by tyrtix » Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:11 pm
let's say i've already answered multiple time both here and on the two other games that shares most similarities with this one (for obvious reasons): wurm, and salem.
All three games started to loose a lot of players and devs basically reverted to push in a LOT more contents that are pointless but funny (fluff as most said already), and overall have no connection with the game or gives the sensation to be part of a complex single system, but more "throw things at the wall and look at what sticks".
Having few concepts as the column of the game and develope it around these concepts could improve and make easier to test stuff and make things less clunky and, also, make them need less changes because they are broken af (myrkwood offering anyone? changed how many times, three?)
Is H&H a survival game? how much part you want the players to stick at crafting? trading? building?
Botting has become a feature of the game, not fought by the staff but even incentivated (via spiraling items, wich IS now a feature but can be done only by botting, as you need stats and skills you can reach only by botting, and you know that), and as Potjeh already said, even never-ending stat/skill improvement became a feature, making for pvp a necessity to bot continuously, and so, break the game.
Curio system with experience? do this EVER did any difference at all? especially with a few easy to obtain curios that do not need exp at all? Come on, this never worked, and then pooof, study desk! so everyone bots curio (but hey, ppl already botted that, so now is a feature!)
Wax gathering? yeah, let's add wounds if/when you gather, so you are punished for playing, same for the stupid flies : get 1 hour to play in the day? cannot get out 'cause is night and you get 200 damage, no way to remove/prevent that. Get wounds? oh, you can just stop play for 3-4 days, and don't dare get an infection,will take forever to heal, most players just kill the lowly toons instead of trying to heal them...
There's a LOT of things that were pointed out overtime about what made the game nearly unplayable...but overall i think one of the best ways is this: make the game SIMPLER, do not try to balance everything expecting players find the next exploit, make this game enjoyable for everyone, as opposite to make it for paranoids that builds 2 orders of brick walls to get ppl outside their deed, and in turn make them NEVER get out of the walls.
Speaking about the other two games, and gaming in general: wurm released a private version of the game that can be also hosted as a private server on the net... some of these private servers are light years above the standard game, both in term of contents and player count. They built just a server with what they thought was cool, not trying to appeal the players.