Survival, Agility, Accuracy skill revamp. & alternative ways to roleplay at Conan Exiles instead of going full crafter and thrall lord

[Konar]

Hello I started playing Conan exiles sometime ago. Just as a note I play games often and for a very long time. (Old timer and gamer here) I have been reading about builds and gameplay. Testing myself the first hand aswell.

I realised the game is too much based on crafting and item power which is very disattractive for gamers. My humble opinion is Conan exiles could have optional gameplay styles. Will you choose to be a crafter and keep up with item power or rely ,purely, on thralls and bonuses from them or will you choose to go for Conan -like wandering warrior and survivalist style. Three different styles could give extra bonuses to attribute/skill sets and character upgrades through levelling, for going crafter, slaver warlord or the solo adventurer styles. This way the game would give three optional styles but also mixing three styles at will. I have tried all styles at Barbaric setting and solo play mode and the game clearly pushes the players go for crafting and thralls to the extremes.

While I know all skills have ins and outs, I have quickly realised the gameplay is Too much on Strength and Vitality builds. This is pretty much killng the fun at builds and avoids being creative at gameplay. (Encumbrance and jumping top of heads is just funny but overall that type of tricks is extremely situational)

There is now a new option only for the mounted archery, where I believe archery in general should get use of bleeding debuff (bows only) without special arrows as the third perk. +%15 bonus to movement speed/+ %50 extra cripple timer to ,bows only, as the fourth level perk; only when the player is wearing light armor and the encumbrance bar is green. The first perk could give stamina use discount only when using a bow. (Right now grabbing a Pike gives all these without any points spent; also with further hitbox then ordinary melee. So why not ?)

Survival attribute should be more fun to use for both pve and pvp. The skill could give % 1.5 chance to avoid/heal cripple and bleeding effects for each point spent. First perk would be same.

Double harvest resource nodes (including animals) and +%10 movement speed bonus at perk two.

The survival attribute could give meaningfull amount of additional hitpoints (+%30) and additional movement speed that brings movement speed to a total amount of +%15 at third perk.

The fourth perk could give %25 damage reduction and immunity to disease and poisons and similar harmfull effects (including bleeding and cripple) from any source, instead of funny %10 all the way up at the fifth perk.

Additionally the fifth perk would have a special effect such as; when the player is under %30 HP total he would get -%50 to all incoming damage which would be an alternative definition of Berserker perk of Strength attribute; by ignoring damage instead of dealing extra damage. Fifth perk would not stack with the passive %25 but would cap at %50 max; not %75 reduction. The fifth perk could also have %50 chance to cheat death, instead of dying instantly when the player’s HP drops below 0. (Survival vs Strength and Vitality builds would break the boredom for both pve and pvp)

Agility attribute could have perks related to melee and archery styles. Giving % 1 chance to trigger double attack with melee weapon or ranged weapons with each point spent. Second perk would give %10 sprint speed and duration bonus. Third perk would give % 20 sprint speed and duration bonus. Fourth perk would bring the bonus to %30. These would re- define the agility attribute with Swift hand/foot brawling style instead of ’ an attribute for getting a discount at sprinting and for rolling around with style’ which still seems to be ignored and leads the playerbase going for Strength and Vitality…forever.

Thank you very much for reading.

[Timb]

This is something I’ve been spending too much time thinking about. I would prefer a fluid or semi-fluid archetype system to the current attribute system.

I have serious beef with the survival attribute. You can cook food at level 3, rendering the first survival perk useless. The harvesting perks are nice, but not necessary. Considering that the survival attribute doesn’t seem to DO anything (in a survival game???), the fourth and fifth perks aren’t worth the investment.

There’s no reason to throw out the SAVAGES system, but as things are added to/removed from the game it needs to be adjusted to prevent players from being shoehorned into a play style.

[DanQuixote]

Yeah, I definitely noticed a difference going from a character with high survival to my more recent playthrough with basically none for most of it. Eventually it was the giant snakes that pushed me to bump it to 20 and then get the rest with armour/witchdoctor mask/potion/warpaint. They’re just so much less of a hassle that way.

Fifth perk is alright, maybe a bit overcosted, but then where else does it fit into the list so…

Fourth perk, as you say, is great - it even protects against the corruption that you get from enemy weapons (like the wights or silent legion).

Third perk, I’ve never worried too much - always felt like I was getting plenty either way - can’t say I’ve noticed much change since Siptah released, but then I’m at that stage of an exiled lands game where harvesting’s mostly irrelevant anyway so could easily just not have noticed.

Second perk is great - get your grind done in half the time, or double the grind per repair - either option is pretty useful. Getting back to that level made me wonder why I hadn’t just put the points into earlier.

First perk - eh, whatever. Must admit I’ve never cared much about this one - never found food to be enough of a hassle for it to matter, at least by the point I could afford to put 10 levels into it. Most of my early points tend to go into grit.

As for the stat itself - I may be wrong, but in addition to hunger/thirst and temperature, it certainly feels like it reduces the impact of negative status effects (bleed, poison, cripple, sunder), incrementally reducing how long they last. Sure the 4th perk is the big impact on that, but it’s always seemed to have some effect, even at lower levels. I quite like the stat - maybe not as a first priority, but it’s definitely one I prefer to have some in if I can afford it.

[Konar]

Thanks for the comments. I am sure all of us are aware that non of these skills mentioned are as usefull as Vitality, followed by Grit; for especially pvp/but also pve survival and harvesting; Strength and obviously at least 10 Encumbrance is a must for any type of build. May take encumbrance to 15-20; give or take… When I first started the game I also picked up Survival skill to 10 and then 20-30 etc…then Vitality and Grit and then Encumbrance. In time I had realised carrying extra wraps and water and cooked food or bugs, berries let me wander for over hours even at the most harsh regions. Vitality beats Survival big time. Grit helps at extra sprints/even when carrying heavy loads, longer attack spam cycle-dodge-clib,swim and making time for utility even when running away. (Agility 10 is also nice to have) The outfits also give bonuses aswell. I believe all skills should have pve, pvp, combat and uttility related specialties, since the cost of any perk over 25 turns out to be a burden. Who would get 30 and higher agility, survival or accuracy when vitality, grit, strength and partially encumbrance covers anything about the game aswell as the Crafted gear and the Consumables ? That set boosts survival skills aswell as any type of combat activity drastically. Survival attribute certainly needs an upgrade to compete. Right now Agility and Accuracy are both dont worth the dime and not even missed same as Survival attribute compared to actual survival bonuses from all other said attributes listed above. (Vitality, Grit, Encumbrance, Strength)

[Timb]

With the recent changes to how food works, Vitality is definitely the priority stat and Gluttonous Gains is awesome.

Thanks everyone, I didn’t realize Survival affected status effects. Still though, it doesn’t provide more value than Vitality.

Does anyone else think the Deep Breath and Impervious perks align better with Survival than Vitality?

[Konar]

Many of those listed perks at other attributes would fit in to Survival actually. It would represent the wits and adaptability of a human being to nature and its creativity to carve simple but effective gadgets and tricks aswell as durbility of self and the equipment.

Say Agility Perk 1 and 2. Vitality perk 3 and perk 4 aswell as extra health gains for being a better survivor. This is about physical fitness and metabolism which is also related to survival skills and the hardiness of the person.

A survivor would also be a hunter and trapper so would know where to hit. Strength perk 2 would fit in as Survival perk but also would give bleeding and cripple bonus to any weapon wield while hunting and fighting. Be it bow a bow, spear, blade or shield. Survival attribute would unlock and improve pit traps, snares and more tricks. Camp fires and torches and consumables would last longer by peparing better gadgets, to survive better at the open world.

The survivor would be fleet on foot so many of the Grit perks also fit in Survival aswell.

Furthermore, this guy would be hardy as if having thick skin and immune system so higher damage reduction and resistance to harmfull effects, early ast the basic perks, would be fit.

Long story short , instead of labeling the Survival attribute as if a peasent-farmer skill (focus too much at harvesting at untill the fourth perk), the devs might have created a jack of all trades skill but also add new tricks and colorfull details to survival skill. (Which would be the main skill for Conan aswell I believe)

Creating a combination of set of skills to add perk 4 of survival and vitality 3-4 , agility 2 or 3 and grit 3 , encumbrance 2 may only be possible when someone hits lvl 60 and it would take enormous amount of points sacrificing many other things right now. It would certainly lack the extra damage skills and most probably wont be able to get perk three of most of these skills listed, when trying to hit the fourth perk of survival or get them all and wont be able to enjoy posion resistance etc untill end game. (Said build would most probably be wandering around and not building much may be furnace, couldron, iron lvl weapons-which doesnt even fit at survival at all… and create tiny brick (?!) huts across the map…[Why isnt there viable and practicle ,man made, Tensile structures in the game, other than stone structures at hand ?..Why does the pet system require gigantic structures but not simple leash, reward and punishment gadgets as if training the pet while wandering the map ] Would focus at easy lvling between harvest and drop and kill non boss npcs most of the time…unless the Survival skill gets a real hardcore update)

Unless changed, sadly the game is based on settling somewhere and crafting and expanding (Age of empires?) and living as if a fat lazy rich guy at a fictional land right now. I really wish devs add different options to play the game without building giant settlemnts and roleplaying as if a rich businessman.

[Timb]

With the density of aggressive wildlife on Siptah, I think some sort of camouflage perk would be nice. Something that would affect aggro range and player opacity while crouched, just enough to blend into the area without becoming completely invisible. This would for some interesting pvp options and make dyes more important.

I really liked your idea of having a thrall lord, crafty, and adventurer types to sort of generally guide the play styles. Perhaps implementing a perk selection system? For example, at level 1 of Grit, instead of just getting the perk you’re presented three options with each perk suited better to one role or another. Ideally the perks would pertain to whichever attribute they were associated, but it wouldn’t be terrible if the perk is built for the role rather than the attribute because the system expands the variation of play styles within the roles themselves.

There could be perks that make archer thralls deadlier, perks that learn recipes unavailable anywhere else, perks that increase dodge roll distance, etc. There’s so much potential!