issues that the next update aims to address, allowing quicker travel to quest hubs and faster returns from the field. The transport is limited to quest hubs, allowing players easier access to where they need to return but not cutting out a sense of exploration. That’s hardly the only bombshell the letter has to drop — subscribers will now slowly accumulate extra levels that they can allocate to their characters, even while offline.
The system is intended to help with alt leveling rather than speeding through content, with Morrison stating that it would take nine months for a character to reach max level from this method. It’s an interesting approach to helping alts keep up, and Age of Conan’s players will soon get a chance to see how well it plays out.
Age of Conan’s next update promising alt leveling and travel improvements originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan’s Return of Thoth-Amon now live
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches
After plenty of testing and anticipation on the fan side, and lots of work on the development side, Age of Conan’s Update 6 has gone live. Funcom’s Craig Morrison was positive about the community response to the update in testing: “I am very pleased to say that the feedback we have received from our community on Update 6 so far is very good.”
Return of Thoth-Amon adds several highly-anticipated overhauls to the game, but the new content is as exciting for players as the changes to existing features. Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold is a new dungeon that adds tier three raid content to the game, as well as a chance to fight alongside King Conan himself in an effort to take down arch-nemesis Thoth-Amon.
You can view all the details on the Age of Conan forums. The update is live now, so make sure you check it out, and have fun!
Gallery: Age of Conan: Return of Thoth-Amon
Age of Conan’s Return of Thoth-Amon now live originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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January Age of Conan director letter details the road ahead
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items
While the January edition of the Age of Conan Game Director letter isn’t the flashiest one we’ve ever seen, it is an excellent road-map of just what the team over at Funcom have in their sights for the next little while. They’ve been giving us tons of tasty Rise of the Godslayer news outside of the Director updates, so we certainly won’t complain!
This month, Age of Conan’s Game Director, Craig Morrison, sits down to tell us just what the team has in mind for the future of Hyboria. Patch 1.06 will be coming to the live servers shortly, bringing with it the Guild Renown system, tier three raiding, and a major revamp for the Assassin class. As for Godslayer, he says that more players have been invited into the beta and the feedback has thus far been great. There’s also a good chunk of information on what they’re planning for long-term PvP improvements for those who can’t wait to bash Hyborian brains in. In all, it sounds like Craig and the team have some excellent things in motion for the future of Age of Conan, so be sure to pop over and check it out.
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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! |
January Age of Conan director letter details the road ahead originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan director asks how you like your communication
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture
Craig Morrison, the Game Director for Age of Conan, posed an interesting question in his latest blog entry: How do you like your information?
MMOs, whether they are still approaching beta or have been around for years, are constantly changing as developers add improvements here, remove bugs there, work on new content and expansions, and just generally tweak things to keep it all attractive to the players.
The question for development teams is this: How much of the process do you share with the players? Do you say “We are working on stuff, and you’ll know about it when we release it. Just trust us,” do you share every step of the process with your fans along the way, or do you strike one of the hundred compromises in between?
Morrison’s blog entry talks quite a bit about the difficulty of finding that balance, and how it’s often a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. He winds up with an interesting question, though: What do you as a player prefer? Take some time to read his thoughts on the issue, and then give your own.
Age of Conan director asks how you like your communication originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan December community letter released
Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Age of Conan, Expansions, Patches, PvP, News items
Age of Conan Game Director Craig ‘Silirrion’ Morrison posted the December community letter today, and he’s clearly feeling very optimistic about the future.
The 1.06 update cycle was the focus of most of the letter, with Morrison reminding players that it is currently up and available on the test server, and encouraging players to check it out (particularly the Guild Renown system). The Age of Conan team has put in quite a bit of work and are anxious for players to put it through its paces.
Of course, the other big area of focus was the upcoming expansion Rise of the Godslayer and the excitement of the recent live beta broadcast. The letter also included a quick rundown of where progress on the expansion is right now.
Players had some questions after reading the letter, particularly regarding PVP Towers, and Morrison was quick to step in and chat with the community in the thread, keeping them up to date on what is happening in that arena. The full letter (and thread) can be seen here.
Age of Conan December community letter released originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What’s to come in Rise of the Godslayer
Filed under: At a glance, Betas, Fantasy, Age of Conan, Previews, Massively Event Coverage
Tigers, PvP, corruption, and more are coming with Age of Conan’s next expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Xfire has hosted a sneak peek live broadcast hosted by game director Craig Morrison and lead expansion designer Joel Bylos, and the two have shown off some of the inner workings of the expansion, including some of the changes and additions players will find.
We here at Massively were watching closely and taking notes, so if you didn’t get the chance to watch the video then no worries! As we said before, we have your back and we’re ready to take you headlong into the blood and corruption of Age of Conan’s expansion.
Continue reading What’s to come in Rise of the Godslayer
What’s to come in Rise of the Godslayer originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan offers streaming expansion demo Monday
Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Age of Conan, Expansions, Previews
If you’re playing Age of Conan, the odds that you’re looking forward to the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion are… pretty much one to one. The news on the expansion has been fairly slow in coming since its announcement earlier this year, but it looks like we’re due for a big burst of new information on Monday. Funcom has announced that the developers will be hosting a streaming demo of the game on December 7th via Xfire.
The demo, hosted by game director Craig Morrison and the expansion lead designer Joel Bylos, will begin at noon PST (3 PM for those of us on the other coast). Scheduled to last for an hour, it promises to cover both the content in the demo — which is all slated to be new material — as well as the expansion in general, which is targeted for release in the first half of 2010. Both the developers and their hosts at Xfire are excited about the chance to show off a live demo, and odds that the game’s playerbase is excited are, again, probably one in one. So clear some time to catch the broadcast on Monday, and see what’s in store for Age of Conan as it journeys into the eastern empire of Khitai.
[ via WarCry ]
Age of Conan offers streaming expansion demo Monday originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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November letter from Age of Conan’s director released
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, PvP
As the end of the year approaches, Age of Conan has been quietly but steadily progressing through development and improving its engine and gameplay. It’s certainly improved compared to its state at launch, and with its first expansion on the way the game has a promising future ahead of it. The end of November saw the release of a letter from the game director, Craig Morrison, addressing the game’s upcoming Korean launch as well as the incoming changes in the near future.
The biggest bits of news are the statement that 1.06, the game’s next patch, is planned to begin rounds on the live test servers this week. 1.06 will also be seeing a few adjustments to the balance of force between casters and melee, one of the more contentious issues in the game. Crowd control will see a severe reduction in range and efficiency, with the letter explaining that the intent of the abiliies is to give casters a panic or escape button rather than allowing them to effectively pin targets at range. They’re also denying casters the option of stamina potions to avoid making them too durable. Age of Conan’s casters are probably unhappy about the news, but the letter itself has more to say, so it’s likely in every player’s best interest to take a closer look.
November letter from Age of Conan’s director released originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered!
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, MMO industry, Massively meta, Community Q&A
Earlier this week, we asked for your Age of Conan questions, and you delivered. Although we only received seven usable questions (some were duplicates and two we combined), the answers given by Game Director Craig Morrison are candid and to-the-point. Funcom’s steady push for new content and poised ear to the community shows that they’re on board to keep AoC going strong for a long time.
Follow along after the jump for Craig’s answers on changing Tortage, more PvP, opening the forums to everyone and more.
Continue reading Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered!
Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered! originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PAX 2009: We travel east with Rise of the Godslayer
Filed under: Age of Conan, Expansions, Massively Event Coverage
Age of Conan came to PAX pretty much directly off their announcement of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. So when we arrived at our appointment to check the game out and speak with Executive Producer Craig Morrison, you can imagine our curiosity levels were quite high.
This expansion is taking players far into the eastern lands of Khitai, which is essentially a retelling of our own ancient eastern worlds. Something we were told right away is that Funcom wanted to avoid Japanese influences, as they’re fairly over-saturated in videogames. Instead, they’re going for a heavy focus on Korean and Chinese culture for the lands of Khitai.
Gallery: Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer
Continue reading PAX 2009: We travel east with Rise of the Godslayer
PAX 2009: We travel east with Rise of the Godslayer originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
