Age of Conan - Conquerors revamp patch Tuesday

The US servers for Age of Conan will come down for an update on Tuesday, September 15th at 11 am GMT / 7 am EDT. The downtime is scheduled to last around 6 hours.

This update will also include changes to the Conqueror class. Characters who are Conquerors will also receive a free reset

We will publish the patch notes here once they are available.

Enjoy!

Age of Conan - End of month Community Letter

Craig Morrison, Game Director for Age of Conan has released the latest community letter detailing game updates for the coming year.

Some of the highlights include

• Rise of the Godslayer

Includes information on how the world will be less linear and more open thanks to Khitai not being well mapped unlike Hyboria in general.

Also, discussions on...

• Splitting the future updates up into smaller parts
• House of Crom and Iron Tower
• Tier Three Raiding
• Guild Renown
• And the Veterans System

Click this link to read more...

Quick post - Whats up?

Hey all

So, isn't it odd that I run a game blog about Age of Conan, yet have been playing the game so much that I do not have time to post?

ARGH !!

Anyways, I am currently hard at work as so much is going on now.

The Monday Night Guild (Creeping Darkness) will have their first meetup tomorrow (yup...you guessed it...Monday). New characters will be made for the son and wife, and my level 49 Tempest of Set is in. The leader of that guild, Omuro (Blamefulgecko on twitter) is working defiantly on his Bear Shaman to get him to level. We also have a tank who may need some help as well (lower levels)...but that is what the plan is all about!! A set team playing regularly, leveling, hitting dungeons, working on gathering and resources...building up the Guild City (especially for the next patch, 1.06, which will be introducing Guild incentives, kind of like EQ2).

BTW, before I go on, a quick shout to Blamefulgecko, who has started a new blog. Make sure to visit him here.

I also am testing the latest revamp on the Bear Shaman. But, I have not had too much time, as also the family guild has been dilligently leveling, and have hit the 50's. We need to do our Destiny Quests, crafting...

AGHHH...See what I mean?

Did I mention, the next iteration of the 1.05 patch (1.05.5) will be a revamp of the DARK TEMPLAR??...OMG...WHY?

Seems I got a lot to do. But, I sure do not want to forget you guys. Hopefully I will get some posting going on this week. And as always...

Thanks for stopping by. Cheers.

Age of Conan - Angry Rant and Bear Shamans

I have a new post up at Angry Rant News about the balancing act that Age of Conan is doing, in regards to balancing the overall game and classes...

In particular, I discuss todays patch (notes HERE) and the changes to two classes that have really "sucked" for me.

Bear Shaman and Barbarian.

In honor of todays patch, which is a revamp of these classes, I have a level 20 Bear Shaman ready to rock, and level using the new changes. I hope to have him in the new Casual Guild for goofing off with...but, I will try to make some notes of how the class feels now after this update, and report that here also.

Hope everyone is having a good week, and will be back to chat soon.

Cheers

Age of Conan - "Oh what a night.."

Continuing my run of old songs and how they match to how my game time is going...(sorry it is disco this time)

Anyways, just wanted to touch base and let you guys know that the news on Patch 1.05 is pretty amazing.

Went on a raid for the first time with the new guild last night, and downed the toughest Tier 1 boss, Kyllikki, with no deaths. I also got to walk out with a shiny new pair of boots!

(UPDATED: Added original format (top) and new gear stats format (bottom), so you can note the difference of how the gear works. Talk about a more readable set of numbers eh?.)

Great stuff. Well run raid, and the fact that strats changed, the fights were tougher, this proved to be more fun and challenging.

Can't wait for the next raid!

The guild also is proving to be quite personable and good to talk to. I chatted on vent with two members for about an hour after the raid discussing gaming in general. We were duly impressed with the fact that as other MMO's get easier, AoC decided to get tougher, and in doing so has become more exciting to log into.

One member is a regular EQ2 player, and has been for years. But, says when it comes time to raid, for now he wants to play AoC...

Maybe it is the newness, but he said he feels the game offers something more, with the challenge of the raids, and the differences of the strats.

The other, an avid Robert E Howard enthusiast could not stop going on about how the game captures the world in his eyes, and when he steps into character, he sees the books everytime.

This is high praise.

And these guys have been playing AoC for about 10 months now..so there is a contingent of longevity within this guild.

Ok, enough excitement for this morning...time to log in for a while and figure out what I want for my level 50!

Cheers

Age of Conan - Brief Update on Changes

First off...wow!

What a whirlwind of a few days. Making changes, playing with specs, and quitting a guild...oh my!

First off, the guild.

As I had discussed previously I joined a raids guild to try and see how I would feel about working that path. I had my first chance to work with these guys Tuesday night on a raid I have done 4 times...Vistrix.
To say it was a disaster is an under achievement. I was blown away at how bad the tank was, and how the "stick to one strategy and don't stray" attitude worked...badly.
I kept seeing the same people die 3 different times, and no adjustment to strategy. At that point I had to leave for the night due to work the next day.

But, this is only a piece of the issue.

When I joined, it seemed the guild was not into meeting the new guy...and I can understand how people react when someone new comes in..but, there was hardly any conversation.
The night of the raid (Tuesday), as I joined the vent channel, someone (who happened to be a guild leader) says "Who is this Amatheon?". I was taken aback, and while in game just typed "Uh...hello, I can hear you"
No "Hey welcome" or anything afterwards as well. When I asked about going on the raid, I could hear the frustration from that same person as he said "Well, I did want to take my DT, I guess he can wait".

I felt out of place...like the 3rd wheel.

Maybe this is why I have always stuck to large casual guilds, as this really just makes someone not feel like they should even be there.

But, it kept on after the fact. The next day after patch, I went into the new zone, and was shocked when I was attacked by a 6 man boss. He was just wandering in the vicinity of other mobs. Usually most 6 mans have a specific locale they hang out at. This guy was just all over the zone.
I noted this in guild chat, and was instantly assailed with "Dude, 6 man bosses are all over this game...get over it".

WOW!

Luckily I took my time and went to my alt, who was not in a guild. That is when I saw a new advert, with their website...

House of Heroes

A great website, lots of information, and a laid out guild policy (missing from the other guild).
I chatted quite a bit with the leader...who is a woman from Tennessee. Family, etc.
This sounded good.
They discussed their raid situation and the times meshed with mine. As well, they wanted to TALK with me, and I logged into their vent and chatted for a bit.

It felt right.

Who knows, it may never be, but, I have not been a guild person very much, so lets see how this plays out...

Enough on that, lets look at changes.

Speccing characters feats is the number one thing to do once you get into the game since the patch, but it has been difficult as they have changed quite a bit.
I used a page called "Ask Kalanthes" to build my feat list before doing it in game. It is just one free respec, so I needed to make it count.


I had a blast. I gained a new skill that looks awesome when it goes off, and makes me a better "off tank" as well (will aggro up to 4 mobs...nice!). As well, several of my skills and fatalities have new animations, so that was a treat.
I also continued on my new character, a Herald of Xotli. Quite fun really, and his specs were easy at such a low level.

One nice feature added is when you level up, you can see how you gain adjustments now to your various attributes...basically when you level, you know what is happening!



Look at the left side, and you can see all of the messages of the attributes gaining points.

Otherwise, the patch just helps everything make more sense.
Little things also let you become more in tune with your character.
For example, like most MMO's, damage is flying through the air in a number dance..
AoC has went a step further and adjusted "Critical" visuals.
They pop up in large font, separate from the rest of the damage and stick in the air for a moment so you can give yourself a pat on the back for the deadly damage you have done.

Finally performance in DX10 has improved...but only for Nvidia cards.

I had to actually pull my ATI card due to massive slowdowns. I could not get it to even out for the life of me.
And it was drastic...going from 40-60 FPS down to 1 FPS.
I kid you not.
I put back in the GTX260 I purchased a couple of months back for the LCD tests, and it is smooth as butter.

Hope ATI or Funcom figure that out real fast.

Anyways, should be a fun weekend. I will try to get some new screenies of the different visual effects and new damage display systems.

I expect a LOT of fun is ahead!

Age of Conan - "This is how we do it.."

Refrerring back that old 80's hit...

This is basically how you keep old customers happy and start on the track to bring new customers in.

The patch yesterday went quite smoothly. A few niggles exists, but so far the forums is not full of the hate posts that we got "Funcommed" or the usual diatribes.

The servers went down for a noted 12 hours, but was up after 8 hours. The changes were in place and working. New things like turning your horse into an ability instead of an item was easy to figure out. Feats were all removed so you had a free respec. The new zone is working quite well with minimal to no issues.

Of course the usual complaints were heard "You nerfed my class" "The game will not start" "Weird animations" "Where is my skill"...

But, people are also excited. I read more posts of "Ooo, look at this new skill" or "I love the gear changes" were heard more often.

"That is how we do it.."

Now, back to the new zone...or I still have to make my new level 50...but, I really like my new HoX...seems the changes to my ToS do not suck, and actually make me want to play him...AGGHHH...............

Decisions, decisions.

Age of Conan - Patch Notes Arrive

It is a pretty big list. What I will do is touch on some highlights. You can read the full list here.

______________________________________

NEW PLAYFIELD - Tarantia Commons

• Tarantia Commons is now available! This area is recommended for levels 75-80 and it can be accessed in Old Tarantia, just left after crossing the Bridge of Vilerus I, near the gate to the Noble District. Speak to Vialli outside the gate to begin your exploration of this new area with a quest.
• There are also two new dungeons located in Tarantia Commons. "Attilius' Mansion" for solo players and "Crows’ Nest" for groups of 6 players.

This fully fleshes out all levels, and quest progression exists for all who wish a complete adventure to the end.

GUILD CITY-LIFE REVAMP

Locals and tourists alike have flocked to guild cities, settling, traveling, selling, and generally making a life for themselves. As your city grows, its population becomes more dense and varied.

Guilds become worth something. More is being worked on also for patch 1.06 for Guilds.

COMBAT

• The Base HP for all characters has been increased. The HP gain per Constitution point has also been greatly increased.
• All combos have had their damage and stamina cost re-calculated and adjusted.
• All spells and abilities have had their damage and mana cost re-calculated and adjusted.
• The out of combat regeneration granted by food and drink (for health, mana and stamina) has been increased according to the changes done to those player stats.

These are just a few changes.. This all goes in line with the new atributes tab and gear progression system.

ITEMS

• All items have been adjusted for the new systems!
• All classes now have access to the cloth/silk armor type.

The biggest change. Stats now mean something. When you look at two pieces of armor, you will know how to tell the difference thanks to a legible numbers syste,

The second item makes it so anyone can wear the cool looking cloth based clothing which gives a more social feel. (They just need an apperance tab)

GEM REVAMP

This update introduces a total overhaul of the gem system with a new, more flexible system for augmenting your equipment with gems.

I think this says it all, but follow link to read actual changes.

___________________

I could go on, but there is so much. Let me touch on a few others.

Pets - Social pets will be available for players.

Performance - The DX10 client has had an overhaul and overall fixes have gone in

Little things like new fonts and UI adjustments.

EVERY class has had an overhaul.

To say this is ambitious for ANY MMO is pretty much on target. Blizzard has had major patches, but nothing with content AND an overhaul of the internal game systems.

The overhaul is key to many players due to people getting equipment and feeling like they cannot understand how it works or what benefit the player would receive.

Gems is another bonus, as some of the gems were worthless and just did not feel like they added anything of import.

I guess I will not know how this will work...even today as the game is down for 12 some hours. And we will not know if this will be all, as we know how major patches go for Funcom (yet, they continue to do them...but, I have heard this is the last time they will attempt something this huge).

As the news hits, I will post. I am sure EU should be launching during the next few hours...so stay tuned.

Age of Conan - Attributes lists

As part of patch 1.05, a change in the layout of the Attributes for the player has been adopted.

This is basically a mathematicians dream, with so much data to track, especially with how gear works.

First off, lets look at the screens I have here for each tab of Attributes..

There is quite a bit of detail here. Originally most of this data was relegated to just one tab. So, the fact 4 tabs seperated with tons of info really is pretty nice.

So far this is just one piece to the puzzle. I will try to get the gear data out soon as well.

The next few days is going to be harsh, so stick around for all the changes.

Cheers

Age of Conan - OFFICIAL!!

The servers will come down for an update (1.05) on the 24th of June at 9 am GMT / 5 am EDT. The downtime is scheduled to last about 12 hours.

This changes EVERYTHING in Age of Conan.

Keep an eye here for more on the upcoming new patch called Update 5: Gangs of Tarantia!

Age of Conan - Patch notes and expectations

Wednesday is the first major content patch, along with some major overhauls of the systems in place in AoC. I wanted to review some of these here...(complete notes at this link)

NEW DUNGEONS

• Cradle of Decay is a level 43 group instance which can be accessed through the Field of the Dead.
• The Slaughterhouse Cellar is a level 80 single player instance located in Thunder River just south of the palisades area.
• Xibaluku is a level 80 group instance located in Thunder River on the prison island. There is a quest pre-requisite to enter this area. You can begin this quest by speaking to General Lupercus in Thunder River. (This quest will send you into the The Slaughterhouse Cellar to obtain items).
• Black Ring Citadel, Wing 3 is a level 80 raid instance that can now be accessed from Kheshatta between the entrances to Wing 1 and Wing 2.

A sore subject for some has been endgame content. The bosses that were present had several bugs in the encounters as well, so to do anything endgame became difficult (but not impossible, as several major raids were being done on a regular basis..). Along with the major content added above (I love that all areas were covered...solo, small group, large group), but the bugged encounters have now been fixed. This means twice as much endgame material.

But, this is not all for endgame..

PVP/ MASSIVE PVP

• This update introduces a new type of crafting resources. These new resources can be found in Border Kingdoms, Cimmerian End. The resources are used to build and repair battlekeeps and player shave a chance to drop them when they die in PvP. The recipes required can be found in the NPC camps located in this playfield.

Basically PvP endgame become a loot drop instance (but only resources). This makes for a competitive zone with players working to gather these resources through conflict. This makes the PvP system an admirable play style.
Now, there were complaints about issues with the PvP system due to some exploits in the overall scheme. These issues have been fixed...including splash damage exploits and guard exploits for low/high level encounters.
Many more fixes as well in PvP. Enhancements to PvP minigames has also been done with an overhaul of the interface and join system for those who wish to PvP on a PvE server.

Quite a few class balance changes have been done, UI changes, and..one of my personal favorites for this patch...

ITEMS

• Treasure Chests throughout Hyboria have been improved and filled with more loot!

This is also noted as being a rather large patch, which should make repairs to clients if they have crashed and a new checking tool for finding client corruption issues to prevent re-downloading patches which would happen on rare occasions.

This is the first MAJOR patch for Funcom, and I will be watching to see how this progresses. Previous patches had caused issues when Gaute was on board as no QA seemed to be going on. Craig is a whole different player here, and is more concerned about AoC's health. This should be great stuff.

I have Craig's twitter in my Blog list on the right (Silirrion), and hopefully we should see updates from him on a regular basis.

Excitement is an understatement today...so I will be playing later today and hopefully get some more info to you.

Cheers