Reaching max level feels too quick. It makes the game feel more shallow than it really is, and I’m a bit directionless as to seeking out lvl-appropriate challenges. Higher levels don’t need to add any more attribute points; currently the limit is just right for anyone to develop an effective and balanced build, without advancing to a single static maximum. But levels could award knowledge points and access to higher levels of knowledge.
With the limit as it stands, players just reshuffle their points at need, until they use enough fragments to retain all the knowledges they like. This shuffling isn’t a challenge, it’s just futzy busy-work, and the more frequently a player does it, the less challenging and more irritating it becomes. With higher level knowledge points, a player who puts in the time and effort to reach higher level is rewarded with the gameplay convenience of skipping that hassle.
So, what you want is simply feat points despite gaining points from fragments. Hmm.
I think 60 is a good limit, for now. Don’t need to waste more levels on something that doesn’t scale. I’m hoping for much more meaningful levels, if more are given, than just this.
I suggested raising it to 100 and got shot down fast on discord. With the 5X on test I hit level cap day 2. No knowledge points for star metal or any legendary armor. Like I was missing out on the top half the game.
So my options are play at a severe disadvantage, or lose my magic every time I respec so I can build with T3 parts, or make star metal weapons. Which I always thought absurd I hate a game trying to force RP on me.
But then I am so used to playing solo/single player with the 300 level mod that I have never been held back by lacking points.
They could at least raise it to 80. And good luck finding fragments when 30 other people are trying to do the same thing.
Hmmm, as certain as you may be that the RNG will give you fragments, there are other purchases to be made with them. Even if the acquisition of knowledge points weren’t shackled to a roll of the dice, maybe new knowledge should require higher level.
Another reason lvl maxes so quickly it’s almost accidental is that the exp gain from fighting the same fights don’t fall off very much, so I gain levels just grabbing hides on my way to a destination. If exp gains per level diminished enough that completing journey steps becomes more rewarding, then a player could gain faster from mastering their environment than from grinding crocs and hyenas and making leather. Knowledge feats could be unlocked, and new ones become available based on experiences other than combat, then players who know their way around can advance quicker than those who haven’t been challenged to learn. The current system doesn’t distinguish.
I considered this before posting. The current limits don’t give an insurmountable mechanical advantage over new players, but if you had unlimited levels with statistical increments each level, new players could soon be locked out of server participation.
Yes, because of the 5x XP multiplier. That’s the problem right there.
Anyone who configures the multipliers in server settings to any value other than those on the official servers has to be aware that the assumptions that the game was deliberately designed around might not hold under the new settings. This is especially true when these multipliers are set to extreme values. It’s impossible to make the game well-balanced for every arbitrary combination of server settings.
The purpose of TestLive servers is to test the changes, looking for bugs and egregious imbalances. That’s why some of the settings are configured to extreme values – to lower the barriers for that testing. This needs to be taken into account when using TestLive servers.
The knowledge point limit and the fragments are a teaching tool. The whole point of having to reshuffle the knowledge points is to make players look for a solution, and that solution are the fragments and the tablets of power.
On their next play-through, the player will be aware of this and incorporate fragments and tablets into their leveling process.
Honestly, the only thing I would change in this system would be to move the recipe for the tablets of power out of the Esoteric Library and make it available elsewhere, without any RNG. Maybe the Archivist could give it out through dialogue, just like he does with the oils, or maybe some other NPC could do it.
Or heck, someone suggested the other day – can’t remember who, sorry – that they swap the oils and the tablet, so the tablet is given by the Archivist and the oils are RNG-gated in the Esoteric Library.
What are you teaching players who’s testes have been double-torqued by not getting a fragment drop after a hard-won fight, either because a drop isn’t guaranteed or because the corpse despawned before they could get back to it?
You could teach them that you, personally, have graduated to a level that you’re comfortable with, and don’t want any change that could upset that.
So now we’re moving the goalposts to the boss fights? Sure, why not.
What do those things you mentioned teach players? They teach them which bosses are guaranteed to drop fragments and which don’t. They teach them how to adjust their tactics so they can loot their opponent corpses before they despawn. They teach them to explore the map, to find more places and more ways to obtain fragments.
No, what I don’t want are changes that replace the process of learning with a mechanistic grind. I don’t want a change that sends a message “it’s okay, you don’t have to make an effort to learn more about the game, it’s enough to just kill stuff over and over so a counter increases”.
I forgot to mention a level cap while writing. Capping at 100 wouldn’t put anyone at a huge disadvantage. +40 to hp & armour, probably go halves on stam though now that I think of it.
Knowledge points could easily spread over 40 levels too.
I think you guys are overstating the value of gaining points for standard available feats. As it stands it’s so easy to reshuffle skills to whatever currently advantages you that 1 feat point per additional level isn’t a significant benefit, it’s simply a convenience. Some of you seem to think that this convenience should be reserved to the privileged, but the inconvenience is bad game design in the first place.
Hard won fragments of power should be used for feats worth having that can’t be acquired any other way, not as a workaround for a scrappy mechanic. It’s bad enough that they can be wasted on useless rewards, and duplicates of those at that – another scrappy mechanic.
We don’t need more levels to max out our feat points.
If you are on a 5x XP server, and you don’t have all the feats yet, grind some fragments and slow down. Try to enjoy the game rather than burning through it.
Conan Exiles does need a long term gameplay loop. I don’t think it’s the feat points that are lacking though. The issue has been addressed, it requires a modest amount of time farming fragments and then you have access to all feats, permanently on that character. It’s one of the things they did right. You know, invest a little time in a character, gear it up with recipes and feat points, then you don’t have as much of a desire to server hop. Makes people a little nicer, helps build the community. Characters are less disposable.
Getting tons of Fragments on Siptah is easy with the Spawning Pools. Might take a little longer on Exiled Lands, but even that’s not too bad. 3.0 will make this task even easier.
Yes, yes, yes. I want more to do also. Feats though, not really an issue anymore. The issue seems to be you power leveled and want that instant gratification.
I pretty much disagree with you on every point you made. “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts”. If you are on a vanilla server it requires much more then a modest amount of time. Especially ones with a few people on them.
The limited knowledge points were specifically to force people in to a role. People rebelled so they gave us a placation which is only plausible in the best circumstance or requires resetting knowledge points every time you want to do something different.
Have any of you restarted, and gotten the fresh perspective of starting from scratch? I figured out how to port all my 3.0 stuff into my testlive saves, including my stash of frags among the fruits of exotic feats, and discovered how easy it is to take them for granted after you already have them.
I rolled that save back of course, because it feels cheap to get them that way plus I can’t predict what kind of bugs will be introduced from the mods included in the previous saves. So I’m going through that struggle again.
So I’m going through that struggle again. When’s the last time you did that? Also, a feat each level achieved, assuming exp to next level actually scales with level, isn’t “instant gratification”. Re-read the topic title.
What I’m suggesting is more levels, more advancement, more increments of reward that aren’t game-breaking and don’t hand unassailable advantages to anyone with ‘tenure’.
I’d like to point back to my OP, for those of you who didn’t actually read it. I didn’t power level, I reached max level by accident, and in fact I reached it so quickly that I couldn’t make an adequate level-by-level comparison without reaching the next level. Then the next level. The current advancement rate (which I expect to be scaled down in the future) is great for comparing end-game builds, but not the road to reach it.
Unnamed City bosses respawn every 20 minutes and drop a fragment of power each time they are defeated. Doing a circuit to level a thrall can easily yield 7 fragments, Subjecting yourself to the Library RNG can get you the Tablet of Power, letting 5 fragment give 60 points.
Additional knowledge points area easily acquired with minimal effort.
Now, if you do not want to do that, that’s up to you.