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BoomTown CG08 AoC Interview
AmazingAvery
Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=16591
GC08: Age of Conan interviewFuncom is not about to shut the party down before it has started.
The biggest problem the players complain about is lack of content. The first 50 levels are filled with stuff to do, but then it slowly dries up and players are forced to the good old "grinding" routine, if they want to reach the highest levels - and who doesn't. However, Funcom is aware of that. During GC08 in Leipzig we got a briefing by Funcom's Erling Ellingsen, and the message is clear - more content, lots more content. Funcom does still see Age of Conan as a success, though, and rightly so - there are still 400.000 active players. - We are aware of the players' complaints and we're working very hard on creating more content in terms of more items, dungeons and zones, Elligsen said, and admitted that there's been a lack of extremely cool gear that the players could aspire to get.
- Two groups dominate the slum district, and the player has to chose which one to work for. While you could do work for both groups, it would not be popular, warns Ellingsen. - We wanted to create different kinds of quests - stuff that can be solved in several ways. And some will challenge your very own ethics. For instance you can get a quest that requires you to kill a person from the other group and bring back one of his fingers as proof. You can choose to do that, or you could go into the slums and get the finger from a corpse. We've also added lots of ladders in the zone - it's not gonna be Assassin’s Creed, but there will be a lot of climbing and some might be tempted to steal stuff while they are walking on the roof tops.
But Funcom doesn't stop with new zones. They are also returning to some of the dungeons that came with the game: - The message from the players is clear: We have lots of dungeons and that's fine. But they need to be better, more exciting and visually more stunning. That's why we are returning to a lot of our existing dungeons and giving them a major face-lift. Some of the dungeons already revisited are Black Castle and the two "... of the Ancients”. - For instance we are adding traps. These demand attention and cooperation from the players in order to move on. If you don't spot a trap, you will pay the ultimate price - your adventurer's life. He showed us a gigantic flame room in Black Caste. When a player stood on a specific stone, the flames would die down. Another player then had to run to the far end of the room in order to stand on another stone to get everyone through safely. The developer has paid a lot of attention to various types of traps. It got a lot of inspiration from Indiana Jones and we even see a big rolling stone during the presentation. The company has also worked on the bosses: - We want to make boss fights more interesting and epic. It's not a secret that we love Blizzard's way of making boss fights and we're gonna try and do something similar in Age of Conan.
We were shown a boss fight that took place in a gigantic well. Hordes of fanatic women charged from the side - sacrificing their lives in order to save their ruler. Thus the team had to coordinate in order to win. Some had to fight the boss while others kept the women at bay - else the fight would continue for ever. The developer is also working on a brand new are for players around level 60, Ymir’s Pass. It's around level 60 that most players run out of quests and interesting things to do, so this will be one of the most welcome news. We're talking about a massive zone with a very long quest line, that tells the story of Ymir's Son. He is a half-god chained to Earth in a new instance that follows the zone called The Amphitheater: - The fights have to be more epic - and we think we've achieved that with Son of Ymir. He is extremely cool and it's gonna be interesting to see if he is thankful for the interference by the players in godly business or not...
Another new instance will be House of Crom, which is a so-called ”group-dungeon” for level 80 characters. By ”group” Funcom means that several groups can be in the same instance, but the area will be large enough for them to meet very rarely. Finally we got to see a presentation of the new ”Consequence” PvP-system, that punishes players who kill others who are many levels below themselves. At first they are deemed criminals, then killers. If you work together with a killer, you become a criminal yourself. That includes grouping with them, trading with them and in general just dealing with them. As a criminal it gets dangerous to move around in the cities, and other players can kill you and take your loot without consequences.
- We will introduce a new PvP-level system. When players participate in PvP they get experience and gain levels. Once they reach the higher levels cool new gear will await them that will blow their minds. At the end of the presentation Funcom gave us an early look at how its already beautiful game would look after it had DirectX10 enabled. It's really difficult to describe in words, so lets just say that it looked stunningly good. Take for example the grass. Not only does grass and flowers move when you pass through it - they also react to magic. If you shoot a fireball through a field, the flowers will bend away when the fireball passes.
And last but not least - the first expansion pack is already on the way. It will be released next year, but that's all we were told for now. But we got the art work you see below, so Age of Conan veterans might be able to guess what's coming up. It seems Funcom got the message from the player base and are working hard on realising all the potential Age of Conan has.
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Comments
Looks like they are actively addressing most issues players have, other than personal "pet issues". Even owning up to the valid complaints and feedback many here have been citing as if they were the end of the world.
Now let’s watch all the haters come in and say it’s not happening fast enough.
Also, before anyone uninformed says it, none of this stuff is for the expansion, its all comming before it. (well, except for the expansion.)
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
All of that sounds great.. But it is all hype. Haven't you guys had enough hype about this game.
Look at the patches they have released. There has been minimal content added. They are doing to current players now, exactly what they did to beta players in April " Don't worry, in the future a lot of things will be getting added".
They still haven't added the pvp patch, and they targeted the end of June as the launch of that. If they still don't have the pvp patch done, it's going to be a long time til you see any new content.
Stop falling for what they are promising in the future.. look at their past track record.. No new content in 3 months. All they are doing is adding more to their 'future' hype
Welcome too MMO's and MMO launches. Also, the PvP patch is on testlive, and has been updated and tweaked from player feedback regularly. I guess all the dungeon revamps don’t count as new content, even if they are completely new experiences. Right?
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Well 99% of the players dont feel its happening fast enough. Would you step off your horse please? Its kinda annoying to listen to your posts about how patching and fixes gets in fast enough, not to forget the honesty and openess Funcom always brought us.
Welcome too MMO's and MMO launches. Also, the PvP patch is on testlive, and has been updated and tweaked from player feedback regularly. I guess all the dungeon revamps don’t count as new content, even if they are completely new experiences. Right?
You are blind if you think this is normal for a MMORPG launch. Testlive is nothing.. it is NOT IN THE GAME YET.. even though it was promised 2 months ago. The pvp system is very basic.. and is almost exactly what games like UO have been using for years.
Dungeon revamps.... again.. you must be blind. Ask a raiding guild what portion of the endgame raids are bugged beyond playability. Ask them how many bosses require an exploit to kill? In a 3 months, funcom has fixed a few boss fights, but have broken just as many. That is not 'adding content'. The only content they added was when they made some quests repeatable LOL
Yep
So Funcom's been listening to high level players about lack of high level content? So why the hell are they creating a new level 30 zone? Someone needs to give these guys a math lesson. Last I heard, 50+ is higher than 30.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
50% of all these things should have been in the launch. It's no more complicated than that.
They released a "pvp" game without core pvp elements which they advertise right now like it's something completely new.
As for the expansion, is it me or they want to cash in as fast as they can into their "400k customers"?:P
A friend is not him who provides support during your failures.A friend is the one that cheers you during your successes.
I think they're spending more effort on the reacting grass physics than your gameplay mechanics.
Why does everyone think that more mindless quests is the only way to level up. At this point just plain grinding is a better system. Makes the quests that make better and encourages some actually grouping in an MMO (OMG I KNOW, INSANE!) and the issue with AoC is not the lack of content, its fundamentally flawed in its segmented, instanced design, poor combat, and failure of a PvP system. Not to mention all the broken promises.
Darkfall Travelogues!
Just more pipe dreams. Funcom must give out some of their crack to the fanbois so they will believe them and keep the hope alive.
Well 99% of the players dont feel its happening fast enough. Would you step off your horse please? Its kinda annoying to listen to your posts about how patching and fixes gets in fast enough, not to forget the honesty and openess Funcom always brought us.
Id rather them be done, then fast. and 90% of statistics are made up 80% of the time.
I would not consider the new area and its gang related content, more mindless questing. It sounds quite interesting IMO. Especially the thieving part.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Hahaha - you got to love the spin. "We have listened to our players and we have now decided to add content".
What kind of BS is that ? Of course there are not enough content. The game was released before it was finished. FC knew that very well before they they even released it. It's not like its a big suprise, FC ? Jeeze at east be honest about that, so we can get som closure about this horrid affair.
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And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
So. Complain they haven't said anything about, and then complain when they do publicly state it.
K.
Got'a add this to my "How to be a rage filled illogical hater" book im writing.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
So. Complain they haven't said anything about, and then complain when they do publicly state it.
K.
Got'a add this to my "How to be a rage filled illogical hater" book im writing.
Have they admitted the game is still in beta, it was released to soon and we'll get a refund ? Weee!
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And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
Well 99% of the players dont feel its happening fast enough. Would you step off your horse please? Its kinda annoying to listen to your posts about how patching and fixes gets in fast enough, not to forget the honesty and openess Funcom always brought us.
Iam an active player and I dont feel its happening fast enough.
The fact is the game was released way to early, as many are but in other games at least some grind was required so players were not able to hit max level only to find that sieging is buged, most of the raid bosses buged, no PvP levels etc... ( a lot of the issus were addressed and some fixed )
Let say AoC was not released at this point they could release an open beta that would last at least 1 month or even 2 so they can "polish" the quests and leveling gaps ( a lot of that already done by now) add more quests and dungeons above level 50 ( in process but going on pretty slowly ) and add PvP XP patch.
The fact is by releasing so early they did made some good money but at the same time they lost chance for being mainstream MMO and now the chances of becoming one are slim .. maybe after that expension if a lot of NEW things are added and Iam not talking just levels, maps etc.. but something new end game wise to keep players entertained.
Futilez[Do You Have What It Takes ?]
So. Complain they haven't said anything about, and then complain when they do publicly state it.
K.
Got'a add this to my "How to be a rage filled illogical hater" book im writing.
Please dont take this the wrong way and I dont mean any insult to you.
Do you honestly believe the OP post? Do you honestly believe it is;nt spin as Pre-launch?
You have openly admitted your account is cancelled, Yet you continue to big up the game. Everytime I read one of your replys to a post I wonder if you played the same game as the rest of us.
Please inform me why you continue to back a game with broken pvp....boring pve....worst crafting ever....non existant economy. With a majority of problems looking like they are beyond fixing.
I dont mean to be rude.....but your posts almost have a dubious tone to them.
I may be wrong and if so im sorry =]
Good news for those who still subscribe, now they have something to look forward to.
I myself though will never touch a Funcom product again until I have at least 10 people telling me face-to-face that a Funcom product is good.
RIP Blackguard. May a resurrection come.
The common is a lvl 40s zone a lvl where there already is enough content.
Ymirs pass is lvl 55-60 zone which is nice but the game havent really dried out at that time.
For lvl 75+ there is still only Keshata an area the size of 5 football fields.
As to armors, that is not what the players asked for. They asked for being able to look different. That means all the armors in the game should be somewhat different in appearance from every other armor. With the system they show then after some time all asssassins will look the same all rangers will look the same and so on. . .
No these changes are bloody far from what is needed to turn around this game.
Btw have people forgotten that the 415k number were the june 30 subscriber number they had to tell their shareholders on the Q2 financial report. They copied the same number into the folder and called it august 15 but dont tell me NO one canceled their subs between June 30 and August 15.
Since then the sub numbers have dropped to a fraction of what they were on June 30.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."
Good news!
Your right ! Pretty good news we are closer to what they promised us.
I tested some of those futur games, and I prefer to take my time at lvl 63 and have fun until new content come
on AoC that worth my money.
I love how FC react and how fast they working since the first close beta.
I saw a lot of modification and amilioration and I will wait, its been only 3 month close to 4 month that nothing !
And you must see the Yimir son quest its like in the Howard book, * run over the princess, by desire to survive and desire to cacht her and make her mine, and those two big brother how appear when you came close h
So. Complain they haven't said anything about, and then complain when they do publicly state it.
K.
Got'a add this to my "How to be a rage filled illogical hater" book im writing.
I dont think you understand whats going on at all i dont really wanna use the word fanboi but you certainly are either a very naive or very "blind" person, they have had their time to be honest and they werent they lied to their customers to try and hide things under the carpet now that sorry for the expression "shit has hit the fan" they are "addressing the player issues" LOL this is more than laughable.
Put it this way a Waste Disposal company is dumping the waste onto a river and its killing the forest everyone complaints, the company tries to hide it and manages to dodge getting blamed for some time, after the forest is destroyed and everything goes public, they setup a press conference and announce they are gonna start planting trees, see the problem here?
Dont tell me you dont blindly believe in this game because you do, just look at your post history. Just dont try and spread your fanaticism to people who have experienced what this company has done first hand.
It astonishes me the mentality of failcom,
lets get this straight filling out the middle fluff of the game,
This is the quickest MMO i have ever seen to lvl,
Endgame is lacking! thats were the problem is.
The end lvl dungeons are the ones what need to be intresting there the ones people are going to grind for weeks.
Like i said its incredibly fast to lvl so you need to focus on where all your players eventualy are going to spending there time.
But then again i dont know failcoms agenda , because no matter who asks them a question, be it a website, magazine , journalist, player its the same generic responce.
As proven through the short span already every thing failcom has promised either doesnt materialise as its "coming soon" "it will be ready when its ready" "silence is golden" OR its comes along very broken and hands out more bugs than it fixes.
I would like one good reason to say why this is not more spin and failcom actualy learned to tell the truth.
I hope you all realise that it doesn't matter how much end game raiding content they add. The current way in which AoC handles combat and class builds does not allow for dynamic boss encounters, its impossible. Name one PVE encounter that requires any for of tactic other than DPS the crap out of it?
This is a result in trying to make every build viable for pvp and pve at the same time, and is also a result of not having any direct healing classes and very little crowd controlling abilities. Funcom must have listened to the wrong players when designing this game, the type of people that complained about being stuck spaming heals or being stuck as just a tank and not good for anything else. The reality is you need strict dps, tank, healing classes to create a strategical event.
One of the new boss encounters they plan only goes as far as having to kill mobs before they add health to the boss.....yippie, thats awesome.
Honestly, some argue that the game will get better, more content etc...but its all pointless, the base mechanics of this game are horrid and have no lasting appeal. I fail to see how anyone can enjoy simple tactic games.