Developer Livestream: The Next Age

[AndyB]

Greetings Exiles,

A new Age is upon us! Still reeling from the strife and chaos wrought by Sorcery, the Exiled Lands now face a new adversary looming over the horizon. Gather your courage and rally to our next developer livestream to learn more about the next chapter of Conan Exiles.

Join Lead Designer Dennis Douthett and Senior Community Managers Andy Benditt and Nicole Rasner for the livestream on May 22 at 5:00pm CEST / 11:00am EDT on Twitch and YouTube.

Be sure to visit the following creators too, who will be the first to give you a glimpse into what the new Age might be about by sharing unique teasers. Stay focused!

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Exclusive Peek Schedule:

KiahOnFire - May 17th at 19:00 CEST - Stream is over, but you can catch the VOD here -

wak4863 - 2023-05-18T15:00:00Z

JordeeKai - 2023-05-19T21:00:00Z

sema_ - 2023-05-20T16:00:00Z

[Harperson]

I’ll watch it on ‘catch-up’, but I do want to know 2 things…

1). Will the New Age (whatever it may be) still go ahead, as planned, even though for a MASSIVE proportion of the game base the Lost Connection issues are still prevalent and preventing players from playing for more than 10 minutes at a time, and…

2). Will Events be coming back…?

[Jimbo]

@Harperson

1). Will the New Age (whatever it may be) still go ahead, as planned, even though for a MASSIVE proportion of the game base the Lost Connection issues are still prevalent and preventing players from playing for more than 10 minutes at a time, and…

“Will they update the game which will come with bugfixes even though the current version has bugs”

Mysteries we may never know the answer to

[BluethunderBR]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[DeaconElie]

@AndyB

Still reeling from the strife and chaos wrought by Sorcery?

No, the bugs brought by Sorcery.

@Harperson

still go ahead, as planned, even though for a MASSIVE proportion of the game base the Lost Connection issues are still prevalent and preventing players from playing for more than 10 minutes at a time,

“Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead”.

I really don’t care what it is.
It wont solve issues, just make more.
It wont make the servers better, just give us more content to lag them down.
It wont solve the zendesk, over reporting, ignored reporting of TOS violations.

The Ages aren’t meant to fix bugs, solve issues, or make Conan a better game.

[CodeMage]

@DeaconElie

It’s a sales gimmick. Not meant to fix bugs, solve issues, or make Conan a better game.

Everyone always says that every single time a new release is announced. And yet every major release and every minor patch comes with a bunch of bugfixes.

I’m not sure what people expect, really. An announcement that they’ll dedicate the next 3 months exclusively towards the bugfixing efforts?

If that’s so, you can stop dreaming. People with experience in the industry have already explained multiple times how things work in a game studio and why it’s not feasible to have a bunch of people on the team sit idle while the rest of it focuses on bugs. It ain’t gonna happen.

And yeah, I know that the outcome of their QA practices and processes is not what we want. I agree with that. I think they should do better. But this whole thing about how the new release is “not meant to fix bugs” is just… weird. Yeah, new releases are not “meant to” fix bugs. Welcome to game development.

As for the rest of the stuff – upgrading the servers, revamping the TOS, and whatnot – what the hell does that have to do with the release schedule?

[stelagel]

1st question.
Will old gen consoles (ps4, Xbox) continue accepting these updates?
2nd question.
Will nights and moon returns in exile lands?

[Croms_Faithful]

Very much looking forward to it, and still enjoying Conan Exiles immensely. If it does happen to be an Age of the Gods please, please add some more items for mighty Crom too!!

*CROM!* desperately needs an overhaul!

- Crom needs an overhaul - This topic has come up before, and has drawn passionate debate on both sides. However, I am here to argue for a greater role for Crom in Conan Exiles, and am encouraging an open dialogue from players and devs alike on this issue, as it is an important one. As such, this post is long and explorative. Crom needs something…ANYTHING!! Crom is arguably the most important deity in the Conan universe, and the God of its central figure, Conan himself. A God as cool as Crom n…

72 likes and counting; this remains highest voted suggestion in the history of the Conan Exiles forum.

For CROM!!

[Croms_Faithful]

@stelagel

2nd question.
Will nights and moon returns in exile lands?

And shrine lights too for that matter. I am curious.

[CodeMage]

@Croms_Faithful

And shrine lights too for that matter.

[Onomog]

If they come back I hope, hope, hope that they come back with a toggle so that they can be turned off if one chooses.

[DeaconElie]

@CodeMage

And yet every major release and every minor patch comes with a bunch of bugfixes.

You mean they do patches with out bug fixes
Also note those major release come WITH bugs, not just fixes. And just for fun hexploits.

@CodeMage

An announcement that they’ll dedicate the next 3 months exclusively towards the bugfixing efforts?

Yes please. And just who would be setting and why? Because content artists have things to fix as well.

@CodeMage

I agree with that. I think they should do better.

We do agree on a few things.

@CodeMage

Yeah, new releases are not “meant to” fix bugs.

They’re not meant to introduce them either, but guess what?

@CodeMage

upgrading the servers, revamping the TOS, and whatnot – what the hell does that have to do with the release schedule?

Nothing except I see them as priority over the next gold duck. A new gold duck doesn’t make Conan a better game.

And the shrine light is what has you pounding the desk.
Foolish me I honestly thought having Conan run better and be more enjoyable to play should be the top priority. My bad.

[CodeMage]

@DeaconElie

Because content artists have things to fix as well.

Here’s a fun fact about software developments: fixing bugs in code is impossible to estimate. The vast majority of bugs don’t come with a reliable repro, i.e. a set of instructions that will make sure you can force the bug to manifest itself. Hell, a lot of bugs don’t even have an “unreliable” repro, i.e. a set of instructions that will give you a reasonable chance to reproduce the bug.

I’m not going to deeper into details of the process, but the point I’m making is that the process of diagnosing a bug, finding a fix, and confirming that the fix worked is pretty much an open-ended process that you can’t estimate.

You can, of course, try to timebox it, i.e. set aside a limited amount of time and dedicate it to hunting aggressively for bugs, but there’s no guarantee how many – or which – bugs you’ll be able to squash during that time.

Long story short, software development generally does not work that way, for reasons I tried to summarize above.

But hey, even if they did decide to do a timeboxed bug hunt, we come back to the problem of keeping everyone else idle. Yeah, sure, “content artists have things to fix as well”. Here’s the thing, though: that’s much different from hunting bugs in the code. You generally don’t have to go hunting for that stuff. (Generally. There’s stuff that requires more effort to find, but even that is more of a “looking for a needle in a haystack” thing, rather than a “trying to solve a murder mystery where your only clue comes from the town drunk” thing.)

Point being that if you want them to spend 3 months hunting for bugs, you have to make sure that non-programmers also have 3 months worth of work. And if you think they do, you’re deluding yourself.

@DeaconElie

They’re not meant to introduce them either, but guess what?

Obvious reply is obvious. And pointless. Nobody ever means to introduce bugs.

@DeaconElie

Nothing except I see them as priority over the next gold duck.

Do you also see refrigerators as priority over giraffes? Because the things you’re conflating are as different from each other as refrigerators are from giraffes.

Yes, these things are important, I’m not disputing that. I’m saying that they have nothing to do with releases of the game. A release is set of features you plan, design, and implement. It’s something you develop. Upgrading the servers and revamping the TOS is not.

@DeaconElie

And the shrine light is what has you pounding the desk.

Yes, it’s one of the features I would like to see back in the game. Again, you’re not expressing a profound truth there, you’re conflating things that have no business being conflated and…

@DeaconElie

Foolish me I honestly thought having Conan run better and be more enjoyable to play should be the top priority. My bad.

…and also introducing a false dichotomy. I never said that having Conan run better isn’t important. I was merely trying to correct some of your confusion and ignorance about the software development lifecycle, and explain what software releases are all about.

Contrary to your weird, accusatory implication, I do want the game to run better and have fewer bugs. I just think that going full Karen over the fact that the new release will have new content – how dare they! – is naive, ignorant, and ultimately unproductive.

[erjoh]

From kiahs spoiler, I say age of Lemuria.

[jmk1999]

Gonna TRY to watch it, but it depends if I’ll be working. Typically playing Mondays by ear. They’re usually my day off, but my freelance job tends to call me away at times.

[NeoTheMatrix]

better would be possibility to turn them on or off same as choice to remove marker on map…

[Dzonatas]

I just want to know if Funcom will update the system requirements to ps4+pro. I know it is sad for the old ps4 owners, but supporting them is holding the rest back.

[ConanBoDk]

The game is listed as ps4 game in psn store. And it’s price is 50€ like first day.

I don’t think it’s realistic that they kill ps4 and give all the people that buy it the last days their money back

[Dzonatas]

It’s a sticky situation. Moving on to more modern systems is not easy when people paid for early access. Notably, the game worked on the old ps4.

Early access started before these system requirements.