Salem Mechanics Dump

[TemuSoldier]

This thanksgiving, I was reminded of my favorite american colonial era sim: Salem the Game. Here are a few suggestions based on Salem stuff:

• bog iron: forageable iron from the bog. Imagine b12
• thorn bush. Bring back thorn in the foot!
• fire to make walls softer
• evil warped biome at the world’s edge. Huge for PVE content
• insanity. New wound alert!
• turkey poop. Fertilizer pog
• ripping out a frog’s tongue
• animal diseases. Should be venereal.

Did you ever play Salem: the Crafting MMO? What mechanics should be translated here? What’s the deal with Seatribe and abandonware, amirite?

[Audiosmurf]

Salem had precisely 3 good mechanics in an ocean of mtx-incentive slop
1) Darkness
2) Crops turning into other crops
3) The way meat/butchery was handled

[Jenno]

Food Cravings
Exploration Events
Potatoes
Arson
Tumbleweeds
Mineral Sifting
Coal Clamps (as an alternative to Tar Kilns)

[OIchi]

Salem's combat is far superior to what we have here, both in PvE and PvP, even though stat gap is way more more impactful in Salem.
I guess concept of darkness was pretty nice, although after living in it for a while it kind of lost it's alure.
Other than that, there is very little I'd consider good in there.

[Jenno]

Stealing overpowered cash shop items from noobs.

[TemuSoldier]

mtx-incentive slop

real (unironically)

[vatas]

Stealing overpowered cash shop items from noobs.

Not a direct analogy because of how differently Haven "learning points" and Salem "proficiency" work, but imagine that "Murder" skill costs one million LP and cash shop sells a consumable item that unlocks it for any character that uses it. Not only that, killing anyone without that skill is (nearly?) impossible (unless they're "scented?") and anyone with that skill can guarantee a kill on KOd player as long as they can finish a 10-second channeled ability uninterrupted.

To play Devil's Advocate, Jorb and Loftar were working with a publisher (Paradox Interactive) when it came to developing Salem. The amount and intensity of micro-transactions may have been mandated by them.

Also one of the hype features of the latest fresh Salem server was that they literally removed all the cash shop items. They still sold the in-game "silver coins" though. (Claims consumed them and NPCs in the Capital traded with them.)