AoC Director’s Letter: Expansion Details

Age of Conan’s Game Director, Craig Morrison, has spoken about the recently announced upcoming expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, in his monthly letter to the community.Players who felt the zones in original AoC were too far apart, sometimes breaking the continuity of the story, should be happy with the expansion. Whereas FunCom was tied to Howard’s vision of the land before, this new area, Khitai, is more or less a blank canvas:“Going to Khitai does give us much more freedom with the map. Whereas Howard had fairly carefully mapped out the layout of the kingdoms in Conan’s world, that isn’t the case with Khitai and that has allowed us to address the second of those issues by ensuring that all of the playfields lead on from each other. You will be able to see where you are going and moving from region to region in the expansion should feel much more like a coherent journey.”Morrison also promises that playing field space will be much better used, increasing the playable are in each zone by as much as 30%.He also talks about other upcoming updates, including the Iron Tower level 80 instance and the 1.06 update, which will appear on test servers after the Iron Tower is live. House of Crom will also be a level 80 instance that will probably have two parts, one that is a regular single team instance and another that supports several teams in a “social dungeon setting”. The third raiding tier is also on its way with a new loot table and armor sets.Finally, Morrison talks about the long-awaited veterans system, and says players should see something before patch 1.06. It will allow veteran players to earn a new currency based on how many months they have been subscribed. This currency will allow players to purchase convenience items such as additional travel options or cheaper mounts for alts, as well as cosmetic and fun items.Things seem to be looking up for FunCom after a rocky start with AoC. It emerged earlier that the company is opening a new development studio in Montreal. This branch will be involved in the AoC expansion and FunCom’s new MMO, The Secret World.