General Discussion

Funcom has distributed this press release outlining future plans for their MMORPG Age of Conan. MMORPG.com will follow this story and provide more details as available.

Durham, USA – June 13, 2008 – After the incredible initial success for Age of Conan, a whole world of MMO players are eagerly anticipating the future plans for one of the most popular online games ever released. While Age of Conan has already evolved massively since launch, numerous expansive additions are yet to come. Funcom and Eidos are therefore proud to lift the veil on Age of Conan’s promising future, and today the two companies reveal selected features which are now in production.

“While we have enjoyed the initial success for Age of Conan, we know that a solid launch is but the start when it comes to the MMO genre,” said Gaute Godager, Game Director on Age of Conan. ”As we look ahead we are preparing a huge amount of new content, and what we are presenting today will evolve Age of Conan even further. It’s naturally an incredibly ambitious update plan for a live MMO game, but we are certain our players would want nothing less.”

Without further ado, here are some of the cool things to expect in the months to come:

PvP evolved – To the Death
The great combat system in Age of Conan has taken MMO fighting to a new level of fun, and Player versus Player combat plays a major part in this. As a result, a massive new PvP update is planned for late June. Aptly called To the death, this update brings more consequence and rewards to PvP, and an important part of it is the Fugitive system. The more lower level players you kill, the easier it is for others to hunt you down. In addition, ten PvP levels with additional ranks will be introduced, as well as specific gear and weapons for PvP.

Guild Alliance Warfare
Preproduction has started on a MASSIVE free update which will come later this year. Currently titled “Kingship!”, large clusters of guilds will be able to form alliances, and rule and conquer on a massive scale. Everyone in a guild alliance will play a part in this system, and together they can even erect unique looking alliance Battlekeeps. The alliances can also fight over, and build, culture-specific “wonders of the world”, with a direct link to higher powers! As part of the system Funcom will also facilitate larger amounts of players in massive battles.

Powerpoints
This fall, a unique reward and character evolution system called Powerpoints will be introduced. This rewards active in-game behavior, and allows for gathering points through numerous methods, including owning a Battlekeep, playing the end-game at level 80, winning PvP matches, or simply being an active guild member or subscribing to the game. There will be many ways to obtain Powerpoints, and numerous rewards, ranging from exclusive Powerfeats to weapons, armor and potions. Powerpoints may even allow you to level faster!

New areas and dungeons
You won’t need to wait for an expansion pack to explore exciting new areas. In the next period, Funcom will include several new areas, as well as evolving already existing areas. This includes a brand new dungeon in Aquilonia, reshaping three dungeons in Stygia, and an entire mountain range in Cimmeria!

Improved player-made villages and Battlekeep systems
While the guild alliance system brings a whole new level to the game, Funcom will continue to expand the existing player-made areas and the systems running them. A focus on evolving the massive elements of the game even further continues, ranging from placing NPC’s in the cities to more choices and benefits.

Social updates
An MMO is nothing without a good social scene. While Conan is all about crushing your enemies, social enhancements are also getting some love. A fun example is the combo-based dancing system which is now coming to the game, and it’s entirely motion captured by professional dance artists.

More adventures
Age of Conan has received tremendous praise for immersion and the great voice-over quests. This is but the start of the adventure, and numerous new quests are coming into the game, spread across the entire world and across the level ranges. Soon 60 additional quests will also get full voice acting, further improving immersion.

Embracing community feedback
Since launch several enhancements and fixes have been implemented to Age of Conan, and Funcom has continuously staffed up the service departments to improve customer satisfaction. This has already resulted in a better game experience, but the work will continue. At the heart of all of this stands the Age of Conan community. A lot of the upcoming improvements to the game will be based directly on community feedback, and the wishes and concerns players have when it comes to the future of the game will always be taken into account.

By reading the community websites, official forums and the monthly Clan of Conan newsletter you can expect additional information about upcoming features and released updates, as well as an arena to give your feedback. A new Clan of Conan newsletter is also going live today, with more detail on the upcoming features. http://funcom.cachefly.net/WebFiles/Newsletter/Issue17/

More on Conan here.

The #1 complaint from players is overinstancing yet nothing about removing it. Embrace that.

My only complaint is not instancing the Cistern/ Sewers. That place is too cramped !

i.e. wait 6 months and we might have something for you to do after level 50...

It is a very fun game at times, but it needs about a year of maturation to be considered a good game.  Hopefully Funcom will solve all the major problems that the playerbase is concerned with. 

The sad thing is I have doubts about their ability to improve their woefull customer service, let's hope they surprise me and make some strides in that area.

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

The #1 complaint from players is overinstancing yet nothing about removing it. Embrace that.

How would you go about fixing it?  From what I saw, the instances are so small that they needed to make multiple copies just to support the population.  Crappy design?  Yup.  But I don't see a way to fix it at this point.   Maybe in the future they can make bigger zones or something, but at this point they're looking at redesigning the game to fix it.

Don't get me wrong... I made it to lvl 45 in about 2 weeks and called it quits.  They pissed me off by releasing the framework of a game, not an actual game.  I'll check it out when they get things in order, maybe. 

Originally posted by fansede

My only complaint is not instancing the Cistern/ Sewers. That place is too cramped !

 

i 2nd that one. how is other quest specific dungeons instanced while this one is wide open with no room to be open like this. i dont see how this dungeon isnt instanced yet sanctum is

Maybe it's bugged, like the Armsman's Arena was until the recent patch.

Lot's of endgame stuff then. I'm taking my time, not quite lvl 50 yet and in no rush so hopefully this will be done just in time for me

Originally posted by Ozmodan

i.e. wait 6 months and we might have something for you to do after level 50...

It is a very fun game at times, but it needs about a year of maturation to be considered a good game.  Hopefully Funcom will solve all the major problems that the playerbase is concerned with. 

The sad thing is I have doubts about their ability to improve their woefull customer service, let's hope they surprise me and make some strides in that area.

There's still 'way too many in game issues with AoC (I won't list them all here, but any knowledgeable MMO hobbyist can delinate them).

As I've stated before, I played a lot of AoC, but am holding off purchasing the game.  I refuse to pay FunCom $50 and $15 a month to beta test/debug their game after release.

“While we have enjoyed the initial success for Age of Conan, we know that a solid launch is but the start when it comes to the MMO genre,”

What is this guy smoking?

I want some!

the launch was far from solid, they may have sold a shit load of boxes that does not mean they had a solid launch.