Endgame as Regional Conquest

Conan Exiles General Discussion
1

A New Endgame Proposal: Regional Conquest

A Regional Conquest system could give Conan Exiles a more dynamic and meaningful endgame by allowing the major factions of the Exiled Lands to compete for territory, resources, and military dominance. This would require a Faction System in the game as well. The original Purge created tension because hostile forces could unexpectedly threaten a player’s settlement. Although the current summon-on-demand ‘Purge’ gives players greater control, it lacks the sense that the world itself is dangerous and continually changing. A conquest system inspired by 4X games could restore that unpredictability while expanding it into a larger territorial struggle.

Each major faction (such as the Stygians of Sepermaru, the Cimmerians at the Mounds of the Dead, the Nordheimers of New Asagarth, the inhabitants of the Den, the Darfari at the Summoning Place, and the Lemurians in the eastern jungle) could control a defined region. These territories would generate faction resources, patrols, warbands, and fortified outposts. Over time, factions could launch raids or military campaigns against neighboring territories. Successful attacks would shift regional borders, replace enemy camps with occupying forces, and alter which faction patrols local roads and resource areas.

Player bases located within disputed territory could also become involved. A faction might demand tribute, offer an alliance, recruit the player/clan for an attack, or attempt to destroy a settlement that supports its enemies. Players could remain neutral, swear allegiance to a faction, serve as mercenaries, or establish themselves as an independent power seeking territorial domination. Capturing strategic locations could provide bonuses such as improved resource production, faction merchants, unique thralls, or access to special equipment.

To avoid frustrating casual players, regional wars could be adjusted through server settings and scaled according to clan size, base strength, and player activity. Combined with rebuilding camps, shifting patrol routes, and visible border markers, this system would make the Exiled Lands feel like a contested world rather than a static collection of enemy camps. Regional conquest could provide an ongoing endgame built around survival, diplomacy, warfare, and the struggle to become the dominant power in the Exiled Lands.

2

It would be awesome, but I fear even thinking about Funcom trying to implement such thing.

3

I’ll be damned.

I thought this already existed on PVP servers (and oddly enough; PVEC and PVE servers as well).

Domination by a few whose sole desire is to wreck all of the official servers.

Even more oddly, they seem to have succeeded.

4

Well, you may very well be cursed, (lol) but what I was proposing was something more universal than solely relying on players (PvP) to carry the endgame. Funcom already tried making PvP the endgame both in Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening – and in both cases, they failed. This method keeps the maps changing, locations dynamic, and more PvE players involved (whether on a PvE server, an RP server, or single player).

As do I, but I’m hoping we’ll have better success with Inflexion handling it.

5

I agree that the current purge system has removed a fundamental feature that made the world feel dynamic. But the old purge system wasn’t so good either.

Your idea is interesting. but reading it, i’ve been thinking of this little problem: CE factions cannot compete because a single Forgotten Clan member would probably wipe out a whole Darfari village singlehandedly. Because of the player catered structure of “easy in the south, hard in the north”. But maybe this can be dismissed somehow as just a game progression crutch which doesn’t actually exist in Exiled Lands but rather only in the game :thinking:

6

That’s a very good point. That would certainly take some rebalancing to make this kind of idea work. Maybe when NPCs are fighting other NPCs, there’s a balance code invoked to make the fights fair (such as between a Darfari NPC and Cimmerian NPC), but when an NPC fights a player, the damage tradeoffs remain as they are now?

7

Interesting idea, but to implement that in an existing game and especially the Exiled Lands would be quite a challenge, I think.

But on a new map, e. g. a Siptah-like expansion? Might work. That map could be set up as endgame-only, which would make it much easier to balance the factions.

Some ideas:

  • One could use destructible bases similar to the PvE sieges. Conquer and hold one of them, and you can collect resources from a box within your faction’s capital every x hours.
  • For each conquered outpost, you get some faction currency, which you can buy gear for at a vendor (similar to the purge mercenary vendor, but maybe including weapons and armor).
  • The next opposing faction will try to retake outposts, which triggers a purge-like attack the player has to defend against. The friendly faction sends a few NPC defenders to help with that.
  • The less outposts a faction has, the stronger their purge-like attack becomes and the more defenders they send to their outposts.
  • Factions have a random chance to conquer outposts without player interference, e. g. 10% per day, -1% per outpost already conquered to reflect the aforementioned underdog bonus.
  • The factions could use NPCs from the surges, e. g. Aquilonian Army, Amazonians and so on.
  • They could also be aligned to the gods of the Exiled Lands, e. g. Yog, Mitra, Set. Only Crom is above such childish squabbles and only laughs at the losses of the other gods.
  • On servers, all players allied with the factions warring for an outpost can take part in battles. The more players the defending side has, the more attackers spawn and vice versa.
  • No thralls can be placed near outposts, but mercenary banners (from the purge system) can be. You can also bring your active followers, of course.
  • As the outposts are pre-built, the attackers could also be made to use siege engines. The purge (old and new) didn’t, I assume because it would be near impossible to implement with free base building and the diverse terrain of the Exiled Lands. But in a new map, one could design the area so that there’s room for that, clear lines of fire and so on.

A system like that could utilize the existing purge, surge and siege mechanics and assets to create a new gameplay loop.

8

Depends on the numbers. Thralls get staggered from multiple NPC’s attacks. Other than that the darfari of the surge comes with obsidian weapons and pretty decent fighters, so it could be them attacking you and not the weaklings of the area .

So true. The old purge system was weak also and the only reason it was becoming a bit difficult was the fact we were trying to capture rare crafters and Thralls risking a bit the purge outcome. Yet another truth was that meat shield back then was working, now not so much. Thralls stagger and die very fast now so i can see a better level of threat.

Yes , bring it on, make the lands vicious again!

10

Maybe this is not really a concern. The regional NPC power differences are more like a character level progression thing than an actual lore / world feature :thinking:

If the system was rather simple (let’s face it, Conan will likely never receive anything groundbreaking in terms of complexity) it could work in EL.

Let’s say that there would be a chance that NPC’s from a faction spawn near a camp of an opposing faction.

If the camp is small, there will be like 3-5 of them with a tent. If the camp is large, there will be like 10+ with a purge like camp of their own. Game already can spawn such things like purge camps and Encounter structures.

They would be on standby. You approach and have a chance to talk to one of the opposing parties. You could then agree to help one of them.

Regardless of their factions, the fighters of both parties would be specifically spawned for this sort of event so both sides would be equal in power level, and compared to the player they would be “endgame”. A noob player character would be warned in the dialogue with either party that this is no joke.

If you help one of the sides to win, you’ll get their faction respect. Enough faction respect would allow that faction’s very capable thralls (exclusive to this new faction system) spawn at your tavern (only willing to talk to you, not other random players).

More faction respect could turn that faction’s camps non-hostile to you and open for trade. They could be selling special thralls, or special items.

I’m not sure if you raiding random camps should affect the faction respect - probably not.