PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download,Retail | Retail Price:$19.99 | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
GDC Preview: Age of Conan
Garrett Fuller had the chance to check out Funcom's Age of Conan at the recent Game Developers Conference.
At GDC this week, we were lucky enough to get a chance to look at the new demo for Age of Conan. Funcom is certainly putting the polish on this title and continues to work to make the game look and feel like the barbaric Hyborian world that Robert E. Howard had created. Last time we saw the game was at E3 back in May. The look of the game has been upgraded considerably in the graphics department with a very crisp texture and great artwork in the world. Despite having the launch delayed, it seems like the team are in the polishing phases before they plan for Beta in the coming months. Some of these features you may have heard of before, but several new elements were also shown at GDC.
In regards to character creation, players can start out as a Cimmerian, Aquilonian, or Stygian. Funcom describes each with the Cimmerians as the barbaric viking type race, Aquilonia as ancient Rome around the time of its fall, and Stygia as having an Egyptian influence. The customization in the character creation is very in depth. Players can spend a long time creating the look of their characters or allow for the game to randomly give you a certain look.
Players begin the game on a solo adventure which carries them from level one to twenty. At this time, you can select your archetype and eventually your specific class. This way players can get a feel for what they want to do before they have to make any choices. Questing covers the levels of the game from Destiny quests, which will take you all the way to the end game with many area quests to do along the way. There is a master apprentice system in the game so that players can help each other out. This was also put in for players who may not have a lot of time. It will allow them to remain competitive and cooperate with casual and hardcore players alike.
;)
To give you and example of the type of content in the game and how it is definitely geared toward a more mature audience, one of the quests we saw had the player drag a corpse from the jaws of a monster crocodile. Obviously, the croc was unhappy with you stealing its meal and you have to fight it out over the dead body. Quests will also have voice work integrated into them to give what Funcom hopes will be a much more realistic experience to the player.
Another quest we saw had the player protecting a caravan as it moved through the Stygian desert. As you (the player) guard the camels, the AI is smart enough to react to everything attacking the caravan. You can help fight off lions, bandits and get the merchants to safety. In the end you must also collect the heads of the lions you killed. To give you an idea of game play time, the Stygian area deals with levels twenty two to forty (these numbers may change). If you really want to explore the area, you could spend about one hundred hours of game time really getting to every quest and corner of the zone.
One of the unique elements to Conan is the combat in the game. Combat has a very wide range of moves as well as combos for players to explore. With the small arrow system at the bottom of the screen, you can target different parts of an opponent. There is also an integrated dice roll system that will generate critical hits during a player's attack pattern. Not only can you strike different parts of an opponent, you can also dodge and move while fighting. The combat is very fast paced with a lot of player skill involved in beating your opponents. As you grow in level, your attacks and combos will become more effective and quite deadly.
There is a very strong interface in the game for players to build social networks. The system to find groups or guilds is easily accessible in the game. Instead of players having to type out in chat, using the social interface allows players to form and shape the community in the game itself.
;)
In describing how players can attack different NPC camps, Funcom pointed out that they wanted to give players different options to solve the same problems. Perhaps a player will poison the camp's water supply, attack with ranged weapons or magic, or simply charge right in and slaughter everyone. There are raids in the game with the highest group number up to twenty four members battling it out in dungeons. We also got to see several of the giant demon bosses that lay in wait for their victims. The game plans to launch with over four thousand different monsters in Hyboria. The AI on all of them was described by Funcom as smart, evil, and cunning.
While leveling up, players have the option to chose a light or dark path. This will eventually impact the look of the player as they grow stronger. This roleplaying choice has no impact on PvP however. The PvP will be strictly guild based. Players can create their own cities and resources and fight it out in the Border Kingdoms for power. PvP is also tiered, so lower players can fight each other on an equal field. This way there won't be any griefing in the game.
Another area Funcom is focusing heavily on is music. The in-game music plays a heavy role in combat and content. Right now, there are four people at Funcom simply working hard to make sure that there is a lot of music in the game to create the mood. When you enter comba,t the music begins and get more triumphant as you get closer to killing your foe. If you start to do poorly and get closer to your own death, the music changes to a more desperate theme as you fight for your life.
;)
Some of the other things about Age of Conan that were randomly mentioned don't really fit into a single game mechanic category. Funcom did say that the game will have technical specs along the lines of a game like Oblivion. There will also be a clearly stated range for different graphic cards and PC capabilities you can use. Also, Funcom plans to get players into the action quickly. They are doing everything they can to cut down the grind factor and long downtimes in the game. They want players to get to the fights and stories quickly without having to wait for travel. Finally, in regards to Xbox 360 and PC game play, Funcom hopes to have hybrid servers which can support both platforms.
Age of Conan has been given a great deal of polish over the last few months. The version of the game had crisp graphics, intelligent AI, and vast landscapes for players to explore. With an October launched planned Funcom still has plenty of time to make the game even better for fans and players. Just think in a few months you'll be able to fight Thoth'amon himself. Until then, look forward to the upcoming beta later in the year and sharpen that sword, decapitations are still very gruesome for players to enjoy.
Why all the console hating? If you don't like it, then don't play the damn game. Simple enough. Consoles are in a new age and bringing MMo's to the consoles is just opening up the genre more than WoW did. My Xbox 360 supports my keyboard, I use it alot for typing and so on. I'm sure that in the future it will also bring support to possibly the mouse? Time will only tell...and AoC will rock.
The first undeniably 3rd generation MMO in existance
oh man this keeps sounding better and better
Amen
Agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!
October sounds so far away
Yeah consoles are what the devs of MMOs yearn for. They know that the number of console outnumber PCs. Now that it seems the technology is allowing the MMO industry to cross platforms that will be the standard
Hi all, long time lurker, Game on listener
great article; lots of new info. Would like to see you guys do an interview with Funcom for game on. Hopefully you're one step ahead of me and recorded something during gdc (hint hint)
would love to know more about the dark and light paths mentioned
I'm not camping stuff about AoC like some people are doing so this was very informative to me, GJ.
It's looking sooooo promissing, please dont flop !=P
Awesome! Some semi new info for us here.
For those who found this article informative, read the article over at Warcry. It has some new info and is an interesting read.
http://www.warcry.com/news/view/69503-GDC-2007-Age-of-Conan-Preview
ET
i'm also really interested in the social aspect...to me and lots of people that is one of the most important things, i can fight instances anywhere :P
could you, at some point, further explain how pvp is 'guild only' ? off the bat that doesn't sound good, but if the guild creation is more easy and more a part of the game as this article lets on, then it could work fine. does this mean there is always open worldwide pvp? is there pvp in only non-npc areas? are there pvp 'games' like capture the flag, etc.? is pvp kept only to one guild attacking another guild's instanced town? not sure how to interpret this, anything more would be great!
thanks for the article!
Every time I think "This could flop if they don't do X correctly." more information is released. Not only does this reassure me but now I want to play it even more. I didn't think that was possible.
Good news, they definitely stir up my interest.
Because games developed with consoles in mind have terrible controls, that's why. Just think of Oblivion, whose interface is plain bad and has to be modded at least with BTMod to be playable.
Controllable territory, combat that requires some player skill (not just repetitive 1-2-3 button pressing ad nauseum), interesting character customization for all the RPers out there, varied quests that reflect the truly brutal world, all wrapped up in a shiny polished box...
My boner for this game gets bigger every day.
As for the cross-console thing, to be honest I don't care who I'm carvin' steaks out of. Bring 'em on.
Ahaha. That's a load of crap.
One man's meat is another mans poison.
I am a long time console enthusiast, heck the only one I didn't ever have was the Neo Geo. AoC is looking freaking scintillating and if it's on the Xbox 360 even better. The 360 kicks my PC's ass.
Anyway I dont mind if we can play on both platforms as long as it is done right.
Hmmm a console that have mouse,keyboard integrated graphic card and sound card with hard disc... hmmm its sound like PC to me :)
I think its a little knaive to think that game developers wouldn't want to increase their player numbers by including consoles to their game's platform. Many devs admit that the reason they don't use consoles as a platform is because of the time it takes to learn the architecture of a console. Yes, their are some devs that say that their games interface wouldn't be transferrable to a console, but more and more are looking to multiplatform their games. Then their are some people who want to see PC-Exclusive games because they want more justification of why their PC costs 5 times the amount of a 360.
Oh, and Yes, The number of consoles greatly outnumbers the number of PCs in the world.
No they don't. Consoles for a long time have been gaming machines only and only recently Sony and now MS is trying to turn it into a media center. By their very nature consoles were more a luxery item than pcs so pcs became more prolific.
Get your facts straight.
waiting for aoc :)
I think what fansede meant was that console games sales blow away PC game sales as a whole.
Clearly there aren't more gaming consoles in the world than PCs. Not every home has a console, but almost every one has a computer. Also every office building in the world is brimming with PCs, but these don't play games (at least not in companies where the bosses pay attention
)
But console games as a market have been much bigger than PC games. It's much rarer for a PC game to get sales figures in the same league as console game monsters like Sonic and Mario and such.
This isn't a console MMOG. It's a PC MMOG thats being Ported to console. I'm sure it will contain a plethora of depth, and that if anything is dumbed down, it will be the PORTED version on consoles. ;)
Not to mention the console version is scheduled for mid-late 2008, a year or so after the release of the PC version. If the two can play together at all, it wont be on every server, it'll be on a few pc & console servers. I wouldn't really worry about it having any affect what so ever on the older PC servers.
Oh and yes, console games are dumbed down. Theres just no denying that. Oblivion was the proof. It was poor in comparison on every front to Morrowind, accept the graphics were better. It's a very simple fact that every PC gamer who plays a console port knows very well. Not that theres anything wrong with console games being dumbed down. They just appeal to a different audience. Thats why you wont ever find any hard-core simulation games on consoles. :p
I wonder if Conan will have UI customization. If so how will that affect the console fanboys? I never liked console games in the first place. I hate playing with controllers. I played Halo 2 on my buddies xbox and couldn't aim for crap, bought it for the PC and had the mouse and keyboard, and I was an unstoppable force. But to each there own I guess. Merging these things together will the console players get the same benfit of UI or will they be stuck playing there same bland panel?
go to the AoC site and check out the description of guild-based combat.
A general description from my limited understanding of the system, heres just two of the aspects -
1. Player Cities - Guilds can build cities in the outlands which will need to be defended against NPCs who will build their OWN camps and bases (towns? forts?) and seige the Player city (i think that feature alone is way frakin COOL !)
2. PvP BattleFort System - basically large guilds capture / control / and then fortify a fort with towers, walls, ballistas and other defenses. Holding a Fort gives the guild stat pluses AND control of surrounding territory, unique raw materials, merchant items and the ability to build smaller structures in and around the fort. At certain times other guilds can seige the Fort and try to take it / destroy it. In addition there are BattleTowers for smaller guilds to capture and control which offer lesser rewards than Forts. Also guilds can control and operate things like Mines, Mills and other resource gathering structures which will yield useful items (like precious metals, rare woods, etc.) to the controlling guild. All these smaller structures can be contested by another guild and will need to be fought for and defended.
I can envision MULTI-guild Alliances and warring going on here, so you'll NEED to be in a strong guild in order to participate in this End Game FUN! FUN! FUN!
It's not just a game... IT"S A WORLD!
my other fear is that i will die of bordom before aoc comes out
What a poorly written preview ...
It managed to last a whole page and told us almost nothing ........
You lucky bastard... Did they say to you when u get beta access as in closed beta and if and when it starts?
and a friggen inflateable sword? haha thats so funny.
Because MMOs are supposed to be SOCIAL games, and it's kinda difficult to chat when most of the player base doesn't even have a keyboard or any other efficient means of communicating. :-P