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Craig Morrison discusses future Age of Conan updates and changes
Age of Conan's game director, Craig Morrison, has written a letter to the community about the next slew of upgrades and updates coming to the game now that Ymir's Pass -- and its new PvP system -- is on the live servers. First on the list of patches will be DirectX 10, which Morrison says is something the team wanted to be really special. We're just hoping it doesn't bring any serious new bugs with it, but from the sound of things Funcom is trying to make sure the new graphics are highly scalable for various computers.The second big project in the works are two new dungeons. Thunder River will hold both of them and they'll be aimed at max-level players. The Slaughter House Cellar is for single players, while Xibaluku is a large team dungeon. We can expect to see these released with the next update, apparently.
Venture into Ymir's pass! Free content update on live AoC servers
It's the 14th of November, and you all know what that means, right? It means that for those of you battling in Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures and sick of hearing about Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, you've got something of your own to crow about: Ymir's Pass has hit the AoC live servers, and brings you the largest Hyborean content update to-date! Well, largest for adventuring space anyway. Ymir's Pass won't crowd your hard-drive too badly. Heroes and scoundrels between levels 55 and 63 will find a lot waiting for them in Ymir's Pass, and the update contains a little something for everyone in the way of bug fixes and tweaks. "This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark," says Game Director Craig Morrison. "In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!"
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.
New Age of Conan video showcases coming content
Courtesy of German gaming site onlinewelten.com, we're able to bring you a presentation of upcoming Age of Conan content by Erling Ellingson, straight from the Games Convention in Leipzig. The presentation takes us on a tour of the Tarantia Commons, a slum area in which your character takes a side in a war between street gangs, and stops to take in some of the new exotic armor sets that have been included in response to player demand. Quests are set to become more interesting and branching, allowing characters to make moral choices rather than simply go off on errands to kill ten of something.The tour then checks out Black Castle, the mantis-infested stronghold in the south of Khopshef Province, which is 'completely revamped' in the new version, the main focus being on Indiana Jones style traps that require ingenuity and co-operation to tackle. Ellingson explains that Age of Conan is deliberately borrowing from World of Warcraft in its reworking of boss fights, to produce encounters that require specific tactics to beat; we're glad to hear it, as bosses right now are a bit too much of the bag-of-hit-points kind. Next stop is Ymir's Pass, a Cimmerian zone under bandit onslaught, featuring one of the hugest bosses we've seen. We also hear about upcoming level 80 dungeons and the PvP consequence system.One thing you'll hear Ellingson say repeatedly is 'we listened to our players'. That seems to be the message Funcom is most keen to send out right now. Check out the video after the cut. 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!
New Age of Conan screenshots show upcoming free content
It's a good day for visual treats if you're an Age of Conan fan. On the heels of the tasty and cryptic concept art from earlier today come a set of 17 screenshots illustrating coming free content, courtesy of computerandvideogames.com. Some of these are clearly identifiable as shots of the new zone, Ymir's Pass, which features the Wheel of Pain straight out of the original Conan movie. Ymir himself, the eponymous frost giant of the Robert E. Howard tale The Frost Giant's Daughter, also looks like he's been caught on camera. We also get to see work-in-progress shots of the Tarantia Commons region.AoC developer Erling Ellingson has already spoken at length about Ymir's Pass, which as a level 55+ zone should add some important crunchy content to keep high-level players interested. The original guess at a live date - 'I don't want to put a date on it, but I think we'll see Ymir's pass live in August' - now looks a bit ambitious, but we'll still be glad to see more content added. Keira fans should be especially happy to see her in-game as a quest NPC. By the look of it, some new armor designs are around, too.
