Log in, reset timer, log off- Players who don't play

[Tystin]

I would like to open the discussion for a possible solution to the massive bases owned by players who never play the game, but only log in to reset timers (for months on end) just to keep their massive builds active.

I suggest a minimum monthly total of gameplay hours in addition to resetting the 168hrs on the decay timers for a building (per server). A player should not be able to log in for 5 minutes every week to reset a building and not play the game.

The attached photo is from an official-pve PC server that I play on frequently, often 5 days a week, and there are huge bases owned by players and clans whom I never see in the player list. If I do see their names pop up, they are on briefly before logging off. The builds are oftentimes lagging the server when riding close to them, or taking up nice real estate locations from new players who will never be able to build in those spots.

I do not yet know what would be considered a decent amount of time for required playtime, so I am open to hearing others’ thoughts. Thank you.

EDIT: I am adding additional screenshots to provide proof to points brought up by the continuation of the discussion. I also change my original position from minimum monthly set hours of playtime to a more lenient 60 days to reach a minimum set number of played hours to maintain a build. Since my playstyle is PVE and this topic affects PVE play, I would suggest this change not be a blanket rollout but limited to the most relaxed play style of PVE. I would also like to mention the many repetitive posts about “abusive land claim” and " I don’t know why I was banned" posts. Not all, of course, but we can all agree that the most repetitive topics are build size or land claim. I am not speaking for PvP, I do not play PvP, so do not make PvP arguments that do not affect PvE play styles. In my current opinion, on PvE official servers, a minimum required hours of play in a 60-day consecutive period would ease players trying to decide if they want to be “that guy” who reports a build, or avoid the typical “why was my base removed” post. If you do not play, you do not keep the land claim. Also, PvE players do not have to act as server sheriff by filing reports, do not have to chase after players in the server to tame their builds, and can play in the relaxed environment they intended to play in after all.

Added proof:

This is owned by one clan. It’s so big, they opted to hire contractors to install convenient horizontal elevators to make just crossing their own build more timely.

The back of the build shows proof of a comment I made about surrounding the base with unnecessary palisades, because they never play the game, their purge meter will never reach full capacity to even warrant their continuous placement.

Bonus round! behind this base, is a random foundation road that has been unchanged since mid-October. What is the purpose? no one knows!

A nearby base, close the one above.

I had trouble even framing this entire thing on my screen. Apparently, the main base wasn’t large enough, they had to spring for the Storage Wars style side building to store all 31 Cupboards of things they own but do not use.

This same build is actually blocking a world spawn learnable item, I cannot even grab the bottle out of their fish trap. So, collectionists can not complete their goal of learning every single recipe, emote or language even if they wanted to. ( I am a completionist, this affects me).

Pets and thralls scattering a beachside. The base Decayed last week and the clan has another location further south they are still maintaining, yet no urgency to move these guys. This server rudeness does not make room for a new player to make a small start base here, since the thralls are acting as a land-claim.

[NavyLily01]

I understand that it is frustrating to have large builds for players that you never see spending time playing but I also understand why some people may just be a log in to refresh player as well so it is kind of a difficult balance to reach.

Have you thought that maybe the clan that built that big base is playing on Siptah and want to have a base to come back to, or that they maybe playing when you are not logged on?
Or that they may have to deal with something in their RL so they have less play time for a few months but want to keep their base ready for when they have more time to play?

I have been in the needing to take care of something very important in RL yet still want to keep my base. For most of this year I have been in the category of not having a ton of set playtime each month but do not want to lose my base that I worked really hard on, that I spent time collecting for.

[Wolfkyn]

I know this is off topic, and I imagine that base does cause some lag. But it really does look amazing.
As for having a required playtime each month, I don’t agree with that. Things come up irl that can take months to settle down before you can go back to playing regularly. A newborn child, a death in the family, a severe injury, etc. Plus, like @NavyLily01 said, how can you be sure they aren’t playing when you’re not on? Or playing on another server?

[Barnes]

@Wolfkyn

Plus, like @NavyLily01 said, how can you be sure they aren’t playing when you’re not on? Or playing on another server?

If you play every day, you know what was who. Also there are ways to invoke a playerlist, and if you care about your server you follow some simple steps every day and record who’s been on pretty much when. I have discovered these things (I’m sure others have too) and would be a doofus not to use them as someone with a fading interest in my server. This is certainly a glitch in the Matrix, one I’ve reported in the past.

[Antonglk]

You can always join the servers which have specific rules for playing and building.

[stelagel]

I believe that every system has it’s ups and downs.
Some players use the decay system refresh because they just want a break and play something else for a change.
Some others are acting like @NavyLily01 said, stop exile lands for awhile to play Siptah which is very logical.
I belong more or less to both of the categories.
The past 2 weeks I help a friend in his twich channel playing silly games with him, so I have to refresh my timers.
I know that this situation will be max 2 weeks more, I am already missing my gaming habits, my solo relaxing game by playing Conan.
On the other hand some persons have seasonal jobs and at this period they have only the time to refresh.
Or maybe they are in love at this time and gaming is not a priority for them .
The worst scenario to have a patched hand from an accident so gaming with one hand is not so… handy.
I am sure there are several other reasons too, for someone to “just refresh timers”.
There for the company made this decision and I totally support their decision.
I don’t want this system to be changed, life is not always routine, it has it’s ups and downs, so I am really happy that this system works this way.
I know it’s annoying sometimes to see these massive buildings staying alive, but i wish this was the only problem of the game .
What I find more annoying my dear friend @Tystin is the decay chasers, the ones that wait the timers to turn red and raid the base of others. These chickens cannot play pvp and they pve just for these reasons… disgusting

[CodeMage]

@Tystin

A player should not be able to log in for 5 minutes every week to reset a building and not play the game.

I agree, players should not be able to do this indefinitely. I understand needing to go on vacation or wanting to take a limited hiatus from the game.

But doing this forever? There’s no good justification for that. Yes, those who build things like these invest a hell of a lot of time into that. I know, I’m primarily a builder myself. At some point, though, you have to realize that you’re occupying resources on a shared server, denying them to others while not using them yourself. That’s just not okay.

I hope Funcom eventually introduces some kind of upkeep system that’s flexible enough to let people build big builds and take time off, but powerful enough to provide counterbalance for people who like to build without limits and then just squat on what they built without playing.

@Tystin

The builds are oftentimes lagging the server when riding close to them

If you’re convinced that these builds affect the server performance, you have an option of reporting them via Zendesk, for breaking the official server rules:

@Ignasi

• Massive constructions or over-use of memory intensive items leading to loss of performance both on client and server-side.

However, if you do that, bear in mind that you would be somewhat responsible for someone else’s base being wiped by Funcom. If it’s possible to resolve these matters through conversation, that might be better. On the other hand, if conversation doesn’t work and these builds really do bog the server down, then it might be better for the server community to have Funcom step in and remove them.

[enkephalin07]

@CodeMage

then just squat on what they built

Squatting would be when you occupy a place you don’t own, which sounds like a pretty good solution to absent landowners. If they aren’t using it, let other players move in and use anything that isn’t locked up.

Some absent landowners might appreciate someone making use of their property when they aren’t able to themselves. Others may object to it, and should be able to evict them and install locks, but if the aren’t there keeping house themselves then evictions would only be temporary.

[NavyLily01]

You are correct that you can see a list of people that have logged on since the server restart as that list resets every time the server restarts so it is not an absolute way to see who has played during that day.

There are some people, many people in fact that play on multiple servers…there are various reasons on why to do so. Some to see the sights of different build styles, some to find a more active community or a more empty server, some to not push purge meters on a server they have a clan on, I have a server that I play with my Husband on and when he is not able or willing to play I play on a different server so as to not add to the purge meter.

I have spent the better part of this year spending time with and caring for my Mother who was terminal with cancer. She did pass a couple of months ago and while I have played more since then I find there are times/days that I just do not feel like playing for a long stretch if at all…I spend a lot of time now just riding around the servers to look at bases to see what people have constructed. So by your logic I should have made the time to play CE rather than spending every second I could with my Mother and lost my base because I could not put in much playtime and have just been refreshing. Currently my playtime varies as sometimes I only play once a week other times it will be for several hours/all day and sometimes I just randomly log in to look around my base for a few minutes.

As others have said if the base against the very vague rules then report it. Just know that if you do get a person/clan nuked and banned then it takes down their stuff on other servers as well. Personally I think trying to talk with someone first is the best option.

[Tystin]

Thanks for the reply, yes I have thought about other player’s real-life commitments. In fact, my own family had a death just this past August. I was not able to attend the funeral due to being out of state and traveling, as many here might understand, is very difficult at this time. I stopped playing for 2 months, but I let my beautiful base decay since I was simply not playing then. Since I returned, I rebuilt. It is not hard to do so and was actually fun to have a fresh start after my long break.

[Tystin]

Very good response, Code. I don’t personally enjoy reporting, it just doesn’t feel right for me. You mentioned:
“I hope Funcom eventually introduces some kind of upkeep system that’s flexible enough to let people build big builds and take time off, but powerful enough to provide counterbalance for people who like to build without limits and then just squat on what they built without playing.”

I agree with you there. As a creative builder, who loves to take the time to carefully and as realistically as possible decorate my house, I’d hate to have a limit on how many placeables I can use. I know for me, that would discourage my use of the many dlc pieces, so I hope they do not turn to build limits.

[Tystin]

That is true, however, I like playing official and not private or modded servers.

[Tystin]

An example of the system having it’s downs is when a base does decay and it leaves behind 20 thralls scattered around an area. These thralls can stay here for as long as a clan member is logging in (resetting timers on another one of the clans builds still up). Now, these 20 thralls are never going to be collected by their owners, so they just sit and land block an area from other players acting as a secondary land claim.
I think this is unfair to players who want to build in a location but have no way to contact the clan owner (you can’t even tell who owns them by looking at them). Your best bet would be to try and ask every player in global who owns those thralls, and if you’re lucky you’ll find them and resolve it. But for the “log in, reset, log off” crowd, you’ll be lucky to ever spot their quick log in let alone begin a conversation with them.
I think this poses more of a nuisance than someone not logging in to reset their base in time before a player salvages their loot using an in-game mechanic designed to help clear out decayed bases which have already passed the 168hrs and are now in the 24hr grace period.

[Wolfkyn]

@Tystin

“log in, reset, log off” crowd

Are there a lot of people who do this? Because I just don’t get that at all. If I took some time away from the game, I’d just start fresh when I came back. Survival games are the funnest when you first start out. Even on my SP I usually restart every couple of months.

[Taemien]

@Wolfkyn

Survival games are the funnest when you first start out. Even on my SP I usually restart every couple of months.

This man wins at Conan Exiles.

[Tystin]

I’ve played on this particular PVE server since Isle of siptah early access, and so I’ve been able to see many players come and go. Yes, there are (checks piece of paper on my desk) 6 clans that have more than one large base that only reset just to reset (The base in the OP photo is owned by a clan with 3 massive builds, and I used this one build as an example since it is not a functioning base, but a vanity build. It is only decorated with DLC items, no stations, and no storage, so it has no purpose other than to make people look at it).

I can not begin a conversation with them, because I never see them when I’m on, so I can’t even tell who the clan members are, all I can do is by the bases and hold Tab to see which clan owns the build. I play at many different hour blocks throughout the week as well: 7am to noon, sometimes dinner time to 1am, and sometimes I might stay up drinking coffee and play until the 4am server reset. After playing on this server for a long time, I should be able to see them online, but I don’t- because they are not playing the game.

This is the reason I mention this issue, as it is an issue on my official server. As @CodeMage said, resetting one or more large builds every week for months on end without playing the game has no justification. They are no longer enjoying the build, they are no longer using the thralls they placed around, they are not filling the purge meter so there is no need for endless palisades surrounding the base either.

I would actually continue to suggest the minimum required playtime, however, I would change my original suggestion of 1 month to a minimum hour requirement to be fulfilled within a consecutive 60 days. That’s two months to reach the minimum effort to hold your unused landclaim.

[CodeMage]

@Wolfkyn

Are there a lot of people who do this?

It’s quite common, yeah.

@Wolfkyn

If I took some time away from the game, I’d just start fresh when I came back.

I like to start from zero from time to time. It’s always fun to relive the process of getting established, see things from the perspective of a level 1.

That said, there are parts that suck a diseased moose wаng, such as getting certain thralls or certain items. The RNG is a real joy-killer, and I suspect that’s the primary motivator for most of the serial refreshers.

I know it was certainly the primary motivator when I was in that same habit: don’t wanna have to grind the slot machines again.

[stelagel]

True.
On survival games, but for me especially Conan, restarting is the best.
I even have my starting crazy run which I really enjoy. Over the years I may have played in over 100 different servers, so you can understand that we totally agree on the restart thing.
Yet.
People spend their free time exactly how they feel like and they should not be judged, especially when they do not break rules .

[Tystin]

We share the same outlook. I mentioned above that I lost a close family member which I knew I would not be playing Conan. I let my base go out of respect for the server. I returned and saw the old grid location I was had was taken up by another player. Which was great! It was a beautiful beachside spot in the middle of the map, about H/12 of Siptah. I ran around in my bare naturals to my clan leader’s house and got myself at least a mare, and rode south. I followed the coast and found myself a brand new spot I never thought to settle before, which gave me access to vaults I liked to farm and the Southern Isles. Now, I’ve made my most favorite build ever. Since I’ve rewatched The Tudors on Showtime, I decided on making an English-style manor house instead of a Viking longhouse. New location, new build style- totally new experience than just popping up in the safe space of what I had before.

[Nemisis]

For some, nostalgia is what keeps them refreshing. Im guilty of it, though our bases I refresh have been standing since the game launched on the same server, so I mean, Ive been doing it for coming up four years. Why stop now?