Most old players no longer play the game because there are no real new features that encourage them to explore the lands of exile again and Siptah, let me explain. For my part, I have 3500 hours of play on Conan Exiles, but I have almost stopped playing the game. I am also part of a Discord “guild” which brings together nearly 200 players and which manages and finances its own servers; we have 5 private Conan Exiles servers but also several servers for other games. Initially this guild was created for Conan Exiles players but for the past year almost no one has been playing Conan Exiles apart from a few rare new players. During our recurring discussions on Discords (or when we play other games together), the same argument comes up, the former players got tired of always returning to the same places and always repeating the same dungeons, they hoped (like me ) a new map that never came (after Sipath of course). Anyway, this message is a bit long but I hope Funcom will read it. Conan Exiles was the best fantasy survival game and had tremendous potential but nothing was done to keep old players around. To keep old players you need more than new features, you need to renew the game either with a new map (unlikely), or by adding more random events (in nature but also in dungeons) and ideally make a complete overhaul of all the remarkable places in the game (cities, npc’s camps, dungeons) so that former players rediscover the taste for novelty and discovery. Age of Heroes is not going in this direction and will not bring back the old players who were the basis of the game and that is a shame.
The same terrain, but different placements? That’s an interesting concept. Like what would happen in 20 years time after factions have fought and there has been some shifting of borders, territories, and places where new dangers abound. Very thought provoking of what could be.
Most people actually play this game as what it is: A sandbox.
People who play this game as a theme park game in which you are led to do things in a rail are objectively playing the game wrong.
You filling the map with camps, forts, macguffins, mechanisms, and etc takes away the space and the agency for players to make their own stuff, like, obviously, a Sandbox.
Yes it could be new camps in different locations (but I’m afraid this will destroy player bases). On the other hand, the current camps and villages could be modified taking into account that time has passed and that events have happened: some villages could have been razed by monsters who settled there, others would have expanded with new npc to discover, others would be at war… in any case modifications to camps, caves and even dungeons which would be important enough to make you want to go back on an adventure and rediscover new things.
the idea is not to fill the map, it is to evolve the existing locations. Why should New Asagarth be unchanging ? Why couldn’t it evolve following an invasion or something else ? This would bring change to the game, show that the world is alive and that time is passing. And above all it brings novelty, we return to the same places but to discover other things, new monsters, new NPCs, objects, recipes, etc. and there could also be more random events on the map. All this without removing the sandbox side of the game appreciated by many players.
Players chase new players off the forums and out of the game. I think what was done by the staff has been undone back to a vanilla game. New players kinda give up, and old (few years worth) players know that they only need to restock. I hope for another merge, but I’m listening to this overhaul.
I like this concept. Imagine New Asagarth’s inhabitants getting tougher and more well equipped based on how many Nordheimer’s you’ve assaulted over time? Sepermeru’s markets and population expanding the more people you rescue from cages and release or if you yourself release your thralls from bondage. Technically feasible? Not sure, but would be hella interesting.
People always forget “new people” play the game.
And “dynamic changes” are not that easy to pull off.
But the most fundamental thing about it is:
A lot of players dont even care how, for example, new asagarth is. If you ask a whole bunch of players, even many RPers, they wont know who is the guy with a “dancer” beside him, and why he is there.
To them changes mean “moving my farming thrall spot for no reason”.
To new players, nothing “changes” as they never new it was different if it changes to them.
To casual players, it doesnt really matter much of what changes around. They play it so little that, sameness is relative.
On the programming side, if you dont know, the persistence of the characters is non existent. Your character, your thralls, your stuff, it is persistent, meaning the game has a storage and a DB to classify things. Most of the map, it is simply “recreated” everytime you are in that place.
To create some of the stuff people “would want” in there, you need persistence of data around the map. That means a larger DB that grows overtime and slows down the game over time, if not immediately. So you need to be judicious on what you tuck into the persistence.
To that end, either you make a very big change and a very complex work to allow for dynamic change and ever building presence, or you leave the way it is. Because doing “half S’d” will make it worse than having it “always the same”.
A simple debuff for each region you stary into (like a corruption zone does now) that stacks and last x hours would be not be overly complicated. And adding in Stgian War lords that change every so often the “city” they invaded. Dont have to create new stuff, but changing up the mix of spawns and bosses adds some “dynamicity” to the game.
Debiffs could be
Stamina regen debuff for Summoning place
Weapon damaeg debuff for New Asagarth
Armor debiff for Mounds
Things along those lines. Easier than creating meandering thralls fornyour base.
Apparently an overhaul of the Dregs is already planned for Age of Heroes Chapter 2.
(Not a programmer, so obviously I have no idea what level of work would be required or performance impact this idea might have.) An idea that seems like it might be relatively simple as a way to add some dynamism -
double (?) the number of wilderness spawn points (animals etc);
set each spawn point to spawn one of several possible options from a list (including 30-50% probability of no spawn, so the overall spawn rate remains roughly the same).
In theory this might resolve one of the bigger issues experienced players have running around the map ("so I turn left, kill the crocodile, continue past the two spiders, here’s where the three hyeanas will aggro, etc etc). Just the little bit of variety created by not being sure which spawn points will be active, or what exactly will spawn when they are could add an illusion of dynamism with (in theory) low actual impact. The game already does this to some extent with the possibility of spawning corrupted variants, maybe expanding on it wouldn’t be too hard?
Yeah, I’ve always thought randomized spawns of enemies as well as resource nodes would add a feeling of variety to the world.
Randomness is definitely easier than persistence, which is required for phasing (get things to vary in specific predictable ways).
Randomness you can do without much “change” to the way things are. You can use spawn points that “might” spawn one thing, another, or neither.
That is already how the camps vary the types of npcs spawn, like around the pyres you have sometimes a blacksmith, sometimes a carpenter. You could in theory put in one place either a croc, or a shaleback, or neither to spawn.
However then, you have the exact “contrary” problem. Some people see what you describe as a problem, some people see what you describe as a solution.
It is the age old problem in making games.
Some people think the dungeon is good because you can never know what you will face, some people think it is bad because you can never know what you will face.
Some people will complain you can never know where the crocs are, some people will say it is boring to always know where the crocs are.
That is the main problem in being a developer for final consumer, they are not companies, they not always want the same thing.
If you work making software to companies, you can trust anyone of them wants something to cut costs and maximize revenue.
Final consumer, they want “what they want”. In the case of games, they want to have fun. And as “you players” always say “there is no having fun wrong”, just “not having fun”. But that also means there is nothing you can do that will ensure “everyone will like”.
That alone would already be great ! have spawn points that generate random mobs. That would allow for surprises. Some special world bosses that appear in different places without you ever knowing when and where would be nice too.
hmm, after 3500 hours of playtime you think the game might need some change and a few new things…
Maybe, just maybe 3500 hours of playtime is the reason why the game seems repretitive and doesn’t feel “fresh” anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, I too feel this way after “only” 2000 hours, but this is really not the fault of the game…any game would feel this way, unless it is a game like WoW with expansion cycles every 2 years.
I agree that not all players are looking for the same things and that some don’t want random spawn points for example. But I don’t think that’s the majority, especially when you’re looking for an adventure game (adventure is also surprise). And above all, a game of this type must evolve because in the end even players who don’t want change end up getting bored. I think Conan Exiles is a game with huge potential but unfortunately Funcom mostly makes additions that I find minor. I was waiting to see the next Age to know if I was going to play Conan again or not. And I’m disappointed. Having my thralls move, sleep and eat…ok it’s a great technical feat but it doesn’t add anything to the adventure game, it’s not what’s going to make me return to a dungeon or a camp of npc that I have already explored hundreds of times. The game should not become a Sim, it’s an adventure game !
precisely, I think that this game deserves a cycle of expansions which really brings novelty to the adventure (example : the caves are all the same, or almost, from the beginning while they could house new things to discover ). I’m not talking about making a complete modification of the map (although I wouldn’t be against a new map 
) but about modifications in specific places. I love this game and I would like to be able to go back and play it again and discover new things that aren’t “cosmetic”.
This is not an adventure game, this is a sandbox game. Two different genres.
And one never can say “the majority” as a player one way or the other. The only who MIGHT know what “the majority” want is the publisher, if anyone does.
And there many other factors to “factor in”:
Some people who might like randomness, might not put in a higher preference than other things that might take precedence in wants. So some people might be ok with non random spawns and with some OTHER changes, even if they would “like” some non random spawns.
In short, some people might want things if they happen, but dont require them to be ok with the game. On the other hand, some people would be ok with randomness provided it came with X, Y and Z that wont come, so they might want it, but they dont want the other things that in this particular game will come with it.
It is a complex topic to assert that “it is what people want”. The best bet for a publisher is find what is what most people are OK with, and a good number want, than to do what a lesser number want, but none who doesnt is at least ok with it.
What we want, sure, we can say. But what is “best for everyone” or “for the majority”, there is no other way of knowing besides ASKING.
Also, because nothing in th game is truly needed from the combat areas, and restricts your progress if you only do them once, it wont hurt to have some variety and unknown. Especially dungeons. after you have ran them once, thier is minimal, if any, reasons to repeat them.
Have you considered that maybe you got your money’s worth?
I’ve never heard that a game needs or considered a full overhaul of its content in order to appease multi-thousand hour players. Most games don’t even have several hundreds of hours played for most of its players.
When you’ve got this much time in a game and it feels stale. The typical thing to do is go to the retailer and find something else to play. Its not like CE is going to go anywhere. It’ll still be there to play if you ever get an itch.
If I played CE without breaks and as much as I did early on, I’d have around 15k hours played. That’s just not sustainable, even in MMORPGs. You gotta have breaks, and gaps, and sidegames. Something to clear your mind and make everything fresh again.
It really helps when you start over as well. Instead of just trying to come back during a major update to a 4+ year old build and character that’s been refreshed weekly.