The Anvil Of Crom: Age Of Conan Turns 4, Taps SWG For Crafting Inspiration

The final time I did an anniversary retrospective for Age of Conan, we had a recent enlargement, 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 combat and itemization changes. This past 12 months, the most important development was, of course, the change to a freemium business mannequin, adopted carefully 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 occurred in Hyboria, as well as an anniversary interview with recreation director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison that sheds a little bit of gentle on the crafting revamp.

The tip of June noticed AoC be a part of the ranks of Western freemium converts with the Unchained update. The vast majority of the unique Hyborian Adventures campaign was made freely obtainable to all comers, along with 4 of the game's 12 courses. The sport's 2.6 patch additionally introduced us the Breach and Forgotten City dungeons in Khitai in addition to look armor functionality (and there was much rejoicing).

Per 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 quite well-liked, and Funcom additionally hinted at some curious instancing tech within the works. We haven't heard much about it since, however I anticipate that we'll study more this summer time after the launch of The secret World.

The tip of August introduced us AoC's first journey pack. The Savage Coast of Turan was too small to be known as a proper growth but too large for a easy "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this will likely be the primary distribution mannequin going forward.

We obtained a brand new stage 50 to 55 playfield with a ton of quests, a level 50 to 80 scaling solo dungeon, a max-stage solo dungeon, a max-stage group dungeon, and a new raid instance, all of which were primarily based around the Jason Momoa Conan film that debuted in the summer time of 2011.

January saw the introduction of the lengthy-awaited House of Crom dungeon. Unfortunately (or fortuitously, relying on how you look at it), this occurred after my personal AoC sabbatical, so I've but to cowl the dungeon here within the pages of The Anvil of Crom. That shall be remedied in brief order, although, and in the meantime, you'll be able to read all about it on the sport's official website.

March introduced 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 in this update too, and that brings us up to the present day.

As per AoC anniversary tradition, I had a chance to ask a few questions of govt producer Craig Morrison. Keep reading to see what he has to say in regards to the upcoming crafting revamp plus a complete lot more.

Massively: Is there any overlap between the AoC and TSW dev teams? Any cross-pollination of concepts? For instance, TSW's crafting system seems fairly nifty. Any probability that AoC's upcoming revamp shares something in common with it or is inspired by it in any approach?

Craig Morrison: The groups are run independently and have their own assets and management. Keep in mind that we each run on the same technology platform, which is independently developed by another separate department, so we get many inherent upgrades simply by means of that process. In that means, there are a lot of shared initiatives and issues. Meaning we could use the same Dreamworld function in different ways, simply as we will with the only server expertise that's currently in the works. It's a cool state of affairs for a game of our age to be in as a result of it means we can generally reap the benefits of some fairly cool technical work that we simply would not have the ability to afford otherwise.

By way of the crafting system, that's something very distinctive to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it got here to their form- and location-based crafting, and it is a cool system, really good enjoyable to play with. However, I'm really wanting forward to the new system for Conan. We're looking again a bit extra, taking our inspiration from video games like Star Wars Galaxies and the opposite earlier MMOs, with a give attention to ingredients and discovering the very best mixtures. That provides a layer of depth that you don't find in the other fashionable MMOs that have used more easy record kind crafting programs, where you get the same outcomes the entire time.

Personally I believe it is exciting to see correct crafting making a comeback in our video games. Each approaches have merit, and I think what the staff is cooking up for Conan is extra fitted to the barely more stat-based degree progression we've got in Conan, as opposed to the flatter system in TSW. However, both systems are putting a premium on true experimentation and asking players to suppose and discover the system slightly than simply learn an ingredient listing. I feel it is one thing that MMOs can profit from exploring again.

In regard to a excessive-level view of the crafting revamp, how much can we count on crafters to be necessary to the in-game economy? Will players have the ability to get end-recreation gear and consumables from crafters, or will these gadgets remain completely loot-drops?

The intention is for the crafted goods to be competitive will all however the best of the endgame gear, and perhaps even in some instances, provide a few of one of the best items, though I do not think I would like to cast that as a particular in a single route or one other and make some type of sweeping blanket statement.

What I will say is that we are aiming for the objects to be helpful for veterans and endgame and that the liberty it is going to signify will allow those that concentrate on it to make the perfect 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 help of the raiders to collect among the rarer ingredients.

Are you able to give us any hints about the next adventure pack? What a part of Hyboria will it cover (geographically, even a general area if you can't get particular)? Can we anticipate it in 2012?

We aren't revealing the exact location of the pack simply yet, but as we teased in the last growth letter, we're looking south once more, near one in every of the original game areas.
The adventure pack is presently aimed for the end of the year, yes. The group is presently onerous at work on it so that we will launch it toward the end of Q4.

South, you say? Stygian content material is pretty barren in comparison with the sport's other 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 extra Stygian content between, say, forty and 70?

I think we addressed that degree range in other playfields, like Ymir's Cross and Tarantia Commons. I do not suppose we ever set as much as necessarily have an equal number of areas in each of the video games territories, partly for visible and cultural variety and partly to cowl some totally different ideas and ideas from Howard's Hyboria.

Since we're trying south, sure, the journey pack content material may properly stray close by geographically, however the cultural and mythos that may affect it's another beast altogether. Anticipate to listen to extra concerning 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 independent studio, all of our central groups are shared, so the advertising and marketing and PR folks are a touch busy right now with the launch of The key World, so we'll hold the adventure pack reveal till after that.

There is a perception out there that due to the perceived inadequacies of AoC's launch, the game is not worth checking out even four years later. Why do you suppose that's, and would you agree that MMOs like AoC are fully completely different animals from their launch builds?

MMOs always evolve. That is among the few constants within the style. Personally I all the time try and take a look at games a second or third time, and I think many veterans are the same. We're additionally helped by the truth that due to the Dreamworld engine, the game still seems to be aggressive with recent releases. Of course the problems that the sport had at launch does have an effect on some veterans' opinions, and that is an anticipated part of working in that style.

I do not suppose you'll be able to hold it in opposition to anyone, at the tip of the day there were very high expectations for that launch, and the unique team fell simply in need of some of those expectations. It's pure that some players won't give you a second probability. You will never, ever, win everybody back over. However, it's somewhat of a disgrace as a result of MMO titles do evolve. So long as you all the time concentrate on enhancing the sport and including content, then there is a relentless circulation of people who come back to take a look at the game once more.

In truth, these gamers usually find yourself as some of your most loyal followers after that because somebody who had an issue with the game and returns to see the problems they had resolved appreciates how far you've come. Of course, that fluctuates for every participant; some actually like the adjustments while some really feel a recreation may need moved away from what they preferred about it, however general we usually hear fairly good issues from those that had extended absences from the game. They come again, and they remember just how a lot they favored the fight system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria gives.

Any plans to regulate the free-to-play choices within the near future, or is Funcom fairly happy with the quantity of entry Unchained gamers at present have?

General we're fairly completely satisfied, but we might consider some tweaks and changes. As a part of the birthday celebrations for instance, we're giving free gamers the flexibility to grab everlasting access to the premium dungeons from the original sport, so we're open to persevering with to evolve the free player providing so that the game stays competitive. I feel free players in Age of Conan Unchained have one of the vital open systems out there.

No obligatory quest or development content blocks till they reach max stage is a fairly candy deal, one that provides greater than many other F2P titles. It is an ever more competitive market, though, so we will certainly proceed to change issues up as and when we see fit with a view to enchantment to the ever-rising and ever-more-demanding military of free players out there.

Nonetheless, one vital point is that we really want to have the ability to avoid having to go down the whole pay-to-win path. We have now been very cautious to keep away from that for a motive, so we would like to maintain the value to players of being premium members. That in flip means that you simply can't give all the things away free of charge unless you might be keen to totally embrace a pay-to-win method, and that isn't somewhere I would be comfortable taking the sport.

What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to offer that at some point?

The alternate advancement system was designed to not want "respecs" as you may after all merely earn extra points since there isn't any steep curve in the progression, and it's a flat value. So at a basic degree, there are no plans to permit for gamers to re-use already spent points.

If we added a respec we'd have to consider your complete set-up, since gamers would then never need to get beyond X variety of feats they've determined are optimal for different conditions, and they would simply switch between them. That stated, after all you don't need to face in the best way of players feeling they can progress, so we could have a look at it from another angle, be that some form of adjustments to the AA development, or perhaps 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 actually run it two dozen instances now on varied alts. Any chance veterans might get a "skip Tortage" means at some point?

Sure, I would like to get something like that in at some stage. We've got talked about it a few instances, but it surely tends to be a kind of things that loses out in the precedence conversations. As we transfer in direction of a fifth yr, it would hopefully be something we can sneak in at some stage.

Sounds good -- we're wanting ahead to the next 12 months!

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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. Be happy to counsel a column matter, propose a guide, or perform a verbal fatality through jef@massively.com.