Age of Conan - Why no PvP love?

Over the last year or more Age of Conan has been taking strides to fix the overall structure of it's game-play to accommodate new players. In all actuality it has been a move to "fix" the original launch issues and at least make the game playable.




Balance, content, new additions of armor, crafting recipes and more have been put into the game.

What does that all sound like though? PVE.

Simply put, the direction of the game has changed since launch. It is now more of a casual friendly MMO RPG for PVE players than the original intent; "A Savage, brutal world...".

As of late, a sea change has occurred though in respects to how players are feeling about these changes. There is no doubt that the discussion of the changes have shown to be effective. So much so, that the game is receiving "Most improved" awards through some news outlets, population is holding steady and even rising on Xfire; players have been discussing their return to the game on the forums.
But, there is no doubt that the changes have not been enough for those players who respected Funcom enough to stick it out through their endeavors. Dissent and discourse has been the result of ignoring a half of the population (according to Craig Morrison, there is a 50/50 split of PVE-PVP players).

PVP players have started quite a few threads on the forums discussing that in reality, two years of Age of Conan has not brought any NEW challenge for PVP players, except the murder system. But, this system has proven to be broken and causes more heartache than adventure. The Siege mechanics, which was another form of high end group PVP is still in dire need of fixes due to lag and unplayability. The list goes on.

This thread describes it best..."It is quite obvious that the whole PVP department of Age of Conan is put on the back burner and is always the "last thing to work on".

Some of the concerns are:

1. Mini-game maps - 2 years and the same 4 maps still exist since launch
   
2. Battlekeeps - No change for 2 years running. New content was teased on testlive, then taken away and noted probably not until after expansion (6-8 months?)
3. Sieges - hardware changes to help with DC's, but no fix for lags or certain criteria still causing poor performance.
4. World PVP - Seems to take place mostly in one location, as most players are afraid of irritating guards which gives murder status...even if you were the one murdered.
5. Glory - Part of the new renown system. Yet, takes twice as long to level as just sitting around and crafting.
6. Arena's - Awesome idea. But, why would a PVP player do them when they equal ZERO PVP points?

It is quite obvious that after the change of Game Director, we can see that the focus of the game changed immensely. But, you may ask; does it matter?

We have the financials which show revenue for the game is still not quite there yet. But, since the new renown system has been added as of last patch (1.06), Xfire shows a major increase in activity bumping it into the high 40's (#48 today for example, which it has not seen since the 1.05 patch over 8 months ago). Discussion of the new expansion has people ready to return once that launches.

Could it be that forgetting a part of your player population and going for that PVE slant is more in line toward profit? Is PvP even needed? With the new expansion (estimates place it launching anywhere between April to June), and the core of that new game having over 85 to 90% PVE, maybe the expansion will give us the final answer.

We kinda miss ya PVP, but PVE seems to love us more.

Should Funcom be ignoring this population so long? Should more effort be put into PVP now? Or is PVE where it's at for Age of Conan? Voice your opinions.

Cheers

Age of Conan - Massively discusses RoG

Rise of the Godslayer, the new expansion for Age of Conan was discussed in detail on Massively (Source).

It does look like some clarification is needed though, as the article mentions one point.

"Interestingly, the Gateway to Khitai, which is part of a 20-to-40 area, is the only new area being added with the expansion. The vibe we got was that Funcom wants to flesh out the less potent part of the game world's content and this level spread was the weakest link -- at least until now."

This proves to be a conundrum when information like this is stated, when in fact Craig has gone on record at one point discussing new "Level 80" content.

"The steppes of the Gateway to Khitai provide level 20-40 adventuring, and lead players up to the Great Wall. But not beyond it.

Lots of sheer cliffs, lots of rope bridges; some areas have a Thousand Needles vibe.

To get beyond the Wall and into Khitai proper, you'll need a high-level character"(Source)

.

Hopefully this will be rectified
In the mean time, there is still some good information there, so please give it a read.

Age of Conan - Khitai lore

Over at the Cimmerian blog is a 3 part series as it relates to the Khitai.

The Khitai are the new race being introduced in the Age of Conan expansion "Rise of the Godslayer".

The posts deal with an in depth look at various culture reference, lore and what has been noted by Funcom so far.

This first part of the series deals with Geography and Ecology

The second deals with Religion and Culture

The third is based on the Peoples and Trade.

If you are like me, and enjoy how the lore works in Age of Conan, how Funcom strictly stick to guidelines and how the world in AoC matches the books, this is a great read.
Craig Morrison has stated that a lot of research has went into studying Asian culture, buildings, etc. So, hopefully a lot of what we see on these posts will be integrated.

Enjoy.

Age of Conan - Rise of the Godslayer

Announced on Tuesday, Funcom unveiled the information along with trailers and more for their new expansion for Age of Conan...Rise of the Godslayer

There is quite a bit at the link noted above, with an FAQ and screenshots section, so I will not bore you with those details.
Instead, I would like to talk about what Funcom is doing with this expansion...

A Horizontal progression system.

I do not think we need to go on about how bad the launch of this game was...but it was, and if anything, people still feel the game is not even done. I beg to differ on this at times, as I can play the game EVERYDAY, and I enjoy it immensely, even if others cannot find that.

This may be my own personal changes in how I feel about MMO's (I have yet to get excited about any new MMO on the horizon, and all of the betas that use to excite me a year ago, now bore or disappoint), but everytime I log in, I am busy and having fun.

So, with this announcement, I think the major issue to me was...please do not add more levels.

Funcom did not (thank you!).

Instead an alternate system of new abilities, spells and combos will be added to the current level system. They also discuss the "Advancement Point System". Or, as I like to call it...achievements..

That is what it boils down to. Yet, it is not, and that is what rocks about it.

Eurogamer has this to say

"You will earn points to spend on new abilities and combos, many of which will naturally have an Asian martial arts theme. You will also be able to train your abilities to a more powerful level using an offline, time-based skill-training system not unlike EVE Online's. The aim is more depth to combat and a diversification of each class, allowing them to take on more roles, according to Morrisson."

You can read a lot into this. And it almost feels very "Guild Wars", where you focus on specific areas of achievement depending on what types of skills you wish to use. I actually thought the idea of the offline system is ingenious for a Fantasy MMO, and have only seen one Fantasy based MMO try it...but, I cannot even remember that games name (PS: It has been shutdown, I know that...lol)

So, what does this do? Well, for new characters, they will have more areas to look into for training. The feat system is already pretty fun, but this new system speaks of "training" these attributes, which sounds way cool.

For older characters, it is another reason to play than to raid.

This system makes it viable for new and old players in so many words...no one is left out.

This also precludes another norm for expansions...new classes. RotG (hehe...new acronym...yea) by having this new system will make it so any class can learn new abilities, so why introduce a new class to cause more balance issues.

And THIS is the final piece of that puzzle that makes it complete to me.

Thanks to using this system, balance can be kept to a minimum and with a set of skills across all classes, they only need to balance that skill within the context of the current game. Not make it so this new set of abilities are balanced against all the other class skills.

Hope that makes sense.

If anything, Funcom took a very safe method with this expansion. They can continue working on the game, balancing classes, balancing PvP (which this expansion does not add a whole lot of, but is more PvE oriented...just what niche games thrive on), and let the new content add onto the current game.

Many other things were discussed and you can read them at the above links. But, with things like mounts you raise and train, new gear from factions, new dungeons (an AoC strength) and a new race with an alternate storyline in Tortage (which some people are still bummed about...meh, I can whip through Tortage in 3-4 hours, so a new story is cool,,,and does not hurt me.)...this looks good.

Hopefully it will be priced reasonably, and as long as Funcom continues working on the current game (the next patch session, 1.06, will be a major Guild system revamp), I am pretty excited about this expansion.