My wife and I are looking for a new survival game after getting too frustrated with all the bugs and stuttering in Icarus, an otherwise great game. CE looks like a really good option, but before I make the purchase, a few questions:
Is it fully multiplayer co-op or does it do what Funcom loves to do with so many of its other games, with several single-player-only quests and content that we each must do separately? My wife and I want to play together, and she will NOT be happy if she has to fight through a battle without me at her side.
The game looks like it has about 8 billion DLCs. What should I buy to get into the game and have the benefit of all the latest crafting and building abilities and most updated graphics etc. We will be starting as newbies so I imagine some of the end-game DLCs might not be suitable for us, but DLCs that offer deeper crafting or building tech trees, for example, I would want to have soon after Iāve started as soon as they are relevant. We will just buy the base game to get started, but Iād appreciate some insight into DLCs in response here so that I donāt need to come back later and ask that question.
We will be renting a dedicated server from one of the companies that hosts CE, any recommendations? Weāre currently on Streamline Servers for Icarus, and I like them a lot because they get game update files immediately from Steam and have a button you can push on day one to update the server. When I was on g-portal, I had to wait sometimes days before they patched the servers so Iām not interested in them, unless theyād adopted this approach with CE.
Thatās it for now. Thanks for any insights or suggestions, weāre looking forward to a hard-ass brutal experience, we are survival junkies!
EDIT: Great responses below, with the expected diversity of views. But Taimien said it best when he points out my starting status without anything from the past influencing my judgment, along with the reality that some of the gameās harshest critics are still playing. In my book, that puts it in the ātolerable and still funā end of the spectrum of buggy games. Thanks all.
There isnāt any content locked behind solo or multiplayer play. You can do all solo or with friends.
I would highly recommend just getting the basic game at the start and then picking up DLCs if you find you like the game and if you like the style of them. Though you canāt go wrong with the People of the Dragon set (otherwise known as Nemedian). That seems to be a community favorite.
DLCs will give you the best bang for your buck. There is battlepasses and a ingame shop, but the DLCs are much cheaper for what you get. Iād recommend only trying for Bazaar items if you see something that you think is a āmust haveā type of deal.
If you are on PC, you can use pretty much any host that offers CE. If not on PC then G-Portal is the only option. Most non-Gportal providers use TCAdmin which is pretty much what Streamline Servers has (or at least a modified version). I can personally recommend GTX Gaming and Serverblend. Those are two hosts that I have used and were great with service and performance. But if you have great experience with Streamline, you will probably have a decent experience here as well.
I wish you guys luck and mourn the free time youāll be sinking into the game.
Last bit of advice however, if youāre on PC you will have access to mods. I do highly recommend avoiding these for at least your first playthrough. After that, its going to be like a Bethseda Game. Mod it till it breaks and then mod it some more. The modding community is outstanding and the creativity is boundless.
I havenāt installed a DLC, but I think theyāre cool. I donāt have the time for full role play and any narrarative. Itās a little p2w, but nothing to complain about.
Maybe check if the rack is located in one particular area. There is a definite slow down on the net going from one rack to another rack. Choose your region.
I gave up on steam. Itās not about just finding a game. I like the standardize approach. How Playstation does it is good. Microsoft Store is okay up to a point. I hear Epic games has some viewer discretion. Of course there is more.
And, you get to set the diffuculty level of the game. When you select single player, itāll ask if you want co-op.
I will add donāt go mod happy. The more mods you run the bigger chance they are going to trip over each other. Get to know the base game for about a week.
But I do recommend emberlight. It adds more to the game then any one DLC.
Thank you guys for the great recommendations, I will take them all to heart. Iāve made the decision to go forward and we just finished installing. Iāll be using Streamline Servers again as I see they host this game.
Another question, does the downloaded game contain all DLC content so that when you purchase one you just āunlockā the content and donāt have to download it? And do server hosting companies handle DLC content, do they need to have their servers updated for particular DLCs or are they similarly ālocked and loadedā?
I have to admit, one of the reasons I decided to go forward is because of your responses. I love a great gaming community and I can see this is going to be one of the best.
Welcome to the forum!
I will start with the negative!
If you are searching for a game without bugs, then you knocked the wrong door!
If youāre searching a game that you will enjoy even with bugs, thatās guaranteed! Welcome.
Dlcs? Wait!!!
The vanilla game has so much to give you, so beautiful and creative ways to build, that dlcs can wait.
Then again the strongest gear in the game is only vanilla, dlcs are āskinsā mostly. The good part with dlcs is that the armor pieces focus in one attribute row, so itās easier to create builds, but i am pretty certain that vanilla can cover you anyway.
Last but not least about dlcs are the decorative pieces. Vanilla has so many, so beautiful pieces that surely worth to give a chance to these pieces before you go on dlcs.
Battle pass. Play a bit the vanilla and if you loose your sleep with the game, take it itās cheap and good.
Bazaar. No rush about it. All the sets in bazzar rotate through time, but if you like the vanilla, getting the āextraā sandstone set is magnificent.
If you really insist to buy a dlc, buy Siptah! It may be 20 Euro but itās giving you an extra map to play, rhino mounting, multiple gear sets and 2 building sets, one tier 1 and 1 tier 3.
I hope youāll play and enjoy with your other half.
Bugs and performance issues are the norm for this game. If all you want to do is build then youāre good, this game is Barbarian Barbie. If you want to engage in combat you are in for a world of hurt because this game is ridiculously buggy.
Ok, I hear you guys. This game is full of bugs. Iām not sure Iāve ever played a game that wasnāt, but bugginess is not a Yes or No prospect, itās a continuum running from COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE to tolerable and still fun.
New World, for example, is tolerable but still fun, the bugs are annoying and frequent but donāt prevent game play. In the case of Icarus, you dropped to 0-5fps EVERY time you approached our base and teleported all over the place because of the intense stuttering. And it gets worse the more things you build, so it was only going to get worse. Also, you canāt really progress in the game without Workshop gear because that gear is the ONLY thing you start with every time you do a Mission. Doing missions gets you Workshop gear so that you can do the harder missions to get better Workshop gear, etc. In other words, if you canāt get Workshop gear, you cannot progress in missions. In my wifeās case, EVERY SINGLE time she did a mission, the game would lose all her Workshop gear. So she would never be able to make progress in the game. That is literally a showstopper, which puts the game at the Unplayable end of the spectrum.
Is this game more like New World or more like Icarus in this regard?
I have 5k+ hours in Conan Exiles, but only 139 hours in New World if that is any indication. But thatās the rub you will see mostly. All the detractors in CE are just salty grognards with thousands of hours played and have a very colorful view when changes happen to established game play.
If you look at some of the most critical critics still active in these forums of the game, they are still playing CE as their main game. That speaks volumes alone.
As a new player you wonāt be hung up on how the game āwasā or āshouldā be since there will be no basis of comparison. Youāll need a few hundred hours before you start trying to get salty about what you think the game should be, and by then youāll have played far more than your amount spent is worth.
Conan Exiles is full multiplayer. You can play Co-op or play on official game servers. In addition, you can create your own server.
The DLCs are not necessary for starting off in the game. Perhaps play it to find out how you like the game first. The DLCās are not pay to win. They are more cosmetic than anything. The cosmetic changes are significant with different styles of armor ,weapons, building materials, etc. In addition, the new store offers tons of new stuff. I personally buy everything they release because I love the game and like the content.
I rent dedicated servers, too. I currently use G-Portal I like how mod-friendly G-Portal is for Conan Exiles. I have experienced positive results with support and responsiveness with G-Portal, despite there being negative reviews here and there. As you have your own experience with G-Portal, so you have that to go on, too.
The Gameplay of Conan Exiles is excellent. I recommend The Isle of Siptah, too, which has a different environment and new map to explore.
I have thousands of hours of time playing CE. Great game. It scratches that survival, building, and adventure bug in a Skyrim way), and some difficulty in a Souls-Like way. If you run your own server, would recommend a server management mod such as Pippi Server and User Management. Youāll most likely find more than that to play around with once you get into it. 100% recommend Conan Exiles!!
weāre looking forward to a hard-ass brutal experience, we are survival junkies!
Welcome, others have covered most in great detail, so wonāt spin that wheel. I would recommend you both playing the Barbaric Ruleset, especially if duo-ing the game together. As one of a duo myself on a private server of late I can say this makes the game a whole lot more enjoyable, especially if youāre looking for that hard-ass brutal experience.
For age of war, especially the ch3 update, Iād have to agree.
NPCs falling through the ground and push off ledges pops to mind immediately.
Note a lot of the issues people are experience are from funcoms public servers being on a, errr, budget host. A good portion of NPC and thrall issues is cause by server lag; not all we got new ones this update.
As big a gripper as I tend to be, I have close to 7K hours in to the game; and have actually taken a few longer hiatuses; like I was deep off in to pubG for about 18 months. Then it went F2P
Get the base game (on sale if possible but otherwise worth it) and the current battlepass. Play single player or a low pop pve server and enjoy the game. If you like it then buy crom coins or dlcās as you see fit.
when you get bored just put it down. You can always come back. Funcom supports the RP community. They do not support the pvp community so donāt bother.
Word pf warning, thw default game is far from a survival. If you want some survival challenge you will have to tweak settings. Also, mods are great, bit many of them are meant for after level 60 (base game level cap). The weapons, magic etc are not tunes with base game in mind from my experience.
Ok guys, after playing this game and leveling up, I can confirm that, yes, there are bugs, and plenty of them. But none of them has been a showstopper. Mostly annoyances, really. If you guys think this is noteworthy bugginess, donāt even think of trying out Icarus. Even the one time that we lost our gear, we just made or looted more in a few minutes. Iām sure there are worse bugs but the general pacing is not hampered, at least it hasnāt slowed us down, and weāre having a great time.
That said, thanks for the warnings lol. I went in with some serious trepidation, but Iām glad I gave it a shot!
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