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PVP Evolved - Drastic Enhancements Coming!
Posted: - 13.06.2008

Did you know that the majority of Age of Conan players is playing on servers flagged for player vs. player activities? We do, and this month we are about to introduce a slew of drastic improvements that will breathe new life into this important gameplay feature!

Following the launch of Age of Conan we sat down immediately and started fleshing out some ideas for what we wanted to do with the PvP (player vs. player) features in the game, and now we are ready to reveal it to you. All of these changes, additions and improvements are expected to hit within the end of June or very early July.

Here are some of the exciting things you will see pop into the game any day now.

PvP consequences – the fugitive system

No longer will evil misdeeds go unpunished. Of course, Hyboria is ruthless and barbaric so don’t expect anyone to deal out justice just because someone smacks you about with a very heavy axe, but some justice is actually now being introduced to the world.

This is where the fugitive system comes in, presented in a set of colors defining your fugitive status – from blue to orange and eventually the deadly red.

Everyone is by default classified as “blue”, but your actions as a player killer will affect your fugitive rating. If you kill someone way under your level, you will notice that you will very quickly move to red. So will actions such as killing someone repeatedly, or other general unfairness. The more serious the crime, the quicker you rise in fugitive.

Obtaining red status will be quite painful to you. This means that other players can kill you without rising in fugitive level, and if they manage to kill you while you have red fugitive you will actually drop one of your better items and gold that they can loot!

Of course, turning red will be a double-edged sword. Sure, it will get you a lot of attention and many will probably see you as a danger to be avoided. But at the same time, people will hunt you down for your items and your gold so be very, very careful!

PvP levels, ranks and PvP gear enabled

Now it is very important that we underline the fact that the fugitive system is not meant to punish player killing. It is only meant to punish unfair player-killing. Player killing in general is a central part of Age of Conan, so we also want to reward you for it!

That’s why we are now activating PvP levels. Soon you will be able to gain PvP levels by simply engaging in such activities, and there will be 10 such PvP levels in total.

However, that’s not all. Once you have reached the 10th PvP level you will be able to earn special PvP ranks beyond that. These are very hard to acquire, and you will lose ranks if you get defeated so it’s a constant battle to keep you rank up. And you will want to both gain PvP levels and keep your PvP rank up, as this will give you very exclusive benefits.

That’s because we will be introducing PvP specific gear in this update. You will be able to seek out a special vendor that sells this gear, and if you can afford it and you have the required PvP level (or PvP rank for some higher level items), then you can buy it!

PvP gear will come in all shapes and sizes. Some will be class and race specific, while some will be usable by everyone. Below you can take a look at some of the gear that we have available in our internal builds right now. Of course, a lot more will be available!

General fixes and improvements to PvP

Of course, improving PvP in Age of Conan is not only about introducing such high-profile features and content. It’s also about making various small changes, fixes, improvements and additions needed to make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

We will be doing various fine-tuning, and the patch notes for this update will of course contain the specifics. But let’s take a look at some of the changes that we are making.

First off, we are introducing a dueling functionality. This allows players to duel each other, both on PvP and PvE servers, without any serious repercussions. It also allows players on PvE servers to engage in PvP without having to go into the PvP mini-games, allowing them to test their grit (or solve an argument) against each other directly!

We are also doing major changes to the way damage is handled in PvP (without going into any more specific details right now), and we are also making it so that you can not attack members of your own guild (now you can duel instead, of course).

Other changes you will observe are for instance improvements to the “charge” ability that all soldier classes have. If you charge someone you will stun them, making it much more useful. Casters will also see major improvements, so keep your eyes out for more news!