Octopus Overlords

I decided to do some old fashioned exploring, in the hope of finding NPCs to truncheon. I ended up in the Jungle to the east, murdering as I went. I really want a tier 3 carpenter to help with shaped wood production, but I had no luck.

I roamed around for a few hours and while that was it's own kind of fun, I did not find was I was looking for. Or any other thrall worthy npcs, really.

Guess I'll go back to asking the internet for help re: resource maps and thrall locations.

I'm level 33 and using steel tools now (but not steel weapons, just because I've been lazy in crafting).

Regarding weapons, I've been using a stone pike I found because it has good reach and is easy to repair, and a pair of iron daggers because I can stack a pile of bleeds. Does anyone have a favourite weapon type they use, and why?

For anyone just starting out, the game has something called "journeys" which are like milestones in the game. Craft your first weapon? Journey step. Put down a bedroll? Journey. Enter the Unnamed City? Journey.

The Journey steps have HUGE exp bonuses. One of the fastest way to level is just start doing journeys (which can be arbitrary and not related to progressing your game experience necessarily).

Want to level up? You can fight 4 million NPCs, or you can find the easiest journeys on your list and do those.

The game (it might be a gameplay setting) will keep a list of 3 journeys it's recommending you do next. I have never actively pursued faster leveling through journeys, but I sometimes did what the game said I should do just because.

I'm sure Coop could give you more advice on leveling fast, but it's clear that journeys are at least a part of that.

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:48 am I'm sure Coop could give you more advice on leveling fast, but it's clear that journeys are at least a part of that.

Journeys are pretty much 100% of that at this point.

When you get a named crafter for the artisan bench (I think there are multiple types that fit here) crafting, placing and tearing down vaults is pretty good xp. Crafting T3 building pieces is pretty good xp too, but you don't get the thrall reduction in material requirements since they are crafted in your pocket.

I decided to do some old fashioned exploring, in the hope of finding NPCs to truncheon. I ended up in the Jungle to the east, murdering as I went. I really want a tier 3 carpenter to help with shaped wood production, but I had no luck.

Farm the Black Galleon. Just wipe it out over and over again. Eventually you will get a set of T4s.

Vaults give a silly amount of XP as well.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Aug 20, 2018 9:55 am Farm the Black Galleon. Just wipe it out over and over again. Eventually you will get a set of T4s.

I was kinda hoping to avoid grabbing T4's right now, but I did grab a T4 fighter just for the rare time I aggro a mob while I'm doing something else. Unfortunately I had other priorities and just left his unconscious body on the ground. He's probably gone now.

I did drag a Tier 3 blacksmith back from some thrall spawn near elephants, down to the river. Is it me or does it feel like you're fishing for crocodiles while you're running along a river, dragging a human body behind you?

I managed to kill 2 elephants using iron daggers. I still don't have their combat down pat, but I get as many stacks of bleed on them as I can and then just try to stay alive.

Thanks for the advice on the black galleon. If I can get T4's there, I can get T3's there. Will keep up the hunt. I was getting a bit disappointed with my lack of thrall hunting success, but it helps to know what to expect with enough tries.

I already have 6-8 thralls working my tiny tier 1 base. It feels overcrowded honestly. Once I get a Smelter and a Carpenter, I'll start on the new base. Do you have the coords for your base Coop? Or Fret's? Or anyone who had an established base?

My plan was to make a tier 2 base beside my tier 1 base, but while the tier 1 base is pretty well located for resources, it's a bit far from everything else/danger. I'm probably going to go straight to tier 3 like you suggested, so finding a home that will be permanent is next on the priority list.

My base is Just above Freya's Hovel. I don't have coordinates. It is east of New Asagarth and the Northern Aqueduct up in the highlands, north of the desert. I forget where Fret's base is. I think it's on the shore near the bridge to the frozen area maybe?

Man, there are some great thralls up in the volcano... There are T4 spawns that are fixed.

I still want to offer to add you to my clan... all those thralls and crafting stations are just going to waste.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Aug 20, 2018 2:05 pm My base is Just above Freya's Hovel. I don't have coordinates. It is east of New Asagarth and the Northern Aqueduct up in the highlands, north of the desert. I forget where Fret's base is. I think it's on the shore near the bridge to the frozen area maybe?

Man, there are some great thralls up in the volcano... There are T4 spawns that are fixed.

I still want to offer to add you to my clan... all those thralls and crafting stations are just going to waste.

I hear ya, and when I finally quit, I'll feel like my time and efforts have been wasted as well. In fact I KNEW that going in, which is one of the things that made me hesitate even playing. But the simple fact is gathering thralls and building stuff *IS* the game. If I just took yours, there wouldn't be much game left for me to do.

It's like playing sim city and downloading a pre-built city. Sure I'd have a nice city and you'd have the satisfaction of someone using your nice new city, but then what? Smash it with godzilla and see what happens?

So I appreciate your offer, really, but I'll pass for now.

edit: Oh, if it helps, I've been pulling some fish out of your traps and leaving it to rot in my fluid press. I get oil from the putrid flesh. I don't know what to use oil for yet, but I assume it's because we get to craft cars eventually.

I also took your advice and made a small 9x9 shack below the Black Galleon along the river (beside your fish traps, actually) and dropped a bedroll there. That should help.

There are a number of bosses to kill as well, so it's not just building stuff and collecting slaves. Our base is just a box inside a bigger box, so architecturally uninteresting. I am all about function and they made black ice harder to craft so I didn't have the heart to keep building.

When the patch making thralls require food comes out, all my thralls will die. That may be even more sad. I probably have 40 thralls (mostly archers on the outer walls). Those poor guys (and gals).

Yep. When I take shelter inside my hovel during a sandstorm and my thralls are outside being flayed alive toiling for my benefit, I feel a twinge of remorse. Not much though. I know that if they got organized the 10 I have could take me down in a second. I need to keep them broken of spirit or it will end badly for me.

Mine are archers from the volcano equipped with Set (poison) arrows. I would not last long if they decided to end me.

I meant to mention that I found your base by the galleon. I just never came at it from that direction before, and never left it that way either. Is that your main base or just your thrall harvesting outpost or what?

I have a tiny 3x3 box in the valley by the river with a bedroll in it (and now a wooden box to rot your fish in it).

I climbed onto the roof and jumped in through the hole in it, only to find the door wouldn't open from the inside. For a moment I thought "oh...fuck, how do I get out" but when trying to climb out again I realized you could monkey bar swing underneath a horizontal surface. I had not seen that before. So I climbed the wall, swung along the rafters and extracted myself from your deathtrap.

I liked your elevator. First time seeing one of those. I did not take it. Looking at the map, I concluded that it led to bad places. Also, that's a lot of animal heads. You might have a problem.

I accidentally killed a named carpenter before I recognized who/what I was fighting. Considering that my thrall hunting for the last few days has all been motivated by trying to find a tier 3 carpenter, I am (was) sad.

That was a temp base for harvesting thralls from the Galleon. The animal heads were mostly NPC loot drops. My 12yo did the decorating.

If you thought that might be my main base, I kinda can't wait for you to find the actual main base. If you go up the elevator and then go north and follow the edge of the map around to the left/northeast you will eventually hit the main base. I am not sure there is anywhere you could get inside though, unless a purge busted it open.

It's not like I have anything to compare it to, as my hovel is just a hovel, I didn't even think to make it two stories, although I have 3 tiers of surface area outside. With that said, I was disappointed enough that I figured it was not your main base.

I should mention that I've done nothing but hunt thralls and minor resource harvesting/refining for the last 3 or 4 days. My base is starting to have decent thralls in certain stations, but I have yet to find a tier 3 carpenter (the tier 4 died before I realized what I was killing) which I'm hinging all future wood resources on.

I'm ready to start a tier 3 base, but have no location picked out. I almost certainly will place it far away from my tier 1. I'll use the tier one to create the resources needed for the tier 3, then haul the resources to the new location by hand. Eventually I'll move the thralls and stations (probably. Most of them are pretty easy to craft).

Once I have the carpenter I'll be in full blown gather/refine mode for awhile. I have no idea where to put my new base, either.

Isgrim, every time I see your wife playing I get excited about someone else on the server, then I remember. Every time.

It's kind of funny if it weren't so sad.

You know when Rick and Morty are in a sim, and Jerry is in another part of the sim running at 5% capacity and wins an Appley? Everyone is clipping through the geography and balls are teleporting around and such?

I think Conan NPCs are being run by that same 5% capacity sim. It's...pretty bad.

GreenGoo wrote:Isgrim, every time I see your wife playing I get excited about someone else on the server, then I remember. Every time.

It's kind of funny if it weren't so sad.

Sorry about that.

She’s over the 500 hour mark. It’s effectively been her 2nd job for the past 3 months.

I finally got a carpenter above tier 1, so now my shaped wood costs 7 regular wood instead of 10.

So after a week of preparing to start full blown construction on a tier 3 base somewhere, my interest has waned to almost nothing. The only thing that can save it I think is finding an exciting example of a tier 3 base with tutorials on how to make all the interesting features. I have zero interest in experimenting and tapping into my own (complete lack of) creativity.

If I can find a video or website with detailed architectural plans and explanations, I *might* play some more. Otherwise I think I'm done with the game.

Oh well. Wasn't even fun while it lasted. More like vaguely interesting while it lasted.

Pet update and Pictish context expansion have dropped.

Free weekend

https://store.steampowered.com/app/440900/Conan_Exiles/

Free Weekend, new expansion announced, available for Early Access purchase on the 15th.

Time for me AND my character to spend a weekend pantless in the world of Conan once again! Hopefully they've added a few inches to the endowment slider.

Forgot I actually bought the expansion, so I was surprised to see it on my update list today. When I realized it was a huge update, I checked to see what was in it and realized it was the full expansion.

Guess I really do need to check out that world again.

I am tempted to go back. Reading that last exchange with GreenGoo (Hi GreenGoo, where are you?!?) made me a bit nostalgic. Also the mention of my 12yo decorating the base... that kid just turned 15 and outweighs me now. I let a damn 12yo play Conan, what the hell is wrong with me!?!

The server’s memory limit does not permit a full documentation.

It hit game pass this week. Downloading now.

FYI, big update came out this week. It adds sorcery to the game, but also added their first battle pass. It looks like the idea is that they are moving from a constant stream of paid expansions to free content updates with a paid battle pass for cosmetic items. I started up a new game and the random challenges I got to progress the battle pass were... not super friendly to a new game. There was a mention in the patch notes that the initial challenges would be set appropriately for new players and I guess a new playthrough for an experienced player doesn't qualify. You can reroll the challenges 3 times, I am not sure when the reroll count resets, but it looks like the challenges reset daily also.

Anyway, just thought folks might be interested. It's also free to play through next Thursday.

https://www.conanexiles.com/blog/the-ag ... s-out-now/