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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Introducting Guild Renown
Guild Renown has come to Age of Conan in yesterday's roll out of the game's Update 6. Today, the team from Funcom tells us what the new feature is all about.
Dev Journals By Guest Writer on February 05, 2010
Guild Renown is a refreshing addition to our existing guild system. Players' individual actions will now have an impact on the overall guild's progression over a server-wide struggle for triumph.
One of the biggest problems many games face is providing tools for guild value, guild advancement, and long-term benefits that attract new members. Guilds that don't have tools available to make their organization valuable will struggle in finding new members, keeping those members and showing those members that yes, you do have an impact on the world you live in. Guilds in Age of Conan have an impact on the world through control and respect. Taking that one-step further, we are introducing a system by adding new mechanics that further promote the value and guild impact while making being a part of a guild more worthwhile than ever before.
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When asked about the goals, Gameplay Designer and Guild Renown creator Tanya Short said, "The idea was to add extra meaning and fun to whatever you already enjoyed in Hyboria, whether you prefer crafting, questing, or PvP. We wanted players to be able to feel as though they were able to contribute to a larger effort, just through playing normally. Every week, the top Renown-earning guilds also earn bragging rights through a competitive guild rankings system that we hope will encourage players to show how well they really can work together better than anyone else on the server."
We have seen the impact guilds have in Age of Conan. This impact gives the entire guild a sense of meaning and a sense of accomplishment that is truly epic for everyone who experiences it. Guild Renown is also designed to hone those aspects and further improve the existing guild system by giving guild leaders and guild participants better ways to define their existence in Age of Conan through two important Guild Renown components, "Renown Level" and "Renown Rank".
Renown levels are attained through individual actions of your guild members in various types of game play. Guild members can gain renown from doing various game-play action like PvP'ing, crafting or killing monsters. Each type of game-play action is rewarded with a certain type of Renown Point called Valor (PvE), Glory (PvP) and Artisan (Crafting/Harvesting). As your guild members attain various Renown Points, your guild will rise in level and contribute to the overall rank of your guild.
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Competition and rewards
The best part about Guild Renown are the rewards. There are 20 guild renown levels to attain and each level gives your guild access to certain rewards for your entire guild. The rewards range from new player city decorations to entirely new buildings, from new seasonal social clothing to new pets, and from new guild quests to improved potions for guild members. There is literally dozens of new rewards that help give your guild more value for achieving long-term goals together. How about a gigantic statue of your favorite Hyborian deity placed in the middle of your city? You can get that.
Guild Renown would not be complete without some good healthy competitive game-play additions thrown into the mix. We are also including Guild Ranking for guilds to show off or brag uncontrollably about their progress together and as individuals. As you attain more and more renown points, you will be able to see your own progression and other guilds progression in the most Valor, Glory, or Artisan points in any given period. Rankings are updated only every seven days, allowing the top guild at the time to enjoy their rewards for a full week before competitors can take it away from them.
Individuals who progress the most will be granted with special titles for whatever renown specialization is the highest. Those titles will be shown in game with special highlighted names or symbols on their characters as they play in Age of Conan.
"Players who have otherwise used all of the game's content can continue to strive, as some rewards are dependent on retaining the top slots on the server. No player can ever think that their guild will always be the best, because if they sit back and stop playing, another will take their place," says Tanya Short, Game-play Designer and Guild Renown creator.
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Battle in the social PvP arena
The last and most important part of Guild Renown is the new PvP Social Arena's attached to the system. PvP Social Arena's allow guild members to dual and even form their own PvP tournaments with each other without having to drop out of their guilds. The gives you a more controlled method of organizing fights regardless of the server rule set.
"Before the introduction of these arenas it was quite simple for a player to intervene in the outcome of a fight, for example they could group up with a healer and get some buffs. Players had to put in some effort to make sure the fights were fair. Now they have a system that can take care of this for them. When a fight is in progress, no outside sources can influence the outcome of fights. It's also a safe way to observe without getting the risk to get attacked like in places such as Kheshatta," says Tim Dunks, System Designer and PvP Social Arena creator.
The arenas contain two objects where members have to choose a side. When all players have selected a side, they must relocate to the center of the arena to begin the match. The system is fully automated and will be able to detect when sides are ready to fight. As you players die in the arena, they are teleported to a preparation room where they are silenced from doing any abilities until the fight has ended. The locations of our new arenas are located in Kheshatta and Khemi with access granted to only those guilds that have attained the appropriate Guild Renown Level.
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More robust than ever before
With these additions in Update 6, the guild system in Age of Conan is more robust than ever before. Not only do players have access to a streamlined and powerful interface, with the Guild Renown feature there has never been a better reason to socialize with your fellow players, join a guild and show off what you're good for. Funcom will continue monitoring the performance of the Guild Renown feature, and hope to expand and improve upon it in the future. Right now we're just looking forward to what effect this will have on the political environment on each of the game's servers!
I must say AOC seems to be headed in the right direction and turning the game around. I can't wait to hear about the PVP revamp I think the mentioned in an interview i read a week or so ago.
who knows maybe when the expac comes out ill buy it and resub to see how it is.
Its look like a good thing in this update. I will proly renew with AoC.
I really wish I never tried AoC at launch.. Left such a bitter taste in my mouth that it's impossible to enjoy the game right now.
Superlative sheeeeeeet.....
I can't wait for the expansion pack. Soon as it comes out, I'm back in and ready to go for AoC again. If only they'd add an Outfit / Appearance System to the game now too. I'd be seriously happy with it then.
yeah thats going to be tough for me to get over as well. I wonder how the dark templar and ranger has held up over this time(my two characters).
yeah thats going to be tough for me to get over as well. I wonder how the dark templar and ranger has held up over this time(my two characters).
Dark Templars are actually badasses now. Since they revamped the clas I've enjoyed playing mine. I tried one at launch and they were pathetic.
I just recently returned to AoC, wary and bitter. but everything is awesome now. And DT's are AWESOME!
i can only say just try it again.
i left in the early days too and played lotro for 2 years (but bored now)
i did a resub and i can say they have done a great job !!!
i really enjoy the game atm
Just playing devil's advocate here, but does anyone see the renown potentially being an 'elitist club' so to speak, where people in guilds will be judged based on how much renown they have or not have? I like the concept of the renown system, but I fear some may say something like "You don't have enough renown, no raids for you until you get more" or something along those lines - where people get left out because they don't have the time\talent\recipes to get a high renown?
I'm not saying it might happen, not sure I even believe it might happen. Just an idea that came across me recently and I was wondering what other people thought.
The games been going in the right direction. I hope people renew and give it a try once the expansion comes out.
The first ranking list was posted last Saturday, given it depicts 4 rankings (total, valour, glory and artistry) there was a good mix of guilds appearing in the rankings. At the time of posting the rankings each guild's renown is reset, thus everyone starts all over again, so, it's most likely the top scoring guilds will change at next Saturdays posting.
As for elitism, yes perhaps the top-scoring guilds each week could feel a tad euphoric, but it's unlikely any guild would be daft enough to bar, or exclude others based on their renown.
[Disclaimer : I play AoC mainly because I am a fan of RE Howard's Conan stories, and the excellent community that exists on the server Crom]
Whilst the system has a few wrinkles, it really breathed life into my (relatively modest sized) guild on Sunday. The desire to generate reknown led to a flurry of raids, all guild pvp mini games (on the blood ravine map even that rarely gets played on my server) plus frantic crafting and even bribing the town crier in old tarantia to say nice things about our guild (which gives a reknown bonus)... it turned out that getting an alt to be top of our own guild list was just as addictive as boosting the overall guild ranking. What Funcom have done here in basically one fell swoop is
1) created a quantitative guild league table which appeals to the competitive nature in a lot of power players - keeps people subbing
2) made it fairly flexible so that its not just who is the biggest guild on the server / biggest gankers / pvpers who win (this is going to take more balancing but its at least pointing in the right direction)
3) created more fluff for RPers
4) created additional gold sinks (the city improvements / rp fluff) and given a boost to the trader markets (because crafting is currently getting big reknown rewards and people need the materials for the city improvements)
All this is in my opinion a big plus for both Funcom (gotta keep those subs) and the Players (more to do at endgame / sense of purpose for playing beyond seeing all the content/ general fun :-)) - its taken a long time and a shame it wasn't in game earlier but a nod of approval for Funcom is in order for this one me thinks. I'm curious to see if the system is just a novelty or it really does create a competitive environment that encourages players to stay in game. I hope its the latter.
Plus the patch had a class revamp (assassin), new high level content (a raid instance) plus a few bits and pieces of balancing etc. All in all a nice start to this patch cycle (but a few inevitable bugs and glitches too :-( ). Oh.. and one of the higher level reknown rewards gives players a controlled duelling arena in a tavern.. that's one step closer to the fabled drunken brawling feature :-)
Nicols
I played AoC at launch. It was horrid. I left the game after 3-4 months. I have recently returned and I must say its a noticeable change. I am having a blast and I cant wait for the expansion. If your on the fence about trying it .. dont!
Here is a free trial :)
So renown resets after each guild posting rather than being cumulative? Was wondering how that would be impacted by the departure/poaching of players to other guilds. Otherwise, it sounds like a very clever implementation.
My understanding is if a player leaves the guild and becomes unguilded, they lose their reknown (and to join another guild you have to become unguilded, even if its just a few seconds) but the old guild keeps their reknown points. This stops the abuse you allude to but has the occasional side effect i.e. leaving the guild to dual with a guildie means the player loses their reknown points. That's not a big deal really as they reset on a weekly basis anyway and an INDIVIDUALS reknown brings no bonus other than bragging points.. but yesterday, when for once, I was the guildie with the top renown that day, that would have been really annoying :-). I don't know what happens to their lifetime reknown total though - again it brings no bonus but losing that would be a bit worse. Again, I think this is the idea for introducing the arena.. you can duel guildies without anyone having to leave their guild.
Nicols
bah I dont think I will ever play it again what with them deleting my characters under 20