Hi guys,
I watched youtube videos recapping incoming changes to Conan, and while I enjoy most of them, players and enemies hitting harder and less stamina and hit points - this is going to make the fights more dynamic and interesting.
But I hate that you are nerfing the crowds again. You already nerfed crowds of enemies in 2.x by not making them stun-lock players. It looks just odd and Diablo-style arcadish when a single player just cuts through enemies like like a lawn mower. It looks not ok when I fight a crowd and they surround me but hesitate to attack, they just stand next to me, I can feel that delay and it feels forced and unnatural.
PvE in Conan is already too easy and because of that not interesting, so when I heard that groups of enemies are going to be nerfed even more I thought I’d share my feedback with you.
It was quite easy to defeat groups of enemies even without these nerfs, it required minimum skill and some imagination.
And what about common sense? I can understand that there are some cry babies forcing these changes on you. But does it really take so much to master PvE in Conan Exiles?
The groups/villages should attack without hesistation and without remorse! Enemies should not stand there waiting and taunting like in a cheap karate movie but attack without any restraint
This way it’s fun, it’s realistic, be smart, take your friends with you to halp you.
IRL one would not attack a group of enemies
Danger is fun
PS.
Or to make everyone happy - how about binding different types of AI behaviour to server difficulty presets? That would have been awesome to have bloodthirsty enemies on “Barbaric” and some stoned ones on the normal setting.
Stun-locking only results in allowing one party to play the game and reducing the other to a spectator of the “fight”.
Put another way if a combatant needs the other combatant(s) to do nothing (being stunned) in order to win a fight then they do not deserve to win the fight in the first place.
Stunlocking is and was always a terrible idea and made the fighting artificial, though to be fair there is very limited kicking, shoving, pushing, and sweeping allow in this game that in a real fight would be present.
Again in short: Death to Stunlock, stunlocking, and reducing a player or enemy to a target dummy or a punching bag.
Moment when they mentioned that not all AI gonna rush you down, I remembered handful of movies where “hero” fights 20 guys but 1 at the time and 19 just goof around in the background waiting for their turn.
If devs looking going more towards Elden Ring / Dark Souls combat then I have no issues with that but I hope mobs wont look as dork standing and waiting for their turn like they do in movies.
Also I would like to see enemies who gets low on health, have chance to run away and call for more help like you had in old World of Warcraft. You get someone low and npc runs to next pack and asks that pack of AI to join him against player.
They are also reducing their sight/hearing radius… So now we will run if front of enemies without aggroing them… just like in MMOs… I don’t like it why make things easier when it’s already too easy and every private server I visited buffs mobs with settings or even uses mods that make animals run faster etc (outrunning tigers and such… come on…)
Thanks for bringing that up! I think it’s only natural for enemies to attack you as a group and it’s part of the challenge to deal with it or run away if you got more than you can handle. Devs shouldn’t change this.
Some of us are Single-Players. I can handle half a dozen NPCs at a time, but probably not the whole New Asagarth.
In real life, being outnumbered is an incredibly dangerous situation. But Conan Exiles isn’t real life. Our character should feel like a badass barbarian who can take on multiple opponents at the same time, just like Conan did in the stories.
Besides, stunlock or no, if the NPCs do significantly more damage than before, fighting several at a time is going to be hazardous to health.
Head closer in, towards the stairs. You get 2 more fighters (sometimes 3 depending on the circling patrol). You may get the random crafter that lies in the grass but not always.
Turn left and deal with 1 fighter, 2 crafters.
Go through that first building to aggro the archer and the alchemist across the bridge. Fighter at the other end of the smelter area will probably aggro but they’re far enough back that the fight is staggered.
Go across the bridge, draw aggro with the sorcerer and circle so you don’t get trapped in a corner. Fight the sorcerer, wolf, and 1-2 crafters who should also be staggered somewhat.
Down the scaffolding to fight 2 enemies near the outside of a hut, before the shrine. Key here is to step back towards the area you’ve already cleared.
Shrine fight with 3.
Clear out the two buildings here, if you like. 1 enemy apiece and there’s something about Nordheimer buildings that trap enemies inside. Ignore them if desired.
Up the stairs, to the left again. Fight the 1 with the spear then go back tot he well and step close enough to engage the 2 at the Chieftain’s door. Let them come to you.
Fight the Chieftain and the sorcerer.
Go around the building to the little watchtower. Fight those 3. If space is needed, back towards the area you have already cleared.
Next are the two alchemists, again circling. Once they are down, stand on the little bridge. If the patrolling archer is around, bait him to follow you up the hill them take care of him.
2 crafters, 2 goats will aggro and come to you while on the bridge. Let them come.
Follow the path from the bridge, keeping closer to the exterior walls. You’ll engage with a fighter, an archer, and possibly a wandering crafter. Back up towards the bridge.
From here you can either head down into the goat pen, or up. Either way, this is where you want to be careful at keeping yourself oriented to where the fighting has been and kite that way so you don’t engage the other group as well.
Clear out the remaining group (whichever way you didn’t go in 15).
Continue the circle around the exterior wall and empty out the dancer hut (again, if you wish) and then the two guards outside.
You’re now back at the beginning.
With the above route, you rarely face more than 4 enemies and, if you’re circling, you can strafe them around to pick them off.
With the changes on the test client, however, (same route, same gear/weapons, same attribute distribution) I rarely fought more than 2 enemies at a time. I almost had to go up to poke enemies to get their attention which felt incredibly unrealistic. Because you have to be so close just to get them to engage, f they were sitting, forget about a fight; it was a slaughter. Even enemies who were already standing were slow on reaction so fights were just slash and go.
At the first sorcerer hut (step 5 above), the Ymir priest that aggros actually ran into the hut and then went back to their leash just by coming around the building.
The Nordheimer who stands on scaffolding and talks KEPT resetting instead of coming down the stairs to fight me (see picture). I had to actually go up to him and, again, by the time I was close enough to get him to react/turn around, he was dead. (In the 2nd picture, you can just barely make out his shield as he turned around to go back).
Yes, they do hit harder. The Ymir Priests have weapons that do Frigid Bite. Having to fight a bunch at once would be more difficult. However, there should still be some strategy in engaging smartly, like on live rather than running in. The only strategy I needed (which you can see I rarely used) was healing between fights if I got hit.
I really think the enemies need to engage earlier, even if they are more spread out throughout the camp rather than clustered like we’re used to now. I shouldn’t have to get right on top of an enemy to expect a fight especially in large settlements. Leash range is also far too small now.
I would advice logging into test to see for yourselves.
In my experience tier 1’s and 2’s aren’t really much of a threat when you’re careful, but if you’re reckless and pull more than 3-4 tier 3’s and 4’s, you can run into issues unless you severely outgear the area.
I think one of the biggest issues the game has is outside of Mounds of the Dead, some parts of Sepermeru, and the Volcano, the NPCs in the game aren’t really threatening. Darfari, Dogs of the Desert, Lemurians, Black Hand, and Heirs of the North probably need some buffs.
I’ve been a fan of normalizing NPCs for a while. Anything outside exiles should be buffed to at least Mounds level damage mods and health.
Okay, got it. Heirs of the North, not an acceptable test even on test server. Let’s try Mounds of the Dead and, again, discuss quantity of enemies, aggro range, and leash distance.
The enemies are so slow and therefore their extra damage doesn’t end up mattering unless you make a mistake. And most of them face out away from the interior of the mounds so you can get directly on top of them before they aggro. Meaning they are already dead. Look how close I am (normal movement, no sprinting) and he has not reacted at all yet.
Because there is no stun-lock immunity to NPCs anymore, it means if you get the first hit off and have enough stamina, you win. I chained 4 heavies with Battle-Axe of the Berserkers and every enemy I encountered was dead.
Unless you run in and actively try to aggro a huge group, there is only one single spot where you encountered more than 2 enemies and it was on the small mound with no building, where the bearer spawns. Again, the first enemy off the bridge has his back to you so you can kill him before the other 3 even get up off the ground.
I did run in to one of the buildings (the 2nd largest one, with “A Confession” outside) on a 2nd attempt and ran to the back of the building to fight there, dragging everything with me.
The 3 enemies that are not in the hut leashed back to their original spots. The one around the side never aggroed at all.
The smelter and armorer up front leashed back and went back to pounding metal. All I need to do was avoid their few attempts and be back between the large barrels.
The tanner didn’t aggro at all, even though I was inside and fairly close to him.
That left just the sorcerer and fighter to deal with (ignore the bodies on the floor, it’s from round #1).
The player should be punished for running in like I did. Leash ranges are too short.
Stamina regen is too fast and there is no management of stamina at all. Just slash, sidestep, slash again. Or roll.
Aggro range is too small. I should not be able to be in that close proximity to enemies and have them straight up ignore me. Especially because I can hit them and stun-lock them and they’ll never get a hit off.
There needs to be some trade-off. Enemy health lowered, damage raised. Makes sense on paper and, if there was more threat generation, it would probably work. But all the things combined right now actually make fights easier, especially if you’re managing and pacing them and not Leroy Jenkins-ing it.
It does make the most sense to me that if I am standing 20 feet away from two guards and they can quite clearly see me, they should charge me. However, on the flip, if I am crouching and trying to stealth my way behind it would make sense his aggro would be less. Once I pop up from crouch and smack him that would naturally make him aware of my presence…
…unless I killed him first.
Joking aside, what is crouch for if not to sneak?
Now that would be cool! I’ve never actually found any use for crouch in this game. If actual line of sight and crouching added an element to combat with a different way to approach fights, that would be pretty awesome indeed.
Glad you agree! That would be pretty fair in my opinion. If you wanna run in like a berserker, cool, you’ll get aggro from the nearby enemies. If you want to stealth, crouch out of line of sight and quick kill. Im not suggesting this game be turned into Assassin’s Creed, but generally a consequence for boisterous rage and a small reward for careful plan of attack would be appreciated.
Not mention Conan himself in books was really smart with how he fought several people at once.
Its hard to replicate that in a game.
I’d much prefer, one of npc running to go get help, then abunch of people who have no line of sight, come bum rushing me, as I back up so they have to narrow up on me…
To me, some of Zones… it makes sense you enter, and all of them swarm you… gameplay wise, It gets boring.
Better AI would do wonders… I’ve been saying that for years. Them taking turns trying melee you, as your pin cushion by 7 archers… not really fun.
Well I farm New Asagarth several times each day and I do it solo on barbaric settings, for me the game is too easy, and making it even easier (what we can observe since 2.0) is no fun. Because where is fun when there is no challenge? Game evolves from survival genre to Sims: Conan
I don’t know, Funcom should solve that with difficulty settings, I don’t want my enemies to be stoned and blind on max difficulty.
I agree that enemies should be even smarter and more realistic, run for to get help, or run away when badly injured.
Well I guess it’s the point where Funcom decided to sacrifice some part of community and take the game to a different direction to please maybe a larger group. Too bad.
If that is going to go live I am going to look for something else. I always buffed enemy NPCs by setting their damage to x2 etc. But if Funcom is going to cripple their AI like that it is beyond fix for a player or even a modder. I really hope it’s not going to go live. We are all here enjoying the game, why ruin it for some of us who expect even bigger challenge. I hope this “raid” thing mentioned on the stream is going to be something skill-testing…
why make things easier when it’s already too easy and every private server I visited buffs mobs with settings or even uses mods that make animals run faster etc (outrunning tigers and such… come on…)
