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

The final time I did an anniversary retrospective for Age of Conan, we had a current expansion, some new dungeon content material, and a number of other class revamps contemporary on our minds. The yr earlier than that, we had the earth-shaking fight and itemization adjustments. This previous 12 months, the most important growth was, in fact, the change to a freemium enterprise model, adopted carefully by the sport''s first adventure 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 little bit of gentle 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 vast majority of the original Hyborian Adventures marketing campaign was made freely accessible to all comers, along with four of the game''s 12 lessons. The sport''s 2.6 patch also introduced us the Breach and Forgotten Metropolis dungeons in Khitai in addition to 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 fairly well-liked, and Funcom additionally hinted at some curious instancing tech in the works. We have not heard much about it since, but I anticipate that we''ll learn more this summer season after the launch of The key World.

The end of August introduced us AoC''s first journey pack. The Savage Coast of Turan was too small to be referred to as a proper expansion however too massive for a easy "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this will be the primary distribution mannequin going forward.

We got a new stage 50 to 55 playfield with a ton of quests, a degree 50 to eighty scaling solo dungeon, a max-degree solo dungeon, a max-degree group dungeon, and a brand new raid instance, all of which had been primarily based around the Jason Momoa Conan film that debuted in the summer season of 2011.

January saw the introduction of the lengthy-awaited Home of Crom dungeon. Unfortunately (or happily, relying on how you take 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 brief order, though, and within the meantime, you can read all about it on the sport''s official webpage.

March brought us the 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 as much as the current day.

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

Massively: Is there any overlap between the AoC and TSW dev teams? Any cross-pollination of concepts? For example, TSW''s crafting system appears to be like fairly nifty. Any chance that AoC''s upcoming revamp shares anything in widespread with it or is inspired by it in any manner?

Craig Morrison: The groups are run independently and have their very own assets and administration. Remember that we each run on the identical expertise platform, which is independently developed by one other separate division, so we get many inherent upgrades simply by that course of. In that method, there are a lot of shared initiatives and concerns. That means we may use the identical Dreamworld feature in other ways, simply as we are going to with the single server technology that''s currently in the works. It''s a cool situation for a sport of our age to be in as a result of it means we are able to generally benefit from some pretty cool technical work that we simply wouldn''t be capable to afford otherwise.

By way of the crafting system, that is something very unique to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it came to their form- and location-primarily based crafting, and it is a cool system, really good enjoyable to play with. Then again, I am actually wanting ahead to the brand new system for Conan. We are looking back a bit extra, taking our inspiration from games like Star Wars Galaxies and the other earlier MMOs, with a give attention to ingredients and finding the very best combos. That provides a layer of depth that you do not find in the opposite trendy MMOs that have used extra easy checklist kind crafting techniques, where you get the identical outcomes the entire time.

Personally I feel it''s exciting to see correct crafting making a comeback in our video games. Each approaches have advantage, and I feel what the crew is cooking up for Conan is extra suited for the barely more stat-based mostly stage development we have now in Conan, versus the flatter system in TSW. Nevertheless, each programs are placing a premium on true experimentation and asking gamers to think and discover the system fairly than just learn an ingredient itemizing. I feel it''s one thing that MMOs can profit from exploring once more.

In regard to a high-degree view of the crafting revamp, how a lot can we anticipate crafters to be necessary to the in-recreation financial system? Will players have the ability to get finish-recreation gear and consumables from crafters, or will these items stay solely loot-drops?

The purpose is for the crafted items to be aggressive will all however the best of the endgame gear, and maybe even in some cases, provide some of the very best items, although I don''t assume I want to solid that as a definite in one course or one other and make some kind of sweeping blanket assertion.

What I''ll say is that we are aiming for the gadgets to be useful for veterans and endgame and that the freedom it should represent will allow those that give attention to it to make the very best objects. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship there, where some of the better items will come from crafters, and crafters will need the help of the raiders to collect among the rarer substances.

Can you give us any hints about the next adventure pack? What part of Hyboria will it cowl (geographically, even a normal space if you can''t get particular)? Can we count on it in 2012?

We aren''t revealing the exact location of the pack simply but, however as we teased in the final growth letter, we''re trying south once more, near certainly one of the unique game areas.
The adventure pack is presently aimed for the end of the 12 months, yes. The workforce is currently hard at work on it so that we will launch 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 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 more Stygian content between, say, forty and 70?

I think we addressed that stage vary in other playfields, like Ymir''s Move and Tarantia Commons. Minecraft Servers do not assume we ever set as much as necessarily have an equal variety of places in each of the video games territories, partly for visible and cultural range and partly to cowl some completely different concepts and ideas from Howard''s Hyboria.

Since we''re trying south, yes, the adventure pack content material might well stray close by geographically, but the cultural and mythos that may influence it is one other beast altogether. Anticipate to hear extra concerning the adventure pack a bit later within the summer season. While the manufacturing 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 of us are a touch busy proper now with the launch of The secret World, so we''ll hold the adventure 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 worth trying out even four years later. Why do you assume that is, and would you agree that MMOs like AoC are utterly different animals from their launch builds?

MMOs always evolve. That is among the few constants within the style. Personally I at all times attempt and check out video games a second or third time, and I believe many veterans are the same. We''re additionally helped by the fact that due to the Dreamworld engine, the sport nonetheless appears to be like aggressive with latest 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 genre.

I do not suppose you''ll be able to hold it against anyone, at the end of the day there were very excessive expectations for that launch, and the original workforce fell just in need of a few of these expectations. It''s pure that some gamers will not offer you a second chance. You won''t ever, ever, win everyone back over. On the other hand, it''s considerably of a shame because MMO titles do evolve. So long as you all the time concentrate on bettering the sport and including content, then there is a continuing movement of people who come back to check out the sport again.

In truth, these players typically find yourself as some of your most loyal followers after that as a result of someone who had a problem with the sport and returns to see the issues they''d resolved appreciates how far you could have come. Of course, that fluctuates for every participant; some actually like the adjustments while some really feel a recreation might need moved away from what they appreciated about it, but general we typically hear pretty good issues from those who had extended absences from the game. They arrive back, and so they remember simply how much they favored the combat system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria gives.

Any plans to adjust the free-to-play offerings in the close to future, or is Funcom fairly proud of the amount of entry Unchained gamers currently have?

Total we are pretty completely satisfied, but we may consider some tweaks and adjustments. As part of the birthday celebrations for example, we''re giving free players the ability to grab permanent entry to the premium dungeons from the original sport, so we are open to continuing to evolve the free player offering in order that the game stays aggressive. I believe free players in Age of Conan Unchained have one of the open programs on the market.

No mandatory quest or progression content material blocks till they reach max degree is a fairly candy deal, one that provides more than many different F2P titles. It is an ever more competitive market, though, so we will certainly proceed to vary issues up as and after we see fit with a purpose to appeal to the ever-rising and ever-more-demanding military of free gamers on the market.

Nonetheless, one necessary level is that we actually need to be able to keep away from having to go down the entire pay-to-win path. We have now been very careful to avoid that for a purpose, so we would like to keep up the worth to gamers of being premium members. That in flip means that you just cannot give every little thing away free of charge until you might be keen to fully embrace a pay-to-win approach, and that is not somewhere I''d be comfortable taking the game.

What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to supply that in some unspecified time in the future?

The alternate development system was designed to not need "respecs" as you''ll be able to in any case simply earn more factors since there isn''t a steep curve within the development, and it''s a flat worth. So at a basic degree, there are no plans to permit for players to re-use already spent points.

If we added a respec we might have to think about all the set-up, since players would then never need to get beyond X number of feats they''ve determined are optimum for different situations, and they''d just switch between them. That said, in fact you don''t want to face in the best way of gamers feeling they can progress, so we might look at it from one other angle, be that some type of changes to the AA progression, or perhaps in the future, some form of multiple-specification system as we are 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 various alts. Any probability veterans might get a "skip Tortage" potential at some point?

Yes, I might like to get something like that in at some stage. We have now talked about it a number of instances, but it surely tends to be one of those issues that loses out within the precedence conversations. As we move in direction of a fifth year, it would hopefully be one thing we will sneak in at some stage.

Sounds good -- we''re trying forward to the following 12 months!

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Along with providing us with an interview scoop, Funcom has additionally thrown some prizes our approach to give to Massively readers. We now have 10 codes that grant 4 months of premium time to any present 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 those codes? Simply watch our Fb and Twitter pages the place we''ll give out all codes from now till Friday night. Better of luck!

Jef Reahard is an Age of Conan beta and launch day veteran as well as the creator of Massively''s bi-weekly Anvil of Crom. Be happy to counsel a column topic, suggest a information, or perform a verbal fatality by way of [email protected].