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Some of you may already know me from the official forums or a couple of interviews covering Age of Conan. But for those of you who don't, Hi! My name is Jason Stone and I am one of the designer on Age of Conan. I work primarily with combat, control, class distinctions and things the characters can do. I have also worked with PvP and been involved with a lot of our gameplay design discussions.
I have been wanting the change to mingle off the official forums and finally have permission to answer questions here as well. Be aware I won't be able to respond to everything, and I won't always be able to give you the answer you want to hear. A little background on me. I have been in the industry for about 7 years and 9 months now starting out working for SOE as a GM on the original Everquest. I have been working on Conan for the past 2 years and 9 months as a designer and just recently moved back to the US from Norway and am continuing to work on the game. I am a huge gamer and love to play everything, I like to occasionally play other games with people in the community so keep your eyes open. (right now I am addicted to Forza Motorsport 2) Looking forward to conversing with you guys. 
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defenestrate
 Novice Member
Joined: 4/26/07
My shield arm is getting tired from fending off all of the AoC gremlins. |
Hey Jason welcome to the forums.
Now my question; With all of the hype that's being spread around about WAR, what do you think about the whole situation. 2 MAJOR titles being released less than a year apart from eachother. Will their be alot of conflict or do you think that neither one of the games will be affected by having such close release dates? Thanks and welcome to the community!  |
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OMG /flame! Hehehe, j/k, Hello again! Been trying to crush the Vanbois talking smack about AoC over here Xfire: No games played... HAHAHAHA, My ass!
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defenestrate
Novice Member
Joined: 4/26/07
My shield arm is getting tired from fending off all of the AoC gremlins. |
Originally posted by SturmrabeKissing ass wont get you in the beta  Seriously Im just kidding |
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Let's start off with a hot topic.Will all the heals be over time or will there be standard heals and instas as well.can you throw us any info plz.
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Hello Hello Good to see you here. Design questions eh? Off the top of my noggin, maybe covered elsewhere, if so I humble appollo-gize. I realize the first 20 levels inthe game is solo play - is there a possibility that these first 20 levels be released earlier than the massive aspect of the game? Or will it all come at once? Will beta players have any advantages other than the bonus item? Collectors Edition going to be available? If so, care to tease us on the goodies? I understand the character customization will be quite advanced. How about skills? How many players of level 50 of the same profession are going to be clones? What are ways to keep my avatar somewhat unique in this world? How is the crafting aspect of the game coming along? I understand there are various crafting professions. I pray this game does not become too "crafter dependent" in that if I merely want to spend my days adventuring, my rewards will be subpar versus someone who dedicates his gaming to crafting gear. I certainly don't want crafting to be a waste of time, but if I am involved in taking down a particularly challangeing obstacle, I don't want rusty boots and 10 coppers to take home. has anyone discussed raiding in AoC? Other than PvP, will there be raid content in PvE?
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Originally posted by defenestrateI don't think youll find a launch window where you won't have competition nearby anymore. Loads more games being made and loads of those games seem to be MMO's. WAR I expect to do well but Mythic openly admits that they are trying to do what they do best which is take proven ideas and spin them, in this case taking the premise and general feel of World of Warcraft into a more PvP theme oriented environment. They have done a good job with Dark Ages of Camelot and I expect them to continue to do so. Thing is I don't really think of Age of Conan as anything like these other games in developement because it upsets the applecart at the very fundamental places like Combat. And most MMO's think at how foundation the elements of combat are, you dont kill things, complete quests, explore dungeons, or engage in PvP without using combat somehow. I don't really believe in the term "killer" MMO either that will make the other games go barren. We have seen steady numbers in almost all the games even when another game launches, if a game stumbles, it stumbles on its own
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Originally posted by SickpupAlmost all healing is heal over time as we do not want healers to be heal bots, they are intended to be a part of the action not spectators. You do have access to an area of effect instant heal but this can only land on the same person once per minute per class. This allows some stacking for emergencies and keeps multiple healers from being redudant without letting direct heal spams become the name of the game.
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Originally posted by fansede
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Jason thanks for taking the time to address the MMORPG.com community.
Question... I really loved Anarchy Online and was wondering if AOC would include the depth in character "twinking" customisation that AO has? |
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Ah...geez, I'm so tempted. But on the other hand I try not to be a total ass and jumping down your throat the first time you post here might be a bit rude. Hmm. See, I'm sort of the resident skeptic here (hey, someone's gotta do it). So I guess my first question would be: Do you want to answer questions from a pessimistic skeptic who won't settle for vague answers or would you rather talk to the fans who already believe that AoC will be the greatest thing since sliced bread? Because, you know, I have a tendancy to pick apart and analyse dev statements and can get a bit over-passionate when I think I'm being jerked around. So I can understand if you wouldn't want to talk to me. And if all I can expect to get is beating-around-the-bush answers I might as well save us both some trouble and not ask my questions in the first place. So...um, see I'm already getting a bit hostile. Anyway, if you want me to hold off untill another time I will. |
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Hi Jason
here are some of my questions: 1) Would being a current subscriber of Anarchy Online maybe give you any edge over another for beta selection? 2) After you've played the first 20 levels and want to make alts,will there be an option to start at level 20? 3) Are there arenas for pvp? Can you challenge others to duels? 4) How will long distance travel be handled? Are there whompas? 5) Are all people that work for Funcom originally from Norway? 6) Do you play World of Warcraft? 7) WIll there be different server types? Pvp w/looting server,Roleplay Server,Non-pvp server? 8) Will you keep track pvp statistics? |
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I always love the resident skeptics because they are not nearly as unique as they might think :) I've been dealing with Sturmrabe for 2 years now and he is won over even :P
You are welcome to be a skeptic, but to put it frankly there is a large difference between being a skeptic and asking questions and not getting your hopes up and simply being an ass. I am quite the avid gamer and skeptic myself. Plus it seems you really want to ask questions, even your first post "should I shouldnt I" is filled with veiled hints of me supposedly needing to accept your skepticism challenge or be another Dev who only wants to princess wave to admiring fans. Not really my style. The princess wave I mean. I do love the fans tho :) Twinking will most likely not be possible in the same context as AO simple because of the way AO requires a certain skill at a certain level or stat to be able to use, while we have skills and stats these primarily would not be twinkable to unlock
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Originally posted by Supernerd
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All I can say is welcome! It's nice to see that some of the threads which usually devolve into "loose fact" discussions can have some hard info injected. Thanks for taking the time to drop by and do that!
The two questions I'd have for ya, that I would never bother you with on the official forums are simple ones...
1) Auto racing fan...have you had the chance to take Forza Motorsport 2 out for a spin yet, and if so are you, enjoying it? 2) UO? What server?
Cheers |
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Hi Jason. I was wondering if you could put together a combat video for us here in the mmorpg forums. Something that would show a couple different classes with some dev dialogue to explain different skills and how they effect NPC"s vrs PC"s. Also will there be combat text in chat so you can test different weapons for damage ect?
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Welcome to mmorpg.com forums Jason. Be aware that you should always keep your asbestos boxers nearby.... these forums can be quite harsh lol.
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Here is my first question:
We know that you all at Funcom are endeavoring to bring about something new with the combat in Age of Conan. How about questing and the like, can we expect more of the same old same old EQ/WoW model or are you bringing something new to the table?
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Originally posted by Baikal
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Originally posted by rocquMore combat and gameplay footage will be coming out soon as Beta plans move forward but I do not have permission to just throw together video and release it sorry. We have combat text filtering so you can see damage etc yes.
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Sramota
 Novice Member
Joined: 5/18/04
-Even samurai have teddybears and even teddybears get drunk- |
I'm curious, how do you go from GM to designer? Played so far: 9Dragons, AO, AC, AC2, CoX, DAoC, DF, DnL, DR, DDO, Ent, EvE, EQ, EQ2, FoMK, FFO, Fury, GW, HG:L, HZ, L1, L2, M59, MU, NC1, NC2, PS, PT, R:O, RF:O, RYL, Ryzom, SL, SB, SW:G, TR, TCoS, MX:O, UO, VG, WAR, WoW... |
Originally posted by severiusEQ2 had dialogues but Conan is more about characters. The quest designers are trying very hard to make NPC's have a story and with the cinematic camera when you talk to them it makes it feel more alive. My personal favorite is an old drunk cimmerian with one arm you meet in Tortage.
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Originally posted by SramotaYears of hard work and experience. Get into the industry anyway you can, play games, study games, design games. Always look at whats good in a crappy game and whats bad in a good game and ask yourself why over and over.
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Originally posted by Athelan Ok, so my first question is this: How big a pain in the arse is Sturmrabe? Actually, you probably should give Sturm and Aelfinn beta slots if they don't have them already. They have been your biggest defenders around here for a quite a while. Ok, all bullshit aside let's see if you can give me a straight answer to a simple question. 1. Does aquiring the very best items in the game require PvE raiding? and a complimentary question... 2. Can the very best items be aquired without the involvement of PvE raiding at any point in the process. To clarify: this means without PvE raiding for materials, gems, quest pieces, or anything else needed to get the final item. |
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Sramota
Novice Member
Joined: 5/18/04
-Even samurai have teddybears and even teddybears get drunk- |
So by that you don't actually need an education? (I'm just curious, I couldn't care less for trying to get a job in the industry to be honest, but that's just because I'm having enough fun as it is.) I mean, there's no programming involved or such that require actual programming knowledge? Are you just talking to people on how to do it or using tools provided by others or are you sniffing in the codelines?
Played so far: 9Dragons, AO, AC, AC2, CoX, DAoC, DF, DnL, DR, DDO, Ent, EvE, EQ, EQ2, FoMK, FFO, Fury, GW, HG:L, HZ, L1, L2, M59, MU, NC1, NC2, PS, PT, R:O, RF:O, RYL, Ryzom, SL, SB, SW:G, TR, TCoS, MX:O, UO, VG, WAR, WoW... |
