The folks at Onlinewelten had a chance to sit down with Age of Conan Game Director, Craig Morrison, to talk about the recently launched Update 5, what lies ahead for the future of Age of Conan, and more in this latest interview.

On what former players can expect to find in Age of Conan should they return, or even for new players who have yet to take the plunge:

Onlinewelten: Many former players are still unaware of the huge improvements Age of Conan has gone though since its release. Would you like to use the opportunity now summarize of all the new content and changes in Hyboria?

Craig Morrison, Funcom: That’s not a question to answer easily in a short space, so it’s a little long! Earlier in the year we summarized the changes for the interviews I did at GDC in San Francisco and I think that list is relevant here. I actually found it quite hard to distill it down to a single page, so the short answer is that a lot has been done, the longer answer breaks down into quite a few areas!

• New Content: We have added countless hours of more content through updates such as Ymir’s Pass – the largest playfield yet that comes with an entirely new storyline inspired by the classic Howard tale ‘The Frost Giant’s Daughter’. Then you have Xibaluku, a new end game dungeon packed with dynamic and engaging boss encounters for maximum level players. In addition we have added countless more quests and rewards to the game for players of all level ranges. The launch dungeons have also been revisited, revamped and generally improved to provide new and more interesting game-play and rewards.
• Enhancing PVP: The world of King Conan is a brutal one and we have made sure to focus on building on the games PVP offerings. One of the key elements that players reported enjoying in the game was the ability to be part of a bloody and exciting game-world and we wanted to build on that. Not only have we added a full PVP leveling system, with a host of rewards we build upon this with a full PVP consequence system that adds a true meaning to PVP combat and allows those that would tread a darker path to actually become criminals based on their actions, opening up a whole new game-play experience.
• Improved Sieges: Building on the desire to have truly meaningful and engaging PVP in every update we are continuing to refine, add to and improve the Siege warfare PVP elements. We are striving to keep adding new features to make guild vs. guild game-play matter more. In the most recent updates new PVP specific resources required to build and repair battle-keeps have been added. These resources must be fought over between players, and can be looted from vanquished foes corpses, adding more intensity and drama to the siege experience.
• Stability and Performance: Our technical team has been hard at work ensuring that there are constant improvements being made to performance and stability. Framerate has been increased on a wider range of computers, memory leaks have been corrected and bugs have been ironed out making the game-play experience a lot smoother and stable for the user.
• General Improvements: The big main features always get the headlines and previews, but we have also gone to great lengths to ensure that the smaller points and general polish also get some care and attention. A huge amount of general improvements and enhancements have been made, some small, some larger, but all combining to provide a better Age of Conan experience. More travel options have been added, more voice-overs, a new friend interface, the raid interface has been improved, a new GUI options mean it’s now easier to locate and get into PvP mini-games, tradeskills have been improved, loot rewards have been re-distributed, vanity pets are available as a special reward for those who adventure through the new Xibaluku dungeon… and the list goes on! These changes may never be in the spotlight but they all contribute to improving the experience for players each and every time they log in.

Read the full interview at Onlinewelten.