Thralls still do gain buffs from eating food (what does this mean?) Answers within?

Conan Exiles PC Discussion
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Since it is from the latest large update patch notes (Wiki updates are labor intensive) there is no mention of it.

The ‘still’ in the phrase implies it is not a new thing, though. I have, on several saves (SP local) most of the common pets and have tried with/without various foods and see no difference in hitpoints. I can easily miss buffed attacks since it moves quickly and there is no ingame indicator of damage done by pets, nor can we see any implied armor values.

Please note this is not related to the hunger system problems; not experienced here :slight_smile:

The reason for this question is I am considering gruel to feed pets and thralls since it lasts longer (less maintenance).

Anyone have a spare clue?

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I was also wondering about this and it would be nice if someone had a good answer.

I saw a reddit post a while ago claiming that using foods that match the diet on thrall/pets provides a damage buff , but he didn’t expand into details.

I personally maintain the diet buff on my thralls , it’s a lot easier than it sounds.
You go out with your best cleaver , kill a dozen goats , cook their guts fast , and you get enough meat to feed your thralls for over a week or so , rofl.
Food seems to spoil less on the thrall pot : )

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Interesting, thanks.

Personally, I deselect the server setting for “Exclusive Diet” and the thralls seem no worse for wear feeding them pretty much anything.

I was able to establish a full rack of gruel put a month or so on the pet timer, but that (for most) should no longer be an issue with the last comprehensive update.

Unfortunately, since only official servers are mentioned, I maintain their diet. This is the entire note:

“Thralls and pets no longer use the hunger system to stay alive. Instead, their life is terminated if no member of the clan to which they belong to, has logged into the game for two weeks (official servers). This is tied to the server setting for maximum decay time. Thralls still do gain buffs from eating food”

I suppose one could replicate maximum decay time locally (SP/Co-op local), but not knowing what that is, I’m “sticking with my story” :slight_smile:

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My thralls get a little fist icon on top of their health bar if they have their favorite food in their inventory. My guess is that means they’re getting a buff. How that translates to any measurable numerical effect is unknown to me, but if it makes my Captain happier when she’s killing big ugly monsters for me, I let her have the food.

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With the right tools it’s not hard to feed them well, haunched are fine but also on the long, over time, honey is a good deal if you have some bees. :wink: No spoiled meat still in inventory.

How different food act as boost is still bit mystery, that’s sure.
Would make sens if shadespiced food would give a real highter buff than feeding gruel, but still, no idea how much they become, and how it’s working.

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Hey @Jim1

Thralls and pets do still benefit from buffs gained from eating (damage). However, they cannot die from hunger anymore despite their hunger bar decreasing. Once it hits 0 they should not lose any HP, that is.

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Thanks, @Ignasi, official verification is always welcome !

@Kapoteeni, I wondered what that icon was and initially thought it indicated they belonged to me so I wouldn’t shoot them :wink: I did whale away at a rhino when I wanted skin at a particular base, only to find that he was disappointed in me as a friend :sob:

You have sparked an interest in testing that with different foods, even no food at all, and watch for the effect. When I get to it, I’ll report back here.

I do have honey, @Vattende, and use it for a defensive bear or three around a standoff set of three pens. I may also box up all those other foods, savoury, feral and human flesh etc. and limit the feed box to honey, then to gruel. I found that gruel lasts the longest time with minimal decays and compare that to the others for the buff indicator as Kapoteeni noted. Honey is the least labor intensive choice and once the beehive is in full swing, plentiful. That particular set of pens have spiders, hyenas, bears, jaguars, tigers, rocknose, crocs, shoebill and even a sand reaper. Did I mention I like pets?

Thank you all for the information !

Regards

Jim

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This post is invalid due to my process, please disregard my conclusions.

See a later post for the problem.

So, initially I thought this was going to be a time-intensive task. it turned out to be simple.

TLDR: if you want an offensive buff on a pet as shown by the icon, use the recommended food.

List of pets (I limited to these since there was little overlap in preferred food)
Greater bear, sand reaper, spider, multiple hyenas greater and small

Process:
I removed all food from the pet feeder, then removed all food from the pets. I then put stacks of honey in the feeder. After some time, all pets had grabbed 5 pieces of honey. Most of the pets still had the buff, but I suspect that was from leftover partial pieces of food.

<Insert Netflix and lunch here while partial pieces of food were exhausted>

With all honey, no pets had the buff except for the bear, which is in his list of preferred food. None of the other pets had the buff; none listed honey as a preferred food.

I then put 1 piece of putrid meat in the feeder and removed all food from the spider.

After a short time, the spider had pulled the putrid meat (a preferred food) and 4 pieces of honey from the feeder. Verifying the putrid meat was gone from the feeder, and the spider had only a 4-stack of honey indicates he ate the meat. He displayed the buff icon.

I repeated the process with the sand reaper and got identical results (putrid meat is on his list). He was farther away from the feeder box.

From that, I can only conclude the TLDR above.

Anyone see holes in the test? Feedback, positive or negative, is encouraged.

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I think there is two things to test:

A) With preferred food (Eg putrid meat) and non-preferred food available which do they take first and is it dependent upon where it is in the feeding box.
Load box with honey stack then putrid meat and observe what the spider or sand reaper takes.

And B) if they have a mixture of preferred food and non-preferred food which do they consume first.
I bring this up as prior to the patch I had been observing that my cats (tigers, panther and greater jaguar) seemed to have a sweet tooth … I had half their inventory filled with honey (no decay timer back then) and half with human flesh … after leaving them alone for several days … that the honey was depleted but the human flesh was still present and not decreased and no putrid meat.
I started testing this in single player with accelerated timers on hunger etc and found if I loaded honey and preferred food into a tigers inventory that he’d prefer to eat the honey.
But I haven’t revisited this after the patch to confirm it still exists and make methodical enough notes for a bug report.

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Good ideas, @Kwalya, thank you. I can test item A tomorrow, with pleasure.

I think item B was shown when the spider ate the putrid meat first, and left 4 pieces of honey in his inventory, but could that be random? Must ponder as I sleep :thinking:

To be candid about this, I would not call it a bug, but part of the fascinating design of the game. I personally enjoy the hell out of figuring out how things work. Too bad that was the wrong approach to marriage :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the insight !

Jim

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The other good thing with honey is that you don’t have putrid meat filling up the inventory of your thralls, especially archer may behave strangely if all there inventory get filled. So here mostly i chose honey for the long run.
Do have different foods have different buffs, i doubt. But more experimentation would be needed to be sure. But for me it looks by far to complicated to give each food a different buff.

20190318165208_1
20190318165208_1.jpg1920×1080 463 KB

here a picture, you see well the buff over my thralls and pets heads while they fight.

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Setting up test A now, @Vattende, with a bit more complexity.

BTW, is that a hyena ? My hyenas do not show the buff when I hit them (like they do on preferred food) and all of them still have a 5-stack of honey, indicating they are not eating it.

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There is one issue am having pets when they hit 0 they are starving and have that effect as if you were still feeding them doing the starving sounds and official server setting is still checked for feeding. have passed by others abandoned pets and they go through the sounds of being hungry/starving.

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My testing was flawed. Activity must have something to do with it because when a super-hyena spawned, my greater hyenas were all over him, with the buff. The three that fought him used 2 pieces of honey with three remaining. The pets that watched still had their original 5-stack. Since it was with a mess of pets, I can’t be sure which were which, really.

I thought that when I hit a pet it showed the buff, and it did, earlier, but not with the honey.

I’m leaving my main pack on honey and testing on two separated pets, away from the pack.

Also revising the post above while I ponder more :confused:

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@Azzend, that is a known issue and is listed on the Trello board, link below. Sorry, but I do not know exactly what “Patched to PC” means; it could be Testlive or this is patched in live but misses the mark somehow.

Regardless, you are correct. It is a current bug and has been reported several times. See below …

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As someone had noted none have died yet after reaching 0 its more the starving sounds that they added with animation that is still persisting and I am wondering if it is because feeding thralls/pets is still checked on official server.

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@Azzend, good point. I am sure Ignasis will pick this up tomorrow and pass it along.

Have you had any pets or thralls actually die?

(Single local PC player here, I have not experienced it)

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only the one that wanted to swim in yog shrine. nothing else showing on event log

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Nothing like a hot bath to sooth, eh?

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Sure, it would make sens if different foods would give different buffs, but i doubt it’s so.
This would make the thing way more complicated and complex i think.

Mostly for fights, i give the “good” food, this means mostly meat, exotic, or what else i have. Thralls steaks or haunches.
Honey for the guard, and the time in and around the bases.

And yes, it’s a greater hyena you see, was killed in the meantime by a boss, but that’s life. And they show up all the icon when they fight.
I should also mention this are singleplayer tests at moment.

I made also some servers tests in the past on testlive, but looked to me that some singleplayer feedback was also important.
At least, buff and food seems working fine on my singleplayer game, and all are using and showing it.