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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Rise of the Godslayer Preview

StraddenStradden Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696

MMORPG.com was on hand for the Age of Conan Rise of the Godslayer expansion presentation at this year's Game Developers Conference.

We got the chance to sit down with Funcom at GDC to check out the Age of Conan expansion. If you are a Conan fan you will appreciate the story they put into it, plus some of the features that are on the way. Funcom has really brought Conan up from its rough beginnings and Rise of the God Slayer looks to add some fun elements for both players and fans alike.

The story of the expansion begins with the Tower of the Elephant. If you have not read the story go do it now. Conan as a thief meets a creature from another dimension with the head of an elephant. The creature has great power and is held captive by a wizard. In the end Conan frees the creature back to its realm where it kills the wizard. The Heart of the Elephant, which Conan wins, soon crumbles to dust. We learn that Yog Kosha, the creature had great influence in Khitai, the Hyborian equivalent of China. That is where the story leads us and where the expansion takes place.

Read the Rise of the Godslayer Preview.

Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com

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Comments

  • El_LionEl_Lion Member UncommonPosts: 154

    Ammagad have you seen the face of that new mount? Looks like a big rat. Scary.

    Nice to see an expansion doing something else than adding levels and forgetting all old content ... can be nice! Looking forward to more info.

    I'm still level 30 so I got time :p

    Eaglix

  • YurigatuYurigatu Member Posts: 4

    Looking forward to it. :)

  • DarbiiRueDarbiiRue Member UncommonPosts: 832

    Looks like its going to be an awesome expansion. I really hope they do it well. :D I'm very excited about it.

  • storm-dragonstorm-dragon Member Posts: 157

    I have been spending a crapload of time in AoC, the game has taken leaps and bounds in the right direction, FC is focusing more on story and they are taking what was great about Tortage and adding it to the rest of the game hell even the community (At least the PVE communiyi) has also greatly Improved.

    This sword here at my side dont act the way it should
    Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
    Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
    And it howls! it howls like hell!

  • RemyVorenderRemyVorender Member RarePosts: 3,991

    I really like how this xpac isn't about getting more levels, but rather, rounding out the game so that is becomes a more full and complete experience from start to finish.



    Tower of the Elephant is one of the better Conan stories I've read to date. Good choice.

    Joined - July 2004

  • Just starting to wane on Fallen Earth a little, so this might just be perfectly timed for me if they do launch before the summer! I have to say that I like the idea of stressing choice and not giving us everything. It might even add some more dynamic PVP scenarios if players can really actually create diverse builds.

  • japojapo Member Posts: 306

    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

  • black_isleblack_isle Member UncommonPosts: 256
    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

     

    Hahaha. Great. Maybe a bit harsh but great :)

  • AmazingAveryAmazingAvery Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
    Originally posted by black_isle

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

     

    Hahaha. Great. Maybe a bit harsh but great :)



     

    Mr Willis was a Ghost? noooo, surely not?

    The Tower of the Elephant is a good story even if the ending is said here, I like how it ties in with the game and other lore points. I suspect there are plenty of other suprises in store for the player.



  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

    Good to see AoC is expanding, FC may well recreate the succeess of AO the way they are going here.

  • FuggoFuggo Member Posts: 121

    Fool me once, shame on you.

    Fool me twice, shame on me.

    [Earthrise ss in my profile][Coming out Q2 2010]

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    Originally posted by Xondar123 
    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.
    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

    Lol, a buddy got upset on me because I told him Jean D'arc was burned in the end. I replied that don't see Titanic then because the boat sinks and he didn't see the funny in that.

     

    Still, this is the most famous Conan story and one of the most famous fantasy stories ever written so if you play a mmoRPG you should know about it.

    As for the expansion, it is great that they kept the number of levels because the content really is rather thin and new zones all the way up is the main thing the game needs (together with more dungeons).

    The bad thing I saw was that we still have to do Tortage. T is maybe the best starting zone I seen in a MMO but a single starting zone gets boring in any game and I was tired of Tortage already in the beta. They really should start working on a new starting zone too or make it possible for players that passed T once or twice to be able to start the game as lvl 20 instead.

    The mix between single player game and MMO also kinda gets boring after the first time, to have a long tutorial isn't that bad but in other games you can usually skip the tutorial, particularly after you already done it once.

    I havn't played AoC in a year now but I will be back once the expansion comes out.

  • DarbiiRueDarbiiRue Member UncommonPosts: 832
    Originally posted by AmazingAvery

    Originally posted by black_isle

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

     

    Hahaha. Great. Maybe a bit harsh but great :)



     

    Mr Willis was a Ghost? noooo, surely not?

    The Tower of the Elephant is a good story even if the ending is said here, I like how it ties in with the game and other lore points. I suspect there are plenty of other suprises in store for the player.

    I just got done reading it the other day. I'm making my way through the Conan series (while taking a short detour to get my scare on, with "IT" by Stephen King). So far, The Tower of the Elephant has been my favorite little short story in the book I've been reading. I won't add anymore spoilers to the list here, but it was very good.

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Originally posted by AmazingAvery

    Originally posted by black_isle

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

     

    Hahaha. Great. Maybe a bit harsh but great :)



     

    Mr Willis was a Ghost? noooo, surely not?

    The Tower of the Elephant is a good story even if the ending is said here, I like how it ties in with the game and other lore points. I suspect there are plenty of other suprises in store for the player.

     

    By the way, Robert E. Howard's works are in the public domain, so if anyone wants to they can read The Tower of the Elephant and many, many other Conan stories and essays online: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Robert_E._Howard

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Originally posted by Fuggo


    Fool me once, shame on you.
    Fool me twice, shame on me.

     

    Why would you get fooled and by what? Age of Conan is currently a very good game. I've been playing it for the past month and it's some of the most fun I've had in an MMO in a while.

    I have heard that it sucked at launch, but the game is supposed to have come a very long way.

  • AethaerynAethaeryn Member RarePosts: 3,149
    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

    I thought your post was funny until I got the the KotR part.  I never did finish that game. . oh well.  Now I can move on.  So. . thanks I guess. . . jerk :)

    Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!

  • solarinesolarine Member Posts: 1,203

    Thanks to my skills in speed reading before actually reading (it  involves Russia!), I've managed to read most of the thread without actually spoiling the original story itself! All power to speed reading! And no, I'm not coming back to check the replies! :)

  • Nhoj1983Nhoj1983 Member UncommonPosts: 185

    Definitely looks promising.  Kudos for fleshing the game out giving more depth.  I too would have liked to see a new starting zone but I guess we can't have everything we want.

  • ThrawlThrawl Member Posts: 271
    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by AmazingAvery

    Originally posted by black_isle

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

     

    Hahaha. Great. Maybe a bit harsh but great :)



     

    Mr Willis was a Ghost? noooo, surely not?

    The Tower of the Elephant is a good story even if the ending is said here, I like how it ties in with the game and other lore points. I suspect there are plenty of other suprises in store for the player.

     

    By the way, Robert E. Howard's works are in the public domain, so if anyone wants to they can read The Tower of the Elephant and many, many other Conan stories and essays online: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Robert_E._Howard

     

    Hey thanks for the link man. I've read quite a bit over the years, from Anne Rice's vampire chronicles to the LOTRO trilogy, but for some reason the Conan adventures passed me by.

    I never bothered with the game yet because I heard of the terrible launch, and I was already burned on WAR. But the game seems to be coming along pretty good so I might have to check it out, and the whole background of Conan in general is starting to peak my interest. The best part of the link is it's free lol. That's a price that's hard to beat.

    Our spirit was here long before you

    Long before us

    And long will it be after your pride brings you to your end

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543
    Originally posted by Aethaeryn

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

    I thought your post was funny until I got the the KotR part.  I never did finish that game. . oh well.  Now I can move on.  So. . thanks I guess. . . jerk :)

     

    Actually, that's one I do feel kinda bad about because I remember how thunderstruck I was at the big reveal. I thought it must have been how people felt when Vader first said "no, I am your father!" when they sat in the theatre in 1980.

    It's also why I didn't spoil the endings to Se7en or The Usual Suspects.

  • TsukieUTsukieU Member Posts: 559
    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by Aethaeryn

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by japo


    Hey, Stradden...nice of you to ruin the story of The Tower of the Elephant for those who haven't already read it.  You tell them to go read it, then reveal the ending......how....thoughtful.

     

    I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations on spoilers definitely expires when the original work was written in 1933.

    By the way Gandalf comes back to life in Lord of the Rings, Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time in The Sixth Sense, and it turns out you are Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.

    I thought your post was funny until I got the the KotR part.  I never did finish that game. . oh well.  Now I can move on.  So. . thanks I guess. . . jerk :)

     

    Actually, that's one I do feel kinda bad about because I remember how thunderstruck I was at the big reveal. I thought it must have been how people felt when Vader first said "no, I am your father!" when they sat in the theatre in 1980.

    It's also why I didn't spoil the endings to Se7en or The Usual Suspects.

     

    Isn't Verbal, Kaiser Soze?  I didn't get the ending in Se7en, why was his wife's head in a box and the guy was talking about he was wrath?  It seemed a bit convoluded...since he sort of negated the whole film...by killing Brad Pitt's wife himself?  I mean wasn't the whole idea, that his hands are clean...but the sins of men killed his victims?

     

    Though the lust one was sort of lame as well.

     

    Eh, whatever.

    Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.

  • EvileEvile Member Posts: 534

     I really think MMORPG needs to re rate AoC.

    This game is MUCH better then a "7" now.

     

    image

  • UlthorUlthor Member Posts: 9


    Let's not forget that "Tower of the Elephant" is one of the few stories in which the Hyborean and Cthulhu Mythos interwine (Howard and Lovecraft were kind of friends, they exchanged mail about their stories). Funcom is about to launch Secret World, which is heavily inspired in Lovecraft's works. So I can only hope that they use those story elements (cthulhu mythos) in game, best horror fiction ever IMHO.

  • LizanteLizante Member Posts: 182

    Originally posted by Xondar123

    Originally posted by Fuggo

    Fool me once, shame on you.

    Fool me twice, shame on me.

     

    Why would you get fooled and by what? Age of Conan is currently a very good game. I've been playing it for the past month and it's some of the most fun I've had in an MMO in a while.

    I have heard that it sucked at launch, but the game is supposed to have come a very long way.

     "It sucked at launch" ?  That's being kind! 

    Age of Conan was still a Closed Beta product over a year after release (retail launch May 2008) .  This MMO did not deliver on it's promise and did not  become a viable retail product worth buying until version 1.05 was released some months ago (2009).  One glaring example of a series of fails is DX-10, touted as being in the game on the retail game box at release in May 2008, was but one of a long list of falures, disappointments and excuses -- DX-10 was not available in the live game until well into 2009.

    Yet, in spite of all that, the actual and real "shame" here, Fuggo, is being so small and/or closed minded about the Age of Conan MMO we have today.

    Fuggo's attitude reminds me of those people (including myself) still serving whine with their cheese about SOE after the Star Wars Galaxy NGE debacle.  But here's the difference:

    With the SWG NGE, SOE did not listen and outright lied to their player community and, in their total arrogance, never did admit or correct their disasterous mistakes/miscalculations with SWG.  Therefore, like many, I too, will never touch an SOE product again because of that fiasco.

    FunCom, on the other hand, reacted to the Age of Conan disaster by replacing the game director, greatly increasing the customer service staff, silencing while re-educating their marketing director, and shuffling or outright replacing other corporate staff, all while roling up their sleeves to transform the AoC MMO into what we were promised at launch in May 2007 and actually delivering  much more than we expected.

    So while FunCom failed in that they didn't learn from their own history (the many serious issues and growing pains of Anarchy Online) -- those who don't learn from history are forced to repeat it -- FunCom, having done that, did turn Age of Conan around, much the same as they did for AO.

     

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