Can mods on a server break the entire game?

[SyntaX.ErroR]

I am running a private dedicated server with my GF and we want to use mods like paragon etc.

My question is, is it possible that a mod can break after an update, completely ruin a game as in not being able to boot etc.

[Estevan Valladares]

a mod can break the save, stop the server from working, trigger server restart, etc, etc.

It is one of the first things written when you are selecting, browsing or seeing mods on Workshop, websites, or any other Conan Exiles "official" source, and any steam mod related content you see.

It is also said in Nexus, and other Mod portals.

It is pretty much common knowledge at this point.

That is why people often flock to modders they trust and people who keep mods updated and have a tack record of doing some decent job.

[🎇TYPHOON🎇]

Yes, they can and they WILL.

[Deacon the destroyer]

One of the reasons I don't do privates servers.
Another reason is the possibility goes up per mod and most private servers have stacks of mods. Last one I was on was down for a weak or longer every time the game got an update.

I only recommend 3, Paragons leveling is one. Next would be Emberlight, and Pippi for server management. But note many modders have moved on from Conan.

[Xevyr]

Originally posted by SyntaX.ErroR:

I am running a private dedicated server with my GF and we want to use mods like paragon etc.

My question is, is it possible that a mod can break after an update, completely ruin a game as in not being able to boot etc.

It would highly depend on the mod and what it does.

For example the one you mentioned is a leveling mod, so it would allow for different leveling caps, which obviously means that the player characters which no longer fit the parameters of the vanilla game would be saved to the game database. If these kinds of mods would break, and you were forced to removed them, it would have slightly more consequences than something that doesn't touch any of that stuff, at the very least you might have to then troubleshoot your characters and reset their levels etc. to fit the new context etc.

On the other hand if you're installing something like a HUD mod.. or something mostly self-contained that adds their own stuff as opposed to saving altered data on existing ones, then you have almost zero risk and many of those mods can be added / removed at any point in your game without issues. It's worth reading mod descriptions as authors sometimes mention this (I do for example, all of my mods can be added / removed at any stage in your game without causing any problems)

The above doesn't necessarily mean anything though, reality is that it's really hard to actually break your save with mods, so most of that is fearmongering / myths based on very rare instances that were most likely caused by peoples failing harddrives etc. Usually the worst you can get is needing to manually clean up some stuff from your database (mods don't have direct access to your save, they can add data to it using the methods Funcom developed.).

The "big" issue usually is when you have a lot of mods that are very intrusive (directly edit vanilla files) and you won't be able to play your game when Funcom does an update, until the mod author follows suit and updates their mod with the new version of the files they alter. So your game would be crashing until you either remove those mods or the author updates. For this reason again, you would want to read mod descriptions and try to find ones that don't directly edit vanilla assets as those a lot of times don't even need updates.

TLDR: As long as you follow best practices, you will be fine. Practices such as:
- Make backups before installing mods, this way you can very easily restore them in case you change your mind. Your save is located in ConanSandbox\Saved\game.db (if multiplayer then on the server or the hosting computer in co-op), the same folder also contains automated backups every 5 minutes that you could just rename to game.db and overwrite your active save to roll back the game to that state.
- Read mod descriptions, check the last updated date or recent activity in the comments.
- Try to avoid mods that directly edit vanilla assets. Some things can't be done without doing that, but if you need to use mods like that, then make sure the author is active and quick to react (for example Multiguns LBPR edits some vanilla files, however he always updates on the first day of a game update when needed, so it's a safe choice)
- Just use common sense, know which of your mods do what, don't instantly add a million of them and then be confused by which feature comes from what.. etc.

[Smadinker]

Originally posted by 🎇TYPHOON🎇:

Yes, they can and they WILL.

This is something people still don't get after all these years, mods can and will break everything every now and then. Then you have to figure out what broke what, what load order broke what, pray for an update in a timely manner, mods can be hell.