Xfire recently hosted a developer chat with Game Director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison and US Community Manager Glen 'Famine' Swan. Players shot in questions and the AoC folks answered! The topic theme seems to have been the upcoming Patch 1.05 and the near future of updates and while no top secret expansion tidbits have been shared yet, it still looks as though AoC has plenty more in store for the fanbase.

silirrion (silirrion): kyoji001: Originally the gear in the game did not make a big enough difference in character performance. How effective do you think the 1.05 patch is in balancing a heavier emphasis on gear while still honoring the original intention?

I think we are definitely moving in the right direction. There are still some tweaks, adjustments and changes needed from the test server builds for sure. This isn't something that is going to be pushed out quickly. We very much want to maintain the pace and 'feel' of the combat while doing this. Things will change to some degree for sure, but we do want to make sure we don't lose what players liked about the combat in the first place. We won't please everyone (alas that's not possible in making an MMO!) but I definitely think we are moving in the right direction.

silirrion (silirrion): Odysseuss (kieranv1): People are saying that you should remove the general feats and add new class feats in their place, do you agree?

I think the general tree has a good place for the characters, and those archetype level feats do offer a choice for your character, in particular after 1.05. I don't think we would consider removing them at the moment.

If you'd like to read the full transcript of the AoC dev chat, please visit Xfire's website!