Dev Stream - 04-11-2019
Opening Statement
New stream means a new write up. Some of the information talked about on Stream can be read on the testlive patch notes themselves, so I made sure to include a link to that. I feel like since this is a content stream that it should go without saying, but, just in case…Consider this your first and final warning about spoilers. If you want to be surprised about new content being added, run away. Otherwise, read on.
Everything seen in today’s stream is now part of Testlive. Testlive patch notes can be found here:
Note: At the end of the stream Rob cleared up that they will be continuing to patch Testlive until it’s ready for live push (routine stuff at this point in that regard).
Links to Bulletin Summary if You Prefer That:
Introduction to Robtheswede (12:45):
Rob’s first time appearing on stream, you may know him from other films such as, typing out answers to peoples questions on twitch during dev streams, or the mad genius behind the Unnamed City changes, or the guy who spends an insane amount of time helping out in the modding community.
Rob is a Senior Designer at Funcom, and is behind much of the content we see today in Conan Exiles.
Here, Funcom goes over the results of the building screenshot competition. They announced that any participant who made a submission (and followed the rules of the competition) would receive the upcoming DLC for free. They also said that they will hold future building competitions that may or may not include the use of mods.
If you would like to read more about the building competition results, follow the link below
To the surprise of basically nobody, the Turan DLC has been officially announced. It is coming very soon™️.
No Official Server Wipes Planned (27:25):
Question was asked and answered; there are still no plans for any official server wipe.
Camp and City Hub Revamps (28:20):
A content update coming this patch cycle is Funcom’s revamping of the City Hubs. City Hubs include places like the main Darfari city, Sepermeru, the Volcano region, and New Asagarth. Not all camp and city hub goals were met prior to today’s stream, so additional changes will be coming as time goes on.
The main goal behind the changes is to give reason to players to revisit these hubs for a variety of reasons. For example, even as a level 60, Funcom wants to give you reasons to revist the Darfari city. There are as usual, Unique Thralls and Bosses, but also unique loot and/or recipes to be gained. There are also some cosmetic changes to the cities to help add some variety and exploration appeal.
Darfari City Revamp:
Starting first is the Summoning Place, or Darfari main City Hub. All of the above has been added in, stuff has been moved around, new Thralls added, new loots etc.
But the big news coming out of the Darfari City is the new feat called Witchdoctor. It wasn’t revealed how one is to gain this feat, but gaining the feat will unlock the ability to summon undead followers (5 different ones in total).
No, this is NOT the much discussed Sorcery system. The Witchdoctor feat is a possible foundation of Sorcery, with the added possibility of having other elements of Sorcery to be added in later. While awesome, it isn’t a full encompass Sorcery system. Still I mean…Undead Followers! I can FINALLY rule you all with my Necromancer army! MUHAHAHAHA…wait, did I say that out loud?..Erm, um, keep reading!
They showed off some off various Undead, but if you want to see it for yourself, I suggest clicking the provided time stamped link above. Rob post Stream Dmed me some additional info, so continue reading for that.
Added Info Courtesy of Rob - Post Stream
One of the undead that can spawn as a follower is the Unstable Skeleton. The Unstable Skeleton requires lower level ingredients with the result of which Unstable Skeleton you get as being random (for example, during the stream, the Unstable Skeleton emitted a close range noxious damaging cloud). Unstable Skeletons also have low hit points.There is a rare chance to get a high-level undead from this.
Stable Skeletons requires high level ingredients. There is still a chance to get an Unstable Skeleton, but the chance for getting a high level Skeleton is also higher.
New Asgarath is next on the list of revamped city hubs. There are population changes, new loot, bears now hang out as pets for the residents of New Asgarath, and etc. The big news coming out of the New Asgarath revamp is the ability to find a special Horn that lets you summon a Frost Giant as a follower. Yes, you read that right, Frost…Giant. How to gain the Horn was not revealed in the stream, that is up to the players to figure out on their own.
Quick Notes on the New Followers:
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The New Followers use the exact same behaviors as usual to existing Thralls and Pets
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Frost Giants and Undead can regen health the same, with special food being asigned (spoiler alert, Undead like ash for food).
New bosses, new loot, new stuff to look at (sensing a pattern yet?). Also added to Sepermeru are hostile NPCs, also known as bandits. You can knock these bandits out to make them into your Thrall, but the incentive is to murder them as they will drop special loot.
The big news coming out of Sepermeru is the new Silver Mine area. It isn’t a dungeon, more like a mini-dungeon. The stream only showed the very beginning of the Mine and Funcom left us to figure out the rest of it’s mysteries for ourselves.
Added Info Courtesy of Rob - Post Stream
There are more secrets to all the revamped areas that what was discussed on stream. The following information has been rated high spoilage, so read at your own discretion.
New Asgarath: There is a hidden recipe for a new potion
Summoning Place: Additional Lore has been added and hidden
Sepermeru: Unique Loot from bosses
And etc. There is potentially other secrets that have not yet been revealed. It’s up to players to find th new hidden stuff.
Volcano Region:
It wasn’t discussed during the stream, but the Volcano area was also revamped. See the Testlive patch notes for that info, or explore the region yourself in Testlive. As I pointed out elsewhere in this write up, the revamped areas is not complete. There will be additional changes to other areas and city hubs on the map in future patches.
Unnamed City has More Additions (46:10):
Like before, the Unnamed City got some additional love. Bosses now have yet more loot drops, and there are more scrolls too (weapons and placeables). One new placeable that was teased is a Faux Taxidermy of some sort. Dun dun dun.
New Legendary Weapons Added, Including the Havoc and Malice, which are Duel Wield Axes (47:50):
Funcom didn’t show off everything, but at the time stamp they showed off a few new weapons. One of which is the Havoc and Malice weapon (pretty sure I heard that right) which is duel wield axes. These are 1 handed sized axes and not the 1 handed axe and offhand axe we are used to seeing. The fighting style they use is that of the dagger animations and attacks. A Duel Wield Sword weapon was also shown, but no name given for it during the stream.
Weapon Balance Changes (49:41):
Dagger Heavy attacks now have Hyper Armor. Hammers also got Hyper Armor on their Light attacks. Hyper Armor lets you attack without being staggered. You will still take damage, but can finish your full attack rotations. Funcom’s balance goals with weapons isn’t to nerf (especially overnerf) current meta or most often used weapons. Rather, they are slowly trying to bring other weapons up so that they match the usefulness of something like the Spear.
Legendary Armor Kits? (52:58):
Funcom has officially decided to yes, add in Legendary Armor Kits. But they are being slow with them intentionally to continue to see how the new Legendary Armors are doing and how they impact balance, etc. So they aren’t in yet, but they will be at some point in the future.
Sunken City Dungeon Added in (53:40):
Of all the things that I’m sure people don’t want to have spoiled, its likely new dungeons. I’m going to be purposely vague on the details. If you want more details, click on the provided time stamp link. Even still, as I said at the very beginning, if you don’t want any spoilers, please skip this section entirely, as well as don’t click on any links following this section.
The Sunken City Dungeon is a free content update. Funcom maintains it’s policy on not locking out content to players behind a pay wall and to keep DLC’s in the cosmetic categories. The Sunken City is not a new biome, nor is it a map expansion, it is a dungeon. Funcom’s stance hasn’t changed on the possibility of adding additional land mass to the map itself. They reiterated their stance that, most likely, they will not be adding additional land mass to the existing map due to mostly technical reasons. Yes, this includes the often asked upper right quadrant of the map which is mostly reserved for future dungeon placement. If you would like a summary of the tech limitations, please visit the wiki link here and visit the Notes Section towards the bottom.
Underwater combat wasn’t added in, because there aren’t any enemies that have been programmed to fight underwater. If or when Funcom has decided to add these types of enemies into the game, the dungeon will be revisited “in a heartbeat” to include that. There are certain air pockets that you can fight while “underwater” but they were only briefly discussed during the stream, and not shown.
New swimming animations were added in, so shoutout to Manos (Funcom Animator) for his hard work. With the dungeon also comes new recipes. Only one new feat was shown during the stream (if you would like to know which one, revisit the link where Jens is showing off some of the new weapons and pay attention to the one that makes most sense for a water environment). There also may or may not be a new fish trap in the game.
The dungeon is designed to be very exploration friendly and less linear. Players have more personal choice in what areas to visit in the dungeon. This dungeon is the first of the four dungeons Funcom announced all those months ago before Funcom switched gears to focus entirely on bug fixing and core mechanic improvements.
Tascha Talks About Funcom’s General Focus Going Forward (1:03:18):
Funcom, as many are aware, shifted their focus from content and bug fixing, to entirely bug fixing and core mechanics. Now that a solid foundation has been established, they have returned to their previous objective of creating new content while also maintaining their stance to correct bugs and improve on core mechanics.
Content creators like Rob can focus on creating new fun things like dungeons, without impacting the work of the coders. Bug fixing and core mechanic wise, it’s best to just look at the testlive patch notes to see what’s coming on that aspect, but the Purge bug where you have the same event occur over and over has been fixed in this version. Rob also said that the coders are working on some additional AI stuff.
They also discussed that 3 more dungeons besides the Sunken City are coming (as previously announced several months ago, there are 4 total new dungeons coming).They reiterated their stance that Funcom has no plans on discontinuing plans on working on Conan Exiles. Jens talked about how Conan Exiles pulled Funcom back from the brink of extinction, with the point being that Conan Exiles is important to Funcom in a multitude of ways.
Finally, besides the dungeons, they have plans for other new content but it hasn’t been revealed yet and will be discussed at a later date. Even if Rob makes a sad face on stream because he isn’t allowed to talk about it.
Cross-Platform Play Won’t be Coming for Conan Exiles (1:04:44):
Nothing new there, but added it anyways.
They are Aware of “the God Bubbles”, it’s “On the List” (1:08:56):
I suspect that if you know what they are talking about, that’s all that is needed to be said on that subject.
Funcom Really Pays Attention to Feedback about Balancing (1:10:08):
Rob really wanted to make it clear that Funcom pays attention to feedback. They are very interested to hear what you think about what you see on Testlive with the latest patch, and as always keep the feedback coming in general. In terms of balancing (like weapon balancing), Funcom tends to air on the side of caution, so they purposely move slow on that part.
Funcom is aware of some of the biggest wants on players lists, including armor stands, character vanity edits after character creation, etc. Since the Conan Exiles team isn’t huge (like say a team from EA), they do have to prioritize things to what makes the most sense for the population as a whole.
Elephants Can Now be Tamed as Pets (1:12:36):
As of the hotfix patch on 4-10-19, Elephants can now be tamed as pets (as many players have already discovered on their own).
