The following is a summary of the developer’s stream that occurred on 2/20/23 for the upcoming Age of Sorcery Chapter 3 which will be the final chapter of the age. It will be playable on the Public Beta Client on 2/23/23 and go live on or about 3/14/23 (subject to change if needed to address any lingering issues). Dennis and Andy were on camera and another disembodied Nicole was off screen.
Narrative
Chapter 3 will continue the story of Mek-kamoses’s pursuit of sorcerous power, this time through the collection of Blood Crystals that can be found throughout the land. Mek-kamoses’s Spire has been reworked visually as his base of operation and has a large beam that can be seen from a distance on the map. Due to the sorcerous goings-on, night has been suspended and replaced with a periodic eclipse that will darken the sky, but not as dark as normal night. At the Spire, there is a portal that can be activated to teleport to a new area where the story will continue, but it was not shown in an effort to not spoil the story. Characters will be expected to go to this area and bring back items to Mek-kamoses for rewards. The Spire is the location for finding various vendors for using ancient obuli to acquire in game rewards. They have resolved the technical issue with using dlc/bazaar/battlepass armors on dialogue NPCs so Mek-kamoses and some of his minions are now displayed in their appropriate armors.
Blood Crystals can be found throughout the world by using the detect resources spell. Blood crystals animate objects so when they are found throughout the map, they will be attached to some kind of creature. In the stream, they demonstrate a couple rocknoses and a humanoid rock monster. There are uses for blood crystals aside from turning in to Mek-kamoses which will be described below.
A special note on the story: while all of the game features (described below) will be available on the Isle of Siptah as well, the narrative for Mek-kemoses will only be available on the Exiled Lands.
New Features
There are two new major features to this chapter; a new journey system and a new type of follower, the golem. Both features are base game features and do not require the battlepass or bazaar.
Journey System
Chapter 3 of Age of Sorcery introduces a new Journey system for handling journey steps. The goal of the new system is to get the player to interact in a more structured way with the map. Journey steps are grouped, some as a form of profession and some as stages of player development. During the stream, they demonstrated Island Survivor journey steps on the Isle of Siptah. Completing a group of journey steps will result in a reward for the player in the form of game resources. The first, and only first, journey step which is a tutorial can be skipped but at the cost of not receiving the award (which is shown as a pack of resources like a bearer pack). As the game progresses, the journey steps will hold your hand less, as things will be clearer from interacting with the map. When the new Journey System goes live, journey steps will be reset to avoid being locked out of the new content. Some journey steps will be retroactive. Dennis gives an example of leaving the desert; if you have already left the desert when you reach the journey step associated with it, the step will auto unlock. Rewards for completing Journey Step groups will be awarded per character, so each new playthrough will allow for collecting the rewards for the current character.
The new Journey System is designed to be expandable as the game progresses through the following ages. There will be some Journey Step groups that are map specific (much like Island Survivor in the stream). The Journey System will likely be moddable in the future, if not at initial release as Rob created the system and he is a huge supporter of modders (and fan of Rickie Lake).
Golems
The primary use of the blood crystals is for the new golem follower. At Mek-kamoses’s Spire, there is a dialogue NPC who will teach you how to create golem followers. Golems are constructed from 2 legs, 2 arms, a torso and a head that each can have special properties. The pieces are crafted at a special workstation (the Golem Workbench) or are acquired though playing on the map. The pieces are then assembled on the Guardian Assembly Station where casting the ritual “Animate Guardian” is used to bring it to life. Placing the pieces on the Assembly Station will give the player a preview of the attributes a given combination of parts will have when fully activated. The combination of pieces will also dictate how many inventory slots they have.
Golems cannot be healed. As a construct, when they are damaged over time, the damage is permanent and eventually they will be destroyed. This is intentional as they are meant to be temporary so that over time, the player will create many golems and be continually involved in the mechanic. While they cannot be healed, they have a new deflection mechanic that is similar to a weapon rebounding off of a shield that can be enhanced through various combinations of golem components, the players authority attribute, etc. It is worth pointing out that the healing abilities of the Authority attribute do not heal the golem but instead provide the enhancements to deflection.
Golems can harvest resources if on follow. Depending on what tool a golem is crafted with at animation, they will harvest a given type of resource as they follow the player about the world. A golem will continue to harvest while on follow until its inventory slots are full. The golem will actually approach the item to be harvested and interact with it to collect it, leading to a more immersive effect, rather than just having stuff populate in its inventory. Dennis does mention that at some point in the future, it will not be just golems that can harvest but it will likely be extended to human followers as well (but not in this chapter).
Golems can also provide area of effect buffs for the player. Depending on how they are constructed, various lotuses can be loaded into their inventory to be consumed and create an area of effect buff. Grinding the lotus to powder will enhance the effect.
Golem appearance is dictated by their constituent parts and when they die, their pieces cannot be reclaimed (they will drop a lootbag of what was in their inventory, but the arms, legs, torso and head are lost). They demonstrated an explosive jar head version that explodes upon death. Golem harvesting also does not allow them to bypass the shell on a meteor; the player will need to crack the meteor before the golem will harvest from it.
New Battlepass items
Several new items were shown that will come with the new Battlepass and Bazaar, many with a Turanian theme. Most notably…
Armor Displays. Early on in the battlepass, a free unlock of the Armor Display is available. Currently, the armor display will be in a single pose, but more poses are being planned. Andy makes mention that currently, they played around with various poses but it did not display the armor correctly, so it needed some more work. The current display does not accept dyes or illusions, but future versions of the display will. During the stream, Dennis brings up the interactive wheel and the display can be locked.
Other notable Battlepass items include:
- Pack Camel
- Resource specific storage
- Golem workstation and assembly station skins
- New emotes
- New Unholy Communion Armor (reworked from Age of Conan by Vebjorn… does it have an ■■■■?)
- Blood crystal sword
- Turanian armor set
New Bazaar Items
A large enhancement of the Turanian build set will be included in the bazaar, similar to the expansion of the Stormglass set. It consists of cloth style roofs and walls as well as the new compact staircases, new domes, etc. Other items in the Bazaar include the Disciples of Zar (cool armors for you and skins for pets it appears), a Silent Legion Rhino Saddle, an emote bundle of ritual emotes called Setite Cultist.
Odds and Ends
The following are other topics and notes of things covered in the stream with timestamps:
15:08 Dennis’s character becomes dizzy with thirst in livestream… give a gal some water dude
17:17 Dennis realizes he must tend his toon or it will die, like a withering pineapple.
19:13 Is the mummy of the ring still in the journey steps? Dennis: I don’t think you’ll see that at all. They chose not to show narrative stuff to start. It is designed to be expandable so as new chapters start, they can add new steps as time goes on. Mummy of the Ring is still a “dangling thread”.
34:10 Will the headhunting event continue after chapter 3? Yes, it will rotate in but it won’t be on as large of a scale. Headhunting caravans themselves may not come back, but they still might come back as a random encounter down the road. Dennis says they may turn it on for a week or two at a time.
38:40 question from the crowd: is the new “area” in an inaccessible location that may interfere with map mods? Dennis doesn’t know specifically where it is, but it is dynamically loaded and active for the purposes of the chapter, but Dennis can’t say more than that. Dennis mentions that if you have events/encounters disabled on the server, the new area won’t be loaded.
59:00 Turanian tents shown.
1:14:05 Andy reveals his beard is the source of his power, as if we weren’t already aware of its prowess.
1:19:45 Character transfers still disabled. Still working on a solution to issues with it. No ETA as of yet.
1:20:00 Climbing fix when? There is an improvement to climbing in this update, Dennis is pretty sure…
1:20:34 Update the engine to 5.0? NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.
Wrap up
At the end of the stream, Nicole appeared once again to prove she was not unlawfully detained.
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. I follow! If we see nothing different on the battle system we organize a story too.