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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Exclusive - Fort Ardashir Reveal
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
The fine folks at Funcom have decided to share with us the exclusive details on their brand new dungeon: Fort Ardashir. As a part of the forthcoming Savage Coast of Turan Adventure Pack, the new instance focuses on the military honcho General Arman and his henchmen as the baddies, players have a lot to be excited about in this new instance for the newly F2P game.
For this instance the team wanted to continue the great work that had seen the release of the new Paikang district team instances earlier in the year. With a focus on interesting boss encounters set in a great location. The fort itself is surprisingly varied and large without getting tiresome to navigate. As they fight their way into the fort, they will come upon the massive courtyard where players find the first boss encounter, Commander Kamangir, mounted on his formidable war Rhino. Complimented by his elite archers on the walls above, players will face a dual threat, trying to avoid his lethal charges, as well as the dangers of the arrows raining upon them from above.
Read the rest of Funcom's Exclusive - Fort Ardashir Reveal.
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Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
Looks like it could be pretty interesting.
Looks like a great content upgrade for Age of Conan, if funcom will continue to add content in such a timeframe as we saw from June untill August I will be a very glad Age of Conan player.
Lets hope funcom will keep a hold on its players and continue with their support to the game. I certain hope Age of Conan will remain for the next 5 years with at least a great team behind it.
Dirty marketing.
AoC is still pay to play in a lot of ways when you consider how limited a purely free account is in terms of game content compared to those that open their wallets to Funcom. Even this next update is nothing more than another cash shop pack which you are required to pay for to gain access to?
I don't know but the "F2P" model of AoC just doesn't sit well with me.
Looks fun, too bad I don't play a free to play game that requires VIP membership AND a cash shop.
Of course there are things you need to pay for, it's a hybrid F2P model just like others we've seen. However, with 4 available classes you're able to play all the questing/leveling content from all the regions of the original game including added areas up to level 80. That's quite a lot of game content if 80 to 90% of the original game is available to you.
Each hybrid F2P model has its different areas where you're required to pay for extra convenience or content.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
eh?
looks good but you dont like to play a game because it gives you the choice of playing free with a shop (to 80) or paying for a subscription. And F2p saved the game to boot.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I agree with Maverick. I don't see anythign dirty about it. I don't play the game myself since the F2P is a little too limited for my taste buds. Only 4 out of the 12 classes isn't too bad but none of the free 4 interest me.
I love turbines approach to the F2P model. You can earn points in game to purchase stuff. While it is possible, it's not likely to get you everything since the grind is gonna take a very long time, but it gives the player the choice. I played it for a couple months and invested in it what I would have ina sub game for the same amount of time. Game was't for me but I supported their F2P structure.
The hybrids I generally don't care for since I always feel I am missing out on too much. I'd rather just sub but to be honest there aren't any games worth subbing to out there for me that I haven't played already. The new content for AOC does look decent though.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
You can happily play to level 80, thats months of entertainment for nothing, and servers cost money to run. People needs to engage their brain and get their head around the fact that there are different ways now in which you can pay your £120 a year, one route of which gives people free umlimited time to trial the game.
'how limited a purely free account is in terms of game content compared to those that open their wallets to Funcom'
its free.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I've played AoC when it was P2P and I can tell you that they intentionally shafted F2P players to milk as much money out of them as they can. Unchained is a gloried unlimited trial imo. To pvp in AoC you have to spend money in the cash shop or be at a huge disadvantage. I guess it's no different than Pay2Win F2P MMO's with the exception that even those games you have acess to all of the games content.
I played LotrO F2P, before midgame you were lacking in questing/leveling content and doing endless tasks becomes a bore pretty quickly. I can't speak of how it is in DDO F2P but at least with AoC you'll be able to do all questing and leveling content from the original game up to level cap. In my eyes, that's a lot more attractive, but to each his own I guess.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
They have to make money some how. Will you have the exact same experience as those who are paying for stuff.. of course not.
We started off in LOTRO as a sub and weren't interested too much. We gave it a shot later when it was F2P and there wasn't much of a difference in pre midgame quests and content. Not enough to bother me anyways. I wasn't praising LOTRO, only stating that turbines approach was more to my liking if you are going to use a hybrid formula because I felt less like I was losing out on the sub players and more inclined to purchase a few things to avoid spending my hard earned points on things that I didn't want to grind for like the expansion I never made it to. The grind is tediouse and I spent money to avoid some but as I said, not more than I would have for the same amount of time invested in a sub game (roughly $20 in the 2 months I played it F2P). I aint sure about the game later on as it still failed to hold our attention for some reason, but as to the model, it felt much less restrictive in the beginning than funcoms model was all. Some content I would never have known i was missing, but in AOC the classes I wanted to play were all locked from the start.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Bad game is a bad game. AoC turned f2p to milk players , it will gather people since Conan movie is coming then slow decline will start taking population hits occasionally with new games beign released but still game will survive for a while. Well without me.
You still need money to play Conan now you just can pay it later and you have item store on top of that.
You can't even PVP in Lotro as a free player. Lotro PvP is exclusive for VIP players. Why aren't you trolling Lotro forums with your "I WANT EVERYTHING FOR FREE" type of comments.
REALITY CHECK
And then, even if you get to PvP as a VIP player, how about those tomes in Lotro which permanently rise your stat by 10 and which are quite cheap from store, and almost impossible to get in game? Aren't those little disadvantageous to free players? WAKE UP FOR F*** SAKE, paying customers will always be prioritized.
REALITY CHECK
The term of Milking People is really getting on my nervers.. now, let me explain why companies create the magical thing called a 'game'. Let me be loud and clear, it is all about getting money, money makes the world go round -- remember... duhh!
* Puts his serious face on *
I can certainly not know about how age of conan will do in the future and neither can you but Age of Conan managed to attain 300.000 members in the last 1.5 months. Now imagine, if age of conan didnt change their old policy of letting the game die there certainly wouldnt have been 300.000 extra souls in there would it? The game has changed and so has it's company, we for all should forgive a company for its mistakes made in the past and continue to look at what we have now and hopefully in the future.
No game is ever made to just entertain people, it eventually will need to lead to getting money from its players and to my opinion and the figures age of conan has done a good thing by changing to F2P. They only have not attained new members to let them spend money but they also made the current hard core players of Age of Conan happy with the PVP changes comming, the content added with the F2P transaction and the coming content patch which to my view won't arrive here later then the beginning of September.
Nobody is ever forced to spend money on a game they do not want to play. I myselft resubbed after the F2P transfer but haven't ever opened the ingame store window to take a peek at what you can purchase for real money. F2P has its advantages, and for one is that people can choose how to spend their money. Some choose to be a free player and make several purchases in the ing-ame store each month and some players chose to pay the sub of 15 dollars each month in order to be ABLE to get it all.
If age of conan won't update the 'milking' of funcom would be over soon wouldn't it?
I can easily tell you that what youre saying is not true by any means. I haven't played in 1.5 years and my gear was better then the best pvp gear I could get in the in-game store.
So. I like it. Its not bad. But people here are spoiled lil brats that expect devs and companys to deliver for free.
I never experienced PvP in either so can't comment there,
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
F2P is to have alook at the game. IMHO yu can experience the entire game from lvl 1-80 and if you are smart and read the mechanics you can (almost) F2P any class and Race you want.
Since AoC is an equipment centric game following you need high TIER Raid equipment in the End Game. You will not get that by F2P or the item shop. BUT instead of paying first and then deciding if you like the game you now can play first and decide afterwards if it is worth paying for.
If you do not like it, fair enough, play something else. AoC is and stays best graphical MMORPG out there and i do not see anyhting on the horizon challenging that.
Looks fantastic, looking forward to seeing what the team has come up with!
I think your missing the point why people are upset with the f2p model. Age of Conan F2P model is very differn't then the rest of the MMO's out there. First of all they are selling blue tier sets on the market place which are better then what you can get in dungeons, secondly if your a pvp server the people who are on top who are below lvl 80 are the ones who have bought all thier gear off the Market Place.
Every company makes games to make money, all they care about is money.. thats a fact. It's also a fact that game companys dont make games to put smiles on our faces either, but come on.. are you seriously that nieve to believe that some people out there are not going to like the fact that people are able too buy all their gear off the market place and not be mad about it? Wake up a smell the coffee buddy, because in most MMO's what they sell on the market place is something called "Vanity gear".. as far as im concerned selling full tier epics and blue sets on a market place for any game is pay 2 win, and thats beyond retarded, and more retarded for the people who actually fork out more money to pay for items that dosnt even exsist.
looks like a good amount of content. I think that is the cash-shop model to go after, and is similar to DDO and is why DDO was so successful. The problem is AOC has already doomed itself just because of it´s prior problems. But the real problem with AOC is the new pay2win. It is EXACTLY what not to do.. do not put items in the shop that allow players to dominate the game by buying. Having really good PVP gear purchasable for cash at the same time you launch a new pvp server is just terrible and is exactly the kind of money-grab that will hurt them.
Making content patches that are full of zones, quests and dungeons and selling them for a couple dollars is the way to do it. But LOTRO and DDO both are better games without all the failures of AOC and its developers.
Meh, that's your personal opinion and taste
. I liked LotrO, but I like AoC a hell of a lot better and I couldn't care less about DDO 
'the way to do it', shrug, one person likes this, the other that, there is no 'One Way' to do things. Personally I like it more when I can level to level cap without getting mindnumbingly bored because there aren't any free quest content anymore around mid level, but that's personal preference.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
It's nothing like LotRO or DDO's f2p system.
Drop from subscriber to free2play in AoC and you become limited to 2 gold, have no access to Khitai outside of the level 20 noob area "Gateway to Khitai" and no access to AA's regardless of the fact you PAID for the RotGS expansion before dropping to free2play, whereas in LotRO I have access to everything that came with my Moria collector's edition I bought before dropping to free2play and have no gold limit on any character created while I was a subscriber.
Subscribers in Lotro get something like 500 Turbine points a month to spend in the game free, AoC subscribers get 60 Paid Points a month and their shop prices make that 60 points a month laughable.
Free players in LotRO and DDO can also earn Turbine points just by playing the game. Not so in AoC.
Funcom screwed the proverbial pooch with their laughable "hybrid model". There is no free2play in AoC, only an extended and severely limited "free" trial.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-