Conan Exiles - Public Beta Client News

Salutations, Exiles of the Testlive lands,

We’re bringing a new patch focusing on fixing more AI issues you’ve been reporting over the past week, mainly addressing problems with the hate list of many NPCs.

Thanks to you we’re bringing this content patch closer to completion, so please keep sending us any feedback you might have about this current Testlive build to ensure the smoothest launch possible.


Thanks again for your ongoing support, and stay safe!

Please remember that updates can mess with your installed mods. We suggest taking a backup of your current database before updating to any new patch if you have mods installed.

• KO’d NPCs should no longer follow you around when re-entering draw distance. #virtualdistancing
  
• Fixed a few issues that would allow cheesing bosses’ AI using the leash behavior.
  
• Fixed a number of issues regarding the Warmaker’s Champion AI and attack patterns.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause wights to spawn in unbeatable ways during the Wine Cellar boss fight.
  
• Restored peace and balance in the Exiled Lands by addressing many reported hate list issues with world NPCs. They should be back to just hating you now.
  
• There’s still some issues with NPCs and wolves attacking Anastera the Seeress in New Asagarth.
  
• On a similar note, we fixed also a number of issues where neutral NPCs would attack you.
  
• Thralls receive slightly less hate now, meaning player characters are more likely to draw aggro when engaged in a fight.
  

• Added additional independent binding for commands.
  

[h2]Separate TestLive Product on Steam[/h2]

We heard your input regarding the inconvenience with having to switch back and forth between the main game and our TestLive servers. To make it easier for you and because we really value your testing and feedback, we added a separate product for the TestLive server on Steam.

If you own Conan Exiles on Steam, you should now see a separate Product called “Conan Exiles - Testlive Client” in your library which gives you the option to install an additional instance of the game specifically for the TestLive servers. Please be aware that this will prompt you for a full additional installation.

We are aware that not everyone wants install or has space for two full installations. For those of you who don’t want to play through the additional TestLive Client, you can still access the TestLive servers through our old method.

Greetings Exiles!

We’re releasing the first set of fixes for some of the reported issues we received over the past week, mainly focusing on AI problems.
We’re also bundling in a much-requested fix for an issue that would cause placeables to snap towards the edges of all assets when trying to build.
Once again, remember that this is a work in progress build and that we’re more than interested in any feedback you can share, specially about AI issues you might encounter while playing.

Thanks again for your ongoing support, and stay safe.

Please remember that updates can mess with your installed mods. We suggest taking a backup of your current database before updating to any new patch if you have mods installed.


[h2]Currently Known Issues[/h2]

• Please let us know of any AI issues you might find while playing this build. This is the main focus of this patch so we’re extremely interested about any feedback you might have of erratic NPC behavior.
  
• This is still a work in progress build and several features are still being actively developed. As such, expect some bugs and unintended problems while playing.
  

• Fixed a number of crashing issues related to AI.
  

• Fixed an issue that would cause the placement brush of placeables to snap to the edges of all assets.
  

• Fixed several reported issues of unintended follower behavior while having stances assigned
  
• Fixed some issues with the NPCs hate list.
  
• Fixed an issue where all NPCs on Sepermeru would be hostile towards the player.
  
• There’s been a truce between the Kappa kingdom and the Exiled lands and Green Shalebacks are again defaulted to peaceful behavior.
  

• Fixed an issue that would cause player characters to get stuck on a chair if placed on a foundation.
  

• Implemented a smart system on the Interact key when using a controller. Now, if there are valid interact targets, this binding opens the interact menu. Otherwise, the command menu.
  
• Added tips and hints related to the new Followers systems in loading screens.
  
• Fixed an issue with the pets’ radial menu.
  

[h2]Separate TestLive Product on Steam[/h2]

We heard your input regarding the inconvenience with having to switch back and forth between the main game and our TestLive servers. To make it easier for you and because we really value your testing and feedback, we added a separate product for the TestLive server on Steam.

If you own Conan Exiles on Steam, you should now see a separate Product called “Conan Exiles - Testlive Client” in your library which gives you the option to install an additional instance of the game specifically for the TestLive servers. Please be aware that this will prompt you for a full additional installation.

We are aware that not everyone wants install or has space for two full installations. For those of you who don’t want to play through the additional TestLive Client, you can still access the TestLive servers through our old method.

Greetings Exiles!

Coming hot on the trails of our previous content patch, conveniently titled Followers I, and as announced in our producer letter, we feel now ready to deploy on Testlive the first iteration of our next game update: Followers II!

Given the amazing reception you all gave to our new commitment to make Testlive a meaningful platform to test and improve upon new features, we feel this is the right time to let you all have a first look at our new batch of changes and improvements aimed at overhauling how you interact with your followers.

Among these changes comes a very long and oft-requested feature, AI stances! We have also added a command system for your active follower, so you can give direct orders such as move and attack. There’s more changes and improvements that come with these new additions that will generally improve how AI reacts and interacts in the game. We have also included a couple of commonly requested quality of life changes that will make your adventures in the Exiled lands even more amazing: you can now have a companion and a horse active at the same time, and while riding you can also drag any unconscious NPCs!

We’d love if you would give all these changes a try and let us improve on these features by sending us any feedback you might have regarding possible issues. Remember, this Testlive update is still a work in progress build and many things might still be still under active development!

Thanks again for your ongoing feedback and support.

Please remember that updates can mess with your installed mods. We suggest taking a backup of your current database before updating to any new patch if you have mods installed.


[h2]New follower behaviors![/h2]
You can now give your followers a brand new set of engagement rules and tactical preferences to better suit your playstyle!

Accessed via a new option in the interaction wheel, you can now assign different behaviors to your thralls and pets. Divided into two sections (Engagement and Tactics), this will give you better control than ever on how your armies react to incoming threats.
Please note that these new options are for your thralls and pets who are set as base defenses and not actively set as your follower (to see which new changes apply to active followers, you can skip a few sections and go straight to the new Follower Command System!)

[h2]Engagement behaviors[/h2]

Under this new menu, you can now choose and customize different rules of engagement for each of your followers. These new options are:

Guard Area With this option, your follower will only attack when a hostile engages with them or any friendly presence (including you!) within their detection radius.

Guard me You only want them to attack with those that directly attack you or those hostiles that you engage in combat with? This is your option!

Attack all enemies When subtlety isn’t part of master plan, just let your armies know about this option. They will engage with any hostile that enters their detection radius, old-school!

Attack nothing If you want them to know engaging with any threats might be above their gruel pay-grade, choose this option. Any follower with this behavior will not retaliate against hostile activity.

Attack and Chase Distance You can set at which distance your thrall or pet will detect hostiles (Attack Distance), as well as the distance they might move (together with some new aggro systems) from their designed guard spot while pursuing their target (Chase Distance). These two settings open a new submenu with a range of options, from Lowest (5 meters) to Longest (50 meters).

[h2]Tactics behaviors[/h2]

Within this section, you can set which tactical choices will be preferred by your followers:

Stand and defend With this option, your followers will stay firm and keep the designated position against any hostile activity.

Prioritize melee Followers with this tactic assigned will try to deal with enemies up-close and prioritize equipping the shortest range weapon they have available in their inventory.

Prioritize ranged This tactic will make your thrall opt for long-ranged engagements, prioritizing ranged weapons in their inventory when attacking an enemy.


[h2]New Follower Command System![/h2]

By Crom! You can now give direct orders to your active companion. Politely ask them to move or rudely ask them to annihilate any hostile targets within the press of a button!
Aim and press the assigned key (X by default) to move your companion to the designed location or attack an enemy. Double press that key to make them stop any activity they’re engaged on (and double press again to make them resume that activity). Press it three times and you will ask your companion to return to your position.
You can also hold the command button to open a new radial menu where you can select any of these settings individually!

[h2]Some important Quality of Life additions![/h2]

We’ve been listening to the feedback you’ve all been sending us since the release of the mounts update and we’ve integrated the two most requested changes! You can now have an active companion as well as your trusty steed, as horses don’t take the active follower slot anymore! And while you’re out and about on your ride, don’t forget to that you can now drag any NPCs you’ve left unconscious!

• New follower stances!
  
• New follower command system!
  
• You can now have a companion and a mount active at the same time!
  
• You can now drag unconscious NPCs while riding a horse! Yee-haw!
  
• AI improvements!
  
• …and more!
  

[h2]Currently Known Issues[/h2]

• The Follower Command System is currently missing Audio Effects.
  
• Target lock keybind while using a controller is currently overridden by the Command key.
  
• Given the complexity of the AI changes present in this patch, it is possible that some of the new systems and behaviors might not only not work as intended, but present worse performance than those already available in live. We’re extremely interested in any feedback you can share about AI issues and behavior in this build of the game.
  
• This is a Work in Progress build and as such some features might not work as intended. Please share your feedback should you encounter any issues, so we can fix them in a future iteration of this patch.
  

• Deployed a number of optimizations regarding server logs.
  
• Fixed a number of crashing issues.
  

• Fixed an issue that would allow building inside certain locations.
  

• Added new follower behavior settings!
  
• For the first time, you can customize the rules of engagement of your follower defenses as well as their tactics when in combat.
  
• Added new command system that will allow you to give direct orders to your active follower. This can be controlled via a new radial menu (holding X by default), or giving direct input (by single pressing X to move/attack, double press to cancel, triple press to return).
  
• Added new animations to provide visual feedback to the command system.
  
• Added and reworked AI behaviors to deepen and improve the playing experience.
  

• Fixed an issue where Riptide light attacks would deal double damage.
  

• Fixed several instances where friendly and/or hostile AI would become non-responsive towards external threats.
  
• Reworked several AI components, such as hate list (list of hostile targets) and leash distance (distance they’re allowed to chase their target).
  
• Resolved several issues where followers would have troubles teleporting to the player.
  
• Resolved a number of issues that would prevent thralls from using weapon combos.
  
• Improved AI awareness. They can now detect threats and targets visually and via sounds.
  

• Stamina cost for dodging has been reduced for medium and light armors.
  
• Redesigned the Accuracy 40 perk. It is now called Flattening Shot and will allow your heavy shots to push back or knock down targets.
  

• Improved navigation on interaction radial wheels. You can now use key or button inputs to ease your navigation.
  
• You can now drag unconscious NPCs while riding a horse.
  
• Mounts no longer take a follower slot. This means you can now have a follower and a horse at the same time.
  

• Added character animations when issuing commands to followers.
  

• Added new radial menu options to control follower behavior.
  
• Added new follower command menu.
  
• New key bindings have been added to control the new commands.
  

[h2]Separate TestLive Product on Steam[/h2]

We heard your input regarding the inconvenience with having to switch back and forth between the main game and our TestLive servers. To make it easier for you and because we really value your testing and feedback, we added a separate product for the TestLive server on Steam.

If you own Conan Exiles on Steam, you should now see a separate Product called “Conan Exiles - Testlive Client” in your library which gives you the option to install an additional instance of the game specifically for the TestLive servers. Please be aware that this will prompt you for a full additional installation.

We are aware that not everyone wants install or has space for two full installations. For those of you who don’t want to play through the additional TestLive Client, you can still access the TestLive servers through our old method.

Greetings once more, Exiles!

We’re releasing a new patch with further improvements and fixes based on feedback gathered from Testlive. We’ve continued our work to make the Follower Management system be as robust as possible prior to its official launch, as well as some performance and UI fixes.

For this new patch we’ll be enabling the Follower Limit cap on Testlive Official servers so we can gather some feedback on possible issues that can’t be detected with it disabled. This doesn’t mean live official servers are seeing this change yet, it is just being enabled for testing purposes. Once we have a clear date on when we will enable this feature live, we will let you all know in advance via all our communication channels.

We will also enable the new undermesh measures on official Testlive servers. This way we can help identify possible issues with it before releasing and enabling them live. This is currently a Work in Progress feature and as such it might cause unintended issues. Please let us know about them, this feedback is extremely valuable to us.


Note: Access to the launcher has been limited for this build as we’re working on its next iteration based on feedback gathered. This should also solve the issue with missing executables some of you reported to be experiencing in the last build.

Thanks once again for your feedback and support.

Please remember that updates can mess with your installed mods. We suggest taking a backup of your current database before updating to any new patch if you have mods installed.

[h2]Currently Known Issues[/h2]

• This build is still a Work In Progress, and some features might not work as intended. Please let us know of any issues you might encounter.
  

• Improved network performance in the management screen.
  
• Fixed some memory leaking issues in the management screen.
  
• Fixed a number of crashing issues in the management screen.
  

• Further improvements and refinements were added into the anti-undermesh measures. This is still a WIP feature and is currently enabled on Testlive Official servers to help spot further issues with it.
  

• Resolved an issue where thralls would sometimes prefer unarmed attacks despite having a weapon available in their inventory.
  

• Fixed an issue where followers could not be rescued via the management screen if the player character was standing on non-static mesh structures covered with water.
  

• In between whipping sessions, our #spellchekker team managed to correct a number of mispelled NPC names.
  
• Corrected an issue where followers’ names are grayed out in the management screen if they are out of LOD range.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause windows to overlap when opening a follower’s stat screen from the management screen.
  
• The last option in gameplay settings should no longer be blocked out of screen boundaries.
  

Greetings Exiles!

We're releasing a second Testlive patch aimed at addressing some of the feedback you've been sending us over the past week, including extending the management system's range to global and archer AI bloopers. This is still a work in progress version of the final patch, so please keep sending us feedback about the current build so we can keep working on improving it.

You can check the previous patch notes [here](https://forums.funcom.com/t/testlive-patch-18-02-2020-followers-management-system-plus-funcom-launcher/106321).

Thanks again for your ongoing support.


Please remember that updates can mess with your installed mods. We suggest taking a backup of your current database before updating to any new patch if you have mods installed.

• This build is still a Work In Progress, and some features might not work as intended. Please let us know of any issues you might encounter.
  

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• Fixed a client crash issue regarding horses.
  

• Fine-tuned some anti-undermesh measures. This is still a Work In Progress.
  

• Flinthead arrows no longer require feathers to craft.
  

• The effect of Set's Tongue and Mitra's Justice no longer persists until logging out
  

• Fixed an issue where archer thralls would become unresponsive after switching melee/ranged modes.
  
• Skeleton pets should no longer drop their equipment when being rescued.
  
• Fixed an issue where unarmed companions wouldn't attack enemies after being rescued.
  
• Fixed an issue where unarmed companions wouldn’t attack enemies after being rescued.
  
• Fixed an issue where thralls would not follow their attack rotations and did no combos.
  
• Horses should now drop their saddles when rescued.
  

• Cleared up some redundant information in pets' info screen.
  
• Fixed an issue with scrolling in the Follower Management screen.
  
• Fixed an issue that was restricting the operational range of the management screen functions to LOD range.
  
• Fixed an issue where the follower management screen would allow the cursor to still operate in the background, possibly triggering unintended actions.
  
• The action drop-down menu in the management screen should no longer go out of screen boundaries.
  
• Fixed an issue where fully populated Follower Management Lists may have had certain options hidden.