Conan Exiles NEEDS the following to survive

[Direshadow]

• A scheduled wipe every 2 months or so. This would mean you lose all your buildings, gear, and thralls but not your levels or learned blue prints.

• A party system to prevent friendly fire, to find each other easier on the map, and to encourage group play.

• A daily questing system that forces player to actively travel around the entire map and complete basic objectives.

• Annual events that expand the lore, celebrate real-world holidays like Halloween, and give players things to do.

• Rare spawning bosses that require multiple players to take down.

• Dungeons that require more than one person to complete.

• Merchant Thralls that act like player set-up vending machines. Higher tier merchant thralls could have more space for warez. (Think Fallout 76 and Rust vending machines)

• A real world money shop that would offer cosmetic outfits and armors and placeables for your base.

I really do love this game but I have come up against a wall. On Siptah I have done everything of note and despite me wanting to continue playing, it is hard to do when you have run out of activities. I could travel to the exiled lands, but I feel I would run into the same problem of running out of things to do, not to mention that I have already played EL extensively.

If the world were more dynamic and not so static, I would be encouraged to play more. Currently, I only feel a desire to log in once every week to preserve my base and thralls. But even then, I am only logging on because I don’t want to lose my work, not because i would actually play the game any more.

If there were a wipe system, like Rust, I would be willing to take more risks, engage in pvp more, or plan for my next build for when the server DOES wipe. Also, wipe day is always the most fun because of player interaction.

This has happened to me twice now, once with Vanilla and once with Siptah. My server had around 20 people on at a time in the evening. Now it has gone down to around 5… on a good day.

I would like to keep playing but that wall needs to have some holes poked into it.

[prologue1337]

@Direshadow

A scheduled wipe every 2 months or so. This would mean you lose all your buildings, gear, and thralls but not your levels or learned blue prints.

Play unofficial there a lot of servers doing it. On official decay timers take care of wipes.
If they implement wipes of officials I quit the game instantly.

@Direshadow

A party system to prevent friendly fire, to find each other easier on the map, and to encourage group play.

Neutral, I don’t think this is necessary.

@Direshadow

A daily questing system that forces player to actively travel around the entire map and complete basic objectives.

Maybe not daily, but random map events would be a nice addition to the game.

@Direshadow

Annual events that expand the lore, celebrate real-world holidays like Halloween, and give players things to do.

We had a Halloween event once, and it was very poorly received. It was a little buggy, but I kind of miss stuff like it.

@Direshadow

Dungeons that require more than one person to complete.

There are a few, but on Siptah yeah, you’re right.

@Direshadow

Merchant Thralls that act like player set-up vending machines. Higher tier merchant thralls could have more space for warez. (Think Fallout 76 and Rust vending machines)

Absolutely, its been mentioned before. The game doesn’t have a trade system yet
Something like a stall would be good too.

@Direshadow

A real world money shop that would offer cosmetic outfits and armors and placeables for your base.

?

[SamsonHF]

I mean, the cultural DLCs already fulfill that last point, really. If there’s one thing I and no doubt many others learned from that “Survyve” survey, or whatever it was called, it’s that many, many of us here on the forums are strongly opposed to being gouged for money with microtransactions. Cosmetic micros, especially when you do it RNG-style like, say, Overwatch, is not something I’m down for.

[Direshadow]

People need to not be afraid of wipes. They are important for server health and contrary to popular belief it actually helps to keep players involved. Keep in mind I don’t mean also wiping your levels or your blue prints.

• People want to rebuild using new ideas.

• People want to start from scratch without losing levels or blue prints.

• Land becomes freed up, and new lands become occupied. The map remains interesting.

• Encourages people to take risks. If they know that losing everything is inevitable, they do open up. They just do.

• Everyone starts on equal footing, including new players.

After 3000 hours or Rust I have initially hated wipes, like almost everyone else. But now I understand just how important they are.

Servers without wipes usually die. I’ve seen it happen twice now.

[CodeMage]

@Direshadow

A scheduled wipe every 2 months or so. This would mean you lose all your buildings, gear, and thralls but not your levels or learned blue prints.

On PVP servers, right? Because if I tried to tell you how the majority of PVE(-C) players would receive that idea, the language I would have to use would get me banned from the forums

@Direshadow

A party system to prevent friendly fire, to find each other easier on the map, and to encourage group play.

I think the devs believe the clan system does that, but I agree that it would be much better to also have a party system.

@Direshadow

A daily questing system that forces player to actively travel around the entire map and complete basic objectives.

Forces? No, thanks. Incentivizes? Yes, please!

@Direshadow

Annual events that expand the lore, celebrate real-world holidays like Halloween, and give players things to do.

I actually liked the Halloween event, but I also get why people complained. At any rate, I get the feeling that it’s quite a bit of work for Funcom.

@Direshadow

• Rare spawning bosses that require multiple players to take down.
• Dungeons that require more than one person to complete.

No and no. Seriously. A lot of us play solo, and we don’t want to feel like second-class citizens.

On the other hand, I would love a system that allows you to voluntarily increase the dungeon difficulty and its rewards. Something along the lines of:

• You enter the dungeon and there’s a locked door that doesn’t open until you pull a lever (or something).
• There’s also a receptacle where you can place an offering, if you want to.
• The more you offer before you pull the lever, the harder the dungeon will be and the better the loot.

It’s the same system as the surges, basically, but with dungeons. That way even solo players don’t get completely left out.

@Direshadow

Merchant Thralls that act like player set-up vending machines. Higher tier merchant thralls could have more space for warez. (Think Fallout 76 and Rust vending machines)

Yeah, I’d love to see something like that. Pippi Thespians would, in general, be an awesome addition to the base game.

@Direshadow

A real world money shop that would offer cosmetic outfits and armors and placeables for your base.

As long as they’re merely cosmetic, I would be relatively okay with that. It’s not really that different from DLCs.

@Direshadow

People need to not be afraid of wipes.

That ship has sailed. People who are new to the game start on official servers. Sooner or later, they have to make a decision whether they’ll stay on officials or go to a private server. For those of us who choose to stay, “no wipes” is a big part of that decision. So that’s a hard pass.

[Direshadow]

As much as I hate real world money shops, it helps with population growth. I hate RNG boxes as well but you would be surprised how many players come back just to buy new cosmetics.

I never got into it with my time in Fallout 76, but i will admit, it kept a lot of players I knew online.

I an more concerned about keeping players playing more than I am about price gouging. Just don’t buy anything if you aren’t into that.

[prologue1337]

I’m sorry, I can’t agree on wipes being a good thing.
I don’t have so much time to play every day so my builds take longer than 2 months.

Catching thralls would be even worse.

The decay system is good enough and serves as a wipe.
Once again if you really want wipes just play unofficial.

[Direshadow]

Well if Funcom wants to keep their game alive they need to do something drastic that may upset the community.

Currently the game is going no where and I was so shocked at how fast my desire to play went from 100% to 0%. It was an overnight thing.

I know it is hard to let go of Thralls. I name every one of my thralls and put them in a super RP position. RP is all I ever really do in Conan honestly. But even I understand the need to wipe the table clean.

I don’t think of wipes as a loss of progress. I think of wipes as inspiration to start something new.

Like how long are you going to keep that lego castle you built until you try something new? A month? 6 months? A year?

[Direshadow]

Also the problem with unofficial servers is that they are UNOFFICIAL.

You’re afraid of losing progress but playing on unofficial servers means you are at the mercy of the admins. If they decide to stop, for whatever reason, funding etc, that’s it. And you can’t move to a new server either to save your character.

The only way official servers would go offline permanently is if they shut down the game.

Then again, the way things are going, that may happen.

[CodeMage]

@Direshadow

Well if Funcom wants to keep their game alive they need to do something drastic that may upset the community.

[citation needed]

Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time someone on the forums said Conan Exiles was dying, I would never have to worry whether the scotch I wanna buy is too expensive

If you look at Steam Charts for Conan Exiles, you’ll see a chart with lots of peaks and valleys, but the long-term trend is that of a steadily growing playerbase.

@Direshadow

Like how long are you going to keep that lego castle you built until you try something new? A month? 6 months? A year?

Years. Both in my case and in several other cases I know. I only let my stuff decay when I thought I wasn’t going to go back to the game.

[Direshadow]

Why should I keep playing then? I’ve built my base and done everything in both games.

The only thing I thought of doing today after I logged in was making an attempt at some of those bile weapon buffs…

But then I thought to myself… “why?”

Why would I collect even good stuff any more with no bosses to use them on, and no events to save them for?

I thought about building ANOTHER base but then once again asked myself “why?” All I would be doing is cluttering up the land with a half finished project that my heart wasn’t really in to.

The game has peaks and valleys because most players go through the cycle.

1. New player spawns and is hooked. Sees a long road of activities and exploration.

2. The player hits 60 and begins exploring more. Fighting bosses and getting better items.

3. The player… uuuhh… builds… more?

4. The player becomes bored. And logs off.

5. Logs in once per week for half a year, not actually playing, just clogging up the land until…he just forgets.

So right now you have servers in a state where every so often, for about a month maybe, they become populated, and then die off again…

Doesn’t seem healthy.

[Direshadow]

But what are you doing with your base other than keeping it alive and for what purpose? All it does if you aren’t playing is take up land that other players maybe wanted to build on.

And even if you are playing… what exactly are you doing? PVPing?

[CodeMage]

@Direshadow

Why should I keep playing then? I’ve built my base and done everything in both games.

Okay, so, before I try to answer that question, let’s just take a step back. I just want to make it clear that I don’t disagree with everything you said, and I’m not judging you or attacking you. Sorry if that seems like a weird thing to say, but tensions can get high on these forums sometimes

Now, why should you keep playing? That’s a question only you can answer. I can only share the reasons why I keep playing, but you have to see if any of that clicks with you. And if the answer you come up with is “I can’t think of any reason to keep playing”, then ask yourself if there’s any sense in forcing yourself to keep playing a game you don’t enjoy anymore. But again, don’t take any of that as an attack either on you personally, or on your freedom to express your ideas.

As for what keeps me playing, it’s a combination of several factors:

• Sometimes I’ll get a new idea for something to build, and then go build it somewhere. It might be on an official server or in single-player. It might be permanent, or I might let it go after a while.
• Occasionally, I like to start a new character and go through the whole leveling process, explore how that process is affected by all the changes that happened since the last time I did it.
• When they drop new content or a major update, I like to let the dust settle (i.e. find out about the major bugs and their workarounds) and then explore that.

Other people have other motivations to keep playing. I’ve seen some people here profess that the biggest thing for them is to try to gather all the thralls, for example. Others are into PVP. Still others enjoy welcoming newbies to the server and helping them out. In fact, there’s a wonderful thread on these forums where people are sharing what keeps them coming back to Conan Exiles. You can find more inspiration there:

What we as a forum love about Conan

So for a fun post I decided to do a “survey” of what you love most about the game. The thing that draws you back even when you get frustrated or you just look forward to when you log in. Been a while since we had something open and not a debate. It is not about what is the best, but what each likes about the game. poll

@Direshadow

But what are you doing with your base other than keeping it alive and for what purpose?

If I’m playing actively, what I’m doing with my base is simple to explain: that’s where I “live” and keep my stuff. If I’m refreshing, then I’m not doing much with it, really, other than making sure I don’t have to go through the whole process of rebuilding it and catching all the thralls if I decide to go back.

And yes, I know that refreshing is crappy. That’s why I’ve been lobbying for an upkeep system on these forums. Make us pay an upkeep cost for our bases, so we don’t just squat on the land.

@Direshadow

And even if you are playing… what exactly are you doing? PVPing?

Capturing new thralls. Hunting for elusive items. Helping out newbs. Occasionally building something new.

And yeah, I used to play mostly on PVE-C servers, so I guess you could say I was occasionally “PVP-ing”, although it would be better described “enjoying the adrenaline of running away from someone who almost kicked my ass, and occasionally staying to fight until they do kick my ass, and very rarely winning a fight”. I’m not really a competitive player

[Ulyssi]

Permanency is probably the biggest (and maybe only) advantage official servers have over private. That’s not changing, nor should it to be honest.

A lot of these feel like they borrow from the mmo genre. Dailies, hunts, group raids etc. Which is not bad per se, it’s just that CE isn’t an mmo. It’s a sandbox survival game. WE the players are supposed to make the lion share of the content. The devs should prioritize giving us tools to create more unique and compelling content rather than generating content for contents sake. People meme on the RP DLC, but that kind of stuff is the bread and butter of content creation. Anything that inspires players to create or forces/encourages them to interact is CE gold IMO.

[prologue1337]

@Direshadow

Well if Funcom wants to keep their game alive they need to do something drastic that may upset the community.

They need to fix the AI, combat and find a solution against trolls and griefers.
While fixing this, they also need to add new content to the game, even frequent DLC’s will do fine… really just anything.

@Direshadow

I don’t think of wipes as a loss of progress. I think of wipes as inspiration to start something new.

Its okay to think different, but no wipes is no wipes, everyone counts on it and it should never change to that.
What they can do is create official servers that wipe like every quarter year or so.

@Direshadow

Like how long are you going to keep that lego castle you built until you try something new? A month? 6 months? A year?

My base is made out of wood, not plastic. I own this base over 2 years now.

@Direshadow

Also the problem with unofficial servers is that they are UNOFFICIAL.

You’re afraid of losing progress but playing on unofficial servers means you are at the mercy of the admins. If they decide to stop, for whatever reason, funding etc, that’s it. And you can’t move to a new server either to save your character.

I get the concern about admins playing god, but they also remove for example griefers from the server.
If they no longer support a server find a new one, since they wipe anyway this shouldn’t be a big deal.

[Mbeat]

“A scheduled wipe every two months”

Ummm…no…?!

Are you saying that after the many, many hours of building my masterpiece of a base that Funcom will just “ooopsies” and wipe it from existence?

Your suggested mechanic would just infuriate all the Builders!

Have a heart mate…

[Sir.Henry.Vale]

Population dropping in the last 30 days or so could be various reasons. Summer being one of them. ESO is going through the same issue with population dropped by a huge percentage in the last 2 months and this was after an expansion was released. As CodeMage mentioned, the game goes up and down every few months. I am not concerned regarding the population. I for one not playing much this Summer either where I was almost on daily in the Spring. Busy with work and other things.

I would vote no on wipes on Official servers for PvE or PvE-C. I have no vote on PvP since I do not play there so I get no say there. Not everyone has time to play on a daily or regular basis. Although if there was a wipe, just means it would give me an excuse to stick with private servers only, so it wouldn’t be a big loss for me in either case.

If they created new servers that have an schedule wipe, that would be different since people who want the concept can play there and those who don’t, won’t.

[JJDancer]

@Direshadow

A daily questing system that forces player to actively travel around the entire map and complete basic objectives.

I already do that, when I refresh all of my bases.

@Direshadow

Annual events that expand the lore, celebrate real-world holidays like Halloween, and give players things to do.

Real world holidays tend to kill the Howard lore. Though I loved the Halloween event, I would not like to see another player running around in Santa Claus bikini armor, or an Easter bunny outfit.

@Direshadow

A scheduled wipe every 2 months or so. This would mean you lose all your buildings, gear, and thralls but not your levels or learned blue prints.

Why would I want to rebuild my base every two months? Also, I have legacy thralls that you cannot get anymore. Am I just supposed to be happy when they get wiped?

[droch-aon]

They already tried server wipes back in EA.

It was a disaster, if you think the servers are low population now, you should have seen a blitz server back then, nearly every server that wiped regularly had no players none.

[Krem222]

Most of them are good ideas i would like it to do daily quests and have a merchant. But with wipes the pve-c servers will lost so much people.