Firstly the way how crowd control and immunities work has been adjusted. This change now will cause players to break stuns, fears, roots, snares and charms when they have lost a certain amount of health. This should give players a fair chance to withstand these spells and fight back.

There will also be a change in combos, making them shorter and hence easier to execute, but they’ll also be less powerful.

The next game update is due in a couple of week’s time, and these new additions should already be on the Testlive server.

Age of Conan remains one of the most innovative and interesting additions to the MMORPG family in recent years - but for now, it’s a tough game to recommend. In absolute terms, the game you’d play now is a better game than the one we played at launch - but an MMORPG is as much a service as a game, and Funcom’s service has fallen down badly when it was needed most.

The new grade is 6/10. I must say, Age of Conan is entirely in the hands of Funcom at this point. If they live up to the new director’s promises, then I believe it’ll be a strong title and a player in the MMO field for quite some time. If not, well, it could end badly, people…

I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It’s important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future.

We’ll see about that, but right now it sure is kind of empty out there. Except for those russian thugs, always in pursuit of my blood. Gnarl!

I also wanted to mention that we‘ve come very far with the DirectX 10 version, which we unfortunately had to keep on internal test-servers for launch. It’s now almost ready for the full test server. Once the next game-play update is out expect to start to see the DX10 functionality coming to the test environment. How long it will take to transition to live will depend on the testing of course, but it’s starting to shape up nicely

The new game director is doing a good job communicating the future of the game here. Now let’s see if you can keep the promises as well. I did notice that more voice acting is slipping out, which is nice. That’s a start.

Then there is the second stage of the PVP update that brings with it the consequence system. This new system allows for players PVP actions to have real consequences in the world, and it will greatly enhance the entire PvP experience in Conan. As you know the system is meant to bring repercussions for repeated evil behaviour (i.e. killing players outside of your level range), so should you chose to “gank” other players, a whole new gameplay area opens up! For one, it will result in you no longer being welcome in many parts of the game-world, but in its place you will have to rely on a newly arrived network of camps and areas that function with a little more moral ambiguity. This is very true to the essence of the Conan lore, and a change I think many players will find intriguing.

So they won’t let me shop around in Tarantia anymore, or what? Very nice addition in theory, but in practice it means that I’ll have to get another character so that I can have one ruthless murderer for nasty PvP fun, and another one for more traditional playing. Add the role-playing part, and you’ve got three character there. Perhaps one for the single-player quest as well…

Full update notes here.

The role-playing servers are finally getting some rules as well. Looks OK to me, might actually create a character on a RP server to try it out. I played a lot of pen-and-paper role-playing games when I grew up, so this actually appeals to me.

“Taking on the position as Producer and Game Director on Age of Conan is a great challenge but also one I welcome. I have a clear conviction I can lead the further development in a good way, evolving Age of Conan into something even better. My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns, while ensuring we add additional great content to the game,” said Craig Morrison. “At heart I will always be a gamer, and the coming changes and additions to Conan will always be done with the gamers in mind. Together I am certain we will shape an amazing future for Age of Conan.”

Godager commented in the same press release, as to why he’s stepping down and leaving the company:

“I have done my very best making this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan, and I wholeheartedly support the appointment of Craig. I have had a fantastic time these last 16 years, and I am very proud of the many things Funcom has achieved. Funcom and Conan will always be a big part of me, but as I now look to new ventures outside the gaming industry I am certain Age of Conan’s future is in the best of hands.”

I wonder if there’s something else behind this as well?