Expansion: Rise of the Godslayer

[Morreion]

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Rise of the Godslayer Retail Version Announced (MMORPG.com)

Funcom has announced that the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion for Age of Conan will also be available at retail. The retail edition of Rise of the Godslayer will bundle the original Age of Conan game, and also come with a number of exclusive in-game items. One such item that may be of interest to Conan players is the "Tamed Puma" pet.

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer preview (Eurogamer)

...content - that C in such desperately short supply when the game launched in 2008 - is actually still firmly at the top of the agenda. The need to flesh out Conan rather than stretch it further has dictated the structure and style of this unusual expansion which, despite adding a huge new continent to the world map, doesn't raise the level cap. Nor does it add new classes or professions or player-versus-player systems, or generally get involved in the feature box-ticking that characterises the standard MMO add-on. It's just a lot more adventure and exploration for solo players and groups, presented in an interestingly organic fashion.

The headlines: the expansion opens up the visually striking, Asian-themed continent of Khitai, as well as the Khitan playable race; the questing - mostly for max-level players but also including some mid-level content - is largely based around sets of warring factions, who reward players' loyalty with armour sets; you'll be able to capture and train tigers and wolves as pets, combat companions and ultimately mounts; and instead of levelling, players will use both earned points and EVE-style offline skill training to make their way through an "alternate advancement" system.

[Morreion]

Letter from the Game Director - April 2010 (AoC)

As I mentioned above the player can offer their services as a caravan guard to pay their own way to Khitai instead of handing over coin. (You can of course just pay the caravan master his fare and travel straight to Khitai without worrying about working your way, so this feature is completely optional). What then happens is that you will be presented with one of nine scenarios that might occur along the way. The voyage to Khitai takes you past some dangerous areas, some of which Conan fans will recognize from the original stories, like the Vilayet Sea.

These encounters take place as solo instances where the player has to complete a specific task to allow the caravan (or boat) to continue on its voyage. These encounters range from protecting your boat from a Kraken, acquiring supplies from a Pirate Cove, defending the caravan from raiders or investigating a strange oasis plagued by the undead. There is an interestingly diverse set of objectives for these encounters, and you never know which one you are going to be presented with.

Effectively it adds some really nice texture to the journey to Khitai. I am always very keen to insist the team have a clear goal when implementing a feature, and in this instance they saw it and they implemented it well, even when they had to convince a skeptical Game Director.

As soon as I played them in context I knew they were right. I could see, as a player, this feature belonged alongside everything else in the expansion. It might not have sounded like the most compelling feature to the Producer in me when first weighed up against other resources, but, as a player…as a player it just works.

Sure, it could have been that these encounters became nine disparate solo instances or quests scattered throughout the expansion. Then it most likely would have ensured people only did them once (maybe only revisiting them when playing an alt), whereas now they provide a neat little repeatable solo adventure with variety and some fun gameplay. This was the right place for these encounters.

It isn’t a huge part of the expansion by any stretch. It is a relatively small addition that players might only do infrequently, but it does belong as part of the journey that the expansion contains. It will form part of your own journeys to Khitai that was well worth weaving into the experience…

Cool feature!