Lesser update: Sheep and kin

[Dwarfu]

I knew I shouldn't be all pleased with myself after penning my first sheep...and the server crashes...

And yay for the lower food requirements...

[Russaria]

It wouldn't be so bad except that wool is so much more vital than milk. No dreamcatchers without wool, which means no dreams, which means no village idols or claims, no gauze, no linen.

I have to ask; do the creators really intend to deny the vast majority of the game to everyone who hasn't grinded his stats to high heaven? Oh, except it's now significantly harder to grind stats, due to the lack of milk and wool.

Seriously, i know you want the game to be hard and realistic, but there are limits.

Limits indeed, loyalty will make many players put up with a great deal of erroneous nerfs and what-not in a game they care about. Many of the latest stuff seems geared to shift the balance further to the 1% of the eldest powerful players in terms of providing them with an even larger monopoly on everything...still...many of thesee things can be worked around and may level out over tiime. HOWEVER...these latest things also would never work IF there actually was a wipe/reset for the very reason you mention. Although most gamers like REASONABLE challenge in a game, that challenge must be balanced with both reward and personal advancement (to more intricate game mechanics) to hold the attention/enjoyment of the player base. No way in hell would 99% of players sit around and dig clay or cook bread for months before they could even lay a personal claim (Taking your mention of the yarn issue for example). There is challenge and there is tedium and that line isn;t so fine that one cannot see it pretty clearly. Most of these changes, though stifling now, can be evened out but ONLY because there are already characters/players and groups who are already strong enough to get them and "Possibly" (Due to the horrid lack of higher level to lower level trading mechanics in this game due to lack of participation by the "Haves" to the "Have nots") create a reasonable market. If there was a wipe/reset with new mechanics the game will would be an utter fail as it stands now.

Personal proof...why am I ok with it? Because i already HAVE metal, and i already have a town and already have personal claims, I had 8 curding tubs full of milk and 12 buckets in a cubbard and 2 full chests of already made butter, and a cubbard full of wool and yarn and a member in my group high enough to have gotten our starter cows and sheep. If i were a new player and faced these changes, for instance if I joined today, I would not play for long upon realizing the situation I was in.

[Neruz]

Exactly; these changes aren't a problem for the established players because they're grinded to high heaven, but for the newer players like me and my friend they're game-killers.

I like this game, it has excellent potential, i can deal with the griefing and whatnot by just running off into the wilderness somewhere, it's slow, but peaceful and fun (except when the hyperaggressive wildlife shows up, then it's somewhat frustrating), but the latest round of changes seem specifically tailored to buttfuck newbies, i don't mind the high quality things requiring substantial investments of time and effort to achieve, but if so there must be alternitives, at the moment there just plain isn't. We don't need metal yet, but i imagine we will soon, long before we get enough perception and exploration to find rustroot and locate a mine ourselves, so that will soon become a problem, but the latest domestication changes just really struck a nerve. I wandered right past a herd of sheep while exploring and i couldn't do anything with them


If the game were to be reset now, i suspect it would be a disaster. I really, really hope that our esteemed leaders who's names escape me at the moment are intending to impliment alternitives to milk and wool products soon, because i'd really hate the game to degenerate into a rediculous LP grind just to get basic materials.

[Avu]

Oh don't worry milk will be relegated as wage slave labor as soon as cow trading is possible. It's simply too much work for the hunt all day people to bother with.

[Jackard]

If the game were to be reset now, i suspect it would be a disaster. I really, really hope that our esteemed leaders who's names escape me at the moment are intending to impliment alternitives to milk and wool products soon, because i'd really hate the game to degenerate into a rediculous LP grind just to get basic materials.

just to reassure you, there is no way this would happen

they've mentioned any possible reset is months away and it would be senseless to do one without having first implemented the major changes they intend (reworking the early game, removal of the LP system and combat overhaul)

you need to look at the long term for games that are still in development. of course they aren't going to leave things as they are!

[Russaria]

If the game were to be reset now, i suspect it would be a disaster. I really, really hope that our esteemed leaders who's names escape me at the moment are intending to impliment alternitives to milk and wool products soon, because i'd really hate the game to degenerate into a rediculous LP grind just to get basic materials.

just to reassure you, there is no way this would happen

they've mentioned any possible reset is months away and it would be senseless to do one without having first implemented the major changes they intend (reworking the early game, removal of the LP system and combat overhaul)

you need to look at the long term for games that are still in development. of course they aren't going to leave things as they are!

Yes I've heard refferences to "removal of the lp system"..to be replaced with what? Personally I like the LP system very much in it's uniqueness. You work, you collect points, you then assign them to the stats that matter to you and your choice of directional path. Its one of the actual saving graces to the game to me. I shudder (Considering the horrid domestication requirements that were dreamed up and unleashed upon implementation of what WAS a feature/update/idea I had salivated over ever since i heard of it...called "Animal domestication".) to think what overly hard or scary "System" would be dreamed up to level one's directional skills. Any rumors as to what kind of system is being thought of?

[Jackard]

There's been some mention of 'quests' and letting players teach each other recipes/skills. You can track dev posts from their account info:

http://tinyurl.com/hnh-jorb
http://tinyurl.com/hnh-loftar

theres some really old posts about it so i dont know how accurate they are.

[Russaria]

There's been some mention of 'quests' and letting players teach each other recipes/skills. You can track dev posts from their account info:

http://tinyurl.com/hnh-jorb
http://tinyurl.com/hnh-loftar

Oh god no...lol
Mandatory Quests in a sandbox? Artistry teaching? Both of these things are carbon copy traits of every cookie-cutter mmo littering (And scanking) the mmo landscape today and one of the main reasons I found H&H so refreshing and unique. Would be a devastating move. Even Ragnarok (The best 2-d mmo ever made) moved away from mandatory quests as requirement for new content/advancement and they refused to add artistry teaching dependant skills (Originally planned but dismissed, thank all gaming godz, upon seeing the cookie cutter mmo scene emerge). Here's to hoping they give this some serious thought because even the though of it made my heart sink...if i wanted that I'd go back to Atlantica (Or enter any of the 100 mmos with million dollar graphics behind them listed at mmorpg right now! All with mandatory questing and artistry teaching). I hope they decide to instead hold on to this game's uniqueness, it's the only way to compete with the cookie cutters. Unless the have a million dollars for graphics or something hidden in their closet. And even then, they'd just be another drop in the current same colored ocean.

As to "getting points for unrelated things"...no, you are working and you decide what to do with that experience. NOw that "easy LP" has been removed with (still too outrageously silly but at least a good idea) the animals running away, so as not to allow bear sitting and such. the LP system cannot be abused as much as it was, the LP system could just be balanced more in this fashion as opposed to scrapping the system. If made action specific then I'd waste half a mine's ore trying to raise my smithing skill. Unless of course ya want to make mines everlasting. I can see where "farming = farming skill points" ,ect. would be acceptable but only if balanced by providing the materials and opportunity to increase them reasonably and with proper balance (see making mine's exhaustable after the rediculous work it takes to find them). In a game like this, to ever be anything more than a hobby for a few friends, special care must be taken to NOT over complicate it to the point it is unplayable save for 30 people in the whole gaming community.

[Jackard]

we've really havent seen anything indepth about the system recently, so who knows how accurate those old posts are

personally i dont like the current LP system - the grind it creates when combined with uncapped FEP/skillvalues and how you train skills by doing completely unrelated things

[Jackard]

incredulous laughter

you are assuming a lot of things