Modders are saving Funcom years of work, but for some reason Funcom ignores that

Conan Exiles General Discussion
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So, not long ago i started playing on modded server. And i was amazed about how much better this game could be - there was so many cool stuff i always asked about in suggestions, but it never appeared in main game. (If anyone interested, i will post a mod list at the end)

Let’s start with QOL features:

  • I can see exact duration of each buff and debuff. That helps A LOT.

  • I can remove any building part back to inventory. Means - no more misplaced due to bug structures, easy building and repairs (because i can reach anywhere with temporary structures), and i can just pack my base and go place it somewhere else without wasting tons of resourses.

  • Obelisks are protected by shiels that give damage immunity but drain your hp. So no more being killed while loading, but can’t stay near them for more than a minute.

  • Last used weapon are shown on character’s back, so you know if someone you approach is armed

  • Elevators move faster. Faster than a snail now.

  • A special command shows location of all your buildings on the map, as well as amount of your building parts, benches, thralls and pets. No more manual counting if you reached the thrall limit or no!

  • Even chat does not lose typed message when you disable it, has various channels for clan, local and even private messages with easy switching without typing special commands, and has a lot of other cool customizable options, like this: http://ipic.su/img/img7/fs/Chat.1581441824.jpg

All of those are very simple changes. But they also improve the game so much that it’s hard to think about playing without them. But let’s move for some more heavy stuff:

  • Glass tier of buildings that allowing you to look outside while being in safety, and also they just look nice.

  • Automatic gathering station, because in late game you should finally enjoy fruits of your work, and not constantly grind and grind and grind

  • Various shapes and styles for boxes, wheels of plain, etc, that serve different purposes - for example, making a very tiny base.

  • Rideable pets. Why not? They serve no other good purpose anyway.

  • Better pvp ballance with all stats being maxed (meaning you no longer have to respec if you want to carry bombs during the raid and there is no more op builds), and with lots of unique weapon effects, such as knockback or doing damage upon movement, that help to solve problem with enemies who constantly run away to heal.

  • New tier of explosives that also create highly toxic (and masks won’t help) area around the explosion site, preventing people from doing repairs

  • A lot of more pve content - fractions, their camps and battlegrounds, tons of new types of enemies, new bosses, and the bounty board - place where you can trade heads of rare creatures for rewards.

  • Currency that is not lost upon death, market with no-pvp zone to buy things for it, and traders that can be placed at the base who also sell things.

  • Magic. An actual combat spells.

  • Tons of new cosmetics, including animated characters and animals, that look like real ones but is not loading server with ai patterns because they are just decoractions - it helps to create beautiful bases, because even squad of soldiers can now be a single placeable.

There are many other things as well, these i just liked the most.

So, here is the question: what stops Funcom from paying the creators for those assets and adding them into main game? Yes, some things in “heavy” list can contradict their vision of ballance, but all QOL changes would dramaticly increase player comfort. Or they could even hire people behing those mods - anyway, each of those solutions would save them months or even years of work, they are right there, already in game and working. So why not use that work to improve official server expirience as well?

Especially concidering that (at least if i am right) console players cannot use mods, so they cannot enjoy all that quality content at all.

p.s. The list of mods used on server i play at:

  1. The Age of Calamitous
  2. Kerozards Paragon Leveling - A Multigun Refresh
  3. Pippi - User & Server Management
  4. Pickup+
  5. High Stack And Low Encumbrance
  6. Hosav’s UI Modification
  7. Fashionist v3.0.2
  8. Olympus Server Mod by Hosav
  9. Endgame Extended Weapon Arsenal
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One of the few things I wish I had a chance to do. After 2 years I still haven’t played with any of the mods for the PC and they look amazing. :frowning: I agree with your post above though.

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Return on investment. That stops business decisions.

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Actually, the biggest hurdle is a legal one. One that requires digging through red tape to insure the company doesn’t get into trouble for using someone else’s intellectual property. Unfortunately, in the past when a company tried to circumvent some of these issues, they were slammed by the community who miss-interpreted the intentions. (Bethesda Creation Club, anyone?)

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It depends on the mod, I will post this right here. No further comment is needed, except for a big thank you to the modder.

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Return on investment. That stops business decisions.

So they rather pay an entire team that does very small updates very rarely, than pay a single guy (who will also take less money since he probably not a gamedev star), for hundred times more content (that’s already complete)? That’s a… weird buisness, if they don’t want to dramaticly improve the game at almost no cost, but instead want to spent a fortune on tiny updates.

Mods are niche adjustments that will not be appreciated by most of the game users.

Name at least a single person who won’t appreciate at least all of the QOL changes i listed here.

Actually, the biggest hurdle is a legal one.

I don’t think there is a big problem in offering mod creator to legally sell his work and sign up a legal document that says “i sold it and won’t demand anything else”. Or just hire a guy to work for them, since he alone capable of doing work of many people.

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WMHB, that is another

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Ok, let’s start from the begin:

Agreed.

Well, I would argue to be like in Rust, you have 1 minute before placing where you can pick it up, after that you shouldn’t even be able to taking it out, you’ll need to bomb it. Like in rust, and it makes ton of sense especially for competitive pvp, you shouldn’t be able to “pack up and go”, much like in real life

Agreed.

Excuse me? that’s just cosmetic, who tells you i’m not going to draw my weapons at last moment anyway? I agree for cosmetic purposes but it’s going to put unecessary strain on this already unperformant game engine.

I’m not completely sure but I think the speed has something to do with using the elevators for meshing.

Kinda agreed on the thralls but not for building pieces, because I have my own opinion for the claim system that should be more like rust than “every building block is a claim”

Yeah pippi chat really nails it, agreed

Agreed

No minecraft perma-farming, just no. Players should grind the materials, not sitting all day in the base, but this is because of my opinion that this should be a pvp-only game.

Meh.

Agreed, I also want a rocknose mount.

Then why having the stats in the first place? The nice thing in this game is the almost limitless combinations you can make.

There’s already a mechanic in place so that you can’t repair during purges, it just needs to be ported over to “player not in clan damage” over a period of time.

Agreed, but knowing the performance of unreal engine it will be difficult.

It’s a medieval-kindish game, it doesn’t make sense to have virtual currencies. And I agree you should have a personal thrall that could sell stuff for you. But no minecraft villager traders farm, just no.

Sorcery should be to bring back dead thralls and pets. That’s it.

Here my toughts on claim. We should get bench or altar claim. Like the tool cupboard in Rust. So we could also take over abandoned bases or steal bases from our enemies.

Being here from the beginning of early access my fear is that they didn’t even know where they wanted to go with the game and that at some point because of FOMO (fear of missing out) they just started to promise and implement stuff just out of fear to loose potential sales, who remember when this game didn’t even had PvE? That was awesome, i was thinking “finally devs with some balls”, I was wrong.

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Modders have to also give up their projects too, but people who always post these “just buy the mods” posts never mention that part of it.

I can tell you right now, that Funcom does not need modders in order to have faster elevators. Or picking up buildings. There are reasons for their decisions, you may not like it, but Funcom is in charge of maintaining balance for the whole, not the niche. Not to mention AoC lore has absolutely nothing to do with Conan. And I doubt Espen would be as willing as you are to sell or give away the rights to his entire world he has built.

Also, modding and game development isn’t “simple” like you make in your argument.

Finally, not one of the mods you play with and adore could ever have been made without Funcom. Full stop. The dev kit and all of its tools exist because Funcom made it.

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They haven’t paid the team to do anything yet; the modder did it. Its a question of how much they’d have to pay the modder plus implement for consoles, do all the QA, and THEN make more money than what they could be doing instead. Only Funcom knows if it would make sense.

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Sorry, I just can’t take this seriously. Your whole post is about how mods are great and save the game, and then top off your list with quite possibly the worst reinforcement to that point. The one mod that completely disregards the base game story and content, and throws the entire hyborian age lore in the trash in favor of having elves.

This is a counter to your whole point by itself. Why would funcom add mods that essentially bootleg their own game and contradict the world they’ve built?

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Jimbo
That’s two.

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Three here

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I use to PC game… most of time Mods are for those that want it, and not always QoL. Cause QoL isn’t for everyone.

Issue one, Paying Modder.
Issue two, paying someone on Staff to go over Mod with fine tooth comb for hidden things and make sure its 100% working and can have Funcom name over it.

Not only did we use money, we used it twice and the staff time checking over Mod.

Some of Mods are indeed awesome… there a few I would love to see on Ps4. (all of them are new items, I don’t really care for most of QoL ones)

The buff one is hit or miss… If i drank warm tea… would I know its effects down to second? not really…

elevators are slow? they seem to move at a realstic speed for rope elevator. >_>

Chat wise… we don’t have chat on ps4, which is something I wanted at year 1. But year 3. I stop caring… (I’m mute and can’t speak) so most of “Life” of game I spent unable to chill out with peeps. I’m unlikely to ever go back online inless to hand out Conan Armor and Sword pre-order stuff.

Its not IGNOREing, by any means… its just Costly and a Liability to use Player Mods. Its not as simple as take it and install it for everyone. It needs to be checked to make sure its not doing stuff or will allow stuff to happen that shouldnt.

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four here.

I use only one mod: WYSIWYG Wheel of Pain.

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See, now that’s just something they could add to the game without paying someone else to do. That’s a suggestion in itself. Most of these QOL mods are honestly things the devs could do themselves, instead of contracting out minor tweaks to third party people.

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You play on console, so you not using mods is kind of moot since there exist none there.

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I own pc as well, and dont play with mods there.

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As a PS4 user I would use mods.
At least I’ll give it a try.
Take Fallout 4 as an example: sometimes I still play it only because of mods, and the chance to “renew” it somehow (and not mentioning that PS4 has strong limitations in mods!)
As a single-player I probably would use only cosmetic ones (showing weapons you are carrying, even sheated, would be simply cool) but surely I’d give them a try.

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The false sense of being safe from admin abuse and wipes until you need that admin and you get wiped anyway.