Age of Conan Director’s letter for October
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items
The October Director’s letter for Age of Conan has been released, and it looks like the AoC team is continuing to seek player support and suggestions for improvement. The increase in player questionnaires and surveys will continue in an effort to get feedback from fans, as will weekly updates from the community teams to keep players informed of what’s happening. They’re also working for increased player interaction by seeking more members for the volunteer program and continuing the recruit-a-friend program.
The big news, as always, was the upcoming update. The 1.05 cycle is coming to an end and the 1.06 cycle is in the works, with the hope that it will hit the test servers in the next few weeks. The Director’s letter gave a few hints as to what to look for in 1.06: “We are now focusing on the new Guild Renown feature and the new Tier Three raids encounters. We will be running several initiatives one the test servers during the testing to ensure you get your chance to have your say!”
The full letter can be seen on the official site.
Age of Conan Director’s letter for October originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AoC patch adds veteran points, new dungeon, plastic surgery
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, News items
The most recent Age of Conan newsletter is out and it features a lot to discuss. The big news is that update 5.6 aka Nights of Lost Souls is fully loaded on the live game servers. With it comes new seasonal content, the Veteran Points system and a brand new dungeon. This is the kind of stuff an aged MMO thrives on, especially the Veteran Points — but there is a small hitch.
So this Veteran Points system, it’s pretty cool. You gain special points the longer you stay subscribed and then use said points to purchase things like basic riding training, free character reset potions, a nice bag to expand your inventory… oh and larger breasts! Mission control? This is palm, we’re on course to dock with face. Being fair, male players can also make their arms buffer, but none of it really seems necessary. In fact, it seems a little counter-intuitive towards bringing back reluctant former subscribers, which is exactly what Funcom has been trying to accomplish.
Even still, there is a lot of cool free stuff coming for the game. Just be aware that, well, this is still Age of Conan in spirit and so, yeah, breast enlargements.
AoC patch adds veteran points, new dungeon, plastic surgery originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan’s patch plans laid out
Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, Patches, News items
Timelines are always subject to change, but it’s still nice to know them, right? Age of Conan’s patching timeline was just laid out by community manager Oliver “Tarib” Kunz in an informal manner on the forums.
Patch 1.05.6 is currently on the test server, and it will be staying there for about another 2 weeks before it makes its way to the live servers, barring any unforseen testing mishaps, of course. That’s the patch that has the new Iron Tower instance and the veteran rewards system.
Once 1.05.6 is out on the live servers, patch 1.06 will be pushed onto the test server. Patch 1.06 is the big one, featuring new tier three dungeons, the House of Crom “social dungeon” where multiple teams of players will work to overcome unknown obstacles, guild renown, and tower PvP. 1.06 will be added slowly to the patch server, however, focusing on the bigger updates like guild renown and tier three dungeons before moving on to the other features of the patch.
Age of Conan’s patch plans laid out originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Age of Conan’s game director previews PvP consequences
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches
In a new missive to the players on the official site, Age of Conan game director Craig Morrison has offered up a glimpse of new changes on the horizon. First and foremost comes more details on the anticipated PvP consequences system. Players who adversely impact others in their combat choices will find themselves soon affected, accruing ‘murder points’ and eventually being ostracized by polite Hyborian society.
The upcoming patch will also feature some extensive changes to tradeskilling. Alchemy will get the most attention, but additional armor sets and weapons will be coming to smiths of all sorts. Items will be separated into ‘base’, ‘culture’ and ‘city’ recipes, allowing smiths to have a great deal of variety in the types of items they craft as well. Morrison hints that new tibits about mounts, quest encounters, and GUI changes are also slated for the next AoC mega-patch. Stay tune for further details! [Update] This may sound a bit familiar.
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Craig Morrison keeps players posted on Age of Conan changes
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches
Without doubt, things are hotting up in Age of Conan. There’s still a lot of ground left to cover, but it would be senseless not to acknowledge that a game which recently seemed to be wallowing in post-launch doldrums has turned into something of a comeback king. The final instalment of the current series of patches, Patch 3, is growing by degrees on Testlive, and now Craig Morrison has given a rundown of what’s coming and why.
Craig kicks off by detailing the final version of the PvP consequence system, which regular readers will be familiar with. The gist of it is that AoC players who attack weaker foes will become outcast ‘murderers’, attacked on sight by guards, fair game for anyone who wants to kill them, and depending on rough camps on the fringes of society for their needs. There’s a new mechanic of ‘redemption’ that allows murderers to go on special quests to rid themselves of this bloody stain.
Continue reading Craig Morrison keeps players posted on Age of Conan changes
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Age of Conan players get to grips with new PvP mechanics
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, PvP
By a startling coincidence that probably has something to do with a planetary alignment in Capricorn or some such, the first big PvP patch went to the Age of Conan servers at about the same time a certain other game was gearing up for final launch. We have no idea how or why this could possibly have happened, and are frankly amazed at the synchronicity.
At any rate, the players have been getting busy killing each other; there are even reports that some servers are now ‘booming’. We’re seeing quotes like ‘This is the most fun I have ever had on AoC.‘ Of course, we’re also seeing posts that report tumbleweeds and lone and level sands stretching far away.
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Long awaited PvP patch goes live in Age of Conan
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, PvP
It’s a red-letter day in Hyboria - red with the arterial spray of fellow players. After many iterations, tweaks and adjustments, the huge patch to introduce the beginnings of the new PvP system in Age of Conan is finally coming to Live. Of the major PvP changes, only PvP XP and gear are in so far. The notoriety system is yet to come, but shouldn’t be too far away.
Age of Conan players have gone for quite a while without any significant patches, and today’s gets a lot of ground covered. There are several pages of changes and fixes, including an apparent fix to the annoying ‘out of memory error’ bug. This patch is the one many players have been waiting for as the ‘make or break’ addition to AoC. Of course, a lot of players have already given up waiting and left; some will be enticed back, but how many?
It’s too early yet to say if AoC, which has had its share of troubles, is heading for a renaissance; but change is definitely in the air. With a new ruler on the throne, the PvP upgrades finally kicking in, and (according to Erling Ellingsen today) Ymir’s Pass and the Tarantia Commons in the final stages of testing, Age of Conan may be getting some of its mojo back.
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Today’s Age of Conan patch should be last one before new PvP system
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, Server downtime
This morning, the Age of Conan servers received a small patch, tagged as patch 1.5. There’s not much in it: a fix to the charging issues (that’s charging into battle, not charging a credit card), a change to the price of basic riding skills (to 25 silver) and a few other bits and bobs. Small though it is, it’s already caused the servers to be brought down for another 5 hours for technical reasons.
The more interesting news is that patch 2.0, which apparently brings with it the long awaited PvP consequence system, is set to go live on September 3rd. The usual disclaimers apply: we can’t say for certain that this will happen, what appears on Testlive may not make it to Live, and so on and so forth.
There’s a lot more to that patch than just the PvP system, of course. It’s not the whole system, either, just the basics of it, namely PvP XP and the Notoriety system, which marks you as a criminal or murderer depending on who you slay. PvP gear is not yet included, so it’s impossible to tell how worthwhile it is.
Continue reading Today’s Age of Conan patch should be last one before new PvP system
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New Age of Conan screenshots show upcoming free content
Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, Patches
It’s a good day for visual treats if you’re an Age of Conan fan. On the heels of the tasty and cryptic concept art from earlier today come a set of 17 screenshots illustrating coming free content, courtesy of computerandvideogames.com.
Some of these are clearly identifiable as shots of the new zone, Ymir’s Pass, which features the Wheel of Pain straight out of the original Conan movie. Ymir himself, the eponymous frost giant of the Robert E. Howard tale The Frost Giant’s Daughter, also looks like he’s been caught on camera. We also get to see work-in-progress shots of the Tarantia Commons region.
AoC developer Erling Ellingson has already spoken at length about Ymir’s Pass, which as a level 55+ zone should add some important crunchy content to keep high-level players interested. The original guess at a live date - ‘I don’t want to put a date on it, but I think we’ll see Ymir’s pass live in August’ - now looks a bit ambitious, but we’ll still be glad to see more content added. Keira fans should be especially happy to see her in-game as a quest NPC. By the look of it, some new armor designs are around, too.
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Huge patch finally comes to Age of Conan
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, Server downtime
The servers are down this morning for extra time, allowing a major patch to be applied to Age of Conan. This particular set of changes has been a long time in the testing, going through several iterations on the Testlive server. The new PvP consequence system, however (which includes PvP XP and notoriety) isn’t included and is still being tested. The focus on Testlive is still apparently on setting appropriate PvP XP and murder points. We haven’t yet seen the promised PvP gear appear on Testlive yet, let alone on Live.
In today’s patch, among a host of class changes and other crunchy bits, there are a lot of fixes and alterations to massive PvP, which should make a big difference for the players who have reached level 80 and were looking forward to this feature working properly. We’re also interested to see new voice acting for a large number of later quests. The sudden silence after Tortage always did strike us as peculiar.
Complete patch notes follow after the cut.
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Continue reading Huge patch finally comes to Age of Conan
