Age of Conan promised to bring to the fans the power and the glory of epic battles and bloody lore. But something gone wrong in springtime 2008, so for Funcom were hard times. But now things slowly are going a little bit better, thanks to the recent huge and appreciated updates.

So we decided to talk about the past and the present of Conan with the mighty Erling Ellingsen. This is what he said to us.

GS: Before May 2008 AoC had one of the higher hype in MMO history, so what’s the biggest mistake you have made that absolutely you wouldn’t commit again at launch?

That’s a good question but it’s hard to name just one thing we would like to do differently. I think many of the design decisions we made could have been done differently, while others worked very well. One of the things we have realized did not work out so well was the way items are handled in the game, their importance for character advancement and what impact they have on your statistics. We believe that this system should have been better and that it would have made the game last longer for many players. So in the next update we are actually launching a revamped item system that makes items matter more and have a much more clearly defined impact on your character.

GS: What’s the actual subscribers situation for AoC and how many people work at the project now?

I can not comment on subscription numbers as this is sensitive information that we as a company do not share. What I can say is that we are seeing some very positive trends because of the direction we have taken the game in. The updates appear to have a very positive effect on players, we are happy to say that things are heading in the right direction. There is still a large team working on Age of Conan, both the live product and the up-coming expansion pack.

GS: Have you plan some sort of “Come Back program” for the old subscribers like reactivate for a while old accounts, give bonus items and things like that to show new contents to them?

Yes, we definitely do have plans for that. However, we are biding our time making sure we do such a campaign at the right moment. There are certain updates we want to do to the game before we open up for this, as we want to make sure as many people as possible come back and stay there when we do. We are getting closer and closer to that point, though, thanks to the many updates that we have done to the game. We are also in the process of releasing a trial version, allowing new players to experience the game. Expect more information on that very soon.

GS: Sandbox seems to be very popular at the moment. I always think at AoC like a great candidate to include some sandbox elements in the game, and for some ways maybe it was also into the developers minds during last years (I’m talking about the balance between crafted and lootable items against player’s abilities). Don’t you think that in a future expansion this could be an interesting direction to try?

Sandbox type games are great, and I’m a huge fan of those. I think there are a lot of things that identify those types of games present in Age of Conan. One of the things we’re very proud of with Age of Conan is the truly hand-crafted, tailored stories that we’re putting in there. The first twenty levels are probably not very sandbox, but they work great. The game turns much more sandbox as you get further into to the game. We’re certainly not ruling out going more in that direction.

GS: PVP system has changed from the beginning. What are the next steps about these contents? New kind of PVP (areas, battlegrounds), new rules, other improvements? Did you ever think to change or to expand the sieges dynamics, to add another kind of big battles?

We have some great plans for future player vs. player content, but I don’t want to reveal it already! But I can say that we are looking at adding more levels for PvP players, more rewards (even some very special rewards), more rewards to mini-games and improving on the systems that are there. We also have a very exciting system coming up for guilds, but I’m not going to show that card just yet!

GS: Every character in Hyboria starts from Tortage. Don’t you think that introduce a new starting area could be a sort of fresh meat for old, actual and new subscribers?

There are those who are very happy with Tortage and don’t mind going back to it when they create a new character, and there are those who would like an alternative path of progression. I would say Tortage can be played out in many different ways, but I do also understand the feedback we get from some players that want the ability to skip Tortage or get an alternative starting area. We are looking into things we can do about this, but at the same time we need to acknowledge the fact that Tortage is one part of the game that works wonderfully and that there are later parts of the game that needs more attention at this point. We need to make the right priorities!

GS: Are you still working on AoC for xbox 360? What kind of differences there will be about the control system (mouse/keyboards/chat vs joypad)?

Yes, we are still working on an Xbox 360 version but I can’t give you any more information on that. There is a team working on it, we’re making progress, but we’re not ready to set any dates. We look forward to sharing more information in the future, but for now we would like to avoid going into details on the controls, gameplay mechanics and so on.

GS: What we must expect from Funcom and AoC in the next months that you haven’t said yet in the previous answers?

There are several huge updates planned for the months ahead. Coming in the not so distant future is what we call Update 5, which will contain new content such as Tarantia Commons (a whole new adventure neighbourhood for the city of Tarantia – for higher level players) and dungeons associated with it. Of course there is more stuff in that update other than content, and the biggest one is the revamp of the item system. Item statistics have changed completely, and they will be shown in a completely different manner in the game. Items will suddenly matter more and have a more profound effect on your character. We strongly believe this will improve the gameplay experience considerably, making it easier to understand how items work and making them more sought after. Getting that shiny new sword is now going to be a huge achievement!

 Thx to Erling and Funcom for the interview.