Put building cap in PvE

Online official

Performance, excessive/non useful building

PvE

American

Ps4

Players building massive bases in multiple locations and near other players.

I’ve seen villages being built, castles, and in more than one location by same tribe. No reason on official server with 39 other players. Not to mention I’m being surrounded by massive bases. Go to single player to build your dream village/castle.

Please incorporate some sort of building cap for each server. I understand freedom to build, but not at the expense of the other players.

Go to any server and just look around.

9 Likes

As long as it’s not a hard cap on building pieces, I support this suggestion. Upkeep systems are a good way to go. Repurposing the purge might be another solution.

4 Likes

I still think behaviors that you want to soft discourage are best tracked and punished with a mysterious “Affront to the Gods” system.

Upkeep Systems are only going to make it tougher for Casuals to get invested in the game while barely affecting the habit of legacy players who have built up holdings on multiple servers… one weekly login to maintain a massive fortress isn’t much better, even if you change it from 2 minutes of playtime to 10 minutes.

If you increase world depth, then people would be more engaged on the servers they have and prioritize maintaining their favorites. There has to be some limitation though… (which can be overcome with Private servers, if a person is very determined.)

They should also consider a Prestige System as a reward for completing the game and escaping the Exiled Lands (and there could be a seperate parallel ultimately for Isles of Siptah.) This might give players quick leveling advantages when they start on a new server (With activations limits… week/month/year of some sort). Later on it could also include some sort of bank/credit system that would let a player port in a starter pack of resources or something. (Also limited in activation by a week/month/year timer to prevent frequent abuse.)

Another consideration is having a roster of characters a player has had escape that they can browse and (maybe as part of later rewards in the Prestige system) throw back into the game with their skills intact.

You want players invested in playing, and completing the game… but then also jumping back in and trying again. Games were Quickstart advantages are used might result in diminishing returns on Prestige Leveling up. Certainly completed games where the player has loads of established resources would slow any prestige leveling down to a crawl on subsequent restarts that aren’t totally fresh and unboosted.

The Building cap becomes less of a problem when maintaining vast fortresses in a variety of places ceases to be the endgame reward.

I’ve seen you post about it a lot. From what I can understand, it looks like the purge on steroids, but repurposed to depend on the amount of building. I’ve got my thoughts on it that I would like to share, but I don’t want to repeat it across all the different threads. Do you think you could make a suggestion thread for it, so everyone can discuss it in one place?

On the contrary, a well-implemented upkeep system could help people schedule their play time more flexibly. If the upkeep materials is stored in a container, then you can farm up the necessary cost for more than a week, upfront, and be able to go on a vacation without worrying about decay.

And the upkeep cost formula can be fitted and fine-tuned to make certain bases trivially maintained and certain bases infeasible; nobody says they have to slap a simple linear function and call it a day :wink:

4 Likes

So your average log in/refresh/log out player spends less than an hour per month on a server, yet is the main cause of FPS loss and graphics lag AND nobody cares that you built the Taj Mahal, if anything they resent you for the aforementioned issues you caused.

They need to implement a time played tracking system tied into decay. Anyone that spends that little time on a server needs to have a full on 24 hour decay timer.
The average player probably spends 10 to 15 hours a week playing. They should change the decay to how much time is spent in game.
Per month -
15+ hours = 336 hours until decay
5 to 15 hours = 168 hours until decay
2 to 5 hours = 96 hours until decay
less than an hour = 24 hours until decay

This will reward the people that actually play and penalize those that just log in and refresh.
It will also resolve the issue with players who DO play going on vacation and not losing everything.

6 Likes

… or just loging in to stand around for an hour or 2? Nice if you like to go on vacation or simply don´t have the time to login for some days. Base gone.

This and the other thread are giving me headaches. Seriously guys. You are coming up with all kinds of stuff that makes the game for people less enjoyable. As if this game isn´t already grindy enough.

You are all looking way around solutions instead of taking Funcom active in responsibility. This is never gonna work would Funcom introduce stuff like that. The only thing that will happen is that it will drive people away.

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Or people could just stop trying to change the base game servers to suit their needs/wants and just go to a private server, maybe even (gasp) rent their own!! :man_shrugging:

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How did that work out for purges? :stuck_out_tongue:

No, thanks. Playing the game to maintain my base is fine, as long as there’s a similar degree of freedom and flexibility as in other aspects of the game. Having to fill a quota of hours is just… depressing. I already have a day job.

How about I offer you a tour around official servers that will make it clear what problem we’re talking about? Seriously, this is not about trying to make the game suit individual needs, it’s about players who don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone else’s needs. There’s a reason why this request keeps popping up over and over again.

Sooner or later, Funcom is going to do something. I would rather they didn’t implement a hard cap on building pieces.

1 Like

I would rather they did not either, but I logged into a EU PVP-C IoS server tonight , and ran the southern beach, east to west.
The spam was unbelievable. I counted three different clans that basically have closed off that southern area to anyone else, by just spamming foundations all over.
Now you can say, that should be a report to Zendesk, but it may be months before anything is done about it.
The last Zendesk ticket I put in was for blocking an obelisk, and two months later I was still getting canned emails asking if I still needed assistance.

2 Likes

I only play official. I’ve never ran out of spaces to call my own in four years of playing. I’ve had ppl move in right next door, I simply pack up and move myself. Other people’s builds have never been a concern for me in all honesty. Only once have I seen a big enough build that it affected server performance and I just stayed away from it. Either I am extremely lucky with the plethora of officials I have played on or this problem is grossly overstated and embellished. If it became that much of an issue for me I’d simply move to a private or play solo. When have online games NOT had problems with the player base messing things up for others? Never.

1 Like

How about reporting them to zendesk? You are the guy who told me that zendesk is uselfull and Funcom is not hidding behind it to safe money, like I stated before. The reports should go through then and this peoples buildings get deleted. Problem solved.

I am not saying this to annoy or angry you but if you and Smileexile are defending Funcoms politics of renting the cheapest servers from a company that doesn´t get their ddos attacks under controll and provide stable servers and they also don´t want or don´t see the need to spent some extra dollars on hiring more people then I am hundert and ten procent against any measures that take away peoples freedom or joy to play this game. Even if that means that they build over the entire map. I am not willing to give Funcom a free pass just so that they can go and make peoples live way more complicated. Thats a shift in responsibility.

Cool idea but unfortunately will not resolve the issue.

Easy to beat/exploit that system. I could log in before I go to sleep and wake up and log out. Do that twice a month and get my 15+ hours. (Yes, I will die a bunch of times but you only need to be naked at start)

I could do other examples but my first example was the best to show the system could be beat too easily. I have multiple computers in the house so its easy to have one running the game and another doing something that you are really interested in.

2 Likes

The absolutely saddest thing about these forums is that one person offers a possible solution and twenty people spend their time tearing it down, instead of offering alternatives or amendments to it.

I am not saying it is malicious behavior, just human nature to say the glass is always half empty, but it is depressing.

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People moving in next door is not the problem at all, but let’s spend a moment on this anyway. You say you just pack up and move. Maybe it’s less involved for you, or maybe you enjoy the process no matter how involved. Regardless, I respect your playstyle, but I don’t want to play like that. Most of the PVE(-C) players I’ve interacted with also wouldn’t want to move just because someone showed up next door.

I envy the experience you’ve had on officials. Mine has been drastically different.

If just staying away from it solved the performance problems for you, then either everyone else on the server stayed away from it too, or it wasn’t big enough to affect server performance. Client performance problems are solved by staying away. Server performance problems would have affected you any time any player on the server was in the area of that build, regardless of where you were at the time.

As a side note, it’s not necessarily the sheer size of the build, but let’s settle on the word “big” for the purposes of the discussion.

Having seen several servers with builds that actually cause server performance problems, having studied the problem over the years, and having seen other people’s research on it, I would lean towards saying that you have been lucky.

There is nothing simple about moving to a private server. Not because of the lack of server transfer, but because of the difficulty involved in finding a private server that satisfies all the requirements:

  • has the same (or similar settings) as official servers
  • isn’t chock-full of mods
  • doesn’t include mods that drastically alter the game experience (e.g. Age of Calamitous)
  • has an active admin
  • doesn’t have admin abuse
  • doesn’t have any pay-for-game-content mechanics (i.e. “donate” to the server for this “starter” kit)
  • doesn’t have any onerous rules (e.g. “you have to be on Discord in a voice channel”, or “you can only build up to 20x20x4 if you don’t have clanmates”)
  • is likely to stay around for a long time

As for playing single-player, that’s how I started. I played exclusively single-player during early access of the base game. If I wanted to keep playing single-player, I would have stayed in single-player.

All in all, I respect the fact that you’ve had a different experience from mine. Up to this point, your post has been simply a discussion of those differences. But here you started verging towards “It ain’t a problem for me, so why don’t you bugger off somewhere else?”

Let’s put it this way: if overbuilding has never been a problem for you, why are you so vehemently opposing solutions for it? If you’re concerned that a solution to overbuilding would impact you disproportionately, why not just state your concern and we could have a discussion on how a solution could avoid impacting you?

When have some humans NOT been douchebags to other humans in the history of the world? Never. By that logic, should we have never even argued for improving the society, much less improved it to the point where it is now?

Are you sure you understand what Zendesk is for and how it’s used? Because it’s either that, or you’re being willfully and deliberately disingenuous. Assuming it’s the former, let me explain why nobody does that:
image

The above is from the Zendesk request form. As you can see, you can only:

  • report players who break the Official Server Terms of Conduct
  • report a server that is down or isn’t accepting connections
  • request information about your ban and possibly appeal it

“People’s buildings get deleted” only as a measure resulting from the first type of request, i.e. a report of infraction of server rules. There is nothing in the rules that prohibits non-malicious building. I could, theoretically, opt to misinterpret the second option and submit that kind of request, but I doubt it will be prioritized because: 1) that’s not what that option is meant for, and 2) they have to prioritize issues like cheating, griefing, and harassment.

In all, Zendesk is useful for the kind of problems Zendesk is meant to solve. Different people with different problems have had different degrees of success with it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s either 1) useless, or 2) meant to be used for everything.

No, but I suspect you’re saying it to knowingly conflate unrelated issues. I fail to understand why you think that kind of behavior is useful in a discussion. Zendesk has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of hosting.

Speaking of which, since you’re bringing up my replies to you from other discussion threads, I’ve already stated my argument about improving server capacity: as long as the building is completely unlimited by the game, improving server capacity will only make people build even bigger until they overwhelm the new capacity.

Nothing personal there, but I don’t see a way to amend it so that it will work properly, because I think it incentivizes the wrong thing. As for alternatives, I’ve talked my ass off about upkeep systems, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t write more about them. My walls of text are big enough thanks to people trying to shut down all discussion of something that they don’t see as a problem because they think we’re all blatantly lying to them :smiley:

1 Like

I only recently joined the Conan Forums… but I’ve been lurking for years now. I’ll drop down probably 4 threads when I get posting ability:
Affront to the Gods
Hypocrisy vs. Worship Mechanics
Body Types as flexible Character Classes (with alternate clan mechanics)
Prestige Levels as an Endgame Reward system

I think the big thing about the Purge is that it’s supposed to be ramped up difficulty as players advance and establish themselves. My thoughts on Affront to the Gods is that it’s not really a difficulty measurement so much as a soft wall with hard consequences… this allows players to still use certain behaviors, but also encourages them to be more flexible and seek other paths rather than doing things that are a detriment to the game.

Of course, if someone really does want to build the Taj Mahal, that’s what private servers and solo/co-op are for. It just feels like Official servers should be different sort of experience, since they aren’t moderated closely.

Of course, getting fancy with Decay timers can do the job, but I feel like Decay Timers shouldn’t be confusing. If you start tying the behavior of Decay timers to a wider variety of elements, you are making them more intimidating… when you could be making the GODS more intimidating.

=

We don’t pay a subscription fee for this. The Politics of it, whether you agree with it or not, are totally out of our hands… except that FunCom lets you run Private Servers. Why do you keep complaining about things that are already addressed in a form that you admit you prefer anyway… as some sort of defense against suggestions to improve the very servers you have repeatedly stated you dislike? It’s making my head spin. Nobody needs to defend FunCom’s choice not to make use pay for games as a service. It’s already been decided. The DDOS attacks are certainly obnoxious, but they might have something to do with people being angry, competitive, or otherwise obsessed with how the public servers don’t manage themselves very well even when they AREN’T the subject of DDOS Attacks. FunCom isn’t launching DDOS attacks against itself… you realize that, right? They have an agreement with G-Portal. Given all the problems they have had for years, I am absolutely certain if an opportunity for a superior service at the same or better price came along, they would take it… but they have an agreement with G-Portal and probably have to factor in the cost of nullifying their contract with them.

Also… all the current servers, public and private probably go bye-bye if they switch right? I suspect many people who don’t use the forums right now would be furious if this happened.

How much would you pay a month for better Official Servers? I haven’t heard anyone begging for FunCom to do Official games as a service, yet I suspect that is because anyone serious about it just rents a private server.

Probably not your best reading comprehension of the day.

I think legitimate feedback or back and forth discussion is warranted. Otherwise, why have a discussion/forum? As long as we keep the discussion civil of course.

I particular have no ideas on how to improve the system since they will not really improve the system. Putting a maintenance cost will not stop big builds. It just cost more on a monthly basis. Locking the number of building pieces will cause issues and many discussions like locking the number of followers for singles and clans. There is no easy method to fix the over-building issues, without an Admin being available to say, okay you gone overboard.

Personally, I lived with New Asagarth being completely surrounded by a very tall wall, stretching 4 square zone blocks at the outer perimeter with structures / roads inside and roads / bridges / stairways that stretch from the Frost Temple to the south desert edge (where you can start building) to the Mounds of the Dead to the Jungle, plus various structures (map rooms) along the way. This was done on a PvE-C official Server back in the day and was all there before i started in Feb 2019. (Its gone now)

They claimed they had enough supplies to rebuild the entire thing again if they wanted. A boast, probably but who knows. They had a number of vaults so may been true.

So massive builds in comparison may not reach those heights but the issue on some servers remains.

I am not sure everyone perception of a massive build is on the same page either.

2 Likes

I do not think the issue is so much the massive build itself, compared to where it is located and if the person really plays or is just a refresh troll.

On my server there is an area just west of the Ice bridge Obelisk that has a series of huge theme builds, one after another. It does not hinder passage, but causes huge graphics lag when I port there.
I do not really mind it so much, but it is just a pointless refresh for a self serving ego that never plays the game itself.

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I get what you are saying. Although they are following the stated rules of the server so technically speaking they are not doing anything wrong even if they just log in and out on a timely matter every week for the last year or so.

This topic is not going to have easy answers to resolve since it will have to take into account varied play styles.

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You forgot the most important reason - the storage of resources. The safest way to save resources is to build a huge amount of vaults and put a little bit in each. And so that vaults do not decay, you need to put foundations.