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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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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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.
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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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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.
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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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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’s PvP developer interview
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Interviews, PvP
Age of Conan didn’t have the smoothest launch, and its first year has been spent in no small part dealing with the aftershocks. Now, however, the game is cleaning up quite nicely, and it’s focusing on core areas that keep people in the game and engrossed. The strength of the game’s PvP was always one of its core selling points, which should make it even more interesting to fans to see MMORPG.com’s recent interview with PvP developer Tim Donks.
The interview is very frank — Donks comes out and says clearly where he feels that PvP is hitting its mark, and what places he thinks it’s still falling short of target. He’s pleased by and large with the game’s “murder point” system that discourages high-level players demolishing weaker (although some players aren’t), but he’s not wholly happy with how the PvP advancement system in the game is working and talks a bit about how he wants to improve it. There are also a few stories that highlight some of the little changes that can have a larger impact on the overall direction of the game, including how something as small as altering NPC patrol routes can encourage PvP.
If you’re curious about the direction that Age of Conan’s PvP is going right now, both in the near future and with the upcoming expansion, the interview should provide a meaty read. And if after that you feel the urge to pick up your sword and go find someone unsuspecting to test it on, well, so much the better.
Age of Conan’s PvP developer interview originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Revisiting PvP in Age of Conan
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, Reviews, Endgame, Grouping, Opinion, Hands-on
Fantasy MMO Age of Conan launched to one of the most successful MMO sales sprees in recent memory. People were hungry for a new MMO to deliver something different and Age of Conan seemed to offer just that. After record pre-orders, huge launch sales and a month or two of what seemed like solid performance, the game suddenly took a turn for the worse. Players left the game in droves and reports of the game’s quality turned into poor reviews and negative blog posts. What happened was simple - the game wasn’t finished. It was released too early and once most players left the polished and irrefutably high-quality starting area of Tortage, their game experiences were usually ruined.
Back when AoC launched, I got a good taste of its PvP and wrote an in-depth article comparing its PvP system to EVE Online’s. It’s now been over a year since AoC was launched and with talk of huge new developments in the game, some of us at Massively have decided to avail of their free two-week re-trial offer. With a year of post-release development under the belt, what’s changed in Age of Conan’s PVP and what is it still doing wrong? Join me for this hands-on opinion piece where I examine Age of Conan’s PvP system, how it’s changed in the past year, what it does right and what it still fails at.
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Revisiting PvP in Age of Conan originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Daily Grind: What part of MMOs do you not like?
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Age of Conan, Aion, EVE Online, Game mechanics, The Daily Grind
MMOs are well known for variety, in fact they’re famous for it. The world (whichever you might choose) is quite literally your oyster, You can mine, you can craft, you can kill and you can quest. Part of the charm of these virtual worlds is the freedom to do or not do whatever you want. Some people, for example, live for PvP, while others spend their time making things, digging up plants or drifting in the depths of space mining asteroids and other celestial bodies.
However most people have one thing that they hate doing. No MMO out there is perfect, there’s always going to be some aspect of them which drives people bonkers. This could be a nitpick with game mechanics, or perhaps a boring quest. What about long flight times to get from A to B or a raid lock out period? Perhaps you hate fishing or squinting looking for herb nodes. Maybe it’s PUGs or running a specific instance. Mine is PvP, waiting for an hour for raids to get started and rescuing scantily-clad maidens tied to trees (AoC I’m looking at you). What’s yours?
The Daily Grind: What part of MMOs do you not like? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Daily Grind: Would you check back in on Age of Conan for free?
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, The Daily Grind
A lot of updates and additional content have been coming down the pipe for Age of Conan in the last several months, and that pace doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. It’s one thing to slap another fifteen bucks on the table in order to give an MMO the second go-round. That’s why we’re wondering how many previously subscribed players would be interested in re-installing and patching (a courageous task indeed) the game to see how things have changed.
All things considered, we’ll probably see a “come back for free” deal out of Funcom sometime this year. And it’s possible that new and intriguing content updates will have manifested on the live servers by that time. Our curiosity will of course mean a revisit to Hyperborea for us, but what about for you, our dear readers?
The Daily Grind: Would you check back in on Age of Conan for free? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ten Ton Hammer interview with AoC’s Craig Morrison
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Interviews, Patches
On the heels of one of Age of Conan’s biggest patches since release, Ten Ton Hammer had a chance to speak with Game Director and Producer, Craig Morrison. The interview sheds much light on patch 1.04, forthcoming features, and Funcom’s plans for the future. It appears that while Funcom’s CFO may have recently resigned, the company has no plans to give up on the game just yet.
One of the more interesting things to note is that they designed their new group dungeon, Xibaluku, based on player feedback. Funcom aims to make the bosses of Xibaluku much more dynamic and interesting than the bosses AoC originally launched with. Not to leave PvPers behind, they have also overhauled the mini-game queue system to improve its frequency as well as improved the guild/siege declaration system. DirectX 10 support is coming soon but wasn’t stable enough for release in 1.04. Future patches in this cycle will focus on itemization, tweaking character statistics, and a totally new gemcrafting system.
With patch 1.04 and additional patches over the next couple months, Craig feels that most of AoC’s major problems will comprehensively dealt with. They are interested in seeing how players will react.
Ten Ton Hammer interview with AoC’s Craig Morrison originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Six months on, how is Age of Conan’s PvP going?
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, PvP
Age of Conan has reached the half-year mark, and a great deal has changed from release up to the current day. Many of the Player versus Player features that were planned for launch but ended up being pushed back, such as PvP levels and the consequence system, finally made it into the game over these six months. With these large additions to the game, people that left shortly after launch (and there are a lot of them) might be interested to know how things are going, now that some of the bigger promises have been fulfilled.
With this in mind, Eurogamer has reviewed the current state of AoC’s PvP in detail, covering the major updates and how they have played out. Overall, the report finds that there is probably still a way to go before the new systems are where they should be, but the groundwork is there for a very satisfying experience. For the faithful subscribers, how would you rate the improvements to PvP? And for those that have left Hyboria, is Funcom on the right track to win you back?
Six months on, how is Age of Conan’s PvP going? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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