It certainly was a shock to me that in a thread devoted to feedback on a staff member’s clarification of TOS, said staff member chose to inform us that the mode we are discussing is not even a priority of development.
I’m not surprised that people took that as them thumbing their noses towards us, or outright dismissal of concerns raised here and elsewhere.
Well you see this is just where we differ. I look at a sandbox as a location for safe, creative action. I think you are locked up on durability.
My sandbox allows other people to come in and stomp on mah stuff. Yet every day, when I log in, the sandbox has refreshed itself and all my things still stand. Maybe they have some holes in them. But no rain has come to wash them away, there’s no bird poop on my pink pail. The real-world sandbox analogy fails in my construct, because servers live forever. A game.db is a slice of time that can live eternally.
And I see a personal sandbox the same. The difference here is the sandbox in your backyard is different than the one at the park. The park is what officials are. The backyard is private and SP.
I think some of the real issues is those that are the loudest get the most sway, or to put it in a common phrase, squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Most people that were content as is weren’t complaining, even most that are upset won’t complain but will quit with next to no explanation, and I believe you are right in some regards in the double standard of rules for thee but not for me.
However there certainly is more debate to be had, and the issues have created more squeaky wheels than before, no one is talking about speedhackers being unfairly banned, or skybases/undermesh being deleted because that was always very clearly wanted, however the impression given of the game through both its marketing and even mechanics and development (favouring larger stations) leads people towards a building style that seems at odds with the rules, if funcom can change and start enforcing the rules, perhaps there is some hope that they can with grace and understanding pull back and realize the ramifications and design of their game and why this occours.
I will speak openly for a second that I am a developer myself with a relatively large successful mmo, and balancing such things is not always easy, and sometimes the devs and the playerbase is at odds, so the developers very much have my empathy however I have felt the best thing you can do in regards to a community is listen and be open to change, sometimes your players are playing in a way you dont intend, and sometimes you do have to reflect and ask yourself why, what elements of the design have encouraged this, is this part of the game boring? problematic, why are people trying to circumvent this mechanic, or exploit this, is it for gain? unfair advantage? enjoyment?.
you may realize that the players are compensating for bad design or the unintended gameplay is far more interesting.
You’re getting warmer, that’s from 2020…
I didn’t find them offensive to me nor insulting really.
By melting I meant shocked or slightly unable to cope.
Maybe, but likely gritting their teeth or grimacing as they do so.
I will say that regardless of my opinion on the subject itself, I’m glad to see Funcom clarifying their rules a bit. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, additional clarification is NEVER a bad thing. Thank you @Community for the OP.
I mean, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can honestly tell you that I never asked Funcom to do this. As a PVE player, I asked, quite persistently, for official servers to have moderation to protect us against griefers, because the game offers no recourse against them.
If I had an in-game mechanics for dealing with the griefers, I wouldn’t need help from an admin, but I don’t: if, for example, someone walls me in on a PVE(-C) server, I have no way to deal with that after the fact. That doesn’t mean I wanted admins to go to what seems to be quite extreme.
And it really does make me think, you know. I mean, things like extensive player-built highways and huge, ornate bridges traversing one whole grid square have always been my pet peeve, and I try to avoid servers where people build stuff like that. On the other hand, it’s not something I think Funcom should wipe, much less ban for.
Which is kinda odd, because I would have no problem with a private server admin regulating the same thing, so I had to ask myself: why do I feel that way? And the thing is that I know that a private server admin will reach out to me and talk about the problem first, and then resort to more extreme measures if that doesn’t work out.
I have doubts about whether Funcom can offer that level of support for free servers, and I have even more doubts about whether they should do it, which is why I would prefer it if their admin action was reserved for extremes, situations in which the vast majority of players would go “pfft, well of course they would do that”, rather than “huh, that’s weird, I don’t see anything wipe- or ban-worthy here”. I used to think Funcom regulated only those extremes, but what @Palm522 shared with some of us – and Funcom’s clarification of the rules – convinced me otherwise.
Why? What’s wrong with “hey, can you be honest and direct with us and we’ll respectfully do the same in return”?
Most land claim issues I see stem from PVE and PVE-C servers. In PVP, we can take an active role in removing the offensive structures. But any server with “PVE” in the title is powerless to stop land claim. As a PVP player myself, I don’t report anyone unless it’s excessive (like the foundation web in the OP) and actively ruining my gameplay experience. And even then, it’s a last resort. I can see it being an entirely different story on a PVE server since you can’t take an active role in removing the issue.
Yeah but even in a PVP setting, it the alpha is just so entrenched there really isn’t much you can do outside of blowing up foundation by foundation…especially if they are salty and just refresh timers on their destroyed bases just to be jerks and keep the landclaim active.
How did you land there? I meant FC would be agreeing with you that they want to hear the feedback but likely grimacing to some degree about some people’s reactions and/or tone. Anyway I’m tired.
At that point, if their land claim is interfering with gameplay and/or server performance, then I’d report them.
If I can solve the issue on my own, then I will at least attempt to. But for truly annoying cases, that’s when I rely on the admins to remove the offending base for violating ToS
I’d like to thank everyone for all of the constructive comments and criticism we received so far. We are continuing to listen to everyone’s comments and concerns.
The Official Servers are a small part of Conan Exiles. The game was not developed with them in mind.
This statement has been discussed a lot. After reading all of the comments, I’m not sure anyone has really understood the point I was trying to make. Allow me to clarify.
When I say the game is not developed with Official Servers in mind, I am specifically referring to the context of claim spam. It has often been suggested that we could just code restrictions into the game that would automatically prevent some of the problems we’re discussing here. But this is not how development of the game is being approached. This is because private servers and solo play are also considered.
If you look at all of the existing servers that are online, you’ll notice that there are far more private servers than official ones. This is all I was getting at when I say that Official Servers are a small part. There is a huge world of Conan Exiles out there that exists beyond the Official Servers. Players might be on these servers battling each other with webs of foundations in slow positional wars of attrition. Or they might be building a role playing world with detail that would blow you away. Why would we ruin their fun by imposing the same rules on them that we have for the Official Servers?
Official Servers are important to us and I hope that’s clear. Your feedback in this thread is invaluable to us and I appreciate all of you who are taking the time to tell us how you feel.
Exactly and this obviously goes both ways and invalidates your point.
Oh, now I get it. It makes perfect sense that the game isn’t designed only around official servers and the devs have to take other players and modes into account.
Thanks for clarifying it and for continuing to engage in discussion! 
I do have a question regarding what would be considered land claim abuse: If I have a pillar base, and it can be assaulted via trebuchet from 2 pillars nearby, would it be considered abuse if I build fully functional watchtowers on those pillars with thralls for defense? They would watch the approach to my base and prevent trebuchets from striking my main base.
Because of what part of my words you chose to quote when you replied that. Apparently, I misunderstood. Thank you for clarifying what you meant.
Private Server Admins have full control over webs and rules. Official Servers are supposed to be “anything goes.” Privates and Mods are supposed to be the sprinkles on the Vanilla.
The whole purpose of Officials is to demonstrate the game in Vanilla. I thought this would be the spring from which all development flows.
I don’t mind admitting I’m wrong… I looked up the newest one from 8/21 and you’re right. Seems at odds with the ToS and no mention of staying off officials. Hmm, I thought for sure I had read that tho. Oh well…
There was an earlier post where another player asked the same question and FC said they did not consider using buildings to block treb placements as legitimate play on official servers.
I can see that, but these wouldn’t be solely for treb protection. They’d be fully functional FOBs, complete with chests and archer thralls. They’d serve the same purpose that normal watchtowers would, but they’d be built in a strategic location that also protects me from trebs.
Am I making sense? I feel like I could be wording things more clearly, but I’m also at work so my focus is divided lol