Changes to combat system caused Age of Conan delay

 

Fans of the upcoming Age of Conan MMO were likely disappointed at word of the video game’s delay from October 2007 to March 2008. It seems the folks at Funcom have decided to put up an policy of openness with their game, as Shannon “Pharamond” Drake, one of the game’s community managers, explained that combat system changes were the reason behind the game’s delay.

According to Drake, the main reason behind the delay was to make certain parts of the combat system more intuitive and less convoluted for players. Said Drake,

The combos are tied closely with feats. The combos are also tied closely with the five directions in the game. Today all classes get five directions, even when you are a nuker wizard that never even bothers getting in close combat. We wanted to make sure that the classes not wanting melee, actually wouldnÂ’t have a superfluous system thrust on them (all five directions, combos etc). We wanted to make sure that the complexity of knowing which combos do I start when I press a direction to be clearer (this is complex even for me who love this system). We wanted to know that people got a larger component of instant gratification in combos. We wanted to remove the confusing elements of combo cooldowns that you cannot click on, but that looks like icons.

On the one hand, it’s a shame that Age of Conan will be delayed for a couple of months. Still, it can mean that a more accessible interface will translate into a potentially higher retention of subscribers. Only time will be able to prove if the decision to take five months to tweak some aspects of the game will be warranted or not.

Likewise, the Xbox 360 version will be pushed back because of this, however the extent of the console version’s delay is still to be determined.

For the full post from Pharamond, feel free to check the read link below.

 

Fans of the upcoming Age of Conan MMO were likely disappointed at word of the video game’s delay from October 2007 to March 2008. It seems the folks at Funcom have decided to put up an policy of openness with their game, as Shannon “Pharamond” Drake, one of the game’s community managers, explained that combat system changes were the reason behind the game’s delay.

According to Drake, the main reason behind the delay was to make certain parts of the combat system more intuitive and less convoluted for players. Said Drake,

The combos are tied closely with feats. The combos are also tied closely with the five directions in the game. Today all classes get five directions, even when you are a nuker wizard that never even bothers getting in close combat. We wanted to make sure that the classes not wanting melee, actually wouldnÂ’t have a superfluous system thrust on them (all five directions, combos etc). We wanted to make sure that the complexity of knowing which combos do I start when I press a direction to be clearer (this is complex even for me who love this system). We wanted to know that people got a larger component of instant gratification in combos. We wanted to remove the confusing elements of combo cooldowns that you cannot click on, but that looks like icons.

On the one hand, it’s a shame that Age of Conan will be delayed for a couple of months. Still, it can mean that a more accessible interface will translate into a potentially higher retention of subscribers. Only time will be able to prove if the decision to take five months to tweak some aspects of the game will be warranted or not.

Likewise, the Xbox 360 version will be pushed back because of this, however the extent of the console version’s delay is still to be determined.

For the full post from Pharamond, feel free to check the read link below.