I play on console, so I’m not sure what PC officials are like, but that certainly isn’t the case here. Our officials are thriving. Now that we have transfers, it’s easier to evade the toxic clans when they come to raid you. It’s not perfect, and there is still a lot of toxicity involved, but I don’t think that it’s an accurate assessment to say the the officials are dead.
I also only speak from a PVP standpoint, not PVE since I don’t play that game mode often enough to have an opinion.
You also have the benefit of gamepass that generates continuous casual players. There was a reason Xbox servers were mostly unaffected by the trimming. Gamepass is such a huge gain for the game. If only Sony would follow suit. But I consider this karma since you guys over in the green isle dealt with so much junk over the game in the last few years…it’s nice to see the game getting benefit over there.
May be. Fact is official pvp on PC is rekt. I know enough people from the hardcore clans on EU and they all say the same. They do not give a s… about Funcom anymore. They keep playing with stacking and other methodes, they keep using bugs and abuse officials to the core until they get banned. If they run into hot waters, they bodyvault outside the clan they are playing in. If the ban comes in, they change account, play on another official servers or privates inbetween until the ban is lifted. Then they bodyvault again and go back to the original server and play again or use the bodyvault to transfer to another server. This is how its done on repeat. If an account gets banned permanently, they simply buy another and since they always bodyvault with an clean account, they can always come back. It takes them less then 3 days to have a big base again, they have enough dragon powder to raid bases, then they take the loot and bodyvault it away. They do not care and to some point I can understand their playstyle, because it always has a game between the players and Funcom and Funcom so far is loosing.
The tos only affects players that try to play fair and this was never the playerbase that caused to much of a problem for Funcom. In the end nothing changed except Funcom is making some aditional bucks. Some could say, good for Funcom, more income. I say its bad. Because it turns officials in a place where no decent player wants to play anymore, where new player get utterly destroyed. A very bad reputation for Funcom. There is a lot a company can buy with money, but if they loose enough reputation and peoples trust it will hurt them badly in the longrun. People will remember with their wallet.
And that is the exact reason I am still on officials. To show another way…a way that is a far more positive experience and avoids the toxic BS that is prevalent in the game.
Conan Exiles was free on PS Plus back in April 2019. Funcom squandered the chance to keep those players engaged, so those players moved on. The game ended up having performance issues so that also didn’t help.
The game had performance issue after the fact of thrall limit and builds. I didnt experience performance issue until they modified the code. The way they correct it was to apply thrall limit and enforce rules over time. I been through so many wars that were huge bases and it was fun raiding them and understanding layout.
The only time it lag for me before the code change was this guy massive base of thralls 600 plus one foundation apart otherwise no lag.
There was some blue screening when thralls were starionary but thats about it.
The code changes they made recently was because rust was coming out other then that no code change before.
The pork thralls could of been fix with a database script to make pork bonus zero as a temporary fix.
Undermeshing was fixed based on the same idea I have that basically clone the map texture and offset it below and kill anything that touches it.
The rules can easily be applied to the game mechanics as a if condition that states clan > 10k pieces then cant place and display message.
I can do it. I have experience writing manuals for electronic devices from 15 or 20 well known companies, and automobiles (Toyota *small cars and trucks" division). I can create a print ready and PDF manual which carefully and concisely explains and shows examples of every policy and rule for about 3 to 5k (USD) - and my schedule is currently open. So, I’m certain that it can be done - I just dunno if it should be done. A lot of people here have stated that doing such a thing might cause more problems than it would solve. I dunno if I agree but that’s a different debate.
They’re about the same. I started heavily involving myself in PvP when about 4 or 5 months ago, people here were claiming there were so many differences the one group wasn’t welcome to comment on the other. The two are more the same than different in almost every way - and especially having to do with server demographics. Pretty much anything you can say about Official PvP servers you can also say about Official PvE servers - likely privates too.
Maybe it’s only those hardcore clans? The server listings and the Steam graphs both show a different picture.
Having my admittedly huge base wiped without warning is what the core of the issue is with Zendesk and the reporting system. There were at least 2 other bases approaching or surpassing mine and they were not reported or wiped by admins. Mine was because the Zendesk tool was being weaponized against me. The person even gloated in chat about doing it and said if I came back to play they would do it again. This time they deleted our entire clan and doubled the time of the ban even though we had multiple tickets warning Zendesk with screenshots of them threatening this very thing. It is disheartening to say the least to have these happen without recourse or the ability to rectify any issues. If there was anything I could recommend to Funcom and Zendesk it would be to clearly state what is offending the ToS and give players a chance to fix anything and not just blanket destroy and ban people. Especially on a first offense.
I have multiple videos and screenshots of all of this as a record and proof of what was going on and still had no protection versus malign reporting on the Zendesk tool. As a person than has player MMORPGs since Everquest it is the most unfair treatment of any developer I have ever personally experienced in over 20 years of gaming.
For those that advocate destroying bases because they have been there a long time it is beyond comprehension. These maps are huge and just because you joined too late to grab some prime real estate, the answer of just destroying and banning people without warning is ludicrous just so that new players have a nice place to build. 1000’s of hours of dedicated gameplay and purchases of new DLCs by players are just being thrown away on the whim of a person’s interpretation of good or bad without clear guidelines for people to follow to be able to “color” between the lines. I hope for Funcom’s sake they get this figured out quickly because they will lose players if this continues. I don’t know at this point if I would even try to rebuild on an official server of any type and definitely won’t be buying any new content until it is rectified and defined.
Wayzar
If we’re going to use EQ as a comparison. 989 Studios/Verant/SOE/Daybreak (all same company, different names) lets you play automated bots (as long as you respond to a GM if they send a tell). They let you use multiple accounts with keyclone so you can play 2 or more characters at the same time. They take no action against ShowEQ (a real time maphack that shows the location of every NPC in the same zone as you). And you can do all this to get a distinct advantage over those who don’t. Not only that, but you are allowed to kill steal from other players even in PVE (kill stealing means you engage a target another group engaged by dealing 51% of the damage and get the reward, even if they spent a few hours clearing to said target, you may just swoop on in and take it, then go to the next area).
The fact FC doesn’t allow that nonsense and weeds out those players who like that sort of thing is a good thing.
Just stating how long I have been playing games like this, MMOs. It has been a very, very long time now and never seen a report system so broken with overblown knee jerk responses from admins with no contact or warning. I am not directly comparing the way any other game is moderated, just alluding to the outcome for this particular game vs those. I have never run afoul of any ToS, until now, on any game I have ever played. Not a cheater, not a hacker, not building under mesh or any of the other nonsense. Just playing a game I really liked and building things with DLC I bought for the game and watching over 2,400 hours on my official server go up in smoke. A little maddening and completely avoidable with a decent line of communication from admins/moderators or reporting abuse clarity/appeal process.
Wayzar
And what picture? That people play on officials? Congratulations!
I doubt that any public graph will show you what kind of people play on official pvp servers. I doubt that any public graph will show you how many players quited official pvp because of the toxic environment, the exploititiv nature of the hardcore clans or simple because they got banned because of the tos. The only people that always state that officials are on a better way because of the tos come from this forum and mostly stated by themselfs that they are more pve players than anything else. The kind of player that enters a pvp server and then hides in a tiny hole all the time, only sneak out if server is empty or they feel its save. This are not pvp players. This are only pve people that enjoy the rush and feeling playing on a pvp server while, well, hidding in a hole or sneaking around hidding in corners most of the time instead of searching a fight and acutally fight. This people rarely raid anybody or do a harm to someone because they are to afraid that somebody will notice them and find out where their 10 hidden chests live. I doubt that anybody who claims in this forum, that he has fun building a 5 x 5 shack over and over again because the tos makes any valid defense impossible and gets constantly raided as a consequence (because they get seen as easy lootbags which they are) having fun playing longer than a couple of weeks before they go back to pve or change to privat pvp, where raidprotection, gods off and max 2 hours raidtime a day makes them able to survive.
Officials are not fun for most casual players over a longer period of time. I stand by what I say, because I hear people all the time complain on privates how bad officials are and that nobody who is not playing in a bigger group of people get overrun by big clans sooner or later so they left. I hear and read what people say on a lot of privat discords, I have conversations with people that play this game for a long time now and are casual regulars and hardcores. This forum consists to big parts of people that always try to paint a better picture in favour of Funcom. This might work here, but not so much outside of this forum. People are angry at Funcom and think they aren´t doing enough to improve the quality of the game and they are right. Instead of fixing the stuff that doesn´t work they constantly try to find a way to work around the problems. And because of that, the game is stagnating. Because of this people do not believe half of what is written in a patchnote anymore. That is why people do whatever they want on official servers. They do not feel their voice get heard in regards of decission making and they do not see any improvements that are worth in their eyes to change their behaviour.
This forum is nether representitive nor does people change their minds because some people here constantly try to paint the sky in a different color.
Speaking of banning…
Yes, absolutely. This is why I think it’s crucial for @Umborls or someone else in the @Community to explain the thinking behind these actions (of suspending or banning people) and why I asked for it to be explained above.
I can understand the demolitions. That understanding becomes somewhat confounded when there is no explanation and such warnings are only issued as a general discussion topic exclusively to forum readers - and more often than not only explained by other players. I can not for the life of me however, understand the use of the ban hammer for first and second offense building violators several of whom have been such extreme edge cases that even those of us studying Funcom’s actions have trouble attempting to explain the reasons for them:
P1: What was I banned for? (includes screen shot)
P2: Oh look, you built in the Mounds and were blocking access - common sense yo!
P1: Zendesk finally got back to me and told me it was server lag.
P2: 
P3: Why was I banned? (includes screen shot)
P4: That base is pretty big, probably banned for server lag or resource blocking.
P3: Zendesk finally got back to me, they said it was foundation spam (I had 6 blocks out near my well).
P4: 
Well, if your definition of servers being “rekt” and “dead for play” is dependent on the kinds of people you encounter then it all just became 100% subjective and 100% anecdotal - so, there’s nothing I can say to that… The server listings show server activity to be about the same as it was a year ago and the Steam graphs show slow and steady increase of unique logins per week over the same time last year. ~=shrug=~
As far as the affects the ToS is having on people’s playstyles (in both PvP and PvE), yes, we agree. The Funcom prescribed playstyles and some “hardcore” PvP players’ desired playstyles are at odds with each other on Officials. For sure. Well, you are here - standing as proof!
PS: The sky isn’t just one color and can be all known colors at various times. I can’t think of a color the sky hasn’t been.
Sorry if it is already a thing but are these clarifications going to be announced officially in-game also? Otherwise I feel like a lot of players will get caught unaware, especially if they don’t follow the forums or social media.
Yes, the forums are not a great way to get the word out. And I say that as a person who is sporadically active on them and (mostly) enjoys the conversations.
well the only time I got banned along with my whole clan and base deleted which was maybe a few months back the banning was for 2 whole weeks for a fence stack foundation base which as far as I knew was entirely legal and had been for years.
in addition the report was malicious as those that reported had themselves fence stacked their base, which is kind of funny to me as I feel I was penalized for not keeping up with every forum post, meanwhile they knew the rules, broke the rules and exploited the report system, its not like you can login to take screens to report them back when you are banned though on that note I did try to do that after the 2 weeks ban and as the fence stack patch was approaching I got an email something to the effect of its not a priority and no action has been taken lol.
if I had known fence stacks were after ignasis saying they weren’t now considered an exploit at the time we wouldn’t have built with them, the way people are report happy these days people more often are breaking “the rules” I find not to gain advantage but from ignorance, because its well known to the more serious players the slightest infraction can get your whole base destroyed via malicious reports easily so you got to keep up with all the latest information.
Like would I even think a village style base is an infraction without seeing this post? hell no.
Yeah, some of these situations where there are differing enforcements between two parties committing the same crime when explained by someone the group deems credible, are likely why people assume some sort of Administrator corruption. 
I didn’t want to critisize. I really liked what you have done there. I just wanted to shere what I experienced. The last base got deleted with the explanation: building abuse, blocking people from traverssing.
It didn’t block anything, no spawns were affected or other game assets, all buildings were functional and it only had walls on 2 sides and those walls had open door arches without doors and it was smaller than what you showed. Just saying
First of all, I am very grateful to Funcom for its serious and responsible attitude towards the official server. Although there are many problems in the exploration of the official server rules, after rectification, at least for the PVE server, I can clearly feel that the server environment has been greatly improved. Here I would like to say my views on the PVE server. Because my mother tongue is not English, please understand.
1: The biggest unease of players comes from the uncertainty of the official service rules and the uneasiness about whether their behavior goes beyond the boundary, because there is no regret mechanism in the official service.
When the official service carried out server rectification last year, there was an administrator who did not demolish the player’s foundation according to whether the player violated the rules at all, but only according to the number of buildings, which led to the demolition of almost 90% of the players’ homes of the whole server, such as 64501327, no matter whether they violated the rules or not. So far, the panic of indiscriminate deletion of official clothes and buildings has spread among the player group. So far, most players are in this panic every day.
In the official uniform, many PVE players have invested hundreds of hours in it. These buildings and slaves are accumulated by countless efforts for them. Admittedly, they may have some wrong behavior, but I believe most people don’t mean it. So I hope the authorities can establish a warning mechanism. Instead of one click demolition of illegal buildings. Maybe the administrator can remind players or relevant tribes in the server announcement. For example, when you see that a tribe violates some rules, but these rules are actually on the edge of ambiguity, you can give these players some time to rectify, maybe 7 days. After that, the administrator will inspect again. If it is still illegal, it will be removed with one key. For the administrator, a home may take an extra 30 minutes to judge and inspect, but for 10 people in a tribe, the home is 60000 minutes (1000 hours) of hard work. They are the most loyal fans of the game. I hope the government can give them a chance, rather than rough treat the people who really love the game.
2: The worktable needed by players to build their home is large and many, which makes the player’s home too bloated.
How big is a player’s complete home? I don’t expect how luxurious the facilities at home are, but at least they are fully equipped. This requirement should not be too much. So what facilities do players have? A lot of benches, one or two vaults, one or two stables, one or two large slave wheels, one or two armored animal fences, and all altars. Administrator, you can put it in the official clothes to see how crowded these are. In this regard, I would like to put forward my own views, which may effectively reduce players’ demand for home building.
(1) Increasing the production efficiency of animal pens by 1-3 times can reduce the need for players to build many animal pens, and set the number of official animal pens at the same time
(2) Horses can hatch in animal pens, not only in stables, at least so that I don’t have to build another stable to raise horses alone.
(3) Provide a brand new, neat, easy to align, small and strong enough box. For the vault, it has 300 squares, but it’s too big. But other boxes may only have 55 squares, which is too small for people who play in official clothes for a long time. Now players generally like to use the disassembly table to store items, because it is small and has 200 grids. So why not launch a small enough but expensive box to meet the box needs of later players?
(4) Reduce or simply cancel the requirement of altar spacing, otherwise a home will occupy too much land just to fill up the sacrificial altar. Seriously, it’s not good.
I couldnt agree more with the statement. I would add if you dont want players to spider land claim remove treb and treb god. In addition, increase land claim radius plus limit will prevent players from being walled in.
The god themselves can cause players to make archer towers every so often.
Pvp players do certain things to prevent certain attacks. Remove the attack will make that type of defense obsolete. Also trebs are basically immune weapons until raid starts. This in turn cam destroy a base in five minutes if everything is prepared before war.
