The first thing I’ll say is that the timing feels off in the acceleration of new movement system. I feel like my character is wading through treacle. In real life, we don’t have delay when we start to walk and right now, there seems to be one modelled in the game. You should be able to walk quickly but then have delay to reach top run speed.
Secondly, the new movement and dodge mechanics are not working well in combat, in my opinion. I just tried fighting a rocknose boss.
I am basically trying to dodge the invisible dodge box drawn by the game developers, using these mythical “i-frames” which have zero visual cue, on a game susceptible to lag, with a combat system that applies enemy NPC/monster light attack damage before the enemy even animates, against a creature modelled with high attack speed, trying to compensate with a shield that has very unrealistic lag times before it activates the defense such that it feels like my toon’s arm is covered in lead. And now dodge does not escape the rocknose boss. Who then is modelled to run and attack quickly.
It’s not fun. Monsters were balanced for the prior system. Seems like there has been no effort to rebalance on such a major change to the game.
A lot of the game is very immersive. It’s part of what I love about the game. My personal playstyle is PVE role play. But I’m sure that immersiveness in Conan Exiles has attracted many of the people who have bought the game. A lot of development effort has gone into that: like the map, sounds, gorgeous Unreal visuals, character development and more.
However, I find a lot of the combat system un-immersive. I also think most PVP fights I’ve seen on YouTube to be boring unimmersive battles of attrition by toons running around wildly with pointy sticks.
My suggestions are as follows, and I know that not all of these are specific to the new changes:
- You gave us coloured weapon trails as a visual cue on weapon special effects.
- You gave us floating icons to show buffs and debuffs.
- So give us a visible cue on the so called dodge “I-frames”.
- While you’re at it, how about a visual cue on “unstaggerable” weapon frames?
- Make light attacks apply damage after the enemy animates. God, this is so unimmersive the way it is been in this game since the start. Bang, you take damage. Then the enemy moves.
- Allow shields to respond quicker so they don’t have such long “dead zone” times. They feel completely wrong. There is also something with the timing or possibly radius of the shield defense. How many times have I raised it yet the enemy attack gets through from in front of my shield?
- Allow instant walk speed but delay reaching top run speed.
- Review monster invisible hit boxes. With reduced ability to move out of harm’s way the balance is way off.
- Make dodge in medium cost more stamina than dodging in light armour and same for heavy compared to medium.
Funcom, you need to test such radical changes more. Changing the game radically on short notice does not breathe more life into it. It can piss a lot of your customers off.
In relation to the unstaggerable weapons, this is a property that is probably more important than any other stat: damage, armour penetration, reach or weight. It seems so arbitrary. You just give it to some weapons, not others, and none of it makes any kind of intuitive sense.
Funcom could make heavy armour more attractive by giving it that property instead.
in summary, I absolutely dislike playing Conan Exiles now, after enjoying it for thousands of gameplay hours. I won’t be buying the new DLC to vote with my wallet. These changes are not tested enough and poorly considered.
Praise to the development team for delivering on their promise to implement mounts. Very honourable and good to your customers and fans. It’s also huge fun for the game.
The other changes, no, not fun at all. At least in my opinion.