What's up with the excessive greed on the game now?

[Sigurd]

I mean, it’s obviously built for Cash Whales at this point. There’s clear p2w elements being constantly pumped into the game, they are not “just cosmetic” as in they bring multiple builds into a viable state of gameplay while base-game items do not / completely lack the mix&matching paid armor carry - meanwhile it seems to have a major lie pipeline being pumped by players and endorsed by Funcom where they claim that everything’s “cosmetic”, which’s a blatant lie and makes me sick.

Advantages on DLC had been seen since forever, but the introduction of “gambling-style” (in-game off-value pricing locked behind fake currency) overpriced MTX on top of already existing anti-player DLC makes things even worse. If one wants to have “everything” unlocked it will cost a small fortune while the game still provides the same bland base-experience it did since Beta (one has to mod it way too much to meet a good Game Design balance)

I’m not sure why Funcom has gone that way, it certainly must be working financially so far, but it’s a way of alienating most of us out of the game, and often the core motive as to why so many “F2P” with “cash-whale P2W” systems end up dead or almost completely deserted overtime. This often seen “Korean Game” practice makes me very angry, not sure if those like me still stick around to CE anymore, guess the replies to this topic will somewhat answer if the game’s currently “mostly cash-whale” populated or not, but I find it way too offensive to still have DLC with the same prices we had 3 years ago since the introduction of MTX and Battlepass…

I don’t like it, and am holding back on becoming active on the game again because of it, if these prices don’t get seriously toned down or steam sales are less than 50% on DLC, I’m sure never coming back to the game…

PS: Note that most MTX and DLC were recycled assets from the long dead Age of Conan MMO…

[Sigurd]

let me bring up some numbers to make it clear:

Winter Steam Sales, to get all DLC it still costs U$50 outside the US (full game price for where I live that surpasses even a complete edition of “Baldur’s Gate 3”)

On top of that, one armor set in Bazaar (U$11) + Battlepass (U$10) will make the entire ordeal cost more than a Special Edition full game price (U$71) - it’s just unreasonable, specially considering the game still runs as an Indy project - AI is abysmal, content’s scattered and shallow, gameplay’s dull and repetitive, there’s no real content updates to the game outside adding assets and minor elements…

In sum, CE makes for an extremely poor business where the costumer always loses… Similar mal-practices have made me entirely boycott companies like Ubisoft… All in all most people that will remain biting the carrot will be those who spent it without thinking and refuse to accept they made a bad decision, psychologically locking themselves into playing and paying because they don’t want to feel cheated…

[FullMetalMadcat]

Maybe you should ask Funcom’s parent company, Chinese-owned Tencent. On a side note, the bazar will continue to function as is as long as there are people buying into it.

Whilst I understand that such monetization is popular, I too raise an eyebrow when I see the prices. I assume Tencent made it such to compensate for lack of sales.

[Sigurd]

Yeah, I know that, but they should fight back, after all Funcom isn’t a Chinese company, as such they have room to impose non-asian cultural business practices. Sadly I think at this point it’s very unlikely that would be effective, regardless I’m hanging on this last string of hope, if it changes just enough, I’ll be coming back, if not at least I’ve tried.

[Tephra]

I’ll be one of the first to object against the absurdly overpriced bazaar, however, you make several bad points that must be addressed.

@Sigurd

There’s clear p2w elements being constantly pumped into the game

There are perhaps a dozen items scattered throughout the DLC, battle pass, and bazaar that give an unfair advantage. There are not constant, and don’t give enough of an advantage to shift a loser to a winner.

@Sigurd

the introduction of “gambling-style” (in-game off-value pricing locked behind fake currency) overpriced MTX

There is no gambling on the overpriced microtransactions save for the fact that you will be gambling on them not being bugged.

@Sigurd

the game still provides the same bland base-experience it did since Beta (one has to mod it way too much to meet a good Game Design balance)

This is a you problem. There are plenty of players who still enjoy the game unmodded. I have been playing official for five and a half years and have zero incentive to start pumping the game full of mods.

@Sigurd

I’m not sure why Funcom has gone that way, it certainly must be working financially so far, but it’s a way of alienating most of us out of the game

This type of marketing has repeatedly proven to be effective. I believe it is a short-term monetary boost that burns long-term reputation in exchange, but top suits who have never played the game and only care about the cash flow are going to be the ones calling the shots.

@Sigurd

most MTX and DLC were recycled assets from the long dead Age of Conan MMO…

No they aren’t. The Age of Conan assets are not compatible with Conan Exiles, they are rebuilding them from scratch as a tribute to their earlier game.

[FullMetalMadcat]

I mostly find that bazar items can be had for free throughout different mods offerered on the Steam Workshop, and more often than not, are of better quality.

[NesterT2]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about the prices of the bazaar items, however the Pay 2 Win aspect im not really sure, i mean most of it is cosmetic, i would say 99% . Also Pay 2 Win what exactly? its not like the game is difficult at all. After hitting lvl 40 ish (probably earlier)you can just head into the Unnamed city and get some of the best weapons and armor in the game and then just go do all the dungeons. After that your just playing house, building and decorating. If there was a bazaar item that was like a helmet that made you immune to sandstorm damage (which exists in the game already) or a version of a wheel of pain that trains all thralls in 5 minutes, then yeah, but theres nothing like that. I mean you can find starmetal tools in new asguard chests right now! you dont even have to do the meteor star metal farming anymore.

[Sigurd]

@Tephra

There are perhaps a dozen items scattered throughout the DLC, battle pass, and bazaar that give an unfair advantage. There are not constant, and don’t give enough of an advantage to shift a loser to a winner.

that’s coping, p2w is p2w regardless of how much of an advantage or how many “options” for it are available.

@Tephra

There is no gambling on the overpriced microtransactions save for the fact that you will be gambling on them not being bugged.

The “change money into chips” is a gambling business practice targetted to unethically drain money from people - if you have further doubts, do a bit of research on papers published on gambling studies.

@Tephra

This is a you problem. There are plenty of players who still enjoy the game unmodded. I have been playing official for five and a half years and have zero incentive to start pumping the game full of mods.

it isn’t, that’s an objective observation - take the MP out of the equation and you won’t last a week playing (you won’t admit, but it’s the truth)

@Tephra

This type of marketing has repeatedly proven to be effective. I believe it is a short-term monetary boost that burns long-term reputation in exchange, but top suits who have never played the game and only care about the cash flow are going to be the ones calling the shots.

that’s not truth, most games that adopted this sort of mechanics are dead. And most of the remaining ones will die overtime / eventually. The few that survive, do so because they allow outside farmers to sell stuff in-game (keeping those alive with countless bots, but rather few humans) - since CE isn’t a MMO, it’ll probably die out eventually, sooner if a better game providing it’s exclusive novelties spawns with better business practices (unlikely because it’s a niche target audience, not popular enough to have serious investment upon)

@Tephra

No they aren’t. The Age of Conan assets are not compatible with Conan Exiles, they are rebuilding them from scratch as a tribute to their earlier game.

they are - Your denial makes me wonder how someone who understands nothing about Game Development comes to the conclusion that making clueless affirmations as a good idea when they have no clue how much knowledge the other party holds on the subject. (decided to give quick explanation: you can convert an asset from AoC into CE’s engine with one click, textures can be resized through certain software automatically too, it’s a 30 min labour at most)

[Sigurd]

@FullMetalMadcat

I mostly find that bazar items can be had for free throughout different mods offerered on the Steam Workshop, and more often than not, are of better quality.

I’ve noticed that too, but it’s still disheartening.

[Sigurd]

@NesterT2

I wholeheartedly agree with you about the prices of the bazaar items, however the Pay 2 Win aspect im not really sure, i mean most of it is cosmetic, i would say 99% . Also Pay 2 Win what exactly? its not like the game is difficult at all. After hitting lvl 40 ish (probably earlier)you can just head into the Unnamed city and get some of the best weapons and armor in the game and then just go do all the dungeons. After that your just playing house, building and decorating. If there was a bazaar item that was like a helmet that made you immune to sandstorm damage (which exists in the game already) or a version of a wheel of pain that trains all thralls in 5 minutes, then yeah, but theres nothing like that. I mean you can find starmetal tools in new asguard chests right now! you dont even have to do the meteor star metal farming anymore.

same first answer I gave to Tephra fits in here. Mind that I’m not measuring how p2w, simply affirming.

[Grymm]

Complete agreement. And No-one is being forced to buy even one item from any of the content from any Chapters. I limit myselkf (by choice) to only spend similar to what the original DLCs cost on any per Chapter Bazaar content. I go through the Challenges and Twitch stuff to grab that free sruff, and that’s that.

I fear you’re beating a well-flogged meme here. This topic’s been discussed ad nauseum and apart from being an avenue for the venting of spleen, is effectively silly.

I have worked out the cost of Bazaar items in pounds and will never pay the likes of two pounds fiftty for a single emote for example. Will never happen. But that is MY choice. The Bazaar content is aimed at the PvE and Roleplay immersion players. Apart from the look of all items therein, they offer nothing that Legend items, core build stuff, etc offer. I have players that are fullt content driven. They go for the whole immerson and bought Everything. Their choice. Their bases look lovely, but my envenomed starmetal blade still chops their arms off without issue - just wish I could steal that pretty armour from thier cold, dead body.

I paid for one of the popular space games on Steam. I chose not to buy any DLCs. I can still play the game without issue. Same with a civilisation emulator game. I’d never play a game that forces me to continuously pay-to-play. Conan Exiles is not and has not been that type of game.

[Oduda]

@Sigurd

@Tephra

There are perhaps a dozen items scattered throughout the DLC, battle pass, and bazaar that give an unfair advantage. There are not constant, and don’t give enough of an advantage to shift a loser to a winner.

that’s coping, p2w is p2w regardless of how much of an advantage or how many “options” for it are available.

Maybe you are unaware but a lot of the “p2w” items have already been adjusted so that they are in line with the rest of the items thus eliminating their “p2w” status.

@Sigurd

@Tephra

There is no gambling on the overpriced microtransactions save for the fact that you will be gambling on them not being bugged.

The “change money into chips” is a gambling business practice targetted to unethically drain money from people - if you have further doubts, do a bit of research on papers published on gambling studies.

Changing one form of currency into another form of currency is not gambling, that’s called currency exchange. Otherwise if you went on holiday from one nation no another and you exchanged, for example, US Dollars into Euros, you would be …Gambling??? Sorry, but that is not what you are doing and that is not what gambling is.

As @Tephra pointed out the ONLY gamble in Conan Exiles is the gamble that the item you purchase on the BLB is not bugged. Gambling in gaming when it comes to cash shops would be like having a gatcha system, or loot boxes where you have to buy keys and “hope” that you get something from them. That is most assuredly not what you are doing in Conan Exiles so the idea of gambling most certainly does not apply here. And this is coming from someone who is against the BLB entirely so I am not defending the BLB, I am pointing out where you are flawed in your complaint.

@Sigurd

@Tephra

This is a you problem. There are plenty of players who still enjoy the game unmodded. I have been playing official for five and a half years and have zero incentive to start pumping the game full of mods.

it isn’t, that’s an objective observation - take the MP out of the equation and you won’t last a week playing (you won’t admit, but it’s the truth)

I hate to break it to you but it IS a you problem. I personally enjoy a few mods. I also enjoy the game without any mods at all. I’ve been playing since early access and I do not require any mods what so ever to enjoy the game. So if you feel that you HAVE to mod the game to enjoy it, then that is entirely a you issue. That is not an insult by the way, that is simply stating that that is the way that you personally enjoy the game. That does not mean that the game is flawed to the point that it CANNOT be enjoyed without mods, because it clearly can by a multitude of people who have been playing since early access without mods on official forums and or since launch on consoles who have no access to mods.

@Sigurd

And most of the remaining ones will die overtime / eventually.

In case you do not understand gaming in general. Most games will die over time / eventually regardless of adopting a cash shop. That’s just a reality of the gaming industry. Games come out, people play them. But the industry does not stand still, more games continue to come out, people move on to newer things. Some come back, some don’t. Overtime less and less people are playing the older game. Eventually it comes to a point where the game is no longer making enough money to warrant staying active. One of the ways to keep revenue flowing into said game to extend it’s longevity is to include a cash shop, which if you knew anything about the industry has been proven to be effective and has proven to keep games alive and going for years.

@Sigurd

@Tephra

No they aren’t. The Age of Conan assets are not compatible with Conan Exiles, they are rebuilding them from scratch as a tribute to their earlier game.

they are - Your denial makes me wonder how someone who understands nothing about Game Development comes to the conclusion that making clueless affirmations as a good idea when they have no clue how much knowledge the other party holds on the subject. (decided to give quick explanation: you can convert an asset from AoC into CE’s engine with one click, textures can be resized through certain software automatically too, it’s a 30 min labour at most)

Yeah, insulting @Tephra when you clearly are ignorant of what you are talking about and the developers themselves have stated EXACTLY what Tephra told you is just idiotic.

Furthermore, there have been very little assets from Age of Conan which have been remade and included into Conan Exiles. They have not even included all of the classes yet, most of them but not quite all. That is such a tiny fraction of what they have been including into the game as to not even register as a percentage point. So until you actually educate yourself please STFU.

[SirDaveWolf]

@Sigurd

where they claim that everything’s “cosmetic”, which’s a blatant lie and makes me sick

Not only you. Technically it’s sueable, because it is false advertisement. But who has the money and nerves to go through that?

But it is Tencent’s influence. Tencent has dictated to Funcom to implement this cash shop. And it’s Tencent that receives most of the money.

@Sigurd

one has to mod it way too much to meet a good Game Design balance

Because Funcom is just a bad game developer. FUNdamentally inCOMpetent as I call them.

@Sigurd

I’m not sure why Funcom has gone that way, it certainly must be working financially so far

Oh it does, I have seen several posts from whales here and on Reddit.

@Sigurd

This often seen “Korean Game” practice makes me very angry

Rather Tencent game practice.

@Sigurd

if the game’s currently “mostly cash-whale” populated or not

Most players stick because of nudity and modding into ERP/Sex gameplay (also why Skyrim is still pretty active). Roleplaying in general is big (see GTA Online RP) and the game basically provides a good foundation for that.

@Sigurd

if these prices don’t get seriously toned down

They won’t. It’s the new standard. See Diablo 4.

[Dinner_for_wolves]

Oh good… another pointless rant that insults anyone with a counter point. How original.

[erjoh]

@Sigurd

it isn’t, that’s an objective observation - take the MP out of the equation and you won’t last a week playing (you won’t admit, but it’s the truth)

Do you not know that this game is also on console that can’t get mods? For a 5 year old game, it’s still not doing too bad.

[fx801p]

As i play mainly on console (both XBox&PS, gave up on PC because of owning Microsoft Store Version and not willing to purchase CE a fourth time) i would mention that Funcom made really good progress in cutting off these customers. PS4 is almost unplayable since AoS, Xbox One also. Latest update breaks PS5 as well for many players. XBox Series X has serious performance problems since last update.

I spend some money in the past years on the game but i think as console gamer CE ist almost dead. Before AoS i had spent without hesitation the Crom Coins for a nice building set but with all recent quality issues and the poor state of the console Versions i think i will finally remove the bracelet.

[Sigurd]

That’s why I’ve given up on replying to the shills - I’ve stated facts, I’m not discussing delusions - I wish Funcom would take a better stance, but it’s probably impossible given there’s a significant mass of mindless people supporting it.
As with everything, time will prove me right - The one thing that bothered me a bit from those replies was the random up there comparing CE to Diablo 4, that was just a very “WTF” moment for me.

[darthphysicist]

If by time will prove you right you mean eventually the game will stop being played… that’s a little like saying eventually the sun will set. I loved duke nukem 3d but don’t play it anymore.

[El_Parthau]

You can train a thrall on any wheel now in what feels like 5 mins compared to before. Ive played conan for 3 years, longer than any other game Ive played. I ask myself why is that given its issues? First, big learning curve and challenging survival given the purge would attack you periodically. Second, after mastering survival, you explore everything. Third, after mastering dungeons, move on to master building. Fourth, pvp element which has been the most exciting part, large scale battles. Fifth, tire of pvp grind and move to PVEC and have a taste of both. However, im getting bored as there is nothing new to explore or do and they have squandered the opportunity to join siptah to exiled lands. Their loot tables are boring and not motivational or even balanced by cost benefit. The new on demand purge is boring and again no real cost benefit. I preferred the anticipation of the old purge. The seige add is pointless and easy other than getting way too much gold and then mastering the on demand purge which i have no motivation to do once i got the recipes. Anyway, i loved the game despite its flaws and wish they would improve it and expand it vs let it dwindle away which looking at player counts, they are doing. The only high player count servers are pvp nowadays.

[erjoh]

@Sigurd

I’ve stated facts, I’m not discussing delusions

No you stayed generalities without any specifics to back it up. What, specifically, is p2w on the bazaar and or battlepass? I still frequent pvp content and servers and I’m not seeing an influx of specific items from these paywalls. The only thing that has remotely popped up that could was the snake that I recall and I haven’t seen a single player switch their tactics in pvp to include snakes in the base defense. Why? Because it’s not a follower that will win because all followers are junk