[ Last Update: 20 June 2006 ]


The only reliable source for facts about Age of Conan are the developers answers at the Forums and interview quotes made mostly by the Game Director himself, Gaute Godager. To make it easier to find quotes about a certain topic I started to collect and sort all the quotes from the interviews and official Forums and put them together on this page. So if you are looking for info about something, take a look here. This page gets of course updated as soon as there are new interviews or dev-Forumsposts available.

As Funcoms decides to change some rules and plans , some of the quotes get obsolete over time. Those are marked with OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED so you know which ones aren't up-to-date anymore.

You can either read all the quotes one after the other or you chose the topic of your interest at the menu below.

To get a better idea about 'who said what', here's a list of the people who are quoted below:

• Athelan (Jason Stone) - NPC designer
• Attila (Andreas Öjerfors) - Quest designer
• DaveDread (David Nilsson) - Game designer
• Gaute Godager - Game director
• Jayde (Evan Michaels) - Item designer/implementation traps puzzles
• Johan (Johan Tenga) - Lead designer
• Jørgen Tharaldsen - Product director
• Khayman (Roar Selbo) - Gamecoder
• Mjoellnir (Trond Meier) - AI designer
• Silirrion (Craig Morrison) - Community Relations Manager
• Terri Perkins - Funcom

However there's one thing you need to remember when reading the quotes:

"All this is valid with the current design, it might change. We're currently tweaking and making alterations to lots of things." Forums, 18th October 2005 (DaveDread)

Topics

[ AI NEW ] [ Archery ] [ Armor ] [ Auctions ]
[ Beta_Testing ] [ Blocking NEW ] [ Bounty_System NEW ] [ Brawling NEW ]
[ CD_Copy_Protection ] [ Character_Customisation ] [ Classes ] [ Collision_Detection ] [ Combat ] [ Combat_(Defense) ] [ Combos NEW ] [ Communication ] [ Community_Site ] [ Console_Version ] [ Controls ] [ Crafting ] [ Creatures ]
[ Death ] [ Duel_Wielding NEW ]
[ Equipment ]
[ Factions ] [ Feats NEW ] [ Food_&_Drink ] [ Formation_Combat NEW ]
[ Game_Content NEW ] [ Game_Story ] [ Game_World ] [ Gladiator_Matches ] [ Guilds ]
[ Healing ]
[ Ingame_Customer_Help ] [ Instanced_Areas ] [ Inventory ]
[ Languages ] [ Language_Versions ] [ Levels ] [ Loot ] [ Lore ]
[ Magic NEW ] [ Master_+_Apprentice_System ] [ Monthly_Fee ] [ Mounted_Combat NEW ]
[ Nudity ]
[ Online_Action_RPG ] [ Online_Part ] [ OS NEW ]
[ Player_Housing ] [ PvP ]
[ Quests ] [ Quests_(Guilds) ]
[ Races ] [ Raids ] [ Rating NEW ] [ Release_Date ]
[ Servers NEW ] [ Siege_Combat NEW ] [ Single_Player_Part NEW ] [ Skills ] [ Slavery ] [ Soloing ] [ Sound ] [ Special_Moves ]
[ Thieving ]
[ Weapons ]

AI Back to top

With the need based system we are working on now, we can give all NPC's their own mind.. meaning they will be hungry, thirsty, sleepy etc and act accordingly to their emotions and needs. Some NPC's will avoid conflict, others will warn you not to come closer while others again will attack on sight. We are trying to make this as good looking as possible rather than having static NPC's who are just looking at you until you get close enough to fight. Forums, 14th October 2005 (Mjoellnir) I want to say though, that we will do our best to make a unique AI for this game. It is a lot of work, but with an additional AI designer, we should be able to make it. Forums, 21st September 2005 (Mjoellnir) Our AI/scripting tools are made on site, and I'm not sure how detailed I can tell you about them. But basicly we have the scriptingtool and we have the braintool. In the scripting tool, I make both simple and more complexed behaviorscripts.. Say one script for what the NPC will do when he is hungry, and one for when he is lonely and want some company. In the braintool, I set up what the NPC should use as a default script, and what scripts he should use when he get hungry or lonely. And then I define the emotion values that decide when what script should run. Emotions may also be triggered by the main scripting tool trough events happening in the world. If a NPC is afraid of say, magic, he may run away when someone cast something. The AI can reside in any dynamic object and also be a part of the playfield. As for toning down the AI.. well we'll see how badly the NPC's hit you in Beta. I don't think I can be more presice now. Forums, 20th September 2005 (Mjoellnir) If I can help it, we will not have static NPC's, other than those who are supposed to stand in a certain area. I don't want to go into more details than I have in some of the other posts, but when we design and script the behavior of animals we try to see how they act in real. A migrating system is interesting and not impossible to implement, so I'll keep it in mind. Forums, 25th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) Hehe, Gaute promised that you would not have to fight rats. Anyway, we certanly want the world to be alive, and not just filled with static NPC's who go from point A to point B and then back again until they are attacked. Forums, 18th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) On that note, will the animal mobs have some sort of AI to attack lesser animals? Sorta like "Predator X, preys on Animal Y"? I can't say much about it at this time. But we are working on an AI that do just that.. Forums, 18th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) We can give every single NPC, dynel, item, puzzle, trap, quest and even playfield its own AI script, and this script can be very simple or very complex. That means that the entire world can be controlled with AI, something that give us the possibility to make a good, dynamic envirorment where nothing really is predictable unless we want it to be! Forums, 12th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) That said, some of our goals for AI and whatnot in AoC will hopefully make the game environment more dyanmic than one is used to in a standard MMORPG. We were very pleased to hear comments coming out of E3 in terms of finding Tortage City to feel a lot more "real" than would be expected. I know our AI people are working very hard to try to create a far more "spontanious" game world. Forums, 11th August 2005 (Jayde) The foundation of the system has the Maslow pyramid at its foundations, which states that everyone has certain base need they must get fulfilled in order to get a “good” life, or survive if you will (laughs). This psychological background in mind is definitively coming from Gaute, who is educated as a psychologist, and his wish to take AI and dynamic experiences to the next level. conan.mmorpgs.info, 2nd April 2006 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) What we try to do, I mean we developed A.I. for many years with Anarchy Online, is to see what could be done about taking the somewhat unpredictable gaming experience further. I guess you could say that the very foundation of the Maslow hierarchy means we are doing something unique as it allows for a more dynamic gameworld, but in the end I think the players will be most pleased about the fact that we are coming with a game where you cant always predict what will happen. Good challenges makes a game more fun, and nothing is more boring than everything simply becoming rinse and repeat of what you are constantly doing. conan.mmorpgs.info, 2nd April 2006 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) One example would be in a village where you will see different behavior based upon the time of the day and also the needs of the person you are encountering. And you'll also see the A.I. working with group behavior. If you are out in the countryside and one wolf is coming along you will probably be spared. But if there's a whole pack of wolf you might be attacked because they will have different behaviors depending on how many there are and also how many players you are with. Hopefully it won't be 100% for real because this is a game. It has to be a parameter of fun. So what is fun and what works will be kept. The player of online rpgs often like to have some hunting grounds, some regions which will be good for that as well. I guess the essence is that it should be to some degree unpredictable, it should be varied, and that is what we are trying to achieve. More than anything it should be fun though! conan.mmorpgs.info, 2nd April 2006 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) NEW The need system in Conan AI is loosely based around famous American psychologist Abraham Maslow's pyramid of needs where NPC AI is categorized into several distinct categories – like the need to eat, sleep, survive, fulfill your dreams and so on. Each of the levels of our pyramid contains a steady grow in need, and will need to be fulfilled by the AI. So in the night, the character will grow tired and close up his shop, and might walk home. On his way home he might be attacked, the need to survive will be kicked into high-gear, letting him defend himself. And so on. We have made this neat AI not to create something we think will revolutionize gaming, making the world "real". I think all such claims are Utopian. We have done this to be able to let the NPCs be a little bit more intelligent than just "quest vendors" or "battle-monkeys" or whatever you will call the behavior of monsters / NPCs in todays MMOs. The NPC’s will approach a player and try to sell stuff, talk to him or interact if appropriate. The NPC’s will have loyalty to their leaders, and various degrees of social abilities. It is important to note, though, that combat AI is quite a bit more linear. This is because for battles it is most likely more fun to interact with a predictable enemy than someone that seems "random". ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Archery Back to top

Well specialized archer classes could potentially help form ranks of even non archer types to boost their skills and they could get formation bonus's while in these defensive type formations on walls etc. So then even if you were not an archer you could take part as one and the more experts you had the more powerful the unit would be. Forums, 20th September 2005 (Athelan) There will be a need for ammunition but we do not want to make it a burden. There will likely be some sort of interface crosshair type indicator, we cannot expect people to sight down the arrow and guess. There will likely be some sort of zoom as well but it will be done well and more in line with how you focus on your target rather than having a sniper scope. It will be done in a tasteful, heroic, and realistic way just like everything else but it will be easy to learn and difficult to master which means basic aiming aids need to be available. Forums, 23rd September 2005 (Athelan) We do have archery based classes but I do not believe they will be pet based. Forums, 14th November 2005 (Athelan) The goal with ranged combat is not to make it only for Counter Strike and Quake Experts but to give the feeling of control and aiming at your opponent and filling them with arrows. The idea with hit locations is to give archers options besides just damage. Maybe I shoot the guy in the leg and he slows down, Maybe I hit him in the head or helmet and daze him or do extra damage. Maybe if I shoot him in the gut he bleeds, or the arm and he has trouble swinging his sword. Point being I cant pick out to hit the guy in the arm at 100 meters, hit him in general, yeah but "headshot" not likely. Forums, 2nd February 2006 (Athelan) (There's an article at the Community Site about ranged combat. You find it here) Community Site, 10th March 2006

Armor Back to top

I believe this is somewhat a misrepresentation, though. Just because Conan was dressed a certain way does not mean everyone else in the world was, or should be. There will be certain classes that rely more on Dexterity than others, thus will want to wear light (or maybe no) armor. Other classes, however, will not. Warrior types will certainly be wearing chain or platemail most of the time, as it suits the role and nature of their class. I don't think players want to see a game where everyone runs around with a loincloth any more than they want to see a game where everyone wears the same high-level armor, though. Forums, 17th August 2005 (Jayde) There are really two key issues here... one is resources: we can't produce an unlimited amount of armor meshes (sadly), and two is variety: I wouldn't personally want to see people wearing the same "look" all the time. I like the idea, but typically what happens in such a situation is that players will gravitate primarily to the "coolest" armor look available. Take a game like Phantasy Star Online--where you just chose your outfit at char creation, and it had no impact into your stats--how many random players picked a HUmar with the black outfit, some form of spiky hair, and named themselves some variation on a DragonballZ or Final Fantasy VII character? (The answer is: a lot.) Although it seems as if free-form customization would decrease the amount of "cookie cutter" looks, in most examples I've seen where something like this was implemented, it actually seems to increase the amount of similar looks instead. The other element is that I think we would prefer for players to "discover" some of the cooler armor looks as they progress through the game, and not have everything available to them right off the bat. From my point of view at least, there doesn't seem to be much surprise or extra achievement in getting something that looks really awesome later in the game if someone level 13 could be wearing something that looks exactly the same. Forums, 26th September 2005 (Jayde) Anyways, if I understand your idea correctly it can be boiled down to two things: Unlinking armor graphics from armor stats/level. Having a large selection of graphics available to everybody and a small selection available to few. Personally, I like being able to see on a character what class he is and/or his approximate level. "O.o here comes a badass warrior" or "now that's a n00b thief" kinda. Connecting an armors visual appearance to the armors stats does exactly that. The armor looks good = the armor is good. We also have a system where not all classes can wear all armor (no mages in plate as an example) so we need to limit character access to armor graphics depending on armor stats anyways. Having a large selection of graphics available to a lot of people does tend to make some grahpics overused and some underused. City of Heroes is a great example where visuals work great, but in CoH you don't get new armor pieces constantly like you do in Conan. To keep the gritty, dark, look we want to have in Conan, we need to have control of the combinations and color schemes... in CoH the player has access to every color in the palette. We dont want Cimmerian warriors in pink loincloth. A lot of the visual appearances in games where the players can choose their visual appearance tends to be outrageous and humorous, and while Conan will surely be a fun game we will want to keep the fun factor of clothing under strict control. Forums, 27th September 2005, (DaveDread) I still believe that in the event of giving players mostly free choice of looks, diversity will actually go down compared to a system where the items are designed as such to not have One True Way for everyone. Personally, I would rather put my effort into making more choices viable than hiding the fact that everyone is using the same stuff through this kind of implementation. As you mentioned WoW, I will give an example: Say I'm a level 60 Warrior. The Battlegear of Might set is probably one of the coolest looking sets of armor in the game--if not the coolest in many people's eyes. A full set of Might looks pretty awesome on a Warrior with a massive weapon. Now, though, Might isn't the best armor for every situation--I have an additional PvP set, and also a fire resist set of armor. Does Might look cooler than my PvP armor set? Yep. If I had the option of always looking like I was wearing my Might set, would I take it? Probably, yes. Would 90% of every other level 60 Warrior take it as well? Also--probably, yes. So, instead of being a situation where you have multiple Warriors wearing different gear and looking diverse based on which particular pieces chosen, a vast majority of them would be running around in the cool-looking Might set. Personally, I think this would be boring. Although some would take the opportunity to wear something very unique and interesting, many many players would be prone to gravitate towards the "cool" stuff at all times. Another example of what I think Dave was trying to say is simply: although there are benifits (anti-ganking) to being able to hide your looks, it can also be quite unfair. Why should someone be able to make their +10 Uber Shoulderpads of Doom look like level 5 shoulderpads so people don't know they have decent equipment? In implementation, a lot of a piece of armor's "value" can be derived from its looks. e.g. a high-quality piece of armor typically *looks* like it is a high-quality piece of armor--it would always make sense for something with the protection value of X item to look like Y item visually, as the visual representation of its quality/worth (condition of the metal, thickness, size, layers, etc.) would no longer match. One other thing I would point out is as soon as you implement a system for making visuals a reward, one has basically just created a secondary "item uberness" scale independant of the items. In addition to a focus being on the stats of the items you have, the "cool" or rare looks would become valued just for being cool or rare. "Dude you have the EvilBlackWarrior look! Where can I camp for that?" Forums, 28th September 2005 (Jayde) Basically, we came to the conclusion that it was no fun to be missing all the time, so shifted over to a system with a much higher hit rate with damage mitigation based on atk. vs. def. ratings. (Def rating being contributed by the base bonus from armor, and also from the allowable dexterity bonus on the armor and your stats.) This will contribute a more "glacing blow" type situation, where those in full plate are still getting hit--just for less than they would without it. (Evasion oriented classes will be able to reach similar ends via different means.) This also allows us more flexibility in the "active defense" systems that Athelan has posted about in the past I think. Stiler, as for "buffs"--I think Dave is just using that as a generic term for anything that may temporarily raise the attack or defense rating of the player. For a hypothetical example, a warrior may have a combo which causes him to enter a more offensive state--therefore raising his attack rating for a short period of time.time. Forums, 6th October 2005 (Jayde)

Auctions Back to top

I believe it is currently in the works to have Auction Houses. Forums, 11th December 2005 (Jayde)

Beta Testing Back to top

We will have a beta testing phase. Exactly how it will be - open, public, closed, invites, Canadian lottery - it is too early to tell. Since the single-player part of the game is story-driven it would be really bad for the players if all of the narrative was well known at launch, which is why you don't see single-player game betas all that often. IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) I can't comment on or tell you anything about AoC beta but personaly I've betatested UO and a few other games. It is fun to run around finding bugs, which for me, is the purpose of the beta.. Some think it is a way to get a free game and then get unhappy when they see that not all is working as it should. So generaly speaking, join a beta if you want to help testing a game and get a feeling for how it will be to play it.. Or wait until launch if you want a fully playable game. Forums, 9th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) Generally (not talking about Conan here), very few, (if any) are let into Alphatesting outside the gamecompanies. The reason for this is that having 'outsiders' test an incomplete game will cause more work for the devs than testing it internally. Most of the bug reports that would come in, would be known issues. And people would break things that are still not ment to be broken yet. I alphatested an expansion of UO some years back, and it was not an enjoyable experience. Betatesting however starts when a game is in its very final stage of development. All features are supposed to be in, and devs are hunting down the final bugs. Forums, 14th September 2005 (Mjoellnir) On a more serious note, Beta is still to come and we haven't decided on how to choose participants. It makes sense to use the most knowledgable people, and people who have hung around for a long time tends to know more things. It will not be that an old Forums account will automagically get you a beta slot. Forums, 11th October 2005, (DaveDread) Well I cannot say I know if Forums veterans will get any sort of special consideration when it comes to Beta. What is important to me is finding those people who can evaluate and test and write solid bugs and feedback. Early phases of testing are just that, testing. Closer to release is when a beta becomes more of a play for fun and check out the game experience. Forums, 11th October 2005 (Athelan) Being former QA I will share with you some of the things that really do make a good Beta Tester. 1) Report Bugs - This sounds silly but many people just think "Someone else will do it" or "I dont want to take the time to write a bug" if you don't report bugs we cannot fix them. 2) Keep up to date on the known issues list shared by the developement team on the Beta Forums. Look here so you do not report something that is already being worked on. (If known issues says we are aware of the sky is red issue and working on it you don't need to put in a new bug everytime you login and see the sky is red.) 3) Be as precise as you can and include details. Your character name Your level Your class What you were doing What happened Where you were (not just the region but the x,y,z coordinates if possible) Can you reproduce it? If so give the exact steps how. Is there a way to work around the bug. If so give exact steps how. (This can help in the known issues so others can keep testing) 4) If given the option of sending in a crash log do it. Forums, 17th October 2005 (Athelan) The beta will be some time next summer. I do not expect the whole game to be available to everyone for download and free beta. You must understand that as the beginning of the game is story-driven, this would completely ruin the gaming experience for most players. Most story-driven RPGs or adventure games are never available in demo mode. This is for a very natural reason as story is best appreciated once. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) We might make a smaller, testable area of the world available to a fairly large beta audience to test various game features. Some people might actually be selected to participate in testing quests, story and ambience in the beginning of the game. When exactly this period will start has yet to be decided. Keep watch on our homepage for details. Suffice to say a world of this size and scope needs to be tested thoroughly, and we will do our very best to make sure we launch the game in a best possible way. My advice here would be to sign up for our forums as soon as you can, as this might give you some benefits in the later process. No promises though, but we hope our most loyal fans can be rewarded in some way. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Blocking Back to top

NEW Manual blocking will not be put in. You have a base chance of blocking attacks with your shield arm, especially those striking the side your shield is on, this is the same as having a chance to evade. The shield is not a mystical passive addition that just bumps up an armor stat. Forums, 23rd May 2006 (Athelan)

Bounty System Back to top

The bounty system is more of a two part deal. The bounty system which tracks the criminals and the prison system that punishes them. I should ask the trap guys about a stocks that we could put particularly bad griefers in the stocks in town so people could walk by and laugh at them. Forums, (Athelan) While PvP is not allowed in the safe areas there is no reason PvE cant be allowed. Using the bounty idea posted perhaps Griefers and the like through some mechanism could run to the safety of town and still have consequences for their actions. The payback wouldnt be by the players directly but by NPC's. So lets pretend I have a perfect system designed so that placing bounties on people isnt exploited and only true griefers and not PvPers are getting bounties. When the griefer goes to a safe area he is still holding a flag on his character saying he is wanted. A group of armed NPCs approaches the character and states that he is wanted for crimes committed and a bounty lies on his head for X amount. If he tries to run or do anything the NPCs attack him. Maybe he can win, maybe he cant it could be based off the size of the bounty how many people come after him. Or perhaps you could bribe your way out of the bounty by paying the bounty + an additional amount. (This could get harder also as you had a bigger bounty). So I get upset with some guy and decide to gank him, I do so when he is fighting a mob and I am way higher level so I am eligible for a bounty. The guy puts a bount on me of 50 gold and I run off to town. 3 NPCs approach me and I think I know I cant take them and that I dont want to have them keep coming after me so I try to bribe them. I spend 65 of my own gold to buy them off. Now I have been killing a lot of people and I have built up a 5000 gold bounty. I run into town and a large group of 10 armed soldiers comes looking for me. No way I can fight them but to bribe them would be 8000 gold way more than I have. So they drag me off to jail or kill me. And maybe they loot the items the same as someone would in PvP. Of course this is a pretty complex way of dealing with it, you can just wait for the guy to leave safety and get him then too Forums, (Athelan) Just to clarify, the bounty system is meant as NPC enforcement not for players to collect off other players. So while you could be on a bounty board they will get you. Forums, 7th September 2005, (Athelan) At this time I do not want players to be able to collect the bounties because it opens a world of exploits. The purpose of the bounty system is to remove the safety of safe areas of the game for those who are found to be guilty of crimes against society. What people are saying and I tend to agree with Fafyrd is a completely open FFA system would make too much of the world defined by the players. I can see how that could be true and in order to grasp REH world would require a ton of rules for factions and guards and assassins etc. Forums, (Athelan) The bounty system I propose is not a Pvp Bounty. That can be worked out by the players no reason for us to code it. The bounty system I am working on is one that allows griefed people to put bounties on the griefer and remove the safe areas of the game for the griefer until they pay for their crimes. Forums, (Athelan) Players wont be bounty hunters. That has been discussed in great length. We have had some discussions and will implement something additional reward/loot wise for PvP servers. Forums, 2nd December 2005 (Athelan) If you are found guilty of a bounty worth crime you get a bounty this is all npc driven. Bounty hunters will come after you but you may escape initially to another country, if you become notorious enough your crimes will catch up with you eventually. You can try to bribe the bounty hunters or face a prison sentence. The sentence will not lock a character from play or stand in a box for a x number of hours. It will force the character to perform a series of hard labor quests in prison in order to be released. I'm not sure how long the worst sentences will be but I would never make it so long someone would quit, just enough that when you choose to pound someone into paste you consider if its worth it. Not that bounty's come off all kills but lets use level restriction as an example. We could either make it so you can kill anyone without penality. What happens then? High levels kill low levels for no reason and ruin (therefore grief) the low levels gameplay. Now we put in level restrictions (hardcap) low level guy stands there acting like an idiot and saying extremely rude things about your family, your guild, you whatever. Now at least myself, I would want to show the little guy a lesson and being restricted from doing that bothers me. I would rather have the choice to do it so if I choose not to because he is not worth the time or the bounty it was MY choice rather than a choice made for me by the game engine. Forums, 15th February 2006 (Athelan) NEW The bounty/prison system will be in place. What qualifies as a crime is to be determined but in general this is specifically there to combat grief behavior. Now that probably wont keep you from getting beat up by 10 guys, but it will help in high level vs low level etc situations, Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW The bounty and prison system is a two part system designed to combat the most undesirable behavior in a PvP environment. The two parts are the bounty system which is designed to track criminal behavior and dispatch NPC bounty hunters to pursue the target. These bounties may start locally (as in Cimmeria only) but can grow to be world wide. Escaping from a bounty hunter will not decrease the bounty, the only way to remove a bounty is to a) bribe the bounty hunters at a premium (perhaps guile skills could help but it wont be cheap) over the bounty amount or b) do your time in prison. Prison is defined as an area, maybe the interior of the iron tower in Tarantia where the guilty are placed and must serve their sentence. Instead of being straight time based this is based on objectives that must be accomplished to serve their sentence. Think hard labour. Now these sentences can never be so brutal that people must spend hours in jail doing mindless tasks. But they need to be severe enough that you question your actions before committing a crime. The real question is what constitutes a crime? The easiest ones in my opinion are someone much higher level killing someone of lower level. When you get into attacking someone already engaged with a mob you get exploit material, same thing with attacking someone already low on health (plus if they are low on health because they just fought and killed your friend then you arent really griefing them) Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW The idea is if you were only to break the law occasionally then the bounty would be low enough you could bribe it off or do the time and killing the guy if he was a punk would be worth it, but if its just a regular joe you probably wouldnt bother. Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW Logging out should never reduce the crime, as then people would just swap different characters, logging off is not a punishment. If your bounty gets high enough youll become globally wanted not just in Stygia. Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW This system will be global. The rules will not be changeable by the players, for exploitation reasons. Some exceptions may be made for example you shouldnt be in the massive pvp area if you arent ready to get beat on, and in a siege you dont want to be thinking oh I cant hit him or ill get a bounty. Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW It wont reduce your bounty to kill bounty hunters but it should not be impossible Forums, 7th Junde 2006 (Athelan)

Brawling Back to top

The other type of PvP is something very unique and Conanesque, and it's simply called "brawling". It is only turned on for drunken players who frequent bars and inns. Here, you fight with other stats than the regular level abilities, and the system is based around how much you drink, what type of brawling weapon you're holding (table, bottle, stool, etc.) as well as other abilities. The object here is simply to drink yourself satisfyingly intoxicated, and smash down your fellow bar-brawling drunkards in an all out fun and games setting. Nothing serious, only for fun. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Drunken brawling is automatically switched on in bars / festivals etc when: a) you enter such a place b) you buy and drink an alcoholic beverage Then, you can no longer fight with your normal abilities, spells, levels, skills etc. All normal RPG rules are totally thrown out the window, as you toss those drinks down. You are yourself, alone with your wits (or lack thereof) and a barstool in both hands. A level 1 is as powerful in drunken brawling mode as a level 80. You swing, score and reduce the consciousness of the opponent. Drinking a lot might make you less conscious, but then again, you might chose to disregard any puny glass bottles broken over your head. How much, how fast and what you drink make you fine-tune that drunkenness. During this stupor, you actually get access to other special moves that are not available in normal combat, like nasty head butts, haymakers and so on. If you drink the right type of beverage, you might get something called "bliss" that will reduce all damage done to you. You might also "sway" a lot more, making you harder to hit. But your "focus" and "brawling" skill might go down, along with your ability to hit. You fight, kick, brawl and pass out. It is all part of the normal life in a Hyborian bar or inn. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) Most of the taverns in Age of Conan will be PvP zones, but the system will be quite different than that in the outside world. Rather than sword battles and duels to the death, players will instead swig mugs of ale and smack each other over the head with cups and broken table legs. Losing the battle doesn't mean death -- it just means getting tossed out by the bouncers. There will be no levels in bar fights. Everybody from level 20 to 80 will be on an even playing field. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager) NEW The first tavern you can brawl in is right there on Tortage I believe :) Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan)

CD Copy Protection Back to top

Since our games can only be played on our servers that kind of copy protection (Starforce and similar) is a non-issue, if you dont have a valid CD key and account you couldn't play the game on our servers regardless of whether you managed to clone or copy the actual software client. No valid account, no playing, that simple. That is one of the strongest advantages of the game being fully online in terms of ensuring that piracy doesnt effect us in that manner too badly. Forums, 14th December 2005 (Silirrion)

Character Customisation Back to top

At the very beginning, all you do is customize your race and your looks. I have always felt that the character customization is lengthy enough, with the number of choices given by a modern character customization engine, to not give players even more choices this early. Choices will be given as a result of what you do and how you like playing, more than a vision at the very beginning. Many times I am not only extremely impatient at the beginning of a new game, but I have found later that I have made the wrong choices at the beginning, due to my impatience. So, this led to the conclusion to get the player going as soon as possible. Then, in the game, do the choices. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) For all the different races and both genders, there is a multitude of options available to tweak your appearance. You can select different color of your skin, scale many parts of your body (chest, shoulders, legs, etc.), add scarring, tattoos, body jewelry and, naturally, alter your face by changing the appearance of your features. Should you wish to go even more in-depth, you can enter the super-advanced mode during character creation, where there will be, I think, more than 40 different sliders and buttons to manipulate your appearance. You do not have to go through this detailed process; if you like, you can simply press a random selection button, giving yourself a unique-looking character on the fly. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) There will be four opening story arcs to solo throughout your early game. Players who definitely explore through all the possibilities will come out into the MMO world with a slight advantage against players who quickly blitz through the system. This personal story line for players will begin with your first character, once done, if you create a second character you opt to go directly into the MMO world. MMORPG, 27th March 2006 (Jorgen Tharaldsen) Character creation will be an immersive part of the introduction to the world. With over forty sliders to help personalize your character there are certainly a lot of options. Players can also change the look of their character throughout the course of the game by adding battle scars and tattoos. A great note on design of the game is that team has set Frank Frazetta’s artwork of Conan as a goal. Frazetta has really captured the look of Conan over the last fifty years in the paper back novels. MMORPG, 27th March 2006 (Jorgen Tharaldsen)

Classes Back to top

The choices are as follows: You start out with race: Aquilonian, Cimmerian or Stygian. They can not all have all archetype classes. Aquilonian and Cimmerian can later choose among Rogue, Priest or Warrior. Stygian can chose among Rogue, Priest or Mage. This is set to be in character with the universe. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED The choice of archetype class will be done at level 5, when arriving in the city of Tortage. Then, when you finally reach level 20, you can choose from 3-4 main classes per archetype. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) We naturally offer also the traditional class interdependencies, where you are unique. With players having around 40 classes to chose from, each with individual, distinct, powers - you are always needed in a team. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED In addition, when choosing guild class, at level 40 you can choose the "Commander" class. This will enable you to increase the size of your party. When two commanders team up, the party can become the size of 10 people! IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The priest classes also behave differently, as they are aligned to different gods. Shamans from Cimmeria (the cold, northern reaches; the homeland of Conan himself) are granted their power from Crom, while the high priests of Aquilonia (the gentle Roman-like area where Conan now rules) receive their powers from Mitra. Finally, the snake priests of Stygia (the southern, Egyptian-like area that is home to many vile enemies of Conan) obey the snake god, Set. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED The archetype classes are warrior, mage, priest, and rogue. You get to choose a class at level five, as you arrive at Tortage, the freebooter town on the Baracha Isles. You begin your life without a class, and all you need to choose is your looks and race. At level 20, you get to choose between three or four branching classes, and this becomes your main class. You keep your main class all the way to level 60, when you chose your specialization. There are two specializations for your base class. In total, there are around 40 different class choices available for the player. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED Add to this the guild classes that you choose at level 40. There are four different guild classes accessible to you, regardless of what your main class is. The guild classes are like an overlay class, with mostly social functions. Among these are a path of manufacture specialty (although everyone can do some item creation), tactical expertise (increasing the size of teams, accessing advanced formations), strategic expertise (creating and using siege engines, creating main halls in the guild village), and lordship (getting a permanent follower with unique artificial intelligence). Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) And, I might add, we aim to give priests a decent capability to dish out damage themselves. While the different classes will be, uh, different... none will be teethless. Forums, 12th August 2005, (DaveDread) We have very skilled designers and system designes working on the big task of balancing the different classes and subclasses. So we hope it will work out fine. And as someone mentioned.. balanced does not mean that every class is equal. Forums, 14th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) I believe one of the biggest mistakes to be made in class balance is to look at two classes, compared them side by side, then try to extract balance changes from that comparison. Class balance is something that comes from the analysis of the game landscape as a whole. For instance, a classical example is: Rogue jumps Cloth users, Rogue kills Cloth-users quickly, Cloth-user crys "nerf Rogues." Now, does this mean Rogues are overpowered? Perhaps...perhaps not. It could be that Rogues get killed easily by Barbarians or the like. Or, it could just be that the Rogue in question used special skills designed to provide an advantage in that situation--and if the other person had seen him coming, they would have won the fight. Obviously, we will strive to make the classes as globally balanced as possible, but all classes will have both strengths and weaknesses. Oftentimes, players of a class view balance as trying to remove all of the classes weaknesses--when, in reality, those weaknesses are there to preserve global class balance. A class with no weakness is typically the true "overpowered" class in a game. Also, as has been touched on already, balance is more than "who can kill X, Y, Z." Other skills, especially those valuable in other situations than a straight head-to-head fight, are also very important in figuring out the value of any given class. Forums, 15th August 2005 (Jayde) Classes will be restricted to armor/weapon access feats based on the nature and balance of the class. I doubt you'll see rogues using Full Plate, or Mages be using Bows. We simply can't let certain classes use/wear whatever they want, otherwise it would be a horribly balanced game. Forums, 19th August 2005 (Jayde) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED There are four base classes in the game, the normal Thief, Fighter, Priest and Mage. Which base classes are available to you depend on what race you choose. There are three races featured in the game at launch: Stygian, Cimmerian and Aquilonian. Only Stygians are able to become the dreaded Conan Mages, for instance. The arch-type classes are selected at level 5. Then you select your base class at level 20. Here each arch-type branch into 2-3 choices and then these base classes branch again at level 60. This leaves the player with more than 40 class branch choices through the game, towards the current level cap at level 80. In addition to this, we have the so-called prestige or social classes picked at level 40. This is a set of four different classes focusing on social activities, and can freely be picked by any class. They generally allow the player to build villages, do crafting or other things. PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) Well, currently most classes can pick up a sword. (All classes actually, but that will likely change.) Not that every class would be able to swing it with any expertise however, one could even say that a lot of classes will flail about rather haplessly if they wielded a sword, and they would have to make sacrifices to do so. Forums, 30th September 2005, (DaveDread) I think we devs use the word Warrior with a different meaning then you fine folks. We use the "Warrior" as the main tank class, IE high defence, low damage... while I think you use it as a good offensive class. It's just nomenclatura, named differently. I think I know exactly what class you'll want to play, but I won't give out names hehe. It is a "subclass" of the Warrior tho. Forums, 3rd October 2005, (DaveDread) Pure skill based systems very commonly lead to a special combination of defensive and offensive capabilities that outperform everything else, and a lot of players will use that. Tank Mages in UO as an example. So, a strict "you can't do this" system has to be in place for balancing reasons and then you're pretty much back at where you started. We will try to handle this by having a reasonably wide selection of options available for the classes. We enforce defensive capabilities strictly, no mages in full plate. Ever. A mage can choose to pick up a sword and fight with it, but he will never get close to the sword skill of a warrior, and since he's not really supposed to wave a sword around he'll have to sacrifice other skills to wield the sword. The warrior in return will never get the capability to cast mage spells, etc. Forums, 3rd October 2005, (DaveDread) We won't nerf anything just because people whine.. but we will probably make changes if we find things unbalanced. We have very good people both in the dev team and in PQA who will help us balance the classes etc. But hopefully, most of the balancing will happen before we launch. Forums, 14th October 2005 (Mjoellnir) I think you need to view these as layers on top of the already progressive class structure. I could be a barbarian commander or a priest of set master, or a priest of set commander, its my choice. To me this is a cool additional level of customization. Who wouldn't like to have an infinite amount of additional depth in customization and class? Don't think anyone can argue with that but we do need to finish what we have and make Conan a great game, and while I think the ideas presented in this thread are interesting I do not think it would be something worth the amount of implementation time to do now. But, that is just my personal opinion P.S. You can still advance in these professions you just won't "change" professions Forums, 25th October 2005 (Athelan) To put it bluntly there is a reason why most of the core characters in the books are melee oriented and I feel if we were to completely remove the healing aspect from these classes they would just end up weak versions of the "pure" fighter types. I have always favored support/survivable characters. So for me the priest in Conan actually sounds very interesting, I can help people and myself, I can fight and I am not super squishy. Forums, 26th October 2005 (Athelan) We are doing a lot to make boss fights need tactics and the players can learn these tactics over time but not necessarily know exactly what to expect. I don't want phase 1 at x percent hp and phase 2 at y. In the books people are very rarely injured, they are dead or bumped around a bit. Conan himself should have been gravely injured many times but the descriptions are always about what would have happened to a normal man in the same situation. While I agree that it is good to see more varied gameplay and a shift from the baseline requirement of certain archetypes in a party, I do believe that having roles adds to the experience and a feeling of individuality. I'm not really concerned about the healing bit and honestly if I was I would be making a big deal of it. It's all about the overall gameplay for me and empowering the character. We are doing a lot of things to be much more realistic than previous endeavors but if it game down to choosing realism or fun, Ill always go with fun Forums, 26th October 2005 ( Athelan) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED At level 60, you choose your specialized class. Each main class has two specialized ones to choose from. A rogue at level 5, for instance, becomes an Assassin at level 20 and Lotus Master at 60. At level 80, the final level, you gain access to the so-called elder feats. These are specialized powers that boost your character in various ways. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) Well, in reading Dave's quote I don't think he specified that all Warriors will be tanks, just that the Warrior branch is the "tank" branch. There will be Warrior classes that have more offensive or support capabilities than the "main" Warrior end-class--which is only one of the options available. However, more to his point, the Warriors in the game are more of the "heavy armor" mentality as a general rule, whereas the rogue branches are more of the "light armor" way of things. In theory, a Warrior could go for a light armor type build, but I don't think it would very much suit the skillset of the class too well. That said, I'm not the main class balance guy and those issues are still subject to change. I think once you see the "theme" of the classes in action, it will be more clear which route would be most fitting to your playstyle...and kinda what we were envisioning for the "Warrior" route vs. the "Rogue" route. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Jayde) As has been mentioned (and I think Dave addressed it before), I think that perhaps some are getting too hung up on the "warrior" term and not simply looking at the available options and figuring out which class will best suit one's playstyle. The Warrior branch will have some concepts that I think (and hope) people will find very interesting, regardless of if the name "Warrior" doesn't match with what some associate with the term. I don't think I can give too many details about the specific sub-classes at the moment though, sadly...so that will have to wait until our class tree is revealed totally. Getting hung up too much on semantics is something I would discourage, though. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Jayde) Well, personally, I don't find this to be too much of a "lore" issue.. semnatical naming conventions of archetypes are really a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. I would rather focus on capturing the "feel" and atmosphere of the types of play than worry too much about what branch they are in. Anyway, the thing to remember is that there are a number of "branches" off the main Rogue and Warrior classes, which means that there is a decent variety of playstyles available. Not all of the Warrior classes will be Sword+Shield--but they will have similar base abilities and have heavy armor available to them. Not all of the Rogue classes will be focused around thievery--although they have similar base skills and lighter armor/dex type builds. I'm fairly confident that most fans of melee classes will be able to find a class among the tree that suits the playstyle they're looking for. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Jayde) Perhaps a player will go with the full shield+sword Warrior build, or perhaps they will go with a slightly reduced tanking setup to dish more damage. That said, Warriors as a "term" in Conan refer to those who can take more damage than the other guys around them, and perhaps manage aggro a bit better for the betterment of the team. To the end of Rogues, I would say that calling it a "Thief" is to sell short the endgame options of that archetype. Not all the branches of the Rogue class are based around thievery (in fact, a minority in the current design), and the class is actually quite flexible in many ways. Some Rogues will be built around an evasion/light armor while others are built around something in-between with access to light (hide, studded leather, etc.) armor. Some Rogues will be focused on ranged combat, others won't. I could mention other differences, but I think those will become apparent eventually. To put it simply: The "Warrior", "Rogue", "Mage", and "Priest" archetypes are only the most basic forms of the endgame classes available... players should find a lot of variety within the later branches of the classes, and us on the design team have spent many hours in meetings about each class's identity to try to make each end result feel unique and see that it satisfies a distinct style of play. In regard to your final comment, I must point to that alluded to in your own post... the game should not be defined by other games. Perhaps people will initially think of Rogues or Mages as they were defined in some other other game... but just because another game does it that way doesn't mean Conan will. I think most will find out after a short time that the nature of gameplay in Conan combined with what the various classes will offer will forge a different picture of what each Archetype represents. (This will also become clearer when the whole tree is revealed.) Forums, 10th December 2005 (Jayde) Warriors are not going to be the only ones focused on head-to-head melee combat. There will be at least two end branches of the Rogue tree that are very much head-to-head fighters. Barbarian is one of them--I don't think the other has been annouced yet so I can't say much. Forums, 11th December 2005 (Jayde) We are trying to think outside the normal mentality of the "Stealth+Backstab==Rogue" setup here, which is why they contain some variations... (Also, Rangers have the option of branching from Rogue as well.) On the other side of the spectrum, we have some interesting stuff planned for Warriors as well--they will have some unique properties that set them apart from the "typical" Warrior as well, just in a different way. Forums, 11th December 2005 (Jayde) We have spent a great deal of time giving every class a unique identity and feel, a cohesive one from planning not just their armor looks but also animations including walks and idles and special moves. I think I requested something like 10ish special attack (as in resulting from a combo) animations per base weapon type. Daggers, 1h Swords, 1h Maces, Dual Daggers, Dual Swords, Polearms, 2h Swords, 2hMaces, etc etc in addition to I think around 25 per specialized class. Now maybe I am shooting for the moon but we are definately putting some effort into making them all feel cool. Forums, 12th December 2005 (Athelan) It's simpler and cleaner from a design perspective to restrict which classes can use/wear equipment. If we want a mage to perform badly when wearing plate armor, we have to create a special system that does just that. Extrapolate to all classes and all equipment and we end up with a large complex system that basically does the same thing as a class restriction. We have some flexibility in the restrictions, IE a mage can use Claymores or Sledgehammers, but they will be quite bad at it and it will take feat points from their casting abilities. Forums, 21st December 2005 (DaveDread) Based on the current designs, there aren't that many cross-classing branches in the game. Really, it's more "hybrid" classes that could logically come from two archetypes, so both options are allowed as a base. This isn't terribly common though. I feel that the class layout is complex and diverse enough as it is, and should offer plenty of options for players. Forums, 7th February 2006 (Jayde) (Funcom released the complete class-tree together with the latest info about how and when what classes will be available. Check it out at the Community Portal. As I replied to Stiler earlier weapon specializations only mean what weapons skills the class is geared for defacto, that does not mean you cannot train your character in the use of additional weapons or that you will necessarily be "gimp" by making an alternate choice. Of course you we wont be able to balance these things to evaluate the options until later in beta. Forums, 7th April 2006 (Athelan) No, there are not any non-combat classes in the game, whilst prestige classes will offer non-combat activities, Age of Conan is an action game, and as such there aren't any fully non-combat classes. Forums, 7th April 2006 (Silirrion)

Collision Detection Back to top

Collision is an important part of the feeling of combat in Conan Forums, 7th September 2005 (Athelan) Just turn it off in "Hub" city areas. Im not sure that we will turn it off but that is an option. Sort of "sliding" or semi rubbery like collision might work too. Forums, 9th and 12th September 2005 (Athelan) We are planning to have some form of collision detection in the game, the fine details though are not completed yet though as it is obviously important to get the right balance between 'realism' and playability Forums,22nd November 2005 (Silirrion) At least in Hub type areas there will be ways of moving past a person or persons obstructing a doorway for example. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Athelan)

Combat Back to top

Stringing directions together might lead to a special move. Imagine raising your hands, holding the long heavy chain, and swinging against the right-side neck of the bloated slaver - as he is grinning at you with his blackened teeth and cracking his wet whip, soaked in slaver blood. Would it not, after slicing his right neck, make sense to swing against the left side of the neck, one second after? It would seem easier than swinging at his legs, would it not? It comes with the motion of the weapon I would think, and players will learn this instinctively as if they held the chains themselves. "Real Combat" analyzes (with our help - hehe) the motion of the professional fighters we used for motion capturing the animations, giving players room to let instinct and feeling guide their moves! When I pick up the rumble-joypad, it almost, almost, feels like I am there. There in the lush, sinful and brutal Age of Conan, crushing skulls. When the deck rumbles as the slaver gut crumbles the floor, you will know you chose correctly. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The core of this experience is the hands on "Real Combat" engine. The place you strike is defined by you, the player, and by striking in certain order, and with certain timing, you can even change your series of strikes into "combos". IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) We call the engine Real Combat, and it is based on six directions, or ways, of attacking an opponent with a sword. First, you can hack down against the head. Second, you can slash diagonally down from the right, while the third is slashing the same way from the left. Fourth, you can thrust against the torso. Fifth, you can slash diagonally up from the left, and sixth, you can slash diagonally up from the right. The point here is that these directions lend themselves naturally to being strung together in combinations. These combos unlock additional damage and faster combat, if done well. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) One analogy I like to use in terms of the Real Combat engine is the "dance of death." You should move with swiftness and grace, just like Conan did, while brutally dealing death all around you. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The larger battles come in two major forms: player-versus-player battles against other guilds in the border kingdoms and battles against monsters that build their own villages in your resource and building regions. You can add non-player characters to your group, but only by cooperating with other players will you reach proportions that can be deemed an "army." The focus is on cooperation between the members of a guild. The NPCs are temporary, excluding the followers mentioned previously. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Since this is Conan's universe, there will be a fitting amount of blood! The best analogy for describing one-on-one combat in Age of Conan, though, is "the Dance of Death". It should be violent, brutal and gracious. This is how Conan acts in battle, especially when you read the works of Robert E. Howard. He was not only brutal and big; he was cat-like in his grace as well. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) As a player you will recognize the weaknesses of the opponent not just through statistics, but through interactions with them. Around the target players will see a selection of six directions. As the player attacks towards a certain direction, the result will be displayed as damage numbers in the traditional form above the head of the opponent. Criticals and combos will be marked independently. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The most importance thing to remember in Age of Conan is that it does not have indirect combat. When you click, you will swing! It doesn't matter who is in front of you. It doesn't matter if you are too far away. It doesn't matter if you have an opponent at all. When you swing, you swing. This is not a turn-based game, although there is difference in weapon speed and spell speed, so you can't win by punching buttons faster than your opponent. Nturally you can't be locked in battle with this type of system. You have to be careful, move about, and think quickly to survive. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Is there a different fighting system for fighting computer controlled mobs than for fighting another player? No, the fighting system is the same. The difference is that in PvP your level is boosted to the closest tier point and you can use your special PvP levels and abilities to win. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Can players be disarmed? This is to be decided. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Most definitively, the very essence of the Conan universe is all about brutal action, so we are doing all we can to keep this a vital part of the gameplay (we expect a mature rating for one). To facilitate this we have invented a revolutionary new “Real Combat” engine which allows the players, for the first time in an online RPG, to fight it out in real-time! I add exclamation marks and all to this (marketing bla blah, but STILL!), because this is truly a step-up from the static combat found in most online RPG’s. We are also adding in player-made combat formations and sieges, and a truly realistic AI, so there should prove to massive amounts of brutal action in Conan. Gamecloud , 19th May 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) First, we have the action combat. Hands-on direct combat, not indirect, turn-based fighting. In something we call Real Combat, the players can direct their attack towards one of six areas on the opponent. And not only in melee combat - also in ranged, and with something similar in magical combat. Directing your attacks towards these areas, in a certain order, will then lead to stringing combat moves together in combos. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) Let us face it. The cut and dried "indirect combat" of most MMOs - and some old RPGs - won't cut it for a Conan game. The world and lore from Hyboria is all about feeling like a powerful combat god, not a "stat-accountant" - begging pardon. This more or less forced us into picking up the mantle and doing hands-on, action combat. The combat in Conan will not allow players to take power naps while others do the work. Summarized in one word... action. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) You will most definitively be able to learn new combat arts during the game. We are investing heavily into the combat aspects, and are doing our very best to make sure that you are constantly rewarded with new possibilities. With our motion capture studio and combat mechanics we have also been able to create combat into something incredibly lifelike and even realistic (that's why we have called it "real combat"). It's therefore not just about getting new special attacks and feats, but also mastering the system itself. It should be easy for anyone to learn, but it will take some time to master fully. mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) A weapons damage output, as well as the defensive capabilities of armor, will depend on both the player attributes and the properties of the items. However, with our Real Combat system, player skill will have a much larger effect then in other MMO's. Simply having spectacular gear will not guarantee a win against an opponent with simpler equipment, we have a much more dynamic combat system then a simple competition of damage-per-second vs HP bars. Forums, 11th August 2005, (DaveDread) We can make armor/hit locations matter, but it needs to be carefully balanced. Leg Chop, Leg Chop, Leg Chop is dreadfully boring compared to a berzerkerish whirlwind of attacks on all body locations. A similar issue is to have armor types with different strengths and weaknesses against weapon types. It's not fun having to swap weapon to a warhammer just because your opponent wears chainmail and is impervious to your blade. Personally I'd like it to make a differance but not to be something you as a player have to do to be successful. Forums, 12th August 2005, (DaveDread) The problem with active defences in a game like this is lag. Only a little bit lag will make active defence useless since you need to see where the attack is going to hit and counter it. So a defensive stance witch you actively have to enter will have less problems with lag. But we are still working on the combat system to make it fun and non-static. Forums, 13th August 2005 (Khayman) We have blood, and quite a bit of it. As far as dismemberment and decapitation they may be present but I am not sure it will be on players. Forums, 12th September 2005 (Athelan) I expect there will be names and a con system somehow. But I hope that more things about a character identify them than just these. If you see my wicket looking snake tatoo's maybe you can tell I am a priest of set, and maybe to some extent the number or intricacy of them belies my skill in the order. Forums, 3rd October 2005 (Athelan) Not sure with bows, but given the way collision and hit detection work currently it would be hard to swing through your buddy to land a hit on an opponent if they were in the way. (Maybe if you were using a long pole weapon or spear but then it kind of makes sense like the old phalanx formations) Forums, 3rd October 2005 (Athelan) As Dave said I have worked on a systems design to add some of the feeling of counter attacks to MMO combat. I call this "reactive defense/active counter" system, maybe someday I will be famous for it :) . As Khayman said the issue is lag, you cannot rely purely on reading an opponents moves and the twitch because of the synch time on your seeing the movement, than the 20ms rule of pattern recognition in your bran combined with the time it takes to send your response back etc. Based on this I have built my system on top of our active defense and parry stances and active evasion moves like rolling. The system is locational with a degree of flexibility to allow for more effective and less effective rather than completely useless stance decisions. The premise of the system is that when I am in reactive defense stance I am not only trying to defend myself but I am specifically looking for an opening to counter an opponents move. When an opening presents itself I can execute an attack or even a combo of attacks that are special for this purpose. Forums, 3rd October 2005 (Athelan) Yes, armors and weapons will have stat bonuses. Both +attack rating with a weapon and +strength are stats. We'll put in an effort to make stat bonuses make sense. When handling stats that give bonuses to several things (attributes as strength or dexterity as examples), we'll place them where appropriate to the greatest extent possible. IE +Strength on a belt if fine, it supports your back and makes your musclegroups focus the energy to lifting, not supporting. +Strength on a dagger is wierd. Having stats percentage based is tricky. When you have several %-based stats and need to calculate them they start behaving oddly, and you need to treat them as absolute numbers anyways. Forums, 3rd October 2005, (DaveDread) The lenght of the fight is easily balanced both in the AI system and the monstertool, and it is something we discuss every day. I'm sure we'll tweak these things all trough beta based on feedback from our testers. In some cases we may want the fights to be difficult and last for a while, while other may be just a few swings.. wait and see. PvP fights would depend on level and skills on both sides i guess. Forums, 7th October 2005 (Mjoellnir) Sparks/Pieces of armor/gibs/blood these things are more likely to be seen in Conan when striking a target. Not pretty sparkles or POW KAZAM BIFF effects. Forums, 11th October 2005 (Athelan) We have stamina in the game and it is consumed when you use various types of attacks or combo's Forums, 20th October 2005 (Athelan) Grappling is very difficult from a visual representation perspective. Either you need runtime Inverse Kinematics (IE dynamically tweaking the animations so they fit together) which is horribly expensive both from a development perspective and for performance. Optionally, you have fixed animations and control the size/position/rotation of the characters involved. In effect, the server takes control of your character and moves him around so the animations fit with the target. It also means you'll need to limit mesh differences so that no wierd stuff happens. Forums, 24th October 2005 (DaveDread) The current iteration of our combat (3.1 I think) does contain a form of "lock-on". We found that it was really needed, because we are moving around so much. Earlier iterations had you swinging around and hitting pretty much everything except your intended target, who conveniently sidestepped and let his minions take the blows. Forums, 25th October 2005 (DaveDread) As Dave has stated Conan combat uses a sort of "soft lock" system currently that will help keep you orientated toward your main target while doing evasive actions or moving around, you can break the soft lock by simply turning toward another opponent and engaging so it is quite transparent. Forums, 25th October (Athelan) Let me start out by saying Conan combat plays quite quickly, and as Dave mentioned grappling is something we would love to see but horribly expensive to do right. Also, while this may be blasphemy towards the "classics" I feel our combat has already surpassed Severance/Blade of Darkness. We have a spectacular mocap artist and I got a chance to show him some of his work in the game client. And he even said "It's beginning to look like real fighting" now that to me coming from him was a huge compliment for our system. Forums, 25th Obctober (Athelan) You get a soft lock on a target, this doesnt mean you are in range, you could swing your weapon at the air if you want but you wont hit anything. If you do strike a target you will still have to determine if you damaged your opponent and in that regard some back end stuff will come into play. Using active defense moves, stances, combo's, special attacks and the like will drain stamina. Forums, 26th October 2005 (Athelan) (Check out this IGN Article about Real-Combat in AoC where you find a lot of info.) IGN, 25th November 2005 The attack marks and target highlighting is primarily just there to provide concise feedback as to what direction the attack you are using is coming in from on the target. This will be easily visible from the attacks itself and should not be obstructing the view. You wont play combat in Conan like dance dance revolution where you are obsessed with the little <- <- -> -> symbols instead of whats going on. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Athelan) I can understand the confusion when discussing this, but I can assure you from experience it feels much more natural and transparent. If a guy is in my cone of attack I can tell and if I am engaging that one guy and he moves I will auto adjust so at least my cone of attack stays in the right direction. Now if he does an evade move and gets outside my cone I need to reaquire him, and I need to get myself into the range of my sword etc. But its not a case of oh I swung at his shoulder and his shoulder moved 4 inches to the left so I miss. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Athelan) I dont like to use the term aiming when it comes to melee combat since ranged combat actually does use aiming. I prefer to refer to it as a "soft lock", I'm not tabbing through targets, nor am I completely without a target. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Athelan) Well, there are some similar elements to be implemented in Conan, as there are still different "damage types"--with Piercing, Crushing, and Slashing damage, as well as some for magical attacks. That said, it still remains to be seen how much we will utilize (in)vulnurability ratings and the like. It will probably be somewhat reserved as to not get out of control. Forums, 4th January 2006 (Jayde) I don't intend currently to make multiple ways of wielding a single sword persay. There are other layers of combat that can effect the way it is wielded, your stance could change as mentioned when using a defensive stance or reactive combat stance. Part of this is just due to the tons of animations I am already working in and the number of layers already present. 6 basic attacks, + reactive stance and styles, + defensive stance idles, + flourishes, +combo moves (lots of combo moves) and thats on a per weapon style basis not counting class specific combos general evasive manuevers and rolls etc. (I have not attempted to count the totals I just know Gaute originally projected approx 1600 male character anims and I am almost positive that has gone up dramatically) Forums, 2nd February 2006 (Athelan)

Combat (Defense) Back to top

Well, in a 1 vs 1 situation, we can certainly design a system that has reactive, or twitch, blocking. We can probably design it so it scales upward in numbers to a certain extent so it could work in a MMO situation. But this is Age of Conan. You likely wont have time to see if your opponent is going to make a high or low attack. The screen should be full of flaming arrows and impacting catapult stones, the dust cloud of the cavalry charge mixing with the early morning mist, making the blood of your opponent almost hover in the air... And it's not like you'll be fighting a single baddie very often, so which of the seven howling picts charging at you do you want to block? Anyways, the best defence is offense. At least in my humble opinion. Forums, 13th August 2005, (DaveDread) Athelan is currently designing some pretty seriously cool defensive combat stuffs, so yeppers, we'll have defensive abilities. In what exact form or shape isn't defined yet tho. Another reason I personally am reluctant to have a twitchbased defensive system is that it moves us away from the RPG system a bit much. It really shouldn't be the player that parries, it should be the character that the player is playing. If we have a reactionbased defensive system, the defensivly strong character has no advantage over the defensivly weak character if they are played by players with similar skill. Unless we put a restriction on how much skill the player can use, and that would be, uh, bad. Forums, 13th August 2005, (DaveDread) Yep, armors are tied in with a dodge system. A heavy armor lowers your dodge ability, but the heavier armor has better innate defences. If you are clumsy, strap on the heaviest thing you can... if you're agile, you would probably benefit from having a lighter armor, even tho you could wear something heavier. There are several other layers of comlpexity involved in this, and I won't give details on those. Yes, our system is resembling the D&D system in many aspects, but our system is of course better. More complex anyways. Forums, 3rd October 2005, (DaveDread) The basic idea is that the defensive "sweet spot" is connected to the players character build, and that it is more of a "sweet zone" then a spot. As a high level rogue you'd likely move to lighter and lighter armor to get more benefit from your higher agility. Or, you could choose to wear heavier armor (not plate or anything really heavy, that'll be unavailable for a rogue), eat the dodge penalty and adopt your playstyle to the benefits from the armors innate defences. Forums, 3rd October 2005, (DaveDread) but now that i know that a weapon adds stats, can it also reduce stats? does that huge warhammer/sword/axe you are swinging make you less agile because of its size and weight? more open to a counter attack if you miss? We can do it, but currently we are choosing not to. Mostly because the combat system itself handles this well enough by itself. IE a slow, heavy weapon acts and feels different then a quick, light one. Forums, 3rd October 2005, (DaveDread) As I understand, it takes player skill to hit in the first place, having a second chance to miss doesn't sound fair, or cool at all. It's all handled in one calculation, it wont be layered so the player rolls a hit and then the armor rolls a miss, that would suck hehe. Generally, the hit ratio will be high. More fun that way. Forums, 4th October 2005, (DaveDread) Armor makes you easier to hit, and harder to damage, I've always LOATHED the idea that it's somehow harder to hit a guy in full-plate than a guy in a cotton shirt, who can get the *** out of the way. I realize that you guys have a dodge system, and heavier armors will cost dodge. . .but how do you justify the armor making you harder to hit? Glancing blows? Yeah, we see them as glancing blows and display appropriate animations, particle effects and sound for it. With the fast pace of combat tho, as a player you won't really feel a difference. It'll look prettier for you and be easier to balance for us. Damage reduction is somewhat problematic, since most MMO's end up with increasing numbers on equipment (since new weapons and armors are constantly patched in and they should be better then what's already in-game). Take AO as an example, a lot of the original weapons were good for a long time, then damage reduction numbers reached a threshold and suddenly certain weapons with a high minimum damage became superior to anything else, thus rendering most original weapons useless. Keeping a strict control of damage reduction and keeping it's effect low is the way we plan to go. Forums, 4th October 2005, (DaveDread) The current iteration of combat does contain damage reduction. Or midigation really. Non-linear scaling of damage depending on, uh, attackrating (from character skill, stats, buffs, weapon and a whole lot of other stuff) and defenserating (calculated from even more stuffs). So now you'll do different damage depending on your opponents armor. Heavy armor = less damage taken. "Evades" now work as a separate layer, the intention is to be hit less often but harder, if you go for the dodgy style. We have lots of other goodiegoodies in this combat iteration, but those are the ones I can tell you about for now. It will continue to be refined and tweaked for a long long time. Forums, 6th October 2005, (DaveDread) We'll have several defensive options for the people to think the best defense is, uh, defense. We have chosen not to have equippable items that double as offensive and defensive because it is complex to balance and requires an extra layer of special rules. Someone dualwielding parrying daggers shouldn't be superior to someone wielding a twohanded pollaxe and that type of thing. We prefer to keep weapons/offhand items to pure offensive/pure defensive, or possibly give them minor defensive boosts if they do any damage. Forums, 7th October 2005, (DaveDread) Thanks to the almighty BCC god Thor (no really thats his name) we even have some "impact prediction" stuff in place so that the shield blocks and impacts are looking excellent. Forums, 21st December 2005 (Athelan)

Combos Back to top

There's a marked difference between "special moves" and "combos" in Age of Conan. Combos will be the only way of dealing additional damage in battle. By stringing attacks together normal attacks, they will convert to combo moves, doing additional damage, adding negative effects to the opponent or yielding beneficial bonuses. This also works in ranged and magical combat. The exact number is different from player to player. For many classes the number of combos can reach more than a hundred at maximum level. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The combos are triggered by combining different types of attacks. Spells and ranged combat have combos as well as the more obvious melee fighting system. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) NEW All of the melee classes primary form of using abilities is done through the combo system, there are a few activateable types but they are few and far between. Some combos for the hybrids like the Herald of Xotli actually combo magic and melee attacks. Fourms, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW Our queue is based "per combo" so to speak and is limited at a cap of 5 that expands as you level and have need for the longer combo strings. We are not planning on a lot of positional requirements for attacks either so I dont see that as becoming a big deal. Forums, 6th June 2006 (Athelan) NEW Yes you can. Each weapon type has unique attacks, unique combos and unique fighting style. In addition to that, the different classes have unique combos that look different from other classes (hm, note – there is some sharing here and there, just to add this disclaimer) and do unique damage. We have motion captured all of these moves using melee combat experts and directed them to focus on realistic, brutal fighting – a clear alternative to a light-weight [cartoonish] look on the animations. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Communication Back to top

How do players communicate with each other in these massive battles, Chat, Teamspeak, Skype -- take your pick. Only chat is built into Age of Conan, though. What happens when one disobeys? I guess that is up to you? Kick him from your guild, ostracize him, challenge him for a duel, or congratulate him for creative thinking when he saves the day -- I guess the situation defines what happens. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Limiting chat options (e.g. removing /tells) would probably serve to drive people out of the game in order to communicate with friends--which I think is a less immersive experience even if it isn't "realistic" to have such things. Realism and Fun Factor/Usability is always a balancing act, but I think I would typically err on the side of "fun" if I had to choose one or the other. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde)

Community Site Back to top

He beat me to it! Yes, building up some nice stuff for a fan site kit that will be available with the release of the new community site later in the year....and now I am going to proceed to be an evul tease and say that I saw the latest draft of the site artwork today and it looks totally awesome. I think you will all really enjoy the new portal site when it is ready. Forums, 13th October 2005 (Silirrion) You will however see a rather distinct change in the amount of info available once we launch the Conan community site in the not too distant future (within the next few months). From then on in we will start to release info and content at more regular intervals, as well as give more detailed information about the beta and what we will do in regards to the beta. I guess the philosophy is that we can’t give out too much info when the game is definitively in development, as the game looks better and plays better for each passing day. With the intense competition in the genre we must make sure that everything we release is of the highest possible quality. We are indeed getting there though, fast, so there will be a lot more info revealed next year. Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) No specific eta as yet, although it is coming along very nicely. We had hoped to get it out before the end of the year, but I think it is more likely we will launch it early in the new year so as not to get lost in the Christmas hype. Forums, 6th December 2005 (Silirrion) No new forums, we will be sticking with these ones They will be expanded with new sections over the course of the year naturally, but we have no plans to change the basic forum set-up and platform. Forums, 24th December 2005 (Silirrion)

Console Version Back to top

Whilst we havent officially announced any console versions as yet, it is something that will seriously be considered and the game is being developed so that it would work on both types of platform. Also as the new generations of consoles get better and better the limitations of those platforms for certain genres (like MMOs) become far less noticable. It is also, as noted above, an important gaming market and one we would be foolhardy to dismiss just because it makes the development a little more of a challenge. Forums, 4th November 2005 (Silirrion)

Controls Back to top

We have tried to let the game be playable in 3rd person view, almost everywhere. The controls should mimic the most popular games out there, and it should be easy to get into, fluid and with good response. At the same time we have tried to improve it by adding something we call "dual focus" as an option. Here the 3rd person camera will try to keep you and the opponent in focus at all times. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Ranged combat and some spell action will actually take place in "shoulder camera" as seen in Splinter Cell. Here you will have to actually aim your bow or spell at the opponent to hit. The programmers have called it the "Parrot Cam," since we have a Pirate theme in the opening sequence of the game. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) You just pick up the sword, and smite! Seriously, yes, you can use a gamepad. In fact, that is my favorite method, the rumble when you hit really hard make it all that more realistic. All control and the GUI is designed to work with next generation consoles as well as the PC. In addition you can control combat by using the numeric keyboard for the six directional attacks, or simply click around the opponent with your mouse. There are numerous ways of controlling your character, and all of them can be customized by the player. Nothing is as intimately personal, as the control of the game, I think. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) You can move when in combat, and positioning and orientation is central to survival. When entering combat mode, the movement will be slightly lower than outside combat to ensure a fairer system than just hit-and-run. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) In the Online Action RPG, Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures, the player can control the game either via the keyboard, the mouse or with a Joypad. Let me first explain that there are six basic angles of control in Conan. They are Up-Left, Up, Up-Right, Down-right, thrust and down-left. Now let me explain how this will be controlled with the keyboard, mouse and Joypad: Let us see the differences: Keyboard: Here the default mapping of the combat system will be on the numeric keyboard. 7=Up-left, 8=up, 9=up-right, 4=down-left, 5=thrust and 6=down-right. In addition 1 and 3 will be mapped to roll left and right. Naturally, these mappings can be changed by the user. On the Joypad (like any Logitech Joypad for instance), the D-Pad will define the directions, and the directions correspond directly to the attack. Using the mouse you can hit glowing triangles corresponding to the directions around the target (sort of floating in the Graphical User Interface). PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) Well, I am actually surprised by how good the method of input works for accomplishing what we want it too. It seems so simple to use the six basic attack directions but even in games like Jedi Knight and Severance those controls are usually based off holding the attack button and a movement key or which side your mouse pointer is on in regards to the target. So I feel I have more control and when I start chaining attacks together it really comes alive. We do have the combat queue which in a way feels a bit like SWG but I think the big difference is nothing feels static or like its waiting, so in that regard it probably feels like what SWG was supposed to be. There is no waiting, there is a feeling of responsiveness and control that I havent really experienced in this way before. Forums, 26th October 2005 (Athelan) Let's just say that if you were to just do random attacks. And you do three slashes from the same side you would have to return a starting stance or position. Now if I did three slashes from the other side I would have the same problem, but if I was to use "butterfly" or looping type moves of going left to right then I would be able to continue the movement of my blade into more attacks thus being more efficient. Our system works off the same principles of encouraging the player to find those moves that allow them to fluidly engage their opponents. Forums, 26th October 2005 (Athelan) The mouse control is choosing which directional attack your character will perform, you wont score a critical hit by clicking someone in the eye. Numpad or joypad are other ways to choose the direction you'll attack in. At the moment strafing becomes circling when you have a soft lock on someone. You can still rotate your character freely to pick another target. Separate keyboard buttons for strafe/circle and rotating the character of course. I'm sure we'll allow for different options and remapping of keys so you can yourself decide on how you want to play. Numpad as the standard works rather well tho. And I doubt you'll have time moving the camera around while in combat. Conan won't be autoattack and wait for a timed special to recycle. Forums, 30th January 2006 (DaveDread) The controls feel very natural really, I rarely give them any thought at all, I just play. Yep, you can be attacked by several opponents at the same time. Mobs will do this to you all the time. Under some circumstances you can attack several targets at the same time, so positioning becomes (very) important. One bad guy in front and one behind you? Move away, try to get them both in front and slash them both in a single stroke. Forums, 31st January 2006 (DaveDread) You softlock automatically to the nearest target in front of your character when you are wielding a melee weapon in your hand. Draw your weapon and face your opponent, and there you have it. The details of how to use the mouse for directional swings is being redesigned, so I can't tell you how it'll end up at the moment. It should be simple and easy to do tho, no clicking on little moving symbols surrounding the target. Probably an unintrusive clicking at/around the targets center. Lower Left swing? Click the lower left of the target. Forums, 2nd February 2006 (DaveDread) Softlock is achieved when you engage a target and "unlocked" when you turn away or engage a new target currently. And as stated before the numpad or directional pad on the joypad is used to enter in which attack you want which can be then chained into combos Forums, 2nd February 2006 (Athelan)

Crafting Back to top

In Conan, the crafted equipment is slated to hold a very special place in the object hierarchy. The player-made items are the only ones where you can insert socket gems - thus their role will be that of flexibility and adaptability. The crafting system is a no-nonsense, quick approach where the focus is on being quick and usable, not quasi-realistic. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) There are several non-combat activities for the player to participate in, though you rarely do it without having skull crushing in mind, in one form or the other. First off, we have resource gathering and crafting, which can be done in the massive resource and building regions. There are four world-based resources that the players need a lot of- gold nuggets, iron ore, stone slabs and wood. These are gathered with an active interaction. Additional crafting ingredients can be found in all the normal ways - gathering, drops, etc. The ingredients can be combined at special locations if they are advanced, or directly in your inventory for simple stuff like bandages, etc. IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) It's really too early to go into detail on it, but we currently intend to have tradeskilled items that when complete will fit into one of the tiers. Depending on the tradeskillers skill, the quality and type of components etc the result will have different stats. We intend to have the tradeskill system flexible, so you can choose the stats for the item in question. As for unique looks, that depends. Certainly a low tier sword will look different from a tradeskilled high tier sword, but we are putting our fabolous graphics people to work on things that have the most visual implact. You'll probably see more distinct variations in shields then in daggers as an example. Forums, 18th August 2005, (DaveDread) It is not true to say that the items crafted will always be better than what the players can find through quests or from monsters. The items crafted will have a very special value, they are flexible. This special role is only held by crafted items. The player-made equipment (armor, jewelry or weapons) will have so called “gem-slots” where players can upgrade their equipment to suit any particular situation.” If a monster requires a special type of specialized gear, crafted gear is the way to go. This option, of flexibility and adaptability, leave the players with less irritation. The player made gear will not have to compete with equipment from other situations, but rather let the various methods fill different roles. In addition to normal gear, the players can make potions, siege weapons or even buildings. The raw-material for crafting will be found in the specialized ‘Resource and Building’ regions. These are larger, more dynamic areas focused around player interaction and building. It will not be possible for a player to only be a crafter. Though we do have an additional crafting leveling system (20 crafting levels) these are not available to the player until level 40 adventuring level, as you get access to your crafting abilities through your prestige / social class. Having said that, our level curve up to level 40 is very casual friendly, and even your mom will be able to get there. PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) The way it is currently intended/invisioned to work is this: the gem/socket system is primarily used in conjunction with the tradeskill system. Tradeskilled armor/weapons will, by default, typically have no mods, but a certain amount of gem slots based on the quality of materials used to produce and level of the item. Gems themselves are also tradeskilled (by different people) and can be used to customize the tradeskilled items. Just fair warning, at this stage other systems may be mixed and matched in, things may be changed or cut... but this is the way we're hoping for it to work as of now. (And given that I've just gotten done making massive spreadsheets for this stuff, I'm hoping it all makes it into the final product.) Forums, 2nd January 2006 (Jayde) Yes, we have social classes and trader classes. These are available to any player, but only from level 40. Conan has a major focus on action, violence and exploration in the beginning. Getting to level 40 should be fairly easy, though, and once there, people can chose from four different social/prestige classes. Here you can build houses, weapons, armor, jewelry, potions or other consumables. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) First off, let me preface by saying that the exact balance of this has not been finalized yet... I still am working on evaluating all the mod budgets as well as the tradeskill items right now. I think my current plan for the general relative power of tradeskill items is something like: Basic Drops < Basic Tradeskills < Good Drops < Good Tradeskills (w/ full quality Gems/max slots) < Uber Drops (special, highly difficult encounters) < Uber Tradeskills (special, highly rare components) The current rationale from this on my part is that tradeskilling will take effort, and thus the end result has the advantage of being customizable (through Gems), which is a plus. With maxed out gems/slots (rare components) the result should be slightly better than standard good drop rewards. These will not, however, be better than Uber/Epic drops--although the customization will probably be rather worthwhile. Later, of course, phasing in Uber/Epic tradeskills is the intention as well. Also note that the difference levels are yet to be totally nailed down, so it's not always a huge gap between the stated list...and each gap isn't always the same size as another gap. Time is the key balancing factor I'm working off here... how much time does it take to make a basic TS item VS. how much time it takes to kill a sub-boss or boss VS. how much time it takes to get "rare" materials VS. how much time it takes to kill an epic boss VS. etc. etc. etc... The relative power of the item should be somewhat related to the time investment of the action of getting the item, or the components related to crafting the item. Time is money in an MMO, so time will somewhat dictate the power of tradeskill items compared to what you could get in a similar amount of time if you were trying to get a drop. Again: This is preliminary and I'm just trying to give a bit of info. It is quite subject to change as I tinker with the numbers over the coming months. P.S. This is preliminary. P.P.S. This is subject to change. Forums, 16th February 2006 (Jayde) In regard to the "time" issue, the factor I'm mostly considering in terms of balancing is gathering time for the resources vs. our average drop times/values for "farming" in a similar amount of time. For example (totally made up numbers): In an hour of farming, a player will get, on average, 100 gold in vendorable drops. In an hour of gathering, a player can get enough tradeskill resources to build 2 items. Those items should have the raw sell value to a vendor of roughly the same amount of money as the farming. Also, any buyable components in the tradeskill are balanced on this, so the contribution from that buyable is balanced to the money/hr budget. This is the goal, at least. As far as the "rare components" go, there will be different ways to get these, depending on the component in question... often, it will just be a random lower chance when gathering normal materials. For instance, you gather some wood, and out of those 10 wood drops maybe you found 1 "rare" wood. Other possibilities for rare compoenents are drops off mobs or quest objectives...this will vary from resource to resource. On the issue of "uber items", there -will- be better drops in Conan from harder encounters or tradeskills, as stated before. Not all weapons will be the same. Some weapons will be better. This isn't going to go away. Some armor crafted from the scales of some uberhard boss will result in a better piece of armor than what is crafted from a few pieces of this-and-that you picked up while gathering for a few minutes. I have to agree with Vilje that just because there are differences doesn't mean that they will always be huge differences... however, there will be incentive to grow one's character and get hard-to-obtain things because they are higher quality than some rusty sword you picked up in Tortage. Anyway, I don't think there is any reason to make "easier" to make tradeskills better than drops when tradeskills already have the innate bonus of being flexible. Tradeskills will probably always be in high demand simply due to the socketing system and that each item can be tailored to the specific desires of the player--in theory. Forums, 17th February 2006 (Jayde) no, we don't intend to have "critical failure" on tradeskills...e.g. "poof, sorry to see your hard-found components blow up because of an unlucky dice roll!" I hate that personally, and really find it frustrating. Forums, 17th February 2006 (Jayde) As far as crafting and other lets say social non combat driven game mechanics. While we want to see these things happen, they are not the focus. Star Wars Galaxies and Horizons focused on social dynamics and crafting to the point that most of the rest of the game suffered from it. I am not saying the social aspects of Conan will suffer, but I am saying that if I have to make choices between those things and something I consider to be core to the game and the world I will choose the latter. Forums, 11th April 2006 (Athelan) Crafters can create weapons, armor, potions, siege weapons, houses/walls, PvP specialist equipment, or weapon and armor enhancements. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager) What crafters will do is offer players flexibility for different situations. Crafted weapons will have enhancement slots for gems that give player weapons different powers and do different damage types. This means that many of the game's big boss fights will be impossible without crafted weaponry. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager) Crafting will have a separate 20-level tier system and five levels of item quality. While everyone can craft, the highest quality items will be reserved for guild crafters with a town. Interestingly, players don't get experience for creating items. Instead, each level is achieved by going on a quest. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Creatures Back to top

A multitude of monsters and enemies from Conan's world will be encountered in the game. Without dropping names of actual encounters, you will find Picts; giant apes; Black Ones; bandits of all types and races; snakes, snakes and more snakes; demons and gods… All are in there. So, yes, if you know the lore, you will enjoy this game like no other interactive representation of Hyboria to date! Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Death Back to top

There is a special form of "death" in PvP - with less "downtime" as a result of dying. Details will be given closer to launch. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The way we handle death is that you will never lose any items or experience, but there is a detrimental effect on some items and on certain skills. None of these effects are permanent. The intention is that you should be somewhat "afraid" to die, but the result shouldn't be serious enough that you stop playing from irritation. On the other side, you shouldn't be blasé about your death, treating it as a means of travel or whatnot. Balance testing will show if we differentiate between PvP and PvE. Getting it all right will take some time, but we are working on different versions. The tools we play with are temporarily losing some skills, and making items deteriorate on death - basically what you see in most other online RPGs, but with our own twists... IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Well, imagine working for months, maybe a year on your character, getting it up to a high level with the best equpiment etc etc.. And you are going out on a raid.. Just as the raid start, something happens, you get a mega lag.. The mobs don't realize that, and hack on you as normal.. You die, you loose your character and all the work you have put in it permanently. We also have the risk of griefers sending you offline for good this way.. Say you are in the fields hunting rabbits, and some dude come with a full train of mobs who decide to have a taste of you instead (yeah I know.. bad AI, but it is just an example)..Would you say 'oh well' and make a new character? I have a feeling that in most cases, we would have lost a player there. Permadeath is a great option in some games as it makes the gameplay more exiting and risky, but I think there are to many factors against it, to have a pure permadeath system in an MMO. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Mjoellnir) All monsters, humans and whatnot have several types of fatality moves enabled. This means, basically, that you can die in several horrible, graphic ways. This also means that you can do this to others. Depending on which monster it is, and how they get killed, different types of fatalities will be used including dismemberments and beheadings. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Duel Wielding Back to top

We will have a few styles of duel wielding. Forums, 2nd December 2005 (Athelan) Duel wielding will not be functionally different than other melee as far as input is concerned. We had the option of having the offhand sort of animate seperately but I made the decision to instead incorporate the duel wielding as unique styles rather than sword animations with additive offhand attacks as an example. This way we get more interesting duel wield specific moves. To start with I want unique styles for dual daggers, sword/mace/axe and dagger, and dual swords/mace/axe Forums, 5th December 2005 (Athelan) NEW I believe I have said this before but I have made a concious decision when it comes to the presentation of duel wielding in age of conan. It consists of three unique weapon styles, dual dagger, off hand dagger, and duel non dagger. This is because I feel that in most games the offhand simply happens occasionally and does not feel a part of the style of using the weapon. While limited to some extent in its usefulness as people have mentioned when duel wielding there is specific uses for the second weapon. Regarding the Soldier comment in the original post however, I dont really seeing it make sense for all classes as an example to have the option of dual wielding, soldier as we have stated is more disciplined more military and I don't think there are many examples where complete "armies" are trained specifically with two weapon fighting. Forums, 23rd May 2006 (Athelan)

Equipment Back to top

We're looking into item decay, and there might be some, but details are to be decided when we see how the balance pans out. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) There are many, many sets of armor, weapons, rings and other types of earthly goods to be gathered by the persistent traveler in Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures. The key guide to the uniquely slanted Hyborian loot is the darkness and violence of the universe. No pink trousers, no fairy-tale equipment. Realistically gritty or darker is our murky guiding star. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The requirements for wearing any type of equipment in Conan are locked by the feats given out every second level, and a massive chunk every five levels. These feats yield the different classes at various levels. As in any RPG, you can acquire equipment through quests, loot from monsters, shops and making them. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Items in Age of Conan will have different properties and give various bonuses. A sword is a sword, but some swords are better then others. What we strive for is that the bonuses should make sense. Well balanced and sharp edged weapons do more damage then crude and dull ones. Cimmerian wool should give better protection against cold then Stygian silk. An archers ring will help him to nock his bow better, and a rouges dark cloak will help him blend silently into the shadows... while chainmail will be bad for any sneaking attempts and wearing a heavy helmet will lower your perception abilities. We do not want the skills and attributes of a player to be completely determined by what he has equipped, but it will be a factor. IE the majority of the attributes will come from the player himself, but he will be able to equip himself to enhance them. Availability of powerful items is a tricky balancing thing, and it is too early to go into details on it. However, we want to reward players when they have done something difficult, and items are a good way to do that. We aim to spread out the availability of the wanted items tho, so players can aquire a good polearm from several different sources, be it from tough mobs, quests, tradeskills or something else. We also want to avoid having a single item being superiour to all others, there shouldn't be an end-all-be-all sword that is always best, but several swords, axes and scimitars that are better for different situations. Tradeskills will play a part in this of course, more on that below. Currently we are not pursuing an encumbrance system. In my personal opinion it slows the game experience down and isn't very fun. Forcing archers to have a pack mule with them to carry their arrows is perhaps an extreme example, but you get the point. You always have to skip on realism for the sake of fun gameplay, and then the realistic purpose of encumbrance is gone. Forums, 11th August 2005, (DaveDread) From a practical gameplay point of view, it makes sense to make the best of the best equipment in the game go solely to the person who earned that piece of equipment. If such things are not put in place, twinking/farming can become farm more dominant than I think I would prefer. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) To address the concerns about "loot whoring" and the quest for better and better loot--to some extent, this will be somewhat unavoidable. Certain types of players will always be driven to min-max, optimize, or otherwise go to great lengths to gain the smallest advantage whatsoever. So, unless you removed all progression in the game (obviously not an option) this element will be present. That said, we will certainly attempt to balance the availability and allocation of items so that players do not feel "required" to "camp" for this kind of thing. A can assure you that Dave and myself are no particular fan of camping, so you will probably see this point of view filter into the game. So, while we cannot eliminate the element of optimization, we can strive to make the situation far more balanced and enjoyable for all. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) Also, just as a practical matter, as someone who has trained with and owns many swords, I can certainly say that a sword is not "just a sword." There is a rather huge difference between a low and high-quality sword. Certainly, a master swordsman could use a lesser sword to some degree based on his skills, but with a good sword he would only be that much more effective. Poorly crafted swords don't cut as well, have blades that chip, fall apart due to the rigors of battle, have poor balance, and usually weigh too much. This type of progression needs to be reflected in-game, as a character just starting out on a journey would not have nearly the resources to aquire a sword crafted by a master swordsmith--made with the finest materials Hyboria has to offer. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) As for the on-going discussion in regard to how much a role items play in a character's stats, I would say that it's always a struggle to balance these issues for everyone. On one hand, a player does not want to feel powerless against another play because the other player has more "phat l00t" and is thus invincible. On the other hand, players who struggle through the game and accomplish difficult tasks should be rewarded in a perceptable way and not just given a pat on the back and a cookie. Balancing this will be an on-going struggle, I'm sure, but it is something we will be keeping a close eye on as the game develops. Forums, 15th August 2005 (Jayde) We will have stats on items because we want to connect them to the RPG system. Anyways, say that we have a well-balanced weapon. The weapon speed is a fixed stat on the weapon itself, so it would be equally quick in the hands of a characters with high or low dexterity. Now, we could modify the attack speed depending on the current dexterity of the character. This could be a weighted calculation so that you get dimininshing gain when you have very high dexterity on your character to counter min-maxing, and it could also lower the attackspeed if the character has very low dex. So, if we add a dexterity bonus to the weapon, it could change the attack speed dynamically depending on how the character wielding it is built, equipped and buffed and what feats the player has chosen. Thus the weapon wouldn't do X damage/sec, it does X (+-Y) damage depending on character stats. This is strictly controlled by a DPS budget that all weapons need to stay within for balance reasons. So, we can use the stats on items to enhance the players ability to create his own character and play it in different ways. Dexterity would also modify other things, like dodging or the ability to avoid traps etc. In some cases this is something we want, we would like to give the player something that enhances several of his/hers abilities. We could do it by attaching bonuses to the all the specific skills themselves, or add a generic bonus by attaching an attribute bonus. Having a generic system helps to avoid the need to have items that boost every specific skill, IE a rouge wouldn't need to swap between his "boots of lockpicking" and "boots of sneaking" if the boots had a dex bonus. This is of course something we control carefully and have measures to keep under control, noone wants stats on items to take over the game experience. Not that this is just an example to explain how we think. I seriously doubt that we will have attribute bonuses on weapons and the RPG system does not work like this in game. We will not divulge our game mechanics in greater detail tho. It's our little secret for you to figure out in-game later. And again, we will hop through hoops to try to make all stat bonuses make sense as well as having the in-game effects we want. Forums, 18th August 2005, (DaveDread) We will have tiers of items depicting their general quality. We will also have a an extra level of quality (state of the item if you will) within the tiers themselves, IE we can have a "dull, used, regular quality axe" and a "sharp, used, regular quality axe". (edited for clarity) Depending on your characters class, level, feats etc you will have the ability to equip different tiers. This is to provide a framework for the players skill to work within, and for balancing reasons. We don't want stygian sorcerers in full plate armor with a cavalry lance, nor do we want a level 20 character to equip a too powerful weapon and go and pwn people in pvp with it. Forums, 18th August 2005, (DaveDread) As for handling damage output etc and moving it to the character instead of the item, the main reason we control it from items is balance. Tho we are taking strict measures to keep things under control, there will always be a combination of skills/stats/items/spells etc that is overpowered or underpowered. That's the nature of MMO's, they are so complex that noone can really keep track of all the interdepending things. Now, if we find that a certain combination of things is over- or underpowered and we have the damage output tied to the character, we'd have to alter the character to balance it. That would not be very appreciated imho. Imagine logging in one day and performing worse then you did yesterday and there's nothing you can do about it. Much better to alter the stat of the items/spells/stats involved so the player has the choice to stick with the fixed version or swap to another item. We could have a system that enables a low level player to have a high-tier weapon and dynamically nerf it down to an appropriate level, but that's a roundabout way to go methinks. It's logical, but it's not very fun. There wouldn't be much work for the tradeskillers nor a very active player economy if characters only use one weapon throughout your career. Forums, 18th August 2005, (DaveDread) Personally, I find that there is a mix of "player skill" and statistics in almost any truly competitive game. Take FPS's, for instance--being that when it comes to player-only skill, they are an obvious example--the weapon you use always has certain "stats", some are stronger than other, some are faster, some are longer range, etc. Even with the genre so focused on actual "player skill", there is still plenty of room to have equipment play a part of the process. Honestly, though, simply removing items would not change anything in terms of the competitive environment. Most people look at items as a time-sink, required to be at the level of "everyone else." However, players with the most time will often also be the "best" players, even in a 100% skill-based system. Practice makes perfect, and the more time to practice the better a player will be. The best CounterStrike players are not the people who play casually a few times a week, but the folks who spend hours on end every day playing the game. The same goes for sports, tests, or any other competitive atmosphere. I also personally hate the idea of being able to use the same weapon from start to finish... the fact is, if there is no incentive to upgrade most people won't. I really don't want to see a game where 95% of the players are running around with Generic Shortsword v1.0 and Leather Tunic A at leve Forums, 8th September 2005 (Jayde) We item designers will do our very best to keep the amount of useless weapons to a minimum. Same goes for all other types of items of course. AO contains a lot of underperforming items, part of it is because AO has been around for a while and a LOT of items has been patched in, but even at launch there were lots of items that was only good for selling really. You'll see a lot less vendor-food items in Conan. Forums, 14th September 2005, (DaveDread) Nah, of course there will still be items that are underperforming compared to other things a player can get access to, the game is too complex to keep track of everything... A easy-to-complete quest reward might be better then low level vendor bought items etc. They should really only be emergency items, for when you absolutely must have a spiked polearm NOW gdangit!½. We'll do our best to make sure that even Dirty Pict Loincloths could come in handy sometimes tho. Forums, 14th September 2005, (DaveDread) While all game designers love putting in timesinks for the players forcing the player to constantly repair/replace equipment is not very fun imho. It's possible that we'll have some form of item degradation, but we want to keep the game fast paced and furious... thus it will most likely be simple and quick. Forums, 2nd October 2005, (DaveDread) Well, to clarify what to expect from Conan somewhat... There will be notable improvement in the equipment you find at level 1 and the equipment you find at level 80. Likewise, there will also be notable improvement between equipment you find off easy mobs and equipment you find off harder mobs. That said, I think you will find the gap of item progression to be somewhat smaller in Conan than the average game. To use WoW as an understandable example: epic weapons generally are as powerful as a superior item 10 levels higher, while rare weapons are 5 levels higher. The gap in Conan between "epic" types of items compared to superior items will be considerably smaller, as the base weapon damage between those weapons will not change. The main difference is that "epic" (boss) drops have a higher mod budget, and thus may have slightly higher modified damage--but not dramatically so. Rare items may also have access to different types of mods not available on more common items. For instance, a "superior" type weapon you find off a sub-boss may only have access to some simplistic mods, like "+Taunt" (barbed) or "+Attack Rating" (sharpened)... whereas an "epic" drop of more distinct nature may have something more magical about it. Standard drops shouldn't be found with a magical attribute enchatment, but drops from very difficult bosses--and thus items being protected/horded by the boss--may be of a (slightly) magical nature. That said, the raw base DPS of the weapon should be very similar. Forums, 8th December 2005 (Jayde) To respond to some of the concerns, I would say that to some degree there will be "farming." I think, in many ways, it's usually going to be this way to a certain extent if you wish to provide a level of predictability in rewards vs. effort. e.g. you want the Ranger to have a general idea of "if I go do X, I can get Y benifit." Perhaps not a 100% sure idea, of course, but at least some notion so he just doesn't end up wandering around aimlessly, disappointed that he hasn't gotten any new toys in a while. Some of this is ofset by the nature of weapons/armor that I mentioned before--sure, it may be nice to get the magical item, but it shouldn't be required. If you someone doesn't want to go to lengths to get some rare drop from a boss, I don't think they will feel "gimped" in the current proposed system. Sure, the guy with the other weapon will have an edge, but not such a massive edge that it skews the "need" towards rare drops. I think most players will *want* the more powerful drops--just because that's the way people are--but that's another issue. As I've expressed before, I'm of the opinion that if every sword was just a sword, there wouldn't be much need to pick which one you use very carefully. I like the concept of allowing players to choose their equipment in a "tactical" manner, and to accomplish that the items must have some kind of bonus and/or detriment that differenciates from another item. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Jayde) From everything I've seen so far coming from the renderers and artists, I don't think people will be disappointed with the graphical style of items. Furthermore, we are shooting for as much variety as possible--Dave and I just got done compiling a list for this milestone of all the different cultural types we want represented in weapons and armor, for instance...and I think we ended up with about 14-15 specific cultural styles in addition to the larger chunk of "generic" regional (Aqulionian/Stygian/Cimmerian) styles. Forums, 17th December 2005 (Jayde) Equipment will be locked based on feats trained.. there are 10 tiers of items in the game, as well as respective feats (some autotrained based on class, some optional.) When you come out of the NPE at level 20, you will be in Tier 3, so the amount of different tiers shoudn't be so bad. Forums, 21st December 2005 (Jayde)

Factions Back to top

We will not have the kind of faction system some other MMO's have, where your standing improves with certain groups by grinding mobs. Instead you can change the reception from certain NPC's by changing how you dress. Get the same clothing that a certain sect or group wears, and they might treat you differently, sometimes thinking that you are one of them. I don't want to say too much, but doing this might help you in some quests. You could also be treated differently by certain NPC’s by doing quests that somehow affect them, but not through a faction system. Forums, 22nd August 2005 (Attila) Races are not sides and as such PvP is not race versus race. Forums, 4th November 2005 (Athelan) Factions are not a major part of Conan. We use them only for social bending of rules (e.g. dressing up to get into shops for rich patrons, etc). Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Feats Back to top

NEW You customize your character mostly with Feats , binary abilities that let you access various powers or abilities. They can unlock your ability wear armor, cast spells or do special moves. There are more than 14k different feats in the game, all sorted by Class, race, featline and level – so there is no doubt a massive and deep system for the player to be able to customize his character. We have a clear goal to let all characters look, feel and play differently from another. Our visual character customization will go hand-in-hand with our RPG character generation and hopefully make many, many distinct classes and characters. Funcom is known to let players really customize their characters, and have a real choice in how they build their characters. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Food & Drink Back to top

Roleplay reasons I like having food Money sink reasons I like having food I dont want my character to be tomagochi(sp?) or like a sims character where I have to lead him around and make sure he eats and showers and is happy :P Forums, 31st August 2005 (Athelan) The way we are currently looking at implementing food is that it will potentially add to both max HP/MP/SP, and out of combat generation as a longer-duration buff. (Different food will be weighted differently between them.. some high regen, low max...some low regen, high max.) The goal here being, of course, avoiding the "sit and eat" thing after every battle, as the act of eating itself won't actually do anything for you. The system may change, but that's the current system being worked with. That said, being "well fed" (or whatever) will probably be something most people want to do to either be somewhat buffed up and/or reduce downtime. Forums, 17th December 2005 (Jayde) What I like about the current system we're moving towards is that it allows players some freedom as to what "kind" of food they prefer to eat.. do they want to eat something that impacts their Stamina or their Health? Do they want to eat something that gives them better recovery (regen) or better overall capacity (max)? Do they want to go for an all-around approach? With the current budget, these effects should provide a *huge* bonus, but should be something enough that most teams would want to sit around and eat/drink together every so often. I think it rides the line between being good enough that people will want to do it, but not too intrusive that players will be doing it all the time, non-stop. (Come on, people aren't *that* hungry!) Forums, 20th December 2005 (Jayde) I think to me it's a balance between making it a part of gameplay, while also not making it too burdensome... I don't want to see players eating between every fight--because that's not fun--but I also don't want to see players having to stop to eat in the middle of just chatting with a friend mostly idle. As for PvP, I don't think you will find the magnitude of these buffs to be nearly to the point of being tide-turning... of course, if two players were identical in every way, the smallest edge could win the battle--but, in general, it will probably be a small enough impact as to not penalize people for chain-eating. Forums, 21st December 2005 (Jayde)

Formation Combat Back to top

In the multiplayer part of the game (with between 1000-1500 players per "server") being with other players is more fun, as I see it. This then, is a social game, too. I think the major step-up is found in the formations. Not only are these useful in a group / party setting of 4-6 people. The nice thing about them is that they offer protection against "knock-back" effects of larger monsters / charge attacks. In addition to that they give a substantial ability bonus (as in "buff") to the members. They offer special attacks (from charge-attacks when mounted, to firing a massive volley of arrows) and finally - they give you one, great collision "volume" usable to protect the "softer players" (Mages and their like ;p). IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Hm, I have mentioned some of the formation benefits above. In more detail, they work like this. Players learn different types of formations through feats. Each formation has a distinct look, set of benefits and special attacks and moves. The formation leader controls the location of the players in it, by assigning them to a location. Within the formation, each player has like a "rubber circle" he may move freely within, orient herself and follow. The player can at any time leave the formation. If a certain amount of players leave the formation, through death, volunteering to disband or being kicked, the formation breaks. Only other formations or special bosses might break a formation against the players will. I will not disclose the list of formations, atm, but there are several - from 4-6 party formations up to massive battle formations of 20+ players. You can also use mounts in formation battles. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Typically there are four types of challenges where a formation can be useful. First off it is the standard dungeon crawling. Simply using a small "group formation" that protects the mages and priests have their benefits. Secondly they are used extensively in Boss battles. Fighting a giant demon from a dark nameless hell should feel like being a golf-ball, unless you are ganging up on him using a formation. I have always felt it was silly looking at 20 tiny guys hacking at the toes of a giant - only to fell him. To alleviate that, the big bosses in Conan will literally eat you - unless you are locked in a formation, that is - which might help... some. Thirdly, it should be used extensively in PvP battles. More on that later. And finally, and most importantly - I would say, they should be used in siege battles against "hiving" monsters. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The formation combat found in Age of Conan is unique. Not only do players get a "collision" sphere around their formation to push other players and monsters around, but the formation also offers special attacks and bonuses. The players will be able to move freely within a certain "circle" around their designated position, and the whole formation is moved by the formation leader. Formations are the only real protection against the violent onslaught of boss powers. If you ever were to fight a massive demon it would play golf with your head unless you gang up and help each-other. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Formations are also the best offense and defense against other formations. In a paper-scissors-rock type approach, Age of Conan will offer a unique PvP and PvE approach to tactical combat. A charging gang of knights will decimate a formation of archers. On the other hand, the knights will be hard pressed to survive their charge if it actually was a formation of pikemen they charged at. What better way to break the pikemen formation, then, than to fire volley after volley of arrows at them from your archer formation? The leader will make the formation. The leader can give leadership to another in the formation. If the leader leaves the leadership will be given automatically to another player. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) We will try to make the choice of formation vs. free-for-all so that cooperating players will always gain a certain advantage, but not so much as to rule the battlefield. Naturally, the amount of players on each side will be the biggest factor in determining who wins. But, given equal numbers, or even a slight disadvantage on the side of the players in formation, the organized players should almost always win. This is most clearly shown in the Roman history; they used formations very effectively in skirmishes. Players in Age of Conan will have collision, so you cannot pack an unlimited number of players into an area. Creating formations will be an effective way of controlling who gets attacked. Formations are for to six people and up. The biggest formation is yet to be decided. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The second type offered in Conan is formation combat. Here, players and NPCs can join up in formations, offering tactical advantages. This is usable not only in smaller settings like dungeon crawls, but also in grander settings like massive battles and PvP. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) To add more tactical abilities into the game, we decided to make the formation system a flexible one that can be used for both dungeon crawling and massive battles. The idea behind the combat in formations is that we space players and monsters out, and let orientation, direction and distance influence your ability to do damage. One of the things that have sort of aggravated me, at least from a realistic point of view, is the crowd of 20 players standing almost on top of each other, hacking at the toe of the giant - only to fell it. In Conan, every player will have collision, and cannot stack on top of others, but huge monsters will actually eat you if you hack at their toe. To combat that, you must gang up in a formation and attack the boss monsters like a unit instead of a gathering of individuals. In addition to that, heroes can always try to climb the giant demons back, to behead them. ;p IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) Most actions will not be able to hit your group mates, we dont want to penalize the group for one person potentially wanting to grief or being unable to play well. So friendly fire situations will be special case. Forums, 20th September 2005 (Athelan) I think what I have been trying to say here, is that the player may have other players and NPCs in the formation. What the mix will be, players to NPC’s is yet to be decided. As a leader you simply move around to have the formation follow you, be it players or NPCs. The leader may also fire off special moves or attacks only available to the formation like “Charge of the Phalanx” or “Volley of Arrows”. These will be fired using shortcuts or pressing icons. MMORPG.com, 14th October 2005 (Gaute Godager) The second is that of formations. You can place other players or NPCs in your formation. This will enable you to protect the vulnerable characters on your team since the formation offers a natural collision box against monsters or other players. The formations can also be used to gain special attacks and bonuses to be used against other formations in a paper, scissors, rock-type approach. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) 1. Dig-in formations. These are used to block access to certain areas by letting you defend them, stop charges, or fire ranged special attacks against other areas. The noteworthy aspect of these is that they bestow large defensive bonuses and provide a means through which to keep people out. 2. Moving formations. These are used to do more massive damage, smash dig-in formations, and knock individual monsters/players out of the way. Options include berserker charges, rows of knights riding or whatnot. Characters in these formations won't collide as they flow and move and these tactics are extremely offensive in nature. 3. Party formations. These are smaller, but hold a mix of the two above attributes. They can enable offensive or defensive bonuses, let you dig in for shorter amounts of time, or enable charged special attacks... Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) In Conan you can thus create player-made formations, consisting of both NPCs and other players. Depending on your skill in commanding others, you can lead a whole troop of your fellow fighters towards the enemy, be it mounted, ranged or on the ground. The leader of the formation is the one deciding which kind of formation to have (wedge formation etc.), and in which direction the formation should move in, but each and every player has freedom within the formation (think of a rubber band around the group). Formations are great for lots of things, both towards other players and against monsters, and in combat you will find that being in a formation gives bonuses and strategic advantages as well as the ability to shield weaker targets. Tothegame, 4th May 2006 (Gaute Godager) NEW Formation combat is the Age of Conan teams venture into redefining group combat. In the game it does not only matter which classes you have in your team, but also how they stand in relation to each other. For instance, the pen-and-paper RPG most beloved ability; that of blocking doorways to hold opponents at bay, protecting the "softer" targets in the group is finally a reality. You get different bonuses to your group if you stand close enough to each other, in a certain formation. The formations can also give you special attacks to attack your opponents, especially opponent formations. The most important feature in the Formation is that you can add NPC’s (for example Master Followers) in your formation to bolster its effectiveness. This is especially important as they will always stand in their correct spot and do as they’re told to increase the effectiveness of the group. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager) NEW Here the formations are especially useful. No siege engine can withstand a formation of charging cavalry. On the other hand, place a formation of pike-men in front of the siege engine to dig in as the cavalry charges, and we shall see many a rider less horse trotting nervously around on the battlefield. Well, unless you blast the pike men with spells or a formation of archers. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Game Content Back to top

Will there be a live team focusing on creating new content for those that choose to participate in the MMO portion of the game? Oh, yes. But also sequels and expansion packs building on new regions of the Hyborian world. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Combat is at the cornerstone of the experience in Conan, and we have focused a lot on coming up with a great real-time combat system. There will however be a multitude of additional features in the game, and that includes things like player-made houses, guild houses and crafting (once you get further in the game). Exploration and going on adventures is a vital part of the game, and we hope to give you some amazing experiences traveling through Hyboria. We are pulling all the plugs in terms of graphical beauty, world design and the sounds and music which will surround you, so exploring in Conan will hopefully become a journey like you have never seen before in an online RPG. Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) NEW The game is designed to be approachable by people with varying schedules. It does not mean the game has been dumbed down or restricted to not include enough content for people who want to play all the time or play "hardcore" Forums, 29th May 2006 (Athelan)

Game Story Back to top

When examining Conan's life span, as Howard told it, the need to have Conan himself present for every player was paramount to us. Creatively, using the time after the novel The Hour of the Dragon was by far the best setting. Conan is king. He has been weakened, and we know his vassals are not 100 percent behind him. It is a time where all players can relate to him without actually having to play him, as we have seen in previous titles. Besides, to us, Conan is a somewhat reluctant king, which makes him a very interesting figurehead in a realm where players are to make it on their own. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Game World Back to top

Hyboria, Conan's universe, is a massive one with creative contributions added for more than 70 years. The task of selecting the base material was a massive one, but luckily, when we chose to focus the base of the game around 3 countries in the land, much fell into place. The snow-capped peaks of Cimmeria, the rolling hills and dark cities of Aquilonia and the burning deserts of Stygia lent themselves naturally to our task of recreating Hyboria. Seeing that I am a huge fan of this universe, like so many on the team, working on a Online Action RPG based around the Hyborian Universe is a dream come true, and I think this will show in the final game. By selecting three countries we got a natural selection of the Lore in place. Basically we try to include as much lore as possible in our game. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) How much of the game world will remain to be explored after the single player game has been completed by a player? Gaute Godager: Hm, in terms of real estate - something like 95%. In terms of quests, dialogue and story, less. In terms of levels - exactly 75%. I guess it all depends on how you measure. We project, though, that when you leave the single-player game, you have only just begun! IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The gameworld of Conan will be compromised of regions in three of the major countries of Hyboria, namely Cimeria, Aquillonia and Stygia. In total, there will be around 30 regions ranging from one by one to four by four kilometers. These regions have been picked because of their importance or relevance for the country, or what Conan did there etc. - and most of them are far away. As you might know, Anarchy Online, the first MMO Funcom made, pioneered the use of instantiated areas in MMOs when it came out in 2001, and it is natural that we build on the technology that has proven its worth for almost four years now. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) Our focus for these regions is actually on detail, not on making the gameworld huge. Many other games try to create the biggest world of them all. We try to go another way - towards handcrafted detail, loving and care for the characters there - rather than doing the corner cutting you have to do to make something that's millions and millions of square feet. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) At launch there will be about 30 regions found in the game spread across Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia, so there will be a lot of real-estate. That said, it's impossible for us to implement all of Conan's world, this is after all one of the richest and most diverse fantasy licenses on the planet, but I am sure you will get to see even more through expansion packs and updates after launch. mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures feature three countries at launch, Cimmeria, Aquilonia and Stygia. Howard’s Hyborian World of 10,000 BC is a massive, massive universe. We could probably build a whole game with 10 expansion packs only from Aquilonia if we wanted to. We have tried to focus on the regions most meaningful to the Conan fans, typically those visited by Conan in the most famous stories (but not exclusively so). The world is not seamless. To keep the game true to the lore, there is a small or big journey between the different regions by boat or horse, etc. This also works well with our technology that is not seamless. Naturally with the more than 100 books published in the more than 70 years since Howard wrote his first stories, it is impossible to let the players explore every inch of the world. This is though, without a doubt, the truest, deepest and most immersive representation of Hyboria done in any computer game ever. PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) Yep, Conan will be a big world brimming of life, steep cimmerian mountains and burning stygian deserts, where danger constantly lurks. It's too early to talk about expansions, let's get the original game out first before we start discussing how to expand it. And No. No Orcs. No Elves. We take the Hyborian age very seriously and we will stay as true to Howards work as we possibly can. If we find that we need to add things not in his stories, we will take utmost care to create them so they fit. Forums, 19th October 2005 (DaveDread) The grass movement was a very annoying little issue, but we found it. We can customize the environment settings including wind speed, weather, fog, and lighting which will in fact effect the grass. Forums, 5th December 2005 (Athelan) We have people working fulltime on particle effects, so we hope to have stuff like blood look very realistic. Forums, 18th December 2005 (Mjoellnir)

Gladiator Matches Back to top

We have talked about arena fighting and what sort of technology would be required to allow for spectating without the ability to interfere. Forums, 19th September 2005 (Athelan) The pit fights in Arnie's 'Conan the Barbarian' were a great part of the film. Will Age of Conan be able to have similar matches or gladiatorial events (pit fights or Collesium battles)? It is something we would like to see as well, but as to it going in at initial release I cannot say. Forums, 3rd October 2005 (Athelan) As Gaute has mentioned before we would like to make three types of pvp 1. Siege PvP 2. Mini Games 3. Drunken brawling The vision is to have all Mini Games within a coliseum, imagine the film the gladiator and you get the picture. We are also looking into adding a 4th arena PvP. It will be just like AO where there is free for all PvP but no where to zone and hide Forums, 19th November 2005 (Johan) There will also be a one on one PvP arena mode where you can test your skills in a duel with just you against your opponent. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Guilds Back to top

To address the question of tabards and whatnot, I believe that we are considering allowing one's guild coat of arms to be placed on various parts of the player's equipment--as well as battle standards--to help emphasize guild identity. I couldn't say exactly where on the priority list this feature would fall, but it's something I would like to see make the final cut. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) On a normal server I do not see it being possible for a guild to control a server as they have been able to in some games. On a PvP server the potential for control is greater depending on the implementation. Forums, 21st September 2005 (Athelan) The game will feature clans / guilds and other social elements. The players can build houses, guild halls, PvP buildings. I am not sure exactly what type of buildings the players can construct, structures to raise or plants to sow making it into the final title. Rest assured though, the players can define their own world in a very detailed and personal way in Conan.” PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) Just to calrify here, any secondary or alt characters can still have a prestige class and get the benefits that the class provides to you personally, but your guild will only benefit from the one Prestige class per account to prevent people stocking up mule characters just to get extra bonuses. So, for example (and this is purely an example, not an actual figure ) if being a Master provided your guild with a % bonus to their resource gathering you wouldnt be able to create x number of alts on the same account to add x% bonus to your guild. I dont believe though that there will be anything stopping any alternate characters having a prestige class. Forums, 31st March 2006 (Silirrion)

Levels Back to top

The core character development is done through feat points (of which you gain 1 each level, plus a big chunk, every 5). The ability to wear certain equipment, train special moves, learn spells or combos - all are gained through the feat system. It's meant to be one simple system, with massive choice. As you can see it is a clear goal for me as Game Director to give players a real choice on how they create their character, and allow for difference and personalization. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) OBSOLETE QUOTE, FACTS HAVE CHANGED As I mentioned, you start your life as a slave. At that time, you only select your race and visual appearance. Then, at level 5, you get your archetype class, Warrior, Priest, Mage or Rogue. Not all races have access to all classes. The Stygians are the only ones that can become mages, for instance. You keep this class until you select your main class at level 20. You will have between three and four different choices per archetype. At level 40, you select your Guild Class or Social Class - which are from four different classes, all of which are universally available. And finally, you specialize at level 60, selecting between two different choices. In total there are around 40 character development class choices available for the player through his life. At level 80, the last one, you get access to something called Elder Feats. This will give you access to some unique end level character empowerment. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) It will be quick to level up, and we have numerous features that will be user-friendly for relatively casual gamers. That said, we are still looking into variations on this to make sure it becomes as good as possible. We think it should be possible for most players to reach maximum level, hardcore or not, and thus be able to participate more in PvP and the other end-game activities if they wish. The game is based around players that have less than 10 hours a week to play, and the activity level, features, interface and fun factor are built to cater for these. This will not exclude the high achievers, of course. The point is that everyone should have a good time when they play. We are also working on something that will help the players have a faster leveling speed if they have stayed out of the game for some time. How this will be, exactly, is yet to be seen. These various features, combined with a single-player part, extensive instancing and much more should to make Conan a game that basically everybody can enjoy, for shorter or longer periods of time. IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) This is an RPG so player-level will in the end matter more than skills, even though skills will naturally aid you a long way. The more adept you get at the combat system, the more damage you can deal, but if you meet someone, say 20 levels above you, you shouldn't stand a chance regardless. What we have tried to do though is to make a system where skill matters more than in most other RPG's. With the multipoint system, which also works with ranged combat, we are finally taking online RPG's away from the static, almost ritualized, combat and into an arena where you are more active in the gameplay experience. This is all for the good in my personal opinion, and think it will hopefully be as revolutionary as when we first came up with for instance the instancing and mission systems in Anarchy Online. mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The leveling curve of characters in the Conan world is very casual up to level 40, so much that your grandmother could do it. Remember, Conan is an Online Action RPG featuring a strong story, not only in the first 20 levels but continuing through the full 80 levels of the game. This game will thus gradually offer the normal MMO gameplay to the player. MMORPG.com, 14th October 2005 (Gaute Godager) With this casual theme in mind, the company has built the game so that most players can achieve maximum level (80). MMORPG.com , 31st October 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) It not so much about how long it takes to hit level 80. What should be important is: All players can access content, fast or slow they can still get there. (Sure that doesn't mean fighting solo the demonic overlord in the depths of Pteon) The journey itself is fun (Dont have to be max level to enjoy oneself) Achieving max level doesnt mean being done with the game or character (And not just from a collect the loot standpoint) If the above are true does it really matter how quickly it takes to level? Myself I find I like it when I hit max level and don't have to be concerned about leveling, generally speaking I just find some games don't have anything for me to do then that feels meaningful. Forums, 2nd November 2005 (Athelan) We intend it to be possible for lower levels to still hit and take down high levels within reason. Reason being whatever we feel is balanced ;p Forums, 12th December 2005 (Athelan) In a query to our almighty systems designer, I think we talked about it being possible for lower levels to hit a max level player, however likely many of the lower levels would be crushed beneath the level 80's bootheel before he went down. Invulnerable? No Easy to kill? No You probably wont be able to go away from keyboard with twenty level twenties beating on you while your natural regen out heals their damage if that was the question. Forums, 21st December 2005 (Athelan) Ive said this before I believe. I am not pro a level range system for restrictions. I am pro there being consequences for ganking someone 60 levels below you who was fighting another monster. Forums, 21st December 2005 (Athelan)

Healing Back to top

Priests will heal their allies, how this is presented visually we will see. But Priests will not be relegated to standing there "spamming" heals and I highly doubt you will ever see "OK guys we need a 2 second complete heal chain set your macros" "Healing so and so next person in chain is up" "Healing so and so next person in chain is up" Can't really say anything more at this time. Forums, 26th October 2005 (Athelan)

Instanced Areas Back to top

We will be using instancing technology for sure. We were the first company to introduce the concept in Anarchy Online and Age of Conan will utilise the technology where appropriate to provide the best gameplay experience for each situation. Forums, 30th August 2005 (Silirrion) As we have said before there will be instancing in the game, we will use it where it is appropriate to ensure that the relevant area or section of the game is fun! Making the experience enjoyable is the most important factor, and sometimes instancing is the best way (with the current technology available at any rate!) to ensure maximum playability. The team are using instancing as they should, as a tool to be used in the right places, you can also rest assured that where it is used, its used creatively as well! It's also important of course to have non-instanced areas as well for players to meet and share some adventures as well of course. The key thing, as with all game mechanics, is that they should be used where appropriate to enhance the game experience Sometimes instancing is the right solution to a design choice, sometimes its not. Forums, 16th February 2006 (Silirrion)

Ingame Customer Help Back to top

Indeed we do plan to have a similar (editor: as in AO) support system in Age of Conan, the exact details though aren't decided as yet though given that Age of Conan is a very different game to Anarchy Online. We will make announcements about this closer to launch. Forums, 20th December 2005 (Silirrion) As far as I know.. support plan to have something similar to the ARK program in Conan. Fourms, 3rd January 2006 (Mjoellnir) We are looking into volunteers program definitely. So we will try to copy that program [from AO - the editor] to a certain extent. We believe that human interaction in the world is essential. conan.mmorpgs.info, 2nd April 2006 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) All GMs in Age of Conan will be paid employees just like they are in Anarchy Online. We will most likely have a player volunteer program of some manner (similar to the ARK program in AO) that supports the game and the GMs, the actual GMs though will always be official members of staff. Forums, 3rd May 2006 (Silirrion)

Inventory Back to top

Even without a "weight" system, it would be inaccurate to assume that the inventory space is unlimited. We will be evaluating the balance of available inventory slots when the game is in fully playable form in order to figure out the correct ratio of space. I would point out that encumbrance is certainly no sure-fire way to get rid of camping/farming. In fact, I can think of many games that had such systems in place, yet are some of the worst in regard to "farmers." Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) To make the archer classes interesting, for instance, we want things to be fast-paced, not slow and boring. Thus, they will be firing a lot of arrows in any given game session. Were we to implement any kind of "realistic" encumberance system, such classes would be at a severe disadvantage--as the amount of arrows one would typically be expected to use on such a trip is probably not actually a "realistic" number. Some games get around this by making arrows/ammo basically weigh nothing... but that creates a double-standard that other people may not appriciate. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) No matter how you stack the arrows, each arrow still weighs a certain amount, and you'll slam into your max encumbrance pretty quick. Historically, english longbowmen could launch an arrow every 5 seconds (at least if they were clout shooting, IE using ballistic trajectories more like artillery then direct aimed fire). That's 20 arrows per minute, 100 arrows every 5 minutes. 100 arrows is heavy. And that's for 5 minutes of combat. If you wanna go hunting with your friends for a few hours, you'd need 2500 arrows... which I'm fairly certain you wouldn't be able to carry around with a realistic encumbrance system. With our fast paced combat I'd expect that we'd launch arrows and bolts even faster. I read of a persian speedshooter who kept 15 arrows in the air at the same time, now that's what we wanna see ingame. We will have other ways of limiting the amount of stuff a player can carry around at any given time, so you'll need to prepare properly before heading out to the killing fields. While I personally love to to adapt to different situations by swapping equipment, we aim to limit it to a somewhat realistic level. We will also have items that increase stats like regeneration, hit points etc, but we are aiming to put them in a proper context. If a priest wears a Symbol of Mitra around his neck, it could inspire him to ignore lesser wounds, if a Cimmerian warrior wields an ancient Atlantean blade, it would make him feel stronger and faster. It should make sense, double the fun that way. Forums, 12th August 2005, (DaveDread)

Languages Back to top

I can't recall seeing any talking restrictions in any designs.. However, Conan does not seem to have any problems talking to Stygians in the books, so I guess we expect our players to be as skilled in languages as him! Forums, 11th August 2005 (Mjoellnir)

Language Versions Back to top

There are no firm plans for fully localised versions at this stage, but it is certainly something that we will consider in the future. Forums, 16th September 2005 (Silirrion) I would like to stress that Germany is a very important country for Funcom, and we plan to support Germany as much as we can through both German speaking servers, German customer service, German payment options and hopefully many other services related to the German market. We will try our very best to make sure the Germans will get their own unique community, enabling everyone who wants to try Conan the chance to do so regardless of whether they understand English or not. Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) We will be having many servers with smaller populations rather then a single or few large scale servers with massive populations. There will most likely be localised version in some manner, but the exact details of such won't be confirmed until much closer to launch Forums, 11th February 2006 (Silirrion) It will be localized in French on or around launch and we will also have a French server. I mean, Craig Morrison, our excellent community relations manager, is currently working on getting French forum moderators. His goal and Funcom's goal is to try to support community in France and in Germany and in English speaking as good as we can, and also in numerous other nations of course. conan.mmorpgs.info, 2nd April 2006 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) If that will also include Asia in the very near future remains to be seen, but this is of course a goal for us. We have a lot of employees working in Oslo and both developers and community are there on the boards to let our community know we care, and that we listen. In the end we will also have local moderators and local volunteers to make the local communities even better, with more info from Funcom to give directly to the players. I think a key for any online game or online action rpgs is to be local in certain aspect, and Craig and others are hard at work on making this as good as it can be towards launch and beyond. conan.mmorpgs.info, 2nd April 2006 (Jørgen Tharaldsen)

Loot Back to top

Anyways, we aim to have a logical loot system. If you slay an clubwielding pict, he shouldn't drop a halbard. He should drop the club he was wielding or if you are lucky, a slightly better blunt weapon. If you kill a wolf, he shouldn't drop a kite shield. For loot, as with items in generafor a decent level of realism, tho I can't guarantee anything of course. We are making an effort tho. Personally I like if mobs drop what they have equipped, but it'll be overwhelming to have every mob drop everything they have equipped... how many dirty pict loincloths do a player really want? In a few minutes of combat, there will be a lot of corpses lying about. More fun if you know that the loot you get is useful methinks. Forums, 12th August 2005, (DaveDread) So I am level 80 and I can kill a level 40 smacktalker but I wont be able to loot him because he is outside my tier and I could get a bounty for it, but if he was really being a jerk it would be worth it. But if I am level 32 and the smacktalker is 40 I can fight him at the same tier level and when I win I can loot items from his inventory. Makes decent sense, also keeps a group of lower tiers swarming a higher tier and looting them as well. Forums, 23rd September 2005 (Athelan) Like has been stated before, we probably won't have identical mapping between the MOB and what they drop--that's just too much micromanagement to be practical from a design perspective. However, we will certainly be making an effort to break up the loot into "groups" of loot that make more sense based on the type of MOB (humanoid vs. demon vs. animal vs. etc.) and also potentially the culture of the humanoid. (e.g. Vanir NPCs may have a chance of dropping something Vanir-looking, while other MOBs may not.) We are also looking into breaking up the loot into some groups based on which country (Aquilonia, Stygia, and Cimmeria) the item is found in. Forums, 2nd January 2006 (Jayde) The problem with a What-you-see-is-what-you-get loot system is that it becomes a micromanagement nightmare. Then we'd have to make sure that we have perfectly balanced amounts of crossbowmen and daggerwielding assassins. Adding a few more guards around a Vanir camp in Cimmeria would mean that we'd have to add more archers in Stygia. It's sweet in theory but becomes unwieldy in practice. As Jayde says, we'll try to put loot in logical groups, and of course special encounters will be more wysiwyg so to speak. A pict scout will probably drop a pictish item, but not the exact same one he was wearing/wielding. Forums, 3rd January 2006 (DaveDread)

Lore Back to top

I must also note that we use writers from Mongoose Publishing to aid us in our quest, the creators of the excellent Conan pen and paper RPG. They have Conan lore experts that are always accessible (I need to point out, though, that the game system Mongoose Publishing has created, is not the same as in our game, Online Computer RPG's have other needs that pen and paper RPG's.) It is also important to underline that it has been a clear goal to bring the Conan universe into the 21st century. Robert E. Howard wrote his masterpieces a long time ago, and the world has moved on. It is vital to make new creative choices, while loving and keeping the essence of the universe. For one thing, there will be more female warriors in our game, as an example. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) We are definitively using the original works of author Robert E. Howard as our main inspiration, but we are also drawing inspiration from the spin-of novels, movies and comics, even the figurines. To create a world true to the dark vision of Howard is incredibly important to us, and only by staying true to the universe can we please both ourselves and the fans. Gamecloud , 19th May 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) Hyboria is an interesting universe for us because it can be likened to the biblical Sodom and Gomorra, if you will - a lewd, destructive world filled with sin. To me, Hyboria is like an "ID driven" society (ref. Freud), where mankind is always acting on their sexual, power or selfish impulses. This chaotic, destructive backdrop is what Conan wanders on to. He is literally from outside the civilized, sinful society, and he is a destructive force as he moves through the world. Conan could often be heard saying something like "I am not civilized enough to break my word" - where his barbaric code of honor sets him apart from the civilized pack. I guess this is all Howard's commentary on the time in which he wrote - between two wars, an early Darwinistic and Freudian society where man was an animal for the first time, and all that was bad was society imposing strict rules and regulations. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) The overall setting of the Age of Conan game is some years after the point when Conan ascended the throne as King of Aquilonia... Of note here, all brand new Conan novels coming from Penguin Books the next couple of years will actually be in the same setting as the game. They are found under the collective title Hyborian Adventures, just like the game. New characters are created in the books, characters you will find in the game as well - it should be a great background setting for the game to reading up on them. We have tried to make this setting take place some time after the Howard novel Hour of the Dragon. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) There are many friendly NPCs from the Conan universe brought to life for the first time in a computer role-playing game. Since these characters are so closely tied to the story, I will refrain from name-dropping as this might spoil the fun for the many people whose chief goal in the game is discovering and interacting with the story. Several of the main characters from the Conan mythos will have voice actors and well-written scripts that motivate player interaction. These characters serve as an integrated and very important part of the license, and reflect our emphasis on storytelling in Hyboria during the reign of Conan. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Although the lore is very important to us, we also have to consider that we are making a game. Games should be fun. I doubt you will see Priests or Mages turned into boring or weak classes just to artificially limit the population of them in relationship to how some may view lore. I think the goal will to make all classes as equally attractive as possible, and not to beat people over the head just for choosing a Mage as what they would like to play in the game. Personally, I don't believe an "unfun" class should exist in the game. Different, sure...but any option the player chooses should be fun. Forums, 17th August 2005 (Jayde) No, they are not exclusively from Robert E. Howard’s writing. What is important about the Hyborian universe is that it is a ‘pulp fantasy’ world. There are many different authors, even including famous fantasy authors like Robert Jordan, and there are ‘many Conans’ in this universe. Though we have tried to focus on the works by Howard, we have included well-written, strong lore from other sources as well. PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) Conan will be part of the story in many places in the game. You will meet him in his throne room, see him ride forth into battle and see him summon deadly military force against his enemies in the battlefield. These occurrences will be happening for the player every now and then, and it is story-driven, more than an instance which features the hero being played by an actor or as a "spawnable NPC." Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) The three races will have different abilities, each have different classes available to them and all also feature different looks and home towns. They will have to interact and cooperate against the arch-enemy of this game, as defined by the story. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Magic Back to top

It is true that we try to make the visual look and feel of magic in Conan different from what you have seen in other games and the more traditional fantasy settinGS. The clownlike, fireball-tossing magic users in pointy hats, with puffs and multicolored robes, are not part of the Hyborian universe. In Conan's age, magic is dangerous, hidden, and dark. Men who meddle with magic inevitably fall to its temptation and powers. Magic uses you as much as you use it. Naturally, the ultimate power comes when you are able to walk the fine line--the one between destruction and creation. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) we have tried to make magic more "real," in a sense. Manipulation of the natural forces of the world, the summoning of "real" demons from a dark, untold hell, and touch-based shamanistic powers are major parts of our magic system. Yes, there will be magic in many forms, but you should feel the difference when playing this game. You should feel the age of darkness, the weight of history, and the fear of being corrupted when you walk the path of arcane magic. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Spellcasters are different in Age of Conan than what you normally see in online games. First of all, only Stygians will use arcane magic -- this foul form of power is not used by the saner Cimmerians or Aquillonians. Second, magic will look, feel and handle differently than in other games. There aren't any magic missile tossing clowns with funny hats. Instead we have more "real" magic, manipulating reality, shaking the Earth, and summoning the odd demon from an unspeakable Hell. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) In Conan's Hyboria, arcane magic is deemed dangerous and foul and is very often focused around the manipulation of artifacts, more than the simple channeling of energy. To simulate this we are playing around with a system called "Soul Corruption" that will determine the degree to which you have sold your soul for power. Naturally, for most, this will be fatal and something to be avoided. For others, walking the edge is the only form of true excitement there is, and is, by far, the most efficient way to gain maximum power. It is still uncertain if "Soul Corruption" will make it all the way to the final game, though. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Since you must "aim" as a mage in Conan it is possible to somewhat avoid magic by having high resistance or by getting out of the line of fire. Magic-like powers can be also be gained through shamanistic and religious powers. They are more close-up and personal, and most forms of healing or "buffing" will be team based. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Magic in Hyboria is darker, scarcer and more powerful than in most other RPG campaigns. You delve into the arcane arts at your own risk, your soul being the only truly powerful bargaining chip. Our focus has been to give magic a visually more realistic look, less floating shiny things, and more the rumblings from hell. The users of magic fall, as normal, into two main categories, the ones with magic being offered from their gods or the earth, and the ones where magic is created through rituals and bargains with darker powers. In both cases, you memorize spells into your spellbook, and use mana to cast them. The current system allows you to prepare a set number of spells for casting into your arcane wheel - our ritualistic shortcut system. Casting the spells in a certain order will allow for magical combos and criticals. Most buffs will be team-based only, to eliminate the need to run around targeting everyone all the time. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Many spells - most notably the highly effective forms of healing - will be touch-based, or very short range. Many spells require different directions to gain maximum impact. The spell casting in Conan will thus be a much more tactical and proactive type of activity. There will not be time to wait around for mana to regenerate during combat. Casters should be as active as the melee or ranged fighters, constantly switching sides, targets and spells to do their best / worst. Moreover, the different priest classes will look and feel different. The various gods in Conan are extreme in their outlook on life and death, and casting them all in one mold would be wrong. We have summarized what magic should look and feel like in the four words "realistic" (visually), "scary" (it should have consequences casting and using magic), "dynamic" (the system should have depth) and "empowered" (the ease of use and the feeling of power given to the user). IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) I could talk about these for quite some time, but I would focus on the concept of having "dynamic" magic. We have designed a system where magic spells and effects can be combined by the user to get new results. These "combo spells" can be further combined with new deadly effects, allowing the casters to experiment - but at their own risk. One of the concepts used to moderate this risk taking is something very familiar to the fans of the Conan world. Magic is dark, and always with risk, and as the casters walk that edge of deadly power, they will accumulate something called Corruption of the Soul. Naturally, having a corrupt soul might make bargaining with demons, um, different. ;) IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The more power you draw the stronger the potential side effects and soul corruption. If you commune with demons to gain strength things will happen to you. Forums, 17th October 2005 (Athelan) The way we plan to do it is that you'll need to stay in the team to get the buff. So, if you team up to get a buff, it'll wear off quickly when you exit the team. Personally I like buffs a lot, it increases diversity. A team of 5 different classes should do better then a team of 5 similar classes. Forums, 1st December 2005 (DaveDread) We intend to have most of the buffs disappear when you ungroup, or perhaps that they linger for a short amount of time. So short that it'll be pointless to try to use it for adventuring on your own or in another team anyways. Forums, 1st December 2005 (DaveDread) I think we'll simply avoid buffing stats that is used as criteria checks for equipping things. Also, it's early days so don't take this as hard facts. It might change in the future. Forums, 1st December 2005 (DaveDread) I don't really think his opinion is "against" the devs. The problem with mini game forms of input is they get old very quickly and become very tiresome. A good example is the spell casting via hand gesture in the Black and White games, cool concept, kind of nifty the first time but when you need to cast a fireball and instead you get water droplets or something of the sort its quite aggravating. Magic will be more prevalent in Conan than it was in the books, simply because in the books its almost always in the hands of someone else so you only see it in glimpses. We rarely follow a magic user in what their routine or daily life would be like and see how often they might use various types of power. Magic will have dangers associated with it, I certainly dont think opening a dimensional portal to some outlying hellish void and calling forth assistance from a demon could be considered safe.. ever :P Forums, 7th December 2005 (Athelan) Mages will manipulate dark and dangerous forces and it will not be safe. For anyone! Forums, 8th February 2006 (Khayman) The spell-weaving, for instance, is a brand new system where players use their spells as COMPONENTS to a larger, more devastating spell effect – perhaps one that's too large for them even… Maybe it might blow up in their face, taking the wizard down in a blaze. That's the dark side of magic truly unique to the Hyborian world. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) NEW Speaking of spells, entering mage-only formations, or summoning circles, can be very useful in these battles too. A really hungry 8 meter high Demon summoned from Hell by 8 Demonologists surely will be able to gobble quite a lot of Mitra Priest before it is banished... ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Master / Apprentice System Back to top

Finally, but most importantly, we offer a Master-apprentice system. Here you may include a lower level player in your party, and "sponsor" her or him with levels. This boosts the lower level player's hit-points and power - without giving access to the level locked areas or powers. This is - we think - the most useful option to really let friends play together even though they gain levels at different speeds. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) A big part of the team-based PvP is our auto-balancing system. Using the Apprentice Leveling system, the members of a team will be slightly boosted to match 1 of 4 tiers. Level 20-28 player will be boosted to level 28, for example. It should make PvP less based on your Player vs. Environment level, and more on having fun. We're also implementing a PvP-only leveling system. Here you can gain feats only usable in PvP. This system is in parallel to the normal system of gaining levels, so that we reward the dedicated PvP players. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Another important feature is the Apprentice system. This enables a master (the player) to help the powers of another he teams with (the apprentice). This allows friends to share gaming experiences, even though they gain levels at different speeds. This system is similar to the ones we use to auto-level (temporarily) the characters to even their powers out during PvP. And the powers you gain are somewhat "shallow" compared to those of someone who actually reached the levels in the normal manner. IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Monthly Fee Back to top

What has been decided is that although you play on our servers, you will play the SINGLE-PLAYER GAME as if it was offline, without any additional costs other than when you bought the game. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Having a live support and dev team is not cheap. However it is true that we have not announced any price etc yet. Forums, 7h October 2005 (Mjoellnir) No decisions have been taken on things like gamecards as yet, but yes, I think its safe to say that we will most likely offer things like that for the game. Forums, 20th November 2005 (Silirrion) The core business model for Age of Conan is selling the retail box / digital download, like any traditional RPG or MMO. With that you get "free" access to the single-player mode for as long as you want. Once you journey into the greater online world, we'll charge subscriptions; specific pricing and details are currently undecided. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Mounted Combat Back to top

The mounted combat will come in two forms. First, you can fight from horseback with almost any weapon. You'll move quicker, but you won't have as many combat options. You can't strafe with a horse, for instance. Second, you can access special moves which include charges that have a fair chance of flinging your opponent around as you thunder past. As with any NPC player follower, the mount can be beaten unconscious, and can not be revived until the end of battle. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) There will be a variety of mounts, and yes we plan on having passengers as well as riders. Forums, 30th September 2005 (Athelan) Another type of differentiation is that we have formation and mounted combat. In Conan, mounts of different types can be used in battle to fight for a distinct advantage. The speed of your mount, what mount you have and how you hold your weapon help define the amount of damage you do, and if you hit. This is one form of tactical combat advantage you can gain. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) There will be mounted ranged combat however you wont have access to everything while mounted. Forums, 8th April 2006 (Athelan) NEW In Conan, I need to say for the first time in any MMO, mounted fighting actually means something. A mount is not only a way to move from A-B quickly, in Conan you do more damage with your weapons as you move faster. As you mount your horse (it can also be a camel or a mammoth) and then enter combat, you can hold your weapon over the side and swing as you are close to your enemy. It is then not only the skill with your weapon or the type of weapon you wield, but also the speed of your mount that determines how much damage you do... Different weapons will also behave differently as you ride. You can use a lance or spear to destroy your opponent, ride them down or simply sit with your horse and swing from left to right. Mounted combat is not as easy as it sounds though. Hitting your opponent is harder and the horse is not so easy to control. It requires both character and player skill. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Nudity Back to top

We had scantily clad harlots in Tortage and in the temple of Derketo back at E3. I still feel that for our player characters we will give females the options of being more like Valeria or Belit. We certainly are not going to consign all female avatars to wearing the torn wisps of cloth barely covering their naughty bits of the damsels in distress from the books. (Note that I did not say it wouldnt be an option if they want to wear something) Forums, 25th October (Athelan)

Online Action RPG Back to top

The reason we call Conan an Online Action RPG is because it takes game-play a level above what most people categorize as an "MMORPG". It seems this is a point of confusion but as Dave mentioned earlier we are looking at an expansive world, and one of REH. Conan is not a step down from a standard massively multiplayer online role-playing game to a more simplified result, instead Conan is a step up to the addition of more interactive and action driven game-play ontop of the stereotypical features of games placed in this genre. I feel that we as the developement team have put a great deal of effort into sharing with the community and far more detail and personal opinion has been discussed then I have encountered previously. These are not alpha/beta only secret Forums, this is our community this is public and yet there are open discussions with developers here. That is something to be commended in my opinion, yet I understand your thirst for more information and more answers. The world of Robert E. Howards Conan is large enough to create countless numbers of expansions, discussion as to what expansions may include would be a pointless waste of time. I want our focus to be on making Conan the fantastic experience is should be before worrying about adding additional content and areas. Make Conan successful and I will guarantee that expanding the game will come :) . I hope that this will help some of those who are concerned about the game. Forums, 19th October 2005 (Athelan) Conan will be a more "typical" persistant online world than something like Guild Wars. We do intend on having instancing for the perposes of dungeons and limiting of crowds, but in general you should find the game's nature to be similar to what can be expected from a "normal" MMORPG. That is not to say that the gameplay (e.g. "Online Action RPG") will be similar to typical MMOs, but the persistance and general world nature should be. Forums, 21st November 2005 (Jayde)

Online Part Back to top

Although all players are united by beginning at the Baracha Isles, after level 20, when they leave the single-player experience, they go back to their own country to set out on their multiplayer adventures. Cimmerians will go to Broken Leg Glen, Aquilonians to Tarantia, and Stygians to Khemi. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) After that, your story continues. This means that, even though you enter the multiplayer universe, you will, at some time, return to the world you left behind, seek out certain key characters, and need to participate in story-driven activities... mini-stories, quests, etc. Conan will definitely be part of this story arc. This story will not develop except during expansions and content updates. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) Well, I guess that sums up part of it as the single-player part will focus on you, your character and your journey, whereas in the online RPG part of the game you suddenly get access to a lot more features, and not the least the chance to meet all your fellow barbarians. It will be brutal all the way through though, he he, but there will be a distinct difference in the sense that group and guild gameplay won’t really come into effect before you are beyond level 20. Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen)

OS Back to top

NEW We are partnering with Microsoft to make Age of Conan a showcase title for Vista, this means that the game will use many of the new features offered by the system, it does not mean that we have entered into any 'exclusive' deal, and Microsoft are not involved in the publishing of Age of Conan. The game will run on XP as well, and as previously stated we do also plan console versions. Forums, 17th May 2006 (Silirrion)

Player Housing Back to top

In Conan we have special, massive, regions coined (but they have distinct names - "Laceish Planes", "Murrogh Forest" etc.) "Resource & Building Regions". They contain 5-8 village locations. These village locations can be occupied by guilds, putting up their walls, towers, keeps and production facilities (to make swords or what have you.). That is, they can put these up unless monsters have settled there first. Picts, bandits or other darker creatures will sometimes call their mates and create their own village when they stumble upon these locations. As a matter of fact, most of these locations will be occupied within a relative short matter of time. The struggle for resources in the Hyborian world is fierce, and there are no free lunches. Your guild will have to destroy the upstarts, and oust them from their straggling village. Then you can settle. The method of kicking monsters out is to use formations, individual battle and siege engines. Be that as it may. The monsters can be thrown out of all the places they "hive" except one - the mother hive so to say. Here you will have to "chastise" them, or they will attack your village, burning it to the ground - if not protected. Most likely these sieges will be the places where the formations will "come into their own". IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Using the village building technology, guilds can find a sponsor and build their own castle in a Border Kingdom instance. This will have to be defended against other guilds. You must destroy enemy walls, towers, and defenders before razing their keeps and castles to the ground. The ones holding areas in Border Kingdoms will gain bonuses to their guild. Let the best Siege Engine win! Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The player villages found in what we call "resource and building Regions" will not be attackable by other players. They will be attacked by monsters. The battle keeps built in the Border Kingdoms will not be attacked by monsters, only other players. For the villages attacked by monsters, they will burn to the ground, but they can of course be rebuilt. The cost of rebuilding is much less than that of building a complete new one. The buildings and keeps destroyed in PvP will be permanently gone, but you can of course rebuild when the heat of battle has calmed down. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Secondly, the players can build player-made cities and PvP player-made cities (every guild can have one of each) in the resource and building regions, or in the PvP regions. Although Conan is a very combat-focused game (making combat active and fun is our main priority), we are still making sure that all the other activities needed for a full-fledged MMO community are there. IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) City building locations are pre planned in the world and have different advantages. Some might have better access to resources while others will be in better tactical position and the like. So no one spot should be better than another more so it depends on what it offers in comparison to what you want. Forums, 2nd November 2005 (Athelan) To that end when it comes to the player villages and the like I do want to see them be hubs for player communities. So while I do not have details as far as if you can decorate or what all things will do I think that we will try to make the housing somewhat able to have individual touches. Forums, 11th April 2006 (Athelan) That's not to say we do not want your personal house in your player village to feel like your home and not some empty room. Forums, 12th April 2006 (Athelan) Yes, the plan for the player building and resource zones is that they will be instanced. Forums, 21st April 2006 (Silirrion) Monsters will begin hiving near player towns, creating a mirror town that will gradually be added to over time. Once the monster town grows large enough (after three or four weeks), it will start launching raids on player towns. While having a horde of screaming monsters coming to burn down your town might seem incentive to cut down the monster population as soon as they appear, full blown monsters towns with the biggest armories will also offer the best raid targets because they'll have the best loot. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager) While only guild members can have towns, they need solo players and affiliated groups. These are players that can purchase services from them, as well as allies when monsters attack. For more casual or "solo" gamers, being affiliated with a player town offers them the chance to take on tougher monsters that drop better loot (whether defending a town or participating in a monster town raid) without the time commitment of either being in a guild or organizing a more formal raid on a static target. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager) Guild players in PvP areas can build "battlekeeps" with most of the same structures and functionality as a PvE town. The major difference will be that that monster town over the horizon will be another battlekeep filled with bloodthirsty players just as sneaky as you are. Battles in this area will be more formalized in a sort of realm vs. realm structure that's still being worked out. According to Godager, there won't be any restrictions to keep a guild from operating both a town and a battlekeep, but any who do had better be large and quite well organized. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)

PvP Back to top

There will be PvP in many forms on release as PvP is important for these types of multiplayer games, and they are increasing in importance with the increasing number of players flocking to participate in the online experience. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) I've always been of the opinion that PvP should be voluntary, fun and available for everyone in an online game. Some players prefer to PvP all the time, others never. The majority of players, though, are in between these two extremes. Our goal is to create a system where you can PvP with your main character when you want to, without any permanent penalties. There won't be dedicated PvP servers in Conan. PvP will be available to your character if you want to participate -- or you could shy away altogether. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) You can roughly divide (Age of Conan's) PvP into three categories. First, you have one-on-one PvP traditionally found in arenas. Second, you have team based "mini-game" type of combat. The essence here is a GUI-driven match-making system which will allow you to form teams with players from all over Hyboria. You will fight it out in instanced "mini-areas" with concrete goals. Goals include, capturing the flag, annihilating the opposing team, razing a building with light siege weapons or "Kill the Lord" in which you must kill the PvP boss of the opposing team. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) PvP is consensual. Our aim is that you will never be killed unless you ant to participate. PvP should be fun and exciting, not filled with griefers and exploiters. In the darkness of Hyboria, though, and its hidden alleys and grim battlefields everything should be seen as a legal tactic to crush your enemy! Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) I would like to point out that PvP is but one part of the game, and not the be-all, end-all of the game. What we want more than anything else is to give you that feeling of being in the unique Hyborian Universe, where the gods are cruel and uncaring… Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Basically, there are four types of PvP. Naturally, they all have the same types of basic rule set for the player - except one. If you have learned PvP in one part of the game, it should be easy to take it to another. Let me start on this topic by talking a bit about Age of Conan's PvP concept first. No other fantasy license lends itself so well to bloody battle and bloody PvP as the saga of Conan the Barbarian. Here, crushing your enemy is the definition of the soul of the license, and it has grown on us how profoundly that should influence the in-game battles. We are really thankful for having such a clear combat vision to guide us, and it will be something we know will be more brutal and honest than anything you have seen before! IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) It is hard to compare this to any non-multiplayer RPGs as there is nothing like PvP there, naturally - so I am going to refer to the first generation of western MMOs, and looking at what they did to our expectations for PvP. With all due respect to my colleagues, it seems to me as if the early games made PvP unpredictable for the players. Could it be that they hadn't put PvP in the forefront when designing the games - that it was added more as an afterthought? Those games made killing other players too easy, too unbalanced or too crude - no depth. This led to a high degree of unpredictability for the player - or so it seems - and it made PvP into something you either had to do all the time, or not at all. It wasn't until we got Dark Age of Camelot with Realm vs. Realm, and Anarchy Online's Notum War that PvP really grew into its own. After that, all modern MMOs have seemed to address PvP as something important. The unpredictability of early MMOs led to a dichotomy in player perception of PvP. You either loved it, or you hated it. Luckily this is now fading, and PvP is in most new MMOs, becoming something you do for fun and purpose, but always in addition to whichever other activities you participate in. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) These four lines of thinking became the guides for the Conan team when designing PvP: - PvP should be available to everyone, if they want it - not only on special PvP servers. - There shouldn't be a harsh penalty should you die in PvP. No permanent loss of items or other hard-won valuables. There should be multiple forms of PvP, many which will serve as different mini-games. PvP should be available at all levels after the very first few. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The first system is indeed massive battles. This technology was used for building player-made cities in Anarchy Online - Alien Invasion, and is simply reused and improved in Age of Conan. King Conan has opened Aquilonia up for expansion into the bothersome Border Kingdoms. Several individuals in his court will thus sponsor settlements in this region. This means that the players can choose a side and set up their own castles in these instantiated areas. The castles must be defended against other guilds that want these highly lucrative areas. This form of PvP will provide large-scale battles where a set number of defenders and attackers can clash together at predefined, regulated, intervals. To aid in these battles, the players can use hirelings, siege engines and all the tricks in the books to fight their way to the glory of King Conan's court. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The second type of PvP is the team-focused mini-games. Here, the players are fighting king of the hill, capture the flag and other types of team-oriented mini-games. To facilitate a "just" system in PvP games like these, we have included an auto-leveling feature where the players are divided into four different tiers; each 20 levels are grouped together. Each tier enables the player to auto-level to the highest level in it. Using a matchmaking interface, the players are quickly grouped together into equally sized teams, and then their levels are equaled out. This auto-leveling feature lasts the length of the battle, and means that your current abilities are boosted to be almost as good as they would have been if you had gained the level the normal way. Going the distance is naturally preferable as you will gain totally new abilities that are not available to the auto-leveled. This auto-leveling system will also be in place in the massive PvP, with a set number of units in each category. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Except for the brawling, all PvP kills will give PvP knowledge that slowly trains you in the game's 20 PvP levels. These gives you access to certain PvP-only feats, empowering abilities that can only be used in PvP situations. Though it is unlikely that much armor, quests or other PvP content will be available at launch, this system will allow us to make content updates focusing on giving the best PvPers the kudos they are due. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) To summarize, PvP grew much more important to the development team as the full, deep understanding of the demands of the license dawned on us. We need to give the players as much variety and depth in PvP as we can since this will make the game alive in a way we cannot do by simply making quests and content. Finally, I would like to mention that PvP is voluntary and will never be forced on the player. It should never encourage griefing, allowing a high-level player to gank a lower-level one, nor should the glee of winning be based on the loss of time and effort on the side of the loser. IGN, 11th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The game will have PvP. There are three basic forms of PvP in Conan. First off there is something we call ‘massive battle.’ This features Guilds protecting the structures, walls, towers etc, they have built in certain PvP areas. Here the different player sides (at least the defenders) will be able to employ guards to help with the fight. How exactly they are to be controlled, is left to be seen. Secondly there are group-focused mini-games. They use a match-making system to pitch groups of fighters against each other. Finally we have a very special, Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures exclusive--: Drunken Brawling. This is a fun, free-for-all system (specifically only found in bars) where players do not fight with their normal level, but rather with a system where how drunk you are defines how hard you hit, and to which degree you hit. We hope this will lure even the most avid PvP opponent into some stool smashing and table bashing in the essence of Conan. PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) I think it is an inherent flaw in these systems that bases your "rank" of quantity of PvP participation/kills. The systems themselves are designed to recognize "PvPers" and their abilities but in the end its just a time sink in the current implementations. I think it was a big mistake to put items/gear as a PvP reward that rivaled or was better than gear gained in raids. It made PvP into a treadmill instead of recognizing the true champions. In Conan our PvP rewards will be based around PvP so they will be useful to a PvP player but will not imbalance the rest of the game for everyone else. Forums, 11th October 2005 (Athelan) No, the players can not be a Pict in the game at launch. We feature 3 races, Stygian, Aquilonian and Cimmerian. There will be 3 distinct different types of PvP available to the players at launch. First off, there is the massive siege battle, as you mention. Secondly, there is a group focused system where match-making will pitch player teams against each other. Finally, there is a fun focused “Drunken Brawling”, where players don’t fight with their normal levels, but rather with a combination of random behavior and their degree of drunkenness. MMORPG.com, 14th October 2005 (Gaute Godager) There will be various effects of PvP levels including potentially unique PvP feats and combos. Forums, 22nd November 2005 (Athelan) We have stated that PvP will be consentual even if that consent is by you selecting to play on a PvP server. Consent doesnt mean "can I kill you?" "no" it means you actively choose to engage yourself in an area or areas where PvP is available. It is your choice to enter into that situation not mandated by the game. Forums, 16th December 2005 (Athelan) Resources and territorial control are part of the Massive PvP/Siege system. Forums, 5th January 2006 (Athelan) I dont see why we need to debate open PvP as being a must when we have already stated we would like to see a PvP server with more open PvP options. The only tenants we have made are that people will have a choice even if that choice is the server they choose to play on. Forums, 5th January 2006 (Athelan) This (editor: unwanted fights agains another player) would only be possible on a PvP server or in a PvP siege area. Given you are not a PvP player there would be no reason for you to CHOOSE to go there. So no it won't be an issue. Even on said PvP servers griefing behavior will have consequences. Forums, 5th January 2006 (Athelan) In the outside world, however, players will find that things are very different. That's because every player will, in effect, be two different characters. Players will have two different level and experience point totals that track PvE and PvP experience. Combat moves and behaviors will be different in PvP fights, and damage output will be modified to make fights between players last longer and be more even. There will even be separate equipment tables for PvP and PvE weapons and armor. While no weapon will ever be completely ineffective, it goes a long way toward reducing the chronic problem of PvP fights being based on eies. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Quests Back to top

Giving out a level when finishing a quest would be tricky. Gaining a level at 41 is worth more experience than gaining a level at 40. Doing quests in Conan is a great way to level, though. If you play a quest that takes a lot of effort to finish, you will be richly rewarded in experience (not to mention the goodies you get). Forums, 22nd August 2005 (Attila) In my mind, I think they key is to provide the player with different kinds of gameplay, so that he/she can play the game the way he/she wants. If you enjoy exploring, that should somehow be rewarded. A lot of what you want is already covered by choosing class/archetype Forums, 6th September 2005 (Attila) I think its a good thing to have quests of different length and scope. The long, epic adventures are always important, but so is the shorter quests. A small and simple quest is great when you log in for one hour, and really want to accomplish something in such a short amount of time. Still, there's no reason to make shorter quests boring. They should just be compact adventures. Forums, 7th September 2005 (Attila) I like the notion of randomly stumbling upon quests when traveling through the world. One problem is that this kind of quests would force us create content that a lot of player will never see. Just as Mjoellnir says, the technical aspect is not a problem – time is. It’s a matter of choosing between creating content that most people will experience, and content that only part of the game population will play through. As soon as it becomes random, a lot of the content created will remain undiscovered by many players. Forums, 21st September 2005 (Attila) Quests will be special because of: the well known, deep and story driven universe they are placed within. a focus on a life-spanning ‘destiny quest’ involving the main story and your characters. more focus on diversity, story and quality than pumping out a massive quantity of similar (slay ‘N’ ‘monsters’). (But there will be monster kill quests, delivery quests as well, though!)” PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) The quests in Age of Conan have been part of the world design from the start. They tie into what actually is going on in the different regions, and lets the players play an important role in the conflicts of Hyboria. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Attila) If you make a quest too vague and obscure, people WILL use guides on fansites to solve them. And that is not fun. We're trying to put the challenge in other aspects than spending time on figuring out what the quest designer thought when he wrote the quest. Forums, 9th December 2005 (Attila) They [editor: players] pick up quests by talking to NPCs, finding areas, killing monsters, solving puzzles and in many other ways. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) Questing will always be worth it in Conan. Depending on the length and difficulty of the quest, you will get the same amount of experience as if you would have spent your time grinding instead - plus the experience you get from the mobs you kill in the quest, of course. Not to talk about the rewards you get... Forums, 3rd January 2006 (Attila) The dialogs in Age of Conan are branched, so that you often can choose how you want to approach an NPC - do you want to be nice, rude or try to trick him? NPC's won't treat you differently if you've been rude to someone else, but they might change their attitude towards you if you have failed a task given by someone they care about. We'll have all sorts of quests in Conan. A big chunk of our time has been spent on deep, immersive and epic quests that tell the tales of the world, putting the players in the focus of the storyline and the action. At the moment we're ramping up the production of smaller quests. But we put a lot of effort into these small adventures as well, because our goal is that all our quests should have well written, interesting stories and exciting gameplay. However, that doesn't mean that everything must be epic or very dramatic. Forums, 3rd January 2006 (Attila)

Quests (Guilds) Back to top

Giving rewards from your own/the guilds pockets is fine. That's basically just a transfer of items/money between players. I doubt we'll create a system like that tho, it is easier and more flexible to just have the players handle the whole thing by themselves... any framework we provide will be too limited and not suitable for the cool whatever you players will want to do. We will not have a system where players gain xp/money created by the game, that is when even a small flaw in the system will have very grave repercussions. Forums, 11th October 2005, (DaveDread) It is very very difficult, even thought impossible, to make a MMO system that can handle players giving out quests, judging the success and giving xp or gold as a reward. Some players will find a flaw in the system and then exploit it to hell and yonder, leading to too high xp/money gain. No matter how hard we try, if the players handle the success/failure of quests we cannot design a system that is 100% safe, and the repercussions of it not being safe will virtually break the game. If players choose to handle the whole thing by themselves, that is of course fine. We want to encourange that. But having a system in place for it is very unlikely. Forums, 10th October 2005, (DaveDread)

Races Back to top

In Hyborian Adventures, which is the first in several titles planned on the Age of Conan brand, the playable races are Aquilonian, Cimmerian, and Stygian. Over time, this will be increased. They will have different looks and hometowns, but the choice of classes will also be different for the various races. For instance, only the Stygians will have access to the mage class and its branching specializations. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Each of the three nations in the game (Cimmeria, Aqquilonia, Stygia), and the characters from the different nations, has their own distinct looks and also abilities to a certain extent. We have tried to make each nation into something unique, not just in terms of combat, but also in terms of architecture, clothes, buildings and so forth and so on. You will also find that the various nations have different approaches to combat, for instance the magic classes who naturally "pray" and draw power from different gods. mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) We will have 3 player races.. and each rase will have their skills, subskills etc so you will be able to custimize your character to be more than only 3 different types. Wait and see :). We have a number of NPC races in addition btw. Forums, 2nd November 2005 (Mjoellnir) Races are not sides and as such PvP is not race versus race. Forums, 4th November 2005 (Athelan) Being a mage in Conan wont necessarily consign you to the standard MMO caster early life. IE use your one nuke spell repeatedly. All classes have capability with basic melee weapons. Also while the Stygians did have large armies and the nobility was known for their archery and the like they still employed a great deal of foreigners for armies. As far as Aquilonian mages the only one I have ever read about was Hadrathus who wasnt really Aquilonian. Stygians will have melee classes but not those branching from the warrior tree. Forums, 7th November 2005 (Athelan) At this point, I highly doubt the number of races in the game will change. Based on the size of the three different regions, I don't have a problem with having "only" three different "races" in the game. The locations at which the game takes places do have members from other cultures present, however as Conan's setting (at least at this point) is primarily in these regions, I think it is appropriate to have those populations in the majority represented. If there was a game set in modern-day UK, would you complain that most of the players were British? At any rate, I think there will be more than enough customization between physical changes, class choices, in addition to the three different cultures to allow people the opportunity to feel unique. Forums, 25th December 2005 (Jayde)

Raids Back to top

I have been fortunate enough to be involved with the design of some of our most challenging regions. I can tell you that we emphasize having encounters/events of varying size that people would want to participate in multiple times not just for loot but also for entertainment. I can also tell you that those sizes range from individual or small group play up to larger raid type encounters. I personally tend to enjoy a semi open ended setup for progression in a raid area that lets you pick and choose. I think that Blizzard definately took a step in the right direction with the introduction of the Zul'Gurub instance as it allows smaller groups to complete things on their time while having an end boss that required completing all of the other bosses to be defeated but in no set order. Forums, 6th December 2005 (Athelan) One of our "mid sized" raids includes the sieging of a castle of evil mages. Along with multiple types of boss fights we want some large formation battles happening in the courtyards and the intentional ability for archers to climb up onto the walls and rain death from above. (Or push a gargoyle over and watch it fall to the ground smashing some poor saps head) Of course those evil mages probably wont make being up there any easier. Forums, 7th December 2005 (Athelan) You would be seriously hard pressed to make any worthwhile large group content that only took 30 minutes. I think the "saving" of a dungeon is important and I think that having it possible to accomplish something in 1-2 hours is a good target. (Thats usually enough time for even a new group to feel like they made some progress in my experience) Im not saying that to be anti-casual gamer. I just don't want to set unrealistic expectations out there. Forums, 12th December 2005 (Athelan) In the first phase, players might want to use quest weapons to do as much damage as possible. The second phase might occur when the monster casts an ice shield that reduces normal damage by 80%; that's when the weapons that do fire damage come into effect and those will all be crafted weapons. The third phase might require something totally different, perhaps a formation that only a formation leader can issue. Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Rating Back to top

The Conan license is a brutal and gritty universe with raw violence, dark magic, evil gods and strong warriors. To water down the feel of the universe was for sure not something we wanted to do, and we are thus trying to be as true to the spirit of Conan as we can be. We are fans after all ;p . We expect the rating for the game to be mature, but at the same time we are not speculating in the violence and brutality. You shouldn't, for instance, be able to spray the ground with the blood gushing out from the artery of a fallen enemy, but you should be able to behead a demon or two. As for women Gaute and the team are trying to take Conan into the 21st century, and you will find that women are just as strong as the men! mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) The rating is based on the game, we’re not designing the game to fit a rating..if that makes sense.Conan fans know the world is bloody and know it’s not a safe haven for kiddies.We decided it was best to not try to water down the content to appease the ratings boards as it would just feel wrong to do so. Howard’s world was violent and sinful so the game will be too. We’re not going to add in gratuitious violence for the shock value , but Heads are going to roll and that’s just the way it is by Crom! MMORPG.COM 2nd September 2005 (Terri Perkins) We are definitively going for the mature audience in Conan, and to be honest I don’t think anything else would have cut it. I mean, it’s Conan, you are supposed to be brutal and barbaric in this universe, right? ;P) We also see that the average online RPG player is close to 28 years (27,2 years in Anarchy Online). If I am not all mistaken the average overall gamer is now 24 years old, so the majority of the gamers are hence adults. So, even though we might be the first I doubt if we will be the last. I think more and more online games will have more mature themes. After all, as a service provider we should deliver what the customers want, and we feel certain our mature audience deserves mature content. That said, the decision to go for a mature rating will most likely make it harder for us to fit into certain retail chains (and so forth and so on), but this is a calculated risk to make sure we deliver a game according to the dark and brutal vision of Robert E. Howard. Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) In terms of features, it means NPCs will swear and call you "filthy dog", there will be brothels in many cities, all monsters will have the ability to die a powerful, violent death, and blood is abundant. We'll see how it pans out, but I guess I should point out we aren't adding profanities, sex, drugs and drinking to achieve the M rating. We simply want to stay true to the Hyborian vision. If anything, we're toning it downsomewhat. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) It is extremely unlikely there will be anything in the way overt sexual activity in Age of Conan. 'Sexy' and mature story and world aspects yes, but certainly nothing like you are hinting at. Yes we are aiming for the game to be classified as a Mature game, but the 'M' rating does not allow for any overt sexual acivity to be depicted, and getting an 'Adults Only' rating kills a game in US retail, something we would not want to do with Age of Conan, besides which it is not the focus of the game! We are not making an 'Adults Only' game. So whilst of course Conan himself was undeniably a hit with many of the ladies he encountered thats not an aspect of the barbarian life that the game will feature in an explicit manner. Forums, 31st December 2005 (Silirrion) Harrasment is harrasment pure and simple, our support staff will take the same view of it that they do in our existing game and incidents will be investigated and actions taken as appropriate. Just because the game will most likely have a mature rating does not mean that it will be an excuse for malcontents to be abusive. Players will still be expected to observe social guidelines that will include but not be limited to, not using excessive public profanity, not using racial or sexual profanity, not harrasing other players or generally being abusive or disruptive to the gameplay enjoyment of others. Idiots can always try and claim the 'I was roleplaying' line, but from experience it is usually very clear when the line between honest roleplaying and harrasment has been crossed. The guys leading up our support staff also have four plus years of experience with handling these situations within Anarchy Online so you will be in safe hands in that regards. The rating of the game will in no way prevent us from enforcing social guidelines where appropriate. Forums, 5th January 2006 (Silirrion) NEW I'll restate this again as it is an important point, we are not intending to have any sexually explicit content in Age of Conan and are happy that we will be able to stay true to Howard's vision of Hyboria without offending modern sensibilities. Yes, we will have mature themes and storylines. Yes, there will be a suitably hyborian showing of flesh (both male and female), but there will not be anything that would put us at risk of being rated higher then 'M' in the US. Forums, 20th May 2006 (Silirrion)

Release Date Back to top

There is no set release date as yet, some of the online retailers seem to like putting dates up, in terms of where they get those from your guess is as good as mine :) . The game is still in the very early alpha stages and we certainly and going to be rushing anything out for the sake of it. Forums, 13th September 2005 (Silirrion) The projected release date for Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures is Q4 2006. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Servers Back to top

Our server technology is all created in-house. We have used very few licensed / sponsored modules, and not more than about one percent of the total server code base. One of the things that we are pushing to a new technological level with Conan, we think, is the load balancing system. With this, the level of detail for updates around you is defined by load. The more people or monsters around you, the more focused the updates you get will be. You get most updates from the monsters you are fighting, the people in your team, etc. This enables us to control the frame rate on the server and the client - making it scale much better with the dynamic load changes. This also allows us to let the players see really, really far when the server frame rate is good or when you are at certain lookout points. Basically, it is a much more custom tailored experience than seen in other online games. IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) Yes, combat is the heart and soul of Conan and will be a vital part of the gameplay experience. We still don't know exactly how many we can have on screen but we have run tests with several hundreds on screen at the same time without any significant drops in frame-rate. This is something which is incredibly important to us (large-scale PvP and PvE battles) and we have dedicated a lot of resources into load-balancing and network traffic improvements. I know that we have managed more people on screen than most other MMO's with AO (300+), and with Conan we are taking this a long way further. mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) I posted in another thread we have not stated that we will have 1500 people per server, current Anarchy Online technology can easily handle many many times this so there would be no reason why Conan could not. That being said we may shoot for 1500-2000 concurrent users which means people online at once, this will mean many more accounts per server and probably a bit higher numbers during "peak" hours. Forums, 10th October 2005 (Athelan) As for servers, again we havent announced or plans for server hosting as yet, but the plan is to have localised servers for at least europe, the US and asia. Forums, 20th November 2005 (Silirrion) I believe we have stated it before but we have some completely new netcode for scaling lots of players in an area and a few other tricks up our sleeves. We as a team are aware that pushing the envelope of action oriented gameplay is also going to push the envelope of MMO performance. Forums, 7th December 2005(Athelan) As has been confirmed a couple of times we will be running many smaller dimensions rather then a single large dimensions. That won't be changing as it is core to the way that everything is designed. We havent finalised the peak number of concurrent users that we will host on a single server yet, but certainly something between 1500 and 2500 will probably be a good educated estimate, but it might be slightly higher, like I said it isnt set yet,and probably wont be until we get closer to launch. Forums, 29th April 2006 (Silirrion) NEW That's our US office, where much of our QA and Customer Service work is based. The servers arent hosted there. The Anarchy Online servers are based in New York, however that doesnt mean that the Age of Conan ones will be there. For Age of Conan we plan on having multiple datacenters around the world. The game will most likely be playable on any, but we will probably recommend that you play on the servers closest to your location to ensure the best online experience. Whilst we will be striving to make the game as playable as possible from 'anywhere' it is pretty safe to assume that you will get better performance from the servers closest to your geographical location. We also havent finalised our plans in regard of the different territories in terms of questions like 'can europeans play on american servers?'. There are several factors in that kind of decision that havent all come together yet and will be made closer to launch. Forums, 26th May 2006 (Silirrion)

Siege Combat Back to top

Finally, there's "siege PvP". This will take place in the infamous "Border Kingdom" lying on the borders between Cimmeria, Aquillonia, Brythania, Nemedia, and Hyperboria. The "Border Kingdoms" were always a constant place of battle, skirmishes and war in the books and Conan visited these areas on numerous occasions before he settled down as King. Now, as King, he has let it be known, that anyone proclaiming one of these areas part of "Greater Aquillonia" will be rewarded with a title at his court. This means that several court-based individuals will sponsor forays into Border Kingdoms with the goal of setting up a castle to control an area in Conan's name. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) There are 3 distinct forms of siege combat. Two are found in the PvE environment. In one you will defend your village, city, or castle against a rush of monster opponents. In the other you can take the battle to their village, and crush them in an RTS style of gameplay. The third is the PvP Border Kingdom battles we already discussed. The walls and buildings in Age of Conan are attackable. In fact you can swing at them with any weapon. The only problem is that they will only take damage from the siege engine and magical attacks. To break through you need to find a weak place in the wall, and hit it with all the siege engine powers you have. Even then, though, you're not home free. You need to knock out the automated defense towers firing NPC controlled volleys of arrows to enter safely. And yes, these towers can also be controlled by players. Naturally, the siege engines are slow moving and slow firing. They're also easily crushed by rushing cavalry attacks. They can also be knocked over by attacks by other siege engines. I guess they need protection to be functioning properly. I wonder whose responsibility that is? (laughs) To win an attack, you need to destroy the Keep in the center of the village. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) I can't reveal the exact amount or types at the moment, but the most important aspect of the siege machines is that they are special types of "mounts" which can built only by a certain type of Guild Class. This class becomes available at level 40. You can build the siege engines on the battlefield, but it takes several minutes to build one, and you can only build a set amount per day per individual. The siege engines will move slowly, and you will need to mount them and fire from the "seat" of the machine. The siege engines will do a special type of heavy damage to individuals, but more importantly, they damage buildings like nothing else. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The third type of combat Conan has to offer is massive sieges. Here, whole guilds can build castles and villages with ramparts and protective towers. The only problem for your guild is that the monsters do the same - using something like an RTS-style AI, they "hive", building an increasingly bigger village until they finally reach critical mass and surge towards your settlement. The only solution to this is, on a continual basis, to "weed" the monster villages. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) There will be a massive PvP battle option, where your clan can build a PvP keep fully protected by walls, towers and siege engines. This can be attacked at set points in time by other clans. The winner gets to keep the area, and gain advantages from it. These mass battles should prove to bring some truly epic moments along, I hope, with player clans competing for the bragging rights and glory. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) As for guild conflicts, one guild challenges an NPC village or another guild's village by interacting with a challenge object in front of the gates of the village. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) As befits the Age of Conan you will have at your disposal various engines of war, like the catapult. These are necessary for the siege part of the gameplay, where you can fight against other players or invade cities made by NPCs (or maybe they will take the fight to your walls instead;). Exactly how many siege engines there will be remains to be seen, and we will go into detail on these as soon as we can but as with everything else we are making sure that what you get is both balanced and fun. I mean, hurling rocks towards an enemy gate sure is fun, especially with the promise of blood on the blade later in the battle. Tothegame, 4th May 2006 (Gaute Godager) NEW To get through, into a city, you must take down its walls first. You cannot fly, teleport or jump into it. The only, and I mean only, way to get in is through the walls / gates using siege engines. These are player made, expensive and slow moving and quite easy to destroy themselves. To attack you must plan, find a hard-to-defend gate or part of the wall, bring enough siege engines to get through and finally protect the engines as hard as you can. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Single Player Part Back to top

Especially in the Single Player part of the game, the first 20 levels, you will find old friends and enemies of the great Barbarian King all over. If there are any discrepancies, we try to weigh the lore like this: Is it written by the master himself, Robert E. Howard? Is it written in a book, a pastiche, and it is a well know story? Is it written in a comic book, or in other more light-weight sources? IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) One thing first. On the web I read rumors of the single player game not being connected to our servers, and being offline. This is not true. Since the characters entering our realm will meet other honest players, it is important to as much as possible limit cheating and exploits. For this reason we have decided to host the first 20 levels in an online environment. The degree to which you will be completely alone will also vary. You start completely alone, but in some locations you can theoretically meet other players - to enhance the experience and importance of what you do. will not tell anything about the meat of the story, but I can mention that there will be four story arcs, braided together, with one story arc for each archetype, (Warrior, Mage, Priest and Rogue). Common for all the arcs is the very beginning. Everyone "comes to life" as a slave. Everyone has strange, disturbing, marks on their chests. In the bowels of a slave ship, you select your race and looks among the rowers. Everyone will as much recreate who they were, as make a new life. Everyone will participate in tracking down the evil force behind it all. After having your shackles torn lose when your slave ship gets rammed by a another galley, in the midst of a massive storm, you will swing the chains and smash the brains out of your tormentors, before you dive to the waters, escaping the sinking slave vessel. The next day, you find yourself on the beautiful beach, a rosy morning where the deep jungle stretches before you. You are somewhere on the Barrachan isles, and your true adventure begins… IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Building your "Real Combat" skills you will then fight your way through the jungle. Battling monstrous apes, forlorn Picts and even darker beings. Finally, you will stumble through the gates of the freebooter village of Tortage. Then you will have gained some levels of experience, and will be ready to select your class. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Why did you decide to include a single player portion of the game? To give meaning to the players before entering a multiplayer universe. To give the player a good degree of mastery, without being in competition with anyone else. To tell a great story. To avoid crowding in the beginning of an online game. To merge the great games like Jade Empire or Fable with the great games like World of Warcraft or Anarchy Online (had to mention my previous game ;p) IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) First of all, you will need to be online at all times, as we want you to log on to our servers to avoid exploits and cheats. So even though you are alone, you are still online. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) I would like to point out that this is far from a simple tutorial. In fact, learning the ropes of the game is only a minor part of what you do in this period. I do not know with 100 percent certainty the amount of time that you will spend solving the challenges set before you in the single-player part of the game, but our goal is clear: We want to create a full-fledged stand-alone game that gives you a story-driven role-playing experience where the focus is on you, your character, and your journey. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) You start out your life as a slave. Your character is picked among the many rowing slaves on a ship. You suffer from a lack of recollection and there is a mysterious tattoo branded on your chest. During a massive storm, your chains burst free due to a pursuing galley that rams through the side of your ship. After fighting your way free and crushing the fat, bloated slaver, you dive into the sea, finally ending up on a beach in front of a lush, dark jungle with a seething volcano in the distance. The goal of regaining your memory becomes your immediate concern. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The setting of the Baracha Isles is the canvas for the first part of the game. You are completely alone in the beginning, but gradually you meet others, perhaps in a tavern or other places where being social is important. The game remains single-player, though, with four different story arcs tied together--one for each archetype class. This gives you replay value if you care to create more than one character. It hasn't been decided if we shall let you skip the single-player game altogether after you've gone through it once. What has been decided is that although you play on our servers, you will play the single-player game as if it was offline, without any additional costs other than when you bought the game. Gamespot, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) You start your character's life as a galley slave on a large ship. You create your character from among the set of characters in the hull, all properly "massaged" by the stygian (literal) slave driver cracking his whip. Your character is different in that he or she has lost all memory of your previous life through a cruel ritual performed by the minions of one of Conan's age-old enemies. You will learn, when you grow your character, recreating yourself into the person you were, how your fate is intertwined with that of King Conan, and how finding more about yourself is linked to saving his throne as dark powers plot his fall. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) The single-player game - which happens during the first 20 levels of your character's life - will be all story-driven. Although there are four different arcs of the story - one per core class - Rogue, Mage, Priest and Warrior - and quite a few twists and turns, it is all mapped out beforehand by our story writers. It is a traditional RPG with a lot of freedom in character development and movement, but where certain events are pre-ordained. This is the only way we can make the story really interesting, I think. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) It's too early to say exactly how long it will take, but it will be for the first 20 levels (out of 80). We reckon it will take around 15 hours or so, depending on how good you are and what your focus is. I am not sure I fully understand what you mean by "more than one character" but in Conan you can naturally create several characters, which you can take through the single-player. Since we have four branching story-arcs you can therefore go at it again and again with a different approach. If you can skip this part entirely remains to be seen, but we are working on various approaches to see what works best. mmorpgs.info, 8th July 2005 (Gaute Godager) For Conan fans, the timeline takes us to beyond “The Hour of the Dragon”. You start out your life as a slave who is picked from the masses living as a Galley Slave during the time when Conan is King of Aquillonia. The chains binding you, the mysterious tattoo on your chest and your vague memories do nothing to calm you. Battling your way free you find yourself on the “Barachan Isles” to begin your adventure completely alone. As a former slave you realize your predicament, and lack of memory are closely connected with Conan’s kinghood. Your fate and his are intertwined and through your adventures you possibly become his ally, maybe his friend. MMORPG.COM 2nd September 2005 (Terri Perkins) “In addition many new (or old) players find it a daunting task to be thrust into a full multiplayer world, with many ‘secret handshakes’ and cultural codes to understand. (“Lvl 29 War LFG”) With our single-player focus players will have a clear sense of ‘self’ and ‘worth’ when they enter the full multiplayer environment. This is no glorified tutorial, nor is it a single-player game, in the truest sense of the word. You always play online towards our servers, and it up to the need of the story and gameplay to what degree you play alone. “The players will, during the first 20 levels, accomplish quite a few things. First off, there are four story-lines braided together, in which each arch-type only play one quarter, but where the result of the other three are hinted at, or fully visible depending on the situation. The players will play out a story that involves many of the Conan characters as found in books and other pieces of lore, accomplishing deeds even reaching the ears of the King of Aquilonia (which at the time of the game, is Conan, of course). “The Funcom instantiation technology allows us to integrate single-player experiences in the game even at a much later time in the life of the characters. The game will features all the known MMO elements, quests, monster hunting, and all the rest.” PC.Gamezone, 22nd September 2005 (Gaute Godager) The single-player mode in Conan is truly shaping up to be a unique experience in the MMO world. Easily told it will play like many other single-player action RPG’s with a focus on character progression, an immersive story and action-filled gameplay. In the single-player part you start out as a galley slave, and from there on the story takes you through an action-filled journey where you will get to learn more about the world of Conan, the mechanics of the game and the story behind it all. For the first 20 levels of the game (out of 80 levels in total) you will gradually understand the world and the ropes of the game. Far from being a glorified new player experience we have truly tried to do something new this time around, and we expect you will spend around 10 – 12 hours in the singe-player portion of the game (so longer than Fable for instance;). Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) The very base concept of the game, and the idea behind it, is very different from all current online RPG’s in the sense that we are doing a hybrid between the classical single-player action RPG and the Online RPG’s. I think we are the first to venture down this road, and I find the combination a great one as it (hopefully) should attract all kinds of players, while also making sure you feel “safe from harm” in the initial stages of the game if you are not that used to online games. Moggers.de, 10th November 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) To this end, character creation is done as part of the start-up story. You begin your life as a rower (if you are a guy) deep in the bowels of a galley ship. Your memories have all been wiped, and you have a strange mark of a burning hand on your chest; you can see this mark in some of the images accompanying this interview. If you create a gal, you are also in the same ship, but not rowing. You are - hmm, how shall I put it? - chained to the wall to be a beautiful woman for the Stygian crew. We can talk more about the Mature rating later. ;p IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) Experienced players will be able to skip the single-player part of the game, and start on level 10 in their home country. You may ask, "What is the definition of experienced?" I would tentatively say having completed the single-player mode before with that arch-class, but again, this is something that might change. IGN, 21st November 2005 (Gaute Godager) We might have other players appear for you (and you for them) in public places like inns and marketplaces, as this would simply enhance the illusion of being in a city, but you play all alone, solving all tasks and doing all deeds as a single adventurer. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) NEW At all times you are actually playing against our servers, and you will be able to send/receive tells to and from friends playing in the MMO part of the game. You will have to enter your credit card, and also gain access to the full month of free play time in the MMO part of the game. The players will be able to enter the MMO at level 20, were you also choose your specialized class. Even without paying any monthly subscription you will be able to play the solo campaign as long as you want, and as many times as you like – as long as you have a valid CD key and have registered a Credit card. ShackNews, 16th June 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Skills Back to top

Each class hasn't got too many skills in the strict, literal sense of the word), but they will have many, many feats, combos and special moves. Some classes will have spells. Combos will be the main addition of damage in battle. They will be learnt from tutors, and need to be trained. Combos will kick-in even for ranged combat or spell combat. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Since the game is an "Action" Role Playing Game we will definitely make sure your role playing stats come into play. The chance to hit is determined by where you attack, if you are close enough, the orientation of your opponent, if you're facing his back, etc. All this is player skill. There will also be other things at play, like the relative level difference, what weapon you use, what class you have -- all the normal statistical influences from a role playing game. The focus here is on the role playing aspects of the game. The player skill required to hit will be more like those found in action games like God of War and Devil May Cry 3 than in a fighting game like Tekken. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) In addition to the character class choices, the player will be able to select feats, skills, special attacks and combos. Every two levels, you get one feat point, and every five levels of the 80 max, you get a whole bunch of points to select feats that feats unlock the ability to do attacks, equip gear and what-not. Every level, you get 10 skill points to distribute on skills, and every 10 percent of a level, you get another point. The skills increase the chance of climbing, opening doors, speed of regaining health, etc. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager) Some feat points will be automatically assigned, some will be up to the player to distribute. As an example, a Warrior will automatically gain the feat to wear armor, and he will be able to manually distribute feat points on different weapon types. Different classes will have different options available to them at different levels, mages as an example won't ever be able to train the heavy armor feat. All this is valid with the current design, it might change. We're currently tweaking and making alterations to lots of things. Forums, 18th October (DaveDread)

Slavery Back to top

There are slave NPC's yes and some slavery present in the NPC world. But I don't see us having the taking of slaves or having of slaves as a player. The racism stuff is more about the perspective at the time of Howard's world and as mentioned before because Howard tied the races in his world to real cultures and their stereotypes. We are well aware of how it fit's in as a part of the world but that doesn't mean we need not be careful and tasteful about how things are presented. Forums, 30th September 2005 (Athelan)

Soloing Back to top

The development team has always been a strong believer in pushing people together in a friendly way, in the online game. There will be team match making, guild match making, PvP match making, formation gameplay for teams, PvP mini-games, social building of villages, massive RTS-like guild encounters and so forth. There will be substantial experience point bonuses for teaming, though it is not the only option. You can solo all the way, if you want. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) We want both types of gameplay to be available to the player, but have it so that the 30-minute encounters are generated more for solo play, and the longer adventures are geared towards groups or guilds. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager)

Sound Back to top

A unique 7.1 interactive sound system Gamecloud , 19th May 2005 (Jørgen Tharaldsen) (Check out this IGN Article about Music in AoC where you find a lot of info about the sound and music.) IGN, 22nd November 2005 There will most likely be voice acting for NPCs in Age of Conan. To what extent it is used we can't say just yet, but the plan is to use it. Forums, 10th December 2005 (Silirrion)

Special Moves Back to top

Special moves will be a way to move faster, dodge more or similar move-based abilities. Among the available move types are rolls, flips, charges, entering defensive modes, entering combat stances, sprinting etc. But you also access special abilities like listening, hiding in the shadows, opening doors, locks or even more. Climbing buildings will also be available, and possibly swimming. IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) Special moves are ways of moving quickly across the battlefield, dodging left or right, or making "heroic moves". These are accessed through special buttons on the keyboard, clicking on their icon, or by using a joypad. There will not be that many special moves, more like 10-20 at maximum level. There will also be class specific special skills like sneaking around and disarming traps which falls into the special move category. Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager) The special moves are all about moving quickly, differently and in special ways in the world... dodging, rolling, tumbling, sprinting, etc. IGN, 17th June 2005 (Gaute Godager)

Thieving Back to top

As you might know, Conan was thief in an early part of his career. This has very much inspired us. Not only can the players sneak around, like in most Action RPGs, the thief can climb walls, use physical shadows and to gain advantages to disappear. It is important to know that in Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures, the player will not be able to “Pop invisible” in front of the NPC’s or other players. He will have to drift into the shadows, using real occlusion to gain the opportunity to hide. In addition, Conan will be the first Online RPG to feature a whole region (almost) exclusively focusing on the Thief and its sub-classes. This region, “Tarantia Noble District”, will include many, many opportunities to sneak, hide, climb, pick-locks, steal, pick-pockets, assassinate, remove traps and sell your loot to other shady characters. It is my belief that Thief sub-classes will return, time and time again, to this trove of sneaky treasure. MMORPG.com, 14th October 2005 (Gaute Godager) I am not sure how the implementation will be done but the implementation of stealth will not be Tarantia Noble specific Forums, 25th October 2005 (Athelan)

Weapons Back to top

Honestly, I do not see anything wrong with a "better" sword having, for instance, +110 damage. This is, in fact, realistic. Higher quality weapons are simply more destructive than lower quality weapons. The ideas in regard to quality vs. durability are interesting, though... however it remains to be seen as to the way durability ends up being implemented in the game. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) At any rate, I do like the concept of trying to implement some kind of arrow reclaiming instead of having the rangers carrying 50,000 arrows around or something... that said, one does have to consider potential technical limitations (this has more to do with what the coders say than me) and also what could happen on longer epic battles. Forums, 12th August 2005 (Jayde) To touch on something mentioned before, we are currently planning on having "Slow", "Normal", and "Fast" variations on weapons that may have the same "DPS", but have a different feel/rhythm to them based on personal preference. Personally, I certainly don't want to see players all using the same "best" and "cookie-cutter" equipment--and would like to see variations based on personal playstyle. Forums, 15th August 2005 (Jayde) There should be a difference between the Atlantean Sword ripped from the skeletal hands of a ancient king and the rusty sword picked up from a puddle of mud in Tortage. They should look different and behave different. The way we make them behave different is by applying stats on the weapons. We cannot really increase the players hit chance or damage by giving bonuses to the his characters skill, since that would make the character hit better and harder with the rusty sword as well, thus these stats needs to be tied to the weapon itself. Anyways, we represent things like how balanced, sharp, heavy etc the sword is by attaching other stats that has the appropriate effect in our RPG system. A well balanced blade that handles easily can have a bonus to dexterity as an example, that could increase how quick you hit with it, how easy you parry or dodge. We don't want to have the player reallocating skills and feats constantly to adapt to different situations in-game, a far more flexible system is to equip different equipment. Again, we will put in a large effort to make the bonuses make sense, and the majority of the stats will come from the player and not the items. Forums, 17th August 2005, (DaveDread) The exact details of these have yet to be nailed down, but we're currently planning on having some variety in throwing weapons for a number of classes. So, yes, we are intending to have some other forms of throwing weapondry other than bows/crossbows. Forums, 22nd August 2005 (Jayde) IE a mob is wearing chainmail, thus all players wanting to attack it will want to use blunt weapons to exploit his weakness. That'll lead to players walking around with full arsenals of all types of weapons to be able to adapt to any given situation. Better to have it so that all weapontypes can do reasonably well against any armortype. Extrapolate to PvP, the opponent is wearing armor X, then I should use weapon Y to win. No fun. Especially not if you are not trained in using weapon Y. Forums, 2nd October 2005, (DaveDread) Yeah, we'll have throwing weapons. Spears/javelins/assegais among them. We'll probably separate throwing spears from melee combat spears tho, it's too complex for us to alter their damage output depending on whether you throw it or stab with it. I'd guess that spears are generally "overlooked" in MMO's because it's tricky to make them look impressive. There's not very many different stabs you can do, and treating it like a Halberd and slash with it, or like a Quarterstaff and spin it around snazzily doesn't ring true. Long stabbing things also wrecks havoc if you want to have the spear tip be near the target. Any rotation will make it flail about and probably miss by quite a bit. Forums, 7th October 2005, (DaveDread) There won't be japanese/chinese style weapons in Conan (at least at launch). It simply doesn't fit with the world. So, no shurikens. Then again, european Hurlbats aren't that far off. Forums, 3rd January 2006 (DaveDread) There are loads of different weapon types and hundreds of different weapons. Ogaming, 20th January 2006 (Gaute Godager) Anyways, in Conan we'll have a mixture of spears, bardiches, halbards, pollaxes and so forth, and hopefully we can assign enough animation assets to them to make them look, feel and behave differently then what you've seen in other MMO's. With a Halberd you'll probably be able to stab/slash, a pollaxe should probably behave a bit like a twohanded danish axe, IE swung in large arcs and so forth. We don't want to tie too much of the limited resources to a particular weapontype tho. Spears and polearms will use the same melee combat system as the other melee weapons, IE your six directional attacks, but they do get the benefit of larger range. You could put a swordsmen in front, a spearman behind him and they could attack the same target. Forums, 10th February 2006 (DaveDread)