Exciting new things to test for you as we deploy the pet taming system, a new dungeon and new combat mechanics to TestLive!
This patch is relatively big (17GB). We are however looking into adding a separate download for TestLive so you won’t have to switch back and forth between the Live game and our Test Servers. We can’t promise anything just yet but we are checking options that hopefully will make it easier for you to switch to TestLive to try out new content and help us with feedback and input.
With that said, we would like to ask you to provide input in the pet balancing specifically. This is work in progress and should make the pets feel rewarding and viable without them neither being too weak or too powerful. Please use these dedicated TestLive forums to discuss.
HIGHLIGHTS
New Dungeon: The Midnight Grove
New pet taming system
New offhand combat mechanics
New Arrows: Light Arrows, Tar Arrows, Poison Arrows, Ivory Arrows, Explosive Arrows, Healing Arrows
KNOWN ISSUES
Right now animal pens look empty while the baby animal is undergoing training and once training is complete.
Animal pens only have 250HP
Animals in Pens do not consume food or produce ingredients
True Name of Derketo cannot be crafted
Panther Pet crafting time is extremely fast
Crocodile Hatchlings are transformed into Tamed Spotted Hyena when placed in Pen
Pet feeding screen cannot be opened from the radial menu
Crafted Pet ends up in output inventory, but should go to pet inventory.
Grove of Jhebbal Sag does not disappear upon creating True Name of Jhebbal Sag
Feed Box UI is rescaled each time a new thrallified animal is placed
Rhino pet following you will run around when you move away from it
Players can sometimes place pets even if “Overlapping with placed object” error message is displayed
Avatar of the Jhebbal Sag is a bit wonky
When teleporting into the JhebbalSag dungeon bosses sometimes do not spawn
NEW CONTENT
Added Pet taming system
Added Werewolves
Added Nightvision Potion, allowing players to see more clearly when it’s dark
New Dungeon: The Midnight Grove
New offhand combat mechanics
New Arrows: Light Arrows, Tar Arrows, Poison Arrows, Ivory Arrows, Explosive Arrows, Healing Arrows
Thralls will now need to be fed in order to survive. Place food items into their inventory to feed them, or use the Thrall Pot to distribute food automatically
ANIMATION UPDATES
Added new combat animations – The Sword/Axe/Mace and Shield heavy chain will now incorporate shield bashes – Throwing axes are now a part of your heavy chain combos when wielded with Swords, Axes and Maces
Added new attack to the Spider Tarantula Boss
Added new attack to the Crocodile Boss
New knockback setup and animations for monsters
New Rocknose animations
Added new idle and threat animations
UI CHANGES
Moved Sunder debuff to the right side of the nameplate, where it belongs
Darkened the opacity on the background panel for container inventories
Added button to the server list where players can report downed servers
THRALLS/AI
Thralls have now 50% increased health. That is to bring them in line with some of the greater pets and also make it more interesting to take a thrall out for exploration/hunting
BALANCING
Vaults have now much lower hitpoints and will decay faster
Glowing Standing Torch should now have the correct HP when placed down
Added more building and climbing blockers to areas where players aren’t supposed to build/climb: – The City of Votaries of Skelos – The Exiles’ camp between the Sandswept Ruins and Drifter’s Rest – NPC village in Deckswab’s Retreat
The Epic version of Conan’s Atlantean Sword is now more durable than its Mid Grade equivalent, as it should be
Fixed swapped ingredients for Ugly and Unapetizing Fish Tropies
Re-balanced armor bonuses to stats
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed some bugs related to NPC patrols around camps
Bossonian Bow can be repaired again
Status effects, journey steps and crosshairs should now be temporarily removed when cinematics trigger
Fixed an animation bug where animals would turn away from you after attacking
Fixed a bug where the player character would clip through solid structures when re-logging after sitting in a chair
It should now be possible attach fence foundations corner-to-corner at a right angle
Fixed a bug where Reinforced Wooden Awnings couldn’t be placed
All sloped wall pieces now detract the same amount of stability
Aquilonian Braziers, Hanging Braziers and Khitan Lamps should no longer be placeable underground
Fixed a bug where the sound of footsteps in water would play when walking on the edge of the Large Water Well
Fixed Iron Brazier in Deathwhisper Camp so it doesn’t float anymore
Fixed a bug where low tier items would lose all durability after having damage kits applied to them
Fixed a bug where the Noxious Gas debuff would wear off, even when standing in gas
Hatch Frames now snap to walls, door frames and frame pieces
Statues of Refreshment can now be placed near any of Mitra’s religious buildings
Giant Snakes and Alpha Snakes should now drop Reptile Hides when harvested
You should now be able to harvest Crimson Lotus Flower with Sickles
JungleBirds now drops heads
Glowing Sticks should now be usable underwater
Fixed a bug where the expiration timer on Purified Flesh would display a negative value
Players should now be able to place walls next to stairs
Fixed an issue where the Witch Queen could be engaged behind the magical barrier
Fixed a bug where gamepad and mouse would lose functionality after controlling an avatar
Ostrich egg clutches under ground in the middle of the desert are are now above-ground
Fixed an issue where placeables would disappear if the base of the item was slightly below-ground
Fixed a bug where you could override the corruption limit by drinking Corruption Brew
Fixed a bug where bedroll map marker would disappear after respawn
Helped a Shaleback out from inside a tree by moving his spawn point
Fixed a bug where you wouldn’t do damage when jumping on another person’s head
Fixed a bug where the Palisades’ placement brush would give the “Spikes” debuff and cause lag issues
Fixed a bug where The Kinscourge would lose aggro if the player stands on a balustrade
Fixed an issue with re-binding the CTRL key
Fixed a bug where dismantling a Wheel of Pain would cause it to drop an unlootable loot bag
QoL UPDATES
Merchants now have names and are marked as “Merchant”, rather than “Fighter”
White placeholder icon for teleportation buff is now no longer visible
Various audio fixes
It should now be easier to place items on the Wall Hanging Shelf
Planters are no longer semi-indistructable when attacked with a trebuchet
Archpriests of Yog should now use the correct weapon rather than a Yog Cleaver
Removed the ability to apply Weapon Damage Kits to torches as it was causing bugs
Fixed missing collision on chests placed on the roof of The Well of Skelos
DEDICATED SERVER LAUNCHER:
Reduced the size of the button to open the log folder, allows the log window to be larger
Added a button to open the folder containing the ini files
Added a button to copy the mac/hardware address to the clipboard (useful when trying to do port forwarding on a web interface)
Added a combo selector for the server region
Added an edit field for the maximum number of players allowed on the server
Added a check: If settings have changed, the launcher will ask to confirm about losing changes when starting the server
Added a startup check: If we find a running server process that happens to not be the one in our sub-folder, display a message and quit
Changed the deployment/update/starting/stopping sequence to make it easier to know what is happening (icon changes and messages in the status bar)
Added support for switching between the Live and TestLive branch
The revision and snapshot information is now extracted from the Dreamworld DLL and displayed in the UI
Removed the tray icon
Added an option to force validate the server installation
We’re releasing a small hotfix for the PC version of Conan Exiles with some quick fixes for some high priority issues that needed taking care of after the most recent patch.
Changelog:
Fixed an issue where debuff icons would cause huge amounts of lag
You can now attach fence foundations to regular foundations again
Salutations fellow travelers and welcome back to the community newsletter!
This past week we’ve been working hard on finishing up the first Pet build, which we plan to release on the Testlive Steam branch before the weekend. We also released a patch with some high priority fixes for the PC version last Thursday and we will continue to hotfix and update the game based on your feedback.
The Xbox One got its parity patch on Tuesdays, which included fixes that should alleviate some of the crash issues players have been experiencing. Post-patch we’ve been made aware of a lag issue connected to the debuff icons on Xbox One and we’re investigating the bug so we can hotfix it.
The PS4 build still requires some more work, but hopefully we’ll be able to roll it out soon. Our initial patch size was deemed too big by Sony to pass certification and so we’re working on reducing the size of the patch.
Pets and Thralls
When we roll out the pet system we’ll also be rolling out new functionality for your thralls. In the same way that pets need to be fed to keep them alive your thralls will also need food to avoid that pesky thing called death. Think of it as a decay system for pets and thralls. It will help remove pets and thralls that have been abandoned by players, reducing stress on the server databases.
You feed pets and thralls by putting food into their inventory, but there will also be special Feed Boxes and Thrall Pots that you can use to distribute food to them automatically. Any food will work as pet food and thrall food. Live animals will produce dung, which is used to create compost for your planters. Thralls won't produce dung. They don't poop, somehow.
Even if your pets die you can still make use of them. Placing dead pets inside a Liquid Separator will grind them down into blood, bone and hide resources.
Jhebbal Sag religion
As we’ve mentioned before, Jhebbal Sag and the Midnight Grove has ties to the pet system. Once you are able to travel to the Midnight Grove you can go there to collect Shadebloom, which you use to create Shadespiced foods. These grant you a higher change of getting a rare, Greater, pet when you’re raising them in a pen.
Greater pets are much bigger than regular pets, with a different visual look and increased strength, so it’s wise to stock up on Shadebloom once you have access. If you can withstand the challenges of the Midnight Grove, of course.
The Midnight Grove is also where you learn the Jhebbal Sag religion recipes, letting you craft his religious altars and tools. Followers of Jhebbal Sag can extract blood from their victims and craft lures to attract creatures and monsters. Once you reach the highest level of worship you can craft a special weapon that we think you’ll really love, but you’ll get to see that later.
Live stream
We're planning on hosting another live stream on Friday (August 17th), same time as always (5pm CEST / 11am EST / 8am PST), over on our Twitch and Mixer channels. If the rollout to Testlive goes as planned, we’ll demo the pet system and you might even catch a glimpse of Jhebbal Sag.
Join us for some fun shenanigans, same Funcom time and place.
Hello Exiles, We’ll be patching Live now to address some high priority bugs and issues that were deployed to TestLive last week.
Again, a special shoutout to those in the community who helped us hunt down some of the tougher bugs and thanks to everyone else for the continued reports, feedback and for being part of our Exiles community! :)
Here we go:
NPC/THRALL FIXES
Fixed some issues where Thralls health would reset after restarting the game
Fixed an issue where NPCs wouldn’t properly aggro the player
Fixed an issue with Rotbranch’s attacks not dealing any damage
Fixed an issue where under certain circumstances it wasn’t possible to equip a weapon on a Thrall
Fixed some issues where Thralls would stay in the air when the building they were standing on was removed
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue where older Fish Traps, Shellfish Traps, Wells and Beehives to properly fill up again
Fixed thermal protection and stats on Aquilonian DLC Armor
Fixed some server crashes
EXPLOIT FIXES
Fixed an exploit that in some cases could let you climb up building pieces that shouldn’t be climbable
UI FIXES
Nudity Options during Character Creation are now also accessible when using a controller
Special thanks to those in the community who helped us hunt down some of the tougher bugs and thanks to everyone else for the continued reports, feedback and for being part of our Exiles community.
Let’s get to it then!
NPC/THRALL FIXES
Fixed an issue where Thralls health would reset after restarting the game
Fixed an issue where NPCs wouldn’t properly aggro the player
Fixed an issue with Rotbranch’s attacks not dealing any damage
Fixed an issue where under certain circumstances it wasn’t possible to equip a weapon on a Thrall
Fixed an issue where Thralls would stay in the air when the building they were standing on was removed
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue where older Fish Traps, Shellfish Traps, Wells and Beehives to properly fill up again
Fixed thermal protection and stats on Aquilonian DLC Armor
Fixed some server crashes
EXPLOIT FIXES
Fixed an exploit that in some cases could let you climb up building pieces that shouldn’t be climbable
UI FIXES
Nudity Options during Character Creation are now also accessible when using a controller
Greetings, fellow Internet people, and welcome to another edition of the community newsletter.
We’ve been hard at work on refining and finishing up the pet system, the first of several free updates we have on our current roadmap for Conan Exiles. In case you missed it, we summarized the pet system and answered some player questions on last week’s livestream, where we also showcased the new Jewel of the West Pack and announce the winners of the community fan fiction/fan art competitions.
Throughout June we got some amazing entries in the community competitions. While we wished we could give a prize to everyone there could only be one winner in each category. Nick Bowen took home the win in the fan art category, while Uilliam Nebel wrote the winning fanfic. Nick’s winning entry can be found below, while Uilliam’s fanfic can be read on our blog.
We're currently targeting August 16 for a Testlive release of the pet system, but that’s not all! Alongside the pet system, we are planning to release the new Midnight Grove dungeon and the Jhebbal Sag religion path. The three are connected, after all, in ways that will be revealed. We hope you’re ready for the Jhebbal Sag avatar! New special arrows (poison, explosives, healing) and a new Star Metal Multitool are also set to release in the same patch as the pet system.
Since the main focus for the teams have been finishing and implementing the pet system, the Midnight Grove and the Jhebbal Sag religion path and avatar, we’re going to forgo the regular, segmented recap of previous newsletters this week. Our lockdown is Thursday, after which we go into internal testing and then Testlive.
You too can become a crazy cat lady. Happy international cat day!
Those of us not working on pets and the assorted accoutrements have been focusing on further developing the other dungeons we have planned, sculpting and creating more monsters and creatures, and concepting out some ideas we have kicking around for upcoming DLC. That’s purely on the content side of things. Over on the tech side our programmers are investigating technical issues and fixing bugs.
Livestream
We will not be doing another livestream this week, but we'll be back next Friday to once again focus on the pet system. There's a lot of stuff happening over here this week, both with the pet system deadline on Thursday evening and the console parity patch, which we're currently building.
Wrap up
That’s it for this week! We kept it a bit shorter this week since we’re hunkering down for the release of the pet system.
UPDATE: If you participated in our Call to Arms event in June, you'll get your DLC key via email. We sent them out earlier today. Remember to check your spam filter!
Hey everyone!
We've rolled out a new update for the PC version of Conan Exiles. This patch contains some quick fixes and the new DLC: The Jewel of the West Pack.
The Jewel of the West Pack is now available for purchase
Fixed a bug where tents would make players and NPCs immortal
Fixed an issue where the Potion of Endowment buff effect wouldn't get removed after timing out, leading to potentially world-destroying amounts of dong
Fixed an issue where meteor shells were automatically destroyed after landing, making it difficult to harvest Star Metal
The new content allows you to build exclusive new houses and settlements with a complete set of Aquilonian building pieces. Build structures sheathed in smooth marble to create a whole new look for your base.
Don three new armor sets like the Aquilonian Scout light armor and wield weapons like the lion-headed Aquilonian Mace. You can also craft many new placeables like Aquilonian statues, braziers and jars and use new warpaints to change your look.
Jewel of the West Pack contains:
39 new Aquilonian building pieces.
A full set of building pieces with the same stats as existing tier three.
15 new armor pieces in three sets, such as the Black Dragon armor.
Light, medium and heavy sets with an epic end-game version of each.
9 new weapons in one Aquilonian weapon set.
Same power as iron weapons with an epic end-game version of each weapon.
5 new Aquilonian warpaints.
Decorative warpaints symbolizing for example rule and bravery.
25 new placeables, such as the harp and councilor chair.
Craft them at the new Aquilonian Artisan table.
All the new content from Aquilonia is exclusive to this DLC and adds a host of new visual options but does not give any in-game advantage in power. All the new items have comparable stats to existing items.
Players who participated in the Testlive event and are eligible for a free DLC key will be sent a key via email later today. Remember to check your spam folder!
Good morning, you special little love boats, the community newsletter has returned!
We hope everyone had a nice July and that the summer heat didn't get too bad wherever you are. Here in Norway we had a massive heatwave that practically turned the country into our own version of the Exiled Lands!
Although some of us have been on vacation there have also been people at our Oslo office working on fixing bugs and improving the game. The community team has also been active on forums and social media. We're aware of several important issues that we need to fix after our latest patch and we can assure you that we're collecting your feedback and working on getting these problems sorted. You can find a tentative schedule for the next two weeks worth of patches on our forums.
We're also working on adding in new content to the game. This includes the Pet system (more on that later), new dungeons, the Jhebbal Sag religion and Avatar, and combat updates. You already got to see some of this in the previous community newsletter.
Speaking of the Pet system, let's talk about it:
Pet system
Today we're pulling the curtain away to reveal more about the Conan Exiles Pet system, how it works, how you get pets, what your pets can do for you and which animals you can have as pets.
Pets work a little bit like thralls: you capture them, convert them and have them perform certain tasks for you in the game. The main difference is how animals are obtained and the mechanics of pet maintenance. The new Jhebbal Sag religious path will also have a connection to the Pet system.
CAPTURING AN ANIMAL
To begin rearing an animal, you will need to obtain a baby or an egg. These can be found in the world, and on certain (rare) vendors. To pick up a baby animal in the world, simply press the interaction button when you have it targeted. Eggs will hatch after a certain amount of time and produce live offspring, which will sit in your inventory.
Baby animals will decay over time, so it's best to convert them to "proper pets" in the animal pens unless you want to be a total monster and kill baby animals. You're not a monster, are you?
The following animals are potential pets for players:
Bears
Hyenas
Crocodiles
Ostriches
Jungle Birds
Rhinos
Locusts
Rocknoses
Boars
Gazelles
Camels
Shalebacks
Spiders
Big cats (Lions, tigers, jaguars, etc)
Wolves
CONVERSION PROCESS
To convert a baby animal to a grown pet, you will need to have an animal pen. There are three tiers of pens, unlocked at the Iron, Steel, and Hardened Steel tiers of progression. Each can hold 5 animals, but the higher tier pens can hold higher tier quality animals.
You will also need to feed your animals to convert them. Animals enjoy different types of food (As an example, Kappas enjoy plant-fibers but may much prefer oysters or shellfish). The better/more appropriate food you use to rear your baby animal, the higher the chance of you getting better/unique pets. As an example, a baby hyena can grow up to be a regular hyena, a striped hyena, or a "Greater" hyena.
Some animals share their favorite food, but most do not.
USING ANIMALS
You can use animals in two ways: as combat/companion or by having them in the pen. If you decide to use them as combat or companion pets you simply select them in your inventory and place them out in the world, just like you would a thrall. They will then follow you and attack enemy NPCs and creatures. Some, like camels, are excellent for transporting goods and loot, since they have a higher inventory space than the other pets. Keep in mind that they can't be used as mounts.
If you keep your pets in their pens, and continue giving them food, they will produce resources. Your animals can produce everything from dung and stone to crystals and other items, depending on what type of animal you're keeping. Tamed Rocknoses, for example, can be an extra source of Iron Ore.
Another component to pets is that you have to feed them, which you do by putting food into their inventory. There will also be a feeding trough you can use to automatically distribute food to pets.
We're currently targeting August 16th for a Testlive release of the Pet system, along with new dungeons and new additions to the combat system. We'll have more to share about these in the next couple of newsletters.
Community livestream and competition
We're once again doing another community livestream on Friday, August 3rd, at 5pm CEST, on Twitch and Mixer. We'll be announcing the winners of the fan art and fan fiction competitions and showcasing a few of the runners up.
We want to give a big shoutout and thank you to everyone who participated in June. The community team have been poring over your entries to pick the best one, but it's been incredibly difficult. We wish we could give the grand prize to all of you!
I hope everyone had some warm summer days to enjoy. It was certainly hot enough here in Norway!
Most of our team is back at the office and working hard on new content, bug fixes and performance, among other things.
Naturally, we also want to get back to let you know what's going on patching wise.
FOCUS FOR THIS WEEK
Focus this week regarding patches will be the release of the latest DLC on all platforms. There are a few technical changes we need to patch in to make it available later this week.
---
PARITY PATCH FOR CONSOLES (target next week)
After that the main focus will be to get the Parity Patch for Consoles out to get them up to speed with the PC version. One thing to mention here is that this patch will have collision changes on wall-shaped building pieces and the triangle foundations (all tiers). We've unified them to be the same size, and tested to make sure things shouldn't fall down or disappear from them. It's possible to lead to some slightly odd builds that can have some placeables disappear. This should hopefully cause only minor (if any) issues on consoles.
If you want to be 100% sure that there will be no issues, you could move placeables and containers off triangle pieces and onto square foundations before the patch goes live (and move them back afterwards).
We hope to be able to get the patches for Xbox and PS4 out sometime next week.
---
TESTLIVE UPDATE (target next week)
In Parallel, we are also working on getting a patch to TestLive that will address several issues currently on PC Live. We're aiming at sometime next week for this as well.
---
TESTLIVE NEW FEATURES UPDATE (Target: 16th of August)
Around the 16th of August we will update TestLive with the new features for you to test and try out. That will include the **new pet taming system**, **new dungeons** and the **new additions to the combat system**. We will share more info and details leading up to that on our Community Newsletter and our Live Streams.
We'll definitely, positively need your help with testing and feedback on this one! We are also looking into running more TestLive Events.
---
BARBARIAN EDITION SOUNDTRACK
We are aware that there are some issues with the Barbarian Edition Soundtrack not showing up correctly in your local CE folders and are working on it.