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Age of Conan: Unchained Dev Journals: Wolf Mount Revealed
The team at Funcom has put together this developer journal which reveals new details on the wolf mount, available in the upcoming Age of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer.
By Guest Writer on January 28, 2010
Check out the Wolf Mount Trailer, here.
Rise of the Godslayer introduces some new mounts to the Age of Conan universe. Funcom is proud to announce the fearsome wolf mount, in addition to the previously revealed tiger mount as well as the Hyrkanian horse. The wolf and tiger mount follow an all new series of epic quests where the player will not simply be given the mount - they must capture it as a cub and hand raise it in order to one day ride these magnificent beasts. The quests to tame these beasts will see the players traverse several regions to train the cub and gather supplies.
"Some of the thinking behind this new system is that players will create a connection with their new mount," says Joel Bylos, Lead Designer on the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. "Raising the mount from a cub and teaching it how to hunt, track and fight is a long process, and by the time players have proven themselves worthy of riding it a bond has been created. When you see players riding a tiger or a wolf you'll know that it is not just a right to do so, it's an earned privilege."
Riding a Wolf
"They say that dogs are mans best friend, but wolves? Wolves are stand-offish and they don't like humans much. We smell." Wolves of the Steppes Raider
Eventually being able to ride a wolf into battle will not be an easy task, and the player must go through several quests where the wolf will grow with each quest completed. The types of wolves range from a small cub that merely follows the player around, to a fully grown wolf, capable of carrying its master and inflict pain on those standing in its way.
The only way to get a wolf is to get it young and separate it from the pack. This will prove that you are worthy to be the pack leader - if you die, then you were not strong enough to replace the pack leader. Finding the pack is the first challenge -killing them is the second. At first, the wolf is too small to be much help to the player. The wolf needs to learn to hunt and kill prey. This will take some time and effort.
A wolf must also be able to scent their prey and use that scent to determine between friend and foe. The player must teach their wolf to understand the different scents of the world and to teach them the smells. The wolf must then be tested to ensure that it knows the difference.
The wolf is not a creature inclined to carry a rider; indeed it is far more likely to cast off the player and use them as a meal. But if the player wishes to ride the wolf, they must make a harness which is strong enough to hold and direct the wolf. In time, it will become used to their efforts.
The Wolf mount comes with two special abilities - firstly to be able to scent nearby enemies and warn their master of impending stealth attacks. Secondly to be able to dig for buried treasures in the landscapes of Khitai.
The wolf mount has the longest endurance of any mount in the game, it can be used to sprint for very long periods of time.
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Taming a Tiger
"Do you think that these beasts simply roll over and let you scratch them on the belly? This isn't like riding horse - that is unless you've ever heard of a horse with claws as long as your forearm and teeth that would give a dragon nightmares." Tamarin Tiger Mercenary
The tiger, known to the Vendhyans as the Vaaghasan, is closely linked to the Tamarin's Tiger faction. To be eligible to even attempt to ride a tiger, the player must first become a member of Tamarin's Tigers.
The first task that the player must undertake is to find a worthy companion. This is both a rite to prove oneself as one Tamarin's men, and also the rite in which the player gains their very own tiger. Players must first find a tiger den. They must then remove all of their armour and weapons and kill the Tigress using nothing but their bare hands. The reward for this quest is a tiger cub that will follow the player.
Now that the player has their companion, they will need to grow them into the predator they were always meant to be. This will take some time and effort on behalf of the player. They must start with small prey and work their way up to some of the toughest beasts that can still be eaten.
Soon, the cub has grown into an awkward adolescent. It knows how to eat and even how to use its teeth to kill, but it knows nothing of subtlety. Now it must learn how to stalk like a beast in the woods. In Vendhya, the Tamarin Tigers train their animals using some of the spirits that they summon from their own mythology. But here... there is only one choice. The Vendhyans have heard of a white tiger spirit, revered by the Khitan as the very epitome of grace and virtue. The player must speak with some local priests to learn how to summon the animal spirit. Once the spirit is summoned, the player and their tiger pet must follow it on the hunt, and remain undetected.
The young tiger has learned how to hunt and stalk its prey, but now it must be taught the lesson of survival as a man. Not all creatures can be eaten, not all creatures can be avoided. Sometimes men simply fight and kill for the sheer need of it. Such bloodlust is not natural for an animal - it must be taught at the hands of a master.
Tamarin judges that the man and the vaaghasan are as one. He will be the judge to see if the bond is now strong enough that the vaaghasan will consent to let them ride. But first, there is the matter of the saddle. The saddle of a Tiger is not something that can be purchased - it must be assembled by the one who wishes to ride.
Once a player has fully trained their tiger mount, they will be able to use it to stealth around playfields without being seen.
The vaaghasan is the mount with the fastest sprint speed in the game. This emulates the explosive power of the tiger over short distances.
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I think the wolf mount i saw as concept art once was much cooler, but this one is cool too, dont play aoc anymore though.
But i do miss all the cool mounts and fatality's from AoC
I dont remember Conan ever riding a wolf or a tiger. But who cares really. Funcom has already pissed all over the IP.
Still waiting for a decent MMO to create cool guild mounts that have custom features for the entire guild. Like are seen in tabards and cloaks in many games.
Wait a minute....There's no mention of rearing your wolf or tiger pet not as a mount, but as a combatant pet. Has Funcom renaged on this option???
[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom]
It said you can train it to fight and hunt.
I like their idea behind the taming process, looks like they took a little creative influence from from SWG on that one. I saw nothing to complain about in that write up, IMO anyway.
As for it fitting the lore, I really don't care, there are already mammoths in the game as mounts, conan didn't ride one of those either that I recall.
I see nothing wrong with a little creative liberty when creating a fantasy game, whether it be high or low fantasy. Besides it's just a mount/pet. It's not like they moved conan into the present day, or made a hyborian theme about butterflies and lollipops.
Well, ur not playing as conan. Your just some warrior in the conan world. im sure there was people in hyboria riding tigers and wolf (i have no idea actually, just assuming. dont know the conan lore well)
This game kicks major butt, im currently not subbed because I grew to hate the melee combat system ( although I love fatality moves) and how caster classes are denied cool fatalities. Glad to see they are doing well, obviously the subs must be getting alot better if they bothered to add an expansion pack, who knows maybe one day ill buy an xbox controller and resub so I can stand the directional combat.
The wolf looks awesome I think. Much different than I thought it might when we saw the tigers.
Well, ur not playing as conan. Your just some warrior in the conan world. im sure there was people in hyboria riding tigers and wolf (i have no idea actually, just assuming. dont know the conan lore well)
Yes - they ARE breaking the lore. Howard builds his stories on Historical Fiction (People are people and do what normal people do ) They could add dwarfs or elfs into the game and they wouldn't be breaking more Lore. It is incredible to see how IP is ruined in a split second for extra cash.
I dont like the shape of the head of the wolf.
It does not show pride, might, strength its only evil mean - from back to the days when blizzard changed the appearance of the mounts of the higher tier to mean ugly beings i dont understand the motivation behind such artwork...and why dont give people a choice?
The Tiger looks good as far as the screenshots can tell.
It's a game based on Conan which is set in a very brutal (evil) world where it's kill or be killed, all in pursuit of power. That's the motivation behind the artwork and the grittiness of the world. There's plenty of choice, if you don't want a scary looking wolf, get a horse, mammoth or tiger, those are choices.
Maybe if you ask nicely, they'll add a nice fluffy bunny mount for you.
It's a game based on Conan which is set in a very brutal (evil) world where it's kill or be killed, all in pursuit of power. That's the motivation behind the artwork and the grittiness of the world. There's plenty of choice, if you don't want a scary looking wolf, get a horse, mammoth or tiger, those are choices.
Maybe if you ask nicely, they'll add a nice fluffy bunny mount for you.
I would ask nicely if they would give me that, mounting a fluffy bunny that hops forward while you're holding onto its ears is just a recipe for awesome.
My first thought upon reading the title of the article was along the lines of "big deal", but after reading up on the system used it seems like it should be a welcome addition for AOC players though it reminds me a bit of some of the old WOW epic mount quests just elaborated on and as such the thought of it kind of gives me a headache but I do know for sure some of you guys will have fun playing it. Certainly a step in the right direction for FC.
OK enough with the bad mouthing the game. FUNCOM. your doing a great job with the game. I play it like a religion. just one question:Will we ever see the rhino mount again? (I really want one).
Was a little worried they would look like elfquest wolf mounts.Thats not to bad tho.
It's a game based on Conan which is set in a very brutal (evil) world where it's kill or be killed, all in pursuit of power. That's the motivation behind the artwork and the grittiness of the world. There's plenty of choice, if you don't want a scary looking wolf, get a horse, mammoth or tiger, those are choices.
Maybe if you ask nicely, they'll add a nice fluffy bunny mount for you.
Nah, i am not looking for a cute pet but a formidable, powerfull, impressive one...
"[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom"
I just about fell out of my chair when I read this.
that server community sucked so much balls I don't even know where to begin
I would agree with this. The community IS getting lots better generally speaking. Of course the most vocal "haters" are the PVP crowd and PVP has been lacking for a while. However I expect this to change as apart from Shrines of Bori, PVP Towers, Guild Renown and Arenas as PVP content AND apparently is seems finally FC have sorted lag on the Test Server for Seiges!!!!
AoC does receive too much hate, but things are turning around as AoC is getting better and better.
It's a RP server.
the amount of immersion on that server is about at 0%
It's a game based on Conan which is set in a very brutal (evil) world where it's kill or be killed, all in pursuit of power. That's the motivation behind the artwork and the grittiness of the world. There's plenty of choice, if you don't want a scary looking wolf, get a horse, mammoth or tiger, those are choices.
Maybe if you ask nicely, they'll add a nice fluffy bunny mount for you.
Malickie, your answer was really unnecessary.
The tiger mount is very imponent and look like a tiger, this wolf look like a giant rat with terminal illness, it lost almost all the fur and I am under the impression the teeth are also falling... check the eyes, it is probably almost blind too... the smell must be horrid for sure.
See, I really like the work of Robert E. Howard and even with all the issues and the lack of depth in Age of Conan, I always thought they did a pretty good job in the art style and music, but this mount does not belong to the original lore... even with the fact it would be possible to giant wolves to exist in this lore, even with the possibility that some cultures (inside the original lore) used it as mount, a Wolf is a powerful image and the fact that they transformed a possible "big real wolf" into a giant rat with terminal illness just to look "bad ass" is, in my opinion, a bad move related to AoC's art style.
I have to agree with Blutmaul and a fluffy bunny mount has nothing to do with it.
The mount system seems to be interesting anyway.
edit- You mentioned that Conan never rided a mammoth, but it has perfect sense to display mammoth mounts inside Hyboria, this mutated evil rat-wolf as a mount is unnecessary, especially when they did it right with the tiger...
Sure, you can say a primitive wolf could look like that... well, with those eyes and mouth they could be "there" but probably dying.
For me is very very beautiful !!!
The wolf is really pretty cool !!!
The wolf looks like an ugly beast, it has a fugly head. I wouldn't want one.
Tiger looks good though.
Crom (if that is the one you are refering to) isnt a RP server its a PvE server, the biggest one in EU.
Looks like a unique ruthless wolf mount. The red really stands out.
Conan isn't the end all, be all of the IP! If you ever read the comics (I have almost every one ^^) then you would know that there were people that rode tigers. However, the wolf is new to me, but there were people that lived with the wolves.
As for how they look, they really fit in with the look of the Conan IP. If you want glowing items and pretty mounts, then you're not talking about the Conan IP, it's supposed to be ugly, gritty, and brutal.
The novels and the cartoons (which I grew up with) are pretty different at certain points, but weird mounts were aplenty. Entire armies of walking dead, or cities filled with vampires was the things I read about in the comics. How a "wolf mount" pisses all over the conan IP as Frobner said is BS. A conan mmorpg following a strictly realistic version of the novels would suck, whereas if they were to follow the comics a tad more it would be better. But it seems as if FC is on the track to make AoC a "fun" mmo as opposed to what was presented may 2008. I like this continuous progression.
Nice to see FC finally adding some new content. Hope it adds plenty of fun things to do for you all!
Well no matter what PvE content they add they still need to add some PvP content (or rather distance themself from the mindless minigames that they run and make the world pvp more interresting) for me to re-sub. It is supposed to come with the ordinary in-game patches but who knows, I whant to see it before I believe it.
What's wrong with fluffy bunny rabbits?
I was more or less pointing out that Howard's world was meant to be brutal and unforgiving, at times just plain evil. That's where I could see them creating a wolf that looks like that (a hyena IMO).
The other point I made was that there are choices in what type of mount you can ride. Which the poster said there was not, well he asked for a choice. I was pointing out he had one (choices actually).
What part of my post was unnecessary?
Besides I like the way the wolf looks. Though I have a tendency to like things that are evil looking (love horror movies,H.R. Giger, etc..). I fail to see how it is unnecessary (the wolf) It gives another option for mounting what's wrong with that?
Yes - they ARE breaking the lore. Howard builds his stories on Historical Fiction (People are people and do what normal people do ) They could add dwarfs or elfs into the game and they wouldn't be breaking more Lore. It is incredible to see how IP is ruined in a split second for extra cash.
Because talking to and killing an old god out of mercy that had been bound by a sorcerer, after killing a giant spider, is what normal people do (Tower of the Elephant if you're wondering, one of Howard's earliest Conan stories)?
Yes the cultures often had their inspiration from real cultures, but don't think for a second that the stories aren't fantasy...low, brutal, and violent that fantasy world may be. The tiger and wolf mounts are being added in a way that would make sense in that kind of fantasy world.
What's wrong with fluffy bunny rabbits?
I was more or less pointing out that Howard's world was meant to be brutal and unforgiving, at times just plain evil. That's where I could see them creating a wolf that looks like that (a hyena IMO).
The other point I made was that there are choices in what type of mount you can ride. Which the poster said there was not, well he asked for a choice. I was pointing out he had one (choices actually).
What part of my post was unnecessary?
Besides I like the way the wolf looks. Though I have a tendency to like things that are evil looking (love horror movies,H.R. Giger, etc..). I fail to see how it is unnecessary (the wolf) It gives another option for mounting what's wrong with that?
Based on the original lore it is possible to have horror content in this game.
Howard's stories are full of abominations and stange creatures there is also a huge link with the tales of his best friend, Lovecraft.
But when we talk about a wolf mount, well, based on all I know about the lore I would expect something different, I hope there is at least some reasons for the wolf to look hellish like that and it is not something just to look "bad ass".
I also like horror movies and H.R.Giger's artwork but I am not sure about this "wolf" especially comparing with the tiger mount... well, lets wait and see...
I'd have to agree that this is a bad move for funcom to make this mount look like this. I'm all for cool, brutal looking creatures, but compared to the tiger wtf is this? It looks sloppy compared to the work they put into the tiger. The wolf should have looked amazing, not like this garbage...
I wish they would actually read this crap and see that most ppl think they went about the wolf all wrong... there's dreaming for ya I guess...sigh*
Yes, its dreaming, they ignore far more important feedback then the looks of a wolf.
I put up my unopened Collectors edition box on ebay, which at retail cost like $80/90
The winning and only bid last minute: $0.99
Yes, $0.99 is around the same amount FC spent improving PVP in their MESSIAH game.
THey both look really really cool and i like the idea to have a mount which helps me in fight or on which's back i can battle my enemies! :)
Read the Tower of the Elephant sometime. Conan meets (and kills, as a request) a god that had been captured and had the head of an elephant like creature and the body of a man. He then avenges by getting the kidnapping sorcerer to look into a crystal...where said sorcerer is sucked inside and trapped. Really sounds like what normal people do, right? Try actually reading the stories...there's supernatural all over the place in the R.E.H. tales (though it's often beneath the surface, deep in a jungle/temple/desert, and most likely evil as hell). Nothing supernatural about training a beast to let you ride it.