The final time I did an anniversary retrospective for Age of Conan, we had a latest enlargement, some new dungeon content, and a number of other class revamps recent on our minds. The 12 months earlier than that, we had the earth-shaking combat and itemization modifications. This previous year, the foremost development was, of course, the change to a freemium enterprise mannequin, followed intently by the sport's first journey pack.
Be part of me after the break for a quick rundown on the last 12 months as they occurred in Hyboria, in addition to an anniversary interview with game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison that sheds a bit of mild on the crafting revamp.
The end of June saw AoC be part of the ranks of Western freemium converts with the Unchained replace. The majority of the original Hyborian Adventures campaign was made freely accessible to all comers, together with 4 of the sport's 12 classes. The sport's 2.6 patch also brought us the Breach and Forgotten City dungeons in Khitai as well as look armor functionality (and there was a lot rejoicing).
A week later, Funcom threw a bone to its hardcore PvP crowd with the introduction of the Blood and Glory special ruleset servers. Deathwish and Rage have been initially quite well-liked, and Funcom also hinted at some curious instancing tech within the works. We haven't heard a lot about it since, however I anticipate that we'll study extra this summer time 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 correct expansion however too big for a simple "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this will likely be the primary distribution model going forward.
We bought a brand new level 50 to 55 playfield with a ton of quests, a stage 50 to eighty scaling solo dungeon, a max-level solo dungeon, a max-level group dungeon, and a new raid occasion, all of which have been based mostly across the Jason Momoa Conan film that debuted within the summer season of 2011.
January saw the introduction of the long-awaited House of Crom dungeon. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how minecraft survival games servers look at it), this happened after my personal AoC sabbatical, so I've yet to cowl the dungeon here within the pages of The Anvil of Crom. That will likely be remedied in brief order, although, and within the meantime, you'll be able to read all about it on the game's official webpage.
March brought us the brand new Jade Citadel raids, also fodder for a future column installment or 4. The Priest of Mitra class was given an intensive makeover on this update too, and that brings us up to the present day.
As per AoC anniversary tradition, I had a chance to ask just a few questions of government producer Craig Morrison. Keep studying to see what he has to say concerning the upcoming crafting revamp plus an entire lot extra.
Massively: Is there any overlap between the AoC and TSW dev teams? Any cross-pollination of ideas? For example, TSW's crafting system appears to be like fairly nifty. Any likelihood that AoC's upcoming revamp shares something in frequent with it or is impressed by it in any means?
Craig Morrison: The teams are run independently and have their own assets and administration. Keep in mind that we both run on the identical technology platform, which is independently developed by another separate department, so we get many inherent upgrades simply by means of that course of. In that method, there are numerous shared initiatives and considerations. That means we could use the same Dreamworld function in different ways, just as we are going to with the one server expertise that's at present in the works. It's a cool scenario for a recreation of our age to be in as a result of it means we are able to typically reap the benefits of some pretty cool technical work that we simply wouldn't be capable of afford in any other case.
In terms of the crafting system, that is something very unique to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it got here to their form- and site-based mostly crafting, and it is a cool system, actually good enjoyable to play with. Alternatively, I am actually wanting forward to the brand new system for Conan. We're wanting again a bit more, taking our inspiration from games like Star Wars Galaxies and the opposite earlier MMOs, with a focus on components and finding the most effective combinations. That provides a layer of depth that you don't find in the opposite fashionable MMOs which have used more simple list type crafting programs, the place you get the identical results the entire time.
Personally I feel it's thrilling to see proper crafting making a comeback in our games. Both approaches have benefit, and I believe what the staff is cooking up for Conan is extra suited to the slightly extra stat-based level development we've in Conan, as opposed to the flatter system in TSW. Nevertheless, each programs are putting a premium on true experimentation and asking players to assume and discover the system quite than simply read an ingredient itemizing. I feel it is something that MMOs can benefit from exploring once more.
In regard to a high-level view of the crafting revamp, how a lot can we anticipate crafters to be necessary to the in-recreation economy? Will gamers be able to get end-game gear and consumables from crafters, or will those gadgets stay completely loot-drops?
The goal is for the crafted items to be aggressive will all however the best of the endgame gear, and perhaps even in some cases, present some of one of the best gadgets, although I don't suppose I wish to forged that as a definite in one path or one other and make some kind of sweeping blanket assertion.
What I will say is that we are aiming for the items to be useful for veterans and endgame and that the freedom it would symbolize will permit those that deal with it to make the best gadgets. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship there, the place a few of the better objects will come from crafters, and crafters will need the assistance of the raiders to collect a number of the rarer elements.
Can you give us any hints about the subsequent journey pack? What part of Hyboria will it cover (geographically, even a normal area if you can't get particular)? Can we count on it in 2012?
We aren't revealing the exact location of the pack just yet, but as we teased in the last growth letter, we're wanting south again, near considered one of the original game areas.
The adventure pack is at present aimed for the top of the yr, sure. The group is at present laborious at work on it so that we will launch it towards the tip of Q4.
South, you say? Stygian content is pretty barren in comparison with the sport's different zones. There's Khemi and Khopshef for ranges 20-35 or so, after which Kheshatta from 70-80. Is the journey pack set there, or are there any plans to add some extra Stygian content between, say, forty and 70?
I believe we addressed that stage vary in other playfields, like Ymir's Pass and Tarantia Commons. I do not think we ever set up to necessarily have an equal variety of locations in each of the video games territories, partly for visible and cultural variety and partly to cowl some totally different concepts and ideas from Howard's Hyboria.
Since we're wanting south, yes, the journey pack content material could effectively stray close by geographically, however the cultural and mythos that can affect it is another beast altogether. Count on to hear more in regards to the journey pack a bit later within the summer time. While the production groups are separate, as we talked about above, since we're an unbiased studio, all of our central groups are shared, so the advertising and marketing and PR people are a touch busy proper now with the launch of The secret World, so we'll hold the journey pack reveal till after that.
There's a perception out there that because of the perceived inadequacies of AoC's launch, the sport isn't price testing even four years later. Why do you suppose that is, and would you agree that MMOs like AoC are utterly different animals from their launch builds?
MMOs at all times evolve. That is without doubt one of the few constants in the style. Personally I all the time try and check out video games a second or third time, and I believe many veterans are the identical. We are also helped by the fact that due to the Dreamworld engine, the game still looks aggressive with recent releases. After all the issues that the game had at launch does have an effect on some veterans' opinions, and that is an anticipated a part of working in that genre.
I do not suppose you can hold it in opposition to anyone, at the end of the day there have been very excessive expectations for that launch, and the unique staff fell just wanting some of those expectations. It is pure that some players won't offer you a second probability. You will never, ever, win everyone again over. Alternatively, it is considerably of a disgrace as a result of MMO titles do evolve. As long as you always focus on bettering the sport and including content, then there's a relentless move of people that come again to take a look at the sport once more.
In actual fact, these players usually find yourself as a few of your most loyal followers after that as a result of someone who had a problem with the sport and returns to see the problems they'd resolved appreciates how far you've gotten come. Of course, that fluctuates for every participant; some actually like the adjustments whereas some really feel a sport might have moved away from what they appreciated about it, but total we typically hear pretty good issues from those that had prolonged absences from the game. They arrive again, and so they remember simply how a lot they favored the fight system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria provides.
Any plans to adjust the free-to-play offerings within the close to future, or is Funcom fairly happy with the amount of entry Unchained gamers presently have?
Overall we're fairly comfortable, however we could consider some tweaks and adjustments. As part of the birthday celebrations for instance, we're giving free players the power to seize everlasting access to the premium dungeons from the unique recreation, so we're open to continuing to evolve the free participant providing in order that the sport remains aggressive. I believe free players in Age of Conan Unchained have one of the open programs out there.
No necessary quest or development content material blocks till they reach max degree is a pretty sweet deal, one that provides greater than many other F2P titles. It is an ever more competitive market, although, so we will certainly continue to change things up as and once we see match so as to attraction to the ever-growing and ever-extra-demanding army of free players on the market.
Nevertheless, one necessary level is that we actually need to have the ability to avoid having to go down the whole pay-to-win path. We've been very careful to keep away from that for a cause, so we want to keep up the worth to gamers of being premium members. That in turn means that you just can't give the whole lot away totally free until you might be willing to totally embrace a pay-to-win strategy, and that isn't somewhere I'd be comfy taking the sport.
What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to supply that at some point?
The alternate development system was designed to not need "respecs" as you can in spite of everything simply earn extra factors since there is no steep curve in the progression, and it is a flat value. So at a basic degree, there are no plans to allow for players to re-use already spent points.
If we added a respec we'd have to consider all the set-up, since players would then by no means must get past X number of feats they have decided are optimal for various conditions, and they'd just change between them. That said, after all you don't want to face in the best way of gamers feeling they will progress, so we could have a look at it from one other angle, be that some type of adjustments to the AA progression, or maybe in the future, some type of a number of-specification system as we are doing for feats.
Finally, nearly as good as the questing and the storyline in Tortage is, some of us have literally run it two dozen occasions now on varied alts. Any likelihood veterans would possibly get a "skip Tortage" means sooner or later?
Sure, I'd love to get one thing like that in at some stage. Now we have talked about it a couple of times, but it tends to be a kind of things that loses out within the precedence conversations. As we transfer in direction of a fifth yr, it can hopefully be something we are able to sneak in at some stage.
Sounds good -- we're looking forward to the following 12 months!
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Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran as well because the creator of Massively's bi-weekly Anvil of Crom. Be happy to recommend a column matter, propose a information, or carry out a verbal fatality by way of jef@massively.com.