Fatalities
If there is glory in gore, you will find it in Chapter 4. In this feature inspired by the Fatalities in Age of Conan, you will be able to finish off enemy human NPCs with spectacularly savage kill moves; one for each of the melee weapon types in the game. When an attack would otherwise kill your foe, there is a chance that they will instead enter a dazed state. If you perform a starting attack (not mid-combo) on them during this brief period, you will perform a Fatality, and be awarded with a chunk of health and stamina, along with a temporary damage buff. Three details are worth emphasizing. First, if you don’t perform the finisher, the enemy will fall dead at the end of their dazed state; second, while performing a Fatality, you are immune to damage; and third, Fatalities only work on enemy human NPCs, not beasts, monsters, or players. Go forth and slay, Exiles.
Expanded Purges
When we introduced the revamped Purges in Chapter 2, we fully intended to build upon those foundations later. In Chapter 4, we’re adding a new defensive ballista, and several new types of enemies. Thieves: Have invisibility, can unlock your doors, and go straight for your treasure horde. Golems: A sorcerer summons two kinds of golems. Axe-wielding golems will focus on killing defenders, while the jarhead golems will use their mauls to bring down your fortifications and explode a few seconds after death, dealing damage to everything around them. Sorcerer: This powerful sorcerer will stand outside your base and perform a ritual to bring down meteors upon your base. You must leave the safety of your defenses and slay the sorcerer, before the meteors can do too much damage. Stygian Champion: This hulking warrior is not to be taken lightly, and will be clearly visible by the formation of his retinue of guards. Ballista: This new siege weapon is controlled manually by the player and fires powerful bolts that penetrate through enemies. Line up a good shot and annihilate your attackers. The ballista can also fire ammunition which is good at taking down player-built structures.
Inventory and Follower Quality of Life
Commanding followers is easier than ever in Chapter 4. Rather than setting follower behavior through a radial wheel, you can now do it through a single menu when you interact with your follower, and with more granularity than before. Importantly, these choices will not be wiped.
The radial wheel still exists but is only used for immediate orders, and is far quicker and easier to maneuver, both on keyboard and controller, which is important once swords start swinging. Hold down the command button, point in the direction of your order, and release. Commands have been narrowed down to a situational Go Here/Attack command, Defend Here, and Flee.
We’re excited about this change because it enables a style of play which some players may have avoided simply due to the limiting interface and responsiveness, which is now unlocked for them. Commands are snappy and the response feels immediate.
In a game like Conan Exiles, the importance of inventory management cannot be overstated. In this update, we’re adding several improvements such as a quick stack button (stacks unstacked items into any container). In addition, for the inventory and crafting screen, item filtering, sorting, visible information, and general readability has been improved, making for an overall much smoother experience.
Battle Pass Progression
One thing we noticed with Battle Pass Progression was that it could funnel you into a specific style of gameplay which perhaps wasn’t what you most enjoy doing in the game, so we wanted to fix that. Now, almost anything that awards XP (killing, gathering, crafting) will also give Battle Pass progression. The number of Challenges has been reduced to three, but they are more involved and award a much larger chunk of Battle Pass progression, with the goal of feeling more like a proper quest with a satisfying reward than a chore. For those who enjoy keeping track of their Battle Pass progression, we’ve added a small notification whenever you unlock a new level. If you want to play without seeing this, you can switch it off in the options.
Once again, we want to thank all of you for your feedback and support. Make sure to share your impressions and report any bugs as we do listen and it does help. For example, after hearing of the issues some of you had with the new attack directionality, we added a new setting in the options: “Auto Face Forward on Attack”, which will become available in Chapter 4.
We look forward to hearing of all your adventures in the next update, and hope that these additions and improvements make them all the more legendary.
Age of War – Chapter 4 arrives on April 2.
Slay and Survive, Exiles