It's a Victorian Conan Exiles

[Shoah Kahn]

Is the combat better than Conan? How about the building -- what structures can be built? what kind of boss fights does it have? How big is the map (maps?) compared to Conan?

For reference, Conan was okay before it went free-to-play; but, its combat was meh and that pretty much was what it came down to in the end.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Shoah Kahn:

It's a Victorian Conan Exiles
Is the combat better than Conan? How about the building -- what structures can be built? what kind of boss fights does it have? How big is the map (maps?) compared to Conan?

For reference, Conan was okay before it went free-to-play; but, its combat was meh and that pretty much was what it came down to in the end.

If you aim for combat, go Enshrouded.

If you aim for building, go Nightingale.

If you know me from Conan Exiles community, then you know my experience on the matter.

Mapwise it is incomparable due to realm mechanics. Anyone telling you this or that is bigger probably have not experienced enough of either.

Boss fights are currently still lacking very much. The core gameplay is solid and the potential is great based on realm traveling and fresh unused story setting.

I hope the developers consider more voice acting in the future, though that might be just me after enjoying Baldur's Gate 3 - after Baldur's Gate 3 every game without lots of voice over feels.... weird.

[Alex]

The combat is good. Especially the ranged one. Exiles has terrible combat. These idiotic combos that have you locked in an animation for way too long.

What I would like from Exiles is the thrall system.

[intenselygoodtime]

The combat is simplistic like Conan, but dodging works better here and blocking is kind of non-functional.

There is VERY LITTLE COMBAT. Conan had a terrible resource economy, and this does too, but at least in Conan you were ~constantly in combat "doing stuff."

Other than some temporarily-interesting wildlife, there are 3 standard enemy types (Victorian BDSM gimps) -- standard melee, dog-style melee, and AoE toxic grenade throw-and-reposition. Takes about 10 seconds to identify the pattern.

There's a mid-tier dual-wielding charge-double-slash guy that actually took some care & consideration, but his pathfinding can't navigate in-room objects so that trivialized itself.

The first dungeon boss in a tiny dungeon was standard "telegraph that I'm going to charge at your current location, then bull-rush there so you should dodge now."

There ARE treasure chests in randomly-spawning set-pieces, and some in the dungeons, but the loot was (guess?) more crafting supplies.

[Kaziklu78]

Originally posted by Shoah Kahn:

Is the combat better than Conan? How about the building -- what structures can be built? what kind of boss fights does it have? How big is the map (maps?) compared to Conan?

For reference, Conan was okay before it went free-to-play; but, its combat was meh and that pretty much was what it came down to in the end.

The Combat is different from Conan Exiles. The game isn't sword and sorcery so the combat is designed to feel a lot like a Middle Class Victorian got dropped in the the a forest with some tools. It is designed with First Person in mind and the combat is weak spot oriented. Meaning if you hit the weak spot you get a crit. (Often the head for many creatures) Given how many times the combat has changed in Conan Exiles it may have felt like this at one point... (I'm kidding. It is different) It is doable in Third Person however the learning curve is longer.

Enemies also change up as the game progresses a bit (floaters, double blades, Single blades, bombers, flamers, etc.) And wild life has some interesting variations.

The Story is much more front and centre in Nightingale than in Conan. Conan is just survive then conquer or escape. Nightingale has much more purpose. Compared to Conan in Early access Nightingale feels better.

Building Wise... It feels more like the early days of Conan EA but less buggy. When Conan went into EA building was frustrating and a buggy mess. Conan had and has more build freedom though in the early game.

It really is a mix of Conan and Valheim in feel.

Honestly the biggest complaint I have is that it rains too often and every day at the same time. So I hope they adjust the biome mechanics at some point as they add more.

I would say the game feels better then Conan when it Launched into EA... (about as good as 7 months into Conan's EA over all... but closer to 3 months after it's official launch) but not as good as Valheim when it went into EA... (Valheim minus frame rate issues was really solid)

It is going to be interesting to see how the game develops.

[JJ]

The biggest problem is the inability to control the way you play in Nightingale. Conan has okay combat, which can be improved with mods. It has a grindy resource system, which can be completely fixed with private/solo games where you control the sliders.
As long as you're forced to use their servers you can only hope they improve things, but it's a grind for sure.
Not a No Man's Sky grind, but a grind none the less.

[Settings]

I once played a Lego Game on Windows 98 that had better combat than Conan Exiles, and I say that with 1K+ hours in Conan Exiles.

Nightingale shines in ranged combat to be certain, Enshrouded is still better but Nightingale is pretty good.

[Shoah Kahn]

I found Conan's combat to be almost tolerable (okay on horseback); Enshrouded's, just mediocre. So, it seems like if one's enjoyment of the game hinges on it containing a healthy chunk of combat (GOOD combat), Nightingale, currently, is not the game for them... 😑

[Shammy]

I'll buy Nightingale when they drop their absurd servers and make it a true single player game.

[Macdallan]

Originally posted by Shoah Kahn:

Is the combat better than Conan? How about the building -- what structures can be built? what kind of boss fights does it have? How big is the map (maps?) compared to Conan?

For reference, Conan was okay before it went free-to-play; but, its combat was meh and that pretty much was what it came down to in the end.

Conan Exiles is not free to play... never has been, probably never will be.

Maps seem smaller than the Exiled Lands map or the Siptah map. Combat is pretty basic, much like Conan Exiles' combat isn't super complex. Block is too effective, dodging is wonky, enemies aren't very bright though so you can just run out of the way and circle strafe most of them. Hope they work on that as development moves forward.

Building is similar to CE in a few ways but the snap-to functions WORK 100% of the time in Nightingale, no fidgeting with stability or broken functions so far. The biggest difference is that you lay out "ghost" blueprints of what you want to build THEN add components and it's actually a very streamlined system. You can add partial components then come back later with more. As you add enough for each part it auto-builds but you don't have to go to each individual part, just tap "E" once on one part of the structure and it adds ALL the components you're carrying to ALL parts that need them.

You will need lots of crafting benches, fuel for fires, smelters like CE. You can even get a "thrall" to follow you around but it's just click and ask 'em to come with you so it's MUCH easier than in CE. Don't even have to feed 'em and you can't give them commands, however if you give them a tool such as an axe they'll harvest when they're idle and you can load them up with stuff just like CE thralls.

[Shoah Kahn]

Yeah... I tried it... But, it's too "uncooked" at the moment; and especially after playing CE, Ark etc.. The Victorian themes pulled me in; the gameplay pushed be out.

Might check back on the game in a year or two... However, I'm noticing that this model of game is rather entrenched in very floating / weightless, janky gameplay; with most of the sub-genre's appeal being in the building and "survival" aspects -- not something that can sustain my enjoyment when there are other, far more "baked" alternatives out there. 😑

[KDM 16AAB]

Reminds me more of Valheim than CE, but there are CE influences or inspirations in there.

[OF/PewPewPew™]

Originally posted by Shoah Kahn:

...Conan was okay before it went free-to-play...

wot? CONAN EXILES is not F2P... unless you are thinking of the MMO, AGE OF CONAN, which is a completely different game...

https://youtu.be/tYli_7V6jiU?si=nInWFeyqNgAxwsmQ