Age of Conan : Letter from the Game Director

Craig Morrison, the new Game Director for Age of Conan has posted a lengthy outline of upcoming changes and updates for the game, including details on server merges, Ymir's Pass and the PvP update.

Today I wanted to take the opportunity to go over some of the updates, changes and developments you will see in the game over the coming weeks and months. Hopefully this will give you a little insight into what order things are being addressed in and what sequence you will see the new content arrive in.

There are two things on the immediate horizon that will very soon be on the test server for public testing in the shape of Ymir’s Pass and the second stage of the PVP update. There are a couple of things I want to address on these.

Firstly Ymir’s Pass is a large zone and has quite a bit of content to test. This may mean that it stays on the test server through several updates on live. We have the ability not to include a given playfield when we build new versions for live, which means that this testing won’t hold up the release of the other new content and Ymir’s Pass will still get the time on the test server that it needs. We want the experience to be as good as possible for its release and feel the public testing phase is important in that. We hope to be bringing the playfield to the test server shortly, and we all hope you will enjoy the many varied encounters it brings.

Then there is the second stage of the PVP update that brings with it the consequence system. This new system allows for players PVP actions to have real consequences in the world, and it will greatly enhance the entire PvP experience in Conan. As you know the system is meant to bring repercussions for repeated evil behaviour (i.e. killing players outside of your level range), so should you chose to “gank” other players, a whole new gameplay area opens up! For one, it will result in you no longer being welcome in many parts of the game-world, but in its place you will have to rely on a newly arrived network of camps and areas that function with a little more moral ambiguity. This is very true to the essence of the Conan lore, and a change I think many players will find intriguing.

Another aspect which has popped up in the forums recently is whether we are going to do a server merge or not, and I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It’s important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future. Still, there are many complexities involved in this, and we want to ensure that everything happens as fair and streamlined as possible. That work has now started, and we are naturally making sure that guilds and players can get to new servers in the best possible way. We will come back with more info on this, but I hope that this will serve as a positive injection to the social scene in the game.

Age of Conan Become More 'Player-Centric'

Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has a new game director and with him comes the promise of a more "player-centric" direction for the MMO that launched in May.

"I think that the fact that Gaute leaves means that we get a direction which is more player-centric, since [new game director Craig Morrison] is so good at being hands-on with the communities at all times," said Funcom product manager Jorgen Tharaldsen to MTV Multiplayer in reference to the sudden departure of Gaute Godager.

Godager was a founding member of Funcom and served as producer on Age of Conan through the game's launch before leaving, citing dissatisfaction with the finished product.

"We have seen but the start of the evolution of Age of Conan, and out of all the people in Funcom, I can't think of anyone which could do it better than Craig," said Tharaldsen. His optimism echoes that of Morrison himself, who promised, "My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns."

Funcom Security Exploits Patched

Dan Caselden and Gabriel Landau of Independent Security Evaluators recently checked into Funcom games Anarchy Online and Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures. The evaluators discovered some rather disturbing exploits within the games. One of which could even allow a hacker to take control of the targets computer. Fortunately, ndependent Security Evaluators contacted Funcom and the problems have since been patched to prevent any future issues.

8/28/08 - Funcom released patches for both games today. Both vulnerabilities were fixed in Anarchy Online. In Age of Conan, the directory traversal vulnerability has been fixed, but the buffer overflow remains. We do not believe that the buffer overflow alone currently poses a serious risk to players, but we recommend that Funcom fix it promptly so it cannot be used in any future hybrid attacks. In the meantime, we suggest that players exercise caution when downloading custom game scripts from third parties.

Play AoC with Your XBox 360 Controller

Blue Orb, the creators of the SwitchBlade application that allows gamers to play PC games with their Xbox 360 controller have taken their application to Hyboria. Their latest work was displayed at this years Games Convention for attendees to check out.

SwitchBlade is an easy to use application that brings a fully configured game controller interface and experience to any PC game. Once SwitchBlade is installed, it provides a console gaming experience for the gamer looking for a new way to play popular PC games. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is the latest PC game supported by SwitchBlade, and the application’s preconfigured key bindings map the Xbox 360 controller buttons to the most commonly used Conan controls.

Key Features of SwitchBlade are:

Provides all the gaming functions of a mouse and keyboard
Brings Xbox 360® controller support to Age of Conan
Use one of the many richly pre-configured controller layouts, or...
Create your own customized layout

Funcom Invades DragonCon 2008

Funcom will be attending this years DragonCon. DragonCon is the largest multi-media convention dealing with science fiction, fantasy, gaming, and comics. This year Funcom will have a booth for attendees to stop by and pay a visit.

Funcom Booth hours (Our booths are in the Marriott Marquis ballroom 103-111):

Friday 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m
Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Monday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Event Schedule

Friday - FunCon Event (10pm Sheraton Capital Ballroom)

This year’s event is one not to miss as everyone is invited to join us Friday at 10pm at the Sheraton Capital Ballroom! We will have several ballrooms adjoined together with the best in lighting and sound as DJ Tarryk will be spinning the musical entertainment for the night. Along with the entertainment we will also have many Funcom attendees from Age of Conan, Anarchy Online and The Secret World dropping by throughout the night to help make this FunCon one to remember!

Saturday - Game Presentations

7 - 8pm : Sheraton Capital Ballroom (Age of Conan Presentation)
10 - 11am : Sheraton Athens Room (Anarchy Presentation)
Swag/Prizes

You may have chances to win the following at DragonCon:

Posters
Inflatable Swords
Tshirts
Lanyards
Custom PC cases
One special customized Anarchy Online PC

About DragonCon

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. Dragon*Con 2008 will be held Labor Day weekend (August 29 - September 1, 2008) in Atlanta, GA.

Anarchy Online and AoC Vulnerabilities Fixed

The Baltimore Sun reports that security firm Independent Security Evaluators has disclosed vulnerabilities in the popular MMORPGs Age of Conan and Anarchy Online. The flaws (which have since been patched) allowed a malicious user to read files from and take control of another player's computer.

Using flaws discovered in the games' coding, Independent Security Evaluators
said it was able to read confidential files on massive multiplayer online (MMO)
games Anarchy Online and its best-selling successor, Age of Conan. ISE, which
will reveal the research today on its Web site (securityevaluators.com), said it
was also able to take control of a player's computer in the older game.

The vulnerabilities, ISE says, expose a growing concern among industry
experts. Many say players of such games should start worrying more about
malicious attacks that can endanger confidential and financial data than the
virtual battles that revolve around crushing demon skulls and laying siege to
ancient towns.

GU Comics Takes GM Poke

Age of Conan is featured in today's issue of GU Comics. It deals with the recent GM cyb0rsex0rz scandal. I bet someone's face is pretty red right now. Probably changed his name and is living in seclusion in the woods until it all blows (no pun intended!) over. Growing a big 'ole Grizzly Adams beard and such. 'fo shame.

Changes To Group NPCs Post-Patch

Jayde of Funcom notes the following:

Some have noted the fact that group NPCs are no longer quite so easy after today's patch. However, I've noticed there is some confusion about "scaling" or the reason for this so I figured I would clarify it.

Basically, at this point, group NPCs have a certain amount of "heroic defense rating" and "heroic attack rating" that players can also get. The functionality of this stat is to "counter" opposing attack and defensive ratings which are higher than what the player or NPC may currently have.

What this means in the case of group NPCs is that higher-level players will no longer deal double damage and take half damage from group NPCs due to the base attack/defense rating difference. Basically, group NPCs will continue to do their normal damage and take normal damage for a longer period of time than non-group NPCs.

There is, however, no "scaling" happening and they are not adjusting dynamically to deal higher damage to higher level players. They will simply continue to perform as they normally would for equal-level players.

I hope that clarifies the adjustment!

The Latest Word on Buddy Keys

Greetings,

We will not open the Buddy keys until we have sufficient server capacity. Most likely we will open this in stages, starting with the 555,000 buddy keys found in the Collector's Edition. There will be no separation between US and Euro keys, so they will open at the same time.

We are currently evaluating our server capacity, and guests will be able to start playing in the not too distant future. As soon as we are ready we will notify everyone directly via email (the one you have registered the game with), as well as via forums and community sites.

The buddy keys can eventually be claimed via your account pages

Best regards,

Funcom

AoC Update Notes From June 12th

Mounts

• The Killer Rhino and War Mammoth have received a minor increase to their trot and gallop speeds. The trot (default movement speed) should now be slightly faster than a jogging player, while the gallop should only be slightly slower than a sprinting player.
• The Standard Horse has received a moderate increase to it's canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be equal to a sprinting player, while the gallop should be slightly faster than twice the speed of a jogging player.
• The Armored Horse has received a moderate increase to its canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be a slightly faster than a sprinting player, while the gallop should be moderately faster than twice the speed of a jogging player.
• The Swift Horse has received a substantial increase to its canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be equal to twice the speed of a jogging player, while the gallop should be only slightly slower than three times the speed of a jogging player.
  

Player Character

• 18 new robe assets added to the game for the mage classes
• Players can no longer be knocked back while in spellweaving state
• A large number of abilities had a tendency to not trigger in some situations. This should be fixed now.
• The following emotes are now available to both male and female characters: scratchhead, scratcharm, apprehensive, danglefeet, squirm_on_ground, relaxed_lean (new)

Assassin

• Assassins in Unholy Stance will now generate a Soul Fragment from performing a Sneak Attack.

Barbarian

• If a Barbarian performs a unarmed attack after executing their No Escape ability they should no longer slide around without animating their legs.
• Unstoppable should stop functioning when the feat is untrained
• Finishing Blow damage boost after charge should always cancel (even when missing the target) - Finishing blow should scale like this : 1 point = 2x damage, 2 points = 3x damage, 3 points = 4x damage.
• Decapitation feat should scale better when more than one point is spent in the feat.

Conqueror

• There is now a 5 minute cooldown on the resurrection effect gained through your Furious Inspiration ability. This cooldown is on the character offered the resurrection, not the conqueror, so you can still resurrect multiple people in the team, just each of those people cannot be brought back to life by you more than once every 5 minutes.

Demonologist

• Fires of Gehenna (Rank 1) will now correctly inflict fire damage.
• Inferno of Amher (Rank 4) now has the correct casting time.
• Increased the movement speed of all your pets significantly.

Herald of Xotli

• The effect of Demonic Fortitude has been increased to convert 10/15% mana to 10/20% stamina.

Necromancer

• Significantly lowered the manacost of your nukes and dots.
• Increased the movement speed of all your pets significantly.
• Corruptors, Mutilators, Necrotic Bombs and Harvesters will now correctly trigger Bone Horde.
• Pets no longer have the base monster miss chance. They no longer have an innate chance to miss their attacks.
• Fixed Life Leech so that it will tick correctly on a monster that was not initially aggro to you.

Priest of Mitra

• Armor of Faith is no longer cancelled by Holy Light triggering.

Tempest of Set

• Tempest of Set spellweaving should now have all abilities enabled.

Mid Level (40) gameplay improvements

• Field of the Dead: 100 additional mobs have found their way into the the playfield. In addition respawn times have been adjusted on both normal mobs and bosses to improve the playing experience. Also, a number of quests in the playfield have been improved upon.
• Treasury of the Ancient Ones: This Dark dungeon in Khopshef plays like a new dungeon now! It has been revamped with a new event for both solo and group players. Special rewards await those who dare to take the challenge in Epic Mode. And you will no longer fall through the world when climbing up the statues.

Quests

• Quests in the 20 - 40 level range have been checked that all are categorized under the proper locations in the quest journal.
• Den of Wolves: The Plains Wolf population has increased.
• The Curse of the Werewolves: Quest NPCs population has increased. Corinocht Slayers also update the quest now.
• Wolf Hunt: The Yukagi Wolf population has increased.
• Hunting the Vanir: Increased the number of Vanir in the SE camp, also increased their respawn rate.
• Cure for Lycanthropy: Removed Skull of an Alpha Wolf pickup item, this skull can now only be gotten as a loot drop. Added mobs and reduced the respawn time of most mobs.
• Toirdealbach's Tomb: Fixed the respawn rate, fixed the lighting and Toirdealbach's behaviour has been adjusted.
• Water for the Soldiers in Thunder River: Updated the waypoint for Guard Captain Marcus.
• Wagon Wreck: Added a missing waypoint for the quest The Wagon Wreck.
• The Chieftain's Vengeance: Updated waypoints for the goals "Destroy Vanir Supply Crates" and "Kill Crazed Vanir" in the quest "The Chieftain's Vengeance".
• Finding Safe Passage: The player now has to kill 7 Lupine Hunters. The waypoint has also been tweaked.
• Cure for Lycanthropy: Added the missing waypoint to the "Collect Wolf Blood".
• Wagon Wreck: Removed the level requirement for the handing in of the quest Wagon Wreck. The player will now see the ? above the NPCs head.
• A Silver Bracelet: Fixed requirements on Bartholomo's dialogue, so he won't show destiny dialogue during daytime.
• Phoenix of the South: Made sure the destiny quests are resolved and spawned in the right order, to prevent full quest journals to break the destiny quest.
• The Awakening I: The quest reward has received a revamp based on feedback.
• The Awakening I: An intermittent stall when watching the cutscene "Nadini's Vision" in the Destiny Quest has been resolved.
• In Defense of Beauty: quest can be completed now.
• Get Mantis Scales: The description was improved to better indicate where to get the scales.
• Chaos in the Fortress: Burning the tents will now provide team credit.
• Emerald Eyes: Quest classification has been corrected.
• Family Matters: Quest description has been corrected.
• Khopshef Province Quest: Updated the waypoint to Rami's Position
• Kalutma: The dialogue has been tweaked to be more logical.
• Lions and Lambs: The quest cannot be 'stolen' by other players now.
• Lost Bottles: Wine bottles will correctly show as quest items in the world.
• Seven Years: The text has been updated to be more accurate.
• The Worshippers' Demise: Certain NPCs on white sands have been eating those worshippers with glee and will now have a much higher chance of dropping their gems.
• Ante Up: Giants Approaching has had it's quest marker adjusted so that it appears in the proper location.
• Path of the Raven: Rogan will now give the player 3 feathers for the quest.
• Conall's Valley - Destroying the Ymir Totem has been updated to reward group credit.

Items

• Champion of the Honorguard now correctly drops T1 shoulders for Priest of Mitra instead of T3 shoulder for Ranger.
• Herald of Xotli raid gear has been fixed and should now offer proper bonuses
• Widowdusk Fauld should appear correctly now in inventory and in game.
• Crafted crossbows should now appear correctly in the character's hand.
• Updated item names to Gold Carcanet and Filigree Gold Carcanet
• Fair Meat: will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
• Drinking cape should no longer clip with chest item
• Polearms are now all of the same length
• Katars are now held and animated correctly

Early Access sold out

Hello everyone. We here at Funcom are extremely happy with the demand that has been for our Early Access program. That demand has been so immense, that we are now sold out! We know that several people will be unhappy to not receive their Early Access time, but please bear with us in the remaining days. So:

All English Early Access has sold out

Some Early Access still available in Germany and France

All Virtual items work will work on valid pre-order keys

Pre-orders on accounts that was later cancelled will have their keys/account disabled

Thank you and look forward to seeing you all in Hyboria very shortly!

More than 1 million people sign up for the Age of Conan beta!

And more than 5 million unique visitors to the official Age of Conan website in 2008.

Funcom and Eidos are proud to confirm some of the impressive figures powering the Age of Conan launch, and the two companies are happy to reveal that the Age of Conan Beta has passed 1 million sign-ups! As one of the most anticipated MMO’s ever, the 1 million mark confirms the amazing interest in the game.

“Funcom has not been able to find any higher beta numbers for MMOs in the western world,” said Morten Larssen, VP of Funcom Sales and Marketing. “We believe it represents the largest ever beta sign-up figure in the history of the genre.”

In addition to the incredible beta numbers, Funcom confirms that almost 800.000 gamers have signed up for the Clan of Conan newsletter. The hundreds of thousands following the development of the game have moreover resulted in a rapidly growing forum community. Last week Funcom registered over 115.000 posts on the official forums, across four languages. This comes in addition to Age of Conan discussions on external forums and in other languages.

In 2008, Funcom has also seen a tremendous growth in the amount of people who visit the official Age of Conan websites. Since January 2008, Funcom has registered more than 5 million unique visitors, from more than 200 countries. Last week alone over 725.000 unique visitors came to the Age of Conan sites.

The coverage and interest on external gaming sites has skyrocketed as a result of the growing anticipation. Age of Conan has topped numerous charts as the most read about, most popular and most anticipated PC game in development. As an example, GameSpot.com has Age of Conan as the #1 most read about upcoming game over the last month, on any format. The game has seen a similar interest on genre specific sites, including being the #1 most popular MMO over the last 12 months on MMORPG.com. Print gaming publications have also covered the game widely, and the game now has over 20 covers, including the coveted cover of PC Gamer US.

“How all of our strong figures convert into later sales and subscription figures is still unknown,” continued Larssen. “But our pre-order numbers in some important retail chains track as among the highest for any MMO launched.”

Age of Conan launches 20th of May in North America / Oceania and 23rd of May in Europe.

To celebrate the amazing community figures surrounding Age of Conan Funcom and Eidos today unveils a brand new trailer. Aptly called the Femme Fatale trailer, the new video can be downloaded in HD quality from the media section at http://community.ageofconan.com. For more information or to pre-order Age of Conan – either in English, German, French or Spanish – please visit the official websites.

Epic ending to the Age of Conan Open Beta

On the 10th of May Funcom is transforming the entire Open Beta into PvP MAYHEM, while at the same time giving testers access to all which Hyboria has to offer!

Here's the whole information going out to Open Beta testers:

Dear Age of Conan beta tester

We hope you are merrily chopping off Pict heads in the Age of Conan Open Beta, and that your journey in Hyboria has been a memorable one so far. You have only seen the beginning though, as we prepare an EPIC ending to your Open Beta experience.

On the 10th of May we are transforming the entire Open Beta into PvP MAYHEM, while at the same time giving you access to all which Hyboria has to offer! That is right, as we take down our servers for a short period we are at the same time changing the entire server rule-set to Free For All PvP carnage! Your servers will ALL become PvP! Participate if you dare, or make a new character and stay in the safety of Tortage!

Details:
All servers become PvP servers. You can kill each other – no level restrictions on killing or getting killed, but you cannot PvP in the major cities.
All level 13 characters becomes level 20. Their inventory is wiped, but they have “tons” of money and really nice equipment suitable for level 20’s. Shopping bonanza!
You have access to ALL zones and ALL levels after level 20!
You will be zoned to your Race’s Hub. (Cimmerians – Conarch Village, Aquillonians – Old Tarantia and Stygians – Khemi!

This means bye bye Tortage! Welcome Hyboria at large, and what a blast you will have. It all starts at level 20, and then it’s up to you, but you can be sure your fellow players will do their best to stop you!

We will get back with detailed information on the exact time it starts on the official Open Beta forums at IGN, as well as on the Age of Conan forums and community site.

You may ask, why skip levels 14-20? The reason is simple – the story. We take it seriously, and we would like for you to experience it at launch.

We urge you to join us for some epic PvP mayhem on the 10th of May, and we hope you will leave Hyboria with a bloodied smile on your face.

Heads will roll!

Sincerely
The Age of Conan development team

Registration now opened and new Early Access date for the EU servers

Registration for customers with pre-order keys has now opened on http://register.ageofconan.com. Registering with a valid pre-order key (such as the Rhino or Mammoth key) is the unique way to be eligible to purchase Early Access for 5€/5$. This fee includes 10 days of game-time as well as the digital download of the client. Hurry though, because the Early Access is only available while supply lasts!

Note that pre-order items such as the Rhino and Mammoth is not available on Early Access accounts. Once an Early Access account is upgraded with the retail key, the virtual item can be claimed. The originally planned level capping of the Early Access has been removed.

The launch date for early access in Europe has been moved forward! Both the US and EU servers open on the 17th of May (5pm GMT). This date used to be the 20th for the EU servers, thus European players are now getting 6 days of early access until the regular launch on May 23rd!

Early Access for Australia - Important Information

Dear Australian Age of Conan fans

The Early Access download for Age of Conan will begin on 10th May 2008. If you would like to participate and start the download, you will need to pick up your preorder key before that date. To claim your key, please contact the retailer that took your preorder as soon as possible, as all retailers should have received their keys.

An e-mail with this information will also be sent out tomorrow to Australian customers.

Thank you!

Age Of Conan Developer: WoW Is Losing Its Appeal

Age of Conan quest designer Joel Bylos believes people are getting tired of World of Warcraft.

While Bylos' claims are contradicted by the ridiculous profits still enjoyed by Blizzard thanks to their MMO, he cites a "feeling on the Internet" that people are now looking for something different from the genre.

Based on that sentiment, Bylos believes his game will succeed where so many other MMOs have failed. "I think one mistake a lot of people make is they design a game to be WoW and WoW was successful on its own two legs and that's what Conan is going to do," Bylos says.

While I can't say I agree with his assessment that World of Warcraft is losing its luster -- WoW could lose half of its population and still be the most successful MMO to date -- I wholeheartedly concur with his last point. Too many games try far too hard to beat Blizzard at their own game, yet almost no developers have the time or resources to compete on anything resembling an even-footing with them.

The only way to make a mark in the genre at this point is to create something new and inventive and hope players will respond to it. I'd love to see the Age of Conan developers create something drastically different yet compelling, but market forces have a way of forcing every MMO into being a WoW clone despite the best intentions of developers.

Age of Conan dev: Gamers tired of Warcraft [Videogamer.com]