Age of Conan: characters revised

In the business of MMOs, developers have to consider one important thing about the game they’re creating: long term playability. They’ve to make the game engaging enough so players keep coming back for more (read: play the game for years). One factor of playability is character diversity and individual abilities and specialties. How many characters can a player choose from? How different is the gameplay for a particular character?

Age of Conan (Xbox 360 version on its way) devs have revised their character tree to balance the game’s diversity and character specialties. They decided that having the characters too specialized would decrease their playability. They merged a number of their original characters to bulk up the classes’ skills. Here are the changes:

• Guardian and Halberdier have been merged, class name is Guardian.
• Barbarian, Reaver and Master Thief merged, class name is Barbarian.
• Conquer and Liberator merged, class name is Conqueror.
• Zealot and Dark Templar merged, class name is Dark Templar.
• Defiler and Lotus Master merged, class name is now Assassin.
• Ranger and Waylayer merged, class name is Ranger.
• Stormcaller and Druid merged, class name is Druid of the Storm.
• Scourge of DerketoÂ’s abilities have been merged across the Priest archetypes

And here’s the final character list:

• Priest Archetype – Druid of the Storm, Scion of Set, Priest of Mitra, Bear Shaman
• Mage Archetype – Demonologist, Lich, Necromancer, Herald of Xotli
• Soldier Archetype – Guardian, Conqueror, Dark Templar
• Rogue Archetype – Ranger, Assassin, Barbarian

We’ll see whether this beta test decision pays off in the long run for Age of Conan. You can check out the revised class tree by clicking the via link below.

In the business of MMOs, developers have to consider one important thing about the game they’re creating: long term playability. They’ve to make the game engaging enough so players keep coming back for more (read: play the game for years). One factor of playability is character diversity and individual abilities and specialties. How many characters can a player choose from? How different is the gameplay for a particular character?

Age of Conan (Xbox 360 version on its way) devs have revised their character tree to balance the game’s diversity and character specialties. They decided that having the characters too specialized would decrease their playability. They merged a number of their original characters to bulk up the classes’ skills. Here are the changes:

• Guardian and Halberdier have been merged, class name is Guardian.
• Barbarian, Reaver and Master Thief merged, class name is Barbarian.
• Conquer and Liberator merged, class name is Conqueror.
• Zealot and Dark Templar merged, class name is Dark Templar.
• Defiler and Lotus Master merged, class name is now Assassin.
• Ranger and Waylayer merged, class name is Ranger.
• Stormcaller and Druid merged, class name is Druid of the Storm.
• Scourge of DerketoÂ’s abilities have been merged across the Priest archetypes

And here’s the final character list:

• Priest Archetype – Druid of the Storm, Scion of Set, Priest of Mitra, Bear Shaman
• Mage Archetype – Demonologist, Lich, Necromancer, Herald of Xotli
• Soldier Archetype – Guardian, Conqueror, Dark Templar
• Rogue Archetype – Ranger, Assassin, Barbarian

We’ll see whether this beta test decision pays off in the long run for Age of Conan. You can check out the revised class tree by clicking the via link below.