What’s After Rise of the Godslayer? Game Director Offers a Glimpse

Age of Conan officially opened the gates to Khitai this month, releasing the Rise of the Godslayer expansion after two whole years of waiting. Initial patch glitches aside, the massive update launched to a warm reception as players got to explore five new regions and interact with a dozen factions for awesome gear.

While these sprawling landscapes and intriguing faction storylines will keep adventurers busy for months to come, the question now is where does Funcom hope to take Age of Conan after this expansion so that gamers won’t lose interest, especially in the face of approaching MMO launches like Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Funcom Game Director Craig Morrison addressed this question through his May letter to players, saying that in the short-term, the company will focus on adding content and polishing the questing experience leading deeper into the Khitai’s mysteries.

Looking a little further out we are already at work on the next stages of the tier four raids which will expand upon the story of the expansion, and start to draw together the mysteries of Kara Korum and the strange behaviour of the Imperial throne. We are also looking to add some more team instances to Paikang itself that expand upon the Insurrection and their goals in Khitai.

Funcom is also in the early stages of rolling out PvP and graphical engine changes. Mr. Morrison said his team is scanning the Shrines of Bori outdoor PvP set-up for possible tweaks, and they are also studying the possibility for cross-server PvP games. A more intelligent matching system–one that studies the composition of teams and ensures a fair mini-game competition–is also in the works, according to the game director.

Graphics-wise, Age of Conan could soon see an upgrade of the Dreamworld engine that boosts game rendering, especially for the DX10 version of the game.

So overall, the answer to the ‘what next?’ question is more of ‘a little bit of everything’ rather than one specific theme for the time being. We want to continue to improve the game and build upon the progress we have seen so far. That means now that the expansion is out, we will take the opportunity to address a wider selection of smaller and back-end or performance updates.

It seems like after the no holds-barred Rise of the Godslayer, Funcom has decided to make the game as smooth as possible rather than make risky grand splashes. We think it’s a sound strategy if played right and could end up steeling the player base against the novel charm of MMOs about to hit the market this year and the next.