Game Development: Salem & Haven

[Kaios]

http://www.mmocrunch.com/2011/01/23/paradox-interactive-2011-new-york-convention/

[Grog]

On the aesthetic front, the character avatar looks like something out of Animal Crossing

indeed

[fdse2]

I help that weekly updates will come back soon...

[karokan]

When the people in the village started talking about Salem I was clueless, and had to actually come find this to see.

I just wanted to say: Good for you guys! Congrats on every front appear to be in order.

[Resture]

I am pretty excited about the mountaineering skill they talk about.
The higher the skill; the higher you can go in elevation.
I wonder if there is going to be hidden secrets at the top of the mountains in the world.

It will also be a good way to become the ultimate hermit at the top of a mountain.

I have big plans.

[Onionfighter]

I find it amazing that there is all this speculation about how the talked about mechanics will work while the H&H community knows exactly how they work. Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people say "Oh it's like minecraft!"?

[Kaios]

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people say "Oh it's like minecraft!"?

Nope.

[jgudge]

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people say "Oh it's like minecraft!"?

Nope.

Nope.

[Jackard]

I find it amazing that there is all this speculation about how the talked about mechanics will work while the H&H community knows exactly how they work.

How could this ever work you guys!! It has no quests, what is there to do? Won't it be a griefers paradise?? im frightened of this new and terrible future please hold me

- 60% of comments

[ImpalerWrG]

H&H is clearly not being mentioned in any of the promotional materaial about Salem, though it is clearly derivative, a description of the whole tracking system was a perfect copy of H&H system and virtually everything other then the 3D engine and graphic style is right out of H&H.

Btw I though of something that might be useful to both games. It's already stated that your character is a colonist form Europe (character creation screen is literally a London dock) so it's illogical for you to just pop into existence someone in the woods all alone. Their should be some mechanism depositing you on the coast, ideally with some other people just as if you got off a boat. Of course this can't be a single location cause then you get RoB overpopulation. But if you were changing that spot after a certain number of spawns then you can avoid that issue while still creating groups of random people in the same area. Providing a pile of newb supplies would be nice too, also their is supposedly a wilderness/civilized modification to land so putting some pre-placed civilization levels on the destination would help too, this would allow true wilderness to live up to the 'Mordor' desired without killing every new player (also it will keep the group some what confined initially). This system could take the form of a final phase of the Character creation in which you chose the Ship to sail on, the ships could vary in size (people which will spawn at the location) and have random period-accurate names, a small one might be 8 people the largest perhaps near 200, when a boat is 'full' its simply replaced with another with Random size, location and name. It would be possible for a few friends to all catch the same boat if they all create characters at the same time and pick the same boat, but most will be random and deposited together over a period of days to survive or perish.

But another option could also exist a 'Chartered Colony' which would basically be a password protected boat operating somewhat akin to the Hearthsecret spawning. And this could possibly serve as a source of revenue for the publisher is the Charters cost a bit to create. You could have options ware a person buys a block of spawns and receives that many passwords to individually distribute as they wish. Or a pay-your-own-way system in which their is one password but each person pays a few dollars. If a character spawned in this way dies they can be inherited and a replacement created in the same area so the purchase is never lost so long as the player maintains the lineage.

Clearly the old Hearth-Secret spawn would have to go if this was the case, but it might be possible to acquire that ability as an in-game item/effect or to buy it as a one off for a friend. While I can see how people would cry about losing that option I think it's one area ware revenue could be generated without creating any imbalance. And if nothing else the idea of a RoB which shifts after a limited number of spawns is a great way to have the best balance between centralized and wilderness spawning.