Funcom released a new developer diary for Conan Exiles detailing the free-form building system to build up a town and a base were players can reside and grow their armies.

One of the cool things about it is that the base building system is modular, so you can build houses, temples, garrisons, storage facilities or even lookout stations just about anywhere… and by anywhere, I do mean anywhere. They showcase at one point in the trailer where a town was built in between the cliff-sides of two adjacent mountains, making it difficult for enemies to get up into the base. You can check it out in the trailer below.

The game seems like it could be a ton of fun. In order for players to acquire blacksmiths, merchants or other artisans, they’ll need to capture them while out on their journeys. From there, the player will tie up and drag the NPC back to their base, using them to forge new weapons or craft new items for them.

Of course, this also means that rival players can come busting into your place and steal your blacksmith and take them to their base. There’s a true emergent element of freedom there – where if Funcom leaves it intact – that could provide for hours and hours of endless fun.

In order to break through or into another player’s base, you can use siege weapons or normal weapons. However, depending on the quality of the base will determine how effective the weapons are. Base materials above a certain weapon grade will render that weapon ineffective against the wall or fortification.

A last ditch alternative is to craft explosives and use it to detonate a structure.

Just like in the Conan The Barbarian movies, there are also altars that will be required for the gods, otherwise they might get angry and destroy your village. There are also a lot of nods to the movies, such as the slaves working the “Wheel of Pain”, which was an iconic scene at the beginning of the original Conan film where Arnold was working the grindstone.

There’s a lot of potential with this Conan Exiles. I’m still wary of the combat, but if they can get it to look close in cinematic appeal to what they accomplished in the Conan: The Hyborian Adventures MMO, then it could turn out okay.

You can look for Conan Exiles to enter into Early Access on January 31st at the end of the month. For more info feel free to check out the Steam store page.