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Age of Conan Opens the Door to House of Crom

Jan 12, 2012 Age of Conan|204views

Funcom’s free-to-play MMORPG Age of Conan: Unchained has released the latest massive update House of Crom. This update takes high level players to brand-new House of Crom location, where includes many new dynamic encounters, new loot, and a new social dungeons.

House of Crom is actually made up of two vast dungeons. One social dungeon called The Threshold of Divinity, that supports multiple groups at the same time, and one six man dungeon The Vile Nativity, and these areas are the largest indoor dungeons the developer has created ever.

The Threshold of Divinity can be played by up-to four six-player groups. You will fight enemies both old and new, solve ancient mysteries, and learn the truth behind the House of Crom, and what happened there. The Vile Nativity is for a six-player group and consists of seven encounters. This dungeon features rich lore and storytelling, according to Funcom, and it contains some secrets that will require some thought and exploration to unlock.

You can check out here for more details of House of Crom.

Tags: Age of Conan, House of Crom

Age of Conan anniversary retrospective

May 17, 2010 Age of Conan, Articles Recommend|230views

Thinking of coming back to Age of Conan? You’re not alone, as the recently released Rise of the Godslayer expansion, plus a wave of generally positive buzz, have conspired to reverse the fortunes that Funcom’s ambitious Hyborian MMORPG experienced during its rocky launch. Two years is an eternity in the computer gaming world, and the game bears little more than a skin-deep resemblance to the title that launched way back in May 2008.

Age of Conan has undergone significant revision in its short lifespan, from a sweeping combat and itemization revamp to the addition of numerous dungeons and play fields, all of them pre-dating the new expansion. The laundry list of additions can be broken down into six major categories: combat and itemization, PvP, crafting, gameplay, new zones, and the expansion. We’ll also touch on smaller details such as performance tweaks and offline leveling, so hack your way past the cut to see the gory details.

Combat and Itemization

The most important additions to the game, though not the most visible to the casual observer, are the sweeping changes made to RPG mechanics and itemization. Those of you who played at launch and through the summer of 2008 will remember an item system that bared little resemblance to traditional MMORPGs, as it rarely mattered what weapons or equipment your character possessed. The early game’s combat was an exercise in mastering the newfangled combo system and little else, as the differences between, say, a level 20 dagger and a level 70 dagger were minimal.

Generally speaking, the 1.05 update caused items to directly affect core combat statistics, as hit points, mana, stamina, and damage were adjusted to be relative to your gear. Funcom also beheaded the percentage system in this update, and changed the attributes and aforementioned statistics to a whole number system.

In addition to these mechanical changes, Funcom added Culture Armors to the game in late 2008, in an attempt to diversify the aesthetic options available to players and respond to concerns about the lack of visual variety in the game’s gear.

PvP Improvements

Age of Conan’s PvP system is nigh unrecognizable when compared to how it functioned at launch. In addition to adding PvP levels, a performance tracking stat tab, and PvP-exclusive gear, the improved system also features armor ratings that provide additional mitigation against player-inflicted damage.

In addition, the much-discussed PvP Notoriety update brought a choice and consequence system to the game’s player conflicts in the form of the Murder/Criminal mechanic. “It is a system where someone who consciously chooses to be ‘that’ type of player isn’t disallowed from doing so, but has to live with the consequences of doing so without having his normal game-play completely removed. We do not wish to reward that kind of game-play. It’s about choices for the player, if they choose to be notorious rather than a good citizen they are allowed to do so (Hyboria is a brutal world after all!), the results are negative though, it’s up to each individual whether they can live with that life as an outlaw and murderer,” said Game Director Craig Morrison.

Age of Conan’s crowd control mechanics were also changed extensively in the PvP update. In a nutshell, CC effects were adjusted to automatically break when the player’s health dropped below a certain level. More recently, Funcom added the Shrines of Bori update to the live servers, bringing a territorial control mini-game to the PvP portions of Age of Conan.

Crafting Changes

Crafting is similarly unrecognizable if you’ve been away since launch, with most of the changes focusing on the Gem system. The 1.05 update did away with stacking lines and gem size, and also introduced gem families, socket colors, and alchemical transformation, all with the goal of simplifying the process as well as balancing the statistics in line with the aforementioned combat and gear changes. You can get a full run-down on the crafting revamp here.

New Playfields

One of the criticisms leveled at Age of Conan’s original build was the size and linear nature of many of the zones and instances. Funcom apparently took the criticism to heart, as they’ve consistently added both size and scope to the game world since launch, even prior to the massive new playfields of Khitai that opened up with the Godslayer expansion. In addition to those lands in the far east, players can travel to Ymir’s Pass in Cimmeria, Tarantia Commons in Aquilonia, and the Iron Tower dungeon instance.

Offline Leveling

A noteworthy, if somewhat controversial addition to the game is a system of offline leveling. Active subscribers receive a free character level every four days which can be assigned to any avatar on their account. Additionally, the new Alternate Advancement system in the Godslayer expansion features an offline leveling component, provided your character is level 80. These options, while sparking a bit of debate in player circles, illustrate that Funcom is committed to facilitating both casual and alternate play styles.

Rise of the Godslayer

While an exhaustive examination of Age of Conan’s first expansion is beyond the scope of this article, luckily for you we’ve written another one. As of now, we here at Massively are still playing our way through the lands of Khitai, and as our long-standing policy against ‘reviewing’ MMORPGs with definitive scoring remains in place, we’ll be rolling out impressions of various expansion aspects in due time. For now, we recommend diving in and experiencing it for yourself, as well as boning up on all our previous coverage.

Performance

Due to the number of performance-related issues experienced at launch (as well as the almost infinite number of possible hardware setups), it’s difficult to go into specifics in terms of improvements over the last two years. What we can tell you is that Funcom has added DirectX 10 support, smoothed out the infamous memory leak problems that plagued the game’s early days, and generally seems to have gotten a handle on the crushing frame-rate problems that made for many a sad-eyed Conan fan in 2008. Is the game a model of peak performance? Not entirely, as sieges still experience some slow down and the expansion suffers from the occasional stutter on older machines. That said, Age of Conan’s performance is light years ahead of where it was at launch, and, if personal anecdotes count for anything, I have not experienced a single live client crash since returning to the game (and playing a couple hours daily) over six weeks ago. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Small Details

In addition to the laundry list of mechanical changes we’ve already covered, Funcom has also tweaked the game’s minutiae, from adding more NPCs and general liveliness to guild cities, to implementing a system of veteran rewards and social pets, it’s clear the intent is there to make Age of Conan a worthwhile experience over the long haul. As this has been a fairly high level look at the game changes since launch, there are of course many smaller tweaks which I’ve left out due to spacing and deadline concerns. If you’re interested, you can view a comprehensive history of the game’s patch notes on the official boards.

Tags: Age of Conan, anniversary, Expansion, Retrospective, Rise of the Godslayer

Look on Rise of the Godslayer expansion

Mar 18, 2010 Age of Conan, Articles Recommend|2,446views

We are unabashed fans of Robert E. Howard’s Conan mythos, so naturally we jumped at the chance to sit down and talk with Funcom’s Craig Morrison at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. Morrison, executive producer and game director for the Norwegian game maker’s Age of Conan MMORPG, gave a presentation on the forthcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion and then took a few of our questions about the additions in store for the sword and sorcery title.

First things first: the eye-catching title refers to the expansion’s place in Howard lore, and the game makes use of the events in The Tower of the Elephant, one of the most highly regarded Howard short stories. In a nutshell, twenty years prior to the setting of original game, a young thief named Conan managed to slay the god Yag-Kosha. Unaware of the god’s role as a protector of the lands of Khitai, the barbarian unwittingly loosed a tide of dark forces on the eastern lands which have coalesced into a threat to the modern day Aquilonian kingdom, which of course is now ruled by King Conan.

Players will be swept up in the story of Khitai as they travel to the far east and attempt to deal with the dangers presented by the evil that has been corrupting the lands for the last two decades.

Combat Evolved

Age of Conan is a title that has undergone significant changes since its May 2008 launch, not the least of which are personnel moves (Morrison taking over for Gaute Godager) as well as many performance optimizations and game play tweaks. Morrison spoke of the development team’s mindset from launch on into the present day, using that as a spring board to present details on the forthcoming expansion’s feature set.

“Before our launch we had this mantra of combat, combat, combat, and for the last eighteen months after launch we shifted it slightly to content, looking into the content gaps that existed when the game launched, adding new community features like guild renown, PvP functions that increase the longevity of the game and rebind the players into the game world,” he said. With Rise of the Godslayer, combat is still essential, but there is also a laser focus on player choice and game play consequences.

Factions, Factions, and More Factions

Factions play a large role in the troubled lands of Khitai, with a total of ten separate groups vying for the player’s loyalty. True to the source material, Age of Conan’s factions present many shades of grey, rather than the clear cut good versus evil nature of many MMORPG faction choices. Morrison commented that players will generally be aligning themselves with between three and five factions at any given time, and the fact that many of these groups dislike one another will force gamers to make definitive choices that will affect everything from equipment to quest availability and therefore progression through the expansion’s content.

In terms of gear, each faction offers new armor and weapons to the player, with a total of eighty new armor sets spread among the ten groups. Each set will be visually and statistically unique, thereby appealing to a broad range of tastes while simultaneously furthering the expansion’s goal of choice and consequence. There are also two new faction mounts, the tiger and the wolf, available through a new loyalty quest line that sees the player acquire a young cub before guiding it along the path to becoming either a dedicated mount or a combat companion.

Systemic Anomaly

In addition to factions, the other systemic addition brought on by Rise of the Godslayer is a form of alternate advancement. As with most MMO expansions, there are new general feats, archetypal feats, and class-specific feats, but Morrison was quick to point out that Funcom put a lot of work into these additions rather than simply layering them on top of the existing game. Of particular interest is a new mechanic that draws inspiration from Guild Wars by allowing the player access to dozens of new powers while simultaneously requiring that they choose six of them to take into combat. Abilities can be chosen based on the types of situations the player might encounter, but no changes are possible to this new ability bar once combat has begun.

Another noteworthy addition is the concept of perks, which are basically abilities that can have a major impact on situational combat and therefore occupy two slots on the aforementioned bar. Finally, Morrison unveiled a new training mode, likening it to EVE Online’s offline skill progression. Players will select an ability to train, and after a period of elapsed time, will return to find it more powerful and useful.

Dungeons and Barbarians

New dungeons and instances are plentiful in the lands of Khitai, and with them comes an overhaul to dungeon-running mechanics that Funcom hopes will add both longevity and challenge to the PvE portions of the game. In one example, Morrison showed players using the game’s emote system to navigate portions of the new Celestial Necropolis instance, and explained how the party will need to plan tactically in order to have enough bodies to solve puzzles and take on enemy mobs simultaneously. “it’s the first time in MMOs that I’ve heard of anyone using their animation system to actually trigger gameplay,” Morrison commented.

In addition, all of the puzzles and challenges in an instanced dungeon will hint at the tactics necessary to take down the final boss. Each dungeon will also feature a hard mode which can only be activated via contextual gameplay. As an example, Morrison spoke of a particular type of emote angering a particular boss, which would in turn trigger the instance’s elite mode.

As if all that weren’t enough, Rise of the Godslayer also features a brand new playable race, the Khitan, available at character creation, as well as a plethora of quests for both new and existing characters. Veteran players will also be able to further customize the appearance of their older characters through vendors that offer new tattoos, hairstyles, and other options. Morrison also hinted at further customization options during initial character creation. One oft-requested feature that won’t be shipping with the expansion is social armor and clothing tabs. Morrison explained that cosmetic clothing is something that Funcom has wanted to implement for awhile but has taken a back seat to more necessary gameplay and balancing issues. “Once the expansion is done it will likely find its way into one of the updates,” he said.

In the zone

Finally, the land of Khitai itself brings several changes to the Age of Conan game world. Five expansive new play fields have been added, all of them featuring the lush eastern terrain and architecture from Howard’s stories. Morrison also spoke about Funcom’s incorporation of player feedback on the initial game with regard to zones and feelings of linearity and disconnection when loading across huge distances.

“While we’re still using our zoning technology, what we’ve done is kind of stitched the play fields of Khitai together so while we still achieve this fantastic level of high detail art, the experience is much more consistent for the player, the play fields are much more open and vast so when a player moves from one region to another they can literally turn around and see where they’ve just come from, with visual landmarks off in the distance that allow them to navigate,” he said.

All in all, Rise of the Godslayer will certainly make a huge impact on the world of Age of Conan and its players.

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Tags: Age of Conan, Expansion, Funcom, Rise of the Godslayer

Something of Rise of the Godslayer, Age of Conan expansion

Dec 22, 2009 Age of Conan, Articles Recommend|356views

On August 18, 2009, FunCom announced the release of the first expansion for Age of Conan, Rise of the the Godslayer. With FunCom soon to release Age of Conan to servers in Korea, it is very appropriate that the next expansion include elements of the Far East, in the form of Khitai, Robert E. Howard’s vision of Hyboria that later evolved into what we now know as China and Korea. This ancient society lends itself well to the feudal, factioned-based warfare that many players have envisioned in Age of Conan, since before its initial release. Expansive regions, brutal faction-based conflict, and political intrigue draw the players into a world of epic storylines and sexy adventure.

New to Rise of the Godslayer is the feature of interconnected zones. When you look over your shoulder, you can see the playzones you just left and you can look into new zones before you cross their borders. If you see a tower in the mountains on the far side of the playzone, you can cross that zone, climb the mountain, and enter that tower. Each playfield will have a tremendous amount of explorable space to a much greater degree than the original Age of Conan experience.

The Story

Before recorded history, Yag-kosha and other beings of great celestial power arrived on our world. Before the dawn of man, before the apes evolved into our ancestors, these beings strode across our world as conquerors of the great beasts that controlled it. They were feared, and they were respected. They made their home in the dim jungles of the east before the time of the Lemurians and the Lost Kingdom of Mu. The ancient kingdoms of Hyboria rose, fell, and rose again. Atlanteans, Picts, and Acheronians rose to control the west until a great cataclysm destroyed and submerged their civilizations. From the ashes rose the shining kingdoms of the west, such as Aquilonia, Nemedia, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Koth, Ophir, Argos, Corinthia, and the Border Kingdom. Lemuria and Mu rose and fell in the east to be replaced with Khitai, Vendhya, and Hyrkania. Stygia, Shem, Zamora, and Zingara rose to claim the shattered remains of what once was Acheron and its sorcerous and demonic legacy.

Over the eons, the beings of Yag slowly died off, since they were not immortal despite their impossibly long lifespans. So it came to pass that Yag-kosha, also known as Yogah, lived alone in the jungles that became Khitai. His power was respected by an ancient, peaceful, yellow-skinned people whose music could inspire the indigenous grey apes to dance.

After centuries of peaceful co-existence and worship as a benevolent god, Yag-kosha was approached by a seer of ancient Zamora seeking to become a student. Yara sought Yag’s wisdom and power. When Yara learned all he could through civilized means, his lust for power and blind ambition led him to enspell Yag-kosha and drag him far away from his home in Khitai to the decadent land of Zamora.

Yag-kosha was imprisoned, tortured, and forced to perform all manner of perverse and evil acts. For three hundred years, Yag-kosha suffered and lamented under Yara’s control. At that time, a young Cimmerian thief of barely seventeen summers sought to steal a very valuable gem from Yara’s cursed ivory tower. In an act of mercy, young Conan slew the being known as Yag-kosha and unleashed the remaining power of Yag upon the sorcerer Yara. From there young Conan grew into the man who would free Aquilonia from the reign of a sadistic tyrant and become King by his own hand.

No good deed often goes unpunished, as the land of Khitai soon began to wither from within as the protection and blessings of Yag-kosha faded from their realm. Upon hearing of the death of their deity at the hands of the Cimmerian who became king, all blame for their misfortunes fell upon the broad shoulders of an infidel defiler. For twenty-five years, Khitai has been wilting as it slowly dies from the corruption growing within.

Exploration

As you travel across the surface, a majority of the buildings are explorable throughout. Keep your eyes open for caves and other hidden interior spaces; you may run into a group of brigands or uncover a long-lost hidden treasure or weapon. Be prepared to dig on occasion. Some hidden places may even be found underwater. I am having flashbacks here of the crypt that Arnold’s Conan stumbled into where he discovered the ancient Atlantean King and the Sword of the Kings that served him well throughout his lifetime.

FunCom listened to players after the initial release and proactively attempted to remove all sense of linear gameplay from the expansion, consciously attempting to open up the world and allow more exploration. As a result, a player will not see any travel NPCs; there will be no wagons, caravans, boats, or guides to transport a player from one region to another. You will travel across the countrysides by foot or by mount.

This concept of separated regions was necessary in the original release, because each playfield was separated by miles and days of travel according to the maps of the Hyborian world. In Khitai though, everything is as it is represented on the map. Each border is adjacent to the next region’s border. As you cross through playzones, you will experience numerous environmental effects. These effects include smoke on the battlefields, mist and fog, and an encroaching darkness as you approach significantly corrupted areas. Using a technology adapted from Anarchy Online, the dungeons will be interconnected to a degree, allowing you to repeat boss encounters quickly without repeating the preliminary path through the dungeon, once they have been successfully completed by your group. This function can usually repeated in clusters of three or four, and you can move to others very quickly and easily.

The Look

FunCom has long had strong ties to China. In the Collector’s Edition of Age of Conan, we met the other half of the art design team of Age of Conan. We are well-aware of the dedicated staff of the design and development team in Oslo, Norway. Many hours of dedicated labor were also contributed by the talented individuals of the FunCom art team in Beijing, China. Coming full circle, we have drawn the Hyborian world together, and we return home to the talented artists of Beijing.

What’s New

The Empire of Khitai expands upon the Hyborian world as it was laid out by Howard, including five of the largest playfield regions ever made for the game. One playfield is aimed at level 20-40 content, and the other four playfields are aimed at level 80 content. Rise of the Godslayer will not introduce new levels above the level 80 cap, and there will be no new classes. FunCom wanted to give all existing classes more content, as opposed to building the expansion with content aimed at one new class. We start out with the new playable Khitan race that will sail from Tortage to the beginning zone in Khitai. Khitan characters will have a very different destiny quest from what we have seen in the other three playable races of Age of Conan.

New content starts around level 20 and extensive new content has been added all the way to level 80 for current players of all races. The new horizontal alternate advancement system allows even level 80 avatars to learn new spells, feats, combos, new ways to interact with the world, and different special abilities, further defining your unique character. This allows more replayability as players have achievements that take time and effort to bring to fruition. For example, there are two new mounts available as quest content, the Tamarind Tiger and the Nightrunner Wolf.

In other game systems, including the original release of Age of Conan, mounts are simply a speed increase and are just purchased from vendors or acquired as Veteran rewards. Age of Conan designers wanted to make all of their mounts more meaningful, so players would want to collect all of them. The Tamarind Tiger is a stealth mount, allowing you to cross battlefields in stealth mode, and you can use it to sneak around in PvE and PvP playfields. The Tiger is an explosive mount; it has a very quick speed for a very short amount of time. For the Tamarind Tiger, you must find and join the cult that worships the tiger and advance to its highest ranks where you gain the right to learn the ritual to tame a tiger. You must then disarm yourself of weapons and armor, find and defeat a mother tiger with your bare hands, and steal a cub from her den. At that point, you must feed and train your cub to hunt, to stalk, and to kill, preparing it to accept you as its rider and companion; this is no simple effort and it will take you time to complete. These are naturally wild animals, and if you attempt to rush the training, you may lose a hand. You must then make a choice; you can find materials and create a saddle for your new mount, or you can prepare it to fight at your side as a very powerful combat pet. This choice is non-reversible. Consider carefully.

Players will be able to set their new skills into an offline training mode or focus mode, allowing their character to advance in its abilities while they are offline using a form of meditation, further study, or katas. Other new skills include learning martial arts from various masters throughout Khitai. It appears that the new feat points gained for the alternate advancement system will be pooled in such a way so as to allow the player, whether level 20 or level 80, to spend his or her new feat points as they see fit to make the avatar more unique.

As all playable races roam across the eastern frontier, following the Path of the Godslayer, your character will discover a myriad of new mid- and high-level content. The condition of the nearby roads can give you an indication of the level of strife in a region. If a road is in good condition, you travel through a more peaceful area. If the road is damaged, you can expect danger around every corner. Keep an eye open for shrines in your journeys. Khitai is a land of 999 gods. You can pray or meditate at each shrine; the right emote could get your player a temporary blessing. The wrong emote can curse you during your exploration. Travel across the landscape of Khitai is not as simple as it may appear. Natural and unnatural menaces roam the landscape across Khitai, like the barbaric Mountain Men, the swift and deadly Crow People, and the giant Kapa.

Each beast or monster that you encounter has an AI that you must learn the strategy of how to appropriately handle. The Firebirds of Chosain will run from you on most occasions. If you find the bird with its head in the ground, you may be able to draw more to you by attacking it. The Kapa is the turtle-like quadraped that is prominently displayed on one of the promotional photos fighting a full size party for many Rise of the Godslayer articles. The larger the beast, the more likely that it is even more dangerous. Consider a beast’s size before you commit to an engagement with many of the new denizens of Khitai. You have a 25% chance of some beasts, like the Kapa, being in an ambush-state waiting for travelers to come nearby. The Wisp may seem weak at first and will flee your party; once safe, it will summon the souls of the dead that it has killed to defeat your group. Water buffalos are typically benign animals in any Asian setting; attack a Water buffalo calf and a bull or the entire herd may turn on you in its defense. A simple rule to follow would be to never attack a calf. The Crow Men, or Children of Jill, may be a threat in some areas or a Quest NPC in others; they serve as messengers for the Scarlet Circle of sorcerors. Wolves in Khitai are called Nightrunners. If you attack the Alpha Male of the pack, he will howl and his entire pack will come in to defend him. Learning the special abilities of each beast will be an adventure in itself.

Khitai is also a land in civil war, with Hyrkanians encroaching from the west (your first available faction), and other factions vying for control of regions and the country as a whole. The Tamerind Tiger Riders are a faction of Vendyhan Mercenaries drawn into the battles of Chosain Province. The Scarlet Circle are a band of sorcerers working for the emperor of Khitai; they are not very well liked. There are a total of ten open and two hidden or stealth factions to be discovered throughout the expansion. Even the once-idyllic Chosain Province has be ravaged by war, strife, and looting. Will you help the peaceful monks and their healing arts even though they hate Conan for bringing their nation to ruin? Will you assist the rightful heir of Khitai regain his throne, despite the fact that he supports a demonic cult, the Yellow Priests of Yun, that celebrates in the inhuman sacrifice of innocent women and children? There is no clear black and white in Khitai, only a variety of shades of gray. You must make moral choices in who you assist and why. If you change your mind on your path, you must regain honor from the factions that you wronged by slaying the opposing faction’s enemies and performing betrayal quests. Every faction has available faction weapons. Every faction has their own unique faction armor in four tiers. To complete the full set of armor for each faction, you must advance to the highest levels of each faction gaining access to additional pieces as you are promoted from various faction vendors. Likewise, the faction that you become an ally with determines which places that you can visit and what story content will become available to you, and could have serious consequences.

Players seek transport to Khitai from the major cities of Tarantia, Connarch’s Village, and Khemi. All players begin their journey in Khitai on the western side of the Great Wall. This zone of rolling steppes that climb up to the foothills of the Mountains of Night is called the Gateway to Khitai. The Great Wall meanders through the Mountains of Night providing a barrier of protection from the barbarians of the west and a point of reference as you navigate the countryside. You discover that portions of the wall have been breached by the Hyrkanian hordes. After you pass through the Great Wall, you will trek eastward across the far-stretching Northern Grasslands. Places of interest include the Kang Pagoda, the Village of Chow, and the frontier city of Pin Pin. The River of Yellow Curses runs along the northern border of this region.

When you cross the river, you march forward into the black desert of Kara Korum. Kara Korum stretches from the western mountains to the east limits of Khitai on the Eastern Ocean. As you travel across the burning black sands, the unnatural silence carries with it a sense of dread, and unknown beasts of horrible proportions try to press their way to the civilized plains of the south.

In the center of Kara Korum, you will discover an immense crater with gargantuan walls; what will the player find if he or she investigates? An atmosphere of the unworldly surrounds and pervades this landscape and appears to corrupt the desert from here. Along the southern border of this zone, the Northern Marshes of the Grasslands run along the south side of the River of Yellow Curses; monstrous denizens cross the River of Yellow Curses from Kara Korum to threaten and harry travelers. Will you uncover why the village simply known as Ghost Hill was abandoned and a stench of rancid decay is carried on the winds from the forest to its south? Physics may not work as expected in Kara Korum. Rivers flow uphill in some places, gravity misbehaves occasionally, and beasts may fall with meteorites from the sky. Meteorites are also launched from the Black Desert delivering Darkspawn beasts across the landscape of Khitai.

When you pass to the eastern limits of the Northern Grasslands, you can see out into the manicured countrysides of the Chosain Province; be sure to not let your guard down… When you enter Chosain Province, you discover all-out war between the city-states of Gun Xui in the southern lands and Gun Hai in the northern lands. Perched precariously between these cities, Shaulun serves the needs of both military forces, providing mercenary soldiers to the highest bidder.

Shaulun is a staging ground. Training can also be found here in ancient open handed fighting styles. Designers describe this expansive city a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”. Opportunities for quests and betrayals abound here. It is also the former home of the Skulls of Jeng Ho, who now serve the regional warlord in controlling the province. The magnificent Pillars of Heaven are a honeycombed pair of stone monuments connected by bridges towering overhead. A waterfall cascades between them. They sit near by the Palace of the regional Warlord whose faction is in direct conflict with the Tamerind mercenaries. When you climb to the top of the Pillars of Heaven, you can see a spectacular view across the entire province.

The Pillars of Heaven were built by the ancient Lemurians thousands of years ago; they were originally a set of old abandoned temples. When your players seek them out, they are not so abandoned anymore; a bandit chieftain, by the name of Bhangi Khan, controls them with his bandit army. Outside the cities you will encounter active battlefields where warriors of each faction engage each other in open warfare. You can contribute to the siege on the side of your faction at any time you choose. Be prepared for smoke and other battlefield surprises and effects. In addition to fighting soldiers of the opposing faction, you must be on the watch for rag-pickers and looters of the corpses on the battlefield. They are unpredictable and could be a threat to either side. As you approach corrupted areas, stay on the lookout for large Darkspawn mobs. They can be very dangerous and very aggressive, and they will always protect their hidden mission.

The southern border of the Northern Grasslands merges into the thick, seemingly impenetrable jungles of Paikang . Is this jungle the same one from which the Chronicles of Nemedia tell of it as the former home of the Elephant Deity that Conan slew in Zamora in the tale “The Tower of the Elephant”? Rumors abound of a cult, the Children of Yag-kosha, with ambitions to dethrone the King of Aquilonia in revenge for their fallen god. Will you investigate or rely upon agents of the Aquilonian throne to uncover this threat? The jungles break through into Souleater Pass and the mysterious valley of Heaven’s Lake. The coastline of the Eastern Ocean is littered with the skeletons of a hundred ships. Where did they come from and how did they end up here? The Imperial City of Paikang lies to the south of the aptly named Shatterspar Coastline. Travelers tell of how the gleaming purple minarets of Paikang sparkle in the morning sunlight. Paikang is also a city under massive siege, and its leaders call out to the strongest of heroes to resolve her problems. Paikang will also introduce this expansion’s Tier 4 Raid instances for end-game level 80 characters to master. From material released to date, there should be at least eight end-game dungeons for veterans to explore and farm.

Tags: Age of Conan, Rise of the Godslayer

AoC-Hyborian Adventures: The Iron Tower

Oct 20, 2009 Age of Conan|374views

The grim Iron Tower stood apart from the citadel, amid a maze of narrow streets and crowding houses where the meaner structures, appropriating a space from which the more fastidious shrank, had invaded a portion of the city ordinarily alien to them. The Tower was in reality a castle, an ancient, formidable pile of heavy stone and black iron, which had itself served as the citadel in an earlier, ruder century.
- Robert E. Howard, The Hour of the Dragon .

From the hands of Conan himself the Iron Tower was founded as a prison of civil confinement for the most malicious and vile criminals within Aquilonia. Murders, thieves and other deviant corrupted souls are here awaiting their unforseen judgement before the hands of Mitra.

The Iron Tower brings the final chapter from the epic story of Tarantia Common District. This closure introduces a vast amount of new and challenging game play including four new epic boss encounters, five mini-boss encounters, the chance of five rare boss encounters, and many new exciting rewards for levels 78 to 80.

Towering over the rooftops below, The Iron Tower can be seen from anywhere in the Tarantia Commons District. Previously inaccessible for players on the Age of Conan servers, the new dungeon is now opening up for adventurers with who dare to face the many challenges within.

A new challenge

The Iron Tower is a level 78 and up group dungeon that lies in the heart of the commons district and functions as the climax of the epic story from Tarantia Commons. Players pick up from where the story ended in the commons between the conflict with the Wharf Rats, Crows and Daughters. Much like the first chapter, the developers wanted to throw the players head first into the storyline and both offer some closure to the story as well some new challenges to indoor encounters.

The tower hosts some of Aquilonia’s most vile criminals while also entwining them into the plot. As you journey through the tower you will notice that the difficulties of the content scales depending on what level your currently at in the tower. In addition, you’ll also want to take notice our new approach to the content and how the AI uses their classes. As you go higher up the tower your opponents will use more abilities and reflect what type of classes they are in different ways. This will help add diversity and allow more utilization on what classes you should bring to the fight than what we’ve done before.

One of the key characters from the previous chapter that you’ll encounter will be Anoki the Scourge and leader of the Daughters. She is back and she has bribed the guards from the commons district to act as her personal guard If you try to follow her trail then you will have to fight corrupt guards and a sadistic Executioner with his power to force his will on others causing them to hurt themselves.

Higher up in the the tower you will encounter Anoki’s Officers who have freed prisoners and started a riot. Apparently Anoki is trying to free a mysterious Prisoner but she can’t get to him as he is guarded by a strange cult that have formed around a priest of Mitra who calls himself Desumo. Gossip has it that he is here on his own free will in order to see that no one even gets close to the prisoner. Not only is he personally guarding the only way to the prisoner but it seems he has set up various defense mechanisms that will pose an interesting challenge to all that enter

Exciting encounters

The Iron Tower dungeon is full of new and exciting experiences, and players can expect several dramatic new encounters such as:

Executioner

The executioner is a sick minded bastard with the power to impose his will to others and causing them to inflict pain on themselves. When battling the Executioner we basically tried to show this mental state of his while trying to sacrifice a few players with deadly torture instruments that we all know and love. Players will have to beware of these devices in order to survive and teamwork is imperative in order to survive the iron maiden as well other lovely torture methods

Anoki the Scourge

Anoki is back and she is not a push over as everyone thinks she is Besides being a deadly assassin and the abilities to charm her foes out of combat, she can also call down the gods for healing as she dances on your corpse. In the heat of battle Anoki will call upon her dead officers and beging a ritual to destroy all who oppose her Players will have a great challenge on their hands both finding ways to defeat Anoki while avoiding her charming and stunning ways.

Desumo

When word got back to Desumo that this mysterious Prisoner was incarcerated in the Iron Tower he gave up arms and volunteered to be a prisoner. Now put in place to guard this mysterious Prisoner, Desumo channels the power of his god into Pillars of Faith to strike down his enemies and prevent them from approaching his captive. But the long years have worn at his sanity and a single misstep could send him spiralling into madness.

All new rewards

Of course, facing the many challenges that the dungeon offers will definitely be rewarding should you manage to make it through alive. Most of the boss loot in the Iron Tower has brand-new and unique visuals that are distinguishable from what is already in the game. Here are some of the new rewards that players will find in the Iron Tower.

Plumed Helm of Divinity

51 wisdom, 25 constitution, 31 magic mana tap rating, 4.8 natural mana regenration, 166 mana

Grizzly Mask

135 combat rating, 56 strength, 42 constitution, 35 critical rating

Oraste’s Robe

49 intelligence, 20 generic magic damage, 48 critical damage bonus, 41 constitution, 39 hit rating, 4.8 natural mana regeneration

Helm of Idra

72 constitution, 38 strength, 24 evade rating

Club of Larsha

35 wisdom, 32 generic magic damage, 38 critical rating, 33 hit rating, 26 magic mana tap rating.

More Content On the Way

The Iron Tower is one of many new dungeons that the Age of Conan developers have added to the game since launch. In the previous months the developers have also added other high-level dungeons such as Xibaluku and The Amphitheatre. In coming updates developers will be adding even more content to high level players, such as introducing tier three raiding in Thoth Amon’s Stronghold - the lair of the ultimate Conan bad guy, Thoth Amon himself. This and more new content and features will be finding their way to Age of Conan soon.

Tags: Age of Conan, Hyborian Adventures

AoC-Hyborian Adventures: Veteran Rewards Explained

Oct 20, 2009 Age of Conan|427views

Sticking with the game over a longer period of time should yield rewards, right?

That is why the Age of Conan developers are now introducing Veteran Points to the game. This will give players who have subscribed to the game for a certain amount of time a wide choice of different rewards to choose from. From exciting new pets to useful new equipment, the rewards are many and you have the power to choose.

These rewards are available at new vendor NPCs in-game and will offer a wide range of items, options and services that will only be available to veteran players.

The idea behind the veteran items is not to create items that make characters more powerful, but to offer convenience and social items for veteran players to enjoy, either to offer things like better travel options for their characters or to make things a little easier when they start a new alt character.

How do you earn points?

This new system works with Veteran Points, points that players will acquire for every month that they subscribed to the game. The longer a player has had an active subscription, the more points will be gained.

The rewarded Veteran Points also increases after every six-month period so even more points are gained the longer a player has been loyal to the game.

• Month 1 to 5 - 6 points awarded per month
• Month 6-11 - 8 points awarded per month
• Month 12-17 - 10 points awarded per month
• Month 18-23 - 12 points awarded per month
• … and so on.

Points will be available for each character separately, so there is no need to ration points per character. All Veteran rewards are going to be character bound.

So, what do I get?

The different sorts of items that veterans will get access to vary from Social Items over Convenience Items to exclusive Veteran Equipment.

Convenience Items

• Basic Riding Training - 2 points
• Free Feat Reset potion - 2 points
• Basic Horse (8 different colors) - 3 points
• Straw Man (For target practice in certain playfields) - 5 points
• Path to Conarch Village - 8 points
• Path to Fire Beacon Lookout - 8 points
• Path to Hunting Lodge - 8 points
• Path to Iron Tower - 8 points
• Path to Khemi - 8 points
• Path to Kheshatta City - 8 points
• Path to Prison Colony - 8 points
• Path to Tarantia - 8 points
• Path to The Lair - 8 points
• Reset Feat Cost potion - 12 points
• Swift Horse (8 different colors) - 85 points

Veteran Items

• Veteran’s Bag (35 slots) - 8 points
• Veteran’s Boots (10 % out of combat movement speed) - 8 points
• Veteran’s Cape (+50 out of combat health/mana/stamina regen) - 8 points
• Veteran’s Path (Reduces the reuse time of your PoA/PoC by 10 minutes, permanently) - 10 points

Social Items

• Size Abilities (Abilities that allow you to grow in size for a period) - 2 points
• Arm Enlarging (Make your character a little more buff) - 3 points
• Breast Enlarging (Female only) - 3 points
• Fireworks - 2 points each
• Companion: Casilda (Will summon Casilda to cheer you on!) - 5 points
• Pet: Hyena - 5 points

Conclusion

And this will not be all the future holds for Age of Conan veterans! The system is designed so it can be easily expanded with future updates and to provide veteran players with even more rewards, services and options in the months to come! So stay tuned for more exciting rewards to be added through the Veteran system!

Tags: Age of Conan

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Siege Basics

Jul 31, 2009 Age of Conan|549views

The border kingdoms of Hyboria are where the best of the best duke it out in an epic battle of wits and strength to find out who has the right to rule over one of the few battle keeps that are available on each server. Siege is the apex of PvP in Age of Conan in which there is a defending and attacking guild fighting during a set time frame (set by the defending guild) over a battle keep. These battle keeps offer up extreme PvP and PvE stat bonuses along with the bragging rights that come with owning one of the selective structures. This makes the battles to claim and defend those keeps extremely brutal, and sometimes even personal. Knowledge can always change the tide of battle, so I put up this little guide on the basics of how Sieges work in AoC so that rookie warriors won’t be caught clueless on this merciless battlefield.

Getting a BK / applying for siege:

First off before you can even try and apply to siege your guild must:

1. Have a T3 city keep (you do not need T3 buildings though)
2. Have the minimum number of guild PvP points* to bid on the attacking siege spot

*Guild PvP points are gained every time someone in your guild completes a PvP mini game or kills a player of an enemy guild (that you have just declared siege on) your guild master can then use these points to bid against other guilds attempting to siege the same keep as you.

Once you have met all of the requirements, pull up the massive PvP tab and look for the battle keep you would like and make a bid. If you are the top bidding guild when the bid phase ends then congratulations, you will be participating in a siege at the time listed. If for some reason there is an unoccupied battle keep in a zone, you can acquire it just like you would a guild city. Now whether you are attacking or defending there is quite a bit of preparation to be had:

For Attackers:

For the defending guild to upgrade their battle keep (if it is not yet a T3 BK), they will need to collect special resources only found in the border kingdoms. However, these resources drop if the carrier is killed in PvP combat. Some of the more aggressive guilds will systematically attack and steal from the resource gatherers of the defending guild, which will effectively slow the upgrading of their BK, give you resources to more quickly build their BK if the siege is successful and also earn Guild PvP points in the process. Remember the higher the tier, the more hits it can take.

It is also important for anyone participating in the siege to know the locations of the siege camps throughout the enemy BK. Though knowing the exact points within the walls of the keep are difficult to obtain without being creative, there is no reason that the outer wall siege camps are not known by everyone so that rally points can be clearly set.

Have a plan! Explaining a simple siege strategy to your comrades is the quickest way to victory. 48 players running around doing their own thing will only give the defenders an easy win while 48 players that know exactly where to go can topple the most tenacious of defenders.

For Defenders:

Know the locations of siege camps! Have as many people as possible mark on their maps where the enemy could put up trebuchets and catapults. This will help you communicate where to counter attack.

Keep the doors closed! At no point during the siege should the front or inner gates be open as this gives a huge time advantage to the attackers. Many guilds will even keep the doors shut days before the battle just to make sure no stealthy scouts or would be saboteurs gain entry.

Know the tunnels. As of 1.05, there are now tunnels throughout the inner keep for the defense force to use. Make sure people know the locations of these secret passages and are using them instead of the gates or jumping from the walls.

Trebuchets and Ballistae:

To create a trebuchet,t simply walk up to a siege camp (big orange tents that you can build on those piles of rocks aka siege camps that you hopefully marked earlier) and click it. You then select which plans in your inventory you want to use and viola, a siege weapon of your very own! These little puppies will start firing by themselves, but while they do it is you and your raid’s responsibility to let it do as much damage as possible before the defenders take it out. And trust me the defenders will come at these things like wild dogs.

*TIP* using the advanced trebuchets is highly recommended as they have a great amount of hit points, meaning it will get off at least one shot before it is taken out ( it costs a lot more though so is recommended when attacking the main keep directly).

For defenders, there will be special NPCs that spawn on certain towers during the siege. Talking to these guys will create a ballista on the tower and give you an item (so make sure you have inventory space!) using the item will create an AoE circle that you can put on the ground wherever you think the enemy might be. The ballista will then fire continuously at that spot until either you die, the tower is destroyed, or you give it another location to shoot. The ballista will not do any damage to the attackers but it will be a constant knock back AoE that ignores most anti-cc.

*TIP* Ballistae can fire behind the tower they are mounted on! Some attackers will overlook a tower they have already gotten past allowing you to set a knock back zone in very annoying places!

Getting to the battleground:

Use the Massive PvP tab to find which of the three border kingdoms you will be attacking. To get to the Aquillonian end go to the border kingdoms recruiter at the garrison just a bit up the street from the temple of Mitra. For the Border of Kush talk to the recruiter near the armory in Khemi. For the Cimmerian end talk to the border kingdoms guide right across from the wagoner.

You can also go to the border kingdoms straight from any of the resource zones. Purple lotus swamp=Kush, Poitain=Aquillonian end, Lacheish Plains= Cimmerian end.

Once you arrive, simply check the local map for which BK you are heading toward.

If you own a BK then all you have to do is talk to a special NPC in your guild city who can port you there instantly for a small fee.

The Basics of Siege:

When the time for siege comes, there will be a guild wide message along with a counter that appears in the top left of your screen (default). This counter will show the defending guild’s name along with a certain number along the attacking guild’s name next to a zero as well as the time left in the siege. The numbers next to the guild names are the amount of points the defending guild has from their buildings (The higher the tier of the city/ more buildings the more points they will have). Every time a building or wall takes damage or is destroyed, points are lost from the defending guild and given to the attackers. To achieve complete victory, causing ownership of the BK to go over to the attackers, you will not only need to destroy the keep itself but have more points than the defenders. For attacking guilds that already own a BK; only the keep itself needs to be destroyed for a victory to show up on your record, though the defenders will still own the land as a guild cannot own two BKs. This will reset a T3/T2 keep back to T1, however. Destroying buildings for points is not the only advantage you get from destruction. The defending guild will lose any bonus they gained from the building as well.

Siege can be one of the most intense PvP experiences in any game but having 48 v. 48 max in a zone can be very taxing on even the beefiest of computers, so turning down settings is a must if you do not want to experience lag or a disconnect because of high latency. There is a nifty little siege/raid setting that will work for most computers but most high end systems will only need to turn view distance down and particle effects off.

Sieging has some of the highest stakes PvP out there, so you can imagine that there are countless strategies out there used to achieve victory. From the more underhanded tactics such as planting spies or using a mammoth mount to block the targeting of siege weapons to the more creative ones such as defenders paying off a mercenary guild or creating a dummy guild just to grab their keep’s attacking spot and effectively get a free siege win. Each guild has their own play style and strategy that they bring to raiding and sieging alike. Just be sure to end the battle on a good note, even if your keep is razed to the ground and the corpses of your friends lie strewn over the battlefield just remember that you can come back the next week and take it right back!

Tags: Age of Conan

Galaxy Online: Guide to the Ruins

May 8, 2009 Age of Conan|789views

The Ruins are a mystical area that players in Galaxy Online have been speculating about for some time now. Although not much information is available, its geographic and strategic importance cannot be exaggerated as the Ruins sit at the center of the Galaxy, sharing borders with all factions. This allows a force occupying it to attack any other faction with ease. In addition to its strategic importance is the value of the trophies that can be looted here. However, with so many reasons to go after this mysterious place, don’t assume it is abandoned or unguarded and never underestimate the dangers that lie in wait there…

The Ruins Guide

1.The Ruins are located in the middle of the vast universe. Orbiting around it are 5 Transmission Platforms.

2.When a faction has occupied 3 of the Transmission Platforms, the faction’s fleets will be able to enter the Ruins.

3.The Ruins and the Transmission Platforms are guarded by strong pirates. The supplies consumed and the warships shot down while assaulting the Ruins or the Transmission Platforms won’t be refunded.

Rewards

1.In the Ruins, there are 4 chests, each of which contains 1 million Science points, and 2 rescue capsules, both of which contain a Spell Commander.

2.On each Transmission Platform, there are 2 chests, each of which contains 300,000 Science points.

Trophies will appear on the screen once players defeat the pirates. However, since only a limited number of rewards have been prepared, players must hurry to claim them.

The Ruins System Respawn

When the Ruins are occupied, the server will make it public and begin a 24 hour countdown. Any fleets that are remaining in the Ruins system will be sent back to their own home galaxy. When the countdown has finished, the Ruins system (including the pirates, chests and rescue capsules) will respawn and players can attack the Transmission Platforms and the Ruins again.

Tags: Galaxy Online

AoC: The 2nd Largest Subscription-based MMO

Jul 14, 2008 Age of Conan|417views