Update and Plans for the Modding Community

If something can change, it will only change if discontent is publicly expressed and if the listener does not listen, a megaphone must be used.
Whoever has spoken publicly, who has complained, who has exposed himself instead of being a “yes man”, should not be apologized, should be thanked. So thanks to all the people who have made their voices heard, and very thanks to the Funcom managers who have decided to listen to it.
This is a great satisfaction.

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Hello,

Mods allow for admins to customize certain aspects of the game to attend to a audience.

This freedom is used in a lot of cases for building up the community and keep long term players interested.

However, i have seen some servers out there in discord who sell virtual items for real life money.Giving the players an advantage over newcomers.

Unaware myself i have joined one of these servers with friends to play there.The server is wiped monthly (to increase spending ofc.) and from day 1 you are a sitting duck vs players who have paid the server admin for thralls,weapons and armor.

If you look in the server list you can see that one of these servers has +400 unique players per week on average.
I remember starting with Conan Exiles and how i selected a server going online for the first months.“Highest amount of active players ATM” “Low ping & resetted just 5 days ago.” Lets goooo."

You dont have to be a scientist to figure out that after getting wrecked several times in a row i wanted to know how these players were levelling up so fast and had the best gear.(Many players will not do this.They simply quit the game because they think these players are cheating)

The point im making here is that these servers are very appealing to new players coming in, but they are not aware of the “pay to win” concept these servers are running.

The mod-community is great and they do everything for free.Some bad server admins are using the mods to make a quick buck and in the process destroy hundreds of new players coming in the game.

It might seem that this is not connected to frustration outed on the forums by players/admins. I can assure you that the ones who have to lose the most will work the hardest to prevent themselves from losing out on paid time or admins having to compensate players who cant play but payed to win.

Plz find these server admins and do something about them.They are destroying the community by using pay to win tactics and mods that were given to them for free.They cause a lot of frustration and anger within the community. What is then outed in the wrong direction because they dont want to talk about how they are cheating hundreds of players out of a good and honest fight.

Thank You

Wasn’t aware of this myself. But certainly I can see how it could happen. Surely making money off the game which remains FC property is in breach of a law or two some place? What need to happen is for there to be a “reporting” method built in… Oh wait we have 5 star ratings but that’s a bit anaemic on details.

Trouble is whose gonna pay to do the policing? Unless it can be shown that its cost effecting for FC to do it, they wont - arguably shouldn’t, though could beef up warnings about “unacceptable use” of the games material perhaps.

Right back to original subject:

The OP was drawn to my attention just the other night, and I would like to add my agreement that sits a very good post, explains much and eases my apprehension somewhat about FC’s care for he game and its attendant community’s!

But I also agree with @ArsGothica above: Coz enough folks yelled this was posted. Sadly the maxim “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” works here. To really improve its rep FC needs to drop posts like this BEFORE (like a week before!) such updates in the future if they want to really reassure folks like me. We had a weeks mega-hype for Siptah (LOL what disappointment that was - IMOHO) a factual concise and informative post like the OP would have garnered 200% more approval from the established community I feel even if they didn’t like the fact their fave mods would go through a troublesome time for a while.

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Yes yes yes thank you thank you thank you for this post! =D

I am not a modder, my brain doesnt work well enough for that! haha But I do only play modded and it does get frustrating and every update I feel terrible for the modders not just cos they have to go fix the mod but I can imagine how many players would react… not very nicely to them over it xD

I did know about some of this already though because someone actually mentioned about this in a discussion on the forums which is great that they were trying to explain about the 2.1 updates and the changes for modders so thanks to them for that if they see this!
But as I said in another post it should have been an official update about it cos not everyone was going to see that one discussion or actually listen to it since it wasnt an official statement on it so thank you so much for explaining this and in such detail too! It is awesome to see you guys updating the community on stuff like this because it doesnt only help modders understand but players too so just maybe it will ease alot of the frustrations every update since we know now that while its rough at the moment it will help in the long run xD

I do agree with Caswallon though, should be something that is posted prior or even when the update drops not a couple of weeks after not just because it will likely help ease the community and the frustration but also because I expect quite a few people have already gone back to not checking the forums so they would have completely missed this :slight_smile:

But overall THANK YOU! <3 This is awesome and I hope to see more updates and communication with the community in the future :slight_smile: “wink wink nudge nudge hint hint” xD

On a side note! @AtzerriGold I love RA! Omg the Fantasy version with the ears and the fae and and its awesome and I love it and and thank you so much for such a wonderful mod!!! You are awesome! <3

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Mmm this is a tough one to be honest, I never thought about how it affects PVP since I don’t play it >.>

But! Every popular private server I have been on PVE has had VIP/Donators (paid) kits and perks (not just on Conan either).

E.G. The DMT & EE mods both have mounts and pets spawnable by only admins which these are I do believe are stronger than vanilla pets and mounts and are often given out in VIP/Donation kits or these kits have ways for you to get them easier than if you dont donate to the server. It is not just pets and mounts used for this but was just an example from one server I played on xD This doesn’t really affect PVE like I guess it would on PVP servers though.

The problem here though is… most these private servers wouldnt even be around if they didnt have kits like this. High population servers arent exactly cheap and I suspect very few private server owners would be able to afford the cost by themselves. While some players will donate just because they enjoy the server, most players wouldn’t without it having perks.

I am assuming here though, maybe you mean’t something else though but I can see how that would be frustrating xD It is also quite possible that the server owner just didn’t realise how OP the donation perks were or went a little overboard with them and didn’t mean to make it so P2W :slight_smile:

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It would be helpful if the Show Servers With Mods selection was enabled by default in the server list.

The suggestion by @FightzGamer to change it to “Do Not Show Modded Servers” would be a good comprise.

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Note: I am not a native English speaker and if something sounds sarcastic in the following article, it is neither intended nor meant to be.

First of all I would like to thank you for taking an official step towards us and giving us the opportunity to comment on the topics. Surely this was also the case before, but rather on an informal level and - as far as my impression goes - absolutely in your spare time. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your off-duty commitment to this community.

Therefore it is a big step that you are now following this path on a higher level. Communication is important, especially since together we help to improve the game and keep it alive.
Therefore more communication is the right way, but … but it should also lead to the fact that finally words also lead to deeds. More on this in a moment.

I’m glad that we will continue to make the DevKit available to us early so that we can adapt and test our mods in advance.
I can only agree with Dr. Nash’s statement. I accept it when something “breaks”, when it creates the basis for things to be fixed. We all benefit when the game runs as error-free as possible.

Now for the points I would like to see personally:

  • In the last updates we have been able to find out roughly and in advance what has been changed or what is changing for us. What is missing here is partly even more transparency. For example the change of the item table. For me it is necessary that I not only know: aha, there were changes to this table, but also that a new column is added here (the icon layer; and ideally that the new value in this column is an array of icons).
  • If major changes cause (or could cause) problems, hints are good on how to remedy this. With the hints mentioned in your post (e.g. reference as row name instead of an index) it is possible for us to solve it. - But not everyone can see or understand the general problems we will run into, see for example by recompiling the Granite files. Very often we are in the process of finding out things “backwards” by a lot of trial and error, which costs nerves and time. Everything that creates transparency here is most welcome.
  • We need a trial live version of the game version that is compatible with the DevKit update. You can’t test everything in the DevKit or some bugs only occur under “live” conditions, especially if there is any time or loading behavior. The deployment usually works, but so far not always and would also be a point that should be (further) considered in the workflow.
  • If the cooperation gets more of an official character from your side, I would be happy if we report bugs to you, so that we can get some kind of feedback. Maybe a Trello board would be a good idea for this? That way we could at least track a status. It is certainly frustrating when some modders take the trouble (and I’m explicitly not talking about me) to report bugs to you and analyze them intensively (as good as we can) and the bug is still not fixed by you or on the contrary is partly fixed by modders themselves (return-to-inventory for items with 0 HP). If there are reasons that speak e.g. against a fix (won’t fix), it would help us if we knew them, just so we don’t feel “ignored”. - So also here: Every bit of communication and information helps and can lead to mutual understanding.
  • Please check the log files and warning or error messages. There are a lot of messages that could be fixed “easily”. For example, in some table there is an “index” called “we” that does not belong there and spams the log. Somewhere there is also an array that refers to a faulty index. - Between all the “regular” warnings and error messages it is difficult for us modders to filter out (especially after updates) which of the messages we cause with our mods and which are “new”.

Just to make sure it doesn’t slide in the wrong direction: It’s not my intention that the documentation of changes kills everyone (if it’s more than 100 pages, I prefer an audio book, by the way; a little joke in passing). A good middle way should be found to ensure that you don’t have a significant “more” effort, but that we still get the transparency we need. But I think that in general these efforts for more transparency are worthwhile.

Now to pick up the point again when I talked about words being followed by deeds: It’s good to ask for feedback, but it would be a great pity if the suggestions you receive were to fizzle out without effect. Also in the Modders Discord good hints and feedback, but also error messages have been and will be given. As I said, I know that your activity there is rather unofficial in nature, but any official influence, especially in the form of feedback and interaction with us, is very welcome.

Please don’t be put off by those who also sometimes misbehave in tone. Those can be reprimanded and - if necessary - those who do not follow the netiquette can be referred to the discord server.

It is sometimes also difficult for us… there are a few modders, who have a lot of knowledge, a lot of modders, who have a lot of experience in their field and also a lot of modders, who are just starting. Especially if you put a lot of time into modding, it can be frustrating if suddenly your mod doesn’t work anymore and you don’t even know why. We have to download the DevKit update, check the DevKit to see if everything is still working, how it should work and try to find out how we can fix it. The exchange in the discord helps a lot, maybe one of the other modders is already one step further in “finding out backwards” how to fix something. We invest a lot of time in modding, sacrifice free time, sleep and also money (for software licenses, etc) to constantly maintain the mod and make it better. We voluntarily give support to players and users and some of us “get on our gums” (as we like to say in Germany; means: we’re not feeling well and we’re angry, irritated and/or frustrated). If we come to you with high expectations, it can happen that we let you know about our expectations and let our frustration get the better of us.

Of course, this is also unfair to you - so once again I ask you not to be discouraged. Communication is the key - and communication is the right way to continue to work together on our way to continuously improve the game and the game world and to enrich it with new things and functions.

At this point I would also like to thank all my fellow modders once again for their efforts and commitment in the community and your willingness to help, as well as for investing so much work, free time (and possibly money) in the mods to create these many little masterpieces and make them available to the community for free.

Thanks, you all are great.

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If I remembered right there was a DevKit Version shortly prior to Siptah where we could not test it yet. As far as I remember there was a timelapse from ca. 1 week or something. Maybe I am wrong here.

Just wanted to state we need that continuously for future.

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So a long time ago in a galaxy far away… no wait… uhhhh… i mean there was talk a while back about a tool for appending Data Tables (it was developed by Scooper and passed off to someone else i believe) that was really close to being added to the devkit. Is there any news about this feature? It would help greatly towards mod compatibility.

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Hey all!
Thank you SO much for taking the time and giving us some great answers. They’re all being forwarded to the devs.

There is an update we have though. We have some unfortunate news about the MapDataTable change we had planned for 2.2. During testing we discovered that the implementation we chose to do for this feature increased the initial client load time by roughly 20 seconds which is far too long. We’ve had to pull the feature for 2.2 and will look at a different solution in 2.3. Apologies for the delay!

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Thank you for such kind words :slight_smile: <3

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honestly if you saw that increase client start up time by 20 second that just mean that we get time to make tea and cookies and other things … as long as the feature is a good one… Would you dev be willing to share what was the feature that you wanted to implement maybe a few of us has some ideas to help?

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It would be nice to take a look over the UIModule table. Presently, changes on that table might trigger errors, because many systems in the game assume no mod changes it, and if you prevent some modules to be loaded or replace them, it causes crashes, freezes or errors. Eg.: Map Module and Clan Module.

Preventing them from loading or changing them to a custom one brings up a slew of errors that might be mitigated by inserting a clause that verify if they are loaded before using them. We can add those clauses in the mod, but it messes with core files that messes other things up. So if devs were so kind as to do it in the core game files, we would not need to change them and mess it up.

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for posting and more than that, thank you so much for reaching out and asking.

Here are some suggestions from an engineer and technical artist’s perspective: :slightly_smiling_face:

TestLive

What’s on TestLive goes to Live. If it’s not on TestLive it doesn’t go out. That is standard common practice across many engineering release systems.

When you don’t use testlive properly, it causes:

  • Throw away all the money in Salaries, Partnerships and infrastructure costs to maintain and run test live.
  • Wasting the time of the players and modders that run test live servers and clients to test features and mods in advance.
  • Cause hot fixes :fire:
  • Unfair to staff, causing pressure, stress and overtime. :slightly_frowning_face:
  • Causes community stress and general negativity :rage:
  • More time, effort and money spent on PR due to last minute changes, causing the hot fix.

Since Conan Exiles is listed as a finished product and Siptah is listed early access, yet the code base is tied together, I for one would be extremely careful releasing anything that affects the base game.

And just pointing out that release rings are fairly common.


  1. Canary (enthusists and/or just internal releases)
  2. Dog Food (enthusiasts that like it a little stable)
  3. TestLive (public)
  4. Live (must be stable)

BugTrack System

Where people can enter tickets. Community can vote on bugs, people can see progress. Great way to manage expectations and help set priorities. Would be nice to have an easy way to upload game logs.

An easy way to turn on Verbose logging (server/client) when trying to repo a bug. Maybe some extra Funcom logging. This could be attached to these tickets. So between logs, telemetry and maybe some extra info, it should become easier to understand and track down issues.

Modding Forum

Actual Modders forum here. Then the modding community is here and not scattered, make it much easier for Funcom to reach out and modders to communicate. How to’s and tribal knowledge now becomes internet searchable and easier for modders both new and old to find solutions.

ADDITIONAL REQUEST

PLEASE make the Testlive Update thread limited to testers responses only.
Currently it is so polluted with opinions and requests that the real issues are lost in the noise.

MORE TO CONSIDER

  • The Conan Dev Kit is painfully slow to open compared to the Unreal one. Please consider removing the content packs.
  • The point of a pre-production enviorment (TestLive), is to match Live as close as possible. Currently TestLive does not; eg. xbox controller support doesn’t work on TestLive, meaning code is not getting tested.
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Yes

You all have done great work with this game, and I do hope to keep seeing additional content added.

It’s great to hear that you will be catering to the modder community a bit more. As a server owner, we’ve had multiple times where we have had to bring our server down for a full week while we wait for modders to update and patch their mods. It’s quite disheartening to have a server wipe sprung on players unexpectedly, also. The big updates really need to have a lot of time in the hands of the modders. What I remember distinctly was a devkit update being pushed out, modders making their compatibility updates, and then the day of 2.1 being released, a new devkit was released and modders had to scramble a second time to fix extensive issues, some of which still remain.

Simply being aware of that, and how servers are being forced to shut down for weeks at a time (and sometimes forced to wipe), will go a long way.

The content being added with each DLC is great. I look forward to a Nord DLC in the future, but I’ll be happy with whatever comes our way. While content and DLC are what fund the game, there are some huge improvements that could be made to the server menu. Server ratings stopped working a long time ago, and it would be great to be able to leave reviews and get the good server more exposure while warning players about poor quality servers with P2W features or community management problems.

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Sorry but I no longer care, this should have been done long ago.

It isn’t worth it to mod this game anymore I largely agree with ArsGothica, but for me it is too little too late, I can’t see myself working to fix mods I have made for this game(just a few: sorcery & superclasses, winterhlem the first post exile lands full 8km map for conan that siptah broke lol), Hell I don’t even agree with the current direction of the game as it reeks of poor design and balance, check out the discussion on the steam awards if you want an unfiltered view of what people think, it may do you a benefit for your next game.

I just don’t see the incentive why 3 years in I would want to continue to mod a dying game which requires consistent last minute suprise updating, with the base game so lacking in direction that after 3 years it suddenly decides one day something as fundamental as its entire base healing system needs to change or its crafting thrall system.

Are we still in EA with the base game? did siptah change that?

if the game had stable revertible releases(so you could play say earlier versions of conan) instead of a consistent forced patch it may be viable, but I doubt that will be implemented .

I would highly suggest any other modder be very cautionary and think over before making stuff for CE or any other funcom game in the future.

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honestly its a valid point and frustration but the point is this is the most stable dev kit that I’ve seen and its good to have something fun to work with and experiment with.

Take a break from it. if you got server that want to upkeep the mod that you work on pass along them the mod … i mean there is alway something else to destress onto.

I do agree on one thing just like us modder can alter the game through modding … Funcom should do the same to release experimental mods to allow private server to test them out if they wish and if it polish they keep it the same just say this is the change we want to implement and keep it as such. PC gamer should be entiled that much because after all Funcom … you are playing with people lives and their money some are willing to shell out big money to you guys.

100% + more percent @DrNash. The fact that we’re seeing fundamental core updates to the game is very positive.

Sometimes to add more rooms to the house you have to knock out a few walls, dig up the patio and perhaps crack a window or two. The kids may hate that their playroom has had the old carpets ripped out, the bed condemned, but when the whole thing is done, they may start (grudgingly) seeing the point of all of it and that their new playroom works better and can have more added to it without being a fire hazard. :slight_smile:

Well I understand this reasoning but it only goes to show you have no idea how a Modded server works do you? Heavily modded ones can take heaps longer than that to load. I suggest for a good feature folks that like their Mod experiance will not care about load times half as much as features and stability?

That said this is still a good step forward. But please please please take on bopard what @Krucifear said above. It is a great outline of an effcient process for all this.