Age of Conan's Game Director
has posted an update detailing all kinds of new changes coming to the game. The
update will include changes to items and statistics and will come with the next
major update (after 1.04). We've got the post here for you followed by a link to
the official AoC Forums so you can get to voicing your opinion!
Here's the
original post:
Letter from the Game Director
February 2009
It’s that time again for a little peek into what’s
coming up for Age of Conan. As mentioned last time the
major part of this Director’s Letter will focus on
providing a first look at the details on the upcoming
items and statistics update that will come in the next
major update. With update 1.04 now live and players
getting to enjoy the new content it’s the perfect time
to kick-off the process of introducing the next major
update.
Before I dive into RPG system changes
though, a couple of things to note. We are preparing a
lot of information for when the update is ready for the
public test servers. This letter couldn’t possibly cover
everything, and it won’t. The new gem system for example
is an article all on its own, as are the balance changes
that will be included in the update for every class. So
those things I won’t be covering in detail in this
letter, but we will be releasing detailed information
over the course of the testing. So rest assured further
information overload is coming! Consider this letter as
an appetizer to the process that is ahead of us.
Revamping the RPG System
It’s also worth repeating why we have been working
away on these changes in the first place.
After we looked at the feedback after launch we
concluded that we had misjudged the importance of items
and statistics to character progression. While the
intention had always been to be less item-centric than
other titles, we probably went a little too far in the
other direction. Therefore we have set out to expand and
develop the RPG system so that it offers better and more
interesting character progression and customization.
So, now that the preamble is out of the way, let’s
get rolling and take a peek inside the mechanics of the
RPG system so you can start to understand where we are
taking it. So, how best to provide an overview of the
changes? At a basic level what we have done is add an
additional range to the attribute budgets, this
additional range comes from items and trickle down from
your primary attributes. Mobs and encounters have been
rebalanced to account for this increase. The end result
is that items and trickle down now account for up to
fifty percent (give or take a couple of percent variance
here and there) of your overall budget for any given
attribute. For comparison that contribution did not
exceed twenty five percent before the changes, and
‘trickle down’ barely influenced it at all.
Our goal is that players in ‘average’ gear (if you
will forgive the subjective nature of using the word
‘average’) will not feel a great change in the game, but
will have the potential to get better by working up
towards the higher end gear. Where you will notice a
change is if you remove your armor and weapons and use
lower level gear. The new system does incentivize
keeping your gear up to date!
That’s not the end of the changes though. This is
really just the ‘brief overview as it were. In order to
achieve our goals in a good, solid way that gives us
room for future development we also went through the
attributes and statistics and made them meaningful,
clearer to understand, and hopefully better laid out.
The new character statistics
The best way to demonstrate this in this first look
at the new system is to go through the new character
stat screens one by one and actually show you what your
new character sheet looks like! The interface is now
tabbed so that you can all your stats without having to
scroll down by switching between tabs. It also means
they are organized in logical groupings.
Firstly please note some of the numbers displayed in
the screens are not what a player would really have, and
are still subject to change through testing, but I
really wanted to visualize it for you as it’s better
than the text alone!
So let’s take each of these in turn and explain the
new attributes and stats. On the first screen, the
‘General’ tab, you see the basics of your character.
Most of this tab is self explanatory, but it does show
the first of the totally new statistics – Armor. Your
Armor rating is now what is used in the combat
calculations to decide how much damage you avoid from a
successful attack. This has replaced the old combination
of resistances and invulnerabilities as the main source
of mitigation of non-magic damage (we will get to magic
damage shortly!).
You will still see invulnerabilities offered in some
buffs, in those cases those are an additional mitigation
above and beyond what the outcome of your armor
calculation is.
Next up we have the Combat stats page that shows your
new combat stats, both as a rating, which is what item
bonuses will add to, as well as what that equates to as
a percentage chance (or the percentage increase as
appropriate). All of these new stats will have
explanatory tool tips and we think moving to using
ratings makes the system clearer and easier for you to
gauge the relative worth of items.
Next we have the ‘Physical’ tab that lists your
health and stamina regens and taps clearly.
Then we have the ‘Magical’ tab that displays your
magic related skills, bonus spell damage and the next of
the new statistics – your protections. These effectively
replace the old resistance percentages and are displayed
both as a rating (which again, is what appears on the
item bonuses) and as the translated percentage that
shows you how much damage that potentially mitigates.
Lastly we have the PVP tab that shows your PVP
achievements and rankings as well as your PVP specific
stats. Here as well you will now find the new PVP
version of Armor and Protection that will be offered on
PVP items.
Attributes and what they mean!
So what do the main attributes do now? As I mentioned
above we have significantly changed how these attributes
‘trickle down’ into your actual performance. This should
make the addition of stats in these areas much more
visible. You will find that these are now a deal more
important than before and now confer the following
bonuses to your character:
Every one point of Strength
- Increases Combat rating when using melee weapons
(except daggers) by 3
- Increases Armor by 2
- Increases Natural stamina regeneration by 0.05
- Increases OOC stamina regeneration by 0.15
- Increases Stamina by 2
- Increases OOC health regen by 0.15
Every one point of Intelligence
- Increases Spell damage with 0.3 per hit for spells
with Intelligence attribute (mage spells)
- Increases Mana points by 3
- Increases Natural mana regeneration by 0.07
- Increases OOC mana regeneration by 0.38
- Increases Protection from Electrical/Fire/Cold
magic by 0.5
Every one point of Constitution
- Increases Health points by a number depending on
class, roughly 5-8
- Increases Stamina points by 2
- Increases Natural stamina regeneration by 0.05
- Increases OOC stamina regeneration by 0.15
- Increases OOC health regen by 0.15
Every one point of Dexterity
- Increases Evade rating by 0.5
- Increases Stamina points by 2
- Increases Combat rating with ranged weapons and
daggers by 3
- Increases Natural stamina regeneration by 0.05
- Increases OOC stamina regeneration by 0.15
Every one point of Wisdom
- Increases Spelldamage with 0.3 per hit for spells
with Wisdom attribute (priest spells)
- Increases Mana points by 3
- Increases Natural mana regeneration by 0.07
- Increases OOC mana regeneration by 0.38
- Increases Protection from Holy/Unholy magic by
0.5
Just the beginning…
In addition we have worked to make the item stats
display better in the GUI and make the comparison of
items better.
This is really just a teaser for the information that
is to come. These changes have also allowed us to look
at each of the classes and make changes to feat trees,
skills and spells. Some of these changes were necessary
due to the changes above (like the new Armor system)
some for balance concerns and adjustments. A lot more
information in this vein will be released as we prepare
the update for the public test servers. In addition
there is also a complete new gem system for crafting
items that I haven’t touched on here that will also be
revealed soon.
The items themselves, in particular those at high
levels have received a lot of individual attention and
tweaking to get the most benefit out of the system.
So as you can see there will be a lot to talk about
over the coming weeks and months, which I expect, will
start right about now!
Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison
Game Director Age of Conan
You can discuss
this letter of the Game Director here (EU).
You can discuss
this letter of the Game Director here (US).
