Following on from that early in the new-year you will be seeing the Tarantia Commons outdoor playfield. As I have mentioned before we have pushed this playfield up to a higher level range than was originally announced when we first talked about this playfield. The content will now be pitched somewhere in the mid to late 70s (the designers are still tuning the mob levels slightly) and you will find yourself thrust into the middle of a dynamic storyline surrounding riots taking place in the Commons District of the city. Which side will you find yourself on in this struggle right on the King's doorsteps? There is some really interesting combinations of storytelling and game-play going into this playfield and I think it will be a very interesting and engaging experience. We had originally intended to release this before the new dungeons, but we wanted to take a little extra aoc gold to make sure the experience was all the more compelling when we let you guys loose on it!

Lastly for today I wanted to give an overview of where we are at with the work on the itemization and statistics in the game. As I mentioned in my first letter we are already working on this area extensively. Our systems team is currently implementing the redesigned system and adjusting the formulas and templates for the various items and abilities. We hope to have the new systems available for public testing before the end of the year with a view to it going live aoc gold in the new-year (depending on how the testing and feedback cycles go of course). There is a lot to consider in these changes and it will require extensive testing, both internally and externally. We want to make sure that it is a positive development for the game, and finds the right balance between the power of items and statistics while still maintaining the pace and compelling nature of our combat system.

Related to this I also want to touch on the fact that while we have done some work to adjust class balance, feats and skills up until now, there will be a more comprehensive review of some or all of the classes both as part of this process and once it is done. Given we know that we are adjusting things surrounding all the systems like this we are holding on some of the adjustments required so that we can do them in a way which is consistent with the new systems. We will be looking at in depth though, and I wanted to stress that point with you all today. There are certainly some imbalances in PVP that we want to address, and it makes sense to do it hand in hand with the new system changes and not before that.

In closing I just want to thank you all for your continued support and enjoyment of the game. We are working hard to keep providing you with interesting new content and new systems to expand the game-play experience. I feel we are headed in a good direction, and I really appreciate the support and feedback from all those in our community that make it what it is today.

We'll see you all on the fields of battle!

Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison
Game Director
Age of Conan