The control mechanics already exist on Siptah. They can adapt it to the EL.
There’s elements in this purge I like, but I would keep the old one too, with a mechanic similar to siptah map for those who don’t want it.
And, definitely, the purge needs to attack regular bases, not just the purge friendly ones.
It’s fun to have these conversations, but we have to remember that Funcom, despite its name, does not pursue fun for the sake of fun. They pursue money. I guess they are making good money on the bazaar, because everything else they have done since Age of Sorcery has reduced the possibility of having fun in the game.
If making the game fun was profitable then maybe Funcom would replace their incompetent staff with people capable of making a fun game.
So do I as most people know. I love having regular new stuff to buy. But I still wouldn’t use the word “fun”… hell, steam isnt ever “fun”… especially on Tuesday.
3 Likes
To be fair, I think it is the implementation that has flaws and the lack of a timely bug fixing. The ideas are nice, but then, when put in practice, they suffer from several problems.
You see… a lot of things work on paper or in some machines under controlled conditions, but then they just don’t function as intended when subjected to a myriad of different real playthrough conditions, by many reasons.
No company wants to kill its golden eggs goose. I believe FUNCOM is no different, but having to deliver a product with time and funding constraints doesn’t always end well.
I’m going to have to agree with this… in my peer group we average around 1600 hours played on the game… we return periodically; test new features; grind out some building, thralling and dungeon delving.
The current iteration of the game we are really not enjoying.
Combat is NOT FUN. Especially when the NPCs do not have to play by the same rules as characters. Agility builds are simply not worth the effort. It’s hard to play medium or light armor dual daggers when every NPC instantly faces you rendering dodge rolling a moot point. The camera is horrible; the responsiveness is horrible; Chp 2 was not broken.
The thralls have swung on pendulums; making them lethal to acquire but squishy once you have them…Tier 1 region thralls Thugra/Brutes should not be stronger then Volcano T4 thralls. Simply give each faction it’s version of a T1-T4 thralls than randomly adjusting the power level nerfing relic hunters (who are literally searching one of the more dangerous areas of the game.) makes little sense from lore or perspective.
The purge now is meaningless. It’s a tower defense game that I can completely ignore. The design of its is completely unimmersive and it removes that element of danger we used to feel in the world.
You should simply add in roaming NPCs that start at one point and randomly migrate to a new one… Let slavers depart Sepemaru and return after making a circuit. Have a Cimmerian raiding party depart the Mounds of the dead to patrol the north on a hunting expedition. Have these type of patrols have a chance for a named thrall…a chance of attacking you alone in the field or assaulting your base…
This would 1. Give you a reason to build defenses. 2. Have defensive thralls. 3. provide an element of danger befitting the lore of Conan. and provide a balance to the overwhelming direct attack which the old purge could be; or the artificiality of the new purge. Let the treasure room be a magnet if raiders come within X range…like wise… let a certain presence (number of thralls around the loot) dissuade them from attacking .
The new journey system needs to incorporate elements of the old one… It should scan your progress and autocomplete steps.
Having to go back and “craft a stone club” when I am already at iron or beyond is irritating; especially since some journey steps are locked behind some weird series… (Mason for instance requires you build a new block or upgrade. What it doesn’t tell you; is that you have to upgrade tier 1 only… or build t2… upgrading/building T3 doesn’t work)
The combat changes however, are making it, so this playthrough… will be shorter than all others; and probably we will not return until it’s remedied for future chapters.
3 Likes
I actually love tower defense games, inside rpgs or sandbox games.
The problem, in my opinion, is that due to a faulty implementation this ended up being a lousy tower defense game, since we need to build a “purge friendly” base, which defeats the whole purpose.
Instead of testing our building/tactical know how, it forces us to purposefully build in a way that facilitates being raided! It’s nonsensical and my biggest gripe with this age. I took a break from the game just because of that…
Sounds like you all should complete the survey with all those great ideas! 
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Thank you, @El_Parthau !
I didn’t know this existed. I’ll definitely use it.
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The fact that breaking a T4 thrall takes only an hour is NOT FUN. The game has been made so easy it’s boring. And it isn’t just the thralls, it’s everything. Harvest rates, loot received from around the world, stamina regen, raiding, everything.
I don’t know what kind of battles you take your thrall into, but mine do fairly well unless they get cornered or completely surrounded at the first few levels. But then again i don’t bother with anything under T4 and i equip them with one handed maces, help them out a bit if needed and that’s it.
More than one of us sees the change above. FC/We’ve called it “encounters” and they are running. Otherwise, “randomly” sounds too random, RNG.
I enjoy being solo because I don’t have the time to dominate 9 other clan mates.
Yes, “dominate” because what they call leadership skills kinda sort of not all that. Can’t get both out of one, so again it’s dominate.
And, we’ll still be here. 
Well, it’s a way to mitigate the losses people are having.
I suspect there’s another reason for it.
tinfoil hat on: what did many people do when they filled a wheel with t4 thralls? They went to sleep, go afk and what have you. Thralls in the wheel don’t need maintenance. Now, what does need the presence of the player? Leveling them. What increased? Leveling time. Why? So you spend more time playing. It’s good for numbers. tinfoil hat off.
You’re a pvp player mostly right? You know what would make the game harder for you? Better thralls that could actually slow down raids, as they used to do. Base defense needs a lot of work, but that would be a start for those who complain the game is easy, but then want thralls nerfed.
Pve is easy. It was always easy and it will continue to be easy for any pvp player worthy if his salt. It needs to be easy enough so it caters to a wide range of players, since Conan Exiles is much more than a combat game (perhaps its weakest element).
Higher gathering rates have a reason: helping players getting back on their feet fast after being raided. Not fun for those who want to keep them down, fearing their wrath after successfully raiding their defenseless base while they were offline.
It has improved significantly.
Sucks for pvp, not for pve. Roll and run makes killing harder.
Wouldn’t mind having the old system back. Still, players are getting killed everyday, in spite of that. Throw a brick to a pack of dogs and the one who screams the loudest was the one who got hit…
Raiding gets easier and easier, to the point of people stopping building bases. Now, with the bubble gone and avatars wrecking havoc, it took a turn for the worse.
Well, clearly your thralls don’t face many players. But that’s natural when raiding empty bases.
This one personally is in agreement with regards to the the Thralls and recent Combat Changes.
Thralls acquisition and especially leveling is a tedious act of self flagellation in devotion to RNGesus.
The combat update creates artificial difficulty by baking absurd amounts of jank into play experience. The kind of jank that this one would expect to see removed as a game continues it’s lifespan, not enhanced. Simply put, if the game has this level of sandbag when this one first picked it up, this one would have put it right back down.
As for monetization, this one has already sent that horse to the glue factory, but in general, game developers deserve to eat, have a home, and retire as much as anyone else. While this one thinks they have set the prices too high (selling an item 100 times at $10 is better than selling 20 at $20) and that there should be a catalogue by now, at the end of the day, they do have to make money.
As for the new Purge, jank and bugs aside, this one doesn’t hate it as an option. It is far too rough for roll out, but then again, we are still playing a paid beta at this moment, with constant reimagining of the combat system. Anyone still playing acknowledges there is no quality control in this game and that this chicken crossed the road because it hasn’t been cooked, it’s so underdone. This one misses the old purges, and thinks there is a place for such as well, but adding a tower defense mini-game isn’t the worst thing they’ve done (see the combat update for the worst thing they’ve done).
In short, this one finds your irritation valid and agrees on the big part.
This game used to be an engaging light survival sandbox builder. The combat, while not perfect, was not the current atrocious mess. This one agrees that it is less fun to play than it used to be.
Now it’s just blocks and dolls.
3 Likes
Did they actually reduce the number of enemies in those areas? Is this mentioned anywhere?
Yes, @wolffspider .
I suspect it has more to do with trying to improve performance though.
I suspect it has nothing more than to do with making the game easier which seems the common direction
At the Summoning Place - yes. Previously there were about 50 NPCs, now there are 26. In Asgard it is not so noticeable, if they were removed, then only a few NPCs.
In general, reducing the number of enemies at the Summoning Place was logical, given the crazy increase in Darfari strength since the beginning of the Age of War. But they were nerfed, but the number of enemies was not returned to the previous level.
Easy or hard are always relative to the player skill.
Level 10 purges aren’t easy.
Defending a base from raiders isn’t easy.
Soloing the game without thralls is not particularly easy. Good luck soloing a high level purge.
So, easy compared to what? Measured by whom?
Camps were easy long before being depopulated. If anything, the new combat mechanics made them harder.
However… they don’t feel right. The combat gets clunky, too artificial, in my opinion. That’s the wrong kind of difficulty.
I would like to see a more polished system, a better AI, purges with siege machines, etc. I would like the sandstorm to have beasts. I would like content that was impossible to solo without a thrall.
The player is too OP. We can defeat everything but high level purges/surges and players who fight better than us.
You can create your own challenges though. Never use a legendary weapon. Craft nothing, not even food and live by loot. I did all that. But this is just not that kind of game…
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Skulker’s End, right at the entrance of The Dregs, has also less enemies. The first part of the camp is mostly empty. There’s nobody near the campfire, nobody guarding the entrance, etc…
Fighting thralls is FUN: I’m a PvE player. People complain that in the past, all you had to do was watch your Thrall finish the game for you. In my case, this is more real than ever. I just had to learn more about buffs and perks, and now I have true machines of mass destruction. The problem is when they are on guard. Hence the second point.
Second, the new purge is REALLY FUN because the game is not just about protecting bases. Making it optional was Funcom’s best decision. What is not fun at all is when you’re about five minutes away from leaving the game because you have an appointment, and a Purge starts.
Third, combat is NOT FUN: True, that’s why I have my Thrall do it for me.
Fourthly, the Bazaar is FUN: I’d rather have a bazaar in the game that allows me to keep receiving free content through updates and the Battle Pass than the game ending or having to find monetization methods that force everyone to pay. Honestly, the items in the Bazaar are quite superficial: Base content + old DLCs + Battle Pass already ensures enough fun and new content for those who play healthily.
…compared to recovery time after a raid. Measured by those whom treat meters as superior to yards. These options are exclusively needed. Can of worms.