tradeskill-revamp
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Director's letter for Age of Conan talks loot, merges, and dungeons
If you've not been happy with loot rewards in Age of Conan, you can take some succor in the fact that the designers aren't happy with them either. The latest director's letter discusses the problem of rewards in the first Dragon's Spine dungeon and explains that the team is trying to create interesting loot without creating a huge power imbalance between new and veteran characters at the cap. While the next few dungeons will fill out the loot sets that have been established, the team is actively working on long-term solutions. Beyond that, the game remains on-track for server merges in the summer, with older unplayed characters moving into "archival" status to make database merges less onerous. The tradeskill revamp and further dungeons are also in the works; Coils of Ubah Khan is nearing launch as the next dungeon. For more details on the updates and discussion of achievements, take a look at the full letter.
The Anvil of Crom: AA resets, tradeskills, and hardcore PvP stagnation
Welcome back to the Anvil of Crom, dear readers. After the content explosion of the past couple of months, it seems almost strange to be relatively relaxed when it comes to Age of Conan. I'd gotten so used to scrambling around re-writing columns at the last minute -- and polishing up interviews and impression pieces -- that I had almost forgotten what it feels like to settle into a comfortable gameplay groove. In looking around for interesting topics this week, I realized that it's been quite some time since I turned the column over to the community. So without further ado, join me after the cut to see what's on the minds of Hyborians at home and abroad as we power through the week's hot topics.
The Anvil of Crom: Surviving the craftpocalypse
So last week we started talking a bit about Age of Conan's 2012 crafting revamp. I laid out a few things that foul up the current system -- from a tradeskiller's point of view, naturally -- but I didn't quite get around to talking about solutions. Though that's on the to-do list, I may not get around to it this week either, since a few mails and some forum discussions brought up a couple of interesting tangential points that I hadn't considered. Surprisingly, I got email from folks who aren't really looking forward to the big tradeskill upheaval that Funcom game director Craig Morrison hinted at in the August development update. Even more mind-boggling was the fact that these folks aren't even crafters.
The Anvil of Crom: Evaluating the dev update - crafting edition
Hallelujah, amen, and by frickin' Crom! What's got me all excitable this week? Well, the latest dev update, for starters, and I apologize in advance for reneging on last week's promise to devote today's column to a deeper examination of the new Savage Coast of Turan content. The last time we met, I gave you a quick rundown on the Ardashir Coast, but with all due respect to Funcom's content designers, the most interesting bit of Age of Conan news from the last little while is the crafting revamp that Silirrion hinted at in the August 31st update letter. But Jef, how interesting could it be if it's taken you over a week to write about it? Well, you got me there, and I could throw in some excuses about needing to get something Turan-related out last week, as well as the fact that I was doing the DragonCon shuffle, but I won't. Anyhow, holy shitaki mushrooms! Funcom mentioned AoC's tradeskills! Join me after the cut and bring the smelling salts.
