Post - Age of Conan Expansion and New Content Revealed
Some interesting stuff about Age of Conan from Games Convention here.
I just hope they're able to implement this (real) soon while there are still players enough left to enjoy it...
Quote:
On top of teasing the first Age of Conan expansion, Funcom has shown off some of the forthcoming free content updates to its fantasy MMO Age of Conan at Leipzig.
Funcom highlighted two new zones, new and revamped dungeons and itemisation, and the graphical updates to be expected from the game's future DirectX 10 support.
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Ellingsen demonstrated the Commons district of the capital city Tarantia, expected soon. This mid-level slum area allows players to pick a side in a gang war between street bandits and the rulers of the rooftops. Questing will include thieving, exploration and stealth gameplay as well as combat, and complex storylines with moral choices.
Attention then moved on to the Black Castle dungeon, which is being extensively revamped. Originally a basic dungeon aimed at solo players, it will soon be a more sophisticated group dungeon featuring traps and puzzles reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda - shooting an eye with an arrow to kill a giant snake, or standing on pressure pads to allow your team-mates to pass flame-throwers.
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The new outdoor area Ymir's Pass, for level 55 players and above, was shown. This beautiful Cimmerian mountain region has "dozens of hours" of content and a striking, ruined-amphitheatre dungeon. The Frostfather - a giant familiar from Robert E. Howard's stories - was shown imprisoned here. In a nod to the 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan films, Ymir's Pass also features the Wheel of Pain.
Ellingsen also showed screens and concept art of two top-level dungeons that are in development, but a little further off. The first, in an advanced stage of development, will be a group instance in Thunder River. The second, in the early stages only, will be a "huge" Cimmerian dungeon called the House of Crom, a social group dungeon where several groups can adventure at once.
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On the anticipated update to the game's player-versus-player systems - originally expected some weeks ago - Ellingsen would only say that it was expected "relatively" soon. (In fact, he said "very soon", and then corrected himself.)
Looks very good, but it needs to be added soon, but if they manage to deliver what they promise there then I'm sure many players will be returning again.
I've played a bit on the testlive server now, and the new PvP system looks very promising so it probably wont be very long before it goes live as well..
Looks very good, but it needs to be added soon, but if they manage to deliver what they promise there then I'm sure many players will be returning again.
I've played a bit on the testlive server now, and the new PvP system looks very promising so it probably wont be very long before it goes live as well..
I think this is one of the biggest problems with gaming companies and games themselves, MMO's in there current form have been around almost 11 years now they are not new and there is little "wow!" factor left with them therefore you can not just roll out half finished poorly designed games and expect them to do well even if you do promise to finish it at a later date.
It is clear that AOC was released (like many others) way to soon, now they seem to think that people are going to buy an expansion to provide the content that should have been in the game on release.
I am a firm believer that success or failure is determined on release and no amount of good work down the track will change that as first impressions are all that count.
All of the content in that video will be released for free, but as you said, it should have been there from day one...
I still play and enjoy AoC, but I can certainly feel the lack of content at certain levels so it will be great to see these new zones live soon...
PvP, end-game content and new gear will be crucial for the survival of AoC, and I'm pretty sure that Funcom is aware of that and are working on it right now..
They have a great game engine there and that's the hardest part to develop, adding new content is much easier so they should be able to pull that off (hopefully.. )
All of the content in that video will be released for free, but as you said, it should have been there from day one...
I still play and enjoy AoC, but I can certainly feel the lack of content at certain levels so it will be great to see these new zones live soon...
PvP, end-game content and new gear will be crucial for the survival of AoC, and I'm pretty sure that Funcom is aware of that and are working on it right now..
They have a great game engine there and that's the hardest part to develop, adding new content is much easier so they should be able to pull that off (hopefully.. )
I have been looking at Warhammer online as well but I have a strong suspicion that too will be a royal failure, too many bugs, outdated graphics and nothing that really stands out above anything else on the market.
We constantly hearing gaming companies talk of 2nd, 3rd and fourth generation MMO's and yet not one of them so far has been able to provide anything more than a cosmetic upgrade on Ultima Online and in most cases they haven't even provided that, to date only Star Wars Galaxies has shown any real level of development with space combat and the ability to play support classes that do not require adventuring and I suspect that this is more due to them both having the same lead designer.
Last edited by MontyB; August 25th, 2008 at 22:07.
Many of those who have announced that they quit AoC in the official forum have said that Warhammer Online will be the death of AoC etc.. But judging bu what I've seen and read about I'm afraid that they are in for a big dissapoint there (as well), so several of them will return to AoC when/if they manage to add the new content and fixes soon...
This weeks patch wont contain the PvP upgrade, only some bug fixes and Seiege fixes, but I'm pretty sure that Funcom is working very hard to complete it after the exposure they got at Games Convention so it'll hopefully be rolled out next week..
Many of those who have announced that they quit AoC in the official forum have said that Warhammer Online will be the death of AoC etc.. But judging bu what I've seen and read about I'm afraid that they are in for a big dissapoint there (as well), so several of them will return to AoC when/if they manage to add the new content and fixes soon...
This weeks patch wont contain the PvP upgrade, only some bug fixes and Seiege fixes, but I'm pretty sure that Funcom is working very hard to complete it after the exposure they got at Games Convention so it'll hopefully be rolled out next week..
Hehe every game that has ever been released is going to kill the one before if people are to be believed and yet Ultima online staggers on 10 years after the game that people swore was going to kill it EverQuest was released which in turn still churns out expansions well after its demise was predicted by the release of Dark Age of Camelot.
Many of those who have announced that they quit AoC in the official forum have said that Warhammer Online will be the death of AoC etc.. But judging bu what I've seen and read about I'm afraid that they are in for a big dissapoint there (as well), so several of them will return to AoC when/if they manage to add the new content and fixes soon...
This weeks patch wont contain the PvP upgrade, only some bug fixes and Seiege fixes, but I'm pretty sure that Funcom is working very hard to complete it after the exposure they got at Games Convention so it'll hopefully be rolled out next week..
I have heard nothing but GOOD things about WAR. The NDA dropped last week, and it looks like a winner based on what the testers are saying.
I quit AOC and went to DDO. I like DDO much better, I got sick of the ganking, bugs and unfinished or half baked features. There is a sign up for the open BETA for WAR for North America, New Zealand and Australia. Nothing for Europe...yet.
edit: based on reviews of the beta testers I have preordered WAR and also Mercenaries 2
Last edited by mmarsh; August 28th, 2008 at 16:02.
AoC really isn't a bad game, but it's too bad that Funcom (over)hyped it so much before launch, and still haven't been able to add many of the features they promised at launch..
I still play it from time to time, but the lack of content and now lack of players are seriously beginning to get annoying..
It looks like they'll release a big patch next week, but it contains far from everything they've promised so I don't think it will matter much right now..
But it 4-6 months this can be a really great game IF Funcom are able to deliver what they're promising..
But this is why it is important to release a game well which includes having all of the content it promised because who will be left in 4-6 months to make use of the new content.
Old games do not attract large quantities of new players no matter what they do to enhance the game after release, in general all they can do is keep adding content to stop the player drain to newer games and in 4 - 6 months there will be two new MMO's on the market.
