[Draegan]

PVE vs. PVP

Open-world PvP will likely prove to be fairly chaotic in Age of Conan, as there aren't any factions. It's not like Cimmerians, Aquilonians, and Stygians will be aligned with others of their race; instead, it's basically a free-for-all. Out in the field of battle, anyone can attack anyone, something Funcom felt fit within Robert E. Howard's fiction. Essentially, if you choose to generate a character on a PvP server, it seems you'd better be ready for a world of hurt.

That being said, Funcom is going to give players specific PvP rewards. If you're a hardcore player (which you probably are if you're entering a PvP server), there are 10 PvP-specific levels to advance through. Experience for these is gained only by killing other players on your level or slightly above or below. To prevent players from hammering on each other endlessly, Funcom has added a mechanic that stops awarding experience for killing the same target in quick succession. Instead, there's a timer, so you'll have to spread out and find other victims instead of needling the same one.

It's also possible to lose experience when killed. According to game director Gaute Godager, this won't drop you from one level to another, but it is possible for your progress to be brought all the way down to zero for your level if you're constantly getting killed. To further add to this mechanic's hardcore nature, you only gain a fraction (somewhere between one half and one third) of the experience for a kill compared to the amount lost for a death. Yikes.

The whole point of the system is for only the most skilled players to rise to the top, instead of having everyone who put in enough time eventually get to the highest PvP level. Once you do get high enough, special equipment unlocks and becomes available for purchase, and the gear is supposed to be extremely powerful. It'll be comparable to raid gear, though its statistical bonuses will benefit PvP play more than PvE. According to Gaute, raid gear will be more accessible than the high-level PvP gear. The idea is, every month, to update things so new items are available for the dedicated player. Though there'll only be 10 levels to start out with, the periodic updates should eventually add more levels along with items, reigniting the contest for king of PvP over and over again.