http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=16591

GC08: Age of Conan interview Funcom is not about to shut the party down before it has started. Age of Conan has had a few ups and downs already. The launch went well, but since then it's as if the rocket has really left the launch pad - in other words, the subscribers are leaving. The biggest problem the players complain about is lack of content. The first 50 levels are filled with stuff to do, but then it slowly dries up and players are forced to the good old "grinding" routine, if they want to reach the highest levels - and who doesn't. However, Funcom is aware of that. During GC08 in Leipzig we got a briefing by Funcom's Erling Ellingsen, and the message is clear - more content, lots more content. Funcom does still see Age of Conan as a success, though, and rightly so - there are still 400.000 active players. - We are aware of the players' complaints and we're working very hard on creating more content in terms of more items, dungeons and zones, Elligsen said, and admitted that there's been a lack of extremely cool gear that the players could aspire to get. One of the first new features for the gamers will be the Tarantia Commons, a totally new zone in the already big main city of the game. Commons is a slum area for characters around level 30. The developers have worked hard on creating different types of quests this time around, for instance the player's ethics will be challenged: - Two groups dominate the slum district, and the player has to chose which one to work for. While you could do work for both groups, it would not be popular, warns Ellingsen. - We wanted to create different kinds of quests - stuff that can be solved in several ways. And some will challenge your very own ethics. For instance you can get a quest that requires you to kill a person from the other group and bring back one of his fingers as proof. You can choose to do that, or you could go into the slums and get the finger from a corpse. We've also added lots of ladders in the zone - it's not gonna be Assassin’s Creed, but there will be a lot of climbing and some might be tempted to steal stuff while they are walking on the roof tops.   But Funcom doesn't stop with new zones. They are also returning to some of the dungeons that came with the game: - The message from the players is clear: We have lots of dungeons and that's fine. But they need to be better, more exciting and visually more stunning. That's why we are returning to a lot of our existing dungeons and giving them a major face-lift. Some of the dungeons already revisited are Black Castle and the two "... of the Ancients”. - For instance we are adding traps. These demand attention and cooperation from the players in order to move on. If you don't spot a trap, you will pay the ultimate price - your adventurer's life. He showed us a gigantic flame room in Black Caste. When a player stood on a specific stone, the flames would die down. Another player then had to run to the far end of the room in order to stand on another stone to get everyone through safely. The developer has paid a lot of attention to various types of traps. It got a lot of inspiration from Indiana Jones and we even see a big rolling stone during the presentation. The company has also worked on the bosses: - We want to make boss fights more interesting and epic. It's not a secret that we love Blizzard's way of making boss fights and we're gonna try and do something similar in Age of Conan.   We were shown a boss fight that took place in a gigantic well. Hordes of fanatic women charged from the side - sacrificing their lives in order to save their ruler. Thus the team had to coordinate in order to win. Some had to fight the boss while others kept the women at bay - else the fight would continue for ever. The developer is also working on a brand new are for players around level 60, Ymir’s Pass. It's around level 60 that most players run out of quests and interesting things to do, so this will be one of the most welcome news. We're talking about a massive zone with a very long quest line, that tells the story of Ymir's Son. He is a half-god chained to Earth in a new instance that follows the zone called The Amphitheater: - The fights have to be more epic - and we think we've achieved that with Son of Ymir. He is extremely cool and it's gonna be interesting to see if he is thankful for the interference by the players in godly business or not...   Another new instance will be House of Crom, which is a so-called ”group-dungeon” for level 80 characters. By ”group” Funcom means that several groups can be in the same instance, but the area will be large enough for them to meet very rarely. Finally we got to see a presentation of the new ”Consequence” PvP-system, that punishes players who kill others who are many levels below themselves. At first they are deemed criminals, then killers. If you work together with a killer, you become a criminal yourself. That includes grouping with them, trading with them and in general just dealing with them. As a criminal it gets dangerous to move around in the cities, and other players can kill you and take your loot without consequences. That's not all though - there are also more rewards for players who fight other players on fair ground: - We will introduce a new PvP-level system. When players participate in PvP they get experience and gain levels. Once they reach the higher levels cool new gear will await them that will blow their minds. At the end of the presentation Funcom gave us an early look at how its already beautiful game would look after it had DirectX10 enabled. It's really difficult to describe in words, so lets just say that it looked stunningly good. Take for example the grass. Not only does grass and flowers move when you pass through it - they also react to magic. If you shoot a fireball through a field, the flowers will bend away when the fireball passes.   And last but not least - the first expansion pack is already on the way. It will be released next year, but that's all we were told for now. But we got the art work you see below, so Age of Conan veterans might be able to guess what's coming up. It seems Funcom got the message from the player base and are working hard on realising all the potential Age of Conan has.

Looks like they are actively addressing most issues players have, other than personal "pet issues". Even owning up to the valid complaints and feedback many here have been citing as if they were the end of the world.

Now let’s watch all the haters come in and say it’s not happening fast enough.

Also, before anyone uninformed says it, none of this stuff is for the expansion, its all comming before it. (well, except for the expansion.)

All of that sounds great..  But it is all hype.  Haven't you guys had enough hype about this game.

Look at the patches they have released. There has been minimal content added.  They are doing to current players now, exactly what they did to beta players in April  " Don't worry, in the future a lot of things will be getting added".

They still haven't added the pvp patch, and they targeted the end of June as the launch of that.  If they still don't have the pvp patch done, it's going to be a long time til you see any new content.

Stop falling for what they are promising in the future..  look at their past track record..  No new content in 3 months.  All they are doing is adding more to their 'future' hype

Originally posted by Azrile

All of that sounds great..  But it is all hype.  Haven't you guys had enough hype about this game.

Look at the patches they have released. There has been minimal content added.  They are doing to current players now, exactly what they did to beta players in April  " Don't worry, in the future a lot of things will be getting added".

They still haven't added the pvp patch, and they targeted the end of June as the launch of that.  If they still don't have the pvp patch done, it's going to be a long time til you see any new content.

Stop falling for what they are promising in the future..  look at their past track record..  No new content in 3 months.  All they are doing is adding more to their 'future' hype

Welcome too MMO's and MMO launches. Also, the PvP patch is on testlive, and has been updated and tweaked from player feedback regularly. I guess all the dungeon revamps don’t count as new content, even if they are completely new experiences. Right?

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth