Age of Conan community interview: Your questions answered!

Earlier this week, we asked for your Age of Conan questions, and you delivered. Although we only received seven usable questions (some were duplicates and two we combined), the answers given by Game Director Craig Morrison are candid and to-the-point. Funcom's steady push for new content and poised ear to the community shows that they're on board to keep AoC going strong for a long time.

Follow along after the jump for Craig's answers on changing Tortage, more PvP, opening the forums to everyone and more.

Do you have any plans to make leveling easier/more fun? Stuff like increased xp for quests, reduced xp per level, more quests, reduce level req for mounts etc.? Will there be anything to fill in the gaps in between levels? AA like EQ/EQ2, Achievements w/stats like LotRO, etc? (question by Martin and Matthew)

Craig Morrison: I think that the vast majority, if not all, of the 'gaps' that existed at launch have now been plugged by all the content added since launch by the likes of Ymir's Pass and Tarantia Commons. It should be a fairly smooth transition from area to area now if you are using quests to progress.

In the bigger picture the expansion will bring with it the Alternate Advancement system, that will offer players more in depth progression and a lot more options for their character development. In addition the various factions in the expansion will all offer their own unique rewards to players, so there will be plenty to strive for.

As a player thinking of returning to AoC, I'd like to know if you intend to implement any form of 'item shop' or free to play model that seems so popular at the moment. (question by Hub)

I think that is the kind of option that is always on the table and we always open minded when it comes to what might be right for the product down the line. MMOs are long term projects and what might not be right for the game right now might change in a month, six months or a year's time. We were the first western company to trial both free play and a form of item shop with Anarchy Online so we are always open to the options that are right for any given project. There aren't any concrete plans at the moment, but of course that option is always there to explore.

Is AoC ever going to take a good long look at the melee vs. caster issue, and do what the community is begging since nearly launch -- that is, make mages require more skill to play, and make melee the actual focus of the game? (question by David)

That is an area that is always a focus due to the way the game was designed in the first place. The mechanics of the casting classes were established to give players an option that didn't involve using the more fast paced combat system if they wanted a more traditional experience. The melee combat though is the focus of the game, and the cornerstone of the experience in the game.

Now that said, the balance there isn't quite right at the moment and the ease of play element in playing a casting class isn't offset enough just about now, we definitely acknowledge that. There will be ongoing balance adjustments to address that. It is an area that the systems folks are concentrating on quite a bit at the moment while they work on both some adjustments for the live game and as they prepare the alternate advancement system.

I am an alt-aholic... and I am sick of Tortage, thus I no longer enjoy making alts. Will there be something in place for those of us who replay lvl 1-30ish content in our MMOs and rarely hit max level? (question by Matthew)

I don't think it is very likely we would change the new player experience. Tortage gets great feedback from new players and works very well as an introductory experience and that is after all what it is designed for and its purpose.

Of course it can get repetitive if you play it again and again, I think that holds true for most game experiences. We have considered allowing veteran players to skip Tortage in some way and might revisit that in the future but there are no short term plans there right now.

It would be nice to be able to post in the forums if my account is not active. I still have tips, questions, and opinions and i should not have to pay to express them. Will this ever be a possibility? (question by Matthew)

I don't think that is something you are likely to see, Access to the official forums is a benefit for paying subscribers and it is probably unlikely we would extend that to be open to all. I think that is fairly standard practice for official MMO forums and isn't something we would consider deviating from at the moment.

Any new PvP content on the horizon? (question by Matthew)

We are currently looking at new game-play systems for the Border Kingdoms that we hope will allow more people access to more open PVP objectives in those areas. We are still working on that system and will talk more about that when it gets closer to the test servers. We also have the next set of PVP levels and rewards prepared (that will allow players to achieve ranks six through ten) to roll out but haven't made a decision as to where we will schedule them.

I want to like this game, that's why I come back after each patch, but I quickly stop after a few days, when I realize how little fun I have, doing such simple lvl 50 quests when i had such complex quests at level 12. Will these ever balance out? (question by Matthew)

Personally I think that there is a lot of great quest content throughout the game, and mechanic wise the quests in the main world aren't that different from those in Tortage. It is true though that with full voice and more cut-scenes the experience in Tortage is richer, but that is also the way the game was designed. The experience in the main open world is much more in keeping with that of an traditional MMO.

We do work hard to ensure that the new content adds more dynamic and interesting quest lines, and I think you can see that in areas like Ymir's Pass (which for me personally has a quest line and experience even more compelling and cinematic than anything in Tortage in the shape of the Frost Father story) and Tarantia Commons. So we definitely want to keep on adding that type of content. It is true though for sure that after Tortage it forms only part of what you experience rather than all of it due to the rich original experience in Tortage.