Thrall feeding system

Conan Exiles General Discussion
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I have read a lot of negative feedback on the new feeding system or more in general the whole idea of having some sort of maintenance costs.

I am one of the players who is really thankfully for such a system and I don’t want that those voices get smashed down by the heap of complaints.

Some kind of system that you have to take care of your thralls is really badly needed. Note that there is no decay system for thralls. Even abandoned bases keep whole armies of fighters to poison server performance. Some clans have really ridiculous amounts of archer thralls. There is simply no balance to the resources that a clan has if you can keep piling up hundreds of thralls.

More than that, having to feed your thralls is part of the fun. Originally we had a whole city life system promised and I very much hope that this will come to life step by step. Thrall feeding is the first step. Those who are whining about having to put minimum effort into their 50 thralls wellbeing should be glad that you don’t have to provide housing yet.

Finally, asking for self sustaining thralls is like asking to remove costs for fighters in a strategy game. There is simply no challenge in getting everything without paying for it. Personally I can understand that everyone wants he game to be easy for their personal needs, but instead try thinking about a greater concept of game balance.

Thus being said, keep up with the balancing changes. We really need some adjustments to reduce the huge spam of buildings, thralls and placeables.

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It baffles me that people actually want to spend their precious time dropping food into inventories. But OK, let’s dive into this.

There are ways to get rid of abandoned thralls that don’t involve introducing another convoluted and grindy system into the game. Yes, abandoned thralls ARE a problem on PVE servers, but is this really the solution? What is wrong with introducing a 6 day decay timer, like with everything else?

Thralls do have a cost. You have to make a wheel, capture them, and feed them while they’re on it. Considering how easily they die and how useful they are in general at the moment, I think the current ‘cost’ of thralls is sufficient.

So fun. :roll_eyes:

OK, here is where I partially agree with you. In the context of a greater system–say, a whole city economy where you have thralls that are self-sustaining and can gather food, resources, etc for you–I would not mind a system like this. As long as it can be automated completely. That said, THIS IS NOT THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS THAT!!!

The first step should be food gathering automation. After that, gradually implement the feeding requirements. That way people can set up the infrastructure beforehand and not have to worry about losing their thralls due to not being online every. waking. moment. of every day. For an example of a game that does this right, look at Kenshi.

You keep mentioning balance over and over, but how exactly is it unbalanced to have a large base defended by thralls? You need a lot of thralls if you want it to stand against the purge.

Now, consider yourself a solo player who has said large base, that they put hundreds of hours into. One person is now going to have to spend time every day–possibly an hour or more–or lose all the work they put into it. I don’t know about you, but that sort of thing is not something I find enjoyable.

People like this game because it’s not as grindy as others and can be played more casually–I think it should stay that way. If you want to spend hours feeding pets every other day then go play ARK, honestly.

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Well said. People just don’t want to put in the work on a survival game lol

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There is a difference between work which adds value or fun and work that is just busy work.

Would you rather spend an your exploring a new area or building a new base, giving you access to a new or better area, or spend that hour harvesting plant fibers to create gruel to feed your thralls? Me, i find the former to be fun and the latter to be busy work.

Would you rather spend an hour farming for a named thrall or farmimg to feed all your existing T2 thralls?

Would you rather spend an your building your base to better defend against a purge, or feeding thralls?

I get that survival games need challenges and should require effort. However, that effort should match the game play and be of value. It should not be turning Conan into a Farmville where i have to babysit my crops and thralls.

When feeding was first suggested, it was a balance mechanic where you provided food to animals in a pen and the animals, in turn, provided a resource. This added value to the game. Want to build in an iron poor area, get rock bitter pets, feed them, harvest the ore. Now it’s become… Hey those 10+ thralls you need to protect your base from an offline purge or a purge when you are fighting a boss halfway across the map… Yeah expect to spend that much more time feeding them.

What next? I need to bath and groom my pets abd thralls regularly? Bring them out into the sub so they get enough vitamin D so they don’t get rickets? But hey, that thrall manning the furnace, they don’t need food or water. Only the fighters, dancers, amd archerers.

Why not just use a decay timer like the buildings? Why a new mechanic to waste our time? And why take a mechanic that was build as for obe purpose, then shift it, just to solve a problem that should be fixed in a better manner. Floating thralls… Fix the code so they fall and can be attacked, not still be considered inside a structure.

And that really is my problem with feeding thralls. It seems like some added chore created to cover up flaws in the game instead of actually fixing the code.

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I love the idea of it. It can population control certain servers. If you run up to a base and it has 150 thralls your dead. Now what if you run to another base same tribe and 150 are there as well? The up keep is going to be harsh on them an eventually they will lose control of it with purges and other attacks. If you hate the idea of it find a server where feeding upkeep stats are turned off which there will be. What you should be complaining about is the fact the NPCs are soulless. You cant’t name them (yet), watch them have animations like lay in bed, drink, sit, or even talk to each other like they do before you catch them.

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There is a poll here on this thread, if you want to support feeding of thralls.

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Or they like I use to, have been looking over the forms and they just recently made an account to add their voice into this.

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The problem here is a matter of free time to play the game. In my college days, i could easily have 4 hours each day free to play. Feeding 150 thralls would take only a small portion of my free time, leaving me free to collect more and enjoy other aspects of the game.

Now, with a family, a full time job, other responsibilities, my time to play is far less. Feeding even 10 thralls is that much less time I can be capturing new ones, expanding, exploring, etc. Yet we all need thralls.

So why punish those with less time? Because really, that’s what this system seems to be geared towards.

And here’s the thing…despite family, kids, and more expenses… I have more free money to spend on the game, DLC, etc. So by adding a new time sink, Funcom may be hurting the very people who have the free money to spend?

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Then find a server where it is turned off or make a server of your own and turn it off. This is a never ending game. It takes less than 5 minutes to make 100 gruel to feed a wheel of pain. So I cant imagine it will take thousands of shredded meat to feed your thralls daily. If someone really knows they are not going to be on for so many days out of a week stick to coop.

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They said that they currently have no plans to have an option of turning it off, only to adjust hunger meter.

As for switching server, you are funny mate. You expect people that played for months to give up all they worked for and start anew and be happy? We know official servers will have the harshest settings, if funcom wants to reassure people they need to update with their plans on how they’re going to tweak the system. The longer they remain silent, the more people will rile up.

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well said sir/mam

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Adjust it enough and it will not bother you. This happens every game they are making a change and the whole world crashes. Play the game , adapt and move on.

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Adjust it enough? Can’t you read? People on official servers have no saying on the settings and they have the right to express their opinion just as you. The game has launched it’s no longer in early access. I can accept few bugs here and there, but I and many don’t want to be forced to feed thralls which have been useless for a long period of time. In their current state, this “feature” is just a waste of time and is pretty evident they did it because pets are just re-skinned thralls and not something new.

Why don’t you adapt and play another game if you want to have half-assed “features” that are there to waste ones time instead? How does that sound for you?

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Rorik if you cant feed a npc that stands still go play hello kitty island adventure. PVE players love the feed idea and it will happen just like it did in Ark. Conversation done.

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Oh yes, watching all the threads, polls and responses it’s clear many love this feeding idea! As for the petty insults, nice try mate but I won’t stoop as low as you :slight_smile: I’d be fine with the feeding system if implemented well but it doesn’t look like it will be implemented well.

If this game goes Ark’s route it will die.

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Cant wait to see this in action. Feeding the Thralls will satisfy the community and others eventually. Keep up the good ideas funcom :slight_smile:

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I play PvE single player and on a PvP private server. I don’t love the feeding idea. I view it as a waste of time. I would be happy with a decay timer, but feeding adds one extra chore as I have stated earlier. Please stop assuming and please stop trying to represent all PvE players with your opinion. It is not a valid representation.

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That is just you. Best of luck!

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Very well said, I am so agree with you!

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Actually yes, but feel free to check out my activity on Steam and Reddit. I have been playing this game from its very first day on and I would like to remind the community that it is intended as a SURVIVAL game. So having to feed living beings seems to come natural with the genre. I am really baffled on the negativity this new system receives.