Funcom Full Youtube Link (Starts at 10:07): - 10-10-19 - Written Summary
Hello and welcome to another round of Conan Exiles Dev Stream. I am your written summary host, Gilum’Tun…er Multigun? Something like that. Today, we are joined (well in the past anyways) by:
- Alex - Lead Designer, on stream
- Jens Erik - Community Manager, on stream
- Robert - Senior Designer, trying his best to answer a mountain of questions in chat
- Nicole - Community Manager, being a ninja behind the Funcom tag in chat
- Andy B - Community Manager, his crazy shenanigans knowing no bounds in chat
If you missed recent events, Conan Exiles was recently patched. Here are the patch notes and their relevant platforms:
Today’s stream was all about Q/A. Questions were collected prior to the stream via the Official Forums and Reddit. Other comments and questions were answered in chat, both on stream and in chat by Funcom moderators and Robert. I numbered all the questions in the order they were asked on stream.
Because there are just an insane amount of topics covered, I put them all into categories, so the questions will be out of order. I also put questions answered in chat into those same categories.
I realize that this is a giant wall of text, I tried my best to separate everything out so it wasn’t so daunting. But needless to say, use the search function in your browser. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started!
Current Patch and Hotfix News
Relic Hunter Treasure Seeker’s have issues: Issue is patched on PC, consoles will receive the update next week after it goes through certification. The certification process cannot be bypassed at this time, PC does not have such a hurdle to deal with.
Blood and Sands DLC Armors Temperature Bugged: This is unintended, and will be fixed in the coming hotfix next week.
On the reaction to waiting until next week to hotfix: Jens said they wanted to make sure and properly test the hotfixes. In addition, he reminded those folks who have been around for patches that were released on a Friday, only to have to wait through the weekend for a response to a new issue (or issues).
Funcom knows there have also been performance issues. They believe they have isolated the cause (or causes) and are working on resolving those issues.
They also know that Thralls are really noisy right now with all of their idle animations. The sound effects are being removed, though the Thralls will still have idle animations in some capacity. It wasn’t elaborated on what that would be.
Twitch Comment: What about player character idle sounds? Can they be reduced?
Robert: Those will be as well
Twitch Comment: I hope the next hotfix fixes some of the problems with mods.
Robert: Probably not unfortunately - modders will always have a tricky time after a patch because it’s easy to mod something that changes… it’s not something we can do a lot about, I’m afraid.
Finally, Jens apologized on behalf of Funcom for the issues caused by the patch. They are working hard to get things situated as quickly as possible.
Player Idle Animations and Sounds for RPers (15:48):
Alex acknowledge that there has been ample feedback from the RP community that are unhappy with the animation and sound effects their character does. People in the RP community would prefer to have full control over their character actions and sounds, and the idle changes contradicts this. Alex said that they need to sit down and do some thinking on how to reconcile the two points of view of people who want direct control over their character (RP Community), and those who would just like some extra activity to happen on the screen.
General Questions
Multigun Opening Comment
Alex and Jens throughout the stream, multiple times, encourage people to discuss things they would like to see in the game. The more the various wanted features or mechanics are discussed, the more it increases the likelihood of seeing what players want implemented.
That doesn’t mean start a new topic every day, or make 10 topics on the idea. It simply means that as discussions are had about what players would like to see about a specific system or feature, the community team will record those suggestions. If they see particular subjects being really popular, those same findings are given to the dev team so that the dev team can talk and discuss different ideas and options into potentially making those wishes and dreams turn into reality. More hairstyles and more facial features were given as an example of something they see a lot.
The map outside of the death wall looks fairly detailed, will you ever allow people to turn off the death wall in SP so we can look at the extra space? I know you wont extend the playable map, but I enjoy exploring out of bounds in video games.
No, Funcom won’t themselves do this. Alex suggested there might be mods that do this. Of note, there isn’t anything outside the Cursed Wall. There are just height maps, sand, out of bound blockers, etc. And, as is widely documented, the dungeons are hidden in these areas as well. The cursor on your map might fool you into believe you are somewhere, but you are often actually somewhere behind the Cursed Wall.
Multigun’s Note: I don’t know of any mod that does this, but you can go through the ghost wall by simply enabling ghost mode via admin in single player or on a private server.
Would you guys consider adding one more game mode? Like PvP-Competitive, with a bi-monthly wipe, and slightly higher harvesting rates.
There was a game mode in the early days that was essentially this, called PvP Blitz. It was later renamed PvP Mayhem. They had increased harvesting rates, increased EXP, and would wipe every month. And Funcom found that they were the least popular servers they had. Funcom made the decision to cut them to focus on the other play styles since they were more popular.
Alex again reminded players to offer feedback and requests on the matter. If they see there is a great demand for those playstyles, they could consider bringing a couple of those servers back and seeing how they go.
Text chat for consoles?
Alex says that there is a plan, maybe. Not certain yet.
Twitch Comment: Will you ever implement server text chat for console?
Robert: We will have to see.
Question #Unknown, News on the PvE Decay System (51:21)?
It’s recognized that lots of players play the game differently, some who want to do so aggressively, and others do not. Any Decay system change has to be approached with a light hand in that regard. Alex even remarked that maybe they should hold discussions over the entire system as a whole, but he isn’t sure what that will entail. He added at the end that he knows that there are a lot of servers with tons of buildings, but little in the way of player activity.
Was it intended to have reinforcement kits removed from torches, or is that a bug?
They will look into it.
Will Funcom be open to giving Crom an overhaul or any additional features in the future?
Alex explains that it would come down to what Joel thinks. Jen’s doesn’t believe Joel would go for the idea though.
Cross Play for all Platforms?
It’s not something they have discussed at length. If possible, Alex is enthusiastic of doing so.
Twitch Comment: Any plans for cross play?
Rob: There are no plans for cross play, no.
Twitch Comment: Crossplay?
Robert: I never like to say “never” but it’s not something that we’re looking at right now or in the near future
Can you add FOV to Consoles?
There is no plan to do so, but they can look into it. They can do it, but they need to make sure it doesn’t break something on consoles unnecessarily since Console hardware is behind PC in that regard.
Where is the Conan Single Player game that has been talked about during past financial streams?
The Conan Single Player game that was in development has been put on hold. It wasn’t up to the level of quality that they wanted it to be. The resources for the game were diverted to other projects, such as Conan Exiles and the Dune game.
Sorcery?
When and if they are ready to discuss Sorcery, they will do so at that time. As previously discussed, it is a matter of priority for the dev team. They know that players want Sorcery. Jens said that as far as he knows, there isn’t any active development on a Sorcery system. Alex teased Jens that he didn’t know this for sure.
Twitch Comment: Will there ever be sorcery ingame?
Robert: If we do Sorcery, we won’t talk about it until we are to do so, sorry.
PvP Banners are not working. Can you please look into it?
PvP Banners are designed to intentionally not work on PvP servers. Otherwise, please make a bug report post on the forums or send the community team a DM. Alex said they have a possible plan for PvP servers, but there are some hurdles to deal with.
Why is Alex sitting so close to Jens?
Alex likes to lean up against something behind Jens.
Twitch Comment: Will you make it possible to change DLC stats through dev-kit?
Robert: It is already if you mean stat bonuses and temperatures
Twitch Comment: I want to be able to change DLC Durability of building items
Robert: That’s trickier unfortunately. It’s possible, but you would have to go about it in very difficult ways.
Youtube Comment: Are you going to add modding for consoles?
Funcom: Adding modding to consoles is something we’d love to do, if possible, but unfortunately it’s incredibly difficult.
Twitch Comment: Is there a chance that Fumcom will extend decay timers during Spring Break? I know that is a long time from now but I will be going on a long cruise and I am so afraid my stuff will decay.
Robert: I will ask community about that but I don’t know myself
Twitch Comment: Do we have any hint/info on Map expanding?
Robert: There are currently no plans of expanding the existing map (unless you count dungeons that we may still do of course)
Twitch Comment: Are there plans to expand the map into new areas?
Robert: Currently no plans
Twitch Comment: Will you have procedurally generated maps in the future?
Robert: Hm, probably not I’m afraid.
Twitch Comment: You’ve said you can’t expand the existing map before, but any chance you could leverage zoning or the like to introduce entirely new maps for continuing the story after our characters leave the Exiled Lands?
Robert: Anything like that would be something that we can’t talk about, like with mounts. So even if we did or didn’t, I couldn’t say.
YouTube Comment: Could we get a DLC that is based around Viking styles?
Funcom: That would be cool! No plans currently but something that has been requested before
Twitch Comment: I also wish there was more to the Clan system… or even an explanation of it. I’m so afraid to invite someone into a clan because I don’t know how many people can be invited to the clan. Is there anywhere that explains how the Clan system works?
Robert: I’m not aware of any guides, but there is a limit of 10 people on official servers, I believe (private servers can adjust this amount).
Youtube Comment: Have you guys thought about possibly doing a server wipe on PvP server? Possibly implementing a regular wipe? Maybe boost harvesting rates slightly in officials to help offset regular wipes.
Funcom: No planned wipes on official servers at this time. It’s a big decision that could affect a lot of people on the server
Twitch Comment: Any talk of a level cap increase on official servers?
Robert: No, sorry.
Twitch Comment: Do you also make or work on the Secret World?
Funcom: We do, but in the North Carolina office. Conan Exiles is developed in Oslo, Norway.
Twitch Comment: Can we get Conan Exiles in VR?
Robert: No clue, sorry. It depends on the implementation cost, likely no.
Twitch Comment: Is it intended that the smoke demon boss only spawns once an hour?
Robert: No - it should reset on a basis of there being anyone in the dungeon (and possibly with an additional delay after that, which I don’t know, sorry)
Twitch Comment: What are your plans for promotions?
Robert: One recently went up actually, but we’re always trying to keep more people coming. Mounts will bring people in for sure.
Twitch Comment: Any plans on a reworking on Age of Conan and doing a new release of that game?
Robert: I don’t believe so, no.
Twitch Comment: Krom should make a purge come
Robert: Or make it possible to spawn a purge on your enemies! Yaaaarrrrrr!!
Twitch Comment: What is most important in life?
Robert: Marvel movies and to see your enemies drive you around for free while you flick them on the back of their heads.
Twitch Comment: Will there be fat body models in the future?
Robert: Unlikely, sorry.
Twitch Comment: I wanted to play as an obese player with a tiny weiner.
Robert: Not sure why you would want to play as me, but…okay?
Twitch Comment (in response to what was a essentially a no comment from Rob): Rob, you are a tiny weiner
Robert: Indeed!
Youtube Comment: Can you add more Age of Conan inspired armors such as Conqueror, Demonologist Priest of Mitra, etc
Funcom: We’ve done others so adding more is certainly not off the table
Youtube Comment: Are you guys ever going to make the craftable Journal something you can pick up “written” as to make it a portable journal with a log of your adventure?
Funcom: Hmmm not that I’m aware of but suggestion noted!
Twitch Comment: Can we get a setting option for the meteors?
Robert: Suggestion noted.
Twitch Comment: Any plans on fixing the “Discover all of the Giant-king Obelisk” Journey Step?
Robert: I believe that one has been fixed
Twitch Comment: Is the next DLC the very last one, or final for season 2?
Robert: Final for season 2.
Twitch Comment: Game is unplayable, please improve performance.
Robert: I wish I could say anything else but a generic answer but: “We’re always looking to improve performance”.
Twitch Comment: Will you add new NPC types? Such as zombies, orcs, etc?
Robert: Not impossible, but there are already quite a lot of them out there.
Behind the Scenes Design Decisions
I think it would be interesting to hear about how the design team learns about play styles and works to support or change those. Do you have people on the team who log into official servers, do you do focus groups, and do you look for examples primarily within CE or from other games as well?
A lot of the challenges people have discovered in the Arena and Debauchery patches have shown me that my knowledge of how other people play is very limited and my assumptions may not be correct.
Alex recognized and used as an example, if you aren’t part of the RP community, you may not think of certain angles when making new features or changes, such as the idle animations. One of the daily challenges the Funcom team faces is everybody’s different viewpoint of how they see Conan Exiles. Not only within the Conan Exiles player community, but within the office itself as well.
Part of the community team’s job is to identify how players are feeling, what they do and don’t like, and what they hope for.For example, at a certain point in time, every player was running around with hammers and using a specific attack animation. The player community speaks up about those instances. Then, it’s the community team’s job is to identify and report those findings to the developers.
Why Are You Catering to the RP Community?
Funcom caters to a lot of play styles with Conan Exiles. Some patches are going to be more interesting for RP, such as the recently released major patch. Or they will be more interesting for PvP, such as the Blood and Sands patch. And etc.
A lot of the time it comes down to areas Funcom feels need addressed. Such as the Blood and Sands patch, where they revamped and changed some of the existing weapons, while also releasing the short sword and 2 handed battle-axe. They didn’t want a one weapon style fits all combat situations, and worked to move towards that goal with the Blood and Sands patch. This then appealed most to PvP players and some PvE elements.
Given that a huge chunk of your audience are roleplayers and you clearly do care about them (which alone makes you a dev team to be appreciated), have you considered actually hiring / paying an active roleplayer to help work on content that is supposed to be FOR roleplayers?
Some things you added with the new DLC are truly interesting for the RP community, others are just pure headaches and it does make people wonder if you might need assistance with that coming right from the source.
They have already touched on this a bit, but this is why communication between the players, the community team, and the dev team is so invaluable and important. Having that open line of communication accelerates decisions a great deal.
As far as hiring somebody specifically as an RP consultant, they don’t really know if it’s been considered or if it will ever happen. That’s a who knows, maybe someday thing. As far as the value is concerned, there is concern to where if you hire that RP person, they will then speak on behalf of everybody. It’s more important to have the community team gather feedback and information from a large group of players, instead of rely on one person’s soul advice.
What are you using for source material and considering part of your Conan universe? The Conan books, magazines, comics, movies, all of the above?
All of the above is the correct answer. On a case by case basis, Funcom will put their own spin on it. Often, players only source of the lore of the Conan universe are through the movies, or exclusively through the books. Conan himself is often portrayed differently between the books and the movies.
This can be challenging to figure all of that out when it comes to translating all that lore material into the game. Which is where Joel Bylos is heavily involved in, and is the Creative Director for Conan Exiles. Or, as many people refer to him as, “The Loremaster” as Joel has a vast knowledge of the Conan lore. Joel will often give you tons of answers to what you think will be a simple answer, simply because he knows the lore so well. An example of what Jens refers to with Joel is discussed at 35:13. But basically, everything lore related runs through Joel as far as fit and if it make thematic sense.
It has been stated that some believe the end of the game is rather bland; I believe this is felt because there is no incentive to restart the game with another character. I feel that offering new content for the start of the game is as important as keeping things fresh at the end of the game…perhaps more if you desire players use the keystone to start again.
I noticed much of the new content serves those at end-game, without considering those that complete end-game and move forward into replay. Since the game offers this type of ending, I wonder why there is not more content that supports creating a new character and replaying the game. Can you explain the decision to avoid offering more content for the replay value?
The main reason why there is more end game content then early game content is because there are more players who are in the end game stages then there are in the early stages. It’s a simple answer because that is what the statistics show. There are very few people who choose to re-roll. They would like to add new content into the early parts of the game, specifically for people who re-roll. But when you weigh the community size of people who re-roll, versus people who play the end-game content, the end-game almost always weighs out over early-game.
Part of it is also an intentional choice with the final story choice a player must choose at the end. It’s intended for the player to have to decide what their character would do in the end. Another part is that many players often have different expectations. Some players intend to play it once and be done, while others would like to play it forever. Funcom tried to offer the ability for both playstyles, but understands that not everybody will be happy about the final outcomes of that.
Twitch Comment: You changed my serpent-man arrows and did not list it in the patch notes
Robert: Patch notes are never perfect unfortunately, we’re sorry about that. We never intend on "ninja"ing anything.
Twitch Comment: What is taken into consideration when looking at future DLC? What criteria are there for “Cultures” to be considered?
Robert: DLCs are thought about as “themed releases.” For the Debaucheries patch, we released a dungeon called the Wine Cellar, lusty placeables and other things of that nature. For Blood and Sands the theme was “combat.”
Twitch Comment: Can we expect a “further” reach, pertaining to this lore discussion? Perhaps African, Nordic, etc.
Robert: There are loads of cultures out there to still take inspiration from - Poitain, Stygia, Hyperborea, Atlantean, Acheronian, etc.
Twitch Comment: Who had the idea with the meteorite fall in the ice region? I’m always really impressed when star metal comes down.
Robert: I believe that was either John or Joel.
Combat and Animation
Are there any plans on implementing movement while we attack? Such as charge attacks as gap closers against running opponents, block mechanics for weapons, etc. Right now, blocking is reserved only for the shield, and in combat we cannot move while the combat animation is in motion, and are locked to the ground (unless you roll out of it).
Alex explains that there are no concrete development plans in place for this suggestion specifically. But there are always ideas to discuss and that they are open to, and things Funcom would like to do (to clarify what Alex means here, I believe he is suggesting that there are plans or ideas Funcom themselves would like to do, but are not yet in the pipeline or aren’t yet being worked on).
When the December patch drops in December, there are significant changes that must happen in order for mounted combat to work right. Alex says that the mounts and changes together will change how people play the game. Before they make any future combat plans, the Riders of Hyboria patch must happen first. Afterwords, they will reevaluate, listen to feedback, and see where they want to go from there with the combat system.
Will there be turning animations added to the game so that your character pivots or turns more realistically?
Alex at first misunderstood the question, and described the new camera rotation feature a lot of people have probably noticed by now. Which is the Rotatable Stationary Camera, which allows players to rotate around their character without having to go into vanity mode. A screenshot of the setting can be found here.
After Jens clarified the question, Alex quickly evaluated outloud what it would take to add turning animations to the character. Right now the turn rate is very high, letting a player quickly turn their character, even a full 360, at a moment’s notice, all with a flick of the mouse. In order to justify that animation addition and change, the turn rate would have to be slowed down to compensate. Alex finished by saying, “we’ll see” on that idea. At the very least it would be discussed because it raises the aesthetic quality of the character significantly because it simply looks better.
Since moments and controls where updated in last patch. Will we ever see a camera zoom in/out feature?
The question was likely directed for consoles. On PC, this is already possible via scrolling your mouse wheel in and out. Jens gave a camera demonstration at 29:38. Alex said that this is something they will look into.
Why was the animation speed of the spear slowed down, such as the third attack is more easily interrupted, etc.
The spear changes overall were discussed at length when the change was first introduced back in August. The below link is my recap of that developer stream.
As far as the overall speed, the heavy attack was described by Alex to be 25 frames, and that was not changed with the spear revamp.
How are the new(ish) 2-Handed Battle Axes and Short Swords shaping up? Obviously balance is tricky, but do you see further adjustments on the horizon?
Both were tweaked in the latest patch. Short swords were sped up by approximately 13%. It was made a little bit easier to use. And of course, they will see how they are doing from there. But they do need to see more data from people using the short sword overall to gauge where to go from there. The one thing they are happy with is it’s intended roll, in that it works well for some situations (single target), but not so much others (AoE).
The Two Handed Axe and Two Handed Sword were both buffed in the recent patch.
Twitch Comment: Any plans to add more moves/combos to the new great war axe and short sword? As exciting as they were to get, they seem very bland compared to the other weapons.
Robert: We’re always looking to improve the weapons - stay tuned for the Riders of Hyboria patch.
Are there plans to rework the armor system? Currently PVP has been is challenging with the armor having low weight, allowing light dodges, and having damage reduction of 60%
While it is the latest flavor of the month in terms of PvP combat, Funcom will be trying to address that playstyle in the December/Riders of Hyboria update.
Can you add two handed crossbows into the game?
Crossbows are in the development kit, and can be modded if people were interested in doing so. In fact, there is. Yellowpig made the Crossbows and Bolts mod some time ago.
As far as in the vanilla game, Alex said they will think about it. He semi-joked it will depend on how many overtime hours he is interested in putting in to add Crossbows in. Crossbows were part of the game in Early Access, but they weren’t working the way they wanted to with the Combat Revamp, so they pulled them out. Which is the nature of game development, as Jen’s describes here.
New Siege Weapons or Siege Revamp?
Apparently, according to Alex, they have a cool rework planned for the Trebuchet, but he didn’t want to give that information away yet. Only confirming that Trebuchet’s are getting some attention.
What about Battering Rams?
Great suggestion.
Twitch Comment: Will there be more siege weapons like Balista? It would be good to defend the base when you have a useable weapon to shoot down wards
Robert: it’s been talked about internally, but we can’t confirm anything because “talking about it” doesn’t mean “we’ll do it.” But we are aware that people would like some more siege options.
Twitch Comment: One handed maces are used by absolutely no one. That’s my community tip.
Robert: We actually spoke about that one internally a little bit just two days ago. We’ll look at it.
Twitch Comment: Will there be more weapons added in the future? Such as a whip?
Robert: Never say never, but not right now.
Twitch Comment: Act of violence needs balancing.
Robert: It will be re-balanced, yes. Internally, we have already done so and will push it out in a future patch.
Twitch Comment: Have you thought about adding elemental effects on weapons like lightning or fire on longswords?
Robert: We have, but we nixed the idea, at least until further notice. The reason is because it would be yet another balancing vector to consider. Though specifically, we considered not fire/ice/thunder etc, but rather blunt, piercing, etc.
Twitch Comment: Spears are slow.
Robert: We’ll try to look at the spear and see if we can do anything there - it’s down to feedback about it and time, so all feedback is always appreciated
Twitch Comment: You guys should disable god bubbles for 1 day.
Robert: We have “plans” for god bubbles, but it’s not that.
Twitch Comment: Can I direct message you about PvP exploits?
Robert: You may message the community team directly on the forums, or submit via Exploit Hunters.
Twitch Comment: Do you plan to add the new weapons with the design of older DLC?
Robert: As Alex says, it’s a bang vs buck thing.
Twitch Comment: When will the PvP be prioritized?
Robert: We’re talking about PVP more and more internally lately and there will be changes and improvements to PvP as soon as we can.
Twitch Comment: Do you guys play PvP?
Robert: Yes
Purge Stuff
Please consider having Purges coming with Siege Equipment to attack our bases
Alex says he loves the suggestion and would love to do that.
Animal Purges have no reward. Can we get Tier 4 Thralls added to them?
Alex will look into that.
Twitch Comment: Please consider adding a T4 purge thrall in the last purge wave, currently, Animal Purges brings no rewards.
Robert: If we get time to, we will ya.
Thrall and Pet Questions
Will we get commands to put thralls on passive and aggressive so people can visit our builds without getting attacked?
Alex says maybe.
Please add Passive/Aggressive settings to Thralls and Pets.
They would love to do that. But that involves more then just letting Thralls attack, or not attack. If they were to do such a system, they would want it to be a more meaningful feature set. Such as having more Thralls follow you in a War Band (the example he gave was 10). That is a lot of work though, and they need to sit down, plan it out, and make it worthwhile and feasible.
Twitch Comment: Are there any Thrall AI improvements being planned? Such as aggresive/passive instance mode?
Robert: There is a design for it but it depends on when coders have time and priorities. Personally, I want to be able to tell my archers “stand still and do… not… Move!”
Twitch Comment: Can we have alliances - so that our thralls don’t attack our allies if they enter territory owned by us? In addition to that, is it possible to have Passive/Neutral/Aggressive settings on Thralls and pets?
Robert: That is a good idea. We have other priorities right now but I agree, that would be nice.
Now that we have idle animations, will we be given a option wheel to chose different animations for our thralls?
It comes down to what was previously discussed, which was giving RP’ers more choices on how their characters idle animations play out. It’s giving players more options, versus Funcom choosing for the players how certain things work out. The problem is that giving options is vastly more complicated, time consuming, and expensive, then for Funcom to determine the choice. However, it is certaintly more valuable as far as a feature.
Can players be given a toggle for Thrall idle sounds?
As previously mentioned, those idle sounds are being removed in next week’s hotfix. Alex mentioned that they will investigate in the future if a toggle option can be added for those who would like it, and for those that don’t.
Any plans on increasing the decay time it takes for Thralls after a base decays. On official servers, there are tons of Thralls just standing around when the base itself has decayed weeks ago.
Jens hinted to watch the space in which those Thralls are occupied to see what happens.
Can we have a single slot animal pen so we can hide them in our bases?
Possibly good news, Alex says to wait for the next content patch in December.
I think it would be great to have dancer Thralls play musical instruments.
Alex recalled that they had a plan for that at one time, but got sidelined for some reason I couldn’t make out. He followed that up by saying “we’ll think about it.”
Youtube Comment: Can you get rid of floating thralls when their base despawns?
Funcom: It’s a known bug, and we are working on it.
Youtube Comment: What’s the likelihood of adding functional thrall cages?
Funcom: No plans right now but something we can look at a later time possibly.
Building Discussions
Any thoughts on adding camouflage for buildings?
This is something Alex would like to experiment with sometime in the future. Funcom recognizes that players are already really creative at having hidden bases around the map. Alex would like to give those players more tools, allowing smaller clans to better compete with the larger ones. Therefore, it’s a “we’ll see.”
It would be great if there could be some half-height or third height platforms and stairs, like the Stage platform and Stairs, but are stackable foundations to change heights for the varied terrain.
Alex agree’s with the statement that it would be great to do those. However, the problem with doing that is that if they do that for one set of building pieces, they will be expected to do it for all sets. Which is exponentially costly.
If you own all DLCs, with base game pieces included, there are 12 different types of building pieces cluttering up our crafting menus. If you unlock the tier 3 building pieces, all DLCs are unlocked as well, regardless if you plan on building with them. Being able to sort by DLC, or simply unlock the DLCs one at a time would greatly increase our quality of life.
Alex completely agree’s with the question. He doesn’t know if it will be done as it was described, but they will try to make the GUI building elements more user friendly in the future. Folders are one example of an option they could do, but they don’t want to go overboard with that either. A balance needs to be found where its the most user friendly that they can make it.
Can we get all the different buildings from other DLC’s added to everything? Such as rounded doors added to Yamataii.
It’s possible, but as previously discussed, its very expensive to do. If enough of the community wanted it, and Funcom felt it was worthwhile doing, then of course.
Do you have any plans for other designs of Elevators or Drawbridges?
Alex and Jens don’t see why not. Just a matter of making a new asset to attach to the existing functionality. Though they weren’t firm on saying yes to the idea.
Twitch Comment: Is there ever going to be a building piece that uses star-metal
Robert: Unlikely
Twitch Comment: Is there a chance of getting placeables optimizations to improve server performance?
Robert: We are looking at optimizations in general yes, and lately -especially since we saw the size of the dlc and went : “…what the…” we’ll be looking at those in terms of texture sizes.
Rope Bridge
While I love the addition of the static rope bridge is there a possibility of using the horizontal elevator system as an extendable version in the future? It seems like the perfect way to bridge a gap without using a moving platform.
There is no plan, but it was discussed. They couldn’t get it to look good, feel right, and not break on dedicated servers in the time that was necessary. Which is why it wasn’t done, if they could have easily implemented it in a quickly and effective way, they would have. Alex also described many of things you have to account for, the rope physics, getting it to place correctly, making it replicate correctly (a term us modders know very well) and making sure people can’t, as Alex put it, “abuse the crap out of it.”
Alex went to say that it is somewhere on their board, but no final decision in either direction.
Suspension Bridges/Rope Bridges?
It was already discussed earlier on the back end issues with the Rope Bridges.
Jens and Alex elaborated further that had they even got it to work perfectly and easily, in the end it would still be controversial in the community as a DLC advantage. An example brought up is the Tree Top Foundations. You can still use foundations to build in the trees, but some players see the circular nature of the Tree Top Foundations as a DLC advantage over square foundations.
The same or more would be be felt by players if a Rope Bridge was created that didn’t follow the rules of the existing build system. Something they definitely don’t want to do is sell “power” as Alex put it, giving players a distinct advantage of those who buy the DLC’s versus those who do not. They also understand that players should have options for meaningful play styles. So they try and make those decisions carefully, and with understanding for those who are unable to benefit from an advantage of buying the DLCs.
Future Plans - General
Alex Teasing About December (13:26):
Alex saw that somebody asked how are they supposed to protect 200 bugged Relic Hunter Treasure Seekers (on console). Alex responded and teased that the person didn’t know what was coming in the Riders of Hyboria/December update. Jens quickly cut him off on further discussion on the matter. What does it mean? Speculate away!
Any news on a customization option for our characters after we created them?
Alex may or may not have hinted that this is something they will add in the future. He joked sarcastically, “like mounts, we aren’t going to do that”. The rest of his possible hints were done by facial expressions and hand gestures. Watch the time stamp and decide for yourself if Alex was pulling on the hope strings, or hinting at the future.
Youtube Comment: Any ETA on when we can edit character appearance?
Funcom: None currently. But we understand it’s something a lot of people have requested.
Are there currently, or will there possibly ever be, any plans to add more diverse facial options to character creation? I think I can speak for a fair amount of players when I say such an update would be very much appreciated.
As discussed numerous times throughout the stream, the more feedback they get about this, the higher the chances will be that it will be something they work on.
I have always felt like Conan Exiles’ story is incomplete. In the end, you just walk away from the Exiled lands. But a few things mentioned in the story have been left behind unanswered.
The Serpent Ring of Set, the one who stole it, and who or what put you on that cross?
My question for you is, will the last dungeon you implement be concluding Conan Exiles’ story, or DID the story come to its conclusion with the Exile leaving the Exiled lands and thus, leaving The Serpent Ring of Set, the one who stole it, and the cause of the Exile’s crucifixion behind?
Alex hinted at there could be more stuff to come, “maybe next year” with his usual teasing gestures. Jens confirmed there is more stuff to come.
Why can’t we fight the Thoth Amon Servant?
Because it’s not something yet implemented, but they feel they need to at some point.
Any thoughts on wearable light sources?
Yes. Though Alex didn’t want to elaborate. He says there is a interesting plan for dark places where you don’t have to have a torch, but didn’t want to give that information away at this time.
Twitch Comment: Have you planned to improve the storage and especially the storage of potions in the chests?
Robert: Very likely, yes.
Twitch Comment: Biggest problem now with PVE, in my opinion, is the Endgame. Once you are able to kill everything and you have base how you want, then what do you do?
Robert: We’re looking into more ways of making endgame loops.
Mount Stuff
Take us behind the scenes if you would. Obviously you aren’t going to discuss Mount features and specifics today. I want to know how that decision played out to implement the Mount feature all together.
As I recall in past dev streams, Jens and Tascha talked about how the dev team has periodically probed to see how the early mount builds from EA were behaving with the latest versions of the game. Was that how it worked out? Where you did a typical test and went, hey, these work great now. Let’s do this thing! Or was there other elements involved in that decision?
Alex describes that the dev team always wanted to add mounts (the earliest discussion was in March of 2017). But, as Alex goes on to explain, there were other priorities then a mounted system. There were various issues and priorities they felt was most important, and why mounts were ultimately put on the back burner.
Eventually, they reached a point where they felt the time was right to not only work on the mount system and resolve all the issues that have been well documented, but to do it right. They want mounts to be something players find engaging, want to use, and meaningful. And they didn’t want it to be just another fast travel system (hence mounted combat). And all of that is expensive and difficult to do, so they had to take their time. They also, and continue to always, try and weigh what is most important for the community. Which as they mentioned goes back to how every player has things they feel is most important, and why that is a difficult balancing act.
Alex and Jens revealed a little bit about the combat system in that there will be a variety of options for combat involving various weapons. Alex hinted that the build at Twitchcon was just the start, and that players will be bothed surprised and delighted as what’s coming. They didn’t want to reveal too much as this stream isn’t about mounts, but they are excited for it and think the players will enjoy it.
Can the mounts have armor slots so we can slot some sort of armor on them?
Maybe. Wait and see.
Will the mounts update also feature siege rhinos, siege mammoths, dire wolves, and tiger mounts like in Age of Conan?
Horses are the only mount that will be available in December. If they are able in the future, they will add other mounts to the game.
Please elaborate on the also announced mount leveling system that is coming out in December.
They will talk about that in a later stream. They don’t want to give every detail and everything away.
Alex wondered if we knew about the pet leveling system being added, and Jens said he didn’t know if we did or not because he couldn’t remember the exact details of the announcement. To answer both of their questions, yes, at least some of us do, because of this PR announcement. Of course we don’t know any details, but there ya go.
Twitch Comment: A pet leveling system was announced for the December update, will it also offer a thrall leveling system for T4 named thralls?
Robert: No - it’s for all thralls, not just T4
Twitch Comment: When it comes to mounts, why only a horse? Can´t you just build a blueprint in unreal then implement that on all pets. Then model different seats for them.
Robert: The exact nature of the implementation is a little bit in-depth. If I say anything about it, there will be assumptions right left and center. So … you need to wait until we start talking more about mounts specifically.
Twitch Comment: Are you planning on expanding the map when the mounts are implemented or remove the maprooms ? What are the thoughts on that ?
Robert: Maprooms will not be removed and expanding the map won’t happen. Mounts will be very valuable but no, we won’t all of a sudden do something like level the unnamed city to make room for a huge plains. Personally, I was really worried about the more craggier landscapes, but honestly, horse-riding in the desert turned out to work great.
Conclusion
Jens and Alex both thought that this is something they should do more often. Have a post content update Q/A, chat with the community, let players know what’s going on, and etc. What do you think out there? Despite this write up taking me 10 + hours to write, I say yes! Do more @Jens_Erik !
Robert Final Comment: My fingers are on fire
I have several plans of attack in mind, all coming 
. In other words as soon as my work situation eases off some (eta early November). For any who are worried, have faith. Who do you all suppose got us the Sword of Crom and Crom’s Hammer…? We can do this! Incidentally, that previous idea mentioned in the stream of praying to him unleashing a dangerous hostile beast sounds awesome, and is something I have suggested before. Furthermore, it would solve the Journey Step woes of diehard Crom loyalists. You should consider bringing it back. Yes seriously!
So that on weekend PvP or the Purge can even kill more?
