Okay, let me explain – to you and everyone else – why server queues have nothing to do with this and wouldn’t solve anything.
Here’s an explanation of what happens when you start the Steam edition of Conan Exiles. Let’s start with the cast of characters:
- Game Client: the program you run to play the game.
- Steam Client: the Steam program on your computer. You have to run it before starting the game.
- FLS Server: a computer in the cloud that keeps the directory of all players and a bunch of Funcom-specific info about each player, such as their Battle Pass progress and Bazaar inventory.
- Steam Web API Server (or Steam Server to his buddies): a different computer in the cloud that you can ask to fetch info (or do other things) about Steam users.
Okay, so here’s what happens when you start the game:
- Game Client talks asks Steam Client, “Hey, who’s the dude that’s running this game right now?”
- Steam Client answers “Oh, it’s JohnnyTheOneHolmes.”
- Game Client says to Steam Client, “Cool, cool. Here’s the thing, though. I gotta talk to the FLS Server, and you know what he’s like. He’s gonna ask me for proof that it’s really JohnnyTheOneHolmes, and that he really can play this game. Can you help me out?”
- Steam Client answers “Sure thing, here’s a ‘ticket’ you can use for that.”
- Your Game Client now has a ‘ticket’ authenticating you. It’s a bunch of gibberish-looking numbers, and the whole point is that they can’t be faked. We’ll see why in a bit.
- Game Client now talks to the FLS Server, “Boss, do you know a guy from Steam called JohnnyTheOneHolmes? He wants to play the game. Here’s his Steam ticket.”
- FLS Server says, “Hang on a sec, lemme check that real quick.”
- FLS Server then goes to talk to Steam Server and says, “Hey, there’s a dude, says his name is JohnnyTheOneHolmes, says you know who he is. Do you really know this guy? He gave me this ticket, saying his logged in right now. Is that legit? Can he play my game?”
- Steam Server checks and comes back with, “Yeah, the ticket checks out. JohnnyTheOneHolmes is logged in right now and really owns this game. We’re good, bro.”
- FLS Server then tries to look your account up in FLS account directory. If you’re not there, it’s gonna create an account for you. If you are, it’ll fetch the data about you and hand it back to the Game Client, e.g. “Yeah, okay, it’s all cool. JohnnyTheOneHolmes can play the game online. I have him as ‘JohnnyTheOneHolmes#69420’ in my directory, bu that’s a mouthful, so here’s a big-ass number to identify him with. If you wanna know about his stuff in the Bazaar or his Battle Pass progress, make sure you give me the number and I’ll look it up.”
Now, at any point in that little comedy, something can go wrong and turn it into drama.
What’s going wrong today is that FLS Server can’t get a hold of Steam Server. I don’t know exactly why. To continue with the analogy, maybe Steam Server had too much to drink last night and he’s hung over, so he’s not exactly at full capacity. And everyone keeps yelling at him, asking him about this user or that, trying to shove tickets at him so he can validate them, and his head hurts so freaking much. And all these other servers that yell at him, they’re in a hurry, they don’t wanna keep everyone waiting, so they yell and wait for a little bit and if he doesn’t answer on time, they go “shіt, he’s not home, better tell my user he’s SOL”.
Occasionally, though, he’ll manage to give an answer before the other guy gets the idea that he’s not there, and that’s how you get lucky and log in when everyone else is unable to.
I hope this helps 