New Purge System Comments

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
1

I play single player mode and have been playing the same character for many years now. I have built up a very large base that had been upgraded and redesigned over the years to incorporate patches, DLC and now the new chapters. I have played over 3000 hours starting out on a private server with some mates and continuing on with the server saved in single player after they’ve all moved on.

I was really looking forward to the new “purge” (It’s not really a purge in any sense of the word though, is it? It’s a raid), however after dragging myself away from Starfield and spending an afternoon trying to get the purge to spawn at my main base only to be continually frustrated by the message, “There is no reachable location for the purge to setup it’s base camp.”

I then moved to one of my secondary bases outside The Den (desert side) and spent another entire afternoon redesign and rebuilding a ‘vault base’ with defenses. Declare Wealth. After about two dozen attempts the purge spawned successfully twice and the rest of the time I got the "No reachable location…"message.

I then did a bit of research and discovered that I had made my defences too well so I simplified the base pathways and entrance dramatically to give a much easier path for the poor npc’s. This was when I was lucky enough to get the two test spawns.

Of the two times it did actually spawn, they gave up after the second wave because I had 6 level 20 thralls defending the entrance. Pfffft…waste of time even trying.

Why would this work a couple of times and not others??

Just to satisfy my urge to see this new purge first hand, (I was very disappointed after reading a few posts on this forum about the new purge system), I then found the biggest, open-est place in the desert I could find, built a ridiculous looking square with a few walls and a gateway entrance and a foundation wall with 2 doors in the simplest, straightest line possible. I set up a lvl 8 purge with my character and 4x level 20 well armed and armoured thralls. My static defenses were so flimsy they made it through the gates ind into the “vault” but lucked out

Needless to say, it worked but I am so disappointed in the fact that you can’t have even a partially decent set of defenses or the purge won’t spawn at all or they give up.

Anyway, after getting the purge to work at the 3rd mini crap base I decided that your dev’s had a pretty good idea but the implementation is terrible.

I don’t want a separate vault location with the most basic defenses just to be able to spawn the purge. This is, I believe, NOT what was intended by the devs.

The current implementation also make the days I spent building two new fortresses specifically for the new ‘purge’ (one in the Exiled Lands and one on Siptah), a complete waste of time as now I see that their locations would never allow a ‘purge’ to happen.

I want to be able to take my treasure and hoard it in my big fancy main base, where ever it is and let them come and try their luck getting to my stash. I would like to see well armed and armoured npc’s attack my fortress.

Or have one, two,or three stealth burglars actually seek out the cracks in my defenses and try to get in by climbing walls and trying to dodge guards.

As for the loot rewards I liked the inclusion of repair hammers and materials to help repair the base afterwards but apart from 1 new medium treasure to add to my vault, 2/3 of it was just crap I left behind because after years of playing and building up a huge storeroom with all resources in bulk stashed, more just wasn’t necessary.

Now I realise that for all those playing on servers or in multiplayer scenarios, this type of loot might be more beneficial so I don’t really have any problem with that aspect as the dev’s cannot fully anticipate the wide scope of how different people play.

I hope there’s something useful in my wall of text that might help lead to a better RAID system.

Thanks.
Zool

PS Please change the name to “Raid”, by definition it’s not a ‘purge’ or ever has been.

For reference:
Main Base

Main Base
Main Base1920×1080 443 KB

Vault Base

Vault Base
Vault Base1920×1080 248 KB

Crap base to get purge to actually spawn.

Successful Purge Base
Successful Purge Base1920×1080 348 KB

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2

I agree with 1 thing, this new mechanic shouldn’t replace old purge. They both can exist in the same time.
Old one need some tweaks and improvements yes - but it was ideal for the game.
It gave a lot of purpose to the base (defense) building and thrall (pet) army.
Even on PVE people build their bases with possible online\offline NPC raid in mind. Now, everything gone.
Now, most of bases (99% of them) are completely purgeless and lost their value.
No need no build defenses and army of thralls (pets) - because no1 gonna attack it ever.
For the new “purge” you need to create small tower defense (aka raid) base.
Yes, on PVP main bases are still in danger because of raids, but on PVE main bases are lost a big chunk of their goal and gameplay - constant threat from local tribes and beasts.
The raid goal -is to steal.
the purge goal -is to erase player base from the area (so, you must defend your place in the world time after time).

3 Likes
3

The new system was fun to try out a couple of times, but then it just got old. I lost a couple of T4 fighters because one wouldn’t fight and other one got stuck instantly. The loot you get is really not worth the trouble and the fact that you can’t even build proper defenses for the raid is just outright boring.

Why would i need T4 thralls as a reward when they can be knocked out just like that and broken in one hour? If the “purge” thralls had some unique stats or abilities like in the good old days, then it would be worth it. Also no proper armor or anything (so far, at least).

And why would i want to buy explosives when the 4x rates make sure that i have vaults full of dragonpowder in an instant anyways?

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4

Yep, the old ‘purge’ was better, though for me it always ended attacking a random bridge or walkway I’d built, never any of the actual manned/defended bases scattered around the map.

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5

Yes, i agree, the aol purge was better (the new one is hyper bugged : non reacheable location every time…)

6

Didn’t like the old purge system. I would always cancel them out with the Convergence Trap.

New system is great. I built a crap base without any esthetic design with the sole purpose of it getting destroyed. Invited my friends and we had a blast defending it.

PvE player here!

2 Likes
7

I also miss the old purge. One cannot deny, though, that the old purge was horribly broken. NPCs spawning below the map. NPCs spawning in the middle of the base for no apparent reason. Sometimes, you got a small trickle of Exiles, other times a gazillon of Volcano or Cimmerian soldiers that could wreck mountains. Some purge types never spawned at least for me. Some areas were strictly off-limits due to the danger of a Rocknose purge with Rockslide, destroyer of worlds, spawning inside your base.

Fixing that system probably would have been a drag.

The new system is not without bugs, but so far, I’ve never had NPCs spawn inside a mountain or similarly game-breaking stuff.

Personally, I wouldn’t have made it completely optional. For example, every base could require a treasure room and have a build or thrall limit depending on how much treasure it contains. Then, the purge could active with the old purge meter or a similar system, and you’d have a fixe new-old-hybrid.

4 Likes
8

You are right,

  • the new “purge” is actually no purge as you need to build a special “purge base” in a way that the purge works and you don’t loose your thralls.
  • the rewards for victory are mostly crap and don’t reward the time and resources you have to spend for a level 8-10 purge.
  • it is too buggy; sometimes the boss vanishes and you can’t stop it anymore; other times it stops near to the end cause the attackers can’t find their way anymore

maybe with the next patch it becomes better; atm it feels unrewarding and pretty senseless.

9

repost of what I had to say:

The new purge is a waste of time, and not engaging for PVE players.

While there are improvements (relentless assaults, tougher mobs), the playstyle changes are a net negative.

First, purges are not worth it.

  • I have ENOUGH named bearers now, thank you.
  • Non-bearers are uniformly low-tier combat thralls (or an occasional dancer).
  • The loot is worthless and unrewarding.
  • The prices for mercenaries and other items from the vendor are laughable.
  • The loss in combat thralls and damaged walls/doors etc. is unbalancing; I do not expect to profit vs. purges all the time, but this leads to…

The dynamic has changed from a game challenge to a self-challenge.

  • Ask yourself this: if you were faced with an unrewarding dungeon that you had NO need to go into, would you do so?
  • Once you’ve done it for the challenge, would you keep doing it? Repeatedly?
    Would your friends?
  • So WHY would your clan trigger purges? “Stop me from hitting my head with this hammer!”

The new purge lends itself to cheesy exploits

  • The old purge involved attacks from multiple directions and strengths. Your defenses had to be robust and faced largely realistic design constraints.

  • The new purge involves an incredibly unrealistic tactic that breaks immersion: the conga line. It’s just ridiculous-looking.

  • Existing bases are largely unusable

  • The single-focus attack lends itself to – even encourages – massive exploitation.

  • Minimal defenders to reduce attack sizes, long, narrow and winding paths, no-wall bases, treasure in the open (so the attackers **** off and stand there, instead of grabbing loot).

  • The actual challenge is LESS

Yeah, in PVP, you still need a good base. But why put your treasure in it? If someone comes along and steals it, then they can put it in their treasure room. This would be in order to trigger cheesy, no-profit purges, that other clans can crash and steal the worthless loot or bearer thralls, of course. Um, well, bragging rights I guess. “We stole your pointless loot, hur, hur!”
In PVE, now you don’t need to worry about defending anything but your loot room. You need only enough combat thralls and walls to stop the local wildlife, so you’ve got a much reduced need to worry about defenses against a purge that will never happen. So just get your crafter thralls and (mostly) ignore the rest.

No need to scramble for defense

Maybe my group is weird, but we liked random purges. It kept things fresh.

  • We had to be flexible. We each had our own bases, so any of us could be attacked on short notice. (private server, fyi) Half the fun was going, “My base! Again???”
  • It encouraged cooperative play – the clan member you helped defend his base today would be inclined to return the favor tomorrow.
  • It also encouraged friendly competitiveness. “Hey look at my bad*** artistic base!” (Not “Look at my super-xploit base!”)

Purge participation has cratered on our server, along with play time. Why log on to see if anyone needs help with a purge, or to gain thralls to defend your base, when anyone can trigger (or avoid) a purge any time they want, and they aren’t worth it anyway? You can’t get any good crafting thralls from the lower tier purges, the loot sucks, and the combat thralls are not worth the potential loss of your own.

And you want to add purge trebuchets to really smash things up? Ah, no. Just…no,

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10

Old purge needed some improvement. New purge is trash, just like everything this team has done since Age of Sorcery.

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11

I won’t touch the game until the devs either fix or get rid of the new purge.

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12

They are still under the threat that funcom releases a patch that completely wipes everything like with the nemedian set.

I agree with that, i’d prefer that you wouldnt have control over “summoning” you enemies when you feel ready to face them.

14

Let’s not be too negative here.

We haven’t seen the final state of the new purge system yet. The announcements sound pretty cool.

Also, the new system seems less prone to bugs and error than the last one. And as you can start it by hand at your convenience, some bugs are less aggravating. Nothing like building a base in a specific spot just to provoke a specific old purge, only for one lonely soldier to spawn inside a mountain, messing up the whole event.

16

That is a very easy question to answer. Most people who have a positive or even neutral experience rarely take the time to go to the forums to write about it. But those who have a negative one, or a perceived negative one, WILL go for the forums to complain. Thus, the number of threads / posts will always be skewed dramatically regardless of the actual experiences of the players.

Now, do not take this to mean that I am defending the new purge mechanic. I am not. I am not complaining about it either. I am one of those “neutral” people personally. I am simply writing to answer your question. :wink:

1 Like
17

Completely agree with this. Loved the old purge system even though it had many short comings. The new purge has SO much potential, but will never offer the same thrill as the old system.

By the way, wonder how much thought they have put into the distance the purge will travel to your coffer. Seems every update, they change the leash length for NPCs and this new purge is a form of NPCs. Hope it never comes down to constant failure because the leash is too short.

2 Likes
18

this new system is really annoying. I have been running purges for a week in one location. Nothing has changed with my layout and they have been starting without issue and finishing without issue. Tonight I keeps failing with the scouting saying cannot find suitable place to start. went out and cleared all the trees and rocks, then it starts and stops after 20 seconds with the message cannot find clear path to treasure. there are just 2 doors blocking them, and this has worked fine for the past week or so.

20

Im really worried by the amount of bugs and problems since this last update, AND that they are forced to also work on chapter 3 at this time. My main base that Ive been building since may was essentially completely disabled by the recent altitude related bugs, and I worry how long it will take for them to fix those. I lost pretty much all will to play because of it.

A year in an official pvp server and the raids and the trashtalk didnt make me leave. This last bug and Funcoms inactivity made me comtemplate quitting.

I dont have a good feeling about conan atm. :neutral_face:

I’d honestly prefer if they pushed chapter 3 back until they have fixed these bugs.

21

I agree with you old purge system + new is best solution. I prefer old purge with mods thats make it more difficult and you never know whats will come for you :slight_smile:
For now, i don’t see any reason to play conan without old purges.
I was hoping that funcom will improve the old system, not remove it.

22

A lot of us have been voicing the same concerns about their release cadence for a while now.

At this point, it’s impossible to deny that the release quality has been slipping drastically, and the cadence of releasing a new chapter every 3 months is unsustainable, even with the scope reductions we’ve seen in chapter 1 of AoW.

However, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to correct their course. If Conan Exiles were a ship, it would have a skeleton crew, and the rudder would be fixed in place while most of the sailors are busy on the Dune ship. And if they sail Conan Exiles over a waterfall, well, that’s the price you have to pay for Dune.

2 Likes
23

Pls tell me is offline purge was such a THING back then?
I mean, the whole salepoint of new system is - no need to worry about being purged offline and play constantly, you play purge only when you want…
Sooo?
I played since 2018, and maybe i was lucky but i don’t even remember offline purge being so painfull?
For me… each purge was while online, maybe couple of purges hit me offline but manage to destroy only external layers of defenses.
Offline NPC purges give a big weight to the defenses and thralls (pets too). Now, they lost their purpose.
Just saying.