Letter from the Game Director - June 03 2008

[Mrbloodworth]

Fellow Hyborians!

As you may have noticed we have had frequent patches the last two weeks. We hope this will soon start to quiet down, but as long as there are major issues – and there have been – we will dedicate the Conan team to fixing them and giving you these fixes as soon as possible! We have a plan on how to move this game forward because as you know, what you have today is but the platform – the dawn of this world. I hope you enjoy the game as is, but I can ensure you, this is but the beginning!

Our focus from now on can be summarized by these points:

   1. We will add content, specifically in mid-late thirties and mid-late fifties and make the leveling speed smoother in those areas, reducing the need to grind.
   2. We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things.
   3. We are fixing bugs you reported through all channels we can get information from.
   4. We will add a new large outdoor region in the 55-60 range this summer!
   5. This is only a small taster! More information about the exciting summer and fall Roadmap will come the end of the next week!
   6. We are staffing up Customer Service, Quality Assurance and Community departments!


1. Filling “thin areas” in our content

We have seen that there are certain level ranges of these Hyborian Adventures that do not have the amount of quality we wish them to have. Most specifically these are the end of the Thirties and the end of the Fifties level ranges. We are addressing this in several ways.

    * Several mid-late thirties dungeons are getting a complete overhaul (Black Castle, Pyramid of the Ancients and Treasury of the Ancients)
    * Several quests are being made fuller and more entertaining. If people wish to revisit these quests, we will add a system to let them try them out again.
    * we are adding first a batch of quests in Eiglophian Mountains (lvls 55+)
    * We are also adding in a bunch of quests that didn’t quite make it for launch in the 30+ areas.
    * Around 60 quests through the game have been flagged as “Lore Quests”. They will now be patched out with full Voice-Over. (Roughly 1 quest per level after level 20)…


2. Overhauling the PvP System

People like our open PvP system. There are many plans on how to give this open free PvP even more meaning and Purpose. In the meantime we will be doing some smaller tweaks, and we plan to get these out sometimes in June. I will not go into 100% detail here, but that will come next week! What I can promise is:

    * An update on how sneaking and perception works in PvP (nothing major, but an adjustment).
    * Un change in the amount of information you get when you hover over an other player.
    * An added system of consequence to “ganking”. (Killing much-much lower level players).
    * A system of adding consequence to losing a PvP match, and winning a PvP match + turning on PvP Leveling.
    * A change in how Crowd Control (Root, Knockback etc) works in PvP.
    * PvP gear.


3. New Massive Region

We will unveil this location later, but it will feature a host of quests, new monsters and places of dreams or horror. It will be styled towards the players in the late 50s and bridge the experience on the way to Atzels Approach. We have plans for releasing several of the areas that didn’t quite make it for the release.

4. Fixing bugs and increasing Customer Service

Funcom has always prided ourselves with having great customer satisfaction. The success so far for this title has left us with the need to increase the size of CS. This will go in parallel with the constant fixing of bugs and other issues that lead people to petition. Included in this is even better testing of the game by increasing the size of Quality Assurance and informing you better about changes by staffing up the Community Department. I know a blurb like this will haunt me always, but I will still venture one: We aren’t satisfied until all our customers are! You know we had a very, very difficult launch of Anarchy-Online! That was a very painful process for all of us working on it – 4 years. You might not understand how driven we are to make sure you enjoy this game, and all the support around it!

The future is very bright for Hyboria. There will be many bright mornings following this, the very first. Together we shall surge ahead and build the world even bigger, better and more detailed!

Please feel free to visit the official discussion thread here.

Yours truly,

Gaute Godager
Game Director
Age of Conan, Funcom

[Montague]

Very refreshing vs. Blizzard's "keep your mouth shut and promise nothing" mentality.

Now he just has to deliver.

[schild]

"Summer and Fall."

Still waiting on launch features. 

[Pennilenko]

"Summer and Fall."

Still waiting on launch features. 

Damn it damn it damn it. I just bought the game and they are going to start this crap. hehe Its a never ending cycle, isnt it? Why do these companies always get so far ahead of themselves.

[Rasix]

It looks like my "get one of each archetype to 20" project just got extended out to 40. 

[Montague]

"Summer and Fall."

Still waiting on launch features. 

Well he did say it was a small taster.  

[schild]

It looks like my "get one of each archetype to 20" project just got extended out to 40. 

That was my plan from the beginning.

But now it's two of each archetype. HUR HUR.

[Slayerik]

I give him cojones points for bringing up the AO launch.

Either way, I'm happy playing the game right now. I have hit a slow spot (at level 37) so it's good to see it being addressed.

[schild]

I give him cojones points for bringing up the AO launch.

Either way, I'm happy playing the game right now. I have hit a slow spot (at level 37) so it's good to see it being addressed.

Levels 35-40 shouldn't be that slow. Depending on your class you should be able to hop into a group in the noble district and level up quickly or go hit up some of the longer quests (more legs to it) and then hit up sanctum at 39 to get to 40. I find the hump from 28-35 to be a little more annoying - all 3 times I've done it.

[schild]

There has been a pretty major update to that post above that puts most of my worries behind me:

1. Filling “thin areas” in our content

We have seen that there are certain level ranges of these Hyborian Adventures that do not have the amount of quality we wish them to have. Most specifically these are the end of the Thirties and the end of the Fifties level ranges. We are addressing this in several ways.

    * Several mid-late thirties dungeons are getting a complete overhaul (Black Castle, Pyramid of the Ancients and Treasury of the Ancients)
    * Several quests are being made fuller and more entertaining. If people wish to revisit these quests, we will add a system to let them try them out again.
    * we are adding first a batch of quests in Eiglophian Mountains (lvls 55+)
    * We are also adding in a bunch of quests that didn’t quite make it for launch in the 30+ areas.
    * Around 60 quests through the game have been flagged as “Lore Quests”. They will now be patched out with full Voice-Over. (Roughly 1 quest per level after level 20)

All this will come in June! In July the first level 80 additional Dungeon will be patched out. More on that later…

Is someone reading f13? Hur hur.

[Threash]

35-40 was a breeze for me, probably because i insist on finishing every single quest.  At 44 it really slows down though, i finished noble district and sanctum quests and im at a loss as to where to go.

[schild]

35-40 was a breeze for me, probably because i insist on finishing every single quest.  At 44 it really slows down though, i finished noble district and sanctum quests and im at a loss as to where to go.

Around 44, go to the Oasis on the far end of Purple Lotus. There's 2 other areas also, I forget the names.

[Miasma]

35-40 was a breeze for me, probably because i insist on finishing every single quest.  At 44 it really slows down though, i finished noble district and sanctum quests and im at a loss as to where to go.

Field of the dead.

I just hit 51 and I can see the wall I'm about to hit looming.  There is only one zone to work through and the quests are already sparse, there will be old school EQ grinding soon.

[Threash]

35-40 was a breeze for me, probably because i insist on finishing every single quest.  At 44 it really slows down though, i finished noble district and sanctum quests and im at a loss as to where to go.

Field of the dead.

I just hit 51 and I can see the wall I'm about to hit looming.  There is only one zone to work through and the quests are already sparse, there will be old school EQ grinding soon.

Theres simply no comparying oldschool EQ grinding to anything in this game or any other.

[Falconeer]

Not a word on player cities.
Disappointed. Fuck them.

[Kirth]

At 56 its pretty much 4 quests that are not repeatable kill xx mobs ate this camp quests. But i'll power on to 60, someone has to test tradeskills. 

[Signe]

Well, we know Xuri reads F13 and I have all the faith in the world in our Xuri, regardless of how new he is to Funcom.  I'm sure he'll fix everything!  Really soon.  Like next week.  No pressure, Xuri!     He's just too adorable.

Although it might take cojones to bring up the AO launch, I take one back for him not mentioning how painful it was for us!  I guess one cojone is better than none.  Unless you're a girl.  In which case... I don't know how to finish this.   

[shiznitz]

Just swallow your ambivalence and move on.

[Xuri]

Well, we know Xuri reads F13 and I have all the faith in the world in our Xuri, regardless of how new he is to Funcom.  I'm sure he'll fix everything!  Really soon.  Like next week.  No pressure, Xuri!     He's just too adorable.

Meow?

[Talonus]

35-40 was a breeze for me, probably because i insist on finishing every single quest.  At 44 it really slows down though, i finished noble district and sanctum quests and im at a loss as to where to go.

Field of the dead.

I just hit 51 and I can see the wall I'm about to hit looming.  There is only one zone to work through and the quests are already sparse, there will be old school EQ grinding soon.

At 52 you should be able to solo the cannibal caves. From 52 to 56-57 grind in there and then do the zone's quests. Exp is surprisingly fast in the caves for the first few levels, faster than questing actually if your class can handle 4-5 mobs at once. You'll just be bored out of your skull for the couple of hours of grinding.

[Sir T]

Mr Director, whats my motivation?