Official Servers - What do you think?

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
21

Ok let’s dig into the specifics you asked for

Courtesy. Those that take vacations would like the ability to maintain their builds. If they weren’t concerned over officials, they would have the stance of let them eat cake. Which, to be fair, was their stance for just under 3 years.

These are linked. Any social organization needs a set of rules. The original concept was that the players will self regulate and be mature adults and sway their own personal gains for that of the entire server. That worked for a while because you had a majority willing to fight for this ideal. As the fighters left, the lowest common denominator, ie greed, set in and gave us the servers as we saw just prior to the ToC. Without a moral compass that is actually followed, regulation is required. So here we are. We basically have proven we can’t be trusted and went all Lord of the Flies on each other.

Issues with being booted in a certain location. If you are stuck in that, you can’t refresh your base and that is why the server decay is off until that is fixed. Please note that you can still raid these structures in PvP which reveals more about how FC considers pvp over the other styles of play (that of fast destruction and fast build up. Permanence is not the desired state of that style of play)

The same reason you rollback servers, to try to appease your players affected by an error or in this case an error correction.

They should but that resource needs to be added and where is that in the value stream? How are you going to cover this costs within the structure and how many players are you really loosing because moderation is light?

Clear and concise expectations of how officials need to be played in and just put out there that if you don’t want to play that way, love to solo or private. We confuse the game with the public server administration and that’s more on us than them but they have a hand in that since they are still hesitant to lay down the law of expectations as it were.

I don’t think there is much. Those that left did so for a reason. Those reasons mostly stem from design changes in the mechanics, the methods of moderation on officials, or the business model and none of those will probably ever be reversed.

Instead of focusing on those that left, look at how to replace them with clients in sync with your paradigm. Yeah I know for us vets what I saying sounds like abandoning the core of the game but that core failed. It failed in providing the revenue needed. FC could have staved off that with leaning stuff down and getting it right on the first round to capitalize on momentum, but we got to accept our own accountability here. We can all say but we have all of the DLCs but very few can say they paid full price for them all. Very few can say they actively recommended this game to others…and on fact many on this forum, full of fans for the game, have stated the exact opposite and detract others from the purchase. I don’t know about you but if my vet population is telling new folks to not bother, not catering to them and I would actively find way to remove them from the game community.

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22

A very well thought out post. I love it, expect for one aspect of it.

I hear this nonsense all the time. I’m sorry but I just don’t actually see it. So I will address the points below.

Have I played on private servers that have closed down? Yes. Have they done so without warning? Nope. They have typically said so months in advance. Now granted, these are also RP servers so there may be a difference as opposed to a strictly PvP server, (some were RP-PVP servers though and some were just PvE servers that I have played on). The point is, not every server I have played on has shut down (many are still active) and I have not logged on once and seen a server just disappear.

Admin Abuse / Favouritism - I have only been on one servers that I can honestly say I have seen Favouritism and I left that server very quickly. It was very obviously not for me. I have no interest in playing on a server that is full of cliques.

Constant changing of rules - Nope. Have not seen this occur. Have I seen a server change rules? Yes. This is almost ALWAYS done after they have a poll set up on discord, usually posted there but set up via some other polling site, and they collect their players feedback to see what their players want and change the rules according to the results of their players wishes. I have not been on a server where the rules change arbitrarily on a whim for no reason other than just because.

Server modifications that affect performance - OK, you have a point on this one here. Servers that have 40, 50 even 60+ mods… I honestly do not understand why anyone plays on them. But to each their own. I truly do not understand HOW those servers run with the amount of particle effects some of those mods generate but again, some of those servers are extremely popular with 60 people online at a time. :woman_shrugging: Yet officials cannot even run with their 40 player max. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Chages to the base game that go well beyond expectations - Again, I avoid those servers personally. I play on a private server that has ZERO mods. There are plenty of private servers that do not use mods, or extremlely limited mods that do not really change much at all (a lot of those changes have been “borrowed” by Funcom now anyway).

Monetization for loot, protection or perks. - LITERALLY NEVER SEEN THIS ONCE! Maybe this is a PVP exclusive issue, but FFS this is a Funcom thing more than a private server issue now with the BLB. :woman_facepalming:

Overbearing control over the actions of players - Again, I really have never seen this. Aside from a guidline of rules you agree to play under which are honestly reasonable (at least the servers I have played on that is) they leave you the F alone. They host events for the players to get together and interact with one another, but participation is optional and they do not require you to do ANYTHING. If being a respectful player and not a complete jerk is overbearing, then I suppose you could twist it to claim that. But that is a pretty far stretch.

Risks of player information being leaked - Again, literally never seen anything like this before.

So in the end, I have no doubt that there are some poorly run, or even maliciously run, private servers out there. But there are LOTS of really well run private servers out there as well and to make such blanket statements that the examples above are what people SHOULD expect from private servers is disingenuous. My experiences on private servers have been VASTLY superior to my experiences on official servers. There is absolutely no comparison and to only show one side of the story is a disservice to the community as a whole.

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23

Thanks my friend, you always look beyond yourself as well so I appreciate that.

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24

I recall the talk about it but not what the company was or any information about it in my research for this post. Do you know the name so I can add it?

And who wouldn’t. I paid very close attention to Conan in early access, bought it, played it a bit and put it down because it was… aimless? Bug issues definitely. There were a few other titles out at the time I was focusing on. I vaguely remember not being able to climb.

I would happily pay a subscription if it meant most issues ironed out and have said that in the past.

Could that be a solution to justify the cost of maintenance and oversight? I think so.

25

I believe that the questions of @Kikigirl are more rhetorical than actual questions.
If i could add something here to this statement above is that “it got tired” as well. They tried to create more content after lvl 60 and slowly they remove rng from the game. Of course for a veteran player emotions like melancholy grow really high when they see how easy things has become, but if this easiness will attract new players then so be it.

:100:

:100:

Worth the anticipation
It’s good to tell them what they did wrong but never fail to understand our mistakes too.
Like you said we are adults, we should be easier, but apparently and unfortunately we are not.

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26

It is impossible. My most recent experience with Zendesk was reporting a stalker. I could not address it on my own without the companies’ help. I tried at first but it became so overwhelming.

So to agree of course, you cannot expect players as a whole to govern themselves accordingly.

But my question is more in the line of, if they didn’t care about the Official Servers, if the players didn’t, there wouldn’t be a ToC.

Of course. I’m insinuating why care at all about it though?

Why?

Yep. Disagreeing with balance or system changes is one thing, but the others are an entirely different animal. We bled Official players after the ToC change in 2021. They fumbled, made a mess of it, made it so much worse.

I bought individual DLCs 3 times and then decided to purchase the full offering with only the discount applied per my previous purchases. In essence, I paid the full price for the most part. I have not purchased DLCs on any of my other accounts due to many factors: my full, main account is 1 more actioned report away from being perma’d and the cost of purchasing DLCs on another accounts is both not justified financially and is tied into my own morals and viewpoints of the company.

I have recommended this game to many, I’ve convinced friends and family to join and to this day I still tell possible newcomers that it is an awesome game with caveats. I would rather them be fully informed than find out the hard way like many of us have.

I’ve actually developed a Noob PVP how-to document (no video skills) which I’ve never released. It covers more than just basics.

I guess I feel the game still has much to offer and Official Servers should be a part of that.

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27

I have played in countless private servers. I even made friends, good friends. @sestus2009 and @nitecat are a pure example.
But even server owners and Admins do enjoy the official gaming aspect.
Private servers will always run in the owner standards but officials run in general standards. None of both are perfect mostly because the game isn’t.
Tbh i believe that the last stamina change was data collected from private servers.
Mostly the private servers had always “easier” stamina regulation.
Without wanting to derail this beautiful topic, the question here is how “we” save official gaming. Of course cheating and hacking are things out of our hands in the majority, but what’s the perfect model? Because they deserve to be better. We deserve to have better official servers!

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Public relations and attempting to salvage a corporate image.

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:100:
+1

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:100: I absolutely agree with this whole heatedly and if we did have better official server I might play on them more than I have.

Of course, those are in the hands of Funcom and they have failed to address these issues in an adequate fashion since day one. They have been addressed, in a general consensus, in a vastly superior method on private servers simply due to the fact that you have active moderation on the servers. With the number of official servers across all three platforms I understand that this is not really an option though.

Personally, I would like to see Zendesk focus more on things like hacks / exploits and undermishing / skybases vastly more than things like land claim. Not that land claim should be ignored when it is overly agregious as was the case in a recent post, but hacks / expoits MUST be the priority. The same goes for the issue @Kikigirl mentioned above about stalking. THAT goes above and beyond any TOS violation in regard to land claim or some such. Priorities need to be set and right now they are not in line with what they aught to be.

Will that be an instant fix, no. But it will help.

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31

This isn’t what I am saying of course, so I’d like to clear that up. Private Servers are amazing and always will be a great choice.

What I was outlining are the reasons why people choose Official over Private Servers.

I’d like to also point out that just because it has not happened to you and you have not seen these things, does not mean it does not happen.

While it hasn’t happened to me that a server disappears without warning it has happened to friends. The Discord disappears too. Despawned, gone, no warning, no explanation. There could be many reasons for this that are justifiable and additionally the server owner has that right.

Every single Private Server I have joined save the latest one (that arguably has learned from the mistakes of others) I have experience admin abuse and favouritism. From getting upset that their friend/family gets raided to leaning on the loser’s side of a battle because they bring exposure to keep up numbers. It happens, a lot more than people would care to admit I would think.

Several servers I’ve joined have had rules suddenly change with no justification. There wasn’t a poll or a warning.

Almost every single populated Private Server that I have attempted to play on has had the strangest omission or additions that I couldn’t get passed and eventually left. Like, no horses? What. No gods? Why, this isn’t 2018 anymore. If I try to look for a moderate or low pop, I’m still looking at the same issue.

Oh yes, monetization in PVP. Of course it costs to run good Private Servers so “donations” are asked for. Except it is P2W. There’s even tiers, usually 1-3. On the surface it looks like small things, like Tier 1 may have basic mats or arrows but as you know in this game grind is a part of amassing the required materials and tools to be successful. Which means that while the 1 clan who played all day has to farm and make the items, the other with the $$ just sends it and gets it, immediately. As the Tiers go higher, the better the offerings and sometimes include protections… It is also technically against the EULA to do this but is loop-holed by being “donations”.

Overbearing control ties in with abuse and favoritism but not completely. Some have operated like an HOA, going above and beyond the server rules and micromanaging builds, raids and fights to the point where instead of seeing progress and enjoyment, it’s all about what the Admin wants.

And yes, the information of players have been leaked which allowed unscrupulous individuals to access it and use it against players. There is an ongoing campaign to this day regarding the stalking and spreading of personal information.

This post is NOT pitting Officals against Privates. I made the list based on my own experiences, discussions with friends and acquaintances and information available here and elsewhere.

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32

Thank you for clearing that up. :grin:

To often on this forum the users go from thread to thread and do nothing but bash private servers and often make claims similar to the ones you have listed and then even admit that they have never even played on one before.

Again, I appreciate you making this distinction clear. :grin:

As I have stated in posts above I :100: support that official server MUST be improved for the overall benefit of the game. Just like no one play style is more important than other, no one server type is either (be it official, private or solo). All are valid and considering that Funcom can only really do anything in regards to the officials then they MUST make them their priority to improve the performance of and the experience there on.

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33

I am glad that our PVE server is nothing like what you have posted. Owning any server takes money and we have had our sever since day one. Players come to our sever to learn the game
And we do very well in that respect

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34

When you speak of monetization someone recently advertised their server with real money rewards witch begs the question are they charging materials armor or weapons or to play on the server?

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35

So no, you don’t have to purchase the Tiers I talked about earlier, you can play normally.

The money rewards are definitely a pull to encourage population though and is seen on most popular PVP servers. Usually a small amount of $50 for the winner of an event.

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36

For me official servers can cease to exist even today.
I never played even once on an official server. But I watched the videos and my players tell me the stories about foundation abuse, about hackers etc…

I find Conan to be a nice sandbox for RP, as there is not much else one can do in this game beside PvP. There is no way to force any RP or other rules on official server. So they are completely not important for me.
I’d rather see them all closed and these funds redirected to game development.

Also you can’t bring players back unless you push some major expansions. People keep watching this game, they come back after each update, but these updates are insignificant so players leave quickly.
Company would have to invest lots of money to make an update that brings players back, but then how to actually MAKE money on it? They won’t make an expansion to lose money, because they already charged for the game and the updates are free.

Monthly subscription model? I can spare €15 every month to see this game grow, but it won’t happen.
Numbers speak for themselves and every game has to die at some stage. Dune is coming.

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Because it’s my only vehicle of online play for this game. I’m vested in officials which is why more concerned over how they are managed overall and not just how a 1 off thing is handled.

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38

What a very chewy topic.
Dense with well defined positions and reasoned concerns. This one will refrain from antics.
All statements to come are opinion unless otherwise noted.

Are officials important?
Yes.
One of the larger aspects of the game is it’s social/multiplayer facet. It is absolutely fundamental for PvP and PvE-C. If those facets of the game are to exist, at least a basic functional version should be available with acquisition of the game.
Private servers are grand, but they are someone’s private dominion and will be only as fair as the admins at the time are feeling and owner is inclined. This can be a little fickle, especially in the competitive aspect. Who wants to box against the referee and commissioner in the same ring?
This one accepts that officials will be a stripped down version. That they won’t be everything the game can be. There are pragmatic limits as outlined above. Build restrictions being tighter for example. Limitations on how large or at least how many bases one can have, ect … so that the server can function. That’s the Crux tho, the public servers need to function smoothly. Something that has been an issue.

In many ways, public servers are as much advertising as they are content. They are the first thing the new player is likely to encounter before deciding whether to look for that refund option. When someone steps onto a server for the first time, they have taken the bait, now is the time to sink the hook. Once hooked, they can be rereleased into a holding pond to sample whatever public or private options are available, but that’s after they are caught.
So while the publics servers don’t need to be the best for the extremely long term, they do need to offer a quick, clean, introduction to the world of multiplayer. Some may stay forever (PvE) but that’s a choice.

But as far as maintaining officials, so long as Conan Exiles is billed as a Game as a Service they must continue to provide the actual service, that being server access.

As far as maintenance cost…
That is probably better as a different topic.

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39

I think the underlying problem is pretty obvious. On official PvP servers can’t be played by beginners and casuals. People who know exploits well and know how to avoid getting caught by complaints or minimize risks play there. The balance of destruction/defense should be strongly adjusted towards defense, so that a person coming into the game only on weekends should not have to start from absolute zero. No one likes that.

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40

The best way to bring back players , is to actually … quite simply have a dedicated GM that on the payroll that incharge of server clusters … And add in a special 1-3 slot on every server as a whitelist , to allow GM to come in and monitor the server and handle reports for their server cluster and investigate it and nipping cheater and exploiter and undermesher and reporting it with proper paperwork to the higher up and then be able to send A Email to the steam user / email address … giving them full scope of what happen and why it happen and tell them if they believe it was unfair … they can use zendesk to appeal.

Accountability on the fly is what Many MMo do that want to be successful … Think of like a disney theme park , their security is top notch and nip any problem at the bud as fast as they can.

Next host more competition to earn crom coin … allow user to pvp fight each other in a tournament … maybe even a theme building contest , with restriction on usage of build pieces and placable count.

Or even drawn art … that give away 20,000 crom coin to top pick , 10,000 next pick and downs it goes.

Investing into community is what makes the most money in returns. Prime example lots of Community organizers for their private server are doing their best to make each player that partipate to feel homely and welcome … I suggest you all look at private server that popular and ask them what make this better then officials.

At the moment Funcom is treating every player as a cash cow and or a liable cheater and not actually as a community player.

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