New Player, got some questions regarding the game!

[Rackhir6]

Greetings, I hope this is the right forum section to post this...
Well, I'm going to try the game but I have a few questions first:

To start with, Haven and Hearth and Haven and Hearth 2 (Hafen) are two different games?
If I press "Play" at the official site (http://www.havenandhearth.com) which one will I be playing?

I've seen some people bashing H&H 2 (Hafen) for being pay to play. At the store section of the site, under free account it says:
Full and unlimited Gameplay
Normal character development rate
and you can pay if you want some minor boosts.
Which seems totally fine to me. It's F2P with the option to subscribe and get some minor benefits. Am I missing something? Are these benefits major in the end?

Now regarding the gameplay a bit:

I've seen that its possible to tame creatures. How does that work? Are there plenty to tame? Are there rare ones? Are they only used for livestock or they can be used as combat pets/mounts too?

About sailing (I love sailing). I've seen that its possible to swim and craft rowboat/raft. Are they used just to travel faster through rivers? Or there is content based on it? Ocean/islands to explore and find valuable stuff? Are there naval combat mechanics?

Last but not least, about PvP. Since it's a permadeath game (I like the idea) how's the PvP like?
I mean battles between players have to be super rare because of it, right? Do sieges for territory control/clan dispute happen?

Are there enough people playing? I don't mean to have tons of, just enought playerbase so that the world doesn't feel dead and there are activities going on.

Also I've seen people talking about different clients to play the game, what's that about?

Thank you for your time!

[MagicManICT]

"Haven" is the same game as it always ways. "Hafen" was simply a code name much like "Windows" is the same operating system it always was, even if it was known by a wide variety of other names over time to distinguish a new version, or Android or OSX using different names to give a name to an operating system version.

I will note that the legacy version is still accessible if you purchase a verified account, however, only a few still play it, and it's mostly for nostalgia. That purchase does get you a few benefits for your account, too. See the store page for details.

A) I haven't seen a good guide since the revamp of the combat system, but the basic mechanics are still the same as at the start of the major updates starting with World 8. I'll see if I can dig up a basic guide after I make this post for you. edit: see below about Sevenless' guide

B)No, not really any content based around this currently. It's just a way to easily traverse the waterways.

C)Read The Moot section of the forums. And think of it more as a severe death penalty for most players if conditions can be met rather than true permadeath.

We're averaging around 100-150 people logged in consistently right now at any given time. By standard MMOs, that means about 800 - 1000 regular players*. At the start of a new world, which is somewhat rare anymore (about every 10 months on average over the history of the game, but more like 12-18 months over the last four worlds), that can hit 1000-1500 or more logged in at a time during peak hours.

Make sure to check out the stickied "Guides" thread here in How Do I? I suggest starting with Sevenless' beginner's guide first.
+He includes a taming guide. The core information is the same, but the combat system is different, and armor has had some changes, but still functions more or less as he describes

*The stats I've seen say about six to seven times the number of people you have logged in at any given time is about the total number of active players. One could say that Haven is lower for various reasons, but not really the place to discuss it.

[xTrainx]

Greetings, I hope this is the right forum section to post this...
Well, I'm going to try the game but I have a few questions first:

To start with, Haven and Hearth and Haven and Hearth 2 (Hafen) are two different games?
If I press "Play" at the official site (http://www.havenandhearth.com) which one will I be playing?

Haven and hearth 2 refers to the game after the 2014 update, where a major overhaul was made to the game, on scale that basically made it a different game (to put it in perspective, haven was originally 2d)

I've seen some people bashing H&H 2 (Hafen) for being pay to play. At the store section of the site, under free account it says:
Full and unlimited Gameplay
Normal character development rate
and you can pay if you want some minor boosts.
Which seems totally fine to me. It's F2P with the option to subscribe and get some minor benefits. Am I missing something? Are these benefits major in the end?

when the above update was introduced, it also introduced hafen first ever microtransaction experience: capped game time. Free users could only play 7 hours a week, and tu play anymore you had to be subscried. In this game, those who spend more time ingame get to advance more, so that by itself is pretty pay to winny, but the sub tokens mechanics makes it posible that you would be able to trade them for ingmae item, wich is the main argument for people to say it's pay2win, but right now, the subscription system is much more reasonable, and is offer only qol changes, and nothing reall pay2winny, so those arguments are basically things of the past

Now regarding the gameplay a bit:

I've seen that its possible to tame creatures. How does that work? Are there plenty to tame? Are there rare ones? Are they only used for livestock or they can be used as combat pets/mounts too?

there are currently 4 animals you can tame, Horses, Cows, Pigs and sheeps; these 4 are present in the wild, under a wild shape, cows being aurochs, horses being wild horses, Sheeps being mufflons, and pigs being boars. To tame them you must make them submit by beating them in combat over a period of time, for a more detailed information, visit here (link http://www.havenandhearth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=40714), you can tame as many as you want, but all of them will always be the same, except for the sex. Pigs, sheeps and cows are used for livestocks and some other samll feautes (like cows being used to pull wagons), the closest you can get to pets would be horses, wich you can mount in combat, and they will aggro whatever you aggro too.

About sailing (I love sailing). I've seen that its possible to swim and craft rowboat/raft. Are they used just to travel faster through rivers? Or there is content based on it? Ocean/islands to explore and find valuable stuff? Are there naval combat mechanics?

There are no naval combat whatsoever, ad they are mostly used for faster exploration and transportation of good. All the items in the game that are not natural are made by hearthlings hand, so there arent really any "treasure" to be found, but boat exploring is a good way to collect goods in general.

Last but not least, about PvP. Since it's a permadeath game (I like the idea) how's the PvP like?
I mean battles between players have to be super rare because of it, right? Do sieges for territory control/clan dispute happen?

Pvp is indeep rare, mostly because is a late game activity, so to speak. For even attempting pvp you need to spend a moderate amount of lp that you wont get overnight, and usually when a death happen because of pvp you can expect to hear about it on these forums. With the introduction of kingdom, Factions war should be more common, and most major faction do dispute some lands from time to time, but mostly dedicate to raiding villages for the loot. However that might change once other kingodm start stablishing themselve

Are there enough people playing? I don't mean to have tons of, just enought playerbase so that the world doesn't feel dead and there are activities going on.

currently there's an avarage 200 people playing, so while encountering people is posible, it would be rare, since the world is so big. However people dont tend to move from their bases, so if you find an active base (basically any base you cant enter/ ou need to turn criminals activity on to enter) you can be sure to eventually find people around.

Also I've seen people talking about different clients to play the game, what's that about?

There are many clients to choose from instead of the default client that this website give, people usually plays with the custom client made by developers other than the creators of the game.for convinience sake, but there are some people who dont like people using those clients. you can check some of those custom clients in this sub forum viewforum.php?f=49


welcome to the game and never go out without the ring of brodgar wiki open!