Developer Stream Recap: May 9th, 2019

Dev Stream - 05-09-2019 - Written Summary
Link to official forums post here[forums.funcom.com]

Opening Statement
Boy, aren’t you all lucky. Two streams back to back, means poor Multi get’s to wear his poor fingers down to the bone typing up a gazillion notes. At least my typing skills continue to get plenty of practice! Also sorry this one took so long, some RL stuff came up this week, but also there was a lot to bloody type out (all Rob’s fault).

Something new in this write up is I decided to add some spoiler tags, so just click on the black text if you want to see what I wrote for the appropriate sections. There is a bloody lot to cover, so let’s get this show on the road.

Links to Bulletin Summary if You Prefer That

These are just notes I take during the stream, I clean them up a bit for public viewing but generally, the written information below will be more organized and informative. The PDF is provided as well as I use Adobes Accessibility Check on it in case somebody needs it viewable in that kind of format.

Google Docs Link[docs.google.com]

PDF Link [drive.google.com]

The first five minutes of the stream were introductions, featuring Community Managers Tascha and Jens, and Senior Content Designer Robert, or Rob, or Robtheswede, or mad genius. Whichever you prefer. Also discussed was the reason for the Anniversary for Conan Exiles; May 8th marked the 1 year anniversary since Conan Exiles left Early Access. Yay! With said anniversary came an update, here are the patch notes.[forums.funcom.com]

Thrall/Pet Food Clarification (16:35):
Alright, so there’s been some confusion regarding how Thralls and Pets eat food now. First off, the whole system was essentially removed back in March, here are the patch notes for that.[forums.funcom.com]

The feeding system was replaced by a flat decay timer (think building decay). Default time is 2 weeks on official servers and can of course be adjusted for private server play as you see fit. The reasoning behind this was

1. It was an unnecessary drain on server performance
   
2. Player Feedback was overall negative towards the mechanic

Left intact is the ability to continue to feed Thralls and Pets via usual methods in order to gain passive attack bonuses. If fed their favorite food, then its 25% for a 1 hour attack bonus buff. If fed whatever food, its 10% for 1 hour.

Console and PC Patch Parity (18:32):

As previously discussed, there was a patch released on May 8th. All three platforms, XBOX, Playstation, and PC received the update almost at the same time. For the first time probably ever, PC was last, barely, in receiving their update. Other then the Riddle of Steel DLC that was also released yesterday, all platforms should match up in their versions. Riddle of Steel should be available on consoles very soon, while being available on PC now.

Further clarification was discussed during the stream and it’s the usual stuff. Consoles tend to lag a bit behind PC when it comes to updates because PC can be updated within an hour or two whenever Funcom wants, while Consoles have to go through certification (with Microsoft seemingly being the extra picky party). Sometimes it’s no big deal, sometimes it is, but that’s what’s up.

Known Issues from the Patch (20:28):

Discussed during the stream was also the known issues caused by the patch. It’s all over the forums at this point, but the following were listed:

• Server settings not saving on single player
  
• Other setting not saving stuff
  
• PvE-C server searching issues
  
• Black Ice not being harvestable in a particular dungeon
  
• Not climbing in certain locations
  
• A reported exploit
  
• Dead NPC names are in German
  
• Invisible/Falling Corpse Issue too

All these issues are being worked on now and will hopefully be addressed in an upcoming hotfix.

New Patch Stuff - Feat - Witch Doctor (24:25):

First off, no, the Witch Doctor feat isn’t the much (much) discussed Sorcery System. It is a Darfari based feat. Unlocking Witch Doctor allows you to craft skeletons and other undead thralls/pets. There are the Unstable Animations which have a high chance at creating an Unstable Skeleton, which is a very low HP skeleton that can cause all sorts of havoc (think random status effects that can cause both enemy and friendly fire, like a gas cloud). Then there are the Stable Animations, which has a higher chance of granting a high level good quality Skeleton, but requires high level end-game ingredients. Fun fact, these thralls and pets favorite food is raw ash.

The Witch Doctor feat was added and inspired by players requesting such a feat in the past. If (and the IF was emphasized on the stream) Funcom decides to go down the long development path of creating a fully functional Sorcery system, the Witch Doctor feat could be used as a base starting point for this system. If they do not ever release a full blown Sorcery system, then they wanted to at least provide the players with some of the more minor features that a Sorcery system could or would have, such as Necromancy (in this case).

Heat/Cold Armor Question (27:30):

The question was asked, what determines what armor pieces get what type of cold or heat resistance bonuses? Rob basically said that when adding new armors to the game and giving them cold or heat protection, they don’t look at the lore for this (such as Turan being in the desert). They look at the balance of the game when deciding what next to add, as well as player feedback.

Corruption Dust Locations for the Witch Doctor Feat (28:20):
A player asked where to get the ingredients for the Witch Doctor Feat. It can only be found at the Summoning Place. This is an intended design to give players reasons to revisit areas, and to make various areas have unique reasons to visit.

Why Can Your Own Pets/Thralls Hurt and Kill You? (29:07):
It was asked, so it was answered. It’s because of friendly fire mechanics, it’s an intended design. Server Settings can be adjusted to make it less of a liability.

Do the New Undead Pets Poop? (29:33):
Yes, this was actually asked. And the answer is no. Unless you want to believe Scooper (One of the Coders on the development team) who stated on the live chat that Undead Pets Poop edible food, the opposite if a living Pet. ;)

New Patch Stuff - Summon Frost Giant (30:15):
At this point in the stream, the new Frost Giant was shown. It is able to be summoned via the a Horn, that is found in New Asagarth.

Couple Changes Post-Testlive (31:00):
Rob wanted to point out that between Testlive and Live, there were some changes made. Only a couple examples were given, but one was that the Frost Giant Pet now has more armor to make it more resilient to damage. The other is that Scorpion Pets have more health.

News on New Features? (32:20):
As usual, mounts were asked about every 3 minutes during the stream. All you veteran stream readers out there, you know the rules…everytime mounts are mentioned, drink up. Stream was 75 minutes long, so that means 25 shots of your favorite liquor. I’ll allow you to space it out over a few days.

Jokes aside, when Funcom feels they have information they are ready to share with regards to new content or features, they will share it with us. As they discussed last week, they feel that whenever they talk about upcoming features too early, that a clock starts within the community and often leads to frustration and disappointment, which Funcom doesn’t want.

Volcano Changes (34:05):
Not shown in a previous preview stream was the Volcano Revamps. Only a couple of things were shown, so for you anti-spoiler peoples out there, nothing too much was revealed during this stream either. Discussed during the stream was that the Volcano is now far more hostile instead of it being passive or friendly like before. There are, like other revamped areas, bosses that can spawn with unique look (and bosses aren't a guarantee to spawn). The rest you'll have to figure it out for yourselves!

Feature Request: Vanity Mirrors/Being Able to Change Character Appearance (37:46):

Funcom knows players really want this as a feature, and it’s on Funcom’s radar, but they aren’t currently working on it and aren’t promising that they will.

For PC players, there are many mods that offer this ability for you to play with today. Those include Pippi, CharEditLite, Emberlight, and Improved Quality of Life (those were just the ones mentioned during stream or off the top of my head). Bonus, Fashionist let’s you wear whatever armor you want for stats, and another set of armor for looks (even has the ability to show equipped weapons on your character’s back or side as a sheathed type feature).

Add Fetch and Other Type Quests? (39:04):

This get’s asked decently enough but their answer hasn’t changed. They will probably never add any type of MMORPG style quest system. However, for PC players and PC admins, the Pippi mod offers the ability to create your own quest system.

Will There be New Armors/Weapons That Aren’t DLC? (41:02):

Yes, but vague on the details as to what. More info on that to follow, but Funcom was being cheeky and teasing us with the details.

Riddle of Steel DLC. (41:34):

If you weren’t already aware, the Riddle of Steel DLC came out for PC yesterday (and at the time of this writing, Consoles should soon follow if they haven’t already). You can check out some of the features of the DLC via the timestamp link, as well in the following blog post.[www.conanexiles.com]

Jens Deservingly Gets Whacked with a Pillow Because He Hasn’t Seen Conan the Barbarian Movie! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! (43:47):

If you are going to only watch one whole thing in the entire stream, click on the above timestamp so you can watch Rob smack Jens in the face with a pillow. It’s well deserved, how dare he never watch Conan the Barbarian with Arnold! If you are reading this and have also not watched it, SHAME ON YOU AS WELL.

Some Hints for Future Content (50:54):

This is probably the part most people are going to want to read. Unfortunately for us, Tascha and Jens kept Rob in check even though Rob wanted to spill all of the beans. Sigh. THANKS A LOT Tascha!

The following was discussed for upcoming features in a future patch or patches:

• City Hubs and other areas will continue to be revamped and updated (like we saw with the Summoning Place, New Asagarth, the Volcano, etc).
  
• Caves are also going to be seeing some new stuff and life. Includedin this are new boss fights, new loot, and one will even have a jumping type puzzle (shout out to all the Guild Wars 2 fans out there). SPOILER: The revealed reward for this could be or includes another access to white and black dye.
  
• There are new armors coming
  
• We already knew more dungeons were coming, but the next dungeon was very briefly mentioned in that it will have it's own unique specific armor set in it.
  
• The Chosen of Asura NPC's will have their own sets of armor. That armor is existing stuff we have already have seen, but pre-tinted and I guess looks cool.
  
• New Building pieces are coming. Rob post stream clarified that it's not simply new skins but new stuff. But that's all Rob will reveal at this time.

Who Are the Chosen of Asura? (52:58):

Rumor has it, the Chosen of Asura are super duper awesome people and should be worshipped like the gods that they are. Not that I would know anything about that. On an unrelated note, I like cookies.

Anyhoo, the Chosen of Asura are people chosen by Funcom staff every other month who are found to exhibit certain qualities that benefit the community. These include things like being helpful answering questions, providing constructive feedback, being active in the community, providing well thought out bug reports, being generally helpful (such as with the Wiki) and etc.

For more info about the Chosen of Asura, you can read a brief summary on the Wiki Page[conanexiles.gamepedia.com]. One thing I wasn’t clear on was that, either now or in a future patch, Rob mentioned during the stream that the Chosen of Asura NPC’s have (or will have) their own special place on the map. This location was hinted as a cave, but it could be elsewhere.

Is there a timeline for fixing the Ymir Temple Zeal costs? (1:02:04):

Rob said that he thinks it’s on his plate to fix this “internally tomorrow” (or today at the time of this writing). This means it will come out in a future patch, pending certain general factors that always impact patch release windows.

Directional Indicators for Things Like Frontier Pieces (1:03:02):

They are continuing to look at different solutions for this, but they don’t have a quick fix in mind to help players get a better sense of direction when placing certain building pieces.

For PC mod users, the Less Building Placement Restrictions mods have directional indicators for the vast majority of building pieces (including other mods). That code was added courtesy of the mod author Hades.

Can Gorillas Be Pets? (1:03:52):

Spoiler alert, not yet, but the ability to make Gorillas into pets is coming.

A Note on Greater Elephants and Greater Rhinos (1:04:26):

Converting either pet type into Caravan pets (Turan DLC) will cause them to downgrade to be carrier based pets instead of having combat bonuses.

Can an Elevator be Added to New Dungeon so it’s Easier to Fight one of the Bosses? (1:04:56):

There won’t be an elevator added. There are ways to get down, the player needs to figure out how.

Dungeon Difficulty Going Forward (1:05:14):

Future dungeon work is intended to be more challenging then simple boss fights. Funcom intends to make the dungeon itself be more of a challenge, such as the actual navigation to be an element that player needs to consider and be prepared for.

Unclear in Rob’s deceleration is whether or not previous dungeons would see any revamps to adhere to this new goal.

Unnamed City Weapon/Armor Dedicated Icons? (1:06:03):

Some Unnamed City weapons or armor are re-using assets that were previously created. Thus, they re-use the same icons as well. If or when they use original or new assets, they’ll be accompanied with new icons as well.

What Are a Lot of the New Resources Found in the Admin Panel for? (1:07:18):

Spoiler bloody alert, good grief Rob heh heh! Alright, here we go.

A lot were added simply for RP servers to let RPers do whatever the heck they want with them. Rob further commented that this was something simple for him to do. He did it at home and it took him all of 10 minutes to complete, but felt inspired to do so.

Red, Green, and Blue Crystals will have a function. They are involved in the upcoming jumping puzzle previously mentioned.

After that reveal, Rob realized he was pulling a Spider-Man and revealing some spoilers, so then he went quite on further details.

Crossbows be Added Back into the Game in the Future? (1:08:00):

No. Via Rob: It’s mostly how it was implemented before and how they were adjusted that way. And that they need to be completely adjusted and altered to fit newer methods.

Conan Unconquered Stream Next Week (1:13:36):

For the first time, the upcoming RTS Petroglyph designed game, Conan Unconquered, will be featured on stream. Stay tuned until next week to check it out.

Below are Post Stream questions and answers that Robtheswede provided or added further clarification towards.

Player Asks: Will there be more stack size increases?
Robtheswede: It’s very likely we will change more of them to increase stacksizes

Player Asks: Bugfixes ETA?:
Robtheswede: It’s high up on the priority to fix bugs that we introduced with this patch, such as black ice, climbing bug and the thralls in the Volcano

Player Asks: On a related note: “Are thralls in the volcano supposed to be tamed” (relating to the emissaries likely):
Robtheswede: No. IF you have these as thralls, you should delete them as they very likely could be removed from the game (which means you lose everything on them)

Player Asks: When is cross-server play coming?
Robtheswede: Probably Never

Player Asks: When is mounts coming?
Robtheswede: ANY new game feature, we will tell you when we’re ready, we won’t commit to it earlier than “we know we can pull it off”

Player states that: “You can summon Joel, just say his name three times”
Robtheswede: You can’t - because Joel’s REAL name is unpronounceable by human tongue

Player Asks: Are there plans to rebalance heat/cold protection on armor?
Robtheswede: No. But there are plans to tinker with the temperature system. Vlad (Funcom Content Designer) has a good plan on how to do this and it’s pretty much done internally.

Player Feedback: Unstable animations need more than 1 hitpoint
Robtheswede: We discovered that they can be abused too much so we won’t be raising it.

Player Suggests: How about footstep animations when turning around
Robtheswede: Manos (Funcom Animator) knows about this and wants to do it. That’s all I’ll say. I can’t promise anything for this.

Player Feedback: The bugfix that fixed an exploit regarding input spam causes trouble in PvP
Robtheswede: We’re aware and we will look at it. But - if you buttonsmash very very fast, the system can’t allow that, since that’s basically the exploit, which means we need to prevent that.

Player Asks: Are there ways of getting more skill points?
Robtheswede: Not after level 60, unless you count buffs

Player Asks: Daughter of Ymir % spawn?
Robtheswede: Very low

Player Asks: Any map expansion plans?
Robtheswede: No

Player Feedback: Unnamed city has a no-visual sandstorm
Robtheswede: We’ll take a look at it but some other bugs right now have priority (see above)

Player Asks: Are the giants temporary?
Robtheswede: No, they’re like any other pet

Player Asks: Two-handed axes added to the game?
Robtheswede: IF we do a new weapon-type that will be the next one

Player Asks: Any extension on Hanuman lore?
Robtheswede: A very very tiny bit but not much

Player Asks: Any New religions, such as Xotli coming?
Robtheswede: It’s unlikely (even though I would love to see Xotli in the game)
Multigun Note: Exile Lands Improved mod has it’s own version of the Xotli religion

Player Asks: Can we get Emotes on thralls?
Robtheswede: At some point, we hope to do this but we have bigger fish to fry at the moment

Player Asks: Any plans to add to the healing system?
Robtheswede: We have actually, in this patch - there is a new potion in the Sunken City that heals for more.

Player Begs: Snake pets please! Mammoth pets please! (And others)
Robtheswede: Yes, in the future

Player Statement: Rob is a heretic / Rob picked Crom at character creation
Robtheswede: Yep

Player Asks: Any possibility for Tier 1 and Tier 2 anti-climb fences
Robtheswede: Maybe. We are investigating more ways of attacking AND defending your base, this is one of the ideas on the table.

Player Asks: Are purges tied to beds?
Robtheswede: No - purges are tied to your base - the bigger the base, the quicker and more likely you get a purge