Watched a vid of the new chapter. And…
I could have sworn i saw a crafter seat itself at an occupied forge.
Yea, there are bugs lol.
I am going to have to say settlements are a pass for me.
The current system imo is better for crafters.
If the crafters had a stamina and hunger system, for example a sim from the sims games then this might be more interesting, but as it is now…
Just a nope.
The roaming around just looks odd to say the least and not natural for some reason.
I really don’t want or need the extra use of resources for what really is for this part of the system just added animations with no purpose behind them and it kinda looked like it as well.
The crafting revamp, not sure it’s really an improvement over the current system at all.
It looks to be just more buttons to mash and more reading on a small ui.
What i would have liked to have seen instead would have been thrall training.
Example: You yourself trained a thrall in a new skill or an expert in certain skills could train your thrall.
This new system seems a bit much and again until they fix the ui where people on console can actually read it, i don’t care how many description boxes they add telling you who has what skill set if i can’t read them it’s no good.
I don’t know about the rest of the patch, but this, i want a way to turn this off and this is after seeing it.
Minigames, all kind of (logical) buffs etc. Would make game actually feel more real.
If you are freezing in real life you don’t just die. Before death you probably take your clothes off. But it might annoy some players if playercharacter starts to dropping off late game bikini armour in far north while freezing.
Drinking salt water has funny side effects also.
You do not actually need to even die in survival game to make it feel survival.
I completely understand your concerns, especially considering how difficult the Thrall Pot system was to manage. However, I believe it’s important to respect the variety of ways people enjoy the game. That’s why I advocate for providing options rather than imposing mandatory mechanics. For private servers, adding a more realistic hunger or resource management system could greatly increase immersion and challenge for players who seek a deeper survival experience.
For instance, private server players could enable a hunger system with realistic consequences, such as thralls taking damage or even leaving or betraying you if their needs are neglected. This could add a fun mechanic, where if thralls are unhappy, they might stage a rebellion and take control of the settlement. You could even fight the leader of the coup in a one-on-one duel to reclaim your settlement and assert dominance. It would create a thrilling way to regain control while providing a consequence for neglecting your thralls.
Ultimately, it’s about giving players the choice to tailor their experience. Hardcore survival enthusiasts could embrace these challenging mechanics, while players who prefer a more relaxed gameplay experience wouldn’t be affected. This way, everyone can enjoy the game in the way that suits them best.
I completely agree that more hardcore survival elements would greatly improve Conan Exiles, and the healing system is one area where that depth could really shine. For example, instead of aloe-based bandages or potions being a general healing item, they should be more specialized. Aloe-based bandages could be crafted with a mix of aloe and another specific herb to heal burns and provide a small amount of health recovery. However, these would only be useful for treating burn injuries, which would force players to plan ahead and carry the right supplies for different scenarios.
Similarly, different medicinal herbs could be used to cure various ailments. For instance:
Red lotus mixed with a new herb could be used to create a potion that cures poison.
Basic Bandages should only stop bleeding and heal a very small amount of health, making them essential for dealing with specific injuries like cuts or wounds but not suitable for full recovery.
Splints or clay casts could be introduced to treat broken limbs, adding another survival challenge where players would need to manage injuries over time.
Yellow lotus or a yet-to-be-introduced plant could be used to treat fever or diseases contracted from the environment, adding layers of immersion and challenge.
Different plants could be harvested and combined with aloe to craft specialized potions, such as healing specific ailments like burns, wounds, or fevers, rather than a generic healing potion that cures all conditions.
This would create a more engaging medical system, where players need to gather and combine the right ingredients for each situation, similar to real survival tactics. You could also expand this to include splints for broken limbs or clay casts for more serious injuries, which would need time to heal and slow movement until treated properly.
These deeper survival mechanics would really enhance the game’s challenge and immersion, especially for hardcore players. And weapon balance could use similar attention. Right now, legendary weapons feel like they lack identity, often being just reskinned versions with small stat differences. It would be great to see more unique weapons, like claws blessed by Jhebbal Sag, which could offer abilities such as a 20% movement speed increase and a built-in double jump. This would make legendary items feel truly special and different from standard gear.
A quest chain allowing players to become a werewolf devoted to Jhebbal Sag would add significant immersion and depth to the game. The lore surrounding beast transformations is rich in Conan and would fit perfectly within the world of Conan Exiles. Players could unlock the ability to shift between human and beast forms after completing a quest line tied to Jhebbal Sag, the God of Beasts, Nature, and Wilderness.
In human form, players would gain bestial traits, such as claw-like nails or wolf-like eyes, and these could offer minor buffs like increased damage or improved night vision. However, when fully transformed into a beast, they could access more powerful abilities like increased movement speed, enhanced strength, or the ability to track enemies using heightened senses.
There are many types of beast transformations in the Conan lore, not just werewolves. For example, players could choose between becoming a werewolf, werehyena, werebear, or even a weretiger, with each form offering different abilities and buffs. This variety would bring further immersion into the world of Jhebbal Sag and his deep connection to the wild.
Additionally, there is also vampire lore in Conan, which could be tied to Derketo, the Goddess of Fertility, Death, and Lust. While Derketo is commonly associated with fertility, her domains of death and lust make her a fitting deity for vampiric transformations. Players could follow a similar quest line, gaining the ability to become vampires, with traits such as increased strength, regeneration, or the ability to mesmerize enemies.
Expanding on the religious aspects of Conan Exiles could greatly enhance the game’s depth and variety. Linking beast transformations to Jhebbal Sag and vampiric powers to Derketo would provide players with powerful yet lore-appropriate abilities while deepening the spiritual and mystical aspects of the game.
All of this would provide a much deeper, more engaging survival experience, especially if offered as an option on private servers. This way, players who want the added challenge can enjoy it, while others can stick to the current balance.
That is not my point. My point is that we will never see a hard core survival game flourish because players in general dont like it.
It is like horror movies (to not mention the obvious albeit also by itself a “hard core” example too hard core for this forum, as illustrating what I mean). Many people like horror movies, by that I mean movies like PG16 horror movies, which is by itself a “stupid proposition”.
A “dark action movie” and a “PG16 horror movie” would differ only by label, because the only thing they used to differ was jumpscares, which nowadays the dont.
Like I said before, and probably get again WRONGLY BANNED for a mod not understanding the point. There is a difference between what you would call in the west an horror movie, and Asian horror movies. Asian horror movies made for the Asian market, not the Asian made to west movies, are so disturbing and shocking that few people would watch them, let alone recommend them. Even if they like movies like “Nightmare in Elm Street”, which is something people call “horror”.
Survival games is the same. If you make a game with sandbox survival hardcore, what happens is that people dont get “why” do things that the game itself requires you to do. Like for example, not handholding you with stories.
And your post does show it wonderfully.
You say you like hardcore survival games and proceed to describe what is the opposite of both sandbox and survival game.
If Conan were to be a hardcore survival game, there is no “assortment of weapons and stats for combat”. You are lucky if you can grap a branch on the ground and swing a few blows before you die. Survival games are not slashers, not action adventure games. Survival games focus on survival. If you can avoid fighting, the better. A hardcore survival game incurs long term recovery from injuries, which preconizes you NOT FIGHTING UNLESS THE LAST RESORT. You dont get dozens of fighting mechanics, you get dozens of FLIGHT mechanics and one fighting mechanic: You swing a weapon, it hits, it hits, it doesnt, you are screwed. Period.
I also love the many tales people construde over the Conan Lore forgetting that REH Conan is one thing, Marvel Conan is another. You cant make a survival game out of Marvel Conan, because Marvel Conan is full of this “the chosen one crap”. THAT is exactly what wrecks the survival game, and harsh universe of REH Conan.
Original REH stories do not feature a whole lot of things that are creations of Lin Carter and Robert Jordan written much more recently, using the ideas of superhero “fever” and the exceptionalism inherent of the time, disfiguring the original ideas of REH.
The Original REH stories are to the Lin Carter “revision” the same as these revisions are to the Arny Conan movie. Even the Jason Mamoa movie is more like REH work than both those mentioned.
It is all for the same reason: Business, rightfully so, is meant to sell, not to indulge specific fans.
Gems of survival sandbox are some of the cheapest yet less profitable games on any platform, because people simply dont like them. One thing is “spreadsheet simulator”, other thing is survival.
@KorgFoehammer I never thought about Conan Exiles from the viewpoint of being a strict sandbox, survival, and hardcore game. I’ve always seen the game as a combination of genres:
Survival: Managing resources like food, water, and crafting tools, all while surviving harsh environments.
Action-adventure: Combat is a big part of the game, especially against NPCs and other players.
Open-world: The vast explorable world where you can build bases, uncover lore, and conquer enemies.
MMO: While not a traditional MMO, it allows for player interaction, trading, and PvP on persistent servers.
Maybe my perspective is shaped by coming to the game after its release, so I’ve only experienced it with these mixed genres in mind. The closest games I’ve played with hardcore mechanics are old-school 7 Days to Die (back when it was harder), and possibly Runescape or Ultima Online.
So, I guess what I’m asking for is more challenging options to push the difficulty further, but in a way that fits Conan Exiles’ mix of genres. I completely get your point about a pure survival game where running is the preferred option and fighting is a last resort—that level of difficulty is something I’ve never fully experienced.
This was a very refreshing post, with some great ideas that were well thought-out. It’s not often that I see suggestions that show a good understanding of game design, where it’s clear that attention was given to presenting the player with a variety of interesting choices that involve trade-offs.
Unfortunately, I simply don’t have faith that Funcom can do anything like that in Conan Exiles anymore. If you look at all the gameplay mechanics present in the game, and the elements of those mechanics, you’ll notice a general lack of attention to detail and coherence. Many design choices leave new players confused and old players complaining, because the devs have the tendency to revamp the mechanics without ever tying up the loose ends from the previous revamp and without making sure that the new revamp covered everything.
Besides, the game design decisions in Conan Exiles tend to focus on minimizing the cost at, well, at all costs
That’s why RNG is overused. That’s why different options usually don’t involve a tradeoff, but rather boil down to a progression ladder where there’s clearly one dominant option. That’s why the bosses tend to be either sponges or glass cannons, but not really very challenging either way.
Still, I loved your ideas
It’s not “opposite” of sandbox, or of survival. It might be opposite of your narrow definitions and personal preferences, but that’s more of a “you problem” than some objective definition.
The nice thing about video games is that they are games. You get to play with them. Realism can be fun, but fun is more important than realism. What you propose is realism being more important than fun.
Survival games are about overcoming obstacles to survival and dealing with adversity in your environment. There isn’t some general law that mandates those games have to be a faithful model of our reality.
Similarly, sandbox games put emphasis on the freedom of making up your own story, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a story or a quest.
As for “hardcore”, the term is so subjective that it’s almost meaningless. Trying to make a game “hardcore” by making it unnecessarily punishing is cargo cult game design.
EXACTLY my concern with the sattlement sustem , its mandatory, my question is WHY? they could have made it so, it was not mandatory, and under full control of each player, so each one can create the settlement as they want. not impossed as it is right now.
this game right now is all about becoming a low hanging fruit. you often need to find some new goals on your own, because this game lacks challenge in every aspect, (except building that at advanced level it can become challenging to do what you want to do)
mybe challenging is not popular? i really cant tell.
@Hansel, I totally get your concern. The reason the settlement system is becoming mandatory is because it’s the main feature in this upcoming Age. If they didn’t have something big to bring to the table, people would likely complain that the expansion felt underwhelming with no major new features.
I understand why you’d want the settlement system to be optional, giving each player full control over how their settlement operates, but that would diminish its impact as a core part of the new expansion. The main appeal is that it’s supposed to feel like a fully fleshed-out system that breathes life into the game. If they turned it into an optional feature, it might feel more like a minor tweak than a game-changing addition, which would cause others to feel like the update didn’t offer anything significant.
Maybe another option would be to implement a toggle for controlling the basic functions of thralls, like their movement and behaviors. I had an idea in the past, which I posted in an older post, for a Commander’s Table that could manage these features:
“More Immersive Thralls - All these features could be managed and controlled from a Commander’s Table, where all registered thralls are listed. Through this table, we could assign actions, such as training or patrolling, to our thralls within the kingdom. It would be wonderful to assign thralls to beds so they can sleep, move around, and interact with one another. Furthermore, allowing us to establish night patrols would enable some thralls to sleep during the day.”
With something like a Commander’s Table, there could be an on/off switch for thralls, toggling between “Alive” or “Statue,” which would allow players to stop thralls from moving and turn off the need system. That way, people who don’t like the new system could still enjoy the game as it was before, while others could dive into the new mechanics.
As for the crafting thralls, I can understand your hesitation about them not being “items” anymore. But, in my opinion, I’ve been wanting to change my crafter’s outfits for ages. I’m excited to finally see them as proper thralls, rather than just static items, and I fully support that change. However, if you prefer a more traditional system, maybe they could add a mannequin or statue option for crafting thralls, allowing players to dress them up but keep them static.
At the end of the day, opinions differ, and that’s okay. For me, I’m looking forward to having more dynamic thralls, and I think the new system adds a lot of immersion to the game!
just becsue you see bugs in the beta test server dosent mean the bugs will come to the live servers
maybe it will come in the next chapter or maybe later on.
consoles players cannot play with mods only pc
i see you concern but i think they gonna fix the bugs we have if they want this to succe and allso they said we have a few weeks and we dont know when in October they gonna release the update to the live servers so they can fix a lot before it come out and if they need to delay it is say doit if its gonna help
