The Age of Conan website has been updated with this letter from Age of Conan Game Director Gaute Godager. In the letter, Godager lays out plans for the game in the near future.

Fellow Hyborians!

As you may have noticed we have had frequent patches the last two weeks. We hope this will soon start to quiet down, but as long as there are major issues – and there have been – we will dedicate the Conan team to fixing them and giving you these fixes as soon as possible! We have a plan on how to move this game forward because as you know, what you have today is but the platform – the dawn of this world. I hope you enjoy the game as is, but I can ensure you, this is but the beginning!

Our focus from now on can be summarized by these points:

1. We will add content, specifically in mid-late thirties and mid-late fifties and make the leveling speed smoother in those areas, reducing the need to grind.
2. We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things.
3. We are fixing bugs you reported through all channels we can get information from.
4. We will add a new large outdoor region in the 55-60 range this summer!
5. This is only a small taster! More information about the exciting summer and fall Roadmap will come the end of the next week!
6. We are staffing up Customer Service, Quality Assurance and Community departments!

Read the whole thing here.

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

If you have a problem with playing a game that will continuously have fixes and patches, go play a boardgame. Otherwise, stop moaning.

Originally posted by streea

 

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

Oh just stop it already. WoW still has bug fixes and updates, and EVERY MMO will too. And you know how buggy SWG was the first few months? Yet people still loved to play it.

 

If you have a problem with playing a game that will continuously have fixes and patches, go play a boardgame. Otherwise, stop moaning.

Should have been more clear i was commenting on the content missing and parts of the game no one got to see to realize it s NOT IN GAME YET.

I can't beleive they are having complaints from people who don't like the grinding at lvl 50? Lvl50? WTF the game just came out! If I wanted a game I am going to be done with in two weeks I will buy a single player game, I want my MMO's to last me atleast the summer.

Guys seriously read www.wowwiki.com/Patch_1.1. Youll be surprised theyre still fleshing out classes, and areas. I mean Maruaden horrible dungeon it may be, wasnt added until 3-4 months from US release. Remember Captain Placeholder? Come on cut AOC some slack

Regardless of the issues in hand trust me its nothing comparing to the anarchy online launch.

anyway i got hooked i said i wouldnt but heck why not

Done here.

Originally posted by streea

 

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

Oh just stop it already. WoW still has bug fixes and updates, and EVERY MMO will too. And you know how buggy SWG was the first few months? Yet people still loved to play it.

 

If you have a problem with playing a game that will continuously have fixes and patches, go play a boardgame. Otherwise, stop moaning.

Yeah got to agree so so sick of the Whiners on this site, they are starting to spoil what should be a great Forum.

Too little, too late for me. Uninstalled AoC and I'm back playing Lotro until Warhammer or Stargate releases.  Keeping an eye on JGE too.

Normal launch bugs aside, maybe next time they will release a completed game, and think twice about instancing it down into a single player game with a (quiet) chat window. Maybe they won't over look HUGE bugs and missing features in order to meet a launch date they weren't ready for.

I'm at the point in my life where I am sick of getting burned by companies.  Talk is cheap, so instead, I stop giving them my money.

Originally posted by summitus

Originally posted by streea

 

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

Oh just stop it already. WoW still has bug fixes and updates, and EVERY MMO will too. And you know how buggy SWG was the first few months? Yet people still loved to play it.

 

If you have a problem with playing a game that will continuously have fixes and patches, go play a boardgame. Otherwise, stop moaning.

Yeah got to agree so so sick of the Whiners on this site, they are starting to spoil what should be a great Forum.

  Be careful what you say on these forums friend.  Someone who says other ppl are whiners get called trolls or hater haters which in turn just makes you a hater.  this is, of course, the opinions of other ppl.  not mine, these were just a couple of things thrown in my face when i stated something very similar.

All good things headed for AOC and thats a good thing. This is my first time dealing ith Funcom and I think they are doing a pretty good job of cleaning up alot of stuff. I think they tried to be too ambitious with the game, trying to perfect everything. They clearly have good intentions of improving and making the game even better despite some issues at the moment.  

Originally posted by SaintViktor

All good things headed for AOC and thats a good thing. This is my first time dealing ith Funcom and I think they are doing a pretty good job of cleaning up alot of stuff. I think they tried to be too ambitious with the game, trying to perfect everything. They clearly have good intentions of improving and making the game even better despite some issues at the moment.  

They simply released the game in an unfinished state, and now they are paying the price.  I understand some people like this game, but it's hardly an MMO the way it was designed.  It plays like a single player game with online elements, including the fact that you can level to 80 very quickly without ever having to group.

Originally posted by summitus

Originally posted by streea

 

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

Oh just stop it already. WoW still has bug fixes and updates, and EVERY MMO will too. And you know how buggy SWG was the first few months? Yet people still loved to play it.

 

If you have a problem with playing a game that will continuously have fixes and patches, go play a boardgame. Otherwise, stop moaning.

Yeah got to agree so so sick of the Whiners on this site, they are starting to spoil what should be a great Forum.

Trust me.  These forums are NOTHING compared to the user forums on the AoC web site.  I also wish people would stop complaining.  While people are certainly entitled to their own opinion, one has to wonder how many posts that complain about the same things are necessary...

Jon

Originally posted by Spellshaper

Age of Conan: Letter from customer

Funcom mistake was, that they didnt count, that players level so fast and need new content so fast. Something caused by exploits, something by no sleepers, but even casual players haveing quite high levels.

But everyone with basic knowledge of MMOs already knows, that there would be content coming in first few weeks, question only was how much of it will be. I also dont think that announced content is something made these days (it tooks weeks to make something noticable), but only hidden content for first BIG patch after release (to look good).

Problem is, that these things are hidden even from closed testers, so there are a lot of issues with them and take a while to solve it on live servers. But I dont think thats so bad eitehr, it dont come out with major bugs often. What is sad is, that Funcom sometimes brings back already solved bugs with new patch (this really shouldnt happen, but I
can imagine how this can be easily done).

Launch of AoC was pretty smooth. No lags, enough servers, no waiting (it differs from server, but there was allways some that you can choose from). No major bugs until lvl lets say 30-40 at least. Enough quest and contetnt for levels mentioned above.

Only real dissapointment I have with Funcom so far are Sieges, PVE NPC cities and attackers and crafted items arent as good as non crafted items (as promised) and PvP system (mybe DX10 can count here, but I think its so useless that I cant count it). Sieges arent in yet, PVE NPC cities and attacks either arent in and the same is true for PvP system. These are major things that bring people to game, announced for release and they are not in!

I beleive they will be implemented, sooner or later, but I think Funcom have to apologise for this and tell us, when these things will be in.

------------
About me: I am casual player, so I didnt reach high lvl content yet. I love the game, the lore, the system, all of it. So my only problem on higher lvls can be content (including sieges and everything mentioned above). And if you ask me if you should by this game, still answer is YES because I still beleive in Funcom (at least for now).

Give them some slack, they are a small team and they are doing what they can.

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

yawn

Originally posted by MindTrigger

 

Originally posted by SaintViktor

All good things headed for AOC and thats a good thing. This is my first time dealing ith Funcom and I think they are doing a pretty good job of cleaning up alot of stuff. I think they tried to be too ambitious with the game, trying to perfect everything. They clearly have good intentions of improving and making the game even better despite some issues at the moment.  

AoC is anything but ambitous.  The original design of Star Wars Galaxies, now that was ambitious and one of the reasons they never could balance the game or keep up with it's problems.  If anything AoC suffers from a lack of vision.  Too much time and effort was wasted on making it a pretty game, instead of a fun game with tons of content.

 

They simply released the game in an unfinished state, and now they are paying the price.  I understand some people like this game, but it's hardly an MMO the way it was designed.  It plays like a single player game with online elements, including the fact that you can level to 80 very quickly without ever having to group.

I am also tired of the "unfinished" comments.  By nature, ALL MMO's are unfinished, constantly being changed, tweaked and updated.  I've beta tested LOTRO, Warcraft, and MxO, and all of these were buggier than this MMO was at launch (though I think LOTRO, possibly, was slightly smoother).

The "unfinished" argument really doesn't hold water for this reason.  A better way to phrase it, perhaps, would be "incomplete content promised upon launch" which, in its own right, is a worthy complaint.

Jon

Originally posted by MindTrigger

 

Originally posted by SaintViktor

All good things headed for AOC and thats a good thing. This is my first time dealing ith Funcom and I think they are doing a pretty good job of cleaning up alot of stuff. I think they tried to be too ambitious with the game, trying to perfect everything. They clearly have good intentions of improving and making the game even better despite some issues at the moment.  

AoC is anything but ambitous.  The original design of Star Wars Galaxies, now that was ambitious and one of the reasons they never could balance the game or keep up with it's problems.  If anything AoC suffers from a lack of vision.  Too much time and effort was wasted on making it a pretty game, instead of a fun game with tons of content.

 

They simply released the game in an unfinished state, and now they are paying the price.  I understand some people like this game, but it's hardly an MMO the way it was designed.  It plays like a single player game with online elements, including the fact that you can level to 80 very quickly without ever having to group.

Nighttime quests are single player only daytime quests you can either solo or group. Though the higher level you are the more grouping is needed such as Sanctum of the Burning Souls dungeon and many other dungeons that are 50+.

Too much time and effort was wasted on making it a pretty game, instead of a fun game with tons of content.

There is plenty to do in AOC. Problem is that some just glue themselves 24/7 to the pc and rush to level 80, then we have to hear their complaints about not enough content on the forums.

I would like to suggest that all the whiners do EXACTLY what they say and leave the game.  All of you who are threatening to leave...please do so.

The rest of us are having a really good time and I'm all for not having to listen to you any more.

Thanks for playing. 

In LOTRO beta we were balancing classes far before release.  We were polishing up the completed crafting sytem.  Even finalizing the initial higher level areas months before it went live.  AoC seems to have just hit beta from alpha...  That's the feel anyway.  And I played beta (err alpha)...

damn!  still no fix for the instanced *outside* world and immersion killing loading screens... oh well at least some people like playing technology from 2002...

Overall, I think AoC is a pretty decent game and if they do PvP right and keep adding PvP elements it will do fine. If they pull a WoW and go from what could have been a great PvP game and turn it into an EQ PvE grindfest, then so long, farewell.

PvE has been done to death, it was derived from single player games that required it simply because it was all that we knew. Once MMO's came out, companies realized the players could in turn be used as content and excitement in terms of player driven societies, cities, economies and wars.

PvE is still important till the end game, but PvE has never served a purpose in any end game environment. Seriously, raiding a dungeon once is bad enough, I don't want to raid it over and over a hundred times just to get MY gear.

AoC will be fine as long as they stick to their PvP guns and focus on that. Perhaps following the design ideas of Shadowbane and Dark Age of Camelot.

As you can tell by my Avatar, I should probably hate this game out of respect of WAR, but I don't. I was skeptical and such, but I've been having fun so far and I'm only 45 since launch. I think what helps a lot is the fact I have 2 army buddies that I group with a majority of the time.

Friends and guilds make any MMO 100x better than what it is solo.

Well, I take it as with Vanguard, I will see how it is in 6-12 months. Maybe its really good then, maybe not. At least they admit their probs earlier than Sigil did, which speaks for them.

Originally posted by Leucent

In otherwords, we thank you for paying for beta because we simply weren t ready for release.

Just like every other MMO other than LOTRO, would you like a cookie?

Originally posted by jedibeck16

 

Originally posted by MindTrigger

 

Originally posted by SaintViktor

All good things headed for AOC and thats a good thing. This is my first time dealing ith Funcom and I think they are doing a pretty good job of cleaning up alot of stuff. I think they tried to be too ambitious with the game, trying to perfect everything. They clearly have good intentions of improving and making the game even better despite some issues at the moment.  

AoC is anything but ambitous.  The original design of Star Wars Galaxies, now that was ambitious and one of the reasons they never could balance the game or keep up with it's problems.  If anything AoC suffers from a lack of vision.  Too much time and effort was wasted on making it a pretty game, instead of a fun game with tons of content.

 

They simply released the game in an unfinished state, and now they are paying the price.  I understand some people like this game, but it's hardly an MMO the way it was designed.  It plays like a single player game with online elements, including the fact that you can level to 80 very quickly without ever having to group.

That all depends on what level you are when you decide to do the group quests (yes, they are there).  I for one was heavily challenged by the group quests and needed a couple people to come along with me.

 

I am also tired of the "unfinished" comments.  By nature, ALL MMO's are unfinished, constantly being changed, tweaked and updated.  I've beta tested LOTRO, Warcraft, and MxO, and all of these were buggier than this MMO was at launch (though I think LOTRO, possibly, was slightly smoother).

The "unfinished" argument really doesn't hold water for this reason.  A better way to phrase it, perhaps, would be "incomplete content promised upon launch" which, in its own right, is a worthy complaint.

Jon

When I say AoC was unfinished, I am not talking about normal launch bugs, and 'normal' missing content. (which, by the way, is only normal because people continue to pay these game companies to release unfinished games.) I am talking about glaring bugs that could only have been completely overlooked in order to get this game launched on time, and never should have made it past the beta stage.  I'm talking about barely implemented key features such as the chat and emote systems, quest log, grouping features, etc.  I'm talking about the feats system not working, and the stats on armor not working and/or making little or no impact on a player's stats.  Hell, there are stats on items that no one even know what they do because funcom won't release the information.

When I am talking about missing content, I am referring to giant gaps in quests for certain levels.  This game was purposely designed so that players could reach the cap (solo) in only 250 hours.  Some people have done it in 200.  You can't design a game like that, and then use the excuse that you didn't expect players to level fast, so you didn't have the middle and endgame content completed. Also, let's not forget that player cities are bugged to death, and siege warfare is MIA.

What about crafting?  Crafting is usually a great side project for people to do while they level.  It effectively slows down leveling for many people, because crafting is supposed to be a fun activity that can get you away from grinding and combat. The whole system seems like it was thrown in the game 3 months ago.  Static spawning resource nodes that people can mark on their map?  In Stygia I played for several days and only came across one node that had one item in it.   Crafting itself is not working, including the game breaking gemcrafting system.  How did any of this make it past beta?

I'll tell you how.  The issues were completely ignored.  There are countless beta testers out there who tried to get Funcom to hold the game because it was no where near ready for launch.  In my opinion,  someone in management at Funcom must have decided it was time to push the game out, so they did.  They put all their time into making Tortage nearly flawless, pushed mounts and crafting to level 40 so few people would notice that none of it worked right, and rushed the game out,.  Ask yourself how, after FIVE (5) years of development, this game finds itself in such an imcomplete state?  You would think it would be the most polished MMO ever released considering how long it's been in dev.  This tells me that the team is either too small, or too unorganized to handle this project correctly.

The things I stated above are aside from 'normal' launch problems and missing content. These are key aspects of the game that should have been in the game and completely functioning.  Did Funcom do no research of other MMOs to figure out what players consider normal MMO features these days?  Any half wit gamer knows that MMO launches can be a rocky ride, but there is a huge difference between launch bugs, and launching a game that is missing a large portion of working standard MMO game features.