Conan Exiles Dev Stream - Update 3.0
Funcom Full Youtube Link (Starts at 10:07): 06/21/2022 - Written Summary
Funcom staff sightings for this stream were (but may have been more!)
- Nicole Vayo (Community Manager) - On stream
- Andy Benditt (Community Manager) - On stream
- Dennis Douthett (Lead Designer) - On stream
- Ignasi - (Community Manager) - In chat
- Dana - (Community Support) - In chat
- Mayra (Community Support) - In chat
- Joel Bylos (Chief Creative Officer) - In chat
- Natascha (Community Engagement Director) - In chat
Important Information
Here are relevant links for this stream.
- 3.0 Sorcery Megathread (This thread has for many months contained theories that Sorcery was coming along with many discussions revolving around how Sorcery is involved in the Conan world. Congrats to @Jimbo , you were right all along! The thread is now a giant info thread about Sorcery in Conan lore. )
- Age of Sorcery Announcement Trailer
- The Age of Sorcery Comes to Conan Exiles - Blog Post
- Additional Q/A - Courtesy of one Andy - (Scroll through the forum thread and find the blue names for some questions Andy answered post stream for people)
- A Helping Hammer - Building Overhaul in Age of Sorcery - Blog Post
- Sorcery In the Conan Exiles 3.0 Update - Sacrifice and Power - Blog Post
- Battle Pass and Store Comprehensive Details - Wak4863 Interview with Dennis
- Building Unleashed - Creative Mode in Age of Sorcery - Blog Post
- Battle Pass and Bazzar Full Overview in the Age of Sorcery - Blog Post
- Age of Sorcery 3.0 - Live from Twitchcon in Amsterdam - Hosts JordeeKai (Twitch Streamer) and AndyB
Special Thanks:
Shout out to Testerle for his usual supply of the Twitch chat logs so that relevant quotes can be included in this recap. A thank you to Dennis as well for answering a lot of follow up questions for the purpose of the recap.
Introduction
It’s been 8 months since their last stream, but it was certainly a fun filled and informative one. The stream time ran just over 2 hours so we’ve got a TON of ground to cover in this recap.
For those new to how these recaps work, here is a brief summary of how I approach them.
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Some of the topics will be out of order compared to when it was discussed in the stream but is organized by topic where appropriate.
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I work very hard for accuracy. These summaries take me on average 8-16 hours to complete. This one took me well north of 24 hours total work time. But if I miss something, please let me know.
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It is not my intent to show favoritism in one form or another for these recaps. I have my personal opinions on topics, but I try not to let that influence what is written. This is meant to be a summary of what the Funcom dev team have communicated. If I really feel some additional information would be helpful from my years of working on Conan Exiles as a mod creator or from doing every single Dev Stream recap since August of 2018, I will include it as needed.
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Time stamps are included where appropriate. If you want to hear it directly from the Funcom staff themselves, you may quickly pick up where they discuss the topics most important to you.
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Gifs where appropriate have been made and included. However due to size restrictions on the forums, they are often not given a preview. I apologize for the fact it requires to be clicked on in some cases.
With that, let’s get started!
General Questions Around 3.0
Will the Update Come Out on All Platforms on the Same Date? (37:56)
That is their plan at the moment. As they have been aiming to do in the past, Funcom has have been hoping to do things in parity whenever possible. As Andy clarified, things do happen that can cause patches to be delayed for specific platforms, but they will let us know for such cases and keep us informed.
As seen in the Trailer, the estimated release date is sometime in Q3, 2022. As we get closer to that time period, more specifics will be provided when they become available. The team doesn’t have anything further to share on that at this time.
Short answer, no. Long answer, still no. Basically, everything being added to this update is intended to overlay or be added to the games. They won’t impact the game to where it would be necessary to wipe the servers. With that said, there are some things to expect and look out for though.
The attributes will be reset (basically a free respec) due to the upcoming Attribute changes (more on that below). Keybinds or Controller binds will also be reset. A lot of input changes have changed along with how players interact with the game (building was named a specific example). They also made changes to the binding process, in that you can double bind, or separate out, inputs in some areas or customize the bindings with more options as well. For example, Dennis said that if you don’t want the crouch button to also release when climbing, and have those be separate buttons all together, this can now be changed.
But because they decoupled a lot of inputs and made it more customizable, they needed to reset all the keybinds back to default so that players don’t suddenly have a bunch of keybind conflicts where they do multiple actions. On that note, on PC, opening your Inventory, the default key is now TAB, and not I (though once again, you can change it to whatever you want). Also mentioned, SHIFT + Q and SHIFT + E are the defaults for switching between tabs (Inventory/Knowledge/Attributes/etc).
The day of the leaks, Andy stopped by the modding discord to reassure worried mod creators that despite any rumblings about a patch, that modding was not going anywhere. He also said that mod creators would have lots of time to prepare their mod updates. Dennis goes into that a bit more in the stream here, saying that they have a large window of time prepared for mod creators so that they can get their mod updates done before the update (if they so choose to).
There is no exact ETA for the dev kit to be updated yet. Nor is there one for Testlive. However Dennis did confirm that there will indeed be a Testlive period before the patch goes live. He also talked about that there would be a dev kit update sometime around or shortly after when the patch has been prepared for Testlive.
The systems for Sorcery in general have been given a high degree of moddability, intentionally. Dennis says that they knew that mod creators would want to modify this system in countless ways, so they worked to make it all moddable.
Dennis talks later about giving access to mod creators to be able to set custom Followers to a Follower type. And if they so choose to, they can adjust the number of that Follower type for active following to any number that they choose to. As an example, he used Unicorns for the Follower Type, and 70 as the number.
Mods 2GB+ and Funcom’s Stance On Modding Conan Exiles (2:05:41):
Mods having struggles with sizes of over 2GB’s is also something the team is looking into. A lot of discussions Funcom has revolve around mods because they know players enjoy using them. Dennis says here they would like more players to be able to use mods as there is a large segment of the player base that cannot use mods right now and they would like to change that. However, as is the common theme in game development, the measure of the amount of development time put into one feature is weighed against what they don’t work on as a result of working on the first thing. And that has to be accounted for.
Andy mentions that it’s also a large technical hurdle to consider with the age of the XBOX One and Playstation 4 now being 9 + years old.
Multigun’s Note: As a mod creator, I would absolutely be floored and happy if console players and PC players alike could enjoy mods. That said, what Andy talks about here is absolutely true. Even if the commitment was made to bring mods to console, a lot of mods would immensely struggle to run on the older generation.
Changes to Monetization
As they started working on these new systems for the update, Dennis talks about how they knew they were going to need to change monetization strategies. They didn’t want to charge Sorcery or other playable systems as a DLC and wanted it to be available for everybody. It was also decided on this approach to help support future updates to the game. Conan Exiles, (while it’s technically been classified as a “Games as Service” product for a while now), is also moving more towards that in scope for future updates. While there have been things like culture packs in the form of DLC, there were also not a lot of other ways for eager players to help support the growth and future of the game beyond that.
The new monetization systems will allow the dev team to release more items at a faster rate and will let players pick and choose items that they want. For example, a new pack is released and the player does not want the building pieces, but wants the weapons and armor. The new systems will allow for that.
There are no paywalls in the new systems; it will not prevent or block players from experiencing content in the game (dungeons, Sorcery, etc). They will not sell power in the shop of any kind, it will only be novelties or cosmetics. Finally, you will not have to buy anything if you don’t want to. Dennis said that he put a lot of effort into these systems personally to make it feel as non-invasive as possible.
Both the Battle Pass and Bazaar are intended to replace the old DLC packs going forward. This is important to clarify what Dennis means here; it means that the strategies of releasing new DLC content in the form of how they have been doing it will be replaced by these new systems. If they make new culture packs or new maps, they will be done so via this platform as well. Also importantly, I asked Dennis after the stream what the status would be for the existing DLC’s that can be purchased on Steam, Epic, Xbox, Playstation, and etc. He made it clear that those DLC will not be removed or made inaccessible. There are new tabs in the Bazaar if players would like to purchase them directly through the store if they so choose. But players will still be able to purchase the original or old DLC’s via the same methods as before.
Items purchased via the Battle Pass or Bazaar will be account bound. That means any character you have or ever make will have access to those items. The one exception to this rule would be if they added free single use items to the Bazaar or the free slots in the Battle Pass. Those items will be claimable once per character. There was some confusion on what that meant following the Stream. Ignasi wrote some additional info about this on the forums some time after this stream and is linked here.
Anything that is learned from the Battle Pass or Bazaar will get placed into the (newly renamed) Knowledge Tab (formally Feats), in a subcategory of its own called “Ancestral Knowledge.” This is where players will find their account bound items acquired from the Battle Pass or Bazaar.
In summary, the changes to monetization strategies will allow players to opt in, if they so choose, to support the dev team and the game and be given more choice in how they want to do that. Supporting the game means justifying continued development of the game and making it so that all new features remain free to all players. The team that works on Conan Exiles loves working on the game, and wants to keep actively adding more stuff to it (in other words, keeping the lights on), and that is the goal for the new changes to monetization.
The Crom Coins are only a paid currency and cannot be found by playing the game normally. As will be discussed further down the page, players may earn back Crom Coins with the purchase of the Battle Pass.
As far as cost of the Battle Pass, Bazaar items, or even Crom Coins, Dennis throughout the stream said that he doesn’t have anything to share on that yet as everything is still being finalized.
Battle Pass
Pictured above, Dennis falls asleep as Andy discusses the nuances of Juggling and Nicole does online shopping. Also the Battle Pass screen.
It is important to note that everything is seen throughout the stream and are screenshotted for this recap are still in development and are subject to change. Everything from the rewards to the pricing are all currently not finalized. With that said, the two above pictures are the first two pages of the Battle Pass and were the only ones shown on today’s stream.
The Battle Pass works similar to many other games with these types of systems. You have a series of rewards that are given to the player once the Battle Pass level has been achieved. Purchase of the Battle Pass is required in order to earn all rewards. However, plays may still get some rewards without having to pay for anything if they so choose. Icons marked as “Free” will be given as rewards regardless of Battle Pass ownership and the player reaches the required level. Dennis estimates that there will be about 12 free rewards out of a total of 60 rewards. A purchase of the Battle Pass will of course result in all 60 rewards should the player complete the track.
The Battle Pass is accessible in its own tab, pictured in the two screenshots above on the top right hand corner of the screen. Dennis also talked about the importance of integrating the Battle Pass with the story and the world of Conan Exiles. The photos seen in the Battle Pass for backgrounds are a part of that story telling. As you complete levels, the scroll in the upper left hand corner will also fill out with additional text to explain the story. The strange language will become readable to the player as their character gains the knowledge necessary to read what is there.
I asked Dennis a follow up question regarding storytelling and Battle Passes and which maps they involve. This is what he wrote.
“The Age of Sorcery tells a story based on the Exile Lands. While it doesn’t currently revolve around The Isle of Siptah, this can change per age based on the story we want to tell. “
The structure of the Battle Pass is that it will have Ages. The first one being of course, The Age of Sorcery. Each Age will consist of multiple Chapters. The Chapters are where Funcom will focus its energies into big content updates. Each Chapter will feature new things in the Bazaar, new rewards for the next Battle Pass, but also new free playable content or major updates to existing content. The goal being, it’s not just going to be only about “here’s more stuff to buy”, but also “here is more stuff to do” that is free and available to all players. The Battle Pass, or Chapters, will be updated every 90 days. The Ages are around two to three Chapters in length.
Their current plans for Battle Pass right now, and it is subject to change from feedback from players, is that they will be doing it much like many other Battle Pass based games with having it not appear as a store item at a later time . An important item to talk about from Funcom’s perspective, is that they have a very experienced monetization expert they are working with. Dennis says they have taken his advice on a lot of stuff that they are doing with monetization. Originally Dennis felt that they should make these other battle passes available all the time. The monetization experts’ advice was that Funcom shouldn’t do that.
For the time being and the way it’s going to go for now, once the battle pass is done, the battle pass is gone. They are not going to re-add those items to the shop, as Dennis doesn’t want a scenario where there is this exclusive item in the Battle Pass that later shows up in a shop. He argues that there is value in having you be there when it happened and its limited availability and that you worked to obtain it. And by offering it 6 months or more later, it devalues those items.
What they may do is variations on some of the items. For example, there is a really unique looking bookcase. They would take that bookcase and modify it in various ways and change its content, and ultimately end up with an alternative or close version of it. Then they may offer that item as a Bazaar based item for purchase. But players will not see the same 1:1 item in the Bazaar if it was already in the Battlepass.
Update
Dennis provided an example on the Conan Exiles Unofficial Discord of in progress concepts of items that a player would find in the Bazaar versus the Battle Pass.
Battle Pass Version
Bazaar Version
He also briefly discussed some of the concerns players had about monetization on the Conan Exiles Unofficial Discord.
Dennis: We didn’t directly copy anyone (any game) when building up our Battle Pass. We tried to do what is right for Exiles, and we did as much as possible to try not to offend anyone’s sensibilities while allowing ways for people who want the ability to engage with our games monetization. We will listen to feedback, we will make adjustments and try different strategies that are informed by the communities habits and opinions.
This short discussion was also exchanged between Dennis and the player.
Player: Dennis saying they don’t want as much microtransactions really is a relief (likely in reference to the stream when Dennis discusses why they didn’t want to charge for Rerolls or EXP boosts).
Dennis: My priority is to the community and the health of the game.
Seen above, the team attempts a weird form of the wave. Also seen, the Battle Pass Challenge screen.
The Battle Pass and its leveling mechanic can be progressed by completing challenges. Challenges give Battle Pass experience and levels (and thus rewards). If a player has completed a number of levels prior to purchasing a Battle Pass (under the Free version), they will instantly be rewarded all previously gained levels and rewards. As an example:
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Player has unlocked Battle Pass level 20 using the Free Option. Only a few of the rewards up to this point will have been free.
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They decide they want to purchase the Battle Pass.
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The Player will then be given all rewards up to level 20 as they have already unlocked those levels previously.
Buying the Battle Pass for that particular chapter means you will not be asked to pay for it again until the next Chapter and can be 100% completed by Challenges alone. However, there are also options to purchase levels for players who would prefer to skip ahead, or perhaps have a limited amount of time or other reasons. There is a premium option that will grant 15 levels instantly no matter where you are currently at when it’s purchased (meaning if you bought it at level 3, you would instantly become level 18). Additional levels can be purchased with Crom Coins separately if the player decides to.
Each level is 1000XP (1-60 for a total of 60 rewards). That means there will be no increases to the level requirement in EXP as it will remain the same if you are level 1 or level 59. For the Challenges, every 24 hours you will be given 5 EXP multipliers (or bonus EXP) for each challenge. You can stock up to 25 EXP multipliers at any given time. Meaning if you haven’t logged in for 5 days, you will have 25 EXP multipliers waiting for you. If you complete Challenges to the point that you are given no more multipliers, you may continue to complete Challenges at the normal EXP amount indefinitely. There is no cool down or Challenge limit per day.
If the Challenges presented are not to your liking, you may freely Reroll the Challenges up to 3 times per day before you will have to wait for those to be reset. The Reroll option will reset all 5 Challenges.
The early leaked (and later officially released) teaser video showed a purchase option for rerolling, but Dennis clarified that this will not be an option. There was also some confusion from the teaser where it seemed to suggest you could purchase EXP multipliers, but that also is not the case. Dennis said that they don’t want to give the illusion that they are trying to “nickel and dime” players by hitting them with as many micro transactions as possible.
At the time of the stream, Dennis said that the EXP numbers per challenge represented in the trailer and what was shown on the stream were no longer current. He talked a little about it during the stream, but he sent me the latest numbers post stream.
(NOTE: THESE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Type of Challenge:
Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary
EXP:
30xp, 40xp, 70xp, 150xp
Percentage Gained From Completion:
3%, 4%, 7%, 15%
With a multiplier of 10x, those Percentages would change to:
30%, 40%, 70%, 150%
Should a player complete most of the Challenges (around level 57), the Player will have earned back the cost of the Battle Pass in Crom Coins from level rewards. This means that if a player purchases a Battle Pass, and completes up to around level 57, and they don’t spend the Crom Coins that they get from the Battle Pass rewards, they will have earned enough Crom Coins to buy the next Battle Pass chapter when it becomes available. This can be repeated indefinitely, should the player choose.
Dennis said that they’ll be keeping a close eye on the progress players have made in the Battle Pass. If they feel it’s taking too long for too many players, they can tweak the numbers on the multiplier or things like that. Best of all, they won’t require patching the game to do this as it’s controlled completely on the back end. Funcom will be able to simply tap in the new numbers and send it out for people to get the updated information.
They estimated the amount of time to complete the Battle Pass with the latest numbers provided. Players will need to play roughly twice a week for at least an hour per session. Most of the challenges will be able to be completed via normal play. And of course, if players do not like their given Challenges they can opt to use their rerolls. Dennis later added that this time estimation is based on the idea the player would just be playing like normal, and not just doing challenges the entire time.
There wasn’t a list provided for all the rewards players will be given for a Battle Pass, but Dennis listed off some examples of exclusive warpaint, wall sprays, placeables, building pieces, and emotes.
Dennis confirmed that no matter how you choose to play, you will be able to participate in the Battle Pass. That indeed means Private Vanilla Servers, Private Modded Servers, Single Player (both modded and unmodded), and Official Servers.
Information on the Bazaar
Pictured above, Andy shows us his Jazz hands and Nicole contemplates the mysteries of life. Also the Bazaar screen is seen here.
The first thing to point out is the words, “FPO” meaning For Placement Only. In other words, what you see here is still a work in progress (sensing a theme on that yet?). Dennis communicated and make clear that items seen in the shop don’t go away forever, although they have a timer representing how long they will be available for that current offering. Dennis talks about the concern of having too many backlog of items being extremely large as time goes on. For Funcom, it makes more sense for them to have fewer items at a time and to showcase them to the players. It was also important to the team to have cool artwork to show players on what they are getting with their purchase. Dennis uses the Sandstone Set as an example, where it’s a diorama of all the pieces that come with it.
The items in the Bazaar are not anything found in the Battle Pass, with each system having its own exclusive items. There are bundles and single items available, with Dennis listing examples of armor sets, placeables, buildings, emotes etc. There will also be discounts and sales as time goes on.
The items will rotate out based on the size of the pictures or previews seen in the Bazaar. It goes in this order:
- Largest Image = 30 day rotation
- Medium Images = 14 day rotation
- Small Images = 48 hours
Dennis reiterated that they will not sell power in the Bazaar. Any Weapons or Armors available in the Bazaar or Battle Pass will have similar stats to what is available in previous DLC Weapons and Armors. They will come in both Iron and Epic tiers as before.
Wall sprays are making an introduction to Conan Exiles with this coming update. These are essentially decals that you can place on a surface. Dennis said that it’s something you create at the Dyer bench, and then just place your desired image on your intended surface.
Unfortunately, only players who qualified for the conditions of the Pre-Order bonuses and the Watcher Set are qualified for those pieces. However, like the Battle Pass example, they could make variations of those pieces and offer those on the Battle Pass or Bazaar.
This is Only an Illusion. Or is it?
Item illusions, or transmog as it is often referred to, has made its introduction to Conan Exiles. This has been a long awaited and asked for feature for many years.
Multigun Note: And of course, us players who enjoy our mods have long enjoyed similar systems with @Testerle Fashionist mod. I just want to give a big shout out to him and all the work he has done for the players and for the game all these years.
Mods aside, I know I am thrilled that players of all kinds can now enjoy having the look and feel of the character that they want without hindering the type of gear they are using.
Players can access this new system via the “Thaumaturgy Bench ”, as seen above (I’m just impressed Andy managed to say the bench name correctly).
There are some restrictions to keep in mind. Items have to be of the same class. Meaning, you can’t change a Hammer to look like a Sword, or make an Axe look like a Spear, and etc. You also have to be able to craft the item you want it to take the appearance of. The exception to that is if it’s an Illusion item that can be acquired via the Bazaar or Battle Pass that is intended to be used in the Illusion system.
Here is a very quick example of using the system as it’s designed.
Post Stream Edit
Per Mayra (Funcom Community Support) in Twitch chat, armor must be the same armor class for the Illusion system. Meaning you cannot convert a light armor piece to look like a medium or heavy armor piece.
Light → Light
Medium → Medium
Heavy → Heavy
Sorcery?!
Pictured above, Andy twirls his facial hair with evil glee. The artwork seen here is from Funcom’s legacy MMO, Age of Conan.
SPOILER WARNING.
Discussion here involves being told how and where players may learn Sorcery, many of its spells, and what’s involved in casting spells. Reading further is cautioned for Spoilers!!!.
A little history is appropriate to cover here. Sorcery was first announced as an upcoming feature in March of 2017 during Early Access. It hit the cutting room floor and was not added when the game officially launched in May of 2018. In August of 2018, Joel Bylos interviewed with Firespark and announced Sorcery would be the next major update after they completed the feature they were working on at the time (Pets). For one reason or many, that also didn’t happen. So to say that this has been a long time of wait for players, would be an understatement.
You may see Joel Bylos’s reaction on Twitter here.
(For a bonus Joel Bylos exchange, see his thoughts here on the original proposal for Shapeshifting and Dennis’s reply on why Shapeshifting isn’t in the game as of 3.0)
Sorcery has been a really important feature that Funcom has long wanted to officially add to the game. They took a lot of care to make sure that Sorcery in Conan Exiles is represented as accurately as possible to Robert E Howard’s original work (for those unaware, Robert E. Howard was the original author and creator of the Conan Universe and first published the stories of Conan the Barbarian in 1932).
As Andy explains, the Conan Universe is more low fantasy, and Sorcery is very dark and relatively seldom seen. It is known to be both dangerous to the person affected by the dark powers, and to its caster if they are careless or reckless. And when the caster has that kind of power at their fingertips, the power becomes addicting and they want more. The magic users in the stories are generally depicted as power hungry and corrupted.
Unlike what many other games use for their magic classes, Sorcery in Conan Exiles will not feature the ability to be a “walking artillery unit.” Dennis says here that they do not want players replacing combat in Conan Exiles with Sorcery. He understands that there have been a lot of concerns about turning the game into a high fantasy system with spells being flung everywhere and fighting against swords and bows. But that kind of system goes against what they have strived for Conan Exiles to be.
Everything that makes up Conan Exiles is meant to be intimate bloody combat and that won’t change even if the player is a Sorcerer. While the Sorcerer can do some things to influence the engagement from further away, they will ultimately need to fight through normal means. Sorry, no Magic Missles here! Sorcery in Conan Exiles gives players more and different tools (and evil tools) to reach their desired goal. But it is not meant to straight replace existing Conan Exiles combat styles. Using humans to reach those ends is also common in the Conan universe. Sorcerer’s have no trouble with cutting, murdering, and sacrificing people if it means advancing their own power.
Example of how casting of spells will work with Sorcery
Encountering Sorcery is meant to be done while playing the game organically. Part of the story being told is that Sorcerers are on a type of pilgrimage and will be found in various camps in the world. If a player manages to defeat a Sorcerer, a mysterious map may be found. Following that map will lead players to a scary looking tome. And reading that tome, unlocks the beginnings of learning the corrupted power of Sorcery. What the player character is doing when they read that tome is learning a language, which are called the “Words of Power.”
Those Words of Power are what the Sorcerer uses to construct spells, as seen in the gif above. The rock looking constructs or runes are the representation of this language. Putting together the syllables or phrases casts a spell. The Words of Power are an ancient mysterious language at the core of its being that gives the player the ability to perform this dark magic. Dennis didn’t elaborate further on how the player progresses down the path of Sorcery, but said that in some form or another, more words will be unlocked and more power and spells will be given.
As seen in the various gifs taken from the Stream, the player character has a lot of Corruption. This has long been the concept behind a Sorcery mechanic, as discussed by Joel Bylos all those years ago. Corruption is directly tied into Sorcery itself. Each spell causes more Corruption to build up on the player, up to a maximum of 50%. The end values, such as shown on stream, indicate the amount of Corruption the player must have to cast the spell.
Casting spells also require reagents. The higher the tier of the spell, the more complex the reagents are required. They added reagents as a requirement because they wanted the act of casting spells to feel more ritualistic and slower paced. It is not meant to be designed like an action game where you press a quick button and cast a spell. The system is designed to feel like a ritual and premeditated or calculated.
Magic at its core is evil in the Conan universe. There is no good magic, Dennis says, so casting spells will always lead to Corruption. The higher the Corruption, the more powerful the spells the player will have access to. To access the highest tiers of spells means the player will have to make great sacrifices to their character in order to reach it.
Corruption of the character leads to physical side effects too. They become more gaunt and pale with their veins becoming more visible and a black and blood looking effect inside them. But Dennis understands that not all players are going to want to have this look for their characters. So they created a spell which can hide the physical deformities. This spell will last forever until the player chooses to turn it back off.
Seen here, a quick example of the corruption taking effect on the character.
Andy using the magic of post editing to illustrate the effect
As many veteran players know about the Exile Lands, the bracelets attached to new characters finding themselves in the Exile Lands prevent the use of magic. That is part of the update and the story being told in 3.0. Dennis says there is a new shadowy figure in the Exile Lands and has identified ways to cast magic despite the bracelets. That is all that will be detailed at this time. However just to clear up any confusion, everything in this update, including Sorcery, will be available on The Isle of Siptah as well.
Some spells will stack friendly together, and some spells won’t work together at all. Dennis talked about three “environmental spells” that conflict with each other. Lightning Storm (blasts lightning bolts on enemies in an area), the Darkness spell (talked about below), and Call of the Dead (raises ally Zombies in an area of effect). Any big spells that have an impact on the environment in one area will not stack together because they can only allow one of these types of spells in one area at a time. Meaning, if somebody casts Lightning Storm and somebody else casts Call of the Dead, the Lightning Storm will immediately end. Things like Darkness and Invisibility will work together though.
Some sort of mirror spell is casted
The enemies are fighting the mirror image and ignoring the player
Some sort of slow fall
Part 2, shows the player character taking no damage
The Bat Demon spell has a counter in that if the caster gets hit by a weapon source (such as a bow) at any point, even just 1 damage, they will plummet from their position to the ground. Dennis reports that via internal testing, NPC’s can consistently hit somebody flying around with the Bat Demon. He used the archers at the undead camp near the Sink Hole (Exile Lands) as a little testing area and the archers were “annihilating” him.
Hang gliding with the bat demon buddy.
A Wisp light source
The spell called Darkness, creates an area of, well, Darkness. It also spawns spider webs that cause Cripple debuffs to enemies that cross over them. Players are able to use local light sources, such as the Wisp (shown above) or something like a torch (including other Players and not just the caster). The caster is also given a glowing area that only they can see to allow them to continue to gain advantage of any opponents. Human opponents won’t be able to see anything, and NPC’s will cower in fear. All players and NPC’s are susceptible to the crippling spider webs. If you step out of the area of effect (or are outside of it to begin with), you will see indications of the Darkness while it is still active.
Darkness, lots and lots of darkness
Sticky stuff in the darkness?! Get it off get it off get it off get it off!!
Area of effect as viewed outside the bubble
Invisibility spell. This will make you nearly invisible to nearby enemies. However, you cannot get too close to an enemy as your presence will be detected.
Ice Bridge is as it sounds. The caster creates a bridge made of ice that slowly morphs outwards from the caster. It is also destructible through normal means.
Detect Resources is another spell added in this update. This spell will highlight resources within a large area; even allowing you to detect them through ground or cliffs. Each unique resource will have its own color, so players will be able to quickly identify the type of resources in the area they are in.
You got any of them resources?
Demonic Portal is a personalized fast travel system. This allows players to set up their own portal networks, regardless of which map they play on. It’s placed down like any other placeable, and it of course will require decay checks like them too. Players can have multiple portals that are all accessible by the player’s Clan. When stepping into the Portal, some Stones will appear that each have the name of the corresponding Portal that has been placed down. The Stones will also point in the direction of its connected Portal as well.
Preventing other players or enemy clans from using the Demonic Portal is not currently possible. If another player that isn’t in your clan steps into the portal, they will see the connections to the other locations. The Demonic Portal is rooted to the clan that placed it, but not exclusive to that clan.
Dennis is unsure if this will make it in time for 3.0, but a feature they have discussed and have been working on is the ability to set the portals to Public or Private. If the Demonic Portal has been set to Public, then any other Public Portal could connect to it. But this feature may not make it in time for 3.0, and could be subject to the cutting room floor, so, subject to change.
Demonic Portal as Seen Below
Not shown on screen but was discussed a few times was having Undead Followers. By default, Dennis says players can have up to three Undead Followers actively following. With the Authority Attribute (discussed more below) Perk that grants an additional + 1 Follower, it will bring that up to a total of four.
For now and for the foreseeable future, Sorcery will be primarily based around the player. The fantasy and the game is about the player and letting the player live out that adventure. They don’t have Thralls that will run around and cast magic spells with the player. They do have some Sorcerer Thralls, but they are integrated into a workbench and can’t follow and fight with you. There are mounts that have Sorcerous properties, such as what you will find in the Battle Pass and the Bazaar and Sorcery stuff that is already included for free.
But for now, they really want players to decide for themselves if they want to take that leap into Corruption and become the evil Sorcerer.
They will not. Funcom has a system assigned to them to what they refer to as ‘Rotten Decay.” Over time they will rot and decay until they no longer exist. When they are first summoned, their skin and the like will be more attached to their bones. But as time goes on, it will start to get longer and be more gross looking as their time creeps towards expiration.
The trade off is that it’s really easy to get these Followers. They start at level 20 when they are first summoned with all the perks already given with their own set of attack animations. They are meant to be a throw away but powerful temporary Follower. lastly, they cannot use extra armor or weapons.
There is currently no Server Setting to adjust the rot period, but Dennis said it could be something they look into. Alternatively, they could play with some mechanics where if you feed them something specific it extends their life time.
In terms of something like a weapon, no, there will not be an offensive wand or staff. In fact, the Arcane Focus seen throughout the Stream is labeled as a Tool and is not for any type of offensive fighting with its own combos or anything of the sort. The Arcane Focus is there to amplify the magic of the caster. When casting the spells, the words chosen for the spell get sucked into the Arcane Focus. Depending on which spell or domain the player is accessing will affect the colors in the casting process as well. For example, Green is the realm of death (bringing a undead minion back to life).
Post Stream Edit
A new video showcasing Sorcery was posted on Twitter on 7/6/22. Click the Twitter link to view.
Attributes, Get Your Attributes Here
For the 3.0 update, All your attributes will be reset. Just to reiterate, this is not a full server wipe, but merely the attributes are getting reset. Andy started to talk about how the names of the various Attribute lines have been renamed so what was shown in the stream wasn’t current. Dennis pointed out that it was recently changed as of a couple days before the stream. Why? Because they wanted to keep the theme of “Savage” when you spell it down vertically. Rejoice!
- Strength
- Agility (Accuracy merged into Agility)
- Vitality
- Authority (Formally Charisma in the stream)
- Grit
- Expertise (Formally Craftsmanship in the stream)
The Attributes per level have changed with this update. Players are rewarded 1 Attribute for every level up. To max out an Attribute line, it will take 20 Attributes, or 20 levels. This streamlines the leveling process to make it a little easier to understand.
All Attributes have also received bumps in what they get per point. To clarify what this means, it means spending 20 points into Strength in 3.0, is close or the same as it is by spending 50 points in the pre 3.0 version of the game. Meaning, just because you are spending 30 less points, doesn’t mean you are 60% less powerful.
Every 10 levels on an Attribute, there is now a split or choice where players may choose one of two perks. Choosing one locks you out of the other until the player respecs. This applies to all lines of Attributes. Shown on the stream was the level 10 perk for Strength, pictured below.
I did grab a bunch of screenshots of the various Attribute lines when they popped on screen for even very brief moments. A lot of them are covered up by Andy and Nicole being the way (gee thanks guys!), so I asked Dennis after the stream if I could get the full details of what players can expect. He was very kind enough to provide those in detail (though please keep in mind, like everything else in the stream, this is subject to change!)
Strength
Everything else is in the above screenshot:
20 Perk Choice 1 - Blood Mad Berserker - While below 25% health, you cannot be staggered or knocked down, your damage is increased by an additional 10%, and your armor is increased by an additional 50.
20 Perk Choice 2 - Crushing Swings - Your heavy attacks stagger for 25% longer and no longer rebound off shields.
Agility - Agility determines the damage that you do with agility based weapons, helps you act after a dodge, and slightly increases the size of your stamina pool.
5 Perk - Backstab - Deal 15% Increased damage when attacking from behind.
10 Perk - Choice 1 - Dead Shot - Arrows and thrown weapons travel twice as quickly and deal 15% more damage to distant targets.
10 Perk - Choice 2 - Precision Strike - 10% additional armor penetration while carrying a medium or lighter load.
15 perk - Quickfooted - Jogging, sprinting, jumping, swimming, and climbing cost less stamina and are faster.
20 Perk - Choice 1 - Extended Leap - Jump while in the air to do a second jump.
20 Perk - Choice 2 - Rolling Thrust - After dodging, your next damaging attack has 25% increased penetration and your next swing costs no stamina.
Vitality
Everything else is in the above screenshot:
20 Perk Choice 1 - Last Stand - When your health drops below 50%, you remove all negative effects and gain 95% damage mitigation for a short time.
20 Perk Choice 2 - Glutton for Punishment - When you take damage, you regenerate the last instance of damage taken over 15 seconds.
Authority - Authority determines the amount of damage your followers deal and the amount of concussive damage you deal.
5 Perk - Irritate - Active followers will goad enemies, attempting to force them to attack your follower.
10 Perk - Choice 1 - Commanding Presence - Your active followers are inspired by your battle prowess and have their health restored when you deal damage in combat.
10 Perk - Choice 2 - Healthy Diet - Your active followers gain passive health regeneration when not engaged in combat.
15 Perk - Attentive Care - Your active followers receive 50% increased healing.
20 Perk - Choice 1 - Well Trained - Your active followers have increased attributes.
20 Perk - Choice 2 - War Party - Maximum followers increased by 1, however statistics no longer influence your follower’s damage output.
Grit
Everything else is in the above screenshot:
20 Perk Choice 1 - Shield Master - You can block unblockable attacks at a higher stamina cost and you react twice as quickly after successfully blocking.
20 Perk Choice 2 - Steel Thewed - You cannot take more than 25% of your maximum health in damage per hit.
Expertise - Expertise determines the maximum weight you may carry.
5 Perk - Survivalist - Tools lose durability half as quickly and hunger and thirst deplete 33% slower.
10 Perk - Choice 1- Efficient Harvest - Final hit when harvesting grants twice as many resources.
10 Perk - Choice 2- Careful Harvest - You are twice as likely to gather rare resources when harvesting.
15 Perk - Hard Worker - You harvest resource nodes twice as fast.
20 Perk - Choice 1- Beast of Burden - When over-encumbered, you can dodge and move at full speed.20 Perk - Choice 2 - Structural Integrity - Structures you build are 25% more stable.
The idea behind these changes is to really shakeup what’s available for character customization and progression. It also makes it easier to plan your build. The level cap is 60, and the attribute totals is 60. They tried to make the decisions between the two perks (every 10 levels) a really hard choice too. Dennis says that they really hope the changes lead to a variety of builds. With more customization and personalization, it gives players more of a feeling of owning your character. It will allow players to do more of the stuff they want to do instead of doing what’s there because there is no other option.
For players concerned about Encumbrance, it is built into the Expertise Attribute line. They also added minor bonuses to all the attributes. For example, if you invest in Strength, you will also gain some more Encumbrance as well as it makes sense that someone who is stronger would be able to carry more.
As for Armor and Weapons, pre 3.0 some of them add attributes based on the type of Weapon or Armor piece acquired. However, this muddied things up and confused some players on why they suddenly lost perks when changing out armor or unequipping a Weapon. As of 3.0, Weapons and Armor no longer grant any additional attribute points. Instead, they added derived stats. Let us break that down.
Strength’s description says that it adds weapon damage based on Strength. If a player had a piece of Armor that had bonus Attribute points into Strength before, it now provides Strength Weapon damage instead. The player gets what is derived from the stat that is on that Armor. To really simplify it, at the end of the day, you are basically getting the same bonus.
All weapons now are assigned either as a Strength weapon, or an Agility weapon. Dennis used the example of a Rogue sneaky Agility type player. These players would no longer need to invest into Strength to be effective as their primary stat would be Agility.
Players can still invest in Strength in that scenario. Their damage increase would go up about 10% total damage if 20 points have been spent into the Strength line. While the vast majority of the damage would come from the Agility line. The same would occur in reverse, if the weapon is a Strength based weapon, they would get about 10% additional damage by fully investing into Agility. The cost for that though is that for a little bit more damage, the player would be forgoing a lot of utility and survivability the player could otherwise have.
Bows were asked in particular during the stream, and Dennis confirmed that Bows are now an Agility stat weapon.
Perks Be Corrupted
Another major change to Attributes is linked to the Sorcery system. Once a player has reached a certain threshold of Corruption on the character, they will be given the opportunity to Corrupt their perks. To Corrupt the Perks after reaching the necessary Corruption amount, the player has to spend Soul Remnants, as seen in this screenshot.
To gain Soul Remnants, players must use the Sacrificial Altar. Players then place them on the Altar, and harvest their soul (like the nice Sorcerer all players surely are). Each Attribute Point costs 1 Soul Remnant to Corrupt. Each Thrall sacrificed will give players 5 Soul Remnants. Meaning it will take a total of 4 Thralls sacrificed to achieve maximum Perk Corruption. Player characters themselves cannot be placed or sacrificed on the Sacrificial Altar.
Andy mentioned that the Sacrificial Altar was in their intro screen, so I took a screengrab of what I figured it must be.
Perks will also change when enough points have been spent. By Corrupting the Perk, you also will override the non Corrupted Perk. Meaning, you can’t have both. The example used on the stream was the Strength line. Let’s take a look at the before and after of what it looks like with Corruption applied.
Before:
After:
You cannot preview the Corrupted Perks ahead of time. This is a design decision to align with the theme of tapping into the unknown universe for power. Dennis explains that if a character trusts in this magic, they will trust that it will grant the power they crave. Dennis also said he knows that there will be Wiki information provided by players within a short time after the update becomes publicly available, but they want to give players that experience of not knowing what dark, perverse, and evil fate awaits them and to give players that experience as much as they can. Andy added it’s about capturing that element of a character peering behind the veil on their own and experimenting with powers they may not fully understand the consequences of or what the rewards ultimately are.
Of the 6 Attribute Lines, Only 3 Are Corruptible.
This was posted on the Conan Exiles Unofficial Discord by Dennis. Strength, Vitality, and Authority are the only three Attributes that can be Corruptible.
What About Corruption Cleansing Strategies, Such as Dancers? (1:10:38):
Dancers are the most obvious example of cleansing Corruption as we know it. Dennis says that Dancers still do the same in 3.0 as they do now. However, that is one of the caveats of Corrupting the Attributes. The character will start to gain uncleansable Corruption. If a player Corrupts an Attribute halfway (10 points), they gain 25% permanent Corruption that cannot be cleansed. If any Attribute is fully Corrupted, the character will gain 50% permanent Corruption (max Corruption), and it cannot be cleansed.
That is the cost to Corrupting your Attributes, players lose a great deal of survivability, but gain a significant amount of power. Dennis used Strength as an example and called it a “glass cannon” type build. The Scourge perk will deal additional damage that scales with the player’s corrupted strength. Meaning, the more Corrupted the character becomes in the Strength line, the more damage they will do.
Now if a player no longer wants to be a Sorcerer or does not want the Perks corrupted anymore and wants to reset completely, they can with any of the available potions that will reset the players attributes. Naturally that also means the player would need to harvest more Soul Remnants to do the process again, should they choose.
Building Changes
Other than these two images, the building system changes were not shown on stream. But they were discussed and described at length (and as I was preparing the recap, they also published the blog on the Building System changes.).
The entire building system is now housed within a single item called the ‘Construction Hammer.’ The Construction Hammer is cheap and simple to make. Players equip it like a weapon, and through that the menu pictured above pops up and players will be able to access all the various buildings and placeables they have learned to make. There will be some new contextual options as well.
Andy describes being able to use the (by default) the Right Mouse Click (PC) and it will swap to the ‘Delete’ brush which will allow a fast way to remove placed items. As described, if the player uses the Right Mouse Click again, the player will resume normal building.
Another example, Andy describes a scenario where a player might have built a bunch of walls and decides to decorate them with braziers. After placing the braziers, the player would be ready to switch back to using Walls. On PC (by default), the player selects the Middle Mouse Button (R3 on Controllers) on the previously built Walls and the brush will automatically switch back to that building type. This also works for placeables (decorations). Andy mentioned that there is a button that is above the hotbar. I believe this is referring to what you can see in Picture 2 above, where it appears to be the item the player has selected for building or decorating.
Dennis says that he cannot begin to describe how much faster it is to build with this new system. Andy and Nicole agreed with that sentiment on the stream (Nicole, you may recall from back in the day when they used to do casual streams, is a builder herself). He also says that, and he made it a point to say he was saying this objectively, it’s an improvement for everybody whether they use a mouse and keyboard or a controller. He also mentioned that the Funcom dev who puts all the building previews together for the streams and trailers was a big fan of the changes.
Creative Mode is another addition to the game. Players in Creative Mode cannot be detected or attacked by hostile NPCs, and the player is also invulnerable. It removes the player health and stamina bar and other UI elements. Players will automatically and instantly learn every available recipe in the game, along with being able to build unlimited numbers of them. However, with regards to DLC items, the player must first have purchased the DLC or earned them through the Battle Pass before they become unlockable using Creative Mode.
Fly mode also becomes togglable, where a player can double tap the jump button and immediately start flying and double tap it again to walk again. The previously mentioned utility using the Construction Hammer will of course also be available to use. Nicole also added that it will make it much easier to participate in building contests.
And there was much rejoicing in the land of the Funcom
Dennis continues by saying that there is a slight learning curve when players first get into it, and they may feel it’s worse. But he encourages players to give it a proper chance and thinks people who may have reservations will come to enjoy the new features for building.
During the Stream, Dennis talked about how they were working on adding in more features for the Creative Mode so that players could have “Creative Mode servers” where an admin could turn it on for everybody on the server without the need of handing out admin. Though as he was talking about it, he was informed via Slack that they completed the work on it so that it will be ready for 3.0
Artisan Tables still exist. Funcom is still looking into how much they want to remove from the Artisan Tables and put on the build menu. They may go away, they may get integrated entirely into the build menu, nothing may change, or nobody really knows. But at this time Dennis doesn’t have anything official to say on it.
Players have long wanted this, and through the mysteries of coding Sorcery, it’s finally here. Buildings on placement will cause grass that would clip through the top of the building to despawn.
There is now a Server Setting to allow admins to set a multiplier that will change building stability on the server. Meaning, if players want to build buildings without any worry for building stability, players can completely turn this multiplier to 0 and build ceilings to infinity and beyond. It is a multiplier, so players may choose to increase or decrease it to the amounts that they want. For example, attaching a ceiling to a wall decreases its stability by 20% by default. If you set the multiplier to half (0.5), that same ceiling will now decrease stability by 10%.
Post Stream Edit
A video was posted on Twitter showcasing the new building system. (Click on the link which will take you to Twitter, where you can play the video).
This was first brought up on Twitter via Ignasi. I sent a message to Dennis to ask for clarification and additional info. There indeed will be an option for building in restricted areas like Sepemeru. This will not affect Official Servers. It is meant for Private Servers and Single Player and its an optional setting.
Events
The Event System is seeing some changes coming with 3.0. When they released the Grave Matters event, they added an icon to the map to encourage players to find the Event and test it out. This was helpful to Funcom as it helped identify bugs, security issues, and gave feedback from people playing with the Event. To confirm, new Events will be coming with 3.0. However unlike the Grave Matters event, they will not feature any type of map Icon. Dennis estimates there are 4 events that will launch with 3.0, which includes the Grave Matters Event.
The Events will occur on the map, but Dennis wants players to think of them more as random encounters rather than a celebratory event like a holiday. The goal is to have the player stumble upon the Events organically and change the way the player encounters and interacts with the world. Dennis didn’t want to spoil the types of events players will find, but he is excited for players to discover them.
Though shortly after saying this, people started asking about the “Egg” seen in the trailer. Dennis did confirm that it was part of an Event, but wouldn’t elaborate further.
Edit: Dennis originally estimated it to be around 5 during the stream. This was corrected here to indicate that there are 4 total events coming with 3.0, 3 bran new events and the 4th being Grave Matters.
Balance Topics
Andy says here that there are going to be updates to Followers “across the board” and that it will be a multi-stage process. For this update, Follower Health and Damage are being nerfed. However, they can be strengthened using the Authority Attribute line (see the section on Attributes).
Dennis talks about how they know that Followers are “insane” right now between the amount of Damage they can do and the amount of Health they have. This makes Followers the “star of the show,” and Funcom believes that the player should be the star. They have made some adjustments for the 3.0 update, and will continue to make tweaks and adjustments as they add more quality of life features. As it stands today, Dennis said up to 50% of the damage has been taken away from all Followers.
A Thrall mentioned specifically is Beastmaster Tamos, and Dennis said that he had his tables adjusted to be correct as there was a bug in them that made his health pools so high. Dennis says that if the player is lucky, the most Beastmaster Tamos can achieve now is around 12,000 Health and says that is still an insane amount of health.
Overall, the changes they are making are meant to be safe and are not intended to make the game so hard that it becomes unplayable. They are making active changes to move Followers out of the spotlight and players more into it. Once again, the Authority Attribute line can make up a lot of this difference. This is meant for players who really enjoy using Followers. Players won’t be able to make up the health losses, but a lot of the damage output can be gained back by using the Authority Attributes.
One of the systems that will benefit Followers but won’t make it for the 3.0 update is the ‘Down but Not Out System.’ In this system, the Follower will fall to the ground when out of Health, instead of just straight dying. The player can then interact with the Follower and to help get them back on their feet. They won’t return back to full health, but they will be back in the fight. This isn’t indefinite, if they fall to the ground too many times, the Follower will permanently die. It is currently planned for the Chapter 2 update.
CORRECTION / CLARIFICATION
According to Dennis on the Conan Exiles Unofficial Discord, Non-Human based Followers did not receive a nerf. Their health and damage in 3.0 remain about the same as they are on the current live version.
There is a new combat standing animation. Dennis describes it as a similar posture, but their hips are higher and the character stands more upright and less hunched over. This gives the character a feeling of more ready for action. The character can also rotate a little faster when the player is using controller movement mode, as those animations were updated as well.
Lock on targeting was updated to make it a little easier to use. Ideally, Dennis says they would like to live in a world where you switch back and forth between using lock on and not depending on the context of the situation. The changes planned for 3.0 is that they will place the target in a better screen space. In the current live version of the game, the lock On will push it to the top of the screen, causing the character to look down a lot. The 3.0 changes help make them look more eye level and the camera moves a little more over to the side.
While locked on, the speed of the character is close to or the same speed you can move forward in as strafe speed is faster moving left to right. This changes combat engagements as before, you would essentially have to allow the character to get hit by an enemy attack. The changes in 3.0 will give players more of an opportunity to step and move out of the way in time.
PvP balance has also been looked at for this update. For mounted combat, they added an inherited advantage for fighting players on horseback. If the player is on the ground attacking a player on horseback, a stamina damage multiplier is given to the ground player to help fight the mounted player. Larger weapons, such as a spear, have a greater multiplier then something like daggers for this purpose. This has also been given its own Server Setting so that private servers can adjust this to their liking.
Stamina costs have also been increased across the board for all hostile actions while mounted. This is especially true for the Lance weapon. While the Lance is out or engaged in position to strike, it will drain additional stamina. When the Lance strikes an opponent, it now also ends the attack and the player will need to wait for it to reset, and have enough stamina to initiate the next strike attempt. Dennis described the action much like the Power Shot on the bow. They also addressed the majority of the cases where multi-hits would occur from the Lance. A lot of the reasons players get one-shotted by the Lance is because it would hit the player somewhere around 10 times in a single frame. Dennis said that they worked out almost all the problems with that to the point where players should no longer be taking really substantial damage anymore from being hit with the Lance. Ultimately, they still want it to be a powerful option, but not be the one and only meta for mounted combat. They will continue to monitor those numbers and adjust them further as necessary.
Two-handed Spear combo timing has been adjusted between the 3rd and 4th attacks. The window is shorter so it’s a little bit more natural of a transition. Several weapons have been given larger dodge windows.
Two-handed Axes are getting an across the board damage buff, as well as the larger dodge window. Dennis said that they recognized you couldn’t cancel with a dodge for a lot of its attacks, unlike all the other weapons found in the game. They made those dodge windows for Two-handed Axes more uniform and consistent with other weapons.
Building Health has been targeted in this update. Drawbridge health has been substantially reduced, and Gate Frames health has been reduced a sizable amount as well.
In terms of buffs, Tier 2 building health has been increased significantly across the board. This is intended to encourage and increase the use of Tier 2 buildings. Dennis said that this is also designed to reduce the delta between Tier 2 and Tier 3 so that Tier 3 isn’t seen as the only option for protecting a base. This is to help lower the barrier to get into raids and more people fighting each other. Having Tier 2 be more essentially bang for your back then Tier 3 is a way for players to rebuild their bases faster, keep the engagement going, and not feel totally decimated if another opposing player wipes their base. Doors have also gotten a bump in health so that they can be better used for defense.
Demonic Fire orbs are now stronger for use in siege battles. They weigh more and the persistent effect deals more damage. Dennis says here that they wanted to make them a more viable option. They are good for taking down buildings over time and are much better for using this way then they currently are.
Dennis says here that he is going to talk to the team soon about possibly increasing the harvest and experience rates on PVP servers. The target goal for this is to simply make things faster paced on PvP. Faster for players to jump in, level up, get their gear and bases set up, and get to enjoying raids faster. And when players do lose everything, it’s not so much of a death blow and players will be able to recover and seek out their next engagement faster.
Dennis did acknowledge that if they make it too easy, then it gets boring for players. They want to hunt around for that sweet spot where it’s helpful to players so that they still value their gear but are able to get back into the fight faster when it’s lost.
Miscellaneous Topics Involving 3.0 and Conan Exiles in General
Yes, there will be bug fixes in this update.
There are no plans currently for CrossPlay. Dennis says that it is certainly possible to do and it is on the table for them, but they are not making any moves toward it right now.
No plans at the moment. If they ever increase the level cap, it will most likely come with some type of content as well. Dennis doesn’t know if it would be a horizontal growth or a vertical growth type of content. It could come about in the form of progression updates, but those are not anything that they are working on at the moment. Ultimately, they currently don’t really have a good reason to increase the level cap.
Cool Downs for Sorcery or Cooldowns in General Added for Anything? (1:37:27):
This question was asked about Sorcery spells in particular (see the section below for Sorcery details), but Dennis went into a more broad subject about cooldowns and their place in Conan Exiles. There are no cool downs for Sorcery, and Dennis says that the raw concept of what a cool down is defined as (a countdown timer until you can use it again) is something he is always going to personally try to avoid using for Conan Exiles.
He feels it’s a very “gamey” game mechanic. Conan Exiles is meant to be a game rooted a lot more in reality, though Dennis acknowledges that Conan Exiles has “gamey” type systems in the game already. But he feels though they really only do that when it’s absolutely necessary to do, and try to aim to avoid it through other mechanics they implement that mimic cooldowns in roundabout ways.
Dennis first says that he can’t speak about Multi-core specifically. But, with that said, they are literally always optimizing Exiles. There are points throughout their development cycle where they set back and analyze everything that is performing poorly and make very big leaps in certain areas that they are able to. This even includes new content that they are actively working on for 3.0 and beyond. Opening the building menu, for example, used to cause a large hitch that was around 750 milliseconds to complete. As of today, it’s now down to 40 milliseconds (which is about the time it takes for the player to press the button and have it appear).
Some things that they are looking into are character and server side that their optimizations will make things run better for everyone overall. Beyond that, there isn’t anything he can specifically announce other than optimization and performance are always on their radar. He recognizes that the game is not perfect in terms of performance but that they are always trying to improve it.
Dennis thought this question was interesting, as it’s actually a design he considered as part of the 3.0 update early on. Though to be clear, it is not something they are currently working on or actually developing.
One of the rules they have for Conan Exiles is that it should be as dangerous as it appears. A scary looking crocodile should fight like a scary looking crocodile. Dennis believes that logic applies to buildings as well. In regards to the Illusion system, they have taken a bit of a liberty with it so that they can offer a really nice convenience and quality of life to players. But when it comes to building pieces, at least for the time being, they would like to keep the scary structures looking scary and the tier 1 structures looking more flimsy. Andy added that if there is a lot of feedback of liking that idea that it’s something they can continue to consider, while Dennis concluded the discussion saying that they have a design concept for it if or when that time comes.
There will be updates to both the Exile Lands and The Isle of Siptah. However, they are just updates that are necessary to add content to drive the systems forward. Sorcerers will be found in camps, and those camps will be dressed a bit differently with new decorations that weren’t there before. There are also a couple of new caves on both maps, but they won’t say anything more about at this time.
Short answer: No. Not happening. No, it’s not easy. Still no. And no.
Long answer: The history of Unreal Engine, the UE3, UE4, UE5, those are the massive iterations in the fundamental structure of unreal changes where you are literally working with a different product. Unreal 3 is entirely separate from what Unreal 4 is. While Unreal 4’s foundation was built upon Unreal 3, their systems work architecturally differently.
Unreal Engine has different revision numbers, such as 4.5, 4.6, 4.25, etc. Those revision versions are similar, and they do get minor changes like performance upgrades, new tools to make new content, (which is often some of the biggest changes to Unreal Engine versions in that they offer things like new VFX tools or new animation tools, etc). Dennis says that by and large, those don’t affect things a ton in terms of delivering a fun game like Conan Exiles.
Conan Exiles was made in engine version 4.15, which is around 5 years old (it came out in February of 2017). When they started working on Conan Exiles, they had to do significant modifications to get it to work with their internal back end to get it to do everything that they needed. From character creation to server communication and many other systems. All those modifications have essentially locked them into Unreal Engine 4.15.
What they are able to do is take features from newer versions of Unreal and back port them to their Unreal Engine version of 4.15. Dennis made this clear, Conan Exiles will never be anything other than Unreal Engine 4.15 with heavy modifications. It is no longer possible to take the project, right click “Update Engine” and Select Unreal Engine 5.0. It is simply not that easy. Even if they tried, it would generate months of backlog work updating systems that they created for 4.15 to work with the changes that have happened to Unreal Engine 5.0
Once again, Dennis makes it clear. Conan Exiles will never be using Unreal Engine 5. As previously mentioned, they can take performance increases or specific tools and backport those to their version of Unreal Engine 4.15. Now if they ever decide to make something like a Conan Exiles 2, yes they will use whatever the most recent version of Unreal is available at the time.
Dennis jokes that perhaps it will be someday, maybe. Though he speculates here that for him, it’s almost no question that something like a Conan Exiles 2 could happen someday and that it’s more of a matter of when. Though he made it clear, this is not a promise from him or the company, just an observation or hope.
No plans right now, though it could be something they look into someday if the timing and priority allocation is right.
They are being worked on, but Funcom isn’t able to provide a date at the time of the stream.
No ships or boats planned. Yes to new mounts, and yes to new pets. Though Andy would personally love to do ships or boats if they could. Dennis added that if they were to ever do some sort of boat update it would be in the form of an Age update. Which to refresh your memory in case you forgot from this giant wall of information, that means it would be a very large update and take significant resources and planning to do.
The team mostly just had fun with this question. Dennis did say that there is a time and place where an actual map with Dinosaurs could fit the lore of Conan. But once again, just like previously with other speculation, it is not a confirmation of anything, just merely an observation and fun little discussions revolving around, “what if.”. Though Andy said that Nicole gets her Dinosaurs when he gets his giant Mechs in Conan. So, one of course just has to ask, Conan Mechs when?
Dennis says here that it’s a hard question to define, as he loves all of it. This is Dennis’s first real major update where he’s worked personally and responsible for making sure everything is cohesive and tied together. He describes it that every single feature and change coming to 3.0 he’s personally had his hand involved to some degree. The whole team has tried really hard to make it feel like the whole experience ties together. With that said, if Dennis had to pick just 1 for his favorite, it would be the Corrupted Attributes.
“Sorcery is this really inherently evil disgusting corrupting thing that makes you a vile human for participating in it. The attribute system, I don’t know how many people think about this, but the attributes of you as a person is how you have developed as a human. So to take something like your strength and say, I’m a strong man and I have been my whole life. I was raised on the Wheel of Pain, I smash rocks with a Pick and I cut down my enemies with a Hammer.” And to say that okay, now I’m evil and vile and really investing into this. That strength that I’ve been nurturing my whole life is now corrupt to its core and to see your physical attributes of strength be eaten away is really powerful to me.”
Funcom owns the Conan license, the full license in which they bought it in September 2021. But they do not own the licensing to Red Sonja, that is its own license and is separate from the Conan license.
There is nothing coming in 3.0 that involves a dyeing system for Saddles. It is however a quality of life feature that they can add to their to-do list for sure.
Technically Siptah has sharks, they eat the character if they swim out too far. But in terms of sharks and underwater fighting mechanics, that question was not answered on the stream (it’s been answered before many times, currently no plans).
There is some work that the team needs to do before they can start adding a lot more of this content to the base game. Dennis said that another similar discussed in the past is actual Body Hair types as well. Adding more layers of customization is something they are always looking into. However, when considering priorities of things to work on, they need to justify the amount of time it takes versus how much engagement the players will have with it and how much they would enjoy it.
Andy mentions that he’s seen a lot of comments about having bigger bellies and different body sizes from player requests. Dennis agreed that the wider and bigger body player types are what he enjoys playing in games (Sea of Thieves was mentioned, in case you are curious). But he didn’t comment on it directly in terms of feasibility or if it would be under consideration.
Health Bar Revamp Details
This was posted on the Conan Exiles Unofficial Discord by Dennis. Quoted exactly.
Health Bar revamp details we forgot to touch on during stream, I’m sure PVP players will be interested in this particularly:
- Smart display: you will only see bars that are of immediate use to you avoiding massive screen clutter in crowded locations.
- For instance, you will see the bars of your following companions, bars of enemies you recently hit or that have been recently injured, or those who you’re looking at directly.
- You will always see the bar of an entity you are using target-lock on.
- Scaling based on distance.
- This means you should not be able to see bars far in the distance.
- Occlusion based on line of sight. For those of you feeling especially sneaky.
- Consistent colors based on allies and foes.
- Removed “Always show health bars” option (edited)
Miscellaneous Q/A With Dennis on the Conan Exiles Fan Discord
Question: Is there any chance for snake pets?
Dennis: Snake pets? Sure!
Multigun’s Note: There’s a reason the snakes haven’t been offered as pets up until now, just a small for your information. I’m sure Dennis and the team can fix the problems associated with it if or when they decide to target them for one of the future updates.
Question: How about Flaming Arrows being implemented in the foreseeable future?
Dennis: Flaming arrows would be cool if we integrated more flammability in the world!
Conclusion
The team concluded the stream by verifying that they would be trying to help answer questions and post new information about new systems where possible (such as the Building Blog that was posted just before the completion of this recap). They also encouraged players to follow them on the various social medias (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc) to receive the latest news and info. As for me, if and when new useful quotes or blog posts become available, I’ll be sure to update this thread with that information over the coming week.
awesome work. 1 quick question you mention that 5 events (possibly) will come with 3.0 including the Grace Matters event. Am I reading into that correctly as meaning the Grave matters event will be replayed with the release or does it mean that 4 NEW events are coming? Really hoping it’s the former as I didn’t get to participate in Grave Matters previously.
great news, thanks for the reply!
