Craig Morrison, Game Director for Age of Conan, has written a new letter to the community where he discusses upcoming additions to the game including the next major update and the Xibaluku dungeon, and PvP tweaks.

Now that the server merges are complete and the new communities start to come together, in some cases alongside new allies, in others against new foes, I wanted to take some time out and talk a little about what’s coming up in the immediate future.

This starts with the next major game update, and with it some great new game-play and a host of new game-play updates and new features. The update is currently available on the test servers and we’ve been making good progress on getting it polished up and ready for the live environment.

I have enjoyed playing through the new Xibaluku dungeon with the dev team over the last few weeks and I wanted to share a little more in terms of what you can expect to see coming your way when this dungeon hits the live servers. Xibaluku is a six person instance for level 80 players found in Thunder River. That much we have already said in previous information, so more importantly – what does it play like?

Read more here.

Sounds like AOC is shaping up, and moving in the right direction.

Sounds like this will be a decent update.  I'm still holding off on resubbing to reevaluate the game until after the itemization changes go live. 

Also, it sounds like DX10 is not going in yet.  No surprise there. 

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

Also, it sounds like DX10 is not going in yet.  No surprise there. 

Its been on the test server for quite a bit.

did they ever implement any kind of bonus to encourage grouping? from what i remember AOC might as well been a singleplayer game. you seemed to actually be penalized for grouping.

Rav that is why my wife and I left the game.  It penalizes you for grouping.  Dumbest thing I've ever seen in an MMO.

Originally posted by dsebutchr

Rav that is why my wife and I left the game.  It penalizes you for grouping.  Dumbest thing I've ever seen in an MMO.

yeah i just don't understand games coming out now. i understand no one wants forced grouping but to go out of thier way to deter grouping is just stupid. thats the reason my wife and l left as well.

Does the game not offer a bonus for grouping or penalize grouping? Those are not the same thing at all. I've never played AoC but I'm looking around for a new game so I'd like to know.
 

If you group with another person it cuts your experience points on everything you do by more than half.  There is not bonus your just lose half the xp for doing whatever.  It's more efficient to solo everything.  Much faster too.

It's not really a group oriented game.  You can solo to 80 more than twice as fast as you could duo to 80 because your losing so much XP by grouping.

ya but ya can't be level 80 in 20 minuts or less though so i want my money back or a new pizza.....

Originally posted by ZANGFEI

ya but ya can't be level 80 in 20 minuts or less though so i want my money back or a new pizza.....

lol i know right, just have fun with your wives playing the game. dont worry about exp and getting to 80 so fast. also be lucky your wives play comp games. if im not mistaken, dont all games reduce exp in groups but only because u can mow through mobs with very little downtime? = faster exp

Actually, I can think of quite a few games that will give you bonus experience when you group with 3+ players. Something like +10% exp for each player in a 3 person group, 15%-20% for 4 person group, 30% or so for a 5 person group and like 40% bonus experience for a 6 person group.
This was a concept that the original Everquest came up with and alot of MMOs today has adopted in their own game.

I can't believe it, I didn't read AoC news for some time, but I checked this one. There's still no dx10 in-game? FOR CHRIST SAKE IT'S ON THE BLOODY BOX, and he's talking about shaping up nicely on test server ALMOST A YEAR AFTER?

Originally posted by Thillian

 I didn't read AoC news for some time

Yup, DX10 and most everything else has been explained and is in the process of being corrected since the departure of the original lead designer.

The AoC development cycle had to basically start over from scratch after the mess left by the previous guy, the new guy re-prioritized everything and the current work being done is to most everyone's satisfaction.

The general consensus is the game's finally in good hands and heading in the right direction.

Originally posted by phlcarl

Originally posted by ZANGFEI

ya but ya can't be level 80 in 20 minuts or less though so i want my money back or a new pizza.....

 

lol i know right, just have fun with your wives playing the game. dont worry about exp and getting to 80 so fast. also be lucky your wives play comp games. if im not mistaken, dont all games reduce exp in groups but only because u can mow through mobs with very little downtime? = faster exp

Ok how about we take away all exp unless you are in a full group. I mean after all you wont give a damn right because we all should be playing for fun right?

Originally posted by dsebutchr

If you group with another person it cuts your experience points on everything you do by more than half.

No, it just splits the XP between your party members. You will kill more, faster, in a group.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by dsebutchr

If you group with another person it cuts your experience points on everything you do by more than half.

 

No, it just splits the XP between your party members. You will kill more, faster, in a group.

so in other words you have to mass pull entire areas of mobs in order to get the same amount of xp per hour as a soloer can in about a 5th of the kills.

stupid logic like this is whats turning MMOs into Massive single player games. I for one am sick of putting a group together and people only join for one kill then disband because "i can get better xp solo".

your theory doesn't work, it would work if mobs instantly respawned in huge groups ... maybe then it would work but this whole "you can kill bunches of mobs faster thus netting you more xp" is bullshit overall.

Originally posted by Ravanos

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by dsebutchr

If you group with another person it cuts your experience points on everything you do by more than half.

 

No, it just splits the XP between your party members. You will kill more, faster, in a group.

 

so in other words you have to mass pull entire areas of mobs in order to get the same amount of xp per hour as a soloer can in about a 5th of the kills.

stupid logic like this is whats turning MMOs into Massive single player games. I for one am sick of putting a group together and people only join for one kill then disband because "i can get better xp solo".

your theory doesn't work, it would work if mobs instantly respawned in huge groups ... maybe then it would work but this whole "you can kill bunches of mobs faster thus netting you more xp" is bullshit overall.

I agree, Faster, Bullshit overall really sucks, i say Kill a mob that takes 20 minutes and chat for ten till he pops again.....J

Originally posted by ZANGFEI

Originally posted by Ravanos

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by dsebutchr

If you group with another person it cuts your experience points on everything you do by more than half.

 

No, it just splits the XP between your party members. You will kill more, faster, in a group.

 

so in other words you have to mass pull entire areas of mobs in order to get the same amount of xp per hour as a soloer can in about a 5th of the kills.

stupid logic like this is whats turning MMOs into Massive single player games. I for one am sick of putting a group together and people only join for one kill then disband because "i can get better xp solo".

your theory doesn't work, it would work if mobs instantly respawned in huge groups ... maybe then it would work but this whole "you can kill bunches of mobs faster thus netting you more xp" is bullshit overall.

 

I agree, Faster, Bullshit overall really sucks, i say Kill a mob that takes 20 minutes and chat for ten till he pops again.....J

i meant the whole  idea that a soloer can kill 2 mobs and a group hast to kill 10 mobs even though they do it faster is BS. it doesnt work with respawn times and mobs scattered about.

This game sucks, who gives a dam about grouping when no one plays it.