Request for updated Dev's ambitions for Haven and Hearth

[wolf1000wolf]

It's the end of 2025 and a lot of us have been playing Haven and Hearth on and off for the last decade plus.

The game has this eclectic blend of many different systems that somehow combine into an uniquely charming MMORPG.

The many systems and layers to HnH allows for everyone to approach the game in a different way, with a different focus... whether it be crafting, building, fighting, exploring, trading, etc etc.

Yet at the same time, some of the playstyles seem conflicting, with the many updates over the years sometimes supporting and sometimes detracting from certain play styles.

In short, Haven and Hearth is this charming MMORPG with somewhat of a multiple personality disorder.

To that end, I would humbly request an update on Jorbtar's current ambitions for HnH.

What is the ideal vision and overarching ambition for HnH? (Is it still what's written in the About page?)

What's the development philosophy? (Is it really whatever strikes your fancy?)

What reasonable expectations should the players have? (How do we reconcile radio silence and not knowing whether our suggestions are even read with an ask for "cool experiments" suggestions for W16.1?)

Not asking for something as lengthy or eloquent as the PvP treatise but even a paragraph or two of ramblings straight from the horse's mouth would be greatly appreciated in these uncertain times.

[Nightdawg]

I'm not reading all of that, but anyway

What reasonable expectations should the players have?

none

[Sevenless]

They have stated what they're going to tell us about their ambitions and intentions in the 16.1 post:

Radio silence is easy for us to choose for a variety of reasons: Personal comfort, certain technical dislikes of the communication platforms, lack of meaningful development to communicate. It compounds negatively over time, as the mountain of owed replies and missed upd00ts accrue. Some things can and should be changed and improved, some may belong inexorably to our personal equations.

Development is effectively, personal opinion anyway, "sunset". We will get minor patches with new worlds until the game dies or the devs decide to set it on autorestart and truly hang up the towel.

[VillagerAs]

lack of meaningful development to communicate

[animary]

This game is the pet project of two people; it is what they wanted to create, it is their baby. They listen to players' suggestions, and occasionally implement some of those; but even if everyone wanted "x", if "x" doesn't fit the devs view of their game, it won't be done. I can't imagine the hours they must have put into this game over the years, and it's offered freely to us. There are many things I don't like about this game, but they are outweighed by what I do like, so I keep returning. What will the future bring? Who knows, perhaps the devs themselves don't know yet.

[DDDsDD999]

The devs amibitions are saying "lol it's a sandbox bro, it's a social experiment, changing mechanics to make the game better would be putting my thumb on the scale" as an excuse. In reality, haven isn't a full-time thing for them, so they don't have enough time to improve it, and they're just burnt out and lack any vision on what they even would want it to be.

[wolf1000wolf]

They have stated what they're going to tell us about their ambitions and intentions in the 16.1 post:

Radio silence is easy for us to choose for a variety of reasons: Personal comfort, certain technical dislikes of the communication platforms, lack of meaningful development to communicate. It compounds negatively over time, as the mountain of owed replies and missed upd00ts accrue. Some things can and should be changed and improved, some may belong inexorably to our personal equations.

Development is effectively, personal opinion anyway, "sunset". We will get minor patches with new worlds until the game dies or the devs decide to set it on autorestart and truly hang up the towel.

Mm... I'm part of the jaded old players crowd here in that I mostly agree with what other posters are saying about how players should have no real expectations because development is effectively in sunset, what with HnH just being a social experiment of two devs working on it part-time.

But I read stuff like "If we ever do decide to truly throw in the towel, you will be notified. Our course, however shaky, has never really changed, and we have continued to meet, talk, and build, on our regular schedule, and have no intention or reason to do otherwise!" and get that tinge of optimism you know?

Yes, updates have been sparse and we the players are frequently baffled by the direction of the patches. But it does seem like the devs HAVE some sort of personal north star in terms of their development direction and ARE still regularly working on the game.

In that case, it really would be nice to know what their end goal vision of HnH is... even if we never get there.

[Hingle_McCringle]

Development is effectively, personal opinion anyway, "sunset". We will get minor patches with new worlds until the game dies or the devs decide to set it on autorestart and truly hang up the towel.

Auto reset every 6 months might not be that bad of a thing? Even if no mechanics change each world the alure of everyone being reset, and a new world to explore might actually boost player retention.