Monday, May 22, 2017

Age of Conan 9th Anniversary Celebration


“There is always a way, if the desire be coupled with courage...”
― Robert E. Howard

Age of Conan turns 9 this year! We can’t thank you all enough for your loyalty and support over the years. Please join us in celebration as we approach a whole decade of Hyborian Adventures!


A Gift for You



We've giving away a FREE Level 80 character boost plus a FREE extra character slot to any account, in good standing, that existed between launch and the start of the event!

Simply log in between today and the end of May to claim your reward. Don’t miss out: If you don’t log in by the end of May 2017 and claim your free gift, it's gone forever!

The Hoard of Hoards is back along with all the other Hoards and all potions are 30% off for the rest of May!


The Raid Finder


A bundle of 100 Atlantean Shards may be claimed once per character on an account for a limited time. Additionally, you receive DOUBLE the Atlantean Shards from chests in the Raid Finder.

Atlantean Shards are a token that may be exchanged for powerful items from a vendor in Old Tarantia. Finally, players using the Raid Finder may discover six new legendary rings!

If you’ve been away for a while and don’t know about the Raid Finder or its rewards, learn more by reading this blog post:



http://www.ageofconan.com/news/newmembership


Shadows of the Past




Shadows of the Past returns this year! Travel through the sewers of Tarantia and take on the Red Hand as they plot against King Conan himself!

Thank you again for your support through the years!



P.S. Don't forget about Membership, and all the Loyalty Rewards that come with it!




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Friday, May 12, 2017

An Immersive Gamer's Look at Conan Exiles



Blood and brutality; this is what makes Hyboria what it is. The gritty beauty of Robert E. Howard's world comes to life in Conan Exiles, the newest offering from FunCom, creators of Age of Conan and The Secret World.

Exiles offers a refreshing look at the survival genre, one that takes the world it's set in to heart. Speaking of hearts, all you Set worshippers will find plenty. But more on that later.

You begin with character creation, with all kinds of presets, options and sliders available for you to play around with. Seriously. All kinds of sliders. Cough.

One thing I love about Exiles is that there is a somewhat cohesive story for your existence in the Exiled Lands. You were charged with crimes you may or may not have committed (it is up to you to decide) and left, crucified, for dead. As you feel your breath fading, Conan the Barbarian himself cuts you free. Where you go from there is up to you, but do not try to leave the Exiled Lands. The bracelet on your arm will kill you the moment you step foot past the Cursewall. As you explore the Exiled Lands (currently limited to the desert biome in this stage of early access with more promised) you will learn about those who came before. That's right, you're not the first one here. There are settlements here, even cities filled with others. As you delve into the secrets the Exiled Lands have left behind, you will come to understand why you are there, what that bracelet is, and why Conan set you free.


While other survival games have a story, there typically is not much of it, and what is there is added generally as an afterthought. While there are no quests or overarching plotline to follow, the story is certainly available, and is definitely a focus for the developers. The story is found in clues you’ll find in caves, notes, and the world design itself. Here, the game feels built around the story; a benefit of being set in an established world the developers already have experience building in with Age of Conan, no doubt.

During your stay within the Exiled Lands, you will fight for survival amongst the threats of hunger, thirst, wildlife, cannibals, and corruption. Yes, corruption. Delving into caves and dungeons will impact your mind, decreasing your stats and hindering you mentally. Luckily, there are ways around this.

The game's been designed with immersion at the forefront; this is a world you are not meant solely to survive in, but to live in. There are plenty of tools other than just building to assist in that endeavour. You can craft all manner of decorations, such as rugs, trophies, chairs, tables and even a mighty throne for you ruling types like me.



Unlike ARK, which is famous for its dinosaur taming mechanics, you will not be taming wild beasts here in the Exiled Lands. Instead, Conan Exiles favors a different approach: humanoid NPCs that roam the land and offer you friendly faces to talk to -- or unfriendly ones to bash in. The latter you can knock unconscious, drag back to your home, and break on the wheel of pain to serve as entertainers, crafters, archers or fighters to protect you.

And then there's the religion system. As of now, there are four deities: Set, Mitra, Yog and Crom (who serves as the atheist choice, since he seeks no worship and offers no aid). If you gather enough favor, you can actually summon your deity's avatar to crush your enemies below their heel. Or tentacles. Or scales. The sheer destruction they can wreak is awe-inspiring, and makes for some epic wars. (Screenshot 3)

All of these things come together in a cohesive, powerful way to create an excellent foundation for what could very well become the most immersive, roleplay-friendly survival game to date.

Just...

“Watch out fer de Picts.”

-Laranga
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Conan Exiles to be released for the Xbox One in second half of 2017




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Conan Exiles is coming to Xbox One in the second half of 2017. Will it successfully stand out witth all the survival adventure games in the picture? The title shares the same engine, gameplay mechanics, and genre with ARK Survival Evolved, for instance, so let’s see if there’s anything new the game is going to bring on the table in this world of crafting and survivalism.
The World of Conan

Conan Exiles is set in the fictional world of Conan the Barbarian. Age of Conan was launched in 2008 and the game is still enjoying updates even now, 10 years after its release. You can currently find Conan Exiles in Early Access on Steam. In Conan Exiles, you’ll find survival very familiar if you have previously played ARK: Survival Evolved.
Building a Barbarian

The game allows a large amount of visual customization to build a barbarian just the way you desire, and you’re provided with some great-looking character options that perfectly suit the Conan world. The game’s universe awaits you and after you’ve finished building your character, you find yourself freed from crucifixion by Conan himself and then dumped into a vast desert.

Brutality, carnage, and death

Combat in Conan Exiles consists only of clicking, unfortunately. You only have to click on your enemies and they’ll explode into rivers of gore and blood. So, the combat is a bit basic as you’ll be able to see for yourself. On the other hand, the monsters are awesome: giant spiders, eldritch beasts, even hyenas and gazelles – they all create a world abundant in biodiversity.
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Construction engine

The game’s construction engine is awesome and might be the most rewarding element of Conan Exiles. You can practically build anything anywhere as long as it’s not on someone else’s structure. You can even build up on top of rocky pillars and on the sides of mountains!
Religion system

The game has a rudimentary religion system that allows clans to worship various gods. If they’re provided enough offerings, they’ll help you sack enemy settlements. The system looks extremely promising even if it’s currently in its infancy.
The near future

Funcom has promised some future improvements of the game, and they include the following areas: avatar defense, sorcery system, farming systems, “The Purge” NPC raids, new biomes and more monsters, dungeons and new features.

Follow the upcoming news on Conan Exiles as the game has a lot of potential. You can now find the game on Early Access on Steam for $29,99 and on the Xbox One in just a few months’ time.
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Thursday, April 13, 2017

The Legend of Conan movie axed, may become a TV series



Looks like it’s the end of the cinematic road for The Legend of Conan.

The long-in-development movie that would have seen Arnold Schwarzenegger return for the third time as everyone’s favorite Hyborian Age barbarian hero has been axed. But could it be reborn as a TV series?

Featuring an older and wiser King Conan, The Legend of Conan was planned as a continuation of John Milius’ Conan: The Barbarian (and not a reboot), based on Robert E. Howard’s sword-and-sandal fantasy stories and inspired by Frank Frazetta’s art. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fate of the Furious screenwriter Chris Morgan — who was also a producer on Legend of Conan — opened up about the fate (pun intended) of the movie.

When he was asked if there were any updates about the Conan film, here’s what Morgan said:

“Not so much. That’s kind of a longer story. At the end of the day, the studio decided that they weren’t gonna make that. I gotta say, it’s honestly a heartbreak. I love that first movie so much, so much, it’s one of my favorite movies. We had Will Beall do a draft on [the Legend of Conan script]. He killed it. Our take was Conan, 30 years later, a story like the Clint Eastwood Unforgiven. It was so awesome. Ultimately, the budget was big, the studio was not really sure of the title, and the relevance in the marketplace. They ended up letting it go. I think they’re gonna look to do a TV show or something with it. But just to be associated with it, pitch it to Arnold, have him get so excited, there was a moment of magic for me, personally [laughs]. You never know, down the road we may revisit!”

Which begs the question: Was The Legend of Conan killed because Ahnold may no longer have the same box-office draw the former Governator once held? The fact that Terminator Genisys bombed at the U.S. box office may have given the studio cold feet.

Morgan’s comment that The Legend of Conan may instead be reborn as a TV series is an intriguing idea. I’m sure there are tons of stories that can be told about the character, but I’m not sure if Arnold Schwarzenegger would be along for that particular ride. What do you think?

(Via EW)
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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Conan Exiles hit 480k unit full-year target in 28 days



Funcom will step up investment in Conan Exiles after the survival game achieved its full-year sales target within 28 days of launching on Steam Early Access.

The Norwegian company had forecast 480,000 sales across 12 months, but Conan reached that total between January 31 and the publication of Funcom's Q4 financial results yesterday. The game recouped its production costs in less than a week, and it has managed to sustain much of the momentum that carried it to 320,000 sales in its first fortnight on Early Access.

Conan Exile's production costs up to launch were $4.5 million, according to Funcom's financial report, and the speed with which that was covered has convinced the company to make a greater investment over the next 12 to 24 months.

This will amount to between $5 million and $10 million in 2017 and the early part of 2018, covering content and technical updates, PR and marketing, and launches on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Funcom expects Conan Exiles to remain in Early Access for the rest of this year.

This is a well timed success for Funcom. The company's financial results illustrated the decline of its current live games - The Secret World, Age of Conan and Anarchy Online - leading to a significant year-on-year drop in Q4 revenue. Funcom plans to relaunch The Secret World, complete with a host of improvements, in the first half of this year, with launch activities expected to begin in March.

There are two other projects currently in development: another game based on the Conan IP at the company's Oslo studio, and another, more mysterious title at its North Carolina office. Funcom expects to grow its team from 103 people to as much as 130 by the end of calendar 2017.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Conan Exiles – PAX East 2017 Interview with Oscar Lopez

If you build it, they will come…..and break your stuff and put your blacksmith in the Wheel of Pain. That’s Conan Exiles, the new survival multiplayer game by Funcom which recently entered Early Access on Steam.


During Pax East 2017, we learned a little bit more about Conan Exiles’ base building mechanics, PvP, and the upcoming Siege warfare content patch from Lead Designer Oscar Lopez.


Wccftech: First things first, tell me a bit about Conan Exiles and how it differs from your previous Conan game, Age of Conan?

Lopez: Conan Exiles is a survival sandbox MMO. Your main objectives in the game are to survive first, to build an empire, and to thrive against other people. It’s a different setup than what you would get in Age of Conan. Age of Conan is an MMO with a different sense of progression and activates that you do in the game. In this game [Conan Exiles] your activities revolve around food and water and building a base, building better tools to fight. You adventure out to find more material to make even better weapons, castles while taking on other players. The two games are completely different genres and we are making sure we are letting players before jumping that this isn’t a sequel to Age of Conan but its own thing.



Wccftech: Since base building is a huge element of Conan Exiles, could you explain what sort of effect this will have on player vs player? More importantly, what are the benefits of spending time and resources to build a base?

Lopez: First, you want to build something to keep your stuff safe. As you play through the game you will amass wealth in the form of resources you gather. You also want a safe place to place your bed which works as the respawn mechanic. If you don’t have a bed, you will respawn in the beginning of the game which could be quite a long way back. The idea is to have a safe place for your bed and a safe place for your chest and the contents of the chest. You will also need a place to put your crafting stations that will help you expand and make an even bigger base.


Wccftech: To build a base, are there designated areas?

Lopez: You can build anywhere with the exception of a few areas where it is forbidden to build because they interfere with certain mechanics of the game. There’s one area that is a spawn point for certain NPC so you can’t build on top of that. I think about 90% percent [of the game world] is completely open to building on. Once you place an object down, it forbids other people from building there. The more you expand the less room there is for other players. Fighting for land becomes an important aspect of the game.


Wccftech: Knowing that Player vs Player is a big mechanic, how can you defend a base when you’re not online 24 hours a day?

Lopez: The strength of your defenses change drastically with the higher tiers of equipment you can build. Players have to spend resources in order to take down your defense such as crafting explosives in order to get into the base. You also have the means to create structures to make it very difficult to get into the base.


Wccftech: Is there a siege gameplay mechanic happing here? Do I need to break down the front gate or blow a wall?

Lopez: It depends on how the base is built. An important part of base building is figuring out what’s a good shape for your base to make it impregnable. Even though no base is truly impregnable. (laughs) Since we are aware that you can’t be online 24 hours a day, we are adding a mechanic where you can specify PvP windows as a server setting. For example, you can set it where you can only damage structures from 6-10PM. We are making sure we are giving players enough server settings so they can whatever ruleset they feel are fair or fun for playing.




Wccftech: Speaking of servers, how many players can be in one and will people have an option of hosting their own private servers?

Lopez: The maximum number of players right now on a server are 60. Which should be a big enough number if you just want something with your friends. If it’s more than that you should be ok. You can rent servers from server providers and you can specify whatever rulesets you want that will change a lot of the aspects of the game, we are adding more and more server settings to the game that you can modify. We want to players to enjoy the game however they want.


Wccftech: You mentioned before about Player vs Environment, is there going to be an offline or a story component to Conan Exiles?

Lopez: There’s no guided story arc for the game. What we have is a rich setting for a game with a lot of lore and story beats that you can discover via talking to NPCs or discovering ancient tablets in the world. The narrative is fragmented and you have to put together on your own with your adventures. It’s similar to what Dark Souls does with its storytelling, the world has a lot to say


Wccftech: What sort of challenges will players face if they decide not to take part of the PvP?

Lopez: There are wild animals like snakes and rhinos. There are also monsters like dragons and giant demons. You will also find human enemies to fight against. These are exiles, like you, some are NPCs that belong to their own factions and have their own camps.


Wccftech: Can you attack these NPCs?

Lopez: Not only can you attack them, but you also knock out unconscious and drag them back to your base and turn them into workers that do stuff for you.


Wccftech: So you can essentially have your own thriving community of NPCs that you “recruited?” Can you assign these people to specific tasks?

Lopez: They already know what to do depending on what their profession was before you captured them. You can find a guy who was an archer or a blacksmith and they will have jobs in your base already. A blacksmith for example, you capture him and put him on the Wheel of Pain like in Conan movies and he becomes your blacksmith. He is assigned to a blacksmith station and improves the station. There are a lot of NPCs in the world.



Wccftech: Then could you do the same thing to another player’s NPC in their base? Can players essentially launch raids for useful NPCs as opposed to just trying to destroy a base?

Lopez: As of right now it doesn’t work like that, it is our intention to do that in the future since we are still in Early Access. Workers or Thralls are pretty much loot you can get from taking on other people’s bases.


Wccftech: How’s Early Access been working out for you guys?

Lopez: It has been a tremendous success for us. We did not expect the amount of traction the game has gotten. We are playing close attention what people are doing in the game and following standard feedback channels like Reddit or the Steam forums. We also look at Twitch a lot and see how people are playing it and the way they play it. Right now we are basically working on a gigantic content patch for Siege. A lot of what we are doing now is a direct response to how people are playing the game.


Wccftech: Are we expecting to see things like battering rams and trebuchets?

Lopez: We are putting out trebuchets which you’d have to set a counter-weight and do range-finding. You can load them up with different types of ammunition like boulders or corpses. You can actually gather corpses put them in a corpse locker to let them rot and load the trebuchet with them. When you get hit by a corpse it leaves a poison cloud, it’s a good way to get people out of the bases and fight them in the field.




Wccftech: It’s good to see you’re not shying away from biological warfare.

Lopez: (Laughs) Anything goes. We are also looking to add other elements to Siege. We always wanted to find a way to add vertically to the siege game. We’ve seen how the community found ways to scale walls using exploits or other creative ways. We are toying with the idea of using tiger claws to climb walls or using grappling hooks or ladders. This way we add a legitimate way (laughs) of getting over a wall.


Wccftech: You’ve recently announced a console release for Conan Exiles?

Lopez: We are releasing an Xbox One version for third-quarter of this year in the Xbox Game Preview program. We are set for release on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in Q1 of next year.


Wccftech: Great, thanks for talking with us!

Lopez: Thank you and we hope you check out Conan Exiles.

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