Game Director Craig Morrison shines some light on what to expect in the upcoming Update 6 to Age of Conan in this latest Letter from the Game Director.

One of the first things Mr. Morrison touches on is the inclusion of a Veteran Rewards system. Recently, we reported on Mr. Morrison's comment that the PowerPoints veteran reward system announced last summer was scrapped, but that we could expect some other form of a veteran rewards system in the near future. Well, today, we've got our answer! The new veteran reward system will give veteran players access to special vendors that dole out items that make gameplay more convenient, such as exp potions, but not items that make your character more powerful. The items will basically serve to thank fans for their dedication, but also keep things on an even keel for newer players.

The real highlight of the director's letter is the announcement of the Guild Renown system. It's hard to talk about this system without mentioning Warhammer Online as it is so similar. So, anyone who has played Warhammer Online, you'll be able to draw some easy comparisons here.

Guilds will now level up and will earn Renown for every member who contributes. The types of points players will earn depend on their activities but are functionally the same. For example, if you are crafting you will earn Artisan points, while if you're PvPing, you will earn Glory points. The way you earn the points doesn't matter as they all count towards the guilds renown level, but they do count towards Renown Ranking's which is another facet of the upcoming system that we'll talk about a bit later.

Guild Renown levels will confer bonuses to the guild in many ways, ranging from bonuses that affect everyone in the guild to special upgrades to the guild city, such as special pet or mount vendors. Rankings on the other hand are different, and are only factored into the Leaderboards, separate from your guilds actual renown level.

The leaderboards will pit guilds against each other for who can rake in the most points in a given week (after which it resets and begins again) and this is where the separate renown point types come in. Aside from total renown point earnings for the week, there will be separate leaderboards for the different types of earnable points. So if your guild is focused on PvP, you may have the lowest Artisan point ranking one week, but also the highest Glory ranking for that week.

The top guilds will be awarded status bonuses such as Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medals next to their guild tag.

The ranking system will be balanced for all sizes of guilds by only taking contributions from the top 50 contributors for the week. So having a large guild won't necessarily be crucial to dominating the ranks.

Additional rewards details for the veteran reward system, the guild renown system, and the guild renown ranking system will be detailed once Update 6 rolls around to test server.

Check out the full Letter from the Game Director here.

"One of the first things Mr. Morrison touches on is the inclusion of a Veteran Rewards system. Recently, we reported on Mr. Morrison's comment that the PowerPoints veteran reward system announced last summer was scrapped, but that we could expect some other form of a veteran rewards system in the near future. Well, today, we've got our answer! The new veteran reward system will give veteran players access to special vendors that dole out items that make gameplay more convenient, such as exp potions, but not items that make your character more powerful. The items will basically serve to thank fans for their dedication, but also keep things on an even keel for newer players."

Do they seriously think that new subscribers will think it's okay that veterans get to play more conveniently and more efficiently than they can?  If I were a new or returning subscriber, I'd be reluctant to give a company money who gives one segment of the player base a leg up in any fashion.  This is how I've felt about raiders since I started playing MMOs in 1999 and the reason why none of them get my money at the moment.

Preferential treatment, exclusive content, special interest rewards.....all of these things came into being with MMO's and did not exist in prior computer games.  It's beyond despicable for MMO GAME developers to implement "have / have not" systems into entertainment software.

Very cool stuff.  I think they need to keep focusing on guilds and expanding sieging as a viable end game time sink that is also fun and dynamic without forcing people to redo the same instances against the same AI forever.

Glad they can keep expanding on the game now instead of only fixing it.

Originally posted by Vrazule

"One of the first things Mr. Morrison touches on is the inclusion of a Veteran Rewards system. Recently, we reported on Mr. Morrison's comment that the PowerPoints veteran reward system announced last summer was scrapped, but that we could expect some other form of a veteran rewards system in the near future. Well, today, we've got our answer! The new veteran reward system will give veteran players access to special vendors that dole out items that make gameplay more convenient, such as exp potions, but not items that make your character more powerful. The items will basically serve to thank fans for their dedication, but also keep things on an even keel for newer players."

Do they seriously think that new subscribers will think it's okay that veterans get to play more conveniently and more efficiently than they can?  If I were a new or returning subscriber, I'd be reluctant to give a company money who gives one segment of the player base a leg up in any fashion.  This is how I've felt about raiders since I started playing MMOs in 1999 and the reason why none of them get my money at the moment.

Preferential treatment, exclusive content, special interest rewards.....all of these things came into being with MMO's and did not exist in prior computer games.  It's beyond despicable for MMO GAME developers to implement "have / have not" systems into entertainment software.

Don't you think that in time he or she will get that veteran reward anyway, why do people always want everything from the start?

So seriously YES I do think new subs will be okay with that as they understand it, unless they are new to this genre as this type of thing has always been there with most MMORPG in the past, so it's nothig really new....

Anyway nice notes, hope it does well for the game and it's players....

I just subscribed last week and have no problem at all with veterans getting some goodies.  Those goodies will be available to me too eventually.

I like the idea of guild rewards.  I don't care at all about titles and rankings but if we get something tangible as well then it will help me feel good about contributing "to the team".  The system may stimulate guild vs. guild rivalries which will lead to more meaningful PvP and sieges.

I can see some potential issues though.  Would you join a large guild where you know you might not be contributing to the points total or would you rather join a smaller guild where you know your efforts will count?  This may change dynamics within some of the power gaming guilds where guildies will compete against each other to be on the "top 50" list each week.

The Guild renown system is a good one, but there is still a major flaw in guilds right now and that is the seperation of the siege tower vs the town. There is almost no loss or real gain by holding a siege tower\town and equally nothing to care about when losing it except the ability to siege. That really is not enough. you need a real carrot.