"I walk in a land of desperation. A wasteland of the exiled and the outcast. Where the broken strive to build and the weak are crushed while the strong survive."

These are the words of Conan the Barbarian as he strides across a desert wasteland, skulls and bones crushing beneath is sandaled feet.

Conan Exiles is first and foremost a multiplayer game that can be enjoyed on both private and public servers, but it will also feature a single-player mode.

Journey through a vast, seamless world filled with the ruins of ancient civilizations and uncover its dark history and buried secrets as you seek to conquer and dominate the exiled lands yourself. Start with nothing but your bare hands and forge the legacy of your clan, from simple tools and weapons to gigantic fortresses and entire cities.

Today Funcom announced what many players have been dying to know about: the server system, the tools they get to control the server and the world around them, and the mod support system in Conan Exiles on PC.

In Conan Exiles, you have a wide variety of ways to play the game.

• Host a local game where you can play alone or with a small group of friends connecting directly to your game session
• Play Online on an Official Server hosted by Funcom
• Play Online on an Unofficial Server hosted either by yourself or another player

Players will be able to set up their own dedicated servers using their own hardware or rent servers through Funcom’s official server partner PingPerfect. Players can easily find the right server to suit their preferred playstyle by using the Community Filter when they first start playing. This allows them to find a comfortable home with likeminded gamers in categories such as Hardcore, Role-Play, Casual, and so on.

If you choose to run your own server, you will have access to a powerful server control system that allows you to alter many aspects of the play experience. Here you can toggle PvP, turn off avatars, disable the sandstorm, choose what players lose when they die, control the day/night cycle, resource yield, and much more. Server admins can easily make changes to settings in-game, on the fly, and instantly see the changes, most of which does not even require a server restart. Server admins also have access to a full-featured in-game developer tool that allows them spawn any item available in the game, from weapons to building pieces and resources. They can also trigger god mode, make themselves invisible, teleport around the game world, spawn monsters and NPCs, disable hunger/thirst, and much more.

“The great thing about these games is that you can play them however you want,” says Creative Director Joel Bylos. “You can easily set up a server and play with your friends, and with our in-game controls you can simply adjust all aspects of your play experience to suit your playstyle whether that is turning off thirst, spawning a huge monster, or stop the day/night cycle. If you want to play all by yourself locally, you have access to the very same controls.”

Funcom is also excited to announce that Conan Exiles will feature full mod support on PC. This is planned to be available from the start of Early Access. Mod developers will be able to download a custom Unreal Engine editor and make all kinds of modifications to the game, from adding new monsters and items, to changing aspects of gameplay. A mod management tool which connects to the Steam Workshop allows players to easily load in the mods they want to play with. More information on the mod system and tools will be revealed soon.

You are an exile, one of thousands cast out to fend for themselves in a barbaric wasteland swept in sandstorms and besieged by enemies on every side. Grow crops or hunt animals for food. Harvest resources to build weapons and tools. Build a shelter to survive. Ride across a vast world and explore alone, or band together with other players to build entire settlements and fortified strongholds, and wage war against your enemies as you unleash your fury in savage, fast-paced combat that will see limbs flying and heads rolling.

Enslave the bandits of the exiled lands to do your bidding by breaking them on the grueling Wheel of Pain. Sacrifice the beating hearts of your enemies on the blood-soiled altars of your god to seize true power and glory. Summon the colossal avatar of your god and see them lay waste to your enemies and their homes.

You can even align yourself with the Hyborian gods, building altars to their glory and sacrificing the bloody hearts of enemy players upon them to shift the balance of power in your favor. Players will also have to face the purge: a special event where NPC armies from the neighboring kingdoms sweep in to destroy the progress that the exiles have made. Will you stand together with your fellow players against the purge, or will you use it to your advantage?

Just remember: in this brutal land of vengeful gods, bloodthirsty cannibals, and vicious monsters, survival is more than tracking down food and water. Explore mysterious ruins in search of treasure and knowledge, but beware the risk of your mind being corrupted by the dark forces of the world. Traverse vast sand dunes and seek shelter from scouring sandstorms sweeping across the burning sands. March into war against your enemies and unleash your savage fury in brutal combat. Go in unprepared and it will be your head rolling and limbs flying.

Conan Exiles is not an empty sandbox. It is a world rich in history where you must discover the knowledge and secrets of ancient civilizations as you struggle to build your own.