I’d like to take a moment to go over what we think is the biggest change from Season 3 to Season 4 – the switch to Settlements. In prior seasons the player focus has been on the clan. And while the clan or gens name is an important aspect of Gorean society, it is not as important as Home Stone. And while we recognize the challenge of the Home Stone in a Gorean role-play community, the fact that our social structure has been clan based has drawn us too far from the server’s focus which is on Gorean society and culture.

Season Four: Settlements Overview

What is a clan

It is important to understand that the term clan is being used in two different ways. The first is the reference to the Conan Exiles mechanical player grouping function which is called a clan. This is the functionality within the game that allows players to share inventory, a clan channel, have friendly fire, and build together.

The second is the concept of a clan as an insular social group formed around a Gorean family which in most of Gor is the Gens name. The term clan has also been used to refer to the same concept - a small familial group.

The goal this season is to shift the players perspective of their social grouping towards Gorean settlements such as villages, towns and cities with a lesser or secondary acknowledgement of the gens or clan unit in Gorean society.

However, this is going to take some time to reorient everyone’s thinking as we have a lot of players from outside of the Gorean role-play community that have primarily viewed their player groups from the mechanical clan or guild point of view. We are going to take it slow, it will be an iterative process.

Let me explain how the idea will function in Season 4

First, the mechanical clan size will be limited to six. If a group of players needs to expand beyond this, they will be expected to convert from a private clan to a public settlement. This is the mechanical limit and the server rule. But how does this work?

Overseer

At every settlement there will be an NPC Overseer. A player, who does not yet have a registered settlement, or who is in the process of changing their settlement, will be able to speak with the Overseer and join the settlement (clan). This puts them into the mechanical clan and they can interact with other players in the clan channel, see other players on the map, have access to clan resources and in all other ways integrate their role-play into a Gorean settlement acknowledging the settlement under “Home Stone Guesting Tradition".

They may also have a private clan if they wish. Obviously, we’d like to see less clans of one, or two, but both a private clan and settlement are accessible to the player. You are probably tilting your head and going how?