Hey so I’ve always played either solo, or PvP on official. A little while ago I checked out some PvE servers with my son. I was hoping what I’d heard wouldn’t prove true… but it did.
Everywhere we went, on multiple servers, it was super laggy because there were ginormous walls everywhere. On one Siptah map for example a whole river was walled up along both sides. Animals and thralls just everywhere. We’ve all seen the odd posts here where people complain and ask Funcom to fix it, but really this is something players are choosing to do. Only the community can fix this by changing the culture.
So if you play on PvE official, I’m interested to know: do you enjoy building freaking huge great walls of China and vast palaces all over the map? If you don’t, why do you think people do this? And if you’re one of the ones who does do it… WHY?
I’m genuinely curious, as when I played solo before I went online, I’d get bored pretty quickly and do things like try to solo bosses with a stone weapon. It honestly never once occurred to me to build a freaking huge structure. I definitely wouldn’t do it online as it would be a hellacious grind, plus it seems anti-social. If you do this because you’re bored, then why not test yourself in a more exciting way that doesn’t impact other players? If it’s for some competitive reason, like “look how much of the map I can control” then might I suggest you come to PvP if you want to (try to) lord it over other gamers.
It’s easier to build big when you can get a clan in on it. Co-Op mode only has so far you can go. It’s strange they chose to do it on PvE Official, rather than a private server, but people can be wary of Private Servers because they are more strictly moderated. It’s fine if you get along with the Server Owners, but if a person wants to invest a lot of time to build something the public can access and see, they may feel the PvE Official servers are a better place to showcase their work, since the Official Moderators will be more consistent in rulings. Unfortunately, the Official Moderators are also in charge of looking over a massive amount of servers, so it can take time for them to respond to reports of abuse. Some clans also aim to take advantage of this weakness.
Either way, it’s actually VERY social when you build big, whatever your reasons. If it was possible, it would be interesting to see them make some sort of “Building” focused public servers… What could they remove from the game to improve resources for an Official “Architect” type server, I wonder?
I’m hoping for more dynamic changes to how the game responds to extreme player behaviors personally. Check out “Affront to the Gods” if you have a chance.
See, when you say “take advantage of this weakness” that implies that people are doing this for some exploitative reason, like to wall off other players from a resource or something. But on PvE or PvE-C I just can’t get my head around why someone would want to do this. I know people do but I don’t why, and I want to understand them. Why would somoene take a competitive mindset to a non-competitive game mode? I mean besides the obvious answer (i.e. they are a massive jerk).
That is a cool idea. Honestly that’s what it feels like, people who like building just wanna build, and it would be nice if they had a place to go to do that where it didn’t cramp everyone else’s gaming.
I’m all for public buildings, even big ones, if they look nice and have a function. But a giant boring wall? A grid of sandstone just covering an area? It’s hard for me to see how that contributes to social gameplay.
Also I did see your Affront to the Gods post. I think it’s a good idea but it needed a more thoughtful response than I had time to make. I’ll try and get back to it
I never have a problem with big builds. It’s always neat to see what people build.
I recently found myself building long walls, but in the EL, I built it for Purge reasons as I built up North and the purges are not very friendly.
On Siptah, People keep bringing over the 3 skull boss Spider I settled by when im not around and it kills my followers. So I built a wall to keep it out. (Hasn’t worked yet)
My biggest issue with these big long walls being built, is people build over the pathways that lead to places and they don’t leave their gates open.
I leave mine open and always close it when a Purge hits.
Then they build around places that you need to get to for journey steps. Or important lore for the game.
There are so many reasons a person can be a jerk… very few of them are ultimately intentional reasons. Some people are completely out of touch with themselves and just run rampant everywhere they go. This is why clear boundaries are needed.
-These can take the form of well known rules that result in Moderator intervention.
-They can be game mechanics to resist the unwanted or abusive implementation of a game function.
-They can’t be social boundaries though. Certainly not in Conan, which is a game that is about being uncivilized (at least on some level.)
It’s a huge waste of resources to have any sort of active involvement in telling people how to behave. Fortunately, it’s in a video games nature to reward good game behaviors, and punish, often progressively, bad video game behaviors.
I don’t need to sympathize with a jerk for any reason. From an empathy standpoint, I can understand that if my life wasn’t going how I expected or liked, I might be very frustrated and take it out in other channels. If they are doing it in video games, that’s actually IDEAL… provided the game is designed in a manner that takes into account people’s varying degrees of spiritual cultivation and balances it against the core goals of the game. Some games are actually better for jerks and run into problems of abuse from people who are ultra fragile instead. Thus, those games need different kinds of systems to handle different sorts of problems. It takes all kinds… You don’t want to play Chess with someone who will flip the board… but you also don’t want to play Chess with someone who’s going to burst into genuine tears when they think they are losing. The deep market penetration and ease of access Video Games have attracts people blindly, sometimes.
Thanks, that’s interesting! I never thought that giant walls might be to attract the purge away from your actual stuff. But then again, don’t you sort of want the purge to come? Like in PvP, I sort of want to be raided as it’s exciting and there are things at stake, and it gives a reason to raid back.
And the spider thing, I guess the people could be luring it on purpose because they are jerks but more likely it’s an accident. Either way a wall does solve the problem
Yes the purge is good. But wait till you get the “Army of Nordheimers”
Your going be happy you have that wall.
When I was done it literally looked like a real battlefield. Bodies everywhere. Even lost some of my wall. Lost a Level 20 Lian.
Yes, I think people are doing it accidentally.
Though I have posted Caution signs. Haha
Thing is, even if they run away. The Spider does not go back to his Spawn point till the sever resets or is killed Glitch. Glitch in the game. Fun times walking out your door and here this big Spider jumps you.
I don’t agree with you here, though I admit that could be because I come from a PvP standpoint. In PvP the players have the tools to discipline one another and absolutely do, so social cultures are created and enforced. For example, I played on a server once where the alpha clan wanted to encourage new players. They had a rule that they didn’t raid T1 and T2 bases unprovoked. As alphas tend to do though, they expanded this rule to everyone else who built in T3. So if you were on that server and had a black ice base and you raided a new player on the river, the alphas would go to war with you. I’ve also sadly played on servers where the alphas simply flattened everyone until they were alone on the server and called it a win, and other cases where they generally left people alone unless they were attacked first (but had no compunctions about blowing people’s doors in to look for enemies they suspected were hiding with other clans). All of these types of “kings” create a culture whether intentionally or not and it is enforced within the game in real terms.
I suppose I thought maybe the community could apply some sort of leverage, and didn’t stop to think that outside PvP mode players have no real power over other players and so no opportunity to punish them for anti-social behaviour. I might need to rethink
Because I enjoy building. I don’t do stupid stuff like cut off access to areas to grief players, but I love building HUGE structures. It’s fun and the the gathering of materials is relaxing.
It’s not competitive. Quite frankly, you sound like one of those PvP losers. “Oh come over and PvP!”
If you read past my first post you would see that we’re actually having a civilized discussion in good faith, and I am genuinely trying to understand, “dude”.
Thanks for your contribution. You find it fun and farming is relaxing. Do you do this on PvE official? If so, do you care that it lags the server and that new players joining might find it hard to get a nice spot for their own buildings?
I’m in 2 official servers, one that’s been around for awhile, the other newly created or left abandoned (I judge the age by the number of t3 temples in upkeep)
Both have their big builds and small builds. I’ve asked a player before why they build this huge buildings and some answered to make it easier for newer players to get to a boss spawn point or to help new players to ‘escape’ when they are in over their head being chased by a mob.
However, I tried starting up in an Asia server and… there’s alot of different rules and thinking there. Over there, it’s domination of people who didn’t know any better. Like, you build a relatively medium base and suddenly a week later you see walls ringed around your exit points. It’s… weird, like they feel validated with having to Lord over players and some where charging coin to pass through the gates! I mean… if it’s rp servers, hey, I can live with that but in an official server… that’s just weird.
I don’t begrudge them though, they feel good playing like that so go ahead and take up that server then. With no one else to play with you, in time, the game gets boring and you leave the server. It’s weird because sometimes, these big humongous builds are the ones that really drive players away from the server and it’s bad.
In the current server I play though, we have like, giveaways of t4 thralls, trading stuff, not building close to each other kinda, we inform each other if there is a base that’s about to get decayed and stuff, we even holler for peeps to join up in leyshrine events, in vault runs… its absolutely the community that holds the server culture.
Exactly, I don’t understand the mindset of people whose playstyle is calculated to dishearten other players and make them quit. The PvP equivalent is people who, instead of just raiding people, completely erase their base when they’re offline. It’s like, do you want to have no-one to play with?
I just have to assume that most of the people who do this sort of thing haven’t really thought it through or are relatively new and haven’t yet learned from experience that playing in an anti-social way just means you end up playing alone on an official server.
The Asia servers sound wild though. I guess if everyone there’s doing it and that’s they way they play, fair enough.
Absolutely. Sounds like a good community. I really think that the ability of the player base to make nthe game fun (or ruin it…) by setting cultural norms is underrated. People encounter something they don’t like and immediately seek a mechanical solution from the devs. I suppose it’s easier to enforce social norms in PvP but even in PvE talking to people in a calm and friendly way can go a long way.
Funcom should definitely change their mindset in terms of managing the servers. Put up some seasonal servers, where wipes happen say every 4-6mths. Have events that bonds the community together, aside from the purges like God wars, earthquakes, a stygian raid on all waterfront areas like siptah.
Hello! I guess the game has things to appeal many different ways of playing. I’m a builder mostly, it’s what I enjoy, making a city that is both pretty to see to passers by and to my clan members. Since I have some chronic issues with my hands, figthing isn’t easy for me. However, I do agree some structures are stupidly huge, and some are put in certain places just to annoy the rest (like those who close important passes just because they can :S In my opinion, that people need to be on pvp but they don’t have the guts). I also enjoy building stairs, bridges or elevators to help people cross certain areas. but I also have suffered lag due those too huge places and people who are hungry to claim territory. I remember many times where we weren¡t able to set up a small base on certain areas because a clan was taking it all dropping foundations even on top on mountains
Im glad they put a limit to how many soldiers/pets you can have now. I guess same could be applied to territory. Also I might add I never built all over the map. We used to have one big base, and very small basic but pretty homes near strategic areas.
Therein lies the problem with public servers, they are open areas free to the public and come with the same headaches and issues as normal public spaces. Building big structures I completely understand, especially from a PvE viewpoint. Many of these structures are put together for aesthetics or, in the case of private servers, for common use (towns, medieval castles, etc.). The wall thing, however, eludes me. I don’t play much on official servers and, as such, have never come across it. My immediate thought is…it’s a public space and someone likes being annoying. The equivalent of spray painting a bathroom wall; it doesn’t actually do anything but the perpetrator feels good about it for some reason.
False on Conan. Players, at least as I remember can’t share non clan players stations. There is nothing social about huge lag bases. It is a person stressing for attention, but in reality that huge bas eis not all that special. It is 100% about look at me. Anyone who says o did public nap rooms. map rooms are cheap, and if one player feels like they need to build then for entire server, they are being narcissistic. Placing 100 pets…not an accomplishment. you can have 5 pet pens and do that in 24 hours real time
Personally I find social map rooms to be excellent on pve servers the alternative is 40 map rooms jammed around every obelisk. It’s got nothing to do with narcissism in some cases. Ppl should really avoid claiming opinion as fact.
