I love the direction Conan Exiles has gone since release and appreciate the work put into new content - both free and dlc. With that, I’d love to see some new content that adds different gameplay mechanics such as:
A dungeon or a small map expansion based on the city of thieves from the Tower of the Elephant REH story. This could be a city built vertically and therefore use a smaller land space. Core dynamics would be climbing into apartments/rooms where bosses, mini bosses, and treasures would be. The walls of said buildings could be trapped for further challenges that cause players to fall to their death. Ideally I’d love to see a requirement for climbing gear or speccing into grit to complete the hardest challenges here. Keys could drop from certain bosses that unlock chests elsewhere adding a dynamic of risk vs. reward to attempt climbing to further challenges.
Also if sorcery is ever added to game, I think a server-wide “purge meter” that goes up with player sorcery usage would be cool. Original Conan stories discuss the use of too much sorcery causing time and space to unravel. Consequences could be meteors falling map-wide that can destroy any base, all purges spawning at maximum difficulty, or demonic bosses around the map, etc. I have many ideas for this, but I’m sure the development team could come up with even better too.
2.5. If there is no sorcery added to game, a system like this could be added using existing mechanics like map room teleports or anything utilising dragonpowder. This would add a whole new level of challenge to PvE players and servers who are max level and farming dungeons and materials, and help balance PvP servers where “alpha” clans thrive. A common effort in preventing or dealing with the repercussion of “sorcery” could add new community dynamics and add a survival challenge for even the strongest bases.
I have read all the original Robert E Howard books so I tend to base my expectations on that as source material.
Originally sorcery was going to use corruption as a resource. I think it would work better as a system of crafting that happens to have a corruption debuff. Certain recipes would need different materials and crafting may or may not require a station depending on what you are making. Basic spells would be like arrows that you have materials for and craft as you use them from an off-handed tool. We could also have weapon buffs and player buffs that add corruption when you use them but exceed current buffs. Everything give some amount of corruption and once you are maxed it started hurting you to keep crafting spells. Not a big deal at your house but is a problem in PvP.
This would keep spellcasters sort of frail as casting spells reduces your health. We would need to change the survival perk that removes corruption and fix the buggy targeting.
Paid expansion coming this year so here’s hoping.
Also sorcery boss meter. Using sorcery causes weird weather. Cast too many rituals and Thag comes over to your house to see what’s up.
Don’t mention new map your post will be hidden. I mentioned this and it was hidden, maybe because I also mentioned they plan on making players pay for it as a new DLC. Where funcom previously said DLC would only consist of cosmetic items/placeables.
I’m old enough to remember having to buy expansions for all of my pc games. I’ve played old school MMO games where you paid a monthly fee and full price for expansions. I know the hurt.
I don’t mind buying and expansion to a game I love so long as I feel that it’s worth the investment. At this point all we can do is speculate on content but people have chosen to be upset on principal without any information as far as the content. From where I’m at I’ve spent money on this game and had loads of full playing it. If they want to make an expansion (stop calling it DLC) I’ll decide once I have the information if its going to be worth it.
You are right as far as putting new content on the shoulders of the new map. If they are going to create new system changes (like sorcery) we all would hope that those are for everyone and not just for expansion players.
As far as paid or unpaid, that has nothing to do with the original topic. For me, I’ll support good quality content whichever route they go.
Something for the whole server to unite against would be the largest improvement to the game on a longevity basis. Something that keeps max level characters “surviving” and rebuilding in between content updates. New dungeons like what I’d mentioned are great, but an uber-powered thrall quickly puts those into farming routines.