Age of Conan: Interview With Funcom's Gaute Godager
Moriendor, 2005-07-14

An Age of Conan interview with Funcom's Gaute Godager. This interview has first and originally been posted right here on French portal MMORPGs.info. We are sharing it with you due to our content sharing agreement with them.

1) Regarding the original writings of Robert E. Howard, each bloodline (Cimmerian, Aquilonian or Stygian) is supposed to have specific fighting style and weapons. Will it be the case in the game? Will we be able to learn new combat arts like Conan did as a mercenary?

Each of the three nations in the game (Cimmeria, Aqquilonia, Stygia), and the characters from the different nations, has their own distinct looks and also abilities to a certain extent. We have tried to make each nation into something unique, not just in terms of combat, but also in terms of architecture, clothes, buildings and so forth and so on. You will also find that the various nations have different approaches to combat, for instance the magic classes who naturally "pray" and draw power from different gods.

You will most definitively be able to learn new combat arts during the game. We are investing heavily into the combat aspects, and are doing our very best to make sure that you are constantly rewarded with new possibilities. With our motion capture studio and combat mechanics we have also been able to create combat into something incredibly lifelike and even realistic (that's why we have called it "real combat"). It's therefore not just about getting new special attacks and feats, but also mastering the system itself. It should be easy for anyone to learn, but it will take some time to master fully.

2) How long will be the first 'offline' section in the game for an average player? Will we be allowed more than one character? If so, will we have to play the 'offline' section for each character?

It's too early to say exactly how long it will take, but it will be for the first 20 levels (out of 80). We reckon it will take around 15 hours or so, depending on how good you are and what your focus is. I am not sure I fully understand what you mean by "more than one character" but in Conan you can naturally create several characters, which you can take through the single-player. Since we have four branching story-arcs you can therefore go at it again and again with a different approach. If you can skip this part entirely remains to be seen, but we are working on various approaches to see what works best.

3) Conan is announced as a mature game, it's very exciting, could you tell us more? For eg. we've seen a beheading screenshot, will it be an available fight trick in game? I was thinking too about some Conan novels aspects like alcohol, Conan's girls, etc.. :)

The Conan license is a brutal and gritty universe with raw violence, dark magic, evil gods and strong warriors. To water down the feel of the universe was for sure not something we wanted to do, and we are thus trying to be as true to the spirit of Conan as we can be. We are fans after all ;p . We expect the rating for the game to be mature, but at the same time we are not speculating in the violence and brutality. You shouldn't, for instance, be able to spray the ground with the blood gushing out from the artery of a fallen enemy, but you should be able to behead a demon or two;) As for women Gaute and the team are trying to take Conan into the 21st century, and you will find the women are just as strong as the men!

Oh, there will for sure be alcohol! Actually one of the PvP games we call "brawling" is based around the consumption of alcohol. This very "Conanesque" PvP mini-game is only turned on for drunk players in bars and inns. In brawling you fight with other stats than your regular abilities, with a system designed around how much you drink and what weapon you are holding (table, stool, bottle etc.). This PvP games is just for fun, of course, and should mean that any level could bash it out together?

4) Concerning real time combat and multipoint melee, it looks like a very impressive feature but what will be the most important in melee ? Character skills or player abilities (swiftness, accuracy)? Could you tell us more about this?

This is an RPG so player-level will in the end matter more than skills, even though skills will naturally aid you a long way. The more adept you get at the combat system, the more damage you can deal, but if you meet someone, say 20 levels above you, you shouldn't stand a chance regardless.

What we have tried to do though is to make a system where skill matters more than in most other RPG's. With the multipoint system, which also works with ranged combat, we are finally taking online RPG's away from the static, almost ritualized, combat and into an arena where you are more active in the gameplay experience. This is all for the good in my personal opinion, and think it will hopefully be as revolutionary as when we first came up with for instance the instancing and mission systems in Anarchy Online.

5) Questions from some members: will the archery skill be available for range combat ? Also, will the thief archetype be able to hide from ennemies and use dual daggers for eg.?

We won't go too much into specifics on the various classes just yet, but I can assure you we will give extensive info as we get closer to launch.

6) An offline beginning, servers with 2500 players (instead of 3000/3500 for "common" current titles), how do you consider Age of Conan? A full mmorpg? An hybrid style between mmorpg and classic games? A new approach for online gaming?

Conan shows a brand new approach for online gaming, and it's filled with features and approaches as you have never seen before. Remember that we have some 8 years of development of Anarchy Online under our belt, so we are trying to take all the best parts of that game, while bringing something completely new to the table.

In the bigger picture I think you can for sure call it a hybrid, with a more classic single-player RPG in the beginning, and with a full-fledged MMO in the later parts of the game.

7) How big will be the world ? Will all Hyperboree areas from the novell be available?

At launch there will be about 30 regions found in the game spread across Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia, so there will be a lot of real-estate. That said, it's impossible for us to implement all of Conan's world, this is after all one of the richest and most diverse fantasy licenses on the planet, but I am sure you will get to see even more through expansion packs and updates after launch;)

8) The fight system seems to be the most important aspect in the game, specially formation combat and sieges. How many opponents the game will be able to handle for a single fight? And how huge fights will we be able to see and participate? :)

Yes, combat is the heart and soul of Conan and will be a vital part of the gameplay experience. We still don't know exactly how many we can have on screen but we have run tests with several hundreds on screen at the same time without any significant drops in frame-rate. This is something which is incredibly important to us (large-scale PvP and PvE battles) and we have dedicated a lot of resources into load-balancing and network traffic improvements. I know that we have managed more people on screen than most other MMO's with AO (300+), and with Conan we are taking this a long way further.

9) About the craft, how important will it be in the game? For exemple, will  the crafters learn their own skills and progress without fighting? Will more social aspect like housing be available?

You will need to fight to progress, but there are also extensive crafting opportunities in the game. You have, for instance, resource gathering and crafting which can be done in specific regions of the game. You should especially look for the four resources gold nuggets, iron ore, stone slabs and wood, who are gathered with an active interaction, but you will also find additional ingredients through other means (gathering, combat drop etc.). All of these ingredients can either be combined at special locations or directly in your inventory if they are simple stuff like bandages etc. You will also be able to build player-made cities and PvP player-made cities, where each guild can have one of each.

So, we are for sure trying to have other activities than just fighting, but the main focus is on combat, combat and combat. More on this will come closer to launch.

10) Lastly, would you like to say anything more and/or deliver a message to the fans waiting for the game? :)

Thanks for allowing us to write a bit about the game. For anyone wanting to know more about the game I would advise a visit to www.ageofconan.com . There we also have forums with participation of some of the developers. If you ever wanted to influence an online RPG during the development you should definitively head over and let your voice be heard!

This interview has first and originally been posted right here on French portal MMORPGs.info. We are sharing it with you due to our content sharing agreement with them.