Legit question but I know seems obvious, but it is not

Conan Exiles General Discussion Creative Corner
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Why does the material for Conan Exiles shows Conan doing stuff if he is not really even a big part in the game ?

I know, “Conan” Exiles, yeah.

However the game is more Exiles than Conan. I mean, if this game wasnt in Hyboria, wasnt Conan, it would still be possible to have the exact same game, the exact same way, at most having to change some names for IP reasons if the IP wasnt secured.

It seems a little deceptive to people who see the things about the game go in, and mostly, only see Conan in ONE of the two maps, at a brief encounter in the opening scene, and afterwards with half dozen lines of dialogue.

I know, there is the sorcery “cameo” too. My point exactly.

Nothing he does in the game is “Conan” actually related. Any shirtless growling barbarian that could be voiced and acted by Vin Diesel’s regular talent would do.

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And how is this relevant to the game ?

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He shows up more here in Conan Exiles than he did in Age of Conan.

But the story of the game does take place in Hyboria, and as I said in previous threads, the game is about the Conan survival experience. You don’t merely survive in the Exiled Lands, you survive them then thrive in the same way Conan would in your shoes.

He just happens not to be in our shoes.

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Because “Conan Exiles” has wider recognition and flows better than “Exiles from Hyboria”.

The IP is the point.

What point? It’s not really clear whether you want a generic survival game not tied to a specific IP, or whether you want Conan to be more involved.

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Conan cannot have major involvement because his life is already determined by the stories. Otherwise, it would break the lore. Same with him being on the other map, Conan does not visit the Isle of Siptah at this time. When he goes there is already determined by the stories.

The setting is in accordance with the lore of the Conan universe. You could make another game and rename all of the characters, races, kingdoms, items, etc. and pretend it is unique, but it would just be a direct rip-off of the Conan universe. The setting is not a generic fantasy world, it is the Conan/Lovecraft universe and renaming stuff will not change that.

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But in my opinion, this is a two side blade.
Although “Conan” is catchy and secured a marketing goal, it brought restrictions with it, lore restrictions that didn’t allow easy evolution in this game and brought many barriers with it.
My belief is that this game should never be presented with a known lore. If it had a new fiction scenario then 2 things would be certain.

  1. No lore restrictions and freedom to devs to take it anywhere they wish.
  2. Greater respect from the gaming community.
    Before Conan i was hardly playing fixed scenarios, i find it lame and lazy.
    This particular game didn’t need any connection with Conan, this restriction doomed the game.
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As it should be.

If you want generic fantasy, there are 1000 other options with all the generic fantasy tropes you might desire.

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I would confer a wager that Conan himself shall become a recruitable Companion, much like Liu and Freya, later in the Age of Heros.

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Oh i know, but i loved this game.
Not for the lore, but the game it self.
The only thing i fancy with this lore, is the passionate people i met in here with this lore and i embrace it and loved it for this reason only.
So i intent to stay if you don’t mind :slightly_smiling_face:.

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I played Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War precisely because I’m a huge fan of Tolkien’s work. I got Conan Exiles for a similar reason. I’m not as much of a Howard fan as I am of Tolkien, but that’s what drew me in.

Being fan of the source material is why I initially bought these games, but it’s the combination of their gameplay and the treatment of the lore that makes me like them, or not.

Conan Exiles and Shadow of Mordor both had fun gameplay and treated the lore with respect. Shadow of War, on the other hand, had fun gameplay but took a big, steaming shіt on the lore.

As a result, I will happily play Shadow of Mordor again – and I’ll go back to spending serious gameplay time on Conan Exiles as soon as its gameplay is fun enough again – but I’m unlikely to replay Shadow of War.

That said, “lore restrictions” sounds like a bigger limitation than it actually is.

If you’re going to produce content based on someone else’s work, staying true to the lore does not mean only including what’s already present in the source material and nothing else. That attitude is too restrictive.

The important thing is to include only things that do not go against the source material.

In Shadow of Mordor, I had no problems with Celebrimbor staying on as a wraith instead of going to the Halls of Mandos immediately, because it doesn’t necessarily go against Tolkien’s lore, as long as Celebrimbor ends up in Mandos eventually. Likewise, the fact that he and Talion forge yet another, minor Ring of Power doesn’t necessarily go against the lore, because the lore talks about the rings forged by Celebrimbor while working under Sauron’s influence in Eregion.

But having Isildur turn into one of the Nazgûl in Shadow of War? That’s all sorts of fuсked up. It goes directly against a whole bunch of very important aspects of Tolkien’s lore.

When it comes to Conan Exiles, “lore restrictions” mean, for example, that sorcery can’t include players shooting lasers from their butt, but it doesn’t mean that sorcery can’t be useful. That’s not a “lore restriction”, that’s Funcom’s failure to implement good game mechanics.

Similarly, Conan could be more involved in the game – even though his life is fairly well “documented” by Howard – as long as that involvement doesn’t go against the established canon.

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As others have said. “Conan” is a name that many people recognize as the barbarian, even those who aren’t intimately familiar with Howard’s books, or who may only know the character from the movies. References to the Hyborian Age or similar wouldn’t be recognized by people who are not already familiar with the works. So, it’s for marketing.

We meet him at a point where he has already adventured all across the Exiled Lands. So now he’s relaxing in a bar, boozing and wenching (and occasionally going to decapitate a wicked sorcerer in a proper Conan way). What seemingly breaks the immersion is that like all other NPCs in the game world he’s sorta encased in amber, so whereas we are actively changing and interacting with the environment, he’s always in the same place, in the same position of “been there, done that, and all I got was this foul-mouthed princess”.

It wouldn’t be terrible to see him in other places occasionally - have him randomly pop up in places to explore ruins, fight big monsters, or something like that. It wouldn’t even matter if this meant he was in multiple places at once, because we, the players, couldn’t see that.

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Somebody needs to be the poster boy. He is an instantly recognized figure. It cant be the player.

And if we want to split hairs, it is Conan who saves us from the cross. So to say he doesnt play “a big part” is somewhat misleading. :smiley:

ps. I suspect Conan doesnt play a bigger part is because his IP rights are something of a confusing mess. He SHOULD be in public domain by now but isn’t, due to no small amount of lawyer mumbo jumbo, which nobody seems to be willing to challenge.

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The Conan IP is irrelevant, since Funcom owns the IP.

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Given the present World affairs, I understand certain cultures do not have the mind to make a distinction between role and character, but lets go:

What would the difference if it was “Justice League 2077” and instead of Conan, it would be Batman who saved us from a cross in a Mad Max Exiled Lands ? None.

So “he saves us from the Cross” might be Conan, might be Batman, might be Iron man, might be Jesus, whoever it is, the role does not demand it to be Conan.

CONAN would be an important character if the fact the he saves us from the cross leads to a story arc that makes the fact the HE specifically saved us an important factor. Otherwise it is just a cosmetic choice for a non specific role.

And alas, I find the fact that his dialogue suggesting he saved “a lot of random people” from crosses a little disturbing. Given the original stories of Conan, I highly doubt he would take a chunk of his time to save a bunch of nobodies from crosses for no other reason than “in my land people kill people in battle”.

So no, he does not play an important role. He play a role that even a random passerby invented by funcom in an original IP would do.

And my point is exactly that: This is a Conan Game that does not give importance to Conan. He is just a contrivance.