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The Anvil of Crom: What's going on
Funcom's Age of Conan is a title that's changed quite a bit over the two-plus years it's been on the MMORPG market. Whether you're talking about the recent Rise of the Godslayer expansion, the game-changing 1.05 update, or the hundreds of smaller tweaks, balances, class revamps, and content additions that Hyboria has seen since 2008, there's never been a shortage of things to discuss. Through it all, AoC die-hards have debated, pleaded, flamed, and in some cases, constructively discussed the merits of the title in one primary place: the official forums. Owing to its existence as a niche title with a smallish population, AoC doesn't feature huge third-party fansites like EQ2Flames, AionSource, or any of the legions of communities that have sprung up around World of Warcraft. No, all the Hyborian meta-gaming action is centralized in one spot, and in this week's Anvil of Crom, we're going to highlight and discuss some of the more noteworthy threads that you may have missed over the last couple of weeks (including a definitive answer from Craig Morrison as to the size of the game's development team). Flip past the cut for more.
The Anvil of Crom: Deconstructing the development update
Crom bless Craig Morrison. Not just because Age of Conan is developing into a terrific MMO under his watch, but also because he's one of the rare developers who communicate with both the fans and the press on a regular basis. From a fan's perspective, it's gratifying to see the head honcho hob-knobbing with the customers and keeping folks reasonably well-informed. From a journalist's perspective, the monthly development updates (as well as the frequent forum postings) make the job of finding something to write about Age of Conan a veritable walk in the park. Speaking of development updates, Silirrion released the latest this past week, and with it a preliminary glimpse at Age of Conan's fall patch schedule. Join us after the cut as we break down what's coming, and what we hope is coming.
Age of Conan director's letter details new content
Funcom executive producer Craig "Silirrion" Morrison has returned with his monthly development update, and the August edition features a fair number of juicy tidbits regarding new Age of Conan content coming this Fall. In addition to the Dreamworld game engine update, fans of Funcom's Hyboria can look forward to a new 12-on-12 PvP minigame, new PvE zones, additional raid content, and social/guild content. The new PvE zones will open up in Khitai's Pai Kang, and will take the form of two new districts in the imperial capital city. Raid content will include additional Tier 4 instances with three new encounters, as well as further additions that Morrison says may or may not make it into the Fall update package. Finally, new guild city NPCs will allow members to host social events including treasure hunts, demon hunts, and storytelling competitions. Players will also be able to sign up for horse racing, and top tier guilds will gain access to an exclusive area on the rooftops of Old Tarantia. Morrison's letter steers clear of more concrete details (as well as specific dates), but stick with Massively as we'll be bringing you all the latest Age of Conan news as Funcom starts rolling out new content.
The Anvil of Crom: Traveling the Silk Road
Last week we spoke briefly with Funcom executive producer and game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison regarding Age of Conan's random encounter mechanic, which will invoke a series of one-off solo instances designed to add a bit of flavor to the journey to Hyboria's Far East. We also checked out five of the 11 available instances: four sea-faring adventures and one rare-spawn quest-giving encounter. This week, we'll step through the remaining five adventures, all of them land-locked, in addition to taking a quick look at the second rare spawn. Voyage past the cut for more.
The Anvil of Crom: Random encounters with Craig Morrison
So, what do random encounters and Age of Conan executive producer Craig "Silirrion" Morrison have in common? Truthfully, not much as far as The Anvil of Crom and its author is concerned, as I've never had the pleasure of meeting Funcom's game director in person. That said, he was kind enough to answer a few questions for this week's column via email, all of them pertaining to the random encounter mechanic implemented with last May's Rise of the Godslayer expansion. What's a random encounter, you may find yourself asking? Peek behind the curtain and find out.
Age of Conan wants your feedback, lots of it
If you've ever wanted to make your voice heard with regard to Age of Conan and its future direction, now is your chance. Funcom executive producer Craig "Silirrion" Morrison has posted his monthly Hyborian outlook on the game's official community site as well as the forums, and July's Letter from the Game Director offers players the chance to communicate with decision makers via five separate survey questionnaires. The surveys are fairly lengthy; filling them all out will probably take you the better part of an hour, and they cover everything from general gameplay, to PvP, to raiding and beyond. In addition to farming opinions, Morrison hints at ongoing tweaks to Age of Conan in the form of Khitai progression (specifically, trophy drop-rates) as well as the upcoming Dreamworld engine revamp. In our experience, it's fairly rare for a developer to solicit this amount of feedback, and Funcom looks to be committed to giving players even more of what they want going forward.
Age of Conan goes F2P in Korea, Morrison talks NA conversion
Funcom's Age of Conan has adopted a free-to-play business model for its entrance into the Korean market, according to a report by MMO Culture. While this isn't exactly news (since basically every game in Korea is F2P), it was interesting to note executive producer and game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison's response. Morrison quickly doused speculation of any conversion with regard to the North American version of the game, but he did leave the door open to the possibility, citing EverQuest II's vanity items as an example. "That isn't a 'yes, it will happen' or a 'no, it will never happen,' it's a 'we will always keep our options open and be open minded to business models that will most benefit the project,'" Morrison says in a post on the North American Age of Conan forums. He goes on to illustrate the differences between the Korean market (where free-to-play dominates) and the U.S., while pointing out that Funcom was one of the first companies to adopt a hybrid business model with Anarchy Online.
Exclusive: Funcom's Morrison explains AoC microtransactions
A few weeks ago, we ran an opinion piece speculating about the possible inclusion of microtransactions in Funcom's Age of Conan. The column generated a lot of discussion, and some players felt that because of the bonus items available for purchase with the recent Rise of the Godslayer expansion, Age of Conan already featured a cash shop of sorts. Funcom's sword-and-sorcery title has featured account microtransactions for a while now, in the form of server transfers and character name changes, but has pointedly avoided introducing a proper item store aside from the bonus expansion items. We went straight to the source to clear up the confusing question of whether Age of Conan does or does not feature an item shop. Executive producer and game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison was kind enough to answer our questions regarding the Godslayer item packs as well as Funcom's future microtransaction plans. Read all about it after the cut.
Funcom wants your PvP feedback for Age of Conan
Funcom's Craig "Silirrion" Morrison has been a whirlwind on the official forums of late, whether it's chatting with disgruntled players or soliciting feedback. In a new post published this week, he does a bit more of the latter, calling for suggestions and wish-lists in the form of Age of Conan PvP tweaks. "Now that the expansion is out, and we will get through the summer holiday period relatively soon, I wanted to hear a little about which area of PVP you folk might want us to focus on. We have a number of things 'on the drawing board' and I am interested in hearing [...] your opinion on what you would consider the most important to focus on," he writes. Morrison goes on to mention that two oft-requested PvP fixes are already in the works, in the form of siege performance and cross-server minigame queuing. "So those two things are being investigated further anyway, and we know they need to be looked at further so they will be, so this topic isn't to discuss them. We all agree I think those would be great additions (hence the further tech investigation into them). Likewise, class issues and concerns are always ongoing, and discussion of class concerns isn't the point of this post," he says. All that said, everything else is on the table for discussion, whether it be new minigame settings, open-world objectives, Khitai PvP, or even the return of Drunken Brawling. Check out the post on the official boards to make your voice heard.
The Anvil of Crom: A tale of two Conans
It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the age of PvE, it was the age of PvP, it was the epoch of skill-based, it was the epoch of gear-based, it was the season of battlegrounds, it was the season of FFA, it was the spring of Wiccana, it was the winter of Tyranny, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. Whoops. It seems I've gone and butchered another literary quote in service of my column, and while Dickens may not have had a pulp lit-based MMORPG on his mind when he began his opus, his line of thought nevertheless applies to Age of Conan (and really any game that undergoes radical change). Head past the cut for more on Age of Conan's intriguing duality.
Funcom's Morrison talks MMORPG evolution
Age of Conan game director and executive producer Craig Morrison has something of a reputation for interacting with fans and fellow gamers. He continues the tradition with a post on his personal blog in which he discusses both his favorite MMORPGs as well as the evolution of the genre. "I think when a company is going to sink tens of millions of dollars into a [triple-A] MMO then it is only natural that those games will have a pretty casual friendly approach as they want, and need, to retain more customers than a niche product might. Those types of games though introduce far more players to the genre, and those players end up trying other MMO games too. That's never a bad thing for the genre," he writes. As for his favorite (non-Funcom) MMORPGs, Morrison confesses to both an EVE and a Fallen Earth habit, although he admits that "both will suffer again once the Starcraft 2 beta comes back up." Check out the full article at Morrison's blog.
Funcom's Morrison answers frank forum questions
Game developers are rarely forthcoming with their customers, and given the realities of competition and the amount of money funneled into marketing budgets these days, that's not really surprising. What is surprising is the accessibility and frankness of developers like Age of Conan game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison, who recently took the time to post at length on the game's forums. The Funcom executive producer responded directly to a number of questions generated by an unhappy subscriber, and, even though the ensuing discussion occasionally veered into troll territory, managed to acquit himself (and the game) rather well. "Firstly I don't think we need a 'savior game plan' as we don't need 'saving'. The game is stable and has just had a succesful launch of an expansion pack. Is there stuff we still want to improve? Yes, there sure is, and is there lots of new stuff we want to add in over the coming years, yup, same again, definitely is. So no resting on laurels, MMO development is an ongoing affair and we are committed to keep on improving the game and what it offers," Morrison wrote. You can read the full exchange on the official Age of Conan forums.
Age of Conan's "Making the Music" trailer
MMORPGs aren't really celebrated for their music, and while a few have managed to come up with a catchy theme here or there, none come close to the cinematic grandeur and sheer variety of Knut Avenstroup Haugen's original score for Age of Conan. Happily, Haugen has returned to score the Rise of the Godslayer expansion, and Funcom has released a nifty behind-the-scenes style video detailing the music creation process. The three and a half minute clip features interviews with Haugen as well as game director and executive producer Craig Morrison, along with a hefty dose of in-game footage. "This time around, my inspiration for the music came from mainly Chinese and Japanese folk music. It's been a very different experience, and I think it's going to be a very interesting score," Haugen says. "The visuals of the game, and the storyline, has played a huge part as an inspirational source for me as I write the music. There are so many things in the game that evoke feeling and musical ideas." Check out the video after the cut.
The Daily Grind: How would you like your story?
Story is on the mind of a lot of developers these days, whether it's the wunderkinds over at BioWare or veterans like Funcom's Craig Morrison. Predictably, there are wildly differing viewpoints regarding implementation. You have BioWare trumpeting thousands of lines of (spoken) prose as leading to meaningful narrative gameplay, and then you have people who think that story in MMORPGs is a marketing gimmick unless it is created by the players. Yep, you heard me. EA/BioWare is spending umpteen bazillion Republic credits on voice acting, novel-quality quest dialogue, and who knows what else, but at the end of the day, all of it will pale in comparison to what can be done by a couple of roleplayers using naught but their imagination and a few in-game props. TOR will likely be a well-made game but at some point, the developer-generated stories will run out and repetition will set in. If MMO devs truly cared about advancing storytelling in this genre, don't you think they'd design systems that facilitate player generated content? SWG's Storyteller system in particular should serve as a blueprint for any developer that spouts off about the importance of story. Without it (or a similar system), frankly, it's all just a lot of PR-speak. What say you, Massively readers? Do you prefer developer-crafted stories in MMORPGs, or would you rather players be given creative freedom and robust storytelling tools?
AoC PvP changes incoming
Age of Conan's Shrines of Bori PvP update has been the subject of a fair amount of player controversy since going live back in late March. While the spirit of the patch was appreciated, many players took issue with the fact that PvP rank could be gained via PvE farming, as well as an exploit allowing single guilds to monopolize the play fields. This morning, Funcom executive producer and game director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison checked in on the official forums to bring players an update on the coming fixes. Improvements will include sacrifice rewards given to the group/raid making the sacrifice, relocated altars to reduce the ease of a single dominating force, increased duration on the Favor of Bori buff, an increase on the time period during which shrine destruction gives a reward, and a decreased respawn time on the Idol of Bori recipe. Morrison goes on to discuss a new butcher bag/body part mechanic, as well as some of the reasoning behind the original design decisions. "These changes should be coming to the test server this week, and we hope they are ready for deployment on the live servers with the 2.0.5 update. We will of course be watching these changes carefully, and will continue to make further adjustments if we see a need," he said. Check out the full post on the official forums.
Funcom's Morrison talks story in MMOs
Funcom game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison has delivered an epic-length post over on his personal blog examining the various aspects of story in MMORPGs. Given the fact that BioWare has recently raised a few eyebrows with their story, story, and more story mantra (not to mention some old-fashioned genre heckling), it seems only natural that industry veterans like Morrison would have something to say on the matter. The Age of Conan executive producer, who is also a former game director on Funcom's long-running Anarchy Online title, talks about everything from the practicality of a single-player story to the desire for it in a massively multiplayer title. "If a game is said to have poor game-play or lacks a good user experience, having a great story rarely tends to save its sales figures. So the game-play is still the most important thing, and it is the same for an MMO. The story is a very close second, but it is second," he writes. Morrison goes on to share anecdotes including his storytelling experiences in World of Warcraft as well as his views that MMOs already surpass single-player games in terms of communal storytelling. Grab a cup of coffee and check out the full post over on his blog.
The Anvil of Crom: Changes aren't permanent, but change is
Yeah, so they're pulling the rug out from under my rangers, in the form of a hefty class revamp that is basically taking a good chunk of everything familiar about Age of Conan's rascally rogues and tossing it out the proverbial window. I shouldn't be shocked by this, after all; spend more than a week playing in this genre and it becomes clear that MMORPG developers are the game-industry equivalent of George Lucas: constantly tinkering with their creations (sometimes to the dismay of their fans) and rarely leaving well enough alone. While it's a truism that one of the appeals of an MMORPG is its malleable nature, that doesn't make it any easier to adapt and adapt again, particularly if you were happy with the status quo. All that said, I'm not dismissing Funcom's upcoming ranger revamp out of hand, as I haven't yet been privy to testing any of the changes. They may well turn out to be a blessing, but ten years of messing around with these games has left me a little leery of radical revisitations. Hopefully my reservations are unfounded this time around. Read on after the cut to see what's in store for Hyboria's bow-and-crossbow crowd.
Funcom's Morrison asks for your AoC feedback
Age of Conan executive producer and game director Craig Morrison is no stranger to the game's official forums, and earlier today he stopped by the boards to solicit feedback from fans. Specifically, he's interested in your thoughts regarding progression in the recently released Rise of the Godslayer expansion. "What do you consider to be your first priority for progression in the expansion content? As we move forward it's one of the important areas for us to consider at we look at any potential balance changes to the methods and sources of progression, so I am interested to see what you folks think," he writes. Head on over to the official Age of Conan boards to cast your vote and make your voice heard in the discussion.
The Anvil of Crom: Age of Conan anniversary retrospective
Thinking of coming back to Age of Conan? You're not alone, as the recently released Rise of the Godslayer expansion, plus a wave of generally positive buzz, have conspired to reverse the fortunes that Funcom's ambitious Hyborian MMORPG experienced during its rocky launch. Two years is an eternity in the computer gaming world, and the game bears little more than a skin-deep resemblance to the title that launched way back in May 2008. Age of Conan has undergone significant revision in its short lifespan, from a sweeping combat and itemization revamp to the addition of numerous dungeons and play fields, all of them pre-dating the new expansion. The laundry list of additions can be broken down into six major categories: combat and itemization, PvP, crafting, gameplay, new zones, and the expansion. We'll also touch on smaller details such as performance tweaks and offline leveling, so hack your way past the cut to see the gory details.
The near-death of caravan escorts in Age of Conan's expansion
Rise of the Godslayer is coming on May 11th, and if you're an Age of Conan fan the day probably seems like it can't come fast enough. While the developer letter for the end of April doesn't help hurry the date forward any, but it does highlight one of the smaller but interesting portions of the development process -- the sort of thing that can get lost between the more major systems. And interestingly enough, it was an element that director Craig Morrison originally looked at and declined to leave in the expansion! Originally, the design team had included a feature where you could either hand over money and be automatically transported to and from Khitai, or you could volunteer your services as a caravan guard and make the journey for free. The trade was that as a guard, you would be expected to defend the caravan against assaults, resulting in a small instanced encounter. Morrison felt that the encounters weren't really adding anything that wouldn't be better served as a part of Khitai proper. The full story of the process and the change in philosophy can be found in the director's letter, certainly a nice tease for Age of Conan players.
