Game Development: Keeping up with the Joneses

[Potjeh]

Have you guys been playing Salem or something?

Yeah, it's a really good system in principle, but woefully incomplete in execution, like the rest of the game.

[Deathlord]

"a very good idea!"

+1

[AnnaC]

I like the idea of some automation as there is always a discrepancy between what happens online and offline.

Some sort of tower defense might be good to make sieges more active and interesting, but it has a ton of problems itself, especially if it interacts directly with hearthlings. I think if there were any watchtower type structures, obviously they'd need to be authority objects, and I think they should be part of walls, perhaps a cornerpost upgrade. As far as what they do, I think it'd be best if they would only interact against battering rams or any other future structures or machines used for sieges. This would work better than have them target random hearthlings, as you'd have to do a convoluted friend/foe distinction system, and could otherwise be griefed (say if it costs authority for a tower to shoot, someone could run in and out of its range draining the village authority).

Battering rams would need to be improved significantly, with the ability to be transportable, and pushed more than a few meters before breaking down. With some sort of watchtower automated structure, they can be made to react to battering rams or as said other future siege machines, and work to destroy them, or possibly attack any hearthlings operating the machines. The main downside to this idea is it wouldn't react to palibashers, and any "defensive" battering rams might get targetted.

Perhaps something like if a hearthling operating a ram isn't part of the village, then fire at it, if hearthling is part of village, ignore.

[Deathlord]

Would be quiet awesome if you could also equip keyrings or waterskins/waterflasks

[Grimreepr]

Houses and strongboxes now require some drying time before they can be built.

Horrible, horrible, STUPID idea. I tried to come back to HnH after being away since world 5. Logged in, scouted a good spot, started building. Got my timber house to 75% stocked and some asshat comes along and punches the sign into oblivion. Restarted the house, got everything stocked and was hit with a 3 day gametime wait before I could build. Guess what? 4 hours later said asshat returns and once again destroys the house.

WTH? i thought you guys wanted people to play the game? Instead, you've made it harder for new players to get established? I thought the curious patch was bad, but compared to this patch, world 5 patch looks like Christmas morning. Curios was a bad idea, now you can bot alts up. They don't even have to lift a damned finger, just sit in the base and soak up curios. They need to be dumped and a return to an LP system where a player actually has to interact with the world in order to gain LP. Current system with LP and now the house dry time is a colossal BAD idea. How the hell can people keep making such bad decisions? The dry time was just the straw that broke the llama's back.

I might check back in a couple of years, but the way this game is headed, unless changes are made, it will be back to the end of world six with maybe 50 people playing within a couple months.

[TeckXKnight]

Why would you keep building in an area that clearly has hostile raiders? I don't think the issue was the house update.

[MagicManICT]

Solution: drop a claim, build a fence. Now he has to decide if a nooblet is worth summonable scents. (Answer is: yes.) Of course, now that he has to leave summonable scents, he's likely to just kill you if he sees you and remove your HF so you spawn in the wilderness (IF) when you inherit.

[AnnaC]

Live in a leanto and spruce bed until you can make a claim. Have your hearthfire someplace else in this time. When the claim is up, build a fence and then start building your house. People can still mess with you but they will leave scents and lose hhp doing so.

The only major downside to this, is that you can't build chairs outside to recover stamina, and waiting for hides to dry is probably the most vulnerable position new hearthlings are in.

[TokyoShovel]

Dry your hides in a cave.

[AnnaC]

I'm not saying I have a problem drying hides I'm just saying since chairs can't be built outside anymore there is no way to recover stamina in the extreme early game anymore except if you're lucky enough to spawn near birch. This is a minor detail obviously but it's a small detail that has been overlooked and caused by many fixes on other things over the years.