The team from Funcom has provided us with this exclusive first look at the much talked about alternate advancement system for their MMORPG Age of Conan.

Funcom introduces a brand new alternate advancement system in the upcoming expansion to Age of Conan, Rise of the Godslayer. With the upcoming expansion we wanted to try and create a system that provided players with some in-depth and customizable progression without just simply raising the level cap. With this in mind we have created a complete new system that will allow players to push their characters in new directions and be able to grow and develop their characters even further.

The alternate advancement system gives anyone from level 20 to 80 new ways of progressing or earning new combos, powers and abilities.

Read Alternate Advancement System Explained.

This will be the forming of AoCs Future for now, as the expansion won`t bring new levels to the table.  When I think about it,someone might be thinking a little of AO when reading this, but I`m not sure how the whole system works yet, so maybe it just seems so?

I must say I like what I read, very much! :)

I also think the alternate advancement sounds awesome.  I am very thankful they went this route, rather than add more levels to the game.  I am very excited to see these new abilities in action :)

Prax

I'm pretty sure this expansion will make me come back to AoC. The Asian themed expansions seems awesome, aswell as the raising your own mount thing. Also, it seems like they finally have everything they needed at launch to make this an awesome game. Can't wait to see what effects the expansion will have on PvP.

That is the kind of stuff that should have been in at release, to really make it stand out in the crowd. Instead of  only "we have boobies."

What I like is all the information they're giving out and how they're going about it. It seems they're waiting for finalization of aspects before announcing them which is good IMO. It shows they may have learned a thing or two, about over hyping features as they did during AOC's launch.

All in and all this is shaping up to be one of the better expansions I've seen put together for any game.

Another exception to the rule they're showing is they are at a state that releasing an expansion isn't viewed as a money grab. They've added plenty of free content to the game over the last year or so, much more than what was simply missing at launch.

Gotta say, nice Job so far funcom, keep it up.

From the description, it looks like they've borrowed some concepts from both Anarchy Online (static and action perks) and EVE (growing abilities while even offline).

I've recently re-subbed and I have to say I'm impressed.  I have not played since launch and the game has come a long way.  With new content and factions in the expansion, they have really grown the re-playability factor.  This new system definately adds much for long term player retention.

Originally posted by burmese

From the description, it looks like they've borrowed some concepts from both Anarchy Online (static and action perks) and EVE (growing abilities while even offline).

The more they do of this the better, as they expand on AOC's foundation IMO. Maybe next will be forms of socialized game-play or something similar that's been missing from games for a few years now.

One thing I can say AOC has going for it is in it's longevity. From a graphics and game-play (combat) stand point it's still fresh and unique in the genre. Which gives them ample room for adding on to the game as the genre itself expands over the next few years. A lot of games don't have that luxury given the dated approaches they've taken toward the aesthetics of their games.

What AOC will become in the future isn't set in stone on a game play level. It shows just in their expansions of it they're willing to try new things and experiment with the experience AOC gives.

MMORPG games are not easy to balance... And this will make it 10 times harder and we will see ENDLESS changes to this system when certain feats and perks start to dominate. 

I always find it quite intresting to see MMO games make things as complicated as possible - I wonder if these guys ever tried to play a FPS where you have an option of 5 diffrent weapons.. and ppl play it for ages cause its actually FUN. 

After all there are like 15 classes in AOC... if ppl want more choises then maybe the should reroll another char ? 

I see this as a total disaster tbh.  But hey .. Like my name suggest... I now what has been going on at Funcom for quite a long time...

This is the info I was waiting for before deciding on when I would resub. I will now Definitely be getting the expansion and resubbing. I LOVE alternate advancement systems and it seems lately some mmorpg's are missing the boat on them or give us a pale example.

I play these game to progress my character. Giving me more choices is always the best way to go. Keep it coming Funcom, I'm about to take you out of the cellar where you sit with Cryptic.

Originally posted by elocke

This is the info I was waiting for before deciding on when I would resub. I will now Definitely be getting the expansion and resubbing. I LOVE alternate advancement systems and it seems lately some mmorpg's are missing the boat on them or give us a pale example.

I play these game to progress my character. Giving me more choices is always the best way to go. Keep it coming Funcom, I'm about to take you out of the cellar where you sit with Cryptic.

yeah same here, i re-installed the game like a week or 2 ago but haven't re-subbed YET. still unsure but it would be nice to cap out my HoX and Ranger before the expac hits

The feats and perks part sounds just alittle bit like what LotRO has, though with that they become fixed choices.  The feature does allow you to direct your toon in the direction you want it to.  Part of the LotRO warden tree allowed you to go Offense, Defense or crowd control/Aggro sucker or play alittle of this, a little of that.  It's a nice feature there in that it allows your toon to be fairly unique based on your choices.

Brilliant. Sandbox qualities in a themepark game. I'm a huge fan of Funcom and rewarded them by subscribing to Age of Conan for 1 year. I love the game and am now 5 months into my subscription. This feature reminds me of an amazing feature that Asheron's Call 2 had and no other game has done until now. This is utterly brilliant. Well done Funcom.

I'm waiting to see what sort of PvP changes they make... I have 2 80's already... I want to see some sort of end-game PvP system better than what's already developed.

Well done funcom WELLDONE my hat is off to to you :) the devs are flying into the right direction.

Very good, excellent.

Now, why cant they announce an entire new area, much like the ones already in game for gathering and crafting and guild cities, dedicated to player housing?

Wouldnt it be great to build villages of player houses, in wich npcs could appear in the streets to give a sense of life on them? That would be great...

Originally posted by Malickie

What I like is all the information they're giving out and how they're going about it. It seems they're waiting for finalization of aspects before announcing them which is good IMO. It shows they may have learned a thing or two, about over hyping features as they did during AOC's launch.

All in and all this is shaping up to be one of the better expansions I've seen put together for any game.

Another exception to the rule they're showing is they are at a state that releasing an expansion isn't viewed as a money grab. They've added plenty of free content to the game over the last year or so, much more than what was simply missing at launch.

Gotta say, nice Job so far funcom, keep it up.

It's nice to see FunCom get credit for all the work they have done and continue to do improving Age of Conan.

Wow -- not a single flame or "FailCom bash"  -- this thread and the posts thus far are very nearly 100% positive.

I've recently subscribed for one year  -- got a bunch of bonuses, including a beta invite for Secret World, all for US$8 and change per month -- a no brainer.

The only thing missing is for FunCom to scrub and improve all the quests to better reflect solo, small group and full group -- but I've posted my dissatisfaction with this elsewhere so I won't belabor that here.

I do like how FC doesn't charge for bazillion things like Cryptic does. That's a lot these days it seems.

I also do hope they can finally pull together and make AoC profitable for the company. Going downhill for years now must be hurting their development of AoC and TSW.

I hope and am pretty certain this expansion will bring a lot of players back and plenty of new ones too, current players playing through the content that has been improved over the past year are singing its praises, the die hard haters who (rightly) rage quit shortly after launch (I did myself) may well finally swallow their pride and give this game another chance, it's a very different beast.

This is an interesting system, more choice and depth of play is a great thing as long as it doesn't become over complicated, there comes a time when the thinking stops and the fun begins which is why I'm glad these new additions don't kick in until 20, by which time players should have grasped most of what's already there, the feat trees already desire some research to discover what those vague descriptions actually mean in practice, despite small reservations I'm loving the idea of a layered skill system.

Perks sound great though I'm thinking that the only limitations they can put on changing the perk bar set up is either to out of combat or having to visit an NPC to change it, the latter appeals more to me as I like the idea of strategy being more thought out than simply 'on the fly' between mobs.

There's no date yet for the expansion, I'm hazarding a guess for May. The next few patches will be to start making the live game ready for its release, we have been promised loads more info from GDC in March, we also know that the House of Crom playfield has been in development and will see release post expansion, everything is hunky dory for PvE players with a lot to look forward too. PvP on the other hand still needs a lot of love.

The last attempt at optimising sieges didn't work for everyone, I know the highly populated Fury PvP server is suffering the most while other servers gained a much better siege experience, Fury struggles with lag and crashing, no improvement for them and with no significant PvP content added Funcom really needs to start throwing the PvP players a bone. I'm a PvE player and I'm having a hoot taking a new character through the game, I can wait for more PvE content, theres been so many improvements to what's already there, I'm not sure how long the PvP players will remain as patient, I hope Funcom really starts to show PvP some real love after this expansion is launched.