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The AoC Expansion 2009.............
VultureSkull
Member UncommonPosts: 1,774
Has there been any more news on the expansion planned for AoC later this year?
As far as I am aware this is the information out there:
"The concept art shows three ninja-like warriors wearing green masks with a strongly oriental look. In the background are green banners decorated with dragons, and pagoda-like buildings.
Funcom refused to comment further on the image - but the prominent oriental stylings suggest that the expansion will take players to the land of Khitai, Conan author Robert E. Howard's version of China in the Hyborian Age. "
The image can be found on the web.
After patch 1.05 that addresses itemisation and revamps the entire RPG system AoC will be ready for the expansion(save a few more minor patches), anyone know what we can look forward to apart what is mentioned above?
Comments
If Funcom remains in busniess it looks like there shifting gears into making and promoting there new MMO Seceret World. I have doubts that alot of attention will be given to AOC now that they are hypeing Seceret World.
MAGA
Like has said many times before. They are TWO entirely DIFFERENT teams.
The Secret World has basically been in Development since 1999 (concepting, story, etc, and first test versions being developed since early 2000-2003 (codename Cabal Online)) and thus long before Age of Conan even started their development.
They are still hiring new people for positions within The Secret World team.
As long as there are enough AoC subscribers for Funcom... then we are going to see an AoC expansion. Simple bussiness logic 1 0 1.
Cheers
Ohh im sorry i thought the same company was behind The Seceret World as was behind AOC and AO my mistake.
MAGA
It's the same company, but entirely different people who work on those games.
Anarchy Online development and Age of Conan development were in control by Gaute Godager as Game Director.
The Secret World is in control by the same person that brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Ragnar Tørnquist.
Gaute Godager was responsible for two horrible MMO launches.
Ragnar Tørnquist on the other hand has brought Funcom a lot of success and cash with the games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Funcom hired a lot of new people from the industy for The Secret World team. Like people that worked on EverQuest 2, etc.
Cheers
I dont know, with only 100k sub or less, isit really worth it to come out with an x-pac? And how many players will really come back because of that?
Knowing that they will not be able to sell even half of the boxes as the first release, i dont think it will ever happen...
RIP Orc Choppa
It's the same company, but entirely different people who work on those games.
Anarchy Online development and Age of Conan development were in control by Gaute Godager as Game Director.
The Secret World is in control by the same person that brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Ragnar Tørnquist.
Gaute Godager was responsible for two horrible MMO launches.
Ragnar Tørnquist on the other hand has brought Funcom a lot of success and cash with the games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Funcom hired a lot of new people from the industy for The Secret World team. Like people that worked on EverQuest 2, etc.
Cheers
I think the point tho is that even though they are separate teams, the number of people on those teams, and the support, attention and money from the company each of those teams receives may not be equal. Its not inconceivable to imagine that if FC is having any kind of financial difficulty that they may move staff from one team to the other in order to increase focus on the project that they think will earn them the most money.
Other than 'best guesses' no one is sure when 1.05 is going to come out. And given FC's past performance with AoC and patches/updates, it'll probably be a while ironing out problems before they're ready for the expansion. So, I'd have to say late 2009 if in 2009 at all.
An expansion pack can actually be the real turnpoint in bringing old players back to the game and new players into the game.
EverQuest 2 lost a lot (and I mean a lot) of subscribers the first half year.
They had a serious lack of content. The grind was horrible. And you could do hardly anything solo. Not to mention that the death penalties were causing more grief then an actual challenge.
Guestimates were that EverQuest 2 was hovering around 100k - 150k subscribers 9 monhts after launch.
The first expansion Desert of Flames was received with mixed feelings and didn't really caused the turnaround they were hoping for.
In fact, it wasn't until the second expansion Kingdom of Sky and later the third expansion Echoes of Faydwar (this last one made their subs go trully boom to over 350k subscribers) that caused a significant Turn Around for EverQuest 2.
I played EverQuest 2 the first 5 months and quit. I came back three years later with the Echoes of Faydwar expansion and played the game till end last year, when I met John *THE LYING BASTARD* Smedly's final straw with the Cash shop thing.
I think that if Funcom manages to fix and better balance the classes with patch 1.05 (and the gem revamp in that patch is received with much praise already), that when they start the Vet return campain after that. They might see their subs rise again.
And if they manage to release and actually deliver a good expansion next year. They might break through the 200k subscription peak again.
But then again, it's the real world with REAL economy and not to mention the competition.
It all depends on how the upcoming MMO's are going to do and perform. If they do really well... then it might be harder for Age of Conan.
If the new MMO's fail to deliver, the more chances for Age of Conan to grow again.
In that EverQuest 2 is a perfect example again in how they have profitted from all the crap MMO launches the last couple years to get people back to their game. That till they screwed themselves over again with the Cash shop thing.
Cheers
It's the same company, but entirely different people who work on those games.
Anarchy Online development and Age of Conan development were in control by Gaute Godager as Game Director.
The Secret World is in control by the same person that brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Ragnar Tørnquist.
Gaute Godager was responsible for two horrible MMO launches.
Ragnar Tørnquist on the other hand has brought Funcom a lot of success and cash with the games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Funcom hired a lot of new people from the industy for The Secret World team. Like people that worked on EverQuest 2, etc.
Cheers
I think the point tho is that even though they are separate teams, the number of people on those teams, and the support, attention and money from the company each of those teams receives may not be equal. Its not inconceivable to imagine that if FC is having any kind of financial difficulty that they may move staff from one team to the other in order to increase focus on the project that they think will earn them the most money.
This is true. As soon as it looks like AoC is on its last legs, Funcom will put all its resources on Secret World and leave a skeleton crew to run AoC until the servers shut down.
It's the same company, but entirely different people who work on those games.
Anarchy Online development and Age of Conan development were in control by Gaute Godager as Game Director.
The Secret World is in control by the same person that brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Ragnar Tørnquist.
Gaute Godager was responsible for two horrible MMO launches.
Ragnar Tørnquist on the other hand has brought Funcom a lot of success and cash with the games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Funcom hired a lot of new people from the industy for The Secret World team. Like people that worked on EverQuest 2, etc.
Cheers
I think the point tho is that even though they are separate teams, the number of people on those teams, and the support, attention and money from the company each of those teams receives may not be equal. Its not inconceivable to imagine that if FC is having any kind of financial difficulty that they may move staff from one team to the other in order to increase focus on the project that they think will earn them the most money.
This is true. As soon as it looks like AoC is on its last legs, Funcom will put all its resources on Secret World and leave a skeleton crew to run AoC until the servers shut down.
That is ofcourse absolutely true.
I think (seeing the amount of work being down right now and has been done) that they still have a good sized team working on Age of Conan.
They probably try everything they can to make a success out of Patch 1.05, so they can start the Vet Return campain after that.
Then they will start on Patch 1.06 (wich will see a revamp the Guild System if I remember correctly) and more focus on the expansion.
I predict that if the Vet Return campain after patch 1.05 and the expansion isn't going to bring the results they are hoping for (that's probably getting the subs back up to around 200k or more).... that then some hard decisions are going to be made.
And that is only logical, as when you have tried everything to get the game to turn around and it doesn't... then it's stupid to keep spending great sums of money on it.
They won't shut it down (as I think Funcom is a little bit like SOE in that), but keep it running as long as possible, like they do now with Anarchy Online.
As long as there are enough people playing... then there is no reason to shut it down.
Cheers
They should fix the current game before even thinking about any expansions.
So no one has any furhter information onthe what is inthe expansion? As asked in my OP.
It's the same company, but entirely different people who work on those games.
Anarchy Online development and Age of Conan development were in control by Gaute Godager as Game Director.
The Secret World is in control by the same person that brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Ragnar Tørnquist.
Gaute Godager was responsible for two horrible MMO launches.
Ragnar Tørnquist on the other hand has brought Funcom a lot of success and cash with the games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Funcom hired a lot of new people from the industy for The Secret World team. Like people that worked on EverQuest 2, etc.
Cheers
I think the point tho is that even though they are separate teams, the number of people on those teams, and the support, attention and money from the company each of those teams receives may not be equal. Its not inconceivable to imagine that if FC is having any kind of financial difficulty that they may move staff from one team to the other in order to increase focus on the project that they think will earn them the most money.
This is true. As soon as it looks like AoC is on its last legs, Funcom will put all its resources on Secret World and leave a skeleton crew to run AoC until the servers shut down.
Yet they havent done this with AO which is, and im playing it now myself, a game that hardly attracts any new players at the moment and has around 10k subs. Yet theres still a load of content being put into the game.
If u want to look to a mmo with a skeleton crew id advise you to look at the update notes from MxO from SOE
as for the "hyping" for the Secret World, they have released 1 cinematic trailer and 1 interview, thats it. for the real hype (cause ofc they will hype it, its how the business works) u have to wait for the few months before the launch. i myself have been looking forward to the Secret World for years (despite the few details). it has been in developement for god know how long, i hope they used their time better then Adventurine
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
I'm just hoping we get a mid level Stygian zone and an upgrade to the gear artwork before the expansion comes along. Of course, knowing Funcom, they'll just stick all the new, cool looking gear in expansion zones and leave the rest of their game to rot.
Did you ever look at the Culture set? The Tiers? Isn t that good looking for you? I mean what are you expecting?
The should have more different looking gear at the way to 80, yes that is true. But at 80 you have wonderfull looking sets.
They should have put their resources into revamping Anarchy Online or making AO 2. That game was something else in it's hey-day, and now they've pretty much abandoned it and left a skeleton crew.
They've announced a graphics reworking but that was like... almost 2 years ago. Shame really, to see that much potential wither away so slowly.
Ya thats the way of things with companys like this, they are trying to find the next WOW, they make enough on launch to pay for developement. And so in thier thinking well this isnt going to bring in a few million people we might as well milk the remaining population to pay for the next game.
You see the exact same thing over at SOE, they make a game then launch, put on a skeleton crew to make it look like thier developing it, but everyone with a brain knows their spending all thier money on new games. Why are mmos like EVE and WOW gaining players? I think its plain old job well done and pride in thier product. They work hard at improving the game and really try to keep a good reputation with the playerbase. Companys like Funcom or SOE, look at thier games as one more to add to the subscription base, and who cares if we make the players mad we already got thier money and we'll get more with the next game.
It's the same company, but entirely different people who work on those games.
Anarchy Online development and Age of Conan development were in control by Gaute Godager as Game Director.
The Secret World is in control by the same person that brought us The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Ragnar Tørnquist.
Gaute Godager was responsible for two horrible MMO launches.
Ragnar Tørnquist on the other hand has brought Funcom a lot of success and cash with the games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Funcom hired a lot of new people from the industy for The Secret World team. Like people that worked on EverQuest 2, etc.
Cheers
I think the point tho is that even though they are separate teams, the number of people on those teams, and the support, attention and money from the company each of those teams receives may not be equal. Its not inconceivable to imagine that if FC is having any kind of financial difficulty that they may move staff from one team to the other in order to increase focus on the project that they think will earn them the most money.
This is true. As soon as it looks like AoC is on its last legs, Funcom will put all its resources on Secret World and leave a skeleton crew to run AoC until the servers shut down.
Yet they havent done this with AO which is, and im playing it now myself, a game that hardly attracts any new players at the moment and has around 10k subs. Yet theres still a load of content being put into the game.
If u want to look to a mmo with a skeleton crew id advise you to look at the update notes from MxO from SOE
as for the "hyping" for the Secret World, they have released 1 cinematic trailer and 1 interview, thats it. for the real hype (cause ofc they will hype it, its how the business works) u have to wait for the few months before the launch. i myself have been looking forward to the Secret World for years (despite the few details). it has been in developement for god know how long, i hope they used their time better then Adventurine
Either you don't play AO, or you prefer blissful ignorance. AO has been on a skeleton crew ever since AoC released. And the skeleton wasn't that well nourished before AoC to start with. There's a reason that "load of content" comes out late and buggy as hell.
well funcom really fails... They should fix the problems they have already, not throw out a xpac and create MORE problems.
Hopefully they will fix the constant OOM error that people (myself included) are having and will fix the quests that are broken. It's kind of depressing to hear talk of an expansion when there are still so many fubar issues they need to fix first.
One thing I've been thinking about. The expansion for AOC is going to have to be digital download only. The player base is just too spread out for them to be able to negotiate shelf space with something like Best Buy or Gamestop. We may have 120,000 subscribers, but they are from all over the world. Look at the server languages.
The bad part about digitial download expansions is they don't draw people to the game. Wrath of the Lich King and MoM (Lotr0) both have top shelf spots at my local Best Buy. One of the reasons vanilla WOW still sells so many boxes is because Wrath is on the shelves. Once you go digital download, you definitely don't bring new players, and you probably don't even bring back many returning players.
I honestly don't know if there will even be a real expansion. It will probably just be a paid patch.
Personally I think they should consider completing the content that's supposed to be in the game right now, before talking about selling an expansion pack.
This is exactly what craig morrison has stated time and time again in interviews when they ask him about expancion plans. He says that its being worked on, but the priorities is to finish what they started on the current game. He wont even talk about expancions in interviews because he knows it will upset those who play and follow the game
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Did you ever look at the Culture set? The Tiers? Isn t that good looking for you? I mean what are you expecting?
The should have more different looking gear at the way to 80, yes that is true. But at 80 you have wonderfull looking sets.
I don't give a flying crap about 80. It's the most boring part of the game. Just because a lot of people are obsessed with it doesn't mean that we should all be forced to look like potato sacks through normal questing.
from last month -- GDC 2009
www.massively.com/2009/03/30/gdc-09-a-candid-interview-with-age-of-conans-game-director-pa4/
As far as expansions, we know you guys have talked about an expansion soon. What can you tell us about that?
I'm not allowed to talk about the expansion right now, sorry. Everyone's asked the same question today and I've had to give the same answer.
There's actually one very good reason why I don't want to talk about the expansion. I don't think people want to hear us talk about the expansion yet. We do have part of the team working on part of the expansion, we have said that. But, we're more focused on resolved the issues that players had after launch and working through those issues and creating content for the live game. That's been our focus and I don't want to detract people's attention from that. It's not a kind of, "Oh crap, there was negative feedback after the launch... quick let's make an expansion and everyone will focus on that!" That's not the approach we're taking.
We're taking the approach of very methodically working through the issues and making sure that we resolve them properly. So that way we put ourselves in a sane position to move forward and then the expansions built on a better foundation.
I can tease and say it's looking really cool! [laughs] But no, I'm not allowed to talk about it just yet. It'll be down to the marketing guys when they decide that the time is right to lift the veil on that one.
EQ2 fan sites
They are doing 1.05 which is part of fixing game.
Then there is guys who don't have much to do with balancing and such and so can make consept art and other things. Ofc they have one zone under making, but likely in zone making there are earlier stages that is included and those personel might be free.