Aaaaaaaaa…
Okay… I have to admit, this is one of the only threads I commented on where I sort of read 4-5 posts and then when the more invested arguments started I just skipped ahead
Anyway… I think I may have better solution to @erjoh 's problem…
See… the game already has a fully implemented system that checks for player activity… which is that?
The purge system ofc… it measures player activity basically… through various means… things you kill… things you harvest… things you build… essentially “playing the game”… and if you’re doing that too well then Rockslide santa brings you some presents…
Anyway, that part does not interest us… however a potential solution to the aforementioned problem would be simply tying the purge system into the decay system…
It would not have to go to extremes obviously so I’m not talking near the levels you need to trigger the purge… (though that would be fair over the course of a week… and thankfully that system is already fully configurable as well) but at least enough to “prove” that you’re actually playing the game…
Now for some backtracking to read up on stuff - apologies if someone already suggested this
Edit:
So after reading up on the comments I think I have a more refined proposal that can hit two poor birds with one stone.
Tie the decay system into the purge score… Both systems were actually designed as a means of “growth control” so it makes sense.
Increase the decay timers as the player / clan does activities that increase their purge score - essentially playing the game - in sequential clusters though. What do I mean by that? Each of their bases would have a maximum score to achieve to fill up their decay timer based on the number of pieces, once that’s done start increasing it for the second nearest / largest (whichever is preferred by people) base, then the third… etc.
This would also solve the issue of an “upkeep”-like limitation to building size / number of off-bases. If a player doesn’t have time to play they would be forced to reduce their footprint on the server, else their bases would decay… and they would decay in reverse order of the above, leaving their main base as last to go.
I have seen some amazing builds that were just constantly refreshed, so I know people have a hard time letting go. I mostly refreshed for months waiting on 3.0, since I was bored of the game, but I let my two biggest bases decay ( I just did not give a damn anymore ).
Now I am playing almost daily, I love the update, but hate that it has brought back so many people that continue to overbuild. I have never reported anybody in five years, but I just sent in two zendesk tickets after running noob river and seeing the mess there.
It almost reminded me of my day one, before Decay was established, I got to the river and was wondering where all of the buildings came from.
That being said, I disagree that the timers are the problem. If people would build reasonably, there would be no server performance issues, but they just cannot seem to do that.
After the TOS update, I saw every single refresher base disappear and was glad of it. After 3.0, they all are back.
Let me guess, the sandstone monstrosity near Gallaman’s Tomb? Or is it fustercluck on the river near Dagon’s Eye?
(Sorry for the off-topic gossip, everyone)
True. But you can see for yourself how it feels to use the reporting system. For all my grumbles about how I’m gonna go to Zendesk any day now, I still haven’t brought myself to report anyone after that one time I’ve used it.
That’s why people keep trying to come up with alternative solutions.
The one at the aquaduct that spans it, the ridge, below it and down the river. Also the T1 river spam in H4 where they basically spammed all over the river and built that gigantic castle.
I just got two emails from zendesk asking me for a SS’s of the map locations, I did send them SS’s of the messes, so I know they are at least going to look at them.
I honestly did not realize how bad our server had gotten. I knew something was wrong, since I have massive lag sometimes, and the graphics load times have doubled, but. . . my gosh, what a mess.
This one is of mixed feelings on this matter.
While this one is generally not in favour of adding additional wibbles to refreshing or maintenance costs…
On the other hand, many public servers have a serious derelict building problem.
It’s"refreshed" but it’s an unused eyesore.
More people should use the Single Player version of the game to half build their amusement parks.
Perhaps a more aggressive Purge system would be beneficial?
One that, instead of increasing when one logs in, increases as one doesn’t interact with the world?
Want to slow the mounting Purge meter? Go harvest, slay, ect… The stuff that generates purges now.
By turning it inside out, it punishes those who don’t play as opposed to those who do.
Another random spitball at something this one also acknowledges as a thorny issue.
Thank you! This game has given us so many and more to come. Sometimes my friends, which I made from Conan, create a group and mocking me, Stelios you play Conan again? Will you ever play something else? Then again we start saying old pvp stories teasing each other for noobish mistakes and laugh so loud. Yes @Kikigirl memories in this game are such a strong feeling!
Thank you again!
I just placed a heart to all of @Tuffman posts and yours. I and (I believe) nobody else in this post so far is against you! You do very well expressing your opinions that surely represents opinions of many.
Thank you for this and above all because you kept so far this conversation to such civil standards, I really like this post, I hope it won’t be derailed again.
Thank you fellow exiles, both of you.
I am not really sure where I stand in all this, but I don’t think making it harder or less transparent what you’re doing is going to help.
It seems people are mainly discussing two extremes of play styles - that of ‘several hours per day, seven days per week’ versus ‘two minutes every two weeks’ (aka refreshers).
Any system which makes it even a slight hassle for the former will inevitably drive off most people in between the extremes, maybe including the refreshers it purports to target, maybe not.
I am not a huge fan of the decay timers in general, I wish there was a way to ‘bank’ enough time to skip a ‘cycle’ or two, so I am loathe to defend the status quo, but it’s ‘better’ (less bad) than what I’ve seen suggested here.
I was going to suggest the same thing. I think Purges used to be a feature meant to clean up the map, but now it works exactly the opposite. It’s a reward for active playing rather than a penalty for inactivity.
I’d remove proximity to base as a requirement to refresh altogether. If someone spends their weekend grinding dungeons and only visits their 1x1 supply hut to drop loot and get more supplies, that’s active playing even if they don’t go near their main base during that weekend.
But if someone spends two minutes online every two weeks, maybe a herd of rockslides is in order after a couple of months.
Of course, I’d still keep the “active player” Purges in the game for those rare T4 thralls etc., just have a separate Purge pool for inactive players.
Resetters with normal sized bases aren’t really a problem, I think.
Most players wait for new content and hopefully with the new future of Conan Exiles resetters will be a lot less.
Huge bases are a bigger issue, especially the ones too close to obelisks or important cities/camps or the ones blocking off passages.
But it’s all connected. If we have allowances then we bicker about what is “normal”. If it’s considered a sin, it shouldn’t matter how much you cross that line or not. If you aren’t actively playing, why punish (and yes it is punishing) those that are playing.
In the sandbox analogy, you are roping off a section of the sandbox so no other child can play in it and coming back once a week to ensure your ropes are still there but not playing; preventing any other child from playing in that zone regardless of how many other kids are playing in the sand box at that time.
What about proximity to a structure will add time to the decay timer (like normal) but the amount of time added is based on the amount of time you are on the server? Some sort of conversion like 1 hour of play equates to 24 hour addition time added to your constructs when you walk by. The ratio is a variable and we can all hash that out in discussions (I know weekend warriors would be screwed there and I’m trying to figure out how they will fit into this discussion because any solution that I am coming up with takes them down)
Read my post above about that if you want. It wasn’t about linking it directly to the purge, but the mechanism that already measures activity for the purge since it’s already there and functional and that actually measures whether someone is “playing” or not as accurately as a game can measure these things… Obviously if someone logs in to RP in their house for 2 hours that’s not going to count for much in the eyes of that system… though I don’t think the issue in particular is around RP servers
I see your point, and I agree with you at some point. Some players hold up space for over a year without actually playing, this has the same level of selfishness as huge bases if you ask me, but I rather stay neutral :')
I just don’t see the solution
I think the current proposed solutions will hurt the casual gamers the most and can kill the player base in the end.
For example if I play casual, which is more often than not, I don’t wanna think in the back of my head that I need to run around my entire base or I might lose parts of it, which is something to keep in mind here:
But of course this also depends on the area of effect, my base isn’t that big so its maybe not a problem for me at all
What about tying the rate at which the decay timer regenerates to the size of the base? The larger the base, the longer you have to play in order to get your full week long decay timer back?
@erjoh I don’t know if this was proposed yet
But I’m having some idea how to demotivate resetting and reward the active players.
Allow me to clarify:
Decay will have a minimal expiration of 3 days
Decay will have a maximum expiration of 14 days
A player with less than 1 hour playtime in 3 days will have to reset their base every 3 days (72 hours).
A player with more than 1 hour playtime will scale up the decay timer to a maximum of 14 days (336 hours).
The max will be relevant if the player plays over 20 hours every 14 days. If not the decay timer automatically scales down based on clans activity.
The numbers are a wild guess, for some 20 hours every 14 days is a lot… but… really? If that’s the case I would personally play single player but everyone should do what they wanna do
True! But these conversations may energize the feelings of mutual respect! It was about 2 years ago in a private conversation I had with @Narelle that she brought it up to me. I asked her to expand more and open a conversation here, why refreshing is an issue.
She didn’t, she however triggered thoughts on me that I should have and ofcurce the feeling of responsibility against other players on the free servers I participated.
Because they are free, for everyone, especially the new players.
And I say new players because this is the main issue of this game. If a new player comes and experience these situations, he-she won’t stay, they will easily call the game trush and go away. Then again we will create threads for empty servers, or bans because we overbuilded the empty map.
Why not, we will create threads for overcharged battle pass.
In any case!
We know that it is not on the player side for this situation, but at the same time it is.
We cannot do anything about Funcom, only they can.
We cannot do anything about g portal, only they can.
We cannot do anything about other players, only for our self!
If anyone will start with the man in the mirror and play more careful and responsible for others, it’s a nice start @Mikey, it’s a nice start.
We may not solve the problem, but for sure we will decrease it!
I don’t believe my proposed solution a few posts above actually hurts the casual gamers… unless the casual gamers want to refresh half a map square in 5 seconds per week… in which case yes, it’s literally designed against them - that’s the whole reason we’re here discussing this “Those” casual gamers can feel free to start up a single player game with no decay settings enabled.
Otherwise what I proposed can be more than accommodating for casual players, all they have to do is reduce their footprint on the server if they don’t actually play on it… which makes sense.
I disagree with this. Inactivity on one server and activity on another server simply means you’re playing on that server… there’s the old saying that you can’t ride 2 horses with a single butt
Now a system like I proposed above can be tuned for that scenario too, you’d be more than capable of keeping up a smaller base on multiple servers with minimal effort… but if you’re playing on a ton of servers then don’t expect to own the Taj Mahal on each of them…
And not letting a player do that isn’t “punishment” in my opinion… quite the opposite, letting them do that would be punishment to all the other players playing on all of those servers since that player would be taking up way more resources than their share.
Right now I believe that you want to force your playstyle in another player. We must always respect and understand how others find fun! In this game I guarantee you that you can ride 5 horses with a single butt. It’s how much time you have to spend in the bottom line. When I stopped have time I quit pvp for example!
Above all, we are all veterans in this conversation and each has a strong and valid opinion because his thousands hours has proven his saying.
By the way, like most said here, I was on the same direction with purge, I really like that we all more or less think of almost same things
