TeckXKnight wrote:Sevenless wrote:I thought there was some compromise allowing fresh characters starting together going to happen though?
Where did you read that? That'd defeat the purpose of removing hearth spawning to begin with.
Couldn't tell you where I thought I found that. Wouldn't be the first time I miss-remembered something. I was under the interpretation that the purpose of removing hearth spawning was to increase the cost of creating alts. That was the core game mechanic I thought they were trying to address, since cheap alts funds a lot of the power behind botted characters. I noticed loftar talking about wanting people to play with random strangers, but I didn't interpret that to be the main reason for the change.
Besides, alts are incredibly valuable. Any world power in game worth its salt is going to have map stitchers and figure out how to guide alts home within a week or two. Once the road system/public maps are setup, in 1-2 months any basic player will have the ability to do that as well. Increasing the cost may change how those alts are used, but it won't change their existence.
With appropriate limits on the number of characters that can start together, it doesn't negate the point as I interpret it. I feel that the impact this "no starting with friends ever" policy would have would strike quite hard at the prey side of the blood economy. Small groups and hamlets would be a lot less likely to play the game, making raiding targets far more sparse. Trading economy would be less vibrant, and we'd see less players surviving the beginner phases to move towards longterm community contributors.
Still, my interpretation isn't infallible and I've not been reading the thread 100% of the time. I might misunderstand the intentions here.