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Age of Conan's DX10 put to the test
It's been a long time coming, but Age of Conan's Testlive server is now running a version of the game that can output DirectX 10 graphics, a feature that many people missed at launch. The current implementation probably isn't indicative of what will end up on the Live servers, but if you just can't wait and want to see the work-in-progress, Age of Conan Vault has a number of DX9 to DX10 comparison screenshots on show right now. The test client as-is doesn't have some of the cooler features like volumetric fog or windy trees just yet, but these would be better seen in video form anyway.The most stand-out difference between the screenshot pairings that we can pick is the upped brightness and visibility in dark areas on the DX10 side. In some (but not all) of the shots, the textures look noticeably better too. The AoC Vault reviewer experienced a significant FPS drop, from roughly 50FPS down to 20FPS, when switching from DX9 to DX10, but this is apparently not that common among other testers -- most do get their share of graphical glitches and crashing though. Hopefully it's all ironed out when Funcom decides to push DX10 to the live servers at a later date.
Striking new zone opened on Age of Conan Testlive
Players have been asking for new Age of Conan content for a while now, and one of the biggest content gaps had been the mid-50s. That's the levelling range the new Ymir's Pass zone (previewed some time ago) seeks to fill, and it's now opened on Testlive. The developers want to make it clear that Ymir's Pass is a work in progress, and as such is not complete. We're keen to see what it's like when it's done, because currently it's gorgeous. It's far from being the only new AoC content; we've still to see the Tarantia Commons and the House of Crom yet.No sooner do you enter the zone than an inhuman bellow echoes through the air and the ground shakes. Something huge is making that sound, and the story of what it is (and why it's suffering) is played out through the zone. The first thing you'll probably be doing is looking for footprints. Colossal ones.To help players test out the new content, the Goddess Fate has been placed just outside Tortage where the former level-up contacts were, and she will do pretty much anything you like: increase your level, give you money or a mount, or even teleport you somewhere. She's the only way to get to Ymir's Pass for now, so players that would like to check out the zone on Testlive should roll a new character and talk to her.
Major revisions in Age of Conan crafting revealed
Okay, Funcom, we get it. You're deadly serious about fixing Age of Conan. First the beginnings of the PvP patch went live, 'Patch 2', giving players PvP XP and gear. Then we got to see the reworked notoriety system on Testlive, along with shady camps and six pages of patchnotes. And now we get a lengthy document about coming changes to the crafting system on the Testlive server. Good heavens, anyone would think that Craig Morrison bloke actually knew what he was doing.Age of Conan crafting had been lacklustre. The new changes, which are scheduled to go live as part of Update 3 - the very same update that will polish off the PvP changes - add much more depth and complexity to the tradeskills. Weapons and armor will now have recipes that drop for city, base and culture versions, depending on whether they require a guild city or not. The 'base' pieces can be worn, and also used up in crafting to produce new pieces. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
'Shady camps' and more in latest Age of Conan Testlive patch
Just as players' patience was starting to fray again, 'Patch 3' has arrived on the Age of Conan testlive server, and it is a chunky one - we counted at least 594 meg. Feel like browsing the patch notes? Make a nice cup of something, put your feet up, take your time... there are six pages to wade through.Obviously we can't detail all of them here, but they range from the silly-but-desired 'Party people rejoice - proper drunkenness has been implemented!' to the necessary 'Fixed several causes of crashes and assert errors' to the trivial 'For decency's sake, Old Finn now has pants!'But the most interesting new feature is the addition of Shady Camps as a complement to the new Age of Conan PvP notoriety system, as promised by Craig Morrison recently. There are several other new tweaks to the system that had us eager to see it go live. We've put them behind the cut.
Age of Conan reveals first PvP gear, stats and all
The bad news for Age of Conan PvP enthusiasts is that the patch has been put back yet again, and is now due to come out on September 10th. However, if you head over to the Testlive Server - and owing to a new feature, you can now copy over your regular characters instead of starting new ones - you can visit the ad-hoc PvP vendors in Tortage, and see how you like the long-awaited AoC PvP gear. (No, it's not live yet. This is Testlive.)It's not all in yet, with PvP level 5 the highest for which gear's currently available on Testlive, but there's enough to get an idea of where Funcom are heading with this. The bonuses seem to be emphasising damage resistance over damage dealing, which would logically lead to longer PvP fights where one-shotting and large amounts of burst damage were less likely. There's also a lot of health boosting, again pointing towards longer fights and heightened survivability. Tester Stounedi has compiled screenshots of all the Tier 1 gear (available at PvP level 2). On the downside, there only seems to be one set per tier per class, meaning that each PvPer of a given PvP level and class will probably end up looking identical. Though they are more than healthy in size, the benefits so far are all run-of-the-mill percentile boosts, with no procs, interesting bonus feats or such like. But the gear is, from what we can see so far, very nice looking indeed. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
More adjustments to Age of Conan's new PvP system
Last night a new patch went to Age of Conan's Testlive server. As well as making the usual slew of fixes and changes, including addressing memory leak and crash problems, and introducing a revamped version of the Catacombs in Old Tarantia, there were some tweaks to the PvP consequence system.We're glad to see the following among the patch notes: 'Trading with a criminal will inform you of the consequences and prompt you to confirm to continue.' The consequences of trading with a criminal are being flagged as a criminal yourself, so before this minor but crucial adjustment, it would have been rather easy to end up an open PvP target just by accepting a trade invite. Other adjustments include: no PvP XP earned for snuffing targets below level 10; no progression beyond PvP level 5 until you're level 40; no earning PvP XP at all if you are under level 10; and no trading with NPCs at all if you are a criminal. Many of the players are, quite understandably, very eager to see the new PvP system go live. Changes like the above make it clear that Funcom want it thoroughly tested before that happens. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Latest AoC Testlive patch addresses classes, massive PvP, and more
It's time for another round of changes over in Age of Conan, and the Funcom developers have served us up with a hefty bunch, scheduled currently to go live on August 6th. The patch can currently be accessed on the Testlive server. The revised PvP system is also still on Testlive only, along with a level-bumping NPC, so there are plenty of reasons to go and do some intensive testing if you haven't already. Of the classes, Conquerors come in for the most changes, and feedback so far is hesitantly positive. Full notes can be accessed on the Testlive forums; you'll need an AoC forum login. Our collective eyebrows raised at one patch note in particular: 'Due to popular demand, we've forced some of our female Derketo followers to burn their bras.' Yes, this is a reference to that ridiculous censorship debate, only now Funcom are on the offensive. During the lengthy debates in which some players claimed Funcom was censoring the game, the (alleged) inappropriateness of priestesses of Derketo wearing clothes was often brought up as an issue. By the look of it, this won't be an issue any more. Oh, and men get sexy dances, too! What more could we possibly ask for?
Take a quick trip to level 37 on Age of Conan Testlive
Not sure if the class you've chosen in Age of Conan is right for you? Feel like trying out something different? As of a few days ago, the promised level-bumping facilities are now active on the Testlive server, to a limited extent. Players can now go and speak to a special NPC who will boost their level, as well as giving them gear and a pile of gold. There's one caveat: you can't use the NPC if you're level 10 or over.Amusingly, the AoC designers have opted to handle the entire deal in-character. The NPC, Mara, can be found just inside the main gate to the Tortage area (just after the Ape King) and, when spoken to, offers you the use of a potent artifact that will bring you strange powers. If you take her up on the offer, you're teleported to your homeland, bumped to level 37, given a selection of blue and green gear to use (a few items are sometimes unwearable, but they're ironing that bug out) and handed 100 gold to spend. While this is more than enough for a mount and the requisite training, you have to be at least level 40 to train the requisite feat, so think twice before rushing off to buy a horse.Later adjustments to the system will allow leveling up to higher levels, but level 37 is not bad to be going on with. It certainly allows for more interesting PvP testing than just running around on White Sands. There have been some problems with Mara going suddenly AWOL for no appreciable reason, causing some newer testers to wail that she was a cruel joke by the players all along, but don't worry, she's real.
New Age of Conan patch on Testlive details PvP XP, gear, notoriety
At last, the first portion of the promised PvP improvements are starting to appear over on Age of Conan. The Testlive server, where new patches are tested out prior to their going live, now has a new patch, and the developers have taken the opportunity to describe the basic elements of the new PvP system. These include PvP experience, gear, and player notoriety.It's very important to note that this is all currently in testing, and is not guaranteed to make it to live in its current form. With that in mind, we bring you details of the new PvP system after the cut, hot from the Testlive forums. It's not completely implemented yet, but does give an idea of where the AoC developers are going with this. The notoriety system in brief: players apparently start out Innocent. If you attack an Innocent player, you are temporarily flagged as Criminal whether you kill him or not. (The Criminal flag vanishes after five minutes, so long as you don't do more naughty things.) If you kill an Innocent player, you gain Murder Points. If you kill a Criminal, you don't gain any Murder Points. Accumulating enough Murder Points makes you a murderer, which means guards will attack you on sight, you will be locked out of access to traders and vendors, and other players will get more rewards for killing you.
AoC developers get specific about coming fixes and features
A little developer communication can go a long way. Today we see two substantial communications from the Age of Conan developers. Twicer has posted a hefty account of what's coming next in the ongoing drive to patch up the game. In the spotlight are tradeskills, resource playfields and massive PvP. Not all of what's here will be welcome - rare resource drops, for example, are actually working as intended and not bugged - but Funcom do seem to be keeping the player base more in the loop, which is a positive step.Meanwhile, Gaute Godager has issued a new letter to the players, expanding upon (and revising) what he said last time. We learn the he new PvP changes are expected to come out in early August, and the DX10 part of the engine is now scheduled for this fall, with a preview at Leipzig in August. To our surprise, buddy keys are scheduled to be activated next week (at long last) in apparent contradiction of Ellingsen's denial that a trial program is coming any time soon.
AoC patch on Testlive brings more fixes, causes combo drama
Now that the Testlive forums are up and running, Age of Conan players have a chance to scope out coming patches before they go live. Right now, there's a new patch on the Testlive servers that's a possible candidate for release on the 16th of July.As well as a pile of fixes and alterations, a stray patch note sneaked in that would affect how combos work. More than anything else, this has caught the attention of AoC forum commentators. The change is clearly meant to prevent melee classes from 'pre-loading' combos by executing all the initial moves and then walloping a target for the last one. However, it's transpired that the relevant change wasn't even on the Testlive server yet, and will only be included along with other changes, as Vinterstum explains: 'This change won't actually be in for a little while, and when it does come in, it'll be in a little package with a few other things that should make being a melee class in PvP a little bit easier.' Patch notes are available for those who have forum accounts. We'd just like to emphasise that none of this will necessarily make it to Live.
AoC Testlive forums now active
As part of the process of testing its new patches, Age of Conan recently unveiled its new Testlive Server, where players can try out the weekly patches in advance and provide feedback, thus helping find and crush bugs. As of last night, the Testlive Forums are now open. Although anything that happened in Beta is still under NDA (amazingly enough, given how often people talk about it!) the Testlive Forums are open to all active players, and thus are under no NDA.Players who want to try out various classes at higher levels will also be able to do this on Testlive, as there will be facilities for rapid leveling and automatic gear aquisition. QA manager Nophex explains: 'In order to streamline the testing process we will be placing out special Testlive vendors that will allow you to level up your characters to various levels. This leveling process will also give you appropriate equipment for your level. These vendors will appear on Testlive in the next few weeks.' The forums are open to both US and EU players, meaning the communities will be sharing a forum for the first time. Age of Conan players can log in to the Testlive Forums with their usual forum name and password.
Age of Conan test server now open to public
To our ever-lasting surprise and confusion, there always seems to be a significant number of players in any given game who are so eager to try out the latest patch that they're willing to spend their time on a test server testing content before it goes live. For a game like Tabula Rasa, with its monthly deployments, there's at least some logic in this. There's an advantage getting acquainted with tweaks before they go live. For a game like Age of Conan, with its current bi-weekly patch schedule, this isn't quite the case.Still, one thing that's become clear over the past couple weeks is that Funcom could really benefit from a more rigorous testing process for their patches. As we discussed on Saturday, the old beta test servers are coming down in favor of a new public test server, or Testlive, as they're calling it. If you want to participate, simply follow this link to download the executable, point it to the directory where you have the game installed, select a destination directory, and let it do its thing. Once its installed, go into your destination folder, run ConanPatcher.exe and you've got it. They'll have vendors up in the coming days to allow you to buff up your characters to specific levels, which should speed up the testing process as well.
Age of Conan's old beta test servers shut down
It is time for beta testers milking the beta gravy train to pay-up and subscribe if they want to continue playing on an official Age of Conan test server. According to Scott over at Pumping Irony, upon firing-up the old test launcher players were met with the somber news and much kudos for their hard diligent bug reporting and feedback during the whole testing operation. Funcom kept their old beta servers online for a month after Age of Conan launched before pulling them offline yesterday and the plan is to convert them over into a "Testlive" server. A common practice after an MMOG launches. To keep a healthy test playerbase busy swatting bugs and pillaging bleeding-edge content the following standard measure is planned: "We will be doing several things to encourage people to play on Testlive. We are looking at being able to copy characters from Live, having "buffing" NPCs that will level and gear your character up."Doesn't seem like much incentive to play on the official test live server, but what else can they do aside from handing out bags of money to all your non-test characters? You tell us.
