The newest update is here! We've got a lot of new additions as well as fixes to the game so make sure to update your client and check them out. Also, be sure to read the Dev Blog as it contains additional and important information regarding the new content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQ2c64Afms&t


Weapon, tool, and armor modifications

Introducing the modification system! You can now improve your weapons, tools, and armor with a host of modifications using kits. They can be used to improve certain aspects such as increasing damage on a sword, or improve harvesting on a tool!

Weather System

Only available in the north so far. The system allows for more dynamic changes in rain, snow, wind, and fog! Rain now puddles on the ground, but beware: if the weather grows severe enough, a thunderstorm might come.

New Armor Sets

This includes Aquilonian (medium) and Zamorian (cloth). Both include very good stats for their tier and will give attribute boosts once the new perk system is implemented.

Improved Thrall Capture Tools

This patch adds iron and steel truncheons for knocking out thralls, and higher tier bindings (rawhide, leather, and chain) for dragging thralls for longer distances.

New Weapons

New weapons include Acheronian weapons, two new axes, a new studded mace, and a corseque (pole weapon).



New Building Pieces

Ladders can now be built! Other pieces include inverted sloping walls, hatch frames, and hatches.

New Tools

Sickles have been added for harvesting fiber, and cleavers for harvesting meat.



New Placeables

New items include weapons racks, folded screens, papyrus scrolls, and more!


Thralls

• Thralls will remain in combat and can keep attacking after teleporting to the player while in combat
  
• It's no longer possible to equip a thrall with a two-handed weapon with an offhand item
  
• The Thrall character sheet will now update correctly when items are placed in equipment slots
  
• Placeable thralls that are converted no longer come out with a different skin color than they originally began with
  
• Taking armor off thralls will no longer result in a glitch where they retain armor stats after a server restart.

Gameplay Fixes

• Jumping into water should not give you frostbite
  
• The health regen buff should now work as intended
  
• Fence foundations can no longer be placed inside other foundation pieces to give non-diminishing stability
  
• Fixed a case where your character could not perform actions after an avatar summon
  
• Avatar of Mitra should now work properly after attacking
  
• It should now be possible to ban users with the same name as the admin's name
  
• A message now appears on projectiles that can be picked up
  
• Wheel of Pain and Greater Wheel of Pain now take damage with regular weapons
  
• Making a clan should now give the message "Clan Created", as intended
  
• Drinking from Water Wells now correctly fills thirst meter
  
• Shields take durability damage from other players again as intended
  
• Fixed a case where it was impossible to place items down in the highlands
  
• Foundations will no longer disappear when a player logs off away from a base in singleplayer.
  
• Panthers are once again harvestable.
  
• Toggling wield/unwield during a dodge roll no longer makes equipped items disappear
  
• Fixed a case where it was possible to duplicate inventory items
  
• Sewer Boss in the Dregs correctly attacks you when your character uses ranged weapons
  
• Fixed an instance where any remaining dye in your dye window would be unusable
  
• Avatar of Ymir should no longer be detached from the camera

General Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Update to crash reporter
  
• Fixed textures in the Frozen North
  
• Fixed floating Deep Sand in Komodo Cave
  
• Destructible items have been optimized
  
• Shellfish and fish trap health amounts have been balanced
  
• Entertainer health regen applies correctly
  
• Dryer no longer has a thrall slot
  
• Plant fiber will no longer be used as primary fuel instead of branches when starting a campfire for the first time
  
• Fixed some floating rocks
  
• Siege foundations have a decay timer again.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Ice Rocknose Kings, where they could not attack targets too close to them.
  
• Corrected broken shaders on landscapes.
  
• Putrid meat no longer weighs more than what it previously weighed.
  
• The client will no longer auto connect to the dedicated server from the main menu or singleplayer
  
• The "return to inventory" option is no longer greyed out for the Standing and Braketed Torch
  
• The descriptions for the Green Dragon Head and Red Dragon Head were previously switched
  
• Fish traps no longer display zero health when looking at it with a repair hammer
  
• Descriptions for Inverted Wedge Sloped Roofs has been corrected.

Known issues

• Weapon and shield racks have a visual bug where something attached to them might disappear. The item is still there, it's just not being rendered in.
  
• Shields on shield racks may disappear, leaving the player unable to interact with the shield rack. You can still dismantle the shield rack and get your shield back

The newest update is here! We've got a lot of new additions as well as fixes to the game so make sure to update your client and check them out. Also, be sure to read the Dev Blog as it contains additional and important information regarding the new content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQ2c64Afms&t


Weapon, tool, and armor modifications

Introducing the modification system! You can now improve your weapons, tools, and armor with a host of modifications using kits. They can be used to improve certain aspects such as increasing damage on a sword, or improve harvesting on a tool!

Weather System

Only available in the north so far. The system allows for more dynamic changes in rain, snow, wind, and fog! Rain now puddles on the ground, but beware: if the weather grows severe enough, a thunderstorm might come.

New Armor Sets

This includes Aquilonian (medium) and Zamorian (cloth). Both include very good stats for their tier and will give attribute boosts once the new perk system is implemented.

Improved Thrall Capture Tools

This patch adds iron and steel truncheons for knocking out thralls, and higher tier bindings (rawhide, leather, and chain) for dragging thralls for longer distances.

New Weapons

New weapons include Acheronian weapons, two new axes, a new studded mace, and a corseque (pole weapon).



New Building Pieces

Ladders can now be built! Other pieces include inverted sloping walls, hatch frames, and hatches.

New Tools

Sickles have been added for harvesting fiber, and cleavers for harvesting meat.



New Placeables

New items include weapons racks, folded screens, papyrus scrolls, and more!


Thralls

• Thralls will remain in combat and can keep attacking after teleporting to the player while in combat
  
• It's no longer possible to equip a thrall with a two-handed weapon with an offhand item
  
• The Thrall character sheet will now update correctly when items are placed in equipment slots
  
• Placeable thralls that are converted no longer come out with a different skin color than they originally began with
  
• Taking armor off thralls will no longer result in a glitch where they retain armor stats after a server restart.

Gameplay Fixes

• Jumping into water should not give you frostbite
  
• The health regen buff should now work as intended
  
• Fence foundations can no longer be placed inside other foundation pieces to give non-diminishing stability
  
• Fixed a case where your character could not perform actions after an avatar summon
  
• Avatar of Mitra should now work properly after attacking
  
• It should now be possible to ban users with the same name as the admin's name
  
• A message now appears on projectiles that can be picked up
  
• Wheel of Pain and Greater Wheel of Pain now take damage with regular weapons
  
• Making a clan should now give the message "Clan Created", as intended
  
• Drinking from Water Wells now correctly fills thirst meter
  
• Shields take durability damage from other players again as intended
  
• Fixed a case where it was impossible to place items down in the highlands
  
• Foundations will no longer disappear when a player logs off away from a base in singleplayer.
  
• Panthers are once again harvestable.
  
• Toggling wield/unwield during a dodge roll no longer makes equipped items disappear
  
• Fixed a case where it was possible to duplicate inventory items
  
• Sewer Boss in the Dregs correctly attacks you when your character uses ranged weapons
  
• Fixed an instance where any remaining dye in your dye window would be unusable
  
• Avatar of Ymir should no longer be detached from the camera

General Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Update to crash reporter
  
• Fixed textures in the Frozen North
  
• Fixed floating Deep Sand in Komodo Cave
  
• Destructible items have been optimized
  
• Shellfish and fish trap health amounts have been balanced
  
• Entertainer health regen applies correctly
  
• Dryer no longer has a thrall slot
  
• Plant fiber will no longer be used as primary fuel instead of branches when starting a campfire for the first time
  
• Fixed some floating rocks
  
• Siege foundations have a decay timer again.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Ice Rocknose Kings, where they could not attack targets too close to them.
  
• Corrected broken shaders on landscapes.
  
• Putrid meat no longer weighs more than what it previously weighed.
  
• The client will no longer auto connect to the dedicated server from the main menu or singleplayer
  
• The "return to inventory" option is no longer greyed out for the Standing and Braketed Torch
  
• The descriptions for the Green Dragon Head and Red Dragon Head were previously switched
  
• Fish traps no longer display zero health when looking at it with a repair hammer
  
• Descriptions for Inverted Wedge Sloped Roofs has been corrected.

Known issues

• Weapon and shield racks have a visual bug where something attached to them might disappear. The item is still there, it's just not being rendered in.
  
• Shields on shield racks may disappear, leaving the player unable to interact with the shield rack. You can still dismantle the shield rack and get your shield back

Greetings Exiles,

Today we have some big and very exciting news for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZTCaCk_QVU


We’re very excited tell you that Conan Exiles will leave Early Access/Game Preview and launch in full on May 8th, 2018! Not only will it be available digitally on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, we’re also teaming up with Koch Media to bring Conan Exiles to retail stores around the world.

You can now pre-order the physical Day One Edition for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 (currently available in select territories with select retailers, with more on the way). Not only does it come in a pretty cool box (check out the pictures below!), it also includes a full-color print map of the Exiled Lands along with an exclusive in-game item you can use from launch: Conan’s Atlantean Sword!

Check out www.conanexiles.com for more information on where you can pre-order the physical retail version of Conan Exiles. We’ll be updating it with more retailers throughout the week as they become available.



The game will still remain available in PC Early Access and Xbox Game Preview until launch and everyone who purchases the game before launch will of course get access to the final release version as well at no extra cost. Please note that immediate access to PC Early Access and Xbox Game Preview is only available when purchasing the digital version. Purchasing the game digitally also entitles you to receive an exclusive in-game item you can use from launch: Conan’s Royal Armor!

If you have already purchased Early Access/Game Preview on Steam or Xbox, you will receive Conan's Royal Armor at launch!

The game will become available on PlayStation 4 on May 8th next year. Retail pre-orders of the PlayStation 4 version are available now and digital pre-orders will start later. Pre-ordering the PlayStation 4 retail version will give you Conan’s Atlantean Sword at launch, while pre-ordering it digitally when available gives you Conan’s Royal Armor.





Today we can also share with you the launch pricing across all platforms. Starting May 8th next year, Conan Exiles will adjust its price to $39.99 on PC (up $10 from the Early Access price of $29.99). The price on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will come in at $49.99. There will naturally be some variations between currencies and between stores, but this is the digital and suggested retail price in US dollars.

As we informed last week, the Xbox Game Preview price will be adjusted to $49.99 starting this week. The PC Early Access price of $29.99 will remain the same until launch on May 8th next year. For more information on why we have to adjust the Xbox One pricing now, please check out last week’s update.

As is common with Game Preview or Early Access games, it’s always been our plan to increase the price to reflect the quality and content of the final game. By the time we launch, the game will have received over a year of constant polish, improvements, bug fixes, and new content. We’ve added the entire Frozen North biome, new dungeons such as The Dregs, and new features including siege weapons, climbing, the exploration system, the journey system, orbs, traps, and more.

The version we release at launch will have even more content and gameplay in it than what you see today, and will have a landmass more than double the size of what we started out with on PC Early Access launch. In fact, we’re adding the volcano area and an entire new jungle biome. We’ll also roll out a completely remade combat system, and new gameplay mechanics. All of this will be included and available to everyone who bought the game before launch and from launch onwards.




We look forward to revealing more details on all the new content and the new gameplay mechanics in the months leading up to launch.


We’re thrilled to announce the Conan Exiles Limited Collector’s Edition! We’ve been dying to tell you about this one. This is the ultimate box of goodies for any fan of Conan Exiles and the barbarian himself, and it will be available at launch on May 8th next year. We’re only producing a limited number of these, so we highly recommend pre-ordering if you want to secure one for yourself!



The Limited Collector’s Edition comes with the following goodies:

• FIGURINE: 15 cm / 6 inch Conan the Barbarian polyresin figurine, modeled after Conan from the Conan Exiles cinematic trailer
  
• CUSTOM COMIC BOOK: Full-color print comic book created in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics. The comic book tells the story of Conan on one of his adventures in the Exiled Lands.
  
• SOUNDTRACKS: Three soundtracks featuring the music from Conan Exiles as well as the music from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer.
  
• ARTBOOK: Go behind the scenes and discover some of the incredible production artworks developers used to guide their vision for the game in this full-color, print artbook.
  
• WORLD MAP: Full-color printed map of the world of Conan Exiles.
  
• DIGITAL COMIC BOOKS: Code to unlock six full-color digital comic books from Dark Horse Comics, featuring the entire “A Witch Shall Be Born” story arc.
  
• DIGITAL RPG BOOK: Code to unlock the 368 full-color digital rule book created by Modiphius for their Conan pen and paper role-playing game. Everything you need to play!
  
• EBOOK: Code to unlock the “Coming of Conan” eBook. Collected in this 496-page eBook volume, illustrated by Mark Schultz, are Robert E. Howard’s first thirteen Conan stories.

Please visit www.conanexiles.com for information on where to pre-order the Limited Collector’s Edition.


The fact that we’re getting closer to launch certainly doesn’t mean that we’re done with the game. We still have several months of Early Access/Game Preview left, and we’re working hard on improvements and bug fixes in addition to new content and features. We’ll keep supporting and adding more content to the game after launch -- the Exiled Lands will be a living, breathing place!

Thank you for being part of the Conan Exiles community, and last but certainly not least, thank you for providing us with your invaluable feedback and helping us making Conan Exiles a better game.

We’ll get back to you soon with more information about future content and features!

Sincerely,
The Conan Exiles Team

Greetings Exiles,

Today we have some big and very exciting news for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZTCaCk_QVU


We’re very excited tell you that Conan Exiles will leave Early Access/Game Preview and launch in full on May 8th, 2018! Not only will it be available digitally on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, we’re also teaming up with Koch Media to bring Conan Exiles to retail stores around the world.

You can now pre-order the physical Day One Edition for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 (currently available in select territories with select retailers, with more on the way). Not only does it come in a pretty cool box (check out the pictures below!), it also includes a full-color print map of the Exiled Lands along with an exclusive in-game item you can use from launch: Conan’s Atlantean Sword!

Check out www.conanexiles.com for more information on where you can pre-order the physical retail version of Conan Exiles. We’ll be updating it with more retailers throughout the week as they become available.



The game will still remain available in PC Early Access and Xbox Game Preview until launch and everyone who purchases the game before launch will of course get access to the final release version as well at no extra cost. Please note that immediate access to PC Early Access and Xbox Game Preview is only available when purchasing the digital version. Purchasing the game digitally also entitles you to receive an exclusive in-game item you can use from launch: Conan’s Royal Armor!

If you have already purchased Early Access/Game Preview on Steam or Xbox, you will receive Conan's Royal Armor at launch!

The game will become available on PlayStation 4 on May 8th next year. Retail pre-orders of the PlayStation 4 version are available now and digital pre-orders will start later. Pre-ordering the PlayStation 4 retail version will give you Conan’s Atlantean Sword at launch, while pre-ordering it digitally when available gives you Conan’s Royal Armor.





Today we can also share with you the launch pricing across all platforms. Starting May 8th next year, Conan Exiles will adjust its price to $39.99 on PC (up $10 from the Early Access price of $29.99). The price on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will come in at $49.99. There will naturally be some variations between currencies and between stores, but this is the digital and suggested retail price in US dollars.

As we informed last week, the Xbox Game Preview price will be adjusted to $49.99 starting this week. The PC Early Access price of $29.99 will remain the same until launch on May 8th next year. For more information on why we have to adjust the Xbox One pricing now, please check out last week’s update.

As is common with Game Preview or Early Access games, it’s always been our plan to increase the price to reflect the quality and content of the final game. By the time we launch, the game will have received over a year of constant polish, improvements, bug fixes, and new content. We’ve added the entire Frozen North biome, new dungeons such as The Dregs, and new features including siege weapons, climbing, the exploration system, the journey system, orbs, traps, and more.

The version we release at launch will have even more content and gameplay in it than what you see today, and will have a landmass more than double the size of what we started out with on PC Early Access launch. In fact, we’re adding the volcano area and an entire new jungle biome. We’ll also roll out a completely remade combat system, and new gameplay mechanics. All of this will be included and available to everyone who bought the game before launch and from launch onwards.




We look forward to revealing more details on all the new content and the new gameplay mechanics in the months leading up to launch.


We’re thrilled to announce the Conan Exiles Limited Collector’s Edition! We’ve been dying to tell you about this one. This is the ultimate box of goodies for any fan of Conan Exiles and the barbarian himself, and it will be available at launch on May 8th next year. We’re only producing a limited number of these, so we highly recommend pre-ordering if you want to secure one for yourself!



The Limited Collector’s Edition comes with the following goodies:

• FIGURINE: 15 cm / 6 inch Conan the Barbarian polyresin figurine, modeled after Conan from the Conan Exiles cinematic trailer
  
• CUSTOM COMIC BOOK: Full-color print comic book created in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics. The comic book tells the story of Conan on one of his adventures in the Exiled Lands.
  
• SOUNDTRACKS: Three soundtracks featuring the music from Conan Exiles as well as the music from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer.
  
• ARTBOOK: Go behind the scenes and discover some of the incredible production artworks developers used to guide their vision for the game in this full-color, print artbook.
  
• WORLD MAP: Full-color printed map of the world of Conan Exiles.
  
• DIGITAL COMIC BOOKS: Code to unlock six full-color digital comic books from Dark Horse Comics, featuring the entire “A Witch Shall Be Born” story arc.
  
• DIGITAL RPG BOOK: Code to unlock the 368 full-color digital rule book created by Modiphius for their Conan pen and paper role-playing game. Everything you need to play!
  
• EBOOK: Code to unlock the “Coming of Conan” eBook. Collected in this 496-page eBook volume, illustrated by Mark Schultz, are Robert E. Howard’s first thirteen Conan stories.

Please visit www.conanexiles.com for information on where to pre-order the Limited Collector’s Edition.


The fact that we’re getting closer to launch certainly doesn’t mean that we’re done with the game. We still have several months of Early Access/Game Preview left, and we’re working hard on improvements and bug fixes in addition to new content and features. We’ll keep supporting and adding more content to the game after launch -- the Exiled Lands will be a living, breathing place!

Thank you for being part of the Conan Exiles community, and last but certainly not least, thank you for providing us with your invaluable feedback and helping us making Conan Exiles a better game.

We’ll get back to you soon with more information about future content and features!

Sincerely,
The Conan Exiles Team

It's that time again: Time to announce the next developer stream!

We're doing another stream on Friday, but we'll be starting a bit earlier this time around. This is because we're having a studio-wide Christmas dinner that afternoon at 4pm, which eats up our streaming time.

So on Friday the stream will start at 3pm CET / 9am EST / 6am PST on our Twitch channel.

Joel and I will be there to talk about the new weapon and armor modification system and show off some new weapons and outfits. You might also get a glance at war paint.

We know this will be a bit early for some of you over in the US, but we hope you'll find the time to join us nonetheless. If not the archived version will still be available on YouTube.

It's that time again: Time to announce the next developer stream!

We're doing another stream on Friday, but we'll be starting a bit earlier this time around. This is because we're having a studio-wide Christmas dinner that afternoon at 4pm, which eats up our streaming time.

So on Friday the stream will start at 3pm CET / 9am EST / 6am PST on our Twitch channel.

Joel and I will be there to talk about the new weapon and armor modification system and show off some new weapons and outfits. You might also get a glance at war paint.

We know this will be a bit early for some of you over in the US, but we hope you'll find the time to join us nonetheless. If not the archived version will still be available on YouTube.

Hey everyone, it's Tuesday! Welcome back to the community newsletter.  

Finally, we've reached December: that time of the year when everything both speeds up and slows down as we prepare for, and then celebrate, the Holidays. Remember to get your Christmas shopping in before all those Turbo Man dolls are sold out. 


As mentioned last week we're working on the next update for Conan Exiles: what to include in terms of bugs and fixes, new weapons, new armor tipes, new items, etc. The much-requested Sickle (for harvesting Plant Fiber) will make it into this update, in addition to plenty of other goodies. We'll have more to show in the next developer stream this Friday. 

In the long term we're planning for the remaining months of Early Access. We're reviewing the various features to look at what we'll be able to implement, what needs to be scaled down and what, unfortunately, might need to be cut before full launch. We'll be able to do a lot in four months, but we won't be able to do everything. 


We patched Xbox with a quick little hotfix on Friday to fix a bug where foundations would disappear. You should also no longer get a "Purchase cancelled" error message when you try to rent a server. As for other Xbox specific bugs, we are working on making avatar tokens craftable again, and we're also trying to get a handle on the so called "Animation exploit" that have been causing desync issues.  

As you may have seen yesterday we announced that we're taking pre-orders for the retail version of Conan Exiles starting next week. That involves increasing the price of the game. You can find the full breakdown on why we're doing this on our dev blog. 

In order to make sure that everyone gets a fair chance to get into the Game Preview before we increase the price we're running a special 50% discount sale on the Xbox One version of Conan Exiles from Friday December 8th to Sunday December 10th. If you're still on the fence you can get in at a very low price. The discount will be 50% off the game's current price, so you'll be able to get it at about $17.50. Anyone who buys Game Preview access receives full access to the game. 


Every Friday, the development team meets up to highlight and talk about what they’ve been working on recently: New content and features, bugs that have been fixed, and things to come down the pipeline. To not make this newsletter overly long we're only sticking to the highlights. Even if something isn't explicitly mentioned things are still being worked on "behind the scenes", and we'll mention these when they're relevant. 


The Berserkers team has been focusing on core fixes for the new combat and movement system. Primarily, there's a lot of work being done on creating Root Motion functionality that aids the combat system.  

Typically, in game animation, a character's collision box (or capsule or other shape) is moved through a particular scene by a controller (thumbstick or WASD), and data from this collision box is used to play the animation. The game registers a forward input, the collision box moves forward, and the system knows to play a running or walking animation. But this doesn't work for all situations. 

In combat, for example, an attack animation might move the player character mesh forward, causing them to step outside the collision box. The character then loses collision. Once the animation is done, the character then snaps back to where the animation started, where the collision box is "waiting" for the animation to play out. Since the character has lost collision it can pass through level geometry and other characters, which makes for a very terrible game experience. 

That's where Root Motion comes in! Root Motion essentially "locks" the collision box to the character mesh as the animation plays out, causing it to "follow" the mesh forward and give the character proper collision. You can probably tell why nailing proper Root Motion and animation is incredibly important to make a decent combat system, especially one where you're supposed to be able to cancel and interrupt animations.  


The art team has been supporting the various other development teams with whatever assets and textures they might need for their own projects, in addition to further filling out the item lists with new weapons, outfits, tools and decorative items.  

All these new items also need inventory icons so you know at a glance what something will look like when you're navigating your inventory. The same goes for things like achievements and trophies, which we're planning on implementing before full launch.  


The tools team has been working on further improving the crash reporter we told you about two weeks ago. It's been working great for us so far, giving us easily parseable data and information that's then filtered and given to the tech team so they can get started on crash and stability fixes, but it could always use some improvements here and there. 

Over on the tech side of things we're testing dedicated servers on the PlayStation 4 version (launching in Q2, 2018 along with the PC and Xbox). We want all the different versions of Conan Exiles to have the same content and features, and that includes server functionality for players. More information on that as things progress. 

Finally, progress on adding voice chat to Xbox is moving forward. We don't have an exact ETA for when we might roll it out (additional testing is required), but it is something we will have in the game before full launch. We are aware that many of you want text chat in Conan Exiles on Xbox One, and it is something we are considering adding once the higher priority items on our to-do lists are taken care of. 


The previously mentioned price increase will not affect the price of the PC Early Access version of Conan Exiles. This is because the PC version will have a more limited retail presence and will have a different price tag at launch. 

We're doing another stream this Friday where we'll be talking more about The Riddle of Steel system, showing off some new outfits for the first time, and diving into the next content update. It will start a little earlier than usual because we're having a studio wide Christmas dinner at our usual streaming time. We'll give you all the details in the announcement tomorrow. 

Sincerely, 

Funcom

Hey everyone, it's Tuesday! Welcome back to the community newsletter.  

Finally, we've reached December: that time of the year when everything both speeds up and slows down as we prepare for, and then celebrate, the Holidays. Remember to get your Christmas shopping in before all those Turbo Man dolls are sold out. 


As mentioned last week we're working on the next update for Conan Exiles: what to include in terms of bugs and fixes, new weapons, new armor tipes, new items, etc. The much-requested Sickle (for harvesting Plant Fiber) will make it into this update, in addition to plenty of other goodies. We'll have more to show in the next developer stream this Friday. 

In the long term we're planning for the remaining months of Early Access. We're reviewing the various features to look at what we'll be able to implement, what needs to be scaled down and what, unfortunately, might need to be cut before full launch. We'll be able to do a lot in four months, but we won't be able to do everything. 


We patched Xbox with a quick little hotfix on Friday to fix a bug where foundations would disappear. You should also no longer get a "Purchase cancelled" error message when you try to rent a server. As for other Xbox specific bugs, we are working on making avatar tokens craftable again, and we're also trying to get a handle on the so called "Animation exploit" that have been causing desync issues.  

As you may have seen yesterday we announced that we're taking pre-orders for the retail version of Conan Exiles starting next week. That involves increasing the price of the game. You can find the full breakdown on why we're doing this on our dev blog. 

In order to make sure that everyone gets a fair chance to get into the Game Preview before we increase the price we're running a special 50% discount sale on the Xbox One version of Conan Exiles from Friday December 8th to Sunday December 10th. If you're still on the fence you can get in at a very low price. The discount will be 50% off the game's current price, so you'll be able to get it at about $17.50. Anyone who buys Game Preview access receives full access to the game. 


Every Friday, the development team meets up to highlight and talk about what they’ve been working on recently: New content and features, bugs that have been fixed, and things to come down the pipeline. To not make this newsletter overly long we're only sticking to the highlights. Even if something isn't explicitly mentioned things are still being worked on "behind the scenes", and we'll mention these when they're relevant. 


The Berserkers team has been focusing on core fixes for the new combat and movement system. Primarily, there's a lot of work being done on creating Root Motion functionality that aids the combat system.  

Typically, in game animation, a character's collision box (or capsule or other shape) is moved through a particular scene by a controller (thumbstick or WASD), and data from this collision box is used to play the animation. The game registers a forward input, the collision box moves forward, and the system knows to play a running or walking animation. But this doesn't work for all situations. 

In combat, for example, an attack animation might move the player character mesh forward, causing them to step outside the collision box. The character then loses collision. Once the animation is done, the character then snaps back to where the animation started, where the collision box is "waiting" for the animation to play out. Since the character has lost collision it can pass through level geometry and other characters, which makes for a very terrible game experience. 

That's where Root Motion comes in! Root Motion essentially "locks" the collision box to the character mesh as the animation plays out, causing it to "follow" the mesh forward and give the character proper collision. You can probably tell why nailing proper Root Motion and animation is incredibly important to make a decent combat system, especially one where you're supposed to be able to cancel and interrupt animations.  


The art team has been supporting the various other development teams with whatever assets and textures they might need for their own projects, in addition to further filling out the item lists with new weapons, outfits, tools and decorative items.  

All these new items also need inventory icons so you know at a glance what something will look like when you're navigating your inventory. The same goes for things like achievements and trophies, which we're planning on implementing before full launch.  


The tools team has been working on further improving the crash reporter we told you about two weeks ago. It's been working great for us so far, giving us easily parseable data and information that's then filtered and given to the tech team so they can get started on crash and stability fixes, but it could always use some improvements here and there. 

Over on the tech side of things we're testing dedicated servers on the PlayStation 4 version (launching in Q2, 2018 along with the PC and Xbox). We want all the different versions of Conan Exiles to have the same content and features, and that includes server functionality for players. More information on that as things progress. 

Finally, progress on adding voice chat to Xbox is moving forward. We don't have an exact ETA for when we might roll it out (additional testing is required), but it is something we will have in the game before full launch. We are aware that many of you want text chat in Conan Exiles on Xbox One, and it is something we are considering adding once the higher priority items on our to-do lists are taken care of. 


The previously mentioned price increase will not affect the price of the PC Early Access version of Conan Exiles. This is because the PC version will have a more limited retail presence and will have a different price tag at launch. 

We're doing another stream this Friday where we'll be talking more about The Riddle of Steel system, showing off some new outfits for the first time, and diving into the next content update. It will start a little earlier than usual because we're having a studio wide Christmas dinner at our usual streaming time. We'll give you all the details in the announcement tomorrow. 

Sincerely, 

Funcom

Dear exiles,

Today we've announced that we're doing a price change on the Xbox One Game Preview version of Conan Exiles. This is because we're opening up retail pre-orders for Conan Exiles next week, and the Game Preview price needs to match the in-store price of the game.

PC players will not see a price increase on Steam Early Access. This will stay at the same $29.99 we’ve had since the start of Early Access.

Please read this blog post for more information: https://blog.conanexiles.com/en/important-message-xbox-one-players-retail-pre-orders-pricing-change-sale

Sincerely,
The Conan Exiles team