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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Rise of the Godslayer Q&A
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Age of Conan's Erling Ellingsen about the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion.
;)
MMORPG.com:
Conan has won the Most Improved Game of 2009, how did you achieve that goal?
Erling Ellingsen:
I think that would probably be a whole article in and of itself. We have tried to address all those issues that plagued players at launch, and I think that by and large we have achieved that. Throw in a lot of new content, new playfields and new encounters and you have a game that has come on leaps and bounds throughout the year. So I guess the short answer is a lot of hard work, and a good portion of faith that we could start to realise some of the potential that the game had. It would have been easy to just put the project onto minimal staffing and call it a failed endevaour, I guess some companies might have done that. We didn't and have continued to invest in the game. MMOs are long term projects and I think the success we have had over the last eighteen months is very much due to keeping focus, concentrating on the simple things and addressing each of the issues methodically.
Read the Rise of the Godslayer Q&A.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
RotGS is sounding (and looking) more and more fun w/ each interview.
Being acknowledged as the most improved game is certainly warranted. Ive played, left, played, left and am currently playing again, and I have to say that 1.05 and 1.06 turned a corner for the game. While 1.05 addressed the vast majority of game play mechanics that were still plaguing the game (but by no means all of them), 1.06 has been the patch that has taken the game itself to the next level. AoC will now being seeing true additions and advancement of the game, instead of playing catch up on things that need to be addressed.
There is still things that dont feel 100% in the game (like why have so many incredible, amazing armor looks and wearable items w/ no cosmetic costume options, virtually forcing everyone who raids to look identical) but none are that big of a detractor from the improvements and features that have been added, and are in the pipeline.
While its great to see all this, its a real shame that a lot of people were so burned by the launch; theyre just completely unwilling to try it again. I can sympathize with them though. As someone that was suckered by Cryptic in Sept, I understand were they come from. Regardless, the potential the game has is finally coming to fruition. Unfortunately, for many people its to little, to late.
Most improved game was most definitely deserved. Shame for them that Funcom and Mr Morrison are becoming quite good at it thanks to AO crashing and burning at launch, and then AoC crashing and burning after a decent technical launch. It's probably a good job for them they have a few people around that seem to know how to save a sinking ship, makes you wonder why they didn't put them in charge in the first place. Makes me fear they will still be busy with Conan while all the important parts of TSW are being done by yet another team, hope for their sakes they don't end up having to draft in their rescue team a third time!
Can't wait for the expanion myself, 1.06 was great and all for many, but I am not a huge guild player so look forward to the solo content in the expansion.
Cyan, i think you put it perfectly.
IMHO, Funcom have great ideas, but the ideas are always far ahead of the development, stopping funcom from delivering whats promised.
In some respects, i do think Funcom deserves the Failcom label, but they are also great at changing the fail back to fun.
Same here i quit an came back an quit an came back.Now i have a year sub an play when i can .its a great game an geting better.agreed on pointes mentioned above.
Reguarding the movie tho um we will see.Not many were hapy with the casting of conan at all.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
If the Conanator(also goes by several aliases such as the terminator and the governator) isnt conan then it isnt conan to me!!!
If the Conanator(also goes by several aliases such as the terminator and the governator) isnt conan then it isnt conan to me!!!
maybe...but take in mind a governator not gonna make a movie...even if he could and even if conan is a good fighter when he is already old as we read in the books ,we already know hollywood love 2 things about classics...remakes and revamps...but well this is not IMDB haha
about AoC i play it (casually) at launch for 2 months i think , then i quit(classic thing gameplay leaving tortage was a turn off for me) then i go back again and play it for like month and half but i feel it kinda empty...u know not so many players around...then when we get the chance to play a week(cant really remember how much time we got) for free i loged in a couple of times and still feel it kinda empty my guild was obviously dissapeared the game looked the same for me...but i really didnt try to look around allot
so i feel like many of the ex AoC players the game dissapoint us so much is kinda hard to take it back...i read some forums and see some videos and yeah the game have improvments look good(not counting the stupid clothes and armors) but is hard to take it off the "fail" label on it...and just see the few servers the game have now and the shitload that have before is a prove of that
and still i have hope in the expansion and gonna buy it and play it from 0 with the kithai race hope AoC take his desreved throne back
Slightly off topic regarding the mucking about with lore which Funcom seem to revel in....To those who see AS as the definitve Conan, he was very good yes, but he didn't even have black hair in the movies. Tut tut tut.
Bring on an actor to play Conan with black hair and you're halfway there.
[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom]
also was not the same hair style either conan have a "square" long hair, arnold was just long and dark but i think they did it because that looks is kinda lame even in the modern novels and art they usually change the hairstyle
I played the closed beta from beginning to end and by the time FunCom cancelled the Beta Forum (about a month after game launch) and told us TestLive was replacing it and to go buy the game if we wanted to continue to play and/or test it, I ran away screaming. It seemed utterly st00pid to ask people (especially testers) to actually buy a "Not Ready For Prime Time" closed beta product and on top of that, actually pay a $15 monthlty subscription to continue to test their Beta Game LOL! Silly.
But flash forward to about 5-6 months ago when a friend convinced me to return to Age of Conan and try it out again. I purchased the AoC game box for $5, paid my 3 month sub and I've been playing for a few hours a few nights a week since. I recently took advantage of that offer of a one year sub, free in game gear, free TSW beta entry, free RoG Expansion all for less that $100 -- a no brainer IMO.
The fact remains that, like many, I am still disappointed in most of the group quests, the dungeons and the raids.
Quests/areas, for example, that virtually require one or more level 80s to assist in completing a 30's level dungeon is a clear indicator of what I find extremely annoying. I play on a PvE server, I don't PvP, I am not a raider and as for the group quests, in fact, I've been so disappointed in how FunCom designed them I have avoided more than 90% of them. It would indeed be great to see Mr. Morrison and his folks focus on scrubbing all the quests in the game to better identify quests for players -- for example, to show us in the quest log which group quests can be completed by a small group of a few players (my style of group quest) and which group quests require a full group of the ubiqitous well-rounded classes(and more often than not high level players for the applicable lower level areas) to have a chance against the all-elite mobs. I mention the need for a total scrub of all quests -- for example, more than 90% of the Field of the Dead group quests can be completed solo or duo at the correct level (40-50) for the area (too easy) -- that's silly -- and there are countless group quests in other areas that are equally silly for the opposite reason (too hard).
So yes, I will be looking closely at the content of the ROG Expansion -- specifically for better sorted quests that are for solo/duo/trio play. We'll have to wait and see how it goes, eh?
I'm running through a new character, currently level 48, all the group quests completed so far have been done with a full group of 6 at the appropriate level, yes some are hard but still doable with a full group, we definitely didn't feel the need to get a lvl 80 to assist. They are designed for a full group of 6 and yes you need the holy trinity of tank, dps and heal, I agree it would be nice if some scaling mechanism allowed different group set ups but as they are I don't see the problem you're having.
I seen Erling Ellingsons' name and decided it wasn't worth reading.
I'm running through a new character, currently level 48, all the group quests completed so far have been done with a full group of 6 at the appropriate level, yes some are hard but still doable with a full group, we definitely didn't feel the need to get a lvl 80 to assist. They are designed for a full group of 6 and yes you need the holy trinity of tank, dps and heal, I agree it would be nice if some scaling mechanism allowed different group set ups but as they are I don't see the problem you're having.
You're not seeing the problem(s) I am having because your entire experience with group quests, by your own admission, has been with a full group of 6 players, formulated as tank(s)/dps(s)/healer(s). It is further likely that, being as you admit you are playing a "new" character, you and/or your group-mates have secured the "shake and bake linear" recipe (which, of course, also applies to raids) that virtually guarantees success. That works fine for you and FunCom, obviously, which is great for you and others like you, but I'd much rather that FunCom think outside that very small box. My whole point here is that many players are not able to approach the group quests in full compliance with your "one trick pony" recipe of the full group style of play. Unfortunately, Age of Conan, thus far, has not accommodated other players as well as they could have. I'm simply hoping this is something FunCom will look into and rectify as they continue to improve the AoC MMO.