May 8th seems pretty far away to me, but I bet Funcom is feeling Conan Exiles’ impending launch is rushing up to meet it. In its most recent newsletter, the studio says its various teams are hard at work on memory leak repairs, UI fixes, the temperature system, new clothing and outfits, first-person perspective animations, engine optimizations, the monster revamp, and of course, the combat system.
“The old combat system was more like an MMORPG than an action game, where a creature would stand in front of you and attack. Under the new paradigm we plan to make creature attacks more varied, with better anticipation time and ‘tells’ so you’ll know what comes next. [… ] We have a vision of what Conan Exiles should be, which might differ from your vision of what Conan Exiles should be, and our job as a developer is to merge the two into a coherent whole. Game development is normally a closed process, but because we opted for Early Access we also had to make sure that the community had a voice. The new combat system is a direct consequence of this interaction that fits in with the Conan vision.”
Funcom also talks a bit more about its teleportation system, which it announced last week. “We always talked about doing teleportation as part of the sorcery system, and since mounts aren’t making it into the game for launch, we wanted to create a way for players to cut down on on-foot travel time,” the studio explains. “The Map Room, which is a placeable you can build, is our solution. By building a Map Room in your base you can travel to special obelisks you’ve discovered in the Exiled Lands. To build it you’ll need to find the recipe out in the Exiled Lands and when you teleport or get close to the obelisks you will gain corruption, cutting down on your max health and stamina.”
We’ve previously covered Funcom’s stated plan to not ape battle royale games or inject lockboxes into the game, as well as the list of content bits that are being cut or delayed to make that May launch, including mounts and pets, the settlement system, and the sorcery system.
