The last time I did an anniversary retrospective for Age of Conan, we had a recent expansion, some new dungeon content material, and several class revamps recent on our minds. The 12 months earlier than that, we had the earth-shaking combat and itemization adjustments. This past yr, the key growth was, of course, the switch to a freemium business model, followed closely by the game's first journey pack.
Be a part of me after the break for a fast rundown on the last 12 months as they occurred in Hyboria, as well as an anniversary interview with game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison that sheds a bit of light on the crafting revamp.
The end of June saw AoC be a part of the ranks of Western freemium converts with the Unchained update. The majority of the original Hyborian Adventures campaign was made freely obtainable to all comers, together with four of the sport's 12 courses.HATERS GONNA HATEintroduced us the Breach and Forgotten Metropolis dungeons in Khitai as well as look armor functionality (and there was much rejoicing).
A week later, Funcom threw a bone to its hardcore PvP crowd with the introduction of the Blood and Glory particular ruleset servers. Deathwish and Rage have been initially fairly fashionable, and Funcom also hinted at some curious instancing tech in the works. We have not heard a lot about it since, but I expect that we'll be taught extra this summer after the launch of The secret World.
The top of August introduced us AoC's first adventure pack. The Savage Coast of Turan was too small to be called a proper expansion however too huge for a simple "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this can be the primary distribution model going forward.
We received a new degree 50 to fifty five playfield with a ton of quests, a degree 50 to 80 scaling solo dungeon, a max-level solo dungeon, a max-degree group dungeon, and a new raid occasion, all of which have been based mostly across the Jason Momoa Conan movie that debuted within the summer time of 2011.
January saw the introduction of the long-awaited Home of Crom dungeon. Sadly (or fortuitously, depending on how you have a look at it), this occurred after my personal AoC sabbatical, so I've yet to cover the dungeon right here in the pages of The Anvil of Crom. That shall be remedied in short order, though, and in the meantime, you'll be able to learn all about it on the game's official webpage.
March introduced us the brand new Jade Citadel raids, also fodder for a future column installment or four. The Priest of Mitra class was given an intensive makeover on this update too, and that brings us up to the current day.
As per AoC anniversary tradition, I had a chance to ask just a few questions of govt producer Craig Morrison. Keep studying to see what he has to say concerning the upcoming crafting revamp plus a whole lot extra.
Massively: Is there any overlap between the AoC and TSW dev teams? Any cross-pollination of concepts? For instance, TSW's crafting system appears pretty nifty. Any likelihood that AoC's upcoming revamp shares anything in widespread with it or is impressed by it in any manner?
Craig Morrison: The teams are run independently and have their very own sources and administration. Do not forget that we each run on the identical expertise platform, which is independently developed by one other separate department, so we get many inherent upgrades merely through that process. In that method, there are various shared initiatives and issues. Meaning we may use the same Dreamworld characteristic in other ways, simply as we are going to with the one server expertise that's at present within the works. It is a cool state of affairs for a sport of our age to be in because it means we can typically take advantage of some pretty cool technical work that we simply would not be capable to afford in any other case.
In terms of the crafting system, that is something very distinctive to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it got here to their form- and site-based crafting, and it's a cool system, really good fun to play with. On the other hand, I am really wanting ahead to the new system for Conan. We're looking back a bit extra, taking our inspiration from video games like Star Wars Galaxies and the other earlier MMOs, with a concentrate on components and discovering one of the best combos. That adds a layer of depth that you don't find in the opposite fashionable MMOs which have used more simple checklist type crafting programs, the place you get the same results all the time.
Personally I think it's thrilling to see proper crafting making a comeback in our video games. Each approaches have benefit, and I believe what the crew is cooking up for Conan is more fitted to the barely more stat-based level development we have now in Conan, as opposed to the flatter system in TSW. However, both programs are putting a premium on true experimentation and asking gamers to suppose and discover the system moderately than just read an ingredient listing. I feel it's something that MMOs can benefit from exploring again.
In regard to a high-stage view of the crafting revamp, how much can we expect crafters to be necessary to the in-sport economy? Will gamers have the ability to get end-recreation gear and consumables from crafters, or will these objects stay completely loot-drops?
The aim is for the crafted goods to be competitive will all but the better of the endgame gear, and maybe even in some situations, provide a few of the best items, though I don't think I would like to cast that as a particular in one course or another and make some type of sweeping blanket statement.
What I will say is that we're aiming for the items to be useful for veterans and endgame and that the freedom it would characterize will permit those that focus on it to make the best gadgets. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship there, where some of the higher items will come from crafters, and crafters will need the assistance of the raiders to gather some of the rarer substances.
Can you give us any hints about the next adventure pack? What a part of Hyboria will it cover (geographically, even a basic area if you cannot get specific)? Can we anticipate it in 2012?
We aren't revealing the precise location of the pack simply yet, but as we teased within the last improvement letter, we're trying south again, close to one in all the unique sport areas.
The adventure pack is currently aimed for the tip of the 12 months, yes. The group is at present laborious at work on it so that we can release it toward the end of Q4.
South, you say? Stygian content is fairly barren compared to the sport's other zones. There's Khemi and Khopshef for ranges 20-35 or so, and then Kheshatta from 70-80. Is the adventure pack set there, or are there any plans so as to add some more Stygian content between, say, forty and 70?
I think we addressed that stage vary in different playfields, like Ymir's Go and Tarantia Commons. I don't think we ever set as much as necessarily have an equal variety of locations in every of the games territories, partly for visible and cultural variety and partly to cover some totally different ideas and ideas from Howard's Hyboria.
Since we are looking south, yes, the adventure pack content could effectively stray close by geographically, however the cultural and mythos that will influence it's one other beast altogether. Anticipate to listen to extra in regards to the adventure pack a bit later in the summer time. Whereas the manufacturing teams are separate, as we talked about above, since we're an independent studio, all of our central groups are shared, so the marketing and PR of us are a contact busy proper now with the launch of The key World, so we'll hold the journey pack reveal until after that.
There's a perception out there that because of the perceived inadequacies of AoC's launch, the game isn't price checking out even 4 years later. Why do you think that is, and would you agree that MMOs like AoC are completely totally different animals from their launch builds?
MMOs always evolve. That is among the few constants within the genre. Personally I always attempt and take a look at video games a second or third time, and I think many veterans are the same. We are also helped by the fact that thanks to the Dreamworld engine, the sport still seems aggressive with latest releases. In fact the issues that the sport had at launch does have an impact on some veterans' opinions, and that is an anticipated part of working in that genre.
I don't think you'll be able to hold it in opposition to anybody, at the end of the day there have been very excessive expectations for that launch, and the original staff fell simply short of some of those expectations. It's pure that some players will not offer you a second likelihood. You won't ever, ever, win everybody back over. However, it's somewhat of a shame because MMO titles do evolve. As long as you at all times concentrate on improving the sport and adding content material, then there's a continuing stream of people who come back to check out the sport again.
In actual fact, those players usually find yourself as a few of your most loyal followers after that because someone who had an issue with the game and returns to see the issues that they had resolved appreciates how far you could have come. After all, that fluctuates for each participant; some really like the modifications while some feel a sport might have moved away from what they preferred about it, but overall we usually hear fairly good things from those that had extended absences from the game. They come back, and they remember just how a lot they preferred the combat system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria gives.
Any plans to adjust the free-to-play offerings within the close to future, or is Funcom pretty happy with the amount of access Unchained gamers at the moment have?
Total we are pretty pleased, however we could consider some tweaks and adjustments. As a part of the birthday celebrations for example, we are giving free players the power to seize permanent entry to the premium dungeons from the original sport, so we're open to persevering with to evolve the free participant providing so that the game remains aggressive. I feel free players in Age of Conan Unchained have one of the vital open techniques on the market.
No obligatory quest or progression content material blocks until they attain max stage is a pretty sweet deal, one that offers more than many other F2P titles. It's an ever extra aggressive market, although, so we will definitely proceed to vary issues up as and after we see match to be able to appeal to the ever-growing and ever-more-demanding military of free gamers on the market.
Nevertheless, one vital point is that we really want to be able to avoid having to go down the whole pay-to-win path. We've been very careful to avoid that for a motive, so we wish to take care of the value to gamers of being premium members. That in turn means that you just can't give all the pieces away free of charge unless you are prepared to fully embrace a pay-to-win method, and that is not somewhere I would be comfy taking the game.
What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to offer that at some point?
The alternate advancement system was designed to not need "respecs" as you possibly can in spite of everything simply earn more points since there is no such thing as a steep curve in the development, and it's a flat worth. So at a fundamental degree, there are no plans to allow for players to re-use already spent factors.
If we added a respec we might have to think about all the set-up, since players would then never must get beyond X variety of feats they've decided are optimal for various situations, and they might just change between them. That said, in fact you do not need to stand in the best way of gamers feeling they can progress, so we may take a look at it from another angle, be that some form of changes to the AA progression, or maybe sooner or later, some form of a number of-specification system as we are doing for feats.
Lastly, nearly as good as the questing and the storyline in Tortage is, some of us have actually run it two dozen times now on various alts. Any chance veterans would possibly get a "skip Tortage" capability in some unspecified time in the future?
Sure, I might love to get something like that in at some stage. We now have talked about it a few instances, but it tends to be one of those issues that loses out in the precedence conversations. As we transfer in direction of a fifth yr, it's going to hopefully be one thing we can sneak in at some stage.
Sounds good -- we're looking ahead to the following 12 months!
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In addition to providing us with an interview scoop, Funcom has also thrown some prizes our method to give to Massively readers. We've got 10 codes that grant 4 months of premium time to any existing account. If you don't have an present account, you can always create a free one and apply the codes from there.
How do you get your hands on one of these codes? Merely watch our Fb and Twitter pages the place we'll give out all codes from now till Friday evening. Better of luck!
Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran as properly because the creator of Massively's bi-weekly Anvil of Crom. Feel free to recommend a column subject, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via [email protected].
