Hi there, I put together a quick peek at the Tarantia Commons District as a video.

So far it is a neat playfield, not as massive as Ymir's Pass, but a fun adventure nevertheless. As it is on the test server it is still unfinished, more quests, options for dungeons and so on to go in and such like to come. It also has some very funny quests such as one where you can get it so the "screen fades to black".

Originally designed as a mid level area, it has been revamped and finishes you off from around level 76(ish) to level 80.

If you interested in watching my "comedy" version at the moment is a download only here: files.filefront.com/TC+Finalwmv/;13586611;/fileinfo.html  (EDIT - this is a big download and really the only change is the music in some places) If you not fussed better off watching the Youtube link below.) - it might even be streaming soon as it is new up on filefront.

Otherwise you can catch the DX10 HD version on youtube with different music here: www.youtube.com/watch

The area is faction controlled and dependant on the quests you do. Mini fights and skirmishes break out in certain places out of the blue, leaders of each side send you on errands and in the mix of this there is some good roof top fighting with awesome vista's to take in. It looks like it will be become a popular area for PvP too.

Mixing it up with the "Slumdogs" is fun, there is more climbing than in Tortage. The A.I is quite good as you can't really run and jump off the roofs so you get cornered a lot. There are many door's which at the moment don't open and look to be set for dungeons. There is even one initiation quest where you have to 'walk the plank' off a massive cliff!

As time goes on with the continued gradual improvements in this area I will update showing more content.

If you image say 6 football field sized fields together it is longer than wider. The first 3 are the roof tops and the common area by the docks, then it branches around to a hamlet and further on a graveyard with level 80 'nutters' as some tough bosses. There are also places in-accessavle yet too as it is a work in progress. Shaping up nicely and a much needed high end zone too.

Oh I might of been a bit suggestive with the cut scene from the quest but nothing really happens until you complete it for the 'destitute prostitute'  - couldn't help myself though as the comments are really funny!

Pretty well made there! Do you know if any figures or stories from the Conan lore will be in the new zone? Ymir's Pass had a the frost giants daughter. I was just curious.

Thanks Avery

Amazing video as always. It blows me away how great the games looking in DX10 and I am really looking forward to a new rig so that I can push the game to the limit.

The Zones alot of fun, the games going in a great direction.

Originally posted by Sevenwind

Pretty well made there! Do you know if any figures or stories from the Conan lore will be in the new zone? Ymir's Pass had a the frost giants daughter. I was just curious.

 

Hey Sev, cheers!

Hey from the lore it looks like the Iron Tower is an area of interest, if I remember right in "The Hour of the Dragon" Conan freed this woman called Albonia,  he used the Star of Khorala to fight his efforts to recapture her, as she was imprisoned. Conan rescued her from an Iron Tower in Tarantia. There are a few towers in the Commons area, some aren't open yet, there may be a quest opportunity here potentially speaking but I haven't come across anything yet being honest.

It does tie in with the lore in that the descriptions throughout the lore detail part of the area and dumping ground for corpses usually traitors. You also have some quests to pick up some dead leper corpses and dump them too. Traitors Common appears in the noble district quest log too so it is all tied together.

The Iron Tower is a prison and former keep close to the citadel. This I'm thinking might be the big dark tower we see, athough there maybe a smaller one over the cliff where we can't get to yet.

Here is a nice map I fixed up to show the area a bit better.

And lastly from a recent interview here is a bit more info - hope helps!

http://www.tv2underholdning.no/spill/arkiv/article2659552.ece

there any new and exciting content that you intend to release? If so, can you show/tell us?

I think that the next game update is actually very technical, because it's the RPG system and the items update. And the patch does also have the Tarantia Commons District, which will be released as a part of the update cycle. Whether it will be in the first patch or not, we haven't quite decided yet.

Tarantia Commons District is, as the name suggests, a part of Tarantia, Conan's capital city. It's kind of a story-driven playfield, relating around riots and civil unrest that's happening in the capital. The player has to choose which side to work with or work against in the civil unrest. So it will be quite interesting.

Will it have any implications on the game world?

Inside the story in that zone, yes it will. Obviously in an MMO, where you have to consider many players rather than just one, the whole 'changing of the world' is a big debate, and it's hard to achieve the large scale dramatic changes people would like. I think it will certainly have an impact on the story for that playfield. The players will be able to influence what is happening at that given time in terms of the riots and which side will win. It won't be one of those things where the game world changes in a dramatic way, but it will be more on the level of what sort of bosses will appear or what quest become available to which people, etc.

Depending on who you work with, you will be able to poke the story in different ways and see what happens. At the same time, the reaction of other players might impact what quests are available to you, or which boss spawns. It will be a relatively large area, but based within the story of Tarantia.

We are working on a higher-level playfield called "The House of Crom", which is an indoor playfield - a dungeon experience. I can't go into too many details, because it's still in early development. The playfield itself is built, and we are currently working through the content and establishing how much will be dedicated to single parties, raids, etc. But nothing is decided yet.
 

Thanks for all this great info Avery

Can't wait to level up my guardian in that place once 1.5 hits! Tried out some parts of it on the testlive and it was a blast.

Thank you for the video:)

Some questions:

-Is it at FFA pvp zone like border kingdom? Is the ranged classes OP here thinking of rooftops and hard to access places(for melee)

-How does the fractions work? And can you change side later?

-How big is the zone? Big as Noble district or Kopesh province?

-How many levels do you gain from doing the whole area?

-Any voice acting on the questgivers?(seems funcom have gone away from this route)

Originally posted by Rdlaban

Thank you for the video:)

 

Some questions:

-Is it at FFA pvp zone like border kingdom? Is the ranged classes OP here thinking of rooftops and hard to access places(for melee)

-How does the fractions work? And can you change side later?

-How big is the zone? Big as Noble district or Kopesh province?

-How many levels do you gain from doing the whole area?

-Any voice acting on the questgivers?(seems funcom have gone away from this route)

 

Hey Sorry for the late reply.

Here is some more info from the forums on test:

"Tarantia Commons is now accessible on Testlive!

This area is recommended for levels 75-80. You can access this area via the gate in Old Tarantia. (After crossing the Bridge of Vilerus I, go to the left. The gate is near the gate that lets you into the Noble District). Speak to Vialli outside the gate to begin your exploration of this area with a quest.

PLEASE NOTE : This area is still considered 'under development'. Future updates will contain improvements and fixes. Please keep this in mind as you explore!

Background story in brief:

The Common District has always been the place where the dregs of society congregate. From wily cutthroats and agile pickpockets, to the destitute and desperate, all are found in the slums of Tarantia.

But troubled times have come to Tarantia Common District. In the aftermath of the Hour of the Dragon, rival gangs have sprung up to fill the void. Alliances are created and broken in a moment on the streets, but three gangs are making out particularly well during the troubles: The Wharf Rats, The Crows, and The Daughters.

These three gangs are using their particular talents for great profit and they are manipulating the people of the Commons into riots, which in turn prevent the guards from doing their duty...

You will be introduced to the story by the guards, who ask you to go undercover in the gangs and find out what is driving the surge of crime in the district. The player will then join either the Wharf Rats or the Crows, and work their way up through the ranks. When you reach "the top", you will be given a choice to join either the Daughters, or the Watch."

"The Watch" aka = Guards.

Less Guards = more PvP :P

As the zone is spread out almost rectangular, I would say it is twice as big as Noble (roughly at the moment - some parts are off limits as it gets updated.)

I haven't measured the level gain yet sorry. I have done half a dozen quests and they seem to pay ok in silver.

Have only come across one area voice acting so far. Seems to be missing for now.

I haven't had time to test much this week so far but will do the rounds the weekend more so.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Will it have any implications on the game world?

Inside the story in that zone, yes it will. Obviously in an MMO, where you have to consider many players rather than just one, the whole 'changing of the world' is a big debate, and it's hard to achieve the large scale dramatic changes people would like. I think it will certainly have an impact on the story for that playfield. The players will be able to influence what is happening at that given time in terms of the riots and which side will win. It won't be one of those things where the game world changes in a dramatic way, but it will be more on the level of what sort of bosses will appear or what quest become available to which people, etc.

---

The idea that certain players actually can affect the gameworld is very intresting, I know that Guildwars 2 will try to do that but I think it would be hard to do that in a game like AoC that wasn't really built for it.

Anyways, great that they seems tobe working hard on more high level content, the game really need this zone, Khesh is one of the zones I like worst in the game with far too little content.

As for me I have temporary freezed my account until the expansion comes out, I just felt I had to little to do in it, and are currently back to EQ2. The biggest problem for me right now is that you actually have to do most the same content again to level up an alt, it just turns into a grind for me. But the expansion should change all that :)

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Will it have any implications on the game world?

Inside the story in that zone, yes it will. Obviously in an MMO, where you have to consider many players rather than just one, the whole 'changing of the world' is a big debate, and it's hard to achieve the large scale dramatic changes people would like. I think it will certainly have an impact on the story for that playfield. The players will be able to influence what is happening at that given time in terms of the riots and which side will win. It won't be one of those things where the game world changes in a dramatic way, but it will be more on the level of what sort of bosses will appear or what quest become available to which people, etc.

---

 

The idea that certain players actually can affect the gameworld is very intresting, I know that Guildwars 2 will try to do that but I think it would be hard to do that in a game like AoC that wasn't really built for it.

Anyways, great that they seems tobe working hard on more high level content, the game really need this zone, Khesh is one of the zones I like worst in the game with far too little content.

As for me I have temporary freezed my account until the expansion comes out, I just felt I had to little to do in it, and are currently back to EQ2. The biggest problem for me right now is that you actually have to do most the same content again to level up an alt, it just turns into a grind for me. But the expansion should change all that :)

I see you points from a design perspective, in this case in the zone itself it seems to work well as its marginalized and contained here. Your right too that the zone is needed, it is great they re-done it with a high end aspect which furthers the continued focus in this area over the past while. It is good they are listening to the majority of the community and feedback in general.

Expansion? Correct me if I am wrong. I spent money to some piece of crap, bought new comp to play piece of crap.

Now. They are going to release expansion= I will need spend more money to play .... , to play what? To play game I already bought? I mean mmorpg called AoC.

Sorry but Failcom lost chance, kkthxbye. Trials, big words etc changes notning. GooD ByE

Originally posted by cyann

Expansion? Correct me if I am wrong. I spent money to some piece of crap, bought new comp to play piece of crap.

Now. They are going to release expansion= I will need spend more money to play .... , to play what? To play game I already bought? I mean mmorpg called AoC.

Sorry but Failcom lost chance, kkthxbye. Trials, big words etc changes notning. GooD ByE

You brought a PC to play just one game? What are you going on about the expansion that will most likely come out 20 months + after the game did?

This is a free update area. (Tarantia Commons)

Originally posted by cyann

Expansion? Correct me if I am wrong. I spent money to some piece of crap, bought new comp to play piece of crap.

Now. They are going to release expansion= I will need spend more money to play .... , to play what? To play game I already bought? I mean mmorpg called AoC.

Sorry but Failcom lost chance, kkthxbye. Trials, big words etc changes notning. GooD ByE

Chill out man,no need to get that angry,its a free expansion.

Originally posted by Ngeldu5t

Originally posted by cyann

Expansion? Correct me if I am wrong. I spent money to some piece of crap, bought new comp to play piece of crap.

Now. They are going to release expansion= I will need spend more money to play .... , to play what? To play game I already bought? I mean mmorpg called AoC.

Sorry but Failcom lost chance, kkthxbye. Trials, big words etc changes notning. GooD ByE

Chill out man,no need to get that angry,its a free expansion.

This is good news, because I finally just finished installing it from steam.  Also, just ordered some new nVidia sli cards, as my old 6800 sli cards are starting to show their age.  I hope 19 bucks for conan is money well spent.

Originally posted by hidden1

This is good news, because I finally just finished installing it from steam.  Also, just ordered some new nVidia sli cards, as my old 6800 sli cards are starting to show their age.  I hope 19 bucks for conan is money well spent.

 

Well you could have got the collectors edition off gogamer.com for $9.90. I just noticed that myself.

http://www.gogamer.com/Age-of-Conan-Collectors-Edition-with-Bonus-for-PC-All-PC-Games_stcVVproductId21524444VVcatId444774VVviewprod.htm

EDIT: It is part of a 48hr Madness Mall, so won't last long at $9.90.

Originally posted by Sevenwind

Originally posted by hidden1

This is good news, because I finally just finished installing it from steam.  Also, just ordered some new nVidia sli cards, as my old 6800 sli cards are starting to show their age.  I hope 19 bucks for conan is money well spent.

 

 

Well you could have got the collectors edition off gogamer.com for $9.90. I just noticed that myself.

http://www.gogamer.com/Age-of-Conan-Collectors-Edition-with-Bonus-for-PC-All-PC-Games_stcVVproductId21524444VVcatId444774VVviewprod.htm

EDIT: It is part of a 48hr Madness Mall, so won't last long at $9.90.

DOH!  Now I feel like that kid that bought it for 49 bucks instead of getting his mom a birthday present.  LOL