100% this. Just as true in singleplayer as PVP. Nothing interesting has been added, but plenty of the new additions have damaged or removed things that were interesting or functional previously. Guess they just don’t want players (or customers…).
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sorcery in conan should be VERY situational
the last the we need is wizard lazors
prsonally the chalk cirlces are to much mobility
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With age of heroes ? A piece of crap . Nothing more nothing less. Hoping for some improvemens
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vanilla conan is pure trash
I joined Conan at the end of Sorcery Chapter, and it was was Brought me to CONAN in the begining. Its an AWESOME CLASS.
that being said, spells work just fine sometimes they may glitch but othertimes they are working perfect, its the player who needs to learn patience and distance.
plus why bash the sorcery @hibbidyjibbidy ?
when players see me a corrupted player, half stamina and half health, they say ohh we gonna smash this guy, and people all over the servers do that till they come across a TRUE SORCERER … LoL
anyway you mentioned lazers were going to be overkill, but we cant cast unless we stand still and are open to an attack, that with half health and stam, we are easy targets.
I feel as though they need to help the Sorcerers out, Cast while running, or if having to stand still a sorcerer must cast a Barrier shield (breakable by attacking )
or to atleast shoot with my staff while running… that would be FREAKING COOL… the sorcery class is by far the hardest class for PVP, but BOY IS IT FUN>>>>>
ahh and here is a PRIME EXAMPLE of what i meant about being picked on in conan as a Sorcerer , watch till end …
That’s my bread and butter.
On a serious note; I liked the prior ages.
Sorcery was fun and probably logged most of my hours.
The Purge rework allowed me to actually purge at will. (Would not work before or would hit a teleporter that was defenseless.) I ran the raid a stupid amount as well.
Recent changes have been rough though. Inventory still isn’t optimized but came with quick stacking, the dyer’s bench is hot garbage, combat tweaks are meh.
With Heroes I enjoy the concept but not the execution. Workers I foolishly put down that cannot be replaced died. I have two of Liu Fei but still can’t get Freya. Some days all of the cages on my server are bugged, they show thralls but are empty if you click on them. The purge rewards are awful even running a ten and too many golem bodies or meteors cause a server crash.
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Age of Sorcery brought me back to the game big time after several years of hiatus. I absolutely love the possibility of being a sorcerer, even if its not good in terms of pvp. All the cosmetics released since then Ive mostly also liked (if only they werent so buggy and unfinished).
In general I love the possibility of making myself and my bases look like those of Conan VILLAINS, not Conan himself, if you get what I mean. I am a corrupted sorcerer and loving it.
While Age of heroes wasnt such a huge deal for me, I dont mind it. Just stamp out the bugs and glitches… Ive enjoyed the direction the game has been going, but didn’t like removal of battlepass. That at least offered free things, now there are none.
Future ages… I think the biggest game system in need of revamping is religion. Gods are both nerfed to oblivion and very much outdated in general. Hopefully we could get improvements on that.
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Well, I guess I’ll give my full review of the ‘Ages’, not that it’ll make the slightest difference.
tl:dr - The 'Ages have taken me from being a player that played for thousands of hours, and used to play at least a couple of hours pretty much every day to, after this last ‘hotfix’, having unistalled and having no hope for the future.
Age of Sorcery - mildly negative (for me) but broadly successful in its aims
Sorcery was not something that was ever of interest to me, I did not want it and have no interest in using it. However - many players did want it (and many felt it had been long promised), so I had no objection to its addition to the game. That meant that this Age brought nothing that I wanted, but I also did not see it as a huge negative. The stat rework that came with it did not seem like any meaningful improvement, but also did not seem like a major detriment (except stamina, but I’ll get into that more with Age of War). Overall, Sorcery itself seemed to be reasonably well executed - not particularly unbalanced (if anything consensus seems to be that it may be a little weak in most areas), and fairly reasonable as an attempt to fit both gameplay needs and still be lore-appropriate.
Chapter 2 saw the addition of Khitan merchants who were willing to pay me for what I was doing anyway (killing every sorceror I encountered and otherwise ignoring the whole thing). Initially this seemed like a minor upside - however it quickly became clear that it was in fact negative, simplifying the game and making it easier.
Chapter 3 was a complete story fail - attempting to force the players (of a ‘sandbox’ game) to act as servants to an evil sorceror if they wished to interact with the new content at all. It offered no alternative - and the actions that a ‘barbarian’ in the mold of Conan might wish to take (rescuing the ‘princess’ and slaughtering Mek-Kamosis and his servants) were not even considered as an option. Instead, an NPC (Conan) performed exactly these actions, off-screen, between chapters - completley in opposition with Funcom’s often stated understanding that players are supposed to be ‘the heroes’ (the excuse most often given for why pets and thralls have to be nerfed over and over again).
Age of War - significant negative for me, permanently reduced game performance, added little or nothing of value while greatly damaging exisitng systems that were important to me.
Again this Age as advertised brought nothing to the game that I cared about in the slightest. But this time, that lack of gain was combined with major changes that were for me entirely negative. Removal of a functioning inventory system - prior to the Age, I used ‘Custom Sorting’ almost exclusively, but would switch to ‘Heaviest first’ for quicker off-loading - now there is no persistent ‘Custom Sorting’ (and Funcom has utterly refused to even acknowledge that this change was made, and ignored every attempt to even question it) and all inventories have to be manually sorted at all times. Removal of functioning character movement - characters were ‘locked’ to straight line facing in combat in an apparent attempt to force use of ‘target lock’. This was eventually changed to allow us to partially switch it off, but remains in full force any time we are harvesting. A deeply irritating experience that (like the inventory sorting issues) was a big part in moving me from a daily player to a ‘maybe once a week’ player.
The Dye Bench - has been covered in depth elsewhere and, as always, all requests to Funcom to either switch back or at least make it more functional have been completely ignored. Removal of mouse pointer from radial menus - never been admitted to by Funcom, they refuse to even acknowledge questions on the subject.
Edit: Stamina changes (because I left them out) - went from being fairly easy to manage to being more costly in combat, but so fast to regain that I consider it even easier than before (maybe different for PVP?). Stamina managment no longer takes the slightest thought - just wait less than a second and the bar is refilled. Mostly removed another survival element from the game, while also limiting use of ‘combos’ (which already weren’t much use for PVP, so it can’t have been about balance for that).
Siege of Al Merayah causes lag issues on a high-end PC (so god only knows how bad it must be for consoles or on over-built servers). It was vaguely interesting once, then it became a boring and quick way to get one of the current best legendary weapons in game (from about level 10 - which is roughly how long it will take to get to the ‘fortress’ from noob river), plus other bonuses. Further simplifying and making the game easier. Further eroding the concept of CE as a ‘survival game’.
The new purge didn’t much interest me - I didn’t care much for the old purge, I don’t care much for the new purge, so that’s pretty much equal - at least the new one has more player control (and, for me, had a much higher chance of actually appearing and doing what it was supposed to). I had a bit of fun early on collecting treasures and building a nice treasure room. I guess overall I’ll call this element a mild positive.
Age of Heroes - destroyer of hopes and the final straw leading to me uninstalling the game.
This was the first Age advertised that was supposed to add elements that were actually of interest to me. Both living settlements and companions sounded like things I would like for the game. But the more that was revealed, the less good they sounded. It also came with a ‘longer cadence’ (six months per chapter instead of three - yay! a chance for it to be more polished and less buggy… Oops - more buggy than ever, fewer essential fixes, just takes twice as long to be worse) and yet more promises of better communication. These promises were immediately broken.
Living Settlements - I would very much like the feel of my settlements being more alive, with followers moving around and performing a range of actions. But even if this had been executed well (spoiler - it wasn’t), the choices of how to do it actually seem designed to make bases more dead rather than more alive. Previously at least crafters were performing actions at their various benches, now they are mostly standing around in groups (or on tables) and avoiding their benches at all costs. And because now ‘one crafter can control multiple benches’ there are even fewer of them doing anything at all.
Companions - dull and unrewarding.
And then, after removing what little hope or interest I had left for the game, they implemented a ‘hotfix’ that didn’t fix pretty much any of the issues, but did lock many of us out of the game. And we get to see the ‘better communication’ in full effect as they steadfastly ignore every question of whether there will even be another fix or whether we are expected to wait the full six months to find out if the game will even function again.
Future Ages -
I really couldn’t care less. As far as I am concerned the game is done. I used to be a staunch supporter of Funcom and tried to see the best in every buggy update they released. I no longer have anything positive to say about the company, the game or any product they may release in the future. I was interested in Dune, but I have seen enough over these past couple of years that, despite my interest in the IP, I will not touch that with a bargepole.
Ratings - (personal and subjective - but then that’s the point of a review)
Age of Sorcery - 4 out of 10 (nothing I wanted, but some decent stuff that others wanted)
Age of War - 2 out of 10 (the new purge wasn’t a complete disaster, but most of the rest of it was)
Age of Heroes - 0 out of 10 (destroyed what little interest or hope I still had remaining for the game or Funcom in general)
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You’ve really done well in breaking it all down. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate this as it is time consuming - we’re not strangers to long winded stuff but damn, you put it together very succinctly.
It’s interesting, a lot of the things you cover is what I feel as a PVPer, this truly does help to support how it is felt by all.
I’ll add on to Sorcery for me. While most PVPers actually welcomed Sorcery in the general sense like everyone else, it helped to impair this play mode. Making various building techniques pointless, encouraging “running” vs. engagement, messed with combat builds and then AoW put the cherry on top with stamina, combat facing glitches and issues, etc.,…
Q Lock is viewed as like a trainer, it’s supposed to assist until you can gain the skills on your own - it had been like this for years. I was combat trained by various amazing PVPers to at least not be a burden to my clan mates. I learned without Q. But it became a need and crutch and some PVP content creators provided excellent examples as to why it being a requirement as opposed to a choice, really made combat lose its variety and thrill. This is an example of not knowing the player base.
But if we extend this past PVP, to PVE and even on single player, some of the same sentiment is there for environment. Making the game almost play you or itself rather than you experiencing the challenges in a world of survival, that you have curated for yourself.
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I quite in 2.2, 2.3. Can’t remember why. Played BRs till I read about the age of sorcery and came back to the beta servers, then dug up a character on live.
I like sorcery but needs work.
Age of war about saw me quit; well went to refreshing because battle was bull shirt, but they fixed the issues with fighting.
Age of heroes made me wonder if funcom had any plans or are they just winging it? Age of heroes is more aggravating then engaging.
Now I’m ready to step back to lurker, because I’m wore down.
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What could you possibly mean? I am the very soul of brevity and no one has ever commented that they couldn’t be bothered to read such a wall of text 
But more seriously, thank you 
Entirely how I viewed it as well. I used it briefly when I was new to the game (and new to the entire style of ‘souls-like’ combat) and then I switched it off and ‘never’ used it again. (I actually thought the journey system was bugged at one point, when I had to use target lock to complete a step and couldn’t get it to work - only to discover that the reason was that I’d switched it off in settings years earlier…).
Indeed, as we’ve discussed before (not least in the very thorough thread you made (I think it was yours) on why the game no longer feels like a survival game - or much of a sandbox. If Funcom’s aim is to make the game easier for casual players, maybe they are achieving that aim (though it would be nice if they could just communicate that idea…). However, I question how many casual players even bother with games labelled ‘sandbox/survival’ - it is a niche that attracts a certain type of player. Removing the game elements that are typically what attracts the type of players that play in your niche seems counterproductive. Just as hamstringing ‘advanced’ combat in favour of an enforced ‘casual’ version seems counterproductive in the ‘souls-like’ niche.
But who knows - maybe once Funcom are down to the half dozen or so long term players that seemingly like these changes and the game is otherwise purely reliant on ‘casual’ players to fill out the numbers maybe we’ll see a change in direction. Or maybe they’ll just take that as ‘proof’ that players are no longer interested in ‘survival/sandbox/souls-like’ games and kick us the rest of the way out of gaming generally…
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HAHAHA man, I am so sorry if that came out the wrong way, that was not my intention 
This. Or a casual might have it suggested or free as a bundle. It does take a certain player to get hooked.
Consider that there are thousands of titles out there, so even the most ardent survival/sandbox player might spend their time and money elsewhere too.
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No no. No offense taken at all - I’m well aware that I tend towards long posts (and that you were including yourself as well) - I merely found it funny (and a good feedline just waiting for the punchline) - plus the idea that any post I’ve ever written could be described a ‘succint’ also entertained me 
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IMO:
Because of the rampant bugs and incomplete systems it gives me the whole what is it you actually do here mentality when it comes to FC.
I wanted Sorcery to bring an entirely new play dynamic to the game. Instead I’m still just a barbarian or ninja diving into combat because minions are just not as effective as they should be. Spells are so painfully situational that it’s laughable as an overall mechanic. No, I’m not talking about lightning bolts or fireballs, but there are natural debuffs and manipulations of current in-game mechanics that sorcerers should have access to (such as grease orb and gas orb effects, heatstroke, frostbite, diseased, starving, thirsty, and sunder) without having to hit somebody directly or throw a glass ball for. The spells that should have more use are entirely neutered (Wall of Fire, Call of the Dead, Creeping Darkness) or half as effective as they should be (Mirror Mark - Useless vs Bosses/PvP). Minions available are not intimidating or rewarding in the slightest (every tricked out/geared CB I’ve gotten has wiped the mat with summoned level 20 demons assisted by Demon Lord spawns) with the exception of 3 or 4 resurrected CB’s. No corrupted Agility, Grit, or Expertise and single-line corrupted attributes (lack of perk choices at the 10/20 ranges) are just wasted opportunities to give players more agency to play how they want.
I actually liked the storyline though. Very fun. Wish that I, as a server owner/admin could activate it on-demand to have a seasonal event on my server.
Age of War…what a big meh. Chapter one was a joke. Across the age the concepts introduced had potential though. Taverns should have been more fully realized. Depending on the player they can look great but inside feels like a food-shelter without any audio ambiance. The barkeep still offers only one dang contact and we’ve gotten no indication of when more will be implemented, who they will be, and what they will bring to the table. As for the purge revamp: I get it. The old version was hella broken and cheesed. But what they replaced it with? C’mon. That doesn’t scream ‘survival’ it screams ‘tower defense’. I’d be much more inclined to like it if we as players had the option to a)remove the on-demand aspect and set it to chance-based on level of wealth and b) change the AI to destroy any building pieces between them and the coffer so they actually do real damage. If you don’t like it, then don’t build a coffer. Simple as that. Al-Merayah…good idea. Bad implementation. Kills computers apparently (my systems run it just fine but I’ve heard others struggle with it). And those mob spawn rates…holy effing geez. I’d settle for even 80% of the current spawn rate. It’s just not fun for me to kill endless hordes and not even have a chance at breaching the front door because I’m locked in endless battle. I’ll try different tactics going forward but right now, yeah, not enjoying it.
The sacred hunt? Oh I’m sorry, I’d try it but it only pops in a few weeks out of the year and I have a life. And again, FC hasn’t implemented any way for server owners/admins to activate it on-demand.
Age of Heroes. Weirdly enough, I’m a fan of living settlements (now that it’s stopped randomly sending my workers to hell). It’s kinda cool seeing them go about their business as I move through my base. I don’t care for Liu Fei and Freya though. This game didn’t need more emphasis on Followers that die easily. We needed bug fixes, fleshing out of the previous systems, and a religion revamp. I’d be more comfortable with this age if they gave a forecast of what they’re actually trying to do with it down the road.
TLDR: They haven’t spent enough time on each Age actually finishing them. Sorcery is half-baked (limited spell selection, lack of ‘power’ factor, incomplete corrupted attributes). AoW systems are completely un-optimized and also half-baked (Taverns lack livelihood and are buggy, Raid mob respawn rates are still outrageous, and as for the Purge…well thank goodness for @Xevyr ), AoH…TBD.
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hey honestly some of those spells you mentioned do sound nice, to be able to give them
Disease
drunk
immobilize them / trap spell AOE type
Mind Control OHHH YEAHHH
Debuff
Strip of armor and gear
Heart Grasp - Instakill YEAH BABY!!! with a cooldown might work…
For Casting:
casting while running would help ALOT
or having to cast a Breakable Protective Barrier to cast other spells inside or the protective barrier can move with us, that would atleast help with the half health part,
PLEASE GIVE SORCERERS THE METEOR SPELL like your NPC… PLZZZZZ
make wall of fire Give HEATSTROKE like its supposed to plz.
please think about some of these Funcom thanks…
and great idea Delrio, some added debuff spells would be really nice.
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Diseases should have been a no-brainer from the get go. I suggested immobilizations based on grasping undead hands or vines in my old Sorcery post from before it was implemented (which btw I think FC actually read). Corrosion of armor via rust and rot should’ve been a thing too.
Generally I’m against anything involving insta-gibs or moving casts because I’m still tethered to the thematic concepts of the Conan world, but I agree that defense abilities need to be looked at. A spell that gives us the Golem damage shrug that stacks with the endurance perk would be nice.
Meteors would be nice (if at least for the effect of producing star-metal on demand) but I can see how it’d be OP if implemented how the NPC’s do it. If the meteors exploded as opposed to leaving star-metal behind it’d be a little better. I’d be more appreciative of a version of lightning storm that functions indoors and in dungeons, like an earthquake spell that spawns random jets of lava to spew forth from the ground at random spots that does identical damage to the lightning bolts.
Being able to force drunkeness on somebody would be hilarious lol.
As for Mind Control: I simply do not understand how as a Sorcerer I don’t have a sleep/hypnotize spell to use on NPC’s to instantly knock them out for conversion at the Wheel of Therapy. I shouldn’t be relegated to knocking them over the head like a brute. I should be able to mesmerize on demand. Make it so bosses/3 skulls are immune and there you go.
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In what ways do you believe the “outdated” religion system could be better? I have seen several people mention this before.
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I’ll bite on this one.
The in-game rewards and effects have been overshadowed by almost every other aspect of the game and the gameplay loop for religious activities provides very little incentive, outside of Avatars, for engagement. In addition, for the majority of religions, the available systems don’t interact well with any other aspects of the game, ie: lack of religious decorations/placeables for bases, limited weapon/armor sets, and no interaction with sorcery.
While the argument can be made that not every in-game system needs to be interacted with outside of the basic survival functions (build, slay, survive), there should be at least something each system provides to entice a player to engage with it. With the last nerf to avatars and the way bubbles functioned, and even before then, all they served to do was introduce a new grind as a means of defense. I’d appreciate if religions provided an avenue to enhance existing game mechanics as a means of furthering a player’s mode of style and play. For example, it’d be awesome if each religion’s shrine functioned as alternative to the wheel of pain, with converted thralls guaranteed to have a 100% growth stat in a certain category and innate bonuses for wearing associated religious equipment. The religious weapons need to be expanded and buffed to incentivize their use alongside legendaries (hell, make it so legendaries must be dismantled so the constituent parts are required to produce end-tier religious weapons). Food buffs are easily replicated or surpassed by sources outside religion.
Fluff wise, religion also lacks an important aspect: pomp and circumstance. There is nothing flashy or visually appealing beyond the how the shrines look. We lost the beacon lights awhile ago. The mysticism and sense of divine (or dread, depending on the deity) isn’t felt at all. It would be cool if tokens could be redeemed as part of a ritual similar to the sacrifice stone where you pray for buffs that last a few realtime hours and persist through death (it is a godly blessing after all). Each religion should have a clan emblem unlocked with it.
I know this will be an unpopular opinion: but how cool would it be for you to see the attached religious thrall chanting and going through the motions of the blessing and seeing the visual of your deity’s blessing take effect? I mean to me that’d be rad to see a swirling mist of Derketo’s sacred powers coalescing around me as my priest dances and sings before I go about on my tasks for the day, be it dungeon diving, fighting a purge, or just going off to raid my foes.
With the implementation of the “green ghost” placeholders it would also be cool if each station had slots where workers could come and worship as part of Living Settlements. Seeing a bunch of people coming and praying or whatnot as part of their routines would be a nice touch to the feel of the base.
As always, just my two cents, not everybody will or needs to agree.
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I see. Yes, having the thralls conducting worship actions would be awesome. The other things you mentioned are good as well.
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