This month has been hectic at this end, with a lot of activity as people returned from the summer vacation, quite a few people moved to the new studio in Montreal, we welcomed new members to the team as a new team of junior designers started, and we have been hard at work with the upcoming 2.0.6 update.
The Summer Survey
We also of course ran the massive summer survey. I want to offer a huge thank you to everyone who responded, we were very happy with the response and we got a lot of good insight out of it. Those insights are also important to share, and to that effect, this letter is only part of this month’s update! You will also find the twenty one page pdf with a summary of the survey results as an attachment to this post.
In fact, you should go away and read it now!
I’ll be mentioning some of the results in context of the rest of the cool stuff we get to talk about next – the content of the next major update, the 2.1 version, which is what I know you have all been itching to hear about…so the survey results give some interesting background there.
Really, stop reading this…go read the pdf…
Back now? Ok, let’s get rolling
What’s coming up…
The next major update series, 2.1 (‘cool marketing name pending’), will feature some really cool content, and hopefully, something for everyone. As always these different additions will come through the series of 2.1 updates this fall (i.e. not all will necessarily appear in the first version)
Dreamworld Technology Integration
I talked about this at length in the June letter, so won’t go into the details again here, but it is coming, and it helps improve our infrastructure and tools.
New PVP content
Mini-game fans can rejoice, the focus for PVP fans in the update series will be both adding a new mini-game (most likely a 12v12 map). This option came out on top in the summer survey, and as an area that hasn’t really been added to since launch we have decided that this will be the new content addition for 2.1. We will also be taking a look at what tweaks and pokes we can do to improve the progression through mini-games as well.
New Raid content
Tier four raiding will continue as the next set of encounters will be released to the live game. There will definitely be a whole new instance with the next three encounters. There is also a final instance with the last climatic set of encounters for Khitai planned, which is currently in-between updates, so those additional encounters might be part of the 2.1 series, but they may also end up in 2.2. You will though at the very least get the next three tier four encounters in the 2.1 series.
New PVE content
Players will get to explore a little more of the city of Pai Kang itself, as two districts of the imperial capital open up for group exploration.
New Social and Guild content
Lastly but by no means least, we also have some cool smaller additions coming for guild and social play.
Guilds will be treated to some cool new NPCs that allow for having some specific guild social events. This addition will allow you to hold certain new events amongst your guild, like a treasure hunt, a storytelling competition or a demon hunt.
Then we have a new social feature of horse racing. Players will be able to sign up for some new ‘just for fun’ horse races at a track near Old Tarantia, or you might just fancy going along to watch.
The rooftops of Old Tarantia are also now home to an exclusive venue that only most esteemed of guilds can reach, as a little extra fun reward for topping the rankings.
The future and beyond…
There also a couple of things we are looking at for updates beyond version 2.1 that are worth mentioning, and that is another look at House of Crom, and that we are looking to introduce some more dynamic solo friendly content. House of Crom is an area that has been mentioned before, but always ended up getting pushed back, so we really want to go back and finish it up.
The solo content is another area that hasn’t really been updated since launch, and as you see in the survey, would be a popular addition. Therefore we have started the groundwork there and are taking a look at the best approach. We’ll talk a little more about those things once the 2.1 update is out and live, but they are on the horizon.
In Closing..
So there you have it, we are really trying to keep pushing ourselves to maintain a great flow of new content for you all to enjoy! It might be a tall order, and we may slip here and there, but we are dedicated to trying to make sure we provide three (and pushing for four!) major update series per year. Using multiple updates in each series to ensure we keep that flow of content as consistent as we can.
We have been very pleased to see the positive results from both the expansion, and having it re-affirmed by the recent survey. We want to keep that energy going and continue to improve the game and add to it.
Next month will see us getting this update series ready for the test server, so plenty of exciting times ahead.
See you in Hyboria!
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Age of Conan Forums
Monthly Development Update - August 2010
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Monthly Development Update - August 2010
