Solve Grief around Structure Ownership — Private / Clan Ownership

[TwinCrows]

Currently, total structure ownership is shared among the clan. All members can dismantle anything, take anything, build anywhere, and enter any door.

This is problematic, as there is a huge griefing potential surrounding structure ownership.

The issue might be resolved in a number of ways, but I’d like to suggest resolving it through adding a new ‘Private’ ownership option for structures. This option would enable players to build apart from their clans, and to retain their privately-built structures despite leaving or joining clans.

TL;DR: Buildings built by a players should belong to that player at first. The player can then choose to give the building to their clan. Clan leaders should also be able to choose to give clan buildings to players.

Griefing Examples under the current system

Clans have ‘stolen’ structures by assimilating players into their clans, only to kick the player who built the structure out after they have joined.

Clans can also be major victims of griefing, as any member of a clan can dismantle anything at any time.

‘Private’ or ‘Clan’ Permission Levels

Private

All foundations should start as ‘Private’ when placed by a player, so long as they are not connected to an already-existing structure. Private structures cannot be opened by anybody aside from the player who built them. Private structures can be given to ‘Clan’ ownership by holding E over any part of them, and changing the ownership to Clan.

Clan

Structures can be set to ‘Clan’ ownership, so that any member of the clan may enter doors or take anything from inside. Although any clan member should be able to add to or repair a clan structure, only clan leaders or high-ranking members should be able to dismantle structures, or remove thralls.
Clan structures should also be able to be given back to clan members as ‘Private’ structures by the clan leader only.

Private Structures

• Private structures share the claim radius of the clan that the player is currently in. This means that players may build their own Private structures immediately beside those belonging to their clan or their clanmates.

• If, after leaving a clan or being kicked, a Private structure overlaps its claim radius with that of their previous Clan, the Private structure pieces that are overlapping the Clan’s claim radius should become immediately Ruined, allowing any player to dismantle the pieces. (Clan takes priority)

Ideal Scenario

With Private structures, clanmates will gain the potential to have private holdings apart from their clan. They might construct private residences, filled with their own personal belongings, thralls, and decoratives. These buildings, when inspected, are shown as belonging to the individual, rather than the clan. In essence, this would give players ‘private space’.

Private structure owners would have control and ownership over their own buildings, preventing clanmates or even clan owners from meddling with their buildings.

This also enables clan leaders to build their own Private structures within clan walls, where they should store the most valuable items.

[BionicFox]

Yes , we need a better clan management system please.

[Midniteryu]

Definitely need a permissions system of some kind.

[ExNihiloish]

I agree with all points except I believe private structures should still play into the purge system. It’s up to the clan to help defend its members’ property.

[saorsa]

Some good suggestions there! They definitely need to look back at the clan management and change a lot. I don’t plan on joining a clan until they make some changes as it’s just not worth it if it goes sour.

[MikeTM]

Very much agree. That’s the main reason I don’t take any strangers into my clan.

Currently inviting a stranger into your Clan is kinda like posting you bank credentials on social media. Surely nothing will go wrong, right?

[Vambrace]

If you watch the streams prior to launch you will see that Joel considers clan drama as “part of the game”. My understanding is that they feel you should take great care in choosing clan members and not just throw invites to every newb in hopes of maxing your clan size.

I also got the impression that someone infiltrating your clan from another clan is not something they consider off the table. AKA a new guy joins the server and then later your clan…destroys your base and steals all your clan resources and then hands them over to his friends in your rival clan…I think they consider this part of the game…

I believe this specific topic was discussed. That said I suppose they could change their stance if enough people request it. I’m not going to dig for links but if you watch the last few streams before launch I think you will catch the reference.

[MikeTM]

Although I can kinda see where you are coming from with this, I can never agree to call something like that game design. Honestly as in it’s current state the clan mechanic simply seems untouched to me, like they are just getting around to it. I mean, right now it’s a glorified friends list. You can rank up people but that doesn’t do anything.

If you wanted to leave the possibility of betrayal in, maybe it would be better to let clan members damage clan structures with explosives. They could also let in potential attackers, or rob the public chests. But in it’s current state any rogue clan member can wreck a base that took months to build in mere minutes. This is simply unacceptable. Something like that is not a game mechanic, but a sloppy mess. Or the above mentioned appropriation of new clan member housing. It’s not a mechanic, but basically just an exploit of a simplistic system.

Also, let’s not forget; there’s PvP if you like drama and eternal danger. But me for instance, I’m not a high schooler or student anymore that I could play 8 hours per day to stop a random clan member from wrecking everything. And unlike a game like for instance Rust, Conan Exiles seems also designed for more casual ppl like me, that appreciate the adventuring/survival aspects more.

Don’t get me wrong. I like meself a good PvP fight (I play PvE Conflict), but ultimately I wanna go home and log out knowing that my assets are relatively safe. As mentioned, I don’t want to have to play 24/7 to stop some random person from undoing weeks worth of playing in minutes. Since right now you literally have to wait for the Clan leader to kick a potential griefer. I’d also love some controls so I can share crafting stations and containers/doors with strangers. Maybe make some public areas for visitation.

Ultimately, just the option for more sophisticated Clan controls would be nice. It could always be disabled on official servers by default, but I’m sure plenty of private servers would appreciate control in the matter.

TL;DR:
I know what you mean and appreciate the idea, but not all of us want an anarchistic hardcore experience. And the game seems to also cater to adventure lovers, not just PvP guildies.

[TwinCrows]

If you wanted to leave the possibility of betrayal in, maybe it would be better to let clan members damage clan structures with explosives. They could also let in potential attackers, or rob the public chests.

This, definitely.

There were also rumors of the god Bel being added to the game, as seen in the game files. Bel is the god of thieves, and might hint at the ability to unlock locked chests or doors that do not belong to you, without destroying them. Doing so would give us a better reason to put thralls indoors — to ward against thieves. However this wouldn’t help against fellow clanmates, who might infiltrate your chambers and steal things without being attacked by the guards!

With this Private / Clan structure ownership system, betrayal is still very much possible. You can still steal anything from shared Clan structures, although only the Clan Leaders or higher-ranked members would be able to dismantle Clan property or remove thralls.

This system makes betrayal even more likely and legitimate. IMO, this system is a lot more ‘Conan’ than the current clan system. It reminds me of the empires and kingdoms in the stories, filled with self-interested nobles and barons, who cooperate with kings in order to line their own pockets. Of course, players can still trust each other as they did before. But this legitimizes private play within a clan.

The main goal is to eliminate the “cheese” that comes with an undeveloped clan system, and deepen the social dynamics of Clans.

If I’m betrayed, I want it to be because a member hollowed out the clan vaults, rather than because they turned the whole castle into bricks and somehow ‘convinced’ all the thralls to come with them.

[TwinCrows]

I agree with all points except I believe private structures should still play into the purge system. It’s up to the clan to help defend its members’ property.

Good point — I’ve changed the OP to reflect this.

[Vambrace]

Just to clarify the infiltration scenario was my impression of what they said but what Joel said was simply “Clan drama is part of the game”.

I also agree that Clan management needs major love. On the other hand I don’t think clan management should be a way to change the dynamic of the server type. AKA guild infiltration should be a risk…

I like the idea of people being held accountable in-game…If you betray someone or a group of people you should be prepared to be hunted indefinitely…

[saorsa]

I can see why they would leave it to create the clan drama but you can still have plenty of it while having some sort of basic structure in the clan system. Eve online has some of the best guild drama around and they still manage it with a more in depth structure.

The one in conan Exiles feels unfinished. Like they set their mind to it that would be open for clan drama then put it away and never looked at it again.

[MikeTM]

This is just my gut feeling, but looking at the raw state of it; I have the feeling like they simply dropped the clan mechanics in favor of making the release date. There’s plenty of really blatant bugs that would suggest this. So let’s hope this is somewhere on their near future todo list.

And I’m sure none of us play survival games like this for total security.
I would definitely love it if there would be a possibility of robbing closed chests. This might create a natural ecosystem for simply prioritizing more and less important resource storage. In other words, thiefs would get to feel good stealing some common stuff, and owners wouldn’t feel bad by being robbed completely blind.

Some of this is of course not a concern in PvP, everything goes there. But I mostly play PvE Conflict because I simply don’t want to have my houses wrecked when I’m away. Everything else like thievery, killing, backstabbing is most welcomed.

[nWo_ColossuS]

The ranking system in Ark is pretty good for situations like this, a system similar to that would be ideal. Right now I’m only playing with one trusted friend as I am too wary of inviting new players or joining new tribes.