This focus on stealth is also one of their weaknesses. Stealth requires sacrificing the heavier armors in the game for lighter silk and cloth. This class is heavy on the offensive but a little weaker on the defense end.
To become an effective age of Conan player you will need to master the control system as it is just not point and click, you will actually control the movements in the combat scenarios so it may take a while to get used to this however is probably more fun as well.
The system designer interacts a lot with the game coders dealing with RPG-related issues, so lots of working with the item and monster designers, but not so much with the scripting or quest designers. General balance issues are also handled by this guy, and if the design team needs someone with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the game's mechanics stored in his brain, the system designer is the guy they turn to.
If you're like some of us here at QJ.NET anxiously awaiting Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, then here's a deluge of screenshots, artwork, the latest logo, and the European packshot. It's enough for any barbarian to want to go out and start pillaging some villages in glee.
We have always used our in-house technology, and we're developing the engine even further. The Age of Conan engine, even today, looks really good with DX 10. So the guys working on the new MMO have even more time to work on gameplay and content.
All mobs, including bosses, are lvl 80 elites, with only a few minions. None of the boss mobs spawn anything to help them fight. The only bad thing is that it seems the loot tables are fixed and the variety is not that great.
AoC while it seems interesting has many points that you might really want consider before running off and purchasing the game. If you must actively defend your city then you are looking at a major time commitment. Not something for the casual gamer. Real-time combat could be fun ... if you are a first person shooter fan.
AOC has a very tight coin system in play, even at level 70+ you will not be flowing with coin. From level 1 to 79 I made less then 20 gold, it is true however that at 70+ the coin does start to come a little easier.
The Spellweaving system promises some very cool effects, and allows the player to customize a Weapon Arcane that will best serve his/her needs. But again, be warned! It may have been fun mixing ammonia and chlorine in chemistry class, but such idle play in the Hyborian world will expose those who know not what they have to the darkest wrath of Krom!
The time is right for some good console MMO games. There's two titles that we're really interested in for taking to console right now and that's something I'd like to see happen in the next year or so, but it's got to be the right game.