Is decay unbalanced

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
22

The Decay timers are supposed to be there to eliminate inactive structures.

Instead they discourage casuals from investing time and have legacy players logging onto multiple servers simply to refresh their belongings every week for 5 minutes.

Neither of these outcomes is desirable. Legacy players should be able to Prestige out of their current holdings to slowly build up an option to skip levels when they hop on an official server. It would have a limit to how many times it could be used (Week, Month, or Year) but it would encourage people to stick around long enough to complete playthroughs so they could advance their ability to quickstart on a new server.

There could also be a bank/credit system of resources that would be part of the prestige system, so people could jump right into building on a new server. Again, this bank/credit would have some sort of reset timer to prevent overuse… it would be a strategic/leisure resource, depending on the playstyle of the account holder.

They could make prestige leveling separate between Exiled Lands and Isles of Siptah if they want to protect the freshness of new content.

23

No matter what system people come with, there will be people effected negatively, mainly the casual players. Granted, even now Official servers are not very suited for casual play. Regulars will not have any issue with any new system implemented (although they may grumble about it) since they are regularly playing and can work around such system that is put in place. Casuals and New players may find it not worth their time and effort, which would shrink the game population or they will stick with Single Play or Private Servers.

24

I am not sure what you consider casual, so I can’t really discuss it with any confidence. As for the new players, the best thing about being new to this game is that you don’t face it with preconceptions established by your experience with it. New players are a lot more adaptable than you seem to give them credit for.

Of course that any system will always have a negative impact on some groups of people. The trick is finding ways to minimize the negative impact on people who aren’t part of the problem the system is trying to solve. Maybe that impact cannot be completely eliminated, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be made small enough to allow people to adapt to the new status quo.

As for sticking with single-player and private servers, that seems to be the case already. Supposedly, it’s only 1/8 of the playerbase on PC that plays official servers. I have certain doubts about that specific figure, but I don’t find the overall concept shocking. The way official servers are now, it’s no surprise people move on to non-officials after a while.

I am entirely unconvinced that discouraging people from building a base that fills up one or more grid squares and then maintain it indefinitely without any effort, will somehow make the situation on official servers worse.

25

Unless you remember back when there was no decay system and the servers looked like an abandoned tenement housing project, and Wangs trading company walled off huge areas and then put up a sign asking you to go to this link to “purchase” this area, you have no idea how happy we EA people were to have a decay system.

I have 6500 hours, what is your point?

26

Casual, may play like 1-4 hours a week, most times. Yes, one week every so often they may go hard-core, but overall they are not playing frequently and long. Large chunk of game players are casual players. There is quite of few in ESO (and other MMORPGs). Some game hop so there time is limited on each game. I do play 2 games, but casual on ESO (only on to run guild events in the last year +) and more active in CE.

No hard-fast rule on it.

I think anyone regularly plays less than 6 hours a week may be classified as a casual player. (less than 1 hour per day in a week). Anyone more than 14 hours a week regularly would be considered hard-core in my book. Over 2 hours a day on average is a good chunk of time for those at work / school.

I fluctuate between regular and hard-core during the year for Conan Exiles. Regular player would be between casual and hard-core. :slight_smile:

27

Thanks for framing it that way. For me, that’s some food for thought, because it underscores what I’ve been saying all the time: this is a really hard problem to solve. And yet it’s undeniable, IMO, that it needs solving.

According to your definition, my own style fluctuates between casual and hard-core. Some weeks I just don’t have a lot of time or the game doesn’t entertain me enough. Other times, I go all out because there’s both time and some goal for me to accomplish. So I can sort of identify with both styles, but I can’t fully identify with either.

At any rate, this made me re-examine my thoughts on this issue so far. Not that I’ve changed my mind yet or arrived at any firm conclusion, but I definitely need to question myself even harder than before.

28

I also think that the maximum timer should be larger. (… for resources: unkeep system). I think the game shouldn’t “drive away” casual players. If you play little, you build a small base, pay little, and everything is fine. In any case, it will definitely be better for PVP servers.

29

Don’t PvP servers have sieges (a.k.a. raids) where this should be a less of a problem?

30

In the same time you can build 10 times more than destroy. So once people understand how the balance is set up, the server becomes a warehouse of foundations.

31

Ah, now I understand the issue on PvP servers.

32

Yes as with everything introduced in the game, there is always “something” that make some people unhappy.

I know, i’ve been in that category and i can tell you, if i only wanted to build, is far easier to do it on SP than any other server and without decay timer :^)

Exactly, and know what? that would encourage players to play, not only to log in and refresh their bases.

I think is worse for newer player to come to an official servers and see it all polluted with buildings that nobody use leaving no space for them to take on good locations.

Speaking strictly about the Decay system with the current settings, i think its fine, or it would be if there was a way to encourage players to play or to leave their bases that no longer use. But to be fair, a casual player, as was mentioned, may not find what he/she seeks in a official server, just like a PvE player wouldn’t find attractive a PvP server or the other way around.

I believe that official servers are meant to be a playground for everybody, new or veteran, and when players refuse to leave space that no longer use, for whatever reason, is just as toxic as trolling and griefing. And yes, i have to blame me as well, for i’ve done it, though never on a large scale.

But, something that always bugged me about the decay system is how little information is available for a new player, there is nothing that tells the player how much time has left to stop a building from decaying nor what it means, most of us, i believe, learned that the hard way.

For what i see, a progressive upkeep system could be the best option, it could encourage players to keep playing in order to keep their buildings, the more they have the more they have to pay, and could make player who know that has to take a break from the game, to pay upfront the upkeep required to maintain their belongings, and to discourage players to simply login 5 minutes to refresh and leave on multiple servers.

33

There has to be a way to encourage the players to move on. The only endgame reward players have right now is keeping their massive holdings built for eternity.

It might be a good idea to make some prestige rewards exclusive to Solo/Co-Op mode or private servers… these rewards could be related to building. Maybe special statues or monuments? If people want to make beautiful castles, with the right server settings, it can be a show piece and clout thing. Obviously, Official Servers are not the appropriate places for this, though.

34

Yeah, 19 hrs farm time, 5 hours raid. so at a minimum 4 to 1 ratio of building to destroying.

35

Super simple solution would be to add a counter to building pieces, and then set a limit at which point a decay timer kicks in. New players, with very few building pieces or players with a very small base (in total) would have no decay timer. If you go on to grow your base to a large size, you might hit the magic number… and all of your structures now come with a generous decay timer. Grow even more… and that decay timer gets shorter. Last, add an option to choose if your old buildings, or new building decay first. That way, if you ever fail to log on for a period of time. All of your “new” stuff will decay down to a point where only your most senior base remains, without a decay timer. Or, vice versa. Perhaps you recently moved into a new base but had not given up your old structure yet. You select “Oldest First” option because all your resources are now in your new base. Just in case, so that when you slack off and miss the decay refresh… your oldest structures decay in order until only your newest buildings remain, preserving your resources. Just a thought.

36

Well ton of new players trying out the server than do not return… will not help if there is no decay for small builds.

37

That kind of progression is what I would like to see applied to an upkeep system, instead of the decay system. For bases up to a certain size, the upkeep would be trivial; then it starts growing.

Bear in mind that I said “trivial” and not “nonexistent”, precisely to avoid the problem with eternally abandoned structures.

38

Let’s not go back to all of the bedroll litter. Lol.

39

You are so cool.

I was just setting my profile so , like - i know what i talk about. with 4000+ hr on my sleave.

40

I think you missed @JJDancer’s point, which is that the former – knowing what you’re talking about – does not necessarily follow from the latter – having a bunch of hours spent in the game.

Note, I’m not saying that you do or don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just saying that the hours are not necessarily relevant. If I can’t make my argument without stating the time I spent playing, then my argument isn’t worth much.

42

7 days is to short, it forse you to babysitt the game and makes it imposeble to go on vacation more then 6 dayes. Yes i understand the need of the decay to keep the servers clean, know how the servers locked before the decay system was in plase.

Not everyone can play the game every day you know?

Atleast ad a option so you can have a longer decay time (say 4 weeks) 2 times a year so you can go on hollydays or have an other game as main focus (some times we need to se somthing ells then this map) some time and be able to come back.