Whats stops me from cheating? No consequences

Conan Exiles General Discussion
21

If it’s not about others, why play PvP?

Everyone who logs on to a PvP servers has made the conscious decision that their game experience must include raids and duels.

Full stop.
Everyone who doesn’t want a fight, can simply not choose a PvP server.
Anyone who doesn’t want to raid, but does want to duel, can go to a PvP-E server.
Anyone whose game experience doesn’t involve others can play Solo.
All public modes are about other players.

Every single human who logs on to a PvP server is announcing that the game they are deliberately playing is one against other players.

If someone is going to a PvP server to act with honor…
They still want to beat and bully others. They just have their own extra challenges they pile on for an ego boost
Honour, in a game like this, in the context of this video game’s PvP servers is an act of vanity.
Unsatisfied with winning, they have to win in a specific way. Such greed! Such arrogance!

This one salutes you!
Games should be fun. Adding extra difficulty for a better pay off is the kind of dedication to maximum pleasure this one can appreciate. It’s not enough to just eat some food. No, these rarified palettes require a specific fare and nothing else will do.

This one understands.
As a griefer, it’s the same. Vanilla winning isn’t enough. The other human needs to be made miserable. They need to not just lose, but hate the experience so much they wonder whether they should have even played in the first place.
But the misery and despair of just anyone isn’t enough. No, this one craves the anguish of those who have “earned it”.

So yes, it’s best to play another game while playing the main game. A game that matters only to you perhaps.

But this game (and company) already has a reputation. Not everyone knows it. But it’s easy to find. It’s known enough. This one won’t be the one who introduces the newly Exiled or Marooned to the wretchedness, but if it happens and this one sees it, and they stick around, they can learn how to gain vengeance.

Case in point, it is known and discussed.

Now, how did it get to this point?
Trick question. Doesn’t matter. Recrimination won’t fix it.
But this one will note, if the referees are lax or inconsistent, if the field is full of holes and the sprinklers activate during play time, at the same time, every game…
Then who is blaming someone for integrating knowledge of the sprinkler’s quirks into their game plan?
Especially if it’s been acting that way for years.
Because that’s where we are with some issues. Bugs allowed to fester and breed for so long that they are the clucking features.
It’s not like there is a list of 'sploits one is not to use.
Oh no, that would require acknowledgement of the bugs and then create a record of how long it has lingered.

If a referee is bribable, and complaints have been filed with the commissioner, and that ref is still the only one making calls on your field… Those who decide such things have tacitly made bribe the ref a part of the game.

Public PvP is a quagmire made from the remnants of a thousand ruptured septic tanks. But the rub is, there is no will from those whose field it is to correct that. The legitimate authorities have shrugged and said anything goes until it doesn’t.

So now we get to the thorny side of honour.
How honourable is it to come into someone’s house and complain about their rules (or lack thereof), how they (don’t consistently) enforce them, and the culture of those who adhere to this cesspool?

Public PvP is a Hellhole.
When walking the realm of Helium doubled hockey sticks, is it not disingenuous to complain that one is surrounded by devils?

Edit: And for those who say that because there are no rankings, ect, it’s not real competition…
This one disagrees. The lack of leader boards and rewards make it the most sincere of competition possible. There is only the purity of victory or defeat. No gaudy publicity, no fake @$$ digital “glory”, no cheap cash purse.
No, only the simple dichotomy of win or lose.
Survive or fall.

5 Likes
22

At risk of going a tad bit off topic. The concept of open and unrestricted PVP is an interesting one. This style of PVP is quite old. Anyone who’s played some of the first MMORPGs released 25 years ago knows what I mean. In those days you were given the option to fight each other. Basically the restrictions that prevented you from causing damage to other players with your attacks and abilities were removed.

It was up to the players on what that meant. Do you accost people randomly? Do you get together and orchestrate some terms? Do you fight over resources? Well its up to whomever decides to open with an attack for whatever reason (or no reason at all).

The interesting thing is how the Code of Conduct on early PVP servers from nearly 3 decades ago were altered. Text was included that said in PVP that issues between players that have a PVP solution should be handled by PVP activities.

Now this didn’t apply to your typical bad speech (slurs, and personal attacks). But things like training (bringing NPCs over other players), ninja looting, and general disagreements.

Conan Exiles and other survival games are a little different since you’re not attacking characters (PCs) but also buildings. But many of the same concepts apply.

When should you PVP?

This question has a dozen different answers. But the answer that always applies is you PVP when your enemy engages you. You don’t really get a choice after that happens. PVP by its very nature is non-consensual.

Of course as @LostBrythunian pointed out above, you gave that consent the moment you logged in. To think otherwise is at best delusional. When you logged in, you announced your desire to fight. To not want to fight is to not login to a PVP server.

But what many people do is they try to put their own little rules and concepts and project those onto others. And then get upset when such ‘honor’ is not reciprocated. Honor means different things to different cultures, ethnicities, regions, and most of all, individuals. Expecting the same from strangers is… well not advised.

There’s a reason the term “Red equals Dead,” exists. It was a concept for PVP servers to just assume everyone is an enemy and act accordingly.

But fighting isn’t the only way to PVP. Not even the most effective to gain an advantage.

When I played Archeage several years ago, the guild I was in was highly effective due to its coordination and the members’ desire to do everything in a group. There was little ‘solo’ play. When people farmed they did so in groups. And frequently the guild would operate in full (50 man) raids. Sometimes even filling more than one raid group. Even when the guild wasn’t doing guild sanctioned activities, you would see multiple groups (5 man each) respond to PVP activities out in the world.

This got us the reputation of being a ‘zerg guild’. Because we would frequently use larger numbers. This was a major obstacle for rival guilds since they couldn’t readily engage our members in PVP without quickly getting responded to and overwhelmed.

This caused many guilds to try and band together and counter that ability with numbers of their own. Course without a centralized leadership, even though an alliance had a total number out numbering us 2 to 1, they were not as quick to respond (lacking a guild culture of doing things as larger groups), nor having a singular leadership to guide activities.

What further hampered that is I used public accusations to our advantage. They accused us of only winning by using numbers. Peoples’ egos would make them believe such things too as it was easier to handle that they were soundly beaten because they were so badly outnumbered no amount of skill or equipment would have resulted in victory.

Instead of refuting such claim, many of us would simply respond that they were right and that any resistance was entirely futile. Claiming it didn’t matter how good they were, we would just drop dozens of people on them at any given moment. I even took it a bit further and doctored a screenshot of our guild list.

Our guild had around 300 active members. I altered it to look like it had 10x that amount. Posted that in the forum section for that particular server and let it go viral. This fueled the idea that nearly half the server was in the guild and that any opposition was entirely futile. Prior to this, the cooperation between guilds was starting to become a growing issue. But after that misinformation, such opposition dried up.

Its easier to win a fight if your opponents don’t even bother to show up.

But that is what makes PVP quite interesting. If you can win without even fighting. Using reputation or even diplomacy, as well as the aforementioned counter-intelligence or psychological misinformation.

Of course there are many who will think such activities are ‘unfair’ or not ‘real PVP’. But I would argue that they are methods that are entirely within the realm of PVP. PVP is by definition Player Versus Player. That means the ability, will, grit, determination, experience, and connections of a player versus another. Not merely characters reducing a variable to 0.

Open PVP is definitely a lot more involved than the uninitiated may understand.

Though one of my favorite interactions in PVP are of the diplomatic type. The alliances, the intrigue, and the espionage. Everyone you meet is a potential threat. But they can also be a potential ally.

All it takes is figuring out what someone wants, whether trading resources, information, or just friendly banter and conversation. At the end of the day, everyone is human. Outside of the random group running together by real life friends. Each online group founded in a method that involved a group of guys decided to stick together. And those groups are rarely so xenophobic that they don’t entertain the idea of growing that circle. You can use that to make allies, or to engage with an enemy in some nefarious way.

There is many ways to engaging enemies in PVP that don’t require resorting to cheats and hacks. Many more interesting and engaging ways.

3 Likes
23

What stops me from building a bridge from Noob river to the Volcano?

I have the means, certainly, but the motive? Hardly.

We are our own responsibility and we are supposed to set examples. Don’t stoop to some turd’s level just because you can.

2 Likes
24

I do agree! In my case which is special, i was playing in pvp servers, not for stealing, neither for raiding, but for the ultimate feeling of surviving and only pvp servers can give this to you.

But pvp needs performance!

I don’t want to lead the conversation elsewhere, but there’s exactly where the real problem is. If a player lags, no matter how good he is, no matter the number that’s attacking him, he can’t survive. I know it pretty well because i was doing it . But the servers i was playing were performing excellent, even the officials.
After these fights ended, i was chatting with my predators, i was asking them to come and claim back their belongings peacefully, thank them for the raid and the gaming excitement they offered me.
When i was loosing i was sending, thanks guys gg! At the beginning they were thinking i was ironic, but after a couple messages they understood that i wasn’t and they congratulate me as well for my outstanding defense.

In both situations my friend i was a winner!

Respect is earned and after this trust take place and in the end friendships.

But all these can be earned and done ONLY with performance. If you don’t have performance, then the joy of this game is getting lost, and you start whining on loss. This is exactly the point that the game is pleasant no more, so pve is the only exit.

But i won’t blame only Funcom for my poor performance, i will blame my self too, my internet line sometimes is not good even for pve :rofl:.

Multiple times said, if you are not familiar with spawning in desert, don’t play pvp in this game… And i love desert spawns :rofl::rofl::rofl:.

1 Like
25

Someone reporting you for land claim abuse will stop you, perhaps try cheating and you won’t get in any problem, as clearly they don’t care.

Cope harder, Funcom milking this game before abandoning it for dune, but ey…I’m sure new battlepass and bazaar stuff will fix it :slight_smile:

26

That doesn’t even make sense as a reply to what @Rust told you, @HappyFaceOne .

1 Like
27

My response was going to be a compilation video of puppies.

For the coping.

1 Like
28

I think people are getting confused here and thinking those asking for help from FC admin/dev is one where we want to limit pvp or make it harder to raid.

No that’s not the case. That is part of the game. What Im talking about (and most other pvp players concerned over toxicity) is the players are literally being chased off the server. Not just raided but spawn camping and constant targeting ie harassment to make others not play anymore. If that is assumed part of pvp experience, then the only solution a company has is to delete it since it negatively affects their bottom line.

1 Like
29

Not really happening anymore and wasn’t a rule.

There’s barely anyone to fight and if there is you already did or know them.

30

And followed onto other servers. Seen that happen a few times now. :weary:

2 Likes
31

Exactly. This is the type of crap that FC needs to stop.

32

As an official PVP player I can’t pass 2 days without cheater. They are always on officials and they don’t care of being banned. When they use a new account they keep their old name. If you see ITSNOTME, Server-Restart and diana, you can be shure that they are cheating.

1 week ago Server-Restart looted our closed vault.

Funcom, please, add real moderators on your servers. I have a friend who can administrate freely your servers. Also I’m a devlopper and if you whant I can patch your game against the cheaters freely

1 Like
33

Over the last 15 days I have made 12 reports, almost 1 per day. It’s not normal to get to this point !

1 Like
34

No need to do it freely…

Screenshot_20240321_173213_com.android.chrome
Screenshot_20240321_173213_com.android.chrome1080×2312 326 KB

Apply your biography and start working for them…
If you’re that good!

3 Likes
35

I already watched that, available positions are only for Dune there is only one for Conan Exiles. I don’t want to be community manager.

3 Likes
36

Ya, make me a community manager :smile:

“Get off my forum”

4 Likes
37

Well the lack of a community manager certainly explains a bit, doesn’t it?

As for the PvP on public servers…
The cheats are very difficult to get action upon. This one does not disagree. And participation is mercurial. A server becomes a hot spot, and then after the locusts are either done, or they are banned, another server becomes the spot.
More than half the time, even during raid windows, this one finds ghost towns. But if this one encounters another, the majority of the time they are up to sorcery other than the type implemented in game.

It is unfortunate that things have become as they are.
But Funcom lacks either the capacity or will to change it. Based on how previous Funcom games ran, this one leans towards a lack of will. Even if they had the resources to administrate and moderate their PvPO, this one isn’t certain they would. To be certain, there are a couple valiant persons doing their job and trying hard. But expecting that appealing to the authorities in these sorts of situations will bring about consistent and fair results is… unrealistic.

The only justice to be found is what you can mete out with your own mouse and keyboard. The only meaningful way to oppose the worst locusts is to beat them at their own game and grief them until they find your server non longer fun… Then chase them to any other servers and continue giving them their own medicine until they uninstall the game in frustration… as they have attempted to drive others to do.

2 Likes
38

And it’s a hybrid position which means that you’ll need to reside in the area. Additionally you’ll need to have experience in some graphic design. It doesn’t list the compensation, hours, any benefits and you need at least 3 years of experience in community management. No idea about how long it has been listed either.

It does but consider above.

So while I definitely appreciate what you’re saying @stelagel there really isn’t any opportunities to help.

I think it was in another thread someone suggested they hired an entirely new team for Dune. Except there are multiple employees working on both Dune and Conan. If you spend a bit of time looking around, such as Instagram, you’d find this info. They are definitely spreading themselves thin. Then all the additional positions needed for Dune alone. So are they drawing from the pool that was once devoted to Conan? Probably.

If we’re talking exclusively hacking here I can say with great vigor that I have never and will never stoop to their level. About the only things you can do is popcorn everything when they’re not logged in or BV it carefully and allow them to ravage the server. Do not talk to them. Do not engage them. Do not acknowledge them and wait it out. But they will be back eventually because: there are no real consequences. As long as Funcom continues to be this inept at addressing it.

3 Likes
39

This one personally takes the Tamerlane approach.
If the enemy brings a minigun, this one brings a minigun, firearm control ordinances irrelevant.

This one does not intend that anyone else should do so. This is a personal decision.
This one will fight with honour against any who fight with honour. But the moment the cheats come out, then this one realizes that an entirely different game is being played. The locust brought a gun to a knife fight.
Fine
Good
This one happens to have a few grenades in their pocket for just such an occasion.
And if they survive that, a few kamikaze drones in the garage for just such an occasion when chase must be given.

Again, this is all very silly the more we think about it.
But at the end of the day, someone wants to ruin the game for others. They have opted out of polite society, and if the legitimate authority cannot or will not protect the community by removing the threat… well.

This one is a 'Murikan, and will use perfectly reasonable retaliation, in that context and paradigm.

3 Likes
40

Really does paint a picture. Just like I’ve said before I’ve had every opportunity to do the same and in some instances, this certainly can be viewed as valiant. I can’t bring myself to do it though.

4 Likes