This game, despite it’s flaws, is at a new level of play. Conan Exiles should have a higher player count than it does. So much to do in the game… until you’re level 60.
Once you hit 60, all you are doing is raiding others and being raided yourself. It’s a back and forth. You grind, rebuild, grind, attack, grind, etc… And it’s all based on carrying Yellow Lotus Potions with you so you can change your build on the fly. You get to the base you want to raid, change to a fighting/climbing build, break some walls, kill some thralls, then change to an encumbrance build, take everything and bounce back to your base.
You’re level 60… you beat all the bosses and now you just grind out chest keys from the bosses… it’s kind of boring after a while. I mean, you can build to your hearts content and destroy any other clan trying to take your masterpieces down.
Anyways, the point of the post. The meaty bits.
Skills
The skills in this game is what we can build. That shouldn’t be on the skill page. That should be a building page or something. We unlock new craftables and learn new recipes. That’s it. No skill involved.
My suggestion is to add an actual skill page with lots of skills that impact your play.
Building
Take building for an example. Every player plays differently. And by that I mean, some grind out these huge sandstone palaces with walls and ramparts, the whole nine yards.
The materials all cost the same for every player, but why not make it so it doesn’t. Why not make it so a player that only builds in sandstone can level the skill in building in sandstone. Their cost for building the pieces would drop slightly over time. Just have it so it takes a long time to level that up and the only way to do so is actually building with sandstone. Make it so that player builds so much that he/she is able to build sandstone structures that have the strength and durability of tier 2 structures. It wouldn’t be too overpowered. I mean, yes, eventually you would find huge tier 1 structures with the power of tier 2, but at least it’s not tier 3.
Hell, you could even make it so at a certain point during leveling the skills, you make it to a perk point. Have it so you can’t change it later with a potion. At the first tier perk you can either choose to have the structures boost their decay timer or boost their temperature protection. Then the next tier could be less material cost or less fire damage, 3rd tier perk can be less explosive damage or the structure is built as if it had the stats of the tier 2 buildings. Then finally at a tier 4 perk, you choose from either taking off the most basic material cost completely or muffle the sound of things going on inside the building. (very low volume clanging and sawing and grunting)
Cooking
This would be a very nice skill to raise up. Make it so that it takes less to make certain foods, your food comes out with higher stats, more filling, and less bad side effects. Even have it so at the highest tier perk you could cook spoiled meat into something. Make it “cheap meat”. You get the recipe and make it for your thrall wheels.
Alchemy
We have thralls to make the potions and things in the cauldrons at lower costs and higher speeds, but what about you? Why not make it so the more you make potions, bombs, etc… the better you are at it. Take potions. Make it so your potions come out better. Your healing potions heal for more and take less time to drink them. Then your bombs and orbs could deal more damage. But, the tier perks would make you choose between better potions and tattoos or better bombs and orbs. The better the potion or orb, the more or better materials you’ll need for them though. Maybe some of them an extra material is needed.
Fishing
This would need to add actual fishing with rods. You can use the traps and everything, but where you’ll really benefit is from using a fishing rod and bait to catch better fish. This would go great with cooking. The better your fishing skill, the bigger and better fish you can catch.
Armorer
This of course could change quite a bit. Imagine being able to make armor for yourself and your clan with better stats. Have it so you could eventually make gear with an extra attribute on top of adding mods, or even adding a second mod. Add an agility boost to your climbing boots. Or add armor and weight reduction to a piece of armor. The possibilities are out there for this one.
Weaponsmith
This would go the same route as the armorsmith. You would raise the damage dealt, add extra mods, give a weapon the chance of becoming a legendary weapon by naming it yourself and adding strength, a mod, and a stat boost to it.
From here…
From here you can get where I’m going with all this. Every skill you could level only levels when you do the task. You can be level 60 and have your stats… but you can be crap at making buildings or armor or what have you. This would make the game more diverse in builds. You wouldn’t be able to forget your skills, if you wanted to you would need to create a new character, or level potion making up to the highest tier and make a super black and yellow lotus flower that makes your revert to level 1 with all skills back to 0.
Besides the ones listed, you could have everything you do have it’s own skill leveling. Even swimming. Have it so you lose less stamina when swimming, hold your breath for way longer, not lose stamina while floating, etc…
Profession
This would also be great. Imagine getting to the top tier of a certain skill and gaining a title like the thralls. You could be a Carpenter I, II, III, or a Master Carpenter. You can switch between titles if you have more than one profession. This way, other players can see you can make really great stuff and want to trade with you rather than raid you. Or you know, just wait until you log off and raid your base for all the really great stuff you build.
Merchants
This should have already been a thing once the merchant thralls were implemented. Be able to thrall one, bring it to your base, put it on the outside in a stall you’ve built, and have it sell things. Set the cost via gold, silver, or so much material. You could be a master weaponsmith, load your merchant with so many weapons, and basically sell them for something you need. Each Star Metal Longsword with a strength boost and extra damage capping at 100 damage with a 20% armor penetration will cost you 400 steel reinforcements. Why? Because that clan that really wants those swords can’t make a sword like that but they have a Master Blacksmith that can churn those reinforcements out like hotcakes because his highest tier allows him to make 2 steel reinforcements for every 1 steel bar he has. They have a lot of steel because of their Master Alchemist makes steelfire non stop at a faster rate, especially because of their tanner can produce more tar per hide than any one in the server. Their gatherer is just really good at harvesting, plus the hardened steel pick he bought from another player helps him harvest more raw material.
(The Merchant would be linked to a locked chest near him. You kill the merchant, he doesn’t drop what he is selling, only what he is equipped with. Not even gold, silver, or materials that was used to pay for goods. They drop in to the chest behind the wall. The merchant didn’t attack back because he was set to passive.)
Just some things to look at. Having this type of stuff would open up the game after level 60. It would take time to level your skills so there would still be loads of stuff to do. I mean, you would still need to grind, but you’ll have more of a purpose for doing so. I mean, I hate the fact that other than eating to stay alive, my cooking doesn’t improve the stuff I cook. I gather my fish, I cook my strips by the hundreds, and then eat 1 strip every so often. I want it to start giving me extra health back or stamina back.
Let’s discuss shall we? What are some possible tier perks per skill and how much should leveling the skill do towards costs and ability?