Articles popping up everywhere:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/age-of-conan-rise-of-the-godslayer-preview

Looks very interesting - raising your own tiger cubs to maturity, for example.

Yep looking good :  www.dagbladet.no/2009/08/18/kultur/spill/age_of_conan/funcom/pc-spill/7706822/

"There's no raised level cap in Rise of the Godslayer. There is a new continent, the Asian-themed Khitai (which comes with a new player race, the Khitan), but it contains lower-level content - for level 20 up - as well as a high-level challenge. There are no new classes, and no more levels, but there is an alternate advancement system that will broaden the range of each existing class as well as increase its power. There isn't just more stuff to do, but there's a greater variety of it; raising wolves and tigers from cubs to fighting companions to mounts, taking sides in factional struggles."
 

"Morrisson promises the largest zones ever built, more diversity of scenery and setting, and more open in design to encourage exploration"

"That said, most players will probably be diving into Rise of the Godslayer one of two ways: starting a new Khitan character, or heading straight for Khitai with their level 80. In the former case, you'll still play through the original game's Tortage slave-town story arc - with "a few changes here and there" - up to level 20. Then, whether you belong to the Khitan race or not, you'll be able to head east, towards Robert E. Howard's version of ancient China, the Empire of Khitai. The steppes of the Gateway to Khitai provide level 20-40 adventuring, and lead players up to the Great Wall. But not beyond it.

Lots of sheer cliffs, lots of rope bridges; some areas have a Thousand Needles vibe.
To get beyond the Wall and into Khitai proper, you'll need a high-level character. Morrisson says he's aiming for the first playfield within the Empire to be playable from "the high 70s through to 80". Beyond that, levels cease to matter, but it's not like there's no progression - the content will get harder, and require the new advancement points to be earned and spent on new abilities. "Once players start to move through they will have to have invested some into the alternate advancement system in order to progress further," Morrisson says. "Skilled and experienced high-level players might even find it possible to start exploring the second of the playfields early on, but they will of course be earning advancement points as they go along."

Sounds good, I'll be re-subbing to check it out.

Can't wait to see how the 'AOC is failing' crowd reacts to a new expansion, lol.

woah....sounds great. Definately something to look forward to.

Should finally put the kabosh to all those "AoC is dying!!!! Onooooessss!!!" threads  ;)

Gonna be a tough sell in my opion, reason being they need to get orignal concept with AOC fixed and running. There also woking on a new MMO and now this expansion. Lot on there plate and everything im seeing subs are falling. Hype not gonna work this time around Avery.

Jihad works both ways

Originally posted by veritas_X

Sounds good, I'll be re-subbing to check it out.

Can't wait to see how the 'AOC is failing' crowd reacts to a new expansion, lol.

hopefuly aion distracts them for a few or well here same old omg their no aoc hardly on x fire bs.

a alt advance system new areas rasing animals an training them good stuff. still want drunken brawls .guess we will hear more as time goes on.

Originally posted by veritas_X

Sounds good, I'll be re-subbing to check it out.

Can't wait to see how the 'AOC is failing' crowd reacts to a new expansion, lol.

Thread under this one. It is to be expected with good news and just what the game needs this will stir those that can't bear to hear anything along those lines. You would think ppl would just leave alone.

Sil has some pictures on Twitter too: http://twitter.com/Silirrion and mini vid here: img34.yfrog.com/i/u1y.mp4/

looks too generic to me.

The first four in the top row here show some new artwork out today:  media.pc.ign.com/media/743/743392/imgs_1.html

Could that one be an Asian Themed 'Tower' ?

This is exactly what I wanted to hear, no raised level cap, new content, new systems... and did I hear a slight mention of FACTIONS ?

That would be amazing.. I'm all for PvP but I feel the FFA system just doesn't work properly.. if that was a hint that we'll be able to join factions of some sort this game would soar IMHO.

Looks pretty nice from the trailer.  I have some issues though...

Not increasing level cap is probably a good thing.  Kudos on that, although I'm sure whatever ways the expansion allows character improvement will generate nerf cries within seconds of the first person using it in PvP.

No new classes?  Hmm.  Are they going to drop the race restrictions on all classes?  I can't wait to see the justification of suddenly lifting the "Stygians only" casters or allowing Khitais to be ToSs or PoMs while possibly still not allowing the current races to do so.

Any more character slots, or are they expecting people to delete one of their current characters to level/explore in the new zone?

Sounds all good. But all about AoC sounded good at a time -and we know how things actually turned out later on. Problem was that Funcom failed to pull off their "good sounding" features on so many levels or skipped them completely and i don't expect this change with this expansion.

I could give them the benefit of the doubt now that instead of Gaute there is Craig in charge. But i'm shure that soon there will be Ellingson taking over the mainpage of mmorpg.com again with propanganda, spin and lies and in the end it will get ugly again.

I wonder if it is going to be free or you have to buy it. What do you guys think?

Originally posted by fuzzi1983

I wonder if it is going to be free or you have to buy it. What do you guys think?

It will probably be boxed, but if it's enough to fix the game up to what it was originally supposed to be, then I think it's probably worth it :P

Sounds all good to me, Aoc goes from strength to strength. With the players wishes addressed.

Well done Funcom keep up the good work!!!

Originally posted by LizardEgypt

Originally posted by fuzzi1983

I wonder if it is going to be free or you have to buy it. What do you guys think?

 

It will probably be boxed, but if it's enough to fix the game up to what it was originally supposed to be, then I think it's probably worth it :P

I had a blast playing before the BIG patch came out. I left because I was kinda getting tired doing the same 3 dungeons over and over. But the actual pvp was great. I did a couple sieges (defending and attacking) I just hated how my underware was considered "plate" Maybe they added new armor :)

Originally posted by Darth_Osor

Looks pretty nice from the trailer.  I have some issues though...

Not increasing level cap is probably a good thing.  Kudos on that, although I'm sure whatever ways the expansion allows character improvement will generate nerf cries within seconds of the first person using it in PvP.

No new classes?  Hmm.  Are they going to drop the race restrictions on all classes?  I can't wait to see the justification of suddenly lifting the "Stygians only" casters or allowing Khitais to be ToSs or PoMs while possibly still not allowing the current races to do so.

Any more character slots, or are they expecting people to delete one of their current characters to level/explore in the new zone?

The only Lore restriction on classes for Khitai, as I see it, is all three healer classes.

Confirmed. Paying Expanion.

 I supported this game from launch - from the very worst, when I wasn't able to play half an hour without a crash and any sort of balance was only a dream. I have often defended it and encouraged my friends to try it out.

 Now, as soon as the expansion is out [likely sooner], I'm out. I bought a game with an awesome Hyborian setting, the setting that made the Conan books so unique - a setting that is utterly abandon for some asian nonsense.

 Fuck you and your tiger mounts, Funcom.

Originally posted by BadMedicine

 I supported this game from launch - from the very worst, when I wasn't able to play half an hour without a crash and any sort of balance was only a dream. I have often defended it and encouraged my friends to try it out.

 Now, as soon as the expansion is out [likely sooner], I'm out. I bought a game with an awesome Hyborian setting, the setting that made the Conan books so unique - a setting that is utterly abandon for some asian nonsense.

 Fuck you and your tiger mounts, Funcom.

 Well, given that it's a realistic asian setting... not following any modern asian design.. and still within the Conan universe.. I don't really see where your argument fits in here.

Originally posted by LizardEgypt

 did I hear a slight mention of FACTIONS ?

That would be amazing.. I'm all for PvP but I feel the FFA system just doesn't work properly.. if that was a hint that we'll be able to join factions of some sort this game would soar IMHO.

 

 

Pretty sure they meant NPC factions, i.e. adding a faction grind as substitution for content like many other MMOs do.