Game Director’s Letter – May 2013

[Tarib]

Hi everyone.

As you all know, May has been an active month for Age of Conan. We've had server moves, anniversary celebrations and Membership changes. Let's talk about these features and their implications for the future of the game.

You can read the full "Game Director Letter - May 2013" on the Age of Conan website

[kinlock]

Thanks Joel and the entire AoC team! And a super-duper-special thank you to the Dev(s) that put that 5 year anniversary event together. Truly a stellar event!!!

Looks like things are on the up-n-up for AoC.

AND just in case you folks have not patted each other on the backs for a very successful 5th anniversary event, please do so. Have a cigar and a glass of bourbon!

[Legionx]

Thanks to Joel and the entire AoC team. great job. With the new mini map will there be a new tier of PvP armour? Please add this. I'll bake everyone a pie. And drinks are on me.

[Thutkemi]

It's great to read a letter that actually has substance and changes that can be seen to be happening. Good job, Joel and team.

[Malvoleus]

Joel states : As I mentioned during the last letter, a part of the tradeskill system being held up is the other systems which interact with them. But there is another piece of this equation - the content.

The question is what becomes of Purple Lotus Swamp, Lacheish Plains and Poitain when we remove the crafting missions? These are areas of rich potential and plenty of space for enjoyable activities.

Surely the gathering zones will still be needed for gathering crafting materials, or are the basic gathering skills also being removed/reworked? Guess we can only speculate until the next official announcement on the crafting revamp.
One request tho, don't mess with the gathering zones too much please, some of us have homes there you know...

[Maark]

I'm too very happy about the anniversary events. And to read that these kind of things can be 'ninjaed' on to live servers sounds awesome. Also look forward to explore the new dungeons and do unchained versions of Black Castle, Santum and more.

And Joel, hope everything goes well with the addition to your family. Have a great summer.

[Prima]

keep your eyes peeled for strange occurrences (and no invisible horses don't count!)

well-played

Quick ideas about the resource zones after the crafting revamp:

• Dust off the idea about PVE sieges: When a guild city hits a certain level, NPC armies will be drawn to its riches; they will start to build up camps and cities over time, eventually launching attacks on the player city (which can be delayed by spoiling attacks by players). The (new?) top tiers of guild city building become about upgrading defenses and counter-attacking for spoils.
• Random boss monster spawns or quests: a big dragon; a zombie army; a traveling ambush (edit: uh, freudian slip, meant caravan) that can be rescued or attacked
• Allow the entire zone to be developed into one city or network of cities by a single guild: roads, "player houses" (just cosmetic ... or not??), large cosmetic-only buildings like apartment buildings and bazaars. (Alternatively: consolidate all the guild cities so there are 3 per zone. Then allow build-up of mutually usuable -- for profit? -- resources like wagoneers, etc.)

[sabbath1989]

And here RL prevented me from doing the anniversary...sometimes i wish AoC was my real life "utters a few angry nonsense words".

[Anubium]

Could put a world boss in a border kingdom zone, announce the spawn (like Levi for anniversary), people go to a pvp area to fight it (making raids to fight it and other players) and then the boss drops the quest for those alive and around it to kill it and the npc for the quest gives a chance at a pvp gear crafting rare.

[Argantes]

One request tho, don't mess with the gathering zones too much please, some of us have homes there you know...

for the tradespot roof above my head I will fight to my very last breath!

well-played
[*]Random boss monster spawns or quests: a big dragon; a zombie army; a traveling ambush that can be rescued or attacked[/LIST]

it´s already there, but in some non-finished and lame state.. search Poitain for Harbinger of Kao, that strange tombstone or some bears spawning near a corpse (?); other resource instances have similar encounters iirc

just "finish" it and voila, new fresh content