Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Previews
-
Category: News ArchiveHits: 715
Combat itself requires a bit more strategy than some similar games, due to the fact that most enemies have the ability to create moving shields, and all players and enemies take up physical space. For example, if you run up against a foe in a small hallway and he throws up a shield, it will be exceptionally difficult to defeat him unless your main melee fighters find a way to work themselves around him and attack his unguarded flank. Of course, this is nearly impossible if the baddie takes up the entire hallway and there is no discernable way to slip past. It creates an added layer of strategy where positioning and character location is more important than ever.WarCry's editorial is aptly named "On Second Thought".
In addition to standard dungeon raids, the developers are also promising massive city sieges, which will require a lot of manpower and some heavy artillery to break through. This is one area where the mounts come in handy, as you can not only ride the traditional horse, but also mammoths and, in an homage to "300," war rhinos. These battles promise to be epic in scale, and it will take vast resources and huge armies in order to bring down the walls.
With Prestige Classes effectively scrapped, where does that leave the player in pursuing a particular craft or ancillary skill? Just by going from what Gaute said in the report, it now sounds like players will be able to choose the crafting or ancillary skills that they want and that they feel will benefit themselves as a player, and as a member in a guild contributing to a player-made city and by establishing a genuine player-run in-game economy. Gaute conceded that the Prestige Classes was another one of those [very few] "it sounded good at the time" ideas. So much like the formations cut, this change was about giving the control to the player and not being trapped in a box, so to speak. If I'm guessing correctly, then sure, there will be those players that will want to learn every single trade, craft, and ancillary skill, a bit like those annoying kids at school who just want to give everything a go, and end up being good at them all, the buggers. Anyway, so if you're a player that's most comfortable with learning only one trade, craft, or ancillary skill, then that's fine too, because you've got the power to decide so, and if you should be in a guild that needs a certain type of crafter, then you've got the freedom to fill that need rather than trying to recruit someone with that certain prestige skill or having to roll a new character for that sole purpose; flexibility and adaptability.
