Observations

Mendel

After playing two different free weekends, I bit the proverbial bullet and purchased Conan Exiles this week.  The price was pretty reasonable, around $25 including 4 DLC packs (mostly cosmetic).

Here are some initial observations about the game.  I've not delved into the modding world, although there is quite a healthy community producing content (and the obligatory cheats). 

Single Player Mode:

I started out with a single player game on the initial map.  The graphics are lush and exotic.  The first impression I formed is that the game is quite beautiful.  The character models are well done and give a very good feel for the Conan IP.  The world is large.  Creatures are dangerous.  The various clothes are exceptional looking, and the DLC outfits are both pretty and fit into the world of Conan very well.  There are a variety of resources, everywhere.  Almost everything can be harvested or collected and has multiple purposes.  The crafting is deep.

The Journey walks you through the game, giving you goals on how to proceed.  This serves as double purpose.  The Journey records what you have done, but it also gives the newb player (me) hints at what can be done, and what should be done next.  In effect, this acts as a very non-intrusive tutorial, and mostly reduces the need for spoiler sites.  At level 30, I'm still learning things about the game, so I'd have to say this is probably the most effective tutorial I've ever seen in a game.  Other games would do well to make such quality in guiding the player around.

The combat is fun.  Brutal and realistic, but fun.  There are all sorts of features built into the game, but not paraded around -- knockdowns, knockbacks, stuns, bleeding, etc. -- the messy little details that make combat feel so dangerous.  Running away and defensive fighting are very viable combat options.

There is a lot to like, but along with this good, there are some relatively annoying issues.

• Graphics -- Grass pokes through a foundation.  This has been around since 2017, but hasn't been fixed yet.  About the only visual flaw I've noticed.
• Repair -- Repairing an item requires almost the same amount of materials it takes to build the item initially.
• Building -- The snap-to feature works well (better than in No Man's Sky), but there are still glitches that require you to stand in specific places to put the component in place.  The UI to remove a component is very awkward, and many components (fences, stairs) only destroy the element instead of putting it back in inventory.  Stairs are a particular problem, as removing any component breaks the entire stairs, instead of just removing the one element you put in wrong.
• Crafting -- There are an amazing number of things to build, but the main crafting menu UI really needs tabs (or some other method) to organize the various recipes.  With the 4 DLCs I have, it takes 22 mouse wheel scrolls to get past the culture-specific architecture to the crafting stations (and the important Storage box).
• Saves -- The Single Player and Coop share a single save game.  That limits a single active game on any given PC.  I can't restart to try something without destroying the existing game.  Consequently, there's no way to load specific games.
  

CoOP Mode:

Since this is primarily an online game, I decided to invite a friend to help out with learning the map.  This introduced some further issues.

• Adding player -- Adding a player to share your single player game is relatively simple through Steam.  This is done via a Steam invite.  Using this function is relatively simple; finding this function wasn't.  It is accessible from the ESC / Main menu.  It also isn't persistent -- you have to invite the player every time they join in.  There also isn't any KICK function (that I could find) to disconnect another player.
  
• Combat -- Fighting together takes some getting used to.  You can accidentally bump and push another player around in a fight without actually hurting them.  That isn't an issue in a PvP setting.  In PvE (coop), it can be annoying.
  
• Player UI -- Basically, there isn't anyway to interact with another player.  There's no Trade interface.  There's no way to Assist, no way to Target a player.  This is where the games really shows it's Single Player focus; it's not very friendly for multiple players.
• Chat -- It appears that the only kind of chat is Global chat.  This is essentially a Clan-based chat.  To communicate in-game, both players essentially need to be in the same clan.  (Unknown if this applies to voice-chat as well).
• Tethering -- This is a serious issue.  The game tethers all characters to the host character.  No one can get too far away from the host.  This prohibits doing things at different locations; players must stay close.  If the host character dies and respawns a good distance away, any additional characters will immediately warp to the recovering player.  This feature cannot be disabled, but the max distance is 52000 units, which is about 1/5th of the map away.
  

Server Mode:

I haven't tried this yet.

Overall:

Conan Exiles seems to be a very good game.  It is definitely the best survival-type game I've tried.  I'm quite happy with the decision to purchase this, and anticipate that I'll play this frequently, especially once I understand setting up a server a bit more.  (That should act as a work around the Save issue identified above).  I don't expect I'll get into the PvP much at all, but there are numerous servers that should do.  There are enough basics done well enough to make this game a quality role-playing experience, which is what I'm looking for.

Thanks for reading.

Mendel

Addendum:

I can't believe I didn't mention one amazing feature of CE -- a very well implemented Climb feature.  You can climb just about anything given enough stamina.  Cliffs, trees, buildings.  I can see that would be great in a PvP setting -- it could add dimensions to an RP event to storm the enemy clan's fortress.

Server Mode: (redux)

It's been a few days, and I've moved on to the official PvE servers.  Other than the usual problems of coming late to a building game (no place to build, all resource spots taken), it has been good.  The community is somewhat friendly, even.  Small, but friendly.  When I finish the massive Tower of Sand construction project, I'm thinking about having a RP event to invite others to come and talk, maybe even a group exploration of a nearby spooky cave.

The best part about the official servers, no tethering.  That only seems to exist in the Coop mode.  I've got to figure out how to Give items to other players, and lock down anything I want to keep.  My friend and I are near some wild horses, several of which are already in training.  So, we may have some horse trading to boot.  It wouldn't surprise me if one of us organized a race.

Slapshot1188

We ran a server for this last year. Had a lot of fun but eventually ran out of things to do.   Will go back in a bit.  Currently hosting an ATLAS server which is also a lot of fun on the Blackwood map.

hunbadman

Ones upon a time a player's base became too big and turn out that's violated some kind of hidden rules therefore got a ban with out any warning. end of tale

I just want to warn everyone there are some hidden rules what funcom ad-hoc applied and you can get a BAN.

I just want to warn every player who are same enthusiastic for build things as I am before they have the same experience as I had (I would emphasize it I did not block anything , I did not walled around any obelisk, and other players could used my maprooms , roads, etc)

Do not build too much buildings in this game believe me it's not worth spend your free time for this game (i do not have to waste any word for that fact Funcom has worst user support in the history)

Funcom advertised and promoted this game : "build a home and kingdom" so they encouraged you to build as much you want but when you did then they suddenly just wiped out all of your buildings and ban out you from official servers without any warring

because you violated some kind of hidden rules

FUNCOM:

"it was determined that excessive amounts of structures and placeables were being used to intentionally have a negative impact on the server’s performance."

"Your structures were built in such a way to have a negative impact not only on player’s experiences and performance, but also on the server performance."

Develop better game? NO

Fix game's engine problem? NO

Limit palcabels or building pieces? NO

BAN out that player? right that is their solution for a game's engine problem.

and If you told the ugly truth at FUNCOM forum then you could get a Final Suspension!

So definitely this game is not worth it to spend you expensive free!!! It's definitely a waste of your time to play with this game as they can destroy everything what you created!

If you wanted to play that kind of game where there are some hidden rules and one of them is violated by you and they reward you with ban out from official game servers then is definitely a game for you.

and this is the funcom admins explanation (I put it mine after the dash):

Community Support:

1. Even though freedom of expression through building is encouraged via the sandbox and building system of the game, deliberate use and abuse of known exploits to not only negatively impact the rest of the players in the server, but the server itself, is not something we can let go.

- that is the first problem if more than one players are gaming on an official server then that has already negatively impact the server performance. 

Otherwise I was not aware I am have been using known exploits (so they should not have called Known exploits because very few people aware of that fact) and if they are aware about that known exploits then they should have fix that instead of BAN out players. Moreover that could be a big problem if someone use too much from a building pieces then that could become an exploit... I would emphasize it again: only one player was able to cause that problem on that server where 40 player supposed to play. 

If that game's engine is so bad then they should have limit palcabels or building pieces because that is a solution (or at least create some public rule) and ad hoc ban out players is not a solution.

2. In your case in particular, we found you abused this exploit in large numbers, very close together, in baffling ways. Impact on the server was miserable.

-there is building freedom which is not freedom at all because if a player violate some kind of hidden rules then awarded with a ban , very good solution as usual which typical at funcom. I would emphasize it again: only one player was able to cause that problem on that server where 40 player supposed to play.

that behavior can cause so huge server problem then they should have limit palcabels or building pieces or at least create some public rule.

3. On top of that, your clan deliberately found amusing to build all over the map in a structure that would go from the starter river up to the volcano. A single structure to basically control and gate access to many of the map locations, spawns and resources.

-(other fact another player has a foundation wall all around the map which is starter river up to the volcano (that wall was double long as mien high road) but it seems that very very very long wall did not blocked anything  just mine, very interesting attitude ))

So basically a Player can get a BAN if player is wearing hat and even then not wearing as well

- So building freedom and build your kingdom is a big lie because if player's kingdom is too big then give a ban for that player of course without any warning - very good solution! For Your Information: if anyone build something then that is inevitable block something and there is only one building rule : do not block the starter area but it seems there is some ad hoc hidden rules and if a player violate then that can lead to Ban of course without any warning - very good solution keep up the good work!

4. Combine 1, 2 and 3 and we definitely had a problem there.

- So basically 1,2 and 3 is about the same fact I built too much and they rewarded with a big BAN.