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 expansion, some new dungeon content material, and several class revamps recent on our minds. The year earlier than that, we had the earth-shaking fight and itemization adjustments. This previous year, the main improvement was, after all, the swap to a freemium enterprise model, followed closely by the game's first journey pack.
Join me after the break for a fast rundown on the last 12 months as they happened in Hyboria, as well as an anniversary interview with game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison that sheds a little bit of light on the crafting revamp.
The tip of June noticed AoC be part of the ranks of Western freemium converts with the Unchained replace. The majority of the original Hyborian Adventures marketing campaign was made freely obtainable to all comers, together with 4 of the game's 12 classes. The game's 2.6 patch additionally introduced us the Breach and Forgotten City dungeons in Khitai as well as 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 particular ruleset servers. Deathwish and Rage have been initially fairly standard, and Funcom additionally hinted at some curious instancing tech within the works. We have not heard a lot about it since, but I expect that we'll learn extra this summer time after the launch of The secret World.
The end of August brought 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 simple "patch" moniker, and Funcom has hinted that this might be the first distribution mannequin going ahead.
We obtained a brand new degree 50 to fifty five playfield with a ton of quests, a stage 50 to 80 scaling solo dungeon, a max-stage solo dungeon, a max-degree group dungeon, and a new raid instance, all of which have been based across the Jason Momoa Conan movie that debuted within the summer time of 2011.
January noticed the introduction of the lengthy-awaited Home of Crom dungeon. Unfortunately (or happily, relying on the way you take a look at it), this happened after my private AoC sabbatical, so I've but to cowl the dungeon right here in the pages of The Anvil of Crom. That shall be remedied in short order, although, and within the meantime, you possibly can 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 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 few questions of executive producer Craig Morrison. Keep reading to see what he has to say concerning 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 ideas? For example, TSW's crafting system appears to be like pretty nifty. Any probability that AoC's upcoming revamp shares something in widespread with it or is inspired by it in any way?
Craig Morrison: The groups are run independently and have their very own sources and administration. Do not forget that we both run on the same expertise platform, which is independently developed by one other separate division, so we get many inherent upgrades simply by that course of. In that means, there are a lot of shared initiatives and considerations. That means we may use the identical Dreamworld characteristic in other ways, simply as we'll with the one server know-how that's presently within the works. It is a cool situation for a recreation of our age to be in because it means we are able to generally make the most of some fairly cool technical work that we merely would not be capable to afford in any other case.
When it comes to the crafting system, that's something very distinctive to TSW. They took their inspiration from Minecraft when it got here to their shape- and location-primarily based crafting, and it is a cool system, really good fun to play with. On the other hand, I'm really trying forward 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 opposite earlier MMOs, with a give attention to substances and discovering the most effective mixtures. That adds a layer of depth that you don't discover in the opposite trendy MMOs that have used extra simple record type crafting techniques, where you get the same outcomes all the time.
Personally I think it's thrilling to see proper crafting making a comeback in our video games. Each approaches have benefit, and I think what the workforce is cooking up for Conan is more suited for the slightly extra stat-based stage development we now have in Conan, versus the flatter system in TSW. However, each programs are placing a premium on true experimentation and asking players to suppose and explore the system moderately than simply read an ingredient listing. I really feel it is something that MMOs can benefit from exploring once more.
In regard to a high-stage view of the crafting revamp, how much can we expect crafters to be essential to the in-recreation economic system? Will gamers be capable of get end-game gear and consumables from crafters, or will these items remain exclusively loot-drops?
The intention is for the crafted goods to be aggressive will all however the better of the endgame gear, and maybe even in some instances, present a few of one of the best gadgets, though I don't assume I wish to solid that as a particular in a single path or another and make some form of sweeping blanket assertion.
What I will say is that we are aiming for the gadgets to be helpful for veterans and endgame and that the freedom it'll represent will permit those who focus on it to make the most effective objects. We hope to create a symbiotic relationship there, where some of the better items will come from crafters, and crafters will need the assistance of the raiders to collect a number of the rarer components.
Can you give us any hints about the subsequent journey pack? What a part of Hyboria will it cover (geographically, even a common area if you can't get specific)? Can we expect it in 2012?
We aren't revealing the precise location of the pack just yet, but as we teased within the final growth letter, we're looking south once more, close to one in every of the original sport areas.The adventure pack is at present aimed for the tip of the 12 months, sure. The crew is at the moment hard at work on it in order that we will release it toward the end of Q4.
South, you say? Stygian content is pretty barren compared to 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, 40 and 70?
I feel we addressed that degree range in other playfields, like Ymir's Move and Tarantia Commons. I don't think we ever set up to essentially have an equal number of places in every of the games territories, partly for visual and cultural diversity and partly to cover some different ideas and concepts from Howard's Hyboria.
Since we are trying south, yes, the adventure pack content might properly stray nearby geographically, but the cultural and mythos that will affect it is another beast altogether. Expect to hear more in regards to the adventure pack a bit later within the summer. 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 PR folks are a contact busy proper now with the launch of The secret World, so we'll hold the adventure pack reveal until after that.
There is a perception on the market that due to the perceived inadequacies of AoC's launch, the game is not price 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 one of the few constants in the style. Personally I at all times attempt and take a look at games a second or third time, and I feel many veterans are the identical. We are additionally helped by the fact that thanks to the Dreamworld engine, the sport still seems to be aggressive with current releases. Of course the problems that the sport had at launch does have an impact on some veterans' opinions, and that is an expected part of working in that genre.
I don't suppose you'll be able to hold it in opposition to anybody, at the top of the day there were very excessive expectations for that launch, and the original workforce fell simply in need of a few of those expectations. It is natural that some players won't provide you with a second probability. You will never, ever, win everybody again over. Then again, it's considerably of a disgrace as a result of MMO titles do evolve. So long as you at all times focus on enhancing the sport and adding content material, then there's a constant move of people that come back to check out the sport again.
The truth is, those gamers typically find yourself as a few of your most loyal followers after that because somebody who had an issue with the sport and returns to see the problems that they had resolved appreciates how far you could have come. In fact, that fluctuates for every participant; some really just like the changes while some feel a game might have moved away from what they appreciated about it, but general we typically hear fairly good issues from those who had extended absences from the sport. They arrive back, they usually remember just how a lot they liked the fight system, or they get to embrace the viscerally mature setting that Hyboria offers. Servers
Any plans to adjust the free-to-play choices within the near future, or is Funcom fairly pleased with the quantity of entry Unchained gamers presently have?
Total we are pretty comfortable, however we could consider some tweaks and changes. As part of the birthday celebrations for example, we're giving free gamers the power to grab permanent access to the premium dungeons from the original recreation, so we're open to persevering with to evolve the free participant providing in order that the game stays aggressive. I feel free players in Age of Conan Unchained have one of the vital open programs out there.
No necessary quest or progression content material blocks until they attain max level is a pretty sweet deal, one that gives more than many other F2P titles. It's an ever extra competitive market, though, so we will definitely proceed to vary things up as and once we see fit with a purpose to appeal to the ever-growing and ever-extra-demanding military of free gamers on the market.
Nonetheless, one necessary point is that we really want to be able to avoid having to go down the entire pay-to-win path. We have been very careful to avoid that for a motive, so we wish to keep up the value to players of being premium members. That in turn means that you just can't give everything away without cost until you might be willing to completely embrace a pay-to-win strategy, and that is not somewhere I'd be comfortable taking the sport.
What about an AA respec for subscribers -- any plans to offer that in some unspecified time in the future?
The alternate advancement system was designed to not want "respecs" as you possibly can after all simply earn more points since there isn't a steep curve within the progression, and it is a flat value. So at a basic level, there are not any plans to permit for gamers to re-use already spent factors.
If we added a respec we'd have to consider the whole set-up, since players would then by no means need to get beyond X variety of feats they have decided are optimum for various situations, and they'd simply change between them. That stated, after all you don't want to stand in the best way of players feeling they can progress, so we may look at it from another angle, be that some form of changes to the AA development, or perhaps in the future, some form of a number of-specification system as we are doing for feats.
Finally, nearly as good because the questing and the storyline in Tortage is, a few of us have literally run it two dozen instances now on numerous alts. Any probability veterans may get a "skip Tortage" potential sooner or later?
Sure, I might like to get one thing like that in at some stage. We have talked about it a number of instances, but it tends to be a kind of things that loses out within the precedence conversations. As we move in the direction of a fifth year, it is going to hopefully be one thing we are able to sneak in at some stage.
Sounds good -- we're looking ahead to the following 12 months!
Along with providing us with an interview scoop, Funcom has additionally thrown some prizes our method to present to Massively readers. We've 10 codes that grant four months of premium time to any present account. If you don't have an current account, you may all the time create a free one and apply the codes from there.
How do you get your arms on one of those codes? Merely watch our Facebook and Twitter pages where we'll give out all codes from now till Friday evening. 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. Feel free to recommend a column topic, suggest a information, or perform a verbal fatality by way of [email protected].
