All Posts by Athelan

Day Tortage = Multiplayer
Night Tortage = Singleplayer

All of them are played online and require you purchase the game.

Up until level 20 however you will not likely have to have a subcription

Originally posted by Derrico
All BS on servers aside, FC has said that if there is enough demand there will be a FFA PvP server, so far has there been enough demand to have it implemented or very highly considered for having one at launch (I know I don't want to play, level someone high then have to switch to an FFA PvP server) I am a diehard Asheron's Call Darktide fan and I know theres so many people out there wanting one. Now that vanguard has tanked and the population on the FFA PvP server as well as the rest are at less then 400 people on im waiting for AoC to pull through!

thanks! Can't wait!

Originally posted by b0rderline99
hey i was wondering if you could elaborate a little on some certain aspects of the game
1) how does the "apprentice" system work
2) what is this i hear about going to hell (or something similar) after a failed spellweaving expirience
3) how important is leveling? would someone 20 levels below someone else have a fair chance in a fight?

Originally posted by Aelfinn

Originally posted by Athelan

Originally posted by Neanderthal

Ok, so my first question is this:  How big a pain in the arse is Sturmrabe?

Actually, you probably should give Sturm and Aelfinn beta slots if they don't have them already.  They have been your biggest defenders around here for a quite a while.

Ok, all bullshit aside let's see if you can give me a straight answer to a simple question.

1.  Does aquiring the very best items in the game require PvE raiding?

and a complimentary question...

2.  Can the very best items be aquired without the involvement of PvE raiding at any point in the process.  To clarify:  this means without PvE raiding for materials, gems, quest pieces, or anything else needed to get the final item.

These are basically the same question. First it would depend on how you define best, best for what? Best for PvE? probably. But I dont see a problem with that. And we define raiding as anything that requires you to organize more than one group. We want the challenging group encounters where guilds can form to tackle bosses but we want those things to be doable. Someone having to do something that not everyone can do and getting something unique is not a bad thing, the usual complaint is no way to ever get there. Look at Lost Dungeons of Norrath in EQ and how it let people token farm their way to raid level epics. It wasn't easy but there was a path to get there.

This is sort of similar to a heavily ask question about item balance and PvE vs PvP. A lot of people are very concerned about seeing
the standard from World of Warcraft which was max level end game raid geared character trouncing everyone in PvP because of gear. To address this we decided to have combat be a two layer system with PvP combat stats that are additive ontop of PvE stats. This means that PvP specific gear can rival or be even better than PvE gear for PvP without imbalancing the PvE aspect of the game.

Hold on a moment, just what are you trying to say with the first paragraph? Lets say there is PvE weapon X, which is desirable because it has the highest base DPS in its weapon category, and is normally available after completing a certain raid. Do you mean to say that there is an alternative, if extremely difficult, method for a small group or soloer to still acquire item X and/or another item of at least near equal worth?

I've heard this hinted at before, but not confirmed. If you are able and willing to say yes, that would end more than half of the controversy around here about AoC.

Originally posted by ASmith84

first off let me say that this game looks awesome and i am at least tryin to wait for it patiently lol.

anyways i have a few questions

 i would like to know a little more about buildin your own town.  how do you acquire the land?  do you have to collect and gather resources from the land like lumber to build the buildings? do you hire npc's to watch over it and if you can control them or do they just wander around town?

i also want to know about this new combat system. if you swing your weapon at someone does it do calculation stuff to see if you hit them or if you see it touch the guy you hit them.  if you touch the guy and its a hit can you do dodging moves to avoid bein hit like rolls or somthin?

thank you for taken the time to answer questions on this site. 

Originally posted by Sramota

 

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Originally posted by Athelan

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Originally posted by Sramota

I'm curious, how do you go from GM to designer?
What does your job actually require from an educational point of view?

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Years of hard work and experience. Get into the industry anyway you can, play games, study games, design games. Always look at whats good in a crappy game and whats bad in a good game and ask yourself why over and over.

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So by that you don't actually need an education?
(I'm just curious, I couldn't care less for trying to get a job in the industry to be honest, but that's just because I'm having enough fun as it is.)
I mean, there's no programming involved or such that require actual programming knowledge?

Are you just talking to people on how to do it or using tools provided by others or are you sniffing in the codelines?

Edit: Oh, and in-game, where's the Madness? (See Oblivions Sheogorath for reference)
all games need a sprinkle of it!

Originally posted by Neanderthal

Originally posted by Athelan 
I've been dealing with Sturmrabe for 2 years now and he is won over even :P

Ok, so my first question is this:  How big a pain in the arse is Sturmrabe?

Actually, you probably should give Sturm and Aelfinn beta slots if they don't have them already.  They have been your biggest defenders around here for a quite a while.

Ok, all bullshit aside let's see if you can give me a straight answer to a simple question.

1.  Does aquiring the very best items in the game require PvE raiding?

and a complimentary question...

2.  Can the very best items be aquired without the involvement of PvE raiding at any point in the process.  To clarify:  this means without PvE raiding for materials, gems, quest pieces, or anything else needed to get the final item.

Originally posted by Sramota

I'm curious, how do you go from GM to designer?
What does your job actually require from an educational point of view?

Originally posted by severius
Here is my first question:

We know that you all at Funcom are endeavoring to bring about something new with the combat in Age of Conan.  How about questing and the like, can we expect more of the same old same old EQ/WoW model or are you bringing something new to the table?

Originally posted by rocqu

Hi Jason. I was wondering if you could put together a combat video for us here in the mmorpg forums.  Something that would show a couple different classes with some dev dialogue to explain different skills and how they effect NPC"s vrs PC"s.

Also will there be combat text in chat so you can test different weapons for damage ect?

Originally posted by Baikal

All I can say is welcome!

It's nice to see that some of the threads which usually devolve into "loose fact" discussions can have some hard info injected. Thanks for taking the time to drop by and do that!

 

The two questions I'd have for ya, that I would never bother you with on the official forums are simple ones...

 

1) Auto racing fan...have you had the chance to take Forza Motorsport 2 out for a spin yet, and if so are you, enjoying it?

2) UO? What server?

 

Cheers

 

Im a huge racing fan. I track my SVT focus in real life and am addicted to Forza 2 right now. my gamertag is Jaynen.

 

Im even trying to make a Conan paintjob http://picasaweb.google.com/jaynen00/Forza/photo#5075643483761520690

 

Chesapeake was my main UO server, but I played Catskills with the roleplaying community of the Shadowclan Orcs

Originally posted by Supernerd
Hi Jason

here are some of my questions:

1) Would being a current subscriber of Anarchy Online maybe give you any edge over another for beta selection?

I don't know

2) After you've played the first 20 levels and want to make alts,will there be an option to start at level 20?

A quick start option is intended, may not be instant level 20 however

3) Are there arenas for pvp? Can you challenge others to duels?

There is no system in place for duels, there are drunken brawling, minigame, and massive PvP primarily. Minigames consist of things like team vs team, capture the flag, destroy the objective etc

4) How will long distance travel be handled? Are there whompas?

There will be some sort of travel system like Ferries or Caravans that will operate somewhat like Whompa. The world of Hyboria is so massive and the parts we are initially releasing with is just a selection of the coolest so we need a way to link the world together.

5) Are all people that work for Funcom originally from Norway?

Not at all really. The team has people from over 19 countries working on the project in Oslo.

6) Do you play World of Warcraft?

I did, multiple level 60's and raiding up till Nax and played Burning Crusade beta but I do not play it anymore. But I have played a lot of other MMO's
(like UO and AO and EQ and DAOC and EVE and Shadowbane and so on)

7) WIll there be different server types? Pvp w/looting server,Roleplay Server,Non-pvp server?

There will be PvP, PvE, and RPvP servers

8) Will you keep track pvp statistics?

There is a plan for that yes

I always love the resident skeptics because they are not nearly as unique as they might think :) I've been dealing with Sturmrabe for 2 years now and he is won over even :P

You are welcome to be a skeptic, but to put it frankly there is a large difference between being a skeptic and asking questions and not getting your hopes up and simply being an ass. I am quite the avid gamer and skeptic myself.

Plus it seems you really want to ask questions, even your first post "should I shouldnt I" is filled with veiled hints of me supposedly needing to accept your skepticism challenge or be another Dev who only wants to princess wave to admiring fans. Not really my style. The princess wave I mean. I do love the fans tho :)

Twinking will most likely not be possible in the same context as AO simple because of the way AO requires a certain skill at a certain level or stat to be able to use, while we have skills and stats these primarily would not be twinkable to unlock

Originally posted by fansede

Hello Hello

Good to see you here.

Design questions eh?

Off the top of my noggin, maybe covered elsewhere, if so I humble appollo-gize.

I realize the first 20 levels inthe game is solo play - is there a possibility that these first 20 levels be released earlier than the massive aspect of the game? Or will it all come at once? Will beta players have any advantages other than the bonus item?

Collectors Edition going to be available? If so, care to tease us on the goodies?

I understand the character customization will be quite advanced. How about skills? How many players of level 50 of the same profession are going to be clones? What are ways to keep my avatar somewhat unique in this world?

How is the crafting aspect of the game coming along? I understand there are various crafting professions. I pray this game does not become too "crafter dependent" in that if I merely want to spend my days adventuring, my rewards will be subpar versus someone who dedicates his gaming to crafting gear. I certainly don't want crafting to be a waste of time, but if I am involved in taking down a particularly challangeing obstacle, I don't want rusty boots and 10 coppers to take home.

has anyone discussed raiding in AoC? Other than PvP, will there be raid content in PvE?

 

 There will be raid content.

 

I dont know the exact contents of Collectors Edition boxes I am a Designer :)

 

The first 20 levels will not be released early as far as I know youll have to wait for the complete game as everything is played on server.

 

We have thousands of feats, as to how much you can "spec" yourself differently that varies greatly but there should be quite a bit of flexibility in the system. The max level is 80 btw unless you were actually curious about level 50.

 

We have crafting and it centers on the player cities run by guilds. It is an important aspect of the game we feel but the game is not forcefully crafter dependant minus the cities themselves.

Originally posted by Sickpup
Let's start off with a hot topic.Will all the heals be over time or will there be standard heals and instas as well.can you throw us any info plz.

Originally posted by defenestrate
Hey Jason welcome to the forums.

Now my question;

With all of the hype that's being spread around about WAR, what do you think about the whole situation. 2 MAJOR titles being released less than a year apart from eachother. Will their be alot of conflict or do you think that neither one of the games will be affected by having such close release dates?

Thanks and welcome to the community!

Some of you may already know me from the official forums or a couple of interviews covering Age of Conan. But for those of you who don't, Hi! My name is Jason Stone and I am one of the designer on Age of Conan. I work primarily with combat, control, class distinctions and things the characters can do. I have also worked with PvP and been involved with a lot of our gameplay design discussions.

I have been wanting the change to mingle off the official forums and finally have permission to answer questions here as well. Be aware I won't be able to respond to everything, and I won't always be able to give you the answer you want to hear.

A little background on me. I have been in the industry for about 7 years and 9 months now starting out working for SOE as a GM on the original Everquest. I have been working on Conan for the past 2 years and 9 months as a designer and just recently moved back to the US from Norway and am continuing to work on the game.

I am a huge gamer and love to play everything, I like to occasionally play other games with people in the community so keep your eyes open. (right now I am addicted to Forza Motorsport 2)

Looking forward to conversing with you guys.

It has always been our intent to offer the single-player portion of the game without a subscription fee. This I believe to be the case even though the single-player portion of the game is no longer single-player limited and as stated previously is always online.