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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.
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.
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.
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.
Age of Conan pushing Shrines of Bori towards quick release
Age of Conan game director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison dropped a lengthy post on the official forums today detailing some good news for fans of Funcom's Robert E. Howard-inspired MMORPG. In short, the new and much-discussed PvP update Shrines of Bori will debut prior to the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion. Morrison confirms that the changes will be pushed to the test server in the next few days, and will roll out to the live servers as part of the 1.07 patch. "It is important to stress that this has been the result of some great extra effort put in by the team and will not effect the schedule of the expansion. When we saw the tremendous support for this feature, and the many very constructive and rational arguments from you, our players...we decided that we would find a way to achieve this," Morrison said. He goes on to state that the 1.07 patch will feature some additional "mini-event type quests" which will lead into the Godslayer expansion launch, making today a great day to be an Age of Conan fan. Look for Massively's impressions of Funcom's Rise of the Godslayer presentation from GDC 2010 later this week, and check out our previous Shrines of Bori coverage. [Thanks Ayonyx!]
Age of Conan's letter from the game director for May explains Update 1.05
Craig "Silirrion" Morrison, game director for Age of Conan, has posted a May letter (on the European forums) to the playerbase that reflects on the year since the game's launch, a year full of ups and downs. Beyond explaining a bit about how he came to work on Age of Conan and his enthusiasm for the game moving forward, the Letter from the Game Director drops info about Update 1.05. Morrison briefly touches on some of the highlights of the update, namely the large outdoor playfield and its quests and storyline, a new RPG system, and updates for all classes in terms of abilities, spells, and feats. Morrison opts to steer away from these big changes in his letter, which are likely to get more attention in the long run, and looks at some of the smaller changes to Age of Conan that are on the way.
