Today Funcom released a new update to its online survival game Conan Exiles, and it's a big one.

Weighing a whopping 11.8 gigabytes on Steam, it includes a lot of spiffy features for those trying to make a (dis)honest living in the world of Conan the Barbarian.

First of all, we get the climbing system, that allows players to explore the map in entirely new ways, reaching heights that were previously inaccessible. At the cost of stamina, you can climb pretty much any surface. The problem is that if you run out of juice, you'll fall.

You'll also fall if you receive damage, so those looking to use climbing for trespassing may want to be careful about defenders. Climbing boots and gloves will help, but heavier armor will prove to be a liability.

The Exploration System was also added, letting players find points of interest within the map. Locating each will grant you experience points, and a bit more insight on the exiled lands.

The game previously ran on Unreal Engine 4.12, but starting today, everything has been updated to version 4.15 of Epic Games' middleware.

There are many more smaller changes, and you can read them all at the bottom of the post. Of course, all those changes will apply to the Xbox One Game Preview version that will launch next month (on August 16th), alongside the new Frozen Lands biome.

You can check out a video showing the major changes below, and if you want to see more, you can check out trailers for the Xbox One version and the new biome, alongside our hands-on preview, and our recent interview with Creative Director Joel Bylos and some recent gameplay showing the new biome.

A PS4 launch is also planned early next year, but fans on PlayStation will have to wait, since there isn't an early access-like program on the platform.

TL;DR
  • Upgraded from Unreal Engine 4.12 to 4.15.
  • Added new climbing mechanic- You can climb any surface as long as you have enough stamina available. If the player gets hit while climbing he will fall. You can build items that improve you climbing abilities.
  • Fixed spawn timer, this fixes some of the issues where NPCs would respawn instantly/ spiders in the cave no longer get spawned instantly after the player kills them.
  • Reptile hide should now be harvestable with daggers.
  • The stack size for meat has been increased to 20, previously was 10.
  • We've fixed multiple environment collisions, where the player was able to build inside the cliffs
  • You can no longer exploit the Thralls by placing them inside placeables
  • We've reduced the amount of XP required to level up by 20%.
Balance and Gameplay Fixes
  • Player can now place building blocks underwater
  • Balanced the damage dealt by explosive jars; this means that far objects hit by the explosion will take higher damage than before
  • Reptile hide should now be harvestable with daggers
  • Machines that require burnable fuel now accept branches as fuel
  • The stack size for meat has been increased to 20, previously was 10.
  • Gruel now weights 0,1 instead of 0,3
  • Being over encumbered will now allow movement at a limited movement speed. It still applies stamina penalties based on the amount of encumbrance.
  • Changed the amount of XP given to the player when discovering a new location; the more you explored the more you get
  • Fixed some of the issues related with player state after logging off
  • Explosive Jars no longer requires a level 30 feat to learn
  • Arrows now cause shields to lose durability when hit
  • Added double tap to initiate a dodge action
  • Fixed exploit where a player could glitch through walls by using a specific console command.
  • Using armor no longer dampens the players fall damage.
  • We've made changes to the recopies for the Abysmal Sword and Abysmal Dagger
  • Abysmal Fangs now have a higher drop rate than before
  • Stonebrick gate and Gateway items no longer can be crafted instantaneously.
  • Players now get XP by discovering new locations on the map.
  • We've reduced the amount of XP required to level up by 20%.
  • We've improved the camera when using the bow
General Bug Fixes and Improvements
  • Broken highway no longer triggers multiple times for all the players on the server
  • Fixed spawn timer, this fixes some of the issues where NPCs would respawn instantly; spiders in the cave no longer get spawned instantly after the player kills them.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes rotating the building placement would give an invalid placement message
  • Bug fixes and improvements with peaceable objects
  • Added new map icons for vista, ruins and player corpse.
  • The map now gets populated with the locations that the player discovers
  • Player no longer gets blocked in crouched mode after taking damaged while crouched
  • Fixed various audio issues: some sounds wouldn't trigger, or trigger the wrong sound.
  • Added option to change or remove the player crosshair/dot.
  • Added new visual pop-ups to inform players of new discovered locations
  • Fixed an issue where player could not build attached foundation down a slope
  • Fixed an issue where a foundation could not be placed in front of a door frame.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes recreating a new character would start the game close to the river.
  • Fixed issue where sometimes NPCs were not able to run.
  • NPCs and player nametags are shown when getting close to them
  • Fixed certain emotes that would not trigger correctly while in first-person mode.
  • Changed the crouch mechanic: now the player has the option to toggle it instead of pressing crouch button constantly.
  • Added a new visual effect when the player gets hit while using the inventory.
  • Fixed a small issue where a player in some instances could walk underwater.
  • The revert countdown timer in the settings screen can now be dismissed with the ESC key without affecting the desired selection.
  • Fixed an issue where Yog could fly above a Tier 3 shrine’s shield and destroy it.
  • Players can no longer get unlimited orbs by splitting them within containers
  • Upgrading the Shrines no longer creates a zone where the player cannot build.
  • The elevator now has a maximum vertical distance that it can be built
  • We've fixed multiple environment collisions, where the player was able to build inside the cliffs
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes the player could make the altars float in the air
  • You can no longer exploit the Thralls by placing them inside placeables.
  • Poisonous Spider attack now has poisoned projectiles that stack on hit.
  • Yog avatar no longer gets stuck while performing dive attack
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes the "This Land is already Claimed" would overlap with the stats, preventing the player from clicking on attributes to raise them.
  • Fixed the issues with the triangle foundation placement system.
  • Fixed an issue where the single player server wouldn't save the settings made during the game hosting section.
  • We've fixed an issue where sometimes during the logging process the player might fall through the world.
Cinematics
  • Fixed issues with some cinematics not triggering.
Server Settings
  • Fixed some issues where a player could be killed while offline.
  • Added an option to set the maximum ping allowed for a player to be able to connect to the server
  • Fixed the issue where the "Disconnecting from Server" dialog wouldn't disappear when returning to main menu.
Text and Localization
  • Small text fixes and corrections
Visual Improvements
  • We've made improvements to some emote animations while in crouch mode.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes the blood splatter on the character wouldn't disappear
  • New particle effects for the altars, so that the player could spot them faster.
  • We've implemented high quality icons for different type of locations that the player can discover.
  • We've changed some of the icons in order to better reflect the actual items.
  • We've improved the look and the feel of the map, you can also zoom in and out now.
  • You can now get more information from a map icon by simply hovering the mouse pointer over it.
  • We've fixed the issue where the player could not scroll in the Clan Roster page
  • Small visual touches were made to the main menu interface.
Known Issues
  • If you experience graphical artifacts or crashes when running the game at non-standard resolutions then change your resolution from the main menu when starting the game
  • If running the game in borderless fullscreen mode on a multi-monitor setup, the game client may default to the same screen always. Switch to fullscreen or windowed mode instead
  • The mountaineer NPC who teaches you to craft climbing gear has no audio or voice. This is part of his backstory -he is a mute!