The Anvil Of Crom Age Of Conan Turns 4 Taps SWG For Crafting Inspiration
The last time I did an anniversary retrospective for Age of Conan, we had a latest growth, some new dungeon content material, and a number of other class revamps recent on our minds. The yr before that, we had the earth-shaking fight and itemization changes. This previous year, the major development was, of course, the change to a freemium enterprise model, adopted intently by the game's first journey pack.
Be part of me after the break for a quick rundown on the final 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 mild on the crafting revamp.
The top of June noticed AoC join the ranks of Western freemium converts with the Unchained update. The vast majority of the original Hyborian Adventures campaign was made freely obtainable to all comers, along with 4 of the sport's 12 classes. The game's 2.6 patch additionally introduced us the Breach and Forgotten Metropolis dungeons in Khitai in addition to appearance armor performance (and there was much rejoicing).
Every 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 had been initially fairly popular, and Funcom additionally hinted at some curious instancing tech within the works. We haven't heard much about it since, however I expect that we'll study more this summer time after the launch of The secret World. Atlwood
The tip of August brought us AoC's first adventure pack. The Savage Coast of Turan was too small to be referred to as a proper growth however too big for a easy "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this will likely be the primary distribution mannequin going ahead.
We acquired a brand new level 50 to fifty five playfield with a ton of quests, a level 50 to eighty scaling solo dungeon, a max-stage solo dungeon, a max-level group dungeon, and a brand new raid occasion, all of which have been primarily based around the Jason Momoa Conan movie that debuted within the summer of 2011.
January noticed the introduction of the long-awaited Home of Crom dungeon. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the way you have a look at it), this occurred after my personal AoC sabbatical, so I've but to cover the dungeon right here within the pages of The Anvil of Crom. That can be remedied in brief order, though, and within the meantime, you possibly can learn all about it on the sport's official webpage.
March brought us the new Jade Citadel raids, additionally 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 as much as the present day.
As per AoC anniversary tradition, I had an opportunity to ask just a few questions of govt producer Craig Morrison. Keep studying to see what he has to say about the upcoming crafting revamp plus a whole lot extra.
Massively: Is there any overlap between the AoC and TSW dev groups? Any cross-pollination of ideas? For instance, TSW's crafting system seems to be fairly nifty. Any likelihood that AoC's upcoming revamp shares something in widespread with it or is impressed by it in any approach?
Craig Morrison: The groups are run independently and have their own assets and administration. Remember that we each run on the identical know-how platform, which is independently developed by one other separate department, so we get many inherent upgrades simply via that course of. In that approach, there are a lot of shared initiatives and considerations. Which means we might use the same Dreamworld feature in other ways, just as we will with the one server technology that's presently within the works. It is a cool scenario for a recreation of our age to be in as a result of it means we can typically make the most of some fairly cool technical work that we simply wouldn't be capable of afford otherwise.
By way of the crafting system, that is one thing very unique to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it got here to their form- and placement-based crafting, and it's a cool system, actually good fun to play with. However, I'm really looking ahead to the brand new system for Conan. We're trying back a bit extra, taking our inspiration from games like Star Wars Galaxies and the other earlier MMOs, with a concentrate on elements and finding the very best combos. That provides a layer of depth that you don't discover in the opposite fashionable MMOs which have used more simple record sort crafting methods, where you get the same results all the time.
Personally I feel it is exciting to see correct crafting making a comeback in our video games. Each approaches have merit, and I think what the crew is cooking up for Conan is more fitted to the slightly more stat-primarily based degree progression now we have in Conan, versus the flatter system in TSW. Nevertheless, each methods are putting a premium on true experimentation and asking gamers to suppose and explore the system moderately than simply learn an ingredient itemizing. I really feel it is one thing that MMOs can benefit from exploring once more.
In regard to a high-level view of the crafting revamp, how a lot can we expect crafters to be essential to the in-recreation economic system? Will players be capable to get finish-sport gear and consumables from crafters, or will these objects remain exclusively loot-drops?
The intention is for the crafted goods to be aggressive will all however the better of the endgame gear, and possibly even in some instances, provide some of one of the best gadgets, though I do not assume I would like to solid that as a particular in a single route or one other and make some form of sweeping blanket assertion.
What I'll say is that we are aiming for the gadgets to be helpful for veterans and endgame and that the liberty it would signify will allow those who focus on it to make one of the best items. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship there, the place a few of the higher objects will come from crafters, and crafters will need the help of the raiders to gather a few 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 space if you can't get specific)? Can we expect it in 2012?
We aren't revealing the exact location of the pack simply but, however as we teased in the final development letter, we're looking south once more, near one in every of the unique game areas.The adventure pack is at present aimed for the end of the yr, sure. The crew is currently onerous at work on it in order that we are able to release it toward the end of Q4.
South, you say? Stygian content is pretty 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 journey pack set there, or are there any plans to add some more Stygian content material between, say, forty and 70?
I believe we addressed that degree vary in other playfields, like Ymir's Pass and Tarantia Commons. I don't suppose we ever set as much as necessarily have an equal variety of locations in each of the video games territories, partly for visual and cultural diversity and partly to cover some totally different concepts and ideas from Howard's Hyboria.
Since we are looking south, yes, the adventure pack content material could effectively stray nearby geographically, but the cultural and mythos that can influence it is one other beast altogether. Count on to hear extra about the journey pack a bit later in the summer season. While the production teams are separate, as we talked about above, since we're an impartial studio, all of our central groups are shared, so the 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 until after that.
There is a notion on the market 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 fully totally different animals from their launch builds?
MMOs at all times evolve. That is among the few constants in the genre. Personally I all the time try and check out video games a second or third time, and I feel many veterans are the same. We are additionally helped by the fact that thanks to the Dreamworld engine, the game nonetheless appears competitive with latest releases. In fact the problems that the game had at launch does have an impact on some veterans' opinions, and that is an expected part of working in that style.
I do not assume you may hold it towards anyone, at the top of the day there were very excessive expectations for that launch, and the unique crew fell just wanting some of these expectations. It is pure that some gamers will not give you a second chance. You won't ever, ever, win everybody again over. On the other hand, it is somewhat of a disgrace because MMO titles do evolve. So long as you at all times focus on bettering the game and including content, then there is a continuing flow of people that come again to take a look at the game again.
In fact, those players typically find yourself as some of your most loyal followers after that as a result of someone who had a problem with the game and returns to see the issues they had resolved appreciates how far you might have come. After all, that fluctuates for each player; some really just like the changes whereas some feel a game may need moved away from what they appreciated about it, but general we usually hear pretty good things from those who had prolonged absences from the game. They arrive again, and so they remember just how much they preferred the fight system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria presents.
Any plans to regulate the free-to-play choices within the close to future, or is Funcom pretty proud of the quantity of access Unchained gamers currently have?
Overall we're fairly blissful, but we may consider some tweaks and adjustments. As part of the birthday celebrations for example, we're giving free gamers the flexibility to grab everlasting access to the premium dungeons from the original recreation, so we are open to persevering with to evolve the free player providing so that the sport remains aggressive. I feel free gamers in Age of Conan Unchained have some of the open methods on the market.
No obligatory quest or progression content material blocks until they attain max level is a reasonably sweet deal, one that offers more than many different F2P titles. It is an ever extra competitive market, although, so we will certainly continue to change things up as and when we see match to be able to enchantment to the ever-growing and ever-more-demanding military of free players out there.
However, one necessary point is that we really need to be able to avoid having to go down the entire pay-to-win path. We have now been very cautious to keep away from that for a purpose, so we want to maintain the worth to gamers of being premium members. That in flip means that you simply can't give everything away without cost until you're keen to fully embrace a pay-to-win method, and that isn't somewhere I would be snug taking the sport.
What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to supply that sooner or later?
The alternate advancement system was designed to not want "respecs" as you may after all simply earn more factors since there isn't a steep curve in the progression, and it's a flat value. So at a basic stage, there are not any plans to allow for players to re-use already spent factors.
If we added a respec we'd have to contemplate the complete set-up, since players would then never have to get past X variety of feats they've determined are optimum for various conditions, and they'd just switch between them. That said, in fact you don't need to stand in the way of gamers feeling they can progress, so we could look at it from one other angle, be that some form of adjustments to the AA progression, or possibly sooner or later, some form of a number of-specification system as we're doing for feats.
Lastly, pretty much as good as the questing and the storyline in Tortage is, a few of us have literally run it two dozen times now on varied alts. Any probability veterans would possibly get a "skip Tortage" means sooner or later?
Yes, I'd love to get one thing like that in at some stage. We've got talked about it just a few instances, nevertheless it tends to be a kind of issues that loses out in the precedence conversations. As we transfer in the direction of a fifth 12 months, it's going to hopefully be something we can sneak in at some stage.
Sounds good -- we're looking ahead to the next 12 months!
In addition to offering us with an interview scoop, Funcom has additionally thrown some prizes our way to provide to Massively readers. We have 10 codes that grant four months of premium time to any present account. If you don't have an existing account, you may at all times create a free one and apply the codes from there.
How do you get your hands on one of these codes? Merely watch our Facebook and Twitter pages the place we'll give out all codes from now until Friday night. Better of luck!
Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran as effectively as the creator of Massively's bi-weekly Anvil of Crom. MINECRAFT SERVERS Feel free to suggest a column topic, suggest a information, or carry out a verbal fatality through [email protected].
