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Newsroom
Age of Conan : Update 1.07 to Feature Offline Progression
Posted Feb 19, 2010 by Michael Bitton
Age of Conan Game Director Craig Morrison returns with the Letter from the Game Director for February. The new letter focuses mainly on version 1.07, which will be the last game update before the release of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion sometime this year.
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1.07 will consist mostly of "under the hood" changes, but there are a few standout features that players will be sure to notice. One such feature is an expansion of travel options. This will mostly come in the form of additional wagoner NPC's at key locations of each zone, such as quest hubs and major outposts. The wagoners will offer one way transportation to other key areas of the particular zone.
However, the real standout feature of 1.07 is the inclusion of an offline progression system. Players will earn levels even while offline, and can then allocate these extra levels to their characters through the character creation screen. Mr. Morrison does stress that these extra levels aren't implemented in such a fashion that they would discourage players from actually playing the game, but are more of an extra boost to help your main or alts keep up when you can't be around.
The current rate of offline level gain would take someone a full nine months to level a new character to the level cap without ever playing it, and Mr. Morrison states that it may be adjusted even further, so this is obviously not going to be the fastest way to level your alts.
Read more at Letter from the Game Director - February 2010.
After being called the most improved game of 2009 it keeps getting better with each patch. And after the launch of the expansion im under the firm belief that this game will be around for some time.
It may not reach millions like it was thought at launch, but the community now is steady and many people have been joining the game lately, and I think many players will want to check the expansion.
Oooo...!! This game keeps getting better & better!
This is awesome! I'm such a slow leveller due to lack of time. This is a great feature. The new travel options are great, too.
Still not regretting my year of gametime I purchased :)
Prax
Keeps getting better and better.
I think it was Euro gamer that said Funcom could have the best mmo on the market soon, i think they are right.
I'm also a terribly slow leveler between not having enough time to play and being an alt-aholic. This offline leveling might just pull me back in!
I'm actually happy to see things turning around for them on a community level. They still have detractors,sure, but they've definitely turned a lot of peoples opinion of them around on it's head. Can't wait for the expansion to launch, as well as this new feature, I'm another person who doesn't have a whole lot of time for MMO's, might give more incentive (to me) to keep a sub open for longer intervals.
Amazing! AoC is literally rising from the ashes of a disappointing launch to become the game it was meant to be.
My 6-month sub ends in April and I thought I wouldn't continue now that I'm playing STO. But with all these great additions and changes I'm reeeeally considering sticking around a bit longer.
Bravo!
I've played a little here and there of AoC in the past and just recent to see if it grabbed my attention. I've been reading nothing but good things about it and It's something I'm certainly going to invest my time in the near future.
Seems interesting, I'll probably wait till the expansion hits before I give it another try.
I hope the offline leveling will have a bit more too it than characters automatically gaining them, like an off/off switch. It would be weird to return to the game in the future and find the alts are all capped.
Sorry this is a bad bad bad idea. I can see it now tons of useless players who don't know how to play thier class. Its almost like having ebayed players without the ebay.
Worst idea ever!
I think that is a wonderful idea, and amazing too. I just resubbed not even 2 days ago to the game. it IS a lot better. i originally quit 2 weeks into release. since i've been back, the game has been wonderful!
Dilling you have a very valid point but it might just be the only downside of it.
and if I read it right it then you select who gets the xp, not have them auto-lvl all the time. I hope they would not just auto-lvl cause like someone else said that would just be wierd to log in and see your lowbies were no longer lowbies regardless of your choice.
Yes, this is a very odd idea but being an altoholic I can't help but be excited about it.
I have been updated from the trial for about 2 weeks now and am having a blast.
Last night i solo'd 'Tresury of Ancients' and 'Pyramid of the Ancients' on my Conq. (on normal of course) and it was one of the funnest times I have had in a long time in a MMO.... and I WAS SOLO!!! lol... it was super late and I couldn't find anyone to join but I was happy just learning the place ay my own pace.
Every game just wants to be EVE...admit it.
When I heard offline progression, I thought playable when not connected to the internet. Why havn't these games tried that yet?
I would love to be able to take my mmo with me anywhere, level up my char, and have that info update onto the server when I reconnect. Seems to me almost all the files are installed on to your pc, some games even have a folder with you character data plainly labeled with it's name, so surely pure offline play isn't completly impossible.
This offline leveling system they are offering sounds pretty pointless to me, and sort of deludes the perpose of even playing a game. It's like the afk leveling system in other games, no one bothers actually playing when they can progress by doing nothing, except this is far worse, it encourages people to stay offline.
I could see myself saying "Oh I feel like leveling my char, but wait why bother when I could spend my time playing another game or doing something else and still accomplish that.."
I recently resubbed and I am enjoying ever min of it.. 12.99 for 60 day playtime @ gamestop is too cheap to pass up!
I believe it's gonna take around 81 hours to accumulate a full level from this offline leveling system if it would take you a full 9 months to level a character all the way to 80.
True, this system will help leveling alts, but it wont level them for you. Plus, from what Ive understood, there are some points that are going to stack while offline (much like rested on other games), that can be later spent to increase leevls on selected characters. it wont be an automatic process and we are still going to be able to choose how to spend, and wich characters, so we can manage the level and skill gains across characters.
How long til WoW and LOTRO do an EVE Online too. That said, good idea. Some progression is always welcome.
Well, as far as i can see it the 'free levels' will be in no different in practise to the rested bonus most other games give... Except I will be able to funnel all that bonus XP into an alt (in order to avoid keep playing the newb levels repeatedly) instead of having to use it on my main.
Actually pretty impressed with where AoC is right now tbh... it's looking really good.
i think you will have to have an active account for it to work....well i hope.
This is interesting, might retry AoC when this goes live.
Same here. This feature alone is reason for me to resubscribe.
Yeah, I just bought 2 of those.
Cant wait to see how offline skill progression works. Now that the double xp is gone it slightly become a grind again. Things just get better for this game!
(BBBBBBBBBWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH raises plunger in salute to Funcom!)
This is one of the daftest ideas I've heard in a long time.
Why not just forget this Craig, give everyone a 'straight-to-level-80' button and have done with it.
So, there you go, rushing around for a month with your level 80 gathering mats for the infantile statue to plant in your guild city. Then poof, you can click that button and that pesky alt you couldnt be bothered to play goes up 10 levels.
At which point you might even get the notion to go and play that alt again, but when you do, you'll find the same old quests waiting for you, get bored and back on to your main you go. A month later - Poof!!
[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom]
Can´t see the harm in this. It would help players without alot of time to, atleast, gain an interest again in a forgotten toon. And for you who thinks it´s instant 80... well 9 months to reach that level in offline... That´s roughly 6480 hours. Nobody will solely level an offline alt that´s for sure ;)
Well, as I've been playing AoC for almost 2 years, had this been implemented from day one, I could have snagged 2 'free' level 80s, without a clue how to play their classes etc. I could bring one along to your raid and totally wipe the lot of you with my ineptitude. Sounds like fun.
[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom]
I'm not entirely sure how this makes a game so much more awesome. This doesn't really directly affect the gameplay except for allow players to bypass it.
Fundamentally that just doesn't make sense to me. Not that I would turn away free levels for an alt, but somehow this just doesn't feel right.
Eve online only added this feature because it takes forever to achieve anything in that game.
Well, as I've been playing AoC for almost 2 years, had this been implemented from day one, I could have snagged 2 'free' level 80s, without a clue how to play their classes etc. I could bring one along to your raid and totally wipe the lot of you with my ineptitude. Sounds like fun.
[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom]
Well I played for about 14 months or so. Got 4 80´s on Cimmeria (USA) and 1 on European (no idea what server nowdays) In 9 months of time a "hardcore" player could level and gear up 4 characters without a problem. And for learning to play your toon it´s not that hard mate. Get a few solo level 80 instances under your belt, read the forums abit and bang you got a decent build and good enough knowledge to not make a fool of yourself.
These "casual" players will not join in hardcore guilds that has events every single night of the week maybe they just want to have fun.
This is terrible news,we do not need anymore of this type of mechanic in games.
Offline progression=you do nothing ,so why bother to play the game at all?I can do nothing without paying a 15 dollar subscription fee.
ROM has the learning books offline,related of course to item mall,that is the black mark of that game.
RFO had afk mining,again dumb players building their coffers while at work,earn NOTHING.
EVE and there so called skill trees,just place a check mark and do NOTHING,never thought people would play a game to do nothing,makes zero sense.
Now Funcom joins this fiascal,i thought this Morrison guy was there to lead this game into the promise land?instead this is another ploy to attract more subs from the clueless gamers that actually feel doing nothing is doing something,sad it really takes VERY little common sense to see the failure in this.There is NO excuse ..period,none!.
What's next? The whole game plays itself? I guess we have already seen tons of this from players buying accounts,there really is some sad people out there.We know who to thank for making our gamers cheaper and cheaper lately,the people who support this .Game development moves in the CORRECT direction when people do NOT support lame ideas by developers,Item malls and offline are both at the top of the list for dumbest of all time.These types of ideas may gain your game some more subscriptions,a nice selfish reason to ignore those who actually want to play the entire game.I hope they lose more subs than they gain,it would send the proper message.
Wow... just too funny.
You know a dev team has little to no faith in their game keeping players when they basically just charge you to level you.
Dev team: Our new feature means you dont even have to play our game any more,just send us cash and your toons will level !
A true example of the state of the mmo industry.
Exactly my thoughts. I really liked AoC for almost a year, but after that there were nothing to do.
Even if many people likes C. Morrison, I dont like his ideas and heading of game. First thing that needs change is PvP flags system and he did nothing with it. PvP is boring in general (despite GREAT combo system) mostly because instances, unbalance between casters (same for sieges) and no purpose and "fun" factor in world PvP. Raids are too easy, so they cant last too long and everyone will be bored very fast after expansion release.
So now it seems not playing the game is best option for them.
This.
If you don't have a lot of free time to play, then it just takes you longer to level...oh no? Isn't that how it should be? I mean sure, i'd love to have all kinds of time to play my favorite MMO like I did 12 years ago, but having a house/job/going to college puts a damper on that. But life happens, you know?
I don't care of I had 1 hour a week to play...I'll be damned if I'm going to sub to a game so it levels my characters for me. I really am getting old I think...ugg.
getting a free lvl in a span of 3-4 days is hardly 'not playing the game' unless that is actually the route that an individual takes. and what would be the point in that? why have a sub turned on if you have no interest in playing unless you lvl for free? true, some super-dorks with too much money might take advantage of it but i'm sure that will be a very small %
I can gain WAAAY more than 1 lvl on a toon over a 3-4 day period and thats playing casually.
I can also point out that this game has a set begginer zone (rather than have everyone start in their homeland) and I for one will mainly use this feature to bypass Tortage. True they did a great job making that island interesting but after a few times I would gladly bypass it for alts. Also there seem to be alot of lvling gaps in this game so this feature will kind of help players bypass those lvls that have less content. True, more low-lvl content would be even better than this idea.
I won't sream and rant about how great this idea is because i actually agree with the detractors but only to a small extent. Personally, I will make good of this feature and use it as a nudge forward, not to get a toon 1-80 without touching it.
I really can't imagine some guy wanting a class badly enough that he wants it at 80 to raid, yet can't take a little effort to lvl it himself EVER. If you could get a free 80 in a month, then maybe,..... but 9 months of waiting is another story...... maybe I just don't have the pointlessly lazy frame of mind as some MMO'ers so it's impossible to imagine myself using it in this way. As far as other people exploiting it.... why do you really care? Is it going to ruin your precious little raid? boot them if it happens.... Very easy to fix.
'OMG someone is going to ruin my videogame that i pay monthy for!!!'
if all people can do is cry everytime something happens in a mmo maybe online videogames aren't what you should be doing with your time. There is a reason they are called 'games'.
As long as it is not automatic, and I can choose if I even use it, then I'm fine with it. Hell, I'd use it to skip Tortage for every alt :P
I could also see it being useful if I had a ton I wanted to bump up to lvl to team with one of my wife's toons (we always have duo pairs we play on in every game we play)
And just think ....
When they continue to hemorage cash,and their next game is just as big a failure,they can expand this service to other companies games to keep the money flowing in !
Funcom:We know your too bored with our games to play them, and have arranged to level your toons for you for a mere $15 a month.BUT we know thats not enough to keep your business! So....Bored with WoW ?Just cant bare to log in and spend time playing Vanguard ?Actaully having to play Warhammer online bumming you out ?
Rejoice ! For a mere $15 a month, and allowed access to your account in a given game,we will level those toons also!
Always wanted to have such a feature available, but never been willing to trust the independant companies who've offered the same service,in between our banning them for doing so ?Have no worries.WE will now do it !
By the way, we sell gold also now !
And if thats not enough,in the coming months we will be offering a new service in which our devs will come and tuck you in every night.
Heck, ask us about our "special services" when we are there, we'll do almost anything for cash !
We here at Funcom believe,"The MMO industry can go lower than humanly possible,and we are here to make it do so"
Besides,our porsches need tuneups !Send cash NOW !
so its rest XP that can be made into real XP ?
Not exactly offline progression tbh. just a take on rest xp
9 months to lvl one toon 1-80
11 possible character slots.
99 months to have all your toons lvl 80 without you ever touching them.
so in a short 8 years people can do what the detractors are complaining about.
you're right. its terrible. in 8 years AoC will see a massive rise in max lvl toons trying to raid and having no clue how to even pull off a combo.
I agree with the guy above. it is nothing more than a extreme take on rest XP. which accomplishes the same thing. it cuts down lvling time.
Maybe rest XP >> real XP.
But....I am currently bimbling about with a lvl 34 assassin atm, now should I leave him be for a few weeks, and lvl him up courtesy of Mr Morrison, he'll probably hit lvl 37 immediately. Those quests I've been hacking, naw struggling away at will become 'trivial', I'll be forced to zone to another area and start questing again. Or run trivial quests for reduced XP.
Smoke 'n' Mirrors.
I'm not even going to bother with the usual disclaimer.
I can understand some people saying "oh my but you will not know the class". I have played with plenty of people that haven't played but a single toon all the way to level cap that still don't have a clue about that toon. Then again I have played with outright new players that knew things about the game that I didn't.
Will there be some noob players at 80 because of this? Sure. But there will always be noob players at end level in every game.
Personally I love the idea as an alt-a-holic. I play a bunch of different classes and have a good understanding how each work, but it eats into a lot of time I could be doing stuff on my main. This way I can focus on my main and slowly level up those alts without losing a lot of time actually playing the game for fun sake.
I don't see this in anyway being game breaking.
The only real problem I see is that new players to the game that have to work their way up to 80 may seem more lonely because there *might* be fewer people playing alts.
To be honest i have to give the Developers all due respect for this idea its pure Genuis, with all the missing content, over instancing bugs, lag issues and minimal population ect ect , now you can continue to pay for the game and not experience any of the issues by simply not playing it and continue to level.
And from what i see on the boards the public seem happy about it to.
Free to Play is now Pay to not Play , honestly pulling this off im in awe.
Its the perfect scenario and win win situation.
Zazz I disagree with your post. While there is a shortage of level cap content, RotGS will address this in a big way. Sure it is a long time coming, but it is still coming soon. I don't know what instancing bugs you are referring to so I will not comment on that. I haven't ran into ANY lag issues since I came back to the game. As far as minimum population I disagree with that. I am on Set which isn't the most populated server, and see a TON of people. Heck I am in a guild that isn't even in the top 10 or so as far as number of guildmates and yet my Guild often has 35-55 ACTIVE players. And those players are of all levels.
Was the game a travesty at launch? Yeah I felt like it was and left for a long time. But coming back now I find what the game should have been to start with. And I think a LOT of people are finding the same. And the game engine is still on top of the game.
Does the game have flaws? Sure, what game (including WoW) doesn't. Has Funcom made mistakes, hell yeah. Has the game went through MAJOR improvement and FunCom as well? Yes, very much so.
nice stuff,you pay and you dont have to play ,its a miracle maaaaan.
every game is getting this feature,even real football ,chess,basketball,swimming,olympics,ultima online is now ultima offline,age of conan is age of conan offline,anarchy online is offline ,maaan this is what gaming is all about!!!