And this is another assumption that server performance is related to game performance. Sometimes they are. But not in this case. Official server policies on large structures and such is due to the server hardware and configuration of the servers that the officials are on. NOT because of how the game itself runs.
Let’s make sure that everyone understand a distinct separation. Between Funcom, the Conan Exiles developer and publisher. And G-Portal the host of the servers that Officials run on.
Funcom is a Norwegian based company out of Oslo. They have developed and published the game we play.
Gportal is an American or German based company (couldn’t figure which, both locations listed) based out of Waco, TX or Munich. They have setup and configured the hardware in which the official servers run on.
The two have a partnership, a contract in all likelihood (the details of which we can only speculate, as it is in the B2B side of things and none of our business). We don’t know much about the agreement but we do know that Funcom gets about a thousand servers running on G-Portal’s hardware in return for advertising in game for their services to players (there’s a button you can click in game that will allow you to rent from G-Portal).
Now we’re going to talk about a major difference between official servers and private servers. This is the ratio of online population versus offline. Both official and private servers have larger populations per server than what is listed in the player count when you are in the server browser.
For example, some private servers that see 70/70 players may have communities that are hundreds of players large. Like 500 to 700 players. This is due to the 24/7 nature of servers. The 70 players online at one time are not the same 70 online at a different time. In addition players do not login every day. And some login maybe only a few days or one day a week.
Officials have this too. But as I said, the difference is ratio. On officials the amount of people not logging in as much as they can, is much higher. The amount of people who may login once a week (usually to refresh) is much higher. So even though they aren’t 40/40 on a server. A peak time 10/40 server may have around a hundred plus players on it.
The reason for the disparity is that privates are just a bit more active than officials. There is usually more to do. Between player and admin events, a higher playerbase, and a more familiar playerbase, just lends itself to a higher activity baseline. In addition these servers usually promote activity over inactivity. You literally could see your base demo’d if you are deemed inactive enough. That means logging in to refresh isn’t enough (in many cases decay isn’t even needed because of this, and it usually isn’t even considered an adverse action, just making room for others). But that happens less than you might think. As I said, the typical gameplay loop is different because of a higher variety of emergent gameplay.
So here’s what we do know considering hardware. If ran on a dedicated machine, the servers can run some pretty spectacular things. Not just more players (70 to 80), but also Gigabytes of mods, higher player concentrations in PVP (such as 25 vs 25 encounters in a single area), larger buildings, more buildings, tighter concentration of buildings, and more complex buildings.
How do we know this? Well the policies on officials being enforced the way they have, is a direct result of player feedback from officials and officials only. We had complaints of laggy structures, structures blocking things, and structures just taking over entire servers. Was any of these complaints from singleplayers or private server players? Zero, absolutely zero complaint.
We DO play the exact same game here guys. The difference here is the hardware and configuration of where we play. Again I am going to stress… since its likely some of you are conveniently forgetting this fact. That Funcom develops and publishes the game, and that G-Portal hosts and provides the servers that the Officials run on.
This isn’t saying that Funcom is off the hook here. They could put pressure on G-Portal. Course maybe they are and G-Portal gives them the run around. We’ll not know if that is happening. Its a B2B relationship, its none of our business. I can say this. I have done business with G-Portal, and so has some other private servers. They DO give US the run around when we have issues. So take that with a grain of salt. Maybe they could use another host, but again they might be locked in for a period of several years. We don’t really know what is happening there. Speculating won’t give us answers, but perhaps it can help temper the mood.
But the point here is that the server issues of officials are not in Funcom’s hands. Let’s agree in hindsight that choosing G-Portal was a bad choice. We can all agree on that right? Anyone have evidence showing the contrary? No, then its agreed. Bad choice. But a choice that Funcom and anyone who wishes to play on Officials simply has to deal with at this point. Its woulda, coulda, shoulda, but we’re here now and its what we have to deal with.
Funcom can’t get coders to code stuff that makes G-Portal work better. Well they can ease the issues with improvements. Which they have done. But that only goes so far. I can tell you that non-officials when running on dedicated machines (not running with dozens of other servers on virtual machines) runs pretty dang smoothly.
I might point out that the policy changes came AFTER the improvements to performance. That tells us Funcom did something. It worked. But for officials it didn’t work enough. After exhausting that solution, they went to a plan B.
Now with all that said. If 50 stacks of stone became 5. But the actual number didn’t change, and the player decided to continue to keep a stack of 50 and then use it all to build with. That is a problem between the chair and the monitor. Especially considering the amount of time to gather said amount didn’t change. Building based on item stack size is one hell of a stretch of an argument.
We have a saying in the Army:
“Do not mistake kindness for weakness.”
If you are taking a quality of life convenience change such as stack size to mean you can build 10x bigger. Then you are doing exactly what is quoted. And if you are being burned for it, then sympathy in that regard will not be had.
And just drunk enough that I’ve become more interested in you entire post/reply. 
and walked back 2k just so that I would have a saddle for the horse they had just given me - without having to build a saddler’s bench. And the examples like that go on and on across multiple PVP servers. You’re seeing toxicity? That sucks!
I know, I’m such a troublemaker… 
(which is usually the truth anyway). 
though. Or at least I want to try and claim that if the base violated no policies then the server admin wouldn’t have wiped it - with or without the reports (which actually does hold water against the evidence). Funcom themselves says this isn’t actually happening either…
… I was like, Ha! naked and penniless restarting in the desert with noting… at least I was was level 60 tho. 