You’re probably thinking this would trivialize the game, but I think it’s actually kind of a good idea for player retention. A lot of pvp servers dry up because players literally lose everything they worked their butts off for in raids.
But if you could have a set of core equipment that you’d never lose, at least you could never be 100% wiped off the server.
Secondly, this would encourage more pvp interactions out in the world where people would actually fight to death instead of run away all the time.
Also, it would make raiding harder because players wouldn’t have to scramble for equipment as they respawn; but the attackers would still have the advantage of retaining their buffs, and the game already punishes players for repeatedly dieing by increasing their respawn timer.
The only caveat is to just make it so that players only keep their items on the hotbar and armor, while everything they are carrying still drops this would prevent players from simply just grabbing all their loot in a raid and just logging off.
While I agree this might be a neat feature on say… PVE servers, I don’t necessarily think it fits into the spirit of a PVP survival environment. One of the core rules of such places is that you should never gamble with things that you can’t afford to lose. That is, never take anything into a fight that you’re not prepared to lose when you inevitably die.
Now while this might sound like it’s trying to tie a hand behind your back and limit you, the idea is being methodical about your approach and trying to ‘build up’, struggle, and survive. Eventually you’ll have accumulated the means to afford losing that set of endgame epic armor/weapon/tools. I know for example that in some of my Conan games I could easily afford to lose everything on my body and still manage. It’d be annoying certainly… but it wouldn’t cripple me.
I rather have an Arena Server type, taking away the “danger feeling” of loosing your gear at death will make the game boring, people that leave the game because they lose their stuff is just “childish”, you should know the game you’re playing, if one dont want to loose stuff and still do pvp, gotta play other games but survival.
Honestly, I think the devs should take a look at this.
While I get there are people who are all for the drop it all on death thing, to have to go find your corpse and get it back, I am also fairly certain a larger majority of players hate this sort of thing. Regardless of whether it’s PVE or PVP.
It’s not childish at all.
If you are attacking someone’s base and you die, you are essentially losing that gear forever, unless you’ve got something stronger stashed away in your own base, to gear back up and make another assault to get your previous gear back.
It may not be in the “spirit” of the game. But when it comes right down to it, it is far more important to have a larger player base than to be a stickler for something like this, and have a smaller player base as a result.
Something like this needs a poll, one vote per player, ensure fairness and all that. But see where the majority lies. Preferably with a way to poll many gamers that play, not simply those currently playing Conan.
You also have to keep in mind. Some people may be drawn to this game more for the fact that it is Conan, rather than that it’s a survival game or a PVP game. I certainly was. It was Conan, coupled with crafting and an open world to explore that drew me in.
And the first things I turned off in my server settings on solo, were the drop gear on death and building decay settings.
With due respect, I entirely disagree. Making adjustments for the sake of balance and having to compromise is one thing. When you start messing with the core concept of the game and start saying 'it’s more important to have players than to hold to the values of the game… that’s where the downward spiral where your game starts becoming completely different.
Having this be a niche game with a limited number of players, which also means limited DLC purchasing, and a lower likelihood of a second game.
Or else having a ton of players who will support the DLC, and provide Funcom with much more revenue to put towards improving the game and releasing a second, even better game.
Like I said, a poll seems like a good idea for this. See just how many people like the drop everything on death setting.
Something else to consider may be to rework this as a player setting, so those who enjoy this type of playstyle can, while those who don’t aren’t required to. In which case, everyone wins.
I would prefer they keep their settings the same and if people weren’t interested in losing their gear, then they should pick a server that does not have it enabled. There are plenty of populated, non passworded, privately owned PVP servers with superior administration that tend to weed out griefers, that have that option disabled in them.
Edit: and changing that option won’t guarantee… or to be honest… would even likely make the servers more populated. You may draw in a few, but not enough to honestly justify it. The reason the populations on official servers are lower… is typically not because of your gear dropping on death. There are plenty of other games that have that feature that are HIGHLY populated.
So, you have to remember, this is a server setting, and there are a lot of official servers.
So why do they all have to have the exact same settings?
I think that a few servers with this setting couldn’t hurt. I enjoy the pvp aspect. I want to raid other players and be raided. But I also want to spend less time grinding. Making it so that some of my gear never simply fades away would lessen that grind and would reduce the games ruthlessness just enough so that I wouldn’t have to start over from scratch every time the alpha clan comes and wipes my base every three days.
EDIT: I just thought about the implications this would have for defending clans; their enemies also would probably have bedrolls nearby and they would never lose their gear, so defenders would never be able actually get an advantage over their foes, since their foes would never run out of equipment.
The problem with drop on death is that it still has bugs, like logging in to a naked toon, no corpse…
Or tracing back to where you died and… you guessed it, no corpse…
That’s not survival, that’s not fun…
That’s why I like the idea of a prayer at a shrine. But as a backup.
If I Spawn close to where I died and my corpse is still there, great. If not, then at least my equipment is secure. Any loot is still lost, that’s no biggie.
Hm.
Thats an easy one for me.
Biggest reason why people left: because other people were dicks.
So the actual thing which would be required to happen, would be somethings which hinders people from being dicks.
Limitations on building are one thing. Instadeath on moving the toon into collision is something else. Fixing exploints, banning bad people and all those things…
But keeping the loot on death? Bad idea. Just have someone play vault who sticks around for whole raidtime…
This is a good idea for both pve and pve-c though.
Yesterday I was surprised by a white tiger and died. So I brought a pet back with me to keep him occupied while i grabbed my gear and took a leap of faith down a cliff face… it was intense… but I don’t mind that kind of death coz I should have been more careful.
The pet survived too btw…
Had my corpse not been there I would have been pssd.
I mean, yes, it would absolutely trivialize the game, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for player retention. Players don’t tend to gravitate toward ‘hardcore survival’ games to get an easy ride. I think your idea is actually just as likely to push people away as it is to retain anybody. I want to mirror the sentiments of one of the other respondents to say that “dick behavior” drives people away, not the justified penalties of death.
Unless there is a giant wall at the desert, you can never be 100% wiped off the server. You may start with nothing, but your skills remain and the climb of progress is that much shorter.
It certainly encourages more PVP interaction, as you say, but at the cost of meaningful PVP interaction. Basically the more PVP battles there are, and the less significant the stakes (a.k.a. LOSING YO SH*T), the less significant/important the battles become. Conan Exiles is a game about understanding your circumstances, measuring your actions, and adjusting strategies in real-time. That doesn’t really lend itself to keeping items on death.
Essentially, yes, I agree that this would encourage more PVP interactions, but they would be comparatively hollow and meaningless. Is that what you’re after? Because the game is supposed to be hardcore, and represent a living world with actions and consequences and progression. Your suggestion does away with that to a degree. I don’t think it’s worth it.
Most amusing combination of words…Fits into the spirit of PVP. Like a majority of players left on official pvp give a darn about something fitting into a spirit:)
The lack of consideration by people who like to cause problems for others does not mean a company should shift from the idea that they’ve been trying to create. That’s akin to making it legal to speed because nobody cares about speed limits.
I don’t understand why you should ask for a “keep gear on death” on PvP servers, really, if you don’t want to loose your gear, don’t play PvP ! Simple as that! Why change a feature of a genre? Survival not only means “eat, drink, build” in this game, death must have a penalty, and this is full loot on PvP, period! Get used to it, or PvE.
While I could see this leading to insanity during PvP raids (i.e. everyone is essentially immortal), I’d certainly welcome this on the official PvE servers. It sucks having to go AFK because of a RealLife™ interruption only to come back and find that your character has died multiple times of hunger/thirst and there’s no longer a corpse to reclaim your gear from.
Hell, I’d even settle for your character being able to keep their hunger and thirst topped-off if within a close radius of a friendly thrall pot and fountain/well…
Would be a giant boon for defenders during a PVP situation though, as they’d be respawning fully clothed and ready to go, wouldn’t it? I mean I don’t play PVP servers so I don’t know if people actually fight each other in siege-like situations, sometimes it sounds like it’s 99% offline raiding, 1% ganking when out and about, and otherwise nothing.
Anyway, it defaults to off even in PVE, so I sincerely doubt official servers will ever change in this regard.
Text doesn’t always translate tone. I’ve been misunderstood plenty of times.