|
with game director Gaute Godager of Funcom:
| “ |
We call the engine Real Combat, and it is based on
six directions, or ways, of attacking an opponent with a sword.
First, you can hack down against the head. Second, you can slash
diagonally down from the right, while the third is slashing the
same way from the left. Fourth, you can thrust against the torso.
Fifth, you can slash diagonally up from the left, and sixth, you
can slash diagonally up from the right. The point here is that
these directions lend themselves naturally to being strung together
in combinations. These combos unlock additional damage and faster
combat, if done well.[13] |
” |
Funcom has said that their "Real Combat" system, a combat system designed to
offer more real-time options than traditional Dungeons &
Dragons-inspired "turn-based" combat systems commonly used in RPGs, will be a prime
attraction of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. This Real Combat system
is a first-person melee approach in which every enemy starts with three
different areas that players can swing at, with a possible increase at future
levels depending on the class. Combos can be performed by stringing together
consecutive successful attacks in particular directions. As players become
better at using the system, they will find combinations of abilities, swing
styles and target points that string together to make more devastating attack
combos. Player stats and item bonuses will also play a role in this system.
However, the idea of "Real Combat" is to eliminate the dullness of typical
MMO fighting, which often consists
of an auto-attack feature.
The "Real Combat" system is used in one-on-one weapon battle, as well as
spell-casting, ranged combat and even mounted combat. In some situations, however,
players will choose to band together and unite their skills to face other bands of
players or AI controlled armies or uber-mobs; in
essence, "formations", location based effects available for some classes. For
example, a character standing in line with a Conqueror when he is running his
formation will have a great deal of resistance to knockbacks. [14]
Players are able to take part in large scale siege operations. Adventurers can
cooperate with one another to build cities with walls, towers and catapults that
can protect player-owned taverns and merchant facilities. The developers have
previously stated that the world will respond appropriately to the rise of player
cities with AI controlled enemies building their own cities, ensuring a renewing
supply of city-vs.-city combat as players try to knock down enemy walls or
defend their homes.[15]
Player mounts in Age of Conan include horses, mammoths and
rhinos.
Due to the game being in rumored development since 2003, an online virtual community had
steadily clustered around various fan websites regarding Age of Conan:
Hyborian Adventures. By February 2005, this informal community was still
going strong despite no true public announcement concerning the rumored game.
Finally, Funcom and Conan Properties LLC jointly confirmed the in-development
status of
Age of Conan in an official press release on April 20, 2005. Shortly thereafter,
a primitive
game website debuted and thousands of Conan enthusiasts
migrated from their fan sites to the new official forums hosted by Funcom. Many Anarchy Online fans also
followed the development of the product due to the involvement of Funcom, who created the Anarchy Online PC
series.
Between March 2005 and January 2006, Funcom periodically revealed concept art and screenshots from Age of
Conan. The Art Director for the Conan project is Didrik Tollefsen, known for
such classics as The Longest Journey
and Anarchy Online -
Shadowlands, which won the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
award at RPG Vault in 2003.
On January 24, 2006, Funcom unveiled the community portal for Age of Conan: Hyborian
Adventures. By this time, much of the pre-launch community had gathered
around the forums and IRC chat of the official Age of Conan website.
There were informal events such as IRC chats with the developers and, in summer
2006, community contests.
In April 2006, Funcom created a Guild Hall for its pre-launch community and, within hours,
forum members began organizing their "player guilds." These guilds consist of
individuals who typically share the same playing styles and gameplay opinions.
In January 2007, several important updates were announced regarding class merges
and the expected launch window for the game. On January 12th, Funcom announced
the original twenty-three classes had been merged down to fourteen classes due
to beta feedback.[16]
On February 7, 2008, Funcom and Eidos announced
that over 500,000 people had signed up for the Beta Testing of Age of
Conan.[17]
On May 19, 2008, GameZone.com presents a
series of original fictional stories by Michael Lafferty stemming from the
massively multiplayer online world of Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures. The
stories are written with the permission and cooperation of Funcom. The tales
deal with the world, the characters and the lore involved in Hyboria. [18]
[
edit] Setting
-
Main article: Hyborian
Age
An Aquilonian character in Age of Conan gazing at the
snowy mountains of northern Cimmeria.
From an OGaming interview with game director Gaute Godager of
Funcom:
| “ |
The [Hyborian Age] is like a dark, decadent,
twisted and corrupt version of Euro-Asian history. Mix a bit of the
Roman Empire, Mongolian culture and Babylonian mysticism with
'30s-era myths of undiscovered Africa...[19] |
” |
Age of Conan is set in a low fantasy,
pseudo-historical ancient world called the
Hyborian Age created by
Robert E. Howard. The
warlord Conan has seized the throne of Aquilonia, but
ancient evils seek to overthrow him.
Regarding the world design, lead artist Terje Lundberg said, "our main
impressions about the look and feel of Hyboria come from our interpretation
of the stories written by Robert E. Howard. When
you read Howard's work you're immediately drawn into a gritty world of dark and
ancient forces, and mighty and decadent civilizations. You feel the great weight
of the ages and sense the very history in the crumbling mortar and the ruins.
Therefore we've been mindful from the outset to create a world which is true to
Howard's writing. There is majesty in Hyboria but it's of a monolithic, brutal
and primitive kind - it certainly isn't "high fairie" where everything appears
as though it was built only yesterday and is devoid of context."[20]
Lundberg said the game at launch will contain three countries, Cimmeria, a
northern country with snow and highlands, Aquilonia, which contains "green hills,
lush riverbeds, and the marvelous city of Tarantia", and Stygia, with mostly
deserts and "some beautiful cities" — as well as the island of Tortage which "has a
diverse geography ranging from jungle to harbors."[20]
[
edit] Music and sound
There are five principal individuals overseeing the music and audio for Age
of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The Audio Director is Morten Sørlie, who created
the soundtrack for Anarchy Online -
Shadowlands. Simon Poole (Lead Sound designer on "Dreamfall - The Longest
Journey") took over as Audio Director in May 2007, and saw the project through
to completion. The sound designer are Tord
D. Nikolaisen and Fredrik Martol, and composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen
who is writing the musical score for the game.[21] To
create a fitting musical score for the Hyborian universe, composer Knut
Avenstroup Haugen turned to many different sources: For the music of the
different ethnic groups, Haugen studied traditional music from relevant parts of
the world. For the overall sound of the Hyborian Age, Haugen
studied ancient- and medieval music as well as the romantic orchestra repertoir
and film scores, while avoiding conventions that connect too closely to specific
historical periods.[22] The
female vocalist heard in the score is Norwegian singer Helene Bøksle. Norwegian
death punk artists, Turbonegro, contributed three
songs to the soundtrack CD. One of them written specifically for the
album.[23]
[
edit] Technology
-
Tortage City, the backwater capital of the Barrachan Isles, as
seen in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
- DreamWorld Engine
The DreamWorld graphics engine was
developed by Funcom circa 2000. Other computer games powered by
DreamWorld technology include Anarchy Online and its
various expansion packs. When
Funcom began developing Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, the company
reviewed its existing technology base and decided to focus on the further
evolution of their proprietary DreamWorld engine as opposed to licensing a
third-party engine like many online RPG companies do. As such, Funcom began to
retool their engine with the overall design, pipeline and implementation process
was taken into account. In light of these changes, the DreamWorld engine has
been rebuilt for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures with new features,
special effects and optimizations.[24]
- "Real Combat"
"Real Combat" is being touted by Funcom as a revolutionary approach to combat in
online RPGs where the player is in direct control of the character's weapon strikes
in real time. This multi-point melee and ranged combat system is purportedly
easy-to-learn and is one of the prime attractions of the title. Allegedly, the
"Real Combat" system will take the ritualized combat experience previously found in
online RPGs in a new direction. For this system, Funcom has also added aspects such
as formation combat, mounted combat, siege combat and hive combat.However,
formation combat was never added, mounted combat and siege combat are both not
working as intended at the moment. [25]
- Cheetah
Cheetah is a shader-oriented
proprietary render
engine re-written from scratch by Funcom featuring a phong per pixel lighting
system. This engine allows for improved graphics and ambience. This is coupled
with a trapezoidal shadow system,
an in-house system developed by Funcom that allows all objects to cast shadows
onto everything.[26]
- Perlin noise-based cloud generating system
Perlin noise-based cloud generating system is a five-layered procedural system
that enables multiple layers of dynamic clouds; thus, visually-realistic cloud
behavior.[27]
- SpeedTree
Was removed from the game during beta, since Funcom's policy seems to be
'quantity instead of quality'! SpeedTree is a programming
package produced by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV) that aims to
produce high-quality virtual foliage in real time, suitable
especially for video games but also aimed
to a lesser extent at some other kinds of simulations. It has so far been
licensed to a substantial number of video game developers, including developers
of the Unreal engine series.
SpeedTree is currently being
used in several games, including (but not limited to) the MMO action game World War II Online
and The Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion.[28]
- DirectX 10
Although not implented yet, "Funcom is proud to be one of the few developers who
is tapping into this technology, and we look forward to showing you even more of
DirectX 10. Some of the
improvements visible in the videos and the screenshots are improved parallax mapping,
better lighting and more advanced shadows technology."[29] The
game did not include support for DirectX 10 at the time of launch. DirectX 10
features are now slated to be premiered at the Games Convention in Leipzig in
August 2008.
[
edit] Reception
[
edit] Reviews
The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic.[38]
Many publications
[who?]
would not give the game a rating until it had come out of Beta such as Thirteen1
online gaming zine who said it 'wasn't fair' to do so. [40]
Seth Schiesel, writing for the New York Times, felt that the development of the
game would have benefited from a few extra months of production. Age of Conan did
not receive the widespread mass-appeal of other games that are offered on home
consoles, although Funcom has promised a version for Xbox 360 in 2009.
[41]
[
edit] Sales
The game had sold over 500,000 copies worldwide as of June,1, 2008.[42] Six
days later one million copies had been shipped in total. [43]
[
edit] Release delays and Bugs
Funcom delayed Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on January 21,
2008[44] and
again on March 24, 2008[45].
The delays were widely reported by online game magazines such as IGN. [46].
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