Joel Bylos Interview 4/25/13

[Zatochi]

Joel you are right. Game sites will choose eso over aoc atm. Thats buisness. Use viral marketing instead. Thats why i think a new trailer is necessary. You can place it on youtube, on aoc website of course and you need to link it in steam! If it is as good as the unchained one it will impress ppl and they will show it to other ppl.

@deathader you are so wrong dude. A lot of ppl still playing dislike the gear depadency in pvp, me included. Even more waiting to come back if that changes. A lot of new players are already here in aoc due to steam. They wont grind a year to get the gear. They will leave instead. So this pvp unchained idea is the best funcom can do atm.

And maybe just wait for details. The only thing we know from the interview is the fact that there will be changes.

I have pvp 10 char and lots of pvp 5-7. i couldnt care less if the gear is useless when that means that everyone has the same chances in pvp and just skill makes the difference. Even now most guys got their pvp gear from doing pve instead of pvping.

You want to have progression? Go raid t4.

[Janroocas]

This game is a progression based game, anyone who dislikes progression has long since left Age of Conan, and the people still playing remain because that's what the appeal is about the game.

Dare I say that don't give a rat's ass about gear or character progression, but that I'm still here for the gameplay, lore and atmosphere, despite the goddam ****ing gear-based supremacy? The main reason I'm still clinging at AoC is that there's nothing on the market into the same niche.

And you know what? I'm not the only one. So that Vanilla minigame will be fresh air for A LOT of players. I just hope Funcom would also come along with some vanilla PvE content too (with vanity rewards).

[LunaticAsylumLA]

I agree that unchained minigames is a good solution to some players (not to me, but I cannot argue with that). Reduce the PvP XP gain there by 50-80%: people who play there do not need PVP XP anyway, and others, who are interested in the MMORPG side of PVP, will obtain the skill through these training "unchained" grounds before entering normal minigames.
Otherwise, the normal minigames will have problems running, and no newcomers will ever go there.
Unchained minigames will be level 80 only, as far as I understand too. This is logical.

Add more PVP statistics to characters and split them in "unchained", "normal", "common", and "both (normal&unchained)" categories. Make them optionally visible. This will spur players into playing more. K/D, W/L, Bori hours, Flags delivered, etc.

T3.5 does not need to be changed in mechanics; but I have to agree with the loot table changes. Add a chance of dropping T4 items.

I would say that the new crafting system, if you are so decided upon that, should coexist with the old one. To prevent players from sharing their found recipes and ruining economy (that is, the combination and order of items), make the recipe sets individual for each account (not player).

[-tomhet-]

Do you realize what game is being played? Or are you one of the many players who left Age of Conan, and just pops his head into the forums to simply try and make some form of impact on a game that you hope to one day come back to, should it ever be good enough for your presence? This game is a progression based game, anyone who dislikes progression has long since left Age of Conan, and the people still playing remain because that's what the appeal is about the game. So unless Funcom is trying to attract new players in on a gamble of displeasing the old player base, I do not see this as a good idea. In my guild I do not know of anyone who actually PVP's and plays regularly who finds this new change appealing.

every time i join a minigame its same tale new players pvp0-pvp2 being rez farmed by kd whoring pvp10's, it doesnt matter what they do they just die.
class i play most in pvp is necro takes me no more then 6-10 seconds to kill someone like that sometimes less then 5 secs if get a lucky crit.
just a few nights ago we had a hv team wich my team was all pvp6+ other team had 4 clearly f2p players all bellow pvp lvl 2 and all still had some crap bellow lvl80 blue/green gear.
a sin and pom both pvp8+ dedicated whole minigame to rez farm them.

so how is that any fun to the idiots farming those lowbies and how is that fun to the f2p being farmed???

without knowing more details about this new unchained minigames already sounds promising to mitigate these kind of situations so new players or people playing alts in minigames to have more fun and hopefully retain more new players for pvp.

thing is why make it unchained version of minigames and not just make all minigames unchained?

a deep recurring issue wich has been the nail in the coffin of pvp servers is the fundamental lack of any open world pvp systems and lack of guild based pvp systems, wich makes diference bettewen pve servers and pvp servers neglegible as to amount of pvp content available in both.
main diference being a poorly regulated ffa pvp in pvp servers with guards just ruining pvp instead of regulating pvp.
and lets face it players dropping all their money in b&g isnt any good for player economy, and to that most player just make another account to have a bank alt.

untill aoc gets open world/guild pvp system pvp servers will continue to dwindle.

any progression in pvp shouldnt be gear dependant it was one of big reasons many players left after kithai/bori/new pvp lvls where intoduced, and its still one of main reasons why pvp player retention is low.
any thing that mitigates gear dependency in pvp is good.

its only poor that as of yet no new pvp content is being added and yet another boring minigame map is all its going to come given crafting revamp is still in the works.

[yuisoku]

@Alex
MMORPG style PvP? You mean AoC aka Sill's style PvP.
RPG has nothing to do with grind unless it is being chosen to be main path. Old GD took wrong path and it can be seen on player numbers
And why reduced PvPxp from real PvP? I'd say reduce xp from grind PvP because that has nothing to do with "player" skill, but gear possibilities

@Dsader

Actually i stopped just recently. I don't have time to play atm, but i come back when i have time

[LunaticAsylumLA]

Darkness, I was thinking on the ways of leaving the normal minigames alive.

[-tomhet-]

Darkness, I was thinking on the ways of leaving the normal minigames alive.

ah you mean the crappy kd hunt minigames where no one cares to have any teamplay whatsoever and farm lowest or easiests kills?

funcom should just remove flags completly and make all minigames death matchs with duration timer halved

[Invino]

Unless by some magic the PvPers have suddenly turned "fair" .. they will always go the way of least resistance.

I can already hear the collective shudder of Bori farmers, when they realise they may need to L2P in order to win in Unchained minis.

On this reason alone, I doubt the "old" minis will disappear.

[Mellaus]

I hope the "old" minis will just be deserted, since all the new players will go to unchained and overgeared farmers will have no one to farm but themselves.

Really hoping for a radical change in the PvP mindset AoC has suffered for too long now.

[Invino]

Non-progression PvP simply does not work in MMOs. Far too few are willing to fight for the sake of fighting.

Unless there are plans for some leader boards and a better scoring than kills, I would be more worried about all minigames being deserted.

Lest we forget that once upon a time, AoC did not have PvP progression and that was demanded and provided.