My Suggestions v1.0

Jetlag · January 31, 2019, 9:39am

After 1000+ hours In the game i would like to share some ideas i have to better the experience, fix bugs, make the game less tedious and maybe more creative.

Buildings Suggestions

Triangles. Triangular Ceilings and foundations to fill up gaps in corners. This will help with softening corners without getting in the rabbit hole to make everything out of wedges.
This:

Instead of this:
Stackable Chests. Chests stacking on top of each other will immensely help with loot management. Fixing the Auto Align feature to snap them on top of each other would be a welcome feature too.
Like so:

Current way to stack chests is this:
Gateways Snapping to Edges of Foundations. As it is, in order to snap a gate to the edge of a foundation to place a drawbridge you need to raise a “Fence Foundation” all the way from the ground to the place you want to build the gateway. The Issue is that you cant put “Spiked Fences” on “Fence Foundations” so your drawbridge is somewhat useless if people can climb it when its raised. Also gates that snap in the middle of the block create gaps if you put foundations to the sides of them, It is clear that gateways were meant to be snapped in edges of foundations in the first place like doorways do.
Half blocks. Halves or quarters of blocks would give more building options though i am not sure how the stability would work for those.
T4 Buildings. The level you get T3 is lvl 30 and after that there isnt any improvement on how tough your buildings can be, all you can do is put layers and layers of walls and foundations. Maybe whats needed is a higher tier that will need stronger and rarer materials like Hardened Steel Reinforcements and Demon Blood infused wood.

Player Suggestions

Option In Inventory to sort items by Expiration Time. This would help alot with Food Items, Pet Eggs and other items that expire.
Automatically Unlocking Feats when reaching the required level. I know… i know… you want players to have “professions” and “trade” and whatnot. However… why trade or wait for a clan member to log in to make me an item if i can just respec and do it my self? We can still trade with things that need effort to get like the food recipes you get from exploration, mountaineering etc etc. Maybe you could make some more rare exploration recipes for us to trade with and make normal feats for free. So its a win win…
Larger Item Stacks for more items. I played on testlive and saw stone and wood stack to 1000, hope this happens to more materials in the future like bricks and reinforcements. Also special arrows and items that stack to 20-25 need this. Would save space for us and space in the server too.

Clan Suggestions

Alliances. Clans to be able to make alliances would make some things more juicy perks could be, Door Access and No Thrall/Pet Aggro.
Color Coded Door “Keys”. Clan leader to be able to assign “colors” to doors and giving members access to said color through the clan tab.

General Suggestions

24hr Thrall Defence on PvP Servers. Its easy for someone to break a wall when you are offline and then wait for the PvP timing to end and just loot everything then. Its Also easy for an enemy to enter before the pvp timer in your base and summon an Avatar from the inside or your roof just when the PvP Starts. Thralls defending 24/7 would prevent people from exploiting the PvP Timer to loot your base and all the griefing that comes with it.
Divine Protection on Death. we all had the times that you just slip in the volcano and you see your body just rolling away in the lava with all your things inside, or the times that your body just vanishes in thin air along with all the star metal you just farmed or the 10000 steel bars you just looted. Now what if Mitra or Yog (or whoever is your preferred divinity) would offer protection of your items from DECAY (MEANING NOBODY LOOTED THEM, SO DOESNT AFFECT PVP). In exchange for 50 or 100 Zeal.
So the next time you visit the volcano, before jumping in the well of skelos you ask your god to protect you and the next time you die you know that hes got your back.
An option to clear all player created markers from the map. some times they overlap game markers and then they get stuck and unable to delete.

thats it for now, hope you guys like it and that the devs see it and will update this if i get more ideas.

Mikey · January 31, 2019, 11:03am

Not gonna happen. Asked many times before, and it’s unworkable for many, many reasons, main one being that no other pieces would fit the “long side” (hypotenuse).

This I could get behind. Incidentally, I find it easier to use shelves on a wall, and then placing the chests on those. Or tables, which - while grossly inefficient - look far superior IMO (you can fit 4 chests on one foundation tile that way).

Also not going to happen, for the same reasons as the 90 degree pieces won’t.

•

The rest of them are of no particular interest one way or the other to me, so I’ll not comment on those

Jetlag · January 31, 2019, 11:17am

well nothing fits the wedge either. they could have exception for Spiked Fences to fit on the long side make them look longer when you attach them there. if there is will there is a way. I am not sure if you are familiar with other building games but some offer a much wider variety of building blocks

Crysis · January 31, 2019, 12:21pm

It seems like the triangle shaped foundation and ceiling could be done. You would just need a wall specifically for that particular piece. Rather than attempting to use the normal wall.

As for chest stacking, it’d really only make sense if the chests had drawers on the front to open when interacting, rather than the top flipping up.

Mikey · January 31, 2019, 12:39pm

Sure. A wall.
…and a fence.
…and a frame.
…and a stair (with and without rails).
…and a ramp.
…and a doorway.
…and a gate.
…and every permutation of roof.
…and there’s probably something I’ve forgotten.

Multiply this for every tier and style. Trust me, it’s an insane amount of work to add that. Producing the assets themselves is one thing, that could probably largely be done off of the existing ones, though the hypotenuse (long side) is ~41% longer, so it wouldn’t look right to just stretch it. Then comes the issue of essentially doubling the number of building pieces for loading, and even the overloading of the building menu. It just wouldn’t work.

Could it be done “smarter” ? Sure, there’s several ways, for example if the whole system was designed to be mutable from the start, so one wall piece would fit whatever length edge it was applied to. That just isn’t the system we have for CE, and I sincerely doubt it will be changed now. Maybe for CE2, if that ever happens.

Jetlag · January 31, 2019, 1:37pm

Again the “normal ones” could be used on the long side but with a new size just for that side so you dont overload the menu or make new “sizes” etc etc the devs would have to work on new pieces sure just once tho the rest is retexturing but isnt what they do with the DLC anyway? making pieces ? well its not something crazy important we can live without this but it would be nice to have.

Nuria · January 31, 2019, 1:48pm

Though one can do it manually by using additional foundations and walls. One can make the next foundation snap a tad above the other foundations due to the wall. Thus it is possible without actual “half pieces”.
Small lil towns can be done this way and it looks super cute!

btw I never thought about the building pieces on the “long” side of that piece. Makes sense though. Damn.

Mikey · January 31, 2019, 1:49pm

Yes, like I said, if that sort of functionality existed for Conan Exiles - but it doesn’t. Building pieces are not mutable or dynamic in any way.

Yes of course it could be done, just about anything could be done after all, but the amount of work compared to the value it provides? Not going to happen. The DLC packs generally don’t offer new functionality - just new cosmetics/visuals. And even then there’s occasionally bugs.

We agree on that at least. I feel like once you get comfortable with the building system, you’d rarely need this.

For the record though, I’m not against having angled pieces in principle at all, I just know it’s not going to happen.

And if Funcom were to dedicate any sort of effort towards brand new pieces (rather than just the same pieces in a different DLC), there’s many things I’d much, much rather see than 90 degree angle pieces - doors/gates of “size 2” for example (right now there’s nothing between size 1 and size 4).

That is of course true. But then any discrepancies/mismatches when trying to tie it together is entirely on the user, whereas if Funcom were to add the right-angle pieces, users would (rightly) expect to be able to use walls, roofs etc with those pieces.

Jetlag · January 31, 2019, 2:04pm

I dont think you get my point. Maybe i dont explain this right. Either way its up to the devs to see if its a nice idea or not. I think that most blocks arent supper hard to make and it seems very simple to implement. It would just be a switch from the normal part to the longer every time it tries to snap on the side thats all. The creative part is the effort to it, not the actual rendering of the block.

Mikey · January 31, 2019, 2:47pm

Entirely possible.

Of course. They have previously commented on this, though, and the gist was exactly as outlined above: no plans at this time, not likely to ever happen, way too much work for the value gained.

Then respectfully, I suggest you go ahead and make a mod that does all this. I’ll be the first to eat crow if you manage. I’ll give you… three months? It’s simple to make after all, right?

Yes, BUT as I keep saying: that system does not exist, and building parts are not mutable which means that they would have to be created in both sizes, which leads back to essentially doubling the set of building pieces.

Well maybe, depending on the implementation, but even the rendering could be an issue since they’d probably have to forego any instancing for the longer pieces, so it could lead to a significant increase in draw calls. However, like I said, that depends on what tricks they’re using in the rendering pipeline right now, and I’m not familiar with the details of that for CE.

Caco · January 31, 2019, 4:14pm

Please no more grinding, T3’s are suficient.

SteveKeepsDying · January 31, 2019, 5:30pm

*Love the clan suggestions, large stacks, half-blocks, thrall defense 24/7, clear markers from the map stuff.

*Not so keen on the divine protection, T4 building, or automatically unlocked feats.

*Just FYI: Gateways can snap to foundations without fence foundations being used, it just takes some maneuvering. Unless you are specifically referencing drawbridges or I am misunderstanding you.

One solution could be to add a ‘converter’ piece that houses the normal sized pieces inside of it. Imagine a door frame but instead of a door-sized hole, it’s big enough to fit a standard wall, window frame, or door frame within it.

Of course this creates an additional material cost, but knowing that this is part of a solution to another problem, Funcom could make the material cost for this ‘triangular conversion’ piece much cheaper than its peers. Think of it like one of those small dock pieces for microSD cards.

Even if I had to spend a couple extra materials to achieve designs with this triangular piece, it would absolutely be worth it. Lots of cool designs that can’t be made because there’s no triangle in the game, and I’m not kidding, nearly every person I’ve ever had conversations about the building mechanics in this game has lamented the absence of this triangle piece.

Jetlag · February 1, 2019, 12:22am

Can you respectfully eat your crow? or whatever that means cause the mod is called Pythagoras and it already exists in the workshop.

Not my creation but proves the point. I dont understand your negativity so please flame it some place else.

Crysis · February 1, 2019, 12:30am

Seems like if this is already a mod, Funcom should be able to take the mod, vet it for an incompatibilities or problems, and if they are happy with the work, then get in touch with the mod designer about it’s inclusion into the main game files for PC and console.

Jetlag · February 1, 2019, 12:33am

Thanks for reading the post and the feedback m8 very much appreciated. Hope the devs notice too.
As for the Gate if it snaps without fence foundation it snaps in the middle of the normal foundation which means side walls dont snap properly and foundations on the sides create a small indentation. Also the drawbridge doesnt snap cause it colides with the foundation.

Multigun · February 1, 2019, 12:59am

Mikey’s point still stands, in my opinion. Since I’ve been actively working on Pythagoras the last 2 weeks (because it crashes on testlive so I’ve been working to save the mod), I can weigh on this debate with a little bit of perspective from that angle.

Please bear in mind that the mod author did a terrific job with what they had, so everything I have to say is not meant to be any sort of negative spite against the mod author. Sunday (mod author) is an amazing modder and really helped me from the very beginning when I barely even knew my way around the dev kit.

Now then, Pythagoras longer pieces were done in a mod friendly way, they were simply widened. Meaning, they aren’t professionally done at all, the mesh is literally just stretched out, textures and all. For mod work, this works great, easy peasy. Sunday was smart to do it this way for modding. For professional standards, it’s not something passible at all. The art team would have to invest some serious resources and time in order to make this an actual reality.

There are also limitations to offering more building pieces in the game, as Mikey talked about you have to create longer pieces for literally every building piece in the game, all the DLCs, everything (Pythagoras barely touches on the available pieces). That is a ton of extra rendering power required, not to mention the man power to back track like that. You have to design the artwork, you have to test it, then there are exploit and balancing concerns to consider, the list goes on and on. Then going back to rendering, consoles and low end PCs? They are already at the brink of what they can handle, adding hundreds(yes, triple digit territory) of new pieces like this would send them over the edge.

The point Mikey is trying to make is that it isn’t impossible to make. And I don’t mean to speak on Mikey’s behalf here, but I think the point he is trying to make as this isn’t a simple addition to the game. Not even close, and for what little it brings, it’s not worth the investment or the cost to performance. He is also correct that Funcom has already weighed their thoughts on this, and it was largely a no.

It’s great idea as a mod project, I would love to dust off my 3D art skills and do a full scale version of this, expand on what Sunday started (though not DLCs since those aren’t in the dev kit). But for the base game, it’s way more complicated and just isn’t feasible this late into development.

Without deep diving into this one, Funcom has already weighed on this too. The inclusion of modder assets will likely never happen, for a number of reasons. I’ll provide you a time stamp here in a bit where Funcom talked about it during a live stream, but even that discussion only briefly touches on why it won’t happen. Funcom can be inspired by a modders work and see what people like, but that’s where it ends.

Jetlag · February 1, 2019, 1:20am

I get your point thought I still think you exaggerate the effort needed for this project. I don’t really care about the triangles it was merely a suggestion tho I felt I had to respond to the smug aggression and negativity. What I would like to see the most is the stackable chests to be honest. It used to work before the pet update but right now it’s impossible to stack them on top of each other. Thanks for the reply tho, but I’d like to here your opinion on the other suggestions too.

Multigun · February 1, 2019, 1:53am

I’ll add the chests to my ever growing list of placeables to look at to see if I can determine a course of action to make them easier to stack from the back end side of things. Though as I recall, they’ve always been silly like this, unmodded anyways. Probably high time I took a look at them more deeply.

I don’t mean to come off as exaggerating. I do feel that given my life experiences, research and studies into game development, and extensive modding work that there is credence to what I talk about (though probably biased in said opinion and if anything I felt like I under explained the work required), but I won’t seek to debate the topic further.

Some of your suggestions I don’t hold much opinion over, but here’s a few of thoughts since you requested it.

Also on my list of things I’ll be looking at.

As a modder and builder fan, I like variety a lot so I’m often fine with the ideas of adding new and cool toys. From a vanilla perspective, probably not for a number of reasons (similar to that of the triangle debate).

I’m fine with this. I don’t think there is anything performance hindering with having larger stacks on more items, but I could be wrong. It could be Funcom is dipping their toes in the water with this (in consideration of what’s on testlive) and seeing how things go.

That would certainty solve that bug by offering that solution. Good idea.

Kaziklu · February 1, 2019, 2:06am

There have been mods during EA that do much of this. The Big issue which has already been mentioned is You need at least 6 different piece on top the foundation in each tier and each DLC and you need to make sure snapping works with every other piece (an issue in the early game) it can be done. Pythagoras was a mod that did this but I don’t know if it is active and it never worked perfectly.
Chest used to stack I was surprised they don’t now… so that is a design decision. Though they may never have stacked better than that. It would be nice to have a Stackable chest set… personally though I’d rather have an advanced chest/cupboard with three storage areas each the size of a chest and using mats to match
Half blocks again require additional work that isn’t on the list right now… you really should check out the Pythagoras mod.

I won’t go into a deep dive… much of these are covered in mods in private servers. Some of the mods are still around others not so much.

Rennia · February 1, 2019, 4:11am

Would be neat, but I have to agree, I’m not sure it would make a lot of sense given they open from the top. Now stacking cabinets and stuff like that? That I could see.

Would be interesting, but then I think you’d probably have to migrate the DLC stuff to T4 just to be fair to them given that their stuff would no longer match ‘endgame’ levels. I mean I suppose you could do another bracket, but that’s what… 4 more groups of building items to add to the game? Not sure the Devs would want to do that, so the most likely option would be the former.

I’ll go one further, this and bags to sort inventory, please. That said, probably shouldn’t increase total inventory count (See below)

As has been pointed out in other places, and as you yourself have pointed out, effort is required in the respec, both in getting the item required to respec, and doing the actual respec. Further, one of the reasons there are so many skills as opposed to skill point is in an effort to make the player choose. It is not so much of a huge deal when you get to the point you can afford to do the respeccing, but in the end choices are a part of the whole ‘surviving’ aspect. Make a decision based on your needs, not your wants.

I don’t know how many more items they could safely increase the stack limit on, and here’s why. I actually support them retaining the limit on things like ironstone and other materials because, if you’re unaware, there’s a hard limit to how much you can carry in your inventory (Not just by weight), and how much you can store in given forms of storage (Chests, crafting stations, etc) and I strongly believe that limiting your capacity to store things is in fact a big part of upping the difficulty. It keeps you from hording too much too easily, and it keeps people from being able to steal too much from you in a single go. More effort being required for both. The things they opened the llimit up on were easy to get materials that are near universal throughout Conan and are neither particularly game breakingly useful, nor devastating to lose. If someone stole 10k stone from you… It’s not the end of the world. Annoying, yes… but You can just go out and mine a bunch more rock and be done with it. However, if someone stole say… 10k star metal or obsidian… That would be a little different.

Yes. Please. Like Alliances in EVE online being comprised of different corps. Could also see it being useful for things like PVE where you can have friendly fire off, or at least it would be easier to separate them from the enemy.

I think a naming and perhaps grouping system would be a better approach here, rather than having to potentially deal with a bazillion different colors. The naming system would allow individual door keys not assigned to other groups/colors while the grouping system would allow you to assign them to multiple different groups, and then grant members access to said groups, or perhaps based on rank. Either approach would be workable.

This could cause its own form of griefing in which the griefer trains up a bunch of T4 thralls, throws them into an undefended base, and then when you spawn in at your base… Or they could simply place them at certain resources or at different choke points and just generally cause mayhem.

I sorta like this idea, but it would definitely have to be on a timer.

Overall some interesting ideas. Some of them I think could work, others perhaps with tweaks like (but not necessarily just) the ideas I posted above.