Development Critique: Dev's View On the Game

[Granger]

I always think back to what Potjeh posts during these sorts of discussions:

Infinite grind, permadeath, open PvP - pick just two.

I think there's a consensus that infinite grind and open pvp without permadeath hasn't improved the game in any meaningful way,

It's the usual factions: the ones who want to kill everything that moves for lulz and the tears vs. the ones who want to play in peace and are subject to being treates as NPC by the former.

So no, there isn't a consensis. The game IMHO improved in a very meaningful way for the second group by removing certain permadeath on defeat in (most likely foreign-initiated) PvP .

In case you need improvement for the first group (that wants permadeath as it's 'fun') then I suggest, again, that Rage disables KO->HF while being in combat with another player. The latter group could still initiate combat on their claimed land to defend it against criminals (without that penalty), but in case you want to project aggression toward another player you'll have possible permadeath as a consequence of your choice.

[Ants]

This it's only cause the "technical" part of the game is not super modern, easy and fun for 2017. Not for the idea behind it.
I mean, if this game would have at least 100 people working on it, modern graphic and gameplay, controller support, action combat and that stuff ... it would be super popular.

Oh please. Of course there are some technical issues with the game, but it is not what i am talking about.

Let me talk about one simple issue:
Just remember this world's start. 800 playes online day one. 600 after one month. 500 after two. 300 after three. So it's like 2/3 of the playerbase left after 3 months. This is fact.
Why? Because this game only has content for 3-4 months. Is it enough? Yes, more then enough. Modern MMOs doesn't even have 1/3 of H&H content, yet they still retain players better.
So what can we do? For example i see at least two solutions here:

• Make worlds shorter, make it like 4-5 months game session with endgame goals and rewards for every player type. Focus not on the content (it's more than enough) but on player interactions and achievable goals
• Leave world length as-is, add additional abilities to explore and interact with the world. Focus on random-generated content, PVE encouters, probably stronger survival component

Each of this solution is just a direction. You can think of billion ideas in each direction to achieve concrete goals. But this ideas are not random, all of them should be connected with each other to achieve balance. And it takes a lot of time and effort to suggest a well-thought-out idea. That's why, before even working on it, it would be nice to know what are the goals for jorb and loftar.

Personally i have no idea what do devs want from their own game. I feel like the old credo "We specialize in permadeath and forum drama" is not a case for the last few years. I feel like this game become more casual (which is not bad in my opinion, but some type of players need that hardcore component, they should always have it imo), I feel like all this patches are not what this game is truly need to be successful.

Well, i also feel that i wrote another pointless forum post here. I feel nothing but sadness.

The world length should definitely be left as it is. After all, not everyone starts playing at the beginning of the world. And if there's a set date for the end of the world, many people will stop playing as it comes closer because they know all their hard work is about to be destroyed.

[MagicManICT]

[W]e can spend days polishing those ideas to see how jorb will come and say smth like "We always wanted to make infinite-length world, thx for you ideas guys, not interested".

Well, this has been the goal of development up to this point. I don't see it shifting.

[2d0x]

...That's what the point of the thread - it would be nice to know the direction...

Not always a strict plan is better than free creativity.