Conan Exiles 3.0

Do you want an actual answer, or is your opinion set? Genuine question as I won’t explain if its the second one.

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Yes, please. I really want to know.

For me, this would open up so much more to do. I sincerely do not understand why modders can use the space, but Funcom can’t. I :sparkling_heart:this game and play everyday but its getting hard to find things to do and new places to build. (PVE that is.) I rely heavily on mods now for content and variety.

If by “map expansion” you mean JUST the upper right quadrant of the Exile Lands, and not the typical “expand the map” comments we get every other day, then I’ll answer that part.

If this is a two part meaning that you think they should do both (expand the Exile Lands as a whole and fill in the upper right quadrant) then I’ll refer you to the search feature on this discord. Like pretty frequently (especially when Isle of Siptah was first announced and later released), people kept asking or saying on repeat “why did the release a new map, they should have just expanded the Exile Lands, cash grab, blah blah blah.” I’m not going to rehash that topic yet again, so, I’ll once again refer you to using the search tools if this was your intent.


Introduction - Upper Right Hand Quadrant of the Exile Lands

It’s not so much a can’t (on filling the upper right quadrant), and it’s not a simple answer. There are a lot of variables, and probably some I’m forgetting or not even seeing myself. The lesson that people should take from this is that game design decisions are rarely as simple as players believe.


Part 1

In the beginning days, yes it was reserved for dungeons. There in fact, 2 or 3 (I forget how many now) dungeons hidden in that region. Some mods that went and expanded the area (past and present mods) you can actually see those dungeons floating off in the distance (Darklands I believe even had this problem at one point, I don’t know if it still does). There’s not a whole lot of room where they could be moved either.


Part 2

Next, is time and resources. Expanding the area takes time and investment (see Isle of Siptah revamp as an example). They also need reason to do so to make it justifiable. Isle of Siptah had its southern regions expanded and there are unique features to those areas (and not just biome differences). I’m sure all the creative talent at Funcom could come up with a reason, but you are still investing heavy resources into making the area unique. By devoting resources to that, you are pulling resources from elsewhere.

“But mod authors did it,” you’ll probably say. Uh ya, even as small as the Conan Exiles mod creator community is, we still heavily outnumber the dev team. We have, more or less, infinite time and resources we can devote to our ideas and creations. Our only limiting factor is motivation, personal time, and energy. Funcom has limited resources in personal, budget, and etc.

And most importantly, a bazillion features players demand all the time that they want to see added to the game. And usually those same players Armchair Quarterback how they think resources should be devoted, despite having not a single hour of real game dev time under their belts. But that’s the internet for you, players truly believe they know better then employed Producers do; Producers who usually have tens of thousands of hours devoted to their craft and job.

Anyhoo, I went on a little rant there, so back on topic. Funcom talked about how they determine what to target for features in an interview a while back (I believe it was the Cursed Sands interview in April of 2021, which I wrote a summary of if you want to go search for it). They have a priority list of things they want to do, and they are going to target the things they feel is most important.


Part 3

Next, performance concerns. You actually kinda brought it up, you said “mods do it.” Yes, mods indeed add to the area. Do you see Armor Stands in the game? (Sorry Croms_Faithful, lol) Mods did it there too, right? That topic has been discussed to death, and basically, there are performance concerns with Armor Stands and that’s the biggest hurdle for Funcom. Many modded servers have in-place rules limiting the number of Armor Stands players can use. The ole “well mods did it, why can’t Funcom” is a more complex answer then what most players insist that it is.

Mod creators very often don’t care about performance concerns (and the few that do may or may not have the proper experience or knowledge to properly optimize our mods to focus on those performance concerns. I know I don’t. I do some things that I know how to do to help with performance, but I only know a few things). If some Minimum Spec computer can barely run our mods and are having crazy FPS issues? Not our problem really, we are in most cases, amateur hobbyists.

But let me ask you, do you honestly believe something like DarkLands would run perfectly fine on PS4 and Xbox One? Keep in mind, these consoles struggle to run the game as is, and that’s despite the endless parade of performance improvements Funcom has been doing (despite what the haters out there think). No, in fact a majority of mods would never be able to run on those platforms.

“But Funcom can do it better” I hear you say; well naturally they could. But you are still adding a significant chunk of area that is now going to push the memory costs for the map to run. The Exile Lands map was made when Funcom didn’t know as many “best practices” when it came to map design and performance. That’s why Volumetric Fog/Lighting is on Isle of Siptah, and the Exile Lands does not.

Now Funcom has been doing a lot of things to help improve memory costs, including to the Exile Lands itself. So maybe someday they could reasonably add to the area, but then I’ll refer you back to Part 2 of this write up.


Conclusion

This question gets asked a lot (like, a lot. And I fully plan on bookmarking my own explanation so I don’t need to write it up all over again for the billionth time). It started in 2018 and continues to today. For the longest time, the answer to “is the Exile Lands going to see the upper right quadrant filled in” has been a resounding, “No, the map is done.” Only very recently did a different answer show up in an interview, in which it can be summarized as “no plans to right now, and we still have a lot of performance concerns to address, but maybe someday if we feel it’s needed.”

In the introduction part of this write up I said,

The lesson that people should take from this is that game design decisions are rarely as simple as players believe.

This may (and probably will) be completely ignored by future readers, but my challenge to you is to think critically about why a feature in Conan Exiles (or any game really), is the way it is. It’s almost never a simple answer.

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Wow, sorry to make you work so hard on that answer! lol. Thank you. I ghosted through the NE area about a year ago (on PS4 at the time) and I did, in fact, see caves, lava, etc. that could be one of the dungeons you are referring to. And I understand that consoles cannot really handle mods, which is exactly why I migrated to PC - to find more to do using mods.

Admittedly, I have no real concept of the time and finesse it takes to create, add to, or modify any game that I play. I simply know that the map “looks” like it has space and I really want to go there. :sunglasses: So, I will keep my fingers crossed that Funcom might find a way to make that happen, even though the outlook seems very grim. I have to say, though, that I was inspired to comment in the first place by the interview I mentioned previously with Matt Flemming regarding suggestions etc.

I see you are quite loyal to our benefactors, which is justified, and LBPR is a must-have (thank you for that, btw). :+1: Just keep in mind, that as dedicated players, many of us are very invested in the future of this game and support their continued work by buying DLCs and renting private servers to personalize and generate longevity. I realize they cannot please us all ,but I just wanted to cast my vote, for what its worth. :star_struck:

Although there are dungeons all over the open map that don’t cause problems… I guess it is because these are high rather than under mesh - Sigh. Thanks though :+1:

I dunno how CE works specifically but it’s most commonly not like that. Dungeon and vault interiors do not actually occupy any space on the map. Think of it maybe like being teleported to another dimension - an alternate space and time. I guess you could also think of it as a game within a game. So there is no “High” or “under mesh” vaults or dungeons - if in fact Conan Exiles follows typical conventions. Given that it’s UE, I guess it does in fact though. :wink:

No, Conan does not work like that.

The dungeons do exist on the map, you can travel to/from them in admin mode if you know where they are.

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THAT I would really like to see. It certainly is not possible on Siptah…

I haven’t messed around with the Siptah map anywhere near as much as the Exiled Lands, but even without looking, I am sure the Siptah dungeons exist on the same map as well.

I don’t believe it’s possible in some of the EL dungeons either. Delves, sure - those are there. But since I haven’t tried this in EL I will hold my opinion till you or someone shows me.

Put it this way. If it shows you a black screen when you enter, I’m like 99% sure it’s not composed of any attached map polygons. Map meaning the main map we run around on. And doesn’t exist except in coded trigger, while on the main map.

Looks like the Siptah dungeons are all lined up on the northern edge of the map.

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I have no idea what you’re talking about. Still waiting to see something.

Are you looking at some fan art?

The loading is because it is telporting you…not loading assets from no where. I have seen every dungeon in Exiles. Even a few ifnyou check the map it will show where you really are.

Yes, teleporting you a group of polygons (a world) not connected to the main map.

The ones I have checked show your dot about where you entered. There might be a tiny offset.

Or maybe you can explain to me how a you can walk through a vault that is about 300 meters long in one direction and then exit out the back door only to be at the entrance once again.

I’ve spent a lot of time as a game developer and this isn’t how it typically works - nor would it be sane for memory management.

Delves, like the spider cave in EL is different. That is a feature of the main map itself and attached to the main map’s polygonal structure. Someone modeled in a tunnel - basically speaking. Dungeons in EL that “load” are not the same thing. And almost certainly without question, the vaults and dungeons in Siptah are not “attached” either.

That said, the term “undermesh” as I understand it, still does not apply to delves either. They have a ceiling, a floor, and walls on all sides.

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Neither Exiled Lands nor Siptah make use of instancing technology. The game shows your location as still being where you entered because it’s been programmed to do that.

Thanks. I was about to do the same thing with Exiled Lands.

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That would seem to validate my point perfectly. Not attached to the map. Does not exist until you enter but as trigger points. That the trigger points are all represented by obelisks up in space and off the playable map, with no other shape or form till you enter is typical. Once you do, notice how the lighting system, weather, and everything changes instantly - suddenly you are in a place that wasn’t there before. :wink:

Are you trolling us?

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It seems we are all using English here, but speaking different languages.

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