Age of Conan newsletter previews new PvP, dungeons, and dancing!

by Michael Zenke Jun 13th 2008 at 12:15PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, New titles, Patches

It's only been a short time since Age of Conan launched, but it has already seen some troubles. The newest edition of the game newsletter hints that good times are just over the horizon. Above and beyond bug fixing and regular patches, Funcom has announced they have a slew of new concepts and content ideas on the stove. Here are the highlights from the newsletter:

Game director Gaute Godager answers a few questions we haven't seen addressed anywhere else. Primarily involving guild systems and tradeskilling, the quickie Q&A shouldn't take you long to read.
The team is introducing a sort of alternate advancement system they're calling Power Points. Points are similar to but not exactly like the "AAs" from games like EQ. You'll earn them just by having an open account, and it sounds like down the road new content will drop specifically for characters with enought PP.
A number of changes to guilds, guild housing, and the introduction of guild alliances are all discussed on the official site.
The newsletter goes back over all the patches they've dropped since launch, particularly noting the addition of unique dances for each race.
Funcom is completely revamping Age of Conan's PvP. They're adding PvP-specific leveling, consequences in the form of the 'fugitive system', and a number of tweaks and changes to the art of player on player war.
A number of quests past level 20 are getting voice over elements added in. The website lists every one they're working on, and in total this forms a specific storyline the developers want you to be sure to follow.
A better interface for chat and guild management will soon be available.
The Pyramid of the Ancients and Treasury of the Ancients in Khopshef Province will be getting bottom-to-top revamps.
A whole new dungeon will be added to Thunder River. No firm details, but they did release some concept art - the same art that was 'leaked' to the US forums earlier this week.
They're also planning an all new outdoor area called Ymir's Pass, which plans to fill a few holes in late-game leveling.

Make sure to check out the newsletter for full details.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, breaking, dancing, dungeons, funcom, gaute-godager, patches, pvp

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nadril said on 12:38PM 6-13-2008

Incredible newsletter, I can't wait.

The fugitive system is one of the best mixes of the normal "karma" system most games have and the complete free-for-all PvP that you see in games like EQ2 and WoW. It means that that guy constantly camping you is going to get what is coming to him when he gets killed and drops some $$$ and gear.

It also means that hunting for these reds will be a fun passtime :). The rest of the article is great as well. The PvP gear is looking great, and the FAQ was a very good read as well.

I'm really excited about these "legendary keeps" as well. Seems like Funcom is really taking the games PvP seriously.

Now I'm wondering when the PvP enhancements will be added in. PvP levels are going to be great, and if the title system is built off of skill (and not like the old ranking system in WoW) it will be a good way to show off.

It's really difficult to convey my excitement here, everything just sounds great. I was worried for a second that "power points" would be an answer to a sort of item mall solution, but I'm glad its not. The implication does sound pretty nice though.

heartless_ said on 2:25PM 6-13-2008

ROFL Nadril you've obviously never seen the "log out" feature of most MMORPGs. Bounty systems have been tried before. Either:

A) They don't work because the player just has a friend meet him somewhere and kill him for the bounty which they share.

B) Consequence just forces the gankers to only gank in areas/ways they know they won't get caught and have easy escapes from.

EVE, UO, and other games have tried it. It just doesn't work on a regular basis, is ripe for exploit, and provides little "substance" to PvP. Your fun PvP past time will be sitting around bored to seven hells and back waiting for the guy you were chasing to log back into the game.... which they won't :)

Nadril said on 2:41PM 6-13-2008

Of course people will exploit it, but it still means that people may think twice about ganking repetitively or someone who is a much lower level then them.

Honestly any sort of PvP consequence system is ripe for exploit, doesn't really matter the game. It still is a good step forward, however which is better than doing nothing at all.

Nick said on 2:47PM 6-14-2008

AoC needs a good 6 months before it's worth checking out. I doubt I'll pick it back up again but its a shame that they released the game in it's current state.

Poor Communication with customers.

People have been canceling and during the cancellation process you select a reason from a drop down box and then you can fill out a box with a detailed personal reason. They have a "bug" in their system that is changing peoples drop down box reasons from whatever they selected to "Financial Reason". There was a thread about it on their forums but of course it was deleted as soon as the mods woke up the next day.

A massive amount of bugs that were reported during the beta made it into the launch client.

An enormous amount of content missing from the game.

Their patches break and stealth nerf more things than they actually fix.

The game is highly geared towards console play...

The list of problems goes on and on.

This game isn't out of beta yet so if you plan on checking it out please don't do so for another 3-6 months.

Arabica said on 6:02AM 6-14-2008

I'm having more fun in AoC now than I have ever had in any other MMO. You didn't like it? Awesome. The bugs I have seen so far have not impacted my gameplay in any way. I did have gigantic issues with the game locking up, but guess what? I needed to update the drivers for my 8800GT(graphics card) and after that everything was kosher.

Will the game be better in 6 months? All MMO's will be. Is it playable now? It beats WoW and L2 in my opinion. The PVP alone is worth the price of admission and I have fallen in love with the art, World, fresh takes on traditional MMO class archetypes, questing, and fast paced leveling.

I'm sorry...what were you talking about again?

Unahim said on 10:24AM 6-14-2008

Seems like the end of PvP to me.
Nobody will want to do the first strike.

I -love- consequence PvP, but not when one guy has -all- the risks and the other guy has -all- the rewards.

Someone being red should have additional disadvantages that fit an "outlaw"(harder to enter cities and what not) but the looting idea should either be universal, or they should change their game from gear based to skill based before implementing it

jonah said on 1:04PM 6-15-2008

Why do MMORPGs go live with serious bugs or seemingly half finished? I know the two obvious answers $$$$$ and supposedly certain bugs only show up after release.

After the disaster with Vanguard a game thousands of us were hoping to be a real advance over EQ and WOW, you would think that AOC would have this finished and bullet proof. What the Hell is Beta testing for if not to prevent this kind of crap?
What is this about proposing major changes just weeks after release??? Like they couldn't figure this out in beta?

Bottom line is this.
EQ was the gold standard, instead of putting all there money in to enhancing EQ the dumped it into EQ2 at the time WOW was launched. WOW was more fun and at the time superior to EQ2. WOW sucked all the air out of the Room for MMORPGs. WOW became the model more fun less grinding, less complex, less grouping=more subscriptions.
It will take an MMORPG that is significantly different and polished from day one. It will require a paradigm shift and new concepts i.e. a visionary genius development team to break the cycle of EQ clone WOW wannabee failures.