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Age of Conan has reached the half-year mark, and a great deal has changed from release up to the current day. Many of the Player versus Player features that were planned for launch but ended up being pushed back, such as PvP levels and the consequence system, finally made it into the game over these six months. With these large additions to the game, people that left shortly after launch (and there are a lot of them) might be interested to know how things are going, now that some of the bigger promises have been fulfilled.

With this in mind, Eurogamer has reviewed the current state of AoC's PvP in detail, covering the major updates and how they have played out. Overall, the report finds that there is probably still a way to go before the new systems are where they should be, but the groundwork is there for a very satisfying experience. For the faithful subscribers, how would you rate the improvements to PvP? And for those that have left Hyboria, is Funcom on the right track to win you back?

Culture Armor, just what is it exactly? Better yet: How is it going to work? Well, Funcom has some answers to your questions. First of all, culture armor (and weapons) are designed to be end-game crafting creations, thus giving more weight to the crafting aspect within Age of Conan. Eleven cultures are being represented in the armor sets and yes, certain classes won't be able to wear culture armors that don't fit their origins. For instance, Priests of Mitra probably aren't going to be running around in Kushite gear.

Age of Conan's game director, Craig Morrison, has written a letter to the community about the next slew of upgrades and updates coming to the game now that Ymir's Pass -- and its new PvP system -- is on the live servers. First on the list of patches will be DirectX 10, which Morrison says is something the team wanted to be really special. We're just hoping it doesn't bring any serious new bugs with it, but from the sound of things Funcom is trying to make sure the new graphics are highly scalable for various computers.

The second big project in the works are two new dungeons. Thunder River will hold both of them and they'll be aimed at max-level players. The Slaughter House Cellar is for single players, while Xibaluku is a large team dungeon. We can expect to see these released with the next update, apparently.

It's the 14th of November, and you all know what that means, right? It means that for those of you battling in Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures and sick of hearing about Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, you've got something of your own to crow about: Ymir's Pass has hit the AoC live servers, and brings you the largest Hyborean content update to-date! Well, largest for adventuring space anyway. Ymir's Pass won't crowd your hard-drive too badly.

Heroes and scoundrels between levels 55 and 63 will find a lot waiting for them in Ymir's Pass, and the update contains a little something for everyone in the way of bug fixes and tweaks.

"This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark," says Game Director Craig Morrison. "In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!"

Funcom's most recent title Age of Conan tends to come under some fire from the gamers who jumped in upon launch. You may have noticed. While players can fault some aspects of the game, it does have some strengths, namely its fantastic score. In fact, the music of AoC has caught the attention of the Hollywood Music Awards.

Knut Avenstroup Haugen, who composed the soundtrack for Age of Conan, has been nominated for Best Original Score in a Video Game, specifically for his "Ere the World Crumbles" from the fantasy title. We also turned up an interview with Haugen about the challenges of scoring Age of Conan, and of composing interactive music in general.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

A short while ago we had the chance to speak with Craig Morrison, the new director for Funcom's pulp fantasy epic Age of Conan. Morrison assumed the helm after the previous (development) director Gaute Godager stepped down, and since then the AoC team has been making a concerted effort to reach out to players. Perhaps drawing on lessons from other companies that have experienced player perception problems, the Funcom director seems to be making a deliberate campaign out of player recruitment, feedback, and communication.

Join us as we reflect on this initiative, discuss issues that the Funcom staff see as most important to the Age of Conan playerbase, and walk through features associated with the most recent expansive patch. Read on for the full details and insight into this unique MMO.

Was there anything else in particular that jumped out at you as being noteworthy?

Craig: In terms of the other content most of what we focused on, as we discussed earlier, there were several issues the players have brought to our attention. There were a lot of changes to the combat system in today's update, making sure that the game systems and the combos are fun. We tried to make them slightly easier to use in hectic situations, without dumbing things down. We definitely didn't want to do that. We did realize that certain of the high level combos tended to be a bit volatile, some of them had five steps to them in addition to the starter. We found in PvP that meant they weren't as effective as they could have been; they actually counted against people who were relying on the damage from those combos.

Funcom has sent a clear message to the number of Age of Conan players who've been exploiting a flaw in the PvP XP system: START OVER. Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz, Senior Community Manager for Age of Conan, addressed Funcom's recent decision to roll back the experience gained by some players who unfairly saw a meteoric rise in gains, as confirmed in a player-by-player investigation.

Kunz stated, "We have then taken what we consider to be appropriate action against those players by reducing their PvP Levels to what they were before it was possible to take advantage of this flaw and removing all PvP Gear." Of course, Kunz says, Funcom is open to discussing the removal of experience and gear from those who believe they were unfairly targeted, and have stated that if they've misidentified an exploiter, the character(s) in question will be restored to their former status.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Thieves in the United Kingdom city of Bradford stole 4,000 retail copies of Age of Conan from the back of a truck late at night on Tuesday the 28th of October. The original source, Telegraph & Argus, claims that it was an Xbox 360 version of the game, but we're going to keep our sanity caps on and presume that was an error.

Police are trying to track down the thieves, but we're thinking it ought to be pretty easy to find them if they actually try to play the game themselves, seeing as how they'll need to register with a credit card number and other personal information to do so. We're guessing the thieves didn't realize that when they stole the boxes, eh? No good can come of this for anyone!

[Via CVG]

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

It's been a while in development, as the devs ironed out bugs and tweaked the system to get it just right, but the much-anticipated 'Patch 3' goes live this morning. The main feature it brings to Age of Conan is the PvP consequence system. No longer will players be able to gank other players without fear of reprisal. Accumulated 'murder points' will result in the dishonorable becoming outcasts from society, forced to rely upon a scattered few 'shady camps' for their supplies and rez points, attacked by guards on sight.

This means that being an unscrupulous PvPer will result in a whole new way to play the game, rather than just an arbitrary penalty. It looks a whole lot better than the original mooted plans for AoC, which involved jails and repetitive tasks that other players could watch you being forced to do.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Since Craig 'Sirillon' Morrison took over as the director of Age of Conan, even the gnarliest curmudgeon would have trouble claiming that things hadn't changed for the better. They might not have changed enough for some people's tastes, but work has been done and is still ongoing. Now, Craig talks to Eurogamer.net (at considerable length) about AoC, the changes that have been made and those that are yet to come.

Although there's plenty of information, there isn't all that much new information; players will be glad to know that the hope is for the PvP consequence system to go live 'early next week, if not this week' with Ymir's Pass following soon after.

When it comes to enticing back lost subscriptions, Craig places great value on word of mouth among the players themselves, observing that people who are having a good time in AoC will naturally pass on that information: '... that's what we focus on - making the game as good as we possibly can, so that our own players become advocates for the game.'

Massively is just a week and a half away from its first birthday, and we're winding our Best of Massively series down in the final days! This week we're listing five stories we wrote that caused a lot of people to get very angry -- sometimes at us, sometimes at game developers or other industry figures, and sometimes at all of the above!

If you have a thick skin for controversy (or if you're drawn to it like a moth to a flame like a lot of us are!), check out the list. Just... let's not let it come to violence, okay?

In a new missive to the players on the official site, Age of Conan game director Craig Morrison has offered up a glimpse of new changes on the horizon. First and foremost comes more details on the anticipated PvP consequences system. Players who adversely impact others in their combat choices will find themselves soon affected, accruing 'murder points' and eventually being ostracized by polite Hyborian society.

The upcoming patch will also feature some extensive changes to tradeskilling. Alchemy will get the most attention, but additional armor sets and weapons will be coming to smiths of all sorts. Items will be separated into 'base', 'culture' and 'city' recipes, allowing smiths to have a great deal of variety in the types of items they craft as well. Morrison hints that new tibits about mounts, quest encounters, and GUI changes are also slated for the next AoC mega-patch. Stay tune for further details! [Update] This may sound a bit familiar.

Without doubt, things are hotting up in Age of Conan. There's still a lot of ground left to cover, but it would be senseless not to acknowledge that a game which recently seemed to be wallowing in post-launch doldrums has turned into something of a comeback king. The final instalment of the current series of patches, Patch 3, is growing by degrees on Testlive, and now Craig Morrison has given a rundown of what's coming and why.

Craig kicks off by detailing the final version of the PvP consequence system, which regular readers will be familiar with. The gist of it is that AoC players who attack weaker foes will become outcast 'murderers', attacked on sight by guards, fair game for anyone who wants to kill them, and depending on rough camps on the fringes of society for their needs. There's a new mechanic of 'redemption' that allows murderers to go on special quests to rid themselves of this bloody stain.