Haven and Hearth gameplay feedback

[apoc254]

So I have been playing haven and hearth for a while now. I am by no means a hardcore player. my stats are modest and I have a small village with a few players. After spending some time getting to know this game, I would like to relay my feedback to the developers. You can choose to ignore this or not, but I figured I should give some perspective.

Initial gameplay enjoyment thoughts:
I really like that I can interact with nearly all game objects. Trees, rocks, animals, water, the ground! (Very exciting! nicely done!)
I like the graphics of this game. it reminds me of black and white(the game) villagers. very nostalgic and cartoonish.
I love how many different stats there are and how they all uniquely affect the game.
I really enjoy the way that magic is implemented in this game. It feels very right that there is just a touch of fantasy in this somewhat realistic type game.(being a wisp that transforms into a human and is bound to a fire is neat. I also enjoy the concept of the dowsing rod... although using it was not fun.)
I love that I can build with certain types of trees/rocks/cloth and it affects the outcome item that I built.(please keep with this direction!)
I like that I can take to a boat and bring friends! This makes for a good co-op style of gameplay.
I love using a bow in this game. The chance that I can miss regardless of my high stats and accurate clicking keeps the bow use exciting!
I love the crafting menu and how many variations of items I cam make. I feel like I am always finding something new to make even as I have discovered the steel items.
I enjoy the fact that I can plant crops and trees to get a very specific type of feel to any area I choose to inhabit.
I like the fact that nobody knows who the other person is until you get close to them and friend them. This is a nice feature that keeps spammers from taking over.
I like the permissions system to the villages. I can keep the doors to my village open 24/7 and keep people from stealing as long as they don't break down my walls. This encourages meetings with strangers!
I really enjoy the mining system... but that's probably because I played too much minesweeper as a kid.
I like that there is the threat of permadeath... mostly It makes me cautious around everyone I meet, but keeps the fights tactical and exciting.
The overall feel of this game encourages close knit communities, I really enjoy that. Most games don't have anything that offers this sort of feature.
The beginning of the game true feels like you are surviving. Not just for players, but wildlife and food also. This is a lot of fun and goes away when you establish sources for food and shelter. This entire transition is a whole lot of fun!
The timers on claims makes for a fun race against time to see if you can keep an area to yourself. I really enjoy the fact that they are a long duration and could be wiped out before being established fairy easily.
The variety of animals in this game is nice. I like that I can run into quite a few different animals and they aren't just grouped up anywhere. You really have to go out and hunt down these animals since they are rarely all spawning in just 1 area.
I love the progression of the skill tree. It feels like progress as I learn to do more things and unlock even more new things that I can do.
The text descriptions on discoveries is wonderfully done for most of the discoveries. I enjoy the little message that greets me each time I see them.
I really like the Valhalla fighting area. This enabled me to test the weapons and combat system without need for creating a new character just to kill them off. It also feels really cool to be there instead of some lame tutorial.
I love the wounds system. There is an actual consequence to your actions and you think carefully before making stupid mistakes over and over since they are so costly.
I like that I can keep animals as pets and harvest them for food is needed.

Initial gameplay improvement thoughts:
Thank you for the tutorial, but please make use of the certain skills flashing ability for more than first time use. If these indicated which skill we needed to use for a particular part of a quest, it could be helpful in learning the controls.
While being naked is fun.. it would be nice if the tutorial spent some time explaining what good survival and exploration really are. They are so essential to this game, that if should be pointed out you need to spend your first few points on them.
Please enable badcam by default, or at least lock it in north, south, east and west orientations so that the minimap is easier to understand for newbies.
If we could see a preview of the color choices we make in the ghost like model that appears... this would make the game much more enjoyable.
Please do away with the black area around the outside of the house... I have seen many times where the previous map is loaded and the cabinets and walls load... then it blanks out the outside world.
While the world is massive and expansive, it is also very much the same no matter where we travel. Rock/trees that can only be found in certain parts(like mountains) or animals that can only be found in certain parts would definitely make better use of the giant area since there is little need to explore after establishing a base.(in order for this to work, each area would have to present a certain item or animal of significant worth... or we will all migrate to a certain type of area)
If the game had some seasonal effects that places a layer over the existing biome in certain areas, it would make roaming more exciting and possibly give some variation to the exploration skill.(not snow fall or rain fall that would just further lag users, but just an effect that appears over the ground tile overnight)
The village system is not well explained anywhere, perhaps a tutorial on the forums or on the wiki would be beneficial.
Please don't make me punch animals to tame them.... cant I just keep feeding them clovers until them become complacent? It worked the first time I fed them one and it followed me home.
More furniture types would be nice... I don't particularly care if the storage is lesser... its depressing to have such large empty homes. Maybe a stove... or even a indoor fireplace. Perhaps a dresser or couch?
I disagree with your choice to allow people to claim deep water in this world.. it make little to no sense and just makes you hate the game because of it's silly rules blocking you at all water ways.
The physical combat system is turn based in a real time environment that runs at very low fps on a system that can run SCII on medium/high graphics with no issues. This is a nightmare of a system to use, even after you learn it.(maybe its easier if you have a decent fps? none of the 6 pc's I have played this one can get decent fps)
I feel like villages should have some sort of guard or vendor aspect that should require LP to keep around just like the shield. Trading is too difficult in this game currently due to the low population and inability to be online 24/7. Some custom scripts to say will give this of this quality and will take these of this quality range for a simple trade while not in game would be very handy.
The food satiations thing is pretty stupid. I can eat a carrot and be sick of eating meat? Also... now they never go away. The whole system needs a re-vamp or just scrapped in my opinion.

There is plenty more to comment on with what I enjoyed and didn't enjoy, but this post is long enough. Thank you developers for your hard work and dedication to making this game the great thing that it is today! I still expanding my village and customizing each area in a casual gameplay sort of way and will likely be doing so until the world ends.
Please keep up the good work! You can't please everybody, but most of your decisions about the game have been very good ones in my opinion.

[Ysh]

Thank you for the tutorial, but please make use of the certain skills flashing ability for more than first time use. If these indicated which skill we needed to use for a particular part of a quest, it could be helpful in learning the controls.

Seems as reasonable, but not a big deal I think.

While being naked is fun.. it would be nice if the tutorial spent some time explaining what good survival and exploration really are. They are so essential to this game, that if should be pointed out you need to spend your first few points on them.

I do not think the game should give advise like this. It is for the player to determine for himself.

Please enable badcam by default, or at least lock it in north, south, east and west orientations so that the minimap is easier to understand for newbies.

It is called bad camera for reason. I think it should not be default.

If we could see a preview of the color choices we make in the ghost like model that appears... this would make the game much more enjoyable.

Would definitely be a nice to have.

Please do away with the black area around the outside of the house... I have seen many times where the previous map is loaded and the cabinets and walls load... then it blanks out the outside world.

What would be there if not black?

While the world is massive and expansive, it is also very much the same no matter where we travel. Rock/trees that can only be found in certain parts(like mountains) or animals that can only be found in certain parts would definitely make better use of the giant area since there is little need to explore after establishing a base.(in order for this to work, each area would have to present a certain item or animal of significant worth... or we will all migrate to a certain type of area)

Localize resource is sort of heading is these direction. I think maybe this thinking can have expansion later development. I see many people suggesting it.

If the game had some seasonal effects that places a layer over the existing biome in certain areas, it would make roaming more exciting and possibly give some variation to the exploration skill.(not snow fall or rain fall that would just further lag users, but just an effect that appears over the ground tile overnight)
The village system is not well explained anywhere, perhaps a tutorial on the forums or on the wiki would be beneficial.

I think seasons are confirmed happening eventually.

Please don't make me punch animals to tame them.... cant I just keep feeding them clovers until them become complacent? It worked the first time I fed them one and it followed me home.

I think it is too easy to tame without fighting. Point is to require you for having these stats to do this. Plus the flavor of animal domination is fits I think.

More furniture types would be nice... I don't particularly care if the storage is lesser... its depressing to have such large empty homes. Maybe a stove... or even a indoor fireplace. Perhaps a dresser or couch?

For sure good. I see people suggesting this one much times.

I disagree with your choice to allow people to claim deep water in this world.. it make little to no sense and just makes you hate the game because of it's silly rules blocking you at all water ways.

Agree.

The physical combat system is turn based in a real time environment that runs at very low fps on a system that can run SCII on medium/high graphics with no issues. This is a nightmare of a system to use, even after you learn it.(maybe its easier if you have a decent fps? none of the 6 pc's I have played this one can get decent fps)

I get 60fps, so I am not know.

I feel like villages should have some sort of guard or vendor aspect that should require LP to keep around just like the shield. Trading is too difficult in this game currently due to the low population and inability to be online 24/7. Some custom scripts to say will give this of this quality and will take these of this quality range for a simple trade while not in game would be very handy.

Already in game, see here.

The food satiations thing is pretty stupid. I can eat a carrot and be sick of eating meat? Also... now they never go away. The whole system needs a re-vamp or just scrapped in my opinion.

I think drink interactions is good with satiation system. It is sort of annoying system, yes. Flavor does not align perfectly with these mechanics. Maybe some tweaking will be useful.

[Hasta]

First of all, let me compliment you on liking, enjoying and otherwise having positive emotions about quite a lot of things (and being vocal about it). There's a lot of negative feedback on this forum (like, 95%), and you stand out... really, you stand out.

Then we hit the tutorial section, scattered across your comment. Yes, the information about the game is scarce and inconsistent; but some find discovering things by themselves a really likeable and enjoyable part of the game. Please don't make this a facebook application that flashes an option you must press and disables all the other options so you, god forbid, lose your predetermined way of progressing.

Black area outside the house: the houses are currently work as a "pocket dimension", the things like "outside world" you briefly see when entering a house are just visual glitches not crucial enough to be fixed. "Pocket dimensions" are to be replaced with normal houses (with outside world), at lease there are legends about it.

While the world is massive and expansive, it is also very much the same no matter where we travel.

Dude, I personally have to travel, like, 30 minutes by boat just to get some cinnabar for pigments. And I won't even tell you about mammoth hunts, let alone rare biome-specific curios.

Claiming deep water: if I decided to settle in an area that has a valuable waterway (a river that leads to somewhere private, or to a mountain spring etc) I may be very well entitled to restrict that waterway (or to make it less convenient) for anyone I please.

<about turn-based combat and low FPS> - you may have to elaborate quite a bit on this one. I don't think it makes much sense for now: the combat system is not turn-based and a very low-grade system allows you to play at a decent FPS if you use a custom client and tweak video options a bit.

Satiations: a thing you eat is not necessarily satiates it's ingredients. That's how it works. It's not perfect, but it has it's logic. Read more in the "grade-a milk" thread in announcements.
_______________________
All the other thoughts and ideas are, at least, interesting (although some were already suggested on this forum).

[Granger]

Nice OP, good thoughts, thanks for expressing them.

Opposit from others I do not concur with the idea of water being claimable as a good mechanic, at least in the way of not being able to boat over it since it makes no sense at all.

[apoc254]

Please do away with the black area around the outside of the house... I have seen many times where the previous map is loaded and the cabinets and walls load... then it blanks out the outside world.

What would be there if not black?

I feel like villages should have some sort of guard or vendor aspect that should require LP to keep around just like the shield. Trading is too difficult in this game currently due to the low population and inability to be online 24/7. Some custom scripts to say will give this of this quality and will take these of this quality range for a simple trade while not in game would be very handy.

Already in game, see here.

If it just stayed glitched and kept a non-updating outer world loaded it would be better than just black. I really don't know what the best way to handle it would be though?

Thank you for the barter stand info! much appreciated!