Family only co-op?

[Vhayne]

So I have been considering this game for my family to play (wife and 3 teenagers). We don't enjoy competitive PvP usually, and totally don't want to have to worry about that while we all learn to play the game.

My questions are based around this.


Is this game suitable in this method for 3-7 players?

Do I have to rent a server or something to achieve this?

<Wife question> - How much is the game's crafting/survival versus combat? (for example 60% combat, 40% crafting, building, gathering, etc.)

Is it still "janky"? I played about an hour of this when it was first released. It felt more janky than even ARK - which I found extremely janky as well, with weird systems right at the start (not understanding mob levels for example - level 40-100 mobs at the starting area?)



We have loved playing certain games together such as Terraria. And we have all played Subnautica and really enjoyed the survival, exploration, and building. Recently we have played Raft. But the hardcore survival games like Conan, Ark, Rust, Atlas, etc., we have not tried yet.

What are your opinions of this game for us? It's a hefty investment to purchase it for the 5 of us...

[Combat Wombat]

Game is on sale on GMG for $11.20 a pop right now

https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/conan-exiles/

There are laid back pvp servers that aren't super stressful if you are interested you can drop me a friend invite. There are also straight up PvE servers.

Content is largely combat focused, but if all you want to do is harvest and build you can just run away/past every fight in the game. You can level up just from building/crafting/exploring

[Fast Johnny]

Is this game suitable in this method for 3-7 players?

Absolutely, lots of fun, especially with family. I play CE often with my teenage daughter and wife. There are few things better than exploring a fantasy world with family, building your homestead or fortress, leveling up together, meeting NPCs and exotic animals and killing them.

Do I have to rent a server or something to achieve this?

No, but it helps. You can try coop, but there are some limitations. It is basically a single player game with room for friends. Your coop players are tethered to your location by distance, so there is no going on adventures while mom and dad stay at home and work on the castle walls. Also, no one can play, if the original host isn't available and logged in. If you all go and do things together, it is okay, but only to an extent. The best thing to do, is to play a couple hours of coop, see if this is the game for you and then decide to either do a dedicated server or rent a server. We rent one and the cost is about 25 dollars per month and that also includes Teamspeak. One thing I would emphasize, is that you should have a really good wireless router for those who will be going wireless and it does work, but hard wiring to the router is obviously the best.

<Wife question> - How much is the game's crafting/survival versus combat? (for example 60% combat, 40% crafting, building, gathering, etc.)

It is what you make it to be. There are gaming groups where some people do nothing but craft to keep the group supplied with arms, armor, food and supplies. It is a fair amount of both, but you can still level up through crafting and recipes, but you will have to get out in the world to get some of those crafting recipes and other stuff. It certainly isn't all combat and like all things, the logistical underpinnings of a household or group of gamers must be met with gathering resources, construction, making arms and armor, making food, making potions, etc....and some people like to do that more than the battles. But like I said you will have to get into the fray now and then. If I had to take a guess, I would say 40% combat, 60% crafting and resource management, for a regular person leveling up, once you get your industrial base taken care of, it becomes the other way around. Other people might have different experiences.

The Janky Thing?

You will get varying opinions from various people. No doubt there are a few lurkers around here that jump at the chance to poop on anything, however this game has a lot to offer and despite some of the temper tantrums from pundits, it is a really great game. I don't know what your rig is, but mine runs it seemlessly for the most part. Yes, every now and then I get a microfreeze but I never have had any serious problems. Usually, any problems that I encounter are from the interweb itself, PC running something in the background, bandwidth being sucked up by something else, etc...

Yes, it may be a hefty purchase for a family unit, but at 19.99 on Steam (I'm sure you can find it cheaper too) for the base game per person, it will be the best 20 dollar bill you spent on each one of them. And if it doesn't work out, it is just 20 bucks per person. You can add the DLC stuff in later and it is kind of fun to buy them little gifts and sending it to them in Steam or something. Or asking them what DLC stuff they most want. My daughter choose Khitan and my wife choose Aquilonian, but I hae since gifted them other goodies.

Good luck.

[Vhayne]

Thanks for the replies guys. :)

Fast Johnny - Wow man. This is how you answer someone's question! Huge thank you for taking the time and explaining all of your answers. Just from what you said, I'm absolutely going to get it for my family. :)

[Bubbles]

i really liked fast johnny reply he didn't trash the game like some do...

[doubble]

if u buy it defenetly get a server for co-op. i wouldn't go with the official server partner g-portal. they are pretty terrible espacially if u want to use mods later on. spare yourself the headaches. i would recommand dawn server if u can get a decent ping to them in u're area.

fast johnny pretty much has summed up the rest tbh.

[Celendrin]

I'm not sure why people talk about renting a server I started playing a few weeks ago and this game has great options for playing within your own 'group'.

You don't have to select public servers you can make your own and not only can you select 'solo' but even if you select solo one day it lets you choose co-op/pvp (within your own 'world') everytime you start up the game,

so you can effectively make 'pvp' within your own personal server anytime you feel like ( it's automatic server don't know why you would need to 'rent' one),

I was surprised how user friendly and varied the options are, from the typical 'mmo public server' to private servers solo to private co-op, private pvp,

and that doesn't include TONS of options you can set when you first start on your own server.

It's a HUGE plus for the game, stuff like being able to change how fast you get hungry, thirsty, how fast you harvest resources how fast you get xp etc.

I think it's probably the 'best' game you can get on steam at the moment, especially if you want to play with other people at some point but not feel tied down to the games mechanics (all the options let you change a lot of things in how the game is played, more or less).

The fact you can either harvest and craft or fight and explore means it caters to both the male and female mindset, so families would have a great time playing it.

The art is fantastic, the world is invigorating and feels vibrant, all in all it's probably a great choice for a person both wanting to play by themselves or get their families involved.


(Main downside I have with the game is how fast you progress in crafting, you go from making water skins to crafting tables in like 2 levels, it's a bit weird.

I wish crafting progressed a lot slower to really let you enjoy the 'barbarian' vibe, it basically starts you off naked and before you know it you're running some kind of production plant,

lol it almost seems silly and takes away from the whole 'Conan' motif.

All in all it's a great game though definitely pick it up if you're interested.

[Fast Johnny]

Originally posted by Vhayne:

Thanks for the replies guys. :)

Fast Johnny - Wow man. This is how you answer someone's question! Huge thank you for taking the time and explaining all of your answers. Just from what you said, I'm absolutely going to get it for my family. :)

Yeah, sorry for the length of the post. I was a little bored and all this Covid stuff. Before I realized, it was literature. Glad it helped.

[Hessian]

Wife answer: Some days it’s 100% crafting. Some days it’s 100% combat. Most days it’s somewhere in between.

[Narelle]

My answers on some questions:

- I would not recommend co-op for such a large group - you will have to hold hands all the time with the host because there is tethering that you can't remove. The host has to be online all the time for the rest to play. It is simply not convenient.

- You can rent a private server with like 10 slots (gtxgaming being one of the many pc hosting companies on the market). If you are tech savvy, you can also set up your own private server using the dedicated server launcher. More details here: https://forums.funcom.com/t/conan-exiles-dedicated-server-launcher-official-version-1-3-5-beta/21699

- The game is great with friends (family in your case). Are there bugs, sure but if you have your own server / co-op you have full access to the admin panel and the settings which are quite extensive. You can customize a lot and spawn any items that may be lost to whatever bug. Whatever you are lacking can most likely be provided by mods and there are some really awesome mods for this game. QoL, armors, weapons, decorations, building sets all the way to complete game conversion and heavy fantasy mods.

- I am almost certain that your wife is going to love the game especially if she is into building and decorating. I agree with hessky and Fast Johnny, the game is a sandbox, there is a bit of everything and you have the freedom to decide how you want to play the game.

- Isle of Siptah is the only DLC that provides content as a new map but that map is still in EA. You should start with the base game first and see how you like it. The rest of the DLCs are cosmetic and if one owns the DLC, they can craft the items for all to use. There are some limitations e.g the one who doesn't own the DLC can't directly repair the DLC armor but they can repair it with repair kits (base game item) or they can just drop it in the bench and the DLC owner can repair it for them.

- Most of the negative reviews come from people who have to deal with the issues on public servers but honestly, 85% of these issues won't matter to you if you get your own server.

- The advantage of having your own server is that you can also turn off the decay system. You don't have to worry about your builds going poof if you take a few days off.

[Celendrin]

To add to the above when I first started playing I was dying of thirst when I simply went afk to read for a couple of minutes -

that's crucial to having (relaxed) fun in the game is turn down the hunger / thirst settings when you start up a server,

it'll keep the game from becoming a 'survival from starvation / dehydration' simulator and actually be fun - you'll have lots of time to find food and water if hunger and thirst affect you a lot slower.

[Star©]

If you need a place to play for a bit & try it out more let me know, got a private server you can try.