Age of Conan Developer Diary, Interview

To promote their “re-evaluation campaign”, Funcom has released a new Age of Conan developer diary while also addressing the campaign’s scope in a new interview on Eurogamer.

The team’s latest and most ambitious update to Age of Conan shipped a few weeks ago, bringing many new features but also changing the entire underlying fabric of the game.

It’s perhaps the most ambitious change that a developer has made to a launched game in recent history, and it firmly places Morrison’s stamp on Age of Conan. No longer is he clearing up a mess created by others – this is his game now, and he’s proud of it.

The big news, in Update 5, is that the game’s itemisation has been completely overhauled – and with it, all of the statistics and mathematics that make up the game’s RPG nervous system. What this means for players is that finally, Age of Conan’s items and armour sets are meaningful – with easily understood figures attached to each item, and a noticeable effect on your power and ability from equipping new gear.

“It ties into a lot of the feedback that the game got early on after the launch,” Morrison explains. “One of the key things that a lot of players keyed in on was the fact that the item system and the RPG stats didn’t really give them a feeling of progression.”