craig-morrison posts

While the January edition of the Age of Conan Game Director letter isn't the flashiest one we've ever seen, it is an excellent road-map of just what the team over at Funcom have in their sights for the next little while. They've been giving us tons of tasty Rise of the Godslayer news outside of the Director updates, so we certainly won't complain!

This month, Age of Conan's Game Director, Craig Morrison, sits down to tell us just what the team has in mind for the future of Hyboria. Patch 1.06 will be coming to the live servers shortly, bringing with it the Guild Renown system, tier three raiding, and a major revamp for the Assassin class. As for Godslayer, he says that more players have been invited into the beta and the feedback has thus far been great. There's also a good chunk of information on what they're planning for long-term PvP improvements for those who can't wait to bash Hyborian brains in. In all, it sounds like Craig and the team have some excellent things in motion for the future of Age of Conan, so be sure to pop over and check it out.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Craig Morrison, the Game Director for Age of Conan, posed an interesting question in his latest blog entry: How do you like your information?

MMOs, whether they are still approaching beta or have been around for years, are constantly changing as developers add improvements here, remove bugs there, work on new content and expansions, and just generally tweak things to keep it all attractive to the players.

The question for development teams is this: How much of the process do you share with the players? Do you say "We are working on stuff, and you'll know about it when we release it. Just trust us," do you share every step of the process with your fans along the way, or do you strike one of the hundred compromises in between?

Morrison's blog entry talks quite a bit about the difficulty of finding that balance, and how it's often a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. He winds up with an interesting question, though: What do you as a player prefer? Take some time to read his thoughts on the issue, and then give your own.

Age of Conan Game Director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison posted the December community letter today, and he's clearly feeling very optimistic about the future.

The 1.06 update cycle was the focus of most of the letter, with Morrison reminding players that it is currently up and available on the test server, and encouraging players to check it out (particularly the Guild Renown system). The Age of Conan team has put in quite a bit of work and are anxious for players to put it through its paces.

Of course, the other big area of focus was the upcoming expansion Rise of the Godslayer and the excitement of the recent live beta broadcast. The letter also included a quick rundown of where progress on the expansion is right now.

Players had some questions after reading the letter, particularly regarding PVP Towers, and Morrison was quick to step in and chat with the community in the thread, keeping them up to date on what is happening in that arena. The full letter (and thread) can be seen here.

Tigers, PvP, corruption, and more are coming with Age of Conan's next expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Xfire has hosted a sneak peek live broadcast hosted by game director Craig Morrison and lead expansion designer Joel Bylos, and the two have shown off some of the inner workings of the expansion, including some of the changes and additions players will find.

We here at Massively were watching closely and taking notes, so if you didn't get the chance to watch the video then no worries! As we said before, we have your back and we're ready to take you headlong into the blood and corruption of Age of Conan's expansion.

If you're playing Age of Conan, the odds that you're looking forward to the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion are... pretty much one to one. The news on the expansion has been fairly slow in coming since its announcement earlier this year, but it looks like we're due for a big burst of new information on Monday. Funcom has announced that the developers will be hosting a streaming demo of the game on December 7th via Xfire.

The demo, hosted by game director Craig Morrison and the expansion lead designer Joel Bylos, will begin at noon PST (3 PM for those of us on the other coast). Scheduled to last for an hour, it promises to cover both the content in the demo -- which is all slated to be new material -- as well as the expansion in general, which is targeted for release in the first half of 2010. Both the developers and their hosts at Xfire are excited about the chance to show off a live demo, and odds that the game's playerbase is excited are, again, probably one in one. So clear some time to catch the broadcast on Monday, and see what's in store for Age of Conan as it journeys into the eastern empire of Khitai.

[ via WarCry ]

As the end of the year approaches, Age of Conan has been quietly but steadily progressing through development and improving its engine and gameplay. It's certainly improved compared to its state at launch, and with its first expansion on the way the game has a promising future ahead of it. The end of November saw the release of a letter from the game director, Craig Morrison, addressing the game's upcoming Korean launch as well as the incoming changes in the near future.

The biggest bits of news are the statement that 1.06, the game's next patch, is planned to begin rounds on the live test servers this week. 1.06 will also be seeing a few adjustments to the balance of force between casters and melee, one of the more contentious issues in the game. Crowd control will see a severe reduction in range and efficiency, with the letter explaining that the intent of the abiliies is to give casters a panic or escape button rather than allowing them to effectively pin targets at range. They're also denying casters the option of stamina potions to avoid making them too durable. Age of Conan's casters are probably unhappy about the news, but the letter itself has more to say, so it's likely in every player's best interest to take a closer look.

Earlier this week, we asked for your Age of Conan questions, and you delivered. Although we only received seven usable questions (some were duplicates and two we combined), the answers given by Game Director Craig Morrison are candid and to-the-point. Funcom's steady push for new content and poised ear to the community shows that they're on board to keep AoC going strong for a long time.

Follow along after the jump for Craig's answers on changing Tortage, more PvP, opening the forums to everyone and more.

Age of Conan came to PAX pretty much directly off their announcement of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. So when we arrived at our appointment to check the game out and speak with Executive Producer Craig Morrison, you can imagine our curiosity levels were quite high.

This expansion is taking players far into the eastern lands of Khitai, which is essentially a retelling of our own ancient eastern worlds. Something we were told right away is that Funcom wanted to avoid Japanese influences, as they're fairly over-saturated in videogames. Instead, they're going for a heavy focus on Korean and Chinese culture for the lands of Khitai.

Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan has put another entry into his blog at MMORPG, discussing Age of Conan's upcoming guild features (which Craig Morrison elaborated on in his recent game director letter) as well as some class tweaks that the developers have been working on. Right now the dev team is looking at the Bear Shaman and Barbarian classes, with the Conqueror and Dark Templar up for possible changes after they're done with the first two. He doesn't spill the beans on exactly what might be happening with these classes but we're told to stay tuned for more information soon.

The rest of Famine's blog post relates to things outside of the game. It sounds like the Advocate Program has been going well, but Funcom would like to bring a few more advocates on board. Along with the existing class advocates, they might be recruiting advocates specifically for areas like roleplaying and player-versus-player, as was planned some time ago. Famine also gave a quick update on Funcom's plans for Dragon*Con in Atlanta this September. Among the activities will be a developer panel featuring Age of Conan's lead designer Joel Bylos.

As July is coming to a close, Age of Conan's game director Craig Morrison has weighed in with his letter to the community for the month. The biggest discussion point this time around is a new 'Guild Renown' system that will be introduced with the next major content patch, Update 6. This system will allow members of a guild to contribute to its reputation on two separate scales. A guild's Renown Level will be increased by members earning Valor points (from PvE activities like questing and killing NPCs), Glory points (PvP) and Artisan points (crafting). Higher Renown Levels will mean access to better guild city vendors and other bonuses -- even a brand new building type that Morrison does not elaborate on in this letter.

It would appear that for Funcom, going the way of free-to-play with Age of Conan isn't entirely off the table. At least so says Erling Ellingson in a recent interview with IncGamers. There's certainly a precedent with Anarchy Online having gone that route long ago and its director -- at that time -- was also Craig Morrison. So really, all bets are off on this one.

Still, for the time being subscription remains the primary method of play. Our guess? Funcom is probably waiting for the first expansion or two before opening the original game for free to play access, much like they did with Anarchy Online. So if anything, this probably won't be happening for a couple more years. That is, unless things rapidly go south for the Norwegian games developer. But with The Secret World looking quite interesting. they've got a good chance at making a comeback.

[via MMORPG]

Craig Morrison spoke with Eurogamer recently about the state that Age of Conan; what's been going on over the last year and where the game is headed in the future. This is of course one of many interviews you can expect to see regarding Age of Conan as Funcom is in the middle of their summer blitz to get people to come back and check out all the changes.

As it turns out, a whole lot has changed. We've mentioned it on our podcasts and in our posts, but Morrison is keen to continue to emphasis the improvements and updates here as well. The latest update has quite possibly been the biggest and equally subtlest improvement yet, as it completely reworked the item system to be less obtuse and make items more desirable.

But you really don't need to take Morrison's word for it, since the two free weeks campaign is in full effect. You can be sure Massively is jumping head first into Hyboria to get a taste of AoC's new flavor.

This has been a really big week for Age of Conan. They released Update 5, "Gangs of Tarantia", which has introduced new zones and content, but more than that, completely reworked some of Age of Conan's existing game mechanics. The amount of written content that Funcom has put together on these changes is substantial -- in fact we linked to all of it in our post on Update 5 earlier this week. Funcom can write all they want about the new changes to the game, but when it comes down to it, actually seeing these places they've described may have a stronger impact. With that in mind, Funcom released a video tour of the Tarantia Commons zone today, narrated by game director Craig Morrison.

Tarantia Commons is what he describes as "the urban underbelly" of the capital city of Tarantia, a place Morrison says is "wracked by gang warfare and civil unrest." In other words, there's always a lot going on in Tarantia Commons and the video walkthrough shows this, revealing how players will choose which side to take in riots -- either aid the city guards or stick it to the man with fellow rioters. The riots then trigger other events. Specific quests become available and certain bosses spawn, depending upon the general state of chaos in the streets of Tarantia Commons.

There are two warring gangs in the new gameplay area, The Wharf Rats who exist at ground level in the streets of Tarantia Commons, and The Crows whose area of influence shows off a different aspect of the game: rooftops. Interacting with The Crows above Tarantia Commons gives a different perspective on the city, with some impressive views of the zone. Of course there's content on the outskirts of Tarantia Commons for players to experience as well, including a leper colony where NPCs will lash out at you, intentionally trying to infect you with disease. As an added bonus, or spoiler depending upon your point of view, the walkthrough also shows off a boss encounter and the tactics he'll employ against players.

If you're on the fence about returning to Age of Conan to see the new content, this Tarantia Commons walkthrough might just be the tipping point. We've got a video embed for you after the jump:

The fifth major update to Age of Conan,"Gangs of Tarantia", has gone live. The update adds the Tarantia Commons District, a high level area with both single player and group dungeons, as well as a revamped RPG system. There are substantial system changes that have gone into effect in Update 5, which impact every class in Age of Conan, covering everything from itemization changes to feat trees, as well as abilities, spells, and combos. Plus Funcom has rolled out a complete overhaul of the gem crafting system and introduced new rewards tied in with guild cities. Any in-depth look at the sweeping changes made to Age of Conan with Update 5 is beyond the scope of this post, but are summarized in the patch notes.

In the June letter from the game director, Craig Morrison explains how Gangs of Tarantia is the most significant update made to the game thus far. Morrison also drops some hints about the directions Funcom plans to take Age of Conan with future game updates. He writes that the next update to Age of Conan will focus on three main areas: improving guild gameplay; new high level content in the House of Crom; and more goals and objectives with Border Kingdom PvP.

Beyond the letter from the game director, Funcom has grouped together a ton of information related to Gangs of Tarantia and AoC in general, which can be found in Issue #23 of the Age of Conan newsletter.