This Week in Hyboria #4

Crafting changes (in the works)
The queue system (very much like over the time system in AA) got replaced with resource system. Think of it as stamina or mana pool: you can cast only so many spells before it runs out and when it does it needs to regenerate mana before you can get back to fighting. Same will be true for crafting: you will have set amount of this resource (let's call it "crafting juice" for the sake of this post) and each item will cost some crafting juice to make. If you want to craft, for example, two swords which cost 10 crafting juice each and you have pool of 30 crafting juice then you will be able to craft 3 of those swords daily. Want more? Then you will have to wait set amount of time until your crafting juice regenerates. I think this is as good of a system as a queue which in my opinion should server one, main purpose: to prevent players from just shitting out items for hours one end. This is the main issue with current system: if I wanted to craft gems in order to level up guild renown I could have (because I had tons of uncut gems) been crafting gems for 3 hours straight. If you want to have healthy economy then you have to provide basic structure for ground level laws of economics: supply and demand. Under current system we have very little demand (whatever you can craft is horribly outdated in post ROGS reality) and abundance of supply because crafting materials cost next to nothing.

Source:https://twitter.com/Silirrion/status/231015148968615936
https://twitter.com/Silirrion/status/231015781041844224

Skills system getting trashed

As you could have already noted the devs have removed some of the skills related to sprinting and self-healing.FC is planing to continue to do so in the future until the skill system is gone completely. I, for one, am welcoming that since I have always considered skills to be confusing and cumbersome.

Source:http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=572366&postcount=18
http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?s=7bcf7a374cde20f524f42569a34f10db&p=1997536&postcount=2

New sprinting system
The new energy system is now live and I must say I am enjoying the hell out of it. To my surprise the feedback on forums is also overwhelmingly good just as it is inside the game itself. Seems like FC nailed it this time (sure, some tweaks will always be needed).

Source:http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?s=7bcf7a374cde20f524f42569a34f10db&p=1997536&postcount=2
http://aochideout.blogspot.com/2012/08/energy-changes-systems-revamp-goes-on.html

Assassin Useful Posts Thread
I have compiled a special thread on the official forum that contains links to all things assassin related. This thread contains stuff that you won't find on this blog since I am linking to the third party stuff. Make sure to be checking it from time to time since I will be updating it as new stuff will surface.

Source:http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=178424

Podcast with Craig Morrison
mmorpg.com interviewed Craig Morrison. The interview is mostly about things we already know (one server tech, crafting etc.), but one thing caught my attention:

 „there is a one feature that I can’t talk about just yet and is coming to the item system that will make another difference there and it is another form of horizontal progression”

So new horizontal progression through items (check podcast at 28:40)? I can think of only 1 thing: leveling your WEAPONS Lord of the Rings style (check http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Legendary_Items_Guide). This kind of progression would have solved the issues with PvP weapons being inferior to raiding weapons: good and dedicated pvpers would have leveled their weapons enough to match those brought into the fight by well geared raiders. Of course Game Director could have had something different in mind when he was talking about "another form of horizontal progression". Only time will tell.

Source:http://www.mmorpg.com/gameon.cfm/cast/all

Lags, lags, lags...

Sadly the last patch totally messed up the servers and resulted in absurdly high pings. Seriously it was never this bad. Funcom promised to address it soon and to give subscribers free game time for their troubles. F2P crowd, you guessed it, can suck it.
As I am typing this the servers are going down for fix so I have my fingers crossed.

Source:http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=1999491&postcount=3