Balancing and PVP changes coming with the release of The Isle of Siptah - Feedback thread

Conan Exiles General Discussion
1

Hey Exiles,

Please use this thread to send any feedback regarding our progression balancing and PVP changes announcement.

Original announcement:
https://forums.funcom.com/t/balancing-and-pvp-changes-coming-with-the-release-of-the-isle-of-siptah/135879/

Update (11.09.2020)
Updated information on PVP granularity and changes coming to official PVP servers. See this response.

Update (14.09.2020)
There was a mistake in some of the settings and it’s been corrected in the F.A.Q.
Corrected settings are

RestrictPvPBuildingDamageTime
RestrictPvPTime

The old settings mentioned (Time-RestrictPvPBuildingDamage and Time-restrictpvp) have been removed and substituted with the correct ones.

Update 2 (14.09.2020)
Alex, our Conan Exiles Lead Designer wrote a few lines about the upcoming PVP servers and how we’re going to adjust them based on your feedback:

We are adjusting our plans for server settings on official PvP servers.
Building Damage will be enabled on:

  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Sunday
  • Monday

We are reducing the total number of days during which your buildings can be damaged on PvP servers, giving players time during the week where they do not need to protect their buildings and can engage with other activities during prime time.
Dynamic Building Damage will be disabled on official PvP servers. Private servers will be able to use and evaluate this feature, based on its popularity and telemetry we will reevaluate the setting for official PvP servers later.

Update (15.09.2020)
Hey everybody,

Our Lead Designer, Alex, is sending another update regarding these changes and how they will reflect on official servers at (Early) launch today:

Hi,
As several people have mentioned in the thread, there is no good single solution that caters for all players regarding building damage on PvP server because there are several contrasting objectives of different player groups on a PvP servers.

Due to the miscommunications about Dynamic Building Damage and player concerns about there being too much down time between PvP Building Damage windows I have decided that the best course of action at this stage is to NOT change which days Building Damaged will be enabled on.

This situation is the result of there not being enough time assigned to communicate and test the player dynamics regarding Dynamic Building Damage or reducing the number of Building damage windows available through the week.

The Dynamic Building Damage feature will still be available for private servers to experiment with, I would like to invite everyone to experiment with it and continue this conversation with the aim of finding more balance for our players in regard to how much building conflict we allow on PvP servers.

For full transparency, during this early access period for Isle of Siptah we’re going to investigate several of the ways used to circumvent critical PVP game mechanics. Some of them, you have mentioned in this feedback thread, and others that we are aware are happening on official servers. When these are resolved, we will revisit PVP building damage settings again.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (F.A.Q.)

When will these changes come into effect?

On PC, these changes will be available once The Isle of Siptah content expansion and the free update release, on September 15th.
On consoles, these changes will be available once The Isle of Siptah content expansion releases.

Will these changes affect only The Isle of Siptah map?

No, these changes will come as part of the free update and will also apply to vanilla servers.

If I don't own The Isle of Siptah, will these changes affect me?

Yes, these changes are an update to the game and server.

Will these settings affect all platforms?

For now, these settings will only be active for the PC platform as they come bundled in the Isle of Siptah update. They will come at a later date on consoles once this update launches on consoles.

I am a server owner, will the balance changes affect me and my server?

By default, yes. We’re introducing balance changes in the game that will alter your server’s progression (although not their values). You will need to readjust your server’s XP and resource gathering settings taking into account that after The Isle of Siptah, a value of 1 in each.

What are the setting names in ServerSettings.ini?

These are the new settings added to the ServerSettings.ini file:

PvPEnabled = true/false
RestrictPvPTime = true/false
PVPEnabledMonday = true/false
PVPEnabledTuesday = true/false
PVPEnabledWednesday = true/false
PVPEnabledThursday = true/false
PVPEnabledFriday = true/false
PVPEnabledSaturday = true/false
PVPEnabledSunday = true/false
PVPTimeMondayStart = 1800
PVPTimeTuesdayStart = 1800
PVPTimeWednesdayStart = 1800
PVPTimeThursdayStart = 1800
PVPTimeFridayStart = 1800
PVPTimeSaturdayStart = 1800
PVPTimeSundayStart = 2300
PVPTimeMondayEnd = 2300
PVPTimeTuesdayEnd = 2300
PVPTimeWednesdayEnd = 2300
PVPTimeThursdayEnd = 2300
PVPTimeFridayEnd = 2300
PVPTimeSaturdayEnd = 2300
PVPTimeSundayEnd = 2300
RestrictPvPBuildingDamageTime = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledMonday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledTuesday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledWednesday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledThursday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledFriday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledSaturday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageEnabledSunday = true/false
PVPBuildingDamageTimeMondayStart = 1800
PVPBuildingDamageTimeTuesdayStart = 1800
PVPBuildingDamageTimeWednesdayStart = 1800
PVPBuildingDamageTimeThursdayStart = 1800
PVPBuildingDamageTimeFridayStart = 1800
PVPBuildingDamageTimeSaturdayStart = 1800
PVPBuildingDamageTimeMondayEnd = 2300
PVPBuildingDamageTimeTuesdayEnd = 2300
PVPBuildingDamageTimeWednesdayEnd = 2300
PVPBuildingDamageTimeThursdayEnd = 2300
PVPBuildingDamageTimeFridayEnd = 2300
PVPBuildingDamageTimeSaturdayEnd = 2300
PVPBuildingDamageTimeSundayEnd = 2300
CanDamagePlayerOwnedStructures = true/false
CanDamagePlayerOwnedStructuresPeriod = 120

How will this affect official servers?

PVE and PVE-C Official server progression will be rebalanced to roughly double speed than prior to the update.
PVP Official progression will be rebalanced to roughly half speed than prior to the update.
PVE and PVE-C Official server settings for player versus player combat and raiding will see no changes.
PVP Official server settings for player versus player combat and raiding will see no changes at Early Access launch. We will investigate several ways to circumvent PVP mechanics and we’ll fix them, at this point we will revisit these PVP settings.

4 Likes
3

What is stopping clans from having one person use a family share or alt account to make a shack somewhere and fill it with the clans loot during non raid time and then logging out to hit the 30 min timer so they never get raided with the new offline raid settings? Seems like that will be the new meta on official servers.

2 Likes
7

Can you please cancel the changes below for PVP servers? Raid time from 17h to 23h is already enought! Most stupid decision ever.

Now for never be raided, Clan 1 and Clan 2 play together :

  • Clan 1, 1 player, main base, never online during raid time.
  • Clan 2, the others players, no base, online during raid time and send everything to Clan 1 after raid time.

Or better clan 1 remove some online players from clan during raid time, and send them back to clan after raid time.

PVP building damage will be disabled on Sunday, why ???

For PVP Official PC servers, there will be the following changes:

PVP combat will remain as usual.
PVP building damage will be disabled on Sundays.
Dynamic Building protection will be enabled, with a period of 30 minutes (18000 seconds). That means, player buildings won’t be raidable if the owner (player or clan) hasn’t been online during the past 30 minutes.
1 Like
8

So basically… PvP servers will die? Let me paint a scenario for you.

Me and 5 others join a server. We decide we are going to anger everyone on said server. We landclaim around their bases. We don’t ever actually have to fight anyone to make them quit, just continuously annoy while they are offline via landclaim features. Before raid time, we all log out and enjoy a movie, take a nap etc. Everyone else can only land claim around our buildings, that is all. We log back in after raid time and are fine. Rinse repeat till people quit playing.

This is just one scenario of many I can think of. Offline raiding must be allowed, or everyone will abuse it.

You got me good funcom. Ive played off and on via my Ps4 for years, was Alpha on 3 official servers, and love the game. With this announcement I bought the game again, and ALL the DLC for PC. Only to come to twitter to see this less than 24 hours later.

Please. Do not ruin PvP by removing offline raiding. There is already set times. If you cannot find time in your life to be on a server that YOU choose during the set periods of raid time, then you should not expect to participate in an official server’s PvP hours. PvE exists. Private servers with this feature exist.

If anything, make a new section for it. This will literally ruin the PvP servers for good until removed, and anyone who actually PvPs knows this. I do not even need to “test” this feature.

3 Likes
9

I agree to not remove offline raiding in PVP servers.

And in addition to my comment above, the game only cost 13 EUR actually. So for a solo player, buy 2 times the game on 2 steam accounts and never be raided anymore!

Account 1 build main base in T1 only, never online during raid time. Never be raided.
Account 2 online during raid time, no base, raid, farm, etc… put everything in many hidden chests or bodyvault, get back everything with account 1 after raid time .

1 Like
10

Aloe Potions (potions) and Wraps (bandages) both now have animation requirements for their gameplay effects to trigger; potions now have a short animation before their effect is triggered and bandages have their effect applied continuously

If you are not locked into wrapping / drinking animation for the full duration it’s a waste of effort.

11

For this strategy to work that same clan must never raid any other clan, because they can’t be online during raid hours.

That’s basically makes them a PVE-C clan on a PvP server.

Why is that a problem?

12

They can be online during raid hours by leaving the clan (only one member must stay offline). Then get back in clan after raid time. Or better 2 clans that play together, clan 1 to manage main base, clan 2 to raid …

13

Well i think i can get the goal behind no raid on Sunday. If you are a casual gamer, you can only play during raid time, so you are never “safe” to farm and everything elsa.

So i think its a good idea, a day off, to farm, rebuild after friday and saturday night raid.

1 Like
14

Hey everybody,

We just updated the information on the upcoming changes with a newer version. We unfortunately released some outdated information on how some of the PVP changes and how they will affect official PVP servers.

For visibility, we will post here the changed paragraphs that dramatically change some of the information initially relayed:

Base Raiding

We have added more granularity to the existing PvP server settings, this will allow server owners to more precisely configure what times and days PvP will be possible.

We have also added a new system called Dynamic Building Damage, which if enabled (server setting) allows player to damaged buildings while any of the owners (individual or clan) are online (even outside the scheduled raid times) and for a duration (server settings) after the last owner has logged off.

For official PVP servers we are currently planning to have both features enabled, with the scheduled building damage being set for Friday and Saturday during peak server time and Dynamic Building Damage being always enabled with 30 minuets logout window. This will mean that players will be able to damage buildings during the scheduled building damage windows OR if any building owner is online and for 30 minuets after they logoff, subject to feedback.

We apologize for the confusion this might have caused.

2 Likes
15

Hi Ignasis,

Thanks for the updated information, but we need to keep the scheduled building damage from monday to sunday during peak server time (17h00 to 23h00) in PVP servers. Else there will be only 2 raid days in the week, the others days peoples will use others accounts to not be online with their main base. Or if they are being raided, they log off and in 30 minutes the raid end …

Then you can add Dynamic Building Damage being always enabled with 30 minutes logout window from 23h00 to 17h00 the next day.

Thanks.

16

That’s how I understood it will work, I only read the new version they posted an hour ago.

All base raiding open on the raid time, then dynamic raiding kicks every time someone is online and stays enabled until 30 minutes after they logged off. This seens to help combat alt clan and body vault, they have to log on their main clan sometime, dont they?

I mean the whole situation is a bit ridiculous, pvp and raid should be enabled 24 hours then we would not have this problem, found an alt clan, raid it, found a body vault, kill it, raid it, whatever.

1 Like
17

For official PVP servers we are currently planning to have both features enabled, with the scheduled building damage being set for Friday and Saturday during peak server time and Dynamic Building Damage being always enabled with 30 minutes logout window. This will mean that players will be able to damage buildings during the scheduled building damage windows OR if any building owner is online and for 30 minuets after they logoff, subject to feedback.

I think this change will end up horrible. 6 hours raid time on official is already super long but imagine you cant even go farm in peace in the mornings because you can get raided all the time. Also there are many ways to abuse this system. You really should reconsider that.

1 Like
18

It will be abused in a way you can not think. Just wait our russians and asians players look into this.

We must stay with actual PVP building damage settings :

  • Full raid protection from 23h00 to 17h00 the next day, so to sleep at night and go to work the day.
  • Raid time from 17h00 to 23h00.
1 Like
19

@Berserker @keymotes

I think you misunderstood something:

The set raid times (17-23) will alawys enable you to raid someone. There won’t be any offline protection in this time period.

20

You may be misunderstanding something, actually.

It’s quite clear.

This will mean that players will be able to damage buildings if any building owner is online and for 30 minuets after they logoff, subject to feedback.

This encourages body vaulting. It has the exact opposite effect of combating that issue by promoting use of separate accounts, in a separate clan to store loot.

I signed up for an account just to oppose the PvP changes. The changes do not at all remedy the existing issues on PvP servers. In fact, they only serve to promote them and to make things more difficult for players and clans that do not actively practice body vaulting.

Maybe that’s the intention though? Funcom seems to be telling us that we need to buy that second account if we want to be on a level playing field…

21

Thank you Ignasis for clearing that up. I apologize for misinterpereting your patch notes.

This explanation and update seems way better, and actually has me excited. My only question is… on Friday and Saturday, if I am understanding correctly, does this mean it is full raid times, even if someone is logged out?

If the answer is yes, then I think these changes as a whole are excellent and will see great results. If the answer is no, I still think all these changes are excellent I would only suggest possibly increasing the time that someone can be raided after logging out. Because 30 minutes is not enough to raid a base of someone who continuously logs out when being raided, and would be abused I believe.

Either way, you scared me good for a few hours. Well played.

22

I read this text:

“This will mean that players will be able to damage buildings during the scheduled building damage windows OR if any building owner is online and for 30 minuets after they logoff, subject to feedback.”

And this is the updated version.

23

What you just described is not true. I could easily own the game on two accounts, store my loot on one during raid time, and raid on the other with no base to be hit. That is the problem.