Player Placed Instance - Smaller Bases - Limits Clutter - Longer Decay

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
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Problem - Too much building clutter on the map.

(Possible) Solution - A player placed instance that creates a small cave entrance. Players could then zone into this small cave and build within it. Players that place a cave instance can no longer build in the outside world. The trade off is that the cave is small, but protects a structure from the elements. As such, there is a significantly longer decay timer. Bases could still be raided. There could be limited numbers of “player cave instances”. They could come in a variety of choices. A simple dirt mound, a dragon burrow, a regular cave, an old mine, or something more mysterious. Each of them could have a special quality to them. Perhaps a dragon burrow might allow bones to be looted off the ground periodically. A mine might have a few ore stones. A cave might have a small water source located inside. Just a thought.

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Interesting theory but with instance concept, would not work for PvP since you can not raid an instance well. Or you destroy the entrance and would the entire cave disappear?

Not that I am a PvPer in CE but ideas will have to work for both for PvP and PvE servers.

There is a mod that does something similar called Basements that dedicated servers / Single Play can use. I have not tried the mod myself but seen it.

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The PvP side of it would be the same as everywhere else. They zone into your player created instance, and attack your stuff. No differences at all. Upon having destroyed everything inside, the area will begin to decay at a normal rate. The instance itself could be claimed by it’s attacker. But choosing to build in it would forfeit their other bases. Instead, they could claim it, and without building it, they destroy it or let it decay. Additionally, the entrances themselves do not need to be huge or obstructive. This will help prevent abuse via people blocking pathways. The cave itself, from the outside, would not be attackable. Just like normal caves are not destructible per say. This prevents your base suddenly vanishing overnight with all of your things. The fair, reasonable thing is to make the instance a non-attackable structure that can contain a base until the criteria for its destruction are met.

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Okay, but technically speaking, you can make this cave entrance really hard to find and so no one can raid your base which defeats the raiding concept. A small entrance placed somewhere hidden on the map even the best explorers will have trouble finding it. Otherwise, its an interesting idea.

Plus it potentially removes purges as a concept of the game since many people will just have these caves.

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Instanced bases would not need to be purged as they could not become large enough to justify the “erosion” mechanic the purge serves. The only purge related issue is people potentially missing out on some tier 4 thralls. These could be traded for. Leave it as a simple trade off. Or a small purge could spawn inside the instance following similar rules to the outside. Neighbors could still come to help. These instanced bases could also show up on the map upon creation, similar to how the religion system works.

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I am concerned with visual clutter, server performance, and retaining casual players so servers stay full and interactive without becoming sloggy and terrible. I think this could potentially, with some thoughtful modifications address many of the issues our servers face. I do recognize the server still has to “operate” these instances, but I am not convinced that the server would suffer for having implemented them.

My thoughts being… Joe builds a base in the outside world. He maintains it for months, gets bored but comes back to refresh it. A large base, fully furnished, lower spec machines sometimes have issues rendering it smoothly. It does not ruin the server by any means, but it and 10 other clan bases like it do their part to add up. - Joe is given the option of creating a small instanced base. He can choose between (1-5) options. He decides he would rather build something new inside an instance and then not have to baby sit the structure so frequently. He still plays, but not often. The potential benefits outweigh the potential cons. Joe goes with a small cave base. Inside, he can build a structure less than a quarter the size of what he had before. It can’t be very tall, and the limited space means he has to limit the number of benches he uses. Instead of the usual 8 furnaces, he will have to make due with 1 or 2.

As I was saying, there could be a lot of thought put into this that removes potential abuses, adds to them, or what not.

A small base like this might be immune to avatars. Equally, IF that were the case, then players or clans who use them could then not use avatars. A small option that allows players more control over their experience.

I mentioned earlier that these instanced bases could have resources inside of them. (modest amounts). But perhaps they could also have those same resources (modest amounts) at the outside entrance as well.

Imagine for a moment you and some friends agree to all build small cave bases. Each of you goes with a different version of the instance. You all build near to each other. Your friend who builds the “Cave Instance” has suddenly provided you with a single, small brimstone node and a small pool of water that acts like a well. Your other friend who built the “Mine instance” has an entrance littered with single crystals you can pick up. There is also a node of coal and iron. One other friend who built the “Bone instance” has a meager pile of bones that can be looted periodically.

This concept and more could be added to make these instances welcome additions to neighborhoods, strategic even, rather than eye sores. It could also help prevent griefing in some instances. Who would want to block the only brimstone or crystal node for 10 miles? There could effectively be an instance design that runs the gamut, allowing for small groups of players to team up and create a tiny ecosystem. Not world changing by any means, but helpful regardless. Having access to a single node of anything every time you come home means you can trade that resource, or select a instance that has what you might otherwise be lacking.

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Just put everything on another server, I touched on this before, on a PVE discussion about buulding limits, but the cave entrance idea would be great for PVP purposes.

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The developers made room for Dagon Dungeon, Grove Dungeon, Warmaker Sanctuary, and several others which are quite large, like the Black Keep and the Wine Cellar. On Siptah they added a new land mass to the server entirely, numerous “mini dungeons” and are even doing the insides of the main tower of Siptah.

So, my answer would be that there IS room for small base instances within the map. There may not be a lot of room at this point, but I would bet they could find space for at least a couple dozen.

More importantly. Making a specific server that holds player instances would not be that difficult. A single server could potentially hold dozens of servers worth of Cave instances. Each one would only need to draw resources if the player was inside said instance. And each instance would take away a large burden from the other servers it represented.

Essentially if a instanced base existed on a dedicated separate server from the main map. Instead of a player loading a large structure, and all local players also loading the same base. You have all local players loading a small player instance entrance. Only the players that enter the zone have to load the textures of the base. And if nobody is inside the base, the server does not need to render it for every passer by. The potential benefits of this are HUGE.

I do understand what you are saying though. They claim there is not a lot of space left. I believe that they DO have space to make minor additions, especially on the scale I am suggesting. Even if those minor additions are limited in number, with only 40 players allowed on a server at a time, it is totally feasible that a dedicated server contains hundreds of player instances which the main servers retrieve as needed, as players log into their servers those 20~40 available instances could be loaded up or purged from the caches.

I don’t know exactly how they would do it, but just brainstorming I can think of several ways it could be done. Ultimately, the developers would have to chose the route that worked the best for them and the solution.

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I still don’t get how this would work on PvP. You exist in game in the instances before you are aware. You could just stack the entrance with thralls. It also removes the point of sound building, part of PvP is identifying weaknesses.

Additionally you are not going to get people who opt out of building in the open world who choose this path. You’re going to have people building both

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