Last week, Managing Editor Jon Wood traveled to Norwayh to visit the studios of Funcom's Age of Conan. Today, he shares the experience and information on the ESRB Rating, Crafting, Sound and more.

This past weekend, I spent about 35 hours in transit across the Atlantic Ocean and back. Not for a holiday, but instead to visit Oslo and the rather impressively sized offices of Funcom. The company itself takes up five floors out of the six in the unassuming Norwegian building and houses their roughly 300 employees.

When you walk through the offices, you’re likely to hear any number of languages being spoken: Norwegian, German and French, just to name a few. We were told during our visit that Funcom has employees from a wide variety of countries with nearly as diverse an array of languages, and as a result many of the meetings and inter-office emails that take place about the game take place in English.

Read the whole thing here.

Good to see they are giving out more information. Its just too bad about the delay though but understandable. Looking forward to the next installment.

I'm all for a reasonable delay for a better experience.  Nice bit of information.  Keep 'em coming.

"For those of you in Beta, some aspects of the current beta are 2-3 months out of date and will be replaced shortly."

im just realy glad that they decided to whet our appetite with all of the fantastic press from this weekend and then stab us in the eyes with a delay (ok ok its probably needed).

Wouldnt it have made more sense to announce the delay last week and then all the good press comes along and helps us forget about the pushed date.

That crafting system brings exactly zero things new to the genre.  I'm really disappointed that they didn't even try to change it a little bit.  The gem sockets has been done to death as well as the harvesting/creation from recipe scheme.

I hope they haven't stripped the combat system down too much, otherwise this game is going to be as cookie-cutter as they claimed it wouldn't be.

Originally posted by checkthis500

That crafting system brings exactly zero things new to the genre.  I'm really disappointed that they didn't even try to change it a little bit.  The gem sockets has been done to death as well as the harvesting/creation from recipe scheme.

I hope they haven't stripped the combat system down too much, otherwise this game is going to be as cookie-cutter as they claimed it wouldn't be.

Originally posted by singsofdeath

 

I dunno...I for one will be enjoying crafting progression through quests rather than through mindless standing at a forge and crafting 5000 Iron Rods while drinking coffee. *shrug* Of course, could be that you're not into that sort of thing. ^_^

 

True.. me too... i dont want to spend all my time on crafting.. I'm working from 2 to 10 PM.. I will have only few hours after Work and only more time on weekends for game,.. So!... I want to spend my time for every thing in the game.. and not to craft 1 sword for 8 hours.

I love what they doing with crafting system.. This game will be more interesting if it will have everything in the same portions... And it will be like this.. I'm sure..

Peace!.. 

Originally posted by checkthis500

That crafting system brings exactly zero things new to the genre.  I'm really disappointed that they didn't even try to change it a little bit.  The gem sockets has been done to death as well as the harvesting/creation from recipe scheme.

I hope they haven't stripped the combat system down too much, otherwise this game is going to be as cookie-cutter as they claimed it wouldn't be.

It is not about being cookie cutter. Funcom has stated from the very start that they are aiming for the casual player.

Can't wait for Part two!

The combat system was scaled back because you literally had to memorize several dozen combinations of keys to pull off a combat fatality.  For example, in the old combat system, to do an overhead killing blow, you might have to hit 'W A 1 W A 2' (I am making this up based on the explanation as I understood it in a recent interview discussing the old vs. new system).  So imagine having to memorize multiple keys strokes to pull off one combat move.  In the end I guess it just was not fun and too complex.  The new combat system sounds more akin to EQ2s Heroic Opportunity system, but I may be wrong.  I think it is still more complex than any other MMORPG combat system on the market today.

Delay or not, AoC is my most anticipated MMORPG.  I love the craft while on the road addition.  May can't get here soon enough.

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Originally posted by CalDruid
The new combat system sounds more akin to EQ2s Heroic Opportunity system, but I may be wrong.

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Yes, you are in fact, totally wrong.

But you are right about the fact that it is the best feature of the game. :D

Hey Jon, how you feeling?? Im shattered, just woke up from getting back at 3 am myself.

Was an awesome experience :)

Strange how "Cimmeria" is considered more of a Nordic type of country, when most Conan's adventures are oriented towards east and Asia (middle east) specifically. The ancient country of "Kimmeria", which had Slav ancestry, was located in modern Ukraine and Western Russia, fits much more into the original concept.

To me, it is much more believable Conan was of ancient Slav descent then Nord. Ancient Kimmeria was heavily influenced by the Greek and Middle Eastern cultures, and it feels that way in the books.

Some aspects of Conan are Irish/celtic/Gaellic (his name, the name of the Gods, etc etc), but in no way Nordic. In fact, I dont really recall anything Nordic, other then god called Odin.

So, why Nordic?

Originally posted by singsofdeath

 

Originally posted by checkthis500

That crafting system brings exactly zero things new to the genre.  I'm really disappointed that they didn't even try to change it a little bit.  The gem sockets has been done to death as well as the harvesting/creation from recipe scheme.

I hope they haven't stripped the combat system down too much, otherwise this game is going to be as cookie-cutter as they claimed it wouldn't be.

I dunno...I for one will be enjoying crafting progression through quests rather than through mindless standing at a forge and crafting 5000 Iron Rods while drinking coffee. *shrug* Of course, could be that you're not into that sort of thing. ^_^

 

Both theories arent too good because first one means Conan may become just another generic MMO with DX10, and the other one means they are running out of time to design and develop something good.

I hope Im wrong and this is simply a teaser with little info to tease our hype and imagination. I really like Conan IP (love the books!) and I hope funcom nails this one just the right way.

Originally posted by thamighty213

im just realy glad that they decided to whet our appetite with all of the fantastic press from this weekend and then stab us in the eyes with a delay (ok ok its probably needed).

 

Wouldnt it have made more sense to announce the delay last week and then all the good press comes along and helps us forget about the pushed date.

yeah It was tacky not to mention the delay, almost as tacky as selling a bunch of preorders then turning around and saying "OOPS! ANOTHER DELAY!"

now Jon don't forget to mention the pub ;)

@jimmyman

Interesting point you brought up there, and I won't argue with your perception of the lore (everyone's entitled to their own views). But I actually think that what they refer to that is northern here is the whole vanir / ymir  vs. cimmerians conflict, whereas the vanir are the representatives for northern cultures. I'm not sure, but I haven't seen anywhere that they've implied northern ancestry for Conan =) And Howard had a lot of northern culture in mind when "designing" the vanirs (at least the way I saw it when I read the books =))

On topic. Nice report there, looking forward to the next part.

 

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Originally posted by Paks

"For those of you in Beta, some aspects of the current beta are 2-3 months out of date and will be replaced shortly."

 

 

 

 

Also um you would think during BETA Funcom would be updating their beta clients alittle more frequently.... 2-3 months? WOW...

There are so many things I find appealing about this game From the Graphics to the  PVP system, but  one look at the  Immature  (really these guys makes the WoW forums look like an episode of Masterpiece theater.) banal jerks that  cruise the official forums, and I can pretty much tell this is going to be a collection of Blackrock servers only with lower IQ's.  LOTRO is frankly getting a bit stale, but it has one of the most awesome mature communities out there. I'm not holding out a lot of hope that what I'm seeing on the forums now will change at retail...and in these type of games a Jerk community does make a difference.

Originally posted by Khazy

@jimmyman

Interesting point you brought up there, and I won't argue with your perception of the lore (everyone's entitled to their own views). But I actually think that what they refer to that is northern here is the whole vanir / ymir  vs. cimmerians conflict, whereas the vanir are the representatives for northern cultures. I'm not sure, but I haven't seen anywhere that they've implied northern ancestry for Conan =) And Howard had a lot of northern culture in mind when "designing" the vanirs (at least the way I saw it when I read the books =))

On topic. Nice report there, looking forward to the next part.

 

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Could any1 confirm/deny how is Conan's world being affected by this? Is it a nordic/gaul/celtic/other type of world? Generally speaking of course.

And who said live roleplay was full of grim lookinh geeks!... hubba hubba

The Hyborian world of Conan is containing ancestors to most of the people/ethnic groups present today.

The Cimmerians however are descendants from the people of Atlantis, and as far as i know Robert E Howard did not intend Conan to "belong" to any people living today, northern or otherwise.

Graphically however, Cimmeria is located in the north, and its culture is more resemblant to ancient nordic then the more civilised asian countries. The heritage from Atlantis give the Cimmerians their black hair and bronze skin, in contrast to the neighbouring  Aesir and Vanir (pale and red/blond) who represents scandinavians and pherhaps celts.

That many of Conans adventures take place in a more asia-like environment has naught to do with his heritage.