Those who have been around the modding community long enough know what it is about. And the fact that Funcom is entertaining it is frankly bad looks.
But I shan’t say more,out of respect for Tot’s wishes.

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Is it you, Josh?

Hello everyone,

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on this matter.

We value our modding community greatly and recognize the benefits it brings to our players and value the creative ways in which our modders have been able to provide content - not just as developers but also as Exiles players ourselves.
We also value very much appreciate the collaborative environment fostered among our modding community members over the years.

Those of you who have been around for a while will know that we don’t take decisions regarding the modding community lightly, and that we have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of this talented, passionate group so that they can continue to produce the amazing creations that enhance your experience in Conan Exiles.

We are more than happy to work directly with and support all creators throughout the process, but we will not share any details of these conversations for privacy reasons.

Feel free to continue discussing and sharing your feedback in this thread, but please keep it civil and constructive.

Thank you!

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Im so beyond disapointed if your actual reasoning for banning tot, before any of the outrage and forum posts even happened, was ‘toxicity or a toxic environment’.

That sounds so blatantly disingenous its impossible to believe that is the reason over more arbitrary or personal reasons.

I hope this gets fixed, reversed and a genuine apology gets set out to him over this mistake because that is 100% what this is.

The loss of revenue and good will belief of the community is the reversable thing here, not just the ban on the mod. But thats very slowly dying and not becoming the case for more and more people with every couple of hours that goes by.

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I will say this. We here are not really entitled to be given an explanation. My contention has been, however, that the MODDER in question was entitled to be given a reason, if not BEFORE the mod was pulled, at least at the time it was done. His (the modder) has stated that he was not given a reason, hence my support here. He now apparently has been given a reason so all we can do at this point is wait it out and see what happens. Funcom is, at this point, however belatedly, engaged. And at this moment, I am satisfied with that though of course I am as eager as the rest of you to know why. This is from the Tot discord:

So now… we wait.

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Intrigueing! Nothing better at creating excitement then saying that something very unsual has happened, but refusing to answer any questions.

On a related matter: I know something very strange about Razma. It’s totally shocking! Click here to learn more, but only if you can keep a secret!

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I’d also like to throw my hat into the conversation And say how much of a positive the tots mod series has had. And the custom character creation mod has made it almost impossible to live without when it comes to the modding with in the RP communities. It allows us to set up our service for each season 10x faster than any other mod. And to see the disrespect in the way that situation was handled at the beginning. It’s just unbelievable. I’m fully aware that guidelines need to be followed. But you should have reached out to the modder directly first and try to handle the situation quietly behind closed doors. Unless this was your attention. I love playing conan and I love it more when I can mod it. Just please try the resolve this. There’s no reason why it can’t be fixed. Major tots Is an amazing modder and deserves the respect for what hes done.

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The issue wasn’t really that the mod got banned.

The issue was that the mod got banned with no communication during or immediately after with the mod dev, which kept all of our servers in limbo til you got around to responding to his email. The issue was that it took you 2 days to address the issue, both with the mod dev and with the community.

We’re not knocking you for doing your job to protect IP and copywrite. We’re frustrated at your mishandling and utter lack of communication on the topic for 2 days while we’re all sitting here waiting.

“We’re aware of your frustration and are reaching out” is all it would have taken. Even an automated message to the mod dev at the time of removal stating “this mod is being removed for the following violation, here’s the petition process for reinstatement” would have been leaps and bounds above what you currently have in place (which looks to be… nothing?)

Swanning in two days later with “we know what we’re doing, trust us” isn’t enough. It’s clear from the community response that we don’t trust that your decision is justified, or at least a good portion of us don’t. If you’re looking to rebuild that trust, start being more proactive in how you handle problems. Acting like it’s not happening until people start acting like fools tells us you only care when we make it inconvenient for you, which serves to reinforce and even encourage that behaviour, not put it to rest.

There’s a better way to do this. You know there is. It’s not even that hard. Literally every company across the world understands the concept of “getting ahead of a problem before it becomes a problem”. How is it you don’t? Where the heck are your PR people?


TL;DR: Be more proactive in how you handle things like this. Waiting 2 days and only responding after the forums and discords explode is only reinforcing this behaviour.

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So earlier I posted only a short message that was meant to express basic support. However, having been a long time player of Conan Exiles exclusively on private, modded servers, I can say with some authority that if Tot is not reinstated I and many others will be leaving the game permanently.

There are extensive reasons for this, but suffice to say Tot and his mods are the foundation of many servers, and are used over other options for many reasons not just that they are the best. Reasons that prohibit going to those alternatives if Tot is removed.

Further, Tot was recently handed over to maintain other critical mods for the roleplay community that at this time have no good replacement, these mods will be dead if Tot is not reinstated, since while only Tot Custom was pulled down, that also means Tot cannot upload anything to Steam and thus all his other mods are in effect on hiatus and it will only be a matter of time before they no longer function.

The reasons provided for the takedown are bad, and frankly, I doubt that Funcom will be swayed from their decision as they have clearly decided to believe a false narrative concerning Tot if they think he has in anyway fostered a toxic environment surrounding modding. As a server owner following numerous major mods for Conan Exiles and running a heavily modded server, I and my staff watch the community very closely, and while there are always disagreements and fights, it never seemed to rise to truly toxic levels. Perhaps other things happened behind the scenes, but to those of us who have been watching over the last year or so, we also know other things that seem likely to play into this and, frankly, that Funcom would take sides in modder drama is troubling given what I know of the various situations.

Regardless, if Tot is not reinstated and his mods not allowed to update, I and many others likely will be moving on. No more battlepass purchases and no more purchases from the bazaar. I have so far purchased every Battlepass and while not bought everything from the bazaar, have regularly made purchases of items I like from it. That money, and the money of many others is on the line Funcom. That is the simple truth.

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The official update is great but not enough to keep the game alive, the mods save the game from death. Conan exile is our online Skyrim.

Some RP server have turn Conan Exile into a DnD with tot custom. This mod and some other tot mods are the pillars of a lot of RP servers, that see their population fall since the ban… We don’t know what you decide but please Funcom hurry, before the hemorrhage has raison of all our players, witch go to other games.

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so i have been watching this episode of jerry springer for 2 days. it was a good episode, and i have enjoyed seeing all the orcs and elves throw their dice at the evil barbarian overlords.

now we see that the major of the elvish army has received communication from the barbarian overlords, but has refused to disclose what the reason behind the removal of the mod actually was. and the elves and orcs and grand wizards… still support the major of the elvish army? after all this drama, the major won’t even say why his mod was removed? and the elvish army is ok with this? in fact, the elvish army is continuing to blame the barbarian overlords, even though their own general has now admitted that A) there was a reason. and B) the general is too ashamed of the reason to reveal it.

vomit emoji

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Damn, I’m tearing up. It’s an internet drama just like they used to be when I was still young. I didn’t know they still make those.

Drama |--------------X–| More Drama!

If I could refund my purchases I would, and I can assure you I won’t be giving funcom any more of my money. You showed a clear and blatant disregard towards the entire community that was the reason I played this game.

It’s not that you banned the mod, I’m sure somewhere in your terms and agreements you have the legal grounds to ban anyone for any reason. It’s that you essentially sent half your active PC players in limbo because they cannot play your game the way they want until you decided to share info about this, and until the servers readjust.

….Get your legal department to contact your PR department and work together when trying to remove mods that are a cornerstone of the community, when you don’t you lose money that is.

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A rather empty reply from Funcom tbh

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While I do approve of them finally contacting the mod author, the lack of acknowledgment for their error there is of continuing concern.

It means very little to ‘value’ community and modders without demonstrating this by providing effective communication on the onset of these issues, or… Providing effective admission of this failure to communicate.

That they are doing something about their failure to communicate now is good, to have done so before casually suspending the game for a couple thousand players would have been better.

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Well, thank you (NOT) for this wordy bouquet of shallow, dishonest corpo-waffle. In no finer way could you have shown just how much you despise all of us. So one of those among you who actually had either the spine or the power to make a decision said: "OK, give them some fine waffle, so that they might calm down and continue buying overprized cosmetics from the in-game store.‘’
I fully understand how well your new overlords from Tencent know how to play the instruments of capitalism, but YOU need to see that we also know the rules by which this is played. You need two to tango. No customer, no sale. Simples!

I -for one- will not buy a single item from the shop (and I have bought all of them so far) before you
a) tell us in full detail what the heck is going on and
b) in case that Tot has not done anything unlawful reinstate the access to the mod, rehabilitate him and apologize.

Where I come from we say ‘the customer decides with his feet’ and I am about to do just that.

The circumstances of this whole affair are bad enough as they are, but this message you have just put out there is truly adding insult to injury. Shame on you for being so utterly disrespectful.

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I think the ‘general’ would love to share the reason with us, but I fear that the overlords have threatened to send a troupe of highly trained lawsassins after him if he was to mention but a word.

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This response was certainly welcomed, but it didn’t really address the issue. A major mod that runs on hundreds of servers was removed without prior communication.

The problem is the process. If there’s an issue, communicate it instead of dropping the hammer and staying quiet until the outrage is too great to ignore.

A good solution would be some sort of categorical contact for mod authors. Tell them:
A) Why their mod was banned
B) What they need to change to get it unbanned

It could be as simple as an automated email to their Funcom account with a link to an appeal form.

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I have to agree on this. Its the same behaviour on official servers with their tos ban´s. Nobody gets an real explanation or gets a warning and time to fix what is against their firm politics. They simply ban you because of landclaim or other bs reasons nobody really understands and thats it.

That is not how you treat loyal customers. They are allways only reacting when the s… hits the fan. This is not tolerable.

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I think this that your friendly words of advice would have been the correct form of address if their communication had been dopped before they took action and if it had not been such a blantantly hollow and dishonest communication. Please do not say ‘thank you’ if someone tells you in your face that, in fact, they do not really care for you.