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.

Massively Speaking Episode 54 is a very special episode where Shawn is once again joined by Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan and Craig Morrison as they discuss the upcoming Patch 1.05 and first anniversary for Age of Conan.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[Zune] Subscribe to Massively Speaking via the Zune service.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[Digg] Like the show? Digg it.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
[VW] Listen at VirginWorlds.com
Listen here on the page:



Read below the cut for the full show notes.

Craig "Silirrion" Morrison, game director for Age of Conan, has posted a May letter (on the European forums) to the playerbase that reflects on the year since the game's launch, a year full of ups and downs. Beyond explaining a bit about how he came to work on Age of Conan and his enthusiasm for the game moving forward, the Letter from the Game Director drops info about Update 1.05.

Morrison briefly touches on some of the highlights of the update, namely the large outdoor playfield and its quests and storyline, a new RPG system, and updates for all classes in terms of abilities, spells, and feats. Morrison opts to steer away from these big changes in his letter, which are likely to get more attention in the long run, and looks at some of the smaller changes to Age of Conan that are on the way.

Morrison explained that the re-roll is being offered so that people can try out a new class with updated 1.05 feats and skills, without enduring the first 50 levels again. Some form of concession on feat re-training will also be given so that players can decide how to tackle the new options available to existing characters. Morrison leaves us with the hint that more news relating to character options will be revealed come May, around the time of AoC's first anniversary.

Last week at GDC 2009 was exceptionally busy, but that didn't stop us from talking with Age of Conan's game director Craig Morrison and discussing what went wrong with the game at launch and what's been done since to improve upon it.

You're in for a treat, we think.

After the jump, you'll also find discussion on free trails for this year, the DX10 client, successful MMOs and upcoming content philosopy for Age of Conan. It's a bounty of information even King Conan would be proud to see!

On the heels of one of Age of Conan's biggest patches since release, Ten Ton Hammer had a chance to speak with Game Director and Producer, Craig Morrison. The interview sheds much light on patch 1.04, forthcoming features, and Funcom's plans for the future. It appears that while Funcom's CFO may have recently resigned, the company has no plans to give up on the game just yet.

One of the more interesting things to note is that they designed their new group dungeon, Xibaluku, based on player feedback. Funcom aims to make the bosses of Xibaluku much more dynamic and interesting than the bosses AoC originally launched with. Not to leave PvPers behind, they have also overhauled the mini-game queue system to improve its frequency as well as improved the guild/siege declaration system. DirectX 10 support is coming soon but wasn't stable enough for release in 1.04. Future patches in this cycle will focus on itemization, tweaking character statistics, and a totally new gemcrafting system.

With patch 1.04 and additional patches over the next couple months, Craig feels that most of AoC's major problems will comprehensively dealt with. They are interested in seeing how players will react.

Age of Conan's Game Director Craig Morrison recently had an interview at Gamespy to dicuss his game's future. In the end though, he ended up speaking more about the past, and in particular, past problems and mistakes that have now been seen to. Technical game client issues, a lack of PvE content at certain levels, and an unsatisfying PvP system were all cited as causes of people turning their back on AoC -- followers of the game since launch would agree with all of these things being issues -- but Morrison went through this list and explained how his team has improved the game on each of these fronts. The embedded video, featuring Erling Ellingsen, shows off some of the current and planned improvements.

As for talk of the future, Morrison reminded us that Xibaluku is coming for the PvE junkies, and mentioned the PvP resource system, which should bring a new level of interaction to PvP gameplay. He believes that the biggest issue still remaining from launch is to do with a shortage of good gear, and an itemization overhaul is in the works to address this. We can also expect some more guild and community functions later in the year. The stage is set for a comeback; now we'll just have to wait and see if the players come to the party.

When news of impending server merges in Age of Conan broke in December, it caused a bit of a stir -- particularly in the post's comments. Age of Conan Producer Craig Morrison later said the merges would take place in stages, but then technical issues arose, postponing these changes for roughly a month before Funcom was confident it could go off without a hitch.

Earlier today, one month after the initial plan, the first set of servers were merged in Age of Conan: Bloodspire and Hyperborea have now merged into Bloodspire. Apparently AoC's virtual realm did not implode as the worlds were spliced together. Glen 'Famine' Swan, Age of Conan's US Community Manager, jokes, "I'm currently on Bloodspire now watching the global spam." Well there you go, business as usual in Hyborea. For the Age of Conan players among our readership, did the server merge affect you in any way -- be it positive or negative?