Age of Conan Class Interview with Designer Evan Michaels
Arguably, the most important aspect of any massively multiplayer online game is the player’s relationship with their character. Through thought provoking gameplay or solid balancing, every gamer should have the opportunity to love the class that he or she plays.
Evan Michaels is one of the group of individuals responsible for making the classes in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures fun for players of the game. While we were in Oslo, the Ten Ton Hammer staff sat down with Evan to discuss a few of the more intriguing problems faced in MMOGs today and how AoC is dealing with them. His answers are quite candid, and his enthusiasm for building these classes is really apparent.
Quote:
It’s a really tough situation, when you try to balance both PvP and PvE at the same time. To an extent, as a developer you must make a concerted effort to do your best to balance things, but also realize that you’re never going to make everyone happy.Everyone’s opinion on PvP balance is different.
Of course, it’s half the reason people play MMOGs; it’s for that back-and-forth, tugging and pulling. I’ll admit that I’ve done my fair share of whining on message boards. I was very talkative on the AO forums about my thoughts on class balance, and I think it’s perfectly normal for people to talk.
Do you think it’s a good idea to overlap classes to the point of having arguments between each class? How do you feel about the way the priest archetypes are designed? Let us know!
Great interview. Wish there was info on Mages, but it'll come in due time i figure.
That aside, yes. Yes, i think that the priest classes being merged liked this is great. I myself, have always like Spellcaster classes. Therefore, i'm usually drawn to a mage class (and usually an evil one, and well, that leaves all 3 of the mage classes :P). I love dishing out high numbers too, so just more reason to play Mage. But, i also so swinging a big sword around once in awhile, or even throwing heals out. But in other games, this wasn't possible. At WoW for instance. I was a Warlock. That meant no melee, and no healing outside of myself and my demons. I loved it dearly, but i liked experimenting. So i rolled both a Paladin, and a Priest. There's just not an easy way to do both Healing and Melee/Magic with these classes.
That changes - now. With AoC, it'll be a breeze doing this. Want to heal, cut your enemy's head off, and use dark magic all at the same time? Dark Templar! Maybe you prefer nature instead of darkness, and want to heal more. There's the Bear Shaman! Maybe you'd like to just throw out the melee entirely, and throw more spells. Then you can go Tempest of Set, or Priest of Mitra.
This is definitely a great idea. The classes in this game will put every single class in any other game to shame.
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This is definitely a great idea. The classes in this game will put every single class in any other game to shame.
We can all hope so right?
That said, I think AoC won't necessarily be the "newest" - but it will certainly add a whole new flavor to everything that we've gotten used to before.
Do you like the idea of having to cast DPS to actually heal well though?
I'd always planned playing a mage class first of all, maybe even all three and if didn't like what I saw then and only then would i move to a priest class. Necro and Bear Shaman have been at the top of my list since the first game info was released.
I wouldn't worry about casters being unrepresented. Even if there is a disparity in numbers that will probably be a good thing to. Make us unique players. Like how Coercer's in Eq2 are, a class for the truly patient and dedicated player, for the masochistic and slightly psychotic...
This was some great information. I can't really comment on the healing classes other then that fact that I think my longtime friend from EQ will be happy to know that she won't simply have to be the "heal-bitch" again.
I liked what he was saying about the tanking classes, that guy certainly knows his stuff. I've been playing warrior/tank classes for a long time now and I can't wait to get my hands on the ones that AoC has to offer.
Hmmm need more bear shaman information. I was going to play that class as my main, but they seem to have been relegated now as a secondary healer? I don't want to end up with a class that is never prefered in groups or raids beacuse the others are better :\
Age of Conan Class Interview with Designer Evan Michaels
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