Age of Conan director Craig Morrison has penned his monthly 'state of the game' letter. In it, he discusses today's Ymir's Pass update as well as the future updates and changes. See what's coming your way below:

The latest outlook on planned updates and changes from the Game Director Craig Morrison

With the latest game update launched and on the live servers I thought it was a good time to catch up with you all and let you know what is on the horizon for the coming game updates and give you all a general status update.

With the new PVP systems now in place and Ymir's Pass now available for you to explore we move on to the next major additions to the game. I'll talk a little about the immediate plans for the next update as well as covering the things you can expect to see relatively early next year.

We are now preparing to take the DirectX 10 version of the game from our internal testing servers out to the public test servers, so you can see it for yourselves. The next major game update will include this version of the game and make it available for everyone with the appropriate hardware to enjoy. Since the outset we have been determined that the new DirectX 10 functionality would not just be a 'gimmick' addition to the game and would add visual quality to the game, we feel that the version we are preparing now for testing does achieve this and in a way that will find the right balance between visuals and performance. We have also gone to great lengths to try and make virtually all the DirectX10 features customizable so that you can find the right balance between features for the performance level of your hardware. What we did not want to do was push this version out too early and not see the real added benefits this technology can bring. I am really looking forward to players getting to experience some of the new visual improvements that this new technology allows. It really brings an even further splendor to the game world.

Keep your eyes out for the announcement of when the update will hit the public test servers so that you can try it out for yourselves!

In terms of game content we will have two brand new dungeon locations in the next game update. Situated in Thunder River both will be aimed at maximum level players. The Slaughter House Cellar is a single player level 80 instance and Xibaluku is a large team instanced dungeon aimed at the same level range. Xibaluku has a great series of new and interesting boss encounters spanning several hours of game-play. We will start to show a little more of these dungeon areas as we start to release press material for the next update shortly. Filling some of the content gaps as the highest level is one of the areas we are focusing on at the moment, and these dungeons are the start of that process.

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 time 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 sometime 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!

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Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison
Game Director
Age of Conan