Developer quotes[]
In Conan we have special, massive, regions coined (but they have distinct names - "Laceish Planes", "Murrogh Forest" etc.) "Resource & Building Regions". They contain 5-8 village locations. These village locations can be occupied by guilds, putting up their walls, towers, keeps and production facilities (to make swords or what have you.). That is, they can put these up unless monsters have settled there first. Picts, bandits or other darker creatures will sometimes call their mates and create their own village when they stumble upon these locations.
As a matter of fact, most of these locations will be occupied within a relative short matter of time. The struggle for resources in the Hyborian world is fierce, and there are no free lunches. Your guild will have to destroy the upstarts, and oust them from their straggling village. Then you can settle. The method of kicking monsters out is to use formations, individual battle and siege engines.
Be that as it may. The monsters can be thrown out of all the places they "hive" except one - the mother hive so to say. Here you will have to "chastise" them, or they will attack your village, burning it to the ground - if not protected. Most likely these sieges will be the places where the formations will "come into their own".
IGN, 11th May 2005 (Gaute Godager)
Using the village building technology, guilds can find a sponsor and build their own castle in a Border Kingdom instance. This will have to be defended against other guilds. You must destroy enemy walls, towers, and defenders before razing their keeps and castles to the ground. The ones holding areas in Border Kingdoms will gain bonuses to their guild. Let the best Siege Engine win!
Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager)
The player villages found in what we call "resource and building Regions" will not be attackable by other players. They will be attacked by monsters. The battle keeps built in the Border Kingdoms will not be attacked by monsters, only other players.
For the villages attacked by monsters, they will burn to the ground, but they can of course be rebuilt. The cost of rebuilding is much less than that of building a complete new one. The buildings and keeps destroyed in PvP will be permanently gone, but you can of course rebuild when the heat of battle has calmed down.
Gamespy, 17th May 2005 (Gaute Godager)
Secondly, the players can build player-made cities and PvP player-made cities (every guild can have one of each) in the resource and building regions, or in the PvP regions. Although Conan is a very combat-focused game (making combat active and fun is our main priority), we are still making sure that all the other activities needed for a full-fledged MMO community are there.
IGN, 22th July 2005 (Gaute Godager)
City building locations are pre planned in the world and have different advantages. Some might have better access to resources while others will be in better tactical position and the like. So no one spot should be better than another more so it depends on what it offers in comparison to what you want.
Forums, 2nd November 2005 (Athelan)
To that end when it comes to the player villages and the like I do want to see them be hubs for player communities. So while I do not have details as far as if you can decorate or what all things will do I think that we will try to make the housing somewhat able to have individual touches.
Forums, 11th April 2006 (Athelan)
That's not to say we do not want your personal house in your player village to feel like your home and not some empty room.
Forums, 12th April 2006 (Athelan)
Yes, the plan for the player building and resource zones is that they will be instanced.
Forums, 21st April 2006 (Silirrion)
Monsters will begin hiving near player towns, creating a mirror town that will gradually be added to over time. Once the monster town grows large enough (after three or four weeks), it will start launching raids on player towns. While having a horde of screaming monsters coming to burn down your town might seem incentive to cut down the monster population as soon as they appear, full blown monsters towns with the biggest armories will also offer the best raid targets because they'll have the best loot.
Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)
While only guild members can have towns, they need solo players and affiliated groups. These are players that can purchase services from them, as well as allies when monsters attack. For more casual or "solo" gamers, being affiliated with a player town offers them the chance to take on tougher monsters that drop better loot (whether defending a town or participating in a monster town raid) without the time commitment of either being in a guild or organizing a more formal raid on a static target.
Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)
Guild players in PvP areas can build "battlekeeps" with most of the same structures and functionality as a PvE town. The major difference will be that that monster town over the horizon will be another battlekeep filled with bloodthirsty players just as sneaky as you are. Battles in this area will be more formalized in a sort of realm vs. realm structure that's still being worked out. According to Godager, there won't be any restrictions to keep a guild from operating both a town and a battlekeep, but any who do had better be large and quite well organized.
Gamespy, 25th April 2006 (Gaute Godager)