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A Community Manager with Funcom talks about Age of Conan in general
Craig Morrison is a community manager with Funcom's Age of Conan. He and Garrett Fuller got together to discuss the game its rating and much more in this question and answer session.
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| MMORPG.com: |
There has been a lot of talk about cross console gaming in Age of Conan. Will players be able to get the game for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, or Playstation 3?
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Craig Morrison: |
We are planning to have a version on console yes, but we haven't made any announcements yet as to which console it will be, stay tuned!
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| MMORPG.com: |
There seems to be a lot of buzz from the comic book world about this game. Your appearances at Events like Comic-con and the recent release of an Age of Conan comic seemed to generate some attention. Are there plans to attend future comic book functions to draw upon this fan base?
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Craig Morrison: |
Yes, most likely, we have a great collaboration with the folk at Dark Horse comics as part of the Conan partners team and it's definitely a great potential audience for the game.
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| MMORPG.com: |
AoC has 80 levels for characters to explore through. This seems like a very high number. Will players be expected to quit their jobs or school to achieve this goal?
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Craig Morrison: |
Levels are of course relative to what it takes to level so having eighty levels in itself doesn't mean it's fast or slow. Conan is being designed to be casual player friendly from the start, and trying to avoid too strenuous a leveling curve.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Will Age of Conan still have a rating of Mature? If so and it is designed for older players, how will the intense game play fit into a college student or professional's busy schedule?
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Craig Morrison: |
Well, we can't second-guess the various rating boards in the different territories, but we certainly expect Conan to be an M rated game in the US. In terms of the other part of the question the answer is pretty much the same as the last question! Conan is being designed to be friendly to as many play styles and timetables as possible. It will certainly be possible to still play the game on people's everyday schedules.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Can you talk a little about Spellweaving and how casters will be able to take advantage of this style of play?
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Craig Morrison: |
The spellweaving system allows for some truly awe-inspiring effects to be invoked. This allows the caster to tailor a specific incantation best suited to their current target. Whether it is combining debuffs or enhancing your damage, or even a combination of the two - the spellweaving system will allow casters to adapt their strategies to the situation at hand!
Throw in the fact that there are potentially dangerous side effects to performing the more complex weaves and we think we will have a system that the players will find fun and engaging when it comes to using this powerful magic.
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| MMORPG.com: |
I have heard many plans for the Conan license coming up in the near future. Will the online game have any ties to the Cartoon or new Movie that are in the works?
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Craig Morrison: |
Not specifically no, we do work closely with many of the Conan partners, and whilst you might see some references here and there that appear in several different Conan projects there probably won't be any direct tie-ins with those specific projects.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Now that AoC is in Beta can you give us an insight into how PvP has finally developed and what players can expect?
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Craig Morrison: |
Beta is actually the time when things change most rather then being 'final', it's when the ideas that were implemented and tested by the designers get unleashed on more people. This means there is invariably tweaking to be done and changes to be made, and that's a process we are right in the middle of at the moment.
You can get some previews of the PVP Border Kingdoms and Blood Money systems over on our community portal here and here.
It is shaping up very nicely though and we think that players will really enjoy the PVP mechanics that we are designing. The 'final' details though are still being adjusted and are something those following the game will continue to get more information on as we get closer to launch.
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| MMORPG.com: |
AoC has many diverse classes, has balancing spells and abilities been difficult to achieve?
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Craig Morrison: |
Balance is always a challenge that MMO developers have to tackle and we are no different. It's an organic process that continues not just through the stages of beta, but usually once the game is live as well. It's an enjoyable challenge though, and yes, difficult at times, but it's also a key aspect of designing any RPG based system so it's not something we are unprepared for!
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| MMORPG.com: |
With limited magic items in the Conan world, what types of weapons and armor can players expect to find or craft?
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Craig Morrison: |
Conan's world is not quite as 'low' magic as people presume. His enemies were quite often those who wielded ancient evil magic against those who would oppose them. This is an area where there will be some compromise to the 'how true to the lore will you be?' question and there will be magic items in the world that players will be able to attain and use, as well as a wide variety of different 'ordinary' weapons in different tiers of quality that will be available.
So whilst players certainly won't be running around with flame spouting broadswords by level ten, there will be powerful magical items for players to find later on, as well as our socket gem system that will allow crafters to add bonuses to weapons.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Anarchy Online is having its fifth year anniversary, what are your hopes for Age of Conan's lifespan? How will this come into play in your relationship with Paradox Entertainment until 2018?
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Craig Morrison: |
As long as the game is popular! The genre is still evolving with more and more people playing MMOs every year, so we are confident that Age of Conan will have a long road ahead of it.
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| MMORPG.com: |
How will the servers be organized for AoC? Do you plan to have large population servers, or keep the numbers lower to build stronger communities?
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Craig Morrison: |
Whilst our plans aren't final here and subject to change we plan to have servers that are pretty much comparable in population to other mainstream MMOs like World of Warcraft or EQ2. We aren't going for the larger worlds model that we used in Anarchy Online or you see in EVE Online, we will be have many smaller servers rather then one, or a few, large ones.
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| MMORPG.com: |
Will there be contest for players to get into Beta? If someone is not a winner, how can they look into helping test the game?
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Craig Morrison: |
There will be contests over the beta period yes, keep an eye on our community portal for the details as they appear. Otherwise your chances will be improved by being signed up to our forums and to our Clan of Conan fanclub.
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Meh pretty much old info. I wonder why MMORPG.com asks such old/repetitive/redundant questions though. =\
And I wonder why people are disrespectful and not intelligent enough to make constructive feedback. And then they keep bitc...moaning about how a site sux but yet they are coming back everyday.
MMO did just fine. It's the AoC Devs that dodge questions.
^_^ As for AoC console goes. I have a feeling that they would choose the 360 over all. It has the best online based service compared to Sony's Ps2 (not sure aobut Ps3 online) and Nitendo's Wii isn't exactly....a stable online, especially when AoC is based on MMO.. hence the online part ^_^. Though I am a huge fan of the ps3 and I would like it if it were on there, but if AoC wants perfermance, especially online, they'd go with the Xbox 360.
The information is a rehash, but only if you have been following the game closely. These are common questions that are constantly asked, not just by news sites, but by new folks on the official forums. I dont think its out of line at all for mmorpg.com to have asked these questions. I visit very few news sites, but I keep a close eye on AoC. If not, this would have been all new or mostly new to me.
It would be nice to see some probing questions answered, but for all we know they could have tried and were shot down. But questions that were rejected dont make for a very interesting article.
"We aren't going for the larger worlds model that we used in Anarchy Online" - to bad for me. I realy like concept of AoC, but look like game going be more local not realy MASSIVE online game :(
Does anyone think a port to the consoles will be a crutch? I have heard the FX11 port wasn't that good and didn't take off at all. I could be wrong though.
There is only one game play mechanic I am really looking forward to this game and the effect it will have on other games. MOUNTED COMBAT! I think other MMO's really overlook how cool mounted combat can and probably will be. Plus AoC's ability to create enemy player cities near guild cities is a really cool feature. I love to see how MMO's are developing. I think we are almost to the point where technology is going to help us as players interact with the world we play in.
Well, mounted combat isnt that all new tho. EverQuest 2 had it from the start. And it's indeed a very cool and more realistic feature to be able to attack on a mount, then constantly having to unmount first like WoW and SWG for example.
I'm keeping an eye closely on AoC as well. It's very promising, but so is Hero's Journey. As I'm more looking towards the RP aspect.
Well, maybe less players per server, but I expect 3k+ :)
If you read up on their combat system it actually works very well with a console type controller. The only real struggle would probably be communicating with other players. There were a few questions in there that I haven't seen before, and some new answers. Thanks for doing the interview.
Argh! Just release it already jerks!
Go back to No-wai and code you monkeys!
I don't think it gets much clearer than that. Heh.
EDIT: Oh, and as far as communication... headset. Most MMOers use headsets these days anyway. The Xbox kiddies are used to shouting "NOOB" rather than typing it anyway.
I'd have to agree on the combat if it can port to console controllers, if the combat can fit within the limits of a controller easily that means very few skills you'll have the option of using at any given time. Look at FFXI, you could play that game while you were half asleep and with one hand, lamest crap ever for gameplay.
I was really looking forward to Warhammer online but I just saw the in game video they released and I am now 100% behind AoC. Warhammer looks like WoW but worse. This game has all the really cool ideas that are needed to make a great game like the mounted combat and the way they have you taking over areas and the combat system seems much better than anything else out there. By far the best mmo game coming out in 2007.
The gameplay was designed for controllers. It's no accident that the directions that you can swing your sword can be activated with the number pad, or a gamepad's directional buttons.
Sometimes after looking at the way the game is going to be played with the FPS style ranged combat and the D-pad style melee combat I wonder if it wasn't designed for a console first and foremost.
It's not very surprising that the world is going to be smaller than AO's. The AO world still lags on the best of computers and with the quality of those backgrounds I was kind of expecting the world to be relatively small compared to other MMOs.
The areas with player-made cities are instanced, as well as the areas for PvP.