Ark's Ark

The player city resource zone revamp has arrived, with a variety of camps springing up throughout the areas. I’m looking forward to seeing whether the changes, ostensibly to provide alchemists somewhere to gather resources for their crafts, will liven up the Lacheish Plains a little bit.

Bind on Equip and Bind on Pickup have been added to loot. It’s funny how many games seem to think they can do without this, and then add it some time after release (as in the case of Everquest 2, for starters) , to a chorus of condemnation. While it’s inconvenient, I generally approve of anything that helps the ingame economy, as these flags assuredly do. Without bind on equip, items just get handmedowned indefinitely, making it almost impossible for crafters to prosper. I’m not so keen on bind on pickup though, so will have to wait to see where each was used.

The Patch Notes of the Age of Conan 31st of July Update are below. (Hit the “Keep Reading” link if you’re on the front page)

Continue reading Age of Conan Patch Notes for the 31st of July

This is first patch to have spent some time on the Testlive server before being released. Due to this, hopefully from hereon in there will be an increased level of stability in the updates.

Update: Another set of update notes came out later in the day, consisting of items that were missed from the first notes. For ease of use, I have consolidated the two sets.

One socially important change is that interfering in other people’s fights will reduce the amount of xp that they receive. You should not interfere unless asked. It would be useful if a “yell for help” button were to be implemented, to make it clear when help is desired, as folks rarely have time to type requests during a losing fight.

Age of Conan patch notes for the 10th of July continue below:

Continue reading Combined Age of Conan Patch Notes for the 10th of July

A small patch with no new content. I’m intrigued to see that they plugged holes in the walls of the player cities in the resource zone. Currently such cities are not attackable, to my knowledge, with sieges being restricted to the Border Kingdoms, so why need to worry about their walls? I wonder what they’re planning with the PvP update that’s coming up.

I’m actually too busy to play at the moment, but will be back in action from tomorrow. Libraries don’t build themselves!

Player Classes

Mage

* Tome of Erlik now has effects and sounds.
* Purge now has sound and particle effects associated with it and should now go on the appropriate cooldown. Purge now provides 5 seconds of immunity in addition to removal of effects.
* Misdirection now has received a better visual and should no longer look like a lightning strike.
* Weakened Protection will no longer refresh itself after the player cancels his own Absorb buff.

Rogue

* Mountaineer, Distraction, and Concealment effects are now innate in the feat and will not take up space in the Rogue’s buff window. They will still provide a buff to the Rogue’s teammates.
* Distraction will now properly apply to the Rogue’s teammates.

Bear Shaman

* Reaper Claws will no longer disappear when you zone.

Conqueror

* Feint Attack combo animation speed will now scale correctly for both male and female. Now the male and female should do equal damage.

Necromancer

* The splash damage of the Deathless Acolyte: Magus has been increased from 10% to 30%, with 4 meter range and a maximum of 5 targets
* The Deathless Acolyte: Reaper and Deathless Acolyte: Arcanist now have 30% splash damage with 2 meter range on a single additional target
* The Deathless Acolyte: Arcanist’s chance to trigger the Arcanist’s Knowledge has been doubled
* The Arcanist’s Knowledge effect will now display the current stack count in the buff GUI
* Casting Frost Blast will no longer cause the Necromancer to get stuck in a casting animation
* Flash Freeze now additionally decreases the casting time and increases the damage of Freeze
* Freeze will now clear the target of all Necromancer damage-over-time effects when cast, this will reduce the chance of it breaking accidentally on damage
* Ice Shackle no longer has a chance to break on damage
* The debuff effect applied by Wither Soul should now have the appropriate icon

Combat

* Thrown weapons have had their range increased: Light throwing weapons now have a range of 15 meters, up from 12. Heavy throwing weapons now have a range of 18 meters, up from 16.
* Generic NPC crowd control effects have been tweaked. Resistances from feats and other player effects should now help against NPC crowd control. Stun, knockback, charm, and fear will now grant the player immunity.

Massive PvP

* Battlekeeps now have resurrection points for the attackers, that are located near the front gate of the city.
* Fixed an issue that disabled Siege Weapons if the target was out of range.
* NPC’s will properly respawn when a building is repaired.
* Players are now able to use a siege weapon after the player using it has gone linkdead.
* Players now get a notification when they are about to get teleported out during a Massive PvP battle.
* Damaged playerbuilt curved walls now have correct collision so they can not be walked through before they are completely destroyed.
* Lacheish Plains: Several holes have been closed in the West Battlekeep so players can no longer bypass the walls there.
* Poitain: Several holes have been closed in the West, South and East Battlekeeps so players can no longer bypass the walls there.

Mounts

* Moving around while mounted should now correctly interrupt spell-casting.

Items

* Fixed a tooltip error on the crossbow Skysmite causing the bonuses to be illegible.
* The recipe for Steelsilk Belt has been changed to Fine Steelsilk Belt.
* The recipe for Steelsilk Leggings has been changed to Fine Steelsilk Leggings.
* Selling a gemmed item to a shop and undoing the sale will no longer remove the gems.

Playfields

Armsmans Arena

* Doors should no longer be targetable in the Arena.
* Fixed an issue where players managed to get locked inside the monster cages in the Arena. You should now be able to get out using the Lever.

Lacheish Plains

* all the levers for each door in Stonehammer battlekeep should now work properly.

Tradeskills

* A progress bar will appear whenever gemcutting is performed.
* Crafted armor pieces no longer incorrectly have more defense rating than normal pieces of armor.
* Resolved a level check for the response to give when character is below level 70 and tries to learn gathering Oak.
* The Weaponsmith workshop plan can now be correctly learned from the Architect trainer.
* Blue Iron can again be mined from the correct mineral veins.

Quests

* Stonecutter Trainer: Fixed a dialogue issue so the trainer will now accept Basalt and Adamant to resolve the quest.
* Cannibal Commotion: Fixed an issue where Attadeus would become stuck and not allow you to update the quest.
* The Bearer of Ill Tidings: The Field of the Dead quest “The Bearer of Ill Tidings” and “Allies of the White Hand” are now level 48.
* The Den of Wolves: The goal name was changed from “The Den of Wolves” to “Kill Plains Wolves”.
* The Wolf Hunt: The goal name was changed from “The Wolf Hunt” to “Kill Yukagi Wolves”.
* Death to the Undead: The goal name was changed from “Death to the Undead” to “Destroy Conriocht werewolves in the Haunted Forest”.
* Greater Prey: The goal name was changed from “Greater Prey” to “Kill werewolf Rippers, Antagonizer, Slasher and Slicers”.
* The Curse of the Werewolves: The goal name was changed from “The Curse of the Werewolves” to “Kill Conriocht Menaces, Slayers and Goremuzzles”.
* Fit for a Chieftain: You will now correctly receives the item ‘Fur of Bloodclaw’ in the quest inventory.
* Attack of the Savages: An issue where the goal text was not clear has been changed to “Kill Raiders at the Guard Post”.
* Castle of King Conan: Pallantides now doesn’t display an exclamation mark over his head unless you can get the quest from him.
* Tortage: Renton should now have one coherent look as opposed to changing look between quests.
* Paetus & the Nemedian Crown III: Gavion now gives the player the map and letter back when he ask the player to go talk to King Conan about this treason. Players will need to delete their old quest “Paetus & the Nemedian Crown III” and speak with Gavion again to continue this quest line.
* Lusts of the Flesh: You now get a cask of Tainted Ale to give to Tuthmekri. Players who want to finish this quest will have to delete it from their quest journal and get it again.
* Master of the Silver Peacock: Vistrix now finaly gives in and surrender his teeth on defeat. You are now able to complete this quest, and thereby advance to The Black Ring Citadel.
* Alchemy quests: The dialogues with the Alchemy trainer should now all work correctly and give and complete the needed quests.
* Common Gems II – Return to the Gemcutter: The quest can now be completed by handing over the needed gems to the trainer.
* Tear 2 gathering quest – Return the Illustrium: The quest can now be completed by handing over the illustrium to the trainer.
* Woodcutter quest: Players will now be able to get the ‘Gathering Oak’ quest when having the correct level.

NPC

* Tarantia Noble: Zhu-Khang no longer has flickering clothing.
* Armsman’s Tavern: Sarissa’s upper chest should no longer go through her dress.
* Tortage Jungle: Poacher Marksman should no longer shoot invisible arrows at players.
* Eiglophian Mountains: Added two vendors to the Mountain Hunting Lodge.
* Conall’s Valley: The Gravesinger now has an improved look that fits more with the description of him.
* Conalls Valley: Supply Master Vorgir has been given a slight makeover and should look better now.
* Tortage Underhalls Day: NPCs will now respawn slightly quicker than before.
* Lacheish Plains: Tiggle Knucklebone has been removed from the playfield to stop players from confusing him as a Trader.
* NPCs will no longer inappropriately recieve player buffs such as Lotus Overload, Blood Pit, Embrace Death, Overpower, and Pact of Dread.
* Vendor bought resources have been reduced in price.
* Sanctum of the Burning Souls: It is now possible to spawn the Dark Beast boss just by interacting with the Sacrificial Altar while holding a Ritual Chalice. The specific quest requirement has been removed.

Localization

* French: Many of dialogues that were still in English have been translated.
* all languages: All Feats, Special Abilities, Skills, Spells and Combos have been reviewed are now fully and consistently translated.

General

* Updated/improved descriptions of following abilities/feats/combos: >From the Darkness, Overpower, Blood Rage Stance, Secondary Laceration, Crippling Bloodbath (Crippling Bloody Hack), Improved Inspire, Focus, Burning Vigor, Covenant of Invulnerability III,
Focus, “Secondary Laceration” changed to “Conquest”
* Players will now be able to exit Dance state while in combat.