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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Rise of the Godslayer Interview
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
After Funcom’s reveal of their new expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, MMORPG.com’s Jon Wood spoke with Erling Ellingsen about the announcement.
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Why the decision to not add any new classes and not extend the level cap?
"We wanted to add more content for the classes that were already there," Ellingsen said. "We feel that there is a very good diversity in the classes that we already have. We wanted to give people the opportunity to expand the characters that they already had, so we want to allow for lateral as opposed to vertical progression.
Read the Rise of the Godslayer Interview
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Good interview.
No new classes or raised level cap is actually a smart move IMO. And those new armor sets look nothing short of stunning!
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Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
I think that them focusing on the high end so much in this expansion is a mistake, the biggest shock factor in AoC was how abysmally crap the game felt once you leave Tortage, the high enders will always demand new content but I think that for the long term health of AoC they really should have focused on the middle of the game much moreso than the high end.
People have to GET to that high end & if you fail to keep them engaged you lose them at the mid-point, & that is where AoC fails so badly, the game falls apart once you leave Tortage & it's to the game's detriment that the mid-game hasn't been treated with the same love & care as Tortage was.
The content in the new expantion start at 20, so after tortage acctualy you go in new zonez to lvl up.
Good stuff so far, hope to get more in depth details tho.
The content in the new expantion start at 20, so after tortage acctualy you go in new zonez to lvl up.
Good stuff so far, hope to get more in depth details tho.
Also, there have been many patches after launch adding mid-content as well, for example the revamped dungeons, new quests and Ymirs Pass.
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Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
If Funcom had raised the level cap or released new classes they would have added to the damage.
I know this expansion is a new money grab for them, but at least the content of it sounds pretty good. Again the target this at their Asian audience more than the western one, but it seems pretty cool.
I for one is tempted to return this fall once a few other projects of mine fall into place...
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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Basically AoC is doing exactly what WoW is also doing wrong....
Both games are pretty much saying "we would rather just make new races and have players make a new alt then make new classes."
In AoC all the healer classes are based on race, so what the hell is this new Asian race gunna be for a healer, priest of mitra? tempest of set or bear shaman? none of those even fit any type of lore what-so-ever.....
Seems like both games are taking a lazier approach then I thought
I play all ghame
Despite me not having played AoC as of yet and just purely reading the article for what it is. I still think AoC is doing something right that WoW never does is to NOT increase the level cap. I think merely adding a new race just adds to the game and personally for myself, I never feel obligated to make a character alt for that new race especially if that race isn't interesting. Plus when new races come out in an expansion, their starting areas are generally flooded and a pain to develop in anyway. Personally, I think AoC is taking the high road in regards to adding other ways to developing the character and providing new experiences as opposed to WoW who just repeat the cycle of releasing higher and higher tiers of equipment along with more and more 10-25 man raids. They provide very little in experience and diversity at the end of the game (in terms of PvE since this is generally their stronge suit) and the only real rewards come from the 10-25 man raids that do not cater to casual gamers well.
What you say is a stale complaint at this point and simply no longer true.
The way AoC is designed, it's actually pretty easy to get to 60 -- even more so today, since they've added so much content. I know, because I came back as a level 1 Ranger 3.5 months ago after running away screaming from the "Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Conan" when closed beta ended (June 2008) and have done the preponderance of this mid-level myself. Furthermore, based on what I've read and hear from other players, the 60-80 content has been greatly expanded as well.
Mid-levels are alive and well in Hyboria.
I, personally, am no fan of PvE group quests in this game as most of them are annoying as hell. Therefore, I play for the solo and small group (duo or trio) content and except for the Pyramid, I've avoided all the designated "true group" quests since quitting Black Castle and deleting its quests in frustration months ago. There's something terribly wrong with the quests area of AoC's game design when you have to have a specifically constructed full group of players who not only know each other's play styles well and are usually in the same guild to have any chance or, if you need to PUG the group quest, you have to depend for someone to bring along a level 80 to "babysit" you and the rest of the group of strangers to have any chance at all of making it through. What's the fun in that? It is also highly unlikely that I will ever do any Raiding in AoC (at least in raiding's current form) for many of the same reasons.
I also find the quest design labeling to be inaccurate more often than not regarding group quests. For example, in FoD, most of the group quests, except for the group quests inside the Tomb) were easitly completed by my mid-40's Ranger in duo with my friend's mid 40-s ToS. While there are some "small group" quests in AoC, sadly none that I've seen so far are labeled as such, leaving it for the player to "guess" if he/she hasn't been through this content, or depend on another player's experience/knowledge.
I'd like to have Morrison & Co. take a long, hard look at all the quests designed already in game, paying close attention to the quest labeling and the difficulty and adjust them accordingly and of course, pay close attention to this going forward. A good place to start would be FoD because the labeling goof there is at it's most absurd this far with this Ranger.
When in comes to on line gaming, if it's not fun, I don't do it. An MMO is entertainment I pay for and it's supposed to be enjoyable. And in coming back to AoC, while it is clear that AoC has these and other issues to address and resolve, it is also obvious Morrison & Co. continue to make major efforts. So for now, warts and all, AoC remains in my repetoire.
I think this was smart on funcom's part.
Granted, depending on how alternate advancement is added, it will be very similar to increasing the level cap. That is, if players become more powerful with 'AA'.
The new content and factions seem cool and am interested in seeing how this pans out. I think well written, well designed, and well presented content is much more needed than a new level cap and classes and what not. They can't really expand on pvp until they get the base game's pvp systems working to a 'T'. Though, I'd rather see pvp be enhanced through free updates.
Couldn't agree with your more about dungeon grp quest Lizzante being ridiculously hard. Unfortunately most good drops come from these areas so soloers and fans of the small more natural grps do not get much of a look in. Its even harder getting decent gear if you are not on a pvp server. i still enjoy the game but accept that very good items are not coming my way. More and more dungeon runs seem to be with lvl 80 babysitters which defeats the challenge but it can be so hard to get a decent grp of six all around same level. i have tried a few onyx and other raids but do not find them that enjoyable to keep on repeating to finally get a decent lvl 80 drop.
In my opinion, these are changes that should be happening with patches over time for free. Seems like to me that funcom is trying to make more money by selling 6 (not so major) updates packed in a box. This purely my opinion, take with a grain of salt.
This person gets it. Besides paying for the last year of beta testing Funcom has figured out away to make a few more bucks out of ya and your still paying to beta this game. This time around folks are gonna be more cousious and may not come back as much as they want them to. I believe also you will not get to see expansion till you've already paid for it. Anyone doubt it will not come with alot of problems that disrupt the game. NO!
Jihad works both ways
MAGA
I am glad there is no level increase, however paying for the expansion seems a bit of a rip off since there are already few areas in the original game. (personally I HATE Fields of the Dead)
Most of it still looks cool, and the mount idea is a novel and intriguing idea to someone like myself who enjoys immersing in the story.
I want to thank MMORPG.COM for asking some good questions there. Sadly - EE did not answer them.
Alot of ppl will be pussled why they are paying for this so called "expansion". It sounds to me that subbed MMOs are really looking for new ways to make ppl stay subbed even when they are not playing. WOW is now talking of advanced system to progress in their expansion...
New way for sub games to make money out of nothing. Thats pretty much what it sounds like - they have to find something now that the Item shop games are providing same quality and alot of content.
Im very happy that very few ppl will be sucked into lvling a character to 80 to realise that Funcom is nothing more than PR.
Edit: Since MMORPG.COM is gonna keep asking the devs - I would like to know if the Mount/Pet will be in anway a progression based on you beeing subed for X amount of time before beeing able to get it ? Is this the "veteran rewards ? "
If FUNCOM was smart they would fix the numerous problems that the game now has. Then the players would start returning to AOC. Every time they patch the game they unbalance the classess more and more instead of balancing them like they say the patch is supposed to be doing. Additionally, creating more problems with every patch than was there before. The Game is a PVP game more than a PVE game even tho the PVE can be good at times even tho the drop have always been bad and are not very much better than before even tho they say part of the last patches was to improve drops in the Raid instances. Since when do three items drop and two of them are exactly the same itens? Ridiculous. Funcom decided to implement a Murder Consequence system to reduce Ganking etc. It hasn'tt fixed that problem all that well and has actually messed up PVP because they overcomplicated one of the solutions to curtail ganking. Instead of just making it so that Guards would JUST KILL MURDERERS ONLY, they made all these other conditons so that now if you're near a Guard and attack another player even if the other player is your level the Guard kills you. STUPID!!!! So now playera who aren't very good at PVP use the Guards to avoid death by other players in PVP, because if you put a DOT on them and they run to a Guard he comes back and kills the player who cast the DOT. STUPID!!!! This is not to mention even all the instance crashes and RED BAR lag that persists throughout the game and in nearly every area of the world and instance. Additionally, on my server the hacking and explointing is attrocious and even if show it to GM's and tell them where the hacks are being downloaded from (nearly everyone knows about GMHACKs being used on Tyranny) Funcom does nothing about it.
I am staying only because at times, when the game works as it should and I'm not facing off against a guild full of hacking and exploiting players and I'm with my friends in my Guild, Age of Conan is really fun. But that is less and less often that, on a PVP server, you can find that quality of gaming in AOC. A lot of people who love PVP are leaving. They won't come back unless FUNCOM actually addresses and fixes the things that don't work in AOC which are to many and too often.
if your on a pvp server expect hacks, even WoW has hacks going on, if you don't like it go to a less pvp heavy pvp server. As to the guard thing, thats how guards worked in that world. They just whacked everyone over the head and threw them in the dungeon, since there is no dungeon you get dead. Simple answer don't pvp near guards. As to the beta thing, it's not a beta anymore bub, it has the same bugs most games do. a lot of games have paid expansions now with little added content, AA's are a big thing if they do them like in EQ. When all the patches after 1.5 are done the game will be working better, now the not adding new classes thing did get me since the Khitan people did not worship set or mitra. They worshipped animals and Yagkosha, had many great wizards and assassins as well as a few good conq or guardian possible people.
Honestly I am upset with this expansion cause we still have yet to get Shadizar added into the game, and the tarantian comons uses a quote from the tower of the elephant that takes place in Shadizar. So in many ways funcom is ignoring lore, in truth I'd like to see a slow series of free content updates addeding in cities along the road of kings to take us to Khitai, which I actually think funcom misspelled. I just kinda dislike how we keep dealing with obscure places when some of the more interesting ones are left out.
Then again I still want a pirate, theif, and nomad class.
Wish you would have asked for a release date. Something to look forward to atleast.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
The new mounts have nothing to do with how long you have been subbed for.
You mentioned two new mounts; the wolf and the tiger, and that they will have more uses than just speed. Can you tell us about them?
FC: The tiger is the fastest sprinting mount; so you get a quick burst of power, but only for a short amount of time. The wolf...I'm not going to talk about yet, actually. We're still working on exactly what we want it to do, and we have some ideas that we think players will like—but we're not quite ready to talk about it yet.
Are these mounts going to be tiered at all?
FC: No, it's like Joel said—it's about doing the quest line. It's going to have to be a fairly epic quest that the players have to go through to complete to get the mount.
How long are these epic quests going to take players?
FC: I think that will be tweaked a little bit. It's currently going to be up to nine or 10 quests, once you have the faction to be able to start. You'll have to build up loyalty with a specific faction that you have to find in the expansion to be able to start the quest.
Bylos: And it's 15. Fifteen or 17 quests. You have to rear it from a cub. You have to go through quests to teach it to hunt.
And from the offiical website FAQ:
Will there be any new mounts in the expansion?
The expansion will introduce two new mounts: the Tiger and the Wolf. Both of these mounts are predators and are not used to carrying riders. Thus they must be captured young and trained to bear the weight of a human.
How do you train Tigers and Wolves to become mounts?
In the case of the Tiger mount, for example, it is a religious ritual for the cult that you must join. In order to capture their tiger, the player must travel into the woods unarmed and unarmored and kill the Tigress barehanded. Then they can pluck the mewling and defenseless newborn from the den and bring it back to raise it as their own. It first becomes a pet and the player must teach the tiger all of the necessary skills for survival such as hunting, stalking and battle. Once the tiger has grown large enough and if the bond is strong enough, the player must create a saddle out of various ingredients scattered across the land. Only then will the Tiger become a mount.
Age of Conan is a good game.
I will buy the expansion pack.
Aaand, I'll enjoy it.
Keep up the good work guys ! Great game
The expansion still doesn't solve the main issue with this game. Its how much their mid level dungeons totally sucks, even the revamped ones like Black Castle and the Main System are crap. They're too god damn hard and filled with uber trash mobs that a typical group at that level would never bother to crawl through them. Take Black Castle for example, its the first epic dungeon in the game, it should be straight forward and be a "trainer" for group mechanics. Instead it's a brutal romp full of uber trash mobs and bosses that will drive a typical noob group to tears.
As if that isn't enough the reward for the effort required complete this hell hole totally sucks.
Basically unless Funcom realise what is wrong with the content they have now, cranking out another expansion pack isn't going to bring people back.
To the author;
WoW much? Damn the way you wrote this it sounds like your only MMOG expansion experience is WoW, with lines like'
'Most paid expansions run with either a new class or a raised level cap. How do you justify charging players for this one?'...
you sound like a WoW fanboi. WoW expansions suck. Another 10 levels, another new race, 2 new powers powers per class, a new tier of talents that will yet again completely fubar the games balance and result in months of fixes, not to mention such issues with entirely new classes (or class diversification,) and a group of new zones that have the same boring fetch/kill/fedex quests.
Give me a break, WotLK sucked after you hit cap, and that took all of 4-7 days for 90% of players. Of everyone I know that played WoW when WotLK came out, NONE play the game anymore. Almost every single one of them quit within weeks of the expansion hitting. To the point that it is so clear a large portion of WoW players thought WotLK sucked that the next expansion is radically different from the first two.
What AoC is doing is the best way to build an expansion. Add tons of new content at a variety of levels, give plays a 'post-cap' way to advance and farther customize their character. A lot of you folks talking about how bad the game is after the tutorial island (Tortage) clearly haven't played since the first few months. The last thing the game needs right now are 10 more levels and some new classes.
Jairoe03 has it right.
"Despite me not having played AoC as of yet and just purely reading the article for what it is. I still think AoC is doing something right that WoW never does is to NOT increase the level cap... I think AoC is taking the high road in regards to adding other ways to developing the character and providing new experiences as opposed to WoW who just repeat the cycle of releasing higher and higher tiers of equipment along with more and more 10-25 man raids. They provide very little in experience and diversity at the end of the game (in terms of PvE since this is generally their stronge suit) and the only real rewards come from the 10-25 man raids that do not cater to casual gamers well."
The last thing AoC needs now is a WoW-styled expansion of layering new levels on top of one another with the same old boring arse advancement systems that take most players days to get through and yet more boring raids.
I think it's smart of Funcom to handle the expansion this way. Once you get out of Tortage you can go to Khitai, from what it sounds like. Making a second starting area right now would be a mistake in the long run because it would split the new players between 2 areas in the game, making the game feel more empty than it is.
That's really interesting. Considering that AoC will have been out close to 2 years by the time the expansion will launch (if the expansion would come out before Q1 2010, it would have been given a date already), it's nothing short of stunning to believe that people still want to remain the same level and get new content for that level.
Sure there will be new high level areas and also new spells and skills as well as alternative abilities, but after 2 years of playing the same classes at level 80, people might want to actually progress their character upwards again.
I don't know about other people, but i don't necessarily care about loot. I like exploring (a lot) but that does not make me run a dungeon more than twice (to make sure i have seen everything in it) - i like running through dungeons in groups to get experience, level my character and advance my character. At least when a new expansion comes out.
I have played both WoW expansions and all too soon was the leveling over and then the grinding started again - one of the reasons i stopped playing WoW shortly after i hit level 80.
It was the same in EQ with expansions. Those that raised the level cap are remembered very strongly and favourably.
In the end it's Funcom's choice of course, but after close to 2 years of playing the same game, it would have been nice to see characters gaining levels again.
And the excuse that they "Want to add more content to the level range" is really quite lame - with an exisiting engine, an existing tool and 120 people working on the game, i would certainly hope that you can create quite a bit of content in 2 years since launch.
No you certainly don't need a new class and a raised level cap to call it an expansion. But players certainly have come to expect it from expansions that were fully priced (hence the reason the question was asked in the first place). EQ, EQ2, WoW, Lord of the Rings etc. all have done just that - with a full priced expansion they introduced new classes, new races and raised level caps. On top of massive amounts of content and system updates. EQ introduced Alternate Advancement points with Shadows of Luclin, which also introduced a raise in level cap and about a 30% increase in gameplay area (can't remember if there was a new race or not).
Pure content and system upgrades (which is what 90% of the AoC expansion is all about) are usually done for free from other companies. Turbine releases free chapters to their Lord of the Rings game, Blizzard ususally has a large content patch within a year after an expansion, free as well. EQ2 had downloadable optional content - for a small price - which added considerable amount of content.
No, i think what Rise of the Godslayer really is (and that is my personal opinion), is a way of launching the game big in Asia (china in particular) - hence the China theme, hence the no level raise (so Chinese people don't feel like they are behind and have to catch up - a mistake Blizzard made IMO) and hence the full price.
A proper expansion would have concentrated on closing the gaps in the map between existing content (and remove the need for travel NPCs that whisk a player away over thousands of miles), expand on the exisiting lore of the current content, raise the level cap and maybe create a new class. A Kithai expansion should have come further down the line.
So we get a new race wohoo! but you will have to do Tortage again. How many alts will you have before the expansion hits? 2? 3? 4? so you'll have done Tortage multiple times already. And no new class. So the destiny quests will be the same as well. And still there is no way of skipping tortage and going straight to level 19/20. And with not a lot of new mid and low level content why would anyone actually WANT to level up to 80 again? only to be stuck at that level?
There is a reason why Blizzard has increased xp gain from quests and monsters below level 60 - people are tired of going through the same content over and over when leveling up a new character.
But hey - at least there will be new mounts! If WoW has shown us one thing: people are crazy for mounts! It's as if Funcom is looking at WoW (and other MMOs) to see why they are successfull and then picks the most random things to copy, instead of understanding why people want to play MMOs.
Though i don't like FC, i think they did alot of things right with the expansion and agian it shows that booting Gaute and putting Craig in charge was the best thing to do. Horizontal progression instead of vertical is a very good move, though compared to adding and balacing 5 more levels is also sort of an easier way out. Still i think that these are 2 things Funcom definately did right.
Of course, this way people will complain that it is content they should patch in for free -if the expansion would contain 5-10 more levels, other people would complain like "bah, 5 levels more of the same, need more 20-80 stuff", "they can't even balance the current 80 levels" or "only 3 new zones to level 80-85 in??" etc.
Also no problem with not having new classes on my side, but i think they missed a great chance to add another "more basic" healing-class, adjust it with BS, PoM and ToS and sort out healing altogether a bit.
But as history repeats (and moreso in FC's case), i doubt that this addon will come in without any major disappointments or heavy technical difficulties. If FC still suffers from the megalomaniac illusion that AoC will make it to the XBox360, there is a great chance they will ruin the zone design again by dividing everything in tiny boxes with constant loadingscreens as it is now. In case they dropped that idea, they may enlarge the environments for the better and collect another bonus point on my list.
Anyway, AoC's progression and FC's moves are somewhat interesting to follow compared to the copy+paste stuff other companies spew out for years and again.