Friday Updates

[Quazimodo]

Gameplay Preview #7 Prestige Classes and Guilds


- Apr 28, 2006
This week we take a deeper look at the Prestige class and guild systems in Age of Conan

First up a word from Game Director Gaute Godager on the subject of guilds and the Prestige classes on all the interest shown amongst the community.

"I thought I would write a section for you about the balance between guild- and solo play. This has generated a lot of heated debate on the forums, which is something we really do appreciate, honestly, and it does inspire us to make sure we get this balance right.

The core of the question is: can we give any advantage to social gameplay without affecting negatively some peoples’ perception of solo gameplay? I guess that is impossible. The problem is, I want to reward people for being social, without alienating the true image of Conan as a truly solo friendly game. I have thus decided on making a compromise for the social classes, the Prestige Classes as we call them. The compromise is to let all abilities be available for your social class, but simply in a somewhat weaker form. You are barred from nothing, but you can not reach your full potential.

Now then, the remaining question is: how much more powerful will the abilities be in a Guild? Is it 5%, 10% or 50%. To be honest, I don’t know yet. This is something we will find out during beta. There will be a difference though. Now on to the important parts..."

Guilds will be a very important part of Age of Conan and the Prestige class system allows players to provide benefits and improvements to their guild in a way not seen before in an MMO. This system allows players to be truly engaged in the well-being and strength of their guild like never before. Everyone will have a true interest in helping support and grow their guilds whilst also getting personal benefits along the way!

There are four prestige classes that players can choose from: Lord, Commander, Crafter or Master. Each brings something very different to the guild and players will have a real choice to make in terms of how they want to benefit their guild.

In this update we mention the four types of resources. Everyone can extract the four types: Gold Nuggets, Iron Ore, Wood and Stone. They are used for building houses in the Guild Villages, in the building of Battle Keeps in the Massive PvP areas and finally for Crafting. If you are guilded you get resource extraction bonuses which goes to a guild repository, and which can be used by everyone. If you are not in a guild, you must gather all your own resources.

Lord
The Lord offers guild management bonuses and extras. In general, they provide a discount and savings in how much it costs a guild to build and maintain a city. In turn, this reduces the overhead associated with player cities and improves the efficiency of the the guild’s resource collecting.


Has exclusive placement rights in regard to the main Keep.
Can build Guard Towers that automatically defend against enemy attacks.
Each Lord in a guild increases the resource extraction of gold nuggets for all guild members – up to a max of 30 Lords.
Each Lord in a guild increases the experience point bonus for all guild members – up to a max of 20 Lords.
Has access to the Architect and Alchemy crafting skills.

Commander
The Commander is the military brain of the guild. In practical terms, their usefulness is that they allow larger team sizes (up to ten people from the standard six) as well as improved formation bonuses and morale abilities on the battlefield.


Adds one additional maximum member to a team, up to a total of 10 (with 4 commanders).
Can build Barracks for the Village or Keep that will spawn soldiers to protect the village on attack.
Each Commander in a guild increases the resource extraction of iron ore for all guild members – up to a max of 30 Commanders.
Can draw up special “Tactical Plans” to enable Commander only formations. Massive battle formations, such as large mounted formations or the special Raid Attack resistant formations, are available only to the Commander.
Has access to the Weaponsmith crafting skill.
Crafter
Crafters are those making essential items and equipment needed for the guild to succeed in extended battles and harsh conditions. Supplying everything from siege engines to weapons, the Ccrafter will be the person keeping their friends and customers supplied with goods.

Crafting has its own tiered progression system with 20 ‘levels’ but it is not experience based. Each level will be attained through a quest. Items also come in five tiers of quality, with the highest tiers reserved for crafters with strong and resourceful guilds.

Players will be able craft outside of a guild, although they will restricted from the higher-level tiers unless they have access to their own guild crafting facilities.


Can build crafting premises, smithies, and other tradeskill facilities in the guild villages.
Each Crafter in a guild increases the resource extraction of wood for all guild members – up to a max of 30 of Crafters.
Has access to all forms of crafting.

Master
The Master receives a loyal follower who stands by their side and helps them. Whilst the their follower can fight, that is not their specialty and shouldn’t be relied on when the going gets tough. The follower’s true role is in the domain of collecting resources, as they can be set to collect resources for the guild when their master is offline.


Can have one “follower”. Being in a guild gives you access to more powerful followers.
Can build Stables which upgrade the quality of mounts.
Each Master in a guild will increase the resource extraction of stone for all guild members – up to a max of 30 Masters.
Has access to the Armorsmith crafting skill.

Each prestige class that exists in a guild will give benefits to the guild (on a 'per account' basis to prevent players bolstering their ranks with 'alt' characters—you may have alt characters, however only the prestige class of the first to join will benefit your guild.)

Players will be able to choose a prestige class outside of a guild, although they may not get the full benefits or have access to the best skills and abilities of their chosen path unless they are a member of a guild

This is an overview of the Crafting skills available in Conan:

Weaponsmith
As the name implies, a weaponsmith specializes in making various forms of weaponry for arming those he plans to support in battle. Using techniques passed down for generations, a smith trained in these arts can produce some of the most deadly weapons in Hyboria. In addition to creating arms, this smith may also supply various other forms of weapon enhancement materials, such as whetstones and polishes.

Armorsmith
Similar to the weaponsmith, the armorsmith focuses on crafting various pieces of protective gear in addition to ways to enhance said equipment. Having many avenues available to them in terms of advancement, the armorsmith may choose to provide a very wide variety of armor styles, ranging from leather to full plate.

Gemcutter
Taking advantage of the skills of the armor and weapon smiths, the gemcutter specializes in honing and crafting gems to decorate and enhance equipment. While some gems only have minor effects, others found in crypts or carried by those practicing darker arts may carry strange powers which can be harnessed by the gemcutter’s craft. As the gemcutter is familiar with working with a fresh set of armor or weaponry, they can also provide some more straightforward modifications such as counterweights or other reinforcement.

Alchemist
Trained in various pharmaceutical and metallurgical arts, the Alchemist specializes in creating various compounds with strange and seemingly unnatural effects. Utilizing both common and rare ingredients found around Hyboria, those trained in this art may provide many useful consumables to their allies for use both in and out of battle.

Architect
Concerned more with the “big picture” than simply making equipment or potions, the architect is set on designing the more impressive buildings and siege engines used to wage war in the Border Kingdoms and beyond. Carrying a great burden of responsibility to those he allies himself with, architects facilitate the design of cities as well as devices designed to protect his allies’ assets or destroy his enemy’s.

[Quazimodo]

Age of Conan and Dark Horse Comics


- Jun 03, 2006
Fancy winning a place in our beta tests later in the year? Celebrate news of our upcoming collaboration with Dark Horse Comics with our great comic competition today!

We are delighted to announce today that in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics, a special Age of Conan limited edition comic will be produced! The unique comic book will premiere at the Comic-Con convention this summer, and will be printed in 400.000 copies.

The comic is being created by the award-winning Dark Horse Comics team, and Conan luminaries with the likes of Cary Nord, Scott Allie, our own Gaute Godager, Tim Truman and Tone Rodriguez creatively involved!

Competition!
To celebrate this release we have an extra special competition for you all today, with the prize of a place in our beta testing up for grabs*

So what do you have to do? Well we thought what would be better then giving you the chance to be a little creative in the comic medium as well! The kind folk at Dark Horse have provided us with two great pages from the comic, but without their final lettering. What we would like you to do is show us your creative skills and complete the pages. You can simply fill in the existing word bubbles or even add in a few of your own if you would like!

To enter, download the following pages and then add your own text, returning the final images (in .jpg format) to [email protected], including your full name, address and your login name on our forums before 1200 GMT/UTC on the 23rd of June 2006.

Rules

1. Only one entry per person
2. You must be signed up on our forums to enter
3. Do not alter the size and resolution of the original pages
4. Do not alter the file format of the images, only .jpg entries will be considered valid.


* Please note that the beta period will not start until later in the year. Entry will be dependant on acceptance of the relevant NDA documentation. Funcom reserves the right to deny entry to the beta, or alter the terms of entry based on behaviour and activity once inside the beta process. Winner must provide their own internet connection and pc capable of running the game at the time of the beta

NOTICE: The DEADLINE is over.

[Quazimodo]

Music Feature: Knut Avenstroup Haugen


- Jun 09, 2006
Want to get an insight into what goes into making the soundtrack and music for a game like Age of Conan? Wonder no longer as we grab some time with the man behind the music!


Could you please introduce yourself to the readers, what you do on the Conan project and how long you have been working on the game?

Hi everybody! My name is Knut Avenstroup Haugen. I create all the music for Age of Conan and I've been involved with this project since fall 2004.

What is it like to create the score for a gigantic game like Age of Conan?

It's a lot of fun! I've always been a Conan fan and a gamer, so basically, I've always wanted to work on a project like this. It's hugely exciting to be a part of bringing the world of Hyboria to life (and in my opinion it's the most captivating and convincing incarnation so far!). Of course, it's a monumental task, but I love writing music and on this project I'll be able to create music for a whole universe! It can't get much better than that

What is your vision for the in-game music in Age of Conan?

My vision for the score, is to create captivating musical landscapes and haunting themes that reflect and capture all the different moods of the Hyborian world. Music has the ability to add great drama and emotional depth to pictures and I want to help make the gamer really feel what it's like to be a part of this ancient world, not only by seeing it but also by listening to the sounds and music of times long gone.

With Funcom's new proprietary SIM-player (Sample-based Interactive Music-Player) version 2.0 (aptly nick-named 'the ear-candy machine'), I will have the possibility to create a score that changes dynamically to support the unique musical needs of the game in any given situation. With this tool it's possible to achieve a level of audio-visual blend that hasn't been experienced before in game-music.

Where do you draw your inspiration from when creating the score for the game?

For this particular score it was first of all important to decide on an overall style for the music. In this game there are several regions and each one of them needs a musical style of their own that's unique. Still, it's critical for the overall experience of the gamer that there is coherence between these individual styles. In other words, it's important that they all adhere to the overall style or convention that makes up the 'Hyborian Sound' so that the gamer get the impression that all these countries exist in the same world at the same time.

To find this sound I sat down with Gaute Godager (game-director) and Morten Sørlie (audio-director) and talked about what the Hyborian world was like and what would be a good approach for the score. I continued with reading all the design documents, all the Howard short stories and a lot of Conan comic books (as well as watching the Schwarzenegger movies anew). After a while, when I felt I had a strong opinion of what the music should sound like, I went on to study a lot of music, trying to find something to base the work upon: I listened to ancient music, traditional folk music and all kinds of art music as well as film-scores. In the end I've drawn inspiration from a lot of sources, but the concept for the score can still be described with a few key-words: barbaric, violent, cruel, dark, ancient, mythical, magical, decadent and at the same time heroic, majestic, lush and sexy.

Could you please tell us about the creative process you go through when creating a tune for the game? Where do you start?

For a particular piece of music, I will first of all consider what the music will be used for, i.e. combat, event or background, what culture it's connected to and what kind of mood it's supposed to express. From there I decide the tempo and imagine the form of the piece, what kind of musical texture, rhythm and instrumentation would be fitting and at last I narrow it down to melody and harmony. At this point I usually have a notion of what the melody should be like. I will then sit down and work it out with harmony on the piano and distribute the musical elements within the boundaries of the form and start orchestrating. At this stage, when most considerations are accounted for, it's mostly craft and little creative input.

If it's a particular orchestral effects I'm after, I often find it more useful to start out directly with the sounds on my computers. If I'm not sure were I want to go, I use a more associative approach and let the music or the sounds lead the way. Listening to sounds will often lead to unexpected associations and take the music in totally new and unplanned directions. Often you will get very interesting results that you'd never thought of otherwise.

The process from the conception of an idea through to a finished piece of music can sometimes be long: The process involves composition, arranging and recording as well as implementation. As a composer for video-games or movies, you are not allowed the luxury of sitting idle, waiting for your muse to come and bless you with divine inspiration to get things going. Composition is most of the time a quite unromantic process involving a lot of hard work and in general, the more you work, the more new ideas you will generate.

How do you go about creating the music? Do you use real instruments and voices, or digital ones?

I always start out with sampled instruments on my computers. I have a fairly large setup with six PCs running my orchestral libraries and other samples and it's possible to get very realistic sounding results using only this. Still, in most cases live instruments will add a sense of realism to the mix that in most cases is impossible to achieve with virtual instruments alone. The human voice and strings playing expressive melodic phrases are especially difficult to recreate synthetically. For this reason all choir parts and instrumental solos throughout the score, are (or will be) recorded with live musicians and all melodic violin sections will be dubbed and blended with live violins. In the music pieces that accompany this interview, you will hear examples of this. Most of the pieces are works in progress though and some haven't yet been dubbed with live instruments. Maybe you'll be able to tell the difference?

How do you get the music into the game, and how are pieces of music triggered in-game?

Whether it's a linear musical theme or a complex interactive piece of music, all the music in the game is implemented through the SIM-player. The interactive music is composed in a way that allows it to be deconstructed and puzzled back together in various ways. Thus every musical cue is cut into logical pieces of various length, depending on the cue's specific needs before I start working with them in the SIM-editor. Morten Sørlie and I sat down and designed a new and improved SIM-editor. This editor will have a lot of advanced features that will allow us to break new ground in the field of interactive music in games. It will among many other uses have great impact on the combat music. But that's still classified information

In theory, almost every aspect of the game world can trigger music: The most common thing is to set boundaries in the game world that triggers specific pieces of music. In addition to this, all kinds of events will be able to trigger a musical cue. On the more esoteric side: even weather effects or particle effects (i.e. a fireball) will be able to trigger music! The bottom line is that the sky's the limit here and it's only your imagination and the time at your disposal that limits the ways music can be implemented in the game.

What is the hardest part about creating music for the game?

I don't consider it hard actually. I would rather say challenging and interesting The whole process of composing interactive music is a long and at times a difficult process, but all creative work is difficult. I compose music because I love to do it. Improving your skills and overcoming the challenges that will arise are part of what makes it so rewarding.

That said, it can be tricky writing complex and highly interactive music: At times there are so many possibilities to take into consideration that directly affects the way you are able to write, that it can be difficult to make the music feel as instant and alive that it should be. Writing music like that can take many times as long as composing a conventional linear piece of music. At the same time it's very rewarding to be on the forefront of the interactive audio revolution!

Anything you would like to add?

Yes! I haven't said anything about the combat music. There will be A LOT of combat music and it has a very high priority in this game. We have some very interesting concepts for this part of the score, but sadly I can't say too much about it for the time being. It's still very much a secret what we're planning to do, but I hope to come back to this in a later installment and tell you everything about it.

I'd like to say something about the music examples as well: The pieces I've chosen represent and should give you an impression of the different cultures and regions in the game. There's also music that's more generic or even otherworldly in quality. The Hyborian world is not only made up of what you can see, and the people in it live in the shadows of its past. There are forces at work that are both ancient and cruel. I hope some of this comes through in the music. They are short excerpts, but I hope you will enjoy them!
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You can find samples of Knut's tracks in the audio section
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Audio Section

[Quazimodo]

Character Customisation Preview


- Jun 16, 2006
This week we thought we'd give you a sneak peek into the character customisation options that will be available in Age of Conan


One of the most important elements in any MMO is the process of creating your character itself. In many ways the ability to give your virtual persona a unique and interesting look is every bit as important as their stats, abilities and items.

In Age of Conan we want to create a character customisation system that presents players with a deep and varied selection of options. A system that truely lets them craft a unique looking character, and one that is in keeping with the world of Hyboria. We went looking for the art team responsible for creating this system to find out a little about what inspires them when considering what options to present to players!

Kristian Vik elaborated for us: "When we set out to make one of the roughest places in fantasy literature come alive in an MMO, we wanted to embed the adverse nature of the world in everything we did. From the beginning, it was very important for us to enable the players to create characters with actual character, not plain-faced mannequins with armour. In Age of Conan, Hyboria is a cruel and unforgiving world, we wanted our characters to look like survivors, people whose features reflected the violent and merciless nature of Hyboria.

Your characters in Age of Conan will all be deeply customizable. In character creation you will be able to alter the shape of the body and head by scaling and editing the muscle-mass and bone structure, then tweaking the texture of the skin. Afterwards, you'll be able to slap on race-specific tattoos, scars and other asymmetrical detail, change the tint of your skin, and pick and choose from a wide variety of hairstyles and beards. All of this will give you a wide variety of ways to make your character stand out against the saturated and vivid backdrop of the brutal world in which he'll live.

We hope this will help and encourage people to make truly unique characters, filling the Hyborean world with characters ranging from valiant soldiers and unbreakable barbarians to degenerate swashbucklers and wizened mages."

After a little 'gentle persuasion', and a promise not to tell Gaute that we were distracting them (guess this has torn that one!) from the actual work of creating this great system, the team provided us with these three great images below. These show off how you might customise a character for each of the different races.




So if thats the inspiration behind the system, what kind of options can you actually expect to find?

Race - Chosing your starting race will of course be the first choice you have to make!

Bone scaling on all parts of the body, including arms, legs and torso etc, allowing you to define the height, weight and porportions of your character

Over twenty sliders for facial expressions (for example there are five sliders just to customise the nose - length, width, placement, angles and more...)
Skin Coloring of character.
A wide selection of hair and facial hairs.
An age slider so your character can be a determined younger man or a seasoned veteran

Texture Layering for Tattoos, scars, facepaint and more.
Ability to wear piercing, bands etc...
We hope that with these kind of options players will have no problems populating the Hyboria of Age of Conan with many a character you won't want to meet in the back alleys of Tortage late at night!

[Quazimodo]

Gameplay Preview #8 - Spellweaving


- Jun 23, 2006
This week we take a look at the dark and arcane arts that are part of the magic system in Age of Conan, and in particular our unqiue spellweaving system!

Magic and Spellweaving

In Age of Conan we wanted the magic to reflect the world in which the game is based. Dealing with the arcane arts and siphoning the power of ancient gods is not something to be taken lightly. Just like our melee system, our magic system will also call upon the skills of the player. The player learning to balance their lust for powerful affects with the dangers that calling upon such extraordinary magic incurs.

There will of course be a number of simple and straightforward spells that casters can call upon, as you would see in other games. These though are merely the common incantations and curses that every young acolyte is taught, mere parlour tricks compared to what is possible with the magic in Age of Conan! Whilst useful in and of themselves the basic spells are merely the prelude to the true power that can be channelled – channelled through the art of spellweaving.

Our spellweaving system calls upon the caster to effectively weave an intricate series of incantations and spells into one final spell that can be unleashed to smite their enemies or aid their allies. It could be as short as weaving two simple spells together to boost their effect through to the fine art of combining up to twenty spells into a devastating blend of mystical power.

So how does it work?

The player will start the spellweave by activating their spellweave ability. This places them in a trance-like state where they cannot move and the only actions they are allowed to perform is adding more components to the weave.

Once in the spellweave the player can add as many spells into the weave as they can manage or want to. The maximum number of spells that can be called into a weave is dependant on the players level.

Then once the elements are all added they can end the weave by deactivating the ability and the weave will fire off at its target as the caster leaves the trance and is free to move around again.

The spellweaving system allows for some truly awe-inspiring effects to be invoked. This allows the caster to tailor a specific incantation best suited to their current target. Whether it is combining debuffs or enhancing your damage, or even a combination of the two - the spellweaving system will allow casters to adapt their strategies to the situation at hand!

The depth of the system lies in figuring out the best combinations for the weaves and how best to avoid the darker side of Hyborian magic, because spellweaving does not come without risk!

Dark and Dangerous: Ill-effects and magical burden

Using the ancient magic’s of the gods is far from a trivial matter, and spellweaving opens up the caster to the dangerous elements that dabbling in such arcane arts invariably attracts.

Spellweaving is almost a balancing act. How much power can you summon forth without incurring some ancient curse or other mysterious ailment?

When a caster performs a spellweave there is a chance that they will suffer ill-effects from the process.

The risk of this depends on how powerful a weave they are performing based upon the power of the spells they are trying to combine and their level. Stray too far beyond what you are capable of and you will run the risk of incurring one of these side-effects!

The weave is not an exact science and even the mana cost of the weave will vary from that of its base components and whilst the system even allows for a caster to use more mana then they have, a heavy price might be paid for delving too deeply beyond those magical reserves.

The other element to spellweaving is a characters magical burden, every time a weave is performed they incur a magical burden, a dept as it were that weighs upon them. If too many weaves are attempted consecutively, or they attempt a weave that pushes their limits the burden will increase their chances of incurring ill-effects on the next weave. This burden naturally decays when a caster is not in a spellweave


Developing Magic

We really think that the spellweaving system will provide players with a unique system that allows for a wonderfully diverse set of tactics to be used. We wanted to go beyond the standard ‘choose the right spell’ or ‘rock, scissors, stone’ approach to spell casting. At the same time try we also wanted to create something that is truly in keeping with the style of magic portrayed by Robert E Howard where magic was dark, dangerous and an art many tried but few mastered!

We hope that with this system players will really be able to tread that dark line between the quest for power and the risk of insanity or worse!

[Quazimodo]

New Concept Art added


- Jun 30, 2006
We have updated the concept art gallery today with four great new character concepts!


You can find the new images here.

[Quazimodo]

Competition Winners


- Jul 07, 2006
Congratulations today to the winners of our recent comic and party competitions!

Dark Horse Competition

First up the winner of our Dark Horse comic competition whowins a place in our beta tests later in the year is:

Greg Panovich of South Milwaukee
Congratulations to Greg and thanks to all those who entered the competition!

Comic-con Party

Next up are the five winners of the places at the Conan Properties party at this years Comic-con event. The five lucky winners who will get to mingle with the Conan team are as follows:

Al Royce
Jim Eppard
Daniel Espinoza
Matthew Blinn
Ronald Scott Tilton
Congratulations to the winners and we look forward to seeing you there!

[Quazimodo]

Conan at Comic-con


- Jul 14, 2006
Next week sees a great Conan presence at the Comic-con event in San Diego. If you are planning on attending the show make sure you catch some of the action at the show!


We will be joining our friends at Dark Horse comics at their booth to talk a little about the game and to hand out the first prints of the exclusive Age of Conan comic created by the Dark Horse team (as well as our ever popular inflatable swords)!

In addition there is a great chance to ask questions of various members of the Conan properties team at the Robert E Howard panel that will take place on July 20th between 2 and 3pm in room 6B of the convention center. Our product manager Jorgen Tharlasden will be one of the panel that also includes authors, artists and other luminaries from the Conan property partners!

Community Manager Craig Morrison will also be there to chat with fans that want to head over to the Dark Horse booth to say hello! So if you are attending the show this year make sure you drop by!

For more details of the show you can check out their website here.

[Quazimodo]

Conan @ Comic-Con

- Jul 21, 2006

This weeks update comes (literally!) from the show floor at the convention. Since my remote access systems seem to be playing up this weeks update will be a forums exclusive as it were!

The show has been a great opportunity to meet fans, show the game off a little and spend some time with the great creative team at Conan Properties and the various Conan partners.

Yesterday saw a great panel session with the Conan properties team celebrating a hundred years of Robert E Howard. Product Manager Jorgen Tharalsden took part in the panel, showing the game off, and showing the E3 trailer off on the huge screen in the auditorium.

The inflatable swords are as always one of the most popular swag items at the show with would be barbarians wandering the halls battling their friends in inflatable sword fights! (I'm not so sure we are that popular with the con security team though!)


Attached are a series of photos from the show

The crowds get a big screen viewing of the E3 trailer.


Jorgen speaks to the crowd about the game


The crowd assembled for the Robert E Howard Panel


The massive Conan banner across the Dark Horse Booth

[Punchline]

Zomgz!! ++++Rep!! :p