Just to clear some things up, my question on the first page of this thread was in no way supposed to be antagonistic. If anyone took it the wrong way, Im sorry that your really sensitive, if I was there I would give you a hug.
I dont believe the answer that Athelan gave was inappropriate either. I have already stated this on the WAR forum section of this website. I hope that this obnoxious "he said, she said" game can now be hacked apart with a bloody axe and never brought up again.
Edit: Oh and btw Athelan would be the "she" part in the "he said, she said" game!
All I want to know is am I going to be able to go through this game without wearing a shirt. See I'm a fat guy with manbreasts in real life and part of the fantasy that I have always had about being in a Conan styled world is to be able to run around out doors without my shirt on without women asking me to suckle their infants.
Will there be a barbarian as we know it available to play in this game or will everyone eventually be restricted to relying on armor to withstand the environment?
1.can a shield(melee) player block(guard for another player) ala DAoC
2.What atm in your opinion/experience are the highest acceptable/playable ping times since there are latency issues in real time.I know it sounds like the US and Europe are taken care of if they play in thier own versions,which of course half aren't.then we got ocieania which would probably ping 250+ms on a US server(in new york) vs A US players 50-85ms ping.
Good enough. I'll accept that as a direct answer to the question I asked. And that's all I really wanted to know.
And Sturmrabe, I've given up trying to explain to you why hypothetical musings and rhetorical questions or otherwise temporized or qualified statements do not suffice as clear-cut answers to questions. But trust me, they don't.
I read all this, quite interesting really. I have many, many questions but I'll wait for the game to come out and find out for myself tbh but thanks for coming here and answering the others. From experience though most things completely change around beta and stress testing stages, we'll probably have lost the mounts, housing and BK by then
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
So I have one question based on you playing with the Shadowclan Orcs on Catskills. Sorry it's not game related yet. Do you by chance remember the Kingdom of Winterfell? We played quite a bit with Shadowclan and I remember many of the 50 orc raids on our town where my guards yelled, run, as they held you guys off. I played Eddard/Robb/Corwin Stark at various times. It's kinda neat to know we may have crossed swords at some point!
So to have a game related questions about AoC, do you think the combat will depend more on twitch than anything else? As in will FPS gamers have a distinct advantage over the normal MMO gamer?
The combat in Conan is not designed around twitch, its designed around control, having the strategic and tactical elements that by mastering gives you an advantage.
If only I could make something like that to put on my Age of Conan race car in Forza
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
It's 3 am and I've read all your quotes Athelan. I'm amazed how you guys at Funcom have become closer and closer to the community that has been growing around Age of Conan during it's developement. No other company has ever done that. By the way... AoC's music is the best music I've heard in a long while, it makes my brain bristles the hair of my arms everytime I heard it.
Not making any questions, probably your fingers need a rest (You certainly have a job that every hardcore gamer like myself would love to be in. You lucky beach)
Sorry for chasing you down to the ends of the earth and back but seems i cant wait for beta to have my questions answered, so here goes.
These questions are about combat.
1. In the video interview of relation of combat, it was mention that some references of combat have been taken from game(s) such as Soul Caliber, that said, does that anything to do with any tactics when it comes to spacing, movement, timing and positioning while in battle? more or less, will they have a important part in this new form of combat that will soon be introduced to us through beta and future videos? ( truth be told I'm doubtful of the idea of 8-way movement to have any form of use in , or an appearance AOC)
2. When it comes to combos, if some one executed a highly key combination combo- it wouldn't be the case of "end all" or "biggest chain combo wins" situation, would it? if not, are they're any measures that will make high hitting combos to have flaws or disadvantages to them to make them to be used more wisely and not spammed?
3. Another in reference of other games in combat system, even if it sounds silly please bear with me.... any combo breakers will be placed in the game? ( i.e. Killer Instinct)
last question and then ill keep quiet until beta i promise.
4. Any chance off the top of your head you can list of defenses while in melee, the only two ..or maybe one sticking out of my mind is AC armor class and percentage of chance? is there such thing as environmental defense bonuses?
thank you for your time, I will be eagerly waiting for the results of the AOC beta
hey athelan thanks for answering questions here on the mmorpg forums
ok i know that you are a designer so you might not know all the technical specs, but do you know how the new nvidia dx10 cards 8500 gt and 8600 gts will run AoC? i know these are supposed to be budget dx 10 cards but will they be able to handle AoC on the higher settings?
Hello, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions here!
I watched a gameplay movie on a norweigan gaming site, and I understand that to do the different close combat attacks, you either have to click a dial on your screen, or you can bind specific keys to the different directions. This raises some concerns for me. Primarily I would like to know if there are other alternatives to controling the combat than those mentioned? I was hoping for a system not unlike Oblivion and many other action rpgs where you swing in the direction you are walking (thus eliminating the need for extra button binds).
Further, I am hoping to play using my FPS setup, which makes me wonder how much you can customize your keyboard/mouse actions? Most MMO's lock down the mouse buttons for certain functions, which bothers me because I use them to move (yes I know, it's an odd setup). I have yet to find one that lets me set things up just the way I want.
For some reason, my post from yesterday is completely gone. No deletion, nothing. Rollback during the downtime perhaps?
Anyway, Athelan, could you touch on the character creation portion of AoC? Specifically, I'm wondering whether female avatars will have extensive options as males will. Will it be possible to create muscle-bound barbarian goddesses (think Dina al Sabah), or will we be stuck with variations on catwalk models with overly large funbags?
I am watching out for AoC including other upcoming titles and like most fans I am totally confused as to what direction to go. One element I am trying to find out in all these titles is live content or input of semi-regular events. E.g. NPC raid on a player / NPC city that can only be fought off by dozens of players etc. I am looking for a game that has events that bring the community together and feels like you make a difference.
Well it's going to be interesting to see how all that pve vs pvp progression works out in practice.
But in the end if I understood correctly the hardcore players who will master pve progression and pvp progression will be more powerful than the casual one who enjoy pvp and has only maxed the pvp progression right?
Eventually it will be the same gear > skill? no?
What determines when you get the bonus stats from pve and pvp? Is the pvp bonuses only applied in certain areas like border kingdom?
Oh and btw what if a level 80 goes and aggroes a level 5 bunny and then goes fight another level 80 will he then get the bonus from his pve gear when he engages in pvp?
alethan spam ftw. the thing i want to know most, like on my offical forum avataer, is a vague release date for this on the 360. they've said 2008, but that could be 7 to 19 months.
saying you reckon its going to be such and such quarter of 2008, would help me decide what to spend my precious pennies on.
as for the gameplay etc. i'm pretty trusting (unlike many) that you guys will do an awesome job, no pressure. welcome to this community.
ps: i also have a request for an assassin spell to get 4 arms, like the monster shown youtube.com/watch?v=sjwjghhz9po yeah i want to be able to spin like that too.
Only got one question that has kept me worrying, asked it several time on the official forums but only got player responses with an interview with Gaute.
So the question is will i 'need' a credit card to even consider playing this game? From Gaute reply in the interview he said 'yes, only credit card payments only' but since the interview was almost 2 years ago, i was wonder if that point of view has changed i know this is not a developer question but i was hoping you might be able to help me out, i really don't like using a CC over the internet.
Thanks in advance.
Oh yes, when will we finally get to see some HoX pictures / movies :P
I expect we will be able to use any pay method Anarchy Online does, and beyond that I don't know. I think I heard gamecards discussed before but billing is sort of removed from design sorry.
My post from this weekend was gone also.
an 8600 card should be fine, I just dont know the details on the video memory for them and how it performs versus a card with more but lower ship speed.
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
Thanks a lot Jason for taking your time to answer all of these questions, Funcom is definitely the company closest to the player community I have yet to see.
I have gathered some questions I would really appreciate for you to answer
1-Archer combat: as far as I have understood Archers will aim at their targets from a "Parrot" view (to the right and a bit behind the character, kinda like Leon in Resident Evil 4), however will the actual shooting and hitting work like in an FPS game where you hit if you aim good? Or is there a random factor involved (rolling dice etc)?
2-Customize characters: will we be able to change features of our characters while playing the game? Say after one month of playing you would like change the hairstyle of your character, maybe add some new tattoos and scars? And for the RPers if it has been a slow month they could add some pounds/fat to their character, and reverse if it has been a very hectic month where u loose weight.
3-Hiring Merchenaries/NPCs: Will there be any way for players/guilds to hire NPCs to help with groups (I think Guild Wars has such a system but don't take my word for it), either for just group quests or to protect Guild cities as well as extra attack power on Sieges.
4-Swimming: I don't think I've seen any screenshots or videos of characters swimming, Will we be able to swim in lakes and big seas? If so, what about diving, one of the hugest letdowns in LotRO was the fact that we couldn't dive under water. 5-Pets: Not really such an important part of the game, but will we be able to acquire pets at any time in the game? Having my own little tamed Dragon or rabbit following me everywhere in WoW was one of the things I really liked there, will there be any kind of pets (non-combat) in AoC? From a lore perspective I would doubt anyone would run around with a dragon or a rabbit, but what about trained dogs or birds?
6-Mounts: First off, will we be able to customize our mounts in much bigger ways then what has been possible in previous games? After all there is more to horses, elephants and camels then just color variations. Second, will there be a level requirement for getting a mount? And will they be so darned expensive that they will be a once in a lifetime buy? I heard of a system in some other game where you bought and used a horse until it died in combat or from age, and then you would eventually have to buy a new one, will there be anything like that in AoC? And thirdly, will mounts fit into our backpacks like in WoW? Or will there be a more realistic way of changing between using feet and riding? Thanks a lot for all your effort Jason, hopefully you will find the time to answer my questions.
The reason we say 2008 is because we need to focus on getting the game out the door before we spend a lot of time figuring out how many changes or alterations need to be made for taking the game to 360
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
Archery has changed a few times in the way it will work based on gameplay testing and feedback, it is no longer in parrot cam persay so youll have to wait and see
Im not sure of what options we have for post character customization customization.
Mounts we arent sure how much you will be able to customize your mount versus having different options of appearances.
Pets, we have avoided social pets in general but we do have a robust pet/follower system
AI is extremely expensive so we have cut back on the idea of having lots of hired NPC's we will see if we open this up again after launch
Swimming is in but has not been shown yet
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
Sorry for chasing you down to the ends of the earth and back but seems i cant wait for beta to have my questions answered, so here goes.
These questions are about combat.
1. In the video interview of relation of combat, it was mention that some references of combat have been taken from game(s) such as Soul Caliber, that said, does that anything to do with any tactics when it comes to spacing, movement, timing and positioning while in battle? more or less, will they have a important part in this new form of combat that will soon be introduced to us through beta and future videos? ( truth be told I'm doubtful of the idea of 8-way movement to have any form of use in , or an appearance AOC)
I answered this before but it disappeared.
We can never hope to compete with a fighting game directly like Soul Calibur but the game has been inspired by and we have used it for examples. We have movement in combat to move to the side and with the cone targeting this does work to your advantage. If you double tap a direction in combat youll make a quick leap in that direction allowing you to change positions rapidly or strafe more slowly.
2. When it comes to combos, if some one executed a highly key combination combo- it wouldn't be the case of "end all" or "biggest chain combo wins" situation, would it? if not, are they're any measures that will make high hitting combos to have flaws or disadvantages to them to make them to be used more wisely and not spammed?
Youll want to chain combos based on their effects, and make best use of your stamina and cooldowns. the longest combo's will take longer to activate and thus a smaller faster one could be an advantage if it say had a knockdown or status effect. Combo's in Conan are triggered by A->B->C= becomes A swing B swing C is replaced by the special move.
3. Another in reference of other games in combat system, even if it sounds silly please bear with me.... any combo breakers will be placed in the game? ( i.e. Killer Instinct)
You cannot break someone elses combo but you can avoid it or the blows that are leading up to the combo
last question and then ill keep quiet until beta i promise.
4. Any chance off the top of your head you can list of defenses while in melee, the only two ..or maybe one sticking out of my mind is AC armor class and percentage of chance? is there such thing as environmental defense bonuses?
We have loads of defensive stats, defense rating, evasion chance, reactive chance, invulnerability ratings vs types of damage individually for both magic and melee etc. Ontop of that we have the ability for players to customize their defense on the fly to up their coverage of one area while leaving another more open to attack.
thank you for your time, I will be eagerly waiting for the results of the AOC beta
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
Comments
I dont believe the answer that Athelan gave was inappropriate either. I have already stated this on the WAR forum section of this website. I hope that this obnoxious "he said, she said" game can now be hacked apart with a bloody axe and never brought up again.
Edit: Oh and btw Athelan would be the "she" part in the "he said, she said" game!
Jk Jk!
This has been a good read.
All I want to know is am I going to be able to go through this game without wearing a shirt. See I'm a fat guy with manbreasts in real life and part of the fantasy that I have always had about being in a Conan styled world is to be able to run around out doors without my shirt on without women asking me to suckle their infants.
Will there be a barbarian as we know it available to play in this game or will everyone eventually be restricted to relying on armor to withstand the environment?
1.can a shield(melee) player block(guard for another player) ala DAoC
2.What atm in your opinion/experience are the highest acceptable/playable ping times since there are latency issues in real time.I know it sounds like the US and Europe are taken care of if they play in thier own versions,which of course half aren't.then we got ocieania which would probably ping 250+ms on a US server(in new york) vs A US players 50-85ms ping.
Good enough. I'll accept that as a direct answer to the question I asked. And that's all I really wanted to know.
And Sturmrabe, I've given up trying to explain to you why hypothetical musings and rhetorical questions or otherwise temporized or qualified statements do not suffice as clear-cut answers to questions. But trust me, they don't.
Anyway, thank you for your time Athelan.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
There are some armor options which cover very little for the "I want to bare my Torso" types
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
community.ageofconan.com
So I have one question based on you playing with the Shadowclan Orcs on Catskills. Sorry it's not game related yet. Do you by chance remember the Kingdom of Winterfell? We played quite a bit with Shadowclan and I remember many of the 50 orc raids on our town where my guards yelled, run, as they held you guys off. I played Eddard/Robb/Corwin Stark at various times. It's kinda neat to know we may have crossed swords at some point!
So to have a game related questions about AoC, do you think the combat will depend more on twitch than anything else? As in will FPS gamers have a distinct advantage over the normal MMO gamer?
That's all I needed to know. I can wait for the rest. And thanks.
http://madtony.com/action/c_content/method/photo/cat/19/id/2329
http://www.zaldiva.com/images/ACTION%20FIGURES/CONAN/conan_kingconan_pic6.jpg
Links to the King Himself.
The combat in Conan is not designed around twitch, its designed around control, having the strategic and tactical elements that by mastering gives you an advantage.
If only I could make something like that to put on my Age of Conan race car in Forza
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
community.ageofconan.com
It's 3 am and I've read all your quotes Athelan. I'm amazed how you guys at Funcom have become closer and closer to the community that has been growing around Age of Conan during it's developement. No other company has ever done that. By the way... AoC's music is the best music I've heard in a long while, it makes my brain bristles the hair of my arms everytime I heard it.
Not making any questions, probably your fingers need a rest (You certainly have a job that every hardcore gamer like myself would love to be in. You lucky beach)
i could have sworn i heard about an area dedicated to crime and lawlessness
These questions are about combat.
1. In the video interview of relation of combat, it was mention that some references of combat have been taken from game(s) such as Soul Caliber, that said, does that anything to do with any tactics when it comes to spacing, movement, timing and positioning while in battle? more or less, will they have a important part in this new form of combat that will soon be introduced to us through beta and future videos? ( truth be told I'm doubtful of the idea of 8-way movement to have any form of use in , or an appearance AOC)
2. When it comes to combos, if some one executed a highly key combination combo- it wouldn't be the case of "end all" or "biggest chain combo wins" situation, would it? if not, are they're any measures that will make high hitting combos to have flaws or disadvantages to them to make them to be used more wisely and not spammed?
3. Another in reference of other games in combat system, even if it sounds silly please bear with me.... any combo breakers will be placed in the game? ( i.e. Killer Instinct)
last question and then ill keep quiet until beta i promise.
4. Any chance off the top of your head you can list of defenses while in melee, the only two ..or maybe one sticking out of my mind is AC armor class and percentage of chance? is there such thing as environmental defense bonuses?
thank you for your time, I will be eagerly waiting for the results of the AOC beta
hey athelan thanks for answering questions here on the mmorpg forums
ok i know that you are a designer so you might not know all the technical specs, but do you know how the new nvidia dx10 cards 8500 gt and 8600 gts will run AoC? i know these are supposed to be budget dx 10 cards but will they be able to handle AoC on the higher settings?
I watched a gameplay movie on a norweigan gaming site, and I understand that to do the different close combat attacks, you either have to click a dial on your screen, or you can bind specific keys to the different directions. This raises some concerns for me. Primarily I would like to know if there are other alternatives to controling the combat than those mentioned? I was hoping for a system not unlike Oblivion and many other action rpgs where you swing in the direction you are walking (thus eliminating the need for extra button binds).
Further, I am hoping to play using my FPS setup, which makes me wonder how much you can customize your keyboard/mouse actions? Most MMO's lock down the mouse buttons for certain functions, which bothers me because I use them to move (yes I know, it's an odd setup). I have yet to find one that lets me set things up just the way I want.
Thanks for your time.
[DTE]
Anyway, Athelan, could you touch on the character creation portion of AoC? Specifically, I'm wondering whether female avatars will have extensive options as males will. Will it be possible to create muscle-bound barbarian goddesses (think Dina al Sabah), or will we be stuck with variations on catwalk models with overly large funbags?
Cheers!
er..by Crom!
Hey there,
I am watching out for AoC including other upcoming titles and like most fans I am totally confused as to what direction to go. One element I am trying to find out in all these titles is live content or input of semi-regular events. E.g. NPC raid on a player / NPC city that can only be fought off by dozens of players etc. I am looking for a game that has events that bring the community together and feels like you make a difference.
Will AoC have any such events?
Thanks
'A confused gamer'
But in the end if I understood correctly the hardcore players who will master pve progression and pvp progression will be more powerful than the casual one who enjoy pvp and has only maxed the pvp progression right?
Eventually it will be the same gear > skill? no?
What determines when you get the bonus stats from pve and pvp? Is the pvp bonuses only applied in certain areas like border kingdom?
Oh and btw what if a level 80 goes and aggroes a level 5 bunny and then goes fight another level 80 will he then get the bonus from his pve gear when he engages in pvp?
alethan spam ftw. the thing i want to know most, like on my offical forum avataer, is a vague release date for this on the 360. they've said 2008, but that could be 7 to 19 months.
saying you reckon its going to be such and such quarter of 2008, would help me decide what to spend my precious pennies on.
as for the gameplay etc. i'm pretty trusting (unlike many) that you guys will do an awesome job, no pressure. welcome to this community.
ps: i also have a request for an assassin spell to get 4 arms, like the monster shown youtube.com/watch?v=sjwjghhz9po yeah i want to be able to spin like that too.
My blog:
Only got one question that has kept me worrying, asked it several time on the official forums but only got player responses with an interview with Gaute.
So the question is will i 'need' a credit card to even consider playing this game? From Gaute reply in the interview he said 'yes, only credit card payments only' but since the interview was almost 2 years ago, i was wonder if that point of view has changed i know this is not a developer question but i was hoping you might be able to help me out, i really don't like using a CC over the internet.
Thanks in advance.
Oh yes, when will we finally get to see some HoX pictures / movies :P
My post from this weekend was gone also.
an 8600 card should be fine, I just dont know the details on the video memory for them and how it performs versus a card with more but lower ship speed.
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
community.ageofconan.com
Thanks a lot Jason for taking your time to answer all of these questions, Funcom is definitely the company closest to the player community I have yet to see.
I have gathered some questions I would really appreciate for you to answer
1-Archer combat: as far as I have understood Archers will aim at their targets from a "Parrot" view (to the right and a bit behind the character, kinda like Leon in Resident Evil 4), however will the actual shooting and hitting work like in an FPS game where you hit if you aim good? Or is there a random factor involved (rolling dice etc)?
2-Customize characters: will we be able to change features of our characters while playing the game? Say after one month of playing you would like change the hairstyle of your character, maybe add some new tattoos and scars? And for the RPers if it has been a slow month they could add some pounds/fat to their character, and reverse if it has been a very hectic month where u loose weight.
3-Hiring Merchenaries/NPCs: Will there be any way for players/guilds to hire NPCs to help with groups (I think Guild Wars has such a system but don't take my word for it), either for just group quests or to protect Guild cities as well as extra attack power on Sieges.
4-Swimming: I don't think I've seen any screenshots or videos of characters swimming, Will we be able to swim in lakes and big seas? If so, what about diving, one of the hugest letdowns in LotRO was the fact that we couldn't dive under water.
5-Pets: Not really such an important part of the game, but will we be able to acquire pets at any time in the game? Having my own little tamed Dragon or rabbit following me everywhere in WoW was one of the things I really liked there, will there be any kind of pets (non-combat) in AoC? From a lore perspective I would doubt anyone would run around with a dragon or a rabbit, but what about trained dogs or birds?
6-Mounts: First off, will we be able to customize our mounts in much bigger ways then what has been possible in previous games? After all there is more to horses, elephants and camels then just color variations. Second, will there be a level requirement for getting a mount? And will they be so darned expensive that they will be a once in a lifetime buy? I heard of a system in some other game where you bought and used a horse until it died in combat or from age, and then you would eventually have to buy a new one, will there be anything like that in AoC? And thirdly, will mounts fit into our backpacks like in WoW? Or will there be a more realistic way of changing between using feet and riding?
Thanks a lot for all your effort Jason, hopefully you will find the time to answer my questions.
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
community.ageofconan.com
Im not sure of what options we have for post character customization customization.
Mounts we arent sure how much you will be able to customize your mount versus having different options of appearances.
Pets, we have avoided social pets in general but we do have a robust pet/follower system
AI is extremely expensive so we have cut back on the idea of having lots of hired NPC's we will see if we open this up again after launch
Swimming is in but has not been shown yet
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
community.ageofconan.com
Combat, Control, Class Distinction Designer for Age of Conan
community.ageofconan.com