Suggestion: Thrall Companion System

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
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This suggestion is for post-launch (scheduled for May 8, 2018)… Right now, players can capture thralls, ‘domesticate’ them, and set them to work. And currently, a player can order a Thrall to ‘follow’ providing assistance during one’s adventuring. So I was thinking, what if it could be taken a step further…?

What I propose is allowing a player to not only command a Thrall to follow, but to develop a single Thrall as a sidekick, companion, henchman, or whatever term works. I’m sure some mod-maker would work on giving players multiple such Thralls, but for multiplayer purposes, a player can only have one Thrall companion (at a time).

Such Thrall companions could be customized to the player’s liking:

  • customize appearance (applying the character creation tool to the Thrall, the player can alter the appearance to one’s preferences)
  • customize armor and weapon choice (this feature is pretty much in game already)
  • customize attributes (a Thrall companion would have strengths and weakness like a player character; how many points I would leave up the developers to decide with game balance in mind, but allow players to make meaningful choices). This way, players can ‘design’ a Thrall to fulfill a specific combat role (such as putting points into Accuracy if that Thrall is to use a bow/crossbow or putting points in Strength if that Thrall is to use a melee weapon or putting points in Encumbrance if that Thrall is to be a ‘pack mule’)
  • customize feats (a Thrall companion would have a few ‘optional’ recipes and techniques that may help during an adventure)
  • customize AI tactics (a Thrall companion would be controlled by the computer, but the player would be able to set the Thrall to offensive-melee, offensive-ranged, defensive-melee, defensive-ranged, or passive stances).
  • able to ride a mount (when mounts get to be introduced)
  • able to command the Thrall companion (follow/assist, wait here/stay, move to, attack) - that way if a player is playing ranged, he can command the Thrall to ‘tank’ for him or if the player is playing melee, he can command the Thrall to cover from a distance with a bow/crossbow… I would also suggest allowing a Thrall to cover from a short, medium (default), or long distance so players can choose what works best for their playstyle

Thrall companions would match the player’s stance as much as possible when following/assisting. For example, when the player draws a weapon, the Thrall companion draws a weapon. When the player sheaths their weapon, the Thrall companion sheaths their weapon. When the player walks, the Thrall companion walks. When the player stops walking, the Thrall companion stops walking.

Thrall companions, in hard mode, would also require rest/sleep, food, and water. They would also suffer from the environmental effects (heat, cold, sandstorms, etc.). Thus, a player would have to take care of their Thrall companion just like they would themselves. I suggest this in ‘hard mode’ so that there would also be the option to turn this part off (since not everyone would enjoy micromanaging an NPC).

I’m sure there’s more that could be done with Thralls, but I hope that helps get the ideas flowing.

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Wow, great ideas. I’d love to see some of this transferred into a whole ‘Training Regimen’ system, where you can determine the Feats used by a whole handful of thralls.

I like the idea of having a thrall companion, but don’t like having to feed my thralls like I’m some sort of babysitter. I’d prefer the companion’s hunger to just add onto my own hunger, making me need to feed myself and drink twice as much, and have twice the capacity.

Honestly, we should be able to craft Exile Bracelets to equip our thralls with, to let them respawn. Otherwise, thralls still have perma-death.

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Good points. My idea of “feeding” Thralls was basically keeping food stored in their inventory as well as the player’s. Same for water (keep a filled water skin in the thrall’s inventory). Make sure they have what they need to survive. I wasn’t necessarily thinking of ‘spoon-feeding’ them like infants, but I can definitely agree… that would get annoying.

Yes, an Exile Bracelet for a Thrall companion is an excellent suggestion. Wished I’d thought of that one. :slight_smile:
Keep those good ideas flowing. Perhaps the devs can bring some of those ‘dreams’ to life.

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It would be interesting if you could boost thrall attributes by selecting a training regime in the Wheel of Pain, and only be accessible if you have a T4 Taskmaster working on the Wheel.

For example, selecting ‘Toughen Up’ would increase the base health of the fighter/archer/dancer thralls that come off the Wheel. ‘Nimble Step’ would increase their base poise.
So on and so forth for things like base damage, inventory size, etc.

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Bodin. This is an exceptional idea that I would most definitely love to see added in the future. I also very much like the crafted Exile Bracelet idea from TwinCrows and the Wheel of Pain training concept by Callisis_Kemtep.

While I’ve nothing creative to add at the moment, like you, I truly hope this thread continues to spark a whole slew of detailed additions to your wonderful ‘Thrall Companion System’ idea.

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I agree with the overall gist of this thread. A companion thrall system would be great. Being able to grow and customize your “pet” thrall would provide a lot of depth to the thrall system.

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this would be great for single player and private servers

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Now all we need is a dedicated modder to root around in the devkit and make the system work.

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I can only see something like this working if they could respawn (maybe after a certain amount of time or something). Not worth it if they die once and that’s it.

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Even if i like this idea, this is another thing we would love to have in game but devs can add this to long WISHLIST we players made so far.

FEEDing:
I had enough of this in ARK where i spent most of my time just taking care of my dinos (and i had just few of them… 20-30 and in š man clan around 100) and most of my time was to feed them, make sure there are “parking” at the right spot and other st like this. If Conan should be Survive, Build, Dominate than Ark should be Tame, Breed, Babysit… and then Survive. While it would make sense to feed your human “friends” it is pain in the a and i really dont want this in CE.

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I think a thrall is at least as intelligent to get a meal by himself. You can feed pets, but should not have to do this with thralls. But maybe you should take care to have enough food for all.

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Good points. I agree the food mechanic should have an ‘optional’ setting (to use or not use as desired by the player). Using it would add more immersion (no free Thralls, but that there is some maintenance cost involved). Like Ark has a food tough, so Thralls might have a community ‘banquet’ table with a huge effect radius. Or put food in their inventory. Or whatever other way to maintain their health. I’m sure there are lots of ways to accomplish the task and since I’ve not actually used it, I don’t know if I would like it either after it was implemented; I’d have to try it out myself.

But keeping such a system “optional” would let sp players/mp servers turn it off if it turned out to be annoying. I strongly believe in letting players and servers have options for different game play styles. The more customization options, the better.

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or it could be optional in the way that you dont need to feed your thralls, but if they will be fed they will receive some bonus. So who ever want to or have enough time for this mini game could just babysit his thralls to keep them buffed (something minor… 20% hp and damage bonus for XY hours, or what ever…) This could also help us to sort of solve our issues with base defense and Thrall power/AI vs Players = increase our base defense potential.

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i feel deeply as well that the thrall system needs a rework, i mean, a totally rework. which leads me unable to understand some threads in steam forum, the way how they urged the dev to launch the full release. as a common sense, a game that is released from its early access status won’t have its core features reworked due to the real life issues, but some relatively “minor” changes and some free add-on which are probably relatively “minor”. it’s not the old physical product gaming era any more, the early access change the rule. maybe it’s the multiplayer mode makes players act in that way?
anyway the thrall system should be count as one of the main feature in the game, like others such as the survivor element, the combat system.

i would like to see a thrall system more like the dwarf fortress, that the thralls are moving around with their own tasks, and actually interact with the game world. that would makes the game a real beast. otherwise the game is just like a adult version of tree of life.
friends, you are the master of thralls, yet you still needs to chop down a tree your self? while your thralls have no problem at all idling around in your base? the thralls perform stupidly not only in combat, but also from the root of their existence.

1.1. you may now thinking about the performance in a multiplayer server, but how about make the thrall only maintainable by a clan, rather than just any individual player?
1.2. a clan can have different number of thralls depends on its clan’s tier and wheel of pain’s tier, yet a individual player can have none. (this won’t affect the sp/co-op mode as people can also create a clan in this mode)
1.3. allow the clan leader to manage in a clan UI to decide a member was allowed to take a certain number/type/tier of thrall with him/her in an adventure or not.
1.4. allow the clan leader to set resource goal so the thrall can go out from base and gather it if such resource exist not far from the clan’s building area. the goal will be also published in chat box so that the real clan member could also be informed and help out with the process.

2.1. individual players should be able to craft only the basic survival items, like wooden chest, roll beds, and tents that we can see in a npc camp. real building chain and real crafting bench should be unlocked by a clan’s tier using clan points. the clan exp can be earned by killing boss creatures or killing players from other clan, or destroying other clan’s symbol stone.
2.2. a clan’s symbol stone is a limited item that can be crafted and placed in the ground to determine how far the clan-only structure/item can be placed. a clan-only structure/item will lose their durability really quick if it’s not covered by its symbol stone’s range, also resources covered in a symbol stone’s range will not regenerate again_(this will prevent the ugly wall/ building everywhere)_.
2.3. the symbol stone from a clan that has few members offers none or few exp to a attacker’s clan that has a lot of members. maybe even reduce the attacker clan’s exp to protect the new player in a server.
the symbol stone from a low tier clan always only gives a very limited exp to an attacker clan.
2.4. higher tier clan can have multiple symbol stone depends on its clan tier.
2.5. you can name a symbol stone for better management.

  1. allow a clan to capture thralls from other clans, if they use their little club.

  2. different rank of clan member, only member of certain rank can build bench/building structure/etc.

  3. a better combat AI and a better command of course, like Bodin in the main thread above have mentioned. except for riding a mount. they are thralls, and they can teleport xD

conclusion: the late game should be more involved with war between clans, other than just more difficult dungeons, stronger bosses that will only make the base that players dedicated with love and passion meaningless in pvp, and a better thrall system will fix it.

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Also, we need a new type of thrall. At least an update on a particular one. The bearer thrall should be commanded to collect resources, one type at a time. Then they can place it in a chest until full. You would need to empty the chest for them. You can also be able to have one fighter or Archer occupancy them as a guard.

Another idea is that certain thrall types can only gather certain materials. For example, a Tanner will collect leather and bark.

And to add on the idea of a thrall companion, upon their death. If and when they do die, you will have to go to your temple and make an offer. At the temple of Mitra you may need 50 lingering essance, 4 limbs, 1 human heart, 100 bones 1 skull, and 50 human meat to bring them back.

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