Age of Conan’s Alternate Advancement demystified
Filed under: Age of Conan, Expansions, Game mechanics, News items
In an effort to bring interesting new ideas into Age of Conan for players in the higher levels, Funcom has decided to add in an Alternate Advancement system as part of the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion. The idea is that rather than just giving players new levels to play through, they’d like to give people the chance to develop their characters more than ever before. With that said, as with any new system added to an MMO, there is the question of how precisely the new mechanics are going to work when it comes down to it.
Thankfully, the Funcom staff have written up an excellent post about the Alternate Advancement system in Age of Conan for players from levels 20 to 80. The full post over on MMORPG.com offers a solid breakdown of what players can expect — from the use of Prowess, Mastery and Expertise on down to offline achievement points that should keep more casual players in the earning loop. For adventurers who like to call the wild lands of Hyboria home, this is a must-read dev blog, so be sure to pop over there and give it a look.
Age of Conan’s Alternate Advancement demystified originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan: Welcome to Kara Korum
Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Trailers, Video, Age of Conan, Expansions
The nice folks at Funcom continue to give us glimpses at the upcoming Age of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer, venturing into the lovely vacation spot of Kara Korum.
Well, it’s lovely if you enjoy bodies strewn everywhere and horrible hellbeasts. Kara Korum is described as “insanity on the edge of the empire” at the beginning of the newest trailer, and the screenshots and concept art depict a wasteland that promises nothing good for those who venture inside its borders. It’s mostly a dead, blasted landscape, and the only green area is the Valley of the Giants, filled with hostile creatures “grown hundreds of times their regular size.” At the center of it all is a mysterious crater — maybe the source of the unpleasant place that Kara Korum has become. There’s one way to find out, so good luck! (Make sure you’re well-armed.)
This latest look at Rise of the Godslayer is a generous one, including screenshots, concept art, and another trailer. Check out the gallery as well as the trailer after the jump.
Gallery: Age of Conan Kara Korum
Continue reading Age of Conan: Welcome to Kara Korum
Age of Conan: Welcome to Kara Korum originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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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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Age of Conan releases 1.06 patch notes
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, News items
Funcom has been planning Age of Conan Patch 1.0.6 for a while now, and recently gave us a look into what they have planned for this patch and beyond.
The patch went live today, and the full patch notes were presented with links to full explanations of each major new feature, as well as the Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold, the new Tier Three raid instance. The much-discussed Guild Renown system was added with this patch, as was the Assassin revamp, raid loot token system, and changes to the crowd control system.
Quite a few smaller changes and bug fixes were added, and most classes received a few changes. The Age of Conan team took a look at PvP as well, making a few minor changes to mechanics, particularly in minigames.
The patch notes can be seen on the official forums, and be sure to take a look at the links included in the notes for further explanation.
Age of Conan releases 1.06 patch notes originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:00:00 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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A look into Rise of the Godslayer’s Northern Grasslands
Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Video, Age of Conan, Expansions, Previews, News items
The team at Funcom are hard at work on the new content coming to Age of Conan, like guild renown and raids, as well as the upcoming expansion Rise of the Godslayer. Thankfully, they managed to steal a few moments out of that time to send along some screenshots, concept art, and a great video of the exotic Northern Grasslands area that players will be adventuring through in the upcoming expansion.
Players who pick up Rise of the Godslayer will be treated to beautiful yet dangerous locales, where they’ll meet strange and fascinating new people, and then kill them. Just kidding! Well, not really. Mounted atop tigers, the Khitans will undoubtedly be a fierce fighting force — and that shiny new armor certainly looks pretty cool too. (Thankfully, the red accents will hide the blood well when you strip it off your dead enemies.) Be sure to check out the gallery and the teaser video behind the break for all the latest from this future corner of Hyboria.
Gallery: Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer
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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 A look into Rise of the Godslayer’s Northern Grasslands
A look into Rise of the Godslayer’s Northern Grasslands originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Shrines of Bori to offer Age of Conan players more outdoor PvP
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Guides, Patches, PvP
Even with all of the fuss around new tier 3 raids being added to the land of Hyboria, the developers at Funcom haven’t forgotten about the PvPers! A brand new feature will be landing on Age of Conan’s test server for all barbarians to enjoy, and it comes in a form many PvPers love — outdoor PvP objectives.
The Shrines of Bori, a brand new addition to the Border Kingdoms playfield, will give PvPers the chance to not only engage in combat with others in a wide open zone, but also to earn their next set of PvP tier gear via a complex set of capture and hold objectives in the form of altars.
Have questions on how this new system will work? Say no more! We’ve got a full explanation of the brand new system for you right after the break.
Continue reading Shrines of Bori to offer Age of Conan players more outdoor PvP
Shrines of Bori to offer Age of Conan players more outdoor PvP originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One Shots: Quiet night in Old Tarantia
Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, One Shots
It’s been a while since someone has sent in a panoramic screenshot from a game, but we’re glad to have a chance to showcase another lovely large image for you. This one comes to us from Zypher in Age of Conan and is quite enormous — and richly detailed — at its full size. Since there wasn’t much of a note to go along with this other than to let us know it was a “nice view of Old Tarantia“, we’re going to flesh it out with a bit of back-story, courtesy of the excellent AoCWiki entry:
Old Tarantia sits at the end of a huge bridge that leads to the rest of the bustling city, divided elsewhere by high walls and guarded gates. It uses its own docks and has a massive gate sitting on the Road of Kings. All are patrolled regularly, and watched for dangerous visitors. It is the root of the city itself, where the rest of the capital grew outward from, and is the base of the royal palace of King Conan himself. The shining towers of the palace rise high into the sky, overlooking the rest of the city and, some might say, the rest of Aquilonia.
Are you leveling through the treacherous lands of Hyboria? If so, we’d love to see some screenshots from you. If not, that’s okay — we can use all the One Shots we can get, from any MMO! Just email those to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we’re seeing. We’ll post it out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit.
Gallery: One Shots
One Shots: Quiet night in Old Tarantia originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Funcom reveals more of Rise of the Godslayer’s Chosain Province
Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Trailers, Age of Conan
During the last preview of Rise of the Godslayer, we were introduced to the wonderfully large play field of Chosain Province — a land of war, corruption, and strife. Chosain is home to two rival clans, the Tamarin Tigers and the Scholars of Cheng-Ho, where Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer players will be able to take sides and work against one another in faction based PvP.
But the Chosain Province is home to much more than just the Tigers and Scholars. Corruption has worked its way deep into the land, warping nature and spreading with each passing day. Roads are becoming broken as they lead through swamps and war-torn land.
This time around, Funcom is introducing us once again to Chosain via beautiful concept art and a brand new trailer that highlights specific areas of the zone. We’ve got both of these things here for your viewing pleasure, so check out the gallery below if you’re interested in the artwork, or hit the continue reading button to come face to face with the trailer!
Gallery: Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer
Continue reading Funcom reveals more of Rise of the Godslayer’s Chosain Province
Funcom reveals more of Rise of the Godslayer’s Chosain Province originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
