Rework pvp mechanics and balancing

Conan Exiles General Discussion
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Hello everyone. I’d like to start saying that i will be tough making statements, but they come from a place of love, having played over 1000 hours in pvp.
I write this post hoping that the developers understand why me and some of my friends in time all left the game on the pvp side. I understand that in every
game when it comes to balancing it is always a challenge, but nontheless i’d like to show my disappointment with the lack of love the PvP has suffered for a very
long time. I’d like to point out some hot topics:

Some building elements that need to be added (imho):
-CONSTRUCTION LIMIT
-MATERIALS STORAGE LIMIT
-VAULT LIMIT PER CLAN
-BUILDING ON SCENARIOS AND UNDERWATER (with too much freedom players tend to exploit even the PVE elements)
-DEFENSIVE TRAPS FOR BASE

Clan and fight mechanics:
-CLAN MEMBERS LIMIT (this causes unbalancing)
-PLAYER FIGHTS NEED TO BE REVISITED

Now let’s analize each point.

-CONSTRUCTION LIMIT = as of today there is no limit, and this causes problems performance-wise but most importantly immersion-wise. From my point of view the
complete building freedom is a cancer that opens the way to always new exploits. I’d like the developers to consider the idea of a standardized layout for player bases,
overruling bases size. This mechanic can be introduced in a sperimental way on the servers so that together with the community we can examine the optimal size, tiers,
but also customizable from an aestetic point of view based on race, or divinity worshipped, so to increase player immersion.

-MATERIALS STORAGE LIMIT = it is clear that limiting the storage of building material needs to be taken under consideration. The PvP system cannot allow players that play
24h to have basically unlimited resources. A competitive system needs rules and resources well defined, otherwise farming becomes more important that player skill, completely
ruining the PvP aspect, even for people that dont have all that time to invest in the game. (IE work, school, etc.) Having said that i don’t mean to say that farming is not
important, but needs to be regulated in a PvP enviroment.

-VAULT LIMIT PER CLAN = something that need to be adressed is the vault limit, 1 per clan but with more slots. Being unlimited you allow players to build them carelessly,
ruining the raids. Reducing hp doesn’t work. A well organized raid on a single vault would make a siege more rewarding, introducing the aspect of “risk/reward”.

-BUILDING ON SCENARIOS AND UNDERWATER = it is clear that players should not be allowed to build near scenarios elements or underwater; this allows for exploits the developers are
always called to fix (and let’s be honest not even fast enough). This point is important because it ruins the immersion in the world and sometimes also blocks the entrances of
dungeons and other areas, the creation of almost unraidable bases (clear no base is unraidable, but the resources needed to breach these bases is huge, only 10 ppl clans or more
can destroy these bases made very often by just 2 or 3 players playing 24h). Hopefully all this can end. Also placing vault underwater as much as bases is ridiculous, and allowing this
is wrong.

-CLAN MEMBERS LIMIT = even though recent updates have come in aid of smaller clans, the clan system is completely unbalanced. First it need an administrative system more advanced
(allowing certain members access or not to determined items). the problem is that friendships in conan can be dangerous, so limiting access to some of the items to new members of a clan
would allow for a more inclusivity of new players without constantly check them for loyalty.

-PLAYER FIGHTS NEED TO BE REVISITED = usually i saw fights between some major clans in the server where people kept spamming iper potions raising statistics, always armed with spears to
hit and run, potions that make fights without the need of any strategy or logic. My suggestion is to have slower fights, giving more meaning to armor and weapons, also the agility and stamina
system need to be revisited, forcing the encounter once in a fight making the escape more difficult. Also i would add a mounting system, for faster traveling.

Some other minor points:

PET AND THRALLS = having slaves patrolling zones, also a targeting system on command.

BASE DEFENCE WITH TRAPS = trap system with wooden spikes, and later more advanced with iron spikes would be another major defence system against other players trying to raid. also deathly trap
doors that react to pressure, making roaming around enemy bases a more dangerous effort (with limits).

I really hope this topic sees the attention by the community that loves PvP, but for balancing problems left the game.
Having said that i’m anxious for new updates regarding new bioms and sorcery, in the meantime i hope these points will be taken under consideration.

I also would like to apologize for any mistakes made in writing this, english is not my first language.

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No THx bad idé. No THx go make you owen server and make that rulz. That no one can build how over and.

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You’re probably not going to like any of my answers, but…

Just going to shut this idea down right now, this won’t be happening. Conan Exiles developers specifically designed the game to have a lot of freedom in building. I can say with almost 100% certainty that forcing these kinds of restrictions is never going to happen.

Reading your description, it sounds like you want them to add more blocking zones to places like entrances to dungeons, around map warp locations, etc. Problem is, it’s already been done. You can move those building restrictions further out, but players will still just build further out and block them anyways. At this point, pushing out the building restriction boundaries would simply do more harm then good, since people have been playing with the existing restriction zones for some time now. Creating new blocking zones to established base locations wouldn’t go well with many people in the community.

Funcom will probably always look to ways they can improve the combat system But “slowing” combat down, which I assume you mean making combat itself actually slower, won’t be one of them. There will be more mechanics in terms of players running away, but we don’t know what yet. This was very briefly discussed in the latest development stream.

Mounts are not being worked on and there are no current plans for mounts.

Sure why not.

Would love having traps, even in PvE to combat the Purge.

New biomes aren’t coming, further map expansion will likely not be happening. There will be more dungeons being added to the map, along with other changes to help flesh out the map further, but new biomes or new pieces of land won’t be added.

Sorcery is “on ice.” When Funcom has news about Sorcery, they will let us know.

The map news, mount news, and sorcery news are not “new” information. This has been repeatedly said by Funcom. The latest of which was in the last stream, which I wrote a summary for here.

Ultimately though, almost all of your ideas are better suited for a Private PvP server that is better equipped to handle the very strict rules you ask for.

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@Gtch please try to be as constructive as possible. Suggest some changes to the author’s ideas if you want to :wink:

Continuing from on Multigun’s comment, I’ll start of at the beginning and point out some possible flaws with the details.

Firstly, the wording could suggest the vast majority of players is already behind your opinion (“hot topics”, “it’s clear that…”). This doesn’t make your argumentation more credible, as it’s faulty to say so, unless you have facts to back it.

Secondly, simply restricting everything ignores the real problem. For instance, there’s a lot to render. Notably, other building games also get laggy when building a lot (or when a stability issue arises). The recent patch with building optimizations has helped to speed it up.
If you don’t want people to sporatically build, consider slowing down them will slow down yourself and restricting them to certain sizes won’t restrict them from building at random.

Thirdly, Inventory management is a design option for a game. If you cut down inventory you would cut down on recipe cost to spare some inventory troubles, but this would make it easy to survive - in the Exiled Lands, you’re a brute. You carry rocks like it’s no big deal and occasionally smack someone on the head with it.

Lastly, nothing is causing exploits. Exploits just appear, they do not independ on the amount of blocks or kind of locations.

As multigun mentioned some things havr already been done and some are simply good suggestions, which you should go agead and put on the Suggestions forum.

In conclusion, the post is made with good intentions. It may lack something here and there, but that’s okay.

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Fine balancing of games is a delicate thing. As any change in one area can dramatically shift the attention of the gaming population to the next weak point in your balance change.

You can see this evolution of gameplay in games like, “Tom Clancy: Splinter Cell” Spies v Mercs. Each game made changes to the gameplay that completely changed the way the game plays.
The first game was as raw of the game you can get, spies were stealthy and powerful in indirect tactics. As the game evolved, the spies were able to stand their own against the mercs. In the latest game it is a 1st POV vs 3rd POV shooter.

Where this counts for Conan Exiles is when you change the game rules too much, you change the core game you came to play.

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The problem with cooperative PVP is that clans with more people and more time to play will either always have an advantage, or you prevent them from playing the game.

If you restrict building or standardize bases, you take away creativity. A big part of PVP in Conan Exiles is the ability to use your brains to find out the best-defensible locations and base configurations (even though it may lead to some silly lollipop shapes on top of pillars). It’s part of the game - an essential part.

If you restrict the amount of resources a clan can have, players with more playing time would spend their time doing… what? If they can’t gather resources because their clan’s storage is full, do you simply expect them to log out until the opponent is ready to fight again?

If you restrict the number of people in a clan, people will just form multiple clans that fight side-by-side.

People will adapt. They’ll figure out ways around any restrictions you place - or quit playing because the game has turned from a survival sandbox into a MOBA.

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And to add to all these good posts and answers i would say, game is also disigned with not only pvp in mind.

There are different kind of players, playstyles, official and privat servers, and of course also singleplayers. Lot of people play and enjoy the game in different ways.

Restricting, limiting still more, would also reduce the pleasure and fun of all these.

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why not enter these rules only on some official servers maybe in an experimental way? I would like to see a regulated pvp also to see how the community responds. What I ask is just a more balanced pvp. I know that many would like this idea.

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I was talking about the pvp aspect … not pve …

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without wipe official servers or limits people can accumulate resources indefinitely. how can a person hope to be competitive with clans who play for many months 24 hours? certainly a wipe every 3/4 months would be a good thing because it would allow all users to start from the same point and be competitive as well as clean the server. Do people like to store resources endlessly in pvp? If I kill a person who has stored millions of objects in his vault by losing armor or weapons, he will still laugh in my face because he has lost nothing (FARM vs ABILIty). The reward risk does not exist at that point. I do not understand why we persist in see this game with the mentality of only the pve, when then my discussion is the result of purely pvp mechanics. Let me be clear I would like to see a limitation in the storage of objects and choices that favor this aspect, namely the balance on the pvp side. the problem is that when we talk about limits, people immediately raise the pitchforks … I could tell you that there is not only the Pve side, but I spoke with many people who would like and ask for a balance of these mechanics in a competitive environment. If today I enter a server where there is an alpha clan of 10 people playing indefinitely, it is better than changing servers. This is the situation in pvp.

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even if I wanted to make a private server with these rules, I could not do it … the limit of resources or vault is not an option even in admin commands for private servers. if at least they would make this available …

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PVP Servers that wipe every few months is something that has been discussed recently in the Suggestions forum, and I think it’s a good idea - as long as it doesn’t replace the current system (which some people still enjoy) but coexists alongside the current system.

But that’s an entirely different thing from the artificial restrictions to gameplay your OP suggested. It wouldn’t necessarily need to include any restrictive elements because the playing field levels every few months.

You’re right that people don’t like limits, especially not where there used to be none. That’s why the game designer needs to be careful when introducing new restrictions.

A server that resets every few months would take little to no resources from Funcom - simply nominate a handful of servers for regular wiping. The suggestions in your OP would require extensive programming, and I don’t even know how difficult it would be to make those changes affect only PVP servers and not PVE or solo/Cooperative play.

Furthermore, determining the actual limits - how many building blocks can a base contain, how many bombs can you store, how many altars are you allowed to have, how many people are allowed in a single clan, how many thralls or pets can a clan have - all of these would take massive amounts of testing, and the end result would probably still leave many people unhappy because people have very different opinions on how much is enough and how much is too much.

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I know that you talk about pvp, like so often…

But these changes would also affect all other game-styles, and there are different communities out, also worth it, and loving play the game like you … did.

So yes, i’m sure, and i see lot of good ideas in your post, but like stated by an other poster, this would need nearly a other build, a paralell game of the version right now, what is lot of work, and i think not worth it for a few players wanting it.

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I feel that the game already has enough versions.

You have PC, testlive, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, within these, you have PvP, PvE-C, and PvE.

You can already see how patching the game can break several things. You really looking to split the game into a sub-section that could turn to nightmare to patch and maintain.

They could, if it is within limits of game code, add in admin settings to make these changes. Then you will see that the gaming population will adapt fast to gain an advantage.

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Rules are there to be followed and create a play style instead of a whole different game. You should not need any extra settings (they could get in the way of having fun with the game itself). If you could admin a server, we’re able to link you some resources so you’re able to get going. Admins have the ability to remove objects and see the Event Log, allowing them to see what happens on the server even if they are not looking what people are doing. Limiting the resources is maybe somewhat harder, but you’re able to follow players around at times to see what they’re doing. If you find they have too many resources, you’re able to tell them. Not that anyone likes you telling them they have too many resources when you need a lot of them to build anything and when the world is full of nodes just waiting to be harvested…you are able to lower the respawn time on those however.

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Make yours owen server and put farm speed to 0.1. And wipe every 4-5 month.

Make yours server as you want like in yours post.

u can block ther u dont want ppl build and make every thing 0.1 farm speed.

It like 1 Stone x per hit may you like that. Speed

Sorry for bad eng and make. Post her IF ppl want join yours server ide.
Gl hf

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