Hard-working may be an understatement when it comes to style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan's
current live development team. Over the last few months, the developers
have pushed themselves to reconfigure a game that - at it's release -
wasn't what players wanted or expected. But with the upcoming Game
Update 5, the folks at Funcom have not only created new content for
their player base with the Tarantia Commons, but they've also
completely renovated what they're calling the "RPG system" in AoC,
among other things. Few games have seen such extensive changes in their
histories, so we sat down with AoC's Game Director and Director of
Communications, Craig Morrison and Erling Ellingsen, to find out some
of the details in GU 5.



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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/33489" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" src="/image/view/33489">

Ten Ton Hammer: How much
new content will the Tarantia Commons bring to the game? Will there be
new dungeons or raids in the area to explore?

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Erling Ellingsen: Tarantia
Commons District is the newest outdoor playfield for level 75 and up.
You will be able to experience countless more hours of content with a
whole new series of quests, outdoor boss encounters scaling from the
high rooftops of the district to the dark mysterious graveyard, and the
addition of a single-player as well as a 6-man grouped dungeon.



Craig Morrison: The
location really adds a lot of new very dynamic game-play elements. We
have really focused on adding interesting and exciting elements to the
design for these new play-fields and the urban environment of Tarantia
Commons has actually added to it even further, street riots and rooftop
game-play really brings some new dimensions into play in a way I think
players will really enjoy.



Ten Ton Hammer: Can you
tell us about the revamps you've made to RPG system?

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Craig: That
would actually be an interview all in itself I think. There have been a
lot of changes in this update, but the premise is straightforward. What
we have achieved with this update is to make the item and statistics in
the game a deal more meaningful to the players’ progression.
One of the major issues many players had with the game when it launched
last year was that they didn’t feel a goods sense of
progression, and this update addresses that.



You can find all the details of the changes on our href="http://cdn.funcom.com/aoc/newsletter/issue23/"
target="_blank">community site article.



Ten Ton Hammer: How will
the revamped itemization of gear effect gameplay for both PvE and PvP
gamers when it goes live?

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Craig: As
above it means that players can now improve their character more
through items. When a player finds different items through their
gameplay the choices of what to equip now mean more, and offer many
more options for customization. Hopefully players enjoy it much more
now that the relative merits of different items are clearer and more
obvious for them. So far the feedback seems to be positive.



Erling:
I’ve been getting feedback from players who claim that their
experience has completely changed with this update. It’s
quite interesting to see how much of an effect these changes have had.
Being able to understand more clearly what an item does to your
character makes a big difference for players, and having more
meaningful statistics on your weapons and armor I think makes obtaining
items a lot more rewarding.



And we all know that in RPGs finding good loot is a big part of the fun.


Ten
Ton Hammer: With the
1.05 update, Craig made a call to arms on the official AoC forums to
recruit guilds to aid in testing the raid encounters for the update.
What has been improved with the raids as a result and what can players
expect to experience when they hit these raid targets once the update
goes live?



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/31965" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" src="/image/view/31965">

Erling: I
hope you have some time, he likes talking about this subject!
Seriously, though, it’s great for us to have such a dedicated
community that is willing to step in and help us make these updates a
reality. It’s one of the great things about working on an
MMO; having a test server where players can follow  the
development of an update and provide feedback throughout the process
makes it a lot easier for us as developers to make sure we get the best
possible result.



Craig: The
main point of getting that important extra testing was to ensure that
the raid gameplay worked with the new RPG system. Each subsequent round
of testing has allowed us to make sure the new system works with the
existing mechanics.  We went through four stages of testing
with the player community.  I explained this at length to our
community during the testing, with some good discussions, but I thought
it’s worth sharing here for your readers as well! It was an
interesting process (of course those following Conan closely may have
read some of this already!)



The First Stage
- Finding the Conversion Errors




The first stage was to get through all the raids and see where the new
system made them simply impossible. The system has scaled some things
up and some things down, moved from invulnerabilities to protections
etc etc and that meant that some of the Boss spells and abilities were
simply too powerful or completely redundant after the automatic
conversion.



Alongside the testing, the team went through each and every raid boss
spell and ability and checked the scaling and the new outputs. Having
guilds testing the encounters at the same time helped tremendously. For
example, testing with Vistrix meant that immediately the team had a
list of changes easily identified from the very first tests. So even
though the players wiped completely (and were of course a little
frustrated by that) it allowed the team to identify exactly which
spells and / or abilities were the culprits (in the case of Vistrix it
was a debuff that was still using an old calculation rather than a new
one that was then reducing the players effective level by 20 rather
than 2!). Each of the bosses was then worked through in exactly the
same manner, testing and re-testing the numbers until the numbers came
within the ballpark ranges of the new system and we had weeded out the
remnants of the old calculations.



Stage Two -
Encounter Mechanics




Once the most glaring imbalances and errors had been worked out the
next stage was to assess the existing encounter mechanics and where
those might need to be adjusted. Which of the bosses spells and
abilities might need re-balancing, or which of the players abilities
may need tweaking with raid content in mind.



This was a more straightforward stage and involved running through the
encounters watching how players reacted to the abilities in the new
system, which leads to an important point...



New Systems vs
Existing Mechanics




There are not really any new mechanics being introduced with the raids
in 1.05, but the RPG system changes do have an impact on the existing
mechanics. Part of the entire reason for the systems changes is to
provide a more robust back-bone with more potentially interesting
mechanics for us to build our encounters on. The lack of
differentiation between levels and the relative slim power scale in the
original system meant that a lot of the mechanics that had already been
designed and implemented were almost inconsequential to players in many
cases. The system changes allow those mechanics to function as they
were originally intended.



A Case in Point



So what exactly does that mean in practice? Let me give you a specific
example that illustrates the point. The Champion of the Honorguard
encounter is one that demonstrates this quite well and has been a good
'litmus test' for some of the balance testing.



When we first started the organized raid tests, this encounter was
giving players far more problems than it should have. Raids were
clearly struggling with a difference between the live environment and
the new 1.05 build. (This of course was true with a few of the raids at
the start of the testing but I'll follow this one through as a good
example).



So we followed a few raids through, and then had the systems and raid
developers sit in on a run through. What we found was a great example
of the difference between the builds. The Champion of the Honorguard
has a spell that basically does more damage in an AoE attack the more
players are around. He has always had this ability; it's not new and
was part of the original design. The problem for raiders was that on
live, players were able to completely mitigate this damage with healing
and protections even when they were all bunched up around him (which
was then a valid tactic in the old build to keep everyone in team
healing range). In the new system however the new scale of damage and
HP levels meant that this spell had an increased effect. This meant
that in order to succeed in this encounter with the new system the
players had to adopt a strategy of spreading out a little more, as was
the actual original design intention.



Once the raiders realized this, they were able to complete the
encounter much more easily. It wasn't a new consideration; it was just
a consideration that had been inconsequential with the original system
(since it could be completely mitigated). What we have now is the
scenario where the original design implementation is actually playing
out better and providing a more interesting encounter.



Yes, it does mean the encounter can be argued to be 'harder', at the
very least 'different' and all that without any actual changes to the
mechanics of the encounter itself. The team hadn't given the boss any
new abilities, spells or tricks, but the new more robust system means
that his existing abilities are coming into play more and have to be
considered by the players.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41696" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: left;" src="/image/view/41696">

Stage Three -
Getting the Numbers Right




Tied to this of course is actually tweaking, adjusting and balancing
the spells, abilities and attacks themselves. The team have been
following and watching the raids, measuring damage output, healing and
the timing of both the players and the bosses. This has allowed the
team to tweak the numbers down to a level where we try and get the
raids to that pivotal point between being challenging and being
improbable (or even impossible in worst cases!) We generally tweak
downwards because we knew we were starting them off too high in the
first builds, it's easier for us to tweak down towards an acceptable
level than it is to tweak upwards)



Stage Four -
Bringing It All Together

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Lastly we worked on some more balance testing and making sure that we
tweaked things after the previous pass and made sure all the encounters
were possible with the new system.

We will also be continuing to watch raids closely now that the update
has gone live!


Ten
Ton Hammer: I noticed
that the player cities are going to become a little livelier with
update 1.05. Can you tell us what type of new things players can expect
to see when they stroll through their guild's city?

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41706" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" src="/image/view/41706">

Erling: Quite
a bit has been added here! Players will find their Keep now not only
provides a siege supply merchant at Tier I, but a Wagoner to Old
Tarantia at Tier II. At Tier III, as before, your guild is permitted to
participate in massive PvP battles.



The Temple (Tier I) provides a spiritual leader who can teach the Path
of Comrades, an ability that allows you to return to your guild city in
the same way that the Path of Asura returns to you to your bound
location.



The Barracks now supports not only the straw men and patrols of guards
but also scattered watchmen throughout the city. These guards increase
in level according to the tier of the Barracks (I = level 40, II =
level 60, III = level 80) and will defend their guildmates against
attacks. At Tier III, the Barracks also supports a Guard Captain, who
will transport visitors to the Border Kingdom of their choice for a
nominal fee.



City Gates will now be guarded by four sentries at all times. These
sentries level up and behave in the same way as Barracks-spawned
guards.



The Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, Architect's Workshop, Alchemist's
Workshop, and Thieves' Guild, as before, continue to support a merchant
to sell profession-based crafting materials. This merchant is
unaffected by building upgrades. The Armorsmith and Weaponsmith also
attract guards that level up and behave in the same way as
Barracks-spawned guards.



The Tradepost now not only provides a Trader, but offers the following
additional features:



Tier I: A food and drink merchant, as well as business-savvy whores.



Tier II: A Potions vendor, one of the new Provisioner vendors who sell
crates with bulk consumables, a

Tradeskill supplier, and a new local merchant who has a new social pet
for sale from the region.



Tier III: The local merchant expands his or her wares to include two
more pets, a wagoner to Conarch Village and a wagoner to Khemi.



Craig: These
elements are also important for their social value I think, guilds are
an important element of the game, and something we will definitely be
developing further. These additions are really just the start of the
process when it comes to guild functionality, you will see a lot of
focus on it in the next major game update as well.



Ten Ton Hammer: In the
latest “Letter from the Game Director”, Craig
mentioned that players will have the option to purchase two additional
character slots for their account when the new update goes live. Any
word on what this will cost players who want to take advantage of the
offer?




Erling: Unfortunately
this new service has been delayed a bit, but we’ll be
introducing this very soon. Players will be able to purchase a maximum
of two character slots and one slot will cost 15 US dollars or 15 euro
(incl. VAT where applicable). We’re also very pleased to be
introducing one free character slot for those who have accumulated six
months of subscription time. This will also affect people who reach six
months accumulated subscription time in the future.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41702" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: left;" src="/image/view/41702">

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you
tell us about the new gemcrafting system? How different is it from its
previous incarnation and how different will the new gems be in
comparison to the old?




Craig: Again,
that’s pretty much an interview in itself and there is an
in-depth article on the changes on our community site. At a top level
though, just as with the RPG system changes the new system means that
the players now have meaningful changes for their gems, and the system
is far more flexible in terms of meaningful additions.



You can find the detailed article  href="http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?utm_id=337&func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=2906&table=CONTENT"
target="_blank">here.



Ten Ton Hammer: What kind
of new social pets can players obtain from the new vendors being added
to the guild cities? Will there be additional social pets that can be
found throughout the world in other locations?

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Erling: The
social pets vary depending on which location in the game-world your
guild city is based on. Those based in Cimmeria will find the pet
vendor providing dogs, Acquilonian cities offer cats and the Stygian
version offers snakes.



Craig:
It’s something we may do more of in the future if they prove
popular with players. I think players do appreciate having some more
social elements added alongside the new game-play content. So there
will most likely be new social pets added in future updates as well



Ten Ton Hammer: Would you
care to tell us a little about the next update or the very secretive
expansion pack that you teased us with the art for some time back?

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Craig: I
don’t think I am allowed to talk about the expansion.



Erling: All
we can say is… mark GamesCom in your calendars!



Craig
In terms of the next update, as I outlined in the community letter we
have three main focuses.



The first focus, and the major feature addition, for the next cycle
will be guild gameplay. As we have mentioned before one of the major
focuses for this next set of content is improving our guild
functionality and the purpose and role of guilds in the game. I will
explore this in more depth, and reveal a little about the direction
these changes will take, in the next community letter.



In addition we will have new content as we move on to looking at the
addition of new high level content for both groups and raids in the
majestic halls of the House of Crom. The team is preparing some really
fantastic gameplay suitable for such an epic location. Continuing to
add even more high level content is an important goal for us and this
location plays a huge part in that. As the next major content addition
you can look forward to hearing much more about this over the summer
months as we prepare the challenges and encounters that await you in
this most imposing and deadly of dungeons.



Then we also have the ongoing task of adding more goals and objectives
to the Borderlands PVP playfields. This is something that we are busily
planning and working on already and hope to be able to add to over the
course of the next update cycle.



Ten Ton Hammer: Thank you
for taking the time to answer our questions.

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Craig:
Always a pleasure!



Erling:
Thank you for having us! We really hope players will come back and take
a look at what’s changed with the game since launch,
particularly after this massive update. We look forward to
everyone’s feedback in the time ahead!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Age of Conan: Unchained Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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