Otherwise, you probably can still run Pippi after the big patch arrives. I have plans to do so on my servers. Oh I heard the Social Merchants are broken as well.
@Taemien
Hehe, I used to Roleplay a ton in EQ1 (our guild was roleplay preferred not required back in those days). Granted fighting and being a fast typer helped.
I miss those days of roleplaying. Probably why EQ1 has fond memories for me. I do not miss the game, although the aspects of exploring, raid zones, and cool diverse spells that casters had back then. Spellcasting in MMORPGs are boring in comparison now.
Granted, that was probably the last game I was full roleplay mode majority of time. Rest of the games were like 10% or less of my game time, which obviously is not the same.
This is what we used to RP in a little over 20 years ago (300 pixels would have been just over 60% of the screen!) :
I started RPing in the 90s. I have an AOL/MUD/forum RP background. But guess what? It’s not the 90s anymore. And every other game I RP in has a massive, nice text box. Saying it’s technically possible to RP with the worst chat imaginable still isn’t an incentive to do it or an excuse for why Funcom never improved their chat to be on par with virtually every other game out there… just saying.
Again, some alternative will come along. Til then, I feel no need to pretend I’m somehow a better RPer for enjoying RPing in a 300px tall, dark green text, uneditable chat box.
If the issue is making a better chat box, then make a post thread for detailed explanation of your request. This topic will bury your request and may not be noted.
Personally, not sure how chat box would be improved, but never put too much thought into it since only use Global chat on official / private servers. Granted, I have not roleplayed in Conan Exiles.
The nice thing about Pippi’s chat box is that you can select and copy text, and you can follow links from it. On the other hand, I really hate how it separates channels into tabs and I have to keep switching between tabs when someone sends a clan or local message.
All in all, I confess that the chatbox would have been pretty much the last on my list of complaints about Pippe features that are missing from the base game.
Losing all the content people created with Thespians sounds like a crippling blow, but the chatbox? Sorry, can’t relate.
Hum. So Funcom fails because of not creating a new chat instead of adding actual ingame content?
Many people would be ranting they are all about RP again.
I guess not everyone noticed?
They did add a feature comparable to fashionist when it comes to make some armor look like some else or even like clothes. Clothing thralls differently and using fake warpaint isn’t part of it, nor are these armorstands put into CE.
They did go and add sorcery.
They did go and alter stats a tad.
Just go ahead and properly ask for it, add reasons why that might be a good idea.
And what about roleplay? You know - that mod which has that in their name. They got a sheet, short twitter-like bio plus a chat window! I know of at least one server which uses that window instead of using classic/pippi chat.
edit:
To be honest, I read just a few answers from the bottom onwards…
I dont agree on roleplay chat not being good enough.
I do agree with a lot of Taemiens reasons, but not with all of them.
There are still plenty reasons aside of pure themeparks and if it’s the most obvious reason:
Players asking for thespians because of wanting to sell stuff.
Or a plot being given life due to a corpse lying around when lacking actual mods with such decorations.
Also a single adminbuilt structure is nice to have. Something like a market or tavern, something where you may meet others by chance.
Tragic to lose such an integral mod.
Integral mod, sorta Oxymoronic…
Funcom seems to provide significantly robust support for their modding community. This is a boon.
Unfortunately, it has lead to the occasional response of “there’s a mod for that” when a QoL or other much desired feature is frequently repeated. This is a detriment.
The kerfuffle around the loss of Pippi shines a light onto the whole situation. Those who play on officials or console may very well shrug it off. Perhaps even rejoice now that “there’s a mod for that” is no longer an available dismissal for certain features. But for communities on servers running that mod as a major component… Well, what a mess. What an unholy mess.
There are some features that can easily remain in the outer wilds of mod territory, but perhaps there are a few of those features that should be examined for a form of adoption into the core game. Relying on another modder to fix a situation would only lead us back here another day. In even worse company.
What are the distilled components of Pippi that are so fundamental that it is so very popular?
What are the aspects (if any) that the base game would strongly benefit from adopting?
Idk, I think the features being lost that are going to give rise to the most player angst are those that Funcom would never implement. Conan is not a role playing game by design. Its not a quest based game. Things like thespians with a “mushi” language are not going to be implemented. Even if they did at this point, people would still have to redo all their scripts as it wouldnt be mushi; it would be something else (yoglets or something). If anything this should be a wake up call for people expecting to run a server for years on end with a single point of failure.
Pippi’s big boon was getting mods to kind of talk to one another thru its various utilities. That can be accomplished by the modding community as well (seeing a lot of cooperation in the post Pippi world already). Some of the most wide ranging mods like AoC won’t be impacted at all because they appear to take the approach that if its essential for their mod, they integrate the feature.
I think the thing I’m most upset by isn’t the loss of Pippi itself; I can cope. What I will miss most is Pippi being there. A great mod with a great mod author has left us. Even tho I never interacted directly with Josh, he had a huge impact on the game. I will miss his influence most of all.
Those running servers responsibly will always have a contingency for every update, every possible scenario. And I can say that after using Pippi for several years that the thought of, “what happens if they don’t update this anymore?” was definitely on my mind before the announcement.
Something players took for granted was that Pippi was free. Pippi had very little backing for what was needed to develop and maintain it. It really was a AAA feature that many AAA titles simply lack. It was clean, elegant, and very extensive. That takes time. That takes effort. That took a LOT of time, and a LOT of effort. And since it was a free offering, that wasn’t sustainable forever.
So after it going for several years the writing was on the wall for many to see. Even if Joshtech had it in him to keep it going. To keep developing and maintaining it. It still wasn’t sustainable. He has a life outside of Conan. He has a job that doesn’t involve Conan. Keeping something like Pippi going is like a second job. Even if the soul was willing, the body can only keep going for so long.
This is a reality that every server owner needs to come to terms with. Every mod you add to your server is done because someone took time out of their free time to make it. Free time they could be spending playing games like you do. Free time they could be with family. Free time they could be spending resting. They work jobs as you and I do, in order to make a living. But then they do a little more to share a small amount of joy with the rest of us.
It is for this reason why I do not and will not tolerate people blasting mod authors for any decision they make with their mods. They are righteous in any decision they make with their creations.
And when they eventually decide to step away. We must accept it and move on. Our servers are our responsibility. Not any responsibility of a mod author and not any responsibility of Funcom (ffs they have hundreds of their own to manage). It is ours and ours alone to ensure any mods we add are upkept and any mods that cease to be are removed and adjusted for.
How we treat our servers after Pippi is no longer useable is no different.
I hope nobody takes what I’m going to write here wrong. It’s not meant to be criticism of Jostech or his choices at all. I just want to toss out an idea.
Not for one person.
The way to turn a mod like that from a single point of failure into a much more manageable risk is to open up the source and make it possible for maintainers to come and go as they wish.
Now again, I’m not talking about Pippi, why its source is not open, or why Joshtech didn’t designate a replacement maintainer. Everyone has a right to choose how they’re going to do these things.
What I’m talking about is that it might be a good idea to keep this in mind when developing replacement(s) for Pippi.
That is entirely up to whatever mod author decides to do it. I can say I totally understand why people don’t do this, however. Unfortunately we live in a world where kindness is mistaken for weakness.
The “team” approach to mods is probably highly person dependent. If I take my own pov, the idea of making mods by committee would stop me dead in my tracks as it would resemble work so much. I’m currently working on my own big mod project and I am intentionally going it alone because I am doing it primarily because its something I want to do and am enjoying it. If I had to coordinate it, that would be a full stop for me. Its the same reason why my discord and blood bowl league is only driven by me. I just want to be able to make a decision and move on without a “committee meeting”.
Also, mods are imo a bit of art. Its something in the game you want to express, even if its pure mechanics. So if you hand it off to someone, they may do things you dont like and worst case scenario, people could show up and think you still own it and whine at you. Crom knows people dont even read what mod authors write on the steam page regarding updates and features so I can only imagine how that would go.
Sure, the team approach has its own pros and cons, and it isn’t for every situation and every project. I personally believe it could work for something like Pippi, at least for the Pippi features that I’ve personally used, because those seem more like a tool and less like an artistic expression.
Getting ten engineers to work together is a not mean feat.
Getting ten artists to work together (as opposed to simply collaborate on a collection) is even more impressive.
Getting ten artisan-engineers to work as a team, uncompensated… that is the type of accomplishment people with the spark to lead societies undertake.
Not saying it is impossible at all, just that the effort required is a bit more than those on the outside looking in may immediately understand and that getting it to stick, consistently, for a sustainable period is daunting.
I long for a time when you won’t need to wrap your words in bubble packaging.
Personally I just want to make sure the whole Pippi team gets its props. There are one or two that I won’t name for fear of embarrassing myself as a fanboy. Let’s just say my admiration for their contribution to this project is immense.
It’s a lot like when the Symphony loses its Director, Trumpet #1, Percussion, Lead Strings and Woodwinds all in one fell swoop. I can completely get the Key Man deal.
HA!..double HA! The way you stop that is to assume well-intentions and have a self esteem that can tolerate it even if it was ill-intended. So you just got to have faith in the majority of humanity and in yourself.
