Mostly they cry because offlining offers zero interaction to the affected party. Defending your base from a raid is the pinnacle of what Conan exiles has to offer, it’s the high stakes content. A strategy that circumvents the best content the game has to offer in PVP is bad. Yes, there are people too soft for PVP, but that doesn’t change the negative nature of an offline meta.
To the second part of this I would say that competent PVPers are not complaining that rebuilding is hard, rather that it is also unfun. Maybe it’s just because I have thousands of hours in the game but I’d agree. Running blood crystal routes and dragging bad AI thralls through the jungle to kill monkeys is not engaging content, especially when forced on repeat. Throwing more teammates at it or boosting rates can help make it less bad, but why not just try and find a way to make it good?
You can avoid offlining completely by playing nomad and utilizing body vaults, but again the point is that CE is not designed from the ground up with that in mind. When I compare it to competition that is designed with that philosophy at its core, a game like Dayz for example, CE doesn’t come close to offering a similar experience. IMO trying to balance CE PVP like it is not a castle defense game is a waste, because that is what CE excels at.
Or we can dialogue about what we like and don’t like on the public forums available. The game has changed over its lifetime, player sentiments had some effect on that, measurable or not. “Don’t like, don’t play” has to be the most reductionist self evident take one can have, but sure. If this is the best possible iteration by the dev team for PVP, players should explore better options.
Rust is a prime example. 24/7 hour raids. Offline happens a lot. Conan is nice because you have the luxury of no raid hours. If you cant make the raid times, find a better server. Pretty simple.
I agree, Rust seems an example of a game that balances wiping and rebuilding well. I have never played it personally, but does it not have things like a flatter gear progression or the ability to take over an opponent’s base rather than destroy it?
The example I gave, DayZ, has RNG looting as well as harsh survival systems that make regearing a unique and dynamic experience. I assume Rust is similar? The point is that those games were made with rebuilding as a pillar of design. When CE tries to balance like Rust or Dayz with none of their systems, we end up with a shittier product.
Rebuilding in CE is a grind, not an adventure. One that is so cookie cutter, if you are the clan doing the wiping you can easily tamp down any opponent brazen enough to stick around after the first beating. Most players hop servers after being wiped, that is a norm for a reason.
I’m glad you are content to be offline wiped. That doesn’t make it any less stupid as a design objective.
Statements like this make me think our disconnect may result from differing experiences of the game. There was a time when we had no raid hours either, 24/7. Thralls would pincushion your ass for even attempting to smell what your neighbors were cooking, let alone scout for a raid. Our castles used to be able to defend themselves pretty admirably. Because that is what the game was designed around. Pretty simple.
Rust also has infinitely more depth than CE will ever have and core gameplay and systems don’t change every few months to a point of clashing with the player’s experience or turning rudimentary.
I agree that seems to be the direction they are going. I guess I and others have made a futile attempt to voice our disagreement with such an approach but honestly I don’t even know if the Devs even pay attention to these forums. Be it lack of PVP offline defense, no combat sorcery, nerfing thralls and pets, combat changes, etc it feels like FC just doesn’t care/want to listen. They have a vision and damn the feedback… On the other hand I wonder if myself and the others complaining are the exception (possible) but based on the number of friends who have stopped playing due to all or some of the items mentioned my gut feel is more folks are not liking the direction the game is going versus approving. I’m one of the few folks out of close to 30 who still actually plays.