Finally someone from Funcom decided to talk to the player base. As per normal there were the same usual promises of the past, but no definitive dates. It is a good start though.
Now, will anyone from Funcom have the testicular fortitude to state that Conan is not dead, and that after the bugs are “ALL” fixed, game development will continue.
Recently I filed a report to Funcom about the Oceania ‘Public Beta Client’ servers not running. No reply. No surprise.
The disappearing of Public Beta Client servers could be seen as a portent of doom. There are no Oceania servers and only a few USA/EU servers running at the moment. To me that says “a slow shut down is in progress”.
It is normal (and logical) business practice. If you are going to discontinue a product, you don’t need testing apparatus for the future do you.
I hope I’m wrong. I love the game. If Funcom fixed all the bugs and did nothing else, I’d be happy.
Hopefully modders of the past would then return, knowing their hours and hours of work wouldn’t be destroyed by the flick of a Dev’s pen.
Some up front honesty from Funcom would be gratefully appreciated.
I am really sick and tired of this same old tired rhetoric, but hey, lets take an analysis of this?
Now, clearly you are referring to the Producer’s Letter from Rodney Harper. So lets dig into this.
First lets address the latter portion of this quote. No definitive dates. Being that they are on a six month cycle, at least that is what they had moved to, and the Age of Heroes Chapter 1 released in October, the next update would not be due out until May. What day in May? That is anyones guess because they NEVER give a date this far out in advance. That being said, Rodney did clearly state:
We will release this update in spring 2025
May does fall within spring so…
However, you are correct that he is not claiming that it will still fall within the 6 month period, but he is also not denying it either. So there is no logical reason at this point to assume otherwise.
As for the former part of the quote from you. Oh boy is this full of nonsense. Now, as you are the one making the positive claim here it is beholden upon you to provide the proof here so I will beseech you to show at any point in the history of Funcom Comminications where they have promised to:
Therefore, we’ve taken the decision to hold off on developing new content and features while we focus on improving the game from a technical and quality-of-life standpoint.
Or:
Our goal for the next update is to start focusing on resolving bugs and increasing stability.
Or even:
This update will be a key step in addressing the game’s core issues and laying a stable foundation for the future.
Can you honestly claim that they have ever, at any point in the history of this game stated that they were going to halt developing new content in order to fix the underlying coding issues and bugs for an entire patch? Please do provide the links to these comminiations or you must concede that you are in fact completely and utterly misrepresenting what the letter actually communicated.
If the game were “dead” as you so desperately want it to be, WHY WOULD ANY COMPANY SPEND MONEY AND MANPOWER TO FIX LINES OF CODE AND BUGS ON IT? That is the most nonsensical question you could have possibly proposed.
Or you could just look at the two games that they developed and released prior to Conan Exiles. Age of Conan and The Secret World. Both are still “running”, as in you can download them and play them, but neither of them have received any actually updates in untold years. Those games are DEAD. And you know what, when Funcom decided that they were dead, they sure as hell did not decide to spend an entire update fixing bugs on them. They left all current bugs exactly where they were, because those games were DEAD and not worth the time or money. Because no company in their right mind is going to spend money fixing a product they are literally going to abandon.
If you do not know how the Public Beta Clients work, then sure you could run with that conspiracy theory. Or you know, you could realize that the Public Beta Client is a good two builds behind the current live server and it might just be down for maintenance. And in all honesty, once the Public Beta for an update is over, they should be taken down anyway. Why are you even on there? Why are you attempting to play an unpatched older version of the game?
You have already proven your own bias in this post, so “to you” anything is going to say “the end is neigh!” Your dooms day opinion is really rather irrelevant. Because in all honestly, that is all that it is, an opinion. It is not based upon anything other than biased based supposition.
More accurately, when you currently do not have any new build to test, and the current live version is two builds more advanced, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO TEST. No, that would be logic, if you actually understood it.
You are.
Your post would indicate otherwise. You seem to view everything as a reason to shut the game down and twist every word as an excuse to end it all. If you actually loved this game you would be vastly more objective.
I do not expect you, or anyone, to be positive. NOT WITH FUNCOM! But objective. Actually read what is written, without bias, and comprehend the word, not what you want to head but what is actually said. A whole new world might open up for you.
Please, just take a moment to calm down and re-read the letter, objectively, and realize that you may have misinteretided things.
First of all I don’t want the game to die, I love the game. I’ve played 13,000+ hrs. I’m still playing it now.
I don’t wear a tin foil hat. I don’t see life through rose tinted glasses either. I’ve been around the block enough times to know when I’m being fed BS.
Funcom management didn’t come to work one Monday morning and suddenly decide to “fix all the bugs” before progressing any further with game. This would have been a decision in the making for a very long time.
Yes they did give a rough date. Spring 2025. That is 4 month window. They know the size of task ahead of them. They have been receiving the player bug reports for long enough. They will know exactly how long it is going to take. Perhaps I should have said “a more definitive date” instead of “no definitive date”. Either way I don’t see a 4 month window as being in any way “definitive”. It is broad sweeping statement.
New game development can’t start until all the bugs of old are fixed. The Devs then have to make sure their ‘new’ development doesn’t break the ‘old’. As can be seen by the Living Settlement fiasco, it is very easy for the ‘new’ to break the ‘old’.
So even if for example all the bugs are fixed by the end of May and the new content is thoroughly tested before release, it will likely be October before we see AoH chapter 2. That will 12 months after Chapter 1. The devs may be working furiously in the back ground during that time, but for the players the game will be in “limbo”. That could also be interpreted as a “slow shutdown”.
The reason I asked Funcom to definitively state the game won’t go into limbo is because that’s the very thing they haven’t done.
All they have said is “This update will be a key step in addressing the game’s core issues and laying a stable foundation for the future”. Laying a stable foundation for the future doesn’t say anything. That is just political jargon to appease the masses.
They could fix all the bugs and then add nothing else to it. The game would still sell, people would still play. The game sells now and by Funcom’s own admission it’s broken. Quote “we’ve seen issues come up that just shouldn’t happen. While we did our best to address them, introducing new features and tackling the accumulation of issues eventually proved unviable”. That is political jargon for ‘broken’.
This is not a conspiracy theory. Can you honestly say with hand on heart, that you 100% trust Funcom and believe everything they tell you. Just like any other financial business they are masters of manipulation.
Rodney Harper claims “we will continue to listen to you on all our channels and we’d like to hear your opinions”.
If he is true to his word then someone from Funcom will officially state that game progression will continue after the bug fix.
Communication is not one of Funcom’s forte’s. Do you think anyone from Funcom will reply.
We both know the answer to that. The Devil will go to work on ice skates before that happens.
That is a logical argument but how long does maintenance take. A month+, and why only some servers and not all ?
Fyi, I use the test servers for comparing pre and current game changes. It makes it easier to work out what is causing ingame problems when things go pear shaped.
As you yourself have compiled a list of bugs, you know how many bugs there are in the game.
Although I can’t fix the bugs, if I can work out the cause, I can then implement a ‘work around’ so I can continue playing.
What you or I think is in essence irrelevant. What matters is what the other players players think.
This may be a tiny (and I mean really tiny) opinion base, but these are players who responded to the poll.
Wether their opinions agree with you or not is also immaterial. All Funcom has to do is state categorically that the game is not dead.
Funcom’s silence speaks volumes.
Btw, I intend to keep this post active until at least end of Spring.
It is not about what I think @The_Hawke. It is about you misrepresenting what was said and spinning things to mean what they do not mean. I have clearly pointed out what was said, and how you misrepresented it. You haven’t even attempted to refute any of this at all. So no, this isn’t a matter of “what I think” because I already showed exactly what was. It was not opinion.
You can either accept the information presented and move on with it, or you can dig in your heals and cover your eyes and scream like a petulant little child. It really is your choice. I care not what you do. I do ask that if you do decide to go that route to please leave me out of it.
And you know this? Which funcom rep told you that?
Personally I think the game is in desperate need of long term maintenance. It’s far past a hot fix fixing anything.
Wont be playing while they do it because we wont see it for 4 months.
Ya, right. There is a term that means a bunch of people convinced something is a fact, that isn’t. There is no such thing as heard intelligence.
This poll actually highlights the issues with polls. i can get the results I want simple by wording the poll right.
It the poll had asked if you thought funcom should drop making content for a few months, while they concentrated all efforts on addressing bugs, it would probably have gotten quite a positive result.
Admittedly I do not understand how you can cross check Beta and Live when Beta is 2 build behind to find “work arounds”. If you want to explain that would be appreciated.
At this point having your own dedicated Beta might be the solution.
If you’re playing on Steam you also have access to previous versions.
Yep. Agree 100%. UE5 will never happen. At this stage of the game, the $ investment required for the change to UE5 would never be returned.
If I’m wrong in my thinking some one will correct me. UE5 would give a larger map area. But . . . it would not solve the ‘bugs’ in the current map. It would just move the bugs to the new UE5 map. The current bugs would have to ‘fixed’ first.
Funcom have ‘promised’ to fix the bugs. The Jury is out on that until the 31st May. Don’t hold your breath.
