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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.
The Daily Grind: Singing the PUG blues
Recently I've been having a hard time finding a decent pickup group in Age of Conan. I'm excited to run some of the Khitai 6-man instances as well as the old-world dungeons that I've yet to experience like The Iron Tower, Onyx Chambers, and Atzel's Fortress. That said, whether it's due to being under-geared and one of the thousands of DPS-types crowding the server, or the fact that the high-level game is very cliquish and/or guild-focused, I can't seem to make it work. If it's gear that's holding me back, then it's the classic chicken-or-egg dilemma (how can I get geared if I can't get a dungeon group?). If the answer is a guild, well I've got one, but I'm one of the very few high-level players; the rest are still slogging their way through the middle levels. Whatever the reason, PUGs (or actually the lack of them) are becoming something of an annoyance. What about you, Massively readers? Are you constantly on the outside looking in or can you get a group whenever you want? Does your game of choice feature a plethora of endgame PUGs or is it mostly premade guild groups?
The Anvil of Crom: Journey through the Grasslands
The assassin moved forward, slowly, the soles of his padded boots gliding soundlessly over the dense packing of leaves and mulch that formed the forest floor. His eyes darted this way and that, scarred hands never far from the ivory-inlaid hilts of the blades hanging loosely at his waist. Quickening his pace, he ducked and dodged around the endless stalks of greenish bamboo that reached for the canopy high above. Thin sunbeams bathed portions of the glade in an otherworldly light. They also cast parts of the dense bamboo thicket into semi-darkness, and it was from one of these dim pockets that the bear emerged. A towering, snarling monstrosity, it leered at the assassin, then charged. Stalks of bamboo snapped and splintered in its path as the assassin whirled and fled. The ground shook as the beast gained; he felt its breath on his neck as he emerged from the forest into blinding sunlight. A rock wall loomed ahead of him and he leaped for it, his feet finding purchase on the tiny ledges as he scrambled up the sheer side of the cliff. Panting, he finally reached the summit and turned to watch the stalks of bamboo swaying far below him like a sea of grass that parted as the beast rumbled back into the undergrowth. Sneak past the cut for more. %Gallery-99125%
The Anvil of Crom: Building a Khitai PC
So I've finally started to have technical issues with Age of Conan. Despite being in the original closed beta, the launch weekend headstart, and several bug-ridden months of playtime after that, I've never really been unable to run the game until recently. I'm playing with the same PC I used back when the game debuted in 2008; the only concession to hardware advancements I've made in the past two years is an updated video card. For some reason though, Khitai has become increasingly unplayable on my rig. This is curious because I was in the Godslayer beta with no problems, just like I tooled around in the Gateway zone when the expansion went live with no problems. After the last couple of patches though, I'm unable to play in Hyboria's far east for more than a few minutes before a memory crash takes me back to the desktop. Also, I've had to completely bottom-out my graphical settings to be able to load into the new zones (and even with this concession, it literally takes four to six minutes -- yes I've timed it -- of staring at the loading screen and progress bar). Slog past the cut for more. %Gallery-98996%
The Daily Grind: How often do you upgrade your gaming PC?
Well, it's that time of decade again, the cycle that comes around every three or four years when I'm forced to put an aging PC out to pasture. Age of Conan's new Khitai zones have brought my four-year-old gaming rig to its knees and, rather than run around looking at circa-1998 environment textures (and six minute load times), I recently took the upgrade plunge. Luckily, most MMORPGs don't have the stringent hardware requirements that a lot of single-player games feature, and you can generally get away with relying on outdated hardware in our particular subset of gaming. For example, aside from a video card upgrade (driven by the silly desire to play Crysis a couple years ago), I've been playing dozens of MMOs on a PC that hasn't been state-of-the-art since early 2006. What about you, Massively readers? How often do you upgrade your gaming PCs, and has an MMORPG ever driven you to do so?
AoC's Morrison drops hints about the future
Funcom's Craig Morrison, Silirrion on the official Age of Conan forums, has returned with another Letter from the Game Director. Morrison, who also serves as executive producer on the Robert E. Howard-themed MMORPG, looks into his crystal ball to give fans a bit of a teaser in terms of future updates. "So overall, the answer to the 'what next?' question is more of 'a little bit of everything' rather than one specific theme for the time being. We want to continue to improve the game and build upon the progress we have seen so far. That means now that the expansion is out, we will take the opportunity to address a wider selection of smaller and back-end or performance updates," he writes. What's involved in the "little bit of everything?" We're glad you asked. According to Morrison, everything entails new Khitai quests, performance tweaks for all of the recently released expansion content, and significant revisions to the Dreamworld game engine as well as various DirectX10 functionality. Oh yeah, tweaks to PvP gameplay (specifically Shrines of Bori issues), possible vanity options, GUI enhancements, and cross-server minigame options are also on the table. "We are also though looking at a few things that offer longer term benefits. Included there are things like changing the way the mini-games queues work at a fundamental level to ensure fairer fights, and also starting to investigate further the possibility of offering cross-server PVP games," Morrison says. Check out the full letter for all of the details.
One Shots: Mysterious marauder
With the recent expansion Rise of the Godslayer now live in Age of Conan and the contest in conjunction with Xfire, Funcom's bloody barbarian MMO seems to be enjoying a surge in popularity currently. That's why we're a little mystified as to precisely why we got a great screenshot of a burned out caravan in Khitai from a mysterious stranger who refused to give us his name. Is he on the run from King Conan? Has he done something truly dastardly that has turned the ancient gods against him? Perhaps he torched those caravan wagons himself! We'll likely never know, but hey -- at least we have a really nice screenshot to enjoy. Are you adventuring through the new areas in Age of Conan? Would you like to show off some of the exotic sights of Khitai? All you have to do is email your screenshots to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief note indicating what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out and give you the credit. %Gallery-85937%
The Anvil of Crom: Getting into Godslayer
You might have heard about a little expansion that recently came out, Rise of the Godslayer or some such. Yes it's been getting a lot of press around these parts, particularly up to last Tuesday's launch. As some of you snarkier keyboard cowboys have noted, said coverage has since died down. Contrary to popular conspiracy theories though, that's not because of a buggy expansion launch but rather because we've been spending so much time playing it. I mean really, who has time to write about games when you could be playing the heck out of them? Eventually responsibility did rear its ugly head and here you have this week's column, i.e. what passes for my initial impressions of the live expansion client. Since we covered Alternate Advancement in detail in our beta preview, this week's piece is a little lighter on the game play details and a little heavier on the general atmosphere. So, join us past the cut as we take a break from our dueling rangers and head for Hyboria's exotic far east.
AoC: Rise of the Godslayer launch day roundup
Can't get enough Rise of the Godslayer? We here at Massively can't either. In fact, if we weren't slaving away composing this roundup to make your Godslayer launch day research a little easier, we'd be logged in right now. So thank us, of course, and be sure to check out all of our Age of Conan expansion coverage that you may have missed. GDC10: A look at Rise of the Godslayer If you're looking for an exhaustive run down of all the features coming your way in the new expansion, look no further than this Rise of the Godslayer preview from GDC2010. The piece features extensive information on new factions, mounts, dungeons, and excerpts from an interview with Game Director Craig Morrison. Faction Armor detailed in Game Director Letter Game Director Craig Morrison details the new faction armor system in the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion, and Massively brings you the highlights as well as a smattering of helpful links. Massively interviews Craig Morrison Massively's weekly Age of Conan column, The Anvil of Crom, sits down with Funcom's Craig Morrison to talk about a wide range of topics, including tidbits about the new Rise of the Godslayer expansion. Rise of the Godslayer retail exclusives announced Funcom announces that Rise of the Godslayer will be available in both digital download and retail formats, both including exclusive pre-order pet items, XP bonuses, and assorted goodies. Instanced travel encounters detailed Funcom's Craig Morrison returns with another Letter from the Game Director, this time highlighting a unique feature of the expansion that takes the form of instanced travel encounters. Massively is there with all the details and links. Rise of Godslayer beta impressions Jef Reahard, Massively's man on the street in Hyboria and author of the weekly Anvil of Crom column, takes a long look at the Godslayer beta and the Alternate Advancement system and likes what he sees. Rise of the Godslayer launch trailer released GameTrailers releases the exclusive teaser trailer for Funcom's Rise of the Godslayer expansion. The trailer, a pleasing mixture of concept art, comic panels, and in-game footage, shows off the lush lands of Khitai, new tiger mounts, and brief glimpses of the new dungeons in action.
Godslayer launch trailer unveiled
With less than a week to go before the launch of Age of Conan's first expansion, the hype is steadily building for Funcom's Rise of the Godslayer. Portions of the new content, scheduled to release on May 11th, are available for inspection courtesy of a two minute teaser video hosted at Gametrailers. The trailer, a pleasing mixture of concept art, comic panels, and in-game footage, shows off the lush lands of Khitai, new tiger mounts, and brief glimpses of the new dungeons in action. Check it out after the cut and over at Gametrailers, and also be sure to read our impressions of the Rise of the Godslayer beta.
What's to come in Rise of the Godslayer
Tigers, PvP, corruption, and more are coming with Age of Conan's next expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Xfire has hosted a sneak peek live broadcast hosted by game director Craig Morrison and lead expansion designer Joel Bylos, and the two have shown off some of the inner workings of the expansion, including some of the changes and additions players will find. We here at Massively were watching closely and taking notes, so if you didn't get the chance to watch the video then no worries! As we said before, we have your back and we're ready to take you headlong into the blood and corruption of Age of Conan's expansion.
PAX 2009: We travel east with Rise of the Godslayer
Age of Conan came to PAX pretty much directly off their announcement of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. So when we arrived at our appointment to check the game out and speak with Executive Producer Craig Morrison, you can imagine our curiosity levels were quite high.This expansion is taking players far into the eastern lands of Khitai, which is essentially a retelling of our own ancient eastern worlds. Something we were told right away is that Funcom wanted to avoid Japanese influences, as they're fairly over-saturated in videogames. Instead, they're going for a heavy focus on Korean and Chinese culture for the lands of Khitai.%Gallery-72323%
Age of Conan devs release their August newsletter
The devs over at Age of Conan have just posted their August newsletter on the game's official website. In it they look back over the last month and the announcement of the new AoC expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, as well as clarifying some titbits about the new expansion. This includes thanking players for their feedback and explaining why they chose to venture to Khitai (the Conan-version of China) over other lands featured in the original books. The devs also touch on the fascinating subject of world design and how player feedback has shaped the new armor they are working on.The most interesting nugget in the newsletter is a sneak peak at what the immediate future holds for AoC in the form of the 1.06 update. This includes the possibility of splitting the update into parts rather than deluging players with a giant patch. They also look at the new level 80 dungeon, the House of Crom, the Veterans System and Tier Three Raiding. So if you're an AoC player excited about the new expansion and the next big update, you might want to head over to the official site and check out the newsletter for yourself.
Age of Conan expansion concept art unveiled
As we mentioned, Funcom's Hyborian MMORPG Age of Conan is set to expand. As of yesterday, the concept art first shown at Leipzig is now available to view, courtesy of GameSpy. The dragon banners, pagoda-like structures and mask style suggest that Khitai, Robert E. Howard's composite version of China, may be the setting. If so - and this is only speculation - it might be a promising choice, despite not receiving much attention in the original Howard tales.Khitai is far to the east of Aquilonia, Stygia and Cimmeria. In A Witch Shall Be Born, Howard portrayed Khitai as a place of sorcery and deep tangled jungles: 'He was a magician from far Khitai, returning to his native kingdom after a journey to Stygia. He took me with him to purple-towering Paikang, its minarets rising amid the vine-festooned jungles of bamboo, and there I grew to womanhood under his teaching. Age had steeped him deep in black wisdom, not weakened his powers of evil. Many things he taught me...' The current race options in Age of Conan don't allow any race but Stygians to be mages, so a Khitai-based expansion could change that. The Tower of the Elephant also mentions 'priests of Yun' who dwell in the lost jungles of Khitai. If the concept art shows rogues and soldiers, a player character Khitai race could be the first to have access to all four class options. 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!
