Why Did Conan's Biggest DLC FAIL? | Isle of Siptah

[@Twincobra13]

Honestly, reasons 1-4 I could live with. But #5... The one thing I dislike about Siptah is that it's not connected to the Exiled lands in any way, whether slotting it into the NE part of EL (not an easy coding task, I'm sure) or accessible by 'portal', etc. Or heck, they could have even made it progression related to the removal of the bracelet. Splitting the player base was a really bad idea.

[@thorwulfx1]

What I've found is that I will get tired of a particular playthrough after a certain amount of time. I'll have all the stuff, all the thralls, all the infrastructure built. I'll get tired of the end game loop on a particular map. Having the Exiled Lands, Siptah, and Savage Wilds at my disposal, I can just restart on a different map when things get stale. Having seen all the different eras of Siptah, it's sure changed a lot since early access. It went from a beautiful, empty world to one that now has quite a lot of encampments and end game areas. If you factor in the vaults, I think it has at least as much to do as the Exiled Lands, but it does have a different vibe in some way. Honestly, what I'd love is for them to put a ship out at the edge of the Exiled Lands map, in Buccaneer Bay, that lets you actually sail to Siptah and begin with only what you can carry. Maybe it costs a whole bunch of gold, like a thousand bars to hire the craft, but that would be a cool way to integrate the two maps.

[@Eradicati0nn]

Agreed entirely on the vibe, whilst it may offer much of the same core experience as TEL, Siptah definitely has a far different vibe. It would almost certainly be more successful if Siptah had been made base game and you could transfer between both maps

[@YepImThatGuy66]

I'm with you on the ship, I just figured that FC would get around to it someday..

[@LeslieGStormwarden]

"Honestly, what I'd love is for them to put a ship out at the edge of the Exiled Lands map, in Buccaneer Bay, that lets you actually sail to Siptah and begin with only what you can carry. Maybe it costs a whole bunch of gold, like a thousand bars to hire the craft, but that would be a cool way to integrate the two maps." THAT is a GREAT idea. I think to really make it work, mechanically, they'd need to reinstate server transfers. Another way to integrate EL with the Siptah map would be to hold another event in the EL that sees the portal opened by Mek-Ka-Moses re-opened & to use that portal to "land" in Siptah, maybe during a Surge. This would be a good way to seamlessly integrate the two maps while using existing lore to support the plots of both maps. I really like the idea of sailing to Siptah though. It would also be amazing if Funcom introduced naval combat while the player is enough route to Siptah. If Ubisoft can make such a success if bavsl combat, like they did in AC 3, AC 4: Black Flag & in AC: Odyssey, then surely Funcom could do equally as well at it. This would add a wonderful depth to the game that I think would really revive interest in Conan Exiles as a whole & over both maps. There's plenty of Siptah lore already in the game which documents the naval exploits of the Stygian Prince, not to mention the corsairs players encounter on Siptah. And it would be completely awesome if ships can be built by players who have sufficient resources to create frigates & man I'm War battleships so that they can use shipboard cannons or even trebuchets to launch sea-based attacks on player bases that are close enough to the water to be reached by such weapons. Adding naval capabilities to Conan Exiles could be a game changer in outstanding ways if the dev team stayed committed to it, communicated frequently with the player base & showed due diligence to avoiding bugs in releasing such an update. I've often wondered if the reason they ended server transfers was due to certain types of players causing trouble on one server & then using server transfers to avoid being banned as easily, only to see those types bouncing between servers like ping pong balls. If that's even a little accurate, then I don't think cancelling server transfers solves the problem since the types of players who do things that way end up server hopping anyway.

[@GrimDarkHalfOff]

While I fully accept the impact isle of siptah has had on Conan lore the lesson for me was that it tried to be too different and too out of reach. Instead of going for the weird wasteland vision of the isle I would say just got to Stygia re-use and upscale some assets from Age of Conan then introduce a new social/conversation system. That’s all I got.

[@ithidt]

One more thing: the loot rework in the Age of War. Siptah used to be a lot more about crafting than EL with all sorts of recipes, but after the legendaries got buffed and the crafted armor got nerfed, there is no longer any point in hunting for all the recipes, just farm the giant crocodile at the southern shore for the skeleton keys. Also when update just dropped, all the jailors started to drop Silent Legion armor, because they were wearing it, and thus you would be getting an end game armor for free from the very start. Just killed all my will to play Siptah. And I have always hated the vault with the platforming section in multiplayer.

[@binaryrun7994]

From a roleplay perspective the main issue with Siptah is that modders are not allowed to make custom maps using it, pushing it out of the picture for a lot of those communities.

[@Eradicati0nn]

That's very true, though the ability to load other custom maps was likely a net benefit given Savage Wilds and other great maps. Siptah may definitely have been more popular if the map itself was moddable though

[@jankoval]

Didn't know that. That would explain a lot.

[@davidfrancisco3502]

It's a shame that we don't get to fight Siptah himself as a final boss.

[@Eradicati0nn]

Tbh that tower just always seemed like the ideal place for a huge endgame boss fight. Definitely a missed opportunity

[@davidfrancisco3502]

@@Eradicati0nn The whole lore about Siptah we listen on his scrolls narrates about Siptah arriving to the island knowing is a glorified exile with benefits, he discovering the secrets of the isle, his slow descent into madness, him murdering his own wife, rediscovering the rituals of the elder ones and his ascension into something that's no longer human.

[@EugeneFist]

They removed character transfer, cause at that time vault items were a lot more OP than what Exiled lands had. So people transferring from Siptha had a very unfair advantage in PVP on exiled lands, whilst people not owning Siptha content, couldn't do anything about it. So NoFunCom decided that a easy way out is to just remove transfers all together.

[@cryptowheat]

The character transfer turn off wasnt an unknown reason. Siptah gear gave an unfair advantage to anyone who didnt have Siptah, but rather than making gear equal, they turned transfers off.

[@cryptowheat]

It didnt help that a lot of people were losing everything that they tried to transfer due to bugs

[@DJ-dy2cc]

It’s a shame that there’s so much empty water space that could be filled with small but separated islands for pve and to building and perhaps even ranged water based pve combat (catapults)

[@Eradicati0nn]

I quite like the whole island vibe, though some scattered islands would have been pretty nice. Without boats though, I can see why the devs may not have wanted to do that, otherwise people have to swim or build huge bridges 😂

[@pahul751]

I'd never played on Siptah until this year, mostly due to the negativity around it, but finally decided to check it out a couple weeks ago. I absolutely love it, and was really confused as to where the dislike stemmed from. It's kinda funny how well the timing of this video coincided with me checking on the map 😆 But seriously, I find it to be a enjoyable map, especially with many of the locations it has for building.

[@herolex782]

The Isle of Siptah DLC for Conan Exiles by Funcom encountered several challenges that led to its initial reception being underwhelming. 1. Lack of Clear Purpose and Cohesion The Isle of Siptah map lacked a coherent identity, especially in terms of gameplay goals and the overall experience. While Conan Exiles players were accustomed to a blend of survival, exploration, and story-driven content, Siptah felt disjointed, with mechanics and content that didn’t integrate well into a cohesive experience. As a results, players felt aimless and disconnected from the map, reducing their long-term investment. 2. Poorly Implemented New Mechanics Maelstrom Events: The map introduced the Maelstrom, a massive storm that spawned powerful creatures and created high-risk areas. While innovative in concept, it was poorly balanced: a) For solo players, the Maelstrom was overly punishing, and b) For large clans, it was easily exploitable, allowing them to farm resources and dominate smaller groups. Also, the Surge Mechanic was poorly implemented; summoning surges to spawn thralls was resource-intensive and required significant grinding. Many players found this system tedious and unrewarding. As a result, these mechanics alienated casual and solo players while exacerbating power imbalances in multiplayer servers. 3. Lack of Thrall Diversity Thralls, a key part of Conan Exiles, were initially scarce on Siptah, with very limited diversity in the types and quality available. Players accustomed to the rich thrall system of the Exiled Lands felt frustrated by this regression. As a result, thrall collection, a core aspect of the game, became less engaging. 4. Map Design Constraints The map itself had two major issues... - Linear Design: Unlike the Exiled Lands, which offered a sense of open-world freedom, the Isle of Siptah map had a more linear design with constrained zones. This design limited exploration and creativity, key appeals of the base game. - Sparse Content: The map felt empty and repetitive in many areas, with a lack of variety in points of interest, dungeons, and biomes. As a result, players found the map less engaging and immersive compared to the Exiled Lands. 5. Paywall and Progression Concerns Issue: The DLC required players to purchase the map to access new content, which split the community between those who owned Siptah and those who didn’t. Additionally, progression systems on Siptah felt slower and grindier than the Exiled Lands. As a result, many players felt that the map offered insufficient value for its cost. 6. Lack of Polished Launch The map launched in Early Access with numerous bugs, balance issues, and missing features. These problems compounded player dissatisfaction. As a result, negative first impressions turned away many players before Funcom could address these issues. Improvements and Reactions To address these issues, Funcom released several updates, adding more thralls, expanding biomes, introducing new mechanics, and enhancing the map’s lore. While these updates improved the map’s reception over time, many players who had initially been disappointed never returned. Conclusion The initial failure of the Isle of Siptah map stemmed from a combination of poor design choices, unbalanced mechanics, and a lack of content compared to player expectations. These factors alienated parts of the community and dampened enthusiasm for the DLC.

[@WilliamDoheny]

I haven’t played on Siptah yet but based on what some others are saying I think a cool way to connect the two maps would be if the PC (player character) escapes the EL but they get attacked & subdued by mysterious enemies. For lore’s sake, let’s say they don’t want the secret of escaping the EL getting out into the world. While transporting the pc by ship to an unknown destination, a storm occurs, sinking the ship & the pc washes ashore on Siptah. Yeah, the character starts back at level 1, which could be explained as strange sorceries having been used to sap their power, & with no supplies so it becomes a fresh start in a new land. As far as modding, or lack thereof goes, it doesn’t matter to me as I play on console.

[@lonewanderer3456]

The only thing I'd like is the option to transport my Exiled Lands character to Siptah when removing the Bracelet, not gear, but a fresh start with my lvl 60 character to continue their story.

[@Layanor]

To salvage it, you should be able to walk off the main map in a set location on Exiles and travel to Siptah.

[@LordRubberDucky73]

It would be cool if they combined the Exiled Lands and Siptah. When you finally remove your bracelet you are transported to Siptah and begin again as your reward for beating the Exiled land. It would be a form of continuity.

[@greenchilistudioz4537]

Just imagine an npc with boat near pirate city, ask if you have no bracelet, cause he has found unique way to get to Isle of Siptah through this boat or maybe transporter sort of hidden in jungle that takes you to Siptah, for Siptah, you can find said porter/boat to visit exiled lands, problem would be for least with single player, what be fate for second save file in Isle of Siptah?

[@TomLinkens]

Guess I'm in the minority that prefers Siptah over The Exiled Lands. The aesthetic, variety of enemies, and yes server transfers. I had a few things transferred from a Siptah PVE Server to an Exiled Lands PVE Server.

[@deavonw]

If this map was editable and the assets therin i think this mod would have been very popular. I think the delving system is a good idea and could have been fun if properly implemented

[@devowra]

Its only real issue is that its disconnected from Exile lands. I'm assuming this is mostly technical issues similar to why we are not expecting further map expansions, but hopefully this is something attempting to be solved.

[@RoninFrost]

Piggybacking the thoughts and sentiments of others, Siptah should be a destination point after the bracelet removal plot. The bracelet is changed to where instead of removing it, the gem changes color - signifying your character is no longer trapped in the Exiled Lands. A new game play mechanic is introduced to the Exiled Lands, where you can help build up a small seaside town by dropping off resources, rescuing NPC's, etc. as a world community goal that can be participated in by anyone at any point. After enough development, a ship can be found in this budding town where you charter passage between the Exiled Lands and Siptah, but can only be done safely once the curse of the bracelt has been broken.

[@vargrmoon67]

As someone who doesn't play on public servers and only started playing Exiles after Siptah's full release, my opinion of Siptah is a little different. I find it to be a lot of fun. It is a different vibe to the Exile Lands, and offers a lot that is unique to itself, from the maelstrom, to the vaults, to the southern islands. And while I do enjoy playing on Siptah, I definitely feel like it doesn't quite hit the mark. The whole story seems to draw you towards the central spire with an anticipation of confronting the final boss; at least, that was my experience. I kept playing and waiting for the trigger that would open the uppermost vault of the Tower and summon Siptah himself, or his shade at least. But that never happened. And to me, that unresolved bit of story or purpose, is the Isle of Siptah's biggest failure. Thanks for the video, it was an interesting bit of history for one of my favorite games.

[@white-noisemaker9554]

I personally had always hoped that Funcom would open up Siptah as the "escape" from the Exiled Lands. Do the main story, exlore the Exiled Lands, conquer, dominate, then escape... and find yourself in a new land altogether. It could have essentially been a New Game Plus for Conan Players, taking the lessons and experience of the character played into a new savage frontier. But they never did that. Le sigh.

[@evilspoon5280]

What they should have done was find a way to merge the maps into one mega map, that would be cool.

[@KCBlackwood111]

I enjoy Siptah mainly for the unique creatures and the landscape, but I am mainly a builder.

[@ddp1863]

It's a shame the Siptah map cant just be converted into "dungeon" type map accessible though the exiles or transporter stones,

[@Eradicati0nn]

What are your thoughts on the Isle of Siptah? Patreon: www.patreon.com/eradicati0n Join our Discord!: discord.gg/myexFkZ Get my first book FREE!: www.patreon.com/posts/89695302 X/Twitter: twitter.com/eradicati0nn ALL my Conan lore videos: kzbin.info/aero/PLb1BvY8uSBcc-H4sq5AqnBK4oRNkCcOOk

[@stacktus9158]

When Siptah first released I thought you had to do all the vault dungeons to open the tower in the middle, so imagine my massive disappointment when I got to the tower only to find it wasn’t a dungeon. There’s no finish to the map, they never added any real dungeons outside of the cookie cutter vaults. It was a huge miss.

[@nealsterling8151]

I could imagine if they somehow could have extended the EL to add the landmass of Siptah, making both maps one unit, it would have been a whole different experience for players. To me personally as a solo player, the Island of Siptah is a two edged sword. On one hand i almost never use 1/3 of the exiled lands (the Jungle), but i LOVE the landscape of Siptah, the seemingly endless grass plains, the breathtaking forest in the east, the Coast and the various Islands. I really love to build things there. On the other hand, aside from having finally more space to build, there is little to do as a single player to be honest. NPC camps feel small and lifeless in some way, and the dungeons are small and a little bit boring. As a single Player there is little appeal to go anywhere, because ressources are almost even distributed. I understand Siptah is first and foremost a PvP map, but man... As i said, the devs should have connected both maps in some way, maybe adding a simple Portal at the Noob River and the other one at the western coast of Siptah, for example. So travelling back and forth would feel organic and not like a new, but slightly different Game. This would again expand the game, instead of creating a slightly inferior counterpart. Another idea would be to give SIptah a different Game experience, by adding a NPC Trading hub, where you could barter hard to get ressources. Another idea i heard a while ago would be to add sea travel (ships, like in Valheim) and piracy (other ships to raid). Siptah could have been much more alive with enemy NPC parties wandering around attacking each other, for example.

[@Brianf1977]

they took all the good places to build with the updates and i hated i couldn't transport between siptah and exiled lands

[@Ender7j]

I think they overestimated the size and population of solely PvP players.

[@Eradicati0nn]

Perhaps, though they certainly have more data on that than we do. I imagine the PvP-focused endgame was a big turn off initially, before they expanded the map's scope a bit more

[@ill-fatedgamer]

As you were saying in the last video about the devs now starting to work on the bugs and core game now and working out that stuff over new content. I wish that had have been done years ago. I think if they fixed server transfers first people would be extremely happy but only if they REALLY fixed it as in one character going between both same clan all that !

[@Mike-m9h2p]

The layout of the map was kind of inorganic, and the centre was empty. I would prefer if it had one detailed biome like a trophic.

[@andrecontente6370]

I prefer siptah, just needed more content and free roam bettwen maps

[@Drogbeorn]

It should have been handled like where you take off your bracelet - a choice to go to Siptah or leave the game. Add 20 more levels and so on

[@bananwplecaku]

They should have merged it simply into exiled lands map

[@overlordkisaragi4377]

They could of tied siptah to exiles with a better end story then just walking out of the green barrier and show your exile heading to a port since siptah has you washing up from cashed ship and I don't think siptah was a failure it brought new stuff that isn't in exiles

[@danpitzer765]

I originally avoided Siptah because everyone was saying that it's 'made just for PvP'. And I don't care for the PvP play. So it took a good while before I gave it a shot at all. (I prefer Siptah, and wish Age of Heroes applied to it in some way.)

[@morgantaylor1838]

10:10 “can the devs be certain the effort put in wouldn’t result in the same failure.” If they focused on a fun unique map with both pve and PvP in mind instead of a gimmicky gameplay loop I think they could. I liked siptha, after it was fixed. So yeah I think they could do it. But do large businesses often get shit right for the customer? No.

[@NickHoch-oh3rr]

Why couldn't exiles be more like that dinosaur game. That one has tons of maps

[@bentrieschmann]

What dungeon is that in your gameplay footage? Mod?

[@EvilPainter-e6k]

i love that map!

[@greenchilistudioz4537]

Problem is that there is not a lot of biomes to explore, there are missing elder race armor pieces, with no real ending the the game cause of the Exile Land's lack luster ending for player character, those be my complain with the map compare to Exile Lands. They also overturned the Harpy vault, even more now and it is so stupid!

[@michaelhaas5920]

Imo Siptah is amazing if you play official pvp. Most of the sweatlord griefers are on EL, and it's easier to fly under the radar.

[@plasmodesma7569]

I just wish they could've expanded CE instead of making an entirely different map. I feel like the Funcom developers must be wearing their helmets too tight. They have one of the coolest IPs and dedicated fanbase, with so much potential for expansion. But they keep making stuff people don't care about, while not fixing game breaking bugs that have been in place for YEARS. Simply put, they suck... imo.

[@Sadarsa]

I didn't get it because it's its own separate thing. Had it been a new area to the Exiled lands, i would have gotten it. As it is, i have no interest in it.

[@ianoag]

The only thing I don't like about Siptah are the Pelicans.... Annoying little Buggers that made me have to watch my video playthrough twice in case I swore too much 😂

[@Lemon-hope]

quality content

[@pauljanetzke]

It failed because you had to start over and create a new character. They should have made it to when you removed your bracelet you went to SIptah, instead of deleting your character.

[@stephenmunro3969]

My original post vanished, so I'll try again! I just can't like Siptah no matter how hard I try. My dislikes of Siptah are... Silly looking monsters All the vaults I've been in all look the same No weather apart from the maelstrom Landscape looks unfinished Terrain doesn't change in a natural fashion. I know the Exiled lands transitions are a bit iffy in places (between the highlands and desert for example) but are far better than Siptah. The grass and plants are too similar in colour compared to the variety of grass and plant types in the Exiled lands and don't seem to look like they are part of the landscape I love geography, and have been making maps for roleplaying games for nearly 40 years, so I like my maps to look natural and realistic as possible. I'm a builder and Siptah does have a lot of buildable area, but I've found that when you place a building is stands out from the landscape, whereas in the Exiled lands they blend better into the landscape and seem real. Customs maps like Savage Wilds, Legends of Shem, Empire of Stygia etc are far better and look more like the Exiled lands in terms of variety.

[@brianporter447]

The map itself sucked. The activities , weapons and armor were well received. But the map sucked.

[@davidmacon1138]

The cross play was the number one reason for it's ultimate failure. Even if all the other parts still failed, the cross play would have at least kept it alive. I bought it, played on it once, then went back to exiled lands. Just wasn't good experience. Yeah it was pretty at times but it quickly lost its luster.

[@mrmalcolm]

I liked it

[@chrismcfizzle]

Give the modders access and watch the player base explode again...or dont..and watch this game stagnate and drop.