Monthly Development Update – April 2015
Hey everyone!
Let me take the opportunity to introduce myself. I’m Laurie “sezmra” Payne and I’ve been a part of the Funcom team for nearly 4 years now, currently as the Senior Community Manager. The world of Conan the Barbarian has also been one of my favorite fandoms forever! I’m thrilled to be bringing you updates on what the development team is working on, and I will roast them slowly over dragon's fire until I pull all the info out of them.
The Arena
Lead designer Matthew “CirithGorgor” Bennett tells me that they’ve started working on the final implementation of the Arena, which you have read about in earlier letters. Some of it does require more set up due to complicated mechanics involving pets and companions, but it’s going well!
While we don’t have specific information on what kind of rewards we can expect just yet, they will most likely be obtainable through ranking up with two new factions. The Pit Master: Gladiators is the PvE faction and the Pit Master: Duelists is the PvP faction.
The achievement system will also be hooked into the Arena to provide even more awesome achievements to collect!
The Achievement System
The next phase of the Achievement system has been patched in, which involves revamping the existing hidden treasure chests that are spread out across Hyboria. This also includes Khitai dig spots. These treasures are now linked to the achievement system and will provide loot such as armor, weapons, and consumables that are appropriate to the level range of the location they are found in. However, they’re only loot-able once. Naturally, there are some “Easter Eggs” for the truly thorough hunters – good luck!
It’s our goal to clean up some of the bugs that were brought with the first release of the system in addition to adding new achievements to correspond with the sacred weapon quests. We’ve also added hunting categories for Nemedians, Vanaheim invaders, pests(such as spiders), select Big Game, and Prey. These categories will also bring a number of new rare bosses to the adventure zones of Hyboria.
All of these additions continue to flesh out the Achievement System, adding more and more goals and challenges to pursue for adventurers of all playstyles! Dungeon and raid challenges will be part of a future phase of the system, so stay tuned for more information on those.
Panoramas
Have you ever relieved a cannibalistic savage from his head in the Eiglophian Mountains and thought to yourself “Wow, this mountain range is breathtaking!”? If so, you’ll be delighted by Panoramas! These are new clickable objects in the game that will utilize a camera path in order to show off some of the beautiful Hyborian vistas and architecture! Each panorama will end with a pause to give players an opportunity to take a beautiful screenshot of their favorite locales!
Panoramas are also tied into the Achievement system which should entice explorers to seek out these lovely scenic spots! I’m told that there are over 130 panoramas in total ranging from Barachan Islands to Dragon’s Spine.
Expanding Alternate Advancement
The team wants to expand on the current AA system, and one design which is being bounced around right now is the idea of unlocking feats. Imagine that we open up a cool new area of content where players can take on fresh challenges and collect manuals that are a part of that content’s itemization to unlock new feats.
Collecting AA points will still be a necessary step in the process and the existing AA system will remain intact. Sounds pretty cool, right? I really like the idea of involving more exploration in new game systems. Hyboria is such a rich, lush world after all. Several other ideas for expanding the AA system are also being worked on, and I will have more on those for you later.
Until next time, crush your enemies and eat cookies!
sezmra
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