Age of Conan

PC Gamer US' AoC Guide just went on sale in N.America, there is some more insight into the game here.

PC Gamer website can be found here: http://www.gamesradar.com/pc

The Mag also gives you an in game code for "The Bag of Holding" which is a 20 slot Bag - comes in handy!

When you apply it to your account will look something like this:

For those interested the contents of the Mag touch upon:

• Developer Q&A
• Throne Room
• Epic Armor Sets (concept and render) Tier 3 for Thoth Amon's stronghold
• House of Crom new massive dungeon mini guide
• Travellers Guide
• Article called my favourite things (many regular developers answer their favourite parts)

It's a pretty good read overall imo.

I'll quote some of the Q&A but not all as per rules here:

PCG: What prompted the decision to adopt an "instanced" approach for Age of Conan, where every zone, not just dungeons, is instanced? To adopt, in other words, a more Guild Wars approach than a WoW or EQ "overworld" scheme? Was is for server relief? Or just to let players try to avoid epic gankfests?

Gaute Godager: There were many reasons for this; after all, we were the first MMO company to introduce instancing (with Anarchy Online), and we have seen the many benefits instancing can have. It makes for less camping, more diversity, faster access to content and can even dynamically tailor the game to specific players when used right. As such it was not about server relief, but about how to make Conan as fun and accessible as possible. All in all the benefits are outweighed by the negatives.

PCG: How much were you able to rely on art or descriptions from existing Conan sources and how much did you have to come up with yourself?

Didrik Tollefsen (Art Director): There was always more than enough information in the books, and the Conan license owners [Paradox Entertainment] have always been there to answer any questions. In a lot od cases we have taken the liberty to build upon what was already described in lore, but always in good spirit of the brilliant author himself.

PCG: When AoC was developed, there was a lot of talk about its DirectX 10 graphics - starting years before DX10 even came out. The game shipped, though, with DX9 only. Not a huge problem, considering that most people don't have DX10-capable cards anyway. When was the decision made to ship the game without it? Was that choice made in the interests of getting the game on the shelves sooner, or was there another reason?

DT: The reason was quite simply quality, and that ever-looming amount of challenges you have when you make MMO games. We did work on DX10 almost all the way to launch, but simply weren't able to give it enough loving at the very end. We knew that most of our customers would have DX9 (for now), and when we had 2 weeks to go and the choice between keeping the two graphics engines going, or putting all resources on stablizing DX9 even further, the choice was simple. On the flip side it means we can show something even better now, and spend more time working on truly taking advantage of DX10.

Alex Tornberg: Concept Artist:  Right now I must say that the upcoming dungeon, House of Crom is turning out really nicely. All of us artists in the concept team spent a lot of time visualizing this dungeon, and its going to be massive. i just hope the end result is as good as we think it's going to be.

Well thats it really, there is plenty more interesting quotes inside the mag, just thought i'd share some relevant to the current topics on the game.

Oh and if your wondering what the T3 Epic Armor for Thoth-Amon's Stronghold will be looking like here is a glimpse:

You do of course, realize that "Bag of Holding" is a reference to a drug term?

(mumbles something about developers using gaming to fund their blo and ho habits) 

Originally posted by olddaddy

You do of course, realize that "Bag of Holding" is a reference to a drug term?

(mumbles something about developers using gaming to fund their blo and ho habits) 

Its those purple lotus leaves in game ;)

This isnt meant to be a troll comment but why does the armor have to be brown all the time? I know they are trying to make it look as realistic as possible, but if you're going to add fantastic magical properties to sets of armor, etc, then I would think they should add some pizazze to the armor.

Im not saying make it look like World of Warcraft armor but make it look menacing (especially for the necromancer) with darker, forboding colors, etc

After a bit of digging I found some full size concept art, the same as posted / stated in PC Gamer that will be the Tier 3 Thoth-Amon Stronghold concept armor.

Bear Shaman

Conqueror

Barbarian

Assassin

Female Tempest of Set

Ranger

Other Concept from updates to come:

now those conceptual armor is fantastic. Lets see if they add em

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

PC Gamer US' AoC Guide just went on sale in N.America, there is some more insight into the game here.

PC Gamer website can be found here: http://www.gamesradar.com/pc

The Mag also gives you an in game code for "The Bag of Holding" which is a 20 slot Bag - comes in handy!

When you apply it to your account will look something like this:

For those interested the contents of the Mag touch upon:

• Developer Q&A
• Throne Room
• Epic Armor Sets (concept and render) Tier 3 for Thoth Amon's stronghold
• House of Crom new massive dungeon mini guide
• Travellers Guide
• Article called my favourite things (many regular developers answer their favourite parts)

It's a pretty good read overall imo.

I'll quote some of the Q&A but not all as per rules here:

PCG: What prompted the decision to adopt an "instanced" approach for Age of Conan, where every zone, not just dungeons, is instanced? To adopt, in other words, a more Guild Wars approach than a WoW or EQ "overworld" scheme? Was is for server relief? Or just to let players try to avoid epic gankfests?

Gaute Godager: There were many reasons for this; after all, we were the first MMO company to introduce instancing (with Anarchy Online), and we have seen the many benefits instancing can have. It makes for less camping, more diversity, faster access to content and can even dynamically tailor the game to specific players when used right. As such it was not about server relief, but about how to make Conan as fun and accessible as possible. All in all the benefits are outweighed by the negatives.

 

PCG: How much were you able to rely on art or descriptions from existing Conan sources and how much did you have to come up with yourself?

Didrik Tollefsen (Art Director): There was always more than enough information in the books, and the Conan license owners [Paradox Entertainment] have always been there to answer any questions. In a lot od cases we have taken the liberty to build upon what was already described in lore, but always in good spirit of the brilliant author himself.

PCG: When AoC was developed, there was a lot of talk about its DirectX 10 graphics - starting years before DX10 even came out. The game shipped, though, with DX9 only. Not a huge problem, considering that most people don't have DX10-capable cards anyway. When was the decision made to ship the game without it? Was that choice made in the interests of getting the game on the shelves sooner, or was there another reason?

DT: The reason was quite simply quality, and that ever-looming amount of challenges you have when you make MMO games. We did work on DX10 almost all the way to launch, but simply weren't able to give it enough loving at the very end. We knew that most of our customers would have DX9 (for now), and when we had 2 weeks to go and the choice between keeping the two graphics engines going, or putting all resources on stablizing DX9 even further, the choice was simple. On the flip side it means we can show something even better now, and spend more time working on truly taking advantage of DX10.

 

Alex Tornberg: Concept Artist:  Right now I must say that the upcoming dungeon, House of Crom is turning out really nicely. All of us artists in the concept team spent a lot of time visualizing this dungeon, and its going to be massive. i just hope the end result is as good as we think it's going to be.

 

Well thats it really, there is plenty more interesting quotes inside the mag, just thought i'd share some relevant to the current topics on the game.

Oh and if your wondering what the T3 Epic Armor for Thoth-Amon's Stronghold will be looking like here is a glimpse:

 

 

Take a look at the large text. I'm sure the puppet FC sent didn't actually say that, but by screwing up that caned response it is by far the truest statement I've read so far on the subject.

Also the "concept art" is a nice touch. When you have to put that on display to show what is upcoming it shows how desperate the situation really is. My only question about AoC: how long can FC continue to promise without delivering before even the paid fanboi's stop taking the money and disappear, 4 months and counting...