Age of Conan: Class List Down to Twelve, Prestige Classes Possibly Removed, and More
From the standpoint of the community, nothing hits harder than having classes or features in the gameplay that were established by the developers suddenly ripped from your grasp. You base all of your initial gameplay ideas around a certain class, and that class is your basis in the world. As a player of MMORPGs, almost everyone that the Ten Ton Hammer staff has talked to has been there. Today's press event was a hard blow to the general player community, but the general opinion - both from the press and the Funcom side - is that all these particular changes were necessary to make Age of Conan a splendid game. So please read on before you make your final judgments on the reduced class list, possibility of prestige classes dissipated, and the new "M" rating by the ESRB.
Quote:
The "class guru" Evan Michaels (who has also done a fair number of our class interviews) answered the question with his official statements. To paraphrase, the Lich's abilities are going to be integrated into the Necromancer's feat and spell list, and the Scion of Set is going to become part of the newest class in the game - the Tempest of Set. For those of you keeping track, this was the Stormcaller/Druid of the Storm class that has gone through a number of different incarnations in its relatively short life span.
Necromancers absorb even more cool abilities? Sign me up!
It sounds like it was a good call to retain certain class abilities via transferring them to other existing classes. The list as it stands is fairly diverse and if testing has shown that certain classes simply weren't fun or balancing out properly then I'd always rather see a slightly shorter list vs. having people upset because they felt their chosen class wasn't up to par etc. Either way, having 12 classes still offers a lot more options than the majority of the previous generation of MMOs has had, which I think is a good thing as well.
To be honest I expected it so no surprise here. Many MMOG's promise a lot of classes at launch, but to date I don't recall seeing any that offered such a large number of classes have them all make it to launch. It is unfortunate, but it is also a known risk of game design. Budget and time constraints can sneak up on you sometimes and you will have to maybe scale back a class for a later release or in this case combine it with another.
Vanguard had similar issues during beta with the Berserker and Inquisitor class. Both were taken out during beta to be released later.
__________________ The Tuk
Ten Ton Hammer Main Site Writer
No offense but did you read the article completely?
A merge is not a removal, it only removes the original wrapper of a class and the candy goes into something else.
None taken.
Let me clarify what I was saying. I was not surprised to hear all the classes announced did not make the final cut. Be it a merge or a cut, the class itself will be no more. That was what I was referring to. Sorry for that misunderstanding if I wasn't clear enough. I was just referencing Vanguard as a previous experience I had with a class not making it to launch.
I have been up to many hours and might not have been clear in that initial post.
__________________ The Tuk
Ten Ton Hammer Main Site Writer
They aren't the only development company to promise more than they delivered and it's better for them in the long run to fess up now instead of saying "We'll add them later." I'm still waiting for the boats that were supposed to be in EverQuest 2's launch...
The M rating? Pretty sure everyone saw this one coming. I guess not getting an AO rating was a small victory for them but they'd have just changed the game to fit it.
I'm just concerned. Not so much with regard to the removal of the 2 classes and redistributing the skills/abilities associated with said classes amongst the other existing classes. No, my concern is about the Prestige Class matter. I truly am trying not to panic, but having been in an abusive relationship where I had alot taken from my gaming enjoyment (SWG), I'm a little skeptical about this. For the record, I'm not pulling a chicken little here, it just will take away some of the shine from the game for me if crafting gets watered down due to the removal of the Prestige Classes.
__________________ Guild Website
Wiccana PvE Server
Khalim
Isuppose if they finally thought 'OK, we're getting close to relaese and these classes just aren't balancing as well as they should be' now's the time to do something before release than later and nark of alot of people who chose some 'broken' classes.
Age of Conan: Class List Down to Twelve, Prestige Classes Possibly Removed, and More
Linear Mode
