Age of Conan: PVP

[Morfiend]

Here is a bunch of info about the AoC PVP system. Enjoy.

Here

This week we take a look at the Player versus Player Blood Money system in Age of Conan. Blood Coins will be the currency of combat, find out how you will earn them!

The dark and dangerous lands of Hyboria that have seen Conan rise to the throne of Aquillonia make up a treacherous and deceitful world where even the most petty or trivial of disagreements will invariably be settled by the blade (not uncommonly from behind whilst the victim is unawares!) Something is always at stake when reputations are forged by force of steel or the ingenuity of will. In Age of Conan the player versus player combat will always have equally vicious consequences and a bloody purpose that will always ensure you have something worth fighting for.

When we came to think about PVP in Age of Conan we wanted to ensure that it reflected that dark and hostile environment. We want to make sure that there will always be something at stake when a player decides to make a name for themselves in the Border Kingdoms. Likewise though, PVP still has to be fun, and no one really likes losing their hard earned possessions, so we have a very special system of Blood Money that operates in the PVP areas.

Blood Coins are effectively the currency of combat in the Border Kingdoms, tokens taken from the dying corpses of your foes. These Blood Coins are a mark of victory amongst combatants that will serve as bragging rights, status symbols and also a very useful currency in itself.

When you travel to the dangerous and blood soaked Border Kingdoms your passage there must be paid for. When you first enter the Border Kingdoms the coin that would be used to pay for that passage is not taken away, but is converted into Blood Coin. Blood Coins is effectively a separate currency to your normal coin.

Defeating other players in PVP combat will result in you being able to loot some or all of the Blood Money that they earned from their previous fights. Everyone in the Border Kingdoms will have some Blood Money value.

In addition all PVP combat earns your character separate PVP exp that goes towards earning your twenty PVP levels and gaining access to special feats and abilities that are exclusive to PVP.

This means that everyone who enters the Border Kingdom has something to lose should they find themselves on the wrong end of an opponents assault. Blood Coin will also supply another way for players to know where they rank against their fellow players above and beyond a simple count of kills. The treasured Blood Coin torn from the body of a defeated renowned player killer will garner them more fame (or notoriety!) then just picking on easy targets.

Also your Blood Coins are even more then just a token of your stature with the bow, blade or mystical arts. Blood Coins will be used to purchase the PVP feats you earn access to from special vendors in the Border Kingdoms.

These special PVP abilities will only be purchasable with Blood Coin. You will have to fight to earn the Blood Coin to pay for these new skills that your combat with other players has earned you access to.

This means that only those who truly excel at dispatching other players to their bloody deaths will be able to gain an extra edge on players who gain their equipment only in the safer havens, away from the Border Kingdoms. Only by proving your worth against your fellow player will you be able to gain these PVP-centric feats.

Not all of your Blood Coins will be able to be traded away, stored, or otherwise hidden away from those that would see you as a trophy, or a fat payday if your skills in combat have earned you a reputation already!

We want to hopefully address the cowardly practise of hiding away your valuables when entering PVP as well, but also allow you to save something before being beheaded. Therefore some of your blood coin will always be available to your foes (we'll decide on the balance of this one as we proceed through beta).

The more battles you win and more scalps you collect, the greater the reward others will find in tracking you down and taking your blood money from your freshly slain corpse.

The vendors that accept Blood Coins will also offer various other black market goods, equipment and items that can only be purchased with Blood Coins.

The Bloody Conclusions on PVP

We feel that with this system the day-to-day PVP in the Border Kingdoms will also have a real and genuine purpose independent of the greater struggles that will come around the Keeps, Towers and resources. Reputations will be won and lost. Blood will be spilt and there will always be a reward for hunting down others, and of course the risk that comes with it. The more victories you secure and more foes you vanquish the more your Blood Coins will be eyed by envious souls intent on cutting your throat and your purse!

The Border Kingdoms will certainly not be for the faint of heart!

Also, as a final note for now on PVP we wanted to assure all the PVP fans out there that we will have at least some more 'free for all' style PVP servers once the game goes live. How many will depend on the popularity, but we have the systems being prepared that will let us allow PVP content outside of the Border Kingdoms as well.

[stray]

Sounds OK, but it's not exactly the thing I want to hear. All of the above is focused on individual achievement. I want to know more about group incentives, conquest, zone/resource takeover, seiges, etc.. Things that make people work together, instead of worrying about their own selves.

I hope there's more to it than this. If the main reason to look forward to PvP is individual ranking and rewards, then it won't be much different than WoW's honor system.

[edit]

Oops, I spoke too soon :)

Mass/Seige PvP

Guess I'll add this:

This week take a look into the bloody conflicts that players will be able to engage in within the Border Kingdom PVP zones in Age of Conan

Destruction and betrayal brought about by the thirst for power is the nectar of Hyboria - the one constant in the world of King Conan. Death reaps a rich harvest in the battles for power between rival warlords, tribal chiefs and would be pretenders to the throne of Aquillonia.

As king, Conan has opened up the Border Kingdoms for conquest. The constant strife from other nations in the area has let him grant prerogatives to whoever holds the area! The border kingdom will once and forever be part of the great Aquillonian Empire! As befits the legend of the king himself only those with the strength of will and sheer ferocity for hard fought combat will emerge victorious in these most challenging of environments!

Bloody and hard fought, these battles will be just as integral to the life of guilds that enjoy PVP in Age of Conan. Entire guilds will lay their reputations and honor (or dishonor in some cases!) on the line to hold the coveted battlekeeps!

The Aim of the Game!

We aim to provide players with truly meaningful goals and ambitions in PVP. The joy of battle and glee of destruction will shape the blood soaked landscape of the border kingdoms. This conflict will provide those with ambitions for power the means by which they can forever carve their place in Hyborian history.

We have separated these border kingdoms from the rest of the gameworld for two reasons. Firstly we know that PVP isn’t for everyone, secondly we wanted to be able to craft an area for PVP without compromises to PVE. This system should provide a real sense of purpose to PVP combat (other then casting aside the broken limbs of your enemies of course!)

Battlekeeps versus player towns

One important clarification before we get into the details on the Battlekeep system is that the keeps are a separate system from the normal player built towns, although they use the same building system, so in learning one you will know the other (we will cover the PVE player towns in more detail in a future article), so player controlled land comes in two distinct types.

The resource building playfields that will house normal player towns will not be PVP areas, and will be fully instanced, meaning if your guild has the power and resources to maintain a town, it will always be able to do so. These are the areas where the RTS style NPC AI will build opposing camps and towns and threaten player towns. So whilst the normal player towns will still need defending and not be totally safe, they wont be prey to the most dangerous of opponents – other players! That is where the Battlekeeps come in!

We felt this was important so that players who wished to own towns and engage in battles with the NPC towns can do so without having to get involved in PVP if they don’t want to. However Battlekeeps will provide the worthy guilds with the skill and tenacity to survive the harsh world of PVP combat with another totally separate avenue for gathering even greater resource rewards!

Battlekeep Zones

These border Kingdoms are a dangerous and usually lethal environment. The rivers that coarse through their valleys, or the rolling grass plains that stretch between the mountains are more likely to be stained with the blood of fallen warriors, as they are anything else.

Each zone will be home to a number of pre-defined locations where a Keep may be built, but unlike the PVE player towns there will be a limited number of zones on each server, blood will have to be spilt to hold these most coveted of locations.

These zones will also be fully PVP enabled, you had best have your weapon at the ready if you dare to venture there as the Battlekeeps will not be the only reason to seek out bloody conflict in the border kingdoms. Each of the Border Kingdoms will be home to a series of other objectives as well, all offering the chance for the skilled to demonstrate their death dealing talents.

The Battlekeeps

Each keep will function as a hardened bastion for their owners. Hard won iron, stone and wood erected to stand as a mark of their standing in the Border Kingdoms, and a reminder to their enemies of the bloody conflict taken to earn and maintain it.

Like their PVE counterparts guilds will be able to populate the insides of their keep with a number of buildings and other amenities.

Players will be able to build structures like stables to provide cavalry, forges for constructing siege weapons, sentry towers that provide essential respawn points, as well as farms and other resource buildings. These will in turn provide other useful benefits, like perhaps a vendor that will sell items to those who visit the keeps, or some NPC guards.

The difference with a battlekeep is that guilds will have to remember that there will be others out to destroy their hard work, so the investment in the keep will not come without risk!

Laying Siege to a Keep

Battlekeeps will have periods when they are open to challenges. A period of time when another guild can declare their intent to try and take the keep! We realise its not fun or practical to force players to be on alert twenty four hours a day so this system ensures that you will be given the chance to prove your are worthy of holding the keep by smiting those who would have the audacity to challenge your right to own the keep!

Would be attackers can declare their intention to issue just such a challenge by building a war tent outside the keep in question. This is performed by those with the Lord prestige class and will require resources to complete. It is important that it isn’t something a single player can do on a whim!

The defenders then have a period to arrange their defence and the attackers to muster their forces! Then the bloody zeal of combat commences and you are thrust into an epic battle for control of the keep, stone and fire will rain down from above as walls are torn down and buildings razed to the ground around the frenzied combat between your troops as the attackers try and bring the keep to its proverbial knees!

As already mentioned though, the keeps are not the only reason to venture into the border kingdoms!

The Resource Areas

These areas that are also rich in resources scattered around the zone will provide collectable resources for those who control them. Mines for iron, lumber mills for wood, prospecting stations along the river where gold can be dredged up and quarries for stone.

At any given time one or more of these locations will be active for players who control them to collect resources from. Whoever controls the flag for the resource point will earn resources for as long as they manage to hold the flag.

Towers

Looking out across the battle scarred environs of the border kingdoms stand several large stone built towers. These are almost like mini-keeps, holding them will provide some bonuses to your guild, but nothing like those of a full keep. You also can’t build anything around a tower.

These locations do though provide something that smaller guilds can still take and hold even if they perhaps don’t have the manpower or resource to hold a Battlekeep! Like the keeps, these towers will have periods when they are open for attack. This means those precious bonuses they provide will have to be defended through force of arms!

In Closing...

Crushing the skulls of your foes is fun, but in the border kingdoms the blood spilled, and enemies cast aside will truly have a purpose. A purpose that we hope will provide PVP players with a dangerous and challenging environment. Striving for the rewards and honor that can only be won in bloody conflict upon these fields of death will be the most rewarding of ways to prove your worth against the most skilled of opponents – your fellow players!

These border kingdoms will also be the only place where players can train PVP feats and spend the earnings they have gained from the corpses of their fellow players through our PVP Blood money system…oh wait…we haven’t mentioned Blood money before now have we! That’s definitely a subject for another update though.

[WindupAtheist]

Does someone want to strain out the "Eminently valuble blood coins from the hopelessly bloody and defeated corpses of your dying foes dispatched by your skill with blade, bow, or mystic arts!" hyperbolic gibberish and just post how the system works?

[Yoru]

You get some PVP points when you go to the PVP zone. When you kill someone, you take some of their PVP points. If they're higher rank than you, you get more points; lower rank, less points. When you die, your opponent takes some PVP points from you. You can spend PVP points to get special PVP equipment and skills, but you can never stash away or spend all of your PVP points - someone killing you will always get a reward.

Group stuff:

There are nodes in PVP zones where keeps can be built, as well as resource nodes that need to be controlled to get resources. They are similar to the fully-instanced PVE player-built towns, except non-instanced (and therefore a limited resource) and PVP (duh).

They confer bonuses to those who hold them. To attack one, someone with a special class builds a building outside the keep declaring intent to attack. After some time passes, the battle starts.

There will also be 'towers', which are prebuilt mini-keeps that do not have the player construction element to them. These are meant for smaller guilds.

That's pretty much all it says.

[Murgos]

Thanks for the readers digest version.  You sir, are a saint.

[Venkman]

The Blood Coins-for-PvP-skills thing sounds a bit like the Kingdom vs Kingdom talent tree type thing from AC2 (whereas WoW Honor Points/Rank are used to get items), but with a currency that can be lost upon defeat. The potential problem with this system is that the powerful will always be able to keep others from gaining such power. But that's just looking at Blood Coins by themselves. Without seeing the totality of the system, including how much stats in general make up combat (which itself didn't feel like an RPG at all at E3), it's hard to say.

Keeps and sieging them sounds like SB city tree/bane scheduled siege/defense. It's an idea I thought worked ok there too.

I like the details on the Borderlands, Keeps, Towers and how PvE RTS-based Player/Guild town idea. They in general seem to be on the right track with a lot on paper. I'm not sure how big their team or budget is, but they seem to have a good feel for what's been tried, what's been liked and how this could be combined into a new theme experience.

[WindupAtheist]

Sounds as good as anything else, and at least it isn't a retread of WoW.

/shrug

[Samwise]

I like the aspect of tying resource nodes to PvP.  That was one of the things that seemed to me like a no-brainer for SWG to do.

[sinij]

Looks VERY uninspired to me, more ways to level (because PvPers LOVE to grind levels) and general lack of consequences for PvP making it impossible to ever win anything, even for a short period of time. 

[JoeTF]

I'm with sinij here. Holy crap, did I really say that? The end of the world is near.

After reading the article it's still clear that their PvP is meaningless, they simply added 20 'pvp-levels' to grind.
I wonder if they'll have 10 sec respawn timer too.
Also:
"This means that only those who truly excel at dispatching other players to their bloody deaths will be able to gain an extra edge" - Yeah, because those poor 10/7* pvp catasses really need additional edge over all the grind meat...I mean casual players.
Basically, you grind pvp to gain unique skills and items that cannot obtained anywhere else in the game. Not only it promotes alt farming, eXXXtreme zone entrance camping but eliminates any newcomer advantage. If you won't be in uber guild from day zero, you won't have any chance to enter pvp later on (in other games, you can at least get better items through PvE).

*that's requirement to get rank 12 in WOW - 10h/day for at least one month.

[Venkman]

*that's requirement to get rank 12 in WOW - 10h/day for at least one month.

Which is why they're tossing that system.

However, I didn't read PvP as meaningless, just as a separate game from PvE. Like WoW (though different systems).

[Yoru]

I'm more interested in playing instanced SimConan anyway. The PVP I'll probably do will be the one-on-one 'barroom brawling' they've mentioned a few times, which is supposedly nothing like the above 'uberd00d territory control' PVP.

Basically, you go into a tavern, drink some booze (which grants you your PVP HP), then beat people up. When you run out of Booze HP, the bouncer throws you out.

[JoeTF]

wtf. Delete me plzzz.

[damijin]

This interests the catassing pvper in me. I will try to get all of my pvp friends to join me in catassery.

Thank you AoC, for giving me something to look forward to. I'm not really up-to-date on AoC, what are the death penalties in that game besides blood coin loss? Are there any serious EXP penalties? I'm interested to find out how much of an edge these keeps give. In L2, many feel that castle control is just simply not worth the effort of taking the castle. The great thing about static fought over keeps/castles/towers/whatever though is the brilliant political game that it inspires. Alliances and enemies, hoorah.

[Signe]

wtf. Delete me plzzz.

What?  All of you?  Forever?   

[Nebu]

Is it me or does most of this smack of DAoC?

[damijin]

Is it me or does most of this smack of DAoC?

It reminds me of L2, it reminds you of DAoC, it reminds others of Shadowbane, and yet still others of WoW's honor system. I think it's going to remind you of every game because it seems that the devs have taken a long look at the successes and failures of past games, and have take all the good parts that they possibly could make work together.

[Nebu]

It reminds me of L2, it reminds you of DAoC, it reminds others of Shadowbane, and yet still others of WoW's honor system. I think it's going to remind you of every game because it seems that the devs have taken a long look at the successes and failures of past games, and have take all the good parts that they possibly could make work together.

It's just this brand of wide-eyed optimism that mmog developers distributors rely on.

[sinij]

Is it me or does most of this smack of DAoC?

It reminds me of L2, it reminds you of DAoC, it reminds others of Shadowbane, and yet still others of WoW's honor system. I think it's going to remind you of every game because it seems that the devs have taken a long look at the successes and failures of past games, and have take all the good parts that they possibly could make work together.

fanboi

[damijin]

I hadnt looked into it until... uh.. yesterday. So it's actually a mixture of reading new ideas, not playing anything, and the jade of reality not yet setting in. But nice try!

[Venkman]

You know, after the niavete>fanboi>jaded cycle, eventually people can come back around to openly curious.

There's not enough here to right AoC off. And there's a whole boatload of reasons AoC isn't going to be a WoW killer beyond whether the above outline works or not in practice. It's an interesting idea, an amalgam of many we've read and played. But this is one of those threads that die quickly because we've all seen good ideas get all sorts of whacky implementations. Ultimately, outside of the fans at the AoC community forums, this sort of detail is irrelevant until someone not among them is in the alpha/beta test with an objective eye.

[damijin]

See I originally looked at AoC as "Well, I'm not playing anything... but hey, I can cut people's heads off. That'll be fun for a few weeks, right?"
Now I'm seeing that it is supposedly going to have things to do besides cutting peoples heads off, and I was going to be satisfied with just that! So I'm getting quite a bit excited ;)

(I don't play WoW, if I did... I probably wouldn't care are all about this game. But it's slim pickins for non-WoW MMO entertainment at the moment!)

[Dren]

I'll try it out if the production values seem stable and acceptable.  If the game itself sucks, I'll find out by the end of the first month's free sub.  That's good enough for me.

Any news of bugs, glitches, etc. and I'll wait 3 months and review it again.  The gameplay could be the best in the world, but I'm not gonna do an SB again.  I expect WoW level polish these days.

[HaemishM]

Some interesting ideas, all of which could suck or be Robot Jesus based on implementation. Funcom's history does not speak well of that aspect of development.

[Signe]

They just tease you by pretending they might not suck.  I'm on to them.

[damijin]

I expect WoW level polish these days.

Exactly why I chose to never ever ever play WoW. I am fully ready to play games of far lower quality and enjoy myself.

[Signe]

I expect WoW level polish these days.

I am fully ready to play games of far lower quality and enjoy myself.

You are adorable.

[Nebu]

The statement: "WoW-level of polish" scares me.  Well... unless he forgot to capitalize polish.  Are people already forgetting the early problems Blizzard had?

[WayAbvPar]

The statement: "WoW-level of polish" scares me.  Well... unless he forgot to capitalize polish.

 :-D :-D :-D

[Rasix]

The statement: "WoW-level of polish" scares me.  Well... unless he forgot to capitalize polish.  Are people already forgetting the early problems Blizzard had?

The problems all had to do with "too many people trying to play WoW". It still had polish in spades.

This is different than Funcom level of polish which includes releasing a game that's fundamentally broken on many levels and two days before launch was crashing every 5 minutes like clockwork.

[Nebu]

The problems all had to do with "too many people trying to play WoW". It still had polish in spades.

This is different than Funcom level of polish which includes releasing a game that's fundamentally broken on many levels and two days before launch was crashing every 5 minutes like clockwork.

While many of the more easily recognized issues were due to demand, the problems went well beyond too many people.  I think the patch notes over the past year bear this out... many of which were issues reported by myself and others in beta.  A number of problems I found in beta still have yet to be addressed.

While I'd agree that Blizzard had much MORE polish than Funcom, I still feel that the release of WoW was below what I'd prefer to call a benchmark for the mmo industry.  I'm not sure we'll ever see a game released that was actually ready for release... this seems to be the new standard.  Rush it out and fix it later.  Of course, I never really understood the appeal of the game... so my personal views may taint my perception. 

[Venkman]

By virtue of the polish it had, it is the current benchmark. It really can't be compared to the launch state of, say, L2 or FFXI because both of those really launched overseas well in advance of hitting the U.S.

WoW was content complete and playable for the vast majority of players. They first had big problems with Eastern/Central and then with Pacific/Mountain, due to demand. But for a game of this scope, they achieved (through wads of cash and time to test) what nobody before them could get consistently. Even the prior benchmark of DAoC wasn't anywhere near content complete. But that was back in the days when just playing at Launch was considered a success.

I agree with you that it's not a good benchmark. But it's easy to accept as one because almost every launch prior was such a steaming pile of something-specific-to-that-game.

[Nebu]

I agree with you that it's not a good benchmark. But it's easy to accept as one because almost every launch prior was such a steaming pile of something-specific-to-that-game.

Point made, Darniaq.  I concede.

[HaemishM]

The term "WoW-polish" has more to do with the content/game mechanics side than technical aptitude. WoW-Polish fits the technical aspects of WoW just perfectly.

[Kenrick]