Age of Conan

Age of Conan Tarantia Commons Expansion Video Walkthrough!

2009-06-29T19:32:50Z

Age of Conan had a major release this week with the Tarantia Commons added in update 5! The Tarantia Commons area offers several new and exciting adventures for players, including a riot that takes places in the area where you're able to help or hinder the peasants as they race towards the castle, and unique new quests and bosses available!

To introduce the new area we've got a video narrated by game director Craig Morrison which explains the area, its story and the gameplay within:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Visit the official site to learn more about Age of Conan!

Developer Introduction For Jarle Snertingdalen at Age of Conan!

2009-05-07T17:27:43Z

Age of Conan has posted a developer introduction for Jarle Snertingdalen who's in charge of the team responsible for combat, class design, character development, RPG systems, and items and loot tables. You can safely say Jarle does a lot. The introduction includes some of the day to day duties he manages and what it's like working on AoC!

Here's the Developer Introduction of Jarle Snertingdalen from Age of Conan:

Today we bring you the developer introduction of Jarle Snertingdalen the Associate Producer on Age of Conan Systems Team.

You'll take a ride inside the mind of the man who helps manage and drive all of the game systems under the rainbow from within the world of Hyboria.

"Famine: For those who might not know, can you tell us what an Associate Producer actually entails?

We have a few Associate Producers on Conan responsible for different areas of the game. Without getting into too much detail, my team is responsible for combat, class design, character development, RPG systems, items and loot tables. We are also involved with any feature that’s produced for the game.

My job is to make sure our plans are followed, well thought through, out on time and of quality. It’s also my task to ensure that the people on my team are able to work as efficiently as possible and that everyone has the right focus.

A normal day for me involves reading and discussing feedback, attending production, planning and design meetings, following up on tasks, coordinating with other teams and departments, and reviewing work we have done inside the team. I try to squeeze in time for playing the game, which I also do after hours..."

Find the exclusive peek from the latest developer blog Message from the King on MMORPG.COM

Glen 'Famine' Swan

US Community Manager

Age of Conan Guide to Ymir's Pass - How To Get There and What To Do!

2009-04-22T16:39:56Z

Age of Conan has undergone several changes since the original release date, and the people are coming back to the game in droves! The recent addition of Ymir's Pass has raised lots of questions about what all is available to the player in this region. The Guide to Ymir's Pass is fixing that! The guide shows you how to get there and then highlights all the cool stuff to do once you're there.

Guide to Ymir's Pass

Ymir’s Pass introduces hours upon hours of adventure into Age of Conan. Let’s take a look at some of the locations you will explore, characters you will meet and quests that you will embark on in this short-and-quick guide to Ymir’s Pass.

“It was a gloomy land that seemed to hold
All winds and clouds and dreams that shun the sun,
With bare boughs rattling in the lonesome winds,
And the dark woodlands brooding over all,
Not even lightened by the rare dim sun
Which made squat shadows out of men; they called it
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and deep Night.”

- Cimmeria, Robert E Howard -

Getting there!

If a man wishes to travel the distance from Cimmeria to the southern kingdoms, the fastest route is through Ymir’s Pass. It is a journey that captures the raw beauty of the northern lands, from the ice-tipped peaks which shadow the land to the snow-covered planes that lead further south through rocky valleys. Once through the mountains, the land slopes downward to the rocky expanses of the Border Kingdoms and the great plains of Nemedia beyond.

But would-be travelers must be cautious. Not all is well in Ymir’s Pass and the wind that sweeps down the mountains and howls across the plains carries with it the stench of war and death. It begins with the self proclaimed bandit-king, Atzel. Thoth-Amon returned Atzel to life after his death at the hands of Conan. In return Atzel swore to help the sorcerer carry out his plans.

Those plans are beginning to come to fruition.

Clan Maugh

Atzel’s men have moved into Ymir’s Pass, driving back Clan Maugh, the Cimmerians who make their home in the region. The Clan makes the bandits pay dearly for every swathe of land that they take, but life is cheap in the eyes of Atzel and even cheaper in the eyes of Thoth-Amon. The leader of Clan Maugh, Caden Chieftain, has decreed that his people will give no more ground. They will retake the land of their forefathers, or die in the attempt.

But Caden has other worries. His headstrong daughter, Ula, has gone missing in the wake of the attack and he doesn’t dare ask any members of the clan to risk their lives searching for her in enemy territory.

The Battle of the Frost gate

Further north, a skirmish has taken place between Atzel’s men and a band of Aesir travelers. In the region known as the Frost gate, a great battle was fought, with great losses on both sides. Little is known as to the fate of the Aesir. If they do still live, they are deep in enemy territory and their relations with the local Cimmerian tribe are strained at best. But for now, the corpses of their fallen comrades lie tumbled in the snow.

Those who travel will shift uneasily as they remember the legend of Atali, the Frost Giant’s Daughter. It is said that she comes to the fields of the dead she comes and walks among the dead, her naked body gleaming like ivory. She lures men from stricken fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers the ice-giants, who lay men’s red hearts smoking on Ymir’s board.

The Ghost Kings

In the southern swamps of the region, which the local clan has long avoided due to its dark reputation, something is stirring. Three ancient ghosts wander the landscape, wearing the crowns of long dead Acheron. And where they wander, they drive the denizens of the swamp before them, forcing the normally timid swamp demons to migrate from their beloved swamps.

Whence came these kings of Acheron? The answer lies in the ruins to the east.

The Ruins of Karutonia

The ruins which dominate the southeastern portion of the region are those of Karutonia, once the northern-most city of Acheron. Karutonia was a great city, ruled jointly by three kings. The frontier city held back the barbarian hordes and thousands of barbarian slaves were sacrificed in their great amphitheatre.

But this enraged the barbarian hordes. They stormed the city and razed it. It was the beginning of the fall of the Acheronian Empire. Today, the ruins are full of Black Ring Sorcerers and their allies, searching the ruins for the relics of Acheron. It is rumored that they have opened the way into the Amphitheatre of Karutonia and they feed upon the dark legacy of the sacrifices that once occurred there.

The Amphitheatre of Karutonia

The Amphitheatre, once the site of such horrible sacrifices, now serves as a nexus for the evil in Ymir’s Pass. Black Ring member’s come and go freely, and a few of Thoth-Amon’s greatest allies remain in the Amphitheatre.

The Dimensionalist dwells in the ruins. With the flick of his wrist, this master sorcerer can summon an entire army from the depths of the void. His creations are loyal and incredibly lethal. The Abyssal Keeper cages the spirits that he raises from the darkness. He raises the souls of the animals that once fought for sport in the amphitheatre, and trains them to do his bidding.

Age of Conan 7 Day Trial and New Getting Started in AoC Guide!

2009-04-02T22:10:48Z

Age of Conan 7 Day Trial

Age of Conan is BACK! with a vengeance we might add, they've started a free 7 day trial program to get people back into the game. Recently the Director of the Game, Craig Morrison, posted a full update on all the MAJOR improvements since launch that was absolutely designed to let old and new players know that AoC has made leaps and bounds in the past few months to put out a product they're confident players are going to thoroughly enjoy.

Age of Conan MAJOR Improvements

Craig Morrison, the Director of Age of Conan, has sent us an update on the amazing face-lift the game has undergone since it first came out; and they're excited to tell people about he changes they've implemented. We've been playing it here internally and the experience is much smoother and it's been really easy to get back into the game and start kicking butt. For a list of improvements read the MAJOR improvements since launch we recently posted.

We've also obtained and exclusive "How-to-play" guide for AoC that we think you'll enjoy reading. Whether you've played the game before or not, there's lots of good information here for you to get lost in.

AGE OF CONAN: HYBORIAN ADVENTURES

HOW-TO-PLAY IN 1-2-3!

Introduction

You're only a few moments away from entering the brutal, savage and sexy world of the world's greatest fantasy hero. Feel free to flip through this how-to-play guide, explaining to you some of the things that are good to know before setting foot on the burning beaches of Tortage Island – where the game will start out for you. For more assistance on getting started you might also visit the official Age of Conan forums where you can pick the brains of other people playing the game right now!
You can also download a .PDF version of the complete Age of Conan manual HERE!

1. Getting started

Updating your game - After having downloaded and installed the game, running it for the first time you will be greeted with the Age of Conan updater. The updater will download any changes Funcom have done to the game, ensuring that your installation is always up to date. Once updating is completed, the game will start and you will be prompted to log in using your account information (you can register at http://register.ageofconan.com).

Choosing a server – After logging in you will have to choose a server. If you are planning on playing with friends, make sure you start on the same server as them. Servers are divided into two different ruleset categories:

PvE – player vs. player activities are present but restricted to certain areas, and as such this server type is encouraged for new and inexperienced players.

PvP – player vs. player activities are prevalent everywhere in the game world, making life there a lot more challenging – but also a lot more exhilarating!

PvP-RP – these servers employ a ruleset that encourages role-playing between players, as well as the ruleset used for the regular PvP servers.

Creating a character – Next you will need to create your first character. Here you will choose your character’s name, gender, race, class and even appearance. While name, gender and appearance have no impact on gameplay, choosing a race and class most definitely will. Your race determines what class you can play, and your class determines what weapons, armor and abilities you can use as well as the general style of gameplay.

You can read more about races and classes on the official Age of Conan website.

2. Understanding the interface

Your journey starts on the burning beaches of Tortage Island after you have finished creating your character. The interface and the amount of information you are presented with might seem daunting at first, but understanding it is the key to success in Age of Conan. Here are the very basics you need to know before heading into the game.

The main viewport – This is where all the action is displayed.
The top menu bar – These buttons opens various windows that display information on your character such as equipment, skills and abilities.
Shortcut icons – These icons represent spells, abilities and combos that you can trigger during gameplay (usually while fighting someone).
Chat window – All chat with other players is displayed here, and some information messages regarding gameplay are also represented in this window.
Mini-map – The mini-map shows your immediate geographical surroundings as well as representing nearby enemies and friendly characters.
The combat rose – These arrows represent the directions you can swing your weapon in, allowing you to take advantage of the game’s innovative combat.
Character vitals – Your character’s health is shown in red, your stamina is shown in green and your mana is shown in blue. Your name and level is also shown.
Target vitals – Represents the vitals of your current target.
Experience bar – This represents how much experience points you have earned, counting towards your next level. Experience is gained through gameplay.
Social buttons – These buttons opens various social windows such as a tool that allows you to search for other players and join PvP mini-games.
Active effects – Effects that are active on your character (such as spells you have cast on yourself) will be displayed here for your convenience.
Quest tracker – Tracks the objectives of your currently active quest.

3. Preparing for combat

The very core of Age of Conan is combat. Through combat you will develop your character and progress through the levels, hopefully earning you fame, fortune and a whole lot of adventure on the way. Soon after arriving on Tortage Island you will be faced with great challenges – all solvable by force or by magic, of course!

Basic attacks
To attack a target all you need to do is start hitting in one of the directions with your weapon, or fire a spell at them (depending on your class). Move up to your target and use the directional combat arrows (as described in the interface section of this guide) and your character will automatically enter combat mode. Alternatively, if you are a spell caster, an offensive spell might already be on your hotbar ready for use. In that case, click on the target you want to hit and fire off the spell. This is the basic essence of combat. You can also use the 1, 2, and 3 keys on your keyboard to hit in various directions.

Advanced targeting
Targeting in Age of Conan works somewhat differently than in similar games. You do not necessarily need to click on an enemy in order to target them; you can also simply move up to them and start fighting. As you get deeper into the game you will see that magic casters have a particularly wide array of targeting possibilities, such as “cone targeting” that allows you to cast a spell at anything in front of you. If you are an archer you can even zoom into first-person mode and manually target and shoot your enemies!

Combo attacks
Many classes receives so-called “combo moves”. These are abilities that will allow you to deal out greater damage, and they are access from the abilities window (use the top menu bar to display this window), but you have to move combos down to your hotbar to use them. To trigger a combo, simply click on it using your mouse cursor or hit the corresponding keyboard key (usually from keys 4 to 9). You will notice that one of your directional combat arrows will light up, urging you to hit in that direction. Finishing a combo will result in greater damage and a unique combat animation.

Wrapping it up

Good work! By finishing this tutorial you should know a whole lot more about how Age of Conan works, allowing for a smoother transition into Hyboria once you log in. Keep in mind, however, that these are only the very basics of how the game works. As you get deeper into the game you will discover that Age of Conan offers unparalleled depth!

Here are a few tips that you should bring with you on the road:

Gain experience! Progression in Age of Conan is measured in experience and levels. As you kill enemies and complete quests you will gain more experience and thus also levels. You can track your progress by looking at the orange bar at the bottom of your screen.

Equip yourself! Soon you will realize that the basic weapon in your hand and the scraps of clothes on your back is not sufficient for a life of adventure. Complete quests to get better equipment – or buy them from a vendor. You will look cooler and perform better!

Go exploring! A lot of the fun to be had in Age of Conan comes from exploring. For the first twenty levels you will be “stuck” on Tortage Island, but even here there is a whole jungle to explore! Pretty soon you will have the opportunity to explore more of Hyboria.

Pick up a trade! Later in the game you will have the opportunity to become a crafter. Ask other players how to get started, or use the in-game help system. You can become anything from a weaponsmith to an alchemist – creating items other players want to buy!

Socialize! Massively multiplayer games such as Age of Conan are all about socializing. Soon you will stumble upon other players that you can communicate with. Talk to them by using the chat window, and why not go out and face the challenges together?

Join a guild! Social interaction will also lead you into guilds. Guilds are large groups of players that have formed a society, usually sporting a creative name. Guilds can share a common chat channel, as well as construct entire cities – and fight other guilds!

Fight other players! Fighting monsters is all well and good, but for that extra level of challenge you should try fighting other players such as yourself! Mini-games are an easy way of getting into combat with others (use the in-game help tool for more information).

Build and destroy! Once you reach the later parts of the game, you will most likely be helping your guild constructing an entire guild city or a battlekeep. You can even launch attacks on other guilds’ battlekeeps, opening up a whole new world of gameplay!

PS! Use the official Age of Conan website to find even more information about the game, such as elaborate information on player vs. player combat, guild cities, mounts, advanced combat, economics, and more. You can also download the complete manual in .PDF!

Good luck in Hyboria, adventurer!

Age of Conan - List of MAJOR Improvements Since Launch

2009-04-02T21:30:54Z

Today we received an update from Age of Conan by Craig Morrison, the Director of Age of Conan. The game has had an amazing face-lift since it first came out and they're excited to tell people about he changes they've implemented. We've been playing it here internally and the experience is much smoother and it's been really easy to get back into the game and start kicking butt.

We've posted the official release about the new content and changes to Age of Conan; for your reading pleasure:

MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS SINCE LAUNCH

Craig Morrison, Game Director on Age of Conan

With the impending launch of our trial offerings I have been asked to sit down and summarize the changes that the game has seen since the launch last year. I think the first thing I can say was that actually compiling this letter into a digestible size for you all was actually another good affirmation for me as to the effort the team here has gone to in order to realize the potential of Age of Conan. I am very proud of the efforts that have been undertaken since launch to address the various issues identified by our players, as well as the improvements and additions that we have made to the game.

So what exactly has been done since launch?

New Content We have added countless hours of more content through updates such as Ymir's Pass - the largest playfield yet that comes with an entirely new storyline inspired by the classic Howard tale 'The Frost Giant's Daughter'. Then you have Xibaluku, a new end game dungeon packed with dynamic and engaging boss encounters for maximum level players. In addition we have added countless more quests and rewards to the game for players of all level ranges. The launch dungeons have also been revisited, revamped and generally improved to provide new and more interesting game-play and rewards.

Enhancing PVP The world of King Conan is a brutal one and we have made sure to focus on building on the PVP offerings. One of the key elements that players reported enjoying in the game was the ability to be part of a bloody and exciting game-world and we wanted to build on that. Not only have we added a full PVP leveling system, with a host of rewards - we have also built upon this with a full PVP consequence system that adds a true meaning to PVP combat and allows those that would tread a darker path to actually become criminals based on their actions, opening up a whole new game-play experience.

Improved Sieges Building on the desire to have truly meaningful and engaging PVP in every update we are continuing to refine, add to and improve the Siege warfare PVP elements. We are striving to keep adding new features to make guild vs. guild game-play matter more. In the most recent updates new PVP specific resources required to build and repair battle-keeps have been added. These resources must be fought over between players, and can be looted from vanquished foes corpses, adding more intensity and drama to the siege experience.

Stability and Performance Our technical team has been hard at work ensuring that there are constant improvements being made to performance and stability. Framerate has been increased on a wider range of computers, memory leaks have been corrected and bugs have been ironed out making the game-play experience a lot smoother and stable for the user.

General Improvements The big main features always get the headlines and previews, but we have also gone to great lengths to ensure that the smaller points and general polish also get some care and attention. A huge amount of general improvements and enhancements have been made, some small, some larger, but all combining to provide a better Age of Conan experience. More travel options have been added, more voice-overs, a new friend interface, the raid interface has been improved, a new GUI options mean it's now easier to locate and get into PvP mini-games, tradeskills have been improved, loot rewards have been re-distributed, vanity pets are available as a special reward for those who adventure through the new Xibaluku dungeon… and the list goes on! These changes may never be in the spotlight but they all contribute to improving the experience for players each and every time they log in

An Amazing World While we already have a fantastically realized game-world we have been hard at work ensuring it continues to shine as the most stunningly rendered MMO world to date. First and foremost in this development is the new DX10 functionality that will allow players to see the kingdoms of Hyboria like never before. Launching soon the DX10 version will bring more spectacular visuals to the beautiful vistas of King Conan's world.

What the future brings

During the development of the game the key phrase that was used to establish the goals of the project was 'Combat, Combat, Combat' and I think that goal was perfectly realized in our combat system, and element of the game that continues to be a key feature and unique element players enjoy with our game. When we set out to define the goals for the development team for the ongoing production we decided to keep with the 'C' theme, so the goals of the team are to focus on 'Content, Conflict, Character and Community'

Content - Our continued desire to keep providing exciting and engaging new content for players

Conflict - Build on the game's strong PVP elements and continue to expand on the brutal world of Hyboria

Character - Strive to provide better options for character development, something that is a key focus at the moment with our impending revamp of items and statistics in the next major game update.

Community - One of the key goals for the next year will be improving upon the community and guild functionality in the game to give the players more tools to craft their own space and identity in the world of Hyboria

All of us on both development teams are looking forward to telling you even more about it soon!
Sincerely,

Craig Morrison

Game Director

Age of Conan

Age of Conan Directors Letter Detailing BIG Changes!

2009-02-28T00:07:05Z

Age of Conan's Game Director has posted an update detailing all kinds of new changes coming to the game. The update will include changes to items and statistics and will come with the next major update (after 1.04). We've got the post here for you followed by a link to the official AoC Forums so you can get to voicing your opinion!

Here's the original post:

Letter from the Game Director February 2009

It’s that time again for a little peek into what’s coming up for Age of Conan. As mentioned last time the major part of this Director’s Letter will focus on providing a first look at the details on the upcoming items and statistics update that will come in the next major update. With update 1.04 now live and players getting to enjoy the new content it’s the perfect time to kick-off the process of introducing the next major update.

Before I dive into RPG system changes though, a couple of things to note. We are preparing a lot of information for when the update is ready for the public test servers. This letter couldn’t possibly cover everything, and it won’t. The new gem system for example is an article all on its own, as are the balance changes that will be included in the update for every class. So those things I won’t be covering in detail in this letter, but we will be releasing detailed information over the course of the testing. So rest assured further information overload is coming! Consider this letter as an appetizer to the process that is ahead of us.

Revamping the RPG System

It’s also worth repeating why we have been working away on these changes in the first place.

After we looked at the feedback after launch we concluded that we had misjudged the importance of items and statistics to character progression. While the intention had always been to be less item-centric than other titles, we probably went a little too far in the other direction. Therefore we have set out to expand and develop the RPG system so that it offers better and more interesting character progression and customization.

So, now that the preamble is out of the way, let’s get rolling and take a peek inside the mechanics of the RPG system so you can start to understand where we are taking it. So, how best to provide an overview of the changes? At a basic level what we have done is add an additional range to the attribute budgets, this additional range comes from items and trickle down from your primary attributes. Mobs and encounters have been rebalanced to account for this increase. The end result is that items and trickle down now account for up to fifty percent (give or take a couple of percent variance here and there) of your overall budget for any given attribute. For comparison that contribution did not exceed twenty five percent before the changes, and ‘trickle down’ barely influenced it at all.

Our goal is that players in ‘average’ gear (if you will forgive the subjective nature of using the word ‘average’) will not feel a great change in the game, but will have the potential to get better by working up towards the higher end gear. Where you will notice a change is if you remove your armor and weapons and use lower level gear. The new system does incentivize keeping your gear up to date!

That’s not the end of the changes though. This is really just the ‘brief overview as it were. In order to achieve our goals in a good, solid way that gives us room for future development we also went through the attributes and statistics and made them meaningful, clearer to understand, and hopefully better laid out.

The new character statistics

The best way to demonstrate this in this first look at the new system is to go through the new character stat screens one by one and actually show you what your new character sheet looks like! The interface is now tabbed so that you can all your stats without having to scroll down by switching between tabs. It also means they are organized in logical groupings.

Firstly please note some of the numbers displayed in the screens are not what a player would really have, and are still subject to change through testing, but I really wanted to visualize it for you as it’s better than the text alone!

So let’s take each of these in turn and explain the new attributes and stats. On the first screen, the ‘General’ tab, you see the basics of your character. Most of this tab is self explanatory, but it does show the first of the totally new statistics – Armor. Your Armor rating is now what is used in the combat calculations to decide how much damage you avoid from a successful attack. This has replaced the old combination of resistances and invulnerabilities as the main source of mitigation of non-magic damage (we will get to magic damage shortly!).

You will still see invulnerabilities offered in some buffs, in those cases those are an additional mitigation above and beyond what the outcome of your armor calculation is.

Next up we have the Combat stats page that shows your new combat stats, both as a rating, which is what item bonuses will add to, as well as what that equates to as a percentage chance (or the percentage increase as appropriate). All of these new stats will have explanatory tool tips and we think moving to using ratings makes the system clearer and easier for you to gauge the relative worth of items.

Next we have the ‘Physical’ tab that lists your health and stamina regens and taps clearly.

Then we have the ‘Magical’ tab that displays your magic related skills, bonus spell damage and the next of the new statistics – your protections. These effectively replace the old resistance percentages and are displayed both as a rating (which again, is what appears on the item bonuses) and as the translated percentage that shows you how much damage that potentially mitigates.

Lastly we have the PVP tab that shows your PVP achievements and rankings as well as your PVP specific stats. Here as well you will now find the new PVP version of Armor and Protection that will be offered on PVP items.

Attributes and what they mean!

So what do the main attributes do now? As I mentioned above we have significantly changed how these attributes ‘trickle down’ into your actual performance. This should make the addition of stats in these areas much more visible. You will find that these are now a deal more important than before and now confer the following bonuses to your character:

Every one point of Strength

Increases Combat rating when using melee weapons (except daggers) by 3
Increases Armor by 2
Increases Natural stamina regeneration by 0.05
Increases OOC stamina regeneration by 0.15
Increases Stamina by 2
Increases OOC health regen by 0.15

Every one point of Intelligence

Increases Spell damage with 0.3 per hit for spells with Intelligence attribute (mage spells)
Increases Mana points by 3
Increases Natural mana regeneration by 0.07
Increases OOC mana regeneration by 0.38
Increases Protection from Electrical/Fire/Cold magic by 0.5

Every one point of Constitution

Increases Health points by a number depending on class, roughly 5-8
Increases Stamina points by 2
Increases Natural stamina regeneration by 0.05
Increases OOC stamina regeneration by 0.15
Increases OOC health regen by 0.15

Every one point of Dexterity

Increases Evade rating by 0.5
Increases Stamina points by 2
Increases Combat rating with ranged weapons and daggers by 3
Increases Natural stamina regeneration by 0.05
Increases OOC stamina regeneration by 0.15

Every one point of Wisdom

Increases Spelldamage with 0.3 per hit for spells with Wisdom attribute (priest spells)
Increases Mana points by 3
Increases Natural mana regeneration by 0.07
Increases OOC mana regeneration by 0.38
Increases Protection from Holy/Unholy magic by 0.5

Just the beginning…

In addition we have worked to make the item stats display better in the GUI and make the comparison of items better.

This is really just a teaser for the information that is to come. These changes have also allowed us to look at each of the classes and make changes to feat trees, skills and spells. Some of these changes were necessary due to the changes above (like the new Armor system) some for balance concerns and adjustments. A lot more information in this vein will be released as we prepare the update for the public test servers. In addition there is also a complete new gem system for crafting items that I haven’t touched on here that will also be revealed soon.

The items themselves, in particular those at high levels have received a lot of individual attention and tweaking to get the most benefit out of the system.

So as you can see there will be a lot to talk about over the coming weeks and months, which I expect, will start right about now!

Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison

Game Director Age of Conan

You can discuss this letter of the Game Director here (EU).

You can discuss this letter of the Game Director here (US).

New Producer and Game Director for AoC

2008-09-17T20:24:58Z

Craig Morrison has been appointed as the new Producer and Game Director for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Craig Morrison has served as the Producer and Game Director on Anarchy Online for several years, as well as working as the Funcom Community Manager prior to that. Funcom believes he is the perfect candidate to take Age of Conan to the next level. Mr. Morrison will replace former Producer and Game Director Gaute Godager.

Prior to starting at Funcom in 2004, Craig Morrison worked as an Operations Executive at the Telegraph group, the respected UK newspaper, taking care of operational aspects related to IT and Customer Service. Due to his passion for MMO games he simultaneously worked as an Associate Editor at IGN’s Vault Network, managing dedicated websites for several MMO games. He has extensive experience in managing various sized teams and complex projects across large media based environments. He has also played, written about, managed, produced and directed MMO games for over a decade by now. With his passion and unique skill-set he brings proven MMO experience to his new position, and during his years as Producer on Anarchy Online he has shown a unique ability to tailor development according to the needs and requirements of the players.

“Taking on the position as Producer and Game Director on Age of Conan is a great challenge but also one I welcome. I have a clear conviction I can lead the further development in a good way, evolving Age of Conan into something even better. My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns, while ensuring we add additional great content to the game,” said Craig Morrison. “At heart I will always be a gamer, and the coming changes and additions to Conan will always be done with the gamers in mind. Together I am certain we will shape an amazing future for Age of Conan.”

Former Producer and Game Director Gaute Godager has chosen to resign from Funcom after working on Age of Conan since the initial conception, and he leaves the company after 16 years. Godager was one of the original founders of Funcom, and leaves a large legacy, having contributed to making Funcom the largest MMO company in Europe. “I have done my very best making this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan, and I wholeheartedly support the appointment of Craig. I have had a fantastic time these last 16 years, and I am very proud of the many things Funcom has achieved. Funcom and Conan will always be a big part of me, but as I now look to new ventures outside the gaming industry I am certain Age of Conan’s future is in the best of hands.”

Hyborian Insider #4

2008-09-17T20:22:48Z

In this edition of the Hyborian Insider Funcom take a look at some of the content to come, as well as giving you an exclusive first look at upcoming DirectX 10 features.

PvP System Update

2008-09-17T20:21:28Z

With todays update the first step of the PvP System Update has been introduced to the Age of Conan live servers. Read here what exactly this includes and what future updates have in store.

PVP levels and statistics

This update now activates the PVP leveling system. You can now gain PVP levels by engaging in your normal PVP activities, be it world PVP, siege encounters or defeating your foes in the PVP mini-games. There are ten PVP levels in total that you can work through to prove your worth on the battlefield.

Your PVP stats are now also active in your character tab, keeping track of your performance in PVP.

In addition your new PVP armor ratings come into play now that the system is active. These provide additional mitigation of damage against damage that comes from other players. The new PVP armors will be the primary means of raising these ratings, although we will look to add additional means of raising these PVP defensive ratings in the future.

Diminishing Returns
Diminishing returns have also been set on PVP XP. This means that you receive less and less of a benefit from killing the same person in quick succession. This is an area that we will most likely continue to tweak and adjust over time. It is the type of feature that will require some additional feedback from the live servers to get exactly right. For the launch we have tried to set it a little conservatively to ensure that it isn’t abused or exploited. That doesn’t mean though that we aren’t open to adjusting it further in the future once we see how people progress with the current system in place.

New Armories and PVP rewards

So other than the obligatory bragging rights what will the new PVP levels provide? That’s where the new PVP specific gear comes in. Each class has a special new set of blue armor for PVP levels one to five

You will be able to visit new armory locations in all the racial hubs, these special shops stock new PVP based items for players to access. Vendors in the armories will stock you up with great new items starting as low as level twenty, as you progress through your normal levels and the PVP levels then you will find more and more accessories and armor and finally weapons that you can purchase in the armory.

Different vendors appear in the armory as you level up so be sure to check back as you progress.

PVP gear will come in all shapes and sizes. At level eighty there are new blue armor sets that are class specific, while for those not yet at the maximum level you can find an armor set for each of the armor types with upgrades available as you level up. Maximum level players will also get access to a great new set of blue weapons.

All of the PVP items introduced in this update reward players for levels one through five in the PVP progression system. New epic items that serve levels six through ten will be introduced in coming updates, and on the subject of coming updates…

Future Updates

This update is just the start of the planned PVP updates. Next up will come the PVP consequence (or Notoriety) system. Now we had hoped to include both at the same time, however the consequence system needed some extra work to be fully realized. Since we took the decision to support the idea of players being ‘notorious’ in PVP and including consequences for their actions we felt it was important to ensure we did it properly. We saw from the feedback on the test server that we needed to make sure there are more than just penalties to notoriety system when it arrives and want to take a little extra time to account for as many of the scenarios as possible so that the PVP game-play itself isn’t diminished on the servers.

Keep your eyes peeled for more information on this over the next few weeks as we get closer to rolling out the second part of the PVP update to the test server.

Also, as mentioned above, you will see more PVP items added to the game in the form of the rewards for the PVP levels six through ten. These class specific epic armor sets will also have great new visuals and be a prestigious reward for those who battle up the PVP levels.

Mark Jacobs of Mythic talks about AoC

2008-09-04T01:26:52Z

The vice president of Mythic Entertainment and the lead of Warhammer Online; Mark Jacobs spoke with Tracey John over at MTV.com regarding Age of Conan and also Hellgate London.

Things discussed were why Marc wanted to see Age of Conan succeed and also how he feels that they should have delayed the release of the game so it could have been polished further.

“If you look at the numbers, MMOs have the highest failure rates of any entertainment product,” Jacobs said. Going all the way back 11 years to the release of “Ultima Online,” the first MMO to reach 100,000 subscribers, he said that there have only a been handful of successful MMOs compared to the number of them being developed.

Read more here

Upcoming Expansion Teaser Concept Art

2008-08-23T01:48:05Z

At Games Convention in Leipzig Funcom released a Concept Art image which serves as a teaser for their upcoming expansion to Age of Conan.

Check it out:

Preliminary patch notes for August 27

2008-08-23T01:40:43Z

The preliminary patch notes for Age of Conan's August 27 patch have been released.

It's split into two sections, one part that was posted very recently today and one which was released a little bit earlier.

GENERAL

Tradepost - The sales commission is now added to the price of the item and withdrawn from the buyer.
Tradepost - You will no longer be charged a fee for changing the price of your item.
Corrected several typos in dialog in many areas.

CLASSES

Rogue (General)
Agile Mind is now a clickable. The cooldown is 9 minutes, and is reduced by 3 minutes per rank.
Escape Artist will now always work. The cooldown is now 3 minutes, and is reduced by 1 minute per rank.

Barbarian

Thirst For Blood will now properly increase the player's Stamina Regen values.
Arcane Marauder will now properly drain mana with 4 feat points invested.
Buffs from Reaver Stance will now display a stack count in the GUI.
Buffs from Blood Rage Stance will now display a stack count in the GUI.

Bear Shaman

Blood Champion will now give the proper buff effect when one point is invested in the feat.
Blood Champion will now proc off Blood Flow (Rank 1).

Conqueror

Rend and Tear will now improve the damage over time effect from Bloodbath I.

COMBAT

Frenzy and Defensive stance no longer persist after zoning.
Pressing ESC to abort a fatality will not make it appear that your opponent is dead anymore.
Pets will now teleport with you when you zone.
When you die, all the pets that were alive will respawn when you ressurect.

GUI

The time display while in Tortage Underhalls at night should now be correct.
PvP health/mana/stamina taps will now be displayed as intended in tooltips.
The red skull should always appear over your own head when you are murderer.
Items that you can not use no longer prompt you regarding their BoE status.

GUILD

/guild should now always work after zoning.

MOUNTS

When you dismount a horse, your regular runspeed will always be applied.

NPCS

(Lacheish Plains) Farghan no longer has looping dialog.
Emotes and camera angles have been implemented to all 11 tradeskill dialogs.

PVP

PvP XP is now only given if the opponent player is above gray con to you ( ie. no more than 7 levels below you or higher, and cons a color to you).
Murderpoints are now given if the player you kill is more than 7 levels below you. (ie. that player cons gray to you).
If under attack while you have Shield of the Risen active, out of combat regeneration is no longer stopped. This stops a griefing technique where spawn campers could stop you regenerating.
Grouping or trading with criminals will reset your criminal timer.
PvP levels gained will be shown as an onscreen message.
PvP damage has been further tweaked to do less DPS than the damage done in PvE.

Massive PvP

The gate will now display a message when the damaged state is preventing you from opening it.
City gates are now functional until the gate is heavily damaged.
The city gate will no longer receive an extra lever after repairing it.
It's no longer impossible to repair a destroyed city gate.

QUESTS

(Conall's Valley) The Gambler's Gambit - The collision in the Spider Cavern has been fixed, and it is once again possible to pick up the debt money to finish this quest.
(Destiny Quest - Priest) Awakening II - The Red Hand Inquisitor Leader will no longer spawn above level 20.
(Destiny Quest - Rogue) Awakening I - You should now be able to stealth without every guard spotting you.
(Destiny Quest - End Battle) The Red Hand High Priest will no longer spawn above level 20.
(Khopshef) The Roots of the Earth - Quest goal has been updated with correct name, Darkroot.
(Lacheish Plains) Brandoc Village - The waymarker for this quest has been made more visible.
(Pyramid of the Ancients) Dangers of Decadence - The key is now removed your inventory when you free Shali.
(Tarantia Noble) Paetus and the Nemedian Crown IIII is now named Paetus and the Nemedian Crown IV.
(Tortage Underhalls) Gold and Gore - Looting rings from corpses should work correctly.

TRADESKILLS

Reduced the bonuses granted by all Invulnerability, Evade, Fatality, Offhand Chance, and Damage gems by a significant amount.
Alchemist Cache no longer contains the easily accessible vendor-bought resources.
The Skinner dialog now works,and resolves the quests to allow you to continue in the class.

GENERAL

Several client crash and assertion error causes were addressed.
The Noble Villas have been optimized. Some players should experience a noticeable increase in performance.
Shield of the Risen will now be given to new characters when they reach level 5.
Facial expressions have been added to a number of emotes.
Female characters can now use the "pointdown" emote.
The following emotes now work for both male and female characters:
- cheer, excitedclap, excited (formerly jig_f), flirt, hugefish, lightheaded, pushaway, trance.
Players will now use the crawl animation when sprinting while swimming.

CLASSES

You may now have up to two Team Heal effects (Renewal, Healing Lotus, Emanation of Life, and Martyrdom) running simultaneously.
- Priest (General)
- Vindicator will now properly affect Soldiers who joined a group in Defensive Stance.
- Rogue (General)
- Quick Dismount will no longer go on cooldown if used while moving.
- Quick Dismount will now work even with weapons drawn.
- Using Quick Dismount while riding a mammoth or a rhino will now result in an actual dismount, rather than just an ability cooldown
- Assassin
- Assassination (2) buff will now properly appear in the Buff GUI instead of the debuff GUI.
- All Assassin combo damage and stamina costs have been rebalanced to match some newly adjusted animations.
- From the Darkness and Ambush should now occur correctly, when performed from stealth.
- Barbarian
- Cyclone of Steel II is now usable only with the correct weapon type.
- Ambidextrous will now increase off-hand chance by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10% per respective rank.
- Conqueror
- Rend Flesh's bleed effect will now stack in the proper order.
- Changed the name of the feat 'Improved Wrath' to 'Improved Fire Weave.'
- Changed the name of the feat 'Lingering Wrath' to 'Lingering Fire Weave.'
- Changed the name of the feat 'Skirmisher' to 'Fleet of Foot.'
- Dark Templar
- Invulnerable Soul now increases the amount of damage absorbed by Covenant of Invulnerability by 2/4/6/8/10 points per respective rank.
- Demonologist
- Fires of Gehenna will now have a 1 second cooldown applied to it after using Greater Flames.
- Chaotic Blast's damage component can now perform critical hits.
- Guardian
- The Defiance heal effect will now use the proper icon in the buff GUI.
- Impale combo now has a squelchy fleshy sound when used.
- Herald of Xotli
- Tweaked the animation played for Pillar of Infernal Flame.
- Burn to Death I, Molten Steel Slash I, Pillar of Infernal Flame I now have new icons.
- The duration of the Flame Tongue buff has been increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Necromancer
- Blasphemy's cast time has been reduced to 2 seconds.
- Touch of Winter will no longer overwrite Ice Shackle's snare effect.
- Priest of Mitra
- Empowered Repulse should also increase the length of the knockbacks by 1 meter for each point.
- Holy Conquest's bonus holy damage on the Devotional Prayer spell will now properly affect teammates.
- Channeling spells now use correct amount of mana per tick. Players should no longer be able to cancel spells early and recast them for a reduced mana cost.
- Ranger
- Cripple and Cripple Enemies now have new icons.
- Flesh Ripper and Piercing Shot IV now have new icons.
- Leghold Trap should no longer ignore Root Immunity.
- Traps should not triggered by corpses anymore.
- Tempest of Set
- Inner Charge will now properly remove its effect after casting Lightning Strike.
- Set's Life Spark will now wait until you are fully dead before trying to resurrect you.

COMBAT

All Channeling spells now use mana, even if it is a small amount...
The base Immunity chance on all players is now 5%.
The base Immunity cap on all players is now 15%.
Sidestep will now increase the player's Immunity Cap by 10%.
You can no longer go into hiding while fighting a much lower level NPC.
Fixed a bug where, if your current target went into hiding, you wouldn't be able to target him again when he reappeared unless you'd targeted something else in the meantime.
Combat transitions for all characters dual-wielding any combination of weapons should now be smoother.
Female polearm users who double tap should see a correct animation.
Charge can no longer be used on non-alive targets.
All weapons should now work correctly with the combos available to that weapon type. (ex. Guardian combo Slaughter).
Combo timers are now adjusted to not time out when the server lags.
The female charge animation has been corrected to not throw the female backwards anymore.

GUI

When shift-clicking a character name in chat, information about that player will be shown in yellow in the same window you clicked in.
Players should no longer see duplicated buff icons for some abilities on their clients.
The modified damage multipler in various tooltips now shows up with percent values, as intended.
Combo and spell tooltips should always display with gray text now.
Maps updated for Tortage Island, Tortage Day, Tortage Night, and the volcano.
You will now see an onscreen message when you cast a targeted spell without a target.
Combos should now show more information about what they are doing. Also, the order in which this information is displayed has been changed.

GUILDS

Fixed some visual issues for player city buildings.

ITEMS

Fixed an issue with tier 5 one handed edged weapons. These can now all be dual wielded.
All vendor-bought resources purchased will appear in the "Bag" tab and not the "Resource" tab of the inventory.
Sacrarial Cabochon Iolite will now give the proper invulnerability bonuses.
Cotton and Cottonwisp can no longer be found on NPCs.
Guardian tier armor wrist and gauntlet pieces will now give bonuses to polearm and 1h weapons.
Fire and Glory spear is no longer tiny.
Loot has been distributed to the new chests in Atzel's Fortress.
Bloodsire Boots should no longer cause weird ankle animations.
Dark Templar raid armor, such as Gauntlets of Baleful Blood, now only gives bonuses to 1h weapons.

MOUNTS

Mounting rhinos while having your weapons drawn should now work.

NPCS/MOBS

Removed long range bows from NPCs.
Npcs will not try to attack players that have left the playfield anymore.
(Eiglophian Mountains) Chief Uruk'A has dinged, and is now a higher level!
(Imirian Ravine) Blade Champion Krol should now reset properly.
(Imirian Ravine) Deatheater Setmorpok has had his name changed to Deatheater Setkanh.
(Kheshatta) Scorpion Archers should now behave normally, and exit stealth when agroed.
(Kheshatta) Selkhetite Archer spells damage has been changed, and has been nerfed to proper values. They should also no longer bypass damage deflection (Such as PoM Hand of Mitra)
(Scorpion Cave) Scorpion Abomination should now regenerate health less frequently.
(Tarantia Noble) Fading Black horses should now have animations.
(Tarantia Noble) Aviton's pants are no longer clipping with his tunic.
(Tarantia Noble) The Nemedian Archers have decided to use arrows again.
The spell Sabazio's Constriction cast by the Blood Constrictors in the Sabazios encounter will now damage players as intended.
Agroed deer should once again have animations while chasing you.
Yetis have had their textures corrected.
Gameplay in the Tarantia Noble Disctrict Villas has been updated.
Bosses in the Main System are no longer mezzable.
Har-Shebesh should no longer become passive in some rare situations.

PVP/ MASSIVE PVP

Massive PVP
- You will no longer incorrectly learn a siege camp resurrection point when you are not in a guild.
- Ballistas will now properly despawn after a tower is destroyed.
- You can now attacking Siege Buildings with melee, spells, and siege weapons.
- Several collision fixes done for Battlekeep buildings.
PVP
- All members of a murderous group now receive the full penalty, instead of sharing it.
- Minigames - You will no longer be able to have different tier players in your team when your team joins a match.
- Minigames - Buffs for carrying the Skull have been renamed to 'Carrying Skull.'

QUESTS

Destiny Quest (Priest)
Awakening II: Defend the townsfolk - Waymarker changed to an area waymarker so it's easier to spot.
Destiny Quest (Rogue)
Awakening III: The Tortage Keep instance has been revamped slightly.
Awakening III: Ulric should no longer sleep with his eyes open.
General Quest
(Atzel's Approach) War Standard - Should have a slightly more interesting quest ending.
(Atzel's Approach) Kidnapping and Torture - Added feedback when interacting with the last palisade.
(Conarch Village) Rotten Molars - The drop rate on teeth has been changed. Now 2-4 teeth will drop per mob.
(Eiglophian Mountains) Flowers of the Snow - Corrected waypoint for returning to Nola.
(Eiglophian Mountains) Rithrall will now speak to the player in the quest 'Convincing the Hunter'.
(Field of the Dead) The Price of Treason - Quest item added.
(Field of the Dead) The Rescue of Isobail II - Now has a more accurate waypoint.
(Field of the Dead) The Curse of the Werewolves - Now has a larger area waypoint.
(Kheshatta) Grim Grey God - Added animations for interacting with the sarcophagi and pedestals.
(Kheshatta) "Heady Kaphil Liquor", "The Spice in the Sand", and "Anuket Spring Water" quests have had item respawn rates tweaked.
(Kheshatta) The Abomination - Item rewards will now be given out correctly.
(Khopshef) The Aberration - Hamadi should now patrol correctly at all times.
(Khopshef ) The Dead Devotee of Derketo should no longer be selectable when you are not on the quest.
(Khopshef) The Slave Rebellion - The cage key will now drop correctly.
(Scorpion Cave) Quest "The Four Accursed Keys" has had it's goal coordinates set properly.
(Tarantia Noble) Catus for the quest "Nobles of Tarantia" has been moved, and the quest coordinates updated.
(Thunder River) Moonshine - An Empty Bottle will now be spawned in the player's quest inventory when starting the quest.
(Thunder River) The Kitten - The bottle of milk now has an icon. Also, the cat now correctly patrols and eventually despawns
(Villa Verde) The quest "Noble Valuables" has been changed. Vandal Despoilers will drop the loot bags now.
(White Sands) Garden of Cursed Mysteries can no longer be completed outside the search area.

TRADESKILLS

Slotted gems should now appear in armor consistently, even after zoning.
"Padparasha" gems have been renamed "Padparadscha".
The tradeskill merchant Graehm in Lacheish will now sell Common Thread.
Resource & Gathering: The chance to get rare resources from tier 1 and tier 2 resource nodes has been increased.
Teardrop Amethyst now requires the correct gem, Flawless Amethyst.

WORLD DESIGN

Atzel's Fortress has been re-textured and re-lit.
(Poitain) Rocks near buildings can no longer be scaled.
(Tarantia Noble) Several texture issues on buildings were corrected.
(Tarantia Noble) The climbing point in Villa Amiel is now functional.
(Tarantia Noble) It should no longer be possible to clip your camera through the wall in the Catacombs.
(Tarantia Noble) Both Torches and Braziers have had their names fixed.
(Tarantia Noble) Numerous collision fixes done here to improve movement through areas.
(Tortage) The Seadog Mansion now has a proper roof.
(Tortage) Added some fish in the ocean outside the beach.
(Tortage) The Coastal Caves have been revamped to make it easier to find your way around.
(Tortage) All ladders should be usable and work correctly.
(Tortage Night) Players should no longer be able to climb outside the playfield.
(Wild Lands) Fireplace flame effects should no longer be visible on house floors.

Forthcoming Free Content Update Details

2008-08-22T02:16:59Z

Funcom have revealed two brand new zones and also new and revamped dungeons and itemization. One of the dungeons getting revamped is the Black Castle and also the Commons district of the capital city Tarantia will get revamped. There are even more juicy details, such as new social dungeon called House of Crom and on the horizon another zone named Thunder River.

We're really serious about adding content," Ellingsen said. "We agree that content thins out after level 55."

Ellingsen demonstrated the Commons district of the capital city Tarantia, expected soon. This mid-level slum area allows players to pick a side in a gang war between street bandits and the rulers of the rooftops. Questing will include thieving, exploration and stealth gameplay as well as combat, and complex storylines with moral choices.

Attention then moved on to the Black Castle dungeon, which is being extensively revamped. Originally a basic dungeon aimed at solo players, it will soon be a more sophisticated group dungeon featuring traps and puzzles reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda - shooting an eye with an arrow to kill a giant snake, or standing on pressure pads to allow your team-mates to pass flame-throwers.

For the full article, go here!

Update Notes - 19th August

2008-08-19T17:02:51Z

With today's Age of Conan patch there's numerous of new additions, changes and adjustments. Among the things you can expect are content additions, tweaking and changes to all classes; some more major than others. Also the process of adding new voice acting outside of the destiny quest lines have begun, you'll be able to find quite a bit of new voice overs already.

We all know how buggy the Massive PvP was at the start, but now several patches later it's much more playable and today's patch improve upon the Massive PvP further. Tweaks to the siege weapons are one of several improvements that are included and you can also expect changes to the rules which are meant to make the PvP experience more enjoyable overall.

The ongoing work on updating certain quests and npc's are quite visible with this patch, the majority of the focus have been on Atzel's Approach, Kheshatta and also the Khopshef Province.

PLAYFIELDS

The Catacombs in Tarantia Nobel district offers a host of new quests and encounters to challenge you in this group instance.

CLASSES

MAGE (General)

Dark Meditation will now properly expire.
Dark Meditation should now be removed from the spell list after untraining feats.
The description for the general feat Purge no longer refers to multiple targets.
The feat "Purge" has been renamed to "Spell - Purge".
Mirrored Iron's proc, Set's Shield, now hits using the correct damage type based on the Magic Rating buff running.
Mirrored Iron's proc, Set's Shield, has had its damage readjusted to the proper amount.

ROGUE (General)

Ambush ability will no longer increase the damage of the next strike.
Mountaineer feat's decrease to the duration of the Bruised Body debuff has been changed from 50%/100% to 45%/90% per respective rank.
Mountaineer feat's decrease to the duration of the Broken Bones debuff has been changed from 25%/50% to 30%/60% per respective rank.
Quick Dismount will not go on cooldown unless you are mounted.
Cheat the Reaper will now work 25%/50% of the time per respective feat point spent.
Cheat the Reaper can now only activate once every 5 minutes.

SOLDIER (General)

Brutal Enraging Wound and Enraging Wound will now always tick 3 times.
Brutal Enraging Wound now displays the proper damage over time value in the combo tool tip.
Spell damage will now properly trigger Cunning Deflection.

Assassin

Grim Corruption I's debuff will now stack with the other Grim Corruption debuffs.
Grim Corruption will now debuff Unholy and Poison Invulnerabilities by 5% at each rank.

Barbarian

All the Savage Rage combos now use the same animation as Savage Rage IV.
Impale's cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
Impale's bonus damage will now scale consistently with feat points invested.

Bear Shaman

Aspects - Blood Fever, Skulk, and Untamed Regeneration will no longer be removed after zoning.
Claws of Life will no longer be removed after zoning.
Spirits of the Debased proc buff now uses the proper icon in the buff GUI.
Spirit Totem: Profane will now always give Unholy Invulnerabilities with each rank of Spirits of the Debased trained.

Conqueror

Conquest's bonus to One-Handed weapon damage has been increased across all ranks.
Deep Wounds will now stack properly.
Deep Wounds' proc rate has been slightly increased.
Deep Wounds now displays a stack count in the target's debuff GUI.
Deep Wounds' DPS has been increased slightly.
Feint Attack I will no longer scale past Feint Attack II at any level.
Frostbite will now debuff magical damage in addition to melee damage.
Frostbite will now have an additional larger debuff component versus PvP targets on top of the normal debuff.
Frostbite's chance to apply off of a Hoarfrost proc has been doubled.
Hail of Furious Strikes II will no longer scale past Hail of Furious Strikes III at any level.
Lacerate will now proc off all non-unarmed melee attacks.
Lacerate's proc rate has been slightly increased.
Lacerate now displays a stack count in the target's debuff GUI.
Lacerate's DPS has been increased slightly.
Lingering Wrath's damage has been slightly reduced.
Lingering Wrath will now always tick 5 times.
Offhand Precision's bonus has been doubled at all ranks. It will now increase Offhand Chance by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10% per respective rank.
Rend Flesh's duration has been increased to 15 seconds. The cooldown has also been increased to 1 minute.
Rend Flesh's damage over time effect will now last 5 seconds.
Rend Flesh now displays a stack count in the target's debudff GUI.
Rend Flesh's damage over time effect will now scale better with more feat points invested.
Improved Rend's direct damage hit will now scale better with more feat points invested.
Two-Handed Master's bonus to Two-Handed weapon damage will now scale more consistently.
Renamed Auras & Battle Crys, and included level up info in descriptions.

Dark Templar

The name of the feat "Spell - Dooming Presence" has been changed to "Combo - Dooming Presence", since it actually does grant a combo and not a spell.
Pact of Malacodor should now be removed from the spellbook after untraining feats.
Reaper of Malacodor should now be removed from the spellbook after untraining feats.
Covenant of Arms will no longer be removed after zoning if you have the appropriate feat.

Demonologist

Chaotic Blast's damage component can now perform critical hits.
Demonic War will no longer be removed when zoning.

Guardian

Guard I will no longer scale past Guard II at any level.
Lowered the damage of Stagger I slightly.
Increased the damage of Stagger II slightly.

Herald of Xotli

Undying Glory of Xotli should no longer be removed when zoning.
Fixed a tool tip issue causing the wrong information to be displayed in the Burning Words feat.

Necromancer

Despoil the Soul will now show the proper duration when viewing the tool tip of the spell.
Despoil the Soul duration has been increased to 1 hour.
Spellweaving buff 'Death God' duration has been reduced to 20 seconds.
The cabal debuff will now use the proper icon in the target's debuff window.

Priest of Mitra

Armor of Faith will no longer be removed by Hand of Mitra.

Ranger

Incapacitating Stabs I will never scale past Incapacitating Stabs II at all levels.
Marked Target will now stack properly when 2 points are invested in the feat.
Piercing Stance, Shattering Stance, Sniper Stance, and Fire Stance will no longer be removed when zoning if the appropriate feat is trained.
Shattering Shots will now properly remove the directional shielding in the target GUI.
Immolation should work more consistently.

Tempest of Set

Lightning Cast will now properly put Lightning Strike on a 5 second cooldown.
A book in your offhand will no longer spin during attack animations.

COMBAT

The attack at the end of a charge can no longer be aborted.
Transitions between 2H-attacks for male & female characters should feel smoother.
The male UP-attack animation for staves should now work correctly.
Charge, Ursine Rush, Impale (Guardian), Stunning Charge, and Hellstep can no longer be used while Hidden.
Melee pets will now do splash damage.
Knockback should have a proper animation again.
Using an ability while charging (such as Cunning Deflection) should no longer lock up your movement.
You should no longer be able to damage or heal dead targets with spells or combos.
Fixed a cause of sliding during combat.
Initiating chat with an NPC while performing attacks will now stop your attack animation as intended.
You can no longer de-apprentice while in combat.

MASSIVE PVP

If the attacking guild takes over a battlekeep, any city guards that are left will now despawn.
Players can now only spawn a ballista while the city is vulnerable to attack.
Catapult progress bar no longer shows Trebuchet Blast.
Once the siege battle is finished, the siege weapons and siege camps will now be properly disposed of.
Ballista siege weapons will no longer cycle between all targets they have. They will use the last target instead, making them more useful in combat.
If you get teleported out of a battle you will now end up in the nearest NPC village of the connecting resource and building playfield, instead of ending up in the nearest city.
The siege camp in Burnheim which previously spawned at the wrong location will now spawn at the proper location.
It's now possible to get a replaced siege targeting module if you lost one. Simply target the weapon and press the use button to get a replacement.
Only the defending guild can talk to the ballista builder NPCs.
The siege camps will now give a message when they are used when the city isn't vulnerable.
Player city guards are now friendly to the guild that owns the city.
Siege Weapons should no longer fail to initialize properly.
Ballista NPCs should always spawn when the city becomes vulnerable.
Vendors should no longer spawn if the vulnerability window opens when the building has just finished being built.
Members of the attacking guild should no longer get teleported out of the instance when zoning into a siege that is already in progress.
Siege Weapons should no longer report that the target is out of range when it's not out of range. A different error message will appear if the siege weapon was unable to fire at the target for some reason.
Massive PvP city NPCs should only be usable by the owners of the city.
Defending players in a siege will no longer get points for character kills.
Time left in the siege battle before it ends will now display correctly in Score window.
If no guild applies for a battle queue before the 24h prior to the siege are over, that battle queue will be locked and no guild will be assigned the Attacker role.
Mammoth Sweep and Rhino Sweep damage increased and changed to Siege damage to properly damage buildings.

415,000 subscribers according to latest report

2008-08-19T16:16:35Z

Last Friday Funcom released their quarterly financial results, which revealed information about their results post launch for their flagship MMO, Age of Conan. If we are to believe the report, AoC currently has around 415,000 customers but the play time in the game for each customer has been less than they expected.

Furthermore, over 800,000 copies of the game have been sold to customers and Funcom's Revenues increased even higher than expected. Operating loss is still something that is the case, but overall Funcom feels it is in a good financial shape with quite a bit of cash available.

There are many plans to expand the Age of Conan world and squashing bugs is one of the main focuses, not to mention bringing forth updates to the PVP.