Age of Conan ( Release date: 2008. 03)

[t2avIss]

When will the game be released?

Current release is in March of 2008, third party sites that list a different time should be taken with a grain of salt. A console version of the game is to be released the following year, it will be going to the XBOX 360, but may end up on other systems as well before all is said and done.

 

System requirements?

A general rule of thumb has been that if you can play the single player game Oblivion and have a cable modem or something nearly as fast/faster you should be able to play this at least on minimum requirements. The game is designed to work with Windows Vista and its DirectX 10, but those systems (while they boost topend performance) are not required. A recent FC interview stated that AoC's current minimum requirements are "roughly 3 ghz P4 (or equivalent), ATI 9800 / NVidia 5700 and around 1 gig memory", it went on to mention they were working to lower memory requirements.

 

Will there be separate servers? How big will they be?

Yes, there will be separated servers for PvE and PvP rulesets, precisely what rulesets will be available has not yet been decided. There will also be servers dedicated to only PC or console players available to join. Just what the upper load on each server will be has not been announced, but it has been stated that upwards of 2000 characters online at once, with peaks of around 4000 players will be expected. Numbers obviously open to change.

 

What about the combat?

Combat will be a mixture of realtime and automated, while you cannot actively block incoming attacks, you control every swing and its direction. There are 5 angles of attack, upper right and left, lower right and left, and a swing at the head. (classes not focusing on melee have a modified system with 3 angles of attack.) Followthrough is highly important, as linking your blows together in a logical way will allow you to attack faster and more effectively than if you just kept spamming one or two buttons. There will also be evasive maneuvers in which you can dive out of harms way, and combat stances, which will have various effects on your offensive and defensive capabilities. See Here for gamespy's review of the combat and other aspects of the game.

 

Well, thats nice, what about bows and other ranged attacks?

Ranged attacks, both bow and magic, will be handled in a close up third person view, nicknamed "parrot vision" Two of the screenshots found Here show an archer plying his trade Rangers also have the ability to go into a volley stance, raising their bow to around a 45 degree angle, its purpose is for large combat, where blanketing a general area with waves of arrows is extremely useful.

 

What lore will AoC be based on?

Content within this game is taken from a wide variety of sources, but by far the biggest contributions to this take on the world of Hyboria are from the original Robert Howard books, The Hour of the Dragon in particular. The storyline of the game begins around a year after Conan reclaims the throne of Aquilonia in the aforementioned book. If you or anyone else is thinking of the Conan movies when you hear the name, I can assure you that this has little to do with it other than the name.

 

What classes will be available for play?

Currently we have four Archetypes: Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Priest your archetype is chosen at level 5. At level 20, you further refine your character by choosing your class. A list of the Archetypes and the following Class choices can be found HERE. Important note: This class tree had a major update on January 12th 2007, several of the major classes were merged together, details on exactly how and why HERE

 

What Races?

Currently we have three playable races to choose from, the developers may add more at a later time, but for now we have the Cimmerians, a barbaric people of the north, they are known for their strength and prowess in battle, King Conan is descended from these people. The Aquilonians, a more “civilized” people, culturally resembling the Romans/Greeks, Conan himself rules Aquilonia, although his throne is in danger as of late. And finally we have the Stygians, who culturally are similar to the ancient egyptians.

 

What about crafting?

Each and every character has a choice of four prestige classes: Lord, Master, Commander, and Crafter. Each of these grants access to at least one crafting skill type, as well as having other effects. Only the crafter has access to all forms of crafted items, and additionally has a higher threshhold for top end gear. Look HERE for further details on each of the available prestige classes and the different forms of crafting.

 

How much can I customize my character?

Character creation is very detailed, you can add scars, tattoos, ornaments, etc. You can also scale many portions of the body, arms, calves, even your arse and breast size and shape. More than 40 sliders are available to tweak your face. Don’t want to take the time? There’s a random appearance generator button you can hit.

 

What about death and resurrection?

Upon death, you gain a temporary stat drain, you also ressurect at a temple or other spawn point, assuming you don't have too much soul corruption.

 

My mage just fumbled a really big spellweave and blasted himself to bits, what happens now

Under the right conditions, characters with enough Soul Corruption will go to hell upon death, and will be forced to fight their way out before being able to respawn and continue the game. This is primarily a problem for mages and priests, but other characters will have to watch for it as well.

 

spellweaving?

Spell weaving is where a character can take a magical ability,and "stack" others with it. For example, lets say a demonologist first casts a container spell. He then adds a fairly weak AOE shockwave spell meant to stave off opponents, a powerfull single fireball spell, and a on touch mana draining spell. Casting the final product results in an AOE blast of fire around the targeted area that drains some magic from enemies to the mage. Powerful abilities come at a cost though, fumbling such a spell can have disastrous consequenses for the mage and those around him, including massive amounts of soul corruption, even for those who don't use magic.

 

What is soul corruption?

Soul Corruption is a system in which contact with fell powers has a number of effects on your character. Since mages must bargain with these powers for the sake of their abilities, they are the most susceptable to it. Some, such as the Herald of Xotli, have much to gain from it, others such as the priest of Mitra (whose power comes from the favor of a benevolent god who doesn't... appreciate demons for some reason) will need to purify any taints as soon as they can. Regardless of class, there are serious consequenses to gaining too much soul corruption, ranging from your character going "insane" and blasting everything around him to his soul being stolen down to the depths of hell.

 

What about looting in PVP?

No items are looted. However, a portion of the fallen's cash reserves are looted. These coins are tagged by the system and converted to blood money. Blood money is a special form of currency, it is mostly used to purchase PvP specific gear and skills, most merchants simply will not accept Blood money as payment. This also means that the more sucessfull you are in PvP, the greater your personal risk, and the more people have to gain by taking your head in return.

 

How are the tunes?

One of the most important part to games is the background music, and FC is really kicking arse along these lines from what we have seen. The band creating the music is excellent at what they do. A special kind of mixer is in the works, ensuring that while music stays relevant to your location and situation, you never quite hear the same track twice. Here are the sample tracks that have been released so far, and they sound great.

 

Gamespy review: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/age-of-conan-hyborian-adventures/702686p1.html

SC: http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?session=szkykgozls1e9jtylzykpkuvsyw1os&func=frontend.show&template=inc_images&page=1&func_id=1036&sort=&input=

Class choices: http://community.ageofconan.com/conan/frontend/static/classlist/

Crafting: http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?session=u2vo0wg0on7mq20vzjgndcpfm7n55q&func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=1194&sort=PRIORITY&table=CONTENT

Tunes: http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=frontend.show&func_id=1023&template=inc_media_listing&selected=1023

 

Some videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IijQUEG-QzY&feature=related

 

The MOST POPULAR MMORPG!!!

It gets about 60k hits a week while the second only gets 30k(Warhammer online)

 

[TheVortex]

Damn it rocks. Very good graphics and and ... !!

[naotohattori]

let me guess,my pc gonna eat stones when i wanna play with it?=/

[zl4y3r]

lol the capes are 100% clone of GuildWars capes, and the armor/characters look similar too

[kenshin52]

maan the videos are crazy i think this will be a rly good game

[nikolas12]

i will wait for it

[cloud21]

yes its look good...

but its like a guild wars...:/

[pupazz]

ill play this one 4 sure

 

[Ronin 007]

I'll try this out! It looks gorgeous, and I've heard many good about it!

[blue_devil]

hope my pc can handle it

[Stefoulis15]

very good game....

nice graphics , perfect plot...

it RockS!

[OneLive]

must to buy new good PC for this game because my pc maybe don't let me play this one :)

[divine1]

Looks magnificent, cool animations and graphics. But my computer is too slow :p

[ALEX2008GR]

is something like wow ?? or i think ?

[Mach]

I'm getting a new Video Graphics Card for it =)

Definitely gonna play it.