The last time I did an anniversary retrospective for Age of Conan, we had a recent growth, some new dungeon content material, and a number of other class revamps recent on our minds. The year before that, we had the earth-shaking combat and itemization modifications. This past year, the most important growth was, after all, the change to a freemium business model, adopted carefully by the game's first journey pack.
Join me after the break for a quick rundown on the last 12 months as they happened in Hyboria, in addition to an anniversary interview with recreation director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison that sheds a little bit of gentle on the crafting revamp.
The top of June saw AoC be a part of the ranks of Western freemium converts with the Unchained update. The vast majority of the unique Hyborian Adventures marketing campaign was made freely obtainable to all comers, along with 4 of the sport's 12 courses. The game's 2.6 patch additionally brought us the Breach and Forgotten Metropolis dungeons in Khitai in addition to look armor functionality (and there was a lot rejoicing).
Per 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 were initially fairly in style, and Funcom additionally hinted at some curious instancing tech in the works. We have not heard much about it since, however I count on that we'll be taught extra this summer time after the launch of The secret World.
The tip of August brought us AoC's first journey pack. The Savage Coast of Turan was too small to be known as a proper expansion but too massive for a easy "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this will probably be the first distribution mannequin going ahead.
We bought a brand new level 50 to fifty five playfield with a ton of quests, a stage 50 to 80 scaling solo dungeon, a max-degree solo dungeon, a max-level group dungeon, and a new raid instance, all of which had been based mostly across the Jason Momoa Conan movie that debuted in the summer of 2011.
January saw the introduction of the long-awaited Home of Crom dungeon. Sadly (or thankfully, depending on the way you have a look at it), this happened after my personal AoC sabbatical, so I've but to cover the dungeon here in the pages of The Anvil of Crom. That will likely be remedied briefly order, although, and within the meantime, you'll be able to learn all about it on the sport's official web site.
March introduced us the new Jade Citadel raids, also fodder for a future column installment or 4. The Priest of Mitra class was given an extensive makeover in this replace too, and that brings us up to the present day.
As per AoC anniversary tradition, I had a chance to ask a number of questions of govt producer Craig Morrison. Keep reading to see what he has to say about the upcoming crafting revamp plus a complete 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 seems fairly nifty. Any probability that AoC's upcoming revamp shares anything in widespread with it or is inspired by it in any method?
Craig Morrison: The teams are run independently and have their very own sources and management. Remember that we each run on the same technology platform, which is independently developed by another separate department, so we get many inherent upgrades merely via that course of. In that means, there are various shared initiatives and concerns. Which means we could use the same Dreamworld function in other ways, just as we are going to with the one server know-how that is at present within the works. It's a cool state of affairs for a recreation of our age to be in as a result of it means we will generally reap the benefits of some pretty cool technical work that we merely wouldn't be capable to afford otherwise.
In terms of the crafting system, that's something very unique to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it got here to their form- and placement-based crafting, and it is a cool system, really good enjoyable to play with. On the other hand, I am really trying ahead to the brand new system for Conan. We are looking again a bit more, taking our inspiration from video games like Star Wars Galaxies and the opposite earlier MMOs, with a concentrate on elements and discovering one of the best mixtures. That adds a layer of depth that you don't find in the opposite fashionable MMOs that have used more easy list kind crafting methods, where you get the same results all of the time.
Personally I think it is exciting to see proper crafting making a comeback in our video games. Both approaches have merit, and I believe what the group is cooking up for Conan is extra suited to the barely extra stat-based mostly level progression we've in Conan, versus the flatter system in TSW. Nonetheless, each methods are placing a premium on true experimentation and asking players to assume and discover the system rather than just read an ingredient listing. I feel it's one thing that MMOs can profit from exploring once more.
In regard to a excessive-degree view of the crafting revamp, how a lot can we expect crafters to be necessary to the in-recreation financial system? Will gamers be able to get finish-sport gear and consumables from crafters, or will those items stay completely loot-drops?
The intention is for the crafted items to be aggressive will all but the better of the endgame gear, and possibly even in some situations, present some of the very best items, although I don't think I wish to forged that as a definite in a single course or one other and make some kind of sweeping blanket assertion.
What I will say is that we are aiming for the objects to be useful for veterans and endgame and that the freedom it can signify will enable those who focus on it to make the best objects. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship there, where some of the better objects will come from crafters, and crafters will need the assistance of the raiders to collect a few of the rarer elements.
Can you give us any hints about the following adventure pack? What a part of Hyboria will it cowl (geographically, even a normal area if you cannot get specific)? Can we count on 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 looking south once more, close to considered one of the unique recreation areas.
The adventure pack is currently aimed for the tip of the yr, yes. The staff is at the moment onerous at work on it so that we are able to release it toward the top of Q4.
South, you say? Stygian content is fairly barren in comparison with the game's different zones. There's Khemi and Khopshef for levels 20-35 or so, after which Kheshatta from 70-80. Is the adventure pack set there, or are there any plans to add some more Stygian content between, say, 40 and 70?
I feel we addressed that stage vary in different playfields, like Ymir's Pass and Tarantia Commons. I do not assume we ever set as much as essentially have an equal number of areas in every of the video games territories, partly for visual and cultural diversity and partly to cowl some different ideas and ideas from Howard's Hyboria.
Since we're looking south, yes, the adventure pack content material might well stray close by geographically, however the cultural and mythos that can affect it is another beast altogether. Expect to hear extra concerning the journey pack a bit later in the summer. Whereas the manufacturing groups are separate, as we talked about above, since we're an independent studio, all of our central teams are shared, so the advertising and marketing and PR of us are a contact busy right now with the launch of The secret World, so we'll hold the journey pack reveal till after that.
There's a notion on the market that because of the perceived inadequacies of AoC's launch, the game isn't value testing even 4 years later. Why do you assume that is, and would you agree that MMOs like AoC are completely different animals from their launch builds?
MMOs always evolve. That is likely one of the few constants within the genre. Personally I all the time strive and check out video games a second or third time, and I think many veterans are the same. We're also helped by the truth that because of the Dreamworld engine, the sport nonetheless looks competitive with recent releases. After all the problems that the sport had at launch does have an effect on some veterans' opinions, and that's an anticipated part of working in that style.
I don't assume you'll be able to hold it in opposition to anyone, at the end of the day there were very high expectations for that launch, and the original crew fell simply in need of a few of those expectations. It is natural that some gamers will not provide you with a second chance. You won't ever, ever, win everyone again over. However, it's somewhat of a disgrace as a result of MMO titles do evolve. So long as you all the time deal with bettering the sport and including content material, then there's a relentless stream of people who come again to check out the sport once more.
In reality, these gamers often end up as some of your most loyal followers after that because someone who had a difficulty with the sport and returns to see the issues they had resolved appreciates how far you've gotten come. After all, that fluctuates for each player; some actually like the modifications while some really feel a recreation may need moved away from what they preferred about it, but overall we generally hear pretty good issues from those who had prolonged absences from the game. They come back, and they remember just how much they liked the combat system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria affords.
Any plans to regulate the free-to-play offerings within the near future, or is Funcom pretty proud of the quantity of access Unchained players at present have?
General we are pretty blissful, but we might consider some tweaks and adjustments. As part of the birthday celebrations for instance, we are giving free gamers the power to grab permanent access to the premium dungeons from the unique recreation, so we're open to persevering with to evolve the free participant offering so that the sport stays competitive. I feel free players in Age of Conan Unchained have one of the most open techniques on the market.
No necessary quest or development content blocks until they reach max level is a fairly candy deal, one that provides greater than many other F2P titles. It's an ever extra competitive market, although, so we will certainly proceed to change issues up as and after we see match so as to attraction to the ever-growing and ever-extra-demanding military of free players out there.
Nonetheless, one important level is that we really want to be able to avoid having to go down the whole pay-to-win path. Now we have been very cautious to keep away from that for a cause, so we wish to take care of the worth to players of being premium members. That in flip means that you just can't give everything away without cost until you might be keen to totally embrace a pay-to-win strategy, and that is not somewhere I might be snug taking the sport.
What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to offer that in some unspecified time in the future?
The alternate development system was designed to not want "respecs" as you possibly can after all merely earn more factors since there isn't a steep curve within the development, and it's a flat value. So at a fundamental level, there are not any plans to permit for players to re-use already spent points.
If we added a respec we'd have to contemplate the complete set-up, since gamers would then by no means need to get beyond X number of feats they've decided are optimum for different conditions, and they might simply switch between them. That stated, in fact you don't need to face in the best way of gamers feeling they'll progress, so we could take a look at it from one other angle, be that some form of adjustments to the AA development, or perhaps sooner or later, some form of multiple-specification system as we're doing for feats.
Lastly, nearly as good because the questing and the storyline in Tortage is, a few of us have literally run it two dozen occasions now on numerous alts. Any probability veterans might get a "skip Tortage" ability at some point?
Yes, I might like to get one thing like that in at some stage. We have talked about it a number of times, however it tends to be a type of issues that loses out in the precedence conversations. As we transfer in direction of a fifth yr, it would hopefully be one thing we are able to sneak in at some stage. more
Sounds good -- we're wanting forward to the following 12 months!
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Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran as nicely because the creator of Massively's bi-weekly Anvil of Crom. Be happy to suggest a column topic, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality via jef@massively.com.