AOC Sieges to be accessible to casual guilds

The official Age of Conan website has an article up with details on PvP sieges.

Most of the article details the mechanics of how pvp sieges will be
scheduled and who will have the first taste of leading guild combat against
an enemy keep.

When guilds compete for the right to attack a battlekeep the deciding factor is determined by the amount of "Guild PvP points" each guild has. These are accumulated by kills in pvp and gaining pvp levels.

The discussion of pvp rank determining who gets to attack keeps has been a hot topic.

Funcom however has implemented a system where when the attacking guild as set to lead the

siege there guild points are reset to zero.

I think this news is very important since, this should allow the more casual guilds to eventually accumulate enough points to be able to attack one of the eight keeps.

This definately seems a step in the right direction to further blur the line between hardcore and casual

5 thoughts on how dev's can make mmo's more casual friendly

1. Apprentice Systems

Every great student has a great master….
Why this isn’t a mandatory addition to any mmo I have no idea. How many times as a casual player do you log in, have a great questing day with a new friend and find them again and their 5 levels above you? A good apprentice system will allow for friends of different levels to group up and enjoy the game together. Going down in level should have more “perks” than having the lower level boost up to the higher content. I don’t necessarily think that the xp gain should match the level of your current level, but is shouldn’t be too shabby. Also perhaps you can get a temporary buff to damage/healing when you return to your normal level.

2. Friendstones

Every player should get one of these, you should be able to bind to a friend to reach them during the day. Perhaps a 2 hour recharge. I cant count the number of times I’ve logged into a game, had a friend online and was discouraged from grouping with them because it would take me 10 mins just to get to where they are. 10 mins doesn’t seem like a lot butt if you’ve only got time for a few quests it can be a deal breaker. I would make it so one stone could bind up to 3 friends. The Recharge timer would apply for each use. It would be a useful tool for those nights when you just want to catch up to your friends and do a few quests before you take off for the night.

3. Find a friend Tags

With all the social networking sites available online today. It seems like it would be very easy to add a similar type of functionality to the mmo genre. I would base it on a few questions that you could answer under a “profile” section for your avatar. All the info would be optional. Items such as age, time zone, type of player, time of day playing, play style. You can use a system where you define your likes and dislikes, as well as what you are searching for.
For example, if I wanted to look for players over 30, eastern time, casual play style, playtimes of 10-11 on weekdays mostly. I could actively or passively search.
I would like to have it set as passive by default, then if you group with someone who fits your category likes, you would get a message or perhaps a smiley face appears over them, some visual indicator that lets you know they would be a good candidate for a friend. I think it would make it easier for casuals to find and keep friends when you have a general idea of their gaming schedule.

4. Auto Quest group toggle

One thing that always irks me about mmo’s is when I’ve been searching for that mobile named mob to complete my quest and someone runs up and kills them right in front of me! And then looks at me and says “oops”. Right now a lot of mmo’s let you search for a group depending on what quest you are doing. I would just alter this slightly. You would basically select the quest you are on, start working on your and if your in visual range of a player who has also selected their quest you will auto join their group. Hopefully it would stop all the questions about are you looking for so and so mob? Or trying to jump in before someone kills the named? If they want to share they will have their quest toggled. I have to think about this one some more, and how it can be implemented passively. Perhaps if you and another player are in range of a quest objective….

5. Raid Checkpoints

Last but not least the Raids! More often than not the primary complaint most casuals have are the length of raids. I do think that this is an issue that can be easily solved and be satisfactory to the hardcore and the casual. First all Raids should be broken down into 45 mins to an hour chunks. But, I would also implement a “heroic mode” for lack of a better term, where you could run the whole 5-6 hour dungeon at once. The benefit of the heroic mode would be guaranteed or more item drops for certain bosses. Those who attempt the raid in chunks would still have access to the same items, however the drop chance would be random. That way time invested is rewarded with Guaranteed loot. I would even go so far as to have the raid instances for PUG’s scheduled. You could set it up as an interface, or mandate from the king that he needs your special skills to destroy capture blah blah blah and bring it back. Raid chunks would be scheduled every hour or 30 minutes and you could see the classes who have scheduled for a certain time/instance run. Similar to entering a wow battleground you would receive a message that the kings wizards wishes to summon you, you would accept and appear in the instance. I think developers would get a lot more use out of their raid instances if they implemented something like this.

These were just some thoughts I had about some simple measures that developers have the tech for that would make things a lot more user friendly for both hardcore and casuals alike, I’d like to hear other’s thoughts on it.

Thanks to Keen over at http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=1000 for stimulating my mind :-)

Quick Aoc Spellweaving thoughts

Wow! After reading the article this seems to be a really new and exciting element of gameplay in AOC. Being rather partial to the melee types myself, I must admit it actually has me contemplating rolling a spellweaving alt at release.

If you missed out on spellweaving you can find detailed spellweaving info here.

A common complaint in mmo's is that mages are either OverPowered or are not strong enough dps'ers due to their frail, cloth wearing habits. But this solution looks like it gives the best of both worlds.

Mages can be the deadliest of opponents if they have the time to get those brutal spellweaving combos off. But with great power comes great responsibility.... and consequences.

Its a very interesting and new twist on the mmo spellcasting class. Only time will tell how fun it is! Hopefully the Open Beta NDA wont last too long and we can get some detailed updates!

Age of Conan Spellweaving Revealed!

IGN has an article up, Check it out! AoC spellweaving!!

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you... just do it between 4 to 6 on tuesday...

Are PvP sieges in AOC Casual Friendly? The more I read the more it seems like it will be a major undertaking. Scheduling PvP and raid times really lacks immersion.

Your Thoughts?

You can find the article from IGN here - PvP sieges

PvP XP in Age of Conan!

There's a new article about PvP and Raiding in Age of Conan over on IGN. Some interesting information about pvp experience. From what I can tell pvp experience levels are kept seperate, you gain and lose experience based on how much you kill, or how much you die.

It looks like their will be 10 levels. Your xp level can drop to 0 for any level, but you wont drop from level 5 to a level 4.(hmmm this seems vaguely familiar to me....) The way it sounds im not sure if its a good thing or bad. It should eliminate people from grinding pvp if they know that dying too much is a negative. But I wonder if casual gamers will be put off by this. I think if implemented correctly, it may not be as bad as it sounds, as long as the penalty for dying doesnt hurt your pvp xp too much in the early levels. It was stated that you lose xp faster than you gain it, and that definately seems like a bad idea. If I get 10 kills and 10 deaths I want to come out even, not with a negative xp score.......

However, if its implemented in a way where the closer you are to level 10 the harsher the penalty, i think that is something i could live with. This could be good for casuals or bad considering how you look at it.

The good - you wont have to grind for hours and hours to get good gear.

The bad - you have to win...often.

Which probrably requires more play time than usual. But at the end of the day it is a game and I do think hardcore players should be rewarded. As long as the game is not overly gear focused it may be ok. But if gear dramatically trumps skill, I believe it will be a put off for a lot of gamers.

What do you think?

Whats so Casual about Welfare Epics?!

Woot! Finally hit the big 70 with my draenei warrior and im ready to do some pvp battlegrounds to get geared up! This is gonna be great!

Im sure thats what alot of casual gamers thought when they finally reached the mountaintop and dinged 70. From what I read on numerous forums getting your welfare epics was like playin in EZmode!

The initial excitement of the massive upgrades my warrior would get initially carried me thru the first week or so of grinding, I even put in more time than usual, there was a great satisfaction when i got to equip my first epic 2hander....

Fast forward a couple of weeks and all of the excitement had turned into a chore.... Dont get me wrong, I still enjoyed pvping from time to time. But when the only tangible accomplishment shown for competing in the battlegrounds are marks and honor.... eventually it starts to lose its luster......

Blizzard designed the BG's with some thought towards casual gamers, but, when you can only get an hour of playtime a day, it gets old having to spend that time doing the same thing for weeks on end.

Granted, some will argue that you should mix it up, do some instances perhaps, But why do an instance for an item if you only have a 1 in 5 chance of getting it... if it drops...

The fun factor takes a serious hit when your riding thru Alterac Valley and see a 30 horde ride right past you so they can cap the GY and Tower....

Im sure there has to be a way to make the battlegrounds actually feel like a battle instead of a mini-game.....

Perhaps if the wins and losses in the BG actually affected the game world, or there was more to gain than just upgrading my character....

Perhaps if the primary reason for fighting was to kill horde, and the epic gear was just an afterthought...

Perhaps when the BG's are so engaging you dont notice the tons of honor you've gained...

When most people queue up for BG's to farm honor instead of winning the war and having fun somethings wrong....

But thats just my 2 cents.. I'd love to here what others think!

Age of Conan - $14.99 Per Month

Quick update - Age of Conan monthly subscription fee will be $14.99.

AOC PVP BETA WEEKEND OVER ALREADY!?!

Wow! I continue to be amazed by the looks on this game!

Unfortunately, I will need a new rig if im ever going to be able to play it, and im pretty sure im not the only one!

From what I've read the game should have alot for casual gamers.

Hopefully, the gameplay matches the looks.

I'll have to dig into some forums to see if I can dip up how they can cater to both the casual and the hardcore.

Hyboria is a great setting for a mature fantasy mmo, I really hope they know what there doing...