Age of Conan: The Rise of the Godslayer

[SinisterDeath]

Source: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2502658#post2502658

 

First expansion for the best-selling and critically acclaimed MMO ‘Age of Conan’ –

– Playable version of the expansion available at the GamesCom show this week –

 

 

 

Durham, USA – August 18th, 2009 – Funcom is proud to reveal ‘Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer’, the first expansion for the critically acclaimed, best-selling new MMO of 2008 ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’. Inspired by the rich and colorful cultures of eastern Asia, ‘Rise of the Godslayer’ will send players on a voyage through the Empire of Khitai where countless hours of more brutal, sexy and savage adventure awaits. ‘Rise of the Godslayer’ not only introduces a whole new storyline and a vast new world to explore, it also adds new features such as faction gameplay and an alternate advancement system.

 

“Since the turn of the year the team has been working hard on bringing the Empire of Khitai to life,” says Craig Morrison, Game Director and Executive Producer on ‘Rise of the Godslayer’. “Our focus now is on expanding on the strengths of the game by providing massive new regions of the world to explore, and the Empire of Khitai offers a whole new perspective on the Conan lore and universe. ‘Age of Conan’ has evolved leaps and bounds since its launch last year, and we are making sure to build on the existing qualities and expand them further with the brand new content and gameplay in ‘Rise of the Godslayer’.”

 

‘Rise of the Godslayer’ tells the story of an Empire slowly spiraling into chaos, as a consequence of the actions of a young Conan many years ago. After killing the Elephant God in the famous Robert E. Howard story ‘The Tower of the Elephant’, strange and horrible things have been happening to the Empire of Khitai. As a player you must explore the dark roads of the Empire and walk the path of the Godslayer as you unravel a mature and deep storyline full of brutal conflict and political intrigue.

 

 

Go to www.riseofthegodslayer.com for more information such as a complete list of features.

Visit ftp.funcom.com/media to download a press kit containing screenshots, artworks, a video and more.

 

 

Players will discover vast new locations in ‘Rise of the Godslayer’, such as the far-stretching Northern Grasslands, the deceptively serene Chosain Province and the magnificent Pillars of Heaven. Adventurers will find that the new regions are torn apart by conflict between its inhabitants, and you will be able to take part in these conflicts by joining up with many of the warring factions. Faction gameplay plays a large role in ‘Rise of the Godslayer’, presenting the player with choices that earn them both allies and enemies in Khitai. Through questing and adventure players can advance through faction ranks, rewarding them with incredible treasures such as epic new armor and weapons. Players can choose to continue their adventures with existing characters, acquiring new combat abilities and spells through a robust alternate advancement system, or start over again as a Khitan – an all-new culture. No matter what the choice may be, adventurers will find a wealth of new high-level content, but also low-level content in Khitai available immediately after leaving Tortage Island. The expansion also introduces new mounts such as the Tiger, and through adventure players will see them grow from a weak cub into a ferocious fighting companion.

 

“Development on ‘Rise of the Godslayer’ is progressing very well, something gamers can see and experience for themselves this week,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “We have the game up and running on the showfloor at GamesCom, and we encourage everyone there to come visit us and give the expansion a try. We believe ‘Rise of the Godslayer’ will be a strong addition to the ‘Age of Conan’ brand.”

 

GamesCom is one of the world’s biggest gaming shows, and runs from August 19th to August 23rd in Cologne, Germany. Visitors can find ‘Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer’ in Hall 9 all days of the show.

 

Launching in May last year ‘Age of Conan’ quickly became a smash hit in retail, shipping over 1.2 million copies around the world. In North America, the most prominent online gaming market in the west, ‘Age of Conan’ became the third best-selling PC title of the year only beaten by ‘Spore’ and ‘World of Warcraft’. In the weeks after launch ‘Age of Conan’ simultaneously topped the charts in 17 countries, and the game received critical acclaim from gaming press across the globe. ‘Age of Conan’ is now available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Polish, and is being prepared for launch in Korea as well.

 

For an exclusive insight into the expansion pack, please visit IGN (US), Eurogamer (UK), Meristation (Spain), JeuxVideo (France), Buffed (Germany), or Multiplayer (Italy) for details and developer interviews.

 

 

Features of the Expansion

•Embark on the most savage, sexy and brutal Conan adventure yet as you descend into the shadows that have fallen over Khitai, the fabled empire of the east! Ride across the grassy steppes and see the purple pagodas of Paikang rising from the vine-choked bamboo jungles. Unravel the corruption that threatens to taint the very heart of this beautiful land forever!

•Age of Conan's highly acclaimed real-time, action-packed combat gameplay is taken to new heights with incredible martial arts moves, ancient magic, and epic weaponry. Extend your character's powers through a new alternate advancement system that allows you to unlock a vast collection of new abilities that breathes new life into the revolutionary combat system!

•Begin your adventure as a Khitan, an all-new character race, and experience a wide variety of new low-level content. Venture into the land of Khitai as you embark on new quests and acquire new rewards geared towards players fresh off the boat from Tortage!

•A wealth of new content for high-level players! Explore vast overland regions such as the serene Chosain Province or the desert of black sand known as Kara Korum, and delve into numerous new dungeons such as the magnificent Pillars of Heaven. Battle all-new monsters and acquire countless new rewards such as fantastic weapons and armor sets!

•Engage yourself in a mature and deep storyline that brings dramatic storytelling techniques into high-level gameplay. Through hundreds of new, lovingly crafted quests you will follow in the footsteps of Conan himself, where you will discover that the actions of the great barbarian have caused a great upheaval in this far flung land. The truth behind King Conan's actions are twisted and hidden amongst the moral shades of grey of Kithan politics!

•Experience the true power of DirectX 10 graphics with enhanced visuals and new groundbreaking graphical features that brings the land of Khitai to life. The new visual style of the east will also provide a fresh, new look on Hyboria - the savage world of Conan!

•Pick your side! Join one of many warring factions of Khitai, complete assignments for them and slaughter their enemies to reap the exclusive rewards. As you gain influence in a faction you will earn ranks which in turn can be used to unlock incredible treasures. But watch your back, because the enemies of your friends will not hesitate to stab you in your back!

•Explore the lands of Kithai from the back of two new mounts - the Wolf and the Tiger. Starting out as defenseless pets, these creatures will follow by your side and can be grown into ferocious fighting companions through a series of unique quests. Ultimately you will be able to grow them into spectacular mounts that will carry you on your adventures!

 

And the FAQ from the website.

When will the 'Rise of the Godslayer' be released and for what platforms?

'Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer' is in development for the Windows PC platform, with the release date yet to be announced. 'Rise of the Godslayer' is the first expansion pack for the best-selling new MMO of 2008 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures'.

 

Will I need the original game to play the expansion?

 

Yes, you will need an 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' account in order to activate the expansion.

 

Can I use my existing characters in the expansion?

 

Yes, depending on your character's level. 'Rise of the Godslayer' contain a large amount of new content for high-level characters, but will also introduce content for characters at lower levels. The expansion will also introduce a new character race - the Khitan - and there will be new content for those characters after they leave Tortage.

 

What goals did the development team set for this expansion?

 

We wanted to expand the content of the game, and to add an exciting new continent to our game-world. The team has been challenged to take everything we have learnt over the last year and build upon it to provide even more interesting and dynamic game-play for our players.

 

Conflict is also very important to the expansion. Each region has a key conflict going on as a background to everything the player will experience and get to play through. Khitai is currently being torn apart by and is wracked with conflict, the source of the chaos isn't immediately apparent at first, but players will be able to learn more and more about the mysteries of this eastern continent as they progress through the regions.

 

Will 'Rise of the Godslayer' introduce any new land area?

 

Yes! The expansion will feature a whole new land for players to explore, the Empire of Khitai. The first glimpse that players will get of Khitai is actually from the western side of the Great Wall. The aptly named Gateway to Khitai contains rolling steppes that climb up to the foothills of the Mountains of Night.

 

On the eastern side of the Great Wall, the Northern Grasslands stretch as far as the eye can see. Beneath the shadow of the Kang Pagoda lies the village of Chow and further east, the frontier city of Pin Pin awaits. South of Pin Pin, the grasslands are swallowed by impenetrable jungle, while to the north the road winds across the River of Yellow Curses and into the desert of Kara Korum. East the grassland stops abruptly at the Khitain Escarpment. From the edge of the escarpment, you can see clear across the beautiful lands of Chosain Province.

 

Chosain Province, once a stretch of idyllic countryside, is now torn by battle. The northern city of Gun Hai and the southern city of Gun Xui are at war, and the once peaceful city of Shaulun has become a staging ground for mercenaries from across the world. The northern marshes, which bound the southern side of the River of Yellow Curses are populated by monstrous creatures, no doubt crawling across the river from Kara Korum.

 

Kara Korum, the desert of black sand, is eerily silent in comparison with the southern countryside. Nothing moves in the streets of the village known as Ghost Hill and a gentle breeze carries forth the stench of decay from the forest to the south. Northwards, in the center of Kara Korum, the high walls of The Crater dominate the landscape and the sense of the alien that pervades the landscape seems to stem from that place.

 

South again, and on the eastern side of Chosain Province gives way to vine-choked jungles of Paikang. To the north, through Souleater Pass lies Heavens Lake and to the east is Shatterspar Coastline, dotted with the wreckage of a hundred ships. But south is the imperial city itself, Paikang, its purple towered minarets gleaming in the sunlight.

 

How does Khitai differ from the other regions available in Age of Conan?

 

Visually it has all the difference that one would associate with an eastern culture - different architecture, different armor and weapon styles, and different landscapes.

 

Culturally, it is an empire in decline. One of the great themes of Howards work was the inevitable decline of civilization into decadence and then to barbarism. Khitai was a great empire, but it has rotted from within and only signs of the greatness still remain. Unlike barbaric Cimmeria, civilized Aquilonia or decadent Stygia, Khitai actually has elements of all of the stages of the cycle.

 

Finally, all of the regions in the expansion are connected to form a single coherent map. This means that players will be able to see the areas that surround them, and zone across border lines - much like we did recently in Tarantia Commons but on a much larger scale.

 

How will the layout of the world work in the expansion, is it still divided into zones?

 

Yes, we still use zones (or regions or playfields as they are often referred to as). But for the expansion we're putting all the regions next to each other and players will be able to stand in one region and look into the other. This is quite different from the original game where regions are detached from each other completely. This worked well in the original game because regions were spread over a larger map and filling the gap between them was not feasible, but we wanted to do something different for the expansion.

 

You will still experience loading when going from one region to another, but this should make it feel more "seamless" and provide the increased level of immersion that our players have been requesting. There will be no "travel NPCs" that takes you hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.

 

What is the background story for the expansion?

 

The story in the expansion is both about looking at the events of Conan's past and how they have shaped the world, and asking the player character some pertinent questions about their future. We know he is King of Aquilonia, but his past actions have also had serious consequences in other parts of the world, even well before he rose to the Aquilonian throne.

 

Conan's actions in the story "The Tower of the Elephant" were a catalyst for the events which have shaped Khitai for the last two decades. When the player enters Khitai, they are entering a land irrevocably shaped by Conan and the people of Khitai see Conan in a very different light to those of the west. Players will be able to discover exactly how the great barbarian's previous exploits have plunged the land of Khitai into darkness and chaos.

 

As the player travels through Khitai, they will also be called upon to consider the events of their own past in a new light. The question of immortality and what is the true difference between a man and a god will also feature prominently.

 

With conflict being at the core of the experience we have designed the content around presenting the player with meaningful faction choices in each of the new gameplay regions.

 

How will the new faction gameplay work in the expansion?

 

In each of the new regions players will encounter separate factions that are, for various reasons, in a constant state of conflict. Players will have to choose which side of each individual conflict they ally themselves to!

 

There will be separate quest lines for each faction that helps to weave the story of the conflict in Khitai in a way that has an impact on every player's experience.

 

You gain standing with a faction by killing their enemies and completing quests for them. You lose standing by killing members of a faction or taking betrayal quests.

 

Once a player's standing is high enough with a particular faction, they can complete ranking quests to earn ranks. Ranks unlock special rewards, titles and additional tiers of quests. NPCs will react to you differently depending on your standing with their friends or enemies, so be warned, your actions may not go unnoticed!

 

Will there be new armor sets in the expansion?

 

Yes, each faction has its own unique armor set, with four separate tiers to achieve within each faction. Gaining good standing with the various factions will allow players to earn these armor sets as they progress.

 

Will there be any new abilities for my character to obtain?

 

Players will be able to learn brand new combo attacks through the new expansion content and the alternate advancement system. As with the original game all our attack animations are expertly motion-captured and really bring the combat game-play to life! We couldn't explore the eastern theme and not incorporate some martial arts moves! Players will also be able to acquire new spells and other abilities.

 

Are there any new classes being added to the game in the expansion?

 

No, we felt that there was already the right number of class options in the game. We would rather focus on adding something meaningful and useful to all the existing classes. This is where the new alternate advancement system mentioned above comes in. Though this system players can get access to new skills, abilities, combos and spells for their existing characters.

 

Is the level cap being raised in the expansion?

 

We have chosen not to raise the level cap, but the expansion content will get harder as you progress through the various regions. Players will have to earn and master the various new alternate advancement abilities in order to take on the new content!

 

Will there be any new mounts in the expansion?

 

The expansion will introduce two new mounts: the Tiger and the Wolf. Both of these mounts are predators and are not used to carrying riders. Thus they must be captured young and trained to bear the weight of a human.

 

How do you train Tigers and Wolves to become mounts?

 

In the case of the Tiger mount, for example, it is a religious ritual for the cult that you must join. In order to capture their tiger, the player must travel into the woods unarmed and unarmored and kill the Tigress barehanded. Then they can pluck the mewling and defenseless newborn from the den and bring it back to raise it as their own. It first becomes a pet and the player must teach the tiger all of the necessary skills for survival such as hunting, stalking and battle. Once the tiger has grown large enough and if the bond is strong enough, the player must create a saddle out of various ingredients scattered across the land. Only then will the Tiger become a mount.

 

Will there be any new dungeons in the expansion; what can you tell us about them?

 

Yes, there will be new dungeons. For example, Pillars of Heaven is a group instance designed to give players 2-3hrs of playtime. The Pillars are actually a temple that was built thousands of years ago by the Lemurians. It was long since abandoned and recently has been claimed as a base for a renegade Hyrkanian chieftain known as Bhangi Khan. Bhangi Khan and his bandits have been plundering the nearby grasslands and players will travel to the Pillars to put an end to his reign. The pillars contain ancient traps and special puzzles which will require the players to think on their feet.

 

How are you approaching storytelling in 'Rise of the Godslayer' compared to the original game?

 

We are taking the things we have been doing with the live game and building on it further for the expansion. Dynamic and interesting quests will drive the story further for the player and reveal more about the mysteries of Khitai. The team is focusing on providing a more interesting and varied game-play experience as you have seen in Ymir's Pass and Tarantia Commons, areas that we added to 'Age of Conan' after launch through free updates. This time around you have much more important choices in each region of the game world. As we mentioned above, conflict is a pivotal aspect of the expansion, and the conflict in each of the regions will force the player into some hard choices!

 

Will there be a new race and what content will be available to new characters?

 

Yes, players will be able to create a Khitan character. The Khitan race will play through Tortage Island as all new arrivals in Hyboria do (but veteran players may notice a few changes here and there as the east has opened up), but when they leave Tortage they will return to their homeland in Khitai and be able to explore a large new region built specifically for players leaving Tortage to introduce them to the eastern lands and start to reveal some of the secrets of these new lands. While players won't be able to actually get past the great wall until they are much higher in level they will be able to play through this low level content in their own homeland.

 

How will the alternate advancement system work?

 

The alternate advancement system will basically allow players to use their experience towards special alternate advancement feats and combos. This will open up a lot of new potential abilities for players. In addition the players will also be able to 'train' these feats to a second level over time to perfect them. This will allow players to choose which of their new feats or abilities to focus on and decide which order they build them up in. This training will continue whether you are online or offline, and will take a certain amount of time to complete (depending on the power of the feat), so it is a tactical choice for the player as to which order they do this training.

 

Where are you getting inspiration from when developing this expansion?

 

First and foremost are the original Howard stories. There is not a whole lot about Khitai in those stories, but anything that is mentioned is tied to the expansion in some way. Also as we have hinted at above, key elements from one of Conan's most iconic adventures is key to everything that is happening in Khitai!

 

We've made a conscious choice to avoid the Japanese style of the Dark Horse Khitai comics - we've focused much more on the cultures of ancient China and Korea. We also use the recent Khitai sourcebook by Mongoose Publishing as a source of inspiration. And naturally there is a wealth of Chinese and Korean myth and legend to draw upon and write our own conanesque take.

 

Will there be any new music for this expansion?

 

Yes, we have retained the services of the fantastic composer of the games original soundtrack, Knut Avenstrup Haugen, who is putting together a great eastern themed soundtrack.. I think it was one of the elements of the game that people really responded well too, so we were very glad to be able to get him back on board for the expansion!

 

For how long have Funcom been working on the expansion?

 

In its early stages there were a very small team working on concepts and paper zone designs in the fall last year. We had a lot of focus on the live game last year and early this year, so that core team worked on the concepts and ideas during that period. Then at the beginning of the year we moved more people onto the expansion team and started full scale production

[SinisterDeath]

Personally, I can't wait for this to be released. I've been playing Age of Conan since it launched. It may not be as polished as world of warcraft, It may not have as much end game content. It may even still have bugs, and full of server lag, and low population. But you know what it has that World of Warcraft doesn't?

 

Breasts.

And Really Big Phalic Swords.

 

And A Melee Combat system that kicks ass, And boobs. Did I mention theres boobs in this game? ;)

 

Seriously though, some will whine that this expansion is making the game more wow-ish (specially with the New mounts) but... This doesn't look like a wow mount to me!

 

Plus they are adding in a system that I loved back from my EQ days, the idea of an Alternate Advacement system! Course, for you fps whores and such, this means nothing to ya. MMOs are a different sect of gaming all together. Its kind of like the underbelly, the kind of gaming one does, and doesn't want to admit it to the other gaming nerds, cause. Lets face it, If you play mmos, you are the nerds of the gaming crowd, and the halo fans, are like the big noisy jocks. Course, we don't talk about them, cause they only speak in grunt.

[NighteyesDM]

That top mount actually kinda looks a bit like the mount for the new worgen class. Not 100% mine you but close at least to me.

[SinisterDeath]

That top mount actually kinda looks a bit like the mount for the new worgen class. Not 100% mine you but close at least to me.

 

That was concept art as part of the Collectors Edition for Age of Conan.

Should be noted, that alot of the guild features that Blizzard announced, Funcom announced for Age of Conan about 2 months back, to be released in patch 1.06 (as well as opening Thoth Amons which is the top tier raid zone in the game, and Croms Hall or something, which is either, after Thoth Amons, or between em. OR apart. Dunno yet. But Tier 3 gear is being released for it.

 

Raid wise, I can't really say base AoC is ahead or behind wow. I mean, base wow had the BRC raids, then it had the Onyxia raids, and it didn't actually get the ones after BRC/onyxia until about 6 months later. :P

Vistrix - Dragon

Kylikki - Undead final boss in the kylikki dungeon

Honor Guard - Undead, 1st boss in the Kylikki dungeon

Yakmar - Giant worm

 

and 3 end game wings (the vistrix is the only one required to get into oddly enough, BRC. Black Ring Citidal (Wow is like black rock citidal, lol)

1st wing

Excorant the Golem Master - Push over, but can be a pain. Its a golem.

 

Yarekma the Soul Eater - Giant thing, known as the clicky boss.

 

Sabazios the Insane - loot pinatta

 

2nd wing

Ahazu-Zagam - dubbed the fart boss

Incubus & Sucubus - This is actually two bosses in one figh, and not 2 easy bosses, these guys have just as much HP and ATK as any other boss. And if they touch, they enrage. Oh, and the make your character pregnant.

 

Seruah - Have to kill a billion waves of mobs/minnions/pets, then when she spawns you gotta run up, else she teleports-instakills people

 

Chatha - IMO the hardest boss in the game.

 

3rd Wing

Athyr-Bast: This should be tougher then Chatha, currently theres a method in use, that is obviously not 'trick' the developers orginally intended to use to kill it. So its gunna be a while to see if they nerf it, or keep it as is, and make the fight the hardest. ;)

 

Leviathus: Final Boss so far. He is easy, and hard at the same time. Normal Mode, he is pretty easy. But you can still easilly wipe if anything goes bad. But theres a way to make that fight 2x as hard, which brings it up to the Chatha hard level. And technically is supposed to be the hardest encounter in the game according to the developers.

My guild was the first guild in the North American servers to down the new version of the boss. Possibly the world. (And I was there!) :P

 

 

So yea, not trying to do the whole 'wow did it first, and go 'nuhuh' thing. Just saying currently age of conans got 14 Raid Encounters for level 80s, it came with at least 2-3 dungeons for every 10 levels. (at least 1, maximum of 3 per 'region' for that level group) Probably the only thing the game lacked at launch was stable servers, a client that didn't have stability issues, and truelly massive raids/battles. Biggest raid is only a 24 man. I don't think anyones PC could handle a 48 man raid to be honest. Sieges are 24 vs 24 and those are lagy enough as is. ;)

 

I'm wondering just where the new raids will be placed on the new expansion. Same level as the current one? Below it? Above it? All of the above? With weekly timers on all bosses in Age of Conan, its entirely possible to kill every boss in the game, in about 8 hours of gameplay. (I think vanilla wow when it first came out the raid reset was far sooner, every 3 days if that?) If the new expansion has anywhere near as much content as the orginal, And tougher dungeons, I'd probably be looking at at least 20+ hours worth of weekly raid content.

 

And Alternate Advancement! ;)

[NighteyesDM]

A few of the things they mentioned made me think of EQ right off. Like the guild leveling system and mentoring system as well.