As a non pvper, I think more pvp is what the game needs

[gravesmerch]

also teach newbs how to cheese mammoths with a spear and 50UA, kill trolls with mine holes, and speedrun B12 after finding bloodstone, iron ochre, etc etc...

unless industry is decoupled from pvp and redirected to anything else (probably cosmetics) it's easier to achieve world peace than convince regular players to join the madness

[kreload]

"More precisily the ability to retain new players" : New players dies and quit. Probably 99% of them. I started with 6 players, all of us died and i'm the only one still playing. Players quit playing even on Eve Online or Albion Online when they lose a valuable ship or expesive gear and there is no permadeath.
Things on my opinion that should be changed:
- rethink combat system : it should be HP based with clear spells damage. Change all this opening shit so everybody can understand it from day 1.
- make a spell or spells that allow me to stun even a high end 12b player for a short time so i can run away and teleport back. Available from day 1. Let me pick my fights. If there are more players well, it's bad from me, but against 1 psycho who hunts naked ppl, let me escape. Edit for BrokenBrain: New players need a way to learn how to fight/fight_back by trial and error without dying/lose_something and quit. Or what they lose to be something negligible so they can take the next fights too.
- change the dying system : idk how but players and especially new ones shouldn't have the feeling that they lost everything when they died. Nobody likes to pick bark and nuts again to learn them. In case you think "but they nothing and they can easily start over", stfu, there is a reason why there are 160 players online right now.
- implement a system that allow players to know if a person has good intentions or not. I like to venture on my continent map, even on other continents and socialize with people that i met. Most players that i met are afraid to talk and run inside their palisade or run away from me. Most people that i met wants to venture around their continent but they are afraid of dying. In the end, most of the remaining players on this game, stay inside their palisade or their mines.
- stop dying from swimming or let another player to revive us in few hours/days/idk. I died on water, my ingame friends died in water and i burried about 4 drowned players around my zone ... 4 lost players. It's a stupid system and i don't even have to comment this.
- allow us to fight other players without the rage skill, from day 1.

I started 6 months ago and these are the most important things in my opinion. EDIT: While the changes that i suggest, may modify the philosophy behind the game, they are active problems for new players like me or my friends who play different games now.
In rest, the deep crafting system and the living world makes this game beautiful.

[whateverisfine]

make a spell or spells that allow me to stun even a high end 12b player for a short time so i can run away and teleport back. .

thats why hermits must die

[kreload]

make a spell or spells that allow me to stun even a high end 12b player for a short time so i can run away and teleport back. .

thats why hermits must die

Yo BrokenBrain, you forgot the "Let me pick my fights" and "let us fight without rage skill" in your quote. You probably couldn’t perform in mainstream competitive games because they really require skill and ended up taking refuge and "doing pvp" with 159 players in an obscure game!
The whole idea behind "a spell to stun a high end player" it's to have a chance to learn how to fight without losing everything. Right now there is no way to learn pvp by trial and error except if you are a masochist or you have a large quantity of free time. One pvp mistake and the 1 of 10 new players will build a grave and start over while the rest will quit playing.