First Two Weeks of HnH

[cynicole]

This is just a short rendition/after action report of mine, and my friends first two weeks of playing. (Some of them have played before.)

Our first leader, the one who got all of us to play went by Tex Luthor, he focused primarily on farming and bathing in all of our curios for sweet LP to make our claim expand. He choose to settle on a forest, and a Mudflat. Which we've labelled, "The Mud dick" based off it's phallic nature on the minimap. With his Hearthsecret we all had a place to spawn and set to work. We all spread apart and came back with various supplies to build our first shitshack. Dubbed, "Shack of Shame." It was Tex Luthors personal home, since he was first. The first few days went by uneventful, gathering materials, foraging for curiosities and general fumbling about. Our group consisted of, Tex Luthor, Rimmer Armstrong, Dr Dreylin, his son and resident Australian, Gaylin the First, Nicole, And Ronin our Bushido Samurai. Also a farmer who only logs onto farm. After our peaceful few days we had our first casualty. I went down to a boar, learning the mechanics, and getting a lesson of: "Dont fuck with boars." Nicole II was born.

A week passes and we have three hunters, myself, Dr Dreylin, and Ronin Bushido Samurai 2000. We all get on different boats and start to explore our surroundings finding it's very empty and peaceful, with only wildlife and a Hermit just up North of the Island to keep us company. We met our first bear, and killed it giving our First Ranger, Dr Dreylin his bearcloak. It didn't take long, maybe two days and we had our entire tribe sporting the fashionable cloaks, giving us an air of confidence as they blew in the wind. Enough confidence that we felt we were gonna make it. Being entirely peaceful, and scentless we figured people would leave us alone, until we got our first taste of foriegners. A lone Russian with a deer helmet talking to us, demanding something of us in Russian. Thankfully Gaylin Junior was able to translate it, he was asking us, "Do you speak Russian?" We answered honestly and said, "No." His only response was an ominous, "Good." Then left us for an hour or so.

He came back with a friend, swords, and we had no chance. By this time only Dr Dreylin knew how to hit other Hearthlings, as most of us only had slings and lived off boars. We foolishly waited to see their intentions, it was clear when they Called down the Thunder on us. Someone gave the order to seperate into the wilderness, and we did to protect our losses. So with all of us splitting off they only managed to down two of us. Ronin Bushido Warrior Samurai 2500 was robbed of his curios along with Gaylin the first. They didn't murder the downed tribe, instead choose to loot our crates and letting them leave. We didn't hold a grudge, they taught us a valuable lesson: Walls.

Instantly we got to it, Dr Dreylin and Gaylin, myself, and Roninbushido all started on the pallisade immedietly after. Within 5 minutes our group effort had the cornerpost built, and now all we had to do was pray for time. During the 12 hour waiting period a strange man approached our shore, saying "pls dont kill mexD!" before randomly dropping a green cloak. It was nothing we've ever seen before so someone curiously moved closer and he hit them with a sword. He kept saying "Pls dont kill me! Pls dont kill me!" Before picking up his cloak and leaving us entirely confused. Back to building. By the grace of the Gods we had enough time to build our wall, with Rimmer Armstrong building the majority of the fence. As we put in the gate, as soon as we had finished the wall the strange man returned, this time wearing the green cloak and had a friend. We felt confident once more, protected by our walls. This would be our defense. Wait out the storm and throw rocks from our slings if they attempted to break in.

They had bows, and downed me in one hit. Everyone else in one hit, we retreated into our Timber Houses only to count heads. Gaylin the First perished, bunny slippers still on his feet. Not only him, but Boose the Grus Caboose, our newest villager getting back from vacation. They didn't take anything, they never came back. Just killed them and left, leaving us feeling wondering why.

Now with the release of Dark Souls 2, and the large dota2 update most of them have moved on, getting on only to plug in curios.

[Kaios]

ha, Gaylin

[wazawe]

tl;dr

[Fenix025]

ha, Gaylin

lol

Good story sir. The truth its that its quite hard to see such bravery amongst the defenders, u should have hidden in houses ,and loged off with ur best stuff, if no scents at the moment u spoted them coming to your villages with bows. Attackers must have enjoyed a lot.

[fuzzy]

A good read, and a fairly typical experience for new HnH players, though also very telling about the games shortfalls.

Clearly the perma-death aspect is a deal breaker for most casual players. Investing so much time into a character only to lose all/most of your progress to griefers is very demoralizing for a lot of people. In your example, the fact that you had friends with you made this more tolerable, and even without the deaths, probably a more fun experience as a team.

Unfortunately, as the game world progresses and players have amassed all the skills and high Q items they care for, they run out of things to do, and so turning to slaughtering helpless players is an inevitable path to prolong the game play. This then serves as a huge barrier to entry for new players, where they are quickly bullied and muscled out of the game by the more established players.

While neither perma-death not player killing are necessarily bad features in and of themselves, in this case, they have been teamed with a dreadful feeling of helplessness, as a new player has no means with which defend himself, leaving him only the option to out run the confrontation, in which they are usually both outnumbered and out classed.

For a new player to even begin to defend himself requires many days of amassing skills and equipment, all while under the thumb of looters and PKers. I imagine it is at this realization that most new HnH players begin to look elsewhere for an enjoyable gaming experience.

This is not a slight towards HnH though. Something about the game definitely sinks a visceral hook into you, something yet to be found in any other game. A very interesting thought to ponder for any aspiring game designer.

[Ninijutsu]

Or they could just, you know, join a village.

[Prowny]

I'm sorry to hear you had it so tough, it happens to every single new village.
I hope you find your way and continue to play the game, perhaps joining up a new team.
Good luck!

[kaizokuroof]

Oh man 8/10 read, would be 10 with added pictures, but it's your first recount so I'll let it slide! (handshake)