We need more open world ARPGs like Conan Exiles (or Elden Ring)!

[Lhynn]

What RPG mechanics does Conan have? I thought it was just a survival-craft game.

Gear progression and attribute points on level ups.
It is super rpg lite.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

What RPG mechanics does Conan have? I thought it was just a survival-craft game.

Gear progression and attribute points on level ups.
It is super rpg lite.

It's more of an RPG than Bethesda games

 

[mediocrepoet]

What RPG mechanics does Conan have? I thought it was just a survival-craft game.

Gear progression and attribute points on level ups.
It is super rpg lite.

Yeah, it's more of a survival-crafting game with a few mechanics tacked on.

I would personally be more interested in games like Elden Ring or something like HZD with beefed up RPG systems. That being said, Conan Exiles was surprisingly addictive and I'd probably be more into it if the combat was less janky and/or the RPG stuff was deeper. I understand why gamers with certain preferences might really get into it.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

It's worth pointing out that attributes actually matter in this game. The directions you can spec your character in are limited. Once you hit the level cap you're stuck with what you've got. There are temporary buffs with potions or certain armor sets can enhance stats but you can't master nearly everything.

 

[bylam]

Anyone else feel like some aggressive shilling is going on here?

Hey don't look at me Wasn't that long ago I was getting told the game was shit and that Funcom would be bankrupt in a year.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Anyone else feel like some aggressive shilling is going on here?

Hey don't look at me Wasn't that long ago I was getting told the game was shit and that Funcom would be bankrupt in a year.

SumDrunkGuy is your #1 fan.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Anyone else feel like some aggressive shilling is going on here?

Hey don't look at me Wasn't that long ago I was getting told the game was shit and that Funcom would be bankrupt in a year.

That's because people here don't understand what the game is. The first few hours of it are extremely misleading. The majority of the people here who tried it never stepped foot into locations like Klael's Stronghold, Unnamed City, The Jawbone, Sinkhole, etc. They spent some time running around naked eating worms and trying to tie a rock to a stick and then promptly noped tf out. If more people here bothered to get into the real meat of the game I think it would be quite popular 'round these parts.

Btw I was guilty of this myself. I first played it a few years ago and gave up after a couple days. This time I worried less about building shit and did more looking around and discovered wonderful things.

 

[somerandomdude]

I basically just remember someone screwing around with it and making his dick so long he couldn't move because it clipped into the ground and rooted him there.

Were you one of those weird kids growing up who had a bizarre fascination with phallic imagery?

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Once you hit the level cap you're stuck with what you've got.

There are respec potions that you can make to reset all feats and attributes if you feel like going a different road.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I basically just remember someone screwing around with it and making his dick so long he couldn't move because it clipped into the ground and rooted him there.

Were you one of those weird kids growing up who had a bizarre fascination with phallic imagery?

Don't pretend you didn't get together with your friends for sword fighting. The difference is the rest of us stopped doing it.

 

[Cryomancer]

What RPG mechanics does Conan have? I thought it was just a survival-craft game.

Survival games have more RPG than 99% of modern AAA RPG's.

 

[Sacibengala]

200gb of HD space required...Damn you all to hell!!!

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

200gb of HD space required...Damn you all to hell!!!

104.61gb according to Steam for me. It's a biggun' regardless.

 

[Sacibengala]

104.61gb

Just the base game. with the expansion it doubles that.

EDIT: As I found out, the doubled size was because of some "Conan Exiles - Testlive Client" that steam was trying to install. With the expansion I still don't know how much it will be in the end.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Just the base game. with the expansion it doubles that.

The expansion isn't really an expansion. Isle of Sipta is a whole separate world/map with its own servers. There's no seamless transition between them.

 

[Sacibengala]

Just the base game. with the expansion it doubles that.

The expansion isn't really an expansion. Isle of Sipta is a whole separate world/map with its own servers. There's no seamless transition between them.

can I install and play only that one, or do I need both installed to play?

And one more question: As I found online, the install size is this big because of the junk cosmetic DLC that I didnt get and don't plan to. Can I get rid of that somehow or I'm stuck with that shit?

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

can I install and play only that one, or do I need both installed to play?

Truly, I do not know. I don't own Siptah but it might be worth checking in the DLC tab on Steam before installing and unticking if possible if you aren't interested.

And one more question: As I found online, the install size is this big because of the junk cosmetic DLC that I didnt get and don't plan to. Can I get rid of that somehow or I'm stuck with that shit?

You're stuck with this because the game still has to render those in when you're playing with people who have them online. Technically, you can even possess these DLC items for free if you have someone with the DLC to make them for you.

 

[curds]

What RPG mechanics does Conan have? I thought it was just a survival-craft game.

Gear progression and attribute points on level ups.
It is super rpg lite.

Does it feature NPCs, quests or even general goals aside from player-imagined ones?

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

The goal is to free your character from the game world. All characters start with this bracelet thing on their arms making them prisoners in the world. You have to go on a big scavenger hunt across multiple dungeons and areas to be able to make the whatsit from the collected things to remove the bracelet. The win condition is pretty barebones, but it's there.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Does it feature NPCs, quests or even general goals aside from player-imagined ones?

Conan Exiles has a lengthy series of "journey steps" to give a new player some direction, though many of these steps are focused on the base-building portion of the game. Also, the steps are divided into tiers, and the game hides the steps in all tiers higher than the lowest unfinished tier (though if you accomplish a step in a higher tier, it will appear as completed and give you XP). And the order of some of the steps is rather perplexing, though of course you can always look up the hidden steps in higher tiers if you want a bit more direction.

However, there really isn't anything in the way of formal quests except for the ultimate goal of escaping, which you will eventually learn necessitates acquiring certain items, which in turn requires exploring certain locations. There are only a handful of NPCs that can be interacted with, as opposed to fought, aside from the thralls you capture and put to work. Exploration is largely free-form and left to the player.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Not even kidding, I think this game comes just short from being an excellent single player RPG.
For all its shortcomings it gets SO much right.

Just because I'm THIS lazy, here's a copy-paste of what I wrote a year and half ago elsewhere when I got into it:

I've been playing Conan Exiles and with all its shortcomings this game may very well have some of the best world exploration I've ever seen.​

Well, I've had this game on my Steam library for a while, but admittedly I mostly neglected it for a lot of time.
Except just recently, after playing it in bites and then dropping it more than once, I really got into it. we are talking last two weeks or so.

As the title implies, I have to say that despise some of its most glaring flaws, it's almost impressive how much this game gets right about world exploration.

The constant sense of danger (at least up to a point), the environmental hazards everywhere, the cool navigation options like climbing, jumping, swimming, diving, sliding down canyon walls, etc that make it feel like "Breath of the Wild with MORE CHEST HAIR", the extreme amount of verticality in the scenario (and consequent risk of falling from time to time), the memorable landscapes, the ABSOLUTE LACK OF A GODDAMN minimap leading you by the nose (thank god for that) and most importantly the lack of a fast travel option (at least until very late into the game) forcing you to *commit* to your travels, go prepared and always take into account that there isn't a quick and convenient way out of everything.

There have been so few times in gaming where I felt so immersed in the environment I was exploring.

i have to say, with some minor retooling (i.e. more NPCs and quests, less "instant aggro on sight from everyone") this could stand on its own like a great single-player RPG capable of going toe to toe with all time classics like the Gothic series and similar.
Even top several of them in some areas.

P.S. Feel free to archive this under "unnecessary opinion blogs that aren't about a cool and popular recent game and no one will give a shit about".

+

I won't claim it's flawless, but I've been playing almost exclusively as a single player game (my attempt to go online have been disastrous, with some ridiculous desync) and it's more than good enough to stand on its own.

As I said, I tried the game in the past and it never really clicked past a certain point. It's only with my last attempt days ago that I found myself captivated enough to stick with it and I've been rewarded countless times with cool moments of adventure I regret not capturing on video.
My problem is, I have a hard time telling apart what's always been here and what improved over time.

Also, I'm constantly impressed by my encounters with wild life in this game. For what's supposed to be a pseudo-MMO with the single player mode as a side option, they surely put a lot of effort into giving to these beasts a somewhat believable behavior that goes past "go in front of the player and trade hits".
Spiders swarm you in groups from all sides crawling even on walls etc, panthers, tigers and big felines pounce at you and knock you back, rhinos charge you, elephants stomp the ground incessantly knocking people back, big apes ambush you in groups jumping on you from roofs of the temple, etc, etc.
And the aggro range isn't the usual MMO-like bullshit of "when you are twenty feet away" either. In some cases (when it makes sense) they start going for you as soon as you enter their vision field.

Of course, not everything is always wonderful. From time to time you have enemies (or worse, your own thrall and bodyguard who's supposed to be there to keep you alive) stuck on the most negligible obstacle on the ground.
And the combat system itself, while serviceable and with its good sides and moment, is really nothing to write home about... But I also played a lot worse and you get used to it.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Hey don't look at me Wasn't that long ago I was getting told the game was shit and that Funcom would be bankrupt in a year.

Hey I got a question for ya. Not sure to what extent you worked on the game, if at all but I figure it's worth asking. How exactly do you get the epic version of the Hyperborean armor set? First I read that there was a very specific t4 thrall I needed to find but then I read any t4 armorer can create it. Well I have a t4 armorer now and I still can't make the epic version. It's my favorite set I must has it!

Nevermind I got it.

 

[Volrath]

They're apparently fucking up the game with something called a battlepass or whatever. Please explain this to me before I press the buy button on steam.

 

[Sacibengala]

They're apparently fucking up the game with something called a battlepass or whatever. Please explain this to me before I press the buy button on steam.

For what I searched online before buying, it will be only cosmetics (I heard that will contain one time use items as well...sigh), but battlepasses suck balls nonetheless.

They will be renewed for every 3months and you need to buy it to get full access. But if I understood correctly, it will also have "some" free content inside the battle pass, I don't know how this will work, though.

They said if you buy the first one, if you can unlock it all by playing, you can get the next one for free (with some bullshit currency called Crom coins...Crom should smite them for that one), but I really doubt it will be this way forever.

It will have an ingame store as well (all cosmetic). They said it will be out of the way on the menu, but I have my doubts. They're owned by Tecent, so...

 

[Lhynn]

What RPG mechanics does Conan have? I thought it was just a survival-craft game.

Gear progression and attribute points on level ups.
It is super rpg lite.

Does it feature NPCs, quests or even general goals aside from player-imagined ones?

There are npcs, though they are often there to speak about the past or to teach your character feats.

The story is that you are trapped in a magical prison in which nobody can die, every time you die your body will reform. The only real goal is becoming strong enough that you can escape. And you escape by collecting parts of a key to open the bracelet that makes you immortal but keeps you from leaving.
Thats the one and only quest, and its not written anywhere. So while you have a "quest", and a "purpose", you really are playing in a sandbox. In MP you and the lads can make an empire and brutalize other players there, steal from them, raid and burn down their bases, etc.