Decay timer still set to 2 weeks on officials

It was announced in a pin that it was returning to 7 days on Sept 1, 2022 but it never happened. Two months of this might be okay, but 5+ months later and servers as a result have turned into an unpleasant mess to play on. Support staff must be overworked also because it takes 3-4+ weeks for builds to be cleared that are breaking the rules, further worsening the bad state of the servers.

4 Likes

I agree that decay needs to return to 168. They are definitely overwhelmed… the timeliness of report action is next to nonexistant.

2 Likes

I am fine with 336 hours. Player bases last until they quit playing. It would be the same with 168 hours or worse. Players remember to log in every week, but forget when the 2 week mark passes. And that is true.

3 Likes

Except it’s not, anyone who has played extensively with both decay timers knows this. Thanks for your input though!

1 Like

It takes a minute of your time to log on and refresh your decay timer… you aren’t the only person playing on these servers and it’s kinda selfish if you need 2 weeks on a consistent basis between logins. You aren’t actively playing and are taking up space and server performance for those that do. It’s supposed to feel like a lived in world not a world full of abandoned timeshare cottages.

3 Likes

Not everyone dedicates their life to an online game, some have a real life also. The two week timers are nice, and they should just leave them be forever.
Saying someone is ā€œselfishā€ because they do not play an online game as much as you want them to, is a bit odd.
Maybe you should have played the game in EA, when there was no decay, and every foot of land along the noob river had a ā€œtimeshare cottageā€.

11 Likes

I think it’s partly due to PS4 crashing issues. They’re still not fully resolved. Funcom was likely trying to help players that can’t play the game much due to the crashing. While this is less of an issue on other ports, it’s still needed for PlayStation. Though the best resolution would be just making a PS5 version.

1 Like

how is logging on and then off once per week ā€œdedicating their life to an online gameā€? Give your head a shake lol and I’ve been here since EA thank you.

2 Likes

The lower the decay timer, the less buildings on the server, which means the server lag is improved.

What is more important? Having a building last 2 weeks of not playing, or having an improved performance when you do play?

I would say if the former is more important… why do you continue to play multiplayer?

5 Likes

I like the 2 weeks. For me it also could be 8 or 9 days. So you can play on weekends.
Because with the normal 7 i have a problem when I play on Friday and the next time Saturday or Sunday the next week.

2 Likes

All of those 0/40, 1/40, 2/40, etc. That seems to only have single digit players, have a much larger playerbase then they seem. Potentially even up to a hundred or more players each.

But when the majority only login a few minutes every week or two. You don’t run into them often.

The ideal situation is one where you could literally have your cake and eat it too. You can have a good community, you can have a good and active community. And best of all, you could potentially have that on a good running server.

I say potentially because I’m not certain what kind of servers FC is allowed to have. But if whatever agreement they have with G-portal is merely on how many physical racks they can have. There’s a way for everyone to have the experience you’re looking for.

Of course this does call for a server consolidation that makes the mergers look like a small operation. However if such a thing is done, it would be required to tighten up on decay timers. This way the server isn’t full of inactive players.

I’m literally talking about a 70-80% cut of servers here. This means the servers are going to be active during most parts of the day. Which would facilitate the need for cutting out more inactive portions of the base. But at the end of the day, the experiences across the board would be much better.

But that is why I posed that question. For many who simply don’t have the desire or the ability to play once a week… what’s the point of multiplayer? Are those people just leaving their builds up for random people to see? Seems a bit vanglorious when you put it that way.

2 Likes

https://forums.funcom.com/t/summer-decay-timers-extended/201610?u=speedice

After the Age of Sorcery launch, and all the problems on consoles, they returned the timer to 14 days indefinitely until they could get a handle on the issues. Players could not log in, or play without getting kicked out.

Since we are coming up on the end of the year holiday season, I expect the 14 day timer will continue since we normally get a few weeks at 14 days for travel purposes.

With many, not all, problems ironed out, the soonest I would expect a 7 day timer is mid January.

1 Like

Well 14 days are better, and ā€˜ā€˜vacation’’ timers should be 30 days… dunno how other countries have vacations but mine is 1 month so if i travel its 30 days not 14… sometime even can happen some stuff like this covid situation…

What i think how should be
Timers : normal 14 days, ā€˜ā€˜summer’’ 30 days
Decays : When base decays , nobody can loot it in pve… Tired of some players who never actually plays but run around loot others and build walls and then tilt and starts politics… atleast those who gathers themselfs are playing and communicating normal…

1 Like

From a USA perspective…

5 Likes

My vote is to for 2 week timers. People logging in just to update timers will happen regardless of the value. I personally rarely log to update on two week timers. I’ve had to numerous times on one week timers over the years.
… such is my life, and I’m retired.

2 Likes

Two week timers should be the full-time default. I am dismayed at the selfish attitude of ā€œwell you don’t play as frequently as me so you should lose all your work.ā€ :confused:

Is over-population and over-building an issue? YES
Are shorter decay timers the solution? Not at all.

3 Likes

I’ve played extensively with both decay timers and @Bladesaint is right. I’ve been a serial refresher on a few servers, and there are only three reasons why a serial refresher would let their stuff decay:

  • They decided to abandon that server permanently and made a decision to let their stuff decay.
  • Something happened in their real life – e.g. they got hospitalized – and they couldn’t log in.
  • They just don’t care enough about the whole game anymore, so they stopped keeping track of time and forgot to log in.

None of these reasons are affected by the decay time being 2 weeks instead of 1 week. You would have to cap the decay timer at 24h or so to make the serial refreshers really feel the pressure, and that would make everyone else miserable.

The fewer players playing Conan Exiles, the less buildings on the server, yet we don’t regularly propose to drive people away from the game :wink:

Just because some factor can reduce the lag, doesn’t mean it’s automatically a good thing to push for.

I agree with this 100%, that’s why I would like to see some gameplay mechanics to deal with serial refreshers. But that doesn’t mean lower decay timers will help.

If you want to make serial refreshers play more actively, you need an upkeep system that encourages active play.

8 Likes

Is it not selfish to log in 15 mins to hold a base location for 335 hours and 45 minutes on a regular basis?

2 Likes

And just for the record, the demolishing/ decay or builds create significant lag.

2 Likes

And BTW, we arent talking about small 5x5 builds, we are talking about fully thralled out 20x20 locations full of chests. That means everytime a more active player renders it, the server takes a hit. So saving that space is being a dbag to the community that is more active on that server.

2 Likes